They will be driving soon

My middle school darlings made the following errors this week.
1. Within one paper the word, "octubre" went through the following transformations:
octubre
octure
octurede
ocurede
ocureded
ocureded

2. The question was, "What would the pros and cons be if you were no longer allowed to use your lockers?"
Answer: "You would half to carry your boobs everywhere you go."
(It was a 6th grade boy. Poor thing--puberty is not kind.)

Photos of the band!

Grandma's Genius will be playing at the Royal Bean in Raleigh this weekend. Check 'em out! They'll be playing in Kernersville, we hope, soon, so stay tuned!



Photo 1: Jon "rehearsing"
Photo 2: GG at the Borders in Raleigh
Photo 3: GG at Borders in Winston

Mouth full of chiclets

It's 9:30 a.m. The students are filed in their rows, writing their answers to the focus question on the board. I see a boy in the front row making an odd face. He asks for a tissue. It's not long before I notice the tissue is bloody, and he is making an even weirder face.
"I pulled out my tooth; can I get a drink of water?" said the boy.
"Yes, and would you like an envelope for your tooth?" said the teacher.
"I guess..." he said.
I was delivering the envelope to his desk while he was out of the room when I noticed the tooth as it sat still bloody on page 11 of the boy's Spanish book.
It was the first time I've ever thought I was going to vomit while teaching.

Turn onto the dirt road...

We had dinner a couple weeks ago at a barbecue restaurant in Dudley Shoals, NC. We were invited by a fella I work with who plays guitar and sings as a part of the band, Bluegrass Blend.

We knew we were in for a down home experience when we got off I-40 and it still took us another 20 minutes and several turns before we finally reached Sim's Country Barbecue. We were in a rural area--you can tell because all the street names are people's full names (Charlie Little, etc.). We drove down the long and winding dirt road, and at the end we saw a log lodge reminiscent of the chow hall at a summer camp. For $9.95 a person you get all-you-can-eat beef, pork, or chicken barbecue, slaw, beans, rolls, and corn cakes. A pitcher of ice tea for two is $1.50, and you can buy a small homemade cake for $2 for dessert.

Perhaps the most interesting fact about the place is their sponsorship of their clogging studio and teams. Preserving the mountain tradition of clogging, Sim's Country barbecue becomes a place where the young and old, professionally trained and amateur, and the "I've never done this befores" all clog together throughout the dinner hours.

This place was family oriented, and a great place to let the kids play with each other and dance. there is plenty of seating for groups and it is apparently a popular place for church groups to go to. We hope to take others to this hideaway because it is such a different atmosphere for listening to music, eating, and preserving Appalachian culture.

How does your garden grow?

Here are some pics as requested by G-ma :) Zinnias and my lone geranium. The zinnias are about 3.5 ft. tall.

Babies!

We are Aunt Manda and Uncle Jon once again:
Jarius Noriel Clarkson
b. 9-5-07
7lbs. Head full of hair.

School's In

Here are some pics of my classroom. Today was the first day of school for me and the first day of college for my not-so-little-anymore brother. Yea Rob!

Open House

Our first open house is tomorrow night. I have mixed, not-so-great emotions (fear, anxiety, nervousness etc.) each year because of the following things:

1. Parents who speak to me completely in Spanish after I have spent all summer not speaking Spanish. After a summer in N.H. this is even more true since I saw no people of any color for several weeks.
2. Parents who say, "I took X years of X language and I only remember blah."
3. Parents who say, "The only words I know in Spanish aren't appropriate to say...ha ha ha."


Okay, it's not that bad, and open house does get me excited about the year ahead. I understand that folks are just trying to find some common ground, and I do appreciate that.

Baseball Hall of Fame

Best mustache ever.
Jon and the Babe.
Babe Ruth's bowling ball. I just thought that was cool.

Curt Shilling's bloody sock. Doesn't look like ketchup to me.

Soccer on York Beach

Here are some pics of our last night in the northeast. We miss this place.