Creeeepy

I don't know if you can tell from the picture, but I had my eyes dilated today-see my HUGE pupils? Kevin took this picture of me on his iphone, in a restaurant, so it may not be really easy to see. He actually got my whole face, but it was a little too close up for my taste, so I cropped it, which probably makes it creepier. I had a margarita with dinner, just so you know. It was one of those days.

Like Mother, Like Son

Well, we have started the school year with a bang. I got a call at school today, from the secretary at the boys' school. Riley was in the office. Seems he fainted in Science class, and he needed to go home. I was on prep, and my husband was working from home, so he went to pick him up, and I came home and checked him out too. I told Kevin to take him to the doctor. He did. She asked if fainting was something that ran in the family... Ummmm...well...yes. I kinda do that, but only if something is yucky-blood, broken bones, injured knees where the paramedics are poking around looking for "pieces" on the floor of Stein Mart. He may come by it naturally. Turns out, he has the flu. He'll be home today and tomorrow. I should really call that science teacher and apologize-I think he's new. He's feeling better (Riley is-and hopefully the science teacher too), but we are keeping him low to the ground, just in case!

Here's regular Riley.

This is what he looks like when he faints. I wasn't there to catch him this time (like I did this summer). He landed on the floor. Poor guy. Poor science teacher. Oh, I should tell you that we faked these pictures-you know, for the drama. I don't THINK I would grab the camera and take pictures of such an event, but you never know.

Did you feel it?

I didn't. We had a small earthquake tonight at about 9 pm. A 4.0 centered in Alamo, CA. Kevin felt it. I thought I heard something-there's a noise associated with them-maybe it's the rumbling. Hanging things were swinging, but only a little. The boys didn't feel it-that's good. Riley would have been up all night reliving it. I have no pictures to prove we had an earthquake-nothing broke. Just a little shaker to remind us that the earth moves every so often. We have had 2 little aftershocks too. The 10:00 news is funny. They want people to call in with their "earthquake stories." It was just a baby one.

First Day of School

I think we were one of the last schools to finally start. Today was our official first day. The boys had a great day-they both really like their teachers. My day was good too. I have to whip some kids into shape, but they were pretty cute. Here are some pictures from this morning, before leaving for school.

Quinn, a big, bad 1st grader-he's bad ass!!

Riley, A calm, collected, thinking 5th grader.

Brothers. Awww.

Here's one Kevin took at school this morning.

I'm Ready

I am officially ready for the start of the 2008/2009 school year. I have my class list. I have my supplies. My room is clean. The desks are clean (for now). All I need are the students! They come tomorrow!

Here's my nice, clean desk, with my first week's lesson plans.

My reading chair.

Here's the view of the left side of my classroom.

Here's the right side of the room. I don't like the kids in table groups at first. Once they start scooting their desks all over creation, then I'll move them into table groups. I just love this "E" backwards "E" grouping.

If things get scary, there's always my "easy" button! I have some last minute things to do tonight, and I have to make sure the boys are all set for their first days as well. Lunches to make, supplies to sort, outfits to figure out (mine too!), Ugh! It's going to be a busy night. Why am I still sitting here?

California State Fair

We left the house a little after 8:00 am this morning, and headed for Sacramento, to the State Fair. It's a 2 hour drive. We made it to the state fair right around 10:00 am, and we got to park under covered parking! We were very excited about this as Sacramento is usually really hot in the summer. We were freezing. It finally warmed up, but it wasn't bad at all-it was way hotter in Dublin, where we stopped for dinner!

The theme was based on Hollywood, which we thought was really cool. They had an Indiana Jones exhibit which both boys LOVED. They also had some fake movie sets, exhibits with movie props, the alien character (from Alien-or was it Predator? I don't know, get them confused. I know ET), and lots of picture spots.

Here's Quinn in a "cornbox." Instead of sand, they filled the box with giant corn and the kids went to town.

We saw some really cool African Longhorns, and Texas Longhorns. Look at how cute that baby is! I saw a Texas Longhorn last summer, in Texas, but it ran from me. These were kinda friendly.

Riley milked a goat. Quinn was in line too, but chickened (kidded?) out. Riley actually squirted out some milk too. I tell you, he's a boy of many talents. They were right there with the hand sanitizer too!

We had a really nice day. We normally go to the county fair, but missed it this year. We had never been to the state fair. I think we'll go next year too!

Disturbances at the fair

We had a great day at the California State Fair! There were a few things that disturbed me however...

This guy disturbs me, Arnold-our governator, NOT my husband...at least mostly.

Awwww. What a cute horse! Horses should be cherished... what's that on his fence? A poster board? Let's try to get a closer look...

OH My! The poster board is made by Elmer's. Isn't that a GLUE? Are they trying to torture the poor horses? Glue and horses? It's a good thing that poor guy can't read!

Ah, well, we had fun, and no horses were injured during the writing of this.