Teachers

As the school year winds down again I think about my daughter and her teacher, and how much she will miss her dear teacher. Last year on the last day of school I picked my kiddo up and she was in tears. All of the kids were. They were a family you see, and they were being split up. For two years the kids had the exact same classmates and the same teacher. My daughter still talks about how much she misses Mrs B.

I expect some tears again this year, but not so bad. The kiddo actually had two teachers this year, so I don't know if the attachment is quite so strong. We shall see.

Anyway. It's made me a bit reflective on my old teachers, teachers who meant a lot to me or just were memorable.

There's Mrs. Mock, who was probably a nice lady, but we got off on a bad foot in third grade and never quite recovered. My fourth grade teacher was nice enough, but I've blocked a lot of that year out as my dad had recently died and it wasn't such a hot year.

Then there was Mrs. Carter in 5th grade. From her I gained a love of all things piggy. Mrs. C collected pigs and her classroom was full of them. But what made every kid want her for their teacher was that every one of her 5th grade classes had a class piglet. Yep, we had an orphan piglet that we fed and cleaned and played with all year long 'til it was strong enough to go back to the farm it was born on. To heck with hamsters and guinea pigs lol.

In 6th grade it was Mrs. Rauschenburger. She was the teacher who finally realized just how deep my love of reading was and she fostered it, recommending books and allowing me to stay in from recess and read.

After that my memory gets hazy. Starting with high school, I switched schools three times in 4 years. And you spend less time with each teacher, so while I had favorites each year they were never really special.

There was the junior high teacher who had dated my sister in high school. Weirdness.

And the first English teacher I ever had who didn't consider me his pet and yelled at me for talking all the time, lol.

And the algebra teacher who told everyone the first day of class that there was no such thing as a stupid question. Then several days later when I asked him to repeat something he gave me a death stare and told me, "I just went over that, I will not repeat myself, again!" I dropped that class that day.

The next teacher I had that made an impact on me was a college prof. He was passionate about his subject and a tough teacher. You either loved him or hated him. I loved him, his passion for the field, his ability to make us all think. The first class I had him for he terrified me at first. By the end of the semester I was hooked. I scheduled myself deliberately for his classes for the next year and a half and I did well. If I may pat myself on the back, I think he liked me as well. I was the first and only student of his to get a 100% on one of his exams and he appreciated that.

After that semester we all went off for summer break. Come fall I entered a class with follow journalism students and one of them asked if I'd heard the news. My favorite teacher in whole university had had a heart attack over the summer and died.

I never had another professor I liked quite so well. My enthusiasm for the subject waned until I was just going through the motions, ready to graduate and be done with school. By the time I walked across the stage at graduation I knew I'd likely never work in my field. (There were several other reasons for that, not just his death, but that certainly sparked the malaise that filled me back then).

I hope that my daughter is lucky enough to find some teachers who mean as much to her as some of my old teachers meant to me then, and that as she grows up she will think back kindly on some of them and smile.

Boooo :(

You might not know this, but I graduated with a degree in journalism several years ago and I'm a huge fan of the First Amendment, which is supposed to guarantee freedom of speech and expression. I'm also a big Greenday fan.

So what the fuck is up with Walmart? It's a long-standing policy of Walmart's not to stock any CD with a parental advisory sticker, so musical artists are given the choice of offering a cleaned up (CENSORED) version or not having their CD sold at the big box stores. It's a flagrant violation of the First Amendment.

AND Walmart still sells R rated movies, with swearing, violence and mature content. Many of these DVDs have unrated content on them that goes beyond an R rating. They also offer up video games with mature ratings. Hypocritical much? Who made Walmart the musical morality police, anyway? How about you let me decide to buy for myself and my child? It's my decision to make, not some big corporation's.

Good for Greenday for not bowing to pressure and refusing to censor their new album. From now on I will buy what little music I buy elsewhere. I don't think artists should be forced to offer dumbed down versions of their CDs, just to get in to the world's largest retailer.

Go support your local music store and buy the CD the artist meant you to have in the first place. And there's always iTunes ;)

Excellent weekend!

My bestest buddy and her son were here for two days. Too short really, but good fun. We ended up in Estes Park, playing in the snow. That would be Trail Ridge Road, btw. It's not officially open, but it's open a fair way up. We also went to Bear Lake, which is covered in snow as well, lol.

And speaking of Estes, we are less than a month away from the Estes Wool Market. I can't wait, I love the Market! And this year I think I might just have to buy some Yak yarn from Bijou Basin Ranch. They were at Estes last year and it was sooooo soft but I had to choose between them and Plain and Fancy. :( But this year the owners of Bijou Basin have put up a 15% off coupon, woot! This is their year, lol. (And I have two skeins of Plain and Fancy tucked away from last year, time for something new!).

Hmmm

I needed a change for my blog design, and I love the designs from the Cutest Blog on the Block, but none of them really fit me. This one is too pink. But I'm too lazy to design my own, lol.

And busy. My bestest friend from high school is coming to visit me this weekend. Which is brilliant, but made me realize that my guest bedroom is full of plants and craft items and sans bed! So I've spent most of the morning packing up scrapbooking, knitting and soap making supplies and cleaning up the fallen leaves and blooms that accumulate near plants. The spare room now has a bed instead of a craft table and sheets (finally found a matching set of full sized sheets lol, it's amazing how much of my stuff is still in boxes after more than a year!).

Anyhoo, I'm off to get cleaned up so we can go play for a few hours today now that that's done. Have a lovely day!

Brrrr

I put my geraniums back outside because the weather has been lovely and what happens? We get wind and rain and cooler temps. Poor things were totally battered by the wind. and of course we just turned our sprinkler system back on and it poured last night, lol. I think I'm going to go turn it off for tonight, I hate watering while it's raining!

Anyhoo. Happy Mother's Day to all you moms out there. I got jewelery from my DD, a hand beaded bracelet :) I love it.

My baby

My darling daughter was born at 1:26 PM, May 9, 2009. She was a big baby, 8 lbs. 15 oz.

Today my little one turned 9 and as she's all too ready to tell me, she's not a baby anymore!

Happy birthday, dear daughter. You'll always be our baby *grin*

PS Two of the girls invited did respond, because we nagged them, lol. Both very last minute and while the kiddo is happy, I'm still peeved.

*sigh*

My daughter's birthday is coming up in less than a week now. We kept her invite list small, just 5 kids. I asked for RSVPs on the invites and would you believe I've not heard from a single person? How rude is that? No wonder kids are so screwed up now, their parents who really should know better are just as bad.

So for the education of anyone who might not know: An RSVP means let the sender know if you will be coming or not. Either way. It's just good manners.

"R.S.V.P. stands for a French phrase, "répondez, s'il vous plaît," which means "please reply." The person sending the invitation wo­uld like you to tell him or her whether you accept or decline the invitation. That is, will you be coming to the event or not? Etiquette rules followed in most Western cultures require that if you receive a formal, written invitation, you should reply promptly, perhaps that same day. For hosts who are planning a dinner party, a wedding or a reception, this is important from a practical point of view, because they need to know how many people to count on and how much food and drink to buy. More important, though, is the simple courtesy of responding to someone who was nice enough to invite you, even if it is to say that you regret that you will not be able to attend." --How Stuff Works

And really it's a child's party. It's going to break my kiddo's heart if no one shows up. At this point I am ready to make other plans for us for the day so she won't feel bad and if anyone responds at the last minute tell them to shove off :(