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!