Cleaning day...

So I have this weekend off, and you know what that means... Does it mean having fun together around Tucson? Does it mean being lazy and watching football all day? Of course not! It's cleaning day! So, how do Em and I go about a cleaning day? I can tell you, we have very different approaches. While I would just look around and see what needs to be done and do it as I see it, Emily has a slightly different approach...I'm sure many of you have seen that sight before. It means that one of the most feared weapons in her arsenal is about to be unleashed. Something that would even make Chuck Norris weep in his bed... THE LIST!
Yes, The List comes out when something needs to get done around here but needs a little bit more organization than the typical chore. Or you can take my theory and believe it's something Emily does to procrastinate and postpone doing something she doesn't want to. By the way, that picture's only half of The List. As you can tell, Annabelle was quite intrigued by the whole thing.
Actually, she's just a pooped pooch from the run I took her one earlier today. Anyway, feel free to give us a call to distract us from our many activities today.

Back in the classroom...

...at least for a couple hours! Yesterday morning, I went in to substitute for one of our regular preschool storytime volunteers. I had a chance to read with my co-worker Abby in 3 preschool classrooms--3 year olds, 4 year olds, and 5 year olds. It was so much fun to be hanging out with kids again in a classroom context, and it definitely made me miss teaching. I had forgotten though from my student teaching days in kindergarten how much energy it required to entertain small children for even a short period of time! Whew!

As we look at new project assignments at work, I am looking forward to hopefully working more closely with teachers and preschoolers as a literacy consultant/trainer--teaching again, but in a slightly different context than a traditional classroom teacher. I will tell you one thing I certainly won't miss...the mountains of paperwork and grading!

Here are some fun photos from my day in preschool...

We are reading a funny story called Gladys Goes Out to Lunch, about a gorilla that is looking for something delicious to eat other than bananas...the solution? Banana Bread!

The second story we read was The Very Hungry Caterpillar. Afterwards we reenacted the metamorphosis of a caterpillar to a butterfly. Here we are being butterflies!

The Munchkin Goes Crazy!

So Em and I were watching TV tonight, and we happened to notice that our little rapscallion had a bit too much energy. This will probably become a common problem as I won't be getting home until after it gets dark, and walking in Tucson after dark is impossible because there are virtually no streetlights. Enough said, I'll let you watch.

Once more into the abyss...

Apparently my wife seems to be posting a bit more than me, so here goes nothing. Last week was ridiculously exhausting. I was on-call 4 out of 8 days. I've also only had 1 day completely off in three weeks. That day wasn't exactly relaxing either, as I did Story Town with Emily. Don't get me wrong, I had a great time hanging out with the kiddos, answering important questions and even signing a couple autographs. I'm just a little bit tired these days.

So, that makes my next few months so exciting!!! I'm in the hospital for 10 out of the next 12 weeks. For those of you unfamiliar with this, it means 80 hour work weeks, sleeping in the hospital every 4th night, and waking up and arriving at work between 5:30-6:00am. So, I'm going to be a bit busy for a little while. I'm confident I can do it, but it's gonna take me a few days to get back into the swing of things and increase my pace about 100%.

There is a bright spot though. I have this entire weekend off! Also, Em's family will be here all next week, and I have Thanksgiving Day off. It's gonna be nice to have guests again, as Phil and Greg's visit was great. I'm sure the Munchkin will enjoy having plenty of people around to play with her and spoil her by letting her sleep in their beds.

One final little bit of news. I have two weeks off in January, and we've been trying to come up with a plan for a trip. New York was high on the list, but we've decided to go to Washington, DC for the inauguration. I seriously doubt we'll be able to get close to the big speech, but being in the town during such a historic time should be exciting. I'll also get to experience DC again, now that I'm old enough to appreciate it a little more.

Well, that's my update. Keep both Emily and I in your thoughts, as it's going to be just as tough on her, not having me around as much. I'll try to put up some pictures next time, but until then, here's a funny dog...

Cheap Gas

...thanks to my Safeway reward this month, I paid 1.45/gal for gas last night. I couldn't remember the last time it cost less than $20.00 to fill up the tank, so I made Drew take a photo.

Story Town 2008!

On Saturday, November 15, downtown Tucson was transformed into "munchkin madness" when over 1500 kids and their families descended upon Story Town. This was the 5th year Make Way For Books organized Story Town, and it was the biggest and best yet. All of the families that made it to the event received a gift bag with a free book and other fun goodies (bookmarks, posters, etc from local organizations). There were lots of fun storybook characters that came to visit. We performed our story Knuffle Bunny in front of our beautiful backdrop and props. The kids watched dance and musical performances, visited with "community helpers," and created fun art activities! Here is a small collection of photos from the day!

The Ribbon-Cutting Ceremony with local journalist Heather Rowe

and all the fun characters that were there for the day:

Clifford, Curious George, Maya & Miguel, Cookie Mouse, & the fairy tale princesses

Clifford schmoozing with some kiddos!

Love that random storybook reading was going on on the lawn!

Tohono O'odham Basket Dancers

Fairy Tale Trail: the kid-sized castle and princesses

Our cool street banners

Trixie's family (from Knuffle Bunny)

Trixie is so sad that Knuffle Bunny is missing, but dad doesn't realize what is wrong!

Drew was a trooper and "acted" as one of the community helpers: Dr. Drew, alongside the garbage truck driver, fireman, and mailman. He only ended up getting one "real" medical question from a parent.

The day was a huge success, and we had a blast hanging out in the sun with all the kiddos!

An Unexpected Office Visitor

Last weekend, downtown Tucson turned into Story Town, our MWFB event for little kids (I will put some photos up and talk more about it in another post.) Well, after Story Town, there were lots of boxes to be unpacked, reorganized and returned to storage to be used next year. As I was working on unpacking some of these boxes, I discovered a little friend that had decided to join us on the trip back from Story Town. I lifted up one of the boxes and found a small, slithery, brightly colored snake! At first I thought it was one of the MWFB toys for Story Time--we do have a lot of them--but then it started to move. I literally jumped a foot in the air and yelled, "SNAKE!" Now, as most of you know, I am generally not a jumpy person when it comes to wildlife, but this little guy totally caught me off guard, and not really being familiar with all of the creatures that live out here in Arizona, I had no idea what kind of snake this must be! I just kept saying "SNAKE! IT'S A SNAKE!" At first, my coworkers had no idea what I was talking about, but soon realized we had an unexpected visitor to the office. Mary Jan, my boss came out of her office, very heroically, and checked the little guy out. She and Liz then assembled a very professional snake-catching kit and toted the little guy out of the office, the whole time asking, "How do they do it in the movies?" Needless to say, we were all in stitches the rest of the afternoon as we remembered the freak out over the snake. We ended up letting him go in the bushes behind the office where he will hopefully live a long and happy life (OUTSIDE!). After researching the situation further in our highly technical snake research center (Google), we discovered that he was a baby king snake (they are not poisonous, in case you were worried.) PHEW! I am glad we made it out of work alive that day.

Scenes from Sabino Canyon

Last weekend, Drew and I hosted our second set of visitors to our Tucson abode (the first set was Mary & Dan in August)...my dad and Greg! We had a very relaxing weekend exploring Tucson. On Friday night, we tried a new restaurant, Cafe Poca Cosa, which was delicious with massive plates of food. It is kind of like a "gourmet" Mexican restaurant. The chef changes the menu every day and uses every type of pepper known to the world in her cooking. Drew and I both had the chef's plate which was a sample of a few of the items on the menu. It was very yummy!

On Saturday, we explored the art galleries around Tucson, and stopped off at Home Depot where my dad could share his gardening/planting expertise to help us add some green to otherwise drab backyard. He also helped us figure out how the irrigation system works so that the plants will stay green with minimal work and worry from me (a known black thumb--that's right, worse than brown--I have a horrible track record). I now have a little herb garden outside of my kitchen, and a variety of other plants throughout the backyard.

On Sunday, we all went hiking in Sabino Canyon where we could check out the desert life and cool desert plants. We didn't see any wildlife, but the location did make for some pretty cool photos. Check them out!

My first dress!

For my birthday this year, Drew got me a sewing machine! (I know my birthday was in August, but I am just getting around to finishing my first project...) It was a very welcome gift because in preparation for our wedding this past summer, I was working with my mom on a number of sewing projects, including 12 bags (one for each member of the wedding party). I also loved the idea that my veil and the junior bridesmaid dresses were made by her, and dreamed of one day being good enough to do that for my own daughter or granddaughter (it may take that long for me to get good enough).

Anyway, now that I have my own sewing machine, I decided to attempt my first dress! I picked out my fabric at a wonderful store in Nashville, Textile Fabrics, brought it back to Tucson, and began working on it all on my own! I had high hopes of finishing it in time to wear to Derek's wedding in San Diego, but alas it didn't quite happen. I did finally finish a couple weeks ago though, and wanted to share the final product. I haven't had an occasion to wear it yet, but am hoping that one pops up soon!

In the News...

In previous posts, I have mentioned our upcoming event at work, "Story Town." It is this weekend, and we have been very busy the last few days with preparations. As part of our publicity campaign, a couple of the local newspapers published articles about our event today. In the article featured in the Arizona Daily Star, I made the photo! You can't really see my face, but it is definitely me working on some of the book covers that will line the "streets" of our town!

Here is a link to the article on-line (there was also a print version). Story Town 2008

My "Famous" Photo

Emily Phy, a Make Way for Books program assistant, works on some
materials for Saturday's fifth annual Story Town.

james s. wood / arizona daily star

Yes we did!

So, I just thought I'd put my thoughts out there on the recent election. I'd never been a very political person growing up, and my family didn't really ever have political discussions. That all changed with 9/11 happened. I started taking an interest in the news, and I woke up every morning to read CNN.com, FoxNews.com, and even AlJazeera.com. That last one was more of a joke, but you should check it out some time to see some of the ridiculous "conspiracy theories" that some people have about our country. Anyway, that led to me reading about politics much more.

In 2004, I took a real interest in the election. Growing up considering myself a Republican, I found myself questioning some of my beliefs about some issues, as most people do when they've gone to college. I decided I was going to be as informed as I could before the vote. So, with a little regret I sat down to watch the Democratic National Convention. Most of it was pretty boring, as John Kerry wasn't the most interesting of candidates. I was getting a little tired, and then a man named Barack Obama strolled onto the stage. I had no idea who this person was, but I found myself captivated by his speech. I was at home in Tullahoma sitting on my parents' bed watching probably the best speech I'd ever heard. My dad, who'd been taking a shower, walked into the room, and I literally told him, "I've just heard a speech from someone who's going to be president some day." I know that story sounds made up, but it's 100% true.

So, the election of 2004 went by without much of a hoopla. I found myself deciding to vote for Kerry while I was in line, not because I really believed in his policies, but more because I didn't think he could screw things up much more than Bush did. I was excited to see Obama won the senate seat, and I occasionally followed stories about him. I wanted to read his book, but I never really got around to it. Fast forward two and a half years and his name started popping up in the news again. I was excited to see he was running, as well as one of my favorite candidates from the 2000 campaign, John McCain.

There was a brief period of time where I thought it might be a tough decision between the two. McCain was experienced and a middle-of-the-road candidate who wasn't afraid to stand up for what he believed in. Unfortunately, it became obvious that he would have to drift further to the right in order to get past the primaries. The McCain who ran in 2008 was not the McCain of 2000. Now, I think he would have made a fine president, but my beliefs fell more with Obama. I can say that this is the first time I've voted for someone who I was completely passionate about.

I know some people reading this won't agree with me, but I have alot of hope for the next four years. Yesterday's election was one of those moments that your children are going to ask you about, and I tried to capture every moment of it, despite being on-call at the hospital. Unfortunately, the day didn't go perfectly, as Prop 8 in California and Prop 102 in Arizona both passed, banning gay marriage. While we may have taken one giant step to fight discrimination, there are still many to go.

Anyway, those are my thoughts on the election. I promise our fun little blog isn't going to turn into an opinion piece. I just felt motivated to jot down my thoughts, given the historic circumstances. Maybe I'll re-read them in four years to get some perspective.

VOTE!!!

Tomorrow is Election Day! (in case you have been hiding under a rock and didn't realize it...) Drew and I plan on going first thing tomorrow morning when the polls open before we have to go to work! Every time I go to vote, I always feel so excited and nervous waiting in line. I love that we have the chance to express our opinions freely and that the button I push will count in those numbers that flash up on the screen on Election Night.

In Arizona (and it was the same in Washington), we have tons of propositions on the ballot. There were occasionally propositions on the ballot in Nashville, but out west, the people like to have a say in everything and put everything on the ballot. It is overwhelming trying to read through each of them and make an informed decision, but that is my job for the night--being an informed voter.

So, I hope that everyone if they haven't already done it, has plans to vote tomorrow! This time tomorrow night, we will hopefully know who our next president will be! :-D