unsolved mystery

tonight spencer and colby went out front to play. they'd been gone a really long time, so i went outside to check on them. their scooter and bike were in the driveway, and i could hear their voices. i looked across the street at the house that's under construction and saw spencer coming around from the back with a hoe in his hand. busted.

i almost just turned around and walked back in the house because i was afraid to ask what they were up to. but curiosity got the best of me, and i asked, "what are you doing?"

i got the same answer from both of them....looking for colby's shoe.

photo of the day #225

digging for a flip flop

i'm still not real sure how it got lost, but here's the story i got:

they were chasing a rabbit, and he went behind that house. the rabbit went into a tunnel (hole), and when colby stepped on top of it, the tunnel collapsed. his foot went down in the dirt, and when he pulled his foot out, the shoe was gone. they dug a trench looking for his flip flop! i went out there and helped a little bit with no luck. i was still just dumbfounded about the whole story! it made NO sense! it was almost like he'd stepped in quick sand!!

i sent daryl out there to help. i told him that since he's a boy, maybe he could better understand what happened to the shoe and could help them find it. about 15 minutes they all came back. daryl was just shaking his head, and colby was crying. they didn't find the shoe, and colby had to throw his other flip flop in the trash. for some reason he loved those flip flops!

(this is how he looked the rest of the night...mad!)

i still don't understand how it just disappeared like that!

quote of the day: "A boy's story is the best that is ever told." ~Charles Dickens

friday.....wow!

photo of the day #224

morning dew

why couldn't my day have been as peaceful as the dew on the grass this morning?

everything was fine until lunch. i checked my phone and i had message from a principal in bartlesville wanting an interview. so i spent my lunch break frantically trying to make arrangements to have someone cover my class and finding someone to watch spencer and colby. i rushed home, changed clothes, took the boys to gina's (thanks, geeg) and made it to bartlesville 20 minutes early! and no, i didn't even speed!

the interview went well, but the principal decided to hire someone who could start on MONDAY! after thinking and praying about it on the way home, i really believe god was watching out for me. there were some things that just didn't seem right, and i'm truly thankful that i didn't have to make the decision about whether or not to take the job if it had been offered to me.

on the way home, though, something really cool happened..........i finally figured out how to roll my tongue!!!! i have NEVER been able to do it, and i don't know what possessed me to try again on the way home. the only way i could do it, though, was to put several pieces of sonic ice on my tongue and wrap it around the ice. i tried it many times without the ice, but i couldn't do it!!! i know, i know. i'm completely weird!

quote of the day: "I can roll my tongue!!!!!!" ~me!

captain

have you ever been so tired that you literally couldn't keep your eyes open? that's how i was last night! i started watching spongebob with colby at 7:30, and the next thing i knew i was in dream land! i vaguely remember doing bible reading with the boys in my bed, and then a little while later i remember spencer running in reminding me that i hadn't blogged yet. but that's it. i was out!

so spencer took care of me and took yesterday's photo of the day! it's a picture of his safety patrol captain's badge. he's pretty proud of it!

photo of the day #223

safety patrol captain

quote of the day: "Is it bedtime?" ~me

1st day of school

things were back to normal today. the boys and i went back to school. although i should have taken pictures of the boys with their teachers, i didn't. maybe i'll get them tomorrow!

i did get their pictures in the car, though. so i do have 1st day of school pictures.....just not at school!

photos of the day #222

back to school

quote of the day: "A teacher has two jobs; fill young minds with knowledge, yes, but more important, give those minds a compass so that that knowledge doesn't go to waste. "~Principal Jacobs....from the movie Mr. Holland's Opus

the day before school starts

tonight spencer and i took a little stroll down to the ponds because i didn't have any pictures taken yet. {i left my camera at home when i left for work!}

photo of the day #221

my spencer

these purple flowers were so tiny that my camera didn't want to focus in on them! this is the best shot i got of them. i think i'm going to have to back and try harder to get a better picture!

i also wanted to get some of these before they were gone for the summer!

quote of the day: "Mom...my bed's not working!" ~Colby......when he tried to get under his covers to go to sleep, he couldn't get his legs in because Spencer had short-sheeted his bed! wow!

p.s. there's supposed to be a meteor shower tonight. i'm going to try to see it! maybe if i'm really lucky, i'll get a picture....yeah, right!

where the fun begins...

photo of the day #220

park lane teachers

today all of the teachers in the broken arrow school district met at the new performing arts center for a back to school pep rally. the PAC is beautiful, and i'm pretty sure that showing off the new PAC was the goal of today's rally.

the pep rally was {to put it nicely} disappointing. the president of the broken arrow chamber of commerce got up in front of all the BA teachers and said the the chamber had no idea about the condition of some of the BA schools! he didn't know just how many portable buildings our district had! has the man had his head in hole for 20 years???

then there was some praising of SOME schools, not all, and a video which showcased SOME schools, not all. lots of us from park lane left there feeling less than motivated by that 1 1/2 hour performance! we even got to hear how it takes 3 people to be in charge of the PAC, but there isn't even enough money in the budget to hire teachers so our 4th grade teachers don't have to have 30 kids crammed into portables!!!

anyway........i really am looking forward to this school year. park lane is a wonderful school! i'm sad that it's my last year there, but i'm so thankful to God that he put me there these past 3 years.

quote of the day: A cross-eyed teacher can keep twice the number of children in order than any other, because the pupils do not know who she's looking at. ~Four Hundred Laughs: Or, Fun Without Vulgarity, compiled and edited by John R. Kemble, 1902

see you later

tonight we said, "see you later" to our brothers and sisters at 29th & yale.

photo of the day #219

see you later

they gave us a nice going away ice cream social! you can't go wrong with ice cream!

almost all the smors were there {missed you, nellie} to send us off. it wasn't very sad for me tonight because i know i'll see my friends again. bartlesville isn't that far away, and we haven't even moved yet! i know it will be different when we've actually moved away.

quote of the day: "Friends are friends forever, if the Lord's the Lord of them." ~Michael W. Smith

pool party

today the boys and i celebrated drake's birthday at their neighborhood pool.

going to that pool is like stepping back in time! the place is very well kept, but it doesn't look like they've changed a thing, and i had a blast taking pictures there!!!

colby roamed around the pool seeing just how many noodles he could gather.

spencer learned how to do the can opener.

i took some really fun pictures of this squirrel!!!

photo of the day #218

enjoy

as the party was coming to an end, spencer and the lifeguard had a sour candy showdown. they were trying to determine who was the toughest by seeing who could keep the most warheads in their mouth the longest. they both popped five of those nasty things in their mouth, and then stared at each other....

the lifeguard said he technically won because spencer's eyes started watering even though both of them kept 5 warheads in their mouth without puking or spitting them out!

quote of the day: One of the best things in the world to be is a boy; it requires no experience, but needs some practice to be a good one. ~Charles Dudley Warner

camouflage

photo of the day #217

where's spencer

i came home tonight from my first day back at work, and the boys had apparently been shopping! spencer had new bedding (finally!), a haircut and his school supplies. colby also had his supplies and a shirt to wear on the first day of school. wow!

quote of the day: "Each day when I awake, I know I have one more day to make a difference in someone's life."~James Mann

last day of summer '09

it's official. my summer is over. i spent the day working in my classroom, rearranging the furniture in order to fit more students in my cozy little space!

photo of the day #216

back to school

the poor 4th grade teachers have way more kids than 5th grade! i feel sorry for them.

quote of the day: "All good things must come to an end." ~English proverb