Part of a conversation with a third grader today:

..."I know my watch is the right time because I set it by the TV and the TV is right because, well, it's the TV"...

"I should be able to tie my shoes soon. Probly by when i'm thirteen."
KINDERGARTENER

Kindergartener: (looking through a magnifying glass at me) Teacher your body looks sooooo big!

Fall colors 

Paul and Annie take a walk in the fall. We were a little wary. It's hunting season here and that means that wifes often get a welcome respite from thier husbands. It also means there are alot of men in camo with guns walking through the forest.  

Quote of the Day:

from a young life leader who moved here from puyallup to be in ministy:

"This isn't a place you move to, it's a place you move away from."

"Gues what teacher, Alice popped my neck and (throws her head back so she is looking behind her) now I can see all the way back there!"

KINDERGARTENER: Does mop have a 'k' in it?
ME: No. m-o-p
KINDERGARTENER: (throws down his paper and throws back his head) OOOOHHHH that makes me so mad!

Fall and baby caterpillars

Fall is here and as the title of one of the books in my classrooms says, "Fall is Not Easy". Lately the little ones have been coming back in from recess with cold noses and cold hands. We have a cocoon in our classroom that was given to us by another teacher the first week of school. It's in this little jar with some leaves and grass. After a while it started making scritching and scratching noises inside the coccon like it was trying to get out. But then it stoped making noises at all. I thought, "we have killed this creature, how am I going to tell the children?" So I made a big speech about how sometimes baby caperpillars die. There were solem faces and droopy eyes. So then I said, "how about we break open the coocoon and see what's inside?" (which I really had been dying to do). This seemed to cheer them up a little. So I reached down inside of the jar to get the cocoon from the leaf. And that's when I heard a little ... faint ... weak ... "scritch, scritch" from the inside of the cocoon. I think moths know when they are about to throw in the towel. Either that or God was trying to save me from a major educational nightmare. I can just imagine me opening the cooccon and the little creature writhing inside, plainly alive, for all five year olds to see. I would have become a murderer of baby caterpillars in thier eyes. A torturer of the weak and small. Thank you God (and baby caterpillar)!

Tenino resident Jack LaRue darts away from more than 1,750 pounds of falling pumpkin Saturday afternoon after releasing the gourds from a crane situated about 70 feet above a Ford Taurus. The drop took place as part of a weekend of autumn-themed festivities at Pioneer West nursery in Centralia.
 

A black bear runs across East Main Street between Green Street and Barner Drive toward Centralia?s Seminary Hill Natural Area Tuesday evening.
 

ME: "Let's take it easy today?"
KINDERGARTENER: "What's a neasy?"

We have a science book on our classroom with a picture of a gray haired scientist on it. My students are all convinced that he is God.

Kindergartener: "If you say you'll marry me I'll be on your baseball team."

I got my hair cut! 

While in Olympia we took some time out to visit our favorite place, the walmart supercenter. Just kidding, here is Paul at starbucks in downtown Olympia. 

Our quest for an alternative grocery store stops here, a mere fourty minutes away from our house. The Bayview Thriftway is like walking into a Trader Joes and Wild Oats rolled into one perfect grocery store. We had been able to find some natural foods at an odd store called Shop N Kart, but the experience was marred by the twenty foot "yard bird" gracing thier entrance. Otherwise, we are doomed to the Walmart Supercenter with it's long lines, screaming children and appalling lack of soy ice cream. 

Our place: From this side it looks more like a house than a barn. 

Mt. St. Helens: We have not been able to see it for a few days. Just as we were coming home today we caught a glimpse of a SNOW covered Mt. St. Helens, something we have not seen all summer until now. 

You had probably guessed that Paul's fascination with mountains has not suffered since we moved north. Last week he drove to Mt. St. Helens in the hopes of being caught in the path of death and destruction. Sadly, he missed the mountains latest hiccup by an hour. You can see the last of the steam plume hanging in the crater and the news media in the foreground.