Happy Birthday Jacob!

Tomorrow is Jacob's 9th birthday! It's hard to believe that he is already nine years old! This year, we opted not to have an official birthday party with invitations, lots of kids, etc. Instead, we invited a couple of friends from school to go with us to Fast Lanes in Lowell for some laser tag, bowling, and pizza. I think all of the boys had a great time.

We were able to document the fun with some of our new Panasonic equipment. All of our stuff was delivered yesterday afternoon. It was like Christmas! So many boxes with so much unbelievable stuff. We had permission to open and begin using the cameras, video camera, and laptop. So, of course, we have jumped right in trying to figure out how everything works. We have to wait for the official Panasonic visit this next Wednesday to hook up the television, dvd player, and home theater system. We managed to unload the old tv armoire, move it to the garage (with only minor trouble), and put the new furniture where it needs to be. Unfortunately, the new entertainment center still has one piece that won't be delivered until late December, so it may look a little funny until then. Don't forget to check out livinginhd.com. The latest contest deadline is next Friday, October 31st. Enter - - you might just win!

2-4-6-8- Who Do You Appreciate?

Samuel! Samuel! We were cheerleaders at yesterday's football game as we watched Samuel rack up four touchdowns! Football season is almost over, and Samuel has had a blast learning to play. He really loves being coached. I just wish we had more time to practice with him and that either John or I could throw a decent pass. Last weekend, one of my students who lives in my neighborhood came over and played football in the backyard with Samuel. Boy, did Samuel love the attention!

My school has gotten some new, fun little video cameras - the flip video. I took one to yesterday's game and took this video:

The Face of the Earth

I haven't really fallen off . . . . I have just been really busy. I have pushed the blog world to the back burner for a while. My schedule has remained pretty much the same, but it seems like things are flying by at warp speed. Since my last post, I have been to Little Rock for Praxis Assessor recalibration, an all day training that required me to give up my ticket to the Florida football game (we lost anyway) and be gone all day long. Missing a Saturday at home put me woefully behind on chores of all kinds. I more than made up for it this weekend as I did a whopping twelve loads of laundry! (and another one already tonight)

I go to Silver Dollar City with 110 7th graders on Thursday. I'm really hopeful that the weather will be nice. It has been so warm, and we've only had a little rain. But, it always seems to rain on field trip days.

On Sunday, I go to Hot Springs for the AAMLE conference. Another teacher and I are presenting at the conference; we're doing a session on using GPS units in the middle school classroom. From there, I leave the conference early on Tuesday to drive to Ft. Smith for Pathwise Trainer recalibration. I have a mid-term in my graduate class on Wednesday night and parent teacher conferences on Thursday & Friday. In the midst of this, we were supposed to have the Panasonic people come and install all of our goodies on Thursday, the 23rd (I've rescheduled all of my Thursday conferences), and I got an email today saying that they might not be able to come until the next week. Thus, the craziness . . . . . .

John took the boys on a cub scout campout at Camp Orr (on the Buffalo River) this past weekend. They seemed to have a great time. I was overjoyed that the boys could have some quality time with their dad. I must admit that I was also overjoyed to have a day and half with just me and Hannah. We called it our "girl's weekend." Saturday night, we rented Nim's Island and watched it in our jammies. So fun.