First Day Jitters....

One of my favorite books to read ont he first day of school is "First Day Jitters." It's about a teacher that is avoiding the first day of school, but the whole time the kids think it's about a student. It has a surprised ending. Very suspenseful.

When we're finished reading the book I have the students draw a picture of themselves and write one word to describe how they feel on the first day of school. Today, was a first.

One of my students drew their picture with a speech bubble reading "I don't want to go to school" When I asked him what word he wanted to used to describe his picture he said...

TICKED!

Here here little one... Here Here.

Conundrum

Facebook won't let me login and I want to complain about that -- on Facebook. It's a complete conundrum! Do you know where I found out others were experiencing the same outage? Twitter. What would I do without social media???

Denver Flash Mob - No Big Deal...

Don't ever let anyone tell you that television is a waste of time...ESPECIALLY reality television. This season, on The Bachelorette, all of the bachelors participated in a flash mob. This made me wonder how I could get involved in such wonderfulness myself, so I set out on the computer doing what inquirers do best... I googled that sucker.

When you type "Denver Flash Mob" into Google a fantastic website appears, and it tells you how to become involved in a flash mob. I friended that sucker on Facebook and what do you know - a flash mob just happened to be planned for a weekend I was visiting mom in Colorado Springs, and being in a flash mob is on both of our bucket lists.

Mom, Audrey and I at "The Meeting Spot".

Yesterday we set out on our quest and watched the dance tutorial on YouTube, practiced a couple of times, and felt we were ready. We figured there would be plenty of people and we could just chill in the middle of the pack and no one would really notice that we didn't know the moves.

Other flash mob participants at "The Meeting Spot"

Today, five of us set out on our flash mob journey. Mom and I were the participants, Scott, Audrey, and our friend Michael came as moral support, although Michael just came to make sure the event was documented. The mob took place outside Coors Field, and Luke was supposed to be at the game with his friends, but their plans were cancelled at the last minute (Luke was so relieved... I guess it's not cool to 16 year olds to have your mom and sister make a public disturbance...)

Scott, Audrey and Michael - Our cheering section!

We arrived at the meeting place to find a group of about 150 people. The guy in charge divided us into 3 groups so we could be discrete and to the stadium we walked!

Discretely walking towards Coors Field, mingling with baseball fans.

I have to say it was an amazing experience. It's something I will hopefully get to do again, and again, and again, and again. I plan on recruiting MANY friends to help. Now that Audrey is a pro, she's going to learn the moves with me!

Scott, Michael and Audrey were charged with taking care of the purses - something Michael was very proud to do...


This guy was also apparently in charge of the purses for his group...


Can YOU tell which members are baseball fans and which are flash-mobbers????


Mom and I "Blending in" with the crowd.

You can view the video here, although keep in mind Scotty was filming, holding the baby, managing all of our bags so for the first min. no one has a head...

And if you're brave enough, here is the "official" video :)

Dreams

Audrey hasn't been sleeping very well lately which means two things: I have had two nights worth of short but very obvious dreams and have also SOMEHOW managed to convince myself that going back to work is a terrible idea and I must find a way to teach 2nd grade from home.

In my first dream Audrey and I were waiting in line for ice cream cones when we happened to see a mile-high tidal wave heading our way. My brain instantly raced for ways to save my 6 month old daughter from said tidal wave --blowing in her face so she'll hold her breath, covering her nose and mouth with my hand -- and my mom even offered to let us stand behind her house so we were partially shielded, but to no avail. The tidal wave was coming. (Perhaps ambiguous, but can someone say the first day of school??)

In my second dream all of the members of my school leadership team were coming to my house and I COULD NOT get ready in time. I kept coming up against very pressing matters and by the time everyone reached my house I was not showered and ready. It had been impossible. (Perhaps less ambiguous. I promise to be showered on the first day of school...)

There are still 7 days until I go back to school. I wonder what is in store for me tonight!

Audrey, enjoying some zzzzz's in the car.

One of Those Moms...

I never thought I would be one of those moms. The moms who have dirty toys around the house and the high chair full of caked-on baby food. I always thought having dirty toys and a dirty high chair was disgusting and couldn't see why parents didn't do a better job tidying up after their tiny tot.

Well. Now I understand. It is impossible to keep Audrey's toys clean. I'm not talking about the rattles and the stuffed animals. Those are easy to wash. A quick toss in the dishwasher or washing machine and DONE! No. I'm talking the play gym that Audrey adores sitting in. The one with 16 million detachable toys and a mirror (she takes after her mother and adores looking at herself for hours on end...). This convertible of baby toys has what seems like a million nooks and crannies for slobber/baby food/spit up to fall between that even the most diligent baby wipe cannot defeat. The moment I clean the little baby mirror Audrey's slobber finger swipes across leaving the slimiest of smudge marks... It never fails! If I were to really clean it I would have to completely disassemble the darn thing and put it together every 15 min. I can tell you, that is not a good use of time.

The high chair is another story. Even though I spent my days feeding other babies growing up I never really paid attention to how much babies LOVE to get food EVERYWHERE in their high chair. I don't think the little strap that holds Audrey in will ever be the same now that colored foods have entered her diet. Again, it would be possible to scrape and clean every nook EVERY time she eats but I have found 6 month olds do not enjoy sitting idly by while you scrub a high char down with a q-tip.

Now, I'm not complaining about any of the above, I'm just stating my reality check. Baby toys/high chairs are slimy so when you go to the second hand store and see someone's used treasure... don't judge!

This morning, when I woke up, I looked like this! (Forgive the morning hairdo...)



This evening, as I prepare for bed, I look like this!



Must be time to go back to school. I have my "Back to School" haircut :) And Audrey doesn't have her constant tug/chew toy anymore! My head thanks me from my daughters fierce grip!

GRRR!

A couple of weeks ago I spent an afternoon organizing all of the photos we have printed off since Audrey's birthday (Probably 1000 photos or so). They were in a large pile in the living room basket. Then over the weekend I worked very hard preparing material for some hair bows. I had to iron in the sides and then coil the material so the creases would become permanent.

In an effort to tidy the coffee table Scott balled up my tightly coiled fabric and tonight, in an effort to fill a new frame we bought for Audrey's pictures he jumbled up my photos.

Did I mention that in an effort to fill the frame he accidentally leaned on the glass and it broke?

It's a good thing he's good lookin'.