The No Child Left Behind what????

This post is from my friend Danielle, who teaches in a city school. She risks her life everyday to try and reach, teach, and empower our nations youth. There has to be a better way to handle what is going on with schools today, and quite frankly, if it wasn't for Danielle, and my sisters stories about working in City Schools, I too would be far removed from the problem.

Well, the past 2 days have been very tough.. Yesterday, fights all day
and a
cop gets jumped in our school, then after school one of my students -
steven- gets murdered over a chain..
Today we had threats of retaliation, and went into lockdown, and were
dismissed at 1:45...

what has this world come to?

Tell me something positive that is going on, so I can get my mind off
of
things:)

-danielle

Garbage Land

I am on a reading frenzy again. I started the week reading "Baby Love" by Rebecca Walker. I wasn't terribly thrilled with it, but it was a nice even read. I finished it in 24 hours, and I still don't know how that happened. I'm just craving books again and it feels good. Now I'm starting on "Garbage Land....on the secret trail of trash" by Elizabeth Royte. The book is fascinating and takes the reader on a journey following all of the things that we dispose of. I'm intrigued and can't put it down. I wonder at least 3 times a day what happens to our trash. Where does it go? When I stumbled upon this book I purchased it right away. I have wondered about our trash and what happens to it everytime I eat something that I didn't prepare, buy a cup of coffee, or open something surrounded in plastic. I wonder how big of a footprint are we leaving on this poor planet when 90% of the stuff that I throw away won't biodegrade for 2000 years? What sort of world are we preparing for our kids to inherit? This book gives the reader the complete inside scoup the journey of our trash, starting from the minute that we throw it out. The book is the authors travelogue as she journeyed around the country in search of answers, and following our trash. Very cool.

Would love to hear what everyone else is reading? :)

Outer Banks Vacation

We survived a 14 hour roadtrip with an 18 month old! Yipppeee! We spent a beautiful, but chilly week in the Outer Banks. The ocean was just steps from the house that we rented, and we enjoyed it as much as we could despite the weather. We arrived in the OBX last Saturday to a severe tropical storm, and on Sunday it was thought that we might have to be evacuated, but thankfully we just stuck it out and things got better on Monday. Although things got better, the weather was definetly the bummer of the trip. However we made the best of it, and still enjoyed lots of family time. One of the most amazing things for me was seeing Dolphins right off our deck jumping and frolicking in the ocean! Livy loved watching them jump in the air, and she would yell "Dolpheeen!"Here are a few pictures from the trip.

Easter

Olivia turned 18 months on Saturday! Time is really going by, but we are trying to stay in the now, and enjoy Olivia's toddlerhood. I've been cherishing her second year so much, and trying to remember all of her "oliviaisms" to share with her some day. Here are a few translations, and ones that I want to remember

Geep=Grape
Geempop=Grandpa
Mina Mina Mina=Mine! :)
Koy=Squirrell
Pengi=pigeon or penguin, depends on which one shes looking at
Dog a Doggie=Dog
Sack=snack
Geema!=Grandma

Those are just a few. Her verbal explosion is happening, and when Dave and I are talking during dinner she will tell me who I"m talking about. So today I said "I have to call my sister." And Olivia replied "Naa Naaa" for Aunt Niki! Needless to say we are starting to watch what we say! ha! Thats going to be a tough one for me

Easter Egg Hunt

This morning our neighborhood held the annual Easter Egg Hunt. Before leaving for the hunt Olivia watched me fill the eggs, and then ran around the house announcing "Hunt....Hunt....Hunt." She seemed to be enjoy exploring through the various backyards with all of the kids, and did score about 3 eggs for herself. She tried helping herself to the baskets of a few other kids, but she was quickly turned down. :) One thing that I enjoyed about the hunt was the "no candy" rule. The eggs were filled with chapstick, rings, money, stickers, etc but no candy! I love this idea! This teaches kids that you don't always need food involved to have fun! The kids had a blast opening all of their eggs and it was a great start to the Easter weekend!

First haircut

It wasn't Olivia's favorite day, but we got her hair trimmed by our dear friend Candie, or as Olivia says, "CANGIE." Olivia sat so still and didn't move a muscle, becuase, quite frankly I don't think she even knew what to do, or what think about the whole process. After getting her haircut she got to watch Daddy have his done, and she was starting to catch on about the whole idea. Here are a few pics...

Puppylove

This is Coco. This is Olivia hugging Coco. Olivia lives for this dog, and talks about this dog everywhere we go, to anyone who will listen. No matter who visits our home she asks if Coco is with them. I have never seen anything like it. The pediatrician, church, wegmans, my in-laws house, friends houses, neighbors houses, and anywhere to anyone who will listen, Olivia will ask for Coco. Coco is 17 years old, so needless to say every minute with her is a blessing. We all love Coco, and I hand picked her from Lollypop farm at age 12. I refused to leave Lollypop without Coco and hung onto the cage until my mother agreed that we could take her home. I should have been grounded, but instead we were too busy loving Coco that my mom soon forgot about my antics. But in my defense she was shaking from fear and communicating with me in her own way, just begging to live with us. And we've never been sorry, she has been one trully amazing dog! I've even written a goodbye blog post when we thought that Coco was about to enter her heavenly realm...but she pulled through. Shes amazing and we love her, and so does her newest fan Olivia! Most people would think that a 17 year old dog would want nothing to do with a 17 month old baby, and they're right. Olivia tries anything to get Coco's attention, and Coco just keeps walking away from her, but truth be told when Olivia goes to take a nap Coco is restless and wants to lay next to the crib. Its ironic becuase Coco spends most of her visits trying to escape from Olivia, but there must be some bond there. Anyway, we finally grabbed this photo and I had to share!