Moby Wrap (Sienna)

I have seen these around and have decided that I want this in that exact color. It's my favorite color! not too bright, not too brown but just the right shade of orange! :P

It looks like it can work on me AND David, even with the height difference! Anyone know where I can find one for less than $40? :D

update: so I totally got it for Christmas and it's great and everything but it's SOO much fabric. I would love it more if I had a nursing top so I wouldn't have to take it off and on all the time! What else can I try?

Birth Announcement

I just made this tonight. I was playing around with fonts and stuff. I also added the embellishments using picnik.com...What do you think?

Windward Mall's new Food Court

I don't know who reads this blog or not but I just wanted to show you the new food court at Windward Mall!

How nice is this?!

There are so much more tables and space and I think even more food options! I think it's so pretty!! I can't wait to go eat at the mall!  

HERE is the list of the places to eat! YUM!

Street Gang

I just finished reading "Street Gang: The Complete History of Sesame Street" on October 8th.

I actually heard about the book from an Oprah email that Neil Patrick Harris was reading it. True story.

I loved it! It was just so interesting to see how it all came together and what had to be done before they could even make it on TV! They had to do so much work and it has paved the way for children's television as we know it!

Sesame Street is turning 40 years old on November 10, 2009!!

Happy Birthday Sesame Street!!

click HERE for a cool treat featuring Sesame Street characters! If only I was talented enough to actually TRY to do it!

Solution to Furloughs

As I was reading THIS article about furloughs and how parents are rallying to get school days back, I can't help but think that instead of fighting for all these furlough days to be put back into school, we (educators and parents) should focus our fight somewhere else.

We should be supporting and encouraging our students to work and study harder. Since there are less days of school, they should be getting MORE support from their families to learn harder. Instead of focusing on what isn't happening in education because of furloughs, how about we focus on what IS going on and spend our energies on making sure that the students are learning.

If the student's don't do their part to learn, to get their work done, there's nothing that the teachers can do at that point. We're doing our best to stuff our our content into the student's brains with 5 days of work into 4 days. The least the students' can do is work just as hard to get the education.

If not, the only other solutions I can see are pay cuts and/or layoffs. Neither is a good idea.

Pay cuts on an already low teacher salary? Do they want teachers to look for second jobs and focus less on students? We already take work home, hours we don't get paid for. We go above and beyond, stay for hours after our workday is done with no overtime pay. How do they expect us to feed, clothe and house our family with less income AND focus on our students?

Layoffs would be the worst solution ever. Laying off teachers mean that classroom sizes will get larger and the quality of education will lower. The teachers will have too many students to focus on and if class sizes increase, they can probably only catch a handful of the students that need help and miss an armful of kids that are borderline just making it but would have made it further if they had just gotten the help they needed. That my friends will be when the quality of education ends. We will be too busy trying to grade and assess what the students are learning but there will be too many kids just making it and because they are barely there, teachers won't focus on that. Instead of going more into depth and more explanations, teachers will just be trying to get the content finished in time.

I once read Pat Hamamoto say about putting furloughs back in and layoffs around the corner (paraphrased of course) " It's not about the quantity of education but about the QUALITY of education."


Instead of focusing on getting school days back from furloughs, how about we encourage and support the kids to work harder and study harder (since there is less school days). We can have all the furlough day taken away and students put back into school. BUT if the students don't do their part to learn, there's nothing more school days will do to help them.

Spelling

I've always considered myself a good speller. I came across this article today that talked about this new book called, So You Think You Can Spell, and I want to read it so I can see if I am really a good as spell as I think I am.

Furlough Fridays

Ok so I started writing on FB about my rationale for voting yes for Furlough Fridays but then I accidentally pressed back and now it's all gone so I decided to just write it here so I can have it auto save! hehe.

Here goes. Don't get offended, it's just my opinion.

Furloughs in education is NOT a good idea. I totally agree with that statement. Education shouldn't have been touched at all! I, myself, was kinda shocked that it was even an issue on the table. Education should've been the last thing to have been affected but be that as it may, it was the first one to make a move in response to Governer Lingle's request to help the state budget.

I don't claim to know everything about the what, why and how of the whole thing but I do know that it was said that the first one on the table with a "solution" would get the "better" end of the deal. That being said, teachers are getting 17 days of furlough this year and 20-odd next school year whereas HGEA is getting 18 days of furlough and 24-odd days next year.

One of the reasons I voted yes for furloughs is because I think this may have been the "better" deal us teachers would have gotten. It was either furloughs or the possibility of layoffs and I would much rather have a job. I'd like a job even if it means less pay because I still want and need my benefits (especially with baby #2 on the way).

I just get really irritated when the general public blames teachers for not caring about the future of our education. (We DO! or we wouldn't have become teachers in the first place!) Please don't blame us for the furloughs. We're getting a pay cut in the process! But-- I think that a lot of teachers settled for the furloughs because it meant still having a job because frankly, layoffs would suck (for lack of a better word) BIG TIME! If there wasn't a better option for teachers to still keep their jobs than layoffs would have probably been the next idea. Layoffs would have also been a BAD idea because that would mean even bigger class sizes!

Where do the struggling students get the help they need if their voices can't even be heard because the class size is too big?

At Kahuku High, we went from a 6 period to a 7 period schedule so that we cut back on teachers and in turn have "smaller" class sizes (I think...someone correct me if I'm wrong...) because we'd have more periods to disperse the students. That didn't turn out and now the electives have the biggest class sizes EVER! There are language and PE classes that have close to or over 50 kids!

Yes, furloughs aren't a good idea for the children but can you blame the teachers for wanting to keep their jobs? (especially in this economy...)

Please don't get mad at me! I'm just sayin'...

I can't do it anymore!

I have decided I don't want to be a special education teacher anymore. I can't handle all the enabling that goes on.

The attitudes of students, parents and other SPED teachers that don't let the student become independent. Are we really going to hold the student's hand until they graduate?

NO THANK YOU!

It is so frustrating when you know the student has been coddled the whole time they were in school and rely on their teachers to give them answers and extended time (as in until the end of the year) to get assignments done and turned in.

I'm sorry but that will not fly in the real world. I don't get to hand in my reports late. I have deadlines to meet and if I don't, I could go to court. Um..where's the accountability for these kids? Where's the whole "meeting standards" thing?

Granted it's not EVERY single SPED student but some of the ones that I have had the "pleasure" of working with do show this kind of behavior.

They don't know how to take responsibility for what they have or have not done and we, the SPED teacher, have to excuse their behavior? I don't think so.

There has to be limits on what extended time is given. I can only help you out so much in class without giving you the actual D@&% answer. I guarantee it's because their past (study skills) teachers (and EA's) don't let them think for themselves and just give them the answer that they now think that if they say "I don't know" or "think" for 1o minutes that eventually, the teacher will give them the answer.

Uh, can you tell I'm frustrated? Maybe I wouldn't be so frustrated if I was actually a "certified, this is what I wanted to do for the rest of my life", special education teacher and "went to school to get more education on how to help special education kids". Maybe my attitude would be different. I don't know. All I know is that I'm so sick and tired of other teachers telling me how I should basically "coddle" these kids. It makes me so irritated.

ARGH!

I could go on and on but I have to get ready for bed for another fun day of dealing with these "special" students.

I want!

These are from Moody Mamas, I think some of these are even designed by Christian from Project Runway!

This shirt dress is regularly $143 but was on sale for $28.60 but is now sold out. boo.

This bolero is so cute and only $17.85!

This dress is nice for casual and formal and $65

Now if I only had money...

Free Rice dot com

I discovered this a year or so ago but I just looked at it again and DID YOU KNOW that you can change the subject of what you get quizzed on? Click HERE to check out the subjects!

Every time you get it right, you donate 10 grains of rice to help feed hungry people! You're learning AND helping feed the hungry!!

AWESOME!

Garlic Festival

In Gilroy, CA. I think it is close to where my parents live. I remember passing through wishing I could go. I love garlic! It would be so fun to be go!

Book: Fahrenheit 451

Fahrenheit 451 was July's book club for the Laie 4th Ward.

I actually had forgotten about it until Tuesday and so I borrowed it to finish for the meeting on Thursday.

I read the book my junior year in high school but I didn't really remember it.

I like it.

I read it super fast but I got the gist of it.

It made me appreciate books more. I can't even imagine or want to imagine a world without books and no one thinking.

But have you noticed slowly that the world is starting to think less for themselves?

Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince

I watched it tonight and it was a little disappointing. I thought that there would be more action! Where's the battle scene? That would have made the movie!

Transformers

David went to the midnight showing with his cousin Shaun and friends at the Dole Cannery and he liked it so much that he wanted to watch it again in the IMAX theater!

That Saturday we went to the Dole Cannery and got tickets for the IMAX showing of Transformers. The line was super long and they let only so many people in at a time.
I missed the beginning of the movie because it was lunch time and I was going to be super hungry and I wanted to get food to eat and I totally got in the wrong line. It was super SLOW and I ended up buying more food than I should have. Lesson learned: Never buy food at the movie theater when you're hungry because you'll shell out more money than you would ever want to!
The movie was pretty awesome! I really enjoyed it and would love to watch it again! The sound was amazing in IMAX and so was the picture. Aaron was super good during it too. He sat and watched while eating his popcorn. He fell asleep toward the end of the movie but never a need to walk out of the theater. Guess it was his kind of movie!

Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince

I just wanted to say. I'm SUPER excited for the movie to come out! Can't wait to see what they've differently from the book! I love seeing what they do!

Swimsuit

If I was skinny, I would like this tankini...

Naked Aaron

We found Aaron on our bed naked and sleeping. His diaper was on the ground and a little puddle too! He cracks me up!
;D

Pushing Daisies

YAY! It's back on!

I wonder for how long though...

Hawaii

I'm reading the book called "Hawaii" and it started out interesting and then when I got to the part when the missionaries came to Hawaii and their mentality...ooh, it made me so mad that I didn't want to keep reading! I actually stopped for awhile but then I wanted to know what would happen so I picked it up again. Now I'm almost done and it's getting pretty good and I can't put it down!



When I"m done, I'll do a better review...maybe...

Movie: Flash of Genius

Flash of Genius is a movie about the inventor of the intermittent windshield wiper whose idea was stolen by a major car company. He spends years trying to get justice and the recognition that he deserves. The movie is pretty good and I was totally rooting for the main character. 

Also based on a true story.

Letter to the ABC Network

Dear ABC,

Would you like to know why you're #3? You keep canceling shows that people like to watch. Pushing Daisies was one show. Why aren't you renewing it? It made me laugh and I loved watching it and seeing all the costumes and beautiful sets that it came up with. Cupid was also another good show. It made you want to see all those couples get together and see how it would all work out and what antics Cupid would pull.

Please stop pulling shows that are worth watching.

Thank you for your time.

~Carol Yuen

Ugly Betty!

I love the show Ugly Betty. It's so interesting to me how the story runs and all the things that happen. I think I especially like it because you have this "average" looking girl in this high fashion world and doesn't care what others think and she doesn't care who she' s wearing! Although I do have to admit that what she wears...I would never wear in a million years!

Lie to me, the new show on Fox-gotta love it. I find it so interesting.
;D

Aquarius

I get these email newsletters from this site called "Uncommon Goods". It's fantastic. It has all this cool stuff and I got this one and I think it's so awesome! I used to love reading about the different signs and learning about all about it. I'd ask people what their signs were and see if it matched. ANYWAY....aren't these necklaces so cute!

I would totally get one, IF I could afford it!! wishful thinking!