Weather: Wet, but nice
Working on: Updating the site (finally) and uploading Natsu Con videos
Websites up: Youtube and Word Press
Eating/Drinking: Had Taco Bell with my hubby earlier
Wearing: My black Twilight shirt with Edward and Bella dancing. The back says “I dream of being with you…Forever.” and denim capris
Currently playing: Kingdom Hearts: Dew Drop Distance (23 hours into it. On the second to last world! >.<)
Currently Listening to: Love yourself, the theme song for “The Wallflower” live-action
Currently Watching: One of my Natsu con panels
Currently Reading: The Changeling
Thoughts: It’s SO weird not being in school right now!
Feeling: Asi/Asi…
Konnichiwa Minna-san! 😀 I has been AGES! Here, I was complaining how June slipped away and I breathe and July is gone. 0.o I suppose teaching summer school all month will do that to a person. I haven’t had time for anything fun after Natsu Con; I’d work then come home, do lesson plans for the next day, and fall asleep. No time to take my daily walks, touch my game or even READ! I didn’t touch a book for TWO WEEKS! >.< I even had to wait 2 weeks to do edits for I HAD NO TIME! x(- *passes out* But, I always enjoy working at College for Kids and I will tell you guys all about it, but first, let me tell you what I updated: I added THREE new Top Tens to my blog section, one for each of the three weeks I missed. Top Ten #6 is about Japanese culture since I taught my Japanese class that week and went to the con too. Top Ten #7 is for my Percy Jackson class and Top Ten #8, although Japanese based, also goes with my cooking class for that last week. I am updating on my main page here about what I, MORGAN, have been up to, and after this or sometime today, I will add a DETAILED with photos blog all about NatsuCon 2013. ^_^ So, get prepared!
On the book front, last time I was starting chapter 10 edits. Well, I finished chapters 10-12 before I left for Natsu on the 12th of July and I finished chapters 13-14 yesterday. We are getting CLOSER! 😀 Yeay! I also started talking to my cover artist, Suzy, about character design, so that is starting to take affect. Nothing else now to report, but things are moving, right? Now that I have time, I really am looking forward to more editing and I have until the 14th until I start my new paraprofessional (teacher’s aide) job for my middle school in the special education department! I even got a small pay raise! WOOT! 🙂
College for Kids:
Week One: I taught two four hour classes: Around the World in a Week and The History of Ruling the World (the Egyptian section. My friend, Alesha, taught the Roman part). The Around the World class is a new one and it was okay. It had a lot of cooking in it and although the recipes were good, we hardly had time for all the crafts and information I wanted to get through. The students were great, but cooking classes still stress me out and I found out, the hard way of TRYING this, that I do NOT have a gift for languages! >.< I was so messed up and tongue tied. Although I spent a lot of time on this class, I did not feel good about it so I think I will take a break from it for now and if I want to try again in a few years, we got it. I did enjoy listening to all the foreign music, making our around the world globe with all the 12 flags we discussed, the final products of cooking, and the kids reactions yelling at my in Australian or British accents or when they got to use paint all over their projects! I then had a two hour break, but if you have ever cleaned up after cooking…It. Is. A. MESS! It took me over an hour to clean up and wash dishes, which I had to do in the girl’s restroom tiny sink for the only room with a sink was being used for testing college students the whole time. -_-;; It was strange. Alesha and I were co-teachers for the afternoon class. She taught the Roman part first and then I would compare and contrast her lessons with the ancient Egyptian way. I had material for four days instead of three, but with Fourth of July being on a Thursday, we only got 3 days. Alesha and I had a lot of fun with this class so I want to do it for four hours again, but four days next year. I know the kids liked wrapping each other up like mummies, making fun of each other’s Gods, stretching out like the sky goddess Nut has to, and laughing at the god of hills, Bun-Bun (no lie; that’s his name…). They told me they really liked my part of the class, but wished we had more time. We will work on that young ones! ;D
Week Two: I taught a Basics in Babysitting class in the morning and House of the Rising Sun, a Japanese class, in the afternoon. My Babysitting class is one I normally teach on Saturdays for my boss, once in the Fall and once in the spring, but I thought it would work in the summer too and it made. I had 10 very good young ladies. Each day, we take a topic and have volunteers come in to help us. Monday we cover basics from how to start the business, interviews, attire, manners, punishments, questions to ask, siblings, compromise, and more. I make them act like the kids or I will do it so they can see what it is like to get a child’s head. Tuesday we made business cards and I taught them what to put on them and their flyers. I had a very kind young lady show me a easier site to use than Microsoft word and you could save them on a free account and buy them later if desired. Wednesday, one of my high school friends brought her 2 year old in. He was super shy and liked to say “no” to everything, which was a GREAT thing for the girls to learn. He did enjoy telling them what areas of the room to clean up. 🙂 We discussed toddlers, bed time, potty time, and school age kids as well. Thursday, my friend brought her 5 month old daughter in, who is so adorable and well behaved! One of my students asked her teacher to come in and she brought her 18 month old daughter that day too. It was so much fun to play games with them and watch the mom’s change them and their clothes. We also talked about SIDS here and sleeping rituals along with how to prepare a bottle or baby food. My Japanese class is one of my favorites! ^_^ Day one, we learn basic words, suffixes, culture, numbers, about sakuras, schools, Fiji-san, how to play Fruits Basket, and more. Tuesday was art day where they learned about kimono and saw mine (some tried mine on), created manga in teams (some were sad when they did not have time to read them and they got SO into making their mangas! My only requirement was there was one chibi and an expression mark. I had several resources for them to use), haiku, heard a Japanese folktale, and colored a kimono pattern. We ran out of time for origami. 🙁 Wednesday was food day where I wore one of my Chinese dresses (which I can not wear again; it was WAY too tight and I hurt my arm getting it on…), they learned how to use chopsticks by eating rice and ramen, sat proper style on the floor, learned to serve tea the right way, did a Samurai chopstick focus test, saw all the different types of bentos I had along with their accessories, learned about different types of fish dishes in Japan, and made candy sushi, which they LOVED! 😀 Thursday was Entertainment day. They watched a subtitled and dubbed anime, saw my cosplays as I explained what it was, and got to play in a crazy Japanese show game we created, making team headbands, mascots, colors, and poses. They also learned the “Sayonara” song from “I survived a Japanese Game Show” (THEY LOVED IT AND SOOOOO NEED TO BRING THAT BACK!). We had a guest speaker too; one of my students’ great-grandfather was stationed in Japan in World War II and her grandfather brought in pictures and a real yukata. Lastly, we had a graduation ceremony where I gave them a certificate, a hug or high five, and a piece of Pokey and a Japanese Carmel. Friday was the start of Natsucon of this week, so I had a CPR trainer come in and train my girls in Babysitting in first aide and CPR and Alesha subbed for my Japanese class, doing holidays. I called my Japanese students from the con while Samurai Jillian was setting up and they were all excited to hear from me! HA! The con will be on its own separate blog later. ^_^
Week Three: I taught Percy Jackson’s Mythology: The Sequel in the morning (I normally also teach a Percy Jackson Mythology 101, where I cover the Big 12 and Hades, Persephone, and Pan along with well known Greek monsters, but it didn’t make. Also this year, I decided to offer Percy Jackson’s…in 3D, a third Percy class with even MORE minor gods, along with a few Roman this time, Greek heroes, and cursed mortals, but it also didn’t make. Here’s to next year!). In the afternoon, I taught Magnificent Medieval. Percy had tons of craziness! Each student gets to pick one Greek figure from my Family Tree to be their Godly parent for the week and get their parents from then they made a sky cape (for Uranus) telling about themselves and their/parent’s powers. Monday we did Titans. Tuesday and Wednesday we did minor Goddesses and Gods along with some deities. Thursday we finished deities and did forgotten ones, such as Helios and Selene. There are TONS of Greek figures I missed, but I tried to pick ones in the Percy series or ones I found really unique, like Dike, the goddess of mortal justice or Hygienia, the goddess of hygiene. Friday, we get in teams of three (lucky number for quests in Greek culture), make weapons with recyclables, supply list, do battle poses, and have epic quest outside, pretending these GIANT trees are monsters. We also, of coarse, have s’mores; we ARE at Camp! 😉 I also make them pretend that all the college students are monsters and if they are seen, they could lose their lives (if you read Percy, EVERYONE is a suspect on hurting a demigod!) Some kids got SO into their quests, they rolled down the hill or broke their weapons, but they always have a blast. I had SO much more to do with them, but with 12 kids, mostly goofy boys, it’s hard to get everything done. At least they became warriors and I hope this will get them excited to take the other classes next year. Magnificent Medieval is about the Middle Ages. I only had four this year, but I liked it for we bonded quickly. We learned fun facts about the era, how to speak (yes, huzzahs and thees were apart of this), how to write, journal entries, created a coat of arms, jobs at the castle (which they drew from a bag; I was the scribe and our boss got to be Queen again), and they wrote their own skit to perform for their parents that Friday. Tuesday we talked about knights. We learned about weapons, inventing a new one, armor, made shields, swore the Knights oath and learned how to sword fight like a Knight, and practiced our skit. Wednesday was castle day. Learned the part of the castles, what they were used for, and created our own with recyclables, but it sadly fell apart on them. >.< They later made a quick well with a grave yard around it. Thursday we talked about windows and stain glass, making our own mosaic, practiced our skit with props several times, made and danced around a May pole, learned and played Kay-lees (Medieval bowling), and had a mini performance for a set of parents for one of my students had to go to church camp that Friday. Friday we practiced A LOT on our skit, sword training, May Pole, and Kay-lees to show their parents. I only had 2 students that day because one was at camp and another got sick! So, my boss’ daughter came in and played BOTH their parts! BLESS HER HEART! My kids did AWESOME and we had a great time with the parents, who actively played with us. We even sword fought out to the Harlem shake. Yes, I WENT THERE! I liked these kids and had fun geeking out with them. One of them, who will be too old for the program next year, him and his parents asked if he could back next year and be my helper, something we are thinking about doing next year. I was so happy to hear this and hope we can get helpers! 😀
Week Four: This was my INSANE WEEK! x0x I had no break in between so lunch was either none or I had to sneak it. In the morning, I taught my first little kid class of the year: Dazzled by Disney. I had them for five days, for four hours at a time. That’s a lot. But, my friend made an AWESOME poster of all the Disney movies we were going to talk about and a Pixar one for Friday. I will add the photos below. 😀 I pointed to each one with my magic one, said some fun facts and how old they were (like Mickey and Minnie are 85 years old this year and were both originally voiced by Walt himself!), and we did a game or craft with most of them. The little kids were ages 6-8 so we had fighting, hugging, crying, flower picking, and that sort of stuff, but I really liked them and love teaching something I adore, Disney, to little ones. It was A TON of prep though and I am not sure I will have time to do it next year with all my book stuff, but I would like to do this class again. I had enough stuff for another 4 hour day (I had to skip crown making and SPEED through Pixar), but this is something I can fine tune. In the afternoon, I went back to the 9-14 year olds and taught first Level Up Gamer! We had a famous game series for each day and did a few crafts and games with them after learning their history and then watched an episode of their cartoon series at the end. We did, in order: Legend of Zelda, Kirby, Mario, and Sonic. Friday, I brought in even MORE recyclables and they spilt in to 4 teams and made their own video games and levels. At the end, they got to use their characters and play thought their own levels and then everyone else’s. I had a lot of creative students and talented artists, so it was awesome. Plus, I was biting my tongue so hard to see these 12 to 13 year old boys get so excited and into playing with stick people through cardboard levels and having a blast! YEAY! xD I always have fun in this class. The class literally RIGHT after this was my American Girls and Guys cooking class, based on the American Girls book series. This is the fourth year in a row I have done this class for it has made every year. I really like it, but it is a lot of work for it, again, is a cooking class. First, they learn fun facts from each time period in American history (Colonial, Pioneer, Victorian, and World War II). They then learn to write proper invitations and do one a day. I have a doll for the Colonial era and Victorian that I show off and books for each one. We then cook a main dish, a drink, and a dessert along with playing at least one time period game and a craft. They also get a cookbook with all the recipes in them so they can make them at home. On Friday, I teach them how to curtsy or bow, how to be a good host and server, and we invite their parents and have a café’ where we cook for them and entertain them. Normally, I have like 8 parents; this year I had 20! 0.o I am so glad Alesha was my aide in this class and watched the front while I watched the cooks. But, the parents seemed to have fun as well. I hated that I had a terrible migraine that whole day so being upbeat was hard. 🙁 This class had its ups and downs, like the boys fighting over bread crust and then being reckless and BREAKING my glass Pampered Chef Lemon juicer that cost $19! >.< The school feels bad about it, but it’s not THEIR fault. My measuring cup cracked too (but it was only a $1, so I was not worried about that). Again, I really like this class, but this is the class I have never had a break from so I think I will retire it for a year or two and then, like Michael Jordon, bring it out retirement and make it awesome again. The clean-up for this class took over an hour each day so I rarely got home before 6:00 pm after being there at 7:00 am each day! On that last day, we had EXTREME clean-up and putting up all the supplies to do so Alesha and I shut the door after the last parent left and did, literally, a MAJOR happy dance! 😀 She got SO happy that she spun under me and picked me up, twirling me a few times! 0.o I was so surprised by this that I grabbed my knees and started laughing until I cried. She fell to the floor and joined me soon later. 🙂 We had a good time and look forward to next year, but we were so happy we survived.
The next day, that Saturday, we, Alesha and I, went to a spa and treated each other to half hour massages by a professional. It was such a nice place, very cozy and only cost $30 for 30 minutes, which is reasonable. The guy was fantastic and he was SO funny! ^_^ We had so much fun talking about my name (he wanted to name a little girl Morgan), grammar, writing, and more. They even had a cute little coffee shop I want to try next time. I am FOR SURE going back! 🙂 We then went to get some local food, which was also very good and reasonable, where we talked and laughed a lot. After we said our good-byes, I got gas and was by this newish clothing store in my town, Rainbow. I have been DYING to go in there and decided to. I spent 90 minutes in there! 😀 It, literally, IS A RAINBOW OF COLOR! I tried on 13 different things and ended up getting 3 amazing dresses, all affordable and two on sale. There were 3 black dresses I liked so much, I could not pick one so I left them all there and hope one will go on sale in a few weeks when I go with one of my girlfriends. The cuteness is that of Wet Seal, Rue 21, and Forever 21, but the sizes are for normal women, like JCPenny’s; I was between a Medium or Large depending on the company where as in Rue 21 for example, I am a Extra Large, no matter what and that makes me sad! 🙁 Their prices are like JCPenny’s sales too, but MOST of the time! I also got a little white hat and a chocolate and Carmel colored scarf. I have so many scarfs that I hardly wear, so I am going to make myself wear 1 scarf a week and 1 dress or skirt to school each week so I will use them.
Finished my College for Kids items today and all I need to do is attend the meeting Thursday and then I say good-bye until next year. I have another few weeks of summer left (like 2.5); I plan to work on my book, relax, and do a few final fun things with family and friends! 😀 BE PREPARED WORLD! All my 60ish Natsu Con videos are now on my Youtube channel http://www.youtube.com/user/sakurastar07) (, so please check them out and my Natsu Con blog, later this evening or tomorrow morning. My husband and I are going to watch the new Whose Line is it Anyway at 8:00/9:00 pm tonight on the CW! OH HOW I LOVE THESE FUNNY MEN!!! 😀
You guys take care and thanks for still checking my site; it was so nice to have comments saying “Where are you?” LOL! *huggles* <3
