The Debate

What did you guys think of the debate last Friday?

Finally...

This is our second official day of October break. One nice thing about starting school at the end of July is that we get two weeks off in October, two weeks off at Christmas and two weeks off in the spring. So, you should be hearing more from me in the coming days than you have in the past few weeks...More soon...

Rainy Season

Yes, in Arizona we have a "rainy season" that we refer to as "monsoon season". Seriously, that's what it's called. I'm not making it up. July, August and September are usually our "monsoon months". Although we don't get a lot of rain, we get more than usual during those months. We get about 7-9 inches per year, on average. So, our kids aren't really used to having puddles around...It is a lot of fun when we do!

An Interesting Quote

I don't want to seem like I'm going on and on about the same thing, but I thought this was a great quote from the Obama speech the other night about coming together. It is true that so many of us agree on a lot more issues than we disagree on. I thought this was an interesting and effective way to address some of these traditionally "hot button" issues.

"We may not agree on abortion, but surely we can agree on reducing the number of unwanted pregnancies in this country. The reality of gun ownership may be different for hunters in rural Ohio than for those plagued by gang-violence in Cleveland, but don’t tell me we can’t uphold the Second Amendment while keeping AK-47s out of the hands of criminals. I know there are differences on same-sex marriage, but surely we can agree that our gay and lesbian brothers and sisters deserve to visit the person they love in the hospital and to live lives free of discrimination. Passions fly on immigration, but I don’t know anyone who benefits when a mother is separated from her infant child or an employer undercuts American wages by hiring illegal workers. This too is part of America’s promise – the promise of a democracy where we can find the strength and grace to bridge divides and unite in common effort."

I look forward to hearing Palin's speech tonight.

Noah's Ark

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These days when the kids want to play outside, I just put the baby pool out so they can get wet while they're playing, because it's just too hot to play outside dry right now! We go to the big pool most nights to, but this lets them be outside during the day without totally overheating. Maya put her car in the pool the other day and I said, "Maya, did you put your car in the pool?" She said, "A boat".

After looking inside, I think she may have been playing Noah's Ark!

Our First "Podcast"

One of the other big parts of my job is being in charge of our school's News Club along with the P.E. teacher and the music teacher. We produce a weekly "podcast" that the students watch each Friday. This year we have 48 5th and 6th graders that are in News Club. They are divided into 2 big teams and each big team is divided into 4 small teams. The small teams each have a leader that was part of News Club last year. Each of the two big teams is in charge of a podcast every other week. They do all the planning and filming and also a lot of the uploading and editing. They took all the pictures and chose the order, chose the backgrounds, fonts, transitions, music, interview questions, etc. This is our first podcast of the year. I was happy with how it turned out.

Do Yourself a Favor

Many of you know that I am so geeky about politics, that I had hours and hours of DNC coverage recorded and watched it until about midnight every night this week after the kids went to bed like it was the last game in the World Cup or something. This convention was truly amazing! All of the speeches that I watched were good, and many were great. If you haven't seen them, I highly recommend watching Michelle Obama's, Hillary Clinton's, Joe Biden's and of course Barack Obama's speeches. I think it is absolutely wonderful that so many people came to enthusiastically participate in the political process at this convention. I heard there were more than 80,000 on Thursday night. It gives me hope that we can turn things around in this country. Anyway, I am posting the speech because I think you owe it to yourself to watch it even if you think you disagree with his politics. I just think everyone owes it to each of the candidates to listen to what they have to say directly instead of relying on second and third hand information and rumors. If nothing else, you will enjoy it from a public speaking standpoint. I am fully in support of Obama and Biden, but I will still watch John McCain directly address the country next week so that I can hear his ideas first hand. If you haven't yet had the chance, watch it!



If you did watch it, before or now, I would love to hear what you think of it.