It's like this...

Christmas day we hopped a ferry across the Sound to spend Christmas day with extended family. It was freezing but gorgeous as we walked out to the end of the dock in Indianola. Here are my gorgeous children at the end of the dock. It's been a wonderful Christmas day. Last night we went to my sister's house for a bit, then to Lance's sister's house. There was much eating and much ripping of decorative paper. I'm thankful for family and friends. I'm grateful for the birth of Jesus Christ and all that it means to mankind.

It started with a tickle in my throat Saturday night and by Sunday morning I could sing bass---if I were so inclined. I had to scramble to get someone to teach my Sunbeam class at church and then I went to bed the for most of the day. Ack. Sick during my holiday break isn't on my list of things to do. I managed to get some pain pills and migraine meds in this morning so I could go with the family to get Santa pictures taken. This is our 20th consecutive year having them done. I love looking at them each Christmas to see how they've grown. After we finished we went to get ornaments for each child as is our tradition and then Lance had to get to work. I took the kids out for something to eat and then we went to the Aquarium down on the waterfront for a bit. It was nice to be with all four kids--it happens so seldom these days. I love my children.

Yes, there I said it. I'm angry. Very. My son has worked very hard, saved his money and dreamed of getting a car. He got one last month. It's not new--it's a 1991--but it's his and he did it all by himself. We were very proud of him for doing this on his own. He's taking care of his insurance and everything. He couldn't afford comprehensive on it just yet but he got insurance that he could afford. Last night some pieces of human garbage smashed open his car, ripped out his stereo, all his speakers and all the Christmas presents he'd purchased for his sisters. I've never seen him so upset. It's reduced me to tears. I hope karma bites these thugs in a big way and soon.

Why I became a Spanish teacher in the first place. In one of my classes, I have 15 students, all kindergartners to 2nd graders. This is a lively and noisy class---full of energy and spunk. what did Lou say to Mary Tyler Moore? Oh yeah, "I hate spunk" I don't hate it but I'm sometimes having a difficult time getting them to wind down a bit. Like yesterday. We learned about Muñeco de nieve. We learned the vocab for the snow, the hat, eyes, mouth, boots, mittens yada yada yada. One student took it upon himself to get creative and drew an anatomically correct snowman, then proceeded to race around the room showing the penis to all the other children while yelling the word. Two other students came to me and, pointing to two other students, said "THEY SAID THE S WORD!!" Their little faces were full of horror, so I stepped over to the two alleged users of the bad word and and asked them if they'd used the bad word. They hung their little heads and con...

As I was driving Alli to school this morning, I was eyeing some black gloves sitting on the console. I knew she didn't have any mittens on and so I asked her if she wanted to wear them. Heck, *I* wanted to wear them as the temperature gauge on my rearview mirror kept flashing 'ice' and then '18 degrees'. It was cold. Alli told me that she didn't need the gloves, she was fine. "Is it warm in your classrooms?" "Yeah, they keep the heat on. You probably didn't even have heat in your schools when you were a kid" "Well duh. That was so long ago we didn't even have classrooms. We met in caves and drew hieroglyphics on the walls." "I believe it!" Earlier in the drive we were going past a sharp incline that led up to some houses and she said, "Remember that old guy that was climbing up there the other day? Wasn't that weird?" I agreed that it was a bit odd. "I hate old people" I then mentio...

We drive a lot during the day. It's simply the nature of our lives and jobs that we have to spend a great deal of our time burning fossil fuel. Most of my time is spent driving around Shoreline. There's this guy we always see there. He's usually standing by the freeway exit ramp with a cardboard sign. We don't know his name but we call him Rasta Man because he has dreadlocks and he's usually smiling and laughing and singing to himself. We think he lives in the woods by the golf course there, but we're not sure. When we can, we have given him some food or bottles of water during the hot weather. Today the temperatures dipped into the teens and everything was frozen over. I was so grateful to get into my suburban and sit on heated seats. We came across Rasta Man as we were driving the kids to school. Lance and I decided to swing back around and get him some hot chocolate. After we handed it to him, I asked him if he was hungry too. "Yes Ma'am,...

About five or six months ago I thought I was smart enough (and cute enough and darn it people like me!) to dye my very own hair. I mean, it couldn't be that hard, could it? I'd done it before but apparently this time I went a shade too far and landed in the RED ZONE. Actually, it was more of the ORANGE ZONE than the RED ZONE. This is not a zone anyone wishes to be unless your name is Carrot Top and you want to get beaten up on playgrounds. So I went to my friend Anita and had to start phase one of fixing my horrendous error. I saw her again this past week and here's the result. It's not so blond, it's really not so orange and it's back to the color I wanted. Here's the result....I took this last night with my cell phone so it's kinda fuzzy. That's tne Not So Blond part. The Not So Happy part goes like this... What is WRONG with people? Why are they so mean and cruel? They honk like they're in New York, they give you the one finger wave,...

It's freezing---literally---here. So Lance thought it was time to remove the air conditioning unit from our bedroom window. Which means there is no window in the window at this time. Last night was an exercise in avoiding hypothermia. Just so you know? Covering a window in plastic won't keep out the cold. Who knew? Today's itinerary involves replacing the window so we're not all found frozen together in the morning. Not that huddling together for warmth isn't fun...but you know.