Go Cats Beat Gators!

My dad and my son Vincent usually work the press box at the games but Dad is working at Keeneland and Vince and Susan are in Gaitlinburg so Roger gets to work this game. Before he left Gabe (who is in this weekend for a wedding) and Roger practiced the Wooo signal. Lady did not get in on the action.

CATS

How about that game on Saturday? Roger thinks it was his birthday present. Pretty good one huh? Beautiful day all around! Happy Birthday to you Honey!

Firefighter R to the rescue!

"Mr. R" came to our kindergarten class to teach us about fire safety. They were so excited because my family is the topic of many modeled journal writings! He also is the guy that buys the treats when their popcorn jar gets full of compliments. What better icing on the cake is there when this same guy is also a quote "fighterfighter"? They were very well behaved and all got to try on his coat and hat for size. They had just filled their jar that day and someone had called Mr. R and let him know. What kind of friend do you think he was that day particularly when he shows up with fire gear and bakery chocolate chip cookies? I even got in on the fun and tried the gear on. Later that night we had our Fall Festival and our booth was pattern bracelets, face painting and tattoos. What fun! There was cotton candy, popcorn, pizza,games,a giant slide, a bouncy booth and a silent auction. Just to mention a few. We did not win anything but had lots of fun painting faces and giving tattoos. I think R became a pro at tattoos.

I accidently chose the first two pics that do not relate to firefighting but they do relate to school. The first is a picture of a child writing a page for our class book that went into the silent auction basket that we made for dogs and cats. They gave advice to pet owners about how to care for a dog or a cat. They were cute. The other picture is one of their sticker stories. They drew a picture around a sticker and then had to write using descriptive words. They were very creative with these. So I don't really know the best way to load pictures. It kept closing down on me and I downloaded one I did not mean to and two of the same. Oh well, so much for trying. Anyway ya'll get the drift.

Baxter and Jazzy

Baxter and Jazzy like the backyard but they do not like the neighbor dog... Not sure what that is about. They chase up and down the fence line and bark like they are defending the world! Only lasts a few minutes but enough is enough some days. I guess everything for a dog is like the movie Groundhog's Day. Brand new start each day and never been or done this before.

classroom news

Well October is here and wonder of all wonders... I am having fun again! Why do kindergarten teachers have to go through the first month of school every year????? Here are some of the things we have been working on. I wanted to include their sticker stories they worked on this week but I need to delete some pics from my camera. The memory is full. We worked on adding descriptive detail to our writing. I am proud of the progress they have made so far. Behaviors are getting in check and we are in full swing.

Officer Don brings our scores to JME

It was a great day. Blue skies and smiles all around. Our test scores really improved and officer Don landed in the soccer field and brought us a banner with our scores on it. We had a false alarm and sat outside for about a half hour while the fire department checked everything out. The kids did a good job. Just glad it was not cold or rainy! Here are some pictures I took.

Happy Anniversary to Bill and Luann

We are going out with Bill and Luann today to celebrate their anniversary. Can't wait to eat some good seafood at Bonefish Grill. We are back and it was wonderful!

A Good Read

I just finished a novel called "The Year of The Fog" by Michelle Richmond. It is very good. Keeps you guessing the whole way and is filled with layers and layers of the human spirit. Give it a whirl. I had never read anything by her. She has also written "Dream of the Blue Room" and a collection of stories called "The Girl in The Fall Away Dress" She teaches creative writing in San Francisco and publishes an online literary journal called Fiction Attic. I am going to the library today to try and get one of her other works.

Travis Wilburn Demo songs

Our youngest son Travis has begun to write songs. He has a made four draft demos and has them posted on myspace. Check out the link at the bottom of the page to hear some of them. I think he is pretty awesome even if he is my baby! myspace.com/traviswilburnmusic

Go CATS!

Roger and I were lucky enough today to get some tickets to the game. My dad gave them to us and it was a glorious day! The weather was perfect and the seats were up high but great! He had to go in to work the 2nd half of the day so I thought I would add some new pics of the back yard. I did not take my camera to the game but wish that I had.

Beautiful Weather

Today the weather was beautiful just like yesterday. The sun has been shining and the breeze has a slight coolness that feels so good after the sun heats your body. The air at school had been broken for three days and it had been getting very hot inside. It felt as if the heater was on but this is in part due to the fact that we do not have very many windows. The ones that we do have only open a crack and don't give much relief. I got home today at 5:00 and stayed out in the swing reading until the sun set. I got two new books at the library after work and was home alone. Felt like heaven. No phone calls, no talking, no listening, just relaxing in the shade.

Mom has been in the hospital

This has been quite the week for us all. Mom had been feeling much worse than usual and had stomach pain that had been increasing in intensity. She finally went to the emergency room on Tuesday and they did a cat scan and admitted her with an abcess on the intestine. She came in just in time before it ruptured. They pumped her full of antibiotics and released her on Friday. She has to take another round of oral antibiotics and will go to the surgeon on Friday to schedule a surgery to clean everything out. They could not operate while the infection was so great. She is still feeling kinda rough.

Fencing at it's best!

Roger and I built a corner with latticework to hide the electrical boxes and to provide us with a raised bed for flowers and or vegetables. I'll post another picture after the completion. I snuck in to load the pictures of the tomato and the raised bed and post it. I know all kinds of ways to get out of work. Actually I was running under the guise of cooking supper.

Smiley Tomato

I had to include this picture of a tomato I grew. I thought it looked like a great smiling tomato. Maybe it was just trying to get out of the salsa or pasta sauce.

Sunsets from the bench

Roger made a bench for me from an old piece of discarded telephone pole which he cut in half for the posts. The bench piece was a very old piece of hardwood which he found. He had just built it in our old backyard before we moved and he lovingly moved it for me to the new house. We have been able to position it in the backyard in a location that has the best view of the most beautiful sunsets. The trade off of the traffic noise is almost worth it. As I was sitting here one night looking at the sunset, I wondered if years ago the farmer of the land had ever wandered upon this very sight and gazed at the sunset at the end of a long day. The next night Roger and I decided to take a walk in the neighborhood and went around the circle that backs to us. There is a spot that must have been intended originally to expand the neighborhood or add another road. We walked back to the fence at the top of a little hill and there right behind the street where my bench is positioned was an old barn that must have been built on the farm property and the sunset view was the same as from my bench. My pondering was answered and a sense of calm and connection to the past and nature was provided by God. Even the development of the land cannot rob the beauty and wonder God intended with the sunset.

Kindergarten Story

Thursday was our first guidance lesson. They will be every three weeks or roughly once a month. She was introducing herself and had a bag of things to pull out to give hints about what she liked and who she was as a person. She began to try and find out a little about them and one little girl held up her hand and said "We do kidwriting!" Anyone that knows me knows that this thrilled my soul because I teach writing using this process and loved it that the child thought this was a very important thing for her to know about our class. Hopefully this self image will continue to grow.

Lazy Saturday

Roger and I slept in and then drove to Danville to eat lunch with his sister Michelle. Drove back home after a quick stop to the store and we have been napping and being lazy all day. There is so much more that I could be doing that is way more productive but oh well.....I did make some salsa and freeze some tomatoes. Salsa is so very yummy this time of year with all of the fresh tomatoes. Why can't you save them for very long? Seems like you spend all summer waiting forever for the first one to turn and then Bam! So many you don't know what you are going to do with them all. I have not tried to freeze my fresh salsa but I think I am going to give it a whirl and see how it thaws. If it does okay I may just be in the salsa making business for a while.