The Kid Who Only Hit Homers

My favorite author when I was a kid was a guy named Matt Christopher. He wrote chapter books about kids playing sports. My favorite book (and one I read maybe a billion times) was a book called The Kid Who Only Hit Homers. When I was watching Little League games today, I saw a friend who reminded me of that book! Derek is a kid I've known since he was 4 years old. He's now 13 and an AMAZING ball player. He lives for baseball! Not only is he incredibly talented at playing the game, but he also has the attitude of a leader. He's a role model that other kids look up to. He is always smiling and laughing, even when he's having a bad game. He constantly supports his teammates by cheering them on and talking to them. He also regularly talks to kids on the other team and praises them if they hit well, caught well, pitched well, etc. He's a great kid to watch.

So he told me yesterday that he hit a homerun at his game last week. Then at his game today, his first time at bat, he had a HUGE hit, one that hit the top pole of the green fence 305 feet away in center field. And this fence is not a low fence. Picture the big green wall at Fenway Park. Picture the fence behind homeplate. It's like that, just out in the outfield. His second time up, he hit a ball over the fence and 100 feet into the cow pasture behind the field...but it was foul. His last time up, he finally did it! A soaring homerun straight over the center field fence! I think that boy can only hit homers!

sad, sad day

What a sad, sad day. So everything was going fine until the ice cream party for Brian. We ate delicious Edy's ice cream (Breyer's wasn't on sale). The kids were all excited and laughing. We invited Brian's best friend, Miguel, over to eat ice cream with us. Miguel is in another 2nd grade class and he has Asperger's. His only friend is Brian and they just adore eachother. Yesterday during math, Miguel said, "I'm so happy! Brian was lying and he's not really moving! I'm so excited because that means I still have my best friend!" Brian just sadly looked down at the floor. So today when we invited Miguel over, I think he finally started to get it that Brian's really moving. We put on the DVD now known as The Brian Movie. Brian was shocked that we had made it (he didn't know about it, and the rest of the class had been sworn to secrecy). He just stared at it, alternating between laughing and being on the verge of tears. Miguel had his arm around Brian the whole time. At the end, Brian said, "That was the most awesome thing I've ever seen!" Then the kids gave him cards they had made. That's when they started losing it. Tears just started pouring out.

When we came back inside from recess, Brian wrote thank you notes for everyone in the class, completely on his own. (This is why everyone loves him. He's everybody's best friend and every day is his favorite day. He just does things like this and always puts others before himself.) Then at the end of the day, he said, "Wait, wait, wait, everybody. I have an announcement to make." He got their attention and said quietly, "Goodbye guys. I'll miss you. And thank you for the cards."

After his bus was called, there were only a few kids left. One of them was his other best friend, Collin. Collin looked sad and he shook his head and said, "Well that's the last time I will see Brian until I sleep." I thought he was confused and said, "Until you sleep?"

Collin said, "Yes...because then I can dream about him."

Brian's Last Day

Today is Brian's last day of school. We're having an ice cream party and watching a short DVD I made on iMovie about Brian during this past year at school. He's such a happy, sweet child. I hope his next teacher can see who he is and who he can become. Today's gonna be a sad day. We'll miss you Brian! :(

More Disney

So I have officially decided that my favorite place on Earth is Disney World. We had so much fun there! This is Elias on the It's a Small World ride. He loved looking at all the children and animals from all over the world!

We rode on the carousel right at the end of the day! Almost every ride he went on, Elias said "Can we ride it again?" I even asked him at the end of the day what his favorite ride was. He said, "The race cars, the movie were stuff comes out, and ALL OF THEM!"

I saw a delightful duck sitting in some flowers, so I took a picture of him for Annhead. There you go, Annhead! He said his name was Kaluia, and that he'd love to meet you the next time you come to Disney.

Elias LOVED driving the race cars! He really got to drive the car too! Emily and I were driving in front of him so he kept speeding up and trying to crash in to us! Then he would laugh and laugh!

We finally ended the day with the Disney Electric Parade! That's my favorite time because everyone's tired and hot and sticky. They're sitting on the curb, waiting, just waiting. And just when you feel like you're at the end of your ability to wait another moment, all the lights go out and the thundering celebration music starts playing. Then the electic parade starts and you see kids faces just light up each time a new float comes around, sprinkled with thousands of tiny lights! When Mickey Mouse went by on his float, Elias had a big smile on his face and he said, "This is the best part!" Man, I love Disney.

Last Day :(

I wonder if I could work for Disney World for the summer. Like would I have to file state taxes in Virginia AND Florida? Because that would be annoying. Would I really have to file state taxes in Florida just for working here? Even if I didn't rent a house (just stayed with my grandparents)?

These are just some of the questions I've been thinking about on my last day in Florida. As I was discussing the answers to these questions (all of which were answered with "I have no idea" by all members of the council), two beautiful blue herons walked across the yard! They try to eat mole crickets in the ground and apparently they always travel in pairs. The discussion ended with "HEY THERE ARE BLUE HERONS! GO GET A PICTURE OF THEM QUICK!!!"

Later in the afternoon I went to some St. Cloud Little League ball games. The park is right next to my grandparents' house. The weird thing was this kid (the one in the picture - named Kyle) was standing next to me, waiting for his game to start, and when he started talking, he sounded just like this kid I know in C'ville named Brady. Brady is an AMAZING ball player - plays travel ball with the older league. So when I heard his voice, I was all confused and I was like, "Brady????" Except it wasn't Brady. It was Kyle. And when I watched him play, he throws like Brady, runs like Brady, etc. I think he's Brady's long-lost twin.

Well my flight leaves at 5 AM, so I'm going to pack... So sad. Maybe I can come back soon...

Grandma and Grandpa

I was able to spend a lot of time with Grandma and Grandpa today, talking, telling stories, smelling flowers, writing a story on the computer, and hunting for Disney postcards (which apparently are only sold on Disney property in case you're ever looking for some).

Grandma's flowers are beautiful! Her gardens are so well taken care of and all the blooms are spectacular! We went on a trimming spree and started trimming everything in sight! Grandpa got tired of having to plug and unplug the weed whacker and hedge trimmer every time he moved another 20 feet around the house (the gardens surround the house), so the amazing inventor found an easier way to do it. At 85 years old, he attached an inverter to the tractor which allows him to plug the trimmers directly in to the tractor. Then he just drives the tractor around and trims with the weed whacker as he goes! He even attached a handle to it so he can hook the hedge trimmer to the tractor. Then he doesn't even have to carry it around the yard. AND he inserted a cigarette lighter in to the tractor so that if he ever needs to take an oxygen tank with him when he's mowing, he can plug it in to the tractor!

The funniest thing that happened today was when we drove by Sea World to take a picture of the sign. (Background info: the Sea World sign is located on a busy intersection with no place to stop. If you want a picture, you must take it as you drive by.) We however, did not want a drive-by picture. We wanted a "stand next to the sign and smile" picture. So what did we do? We stopped. We got out. Grandpa and I started taking a picture next to the sign. And Grandma took off in the car. (Background info: Grandma was not supposed to take off in the car. She was supposed to stay in the parked car and wait for us.) So as Grandma drives off into the distance, Grandpa and I are like, "Um, where is she going?" So we start "running" after her. Next we see her backing up back towards us. Then she starts going forward away from us. Then she backs up. Then she goes forward! Grandpa shouted, "DOT! What are you doing????" Finally she stopped and let us get in. We asked her what she was doing and she said she thought she was supposed to turn around to pick us up, but when she tried to turn around she saw it was a one-way road and she was going the wrong way, so she got freaked out and couldn't figure out what to do! I laughed and laughed! We managed to get some pictures though and nobody got hit by oncoming cars!

Disney Day!

Ahhhhh Florida! What a nice warm place in the middle of a crazy, cold spring in Virginia. And how much nicer Florida is with Disney World just minutes away! Today I went to the Magic Kingdom and guess who I saw there! LITTLE ELIAS! He came down for his first visit to Disney World to experience some Disney magic! We had a perfect day...perfect weather, perfect crowd... Elias was the most patient, happy four-year-old I've ever seen! He didn't whine or complain the entire day about lines, heat, sunlight, hunger, exhaustion, or not getting to buy a toy. He just happily waited in every line ALL day long, with no nap (made it all the way to 10:00) and talked about how much he loved all the rides. What a great kid. Well I'm going to sleep because I, for one, am exhausted. Here are some quick pictures... more to come later!

We're all Hokies

In light of what happened at Virginia Tech yesterday, there's an awesome verse that shows how much God cares:

"You keep track of all my sorrows. You have collected all my tears in your bottle. You have recorded each one in your book." Psalm 56:8

Every single tear - God's aware of it. There were a lot of tears that fell on pillows last night. It makes me so sad to think that every one of those kids was somebody's son or daughter, somebody's brother or sister, somebody's best friend. This verse always comes back to me...

"Here on earth you will have many trials and sorrows. But take heart, because I have overcome the world.” John 16:33

I don't know anybody at Tech, but even if you don't know anyone, we're all Hokies this morning.

Hurricane Baseball

What a great night for a baseball game! Squishy wet fields... hurricane force winds... winter coat temperatures... darkening sky. That's my kind of weather! Except of course when I'm sick. And when I haven't packed yet for Florida tomorrow. And when I haven't written 3 days of sub plans. But except for that... Man what a great game!

I went to see a couple of my middle school kids play at Pen Park field. One I've known since he was in kindergarten. The other I've just known this year. They are great ball players! There was a controversial call at the plate where one of their teammates was called out... but I, of course, had photographed the event and showed everyone that he was clearly safe. Unfortunately the umpires didn't care. In fact if you click on the picture to the left, you can zoom in on the tag and see that the umpire was clearly mistaken. From his vantage point, it possibly, POSSIBLY (I'm not seein it) could have looked like he was tagged...

Their team won - although I can't remember the score. It was hard to see the scoreboard what with it blowing over and all. My hat only blew off 17 times leaving me to chase it through the swampy grass. It didn't seem to affect the kids' playing except for the foul balls that were hit to center field. Seriously. There were like balls popped up to center field that were foul by the time they hit the ground. If you don't know what I'm talking about, try playing baseball during a hurricane. You'll see...

Random Thoughts...Nyquil is making my thought process sketchy

I would like to bring your attention to a few things. First I have adopted a new pet tiger named Matthias. He's very friendly and he wags his tail a lot. If you would like to feed him, just click on the "MO" which is supposed to say "MORE" but the word wouldn't fit. Then a piece of magically delicious red meat pops up and you can take the meat to Matthias. He'll chase you for the meat though, so watch your fingers when you click.

Also did you know there is a festival in Japan which involves Japanese guys riding on a ten-ton fir tree down a steep slope? And there's one in Taiwan where they shoot fireworks INTO the crowd to experience the joy of being pelted with stinging specks of fire. How come America doesn't have awesome festivals like that????

At church today we were talking about what heaven would be like. It sounds really cool - majestic and glorious, exciting and adventurous, but with none of the problems. Do you think there will be a Disney World there? Like how cool would that be...an awesome place like Disney World but with no lines and no admission fees!

My mind is on Mickey Mouse because I'm going to Florida in TWO DAYS!!! I'm going to go to Disney World...hopefully. My financial advisor, a.k.a. the infamous Mr. Braintwain, has encouraged me to not spend any money that I would not have otherwise spent in Charlottesville. Which means, no Disney tickets. But you see, Elias is going to be there... It's his first time... And the cutest kid on Earth in the greatest place on Earth... I can't miss that!

Come join the sick. We have ice cream.

Yes I am sick. Again. I marked it on the calendar this time because for the past four months, I have gotten sick every month almost to the DAY. I can't find anything online about what could be causing monthly colds (other than random people's blogs complaining of the same thing). I know I'm a teacher and I'm surrounded by germs from kids all day long, but there's no other logical reason why I should be getting sick this often.

Vitamins? Check.

Enough sleep? Check.

Eat fruits and vegetables? Check.

Exercise? Check.

Wash hands/use hand sanitizer religiously? Check.

Keep hands away from face? Check.

I even wash the kids' desks off with disinfectant regularly. Who knows.... But if I get sick again in May around the 13th, I'm going to talk to the doctor about it. I'm just sad because I'm going to Florida on Tuesday night to visit my grandparents and I didn't want to be sick for the trip. For now I'm going to eat some ice cream to cool off my throat and my lungs, which feel like they're burning from coughing so much. There's enough ice cream to share, so come on over if you want some...

Bubble Celebration

We have a goal in our class: For everyone in the whole class to do their homework 10 days in a row! Seems simple, right? Um, no. We'd make it to 3 days in a row and then somebody would forget. The most we made it to was 5. We've been trying since BEFORE Christmas! Finally yesterday we hit our goal!!! The kids were so excited!



On Wednesday when we had reached 9 days in a row, Jake stood up and said, "Okay, everyone, you all know what the homework is tonight so there are NO EXCUSES! YOU ALL BETTER DO IT! Even if you're in the hospital, you can still take your homework with you!" I have a rule that there are only two excuses for not doing your homework: either you're in the hospital all night or you're dead. Jake was eliminating even the hospital excuse!



The excitement was building on Thursday as I was going around checking homework. Every few minutes another kid would ask, "Has everyone done it so far? .... How about now? ..... And now?" And then the announcement came, "WE MADE IT TO TEN!!!" Cheers erupted around the room! To celebrate I gave each child a bottle of bubbles and a Reese's peanut butter egg. We went outside on the playground to eat snack and blow bubbles! The kids found a puddle and tried to fill the whole thing with bubbles! It was a great way to celebrate!

All the Reasons to Like a Moose

I think everyone's favorite animal should be a moose for several reasons. First, a moose has the best name of any animal. And saying "mooses" just makes their name even better. Adam definitely was on a creative streak when he was naming the deer family... I can see him now with his arm around Eve pointing at the largest antlered animal on the planet and saying, "See that one, honey? That's a MOOSE. I thought of that one all by myself!"

Second, mooses are huge and powerful, but calm and humble at the same time. On Sunday, Andy Stanley said that power combined with humility is possibly the most powerful thing of all. What could be more powerful AND humble than a moose?

Third, their entire diet is twigs. What other animal eats twigs? They eat like 30 pounds of twigs a day, which calculates out to 3,000 bites of twigs every day. That could easily destroy a forest habitat by eating all the low branches off of trees and uprooting hundreds of populations of spiders, bugs, and worms that require branches, trees, and twigs for their habitat.

Fourth, mooses are brilliant. They DON'T destroy forest habitats because they know when to STOP eating and relocate to another part of the forest, giving the former section time to recover.

Finally, mooses can grow an entire set of exquisite antlers EVERY YEAR. I bet you can't do that. And neither can lions or stingrays or horses or manatees or cats or monkeys or any of your other favorite animals (unless your favorite animal is a deer or a caribou or an elk).

So as you can see, everyone should like a moose best of all. Little E has it right.

Hammy Houdini

Oh and Hammy escaped again today at school. He's averaging once per week now. And he never goes to the same place twice so I know where NOT to look. The kids found him today during word study and guess where he was! He was in a corner of the cubby room eating candy. I mean a TON of candy - like he had collected a whole pile of candy pieces and was sitting there snacking on them, one piece at a time. The kids laughed about it all afternoon saying, "It figures Hammy would be in the cubby room eating candy!" Crazy hamster.

Spiky, Spiky Pinecone

Reasons why Little E is the cutest kid on the planet:

1. He calls the fire department "fire bapointment".

2. When we passed Toys R Us I asked Elias if it was his favorite store. He said, "YES!! Well...actually that depends on payday."

3. He calls construction barrels on the side of the road "instruction barrels".

4. In support of his mom's bowling effort during a bowling trip last Saturday, he shouted, "Mom, that ball screamed like a flamin, flamin spaceship!"

5. He calls trucks with smiley faces on them "happy trucks".

6. He says his favorite animal is a moose! (No influence there. Really.)

7. According to him, the little thing that he's looking at in this picture is a "spiky, spiky pinecone".

Just try to say "spiky, spiky pinecone" without smiling.

8. When he put hand sanitizer on his hand, he had a cut on his finger and it stung. We told him that the stinging was the sanitizer killing the germs. He smiled and said, "Goodbye germs!"

9. At 9:30 at night when he still hasn't managed to fall asleep, he comes downstairs with a pitiful little face and says, "I'm trying to sleep but my body wants OJ and mac and cheese."

Bubbles Create Endless Fun

I think there's something magic about bubbles. It has the ability to catch the attention and fun of just about anyone... babies... preschoolers... high school kids... over-exhausted adults... Kathryn and Elias and I played with bubbles all night last night. Here is what Elias says about bubbles:

"It's fun to play with them. It's fun to play with bubbles. I like to play with them because I like to do it. They're so bubbly and they could float. You could blow through the bubble wands and I like to play bubble instruments. I like to pop the bubbles when it's so, so, so big. I blow the bubbles at Bethie and she went "plegh, plegh, plegh!" because the bubbles feel funny! And I laughed and laughed and laughed!"

Fishy Scientist and Ice Dogs

My sister is working on an experiment involving fish and whether their gills adapt to changing temperatures. Her fishies actually lived long enough to do the experiment but then she had to cut their gills out. I think it's a cool experiment because even in second grade we're going to be talking about adaptations and how animals respond to changing weather and seasons. I can use what she found out to explain to my kids at school. So anyway, when she looked at the gills under the microscope, there was definitely a difference in the way they look, showing that the little fishies adapt. See, some fishies were in room temperature water and some fishies were in the refrigerator in really cold water. Now she has to turn the gills into wax so they can cut them even thinner and then look at them with a high-powered microscope to see how significant the difference is.

Oh and this is a picture of a fish gill in case you were wondering what they look like:

Meanwhile we went to the pet store last night to buy 10 new koi fish to repeat the experiment. There were also three animal shelter dogs up for adoption so Kathryn bought them each a doggie cookie and gave it to them. The funny thing is that the treats are listed as "ice dog" three times on the receipt that she has to turn in to her advisor for buying the koi fish. Background info: Her advisor is not happy with basically anything that she does and his apparent purpose in life is to point out how inept Kathryn is at everything she does. So you know her advisor is going to be like, "Uh, Kathryn, what is an ice dog and why is it on this receipt three times?" To which Kathryn will reply, "Oh, I got dog treats for all of the shelter dogs at the pet store." The predictive response of her advisor, as he takes a deep calming breath, closes his eyes, and nods: "Of course you would. Of course." I wish I could be there for that moment.

Chocolate on River Street

Even in the middle of loads of schoolwork and heated debates with professors, Kathryn managed to take me to visit River Street in Savannah, GA last night. It's right along the Savannah River (I think that's the name of it...) and it's still used by lots of cargo boats, tour boats, and ferries. We saw some really cute tugboats pulling huge cargo ships down the river. When I was a kid, I never thought tugboats were real. I thought they were just a cute name given to little baby boats that were in stories. Before you think I'm crazy, you have to understand that the idea that a big massive ship needs a tiny little boat to pull it is sort of hard to grasp for a kid. Anyway here's a picture of an adorable little tugboat...although it kinda looks like it's about to sink... Are they supposed to look like that?

The streets are made out of original cobblestone and all the buildings are old stone and brick. They are really beautiful. Check out the stone surrounding this shutter on a window. I want a house built out of that someday!

There are tons of shops and restaurants along River Street and several of them are CANDY SHOPS! Okay so I don't like candy, but I love cookies and brownies and fudge and that's the kind of "candy" these shops make! They make it right in front of you too! And they even give you free samples of whatever they're making! I discovered that you can get a whole free cookie if you collect a free sample from every shop (your cookie will be much larger if your sister gets a free sample from every shop too and you make her give it to you to add to your cookie)! They had almost every kind of chocolate caramel covered apples you can imagine. Ones with sprinkles and pecans and white chocolate... I had to get one of those because 2 years ago this kid in my class at school gave me a chocolate chip covered apple and I resisted eating it because it looked weird. Then one day I decided to give it a one-bite try and if it met my expectations for disgust, then it would go in the trash. So I bit into it... and it was the most magically deliciousest thing I've ever eaten in my life! I couldn't stop eating it until it was gone! I haven't found any of those chocolate chip apples since then, but this place was the closest! Kathryn found her own "chocolate heaven" because she loves marshmallows and the shop makes chocolate covered marshmallows! So she bought one of those!

The last cool thing we did before we went to FUDDRUCKER'S for dinner was visit the "Echo Circle". It's this weird garden thing in the shape of a circle and if you stand in the middle of it, you can hear your echo - it sounds kind of like you're talking in a microphone in the shower or something and it's echoing all around you! It's so bizarre because it doesn't look like anything that would make an echo (not like a racquetball court or something). It just has these shrubs around you in a circle and it's not even closed off...weird. I mean look at the picture...sure you can't see all of it, but just the part you CAN see - does that look like anything that could make an echo???