Carnival, Graduation, end-of-the-year staff party.... I won at ping pong tonight, I'm thinking of changing sports. I hope to make a card this weekend, but all of the unpacking of my craft stuff is intimidating me.

6 more working days

Well, I had to watch all of my French Open highlights tonight on the tennis channel.com. I was complaining... er...discussing the fact that I don't have cable to a coworker (to watch tennis), and he said, "Tennis channel.com does live streaming." Wow!

And, if you have noticed, I changed my "blog banner". I didn't think the picture of the kids in the snow really worked anymore, but it's hard to get them both looking at the camera at once. So... I'll be experimenting with my banner. There are some really awesome banners out there. I was looking at this one tonight. Some blogs play music when you click on their site, like this one. This always flags Dale that I am blurfin'

S* performed tonight in the class play. He was a riot! He alternated between playing with his tail and singing on the top of his lungs. It was fun to watch. (Lauri, I'm sure you were missed!)

8 more working days

Dale took a few pictures at the tournament yesterday. This is a picture of Sima and I chatting, and then there is a picture of me serving.

So, no working sink tonight ... I took S* out to dinner. He talked my ear off the entire time when he wasn't studying the kid's booklet. He convinced me to go to Chili's which I have stopped going to because the service is usually really bad. I relented, but unfortunately, was keenly aware of any glitches in the service. (There was 4, but who's counting?) I told S* that we were going on a date. When we got home, he wanted to play a game with me. I was curious if giving S* attention just whetted his appetite for more? Interesting. I think I am still recovering from the tennis tournament because I am very tired.

I called my dad for perspective on all of my losses this weekend. He said that he made "Playing well" his goal rather than "Winning." Then I happened to mention that there was some controversy between my partner and I about line calls. Then my Dad (IN ALL SERIOUSNESS) told me which partner should call which line and why. I couldn't grasp it because I had arrived home at this part of the conversation and the boys were leaking out of the house to see Mom. I'll have to ask him again. My Dad is always good for a bit of wisdom!

So, I am yearning to make cards, but my desk is shoved against my craft desk and all of my stuff is still packed. I've asked Dale gently when he thinks my craft area will be available. I think the kitchen is the first priority right now. I mentioned that it would be a BUMMER if this weekend (when he is out of town) I couldn't craft anything. He agreed. Of course, the fact that I can't make any cards (easily) makes it so much more desirable.

And, I want to thank Lauri and my mom for coming out to support me during my tennis matches, thanks guys!

Thanks for stopping by...

Some more...

I wanted to post a few more pictures. We got to see the "plastic bag" guy at the Schubert's Good Morning America visit. I also took a great picture of Z*. S* was refusing to be on my blog.

Final Kitchen update: Sink is in, but not fully functional yet. (We went out to eat for lunch and dinner again) Dale installed our temporary counter. We have no dishwasher...BUT we have 4 new appliances on order: microwave, refrigerator, stove and dishwasher. We actually still have our "rolling" dishwasher, but it won't fit in the space for the built-in dishwasher. I went with white appliances and not stainless steel because

(1) It was $500 cheaper;

(2) The stainless steel only comes with black accents that won't go very well with our white cabinets;

(3) It shows fingerprints more than white does;

(4) Dale wanted white.

It's interesting to note that I was really considering the stainless steel because my sister has them and most of the advertisements in magazines feature stainless steel appliances. Anyway, just in case you were like me and had never heard of "french-door" refrigerators, I uploaded a picture for you. The freezer is on the bottom, and the refrigerator has all sorts of cool features. We also purchased the refrigerator "counter depth" which means it will align with our counters instead of "sticking out." Ahh, the luxuries! We actually bought all of these appliances while on our date Saturday night!

Enough procrastinating, off to plan our week, hope you have a great one!

pics

My mom and I got pedicures.

This is a picture of our new coiffed toes.

Kitchen with the cabinets starting to form.
Picture of Sima and I (my doubles' partner)
Picture of Dale & I eating breakfast on a

TV tray. The boys were eating in the living room with a TV tray.

I had a great time at the tennis tournament. I got to play 3 matches and we had a great time even though we lost (boo hoo!). I played tennis with Z* and S* this afternoon. I saw some dad/son combos at the tournament. Maybe next year Z* and I will be out there!
Thanks for stopping by!

Excitement Mounting

Hey, I am VERY excited about being in a local tennis tournament this weekend. If it doesn't rain too much, I'll get to play Saturday, Sunday and Monday. Yippee! I asked my boys to consider watching me play for at least 10 minutes. I had to remind them of the HOURS that I spend watching them play baseball. Speaking of which the baseball tournament starts May 31st. Z*'s coaches eyes were gleaming when he talked about winning this time (apparently he's been real close twice).
Hey thanks for stopping by, if it rains a lot, I can post a few pictures. Dale has been working nonstop on the kitchen. He has installed most of the cabinets, now he needs to put in the sink and the drawers. The floor looks fantastic!
P.S. I just spent close to $100 on stamping stuff that I can't even open since all of my stuff is packed up. I also got the cutest ever prima flowers. They are print flowers... almost like old magazine pages cut into flowers.

Musings

So, on Monday, I went to a "retreat" at our educational consultant's "ranch." For some reason, I was imagining movie-theather style seats, but it turns out he built a room above his garage. Anyway, he was mentioning how expository writing is so critical to student achievement and how nifty it would be if students would publish their own writing. And, then I thought,... my blog!! I like being published! Maybe I'll raise my achievement level.

I just finished, "Losing my Faculties" which was a very funny, poignant and biting book. I brought it to Z*'s surprise band performance (on to that in a minute). Anyway, sitting next to me, is another mom about to start her first teaching job at the Waldorf school. She was starry eyed and asked me what I thought of the book. Well, of course, I loved it, but I didn't know if I wanted to admit that to her, so I hemmed and hawed. The author basically details his teaching jobs and his ups and downs and how his experience with his students never is congruent with his experience with administration. It is definitely ruthless at points, and, how could I, with a smile on my face recommend it to a brand new teacher?

On to the performance... At exactly 7:20 a.m. today, Z* announces that "oh! I have a band thing tonight" Needless to say, May is very busy and I had tennis and Dale & S* had farm league. As I tried to explain scheduling to a 10-year old boy, he says, "I get it." I wonder sometimes the things that I attempt to explain in a very rational way to my sons. My voice did have a little bit of a irrational edge, though. I ran into his very cool music teacher at school and found out that Z* was up for an award, so we were in those metal folding chairs for 1.5 hours listening to all the music offerings at Hooker Oak.

So, thanks for stopping by! Continue to support Schubert's (we went there tonight and I got a Mt. Shasta, mmm!)

Home, Sweet, Home

OK, it's way too late to be posting, but it's really great to be home again (even though we had a lovely time staying at my mom's). The varnish smell is around, but it's not too noticeable. We had a lovely picnic dinner al fresco on our card table (with a tablecloth) with various food items that could be scrounged up in our refrigerator and prepared with a microwave only. S*'s plate was by far the most eclectic: pancake, shrimp dumpling, small bowl of syrup and beef teryaki. Many of S*'s food items would accidentally "fall" into the syrup bowl, and I had to stop him from drinking the remainder of the syrup!!! Yikes!
CHICO MADE GOOD MORNING, AMERICA!
We already had our quota of sugar this afternoon because we got milkshakes at Schubert's (which is one of the 4 best ice cream shops in AMERICA). You can vote for them here. You can watch a video, too! Update: Z*'s head is in the video!! Apparently Good Morning America picked the four contenders. We will find out who the winner is on next Sunday. Z* got 2 coffee scoops and a chocolate scoop in his milkshake, S* got 2 mint chip and 1 chico mint in his, and I got mocha chip (all 3). Very filling, very yummy!

Now that I am home again, I will be posting pictures again because that's what's makes a blog so much fun. Tomorrow I will be spending my day in Zamora as an all day "retreat." Trader Joe's is on the menu for Monday night.

Thanks for stopping by!

Quick Note

Well, we are still at my mom's because the varnish smell is way too strong. We can walk on it with our socks and have to be very careful (thanks for the comment Alicia). The floors do look beautiful. We had a rip roarin' baseball game and then grandma, S* and I saw Iron Man. It was PG-13, so I covered S*'s eyes at different points. He wasn't happy about me sticking my hand in his face. A lot of movies coming out this summer. The critics have TRASHED Speed Racer, but I still stand by m enjoyment of this flick. My boys want to see the new Indiana Jones movie which is coming out May 22nd.
We have been boiling over here...100 degrees.
Well, we're tired...but excited about how the kitchen is coming along!
Thanks for stopping by!

Best donut in the world

So... one of my coworker has been talking about a "bacon donut" since I met him 4 years ago. When I saw it on the internet, I couldn't believe my eyes! It's from voo doo donughts in Portland Oregon.

Chico made national news today because our local ice cream shop was chosen as the top 4 in the nation (!). We had a scoop today with the rest of the city.

We are officially bunking at my mom's tonight, so I better get some sleep because the morning will probably take a little longer with a different kitchen. Dale says our floor looks great! (It stills smells bad, though)

Thanks for stopping by!

mother's day demolition

Yes, that is Z* mowing his first lawn!! He is donating all of his profits from his fledging mowing business to endangered animals.

Well, the last of our cabinets are gone. Dale ended up having to saw them out. The boys and I left him struggling with a crowbar when we went to the movies to see Speed Racer. I really enjoyed the flick! Z* say he liked the special effects, but it didn't have much of a storyline. (He pretty much agreed with the critics.) I had to watch it because it was written and produced by the creators of the Matrix trilogy. I enjoyed every lavish minute of it, eye candy, predictable story and all! It was funny because I nixed Ironman because it was Mother's Day after all, then I run into another mom who was going into see Ironman with her son & husband.

I had a lazy Mother's Day. Our house is pretty much in disarray which makes it hard for me to do anything. Of course, I wanted to do everything that I couldn't do. I did wake up to blueberry pancakes made in the shape of 2 women. The boys made them for me. Very yummy! S* had to point out that it was his idea and that they couldn't use the heart cookie cutter because it was plastic. I did get to lay in bed and finish Dead Clever. What a fun ride! Dead Clever is the first in a series of British mysteries with a quirky, hip female detective. I want to read the next one, but they don't have them in the library.

Ode to our table:

you gave us a place to sit

we ate heartily

set you, cleaned up

solid, strong, up to 3 meals a day

you were there

spills galore, tablecloths after tablecloths

you withstood it all

we broke bread on you, passed food and did homework

may you do the same in another household

goodbye!

Saturday News

I borrowed this art from Chico Sustainable's blog, it very appropriately describes the state of our house for the next 2 weeks.

Crafting news: Dale & I just boxed up all of my craft stuff, so I can't THINK about making cards until next week. The whole process made me extremely cranky because I was sorting through all of this half-started and half-organized projects. Also, I have so many boxes/baskets/drawers from my various attempts to organize my craft space. I woke up this morning wanting my ribbon to be organized because right now they are in ziploc bags. We are boxing up the downstairs area because Wednesday the floor guys will be sanding the living room and hallway and dust will surely be floating around.

Speaking of our floor guy, I just found out last night that I work with his sister at Four Winds. The last day with students at Four Winds was Friday. The Four Winds staff has a tradition of going to Quackers (a bar) after their day at the park with their students. The teachers were making plans for their summer, and I felt a little bereft. Then I realized, OH! They are off, I'm not! It should be an interesting schedule with one of my school's dismissed and the other 2 still in session.

We will be moving into my mom's house Wednesday night and returning to our house Sunday morning. We can walk on the floor with socks ONLY. Luckily, blogging is web-based, so I can post from whereever I am.

Table update: The guy from freecycle will be picking it up sometime today. I miss it now, just knowing that it will be gone.

Happy Mother's Day and thanks for stopping buy!

Memories

This guy is crazy! painting on a week night!

It was fitting today that I was proctoring the exit exam for one of my very first students at NCCS. That first year was pretty crazy! I don't think I knew what I was getting into!

Grad update: Starting interview #7 tomorrow. I am planning on interviewing 3-4 students in Oroville next Friday. I'm getting there. My last 2 interviews were a little lackluster which slowed me down a bit...but I hope I am coming back.

Mom stuff: So yesterday I had 6 boys in my van ranging from ages 7-10. We were going to the baseball field! I had a flash forward to when the boys will be teenagers in a few years. I got to watch S*'s game which I haven't been as diligently watching as Z*'s game. S* isn't the fastest runner, in fact, he can barely outrun his ball, but I got him to look at the base and not his ball.

Kitchen update: We have wood in our living room. Dale is picking up the last of our cabinets on Saturday at Ikea in Sac. Next week the floor will be done. I can't wait! The first thing I said to Dale when I walked in this house almost 8 years ago is, "We have to replace that floor." So, then we will slowly replace our appliances. If you have done any research, please share it with me, I got bogged down with finding the "perfect" appliance!

Thanks for stopping by!

going, going, gone!!

Yippee! In 34 minutes, I posted my china cabinet, table and chairs on freecycle and someone wants it. Freecycle has a posting board where you can post items that you want to give away for free. My table and chairs are going to a large family who wants a table that seats 10. I guess we will be eating on a card table. I actually had 3 people email me minutes after I posted the item. They have freecycle chapters all over the country!

birthday card + lunch lady

Just a couple of pictures to share with you! I serve as lunch lady at one of the schools and I really wanted a picture of me with my hair net on! This picture was taken at NCCS in our classroom/lunchroom. My lunch service is coming to an end because NCCS is closing June 6th.

And, I am posting my card for Lauri's birthday because I did it 2 weeks ago (so I wouldn't stress out the night before), but I couldn't post it before her birthday celebration. I am thinking of buying my mother's day cards which feels like heresy. Maybe I can do it this week... I want to be a good mother and not be a wreck with my kids because I was making homemade mother's cards.

Thanks for stopping by!

Weekend is closing...

Well, I had a very fun weekend, how about you? (Hi, Amy!) I got to play some serendipitous tennis. Dale did some work on the kitchen, and we got to celebrate my good friend's Lauri's birthday. First Joanne, Lauri and I played some games with the tennis pro, then we went to a delicious brunch! Yumm! Then off to Costco, Safeway and Bat Comics. Z* desperately needed some "Hero Clicks."

Yesterday, I cleaned the bathrooms thoroughly. I had S* help me with the downstairs bathroom. It's nice to appreciate one clean day with them! It's funny that I am obsessive about so many things, but I'm not obsessive about cleaning!

Kitchen: Dale patched up the door, so now we only have the sliding glass door. He is going to texturize it and paint it the this week. And, then...... May 12th, the floor guys are going to redo the kitchen floor and sand and re polish the living room and hallway. It's going to look great!

This morning I was thinking about bloggin' and I was composing a blog in my head, but I never got to post it. Hmm... I guess I am brain dead after shopping in Costo and Safeway and coming home to find out that we need butter!

Oh, I wanted to share my packing for Lauri's gift! I was using items that I already had in my house. I am attempting NOT to use wrapping paper anymore. Of course, I regifted the container from a gift that I received. It turns out that the gift was something that Lauri already had so we are crafting an alternate gift instead.

Well off to read for bedtime, thanks for reading and I am wishing you a great Monday.

bloggin' world

So at work today, my coworkers were talking about a news story that had to do with a mom completely in the dark about her daughter in the basement with 7 kids. It turns out the dad was also the dad of all of the kids. I looked in amazement and befuddlement because, folks, I don't read the news. I contemplate this often: Should I get the ER? Should I read the news so I know what's going on? But I spend my news time reading blogs! I read a funny earth day commentary by Brendan Halpin... he's very tongue-in-check! Hop on over there unless you want to read about the 30-eyed squid instead. I "subscribe" to about 30 blogs, some being more prolific than others. Of course, I am always searching for the perfect blog... but, like friends, they all satisfy different parts of my brain. Speaking of the ER, I was motivated by this post to call ER to stop receiving my Market Value Place Mailer. Of course, spending 20 minutes sorting through my mail to find 3 shreds of useful info was also a big motivator.

I wish I could have taken a picture today. I wore my outfit inspired by the fashion show at the Omega Nu fundraiser. I felt like a million bucks! You'll probably see it though because I'll wear it once a week!

Well my schedule is set for next year: 3.5 days at Four Winds plus 1.5 days at Hearthstone (.75 Chico + .75 Oroville).

I had to post considering I checked my site statistics 4 times today. Why am I so obessive? Oh, that's right, I have obessive traits...
Thanks for stopping by!