Our neighbor who lived above us in Los Angeles is a clothing designer (Seed Clothing). She sometimes woke the kids up with her sewing machines (but hey, our kids woke them up with their crying). At any rate, one day she asked Sarah to model some clothes for her and here are a few of the pictures from that shoot. Evidently, all the clothes she modeled sold very well. So if you happen to be reading this and you're an agent...take note! We sure could use the extra money from a modeling career!
I am intrigued, perplexed, frustrated, and somehow slightly amused by this story about the malfunctioning satellite that will be falling to Earth sometime in March. In case you haven't heard, a US spy satellite packed with rocket fuel and top-secret imaging equipment that was sent into orbit in December 2006 never worked. It's been falling to Earth ever since it was released, but it's supposed to enter the atmosphere sometime next month. The military's response? Blow the dang thing up! Why am I not surprised?
I guess that probably is safer to shoot it out of the sky than risking big pieces of it hitting populated areas. I just read, however, that the mission to shoot it down, scheduled for Thursday, is going to cost about $40 million to $60 million!!!! So you're telling me that a top-secret satellite that took about a kabillion dollars to build and shoot into space takes $60 million to blow up? And once again, we wonder why our country is in such bad shape economically! Just think if we would have had that kabillion dollars plus the blow-up money for something like, oh I don't know, health care for the poor. Or counseling services for our troops coming home with PTSD. Or debt relief. Or road improvement projects in Charlotte. I really like the thought of that last one!
Oh, and by the way, it seems that we're not too confident that the first $60 million blow-up will work. It might take a second shot. Maybe this is what we get for being so nosy. hmmmmm.......
I just read an article on cnn.com that 143 million pounds of beef has been recalled. "The amount of beef -- 143 million pounds -- is roughly enough for two hamburgers for each man, woman and child in the United States." Yikes! That's a lot of meat. The bad news is that most of it has probably already been consumed so there's not much we can do about it.
One of my 6th graders, we'll call him C, is a character all to his own. He is sort of a loner and doesn't really care too much what others think. He is well behaved, loves to read, works hard, but he has a flare for the dramatic. Thankfully, he's different enough that the mean kids actually kind of think he's cool. He is honestly one of my favorite students.
A few weeks ago, we came back in the room after lunch and as the students were settling down into their seats, I noticed C didn't have his glasses on and he was banging his head against his desk! I walked over to him and realized he was really upset so I bent down to investigate. I couldn't really understand what he was saying because he was so upset (and he's difficult to understand on a good day).
I got him out in the hallway to pry a little deeper and managed to make something out about his glasses getting flushed down the toilet! I couldn't imagine how in the world this would happen and I still couldn't really understand what he was saying, so I walked him back to the bathroom to see for myself. Finally, he took me into the stall and demonstrated that he leaned over the toilet to flush and as he was standing back up, his glasses slipped off his face and fell into the flushing toilet! There was nothing he could do because it happened so fast! They were gone.
As a glasses-wearer for the last 20-some years, I took great empathy at the loss. I walked him over to the counselor's office so he could calm down and call home. He made it back to class and could see well enough to make it through the day. Thankfully, he had a backup pair at home and his mom was able to order a new pair the next day!
When people hear that I am a middle school special education teacher, they often say something like, "you must have a lot of patience," or, "I could never do that." And while it does have its difficulties, it does have its perks. And those perks typically come in funny stories to share. Now keep in mind, that this is my reality. Some people may read this and think I should not laugh at these situations, but laughter is sometimes all that I have to hold onto when I work with kids who are working 2-3 grades below their level and for the most part, completely lack all understanding of social clues. Anyway, on to the story from today.
I have a very large and rather angry sixth grader who can hardly read or write and probably ranks the lowest on most every teacher's favorite list (yes, teachers do have favorites). However, J, as we will call him, has come to take a special place in my heart as I have gotten to know him and learned how to handle him. He's improved a lot and has come a long way. Well, today I intercepted a note being passed between him and another student, E. Here is what the note said:
J writes: "i joined a gang where we beat the s*** out of pepol." (he actually wrote the stars in there).
E responds: "im going to a moove with m girfend this weknd"
That is all the note said. Nothing more, nothing less. I sat for a minute trying to decide if I should be worried about J's writing, but I quickly dismissed it because of how well I know him. Then I got to thinking about how odd of an exchange it was! I shared this story with some other teachers who know J and they cracked up. One teacher brought up a good point: if the kid really did join a gang, he probably wouldn't be so concerned with censoring his note with stars to cover up a curse word! Oh, the joys...I thought you might enjoy a quick peek into my everyday life!
It is funny how time changes things. Ten years ago today, I wooed Sarah on our first date in college. Two poor college students living on campus without cars, eating a "picnic" and watching a movie in a cramped dorm room. We never looked back from that point on and were married 3.5 years later. We're going on 7 years of marriage and life has been fun, exciting, difficult, beautiful, and challenging ever since that picnic. We've been through a lot together and I'd say we're more in love now than ever before! I know that may sound like a corny Valentine's Day card, but it is so true. Our love has been tested over the past 10 years, and by God's grace, we're still running after Him together as fast as we can (even though it feels like we're crawling at times). Here's to the next ten years. Happy Valentine's Day Sarah!Thanks to my dad and my friend Jerry in Los Angeles, I've got some pretty good woodworking tools and I've been trying to build a few things over the past several years. Here are a few pictures of the jewelry/keepsake box I made for Sarah for Christmas. This was the first "fine" piece I've made. Everything else I've done didn't have much detail. It was a lot of fun to make and I learned a lot in the process!
Here are a few shots of the play table I made for the girls while we lived in LA. My brother helped me start it right after Avery was born and it took me almost a year to complete. I can't figure out why I never had much time to work on it. I mean, we only had a newborn and a 2-year-old, I was only teaching full time, and I was only commuting 1.5 hours twice a week to class and trying to finish all of my homework. This is the piece I'm most proud of because the girls spend a lot of time playing on the table every day!
Our friend Megan's mom sent me an article cut out of the Richmond Times Dispatch about the construction of the middle school being named after my mom in Chesterfield County. Elizabeth B. Davis Middle School is scheduled to open in the fall! I tried to find the picture of the construction from the article online to post here, but I couldn't find it. At any rate, the article was mostly about rezoning and isn't that interesting, but you can read the press release that Chesterfield County wrote in2006 announcing the naming of the school if you haven't seen it before. I certainly miss her everyday, but I am so proud of her accomplishments! When we were in Richmond at Christmas, I was watching people pass me in the mall wearing sweatshirts of the local schools and I chuckled at the thought of next year seeing people wear shirts saying "Davis!" I am so excited for this school to open! Way to go Mom.
I started reading the Kite Runner last year at the urging of my good friend, Holly, in LA, but I never finished it. When I heard that the movie had come out, I really wanted to see it. Many people have never even heard of it, but I highly recommend you check it out! The movie is mostly in subtitles and it is a little slow in spots, but overall it was one of the best-written movies I think I've ever seen. It is a beautiful story of friendship, loss, guilt, and redemption. Holly, I'm going to have to go back and finish reading the book now!
Our neighbor is quite proud of the fact that he was a Marine. He is also extremely proud of his two Marine sons (one of which is serving in Iraq). I have often tried explaining this pride to my friends and family, however, words simply cannot express how he truly feels. I find that a picture of his truck is worth a thousand words. I recommend clicking on the picture to get the full view...
After riding bikes, we hit the driveway in front of the garage with sidewalk chalk. I was quite proud of my rocket! The girls had a blast "hopping in" and flying to go visit people. I thought I should share.
We had to get the kids outside today because it was so beautiful. The sky was blue, the air was fresh, and best of all, it wasn't cold! Kyla had a blast riding her princess bike she got for Christmas and Avery loves ringing the bell on her hand-me-down tricycle from Kyla! Kyla has gotten pretty good at riding. She finally mastered the art of the brakes and doesn't have to slam her feet to the ground to stop. She still has a hard time remembering to look where she's going because she likes to watch the scenery pass by!
Several residents were billed by Time Warner for cable equipment that was destroyed by a tornado earlier this month in Wisconsin. One lady was billed $2000 for a few cable boxes that were destroyed along with her house! When she called, a manager said there was nothing they could do. It appears, though, that Time Warner is changing its tune and trying to be a little more reasonable.
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