Sweet little guy

Last weekend we had the pleasure of babysitting our 4 month old nephew, Charles. As soon as he woke up, Kyla and I were ready with a photo shoot! Here are my favorite shots....

100th post

Here I was all set to blog about some other thing when I logged on, and then I have to go and notice that this is my 100th post!! So, what in the world can I do to celebrate? Go and eat 100 chocolate chip cookies? If I had any chocolate chips in the house, I would certainly consider it!! Instead I think I will name 100 people I love..... if you are on the list I would love a comment from you, and if not maybe you can comment and tell me what a bad friend I am!! (Of course, these are in no particular order... except for my #1!)

1. Mark
2. Mason
3. Kyla
4. My mom
5. My dad
6. Cheryl
7. Dave
8. Alyssa
9. Alivia
10. Maddie
11. Michelle C.
12. Michelle D.
13. Danette
14. Gina
15. Karen K.
16. Ann
17. John
18. Liz
19. Charles
20. My grandma Millie
21. Aunt Ronie
22. Joanna
23. Steph
24. Anne
25. Lori
26. Shari
27. Karen T.
28. Kristin
29. Shelley
30. Marie
31. CJ
32. Jenny
33. Susie
34. Jim
35. Kristy
36. Blue
37. Kody
38. Ryder
39. Jace
40. DJ
41. Raquel
42. Aunt Kathy
43. Uncle Kevin
44. Uncle Bill
45. Uncle Louie
46. Dennis
47. D3
48. Blair
49. Jessica
50. John K.
51. Rick
52. Greg
53. Eric
54. Terri
55. Karen M.
56. Trevor
57. Taylor
58. Alison C.
59. Ryan
60. Alison K.
61. Grace
62. Jill
63. Dolores
64. Nancy T.
65. Aunt Toni
66. Johnny
67. Katie
68. Bob
69. Aunt Pat
70. Ron
71. Lanore
72. Shay
73. Julie
74. Melissa
75. Shelly
76. Linda
77. Uncle Blue
78. Ronnie
79. Bridgid
80. Bryleigh
81. Carson
82. Colby
83. Cyrie
84. Emma
85. Ethan
86. Galilea
87. Jasa
88. Kamden
89. Kevin
90. Kyler
91. Maddie
92. Madison
93. MaKenzie
94. Marcus
95. Mariela
96. Riley
97. Sawyer
98. Savannah
99. Tommy
100. Colin Firth

Numbers 79-99 are the special souls who fill each of my Monday-Fridays with activity, fun and learning!!

And if by some MIRACLE I get more than 10 comments, I will send out fun presents to a lucky comment leaver!!

Just a little update...

The "running" which is still mostly walking.... is coming along. I skipped on Thursday, but was just too drained to attempt it.

I scrapped a page today... and am hoping to work on my class' memory books tomorrow... maybe not, though, report cards are coming up and I have lots to do to prepare for that.

Got to babysit my nephew, Charles, tonight... took a few pics and will post them as soon as they are developed.

Kids are growing up too fast, but can't post about it here as they would die of embarrassment and never forgive me......

House still for sale...

Doesn't the new kitchen counter in our "old" house look nice!! Wish we would have made all the changes while we lived in it!

So, offers anyone?

Tired, oh so tired....

Have been sticking to my training routine so far for the race.

The waist high mob (as I AFFECTIONATELY call my class) has been wild and crazy.... it must be the wind... it is carrying a hint of spring fever.

Spend too much time looking at magazines planning to scrapbook without completing anything.

Have been praying lots for my husband's stepmom who is dying of cancer and won't let anyone contact her. Also for his dad and the pain he must be suffering.

Have been having lots of arguments with Kyla.... the teenage years are here.

Need a vacation soon....

Sweet and Sassy

Yesterday I also did a little scrapping... here's a layout I made with Kyla and some of those flowers I painted. Doesn't she just crack you up?!?

October 21

I checked it out online, and the race (not that I will be racing, of course!) is on October 21. I ran yesterday.... and again today. As of now I am only able to run for about a mile out of 4, but it's only the first week of my training, so I am OK with that. I know I am pretty out of shape aerobically as I only workout regularly on the weekends and 2 days out of 7 is not enough to keep your heart in shape. But this goal feels so good to me.... and tomorrow is my rest day!! Yay!

The real test will be on Tuesday when I have taught all day and need to come home and run. I will be stopping off to buy new shoes that day as my current running shoes are 10 years old! Of course, they haven't been used for much running in the last 10 years, but I definitely need new ones... and some of those nifty socks that keep your feet from getting chafed. Hopefully the new socks and shoes will inspire me! LOL!

A goal....

So this morning as I was bopping around doing a lot of nothing.... looking at magazines, sponge painting flowers in every color of the rainbow just because I felt like it, walking on the treadmill, watching TV.......

This thought hit me.... and I do mean "hit" literally, because it came with a force few thoughts ever have..... I am going to run a half marathon. In September.

So I went to Google and printed up a little training schedule.

This decision has made me feel full of purpose, and as FULLNESS is my word for the year, I am feeling happy.... very happy.

I spend so much time berating the state of my almost 40 year old body.... It's time for this to end. If I don't like it, I will change it.

Now, off to do a little running (but mostly walking since I am so out of shape! LOL!).

On Sunday....

Kyla and I took Pepper and went to the beach to get some sand for my classroom. One of the things I keep promising myself to do more often is to go to the beach . There is just something so magical about the ocean. It is so soothing to walk along listening to the waves, feeling the wind in your hair and the sand under your feet. Of course going anywhere with Pepper is the opposite of soothing. He pulls so hard on the leash he chokes himself. The choking causes him to stop and cough about every 10 feet. Also, he goes crazy every time he sees another dog, so we have to pick him up and carry him. Being that it was a fairly nice day (50 degrees with cloud cover and only a little wind) the beach was a pretty busy place. Dogs were running wild everywhere. Kyla, of course, flips out wherever Pepper is concerned. She is sure he's going to get off his leash or pull the leash out of my hand or get attacked by a dog or be hit by a mini-meteorite!! There is just no rationalizing with her. She runs completely on FEELING.... and she just loves that little stinker so much that she gets herself all freaked out! Needless to say, the beach was not soothing or magical. It was downright horrid. So after about 15 minutes we were on our way home.

Stopped off at Woodley Island Marina to finish off the roll of film. I made Kyla walk out onto a little dock thing so she was in front of Carson Mansion. She has always loved that building and it really puts her out that it is a private club and she cannot go there. While there she was sure one of us or Pepper was going to fall into the bay. Ack!

Hopefully next time we will have more luck.

A boy

There is this boy who lives in my house. He is slowly metamorphising into a man. He has hairy man legs and a deep voice. He is the tallest member of our family. But he also comes and asks me for hugs about once a week. He does not know how to put gas in the car. He generally doesn't know where he is in his new hometown. He works out everyday, but he doesn't consistently do his homework. He is getting a C in Spanish and a D in Algebra. Today he didn't walk to my classroom after school as he was supposed to. I returned to an empty classroom after my staff meeting. I cleaned up around my room and checked my voicemail. Nothing. About 15 minutes later he called and said he was "somewhere" and would call me when he was ready to go. Does he not understand what kind of fear that puts into a mother's heart? I need to know exactly where "somewhere" is... I need to have a timeline for when he will be done, and he MUST be on time. For the next 4 years, our survival depends on these boundaries.

It's going to be a long road. Wish me luck.

Would you, Could you, in a car?

Well, tomorrow is Dr. Seuss' birthday, so in the world of Kindergarten we have been rhyming our little hearts out this week. Today I was doing a listening game with my class, and I said, "Say 'tam'"(because that's what the book said to say)..... "tam"..... "Whisper to your neighbor something that rhymes with 'tam'"..... and all I heard was lamb and jam and clam and Sam..... What a good little class I have!

Tomorrow we will be eating Green Eggs and Ham. We will make a graph of whether we like it or not, then we will write about it in these little "Cat in the Hat" journals that look like red and white striped hats. What a lovely day it will be.... I hope it isn't raining!!

The neighbor strikes again!

So on Valentine's Day, the dreaded neighbor from across the street came and paid Mark a visit... (if you look back to November 3, you can read the first part of this story). He was complaining again about how our dog's barking disturbs him. He admitted that we limit Pepper's time outside to 15 minutes about 3 times per day, yet even that small amount of barking was driving him crazy......

So, my sweet husband who is light years ahead of me in neighborly instinct.... went to the pet store to weigh our options. He considered a shock collar, wherein we would have to shock our baby each time her barked. Then he considered some new do-hickey that squirts the dog in the nose when he barks (too expensive). Finally he settled on this classic nylon muzzle.

When I arrived home from school that day I was shocked to see my sweet puppy obviously agitated by this foreign contraption. But regardless of my feelings on the topic, each time that I put him outside I attach the contraption to his head. He is still able to bark with it on... it just kind of limits his range of motion therein keeping his bark at a lower pitch.... you know, less yappy. You can also see from the photo that he can get his prodigiously long tongue out of it. The neighbor has conceded that he can live with this new arrangement. I am debating on whether I should put this picture in his mailbox with "Are you happy now?" scribbled on the back.

What do you think?

Home

Our whole family went to Angel's Camp to our little condo for the week. It was soooo nice to be there. I am not sure what I should call that place... I guess the closest I can come to reality would be "our second home". We had great times visiting friends in Tuolumne County and productive times working on the "old house" which we are still trying to sell. On Tuesday I sat at the table and felt my world expanding beyond it's narrow range in the company of many dear friends and lively conversation. On Thursday I went to Columbia Elementary and spent the day popping in on eveyone's lunch hour and later into their classrooms... I felt like I smiled for the whole 3 hours I was there. It just felt so free-ing to be among trusted friends again. I miss that school so much and pray that I will find that connectedness at my new job. I am giving it time and prayers, and I guess I should throw in a little more effort too.

But going back to my "word" for the year.... remember it was "FULLNESS".....

This trip really helped to re-fill my soul.

So thanks to Joanna and Rick and Steph and Greg and Lori and Anne and Maryanne and Kristin and Shelley and Robin and Laurie and Don and John and Karen and Karen and Terri and Cherub and Michelle and Carol and Natalie and Stacy and Suzanne and Scott and Liz and Sharon and Julie and Lisa for the light you brought into my heart during a stormy week.

Of course, being present in the moment, I didn't take a picture all week....

Inspiration

Anna Quindlen : ...but the biggest mistake I made is the one that most of us make while doing this. I did not live in the moment enough. This is particularly clear now that the moment is gone, captured only in photographs. There is one picture of the three on them sitting in the grass on a quilt in the shadow of the swing set on a summer day, ages 6, 4, and 1. And I wish I could remember what we ate, and what we talked about, and how they sounded, and how they looked when they slept that night. I wish I had not been in a hurry to get on to the next things: dinner, bath, book, bed. I wish I had treasured the doing a little more and the getting it done a little less.


Pablo Casals : Each second we live is a new and unique moment of the universe, a moment that will never be again And what do we teach our children? We teach them that two and two make four, and that Paris is the capital of France. When will we also teach them what they are? We should say to each of them: Do you know what you are? You are a marvel. You are unique. In all the years that have passed, there has never been another child like you. Your legs, your arms, your clever fingers, the way you move. You may become a Shakespeare, a Michaelangelo, a Beethoven. You have the capacity for anything. Yes, you are a marvel. And when you grow up, can you then harm another who is, like you, a marvel? You must work, we must all work, to make the world worthy of its children.


Mother Teresa : It is easy to love the people far away. It is not always easy to love those close to us. It is easier to give a cup of rice to relieve hunger than to relieve the loneliness and pain of someone unloved in our own home. Bring love into your home for this is where our love for each other must start.

Contentment

is settling in to me again. The last few weeks I have been suffering from malcontent. Just a sense of my life being out of kilter.... feeling flat..... sloth like.

This week that feeling has been floating away. I feel more free.... less overwhelmed... more hopeful.....

This cycle of emotion is one I am bothered by. I wonder if the way I feel is "normal". Is it depression? Is it hormonal? Is it just LIFE?

Sometimes I feel such a dichotomy inside myself....

I want to whine and snap and complain, yet still be considered "nice"
I want to cry and lean, yet still be considered "strong"
I want to be alone and isolated, yet not feel "lonely"

Luckily, (or unfortunately, depending on how you look at it) this snappy, crying, isolated ME only comes around at home. Mason says I have a split personality... I seem like a completely different person at work vs. home.

I try to be the best ME I can be all the time, but sometimes there's just not enough oxygen, not enough energy.

And then I wonder who the real ME really is.... If I were a character in "Shallow Hal" would I be seen by Hal as a gorgeous, thin beauty or a wrinkled up old witch?

Then I remind myself that I have been created with the potential for good or bad inside myself and I need to rejoice and strengthen the good and accept and work through the bad. I am a work in progress, and I am LOVED just the way I am.

No Words

My Valentine

I guess we're going on 20 Valentine's Days now, and I can truly say I love him more every year. It's not because of his expert shopping skills.... This year I asked him to think of a way to show me how much he loves me and he bought me a watch. He said I am always running late and needed to be more aware of the time....

but deep down he really wanted to buy me the ULTRA expensive camera I've been pining away for... we just can't afford it right now. The TAX man came knocking on our door today (before Valentine shopping) and we owe money to the fed and state.... we are officially rich now, so we have moved up into yet another higher tax bracket. (I keep wondering if we are so rich, why can't I afford to buy myself a new pair of jeans without using credit? But that's off the topic)

Back to my valentine.....

Here are a few reasons why I love you on this night....

1. You spent the day helping your mom run errands even though you didn't really want to.
2. You are distressed that you didn't have time to vacuum the carpet.
3. When I heard you and Mason laughing out loud at a movie it made my heart do a little flip-flop.
4. You finished all the pages in our little "Just the 2 of Us" scrapbook.
5. You are a kind neighbor.
6. You are working hard to get into shape.
7. You are smart.
8. You work really hard and are dedicated to your job.
9. You are taking me to Sonora next week so I can see my friends.
10. When you breathe on the back of my neck I still get goosebumps.
11. You know just what to say to make me laugh.
12. When I am cranky and whiny you love me anyway.
13. You cuddle me every night when you are asleep.
14. You said "Thank you for a nice dinner" even though you didn't really like it and had to drench everything in Ranch dressing.
15. You washed my car today even though it is raining.
16. You are getting little crinkles around your eyes, and they look great on you.
17. You know me better than anyone, and you still like me.
18. You always ask how my day was.
19. I miss you when we are apart.
20. I can always count on you... you are my rock.

The 101st Day of School

The 100th day of school is a HUGE deal in the Kindergarten world. There are celebrations and activities galore. Our 100 day was yesterday....... I had so much to do it carried over into today. Here is a list of our 100th day doings:

Days 98 & 99-
Counted and ate 100 Cheerios (or took them home in a ziploc)
Made 100 day crowns with 10 strips of paper and 10 stickers on each strip
Wrote and illustrated "I could eat 100 _____"
Made a class book with 5 stars on each page..... ( actually came to 105, but in a regular class of 20, it would have been 100 stars)
Students counted and brought collections of 100 items to school


Day 100-
Read all time best 100 day book: Miss Bindergarten Celebrates the 100th day of Kindergarten
Made adorable paper crafted portraits of our 100 year old faces and dictated the sentence "When I am 100 I will ...."
Made a snack of 100 items (10 each of 10 items)
Made a necklace with 100 fruit loops on it
Found 100 Hershey kisses hidden around our classroom with numbers written on the bottom and placed them on a 1-100 chart

Day 101- (held over due to wild and crazy behavior on day 100)
Counted 100 cookies shaped into a snake and ate 1 cookie each
Played with 100 balloons.

And, an activity I planned for today: wrote a pseudo paragraph about the 100th day of school....
consisting of the following.....
Completed this sentence: The 100th day of school was _______.
Then illustrated a series of 3 activities in boxes with these words under them.... First, we _____. Then, we _______. Finally, we ________. (Adults wrote for most kids here, a few did own writing.)
Completed this sentence: It was a ______ day.


Here is my paragraph:

The 100th day of school was rainy. First, we ate too much sugar. Then, we all lost control of our senses. Finally, we almost made the librarian cry and gave our teacher a headache. It was a poorly planned day.

Note to self: limit sugar intake on 1st rainy day in weeks!!!!

Oh, and just so you know, next week looks like this: Monday-birthday, Tuesday- field trip, Wednesday- Valentine's Day, Thursday- birthday. I hope I survive!!

I Can't Believe it!!

I've been germed!!

Unfortunately, one of the 32 times sneezes that has been aimed my way in the last week, succeeded, and I am officially sick. I spent the day hyped up on DayQuil, and I still think I had a fever. It was not a picnic. Tomorrow I have to have all of the teachers in the school in my room for a staff meeting, so my room MUST look nice, but I left work at 3:15 without doing any extra cleaning and came home to take a nap. I did this so I will have the energy to watch 24 tonight. A GIRL HAS TO HAVE PRIORITIES, YOU KNOW! I will just put all the clutter that's on my desk into the closet. No one will ever have to know!

Oh Happy Day!!!!

Today when I opened my email I was greeted with the most luscious news........


THE NEW HARRY POTTER BOOK IS BEING RELEASED ON JULY 21!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I am quite crazy about these stories and have been lurking around various wizarding sites for months trying to get a snippet of information, but now I have it! From Borders (where I just preordered my copy) and JK Rowling's site as well!

Oh Happy Day!!!

Now I just need to make sure I am not disturbed for about 48 hours beginning on July 21 at 1:00 am, and I will finally know how the story ends!