cupcakes

I decided to have a little fun with decorating for a good friend's bachelorette party.
Photos by Breezy Torres

For the cupcakes:

Hershey's chocolate cake recipe
I added chocolate chips and coconut to some of the batter for an added surprise.

For the icing:
Wilton's Chocolate Buttercream Icing recipe
However, instead of using milk, I use water, and I substitute the butter for shortening. This way, you don't have to worry about the icing going bad and you don't necessarily have to store it in the fridge. Huzzah!

my first cake

This is my first creation from the cake decorating class I'm taking at Michael's. Next week, we're doing cupcakes!

the mystery of the 99 steps

Nancy also knows French! She travels to Paris with Bess and George in order to help their friend, Mrs. Blair, figure out why she has been having a recurring nightmare since she was three years old. The nightmare includes 99 steps. It is up to Nancy and crew to figure out the significance of the 99 steps.

Overall, this was a pretty involved mystery. I learned a lot about alchemy. And something was brought to my attention about the number 9. It's multiples (up to 90) add up to 9. For instance, 18: 1+8 = 9, 27: 2 + 7 = 9. So, I appreciated this piece of numerology.

Something that still doesn't sit well with me: Nancy freaking got hit by a car! And then, she's like, "oh, I'm okay, let's go to the party so I can investigate." WHAT??!?!! OKAY, sometimes she is a bit too hard-headed. OH, and also, after that, someone messed with her car and made the breaks not work and she almost got in a car wreck. I just, I don't know, that's just so scary. I would not be as eager as Nancy to continue to get to the bottom of the mystery. Nancy puts her life on the line for the people that come to her for help, which I suppose is very admirable. Anyway, the situations she gets into makes me very concerned for her life.

I am taking another 'break' from Nancy. I want to read some other books this summer, so I'm putting her on hold for a bit, I still have 13 more in the series until I am finished.

Words of Wisdom

At the end of each semester, I like to give a survey to all of my students, which allows them to tell me what they liked and didn't like about my class. And I also get their feedback on what they think I need to improve on for teaching in the future.
I added a couple of new questions this time around: 1) What advice would you give to a future student taking my class and 2) Any additional comments?. I got A LOT of really great feedback. Students are very willing to be honest and I am definitely taking into account for next school year.

Here are some funny responses I got from several students:

Stay Swag

Ms. Ebberts has her moments. Her mental abilities go blank. She will be fine. And oh yea she has heat flashes, so just bear with her.

I love you beautiful creature

She gets excited which causes her to get hot sometimes...let her get some water. And...she has the "gremlin" thing sometimes.She's not crazy.

Don't get lost on the way to the bathroom because when you get back she will think you went to the cafeteria.

Laugh at her jokes even if they aren't funny. It helps her self-esteem.
(I got a lot of comments of students saying the did NOT like my jokes. I, however, will continue to tell them...)

If you want to be a teacher's pet bring oatmeal for her or a Bavarian cream pizza from CiCi's

Don't dance around her. She will dislocate your knee or send you to intensive care.
(i told all of my classes about my junior prom experience: i definitely sent a guy to the emergency room dancing to "I'm Sorry for 2004" by Ruben Studdard")

The Phantom of Pine Hill

Who knew the town of Emerson (where Ned Nickerson attends college) had so much history to it?! The gentlemen of Omega Chi Epsilon put on a pageant to explain the settlement of the Indians in the town. Ned even got to play the role of Chief (but does that surprise you?)

Here's the premise:
Nancy is asked by Mr. Rorick to come stay at his house because of some spooky happenings that have been occurring. You see, Mr. Rorick's, house keeper, Mrs. Holman, thinks there is a phantom who can walk through walls that has been disturbing the house. Nancy, who makes it very clear she does not believe in supernatural things, and Bess and George, set out to get to the bottom of it. Well, this mystery turns out to be more than what the sleuths originally expected. You see, the Rorick Family has missing treasure on a sunken ship, Lucy Bell, and well, you can bet your bottom dollar that the phantom wants to get in on the action. So, it is up to Nancy and friends to not only locate these missing treasures, but figure out who this phantom is!

Something interesting about this book: Mr. Drew was not in it at all. Usually, Nancy accompanies Mr. Drew on his cases, but not this time. I suppose it's because the girls were visiting the guys at Emerson. Also, her friends played more of a prominent role in the mystery. For instance, it's George who finds hidden money and Bess who traps the crook. Anyway, it's nice to see Nancy not in the spotlight every now and then, it helps me to remember that she is normal and not some super hero.

I just started the next one, let's just say I was scared, and I was only 4 pages in!
Oh, summer is just around the corner, so I'm going to be reading ND like crazy!

I'm still sick. Today my eyes were bloodshot and my head hurt. So this combination does not make teaching very easy. On the bright side, my students were pretty entertaining today, despite their lack of work.

My 3rd block got on the topic of me having facebook and twitter.

Here are some of the things that they say they I probably tweet about:
"Should I walk or run today?"
"I just ate oatmeal"
" I'm funna eat an apple"
"2 +2 = potatoes"


I also got asked if my "big black boyfriend" is a body guard. My initial reaction was "no." But then on second thought I answered, "yes, he is. and if you don't quit talking then I'll bring him in here." I may have also said something along the lines of injuring them, but I can't remember, there are a lot of things I say that I probably shouldn't...

Here's a conversation I overheard in my 4th block today:

"I can't believe you pooped on his car, Jimmy..."

Oh school.

So here's a story:
So, you know, I was out sick yesterday, well, there was not one substitute to cover my classes, so other subs were to take my 3 classes. Well, 4th block sub must of forgotten, because, well, they didn't show and my kids skipped out--and they had a test!!!! So, today at school, I run into a few of my kids from that block and they asked what happened to me and where I went. Then my kiddos I have today say, "Hey, Ms. Ebberts, we heard you didn't show up for class yesterday."


Today I got asked: "Do we have to take our test today?"
Me: "Yes, why wouldn't we?"
Student: "Because the world's ending tomorrow."

I got my haircut on Monday. My Geometry kids see me on Tuesday.
Girl: Oh my gosh! Look at your hair!!! I'm having a moment right now.

Getting ready to play a review game for a test, the task was to write a team name on a mini-white board.
Boy's response: Ms. Ebberts, will you go on a date with me?