Blog friends

Twitter just added a new feature.  You can make lists of your friends.  I love making lists.  I love putting things into groups and categories.  I made 4 lists: People I know, Bloggers, Celebs, Companies. The Celebs, and Companies were easy.  And even the People I know started easy, but then I started getting confused.

Am I the only one who forgets that they don’t actually know some (or all) of the bloggers they read?

NaBloPoMo – Nov 2009

I am going to try again to post for a whole month.

I am having the Sunday evening blues.  I have a hard time getting excited about going to school on Mondays.  And even worse, I have a parent meeting tomorrow at 8:00.  This wouldn’t be so bad, except I have been getting to school at 8:15.  I guess Tumblebug and I will have to be ready a bit earlier tomorrow.

Our little Wild Thing had his first Halloween.  We trick or treated at my parents’ house and 2 of their neighbors.  He looked so cute.  I will have to take some better pictures this week, but here he is:

Our little Wild Thing

Our little Wild Thing

I made the costume myself.  Well, mostly.  I bought white footed pajamas from the Gap. I bought them in a 6-12 month so he can wear them all winter (when I remove the tail).

I bought a yard of white felt and had some leftover yellow and white with glitter from other projects. I also use 2 brown pipe cleaners and 2 white ones.

I used a pattern I found at Instructables.com to make his hood. I reduced it to 60% before printing, but it was too small.  Then I made one at 75% and it was a little too big. Used up my only dark colored pipe cleaners on the first one, so I colored the white ones with a black dry erase marker.

He roared his terrible roar.

He roared his terrible roar.

I stayed up 2 nights sewing the hood. Not that I haven’t had all the fabric for weeks. Once I figured out the first one was too small, I knew I had to make another, but the first one came out so perfectly, I couldn’t cannibalize it so I left the whiskers.

I sewed little triangles of felt to the fingers and toes of the sleeper.  I also made a little crown out of the yellow and glittery felt  to sew onto the chest (over a little bear).

Then I got really crazy and made a larger crown and sewed it to a plain bib.  I used a crown clipart that I found on Google images.

I told my husband that in the future costumes must be chosen and materials procured by my long weekend in late October.  Even though I have had the sleeper since September and the fabric since early October, the procrastinator in me left it to the last minute.

8 Years Ago Today

I was in my literacy room waiting for my third graders. The same room I teach in now. My para walked in from her break. “You haven’t left the room, have you?” she asked. “No.” I said. “Then you don’t know.” she said, quietly. “Know what?” “I will tell you after.” “No, please tell me.” “The World Trade towers are no more.” It was 10:45 on September 11, 2001.

Happy Tuesday

I am kicking off my renewed interested in blogging.  I know I am not the most interesting writer, but I am going to try.

When I was in high school a friend gave me a book called 14,000 Things to be Happy About.  I started a list of my happy things in 1993.  When I stopped I had 223.  I doubt I will ever get to 14,000, but I thought I might try to hit 1000 in my lifetime.  I added to the list last year, and then again last night.  Here are my latest additions that make me happy:

  1. my son
  2. my baby’s smile
  3. walks on a perfect summer day
  4. bagpipes in the distance
  5. crisp fall days
  6. my students doing well
  7. back pain-free days
  8. homemade apple pie
  9. fresh macaroni and cheese
  10. new books
  11. computers that work consistently
  12. having a president of color
  13. the freedom to speak out against your government without fear (even if you are stupid)
  14. watching my husband take care of our son
  15. sleeping late while my husband takes care of our son
  16. car trips
  17. leaves changing color in the fall
  18. maple cotton candy
  19. comfortable shoes
  20. going barefoot
  21. fresh lemonade
  22. apple fritters with ice cream
  23. apple cider donuts
  24. that first glimpse of Star Island
  25. shiny blue bow ties