Not EVERYTHING is Bigger in Texas!

This was the view from my front porch Wednesday morning...the first snow of the season!


And, lest you think it is always a winter wonderland here in Colorado Springs....

I took a different route home from school today and stumbled upon a rather unpleasant scene. Is THIS what happens to pumpkins in high altitude? Does anyone else feel the need to put some pants on these babies, or is that just me?


I'm not sure what is more disturbing...the morbidly obese pumpkins or the shrub garden disguised as landscaping.

Random

I finally got around to downloading the pictures from my camera.

First, my awesome small group surprised me with flowers, a tiara (much like the ones I wore in my pageant days), and some yummy goodies for my birthday.




Brian gave me a spaghetti squash from his garden. Sadly, I was as excited about the squash as I was about the flowers. I'm old. Next year...party at Luby's!


I went to see Beth in Basalt last weekend. The fall colors were so BEAUTIFUL! These pictures were taken a few houses down from where Beth lives. I started my morning jogs here. The weather was perfect...crisp and cool! The second half of the trail took me along one of the best fly fishing rivers in the U.S. I forgot to go back and take pictures though. Just check out any magazine with pictures of a trail along a river shaded by a canopy of trees in fall colors, and that's pretty much what it looked like.






Snowmass...between Basalt and Aspen. I plan to be here this winter!


We had breakfast in Aspen and then took a stroll around town. I like to walk into the shops in Aspen and pretend to be very rich. We first visited Pitkin Country Dry Goods...a favorite of mine...and of my good friend, Jennifer Aniston. The first sweater I picked up was $700. Since one of the employees was watching me, I simply nodded at the price as if to let her know that I thought it was a good deal....and then proceeded to size it up by stretching the sweater against my chest and looking down over the top of the hanger at my new look . It wasn't quite what I was going for, so I put it back and continued my pretend shopping spree. After a few minutes, I left Pitkin County Dry Goods...and communicated to the employees through my convincing facial expressions that I would be spending my large fortune elsewhere.


We made a quick stop at Rocky Mountain Chocolate Factory where I enjoyed a chocolate covered pretzel. Adelaide chose an M&M covered marshmallow kabob. I don't think she ever ate the marshmallows. They simply served as a glue that held the M&M's to the stick. Beth would want me to tell you that Adelaide (almost 3) insisted on wearing Grace's (9) vest.


This past Friday night, a few of us celebrated the birthday of our friend Abraham at the Blue Star. I'm not sure why, but the conversation eventually centered around Angelina Jolie.

Quotes

**Update**
Two gems from today:

Apparently, one of the most famous stock exchanges in America is the "Wal-Mart Stock Exchange". You can really buy ANYTHING there, can't you?

AND...
I also learned today that "most Americans claim to have roots from Jermaine." (Germany). As in Jackson?? So, does that make Michael my uncle?



I have just a few minutes before I need to start packing. I'm heading to Aspen, my home away from home, this weekend. I know, I lead a rough life! Anyhow, I wanted to take a minute to share a couple of my favorite student quotes from the week. Enjoy...

"Immigrants should have the same rights as us. They are human beans too."
I am considering hooking this girl up with the creators of Veggie Tales. I really think she might be onto something.

"I will stop enter roping class so much."
This is the year-long goal of one of our 6th graders. Perhaps we should add SPELLING to the plan as well!

Chocolate Cake

Every few weeks, I have the unique privilege of teaching writing skills to a handful of students during Saturday School. We try to make it as painless as possible because, let's face it...NO ONE (myself included) enjoys spending a Saturday morning reviewing the finer points of grammar, writing, and revision. During my most recent Saturday School session, I gave students the task of writing about their three favorite desserts. We then reviewed the entire writing process. When the kids were finished, we put a few of their essays on the SmartBoard (without their names, of course) and practiced editing together. For those of you who are unfamiliar with a SmartBoard, it is essentially an overpriced interactive white board that we educators use in an attempt to appear as if we are on the cutting edge of technology.

Anyhow, I came across the following sentences nestled strategically in the middle of a paragraph we were editing. I considered sharing the entire essay with you but fought the urge for fear that you might lose any remaining confidence in our education system.

Saturday Student Extraordinaire (an 8th grader) writes:
"And don't even get me started on chocolate cake. I love me some chocolate cake."

I'm assuming "And" is the transition word here.

Seeing as how these were two of her more successful attempts at appropriate sentence structure, I focused on the positive and praised her for her passion. After all, I love me some chocolate cake too!