Catching Up...

Life just gets in the way, you know? Here are a few things we have been doing...


Soccer 2009--Rob has been coaching Seth's team--the T-Rex Raptors--Fun Times!


Halloween 2009--Seth was a Lightning McQueen Crew Member--thanks to my hairdresser Karen K. for letting us have this costume!


In early November, I went to the National AASL (American Association for School Librarians) Conference in Charlotte. The first night there we ate at an Unos Chicago Pizzeria restaurant. The food was great, but the service was not. I took a picture of this menu entry because I thought it had great presentation. I know, I am such an English major.

On a side note, the conference was great. I got to meet James Patterson, who in recent years has written some young adult books. He has started a website, Read Kiddo Read to guide parents to help their kids make good choices when it comes to reading. I met several authors and got to network with other school librarians. On the last day, the vendors started giving stuff away because they didn't want to take stuff home with them. I acquired several free books!

I finally received my $200 Visa gift card that I won on a mom blog giveaway. You may remember it here. I started entering giveaways earlier in the summer when I was trying to win gift cards to give away for my class reunion. I have won a few things--a Pampered Chef collapsible bowl, a eco-friendly wooden playset for Seth, a Sam's Club membership, and this Visa Gift card. I have not had time to enter many giveaways lately. I will try and feature some of the best sites I have found in a later post.

That is about where we stand right now. November is a busy month for us with our anniversary, Thanksgiving, and Seth's birthday.

Happy Fall Ya'll!

Creature Feature

I was going to toss something in the trash this afternoon and I saw something move around my kitchen windowsill, which sits above the sink. We had a visitor, a little, long, green, slimy visitor.



I shrieked, because to me, lizards, geckos, salamanders, (insert your choice word here) are nothing but snakes with legs. Rob came in there and said, "Aw he's just a gecko, he won't hurt you." Then he proceeded to get Doodle (our cat) so that she could see it. Finally, Rob took the thermometer and took the lizard outside so that it could go about its business.

I figured it came in on a potted mum that I brought in last night to water. Yes, you read that right, that varmint had been in my house since last night. SHEESH....it just makes my skin crawl all over!

Be Careful What You Say....(Or Read, For That Matter....)

Some of you may be familiar with the following titles:









These are picture books by David Shannon that are about a mischievous little boy named David (I think they are somewhat autobiographical according to the author).

As of late, we have been reading DAVID GETS IN TROUBLE at bedtime for Seth. Some of the memorable lines in this book are, "It was an accident..." "I didn't mean to..." "It's not my fault...." All of these are said by the main character David when he breaks a window by throwing a baseball, when he has too many snacks in his hand and drops his drink on the carpet, and when he messes up the class picture by making a funny face.

Do you see where this post is going? We have heard many of these responses from Seth lately after we correct his behavior, but some of them certainly have NOT been used in context. Here are some examples:

Throwing his tissue on the floor after blowing his nose (It's not my fault--no baby, it's not your fault that we don't have a trashcan for you to immediately deposit your tissue.)

Hitting his teammate at soccer practice (It was an accident--having some bad reflexes perhaps?)

Not stopping his bicycle at the stop sign to look both ways and accelerating instead (I didn't mean to...sure, honey--you didn't mean to not hear mommy scream her head off to stop because there was a car coming.)

I failed to mention that we also read a Bible story before bed as well and he always wants to hear the one about the snake.

Seth's Introduction to Soccer

Last Saturday morning, we set out for the local soccer field. We had talked to Seth about playing soccer and he said that he wanted to play. We had kicked the ball around a little bit in our yard and he knew that the object was to kick the ball into the goal. Seth did not like the fact that he had to wear shin guards to play soccer and of course, he would have preferred wearing his Crocs.



The soccer field is actually part of a park complete with slides and swings. When Seth saw that, soccer was out the window. We had to remind him that we were here to play soccer. We had not been there for 20 minutes when Seth looked at me and said,"I am ready to go." I thought he meant that he was ready to play soccer, since the program director was giving history and instruction of the soccer program. No....he was ready to go home.

"There's no crying in soccer!"

So the kids were put into groups and instructed to drills like Red-light, Green-light; Sharks & Minnows, Steal the Bacon, Left Foot Kick, and Right Foot Kick. For Seth, it was like pulling teeth. He loved the idea of being outside, but did NOT like the idea of having to do something he didn't want to do. Of course, he resorted to his coping skills--sucking his thumb?!??!
So we made it through our first soccer practice, and I am proud to report we have now made it through our second. The second one went a lot better, especially now that Rob is Seth's soccer coach. Our team has seven boys and one girl all under the age of 5. The next month and a half will be very interesting. Did I mention one of the reasons the second practice went so well is because of bribery? Yep, it works and I plan to use it for a long time.

Preschool Vocabulary

Seth's vocabulary is growing all the time and we can actually have a decent conversation with him. Here is a recent conversation we had in the car on the way to Target.

Me: Seth, you can only take one car inside with you and it has to stay in your pocket.

Seth: I want to take two cars.

Me: No, you can only take in one car.

Seth: But I want to take in two cars!

Rob: How about you take in no cars and stay in the car?

Seth: Stay in the car? Will you go into Target Daddy with Mommy?

Rob: Yes, I am going into Target. We will get arrested....for leaving you in the car.

Seth: I don't want to take a rest.

Deployment Time

image courtesy of www.apple.com

It's that time again. We have done this for the past six years in our school district for students in grades 6-12. Each one of our students gets a MacBook laptop to use for the year upon paying an insurance premium. What a privilege and responsibility to have as a middle schooler! I had a hard time remembering my locker combination in middle school and now we expect them to keep up with a laptop! Wow! Times have really changed. Many of our students take pride in their laptops and actually do take care of them. Sure there are some that get damaged, and accidentally dropped, but for the most part, a whole lot of our students are responsible. So, not only do they get an awesome technological education in being able to utilize a wonderful piece of equipment, they must also rise to the challenge of being a responsible preteen and teenager.

I can remember having a Speak 'n' Spell in middle school--and I had mine before E.T. made it popular, mind you. I thought that it was a genius machine.

Then my parents enrolled me in summer computer camps, where I wrote 4 & 5 line programs on the TRS(trash)-80 by Radio Shack.

What a treat it was to get to play Oregon Trail on the Apple IIE.

How far we have come! Many of today's preteens do not know what a floppy disk is. Our kids know about CDs, jump drives, and drop boxes though. They can put together a keynote with a gazillion transitions, pictures, and sounds in a skinny minute. They can use iPhoto and iMovie to create professional looking projects. They know how to do podcasts. I am not bragging, I am speaking the truth.

For the next 3 days, we will give 800 students their MacBooks and hope they can rise to the challenge of being responsible and take advantage of this superior, wonderful learning tool. Wish us luck!