Happy 2008

It's been quite a year... and I'm ready to see what the next one brings! I started teaching again, jumped in with both feet and started with Calculus and Geometry of the accelerated type! And now I'm going to be teaching AP Calc, Accelerated Geometry and PHYSICS!!! I haven't studied physics in 20 years. I haven't even thought it about it for that long! I'm starting to work on my lessons though, so I can at least be a little ahead of the game. I think it might actually be easier to teach than AP Calculus now that I am getting started on my review.

As a first year teacher, I really did not expect to be teaching such high level classes. But I am and I'm enjoying it. I like the kids, I like the topics (I'm learning to like geometry). I am still adjusting to working full time and also to preparing lessons adn reviewing the concepts.

I am still making soap. I'm working on my organic line. I have a friend working on the labels and I have chosen the paper for packaging. My sister is talking about buying into a winery, so I might even have some wine soaps ready for her to add to the gift shop! I love making soap, so do the kids... so we will continue to do this, even on a small scale.

Happy Soaping!

2008

We figured out what was causing the headaches earlier in the year, and what was causing my fatigue and disorientation.... it seems that our furnace was never installed properly and was spewing carbon monoxide gas. The inspector missed it. The kid from the heating and cooling company that came in to make sure our system was ready for fall caught it. It seems our CO detector was at the end of it's lifetime, but it never made any noise that the levels were so high. when we purchased new ones and installed it (while the kid was still here), it registered over 100 ppm! Scary stuff. My daughter brought home the lowest grades she's ever gotten... and since it was fixed, her grades have all risen.

So now that I am feeling much better, I've started up the business again! It feels good to be soaping again. We got some packaging for natural house cleaning products, some new papers for the organic line of soap and some new fragrances to play with!

So happy holidays from the Foxes Den!

The First 6 Weeks

At the end of the marking period... it's been interesting. I've had to review quite a bit of calculus and the students are learning... Geometry is much different now than when I went to school. It's less about the proofs and more about the concepts. They don't even have to do any indirect proofs. All they need to know is how to START an indirect proof.

I may not be teaching physics in the spring. I'm not qualified to teach community college level since I don't have a master's degree yet and I don't have enough upper division physics credits to make the college happy. Plus they tell me they might have 3o students for the class. So they might have to hire someone else to do it. Fine with me... I'll stick with math, I like it better anyway :)

Soap... what was that again? Haven't had much time... I have a few batches that need to be wrapped... but I haven't made any in months. :( I think I might have to make some this weekend...

Orange Soap!

We've been experimenting with ingredients for our newest line of soap made with organic ingredients. We've titled this line The Naturals. One of the ingredients we're using, in its more natural form, is a deep orange. It really colors the soap. So we were trying to determine whether or not to keep this wonderful ingredient in our soap. We welcome all opinions!

House Committee Info

The Food and Drug Administration Globalization Act of 2008

"This Discussion Draft is meant to stimulate discussion about how to provide adequate funding and authority for FDA to ensure the safety of the Nation's food, drug, medical device and cosmetic supply in an increasingly globalized marketplace. The intention is to hold legislative hearings on the draft over the next few weeks and to markup legislation shortly thereafter." -- April 17, 2008 Memorandum

Soap Biz Attack!

Click on the text below to go to the Indie Business Blog at www.indiebusinessblog.com

If passed, this law would drive consumers back to the days when they could only choose between a few huge, faceless, nameless big box stores and brands for their cosmetics and personal care products. And fewer consumer choices always leads to higher prices.

I hope that you will take the time to read the petition and what the law says so that you can make your own informed decision. This will cause many handmade soap and toiletries businesses to stop producing or become just an expensive hobby.

Soap!!!

Here are some old soap pics.
These were some early soaps that I had made using mostly PVC pipe. The soap was really cool, but I had trouble finding the perfect size. I think 2 1/2 inches might have been a good one. I just had 2 and 3 inches.



This is my Pumpkin Spice Soap. I love swirling with spices. This is one of my all time favorite soaps. I get the fragrance oil from Anne-Marie at www.brambleberry.com


Here's a batch I made in Germany fresh in the mold!


Ahh Lavender! This is our Purple Ribbon Soap Fresh in the mold. We sell this one to raise money for cancer awareness and for donating to the ACS. Currently I have two cousins going through chemo for cancer. We're working on a Lavender Ribbon Gift Set as well.


Hope you enjoyed seeing some SOAP here for a change :)

Naked Cats!

I just had to share some pictures of my hairless kitties. Suede is a year younger than Boo and is twice her size...


Here are the three of them looking at the door to see all of the bugs that light our porch light... they just really want to get out there and have some snacks!

Isn't this a precious face?


Gandalf and Boo enjoying some sunshine!

Suede wanted to make sure Mack couldn't leave her bed :)
Sleepy chubby boy!

The Last Beach Days

Here are a couple of pictures of the beach the day before we left. It got kind of stormy and the water got really rough. There was an emergency vehicle that ran down the beach, passed us. I hear they closed the beach for a couple of days because of the rough water. Not a surprise... it was really rough for inexperienced swimmers.






And now back to reality... Time to prepare for the coming school year. I have books to read, websites to view... The beach was nice... we'll probably go again next summer!

Emerald Isle Beach Pics

Here are the last pictures I took at the beach. We leave tomorrow... Hope you enjoy the pictures. We had a wonderful time and hope to come back next year. It rained this afternoon, the water was really rough prior to that and looks more intense now. But it's just beautiful!

Happy Birthday to ME!!!!

Today I am 41. I don't FEEL 41. I thought 40's were going to feel OLDER, but not me. I refuse to grow up! :)

The beach is fantastic... and now that my burn is going away from the first few days being here... I'm going to spend my day out on the beach :)

Here are a few pictures from the last few days...
This picture is of the cake we got for my in-laws' 50th anniversary. They had it 2 years ago but didn't want to celebrate until we were all together. So here we are! We have lots to celebrate... but this was a really fun thing to celebrate... we surprised them completely with a video with old pictures that Greg set to music... it was really nice.



We have been on the beach every single day since we got here. These goofy birds sit out on the beach checking out all of the weird humans laying out... and some are fishing. This goofy guy stood there staring at us, maybe he was waiting for handouts?

Emerald Isle Beach Vacation!

We are at the beach! it is so beautiful here!!!




But before I go into how fantastic the beach is here... lemme tell you what happened on the way here!!! One of our tires popped on the way here. So we had to change the tire to the 12 year old spare (small one!) and then find a place (small towns on the way to the beach???) that would fix or replace the popped tire. The tires weren't that old, I still think we ran over something, but hubby won't admit it! My BIL and SIL were following behind us with their SUV filled with their two kids (see the blond boys?), their luggage and their share of the munchies for the beach. Our van was full of all of our stuff and our kids. Every time we had to open the back of our van, bags of food would fall out because of all of the shifting while driving... and when we finally found a place to fix the tire (a goodyear store) it was lunchtime... so we pulled out a picnic box my SIL packed in their car and had lunch in the waiting area of the tire shop. so the kids decided to sit on me... just like my older nephews and son did a few years back. Apparently this is becoming a tradition :)

We finally got to the beach 2 hours later than we planned. The house is HUGE, the beach is gorgeous, and soooo relaxing. I'll post more beach pics later... but here's one for now:

Soap July '08

I've started making soap with organic ingredients again. I recently made some with palm oil that hasn't been bleached. So now I have peppermint soap that is orange :) it looks very interesting, I'll post pictures soon.

This week I'll make some household cleaning soap to grind up into laundry powder and also a powdered cleaner (like comet or ajax). I like this stuff, it's much more natural than the storebought stuff for cleaning, and with a little bit of elbow grease it works very well! As a laundry powder, it works well in my front-loading machine. I use vinegar in place of fabric softener and everything comes out nicely.

We're getting ready to spend a week at the beach in North Carolina. I'll post pictures when we get back... sooner if I have a connection there. My daughter will turn 15 while we are there... when did that happen? 15... my baby!!!!

The kids had a wonderful time visiting with my sister for 10 days... they got to see my father and his fiancee, and my aunt and uncle. My daughter got to go to her first Anime Convention while she was there. She said it was a lot of fun and can't wait to go to the next one in August.

We're watching my nephew's cat. Very sweet fluffy little guy, but he wants to be the top male in the house and my boys aren't having any part of it... and my little female says she's the boss... he ended up with a nice little scratch on his nose that got infected but it's healed up nicely. He gets his own space now. I am having to sit with him while reading email because he is alone all day. This seems to be settling him down. When my nephew gets a new apartment, he'll be getting his cat back. Rufus will be happy when that happens. But for now, this works. Like I said, he's a very sweet cat... I just wish he wouldn't pounce on my boys!

Our van is in the shop AGAIN. Something made the battery drain and it wouldn't start yesterday. So Darrin is working on it and we'll see if he can determine why we need to keep replacing batteries in that thing. It's 12 years old with about 150,000 miles on it. We've had it on the Autobahn quite a bit... so it's been well used. I just need it to survive two teenagers learning to drive and then we can let it sleep :) keep your fingers crossed for us! :) I think in the fall we'll be getting two Honda Fits (hybrids maybe?) in trade for our Accord. The Accord is a nice car, but we don't need that much power in traffic. And the Fits would get better gas mileage!

While we are at the beach, we're going to do some melt and pour soaping with the kids and put shells they find in there... and some candles too. Buddy candles is what my SIL called them. you use tuna cans and some cardboard rolled up but let loose to be the wicking. pour wax in there and burn. I have Citronella oil, so we're going to try to make our own mosquito repellent candles. I'll let you know how that works!

More About the Froglets!

I went out and took more pictures of the froglets today. You can see they are starting to have color patterns like their parent bullfrogs now... they are no longer just black things.

I was finally able to get a picture of the lilies! They weren't here last year.

More Pond Pics

I went out today to get pictures of the lillies, but they aren't open today. I did see the froglets though:They are getting big and fat! and they were swimming all around. They like to eat the fish food, but we saw them digging in the algae too!
And finally the 4th koi. We thought one had been taken by the birds, but apparently only the goldfish have... we bought 10 and see only 5. They could be hiding, but I haven't seen them! I hope you enjoy the pictures... I also found a snakeskin near the pond... maybe the snake is fishing?

Tadpoles!

We have frog babies!!! here's a picture of a few of them... there are tons! the parents are all gone and the tadpoles are swimming around enjoying the pond. We only see 3 of the 4 koi and 5 of the 10 feeder goldfish.

Boo is 5 years old!

She was born on a Friday the 13th under a full moon! Doesn't she look so sweet? She's our very first Sphynx. I'll post pictures of Suede and Gandalf and our temporary kitty later :)

Frogs in My Pond!

Went out this evening to check on my fish and the new plants I just got from my MIL... this is what I found... at least EIGHT frogs! AND there are eggs! Check out these bullfrogs. We have never had a pond before we came here and we're having a lot of fun with the 4 Koi, 10 feeder goldfish, and 8 frogs we have in our pond. We had 6 large goldfish, but after we removed the net from the fall and winter, they disappeared. I think they were kidnapped by birds and maybe raccoons. We have put in new plants, more fish (less space per fish means they don't grow so big?), and now with all of these frogs... maybe the nasties will stay away.



Last week my neighbor helped me rescue a box turtle that was wandering down the middle of the street. He brought him to the backyard and we released him. I didn't get any pictures of him... but we got a bunch of the frogs... my kids call them Herr Frosh and Frau Frosh... Mr. and Mrs. frog. :)
I hope you enjoy the pictures!

More About Teaching

I realized today why I love teaching. While working at the learning center, I had a student for the last hour that needed some help with his algebra two homework. He was struggling. Said his teacher told him to not pursue a program next year that required that he take an advanced math class. His focus was drama, but he really seemed interested in this program. He was having a really hard time with algebra, but the stuff he'll be doing is probability and statistics! I worked with him only for an hour, but found him very easy to explain things to. He seemed to be missing pieces to the puzzle, but once I explained things he seemed to 'get it'. The light bulb turned on. THAT is why I teach. Watching his face, listening to him tell me that I have no idea how much easier it is now that I have cleared up a few things or put it in a different way than he has seen it before and that now he gets it. He was so excited. I was really happy to have worked with him. I was trying to decide if I shoudl go back to teaching... I've been out of it for a while, I haven't managed my own classroom in a long time and wasn't sure I wanted to. But after helping this kid, after seeing his reaction... I know this is what I need to be doing.

Teaching Math!

Now that we are home from Hawaii and recovered from jet lag... I want to go back! I am by no means a photographer... but really, you can't take a bad picture there! It's amazingly beautiful. My kids are excited about the idea of going to see it. My cousin is closing on a house soon... The initial pictures show a big beautiful home... we can't wait to take over for a little while :)

Yesterday I learned that I only need to take the Praxis 2 and the VCLA tests in order to be licensed in Virginia. Prior to that I learned that I have to get 2 years of full time teaching in (part time doesn't count) in order to retain my Arizona license. I have two classes to take to remove the deficiencies in AZ. So it's faster and easier to get licensed here in VA then try to do the reciprocity. And apparently they need math teachers so desperately that they will hire me while I'm studying for the tests. But I should be able to at least complete the tests this summer. There's a job fair at the end of the month. It states on the site to bring all of your credentials and dress for interviewing, that they may offer contracts on the spot! So I guess I'm heading straight for my kids' school. Yeah, I know that they would like that MORE than anything else in the world (can you hear the sarcasm in my voice???) but it would be convenient :) I could try to work at one of the other schools in their district so when they play against the school I work for I can yell for both :) There are three districts right in the area so I have some choices. I've already put in online applications for the three districts. We'll see how things go.I haven't worked full time in a looooong time. And I'm not really a morning person. But I do love teaching, so I guess I will adjust.

I will still keep soaping. I love making soap. I will keep the business running too. I will just have to manage my time better.

There is about a month left for school for the kids. That sure went quickly! Summer is already all filled up with plans of travel. Visiting with family, a trip to the beach and some golf. We should probably invest in a company that produces sunscreen since we'll be going through tons of it! I have family members that have dealt or are dealing with skin cancers... so I would be a bad girl if I didn't include a link to info on protecting your skin! http://tinyurl.com/4hrqvv

I plan to start production of soap made with organic ingredients. It's not going to be certified organic, but all of my ingredients are either certified organic or grown naturally and processed carefully. The packaging is ecofriendly as well. I found a supplier for some beautiful papers. My molds are even made of recycled plastic! I will be starting with a spicy blend of cinnamon and cloves and some other ingredients. Yummy! I also want to make another batch of Walnut Spice that I made for the holidays, I had a special request for it.

That's it for today... I need to go find sign up for those two tests for my VA license! Have a good one!

Hiking!

Below are some pictures I took around the beaches on our tour on Monday.










































We wanted to be sure to take pictures of the kids while at the beach, so they didn't feel neglected! We are such loving parents! We took several pictures of the kids around the area, here are just a couple of them! :)






























Tuesday, today, we took a hike around the area (with a guide of course!) Here are just a few of the pictures. There are a lot of interesting looking birds and plants that have adapted to the area and are now unique to Hawaii. Check out the Cardinal! The area we walked around is considered a rain forest. They get over 100 inches of rain a year. There are some areas that get something like 440 inches of water a year and others that get around 20 or so.

We have really enjoyed this trip. Next time we come we'll have the kids and more family with us. I could live here forever. This is a very beautiful state. I can't wait to see the other islands. Tomorrow we fly home. I hope you've enjoyed my pictures of Hawaii and that it makes you want to come here! It's just beautiful here!!!!!

Hawaii!!!

Friday night we went to a local restaurant that my cousins suggested. It's called Onos. Ono means delicious in Hawaiian and that it was! We had several local dishes and that included Poi! Poi is made from pulverized taro root. It is a staple in the Hawaiian diet. Some people hate it, others love it. It's supposed to be something you dip your meats and other foods into, it doesn't have a strong taste of it's own. I guess it's like eating tofu. I enjoyed it, Greg loved it. We'll see how my kids like it.

Saturday my cousins took us to the Dole Pineapple Plantation. We had a lot of fun in the maze.

We also went to see the North Shore Soap Factory. It is in an old sugar plantation building. It was fun to see what the big girls and boys do!

We had Shave Ice while sightseeing on the North Shore. It's not the same as snow cones, it's finer. And the place my cousins took us is one of the best in the area. Apparently even the locals will line up to have some. There is a sign in the shop explaining how you are to order so that the line can move quickly.

Dinner was at a place called Side Street. It was an interesting looking place, but the food was really good. After dinner, we went to Senor Frog for some drinks and a little entertainment. My cousin knows the owners so we got special treatment. I had a drink called Lava Flow, it was yummy! The music was incredibly loud and it was a lot of fun. The waiters were fun, except for ours... I think he was a little intimidated at the fact that my cousin asked if one of the managers was around. We didn't have any complaints, he just seemed to be a little cautious after she did :)



Sunday my cousins took us to Pearl Harbor. I didn't realize how shallow the water was and how close you were to the sunken ship. It was an incredible experience. I want to take my kids to see it when we come back.

















We also went to The Punch Bowl. It's Hawaii's version of Arlington.
We went to see some sights today with a tour, but I will have to share those pictures later.

Hello from Hawaii

Tonight is the last night we will have internet connectivity. Greg won't be working all day, so I won't have so much free time to hang out and be lazy. Tomorrow we go check out the North Shore and Pearl Harbor. Not sure what the plans are for Sunday, but Monday we'll take a tour to see the countryside and wildlife. Dinner tonight is at Shorebird and tomorrow is at Ono's. Sunday we do Passover dinner at my cousin's MIL's house. We leave Wednesday, get home early Thursday. And then we'll get some time with Greg's parents for a few days. I want to come back here again... my sister said she's never been here, I think we'd have fun shopping and laying around on the beach!

Have a great week! I'll post more pictures tonight if I can and then the rest when I get home! enjoy!!!

We went to the Army hotel, Hale Koa. Dinner was delicious! I had a Mai Tai. I had my first one the first night we were here. I have decided I like them only if they go light on the rum! WOW those can be strong! I had Mahi Mahi for dinner. I have never tasted it, but I thought it would be good to try. It was delicious. Greg got something that resembled stew, he said it was really good too.




We took the kids out to dinner with us! Now they can't say we didn't take them to Hawaii with us! Greg did this for his first Valentine's Day when he was first deployed to Germany and I hadn't yet joined him. I was still in school finishing my BA in Math. So we are just carrying on the tradition!












After dinner, we went for a walk on the beach.


















I even got Greg to walk barefoot and got pictures to prove it!










And a picture of me too!