I can't carry a tune in a bucket- but you can bet I'll be singing for the next 180 days.

I'll be spending the next three evening recovering from what will SURELY be long, exciting, fun-filled, disausting days of school.

With any luck, things like this, this, this, this and THIS will happen. Oh. And we MIGHT just learn a thing or two.

If not, I might have to apply for a sabbatical. (Sabbatical: what a teacher does when she is absolutely at the VERY END OF A SHORT ROPE and needs a year of therapy.)

Now, let's all see if we remember the words to Wheels on the Bus - cause THAT'S what I'll be singing for the rest of the week.

Today is the day....

I am posting this important, important message for Kevin. His family is living with JM every single day of their lives. A single vote (or twelve) from all of you TODAY can help make a difference. This is your random act of kindness for the day. Now, if you'll excuse me, I have some new clients I have to meet.

Cole Flack of Oregon received his diagnosis of juvenile dermatomyositis in February 2007, roughly four-and-a-half years after Thing 1 received hers.

In the years that followed, this teenager with a love of sports and being outdoors lost his ability to walk. Cole endured multiple abdominal surgeries to deal with gastrointestinal issues caused by the disease and its medicinal treatments. Yet as recently as the fall, he still managed a full course load at school and compiled a 4.0 GPA.

Earlier this month, Cole went into the hospital with pneumonia.

Yesterday, we received this e-mail written by his parents:

“Hello friends and family,
Cole went to be with the Lord at 7 p.m. tonight. It was very peaceful. Cole is free now to run ... jump ... play baseball ... everything a 15 year old boy should be able to do. …”

Cole is the third child with a form of juvenile myositis that our family has come to know since Thing 1’s diagnosis to die from this rare autoimmune disease or its complications.

Three.

When only three in a million children are diagnosed annually in the United States with this disease, that little number grows exponentially in your worried head every time your child coughs or sneezes or scraps a knee.

Please help prevent more deaths of children like Cole by continuing to vote every day this month to help Cure JM, the only national nonprofit dedicated to supporting children with juvenile myositis and their families, win a $250,000 Pepsi Refresh grant.

That $250,000 equals half our volunteer group’s annual budget, a budget raised solely through fundraising done by the family and friends of JM children. Every penny of that grant is set to pay for research into finding the cause and cure of juvenile myositis, juvenile dermatomyositis and other forms of JM diseases.

Right now, we are No. 2 in the standings – we need to hold this position until Sept. 1 to win the grant money. The only way that can happen is with your help.

You can vote up to 3 TIMES, every day, during the month of August!
(1) Send a text vote: Text 100850 to Pepsi (73774) (standard text messaging rate apply)
(2) Use the Facebook app: http://bit.ly/CureJMonFB
(3) Vote directly from the Pepsi website site for our Cure JM and its affiliated causes athttp://pep.si/CureJMKidstoWin5

What crazy universe are you living in?

When the girls still lived at home (sniff) and I would have my pre-school inservice days, I would come home at the end of the day and find, perhaps, dishes in the sink. I might also find that they had used my make-up, or played board games or maybe there would be bikes and roller blades strewn about the yard.

Now I have a 12-year old boy at home. All alone.

I came home from inservice last week to find that Golden Boy and his Do-Good Gang had (based on the obvious evidence) staged an exemplary water balloon battle.

In the house. IN THE HOUSE!!

Yeah, you heard me.

They are still searching for the bodies.

The first field trip of the year...

This is the only field trip I'll be able to take this year that doesn't cost ANY MONEY, and the only one I don't have to convince the powers that be that we HAVE TO DO.

Do you all have your permission slips???? Okay then. Buckle up.