Early Snow

We had an (another) early snow on Friday of about 4 inches. It snowed in big feathery flakes for most of the afternoon. By the time school let out, the roads were pretty bad. I was filling in for the secretary and had to deal with a lot of calls from parents, late buses, etc. A little hectic, but it felt nice to be needed. Saturday brought sunshine and some cool winds, but most of the snow is gone by now. Thought I'd share a few of the pictures I took on Saturday, it was so good to see the sun. Today we had church, spent most of the afternoon with friends celebrating their son's confirmation, and came home to watch last night's hockey game by the fire. So relaxing!

One Year Ago...

I started my blog. I guess that means it's my blogiversary today. I'm sure it's only a matter of time before that word ends up in the dictionary along with frenemy, staycation, and vlog. As an aside, I wonder if the current definition of "sick" includes the way TB uses it- meaning something that is good in a very cool, surprising, or awesome way. Ha When I was watching golf for a while today, the commentator even described Tiger Woods' 33 foot putt as "sick", so I guess it's catching on or the commentator is actually 16. Anyway, I've had fun with my blog and it's been a bit of a creative outlet which is good for everyone to have. It's been a rather eventful week around here; time for the always loved bullets...
*SD left for a pre-college camp called Nature of Life, a requirement for freshmen majoring in Biology. She had a good time up at Lake Itasca. I told her that she has traveled from the beginning to the end of the Mississippi in less than a week and she said she'd already had that thought.
*My mom was finally able to move home from the nursing home and seems to be doing well now that her neck is healed.
*DH's parents had a bit of a set-back when his mom was admitted to the hospital today with pneumonia. His dad is doing real well, but I'm sure this will prevent them from moving home from their nursing home for awhile. DH is down there visiting this weekend.
*TB started football camp. He's never played football, but wanted to give it a try to keep up his conditioning and try to put on some muscle. At 6'6" he only weighs 165, so he'd like to gain some weight. He has been so happy this week that DH and I can't decide if it's the endorphins or if there's a girl he likes. Ha
*I finished summer school on Thursday. It wasn't too bad, but I'm glad it's over since it started so early in the morning. I deleted my rant about getting a new job since I thought it seemed so lame, but I'm still thinking about it nonetheless.
That's about it, thanks for listening!

Mother's Day Etc.

Here's a somewhat belated Mother's Day report. It turned out to be a really nice day, long, but nice. SD and I play in our church bell choir. We play at church only about once a month, so we play at both services that Sunday. That meant trying to be at church by 7:30, which for me means 7:35. The first service performance was somewhat of a disaster and included a page turning mistake of epic proportions. Oh well. We did a lot better the second time around, but I was more focused on the earlier failure. It was nice that we had a little volunteer appreciation coffee between services, so with all of the down time we got to enjoy some treats and some good Fair Trade coffee.

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In the afternoon we went to a concert by a local choral group in conjunction with Monroe Crossing, a Twin Cities Bluegrass group. (There is a link on the lower right of the page to hear some of their newest music) It was a wonderful concert, but the room was pretty warm and I was very tired, so I nearly dozed off a time or two. Fortunately, more coffee and some cookies at intermission perked me up. Part of the concert was a "Bluegrass Mass" and had all the elements of a worship service, very interesting. After the concert, we returned home with the two couples we went to the concert with and their families joined us for dinner at our house. We provided the main dish and everyone else brought something. DH made Key Lime chicken on the grill and homemade asparagus pasta with a yummy alfredo sauce with asparagus in it. It was very delicious, I wish I'd taken pictures. The others brought a salad, bread, cheese and crackers, and strawberry shortcake for dessert.

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I'm feeling a little down about the state of our school system. We had a meeting at work yesterday. There was more of the same-"no news yet" -where my hours for next year are concerned, but I'm becoming pretty sure I'll lose some time. They've raised class sizes to the point that there will be as many as 32 in each third grade class next year and even more in 5th grade. Just two sections of each. Each will, I'm sure, have some challenging kids, so when you throw in some para cuts, etc., that will (in my opinion) make for a disastrous situation. We've got some great teachers, but it is going to be really tough and not fair for the kids. Think about that when you hear someone talking about how great teachers have it with "three months vacation" and all. We have a parent meeting tonight for band parents to hear about the "enhancements" for next year. Our new superintendent (once again IMO) wants to get rid of music in the schools so those areas are seeing lots of cuts as well. It will be interesting to see how they are going to sell it as an enhancement. It's discouraging and I feel bad that I've been taking my kids quality education for granted up to now.

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I almost forgot to mention that TB provided me with my only Mother's Day gift this year. He had been shopping with a friend the night before and picked me up a copy of Dream Girls. I thought it was very sweet. In all fairness, SD has promised to help me with some of the yard work I can't do because of my back. DH allowed me to buy tickets for a play in the cities in a couple weeks as a special outing as well. CS remembered to call, so that was nice. He has finals this week, so he's super busy.

Three Days and Counting.

Three more school days left until Spring break!! Today was a pretty low key day with an assembly to chew up a lot of time this afternoon. Tomorrow I'm covering in the office most of the afternoon and we don't have school on Friday or the entire next week, so I think I'll survive. I really like parts of my job. I like getting to know the kids and working with them one on one, reading with small groups, even correcting papers, but there are parts I really detest at times. I don't like disrespectful kids, naughty ones who make life miserable for anyone who has to work with them. Fortunately we only have a few at our school, but enough to make recess and lunch duty miserable this time of year when we are tired of it anyway. I wonder if their parents realize that their children are the ones that most of staff dislikes. I know I'd feel horrible if that were the case, unfortunately with most of these kids their parents are the source of the problem. Of course their are some kids with rotten parents who turn out okay, so who knows? Anyway, I'm in need of a break. Working at school you get used to the pattern of periodic breaks, weekends off, etc. Sometimes I think about getting a different job, but I'd really miss those breaks and having the same days off as the kids has always worked out well. In a few years, fewer than I care to think about, all of my kids will be out of school. Then I guess it would make a lot of sense to get a different job. I've been thinking a little lately of a career change, but I don't really know what I'd do. Hmmm, something to think about. The thought always comes back to feeling like I'm too old to do something really new. It would have been smart to do that 10 years ago or even 20 before my poor brain shriveled up too much. I heard the other day that the human brain starts to decline starting at age 27. Great, huh?

Mid-Winter Nothingness

Here's a few random thoughts, not a lot different from most of my posts, but at least you're forewarned. I keep thinking I need to work on being able to do a 5-minute post. I think too much about what I'm writing, processing as I go along, which is great sometimes, but sometimes I just need to get it out there and move on. I like it when my posts are pretty, well thought out, and perhaps even meaningful, but like they say about quilting, "done is better than perfect". I don't think I'm alone in feeling that my blog posts are like my journal. I've been known to look back to check on dates things happened to reinforce my poor memory. Perhaps that's why I feel that I should be posting more frequently, it's certainly not the public clamoring for my every word. I do really appreciate my readers and the comments I get however.

*****

I really enjoyed watching so much of the inauguration festivities on Tuesday. I'm not a very political person, so it's not that, but there are several reasons I liked it. Seeing so many people gathered peacefully in one place and thinking about those gathered in many, many other places around the country and the world really meant something to me. I realize there are a lot of dissenters, but I think the majority of those watching felt hope and pride in our country for the first time in a long time, the first time ever for some. It was profound to think of the dream of Martin Luther King coming true in one aspect anyway. I admit that I liked the pageantry also; the words, the music, the parade, the coming together of past leaders and their families, our new and past leaders showing respect towards one another. The other thing is the feeling that despite obvious differences, the Obamas are more like me than any other first family in the past. We're practically contemporaries age-wise, we're parents of school age children, we're not from a background of privilege and wealth. I think others identify with them also. I'm going to give them a chance anyway, something not everyone is willing to do unfortunately. I definitely have the hope that my family will be better off in four years than we are now, but I'm willing to accept that it will probably get worse before it gets better.

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Speaking of getting worse, I'm not going to be at all surprised if I lose my job at the end of this school year. My school district is planning to cut nearly 15 million dollars from the budget in the next year. It's really unfortunate and I know many will lose jobs, many necessary programs will be cut, and the educational quality for the students can't help but be adversely affected. I hate to say it, but I'm glad my kids are nearly done with high school if this is going to be what it's like.

*****

Today was the last day of the semester for school, we're halfway done. We have the day off tomorrow. The kids have a ski trip with the church youth and I'm getting together with a bunch of friends to sew all day. Yeah!! Poor DH is working all day, but he found out unexpectedly that he has Saturday off, so that will be nice.

My Long Weekend

The weekend sure flew by and here it is Monday already. We don't have school today for the Martin Luther King Jr. holiday, so I'll be trying to tie up the loose ends from my weekend as I do most Mondays. Do you ever notice how so many things never get done because of all the mundane things that we feel must be done first? I don't think I ever really get done with the house cleaning, dishes, laundry, etc. and I have the mind-set that I need to before I do the fun stuff like sewing and going through photographs. It's funny how I find time for blogging and drinking coffee.

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One of the highlights of the weekend was going out with friends to see Gran Torino and have dinner out afterward. It was a great movie, both funny and touching, really the kind of movie where you laugh and cry. Clint Eastwood played the lead, a recently widowed retired Detroit autoworker who still lives in the old neighborhood. The neighborhood has vastly changed, becoming home to many immigrants, mostly Hmong, and the movie follows his relationship with the family next door. Their son, Thao is the other main character. He's a young man trying to find his way without a lot of opportunity except for the local gang trying to recruit and initiate him. It had a lot of themes, but mostly had to do with the racism of Clint's character and his enlightenment as the movie went on. I think most people can relate to it and probably know older people in their family very similar to him. Even without all of the racial epithets, there are a lot of people out there with the same kind of racism born from ignorance and lack of opportunity to experience diversity. Of course there are plenty of others who are taught to be racist and pursue it with a vengeance. Naming their child Adolf Hitler comes to mind. It will be an exciting day tomorrow with the inauguration. I believe that it's a great sign, but there is still a long way to go where racism is concerned in this country. In reading blogs before the election, I was appalled at some of the anti-Obama entries. Not all of them were coming from a racist perspective, but many were. Sweet little ladies who suddenly had this voracious interest in politics and would never have admitted that it had anything to do with racism. Anyway, I would highly recommend this movie, there was complete silence and many people in tears when it was over, attesting to its' powerful message.(Edited: I decided that I had better put in a cautionary note that this movie is rated "R", has a significant amount of foul language, violence, and racial epithets. I know that it is not everyone's cup of tea, however, I saw many older folks in the audience, really a cross section of (white) society.)

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The rest of the weekend was quickly consumed by painting the basement floor (pictures another day), taking CS back to college, bringing Quicken up to date, laundry, cleaning, etc. Oh yeah, and watching the Gopher hockey team sweep St. Cloud. I hope to get some sewing done today, but first I have to clean up the cat barf on the carpet and wash the dishes.

Super Weekend!!!

Who'd have expected that my weekend would begin at 4:00 pm on Wednesday? A benefit of the ridiculously cold weather we've been having is that school was canceled today and they've already canceled it for tomorrow. Monday is Martin Luther King Day, so there you have it...a super long weekend!! I finally got my Christmas tree put away on Tuesday, so I've been gradually cleaning the house, doing and redoing laundry, cooking meals, etc. as usual. I think a couple of extra days calls for something out of the ordinary. I haven't been down in my sewing room for well over a week. Our basement floor project is still half done. I haven't started on my photo organizing project yet. No excuses now, I'll have to get to each of those. We've also got plans to get together with friends for a matinee of "Grand Torino" and dinner on Saturday. We'll be taking CS back to school on Sunday. I think he's ready to go back and get away from me bugging him about getting a summer job.

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We got a new load of firewood this afternoon, so we're staying snug and warm despite the bitter cold outside. The actual temp this morning was -24 with a windchill of -49. I helped TB with his route yesterday and just about froze my fingers; I made CS help him today. Hope you're keeping warm wherever you are, be glad you're not here!

The End...Crabbiness Alert!

I guess this post should be titled "A New Beginning", but today I feel more like "the end". I go back to work at school tomorrow after a 17 day break. It's going to be cold, the kids will be out of any semblance of a routine, the teachers may also be a little crabby and I'm not looking forward to it. DH and I are also planning to start our diet tomorrow. So no eating cookies, chips, candy, bread, etc. for the foreseeable future. Add to it all of the things I didn't accomplish over break and it really puts me in a funk. Oh well, we're having one last big meal, ham and sweet potatoes, etc. and I'll be eating the last of the Christmas cookies and probably a glass of wine later to try to eke some enjoyment out of my last day of freedom.

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We did have a great time at the hockey game last night even though the driving was horrible both ways. We saw several cars in the ditch and dealt with a lot of freezing rain and snow before we made it home safely. Probably not the smartest trip we ever made, but for free tickets, it was totally worth it. We had a nice meal at Applebee's before the game and it was close enough that we could park, eat, and walk to the arena. They won the game in overtime. Our seats were amazing, 4th row behind one of the goals. The only complaint I have is the cheerleaders who stationed themselves in our section for the 3rd period. I don't like cheerleaders anyway, but these were particularly annoying. Anyway...here's a couple of camera phone pictures I took. They're a little blurry, but it gives you an idea how great our seats were. They got the winning goal right in front of us only a couple of minutes into the overtime period and the crowd went insane. M-I-N-N-E-S-O-T-A Minnesota, Minnesota, Yaaaay Gophers!!!

Days Flying By

Wow, where did August go? I can't believe it's September already. Everyone in the family, except DH, had their first day of school yesterday. It seemed to go well for everyone, although I haven't gotten a full report from college son(CS). He has already been back at college for two weeks, training for his job and working as a computer lab and tech support person. He was more than ready to go back to a new dorm and roommate both of which seem better than last year. I was most excited about him having a sink in his room, but that paled in comparison when he visited some friends from last year who are living off-campus. He was totally wowed by their awesome apartment, so I'm sure it's only a matter of time before he'll want to move out.
Senior Daughter (SD) and I had a nice trip to Iowa last week for a college visit to the old alma mater, ISU. We also managed to stop at one of my favorite quilt shops and stayed over with the in-laws and helped them with a few tasks. The campus was beautiful as always, but they didn't do such a great sales job otherwise. She is interested in Biology and Pre-Vet and the old prof they had us meet with was neither encouraging nor welcoming and barely tried to make her feel interested in going there. The music dept. however was great and arranged a meeting with the guy who would be her music teacher. It was fun to walk around campus with her, it brought back a lot of memories and I enjoyed telling her stories about my college days and showing her the dorm where DH and I met. I'll post some more pictures of campus another time.
I'm back to work at the elementary school nearest to our home. After working full time the last few months last spring, I'm back to my regular hours, just afternoons. I will miss the benefits, but it is a great schedule and I really like my coworkers and being so close to work. Not to mention time alone in the morning at home. No more excuses for not blogging or doing the other things I need to at home. We're gone from home most nights with different activities, so that time is precious and needed.
Our youngest son is a sophomore in high school. The upperclassmen started late yesterday, so this was his first day with the early wake up. Their bus comes at 6:50, so for a boy who could sleep all morning during the summer it will be a big adjustment for awhile. He got up on his own this morning, so I hope that will keep up. His blog nickname will be The Tall Beast or TB for short. I'm stealing that name from the Olympic volleyball player Phil Dahlhauser. He's 6'5" at 15 and still growing, so the name fits.