We Have Your Dog.

So it's 4:30 pm and I'm leaving school, turn on my phone and notice I have a message.
I check it.
Little boy voice: "Hi, I'm ))))))(((( and I live on))))))) Lane. We have your dog. Call us back."
I call the number. "Hi, you have my dog?"
Little boy: "Oh....no. Not anymore. He left."
I want to say, "He's a she..." but thought it was a moot point.

I continue to drive to pick up the boys and I call Chris.
Me: "Hey babe, you home?"
C: "Yeah, just got home."
Me: "Bailey's not there."
C: "Huh?"
Me: "Bailey's out. Some little boy called me and said he had Bailey and that he, I mean she, got out again."
C: "Well that's weird, cuz I'm petting Bailey right now."
Me: "Huh? Okay..."
C: "Maybe she time travelled!"

I checked the call. It came at 6:30 last night, when Chris was grilling out on the porch. We figured out that she got out and came back without our even noticing. :)

Awesome

Laser Portraits!

Summer Mix '09

Photo and video editing at www.OneTrueMedia.com

A Little Late is Better Than Never!

Jake's Birthday (just the four cutest moments).

Make an on-line slideshow at www.OneTrueMedia.com

Luke in Kindergarten

Finally, I have a chance to sit down and write about Luke's first two days in kindergarten. He seems okay with it. Like, "oh, so this what we do now." I have become clued in to the whole cluster********** of the carpool drop off/pick up thing. What. A. Mess. I hate it. I'm glad he will start the afterschool program next week and I don't have to be part of THAT in the afternoon.
Like I said earlier, he has a male teacher who is relatively young and seems to have a lot of energy. There are 19 kids in Luke's classroom and one of them is a little boy from Luke's preschool, so Luke was happy about that.

When I dropped Luke off the first day, we weren't allowed to walk in with him, so I watched him get out of the car and "walk the yellow line" and enter the front door, teachers flanking the area and pointing him in the right direction. I teared up, I couldn't help it. I suddenly thought of the day he was born and how tiny he was. Bless him. Protect him, I thought.

I had to get to school myself, so once the car pool lane finally MOVED, I got to get to my school.

The main things he said about his first two days of school:
"I didn't get to play with toys."
"I'm tired."
"I think I'm sick." (Followed by a fake cough cough.)

Here in My Car

When the boys and I drove past a former car dealership on our way to Jake's preschool, Luke noticed that the lot was empty. During the spring we always talked about the cars out there and Luke had decided that the blue truck was our car. "Cuz this one is dirty," he explained.
"Well," I had told him, "We can just clean this car instead of getting another one."
"No, I think we need to get a new one."
Anyway, this car lot is now a ghost town. "Oh no! Someone took all the cars!"
It made me think about the economy...then it made me think of the whole Clunkers for Cash program and what I had told Chris the previous evening.
"Look! My Montero qualifies! We can get $4500 for it!"
Unimpressed, Chris says, "So then we have 4500 dollars and no car. What then?"
"No...you put it towards a NEW car!" I excitedly told him.
"So then we have a car payment..."
"Oh. Yeah. Never mind."

I just didn't want to miss out on something big and the car deal thingy seemed big. :) Oh well!

No, You're Welket.

Jake's favorite word is "No."
This morning as I changed his diaper. "Jake, you ready for your first day back at preschool?"
Sour face: "No."
"Want to see your friends?"
"No."
When I dropped him off, it was weird, because normally I dropped both the boys off there. There was only one kid's number to enter, only one room to go to. Strange! Jake moved up to a "bigger kid" room and he stared at everyone, kind of stunned. The ladies all thought he had grown a lot of hair over the summer. I was glad he had some familiar teachers. He didn't cry when I left him and when I came back to get him he was dancing with some "friends" to a song about a fire truck. Good times.
******
Instead of saying "You're welcome" Jake says, "You're welket."
******
First day back at work and lots of meetings. Good vibes. Good people. Love it. Kids come back to school on Thursday. My 9th graders are the class of 2013. Coincidentally, this is my 13th year teaching. OOOHHHH.
Speaking of school, I found out who Luke's kindergarten teacher is and he's a man, baby! I'm okay with that, and I'm glad it's not a prissy lady. :) He's also an Auburn fan! Yeah!

Back to Jake...
Just put him to bed. Asked him, "You have a good day today, baby?"
"No."

Tapping my head with my hand, jumbled stuff falling out of my ear

I really do have a lot to say, but I don't know if any of it will make much sense. I was walking up the killer hill yesterday, sweating bullets,listening to the sounds of the neighborhood, the jingle of Bailey's chain, and smelling the fresh cut lawns around me and I feel as if I'm changing. Like something is happening. Good or bad, I don't know. But something is on the horizon--hopefully good, positive stuff.

I'm tired of negative people. I'm tired of users.

My tooth hurts like hell. I guess it's more of a fake tooth--the temporary crown that Dr. Singer (cuz he sings love songs/rock song lyrics as he works)is rubbing against my tongue and it has inflamed it. Makes me think constantly of Hope and feel awful for even comparing a tongue abrasion for the hell she went through. I can't bring myself to delete her name from my cell phone.

I finally got myself a visit to the dentist. I picked him for three reasons: I liked his name (not Singer, duh) cuz it was weird, his office was very close to my house, and they could take me right away. I went because of a pain I was feeling on that side of my mouth--right where I had the root canal and crown last year. This time it was its friend next to it. Luckily no root canal is needed. They just temp crowned it and I'm waiting for the call to get the "deal sealed." I'm curious to see if the dental tech and the dentist will sing the hits for me again. Very odd experience. He even wiped a tear from my face.(!)

I gotta get better at updating this site and to refrain from telling every single thing on Facebook. And I do believe you know what I mean--some people thought we were totally wrong for laughing at it(the INCIDENT THAT MUST NOT BE NAMED)and maybe they are right. But we are allowed a misstep every now and then, right? I believe so. We are good people but we aren't perfect.

I guess I'm ready for school. I feel so much more ahead of the game this year--I know what kind of kids to expect. Last year was a culture shock to me.

I feel like my writing is very generic. I feel like I'm scared to put stuff out there now.
I feel boring.

At the restaurant in Hayden, AL, where Chris, his parents, the kids, and I ate at today, there was a handwritten sign on the door. It said: "Please do not block the ambulance in with your car."

This left me with many thoughts. Many questions.

Having writer's block. Forgive?

Goodbye Summer

Goodbye Summer. It was awesome. Let's talk about my favorite summer moments.
1. The Shark Slide
2. Orange Beach
3. 16 and Pregnant
4. More to Love
5. Dating in the Dark
6. The Treehouse/Playhouse Project
7. Tearing down the wallpaper in the bathroom.
8. The new drapes in the living room.
9. Beagle Bailey
10. The Race Car Birthday and the Pirate Birthday
11. Actually reading 3 books this summer and starting on a fourth.
12. Not having to move and create 3 new lessonplans for 3 new subjects to teach
13. The Ice Cream Truck!

Sincerely?

This is a timely article on how to close emails these days. I thought it was interesting because I have a hard time closing out emails to the parents of the kids I teach. I always think "sincerely" sounds cold and "nose in the air".

I'm heading out like a baby's head.

Revolutionary Road

Since we were already down, we decided to go ahead and watch Revolutionary Road, a Netflix pick that has been hanging around for a couple of weeks. A few thoughts (and I will try not to spoil anything--we can discuss in the comments if you want): 1) The kids barely made appearances! 2) I loved their coffee cups and kitchen table way too much---so much that I went upstairs during a break and brewed some coffee and used one of my weddin' cups that was wide like Kate's, err, April Wheeler's. 3)Why didn't Frank and April just take a vacation to Paris? I mean, it appears she needed a break...4)I thought the ending was perfect with the old man turning his ear piece down. He and his crazy son were the sanest ones. If you saw it, let's talk. It's stuck in my mind and Chris's mind big time. Hard to shake. Here's an article about the book and the movie.