‘Star Wars: Shatterpoint, A Clone Wars Novel’ – Chapter 13 (Part 9)

Sunday, and a day of rest around the Crissman household.  We got up real late this morning.  It was almost ten o’clock before any of us got out of bed.  I think we all realized that this was officially the last day of vacation.  I went downstairs and started to work on some things on my computer for school.  This process took the entire morning for my computer to process.  So, while it was busy at work, Heather and I watched “Coupling” that we had from Netflix.  I have to say I really am hooked on the show and find it vastly funny.  It got to noon and I had a light lunch.  I played some PS3 after lunch and Heather headed off to go and get some materials for dinner from “The Giant”.  After playing some, I spent a MASSIVE amount of time updating my blog.  My goal is to have this blog updated before school starts.  It’s very doable!  I spent most of the afternoon doing this and even after dinner doing this.  It got to eight o’clock and I went to strictly reading and watching T.V.  We watched “Big Brother”, “Family Guy”, and “Wild Hogs” this evening and then went to bed.  Tomorrow I plan on having my blog completely caught up.  At least that’s the hope.

Okay, so let’s talk about Part 9 of Chapter 13 of “Star Wars:  Shatterpoint, A Clone Wars Novel” by Matthew Woodring Stover…..

‘Star Wars: Shatterpoint, A Clone Wars Novel’ – Chapter 13 (Part 8)

Well, there are five words that can sum up our day today.  The New York State Fair!  We got up this morning and I was feeling much better than I have over the past day and a half.  I told Heather we were ready to go.  So, we got up around eight o’clock or so and got showers and got on the road, with some waters in a cooler around nine o’clock.  We stopped at “Best Bagels In Town” and picked up some breakfast of cream cheese and bagels on the way.  We got to the fairgrounds by ten o’clock and decided to spend a little more money to park near the fair.  We paid the ten dollars to park in the American Red Cross parking lot.  It was five dollars more than the rest of the park, but it was also a donation to the Red Cross.  Can’t go wrong there.  We had a great time at the fair.  There was LOTS to see and do and I have to say that all the family had fun.  It started off as a dreary morning and by mid-day it was beautiful outside.  We had $1 potatoes for lunch and got some candy to snack on throughout the day.  We walked through all the buildings and checked out all sorts of places including a horse show for my oldest daughter who just thought that was awesome!  We went through the 4H Building, the Indian Village, and all sorts of other great educational places.  Austin got a chance to see some of the weaponry the military used and he had the same open eyes I had as a kid.  We got done going through the whole fair and it was around dinner time.  The kids wanted to get some milk and after we did, Heather wanted to leave.  We talked as we walked to the car and Heather said we could go to the Carousel Mall to get some dinner and I said that sounded like a good idea.  So, with some backtracking, we ate some dinner at the mall and I got a pack of “Knights of the Old Republic” minis at “How You Play The Game”.  We then got going home.  We got home around nine o’clock and the kids went to bed because they were exhausted.  I checked the mail, and doesn’t it figure that my Tie Pilot flight suit was attempted to be delivered today. It figures, the only day I’m NOT home!  So, Heather said she’ll go get it on Tuesday since the Post Office will be closed on Sunday.  The good news?  Well, I got Austin’s custom Mando Dog Tags, but I’m going to wait till Ian can give them to him with the entire group around to make him an “official” Falco.  I went downstairs and worked on some things for school and watched T.V. and got a late night to bed.

Okay, so let’s talk about Part 8 of Chapter 13 of “Star Wars:  Shatterpoint, A Clone Wars Novel” by Matthew Woodring Stover…..

‘Star Wars: Shatterpoint A Clone Wars Novel’ – Chapter 13 (Part 7)

Friday.  End of the week, and I felt like total garbage when I woke up this morning.  I did not sleep well last night because of this stomach bug that I have.  I did not want to cancel going to my workshop because I wanted to finish it out.  So, I got up slowly this morning again and packed everything up, including my pepto bismol.  The kids made me a nice bland lunch so I could still go over to the school and work on my lunch hour.  By seven-thirty this morning, our babysitter showed up and I headed off to work at Columbus school.  The second day of workshops was being just as frustrating and it seemed like our morning was dragging on and on.  I thought it was never going to end!  I think part of that had to do with me not feeling that well.  We got to lunch time and I was able to head over to my classroom and keep working on my room.  I just realized today that I’m going to have to rehang two of my speaker stands for my speakers for the sound system in my room.  All well, that’s all worth it to have a Smart Board in my classroom.  I no more than ate lunch and got some things accomplished till I had to be back at our workshop.  I went back over to Columbus.  I felt like we got something accomplished as we wrote out unit plans using a new MYP template.  Christine and I filled ours out together so we could implement these plans at some point this year.  This was cool with me and gave me some confidence in filling in unit plan templates.  I got done with the workshop and came home and crashed.  I took a nap with Heather because she had a rough day at work and then we worked on some things around the house.  I wanted to read more and continue in my blog, but I just didn’t feel that well.  We talked tonight about going to the State Fair tomorrow or Sunday and agreed we would go tomorrow, even thought I don’t feel well.  I told Heather I would be okay and would pack things to bring along.

Okay, so let’s talk about Part 7 of Chapter 13 of “Star Wars:  Shatterpoint, A Clone Wars Novel” by Matthew Woodring Stover…..

‘Star Wars: Shatterpoint, A Clone Wars Novel’ – Chapter 13 (Part 6)

Okay, it’s Thursday and I was a little disspointed as I had to get up earlier today than I ever have to for school.  Sometimes I wish the summer workshops could start at normal school times, but this one started at eight when I’m used to my school day starting around eight-thirty.  I got up around six o’clock this morning and got a shower and got going, very slowly, for the day.  The neighbor girl came around seven o’clock this morning to watch the kids as Heather had already left for work.  I got on my way by about seven-fifteen.  I got to Columbus and we were doing an MYP conference today.  The intro is the typical intro that I’m used to out of an MYP conference and then we broke off into our groups.  That’s when some of the chaos started to ensue.  Our group was supposed to be Art based, but instead was technology based.  I didn’t have too much problem with it because I had training in level I before and in reality, this will give me dual certification to be able to claim both Arts and Technology out of my classroom.  Others, however, were having a hard time because they’ve never had MYP training before.  I was so glad when lunchtime came around.  Instead of going home for lunch, I instead stopped at “Taco Bell”, got some lunch to go and headed over to my school room.  Well, I’m happy to report that I have a Smart Board and a brand new computer in my room.  This put my mind at ease considerably considering they overlooked the other music teacher’s room.  I started to unpack my room and eat lunch and before I knew it, it was time to get back to the MYP conference at Columbus.  I was feeling sick to my stomach this afternoon and I think that some of that had to do with the conference dragging on because some people were not getting the MYP principles.  Other parts of it had to do with the “Taco Bell” food I ate.  I was sick all night long.  I had an upset stomach among other things.  I literally came home and camped out in the chair.  Heather helped the kids take down the tent which was on the front lawn, airing out from the camping trip and then she went to Wal Mart to get her nails done and offered to bring home some bland food, which she did.  I’ve never had a food irritation like this and I have to say that it gave me an odd sensation.  I felt like I had to pee all night long, yet when I went to the bathroom, I didn’t have to pee at all!  I know, more than you wanted to hear.  I went to bed early because I was actually feeling that bad.

Okay, let’s talk about Part 6 of Chapter 13 of “Star Wars:  Shatterpoint, A Clone Wars Novel” by Matthew Woodring Stover…..

‘Star Wars: Shatterpoint, A Clone Wars Novel’ – Chapter 13 (Part 5)

Wednesday and the first day I had to get up around school time.  Actually, I got up a little later than I normally do for school.  But, it was still early non the less.  I got up around seven o’clock and got ready for going to a workshop at school today.  I had a workshop on “Professional Learning Groups”.  I won’t lie, it was a LOT to take in, but the good news is that some of the talking points that need to be discussed on a school level came up and in particular the issue of communication, which I think is a main sticking point.  It’s possible that this strategy could help us take care of that situation.  It was what seemed like a long day.  What made it worse was the fact that I couldn’t get into my room today.  I was planning on getting in there a little bit today to unpack, but unfortunately, they had to wax the floors outside my doorway.  I got done and came home and took a little bit of a nap.  I had dinner with Heather and the kids and then we headed over to football practice to discover that we would not have practice tomorrow night, which was a nice change of pace.  We came home and the kids went to bed, while Heather and I watched some T.V.  I’ll admit, I went to bed early because I have workshops tomorrow and Friday and we plan on going to the New York State Fair on Saturday.  So the end of my week is going to require a lot of energy!

Okay, so let’s talk about Part 5 of Chapter 13 of “Star Wars:  Shatterpoint, A Clone Wars Novel” by Matthew Woodring Stover…..

‘Star Wars: Shatterpoint, A Clone Wars Novel’ – Chapter 13 (Part 4)

Well, it’s Tuesday and the last day I can be completely lazy on vacation.  I got up late this morning and told the kids that they needed to clean their rooms and then the living room /kitchen and then could go outside and play.  Me?  I played my game today.  I went downstairs and took most of the morning and finally got to level 55 in “Call of Duty 4″, only to be faced with the decision to have to turn around and earn all the equipment all over again.  Well, I’ll do it eventually, but I just wasn’t in the mood today.  I no more than got done with that than it was time for lunch.  Since Heather was home, we had a nice family lunch today.  Heather has a night shift tonight.  It’s her last one of the summer.  But, that also means she has off tomorrow.  I went downstairs this afternoon and actually continued on with the game.  In reality, I did pretty good on the game.  I think a lot of that has to do with the fact that I have gotten used to the maps by playing mulitplayer online.  I took a nap this afternoon and when I woke up, we all got together and put dinner together.  We had a nice chicken barbecue and then headed off to football practice this evening.  We came back home and Heather and I headed downstairs to watch some T.V. while the kids went to bed.  We’re starting to get them on the school schedule starting tonight.

Okay, so let’s talk about Part 4 of Chapter 13 of “Star Wars:  Shatterpoint, A Clone Wars Novel” by Matthew Woodring Stover…..

‘Star Wars: Shatterpoint, A Clone Wars Novel’ – Chapter 13 (Part 3)

Monday.  I’ll be honest, I’m treating today and tomorrow as the last two days of vacation.  Quite honestly, today was a very lazy day for me.  The kids played outside quite a bit and I was outside for a while and then came in and played the PS3 for most of the day.  Heatehr left early this morning to go to work and I was in charge for lunch.  The kids and I ate lunch together and then went back to goofing around.  Heather came home and put the tent up to let it air out and I continued to be lazy and play my “Call of Duty 4″ game under the KalFalco tag.  I got done with level 52 by the end of the night tonight and my goal is to get to level 55 by tomorrow.  Can’t wait till I get to that point!  I did eat dinner with the family and we did have football practice tonight.  It wasn’t a bad day, but a lazy day.

Okay, let’s talk about Part 3 of Chapter 13 of “Star Wars:  Shatterpoint, A Clone Wars Novel” by Matthew Woodring Stover…..

‘Star Wars: Shatterpoint, A Clone Wars Novel’ – Chapter 13 (Part 2)

Well, it’s Sunday and the end of this weekend.  We got up around sun break this morning and had some breakfast with everyone we were camping with.  We took care of taking care of striking camp and getting ready for the day and then packed up and went down and had some time on the water and at the beach.  We ate some lunch and then got going.  We headed home and Heather and I decided to make our lives easier, we would eat dinner out so she didn’t have to worry about cleaning too much at home.  So, we grabbed some Arby’s on our way home and ate dinner there.  We then spent the night unloading and unpacking from camping.  After that, I went downstairs and spent some time playing the PS3 and then went to bed.

Okay, so let’s talk about Part 2 of Chapter 13 of “Star Wars:  Shatterpoint, A Clone Wars Novel” by Matthew Woodring Stover…..

‘Star Wars: Shatterpoint, A Clone Wars Novel’ – Chapter 13 (Part 1)

Saturday.  We got up at the crack of dawn this morning as I do with all camping trips.  I took the kids and we all went fishing together.  Including those which I cannot name on this blog.  I fished for most of the morning and joined my wife on the beach this afternoon.  We ate some lunch together at a snack shack and played in the sand and talked with everyone there.  We had a great time relaxing and luckily, I didn’t get any sunburn.  We got done, went back to the camp site and ate some dinner.  The kids played some kick ball tonight for some entertainment, and we did some sparklers after dark.  It was a great day and a relaxing day.

Okay, so let’s talk about Part 1 of Chapter 13 of “Star Wars:  Shatterpoint, A Clone Wars Novel” by Matthew Woodring Stover…..

‘Star Wars: Shatterpoint, A Clone Wars Novel’ – Chapter 12 (Part 8)

Okay, it’s Friday and it’s the end of the week, but for the Crissman family, it was the chaos of getting ready for a camping trip this weekend.  I decided late last night that I wanted to go fishing for the first time since Boy Scouts this weekend.  My problem is that I didn’t have any fishing equipment.  So, I got up around nine and as I got some of the rest of the clothes and materials together, I watched Dr. Phil.  Then the kids and I got in the car and headed over to Wal Mart.  I got myself a brand new fishing pole, tackle box, and some fishing materials that I’ll need.  We no more than got that and a few things Heather wanted us to get, until I ran into the most awesome thing I’ve ever seen at Wal Mart.  We found some Star Wars t-shirts for kids for $7 a piece!  Woo-hoo!  What a way to make dad and the kids happy!  The girls got two Ahsoka Tano shirts and Austin got a Boba Fett shirt with some cool red metallic look to it.  We got our stuff and came home.  By the time we got home, it was time for lunch.  We finished with lunch, packed up and then started to gather things on the front porch for the camping trip.  Heather came home we loaded up the truck and got on the road.  We had a very nice camping place, nice and flat and the kids had fun playing some football with individuals and we had a nice relaxing evening.  I don’t have much planned for tomorrow, so may not have much to write about.

Okay, so let’s talk about Part 8 of Chapter 12 of “Star Wars:  Shatterpoint, A Clone Wars Novel” by Matthew Woodring Stover…..