Going straight to Hell for this one

It all started with a little too much bravado from a certain 12 year old boy, who wasn't nearly respectful of all Things That Go Bump In The Night.

Afficionado of horror movies that I am (and general wimp), I could not possibly allow that 'tude to go unpunished.

And so it was that we found our merry little band of sugar-fied miscreants stuffed into a car on a loooong dark stretch of winding twisting dirt road. (The driveway to Baker's, for those of you who know the island.)

We stuffed the boys, the 12 year old and my 8 year old (who swears he will never ever forgive me for this) into the hatchback, with the window down.
The girls, the fairer, weaker sex were safely ensconced in the back seat.

The boys were open and unprotected. On that dark, twisty, bumpy road.

I put on my best Halloween Music...creepy sounds of chains rattling, witches shrieking, ghosts moaning, and victims screaming...and had them looking over their shoulders in no time.

We drove all the way to the house without event.

And then started back out.

We encountered some 'car trouble'. The headlights began to flicker on and off, on that very dark and winding road. The car began to surge forward abruptly, and then brake hard.
The engine raced; though Tammy held her foot on the brake, the car tried to drive on its own.
She was screaming! I was screaming!
The kids were buying it, and beginning to panic...

We told them we were almost to the end of the road, where help could be found (there are two inhabited houses on that stretch).
And while the car jerked and bucked its way out to the end of the road with the headlights flashing on and off...

Jay jumped out into the road, and reached in through that back window, grabbing onto both boys!

Johnny fainted.
 Brody leapt out through that window at a dead run.

IT. WAS. AWESOME.
And yes, we are all very much aware of how screwed we are when they get a little older.

Happy Halloween, kids!

Circus-bound?

We went on a fabulous field trip with some other Outer Island schools. We traveled to Bangor (which isn't unusual for us), and stopped first at the Challenger Museum and Learning Center.

It was here that I learned I will never be an astronaut.
Food and toilet issues, is what I'm saying.

It was extremely cool to see and learn what the astronauts eat, where they sleep, some of the rigorous training they must complete, etc.
We loved it!

Thursday, we spent the day at University of Maine in Orono. We visited the Planetarium, where I was groped in the dark by one of my neighbors (thankfully, a man), who I promptly groped back.
Good times.

The Planetarium was fabulous as well, and WOWed the group of k-3rd graders I was with.

Grades 4 and up were at the Climbing Wall while we were in the Planetarium, and at some predetermined time, we switched off.

Which means I did not get to see Thing One scale the Climbing wall to the top of its 25 to 30 feet. And that may not be a bad thing.

I did, however get to see Thing Two up at about 22 feet on that same wall. And I had the video camera with me.



 Later, we trekked over to MaineBound (on the other side of the Earth campus) to do what can only be described as Watch Marissa Empty Her Bladder In Several Stages.
They call it a High Ropes Course.

My 8 year old. Twenty Four feet up in the air. With a plastic helmet for protection.
And someone who wasn't me at the end of the rope keeping him from falling to certain death:

Also in this video is our sole Kindergarten student on a log, 24 feet up. He's five.




And you wonder why I drink.

However, we have the best field trips, HANDS DOWN.

Wheeeeee!

*translation: Thank God I'm on solid ground and don't have to get on that ferry anytime soon.

Apparently, Mother Nature took me up on the challenge when I brought out the snow gear and said Bring it on.

WordGirl

(You have to sing the title, like the PBS cartoon it was hoarked from.)

Consentual???

or, Consensual?

And why does the second version gross me out and make my skin crawl??

According to the Innernet, both words share the same meaning, and are interchangeable...but I think we should just stick with the first one.
Even if spell check is giving me the Evil Eye right now.
The second one makes me feel like I need a shower.

In Tribute:

Velour track suits.
And music.

These are just two of the many things we'll never forget about him.

Who would think seeing this picture in a catalog would put such a smile on my face today, and bring such a flood of happy memories!!

More OWL-ly fun!

Hungover Owls:

Is there an app for that?

Wouldn't it be awesome if you had a map- could call up a map of anywhere, and place a marker at an address of a place you would someday like to visit?

And then someday, you're someplace...and you look at your map, and you see these places, these addresses, and you're like- Hey! That place is only 10 minutes from here! Let's go check it out!

As opposed to my current, Crap! That place was only 10 minutes from where I was! I forgot all about wanting to see that!

And don't tell me that your GPS does this. My GPS sends me on wild goose chases. I tell HER how to get places (not kidding.).
Once we had her so turned around she began yelling 'ABORT! ABORT!', instead of 'recalculating...'. And once I swear she growled.
We've never gotten her to do it again, but the kids and I were laughing so hard I had to pull over.

Just think...I could track all the fabulous restaurants we've eaten at, and all the ones we'd like to try (why, yes...it IS always about the food.)...and you could track yarn stores, too.

Oh, Steve Jobs. I miss you already.

Anybody know of an app like that??