Happy New Year

I had a great day today - went to visit at Lynne's. We intended to go to the Thrift shop together but ALAS, it is not open on Wednesday. We tripped to WalMart and got fabric for a book shelf hider. I sewed while Lynne showed me the wonderful old clothes she inherited in an old family trunk. She is pretty clever, so I'm sure she'll come up with a way to display at least one outfit. After lunch out I headed home and have been catching up on the email since. Dan and I have a Scrabble tournament planned for later. (I know, I know, it's New Year's Eve - but neither of us can drink, so an evening at home sounds ok to us!)
I hope you all come up with good resolutions that will enrich 2009!

the day after

I spent the day undoing Christmas - took the tree down, repainted part of the wall behind where the tree was, cleaned the kitchen, took the leaves out of the table and killed my computer. I got a nifty gift - an IPod Shuffle and in the process of getting it going, did something to my school laptop. I'm in big trouble!!! The shuffle works great, but I cannot add anything to it because my old IMac has too old of software on it and so does my Millenium.
The party was fun, though and it was great to see everyone, even if the house was very crowded. Thanks for coming, everyone! Let's start to see those blogs appear, now.

Soooo Lazy!

I am getting so bad about work lately! Two weeks ago I only worked 2 days (the week Dallas was born) and last week I only worked two days (I spent almost two days in Ames then came home to a snow day) and this week there is only supposed to be two days - and we went in this morning two hours late. I could get used to this. Is this what retirement is like? Trouble is, I'm not getting the things at home done. I still haven't wrapped any presents - maybe I'll do that sometime soon:) I baked a little yesterday afternoon but wasn't real happy with the results - I hope family will eat it anyway! They're talking snow again - and it could blow so who knows what tomorrow will bring?

Very exciting week

I promised MY pictures, here they are. The first one was taken Saturday night as we were at Ames to go to Robert's concert at church. Not a great shot of Emily, but a great first picture of Dallas! After our call to come back to Ames on Sunday I discovered I had no battery power in my camera, so Robert got me some batteries after they came home from the hospital on Tuesday. These pictures are from Tuesday, I think. I really enjoyed being a helper for a few days and staying with Emily. I got to take her to the hospital to meet little Dallas. I am looking forward to going again this next week, if they still need me. I am feeling very blessed to have two such wonderful grandkids!

Thanksgiving weekend

This has been a busy weekend! Especially since the weekend started Wednesday night. I came home from school to prepare my dish for sharing at our Thanksgiving dinner. We didn't have choir practice. I had laundry to do as well. Thursday we left town for my sister's for dinner. It was a very enjoyable time. Good food, good company and good fun. The fun included playing Farkle. Do you take risks or not? Dan is good at this game and Chelsey takes risks! Friday I braved Walmart at about 9:30 because I had already accomplished the sewing tasks on my list - the dog coat, mending Greg's jeans, fixing a hat and sewing on Boy Scout badges (I have been doing this for one scout through all his badges and he made Eagle Scout this year). I had to wait a while in fabric, but got some flannel for all the babies who will need quilt gifts this year - I think I counted 8! Our school is having a population spurt. I got fabric for the shutter inserts in the kitchen - an apple print. Thought it might me too much, but I really like it.
I also got paint for the living room. Friday night and Saturday I painted. Now everything is put where it belongs. It is a different look for sure. Dan helped me hang shelves. I am ready for the tree, but will wait a week. Not sure where to put it.
Today after church I want to spend in the studio. I have several things in mind, and want to get the embroidery machines humming on those quilts. We should be able to wear our new choir robes today for the first time. Means it doesn't matter what I wear to church! I have dinner in the crock pot and am ready to go!
Oh, for those who have been waiting, I didn't get pictures last weekend. I had unplugged my camera charger when I painted in the kitchen and it doesn't hold a charge very well any more. I had some great opportunities, but no pictures.
Oh yeah again, it snowed overnight - things are white here.

odds and ends

I keep finding out you're never too old to learn something. It is end of the trimester, so I'm working on updating all the graphs for every goal in each child's iep. I keep the data up to date but don't graph every week, so this is a bigger project than it should be. Report cards go out next week and they are simpler now since we have a building information system, they will be printed in the office. Today as I trudged through stuff, I picked up a couple of things I wish I had known a while back. If I can remember them, they'll be great time savers!
Tomorrow is a work day, and flu shot day. I have many things to get done, more lessons to plan and materials to find/make. I have been working about half a day on Saturdays, but since this Saturday is Dan's birthday, I'm going to try to be efficient and stay at home. He doesn't much eat cake, but some cookies would disappear quickly if I made them, I bet.
Working on some Christmas presents as well and some more unique sewing requests, this week a dog sweater for Chelsey's mom's dog and last week a tree stand cushion. There's always a challenge waiting around the bend.
Last I have a prayer request for all of you. My friend Christy is due to give birth in February but is home on bed rest because of premature labor. They want this baby so badly, please pray for her and her family.

Busy Week

This week is fall parent teacher conferences. The schedule is different from previous years. Traditionally we teach most of a day on Wednesday and have conferences from 4:00 to 8:00, teach a half day on Thursday and have conferences 4:00 to 8:00 and have conferences for half a day on Friday. This year we are teaching a half day on Thursday (kids leave at 12:00) and we will start conferences at 1:00, go straight through to 8:00 and have conferences on Friday from 8:00 to 11:00. It amounts to 30 conference slots, but cuts very popular night time slots in half. Lots of our classrooms have 26-27 children so there isn't much down time. I have only 13 conferences to make.
We are still working out kinks in the schedule. Our all inclusion plan isn't meeting kids' needs very well. I have felt more like an associate than a co teacher in many of my classrooms. I guess if they want to pay me my salary to do grunt work, I should be happy? We have another meeting with our principal this afternoon.
Enjoy this fall weather, winter is right around the corner!

Staying with Emily

We babysat for Emily yesterday so Mom and Dad and Grandpa Dallas could go to the game. We found out that Emily is quite a singer - America's Got Talent, here we come!

This and That

Today is a catch up day. I did some clean up at school - put things I never use in a storage closet and organized what I want out so I know just where to look. This all started because I am looking or a particular material I want to use for spelling. I can't find it anywhere and thought I had loaned it but no one seems to have it anywhere. I wish my rememberer was better - then I could reproduce it from my head. I'm not even sure of the name of it which doesn't help others look for it.
I finally can say I know my students pretty well and all the students in most of the classes now have names even if they change seats! A few still trick me up.
Found out that I need to make another baby quilt, one of the teachers I co-teach with is having a baby at the end of the year.
I have to make apple salad for last Sunday lunch tomorrow. The choir is going to get the proceeds of the luncheon for choir robe fund. I think I will make one up. I bought mandarin oranges, bananas, pineapple and apples. I have to make enough for 30 people - so I'm guessing on numbers of ingredients.
I finally am over my "cold" . Maybe it will be the only one this year?
I'm looking forward to babysitting for Em next weekend for the Iowa State/Kansas State game. I have been working on a really cute item for her from Christmas in my spare time but am waiting for supplies.
I'll try not to wait so long before the next entry -

Oh Wow! A whole month since I posted. I'll blame it on the back to school stuff. Let's see, in August I ... went shopping with my sister; sewed a bunch of things, worked on two baby quilts, one nearly finished today, also some Christmas gifts; school started, so I spent lots of extra time there; went to some parties; set up and ran a choir get together where we picked new robes; measured a bunch of people for those robes.
Dan and Ted have been working on the house. A new deck is in the works for the back door. Painting is nearly done outside, not started yet inside. We dug a hole which seemed to go on forever and ever. The back tree got trimmed and hauled away.
I've discovered some software for sewing that wouldn't run on the Mac but does on my PC so I've been making patterns - we'll see if Christmas presents evolve from that.
I ordered a new sewing machine/embroidery machine with my band $ with a bigger embroidery field. It should arrive by the end of the week. I nearly wore the little one out the last two days working on that baby quilt! I will do some pictures as soon as I charge the camera.

Emily's birthday

Em serves tea from her new tea set.
Emily likes to wear the size sticker from one of her new shirts.

Uncle Greg gets a hug where you can see Em.
Uncle Greg gets a hug from Em.
Uncle Greg building with Emily's new Lincoln Logs.


Emily and friends painting the driveway.
Lynne gave Em her old baby bed and one of her dollies. It was quite a hit.

Lazy Summer Time

It seems like summer has fully struck, it's hot, it's humid and nothing is getting done! I have been reading a lot. I am deep into a series of Christian novels about the Norwegians in North Dakota - written by Lauraine Snelling. I keep saying I'm not reading the next one because they make me cry. I've been sewing a lot - mostly baby items and table runners. I have pieced several table runners but have not backed or quilted them yet as I might need a trip to a "real" fabric store.

Our band concert got rained out Thursday night - who knew it was going to rain? We got several numbers in before we gave up. The audience didn't want to stay in the rain either. As it started to sprinkle and people started to move toward cars, a lady slipped or tripped on the square and we delayed while calls to 911 were made and the ambulance came. She was right next to the bandstand and hit her head hard when she fell. Hopefully she is fine.

Dan and I were working out in the yard today, using the hose and broke the faucet. This pipe actually had a shutoff valve, but too corroded to turn. The guys are in the basement right now trying to install a new one or cap the pipe so we can turn the water back on. The joys of an older house!

More on Emily at the zoo

We were very pleased to babysit for Emily this past weekend while her parents went to a wedding. We had not stayed overnight with her before so planned a trip to the Des Moines zoo (Blank Park Zoo) as a distraction. Emily walked nearly everywhere even though we had a stroller along. She knew most of the animals we saw. We saw monkeys, elephants, seals, tigers, lions, birds, airplanes, a train (rode on it), camels, cows, giraffe and zebra to name a few. We thought 3 hours was probably enough but didn't do the whole zoo. She was a delight, even entertained others with her marching and dancing. I hope her folks want to go away again soon!

More Em at the zoo

Dan and Emily feeding koi fish. I was afraid she'd fall in, Dan had a good grip on her. At first she wanted to drop in one pellet at at time. This was how we got her to quit sliding at the playground.

Emily at the zoo 7-12-08

Here is Emily looking at the zebra. Although she knew names for many animals, she seemed to like this one the most. This is my first time posting pictures, I don't have it quite down yet, so will try again with more photos.

Half Done

Summer school is officially half over. A lot of kids were absent today, I wonder if they are getting tired of working hard?
The past two afternoons I have been chief babysitter for a friend's baby while she took some computer classes. The baby is 2 months old. Yesterday I thought she cried for a long time (must have been 5 minutes or so) but today I couldn't comfort her and the cry was off and on all afternoon. Maybe a tummyache? She still was fun. Tomorrow afternoon I need to work on some of my stuff, though.
The weather has been much improved this week, hasn't it? I'd like temperatures just like this until August. The South Skunk is still very high but beginning to fall.

A nice day

Finally, a nice pleasant temperatured day. It didn't rain today. I don't know why I am complaining, so many people are suffering right now. I can't imagine what it is like to be in Cedar Rapids, for instance and I saw on the news that ALL bridges in Cedar County are closed?
One week of summer school is done and not a moment too soon. You can tell in about five minutes why these kids were invited to attend. I don't know if anything I did all week made a difference, whether anyone heard a word I said.
I will get to visit (and receive services from) Chelsey's new place of business tomorrow. I am looking forward to seeing it. I think she is excited.
I had a very nice birthday with lunch with friends and a nice surprise from Laura! Makes getting older easier to take!

extra time

I'm finding myself with some extra time today. Just as I finished washing my hair this morning at 5:15 or so, the town sirens went off. You never know if that means severe thunderstorm or tornado but after last week in Parkersburg I woke Dan and we went to the basement. After the storm passed I finished getting ready and got a call that school would be delayed an hour because of power outages. Obviously, we still have power.
Last week's storms caused a lot of tree damage just one block south of us. One of the teachers at school lives there and lost a BIG tree and had roof damage. All we had were twigs in the yard!
Today will be first day back for my friend and co worker who recently had a baby. She has to do the last three days of school or take them without pay, which she couldn't do. The substitute and I just finished reading Charlotte's Web so I have planned to watch the movie version today. Monday is "fun day" when the PTO rents and brings in inflatables. With an adapted schedule and two hours of play time, there isn't much for me to do that day. Tuesday is a half day.
I just got another call, now we're two hours delayed, so I'm going to sew for a while!

Great Weekend

What a wonderful weekend everyone is having! Laura's family is supposed to be celebrating her birthday in Omaha. Happy Birthday, Laura! I'd tell you how old she is, but then you'd know how old I am! Greg and Chelsey are camping and we're (read mostly Dan is) checking on the dogs. I am going to pick up Dan's mom in about an hour and we are going to a baby shower for my newest grand niece in North English. I might try to sneak a stop in WIlliamsburg in, we'll see how tired everyone is.
Last night we had our first fire in our backyard fire pit. Didn't really need a fire, but had to try it out! I am looking forward to many pleasant nights out there this summer. The best part of camping, and I get to sleep in my own bed!

We're planning to go to niece Ashley's graduation on Saturday in Dubuque. We are going Friday night to stay over, perhaps take in a movie or something as we won't have to get up early if we're already there. I can't believe she's graduating already. Next it will be Caitlyn and Ben! I've not gotten the chance to see all of Lynne's pictures of Italy yet, but saw her a week ago after she ran her 5K. She wasn't even breathing that hard! Sounds as if everyone had a great time at Tulip Time. School continues to wind down, lots of field trips messing up my schedule. The boss is supposed to come observe me teaching my math group this afternoon and tomorrow with a fire drill right in the middle of tomorrow's lesson. My evaluation never bothers me too much, but I would like to look like I know what I'm doing!

Counting down

I try not to do this, but something about this year and this time of year has made me count how many days of school are left. I usually love my job, and want to be here, but... there are 11 days of bus duty left, 10 more days of teaching the before and after school reading program, about 29 days of actual school and tons of reports and meetings left.

Yesterday afternoon at a meeting with the fourth grade teachers, we talked about the mandated changes for next year. No one sounded very postitive - that will make the job go easier, huh? I guess we feel as if we weren't let in on the planning stage to give our ideas and now we're stuck. Our administrator has been having his own problems, I guess. He was to observe me teaching on Monday. I was introducing a new theme in reading and a new story and had really planned some good activities to grab the student's attention and get them motivated. 45 minutes of my lesson had gone on before he came in. He apologized over and over, but what do you say? So, he came to observe me in another class - I was basically doing the same kinds of things, but had chosen the first class for him to observe because of the way the kids react - oh, well, I know he's not going to fire me!

And, it's raining again!

Can't wait

I can't wait to get home today! There should be a telescope on my porch. You know we save Coke reward points and after saving a long time decided to redeem them for a telescope. The neighbors are safe no more!! No, we really are both interested in space and planets and stars and now we will be waiting for clear nights so we can go out in the country a bit away from "city" lights so we can use the new toy.
Parent conferences are next week - lots of paper work still to do, but I still have my after school reading group to work with today, then it will be 5:00 and the inclination will be gone! I was here by 6:00 this morning, so maybe I've done my part today!

April Fool's

I hope everyone survived the jokes and tricks from yesterday. I did not have one student tell me there was a spider on me, or my shoe was untied! Behavior was bizarre though, for some odd reason. There were playground fights, one student used the playground for a bathroom, several ran away. Really strange and no one can figure the reason.
Monday I went on a field trip with my two fourth grades to the Science Center of Iowa. One of the teachers gets carsick so had to be in the front of the bus. The other is to give birth in two weeks, so she rode in the front of the bus, leaving me to be the heavy from the back of the bus. Parent chaperones often don't tell people to sit down and be quiet! In all, it was a good trip. The kids behaved well, the IMAX movie was spectacular (we saw Roving Mars) and all the exhibits worked. That is not always true. The only down was that we couldn't be on TV for the noon weather, the weather people stayed in the studio because of fronts pushing across the state.
As we start to count down the days left to go to school, we are looking at next year's calendar. Seems like we usually pick a calendar earlier - but there are some interesting choices - we usually have parent conferences in the spring 3 half days, but looks like they are changing that to 2 half days. That says to me we aren't going to see all the parents, maybe invitation only? It will be interesting!

Happy Easter

After church today we made the trip to my little sister's home. Its a long trip but it was so nice to see family and catch up with them a little. AND we had great food. It was interesting to drive through blinding snow and come out in a mile to sunshine. Is there such a thing a snowbow? School starts up again tomorrow and I have to say though I enjoyed the time off, I missed the kids!

vacation is coming!

Two more days until spring break! When the new trimester started at the beginning of the month our district decided to try something new instead of making up all the snow days in June. Each day we start 10 minutes earlier and then stay 15 minutes longer in the afternoon. If we diligently follow this policy, we will make up 4 snow days. It has taken some adjustment but seems to be working. Three days a week I am teaching or responsible for kids from 7:10 to 5:00.
I have a few things lined up for break, but not much. I'm supposed to give blood on Monday and we have a band concert at Penn. Thursday night church. Anybody need anything done in between?

Snow day number 9

I had a day off again yesterday. It really is icy out on the county roads. Today buses are running where possible. Whatever that means. I didn't get a whole lot done, my favorite sewing machine is sick. I cleaned up construction messes (again) and tried to do laundry. Just as I was starting the second load the guys came and turned off the water. I now have running water with pressure at all sinks. Even hot! My downstairs bathroom is fully functional even if it is not fully decorated. With Greg's help we will work on putting the wall back.
The excitement of the day so far? Dan was parked behind me in the driveway but couldn't back up because of the ice. Which of course meant I couldn't back up either. A few minutes of ice melt under the tires took care of it.

Weather

Do you think it's true, all everyone talks about is the weather? We had three more snow days this week. Sure hard to get consistent learning when you never have school. I guess when the transportation director goes out in a four wheel drive vehicle and gets big time stuck, he figures the buses will have trouble. We don't have a policy of running buses just some locations, so when we can't run everywhere, we don't have school.
I have lots of home projects completed or nearly so, though. The half bath is painted (mostly) the trim is painted but not installed because we didn't have any nails so all I have left is touch up work. I mounted the mirror. I want to shop for an over the toilet shelving unit and some towel rings, but that has to wait for a trip to the city and payday. I cleaned up the studio again (never ends because I sew messy) and even went through my drawers of colors and sorted small scraps from larger and organized. I pieced some quilt blocks in rail fence pattern for a scrappy wall hanging. I have taken down the wall of photos in the living room and have hung wall quilts there. When I repaint this summer I think I'll have a quilt rack mounted there so it is easier. I'm thinking of those clip type racks?
On Sunday we should get the rest of the new water pipes run. Most of the basement work is in place, just not hooked up. Then will come wall repair. Hopefully this will get done on time so when the next storm hits on Monday I can spend the next snow day cleaning up and it will stay cleaned up!

Work week is done!

Another week finished! This week I have been reading Iowa Tests of Basic Skills to my special needs kids. Remember when you took these tests? We will read all next week as well. 9 of my students need this accommodation and so I read to each of three groups of three one hour a day.
This week we had school every day regular hours compared to working only Tuesday morning and Friday the week before.

I hope everyone had a great Valentine's Day - mine was quiet. I worked at cutting a big hole in the kitchen wall so the plumbers can replace pipes inside that wall on Sunday.

Anyone want some snow?

I have to be reminded that this year's winter is "normal". We have just been spoiled the last couple of years! I am home again today - We have had school for 4 hours on Tuesday, so far for the week.. Oskaloosa has had 25+ inches since Sunday. It is not snowing now, but at school time this morning there were plenty of county roads not passable. Dan said it took him 45 minutes to drive to Eddyville this morning on his way to work in Ottumwa. Even the highway was snow packed.
I have been keeping busy - I have a few baby projects done, I finished another demin/fleece blanket for Chelsey and Greg, constructed a table runner (actually made something I saw in a magazine!) and have a wall quilt pieced. I have taken down wallpaper in the half bath and hall, cleaned house and sorted through things that used to live in the half bath. I think I may paint on Saturday. I have a color in mind. More snow days will mean being bored, however. We were told don't go to work, no matter what. They need to move snow in the lots. I need someone home with me to play scrabble!

Weather Wows!

I'm back at work today following a day off for weather. The snow on Sunday was unbelievable. It snowed from noon to five or six and we had 12-15 inches! We were at a Super Bowl gathering, which we probably shouldn't have gone to since at three when we left home the storm was really raging. When we got home, shortly after the game and some driveway clearing at our host's home, one of the neighbors had done our walks. We worked on the driveway to get both vehicles up, then came inside to find a message that school had been called off. Yesterday morning it rained and thundered and lightning(ed). Today things are supposed to start being bad again around lunchtime. There was one bus stuck this morning, but that's not bad considering how many buses we run. Chances are we'll have no school tomorrow, as we could get another 8 inches this afternoon/tonight. I still have a sewing project or two waiting for me to have time. Yesterday I finished a baby blanket, I have a denim/fleece quilt waiting for me - the top is pieced, just need to add the back and tie it. It is for Greg and Chelsey's camper. We did have band practice last night - William Penn University has a very small concert band and they invited city band members to play with them. Last night there were 9 of us, only one of which was a Penn student. I had to have my horn in for service, got it back Friday, it really is in good shape now. If I could only say the same for my lip and air supply!

Odd day

Today has been different. For one thing today was the funeral for a third grader who was killed in a car accident last Thursday. There's just no explaining that to most people, let alone third grade classmates. So sad, but her young life was full of activities and joy. Because of the funeral, classes were missing people, students and teachers alike. I began to work with a new group for reading, allowing my next door teacher a little planning time. She and I will alternate working with this combination of both our students on an eight day cycle. Now, after school I will have only one student in my tutoring group - one has dropped (I can't convince the parent that it might take more than 5 weeks to change his habits!) and one of my students joins the morning group on Tuesdays so he can sing in the elementary choir on Tuesday afternoons. I didn't have a car today because the pickup was getting its new windshield (after deer damage). Hopefully routine will reappear tomorrow!

This 'n That

Isn't this weather glorious? OK, it caused lots of mud, but it sure is nice to see the last of the 3 inch thick ice gone from the driveway. Tomorow they are predicting snow again.
Greg and Chelsey are in the Dominican Republic, I talked with Greg last night and besides being sunburned, they are experiencing new food and drinks, napping a lot so they can stay up late and in general really enjoying themselves. They are taking lots of pictures, which I hope they will share when they get home. Meanwhile, here at home, JoAnn and Randy have the dogs and we visit the cats every other day (Greg's dad had alternate days).
The school year is half gone! Seems like we just started the other day. This is the week for mid-terms so it is half way through the middle trimester. I'd better teach faster!

Back at it

School has started again and I had a pretty good day. Kids in general were subdued, even the after school bus duty crowd was more quiet than usual.
Happy New Year to all of you. I am not a resolution person in general but I am setting some personal goals. One is to keep a record of things I create in sewing or knitting or my other crafts. The purpose is to show me how productive I am and look towards retirement to see if I could make any money and/or keep myself busy enough. Another is one I stole - I am going to throw away or give away 5 things from my basement a week. Could be as simple as something out of the freezer, but this has got to happen. I started by going through a stack of counted cross stitch books/magazines/pamphlets. I have advertised these at school, hopefully they will find new homes. I loved collecting the patterns more than using them, it seems. And, now that Dan has a new figure, I hope to do something about mine.
Tonight is caucus night - I will be glad that it is over, but I am proud of Iowa and the role our state plays in the democratic process.