Juniper!

Perhaps the cutest hedgehog ever....  maybe not, I have not met that many hedgehogs, but to me she is truly the best pet ever!

 

The second picture  is a more recent picture, she is up to almost one pound! She seems kind of stunned but I think you can still see the cuteness lurking.

Oh Canadia

The other day a student asked me if I had been to Canada (I have a large picture of Banff National Park on the wall behind my desk.)

I told her that 'yes', I had been to Canada.

She then replied, "I want to go to Canada, it would be cool.... except canadian bacon is really just ham."  After this observation she happily wandered off without another word.

Note:(2017) I have never thought of an appropriate response to this comment.

Tracking and Fielding

I am one of the track and field coaches at the middle school where I teach.  This year we have between 125 and 136 students on the team depending on who has joined, quit or rejoined on a given day.  Last year we had 88 student athletes and managers and we thought "wow, this is a LOT of kids."  We are looking back now thinking, "Gosh, it was so easy with just 88 kids."

Coaching is a lot of fun.  Who else gets to answer the question, "what are we doing at track today?" 40+ times throughout each day?  Surprisingly even though I invariably answer, "Running and stuff," they ask me the same question day after day.

fortune cookies

I am not sure what this says about me, but over the past several years I have suffered from a serious lack of fortunes in my fortune cookies.  Tonight was an excellent example of my unfortunate lack of dessert prophesy.

Fortune cookie #1: "Use your abilities at this time to stay focused on your goal."

Not only is this not a fortune, but it is also seems like the cookie is trying to boss me around and/or motivate me.  There was an unclaimed second cookie so I thought I would try my luck again.

Fortune cookie #2: "Flowers would brighten the day of your close friend tomorrow."

I don't even know how to complain about that one.

not kidding

I really don't make this stuff up.