B-U-S-Y

to All Around The Circle!

  If you are visiting from the 

please see my welcome post HERE to learn more about me & my blog.

It's Day 7 of the UBP12 and I started off the party by visiting a good chunk of the 'daily life' category of blogs.  I am still nowhere near checking them all out, let alone all the other categories!  I'm sure I will be hopping by many of the listed blogs wwwaaaaayyyyy after the UBP has ended!

I have been quite busy over the past 3 days, hence the lack of posting around here.

Monday 4/16/12

  On Monday Kaye and I did some shopping.  The first stop was Home Depot to check out the flowers.  I bought three primrose 'Orion' plants there.  Then, we went to Wal Mart and bought some flower seeds and some summer nightgowns for Em.  Third stop was the jewelry store to get my mangled wedding & engagement rings fixed, along with a chain that broke the second time I wore.

Here is a photo of my rings before:

And here they are after:

They're not perfect, but at least I can get my pudgy fingers in there now!

After the jewlers visit, we stopped in to Giant, the local grocery store chain here for a few items.

When we come out of the store I can't even load my items in the back of my van because some huge truck double parked 2 parking spots and was practically up against the back of my van.  I was NOT happy to say the least.  The rest of Monday was pretty much shot because I had to help Em practice her biography report and study for a math quiz.  Not to mention Monday's weather was like 87 degrees and miserable!  Em and I actually went to our fixed basement at midnight because it was too hot for us to sleep comfortable upstairs.  Oh, and I did attend about 30 minutes of the UBP Twitter party as well as the live organization broadcast.  Fun!

Tuesday 4/17/12

Tuesday was 10 degrees cooler, so I decided to dig up my flower beds in the back yard and separate some of the plants that are sprouting up.  That took about 2 hours.  I did not plant my new plants or the seeds.  Em's biography report was at 3pm and Kaye had to tag along because my parents are both sick with some kinds of cold/sleepiness/scratchy throat thing, so my Mom could not watch Kaye.  I was so proud of Em!  She did not seem nervous during her report and did a wonderful job with incorporating the props into her speech.  She also did well on looking up from her note cards and making eye contact.  I took two photos of her, but they both turned out blurry.

Em as Leonardo da Vinci

(Side Note:  Em was an 'artist' for Halloween this past year, so we just added the mustache for the biography report.  She would have wore black jeans, but it was 77 degrees here on Tuesday, so I did not worry to much about 'completing' the outfit.)

All 3rd graders here must do a biography report (no entertainers allowed), take notes from their book, use note cards, have props and dress as their person.  They must follow an evaluation form that the teacher uses to grade the report. 

Evaluation Form:

____1. The speaker spoke in a loud, clear voice.

____2. The speaker made eye contact with the audience.

____3. The speaker was enthusiastic.

____4. The speaker showed knowledge of the subject.

____5. The speaker used complete sentences without "pause sounds" (such as "you know" and "uh").

____6. The speaker spoke with expression.

____7. The speaker's use of props was effective.

8. The best part of the speech was_______.

9. A skill the speaker could improve is________.

The teacher said that the students will get the evaluation form and their grade back at the end of the school year.  I am quite taken aback at what these 3rd graders are expected to do nowadays.  When I was in 2nd grade I remember having to go in front of the class with the book I read and talking about it.  I was always so nervous and shy and never did well with speaking in front of the class.  I do not remember ever doing an elaborate report in front of the class like this!  My daughter did not show any jitters or signs of being nervous and it truly impressed me!

Wednesday 4/18/12

I was planning on planting the flowers and the seeds that I bought on Monday, but the weather was cloudy and damp (64 degrees~Yes, we are having some wacky weather).  Not to mention that I was sneezy and my nose was itchy & runny (hence Wordless Wednesday's photo.)

So I decided to tackle some housework.  I changed sheets, did 2 loads of laundry and a comforter, straightened up my roll top desk area, put said laundry away, vacuumed and basically keep trying to find places for items that are where they don't belong!  Em stayed after school with her Brownie troop to do some 'beautification' of the school grounds.  (basically weeding the flower beds and picking up trash on the school grounds.)   Wednesday night was spent helping Em study for her math chapter test and then watching American Idol.

So now it's Thursday and I am hoping to have another productive day.  

Wishing everyone a great day as well!