I'm Not Dead! I Feel Fine!

I'm not posting much these days, and I'm certainly not reading much, either.  I'm sorry to those of you that think I should be doing other wise.  It's just that I can't seem to find a moment to breathe.  Work has been intense lately.  I'm still trying to figure out how to do twice the work with half the workers.  That seems to be common in today's economy.  Of course, there's been plenty to do at home, as well.  This past weekend we moved Bucky and China to a larger coop.  Our nieghbor Dustin tried grabbing Bucky first.  Then I gave it a shot.  Finally Mike managed to grab the little bugger.  He is the absolute meanest rooster I have ever seen!  And the smallest!  I guess he tried to make up for his size!  He's put marks on both Mike and I before, and has even drawn blood!  He's a pretty rooster. (see his pic in my last post) But I just assume not go near him if I can help it.  Our swimming pool has been green for a month now.  We've attempted to clean it, but each time we get close we get more rain, or get busy and skip a few days.  So out of frustration, Mike has emptied it out.  I guess it will go unused till next summer. 

I still haven't put those chickens in the Bargain Trader.  I don't think they are going to be so easy to sell this time of year, really.  And all these little ones are certainly too small to eat. 

 Okay, so this pic is a couple of weeks old.  But really, they aren't much bigger than that.  It's funny, when I go out to feed them in the evening time, I always feed the chickens under the lean-to first.  But all these little chicks are running around, so they come running to me to get some dinner.  They are quite skiddish, though.  For every time I take a step towards them they turn and run like I was a fox.  It's the funniest thing, really.  I have to let out a giggle when I see them do it, even when I am alone. 

I am thinking of going back to school.  Really, I'd like to go to nursing school.  When I first went off to college I was a biology pre-med major.  I wanted to be a doctor.  But I thought it was more important to play volleyball in the sand pits than attend boring labs and lectures on microbiology and cellular morphology.  They even sound boring!  My grades starting slipping, so I ran off to Texas, finished my degree in ministry, then ran off into the army to pay off the sacks of loans I had taken out to pay for six years of college.  Now, nursing school would be too hard to pull off, methinks.  I'd have to attend labs and clinicals during the day time, and I'm not sure how I could work a job to pay my bills and go to classes like that at the same time.  But lately, I have been thinking, maybe I should persue a Masters in Business Management.  I like my current job, it pays fairly well, especially for this area, and a Masters degree could potentially open doors for major advancements.  But of course, I've not really done any research.  It's such an ambitious goal.  Most of the time it seems unobtainable.  Sometimes I think I really just need to simplify my life.  But I can't think of too many things that I'd want to go. 

Well, there's no rhyme or reason to today's post.  I'm just typing as I think.  Hope everyone is doing well.  I apologize for not visiting much lately.  I will be back to normal soon.

If You Can Read This, Thank A Teacher

I was thinking today about my English teacher from high school.  She, I think, was the coolest teacher I ever had.  She made learning fun.  We read Shakespeare in high school.  Now for the average young teenager, Shakespeare  is no where near the top of any reading list, if there absolutely has to be one.  But she actually made it interesting.  She would give us the play version.  Then students were assigned parts to read.  One might be Othello, one might be Iago, one might be Hamlet and so forth.  THEN, if the weather was nice, we would go outside on the lawn to read the play whilst sitting on blankets.  But not by any ordinary means.  We would, instead of using the conventional door, exit through her classroom window.  AND THAT'S NOT ALL....after simply reading the play, we would then take an excerpt from the play, put on make-shift costumes, go to the auditorium and act out the play...on film. 

 Sometimes she would let us order burgers and fries from Keech's Grill just down the road from the school.  Instead of the regular school lunch of vegetable beef soup from a giant can we would eat unhealtily in her classroom.  She had a giant inflatable gorilla that sat in the corner of the classroom.  She had a little bear on a unicycle that would ride a string across the ceiling.  Instead of student desks we had dinner style tables with students facing each other.  We had REAL round table discussions.  And we could write anything (but perverse) things on the table with markers.  When the table was full, we'd paint it and start over.  She pushed her books and things up and down the halls in a grocery buggy.  To say the least, Mrs. Annie Cutler was the most amazing teacher I ever had.  And I spent six years in college. 

However, she was NOT an easy teacher.  Her tests were often open-ended questions that required a paragraph or two.  And they often were detailed enough that you had to do some major thinking and material recall to answer correctly.  But in the end it was all worth all the work.  When we had papers to write with a certain word count, we were not allowed to count words such as a, and, the, but, nor, for, and so.  We were also required to keep a journal that we had to write in at least three times a week.  We could write about anything we wanted to with the understanding that she would be reading and grading what we wrote.  It was really a way to get good grades to counter act her often difficult tests.  I once wrote an entire page using all the words I was not allowed to count in my papers.  I got an A for originality.  Really. 

I was scanning the net looking for information on her.  I found a site called "Rate My Teacher".   Ratings were from one to five with one being bad and five being great.  For easiness her rating was a 2.7.  As I said before, she wasn't easy, but she was fun.  But for helpfulness and clarity she had gotten 5.0 in both categories.  Here is a quote I found about her on the same site.  

"She has PASSION and instills it in us for learning. She uses learning styles to the advantage of ALL!"

She also hosted parties at her home for her students.  Not the crazy-go-get-drunk-teenager type parties.  She'd grill hot dogs and hamburgers.  Each student would bring a side, a drink, or a dessert.  And on occasion we'd roast marshmallows over a camp fire.  She had her bathroom painted to look like meadow with a white picket fence around the wall and a tree painted up the wall and branches extended across the ceiling.  Many thought she wore the same clothes every day.  But that wasn't the case.  She would find a shirt or skirt she liked on sale and would buy 5 or 6 of the exact same thing.  I know this for a fact, as she brought her students into her room to have a look in her closet!

I had heard that she had passed away.  To my extreme dismay I found her obituary on line.  I'm not sure what the cause was, but she passed away on March 7, 2009 at the age of sixty-three.  That's not the sort of news you want to hear about a hero.  Mrs. Annie Cutler was a great teacher and an amazing person.  I'll never forget her khaki skirts with blue or pink blouses and the signature sweater tied around her shoulders.  And for whatever reason I was thinking of her today,  I thought it would be a great tribute to memorialize her in a blog post.  Teachers are wonderful resources that carry on throughout our lives.  I think that the get far too little credit (and pay) for all they do for us and our children.  SO........

THANK YOU MRS. ANNIE CUTLER

You Left A Legacy!!