Carmel Twists

I made carmel twists all by myself yesterday. Of course, I cook by myself all the time, but the big deal was that mom always made them. I helped roll the dough in the final stages, but I don't think I had ever mixed it up by myself. Mom gave me some pointers, and it came out great. I might even say as good as hers.... I will be making them for Christmas this year and wanted to get some practice in. Don't tell, but I ate four for breakfast yesterday. They are better right out of the oven, so I didn't want to let them sit too long.....

Here's the scrumptiousness:

I sure do love having this fall break!

To Sir, With Love

On Monday I went shopping with grandma H., and we went to Hobby Lobby, MGM shoes, and the thrift store. I always pick up a few books when I'm at the thrift store because they are so cheap. The book To Sir, With Love by E.R. Braithwaite  looked familiar. Had I heard about it in my college classes? It looked pretty interesting, since I am a teacher and it is about a teacher in London. The unique twist is that it deals with the racial prejudices against blacks in London at that time. The main character, who becomes a teacher, could not find any other jobs in London because of his skin color. He was highly educated, but no one would touch him. After almost two years of looking for work, and going to interviews only to be told they couldn't hire when they saw his color, he stoops to take a teaching position. (By the way, I love how he thinks that it would be easy!)

This teaching position is at a difficult school in town, where kids are poor and parents aren't the best support. Very much a working-class community. He definitely has a lot to accomplish. But, of course, after a rough start, he begins the task of teaching them knowledge about school and life, with respect for each other along the way. It really is quite inspiring.

There was just a bit of suggestive descriptions in the book, but nothing graphic. Far less than many teenage novels that are out right now, anyways. I would recommend it to high schoolers, but not junior highers, unless they were already mature readers. Certainly anyone in the teaching profession would enjoy perusing its pages. It doesn't end with all conflict gone, but it does end on an uplifting that this teacher has indeed instilled something of value into his students.

Apparently this was also  made into a movie. I was reading it between selling tickets to the volleyball game, and a few people commented on this fact. I might have to go find the movie somewhere, just to see how it compares to the book. All in all, I would recommend this book for anyone who is interested in either race relations in other countries or the teaching profession in general.

Herman Cain

Even though the presidential election is still a year away, the debates are already raging. And I like it. This is what democracy is all about- finding the candidate who would best represent us. I'm really liking Herman Cain. I like that he doesn't have a lot of political experience, if any, on the national level. I like that he has run a business. I like that he didn't come from a wealthy family. I like that he doesn't make race an issue. I like that he is fresh.

While I'm not sure if I like the 9-9-9 plan for a permanent thing, it would get us started in the right direction. Then hopefully we could proceed to a fair tax. That just seems sensible. At least he has a plan and wants to overhaul the current system.

He is good in the debates too. I hope that he at least gets the VP nomination, if not the presidential one. We need something new for the Republican party.The thing is that I feel a connected with Cain's "everyman" image, as one writer called it (sorry I don't remember where it was from though). But I don't really feel a connection with Perry, who is weak on the border, with Gingrich, who just seems too old (I know that's plain stupid of me), with Romney, who holds different religious views that me (though that doesn't mean he wouldn't run the country well), or with Bachmann, even though she is a woman. I'm not going to even address the other candidates because I don't know that much about them and they don't have large numbers in the polls.

And I respect Cain- in one of the debates the candidates were asked who they would pick for a VP. At least half of the ten wouldn't give an answer. But Cain did- he said Romney or Gingrich. Because of that, I think he is a straightforward guy, and I like that. Will he get my vote? Time will tell.

http://www.hermancain.com/h 

Homecoming Week

It's homecoming week at school, and with that comes spirit days. Back in high school, as a cheerleader, I LOVED every spirit day. Dressing up is just too fun- clash day, cowboy day, Hawaiian day, retro day, etc... the creativity is never ending.One of the days this week is class theme day, and since I'm the sophomore class advisor, I got to wear Sponge-bob themed outfit. I took this quite seriously.

We only had one box at home that I could really fit into to wear. I wasn't happy with the shape of the box, but I went to Wal-mart and Dollar Tree and neither had any boxes for me. So I went with one we had that was a little too square. I cut holes first for my head (and man, my head is bigger than I thought) and for my arms. Then I had to paint a few coats of yellow and orange to add depth. After that, I sprayed white for the shirt and eyes, and then brownish-gray for the pants. I definitely used a picture to refer to when I drew the face on. To finish it off, I added black lines with puffy paint. Score! A sweet costume!

At lunch time, I walked around and got some stares, though most people just thought that it was neat that I would actually go all out. (Today, I actually heard that a kid saw me and wanted to get a picture with me but he was too scared to ask- that's pretty hilarious!)

I kinda feel like a kid again in grandma's craft room when I make a costume like this. :)

Still bouquets

Among many things I don't like about California, I do appreciate the weather and the fact that I still have fresh flowers in October. I've had a few zinnia plants that I grew from see over the last month, and they are finally producing super cute button-size flowers. As I have several plants, a variety of colors livens up my dinner table. Light pink, hot pink, normal pink, fuchsia, yellow-gold and orange all make an appearance. I love them!

Here's a few pictures:

In school news, I finally finished grading essays, and I am completely caught up with grades... wow. That like NEVER happens. The end of the quarter is next week, and then we go on a week break between quarters. While I am looking forward to the break, I don't stressed at all, which is a huge change from last year. I have to say, it's quite nice to feel like I have my life back. :)

A First for Spike

When we came home from church tonight, a surprise was waiting for us. A small mouse on the porch. Poor thing, it was just laying there limp... apparently Spike had gotten to it earlier and left it on the porch.

Spike appeared again, and began playing with the poor little mouse. Seriously, he just throws it up and down and pounces on it, and then slaps it around with his paws. While I feel bad for the mouse, I am uber abundantly excited that Spike is learning to feed himself. That first six weeks or so of canned cat food is just more than I wanted to invest. We just switched to dry food this week, which is much more reasonable in price. But really, I wanted a cat partially to keep the varmints away from the house. Being in the country, we seem to have quite a few.

Next step, gophers!

I'm just hoping I don't have a mouse skeleton on the porch in the morning...