Happy Birthday Mom!

Shortly after the Bean drew Toy Story as our first movie night selection, we realized that my mom's birthday was that same week and we needed to do something in honor of her birthday!

So, I called my mom and asked her if she wanted a regular birthday dinner, or a Disney birthday dinner.  I guess this whole, getting my family excited, thing is working, because she chose to have a Disney birthday!  I told her that since it was her birthday, she didn't have to draw a movie from the hat, she could just pick which one she wanted.  So, she picked The Little Mermaid.  My mom has always liked The Little Mermaid and she loves to swim, so we were going to make it a pool party.  However, as we were discussing the food, my mom suddenly realized that having a Little Mermaid themed birthday probably meant she was going to have to eat seafood.  My mom is NOT a seafood lover.  So, I mentioned some of the ideas I had for a Tangled themed evening, and viola!  We had a Tangled party!

The only person we really invited was my aunt, so I sent the following invite (the original came from here) to her and the Bean.

We had three(ish) main dishes for dinner.  The first was Fettuccine Alfredo.  I chose this because I thought it would kind of look like Rapunzel's hair.  The second dish was hazelnut soup.  Ultimately, I am working around both dietary issues and a picky six year old here, so I went with two because Dad can't have pasta (gluten), and even though we probably could have made the Bean eat hazelnut soup, she absolutely loves noodles and I thought it was a cute/relatively inexpensive idea.  Finally, my mom's favorite food is steak, and she wanted a steak for her birthday, so dad fired up the grill and made her a steak (and made some barbeque chicken and grilled squash since the grill was already going.)

For our sides, we had a standard salad and I took a roll of crescent rolls and braided them to make a braid (get it, a braid) of bread.  The braided crescents were incredibly adorable!

While cooking we listened to a little bit of music from Tangled.  Can I just say that I love the music from this movie?  Good stuff.

For dessert we had apples in honor of Maximus.  I used the Krispy Apple Treats recipe found here.  

My aunt is also a fabulous cake decorator, so she made a Tangled cake for Mom. 

For our activity, I made a piñata out of a cereal box.  I used strips from an old phone book; dipped them in a paste of 1 cup flour, 1 cup water, and 1 tablespoon salt; did a couple of layers; painted it; and glued on a picture I found of Flynn Rider.  The plus side of using a cereal box is that you can fill it before you begin and don't have to worry about leaving a hole and covering it later.  The negative part of using a cereal box is that it is incredibly sturdy and difficult to bust.  I filled ours with Tootsie Rolls because that's Mom's favorite candy, and then we hit it with a frying pan!

For our craft, I was going to use an idea found at Disney's Family.com (I get the feeling I will be using this site a lot) for making a golden sun medallion, but it was getting late and we ended up not doing a craft.

While we were eating, we watched Tangled and had fun celebrating my mom.

Happy Birthday Mom!

(Rough) Shopping List

• 1 pound dried fettucine
• 14 Tablespoons butter
• 5 shallots, peeled and minced
• 3 cups heavy cream
• 1 cup finely grated Parmigiano-Reggiano
• 1 1/2 cups whole hazelnuts
• 2 medium leeks (whites only), chopped
• 2 parsnips, peeled and chopped
• 1 T cornstarch
• 6 cups chicken broth
• 2 cups water
• salad ingredients
• 2 packages crescent rolls
• 6 cups Rice Krispies
• 1 package large marshmallows
• 1 small package Jell-O, cherry or strawberry flavor
• 25 small Tootsie Roll Candies (we needed more since that's what we used for the piñata)
• green fruit roll-ups or spearmint gum
• cereal box or balloon
• newspaper or old phone book
• candy to fill the piñata
• flour, water, and salt
• paint
• frying pan (if you're not comfortable using a cast iron--they are really heavy--there is a non-toxic spray that I read about to make your regular frying pan look like cast iron)
• scissors
• scrapbook paper (2 or more shades or prints of gold)
• yellow or gold faux gems and/or glitter glue
• glue sealer (such as Mod Podge)
• beading monofilament
• sewing needle
• gold seed beads

We have been having a lot of fun with this, and I hope that you all have had fun reading about it!  Maybe someday someone with a similar idea will stumble across this and find this all very helpful; though, frankly, the shopping lists are really for my own convenience.  :)

Godspeed!

To Infinity . . . and Beyond!

Howdy y'all!

Our first movie night showing was Toy Story!

Just as a reminder, my niece has a hat full of movie titles, and when I know I will be visiting on the weekend, I will call her and tell her to draw a movie.  That weekend, we will have a family night where we have a themed meal, participate in an activity and/or make a craft, and watch the movie.  

Since I had the Bean draw the movie on Monday (I needed to make sure I had time to prepare everything), I decided that I needed to send her a card of some sort to get her super excited for the weekend festivities.  So, I googled a few things online and came up with this:

I sent it to her in the mail from "Buzz Lightyear; Space Ranger; Gamma Quadrant; Sector 12" and put a Top Secret stamp on the folded up piece of paper.  I went with Buzz instead of Woody because when the Bean called me to tell me which movie she drew, she said she drew Buzz Lightyear.  Therefore, I decided that she was probably more of a Buzz fan than a Woody fan.

For dinner we, obviously, decided to go with a Pizza Planet theme.  One of my main goals with this whole bit of craziness is not to spend too much more on these movie nights than I (or my parents) would on any old dinner.  So, pizza lends itself to that very nicely.  Some of my family members aren't really into homemade pizza, so for them we just ordered a pizza, and then I printed out a Pizza Planet logo and put it on the box.  However, my dad has a gluten intolerance, so his pizza had to be homemade.  For his, we used a pre-packaged gluten free pizza crust mix, and then just put on the toppings that he wanted.

I made a simple side salad for the adults.  Nothing special here, I just figure that Pizza Planet would probably have a little bit healthier fare for the grown-ups.

For our beverage, we had green Hawiian Punch and my little sister made an "alien slime" label to put on the bottle. I found the printables for the alien toys at Disney's Family.com so there would be no question of the alien slime's authenticity.

For dessert, we had green alien cupcakes.  I had a hard time deciding what type of dessert they might have at Pizza Planet, so I went with these since the little green aliens are first seen at Pizza Planet.  I used the design from Disney's Family.com, but instead of making a white cake, I used a fabulous gluten free carrot cake recipe that my family absolutely adores.  We also had difficulty finding any of their suggestions for the alien ears, so we ended up cutting up pieces of spearmint gum. 

We watched Toy Story while we ate dinner, and once the movie was over, we moved on to our activities for the evening. 

We had two activities for this movie night.  The first was pin the body parts onto Mr. Potato Head.  I drew up a blank Mr. Potato Head and then made his body parts.  

Then, each person picked the parts he or she wanted for Mr. Potato Head, was blindfolded, spun around, and handed the body parts one at a time to pin on Mr. Potato Head.  There was occasionally some extra spinning between body parts if we felt the participant was doing too well or wasn't dizzy enough.  I've also seen suggestions of providing a few real Mr. Potato Heads and letting everyone go nuts with the decorations, then having a Mr. Potato Head fashion show, but that was a little too pricey for our budget.

The second activity was a watergun shooting range!  We lined up empty cans on our cars and worked together to shoot them down. Because we waited to do this until after we watched the first movie, it was a little dark, but we still had a lot of fun. 

We ended the night by putting in Toy Story 2 and doing our craft project during the movie!  For our craft, I used another idea I found at Disney's Family.com.  We attempted to make rocket snowglobes! As it turns out, distilled water and glycerin are two very important components for snowglobe making. I ended up leaving mine as a jar full of glitter, oil, and water. Even though the snowglobe rockets didn't turn out quite like we anticipated, the Bean said it was her favorite part of the night. 

I also downloaded all of the songs from the three Toy Story movies, but we really only ended up listening to them while we were baking cupcakes and putting together Dad's pizza. However, if you want to download a few, I would recommend "You've Got a Friend in Me," "Strange Things," "I Will Go Sailing No More," "Woody's Roundup" (Riders in the Sky), "When She Loved Me" (Sarah McLachlan), and "We Belong Together" (all by Randy Newman unless otherwise noted).

(Rough) Shopping List

• pizza (homemade, frozen, delivery, the possibilities are endless)
• side salad (lettuce, tomato, cheese, and homemade dressing for us)
• green Kool-Aid or Hawaiian Punch
• cupcakes (I will probably post our gluten free carrot cake recipe someday, but today is not that day)
• blue cupcake liners (because the little aliens' outfits are blue)
• green frosting
• white chocolate chips
• Sour Punch Straws, green
• sour belts, green fruit roll-ups, or green fondant (we used spearmint gum)
• melted chocolate (the darker the better since you're going for black and black icing is gross)
• waterguns
• poster boards (to make a Mr. Potato Head and his body parts)
• mason jars (the site says baby food jars, but I decided it would be much easier to make them stand if the paper was wrapped around the bottom half of a mason jar rather than holding up a baby food jar)
• cardstock in assorted colors
• scissors
• glue
• distilled water
• glycerin (can be purchased from a pharmacy)
• confetti and glitter
• markers, stickers, and/or stamps

Well, I think that's everything for our Toy Story movie night!

Godspeed!

Disney Baby

In just a few short months, my family and I will be going to Disney World!

To say that I am excited would be an understatement.  I haven't been to Disney since I was in the first grade, and I'm sad to say that I don't remember all that much.  The most exciting part is that my niece, the Bean, will be going for the first time!  She is six and going into the first grade in the fall, so she will be the same age I was.  However, unlike me at the tender age of six(ish), Bean <3 LOVES <3 roller coasters.  When we went to Magic Springs, we had to take turns riding the coaster with her because our heads were pounding and she just wanted to ride again and again and again.  My husband and my youngest sister, Small Fry, will also be first timers!

So, even though we're not going until after Christmas (I know, I know, that's absolutely the busiest time ever to go to Disney World), I felt I needed to do something to get these first timers (and my other little sister who would have been four or five the first time we went) excited!

At this point, I should probably let you in on a little secret, if I weren't a teacher, I would probably be a co-owner of a party planning business.  I say co-owner because I'm not good with getting things turned in on time (contracts and whatnot), so I would need someone else to focus on decorations and details.  When I plan a party, my main focus is on the food.  My secondary focus is on activities that people will enjoy.  Decorations come in third, and sometimes I don't get around to them.  I try and make the activities things that will add some "decor."

So, upon combining my desire to get everyone as excited about this trip as I am and my love for overdoing things, I have come up with a plan!  I am in the process of planning a movie night for thirty-two Disney movies that I feel are important to watch before going to Disney World!

Snow White

Fantasia

Dumbo

Cinderella

Alice in Wonderland

Peter Pan

Lady and the Tramp

Sleeping Beauty

Swiss Family Robinson

101 Dalmatians

Sword in the Stone

Winnie the Pooh

Little Mermaid

Honey, I Shrunk the Kids

Beauty and the Beast

Aladdin

Lion King

Toy Story

Pocahontas

Hercules

A Bug’s Life

Mulan

Tarzan

Monsters, Inc.

Atlantis

Lilo and Stitch

Finding Nemo

Pirates of the Caribbean

Cars
Tangled

Princess and the Frog

Brave

Some of these choices are due to rides or other attractions, and I've thought about adding Indiana Jones and Tom and Huck for those reasons, but there's no way we'll get all of these done in the limited amount of time between now and Christmas.  Others are there simply because they contain princesses, and we all know that it's important to be familiar with the Disney princesses!  (Especially if I can talk my parents into splurging on a character breakfast!)

So, every time I know I will be visiting my family, I will call my sister/my niece, and they will draw one of these names out of a hat.  Then, we will have a movie night for the chosen movie that weekend.

The Bean drew her first movie today, so our first movie will be . . . (drum roll please) . . . Toy Story!  Not to give too much away, but we will be going with a Pizza Planet theme, there will be a pin the body part on Mr. Potato Head game, a water gun competition, and a craft that is as yet to be determined.  And fun will be had by all!

I hope to keep you guys updated on all of the movie nights both to make myself blog more regularly, and to share all of this hard work with the world!

Godspeed!

Banned Topics

As an English instructor, I assign a lot of papers.  Although the types of papers vary somewhat from class to class, one rhetorical mode that all of my composition students must use is argument.  I personally think that being able to make a logical argument is one of the primary goals of a composition course.  When I first began assigning the argumentative essay, I let my students choose any topic they were interested in to write about.  After a few years, I realized that this was not the best course of action, so I chose to ban certain topics for a varying number of reasons.

I will start with the most superficial reason.  I get tired of reading about certain things.  If I have to read about how the legalization of marijuana will boost the economy one more time, I may have to kick myself in the face.

However superficial my first reason may be, it leads quite nicely into the next reason I ban certain topics.  When a topic is something that is considered a "popular" topic to argue, the arguments become very rote.  Basically, the same three or four points are made by every single person preventing students from coming up with any original ideas.  Now, one might argue that perhaps a student can come up with new reasonings for the same old topic.  To that I would say, "Go for it!"  If this were the case, I would be happy to let students write about those topics.  However, even if a student is able to come up with original ideas to support a topic that has been beaten to death, an argument can seem lacking if the cornerstones of that argument are missing.

Which leads me to my third point.  Most of my banned topics are issues about which people tend to get emotional.  Myself included.  When you are talking about controversial topics such as abortion and gay marriage, most people (once again, myself included) have a very specific and set stance on that topic.  Nothing you can say will make me change my mind.  Therefore, the issue becomes that students want to try and figure out where I stand on an issue so they can write on my side of the issue.  Bad idea.  This is a note to all of you students out there, it might actually be a better idea to write on the side your teacher doesn't support.  Teachers are human.  We have feelings and emotions.  I know this may shock some, but it's true.  Therefore, when I read a paper that makes a claim I do not believe in, my emotions come into play.  However, this is something I know about myself, and out of the fear of showing bias, I find that I end up grading those papers a little easier sometimes!  Not on purpose of course, but I am being so cautious about looking at the logical points of the argument rather than thinking about what I believe, that it is possible to miss whether or not the argument is effective in terms of pathos.  It is also true that if you are arguing on the side I believe in, I know what the good arguments are.  So, if you leave out something that I feel would greatly benefit your argument or if you make our side look foolish, that's possibly worse than disagreeing with me!

Finally, there is the issue of morals.  Many of these arguments are arguments that are quickly taken to a moral stance.  Many students want to turn to the Bible as the primary source for their argument.  The problem with this is that when students use the Bible as a source, those students tend to view the Bible as infallible.  As mentioned previously, I try to leave my personal beliefs out of the grading process, so whether or not I believe the Bible to be infallible is irrelevant when it comes to reading and grading papers.  The problem is that by assuming the Bible to be infallible and using it as an irrefutable source, you, as a writer, also assume that reader believe the Bible to be infallible.  This is not always a safe assumption.  Does this mean you shouldn't use the Bible as a source?  Of course not!  Depending on the audience (which is always something important to consider), the Bible could be the perfect source.  Even if the audience is not one likely to agree with everything the Bible has to say, it's perfectly acceptable to use it as one source.  However, if all arguments focus on Biblical morals and principles, you could be in trouble.

Based on these reasonings, I have a list of banned topics for argumentative papers where students are allowed to pick their own topics.  It never fails that I will get at least one paper on one of those banned topics, and I will definitely get more than one complaint.  However, I feel that by not allowing students to write on these topics, I force them to become more critical thinkers.

So, what do you think about banned writing topics?  Should I just let them write about whatever they want?

Godspeed!

It's a Digital World Out There

Is it Wednesday already?  I've been having trouble remembering what day it is because today we had a snow day!  Fortunately (or perhaps unfortunately?) they canceled classes yesterday evening, because when I woke up this morning the roads seemed fine.  It is very difficult to get motivated to do anything on a snow day, but at least I made a nice breakfast for the hubs!

For this week, my students have to write about the idea of moving to a digital world.  Which is better?  Print or digital?

I personally don't have any sort of e-reader yet, but I really want one!  Just the other night I finished a book and really wanted to read the next one in the series.  I remember sitting in my bedroom thinking that if I had a Kindle, Nook, iPad, or whatever, I could just click a few buttons and I would have the book without ever getting out of bed.  The same thing happened when I read about another book I'm dying to read.  Not only that, but if I go to the store and get these books (which I hadn't done yet), they are going to cost a fortune!  Well, maybe not a fortune, but more than I care to spend.  So, instead I got online, looked it up, and found the book at my local library.  Now I just have to swing by and pick it up for free!  Look at me mixing digital and print!  Then, if I want to own the book, I will go to amazon.com and find it nice and cheap.

Even though I want to own an e-reader, I love real books.  I love holding them in my hands and writing on their pages.  (Yes, I'm one of those people who write in my books.)  Even so, they are quite expensive if you want a book immediately.

I was trying to remember the last time I actually purchased a full price book and I realized that I don't buy full price books for myself.  I only buy them as gifts.  If I'm buying a book for myself, this is where I get it:

 

From what I can tell, the next date (since the only picture I could find was for 2012) is March 8-10.  At this sale, paperbacks are $0.50 and hardbacks are $1.00!  You can't get much better than that!  Oh, and one of my favorite things are the grab boxes.  They have boxes of 20 books for $1.  The only catch is that you can't look in the box.

I'm thinking I should take my classes on a field trip to the book sale.  Spread the book love!  What do you think?

Well, that's all for now!

Godspeed.

Freshman English II

I have decided to try having my Freshman English II Online students use a blog instead of a journal, so I will occasionally be posting things related to that class and their assignments.  The first of those assignments is to post a picture or collage and write about yourself, so that is what I have done here.

Welcome to Freshman English II Online! My name is Mrs. Hall and here are some pictures that I think represent me.

In a few of these pictures, you will see me with my husband Daniel. We have been married for six years and we don't have any kids, but we do have a dog named Penelope who is one of the strangest dogs I've ever known.  I always say that she acts more like a cat than a dog.

The other people pictured above are my mom, dad, sisters, and niece. My family is very important to me.

Another thing you may notice from my pictures is that I'm kind of silly. The picture in the pink wig is from the premiere of The Hunger Games. I went dressed up as a citizen from the capitol. There are also a few pictures related to Harry Potter. In one I am wearing my Harry Potter robes (Ravenclaw), in one I am standing in front of Hogwarts, and in yet another I am at the midnight premiere of the final movie with my sisters. I also like Wonder Woman and collect Wonder Woman memorabilia. I actually have the invisible jet parked in my back yard, you just can't see it.

If you are interested in making a collage like this one, I went to www.kizoa.com, created an account, uploaded pictures, and then used their collage maker. Just be careful that you don't use one of the premium collage makers, because then the image isn't free! If you are good with Paint, you could use that as well.  You can also post a single picture if collages aren't your thing.

I look forward to reading about all of you this week!

Godspeed.

Happy New Year!

I know! It's been a minute.  And it's not a Wednesday.  For both I am sorry, but I feel as though it is time.

Around May of last year, my family went through some hard times and I wasn't sure I wanted to share that with the Internet.  However, it was such a big part of my life that I knew I couldn't write without talking about it, so I put the blog on pause.  But that is so last year.

So, now for a discussion of New Year's resolutions.

I know there are a lot of people who eschew New Year's resolutions, and I understand their reasoning.  Recently on Phineas and Ferb, Dr. Doofenshmirtz was planning some sort of hijinks that involved making the citizens of the Tri-State Area put, "Serve Heinz Doofenshmirtz," on their New Year's resolution list.  Normally, Perry would swoop in and stop this nonsense, but he sat by and let it happen, because everyone knows that New Year's resolutions are meaningless and almost guarantee that thing won't happen in the new year.

That being said, I like New Year's resolutions.

I like the idea of a fresh start.
And I like lists.  A lot.

So, if I'm going to make a list of New Year's resolutions, there are a few options:

1. Very generic goals that I will obtain regardless of their appearance on an arbitrary list.
2. Superbly ambitious goals that aren't necessarily meant to be in obtained in one year.
3. Super specific goals that I want to happen in between January 1, 2013, and December 31, 2013.

Decisions, decisions.

I think a specific list is my cup of tea.  However, I hate that feeling of failure when I look back and realize I have done nothing.  To do lists depress me because I am overly ambitious and I very rarely complete everything on the list unless I have to for some reason.

Enough waffling about.  Here is a list of things I think it would be cool to do/complete/obtain in 2013 or beyond, but it's totally cool if some of these things don't happen.

1. Read more books for pleasure and then write about them here.  I don't necessarily want this blog to become a book review blog, but I do love reading and writing about books.  Hence the whole English teacher thing.
2. Blog more.  Last year I blogged 7 times, so I think more than 7 is an obtainable goal.
3. Get papers back to students in a more timely fashion.  I'm sure my students would appreciate it if I could stick to this one.
4. Research a couple of PhD programs and decide if it's something I really want to do.  I've talked about getting my PhD for years, but I know nothing about when, where, how, etc. I want to do this.
5. Read more nonfiction.  I am not a fan of nonfiction, but I recognize its importance.  Broadening horizons and whatnot.
6. Do laundry and dishes on a regular basis instead of all at once.  And get a new dishwasher because hand washing dishes just isn't my thing.
7. Watch all of the movies nominated for Best Picture, Leading Actor, and Leading Actress awards for the Academy Awards, write up Oscar predictions, and throw an Oscar party.
8. Finish the Song of Ice and Fire series, or at least what Martin has written to this point.  I love these books, but they are time consuming and difficult to get through.
9. Write something for publication.
10. Go to the PTK national convention in San Juan, California.
11. Begin working on my table made of LEGOs to display all of my Harry Potter LEGO sets.
12. Maintain my weight.  Although weight loss goals seem to be a standard, my goal is simply not to gain any weight.  One of my BFFs is getting married this summer and I already have the dress, so I would like to still fit in the dress this summer.
13. Throw Jen an awesome shower and bachelorette party.
14. Start a savings account.  Living paycheck to paycheck sucks.  I've got to cut my cost of living if I ever want to retire!
15. Go to an HP con (or buy tickets for 2014 if the 2013 cons are sold out), the Wizarding World, or The Making of.  These are probably unobtainable due to #14, but hey, a girl can dream.

Well, that's all I can think of right now folks!  I hope you all have a great 2013!


Godspeed.