All About Me

Lorie’s Page

All About Me

My name is Lorie Hedrick.  I live in Claremont, NC with my husband Darren and my 2 daughters Alexa (11) and Regan (7).  I grew up in Alexander County and most of my family still lives there. Darren grew up in Claremont so he’s lived here all his life.  All of our relatives live very close by, which can be a good or a bad thing depending on how you look at it.

My oldest daughter is an animal fanatic, so we have a zoo of critters at our house and in my class at school.  We have 2 dogs;  Ginger, a pomeranian mix and Luci, a Jack Russell.  They are quite spoiled and think that they are human.  We love them dearly.  Luci is a hunter and she has the heart of a lion; she loves to drag bones and any creature she can capture into our yard.  She likes to tree things and bark at them all night, so she usually has to sleep inside so we can sleep.  We also have 2 guinea pigs, Muffy and Princess Petunia.  They live at school but we bring them home on weekends and holidays.  They are hilarious and the kids at school love them.  We get them out and let them run around the room sometimes. 

                                                        

                                                                                  Muffy, the guinea pig

 

We’ve had an assortment of pet mice.  They don’t live long we discovered so we have to replace them often.  Our first one we got in June 2006 as a reward for Alexa for making all 4′s on her EOG tests.  She was black and white so we named her Cookie.  She began to get fat suddenly, and one morning we discovered a nest of pinkies in the cage.  (Pinkies are baby mice.)  There were 9 of them.  I only wanted 1 mouse, not 10.  Actually I didn’t want any but I had agreed to tolerate 1.  So, we did some research and learned how to care for them until they could be weaned, then we took them back to PetSmart and explained our dilemma.  They told us that a male had accidentally gotten in with the females.  So they took the babies back, except for one which we had to keep.  Alexa named her Crumbs.  (Get it?  Cookie, Crumbs…)  Well, mice only live 1-2 years, so Cookie passed away this summer.  We had a funeral, complete with a prayer and everything.  Alexa loved that mouse and was very sad to lose her.  A few days later we went to the pet store and chose a new one.  This one was white with red eyes.  We named her Snow White.  Although I never was really fond of the others, this one was kinda sweet.  She won’t bite, and loves to crawl around on my arms.  Then over Christmas break, Crumbs also passed away.  So, we have recently added a new mousie friend to our family.  Bella joined us just last week.  She is sweet too.  She is very tiny and is a charcoal black color.  They do not however get along with each other, and bite each other on the tail so we must keep them separated.  Most people cringe at the thought, but mice actually make great pets for little kids.  They are easy to care for, as are the guinea pigs, and very kid friendly.  My girls have learned a lot from our experiences with them.  We also have 2 fish tanks, with an assortment of fish.  They really are not very exciting, but I enjoy the sound of the water in the aquarium and it’s not hard to care for either.

 

 

 

 

                                                      

                                                                               Luci, our Jack Russell

My family really likes to spend time together, but it’s hard because my husband and I are always so busy.  We try to take one big trip every year with the girls, to expose them to new places and different cultures.  They love to go to Disney, so we go down there about once every year or two.  This past year we took them on a cruise to the Caribbean.  We visited Nassau, St. Thomas, and St. Martin.  They loved the entire experience, and they are ready to go again.  We are trying to plan a trip to Alaska, and hope to go this summer but we may have to wait until later because of my classes.  We love to swim, and have a pool at home so in the summer we spend lots of time just hanging out there. We like to go to the movies, play board games, watch TV at home, and play the new Wii Santa brought for Christmas.  In my spare time, if there ever is any, I love to read and scrapbooking is my true passion.  My oldest loves shopping, and the youngest likes to play beauty shop.  They make up shows and plays for us all the time, and we have to listen to a lot of Hannah Montanna karaoke.  We like to garden, and we plant lots of flowers around the house.  In the spring we plant a large vegetable garden.  We make homemade salsa, fruit jam, pickles, and can/freeze lots of veggies for the winter.  We do lots of cooking, and the girls love to help out with things in the kitchen.

My husband’s name is Darren.  We have been married for 12 years.  His job is about an hour from our home, so he spends alot of time away from us.  I wish he were home more to be with us and to help out with the kids.  He has a great job though, so we tolerate the driving time.  He is a great husband and a great dad.  It has to be hard to live with 3 women in the house, but he handles it gracefully.

I love teaching, although I tend to get bored with things easily so I like to change grade levels occasionally just to keep things interesting.  I would like to be a Title One teacher once my degree is finished, and perhaps teach some college classes eventually.  Reading is my favorite subject.  I enjoy my reading groups and that’s my favorite part of our day at school.  Kindergarten is a tough grade to teach.  It is physically exhausting because the kids are so demading and they need you every second.  However, it’s really fun, because they are so interested in EVERYTHING and they are like little sponges.  The thing I love best about teaching is seeing the growth the kids make and knowing that I had a small part in helping them learn something new. 

 

HOBBIES:  Well, being a parent as I said of two wannabe teenagers, I don’t have time for hobbies.  I help with homework, do laundry, cook and do dishes, do laundry, write lesson plans, grade papers, did I mention the laundry???  If there ever is spare time, I LOVE to scrapbook.  I am not really a writer, but this is my way to document the important things that happen to me and my family.  I try to write or journal on every page, even if it’s just a phrase to help remember what prompted me to take the photo.  I am very passionate about this part of my life, although it has had to be put on the back burner for now.  It’s a fun thing to do with friends and my girls are kinda into it a little so it’s something we can do together.

Other hobbies and things I love:

*church

*reading (stuff I like, not teacher manuals)

*swimming

*TV show HOUSE-it’s the only thing I watch regularly but I LOVE it!!

*eating out; I hate doing dishes

*gardening

*cheesecake…YUMMY!!

*going on trips 

*Cherry Coke Zero

*coffee 

*fall of the year

*shopping with friends

*snuggling with my girls

*our pets

Things I dislike:

*public speaking; I embarrass easily and break out in hives

*cold weather

*being late

*a messy house

*whiny kids

*SPIDERS!!!!!!!!!

*arguements and fighting

*PEANUT BUTTER  (the smell really makes me sick)

*being sick

*going to the dentist

*uncomfortable shoes

*rainy days

*paper cuts

*bad hair days

*green peas

That pretty much is my life and all the important stuff about me.  I am excited to be in this program and working on my masters degree.  It’s something I have always wanted to do but just never thought I had the time.  It is hard trying to do this with an already over-booked life, but I have enjoyed it so far and I have learned so much.  I look forward to the classes to come and the new things I will learn.

Me, Regan and Alexa