Monday, June 29, 2009

imagine


I needed a scoop for Captain Skippyjon Jones's food, so today when I found this monster cup at Target I knew it was for him. Imagine a world where it didn't matter if you had 1, 2, or even 3 eyes. Imagine a world where cute plastic cups were made in the USA.

Friday, June 26, 2009

10 years ago today...


I married the greatest man I've ever known.

Thursday, June 25, 2009

Introducing...

Captain Skippyjon Jones! You can call him Captain for short.

I found a picture of him on the Humane Society website and jokingly sent it to Corey since the dog was missing an eye. For some reason though he kind of stuck in our minds and we started calling him Captain Jack. Yesterday I quickly looked on the website and thought he was gone. Usually chihuahuas don't last more than a day before they're adopted. Corey said, I almost told you just to go get him, but I'm glad he found a home. Later I realized I had just looked in the wrong place on the website, and Captain was still available. So my cousin and I went to meet him in the Petsmart all the way in Deer Valley and it was love at first sight. He was calm even though another dog was barking like crazy, he let everyone pet him, including a baby, and greeted all the dogs walking around politely. What else could I do?

Here he is waiting to go home with us:

Today we hung out on the porch:



Skippyjon Jones is a book that makes all of my classes laugh out loud every time I read it. It's about a siamese cat that likes to pretend he's a chihuahua.

Captain Skippyjon Jones is very relaxed and quiet, and hasn't made any messes. He kind of skips around when he's happy. He has melted all of our hearts. Yay!

Wednesday, June 24, 2009

The Curious Incident is We Have a Dog and it's Night-Time!


We picked a 2 year old chihuahua up from the Humane Society today! He's made himself at home and is passed out on the bean bag right now. Cute!

robot + puppy is by magooey on deviantART

Tuesday, June 23, 2009

The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time


I loved this story because of its uniqueness. It's told from the point of view of Christopher, a boy with autism, as he tries to solve the murder-mystery of his neighbor's dog. What do we learn along the way?
* why 5 red cars means a Quite Good Day and yellow in any form always means a bad day
* how to find the dinosaur constellation
* how to show someone you love them without giving them a hug

Christopher also loves prime numbers, which is why each chapter is given a prime number starting with 2 and ending at 233. I think we all feel we are a little autistic at times, so this detail made me laugh at myself throughout the story. (For whatever reason) when I am in charge of the volume, I never turn it to a prime number. If I was Christopher's mom I'd have to change my divisible number loving ways.

Mark Haddon tells a touching story about family, while opening eyes to the beauty of every mind. And it's illustrated.

This book counts as a book with a "time of day" in its title for the What's In a Name Challenge.

Monday, June 22, 2009

My niece is getting married next June!


I've already started looking around at dresses since it will probably take me a year to find "the one." Hey, she already found her wedding dress!

I came across this Marc Jacobs dress in Bazaar and thought, wouldn't it be fun to wear that to a wedding? It's $3900 but it does come with the belt. And it's also available in white.

Friday, June 19, 2009

Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas

Last week I went to Las Vegas for a teachers convention in Cesar's Palace. For some reason everyone laughs when I say a teachers convention in Las Vegas. Where, then, do you suggest teachers conventions be held? Some place boring I suppose? Some place where there are a lot of libraries?

Before I left I got the idea to read Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas by Hunter S. Thompson while I was on my trip. It's one of Corey's favorite books and I've been meaning to read it for awhile. But then I had an even better idea to also photograph my trip to coincide with things from the book. At first I didn't want the other teachers to see that I had it with me and that I was reading it. I soon discovered none of them had ever even heard of it, and that I am the only teacher twisted enough to read such things. My little badge of honor.

Day 1: I was so excited to begin I forgot to hold the book up in front of my registration line. It was in my bag though.

"But when we finally arrived at the Mint Hotel my attorney was unable to cope with the registration procedure. We were forced to stand in line with all the others -- which proved to be extremely difficult under the circumstances. I kept telling myself: 'Be quiet, be calm, say nothing...speak only when spoken to: name, rank and press affiliation, nothing else, ignore this terrible drug, pretend it's not happening...'"

This picture is blurry because I took it in a construction zone and a dump truck started coming my way. When I finished one of the construction workers shouted, "You need to take a picture of that in front of Circus Circus!" Yes, construction workers read this book, not teachers. I was just happy I could find some grey rectangles in modern day Vegas.

"I could see the strip/hotel skyline looming up ahead through the blue desert ground-haze: The Sahara, the landmark, the Americana and the ominous Thunderbird -- a cluster of grey rectangles in the distance, rising out of the cactus."

Also difficult to find a neon sign outside a window. The Harrah's sign is neon-y.

"By this time the drink was beginning to cut the acid and my hallucinations were down to a tolerable level. The room service waiter had a vaguely reptilian cast to his features, but I was no longer seeing huge pterodactyls lumbering around the corridors in pools of fresh blood. The only problem now was a gigantic neon sign outside the window, blocking out view of the mountains -- millions of colored balls running around a very complicated track, strange symbols & filigree, giving off a loud hum..."

Day 2: One teacher was not pleased that I made us walk all the way to Circus Circus, until she knew it was to take a picture of my book which mentioned Circus Circus in front of it. Teachers love books!

"The bar opened at seven. There was also a 'koffee & donut canteen' in the bunker, but those of us who had been up all night in a place like the Circus-Circus were in no mood for coffee & donuts. We wanted strong drink."

Day 3: We were told 1500 people attended our conference. Coincidence? Spirit of Hunter?

"We sat in the rear fringe of a crowd of about 1500 in the main ballroom of the Dunes Hotel. Far up in front of the room, barely visible from the rear, the executive director of the National District Attorneys' Association -- a middle-aged, well-groomed, successful GOP businessman type named Patrick Healy -- was opening their Third National Institute on Narcotics and Dangerous Drugs."

Too bad I didn't read far enough or I would have taken my book's picture in front of the Flamingo and...Cesar's Palace!

I learned a lot at the conference, perhaps because the strongest thing I had while there, in a very un-Hunter fashion, was a Mojito.

Thursday, June 11, 2009

My school could win $10K!


Please go to this website every day until July 12th and vote for my school to win $10K from Big Lots! You can vote 3 times per day if you really love me. The 4th graders made this video themselves.

http://www.lots2give.com/?s=ci_6pd6sqAQ

Thanks!
Starbuck is by diablo2003.

Thursday, June 4, 2009

Where the Gleeful Things Are


Every year at the end of the school year I read Where the Wild Things Are and make it into a vocabulary lesson. We make a giant mural of what Where the Gleeful Things Are would look like, complete with gleeful monsters having a rumpus. All to learn the word "gleeful!" Every year the mural is a little different. This year one boy wanted to make the ocean that Max sails across. After we glued it all together, another boy wanted to make Max's boat. His boat turned out so good; I couldn't believe how good it was!

Cute right?

And I am so excited for the movie! When I heard it would be a movie I couldn't imagine how they could make that story into a full length spectacular, but when I saw the preview I was dazzled!


Tomorrow is the last day of school!!! Hooray!!!