if it's red or green and it's in our home, attack it!

hmm. (that's how i begin when it's been awhile and i really have no idea exactly where to begin). so i will just start with december, how's that? (rhetorical-your input is not valid here).

so, here's the deal. thanksgiving decided to come super late this year. thanks a lot, thanksgiving. (and at this point, you might be thinking, 'i thought she said she was starting with december.' i lied. my blog, my prerogative. unapologetic. but not really...i'm a little sorry...only not much). regardless, i was am grateful for much. i am not going to sit here and list everything that i am grateful for and bore you, but i will say that i did a lot of thinking over that break and what i am especially grateful for ( i just told you i wasn't going to do this, but i guess one word a list does not make...yoda logic...and once again unapologetic-for real this time) is relationships past and present.

ok, FF to december. we tried to get into the swing of things at school, but then we were graced with a snow  ice day that friday and it lasted through to monday, when our 2nd snow day was used up...boo. the only thing i hate more than losing a day to ice is losing 2 days to ice. we didn't get out to do anything. in fact, the electricity went out around 3 am on friday morning and lasted until about 5 p.m. saturday... i was not smiley face icon...i was more grumpy cat icon (if there even is one). we made the most of it. so...i like to be prepared-thankfully i had the emergency radio and was able to crank it for news and music...otherwise, i might have driven the boys crazy. and then we snuggled up on the couch and i wrote some of my Christmas letters.

um, yes, please notice the pen. this is one of TWO special pens i bought specifically for writing Christmas messages. it made all the difference. and yes i made a special trip just before the storm specifically to make that purchase. i'm serious about my pens.

 i pulled out all of my batteries, and then i found my camping stove that uses gel (which burns clean) and when it started to get a little chilly, i opened the hand warmers and put them in my socks and in my pockets. worked like a charm.

i used the little stove to heat up water for coffee-the old fashioned way, and i think i heated up some soup...then i took some of the refrigerator items and put them in the cooler and placed them on the balcony.

i'm pretty sure i'd do just fine in a cabin in the woods.

then monday came. i was supposed to be at a convention that day. when i woke up and watched the news, they were showing all sorts of video of people having difficulty maneuvering about on 'cobblestone ice'. so i decided to wait for awhile and see if it started to melt or look better. i decided to venture out and check it out myself-by delivering some mail to the post office (which was close) those roads were clear, so i felt guilty and decided i should try to make it over to the conference at the gaylord. got caught up a little and missed the afternoon session, so i went down to the exhibition hall and looked around (trying to avoid actually talking to any of the vendors). i did come across this next to the restroom:

hmm...now why would anyone build a non accessible closet...and then announce it? and on a placard none-the-less!! rich people.

the next two days were great because i actually went to some great sessions...okay, two were great, the third one i should have gotten up and walked out, even though the presenters came all the way from singapore; a piece of me is still mourning those 2 lost hours of my life (and i did write a Christmas card at that point...i'm sure layne will appreciate the mention of wishing for a cyanide tooth in her Christmas card).

yesterday when i was at petsmart, i saw a santa, and they said santa would be there til 4. i looked at my watch: 1:30. i rushed home, got out the shears, gave bruno and chaco a trim, and quickly hustled them out the door for pictures (we were running against the clock, i may or may not have left hair trimmings on the floor in our rush out the door-but this was important!) when we got there, there was a lady in the santa costume...well, the boys have never met santa before, and they are pretty perceptive...they now think santa is a lady...so i told them that santa is an elderly lady with lots of testosterone in her system, that's why all of the facial hair. chaco was like, "what? she's a tester of bones? i want her job!" selective hearing.

pretty sure if she were the real santa, she would've told chaco he wasn't getting a cat for Christmas because he was DEFINITELY barking at the little boy who came around the corner. he really doesn't like little kids. i don't know what the cut-off age is.

now they know santa. pretty sure chaco was done before we even started.

then i saw something on facebook that a friend posted about getting pics with the grinch. well, i thought this would be a very good idea. it would help a dog rescue team, AND more importantly, the boys would know the difference between santa and the grinch, and if the wrong one showed up on Christmas eve, they would know which one to freak out about...ok, for real though, i told them that if either of these crazies showed up in our place, they should attack!

we waited in line for a bit and a girl came out of the ice cream shop and rushed over to pet the dogs-let's face it, bruno and chaco just aren't very social. they don't like people in public. if you come to my place, they'll be all over you, otherwise, it's like you aren't even there. anyhoo,when i picked chaco up, the girl ran out again to pet him, and i saw his ears go back...he was good. then she turned around and he barked at her-and it wasn't a nice 'come-back-and-keep-petting-me' bark...it was more of a 'that's-right-you'd-better-turn-around-and-run-and-never-look-back' bark. yeah, so i'm thinking that the cut-off age is right around 4th-5th grade.

it's not the greatest pic, i am waiting for them to send their digital pic-i was moving, trying to get them to look at the real photog.

then we came home and did some photo shoots. we got a Christmas one for next year's card..

we may have to choose between this, santa and the grinch...

and then we went for something a little more sophisticated.

they'd seen a guy on facebook do this with his cats, and bruno was adamant that they would look great. we go to great lengths to keep 'em happy.

well, this is it, one final week of classes until we have a break! i have a few more Christmas messages to finish-hopefully i will find a free evening this week.

 make sure your pets know the difference between good and evil! (and rehabilitated) or just teach them to bark at everything-safer.
julie

why is it called a spelling bee anyway?

i went into today knowing that we wouldn't get as much done as we had hoped-oh well. don't care. not today.

first we had the spelling bee and i knew it would take awhile, but it really didn't take too long. i think it ended up being 11 rounds (?). the strange thing was students were told no applause until after the round. understandable at the beginning, but when it got down to 2 students, and both of them missed their spellings, we were still applauding (we collectively, i was not)...conditioned to reward mediocrity. boo.

disgust. can you use that in a sentence please? although she was a political science major, issues of a complacent electorate still disgust her.(that wasn't the exact sentence, but it was similar...our 4th and 5th graders were more confused by the sentence than the word itself)

speaking of sentences that confuse in a spelling  bee, i found this funny little page, check it out, you will smile.

when we got back we had a bit of a wait for some of the contestants to get back from their little "after-party," then in the afternoon, we had our special reading after specials in the auditorium. i was very impressed with our students (all of 4th grade) for sitting quietly and giving ms. camacho the grinch their full attention; especially with no pictures or visuals besides her (although, i will admit, she was definitely dressed for the occasion!).

the verdict is still out...sea sick santa, or grinch?

 it was wonderful and the kiddos certainly enjoyed it. and tomorrow they will get to enjoy one more round!
 
when i got home i was a little frustrated because my electric company charged me already..they got me twice this cycle-before the paycheck..it's on auto pay, so i went into the account to check and there the dates are all over the place!

ridiculous, right?

so i got on to chat with someone...

roberta bird is not a fast typist, nor is she very helpful.

so basically i got nowhere-because roberta said it's not their fault-the local carrier sets the due date when they read the meters...something like that...terrible for the customer. (ME)

i've gone through so many kleenex and used this guy several times...i'm so stuffed up!

hard to use without being a little conspicuous.

but i think i need a little sudafed. i still cannot believe that they require id's for it....whoever discovered that little red pills used for congestion can make meth really screwed it up for the rest of us! i wish eternal stuffy nose and congestion upon that individual.

julie

oh, why it's a hen. thank you..i don't even collect hens, but i will collect this one.

 when i was in elementary school, we never really did anything special for our teachers...like Christmas gifts and such. now, there was one teacher who we liked a lot and she had an owl collection (3rd grade mrs. van horn), so my friend and i got my dad to make a cool owl out of wood, perched on a real branch with googly eyes. but apart from that, we didn't get random things for them. fast forward to today, one of my students gave me what i thought was a coaster, but i just got one...so i asked if it was a coaster for drinks or artwork. she said she wasn't sure.

i don't collect hens, but she said she made it.

tomorrow we have our spelling bee at school-i don't think it will last too long...just a commentary on spelling in america today (as i continue to insist on non-capitalization).
 we're also looking forward to tomorrow afternoon; we'll have some 'holiday reading.' so that should be fun. we haven't done it in a couple of years, but the students loved it the last time we did! i mean, who can say no to the grinch?

that's kinda' funny. the headline on the drone that landed in iran obama says:GIVE IT BACK. the only reason it's funny is because we were reading today in social studies about the gonzales battle in tx when the mexicans wanted their cannon back and the texans put up a flag that said: COME AND GET IT and there was actually a tile mosaic of the incident. so this is the modern day battle of gonzales-who's making the mosaic? will they give us the come and get it flag?

random thoughts:
i have a shady date coming up with jude law and robert downey jr...i am very excited about the new sherlock holmes movie!
a commercial was on the other day and it said: there's only one place to find the kim cardashian line this Christmas...and i said: thank goodness!
and
today in class i wanted to know what my student was working on and the phrase came out a little awkwardly, "how far along are you?" of course i was the only one chuckling amongst 4th graders.

julie