Spelling is Important

One of my kids, while working on a story, wrote that his mom didn't like his teacher because the teacher was "funny."
I pulled out the bilingual dictionary, looked up what I thought he meant, and asked if that was the word he was looking for. Yes, he was looking for funny. "But Miss, that is what I wrote."
I had him look carefully at the spelling of his "funny" and he realized he had inadvertantly replaced the u in funny with a nice a.
Our bilingual dictionary stopped just short of that slang word, so I had to show him the word instead.
And yes, fannies are funny, but fanny teachers are the best kind.

A Thought

O Magazine has a feature of "A Million Ways to Save the World." This comment was in this month's issue:

"Our culture has vastly overvalued the lives of the rich and famous. Our children no longer hunger to be good citizens, but merely well-known ones. In our misguided quest for heros, we've made fame the most coveted virtue. But when our heroes cease to do heroic things, and we still venerate them, where does that leave our culture? It is time to restore balance. Let's boycott celebrity and celebrate instead all the unnamed warriors trying to make a positive impact on our daily lives."

--Lynn Nottage

Call your neighbors and rejoice...

Ryan and I have posted NO pictures for quite a while for a simple reason: our camera has been missing. We have called all houses where we visited for the past few months, searched through bags, pockets, drawers, cars, desks, dark corners and even under the bed. Repeatedly. This weekend we were heading up to Colorado to see Alyssa and the boys and decided that we would HAVE to have one, so off to Best Buy we trotted. Twenty minutes later, I reached into the bag I went through at least 3 times...and pulled out...the missing camera. That same day we found our theater guest passes that we had also been frantically looking for.
Colordado was nice, seeing Alyssa, Barry and the boys, meeting up with the cousins so we could go to the 'zeum and look at dinosaurs and dying easter eggs fun colors. Now that we have a camera, we can post pics again. Soon.

The Right Tool for the Job

Ryan found his about 2:30 Tuesday night when trying to get partially dried grout out of "natural stone markings" in our new tile.
Thankfully we have a well-stocked 24-hour Wal-Mart close by. (Emily cover your eyes).

Free Play for kids

A friend passed this article along. Since we are about the only kid-free couple we know, maybe a few of you would like it. :-) I notice a coorelation between t.v. watching/wii playing/video game addiction and a decline in imaginative activities with the kids I teach.

http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=19212514

Sayings from the Fridge

While visiting friends of ours this week we found a quote on their fridge. When asked what it was, the mom replied that these are things she cannot believe she has had to say to her son.

"You play the piano with your fingers not your bottom."

Ryan and I can still giggle about this as we are not yet in need of making such statements. Our day will come.

In Sickness "or" In Health

Ryan said he wished he knew when we got married that our vows said "and." He's had a wife who has been out of commission for most of the past three weeks and he's been my knight.
Ryan has been travelling with his new job. Getting to see a bit more of the world than the President George Bush Turnpike every day. He's been to to Vegas for the Consumer Electronics Show. And to Florida and Atlanta. His job is challenging him, which for him makes it interesting.
This year has already started off fast. Hard to believe it is already February. Anyone with resolutions they have stuck out this far?