In a Hurry...

    Preparing to teach my Spanish classes has been keeping me very busy. However, I just HAD to make a comment about the weather. When I walked outside this morning to take Boy 1 and Boy 2 to school, it was actually cool with a slight breeze. It was SO nice. And, last evening, it actually cooled down enough for us to go outside and toss around the football without breaking a sweat. Even though it's going to go into the 90s again today, I can tell we're starting to make that shift to fall. I know I can hang in there for a few more weeks. I hope you have a super day!

Off to the Beach!

   Here's a nice benefit of our new location: we can decide to go to the beach - and then just do it! Mr. Perfect's parents live close to Tybee Island, so we can use them for lodging (on a night such as this) and then hit the beach early in the morning. Afterwards, all we have to do is drive home. Why haven't we been doing this all summer long? With virtually no advance prepwork, this should have been a no-brainer. I suppose we are just a tad slow.
   Here are a few shots of the beach:

Image via Wikipedia

Image by .:[ Melissa ]:. via Flickr

Image via Wikipedia

  I didn't take those, but I did take these the last time we were there:

     I hope you have an absolutely super weekend.

Forward Thinking

   "Forward Thinking" is usually a liberal buzzword (bleck!), but the forward thinking I'm guilty of this morning is of fall. Yes, autumn. I wonder if they have that here in So Georgia.  Here's what I'd like to see in a few weeks:

Image by Bill Swindaman via Flickr

Here's what I'm going to see:

Pine trees are nice, but most of the pine trees around here were planted in rows. They're harvested about every 20 years, and then the lot will be either replanted or turned to farmland. The problem is that they are planted so close together that they don't grow to be nice, full trees. They look like brown and green q-tips.  

   I have been ready to pull out our fall clothes since mid-July, and I suspect it will be mid-October before I actually need to do it. Yesterday made it even worse - we watched our first football games of the season. Somehow, that just makes me think of fall. One annoyance of our little school is that the football season starts August 26 and ends November 5. It will barely be cool by then! Maybe our team will make the playoffs, so we can get a few extra games.

Last fall in So Georgia (before we moved). I miss you, my fall clothes!

Ready or Not...

   Well, ready or not, I've got students. Today is our first full day of school. I'm nervous about dealing with people of this age (feels strange calling them children) for the first time. What kind of impression do I want to make with them? I think I'm going to go for "she's nice, but you have to follow her rules." I have to set the right tone with my 6th period class; I pretty much have the ENTIRE 10th grade in my Spanish 1 class. Lord, have mercy! They have got to behave. Two of the boys in that class speak more Spanish than I do with one of them being from SPAIN! (WTH!) Thankfully, both of them seem super nice and respectful, so maybe they will be more helpful to me than trying to point out how little I know.


   Here's a picture of me with Boy 1 and Boy 2 on the first day of school. Aren't they so cute? 

   Any-hoo. No matter how it goes with the students, I must say that I have met some very nice people this week at the school.


   Ya'll take care!


P. S. Mom and Alison, you WILL want to check this out:
http://thepolymathchronicles.blogspot.com/2010/08/feasting-friday-win-lunch-in-your.html

A Must See

Have you seen this movie?

Cover of Julie & Julia

If not, you must. It's called Julie and Julia, and it is so good. Mr. Perfect and I both loved it. Amy Adams is so cute, and Meryl Streep played Julia Child perfectly. It was inspiring on multiple fronts and just plain entertaining. One day, if we ever build this house we've been talking about so I can get my kitchen things out of storage, we've decided we're going to buy a copy of the book and try to work our way through it. 

Cover via Amazon

Here's a link to the Julie/Julia blog, where it all started. Nobody here but us servantless American cooks...
http://blogs.salon.com/0001399/2002/08/25.html


Here's a blog post that a blogger wrote about Julie's blog. ha!
http://www.johncow.com/what-watching-julie-and-julia-taught-me-about-business-dont-laugh/

My Kids are Zombies

   I'm ashamed to admit this, but my children are officially tv zombies. It's been so hot here in South Georgia this summer, and we have not adjusted to it yet, so Boy 1 and Boy 2 have spent a lot of time in front of Nickelodeon and The Disney Channel. Their favorite show is The Penguins of Madagascar. In case you don't know about this hilarious show, it's a spinoff of the Madagascar movies. The great thing is that it will keep the adults laughing without being the least bit inappropriate.

Image via Wikipedia

A close runner-up to the Penguins is Disney's Phineas and Ferb. It's about two brothers and the crazy things they do over their summer vacation.

Image via Wikipedia

My husband and I agree that both of these shows are shows that we're happy for the boys to watch, and, if we HAVE to watch with them, we don't mind.
    Now that school is starting back up, I'm glad that our "No TV During the Week" policy will go back into effect.  However, it's a little sad to me that those familiar penguin voices and Phineas and Ferb tunes won't be a regular (and unending) part of my day anymore. Thank you Nick and Disney for getting us through this first hellaciously (is that a word?) hot summer down south.

My New Job

     I have a new job, and I start tomorrow. I'll be teaching two classes of high school Spanish at the little private school here in our new town. Boy 1 and Boy 2 go to school there, so it's the perfect thing for me. About three years ago, I became interested in learning Spanish so I could teach it to my boys. Very soon, I realized that I LOVED learning the language. Hopefully, next year I'll pick up a couple more classes and even write the Spanish curriculum for the entire school - they need it. So, I'll get to teach my own kids (eventually) plus many other kids. Super!
     I'm not sure what I'm going to wear, and this is making me nervous. Having moved to south Georgia from Virginia, my summer wardrobe is not very extensive and mainly consists of short and t-shirts. Based on what I've seen other teachers at this school wearing, I won't need to be dressed up. But, I don't want to be too casual either. That wouldn't be very professional, in my opinion. It's a long time until it gets cool enough for me to pull out my fall and winter clothes, of which I have plenty. What should I do?