The Taylor Experience

Thanksgiving 2011....better late than never!

2012-01-18T15:41:00.002-05:00

Post whipped cream fight

Surfing on the Metro!


The Ruby Red Slippers from The Wizard of Oz. FYI: The book says they are silver...the used ruby for the movie because of the whole introduction of technicolor!

Flew and landed in the white house lawn while we were looking at the white house

Not all ready for a picture...Shelby was!

Ian and I being ridiculous!

Christmas 2011...in picture form...& a VIDEO at the end!

2012-01-17T19:19:00.001-05:00

Who needs an alarm clock when you have these two?

Here come Pippy Longstocking!

Ladies...ladies

Momma and her princess

Papaya!

Silvana and Chrrrrisss

Little Allie all tuckered out!

LOVE this picture of Clara and her gpa!

Omi...always laughing!

Clara and Rapunzel...that's right people I am a princess!

Clara being...Clara!

Mitchell being...Mitchell!

I LOVE Clara's Expressions!

Random cute picture of red pandas at the CBUS Zoo!

Mike cuddling with his daughter....sooo cute!

Clara decided to climb up on something at a museum and act like a model! What did her aunt do? Take a picture of course! No discipline from me!

Oh...the shot of a mother

The Chris Taylor family with gma Winnie!

I LOVE capturing the shot when Mitchell smiles!

So cute!

Don't you just wanna say...awwwwwww!

Enjoy the video of us "singing" to Ian...he couldn't be in Ohio for the holidays because of work...so I had some friends sneak into our apartment on Christmas Eve and be Santa for him....we sent him this on Christmas morning! Nope...we were NOT drunk!

Do As I Doing...Follow Follow Me...

2012-01-16T22:05:00.000-05:00

Memories of Elementary School Teachers Grades 4-6

2012-01-02T22:08:00.000-05:00

To continue the stroll down memory lane...

Fourth Grade:

Ms. Barnhart. Oh, sweet, "bless her little heart" Ms. Barnhart...oh an a little something about my math teacher...Mrs. Depalma

I remember feeling like a had more freedom in her class. I do not know if this was because I was now in the intermediate grade category or what. The first sign of freedom was the fact that we were allowed to draw our OWN name tags and place them on the desk ourselves! This was HUGE!
She used to eat super super super healthy. She would eat plain spinach for lunch on a daily basis.
She gave us a T/F quiz to take as homework. When we got to school, she had us in little groups and told us all the questions were true except for one. The one that was false was that there was such "thing" as Groundhog Day. She felt it was her duty to relieve us of the notion that Groundhog Day existed and even went to the extent to send a note to the principal after he announced Groundhog Day on the PA telling him that he should not support a fictional holiday. Yep, she was an interesting lady!
She was the teacher that truly truly taught me how to write in cursive. She would have us write our spelling words in cursive three times each and we were allowed to write them with different colored pencils. Again...FREEDOM!
We were the 2nd year the Ohio Standardized Test (or whatever it is called) was given to 4th graders. Bluffsview Elementary was a test school the year before, but we were the first class to have to take the test to actually "count" towards any sort of comment on our abilities.
Ms. Barnhart did not get along with her parents and would tell us how conservative they were thorough stories. The one I remember was an incident where apparently she wore holes in her jeans when she went over one day and her mother did not like this and really wanted her to change clothes.
She had us do an activity at some point during the year where we were told to draw a picture of Jesus Christ. Now, even as a fourth grader, I knew this was a little odd, but I also knew I could draw a picture of Christ because I went to church regularly. This was the first time I found out that other kids did not go to church regularly if not at all. One of my classmates started to cry because she had no idea how to draw Him because she did not attend church and felt really bad about it.
Fourth grade was the year I met my best friend, Kirsten Enevoldsen. I didn't have too many good friends until this point. I remember the day when we figured out we lived right by each other. It was truly heaven sent. FREEDOM! This allowed us to walk to e/o homes without having to arrange a ride which meant we could hang out all the time! We have been friends ever since right up until I got married and then we lost contact.
She was a great reading teacher! She would let us read a book that we chose (within a certain category) and we would do a book report via a poster. I remember that was the highlight of my life for my mother. My mom LOVED doing my book reports for me. I didn't care because I always had good looking book reports and always got an A on them!
We did a white elephant gift exchange and I got the present Ms. Barnhart wrapped...the thing on the end of a chair leg. Yeah.
Overall..Ms. Barnhart was an amazing teacher, yet an odd person. The following year she took a year off and I do not believe she ever returned as a teacher to Brookside. She may have done something else for the district, but I do not know.
Mrs. Depalma. Fourth grade was the first year we switched classes. I had Mrs. Depalma for science and math. I vividly remember a day when Mrs. Depalma got a phone call she had to take in the office and an office worker covered the class. The office worker tried to teach us how to do something relating to math and no one was getting it. Once Mrs. Depalma returned, she taught it to us very quickly and we all understood. That was the day when I learned that teachers know how to TEACH and not simply TELL people how to do something. This is a concept that is continually reinforced as I go through graduate school. Many university teachers know information and can tell people the information but cannot teach the information.

Fifth Grade: Mrs. Hancock

Mrs. Hancock was probably one of the most organized teachers I have ever had. She was very particular about...everything. I remember when we took a test we had to have our papers angled a certain way (depending on if we were left or right handed).
Before we left the room for the day, our desks had to placed a certain way before we could leave. When taught elementary school, I did the same thing! I felt like when the room was tidy at the end of the day, the beginning of the next day went smooth.
After a bout of days with rowdy students, Mrs. Hancock decided to move our seats. Now, my best friend, Kirsten and I were sitting right next to each other and were REALLY good about following the rules. We were SO upset about the fact that our seats were being moved that we walked BACK to school to talk to Mrs. Hancock about the change. She didn't change her decision, but it was worth a try!
One thing that occurred during numerous years of elementary school was DEAR time (drop everything and read). During fifth grade, I appreciated this time the most. I think it was because our days were so busy and crazy that DEAR time was the 20 minutes of silence when most if not all fifth graders were truly silent!
We were assigned a Civil War project in her class. The only thing I remember about it was making a model of the battle field. I have never had SO much fun with GI-Joes and red nail polish!
We went to see Indian in the Cupboard at the movie theaters! That was the day I learned the book is almost always better than the movie!
Fifth grade was the year the OJ Simpson trial verdict was announced. I remember the teachers moved back the partition between classrooms and we watched the verdict on the television. Ad fifth graders, we wished he was proven guilty!

Fifth Grade: Mrs. Putnam

Mrs. Putnam was my science and reading teacher. She was one of the nicest teachers I have ever had.
She always had interesting projects...such as:

Building Lego machines for science class...too bad orchestra got in the way of it all!
Drawing a horse at the beginning of the year so she could display them throughout her classroom...she did this project with 5th graders for YEARS!
Drawing a map of the Sherwood Forest while reading Robin Hood

Anytime we finished class early, she would read to us. I always loved listening to her read stories!
Not only did Mrs. Putnam have us draw horses, but she owned numerous quarter horses and actually lived 45 minutes away from the school in order to keep her horses! I remember one of her horses died during our school year with her and I felt really bad for Mrs. Putnam.
We attempted to go craw-fish fishing with one of the State of Ohio Naturalists but the river was too high to have 5th graders wading in. I was SO sad that day because I knew we would not get to go back!
If I remember correctly, it was in fifth grade that we were required to make musical instruments and present them to the entire fifth grade.
During my senior year in high school, Mrs. Putnam agreed to take me on as somewhat of a student teacher for my senior project. A senior project was a time when seniors could go and work with a professional whose profession they are interested in. I had always wanted to become a teacher and was really excited to work with Mrs. Putnam! I loved my experience working with her and later became an elementary school teacher.
She would always eat her lunch with Mr. Berestsky (school custodian) & Mr. Meyers (6th grade teacher) in the boiler room. Those three were the 3 amigos....always together if not teaching. I remember Mrs. Putnam would use Mr. Berestsky's photo copy number to use if she needed extra copies of things. I always thought that was funny!

Sixth Grade: Ms. Fumler/Mr. Meyers:

Frankly, going into 6th grade, I wanted Mr. Meyers for my teacher just as my brother Chris experienced. When those much anticipated teacher letters came into the mail, I found I had Ms. Fulmer. I did not know much about her other than she used to be a reading teacher or some sort of support staff prior to teaching. The first day of class, I noticed her accent...a southerner! It ended up being that Ms. Fulmer was an excellent teacher and even though Mr. Meyers was also, I loved having her as my teacher.
Like Mrs. Hancock, Ms. Fulmer was very organized. Very organized. She always seemed to be as the cliche goes...on the ball.
It was very important for her students to be successful. She often held review sessions during her lunch break which I appreciated.
She was our science teacher and it was in her class that I first used a Bunsen burner!
We went to 6th grade camp with Ms. Fulmer and I remember her being very upbeat and kind the entire experience. I remember there was a student in my cabin that brought Plumeria Bath and Body Works body lotion and all of us girls put it on from head to toe! When the 6th grade teachers came and said good night, they immediately smelled the lotion in great force!
Mr. Meyers was a character. I heard he passed away shortly after he retired. We were his last class he taught. He taught my language arts and social studies classes. He always wore crazy colored suits (including bright pink) and penny loafers with no socks. He had a podium that he would teach from which was something I had never seen used.
I remember we had to give a presentation where we had to bring items in and explain how to do something. I talked about camping because my father had everything you needed on the earth to go camping...so why not talk about camping?
Every morning the partition between the classes would open and we would have current events. That year was the year Clinton got re-elected. We would also watch this show called Contact...not quite sure of its educational value, but it was fun getting a break to watch a show during school! We would also play In-the-Know and I ended up being quite successful at the game.

Happy 2012!

2012-01-01T17:48:00.003-05:00

My manicurist told me this is the year of the black dragon. I thought that sounded pretty bad but she said it was quite lucky! So...here's to 2012!

Now to report on last years goals! I know I did not accomplish all of them...this is taught me a lesson to have less goals! Even though I did not accomplish all my goals, I did accomplish things I never thought I would do!

Last Year's Goals:

1. Loose weight. Nope.

2. Write more of the book I am writing. Yep!

3. Weekends off from school. Nope and I have learned I should have never had this goal because it is never gonna happen baby!

4. Run a race a month or 12 races throughout the year. Yeah. This did NOT happen. I did not have enough time to run the races...or train for them. Excuses, excuses? Yes. But when you barely have enough time to study...I have a hard time justifying a nice long run...although I hope to change this theory and at least work out more.

5. Save more money.Yep! Ian and I are saving to go o a cruise this August, so are stashing away the funds!

6. Go to The Lion King on broadway. No, but I AM going in the next 2 weeks!

7. Go on at least 5 "daycations" with my husband...including Boston. Yep...but no Boston.

8. Get a decent camera...even if it is a point and shoot. Yep!

9. Cook 2 meals a month...yes this is a resolution for me! Yep!

10. Go on 2 dates (real, planned dates) with my husband. We are so busy and our schedules could not conflict more! We rarely go on dates and this must change! Yep!

11. Start a new blog... cooking/crafting/reading... something like that! & create a weekly theme subject on The Taylor Experience. I altered this one a while ago, so it is void.

12. Report on my goals status once a month on the blog! Yeah...no.

So...I accomplish 50% of my goals...not too bad!

What Have I Done This Year?

Become much more comfortable in my "shoes" at school. It was hard diving into a doctorate program after 3 years of no-school bliss. Now that I have 1 1/2 years under my belt, I am starting to "feel the rhythm, feel the rhyme" of audiology.
Learning how to quilt! I needed a summer project last year and was inspired by my sister-in-law to make a quilt. After making 3 quilts in 2011, I am facing the challenge of making on of her designs (she designs quilts)! Pictures hopefully to come soon. I am also making one for myself. It has been months in the making as I have taken too long to pick out fabrics, but I think I am finally settled on some!
Appointed the president of the student academy of audiology at school. I do not know how much of an accomplishment this is, but I have enjoyed the leadership opportunity it brings.
This is not something I accomplished per se, but I challenged my Primary CTR 6 class to memorize all 13 Articles of Faith and many of them did it! I am SO proud of them for accomplishing a goal that is normally given when kids are 11-12 years old!

Goals for Next Year:

I have 2 goals for next year. Not 12. 12 was too many.

1. Loose weight. After being diagnosed with hypo-thyroid autoimmune disorder I have done nothing but gain weight. It is hard to maintain/loose weight when my metabolism does not work! I am on more meds now and hope this along with more diet restrictions will help me loose 5-10 pounds in the coming year. Would I LOVE to loose more? Yep, but you get what you get when you metabolism doesn't work!

2. Continue to do well in school.

I hope everyone has a happy, HEALTHY, and prosperous new year!

Hopefully the black dragon will be nice to all!

Memories of Elementary School Teachers Grades K-3

2011-12-16T22:39:00.000-05:00

My friend and I were talking about the fact that the teachers students spend the longest time with are their elementary school teachers. This prompted us to talk about memories we had from elementary school. I thought this would be an interesting topic to blog about.

This post is not about what I learned in elementary school. It is about the funny things my elementary school teachers did or memories I have of them/class or even their pet-peeves. As I have been writing this post, I noticed it was getting long. I have decided to break it up into segments. This segment will be about my teachers from K-3. Future posts will be about teachers from 4-6 and the support staff.

Kindergarten:

Mrs. Reiter--

She came to my mom's home-based salon and got her hair cut one time. We also went to Chi Chi's (a Mexican restaurant) as a class and I remember her asking if we wanted a hamburger or a hot dog when we got there. I also remember thinking (as a kindergartner) why are we going to a Mexican restaurant to get hamburgers and hot dogs? We would do the weather and would have to decide if it was a lion day or a lamb day. We also sang The Farmer in the Dell and acted it out as a class on the class rug. She had a substitute during her maternity leave (I think) and I remember that substitute was our teacher during St. Patrick's Day. She told us that there really was gold at the end of rainbows. Little did she know that it would rain that day, I would see a rainbow and me and my classmate would actually attempt to walk to it to find the gold.

First Grade:

Mrs. Polly--

She would talk about her granddaughter and how she would only eat PB&J if it were cut into four triangles. She HATED people tapping her on the shoulder. She put stickers on our supply list so she could use them to put on our work. Smart lady! She gave us multiple-choice tests for math and I did not know how to take one (give me a break...I was barely 6!) so I would pick a letter or a pattern and fill them in. That is why I had to go to summer school for math with Mrs. Howard. Not because I didn't know how to do math, but because no one ever taught me HOW to take a multiple choice test. Can you tell I am still bitter? I remember she had this alligator dentist game where you took the alligator's teeth out and hoped you didn't take out the tooth that caused the alligator to shut its mouth. Mrs. Polly would also let us make collages from cut-up tissue paper. I remember for the last day of school, Brookside Elementary would put on the COOLEST carnival with the dunking of the principal, a blow-up jumper trampoline thing, snow cones, etc... I remember we had hot-air balloons (they were light blue) and we would get them punched for every activity we completed at the carnival. To keep up behaved during the last weeks of school, Mrs. Polly told us she would punch out our card before the carnival if we misbehaved. I wasn't a misbehaved student so it didn't affect me, but it did affect some other people.

Second Grade:

Mrs. Bair--

Mrs Bair was a strict teacher. Not mean, but strict. I think she had to be with our rowdy class! One of her tactics to get us to be quiet was to turn off the lights. This worked occasionally. I remember she taught us how to look up words in a dictionary and we had to do this all the time. In retrospect, this was a very important skill to learn! I remember calling her home phone number to ask her about an assignment. Her husband picked up the phone and I told him I needed to speak with Mrs. Bair and this was one of her students. I have to wonder what they thought about a second-grader calling her teacher's house. I guess all those dictionary assignments came to some good use!

Third Grade:

Ms. Dorl

I came into Ms. Dorl's class after my brother Mike. Now, my brother Mike was a great kid, but a handful. Ms. Dorl was one of the few teachers who seemed to be able to work with Mike which he appreciates to this day. In fact, Ms. Dorl gave him his high school diploma. I have a lot of memories from her class, so I will just make a bulleted list.

She loved Dr. Pepper and drank it daily. No coffee. Dr. Pepper.
She went to Florida every year with or to see her mother and during our year she brought back palm tree leaves but left them in her trunk so they didn't look so fresh when she brought them to show us. I thought that was funny!
Her desk was always messy.
She bought a brand new turquoise colored jeep and let us (yep...the entire class) go out to the parking lot to see it. What a cool teacher!
Her nails were always painted maroon and if I remember correctly, they were always acrylics.
One day after school, I had to walk back because I forgot something (I lived 2 blocks from the school). I was in a rush and was wearing socks. I needed some shoes to put on so I slid on my black church shoes. Now just imagine how socks with black church shoes looked. When I got to school Ms. Dorl and another teacher laughed at me. I remember being so embarrassed but in retrospect...anyone would have laughed if they saw a student wearing socks with black Sunday shoes!
She had a rule in her class that no student could wear Velcro shoes. She knew kids would play with the Velcro during time when we met on the class rug and she could not stand the sound of Velcro ripping!
We watched Cinderella as a class and Ms. Dorl cried. I remember thinking why is she crying? Disney movies are supposed to be fun to watch!
She loved back massages.
As 3rd graders we went to the Worthington historical days. My mom made me a dress for the occasion and all the 3rd graders brought their lunch in a cute little basket. Moms would give them fried chicken and biscuits so they could act like they were pioneers (I highly doubt the pioneers ate stuff like that, but it was good enough for us!). I remember Ms. Dorl lined us up in height-order and I was paired with Logan Strong.
If I remember correctly, Ms. Dorl attempted to let us make candles in her class (in honor of our pioneer day). I do not think the candles worked out, but I cannot remember why.
I remember there was a child in the special education room (can't remember his name). He was in a wheel chair and may have had cerebral palsy. I remember Ms. Dorl was particularly nice to him and really all the special ed kiddos. Even as an elementary school student, I was impressed.
One day Mrs. Dorl brought Zesta brand saltine crackers and had us try different flavors of honey. I think this was an activity to show how to make a bar graph. I remember being very surprised that there were other flavors of honey besides clover. Any time I go by the section with honey at Whole Foods, I think of Ms. Dorl.
Mrs. Dorl was VERY particular about the difference between "on top" and "above." When we were learning how to do long division, sometimes she would let us tell her what to do during a problem. She would use her projector and if we said "on top" she would write the number literally on top of the number being divided. If we said "above" she would write it directly above the number being divided. People...there is a difference between a number being "on top" and a number being "above" another number!
We had to bring in newspaper articles with current events. Ms. Dorl always liked the football articles.
The memory that will stick with me forever about Ms. Dorl did not happen while I was in her 3rd grade class. It was when my mom passed away. She came to her funeral. Now, who can say that there former 3rd grade teacher came to their mother's funeral 16 years after being in her class? I really appreciated the support she gave while sitting in the pew during the service. I know Mike really appreciated it too.

Oh...the memories of elementary school!

As long as I make it, everything will be fine

2011-12-11T17:22:00.001-05:00

It has been almost a month since my last post. Life has been crazy with school. I thought after November 8th...life would get so much better and school work would decrease but I feel like nothing changed. Tests have decreased but other "little" assignments that take hours on end to do have increased. My motivation is close to gone. My brain seems to refuse to work as hard and as efficiently as it has in the past. I think this is a sign that I need a break from school (Christmas break will do).

So....what have I been doing. Well, currently I should be studying so this is an escape tactic as my last thing I get to do for fun before head diving into finals. I am tempted to pack the bags and live at school for the next 2 weeks. Maybe I will be more efficient. I seriously have not motivation. It is becoming a problem.

But...lately....

Prepping for a fundraiser for school
Studying for tests
Writing reports
Writing papers
Preparing for and giving presentations
Leading meetings
Typing up agendas
Working on applications for more stuff I'm interested in
Working in the ERP lab...I'll explain all that on a later post
Trying to prep good lessons for my Sunday school class
Thinking about the quilts I should be working on
Planning a friend's baby shower
Working on a entry into clinic packet for the 1st year grad students
Experimenting with my new camera
Buying Christmas presents
Working with the hubs to figure out how we will budget our funds once he is an attending
Feeling bad that I cannot spend as much time with Ian as I want. This past hour in sacrament meeting was the first time since Thanksgiving that we have had a quiet moment together.
Experimenting with my new Cricut Cake Cutting Machine
Studying for tests
Studying for tests
Studying for tests
Studying for tests
Studying for tests

I feel like I am always just barely making it, but it is what it is and as long as I make it, everything will be fine.

Fall

2011-11-13T21:41:00.001-05:00

And the Winner Is...

2011-11-12T14:01:00.001-05:00

Congratulations to....

ERIKA!

You are the winner of the red snowflake plug-in and the pumpkin roll scent bar!

Erika Said:

Send me your address via e-mail, and I will get your prize sent off!

Kristen (4 entries): Numbers 1-4
Jennifer (2 entries): Numbers 5-6
Kim (4 entries): Numbers 7-10
Rachel (2 entries): Numbers 11-12
Meagan (2 entries): Numbers 13-14
Erika (4 entries): Numbers 15-18
Matt (5 entries): Numbers 19-23
Ruth (6 entries): Numbers 24-29
Kristy (5 entries): Numbers 30-34
Eclaire (2 entries): Numbers 35-36
Ashli (4 entries): Numbers 37-40

GIVEAWAY! SCENTSY!

2011-10-16T20:13:00.001-04:00

HEY, ALL!

THE POST PREVIOUS TO THIS ONE HAS A FREE GIVEAWAY OF SCENTSY PRODUCTS! IT WON'T SHOW UP ON MY BLOGROLL, SO I AM TRYING OUT A NEW POST TO MAKE SURE PEOPLE THAT FOLLOW MY BLOG KNOW ABOUT THE GIVEAWAY!