Week 1: Famous Last Words--New adventures in writing

This week started out pretty rough for me.  I really don't think of myself as a creative type of person, so writing blog stories ended up being a little out of my comfort zone.  I don't mind being pushed out of my comfort zone somewhat, but it does make me a little more anxiety ridden when I do get put into that position.  With the encouragement of my husband & family and the ability to use people and experiences from my own life, I was able to complete all of the assignments before they were actually due.  I have never written a blog before either, so I was pretty worried about doing that task correctly.  After completing a few entries, I'm starting to feel more confident in that task.  As for the Pinterest task, I found that to be somewhat easier but I'm still not 100% confident about pinning posts and other people's boards.  I'm sure I'll get better at that too with time.  I feel like my most creative writing post was my post about the nursery rhyme.  I was able to use my daughter, Mary, as my inspiration for the main character of the story.  I also used my adult son as a character in the story, but I did change his name to better fit into the story.  In my opinion, my second most creative blog post was my Introduction.  For the most part, I don't mind writing about my life experiences and telling people about me in general.  However, I am a pretty private person overall, so I will keep a lot of my life details to myself.  In reflection, I found this first week of class to be quite challenging and rewarding at the same time.  I'm also thankful that is seems like the class workload will be tapering off just a wee bit.  I'm also taking an online Trigonometry class through OCCC, so I'm hoping that these two online classes combined won't be too much for me to handle.  All I can do is wait and see.  Wish me luck!

(Image information: Family Photo from November 2013--My inspirations: My husband Steve & daughters Mary (on left), Tiffany (middle) and Jacqueline (on right).

UnTextbook: Mythology & Folklore

The 5 reading units that I chose for this assignment are:

Celtic Fairy Tales 1--I chose this topic because fairy tales interest me the most out of all the choices on the list.  This group of stories will have a collection of fairy, leprechaun and ghost stories.  I look forward to reading the story about The Horned Woman and Gold Tree, Silver Tree the most.

 

This story is part of the Celtic Fairy Tales (1) unit. Story source: Celtic Fairy Tales by Joseph Jacobs with illustrations by John D. Batten (1892).

Celtic Fairy Tales 2--This group of stories is written by the same author, but he uses different stories about mythological legends, kings, and fairies.  I'm most interested in reading about The Fate of the Children of Lir and Elidore.  In addition, I wonder how similar or different the Celtic fairy tales will be from the Chinese and English tales.

 Chinese Fairy Tales--Now, this group of stories sounds really intriguing.  It has stories about ghosts, animals, fairies, gods, devils, etc.  These stories sound like they are going to be not only creative but also completely different from the Celtic fairy tales.

 English Fairy Tales 1--This group of stories sounds like there will some very similar stories to fairy tales that I grew up with like The Three Little Pigs.  These stories will probably sound more familiar to me, but I'm sure that some won't at all.  The story I'm most interested in reading is The Laidly Worm of Spindleton since it is a story about a dragon.

 English Fairy Tales 2--This unit is the second group of tales written by Jacobs.  This section will have comical stories, tragic stories and several stories that are spinoffs of the story of Cinderella.  I am most interested in reading the Cinderella type stories in this section.

Storybook Favorites

The first storybook I chose was called Desperate Goddesses.  Mythological goddesses fascinate me.  I love to read about goddesses, so this is a very familiar topic for me.  Even though I am more familiar with Greek goddesses, I do love to learn about goddesses from any tales.  The title drew me in and made me want to read about these desperate goddesses.  It also made me wonder why they were so desperate.  The introduction was very interesting to me and I can't wait to read further into her storybook.  Her introduction was written from the perspective of a desperate Japanese goddess.  The layout, pictures and color choice of her storybook post were very nicely chosen because it made it seem more regal and real.  I actually preferred the darker background with the words written in white lettering.  It gave the page a more dramatic effect.  I feel like everything in her storybook post meshed well together and I think I may use the darker background with lighter words for a more dramatic effect as well.

The second storybook that I chose was called Adventures of Aphrodite.  Again, I reiterate that goddesses, and especially Greek goddesses, are one of my favorite topics to read about in my spare time.  The most famous and well-known goddess is Aphrodite...the goddess of love.  The title seemed interesting to me because it made me think I was going to learn about Aphrodite's life adventures and experiences.  I liked reading this introduction because it is quite different and about Aphrodite sharing her life stories from her diary.  I think that is a very unique perspective to take when writing about this goddess.  One thing that really stood out to me was that she chose to center her text and used smaller, more easily read paragraphs in her introduction.  The layout and color choices fit perfectly with her choice of picture.  The image choice was a very classic depiction of Aphrodite standing on a seashell.  The design features that I might use in my storybook are the text centering and smaller paragraphs. 

The third storybook I chose was called Princesses of Japan.  Even though these women are not goddesses, they are very important, powerful women in their culture.  I liked the fact that she wrote her storybook from the perspective of an editor of a magazine.  The title drew me in just because it had the word princesses in it and I wanted to know more about the story.  I thought the introduction was interesting because it gave you just enough information to where you would want to read more about the princesses.  I also liked how it said, "Check back weekly for new updates on this princess". That made me think that I might learn new things about the princess like in a gossip magazine.  The layout was much different than the previous two storybooks that I read.  Each picture had a small paragraph that went with it.  That made it very easy to see and read about each princess.  The pictures were very pleasing to the eye and were all dramatic in color and beauty.  I also thought that the font choice of the main topics were more ornate and went well with the pictures.  I liked the formatting of her storybook...the smaller paragraphs with each picture and the centering of her text when she wrote about each princess individually.  Those would be the qualities that I would most likely incorporate into my storybook post.

Image Information: Bamboo Princess

Web Source: Trevize's Computer

Week 1 Storytelling: Pat-A-Cake

PAT-A-CAKE, pat-a-cake, baker's man!


(So I will, master), as fast as I can:

Pat it, and prick it, and mark it with T,

Put in the oven for Tommy and me.


(traditional nursery ryhme)

At the tender age of 5, a little girl named Mary decided she wanted to become a famous baker.  Her favorite shows of all time were "Cupcake Wars" and "Chopped".  She watched these shows faithfully every chance she could.  One day, she walked up to her mommy and said, "Please teach me how to bake.  I want to be a famous baker".  Every day she would ask her mother the same questions and impatiently wait for her mother to help her.  Mary wanted to learn how to bake right now and as fast as she possibly could.  Once her mother started to teach her, Mary picked up the skills quickly.  She learned how to measure the ingredients, crack eggs and mix them all together.  When the ingredients were mixed well, Mary learned how to knead, pat and prick the bread so that it would rise correctly in the oven.  Mary's mom put the bread in the oven for her.  Mary watched with eager eyes as her dough began to rise and look more and more like bread with each passing moment.  When the bread was done, her mother took it out of the oven.  Mary wanted to taste her creation immediately, but she was told she had to wait until it cooled down before cutting it.  Mary couldn't contain her excitement, so she ran into her big brother's room to exclaim her achievements!  Her brother, Tom, was not amused by his sister bursting into his room to tell him about the bread.  He was busy playing video games on his computer.  Mary didn't care; she wanted her brother to be one of the first people to taste her new creation.  So, she ran back into the kitchen and begged her mom to cut the first slice of bread for Tom.  She then got the squeeze bottle of margarine from the refrigerator and wrote a big letter "T" across that freshly sliced bread.  Mary ran back to Tom and presented him with her creation.  He belted out a jolly laugh when he noticed the letter "T" written in margarine on the bread.  Tom thanked Mary for giving him the bread.  She wasn't about to leave his room until he tasted it, so Tom took a big bite.  It was the most delicious bread he had ever tasted, he said.  From that day forward, Tom was Mary's number one taste tester every time Mary and her mom decided to bake anything new.

(Image information: Pat-a-Cake by Mary Brigid Barrett and Illustrated by LeUyen Pham.

   

(Image information: Personal photo of my daughter & avid baker, Mary...who was my inspiration for this story)

Author's Note: This story is based on the nursery rhyme "Pat-A-Cake" which is quoted there in the story; you can find the rhyme in The Nursery Rhyme Book, edited by Andrew Lang and illustrated by L, Leslie Brooke (1897). 

The reason I chose this story was because this nurse rhyme was one of my daughter's favorite nursery rhymes as a toddler.  We would do the hand motions to this rhyme repeatedly everyday.  I changed the story quite a bit.  I rewrote the story to reflect my daughter's love of baking.  I put a modern twist on the storyline by including her favorite cooking shows and including her brother into the story as well.  Even though her brother's real name is not Tom, I changed his name in my story to follow along with the original storyline.  I also embellished the story with details about her brother and the setting itself.  The story implies that the baker is an adult, so I decided to change the baker's age to my daughter's age and I added myself in as her "helper" or baker's assistant.

The photos I chose represented both the Pat-A-Cake nursery rhyme written by Mary Barrett and one of Mary's baking lessons with me.  We were baking chocolate chip cookies and were decorating them for the holidays.  When we bake together, it is always fun and makes both of us extremely happy.

Introduction -- All About Myself

Hi, my name is Krista Pursley.  I have been married for 7 years to a man named Stephen.  All together we have 6 children and 3 grandchildren.  I am a part-time student at OU taking 11 credit hours, but I am also taking a 3 credit hour Trigonometry class at OCCC.  At OU, I am taking the following courses: Research Methods II, Psychology Capstone, Mythology & Folklore, and I am a TA (teacher assistant) for a PSY1113 class.  My graduation date is scheduled for this May where I will be receiving my Bachelor's degree in Psychology.  

I am a full-time foster parent & mom as well.  Since I became a foster parent in March of 2009, my husband and I have fostered approximately 35 children.  We will be adopting one of the children this February and will adopt a second foster child in the near future.  In a few days, we will also become legal guardians to a wonderful 15-year-old girl.  My goal for after graduation is to secure a job as a foster care worker for either DHS or through a private organization.  

The main hobby that my family and I participate in is called the SCA (Society for Creative Anachronism).  For anyone who does not know about this group, we dress up in medieval style clothing and reenact the Middle Ages.  In addition to the people in our household, we have 4 cats named Blizzard, Thumper, Luna & Snickers.  My favorite TV shows are House, Law & Order: SVU, The Walking Dead & Castle.  However, I rarely get to watch TV anymore because of my family’s hectic schedule.  

Over the Christmas holiday break, my family spent a lot of time together doing arts & craft projects, going to Christmas parties, and reorganizing and deep cleaning the house.  That last part was pretty boring though!  If I had the time and energy, I would love to spend my “free” time making jewelry, sewing clothing, working out & getting back into shape, dancing and croqueting. 

(Image information: 2014 Mom's competitive dance group.  I'm on the left.)

(Image information: Family photo from November 2013--Our 3 youngest children)

My Favorite Place -- Caribbean Cruises

The first cruise we sailed on was in 2007.  This was our honeymoon cruise and it was 1 week long.  We sailed out of Galveston, TX and went to Cozumel, Jamaica, and Grand Cayman.

(Image information: Photo of cooking class we took on honeymoon cruise; Summer 2007)

(Image information: Photo of Jamaica excursion on honeymoon cruise; Summer 2007)

The second cruise we sailed on was in 2010.  We took our son for his 16th birthday.  We flew to Florida and sailed to Nassau, Bahamas.  This was a 3-day weekend cruise.

(Image information: Photo from Nassau cruise; October 2010)

(Image information: Photo of ship from Nassau cruise; October 2010)