Walking on Sunshine

I challenge you to a dare.

Watch this without laughing.

Did anyone catch this Intervention? Chris and I were soooo creeped out by it. Ugh! She sucked/huffed cans of computer duster all day long.

"We are obviously separated by denominational differences.”

The Great Pumpkin as Christian parable?

I was watching this with Luke and Chris and asked Chris if he thought it was. He didn't know. I got on my trusty interweb and asked it. Here's what I found:

The Great Pumpkin on Wikipedia

and this one, which is even better.

Am I the only one in the world who didn't realize this?

Charles Schulz was a clever old dude.

Morons

"Both individuals stated they would dress in all white tuxedos and wear top hats during the assassination attempt," the court complaint stated.
I'm picturing Dumb and Dumber.

Sauce and Sloss

*Edited to add excitin' phone photos! I am Vampira!

So Saturday morning we got up bright and early and met my parents halfway to hand over the kiddos so they could enjoy them for the weekend and so Chris and I could be a couple for the weekend...I spent most of my free day in the "beauty shop" (it's so small town salon, I have to call it that) reading Twilight as I waited for my hair appointment. She was kind of behind. Anyway. After that, almost FOUR HOURS later, Chris and I headed to Tanner's place, where we enjoyed a beverage, watched some of the AL game (damn you Bammers!), and then headed to a nice dinner with Tanner and Crystal. I enjoyed another beverage during dinner because I was nervous about going to the Sloss Furnace haunted thing. I was about to pee my pants thinking about it. I have a hard time even watching HALLOWEEN.
****
My fears were all for naught. As soon as we got there, my nerves subsided. The place was like a fair---booths set up selling candy apples, beer, t-shirts "I ain't scared!"...
Couple that with the fact that children were running around with glowsticks...I was okay with the place.
After a two hour wait we got to go in. (We waited outside the EXIT area where people were, well, exiting and no one appeared that scared. In fact, most looked bored. I was happy about this.)
It mainly consisted of people in poor makeup jumping out at you, slamming a hammer against a wall (BANG!) and grunting at you. I enjoyed the young girls screaming behind me, but other than that, I was kinda bummed. I tell you what, if they sold tours to people at night where they just walked you through with a flashlight and told you stories of the place (like in the video above) it would be a helluva lot scarier.

BANG!!!!!
GRUNTTTTTT!!!!
Are you scurrrred yet?

No shit, Sherlock.

Forgive the Fox linkage. :)

My students and I compared this chick to Mayella Ewell from TKAM.

Hole, Hot, House

Luke is depressed that Wipeout and American Gladiators is no longer on his TV.
He'll have to be happy with Hole in the Wall. Speaking of Hole in the Wall (ARE YOU READY FOR THE HOLE???) I laughed until I cried during lunch today because another female teacher and I were discussing the show and the other two teachers (both male history teachers, just fyi) had never heard of it. I pulled up that link and we watched it over and over again and lafffffffffffffed. My students, returning from lunch, must have thought we had lost our minds.
***************
Conversation with Luke the other day:
Luke: THIS is a HOTWHEEL. (Holds up a Hotwheel car.)

I want to say, duh, I have a college education, but I don't. Instead...
Jen: Is it hot?
Luke: It's a HOTWHEEL.
Jen: Is the car hot? Or just the wheel?
Luke: It's a HOTWHEEL.
Jen: Maybe it's warm...
Luke: You're making me angry.

**************
Actual words from my Thai (?) manicurist today:
"My people...we vote for McCain. You, you call it the WHITE HOUSE, right?"
Me: Huh? What do you mean?
"You, you name it the WHITE HOUSE, not the BLACK HOUSE."
I thought it was really insane that this minority dude was against another minority. Lord.
I kept my opinions to myself pretty much, because you can't argue with logic like that. I let him finish polishing my nails and I kept my eyes on the TV.

Wednesday Morning

Read this please.

He Loves School.

Morning Jakers.

Skooooooooooooky!

That's a view from my school. Isn't it gorgeous?

Recently, Luke came home with a Scholastic book order form. My heart jumped---I loved this stuff when I was in elementary school. The books for his age group are called "Firefly" books. We went through the thin paper form and picked out his favorites and then I added a few that I thought were cute. He was pretty proud when they came back and he carried them in the house. I am a dork because I smelled them and they smelled the way I remember these books smelling. Did any of you ever order from Scholastic/Troll books as a kid?

*****

Johnny Cash's "Hurt" is so incredible awesome. Other things that are awesome? Redken's Rough Paste 12, Twizzlers, my students' To Kill a Mockingbird projects, 3 Muscateers candy bars, kids' consignment 50 percent off sales (I got lots for Luke--he needed it), how Luke says the word spooky. "Skooooky!"

More than one ghost? Ghosteses.

**********

********

Nothing much else to report. Chris and I finally went to the doctor to get check ups. We have never had a primary family physician since we've been married. We always went to Primed. Sad, huh? We liked the guy we got. I picked him off the Internet. He has a good sense of humor. Chris and I actually had our checkups at the same time--got to see each other get blood taken, etc. Chris made a funny face when the doc pulled my shirt up from the back to listen to my lungs.

I've been battling yet another cold (perhaps allergy?). I always get sick during October, but this year it's been worse. Ugh.

******

Luke's gonna be a skeleton for Halloween. Jake's gonna be Superman. Chris and I are taking the boys to his hometown for Halloween to hang out with his brother and help him with his scary garage thing that he does for the neighborhood. Dylan and Luke will be trick or treating together. Should be loads o' fun! I bet the pics will be great. I've already tried the Superman outfit on Jake and there is something about a cape that makes kids go nuts in a good way.

*****

Off to watch Alabama (hopefully) lose!

Reminds me of OUR TOWN...kinda

This is so cool.

Please do not let your pets "urinate" on the flowers.

Friday Night Lights

So I finally did it! Went to a football game at my new school! And it was awesome. I took Luke with me to have some "Momma and Me" time and to get him out of Chris's hair so he could have some Playstation alone time in the man room. I knew Jake wouldn't be any trouble for him. As for me and Luke...I spilled a Coke (of course), we sat in the wrong places twice (reserved for high payin' folks...I was wondering why no one was sitting in this nice area...DUH. I was in Jenland, oblivious), and Luke had to go to the bathroom twice, but overall, I had a great time. So glad I went.

Here are some pics from tonight--taken with my cell phone.

Yo

Okay. Go me. I got up at my usual 4:45, had 15 minutes of me time, and then did a load of laundry. Yay. I'm trying to make time for more laundry on a daily basis, instead of ignoring it until the weekend. Spreading my work instead of clumping it.

***

After work, I decided to feed my soul a little and went to a trade in book kind of place I'd spied on the way to work. It was cool. The old man who runs it is a little odd though.

Old man: You from around here?

Me: No. Yes. I mean we just moved here. I teach at the high school. English.

Old man: (As he calculates how much credit I'm earning from the books I brought in) I was never a good English student....which is crazy because I turned out to publish more books than Faulkner!

(He waited for me to inquire further about this publishing craziness. I didn't inquire, as I knew he was full of shit. Plus, I wanted him to hurry up. He was taking a long time.)

Me: You don't say....

Old man kept doing his thing and I browsed some more.

Came back.

Somehow the topic of NASA came up.

Old man: Yep, back when I worked for NASA (looks straight at me) sending men up to the moon, ya know...(blah blah blah)

Love this store. Love Old Man Crazy too. Adds... charm.

Big thanks to Crystal S. for the books to trade in for school library.

*Pic is of a student dressed up as Obama for "Celebrity Day" (H'coming Week.) She scared me when she walked in the room.

Sunday Festival

October means lots of festivals, and we went to one today. It was beautiful.

Mom and Dad came up and it was good seeing them. I was tired and hot, though, so I was kind of grumpy. Did I mentioned overwhelmed with household stuff? I haven't been able to catch up since we moved up here. I've never been so busy in my life. See that first pic up there? Disgusting, isn't it? Kids enter the ride through that and leave the other side through another (similar) slit. Ew. The twins are David and Tracy's boys. Luke and Jake had their first snow cones today. :)

Find the Funny in This Pic

I hope you see it. Do you think it really happened or is Photoshopped?

In other news, I was a little disappointed that Palin didn't go off the rails last night. I fell asleep on the couch again, just like I did during the last debate. I'm so "unpatriotic." (See? I did listen to a lot of it!)

Snatches o' Convo and Incidents

Jen: Is (name) slow?
Chris, after a pause: Well, he's never dazzled me, if you want to know the truth.
*************
Student in class: Sofa. King. Sofaking. So Fa King.
He got in trouble.
*************
Chris, coming home from the store: Uh Jen?
Jen: Yeah?
Chris: You know anything about the guy in the driveway playing basketball?
Jen: Huh? What???
Chris: There's a kid playing basketball outside in our driveway. He nodded at me when I pulled up.
(I went outside, Luke trailing behind me...)
Jen: Hey.
Dude: Hey. (Twirls ball on finger)
Jen: Um, can I help you?
Dude: Uh, JP said I could play basketball when I visited my grandfather over there. (Points.)
Jen: Um...I don't know who JP is. Is it the boy who used to live here?
Dude: Yes ma'am.
Jen: Well, I don't have a problem with you playing ball here, but you need to ask us first because right now, for instance, our baby is sleeping right up there and this might wake him up.
Dude: (Stares)
Jen: Sooooo, I'll see you another time. What's your name?
Dude: Kenny.
Jen: Okay Kenny. Well, come by another time.
(He seemed okay with it. Luke asks loudly, "Is that man coming back?")
******
One of my freshman girls opened up a book from my classroom library and there was a print out from a website stuck in the middle of it. Of hard phalluses. Phalli? She was stunned. I was stunned. So awkward. I looked at the date. Some kid from LHS was using it as a freakin' bookmark.
******
Kids were having a "clearing their throat" contest today while they were supposed to be reading silently. "Okay, cut it out."