A ridiculous proclamation

I have decided to worship Hello Kitty and all things kitty-tastic.

That is all.

Edit:

For those that doubt the Kitty and her versatility.... :)

Dialogue of the Socially Inept

So, for some reason, I always think it's interesting to hear about the stupid things people talk about at home....along those lines, I thought it might be interesting to share some of mine and John's more inane bits of yacking.

Me: I think I've decided to change my 80s crush.
John: To who?
Me: Howard Jones. Do you think I should call Peter Gabriel and let him know?
John: Nah, these things are better done in person.
Me: You're right.

Edit: Just tonight we had a discussion about the two randomly wet parking spaces out in the lot. We concluded that the only logical explanation for those two spots being wet is the fact that they are actually in a parallel universe....if we were to stand in those spaces we would be catapulted into a land of frolicking imagination.

Kids Are So Weird

So, Grace goes in the bathroom and does all sorts of, shall we say, personal and loud things with the door hanging wide open.

Then she closed the door to brush her teeth.

Huh?

Strange

I am so proud of my students that I could POP! They did such an awesome job of collecting and earning canned food for our school's food drive....we collected more cans than any other classes in the school. :D I used the food drive as a jumping off point to do an entire unit on the effects of poverty and hunger and the kids were really motivated to help.

The strange thing is this...the prize for collecting the most cans for a food drive?

A pizza party.

Does anyone else think that's weird?

You know what's frustrating?

If you search google for "simple Christmas," all sorts of results pop up with words like cheap, miserly, frugal, etc. Why is the expectation that I would only desire a simple Christmas if I was broke or thrifty??? Can't I want a simple Christmas just because I'm not a materialistic, present-monger who buys into rampant commercialism and greed? The whole thing makes me feel icky.

I hope that everyone is having a simple, enjoyable Christmas season if you're broke or not. ;)

I have finally....

added a Shelfari widget to my blog. See it over there? It's all shiny and new. :)

Can I Get A....

WOOHOOOOOO!!!!!!!!!!

Congratulations to our new president!!!! :D

Guaranteed Entertainment for All

http://www.qbesq.com/

Oh....what fun! I think I could probably do this for hours without gettting bored. :D

Oh, Joss Whedon, How I Love You So....

http://www.drhorrible.com/

If you're into cheesy super-villains, cheesy super-heroes and cheesy love-interests, this is for you. Oh, it's also musical! Score! Annnnd it has Doogie Houser....how can you go wrong??? :)

(It really is quite funny.)

Villainy and Lemonade

I love the summer....I can't imagine why anyone would not be a teacher...just because of summer break. :) Grace and I went to the Farmer's Market today because we got it in our heads yesterday that we needed to make fresh lemonade and fruit salad. Having never made fresh lemonade, I told Grace that this would probably be a fantastic disaster. What fun! So we bought our lemons (and strawberries and plums and peaches and blackberries and flowers) and headed to the store for the other things we needed (like one of those weird looking, round, pointy things that you impale helpless fruit on to rob them of all of their juices....do those things have a name???). And then it was off to home to make lemonade. Now, here comes the really strange part....keep in mind this is me and Grace I'm talking about here....nothing exploded! No limbs cut off, no falls, no bonks to the head, no emotional trauma or moral angst....just lemonade. (In my oh-so-saucy tacky, plastic pitcher that I had to have last summer....yes, I actually quested for a tacky pitcher.) Check it out....

I also took this picture of the rest of our Farmer's Market goodies....just because I thought they looked so pretty and summery. :)

Now, on to the villainy....which in no way is related to lemonade other than the two ideas knocking around in my head on the same day. I am so freakin' &^%$#^^&**^%%$%$ (insert all of the bad words you wish here) TIRED of this whole evil step-mother thing in kid's movies! Do these people know how HARD it is to be a step-mother?!? Without the assistance of kid-geared media continually driving it into children's brains that step-mothers are hideous, evil-doing, selfish, maniacal poo-poo heads??? And I'm not just talking about the old stories....no, this goes beyond Cinderella and Snow White. Grace was watching a Polly Pockets movie the other day....guess who the bad guy is? That's right, kids, the soon-to-be step-mother. The soon-to-be step-mother who actually says she wants Polly out of the picture so the father won't spend so much time paying attention to Polly. Good grief! Now, imagine this idea processed by the mind of a 7 year old who is cutting looks at her very own step-mother throughout the movie. Yeah, I need this. Why can't we have the people who are bad guys in real life be bad guys in the movies, too? I'm sure Grace would be appropriately horrified by some money-hogging oil executive or an eeee-vil dictator from some random, un-named middle eastern nation. Geez. My tirade is over.....for now.

My Very Most #1 Favorite Billboard Ever

"CHURCH TRAILER STOLEN
God forgives you.....but we need our stuff."

I don't know why this amuses me so. :)

Fish-tastic Fun Weekend

It was another fabulous weekend! On Saturday we had a great picnic and spent the day fishing. Grace had a great time playing with the bait and she has learned how to cast (quite well, I might add!), so no more casting for her is required.

Nothing impressive happened as far as catching fish goes, but we had a good time. John and I each caught a small fish....if we put the two fish together, they might have weighed half a pound. :)

The turtle viewing was good though....here, some lovely pictures for you to enjoy....

I was disturbed by how much trash we saw all over the place at this park! There were even plastic containers, glass bottles and cigarette butts floating by in the water. Yick. This has motivated me to join in on as many park clean ups as I can find. It is so sad to me that the very same people who use public parks are the ones who don't take care of them. Is it really so difficult to pick up trash and walk it to a garbage can or recycling bin???

Today Grace and I went to the recycling center to drop off paper and plastic, stopped at Goodwill to drop off some clothes, had a snack outside at Starbucks and checked out some books from the library while John had a nice, long nap. :)

I hope everyone had a relaxing weekend! Have a great Monday!!! :D

Happy Mother's Day!

I hope all of the moms and moms-to-be and step-moms had a wonderful Mother's Day!!!

John's out of town and Grace is with her mommy, so I had a day of uncharacteristic girly-ness....I have the green, pedicured toenails to prove it! :D

Voting Surprise

I went to my assigned voting site this evening after work fully expecting to wait in line for about a gazillion hours. To my surprise, I didn't have to wait in line at all. There were so few people about that only the "Vote Here" signs kept me from thinking I was in the wrong place. While I admit that I was pleased to not have to spend the next couple of seasons waiting in line, I'm still wondering where did everybody go? I hope this doesn't mean that people weren't voting! Maybe I just hit some voting improbability vortex or something.

There was actually a valid reason for the extended pause in my blogging this time. John and I had to go spend several days in Alabama to take care of his mother who had surgery last week. She lives in a tiny town that's not exactly abundant in wireless connections. However, we did see a goat crossing the road (not quite as exciting as the pig in the road that Olivia and I saw there last year, but still noteworthy), many dead armadillos (still haven't seen one of those guys who still has the ability to walk), and some gorgeous magnolias. I also discovered that Uncle Redd's has the most fabulous iced tea known to man! I'm super excited now for the third annual Alabama or Bust trip that Olivia and I take each June. John's mom is recovering wonderfully well, by the way.

Other than that, it's just been the madness of dealing with work after being away for a week, PTA meetings coming up (at my school and Grace's) and John's upcoming trip to Atlanta. This is always such a nutty time of year. Have I mentioned lately that the kids at school are going nuts between Spring Fever and EOG stress???? Holy cow! That place is a loony bin, but that's why I love it so. :D

Frustration

I know I blather on about this every year, so I'll be brief.....I am so tired of this crazy No Child Left Behind nonsense and the insane amounts of stress that it puts on kids (and their teachers!) to pass this one goofy little set of tests! Never mind the actual learning of things or kids performing to the best of their ability or demonstrating responsibility and growth throughout the year. Nope. We're going to let it all be decided by three days of incredibly stressful testing. What a great plan! Insert lots of harumphing and foot stomping here.

I really do hope that everyone has a great weekend!

Life Attacks!

And that's why my blog has fallen behind once again. My promised pictures for the Diet Coke and Mentos experiment did not happen because I decided it would be way more fun to spend the day in the emergency room with my second kidney stone than to hang out with my family. I mean, who wouldn't rather have an IV, experience mind-boggling pain and get poked and prodded than blow up some Diet Coke??? (I also want to add here that I find this to be the only real use for Diet Coke...you certainly wouldn't want to drink it!) So, the kidney stone is a thing of the past now, though the doctor did discover a new and exciting condition that I have when they ran me through the radioactive donut. How exciting! Uterine fibroids, unite!

Okay, enough health talk. Well, enough talk about my health specifically. This next section actually is still about health and grocery shopping. I've read a gazillion times that to protect yourself and your environment from chemicals, preservatives, pollution, etc. that you should buy fruits and veggies that are in season and grown locally if possible. Well, since I'm not a farmer, I have very little clue as to what is actually in season, so I just kind of grab whatever's there that looks yummy. No more! I found http://www.fruitsandveggiesmorematters.org/ ... this site gives a list of fruits and veggies per season (they also have a category for all year) with tons of other information about nutrition and cooking with fruits and veggies. Very useful to visit this site if you're like me (which means you're pretty agriculturally challenged).

In other oh-so-fascinating news, I have made it my life's mission at the moment to find toilet paper and paper towels that are made of recycled paper. I know they exist. I've found them on line. What I would like to find though, is these products in a local store and I would prefer for them to be cheaper than me setting up a manufacturing plant and making them myself. That has proven to be the tricky part. Sadly, at this point, I have only found toilet paper that is made of recycled paper and that was at Wal Mart, which is the enemy. I was only in Wal Mart as a last resort for finding hula hoops for a class project (hula hoop and tissue paper pie charts - beautiful!) when I wandered down the tissue aisle and spotted the recycled toilet paper. I'll let the world know how this mission turns out....you're all on the edge of your seats, right?!?

Well, it is now time to go enjoy a hard-core session of Viva Pinata with the family. I hope everyone is having a fabulous weekend!

Science Is Fun!

Any day that you wake up to organic blueberry pancakes with organic scrambled eggs and organic pears has got to be great, right? :) After that fabulicious breakfast prepared by my husband, the science fun began! I've got lots of pictures for you....

First, we did the ketchup packet diver experiment. The first step in this one is to find the very-most-perfectly floating ketchup packet...it can't sink to the bottom, but it shouldn't poke out of the top of the water too much either. Then you put the perfect packet into a container filled with water, put the lid on and squeeeeeze until that little packet sinks like a rock....then let go to watch the packet drift dreamily back to the top. :)

Next we made a cloud in a bottle...trust me, there was a cloud in there. :D

And our final experiment for the day was our favorite....the "make a boiled egg go into a bottle" experiment. Hehe. Ours was a little more explosive than expected. First, you drop still burning matches or paper in the bottom of a glass bottle, then quickly sit the egg on top and wait for the magic to happen....check out the egg guts!

Yep, fun was had by all....even Simon (the cat). :) Annnnd....all of the bottles we needed for these fine endeavors were right in our recycling box...it paid off for me to be slack about taking it to the center. :D Never fear, they were put back in the recycling box when we were finished!

After our science fun, we decided to go to the park/zoo....I'll post pictures from that later in the week because I have to scram for now.

Next week's science projects.....Mentos and Diet Coke, rock salt and Diet Coke, and sugar with 7-Up...there will be pictures!

Have a great Monday!

Sometimes Things Just Work

And isn't it wonderful when they do?

The Outer Banks trip with the 8th graders was fantastic! I can't brag on those children as much as I want to or I would bore everyone to tears, but I will say that no one could have asked for a better behaved group of kids! We even got compliments from the other customers in restaurants and stores about how good they were. In light of a rather horrific story I read on another blog about how a class of 9th graders acted like a bunch of insane booty-heads when she went to speak to them, I am super-proud of the students at my school.

Oh yeah...we had a lot of fun, too! :) We visited lighthouses, took a long ferry ride, saw Jockey's Ridge, the Wright Brothers Memorial, Somerset Plantation (that place was really cool....the kids got to make candles, rope, baskets and brooms in the fashion of the 19th century), an aquarium, Fort Macon, etc. At Cape Hatteras, another teacher and I bought our National Park Passports....we were really excited about those. We got two stamps on our trip this week. :) I didn't get any letterboxes while I was there. I had some clues printed out, but there was only one at the exact same location that we were and I couldn't find it. :(

On to other things that worked out well....I thought Earth Hour was great. At our house, we just enjoyed each other's company and conversation by candlelight. :) I've read some comments about Earth Hour that say it was pointless because it was only an hour and it wasn't a solution. I disagree that it was pointless....it generated a great deal of awareness and that's a large part of the battle. I've read blogs, visited web sites, overheard conversations, received emails, and so on about Earth Hour.....the idea is out there, so blpphhht at the naysayers. :D

On the radio today, I heard a success story from a great organization. (This is also kind of a nonprofit of the week.) Florence Crittendon Services is an organization that provides care and shelter for homeless pregnant women and girls. They also offer programs for at risk teens and other services. They do more than just give these women a bed....they teach pregnant women vital skills for taking care of their children and themselves. They also teach life skills and provide information and assistance for success. The story I heard on the radio today was about a woman who went to the center when she was 23...she was homeless and pregnant and, no doubt, terrified. While there she learned how to keep herself and her child healthy. She got her GED and learned about options for college. She is now happily married, working on a nursing degree and has taken in her 13 year old sister. Not only was this woman able to break the cycle of poverty in her own life, but also in that of her younger sister and her child. How wonderful is that?

Happy weekend to everyone! Our plans include at-home science experiments and a trip to the park we weren't able to go to for John's birthday. :D

Fun Or Just Plain Insanity???

As of 5:30 tomorrow morning, I will be heading to the Outer Banks for a 3 day trip with about 130 8th graders. :) Sounds crazy, I know, but it's actually a lot of fun! I'm all done packing....all I have left to do is check to see if there are any letterboxes in the exact places we will be going.

Tomorrow is also John's birthday, so....

Happy Birthday, Sweetie!!!!

We already had his birthday celebration over the weekend....I won't bore you with all of the details, but let's just say that there were Xbox 360 games, Scrubs DVD sets, hardware purchasing and ice cream cake. :D We had planned a trip to a park/zoo in the area, but our plans were rained upon. :(

One more thing....I got an email from Discovery Channel expressing concern about the offensive ad. At this point, they have asked that I provide more information for them. At least they seem to be taking things seriously.

Have a great week! Outer Banks update coming Friday. :)

The Discovery Channel: A Bad Influence???

Firstly, I have not fallen off of the planet. I have been spending lots of time with family and friends over spring break. :)

Today, as I was spending time with John, Grace and my mother-in-law, we were watching How It's Made on the Discovery Channel....a family friendly show that certainly makes it past our parenting radar....and it continues to. Unfortunately, Discovery Channel felt the need to air a commercial in the middle of How It's Made (a show we were watching a very child-friendly time, by the way...it was about 1:00 in the afternoon) for The Deadliest Catch that contained TWO instances of profanity! Now, I'm not opposed to profanity...in fact, I'm an avid user. :) However, I do not speak that way in front of my bonus daughter! Nor does any of her family...and we certainly don't expect her, or any child, to be exposed to it while watching an educational program on a supposed family-friendly channel! Well, I, in my typical fashion, spun into a full-tilt tizzy and got on the channel's web site immediately to send an email letting them know what I thought about their mid-day commercial. After going through an incredibly aggravating process of demographic-gathering (which is required, apparently, to deal with the Discovery Channel in any way), I got my email through to them. Of course, I got a message back right away informing me that not all emails get read and I should go to the web site for more information about their programs. Grrrr. My mission now? Find a phone number and speak to someone directly. I feel like the commercials during shows that are rated for 7-year-olds should be 7-year-old appropriate. Am I crazy here???

On a totally different note, tomorrow is the day for Earth Hour. We will be turning out our lights at 8:00 pm and leaving them off until 9:00. I hope others will join us!

Have a great weekend. I should get caught up on my blogging soon! :)

Happy Pi Day!!!

I'm wishing everyone a spectacular Pi Day today! I had a blast at school with all of the Pi Day activities. In my language arts class, I read Sir Cumference and the Dragon of Pi and did all sorts of exciting literary/grammar activities with that. In math classes, I presented pi facts, got the students to calculate pi using Oreos and Twizzlers and did a video scavenger hunt for pi facts. Good times. :) Oh, we can't forget the background music....Lose Yourself (In the Digits) by Pi Diddy. I'm not making this stuff up...it actually exists. :D Toward the end of 4th period (8th graders last class before they go to electives), the kids got to eat pie....there were about a gazillion pies that the parents sent in....yummy! I hope everyone else has a Pi Day as fun as the one we did. (I think my nerdy is showing.) :)

Nonprofit of the Week #6

Okay, I know this is super-late, but here it is....the nonprofit of the week. This week's nonprofit organization is Warm Up America. This organization promotes the idea of getting several people to knit or crochet small parts of an afghan to later be combined into one big blankie. The blankets are then distributed to anyone in need - people who have been victims of house fires or floods, homeless people, women's shelter residents, etc. I love the idea of a community of knitters (crocheters) working together to help someone in need. :) It is super-easy to get involved in this - just grab a group of yarn junkies and get them started on 7" by 9" blocks.

I'm currently working on putting together all of the blocks sent to me from the wonderful letterboxers on Atlas Quest. It's hard to get all of those blocks situated for stitching together! :)

Coming soon....a review of the Frank Celebrates Easter (Early) letterboxing gathering that I hosted last Saturday!

Victory Is Mine!

Haha, vile toothpaste company that sneakily inserts artificial sweetener ick into my tooth cleanser! I have found a Tom's of Maine all-natural, orange-mango toothpaste. No yickiness, guaranteed. Also comes in 100% post-consumer waste packaging and the company encourages employees to use 5% of their paid hours to do volunteer work. Bye-bye scary chemicals. :)

I also began using Feline Pine today. A much more environmentally friendly choice for the kitty of the house. Added bonus? It's way lighter than litter, so it's not such a pain to carry up three flights of stairs. :)

Why???

First, let me say....Egads, I'm a slacker! It is shameful that I have gone so long between blog posts. :)

Second, a rant. Let me preface this by telling you that John and I run a 100% anti artificial sweetener home. The stuff frightens us. Sucralose is safe, you say. There have been studies, you say. I say that every artificial sweetener was considered safe at the beginning and every one turns out to be some disease-causing bit of swill. Not to mention, there are also the studies that indicate that artificial sweetener helps you lose exactly NO weight, so why not go with something natural? So, now that you know I feel this way, can you imagine my horror and disgust at this: I was innocently brushing my teeth this morning (still half asleep) and became entranced by the toothpaste container. I started reading the list of ingredients out of boredom and pondering spending the extra bucks to buy something with a less frightening list of chemicals when I saw it...SUCRALOSE! In my toothpaste!!! What kind of voodoo is this? Who is that concerned about the calories that may be absorbed through the insides of their cheeks from their toothpaste?!? You're not supposed to eat the stuff, for goodness sakes! (Count up all of those exclamation points and you'll realize how dumbfounded I was.) Good grief. Why in the world does toothpaste need to be tainted with that junk? Again, I say good grief!

Still no progress on the recycling situation. A fellow letterboxer sent me some information about places that recycle #6 styrofoam, but I've called the polymer company listed and have not had any response. Their web site also says that they don't accept food service products, so I guess that really answers my question anyway. My dad suggests that my next step be contacting state government. This may be the route I take.

In other school news, our school system is considering going over to a 4 day school week. I think this would be wonderful. Other districts in the country have done and had quite a lot of success. Of course, as with anything, there are the ups and downs. The actual motivation for this consideration is the cost of fuel for all of the buses. If we cut to 4 days per week, that's 20% of the fuel we normally use not getting used. Yay to that. Students and teachers would certainly enjoy this schedule. Fridays would become half day teacher workdays. I'm sure they would workshop us into the ground for a lot of those, but, in theory, we could get a lot done on those days. The downside, however, is what happens to our sports teams, our academic clubs and other extra-curricular activities? And what do parents do with their children on Fridays? Hmmmm....I'm curious to see if it happens and how it works if it does happen.

I'm off to continue the planning and organization of the letterboxing gathering that I'm hosting on Saturday. Who knew so much was involved??? Nonprofit of the week coming soon!

What To Do??

Here's the problem....due to the drought in our area, the school I work at has gone over to all disposable trays in the cafeteria (to save water from washing reusable trays). I have been disturbed for a while about the amount of waste this is creating (we're talking about upwards of 700 styrofoam trays a day in the garbage!) So, I've been looking at recycling options, but I can't find a recycling center anywhere close that accepts styrofoam...the trays do have a recycle symbol on them (#6). Any suggestions out there? I would really appreciate it if anyone had a good idea. :) So far, all I can come up with is offering the students some sort of incentive for bringing plates from home. :(

Nonprofit of the Week #5 (Kind of)

Through the World Wildlife Fund's newsletter, I discovered Earth Hour 2008. It's a global effort to turn off the lights and conserve energy for just one hour at 8:00 pm on March 29, 2008. I think we'll take that opportunity to hang out by candlelight....you could turn it into a romantic evening or an adventure with the kids. :D

Valentine's Day

A bit overdue, but I thought I would bring you a Valentine's Day update. On the day itself, John and I exchanged "gifts" when we got home from work and ordered dinner from Outback to bring home. (We both hate the crowds and insanity involved in actually eating in a restaurant on Valentine's.) He gave me a heart-tastic pen with fluffy stuff on it....it lights up when you write with it! :) I gave him a card and a red paper clip....long story, but trust me it wasn't just the act of a delusional nitwit that caused me to give my husband colorful office supplies for Valentine's. We're really not big on the whole concept of Valentine's Day...we feel like the obligatory gifts and whatnot are nearly meaningless, yet we seem unable to let it go altogether. Strange, that.

Grace went to a dance the Friday after Valentine's....can you believe they have dances for 1st graders? That seems odd to me. She didn't like it at all. She said it was too loud and too bright....that's our party girl! :D She gave little cards to John and me...they had tatoos with them which you can see in the following pictures:

I also received some super-sweet handmade Valentines from my students...here's a sampling:

Stay tuned for a nonprofit of the week post to come later this evening. :)

Nonprofit of the Week #4

A lot of you are probably aware of www.freerice.com, but just in case you're not, I thought I would feature it here. It's a really cool web site where you can practice your vocabulary and earn grains of rice to feed the hungry at the same time. Each word you get right earns 20 grains of rice (which are paid for with advertising). There's a FAQ on the site that does a great job of answering any questions. Have fun getting your learn on. :)

Me Vs. Urine Stench....Who Will Win???

I had a fabulous day of letterboxing today with my friend, Dina B. We had already found a few letterboxes, planted 3 more letterboxes in the world and had lunch when we headed out for a letterbox located on a local greenway. We enjoyed the greenway, saw a deer with new antlers running along a creek, found the box (which had a great stamp) and then headed back to the parking area. Since we were both in need of a restroom, we chose to use the port-a-potty there in the parking lot. This port-a-potty had one of those nifty foot pump hand washing devices in it which I made use of (as did Dina before me)....after getting back in the car, we made the horrid discovery....our hands smelled like pee! Old, stale, super freaky nasty pee! Dina busts out the baby wipes and we rub our hands almost raw trying to get the smell off. Then she pulls out some lotion to help rid us of the scent....but to no avail. We still smell like pee hands. Well, we were heading to another park and we figured we would wash our hands for real there. And we did....multiple times with enough soap to kill a gorilla (if soap killed gorillas). Still we smelled like pee. And we continued to smell like pee as we continued to find letterboxes, stop in a drug store for a couple of things, etc. Not until I got home and washed my hands for about 3 years did the stench go away. Geez. Moral of this story? I think it may be better to just walk away from the port-a-potty and hope for the best than try to be sanitary in one of those things. :)

Weekends Are Goooood

I've had an all-around fabulous couple of days. I went to visit my mom on Saturday and my dad on Sunday. I learned the fascinating fact that there are still doctors who make house calls. That worked out fabulously well for my mom who needed some antibiotics, but didn't really want to wait the 48 hours needed to get van transportation to her doctor's office. She seems to be on the mend, so yay for doctors who make house calls! On Sunday, I went for a walk with my dad...we walked for about 5 miles and found a letterbox along the way. I was also able to get 3 letterboxes planted on that trail. Woohoo.

Speaking of letterboxes, I discovered last night that one of mine now has a "blue diamond." For those of you who don't partake of the greatest hobby known to all of humankind, that means that people have rated that box high enough for it to be in the top 5% of letterboxes out there. Woohoo, again! :D

Other highlights of the weekend included an awesome pair of boots on sale, eating at a super-yummy Italian place with my dad and finding organic strawberry preserves.

I neglected to mention a nonprofit of the week last week, so let me point out what I discovered tonight at Starbucks. You can purchase a pound of coffee in the store, write a message on it with a permanent marker and leave it in a basket there for them to ship to soldiers who stationed outside of the country. If you agree with the war or not, a soldier deserves a decent cup of coffee. :) I think it's pretty cool that Starbucks is picking up the tab for sending all of that coffee overseas. (Yes, I know that Starbucks stands to gain something here, too, but they don't have to do what they're doing. They also sponsor tons of toy, school supplies and food drives that do not profit their stores nearly as much.)

I'm still waiting to hear from the Adopt-A-Highway people about our stretch of road. I'm impatient to hear if we got the strip of road that I requested. I'd like to get to it. :)

Have a great week, world!

Anti-Litter Letterboxers

Woohoo! A group of letterboxers in my area are enthusiastic about my idea to adopt a road for litter clean-up. :) Pictures of me in a stylish, neon-orange vest to come in the future. :D

Letterboxing and Oil Changing and Racist Math?

I attended another letterboxing event this weekend....my last for a couple of months. :) Spectacular fun was had by Olivia and myself. I'm not even sure how many letterboxes I found since some of them haven't technically been planted yet. I did manage to get two plants accomplished myself. I've also decided to host my own event in March....an Easter themed hootenanny. I'm sure I'll be a basketcase in the planning of that. :)

Today was quiet and uneventful. I got the oil changed in my car, caught up on phone calls and worked on creating some letterboxes. After dropping Grace off this evening, we headed back home to enjoy a peaceful evening with Viva Pinata.

Earlier this week I went to the county MATHCOUNTS competition. (Yes, I know....how nerdy am I that I coach MATHCOUNTS?) I was horribly alarmed to see that our school was the only one in the county that didn't have a solid white team...what's up with that??? I'm alarmed that for one reason or another, only white students seem to be participating in this program in most schools. Are minorities being discouraged? Are they not signing up for some reason? I don't guess it's something you would exactly start an outreach program for, but it just seemed so stunningly wrong to me. Any ideas out there?

Nonprofit of the Week #3

The nonprofit for this week is one that is well known to many...the Make A Wish Foundation. The reason I'm mentioning this popular organization is that there have been rumors that they have gone bankrupt because one child wished for neverending wishes. That was actually a story reported by The Onion, which many of you know is not a true news organization. For those of you who are not familiar, The Onion is meant to be satire/giggle-worthy (not always successful). I wanted to help spread the word that Make A Wish is not actually silly enough to bankrupt themselves by giving one person unlimited wishes. Geez.

Fantabulous Extended Letterboxing Weekend

I spent the majority of yesterday and today on letterboxing quests. Yesterday I braved the crazy-cold with Dina, Jenn and Ellie to find some letterboxes in local parks. Today, I went to Asheville and joined Olivia for some "drive by" letterboxes. It was waaaaay to cold for us to even think about actually going for a hike. Maybe we're just weenies. :) That left me with a total of 18 finds and 2 plants over the two days. Woohoo! Next weekend, Olivia and I are attending a letterboxer gathering (yes, I know how nerdy that is and I'm okay with it) where there should be oodles of new boxes. Woot!

It's back to work with me tomorrow....kind of a three day week for me because I'll be at a Math Counts competition on Friday (translate: not at school).

John has to travel to Oregon tomorrow for work....send prayers for safe flights and travel. :)

Have a great week, everyone!

Blizzard 2008

John and I were so impressed with the snow "storm" today that we thought it deserved a name. Maybe Harvey or Sam. :) Our one to three inches turned out to be a pretty snowfall with no accumulation thus far. Frank, however, was alarmed by the situation...

If you look very closely, you can see snowflakes on his back. Take note of the massive amounts of snow piled around him. Yep, I'm sure glad we had bread and milk. We would have likely not made it through if we hadn't prepared appropriately. Ah well, maybe next time.

In other news, Simon the Cat has taken to wearing fancy jewelry and prancing about the house.

Believe it or not, I am not the one responsible for this moment of animal dress-up....nope, this one is actually brought to you by John. I think that means I've converted him to the dark side. Insert maniacal laugh here.

Nonprofit of the Week #2

This week's nonprofit organization is Friends of the Pine Ridge Reservation. This organization actually helps several different groups in improving the lives of the Oglala Sioux Tribe. Just some brief info I found about this reservation....

• made up of two of the poorest counties in the United States
• infant mortality rate is 5 times that of other parts of the nation
• average age of death for men is 47

To find out more about the reservation, read this Wikipedia entry: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pine_Ridge_Indian_Reservation

Family Visit and a Little Rant

I got back last night from visiting my mom and my sister. I had a great time chatting and hanging out with my mom. We got a lot of things accomplished for her....getting her medicine ready for the next month, filling insulin needles, paying bills....that sort of thing.

My sister and I spent some time going through scrapbooking and craft stuff so that we can donate a lot of it to charity. We ended up with so much stuff that we've had to revise who is going to get it....no way can we afford to ship it to South Dakota like we had originally planned. I'm sure we can find somewhere local to one of us so that it can be dropped off rather than shipped. I also got to see her pet frog, Fred, for the first time. Very cute little guy. And I discovered that my sister and her husband make their own wine. John and I aren't wine drinkers, but I promised we would try it. :) I was lured in by the super pretty blue bottle. Entertainment was provided by way of my brother-in-law being attacked repeatedly by small children...never fear, he was able to fend them off.

I even managed to plant two letterboxes and stumble upon a park that I had no idea existed. Woohoo! And now John and I are going to spend the day being slugs...well, except for going to the grocery store and knitting. :) Grace went back to her mommy's last night because she has a funeral to go to. :(

Tomorrow, I get to give my students the second nine weeks reading test. And Tuesday they have to take the math test. That's right....two days per nine weeks (more for other grades) lost to testing that is supposed to prepare them for the big test at the end of the year. That's No Child Left Behind at work. These kids, their teachers and administration are under so much pressure to pass this one test at the end of the year that is supposed to give some indication of what was learned that we actually have to waste instructional time doing district testing to practice. It makes me furious. School isn't about education anymore...it's about one set of test scores. Grrr. I could go on about this for hours, but I'll spare you. :)

Happy Sunday!

Politics

I've spent the better part of this evening educating myself on presidential candidates. After reading until my mind is almost numb, I think I've made my choice. Of course, the choice fell right in line with my first instinct anyway. Because I don't particularly enjoy political debate, I'll not announce my choice, but I do encourage everyone to read up and educate themselves on the possibilities. Frank has been at my side all evening trying to influence my opinion...something about a write in vote for the Taco Bell dog. Nutty creature.

I'm not sure why, but this presidential race is captivating my interest much more than previous elections. Perhaps because I've gotten a bit older and more aware of my surroundings? Or, maybe, because of my job...I have become much more concerned and aware about issues in education and poverty. It could just be that I've fallen prey to the media's masterminds of hype.

Here's a picture of Frank giving a little talk on what he considers to be the key issues....meatier dog food, squeaky toy safety and, of course, the underfunded Dogs in Space program.

Nonprofit of the Week #1

I thought it would be interesting to seek out a nonprofit organization every week to share with any readers I may have. This week I'm going to highlight an organization that my sister led me to...Carnivore Preservation Trust. They have a 55 acre facility that provides a haven for rescued kitties of the large variety. You know those poor tigers and lions that you hear about on the news that some dummy thought would be a good pet? Or the abused animals in poorly run zoos and circuses? This is where these big ole kitties go to be safe and well taken care of. Very cool. Educational tours are available (it looks to be by appointment only). I've already decided to take John and Grace to visit when the weather gets a bit warmer. I hope you check it out...there are some super pictures of the cats on the site, as well as tons of educational information.

Now let's see if I actually remember to do this every week. :)

The Best Weekend of 2008 (So Far)

This has been a fabulous weekend in terms of letterboxing. There was a letterboxer gathering in Asheville that Olivia and I attended on Saturday. We found 13 letterboxes and I planted 2 in the world. We also met several very nice letterboxers and were able to visit with some we've met before.

Today, I went out into the world with Dina and "found" 3 letterboxes (I was with her when she planted them, so it's not as though it took serious ninja skillz or anything) and planted 4. And then there was the Japanese lunch...yummy.

So a weekend total of 16 found and 6 planted....not bad at all. Time to replenish the tower of 'boxes. I have so many ideas....I'll never manage to make all of them. One idea is inspired by this picture (which I'm just sharing because I think it's funny)...

John and I went into the world of shopping today...always frightening. :) We found a replacement digital camera for the one that was stolen in the great robbery of 2007. We're very pleased with it...it cost the same amount as our last one, but is far superior. Time has a way of doing that to technology.

We also did a great deal of discussing our next trip to Hunting Island State Park. Ahhhh....camping on the beach - I can't wait to go back. Of course, that probably won't happen until August, but it's still fun to plan. :)

Have a great Monday, World!

Rest in Peace, Fudge

John, Grace and I visited the Carolina Raptor Center this past summer to learn about all of the amazing raptors here in NC. While there, we adopted a small screech owl named Fudge....cute little thing. We found out today that Fudge has passed away. That little owl accomplished a lot, though...how many birds of prey get to play such a part in education???



We are now the proud new adoptive family of Hermes the Screech Owl.

A Knittin' Good Time

I have been knitting like a crazed yarn junkie the past few days. I have completed another block for the Warm Up America afghan. I'm posting a picture, but I haven't blocked it yet...the edges still look cattywampus....it will look better later. :)

I've also been making stamp pouches for my letterboxes. Those of you who letterbox will appreciate this...

Yep....that's a stack of nine letterboxes all ready to go. Stamps carved, logbooks made and stamp pouches knitted/crocheted. Woohoo!

John and I have been participating in the most unusual of activities for us...purchasing and consuming healthy food. There are actually things in our home with words such as "organic" and "veggie burger." Just one of the facets of our "live better" plan.

Reading sidenote: I'm almost finished with The Historian...it's a great book and I highly recommend it to anyone who enjoys historical fiction and/or vampire lore. I've also finished reading Framework for Understanding Poverty for work...some of this book is just common sense, but some of it is very enlightening. Anyone who works with an economically diverse group (especially teachers) would probably gain insight from this book.

Celebratin' and Goal Makin'

As promised, we actually did have a small celebration for Frank's big day. I mean, it's not everyday that a pooch turns 2. A story in pictures....

The gifts are set out for the birthday boy....

He looks at his haul in awe....

Of course there was a little something yummy for the humans involved....while Frank (and Simon) enjoyed some scrumptious animal food, John, Grace and I had some cupcakes. :)

In other news, I'm off to a fabulous start with my goal for 2008. I spent about 3 hours today knitting for the Warm Up America afghan that I'm working on with some awesome ladies from Atlas Quest. Here are some pictures of the two blocks I've finished so far and a third one that's in progress.

It's back to work with me tomorrow. I hope everyone had a great first day of the year!