a zorro state of happiness

so today I kept Zorro in my backpack until all the kids had arrived at school. Then I gathered them all together on the floor and released the long-searched-for Zorrito from my backpack. They all screamed and one of them jumped up to give him a huge hug. They passed him from kid to kid, hugging him and talking to him.

Then we hung up "FOUND" signs across the "Zorro is missing" posters so that everyone in the school would know that Zorro's been found! (Since all 550 kids have been looking for him for the past 10 days.) At lunchtime I walked into the cafeteria filled with 175 second- and fifth-graders and I held Zorro up high in front of me. As I walked in, the ENTIRE GROUP OF CHILDREN started clapping and cheering and shouting Zorro's name! All the fifth graders stood up and applauded Zorro, shouting out, "ZORRO'S BACK!!! YAY ZORRO!!!"

It was hilarious. That little stuffed fox has no idea how much he is loved. As the kindergarteners walked past us after recess, they all ran up to hug me and say, "I'm so glad you found your fox!" Third graders ran to my room at the end of the day to verify that it was true - Zorro really had returned!

ZORRO'S BACK!!!

GUESS WHAT!!! I JUST FOUND ZORRO!!! HE'S COME BACK!!!

Oh you just have no idea how happy I am!

And the crazy thing is that I just got back from Barnes and Noble where I bought one of Zorro's friends, a raccoon named Mapache (pronounced Mah-pah-chay), to make the kids feel better while Zorro was missing. When I got home, I put Mapache next to my keys, ready to go to school tomorrow morning. Then I went upstairs sadly, wishing Zorro would just come back. Right before I was about to get in bed, I thought, "Have I looked behind my desk?" Yesterday I looked under every cabinet, bookshelf, sofa, even behind the refrigerator. But I hadn't looked behind my desk. So I did and HE WAS THERE!!! I shouted out (scared the cat), "ZORRO!!! THERE YOU ARE!!! WE MISSED YOU SO MUCH!!!" He was looking very sad and scruffy cuz he's been gone for so long. BUT I FOUND HIM! Ahhhhhh, a sigh of relief. Zorro is back.

And on another note, I just learned how to solve a Rubik's cube. No matter how messed up it is, I can solve it! It still takes me a while though. My 9-year-old friend, Collin, can solve it 3 times in the amount of time it takes me to solve it once. I've gotten it down to about 5 minutes now, I think. So that's my latest obsession. I carry one with me everywhere and obsessively mess it up and then put it back together again.

Zorro and a Rubik's cube. Life is good again.

still missing

update: Zorro's still missing. We looked him for all last week. The kids put up their "Zorro's missing" posters around the school. I cleaned my house and looked for him this weekend. And still no Zorro. It's so sad. I don't know where he could be.

ZORRO! COME BACK!!!

I have terrible terrible news to disclose. Zorro is missing! I can't find him anywhere! Poor Zorro! He's not at my house. He's not at school. He's not in my car. Maybe he ran away.

I CAN'T FIND ZORRO!!!!!

So...um...if you see him anywhere, please tell him we miss him and to please come back home. We really love him. :(

WHAT THE HECK????

Can I just say, for the record, I am SOOOOO glad that 2007 turned into 2008. Between my numerous traffic incidents (3 weekends in a row) and my family's current house problem, this year so far has been right on track with 2007. First I was in another car accident which caused over $700 worth of damage to my car, then the next weekend I was pulled over by a cop for making a right turn. FOR MAKING A RIGHT TURN. On a street on which you can make right turns. Ridiculous. Just paid that ticket at $111. I cannot believe I just had to pay $111 for making a right turn. And no I didn't go to court to contest it because I forgot that the court day was yesterday until it was 8:30 PM YESTERDAY.

Then the next weekend I was pulled over by a cop for absolutely no reason at all. I obeyed EVERY traffic law there could possibly be. So imagine my surprise when I see the lights of the police car behind me. I pulled over and said, "Officer, why on earth did you pull me over?" He simply said, "License and registration, please." I gave them to him and said, "Could you please just tell me why you pulled me over?" He said, "I just have to make sure you're not wanted in Oklahoma." WANTED IN OKLAHOMA??? ARE YOU KIDDING ME???

So then...on Saturday my brother Ryan's house burned down. His family (Ryan, Jessica, and their 3 kids) are all fine but they lost everything in the fire.

And my sister just called me to tell me that a drunk guy just smashed into her house with his car. He ran right into it, tearing bricks out of the wall and creating holes in the side. Then he proceeded to run into the house behind my sister's and actually drove THROUGH THE WALL. The firemen looked at my sister's wall and said they think it's structurally sound enough to sleep in tonight. So that's the good news we live by in 2008. GUESSING that we have a structurally sound enough wall in order to sleep after a drunk guy has just crashed into our house.

Seriously, what is God trying to tell us????? I wish we could just figure out what it was so that we could learn the lesson already.

oh and one more thing. I am now officially DONE WITH 2008.

Best Grandparents Ever

I am so blessed to have the best grandparents ever!!!

The Many Adventures of Zorro the Fox

Well Zorro had a very exciting trip to Florida! He told us on the way down that he had a dream of meeting a princess, a real princess. By the end of the week, he had not only met a real princess, he was KISSED by one! He met Cinderella (she's the one who kissed him, right on the snout!), Sleeping Beauty (also known as Princess Aurora, although I had no idea that was her real name until this trip), and Belle from Beauty and the Beast!

At Sea World, he had a really huge adventure! Among climbing trees and bushes, he got to meet a real live squirrel who was extraordinarily friendly! Then we found a boat for Zorro! It was really the container that had held my cookies, but it was shaped like Shamu and it was the perfect size for Zorro. So we cleaned it out and gave the boat to him! He was SOOOO happy to have his very own boat! Then we took him to the stingray tank and sailed him! He was surely the first fox ever to sail in the stingray tank! It was a very short sailing trip, just back and forth a couple of times, but it was enough to make him smile from ear to ear. You can see the picture of him sailing in the top picture on this post!

He also saw one of his best friends from my class! She just happened to be in Florida at the same time and found us as we were getting ready to watch the electric parade at night! Zorro recognized her immediately and wanted to sit with her for a picture!

Zorro had a trip he will never forget! He's the happiest fox in the whole world, and possibly the only fox who smells like stingrays right now!

So how often have YOU been splashed by an 8,000 pound killer whale?

We went to Sea World yesterday and had a GREAT time! It was definitely way more crowded, but it wasn't terrible. The kids loved touching the dolphins and feeding them!













We saw the Shamu show and watched the killer whales jump and splash!













We saw penguins and dolphins!













We touched stingrays!

























Here are the kids waiting for the sea lion show to start!













This was the best! The Shamu show was the last show we saw and we told the kids that they could get splashed if they wanted to. So Jeff and Mary Adams stayed up in the dry zone with all the cameras and equipment and I went with Collin, Marryn, and Brian to the "SOAK ZONE"! And let me tell ya...if you've never gotten a wall of water thrown at you by an 8,000 pound killer whale, you haven't experienced life! It was AWESOME! The kids loved it and they just laughed and laughed and laughed! We got video of the whole thing too and it's hilarious! Here are two pictures, DURING the splash and AFTER the splash!

DISNEY WORLD!!

It's Spring Break and I'm in Florida with a bunch of friends! My friends, the Adams, have 2 kids and we also brought Brian down for a week at Disney. We left Friday night after school to drive through the night to Florida. The kids were SOOOO good. Spending fifteen hours in a car didn't seem to phase them at all. Only one time, after 14 hours did one of them ask, "How much longer?" ONE TIME. How is that possible? What patient kids!

Yesterday we took the kids to Disney World! They were so excited! It was Brian's first trip and he was totally in dreamland! He spent the entire day being amazed over and over again at the magic of Disney! At lunch time he asked how long we were staying in Florida and we told him until next weekend. He said, "You mean we're staying ALL WEEK?" We confirmed and he just smiled and said, "Man, life is good."
It rained most of yesterday when we were at Disney, but nobody cared! In fact we had a great time because it was so warm and the rain kept the crowds away. The longest line we had to wait in was for Dumbo and that was 30 minutes long. Everything else was less than 10 minutes, and most of the rides we just walked right on! We got to ride almost everything and a bunch of them we rode twice! We saw a lot of characters - Pluto, Goofy, Donald, Alice, Mickey, and Minnie! In fact, we even saw Mickey and Minnie TOGETHER! That's TOTALLY rare! You can never find a picture with the guests that have Mickey AND Minnie!

And check out this picture of Cinderella's Castle with the kids in front of it! There's like nobody around us except the one guy behind the kids! How crazy is that! It looks like we're the only ones there! I've never seen a picture with nobody around the guests unless it's for a magazine or something where they block it off for the picture!

Cool Brains!!!

This totally awesome brain scientist came to talk to the kids today and tell them all about brains! He brought a cat brain, a horse brain, and human brains to show the kids! The kids even got to touch the human brain at the end! It was AWESOME! By the end of his presentation, I had five kids in my class saying they want to be brain scientists when they grow up!

weird week

THREE DAYS TIL DISNEY!!! man this week is taking so long. and it's bizarre too. first...

Yesterday, we came into school and discovered there were no lights. Power, yes. Electricity, yes. Lights, no. And of course it was a dark, rainy day too so there was no way the kids could even see to read, even with the blinds open. Nobody knew why the lights wouldn't work. Then miraculously the lights just came on. So the kids were weird all day because of that.

Then today, they were LUNATICS, CRAZY, LOCO, NUTS. The whole building was insane. Just as an example of what today was like, we were reviewing perimeter, which we've been doing now for days. This is NOT a new concept, let me tell ya. So I said, "I want you to draw a rectangle that has a perimeter of 12." And one little girl raised her hand and said, "Miss Tice, what's a rectangle?"

That was all day long today. And that was a different kid than the kid who asked how to spell "the".

But the good news is I got my spanish test back in my spanish class and I FINALLY GOT 100% without counting extra credit on a spanish test!!!! I was so happy! I've been trying to get 100% since August, but I always miss something. WOO HOO!!

THREE DAYS TIL DISNEY!