Author Archives: Dee

About Dee

I am a working wife, geek, and mother of two with opinions about just about everything which I plan to share here.

Web 2.0 Panel – What’s Next TCEA09 Notes

So far this has been disappointing.  I even verbalized the question (that is actually the TITLE of the session) and no one is going there.  My question was, if it takes us a certain amount of time in education to move from the point of learning the mechanics of something new in technology primarily because we are being required to, to the point of it being second nature and totally infused in teaching – and if we are in transition with this Web 2.0 stuff; by the time it has actually become a total buy in, the technology will have moved on.  It’s fluid.  What will the technology look like at that point?  I was hoping the panel had some idea of where is was going.

So far it has mainly been explaining what it IS repeatedly, in more than one way, but still – a definition.

Some people have done the expected griping because they have so much blocked in their district.  One panel member is Bradley Kessler – Whyville.  He is knowledeable but also he is selling the concept of whyville (not in terms of money because it is free – though maybe he is angling for it to be officially adopted by school systems) which is not objectionable in itself.  It just isn’t what the title of the session makes you think it will be.

Patricia Schnee, Lead Trainer and Curriculum Coordinator, University of Texas Professional Development Center is also very knowledgeable and seems to be very forward thinking but is mainly concerned with how all this relates to business and employment.

How do we teach kids to be prepared for a world that doesn’t yet exist is my question.

Here are my notes – sorry for the editorial.

Web20panelwheredowegofromhere
patricai schnee
research – looking at web 2.0 in terms of what it means in the corporate world
bradleykessler
whyville put it in the classroom?
kids want a place – they want to create the structure
avatar based virtual world
using a pick your nose faciltiy in whyville make your own face
a week after launch they had a message from a kid that said their face parts were dumb
now there is a place where kids make the face parts and sell them
they run companies where they have employees who do marketing, graphic design – all around creating faceparts

Bill Jule? Jason Project
marco polo

patricia stats
confucious center
367 million are under the age of 18 – larger than pop of us
200 million student s between the age of 14 and 25
our tech and engineering superiority is in jeopardy
define web 2.0?
definition kessler
web 1 was largely a push operation = taking media and putting it on the web and pushing it to the users
web 2.0 is pull – rather that standing up in front of a classroom and pushing info – actually understanding classroom management and engaging students in such a way that they are pulling the info to them – teacheres now also managers, directors
learning styles change on evolution scale not generation scale
we finally have a tech device that will let us better match our learning process that we run as humans, because we can handle 2 prob – scalabiltiy – small group can influence large group
engagement
social piece – they can socialize, interact, create their own structures and media

audience – trying to get Spore integrated into curriculum – what is panel opinion of this progression

What about web 3.0 – by the time school adopt new technology the technolgy has usually moved on – where do you see us moving on to?

merck had some chemical probs and put it online 7% of the solutions came from people who didn’t have degrees – some from out of the country
now merck is disguising the problems so that they will be intriguing but not know what the whole problem is (gave too much info to competitors)

to teach science you need to be a process expert, not content expert

web 1.0 content – web 2.0 process
companies (media and textbook) have a problem with this because they are content pushers

printing press and university structure last major changes
that’s all that has been available

Gatekeeper, Tear Down Those Walls! TCEA09 Notes

Mr. Gatekeeper, Tear Down Those Walls!
Mary Bell
Sam Houston State University
http://forwhomthebelltold.pbwiki.com/
filtering
librarians and tech specialists need to be working together
Introduced Nancy Pearl librarian action filter
the original person one book one city
has amazing shush ability
cipa
children should be protected from pornography
does not say we should have any reflection of political views
or that students should be denied the right to search independently
high interest like games and sports – cipa does not say block or shopping
does not say teachers should be blocked from things administrators might not want them to do
passing the law was contingent upon ready and simple override capability

Survey using listserves and twitter
over 400 participates broken down by states
79 % understand web 2.0
aware of web 2.0 resources being used 59%
satisfied with access to internet and web 2.0 39%
some of the problems people comments about were bandwidth issues

Block using specific word lists
true 73%

reasons for blocking and filtering
student safety 81%
ebsco and other databases somethings blocked true 28%
filters apply equally to all levels true (and teachers
Who can override – IT most common answer
Reading blogs at school – 52% but the people who don’t know number has grown
create and particpate in blogs 38%
students and faculty having access to wikis
encouraged to use wikis 39%
access to social bookmarking 31%
access to wikipedia 97%
students are often discouraged even though they have access
google docs 63%  don’t know 36%
Blocked search tools – images
youtube not blocked 52%
Course management systems 38% used
students have access to email
access to second life at school
access to educational game sites allowed
acceptable use policy up to date and addresses web 2.0
true 27% false 49% no idea 24%
district admin are tech savvy and encourage tech and web 2.0
trues 31%
http://hweimar.wikispaces.com
http://forwhomthebelltold.pbwiki.com/

Addendum

Mary Bell was king enough to send me a link to information about CIPA so if you are interested in finding out more about what this law says you will find what you need here:

http://www.ala.org/aaslTemplate.cfm?Section=cipaandschoollib

Race Into Production TCEA09 Notes

Race Into Production
Jodi Andoe and Abby Rogers PISD
http://t4.jordandistirct.org/payattention
www whatever whenever wherever
teachers moving from dog and pony show to full fledged three ring circus with the teacher – not as the main act, but as the ringmaster
kids love to be center stage
ipods cameras phones
friend or foe?
combining what students have and what teachers have and making it work in the classroom
combine student interests and content for curriculum
provide students with info on available tools for multimedia
student engagement
reflection for deep learning
project based learning
effective integration of technology into instruction
differentiated instruction
centers, tiered lesson plans
advances photography and multimedia all the way down to basic ppt
works with all levels
critical thinking skills
technology TEKS
engages students
their minds wrapped around out content in a way they want to think about it
improved test scores
letting the students touch the learning
gather ideas – don’t re-invent the wheel
take tried and true projects and add a multimedia option to it
determine student needs and find their resources and skills
set timetable for completion
gather resources and hardware
what do you get when you mix CSCOPE Performance indicator’
students had a psp player, iPod, science closet, audacity, photostory movie maker and wax – made a rap video on global warming

used rubric that was in cscope and applied to multimedia project
what is the concept you want them to learn
rubric attributes
point of view
content
resources
curriculum alignment
organization
student cooperation
camera and images
titles and credits
sound
language
pacing and narrative
transitions and effects

make sure criteria is set beforehand and use the ribric
should be expressed in terms of observable product characteristics
scoring rubrics should be written in specific and clear language
statement of criteria must be fair and free from bias

green screen – green sheet from walmart taped to classroom wall
let kids teach you

audacity, wax 2.0 blender freeplaymusic photostory animoto
wax works with moviemaker and others
freeplaymusic – if burned to dvd becomes a copyright issue
animoto free 30 second video creation – can subscribe 19.00 year and get longer time and more options
handout includes cheatsheet of useful web 2.0 sites and free or opensource software

handouts will be available later on the TCEA site – I will post the link when it becomes available

Ten Photoshop Lessons TCEA09 Notes

10 Fun Photoshop lessons
cs3 used
Daniel O’Kilen
http://divshare.com/download/6467229-584
all lessons handouts on website
create a miniature environment

lesson plan
TEKS objectives step by step procedure and extension lessons

rubrik contains list of tools student learned during that assignment – final product does not have to look like the teachers
10 lessons
creating miniature environment
taking ordinary photograph and use gradient tool and selection creation and quickmask to choose central portion of image
use lens blur, inverted, hue and saturation, tweaking colors makes it look like made out of plastic
His example was taj mahal but students can find their own image

winterizing an image
take photo and using quickmask – creating selection from it – selected grass in photo and manipulated hue and saturation, channel and lighten in channel mixer to create snow-like effect

creating a silhouette vase
start with profile photo quickmask select duplicate and flip – makes a vase effect
tweak pattern, shadow

Building a photo montage
take photo and use pattern to fill the image
select out part of image to use, crop using width and height settings
using other photos make tiny thumbnail – create pattern, adjust and desaturate to use colors from original image to make a fill
apply to original photo as overlay or softlight

Creating Old Movie Effect
can create animation in photoshop
using old photo, apply grain filter, stretched out vertically
create several layers using different grains to get different line patterns
in animation you use the frames you created
animation timeline
can clone out a person adn clone stamp character back in to make it look like character is walking across the screen
creates avi or gif

Creating a Planet
longer lesson
using satellite photo
select part, sphere it
emboss gives more texture
apply vivid light blending mode
create clouds, difference clouds
using brush, paint shadow on planet
inner glow for atmosphere reflection
place on starfield background

Colorize Black and White Photo
Selection and lasso tools
Magic Wand and quickmask
point of lesson was the three main ways to select
magic wand used for areas with strong contrast – learn about tolerance settings
fine tune selection with lasso – excellent detail work practice
magnetic lasso tool
drag color slider to get colors you want
can use same process to colorize a part of a photo for emphasis

Creating a Stone Texture From Nothing
render some clouds, add noise
work with channels
add fade
lighting effects
tweak brightness and contrast, then students learn to create a layer and emboss to carve their name into the rock

Creating an Underwater City
Use photo of a city
Covers most of the tools including paths with pen tool
use pen tool to select sky
edit gradient tool to make sky look like water – add hue and saturation, noise, particulate matter
took brush and added moss and plants on buildings
use smudge tool to add plants to the roof
they create a fish brush from photo to add fish to the image
add white lines and blur to make some ripples
grass brush to make seaweed – use flipping layers and warp tool
Shear tool
make bubbles, zoom in to add bubbles, make bubble, add shark from photo

Creating an alien
using photo of person
select circle, bloat
distorts the face
use pucker tool
bloat eyes
warp tool – liquify window
drag parts of face around
select using quickmask – edit hue and sat to turn him green
select eyes – up contrast, down brightness
marquis tool and shear to make a tail

Writing Safari TCEA09 Notes

writing safari TCEA09
Paula Alsup and Missi Downs
PISD

journey through the development of ten narrative compositions
all 4th grade students divided into groups circulate through the stations reviewing traits of well written writing compositions
technology used to record and save the group responses, select possible topics, survey attitudes about writing and extend writing activities
ten compositions well written goal

prep survey
groups
itinerary
teachers and assistants
lunch and recess
logistics
survey monkey
list of prompts students enjoy writing about
students take survey while rotating

eg imagine you were invisible for one day – write a story about that day

gives them some ownership

also survey of student attitudes – do they think they are a good writer
most difficult part
how they feel when asked to write a story
anonymous except for by homeroom – collects data

redo survey after TAKS to see if attitude changed

Import student and teacher names from winschool – number off student into random groups

use find and replace to convert numbers to team names (eg Galloping Gazelles)
have teachers check for discipline problems that fell together (head off possible problems)
inclusion students in one group so assistant can go with them (without grouping together they found it was problematic for the assistants to jump from group to group

Printed itinerary – group names, times, destinations
printed out badges and the groups even eat lunch together

pulled in volunteers from other grades and some parents
assistants can be anybody to run a document camera, type and save to the network

teachers use a powerpoint to review traits
assistants manage the technology
homeroom teachers distribute the group assignments
campus tech – ensure all technology in place and working

tshirts and pith helmets from oriental trading for teachers and assistants
principal does a kick off so the kids know this is important enough to the principal to give up a day of instruction

1 laptop connects to doc camera and data projector
word ppt and thinking map software
may use poster for prewriting
extension cords and powerstrips
folders on network for each group and folder with writing components ppt so all can access
copy of ppt on desktop of teacher computer for faster access

homeroom teachers have a 1 hour block to do lunch and recess
students attend rotation during regular time
may need to adjust time for lunch for available cafeteria space

writing ppt
written by writing teachers and tech specialist
include district curriculum terminology and thinking maps
saved to the server

The Elephant Walk – Planning
reading prompt
brainstorm real imaginary pretend
use a bubble map
prompt in the middle
magnify
Intro and beginnings
who when where
the teachers get to move through the different pieces with each new group instead of having to teach the same thing over and over all day

Organization and transitions (Zebra Zone)

transitions phases

a couple of paragraphs of story

Voice – what is it?
fingerprint of the paper
create a movie in the readers mind
students are getting to hear things from other teachers
dead words

A cheetah conclusion
ending – draws all the story together, resolves conflicts
what did you learn from story
what do you hope or wish for because of events in the story
Lets write!
the last group – the teachers will have worked with the students writing 5 stories

all ten stories are printed out and each student will have a copy, students journal or blog about their experience
survey monkey
students use rubric to score each groups compositions, identify strengths and areas that need improvement
students write an independent narrative using strategies and ideas they have learned during safari

Everything is on their webpage – all handouts, ppts
http://paulaalsup.blogspot.com/

Interview Day

Thanks so much to my friends who sent encouragement to daughter for her Honors College Interview – she texted me this morning to tell me about it so you just never know what little thing you do may have a wonderful effect!  I’m in Austin and can’t be there and my village is helping me raise my child 🙂 I will be posting more from TCEA soon!

How To Do Everything In SecondLife Notes

I actually didn’t stay for all of this because there was a conflict with another presentation I wanted to see.  I was hoping for a reason to like SecondLife but I still have difficulty with seeing how it is useful.  It gets boring to me very quickly and there is also the problem of people all over the world being in the virtual world and no way to filter the content.

You basically sign up for a free account, choose a basic character and one improvement that I saw was that you can designate an interest from the start.  You can then tweak your avatar (or character) by changing the body shape, face, hair, clothes and make it more personalized.

Jamey Osborne
LaPorte isd
Jamey Sismondi in sl
jamey.sismondi@gmail.com
osbornej@lpisd.org

go online and be in a virtual world
not mission based like video games usually are
like first life – do whatever you want
presentation is to shorten the learning curve
wear a thick skin in second life
things can happen that will offend you, crazy weird things walk away
virtual world that has people from all over the world in it.
can be an intensely absorbing experience
you login and say you will on for ten minutes and three hours later…

secondlife.com
owning land costs money

http://slurl.com/secondlife/Abitibi/228/113/39
(slurl is a link to a location in secondlife)
secondlife about the size of boston (they say)
there are live concerts
each square represents a server somewhere  sim or region
parcels are sims broken down
you can buy those premium account 77 dollars a year
the more land you buy you have to acquire land tiers
you find or acquire things and they are stored in your inventory
landmark is a bookmark of a place in secondlife
world menu – create landmark here
create things and set permissions to no transfer so others cannot just take them
you friend someone
search panel – how to find someone = click people tab and type name
groups (e.g. sailing community)
can create own group
search for places e.g iste – click teleport and go there
search land sales
showcase
events – like live music
classifieds for things like scripts
you can customize body shape, skin, clothing, and hair and shoes
right click on yourself and click appearance
create and save a shape
you can put all the outfit together and click make outfit button
green amount in upper right shows the money you have
there is an entire economy in second life

can learn scripting

Randomly Speaking Excel TCEA09 Notes

There was so much so fast here but she does have the links to the instructions on her website at http://www.karenferrell.net/TCEA

This was all about using the randbetween function in excel to generate random numbers in a range you designate to create flashcards, graphs, ordered pairs and more.  She shows you how to use autoshapes and this function to create dice.  I will play with this some more but wanted to get the link posted.  Excel rocks!

Critical Thinking and TEKS Science Content Via Online Activities

TCEA session 3 Notes
blog has handouts and links
http://www.ed-tech-4-science.com

analysis
inference
explanation
interpretation
evaluation
self-regulation

www.wonderwhizkids.com
java applets

World of Goo – trial download
demonstrate basic relationship between force and motion using simple machines
http://2dboy.com/games.php

Spore – trial but you can download Creature Creator e.g. of class use – have students create a carnivorous organism that lives in water.  Have students evaluate each other and vote on creature most likely to survive.  Change the environment to hot and dry – what are the results?
genetics, structure and function

Adaptive Curriculum (not free)
intended for a once or twice solution

Peter Rillero Ph. D

Dare to Use Audacity TCEA Session 2 Notes

http://sites.google.com/site/daretouseaudacity/
Resources and Links all on their google site Yay!
Audacity is opensource – free – links are on their google page for downloading
Make sure you download the lame encoder so you can export as mp3s

Classroom uses (they showed several examples)
Book talks
Substitute Instructions
Speech Pathology
Create Interviews (you can do it yourself and use audacity to change one voice so it sounds like two people – historical character. book character etc)
(files can be brought into movie maker and powerpoint
record reading a textbook for student
record students reading aloud so they can hear themselves
audio book reports
book promo for library

Headphones with mics attached helped to record without picking up background noise

Sound resource freeplaymusic

demonstrated creating three tracks – two had the music and stepped down and then back up and the “speaking” track was placed so that it fell between the steps so you had music introducing, then speech, then music for the ending
Can edit out words (uh, and like)

Can add words

Audacity saves the file as a .au (this is where all the behind the scene stuff happens – do not touch this file and you can edit it later)

When complete you have to export as an mp3 or wav file

resulting mp3 can be used as background audio, podcast, embedded in a blog, imported into powerpoint or moviemaker

Technology Staff Development Strategies TCEA09

Session One Notes

Technology Staff Development Strategies
Kaye Moore Hurst Euless Bedford ISD (HEB)
What they did – went from Windows 98 and Office 2000 to xp and office 2007 over the summer

Discussed the usual closed doors of staff dev
Time, schedules, childcare, reluctance to use personal time, facilily usage and software problems

Unlocking the doors

Went from face to face to techno tv
Borrowed a dedicated channel that was not being used
Instructional video each week plays all the time so teacher can access whenever
They do have “best of” weeks
Fun project weeks (before Christmas they showed teachers how to create a calendar or personalized notepads (use glue you buy and apply at the top of the pages to create notepad?)
At strategic times the broadcast can be gradebook instructions

Videos created using Camtasia

Also utilize a departmental website with instructional docs available to download – no login or password needed so things like gradebook are NOT found here

They also have HEBonline (blackboard) with online courses and curriculum info.  Constantly being updated.

Software central where manuals can be downloaded

They do an end of year video and instruction sheets for backing up to server

Podcasts and Vodcasts – ability to blog /wiki, or subscribe in itunes

Create a plan
do preliminary training with key people – instructional and support
Timeline for installation – support
timeline for training – instructional
timeline for implementation

They outsourced the training for their key people
Then, key instructional staff dev in house
Key instructional staff to use model that has been created and adjusted to train staff

Trained admin staff first

Information blitz entire district – IT staff provide 15 minute overview for every staff. vodcast available

Summer Training

Result of all this – fewer calls for help,
Requests for upgraded training

Used PDSA model
Plan Do Study Act
Plan – analyze
Did training using small steps to start controlled environment
Analyzed – what worked, what didn’t, revised and adjusted or standardized process
Check, Study results
Get buy in

Off To Weird Austin!

Tomorrow I am off to TCEA in Austin.  I am leaving behind a million things that need to be done yesterday and my daughter who has her interview at the Honors College while I’m gone (and who got her official ranking in her class – 7, excuse me for mama bragging a bit), my husband who begins attending a Ministry class tomorrow night.  No, he isn’t studying to be a pastor, though some who attend the class may go on to plant churches.  He is wanting to learn more about how to share his faith and about what God wants him to do with this gift of life that he has been given.  Number one son is heading to three different places to judge debate tournaments.  He is here tonight but will leave before I do in the morning.

I’ll do my usual stressing right up until I am in the car and on my way.  Then there is no point because it is beyond my control so I will relax and enjoy the trip.  I plan to go to work in the morning and get my walk in and get the computers in the lab logged in and ready for the counselors to do scheduling and then back to the house to get Dale to take me to Paula’s.  That’s the plan though I may try to get home a bit sooner and spend a bit of time with hubby before I go.

I’m excited about going but not quite as enthusiastic about the presentations as I have been in the past.  I’m hoping to learn something new or if nothing else spend some time looking at things I already know in a fresh way so I can bring something useful back to my district.  I also hope to take a step back from everything and come back rejuvenated.  I’ve been feeling crabby and mean-spirited lately and I’m ready for a break.  I’ll blog it all while I’m there and I will still get my walking in, because it never fails that any two consecutive presentations I want to attend will be on opposite sides of the conference center and often on different floors.

I’m ready for the ride – I have two books, my laptop, my mp3 player, and camera and some papers I need to go over.  A quick trip to the drive-through at Paris Coffee Company and I’ll be set.  Next post will be from Austin!

P.S. To the commenter on my previous post – thank you so much for the nice words.  It’s such a cool thing to come visit my blog and find a hug waiting 🙂

Surfing and Reading Shares

There are blogs that I read on a regular basis and then there are articles I read just because the title catches my attention and I just have to click to see what it’s about.  Here are some that caught my interest tonight:

“Screw Flowers–You Need Cheesecake!”

What a great idea.  When friends are going through something rough, why not send cheesecake intead of flowers.  I love it!
Silver-lined Excrement
I wasn’t sure I wanted to look.  Turns out she has an elderly dog who is losing control of his er…bodily functions.  Her dad reflects on the silver lining (it wasn’t HIS poop).  Guess you’ll just have to read it.

10 Sure-Fire Ways to Be a Complete Failure At Everything
Ya, like I need directions for THAT???  What a surprise – I have 7 through 10 down pat!
Please Speak Clearly, Lord, I Have Children.
Self-explanatory
We Live in Public (and the end of empathy)

This one is thought provoking.  I have been thinking about it since I read it and while I think that we do tend to depersonalize on the internet, I have to wonder how much of that is caused by being online and how much is just an online reflection of our society.  I see some mean-ness but I tend to associate (online and off) with people that I have things in common with and for the most part they are NOT mean.  So which way does the mirror point?  I think personally I am more careful about what I say online than I am in face-to-face conversations instead of the other way around.

While I was wandering I ran across these two sites that I thought were cool – for kids a new search engine that utilizes Google’s safe search to “eliminate inappropriate material” : http://www.kidrex.org/

The next one is one I will use a lot – http://fatburgr.com/

When you go to a restaurant, do you know the nutritional content of what you’re ordering? We didn’t either. Fatburgr gives you nutritional information from your favorite restaurants.

I’ll have to walk a lot to undo the damage my supper did – 740 calories and 72 carbs and it was small!! Yikes!

Life And The Weather

The weather is conspiring against me!  It rained all day yesterday and into the night and we woke up to ice.  We went to work late so I missed my evening walk yesterday and my morning and evening walk today.  I will walk in the morning but I HATE missing at all.  To top it off I have thirty computers to load with operating systems and software and will be gone all next week.  The short day today put me way behind with that.  I am frustrated and there are other commitments this week that are complicating things.  I am really looking forward to heading to Austin and having nothing to worry about but soaking up technology (and I won’t have to worry about finding time to walk – I’ll walk all day) and relaxing at night.  I have a couple of books to carry with me to read, extra batteries for my mp3 player, and I will make a strong effort to leave worry up here.

Number one son found a house and room-mate so hubby is going down to help him move tomorrow – again.  It is a good thing hopefully.  The place he is living came with baggage – a Scottish landlord who likes his beer (duh) and a week ago got into an actual fist fight with someone.  The day before there was a shooting at the apartment house next door.  My checkbook will be crying again.  We can’t squeeze much more out of it.

Daughter has an interview at Texas A&M Honors College while I am gone so please keep fingers and toes crossed, say a few prayers, and think positive thoughts.  She wants it badly and I want it for her.  She is a great kid and it is time something great happened for her.

Walking At The Speed Of Sound

I have been walking at least 5 miles every day.  I get to work at 7 A.M. and walk between 2 and 3 miles and then do about the same after supper at night.  I have hit another “plateau” but I am determined to work through it.

I have been faithful about it which surprises me more than anyone I think.  There have been a few nights when I didn’t walk as far as I would have liked because it was so cold it hurt to breath in the air.  Tonight that wasn’t the case and I squeezed in about another half mile which is good because I needed to make up for the Mexican food I ate for supper.  I have been craving quesadillas!

Tonight it tasted like rain.  It looks like most of the actual rain went east of us but you could feel and smell it in the air.  It was cool enough to need a light jacket but warm enough that I was sweating by the time I got home.  There is something very relaxing about walking in the dark with music playing in my ears.  I shut everything else off for an hour or so and just concentrate on the music and moving forward.

Thank goodness for Coldplay, Iron and Wine, John Mayer, James Blount, Jacks Mannequin; not to mention CSNY, Traffic, Indigo Girls, Grand Funk Railroad, and Van Morrison.  There are more and I have to tell you guys – I couldn’t do it without you!  I think to myself “I’ll cut this a bit short tonight” and then a good song comes on and I keep walking to hear the rest of it.  I’m not walking miles – I’m walking songs.  Whatever works.

How long before I get in
Before it starts before I begin
How long before you decide
Before I know what it feels like
Where to, where do I go?
If you never try then you’ll never know
How long do I have to climb
Up on the side of this mountain of mine

All that noise, All that sound
All those places I got found
Birds come flying at the speed of sound to show you how it all began
Birds come flying from the underground
If you could see it then you’d understand

Time for a bottle of water and a shower – goodnight world!

It’s Great To Visit & Great To Come Home

We went home for a late family Christmas get-together this weekend.  The was gumbo, and desserts, and babies to rock.  I did some figuring when we got home and there were 31 of us.  That’s a lot of gumbo 🙂 The weather was not too cold so the kids were able to get outside and run a bit which was a blessing!

I met my new great-nephew for the first time and it turns out he has impeccable taste.  Every time he needed a nap I was the one who could get him to go to sleep.  It turns out that he prefers Elton John’s “Daniel” over Barney songs.  He is the most easy going, serious, snuggly baby. We got in the rocking chair and I would sing quietly and he would lay his head down and just stare up at me and in a few moments his little eyes would close and he would be out like a light.

I got the nicest gift from my sister-in-law.  It was a necklace that belonged to Dale’s mother.  She always wore it at Easter since it is shaped a little like an Easter egg but it could be worn anytime.  I always thought it looked so pretty on her, so it means a lot to me that Pam gave it to me.

I guess we are officially old and set in our ways because we woke up Sunday morning at 3:30 and couldn’t get back to sleep.  Not wanting to wake anyone else in the house, we snuck out thinking we could find somewhere that I could get coffee.  We might have found somewhere if we wandered around town long enough but we ended up at WalMart.  WalMart is actually pleasant at the time of morning.  we saw three people who were not employed by the store the whole time we wandered around there.  By the time we got back to the house Pam was up and ready to cook piles of eggs, bacon, biscuits, and sausage gravy which was consumed almost as soon as It was cooked.

I got in a walk after breakfast and saw a couple of deer.  The house is about 3 miles from the main road so you never know what you will see.  It was quiet and peaceful.

Everyone started loading up to go home after breakfast and it looked like some kind of mass exodus.  We left around 10:30 in the morning to come home and by the time we got home we were so sleepy. Starting your day at 3:30 has repercussions later but we are glad to be home and rested and ready to get back in our routine.

Chocolate Chip Cheesecake Bars

This weekend we will get together for a late family Christmas in Louisiana.  My job is to bring a dessert and I am bringing our family traditional Christmas goody that I have been making since Number 1 son was six and informed me that I had to make them for Christmas FOREVER.

Keep in mind that the recipe is for a double batch – 2 9×13 pans.  It’s easy to halve if you like.

Preheat oven to 325 degrees

2 18 ounce packages of chocolate chip cookie dough

2 8 oz. pkg of cream cheese

1/4 cup butter

2 tablespoons cornstarch

2 cans of Eagle Brand

2 eggs

2 tsp vanilla

12 oz. pkg of mini chocolate chips

Put cookie dough in the pans and let it soften a bit.  Press it into the bottom of the pans.  Beat together softened cream cheese, butter, and cornstarch.  Beat in Eagle Brand.  Add eggs and vanilla.

Pour over the cookie dough and sprinkle with handfuls of choclate chips.  Bake for 25-30 minutes.  Let cool and cut into bars.  Refrigerate.

I just gained a pound typing that 🙂

Plastic Babies and Random Weirdness

Yesterday I walked into the office of a friend and she was going to show me baby  dolls that had been purchased for the kids taking the classes in parenting.  The dolls are realistic and are hooked to a computer so that if the baby cries and the “mom” doesn’t feed, change, love on it – it is recorded.  It records other things too.  As we were about to open the boxes to look at some her phone rang and I proceeded to get one out while she answered the call.

As I turned, looking at the doll and reading the warning on the package another friend walked in and I had to ask – isn’t this a tiny bit ironic?  The doll was in a plastic bag that carried the usual warning – Keep away from children, choking hazard, can cause asphyxiation.

As I told hubby about it that evening, he asked “Was the doll blue?” When I replied that it wasn’t he looked up from the paper he was reading and said “It’s not very realistic then is it?”

And people think my humor is twisted…