Handel's Messiah

For the month of December, I will be teaching our ladies at church about George Fredrick Handel and his oratorio "Messiah".

Did you know....

• Handel was born in Germany
• His father wanted him to be a lawyer (Handel only lasted about 1 year in training)
• He moved to Italy to try his hand at musical composition in the Italian style
• At age 26, Handel moved to England, had some success and became a citizen
• By the late 1730's, he struggled with debt
• In 1737 he pushed himself and composed 4 operas in 12 months - ended up having a stroke
• Defied the doctors diagnosis and returned to composing operas
• Still in deep debt and depression
• Charles Jennens wrote the manuscript that Handel put into music
• Handel's Messiah was written in about 24 days (over 50 songs)
• It takes about 3 hours to listen to the whole oratorio

Although I love the Mormon Tabernacle Choir's rendition of Handel's Messiah, here is a great video of the Hallelujah Chorus in a food court.  Just goes to show how powerful this music can be...where ever it is sung!

The Challenges of an 18 Year Old

Last week my oldest boy turned 18.  One of his remarks was:

"I am now officially an adult"

What I don't understand is why can't my "adult" son finish one college application????

There is nothing more I can say...

The Christa McAuliffe Technology Conference

Today I attended the CMTC in Manchester, NH.  For those of you that don't know the name Christa McAuliffe, she was the New Hampshire "teacher in space" astronaut that died on the launching of the Space Shuttle Challenger.

Even if you couldn't attend the conference, the website has some great links used by the presenters.

Move Over Pumpkins!

Here is a new way to play with your food.  Which one is your favorite?

9 Ways to Get a Hub Cap on the Airplane

Holidays are suppose to be joyous and happy times. Unfortunately, Thanksgiving is a holiday that can be hard on our family - because our oldest is 3000 miles away.  For the past two years Brittney has had to find friends who will take her in so she wouldn't be alone for the holiday.  This year was to be no diffferent, until this past Saturday night when I found an airplane ticket that we could afford (well, kind of).  Within 24 hours, Brittney was home!

While Brittney was at school this fall, she lost one hub cap on her car.  Not a big deal, but annoying.  As it turned out, we have an extra one here at home, but never got around to mailing it off to her.  So, now that she is home we have been trying to figure out different ways for her to take the hub cap back on the plane to Utah.

The following are 9 Ways to Get a Hub Cap on the Airplane...

#9. Tell security it is your hard hat.

#8. Tell security you're a Gladiator.



#7. Tell security it's part of your ethnic attire.




#6. Tell Security you are the Chiquita Banana Lady.



#5. Explain to security that it is your "bling", man. I mean, doesn't everyone have a necklace like this???

#4. Tell security you're tired of airplane food (or rather no food at all on a cross country flight) and you are bringing your own.

#3. Tell security that you are a transformer.

#2. Explain to security that you are in an "Ultimate Frisbe Contest".

 And finally, the Number 1 way to bring a hub cap on the plane....

Just Tell the truth!

Wow, it sure is fun to have Brittney home!

I say Plymouth you say Plimouth

Here is a link to a great site from Scholastic about the first Thanksgiving.  It includes videos of the "passengers" of the Mayflower.

http://www.scholastic.com/scholastic_thanksgiving/voyage/

My First YouTube

This is an assignment I made for my Master's class.  It is a book trailer for "Night Wings" by Joseph Bruchac.  The book is one of the Great Stone Face contenders for 2010-2011. 

iPad Anyone?

I just got back from a 4 hour class on using an iPad.  My head is swimming and trying to make sense of it all.

One disappointment with it already is that you can't hook it up to an overhead projector.  Hopefully that is the only disappointment - in the mean time, here is a college student's point of view...
http://gigaom.com/apple/pros-cons-ipad-education/

3 New Students

Our little school of 150 just grew by 3 today! 
Here is a link on how to make new students feel welcome.

http://www.howtodothings.com/education/how-to-welcome-a-new-student-in-your-class

Pumpkin Post

I know that Halloween is over, but I’m intrigued with a couple of pumpkins we bought from the Knights of Columbus pumpkin stand.  I picked out the grey-blue pumpkins because they had character.  I was delighted when I started carving into one to find that the flesh is almost a florescent orange.  I was also amazed to find out that the skin was thin (but waxy hard) and the flesh was very thick.  This lent itself to carving a different way than I am use to.  Actually, my way of carving is using a power drill and making lots of holes all over…but that is a different pumpkin post.

Here are some sites to see real pumpkin art:

http://www.pumpkingutter.com/

http://inventorspot.com/articles/pumpkin_art

My favorite… http://www.extremepumpkins.com/

Procrastination and Proposals

So, I am suppose to be writing a Grant Proposal for my Master's class.  That means today instead I: washed windows, did 2 loads of laundry, raked up 2 wheel barrels full of acorns, planted 32 spring bulbs, had my windshield replaced, went grocery shopping and now writing on my blog. Who would have thought begging for money would be so difficult. 

I think I will go clean the bathroom next...

Leaving the Nest...Again

Unlike Meg Ryan's character in "You've Got Mail", I don't particularly like the Fall.  Yeah, the leaves changing color are beautiful, especially here in New England and yes, I like to pull out the sweaters and put away the AC, but it is also is the signal of a new school year.  Now, don't get me wrong...I love my job as a teacher, but let's face it, I love summer vacation.  I also love having my children home with me. 


Fall is especially hard when you have a college student.  And yesterday, I once again sent my oldest out into the cold cruel world.  This time instead of putting her on a plane, I watched her drive away on her 2,300 mile journey across the United States.  It feels like just yesterday that I put her on the bus for her first day of kindergarten.


I miss her already.

The Adventures of Sailing by Tory and mom

In Canada Dad and I went sailing.  In the beginning it was fun except for the spiders. The worst part about that was the mother, and she just had babies - like a thousand! So off we went  with me in the front where there weren't any spiders, but unfortunately it is the most wet set on the boat as you would imagine. First we stayed near our island then we went to the real wind area where the boats were. It was near the end when there was a big wind so we had to get moving since we were just sitting there. Then we had to turn. The wind was too strong for me and I fell off!  As the boat went by my dad held out his hand so I grabbed him. He didn't think I would be able to catch him so he was just about to take his hand away. I grabbed him so he pulled me up and we were on our way. After that I almost fell off three more times. When I got back to the island, I decided to stay inside the rest of the day and watch movies while trying to dry off and warm up.

Lawn Mower Melancholy

Our  poor lawn hasn't been mowed for 2 weeks now.  The first week due to the fact that we were on vacation.  This past week because the mower wouldn't start.  Over the past month, we noticed that each time we started the mower it took longer for the engine to actually turnover, therefore we came to the logical conclusion that it needed a new battery. Jamie quickly volunteered to go to his favorite store (Lowe's) and buy a new battery.  He then quickly volunteered me to put it in the mower.  I, feeling like I have decent mechanical abilities was willing to give it the old college try.  So, armed with tools, a new battery and Bryce, I set off to the shed and our awaiting immobile mower.


10 minutes later and lots of WD 40 to undo very corroded contacts, Bryce and I were able to take out the old and put in the new.  I then had Bryce sit down, turn the key and...silence.  With four children most days all I pray for is silence.  But when it comes to anything mechanical, that is the last sound I want to hear.


Once Jamie came home, we brainstormed on what else could be causing the sound of silence.  Jamie spent a few hours researching the Internet and decides it has something to do with the circuitry and therefore can't handle himself so he finally succumbs to calling a repairman.


Fast forward to a few hours ago.  Mr. Mower (name has been changed to protect the innocent) came I show him the mower, which Bryce had graciously pushed into the garage, and leave him to his magic.  Less than 2 minutes later I hear the beautiful sound of a lawn mower starting up.  Of course I run out to the garage to see what in the world he did.  To my dismay, all he did was tighten up the battery contacts.  That folks, was a hard $96 lesson learned.

End of Summer, Beginning of Blogger

Fall is fast approaching and I feel like I haven't done much on my mental to-do list.  However, as I look back on the Summer of 2010, I really have been blessed with a great deal of prime time with my family and I have even managed to read 4 Great Stone Face Books for school, finished 2 classes from my Master's program, and took a trip to Europe to pick up our daughter from her study abroad program.  Not bad for one summer.

Bellinzona, Switzerland

Paris

Venice

Canada