my goal was 16 on the 16th. you'll have to settle for 11.

I was in the kitchen this morning getting ready to start packing my lunch. I reached over to grab the string on the blinds to open them up and was greeted with an absolutely fabulous sunrise. It almost took my breath away. I knew right then and there that I had to get a picture. So I stepped out back and snapped a few. (If only I knew how to upload pictures so that you could enlarge this. . .) I also decided to take my camera to school because it had been a while since I'd taken any pictures of the kids.

About ten minutes later as I was driving down the road the sky had changed to this. It reminded me of being in elementary school. Every year we had a special speaker in chapel and he was a chalk artist. He had some kind of flourescent chalk that you couldn't see until the very end when he turned on the black light. The sky reminded me of his drawings. It was always a favorite chapel of mine every year.

About ten minutes later as I was on the bridge in relatively decent traffic for a Friday morning, it hit me. . . the idea for today's blog. . . similar to 12 on the 12th, only it happens to be the 16th. And what the heck? At this point, I was already off to a good start.

Since it's Friday, and I wasn't running late, I made a quick stop under the Golden Arches for the best fast food breakfast around - a McDonald's sausage biscuit. I'd never been at this particular restaurant before, and was a bit irritated when they charged me $.50 for a glass of water. Come on! And after all that, I still didn't win anything on the Monopoly game.

I arrived at school, greeted by the friendliest scarecrow faces you ever did see. And that big scarecrow there in the middle, made by yours truly (with the help, encouragement, and sewing machine of my dear sweet Granny Fannie).

The morning flew by. You know, spelling test, phonics tests, assign literacy centers for the day, update the aide on what he's going to do while you pull kids out to the library for individual reading time. Before I knew it, I was lining up the little munchkins for lunch. Yes, that is orange carpet. Doesn't every church built in the 70's have orange carpet? Hey, at least it blends in with my fall bulletin board.

After finishing up lunch duty (during which I had a child in 3rd grade directly disobey me about going to get an ice cream until she finished her lunch), then I went back up to my room to begin the mad dash of Friday grading. I submit to you my desk.

After lunch, it was read aloud time, math test time, big buddy time, and then PE. Do you know how much I love having PE at the end of the day on Friday? It allows me to catch my breath before I get home. Well, all except for the days when we don't have school on Friday. Which, in November, will be a lot of Fridays. By 2:50, I not only had the folders and makeup work all ready to be passed out, but I had been to the bathroom. It's a wonder teachers don't have never ending kidney stone treatments.

So once dismissal time is done, it's time to gather round and have that Friday afternoon teacher chat. You know, where you laugh hysterically about kids who think that George Bush is on the dime and the dollar, and that Abraham Lincoln was called by God to go to a land he did not know. (All real events in my classroom this week.) And then crazy Mrs. Carroll brings out her puppets. The one on the left came from Indonesia. It's really cool. The one on the right that's in progress is a coffee creamer bottle that's been paper mache'd and has a styrofoam head, also paper mache'd. She's trying to figure out how to turn them into a history project with famous Americans. This woman is the paper mache' queen of America. No one in the school is allowed to throw coffee creamer bottles away because she uses them for bugs, and for puppets, and amazing birds. She's truly gifted and funnier than all get out.

I don't even know what she was laughing about so hard, but I said, I'm taking your picture with that coffee creamer bottle, and I'm posting it on my blog for all the world to see. Teacher chat. . .it's free therapy.

The drive home was rather lengthy. Some shed blew off the back of someone's truck and had traffic backed up for a good ten miles or so. Once I finally got back on the bridge, I snapped a quick picture of Mt. Hood. Again, you can barely see it on here, but it's getting covered by snow and looks whiter every day.

Dinner by Phil. New bottle of Aveda Rosemary Mint Conditioner, picked up by Phil. Chocolate chip oatmeal cookies cooling on the counter. Now off for some snuggle time on the couch.

Happy Friday. Happier weekend.