27 May 2007

From Russia With Love

Dateline did an article tonight on a family who adopted 3 sets of twins from Russia... I want to be that family!

I enjoyed the bit of the article I got to see (my cousin came over to talk about her acceptance into Nursing school). I did not like, however, the big emphasis on gender vs colour. Like the little boy who picked the purple snorkle, and the parents freaked... the da took the blue snorkle and kept saying "blue, boy"... it bothered me to a deep level... it's a little boy.. he doesn' thave an understanding of colour vs gender yet, and he should never be forced to fit into that sterotype!

Regardless, what that woman did was amazing! If you didn't watch it, please visit the link and READ about it. Those parents were truely selfless and did an amazing thing for not just 2 children, as they had planned, but 6 children total! Amazing story!

23 May 2007

St. Jude's

so last week was the annual St. Jude's Trike-a-thon. Of course the daycare I work at participated in it. We had a blast!

As part of the St. Jude week we had, we made cards for the children there. Our kids wanted to! I just finished the letter of it and I wanted to post a bopy here.. hopefully tomorrow I'll remember to take pictures of the cards and let you see how AMAZING the three's and four's classes did!

until then, here is the letter... (my name and the name of the daycare have been changed... mainly because I don't want my last name posted about and I don't want any weirdo's who stalk blogs (the bad stalk) to come by... creepy!)

Dear St. Jude's,

My name is Hawk and I teach at a small daycare in Louisville, Ky. Our daycare participates in the St. Jude Trike-a-thon every year and this year the children wanted to do more. After scouring our brains, the lady I co-teach with, Dana, and I decided the best way is to let children do what they do best, be creative.
We spoke in depth about cancers and we answered many questions about how sometimes people just get sick, and how the smallest things can help them smile, which makes everyone feel better, if even for a moment. The children decided to make cards to help the kids at St. Jude's smile.
Enclosed in the envelope you will find the work of three and four year old children in their plight to help other kids feel better with a smile. Each card was hand made by a different kid and each child that made them poured their heart and soul into the project (even giving up a whole day outside just to finish them).
Our hope is that each child who receives these cards can smile, at least for a small amount of time, and someday be able to smile all the way out of the hospital, holding only their card as a reminder of their time there.


Sincerely,


Hawk
and the staff and children of Daycare

20 May 2007

LMAO

Every year, English teachers from across the USA can submit their collections of actual analogies and metaphors found in high school
These excerpts are published each year to the amusement of teachers across the country. Here are last year's winners.


1. Her face was a perfect oval, like a circle that had its two sides gently compressed by a Thigh Master.

2. His thoughts tumbled in his head, making and breaking alliances like underpants in a dryer without Cling Free.

3. He spoke with the wisdom that can only come from experience, like a guy who went blind because he looked at a solar eclipse without one of
those boxes with a pinhole in it and now goes around the country speaking at high h schools about the dangers of looking at a solar eclipse without one
of those boxes with a pinhole in it.

4. She grew on him like she was a colony of E. Coli, and he was room-temperature Canadian beef.

5. She had a deep, throaty, genuine laugh, like that sound a dog makes just before it throws up.

6. Her vocabulary was as bad as, like, whatever.

7. He was as tall as a six-foot, three-inch tree.

8. The revelation that his marriage of 30 years had disintegrated because of his wife's infidelity came as a rude shock, like a surcharge at a formerly surcharge-free ATM machine.

9. The little boat gently drifted across the pond exactly the way a bowling ball wouldn't.

10. McBride fell 12 stories, hitting the pavement like a Hefty bag filled with vegetable soup.

11. From the attic came an unearthly howl. T! he whole scene had an eerie, surreal quality, like when you're on vacation in another city and
Jeopardy comes on at 7:00 p.m. Instead of 7:30.

12. Her hair glistened in the rain like a nose hair after a sneeze.

13. The hailstones leaped from the pavement, just like maggots when you fry them in hot grease.

14. Long separated by cruel fate, the star-crossed lovers raced across the grassy field toward each other like two freight trains, one having left Cleveland at 6:36 p.m. Traveling at 55 mph, the other from Topeka at 4:19 p.m. at a speed of 35 mph.

15. They lived in a typical suburban neighborhood with picket fences that resembled Nancy Kerrigan's teeth.

16. John and Mary had never met. They were like two hummingbirds who had also never met.

17. He fell for her like his heart was a mob informant, and she was the East River .

18. Even in his last years, Granddad had a mind like a steel trap, only one that had been left out so long, it had rusted shut.

19. Shots rang out, as shots are wont to do.

20. The plan was simple, like my brother-in-law Phil. But unlike Phil, this plan just might work.

21. The young fighter had a hungry look, the kind you get from not eating for a while.

22. He was as lame as a duck. Not the metaphorical lame duck, either, but a real duck that was actually lame, maybe from stepping on a land mine
or something.

23. The ballerina rose gracefully en Pointe and extended one slender leg behind her, like a dog at a fire hydrant.

24. It was an American tradition, like fathers chasing kids around with power tools.

25. He was deeply in love. When she spoke, he thought he heard bells, as if she were a garbage truck backing up.

I'll admit it!

I'm a huge huge huge huge huge HUGE! Josh Groban fan. I heard him on something a long time ago, way before Ally McBeal, back when he was merely training.. and I fell in love!

So I heard this song, and it really hit kinda in the adoption front.. whether it be from the kid's perspective or the parent perspective... but in the end the meesage is still the same! Don't give up, you are loved!


You are loved (don't give up) Josh Groban

Don't give up
It's just the weight of the world
When your heart's heavy
I...I will lift it for you

Don't give up
Because you want to be heard
If silence keeps you
I...I will break it for you

Everybody wants to be understood
Well I can hear you
Everybody wants to be loved
Don't give up
Because you are loved

Don't give up
It's just the hurt that you hide
When you're lost inside
I...I will be there to find you

Don't give up
Because you want to burn bright
If darkness blinds you
I...I will shine to guide you

Everybody wants to be understood
Well I can hear you
Everybody wants to be loved
Don't give up
Because you are loved

You are loved
Don't give up
It's just the weight of the world
Don't give up
Every one needs to be heard
You are loved

17 May 2007

A song

It is so amazing how a song can stir up so many emotions and memories in a person.

There is one such song for me, and I have heard it on several shows final season show. It is "Hallelujah" (by Rufus Wainwright and I'm sure many others). Rufus Wainwright sings the one particular version that tugs at my heart strings.

I don't really remember why, I block a lot of my teenage years out of my memory, but I do know that one person gave it to me in a deep pit of dispair and it became something of an anthem, and I don't honestly know why.

Everytime I hear that song, my years come back ot me as if they were 50 or so years ago (they were not, I'm merely 22). I think about the wasted years of my teenage times and I think about who I was then, and who I am bcomming... I think about all the silly dreams and how so far, nothing of that such has come true. I often think about what the goal was when I was 13, when I was 15, at 16 and so on. Somewhere along the way that goal became to survive... And now, I'm still just surviving.

One of my biggest goals was to adopt a child by my 25th birthday from Russia. At the current pace, that may not happen yet... but what will be will be right? Que Sura, sura... It's kind of like C'est la Vie... That's life! It's a motto...

Regardless, I have nothing in my life to show for my ages now expect for a few scars, mental and physical, and a deeper appreciation for what I'm up against in the future.

Anyway, it's late, I'm in a big thinking mood and I'm bitter because I can't afford to move out anymore. I have to drop school to afford living as I am now, and I have medical bills piling up I never thought I'd have, and yet all I can think is "well, I can name 17 people who have it worse than me, so shut up already"... ahh yes, ahh yes.

Anyway, bed now.


Hallelujah: Rufus Wainwright

I've heard there was a secret chord
That David played, and it pleased the Lord
But you don't really care for music, do you?
It goes like this
The fourth, the fifth
The minor fall, the major lift
The baffled king composing Hallelujah

Hallelujah, Hallelujah
Hallelujah, Hallelujah

Your faith was strong but you needed proof
You saw her bathing on the roof
Her beauty
in the moonlight
overthrew you
She tied you
To a kitchen chair
She broke your throne,
she cut your hair
And from your lips she drew the Hallelujah

Hallelujah, Hallelujah
Hallelujah, Hallelujah

Maybe I've been here before
I know this room, I've walked this floor
I used to live alone before I knew you
I've seen your flag on the marble arch
love is not a victory march
It's a cold and it's a broken hallelujah

Hallelujah, Hallelujah
Hallelujah, Hallelujah

There was a time you'd let me know
What's real and going on below
But now you never show it to me do you?
Remember when I moved in you?
The holy dark was moving too
And every breath we drew was hallelujah

Hallelujah, Hallelujah
Hallelujah, Hallelujah

Maybe there's a God above
And all I ever learned from love
Was how to shoot at someone who outdrew you
It's not a cry you can hear at night
It's not somebody who's seen the light
It's a cold and it's a broken hallelujah

Hallelujah, Hallelujah
Hallelujah, Hallelujah
Hallelujah, Hallelujah
Hallelujah, Hallelujah

ugh

I'm so bloody sick of hearing this chick's anti adoption bullshit!

I just needed that second to vent.

13 May 2007

More fun at work

I am still with the fours, so I am starting our "happy heart" thing tomorrow.

Current projects we are working on:
Reading with group one (Abs, Han, Na, and Core)
Happy hearts


Happy hearts:
What is happy hearts? Happy hearts is training children in the idea that they can be happy while they don't always win. It teaches children to be happy for others, as well as teaching children to be obedient.

The main reason I created this programme was so I can stop the stupid fits my fours throw for no reason. I have a few children who just think they can do and do and do with no consciquences. Tomorrow that all stops.

How I'm doing the programme:
I've thought long and hard about this programme, about how to go about it without killing the children's natural spirit. I have decided on this. I have created each child a heart, daily they will get a new heart. Every teacher in the building has a right to take a piece of their heart. This is only done when they get placed in time out, when they throw a fit, when they refuse to obey, and the likes. They can taek a piece no larger then the bit of their pinky nail, but it's a piece none the less. The children's goals is to go the whole day without losing a piece of their heart.
At the end of the week, the children's hearts will be looked at. If there is a steady increase, they will surely know it. If not, they won't. I am thinking of making the weekly prize the ability to choose the class activity.

What I hope to accomplish:
I hope to have the children understand and trust me. I will never ask them to do anything that will put them in danger. I will never harm them intentionally and I will NEVER ask them to do something for no reason. Every time I ask them to sit correctly, I have a reason. Every time I ask them to listen, it is for a reason. I want them to understand that.
Also, I want them to learn to be happy for someone else when they win. We already have a "happy heart" moment, that when someone else wins, they say "congrats" to them and most of them give eachother a hug. But we also have the person who wins tell the group "thank you" and "Congrats for your trying!" I want the kids, especially Abs, to understand that it is okay if you didn't win to be happy. It is not the end all be all if you do not win. I hope this works.

Hopefully I can implement this without too much parental anger. This is a big thing I am working on, huge thing!


Regardless, tomorrow should be fun.

For all my adoptive and PA families

05 May 2007

New pants!

Mwaahhahahahha

I got new pants and swim trunks today! I'm quite excited because at WALMART they were on sale for 16 bucks and the Swimmers for 15... that NEVER happens... as I like my pants bigger and generally get from the "big mens" section of the store... 16 bucks for pants! After I get paid on monday and pay out my bills I'm going to think about replacing my other 2 pairs of pants with nice new clean ones for 16 bucks! (okay people, generally these pants range in price from 22-25 depends on teh time of the year...)

And I got them one size smaller then normal and they STILL fit the way I like... I love it!

01 May 2007

Why I hate clowns, and other musings of a tired mind

So that picture shows you the calander page of mine for the month of May. now the whole reason I got this calender (co-edikit, who I oddly have several amusing shirts from) was this month. I am DEATHLY afraid of clowns.. yes at 22 years old that is hard to state outloud. I suppose it's not so much a fear as it is a DEATHLY large distaste of them now. Why you may ask, would someone be afraid of innocent little clowns?... I'll tell you... Barnum and Baily Circus. My poor children will never go to a B&B Circus tour if I can help it! The clowns on large stilts... they just... scare me! And one walked right next to me, as we were near the front row, and I just freaked out... since then, whenever I have a particularly terrible nightmare, it somehow involves a clown. Yes, it's stupid, I can recieve psychological help for this, but the fact still remains that clowns and I don't mix, even to this day!

As for other musings...

My cousin is pregnant again. She just... ugh. Perhaps I'm starting to feel something for this whole "I'm never getting pregnant" attitude... or perhaps I just want to start a family so bad... but hearing that she is pregnant, while I'm happy for her, makes me want to strangle her at the same time. Now don't get me wrong. I have genuine love and happiness that she is expecting her second child. They have had a much harder time concieving this time than they did with Bella. (Bella was an opps a year before their wedding.) Regardless, I just... want to be her, and that's odd. Perhaps after I get the ball rolling on my adoption (someday) I won't have the feeling of wanting something inside of me... ew.

A crazy thing happened on our street today. About 5 doors down, on the other side of the street, some idiot crashed through a garage and kept going... the story is wild! This guy was drunk, waiting for a friend outside his house (not the guy, the friend... the friend is who lives on my street). He decided he had had enough waiting time and was oging to leave. He apparently slammed his car into reverse, spedo ut of the driveway, only the hit the car parked on the other side of the road (only one side in this neighborhood has built in driveways... most of us on my side park on the street). So apparently recognizing his boo-boo slams it into gear and TRIES AGAIN! Only the hit the same car in a different spot (in his defense... he did do better... instead of the drivers side door, he got the front side... almost there). Well realizing he was never going to back out, he slammed the car into gear and sped foreward... through his buddies garage (a wooden piece of poo) and kept going through the fence and onto the "grey" alleyway behind that row of houses (we have loads of alley ways round this end of town too!). What a flipping moron.. and it's not like we dont' know who it was... The guy who's car got hit twice was pissed. Mum and I came home from my grandmothers to find cop cars.. both going "oh shit!" cause we have had a string of breakins in the neighboorhood. Well, our neighbor came out and was like "ya'll missed it!" So he told us the story. We ended up going down to talk to the neighbors from that end of the street... met some cool people, and just watched as the cops sorted through the broken garage and the people who own the place kept looking out in "disgust" at us as we gawked (by us, I mean the whole street!). I think honestly they were embarassed... I would be too!

Hmmm... nothing else really.. oh I went to the dentist today.. it seems that all my good years of having great teeth has come to an end... after only ever having one cavity in my life, I am ashamed to say I am quite near double digits for cavaties now. The hygenist also said that I have a calcium problem in my gum line...something about the enamel wearing away due to not enough calcium in my diet sorta thing and it struck me as odd. I'm going to my doc about it because all my knee problems (sans the Bone Marrow Adema spot) are thought to be caused by calcium deficency. The thing is, I drink calcium fortified milk, atleast 24 oz a day, because I drink daycare milk... but my mum says I may have something that causes me not to absorb certain vitimins (we've noticed that despite the uptake in Vit. C and the likes (by suggestion of my doctor) that I am still getting sick as often as I was (which is almost weekly because of a lowered immune system)).

Regardless, my life is one big bit of boring, punctuated by the typical idiots!

Salut.