Rex and Lyra

Last weekend we dogsat for a friend of mine from school. His puppy is a yellow lab (4 or 5 months old?) named Lyra. She and Rex had a grand ol' time chasing each other through the house and fighting over toys. Finally one would get tired and finally lay down and the other one would go attack the one laying down. It didn't stop for about 24 hours. Remind me again why people have two dogs?

File this under "What the Hell?"

Plane carrying 155 disappears


See www.cnn.com. I don't know how to post links. I know, I suck.

Cutie Pie
Hello from Baby Jail

Have you Vespa-ed lately?

Some friends of ours (Amber and Ben) live on a college campus in Tacoma (Ben is a Resident Hall Director so they have an apartment in a dorm) and we decided to check out Ben's new Vespa motorscooter in the parking lot. Just turning it on and lowering the kickstand was hularious enough but then we decided to drive it. Another friend, Kate, drove while I held on for dear life, sitting behind her. At one point I was laughing so hard I could barely hold on to her waist while yelling, "Slow down! Turn! Put your feet up! Put your feet on the ground! Oh God!" Every person that walked by stared and laughed. Quite a lot. How fast were we speeding recklessly through the parking lot you ask? A whopping 5 mph. I swear it felt faster. Good times.

Sometimes even teachers don't know

I read this book to my students today. It's about a fireboat that helped in New York City on September 11th.

Here's what they wanted to know.
"Was it an accident?"
"Why did that happen?"
"Why weren't the pilots watching where they were going?"
"Who were the bad guys?"
"Were you there?"
"Did they crash into the buildings because they were jealous we had really tall buildings?"
"Is it going to happen again?"

September 10, 2001

It had been a tough summer. A close friend's ex-boyfriend had driven drunk and killed himself, two girls, and a young police officer in July. Another close friend was killed by a drunk driver in a separate crash in August. I was home from college for the summer and missing my husband (at that time, my boyfriend) who was still in Oregon.

I waited at the gate with my father for my flight to leave Anchorage and head to Seattle. My flight was delayed so I was thankful he had decided to wait with me at the gate instead of just dropping me off. Of course we didn't know that would be the last day anyone besides passengers would be allowed past the security checkpoint. I was taking a short 2-day trip to visit my best friend before heading back to my junior year of college at OSU. That night, Tam and I enjoyed a nice dinner and headed to bed after our usual hours of talk only best friends can have.

September 11, 2001
We were awoken the next morning to the phone ringing over and over. It was Tam's uncle, telling us to not go into the city (we had planned on going to the Space Needle that day in downtown Seattle) and turn on the tv. As soon as Katie Couric's voice came on and the image of the plane flying into the World Trade Center was shown, we knew something was very very wrong. We watched all day. We couldn't stop. We looked up at the empty sky. I called the Husband right away and told him I loved him and I didn't know when I could get to him. My flight back to Oregon was scheduled for September 13th. At one point in the afternoon, we had to stop watching tv and get out of the house. We got in the car and turned on the radio. Amazing Grace was playing and we both cried and cried. It was surreal and horrible and unbelievable.

I ended up taking a 10 1/2 hour train ride to get back to college because I couldn't fly. My flight was obviously canceled and I didn't want to be on an airplane by myself anyway. My husband was there when I got off the train, with roses. I had never been so happy to be in his arms. I think it was then that we knew for sure that we wanted to be married, soon. We went to a candle-light vigil in the rain that night in our college town. It felt so strange how such a horrific event brought our country together. It's so sad that the camaraderie is gone again.

I wasn't a teacher in 2001 but I am now and it's impossibly hard to explain the events of September 11th to my eight year old students.They were three years old when it happened. I don't know what to tell them when they ask, "Why did those people do that?" I'm so sad for them, that they will never know the world before September 11th. It wasn't perfect but it was a little less scary. We will never forget.

Trabajo

I was inspired to post this after reading about E's post about her first few weeks of student teaching.

I have a job that allows me to organize my work space how I want (to an extent).
I have a job that gives me 2 months off in the summer. With the Husband.
I have a job that gives me 3 more weeks off throughout the year. With the Husband.
I have a job that changes lives.
I have a job at which I laugh at least a few times a day.
I have a job that is important.
I have a job where all of my collegues understand why I look like I'm going to pass out by 3:10 on Friday.
I have a job where I get notes that say, "I like you so much I want to hug you." And it's not creepy.

My Third 1st Day of School

That's right, I taught my third first day of school today. Drumroll please. . . . . . . . . .


It went great! I have to say it was the best first day of school I've taught so far. I think it is going to be a good year, which I feel like I deserve after last year-the end that should not be mentioned. 11 boys and 16 girls showed up today but there are 4 more that didn't come so I could have. . . 31?!

Pure joy

is laughing so hard our stomachs hurt, tears are streaming down our faces, and people are looking at us like we're certifiably insane as we walk to our car from the movie theatre.