Cassie has spelling homework 4 times per week. We get bored with the same old assignments so I gave her a special one, to write her spelling words in her very best handwriting. She came up with this… I’m pretty impressed and very proud so I had to share

Last month, Cassie’s class was supposed to design their own theme park and draw it out on a big piece of butcher paper. No princess parks here, no. Casie designed the Poison Park. That’s right folks, step right up and be half murdered and pay good money to do it!

This is a long video, I won’t be offended (much) if you don’t listen to it, but I cracked up every time Cassie told the class to “Shhhh!” and the fact that the kids were obsessed with the invisible bridge. LOL.

Many thanks for her teacher for taking the video. Cassie was VERY excited about it and wanted me to see it.

Clifford came to visit on literacy night… and Cassie participated in a square dance thing at school… enjoy!

Remember when I posted about how we had snow in Austin on December 4? Someone at the school got the absolute best photo of Jamie playing in it… look at that smile – complete and utter joy. Jamie is a tough cookie when it comes to smiles for the camera. This one left me grinning for days! What a lucky shot!

Cassie also wrote a story about it. Oh, excuse me, she PUBLISHED a story – that seems to be the big thing now… publishing it means writing it, editing it, rewriting it and illustrating it and making a cover sometimes too. Very serious stuff… but this is SO cute. I love that they let all the kids out to play in it. They still talk about how crazy it was!

(click for bigger pic)

Anyone who lives up North, can just skip this post cuz you’re going to make fun of me *laugh*

It snowed in Austin today. It rarely snows in Austin, you must understand. And I have now seen snow up close and personal (that I remember) exactly twice. I grew up in Charleston, SC, moved to Honolulu, HI and now live here. And we don’t travel much, at least not North Heck, we don’t even have real Winter gear. A nice warm jacket and sneakers is about it.

You have to understand, when the forecast here calls for snow or ice, the grocery stores start emptying out of bread milk and eggs (someone on Twitter called it a French Toast Emergency and cracked me up). It’s all kind of silly and dramatic and I try to avoid it. Except for driving. I’m not a terribly confident driver and other people going 80 miles an hour on overpasses with a cell phone stuck to their ear rushing to the grocery store… well, that scares me. When it rains, I hate to drive. So, I knew it was silly, but I canceled my appointment with my personal trainer today (I did work out at home and did pretty good improvising – hey, the fact that I didn’t just blow it off means a lot to me) because I didn’t want to be out there with the morons at 8am. I probably could have went, but honestly, my sanity is worth more right now.

And it did snow. For about 30-45 minutes. None of it stuck, but it was kind cool to see the flakes drifting and blowing around. Tom subbed at the kids school and the principal went around to each classroom and let the teachers take them outside, so there were 450 kids standing in the snow out there at once. Tom subbed there today (he’s there nearly every day in fact) said it was truly a magical day today because the kids were all outside and having the grandest time. I kinda wish I was there to see it. Is it weird that I’m a little jealous that he gets to see the kids off and on each day? I guess for me it really is because I couldn’t do it. All those kids, I’d be crazy. But I wish I had seen that.

They also watched The Polar Express today, so Tom said it really was a fantastic day to be a teacher. Now to find him a permanent position. I think he really wants to work at the school where the kids are. The kids being there is a nice bonus, but he loves the school, he loves the staff. He seems to be fitting in there. I just hope they give him a shot when hiring time comes around. I think he’ll be a shoe-in. If they don’t hire him, they’re crazy! The KIDS adore him. It kinda makes me jealous that I don’t have that affect on kids, but when he walks into the school or into a fundraiser or something, the kids flock to him screaming “Mr. Beauchamp! Mr. Beauchamp!”. I really hope this works out for him. Funny, at 37 you finally figure out what you wanna do with your life, but Tom was meant for this. We’ve been married for over 16 years. I’m amazed at how different we both are and how our aspirations have changed and grown.

Okay, I’m off the subject. Suffice to say that I adore my husband. I really do mean that for so many reasons, but his way with the kids is one of the tops. Yeah, it doesn’t pay a whole lot (teachers are WAY underpaid in my opinion), but to see how happy it makes him… so what we don’t get a pool in our backyard and we use the community one instead. I don’t care. Our happiness both together and individually is way more important.

Blah blah blah… okay, so the snow… I have to tell you this story about Leo, the moron dog. It started snowing and both dogs were outside. Julie quickly came in and found her bed:

Leo, on the other hand, is a moron. He stayed out there for a while and was barking at the flakes, completely freaked out. He’d find one, bark like mad and then get all weirded out when it disappeared if it touched something. After a minute or so of that he decided to come inside and runs full tilt towards the dog door. And misses. *laughing* he whacked himself in the head on the side of it. What the heck is wrong with this dog? Look at him? I swear he peed himself:

(if you squint, you’ll see it just started, there’s little flakes in front of the black thing)

Anyway, so that just sent me rolling. The dog may be dumber than a box of rocks or a stump or whatever, but he’s entertaining at least I suppose!

Anyway, photographic proof that we had snow today – Voila!

A couple of weeks ago, Cassie’s class had a presentation about the seasons. Cassie made it sound like it was required and talked about it for days, so of course we went! There was a powerpoint and everything! It was quite cute…

You can see how Jamie is all excited and just can’t wait, right? Thank goodness a friend was there for him to play with:

As I said, there was a PowerPoint presentation… this is a photo of the slide that had Cassie working on her project. The project was to use real things to represent the seasons.

And here’s the finished project – Cassie voiced-over this one too (the kids read the slides). Super cute!

And, yes, they gave us parents a photo op (the first photo), and, of course, the BFFs made sure to stand by each other so I could snag a photo…

Okay, so I didn’t even notice that WordPress told me that the last post was post 1000 – which was a fitting one because that kind of stuff with my kids cracks me up. But whatever, this is post 1001 – really? Have I rambled that much in the past 9+ years? Wow.

Okay so…  at school today is Pioneer Day for Jamie. I’m not entirely sure what that means, I guess they learn about the pioneers, huh? Anyway, I couldn’t be there but my neighbor took a picture for me of Jamie making his corn doll (yeah, I can’t make this stuff up). She won’t tell me the name, letting Jamie tell me, but I got $20 that says it’s name is Corny – cuz everything’s name ends in “ie” doggie, froggy, etc. Well, except all Penguins are named Tux (which is why I’m totally giving my kid a Linux Journal calendar this year – he loves penguins. Could care less about Linux, Windows, Mac, whatever, but the calendar is penguin heaven). ANYWAY… so here’s the pic:

Wow, could he look less enthused? I’m going to assume that he’s concentrating so hard and so into his corn doll that he just didn’t have time to look up and smile (and that he’s thinking “wtf? I have to make a doll? seriously? cuz I can make video games and stuff”) Just sayin’

In other news, I’ve been thinking about setting up my own blog so I can keep the family stuff separate, but I dunno, maybe I just post it all in one place? Does anyone really care? Cuz the kids are getting older anyway, heck, Jamie has asked for a Flip for Christmas this year to make his own videos and post on the website. That should be… weird.

Every year the school holds an assembly and it’s the same basic program, each grade sings a song, you bring you along any family member that may be a Veteran and get to introduce them, yadda yadda. It’s about 90 minutes long and I usually take photos for the yearbook or anyone that wants one (next time, I’m totally asking for my own chair and to be able to use my tripod so I can get less blurry shots!). I’m thinking if I ask to rig up lights they might look at me funny.

Anyway, Tom was in the Navy so he always goes. He had to sub that day so he had to leave his class during it and go up on stage so the kids could introduce him. Cassie was QUITE proud of herself this year and Jamie wasn’t nervous at all. Good job kids!

I do sometimes wish they’d vary the program. And next year, I’m gonna bring my own chair. And that tripod if they want photos for the yearbook :p

If you are at my kid’s school and your child was on stage, I more than likely got their photo, check my Flickr account (and if there’s a photo on there you don’t want me to have up, let me know and I’ll remove it)

I’m very proud of Cassie. She is one of the best behaved children in the whole school, I’m told. Yeah, I didn’t really believe it either. I mean, Cassie? Really? But I must admit that she is very responsible when it comes to her school work. She takes it very seriously.

Anyway, she came home with this. It’s the highest behavior honor they offer at the school and my little girl got it (click to see a bigger version so you can read it). I’m very very very proud of her. They have a little ceremony next week and you can bet I’ll be there – with my camera in tow!

Update: Crud! Actually I’m presenting at an online conference that day 25 minutes after it starts. I don’t think it’s possible to do both. I offered to move my presentation time, but it’s highly unlikely they’ll need to do that. I’m kind of upset cuz I hate to miss it, but I promised I’d do this… Tom will have to tape it for me!

I had minor surgery Monday this week. It was supposed to be fast and easy, but ended up not being. I’m still in a lot of pain, but I’ve whined on FaceBook and to my friends and I’m pretty tired of hearing myself whine. But yeah, I’m not happy.

I also was going to ask the public opinion about my kid’s art, but ya know what? The kids agree with me. Each year, the school has the kids make something artistic and they put it onto magnets, mugs, and other things. I’ve always bought them and gave them away for gifts. Until this year. Last year they did this I assumed it was a fluke, but I’m NOT doing it this year. They make the kids imitate another artist and use that. For instance, Jamie took construction paper and made lines and colored in a few blocks. It’s impressionistic or whatever. I get it, but it’s not MY KID’s art. Cassie did a weird almost Andy Warholesque thing. Again. NOT my kid’s art. I’d rather get their scribbles or drawings or whatever. The first year the kids had more leeway and Jamie made the COOLEST house. He called it the “rock n roll” house. It was something they did over the course of several sessions and it was supposed to be this special thing. And HE made it.

I even put a note on the order forms as to why I’m not ordering it. I’m sorry, but I can get it cheaper somewhere else and it will be something that MY KID made, not something they were copying from some other famous artist.

The kids agreed. They think it’s ugly and didn’t want to do it. At least that’s what they are saying. So maybe this weekend, we will have our own art class and I’ll have someone on the internet make my magnets. I’m not wasting my money on crappy “kid” art this year.