This is super addicting...

I found it last year and couldn't get enough.

A beautiful day in Prescott

We're up in Prescott having a delightful time. The weather is brisk and windy and the leaves are all sorts of yellows, oranges and reds.


Today was the last art fair downtown, so I got my last batch of cinnamon almonds for the year. Waaah! They were totally worth it. The routine: I jump out of the car at the light and hurry to the booth while Brandon circles around the block to pick me up again. It works out just perfectly every time!

By the time we got to the movie theatre, I had polished off the entire $4 bag of almonds. Delicious. The movie? We saw Eagle Eye with Shia LeBeouf. Is that how you spell his name? Anyway, it was two non-stop hours of crunching, crashing metal with sweaty Shia running around with a concerned/constipated look on his face. I felt like I was watching the sequel to Transformers (and you know that sequels are never quite as good as their originals...)



At one point, right in the middle of an action sequence, I wondered how many different sound bytes of crashes they had used for the movie. That's how much metal destruction there was. You actually got tired of seeing it, no matter how good the special effects were. I found myself thinking, Oh no, please don't crash again, not because I don't want anyone to get hurt, but just because I can't stand hearing all the noise!

Maybe I'm getting old.

Lather, rinse, repeat.

I'm almost ready to post pictures of the kitchen (with two missing cabinet doors). Today we got new barstools, and I'm ALMOST finished cleaning every dish in every cupboard and then putting it back again. What a tedious chore. I even have to wipe off every can, bottle and box in the pantry! Dust is everywhere.

The annoying thing is that I'm sick...AGAIN. I had a cold two weeks ago, and now I have another one. What is wrong with me? I never get sick! I'm sure it's just because I can't take any medicine. Murphy's Law.

Kitchen Chaos

We decided that we needed new kitchen countertops. And cabinets. And tile. And carpet. And baseboards. The next step? Living through all the construction. Now, more than a month later, after major dusting from the jackhammering of the tile, and getting used to carpet that is the wrong color, and the alarming sound of the air compressor waking us up at 2 a.m., we still have no kitchen. No sink. No dishwasher. No countertops. I'm doing dishes in the laundry room. We're cooking as little as possible, yet eating out as little as possible too.

The extra two weeks spent waiting for the cabinets that had to be re-ordered because some guy measured wrong were delightful. Last week, when the transportation company couldn't find the driver or the truck our replacement cabinets were on, we were a little miffed. Now that the two missing cabinets have arrived, they have the wrong doors. Go figure.

I'm just waiting to see what will go wrong tomorrow.

Where's Waldo

Brody is taller than Daisy!

I should really change the name of the blog to include the third dog -- but Brandon says Ellie's only half-a-dog anyway, so it doesn't matter.






Look how cute Brody is! It's hard to believe he's so naughty.

How many days until Spring Break?

Today was a rough day in the Sixth Grade. One of my students got upset at recess, hopped the playground fence, and started to walk home. He was half way across the parking lot when I came out to get my class and three students came running up to tell me. Needless to say, I went out and retrieved him. After a cooling off period, he came back just as happy and normal as could be.

Later in the day, three girls in my class were mad at each other, thus resulting in meanness and name-calling. Tears were shed, and as usual, there was nothing I could say that could help. Girl fights are much more difficult to deal with than boy fights. Girls are slow to forgive, and refuse to just "get over it" like boys do. Their words are more emotionally driven, so they hurt more and last longer.

Boys usually fight physically, and it's hardly ever personal. It's a flare of tempers or a misinterpreted shove.

With girls, it brews and simmers in a steaming cauldron, until it's good and ready to be served. By that time, the stew of vengeance is so heavy that the one dishing it out needs helpers -- other girls who will join in torturing the poor victim. Oh, to go back to junior high knowing what I know now...