Toys R Us & Golf

I went to Toys R Us to find a birthday present for my nephew yesterday. As I was walking down the right-hand side of the store, I was .... (insert perfect word...) disappointed (?) to see that on one side of the aisle, everything was pink. On the other side, everything was black, dark blue, or green. My nephew loves Dora and Diego, and I want to get him a backpack for his birthday. The only backpacks I could find were Dora, and they all had mainly pink on them. Is it not OK for a boy to have a backpack? So I am looking other places.

My mom, dad, and I spent the day at the Buick Open golf tournament. According to Mom, I had been at one before. Of course, I had no recollection of that. I had the best time jumping from hole to hole, watching the players, trying to see their balls in the air, and seeing their families following them around. It helped that the weather was perfect- upper 70s, partly cloudy and breezy. Tiger Woods pulled out of the tournament, as his wife just had her baby, so he wasn't there. My mother would be very disappointed to hear me say it, but I was very disappointed. I'd like to see him play to be able to say I saw him play. I also root for him to win and continue to make history. (Shh! Don't tell Mom!)

Summer has officially hit. I am coaching and taking classes, but most of the time most days I have very little stress. I laid in the grass at the golf course and took a 15 minute nap! If anyone knows my father, it won't surprise them to hear that he did, too.

Another One

I am not an organized person. I take notes that I later lose or never go back to. I have LOVED having a reading blog. Finally, I have found a format that works for me to keep track of my reading and share my reading life with my students.

As that format works so well, I have decided to go ahead and do something similar with teaching ideas. My third (!) blog is awaiting a title, but will deal with all of my school issues and ideas. Hopefully I will be able to keep the Lifelong Learning blog updated... but it will just deal with my life outside of teaching!

It seems a tad excessive to have three blogs... but I am super excited about the potential for me to be organized for once!

Story People

When traveling in the Virgin Islands a few years back, Dave and I visited a ton of local art galleries. Of course, the favorite thing we found was from an artist in Iowa (not the exotic location!). His name is Brian Andreas, and he is the creator of Story People. For some reason, the stories resonate with me. Many people I have talked to think the art is weird, but I love it. I think it's because it's about what I'm capable of!

Check it out. Some of my favorite stories are:
Good Jumper
Waiting for Signs
Flying Woman
Wonder Roast
Invention
Simple Rules (I know, I'm sorry)
Some Kind of Ride
Enough Time
Color Blind
Before Dawn
Plumber


More things I love are the tiles that Hallmark puts out. I saw one at a local Hallmark that said, "Love What You Do", but haven't been able to find it again. I needed it this past year.