Weekly Wrap Up

This week has been crazy and boring at the same time!

1.  I was supposed to start tutoring, but the student was not available this week.  It is a bit frustrating since I spent time preparing lessons, but I hope to resume in the next few weeks.

2.  On Friday night we went to Koto with John and Jenn.  Jenn's birthday was on Monday, but we couldn't celebrate until Friday night.  Koto has these hilarious commercials so part of me was curious to see if the place lived up to the hype.  It did!  Hibatchi is such a fun way to have dinner.  The food was great, and the chef was rather entertaining.  They even took our picture and printed it out for Jenn.  It was a great night.

3.  On Saturday, my family held our annual Bowling Event!  We met up at a bowling alley in Clifton Park for some competitive fun.  My parents and I were on the winning team, and no one was more surprised than we were!  We had a great time, and I think everyone got at least one strike.  It was fun to spend time together doing something.  We usually just hang out at someone's home, and it was nice to get out and DO something!  I can't wait for our next event.

4.  Mattie and Fenway also had birthdays this week! Mattie's birthday was Monday, and she turned 5.  Fenway's birthday was on Friday, and he turned 4.  It is hard to believe they are this old!

5.  Jess and I are knee-deep in planning Amanda's 25th birthday trip, and we are so excited!  Not much is set in stone as of now, but we hope to finalize plans this week.

Revolution Review

Revolution: Jennifer Donnelly

From Goodreads:


BROOKLYN: Andi Alpers is on the edge. She’s angry at her father for leaving, angry at her mother for not being able to cope, and heartbroken by the loss of her younger brother, Truman. Rage and grief are destroying her. And she’s about to be expelled from Brooklyn Heights’ most prestigious private school when her father intervenes. Now Andi must accompany him to Paris for winter break.
 
PARIS: Alexandrine Paradis lived over two centuries ago. She dreamed of making her mark on the Paris stage, but a fateful encounter with a doomed prince of France cast her in a tragic role she didn’t want—and couldn’t escape.
 
Two girls, two centuries apart. One never knowing the other. But when Andi finds Alexandrine’s diary, she recognizes something in her words and is moved to the point of obsession. There’s comfort and distraction for Andi in the journal’s antique pages—until, on a midnight journey through the catacombs of Paris, Alexandrine’s words transcend paper and time, and the past becomes suddenly, terrifyingly present.

My review:  This book caught my eye immediately for two reasons.  One, I love Paris and couldn't wait to mentally travel there again.  I found myself transported back to the French Revolution, Versailles, and the terror of the time.  In fact, as I was reading, I wanted Andi to stop talking about her problems and go to Paris.  The other reason is because the story was told in two ways: prose and journal.  I enjoyed both the narration shifts and the way the author incorporated the journal.  I loved how the journal left Andi with more questions than answers.  

The two main characters, Andi and Alex, were both troubled.  Andi's angst over Truman's death felt mostly genuine, but her multiple pain medication overdoses and suicide attempts were hard to believe.  Her anger and sadness was palpable, and she was mostly a sympathetic character.     Alex, who is thrust into the royal family, finds herself in some impossibly difficult situations when she is appointed as the jester to the young prince.  She is both a heroic and prideful character who constantly battles between her own desires and common sense.

I learned about the Catacombs of Paris, which I assumed were fictional, but they are not.  They played a large role in the story so I had to see if they were real.  These underground tunnels of sorts hold the remains of six million Parisians.  Both Andi and Alex have life-changing experiences down there, and I am both intrigued and horrified by its presence.

There is an odd twist at the end of the book that I am not sure works.  It relates to the person Andi is researching for her thesis and Alex, but it is such an unusual turn of events.  It is somewhat neat but also unnecessary in my opinion.  I would recommend this book to any historical fiction fans.  While this book is a young adult novel, its length and depth makes up for the teen drama.  I give it 4/5 stars!

Wordless Wednesday

A slump

I am frustrated that I am in a writing slump.  It's not that I have nothing going on, because I do, but none of it is all that interesting.  I am out of the classroom the next 3 days to correct the ELAs, and I have mixed feelings about it.  I am curious to see how the students did, but leaving my class for 3 days is never ideal.  Yesterday, I counted and I have 31 teaching days left until summer.  I cannot believe how quickly this year has gone by.  While the end is in sight, it also seems never-ending.  I get tired around this time of year.  Last night I worked on my 9th graders final writing task.  In my head, I keep saying that it is still April and that I have plenty of time, but in reality the end of the year flies by so quickly.  I would like to avoid the stress of getting my finals ready so I am starting earlier this year.  I know I need to revise both of them a fair amount so I'd better get started.  My long-term planning has come in handy in my teaching profession, but I continue to be blown away by just how fast time goes by.

My goal is to have more interesting entries very soon! Dave and I have some fun events planned for this weekend so stay tuned!

I am a big fat liar

Writing club was almost a week ago, and I have not published anything.  To be honest, this month's topics weren't that interesting to me.  The leader wanted to write all about spring, but I don't really like spring at all.  Most of the entries from that night were unremarkable so here I am trying to come up with something to write.  Maybe a list.  I like lists.  Sorry for the lack of inspiration; I hope it will come back soon.

People From History that I'd Like to Meet 
Martin Luther King, Jr.
Joan of Arc
Benedict Arnold
Abraham Lincoln
John F. Kennedy
Janis Joplin
Audrey Hepburn


Why Dogs are Better Than Cats (and some people)
They are happy to see you 24/7
They are soft
They are interactive
They don't really give you a hard time about anything except taking a walk
They force you to exercise
They are cute

My Writing Club

I am meeting with my writing club this evening after not seeing them since February.  I really love this group.  I am decent at staying motivated to write on my own, but this group keeps me going when I lose focus.  I have been reading much more than writing these days since it is the more relaxing of the two, but I need to get back to writing.

Our leader brings different types of writing prompts, and we pretty much write non-stop for an hour and a half.  I am excited to bring my new pens tonight.  Sometimes writing is more fun when you have a fun notebook and excellent pens.

Work has been beyond stressful this week with the state assessments, and I seriously need to decompress. Reading offers me a total check out, which I like when I am stressed; however, one of my goals for the year was to write a ton.  I almost need to schedule writing time.  Weekend mornings used to be the best quiet time I had, but weekends lately have been crazy and show no signs of slowing down.  I really have no excuse as I have several books with writing prompts for ideas, I just need to get serious again.

After tonight, I will have several new postings! :-)

My Obsession

I don't know if this is normal or not, but I dream about going back to the DR every day.  I absolutely loved it there.  It is the perfect vacation spot for me.  Truly, any other vacation pales in comparison.  I don't know when we will go back, but I wish for it all the time.  How could you not?

Days like today

It was 92 degrees when I left school today!  I am not one to complain about hot weather because I LOVE IT; but it made me long for other summer items.

Weekly Wrap Up: Vacation Edition

Food:

The Fiesta Grill:  Hands down, the best Mexican food we've ever had.  The only restaurant that even comes close is one of the places we are on our honeymoon.  The Fiesta Grill only seats about 12 people, but it is excellent.  Every year I get the same: the Big Boy Burrito.  It is 12 inches long and about 6 inches around.  Needless to say, I have lunch and dinner tomorrow.

Mint:  We usually go to this Indian restaurant for the lunch buffet, but this year we met a friend there for dinner.  As usual, the food was terrific, but we missed the variety of the buffet.  I am glad we tried it, but we will stick to lunch next year.

Fun:

The Hunger Games:  After much anticipation, we finally saw this movie.  It was interesting.  I loved seeing the Hollywood interpretation, but it left out so much of what I thought made the books so great.  I missed Katniss' internal dialogue as well as much of the background that was included in the book.  The movie DID give more information about the game makers than the book did, and it was cool too see that.

The Goats:  This is silly, but we love visiting the belted goats.  They are hilarious-looking creatures who have denture-like teeth and a belt of white on their otherwise black fur.  There are 3 babies right now, and they are the most fun to watch.  The hop around chasing their mother, who is more interested in what treats we brought!

The In Laws:  It is always nice to spend time with Pat and Gary, and this week we did plenty of that.  We do a mixture of activities and relaxing, and they just roll along with us.  Their condo is amazing, and we love staying here.  They have been very gracious hosts.

Weekly Wrap Up

This is pretty late being that it is Monday morning, but here it is anyway...

1.  We arrived in NC on Friday afternoon.  The weather has been pretty great, and we are spending a lot of time walking and reading.  I have already read 2 books since we've been here.  I just love having down time without feeling like I should be doing something else.

2.  I had 3-6 detention on Wednesday night.  I know this sounds like a drag, and in a lot of ways it is, but I got a TON of work done.  So much so that I didn't bring hardly any papers with me.  Poor Dave is correcting his brains out since he gave a test, DBQ, and had a project due. Poor guy!

3.  Our Easter service was really nice.  The message was uplifting, just as one would expect for Easter morning!

Umm, that's all I can think of!  Next week will be better since we have some fun plans!

Further proof that I should live near the ocean

My love of nautical attire:

Sperry Topsider

J. Crew

Anthropologie

Etsy

The Crystal Pineapple

Meredith Wendell