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It’s Not an Illusion

Posted on April 8, 2012 by auburnchick

Today I finished reading Illusion by one of my favorite authors, Frank Peretti…

I had taken the book to church with me.

Crazy, I know, but I played bells during the early service at one of my church’s campuses and then drove to another campus to attend another service with my family.

I knew I’d have time to kill…

Hence, the book.

I put it away when the service began.

Boy, did I sit up straight when my pastor got to the part of his message in which he said the word “illusion” several times.

Hello?

Yes, Lord, I’m seeing a connection here.

It was only after returning home after church and spending the better part of the afternoon that I finished reading the book, along with the author’s notes at the end.

The book is about a husband and wife who spend the forty years they are married performing as magicians.  Then, the wife, Mandy, gets killed in a car accident.  Shortly afterward, Mandy finds herself back in her 19-year old body in the town she grew up in, but she thinks it’s 1970, but the only memories she retains are the ones up to that day she’s thrown back to.  She and Dane, her “husband,” reconnect through a series of events, but there’s mystery involving their meeting and whatnot.  The rest of the book entails their efforts to understand why they are connected to each other and how to solve the issue.

It was a wonderful book, full of twists and turns.

I’m still processing the many different underlying themes of the book.

Hence my pastor’s sermon and his use of the word “illusion.”

Gosh…there’s just so much in my head and heart…so many things that my pastor didn’t say…stuff that he did say.

I was very moved and connected with his words as he shared his grief over the sudden loss of his father four years ago.

I lost my dad eleven years ago this month.

Tom, my pastor, spoke about how, after his father died, he developed a fear of dying and leaving his family.

I can relate.

I think that many people are confounded by the mystery involving death and what’s left afterward.  Not that my pastor is, mind you, but still, there are questions that even the most learned theologian must grapple with.

I think about people I’ve come into contact with in the past…people I worked with last year…the students I taught…the people I encounter every day who don’t know or choose purposely not to believe in Christ’s resurrection and how that relates to our own deaths.

Just as Mandy, in Peretti’s book, cheated death despite the chains that placed her in bondage during her magic tricks, Jesus Christ fought and WON the battle against eternal death, throwing off the shackles, emerging as the risen Savior.

Jesus’s death and resurrection, however, was no illusion.

It was the real stuff…not a trick that some other person could or will ever repeat again.

Filed under: Christian | Tagged: , , | 3 Comments »

Four-Legged Blessings, Even at 6:42am

Posted on April 7, 2012 by auburnchick

Grrr….

That’s how I felt when I was awakened this morning by this little guy…

Oh sure, he may be cute and all, but not at 6:42 on a Saturday morning.

Rooster had slept over at a friend’s house.  Gambit sleeps in Rooster’s room, and he usually stays asleep until Rooster decides to crawl out of bed, which certainly ain’t at 6:42 in the morning.

With Rooster gone, Gambit only had Aubie to keep him company.

Obviously Gambit missed his boy.

Hence the whimpering wake-up call…from all the way across the house.

Now, you’ve never heard Gambit’s whimper.

It’s annoying.

And pathetic.

And annoying.

Yeah.  I already said that.

I tried putting the pillow over my head, but he persisted.

Finally, I got up and let Molly and Pele out.

I left Gambit where he was.  Sometimes Molly gets all grumpy and likes to take a nip or two.  Heck, I wasn’t going to take a chance.  After all, it was 6:42 on a Saturday morning.  We’re usually asleep until 11.  She was probably going to be a little grumpier than usual.

Don’t sue me.

I’m a teacher who begins each day at o’dark thirty.

Anyhoo…

When I got them inside, I didn’t hear Gambit crying, so I figured he’d gone back to sleep.

Oh, he did.

For, like, twenty minutes.

Then, he started up again, and this time He

Would

Not

Stop.

I had to get up.

I was not happy, and I told him so, mincing no words.

After feeding him and the rest of the crew, I was more fully awake.

I decided to do what I’d planned and began working on next week’s stations for my classes.

The kids are ASKING for stations.  They WANT stuff to keep them occupied in class.

Victory.

Sort of.

So, I worked.

And worked.

And worked.

The Mr. got up, left, got a hair cut, worked out, picked up a veggie burger for me from BK, and returned, and still, I was working.

I got almost everything done in about three hours.

After I ate, I showered and then drove to my classroom to finish printing what I needed.  I set up my station baskets, tested a couple of websites my students will be using to make sure they weren’t sites that had been blocked by our network’s security software, and returned home a while later.

Now, I’ll admit that a small part of me was happy that the little four-legged booger woke me up.

If he hadn’t, I would probably STILL be working on lesson plans.

As it was, I had time to meander through Target, Books a Million, Best Buy, and Walmart, doing nothing much but chillin’.  I even had time to complete this week’s Reading Endorsement assignment.

So, little Mr. Gambit’s whining turned out to be a blessing.

Even at 6:42am.

Filed under: Pets, Teaching | Tagged: , | 1 Comment »

Conversations From the Classroom

Posted on April 6, 2012 by auburnchick

Oy!  Another long week is finishing up in Podunk, USA, and I am beat, as are my students who have been tortured by endless FCAT review sessions.  We teachers are cramming as much as many tips, tricks, and reminders as we can before the week of the 16th when the test will be administered.

As a result, everyone is a little loopy.  I thought I’d share a few snippets of the conversations that floated around my classroom this week.

————————————————————-

During my fourth period class, one of my students was being sarcastic with me, trying to pull one over on me.  I responded, “Do I look like I was born yesterday?”

She said, in return, “Happy Belated Birthday, Mrs. AuburnChick.”

I said, “Huh?”

She said, “Well, since you were born yesterday, and all.”

Yes, that’s funny, but it gets funnier when I tell you that another student who apparently hadn’t heard the beginning of the conversation chimed in, “Mrs. AuburnChick, it was your birthday yesterday?”

No, she’s not blonde, but I think she has blonde roots.

😀

————————————————————-

During my third period class, one of my students asked if he could stand up.  He was having trouble staying awake, and I couldn’t blame him.  FCAT prep is b-o-r-i-n-g stuff.

As he stood, he said, “I don’t want to do any more running.”

He plays baseball, and he’s given me fits this year with his bad attitude and determined efforts to catch a few zzzzzzs.

I finally contacted his baseball coach and gave him the low-down.

I guess coach took the bull by the horns and had this student running poles as a consequence.

Hence my student’s comment.

I pretended not to listen in as another student asked, “Running?”

To which my baseball player said, “Yeah, somebody said something…”

I didn’t hear the rest.

I didn’t need to.

heehee

😀

————————————————————-

Fourth period is where I have the most fun.  The kids are, for the most part, well-behaved, so I rarely have problems in this class.

As I talked to the kids about making a mistake with some text and questions I’d given them as bellwork, they started giggling.

I think I said something that they, in their high school immaturity, read more into.

I chose to ignore their giggles and pushed on.

They kept on chuckling.

Finally, one of my girls said, “Mrs. AuburnChick, you is funny.”

“Huh?” I asked.

“You is funny…the things you say,” she continued.

“Really?  I’m not trying to be funny.  I’m just being me,” I said.

“That’s why you’re so funny,” she finished explaining.

Ahhh…gotta love it!

————————————————————-

On a different day…

Upon finding out that students had been given new assigned seats, one of my students said, “Mrs. AuburnChick, why do I have to sit here?  You put me beside weird people.”

I told her to get used to it.  There’s always going to be weird people in this world, and you won’t always have a choice about who you have to work with.

heehee

Filed under: Teaching | Tagged: | 1 Comment »

Addicted

Posted on April 5, 2012 by auburnchick

My name is AuburnChick, and I have a confession to make.

I’m addicted to books.

It all started in August when I started teaching reading.

Students would ask me for book recommendations, and I couldn’t really give them any.

I had gotten burned out from all of the reading I’d done during my return to college.

So, I started reading…

And reading…

And reading.

I’m averaging a book every week and a half.

I’m buying two to five books every payday.

These came in yesterday…

I still have these on order…

I purchased these after discovering that one of my students enjoys reading about the crusades.

My job as a reading teacher is to find ways to motivate students to read.  To do this, I’ve had to find out what subjects my students enjoy reading about.

Hence, the books.

Of course, I have to set a good example, so it’s imperative that I read in front of my students during independent, silent reading time.

Darn.

Twenty minutes each class period to read.

I really hate that.

😀

Late Tuesday night, I finished reading this…

Oh my.  What a powerful book that, once I got into it and used to the weird way in which it was written, really sucked me in.  I had wanted to see the movie when it came out, but I never got around to it.  I’m glad I read the book first.

Of course, with that book finished, I had to start a new one, which I did during my first class..

I regularly visit Linda’s blog.  She reviews books, and the author of Chasing the Sun, Tracie Peterson, offered free copies to ten of Linda’s readers.  I lucked out!  Ms. Peterson mailed the book to me herself and even autographed it!!!

I’ve actually “won” a few books from Linda’s blog and have been blessed by her generosity because she always throws in extra goodies from her stash.  She knows I teach reading and that my students will appreciate the new material.

So, I think it’s safe to say that I am completely addicted, once again, to reading.  Reading voraciously gave me a head start in my schooling as my vocabulary soared with each book I worked my way through.

Despite the few years I took off from this addiction, I’m back, and I’m quite happy.

Filed under: Teaching | Tagged: , , , , | 2 Comments »

Not So “Happy Hunger Games”

Posted on April 4, 2012 by auburnchick

A few months ago, I tore through The Hunger Games series.  Honestly, I was a little disappointed when I finished the last book, so I eagerly awaited the movie premier.

Rooster, the Mr., and I attended the first midnight showing, and I was almost giddy with excitement.

The previews had been incredible!

I’d shown it to my students to give them an idea of what we were reading, as they were quite bored with the opening chapters that I was reading aloud to them.

It didn’t take me too long from the beginning of the movie to discover something.

The movie’s producers had taken a few liberties.

This started with the mockingjay pin that Katniss “found” in the Hob.

Sigh.

In the book, she was given this pin by her friend, the mayor’s daughter.  This is HUGELY significant in the series…namely the next two books…and under girds the ENTIRE theme of the books!!!!

I was miffed.

It was the first of a few poetic licenses taken, and I grew more and more grouchy with each one.

The overt omission of Haymitch falling off of the stage at the reaping peeved me.  This was where we learned what a drunkard he is, and it sets the stage (literally and figuratively) for his and Effie’s strained relationship.

Still, there were parts I enjoyed.

I thought the reaping scene was well-done.  I also felt like the depiction of District 12 as very poor was excellent.  It helped paint the stark contrast between that district and the Capitol, with all of its frivolities.

I loved Effie’s character.  I enjoyed the costuming as well…especially of those people in the Capitol.  This reminded me a bit of the Star Wars series, as did the hovercraft.

I thought that casting Lenny Kravitz was a genius move!  He was FABO in this movie and will forever be who I envision as Cinna.  My friend, Barb, said that she didn’t believe it was him…he’s, um, “older.”  He cleaned up well, eh?

Other things I didn’t like about the movie were:

  • The glossing over of the relationship between Katniss and Peeta – They sleep together (not in a sexual way but in a simple need-for-companionship kind of way).  Perhaps this wouldn’t have played to a kid-friendly audience, but the experience in the book helped solidify their relationship and pointed to Katniss’s need for someone to identify with her struggles.
  • The scene when Rue dies (which is okay in the movie but not great) could have been done better.  I pictured more flowers…colorful in fact.
  • The bowls in which they drew the candidates’ names at the reaping should have been bigger…kind of like the lottery.  How in the heck are we supposed to realistically believe that Gale has his name in there 42 times?  There wasn’t enough room for 42 slips of paper to be in there!
  • The creature at the end did NOT resemble the fallen tributes at all.  That was part of the freakiness of the animal.

I’m not usually so critical of movies (unless we’re talking about the Transformers movies, which I loathed almost as much as a certain politician in office right now).

I guess I’m giving myself permission to be so picky because I enjoyed the books so much and because I am a purist who needs my movies to represent the words painted across the hundreds of pages I read.

Ultimately I’m most disappointed because Ms. Collins helped write the screenplay!!  I’m surprised that she allowed her vision to be changed, even if the changes were subtle at times.

So, that’s my take on the movie.

Oh, and I will say that I got to see the movie a second time…yesterday, in fact…when the reading teachers took our students to the movie theater.  It was interesting to listen to their reactions.  They loved the kissing scene between Katniss and Peeta (no surprise there).  They jumped at a couple of forest scenes.

After we got back to school, I discussed some of the differences between the movie and the book.  The kids didn’t seem to mind too much.

So, have you seen the movie?  Did you read the books?  What do you think?

Filed under: This-n-That | Tagged: | 3 Comments »

The Case of the Missing Hole Puncher

Posted on April 3, 2012 by auburnchick

Alas, it’s been a longggggg few weeks.  The closer we get to FCAT, the more frenetic things get.

Added to that is the fact that my second Reading Endorsement class just started, which means lots of reading and one weekly assignment for the next ten weeks.

There are a lot of wonderful resources provided through the Reading Endorsement program, so it’s helpful to print the course materials.

Which is how I discovered that something had gone awry.

After printing my course materials, I wanted to put everything into binders, so I went in search of my very nice hole puncher, which I purchased last year.

Going to the spot where I normally keep it, I realized that it wasn’t there.

Hmmm…

I went to a second place in my classroom where I sometimes place it.

Nada.

I remembered taking it home one weekend, but I was almost positive that I’d taken it back to school.

Hence my mission:  FIND THE HOLE PUNCHER or go crazy in the process.

Because of all of the recent upheaval in my classroom with the upgrade in technology, I thought maybe I’d put the hole puncher in my closet.

Again, nada.

Rats.

I tore my classroom apart but could not find it.

When I got home, I looked everywhere.

Still, nothing.

In desperation, I called Chicky and asked her to look in my car, which she’d driven back to school since she was having issues with her own vehicle.

I got a text back saying that it wasn’t in my car.

I asked her to look a second time.  Today, I talked to her on the phone.

She didn’t find my hole puncher, but she did discover a Mt. Dew bottle hidden away in my glove compartment.

Um…yeah…

Still though, no hole puncher.

I had even sent out an email to my fellow reading teachers to see if they’d borrowed my hole puncher.  Nobody responded.

Sigh.

I’m a bit aggravated.

Surely nobody jacked my hole puncher.

I mean, it was a very good one…even had a nice handle.

Still, you never know.

I went to Target and purchased a new one…

It’s by the same company; however, after taking it out of the packaging, I’m disappointed.  It’s not as fancy as my other one, and we all know how I like fancy gadgets.  I’m going to take this back to the store tomorrow.

I’m seriously grumpy right now.

Heck.

I’ve been grumpy for two days now, and this was just icing on the cake.

I want my hole puncher.

I will find the culprit.

I have a sneaky suspicion that I’ll only need to look in the mirror.

One can hope, though, that I haven’t fallen victim to old-timer’s disease.

Filed under: Teaching | Tagged: | 1 Comment »

An Answer to an SOS for Blankets

Posted on April 2, 2012 by auburnchick

I have a couple of students who are pregnant.

It’s a sad situation, but it’s not my first go-round teaching expectant students.

While it breaks my heart, all I know to do is to embrace these girls and love them without judging them.  I have a feeling that’s why God keeps sending them to me.

As much as I’d like to knit for them, I’m completely swamped with my job responsibilities and online reading classes.

So, I put out an SOS on KnittingHelp, and one sweet lady, GrumpyGrandma, answered the call.

On Friday, I received this in the mail…

I cannot wait to give this blanket to one of my girls.  She’s going to be thrilled.

Please pray for these girls.  One of them is completely shattered and lost right now.  I read something she wrote, and it broke my heart.  This particular young lady told me about her pregnancy before she got up the courage to tell her mother (which I advised her to do as quickly as possible).  Her mom is now supportive of her daughter, but it’s strained their relationship as they search for answers to the decisions they are facing.

Thanks so much!

Filed under: Knitting, Teaching | Tagged: , , | 2 Comments »

A Girl’s Just Gotta Shop Sometimes!

Posted on April 1, 2012 by auburnchick

Super Sis sent me a Kohl’s gift card for my birthday, so I waited until today, when a coupon I’d gotten in the mail went into effect, before heading out.

I figured that it was the least I could do for myself after working all afternoon on Saturday and turning in a Reading Endorsement assignment after church.

I shopped and shopped and shopped…tried on quite a few things…before settling on these…

Oh, how comfy!!  I love that they’re like sandals but a bit dressed up with the wedge…

What a fun way to show off my newly pedicured toes!

Thanks to the coupon and sales going on, I was going to have a few dollars left over.

Well, I couldn’t just let them sit on that gift card, now could I?

I indulged in a little bit of bling…

I love the “rope” that the pendant hangs from.  This is DEFINITELY my style!

I found a matching pair of earrings that I simply could not pass up…

I was drawn to these pieces because they match one of the blouses I bought the last time I shopped at Kohl’s, and I know they will match some other things I have in my closet.

Besides that, with the 40% off sales plus the 20% coupon, it would have been a crime NOT to buy these!!

heehee

Thanks, Super Sis, for a practical and thoughtful gift!!  I had a lot of fun and will think of you every time I wear one of the items I purchased.

Filed under: This-n-That | Tagged: , , , | 1 Comment »

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