Good Morning, North Carolina!

So next week start the End of Grade Testing.  I am so thrilled.  An entire week of staring at the wall because I can't do anything distracting.  No reading, checking e-mail, etc.  The poor kids can't do any of that either, even if they finish the test early!  It's so very draconian but what can we do?  The government won't give schools money unless they are proactive and put their schools through stuff like this.  I mean most of the kids that should be held back and won't pass the tests, will be allowed to continue to 6th Grade so really what is the point? 

Anywhoo, Jeff leaves Monday for the NC side of his field work.  He will be back on our anniversary.  I told him he cannot miss another anniversary (this is a really bad habit of his).  Plus I made his dentist appt that day so ha!  Can you believe that we are down to less than a month before we leave for Italy?  It is coming so fast!  What will I pack, how will I get Jeff to let me bring a suitcase, etc?

The other exciting event is that Tammy caught a bird!  Jeff usually gets up before me and lets her outside.  Well when I got up I saw her extremely excited about something and pouncing all over the place.  I was like Jeff, what does she have?  And he said its probably a leaf.  I thought that is a lot of excitement over a leaf.  So I walked over and sure enough there is a dead bird.  When Jeff grabbed it from her, she followed him.  She was very concerned over what Jeff was going to do with her prize.