Oh the roller coaster of life. My disposition is improving slowly but surely since last weekend. It was a rough few days that I'd rather not experience again, (lets live and learn shall we?) but Friday will be arriving soon which means the weekend is on its way.

I'm looking forward to taking care of my (unofficial) godson on Saturday. He's one month old today. Pictures will soon follow. I have been receiving some much needed attention this week as well, for which I am very thankful. You have no idea how thankful.

Now, if the upstairs roommate who insists on playing Michael Jackson's "I Remember the Time" would find something else to listen to, I might make it out just fine.

Friday night ~ be bored and lonely
Saturday night ~ be bored and lonely
Sunday night ~ be bored and lonely

Are we seeing a pattern here? I'm up for routine being a Virgo and all, but this is just pathetic. The weekdays are filled with work, exercise, music making. The weekends are about working out, playing saxophone, and then apparently sitting around wondering why the the friends I have live 1000 miles away in opposite directions.

Making friends is difficult. It always has been. It always will be. I despise being the antisocial butterfly, but I am, and I've come to accept that over the years. I cannot just walk up to people and start talking with them unless it is by necessity.

Get some self confidence! Make some friends! Easy for someone who's always had those things to say. Walk a mile in my shoes for a while. People who are so quick to offer this advice need to be kicked. Don't you think I would if I could?

Yeah, you're right. Probably not.

What proves the test of time? Love. My father gave me this bear on my second birthday. It is the first memory I have. He played "Happy Birthday" for many years, until I was about 14 or 15 years old. I don't quite remember when his battery ran out, but musical tummy or not, he is by far the best stuffed animal in the world. He reminds me what's most important when I have trouble remembering. He has many battle scars, but he is now 22 years old, and counting. His eyes are scratched, his fur is mashed and spotted, but he's mine. No matter how old I get, or how big I've grown, he always fits perfectly in my arms... the same way he did when I first held him. Thank you dad.

The northeast has finally decided to wake up from it's winter slumber and advance into spring. Thank goodness. I was beginning to wonder if it would ever warm up here. I suppose I've been spoiled spending the first 22 years of my life in Florida, where there is only one season: hot. I don't believe I'll ever get used to 20 degree weather. It just won't happen.

These trees are out front of the neighboring building. I can actually see the one with the white blooms from my bedroom window. Seeing as the white flowering tree smells terrible when it's in bloom, I'm rather happy that it's not in front of my room. I need the spring and summer breeze floating through my window, but please no stinky trees for me.

In other news, I walked all over downtown Brooklyn today. I began here at Washington Ave, then wandered out to Atlantic Ave, then it was down to Court St, last but not least I wandered back up Flatbush and Dekalb to get home. I ventured into the Atlantic Center Mall where I noticed that the new Target is hiring workers (which means they'll be open for business soon I hope). I also stopped at Barnes and Noble as well as the hardware store. I was hoping to find some shelves to enhance my poor closet space, but I didn't find anything I liked. Total mileage walked: 4.5 miles.

And to top off my Saturday I went running in the park after I returned from shopping (another 2 miles) and ate garlic knots from the pizzeria that I like so much, and cleaned my room. The night is still young. There is much to be done.

My mother says I'm a baby magnet. Today, she was once again proven correct.

The center I work at enrolled a new little girl for the 2 1/2 year old class this week. Today was her third day. The first two days the little girl was fine, didn't cry at all. But today for some reason, she was very upset that mommy left her. The poor baby cried all day long.

Now she's not in my class, (I have four year olds) but sometimes I'll make the rounds when I hear one of the kids crying for a long period of time to see if I can be of any help. I know how it is to be in a room with a screaming kid. It can drive you to your wits end of you're not careful.

Well I finally managed to slip away at nap time and walk down the hall to see what was going on. I walked into the room (the group teacher for the baby class was out today which compounded the problem because the only familiar face the kid new wasn't there) and there she was, on her bed, sobbing. As I approached she lifted her arms for me to pick her up, and anyone who knows me can attest, this is my weakness. (Remember this child hardly new me, had seen me only twice before this incident.) I scooped her up after glaring at the sub for letting her get that upset without intervening.

She sandwiched her arms between her chest and mine, laid her head on my shoulder, and within a minute she had stopped crying. Five minutes later she was sound asleep. I laid her back down, and returned to my room. Problem solved. Was that so hard? I think not.

It really aggravates me that the staff let it escalate to that, though. Most of them are believers that if you pick the kid up when she's crying, she'll cry anytime you go near her. I know the difference between spoiling a kid, and giving them the TLC they need. She was scared. Who doesn't want a hug when they're scared?

If the child was 8, then the situation would be different, but this is just a 2 year old baby who's confused because her mommy has never left her before and she doesn't know what's going on. One of the other teachers started to give me grief about picking her up. I simply said... "If it was your child, would you rather me let her scream for five hours, or would you have me pick her up and calm her down?" She stopped all the complaining nonsense pretty quick after that.

Teaching isn't always about ABC's and 123's. Children learn and achieve their morals by watching the adults around them. Today was a lesson of compassion. Yordi learned it well.

PUBLIC SERVICE ANOUNCEMENT


Do you have a smoke and carbon monoxide dectector in your home? Have you tested it this month? If yes, give yourself a cookie. If no, shame on you! It can happen to you too!

This years creative Easter basket was quite the project. After visiting many bakeries, and a multitude of stores looking for the required items, I finally managed to throw together what I needed to complete my mission. Below is an account of the making of my very first Easter Basket Cake. Enjoy!

1. Pull together all of the ingredients in a general location.
2. Mix together the cake, and shove it in the oven so you can get on to the more exciting parts of the task.
3. Begin work on the snocap like nonpareils while the cake is cooking. Use a double boiler (or make your own like I had to do) to melt the dove chocolate bars.
4. Pour melted chocolate into a ziplock freezer bag, cut a tiny hole in the tip, and squeeze chocolate out onto wax paper. Sprinkle with millions of round multi-colored cake decorations. Allow nonpareils to cool.
5. Pull fully cooked cake out of the oven.
6. Proceed to flip cake upside down onto cookie tin after it has cooled completely.
7. Cut cake into the shape of an Easter basket, as shown. I used the parts I cut away to make raised Easter eggs on the bottom of the cake, as you can see.
8. Apply icing to completely cooled cake. Cream cheese icing works best for carrot cake I've been told, so that's what I'm using today. Do not frost inside of basket handle. You'll see why later.
9. Use small icing tubes (color of your choice) to create weave pattern and egg decorations on cake.
10. Write your Easter message with leftover icing, and fill inner handle of cake with your freshly made chocolate nonpareils.
11. Enjoy the completed project with friends and family!

He's too cute for paper so I had to post him here. And there's a pinwheel over there too. There were many more doodles on the page, but this one was my favorite.

I decorated those Easter eggs with my class today. You can see the fruits of that effort over at the Photoblog. As usual, I did most of the dipping and drying part. The kids were more interested in either scribbling all over the eggs with crayons, or spilling the dye on the table and floor. My fingers will be multi-colored for a week.

My newest bulletin board. After gathering a few random "spring" ideas from the net, I came up with this masterpiece!

Starting from the bottom, you see a fish pond, complete with goldfish. Then we have springy frogs jumping off lily pads (that are floating on the water just above the fish). I used pipe cleaners wrapped into a coil for the springs. The frogs I drew and let the children color.

Then last but not least we have the butterflies. These were made by giving each child the blackline version, and then letting them "paint" their butterflies using small pieces of colored tissue paper. To do this we had to tear and crumple tissue paper of various colors. Then using a clothespin to hold the tissue paper, dip the tissue into a small amount of water. When the colors start to run, dab them on the butterfly and there you have it. If you're looking for a neat project to do with a wide ranged age group, this one seems to do the trick. Young or old, big or small, it matters not. Just look at the results. Most of those butterflies were painted by 3 year olds.

Anyway, check out the new pictures I posted on my photoblog.

Let the fun begin. I finally got around to adding the photoblog to the sidebar. That means easy access to pictures for you! Aren't you excited?!?

I took a few shots around Brooklyn earlier today. Can I tell you that I've got cabin fever in a bad way? It's done nothing but rain for the last four days, and tomorrow we're to expect snow. SNOW. Someone please send Mother Nature a memo to reminder her that winter is over.

I didn't get around to reading for my class this weekend. The weather prevented me from doing anything but shopping online and watching sappy movies. I'm excited about tomorrow though. Not only are my girl scout cookies arriving, but also my new mouse pad, as well as my new LED tube that flashes to the beat of whatever music you're playing at the time. Let me link you to my cool new toys. Mouse pad and LED tube

Yes, that's about all for now. Enjoy the new material and links. I'll be back again when it stops RAINING!

Hey folks! How's it going? Good. I've signed up over at Buzznet and now have a photoblog set up. This means that I'll be using my camera more often, taking a multitude of random pictures, and posting them there. I'll set up a link on the sidebar to make access easier. More to come tomorrow after I've had a well deserved rest. Until then, here's the link to my individual space. Visit me! ZootNhomer at Buzznet