Week Down

TGIF. In the morning the washer comes and the laundry bin is full, very full. I am almost tempted to go to the laundromat so I won't have so much to do tomorrow, but then, I would miss part of the wonder of the new machine!

I have a class that is giving me fits, 8th graders. The last hour of the day to have a group that wants to work for 15 of the 46 minutes becomes a grind. I am switching from the skills I like to teach to 8th graders before they go off to high school to a project I normally don't have time for as my weeks have gone from 9 to 6. I love this project, but it takes too long. I used it last year for the same reason and got some spectacular results. This will change my interaction with them and take it from a power struggle to them just working away. Once they are secure in their designs, they will not need much from me. I even predict I can learn to enjoy this group of people again.

A Bad Link

Got a tip I had a bad link over there on the right. I checked and I had several bad links. My bad, OK, OK, my badness. I have taken on some of the middle school slang. oops. And I exercise with an English teacher, sorry A. I think I have made adjustments and tested the links and they work now. I must have had a few extra characters or something.

Great exercise class tonight, even though I was having a hitch in my back all day. We did something new with a medicine ball. Only two of us showed up so we had this intense tossing of the ball standing sideways to each other and about 6 or 8 feet apart, however wide a keyhole is on a basketball court. A got me in the knee a couple of times, but it was mostly good throws and catches. Oh, and our elbows were tight to our bodies on our twist and throw. Wait until Saturday, it will set in. That doesn't count all the crunches and crunches and crunches and planks. I simply cannot do side planks and I am really doing a downward dog on the other---but it is all so much better than it was when I started a year and a half ago. My core is definitely stabilizing.

Spending Money

Years and years ago I bought an inexpensive pair of lamps at service merchandise, as I remember, they were $39 for the pair. ginger jar style, very plain. I came home and went to bed with a migraine. DH asked me if I had ever noticed that when I spent money, I got a migraine. hmmmmm. Today after a little research and a lot of death rattle from the washing machine....I went out by myself and purchased, with my own hard earned $$$, a washing machine that with taxes, extended warranty, delivery and set up and removal of old machine a thousand dollars. OMG. This one will not entail a slight remodel of the kitchen to get it in. I don't have a migraine, a hysterectomy seemed to cure those, but I do feel like having a nervous breakdown. And maybe taking in laundry on the side! It will be delivered next Saturday morning, so no more trips to the laundromat. When my twins were babies, I went to the laundromat every weekend, I took up an entire row of machine with clothes, and two giant machines with cloth diapers. I am not too into the current romance with cloth diapers, but that never has to be my worry again... refer to migraine cure! The good thing for a laundromat is all your laundry is done at once, not load after load. And, really, it is nice to have a very clean well-appointed laundry nearby for such things as chocolate on the down comforter or numerous rugs to wash.

Sonker Update

Success! More than half of it was eaten and I baked it in a lasagna pan. We brought the rest of it home and I intend to make it my dinner. I may be a baker, although the crust was premade, Ijust patched it together. Cousin Bob was there with his youngest daughter, Uncle Bob was there, and all the usual suspects. A good time was had by all, although I was disturbed by the 3rd grader watching Disturbia and left soon after.

Hey Ya'll

My readers, all 4 of them, will be amazed that I have in the oven right now a Carolina Sonker as seen in Hallmark Magazine, but not so pretty. Since I couldn't find rhubarb to replace the ex-cousins annual treat, I went for three berries-- I haven't made anything like a pie/cobbler since high school. You may all quiver in fear now. I also, at 60.4 found out the difference between defrost and regular on the microwave-- no --no I wouldn't even consider making my own crust, but defrost seemed a little slow. There's a reason for that, and it is great that those crusts come boxed two crusts to a box! I can tell you that the 10 minutes on 450* smells really good and I simply must remember to turn it down after I finish this to bake some more.

So Yesterday.....

I went to school and out to the remaining snow plow blade. All night long in my dreams I was painting it one way, but when you are really there, a 60 year old woman of size, but with killer abs-- you can simplify, simplify, simplify. So there is a random pattern of semi-straight bold stripes in school colors and the colors of the high school we feed into. Sound Christmassy? No, I am at heart a separation of church and state person and a lot of the others will be snowmen and Christmas trees, cute even. But I think my 4 ft golden cat's eyes will be looking at snow all winter and will not be so bothered by road chemicals, I even think the county is going to call school and say what is that amazing paint you guys used, it's better than what we use! All that and wallowing around on the ground on a spectacularly beautiful November day, finding out those abs can pull me right up under a snowplow, whoo hoo.
What have I done since? laundry, extreme napping and reading. I also elicited a very strange scream from my washing machine. I think I brought it's life to an end by thinking about what I would want when it dies of old age....grrr

Workout!

I did something in my workout last night that I didn't have a clue I could do. It was called a transfer crunch with the trainer standing on my toes and gently tossing me a medicine ball as I crunched. I expected to do 4 and melt into a shaking crying blob. I did three sets of 15, my arms hurt today, but the abs have not quite set in yet. I went to a friends house and sat on her very low sofa and chatted for close to an hour. When I tried to rise my quads bunched up in protest and I thought I was going to have to somersault myself off the couch. I did put on bio freeze and had no leg cramps. I guess I save the leg cramps for squat and lunge night and I missed that one sitting in a garage getting my brakes worked on. There were only two of us there last night so we got a lot of attention. And note to my sister in Omaha, no I can't do that deep squat you can do and I think I never will, but I am getting lower and lower as the months go by. And this whole paragraph is me wanting to say WOW! I can't believe I did it--birthing very large twins gave me a severe lack of muscle effectiveness in the abs and I bet they are a good 6 inches apart in there and need to be whip stitched back together, but last night, I was super strong and very proud of myself.

Painted a Snowplow Blade

I heard the temperature was dropping markedly today and the paint had arrived. I went out to do my simple strong design and left my students with another teacher. I had to call back in for student help and got a great helper. Crunching my 6ft long overweight body under a snow blade in the wind is quite something, I was having trouble taping my paper on it without another set of hands. S came out and saved the day for me. The whole thing was done in about 45 minutes and I was on time to my meeting. I was a mess, though, grass on my behind, paint on my hands, I got most of it off with thinner. If you ever find yourself in need of painting a snowplow blade on a county truck, One Time sign painter's paint really does go on in one coat and it covered really bright safety yellow just like that. Picture me sitting out in the grass, trying to pry the impossible lid off of a quart of thinner--couldn't do it, had to go in with dirty hands and get another teacher to open the can so I could get partially cleaned up. Today was also a day when two students pulled a fire alarm and we were outside during a good portion of the time I meant to be painting, but since the fire department actually had to come, I could not go back in and get my painting stuff and change my clothes. I didn't think I'd be able to finish before the 4p.m. committee meeting, but we did...

Lazy Day

Laundry, magazines, sleep t-shirt, lanolin on raggedy heels and dinner prepared by DH in his classic style. A couple of new books, a couple of phone conversations, a few new blogs to read, and a lot of songs sung by girls. I actually made a list of all girl singers and have had it on. That's it, that's all. Oh, and a couple of hours of thunder in the morning, even some that shook the windows.

UH OH Looks Like I Skipped a Day

Now the pressure is off. Good thing I didn't sign up for anything. Random thought: There needs to be a name for the effect Dr. Oz has on one's amazon purchases.

Unexpected YA YA

I drove DH to his glassblowing class and did a little shopping at the new Borders in the gigantic mall. WOW! No wonder they moved. I was shopping for baby books and got some really nice board books and a Baby Einstein CD to add to the bag of clothes I was giving as a gift. Pink is overwhelming when the sonograms say it's a girl. Not enough green and yellow. It took me way longer to get to the shower than I supposed, and I was lost, but only for one left turn. Not a record for me. The house was full of my girl cousins, their grown daughters, various fiances and boyfriends, good friends of the mommy-to-be, and about a dozen children from infant to 8th grade. Most of them looking like their uncles and aunts I had known as children.At least 4 generations of the father-to-be's women family members were there, too. All the third cousins were asking for H, where is he? I am pretty sure the windows would have blown out of that rocking, weeping, laughing house with the addition of one more toddler. A woman walked up the sidewalk and I realized it was a friend of Mom's and Sister's, the tears started, boy was I overwhelmed with missing them. How could Judy be coming up the walk without them trying to show that they were coming up the walk better and faster? I was shocked at my weepiness. It turned out I wasn't the only one this day who shed tears for our missing mothers. The only one not crying was Jessi, looking radiant, just like you hear about. Mandi said she cried for three days after she bought her wedding dress and got one that she swore she would never have, something princessey. She was wearing very high heels today and was taller than me. Her next older sister grabbed me and hung on tight crying because she had just lost another child cancer patient. She is one of those brave people who work in pediatric oncology, she says goodbye to one, and gets another one. I told her she was brave and I know from my sister-in-law that those nurses and doctors who care for the terminal child are so very important to those families.

Last Really Active Day

Today was my last full day with this grading period. We will have a half
day tomorrow with the morning dedicated to a Veteran's Day program. I
will meet with 3 of my 6 classes and they will finish up their work. I
had a boy greet me and tell me he was coming into my class next
week...HOORAY a ray of sunshine, an eager beaver. My exercise class was
cancelled and I got almost all of the rest of my grading done. I
haven't done 8th grade, though. So back to work.

We did have
a really valuable visit today from a very exciting new professor in
reading, she was lively and had lots to share, I found myself wanting
to take a class from her. Someone else said she is always like that and
her student teachers are awesome, I think that means well-prepared.

Tomorrow is the Last Day

It is the last day of this 6 week grading period and I will not be sad to see this entire group go on to their next rotation. All day I have kids on the bubble in math, and whatever puts them on the bubble seems to interfere with their development in art as well. I have been slogging for a week and a half, and I only have 6 weeks which isn't enough time, I should be running right up to the wire then letting them go, reluctantly.

Something woke me up at 2:30a.m. and I looked out into the light of the new dusk to dawn light to see the blue eyed dog trying to get into the shop. She was out when I left for work and a neighbor returned her a little later. I had been told that fences really mean nothing to Siberian huskies and this appears to be true.

Every Day

Six days in and I am already running out of words. This is the second time I have looked up at a blank page when all my typing has disappeared. What's up with that? I have written this twice and lost it. I must be hitting a magic button. I'll just say the lost writing was fabulous!

I Have A Crazy Outdoor Assignment

I pushed a button and it all disappeared. It is really a voluntary thing and the principal is funding the paint-- But we are painting county highway snow blades in a clever decorative manner as a bit of PR for schools and the highway department. The temperature has dropped a good 30* today and it will drop even more tomorrow. Just in time to paint outdoors! CRAZY. If you haven't looked in recent years, snowplows have radically changed the shapes of the blades. (I know some engineers changed them, they didn't change themselves. Would that be one of those elusive dangling participles I had so much trouble with in high school? I had a lot of danglers, but never quite got what they are without a definition at my side.)) They are a deep C and I will have to lie on the ground and roll paint on them as my knees do not go Indian fashion anymore-- Yikes. It isn't 3:58, it is 7:10p.m.

Just a Few

I am very timid in my explorations of computer stuff, so I have finally added just a couple more blogs to the side all by myself. No daughter around to remind me of the very very simple steps to do this. I am becoming more independent every day. Baby steps, I say, baby steps. Oh and a special note to my brother, the box is addressed. It can only be coming in less than a year now!

Extra Hour of Sleep

Hey, instead of waking up at 3a.m., I slept until 6:30, the old 7:30, later than I ever ever sleep! Must have been the excitement of seeing grandson on a backhoe, stomping the backhoe's front feet. (more likely the Tylenol P.M.) H may be arriving at the world's best children's museum as I type and DH is back on the backhoe having man fun. When I have a daughter in the house, one or the other of them will teach me a new trick on the computer that makes me a little more of a user each time. Now I actually have photos on my flickr account and connections to my kids so they can view the backhoe adventure.

how to

put in a link for So B It

Law daughter and grandson are over for the afternoon and night and she taught me how to make a link to, say, Amazon, for a book I might like to name. This is my first attempt to do that and then iwent into an old post and linked to a book and to the author. I think I have it now, it's so cool. So B It is a book I bought at our school's most recent bookfair, it is for teens and I really liked it. It seemed like a Sue Monk for teens. There, I did it again and my daughter is upstairs asleep with the toddler!

Adrenaline Rush

DH is in the backyard using a backhoe-- I hear a very loud explosion. I think it is a transformer and go out back half expecting to see DH blown to kingdom come and wondering how I was going to behave if it looked really bad. He was stopped, he thought he had hit a transformer, too, but the local U scored a touchdown, one of the few in the last 10 years and they traditionally fire a cannon... I still feel the effects of the adrenaline in my body so I had to fight or write.

In An Attempt to Participate in NoBlo

I am taking the mundane even further. I am on my third load of laundry this morning, and DH and I just returned recently from our traditional weekend breakfast. We got home and the wolf started howling for attention from her sugar daddy. DH is renting a backhoe today, he thinks it will be entertaining for the toddler, and maybe he will be filling in that HOLE in the yard, or picking up dog poop with it! At any rate, it will be a step up in entertainment from all the digging toys the farm store had in stock. Watch out Mommy, H may want to be a backhoe for Halloween next year! I know, sue me for injudicious use of exclamation points. . .and superfluous periods.

Home in Time for Oprah

Great haircuts today on Oprah for a good cause. It is a stunning day, I did some shopping for a friend on bed rest, that felt good. The toddler is coming over tomorrow, I am looking forward to that. He will get to see all the big machines working on our street and he is the perfect age to enjoy them. I bought a pomegranate and followed the directions and ended up eating the arials. I normally would call those seeds. I still have my appendix, so it may sprout, or they may sprout.

Seventh Grade is in the Groove

They are mellow, the top 20 (cleaned up for their ears) is playing quietly in the background and the bark paintings are wrapping up. We have our third just over half day in a row, but today the teachers get to leave at the same time as the kids.

No One Comes to See the Art Teacher Much

I have had only one blow by conference-- makes for a dull afternoon when I should be working in my room. I swore off handing out report cards after doing that for for 5 hours yesterday, as a kindness. All right, I'll go throw a few more things away. A kid least likely to be suspected of saying he enjoyed my class brought his group home manager to see what he is working on!! Hooray, he loves my class. I had no clue. In fact, I would have said the opposite.

NoBloPoMo

I will try it. I missed the hundred things in a hundred posts. I didn't know about that until 132.

Embarrassing teacher moment--family steps up to the table all decked out for
Halloween, they were picking up report cards and I was helping pass
them out. One boy had a very clever costume even including a partially
missing arm, it looked pretty realistic, I was impressed. I said "WOW!
What a great costume! Where's your real arm?" I was sure I could see it
beneath his baggy sweatshirt. He wiggled the stump of his truly missing
arm at me and laughed. To make matters worse I once again said "Wow!
That works out really great for Halloween." "Yes." he replied, I get to
be darth ......who got his arm cut off." The only thing I can say is he
had a really good spirit about it and seemed to take my stumbling
stupidity rather well. Or maybe he actually enjoyed my thinking it was
a fake arm.........was my face red.