This and That

You guys noticing that no one runs their engine anymore when they are running in and out of a place? (I realized this when I picked Jake up at daycare today. He's sick. Poor guy.) Check out these pics of when he was feeling better. Love that boy!

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Speaking of gas, it's weird to see plastic bags draped over gas pumps, showing that they are out of gas. Kind of scary...what if everyone in town dried up?

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The Water Horse is not a movie for children. Trust me on this. Poor Luke may never be the same.

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Teaching To Kill a Mockingbird has been really interesting. Has made me very curious about Harper Lee. I've been reading a lot about her. Seems that around the time of In Cold Blood (after she accompanied Truman to Kansas and helped him with the book) that their "friendship cooled". I wonder exactly what happened. Some say he should have acknowledged her help with ICB, others say that something else happened. Do you have a theory? I've watched Capote. I need to watch Infamous.
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Good article for people like me confused about the bailout stuff. Glad we sold our house when we did...
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Congrats to Patrick and Kristy C on their first child, a daughter they named Addison!

In Honor of The Amazing Race starting again tonight...

Here's an entry from way back about what would happen if we went on The Amazing Race. Who would YOU be on the race with and what things would happen when you two went? (Comment away! Amy and Darryl? Janice and Perry? Hope and Jake? Ann Marie and Hope? Donna and Mike? (OR Donna and Kitten!) Tim and Max? Max and Michael? Casey and Meg? Meg and Karen M? Stacy and Stephanie? Jamie and Jason? Jamie and Laura? Christy and Natalie? Harold and Barb? Snook and Stephanie (I can see one of you texting the whole time! HA) Vickie and Danny? Crystal and Daniel? Crystal and Vickie? Karen and Andy? Others????


NEXT TIME ON THE AMAZING RACE!!!!Here's what you would see/hear if Chris and I were on The Amazing Race:My husband getting mad or annoyed at me for:
1. Wanting a nap "But I'm so tired!"
2. Wanting a snack "But I'm so hungry!"
3. Trying to find a place to check my email
4. Stopping to take pictures "I'll never be in Thailand again, Chris!"
5. Wanting to shop at junk markets. "It's only a DOLLAR!"
6. In response to him blowing his fuse, saying, "Let's have a GOOD day today."
7. In response to something not working out, saying, "It'll all work out."
8. Saying, "But I'm just so OVERWHELMED!"
You would also see the following:
1. Chris wearing AU gear.
2. A montage of Chris pootin' (hilarity would ensue)
3. Reactions of terrified bystanders
4. Jen wearing shirts like "Ponies are Pretty"
5. Chris stealing all the other clues from the box and getting in trouble
6. Jen finally squeezing Chris's face in frustration.
I guess we'd better never go on The Amazing Race.

*Feet and shoes,etc. from last night's date with my husband at the Cafe Something or other at P@tton Creek.

Sad Day

My beloved Paul Newman died. My heart hurts a little. LOVE HIM.

If I had a time machine, I'd totally zap myself back to 1955 and throw it on him during the filming of Cat on a Hot Tin Roof.

Maggie, we're through with lies and liars in this house. Lock the door.

SWOONNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNN

And yes, Luke is an homage to Cool Hand Luke.

Epiphany During Class

Student blurts out in the middle of class, "Wait! Scout's a girl????"


We're in chapter 11, people.

Cops, According to Luke

We saw a police car on the road while we were headed to daycare and work this morning. I pointed him out, asked Luke if he liked policemen.

"Yeah."

"Why? Because they help people?"

"No, because they give tickets. They buy a bunch of tickets to things, then make you stop and then they give people the tickets!"

:)

Driveway Silliness

Results

The debate tournament was long, y'all! I got there at 7:30 am and left at six pm. I don't know how those kids did it---they all did public forum cases---four times each. That's being in front of a judge arguing about the military draft for four hours. When they weren't doing their debates, they had to sit in the lunchroom and prepare for the next one. They got great experience and they seemed to learn a lot. I know I did. A few highlights:

1. When I was sitting in the coach room, watching the Bama game (I was surrounded by bammers, "yay") one of the coaches fell asleep on the couch, sitting straight up. He was a very large guy and he just looked like he felt bad. You know? Anyway, this other big guy next to me, an older dude, kept saying stuff very loudly like, "Look at him asleep. He's too big. Wayyy too big. I bet he has diabeetus."

I was about to lose it. Todd T, who teaches at the school where we debated, came by to visit me. He's all Anderson Cooper headed these days (and looks fantastic!!) and he got to hear this guy call the other guy out like that. I'm glad someone else got to enjoy the weirdness.

2. I got to meet a lot of parents. Parents of some of my kids (that was cool---I could tell they were ready to get out of there too, though) and parents of kids from other schools. Some of them were VERY opinionated and well, kind of pushy and off putting. I tried not to get roped into too many conversations with those "other kid" parents. That's why I hid out in the tab/coach room.

3. The kids from other schools toting in tubs of information for extemp killed me. Just freakin' nerd olympics. Love this.

Out of 60 teams of 2, my two girls, K and A, got in 6th place! I'm so proud. They were so excited.

Friday

Sorry I've been out of pocket lately. I'm swamped with short story essays, debate stuff, lesson planning, a teaching observation by a boss (I got great scores!), kids, laundry, whatnot, thus and such...

Our first debate tournament is tomorrow. I'll be there from 7:45 am to around five pm. Nice.
Wish me luck, homies.

**PS: This pic stolen from Girl in the Ghetto, cuz she always has the best stuff on her site! (On sidebar.)

Jake Got in Trouble

Jake got the equivalent of a baby referral yesterday. I showed it to Chris and he laughed and laughed. "That's my boy!"

Sigh.

I told his teacher, "Well, if he could understand me, I'd have a heart to heart with him about not biting people." :)

(What's so weird is that I hadn't seen him do this at all until later yesterday---he started biting me!)

I guess a screeching, "NOOOOOO!" will be our little heart to heart. He just smiled and smiled.

I guess I got in his space.

2 Food questions

What are your thoughts on soy milk vs. skim milk?
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What one food is the most important to my health? Basically, what one food item would help my bod the most?

Comment away. Everyone should have an opinion on this. Even those who never comment. COMMENT, lurkers! :)

Les Misbarack

Even if you're not an Obama fan, if you like Les Miserables, you've got to appreciate this. Thanks, Tim, for your Facebook post of this. I just love the girl playing Eponine. Her arms and stuff. That cracks me up. The Palin/McCain impersonators are pretty awesome too. On a different note, I'm so thankful for being introduced to Les Miserables by my tenth grade English teacher, Mrs. Barbara Wilkerson. Big thanks go to you, Mrs. W!

Guess who.

Indeed.

Can you find the, uh, oddity in this pic? I can't believe I didn't catch it in 1990 when this article was in our school paper.

You Know What?

"You know what" is Luke's favorite sentence starter.

We'll hear footsteps on the stairs when he's supposed to be in bed.
"Luke...you better get in bed!"
(Silence, then)
"You know what?"
Then some rambling dissertation on why he shouldn't be in bed yet.
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This afternoon, as I'm driving home:
Luke: You know what?
Me: What?
Luke: I have a soul in my body. And bones too.
Me: Yep. You do!
Luke: Babies have little bones. You have big bones.
Me: That I do.
Luke: I have muscles too. Muscles are in our bodies. Even in our head. But they don't hurt you. Muscles are red. I like red things.
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Right now Jake is laughing at Luke because he (Jake) has figured out how to make Luke mad. He turns off Blue's Clues, laughs and runs off.
Luke yells, "Turn it back on!"
Jake will punch the button again, laugh, and then a few minutes later, he turns it off again. He thinks Luke's irritation is hysterical.
This won't be the last time this kind of thing happens, huh? :)
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I had a nerdgasm today when I found a teacher store after work. I bought stickers and two posters. One poster says, "Some days you're the pigeon and some days you're the statue." The other one says, "We had homework?" and two frogs are all bug-eyed. Shut up Max. They are cute.
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Luke: Let's play a game.
Me: Let's.
Luke: Which game?
Me: Let's play "space out". You stare at the wall and sit still.
Luke: I don't like that game.

Debate Gumpstyle

Not safe for prudes. :)

New Mockingbird Quote of the Day

Student, after hearing that they had to read chapters 2 and 3 tonight of TKAM:

"Maybe tonight we'll get to meet the mockingbird."


He is a totally serious kid. I wanted to hug him, it sounded so sweet.

MOCK (yeah) ING (yeah) BIRD (yeah)

That pic is of Chris and Jake leaving my school building. Sweet, huh? One day he'll walk these halls as a big dude.

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Luke's kind of amazing me with his thought process lately. Yesterday he asked Chris and me, "Mom, did you MAKE me?" He also pulled on his skin and said, "Who made THIS?" Wow.

He asked me this morning if cats knew things that people know. I asked him what he meant. He said, "Do they know they could fall off things?" He had seen Reggie heading up the back porch steps.

It's so cool hearing all this stuff come out of his brain. :)

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Student: "I'm starting to think that To Kill a Mockingbird isn't about a mockingbird at all!"
(We started it today.)

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After watching Larry King interview Michael Moore the other night, I observed, "He looks like that dog from Spaceballs."

Chris lost it.

Heheh.

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What 69 looks like: Parking space 69, that is.

He's All Sunshine These Days

Every night I have to lie down with Luke to get him to finally "settle down" for the night. We chat a little bit, but mostly he plays with my hair and sucks on his sippy cup (shut up dentists).

Tonight, after talking with him about his friends at school, he suddenly asks, "Mom, can I smell you?"

"Uh, sure."

He lifts my hand up to his nose and sniffs.

"You smell weird."

I smell my hand. I smell Softsoap. "No I don't."

He sniffs again. "Yes, you do..." (He pats my head.) "It's okay."

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Pic is from a week ago when I was still sick and VERY tired. I post it though because it's very true to life these days, vanity be damned. My voice is pretty much back. Luke spending most of the weekend with his grandparents have rested it somewhat.

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We watched Lars and the Real Girl this past week. Pretty good movie. If you don't like quirky movies, you should skip. :)

The Stork

is coming to Dusty and Brandy's house! Congrats guys!

(pic courtesy of this talented photographer)

Frank's Lover

Well, once again, I've lost my voice. It's slowly coming back, but for several days, I have not been able to speak above a whisper. This makes teaching 14/15 year olds a bit difficult...Luckily, a super cheesy Gift of the Magi video and lots of bookwork have given my throat a break.

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In other news, Frank has a new girlfriend. I guess it's a girl. We assume it's a girl. Of course, you know what happens when you assume. Here are pics of their first (?) interaction. She came sniffing around the house, he jumped the fence, and they skipped around the cul de sac together for a while. Luke and Chris tried to separate the lovers. And yes, my son is carrying a Spiderman lamp. Head lamp. And it doesn't work. Just looks creepy.

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Thanks to Tim, who posted this link giving us lots of info on Sarah Palin.

Well!

Chris, sitting down at the kitchen table across from Luke...
"Hey buddy, I'm gonna come on Friday morning with Nanny to your school. It's Goodies for Grandparents day and we're gonna come see you and your friends. And have treats."
Luke, considers this, eats some Mac and Cheese.
"My friends won't like you."

Thought of the Day

Never give up, for that is just the place and time that the tide will turn. ~ Harriet Beecher Stowe

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Being defeated is often a temporary condition. Giving up is what makes it permanent. ~ Marilyn vos Savant

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Defeat may test you; it need not stop you. If at first you don't succeed, try another way. For every obstacle there is a solution. Nothing in the world can take the place of persistence. The greatest mistake is giving up. ~ Unknown

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Perseverance is failing 19 times and succeeding the 20th. -Julie Andrews

I'm on a picture kick.

Me 20 years ago.

Tenth grade

Dad was outside planting mums. That was a good day.