Happy New Year!

Happy New Year! May you find happiness and fulfillment in this new year. May you make wise decisions. May you accomplish all you need to do and some of those you want to do.

All Pain, No Gain

I only have a few days of vacation left before I have to go back to teaching school. I had so many things on my list that I wanted to accomplish while off these few days. But I'm not sure if I will get many of them done. I have a pinched nerve in my lower back that affects my right hip and leg. While laying down, no problem. But as soon as I get up the pain begins. I'm already taking large doses of ibuprophen. And the worse part of it all is that my chiropractor is also on vacation.

Bear with Some Assembly Required

My granddaughter came to spend the day with me today. She brought with her a build-a-bear kit that she got from her other Mimi. I sewed it together and Toots stuffed it. She did an excellent job. She chose the decorations for the little green jumper that goes on the bear while I ironed them on. It turned out to be an excellent gift with loads of fun in making it. And the best part of the day is that right now she is asleep with the bear.

Old Papers Reveal Much

I did it. I spent the day going through my dad's papers that he had saved for years. The papers included canceled checks, tax returns, pay stubs, EOB (explanation of benefits) and a few very unusual items. One of those items is the goatee from my dad. For the Centennial celebration, he grew a full beard. When he cut it off, he did so in stages. At first I thought it was a mouse or something worse. If he had known it was in the box, he would have had great joy in looking at it and reminiscing. I found tax papers all the way back to 1942, the year my parents were married. I couldn't believe the paltry sum of money he made for the year. No wonder he felt so rich with his miner's paycheck in his later years of work. I also looked at the farm income portion of the tax returns. We had a large apple orchard, chickens, swine, and farmed (put out in beans or corn) our land as well as the fields of the neighbors. He brought in a nice sum of money for the sale of all those mentioned items, but when he figured the cost to operate the farm business, he showed a loss of $35! I couldn't believe it. I ranted to my husband that we had done all that work for the entire year and suffered a loss! Dad experienced a loss about every other year. The years he made a profit revealed less that $500 a year and usually closer to $100. I called my brother who is 18 months older than me to share the news. He and I were the ones who did the vast majority of the farming with our dad. When I told him about the loss of $35, he burst out laughing and said we should have just burned the $35. My husband said my dad probably did the farming to teach us how to work and to keep us out of trouble. Somehow being thankful for that lesson doesn't feel really good at the moment.

Clutter

Here I sit in my computer room, surrounded by clutter. I need to begin working on ridding, condensing, purging, trashing this stuff. Where is Nate when you need him? But Nate would rid my room of all things that are us and create a beautiful room that has nothing of our "stuff." But then it would be done.

Christmas Remembered

The excitement is over. The Christmas Eve service at church is done. The food eaten. The gifts all unwrapped. The trash has been carried out. The dishes done. All that remain are decorated trees and memories. And both are beautiful. We had several gifts for our granddaughter to unwrap. Her mission was to unwrap the gifts regardless of what was in the box. When she unwrapped the 4-cup coffee maker, she excitedly said, "I have my own coffee pot." Then she quickly went on to the next gift, not saying anything like, "I don't drink coffee." For all we know, she will awaken one of these mornings and wonder where her coffee pot is! Hubby and I came up with an idea of giving gag gifts with redeemable-for-cash coupons attached. The only stipulation was that the gifts had to be accepted and taken home. Instead of spending more money on "stuff " we found our kids' treasures that they have left behind when they moved out. I never heard them laugh so hard when the gifts revealed used make-up from the early 90s, expired food that the child purchased many years ago and left behind, or a college textbook that seemed untouched. We found these treasures in their old rooms. I think hubby and I had as much fun as they did as we carefully made our selections from the vast array of treasures. One of our children tried to trash one of the items saying that it was so old and not of use any more. We suggested that they come one day and help go through the treasures/trash and dispose of it properly. We were careful not to promise that they would see them as gifts next year.

Competition Reveals Sore Loser

We kept our granddaughter overnight Mon. and all day yesterday. Let me say without shame, I'm exhausted! I try to be engaged with her for most of the time we have her. She stayed up late Mon. night and I feared she would pop up her head at 5:30 am when I normally get up. But she must have been tired because she slept in till 7. After Papa left for work, we spent the morning wrapping his Christmas gifts. Hope she can keep a secret! Not! As the day progressed, we decided to play Memory Game that she received last year. I narrowed down the pairs of matches to begin with until we worked our way up to 11 pair. She was very good at the game from the start. I tried to teach her some strategies such as try to find the one that you know matches the apple before you turn over the apple that was just revealed. She picked up on that after a time. In the beginning, she was helpful to tell Mimi where the matching card was, but soon became more competitive. I didn't always find the matches that I could have, so she won the game many times. But when I did win, she was very angry. So, a lesson on attitude, sportsmanship, and being a gracious loser was needed. Let's say she didn't learn that easily. At one point in the game, when all was going well, she hit the table and uttered an expletive! Shocked me. I reminded her that she should not say things like that and that Jesus didn't want her to say those words. She retorted that Jesus didn't want her mommy and daddy to say those words either. Always the competitor.

And We Celebrate

We had great plans to go out to eat and see a movie for our anniversary. And maybe do a little last minute shopping. But, the freezing rain prevented any of that from happening. Guess the movie will still be there when we do get to go. And the restaurant will still be open when we do get to go. Sitting home with a football game on tv pretty much sums up our entertainment for the night. I'll have to ask hubby who won since I couldn't make it through the final minutes. But then, it doesn't really matter. It was just a football game.

Celebration

Happy 36th Anniversary, Hubby.

Brrrrrrrrr

The weather is brutal here! The wind chill is -20. Just when we think this will be enough of this bad weather, we read the forecast for freezing rain tomorrow. Some choice of bad weather.

Smile, You're on Digital Forever

We bit on the offer of a digital camera, small enough to fit on your key chain, yet can hold up to 300 pictures, and all for just $10. Who wouldn't take the bait? After all, I do not carry my "good" camera around with me at all times, so I do not get all those unplanned shots when afforded a great photo op. We anxiously opened the package and began reading the instructions. First thing we discovered is that we have no way of viewing the picture that we just took. Rats! I seldom delete pictures that I have just taken, but then I've viewed them to make that decision. With further reading, we discovered that the only way to view them is to download them. Okay. I took several pictures just to try it out. Hubby tried to download them, carefully following the directions. But so far, not pictures have been downloaded. Now what? I've kept the receipt, and can take it back, but the place I bought 2 others has gone out of business. Guess we are stuck with three digital cameras that can hold all these images, forever. Don't you just love technology?

A Time for Celebration

In celebration of my birthday, we, as a family, went out to eat at Buca de Bepa. We got to eat in the Pope room. Since I am not catholic, I was not intimidated by the bust of the Pope in the middle of our round table or bothered by the consternation on the face of the nun staring over my shoulder. But the naked body parts on the domed ceiling were a bit troubling for the younger ones in the crowd. We laughed a lot, ate too much, and had a very good time. The place is pricey, but then I only have a birthday once a year. One of our children suggested that we also count the meal as a celebration for our anniversary yet to come this month. I'm surprised they didn't include Christmas with it. Sure would have been cheaper for us. Just kidding, children. Remember, we paid for the two bread appetizers and the dessert.

7 Days to Shop

Only 7 days till Christmas! Here is a typical conversation at this time of the year. Friend/acquaintance/someone standing in the aisle: Do you have your Christmas shopping done? I've been done since September. Me: Congratulations! No, it's not Christmas yet. I still have plenty of time, 7 days. (God made the Universe in 6 days.) Besides, I enjoy the hustle and bustle, the rudeness, the standing in line, the really good bargains, and the pressure of the last-minute-shopping. F/A/S: Merry Christmas! Me: Happy New Year!

Make Your Own Photo Cards

Jib Jab is sponsoring a site where you can elf yourself and up to four more from your family/work/etc. Go to elfyourself.com to create your own. Don't know enough about it to know whether you can send it or not. Be creative!

" ' "Do We Have to Know This?" ' "

I am reading a book to my students and have come across something I have never seen. The female character is talking with her brother, so there are double quotes around her dialogue. But then in her dialogue, she is also quoting a famous person. So the sentence looks like this. " ' "It is not for me to say." ' " This brings so many possibilities for writing, so many new ways to annoy readers, so many ways to confound students and trip them up even more in their writings. But I shall not be using it. Some of the students are having enough difficulty with remembering to add the period at the end of the declarative sentence. You are safe for now, dear children.

Pre-School Christmas Program

We went to the granddaughter's Christmas program last night. All the children were dolled up and duded out. In fact, one little 3 or 4 year old girl had on a spaghetti strap dress with long white satin gloves that went up past her elbows. I couldn't see if she were wearing high heels. Anyway, back to the program. Before it started, Toots came back to our seat several times to tell us "things". She said they are to talk loudly enough so that the people on the back row can hear them. Another time she had to go potty. I was elected to take her. Since I am not familiar with the lay out, I asked the minister where the restrooms were. He led us to the area while Toots booms out, "I told my Mimi that they were over here." The program begins with her class up first. The teacher/administrator apologized before they began saying they had had only two weeks to work on the poems/songs. Well, when the group began, you could pick out Toots immediately. She was the one with the loud voice. In fact, she was the only one who knew the poems. We sat proud and embarrassed at the same time. At the end of each recitation she made this cute little face as if to say, "I'm just so cute and special!" For the closing number for the evening, all of the classes assembled on the stage and the floor to sing "We Wish You a Merry Christmas." Because they were spread out so much they couldn't hear one another and ended up sounding as if they were doing a round. We weren't sure where Joslyn was, but as soon as they started singing, we could pick her out. And her group finished the "round" last. Guess you could say she has a future in projecting her voice.

Finally, the Repair is Done

I finally did it. I sewed the arm back in the suede coat. Took about 15 minutes counting the cleaning up the threads from where it had been ripped out. I've only had the coat since early summer. It was one of those things that I have put off, dreading it, thinking I couldn't do it. Now that it is done, I could kick myself (okay, I know I couldn't literally do that at my age) for procrastinating so long on it. Now I need to take on the child's size 8 winter coat with the broken zipper that my sister gave me to fix and pass on. It was size 8 when my nephew wore it. He is 6'2". So I've had it a while, too. Let's just say I don't get in a hurry.

Twenty-fourth in the Nation

At school we have introduced an additional program to our reading to help teach and improve the reading of the children. One of the components is a computer program where children enter their own site, read at their rate, earn virtual tickets, decorate their clubhouse both inside and out all while increasing reading. On the opening window of the program is a list of the top 100 all star readers, meaning the ones who have earned the most points/virtual tickets in just one week. Well, yesterday, one of my students ranked 24th in the nation and first in our state. We were very excited for her. The regional director of the program emailed our Reading Teacher to congratulate the student and our school. We are hoping that by seeing her name on the list of all stars that other students will strive to earn a spot on the list. This feat is even more amazing when you consider the antiquated computer set-up we have. Our lab is not big enough to accommodate half of most classes. And several of the computers spend the entire hour trying to load the program. So for Cassie to earn those tickets, she has had to be on the computer at home. Several of my students do not have access to computers or Internet at home. But then life is not always fair.

Annual Staff Party

We had our staff Christmas party last night. Besides eating and playing Christmas games, we did the Dirty Santa gift exchange with few rules. A gift could be taken as many times as desired, only not immediately on the next choice. It actually took 15 minutes for one person's turn because of all the gift exchanging. Some formed teams with strategies of who would take what so that she could end up with the gift she wanted in the end. When the game was finally over, the three main culprits, quickly made a triangular swap to get the gift they wanted all along. It was the best gift exchange ever. I laughed so hard that I ended up with a headache. Of course, I got what I wanted and no one tried to take mine, and I wasn't interested in what the others where "fighting" over. As the group prepared to leave for the night, someone bemoaned that her shoes were missing! Seems someone took MJ's shoes and left hers by "mistake"???? The shoeless lady wore size 6 and the clunkers left behind were size 8 1/2 or 9. With no other choice, MJ put on the unattractive, over-sized clod hoppers and shuffled off to her car. I imagine there will be some lively exchanges at school today and maybe some payback.

Proof in the Viewing

The kids were thrilled with my clothespin people ornaments. (See previous post.) Many marveled out loud that I could have made something such as that. Questions flew as to how I did it, how long it took to do, etc. One young lady remarked that I was very good at making things and that I ought to make things. Okay. I didn't pass them around, and the children did not ask for me to do that sensing how special the ornaments are. The students have asked if they can make their own ornaments to take home. I have many ideas to choose from, many involving cutting and gluing, even a few with painting. They should prove to be an exciting time for them and a small nightmare for me. If only I didn't have to teach...

December Count Down of Activities Begins

I'm still around, just swamped with school work, Christmas activities, decorating at school and at home, the usual December. With Thanksgiving being so late in the month of November, it really seems like I am behind in my stuff. I dreaded dragging out the box that held the tree to be assembled at school, so I bought a pre-lit one that comes in just 2 pieces. Didn't take but 1 minute to set up. And the kids raved about it. You can hardly see it over the kids' desktops while it sits on the floor in the front of the room. But they love it! I decorated it after school without their help so it would go quicker with no fights. They think it is lovely. I only put on the colored beaded necklaces that I bought in New Orleans and silver metal cookie cutters. Again they raved at its beauty. I took the Styrofoam cup Nativity Scene that I made in 1973 to school for display. Each one marveled at its beauty, picked up the pieces, discussed who each character was and asked if the class will get to make a set. No, I'm not pushing my luck. Guess I could type out the directions to allow them to make one at home if they so choose. I'm reading a book set in 1920s in rural Mid-West and yesterday I read a part about clothespins being made into people complete with outfits. They stared at me as if they had never heard of such a thing. Well, today I am taking in my clothespin people ornaments that I made in 1974. I'm anxious to see how excited that will make them. You see, our group of students seem to have led such a sheltered life, but only sheltered in some of the good things.