Sick Day

I had to get H from school yesterday. Poor guy is congested, has a sore throat, a cough, and super stuffy nose. He was a little feverish yesterday when we got home and the rule at school is 24 hours fever free. We are home today. I actually woke this morning with a really sore throat and headache. I think the sore throat for me was just sleeping with my mouth open, but the headache persists and I have a little cough. I am going to fetch some Aleve in a minute with a refill of coffee.

H has been bugging me about wanting to learn to knit. I decided I would try to teach him and see how it went.

See what you think.



Don't mind the crazy hair (mine) it is a sick day, darn it.

Jackson 5

Everyday for my seniors I hold the door, greet them and play funk or disco, loudly, as they are entering the room.  I think it might be more for me than for them, it really gets me pumped up.  Freshmen can't seem to handle it.  They always complain about the music, why don't I play rap, why don't I play their music, blah blah blah.


Seniors...seem to love (most of them) funk and disco.  They MOVE!  Some kids do little desk dances, sometimes random passerby kids dance in the hall, loads of the passerbys comment on wanting to be in THAT class.  I love the atmosphere it creates.   Pandora has been really useful, as I have some disco and funk, but not an unlimited supply.  I think I might use my grant stipend to buy the subscription so that I do not have to listen to random advertisements, $36.00 per year seems really really reasonable!  At any rate, yesterday I was playing my Pandora funk channel and the Jackson 5 came on.   A song I don't recall ever hearing.  Some of the kids knew it because it is part of the show choir's montage this year.  It is Blame It On the Boogie.  It is such a catchy, upbeat, fun song.


It was written by Mick Jackson, no relation to the Jackson 5.  The lyrics from the chorus are so darn catchy...

"Don't blame it on sunshine
Don't blame it on moonlight
Don't blame it on good times
Blame it on the boogie" 

I wish I could post it here for everyone to hear.  This is a must have for everyone's ipod, or other music device.  

d

Debate

Monday afternoon I got the opportunity to see H and his class have a debate.  The debate was about the town of Rocksburg building a dam.  There were citizens for and against.  H was for the building of the dam, and his name was Need A. Job.  Each student read a statement they prepared about their character and why they were for or against the dam, then the debate began.  They held cards in the air with their names on it and the city council president Judge N Jury called on the students who asked questions, responded to each others statements, etcetera.  It was so cute and H did an AMAZING job.  I was so proud and it was awesome to see him doing something academic since I have only been to school for parties previously. 


I was thinking about how he is growing up so fast.  Wow...where did the years go.  


We shopped goodwill and got a navy wool blazer $4, a blue oxford .99, and a Tabasco tie .99. He was stylin'.

 

I think this last picture is hilarious because of the little nose wiper in the front.  LOL.  To me the picture is also adorable because of Mrs. Stevens look of pride.  She emailed me to tell me how proud she was of H.  Me Too!

Knitting Success!

So yesterday I finished my first knitting project, a scarf for H.D. Then I started my first dishcloth. I did half last night and the other half tonight.



I guess I am officially a knitter!!! I can't wait to learn how to do more stitches and make afghans, cardigans, and socks.

d

Great Blog

I think I have posted this before, and it is on the list of blogs I read, but it is worth a seperate post. I know that different regions of the US and even the world with much more well developed neighborhoods have a lot of pedestrians and dogs. I love how this blogger has a unique spin on blogging and captures dogs being dogs. His comments are humorous and usually spot on.

Check it out.

http://www.automatedredemption.com/flavorcountry/dogblog/

Try to create a Dog Blog caption for this one...I dare ya.
d

Snow or freezing fog

I am not sure which we really had today, snow or freezing fog. Yesterday we had frozen fog and it was gorgeous. I still do not really have a digital camera (looked at one today while buying chicken at Cost-co), I still need to roll pennies to get a good camera. Thankfully, Scott's phone has a pretty darn good one.

I took some shots of H and Lena playing and having a ball in the snow, and some nature pictures. Enjoy.

It was snowing in this one.

Snowy Tug O' War

"I declare this snow mount H"

Kids @ Christmas

Another snow day today, well inclimate weather. It was blowing, drifting, and dangerously cold today. We will have another tomorrow because it is supposed to be again, dangerously cold. I had to go in to school today (don't tomorrow wooohooo!), but had a lot of stuff done today. I even cleaned out my desk a task normally reserved until about May.

I was cleaning up the files on my computer this evening and saw this Holiday picture.

Here are all the kiddos. H.D. holding E2 and E1 holding R.V.

A darn cute bunch don't you agree?

E2 spent all of Christmas running around in nothing but a diaper. She really reminds me a lot of Dink when she was that age.

d

WORMS and SNOW?

I got worms for Christmas. Don't get me wrong, I didn't say I have worms.

I bought a worm farm some months ago. I set it up and then vowed to wait until I had extra cash to buy the worms. It seems like that day never comes, so I asked Santa (okay Oma and Papa) to bring red wiggler worms for Christmas.

They came in the mail today, after a little shipping snafu. The first batch was accidentally shipped to my mom and dad's house. Luckily, Oma and Papa are going to keep them in worm bedding and well tended to until they see me again.

We decided to chronicle the set up for all the people who think worms in your basement are a weird thing to WANT.

While H and I were getting the worms' bedding ready, Lena was frolicking in the snow. Yep...more snow... :o(

So the first batch of worm bedding that came with the worm farm is coconut coir. I took care of moistening that and H brought the worms down to the basement. Here they are tossed on their bed.
The light brown is the coconut coir and the darker brown is the bedding that the worms were shipped in with a half cup water added to moisten them after their trip. Hard to believe there are 1000 worms in there.

Next we prepped a little food for these guys.

I won't add much more in for a few weeks until they are established, but the menu for worms today was...


Banana peeling, a moldy tomato (just bought those...DARN IT), a crust of bread, and a lone bean. Where the heck did the bean come from??? Additionally we threw some coffee grounds with an unbleached filter in for fun. Notice the food chopper in the first food picture? The food scraps are processed faster by the worms if chopped up a bit. I wanted to make their first meal especially easy!

Doesn't it look delicious?
Scott thinks so...
Ewwwwwww

Tonight the worms are all snug in their bed. I shredded some paper bag (with no print) and tossed that on the top of their bed to give them a little more cover because it didn't seem like the bedding was very deep.

So begins the Wegener vermicomposting experience.

More to come.

d