The Angel Forever

Disney Style Cars

Posted on August 14, 2013 12:00 am by TheAngelForever

When I think about Disney transportation, my mind immediately goes to The Magical Express, the monorail, Disney buses, and other items that you use around the resorts. I have written about Transportation Disney Style in the past and used some classic images. Another time, I thought a little outside of the box with Different Styles of Disney Transportation. Of course, one of the items we never travel in while visiting Walt Disney World is a car. Disney has magically transformed the images of these vehicles thanks to Lightning McQueen and his buddies from Cars. Thanks to my two boys, I have a lot of Cars items around our house. Back in December, TechyDad and I loved wandering around the Cars section of the new Art of Animation Resort. It was like we were thrust into Radiator Springs, so we took tons of photos for our boys. This week, I am sharing some of my favorite photos of Disney friends from the Cars area.

Be sure to stop by Focused on the Magic by clicking on the button above to join in the Disney magic this week.

Categories:
Disney travel vacation

Tuesday Tales – My Summer 2013 Reading

Posted on August 13, 2013 12:00 am by TheAngelForever

The summer months have traditionally been when I get a bit more time to read. When I was teaching, it was my time to read books that I wanted to for fun. I was able to play catch up on books that most of my friends were reading instead of books about teaching, the world of education, and children’s literature. Now summers are filled with reading fun books with the boys and catching up on books for me. I can sneak time here and there to read new and exciting books, or playing catch up from popular titles that I missed. Last summer, I read The Hunger Games Trilogy and several other books. This summer, I have been listening to a lot of books on OverDrive Media Player. This allows me to crochet or work on laundry while reading. Multi-tasking is huge in my world. The other night, I finished listening to my book and wanted to start something new. A book that I had purchased was staring at me in my Kindle library. So I decided to start The Fault in Our Stars by John Green.

I had been meaning to read this for a long time. So many friends raved about the book, but they also warned that it would pull you in and not let you go until you finished. In addition to this, I knew the topic of the book and wanted to make sure I was ready for a nice cry. So I started the book and kept reading for quite some time. Then I forced myself to go to sleep because I knew we were planning to go out. While we had a great day playing mini-golf and more, I was secretly hoping to get some time to read more about Hazel and Augustus. I am still trying to find time to finish the book, but I am pacing myself because I am enjoying the writing style so much.

Of course, once I am done with this book I have plenty more that I want to finish reading on my Kindle. These include:

The Death and Life of the Great American School System: How Testing and Choice Are Undermining Education by Diane Ravitch
Raising Digital Families for Dummies by Amy Lupold Bair
From Dreamer to Dreamfinder: A Life and Lessons Learned in 40 Years Behind a Name Tag by Ron Schneider

These are just the items currently loaded onto my smartphone’s Kindle app. I have many other books that I want to read via my eReader, sitting next to my bed, and others to listen to on OverDrive.

As we hit mid-August, what is a must finish book for you and why? As always, Tuesday Tales is all about sharing our love of books. Please let me know what you have read recently. Be sure to link up to your book posts in the comments below. Include something you read on your own, with a child, or someone else.

Categories:
books Tuesday Tales

Future Sonic Screwdriver Geek

Posted on August 12, 2013 12:00 am by TheAngelForever

This weekend was a rough one for my little guy. You see he just finished his week at camp and was upset about not going back. In addition to this, he was focused on his desire to purchase something. What is that you ask? Well, JSL has been a bit obsessed with sonic screwdrivers since TechyDad’s birthday. Real tears were shed when we told him he had to wait and it was not something that he had to have right now.

Of course, in an attempt to focus JSL into a calm state I decided to record a video of him talking about the sonic screwdriver. Rather than run to get the video camera, I figured it was the perfect chance to test out the video on the Nokia Lumia 928 that I just received as a member of the Verizon Wireless Lifestyle Bloggers. To keep him involved, I let him use TechyDad’s Eleventh Doctor’s sonic screwdriver for the video. JSL is a new Whovian in the making. He is still watching the first season of the revamped series and is excited to learn more about the new Doctors to come. Here is my little guy sharing why he wants his own sonic screwdriver.

Oh and for the record, JSL is already quite upset that he only has a few more episodes to watch with the Ninth Doctor. No doubt he will quickly learn to love the Tenth and eventually the Eleventh Doctor down the road. Ah, I love my little geek.

It's Me

Disclosure: As a member of the Verizon Lifestyle Bloggers, I receive different devices to check out in my life. There is no other compensation. I am a long time Verizon customer, and all opinions are my own. I used the Nokia Lumia 928 that was recently sent to me for all of the photos and the video within this blog post. In addition to this, I used SkyDrive to magically transport the items to my computer for use.

Categories:
Technology television video

Mandatory Trip to Menchie’s

Posted on August 9, 2013 12:00 am by TheAngelForever

It is no secret that I am a big fan of Dole Whips. While typing this up, I can already visualize walking through the Magic Kingdom and heading over to Aloha Isle to wait in line for a delicious Dole Whip Float. Yum! For Disney fans that adore this treat, you know that finding them outside of Disney parks is very tricky. There had been very few locations beside Walt Disney World, Disneyland, and the Dole Pineapple Plantation in Hawaii. Last week, Lisa from Babes in Disneyland posted about a new discovery. She found out that a frozen yogurt chain called Menchie’s carried Dole products. Before you could say pineapple, I was on the Menchie’s website to see where they were located. That’s when I saw there were three stores in the Capital Region area. What I did not realize at the time was that the Colonie Center store was opening that very weekend.

Opening day of the new Menchie’s was also TechyDad’s birthday. He was curious and wanted to try to go there. Since they were giving away free yogurt for the first few hours, the place was packed and there was a giant line. We decided to go and have lunch and head back later. Of course, when we went back we were not hungry. We went inside and stumbled upon the manager of all of the local stores. He confirmed that the Capital Region locations do in fact have the pineapple Dole variety and it will be in the rotation of flavors. We were told that they would be updating their Facebook page with flavors. My guess is the first week has kept them on their toes and this has not been done, but I am hopeful that it will show up one day soon.

While JSL was in camp, NHL and I went out and he begged to go to Menchie’s to try something. So lunch that afternoon was a stop in Menchie’s. We had good timing with a quiet store so we could explore the flavors (no pineapple), toppings, and more.

NHL finally decided to have ICSB, which is ice cream sandwich. He added some fruit, popping boba, cookie dough, a chunk of brownie, and whipped topping. I decided to have a cake batter variety with strawberries, blueberries, popping boba, and a little cookie dough. NHL and I both enjoyed our creations and decided that we would have to go back another day when they have Dole Pineapple flavor to enjoy it with JSL and TechyDad.

So my question to you this week:

Have you ever been to a Menchie’s? I would love to know your dream creation there or at any other frozen yogurt destination.

It's Me

Thanks to Kailani at An Island Life for starting this Friday fun. These days, Pamela at A Renaissance Woman is reviving the fun Friday Meme. Head over there to link up and join in the fun.

Aloha Friday by Kailani at An Island Life

Aloha #250

Categories:
bloggy friends food glorious food Local Business

NetSmartz Teens – Resource for Kids on Internet Safety and Bullying

Posted on August 8, 2013 12:00 am by TheAngelForever

It is no secret that I have blogged about being a teacher. Over the years, I have shared my educational background in different ways around The Angel Forever. When Sara, from Saving for Someday, reached out to see if I would be interested in sharing information about a cause that is near and dear to her I asked for more information. I later found out that she does a lot of volunteer work for the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children (NCMEC). This week, NCMEC launched an updates website that is geared for tweens (8-12) to high school students. NSTeens is a re-launch of their NetSmartz Teen page.

Why Share the NSTeens Website?

My first reason is because I am still a teacher to my core. While I may not be in a classroom, I like to share resources that will be helpful to children, parents, and teachers. The topic of online safety for tweens and teens is an area that I spent a lot of time on while teaching. While teaching in a middle school, I taught several different subjects. In addition to Science and Language Arts, I also taught Health to students. Not only did I have to talk about topics like eating disorders, sex education, and drugs, I also made sure to open up the gates to online safety. It always scared me when I would see what kids were sharing on Facebook that strangers could see.

The other reason I am interested, I am a parent of an almost ten year old son. In just over a year, NHL will be going to middle school and that is a very different world from elementary school. Though he is very young, he has already been the victim of bullies. I need to teach him how to talk to me about cyber-bullying and helping friends that are in trouble. We also need to have more in depth talks with him about online safety. This is a big item that TechyDad and I have to really think about. We want NHL to use technology, but do so safely and not get tricked by his peers or others that may take advantage of kids. We also need to teach NHL how to be responsible when posting information online. He has to think about his digital footprint and how it will be tracked in the future by colleges and future employers.

What Resources are Available on NSTeens?

NSTeens is a free online resource for tweens and teens to learn about making better choices online. There are online games, comics, and videos to actively engage this age group while they are learning. The new content includes (information from the NSTeens Press Release):

6 Degrees of Information, a video that asks teens to think about the information they share online and how comfortable they are with people finding it. In the video, Matt, an Internet researcher, asks five teens to participate in an experiment where he will try to find out as much as he can about them online in just six clicks.
Rescue Run, a new game where players must avoid obstacles while racing to stop their friends from meeting face-to-face with people they first met online. During the game, players receive tips about how to handle requests to meet offline. Tweens can play at NSTeens.org or download the mobile version from the Apple iTunes stores or the Google Play Android store.
Stand By or Stand Up?, the first interactive, role-playing comic on NSTeens.org. The comic addresses cyberbullying and engages tweens through a “choose-your-own-adventure” style of story in which their decisions help shape the comic’s outcome.

In addition to the new content, there are older Internet-safety games and videos available on NSTeens. Parents and educators can also print activity cards and discussion guides to help them when talking about these crucial subjects.

I know that we will be spending more time this summer looking over the NetSmartz website before we share it with NHL and then we will explore it more together. To learn more, please check out NetSmartz Teens updated website and Twitter account. In addition to this, learn more about the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children on their Facebook page.

Have you talked to your children about internet safety and cyber-bullying? If you have, please share your experiences in the comments below. It is always helpful to hear how others have communicated with their kids about this more difficult subjects.

Disclosure: None! I posted the information as a PSA to other parents and educators looking for a resource to help kids to learn more about internet safety and cyber-bullying.