The Beautiful Northwest

These photos were taken as we were waiting for the ferry on Vashon Island in Washington after a rocking Justin Roberts concert. (This dilapidated dock was not the one used by the ferry :)

Coming back....

(First congrats to our new POTUS, somehow I feel like we are living a great episode of The West Wing)

Just like all things, it is incredibly difficult to come back to something after such a long absence. I have a million reasons why I haven't posted, but don't we all have a ton of excuses. Nevertheless, to make me feel better, I shall create a list that will portend that I have been much busier than I have been.

1. Working full-time, going to school full-time, finishing my practicum hours to become a principal, and having an enormous amount of duties in my church have taken control of my life.

2. Having a pregnant wife that was insanely nauseous for weeks and weeks forced me to spend less time blogging and more time developing my homemaking skills.

3. I have recently become obsessed with CNN, ABC World News Tonight with Charles Gibson, and other news outlets.

4. It is too difficult to try to be an "active" Facebooker and a blogger.

5. I sit in front of a computer too much trying to put in grades for my students or reading some lame article for a class that I have no desire to look at a computer screen at any other time.

6. I have nothing important or worthwhile to say.

Ouch!

My heart hurts...

Election Fatigue

Is anyone else completely exhausted of this election? Doesn't it seem like we have been discussing these same candidates and same issues for years? Oh wait, we have. From the picture above (this is not a doctored image BTW), maybe McCain is getting exhausted too or just realizing his chances in this election are slipping away.

Last nights debate was by far the most interesting. However, I still couldn't stand to sit through the entire thing. I have become more and more cynical as the election has progressed and am looking forward to the end. Part of me doesn't even care who wins and just wants it to be over--okay, that isn't the truth, I do care who wins, but I do really want it to be over.


Unfortunately, (in what I think are some fairly desperate and ridiculous attempts by McCain to gain some points in the polls) the presidential election has turned pretty petty and ugly. However, nothing is as bad as the senate race in our beautiful state of Oregon. Jeff Merkley (D) and Gordon Smith (R-incumbent) have been slaughtering each other in personal attack adds for months. I am really struggling with choosing between either of them because I think that they have acted very similarly to my middle school students. It is like they are middle school girls that are passing notes and writing on the bathroom stalls a bunch of elaborated rumors about each other. It is pitiful and a poor example for the youth of America.

Luckily, only 18 more days.

The First Month of School

Here is a picture of me and James on our very first day of school---he woke up at 6:30 and as I was getting out of the shower, he opened the door and was completely dressed and singing, "Today's my first day of schoo--ool!" I just hope that he will always be this excited about school, I know that I was when I was a kid and still do, but this year was different.

I suppose that it has been long enough now that I need to face the reality of being back at school. Needless to say, it has been a rough adjustment back to work. I have never quite felt this way at the start of the school year. Normally, I relish in the back to school sales and look forward to meeting the one hundred or so 13 year olds that walk through my door. But this year was different.....I was annoyed that the sales on school supplies started at the beginning of July, a whole two months before school started. Don't get me wrong, I am still proud that I can get 100 folders for one dollar, but I just want to do that in August rather than before the fireworks of the 4th. And that was just the beginning.

I dragged myself to work the last week of August and attended my meetings, but had little motivation to put my room back together. Because we have carpet in all of our classrooms, they clean it during the summer and we have to have everything boxed up so that they can clean the floors. It is pretty obnoxious to have to pack everything up every year (perhaps it is a good thing, otherwise I would never sort through some of my junk) but this year I didn't care to put any of it back. I was overwhelmed by my class lists and couldn't imagine having enough room in my head to care about one hundred more adolescents. I also found out that I wasn't going to have the same prep period as my friends for the first time, and I know it sounds petty and childish, but I was real sad.

So now that we are a month in, I am slowly dragging myself out of my slump. I have some incredible students that are fun to teach and excited to be in my class. We have already had our Family Literacy Night and gotten Battle of the Books going and that is a huge relief for me. Something happens each and every day that reminds me why I love teaching---for me, it is all about the students. They make me laugh when they do something silly; they make me sad when I see them causing each other such heart ache; they make me proud when they accomplish something that they didn't think they were going to be able to do; and they make me cry when they share with me the hardships that no thirteen year old should ever have to deal with. I love teaching and am so grateful for the things that I learn everyday from these hormonal, drama-seeking teenagers.

Owen the Big Boy

In honor of Owen celebrating his big birthday, I just wanted to share a crazy story about how big he is getting.

A few weeks ago, Owen was sleeping and somehow lost his binky in the middle of the night. For those of you that know Owen well, you know how much he loves his binky at night (luckily he has always understood that the binky is just for bedtime and naptime--but he definitely looked forward to being able to use his pacifier). After some searching in the night, Kristine couldn't find the little binky and Owen was forced to go to sleep without it. Surprisingly to both myself and Kristine (and probably Owen too) he made it through the night. We decided to use this as a perfect opportunity to get rid of the binky.

Kristine is an incredible mother and when it was time for James to give up his binky, she made up the story (illustrated and all) about the Binky Dragon. When little boys and girls get to be too big for their binky, they wrap it up like a present and put it out at night. In the middle of the night the Binky Dragon comes to collect the binky and then takes it to a new baby that needs a binky.

So when we found the binky the following morning and unsuccessfully hid it, we decided it was time for another visit from the binky dragon. Owen wrapped up his binky--with the help of James of course.

Then we put the wrapped binky on mommy and daddy's dresser (because Owen was a little scared about a dragon coming into his room at night). The binky was gone in the morning and we haven't needed one since (Owen has said that the Binky Dragon took his binky to Charlie--maybe it was easier knowing that his little cuz was benefiting from his sacrifice).

Owen has been going through so many big boy changes that it has made me a little sad that he is growing up so quickly. He has made the switch into sleeping in the top bunk bed above James, he has made some progress with potty training, and it just makes me sad that my little trouble maker is growing up. But nevertheless, happy birthday my little Owie bear.

Battle of the Books II

I have recently posted about a few of these books, but I thought that I would provide you with the entire list. So far, I haven't loved these books as much as last year, but if you love fantasy and science fiction there are several that the students have enjoyed. So feel free to grab some of these and let me know what you think!

Alphabet of Dreams by Susan Fletcher
Ark Angel by Anthony Horowitz
Atherton: House of Power by Patrick Carman
Bat 6 by Virginia Euwer Wolff
Call Me Hope by Gretchen Olson
Eyes of the Emperor by Graham Salisbury
Fablehaven by Brandon Mull**
Fire on the Wind by Linda Crew
Girl from Yamhill by Beverly Cleary**
Half-moon Investigations by Eoin Colfer**
Minerva Clark Gets a Clue by Karen Karbo**
Peak by Roland Smith**
The Pinhoe Egg by Diana Wynn Jones
Sea Otter Rescue by Roland Smith
The Stout-hearted Seven by Neta Lohnes Frazier
A Wizard of Earthsea by Ursula K. LeGuin
**Books I highly recommend

This year we only chose books that are written by authors that are from the Northwest or the setting of the book takes place here. If anyone read Beverly Cleary's books when you were little, you would enjoy A Girl From Yamhill. It is a memoir written by her. I loved it. Happy reading!