Blessings in Disguise

Well, it's been a hectic week. I was off for the entire week. My district decided to shut down for the week to see if it would save money. I wasn't exactly thrilled about it; I would rather have had a week in March when there are no holidays. But it has ended up being a good thing.

First, Chuck got sent home from the truck driving school last Monday. The doctor had ok'd all his prescriptions but there was one the company didn't like. So he had to take a bunch of paperwork to Kaiser and they will see if they can change that prescription. It's not even one he takes on a daily basis so it shouldn't be any problem but it takes time. He can go back to the class on 12/18 and pickk up where he left off.

In the meantime, he got called by General Mills for an interview for a job he had applied for. He went and felt really good about the interview. We'll see what happens. It doesn't involve traveling so it would be nice.

Next, Gladys Chuck's mom) ended up in the hospital. She had shingles in September and just hasn't been able to bounce back. This week, if someone has not gone over to get her meals for her, she hasn't been eating. She doesn't have any stamina, even to get from her bed to the bathroom less than 10 feet away. She fell coming out of the bathroom while Cheryl was there so Cheryl took her to ER. They put her on oxygen and wanted to watch her for 24 hours. On Friday they were going to move her to an assisted living where she could get a little therapy and give us some time to find home care for her. When Chuck got up there to transport her, she had had a TIA so she couldn't be moved. Saturday morning, I called to see how her night had been. The nurse told me the doctor discharged her and they were waiting for the discharge planner so Chuck went up there again to transport her. This time she did get moved and that's where we stand for the moment. We are looking for live in care for her so that she can stay in her home.

During all this, all of our children and grandchildren have been here. We celebrated Thanksgiving on Saturday and enjoyed all the grandchildren. Jessica, Jason and their kids left Saturday evening so they went by and got to visit with Grandma on their way home. Jennifer and her family were leaving today so they were going to go by on their way home. Chuck and I will probably go by tonight. The grandchildren all had a blast playing with each other. Bailey is playing the clarinet so the girls all put on a show for the adults. I did take pictures and will try to post them later.

Please keep Gladys in your prayers. We are hoping to have her back home soon. She doesn't do well in hospital settings. At least Chuck will be home to help his sisters with getting things situated. I go back to work tomorrow.

I wish I could sleep!

Another night of not being able to sleep. It's so frustrating!

We had a great weekend with the Middough side of the family. Mindy, Dinah's youngest, got married. Since Dinah and Holly had to come from Maui, we had the shower on Friday, the wedding on Saturday, and then we all got together for a potluck Sunday while John and Mindy opened their presents. Mindy made a beautiful bride and the wedding was held at a restaurant in Dana Point overlooking the harbor. It was a beautiful setting with lots of good food and plenty of dancing. Gladys has been sick with shingles, followed by a problem breathing, and now just plain old not feeling well so she missed out on the activities. We missed her and wish she would get better.

My kitchen is coming along slowly, but nicely. Chuck pulled up the carpet in the dining room and the floors are in very good condition. They need some work, but are not bad. He has put in a canned light above the bay window, dry walled all of the once open areas, put in more electrical outlets, plastered, sanded and is about ready to paint. Even though things are a mess, I can see the end results and liking the final look. Jerri is going to help me make Roman shades for the windows in the dining room and kitchen. I'm excited to finally get rid of the old blinds in there. I'm really looking forward to Thanksgiving weekend when we will have so much family around. I miss my grandkids. Ella thinks we should just buy one big house and all live together. If that doesn't work, her backup is for her family to buy a house next to me, then the Mauss family can buy the next house and Jorday & Amity can buy the next one so that we can have sleepovers all the time. Sounds good to me!

Random thoughts

I was reading one of my niece's blogs about how people make excuses for how they don't have enough time for themself. It dawned on me that I get up early every morning to exercise. But I always go to the computer first, "just to check my email." But then I decide to check everyone's blog and see if they added anything new. Oh, and I might as well check Facebook. Before I know it, it's time to get ready to go to work. Somehow, exercise seems to go by the wayside.

On a much more positive note, I spent quite a bit of time this summer organizing my classroom in case I got a transfer. Well, even though I didn't, it is so nice to easily find everything in my room. I'm glad I took the time!

I got a new student earlier this week and I am getting another new one today. At least this one is a girl. I'm overloaded with boys; 17 boys 11 girls before today. It seems that the district is using our school for overflow. Classes are full at other schools and they did all the reorganization earlier this week. So we pretty much have all the openings this year. It makes for a tough year, getting new students, having them called back to their home school when they get an opening, etc. Oh, and some parents who get sent to us get angry because we are a uniform school (most of the schools in our district are not) so now they have to go out and buy uniforms. Because of course it is the teacher's fault. Oh well.

Chuck has been working on an old VW bus for one of Josh's friends. He's had so much fun doing it. It's nice to see him working on something he really enjoys. He doesn't like the new cars. We even take mine to the dealer for an oil change!

Not much going on

School is so much better this year! The 6th grade teacher is having a hard time, but I like my class. Ella had her first soccer game. Josh had his first game. We are busy, but we love it! It seems like we are getting a lot done on the house, even though there is still a lot to do. We spent Jordan''s 30th birthday in Temecula with his family and Josh's family. I love seeing the two 2 year old cousins together! They are so funny. Both have a good sense of humor and love to play together. We swam and just hung out. It was a great day.

I think the toughest part of this school year is having a new principal who has never been involved with an elementary school He was a wood shop teacher, worked at one of the high schools and then the adult school. So basically, he counts on all of us to let him know what needs to be done. It does make all of us feel like the plan is to close our school so it really doesn't matter who the principal is. He's a nice guy and easy to get along with. It's just that we (teachers) have to do a lot more planning to let him know things need to be done. Reorganization is never fun, but he really had a tough time with it because he's never had to call parents and tell them that their child is going to be going to a new school starting Monday. And for some reason, our district office really decided to make things difficult. We have some kids leaving who have been at our school for more than a year but they are the last one in. On top of that, a few of them have siblings at our school and the siblings are not leaving. It is a mess! Maybe the district made this decision based on the fact that they expect us to be closed next year anyway. Who knows. Oh, and one of the families who have a sibling leaving and a sibling staying just lost their dad a few months ago. I feel for the mom. Now that I am thinking about it, I think all of the district people who make these decisions have never been in an elementary school. We've had a big change in the district office over the last couple of years due to deaths. Everyone who replaced those people came from the high schools except one had one year as a principal at the elementary level. Sorry, just thinking out loud how this all came to be.

We had planned to go to Arizona this weekend but Bailey and Cole both had sleepover plans so we decided to make it another weekend. I miss the kids but not the drive on a Friday night!

Summer Reflections

As I am getting ready for school today, I am wondering where the summer went. It flew by. I guess part of it is because we start so early this year. It's been a fun packed summer with lots of memories. As Pat said in her blog, the cousins have all had such a great time! I cherish every single moment we get to spend together. Soon the grandkids may choose to spend their summers elsewhere. Our house is always so quiet after they leave. But getting to have so many of Pat's grandkids around as well has made it such a special summer. I love how the cousins may not see each other very often but when they get together, it is like they have never been apart. I am so glad to have at least Ella, Hannah, Robert, Alisa, Josh and Anthony near by.

Pat and I got to visit with Mom and Dad this weekend for the quarterly meeting at the home. I'm glad they have those because Mom and Dad love to take us around and introduce us to everyone. (Kind of like when we go to something for Eastern Star or Lodge). It's comforting to know that they live in such a nice place and are so well taken care of and have so many activites to take part in.

Soccer will be starting in just under two weeks. I look forward to going to Ella's games. I'm going to miss seeing Robert playing on the same field. But now we can just add some football to the weekends! I love watching my son coach those little girls! He reminds me so much of Chuck (sorry Angie!) and he has so much patience with those little girls. I wish I could go watch Randi with her gymnastics class, too!

As I write this, Chuck is still busy working on the kitchen. He has all the wiring done for the light switches and outlets. It's so nice to have accessible outlets! I know he thinks it's slow going (and it is) but I see progress every day. It's fun to see everything transformed! The timing was good. I don't have to be here to see all the mess. He's been great about keeping it cleaned up when he finishes each day. It gives him something to do while he's not working. (Well, something besides golf!) I love him dearly for undertaking this project. And I overheard him talking to our brother-in-law the other day about the bathroom so I guess that may be next. I have been trying to document everything with pictures and if I ever learn how to post my pictures, I will share them on my blog.

I jsut want all of you to know how much I love you and how important you are in my life whether I see you often or not. We are so blessed to have such a strong, loving family who always support each other.

It started with...

My dryer had been taking at least 3 hours to dry a load of clothes and it wouldn't turn off on it's own. If I put a load in at night and forgot to turn it off when I went to bed, it would still be going the next morning. So, without my knowledge, Chuck went out and bought me a new washer and dryer. And he really does listen to me because they were exactly what I had been talking about (steam). Also, I wanted stackables. His idea was to buy them and just put them in but I convinced him to do them as stackables from the beginning. That meant going under the house to replumb and rewire for the back porch. He also had to pull out a cabinet that was aabove the old dryer. He did most of this while I was gone on my trip.

Well, when he finished painting and pulled off the painter's tape, some of the paint came off the wall, even though he and Jordan had sanded and primed first. So I decided I wanted the other cabinet pulled out as well. Now we are going to put a closet maid type shelving system in there. That also led to a new floor. Well, if yu're going to do that, you may as well do the kitchen floor. Oh, and then you may as well paint the kitchen and dining room. And he also pulled out the half wlall between the kitchen and dining room. When we pulled up a corner of the dining room carpet, the hardwood floors are in very good condition so we will pull up that carpept. I also want to paint the kitchen cabinets and Chuck is balking at that. But I think when he sees how nice everything but the cabinets look he'll end up doing those, too. So my house is a total mess, but I'm going back to school anyway, so who cares? (Let's see if I'm still saying that in a couple weeks). I'll bet he wishes he had a job!

Oh, the rewiring was a good thing for Chuck, too. This house is so old that anytime we turned on more than a couple of things and he was out working in the garage, we would blow a fuse. For some strange reason, one side of my kitchen, the bathroom and the garage were all on the same fuse. So now the laundry room is on it's own fuse.

One other note. Jordan and Josh have both been over here helping with the project. So it's made with love by all my guys. Thanks guys! (And thanks wives/girlfriends for letting them do this and taking time away from your families).

Our great adventure

My plan was to blog each night about our trip. Obviously I didn't do that. We had a great time! We spent the evening of the 30th and the 31st in Washington, DC. We used the train to get there the second day rather than trying to drive around DC. We hopped on the double decker tour bus and visited all the monuments. It was actually raining when we got to DC so we spent the first hour in the train station, eating lunch and looking through all the little shops.

On Saturday, we headed to Williamsburg. There we met Cami, Gentry, Judy and Gerry Anderson and went to Colonial Williamsburg. Judy and Gerry were a wealth of knowledge. Most everything was closed, but we walked around and Judy gave us a lot of information about all the homes, taverns, shops, etc. The next day, Cami and Gentry met us again. We got to see a reenactment, tour the governor's palace, tour the capital building, and many other buildings. Bailey got to be the magistrate at the courthouse. It rained again, so we went into some of the shops while the rain was falling and tasted lots of goodies. Then we walked around until it closed. Cami, Bailey and I went to dinner and just enjoyed visiting. (Gentry had to go back home for work). It was a great time.

We had discovered that a brake light and turn light on the rental car were not working, so we got up Monday morning, met Judy at the Jamestown settlement for a short visit there, and then headed to Norfolk to exchange the car. By this time, I had decided I wanted to just turn the car in early and take the train to New York. But the train from Norfolk did not check luggage. We could have gone to Richmond, but it would have cost an extra $1000 to turn the car in there! So we turned it in, and headed on our way. We drove across the Chesapeake Bay Bridge. It was amazing! We stopped at the little restaurant/store on the bridge to get a good look. We continued on our way, crossing over the Jersey Turnpike into New York City about 1 AM. Crossing over was another beautiful sight. There were so many lights!

When we got to our hotel (after being lost and having to drive awhile to find it) we couldn't find a parking garage. So we parked on the street in front of the hotel and I had to get up early to move the car. After driving around that morning and still not finding a garage with a parking place, we decided to take the car to the airport and turn it in. We took a bus and the subway back to the hotel. Our hotel ended up being in China Town, and since Bailey didn't really want Chinese food for dinner, we decided to take the subway and just find some place to eat. We ended up at Coney Island and it was a blast! We walked along the boardwalk, ate NY pizza and had ice cream. On the subway home, we met a family from the Bronx. They had been to the beach for the day and were very friendly, answering questions about NY and asking us about California. The next day, we took the double decker bus and saw many of the sights. We stopped at Ground Zero and spent longer than we had intended. It was still very emotional for me. They are in the process of building the memorial and it won't be completed until 2013. But there was a small museum and a memory walk. Then we headed on to the Statue of Liberty and Ellis Island. Going over there on the ferry helped us to imagine what it must have been like for the immigrants coming to the United States.

That night was our night to see Lion King on Broadway as well. We managed to find the subway back to the hotel, got ready, and headed out. The play was fantastic. Bailey was sitting right on the aisle which is the best place to be for this show. She loved it! We hadn't eaten dinner so we walked until we found someplace open and had dinner. Then we walked through Time Square and headed over to the Empire State Building. We had seen it earlier in the day, but Bailey wanted to go up to the top. The view at night was beautiful. You could see all the bridges with their lights and all the other lights of the city. We took a bike-drawn taxi back to the subway and headed home. We had to get up early the next morning to head to the airport to come home. There was so much more in each place we visited that we would have loved to see. But it was a great experience and one I am sure neither of us will ever forget!

On our way!

Bailey & I arrived in Baltimore last night. We got to the hotel through all the rain and not knowing where we are going. Off to Philadelphia this morning to see the Liberty Bell and Independence Hall. We hope to see the Amish on our way back to Washington DC. We are doing the night tour of the monuments tonight. There's so much to do and not nearly enough time!

I'm excited!

I just finished booking my trip with Bailey back east. We will be in DC for 3,Williamsburg for 2, and end in NYC for 2. I got orchestra, center stage tickets for "Lion King" which I know Bailey will love! Can't wait!

Busy but fun week

Well, the dust has settled and I have a chance to reflect back on our last week with the Mauss kids. We had so much fun. It started with our annual block party. This year we added a dunk tank to the mix and it was definitely a hit! Cole learned to ride his bike without training wheels before his mom and dad got here. He's got the skinned up knee to prove it! The Boltons joined us this year since I had had Cameron and Faith. Ray & Brandi always join us as does Gladys. She loves this day with all the kids! Jessica and Jason stayed to take Cole to the dentist to find out about his tooth on Tuesday. The verdict was that he will have the tooth pulled when he returns home to Surprise. The permanent tooth is ight there. On Thursday, we met all the Boltons, including Ric and his family, at Knotts. It was a blast! Then on to a barbeque at Ray & Brandi's. We spent all day Friday at Seal Beach and then brought most of the beach home with us, I think. At least it seemed like I cleaned up a whole beach!

On Saturday, we mmet the Mauss grandparents and sent the kids off for their trip to Wisconsin. They will return to us on the 26th, I will take them to Surprise on the 28th and Bailey and I leave for our trip on the 29th from Phoenix. We will return on the 6th, in time for her Meet the Teacher Night and I will come home for a week's computer class. Then it will only be a couple of weeks till school starts. Where did the summer go?

Chuck and I are leaving for Scottsdale today to see Madison and Kinsey. Kinsey will be one on Monday. Then when we return, we will go spend a day with Jordan, Amity, and Randi. What a perfect week, getting to see all our grandchildren!

I am so thankful that we have such a great family. I love spending time with all the extended family and having all the cousins "camp out" in my back yard. Even Alisa slept in the tent all night! Thanks to all the family who came to visit. We love you all!

What a week! We enjoyed having Faith and Cameron for a week. We had a lot of the family over for our 4th of July block party. We've been to the beach, Soak City, Bailey passed another level of swimming, Cole learned to ride a bike with no training wheels, and everyone is relatively ok after the accident. The Mauss kids will be going with their other grandparents this next weekend for a fun trip to Wisconsin and a family reunion there. I plan to clean my house and maybe get to my classroom since I'll be gone on my trip at the end of the month. It's been fun, but I'm tired! Now I know why I had my kids young!

Full House

A house full of kids! That's what my house is like these days. With the grandkids here, we always have neighbors and nieces and nephews, too. But we are having a blast. Last Sunday was Randi's 2nd birthday. They had wanted to go to Soak City but the June gloom has really been hanging around so we went to Knotts instead. I ought a season pass so that I can go with the Middough grandkids (they have passes) and we closed Knotts, ending with dinner at the chicken restaurant. So Jordan, Amity and Randi spent the night. When we got up Sunday, it was a beauiful day so we decided to go to Soak City. The kids had a blast! What a difference a year makes. Lst time only Bailey would go on the big slides. This time they all did! And I ended up buying Soak City passes for the kids because if we go once a week till they go with their other granparents I'll save money. So tomorrow we are meeting Amy, Cameron and Faith at Soak City in Palm Springs. Then Cameron and Faith will come home with us to spend a week. I think the tent will be coming out. I am sure Robert and Alissa will be over, too. We are having our big block party for 4th of July so they will all enjoy that, too!

Well, the earth around here has been shaking! This is the first time ever that I can remember things falling. Spices fell out of my cupboard, my Victoria's secret sprays fell all over and things fell off the shelf in the bathroom. The dog went under the table and stayed there for a couple of hours! That was the 4.7 on Sunday night. And then an aftershock of 4.0 on Tuesday! Oh, and when I got to school on Monday, one of those cabinets had flown open and I had a big mess of science stuff on the floor. It didn't last long but the epicenter was Lenox so it wasn't very far away. The first story in my reading book for 5th grade is called "Earthquake Terror" and until tthis year, my students had not lived through a very big earthquake. Then we had one in July, right before school started and now quite a few that could be felt!

We are leaving for Blythe today for Pat's party. Looking forward to seeing all the Blythe family. Mom and Dad are going with us. Then Bailey may be coming home with us and Chuck will get the other 2 next Wednesday. I'm excited to see grandkids! And it's always fun for all the cousins to get together!

Counting down

Just counting down the days! Only 21 more days with this class. I am so worn out every night. We finished state testing abd now is the time when I would normally try to do some really fun activities with my class. But his class just can't handle anything that's not routine. We do have physical fitness testing to do still. And our open house is next week.

I have put in for a transfer for next year. I am hoping to get a position at ILC which is our school with a longer day. It's extra pay and would count toward my 3 highest years before retirement. That will make a difference.

Still no real job for Chuck. Nothing has come through with the home inspection. They guaranteed 3 a week minimum but haven't called with any so far. I kind of like javing him here when I come home every day.

Chuck planned a really nice mother's day for me. We had his family and my mom and dad over. Chuck had ordered El Pollo Loco so I didn't have to do anything! We had a nice day with nice weather so we got to eat out in the yard which we have been working on.

Looking forward to having our grandkids in about 10 days!

I don't know how some of you keep up! I never seem to find the time to blog and when I do, I can never remember my password. It must be my age!

We had a great spring break. We got to go to Lake Skinner with Josh, Jordan and their families for Easter weekend. Then we went to visit friends in Vegas and golfed. When we left there, we went to Arizona and saw both Jessca's and Jennifer's families. All 8 grandkids in one week! A lot of driving but worth every minute. We also drove over Hoover Dam from Vegas to Arizona. Last time we saw the dam was when we all went to Vegas when the kids were little. The new bridge they are building over the dam is spectacular!

I'm counting down the days until school is out. This year has been my hardest ever! It's really too bad because it's just a few of the kids but they take up all my time for discipline. With this class, it's never just one kid in trouble. I'm sure my principal is looking forward to summer just as much as I am!

Chuck got a job as an inspector for bank foreclosures. He just got all the paperwork at the end of the week so he hasn't done his first one yet but he's looking forward to it. Supposedly you are guaranteed at least 3 inspections per week. We'll see.

Hawaii was hectic with the wedding and all but Hawaii is always beautiful! We hiked at Haleakala which we had never done before. We had a great whale watch and we could even see whales from the lanai of our condo. I'm planning a trip back east with Bailey to see some of the historical sites for late July. That will be fun as well.

Retirement

OK. It's been so long since I posted anything that I couldn't remember my password! It's amazing to me how busy we have been since Chuck retired! He is enjoying retirement. He emptied out our storage space (we figured we didn't need to spend $150 a month for things we haven't used in over 5 years). The joke is that we were paying to store New Kids on the Block, trophies, and papers. We had a garage sale and pretty much let people offer us whatever they wanted just so we wouldn't have to do something with it. The rest is going out for pickup next week when a truck is coming around. He's also cleaned out his garage, made a new cabinet for the garage, worked on cars... All the things he enjoys.

I'm with Pat on the frustration level of the schools. We have no money! When we run out of tissue, I either have to go buy it for my class or hope someone brings it from home. Rumors are flying again about closing my school. I was at a meeting with the superintendent the other day and he pretty much said our district is OK. We shouldn't have to do anything for this year or next (no cutting 20:1, not closing our school, no layoffs, not making parents pay for transportation). But any request for anything (paper, pencils, etc) have to go to him and be approved. It really slows up the process. I too am hoping for a golden handshake retirement package. I don't know if it would be worth my while yet but I would look at it!

We've been meeting with a financial planner and we are feeling pretty good. He thinks we've done a good job (although it's not been anything we did on purpose). We are looking at life insurance. I thought I had some at work but when we looked into it I evidently thought I didn't need to do anything since we had good insurance through Chuck. I'm checking if I have to wait until open enrollment or if this qualifies as a life change situation. I guess we just can't die right now! We do have insurance on our home loan that will pay that off if anything happens to either of us. Since that's our biggest debt, that would help.

I am finding that I go to school later and come home earlier with Chuck home. He's not tired all the time (gee, I wonder why). It's nice to go to bed with my husband and wake up with him every morning. I feel like this is the man I married almost 34 years ago. We've got to golf a few times and that's fun. I hadn't golfed in over a year. He usually gets up when I do so we get time together before and after school. With the class I have this year, that helps the stress level. This class is probably my most challenging ever! I've had worse classes but in this group, I have at least 8 students that talk or sing all the time and disturb everyone around them. They even do it when the principal is in there! It's my evaluation year. I guess in a way I'm glad they do it even when she's in there because at least it shows how difficult it is to keep them on task. I even had several kids that were texting each other in class! What 5th grader needs a cell phone, especially in school. But I've even had parents call their kids during class! Cell phones are supposed to be off and in their backpacks but since we can't search the kids, they put them in jacket pockets or slip them into their desks. That's when I usually find them. Sometimes I think I am too old for this!

We are looking forward to our trip to Hawaii next month. It will be way too short, but at least we get to go! We found a nice condo, not too far from Dinah's house that we are sharing with Cheryl and Pete. It's on the harbor where we went whale watching last year and their big selling point is that you can see whales from your lanai of your room. March is the end of the whale season but hopefully we will see some. They were absolutely amazing last year! Mindy now is engaged, too. She and John will get married in October in Laguna.

I guess this is enough rambling for now. Remember, we have extra rooms for anyone who comes this way! Also, NC kids, I hope to be in your neck of the woods next summer. I am planning a trip to colonial Williamsburg and surrounding areas with Bailey before she studies US history next year. I would love to see all of you! Your families have grown so much! So far, I think it will be at the end of June. I want to do it before Ric leaves for Washington. I'll keep you posted. I love reading all of your blogs.