keeping SDCCS "cooperative" ....

what was built today?
an outdoor classroom, a mosaic round butterfly garden, two compost corals, 4 more raised beds, benches, a stage platform, wooden cut out art work to beautify the chain link etc etc...


check in to the SDCCS blog over the next couple of days for more garden work day pics!

It's amazing what the parents kids and teachers at this school can and DO accomplish!

lovin' up Emmett

At the wedding when we went to New York...

I just love this picture of Emmett coming in for

an unsolicited dance, just burying himself in the mama and papa sandwich.

A visit from Donna Frye!!

click here...so cool! (scroll down a bit to see our school pic!)

Donna Frye visited Emmett's classroom last week and spent quite a bit of time

with them, answering questions.

wahooooooooooooooo!

what a night! 

visualizing this family in the white house...

Oh, how this could change the world!

two feelings at once...about election day...

This is me. ------------------------------>

This is what I need.------------------------------------>

Halloween '08

Emmett="wolfman/ape/bandit/freakazoid" (love it...this was actually costume #2 after the Johnny Depp costume worn at school!)

Silas="babyranger/samurai/robinhood" (he actually likes this costume...a last minute throw together, thanks to Emmettand his love of Rangers Apprentice!)

Mac="reverse candy machine" (very cool...also costume #3 after a cowgirl at the dance and a "noisy bell lady" at school today)

(you must click on this picture to get the full effect of Emmett I think)

Fun night for all. Matt took Mac and Emmett around with the

gang and I went 4 times to see the "scary kitty" house with Silas.

Then came home to eat way too many peanut butter cups.

how change happens...

(from yet another Keillor article that asks how minds are changing about Obama)

"... how can they possibly go for a Harvard Law graduate from the South Side of Chicago whose last name is Obama, for crying out loud?
They can and they will. Colin Powell was right when he called the guy a transformational candidate. We walk through the door and we close it behind us and the simplicity of it is dazzling. That's how it happens."

for the whole article click here

;)

just love every thing he writes...

...click here for a great article from
Salon.com by Garrison Keillor 

(you may have to click on"Enter Salon"

in the top right corner to get to the article...)

Every week he writes something
short, sweet, and great (look under 

"opinion" to find previous articles). It's 

worth reading much of what he's written 

during this election season actually.

I just LOVE HIM and Prairie Home Companion

and completely agree with his brand of democrat.

leaf, laugh, love...the dreyer family band...october sessions

ok, this was definitely one of my top 5 experiences in LIFE
creating something like this with the family...being together and making songs in one of the most beautiful places during the prettiest 12 days of the year...just awesome
It was impossible to choose from the hundreds of pictures Cami took...I tried show a bit of everything...what the days felt like...

Happy Happy Birthday Baby!

Today he is 2!!

Tomorrow We Fly!

last minute packing...

2 books each, check

coats and scarves, check

enormous flashlight, no emmett

all the cars and plastic animals? no silas

mabel, nope 

nana? no silas...(big frown)

hat collection? not this time emmett

music and lyrics, check

num-chucks? are you kidding?

pedometer, swim trunks and jog watch, if you must matt ;}

homework? yeah, sorry Mac

various weaponry, NO to both of yous guys

allergy meds, yes please!

fancy schmancy outfits for wedding, check (ugh)

nutritious hydrating plane snacks, check

chocolate bars and rice crispy treats, maybe

happy faces??? NO (says Silas, the birthday boy with a smile:)

just a few more books mama? ok mac

...we're on our way.

 

when I feel sad I just watch this...

...everyone now must realize Fox News is a big fat hoax, right? Even the stupidest people must see through this, yes??

Check this out...from Lauren's blog, I just had to have it on mine!!

Cami and Nana...if you didn't see this yet...you MUST

Tina Fey does it again...perfect!

Silas's Impromptu Birthday Party

We will be in the air flying to NY on his actual birthday, Oct. 9th, so we decided to take advantage of an evening with everyone home. What a sweet and funny boy.
Nana and I also took him for a quick hour or so at the zoo and the carousel
today and I'll never forget it.
I will also never forget the day he was born!! Seems like forever ago and yesterday!!

predictions (with typos) ...what we talked about Lauren...

1)the mc cain camp will resurrect jeremiah wright and say obama is friends with terrorists and then they'll talk about how 'two feet on the spending accelerator with a democrat congress and democrat president will bankrupt us'...crazy considering its the republicans who dress up  their gambling addictions in their sunday best, spending like crazy and without even a well-functioning program to show for it...just an awful war and a bailout...

2)as states borrow money from the federal government and the government goes bankrupt guess what? we'll just have to privatize social security and healthcare and why not schools while were at it...aka Friedman and the Shock Doctrine because its worked so well for Chile and South Africa...

3)the rich will feel the financial loss only a little even if they lose a lot because...well, you can only be in one mansion at a time anyway... the rest of us will really struggle...

4)the republicans will tell eachother over and over that they had nothing to do with the financial crisis focusing only on the part that Fannie and Freddie played in it all (and of course their financial contributions to democrats...)until their talking points mutate into glorifying the very same economic philosophies that brought us all down in the first place, until they have convinced themselves we just need to privatize everything to see their glorious vision really shine in its purest form (up until now they say it has never had the chance to really succeed even in the countries where they made their guinea pigs...again, Chile etc)

show me one place in the world anywhere where this kind of Freidman economy works??

..bit of a disorganized rant...but I just don't think this will unfold well unless...unless... Obama is elected...then I feel really sorry for the mess he will barely be able to contain!

silas' very bestest friend...

...at their first meeting, a little under two years ago!

love this e-mail to papa...

dear pop,


today i had a soccer game we lost four to one,and guess what I scored the only goal! but a kid that was named mateo kept on tripping me and a kid named owin kept on teasing us.

but it was still grrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrreat!


Emmett.

no need to actually answer any questions....

...when you've got a big wide smile, bright eyes looking right into the camera, down home language (includin' endin' every "ing" word with in')...complimentin' us by tellin' us all that in the end Americans are winners (especially those that were feeling unsure about being losers for voting for Bush twice!)  and of course that we shouldn't trust government (gov-nah!) and, of course, pay less taxes...that we shouldn't look backward but forward into a bright energy rich future of 'maveric-dom' or 'reform-hood'...

...and that's about it.

Anyone who has read ANYTHING knows this was an amazing act of nothingness.

The big question now is ...how many Americans were fooled by Palin tonight? (After hearing Pat Buchannan say it was a Palin slam dunk...and the Fox talking heads say she was spectacular I really wonder...) I really hope that's not all it takes? Cutesie and rehearsed stabs and jabs with that shiny smile, wow what a smile...Definitely a case for style over content, if not a bit cloying!!
Full of little lies and big ones (Biden didn't agree with Mc Cain on anything since 2004) but none of the  major embarassing pauses or stumbles we've seen in interviews...but, really, what a lot of fluff.

I thought Biden was clear(!) and presidential(!!) but the Mc Cain camp keeps trying to make the case that the government should be made up of people just like you and me...
...maybe the next time I need surgery I should look for someone with a nice haircut...or if I need a lawyer I should pick the one who can barbecue... and in vice president I certainly don't need anyone engaging in any of that East Coast elite book learnin'...what I really need is a couple of regular ole folksy mavericks .  (I can't believe how much I hate that word now...my apologies to the late James Garner...he doesn't deserve this!)

If I lived in a small town I would be offended and embarassed to be lumped in with the likes of her...her main street is a myth.  And if I lived in NYC I would also feel slammed.  Or San Francisco or LA or Europe or India or Iraq. Or anywhere really.  She is the essence of a "divider" and the idea that she understands diplomacy is...laughable.

the best of Sarah...unbelievable, really...

Her greatest hits...a montage of clips, if you haven't already seen this.
Isn't this an insult to anyone with a brain from a small town. To think that being folksy is really all it takes to be VP.
I know her numbers are falling in the polls but it's sad that it has to be this obviously awful for to people to get it.
I mean, this is really slimy politics...the way this campaign has been run.
At the top of Mc Cains list of lies is Palin...when he said his main criteria for VP was someone who could be president if necessary...when he had only met her once. What a fool.