Sold

We can't believe that we are moving. Our house was on the market for 11 days and we had 3 offers. We are so excited to move. Instead of putting up the Christmas decorations and tree we are packing up boxes and getting rid of stuff. 22 and 1/2 years of stuff. WOW. We have a really nice home to go to and I feel it is a step up from where we are now. 3 car garage, air, central vac, 1 level, big family room right off the kitchen, master bath. Ooooh can't wait. We will take pictures and send a card soon. We are pretty tired at the end of the day.

Also, just a random note, Pepper started coughing this morning. He was hacking like he had been a smoker. Jim had the day off and took him to the vet. I was able to call at about 10:00 (during recess time) and asked how he was. The vet said he had laryngitis. He gave him some antibiotics in shot form with steroid in it. He is still coughing. I have never heard of a dog getting this. I thought it was kinda funny. Hopefully he will be ok and not keep us up all night coughing. :)

For Sale

Our House will be for sale soon. We have been so busy moving things to a storage unit and getting things cleaned out. Jim says "the hoarder in me is resisting". We have moved some furniture our and around so it looks like there is more room. I told the Realtor that you spend your whole time trying to make your house a home then you tear it all down so that people think it looks bigger. The walls look pretty bear and so does the refer. I can't stand it. But then on the other hand we have so much stuff, I really like how clean the bedroom looks with out all the book cases. The professional photographer will be out to take some pictures on Tuesday so...... probably by the end of the week it should be on the market.

We have not looked for a house yet, just a few times on line. Maybe some time soon we can go for a drive and find something that will fit for us. We do have a few guide lines, a shop, 2 car garage, a large kitchen with storage, larger master bath, one level with family room, and not a lot of yard work. It would be nice to have a fenced in back yard, up dated appliances etc and at least 3 bedrooms, and RV parking. We will see what is out there. I am just hoping that we will have some bites on our home. We have done a lot of improvements to the home and the land. It has been a good home to raise 3 kids. We just don't have any one to help us with the yard work any more!:-)

Good news and sad news

I have good news. I am down to 27 children in my classroom! Yea! They have hired a new teacher (who I know because she has been at the Kindergarten in services in the past) and she is wonderful. We are busing some kids down from a neighboring school and that will start to happen this week. Our numbers should all round out to be about the same. Work was enjoyable, instead of just manageable.

Jim had a good weekend, he was able to go down and visit Ian and Shannon and the grand kids. His main purpose was to go to the BYU game and they won. Go Cougs. That was pleasant because last weekend was really bad. I have no idea who showed up to play ball because it was not typical of BYU.

On Monday evening I took Keren out to dinner and she left for Salt Lake Tuesday morning driving the truck and pulling their trailer by her self. Then she flew out Wednesday for Florida. After I dropped off Keren from dinner I called over to the Morgans to see if it was ok to drop off a book for Dianne. Bryan answered the phone and told me that he found his brother, Jim dead. He was suppose to be at their house Sunday evening for a family gathering but did not show up and Bryan's mom was getting worried because she could not get ahold of him. Bryan went to his apartment on Monday and found him. The funeral was Friday afternoon. It is so hard to loose family members. My Grandma told me once that you knew you were getting old when your family and friends started dying around you. We, Jim and I, knew Bryan's brother just a little, thru the Morgan family get togethers, weddings etc. All of the Morgans came for the funeral and it was good to see Brad, Allison and Trevor again.

I think that tomorrow I will call a realtor. I have 2 that I think I will be able to choose from. I am wishing that we will be able to sell, but don't have to many hopes. I hate the stairs, and I am done doing yard work. There is just to much. If by some miracle we do sell the house, of course we don't know where we would go, some where around here of course because we are both still working..... but you kids had better come and get any of your stuff. I will be purging!

Pirates!

Dad and I went to our first pirate party. Donna of course was throwing it at her place. She invited a lot of her Bilquist family, and some neighbors. We had such a great time. Good weather, food and friends. When we first got the invitation Jim did not want to go, he was grumbling, I told him he was a "kill joy". He was saying that I was putting to much effort in making the costumes and was wondering if I was going to be the designated driver because he would need to be drunk to wear it. He went for me had a great time and he looked good. On the other hand I needed to tuck in my shirt a little so my girls don't look like they are dragging! Donna bought a corset and put tattoos on her girls. She sure know how to throw a party.

We also went to Grandma's last weekend and got to see Mike, Jenny and Anthony. What a cutie pie he is. Such a happy boy. Here are some pic's of the party. Now if any body wants to borrow them we've got them.

Apples, Apples, Apples

Jim and I picked up a box of apples on Monday and I have been doing apples almost every night. Apple pie, apple cake, apple pie filling, and drying apples. I am not done yet and when I am able to finish them it will be a week. Hope they will be ok. I put them in the refrigerator in hopes they will be fresher. I have also been sewing. Jim and I are going to my friend Donna's pirate party next Friday. Jim is really excited!! ARRRRR!

I am also working full days the first few days of school. Donna is also there helping me.

If you have not heard, I am now famous. My picture was on the front page of the Oregonian. (September 8th) You can look it up on line. It is a really good article about over crowded Kindergarten classrooms. My teaching partner was quoted in it. I made it through the first day today, but had to do some rearranging of the desks. When the kids sat down there was no room to get between the rows. They could not even put their back packs on their chairs and go in and out of the rows because it was so crowded. Donna and I moved the desks in a different arrangement and I think it will work better. Thank goodness for Donna. She has been my life saver!

Well we are back from Coeur D Alene Idaho. We had the best time at the Digs and at Uncle Wes' and Eli, Emilee and Ivy's. It was so fun to spend time with family. At the Digs they are going to have a lot of people up there in the next few weeks; Mom and Dad, Aunt Patty, Mo and Carr and about 70 other people for Karaoke! Go Veda. She has won prizes on cruises!

I have been back to school trying to get my room put back together, my files cleaned out and a I have a new arrangement. Donna my old partner and friend has been coming up to help me. It is so nice to have here there to help me. She already knows what to do and it has saved me so much time. She is such a good worker and friend! Plus she works for free!

In case you have not heard, at my school some kids set the playground on fire. It is now gone and will cost about 40 thousand dollars to replace it. It was only 3 years old and we will not be getting new equipment until winter break. It is just so sad for the kids. Glad I am not on recess duty!

Jim is back to work too. I miss him when he is gone. However, I was able to do nothing but read one day and I finished "The Help by Kathern Stockett". I wanted to read it before I saw the movie, so now I am ready to go!

We had our first 90 degree day this weekend. It was very warm, but when you are sitting around doing nothin, it is survivable. Back to cool weather today, and maybe even drizzle tomorrow.

After

The busy workers left at about 5:30. They did a really good job cleaning up but now Dad and I need to decide what to do in the empty blue spruce place, and get the wood loaded.

More pictures of the tree removal

Here are more pictures of the back yard. It is just after 3:00 and they are done with the back yard, just a few more clean ups and they have started working in the front yard.

And timber!, on the blue spruce in the front yard.

It's raining sawdust

The worker bees have been busy. In just a little over an hour thy got three of the back trees almost all done One, two, three. I made them cookies and they (the four men) took a break before they got the third one. This is where the swing set use to be.

Right behind the deck.

Before

Tomorrow there will be several workers at our home. They will be taking out 4 trees and cleaning up some fruit trees, the big cherry tree out front and the arborvitaes. I took the before picture for you to see. Tomorrow I will take the during and after pictures. Our back yard will look really different with 3 trees missing.

Flowers

These are from my yard. I think that they turned out beautiful this year.

OH BABY!!!

Yesterday we got a phone call from Dorene. Mike and Jenny are expecting their 2nd in March. Hooray! We are so excited for them. Congratulations Mike and Jen!

Camping

We went camping at Fort Casey and Camano Island in Washington State. We had a great time even if the weather was a little rainy and cold. We started out at Fort Casey, which is on Whidbey Island, with Mo, Carr and Kari Ann. It was very nice and relaxing until we started playing cover your assets! It was a lot of fun. Then the fighter jets started their touch and goes at about 9:15 pm and did not stop until midnight. They rattled your bones they were so close. Whidbey has a navel air station on it and that is why we were so close to everything. "Its the sound of freedom" so we don't complain. I would suppose the residents get use to it and have lots of ear plugs!

One afternoon Uncle Carr bet the girls one dollar that they could not hula hoop around the camp loop. Mo was up and going. They did it. It was a lot of fun and the whole campground was looking at them.

We also took a ferry boat ride to Port Townsend. It was a beautiful day, we went in little shops to look and then bought ice cream cones! Yummy!

We left Fort Casey on Wednesday and headed for Camano Island.

The some of the family were already there, and some came later in the week. Eli, Emilee and Ivy came on Wednesday. We had a great time with everyone. We took a family picture and a group shot and I will post it as soon as I get it. There were probably 35 people there. And several dogs. We had 3 in our group alone. It was a lot of fun and yummy. We had fresh crab every day. I love crab. Ivy even touched the crab! I just ate it. I think Jim had some and so did Aly.

Aly, Kari, Artie, Benson and Pepper

This is Emilee, Eli and Ivy, me pepper and my nephew Andrew. It was very cold and windy on this first day but the other days it was beautiful.

We will also be camping in August. I love camping!

What a great time we had and Happy Anniversary

What a wonderful time we have had so far this summer. It was so nice to have everyone here for a week. During that time we celebrated our 31st anniversary! WOW! We had such a great time at the beach that day and a yummy dinner. Now I miss everybody. Since everyone has left Dad and I have been busy. I was on Jury duty for a week. Which means that I had to stay home and call in the night before to see if I had to go in. I did on Thursday. We were released by noon so I was able to come home. Yea! I am done for 2 years!

Jim and I started working on the house. We had an arborist come out and give us a bid on our trees. They will be taking out 4 trees on Aug.3, along with a bunch of other stuff! I am hoping it will look great. Probably bare and empty. It will be different. We also started working on the deck. We took off the old boards from the deck and replaced them ( we meaning Jim, I took out the nails and carried the boards to the utility trailer). We also replaced the bench next to the lilacs. We painted all of the rail and bench the other night but the last two days it has been cloudy and threatening rain so we have not painted the floor boards yet, they have just been primed with thewhite. It looks really nice but I would like it to be finally done! During this time we also had Benson. What a good dog. He was here for the 4th of July weekend so that Aly and Ryan could go to Seattle. We had a very quiet 4th. Our neighbors all celebrated!

Next I went shopping with Aly and she helped me pick out frames for the family pictures, and jammies material for the little boys. We had a fun day and I finally finished the jammies. I enjoyed sewing them. Hope they like them. I will be putting them in the mail today.

It is cold today like I said so no painting but I just wanted you to know that I have the little heater on by the computer because I am so cold.

We got a special present in the mail on Wednesday. Grandma Bowles bought Jim and I an ipad2. We are very excited and he showed me how to play angry birds. Thank you grandma! We love it.

Yesterday Jim worked a long day and I went to a wedding of one of my coworkers. It was simple and sweet. She was beautiful and I felt honored to be invited out of our Bilquist family. It was good to see my friends and catch up on the news of school.

Time to get ready for crabbing. Can't wait to go camping.

All Done!

Friday was the last day of school for me. For my class it was Thursday. I got all my work done, cleared out my room and was out of there by about 2:00. My neck was killing me. I said my tearful good-bye's to my friends who I will not be working with next year because they will be at a different school. I came home to meet Jim in the garage on his way to work. Kiss kiss and off he went. I went straight to my room to lay on my heating pad.

I feel very blessed to have the job that I have. I love teaching the little kids at school and I love my work place. I have great parent volunteers and could not do my job with out them. I work hard and learn a lot every year.

Now I am looking forward to some really nice warm weather, enjoying the company of my family, taking bike rides, walks, enjoying staying @ home and working in the yard(maybe not enjoying the working in the yard part so much).

I can't wait to see all of you next week. Of course I need to clean house from head to toe, bake, shop for groceries, and of of course I am taking a class on TWTh from 8-3:30. Oh well. We will see how things go.

Work!

I know that most people think that Kindergarten teachers don't have much home work to do, but I would like to let them know that we do a lot of work. I just spent my whole Sunday practically (except for Sacrament meeting) working on things for school. Memory books, assessments, report cards, filing, gathering, copying, assembling. I am tired and my neck hurts! I think I need a massage. The problem is is that I am not done. I need to finish everything by Friday the last day of school for me this year. Traditionally we get out next week and have one more week of learning, and assessing, but this year we have been cut 14 days which is a 7% pay decrease! I think I will really like Friday night if I am all done in my room. We will see.

Next week I am taking a class on Tuesday - Thursday and I am very excited for it. I will also be cleaning from head to toe around here because the whole family will be here. That is the best part. Can't wait to see those grand babies and hug them play with them and spoil them.

Mariners Win!

Dad and I could not decide what we were going to do since we both had 4 day off. Friday morning dad booked us a hotel and bought tickets for the game and by noon we were off! The weather was terrible and we went through l rain, wind and hail to get there. It was so loud because it was coming down so hard and so fast. It was crazy. A few miles further down the road it would be dry, then tracheal rain and hail. By the time we got to Tacoma we tuned in to the Mariners station and they were saying what a great day for a ball game. Really? By the time we hit the spot where you can see Seattle while on I5 it was beautiful. Big white puffy clouds sun shinning and no rain. We checked in to the hotel, got our long johns on because we knew it would get cold, and walked to the stadium. We had dinner, $6.00 hotdogs and $4.00 drinks. In this picture we are wearing the Elvis sunglasses. It was Viva Las Vargas Night. The first 10,000 people got sunglasses! They opened the roof and we were a little nervous. We had nothing to worry about. It was a beautiful night and we were in the best seats, and had a great time. + the Mariners won. It was so fun! As we were walking back to the hotel with 33 thousand of our closest friends we saw a bunch of Utes with Yankees hats on! Go Cougars and Mariners! It was probably the closest game for them and they were staying in the same hotel. There was one or two BYU fans in the cluster and we saw them at Pike place market too.

Any way, we called Grandma and Grandpa and asked if they wanted to go to the game on Saturday and they didn't so we went up and had lunch with them and they headed home. We just relaxed on Sunday and went to church. Today Happy Memorial day to everyone. We remember all those who have touched our lives in the past and have served our country. My dad, Jim's dad, my sister TK, the twins and Ryan. We are truly grateful for your service so that we can have the freedoms that we have today.

On a side note every time I put up a picture it is in the wrong spot. Sorry about that. Later, MOM

Mothers' Day

Although Mother's day is not my favorite day I had a pretty nice day. I was able to talk with all my kids, did not have to cook dinner or do dishes, (Jim did it) got a new CD, was sung to by a men's choir and was able to take a nap. Plus I loved my mother's day cards and gifts. Thank you everyone.

Sad Day

Today was a sad day in my classroom and it started before the kids even got to school. We had what you would call a quick stand up meeting in my classroom. It only lasted for maybe 5 minutes. My principal that I have worked with for 5 years is being transferred. We will get a new principal from one of the schools that is being closed. I really like Cam, he has been very supportive of me and Kindergarten in general, and he helped with the student council that I was in charge of. He is a good leader, professional and fun. I for one, (not the only one in my school) will miss him.

Easter and the following weekend!

We had such a nice Easter weekend. Saturday was such a beautiful day weather wise. We had a wonderful Easter dinner with ham, cheese potatoes, and salmon that dad was able to get. Yummy. I also made a sheet cake which I have not in such a long time. We had that Saturday night, Sunday morning.... and the rest of that day. I made rolls and cinnamon rolls for our special occasion. The table was also decorated and looked very nice. We were able to go to Saturday Market and had a good time, when we got home Grandma and Grandpa Squire were home to greet us. We had our dyed our eggs and got to watch Ivy put them in her basket. She was a pro. We played cards, and taught the Great grand parents how to play cover your assets. It was a lot of fun.

Sunday the weather was blah just like the weather man said. Glad we hunted for eggs on Saturday. Unfortunately Great Grandma Dorene was not feeling well. A bit of vertigo. Not fun. She still beat me at cards! We had family pictures taken but she was not in them. Sorry Grandma. We should of taken pictures after dinner. I was not thinking of that. On Monday everybody had to leave, and Jim and I went to work.

This weekend we worked in the yard. The weather was so nice. The windows are all clean inside and out, the burn pile is done, the lawn is mowed and some of the weeds are pulled. I am going to try to do a little bit of weed pulling every day. It takes forever with such a big yard. We cleaned out the garage this week too (my side). It feels so much better. And I have actually gotten almost all caught up on my ironing.

And along with Shannon's thoughts about the Royal wedding, I had Jim tape it so I could watch it. I love it. She was a beautiful bride and looks very confident and happy! I wish them the best. Hope you enjoy the pictures.

Spring Yesterday

It was spring yesterday. The sky was blue and it was finally 60 degrees! Well it started out at 32 degrees and finally warmed up. I finished at school early, meaning I left before noon for once and when I got home Aly was here and dad was on the couch with still in his bathrobe (he was working). So we took all the dogs for a walk. Artie, Benson and Pepper. It felt really good. Aly took a picture of us with the grand dogs! Hopefully she will post it.

So next we went to a movie. Aly wanted to do something, I wanted to do yard work and Jim sided with Aly. So we saw HOP! It was ok, pretty predictable. I ate to much popcorn and milk duds! I was just going to have pop corn but Aly bought me milk duds because she knows that they are my favorite.

When we got home Aly left and dad and I got to work in the yard. It's a jungle out there. He mowed the top half of the lawn because it is still to wet to do the bottom corner of our swamp land. You all remember that spot huh! I weeded around the small lace leaf maple by the front door. Even tho we worked for only an hour what a difference it makes. I felt much better about the yard. Today I am hoping to go down the driveway between the daffodils and get the weeds pulled.

After dinner last night (I did not eat much because of the popcorn and milk duds) we showered and went to the temple for our temple night. It was really nice.

So up early, the wash is already started and I have my list of things I need to do today and off we go. Looks like the weather might hold off so I may be able to get in a walk in and some yard work. Better hop to.

Weddings

Ashleigh and Chad with his brotherhood of firemen.

Jim and I just got back from my nephew's wedding. We got to see a bunch of relatives and it was great. Kari Ann had a wedding down here and now she is at our house. She is on her spring break and she is going to my kindergarten class. Just wanted you to see a few pic from the wedding.

Spring Break!!

Spring Break is always a nice time to relax and get some spring cleaning done. I have not done any of this. We went to visit Emilee, Ivy and Eli, and had a wonderful visit. On Monday we headed home. Tuesday I headed up to Bellingham to visit my sister and Kari Ann. She is teaching kindergarten full time and has her hands full. I spent a whole day in her class and she is doing an awesome job, and it was my privilege to be in her classroom. I got a bonus and got to see Kyla and Bree yesterday too. Bree is so cute and is very fun to be around. In the mean time Jim has been at home painting the doors that we replaced in the hall and the door jams. They look really nice, he did a good job all by himself.

Tomorrow I am going to my own classroom to get ready for the week. I have some cleaning to do in there. My friend Donna is going to meet me for breakfast and help out a little. She is a jewel!

I talked to Grandma and Grandpa and they are stuck in Redding. It is snowing and they are expected to get 18 inches tonight in the mountains and would have to chain up. Grandma B was also on her way back home and is stuck in Redding also. I told her to check out the Walmart parking lot and look for mom and dad. She did and they got together. I am glad that they were able to to this.

Spring Break

I have been at the computer for the last few nights doing report cards for my kiddo's. I am almost all done with the academic portion but still have the comment portion. I could not of done all the testing with out my good friend and retired teacher Donna. She has been a lifesaver. We have so much that needs to be tested that you would not thing that this was a Kindergarten class.

There is so much talk around school about what is going to happen next year that it is getting a bit stressful. So far we have 3 teachers retiring or leaving, and 2or 3 more going to middle school because 6th grade will be a part of middle school now. That means the 5th and 6th grade class will leave our school. I have worked with these kids for a long time in Student Leadership and it makes me sad to see so many of them leaving. I am looking forward to some time off.

Not sure what we are going to do, for the break, hoping to go and visit my niece in her class. Maybe we can go to the beach for a day. Spring Clean!!! Paint some doors and door jams, bake, sew, shop. I was invited to travel to Utah to help with Ivy but because I had already made plans to go up North that did not happen. Sorry. If you do not go let me know. Maybe we could come out and visit you.

Jim had a long day with his ACLS class. He is current for 2 years again. We are holding our breath for the game tomorrow, and our friend Elder Taylor Williams comes home from his mission tomorrow night. We are excited to go to the airport and see him. He is one great kid.

GO COUGARS!!

Dancing and Kari Ann

Jim and I had a great weekend. First off on Friday night we got dressed up and went dancing. We were going to the place downtown that we have gone to before just not lately. Like the last 5 years. It use to be a five piece band and the women wore party dresses and the men wore ties! And we were the youngest couple! Not any more. It is pretty much wear what you want, more of a singles night to mix and very young people and digital DJ. When did we get so old? Don't get me wrong. We had a very nice time, the lesson was wonderful, the performances were great and we were not the oldest people there. Jim was the only one with a tie on! Unless you count the guy with the plaid green shirt and orange plaid tie. We lasted until about 9:30, watched the last performance, a pasadoble and a Rumba medley then went home. It was so nice to get out. We have been going to this dance place since I was pregnant with Alyse. We really enjoyed it and went fairly regular. I hope we can go back at least once or twice a month. It is really good exercise, keeps the brain keen and it is so fun to dress up once in a while. We should of taken a picture but did not even think of it.

Next on the weekend agenda is Saturday morning. I got up early and started working on a sewing project. I signed up to read at Barns and Nobel from our school PTA. So I made cat ears and a mask because I was going to read Skippyjon Jones. It is such a great read aloud. There were four teachers all together that signed up to read. It was so fun. I had quite the crowd for my reading time, and at least 4 kids from my class that showed up! Jim even came and took some pictures. Gotta love this guy, first dancing, then reading! After we read we got a Barns and Nobel gift certificate from PTA. Need less to say I spent mine and while Jim was there he spent his that he got for his birthday. Thanks I&S. I was able to go to lunch with my teacher friends and Jim came home to get ready for the basket ball game. BYU blew them out of the water. YES! 100 point game.

While I was in Barns and Nobel getting ready to read I got a text message from Kari Ann my niece. She just got a full time teaching job in Kindergarten. She is awesome. Any way she was in Oregon and wanted to know if we could meet. Yes of course. "I have 6 other friends with me". Ok not a problem. I called Aly and she was able to meet with Kari and her friends at Powell's book store down town. We were able to meet them for dinner and do a little kindergarten shop talk. It was so fun to see her and we welcome her and her friends any time.

Well today is Sunday and we of course have church late......2:00. I don't know a single soul who likes this time. Jim has to work this afternoon so that is a bummer. I hate going to church by myself.

All in all it was a fun weekend. I need to work on my 100's day stuff. Tomorrow is the 100th day of kindergarten and of course we will be having a celebration. I will post on that later.

Snow Day Finally

We spent a nice long weekend at Ian and Shannon's house. We stayed at a different hotel only 10 minutes away. It was really nice and we all benefited from the pool and hot tub. I was not feeling my best a touch of stomach flu maybe. But we still had a great time. The boys are so good and Talia is just a little peanut. So cute. We taught I & S how to play "cover your assets" and Ian won big time. We had fun. ( He does not usually win card games).

Our flight home was good and I went to school the next day still not feeling up to parr. (More like throwing up!) I made it thru the day and the kids were great.

Today is a snow day. We have about 4 inches outside and it was coming down hard with big fat flakes. It was beautiful. Now they are just piddly little flakes. Very unusual to have snow this late in the winter. I love the snow when I do not have to go out in it. And I am prepared! I am making bread today, pot roast, finish up some sewing, crocheting, and clean my house since we were not here this weekend. Yea Snow. We may have one tomorrow because of the temperatures. Really cold. Suppose to get down to 18 degrees! Glad I have nice warm jammies and a great fireplace!

My Sweet Ba-boo

Happy Valentine's day everyone!

Jim and I had a great evening. I made him a nice dinner which include a bar-b-que steak in the rain and wind! It was a candle light dinner and pretty yummy. I even made a cheese cake and drizzled it with dark chocolate and topped it off with real whip cream.

I was feeling pretty sheepish this morning when I opened my card. Dad got me a massage and a facial. I did not get him anything. I did not think we were getting gifts. He said he really liked the dinner so that was good.

The valentine party at school was really nice. I had really good helpers and we got everything done and cleaned up in 30 minutes. WOW! I even got all my valentine thank you's done! Hope everyone enjoyed their day!

Gung Hey Fat Choy

We had our Chinese New Years parade at school and made lots of noise with musical instruments. We had a great time. By the way it is the year of the rabbit!

Eli and Emilee and Ivy are here visiting with us for a few days. It is so nice to have a little one in the house again. She has been sick and so has Eli. Bummer. They are going to leave on Sunday.

We also got a bonus surprise. Aunt TK called and she was working in Vancouver, so she was able to come and visit us for a short time. We bought subway sandwiches and had lunch here at home. Aly came over so we had quite the crowd. It was so fun to see her even for just a short time. She also brought clothes from Leleigh or Ivy. Bonus!! Hopefully she will make it home at a reasonable hour and not a lot of rush hour traffic. Thanks for coming TK.

Church

Today was a long day at church. I was all by myself. I just hate it when Jim is at work. I was seriously thinking of skipping but didn't. I would of felt guilty. I hate our time. It is really bad. Apparently I am not the only one who thinks so because there are not a lot of people who stay for the whole time.

Can't wait to see Ivy, Eli and Em this week. I hope that she has not forgotten about Grandma and Grandpa. Jim has some time off so we should have a good time. Hopefully pictures soon!

Hippy's

I am not even sure how to spell that! I just got back from the Hippy Hippy Shake dance that our school does. In years past it has been the 50's sock hop but they wanted to do something different. The clothes were different, the colors were different, but the noise, the running around were still the same. I always like to go to see some of the kids that I have had in the past, and I think it is important to have teacher support in the community. I can only do it for about a half an hour tho! It was fun to wear bell bottoms, flowers and tiedye! I am glad it is the weekend. I have a few chores to do but for the most part I think I will just take it easy.

found the owner

Today the owner of the handcuffs presented herself! Yes it was a girl! I returned them to her. OH my!

hand cuffs

Today was interesting. One of my little kiddo's brought handcuffs to school....... hmmm. No one claimed them. I guess I will just see what happens now. I did not even know that they sold these to little kids. Must be part of a cop's costume!

It is really cold today with the wind chill. The sky is clear and beautiful and the sun was shinning, but only like 29 with the wind chill. I just wish we had a good snow. I think all the kids should have a good snow day at least once a year. Only problem with that is that we have to make it up in June. We already have10 furlough days and a 7% pay deduction. We don't need to miss any more school. Only 7 more weeks to spring break and only 2 of the 7 are 5 day weeks! Yikes. We are asked to do more and more with less and less.

I have a nice clean smile today! I was able to get into the dentist! I had some sensitivity and was concerned about a cavity. I was declared good! And it was pretty painless.

I have been having some neck problems and I finally went to the Dr. and she told me to get a good massage then sent me to the Physical Therapist who in turn gave me some good exercises. I gotta tell ya I got 2 massages in 2 weeks and it was wonderful! I still go to the chiropracter and that seems to help too.

Tonight I was working on my computer to try to download a youtube video to my jumpdrive. I can not get youtube at school because of screening and I want to show the kids the shadow puppet show. Tomorrow is ground hog day and I want the kids to play with and make hand shadow puppets. I put up a screen and an old small film strip projector out in the hall for the kids to play with. It is a lot of fun for the kids. We do shadows, predicting, graphing, all kinds of stuff. Enough rambling.

Thanks for checking up on me.

Today we had a teacher work day/ professional day. We worked on the kids' writing samples. It is nice to see how far they have come in their writing. I am not use to scoring the writing and so this is a learning process for me. After the professional part of the day we had a work day. There is so much going on in the next few weeks. Things that kindergarten celebrates, or recognizes. Ground hog day, Chinese New Year, Letter F and rainbow fish, letter o and the ocean and octopie in th the ocean that we need to make, the Hippy Dance on Friday, new calendar pieces for the month of February and Valentines day is just around the corner. We have to get ready for that too. Busy next couple of weeks.

My friend Donna came in to help in the classroom. She is a jewel. She took down January put up February, took down old bulletin boards and put up new ones, laminated, cut paper, cut plates and filed for me. A good 2 hours of work that I did not have to do. However I was at school all day. I did not even get home until 4:00. I am exhausted. Therefore Jim and I went out to dinner. We went to Applebees and it was pretty good. We even got desert! Yea for ice cream. We went to the grocery store and now we are both working on our computers. I think that it is time to go get jammies on and get ready for bed! I have some reading to do. I was just issued the Collective Bargaining Agreement. Fun, Fun. It is going to be a mess next year at school. I have 25 students this year and could have up to 32 next year. What on earth are "they" thinking. I always thought that I would give the district a good 10 years. That is next year, but I am not ready to quit teaching. I absolutely love teaching. I love these little kids.

I think now that when Jim retires so will I. I think that I will start making my bucket list, or at least start thinking about what I want on it.

I know it has been a long time and no one ever really reads this blog, but we had a talk in church about journals. Blogging is a great way of doing this. So here I go.

This week has been like all others except Jim and Weston both celebrated their birthdays. Can't believe that my oldest grandson is 5 and will be in school this coming fall. WOW.

My brand new waffle iron just broke. Jim got it for me at Christmas. He is going to take it back for me. We had a delicious dinner of waffles and bacon. And then it would not flip. Bummer!

I was released today from being a Relief Society instructor to the communication specialist. I get to do the email lists! I don't mind being out of the lime light.

This week at school we have had 2 days of professional leave. We worked on math for 2 hours in base 4! I hated the different "bases" in college. I did learn a little bit so that was cool. We have a busy week with Ground hog day, Chinese New Year and the hippy dance. Fun!

Later.