Max – the dog who talks with his eyes
“Stop yelling at me with those eyes”, I heard myself say the other day.  Strange, yet that’s exactly what it feels like when Max  starts one of his “rants”. Max is our six year old Shih Tzu, who is loved by everyone who meets him.  One of his most endearing qualities is his ability to talk with his eyes.  He’s got it down to a science and rarely barks to get a point across.  Sometimes I feel like I get a glimps

Sister Skype Sessions – Free Long Distance
Yes – you read it right – FREE long distance.   Who wouldn’t want to save some money?  So many people are unemployed right now or are on a tight budget and love to hear about getting FREE stuff, especially something as costly as long distance calls.  Some families have one parent in another state because of a job and this provides a great FREE way to stay in touch. The first time I heard about

NanoWriMo – creative rush – is in 2 weeks
Can I write “gleefully” and with an “anything goes” approach?  Hmmm… I can do the gleeful part, but the editor part of my brain is protesting to the latter.  For those of you who may not know, NanoWriMo simply means: National Novel Writing Month, which begins November 1st (12:01 AM) and ends at midnight on November 30th.  The (lofty) goal is to write a 50,000 word novel in that time frame.   The main idea is to write freely –without worrying about grammar,  spelling, perfect words, etc.  Sounds challenging, yet fun. I’ve decided to take on this challenge for two rea

Kids make me smile…
I love what I do, since I’m around children all day.  They crack me up and warm myheart.  Just the other day, one of the kindergartners said, “I speak chicken!”  Then, he proceeded to “cluck, cluck, cluck”.  This was out of the blue and they weren’t even learning about farm animals.  Also, just today, I was with a fifth grade boy who needed help on a project.  I spent a little extra time with him, since my next student went home sick, and we were able to complete most of it.  When I was getting up to go, he said, “If I get 100% on this, I’ll give you something.”  I laughed and he continued, “I’ll gi

H1N1 Vaccine — Yeay or Nay?
Did that person just spray H1N1 Influenza (swine flu) all over my shirt? Every sneeze and cough is starting to be suspect these days. Will I get it next? Worse yet, will my family and friends get it? These concerns are on a lot of people’s minds lately. In my case, it’s no surprise, since I work at an elementary school. It’s an ideal place for picking up germs, in the best of times. Many children sneeze and cough all over the place and, lucky me, sometimes I’m in close proximity to such sprayings. According to the World Health Organization, 340,000 people have gotten the H1N1 Influenza and 4,100 people have died from it, worldwide. That’s nothing to sneez