thu, 1/21...day 21

The horror of the aftermath of Haiti's recent 7.0 earthquake is hard to even comprehend. Tens of thousands of people killed, many more than that without homes, food, or even water.

What a jarring juxtaposition this era we live in is, when so few have so much and so many who were already making do with so much less suddenly have next to nothing.

wed, 1/20...day 20

When I arrived at Extended Day today, John and Niall were busy painting.

What were these two big boys painting, pray tell? A lovely picture of the two of them, throwing up very colorfully on each other.

Niiiiice.

tue, 1/19...day 19

The other day in Extended Day, Cory made a "whiteboard" that really works! It's saran wrap over white paper taped together, and you can actually write on it (carefully) with a whiteboard marker and then erase it off. Here's Niall giving it a whirl.

Cory was very pleased with this project, and has given it to me to put up in my craft room.

mon, 1/18...day 18

Couldn't resist photos of some cool mist rising up through the trees in the Wheats' backyard the other day.

Then I had some fun fooling around with it in Picasa. :D This was my favorite.

sun, 1/17...day 17

Cory's classmate Olivia had a birthday party today, and Cory made her this adorable card. So sweet!

sat, 1/16...day 16

First day of swimming lessons at Linda Riggins! The boys did well, getting used to a new routine. I'm glad to have been there before with the older boys (albeit 10+ years ago!) so I could usher them through the new experience with some foreknowledge of how it all works. The changing room has gotten a nice upgrade since we were last there. Little "stalls" with curtains to change behind now, and an organized, fresh look. Very nice.

The boys had a substitute teacher this week (their soon-to-be-regular teacher had the flu), and she was very nice. Easygoing and calm. Got them off to a good start.

Niall knows a lot more about swimming than I'd remembered. That was a pleasant surprise! He quickly moved to swimming the length of the pool instead of the width and zoomed right along.

Cory is kind of back to square one, but that's why we're doing lessons. It's been nine months since he had lessons and he's forgotten all about how to put his face in, blow bubbles, etc. But...I'm confident that he'll pick it up before long.

fri, 1/15...day 15

Dropped Niall off at Grandma's, dashed home and got Cory to bed, and headed off to see a movie! Definitely worth all the rushing around. :-)

Got home in time to catch an episode of "24" with Tynor, too.

thu, 1/14...day 14

Donna was substituting for Lois this afternoon in the younger kids' Extended Day. Cory really enjoyed spending some time with her. He misses the Melissa & Donna team from last year.

wed, 1/13...day 13

I first heard about Trader Joe's when they were only in Southern California. I lived in the Bay Area at the time, and when we had visitors from LA, they would invariably bring nuts or other goodies from TJ's.

Fast forward a dozen years or so, and Trader Joe's had spread all the way to Washington State! Much happiness in Whoville. :-)

I go there at least once a week to buy everything from spaghetti sauce to fruit bars to Cheetos-clones (without all the additives and dyes!). Cory's latest must-have breakfast food is toaster waffles, so I stock up on a whole-wheat, dairy-free variety that's pretty healthy. And at TJ's, they're also inexpensive!

Love that place.

tue, 1/12...day 12

There was a big fire at one of the middle schools in Bellingham awhile back, and it made me think to look up photos of the middle schools I attended there: Shuksan Middle School for the last half of 6th grade (I attended the school on Waldron for the first half), and Fairhaven Middle School for one month of 7th grade, and then 8th grade (I "placed" into 8th grade after some testing - it's where I actually belonged).

This is historic Fairhaven, which I think is a landmark and so can't be razed and replaced as happened to Shuksan in the past year. When my dad was getting his teaching certificate at Western, he student taught at Fairhaven under Mrs. Nordin, who was also my social studies teacher in 8th grade (in the "small world" department). She had a fierce reputation but we always got along fine.

I haven't been able to track down any decent photos of Shuksan from the year I attended (1974), unfortunately.