Hi, Cats!

Sorry I've been a stranger...school's been back in session for about two weeks and we had a week of inservice prior to it. I'm really enjoying these kids that I have this year (so far). In fact, today one of our students brought a bird (yes a real one) into school in her purse because she heard one of us say how much we liked animals. so she thought she'd bring us one...alive and in person. she said, "Mrs. Duncan, look what I brought Ms. Ellis!" she proceeds to unzip her purse and out flies a bird...it flies all over the room, the kids are screaming and running around, we're all laughing, and our science teacher threw a lab coat over it to catch it. We put it in the hamster cage for a while and then freed it 6th period. :)

Also, there are trails of ants every morning going into various lockers where they find little pieces of food or sugar. And yesterday, a kid blurted out very loudly (who i've been over and over with about why we don't do that) and I said, "Excuse me, did you just blurt out?" you know, one of those rhetorical questions we ask. And he said very seriously, "No, ma'am, I didn't." I laughed and said, "Really?! You didn't?!" and he said again very seriously, "No, ma'am." And for some reason I thought that was so funny (it was 8th period) that I laughed until I had tears coming down my face and the kid said, "That's the second teacher I've made cry."

Eric starts back at school today - only a year of classes left and one semester of student teaching!!!!! He is very excited. We are still living in married housing which has it's HUGE disadvantages...mainly the riff raff of neighbors we have. You would not even believe some of the stuff that we've had to get involved in around here...polar opposite of JBC. But it's cheap, so as much as I want out and I want a cat, this is our home for now and it's saving us tons of money and I'm trying to think long-term in terms of debt. We'll get there. :)

Miss you cats and I"m so glad we have this blog...I love it, I love feeling connected still even though we are all getting farther and farther away from each other geographically. Bets and Fulty, I"m praying for your little ones. :) Byrd, hang in there...I know how much I want to go nuts with 23 twelve year olds in the room but I can't imagine what it must be like with two tiny ones. V-cat, glad you feel at peace where you are - and you're a celebrity! Lizzie, the pic of you and Kenna is priceless.

meow! -klep