Escaping the Plain by Plane

What does one do in mid January to escape the doldrums of the frozen tundra of the North Central Great Plains? Fly away on an imaginary plane to exotic places, that's what! And it's even better when you can get all your friends to imagine along with you!


This past week, to celebrate Homecoming, we did just that at our school. We all boarded LCS Airlines, taxied down the runway, and lifted up into the wild blue yonder.

FIRST STOP: Hawaii.

You can't imagine what a welcome relief the warm sun, ukuleles,


Grass skirts, bright flowers, and coconut bras were. COCONUT BRAS!?! Yes, even the coconut bras.


Someone who couldn't FIND a flower lei came as a bird of paradise.

SECOND STOP: China

Miss Emily made sure we heard her gong all day long. She added a musical dimension to her travels. A ukulele on Monday, gong on Tuesday, guitar on Wednesday, and sleigh bells on Thursday.

THIRD STOP: Australia

G'day mates! Welcome Down Under!!!

We donned our best western wear.

Denims, plaids, bandannas, 10 gallon hats and - - -

Boots.

Now, who do you suppose wore those red cowboy boots??? She wishes she still had her red 10 gallon hat to go with them!

FOURTH STOP: Antarctica

Miss Debbie, the English teacher, came as one of the Antarctic natives.


The rest of us made do with the warmest winter wear we could find.


"Jeepers, creepers! Where'd he get those peepers!! Jeepers, creepers! Where'd he get those EYES???"

FIFTH STOP: Right back in the good ole USA

We wore all our school colors, emblems and logos.

The final and favorite Homecoming week competition - - - Air Band. My seniors, seen here practicing, did their own interpretation of "Blue Man in Blue World."

Next week - - - it's back to the frozen tundra.
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I Blame it on a Brain Ingesting Alien From Outer Cyber-Space

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I don't know HOW I could have done it!!!

How could I win a drawing, receive the prize in the mail, take photos of it, and then FORGET to post them?????

Well - - - now you know FOR REAL AND CERTAIN who you are dealing with here!


Weeks ago now, Roslyn had a give-away over at her place. I won this darling little blue polka-dot (I'm told polkas are all the rage now) vintage apron!!! AND - - - as an added extra bonus surprise, she added one of her gorgeous quilted pot holders.

Don't they look fashionable draped over my antique pottery brown-eyed susan baking dish?????

I love them both, Roslyn! Thank you very much.


Here's where the pot holder has found a home - - - hanging from a magnet on the side of my refrigerator, right next to the oven mitt.

Yes - - - that IS a Christmas print on the oven mitt - - - but that is the mitt I use year around, again - - - YOU KNOW WHO YOU'RE DEALING WITH HERE!!!

As far as I've been able to discern, the Christmas print does not interfere in any way with the utility of the mitt - - - even in the heat of July.

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Football Friday Winners

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All fall long I play "Football Friday" with my classes and with some of the faculty. Football Friday is a college football games predicting game that I made up. Each week I choose 9 of the "big" games, place them on a slip of paper, talk about each game for a few minutes, then let the students pick who they think will win.

Each Monday I give them back their "scored" slips. A better ranked team win is worth 5 points and an underdog win is worth 10. I keep individual and class records.

When the bowl games came along, I divided them into two groups and we "picked" ten games in each group.

Monday was the day to reveal the CHAMPIONS.


I was so excited to find FOOTBALL ribbon to decorate the treat bags for my 7 champs. And of course, inside the bag is CHOCOLATE - - - nothing less would do for a Football Friday Champ.


The trophy for the wining class - - - this year my Biology Class - - - was a leather football luggage tag, adorned with more of the football ribbon, marked on one side "Champs" and "Football Friday," and on the other side 2010, Biology, Class of 2013. It will join last year's trophy on display in my room.

You might not think this is a big deal - - - but the kids seem to enjoy it, and they all want THEIR class to win. The class that won last year periodically makes sure their trophy is in full view at the front of the class.

At parent-teacher conferences I had one dad who THANKED me for giving his 6th grade daughter a LOVE for college football because she will watch games with him.

Now, drum roll please!!! Introducing the FOOTBALL FRIDAY CHAMPS!!

(Disclaimer - - - if you think our choice of clothing is a bit odd, it's Homecoming week, but I'll talk more about that in a later post.)


Miss Shelli beat me by .39 of a point to win the faculty/staff category. She cares not one bit for college football and just randomly circles teams she likes.


The Grand Champion of the School (first place over ALL the other participants) Miss Alli, an eighth grader. She also picks teams by colors, names, mascots, and what "feels" right that week.


6th Grade Champ - - - Miss Olivia. How does she pick her teams? Well, lets just say there's a PATTERN emerging here - - - colors, names, mascots, etc.



Class of 2010 winner, Miss Jerolyn. She ALWAYS picked Clemson, since she has South Carolina Ties - - - after that, you guessed it - - - colors, names, etc, etc,


Sophomore Champ - Miss Rebekah. Her method of choosing is just like all those I've described above. She must really have her technique down pat, because she was the School GRAND CHAMP last year.


Freshman Camp - Miss Jessie. True to the pattern of previous winners, she uses random things like color and mascots to pick her winners.

Interesting that 6 of my 7 winners were females. I PROMISE I did not rig the results!


Junior Champ - Ted. Finally, one male winner. But, guess what??? He doesn't care about football and just like the lady champs, his choices were all random.

All of us who LOVE college football, and think we "know" how to pick - - - we all lost.
Just goes to show you - - - THAT'S WHY THEY PLAY THE GAME. (Versus just giving credit for the win to the "better" team.) On any given week, any well prepared team has a 50/50 chance of walking away a winner!

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I'm Alive and Harried

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Because I haven't posted since Sunday, I've been getting messages from my bloggy friends asking if I'm OK.

I am OK - - - other than feeling like THIS:

(Photo from lagringajoya.blogspot.com)

Harried. Or perhaps I should say "feathered" not "hair-ied" (pun intended).

It has nothing to do with my beloved bloggy buddies and everything to do with the fact that it is Homecoming week at school.

Lots of busy. Lots of excitement. Lots of deadlines. Not much time.

More later - - -
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Sunday Rerun - Pride Will Kill SOMETHING

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A big thank you to Chari over at Happy to Design for hosting Sunday Favorites.

Pride Goeth Before - - -
(First posted on 8/31/07)

A DEAD lawn.

Greg, known to most of you as Fisherhubby, loves his yard. He fertilizes. He kills the dandelions. He mows (only AFTER it rains) with the blade set high. He never mows if it is dry.

Usually his lawn is the envy of the neighborhood. People have STOPPED in front of our house to ask what he does to keep his lawn so green. Once the professional lawn care guy who was working on the neighbor's yard asked him how he kept it so green, said Greg was ruining his reputation since our lawn was so much greener than the rest of the neighborhood.

Well no more - - -


This is how our lawn looks today!!!

Earlier in the summer Greg decided to wage war on the ONE weed in his lawn that he couldn't seem to get rid of - - - - CRAB GRASS. So, he sprayed the lawn with a product that claimed to kill ONLY crab grass. I asked him how the herbicide was going to know crab grass from the more desirable kind - - - - I was ignored.

After weeks of no rain, we thought our yard, like ALL the yards in Marion was brown because it needed water. BUT - - - the rain came and we still have a brown lawn. Actually, if you look closely you will see it isn't quite ALL brown - - - there's a LITTLE green in there - - - -

Look closely - - -

Look VERY closely - - -

Do you see it??? - - -



Do you recognize this small green patch?



Or this one???



Or how about this one???

Do you know what they are? These tiny patches of green in our otherwise dead lawn?

CRAB GRASS!!!!!



The neighbor's yards are green again.


Even the empty lot across the street is green again, and it gets NO CARE except an occasional mowing with a tractor!!!

NO ONE is jealous of our grass any more.

Hmmmmm - - - I wonder if there could POSSIBLY be a lesson in here somewhere?!?

Addendum: Remember, this is an OLD post. Maybe on another Sunday rerun I will show the contortions he went through to FIX his lawn, but in the meantime, do not lose any sleep over Fisherhubby and his yard - - - it is all better now.


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One if By Land, Five if By Snow - - -

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Yesterday morning, after the snow stopped and the gray clouds rolled away,


The sun shone out of a clear blue sky, giving me this view through my classroom window.


Pristine, sparkling, Indiana farm land blanketed in white.


Quite a bit of white, as you can see if you look at the base of this trash barrel. Looks like about 8 inches to me.

Look closely, my camera lens captured a few of the diamonds sparkling on top of the snow! Frost jewels.


At home all is snow quiet too. Not a track in sight. The stillness of a snow covered vista is stillness indeed.

But wait - - - - what's that I hear? Is it a bird? Is it a plane? Is it a chain saw????


Are they monsters? Are they masked gunmen? I hope there won't be a massacre tonight!!!

Oh dear, there went my pristine snow and my undisturbed stillness.


Well, they LOOK friendly, making those thumbs up signs!


Ah ha! It's just three of my Super-Students and two of their friends swooping in on their snowmobiles to say hi.

Left to right they are Erica, Evan, Tyler, Emily and Michael.

Stay tuned - - - Emily and Evan say they're coming back today to swoop ME away on one of those machines.

I'll let you know if the "old lady" survives.

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Special Delivery For Dawn

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But you can read too!

Ten Just-for-Fun Things That Make Me Happy

(In no particular order)

1) Wisconsin

2) College Football

Especially my Badgers.
Especially when they WIN.

3) Sportin' my gear.

4) Friends
Old and new

5) Blogging
Reading YOUR comments
Building relationships

6) Snow
And the two hour delays it sometimes brings.
(photo taken yesterday afternoon in my own backyard)

7) New boots to wear in the snow.

8) Sitting before a fire in my comfy recliner
Wearing cozy jammies
And fuzzy slippers
Wrapped in my sexy leopard skin snuggie
Sipping a warm latte.


9) NOT smelling any cheap cigar smoke


10) These pictures:

Especially when I hear their little voices
Calling me "Kamma."

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