Where do they get those crazy ideas?

I have another funny school story to share. I have a kid in my class named "Simon" who brings a lunch to school everyday. Last week he went through the cafeteria serving line looking for ketchup packets. I asked him what he needed the ketchup for and he said he needed it for his lunch. Unfortunately, they were serving spaghetti that day so consequently, no ketchup packets.
Today they were serving hamburgers and fries so "Simon" snagged himself a couple of ketchup packets. After lunch, the kids had returned to the classroom and "Simon" told me he had a magic trick to show the class and needed 2 volunteers. I asked him what the magic trick was and he told me he could make ketchup disappear. We were in the middle of center rotations so I told him we would do the magic trick at the end of the day if we had some extra time. He went back to his table and I went on with my reading group.
A few minutes later, "Ralph" comes out of the bathroom and says, "Mrs. Searls, someone put a ketchup packet under the toilet seat and when I sat on it, it squirted all over the place!" Needless to say, "Simon" was wearing a guilty look. I called "Simon" over to the table, and in my most shocked teacher's voice I said, "Simon! The most horrible thing just happened! Ralph went to the bathroom and somehow ended up squashing a ketchup packet all over the bathroom! Do you have any idea how that happened?"
"Simon", being the sweet, always obedient, non-malicious little boy he is admitted to putting the ketchup packet under the toilet seat. So, I sent his repentant little butt off the to bathroom to clean up his mess with directions to come and chat with me once the mess was gone.
When "Simon" came back to my reading table, I asked him where he got such a crazy idea. He looked up at me with his huge, doe eyes and said he had read about it in his book, Captain Underpants, and wanted to see if it really worked. We continued to have a little chat about what is appropriate in a comic book and not appropriate for the classroom.
Now, Simon happens to have his father working at the school as our campus technologist. As soon as I finished chatting with "Simon", I popped an email off to his father. Needless to say, Dad was mortified. I told Dad that I personally thought the whole thing was way too funny, which put his mind at ease. I told him that I explained that it would be better to test out those Captain Underpants theories at home. (Dad didn't think that was such a good idea.) Anyway, it is the little incidents like this one that keep me smiling through the day.

Saturday Safari...

What a fun Saturday morning! Ron and I went to Topsy Exotic Ranch with Becca, Seth, Leslie, G, and Maggie this morning. I had never been there before, but Becca has taken Seth numerous times. If you have ever wanted to get up close and personal with a bunch of stinky, hairy, GENTLE animals, it is the place to go. You purchase bags of feed from the ticket office and then drive through the ranch, feeding the animals along the way. We piled into the back of Ed's truck and enjoyed a great trip. We saw just about every kind of goat imaginable, llamas, camels, zebras, buffalo, tigers, monkeys, assorted deer, and cattle.
My favorites were the llama and the crazy camel. They were the most gentle and affectionate creatures! The llama would gallop along behind the truck waiting for you to put your hand out. When we slowed down, they would come up and nibble the food out of your hand. The camel was much more brazen. He actually shoved his huge head into my lap and snatched up my bag of feed. I literally had to push his head out of my lap as I tried, unsuccessfully, to pull my bag of feed out of his mouth. Becca, Seth, Maggie and I had a blast watching Leslie scream and try to crawl out of the way every time an animal got near her. She couldn't even manage to hold her hand still long enough for them to eat the feed she held! I can't even begin to describe how frantic she was when that camel's head was in the truck.
Anyway, here are a couple of pictures from the trip. Enjoy!

A daughter and grandson anyone would be proud of...

Seth turns eight this weekend! He celebrated his birthday last night by having his first ever birthday sleepover! When school was out, I went up to chow down on some birthday cake and keep Becca company while she monitored the crazy boys that had invaded her house. Instead of presents, Becca and Seth came up with a wonderful alternative. Becca helped Seth adopted a single soldier in Iraq. Instead of gifts, Seth asked all of his friends to bring goodies to be put into a box to ship over to his adopted soldier. After cake, the boys boxed up the goodies and got them ready to mail overseas. Becca said all of the mothers were super supportive and sent tons of things to mail over. When Bec had told me about their plans, I asked her how Seth felt about not having presents to open. She said he was all for it on one condition; they had to make 2 boxes so he could send one to his Uncle Scott too. (Sniff, sniff. There's a lump in my throat and tears are falling.) Now, isn't that about the sweetest thing you've ever heard of?

Another funny story...

My TAG (Talented and Gifted) class is in the middle of a research unit on whales. As a culminating assignment, each student was asked to select a whale and prepare an oral presentation. Two of the presentation given today were on the Narwhal whale. After listening to one of the presentations, I noticed that one of my little ones was pushing a loose tooth in and out with her tongue. She caught me watching her, smiled her goofy, loose-toothed smile and then said to me, "Look Mrs. Searls! I'm a Narwhal!" Sure enough; her top tooth was sticking straight out!

Another reason to love Texas...

This was one of those perfect mornings for working in the yard. The weather was mild with a cool breeze to keep me from getting too hot. Also, it is a little cloudy so the sun didn't bake my brain. I managed to clean the old mulch and fall leaves out of the front flower bed, turn the soil and add some compost and fertilizer, and then planted some cold-tolerant spring flowers. The local nursery had a wonderful selection of snap dragons, pansies, and ornamental kale. I had a few left over so I put some pansies in the pots on the front porch. They look so much more welcoming that the dead leaves and cobwebs! I figured I could get the flowers in and then come spring break I will put out some veggies. I did get the supplies to start some bedding plants and will put them on the sun porch. Once the container garden is ready and the last freeze passes, they should be big enough to move. Nothing beats a Saturday morning working in the yard!

Ron is home!

Yesterday was a busy day. Actually, it started the night before. Leslie decided to come over and stay the night because G went to Mexico for the weekend. (Not really Mexico, but as close as you can get without getting your feet wet.) That night, Maggie was as sick as a dog, throwing up every 2 hours. So without much sleep, Saturday seemed very long. After sanitizing the house, I had a quilt in the machine that needed to be done. During my quilting, Ron called to say that he got on an earlier flight and would be in Killeen 4 hours earlier than expected. Unfortunately, just because he got on an earlier flight it didn't mean his bags did. So after grabbing some dinner and visiting family, we managed to pick up his suitcase and got home around 10:00. It is great to have him home again.

My friend Barbara

I have a friend named Barbara. I have known Barb for almost 11 years now. She and I worked together at 2 of the schools in the district and share a love for Apple computers and quilting. While Barbara goes for art form quilts and dying her own fabric, and I enjoy the more traditional forms of quilting; we have enjoyed many wonderful quilt shows together. We have even stumbled our way through some classes that yielded some very different looking quilts. Barbara is very opinionated, outspoken, and totally honest. Whenever I needed a level-headed listener, she was always there for me. I have missed her a lot since she retired and moved to AZ. (Thank goodness for email!) For the past year, Barbara has been an inspiration for me. She has been battling ovarian cancer, and for a short while, was joined in that battle by her mother. Sadly, Mom lost her battle and Barbara continues on in her memory. However, if anyone can beat this disease, it will be Barbara. Each time I get a message from Barbara or speak with her on the phone, I marvel at her positive attitude and her willingness to embrace each new form of treatment full of hope and determination. It saddens me that I am not closer to her and able to lend a helping hand when it is needed. So, I hope that in some small way this tribute to her will strengthen her. Barb, if you are reading this know that you are loved and in our prayers.