12-31-07

Before I begin, I want to point out the photo above. It is one of the scenic views I took on the way up to Mt. Lemmon. I love it!

Did I begin yet? Nope. Here http://www.snopes.com/holidays/newyears/beliefs.asp is a link from an e-mail Ronnie sent me this morning. I love it, and it’s worth posting here. It shows various New Year’s traditions and superstitions, most of which I’ve never heard of. I do look forward to finding someone tall, dark, and handsome to cross my threshold though! (I’m not holding my breath, of course…)

NOW did I start? I have to tell you — I went to this nunly workshop once and this woman went on and on and on. If you’ve seen the Harry Potter movies, she was a lot like Professor Trelawny, without the ghastly glasses. Around TEN in the morning, she said “OK, now we can start.” The thing is, she’d already been talking around an hour and a half!!

I briefly considered doing a year in review, but there were parts of the year that definitely weren’t worth remembering. There were good parts, though.

School: I loved being able to bring in visitors to my classroom. We had Mr. Kates and Jeff … I forget his last name now … talk about newspapers. Mr. Kates works for the Milwaukee one and Jeff for the Ft. Atkinson one in the sports department. Mrs. Voie came in and quilted with the class (I hope the quilt is still up in the office, because it was cool!), and Mrs. … (dang, I’ll put her name in later) came and planted flowers with us as well as talked about working at a garden center. Seth came and talked about college life, and Mr. & Mrs. Breuer talked about their trip to Ghana. We learned about being a school principal and we learned about having a son with cystic fibrosis. Mrs. Arnold came and showed us the importance of hand washing (with her special light) and my brother visited after the Mass that was offered for my grandmother, who had died last summer. We also had visitors come to morning circle with us.

Ahh, least year was the year of student lunches as well. Each week a boy or girl (they took turns) was chosen and they could have three friends join them. We’d eat lunch together, the four of them and I, and it was always a fascinating experience and often fun as well. Chess club, the web site … these were things I enjoyed. My vision for the web site was a place that was friendly as well as informative and useful. I had seen other school web sites and avoided what I didn’t like — web sites that have no intimacy, that are more like a poster on the outside of a locked school. I wanted one that welcomed people in and kept them informed of what was happening. I liked that all the spelling lists were readily available, as well as grading rubrics, photos of events, etc. Oh, well.

I had fun with the teachers and will never forget “the perp” when I see a Nativity scene! I will probably forever be able to sign “America the Beautiful,” although it’s a skill without much purpose now. I also remember frozen pool parties, but that wasn’t this year!

More later — I need to go make coffee or tea!

I showed my family the Ducky Wishes book and the quilt on Christmas Eve when they came. Those were both incredible! The tea pots are in my china cabinet for all to see.

Oooh, a memory from one of the workshops we went to — being impatient with Sue chatting with a friend so I stepped away and called her on her cell phone from mine! I’m baaaaaaaaaaaaaaad when I’m ready to go home!

It was fun being in a building where all the classrooms are inside — who knew that was something I was leaving behind? I liked wandering into other classrooms and chatting, or seeing Margie’s puppy, or Joe and Annie popping in, singing “da bunny” to Judy … but I don’t miss recess duty (even though I dearly miss both recess and specials! and cubbies, too!).

There are way too many things to mention, but then again most of my life was school/church. There were rare trips to Gurnee to see Mary, and now I have to figure out how to get out there and do that again. We had great times together, but I don’t think I made it out there in 2007 at all.

What wasn’t school/church/internet (a LOT of time was on the internet) was spent in Mt. Horeb. It’s not really all that much further than going from work to my father’s place, but it seemed much further away. Of course I don’t drive in snow to get to my father’s, and it’s all city driving so that if something happens to the car I’m not on the side of the road in the middle of nowhere, which happened outside Verona one very cold December night. But 2007 did include many trips out to see John and the kids, as well as visits from John and the kids and Lisa.

It’s really weird to think that I’m the only one in the family to have met Lisa! (But I will pause a moment and ask you to keep Lisa’s family in your prayers.) John and Lisa came out and we went to eat at the train depot, which was nice. I didn’t even know it was there until the night I went there with Denise and Dale and … I forget who else … just that afterwards we went to Heather’s and that’s where I got necklaces for Betty for Christmas last year. Ginny (my cat) got along well with John and Lisa, but I’m still (now that the stress is over) glad that I brought her with me. My sister’s church group was praying that there’d be a way to bring Ginny with me, by the way!

I liked my visits to Mt. Horeb and miss being able to just drive out there or John calling and showing up after Mass. But those things are on my list of good memories for 2007.

Moving here (or is that surviving the move to here?) would definitely be a huge highlight of 2007. I would get bummed out over the stupid licensure stuff, but I haven’t been depressed since I got here, which was a huge change since basically I got depressed the beginning of last November and stayed that way most of the time through June. Here it’s not just that there are many places to go and things to do and people to do them with, but there’s also sunshine – tons of it. I don’t remember a day when it didn’t shine at all, even in the monsoon season. It makes a big difference! But yeah, so does being here with old friends, and if there’s something I want to do there’s someone to do it with!

Another highlight of moving here is having a sister. I’m not sure how to explain this and not hurt anyone’s feelings. But really, it seems like when I moved to Wisconsin I had a brother for the first time in decades. He was no longer a person who happened to have the label “brother” on him, but rather he was really a brother. And now that I’ve moved here it’s like I have a sister for the first time in decades as well. Most of the people I know come from functioning families, so they won’t get it. But it’s weird to be 50 and be a part of a family for the first time in way too many years! Well, it’s also weird to be 50, but we won’t go there!

You have read the things I’ve done (probably) since I moved here, because they were blogged, so I don’t need to go over them again.  Brief highlights include going to church with my neighbor Adriana; Sunday brunch with Del, Laura, Christine, and Diana; Saturday dinner with Dad, Dottie, Buz, Jemma, and Jaeden; HAVING A TEACHING LICENSE (oh, did I shout?  Sorry!); having a teaching position where I feel needed; having my kitty (and soon to get one of Donna’s tame strays); completing NaNoWriMo (even though that story needs a ton of work); lots of good things this year!  Another highlight was printing out my story and getting copies bound and delivered for Christmas.  That is something I did that I feel proud about, whether it turns out they like the story or hate it!

Next year?  Who knows.

Goals

I don’t do New Year’s Resolutions. I gave that up decades ago. Goals, on the other hand, are somewhat useful. I made a list on December 3, most of which involved getting ready for Christmas. The following is my list of goals for 2008. It is not every goal I have. It is simply a start, and things may come off the list at some point.

–Learn more Spanish, so I can speak to my students’ parents. I think I saw a course at Pima called Spanish for Teachers. I will look again, because that’d be what I want.
–Finish two lap quilts that are started. I think it’s 2. It could be more than that! I know I have the “patriotic” one in progress, but I think there’s another one in progress as well. That doesn’t include the ones in my head that I have the fabric for but haven’t begun, including Betty’s. But if I go to the folks’ house today I could (once again) take the fabric with me and at least cut it out. I have another one that is mostly cut out except for one part. These are both full-size quilts, though. But now that the guest room is done, I can put the sewing machine on the desk in there and leave it out.
–Learn to play the guitar. I have the guitar, books, and a computer program as well. I just have to take the time.
–Finish unpacking from moving this summer. Is there a statute of limitations? Cleaning the regular bedroom will involve unpacking and sorting stuff. I have boxes with only a few things in them. I have a box set up that I’m filling with things to get rid of — to donate to a thrift store.
–Take the next step with NaNo04. That’s Rolled-Up Streets. I have to undo all the italics and turn them into underlined words. I have to do other formatting things, and then decide if I think it’s good enough to give to an agent or to try and … put out there.
–Lose ten pounds. I had lost ten since I moved here, but of course that was before Christmas Cookies.
–Take the SEI class I need for licensure. I think that’s in February. I remember that there’s a two-week online class at Pima. I have to look it up again. I only have one year to do this, but I really need to do it immediately because of where I teach. I have two years to either take classes in US and Arizona constitutions, or take those tests. I think I’d rather take the classes. It’d be nice to get that done by the time school starts again.

I have more goals, of course, but these are a nice start.

The Holidays

First, let’s go back in time to Friday’s trip to the mall. They overcharged me by two dollars, so I just wanted the two dollars back. No, since it was on my debit card they needed to void that charge and redo it. But — the end result of that was I am out that money until the bank gets around to putting the overcharge back in my account! It has continued to infuriate me as I check my bank account because that’s over a hundred dollars that I didn’t have access to … which means that I couldn’t do a number of things I had planned to do with that money, including finishing my Christmas shopping. I had alternatives for two of the people on my list and actually that part seems to have worked out better (unless they were just being polite). But I couldn’t get Sue her present and it has to wait until the money is put back into my account, so I felt guilty opening hers! But I will send an e-mail to the store explaining why I won’t be back there. They should have told me that the credit to my account could take much longer than expected, since they certainly took the money OUT right away!

So, that added to my panic for Saturday. But I did get the guest room looking fairly spiffy and kept the door open (we won’t discuss my bedroom). I have no idea how much food feeds ten adults, so I made the first pot roast (the thicker one) in the crock pot Friday and the other (smaller) one overnight in the crock pot. Then I put both in a turkey roasting pan in the oven. The house smelled great! I went by the theory that too much is better than not enough, and if there’s extra then that’s great — minimal cooking this week! I also had corn, two bags of red potatoes (another food that can be nuked once it’s been cooked the first time), corn, pretzel sticks with four yummy dips that I’d gotten from the street fair (spinach, dill, veggie — not my favorite, and salmon). Donna made the dips when she came. I had cookies from various sources for dessert — dessert being one of the things I was planning to buy but now couldn’t. I got rolls in case anyone wanted to turn the pot roast into sandwiches because it was nice and tender and shredded (my brother taught me how to make pot roast). Donna had made dessert/breakfast breads that we also offered for dessert. Del brought a shrimp platter, Dottie and Jemma brought more cookies (I think Jemma brought cookies — I remember the huge cookie plate!) and Dottie brought her eggplant. I love her eggplant, and one of the guests turns out to be a vegetarian, so that was even better! Oh, now I remember! Jemma brought this awesome platter of artichoke hearts, green olives, cheeses, crackers, etc. Dottie also brought this thing she made that I never heard of until a few weeks ago: She takes sausage like from Hickory Farms and sautees it in sweet & sour sauce. It’s great! Donna went and got beverages (she saved the day in lots of ways!) and I made a pot of coffee as well. No one who came in the door went out hungry!

Now, where do you put ten adults to eat? Dottie (very recently) got a new dining room table and gave me her kitchen table this past weekend. I still had John’s former table. Donna helped me stand up Dottie’s and put the leaves in both tables. Then we figured out a way to make both tables fit in the kitchen with the ten kitchen chairs, so everyone got to sit in a nice spot, even if it wasn’t … roomy. I wish now that I’d taken a picture of it! But I had a lot on my mind!

The guests were Dad, Dottie, Buz, Jemma, Jaeden (he’s two and doesn’t count as an adult), Donna, Del, Laura, Cathleen, and Diana. I was there too, making ten adult people! Cathleen is Del’s middle daughter, and I haven’t seen her in decades! But it was just as if time hadn’t passed, which was great! So we all ate, chatted, opened gifts, and had a great time. Jaeden met his first cat — Ginny — who actually stayed in the living room the whole time! She played with Jaeden, which was equally surprising, and his laugh was great! There was also wrapping paper everywhere at one point, and when it was scooped together he played in it as if it were a pile of leaves. Jemma has great pictures of that on her new camera.

Donna’s up — more later!

Christmas Pics

My sister is sleeping at the moment, and I don’t know how much time I have to write. So I will upload the Christmas pics to the blog and then if there’s time keep writing. These are just the ones from yesterday, Christmas. I was a tad busy on Christmas Eve but Jemma took a ton of great pics that I’m hoping she’ll e-mail to me! I’m pretty sure that if you want any of the pics, you can save them by right-clicking and then choosing *save as.* These are pics of Buz, Donna, Jaeden (on train), Dottie, Dad, and I. The posed pics were at Dad’s house in front of their tree (that’s Anthony’s hand on the tree). The other pics were at Buz’s.

unpacking

Yes, that’s right. I’m unpacking. I’m trying to clean up the guest room, in anticipation of having tons of company tomorrow. The bed is made, the desk is cleared off and this computer is on it. I’m sitting in Del’s wonderful desk chair. But I still have … stuff. So I thought I’d go through it so this room is really awesomely clean — like going to Dottie’s.

One thing I was avoiding was this huge box. It says Gateway on the side, and my father brought it to Syracuse right before I moved in 2002. I have no doubt that there are things in there from that time! You have to understand that I was coming from a frugal Franciscan mentality, which probably explains the soap slivers — like I really needed to bring those with me? Was I worried there was no bath soap in Wisconsin? I have enough disposable razors to last a decade. There were Time magazines from 2003. Honestly, though, one of my favorite discoveries was a piece of paper approximately four inches by four inches. On it was written the number 5. That’s it. 5. No lie. That really needed to be moved? Because you can bet that when I lived in Wisconsin, all I did was ADD things to the box!

I know that because Betty was two when I moved, and I found a birthday card she made me. She could write her name and some letters, so I’m guessing she was 5 or 6. I was eleven, according to the number of candles on the card, bless her heart. I found wonderful cards from parents and students at St. Matthew’s — my last school in Syracuse. I found a phone message telling me to call Dottie and another to call Sr. Collette. I needed those?

I found a pinky ring — I have no idea if it’s “real” or not, but it is comfortable so I have it on. There were mystery keys, but I kept them anyway. All the pens and paper clips will come in handy, but I’m not sure any human being really needs that many index cards. This is all just the tip of the iceberg!

In other news, last night I went to Winterhaven with Buz, Jemma, Dottie, and Jaeden. It was a walk through night, and it was cold! Well, to me 40 is cold. But there was a certain … community (because I can’t spell the word I want to use) in walking. For those who don’t know, Winterhaven is one of the neighborhoods in town, but each year it is VERY decorated. We used to just drive through, but now you can only do that on some nights. The rest you walk or take a horse-drawn carriage. That would be cool! Some of the houses’ decorations won various awards. In the newspaper they talked about one man who went blind last year but still decorated this year as he had so many times before. Taking Jaeden added to the fun because there were an incredible number of train-themed decorations, which he loves. But dang, it was cold!

I have a lot of company coming tomorrow, and probably won’t write again until after the holidays. So I’ll wish you now all the blessings of the season, the merriest of Christmases and the happiest of new years.

Friday

I almost called Sue the other morning but I was driving. There it was on the radio, that song which inspired her to call me last year: Dominic the Donkey. http://youtube.com/watch?v=Ok5rOO2v2dU Priceless memories.

So after working on report cards until lunch time, I am done for the next two weeks. I do have to finish report cards, but that’s about it. It is weird though — this is the first job I’ve ever had (not just schools, but all jobs) that I didn’t get any sort of Christmas bonus at all; not even a card. Then again, the school is huge.

After I got home and picked up my pay check, I picked up my neighbor Arianna as well. We went to the bank and then to the mall. She doesn’t have a car, and I figured it’d be nice for her to get out. I had to finish up my shopping — getting what I needed for Buz and for Dottie. While we were shopping Buz called! We were tentatively thinking about Winterhaven tonight but we’re looking more at tomorrow night now. That works for me. Tonight I’ll work on cleaning up some.

I also need to finish up Christmas cards! I’ve been too tired and sick all week to think about it! I take cold medicine or allergy medicine (depending on my mood) to get through work, but most nights come home and fall asleep. But I’m not totally exhausted at the moment, so I’ll see what I can do!

It’s weird how you get into a routine and it becomes a part of the holiday. Gone this year were classroom decorations, Christmas program, Mass the last day of school, in-school Christmas party … the things I got used to! Also gone were hall Christmas decorations because the pod area doesn’t have any halls! Our “halls” are the outdoors. Nothing sticks to the outer walls, and nothing lasts on the outside of the classroom door. Oh, well. There’s nothing to shovel either!

I’m employed!!

For real! I’ve seen the e-mail to my principal verifying it. They won’t make it retroactive (my principal did try though) but it’s effective as of yesterday. The principal camped out at Human Resources yesterday until she got what she wanted — me employed there and not having to go through the long hire process that would make me not employed before January! She did that! I am so psyched! Not to mention relieved!

Yesterday some of the fourth grade teachers had a cookie exchange. I think the others will participate later this week. I actually made butterscotch chip cookies from scratch! AND — I learned something! Did you know that you can make a whole lot more cookies if you don’t eat the cookie dough while you’re waiting? Who knew? I actually got five dozen cookies (what I needed) plus a few extras! I promptly put the extras in the freezer along with the two batches (a dozen of one thing and half a dozen of another) I got. I was telling a friend of mine that they’re either put away for when company comes on Christmas Eve or I’ll defrost them sooner and my sister and I will pig out on them when she comes!

Link of the — month? http://pawnyville.myminicity.com/ind

Tomorrow is early dismissal (1:06 instead of 2:06) and PD (well, faculty meeting) and the last day of SFA (reading). Then there is just Thursday! We have a work day Friday for doing our report cards, and then we have two weeks off! That whole extra week instead of the usual 6 days is going to feel extravagant! Living so far from school means I never ever go in on days off or weekends. That will be odd, because I’m used to being at school one or two days over the vacation.

I really need to finish my Christmas cards tonight!!

Woohoo!!!

It came! Amidst the rest of the day I stopped back at the apartment to check my mail, and there it was! My teaching certificate!! Woohoo!! Six months ago today I moved here — not a speedy process!

It was a fun day. I met Dad and Dottie for breakfast and then Dottie and I spent the rest of the day shopping. We went to various stores in the city, had lunch at Sweet Tomatoes (the salad bar place) for soup and salad, and then wandered around the mall for a while. We got back to her house around 5! But it was a lot of fun!

I had awakened at 4:15 this morning with a sore throat. Now I sound truly awful. But since I was up (I made sore throat tea with honey, which really works!) I did some of my Christmas cards and packed boxes for mailing. I still have more cards to do, so if yours doesn’t come in the first batch, fear not!

Could it be?

I telephoned the person in Phoenix who has been doing my licensure paperwork. I reiterated to her voice mail that my boss insisted I had a year to get the SEI (Structured English Immersion) course credits and that I had sent her everything else. I asked her to call me back and hopefully tell me that it was in the mail! So … that’s what happened! I checked my voice mail for my cell phone (I’d forgotten to turn it back on after it was off all day at school) and she had left a message saying that she mailed it and I should get it on Monday or Tuesday!!!

We had a fire drill this morning. Well, it wasn’t really a drill. One of the other portables apparently had smoke from its heater. This was our first one; what a delightful experience it wasn’t! The kids just chattered away and when I would specifically tell one to stop talking she just kept on going. Their whole day was like that. It cost them. My SFA kids were great, though, and they got candy canes as a treat. They are still enthralled by the different alphabets in the dictionary. They wrote sentences, phrases (Merry Christmas was a popular choice), vocabulary words, etc. Then I suggested that they could make their own alphabets as well.

The story of my boy bathroom vandals thickens. This was no spur-of-the-moment childishness. Oh, no. They planned it the day before and brought markers to school to do it with!!

This (above) is the view from my classroom door looking at the other portables (or pods). I can’t stand calling them portables because portable is an adjective, not a noun. Yeah, I know — picky, picky, picky!

This is the other view from my pod, looking toward the school cafeteria (beyond the flag). The front part of the building you see is something else; the cafeteria is behind it. It’s not a fun hike when it’s cold and rainy!

Home, sweet home. Or something like that. This is my classroom. It is a freestanding single pod. There are a couple third grade ones that are two classrooms in one building.

“weather”

Our weather is usually relatively simple. Summer is hot, and then it gets less hot. It’s raining or it’s not. That covers June through the end of November. So to suddenly get “weather” is a big deal. The hail the other night was stunning … partially because it was so loud, banging on the patio awning and the kitchen skylight. The snow on the mountain nearly made up for the two days of downpour and having to drive “the long way” so my car wouldn’t get stuck in gullies. This morning it was fog. Not a little fog — visibility was half a block. In the small, clear gaps, everyone sped up. Then I finally get south and to the street where I turn west — and it was clear as a bell!

Tomorrow I will call the licensure people and find out what’s up. They should have my stuff by now — unless they put it in a drawer again!!

It’s testing time in the school world again — last week, this week, and next. Last week we gave a reading benchmark test. Monday and Tuesday were the Science/Writing benchmark. Next Tuesday is the math benchmark. Today was the last SFA (reading) test — those report cards are due tomorrow, even though we still have SFA through next Wednesday. Around 8 or 9 students have been getting pulled for Dibels testing, but next month I go to a workshop so then I can do my own testing. Oooh, ahh. They had their regular math test on Friday. I hate all this testing! I grade some of the tests — we all graded some of the science/writing ones today and will finish tomorrow. I grade the regular math test and fill in a stupid grid and turn it in. I grade the SFA tests as well. The rest I turn in and someone else does the rest. That means I wait until the results are posted on-line and I can see their overall scores plus the generic data, but not specifically what Alexa got wrong, for example.