beard cutting...good thing bruno and chaco are not amish..i'd be in big trouble!

sit back and kick up your feet...when i go days without posting, it just all seems to build up.

i'm pretty sure that i've mentioned that i am now teaching science (and a language arts class and a social studies class)...well, science has had a great start so far-the kids seem excited and curious-exactly what i am looking for. i am really going to push thinking and finding solutions this year in science. it is going to be very involved-which means it is probably going to take quite a bit of prep work...yummy.

mass...g....volume...ml...l,w,h,diameter...cm...good times!

and after school on tuesday we had got to stay after until 6-something for our garden design and dine. i'm glad i was there, i just hate giving up precious time-i got nothing done on tuesday-that was frustrating. i guess the exchange is worth it, because the garden will be beautiful, i am sure. i mean we all agreed (somewhat) on a brown gazebo and a covering for the sand feature to avoid cat problems (you know, fecal matter and what not).got a picture of our picture taker-adrian is never in photos because he is always taking the photos. good man.

unofficial photographer/arts partner man/computer fun

the best part was the amazing assortment of wraps and the lemon bars! parents and some students were invited to this afternoon of events and i held my tongue as i watched several of the kids walking  back, not with a wrap...but rather a plate full of brownies, cookies and lemon bars. where is the parental accountability. i mean, the parents did not even care! my parents would have made me put them back or give them away!

ahhh, sweet lemon bars...you made me very, very happy!

and last night, yet again i remembered i had not taken anything out of the freezer, therefore i had nothing to eat...i am weak! curses to the builders of the burger house around the corner! i swear, i salivate when i even think about their amazing seasoned fries!!!! no joke. i feel like pavlov's dog. ri-DICULOUS!

and yesterday as we were talking about our civic responsibility in social studies, one of the boys asked if this picture was a boy or a girl:

i had to answer honestly that i thought it was a girl who got a sex-change...no i didn't; i told him i didn't know. i had been wondering the same thing only moments before he asked.

and when i got home yesterday, i was so excited to get a package in the mail-then i saw it was originally for some man, and i only received it because i am OR CURRENT RESIDENT.

men's advanced clinical degree. perhaps i'll take it to school for the boys coming in from recess...hmm..in a word: ripe.

so...as i was driving home tonight from work (remember how school gets out at 3:15, and we have to stay an additional 45 minutes after school, and i had to stay later to finish other things such as: my literacy bulletin board)..left school at 6:56 and there were a few teachers still in their rooms working. i feel inefficient and not nearly as effective as i like to be. boo. but i digress...as i was saying, on the way home, on the radio there was mention of amish beard cutting-which they then said was being tried as a federal hate crime...so i wrote the words amish and beards on my hand because it was so bizarre that it couldn't have been made up! (total snl skit material). *fortunately i will get few hate comments from amish since they don't believe in the modern convenience of electricity. i looked it up, and it was legit-check it out here.

anyhoo, it reminded me of my summer visits to michigan to visit grandpa and grandma and my cousins up that way. there were tons of amish up north. literally we would pull into the grocery store and there would be a buggy or two parked with its horses in a little shady spot. and we used to go to an amish store out in the country occasionally for amish goods like baked goods, nuts, chocolate...good times. it was from watching the buggies as we whizzed by that i learned about the blinders they use on horses to keep them focused. NEED BLINDERS FOR SOME OF MY STUDENTS!

i've started a new training for the boys because bruno has been barking at anything and everything lately and chaco has been peeing wherever he pleases (i moved their potty pad to a new location, and he's not getting the hang of it every time....)so they are both on their leashes...in the house. that way i can catch chaco before he just takes off and relieves himself wherever...and i can catch bruno before he runs to the window and attacks with a string of verbal slurs at the innocent residents below...but we are having peace tonight; it's working!

ok, you can pack it up and go to bed now!
julie