Kelly Bee’s Neighborhood

With still an hour till we close
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• 23:58 @megancanale twitpic.com/urg8m - cute!! werent you blonde before though? or am i just spacey... #
• 09:20 @alice1059 it always sounds like he says johnathan steelemoore, cuz he says "more with bj howie and erica" so fast. #
• 10:01 My berry is working again, i feel so much better now! #
• 10:01 @megancanale twitpic.com/ut8p5 - oh em gee thats too cute. #
• 10:18 @molliemoon yah I woke up to 16 crap emails, I felt better (: #

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So I had the best idea for Christmas this year. I decided to go to Shutterfly and create a photo book of Bella's first year and send it to all of the grandparents for Christmas. (I hope my parents aren't reading this as they have not gotten theirs yet). My line of thinking. It's easy, not too expensive, a little self obsessed but they will like it, who wouldn't want a coffee table book of their grandchild to show off when people came over. Boy was I wrong. On so many levels. First of all it was not easy. It took me eight solid hours to put that damn thing together. By the time I was done I was cursing the idea. However it looked good and I was happy with it. When it arrived I ogled over it. I am a picture freak. So we put together a disk with all of the pictures on it and a DVD with all of the video we had of Bella's first year and sent it out. Bryan's family cannot wait until Christmas to open presents so they have been calling to comment on the book when they received it. His grandparents called and raved about it and thanked us repeatedly. I gushed because I put so much work into it and I was happy that they loved it.

His dad called and said "so we got our gift today and we had a question...why are there no pictures of Suzanne in it?

Jaw drop.......

First thought 'Uuummmm... because the F*ing book is not about Susanne it was titled Bella's first year if you don't like it send it back and I will keep it at work where I will treasure it.'

Next thought 'because you live in New Mexico and have seen her twice since she was born and it is a 25 page book that spans 12 months, 4 days of which were not significant enough to dedicate more than a page to.' (and I did document both trips they took down here I just did not happen to have a picture of Suzanne).

Actual answer nice and polite "because I did not have a good picture of Suzanne. She was taking pictures at the same time that I was and therefore was not in the pictures that I had. 100% true but OMG why is it about her.

I would never in my life get a gift from someone and question it. I was dumb founded. Bryan on the other hand was laughing. Why? Because he totally called it. when I was done with the book he noticed that there were no pictures of Suzanne in it. We went back and looked through the pictures that we had and I did not want to use any of the ones that I had of her (approx two from bad angles with bad light). I said it's okay we put that she was here in the wording mentioned her by name (the stupid name she wanted to be called 'Grammy') I didn't leave her out. He told me flat out that they would ask about it. They would be upset. I told him he was wrong, it was a gift they would be thankful for it and cherish it.

I WAS WRONG. I know that it is small and petty but I am so irritated. It really makes me not want to anything for them ever ever ever again.

Sorry I haven't updated in a millennia, i've been working on this quilt for my parents, non-stop for a week.  and when I wasn't quilting I was preparing for an INTERVIEW!  That's right people, I actually got an Interview, and it went really well!  The job is with the school district and I'd be helping mostly at-risk high school kids stay on, or get on track to graduate, and get kids who dropped out back in school.  right up my alley right?  Last I heard they were checking my references so it sounds good!  All I want for Christmas is a job with benefits.

here is the quilt in progress.

80"x80" denim

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Or any other body part for that matter. Now it was another story for Alex and Josiah.....

Going...going...

Gone!

Josiah falls down.....again.

Fancy Skating Tori

Steve trying to make me skate faster

Ashley ice skating

Sophia about to break out some fancy moves....or not

Josiah not falling

Mr. Bill Ice Skate

Surfing

I was watching a show on Hawaii with my parents tonight on the Smithsonian Channel (they get waaayy cooler channels than I do), and watching a surfer catch a wave, thinking, “That’s physics in action.”  The way the surfer has to understand the physical motion of the wave, calculating for speed and force, adding in the importance of placement for the perfect balance at the point where the wave crests and the barrel is just beginning.  It was utterly beautiful.

My students believe that physics is something in a classroom lab.  It doesn’t exist outside the walls of the school.  Neither do the reading strategies I offer them, the scientific process, the history lessons they learn, or the books they read.  They kind of understand that they’ll have to do math in the “real world”,  but since they have calculators, even that is beginning to show a real loss of importance.  I have no way of showing them the applications of what we learn in school because of the very fact that we are in school.

Upon reflection, I am beginning to realize just how important a field trip really is.  Not only is it a way to emphasize a lesson’s worth outside the classroom walls, it is ideal for information synthesis.  One of the things I really think we are missing in schools is the ability to show the students that nothing is in isolation.  It’s like all of the lessons are in a vacuum, and I think there is a great importance in showing how the idea of physics meets surfing or shipbuilding, how history is related to literature and psychology and politics, how chemistry is related to art and music.

I wonder if the idea of field trips was no longer considered a 4-letter word would our students begin to naturally acquire the skills and thoughts we find so important?  That real world application seems to be lacking in the current model – and I think to the students’ disadvantage.

Chicken butt!

If you would have told me, at any point in my life, that there would come a time when I brought a chicken into my house to wash and blow-dry her tush, I'd have looked at you like you had lobsters crawling out of your ears. Sure, I've washed a lot of chicken in my time, but never the live variety..and I've never blow-dried one, live or otherwise. Well, this afternoon, I did just that.

Poor Esther had made a mess of herself. If it were a chicken like Pearl, I'd have just waited until she cleaned herself up during one of the million and two dust (mud) baths she gives herself everyday. She's a pretty white chicken when she's all cleaned up but she prefers the bad girl biker look. Esther, however, is sort of like Miss Prissy on Foghorn Leghorn and I was sure she must have been horrified having other chickens looking at her in that condition. Kind of like when we went to DeWitte's snobby aunts house and she hadn't done the dishes yet so she wouldn't let us in the house.

So, this afternoon, I let the other girls out into their portable run and brought Miss Esther into the house. I put a warm wet rag on her nether regions, while Nathan held her and said "Gross!" a lot..I can't wait till he's a parent, that kid doesn't know from gross, and put her in a cage on the kitchen floor to give the gunk time to loosen up.  We enjoyed the interaction between Esther and the cat. Esther acted like the cat must have been a ferocious chicken eating tiger, even though she's now twice the size of the cat and would surely win in a head to head match. Don't tell her, though, she thinks she's dainty. We evenutally locked the cat in the bathroom because it seemed like she was starting to believe the ferocious chicken eating tiger hype.

After that, it was time to really get in there and clean her up. I was kind of worried..the last time we tried to give an animal a bath that doesn't usually receive baths with the warmest of welcomes, was Cleo. DeWitte put a leash on her and attached it to the faucet, so she couldn't jump out, and she ended up flying around the tub in mid air like a cartoon cat and we had to replace the shower curtain. Esther didn't seem to mind, though. Throughout her back-end bath she seemed to kind of purr. I thought the blow drier would be a fight, too. My chickens are so chicken that they're eremikophobic, which means that if you put new sand in their run, they think it's gonna eat their face off.  But, no, Esther just sat there and let me blow dry her like it was a five star feather salon. She even offered me a tip but I didn't take it, I just cleaned it up with a paper towel and washed my hands.

After she was dry, I took her back out and put her back with the other hens, who were all fighting over a three inch plot of mud. She just looked down her nose at them, turned around and shook her clean, fluffy butt.

Baking it up!

Totals:

8 pounds of fudge

8 batches of toffee

11 peanut brittle

3 dozen chocolate pumpkin cookies

6 dozen chocolate gooey cookies

10 pounds of homemade spicy beef jerky

YEP....Betty Crocker ain't got nothing on us!

Sent on the Sprint® Now Network from my BlackBerry®

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