Over 40 and WHAT???

Here's the biggest news in my family. If divorce wasn't enough, now we have my older sister's pregnancy. All I can say about it is: WOW! This is her first child she will be carrying to term, but her third child (the other two were adopted from Russia). My niece and nephew are 15 and 14 years old. So at 44, my sister will be starting babyhood all over. Yikes! I can honestly say I would not want to be in her position. I've fighting to keep my body looking good and with it already being an uphill battle I would not want to put my body through another pregnancy. Sleepless nights, teething, terrible twos, all while dealing with 2 teenagers. Well at least she has a built in babysitter....that's one good thing, besides having a baby to love I suppose.

Photo Game

The Rules:

1) Go to your photo files…Select the 6th photo folder

2) Select the 6th photo in that folder

3) Post that photo along with the story behind it.

4) Then challenge 5 blog friends to do the same!

Unfortunately I do not have 5 blog friends who have not already been tagged, so I will not start a vicious tagging cycle.



How appropriate! I was taking pictures of the kids playing in the pool. Amanda had remarked about how warm the water was, and brought me the pool thermometer to show me. Here we are a year later, and the pool is probably about the same temperature. Just warm enough for me to jump in!

Lack of Posting

I suppoe I could blame summer. Or maybe my upcoming move. Or possibly preparing to start my new job and all the hoops Arizona is making me go through to obtain certification. All would be valid excuses for my lack of blogging. But quite honestly I don't think I have anything interesting to say. I either am complaining about my kids, walking a fine line of libel, or just am drawing a blank. I suppose I am not as interesting as I thought I was. Or perhaps I never was, and I've been just kidding myself. Either way, I will try my best to be funny, engaging, and entertaining. Just not today.

UP

Usu sally I am skeptical when it comes to movies that get 5 stars. Usually I dread going to see "kids" movies, especially animated ones. I normally dread going to the theater with all three children. Today, it was different. My expectations were blown away. I loved this movie. It had all the right balance, the good guy won, there was a message, and it wasn't dumbed down or preachy. The kids laughed, I cried, and no one complained or fidgeted in their seats. I am so happy I didn't wait to see this on video, but I'm sure I will purchase this one for our collection.

The Sad State of Education in Arizona

I could make commentary about how Arizona lacks in it's educational funding, but that wouldn't be half of the scope I would want to speak about. I want to rant on about the ridiculousness of the standards for teachers. The Grand Canyon State's criteria isn't so grand. The "professional" knowledge portion of the AEPA exam was laughable. As long as you chose answers which involved heterogenously grouping students, using multiple modalities for instruction, and fostered good self esteem you had a great chance of answering correctly. While I admit there are many culturally diverse students in our classrooms, it was insane how many questions referred to it, and out of 100 multiple choise questions there were only 3 that addressed students with special needs. Unbeleivable. Now the special education test I took was not even considered professional knowledge, but content area. I beleive I need more professional knowledge and training to address the needs of children with different social, emotional, educational and physical needs. My expertise in law and the ability to ensure every student is able to live up to their potential would be a more specific and arduous task. The state of Arizona feels otherwise. Maybe that is why we are consistently ranked low in our quality and commitment to educating our young and vulnerable.