OMG!!

Finally got to see Speech and Debate. It's pretty entertaining. Jennifer is great (as usual) but this time the rest of the play is great too. I really enjoyed it. If you haven't seen it yet I seriously suggest you go. Student tickets are only $10! Fun! Do it! Go!!

*edit* I totally forgot about DasVadanya Mama! That play was also really entertaining!

New Year's is coming early this year

I've already started thinking about all the things I wanted to do vs. the things I've done this past year and am looking forward to this next year. You should read this in order to refresh your memory. When you're done with that you should read this too.

So what did I get done?

1. I did not quit smoking. I did try. J had a pretty hard time of it though and I used that as an excuse to continue. I still really enjoy it. This I know and isn't knowing half the battle?

2. I am totally more fit (ironic since I still smoke, I know!). I took a pole dancing class this last spring and J and I get up every morning (at 5am!) to do this 

3. We've been eating more foods that I can grow myself or that are local and less foods out of a box. Hopefully this trend will continue this next year.

4. We did not make it to Astoria. Boo!

5. I did get to visit Ross! Several times!  

6. J and I took more than one actual vacation this last year. We made it to New York/Boston and Amsterdam!

7. I made it to the Forestry Center and the Arboretum. The Historical Museum and the Chinese Gardens. I didn't get to go to OMSI but there's still time to go to the Grotto!

8. I didn't do a single thing to my floors.

9. I did not attempt a paint chipping party. I don't want to even think about paint chipping let alone asking other people to.

10. We re landscaped the front yard.

11. and built veggie boxes

12.I didn't get to play too much four square this year.

13. I did get to see the girls some but it wasn't once a month. That one's hard.

14. I did vote for someone AWESOME and things are looking better!

15. I still need to have high tea at the Heathman. Anyone?

16. I want to go sledding so very badly.

17. The Symphony is always magnificent. 

18. I'm not really interested in seeing the birds any longer.

19. Snow shoeing!! Let's go!!

So, there are still several things on my list I want to do that I didn't get around to doing. I completed half of the items on my list this year. That's pretty good. It'll be fun to come up with a new list.

I looked down at my hand and my thumb was all red. I thought perhaps it was the strawberry compote from my yogurt so I licked it off. It was not Strawberry compote but blood. Turns out a piece of flesh on my thumb had been gouged out. I poked at the open wound part right on the knuckle and couldn't feel a thing. So weird. I have no feeling in my left thumb. 

iphoto makes me remember

The newer version of iphoto on our newish computer is kinda nice. It's easier to find specific photos and the layout looks great. I enjoy it. So, because of this new iphoto I've been looking at old photos and found some that I had completely forgotten about. This reminded me of exactly why we take photos and why they are so great to have around.

Remember when my basement was this clean!?! 

Remember this tiny tiny kitchen!?! I don't think you could open the refrigerator and the oven at the same time.

Remember the craziness of Amanda's slumber party!

It's fun to remember.

Second sick post of 08-09 school year

This is the second illness of the school year. Seriously? WTF? This post is exactly one month after the first sick post. If I keep this up I'll have 10 illnesses this year and that is just not right. This is exactly the same sickness I had last month. Sore throat in the morning moving to stuffy stuffy nose in the afternoon. My eyes feel swollen and are stinging and I am so dizzy I can barely concentrate. I'm moving slowly slowly very slowly. I feel like sleeping. A lot. Bedtime tonight will be 8 pm, well, if I can stay up that late.

These posts will serve as my documentation of frequency of this year's sicknesses.

Sit in

Here I am outside the superintendents office showing support for our bargaining team. We still have no contract and it's beginning to look kinda scary. We have been asked to make picket signs at the picket sign making table. That suggests a possibility of a strike. It just may be time to contact the parents and let them know we may be in need of financial support so we don't lose the house. I'm sure they'll be down. 

It looks like as oregonians we are headed for some tough times. I would just like to say I blame Bush. It's his fault, this mess we're all in.

The greatest

Do you ever have those ridiculous moments where what you're doing (or where you are) fit perfectly with a song that comes up on your ipod? That totally happened to me on Monday morning. I was riding the max to work sitting backwards and the song "the greatest" by Cat Power started playing. Everything was grey and cold looking outside and I happen to be riding past the more depressing part of the ride when it came on. Strange. 

Vampire fan

Yesterday I was doing my end of the day check out with a 1st grader. I go into his room and have him practice his sound on the floor in the corner. There are about 5 kids in that room that have a few minutes to check out with me at the end of the day. One of the more precocious 1st graders came and sat down and as I was turning my binder pages to his name he said,

"Are your earrings for killing vampire's?" (I was wearing my little vampire stake earrings given to me by my husband and expertly crafted by my wonderful friend Ms. A-M)

"Why yes, yes they are for killing vampire's!" I said blown away by his observation. Not even adults know what they really are. I asked him if he watched any shows with vampire's in them;

"Yeah, Scooby Doo and the vampires."

I see some Buffy in his future!

I have a special power!

Last night I woke up after having a nightmare about my assistant not coming in to work on Monday. I couldn't go back to sleep my brain was thinking about so many things. Today, my assistant called to tell me she was sick and wouldn't be coming to work. What a way to start a Monday!

You should try this

Sometimes on Saturday mornings I want to wake up with a cup of coffee and some couch time. Unfortunately, I usually have nothing to watch so I watch the local home improvement show. It is TOTALLY cheesy but every once in awhile I learn something pretty useful. Take for example this;

To keep your drains clear of gunk, prevent them from clogging and keep them from smelling this is an awesome monthly treatment. Pour 1/2 cup of baking soda followed by 1/2 cup of white vinegar and let fizz for ten minutes. Follow up with a cup of boiling water. I did this to all my drains and it really works. It's fun too to watch the baking soda and vinegar react!

You should try it.

First sick post of the 08-09 school year

Blaehck! Yes. It's true. It got me.  I was hoping to make it to January without getting sick but alas it came much earlier than I had hoped. I forget how debilitating this sinus pressure can be. I feel very groggy and I can't think (except about my bed). Here's the silver lining though, once the sinus pressure starts the sore throat pretty much goes away. 

An Early Anniversary

The other night I was planning on making some Picadillo for dinner (Yum!). I mentioned to Justus that I needed to puree the tomatoes in the stupid blender since our food processor broke. I went upstairs to put on my evening wear (T-shirt and sweats, fancy, I know) and when I came down I found this:

 
In the part of this blog where it asks "about me" it just says I have a good life. I truly do. I have a fabulous husband. It's good to just stop and remember that I think. I truly have a good life and you have something to do with it. Now to blend a bunch of stuff up!

Charter schools and better teachers

This is Barack's answer to improving our public education system. Did he take a symposium on education from the republicans? He's spent so much time with the american worker but how much time has he spent in a school? Not enough if he thinks the solution to our education problems are better teachers and more access to charter schools. Or he hasn't spent enough time in the right schools. The ones where he could actually see the ceiling falling down from water damage. Has he visited the kindergarten classroom that has the un-potty trained boy, the emotionally disturbed girl and the number of autistic children all in a class of more than 30?Yeah, it's the lack of qualified teachers. That's our problem. I don't work with a single unqualified teacher who is not 100% invested in these kids and their needs. If he thinks he can find someone who is more "qualified" to do this job than the dedicated teachers we already have then he is mistaken. I just lost hope. 

Happy birthday to a wonderful Smooch!

A tiny bird in the toaster

Yesterday we had the front and back doors open to get a nice cross breeze and to let the cats come in and out. I was sitting on the couch with the computer watching Tyra (yes, Tyra, she's hella entertaining) when Justus came into the room and said,

"Smooch, why is there a bird in here?"

I looked up and sure enough there was a tiny bird perched above the window. We spent some time trying to get it to fly out of one of the open doors but it just flew back and forth. It eventually landed on top of the built in book shelves and so Justus opened the front window (sans screen) and we got it to fly out. Few. No more bird. Until............

Three hours later it was time for the babies to come inside. We wrangled them up and closed the doors. About 5 minutes later I felt a draft go over my head and noticed the bird again and this time I yelled,

"Bird! Bird!"

This got Justus to come racing into the living room where he found me trying to keep the cats from mauling the poor little guy to death. We figured that the bird did not in fact fly out of the window earlier in the day but hid behind some picture frames only to be coaxed out later by Maurice. We got the bird to fly into the kitchen and were trying to coax it out the door but at this point in the day it was not flying too well so it would fly from perch to perch in the kitchen. It finally landed on the toaster and then dove head first right into one of the slots (this was a tiny style bird). We quickly unplugged the toaster and I carried it outside, turned it upside down and gave it a little shake and out come the bird. It flew to the fence in the backyard where I am hopeful that it made a full recovery from it's traumatic experience.

Maurice spent the following 30 minutes looking behind the picture frames to see if any more birds would fly out. None did.

No suburbia for me

Last night we watched "The end of Suburbia" which I totally recommend by the way.  Basically, we have reached the peak of oil extraction from the earth and we are on our way down. We can no longer live the way we do. We need to move to local economies now. It was really eye opening. Things I can do:

*try to get a job closer to home

*continue to grow fruits and veggies for consumption

*get some chickens (I mean if I had to I could eat veggies and eggs)