Animals as best friends

Sometimes the furry critters are your best friends. (I know many don't understand.)

No matter what you do or think of yourself, they see the real you.

Your family and friends may not be liking you.

The world in which you move may be hateful and unyielding.

You may find that you are swimming upstream or running into walls.

It doesn't matter. Your furry friend is always there for you and waiting for you. Mine was my savior these last two years. These last two years have been the roughest in my life on many levels and he was the one constant I had who held no judgments. (I know many have worse.)

Despite enjoying NECC with my son and delivering a good poster session, I just wanted to hug my furry friend but he is no longer here. I miss him terribly. (Too many emotions buried deep just keep surfacing.)

Getting ready for NECC

I can't believe I leave in about 4 days (spending a little time with my SIL before heading to the conference.) My session description can be found here.

Accomplished:

1. Printed my NECC planner. If I could clone myself, I could actually be in all the places at the same time.
2. Printed all hotel info.
3. Added all other events that I have to my planner.
   
4. Decided where I could carve out some free time in the planner for sanity.
5. Added more information and a discussion to my NECC ning page.

Still to finish:

1. Finishing touches on the powerpoint for the session.
2. Tweaks to the background for bulletin board.
3. Packing up all the assorted materials (handouts, business cards, clips to hang up the background...)
4. Creating a packing list (while I am thinking about it all...)

After the training last week on the ITSI portal from the Concord Consortium, I feel a little rushed. The training however was great and worth the time. Met some great people and had fun and laughs.

Looking forward to meeting up with other educators and sharing!

Tags: ITSI, concord consortium, NECC, wiki, wikicentral

Shooting skeet

Shooting skeet, originally uploaded by hurricanemaine.

Moving target practice. Needless to say, there is no picture of me doing this - I am awful at it. Ryan does a great job and has improved so much over the years. It was fun to watch and try...

How does your garden grow?

How does your garden grow?, originally uploaded by hurricanemaine.

So fat not too much work and growing really well. There will be a time though when there will be more weeding, picking, canning, and freezing. But, it still makes me happy.

Lesson plans

Lesson plans, originally uploaded by hurricanemaine.

Last week of lesson plans. Can sure use the break!

Birthday sombrero

Birthday sombrero, originally uploaded by hurricanemaine.

Yesterday was Mike's 44th birthday. Now he can't really say I am older as we are the same number. While he excused himself, I told the waiter it was his birthday. Later during the dinner, he told us we had better not think about having them sing to him. Oops - too late. He was a big sport anyway, sombrero and all!

Trillium

Trillium, originally uploaded by hurricanemaine.

Have not seen these since Michigan where they are becoming rare and I think are protected. Beautiful!

New peeps!

New peeps!, originally uploaded by hurricanemaine.

New additions ot the farm family!

Son taught himself green screen

Son taught himself green screen, originally uploaded by hurricanemaine.

...using Vegas movie studio, a digital camera, and green fabric. Can't wait to see what he does with a HD DVD video camera (getting for his birthday) and some lights. That's my buddy.