To Sell or Not to Sell: That Is The Question

Everything I look at in the house has this glow around it. The glow is whether to sell the piece of furniture or to keep it because I can use it where ever we end up.   Last time we moved it was a literally a few blocks, and we went into this purge and burn mode.  If we had not used it since living at the Summit House ( all of our homes are referred to has the street name it was) then we got rid of it. Trash diggers in the KC area loved our house for like a month.  

I guess I should back up a few here. This move won't be somewhere else in the KC metro area, it will either be across the country or across the big blue pond.  It's been a dream of mine since I started teaching to get into the DODEA system and teach on military bases. It is a long process to get into.  I started the process in August in 2010.  After a year and a half, my account went into the "active" status and I have interviewed for a several different jobs. The first job was for a job in Italy. That job went to someone that was already in Europe and could get their quicker.  The second job was for Puerto Rico. Finally there was the Alaska job interview.   Both the Italy job and the Alaska job were for the Base Youth Center, not in the classroom.  I actually would like something out of the classroom.  After being in the classroom for 6 years, I am ready for some sort of shift.   I don't want out of education, just something new. 

I check the USAJobs.gov website daily to see if there are any new postings, as well as the DODEA website now that it's getting into the hiring time for next school year. We really want Europe. It would be an amazing chance to live as cheaply as possible and then travel all over the place with Dade. Once you get into the system you have a better chance of getting the "dream" jobs in Europe. 

Okay, so back to the beginning of this post. Clint and I seem to be on the same page with what to keep and what to sell. What it will come down to in the end is if we have to move ourself (state-side) or if we will get moved by the government. Most of the large furniture will go. Mainly because we won't know the size of the new place. Dade's stuff we will keep, his bed, toys, etc . . . We already have a list of things we are ready to let go of, now I just have to get pictures taken, and the listings put on Craigslist. The nice thing about moving is the adventure of getting to the new place and setting everything up how you want. It is always fun to decorate a new place. 

In the coming months, there will be a new adventure for our little piece of the Krause Clan.  I plan to blog about it along the way. 2012 brings us into a new adventure! 

Somewhat Therapeutic

I am writing this while I watch my laundry spin in the dryer. I am not exactly sure what makes coming to the laundry mat relaxing and calming.  In all honesty, I LOATHE doing laundry. It takes so much time to wash everything, dry everything, then fold it, and finally put it away. I would much rather be doing something else.  However, coming to the laundry mat is a very different experience in and of its self from doing laundry at home.  

First of all, if you come at the right time of day ( which for our laundry mat is weekdays and Sunday mornings) there is hardly anyone around.  You get your run at the machines, and can wash five loads ( or more) at once.  That right there makes my day. Nothing like unloading all your baskets to get them all washing at the same time.   Second, its rather quiet. Again that goes along with number one of knowing the right time of day to come.  I can last Saturday in the morning and it was a nightmare. Everyone  and their brother was in here doing their laundry, and I had machines going throughout the entire laundry mat, which makes it difficult to watch your stuff. Lesson learned: only come Saturday morning if completely necessary.   Finally, you see an eclectic group of people at the laundry mat.  When I was here last weekend a mom was teaching her son math by playing UNO. She made him count off the left over cards and keep track of all the scores. Today a lady was working on a hand stitched quilt while her laundry was going. Then you have people like me who come in with their iPad and write a blog about doing laundry at a laundry mat, how profound. 

Like anything, there are pros and cons of doing your laundry at the mat, but for us the pros seem to out weigh the cons.  With moving in our very near future, we don't want to invest in a new washer if we cannot take it with us.  For now, we will make our little trips to the mat a few times a week to get what we need done.  It's always an adventure, that's for sure. 

Reading Goal

This time last year, I made a challenge to myself.  Clint purchased my NookColor as a Christmas gift, and in less than a week, I had read the entire Hunger Games trilogy. I was feeling pretty good about myself.  I had graduated with a 4.0 from Baker with my second Masters, and was blowing through books.  I challenged myself to read 24 books.  I figured I could attempt to read 2 a month, and see where it took me.  Although I didn't reach my goal, I still feel pretty accomplished in reading 21 books in 2011.  Here are the books that I read this past year.  As you will see, I enjoy reading YA novels, and that the majority of them had something to do with vampires and/or werewolves. No, none of them were the Twilight Series. I was forced to read books 1 and 4 for a graduate course on Vampires in Literature, and they are trash for vampire literature, not to mention how the portray women to be helpless as well.  (Didn't mean to go on a tangent there, sorry!)  Without further ado, the books I read in 2011.  Feel free to ask questions about the books.  I will give you my honest opinion about them. 

1. Water for Elephants - Sara Gruen

2. A Reliable Wife - Robert Goolrick

3. Fallen (Fallen, #1) - Lauren Kate 

4. Shiver (The Wolves of Mercy Falls, #1) - Maggie Stiefvater

5. Torment (Fallen, #2) - Lauren Kate

6. Marked (House of the Night, #1) - P.C. Cast

7. Jane Goes Batty (Jane Fairfax, #2) - Michael Thomas Ford

8. Betrayed ( House of the Night, #2) - P.C. Cast

9. My Sister's Keeper - Jodi Picoult

10. Chosen (House of the Night, #3) - P.C. Cast

11. Untamed (House of the Night, #4) - P.C. Cast

12. Hunted (House of the Night, #5) - P.C. Cast

13. Tempted (House of the Night, #6) - P.C. Cast

14. Burned (House of the Night, #7) - P.C. Cast

15. Awakened (House of the Night, #8) - P.C. Cast

16. Witch & Wizard (Witch & Wizard, #1) - James Patterson

17. The Gift (Witch & Wizard, #2) - James Patterson

18. 11 Birthdays - Wendy Mass 

19. Destined (House of the Night, #9) - P.C. Cast

20. The Secret of Zoom - Lynne Jonell

21. The Help - Kathryn Stockett 

These are the books that I purchased, but still haven't finished yet.  They are the first in line for this year. 

1. American Gods - Neil Gaiman

2. The Awakening (The Vampire Diaries, #1) - L.J. Smith

3. Fried Green Tomatoes at the Whistle Stop Cafe - Fannie Flagg

4. The Potato Chip Puzzles: The Puzzling World of Winston Breen - Eric Berlin

5. Passion (Fallen, #3) - Lauren Kate 

Currently I am reading Miss Peregrine's Home for Peculiar Children by Ransom Riggs.   This year I am challenging myself to read 23 books.  It's two more than last year, so we shall see!  If you have any suggestions on what I should read, let me know.  I am always up for suggestions. Believe it or not, I do like reading adult books as well, and stories that aren't about vampires. 

*This was my first post using my iPad, and I am pretty excited about how easy it was! 

Cookie Crazy

I'm getting ready for my 3rd Annual Cookie Swap in the next month, and I've been on the hunt for a different type of cookie for this year.   I found 3 potential cookies for the swap, and will be using Clint's family tomorrow as my guinea pigs.  Here are the recipes that I've made tonight to try out:

Caramel Corn Chocolate Chip Cookies

• 2 1/4 cups all-purpose flour
• 1 teaspoon baking soda
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 1 cup (2 sticks) butter, softened
• 3/4 cup granulated sugar
• 3/4 cup packed brown sugar
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 2 large eggs
• 2 cups coarsely chopped caramel popcorn
• 1 cup  Semi-Sweet Chocolate Morsels
• 1 cup  Butterscotch Flavored Morsels
• 1 cup peanuts or chopped, toasted almond slices

PREHEAT oven to 375° F

COMBINE flour, baking soda and salt in small bowl. Beat butter, granulated sugar, brown sugar and vanilla extract in large mixer bowl until creamy. Add eggs, one at a time, beating well after each addition. Gradually beat in flour mixture. Stir in popcorn, morsels and peanuts. Drop by rounded tablespoon onto ungreased baking sheets.

BAKE for 10 to 12 minutes or until golden brown. Cool on baking sheets for 2 minutes; remove to wire racks to cool completely. 

** I think if I make this one for the Cookie Swap, I'll be purchasing Topsy Popcorn instead of the microwave Caramel Corn. **

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Pudding Chip Cookies

• 1 cup all-purpose flour

• 1 pkg. (4 serving size) instant vanilla, butterscotch or chocolate pudding mix
• 1/2 cup (1 stick) butter, softened
• 1/2 cup packed brown sugar
• 1 teaspoon baking soda
• 1 large egg
• 1 large egg white
• 2 cups  Semi-Sweet Chocolate Mini Morsels

 PREHEAT oven to 350° F.

COMBINE flour and pudding mix in small bowl. Beat butter in large mixing bowl on medium to high speed for 30 seconds. Beat in brown sugar and baking soda until well combined. Beat in egg and egg white. Gradually beat in flour mixture. Stir in morsels. Drop dough by rounded teaspoon 2 inches apart onto ungreased baking sheets.

BAKE for 10 to 12 minutes or until set. Cool on baking sheets 2 to 3 minutes; remove to wire racks to cool completely.

*** I used chocolate for this batch***

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Sweet and Salty Cookies

• 2 1/4 cups all-purpose flour
• 1 teaspoon baking soda
• 1 teaspoon salt (optional)
• 1 cup (2 sticks) butter, softened
• 3/4 cup granulated sugar
• 3/4 cup packed brown sugar
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 2 large eggs
• 2 cups (12-oz. pkg.) Semi-Sweet Chocolate Morsels
• 2 cups coarsely broken rippled potato chips
• 1 cup small pretzel twists, broken into 1/2-inch pieces 
• 1/2 cup unsalted peanuts (optional)

 PREHEAT oven to 375° F.

COMBINE flour, baking soda and salt in small bowl. Beat butter, granulated sugar, brown sugar and vanilla extract in large mixer bowl until creamy. Add eggs, one at a time, beating well after each addition. Gradually beat in flour mixture. Stir in morsels, potato chips, pretzel pieces and peanuts. Drop by rounded tablespoon onto ungreased baking sheets.

BAKE for 9 to 11 minutes or until golden brown. Cool on baking sheets for 2 minutes; remove to wire racks to cool completely. 

***This one really grabbed my attention with the combination of potato chips, pretzels and chocolate chips***

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

All the cookies are now cooling on my wire racks, and I'm interested to see what is liked the best tomorrow. 

I really like the pudding ones because they are simple, but the Sweet and Salty have a pretty good taste too.  

Choices, choices, choices!

Halloween!

It's Halloween!  In the spirit of the day, I thought I'd blog and post pictures of Dade's costumes over the years.  I say over the years, but I for some reason cannot find pictures of Dade's first Halloween.  I know that they must be somewhere digitally, but I cannot locate them.  So without further ado,

Halloween 2009 

EWOK Dade

Halloween 2010 

Train Conductor Dade

Halloween 2011

 

Box Robot Dade 

 

I am extremely happy with how his costume came out this year.  Last year we asked if he'd like to be a train conductor, and he said yes.  This year we asked what he wanted to be, and he said a robot.  When asked what kind of robot he wanted to be, he responded with "A Box Robot."    There's a game on the xbox that I enjoy playing called Costume Quest.   He wanted to be the robot from that video game.  Here is a picture of that robot and Dade's costume side by side

I'd say that Clint and I did a pretty good job of getting it to look like the original version.  In the video game when the little kid in the costume knocks on a door of a house and there's a bad guy inside he turns into this

 

I firmly believe that Dade thinks that if there's a bad guy at a house tonight, that he will turn into this guy, and defeat them for candy.   I guess we'll have to wait and see what happens! 

Happy Haunting from The Krause's!

 

Crock Pot Queen!

Since starting back to work, I haven't had the energy to cook a meal after working 10+ hours.  Clint has been amazing at helping with the cooking so I can come home and relax.  We've been trying out a variety of crock-pot recipes so that he can get them ready in the morning, and then not worry about it until I get home.   The recipes have been so delicious that I feel like I'm not being nice and sharing my yummy finds! 

Easiest Dinner Ever! 

Bag of frozen chicken tenderloins
8 oz. cream cheese
Can of black beans (rinsed and drained)
Can or corn (drained)
Can of Rotel  

Put everything in the crock pot in the order they are listed above.  Cook on high for 6-8 hours.   Serve over rice.

I will say that this recipe is better the second day because it's thicker.  I particularly enjoy this on a flour tortilla.

Taco Soup

1 lb. ground beef 

1 large can of diced tomatoes 

1 can of stewed tomatoes

1 small can of tomato sauce 

1 can of kidney beans (drained)

1 can of corn 

1 package of taco seasoning 

Small onion (diced) (optional) 

Brown the ground beef on the stove.  Mix all ingredients in the crock pot.  Cook on Low for 6-8 hours or on High for 2 - 3 hours.   Serve with cornbread and chips. 

Chicken Tortilla Soup

4-5 chicken breasts, cooked and diced 

1 large can of diced tomatoes

14 oz. can of enchilada sauce

1 medium onion, diced 

1 can of chopped green chiles

1 tsp. minced garlic 

32 oz. chicken broth 

1 tsp. cumin 

1 tsp. chili powder 

salt and pepper to taste 

10 oz. frozen corn. 

Place diced chicken, diced tomatoes, enchilada sauce, onion, green chilies, minced garlic and corn into the crock pot.  Pour in chicken broth, add cumin, chili powder, salt, and pepper.  Stir.  Cook on low for 5 - 6 hours or high for 2 -3 hours. 

With 30 minutes or so left to go.  Slice corn tortillas into strips.  Lightly brush them with olive oil.  Cook 10 - 15 minutes at 400.  Garnish with tortilla strips, sour cream, cheese, or fresh avocado.

All of the above recipes came from this site.

Take my word that you will LOVE the above recipes.  The following recipes are on deck for this week.  I haven't tried them yet, but they sound delicious! 

Slow Cooker Chicken and Dumplings

4 skinless, boneless chicken breast halves

2 tablespoons butter

2 (10.75 ounce) cans condensed cream of chicken soup

1 onion, finely diced

2 (10 ounce) packages refrigerated biscuit dough, torn into pieces

Place the chicken, butter, soup, and onion in a slow cooker, and fill with enough water to cover. Cover, and cook for 5 to 6 hours on High. About 30 minutes before serving, place the torn biscuit dough in the slow cooker. Cook

until the dough is no longer raw in the center. 

Beef Stew 

2 pounds cubed beef stew meat

3 tablespoons vegetable oil

4 cubes beef bouillon, crumbled

4 cups water

1 teaspoon dried rosemary

1 teaspoon dried parsley

1/2 teaspoon ground black pepper

3 large potatoes, peeled and cubed

4 carrots, cut into 1 inch pieces

4 stalks celery, cut into 1 inch pieces

1 large onion, chopped

2 teaspoons cornstarch

2 teaspoons cold water

Cook meet in oil over medium heat until brown.  Transfer to crock pot.   Dissolve bouillon in water and pour into crock pot.  Stir in rosemary, parsley, and pepper. Stir. Add potatoes, carrots, celery, and onion.  Dissolve cornstarch in cold water and add into stew.  Cover and cook on low for 6-8 hours.

Recipes are from here.

Right now I have a Chocolate Fudge Pudding Cake in there.  I found a very simple recipe.  And I hope that it tastes amazing.  I've been craving a chocolate cake.  It smells delicious. 

That's it for now.  When I find more yummy crock pots recipes I will share them as well!  If you've got some that are yummy, let me know!

I think I'll be putting one of these on my Christmas List! Think of the possibilities!

Philly

Now that I've been back a few days from my trip to ISTE 2011 in Philadelphia, I can reflect on what I did and what I learned.  I arrived on Friday before the conference to have a HUGE fiasco with the hotel.  I was lucky enough to have the school pay for my entire trip.  Hotel, airfare, and conference.   I called the week before I left to make sure the reservations was set and that I didn't need any sort of documentation from the school for the hotel.  I was assured that everything was okay. However, when I got there they said I needed the card from my school that I didn't have.   I quickly started making phone calls to my principals, building manager, and the school's administrative assistant.  I was able to get a hold of Savannah, our administrative assistant.  She talked to the hotel person, who refused to take the credit card over the phone.

The kicker is, that they had the credit card on file on the computer, but she refused to run it.  This went on for quite awhile. Finally, the hotel clerk, said she'd take all the cash I had plus my drivers license and give me a room for the night, but if they didn't get some form signed and faxed back to them by noon then I would have to leave.  Talk about being completely and utterly frustrated and exhausted.  I finally got to my room around 11pm and crashed.  My principal wasn't happy about what happened, and he quickly took care of everything in the morning as well as talked to the hotel manager.  I was able to get my money and ID back the next morning.  For the rest of the trip, the 2 ladies that worked the desk at night were not very cordial with me, but I don't care.  How do you take reservations over the phone?  I mean don't you have to have a credit card to reserve the room.  Lesson learned. Even if you call and confirm that everything is okay, take the authorization form anyway.

On Saturday I got up and headed over to the convention center.  My hotel was right at City Center, and the convention center was a block from the hotel.  Now, this place was HUGE.  I later learned the 15 football fields can fit in this building, and I believe it. It's 3 floors of massive floor space.  It was 4 city blocks long, and 1 city block deep.  The thing was just massive.  I walked the entire thing looking for the registration booths.  My first two seminars that day were amazing.  The first one was integrating technology into your lessons.  I learned how to create bookmarks and flip-books in Word.  Massive Posters in Excel, and puzzles in PowerPoint.   My second seminar was about Geocaching for the classroom.  It was by far one of my favorites of the whole conference.  We went caching in Philly and found 2 caches in downtown. 

This is where we found one of the caches.  The container was magnetic and looked like a bolt that was part of the statue.  We had people from all over the world in this workshop, and I met some wonderful educators that were eager to get the kids out of the classroom and to the outdoors.  I spent the rest of Saturday resting and relaxing in my hotel room.  I was extremely exhausted and ready for some rest.

On Sunday I had 2 more workshops before the official kick off for the conference.  I went to a workshop on Technology Time Savers for Teachers, and Google Earth.  Both of these gave me some much information and ideas for my upcoming school year that my brain was exhausted by the time I got done.    I took a little nap before heading to the keynote speaker.  The keynote for the opening was Dr. John Medina.   His keynote was very powerful and thought provoking.   Here's the full video from the opening keynote.  It's long, but I would highly recommend watching it. (Start the video around 30 minutes, up to that point is music and slides with information for the conference).

Monday was the first day I was disappointed in one of my workshops.   I enjoyed my Empowering Students to Write With Digital Tools.  I learned about several programs that would allow my students to create their own comic book, photo book, and pictorial essays.  The guy who lead this workshop was amazing.  During my Differentiated Instruction with Technology workshop I got a little put off.   I didn't pay for a workshop to not listen to you speak.  I didn't want to work in groups to do research on D.I.  I already know how D.I. works in the classroom, I wanted tools and resources to make D.I. somewhat less time consuming.   While I was in that workshop, there was a flash mob going on! I would have rather have been involved in the flash mob!

On Monday night I had my "Darker Side of Philly" Ghost Tour.  It was pretty exciting.  I hung out with a bunch of ladies from Superior, Wisconsin and they had me cracking up. One of my pictures had an "orb" (dust) in it and the ladies went nuts.  We went to the location that "The Raven" by Edgar Allen Poe was written, Eastern State Penitentiary, and one of the oldest cemeteries in Philly.  Here's some of my favorite pictures.

 This is Clark.  I LOVED his outfit.  The ladies from Wisconsin wondered where his lederhosen was.

 Ben Franklin's grave.  His grave-site last year raised more than $50,000 last year.  It was all in pennies! A  penny saved is a penny earned! 

 Oldest street in America. 

 The ladies from Wisconsin went nuts with this picture! 

 Edgar Allen Poe wall mural.  This was down the street from the Edgar Allen Poe Historical Museum.  The museum is located in the house where he wrote The Raven. 

 Eastern State Penitentiary.  I really wanted to skip a workshop and go back for the self guided audio tour. 

 I conquered the Rocky steps.  Little known fact, Sylvester Stallone only ran up the first 4 steps!  A stunt double ran up the rest.

Night time picture of the Benjamin Franklin Parkway.

Tuesday was the last full day for me to be in Philly. My workshops that day included using Google Apps for Education for the classroom, and iLearn to iTeach with Apps for the iPad.  I was really excited about the Google Apps workshop.  I have talked to my tech guy from school and we are going to turn on email for my students as well as apps, and have the learn how to use them this school year.  I also want to be a Google Certified Teacher, and attend the 12 hour Google Academy for teachers next year.  I'm going to watch the submission information like a hawk.   Now the ipad workshop I was disappointed in.  Not because I didn't learn anything, but because they charged $110 for me to sit there and download free apps to look at for 3 hours.  REALLY?! I guess I was saved time in not having to search for them myself because I was given a wiki-site to go to, but come on.  Was that really worth $110 from 30 people? 

Tuesday night I went on a tour of Philly on a double-decker bus. My co-worker Scott (our tech guy), went with me.  We finally managed to get into this really yummy Italian restaurant.  I had the best gnocchi in a vodka basil sauce!   We went to the historic government square where Liberty Hall is located, the US Mint (where I learned it takes 3 cents to make a penny.  Is that even worth it?), The Franklin Fountain, and many other places.  Here's some of my favorite pictures from that tour. 

 This is city hall.  My hotel room looked out onto this beautiful building.  Each side of the building told a different story with it's statues. 

 The Comcast building was designed to look like a USB drive. 

 Scott and I on the tour bus. 

 Over look of the Schuylkill River. 

 Looking tough at the Rocky Statue. 

 This is in the art district.  The lights on the buildings change colors every 90 seconds.

Inside The Franklin Fountain.  This is the place to go for ice cream in Philly.  It was so bloody hot in the building.  I felt bad for the workers in their old time outfits. 

On Wednesday I went to my last workshop on interactive websites for the classroom.  It was taught by the same ladies that I had my first workshop with.  It was a wonderful way to end my conference.  On the way to the airport, I had an amazing conversation with my shuttle driver about the public education system in Philly, and how private schools are becoming the choice for the average Philadelphia household.  I explained that in KC it's the charter schools that are taking the place of public schools.  

I couldn't get on the plan fast enough!  Nor could I get off the plane fast enough.  Dade laughed with excitement as I got off the plane, and he didn't leave my side the whole night.  It was nice to get away and have some time to myself, but the longer I was away, the more I missed Clint and Dade.   I loved Philly so much, that I want to go back.   There was so much that I didn't get to do.  Clint and I are talking about going during my spring break next year.  I hope that we do! 

I'll try and post again in a few days with some of my new favorite sites that I discovered while I was there.

Quick Post

Good morning!  I see in KC that it is muggy and going to be a hot one.  Not so much here in Philly!  The high today is in the upper 70s!   I have a few spare minutes before my first workshop of the day starts, so I figured I could do a quick tidying up of the blog.

If you didn't notice, I changed the blog design.  It was long overdue.   I really want to try and blog later about my trip so far.  So check back later tonight for that blog.  (That is if I'm not to tired from staring at a computer screen.

I will say this. The ISTE Conference is very much the GenCon for Teachers.  With one exception.  They have already thought out all the worse-case scenarios and have back-up plan after back up plan already in place.  I think that GenCon could take some pointers on that.

So for now I bid you good-bye!