I had to post about an incident at school today that cracked me up. I had a class of kindergartners coming in and one stopped by me and explained in a very serious voice that his book was lost because his baby brother threw it out the car window.

Later he came by to ask if he could get a book and I explained that because his book was lost his mom would need to pay for it and that I would print out an invoice for him. He very seriously said "Okay, but make it cheap, because my Mom won't buy anything unless it's cheap." He gave me a knowing look and then walked away. Priceless

So my middle son has decided he wants to be bacon for Halloween. I'm stressed. But, surprisingly enough there are examples of bacon costumes on the web, now it's up to me to replicate them. Yikes, only 2 weeks to get it done.

Do you watch the Amazing Race? Just watched it online, it is pretty funny, Loving it!!!!

I've been showing the new Exquisite Corpse Adventure to my students this week. It's been a fun, different way to share a book with them. With the advent of electronic book readers kids are much more comfortable than previous generations have been with reading books in an online format.

This adventure reminds me of the 39 clues series with "episodes" instead of chapters published every two weeks. Each episode is written by a different author - Shannon Hale, Lemony Snicket, and Kate DiCamillo among others. The project will conclude one year from now.

I look forward to following along...

The kids are getting a kick out of this funny video...

So, I attended Arikka's bachelorette party last night. Had so much fun with her cute friends. I was nervous about what I was asked to bring - cupcakes. Her theme is a tree as they are getting married under a tree in Zion's. So I made some green frosting trees on the cupcakes. After I was finished Jackson came upstairs and asked me why I had decorated the cupcakes with green spiders. At that point I realized I needed to rethink and I asked my friend Breanne for suggestions. Breanne saved the day by suggesting I make white lines with chocolate and the drag a toothpick back and forth. I tried it when I got home from work and they looked beautiful. Thanks Breanne for the great idea!

So, I grew up with cats. We had several cats, and tried to have dogs but it never worked out. Because of that, as an adult, I really wanted to have a dog.

We got Mo, an adorable Rat Terrier, 5 years ago. He isn't our first dog. Our first dog was a was an American Eskimo named Juno, and we had him for 11 years. When he died we tried a couple other dogs, from various sources. We had some awful experiences with dogs that bit, peed, and we were beyond training.

We decided that we needed a puppy that we could train and we got Mo. He is a Rat Terrier (named by Pres. Roosevelt) and is adorable. He has had his issues with chewing, but for the most part has been an awesome dog.

The issue is that lately, he has developed an ATTITUDE. He has bitten both my son and husband when they have taken his food, etc. Normally, he is the sweetest dog ever and would never bite someone for real. All of a sudden, he has hit middle age and has gotten CRANKY!

I'm wondering if anyone else has has the same experience. PS - I watch It's Me or the Dog religiously.

As my first book I decided to read Once Upon a Cool Motorcycle Dude. It's a really fun fractured fairy tale. The kids are loving it, and I'm enjoying hamming it up with silly voices.

Here's my office decoration this year....Fairy Tales!

So, for the most part I find people pretty reasonable. But a couple things happened lately that really grossed me out. The first thing was in the Portland airport on the way to meet my sister. I was in the restroom and I heard a girl yacking away to a friend while she was in the stall. I thought her friend must be in the stall next to her. But, not so. She was on her cell phone. THE ENTIRE TIME. Flushing noises galore and it didn't see to phase her, in fact I don't know that she even considered she was doing something weird. I just had to laugh.

Secondly, this week at the public library I was helping a woman find some books. She was talking to me and started picking at a hang nail. She then proceeded to chew on the hang nail. Then she asked if she could borrow my scissors. Yeah, you guessed it, she used them to start hacking away at her stray hangnail. After leaving all kinds of wet, skanky, skin on the counter, she thanked me, handed me the scissors, and left. She seemed nice, but how could you do that to a person who has just helped you????? Then to top that off, as we were closing I had to clean up a napkin with big chunks of gross, half eaten smelly food in it. The person couldn't be bothered to drop it in a trash can.

I know that I am guilty of having others clean up for me. I leave cloths in the dressing room. I don't always put items back where I found them in a store. I'm not perfect, and I don't expect others to be. But come on people, don't be disgusting, that's all I'm asking!

Well, I've been so busy with summer ending and school starting that I haven't blogged in awhile. School started officially on 8/20 and I finished decorating the library about a 1/2 hour before kids showed up. Whew! I decided on a fairy-tale theme and will post pictures when I have a second to take them, I think it turned out really cute.

I've spent the summer reading adult and YA novels, so now I need to get a little Juvenile Fiction under my belt. The kids at my school are voracious readers and I struggle to keep up with their little minds. My goal this year is to do more booklists and posters to give the kids suggestions on what to read. Kids can be so picky, they will tell me that they need a particular book, say a pink, princess book, and I'll find them the perfect one, they'll take one look at it and say Nope! They're like shy little fawns that I have to approach carefully and not look directly in the eye if I want to get them to take my advice.

Anyway, I'm working on fun projects and contests to do this year, to make a bit more effort that in previous years. I'm thinking about a cardboard haunted house contest, more details to follow...

GE Appliances suck, and so does their repair service!!!

So, we bought this fridge from Sears 2 years ago. We checked it out on Consumer Reports and it got a good rating. Also, CR recommended that you not purchase an extended warranty as it wasn't worth the money.

2 years go by and the fridge works great. The only problem is that at some point we quit being able to get out cubed ice and all the ice collected and froze up in the bin. We could still get crushed ice, so we let it go on for awhile because when calling for service you have to be home for at least 4 - 8 hours. Since J and I have 3 jobs between us, we decided to wait for summer. So last week I called the GE repair service. I could have gone with someone else, but I figured who better to fix the problem, no?

Monday a nice guy comes out, I tell him the problem, he puts in a part, says he won't charge me for it since it's so expensive, and instead charges me $200 for labor. He had dumped out all the ice in the sink, so I couldn't test it out until later in the day once there was ice again. Imagine my surprise when I realized that I still had the same problem. No cubed ice, by Tuesday it was all frozen again.

Called again, and on Thursday the same guy returned. I once again explained the problem. He said "When I came before you had no ice." I said no, that wasn't the problem, remember how you filled my entire sink with ice??? He shook his head as if dealing with a really stupid person and said, "You had no ice. If you had told me the problem originally I could have told you right away - you need a new Solanoid." What???? I was fit to be tied, and called their customer service number. Like yeah, I lied about the problem to begin with, I was really trying to trick him, I really wanted to spend another day and more money fixing this problem.

It took me 15 minutes to get through the massive line up of items to choose from on their call in service(none of which applied to me) before I got someone on the line. After explaining the situation and then holding for 5 more minutes, I was told that they wouldn't charge me for the part. I was reasonably happy with that as I didn't have another $60 to give them. The guy replaced the part, and I said thanks, although he was still looking at me like I was some kind of weird person that likes to trick repairmen.

Imagine my irritation when I went to get ice on Sunday and not a single cube came out. I checked the bin and there were 3 sorry cubes stuck together in the bottom of the bin. So, maybe the repair dude was a soothsayer, because now, indeed, I HAVE NO ICE.

I spent 30 - 40 minutes this afternoon with more customer service people only to be told that I would need to be home on Thursday from 8 - 5 waiting patiently for yet another service call. I have requested a new repairman, but that couldn't be guaranteed. The saga continues....

So, I attended mandatory "sensitivity training" today at the library. It was HORRIBLE! Evidently someone was rude to a disabled person so the entire city staff had to attend and hear stuff like "Is it okay to say "See you tomorrow" to a blind person?" Let me just repeat, HORRIBLE!!!!

Anyway, It did remind me that I deal with disabled people on a regular basis. I had a girl come up to the desk and she was so rude. She sat on the desk, spent the whole time leaning over my screen and keyboard, in my personal space, and being generally short, and rude. After she left a lady came up to me and said "Hi, that was my daughter, she has Asperger's Syndrome, how was she to deal with, could I help her be better?" Wow, I felt guilty for all the rude things I was thinking about her. I realized that there are definitely reasons that people act the way they do, and I shouldn't be so judgmental.

Anyway, I learned nothing at the training, but my on the job training has helped me to be more accepting of disabled and homeless people. People that I would have never interacted with had I not had this job. Something I am very grateful for!

Ian is in the white shirt, tan shorts, orange scarf - in the background group.

Okay Grandma, this one's just for you! Last week of school and they always have a dance festival. This year 4th grade did square dancing and both Ian and Gracie loved it. Grace is in the gray t-shirt and hot pink shorts. Enjoy!

So, my son just informed me that he doesn't know what dichotomy means. Also, he told me that one of his teachers had a final where they all knew that all the answers were C. How pathetic is that? What kind of education are our kids getting? I remember a day when I actually worried about finals. Anyway, maybe it's just my slacker kiddo. I don't know, but from his perspective all the teachers just want to be done with the year and their finals are really pathetic. I sure hope he is ready to go to college because I totally expect him to support me someday.

By the way, on a totally different note, can I say how much I love Anthony Bourdain? His smartass comentary on his show on the travel channel never fails to crack me up.

Working in libraries for 4 years, I have learned a thing or two about people. I find that there are certain genre's of customers. Here are my observations:

- Embarrassed patron - they don't want to ask you questions and only do so under duress. They usually preface their question with "This is a really stupid question". They feel badly that they interrupted you and try to keep the interaction as short as possible. Reassuring them doesn't seem to do any good, they insist on feeling awful.

- Smarmy guy (or girl) - Cute guy that has learned that if he turns on the charm with the opposite sex they will either get extra help, or can turn a no to a yes. Usually asks you to bend the rules just for them. This type irritates me because on the occasion that I do have to say no and stick with it, their facade falls away and you see their REAL personality. Not pretty at all. Give me an average guy over these types any day of the week.

- Mean old man - Get angry right away about some total reasonable rule. Will not listen to your patient explanation, and demands to complain to the director. Do not bother trying to reason with them if you are female and under the age of 60. They WILL NOT LISTEN and may become belligerent. Just say as little as possible and eventually they will run out of steam and leave.

- Patron that uses your name - as in "Hi Danette, what a pretty name, where does it come from?" Now, this may sound nice, but really, I don't want people using my name. I want to help them, and making weird small talk about my name just wastes time. This type really thinks that they are humanizing you, making it seem that we are on the same level. But I'm not embarrassed to be helping them, so using my name is not necessary. Unless of course they are also wearing a name badge and I can say, "Yes Brad, I would be happy to find that book for you"

- The Normal patron - thankfully 70% of the patrons I deal with are great. They appreciate your quick service and let you know. If they get bad news they take it in stride and don't take it out on you. This is who I strive to be when I go out into the world.

And on the school side let me just say....20% of kids will always ask for a second sucker. They are not happy that they have been given 1 sucker, they feel that 2 suckers would be better and the only way to get one is to ask. Sometimes repeatedly. These types have a future in sales because they never take no for an answer.

New purse, I really love the flower. They are very satisfying in that they are really easy to make, and they look so cute!

Tomorrow is the last day that I will have students in the Media Center. It's been a good year, and it seems like it has gone very quickly. I'm looking forward to the summer, but summer is always strange. 80% of my life is so structured with work and home life, that when I don't have to work in the summer sometimes it's really hard not to slip into lethargy. I'm determined to have daily and weekly goals and to keep all of us from watching TV all day. It's sad that I have to get geared up for that :-)

Some goals I've set are to exercise daily, cook a meal together at least once a week, go for a bike ride together once a week, and to do at least one fun craft thing during each week. Also, read together every day and read my own book every day. Oh, and also to shower every day before noon!

Not overly strenuous goals, but still they still may be hard to keep. Sad but true.

I'm on a kick making purses. I've posted and sold a few on Etsy. I've always had a creative side doing various things, most recently ceramics. But, with two jobs the effort to get out the clay, and work with it was too exhausting and I found myself spending most of my free time surfing the web. So, I decided to start sewing, and it's been a very rewarding process, and not too physically demanding. My latest creation I really like, I added a flower that I made out of my daughter's old jeans, and then added some bead stamens, and I think it is adorable. What do you think?

This time of year I always love and hate my yard. It's a great yard, with lots of landscaping, plants, water features, etc. But, with that comes tons of work, and every spring, tons of cleanup. Not to mention the fact that we also have a dog and so he creates his own special little messes for us to clean up.

Mother's Day was great, everyone, including the snotty teen, went out and spent several hours on various projects. Tree trimming, perennial shaping, digging out the dead stuff, and poop collecting. It looks so much better, and we got out all the patio furniture and had dinner out there. Lovely!

Wow, I just finished my next to last week at the library. The last week I always show the kids a movie as they can't check out books. I always stress out about what to show because it has to be around 20 minutes long and I want it to be very entertaining. This year I am so excited, I purchased this DVD of the most excellent Storyteller Bill Harley. I have heard him several times at the Timpanogos Storytelling Festival in Orem, UT. He is so awesome and he has some hilarious school stories on this DVD. I can't wait to show one of his stories to the kids, if you're interested you can buy it here, it's only $15 and it is well worth it!

We had a spectacular time over spring break. Visiting sunny California with Grandma and Grandpa Tedrow. What a fun time!

See picture of Jackson (brown shirt) and Dillon (blue shirt) and friend Zach on the log ride.

This week I am showing the kids the new Caldecott and Newbery winners for 2008. I am quite proud that I had purchased both of them already and had them on my new book displays. I was in the middle of reading The Graveyard Book by Neil Gaiman when the award was announced. I'm almost finished, and I like it. It's definitely a book for kids that like things creepy. But, he manages to keep a sweetness to it that is very charming and that I really enjoyed.

I'm also reading Little Beauty, by Anthony Browne. I love it, if I'd been on the committee it would have gotten a Caldecott!

Well, today is the first day back to school. It was soooo nice to have a full two weeks off, I hate it when they make us go back on Thursday or Friday.

I decided that it would be a good idea to refresh the kid's minds on rules in the library. After our monthly meeting/sharing I took a great idea and created a Concentration game. I created 26 cards with magnets on the back. I put them up on the white board, divide the kids into boys vs girls teams and then we play. I am always nervous about trying something new because you never know how it will go.

So far, so good. The kids are enjoying it. The only thing is that they are yelling as they tell me to turn over the cards that say stuff like "Use your whisper voice" :-) Oh well.

Well, we had a great holiday season. It was great to have Grandpa and Grandma Tedrow with us for a few days before Christmas. We had a great time, and ate reaallllly well.

The Fullmers came the weekend after and that was fun too. Then, the awesome girls from the library came over for New Year's Eve. It was so fun to see them and spend some time eating, playing dominoes, and watching a movie. I can't we go back to school on Monday. Ugh!