Gotta Love (the lack of) Parallel Structure

Yet another reason why we still teach "English" to American high school students...

While I was grading creative book projects last week, I came across an online profile and blog that a student had written from the perspective of one of the main characters in the book he had read. Under the "interests" category for this character, he listed "riding horses, motorcycles, and girls." If the student actually had had an idea of what he had written, I wouldn't find it funny at all. But since he is clueless to what he actually wrote, I think it's quite humorous. I guess English teachers need to find humor somewhere....

On another ironic note, I found a grammatical error the other day in the grammar category of one of my rubrics. Gotta love the realistic perspective that brings to grading my students' papers.

Kansas City, March 2008

We've been encouraged by family members and friends to take time to enjoy life as a married couple without kids (and the freedom that goes with that) before May when we become parents for good, and there's no going back. One way we decided to follow their advice was by taking a weekend trip over my spring break. Thursday evening we had no plans other than a rough destination: Kansas City. Friday morning we woke up (without an alarm--yet another thing we're going to enjoy while we can), packed, and started driving.

Our Spring Break trip this year started off with some great Vietnamese food. To break up the drive, we stopped at A Dong, which is in downtown Des Moines, for lunch. I had read about the restaurant recently, and we found it's location with the help of a friend's trusty GPS unit. A Dong's has authentic food and great service. It's a restaurant that makes me wish we had real Asian food in Cedar Rapids.

By mid-afternoon, we had checked into our hotel in Kansas City, which we had reserved late the previous night using our goldpointsplus program. (We don't remember how we earned the points, since we haven't stayed in any hotels by this chain in the past year, and we thought we had used all our points last year...but hey! We'll take a free hotel room!) By the way, the hotel was brand new, and therefore, clean and quiet. It also had the best continental breakfast I've ever seen at a hotel. Friday evening we splurged and went to The Majestic Steakhouse in downtown Kansas City. The building is touted as a historic landmark--I think it used to be a bordello or speakeasy in the 30s...don't tell Mom. :) Gotta love history.

After dinner, we hit one of the top spots on our list of things to see: The American Jazz Museum/ The Blue Room. I loved seeing pictures of jazz giants (and not so giants) line the walls--everyone from Dizzy to Duke. The atmosphere was fun and clean. Have you ever heard of a non-smoking jazz spot? The music was lively and fun. Ida McBeth was the main attraction for the evening. And the company was pleasant. I could have stayed longer...if I wasn't pregnant and used to a teacher's early alarm clock. Overall, it was an enjoyable evening of good food, good music, and good company.

Saturday we again woke up without an alarm, ate a fantastic continental breakfast (Are you getting the sense that food is very important to this pregnant lady right now?) , and headed out for a day at the museums. We started out at the National WWI Museum and Memorial. While Luke was more excited about this museum than I was going into the day, I was pleasantly surprised by how much I enjoyed touring the museum. I found out how much I remembered from high school history and how much I learned by preparing for several units I teach now. I was amazed by all the interconnected politics during this time as well as the magnitude of the number of people, cultures, nations, and government philosophies involved. While WWI raged in Europe, Americans were making waves in areas of civil rights, jazz music, baseball, birth control, and entertainment. While the world was focused on the Western Front in Europe, Turkey was massacring Armenians. While the Allies denounced Germany for its imperialism, they were quick to divy up and claim nations they gained by winning the war and to award German colonies to Japan (who was seeking to increase its land size, resources and power during this time--just like Germany). While America allied itself with Russia, they also fought the Bolsheviks during the Russian Revolution. These are some brief, and rough, thoughts, so please pardon broad generalizations and inaccuracies for the time being. Maybe I'll write a separate post about the WWI museum sometime.

After touring the museum itself, we were able to see a good view of the Kansas City skyline and Union Station, where we headed next. While we didn't actually see any of the "pay per view" attractions at Union Station (Science City, IMAX, etc.), we did see a gigantic model train station and a bisection of life in Kansas City. Union Station serves as an Amtrak station, post office, and tourist attraction all at once.

Saturday evening we enjoyed Kansas City BBQ at Arthur Bryant's, a local Kansas City BBQ chain, gawked at (real) stuffed animals in Cabela's (which Luke was excited about), and took the opportunity to remember some ways that God has blessed us this past year (getting pregnant, traveling to Czech Republic, backpacking in the Rockies, providing ways for me to stay physically active during the winter, participating in our church's capital campaign, enjoying my job a lot, making the decision not to teach school next year...). Sunday we drove home in time to enjoy our church's evening Easter service. On the way, we were able to add one more way that God has provided abundantly more than we deserve. Just after we passed a semi on northbound I-35, we saw the truck swerve, tip, slide, and block both lanes. What if we had been one second behind that semi, instead of one second ahead? Lord, thanks for this day of life that you've given us. You have blessed us abundantly.

Organization

Nice, neat stacks of papers. Tables of contents. Clear direction. Easy to find. Purposeful. Time spent wisely, not wasted. Is it worth taking the time to organize?

After spending several hours this morning organizing my teaching units for the rest of the school year, I hope the answer is yes. Either way, having plans and papers organized give me a good, relieved feeling. Is it the false sense of control I get when I look ahead to the next 3 months and see lessons plans for each day? There are so many things in my life that I have no control over (and soon there will be more) that I relish the opportunity to actually plan ahead and figure out some sort of structure. Don't get me wrong, the plans I made today have plenty of leeway in them because I know by now that even if I try to plan my days to the minute, plans change. I have no doubt that something will cause my plans to change. Because as much as I want to feel in charge, I'm not. (And I'm happy about that; I'm glad the world isn't run by my crazy ideas.) Still, to plan for things I can plan for, and will have to plan for at some point in time, gives me a sense of accomplishment.


yeh! for paper clips...

Poetry

Not too often to I dare to delve into the realm of writing poetry. Something about it is highly intimidating. But when I teach a poetry unit to my students, I have to try. So here's an attempt to create a found poem from the text I found on a package of clothespins. The text was so unbelievable in itself, I couldn't resist manipulating it even more.

"Ironing"

Rumpled-up life
Spritz it
Run over it
Presto!
Wrinkles vanish and
Everything’s new.

Do I have to be
run over
by a hot iron
before I get a
new life?

And now for attempt #2:
"Ironing Magic"

Rumpled up wrinkles
vanish.

Yesterday vanishes.

You
look fresh
feel sharp
Ready
For the world.

The magic of Home.

Bullseye.


And now you know why I don't write poetry....

Baby Shopping

No we didn't go shopping for a baby...



Yesterday we took time to drive to the nearest Babies R Us and shop for several baby items that we wanted/needed to purchase before Ryon 2.0 (as some of our friends have dubbed our son) makes his appearance. You'd be amazed at how long you can spend looking at baby stuff. I'm sure the salespeople were also amazed...at how long we spent looking at baby stuff. We'll just suffice it to say that if you ever plan on going shopping for a stroller, give yourself a few hours. At least we were able to try out the strollers (fold, unfold, recline, roll, push, beat up...) in the store. It's really silly when stores have displays of strollers or cribs or other baby equipment that you have to just stand and stare at. "Ok, let's try and imagine how big this stroller is when it's folded up. Now let's try and imagine how easy it is to fold up. How heavy do you think it is?" You get the picture.



So anyway, we decided on purchasing the Chicco Keyfit 30 Infant Car Seat and the Chicco Trevi Stroller. Obviously we haven't used either of these yet, but I'm excited because it feels like we've taken one more step closer to holding our son in our arms. Please excuse the sappy moment.

The Ultimate Gift

The Ultimate Gift...one of the latest movies in the Fox Faith line...left me asking the question, "Faith in what?" Yourself? Mankind's ability to be and do good? Hard work?

The basic premise of the story is a billionaire's creative method of distributing his inheritance to his self-centered, money-grubbing relatives. The billionaire gives each of his children a portion of his estate, but not nearly what they were hoping for. To his wayward, stereotypically rebellious grandson, he leaves "the ultimate gift." The grandson doesn't know what this gift is, but he has to follow his instructions to the satisfaction of his grandfather's lawyer or he doesn't get the gift.

Aside from being a poorly written screenplay and a poorly directed movie (shallow characters including the little girl with leukemia, the wayward grandson, the love interest--who has absolutely no life, the former obviously gold-digger girlfriend; awful dialogue from the said shallow characters; a choppy plot line...), the purpose of the movie was completely unmet. The purpose of a cheesy-clean movie (maybe this should be a new genre) should be to instill truth into its viewers, but viewers of this movie have more lies to combat than viewers of the more controversial Harry Potter or Golden Compass movies.

Lie #1: People find satisfaction and happiness in being good people.

Lie#2: Saying and believing cheesy, ear-tickling phrases about God is comforting and enough to answer the hard questions about real life.

Lie #3: You can be a good person at heart while there is no evidence of that in your life. (There is no evidence of the billionaire's own generosity or selflessness.)

Lie #4: If you work hard enough, you can become a good person and you'll be rewarded and applauded by others for being a good person.

As you can see, my biggest concern with this movie is the idea that working hard to be a good person is the ultimate goal in life and that achieving that goal will bring satisfaction. I don't disagree that being generous, working hard, sympathizing with others, and looking outside of your own wants/needs are important. I hope these characteristics describe me someday. But I don't think I'll make it to the point where my life is defined by these characteristics by my own effort and hard work. My ability to have hope in the future, care about other people, give selflessly, deny my own rights, and even care about being "good" comes from depending on the grace of God through the true ultimate gift...the gift of his Son, Jesus Christ. As I look to emulate Him, believe in Him, trust in Him, I believe these other "good" things will come as well.

Beautiful People...in an Ugly World

I have many beautiful students in my classes. They're talented, courageous, unique, quirky, funny, sensitive, intelligent, creative, and created by God. On too many days it's too easy to forget all these facts. Many days my students are selfish, mean, spiteful...you get the drift. Today a student reminded me (not in words) that God created each of these individuals for a purpose and that He desires to give them so many good things. This student is beautiful, smart, and funny--besides being an excellent creative writer, but life has been tough on her. As she said today, "Life sucks." For some reason, this girl has worked her way into my typically uncompassionate heart, so my heart aches for her. And I hope that she will find hope in the only person who can give true, lasting hope. I pray that she is able to know Christ--as the only person who can save her from this wretched (as Paul would say, in Greek I suppose) or "sucky" (as she would say) world. I pray she would know that God has created her beautifully and for a purpose--to glorify him. I pray she finds joy in that. Lord, I pray for myself that I'd have the boldness and gentleness to share truth and hope with this student when/if you give me the opportunity.

As I was driving home today, I questioned how this girl had managed to affect my heart when usually it's so calloused. Is it because she's somewhat like me? Is it because even though life's hard, she's respectful in class and does her work? Am I commanded just to love people who are nice to me? Then I thought of all the students I struggle to love of Christ loves them...ouch. Lord, help me love as you love--selflessly and sacrificially. Show me these students through the eyes of your loving Son who gave his life for them--yes, even for that one student who.....

New Endings

Did you know that at the end of Romeo and Juliet Lord Capulet decides to buy weapons of mass destruction and blow up the world? According to one of my English 9 students, he does. I've heard of dramatic license, but weapons of mass destruction? What am I teaching these kids??

On a more positive note, I was pleased to see some of the themes that my students came up with on their own. I posed the questions, "What can teenagers at Prairie learn from Romeo and Juliet?" They came up with themes concerning love vs. infatuation, decision making, resolving conflicts, lying, thinking before acting, and selfishness. Hopefully they continue and their essay papers show the same thoughtfulness. Maybe I'll let you know next week...if I'm not too cross-eyed from reading papers.

Birthday Thank You

As you can see, I'm in the middle of a mad frenzy of make-up blogging.

My birthday is February 17th. This year, I was sick on my birthday. Yippee. While that was a downer, my birthday wasn't...simply because I have an awesome husband. Flowers...presents...and best of all...a letter. I know it sounds sappy, but I loved it best...after my husband that is.

Baby Kid Blanket

So another of my secret time wasters/hobbies is crocheting. I know... it sounds grandmotherish and domestic...don't let the secret out. :-) Since I've made a few baby blankets in the past, I thought I should make one for my own kid, who's on the way. I started with a basic "seed stitch" pattern...although I'm not sure I'd actually call it seed stitch, since it's crochet and not knitting. But then I got bored, and decided to switch it up. I had planned out the color scheme ahead of time, but I added some texture stitches as I went. Because of this, the dimensions of the blanket are different than I had planned. I'm including the pattern and a picture for my sake...so I remember what I did (and so I remember what not to do in the future). The final dimensions of the blanket are 27" by 36".

Materials:

Caron Simply Soft Dk. Country Blue 9711

Crochet hook I.

Pattern directions (Don't expect clarity or professional quality...I made it up.)
Ch 130.
Foundation Row: Sc in 1st ch from hook and in each ch across. 129 sc.
Row 1: Ch. 1, turn. Sc in 1st sc. *Ch 1, skip 1 sc, sc in next sc. Repeat from * across. 65 sc and 64 ch.
Row 2: Ch 1, turn. Sc in 1st sc. Sc in 2nd sc. *Ch 1, skip 1 sc, sc in next sc. Repeat from * across. Sc in last sc.
Repeat rows 1 and 2 until you have a total of 14 of these rows.
Switch to light blue. Repeat rows 1 and 2 twice (4 rows).
Switch to navy. Repeat rows 1 and 2 twice (4 rows).
Switch to off white. Repeat rows 1 and 2 four times (8 rows).
Switch to navy. Repeat rows 1 and 2 twice (4 rows).
Switch to light blue. Repeat rows 1 and 2 twice (4 rows).
Switch to navy. Repeat rows 1 and 2 five times (10 rows).
Sc in each sc and ch1 space across.
6 rows Sc in back loop only across. (ridged rows)
6 rows seed stitch.
1 row all sc.
1 row all dc.
4 rows alternating front post dc and back post dc.
1 row all sc.
6 rows seed stitch.
Repeat rows in reverse.

Border: I worked a simple sc around the edge since I was running out of yarn.

Allrecipes...

In my quest to stay in our budget for groceries this year, I've been more methodical in budgeting meals. I've always planned meals for a week at a time, but I haven't always stuck with the meals because I get tired of making the same things. Allrecipes.com has been a help this year in getting new ideas of things to make. I like that many recipes are reviewed so I can see which one to try and which ones to avoid. I've made everything from manicotti to granola bars from the site.