My DD (darling daughter) is the master at turning a phrase.  While I cannot hold a candle to her writings, I figured I could do this as well.  Welcome to my life!

Monday, July 19, 2010

Where, oh where, has the summertime gone???

It's close to the end of July. Next week is cheer camp; the next week it's time for pre-school at-school workshops. It just seems like yesterday that we were singing "School's out for summer..."
Am I ready for school to start? no and yes. No because my room is a mess, I haven't done anything as far as revamping lesson plans, and I feel like I haven't rested at all. My kids (seniors 2010) have scattered to the four winds, and as of yet, there is not another class in line to take their place. Taking pictures BY MYSELF on the sidelines. Yes because I am excited for the coming year, even if I am not prepared. I think my photographic skills are getting better, and that my sideline shots will be better- I hope! My cheer chicks have been very easy to work with so far. I need the routine of having to be some place at the same time every day. I need to go back to work to REST!!!
So, what's in store? Cheer camp, Presenting an Arkansas History workshop, CPR, painting the closet in the gym so the mats have a home, painting the cheer house, selling rally towels, finishing up masters' class #2 and beginning #3. Yeah, nothing much!

Thursday, July 8, 2010

Home again, home again, jiggity jig...








Home, Sweet, Home!!! Ever been on a trip and you CHEER when you cross the home state line? I even cheered when we crossed the Pope County line! The trip to New York was AWESOME- but fun is fun and then you're done! I am not used to 13 hour drives in one sitting. Highlights of the trip: Monticello, Antietan, Winchester, Virginia- the best oh, by the way, Gettysburg, and then hanging with my family in NY State, Lake Seneca and the wineries, and riding down the Erie Canal. Of course, coming by Ohio Pottery and getting more Fiestaware was good too. BUT I am tired and glad I don't have to go much of anywhere for a couple of weeks! Maybe I can catch up with friends here at home!

Sunday, June 20, 2010





Slow Summer Daze

Who says a teacher has the summer off? Since June 1st, this slacker has supervised cheerleaders waiting tables twice, had 4 cheer practices, set up a hot dog stand, sat in on two interviews, and spent a week walking around a Civil War battlefield with a bunch of other slacker teachers who don't do anything in the summer!
Wow, what a great week! The institute was fantastic. I now know darn near everything there is to know about the war in Missouri.
The best part is that I met some really great people that I hope to keep in touch with for a while.

Sunday, May 23, 2010

"The Time has come," the Walrus said, "to talk of many things..."








This is how I started my letter to my  FB Seniors of 2010.  As my friend Chris says, she didn't birth them, but she feels like their momma.  Me, too, even though they wandered into my life in 7th grade.  They are a remarkable bunch of kids, academically and athletically.  They're smart, talented, and destined to set the world on fire.  I will miss them a bunch and school will not be the same.  

So- here's a few pictures of my "kids".  And another message: Don't be stupid, and if you need anything, give a shout!

Sunday, May 9, 2010

Mothers of Mothers....

Happy Mother's Day to you...
It's been a nice day.  Church, dinner at my mom's, and a nice nap.  Both of the biologicals called to wish Nanna and me a HMD, as well as the text messages and HMD's from my other kids from school.  Really sweet.
Pandora beads from Evan and Jenny and Reg, and a lovely bouquet from Lauren, and the dog didn't get in the garbage.  Yes, a good day.

Sunday, May 2, 2010

Why is school nearly over???

May 2nd and I am feeling it!!!    Culture Fair Open House is Tuesday night.  2 months of threats, yelling, and throwing up my hands will soon be over.  Hopefully these 7th graders will surprise the dog out of me and put on an open house to end all open houses.  I can dream, can't I?

I missed the Athletic Banquet last night- can't be three places at the same time, I don't care who you are.  I hated to not be there for my boys and girls, too, but just couldn't be done.

I really hate this time of year.  I got my first HS graduation announcement this week fro one of my girls- a cheerleader.  She's a doll and I will totally  miss her.  I figure I'll be getting several more in the next week or two.  Sad times for me, but exciting times for them.  

Exciting times this sumer, though- a week-long seminar in Missouri, coaches' clinic the next week, then a trip to New York the next week.  Along with the NY trip I will also be stopping at Montecello, Harper's Ferry, Antetiam, Gettysburg, and MAYBE one more battlefield.  And all those lovely vineyards in NY... 

Wednesday, April 21, 2010

All over the place, but where I want to be...

  4 days out of 5, I truly feel I am blessed with my job.  Really, no lie.  But there is that ONE DAY that drives me out my skull.  Today was it.  OK- 7th graders are out there anyway, but some of the ones I work with are more needy than any toddler I have ever been around!  To the point they need someone to walk them to the potty and well, so on...

Also, the added oh crap that every time I want to slip out for R&R, other folks have already beat me to the punch!  I want to go take pictures at a track meet (read- watching paint dry!) Friday afternoon.  I find out today that the meet starts at 2.  The meet is about 20 miles away and will take about 25 minutes to get there.  So I figure, get someone to supervise my 7th hour class and I slip on out after 5th.  NOPE!  One of the other teachers is already leaving early, another teacher is out, and the track coach teaches next door to me!.  CRAP.  Never fails. 

So, the 'Stang will be cruisin' over the Scranton Bridge about 3:25 in hope of getting to Paree' before all the field events are over.  

Thursday, April 8, 2010

Well, it's been a while...

Busy times here.  Spring Break- gone.  Easter- done for.  ACTAAP coming up.  Yikes this means school's going to be over soon.
Shout out to my DD and her baptism.  I'm very proud of her, even though I figure one baptism is plenty, but her testimony was awesome.  It was really nice going to Dallas to be there on her big day!!
Easter was glorious, as it should be.  Sunrise service at the lake, then a fantastic service later on.  

Tuesday, March 23, 2010

How many t-shirts are too many t-shirts?


OK my main purpose in life this week is to resurrect the wreck that is my bedroom and closet.  My closet is so bad that I have two hanging rack things outside taking up space in my room because there is so much crap in my closet.  So I figure that if it is on the floor of the closet, chances are I'll never wear it or miss it again.  Riiighht.  I found 25 year old Topsiders that look really good, so I wear them out to dinner tonight.  OK that's all, most everything else has gone to the trash bags headed for MARVA or Salvation Army.

Everything but the t-shirts...

Some people collet rare wines, other people collect fine art.  I collect t-shirts.  I have shirts from vacation spots like Mesa Verde and Wall, SD.  I have shirts from TECH.  I have shirts from every Homecoming Lamar has had since I arrived there, that makes 20.  I have shirts I have designed for a soccer tournament and shirts to commemorate the RHS After Proms of 1999 and 2002.  Shirts from soccer tournaments, basketball tournaments, Razorback shirts, cheer shirts and school colors shirts from Adam to Izard.  I figure that I can wear a different shirt everyday from tomorrow until probably sometime in August or  maybe even September.
Yes, there are that many.  I have this huge chest of drawers that has this one long, deep drawer.  I rolled and deposited 50 shirts in it. 50.  there's 2 1/2 months right there.

So does this mean I will never buy another t-shirt?  Certainly not!  New cheer shirts are in order for the summer.  I figure I'll go SOMEWHERE where a t-shirt will be purchased for memories.  Probably by the end of summer I will have acquired another 10 or 12. 

Do they have rehab for t-shirt addiction?  HHMMMM....

Tuesday, March 16, 2010

Love and Basketball

Blue and You Challenge is rolling along.  I have become the Log-in Nazi and am after my team to log their exercise times .  So far so good.
So what's this got to do with basketball?  PLENTY!  The overall instigator of getting all of us on board sent out an all-call to anybody who wanted to play basketball after school to come on out last Thursday.  SAWEET! So I enlist my pal Chris to join in the fun.  She breaks her neck to get back to school and here we are- a couple of one-time six on six ballers hangin out with a bunch of women who do this regularly!  So we stand around and shoot around a bit and talk about graduation caps and gowns and prom dresses!  Then we choose up sides and get with it!  Chris is not guarding me but a really scrappy teacher is.  She schools me and I hook shot her.  She gets a rebound, and I almost pack her.  At the end of 20 minutes, when we stopped for air and water- I had 10 points and Chris had 8.  Neither of us broke a hip or turned an ankle or anything.  It was a lot of fun.  Heck, I wasn't even sore until two days later!  Thank goodness no one had a hidden camera and snapped incriminating photos!

I flipping love basketball!  March Madness is the greatest thing except for a RED SOX appearance in the World Series.  On Selection Sunday, I am armed with paper and pencil to get the brackets right, fill out my brackets and join a probability study (read pool!) 

I root for the locals, it they're in it, or sentimental favorites- Duke, Syracuse.  On the women's side- love them Lady Vols all the time!

Right now- I am all over my Golden Suns!  Gulf South Conference Champs, South Region Champs and beat the Okras from Delta State three times this year!!!  Next stop- the ELite Eight in 10 days!  Fight on Arkansas Tech, fight on to victory.  The finals tonight was one of the best games I have ever been to, except maybe the 2002 Women's National Championship game when UConn went 39-0. I go through serious withdrawal when the last buzzer sounds in the championship game, until baseball season....

Wednesday, March 10, 2010


I love spring.  There, I said it and I mean it.  I want to get outside and work in the yard, ride a bike, walk the dog (or let the dog walk me, more like it) and just be.
However, this is more difficult than it looks.  Case in point, Sunday afternoon, after the obligatory nap, I was watching the GSC Women's championship game and couldn't stand it any longer after the second overtime.  So I go outside to work in the flower bed.  Rake and water bottle in hand, I rake and listen to the game, chase the neighbor dogs out of the flower bed and get everything prepared for flowers and tomatoes and peppers next week.
Monday morning- eyes itching, nose running, and sneezing abounds.  Yep- the elm and cedar are in blossom and now I can't breathe. Ahh spring.
Anyway, it's 60 degrees as I write this at 5:30AM.  Supposed to be 70 this afternoon.  High of 65 tomorrow, then, frost the rest of the week.  So much for putting the flowers in, or tomatoes, or anything else.
The photo was from last spring when I created the bed.

Tuesday, March 2, 2010

2 point 2

Blue and You Challenge started yesterday.  I got my 30 minutes of exercise in today and weighed in as well.  2 point 2 down, no paying in yet!  Maybe this thing is possible.  

BLue and You is pretty cool- with a bit of work, I'll be working out across America.  Start out in Little Rock, next stop Baton Rouge (calling Baton Rouge!)  

Saturday, February 13, 2010

Bye bye nachos and all that stuff...


My fellows teachers and I have signed up to do Blue and You fitness Challenge.  This is a thing sponsored by Arkansas Blue Cross mainly to get people like me off their carcasses and get fit or fitter.  This is not necessarily a weight loss thing, although weight loss does fit into the picture.  This whole shebang does not start until March 1, but several of us are now in the diet pool contest.  Ten bucks to start, weigh in every week- if you lose, great, if you gain you are fined $1 per pound.  The person who loses the greatest percentage of weight wins the pot.  Last time the pot was somewhere around $100. 

So Tuesday when we get back from mid-winter break, we start the diet pool.  This thing goes till May 1 when the Blue and You ends.

This could get interesting. All the people who are doing the diet pool are also in Blue and You.  We are a reasonably competitive lot as well.  Sabotage is not beneath us!  

Lent also starts next week as well.  Although I am not Catholic, I do practice the sacrifice part of Lent.  Coffee, chocolate, red meat, sodas, and bread have all been things put to the wayside for Lent in the past.  Chances are it will be all of the above, save coffee, as I have been threatened with death if I ever give that up!

So I will keep all three of you posted on how the progress of these two things go.  In the meantime, good luck to the One Tom Cat and a Bunch of Strays Blue and You team!.  We will prevail!

Monday, February 8, 2010

Off of Blog Arrest




The last time we were out of school for snow, last week or so, I managed to lock myself out of my blog, and could not leave comments on anybody else's blogs.  Sad day and mad day.  So I went out on another free blog spot and did another account.  I feel so alone.

Anyway, when checking out Arnoldhouse Rules  I could now comment!!  Hallelujah and happy days- stuff is normal.

So snow again.  I swear, I have moved to Alaska or South Dakota or someplace cold and snowy and nobody told me!  Outside my door, there is close to 8 inches of snow and it's STILL SNOWING!!!  There is a better than good chance that we won't go to school tomorrow.  At the rate we're going, we will be in school until July.  I don't like this.  Not. At. All.

It is kind of pretty tho...
 

Thursday, January 28, 2010

What did you buy today at Wal-Mart?


Have I mentioned that the DD is a songwriter?  When she was nine or ten or so, she penned the Wal-Mart Song.  While at the University of Arkansas, a friend of hers sang it with guitar accompaniment and background vocals.  DD then burns it to a CD and gives it to me for my birthday.  It is hysterical, and now because it is on my ipod, several of my students have heard it.  I played it in class the other day, and it is almost as good as Pants on the Ground! 

"People look at me and say
 you're as dumb as dumb can be 
but I say I'm just fun 
'cause I go to Wal-Mart
People look at my parents and they say
what's the matter wit your girl today
and they say
she would have been like this anyway
cause we shop at Wal-Mart

At Wal-Mart you can buy everything on your list
and you don't have to have a list at all
no no no
you can go by the electronic department
and drive by the underwear
and I like to buy my underwear 
at Wal-Mart

you can buy some underwear and buy some DVD's
and we can go back to my place and watch them all night long
and talk about our adventure
at Wal-Mart

People look at me and say you're so smart
'cause you go to Wal-Mart

What did you buy today at Wal-Mart?"

We do keep the tradition going- 

Monday, January 18, 2010

I have a day off, so what to do?

Happy MLK Day.  So here I sit, listening to (not watching, mind you) A Knight's Tale for about the 20th time, and trying to figure out what to do to occupy my time until I have to go to JoCo and catch a bus for a ball game.  Let's see, I am caught up on Facebook, have washed all my clothes, dishes done, living room reasonably clean, DAR reports finished, pretty much.  Beckett is looking out the window like she wants to go for a walk, so I suppose I could do that.  I have been planning my salsa garden for next summer, though, except I won't be planting button or calico peppers or or garlic chives, or Better Boy tomatoes.  Roma tomatoes, jalapenos, cilantro, and bell peppers- that will be my garden! Maybe the tomatoes will actually grow this year!

Until planting time, I will have to be satisfied with making this fabulous salsa that I got off of Pioneer Woman's blog.  Nectar of the gods!!

OK, of my carcass and take the dog out!


ADDITION:

OK dog walked, or she walked me, one or the other.  Second best lunch in the world made- kitchen sink chicken salad.  As in everything in it but the kitchen sink.


Easy peasy lemon squeezy:

2 cans of white meat chicken- I use Hormel, but you are more than welcome to cook, debone and chop your own

1T ranch dressing
2-3 T mayonaise- the real stuff, I use the kind with olive oil in it
2T dill pickle relish
2T sweet pickle relish
handful of nuts: almonds are my current favorite, but pecans or walnuts are good, too
1/4 c craisins
1/4 c matchstick carrots
if you love 'em, sliced ripe olives  about 2T
a couple of shakes of minced onion- the dried kind
salt to taste
pepper to taste
paprika to taste

Drain the canned chicken and put in bowl.  Use a fork or wooden spoon to break up the big pieces of chicken.

Add everything else and mix well.  Add more mayo, pickles, etc. if you feel the need.

Slap a heaping helping on a slice of bread, or my personal favorite, eat it with Wheat Thins or melba toast.  

Don't allow the dog to shame you into giving her any!!!


Saturday, January 9, 2010

I fought the Tupperware cupboard- and won!

I love Tupperware!  It's so bright and squeaky (when it's clean), and mighty handy to have around.  But there comes a time when the other half says, "For the love of God- NO MORE TUPPERWARE!!!"

This is true.  I have (don't lie, everyone does!) a cupboard in the kitchen that is the catch-all for plastic storage containers.  This is the cupboard that gets so much crap pushed into it that the doors won't stay closed, and you take your life in your hands when you open it.  Today, as I was getting ready to find room for my bright NEW Tupperware pieces, I decided to tackle the hell that is this cupboard.  All orphaned pieces bowls and lids alike, went to the trash.  Lids were attached to bowls.  A big basket was put in to hold the tens of thousands of dishtowels I have.  Yeah, I can't pass up buying a new dishtowel either.  An hour or so later, behold, an organized cleaner up cupboard.  Miracles never cease, and now I probably won't get popped in the head when I open this cupboard- for a few days, anyway!  

Thursday, January 7, 2010

Curses! Foiled again!


Once again, the weather prognosticators have dashed my dreams against a stonewall.  No ice (good!), no snow (bad!), no school out for us!  All in all, this is not a bad thing- I really don't want to be in school in the middle of June, but when you are not going to be at school anyway and you forget to leave the stuff out for the sub, and you leave your desk looking like a mess, then you have no choice but to say CRAP, NO SNOW!
Also I have to get on a very crowded school bus at 3:45 and ride for an hour and a half to a basketball game.  On the surface, not bad, it is so cold that it will be miserable, and some idiot child will insist on opening a window at some point.  Ah well, this too will pass!  

Oh, yeah, the picture on the top- not in Arkansas. June 2008 in Yellowstone NP.  Yes, Virginia, a frozen lake- on Father's Day!   

Saturday, January 2, 2010

10 years ago...

One of my friends from work ( shout out, Jeanna Cook!) did a look back at her decade.  While I cannot say I birthed a child in the past 10, I can put up a pretty solid list of stuff, so here we go:

1. 10 years ago, I did not have a job.  I was getting ready to start subbing and attempt to get my foot in the door somewhere.  8 months later, my friend Chris Foley vouched for my character and Jo Kenner decided I would be a good fit at Lamar Middle School.  Must have been a good fit, I'm still there!
2. 10 years ago, I had a sophomore in high school and a freshman in college.  Today, they are both gainfully employed, paying taxes and are now part of the adult world.
3. 10 years ago, I did not have a daughter in law, in fact, she was a freshman in high school.  Today, she is part of my family.
4. 10 years ago, I did not have a Mustang.  
5. 10 years ago, I made serious fun of cheerleaders, particularly non-college ones.  Who'da thought I would be a cheer coach today- and love it.
6. 10 years ago, the highlight of my week was to go to a high school football or basketball game.  Well, some things don't change... just a different cast of characters.
7. 10 years ago, I was getting ready to watch the Hogs play in a bowl game.  Again, some things don't change.
8. In the last 10 years, I feel I have grown younger, not older.  Reverse aging, nothing like it!
9. In the last 10 years I have come to appreciate the fact that you can't have everything your way, but your way a lot of the time is OK.
10. 10 years ago, I would never have dreamt of having a inside the house dog- today, Miss Beckett OWNS the house!.

So, in closing, no regrets, few missteps, and looking forward to the next 10! Happy New year, ya'll!