7:15 Woke up upset by a standard teacher anxiety dream—knew what I was teaching, didn't know how to manage the classroom. Then I got really upset when I realized the tooth fairy had forgotton Rose's tooth again. Turns out the tooth fairy had delivered the Sagacewea dollar under my pillow, but still. John and I don't usually screw up like that. Rose seemed to take it in stride.

7:20 Dad and Barb called from Cairo to wish me a happy birthday. David spent the entire phone call yelling in the hallway because he wanted to play a computer game. He's been getting to play a 5 minute PBSkids word game whenever he sleeps through the night. I was getting up with him and sleeping in his bed for a month, so we are happy the reward system worked. Now we need to get him the "you've accomplished your goal and this project is done" present and stop with the daily nag about computer games. After I got off the phone, I also told him that he wasn't getting a game right now because he had been acting so rudely. He has pulled it together.

8:00 David said, "Are you going out tonight?" which he asks hopefully every day. Hopefully because if I am going out, I'll tell him a George story over breakfast. This morning George went to visit his friend Luke Skywalker and then Luke's Dad Darth Vader (David interrupts, no in this story Luke's dad is Ben) so Ben comes over and everyone goes for a ride on the Millenium Falcon. Luckily George also trained with Yoda (as David tells me), so they pull out their light sabers and kill the bad guys. Of course, the man with the yellow hat and Harold the helicopter are there as well.

8:45 Everyone else leaves the house smoothly. As opposed to yesterday where Rose threw a major temper tantrum over not being able to read any more. It was a learning moment. I told her three more minutes. She whined for two and then was shocked when she literally had one minute to read.

I turn on my taped So You Think You Can Dance and lift weights for 15 minutes. I'm up to 12 pounds on the arms, but I'm also having some carpel tunnel problems. I'm in my mid-forties. Do I get to list all my aches and pains?

9:45 I walk into Rose's classroom, and everyone says, "Happy Birthday Debby!" Have I mentioned how much I love these kids? They are a little less in control today because there is a sub. Classroom management is the weakest part of my teaching (enthusiasm being the strongest), so I was bummed I couldn't just use Ms. H's techniques and get the same results. Still, we have a good class. I show them how poets weave sound through the poem in order to make it cohesive. Then I show them a stanza from a poem I am working on and have them help me change words so more of them have an "a" sound. Like "final" can become "last" and "quickly" can become "fast." They do an excellent job transferring the skill to their own work.

12:15 I walk in the door, and John walks out. Thursday is Daddy/David day, and usually it lasts until 1:00 if not through my nap time, but today John had to rush off to meetings. Luckily, David is happily staring at the covers of the Star Wars cd's. We've watched "Star Wars" and "The Empire Strikes Back" in the last couple of weeks, and our house is currently all Star Wars all the time.

12:35 We negotiate my nap. David doesn't want me to take a nap and doesn't like the five suggestions I make for post nap. I finally hit on us starting a puzzle and after five minutes, he keeps going and I set the timer for my 22 minute nap. I don't actually sleep, but it is, without question, rejuvenating.

1:30 David and I set our spaceship for hyperdrive and head out to the library where we pick up four books about Star Wars and order four more. It's nice not to be rushed. We read a couple books at the library, have a fruit leather on the rocks outside, and slowly bike home. Very slowly. We read another book at home and head to Aunt Julia's house to drop off the car and take the stroller to school.

3:25 Rose pick-up. All the kids try out hand-stands and cartwheels. Luckily, no one lands on their neck. We stroll back to Julia's and David starts to go into complaining fit mode. So, I send Rose to swim lessons with Julia even though parking is dreadful, and David and I set off to the toy store to buy a birthday present for a party on Saturday. Yeah, I'm finally thinking more than an hour ahead. I feel like I've been in crisis management for weeks.

5:00 We both start to lose it at the store. Perhaps we are both tired, hungry, and dehydrated. I end up buying a small extra gift because he didn't like the one I picked out and not letting him tack home a catalogue because I said no and that's it.

5:45 Julia has shepherded Rose through swim lessons, the hardest gig of the week. John and I have started reheating random leftovers for dinner, I pick up Rose at Julia's house. Then it's dinner, presents, dishes, quick change for . . .

7:30 Wait Wait Don't Tell Me! The live taping. Julia bought me the tickets over a year ago. She, Dan, John, I, and much of Seattle go.

11:00 I email Rose's teacher the next day's teaching plan, read all my facebook Happy Birthdays, and go to bed cheerful.