And the collar still pops!

I'm the student council advisor this year at the middle school. It's lots of work, but lots of fun too. This week is 8th grade week, so we're having dress days each day this week. Today is Decade Day--meaning wear clothes from your favorite decade. So, of course my decade is the 80's. And guess what? I still have some clothes I wore in H.S.

Plus my hair remembers how to do "The Claw" (or "The Awning", if you'd rather)

How many of y'all had a shirt like this? I have a picture somewhere of my freshman (college) boyfriend and I wearing our Coke shirts. His was short sleeves with peach on the top and mint green on the bottom. My roommate had a red and white one. I borrowed from both of them.

While these jeans aren't technically from the 80's, they are from Gap, and they're pegged, so I'm calling them authentic.

Emma wore my old parachute pants and my Gag Me With A Spoon t-shirt. Love the headband, Lu!

Rendezvous

We had a great time at the rendezvous this past weekend. The girls had a fun time exploring and making new friends. There were more than 70 participants, half of them children. We had to sew and sew and sew to get ready, but I think the experience for the kids was certainly worth the effort. Brock made some killer food!!! The weather was gorgeous, and the trees were colorful. We had a great time!

Here's the fam standing in front of our tent. I was shocked when I saw this picture because EMMA IS NEARLY THE SAME HEIGHT AS ME!!!!

Maryanne and Jane

Sarah and Kate

Rachel

Jane was stung by a bee/wasp/hornet something-or-another on Friday morning. The poor girl's cheek looked deformed. It's better now.

We camped next to our friends, the Wrights. There were lots and lots of kids.

Emma

Kate

Emma, Kate and Sadie, our neighbor

Jane

Rachel and Sam

A fabulous potluck dinner. Brock made a wonderful ham and bean dish in a dutch oven. The food was seriously great.

It was a fun time. If anyone wants to come with us in the spring, I think we'll do it again. Now that we have the clothes for our kids, all we need is plates, utensils, washtubs, a water jug, benches, bedding, a fire pit, fire tools . . . I suppose this will be a work in progress for quick some time.

He might be the queen

I have a crazy 6th period class. The problems are tri-fold:

1. The boys outnumber the girls two to one
2. There are six class clowns (and only four corners)
3. It's the end of the day and the students and I are all tired

So earlier this week, four of my six "spirited" students were taking up the four corners, and one was in the middle of the room, surrounded by the quiet kids. That left me one more, very energetic, extremely intelligent, highly distracting boy. I couldn't figure out where to put him. I moved him all over the room, very strategically, of course, trying to figure out the perfect place for him. He just didn't fit anywhere! Finally, I was just tired of trying to strategize, so I moved him to the desk on the side of the room--the one that is purposefully isolated from the rest of the class. It worked, so I actually considered keeping him there, until . . .

The next day. He came to me and begged me to put him back with his peers. I said, "Billy (not his real name), why don't you show me where you can sit without getting into or causing trouble." I handed him my seating chart. He looked at it. He sat in his desk. He studied, scrutinized, even strategized.

Within a minute, he came back to me with the chart and said, "If you move this student here, this student here, and this student here, I can sit here." He seated himself in the front row, closest to me and moved all his distractions (and followers) to places where they would likely be okay as well. Then he said, "Man, this is like chess or something!" (can I get an AMEN?!)

And he's been better ever since!

Ya gotta love 8th grade boys. (In a totally teacher/student sort of a way, of course!)

I think I have a new BFF!

One of my students just brought me a note--from Emma! I'm not sure if I should get after her for writing a note during 4th or if I should go out and buy twinner outfits for us to wear to school tomorrow.

I've been tagged--my first time ever! How about that. So here is it:

8 TV shows I love to watch:
(I don't watch much T.V., so I'm going to start with the present and work my way back through time. We'll see if I can make it clear back to Miami Vice)
1. American Idol
2. The Simpsons
3. Saturday Night Live
4. CSI
5. Oprah
6. Friends
7. Seinfeld
8. Days of Our Lives
(Miami Vice would have been #9)

8 Favorite Restaurants:
(this changes all the time--so here's the as-of-now list)
1. Chez Brock
2. The Athenian
3. Virg's
4. Cafe Rio
5. The Merry Piglets
6. Jeremiah's
7. Peach City
8. Greek Souvlaki

8 Things I Did Yesterday:
1. Ate Brock's delicious biscuits and gravy (he had to get up mighty early, see #2)
2. Took Emma to violin lessons (6:45 a.m.!)
3. Taught school
4. Stayed after school to tutor some struggling kids
5. Listened to Jane reading Nancy Drew
6. Helped Emma with her pitches on the violin
7. Watched Kate raise her eyebrows on every staccato note she played
8. Sat in Cody and Kari's kitchen with Brock where we had some homemade grape juice and a pleasant conversation while the kids played

8 Things I'm looking forward to:
1. Brock getting a teaching contract
2. Emma getting her braces off
3. A decision from the judge
4. UEA
5. Halloween with all six girls (our first time!)
6. This weekend with no girls (it's nice to have a quiet weekend sometimes)
7. The presidential election
8. The Holidays!

8 Things on my wish list:
1. A front yard
2. A second bathroom
3. A teaching contract for Brock
4. A straight front tooth (I had braces for 4 YEARS!)
5. More time with our children
6. To be a published poet
7. To have my old runner's body back--just because I was so fit I could do anything
8. Enough time in the day to actually run. I can't seem to force myself out of bed any earlier than I already do--and night time just plain doesn't work for me.
(Ugh! This list is not parallel! Oh well.)

8 People I Tag:
I really don't think 8 people read this blog, so I'm not going to do this one. I'm a rebel that way! :)