Even Teachers Need Reassurance.......

Happy, Happy, Happy.....

This Is It!!!!!!

Today is the very last day of school for this school year....

This chapter is closed, finished, done.

One of the many things that I really love about the teaching profession is that we get the opportunity to close everything down and start again. God gives us second, third, fourth..... chances to work towards perfection....

Let the Fun Begin!

Foxy: My Life In Two Acts by Pam Grier with Andrea Cagan

Pam Grier

This lady runs, shot guns, does martial arts, cooks, takes care of horses, has a career, is independent, chooses herself, and is one of my sheroes: female hero!......

Foxy: My Life in Two Acts has been on my Nook for quite awhile, and I just got around to reading it.

In this memoir, Pam tells a very humble story of becoming 'Foxy Brown.'

Pam had a mom "who believed very strongly that women needed to know they could fend for themselves...." (P.11)

From dating NBA superstar, Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, to the comedian, Richard Pryor, Pam always chose herself. Kareem wanted her to deny herself and let him take care of her, but she refused and chose herself. Being with Richard Pryor put her health, her life, and career in danger, and she chose herself.

Being in the movie industry world, Pam had many opportunities to do drugs, have affairs with married men, date men who were not nice to their mothers, date men whom she wanted to save, but she always chose herself.

I really enjoyed this memoir, and I am so happy that Pam decided to write it. There was a recurring theme in this book: If we stick to what we believe in and chose ourselves, everything will be all right.

Pam, is my "sheroe"!!!!

Pam Grier

My next read is Absalom, Absalom by William Faulkner. After reading Faulkner's Light in August, I really need more of William.

Relay for Life.....

Image from the Event!

On Saturday, Relay for Life was held at the school where I currently teach...

Relay for Life is an organized, overnight team activity where people walk around a track to raise money for cancer. There are lots of games and activities throughout the evening and night; it was sort of like a field day that is held at schools where people play football, throw frisbees, and do a lot of plain old running around and having fun in the name of raising money for cancer.

Quite a few of my colleagues and I were chaperons for the two teams that were formed by our students.

I signed up for the 5pm until 12am shift, and I almost made it. However, around 11pm, I just couldn't stay up another minute, and I was relieved of my duties. (Grateful, for great co-workers who are understanding of my need for sleep.)

You should have seen those kids at Relay for Life. They were laughing, playing games, clowning around, grilling hot dogs and being children. It felt so good to be a part of their army. The kids basically put their teams together, organized everything, and they just needed us, the chaperons, to show up and be in their army, and we did.

Opening Ceremony!

Chaperons

Kids being Kids!

Kids Being Kids!

People, there is so much that needs to be done in the world: homeless people to feed, children to nurture, cancer to cure.... Let's rise up!!

It's Dads' Day,

Mom, Daddy, and Me!

and I never take for granted the favor of being raised in the house with both my Dad and mom, and them together always making me feel like I could fly and walk on water by fully supporting my many endeavors. I know that having my father in my life was not a given, but a honor and privileged that I do not take lightly. I am grateful that God saw fit for my parents to meet, get married, work through the good and bad times, and together give me all that I needed and so much more.

Today, I am honoring my father, but I know that he could not do what he did for me without my mother. So, today I am not only honoring my father, but I am honoring my mother as well.

I never take for granted my mother and father team: Team Stallworth....

Feeling Blessed and Highly Favored on Father's Day!!!!

Summer Chimes and Summer Wines by Ellen Bheachain

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Summer Chimes and Summer Wines

Listening to the summer chimes, 

Of summer sounds of summer time, 

Bringing all that nature is, 

That shows and sounds like, 

Summer chimes, 

Chimes of soft winds, 

Chimes of soft river streams, 

Sounds that say of that time and season, 

That summer time sounds so sweet, 

It rings the sounds of summer chimes, 

With rays of sunlight streaming by, 

Summer chimes with summer wines, 

Can be the momentum interludes of summer times, 

When summer time is to be, 

There in natures places, 

Full of bloom and hidden places, 

Where, 

Listening to the summer chimes, 

Of summer time, 

And sitting and drinking, 

A summer wine,

With the summer chimes, 

And summer wines, 

With summer and its nature sounds, 

Bringing out the musical chimes, 

Of summer sounds, 

Along with summer chance, 

And the per chance that evolves, 

Bringing summer chimes, 

With summer wines, 

Of true summer chance, 

With love intwined, 

And summer wine,

So if per chance, 

To meet again, 

That evolves and begins, 

From summer meets, 

Bringing that summer chance, 

To summer chimes, 

With summer wines, 

That begins and lasts, 

Within in the hearts of those, 

That let per chance happen, 

And fall in love,

Then it will continue all year long, 

For those that took the chance, 

In summer chance, 

And let the per chance, 

Take it course, 

And win, 

For love to hear, 

The summer chimes, 

Sipping summer wine. 

Ellen Ni Bheachain

I hope that you are enjoying summer......

Fifty Shades of Darker by E L James

I finished reading Fifty Shades of Darker which is the second book in the Fifty Shades of Grey series, and I absolutely HATED IT!

I read all 400 and some pages, and she never, ever developed the plot. There seems to be a lot to this guy, Christian Grey, and she never fully developed his character. She definitely did not give me enough to make me want to read the third book. No plot development at all.

After finishing, I had to ask myself "What happened in this book?" and all I can say is that the two main characters got engaged, but she really did not have to use 400 and some pages in order to say that.

The feminist in me was raging as I read about a women who had to fight like hell and manipulate a man in order to be "free!" I wanted to shake Ana and say "Run, run, run..........don't let this man OWN you!"

I know that Toni Morrison is somewhere laughing and saying "E L got you with this one." Yes, she had me going with Fifty Shades of Grey, but she got me with this one.

So, if you do not read this one, you'll be all right. I promise you...

I even highly recommend that you skip it!

My next read is FOXY: My Life in Three Acts by Pam Grier with Andrea Cagan.