Halloween Fun

Josh, Sarah, and Kat had fun at the "Trunk or Treat" last night.

I'm not sure what their costumes were, but they were having fun.

The kids came with Max and Maleena. Maleena shared with us that she is pregnant, due in June.

Max had his little dog "Buddy" with him.

We had our goofy traditional dinner tonight, and a handful of trick-or-treaters.

Happy Halloween! I'm thinking of you both with Dad's appointment tomorrow.

Patty Cake Cats

Click here to watch a funny kitty-cat video - I think you will like it.

Makes me think of your cats, and also Mom teaching the kids "I Am a Funny Little Dutch Girl."

You will love this

Click here to read something so nice about your beautiful daughter. :)

Miss Maddy

Michael sent this short video clip of Maddy:

Happy Birthday Dad

Dear Dad...in honor of your 78th birthday...thought you might get a kick out of this:



Don't worry...I mailed a present...should be there soon!

How to Park a (Matchbox) Car

Polly made these cute fabric "parking lots" for Seth and Charlie with their much-loved matchbox cars.

The boys love to match up the correct color car with the correct color parking space.

Only one problem...Polly used some pink-and-white fabric for 2 of the spaces. The boys don't have any pink cars, and the matchbox company doesn't make any that we could find.

So...I made some pink-and-white cars for the boys.

Take a white car, add some pink fingernail polish, and...voila! I am looking forward to hearing what the boys think. I just put them in the mail this week.

Wrinkled Ladies

Here's a wake-up song to make you laugh. It's a spoof on a hit song called "The Single Ladies."

This one is "The Wrinkled Ladies."

This Busy Week

Oh, what a week. I'm not complaining!! I just thought you'd like to know.

Monday:
8:30 am - Attend hearing at the courthouse. Mark will cover my 1st period class. (It's his prep period.)
12:30 pm - Attend monthly meeting for TOSAs (Teachers on Special Assignment, like me) at the district office
3:30-6:30 pm - Present 3-hour training on reading work samples to the staff of another school

Tuesday:
10:15 am - Attend bi-monthly meeting with the principal and the math coach
1:30 pm - Attend training on how to upload my documents to the district web site
3:30 pm - Annual physical at the doctor's office
6:00 pm - Yoga class
OR
7:00 pm - Ward temple night - we haven't decided which one we're going to yet

Wednesday:
7:30 am-11:30 am - Run the state reading test (online) for 75 juniors and seniors. This is the first day that the online test is open, so we hope the state has all the bugs worked out, and it works ok for us. I'll be doing this with the math coach and our testing coordinator.

Thursday:
12:00-3:00 pm - Attend regional meeting of the Literacy Coach Network for the Portland area (in Portland)
3:30-4:30 pm - Conduct the first meeting of the OCHS Literacy Council - includes me leading the discussion of the 1st chapter of our book study for the year.
5:45-8:30 pm - Babysit Arora

Friday:
Happy Birthday Dad!!
7:45-8:35 am - Teach in-service session on how to proctor the state reading test online
7:45-9:35 am - Mark will teach 2 in-service sessions on how to use the updated online grading program.
9:45-10:35 am - Teach in-service session on how to ask more in-depth questions on reading passages in all classes
10:45-11:35 am - Teach in-service session on how to use "grammar codes" on student papers to help the kids get better at writing with correct spelling, punctuation, grammar
1:00-3:00 pm - Turn in progress-report grades for the first 6 weeks of school.

Saturday:
8:30 am - Talk with MOM!!!

Sure do love you guys. Have a great week. I'll be thinking of you lots, with Dad's appointments.

Homecoming Parade

Tonight was the OCHS Homecoming parade. It goes down Linn Avenue, not far from the house, so we always go to watch and cheer the kids on. This year Mark stayed home, since he wasn't feeling so good, but Julia and I went to enjoy the show. Josh was in it with the Mt. Pleasant kids. It was a great parade!

JROTC led the way with the flags.

We had the mayor...

...and the principal! She was Oregon's Principal of the Year this year. That's her husband driving.

You know she's good, because her name is Nancy. :)

Then the big JROTC group marched by.

The band looked really sharp and sounded good.

The classes had some great floats.

That's "Pioneer Pete" sitting next to the giraffe.

Remember the camel that was in the news because he was stuck in a sink hole? He had to be rescued in the middle of the night by the firemen.

Well, he was in the parade, too!

Here's Josh with the Mt. Pleasant kids.

And the equestrian team brought up the rear.

Too bad they didn't ride their horses.

Go Pioneers!