MPT8--Sixth Grade

This is the eighth in a series of 15 posts recounting my childhood. (To see parts 1 through 7, click the label "MPT" in my sidebar.) Today's topic is Sixth Grade.

For Sixth Grade, I had Miss Gable, a middle-aged woman, as my teacher. She was more stern and somber than past teachers, but she was also kind and I liked her.

What I remember about 6th grade:

-You know how in elementary school you have one teacher all day (except for gym and art or whatever) and then in junior high you go from room to room to different teachers for different subjects. Well, in 6th grade we mostly had Miss Gable but we would switch classes for one subject--we'd go across the hall to Mr. Carpenter for science and the other class would go to Miss Gable for social studies. We felt like big kids, switching like the 7th and 8th graders. :-)

-I wrote a paper about Fleming, the guy who discovered Penicillin.

-We did a big unit on public speaking. I remember doing a speech on the Ziegfeld Follies, how to bowl and then for the final project I played a news anchor and I interviewed a classmate who was playing a rock star. I still remember the beginning of my report: "Today I interviewed Leopold Lipsynch...." I guess I practiced zealously, to remember it all these 24 years later.

-There was a girl in my class that nobody liked. And for good reason--she would lie and cheat and steal. But I was "the nice girl" who was friends with everybody, so the teacher would pair me up with her when no one else would etc. Also, a new girl joined our class mid-year. She was from Japan and spoke very little English. Miss Gable pulled me aside and asked me to befriend her or look out for her or whatever. I liked that, I liked my reputation as nice and as everyone's friend. :-)

-I was always great at spelling. In those years where there'd be a pretest (before studying) on Monday and the real spelling test on Friday, I'd always get 100 on the pretest and not have to take Friday's test. I loved that! Anyway, in 6th grade I'm not sure if there was the pretest thing but I remember this boy Theodore would make bets with me that he would do better on the spelling tests than me. {What did we bet?! I don't remember him giving me money or anything?!} Yeah, I always won. :-)

-Our whole grade went on an overnight field trip to Lake Geneva. We had so much fun! We studied a bunch of different subjects (like weather, geography etc.) in hands-on ways with crafts etc. For "orienteering," we used a compass and "paces" to follow a map (my team did really poorly on that adventure, I remember) and "Hebertism" was the funnest part--it was like a ropes course type of thing, team-building (you have to get everyone over the high log etc.). There was a challenge to get a tire up off a tall pole. In the end we needed 3 people standing on each other's shoulder's to do it and because I was skinny and therefore considered "light," I was on top and the one who ultimately lifted off the tire. Tada! Oh and I was horribly afraid of heights so all the hebertism stuff was tough for me (and I was totally not athletic or flexible so that made it hard too), therefore it was so satisfying and rewarding when we were all done!

But I also got homesick while we were there. That night, I wasn't feeling well but I couldn't really describe what was wrong and Miss Gable figured out that I was homesick. She decided I should call my parents but all they had was a payphone so we had to gather up change from everybody so I could call home. I talked and cried to my mom, but ultimately felt better after the phone call.

The Challenger

When the space shuttle Challenger exploded in January of 1986, I was in 6th grade. Leading up to the launch, we had been talking about it because we all knew my science teacher, Mr. Carpenter, had almost made it onto the shuttle in the teacher spot that ultimately went to Christa McAuliffe (rumor had it he made it to the top ten, I don't know if that's true, but he had been in the running).

We were not watching the launch live, however. I remember we were in the science classroom but we had a substitute that day (so that Mr. C could watch the launch) and we were called into the other classroom (Miss Gable's room) and vaguely told that something happened or something went wrong. There, we gathered around a tv and watched with horror the footage of the launch and explosion. I'll never forget!

I remember that we didn't see Mr. C that day, he was obviously very upset (in hindsight, I suspect he had met at least McAuliffe and perhaps other astronauts when he was in the NASA process), I can only imagine how he felt that day!

Thanks for reading! For more 6th grade adventures, head to Mommy's Piggy Tales. And come back next week as I begin junior high.

What I'm Doing, Reading, Watching

It's summer in Phoenix. HOT doesn't begin to describe it. It's scorching! Makes me never want to leave the house, especially with both kids because loading and unloading them from car seats is several minutes under the blazing sun. (I turn the car on so AC blasts on the kids, but I'm standing under the sun and on the black pavement that radiates heat up onto my sandal-clad feet, ouch!) But life goes on and the kids have places to be and I have errands to run.



L goes to camp two mornings per week. Monday and Wednesday afternoons, both kids go to speech therapy. Thursday is my happy day with nowhere to be. :-)


L is doing great in speech. They are working on the "l" sound so he's finally learning to correctly pronounce his name.

T has turned out to be a very difficult therapy "client." She's very resistant! Her SLP is frustrated and wondering if T has more underlying problems. A hearing problem? General apraxia (making it hard for her to sign)? A visual over-stimulation problem?! I think she's just stubborn and not a quick learner. We now have her signing want, and she can put two signs together like want more, want sleep etc. And last night she finally learned open. So it's coming, just slowly.


I need to schedule a hearing test for her, but I'm worried about the expense and I'm procrastinating. Bad mommy!


L and the food. Ugh. We quit feeding therapy when T started speech because of the expense. Also, we felt we could take the techniques she taught us and run with it. Yeah, that hasn't really worked, he's regressed, lost some of the foods he'd been eating. The latest food he dropped was turkey sandwiches, which poses an extra problem: What the heck do I send in his school lunches??!! {Sorry, deep breath.} Next time, I've decided to send the turkey and cheese in a tortilla (since he told his teacher he couldn't chew the bread (liar, liar, pants on fire), I'll get rid of the bread). Anyway, I know I need to make some sort of reward chart and I have some ideas, I just haven't figured out the how and what yet. L is really hard to bribe! If there's something I know he wants, I'll say "you can have {{that thing you really want}} as soon as you {{do the desired behavior}} and he'll say "that's okay I don't really want {{that thing}} anymore." :-(



T went through a Scooby Doo phase that I really enjoyed. He still plays with the toys and likes the books, but he's moved on to watching other things like the Rugrats (awful!). Occasionally I've been able to steer him to Super Why, which has some educational value. ;-) (But today he's watching Barney--eek, I'm convinced that was created to drive parents crazy. Hence, I'm not in the living room right now.) T loves Pingu, the claymation penguin from Sweden. She cracks up and dances to the shows, and that has given me a new tantrum remedy.

What I'm Reading

Inspired by this giveaway (that I didn't win), I've been reading some Jane Austen spin-offs. First up, I read Jane Austen in Scarsdale by Paula Marantz Cohen. I really enjoyed this. It's a modern-day Persuasion--lots of stuff was right out of Persuasion (you'll recognize Bennick immediately, for example) but there are plenty of twists (the equivalent of Captain Wentworth is engaged). It was a fun, easy read. My only complaint was I think Cohen was trying to mimic Austen's gift for reading people and her social commentary etc. as Cohen describes all the SAT- and college-application stuff Anne sees as a guidance counselor. In that, I don't think the she was successful. First, Austen is a genius at that, way ahead of her time at pointing out the absurdity of various customs etc. Therefore, Cohen has big shoes to fill. And I just don't think she had particularly witty or special observations about her characters. Perhaps that's because I went to the type of competitive high school where the story is set, so I knew all these types of people up close and personal, so there were no great revelations. That's okay, I still enjoyed and would recommend the book, and I'll be seeking out Cohen's Jane Austen in Boca soon.

Now I am reading Pride and Prescience by Carrie Bebris. This is another quick, fun read. This is the first time I've read an Austen "sequel," Bebris takes off where Pride and Prejudice ends, at the wedding receptions of Jane and Elizabeth Bennett. It's a mystery--right away strange things start happening. I'm towards the end now and I have a variety of suspects and suspicions, I'm curious how it will all turn out. The plot is interesting, the characters are true to Austen's novel (which is probably the best reason to read this type of book, to spend more time with our "friends" the Bingleys and Darcys), but the style of writing... it's a nice style, readable, not inconsistent with Austen's style, but again, Bebris has big shoes to fill and it just isn't as robust as Austen's prose. That's okay--Austen wrote long novels, we follow all the Bennett sisters through several seasons--Prescience has only covered a couple of weeks and contains about 8 characters. I wasn't expecting Austen reborn, I'm just grateful I'm not cringing. And I'm not, far from it, it's a lovely read, and I'll come back when I've finished and tell you how I liked the resolution and whether or not I'll seek out more of Bebris' works.

What I'm Watching

I've found two new tv shows recently. I don't know why, but I started DVRing reruns of Castle this summer. I like Nathan Fillion and I've been looking for a new mystery show since Without a Trace was cancelled. So I tried Castle and I like it. Fillion plays a mystery writer (named Castle) who shadows a homicide detective (played by Stana Katic). Fillion is fun to watch, though he is sometimes over the top. The mysteries (I've seen 3 episodes so far) have been pretty interesting, though in 2 cases, I caught on to a clue before the characters did (boo). There's supposed to be a "will they or won't they" thing going on between Castle and the detective, but I'm just not feeling the chemistry. Regardless, I'm enjoying the show.

TNT has a new show this summer (there have been 3 epsiodes so far, of which I've seen 2) called Rizzoli and Isles. Angie Harmon is Rizzoli, a homicide detective, and Sasha Alexander is Isles, a medical examiner, and they solve crimes. It looks like the premise is Isles dresses well and Rizzoli doesn't, but whatever, it's nice to see two strong, smart female leads. And the mysteries have been pretty good. And I like Angie Harmon. So I'm sticking with it for now.

That's a little of what's been going on in my world. Now I'm off to write my next Piggy Tale....

Linky Love 3

Here are two weeks' worth of what I've been enjoying online....

Courtney of Women Living Well shared her favorite online devotionals.

Melissa of Saving Cents with Sense shared 7 tricks to saving money at Disneyland.

Also along the lines of vacation (because we might be heading to San Diego next month), I'm loving this list of ideas from We are That Family for driving with kids. She also links to other helpful lists and posts so it's a great resource.

I found a bunch of recipes this week that I want to try:

Thanks to Oh Amanda's Nertz post I was directed to this recipe for pizza fondue.

pumpkin cinnamon chip cookies

poppy seed chicken

cracker candy

And I found two new blogs that made me laugh this week:

Stark Raving Mad Mom--this is the post that first brought me to her blog--if you've ever asked yourself, "Where are Max and Ruby's parents?" it's a must-read.

Rants from Mommyland--check out this post that made me laugh out loud.

For more linky love, check out It's Come to This!

Five Question Friday--July 23

1. What were your school colors?

Grade School: maroon and gold
High School: blue and green
College: brown and blue
Law School: maize and blue



Hmmm, I just noticed that other than grade school, all my schools had some form of blue color(h.s. was like a regular blue, college was a light blue and law school was navy blue). Fascinating!


2. What's the best compliment you ever received?
The summer before my senior year in high school, I went to a summer program at a university. I'm someone who is always signing something or another. Anyway, so I'm walking down the hall of the dorm with a friend and singing I-don't-know-what and this guy that I barely knew overheard and complimented my singing. He asked if I was a soloist at my school!!! It was a crazy idea--little ol' me a soloist? Not at my crazy competitive high school! I was always in the back of the chorus. To this day, this is the greatest unsolicited compliment I've ever received--it was so out-of-the-blue and genuine.



3. Do you buy cheap or expensive toilet paper?
I buy good toilet paper inexpensively. ;-) We get Charmin at Costco.



4. Have you ever had a surprise party thrown for you? Or have you had one for someone else?
I can think of three surprise parties in my lifetime. First, for my 18th birthday in college, my roommate threw me a surprise party in our common area in the dorm. Surprised me as I came back to the dorm after church Sunday night. Complete and total shock. It wasn't much of a party, I don't think there was food, one acquaintance gifted me with a beer, but it was a really nice gesture. And it was only a month into the school year, so it made me feel at home. :-)



Second one: in law school for my 22nd birthday, my then-boyfriend/now-husband and I headed out to Pizzeria Uno for dinner. At the hostess stand, we ran into another couple from our class and awkwardly tried to figure out if we should join each other for dinner, but I didn't suspect anything. Then we all headed downstairs and there was the rest of our class there to surprise me for my birthday! I'm not even sure Hubby knew about it. Good times.



My 19th birthday was also full of surprises. My friend organized for a bunch of us to go apple-picking (unrelated to my upcoming birthday). It was lots of fun. Then we drove to her parents' house who lived in the area and it became a surprise birthday party for me with food and gifts and cake. Then, they took me to an ice cream parlor that embarasses the birthday girl/guy on the loudspeaker. Lots of fun!



I tried to return the favor and surprise that friend on her birthday. We gathered everyone in a friend's dorm room and surprised her--at least she looked surprised, but when I asked if she was surprised, she said "no," she'd overheard us planning it in the dining hall. :-( {Note: if you are ever in that situation, where you weren't really surprised, please lie and say you were, it will make your host feel better.} Still, a good time was had by all.



5. What is one material possession that you "can't live without"?

I can't choose--I cannot live without either chapstick or Coke. (Hopefully, in a future season of life, I can wean myself off of caffeine, but right now, it's a necessity.)

For more fun answers, go here. Have a great weekend!

MPT7--Fifth Grade and a Favorite Teacher

This is the seventh in a series of 15 posts recounting my childhood. (To see parts 1 through 6, click the label "MPT" in my sidebar.) Today's topic is Fifth Grade. Today we're talking about 5th grade and now is when my memory starts improving. I remember showing off my "double jointed" arms one day in line. I remember the boy I had a crush on once held open my desk for me. {Way to lead me on, Cory!} I remember timed multiplication tests--I would never finish all the questions, but of those I answered, I'd get 100% correct. When we were doing the spelling bee, I missed the first word "abate"--I spelled it "abait." I liked writing really really small and at one point my teacher took me and this other girl aside and told us we had to write bigger. And I was bummed because I loved my itty bitty handwriting.

But when I look back, what sticks with me about 5th grade was my teacher, one of my all-time favorites, Mrs. Ihlenfeldt (I have no idea how to spell that!). She was a pretty woman, probably around 50 years old because I remember she had a grown son. Really kind!

One of my favorite memories of that year is that she would read to our class. That practice had stopped a few years back as we were considered big kids who only did silent reading. But Mrs. I would read books to us again and it was such a treat. I can't remember all she read to us, but I think two of them were "The Wind in the Willows" and "The Hobbit." And then she took our class on a field trip to see "The Hobbit" on stage. :-)

In general, I think teachers liked me. But Mrs. I took a special interest in me. She noticed I was very self-critical and she took it upon herself to increase my self-esteem. I don't remember how she did it, but I remember around Valentine's Day we were making basket-weave hearts. I looked at the heart I had made and complimented it and Mrs. I overheard and practically jumped for joy that I'd complimented myself! {Of course, then I was completely embarassed and ashamed as if I'd been bragging. I had a strong aversion to bragging.} So I guess her encouragement had worked. ;-)

Although I continued to struggle with self-esteem (and still do, to this day), I truly appreciate all that Mrs. Ihlenfeldt did to encourage me to see my worth and acknowledge my accomplishments and mostly I am just grateful that she took a special interest in me--that was the greatest compliment of all!

For more 5th grade adventures, head over to Mommy's Piggy Tales. And tune in next week for my 6th grade memories (that was the year the Challenger exploded)....

WFMW--time management tip

Ever since my second child was born (almost 2 years ago), I've really struggled with time management. I don't know how to juggle housework, playing with the kids, and much needed downtime for me.

I recently (maybe 6 weeks ago) saw a tip, probably on WFMW, where the mom wrote out her To Do List for the day and then scheduled when she'd do each item. At the time I thought "She's crazy!" Actually, I believe my thoughts were more along the lines of "that's nice for her, but I couldn't do that, I never know what my day will be like" etc. {Which is why, I'm sorry to say, I didn't bookmark the post, therefore I have no one to credit. If you know who you are, let me know in the comments!}

Edited to add: I found it! Alicia's Homemaking is where I originally saw this idea. Go read her post here. Thanks!!!

Fast forward to 2 weeks ago.... I don't know how it came about, I guess I had several things to get done the next day, so I scheduled those tasks for 9:00, 10:00 and 11:00 the next morning. Surprisingly, this is the best idea I've had in a long time. As it turns out, I do have pretty predictable mornings--my kids play in the living room while watching tv. All our activities are in the afternoons (other than L going to camp Tuesday and Friday mornings, which doesn't affect my 9, 10, 11 plan). Sometimes we run an errand--which can be scheduled at 9, 10 or 11.

So here's what I've been doing: I take 3 items I want to get done (not including laundry, it doesn't need a time slot since it's just 5 minutes here and there) and I give it a time slot of 9:00, 10:00 or 11:00. Now, in the couple weeks I've been doing this, I've never actually done all 3 tasks right on time. I am extremely lazy and tend to procrastinate, but generally the stuff is getting done! That is HUGE for me!

As an example, here's what today's To Do List looked like:
9:00 shower
10:00 make phone calls
11:00 fold clothes

Okay, so that list looks pretty pathetic. Other examples are: go to Target, get dinner in the crockpot, and blog.

This system spreads out the work (very important to a lazy girl like me)--since each task only takes 15 to 30 minutes, it builds in plenty of time between tasks to play with my kids or take an internet break. It's realistic because I'm not trying to fit 6 tasks into a single morning. It also gives structure to my day. And I don't have to do anything (other than get the kids up, dressed, medicated, and fed) before 9am. I am NOT a morning person.

As I said, it's not a perfect system and I'm still lazy and I still procrastinate. I've had "make phone calls" on my list for 3 days now! But it's still been a huge breakthrough for me. And the days that I closely follow my schedule, feel so good and I've found myself at 1pm feeling productive and with nothing to do but hang out with my kids. Awesome!

For the record, I get more than three things done in a day. As any mom knows, I'm also feeding my kids, cleaning up breakfast, changing diapers, making lunch, changing the laundry, calming a tantrum etc. This new trick should help me find time for the non-daily stuff like cleaning toilets--ooh fun!

The only downside of this system, is that on those days where I'm lazy and let time pass unproductively, I can see exactly where I went off the rails. I know all that could've been accomplished but wasn't. Not a great feeling, but hopefully that's motivation for sticking to my plan the next day.

That's what's working for me these days. Check out lots more ideas at We are THAT Family.

Top 10 Tuesday-- Must-See Movies

I am linking up with Oh Amanda today with this list of 10 movies you should see if you haven't already. Some are my old favorites and others are recent finds, but they have in common that you may have missed them in theaters and I recommend you check them out. In no particular order....


1. The Hurt Locker. I know this won best picture, but I feel like a lot of people haven't seen this yet. It follows a team of soldiers in Iraq who get called in to deal with explosives. It's just a really well done film, not too suspenseful, very compelling.



2. Mansfield Park. This film is only loosely based on Jane Austen's novel of the same name. I saw the movie first and then read the book and personally, I prefer the movie (sorry, Jane). Fanny Price is poor and sent to live with her rich cousins. She falls for cousin Edmund but can he ever love her back? There's unrequited love and longing glances and Jonny Lee Miller. Love it!

3. Passengers. I'd never heard of this movie until we recently found it on Starz. It's a clever mystery (again, not too suspenseful) about a plane crash that kept us guessing until a satisfying conclusion.

4. Swept from the Sea. I love this movie! It's a beautiful story about love and kindness between a lonely woman and a shipwrecked man. Great cast--Rachel Weisz, Ian McKellen, Kathy Bates.

5. Once. How can I describe this little gem? Street musician guy meets foreign rose-selling girl and they discover a mutual love of music and become friends. It's sweet, it's complicated, it's got great music--check it out!

6.Persuasion. Another Jane Austen adaptation, this one very true to the novel. Anne Elliott loved Wentworth back when they were young and he was poor but she was persuaded to give him up. Fast forward 15 years and they meet up again and it's all awkwardness and bitterness and longing. (I feel like everyone has seen Pride and Prejudice and Sense and Sensibility; Persuasion is less well-known, a little harder to follow on first viewing, but oh so worth it!)

7. A Walk to Remember. Bad boy (Shane West) meets good girl (Mandy Moore), opposites attract. Well, it's a little more complicated than that. Sweet, moral, good singing. If you like chick flicks, this is a good one.

These last 3 are all M. Night Shyamalan movies. Everybody's seen The Sixth Sense but you may have missed these three that I think are even better.**

8. Signs. A widower (Mel Gibson) and his family discover crop circles in their cornfield. This is one of my favorite movies--it's about a lot more than aliens. It has a few scary moments, but Shyamalan has a way of warning you that something's about to happen, so even a wimp like me can handle it.

9. The Village. Again, this was billed as a monster movie, but it's much more than that. As Netflix describes, it's about "an isolated village whose residents face the constant threat of evil creatures." But really it's about friendship, love, family--and great storytelling.



10. Lady in the Water. Who markets this stuff?! This is a wonderful movie that nobody saw. It's a fable: an apartment manager (Paul Giamatti) meets a sea nymph and tries to help her return home. A great little story, compelling from start to finish.

**Yes, we are big Shyamalan fans, but do not, I repeat, DO NOT rent The Happening. It's AWFUL.

So what do you think--have I convinced you to go rent some of these? Do you agree with my assessment of those you have seen? What are some of your faves that I should check out?

For more top ten lists, visit Oh Amanda. Thanks!