24 March 2008

Happy Spring!

The Tillison's hosted Easter this year up in Farmington, MN. A nice 4.5 hr drive from Madison, WI! But well worth the trip! Chelle and Kyle did a great job with the Ham and Fish... but I was hoping for Kyle's World Famous Macaroni and Cheese with Peas... maybe next year. Mom, Da, Gram and Tami came up as well! It was just one big family gathering!

Here's a few of the photos I took!



Sibling love! Rob and Chelle!! (with a glimpse of my Mom in the background)


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Kayla (Oldest child) and Daddy (Kyle) relaxing after all the excitement of the day.



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Rhys (Middle child) with his thumb where it always is... in his mouth.



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Baby Tyler (Youngest child) with a huge smile on his face!
20 March 2008

Blogging at Work

You might be asking yourself... Why is Kris blogging at work? Isn't she supposed to be watching a room full of two year olds? What's going on?!

Well, I'm on a state mandated 1 hour break... and I felt like posting something. I really don't have anything in particular in mind, but we'll see where this goes.

I realize I haven't written about my classroom in a while. Well, I now have 12 two year olds. 12! :o It's more than a little insane, all the time! Luckily my co-teacher is there! I no longer believe "The Terrible Twos" as a myth... It is very much a reality of my everyday life! Now imagine that times 12! I seriously wonder how I come home sane most nights...

Although, they aren't "Terrible" all the time. And it is well worth the work we put into it to see how far they have come since they first came into our room. I just wish we could get past the biting, slapping, hitting and utter freak-outs over the lack of communication and social skills... Eventually all of our kids will be more verbal, and potty trained! But that's also the time they leave our room and we end up getting more... who are younger and lacking all the skills we just finished teaching the ones who left our room. It seems to be a neverending cycle.

Randomly, nothing having to do with work. I just started reading No Country for Old Men. I wanted to read the book before I see the movie. I already one of Cormac McCarthy's books called The Road, and I loved it. I've looked into some of his other books, but none caught my interest until I heard about this one. So far the story has been fast paced and adventurous!

Some other books on my docket at this time are:
Benighted
PS I Love You
Change of Heart
Pillars of the Earth

Those are the only ones I can remember at this point... but I know there are more. If you have a book suggestion I would love to hear it!

Some books I have read recently:
Germ: If You Breathe It, It Will Find You
Dexter in the Dark
The Road
I Am Legend
A Thousand Splendid Suns

Anyway, I better get back to work. My break is nearly over and I still need to go and fetch snack from the kitchen. Hope everyone has a nice day... and beware of that nasty snow we're supposed to be getting. :( NO SNOW!
19 March 2008

Random Post

I thought this was interesting, so I stole it from another persons blog!
It's obvious that some of the songs work, while others are quite questionable...

1. open your library (iTunes, winamp, media player, iPod)
2. put it on shuffle
3. press play
4. for every question, type the song that's playing
5. new question-- press the next button
6. don't lie and try to pretend you're cool

opening credits:
“Nothing Lasts Forever”—Maroon 5

waking up:
“Stop” - Matchbox Twenty

first day at school:
“I Wish You Well” - Josie and the Pussycats

falling in love:
“Push” - Matchbox Twenty

breaking up:
“If You're Gone” - Matchbox Twenty

prom:
“These Hard Times'” - Matchbox Twenty

life's okay:
“Follow Through” - Gavin DeGraw

mental breakdown:
“More Than Anyone” - Gavin DeGraw

driving:
“You're A Star” - Josie and the Pussycats

flashback:
“Meaning” - Gavin DeGraw

getting back together:
“Pretending to be Nice” - Josie and the Pussycats

wedding:
“Hidden Track” - Meiko

birth of child:
“You Don't See Me” - Josie and the Pussycats

final battle:
“Angels Weep” - Bascom Hill

death scene:
“Goodnight Goodnight” - Maroon 5

funeral song:
“What's a Boy to do” - Mat Kearney

end credits:
"Wait" - Mat Kearney

(Keep in mind I don't have much music on my computer at this time. I think there is a total of 5-6 albums... I just use the CD's more often and my hard drive is mostly dedicated to photos. Thus, I don't think this is a truly good collection of songs, but they'll have to do until sometime in the future when I do this once again)



By the way, I haven't been posting much due to serious issues with my computer. What are these issues you ask?! Well, my hard drive, which is mainly dedicated to photos, decided to malfunction. It's so bad that HP is sending me a new hard drive next week... :( Luckily most of my material on the computer has been saved to my external hard drive or Otto's computer. Yet, I mourn all the little things I forget about... My friend Chris has offered to backup all my information on one of his computers if I need. I'm seriously debating having him do this just in case...
17 March 2008
13 March 2008

Jodi Picoult

My Sister's Keeper
The Pact
Vanishing Acts

These are merely three books I have read by the author Jodi Picoult. I believe someone turned me onto My Sister's Keeper when they found out I loved to read, and had the time to delve into a good book. Shortly after I purchased it on a whim at a local bookstore. I absolutely fell in love with it! It made me laugh, it made me cry, and best of all it made me think! Anyone whoever asks me for a good book gets this one thrown at them! Thus, I decided to look into some of her other books. I randomly picked up The Pact and finished it in record time. Not exactly the happiest book, but again, it really had me thinking... Ethically and morally. Then, before I left Winona, I went to my favorite bookstore to have one last look around before my voyage to Madison. I picked up another one of her books and flew through it! I can definitely say I enjoy this author... although I will admit I haven't read everything she writes... and there are probably a few I won't ever pick up... I can still say I was extremely excited to find out she had published a new book and was going to be reading and discussing this book at Border's in Madison! I took my copy of My Sister's Keeper and bought her new book Change of Heart. The store was packed when I got there so I had to stand the entire time... not bad; she's a charismatic person! She read the first chapter of her book and then went on to answer questions from how she got started in writing to how controversial some of her material is to who her favorite characters are. After she sat at a table and you could bring up as many books as you wanted her to sign. They had a great system set up at the store. They handed out raffle tickets and called groups of numbers at a time so they never had a huge line to manage in the store, and when you were in line it went extremely fast! From the end of the line to meeting the author was only a 10min wait! I even got a photo!!!



If anyone ever has a chance to meet her, take the time! She's GREAT!