Happy Birthday Chad!

The Razorbacks just barely pulled out a victory for Chad's birthday. Happy Birthday Chad! I love you. (Sorry you had to endure such a boring first half on your special day.)

Five? Twenty-five?

What will we do without five and twenty-five? Maybe some new stars will emerge. As you can see, Henry is ready for Western Illinois today. (Actually, he will not be attending the festivities, as he will be spending the evening with Mormor.) I'm pretty excited to see what will happen tonight. Will Patrino lead the team through the "A"? Will the team sing the fight song to the student section (assuming we win)? What will the first offensive play be? Will a new tradition emerge under the Patrino regime? Guess we will find out at six!

Gearing Up for the Convention

Joe Biden! Obama could not have made a better selection. I was supporting Biden to win the nomination for President, but I guess VP will have to do. I attended two Democratic Conventions: Chicago in 1996 and Los Angeles in 2000. In L.A. the Arkansas delegation shared a hotel with the Delaware delegation, so the two groups mingled quite a bit socially. I remember there was a little "mini-convention" at the hotel in one of the conference rooms with just Arkansas and Delaware, where important figures from both states spoke to the two delegations. There weren't many people there, maybe 30-50 in the room. Joe Biden was one of the speakers. I hadn't really known of him until that point, but I remember thinking to myself, "This guy will be President some day." I love election season and I will be glued to both conventions starting with the DNC on Monday.

Zoo/August

Those two words should never go together, but we did it anyway. We took the boys to the Tulsa Zoo and the Oklahoma Aquarium last weekend. (At least the aquarium had A.C.!) What did Henry like best? He liked the train pretty well. He got to see a real dump truck in action while we were on the train, because part of the zoo was under construction. Wow! He thought that was pretty cool. As for animals, I think he got his biggest thrill out of the big animals--the elephant and the giraffe.

But the best part of the zoo was the carousel!
They rode it twice and Henry was literally dragged away
kicking and screaming for more.

And what was the best part of the aquarium?
You would think it would be the fish, right?
The snakes, the beavers, the sharks???
Nope....

It was the turtles, of course!

Makeover

School starts on Monday (at least for teachers) and I have been working on my classroom. Our whole school moved two buildings down, so I have been unpacking boxes this week. I thought it would be a nightmare, but thanks to some help from my mom it only took me two full days and a few hours here and there at other times. I bit the bullet and decided to create a reading area in my room. Student-selected silent reading is really big at our school (180 minutes of silent reading per week) and I am teaching one reading class this fall in addition to U.S. History. The kids love to have a comfy spot to read and most teachers have an area like this in their rooms. My feelings on the reading area were always lukewarm--just a headache for the teacher. I could see arguments over who gets to sit there, students seating themselves there at inappropriate times, me walking into the room and witnessing multiple students sitting on each other's laps on the ottomans....you get the idea. I'm certain that all of these scenarios will play out, but I did it anyway. (I already have some ideas on how to keep the area under control.)

Things I did not buy, but just dug around in closets and attics at our house and my parents house: ottomans, pillows, plant, table, lamp.

Things I did buy: rug, paper lanterns, placemat, and curtains. I was pretty proud of myself for not spending too much money; the placemat was only $.99 at Target and the curtains were $7. I realize that it will not make the pages of Martha Stuart Living, but I think the kids will like it. I wish I had taken a picture of my whole classroom so you could see how my reading area looks within the context of the room.

The above is the reason that I am only on page 263 in Breaking Dawn. What are your thoughts on the book? No spoilers please.

I'm Busy Now...

Breaking Dawn was released today.