Morning Glory

Once again this crazy vine grew up through the rotted out seat of this old chair. It's thicker this year and seems to take the shape of the chair. I wish I was a good enough gardener to plan something like this! And it's the only plant Duke hasn't dug up.

Serenity now, serenity now

Earlier this morning I spent a half hour ranting and raving about the "disappearance" of one of my new shirts. I woke up Bailey and rooted through her room and closet, assuming she tried it on and then threw it on the floor or stuffed it in a drawer (which occasionally happens). I silently accused Alan of taking it to the cleaners by mistake with his clothes (thankfully he wasn't here or I would have questioned him). I considered maybe the dog took it, or that someone snuck in the garage and stole some clothes, or that it fell behind the washer and dryer. I mean, how do you lose a shirt? A sock, yes. A shirt, no.

I looked EVERYWHERE. Three times. During this time I had been doing laundry and had carefully checked the load of clothes that I put in the washer. Still nothing. I looked some more, and all the while I am absolutely fuming. You see, this has happened before - sometime last year right after buying some new clothes for school, I lost a shirt. I liked that shirt so much that I went back to the store and bought another one. And here I was again, the shirt I liked the most was missing.

So as I'm considering getting dressed and going to Target to buy the shirt again (I really liked this shirt - Bailey said it made my boobs look big!), I notice the washer has stopped and decide to check that load again. I take the load out piece by piece to place in the dryer, and there it is - in the washer. How I missed it the three previous times I looked through the clothes, is a mystery. Or is it? Sometimes you just gotta wonder if someone's trying to tell you something.

Something like, "CALM THE HELL DOWN!"

Trying so hard to be good...

Nicknames

We have pet names, for our pets. Lots of names. Does that make us obsessed with our pets, or does everyone do this? Please say someone else does this.

For Junior:

Junior Lou
Mr. Lou
Mister
Satan
Big Sweet Kitty
Tubby
and when I'm tired of being attacked, Whorebag

Duke's only been with us a few short weeks and has already accumulated quite a few:

Dukester
Dukie
Dukies
Duuuuuuuuke
Duke-a-licious
Retard

It's probably good they don't know what we're saying.

While it's still clean...

After taking these pictures, I kept trying to figure out why my room looks so dull compared to last year. And then I realized that all my walls in this new room are white. Dull, stark white.





It looks better in person, but you get the idea.

Pre-School (Get it?)

I blog. I blog too much. I don't blog at all. I'd say I'm in the latter stage right now. I've been busy at school the last couple of weeks and will be doing much of the same for the next three weeks. I guess you could call it "teacher nesting," where we prepare, prepare, prepare for the arrival of a new batch of kids. It's kind of exciting actually to anticipate what they'll each be like, what they'll be capable of, or what challenges they'll have. You can't imagine how much we enjoy talking about the kids behind their backs. It's like we get to gossip all day. It's also a good way to vent about the ones you just can't stand. Good times!

So this Saturday is Alan's triathlon. I have no doubt he'll do well, as long as his bike holds up. And then about two months from now he'll run in his second marathon in Odessa. I'm hoping to round up a local group to go cheer him on. In Albuquerque for his first marathon, it was just Alan, myself, and his dad, so I'm hoping for a cheering section this time.

Maybe I'll post some pictures of my classroom. I'm still a new enough teacher that I get excited (i.e., corny) about my room.