I had a fantastic birthday.

Thank you for all of the well-wishes.

From Family

The nephews loved the monkey mask card.

From Jed

From John

From Anna

Yes, that's a scorpion sucker.

From Kiera

I am rich in flowers this week!

Happy Birthday Eli!

I can't believe you're three; I have tears in my eyes just thinking about it.

I love you so much, and I've been thinking about you all day.

• Getting so mad at the zoo squirrel that you started to cry.
• Refusing to pet the sting ray but insisting that I had to pet him.
• Literally climbing up me because the octopus made you so nervous.
• Categorizing everything into "I like that!" or "I don't like that."
• Reading books with Ezra. Ezra: "Eli! You have to come see this!" Eli jumps off of his chair, "Otay! Wow!" Ezra laughing, "No Eli, this is bigger than a rhinoceros." Serious Eli: "But that's not real life."
• Dinosaur Mountain
• Standing on the chair, "Thank you everybody!"
• Eating cat food and making Ezra gag while he cried, "Beebye, no!"
• Watching you plow through piles of leaves in the neighborhood in your Scooby Doo costume.
• Calling cats Mows.
• "No! He's nice!"
• Waving and saying goodbye to all of the fish and sharks and starfish.
• "Goodbye!" then super sad face, "Dinosaur no say goodbye to me."
• You couldn't remember my name, then when I reminded you, "Oh yeah! Aunt Amy!" followed by a super big hug.
• I think you're starting to love me almost as much as you love Grandpa Brent. (I wish.)

We went to my cousin Marcus' wedding reception, and as all of the girlies were gathering to catch the bouquet, I was absolutely not in the mood to take part. "Nah. Look at all those girls, too many, not worth it," but then they started blasting Single Ladies. My bubble butt just can't help but move to that song, so I let it carry me through the crowd to Emily. Right as I was about to make her laugh really hard with my latest practiced Beyonce moves, all the girls started screaming because Dayloni was about to throw the bouquet. I kept my eye on the prize, accessed my go go gadget legs, and I got it! Me! The shortest short girl in the bunch! Emily said it looked like I was rocketing to the moon. I didn't know what to do, I laughed and jumped up and down, then kept asking if I was supposed to give it back. Then Dayloni ran over and hugged me, and rushed me over to the cameraman for pictures. I was an instant celebrity. Eli ran up and begged me to hold him, but he refused to smell the flowers.

Happy Valentine's Day!

Probably shouldn't fall asleep while I'm around.

"I will run forever, if we run together."

I think only Zach will get this reference.

It's official.

Maybe I'll see these two again, but this time, I'll get a medal too.

I survived another Parent Day at my school.

Today parents were allowed to stomp around with their students to each class.

Occurrences:

• My Dad came and watched one of my Geometry classes and mingled with my students' parents. He was a great little spy/seller of my teaching skills.
• My overhead projector overheated in the very same class it overheated in when it spat fire.
• My TA kids met their first goal of bringing in $45 for our Haiti Fundraiser, so now I have to wear my hair in a mohawk on Monday. What have I done? Once they meet their next goal, I have to dress up as Batman all day long. Again, what have I done? The parents laughed really hard.
• A parent of a student I had last year stopped me in the hall to congratulate me on my running. What the what? Apparently, she's seen me at the gym, "You run fast!" Not all the time lady. She tried to convince me to do a triathlon with her. I was too embarrassed to tell her I only know how to froggy swim, and I had to promise her I would think about it.
• I've had an interactive Promethean board in my class for a year and half now, but just last week, I started using what I call, "Clickers." They are fabulous gadgets that let the kids text in their answers. They have to enter their names in first so I know who's answering, and Jazz put in Jizz on accident. One boy couldn't stop laughing, but I honestly don't think he realized exactly why this was so unfortunate. I'm sure the parents thought this was hilarious or extremely offensive.
• One parent brought me a cookie.

* Picture of one of our clickers. They're fabulous.