The Third Grade

There are times when my 3rd grade students do strange things, causing me to wonder if I did things like that when I was that age. Of course, I wasn't in special education, but my kids aren't all that different from the regular kiddos. Today a boy asked me if he could sharpen his pencil (for the 3rd time in an hour) and I said no, causing him to have a class 4 temper tantrum (4 outta 5 is pretty bad) and cry like a little girl. Then he threw his whole pencil box on the floor, which exploded upon contact, leaving little bits of crayon shavings and colored pencils everywhere. When I told him to pick it up he yelled something in Spanish and buried his face in his hands, sobbing uncontrollably. I felt so evil, but seriously, stop breaking your pencil!!!!

Anyway, I thought it would be fun to look back on my 3rd grade year. So here I am, moccasins and all. Note the hairy legs, which resulted in me being called Chewbacca for the next 9 years.

Timber!!!!

Our neighbors (not tree huggers apparently) are having all of their pine trees removed from their front yard, which bums me out. I guess having been tree-deprived in Southern California, I extra extra like them now. They decided to cut this one at the base, and then use a rope attached to a truck to pull it down. I was watching from the office, upstairs. It was cool, and sad. Here's a pic of the huge LoblollyPine, now deceased.

Jeff and Nicole Tied the Knot

On February 7th, my brother Jeff married his best gal, Nicole. It was a great wedding! The wedding was at a church in Silverado Canyon in Southern California, and in the tradition of Eichman weddings, it poured rain. Kent performed the ceremony and did a great job, as usual. I was a bridesmaid, and I got to make the wedding cake! It was a lot of fun, and I am thankful to have a great new sister in Nicole. I will try to post some pictures soon. Until then, here they are at halloween :-)

(I can't figure out how to delete this photo, so oh well.)

Sick Girl, na-na-na-na, Sick Girl

Not much going on here. Last week Kent was super sick, and guess what... This week I am sick! I feel like I am incubating the plague and like death warmed over. My only respite is Dayquil and watching all my DVR'd reality shows that I love so much. I was able to make it through work all week somehow, and thank God I can crash all weekend. I bought a book to read, "The Heart is a Lonely Hunter" by Carson McCullers, but I am depressed by the plot already. I think I will start reading "Marley & Me", though I think I know how that one ends too...

Kent started sanding the deck yesterday to stain it. It is looking kinda gross because the previous owners never put a stain on it, and it has gotten gray and gross. So he rented a gigantor sander yesterday for $80... and then it rained. Go figure. Anyway, just another task in the long and laborious "facelift" of our house.

Our 4 year anniversary is coming up in March, and we are planning a trip to New Orleans for a few days. It is hard to plan a trip to a place we have never been. I think we are going to stay in the French Quarter so we can walk everywhere. We are going to go to the National WWII museum one day, and hang out on Bourbon Street another day. Any suggestions???

That's all friends. Jana out :-)