I Was Sleeping, and Right in the Middle of a Good Dream . .

all at once I wake up . . . . with Jacob telling me that the power is out. Hurricane Ike (a tropical depression by the time it got here) was pelting rain and wind on Fayetteville. Our power was out for about two hours, something that caused Jacob to have an absolute inability to stay asleep. I was sleeping just fine; in fact, I might have slept through the entire storm were it not for the constant updates of "the power's out, the power's back on, the power's out again, it's raining really hard, the wind is really blowing, you should go look outside, etc." This morning, the sun came up, and I couldn't believe it. I thought it was supposed to rain all day long, but it has been absolutely gorgeous! Bright sunshine, blue sky, and cool temps. The high today has been 68 degrees. Just about as close to perfect as you can get.

Now, if you recognized the lyrics from the title, you'll be excited to know that I have been listening to the best of the Partridge family on my ipod this weekend while doing housework. Now, I'm not really old enough for this to be my generation's music; however, I do have older sisters who had this record, and I played it over and over again. John is amazed that I still know every word. John has worked hard over the past few weeks to update music on my ipod, and I now have quite the collection - old music, new music, things I haven't heard for years. Bobby Darrin, Bobby Sherman, Billy Joel, Barry Manilow mixed in with the new Steven Curtis Chapman and the Imperials Greatest Hits. I now know what I want for Christmas - a docking station so that I can force others to listen to my great tunes.

I have had a great school-free weekend (well, almost . . I did work this afternoon on some lesson plans, but they're lesson plans for in the future, and I enjoy doing searching and reading if I'm not under pressure for what I'm doing tomorrow!). I have done some much needed house cleaning (not that you can tell!). I spent several hours cleaning in Hannah's room and closet. I weeded out clothes to consign, clothes to give away, and toys to throw out (shh! I can't let the kids catch me). It's amazing how much I can get done when I don't have my nose buried in a book. I have read about 3500 pages of fiction in the past week. I read the entire Twilight series (I started the first book at the insistence of a student in my reading class; I didn't think I'd like it at all) and I couldn't stop reading until I'd read all four books. Now, if I could just make myself read for my grad class - - history of education. I need to read several chapters on education in the middle ages. Not quite as entertaining as a romance novel.