Being Sick...

I hate being sick. Of course, I don't know anyone who actually enjoys it.

Thankfully, I don't really get sick that often. At least not debilitating. Mostly headaches and fits of the blahs.

This bout of the cold started last Wednesday as a simple sore throat. That sore throat got worse and worse until Monday it had progressed to a full on cold. Since then, I've gone through nearly an entire box of Puffs. On my own. It's incredibly gross! I'll spare you all the disgusting details.

Really, I wanted to share the other reasons why I hate being sick...

All my progress towards a healthier lifestyle? OUT THE WINDOW!

• Not one day since last Wednesday have I consumed more than 3-4 glasses of water. The 3+ weeks prior I was averaging 9 glasses per day.
• I haven't been able to go to the gym or pool or long walks with Sallie.
• I spend most of my day napping, which means I haven't been eating very often. It's hard to eat while you're asleep.
• When I eat, it's all junk! I've had more sweets and crappy food in the past week than in the previous month.

All medicine that claims relief tastes awful!

One good thing from it all? Lots and lots of snuggle time with my girl!

What do you HATE  about being sick? Are there any benefits? Do you have a surefire cure to the common cold?

What do you think?

Here is a video about what students say about technology in their classrooms:


Students Sound Off on School Tech Use from Education Week on Vimeo.

What do you think? Should schools adopt more technology into their classrooms? Should students be able to access the Internet outside of the library? Should they have access to web-based email programs (Gmail, Hotmail, Yahoo, etc) at school?

How is technology used in your children's classrooms? Is it embraced by the students and teachers? Is the available technology being used? For example, a few of the students in this video stated that there were Smartboards in a few of the classrooms, but the teachers rarely used them.

I look forward to embracing technology when I become a teacher. I feel that students will learn more when they are engaged, and using technology can be that tool to help grab their interest.

Film: Pray the Devil Back to Hell

Today, there was a showing of the film, Pray the Devil Back to Hell, at the Luann Dummer Center for Women at the University of St Thomas.

I had no idea what the film was about, but I thought I would expand my horizons by attending.

I am so glad that I went! This film was incredible. It documents the women's peace movement in Liberia. Women from all over that country were tired of the running and the fear and the atrocities that had been plaguing their country during the long civil war.

Thousands of women spoke up. These were ordinary women - mothers, grandmothers, aunts, daughters. They were Christian. They were Muslim. They fasted. They prayed. They made a difference.

Below is a trailer of the movie:



There were two things that really struck me about these unique women.

They were women of extreme faith. It didn't matter if they were Christian or Muslim. They united. They recognized that bullets don't discriminate; bullets don't know if you're Christian or Muslim. They looked to the Bible and the story of Esther for their inspiration. At one point, they were all gathering at the fish markets to protest. This was at the beginning of their movement. One of the women was told she shouldn't go because those who went would just be killed.  Her response? "If I should get killed, remember I was fighting for peace." That is faith.

They were women of extreme forgiveness. After the peace talks ended, these women still did not back down. They recognized their need to continue pushing for peace in Liberia. It was extremely difficult, but they showed forgiveness to the excombatants. They knew they needed to accept these fighters and not hold the past against them. They knew that Liberia would not be able to move forward without forgiveness. I cannot even imagine having to forgive those who wreaked such havoc on so many innocent, so many loved ones.

One of the women, near the end of the film, stated that if it weren't for different women from different walks of life banding together, that peace in Liberia probably would not have happened. How incredible was it, in a country so torn, that the women could come together. They could get to know one another and build on each other's experiences to make a strong stand for peace.

Did You Know?

I love these videos. I'm not sure in which education course I was shown the first one, but I remember it was quite powerful.


I'm currently taking a technology integration course at the University of St Thomas. My professor sent us a link to an updated version of this video. The questions near the end of the video really resonated with me. Is education where it needs to be to prepare our children for the 21st century workplace?



A few days later, my professor sent out another link to an even more updated version. I recognize there are a lot of redundancies in these videos, but there are enough changes to really make you realize just how quickly technology is changing.

Flasback Friday: Valentine's Day

In honor of Valentine's Day on Sunday, I thought I'd flashback back to some kissey shots.

We were married December 21, 2004.

We were sealed for time and all eternity on March 29, 2006.

Virtual G.N.O

Tonight, I'm very excited about my Friday night home alone. I've got TV shows to watch, blogs to write, cleaning to do, and digital scrapbooking to create. Oh, and some homework to do as well.

It's gonna be a busy night. :-)



This week's party question: Did you go to dances while you were in Middle School and/or middle school age?

I went to a few school dances that I can remember. They were disastrous! I was very shy and uncomfortable. Definitely was a wallflower.

What about you? Were you a Dancing Queen? Or a Wall Flower? Or something in between?

Pop on over to Ann Again ... and again... to join in the fun.

Happy Valentine's weekend.

Oops!

Tonight I stopped at two stores on my way home. The first stop didn't have what I wanted, so I hustled on to my next stop.

I had quite a scare while driving through one parking lot. I was on the road that runs through the lot, and a van came speeding up toward me. It did not appear to be slowing at all, let alone stopping. I thought for sure I was going to get hit.

I thought, "Come on, white van! Get a clue. It's nighttime. You need to have your lights on!"

And on I went.

As I was crawling through the parking lot of my actual intended store, there was a cop walking out of the store. He motioned to me to turn on my lights. Wait, what? My lights are totally on.

I looked down to my dash, and lo, and behold, my little indictor light was, in fact, not illuminating.

OOPS!!