Virtual fail

So...the female students in my sixth grade classes are obsessed with this online game where they can take care of virtual babies. They feed and clothe them, find daycare for them and put them to bed.

Today, one of my students had her virtual babies taken away by virtual Child Protective Services for neglect.

Fail.

Testing, testing..can you hear me?

We are in the midst of "practice" tests for our annual state testing. Basically, it means that between circulating around the room glancing at tests to make sure students are not skipping sections, I sit around and watch a room full of preteens alternately guess or stress...

This is supposed to measure their ability to retain the information that I've killed myself teaching all year? Something is just not quite right about that.

ahem....

I could list all the excuses, middle school student-style: my computer crashed this summer and I lost everything; I started a new job that has sucked the life out of me; I have a thousand things to do every day and I get too tired to blog...

But, excuses are kind of pathetic. I'll just own up to the fact that I haven't been interested in creating anything lately. No artwork, no writing and, as you may have noticed, no blogging. This morning, I read through some posts on a blog written by my friend, Katy. Her daughter is six months old now and bears a striking resemblance to Lily in some of her pictures. She has big blue eyes and a shock of dark hair on her head (one major exception is that she got her first tooth at six months...it took Lily almost 19 months for that to happen!) I began to think about all the things I have not posted and all the things that I need to be recording for posterity.

So, here's hoping that I can pull myself out of the dumpster of preoccupation and get back in the game. In the meantime, some pictures....

This is Lily last June surrounded by pink flamingo lawn art...when we were Flocked by Young Life.

This is Lily proudly showing off her VBS T-shirt...she loved VBS! Evie and Lily on the swing in Chilhowee..."Mom, Evie is my cousin AND my best friend!" Lily and her favorite person from Trail West...Lolly, Lolly Popper. She had a unicorn birthday party for her fourth birthday because of Lolly!

Lily in the beloved green dress...year four. The great computer crash of '09 has decimated years two and three, but I am hoping to dig up some hard copies to show her growth. We have put her in this dress every year on her birthday for pictures to show how she has grown. It is so fun, since my sister and I played dress up in this dress throughout our childhood.