This is really funny.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KU3N5c2Kxnw

Enjoy your day!!

Do you ever get the urge?

I'm talking about purchasing music on itunes. It's so easy, and once I get on I can't stop myself. This week I had the urge to purchase folk music. I know what you may be thinking... What is she freaking doing? Well, I happen to really like folk music. I was probably the only kid in any school I went to who knew who The Kingston Trio was. Ahh, parental influence. I listened to my parents' music (Motown, 60's, folk, Helen reddy, beach boys, rolling stones, Marvin Gaye, Tina and Ike, and more...) until i broke free in the mid-eighties. There I dove into new wave, pop music, the cure (oh I heart them so), Brit pop, Debbie Gibson. One of the first songs I remember really loving was -Eye of the Tiger - . It was voted the best song in second grade.

I do love music. I love it all. The good, the bad, the embarrassing, the loud, the teenie bopper... all of it.

So with the passing of Mary (of peter, paul and mary), I felt the need to re-claim the original songs that introduced me to music. Folk is great. it's heartfelt, soft, feeling, emotional,universal, and fun. So yah, I bought "Puff the Magic Dragon", "Big Yellow Taxi", and one of my all time favorites ,"Kodachrome". I plan on enjoying a little peace and love, and making it a low-fi weekend.

Here's to satisfying the urge fo folk music.... may it reign forever.

Here's to the musical parents I have, I'm so happy that music has been and always will be such a part of my life.

"The times, they are a changing."

I thought Labor Day weekend was supposed to be Labor FREE!

Ahh, it so nice to sit down at the end of the day and just relax. After a hard day of hard labor outside, I'm looking forward to relaxing the rest of the day away. We worked so hard on our yard today. We've been trying to figure out what to do with certain eye sores, huge over-hanging branches, grass seed, weeds, crabgrass, and other random stuff.

I love a yard, but honestly it's a whole lot more work getting it to be less maintenance. We're still getting tons of rocks, and random objects (files, tubes, little cars, barrettes, hose) coming out of the ground. I am sure that our backyard will someday be an anthropologist's dream to see how lazy homeowners lived in the early 21st century in Alexandria, VA.

But lazy we are not, and the work is paying off a little bit. It's been almost a year since we bought our house, and we've done quite a lot of work. It's been rewarding, and now it's just about time to take on some big projects again, or at least try to decide what changes we think we want to make. Not sure yet...

So anyway, after a long days work I'm looming forward to a nice drink, cheese and crackers, some pasta and a fresh salad, and homemade peach pie (that I made) with some ice cream on top. What a day. What a weekend. It feels good to be home.

Holey Moley is it September already?

How time just vanishes, and I don't even realize it. School FINALLY starts on Tuesday, and I think I'm ready. I had 2 classrooms to get in order because I'm going to be teaching at 2 different schools. One school is my "home school" and the other I'm only at 2 days a week, however, it still somehow became my responsibility to get 2 rooms together. Argh.

But it's done. And they're both ready for students.

We had 3 days of pep talks. Which is fine, I'm all for supporting teachers, lifting them up, but 3 days? I enjoyed hearing 2 of the Freedom Writer come and speak, and I liked this other guy a lot (forget who he was). But did we need 9 keynote speakers? I don't think so.

So finally, I'm ready for students. Bring them on! They're going to be full of energy and excited, I can feel it. I got to meet a few of my future students this morning, and they seemed really cute. It's been a while since I've taught the little guys, but I'm ready. I think it's going to be a lot of fun.

What else? I have no idea...Lots of things. In the midst of planning the wedding too, of course. Came up with some actual ideas that may work... We'll see. Don't want to give anything away in case i don't do it. But yes, I am still making origami cranes. I have about 600 more to go. I think Jarle is going down to C-ville next week, so he's going to measure the place we're getting married at, and making sure we can fit the tables and chairs etc... it's at some one's house, so... I have no idea how it's working yet.

I'm so excited too-- because next week I'm going to go try on dresses! yay!! My best friends from high school are coming along to see and help me. So it'll be fun. I have no idea what I want, or even what might look good on me, so it will be nice to get their help. They're honest-- I think .....

Anyway, I'm ready for the weekend to begin and hopefully I'll have a little time to relax in between the school planning, yard work, and cleaning (our house has been so neglected the last 2 weeks).

Happy last unofficial weekend of summer! Enjoy it well!!!