**We are the world, we are the children... we are the solar system**


Yesterday Hannah put up the third grade's planets and sun on the wall. That's the sun on the top right. No Pluto anymore :( The kids made them in collage style with torn up paper. (Click on them to see.) Then Hannah attempted to laminate them... they did not all fit through the machine. Hence, Saturn's diminutive size relative to Uranus and Neptune. Saturn got caught in the jaws of the laminating machine and had to be cut down a bit. The sun, Jupiter and Neptune didn't make it through the machine at all. Uranus' rings were not glued down well enough so they folded under. Hannah cut the other two down somewhat but apparently, not enough. Didn't notice until she was four feet in the air on a ladder, with tape strips in one hand and a yard stick to pat down the tape in the other. Oh well!

You an also see the students heritage figures for social studies. Those came out really well. On Tuesday, our class took a field trip to the San Leandro History Museum. Hannah expected it to be a dull, local museum but it has such a good program! It's very interactive and the kids loved it. They acted out periods of San Leandro/California history in an accurate account in the morning. In the afternoon they played games from the past, washed clothes like "olden times" and created a firefighting team without hoses and trucks. They learned a lot more than they do with their book. They hate their social studies book. Too bad every town doesn't have a place like the museum.

Drew's problem areas are well enough he doesn't need to spend time in bed aside from sleeping. Being in bed for a couple of hours a day for these weeks definitely prevented tragedy.

My maid of honor, Laurel, her baby is so dang cute. I got very excited when I saw this photo because she looks like she has red hair! But I can report from a recent, actual sighting that she does not :( Drew and I got her this lamb toy blanket that it turns out she loves. Last Friday I got to hang out with Vera, Laurel and our mutual friend from college, Robyn for the evening. Robyn was visiting from San Diego. We almost had Vera crawling but she's a champion roll overer...

My grandma had her knee surgery and it went very well. She is able to walk better than after her hip surgery. Of course, she's still unhappy she can't cook for an army anymore. We plan to be in Fresno for a few days over my spring break the second week of April. We also hope to go to San Luis Obispo for a few days. Drew's best man and his wife live there and they are expecting a baby in April. I went to her baby shower up here a couple weekends ago. Everybody is having babies! Anyway, we hope to make it work to go on a short vacation since we still haven't been able to this year.

Drew's heel has been infected so he got some oral antibiotics this week. It's helped a lot. We are going to look into shoes that could help protect his feet more. His new chair holds his feet much better also. Drew enjoyed his steaky birthday although we weren't able to go to the Cheesecake Factory yet. The one nearby is new and sooo crowded.

One more week until spring! I subbed twice this week and I will once next week. When we were reading aloud as a class yesterday a huge bee flew into the room and swarmed around my face! A bunch of kids jumped under their desks like it was an earthquake. That's how we make 'em in Calif! ;) No one got stung, by the way. The teacher I work with is getting married in a month now. I remember how crazy that time gets.

Drew is out tonight with a friend he hasn't seen since college. I am doing mountains of reading on Pompeii. Hope everyone has a great St Patrick's day!
...it feels good to be a Guinness gangsta