TLC - The Laughing Channel

I've found that I quite enjoy the show "Jon and Kate Plus 8" on TLC. I watched a few episodes. While I was on the phone with a friend the next show came on. It features the Duggars, the family with 16 (maybe more) kids. They were on a vacation. The dad surprised the family with an airplane ride over the Grand Canyon. The flight attendant explained how to fasten the seatbelts and there was to be no smoking. The dad's narrating voice follows by saying, "You heard her kids, put away your stoagies." Yeah, what? Oh, my. Then Dad Duggar explained the next stop would be Las Vegas where the kids could sample the city of sin. Jim Bob, you are hilarious. (Or your script writers...)

As the meatloaf cooks...

First of all, I didn't leave school until 6:00, so my meatloaf preparation is a little behind. I've found that blogging and cooking are taking the place once held dear to my heart by the Olympics. *tear*

I took some photos of my classroom today. I added what I thought was a lot of color, but then when I started taking photos I noticed it still looks pretty bland. I'll just show you close-up shots of what I'm really excited about.
The bulletin board outside my room. It's not as awesome as it could be, I spent about an hour on it the night before school started.

I had one of my more "delightful" eighth grade students say, "Why is there a map in the music room?" I say "Why not?" I have several more flags to put up as we go through music of different countries. Friday's six graders will be the first group to experience Australia, complete with didgeridoo.
Another view of the room. This door on the left is from my hallway. The door on the right is to my office. If you are curious to see more of the room setup, I posted several pictures last fall. Other views of the Dunkerooville Music Room.
Fun new drums! Djembe and three sizes of tubano. I use them at least once a week with elementary general music classes, and I'm planning to do a drumming unit with Music Appreciation. I have 18 students signed up for that class next quarter, which has grown somewhat from last year's five students. Exciting!
Let's play I spy... Can you name the instruments? These were purchased last spring with the rest of my 07-08 budget. What can I say, I like to make music fun!A student of mine signed up for an SES situation with during 4th block. I actually couldn't tell you what that stands for, but it means I can have him file music and such. We're going to catalog all the choral music into a database. I'm very excited to have help with that. I have three of these pull-out shelves full and about six more filing cabinets. That's a lot!I actually took a break about 15 min. ago to eat my dinner. I wonder what I'll make for tomorrow.

A little this, a little that...

I talked with a friend on the way home from school today and she inspired me to cook something. What makes that a little interesting is the random selection of ingredients that I had on hand. This recipe called for three things I didn't have: spinach, bell peppers, and chunks of ham. I did have some of the other ingredients, including shredded swiss cheese. I added garden fresh green beans and used deli-sliced turkey. It was an experiment, a delicious experiment. I also made 1/3 of the recipe, so it was the perfect size. I think I'll skip the green beans next time. Tomorrow I'm going to make meatloaf, YUM!

Jump on the Bandwagon!

**Wait, if you're reading this for the first time, you must know that this post was originally accompanied by a fabulous piece of music. Click on this link. Hopefully it will open in another tab or window and you can return to read this post in all its original glory.**

Music Clip

When I was home last weekend something triggered memories of watching a program on TV while Mom made dinner. It has a place in my heart close to that of Wheel of Fortune. It was always on before something... I can't remember if it was on before the news or primetime. Anyway, it was called Bandwagon and it featured silver-haired people dancing around to live music. Most of the time it was Polka music. I thought it would be sweet to find a video clip, but youtube isn't up with the times.

When I hear Polka music I can picture the band, the golden anniversary couples, and smell Mom's cooking. Here's the best part, it's still on! Yes you, faithful reader, can be on this amazing television program! The show is taped in Mankato, Minnesota. Monday, October 6 we can listen and jam out to Cactus and the Jolly Brewers. Then they will air the program on Saturdays at 11:30 a.m. for the following month.

If you're really nice to me I'll enter your name for the birthday and anniversary "rollup" selection. I suppose you could enter yourself too. I'm sure you're interested to learn more. They have a wikipedia article AND an official webpage!

Wikipedia
Official Bandwagon Website

I just added music. I'm crying, this is SO FUNNY to me! If you're still reading, thanks for humoring me!

Now that's a "Feather in your Cap!"

Happiness is...

Things that make me happy.

Starting the year with an overhead projector. oooooooooh, technology.

Green beans and cabbage from mom. (I still don't like cucumbers OR tomatoes, yuck!)

Colleagues who are going through what I go through every day. They're also willing to share ideas and stacks of music to save my budget!

Archer Farms Organic Blue Corn with Flaxseed Tortilla Chips.

Early Outs! Wednesday, Day 2, we dismissed at 1:35 for heat.

My family. Nicole and I have been chatting on the phone a lot lately. When we were little we spent more time picking on each other than getting along. Growing up is great!

The Olympics. What did I ever do before the Olympics? What did people talk about?

** Added after original posting: The new superintendent. I just read his weekly update. What I think of him in one word - "quality." So refreshing!

...I thought I'd have a lot more, but I pretty much eat, sleep, teach, and watch the Olympics.

Hurray!

Congratulations to Shawn Johnson! The all-American gymnast from West Des Moines. You make Iowa proud!

* Spoiler Alert *

Kidding... I wouldn't do that to you. I just finished watching real time results of the beam final. I figured that I was up at 5:45 anyway... yay for school. Watch gymnastics tonight. That doesn't spoil anything, you know with two Americans and two Chinese in the finals it's going to be worth watching!

FONTastic

Yesterday I needed to make an index sheet of a stack of rhythm cards I ordered. I couldn't find the right symbols in the fonts already on my computer, so I installed one called MusiSync which is amazing! I kept thinking of my graphic designer friend (Holli, that's you) who probably does things like this in her sleep. Then, because I wanted to show you, I "print-screened" and pasted into MS Paint, the world's highest quality image editing program. I wanted to make it look faded out, so I employed the spray paint function. Nice huh? Perhaps I spent a few too many hours at school yesterday? Tomorrow I work for real. The young, moldable brains walk through the doors of learning on Tuesday.

Splashing into History

Yesterday was quite an eventful day in history.

I spent the day at Lost Island with my mom, sisters, and nephew. Rhylee dipped his toes into the pool for the very first time.

Then I went home and watched the men's 4x100 relay. If you haven't seen it yet, go to nbcolympics.com NOW! It's amazing! They smashed the world record by nearly 4 seconds, even as the commentator was saying it was impossible.

From first dip in the pool to the glory of the olympic pool... It was an exciting day!

Creepy to the (I)MAX!

Very creepy.

I was really excited to see it in IMAX. The chase scenes are a little hard on the eyes when they are that large, but still really cool! It was a cinematic experience.

I have to admit that when I see superhero films it is almost always because I jump on the bandwagon. I was afraid this one would be over-hyped. Maybe a little since I heard several weeks worth of how disturbingly delightful it was.

Nice work Hans Zimmer.