Maggie Done Got Bedazzled!

We did it, we pierced Maggie's ears! 

Here she is showing off her new bling at her grandfather's

80th birthday party this weekend!

The Historical Context of British Rock....why didn't I think of this before now?!?!?

"We don't need no education...." This was what my senior class chose as our class song but the administration denied it...not surprising!  So "Brown Eyed Girl" edged out "1979" by Smashing Pumpkins...I guess all the people born in 1978 were bitter that they didn't have equal representation in the class song!   Thank goodness I have both brown eyes and was born in 1979, a winner either way...wahooo!

Being a long time fan of classic rock, circa 7th grade, it is for the most part my favorite genre of music.   American rock bands have created amazing war protest music from the Vietnam Era.  Many by Credence Clearwater Revival and Crosby, Stills, Nash and Young are some of my all time favorite songs.  British rock on the other hand is not something that I've reflected on.  The extent of my knowledge is that you were supposed to watch Pink Floyd's "The Wall"  under the influence of illegal narcotics and go to a light show, which for the record, I never did.  The idea that it conained historical messages never crossed my mind.  Does this mean The Who's "Pinball Wizard" is not about the pinball machine at a raucous pub in Picadilly Circus?  The British were not involved in the Vietnam War, but they were still dealing with the scars of WWII.   Am I dumb or is this something that most adults know....especially if they are history teachers? 

In 1940, the Axis essentially had control of every Western European country and Britain was left to fight alone.  The Germans were sending 1,000 Luftwaffe daily to bomb Britain for an entire year.  Today in my class, Pink Floyd's "Goodbye Blue Sky" was used as we studied the Battle of Britain.  This was also the context that C.S. Lewis used in "The Lion, The Witch and The Wardrobe" as the children had been sent into the country side to avoid the London bombings, as were many British children during that time.    Opting not to show the imagery that goes along with "Goodbye Blue Sky" I instead had my students listen to the words and put them into the context of what we had just learned...ohhh, I get goosebumps!  It takes on an even deeper meaning when you learn that Roger Waters, the song writer, lost his father in WWII. 



This afternoon I have a date with my sewing machine and my British Rock section of iTunes!!!  I will be listening very carefully today while I sew.

 "1979" by Smashing Pumpkins

How many things do our kids do that we don't know about?

Being a teacher, I am always hauling copious amounts of papers back and forth from school. Sometimes, my bag is so heavy that I just drop it off on the passenger seat side because I can't heave it over the center console.

So today as I walked over to drop off my books on the passenger side I saw something stuck to the car window. After a second look, I realized it was a valentine that Jack made and must have taped on the window right next to his seat.

Ummmm, driving a mini-van is already very un-cool but how long was I driving around with 12" valentine stuck to my window?!?!?!?

Speaking of things that our kids do while we are not watching...or paying attention...here is a little video that Jack made on the flip one day while I was visiting the necessary! Both him and Lincoln were "suppose" to be in their quiet time. You hear that Lincoln busts Jack by saying, "Hey what are you doing with that" referring to the flip. However, he then becomes the primary focus of their film.....ahhhh, kids!

Oh Daffodils...why do you cost so much this year?

Someone needs to investigate the supply and demand of daffodils!  Each spring they usually find themselves in my grocery basket for $.99 a bundle at Trader Joe's.  In a vase, it looks best with 2-3 bundles together and if you buy the ones that are still tightly budded they can last a week.  Since they are such a delightful treat they are replaced weekly in my home each spring until they go out of season.  Last year they went up to around $2, which I could handle but just scaled back a little.  However, this year they have not been below $3!!!  Stab me in the heart Psycho style!  This is one of my favorite spring time flowers but $9 is just too much for me since I try keep a vase of fresh flowers in my home at all times.  Keeping fingers crossed that the next grocery trip will bring daffodils to my home but I'm not counting on it...come on $2.50!

This year Maggie got to enjoy some daffodils in her grandma's yard and they, both Maggie and the Daffodils, were simply lovely.

If the fresh cut daffodils do not pull through this spring then this will have to be the alternative.  We could have another conversation on stamp prices but alas in some cases they are just necessary.  So you might as well get one of the many fun/beautiful/educational/historical options that the USPS offer if you can't get the real deal.

By the way, Maggie's knitted corsage headband is from Elies Happy Hats - good deal and super cute!!!

Just because it is in the Lost and Found doesn't mean you get to keep it!

Last Saturday Mr. Rogers asked if I could drop off some movies on my way to the post office. He was making a big deal about the movies being turned in by noon. I casually remarked that the library wasn't going to fine us if they movies came in at 12:30 or 1. Perhaps, Mr. Rogers did not hear my comment about the library as I did not hear his telling me that me that the DVD's needed to be dropped off at Blockbuster. So comes Friday and my babysitter, notorious for wacky phone message taking, has some cryptic note about Blockbuster calling for some DVD's. Totally disregarded in my mind until Mr. Rogers came home. I reaffirmed him that I indeed did drop off those movies last Saturday. He calls Blockbuster and insists that they have made an error and needs to look again. Mr. Rogers is now quite perplexed and goes into Sherlock Holmes mode.

Mr. Rogers: You returned those movies, right?

Mrs. Rogers: Yes, on my way home from the post office.

Mr. Rogers: Then why is Blockbuster calling us?

Mrs. Rogers: They must have made a mistake.

Mr. Rogers: You returned them to Blockbuster?

Mrs. Rogers: Errrrrrrrr....no. Was I supposed to?

Mr. Rogers: Yes, they were due back at Blockbuster by noon.

[long thinking pause]

Mr. Rogers: Where did you take them?

Mrs. Rogers: Errrr....to the library!

[Mr. Rogers shaking head and holding in curse words]

Mrs. Rogers: I'll go call them right now.

[Mrs. Rogers looking down in shame]



On the phone with the library.



Mrs. Rogers: Yes, I accidently returned two DVD's to the library last Saturday that were suppose to go to Blockbuster.

Librarian: Oh, I know exactly which DVD's you are talking about. I placed them in the Lost and Found.

Mrs. Rogers: Thank goodness, I'll go pick them up tomorrow morning. As long as we get them in by Sunday we won't be fined.



So we go to the library and I proceed to locate the Lost and Found. [searching] First movie, check. [searching harder] Hmmmm, there was no sign of a second movie. Locating a librarian I somewhat frantically explain my situation. She disappears into a room for minutes only to come back empty handed.

Having thought that I solved the problem I had to return to Mr. Rogers, waiting with the three kids, in the car. He told me the missing movie was "The Bee Movie". Once he said that I figured someone probably "found" it in the Lost and Found and was like, "SCORE, The Bee Movie has found a new owner!" Would you like to know which movie wasn't stolen?

No comment necessary!

Nutella, the Breakfast of Champions!

Mr. Rogers woke up sick this morning and so we've had to fend for ourselves. It's been a dog eat dog world over here this morning. Me frantically battling ants, Maggie clawing the fridge for her YoBaby, Lincoln trying to prepare his own bowl of "red and orange penguin cereal" which translates into Puffin cereal in both the cinnamon and peanut butter flavors (gross!) but Jack was the only one successful this morning. Of course, he chose to make the BREAKFAST OF CHAMPIONS which is the classic Nutella on bread....yummmm! Jack is also a card carrying member of the Vonnegut FB fan page, just incase you were wondering. Amidst the chaos I was able to snap a few pics of Jack preparing his breakfast.

Not to shabby, maybe he should start making his sandwiches for pre-school!

The Great Depression

My students cheered and jeered as our Great Depression unit came to an end today. As we went further into the Great Depression this year my students found themselves with less and less of the things they had grown so accustom to throughout their 12 years of formal education. So often they complain about the desks that "make" them slouch over. Really?? They would find a way to slouch in their seats if they were tied to them like Hannibal Lector on his crazy man’s stretcher! They whine about books, they complain that the room is "too hot" or "too cold", or that the overhead is too loud...until now [evil cackle]. Every day, I was "forced" to use less electricity, "sell" desks and books, and eventually I "had" to turn off the heater throughout the course of our three week unit [double evil cackle]. As they began to catch on that everyday things were getting worse in our classroom the deeper we delved into the Depression, they began to value having a textbook, using a desk, and begged for the very things that they had been whining about all year!

Was this cruel...or genius? Probably a little bit of both! Secretly, it is a little fun to watch them try to do their work on the floor or to see my "slackers" race to class in hopes of getting a desk. I do have to say that never have teenagers been so excited to take a test, which meant the return of desks, heat, and electricity as we wrapped up the Great Depression.

Confessions of a Hypocritical Health Freak!

In a lot of ways I am kind of a health freak but I am also a binge junk food eater. RARELY do I buy junk food or processed foods for my family to consume at home.  Not to mention that I am totally a "grocery store snob" in the words of Mr. Rogers. There are a couple things that I just can’t live without, such as, Marie Calendar’s Chicken Pot Pies or Cup Noodles (it’s not Cup of Noodles as you might refer to it as) but I mostly just stick to things where I understand and can pronounce the ingredients. However, for whatever reason when other people buy junk food I take ownership of the term and become a “junkie” and I pretty much just pig out! I also feel like it is 100% okay to eat whatever I want at work “Corn dogs you say? Two please!” My logic is completely illogical because I would be so disgusted if Mr. Rogers ever came home with a bag of frozen Corn Dogs for dinner.

This was my lunch today, Fritos and then a Hot Chocolate afterwards. It was consumed on my way home from work in my car….shame, shame, shame on me but I must confess that it wasn’t the first time!

*Readers Note: I always drink with a straw to preserve my lip gloss and not ruin its texture or shine.  I've been mocked by many for my crazy straw drinking ways but heed my word people, it works!

Local Woman Gets Swarmed By Bees In Name Of Blog!

The blossoms begin to bloom bountifully every year around this time – there is some alliteration for you this hump day! It was just so beautiful driving home from work today that I wanted to share it with people who are not surrounded by this act of nature every year. Armed only with my phone camera I snapped some pictures of these stone fruit blossoms. What are “stone fruit” you ask? Peaches, plums, apricots or other fruit with a pit or “stone” inside of them.

Living in an agricultural mecca does have perks, such as, endless acres of trees blossoming at the same time….ah, breathtaking!

As I was shooting away I started to notice a plethora of bees surrounding me. Although it makes complete sense, I was not thinking about bees being in a field of blossoms when I first embarked on this photo shoot...duh, McFly! You know when your brain is going in slow motion and it takes you a couple moments to figure out what is actually happening around you? Well, that was me! It suddenly occurred to me, upon realizing the swarm of bees flying dangerously close to me that I was wearing an enormous flower clip in my hair. Instantly, I imagined bees landing on me and began to feel phantom stings on my back as I went into the duck and cover position I was taught as a young lass.  I snapped my last shot in vain for you, dear readers, and I high tailed it through a ditch back to my car. Arriving safely in my car I then realized I had accumulated enough dirt inside my work shoes during my mad dash to give myself a spa mud treatment...argh!

This is where the bees live when they are not trying to swarm humans!

You probably can't tell but there are hundreds in that picture!  My car window was rolled down only 2"  when I took that picture out of pure FEAR!

So even though being "swarmed" by bees might have been a slight exaggeration, hopefully, my potentially harmful overdose of bee stinging venom was worth the risk to my precious few readers!

George+Lincoln+Mrs. Rogers = BFF Forever!

Teaching U.S. History AP for the past three years has given me lots of opinions on Presidents, which I will not bore you with at the present time.  With that said I do have to mention some of my favorites, of course, Washington, Lincoln, Teddy Roosevelt, Carter (as a man not as a president) and Hoover.  In Hoover's defense, I know what you're thinking, Great Depression, but it really wasn't his fault and history has completely done him wrong.

If Mr. Rogers were to say "Here is $100!  Go spend it on two handmade Presidential pillows in celebration of President's Day!!!" then this is what I would buy!  I've actually been coveting these pillows since I first saw them several months ago.  Oh, they would be perfect on Jack (after JFK, did you know that Jack is the nickname for John...hence, Jack Kennedy) and Lincoln's bed.  As mentioned in a previous post Jack is a big fan of George Washington.  As for Lincoln, well how could he not want an Abraham Lincoln pillow?

I love these Presidential pillows!  Handmade in Texas, go to A. Wahl Designs to also see Obama, Jefferson, and maybe we should rally for a Nixon, because honestly, who wouldn't want to see his schnoz on a pillow?

Of course, in honor of President's Day I am offering $5 off anything in my shop today, code: PRES$5 during checkout, reimbursed via Paypal within 24 hours.

A Small But Perfect Valentine's Day Gift!

I don't know anything about beauty except for what my friend Kara tells me to buy or what I read on her beauty blog. Let's be honest, I didn't even start wearing make up until I was student teaching and people kept mistaking me for a junior higher!  However, a slight addiction to nail polish has taken a strong hold in my life the past couple of years.  Pedicures and manicures are rare because I rather spend my money on books or coffee.  Since I always do my own nails I feel like it is okay to indulge in nice nail polish occasionally.  My boys know how much I enjoy nailpolish and so this Valentine's Day they got me a new bottle.  Jack picked "Jade is the New Black" from OPI's Hong Kong collection, as I am very fond of jade and turqouise.  In a rush I put on a coat before church so the boys would know how much I appreciated their gift.

Some of my other sentimental favorites...for obvious reasons.

I'm a sucker for anything with a clever title or my kids names on it!

Perhaps you are wondering how a mom of three can even have the time for nail polish.  Here is my secret, which I learned from Kara's blog, Sally Hansen's Triple Strong.  It is meant to be used as a nail strengthen but when used as top coat is it like manna from heaven. 

Two coats of polish and one of Triple Strong then I re-apply one coat polish and one coat Triple Strong as the polish begins to wear off each week.  If there is a chip I usually just trim my nails as well -- I like the look of short polished nails.  I can get it to go about 3weeks and by that point I have so many coats of polish (somehow it doesn't look that bad....unless you looked really close) that it just peels off when I am ready to change the color - that can't be good for your nails but I don't care.  I've become so fast at the re-applyication process that I usually do it in the car before I set off to work.  Someday the polish is going to spill in my car but until then I will throw caution to the wind.

It is a pure coincidence that we wrote about each others blogs this week just incase you visit and see that she wrote about my Etsy shop!

Kara's Pursuit Of Perfection

Other uses for Happy Meal toys....

It was a beautiful sunny day and after weeks of cold rainy weather I told the boys to go outside and play while Maggie was catching some zzzzz's.  As I worked in my sewing room, which butts up to the garage, the boys ran in shouting "LOOK, LOOK, LOOK...it's just like Maggie's!"  To my disgusted surprise, they were using their McDonald's toys as ball syringes to extract their "mocos" (mucus)!  Oh it get's better, they were then squirting them out in their hands and playing with them [me dry heaving]!  They have been rather stopped up lately so they had plenty of mucus to extract.  Perhaps now you are wondering what the original purpose of these toys were.  Place the penguin in water, push the botton on the back, and then release to squirt water out of the beak...now imagine that with mucus! 

DIRECTIONS FOR EMERGENCY BALL SYRINGE

1.  Insert beak into nostril

2.  Push button while beak is still in nostril

3.  Release and receive one handful of fresh boogers, viola!

How did they even get these toys to begin with?  My father-in-law, bless his heart, took the boys to McDonald's for lunch, which is fine because I NEVER take them.  So of course they got the ever so coveted Happy Meal toy, this week being the Booger Extractors of Madagascar .  Might I also add that when my father-in-law dropped off the boys, Lincoln had a poop in his pants that had been there for over an hour.  Ahhh, the joy of children!

President's Day, Everyday!

Have you ever thought about how children know who Superman, Spiderman, and SpongeBob Squarepants are long before they know actual heroes, such as George Washington, Harriet Tubman, or Ghandi? Understanding history makes us understand the world and all the people who share it with us. If our children can remember a plethora of super “heroes” and villains then why aren’t we teaching them about the real heroes and villains of history? For whatever reason, we do not think that kids can absorb these things or we simplify it to were it is false, i.e. George Washington and the cherry tree or Christopher Columbus “discovering” the new world.

Shortly after my son Jack turned three, we embarked on a historically rich summer vacation. As we visited Valley Forge and looked at the cannons, Jack also learned about General George Washington. At Gettysburg he learned about General Lee, Lincoln and slavery (yikes, that one was tough to explain).  In the most simplistic terms I explained the American Revolution and the Civil War and history came alive to him…although, he thought for awhile that all British were “bad guys” and refused on ever stepping foot in England.

Jack with the Continental Army cannons at Valley Forge National Historical Park in Valley Forge, PA.

When we got back home he announced that he wanted his 4th birthday party to be his George Washington Party. Although I want my children to be thoroughly informed about the world around them, I do not want them to be socially awkward outcasts. George Washington birthday party and four year olds just seemed like a recipe for permanent “nerd-dom”. However he persisting for the next six months. It was not until I was at a history seminar when I was posed with the same question I posed to you at the beginning of this entry.

This book has text but also includes many pictures for the little ones to look at while you read/explain and includes people such as Jackie Robinson, Elie Wiesel, Rachel Carson, Walt Disney and many more.

 It inspired me and I decided there that I would throw Jack a George Washington party.

The Patriots on the left and The Red Coats on the right!

Baskin Robbins will make anykind of cake you like it you give

them one week notice! 

Mmmmm, ice cream cake! 

(Mr. Rogers accidently left in the car so the left corner melted)

"The Battle"

 Marching and a water balloon fight, what more could kids want?

If you make it fun, children will go for anything. In my house we read books about 1776, American heroes, world artists, and we listen to music from various time periods, we also “conduct” experiments. If you put your mind to it you can teach them so many things that are already part of your day to day activities. For example, when cooking dinner simply take them through the Scientific Method (just Google anything you don’t remember-that’s what I do, lol). Hypothesize what is going to happen to the noodles when they get cooked. Conduct your experiment by cooking the noodles. Make observations while noodles are cooking – take one out to see what is happening to it. Analyze your data by touching or cutting the noodles once they have been cooked. Finally, have the child verbally say what happened and reconnect it to his hypothesis. Now, let me go totally teacher on you! Introduce Sir Francis Bacon, the man who came up with the scientific method. Sit down and draw a picture of a piece of bacon with a superhero cape on it – they will LOVE that and if you bring it up occasionally they will remember it! Now they have learned science, history … and art, if you will!

So this Presidents Day, and everyday, I urge you to introduce these real heroes to your children. Think of all the “hooks” you will be providing in their brains for when the get the actual “meat. Yes, Superman, Spiderman, and SpongeBob all have an important place in pop culture but it should not be at the expense of real heroes.

Be Mine or Else!

These are mini Valentine’s Day cards I bought for the kids from the Hearts For Haiti Etsy shop.

In their cute packaging of four cards for $4.

One mini love message for each of my sweeties!

On second thought, maybe I should hold on to them until the kids are in junior high or high school....

...the message seems a little more applicable for tweens than for my 10 months old who just looks at me and starts salivating for milk!

More mini cards can be found at

Factory Girl Ashli

Why bother...

Not many people absolutely love their job but I have the good fortune of being one who does. Don’t get me wrong, what I wouldn’t do to sleep in on a Monday but I look forward to teaching my students and making history relevant in their lives. I spend my vacations going to history content seminars and before I go to bed every night I jam my head with books on the Erie Canal, the American Revolution and Nixon. Not only do I love what I teach but I love who I teach. I don’t know if anyone, who is not a teacher, can understand how much many teachers love their students. Sometimes when referring to “my kids” I have to stop and clarify between my biological kids and my students. Currently, I teach juniors and seniors. I am prepping them for college, trying to get them into college and then texting them once they get there, as they are often first generation college students.

My career started in Orange County, The Desperate Housewives of Orange County to the east and Laguna Beach to the west. Now I teach in a rural high school with only, get this, 200 students…can you believe that? The community revolves around agriculture and the majority of my students come from farm labor families. Wow, you wouldn’t think that two communities so immensely different could be so near to each other. Now, I teach so much more than history because I am surrounded by poverty and am faithfully trying to show my students that there is more to life then picking grapes.

Today was a hard day. Teenage pregnancy, drug use (not just recreational but rehab type drug use), complacency and just a general apathy is what my day consisted of. These are things that are always sprinkled here and there but they all hit full force today. Sometimes I just think “What am I doing there?" Some of my favorite girls are mothers by eighteen and some of my favorite boys are riddled with drug addictions after they graduate, it’s hard. Am I even making a difference? Okay, I really do know the answer but on days like this is just feel like walking away.

Sale No. 50 ....

$5 off for next sale, which would be SALE NO. 50!!!! YIPPEE!!!! Could still be there by Saturday for Valentine's Day!!!

My personal Valentine's Day picks would be the following:

She HEARTS Watermelons

Jack HEARTS Robots

However, they are definetly both year round items!!!

Yes, I have a mini-van....but that doesn't mean you have to urinate on it!!!

My two week old phone was held hostage today! It never occurred to me that my precious holiday was going to be spent running back and forth to the Sprint store over the course of FOUR hours. With intentions of being back in 2 hours, I left my daughter with the sitter, loaded the boys up, drove 30 minutes to town and was planning on being back by lunch.

It was on our FOURTH trip back into the store, that’s right FOURTH, when the highlight of my afternoon occurred. My phone was fixed but they had mixed up my phone number with Mr. Rogers’ phone number so now I had to wait, again, while they corrected their error. So, I’m standing at the counter, my head propped up by my arm, and my boobs filling up with milk as the feeding time for my daughter had come and gone. Out of my peripheral vision I see a smallish figure at the front of my tire. I think, “hmmm, what is that little kid doing at my car? ….wait a minute, THAT KID IS PEEING ON MY CAR!!!” Shocked, my jaw dropped and I was stunned, much like the time I met Today Show’s Anne Curry. Seriously, was this kid really urinating on my tire? He turns around and runs back in the store, fly zipped but not yet secured by the top button, leaving only a puddle at the base of my tire. After he runs into the store he proceeds to manhandle every sample phone for the next 45 minutes that he is in there…not once washing his hands I might add, and I might also add that there was a restroom in the store. In my head I replayed scenes of me going over to his parents and explaining what he had done. They had no idea, in fact, I don’t think they even noticed that he had left the building. A couple of years ago I would have gone over and said something but I’ve since mellowed out a bit and instead just turned to the technician and said matter of factly, “That kid just totally pee’d on my car!” shrugged and laughed, naturally she was appalled. If you think about it, it really is a funny thing to see a 5 year-old just point blank pee in front of a store with floor to ceiling windows, in a parking lot, on a tire, and then just walk back in as though nothing was out of the ordinary.

Since you only have a mental picture of this I am using my very crude drawing skills to draw a picture for you! In parting, please remember to always make sure your children are not urinating on other people’s cars and to think twice before you step into that puddle next to your car!

Leg-Warmers....Gotta Love Them!

I missed my opportunity to wear leg-warmers in the 80’s….slouch socks (check), neon (check), spandex leggings (check) but alas, no leg-warmers! About four years ago I bought some for my son and have been longing for a pair of my own since then. At one point a couple years ago I saw some at Anthropologie but they were around $40 and I knew Mr. Rogers would go into cardiac arrest if I bought them. However, this year for my birthday one of my good friends bought me some leg-warmers and a knitted corsage headband!!!!! They are so AWESOME that I have worn them the past three days in a row….you know you do it too when you get something you LOVE!

Here is Jack sporting his leg warmers a couple years ago when we went to Frank Lloyd Wright's "Fallingwater" in Fallingwater, PA.

A picture of the house just for good measure!  Kids weren't allowed inside so we were only allowed to walk the perimeter ... in the rain, of course! 

So really, how can you not love leg-warmers?

a) Ummm, they're awesome!

b) Kids and grown-ups can sport them alike!

c) You can visit historical sites and wear leg-warmers at the same time!!!

Hearts For Haiti

Valentine's Day is rapidly approaching....LOVE is in the air ..do do do do do do...LOVE is in the air!  Are you in need for some quick little gifts for your friends, kids, nieces and nephews, that special someone or just a little something for yourself!  A shop has been opened on Etsy that allows you to get just that but at the same time support Doctor's Without Borders in Haiti...the last check this shop wrote out was for $27,000!  The shop is called Hearts for Haiti and here are some special Valentine's Day finds.

These are some of my favorites:

Pomogranate Love T-Cozy

by ibsenlab

A Pair of Handmade Baby Blue and Taupe Hair pins

by Kim Art

Reusable Produce Bag

by Green Mum Totes


I Heart You Crayons - rainbow pack

by Just Add Color

and I also donated one of my Jack HEARTS Robots to help the cause

Check out the Hearts For Haiti blog it is really neat to see what they are doing.  

I'm off to go buy the kids each a little somethin' somethin' ... made with love and sold to spread the love!

Goodbye to an old friend...

I finally broke down and purchased a smart phone. It was about time too. Take a look at my previous phone and you’ll understand.

Believe it or not, I purchased that son-of-a-gun in 2004. Yeah that’s right, George W.’s first term. At the time, smart phones were futuristic. I think Palm held the market on PDA’s, but they weren’t the savvy, stylistic gadgets that are out today. Over the years, this little Sanyo (they make phones? YUP!) has made phone calls from numerous states, texted from nine different baseball stadiums, and was used to phone a vote in ALL of the Dancing With the Stars seasons (I personally believe my vote from this phone single handedly gave Joey Lawrence the upper hand over Monique Coleman on episode eight of season three).

I will miss this phone. It was with me through the births of our three children, making calls out to family and friends as a proud father. It’s the phone that received the call from Pom Wonderful with a job offer. It’s been dropped, kicked, slobbered on by our kids, and has been my alarm clock for the past five years. And it still works. But alas, it was time for me to join the rest of you technophiles into the 21st century.

If I had my druthers, I would be the proud owner of an iphone, however I couldn’t stomach the outrageous monthly bill that comes along with it. Just wouldn’t be prudent. In researching our current wireless provider, my brother and I found a loophole that would allow us to get a fantastic plan (unlimited internet access, texting, etc) for the same price that we’re paying now. Since Sprint doesn’t sell iphones, my wife and I decided to get the HTC Hero, one of the new android phones and after having the phones for a week, I’ve gotta say that it is amazing. I’ve already downloaded a couple of apps - coin flip was my first (yes, now I can settle any dispute with the flip of a coin without having to carry around a coin). I’ve setup my stock portfolio which I can check at any time, I’m constantly connected to facebook (no more excuses for not being a good facebook friend), and I no longer have to use a numeric pad to text. Oh yeah, and my personal e-mail is sent directly to my phone. All this to say, I love my new phone.

Jack and his "Art"

My son Jack loves to draw picture but he LOVES to hang them on the walls of our house even more.  So at what point do you pull the plug on their creative expression ....

When you can't find the light switch?

When all the walls in the living room have been transformed into an art gallery?

When the dining room centerpiece is full of it?

note: the view of artwork scene from the dining table...it's even peeking out from behind other walls...

It wasn't too long ago that my friend Sona was telling me that her daughter's were creating reams worth of "art". Her solution was a digital picture frame to record each of the pictures, GENIUS!  A clever thought that I dismissed at the time thinking, "Surely, my bug hunting boys will never develop their inner Van Gogh."  But alas, my time has come and if I wasn't so frugal I would go out and get one this very moment!

However, until that day comes I will just let them continue to express themselves old school.  Besides, a little marker, paper, and painter's tape never hurt anyone!