Yes, I cooked... and no one died lol

Mmmmm......

I don't often cook, because well, I don't like cooking and frankly, I'm not very good at it having never been allowed in the kitchen when my mother was cooking (that's a blog for another time...when I have LOTS of time haha). But I've been checking in with a few cooking blogs lately and dabbling a bit more in the kitchen (Who know that that thing under the stove is a broiler, not just another place to stash those unused pots and pans!).

I decided to try Parmesan chicken tonight with spaghetti and a salad. Hubby was gone all weekend with the Navy and I knew from a cell phone call that he wasn't having the best of times, so I decided to try to have a nice dinner ready for him when he got home. Normally for dinner either he grills or we go out so it is rare that I do anything other than a couple of casseroles that I have under my belt or spaghetti and meat sauce so I thought I'd start easy and just make my old standby of spaghetti and not add the ground beef to the sauce (from a jar lol- let's not get crazy here) then add the chicken as well.

It turned out really well and I'm quite proud of myself :) I'll have to add this to my very short cooking repertoire. Just patting myself on the back here...

Team in Training update

It's been a little while now so I thought I should update you on how I am doing with my fourth season with Team in Training - The 2009 Disney Marathon.

My training could be going a lot better. The team has had 4 trainings so far. Week 1 I only walked because I was going to a Capoeira class afterwards and running a 10K the next day. Perfectly good reasons to slack a bit at group practice because believe me, I worked my tail off at class and in the 10K the next day. That week I trained well on my own as well and got in a few 2-3 mile runs and another capoeira class. Week 2 was a 40 minute group training. I did well. I was running with a bigger group of other alumni doing 4:1's (running four minutes and walking a minute...then repeat numerous times). We even managed to get a negative split. We went out 20 minutes and turned around and were back at the start in slightly under 20 minutes (OK, so it was only about 30 seconds under but it was UNDER making our second split faster than our first by 30 seconds!). That week I was OK for a while. I got in a good run and weight workout on Monday, ran again on Tuesday, and by Wednesday I was feeling...off. Not sick exactly just exhausted and not right. I fought it all week but come time for Saturday morning practice I decided that I really shouldn't push it. It would be better to miss an early practice where the miles aren't too long rather than miss, and try to make up on my own, an 18 mile run! So I stayed home and slept, hoping to fight off whatever it was that I was fighting. It seemed to work and by Monday I felt fine again. I again got in a great run and weight workout on Monday, used Tuesday as a rest day and planned on going to Capoiera on Wednesday. However, I never made it to capoeira (Chris wasn't feeling well, I had a ton of homework, it was storming, excuses, excuses, excuses) and by Thursday I was sick. Full blown, all out, down right sick. Headache. Congested head. Alternating running or stuffy nose. Sneezing. Coughing. Yep, my sinuses had kicked in full force. I loaded up on the nose spray, Clairitin, and OJ and did my best to make it through work the rest of the week. This morning I woke up and contemplated not going to practice again, but despite my body's better judgement, I went "just to see." I ended up walking 4 miles rather than running the 5 miles I should have, but I figure they should just be happy I was mobile at all! Eventually I'll kick this and kick it in gear!

That's me in the middle with my ponytail swinging during week 2 group training!

Unlike my training, my fundraising is going well. I have just over $1,200 so I'm almost 1/2 way to my goal of $3,000! This has been mostly due to wonderful friends and family who have donated to the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society on behalf of my Team in Training efforts. I also have raised quite a bit on my fundraising CafePress store (www.cafepress.com/trisomethingnew). So far the store has been my only fundraising endeavor other than my letter-writing campaign where I mailed out 100 letters or so to close friends and family, and those not so close whose address I happened to have, asking for a donation. Next week I am planning a car wash with some other members of my team so hopefully we will make some money then too! If you still haven't donated and want to (or if you have but want to donate more) you can always just visit http://pages.teamintraining.org/cfl/wdw09/nalbritton and make a secure online donation (it can even be anonymous!) The site won't show that I am up to $1,200 quite yet because I just mailed the rest of the checks in, so give it a little time to catch up!

Wish me luck with kicking this sinus infection so I can get back to kicking asphalt! Thanks to everyone who has supported me through donations, well wishes, and prayers!!

The day I cried

Yes, I cried today. I didn't mean to cry, it wasn't planned, but I am not ashamed of it. My co-teacher and I both cried in front of a classroom full of wide-eyed 6th graders, and for me at least, it wasn't the first time I cried in front of a room full of sixth grade students.

If you look at the date, you probably know what made us cry, it's 9/11, seven years after the terror attacks.

This morning, My co-teacher Jonathon and I began retelling the events that took place in New York, Washington, and PA that day. He was in California at the time and I was in SW Florida. The kids were amazed to see how it affected everyone across the nation in much the same way, even if we didn't know someone who was actually in one of the four planes, the towers, or the pentagon that day. They of course, were too little to remember much of anything about what happened that day other than what people have told them and had many questions. Many didn't realize that there were actually four planes, not just the two that hit the towers. Other's didn't realize that their were passengers on the planes or that some people were able to make phone calls to loved ones before the unthinkable happened. They didn't know that brave firefighters and police risked their lives to help save others whom they didn't even know, or that we all banded together as a nation and waved flags, cheered our heroes, and mourned our dead.

It is interesting to note that in 2001 on September 11th, I was teaching a 6th grade class and here I am 7 years later in front of another 6h grade class telling them about that day. Everyone always says you will remember exactly where you were when you heard the news and I am sure that is true for those of us who lived it that day. I was standing at my classroom door welcoming my homeroom students to another wonderful day of middle school when a colleague came up to me and told me to turn on the TV, that an airplane had just crashed into one of the twin towers. I turned around and turned on the TV that usually just showed the morning announcements. I didn't have to look for a station that was showing it, they were all showing it. Replaying it again and again and the reporters were trying to figure out what was going on when suddenly behind them, a second plane hit the second tower.

I remember feeling such shock, fear, and confusion as I tried to work it out in my own head what was happening all the while knowing that I was responsible for the 6th graders in my room. I knew I couldn't lose it, but honestly, I was in too much shock to "lose it," I just stared at the screen now replaying the second crash. I didn't know if I really wanted the kids to see this, but I couldn't turn it off either.

I'm not sure that the kids really completely got it at first, so two planes just hit a building on the other side of the country...big deal. Some of them though, noticed me and commented that I looked scared or pale. Homeroom was only about 20 minutes long normally, just long enough to get any announcements or details of the day worked out prior to starting the school day. We didn't change classes for a while on that day. I think every TV in the school was on and every student, teacher, custodian, cafeteria worker, and everyone else stopped as we watched in shock as a third plane hit the pentagon then later reports of a fourth plane crashing in a Pennsylvania field.

Personally, I was running a list of everyone I knew through my head. Did I know where everyone was? Could any of them be in New York or Washington? What about on those planes, or another plane? Where were my friends from high school and college that I had lost contact with? Where were my friends in the military? Faces and names whirled through my head and my heart, but somehow I was able to keep it together for my students, although, that was the first day that 6th graders saw me cry.

I am not ashamed to say that thinking of those events still gets to me seven years later. The terror that I felt that day had to be nothing compared to those on the planes, in the towers and the pentagon, and those nearby. I ask myself if I would have been strong enough and brave enough to stand up to terrorist and face my own death to help crash a plane that I knew was about to crash into another unknown American building and kill and injure passably thousands more. Could I have run into a falling building to save people I didn't even know? I don't know. I hope I could have the faith and inner strength to do it, but I just don't know. I am thankful that God has placed people strong enough to do that on this earth. All I knew at that moment was a strong sense to hug every one of those confused sixth graders in my care, for my sake as much as theirs.

Capoeira

Hubby and I went to our first (ok, MY first, his first in a long time) Capoeira class. WOW! Yep, that about sums it up, just WOW! It was really hard and I ended up using pretty much all the muscles I knew I had and then a few I didn't even know were there, but it was so much fun! If you have no idea what Capoeria is, first go check out a few videos on YouTube. Just punch in "Capoeria" and there will be a bunch! This one is really cool, and I like this one too, but I think the main reason I like it is because it's a kick-ass girl!

From my understanding (and someone please correct me if my info isn't quite correct), Capoeira originates in Brazil where slaves weren't allowed to practice any form of martial arts. So, those sneeky Brazillian slaves disguised thier fights as dances and thus Capoeira was born.

This was a free demo class given by a guy Hubby met online who is starting to give classes. THe problem is that the only place he is having classes is about 45 minutes from our house on Saturday mornings. 45 mins sucks, and Saturdays are when I have my marathon training runs, there is NO way I can get into both on the same day. Luckily, he was able t give us the number ofa girl who gives classes a little closer to us and on several days throughout the week, so who knows, this could become a habit!

Today was also the first day of group training for Team in Training. Knowing I was going to go to this class with my hubby, and that I have a 10K tomorrow, I only walked. Trust me, I got plenty of exercise at Capoeira, and tomorrow I'll run 6.2 miles (or if my muscles ae still ticked off at me from today, I'll waddle for 6.2 miles).

For now, I'm going to go soak my poor poor muscles!

RUNRAVEL

As a Special Education teacher, I often see students who struggle with longer reading passages which have comprehension questions which they must answer. Students who struggle with the very act of reading don't know how to attack a passage and be successful with it. Here is a strategy called RUNRAVEL that I have used with both special education students as well as basic ed. students:

R read through the questions first.
U underline the title and look at the pictures.
N now predict.
R run through and number the paragraphs.
A are the important words circled?
V venture through the story.
E eliminate obvious wrong answers.
L let's prove our answers.

The first things the students need to do is to flip to the back and read the questions first. The main reasons they need to read the questions before ever reading the story is so that they know what to look for while reading. Good readers attack reading differently when they are reading for pleasure than when they are reading for information. If you are reading for information, you need to know what information it is that you are looking for. Reading the questions first will let the students know what information they will need in order to answer the questions.

After they have read the questions, students underline the title. This is mainly to get the students to actually read the title. Many times students jump right into the story and never even look at the title which often gives many clues to what the story is about. After they have read and underlined the title, they quickly flip through and look at all the pictures.

The title and the pictures should give them plenty of info to make a prediction on what they think the story will be about. This can be done either orally, written in the margin or however you want. Predicting is an important skill that students will need to know how to do as they progress through school.

The students should number the paragraphs so that later on when they are proving their answers, they can quickly and easily list what paragraph they found the answer in.

Important words can be names, dates, numbers, places, etc. that seem like they may be important in the story. Students should quickly skim and either circle or underline words that they think may be important. Often students need to be taught how to skim because they don't know how to quickly run their eyes over a passage without actually (slowly) reading it. As with predicting, this will get the student's brain ready to read.

When students venture through the passage, they actually read it. Rather than jumping right to this step, all the previous steps makes students slow down a bit and prepares their brain to comprehend what they are reading.

After they have finally read the passage, as they are answering questions, students should be taught how to identify and "throw out" any obvious wring answers. For example, in a multiple choice question, there are typically 1 or 2 answer choices that are way off base. If students can mentally toss those out, they are left with only two possible answers leaving them a better chance of figuring out the correct one.

Proving answers means the students go back into the story and actually FIND the answers rather than guess at answers they think they remember. The answer, or the clues used to come up with the answer can be underlined in the text with the question number circled next to it. The paragraph number can be placed next to the question so that you can easily find their proof. By making them prove their answers, they are less likely to get questions wrong, and you can easily see why they may have chosen the answer that they did.

This strategy has worked very well for students of all abilities and walks of life. It has worked so well that I thought I would pass it along to anyone who may be interested in helping a child with reading homework!

Fay, Fay, Go away...

Rain, Rain,
Go Away,
Come again some other....well...scratch that...
You don't have to come back ever again!

Tropical Storm Fay has hit, and apparenty she likes my little area of Florida so much that she has decided to stay a while - and like a bad houseguest, she just doesn't get the hint when it is time for her to leave. Even though TS Fay was a slow moving storm from the get-go, Fay has seriously not moved all night! It started raining Tuesday morning and with the exception of the couple of hours on Wednesday morning when we were in the eye of the storm, it has rained solidly since. The news is reporting that we have had over 24 inches of rain so far, and there is more to come. A little further south of us has had over 30 inches already! They (the powers-that-be who understand these kinds of things) are now predicting that Fay will (hopefully) have moved on by tomorrow morning, but of course there is no guarantee, she was supposed to have been gone by yesterday after all. And let's not forget that Hurricane Charley a few years ago was supposed to hit Tampa as a Cat 2 but instead turned into a Cat 4 and slammed into Punta Gorda where we were living at the time. Do I seem like a storm magnet or what??

Fay first hit land in the Keys, then it hit land again in Naples, it exited Florida right over myhouse (haha) and is now heading back onto land to hit land just north of here. So far that's 3 landfalls in Florida! The weatherman on TV just posed the question, "Wouldn't it be amazing if it went over into the Gulf and back into the Florida Panhandle?" Uhmm No, amazing wouldn't be my word for it.

My back yard is flooded. Hubby announced that in walking from the porch to the shed this morning water was coming up over his boots (not cowboy boots, but military-style boots so that is still pretty high). On the other end of our yard where it slopes it is probaby at least calf high!


The sides of the road in front of my house have turned into swift moving parallel rivers where you can't tell where the road ends and the ditches begin in many places making most people who drive down my street drive down the middle where they can actually see the road. This is definately a concern for anyone who has to drive. Luckily, school has been canceled for the past 3 days and I just got the notice that it will be closed tomorrow too due to all of the flooding also so I don't have to go anywhere. However, Hubby just took 4 garbage bags of clothes/socks/towels/blankets that we gathers from around our house to the Red Cross so I am hoping that he makes the 4 miles to the center and then home again safely. He wouldn't have gone out at all except that we really felt the Red Cross center could use these things that we aren't using... and he has a big redneck truck haha!




My Aunt and Uncle called us last night to check on us and I assured here that we were doing well and still had power. I may have jinxed myself since not 20 minutes later our power went out and stayed out for nearly 14 hours! Luckily it was night and once we started up our generator (strickly for the fridge so we don't loose all the food we just bought) we were able to sleep through most of it. We camp a lot so we have plenty of flashlights, lanterns, and roughing-it-type-supplies.


Although we have a lot of water in the yard which is driving all the creepy-crawlies into the house, at least we have no damage to the house or vehicles as of yet. Having been through a Cat. 4 not too long ago, this seems like nothing more than a mild annoyance and I thank God that He has spared us one again from any life-threatening situations. It's all in perspective :)

Seeing the world through Elizabeth's eyes

A little while ago, a friend of mine, Elizabeth, wrote this blog that really got me thinking about the beauty around me and really seeing all that is around me. So many times we miss the truly extraordinary because we don't take the time to slow down and really SEE the wondrous sights there are all around us.

I work with disabled children on a daily basis and have no problem whatsoever seeing the beauty and wonders that lay within each precious child, so why is it so hard to see the beauty and wonders in my own life tat are right outside my front door?

I decided to grab my camera and take a walk outside in my yard to see what little pieces of Heaven I could find and these are the miracles that found me:

and I finally decided that this:


is where I think I would like to plant some pineapples to remind me of Elizabeth's blog which will in turn hopefully remind me to look for God's beauty everywhere on a more daily basis... not to mention eventually give us some yummy pineapples!

Hello, my name is... Michelle??

For the longest time, if someone mistakenly calls me by a name other than my own, it is probably going to be "Michelle." Why is this I wonder? My grandmother's second husband, Al, used to call me Michelle because he had a granddaughter named Michelle so it was a regular slip of the tongue. I got a High School graduation gift from a friend of my parents addressed to "Michelle" (I had to call and make sure it was for me before I opened it!), and once in a conversation on what names people look like, someone told me,without knowing my history of being called Michelle, that I look like a Michelle. I even wrote in my Senior memory book "I think I should name my daughter Michelle since everyone calls me that."

My neighbor just stopped over to ask my husband to help him move a refrigerator from his truck into his house. Since Hubby is on night shift and had crawled into bed only moments before the knock on the door came, and he wanted to pull on a shirt on before going to help. While he was changing, my neighbor, who I have lived next to and known for 3 years now, says to me, "So how've you been, Michelle?" When I smiled and corrected him, he just laughed and said, "I did it again, didn't I? I called you Michelle when I first met you too didn't I?" His daughter and I have the same name so why he messes up my name is a mystery to us all.

So why "Michelle"?? Should I have been named Michelle? I was adopted, but I've even asked my biological mother and had she kept me, she was going to name me either Lynnlee (a combo of her name and my biological father's) or Amy Elizabeth (Which she ended up using several years later when she had my sister). So no "Michelle" there.

One of my best friends recently changed her name. She always hated her name and was never to thrilled with the person who both named her nor the one she was named after. A certain name kept popping into her head and eventually she just finally went and legally changed her name. She's never been happier, and her name now suits her.

I don't want to change my name. I actually love my name, the people who named me, and who I am named after (even if I don't always get along with her - lol). In fact, if/when I ever have a daughter, I plan on passing down a part of my name to her.

I just wonder... why "Michelle"?

My reasons to run AGAIN

Nearly five years ago my family got a life changing shock. We learned that my father has cancer. He wasn't told he has just any old cancer, he has Mantle Cell Lymphoma, a very aggressive, hard to treat, terminal form of blood cancer. He was told he probably only had about 3 years to live, but he decided from day one that he was going to fight. As a "Daddy's Girl" it has been particularly hard on me to see my rock have to fight for his very life.

Then, not long after that, in November of 2004, I had yet another blow. I received a phone call right before I had to go to work. My step brother, Carl, was in the hospital fighting for his life. A tumor no one knew he had suddenly crushed his windpipe and made it impossible for him to breath on his own. He had also been diagnosed with Lymphoma. Seeing him lying in a hospital bed with breathing tubes was a hard pill to swallow. Here was the boy who only a few years before had looked up at me with innocent eyes and asked me "Can I call you my big sister too?"

Both my dad and Carl are doing great. Daddy, beating the odds, is still terminal yet still fighting and refusing to give up. He's gone through chemo, radiation, experimental drugs, a stem cell transplant, and in January was lucky enough to receive a bone marrow transplant thanks to an anonymous donor. Carl is in remission and is living life as a normal seventeen year old boy, complete with driver's license and girlfriend!

However, the circle of life continues and every day someone else receives the terrifying news that they or a loved one has been diagnosed with a blood cancer such as leukemia, lymphoma, or myeloma. Only a short while ago, a dear friend of mine e-mailed with the news that her fiance, Dominic, had been diagnosed with Lymphoma and was beginning treatments the following day.

It is for this reason that I am continuing my personal battle against these diseases by continuing to be a part of Leukemia and Lymphoma Society's Team in Training. Team in Training fund raises for LLS while training to complete endurance events such as marathons, triathlons, and century bike rides. The money raised by Team in Training athletes goes towards funding the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society's mission: to find a cure for blood cancers and to improve the quality of life of patients and their families. This season will be my fourth season with this amazing group and I will be training to complete the Disney half marathon in January 2009. More than 823,000 Americans are battling blood cancers. I am hoping that my participation in Team In Training will help bring them hope and support.

Alex, a teenager in Titusville who is in remission from Leukemia, will be our team's honorary coach. Alex has worked with Team in Training for many years and is a great inspiration to all of us as we train and run our events. His smiling face is a great sight at the finishline.

My goal is to raise $3,000 or more by this Christmas. While I plan to have many fundraising events such as garage sales and bucket drops, I am also asking for the help of my family and friends. If it is within your means and in your hearts to do so, please make a tax deductible donation to the Leukemia and Lymphoma society in support of my efforts by visiting

http://pages.teamintraining.org/cfl/wdw09/nalbritton

Every penny helps and there is no gift that is too small. If you would like to see your company's logo or a personal message on the back of the jerseys of ALL the Central Florida Team in Training athletes by becoming a corporate sponsor, please let me know!

I will of course put the web site on my list of favorites on the sidebar!

How many push ups can YOU do?

To answer my own question : NOT MANY...yet. I came across hundredpushups.com and thought "maybe I can do this... maybe." According to the website, if you are faithful and determined, by the end of 6 weeks you should be able to complete 100 consecutive good form push-ups. I have always hated, despised, abhorred, and loathed push ups. I'll do any other torturous exercise known to man except for push-ups. Even the girlie-on-your-knees push-ups suck. However, I really do need do work on upper body strength and how cool would it be to be able to brag to my military hubby that I can do 100 push ups? So I shall start this program, in addition to my running, to help with my upper body strength. My only consern at this stage in the game is my rotator cuffs/shoulders. Due to an old injury...well... they aren't as stong as I'd like them to be. But we'll see how it goes. Hopefully the push-ups will strengthen them as well.

For anyone who is interested in this site, either who want more info on it or what to maybe join the challenge with me, the link is of course in this post, but I will also add it to my favorite links over there on the sidebar!