Great Movie About Making A Difference: "Beyond The Blackboard"

We taped this movie that was shown on the Hallmark channel and watched it last weekend. We both loved it! It is based on the true story of Stacey Bess, a new teacher who found a job teaching homeless children, grades 1-6 all in the same room. This movie is so inspiring!   It just shows how one person really can make a difference!

I loved how she really cared about the kids and their parents. I was thinking right along with her as to what I would do in that situation. I would have fixed up that room the second day! I loved how she developed her own support system and included the parents too. The PTA meeting was really funny. I liked how her husband supported her as well and even volunteered to help too.

I am definitely going to read the book this "Beyond The Blackboard" is based which is "Nobody Don't Love Nobody" by Stacey Bess.

Both Gerard, Manny, Abby and I were glued to the TV while watching this one! (Spunky Doodle doesn't care for TV).

Did you see this one?  What did you think of it?  What is a movie you really liked?

Commenting For Charity: The Cystic Fibrosis Foundation

We received 322 (our highest yet!) comments during April and were happy to donate $161 to Samaritan’s Purse to help with the relief efforts in Japan after the earthquake and Tsunami.  Now they are helping those in Alabama recover from their destruction.  This organization is wonderful, founded by Dr. Billy Graham's. son.  I actually read his autobiography,  Rebel With A Cause by Franklin Graham which describes the beginnings of Samaritan's Purse. Thanks to all who took time to comment in April!

For the month of May, our charity for comments is The Cystic Fibrosis Foundation.  I used to participate in the Great Strides walk each year, but really do not like to hit up people for money so thought I would donate 50 cents per comment during May.

My friend has a child with Cystic Fibrosis.  I never realized what all it entailed until I watched this video made by the father when she was three that shows what it is like.

Here are some statistics regarding cystic fibrosis that I got from www.cff.org:

• About 1,000 new cases of cystic fibrosis are diagnosed each year.
• More than 70% of patients are diagnosed by age two.
• More than 45% of the CF patient population is age 18 or older.
• The predicted median age of survival for a person with CF is in the mid-30s.

We hope you will visit all four of our blogs (listed on tabs at top) and comment away in May!  If you donate per comment to charity, please let us know so we can add your blog to our special blog roll of others we know that do.

Abby’s Walking Club Challenge Participants by Abby

I am a little disappointed that more doggies did not participate, but am very happy that those who did really have fun walks. I realize this was not an easy challenge for those not in good shape so didn’t expect a lot of participants.

Maggie out on her hike at Ludington State Park

The first participant and our winner of the book, Paws For Thought--How Animals Enrich Our Lives--And How We Can Better Care For Them by Anna C. Briggs is Maggie at My Quality Day. We'll also include a treat for Maggie.  She did a wonderful post with great pictures showing her long walk so I hope you will go read all about it.

Sadie

My other good doggie friend is Sadie at The Beaded Tail who lives in Oregon. Her mom is a CPA (Cat’s Personal Assistant as well as someone who is very busy helping people with the taxes during tax season). She still makes time to go for really good walks with Sadie though (Sadie and I look a lot alike, don’t you think?) She is about twice as heavy as me though since I lost my extra pounds. Every week she posts pictures of her strolls on their blog. I love to read all about them! Sadie even lets her mom off leash!

Here is a video of me doing my 4-mile plus walk around our neighborhood setting a good example:






For more posts about pets check out Pet Pride at Pets Forever.

Our Favorite Reads For April: "Ender's Game"

We both liked Ender's Game by Orson Scott Card and agree it is one of our favorite reads, not just for April but for the year so far!

Gerard's Review:

I know I'm way late to read Ender's Game by Orson Scott Card since it came out years ago. That being said, I thought this book was just AWESOME! For sure my book of the month for April and will rank very high in my books of the year list!

The premise of this book is the government has tabbed Ender to be the next big commander. He is taken away from his family and sent to "Battle School." His brother, Peter, and his sister, Valentine, also play interesting roles in this book.

If you loved Hunger Games and The Maze Runner series, you will love this book too!

Karen's Review:

I liked Ender's Game very much too. I'm glad Gerard encouraged me to read it! Ender is just six years old when the government rejected his older brother and sister and took him instead to train to be the commander to fight against the buggers out in space and save the world. Ender is very smart and very endearing. He doesn't want to kill anyone but excels in the battle games. I liked how even though Ender was an "underdog" he was very clever and came out on top when others made things tough for him. The only thing I did not like about it was the ending.

Here's a little teaser for you:

There's only one thing that will make them stop hating you. And that's being so good at what you do that they can't ignore you. I told them you were the best. Now you damn well better be.

Taken from p. 35 of Ender's Game by Orson Scott Card.

If you like stories about mind games, leadership, friendship, bullying, military strategy/training or science fiction, you would love this book! Anyone with battle experience I think would identify with Enger. We both highly recommend this one--it's awesome!  No one even gave it less than 4 stars out of 2,835 customer reviews!  That's saying a lot!

8 Things We Learned This Week 17 of 2011 (computer, blogging, exercise, fun)

Walking

I joined Gerard and Abby on their 4-mile plus "Sunoco" walk last Saturday and found out I could do it just fine, but then, it was a very nice day! Here's the link to Abby's 4-mile Spring Walk video I made of our walk that we plan to post here May 1 with Abby's Walking Club Challenge participants.

Snapshot Meme

I just discovered a Saturday Snapshot meme hosted by At Home With Books.

Word Processing

I was able to install a free word processing program from www.openoffice.org but still can't open my other documents. Good thing I had the important ones backed up. It took an hour to install, but now I feel much better. Still don't have my picture editing Kodak software back though.

Stressed Cats

I learned that boredom is a cause for stress in cats and there are many signs of stress--some I knew, some I didn't. Check out Stress Awareness In Cats to learn all about this at The Conscious Cat.

Favorite Blog Header

Mrs. 4444 made my day when she left the following comment on our Friday Fragments post over at Grab A Book From Our Stack: Your header is my current favorite in Blogland--GORGEOUS! That made me feel good! Be sure to check it out. I posted a short "behind-the-scenes" video yesterday of how my cats help me with it.

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