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Alexa – Let There Be Light!

daylight savingsPicture this:  I’m living in Waukesha and it’s time to get ready for work.  I take my shower and put myself together for a day of training.  I wake up the baby, feed him, and get him cleaned up.  We go to the parking garage, get in the car, and drive to the garage door.  As it opens up, I see that the sun hasn’t even started to rise.  It’s standard time and I’m feeling like I’m ahead of the game for the day because I’m up and ready even before the sun has risen. Continue reading

The Day Feels Longer

There is a lot of controversy regarding whether to keep daylight savings time in effect.

I love the time change in the spring giving us more daylight hours.  I would love to see it kept that way all the time.  I am not a morning person, so when it is light for a longer time I love it.  I am notoriously late and one time when daylight savings time started in the spring I was going to church.  I was going to be on time.  Got to the parking lot and no one else was there.  A friend of mine drove next to my car and just laughed.  Daylight savings time had started the night before and I was one hour early.  So this shows that I am not always late. Continue reading

I Remember When

daylight savings timeI have never been a morning person. I look forward to Spring, even though I lose an hour with Daylight Saving Time. I do enjoy the extra daylight hours in the evening. When we hit the “fall back” time, I enjoy the extra hour of sleep. Although, once daylight saving time ends, it gets dark so early that I feel like I’m living in Alaska.  Continue reading

AWCTDIQ

tap danceSeveral years ago, before Michael and I were married, I hung out with a group of people who were full of fun. The group consisted of 4 couples. We all had professional careers and we loved to go out together and be silly.

When we were together and things got too boisterous, the manager or owner would always come up to ME and say something like “YOU look responsible. Could you please ask your group to quiet down?”. I never understood why I was selected to be the disciplinarian.  Continue reading

Poop Happens

poopNot everyone is able to handle baby poop, but for a mom – it’s not such a big deal.  I did a lot of babysitting as a young teenager and was very accustomed to dealing with a baby’s needs.  As a new mom – I never thought that not everyone has the same mentality about babies that I did. Continue reading

You Go First

Growing up, our house was across the street from the Grand View Motel. We lived on the street behind and our home faced the 10 or so windows of the long, low building. Once a week, the owner would mow the grass and sometimes have his young son, Johnny, with him in the cab of the riding lawn tractor.

Mom asked me if I wanted to take Johnny to the “Welcome to Kindergarten” day. ( It was held on a day late in the spring semester when neighborhood Kinders would “sponsor” a child who would be entering kindergarten the following year.) “No way,” was the only explanation I gave when she asked me if I was interested in taking Johnny. But there was a reason that I didn’t want to be his special friend… Continue reading

Pay Attention

teachersWhen you think of teachers and their importance in your life, you want to think of them in a good way.  After all, you spend a significant part of your childhood in classrooms with these people.  The teachers in my life have made both positive and negative impacts on me.   Continue reading

Great People Make Great Teachers

teachersI was taught at an early age that teachers were meant to be respected. All through grade school, I had teachers that I felt positive about. I loved school and identified with each of them. In elementary school, I looked up to our music teacher. She was very positive and taught us to be proud of ourselves and our voices.  Continue reading

Needed to be Heard

teachers

Teachers have a great impact on your life.  Unfortunately, I can remember only some negative incidents with teachers in my past. I feel this was unfortunate.  I was shy for the most when I was younger especially while in a group. If a problem came up I never seemed to be able to stand up for myself. Continue reading

Make It Interesting

  As a teacher myself, you would think perhaps that I wanted to be a teacher because I was inspired by all the wonderful teachers I had growing up–not so much.

Well, maybe I was inspired by one very special teacher–nope.

As a matter of fact, I went to the counseling center in college to figure out what to major in. I scored the highest in my affinity to careers in education or as a YWCA/YMCA director. I was maybe not inspired, but at least open to education because of shows like Electric Company, ZOOM, and Hodgepodge Lodge. Learning could be fun…

When I explored the education options more specifically, I thought of teaching elementary education standing at a big chalkboard and kids sitting at desks in rows. Arghhh.

Continue reading