Monday's High: 76!

Today is the most beautiful day of 2009! It's 70 now; the sun feels great on my skin but there is a nice, cool breeze so it's not too hot. When I walked Fred earlier I saw and heard tons of birds, my new favorite sound. I am not sure how I grew up unaware of the songs of birds - I suppose the house I grew up in didn't have a ton of trees for them to stop and hang out in. In college I lived in mostly apartments and after college I lived in a couple treeless subdivisions. My favorite part of living where I do now is the park behind my apartment - all I have to do is look out the window and I can easily spot birds perched on the trees outside. And, I can hear the birds sing without even opening a window! The past two days have been so nice though that all of my windows have been wide open to let in the cool spring breeze.

I am thankful for such a nice weekend. Last week was really busy and I needed the break. Friday was the most annoying day as I spent my planning driving downtown to get my FBI fingerprints for the Vermont Teaching License only to discover that due to the economic crisis the Atlanta PD is now only open 4-days a week. I tried to make the drive worthwhile by stopping at Krispy Kreme (only 2 in Atlanta!) and picking up a dozen hot-glazed doughnuts to share with my co-workers. I will have to try again tomorrow.

Yesterday was our first day of Saturday School at Ridgeview. I am teaching 8th grade reading to kids who failed the CRCT last year. The kids are bussed in at 8:30 to eat breakfast, then they take a 90-minute reading class and a 90-minute math class, at 12 they get a free lunch before being bussed home. We gave out all kinds of prizes for attendance, for being MVP in class, for showing "team" spirit. (We are divided into color teams - I am pink.) Both of my reading groups are creating a blog for the last part of class. Yesterday I taught them how to post comments, some are pretty fun to read (most of the kids are ELLs and you can hear their accent in the way they write):

M.P 8 said...
I would like to be summer all year because I like to play soccer with my friends and watch tv all day. I like to go outside because is hot and is not cold.

I would rather go without junk food because i like healthy food. And i would still eat good good food and television is good because you can wach tv and eat.
March 7, 2009 10:22 AM

After Saturday School I took my car in for it's 45k mile tune-up. It only took two hours (they told me it might take four!) and it only cost $300 (I thought it would be about $400). I spent those hours getting caught up on my magazine reading, although I probably should have been grading the 7th grade tests from Friday. My car is 3 yr. and 3 mo. old now - and I have had it longer than any other car. I am happy that I only have 21 months left until it is paid off! Then I can work on paying off a good chunk of my student loans! Yay!

Coming up with my Top 10 movie list has been difficult, mostly because I think that there are two types of favorite movies: movies that Tyler refers to as "works of art" and movies that I love because they are fun to watch. Tyler's list reflects movies in the "works of art" category while mine is a mix of both types. Because of this, I can't rank them 1-10 because Pretty Woman just doesn't belong in the same category as Titanic! So I have bulleted and categorized them instead (and there are way more than 10!):

• John Adams (I know this is a mini-series, but I love it!)
• Dead Poets Society, Good Will Hunting (These go together, right?)
• Pretty in Pink, Sixteen Candles (I love anything with the Brat Pack, but these are tops)
• Titanic (I have this in common with Ty's 4-yr-old cousin; although it appears he knows way more about it than I do!)
• Pretty Woman, Pride and Prejudice, How to Lose a Guy in 10 days, The Notebook, Sense and Sensibility, The Holiday and Sweet Home Alabama (Chick Flicks)
• Forrest Gump (I watch the 4-5 times each year with my 8th graders as an introduction to their Decades Project. I love it each time!)
• Juno (How can you not love a movie with a hamburger phone?)
• La Vie in Rose (A great, true story... watch with Kleenex)
• Chicago, Moulin Rouge, Walk the Line (This is as close as I get to musicals)
• Schindler's List, Hotel Rwanda, Life is Beautiful (Serious stuff...)
• Fried Green Tomatoes, Steel Magnolias, Driving Miss Daisy (A Southern category, perhaps?)
• Saving Private Ryan, Letters from Iwa Jima, Flags of Our Fathers, Glory, Good Morning Vietnam (Really, I like almost any war movie...)

Maybe I should call this "Aimee's 12 Bullets of Movies" instead of a top 10 list! I think it would be easier for me to come up with a Top 10 list of books... maybe next month.