School Girl.

Here we have our sweet girl on her first day of "pre-school."  You can see her happening lunchbox, and she's wearing her backpack.  (Yay for teachers who are willing to work with our cloth diapers!)  The backpack is a duck, but she insists on calling it an owl.  The first day was great, and every day since has been, as well.  She took to it naturally, and apparently likes to help the other children by feeding them and telling them where to sit for snack and lunch.

Here she is this morning.  I am coveting her dress for myself, by the way.  It's finally less than 157 degrees outside, so she gets to look like she's actually going to school, not the beach.  Those little shoes are actually Keds, and are therefore appropriate for P.E.  She visits Coach on Thursday, and loves it.  Her throwing arm is improving rapidly, which is a bit scary.  I had envisioned her as more of a soccer player than a softball player, but we'll see what pans out.

Sewing. I'm doing it.

True fact:
I took exactly six weeks of "Home Ec" in 8th grade.
True fact:
We did not sew a blessed thing.
True fact:
We "cooked." At home. And brought our dishes to school as homework, because our class met in a kitchenless trailer.
True fact:
I signed up for my first online class ever to motivate me to move beyond the straight stitch on my admittedly fancy machine. Click on that little picture to the right if you'd like to join me.
True fact:
I made that rectangle up there. I used the sewing machine to do it. Go me.

Oh yes.

Courtesy of my brother - a little Macon love for all of you. Though this does prove that Jack McBrayer is more than a bit older than I am, because gym uniforms were happily forgotten before I started high school. Kenneth is on tonight, of course, along with the rest of the 30Rock gang...

Merit pay has been the hot topic for those of the teacher ilk here lately - our state legislature just approved extra pay for people who teach *some* subjects - what a crock. Anyway, I loved what this blogger had to say about merit pay in general (quit rolling your eyes, Petey).

And because y'all know I have some mad Mr. Rogers love, and because I forgot to remind you about his birthday this year, I thought you should know that you too can own your own trolley:

I know. I want one, too.

My friend Lennye makes me cry.

If you're feeling just a little bit Grinchy or Scrooge-y this Christmas season, I highly recommend you read about what my friend Lennye was able to do for a student. Sometimes, I think we look too far heavenward for miracles, when most of the time they happen a lot closer to Earth.



This one touches me particularly because I taught this little guy, and he is, without a doubt, one of the most precious children on the planet. When I had him in my class three years ago (has it really been that long?) his life was challenging, but not nearly as difficult as it is now. I know I speak for Lennye & everyone else involved when I say that we would covet your prayers for K & his family, particularly his sweet mom, that they might be able to enjoy this Christmas in spite of everything.


Merry Christmas, y'all.

Old elementary school teachers don't die.

They just drown in holiday-patterned socks.
Oh, my goodness. I had no idea it had gotten this bad. I knew it was pretty bad, just not this bad. They don't even fit in the drawer. I'm trying to organize the bedroom, what with the motherina, aunt, & cousins invading this weekend, and boy, what a mess. It turns out when you actually do ALL of your laundry on a regular basis (3 weeks in a row, baby!), that you then have to put ALL of the clothes somewhere. I am actually thinking that I learned this before, and that it has something to do with my pathological dread of laundry.

Because our house (c. 1944) has zilch in terms of storage, I've been thinking for awhile that I needed to look at a bigger dresser. Clearly, the time has come. I'm on the prowl, officially.

In the meantime, I will attempt not to freeze into a Sarahsicle. Good night - consistently below-freezing lows before THANKSGIVING? This isn't Cleveland! (And thank goodness for that, since they got what, two feet of snow? Plus the wind from the lake? No, thank you.)

Happy Wednesday....

Sometimes you just can't think of a good title.

(I never made my second graders title their pieces of writing unless they wanted to. Sometimes, we talked about how a title could help your audience know what was coming, but sometimes, it was okay to leave it off. I'm hoping that I haven't inspired a rash of {untitled} poetry when they hit adolescence.) I managed to take this picture from the car at a stoplight - I was amazed at the way the sun was going through the tree, practically in a perfect circle. I felt like Monkey.


Last weekend, my husband Lindsey's sister Ashley married Kevin. It was a very pretty wedding. This is Lindsey, Ashley, and Lindsey at the reception. (Why Lindsey has a sister named Lindsey could be an entirely separate post. Or novel.) We had a great time, mostly since Ashley & sister Lindsey's stepfather is a stitch and a half.

This lovely gal (Caroline, for the uninitiated) is on a two-week trip through Vietnam. I am more than slightly jealous (though only of the trip, not of the shots she had to get before she went), and know that she is learning, seeing, & doing amazing things.

Things here are mundane, which is lovely. I'm going to become very well reacquainted with my cube over the next few months, so I promise I'll be a better blogger. :) Heck, maybe I'll even make something.

Happy Saturday.

Ye Olde Weekende - thus far

Spent last night with these lovely people at the Chamblee High School homecoming game (obviously, it's a picture from a different event, as even Chamblee does not have statues). Chamblee skunked the opposition, so much so that it almost wasn't worth watching. The company was great, though, which made it worthwhile.

Today we volunteered for the middle school's Quiz Bowl tournament. (We could also call this event Geekfest 2008.) Since this is how I spent many weekends from, oh, 1992-1998, you could perhaps call me one of them. I will contend, though, that I was much better behaved. It is sort of funny to sit in a room full of kids who get mad at themselves for not remembering that the Sudan is the largest country in Africa.

We also achieved one wedding gift and one baby shower gift. I am clearly getting old and cranky, because my new rule is that even IF something appears on your registry, if I think it's junky or overpriced, I'm not buying it! There was an incident earlier this summer where I really had a hard time buying a gift because I thought the person's china patterns were too hideous for words. I think this means two things:

1. I am a snob, and I should get over myself.
2. I am a snob, and I should get over myself.

Noah's Ark tomorrow - there should be some quality Roy G Bivishness for Monkey!

Happy weekend!

And so it begins...

The training, the traveling...

Today was the first day back "on the road," as we like to call it, and things went pretty well - enthusiastic teachers are the best and totally make my job worth the (increasingly many) days spent starting at a computer screen. Here's hoping tomorrow goes well, too, since the show goes onto the road for real starting on Tuesday!

In other news, AARP has sent me a membership card - with my name and membership number on it! - and is harassing Petey. Since he is a month younger than I am, it is even worse that he's getting junk, too. HA!

If you're so inclined, you should visit Jeanetta's super cute blog to see what she's cooking up for Halloween, and enter her giveaway for a neat composition book cover!

This weekend I'll have cards and tags to show you - whoohoo!

Happy Thursday!

Maybe I'm just bummed because Solzhenitsyn died.

I'm not normally one of those people that has huge Monday issues. In fact, when I was teaching, Monday was usually a decent day. The kids were still sort of calm from having a two-day break (although this particular Monday would have been a different story), and I was more relaxed from the weekend.

I finished my cards for Heather's swap last night, and got them in the mail.

Our linen closet is really and truly organized for the first time, oh, you know, EVER.

My work computer came back today, with a new hard drive, and absolutely zero of anything else, but that's okay. We're going to make it.

I am a little sad because I finally got Marie Antoinette (the Kirsten Dunst version - Amber Atkins, anyone? Anyone? Anyone at all?) on Netflix, but it didn't work, so I had to order the allegedly-immediate replacement.

But in general, nothing is wrong, I'm just feeling puny.

Blame it on Solzhenitsyn - my buddy, my pal, the one I could always rely on to make me put my personal tragedy in perspective. He's off to Russian Orthodox Heaven, where the vodka flows freely, and you never, ever lose your basic human rights and civil liberties. Heck, I bet he even gets to hang out with my other Russian buddy, Yevgenia Ginzburg. Lucky duck.

Have a happier Monday than I am having.

Off into the world...

This is from my finally-finished summer swap - whoopsie! Some things just take quite a bit longer than anticipated. Anyway, it's yellow & pink yo-yos & Scrabble tiles on a Quizmo! card with a pearlized paint wash. Believe me, it sounds fancier than it is, but it was fun to make. It, along with some other vintage goodies, is on its way to Susan!

The poll results are in, and shockingly, no one picked the most direct route from Paris to Copenhagen, which I must admit was actually my secret preference. I'll leave it up for another day or so for your amusement.

Back to real work at work today, which was unfun for all of the reasons that working in state government can be unfun: a "seminar" on Internet/computer security; gigantic technical meltdown requiring us to pack up our computers and go to the other side of the building for an online meeting; having to make hotel reservations three months in advance...

Tomorrow will be better! Good luck to everyone headed back to real school this week!

Happy Monday.

Last week, subtitled, Is Sarah really a dork, or does she just play one on her nonexistent TV?

We painted two rooms. The Sprite-themed room is now really blue. The diaper-themed bathroom is now yellow. If you haven't seen those, let me try to explain.

Our spare bedroom was attacked by two poor-quality painters who decided that they wanted to paint stripes. Stripes of unequal size. Stripes of yellow - yellow EXTERIOR HOUSE PAINT. You can imagine how many coats of primer that took. The bathroom was two different shades of pumpkiny-brown. I won't elaborate, but I will horrify you by saying that our bedroom used to be the same two colors. We took care of the bedroom before we moved in, but kept putting off the bathroom. We also used the appropriate paint on the ceiling, so HOPEFULLY we won't continue to have mildew issues. Oh, wait, we KNOW we won't, because they used craft paint last time. Sheesh. Lindsey also replaced the ceiling fans in both bedrooms. We are very impressed. We also learned that our breaker box works. Don't ask.

I spent the week downtown at a hotel working with teachers on testing stuff. Fortunately, Lennye was there, and no, I didn't pay her to write the nice things she said on her blog. :) It's always great to see Lennye, and we got to talk about writing a bunch, which makes me happy. Of course, we were sitting a table full of elementary school teachers, so when we started the blog-related conversation, I think they thought we were from another planet. {How could they have found that out???}

My cousin Laura came for two days with her friend Kristy. They had fun being tourists, and they tested our new Ikea sleeper-sofa, like the sweet generous souls they are. My brother is in town with some of his friends from UGA, and we all met up last night in the Virginia Highlands for what is probably the latest night I've had in a year. I feel old, especially since I was annoyed by the fact that there were broken stalls in the women's room. I mean, if it's a BAR, obviously, it's not going to be in good shape. I know this, but it still annoyed me.

More work this week, then Thursday Torrence & I drive to New Orleans. I may be slightly excited about that. I may be working on an entire NOLA itunes list for the trip. I may be burning said list onto CDs for all of my friends. That may make me a dork. What do you think?

Summertime (dedicated to Caro)

Boo hiss on this astronomical definition of summer starting in mid-June. If you live where I've (almost) always lived, summer starts when the weather gets hot. That means summer has started. Summer in the city is fun - *contrary to what the song would have you believe - because people get nice & chatty all of a sudden.

I have studied this effect in a number of cities, and it's definitely true for the beginning of the season. Sure, the glow wears off by August, but the first few hot days make people talk to you! It's so true that it appears in Bridget Jones's Diary - and if it's in Bridget, by golly, it's true. (Ask any girl from my immediate generation. They'll agree.) Like Bridget, I've actually witnessed this phenomenon in London. I was there on a little railroad-induced layover before I went to see the Feather in Oxford, and my friend Julia & I sat in Hyde Park and laughed at all of the very pale English people looking in a dazed, squinty sort of way at the blue sky and smiling. (Apologies to Helen Fielding, because I don't know where my copy of the book is, and I have a suspicion that I stole most of that line from her.)

In other news, our hibiscus is blooming. It was prey for some very nasty insects at the end of last summer, and we were afraid it was done for. Fortunately, thanks to some very potent organic plant treatment, it has made a full recovery. I'll get a decent picture tomorrow so you can be impressed, too.

Finally, as if all of that summer funness just wasn't quite enough for you - there's another Sweet Goodness Swap on the loose. Head on over & sign up speedily if you're interested. Pink lemonade! Parasols! POLKA DOTS!!!

Happy Summer!

PS Did I mention I'm done with my real job for the summer? And now I get to do some projects from the "home office"? Could this be the secret source of my joy?? ;)

*This song is one of the MANY that my very hysterical father sings by scrunching up his entire face, stomping his foot, and mumbling through the verses in order to scream the chorus.

Ode to way-too-dark pictures.

One day, I will once again become smart, and take pictures in the afternoon to avoid these issues. I wanted y'all to see the cool journal that Geri made for me as part of our swap. It has a neat vintage French graphic on the cover. Also, you should know that those stripes on the side? Yeah, that's not the pattern on the paper. SHE CUT THOSE OUT AND GLUED THEM ON. As someone whose "scissoring" never got up to snuff, I'm seriously impressed.
This is what I'm using it for - cutting out all those magazine pictures that I want to keep. It's already eliminated about a foot worth of old magazines! And I haven't really even gotten rolling!

Other updates? Work stinks. Visited the EAV farmer's market, where we bought really yummy bread, arugula, a whole bunch of green stuff for Lindsey, and ordered some strawberries for next week. House moderately clean, but laundry disastrous. Can't win them all, it turns out. Also turns out that the end of the school year is crazy even if you're not in the classroom.

Happy Thursday.

old friends

Did you know that I have adored these two since I was very small? My parents had this record, and I had it on tape, and now we can all listen, thanks to the Internet (complete with transition into what we all know as Feelin' Groovy). Lindsey bought me tickets to their reunion tour here in Atlanta, and Paul wore a fairly ridiculous almost-midriff-baring shirt that did not take away from how awesome they still are, always have been, and ever shall be, world without end, amen. Something my father told me when I was very small (along with the fact that if I was mean to him we would go to the New Dad Store, and I'd have a new daddy, which would make me cry AND behave) was that S&G were wonderful because they sounded as good live as they did recorded, and vice versa. He also used this logic to try to explain that one never needed to see them live. ;)

Actually, Art Garfunkel ranks on my top 5 most transcendent live musical experiences of all time:
5) Art Garfunkel, Riverbend, Chattanooga, 2002
4) Better than Ezra, Tipitina's Uptown, New Orleans, Mardi Gras 1999
3) Cowboy Mouth, JazzFest, New Orleans, 2002
2) Torrence Welch, Georgia Tech Orchestra, Atlanta, 2006
1) Wild Women Blues, Paris, 2001

If you really care for me to annotate this list, I could, but I doubt anyone really wants me to.

Anyway, the old friends thought came because I talked to an old friend on the phone tonight, making plans for our NOLA adventure later this summer, a phone call inspired by the amazing things I have heard at the reading conference over the past few days, that reminded me of my much more socially active college self, all of which has steeled my resolve to go back to the classroom after one more year in this job.

With any luck, by this weekend I'll have processed everything enough to write a decent narrative about what I learned, which I will probably post here for anyone who might be interested. I know you'll be waiting with bated breath.

Things I'll be doing soon.

Friends, I'm going to make one of these. Maybe not today, and maybe not tomorrow, but soon, and then I'll have it forever. Isn't that exciting?

Do you remember having quote books? They were all the rage in high school. Mine was in a journal my dance teacher gave me, and I suppose it still exists somewhere at the parents' house.

I have some chipboard covers, and old cool stuff that should just get stuck on a page. I like the idea of not permanently binding it, so you can add more pages & doodles & cool stuff. I definitely like cool stuff, particularly if it's old. Having Midwestern roots is usually a good thing, but ever practical, my relatives didn't do things like save every receipt from every purchase they ever made, so I end up having to buy old billing invoices and things like that.

(Funny story - at the big 50th anniversary blast in Florida - my great uncle had the receipt from their honeymoon night - $13 in downtown Chicago at the Conrad Hilton. Isn't that funny?)

(Funny story 2 - our pastor always calls us "friends" in her sermons, which I figured was part of kindler, gentler Methodism, since she's only a bit older than we are. Her husband (also a Methodist minister) preached last Sunday (they traded churches - funny), and he called us "brothers and sisters," which I definitely haven't heard in many moons. I just chalked it up to him being from AlaBAma.)

Tomorrow is Friday. Phew. I hope I make it through.

Ta-Da!

Thanks to Dawn, queen of the Feathered Nest, and former proprietor of The Plum Tree, a lovely little shop south of Atlanta, for sharing her how-to-change-your-blog-background wisdom with the blogworld.

I feel better just looking at those lotuses.

Knitting was a huge success - I can now cast on, knit, and increase! I've been trying to teach myself to knit from a book for a while now, and it's been an utter failure. Definitely worth the moola to have someone really show me how.

Spring Reading Thing

I am woefully behind on posting my booklist for the Spring Reading Thing at Callapidder Days.

However, sticking to my traditional "better late than never" motto, here you go. Things I'll be reading include:

*Thunderstruck, by Eric Larson
*The Devil in the White City, by Eric Larson (both of those from my brother for Christmas, yikes)
*Sojourner Truth: A Life, A Symbol, by Nell Irvin Painter (for work)
*Invisible Allies, by Alexander Solzhenitsyn (you can take the girl out of Russian history class...)
*The View from Clausen's Pier, by Ann Packer
*A Fine Balance, by Rohinton Mistry (even though it was one of Oprah's)

Now, let's see if I can stay on task & read these books, rather than the others I find between now & summer.

Happy Reading!

Funny coincidences.

Today, Easter Monday, it snowed at lunchtime in Atlanta. Only very briefly, and nothing even thought about sticking, but it's still pretty amazing.

The only other time I've seen snow at Easter was when we were in Eastern Europe (Krakow, Poland, to be exact) during my junior year abroad. We were staying in some sort of dormitory on top of a small mountain about two miles outside of the city. The setting was gorgeous, but four of us were staying in a room with one twin-sized bed, so I woke up with an aching head & back from sleeping on the floor to find a snow-covered mountain below our window. Our friend Heather had secretly made Easter notes & decorations (in Polish she learned from a friend!) and put them up around the room. Not one of those experiences you forget.

I should point out that this was well into April, and that when Caro & I were leaving Paris, it was very warm, so we almost didn't take our winter coats on this trip. Thank goodness for the "oh, well, we'll take them just in case" attitude that we developed shortly before we left for the train station.

There are so many good stories of that trip. I won't share them all today. ;)

Just in case you're missing Paris in the Spring (which is not as lovely as Paris in the fall, but no one ever sings about that), you can sign up for a fabulous swap here.

She's back. Again.

But only briefly.

I did manage, though, to swing two days off in a ROW. I got those to atone for working Saturday & Sunday. Yesterday lasted longer than I thought it would, so poor Lindsey had to go to my Sunday School meeting for me. Yes, you heard right. I have decided to teach Sunday School (again.) I gave it up for quite a while, since I had kids all day long every day, and I just didn't have much left to offer come Sunday morning. Since I don't have kids all day right now, I figured the time was right, plus they really needed someone to start a new class. So, here I am, the new 4 & 5 year old co-teacher. (They've arranged for two of us, but something tells me..... I digress. Ahem.)

Oh, and did I mention that I'm co-chairing Vacation Bible School, too???? That's only a week-long extravaganza, not to mention that I've never done that before.

Here's a question for you church-going readers: how much is expected of the parents of the children in your Sunday School programs? We're in a small quandary over this right now. I'm interested to know if we are unique in that none of the parents are directly involved in the Sunday School program.... They do other things in the church, but not this.

Very shortly, there will be another post, just as soon as some things get loaded into Flickr.... Be patient....

You know you're a social studies geek when....

...voting almost makes you cry.

Now - let me explain. For those of you who don't know, we live in what could technically be called "the hood." In fact, I often call it that myself, mostly to alleviate the concerns of people who think we own a half-million dollar home. There are houses in our larger neighborhood in that price range, so when people hear where we live, that's what they imagine. We live in the not-quite-as-nice portion of the area, which we actually prefer, since our neighbors are: a) friendly; b) not millionaires; and c) the kind of people that do their own yardwork. (I just returned from a work event at the Ritz-Carlton on Lake Oconee, and let me tell you, I have ZERO desire to ever lead that lifestyle. It was ridiculous, but I digress.)

Back to the almost-crying. I don't know how it works elsewhere, but in Georgia, polls are traditionally staffed by civic-minded retirees. They take their jobs very seriously, and some of them look old enough to remember when women got the right to vote. Since we vote electronically, it's very impressive how tech-savvy some of these ladies can be!

Anyway, our neighborHOOD is very racially integrated, and the voting lines today were no exception. What made me almost cry was the thought, though, that most of the people running the polling place were not able to vote until they were well into adulthood. Thanks to the wonders of Jim Crow, the ladies running my precinct would (I'm guessing) probably not have gotten to vote for President until 1968 - at best. And since some of them probably could have voted for FDR in his first term, that's really terribly sad.

Now, you might think, if a system has disenfranchised you for that long, & generally only worked to hurt you for no reason other than the color of your skin, you would probably disengage & say, "forget it." But for these ladies, that didn't stop them. I would love to know about the changes they've seen during their lifetimes, and if they realize how important it is that they are doing the job that they did today. Instead, I just smiled & joked with them. The oldest lady was teasing everyone about having filled out their verification forms wrong, & that we were going to break her fingers off because she was having to do extra writing. I thought that was hysterical, and when she got to me, she started singing, "Mrs. Brown has come to TOWN." That got a big laugh, of course, even though it's not the most original joke in the world.

Moral of the story - if you haven't voted yet, go do it! (And if you don't know for whom to vote, call me & I'll tell you. :) And I hope, L & M, you noticed that I didn't end that last phrase with a preposition.) Should you need more convincing, head over to Amy's, & read her thoughts on voting, too.