I usually try to avoid off-color posts or disguise them so that the Little Pitchers don’t know what the hell I’m talking about, but this joke cracked me up. I’ve changed the punchline slightly in a lame attempt at confusing the underage.

A husband and wife were sitting watching a TV program about psychology which explained the phenomenon of “mixed emotions.” The husband turned to his wife and said, “Honey, that’s a bunch of crap. I bet you can’t tell me anything that will make me happy and sad at the same time.”

She said: “Out of all your friends, you are the most well-endowed.“

aaaHAHAHAHAHAHA!!!!!!! aaaHAHAHAHA!!!
(That was Lana’s laugh.)

Thanks Julie!

Yesterday was a rough morning.  Nothing unusual, just another case of three kids not doing what they were supposed to be doing until we were so late that we missed drop-off time at preschool, and because of that, we missed the bus.  Not a surprise.

I walked into Norah’s school, already knowing that we would miss the bus and I’d have to drive Aliya and Adlani to their school and then WAIT until it was time for the kids to go inside.  I hate waiting!!!

When I saw Norah’s teacher I said, “Her hair is a barometer of my mood.  When she has Princess Hair, things are going well and I even had time to make her look presentable.  When she has Witch Hair, things aren’t going so well.”

Not a shock, yesterday she had Witch Hair.  I’m sure the teacher was thinking that her little 3-month-old princess would NEVER be going to school with Witch Hair.  I used to think that way, but I’ve let quite a few things slide.  In fact, I can’t remember the last time Norah went to school with Princess Hair.

The unexpected benefit is that Norah has an overwhelming desire for all things Princess, so I can now threaten her with Witch Hair and actually get some results. 

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Here it is…the dreaded Witch Hair:

And on a lighter note…I saw a post today about weird internet stores and I just had to post the links here in case someday I need to buy some handerpants (underwear-gloves), ice cube trays that make shot glasses which you can then fill with the beverage of your choice, or bacon-flavored breath mints.  Maybe I should expand my blog and add a shopping section.

Remember how it was when we were teenagers, and in order to buy something you had to find a store that carried it and then GO there?  And if you wanted to learn the words to a song you had to wait for it to come on the radio, press record on your cassette player and then play it again and again while you wrote the words down one line at a time?  And when you wanted to talk to your friend you had to use the telephone (We had a party line so we had to wait until the neighbors were done talking!)?  And you had to talk in the closet because that’s as far as the cord would reach?  And you could call the boy you were secretly in love with and hang up without him knowing it was you?  Yeah…those were the days.

Anyway, here are those links:

Fred and Friends

Archie McPhee

Great Big Stuff
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I’ve mentioned before that I believe in *signs*, spirits, after death communications, whatever words you want to use to describe the connection with people who have died. It’s not like I’m a ghost-hunter or I gather the kids around for Friday night seances (Hey! Maybe I’ll dig out my Ouija board for Aliya’s next sleepover!), but I do believe in some sort of “life after death.”

This morning on the way to school Aliya was asking a lot of questions about ghosts. She had seen a TV show about kids who tried to investigate hauntings, etc. I told her that the day Bernie died, I was laying on the bed in the hotel room, feeling numb with shock and grief, not really asleep but not fully awake either, and I felt him squeeze my knee and heard him say, “Love ya, kid.” It was SO real. Seriously.

So this morning when I was talking about it in the car, I started to cry a little. Then the most freaky thing happened. I turned the next corner, and in the sky right in front of us, beginning in the middle of the windshield and extending straight down was a piece of a rainbow. A rainbow? In the winter? When it hadn’t rained or snowed?  Really?

I don’t know about you but I don’t see rainbows very often. They are one of the magical things that you can’t just buy or conjure up at will. To see one in that context really made me wonder (again) if Bernie was sending his love.

Hello From Heaven
After Death Communication Research Foundation

I attended the meeting tonight regarding the school reorganization plan.  For people reading this from out of town, a major reorganization of our school district has been proposed and we’re in the middle of the “public comment” period.

I don’t feel that I can openly vent on the Facebook page, but I can be a little more candid here.  As I sat at the meeting tonight I felt like nobody had really listened to anything the superintendent said.  People kept wanting answers to their questions, and details like which kid would be going to which school, how much money would be spent/saved, etc.  Personally, if the reorganization team had presented a detailed plan with the lines already drawn, I would assume that it was a done deal and that it was too late for feedback.  This week is the period where we get to COMMENT, and then the reorg team makes any necessary changes and issues a final proposal to be voted on by the school committee.  Seems simple enough.

The reorganization team is made up of a group of educators in our school system, many of whom are parents of kids in our schools.  They know about education and they care about kids.  I know most of them, either personally or by reputation.  I trust them.  What do I know?  I sell locks.

Parents keep talking about how the changes will negatively affect their kids.  I strongly believe that if we are positive about it, the kids will be too.  Aliya and Adlani aren’t at all concerned.  To be fair, the kids who are being relocated to their neighborhood school will have a tougher adjustment than our school which will be moving as a complete unit, but I still think kids adapt to change much easier than we do, and factor our response into theirs.  If we’re fine, they’ll be fine too.

There are obvious advantages to the proposal, if people would put their emotions and fear of change aside and listen.  The principal of Dunning and the high school principal both gave great insight into why the proposal of K-2/3-5 pairings will benefit education.  But people seemed hung up on “I don’t want to leave my school,” or “I don’t want my kid to go to a school with low MCAS scores.”  That argument doesn’t really make sense to me.  If the MCAS scores are low at a particular school (let’s put aside the reasons why for now), but every school is being changed and the kids are being shuffled around, how do last year’s MCAS scores matter?  If the scores are low because the teachers are bad, that’s one thing, but that’s not the reason.

At least 6 people said they didn’t want their kids to go to Woodrow Wilson because it’s in a “bad part of town,” and some even suggested sending the Two-Way program there.  (I couldn’t help feeling like they were suggesting it as some sort of punishment.  Someone said on the Facebook page that the program was “elitist” because you have to enter in kindergarten.  Duh…you can’t enter at a higher grade because you’d have to be fluent in Spanish.  If you are and there’s space available, you’re welcome!)  One woman said she would move out of the ‘Ham if her kid got assigned to Woodrow.  True, it’s not in a good part of town.  But I kept wondering if anyone was going to defend the school because I know how I’d feel if people were saying that they didn’t want their kids to go to our school.  The last comment of the night was my favorite Zumba instructor Ali (her son went to our preschool last year).  As soon as I saw her standing there I knew she was going to be the one to defend Woodrow Wilson because I remember when her son was assigned there for kindergarten.

Ali was extremely emotional, so of course I immediately started crying.  (Ted didn’t help when he told me to pull it together.)  She was very hurt that everyone was slamming the school her son attends, and she wanted to share the story of his success there.  Like all of the schools in the ‘Ham, Woodrow has amazing teachers, and because of them, her son is thriving.  I was so proud of Ali for standing up and speaking out, even though I’m sure she knew she would have a hard time.  I don’t think I would have been able to do the same.  She was very brave.

There’s one more meeting for public comment on Thursday night, and no doubt some of the same people will show up with the same gripes.  Personally, I’m a big fan of working together toward a positive outcome rather than fighting against each other but we’ll have to wait and see how it goes.  There may be some nice real estate opening up on the south side of route 9.   
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