Look-- I'm making something from scratch!

Okay, so everyone knows that I have had a goal to become more "domestic" now that I am in my own place, etc. So I pretty much forced my good friend Becky to come over and teach me how to make something from scratch. She is an amazing baker and a wonderfully patient teacher.

A tip I learned from Becky -- put a little bit of Pam spray in the measuring cup before the shortening so it slides out easily.

My helper. Another tip Becky gave me was to use bread flour instead of all purpose flour. She also said to tap on the bread. If it makes a hollow sound it is done.

The teacher and the student.

The best part.

Look at how yummy. Inside contains the "perfect swirl" of cinnamon and raisens.

So delicious.... Thanks again Becky!

My 100th post!

I figured I should post an update, since I haven't done a true one in a while. Since school let out I have been teaching summer school for six weeks which was easy breezey and great money. Now I'm chilling until August 25th. Good deal. I've been having lots of fun this summer. My sister has been home from Italy and is staying with us for most of the summer which is AWESOME!

We've been back and forth from my parents in Lancaster quite a bit. We've done bowling, a picnic in the park, mini-golf and swimming. We also went there for the 4th of July and stuffed out faces at Shady Maple first.

I attended Dan and Amanda's wedding and busted a move on the dance floor. (For the record, everyone was dancing as enthusiastically as I was, it was just not captured in this picture).

I also took a trip to New York to pick up my sister from the airport. We toured the UN, saw 9 to 5 on Broadway, and ran around seeing the sights. It was a fun couple of days. We got a great deal at hotels.com at a hotel right near Times Square.

We also did a fun July 5th trip to the beach with a group of 15 friends.

Sitting like that caused my shins to become horribly sunburned. They are still peeling.

Isaac also spent a week in Florida with his dad. They did a zoo, Disney and Busch Gardens. I will post pictures of that later. More updates and pictures to come. I love the summer!!!

Dear arrogantly self absorbed bride and groom, Although I don't know either of you very well, I was honored to have been invited to your wedding. It was lovely and I enjoyed myself very much. I recognize that you probably spent a small fortune on the lavish affair, and for me personally to attend/have a sit down meal/etc., so again I was surprised but pleased to have been invited. Since you opted to have your wedding more than an hour away from your hometown where 90% of your guests live and since you opted to make the start time 5:00 on a Friday afternoon I left my house in a bit of a rush and completely forgot to bring along the present that I purchased for you off of your registery. An honest mistake and complete accident. As I said, I had purchased the present ahead of time and had every intention of bringing it along. Since then it has been sitting on my dining room table for approximately three weeks. My bad. There were several occasions when I had planned to be out towards your house and drop it off but for whatever reason wasn't able to. I supposed at this point a trip to the post office is in order and had planned to go tomorrow. In spite of all of this I was taken aback to recieve an e-mail from you, Mr. Groomsman, telling me that you were "a little confused" as to why you don't have a present from me with links for your not ONE, not TWO, but THREE registeries. It was also helpful of you to remind me that I could also send you a gift card so you could purchase what you "need". I am sure you are having a hard time living without the 900 above ground swimming pool, or the flat panel TV or the 400 dollar wii game package on your registry. I will totally take ownership for buying the cheapest thing I could find on your registery-- Taboo the board game. There is absolutely no way I am buying you a digital camera or GPS just because you two decided to tie the knot Although I was certainly not in the right in my delay at mailing your present, your e-mail demanding is it is RUDE and TACKY. Sincerely, Lisa Stephenson

Signs he has been here....

This arrangement of golf clubs, cannisters, lawn chairs etc. is his bug catcher...

Repost from Anti-Racist Parent

Girls can do anything: Ask Emily Yeung written by Anti-Racist Parent contributor Renee; originally posted at Womanist Musings Sorry, I never know how to do Youtube videos imbedded in the text. A little help? I am constantly looking for images of girls defying the gender binary to teach my boys about equality. I have recently started to talk to them about Emily Yeung. In the above segment she is learning how to snowboard. In many of the episodes she is learning all about the world and never do they focus on what she is able to do or what she should like based on gender. Though these are just small spots shown in between cartoons, they send a powerful message. The video I wanted to post is about her learning to play soccer but unfortunately it is not up on youtube. She clearly states in the video that “sporting equipment should be made for boys or girls because girls can do the same things as boys can”. Hearing her say that just made me want to cheer.. The Emily Yeung spots are a clear example of the ways in which the media can disturb social constructions, if the images are created by a progressive voice. There are not enough examples of this, and instead our sons and daughters are over ridden with terrible female role models like the bratz dolls. Even finding a cartoon or a youth geared program in which a girl is not obsessed with boys, make up, or looking pretty, is a rare phenomenon. I am further impressed with the fact that Emily is a bi racial child. Race has never been a subject that the mini episodes have focused on, thereby allowing her visibility to speak for itself. She is presented as a beautiful, precocious child who is interested in the world around her. The high visibility of a bi racial child is also very uncommon in media where images are mostly reflective of the white supremacist state in which we live. As Emily learns about snowboarding, farming and science etc., the audience learns right along side her. What makes these small spots so beautiful is everything that is not said. In an equal world, the profile of a young child like Emily Yeung would not be a special that is aired to teach diversity; it would simply stand for a young girl learning about the world.

Twilight Cliff's Notes

I saw this on a friends facebook page and I laughed so hard I had to share it. Twilight in less than 500 pages Scene 1 BELLA: I'm sad to leave the horrible, uninhabitable wasteland of Phoenix to live in a rain-soaked town full of country people that do not understand my city ways. I wish everything about my comfortable and privileged life were completely different! DAD: Hi, Bella! Welcome to Forks, Washington. I'm glad you've stopped playing mother to your own flighty, irresponsible mom and come here to be my mother instead. BELLA: It will be my pleasure to cook and clean for you. DAD: I bought you an old truck from an Indian in a wheelchair! BELLA: I .... have no response for that. ******* Scene 2 BELLA: It's tough being the new kid in school! Especially when everyone is so friendly and helpful and interested in me. Why can't they just leave me alone so I can sit in the corner and be left alone to pout? CLASSMATE: You're awesome Bella! BELLA: See what I have to put up with? Hey-- who are those hot people over there? CLASSMATE: Those are the Cullens. They avoid direct sunlight, they don't eat food, they sleep in coffins in a graveyard, and holy water burns them. I think they're Canadians. BELLA: They sure are spectacularly gorgeous. CLASSMATE: Yes, they are. BELLA: I mean seriously, those people are BEAUTIFUL. Especially the one who keeps looking at me. Man alive, that guy is stunning. I mean, wow. He is hot buttered seduction on a stick. I mean, LOOK AT HIM! If you don't mind, I'd like to spend the next 75 pages talking exclusively about how attractive he is and then bring it up again every paragraph or so for the remaining 400 pages. CLASSMATE: Knock yourself out. ****** Scene 3 EDWARD: Hi, I'm Edward. I'm every girl's fantasy boyfriend: moody, humorless, violent, capable of snapping your spine with my bare hands, liable to do creepy things like watch you while you're sleeping, but also really cute. BELLA: There is something strange about you. EDWARD: (recoils at her garlic breath) I don't know what you mean. BELLA: I just can't put my finger in what it is. EDWARD: (lifts automobile with one hand) You're imagining things. BELLA: I feel like you're hiding something from me. EDWARD: (grabs passing rabbit with lightning speed; drinks rabbit's blood) Don't be silly! BELLA: It's like you're different somehow. EDWARD: (turns into a bat, flies away) BELLA: Hmmm. I bet he's foreign. ****** Scene 4 JACOB: You should be careful with those Cullens. Many moons ago, our tribe's elders, who were werewolves, made a pact with the Cullens, who are vampires. They're not allowed on our land, not even at our casinos. BELLA: What, still? Even after all this time has passed? JACOB: Nope BELLA: Since when do white people honor treaties with Indians? JACOB: I know, right? BELLA: Let me guess-- you're a character whose only job is to provide exposition, and you won't be useful until the next book. JACOB: Yes. At the earliest. ****** Scene 5 BELLA: Thanks for saving me from that mob of guys who attacked me in the street! It's a good thing you obsessively stalk me while simultaneously insisting you want nothing to do with me. EDWARD: No problem. If anyone's going to tear you limb from limb and gorge themselves on your sweet, delicious, life-giving blood, it's going to be me. BELLA: Aw, you say the nicest things! I'm pretty sure you're a vampire, that I'm in love with you and that part of you wants to kill me. EDWARD: Don't be silly. It's not just part of me. BELLA: HA HA HA!! You're so funny! ****** Scene 6 EDWARD: You know what vampires love? Baseball! BELLA: Really? EDWARD: Sure! Haven't you ever heard of vampire bats? >crickets< EDWARD: Anyhoo, these are the vampire friends I live with, the Cullens. They've been very eager to eat you. BELLA: You mean meet me? EDWARD: Meet you. What did I say? ALICE: I'm Alice! I can see the future, but only when it's useful to the plot. For example, right now: Look out for those mean vampires barging in from the forest! MEAN VAMPIRE JAMES: Fe-Fi-Fo-Fum! I smell the blood of a human! EDWARD: Stay away from her! Bella, you'd better go. I don't want you to have to see me fight this guy for your honor, our muscles straining as we grapple, the air thick with testosterone and the sounds of our throaty snarling. BELLA: Right! I wouldn't want to see that! Especially not if your shirts got torn off! ****** Scene 7 MEAN VAMPIRE JAMES: You puny humans are so predictable and weak. Now I've got you alone, free to toy with you and torture you and deliver lengthy explanatory monologues to you! I just hope I don't waste so much time that when I finally do decide to kill you it's too late because Edward and the Cullens have arrived to save you! BELLA: That would certainly be an unusual twist! MEAN VAMPIRE JAMES: Never mind! At last it is time for me to-- EDWARD: Not so fast, Count Jerkula! MEAN VAMPIRE JAMES: Edward! And the Cullens! Who could have forseen your perfectly timed arrival?! ALICE: I could have! Didn't, but could have! (Fighting ensues. MEAN VAMPIRE JAMES is vanquished.) EDWARD: Bella! Are you OK? He bit you! I've got to suck out the vampire poison! BELLA: Edward, you don't have to make up excuses to suck my blood. I mean honestly, who ever heard of "vampire poison"? EDWARD: I'm serious! It's coursing through your veins as we speak! BELLA: Uh-huh, whatever you say. ****** Scene 8 BELLA: Why did you bring me to the prom, Edward? You know I can't dance, and that I hate it when people tell me I'm beautiful, which happens all the time. EDWARD: I don't want your dangerous psychological infatuation with a vampire to interfere with your regular life. BELLA: But I want to BE a vampire! I want you to do it to me. EDWARD: You're sure you want to be a vampire? BELLA: Yes. EDWARD: Well, how about if I press my lips against your throat in an ambiguous way, just enough to ensure that readers come back for the sequel? BELLA: It's a deal (Fade to black; roll credits; send in ushers to mop up the audience's tears and drool.)

Warning: Difficult Parent on the Loose

Maybe it's because I now teach kindergarteners.

Maybe it is because of all of the research I read when completely my master's about the importance of early education/early intervention.

Maybe it's just luck because the daycare/preschool that I chose because it happened to be .2 miles from my parent's house is pretty much an excellent preschool in absolutely every way and now nothing will compare. (Bright Horizons in Oaks, if you were wondering; I whole heartedly recommend it from the prespective of a parent and a kindergarten teacher).

Maybe it's because I do hold onto a tiny bit of the mormon guilt for not being a stay at home mom and not being one of those women in relief society who prides herself on eating catfood so she can be a stay at home mom and not send her kid to an evil daycare.

ANYWAYS, I have come to the realization that I am officially a difficult parent that is obsessed with academics. The way the cards have fallen with job changes and commutes, this is the fourth time I have had to locate a good childcare facility, so I know the drill. But this is so much different than finding a place when Isaac was a baby or when Isaac was 2. I think I surprised both of the directors this morning with all of the questions I was firing at them. But let me rewind.

Currently I am commuting 2 hours a day to drive back and forth to Oaks to drop Isaac to preschool. Next week I finish summer school and Isaac finishes preschool and I have until August 25th to find him a new preschool closer to home.

I visited two today, niether one compares to his current school but one was a good possibility. It was NAEYC accredited (only 7% of childcare centers in the country meet the rigorous standards required to earn that accredation), the teachers have each been there 5 plus years, they post their lesson plans which are aligned to early childhood state standards, they are doing academic work, they have a good relationship with Pottstown School District, where they work closely with the Pre-K programs run in the elementary schools. They are also inclusive for kids with special needs, as I noticed a lot of supports for a student with autism in the pre-k classroom and that is important to me too. It was the Kindercare in Pottstown if you know anything about it feel free to give me feedback.

The other was terrible (Goddard School on High Street) and I ended up getting into a little with the owner who became quite defensive about his little franchise/business venture. He really didn't stand a chance with me when he started off the tour by telling me how he owned the place but he was more concerned with unclogging toilets than academics and how he left that to the directors niether of whom was there. He did his best to fill me in on the academic programs but we both knew he didn't have a clue what he was talking about. It was small and cramped and just not a place I wanted to send my kid.

Anyways, it all clicked when he said "We were voted Best Childcare Facility in Pottstown for the past three years in the Pottstown Mercury". And I countered that I wasn't looking for good child care, I'm looking for a good preschool that can keep him for three full days a week. And suddenly I realized - I'm a difficult parent. I'm obsessed with academics in a way I neve was before when I was looking at toddler classrooms.

And, I don't think that's a bad thing.

Who would have thought?