Good Morning!

I have just been informed that I could orchestrate the best day ever for one lucky winner. So here we are.

This week I am teaching a class for 4-6 graders through the local community college. It is called "Harry Potter Mock Trial." I figured I have these recently gained Mock Trial coachin' skills (kinda), and 4-6 graders will sign up for any class with "Harry Potter" in the title, so here we are. Today is the day we try the case of Hogwarts School v. Hagrid. He is being accused of negligence for letting out the secret of how to get past Fluffy, and therefore putting the Sorcerer's Stone in danger. It should be pretty wild, but I have to say I am AMAZED at what kids of this age have been able to do in a week!

I'm getting to that weird part of summer that I always think will never come. In mid-July I was panicked and positively convinced I would never be ready to go back to work in September. I'm still not ready, but the panic is going away. This is the part of the summer when I was a kid where my mom told me to make a list of the things I still wanted to do before the end of summer. So here are a couple of mine:

1. Matt and I are finally going to visit the Vali Hi drive in movie theatre in Lake Elmo tonight. I don't think we'll be bringing a grill, but the fact that you CAN bring one to a movie theatre is awesome.

2. Squish Andrew when he gets home.

3. I just got an e-mail we are finally going to open our Somers Family Millenium Time Capsule. This has been on my to-do list for 10 years, so let's crack that baby open.

4. I need to go swimming. Owatonna has a waterpark, but I need to figure out when to go so I'm not surrounded by my students. Awkward.

5. Last summer I stopped by this farm in Webster and got a bunch of grass-fed beef for my freezer. I need to do that again.

6. It'd be cool if I could do some more lesson planning as I will have 5 (!) preps first quarter.

7. Matt's mom promised us a cooking lesson this summer. I would love to squeeze that in.

8. I should probably finish at least one more book before school starts. Two if I can finish Suzanne Collins' "Mockingjay" between when it comes out on August 24th and when school starts.

Hmmm...that's it for now. But I'm sure there are other things floating around in my mind. Ideas?