All right new leaf, turn over. That's right . Tuuuurn over! Good leaf! That's a goooood leaf. Now stay. Staaaaayyy!

In a moment of clarity I realized that my blog had some how gone horribly wrong. My original inspiration was that my boyfriend wanted to know my daily thoughts. How sweet, right? Well somewhere along the way it turned into an outlet for my seemingly bottomless well of neediness and self-loathing. "I don't have this. I don't do that. I'm not pretty...blah blah blah." What a bunch of shit. So from here on out (even if for only Jason and me) I plan to take a cue from the only coach in sports I ever really cared about, Jim Volvano. Half full instead of half empty from here on out Baby!

Laugh: I had a lot of laughs today but I think there are two that stand out. Laughing with Donna about organized and sensible outdoor Christmas decorations vs. every plastic Christmas character living in harmony on the lawn and mismatched lights. The other was dancing my ass back and forth as Jason produced a symphony of accompanying fart noises.

Cry (or get emotional): My emotional moments came when I opened an email from Jason containing the lyrics to a wonderful song that makes me feel great every time I hear it (or read it.) The other came when (through a Spanish translator) I was thanked profusely by the mother of a student for the great year her son is having in my class.

Think: Obviously I paused to think about the direction my blog (and my energy) were going. The other thing that I thought a lot about over the past few day is what does it mean for a child to be "gifted?" GT/AG/ AIG what ever label you know it as. I have been going through the process of referring two students in my class for our Horizons Enrichment program (our gifted program.) Filling out checklists, collecting work samples, checking reading levels and standardized test scores. I spent 10 days this summer at a conference for teaching gifted kids. I was put in "gifted" classes when I was in fourth grade. I've been to a million workshops on differentiating instruction.Those experiences in combination with my every day interaction with kids for the last 7 years you think would make me an expert, but it is a question I am still trying to answer.

So, I'd have to say overall it was a good day and I apologize to the universe for the bitchy energy I was putting out most of the day.