Backgammon

twoK found my backgammon set.  I got it when I was about her age--maybe a teeny bit older, I can't remember.  Anyway, I taught her how to play.  I really like backgammon.  Who knew.  I don't really like games, but I do like backgammon.  I remember, I played backgammon nearly every day with a best friend in 6th grade.  Then she moved.  Her name was Angie C___.   We had lots of fun and a secret language, too.  There you go, a little more JK history on the web for all to see.

Break!

Break has been semi-relaxing.  I'm going to write about the good stuff and not the bad, though.

1.  Sleeping in!  MWH and I slept in past 10 (almost until 11) one day!  This morning I set the alarm and went to Zumba!  (The only reason I like to get up.)

2.  Hanging with the girls.... I've been so busy this last semester that I feel I haven't spent time with them.  I have to figure out how to teach, work, and see them more, or else I'm going to have to give up teaching. Teaching, though I love it, is soul-sucking work.  I had 4 - 5 tough students this semester.  Next semester, one of the tough ones will be gone!  I'll have one really tough one left, and she's MAD at her grade from this semester, but we'll get through it.

3.  Playing with 3 kitties and 3 girls!  I love it!

4. Braiding hair.

5.  Zumba!  I've gotten to do some extra classes.

6.  Books (see previous post)

7.  My new favorite song.  You can hear it here, but ignore the talking. (Oh, I do love it!)

I haven't gotten to cook as much as I wanted.  I'm hoping to get to cook in the next couple of days.

One thing, my Mom's death really hit me harder than I expected this break.  She was thinking about coming out to visit us over break, and I have the thought that she should be arriving soon in the back of my head.

Things I want to do in the next few days "off."

1.  A Dailey Method Class (maybe Sunday or tomorrow, but I'd rather do Zumba!)

2.  At least one more Zumba class (Monday morning, for sure... maybe tomorrow morning... but then I probably won't do a Dailey.  I should do a Dailey, but Zumba is WAY more fun!)

3.  Movie night with the girls.  (I watched a silly one with them this afternoon, but I don't think it counts.  Maybe we'll do one tomorrow night for New Year's Eve... OMG it's almost 2012, how did that happen?!)

4.  Work on a new web page for work (it's almost done, now!) and do some related work reviewing web sites.

5.  Create my syllabus for my class in the spring (I think I know what I want to do.  I want to try to make the syllabus in less than 8 hours.  Wish me luck!)

6.  Do an "end of year review here" and make a plan for next year.

Green! Straws!

Before 2011 slips away, I should tell you about one of my favorite new things, this year.  

I got  stainless steel straws for the girls.  I <3 them.  I felt so bad tossing plastic straws all the time.  Three-a won't drink out of them, but oh, well.  oNe and twoK like them and two out of three ain't bad!

(The straws are second to the lunch bags, but they are good.

The best thing about Christmas...

Hold on to your hats, here's a too enthusiastic post.

The best thing about Christmas is BOOKS!

oNe's aunt, sent her a book for Christmas.  I'd never seen it, even though it was a Newberry award winner.  It was written in the 70s so I should have seen it as it would have been around when I was old enough to read it.  I'm embarrassed to not have read it, but I grew up in state that might have banned it.  Sigh.  (In defense of our school librarian, it won the Newberry when I was too young to read it.)

Anyway, since I hadn't seen it before, I decided to read it to make sure it was a good book.  I like to read the books that the girls read (to know what they are learning and to be able to talk with them).  Plus, young adult books are fun and a nice escape!

It's a really enjoyable book.  It's about a battle against good and evil. I'm not quite done.  I plan to finish it today.  I would have liked to have read it last night, but MWH put on a tv show and it turned out to be a 2-hour episode.  Though I didn't finish the book, I got to snuggle with MWH and watch SciFi, so it's all good!

Oh, what's better than one good book?
A good book that is part of a series!  We have a new series to read!  Yippeeee!

I will let you know when I read the series what I think.  oNe's other aunt is planning to send the boxed set of books for oNe's birthday.  (OMG, oNe is gonna be 10!  OMG, OMG!)

Questions for you:

What's the best thing about Christmas, in your opinion?

Did you get any good books?

The kitties are here!!!

See other blog or FB (if you know me) for a picture!

A party game

In oNe's class, fourth grade, they played a little game at their holiday party.  The game was "pass the present."  The rules were to pass around a present to music and when the music stopped the kid holding the present got to unwrap a layer of wrapping paper on the present. There were multiple layers of wrapping paper.  Then the music started up and they passed again until the music stopped, whoever was holding unwrapped... rinse, repeat until all the layers of wrapping paper were removed.  When the last child unwrapped the last layer, that child found a box full of candy and had the option to keep it all to him or herself or the option to share (there was more than enough for the class) with the whole class.

You can see where this is going, right?  The child who unwrapped the last layer on the present chose to keep all the candy to herself.

The teacher and all the moms at the party almost fell over.  The kids tried to encourage sharing, but the child stood resolute.  She wouldn't share.  It was hers, she claimed.

I don't know this child, and I don't know the family situation, but our school has many well-off families and I doubt the child wanted for "stuff."  I am shocked at that child's response.  I don't know what her parents would have thought if they would have been there.

What would you do if it were your child?

My immediate reaction is that if one of my children ever chose to NOT share, I would be so embarrassed. I think I would have my child buy in a comparable present for the class (with her OWN money) and take it back with an apology.  (Did I mention I'd be embarrassed?????)

Who knows if this child will tell her parents that she should have shared with her friends, but chose not to share.  She might just say she won the candy at school.  Who knows, who knows.

So. Sad.  What are your thoughts?

oops, I forgot to buy pants

This fall, I've been a leeeeetle busy.  I was scheduled to the maximum and then my Mom died--not a good combination.  I haven't been doing super well and pretty much everything has been overwhelming.  It was a pretty warm fall so the girls didn't complain about wearing their short, capri-length pants up until last week when it turned colder.

When I went to get out their winter pants, I realized, in my overwhelmed state, that I hadn't ordered any new pants for them.

D'oh!  They didn't have new pants for this fall/winter.  twoK's old pants were too snug and oNe had two pairs that didn't have holes, but were two short.  Three-a was in decent shape.  She had 2 new pairs of pants (a little thinner than they should be for this time of year, but okay; two pair of twoK's old pants; and one pair of her own from last winter that still fit).

For twoK and oNe, I dug through all their clothes and found two more pairs for oNe (I did buy her a pair of cargo pants earlier) and one pair of twoK's that still fit and were long.  With extra loads of laundry and rotating their pants we made it through the week.  The order I placed,* last week, will hopefully arrive soon.

There you go, the story of the pants, or lack thereof.  The end.



*Yea, I could have gone out to buy some pants for them, but I wanted a certain brand and I didn't want to have to fight all the crowds at the mall.  I RARELY go to the mall anymore.  Zappos and Amazon pretty much do it for me.  I don't miss the mall at all.

Kitties on the brain!

I don't know what happened, but last weekend, I decided we had to start looking for kitties for twoK and Three-a.  I became OBSESSED.  We like to adopt from rescue organizations. I think I found two wonderful black kitties!!!!!  We met them tonight.  They are big!  (As big as, or a little bigger, than oNe's kitty!)  They are 2.5.  One is very curious, playful, and friendly and one is a little shy.  They are brothers!  We'll probably get them on Friday or Saturday.  Can you tell I am excited?  There are way too many exclamation points in the post.  Oh well, NEW KITTIES!!!!

OMG we're gonna have 3 kitties.

P.S. I am very busy with work.  I anticipate having a little time off over the holiday break, but not a lot.  I should get to relax on February 15th.  Seriously.  I'm booked until then.  And then I have stuff to do for OLU.  Ai-yi-yi.

Not good...hopefully I can shake this soon

I've been less than emotionally stable this week.  The reality of my Mom's death has now hit me hard.

Yesterday, I was supposed to work (at home) all day.  I knew if I stayed home I'd get very little (besides crying) done.  Instead, I went and worked out (not Zumba, but a good workout), then did a little work, then helped twoK finish her big second grade project and then had dinner with a friend!  I also called another friend to catch up.

I'm feeling a little better today.  I still have a HUGE report to work on, and NO motivation for it.  Then there's the other big project.  Oh, and I also have a lot of grading...  Sigh.  I'll try to get as much done as I can this weekend.

I have FINALLY started entries about each of the girls.  I want to blog about what they are like right now.  They are so fun.  (And noisy.)  (And they should be in bed NOW.)

Endorphins

If you find me depressed, take me to my favorite Zumba class!  I am so much happier than I was before.

One of my nightmares...

is finding a spider on my bath towel.  This morning, in real life, it occurred.  Ugh.  I hope the day gets better.

I'm looking forward

to not being so overwhelmed.  Since my Mom died, so many things have seemed like way too much of an effort.  I find I have good energy and motivation until about 1 or 2 pm. Then I just want to curl up in a ball.

On a positive note, I got the playroom organized.  Woo!  Now, I must go watch hulu with MWH.

oh yea

I have a blog.  I haven't forgotten, but I have been BUSY.  A quick recap is in order.

1.  One of my brother's came to visit over Thanksgiving.  Super fun. We did tourist-y things.  I'll post more about them at the OTHER blog.

2.  My fall class is almost over.  I haven't written that much about the course this time around. I don't know why.  I've learned a lot.  I have mostly fabulous students.  I am more happy than not with this semester.  It's been hard and it's been great.  Boy, I'm vague, but that's all I want to remember.  (Trust me, I'll only remember what I write down.)

3.  I had eye surgery on Tuesday.  Not serious stuff.  I have very dry eyes.  Hopefully the procedure will help alleviate dryness in certain areas.  This doesn't affect my vision.  The negative was that I did have to be put out with "twilight" anesthesia.  I was scared.  It all went great.  I didn't have any negative reactions and the best thing was that I got some caffeine in my I.V.  I felt SUPER after the surgery.  Now, I'm recovering and it'll be about 2 weeks before we know if the operation was successful.  Fingers crossed!  (You can thank me for NOT posting pictures of my eye as it heals.)

4.  Our floor project is finished.  I'm thrilled to have wood floors upstairs and downstairs!  It's going to be much easier to clean.  I love the wood, too.

5.  Despite having just done an extensive floor change in our house, MWH and I bought a new house.  Yup.  It became ours last week.  MWH found it back in September.  We decided to go for it in October.  That's the BIG news that I mentioned before.  It's exciting.  It's a very nice house--it's got a fabulous backyard.  Unfortunately, it needs to be remodeled.  We'll move sometime next spring/summer after the remodel.

We're starting in on the planning process right now.  Today we met with a kitchen planner. Exciting!  I am excited.  It will be fabulous when it's done.  If you sense that maybe I'm not fully excited, you would be correct and incorrect at the same time.  I am excited, but I am also still in disbelief.  I wasn't itching to move. I really like our current house (see #4).  When we moved into our current house, I thought it was going to be the house we lived the entire time the girls grew up.  I was all set for that.

However, there were a few things we didn't like about this house.  The main one was a fence line dispute with the world's craziest neighbor.  Then MWH found this other house and decided we should sell our house and buy this new one.  Since I really like MWH and I want him to be happy, I agreed.  He got me caught up in the excitement of A NEW HOUSE!  It is exciting.  I'm just a little overwhelmed from 1) my Mom dying, 2) teaching, and 3) huge work project. And we have another huge work project coming up.  It will all be okay.

6.  When I was in the out-patient surgery center and all hooked up to the machines, I was happy to see my resting pulse rate under 60 a lot of the time.  Woo.  Go Zumba.