He's A Hero.

So, the fiance has revealed his true identity (...we all had suspected it from the beginning...)

"By your powers combined..."

"...I am...Captain Planet!"

"The Power is Yours!""
(Accompanying Planeteers not pictured)

Sure, Captain Planet is looking a little skeevy these days, and he's graduated to boxers, but he's still a favorite of mine.

Happy almost Halloween!

Why? Because It's So Awesome.

So my dear friend Eileen sent me an email today that made this day awesome. Now I would like to spread some of the love. Enjoy!












If only these were letters from my classroom...my goodness.

Mountain Day without the Mountain.

I have been nostalgic for the alma mater lately. It just so gorgeous in that neck of the woods in the fall. Mountain Day is a class day when the Williams community sleeps in and climbs up a mountain to enjoy the fall foliage. Apple cider and singing ensues.

Well, couldn't enjoy a Williams Mountain Day, but I did get around to taking a stroll around our neighborhood lake with my camera. Looks like fall is here!
Anyway, sorry for the long absence -- I have been pretty overwhelmed this past week. But! I did manage to go gown shopping with my pal Eileen on Friday. It felt so surreal that I didn't get emotional about it until I got home. I did find some things I liked -- wee!

I'll be posting again sometime soon, but Jamie's kicking me off the computer. Lamebutt. Here are some more pictures of our lovely neighborhood.

Time for Reflection.

While I know that teaching is hardly one of America's most dangerous jobs, sometimes it is hard to swallow all of the violence that surrounds our children and still feel like we are able to protect them. When they walk through my classroom doors, those kids become my kids.

Every day, my kids come into the classroom with so much worry and sadness and I work to help them leave it behind for seven hours. Still, my heart breaks when one student cries about going home everyday, or another tells me he has to miss school the next day because he has to go to juvenile court.

Last week, was a particularly bad one for Baltimore City Public Schools and included two school shootings. One of which was mere blocks from my school and the other was in a third grade classroom. When 8 year-olds are bringing guns to school we need to pause. We need to take action to fix our broken school system. We need to make it everyone's responsibility to protect these -- our -- children.

Celebrities!

Jamie's younger brother recently informed us that we were mentioned in the school newspaper (you have to scroll down about two-thirds of the page to see us mentioned). Yes, I realize that my high school has a school newspaper that publishes online -- it's a little redonk. As half of a couple that was extremely schmoopy all over the high school campus, I am slightly mortified.

I completely agree with Ms. Cuseo, though. I think high school couples do stand a "better" chance if they go to separate colleges. I say "better" even though it's still a snowball's chance anyway.

AH! Late for work.

Getting Warmer...

Today:

Robert: Ms. U, is you from Japan, China, Mexico, or Baltimore?

Ms. U: Actually Robert, the question is "are you from Japan, China, Mexico, or Baltimore?" To answer your question, I am from California.

R: [running back to his group] Daaaaaaang! She [sic] from The O.C.! And she get here early every day too!

U: [just proud that Robert knew that Japan and China were different countries]

It's progress...As intelligent and capable as my students are, most of them have no concept of the world beyond Baltimore. They consider it a country and are always shocked when I tell them that Texas is not a different country and neither is New York.

Also today, the light of my life brought me flowers! Not only that, but my favorite color roses! For no apparent reason! Exclamation point! Aren't they beautiful?


And I didn't even need to pick a fight and pretend to be mad at him to get them....not that I'd do that or anything...

Slap-Happy.

So I may be getting a little too excited about learning how to put videos in my blog. Deal with it -- there is nothing exciting going on in my life right now.

Anyway, these guys have put out a bunch of videos and every once in a while, one comes along that makes me laugh and laugh and laugh (and laugh). This one was one of them.

Maybe it's because I have never heard the "interrupting sloth" joke before. Or maybe it's because these guys remind me of so many people in my life. Perhaps its because the interrupting cow joke was a personal favorite of my youth. Or maybe it's because I'm incredibly immature. While I didn't laugh as hard for this one as I did their Mother's Day video, I felt as though it was worth posting. Also: because I don't want to lose the two readers I may have gained in the past week (hi guys!) by falling off the face of the planet.

Ready to Pump [CLAP] You Up.

So, many posts ago, I told you all about the sweater that I had been knitting for Jamie since FOREVER ago. Well, I failed to mention that I actually did get around to completing it over a year ago. I had to wait around until my mom could sew the pieces together for me -- because I suck at sewing -- and it was then that the true misfortune that is my first sweater unveils itself.
Here is Jamie in a corny modeling pose. This is the angle that is most flattering for the sweater. It actually looks like something that he might wear in public. But, turn slightly to the right and you get an unfortunate view of gorilla arms. Somehow, the sleeves are uneven and have like twice as many stitches as they are supposed to. Consequently, Jamie's arms look huge. Almost like Hans and Franz's arms might look. Let's compare:





Yep. Hans and Franz.

With a different pose, Jamie has dreamy "princess shoulder poofs". As much as I might enjoy the thought of Jamie with princess poofs, I could not let him venture out into public with said poofs.


Fortunately, my mom graciously offered to remove the poofs with her knitting/sewing wizardry. At this point in the sweater's history I was through looking at it. You'll be happy to know that it is back in Jamie's hands where he can go on to make more goofy poses in it this upcoming winter. So ends the saga of my first sweater.

Jamie is a good sport for letting me photograph him in the sweater. What a catch.

"Make Like a Tree and Get Outta Here"

So I stumbled upon this a couple days ago and since I am nothing if not an ardent Back To The Future fan I thought I'd try a little experiment. Let's see if it works...


Did it work? (It did!) Anyway, it's nice to see that Biff Tannen (aka: Thomas F. Wilson) is still up to something. All I had seen him in since BTTF was the video for Back To The Future: The Ride at Universal Studios that they play before you actually get on -- it made me a little sad.

Sibling Rivalry.

Oh, it's on.

Apparently Dave and Kathy decided to steal our toothpaste.

Place where toothpaste was last seen. Note my toothbrush sans toothpaste.

I am considering running to CVS to get more toothpaste, but I was also falling asleep while reading to my students today so I'm thinking I may just floss/mouthwash and bypass the brushing in favor 7 hours of sleep tonight. But that just seems gross to me. WAH.

[stops crying long enough to check if big brother feels guilty yet]

This means war.

Cheap as Free Haircut.

Sorry for the hiatus. I was distracted by a beloved sibling and sibling-in-law for the past two days. Yes, Dave and Kathy finally made it to D.C. (which is undoubtedly the highest point of their cross-country adventure). Unfortunately, work prevented me from actually spending much time with them, but I tried to make the most of it. We ate lots of food and both Dave and I managed to gather the courage necessary to do a serious number to his head.

I regularly cut Jamie's hair and will sometimes venture to cut Scott's. These haircuts are different for two reasons: for Jamie, I'm the one who has to suffer looking at a bad haircut. For Scott, anything is an improvement (I kidd -- sorta.) But Dave's hair? Scary stuff.

But also fun. Made sure to give him some stupid-looking haircuts along the way. At one point he just had really long bangs. The end result?
Not my best work, but I take much comfort in knowing that it'll be perfectly grown out by the time he gets back to his home. There's a whole country to cross in the meantime.

And now: a drunken bear. (A bunch of teachers were laughing about this in the lounge today -- being the only one without cable I was out of the loop...again.)