Student:
"Ms. Bateman! You're the neigh in my horse. You're the spur in my boots. You're the fire that ignites my bullet."

Me:
"Calm down cowboy, let's get to work."

My Dad's Christmas Delight:

I boxed up Malloy (my dad's enemy number one),

worried all the way to Rupert, Idaho,

poured Malloy out of the box in a midst of a blizzard,

and prayed for the best.

Ben's mom and dad live in Idaho, and his mom graciously said it'd be okay to let Malloy join the crowd. Ben's dad wasn't as excited.

I was racked with worries about cute little Malloy:

Will he get enough food?

Will he be too cold?

Was he someone's cat?

Will he make friends?

Ben's dad was excited to show us his new idea to keep the cats from jumping up in the window sill and staring in at them. He had pounded nails through a thin board and put the board in the window sill.

Added to my worries about Malloy:

Oh great, I've brought him to a cat-hating house.

The pictures are tiny and not as fun because it's a scanned copy of both sides of the postcard I sent to my dad. Two days after Christmas, my dad found this treat in the mail. My dad laughed out loud with a "REALLY? He's gone! Really?" He was so proud of me.

The Postcard:

Dear Mr. Bateman,

I decided to end the fussin' and the feudin'. I reluctantly packed my box and made the long journey to Rupert, Idaho.

Maybe one day you can come visit me; you are welcome at my shed anytime.

Meow, meow,

Malloy

The Cut



Parker cut a huge chunk off while it was dry. I felt like I was on a makeover show.

I love that Emily's spectacular pictures of Washington D.C. are occassionally interrupted by pictures such as this one.

So confused.

This guy looks EXACTLY like my dad. Why didn't Emily tell me this story?

Oh ... turns out I'm looking at old pictures from my mom and dad's trip awhile back.

I guess my dad is the one who kept snapping shots of squirrels.

Geometry Guffaws

All of last week, my geometry kids have been working their way through a hands on project involving special special segments in a triangle. At the beginning of this week, I explained that everything they had been able to do with their hands, we could do on the computer.

"Are you kidding! We could have done all of this on a computer?!"

"Oh yeah, it is so cool."

Grumble, grumble, grumble from the students.

One part of the computer assignment encouraged the students to create a circle around their triangles, but the three vertices of the triangle had to touch the edges of the triangle. This is called circumscribing the triangle. One of my kids eagerly called me over, "Ms. Bateman, did I circumcise this right?"

"Um..."

His ears immediately blushed bright red. He looked to his left, glanced to his right, nobody had noticed except him and me. We had a great chuckle together.

Later, I was so insanely bored watching them work on the computers. They are so good and so dedicated that I just sit and watch and maybe every ten minutes clarify something for one student. I'm thankful of course, but yeesh, what a long class period. So ... I decided that we needed to practice a lock down.

"What would we do if they came over the intercom and said we needed to go into a lockdown?"

"Get under the desks!"

"So let's practice, I'll go get the lights." The kids scrambled to hide themselves in the small space below their computer.

"No, no, no, this won't work. It is quite obvious that you are in here, your papers are everywhere."

All of these little arms reached up and over and snuck their papers down with them.

"Hmm ... better, but some of you forgot your pens. Nah, this isn't working, your chairs are all over the place."

Ghostly chairs started to be tucked into their places, followed by obvious grunts of discomfort from the crammed students.

"Wow! This looks absolutely amazing, I wish you all could see it," but my attention was pulled towards Colin's computer. Colin was slowly reaching up, searching with his fingers, then finding his computer screen. He slowly turned his screen towards the front of the room, and as it was still squeaking, I read: WE ARE HERE!

"Oh Colin! Great, you've sabotaged us all," and he and his neighbor burst into hysterics. Then I started laughing, then we all started laughing.

The rest of class was peppered with bursts of "We are here! We are here!" in high-pitched voices. The kids confessed that it's from Horton Hears a Who.

I love the funny days.

My thumb won't stop twitching. I've watched way too much t.v.this weekend, and I've seen the "Signs of a Stroke" commercial too often.

None of the signs have been about an overactive thumb, so why am I so worried?

Stupid digit.

Desperate Haircut

Suggestions please! My hair's too long and daily begs for a fantastic color.

My cut's about like this right now. So should I leave the length and put in more layers?

I'm leaning towards short, not blonde, but short. What are the votes on this?

Love the color, length might be too short.

Brandi and Teighlor Heiner introduced me to Selena Gomez: the Disney wizard. I realize that in this picture her hair is pinned, but I really like it as a cut. Agree/Disagree?

P.S. I heart Selena Gomez.