Stromae Cheese Rapidshare 320 Ranch

In my humble opinion, the best thing we do at my school is group kids into advisories. I am not sure how long ago we started doing this, to tell you the truth. When I arrived at in the fall of 1980, as a just-turned 22 year old, I faced a group of 22 seventh graders in my homeroom. They all seemed taller than me, although to tell the truth, that year is a blur.

I remember what I wore to school on the first day- a light blue dress trimmed in white ribbon that Sister C had made. No idea why I remember that. I had to have conferences with the parents of each of those 22 twelve-year-olds. Wonder what advice I doled out? Heaven help us all.

2017-12-22T23:17:10+01:00 2017-12-22T23:17:07+01:00..

But I am friends with some of those “kids” and I currently teach the children of a couple of them. Anyway, back to advisories. I have 12 this year, six girls and six boys. We are together first thing in the morning for a 20-minute advisory lesson on Monday and a 7-8 minute “morning meeting” time Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday.

Friday morning we assemble as an entire middle school for Community Meeting. Student-led announcements, the Pledge of Allegiance, and sports teams updates, usually followed by a faculty member or student sharing something of importance to them. Last year we started Lollipop Moments, thanks to a faculty member who found this Ted Talk.

I’ve watched this video several times. I love the way Drew tells his story, but I also need to be reminded how impactful my words can be- for better or for worse. I eat lunch with those 12 kiddos each day.

Valkyrie Profile Torrent Psp Games. We brownbag it- no cafeteria. I do have a mini-refrigerator (pink, no less) and a microwave in my classroom.

We are together again every afternoon for a 20 minute tutorial period for kids to get some homework done, see a teacher to make up work or get some extra help. And once a 7 day cycle (no Monday-Friday for us- it’s Day 1-7, with Day 0 thrown in occasionally so that we meet all of our classes), we have a 42-minute advisory session. And our class periods are lettered A-H. We drop one class a day. Are you confused yet? This crazy schedule allows our kiddos to have PE/Health and Fine Arts five out of those seven days. Each academic course (and foreign language is not an “extra” at my school, it is a requirement) meets six out of the seven days.

So, I spend my days teaching French to 6th, 7th and 8th graders and being “mom” to my twelve advisees. One of my girls just became a big sister.

Pretty exciting stuff. Yesterday morning, I asked each of them if they are a cake or pie person. Important, right? The overwhelming majority said cake- no surprise there. Some people eat cake without icing??

When Big Sister’s turn came, she said Red Velvet. And another girl chimed in that the icing has to be cream cheese and homemade. I am with her 100%.

None of that plastic-tasting canned stuff for my advisees. We will celebrate today with Red Velvet Cuppycakes, as I like to call them.

This recipe comes from the website, which I happen to love. It made 24 cupcakes. I didn’t go with the ermine icing although it is really good.

I’ve made a version of it before. I couldn’t imagine anything except cream cheese icing. Red Velvet Cake This is similar to the original recipe that began the red velvet craze. It was developed by the Adams Extract company in Gonzales, Tex. The original recipe, popularized in the 1940s, called for butter flavoring and shortening and is usually iced with boiled milk, or ermine, frosting.

• ½ cup /113 grams butter, at room temperature, plus 2 tablespoons to prepare pans • 3 tablespoons/22 grams cocoa powder, divided • 1 ½ cups/300 grams sugar • 2 eggs • 2 teaspoons/10 milliliters vanilla • 2 tablespoons/30 milliliters red food coloring • 1 teaspoon/6 grams salt • 1 teaspoon/5 grams baking soda • 2 ½ cups/320 grams flour, sifted • 1 cup/236 milliliters whole buttermilk • 1 tablespoon/15 milliliters vinegar (evidently, this makes the red really pop) • Ermine icing, or other fluffy white icing • Heat oven to 350 degrees. Prepare three 9-inch cake pans by buttering lightly and sprinkling with 1 tablespoon sifted cocoa powder, tapping pans to coat and discarding extra cocoa. • Cream butter and sugar together. Add eggs one at a time and beat vigorously until each is incorporated. Mix in vanilla.

• In a separate bowl, make a paste of the remaining 2 tablespoons cocoa and the food coloring. Blend into butter mixture. • Sift together remaining dry ingredients.

Alternating in 2 batches each, add dry ingredients and buttermilk to the butter mixture. In the last batch of buttermilk, mix in the vinegar before adding to the batter. Mix until blended. • Divide batter among 3 pans and bake for about 20 to 25 minutes. Cool on a rack completely. (Can also be made in 2 cake pans.) • To assemble, remove 1 cake from its pan and place flat side down on a serving platter.

Drop about 1 cup of icing onto cake and, using a flat spatula, spread evenly over top. Remove the second cake from its pan. Place flat side down on top of first layer. Use remaining frosting to cover top and sides of cake.

Ermine Icing This is an old-fashioned icing, also called boiled-milk frosting. The results are as light as whipped cream but with much more character. It was the original icing for red velvet cake. • 5 tablespoons/40 grams flour • 1 cup/235 milliliters whole milk • 1 teaspoon/5 milliliters vanilla extract • Pinch of salt • 1 cup/ 230 grams unsalted butter, softened • 1 cup/200 grams granulated sugar • Over medium heat, whisk flour and milk in a small saucepan and heat to a simmer, stirring frequently until it becomes very thick and almost puddinglike. • Remove from heat, whisk in vanilla and salt. Pour into a bowl to allow it to cool completely.

Put plastic wrap on the surface to keep a skin from forming. • Use a mixer to cream together butter and sugar until light and fluffy, scraping the sides of the bowl occasionally, about 5 minutes. With the mixer on medium, add the cooled flour mixture a little bit at a time.

Continue to beat until the mixture becomes light and fluffy and resembles whipped cream. Well, Summer Vacation, the 2017 Edition, is officially underway. There is the minor detail of about 20 student comments that still have to be written, but I have until Monday at 5:00 pm. Hours and hours. At the last minute, I decided to book myself into a writer’s retreat. Remember, in the last post I said I have a new writing project. I also just needed to get away for a few days all by myself.

I spend my days during the school year doing for others from 7:30 am until 5:15 pm Monday through Friday. And I am pretty worn out right now. I need some peace and quiet. And I have found it. Just a short distance off the Blue Ridge Parkway. Where I hear birds calling, hummingbird wings beating, and an occasional fish splashing around in the small pond just beyond the porch where I am rocking. The sun is starting to set. Hitman Absolution Crack Only Skidrow.

The clouds are taking on a pink hue. I imagine I will see a few lightening bugs soon.

I will remember chasing after them as a little girl and trapping them in a mason jar with holes poked in the lid so that they could get some air. I am back in my hills. This is where I spent the first 22 years of my life, with the exception of a few months spent in France between my sophomore and junior years of college.

Friends/colleagues I’ve taught with here in Durham for many years are beginning to retire. Every year now someone significant will leave. It began a couple of years ago.

It won’t be easy for me. C’est la vie, n’est-ce pas? JC this year. She will still coach and I will see her as often (or maybe more often) than I do now, but somehow the thought of opening meetings next fall without her make me sad. Not for her, needless to say. She will find plenty to occupy her free time– sewing, exercising and traveling have been mentioned. All fine ideas.

She and hubby are headed to France for two weeks in July. They will have a blast. I am so proud and happy for them. Enough of that or I will make myself cry. I roamed around for a short while this afternoon admiring the flowers in the small town I am near. I found a little girl to sit next to. I didn’t strike up a conversation because she was totally engrossed in her book.

I thought of this same scene happening in a few years but with Miss K by my side. I hope she will love to read as much as her Gramma does. Night has fallen. It’s getting chilly. The birds are now silent. And I am getting sleepy.

Day 1 has been a good one. Tomorrow the writing begins in earnest. Wish me sweet dreams and luck. I am thinking of cherry scones. It’s about time to find ripe juicy cherries in the local grocery stores. I’ve missed them since last summer!

I will go back to a past post for my favorite recipe to share. I recently found another recipe I want to try. Reminded me of scones. But I digress. This is Waterproof Mascara time. In my chosen profession, saying good-bye can be overwhelming. A time of joy and a time of sadness.

All jumbled up. Moments of unbelievable fun fill up my days and years as a teacher.

As I say jokingly (but not really) at this time of year, I get attached to the little angels (or rats, depending on the day and my/their mood). It is just plain old hard to say good-bye, even as my heart is filled with love and excitement for them. These two are especially near and dear to my heart.

They graduated on Friday on an incredibly beautiful Carolina blue sky day on the campus of UNC., an author I admire, gave the commencement speech. It wasn’t too long or filled with lofty wisdom- wisdom, yes, but delivered in his own way.

The entire graduating class sang. I cheered as many of them crossed the stage to get the coveted diploma.

These two girls are examples of our best. Tall Blond has accomplished more already than I ever will. She went to France twice with me.

I was afraid that she would be snatched up by an agent or designer during Paris Fashion Week when she was in 8th grade. Long legs and an amazing sense of style.

Check out these boots that she told me she saved her babysitting money for and then wore them on the trip. I wish I could pull that off. In my next life.

In the middle of the top photo is my “Macaron” as she dubbed herself one day. Do I love that brave young woman? With all of my heart. She came to DA as a sixth grader. Sixth graders with no language experience get stuck in beginning French with moi. (Thank you, Ed the Head.

This class is often the highlight of my day.) It is my job to brainwash them and convince them to stick with me for three years. My Macaron did just that, even when the going was tough. She wasn’t able to travel to France with me with she was in 8th grade, but in 10th grade she asked if I would take her. Tall Blond asked to go along again as well.

I did not have to think twice about that. Those two had some fun. They discovered a thrift shop in the Marais and had a grand time. (My personal favorite way to shop.) I later discovered that Macaron had a suitcase just for her shoes! Lord have mercy. I often look back at photos of past trips. Each trip with students over the past 30 years holds special moments.

The year it snowed and we detoured to Rouen instead of the D-Day beaches. My first time there. It was very moving to see the spot where Jeanne d’Arc was burned at the stake. Paris covered in snow is quite special as well. Some people make New Years Resolutions on January 1. My new year starts on the first day of school every fall.

I have started school every August of my life since 1963 or 1964. I have officially survived the first week of of year 37. I am starting to sound old- even to me. But I still love it.

New pencils and notebook paper. Neat classroom. Smiling faces looking at me, with just a hint of apprehension and melancholy at the end of summer vacation. Big hugs from colleagues and former students. I don’t especially love meetings, but this year we had a faculty development day with leading us in a discussion about how to develop cultural competency at our school. What a gifted speaker. Lee speaks honestly, from the heart, and throws in enough humor and personal stories to keep her audience awake and engaged in what she has to say.

Diversity comes in many shapes and sizes. Some wear it on their faces. If I make a single student feel the anxiety I felt during this workshop when the question of socio-economic class during childhood came up, I must change what I say and how I say it. I do love seeing all my colleagues/friends again after 10 weeks away from them.

The middle school faculty spent some time sharing photos of our summer adventures. I didn’t leave North Carolina this summer, but I was fortunate enough to visit the mountains and the beach.

I read ( and were my two favorites, for very different reasons), baked, walked for miles and miles on the beach with the Ex-Ex, Son #2, and my sister Moo looking at the waves and searching for shells, stuck my toes in the Toe River, zip lined in Plumtree, visited Mama Mildred, and just generally goofed off. We teachers call this “recharging our batteries.” Because after 10 months with middle schoolers, they run real low.

On the first day of school, Son #1 and EB surprised me by leaving goodies on my kitchen counter.