Watch this!

This weekend we rented the movie Matian Child. I remember wanting to see it when it was in the theaters, but it came and went before I got a chance.

What a great movie! First off, it was only about 90 minutes, which in my mind is the perfect movie length.

But on top of that it was such a feel good story about a man whose wife died and how he comes to adopt this boy who is "not normal". Throughout the movie they ask the questions: what is normal? Is it good to be like everybody else? Why not be yourself? How true!

I do not know why this movie was not more popular in theaters, maybe because it wasn't a fast paced action movie???

If you are in the mood for a feel good movie, definatley rent this. I hope you like it as much as I did!

San Fran- Days 2-4

Ok, so I am going to post the rest of my trip all in one post. I am not too good at keeping up with this yet!

Lombard Street- the curviest road (in the world- I think). We took a trolley to get here, but got off too soon, so we had quite an uphill walk to actually get there. Cars line up to take turns driving down the road. I wonder what the people who actually live on the road think?

Sea Lions basking at Pier 39- the weekend we were there, they had a big "festival" to mark the 18th anniversary of when the sea lions came to the pier and took it over as their home. There were tons of them just basking in the sun and barking. Cute!

Ghirardelli Square- Mmmm chocolate. I went here alone one morning, because I had to get some chocolate. I got a bag of ghirardelli chocolate squares (the milk chocoalte and caramel ones are the best). Then I went to a cute place called "Kara's Cupcakes". It was a tiny cupcake shop, and they had the best unique cupcakes ever! I had a banana caramel cupcake. It had melted caramel inside. Mmmmm

Golden Gate Bridge- I did not have time to actually go across the bridge, but while I was at Ghirardelli (and also at Alcatraz) I got a good view of it and snapped some decent pictures. Next time I will have to get across it.

Me on a trolley- This was the one and only time I rode the trolley when it was not a complete zoo! So the trolley operator in the back offered to take my picture. Such a touristy thing to do, but it had to be done. Riding the trolley was so much fun. You could get to almost every sightseeing spot, and other fun places, by trolley.

Painted Lady Houses- Nothing much to see in this part of town, except these famous houses. You may remember them best from the opening scene from the show Full House. They are really pretty and well kept up houses. There is a cute little park called Alamo Square right across the street and that is where we snapped these pics from.

Haight Ashbury- the old "hippy town". Did some shopping, and people watching here. Not quite as "hippy" as it once was. Lots of used clothing stores and gift shops. Lots of quirky tshirt shops and shoes/purses to be found.

Dinner at Colibri- the four of us (Jenny, Kari, myself and Nicole) had a girls only dinner at a yummy Mexican restaurant close to our hotel. The food was really good.

Westing St. Francis- this is where we stayed. It was a beautiful hotel. My room was on the 12th floor (top floor) and was looking right out over union square (the plaza you see in the foreground). On most days there was an art fair/stands in the square, but the day I took this pic it was raining, so no one was out. My room was on the top floor, on the part where it indents in on the left side of the picture.

We also went to Chinatown, but my nightflash was not cooperating, so the pics are blurry.

Well, I could post a lot more pics, but this is a good summary. All the pics I took in the actual conference did not turn out too hot, flash photography in the hotel did not work too well. We did go to a lot of classes and brought a lot of new ideas back to our classrooms and school. I would love to go back to San Francisco again and spend more time walking around the town and seeing more sights.

San Francisco- Day 1

Here are my feet, on the streets of San Francisco!

After we landed, on time, we headed to our hotel, and grabbed a bite to eat at Maxwells, a cute little restaurant down the road from our hotel. Then it was off to Alcatraz for our nighttime tour! Here is a shot of Alcatraz as we were heading towards it on the boat. The boat ride over was great! We got to see the sun starting to set with the Golden Gate Bridge in the Background.
This is a neat shot of an old building on Alcatraz, and a unique tree next to it. The sun was going down pretty quickly, so I was lucky to capture this shot! we walked up the same roads the inmates would have walked up as we approached the prison. It was a creepy feeling.

Here is a fun picture of myself, Jenny and Nicole in one of the jail cells. The cells were no larger than my bathroom, and very depressing. I cannot imagine spending 10, 15, + years of my life locked up in one of those cells.

After the Alcatraz tour, we were running late meeting some of our co-workers for dinner. We tried to find a cab, but there were none to be found. On the sidewalks there were a bunch of these "bike cabs" lined up. They could only hold 3 people on the seat, but one guy insisted he could take 4. So we hopped on! What a ride! He definately got a workout hauling us. He was hillarious, singing and making animal sounds the whole ride. That is him in the green shirt in the photo.

After dinner we headed back to the hotel to get a good night sleep before the conference started on Saturday morning. We were going to grab a cab, but again did not see any. So we thought we would start walking and grab one when we saw one. Well, that turned into a 2+ mile walk, all uphill (and we are talking steep San. Fran. hills!) back to the hotel. Some of us loved it, others were not so happy that they had power walkers speed walking and running up the hills ahead of them. It felt so good to be outside, walking and in the fresh air! My legs hurt the next morning, but it was worth it!

So, that ends day one of our trip. More to come on days 2-4.

I Am Going Here

In 3 days I will be here.

Yes, San Francisco. A place where I can walk outside and not have my nose hairs freeze within 3 seconds.
Considering the windchills here in MN are supposed to be -30 to -40 this weekend, 50-60 degrees will feel quite tropical!
A group of six of us from school are going to S.F. to attend the Brain Expo conference over the weekend. I am excited to go and learn new ideas from some well known people in the education field, and also see some sights.
On Friday we are going to see Alcatraz, and I also hope to ride on a cable car and see some other fun things like Chinatown, the Fishermans Wharf and the Golden Gate Bridge.
Ryan tells me he is going to drive my new car when I am gone. I told him I am going to buy "The Club" to immobilize my car so he cannot use it. Pretty funny huh? When is the last time you saw someone using "The Club"? Or even heard anyone talk about it for that matter.
His response was "well, I am going to put a box cutter in your carry on then."
Not quite as funny as my idea.
Hopefully I will see some cool things and get some good pictures.

Book Club

Today a group of teachers I work with at school started a book club/study group focusing on Lucy Calkins book The Art of Teaching Reading. I have been in kind of a rut with my reading class, and have been trying to do some new things to keep the kids (and myself) energized about reading. We will be meeting once a month for the rest of the school year. It is so nice to have the chance to get together with other teachers and work together to get something done and make positive changes. I love reading and hope to instill the love of books and reading adventures into the lives of my students as well.

New Car

I got a new car! I have had a total of five cars (including this one) since I got my license at age 16, and this is my first "new" one. The others were all new to me, but still used cars. I am a loyal Toyota owner (my past two cars have both been Toyota Camry's) so it only made sense to stick with what works! My new car is a 2008 Toyota Camry. It is black, with grey leather interior. It has lots of fun gadgets like heated seats, sunroof, back up camera, navigation system and an ipod hookup built in. It is so much fun to drive it. I must admit I was very sad to leave my old Camry at the dealership. It looked so sad sitting there. It was a good car to me for over 5 years, hopefully now someone else can enjoy it.

WILD Game

Ryan and I went to the WILD hockey game on January 3rd! We won the tickets from a silent auction at the Wags to Whiskers benefit we went to for the Home For Life Sanctuary. The game was really fun, and to top it off the WILD won! It was the first WILD game either of us have been to, and we hope to go again soon. Go WILD!