Today... a reprieve in some ways...

And so the first snow day of the 2009-2010 school year begins...

Though the snow must be moved, somehow it is a little better to take with a new, auger-style snow blower...
Not everyone enjoys it as much...
Otherwise (since October.. but at least not since July like someone-who-will-not-be-named), the days have been filled with reports, assessments, Thanksgiving with a delicious dinner at my parents' house

visiting and being visted by Kate, a visit from Molly, meetings at school to prep for new students to the program and to monitor the progress of others.... books to read... and now preparation for the Christmas holiday....

Hope all is well in your neck of the woods.

Farmer's Market 2009

If you get your Fort Farmer's Market card marked every week that you make a purchase for the WHOLE summer....you get a t-shirt!! This shows the completely filled card...the combined efforts of this household and one friend with my money (for the week I took Kate to orientation and we drove past the place too early for the vendors... ). SO, the t-shirts should arrive tomorrow for the last Farmer's Market of the season. WOO.. :o)
Annnnnnnd... here they are!! I know... small pleasures.... :o)

What not do to with a book bag..

Exhibit A.

Oh, has it really been 30 years?

There are places I remember

All my life though some have changed

Some forever, not for better

Some have gone and some remain

All these places have their moments

With lovers and friends I still can recall

Some are dead and some are living

In my life I've loved them all

Curb Appeal

We started this project because this wall (once wooden planks) was falling apart.... so we decided to replace it and, ultimately the rest of the edging, with bricks. So this photographic summary represents today's work... From right to left when facing our house... and around the corner.... We still have a small square surrounding the tree in front of the picture window and small section off the patio in the backyard, but not bad for a day's work. :)

School Days....

Already the feeling of autumn in the air..... and it seems like it has been kind of lurking there all summer here with the weather pattern we experienced this summer. Not that I am complaining about the lack of beastly hot temperatures, yet it somehow defines summer.

For the last couple of weeks, preparations have been under way for the 2009-2010 school year... in various ways. Classroom prep.... Summer Academy classes, where I learned just enough Spanish to be dangerous or look foolish in the attempt and just enough about an assessment tool to drive my anxiety..... determining what the class list looks like and who will be serving whom where... Open House/Meet Your Teacher last Thursday (and the ice cream social)...the official First Day of School for children in the WUSD is Tuesday, September first... as well as for many others in the area. A time of transition, which is not easy for some of my young charges... so sure to be exciting!

Molly starts her classes for this semester on September 9th at UW Stout.... all summer she has been working at The Home Depot... and taking on some new responsibilities in Kitchen and Bath... hanging out with Ella >^..^< ... visiting with us, friends and new neighbors... While we were away, she came to Fort to hang out with her sister for a few days .... to further "bond" with her sister. :) The house was still standing when we returned. All was handled well!

Kate will continue to work at Nasco for most of the month of September.. as the rest of summer help dwindles away. She will begin her new adventure at the Illinois Institute of Art - Schaumburg officially with Move-in Day on October 1. The Institute runs on a quarterly system so the fall semester has a slightly delayed start. She will have four 4 credit courses... two are confirmed.. two are awaiting approval to over-ride the cap. She photographed her first wedding job in August.. and will have another on October 2nd.. between Move-In Day.. and the first day of classes.. whew!

Charlie has been kept busy with the transition to new leadership in the district (and has brought Jamie in on the fun with that one a couple of times)... and the gradual and sudden reappearance of the teaching staff... who want everything done now...amongst his other responsibilities. He goes out and hits a little white ball on occasion to get rid of some of that stress. :)

Best wishes to all who are beginning new things! Hope it will be an exciting time for all.

For 25 years....

On August 4, 2009, we marked twenty-five years.... in Hawai'i! We flew to Honolulu and later boarded NCL's Pride of America for a cruise around the islands before returning to Honolulu for a couple of days, flying home before Tropical Storm Felicia could create waves or winds on Oahu. We went on a few organized excursions.... and a few self-guided tours. It was wonderful! Now, I just have one more of the Nifty Fifty to visit....

Summer fun.

Over the last week or so.... We were able to visit my parents before we headed out on our vacation. My dad will celebrate his 80th birthday on July 30th! So, I wanted to make sure we got to wish him happy birthday before leaving. My pal, Sophie, is front and center.

No... this picture was not taken in our backyard. :-) When our friends, David and Mary were visiting, we went to The Mitchell Park Domes. This shot was taken in the "show" dome, which apparently changes seasonally.

While David and Mary were here, we also went mini-golfing, visited a cousin of his in Lake Geneva, went to dinner at an Indian restaurant, drove around Kettle Moraine, went to the Hoard Museum's new Mystery of the Mounds exhibit.... and other things. The visit went all too quickly... will have to try to get to Ohio to visit them soon.

Also tried to get some of the Barr family together for dinner again. This time, we ate at Hoolihan's in Lake Geneva. We will have to get together again soon and bring more family on board. Suggestions for a location? Good day of the week for all?

Tune in next time for a picture or two from The Grand Adventure... featuring scenes from Hawaii. Maybe Breck and Alice will be able to see our boat from their house!

More summer stuff....

We have been fortunate enough to have a new neighbor that doesn't like the texture of raspberries right off of the bush. She invited us and another neighor to pick whatever we want! The other neighbor is making raspberry liquor (lic-oo-er)... I made two batches of freezer jam so far.. and gave some to the neighbors, including the one who owns the bushes. We will have to decide what else to make. Maybe a pie... :-) Every day on my way home from summer school, I see this family of cranes eating their fill from bird feeders about fifteen feet from the road. Apparently, the pair arrives every year and has at least one offspring each year, seems like every other year they have a pair of offspring. The house is right along Highway 12 just as you are driving into Fort Atkinson. It is the same house where the albino deer (and her two brown fawns) can be seen on occasion. Earlier this spring, a few turkeys were in that field as well.

Tomorrow is the last day of summer school (17th). Then the Relay for Life event will be held at the high school and Kate will help her friend, Elaine, with facepainting (17-18), followed by a visit from some friends for several days (20-23), then sidewalk sales and farmer's market (aka Carnival Days) (24-25), and a brief visit from Molly as she comes down to attend some events with friends (25-27), then we make final preparations for departure (29th)! After we arrive home, preparations for the new school year will begin.... :)

Whew! Where did summer go?

Summer time.

After a brief break (sort of) at the end of school, summer school began. This summer, I am teaching three summer school classes: sign language (third graders), reading/language (5th graders), and math (5th graders...almost the same group). I also participated in two different interview processes... including reading through the files in preparation for the interviews. In between all of that, I have been able to read books that I have wanted to read for a while, go to the farmer's market, Frostie Freeze, go a bike ride on the bike path, pick raspberries, visit my parents and spend time with them, etc. The fun stuff summer brings as well....

Kate started working again at Nasco on June 29th after a delayed start. She started working in the same place as last year, but they switched her to a different place putting kits together this week for an indefinite period of time. Not fun. So, she is hoping that they either get that particularly large order done quickly so she can go back to the other place, or they just move her back to the other place. She is also starting to think more about the transfer to the new school in October. Over the summer and early fall, she will also photograph two weddings.

Molly (and her cat, Ella) came to visit for about a week at the end of June. She asked for a few days off and wasn't scheduled on a few more so got to spend some quality time with us down here. Of course, that makes it difficult to go back up to Menomonie, but hopefully she will find things to keep busy, which may help her meet more people. Before long, school will start again, and she will be busy with that again (I know she is excited about that, too.) We were able to formally celebrate her birthday while she was visiting, including taking in a Brewers game (which included her friend, Jill) and having some CAKE!

Charlie has been able to schedule a few games of golf and was able to get away for a few days at the beginning of July to golf with Jamie and Austin after they picked up Austin from soccer camp. He also has been going to work and helping the new superintendent get onto the network, making sure all of her technology is up and running smoothly. Before long, he will be done with his contracted days and will be able to enjoy the trip to....

HAWAII!! We will mark 25 years marriage on August 4th... so it's our gift for making it that far! YAY US!

Happy Birthday, Molly!!

Now she's twenty-three...she's solid as you'll ever be.....yeah, daddy's little girl has grown up... faster than he could have thought.....

We love you!

My fifteen minutes of fame...

http://www.jsonline.com/features/homeandgarden/47222512.html

About a month ago, I sent pictures of my bookshelf to the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel for a contest. Check the link for the results!

The Last Day of School

All of a sudden it was the last day! This year had a lot of ups and downs, but the last couple of months have been so good and have gone so fast. Given so many extenuating circumstances, it will not be the same next year. I can only hope we will develop some kind of flow.
But TODAY was a good day! Shirts, silly string, candy, Wii, Guitar Hero, The Character Olympics, Field Follies, lunch on the lawn, awards ceremonies, cleaning out of desks, kindergarten graduation, pictures, Apples to Apples, cards, hugs, etc. etc.
Next week, I still have some wrap-up stuff for this year to complete, then summer school will begin for four weeks, but for now, I will just think about today.
My daily support system..... :-)

Happy Birthday, Kate! Ciao, baby!

This house no longer has teenage children.... instead of "I am this many ... 2"
Kate is now this many.... 2 - 0! Happy Birthday to our Kater! :-)

Somewhere..

in Italy, my youngest child is capturing 100s of beautiful photographs and having a marvelous adventure....

in Wisconsin, my older child is working hard, enjoying some time away from school, thinking about trying some new things, and pampering her kitty cat....

in the Journal Sentinel, my bookshelf will be featured in "before" and "after" shots - the result of winning a bookshelf makeover...

and somewhere...

my dear friend's spirit lives on... as I will see when his life and times are memorialized next Tuesday.

10,000 miles................

If I had a friend
All on this earth
You’ve been a friend to me

One mother and one brother....

The mother... :-)

and the brother....

Happy Mother's Day!!

Book Freak.

Just a couple sections of one branch of The Barr Family Library. I know. I need an intervention.

A month.... ya, I know.

Just one thing after another... reports for school, lessons, lots of district testing, meetings for each one of the reports, budgets for next year's supplies, stuff around the house, Easter, reading books for the book groups (The Book Thief... Jimi Hendrix Turns Eighty... ), and other books (Here If You Need Me .... Schuyler's Monster... ) and will need to read Animal, Vegetable, Miracle before the end of the month... Kate will finish the semester and then will head off to Italy on the 19th... Molly will be glad to be done with this semester, too.... especially when the studio class is wrapped. Charlie finally was able to get out on the golf course a few times...so there's a happy guy...

Doesn't matter how old you are... when the Easter Bunny leaves bubbles and the day is sunny and bright .. you just have to try 'em out!

This look is the one I open my eyes to see first thing in the morning sometimes.... two tennis balls in there, folks!
What happens when people ask for your name so they can call your order, then they realize they don't know how to spell it? R-E-N-I-A = Renee..... close, but no cigar.

Egg rolls... eye rolls... and ROFL...

With the goal of arranging family gathering times that are more consistent, rather than few and far between, the tag was made by my youngest brother-in-law to me/us (Ole, too) after seeing my brother- and sister-in-law off to Russia with the last one. We thought April might bring Rachel home to us, or Shallece in for a visit, but when one or both of those "reasons" could not happen, we just decided we didn't need a reason. So, the word was sent out to those in the near vicinity...to see if and when people could gather on relatively short notice.

And responses came back. Some would be able to gather this time... others were definitely with us in spirit as they celebrated other things, traveled, were in other locations or were working hard. This time, the group ventured to Moy's Restaurant in Elkhorn, which has not lost much of its original appearance even after the renovation.

I ordered an egg roll (and sweet and sour shrimp)... and was kind of worried. Since the Cantonese restaurant closed in Fort, we haven't been able to find a place that makes egg rolls quite like theirs. However, tonight we had success!!! The egg rolls are wonderful! Garlic shrimp, moo shoo pork, General Tsao's chicken...sesame chicken..... etc... were other choices made from the menu.

Much laughter, teasing, and story-telling occurred for the roughly hour-and-a-half we were able to spend together tonight. After talking for a bit afterwards on the steps outside Moys, we headed off, once again, in different directions, with talk of where and when the next gathering would occur being bantered about.

Hopefully, we will be able to continue this plan of action with people joining the group whenever their schedules and lives allow.... let someone (Jamie, Ole, Mary, Charlie, me...) know what works for you, so all who want to know get the word. We'd love to see everyone from time-to-time...

P.S. What? No visuals you say? Ask Kate...:-)

Spring Break, Part 2 - The Trip to Menomonie

Kate and I headed off to Menomonie to visit Molly. Charlie broke his tooth and had to stay home to get it fixed to knock down the irritation. After he got that settled, he went golfing, took the antenna off the roof, watched a softball game, and did some school stuff...

While we were up at Molly's apartment, we took her to work on Thursday so she could be "teacher" at a tile workshop at The Home Depot...a "Do-it-herself" seminar. :) Then Kate and I went to MOA in search of walking/traveling shoes and were finally successful! Though we didn't go to EVERY shoe store in the place, it seemed like it.

On Friday, we hung around the apartment (mom cleaned) until Molly got home from classes, then we went to lunch at the Acoustic Cafe, before walking to some little shops on Main Street. We also went to Pic-a-Pet... Walmart.... the grocery store and back home to make dinner and Rice Krispie Bars! We watched a couple of movies ....

While we were in the scrapbooking shop on Friday, we saw a sign for a farm that had lambs! Last weekend and this weekend, people are invited to come to the farm to see baby chicks, and lots of lambs... and other animals including three Great Pyranees.. We decided to go for a while before heading home to beat the SNOW storm that was predicted...

We witnessed the birth of this set of twins!

We got home just as the snow began to fall..... it is still falling..... Spring in Wisconsin.

Spring Break!!

Ok... spring break in Wisconsin. Not sure if I should wear my winter coat or my fleece jacket... heat or no heat in the car... Frostie Freeze is open... but.... seems kind of cold to eat it. A few days away from the school building... a break for all before the last couple of months of getting everybody ready to move to the next level, and preparing IEPs for many annual meetings.

Some things on the agenda for spring break:

a. Hosted book group at my friend's house. The book Oryx and Crake was the topic of discussion so the food I prepared was all mentioned in the book at some point.

b. a stop at my mom and dad's house in East Troy... and a hug for Sophie.. who has been with them nearly a year already...

c. a trip to the Milwaukee Art Museum....

d. several days at Molly's place after she spent several days of her spring break with us...

e. shipping some of Kate's photos for entry in an applicant art show...

f. reading...

g. scrabble...

h. watching a few movies..

i. a little cleaning...

j. playing with the dogs and the cats...

k. completing the list of things I told Kate we would deal with over break... :-)

l. and whatever else comes up....

Who has it out for me?

Who.... really.... does this to a teacher of students with special educational needs?

- Daylight savings time... time change...
- Barometric pressure change...
- Full Moon....
- Two days of training for two of the one-on-one aides... so subs with two of the most involved kids....
- Friday, the 13th...
- A Lock, Hold and Secure Drill, on a day with tons of subs in the building...
- and solely in charge of snacks for the lounge all week (Martha Stewart, I am not.. )

Poop... puke (indirectly exposed to that several times this week)... spat on.... wrestled with... snot......

Why?

+ payday on the 10th... so I can contribute to the well-being of others...
+ hearing the I love you ... you love me.. song.... even after the worst puke experience...
+ pure entertainment
+ watching those around me and the material they provide me for later sharing....
+ believing that somehow.... I can make a difference.

Cupcakes!!

One of the educational assistants in my program brought me CUPCAKES today to share with my class and a b-day survival kit! How thoughtful was that?!

I also got treated to Texas Roadhouse.. and chocolate cake on Sunday. :)

I can take it....

Yeah, yeah.... I know. I am not the most prolific blogger, but I can take the flack BECAUSE I know I don't have youngsters around my house providing a daily dose of amazingly cute photo opportunities for me to capture (even then... ONE of them has at least one child who probably pushes her mom a little closer to the edge on a daily basis, so keeping her alive probably takes precedence over blogging... like THAT's an excuse..lol) OR athletic events that would provide action videos IF the back-in-the-game blogger posted them... so, I can take it. :-)

Recent action in my world has included visiting, worrying and thinking about my mom and her recent foray into the health care system. She wasn't feeling right... but thought it might be the flu or a cold since so much of that was going around, but when she was short of breath after walking halfway across a parking lot on the way to see a movie, she thought it might be more than that - so went to see the family doctor. Monday's blood work revealed a hemoglobin level of 4... and led to Tuesday's declaration of "Get to the hospital NOW... not after breakfast...not after letting the dog out/ok let the dog out but be quick about it." So, five units of blood later.. along with a myriad of tests later....she had surgery on Thursday for what she had told them it was all along... literally a pain in the butt (sparing you the TMI portion of the update). So, she dodged a big bullet this week, and is now home, though not in time for her birthday on Friday, and with temporary equipment that she would rather have done without. So, Ruthie has some recouperating yet to do, but at least can be home with her beloved pets while she does so, without being poked and prodded every four hours.

School continues to be interesting and will continue to be through the end of the year. This past week, especially on Friday (not even a full moon, which I get to look forward to on the 11th), several of the students were "ready to rock" as it were.. and at times I felt like I belonged on the next episode of WWF. I just keep repeating the directions, "When you are ready to work, I will stop holding you... but you cannot hurt yourself or others... " Every time there seems to be a miniscule lull, another evaluation is initiated or a new child enrolls .... my co-worker reminds me, "Nature abhors a vacuum."

Here is a little of what you might experience at our house...

Kali peeking in the back door as she hangs on the frame wondering if anyone is there to let her in....

The heavy duty dog toy..... that is "not a chew toy" for obvious reasons...
Here is the replacement version....Though not an action shot... it wouldn't be much different... :-) One of several of these guys we have hanging around here. This is one of the group that came home from the kindergarten room last year...and may not go back because this year's class is not quite ready for another distraction. :)
So.. that's what's happening in my little corner of the world. Happy birthday to me.

Hat trick

procedure with bonus plus a nasty cold tacked on for the fun of it.... makes for a wonderful Valentine's weekend..... :(

and I missed book group.

Two-for-one.... again.

I will spare you the details, though I do have photographs if you should be so inquisitive, but I recently had a outpatient procedure. All went well. Prior to beginning the procedure, the doctor became aware of another detail so she took care of that, then completed the planned task.

When I had my gall bladder removed a couple of years ago, the doctor at that time also noticed something else that needed repairing so he did that, too, in the process.

Apparently, even in this realm, I am a bargain hunter. :-)

Another month....

I don't know. Time. I waste it. I use it wisely. I burn it. I watch it.

So, here I am and somehow another month has disappeared.

It could be the online scrabble games, the IEP progress reports, the new evaluations, the extra stuff I picked up at work given an emergency departure of a co-worker (new twins who decided to come very early), and subsequent return while she waits for them to get stronger before coming home before she leaves again to join them there, the new students, the new one-on-one aide for the new student, occasional visits with my mom and papa, the books to read before book group, meetings, training sessions, appointments for one thing or another, conversations with online friends, family times, puzzles, animals, discussions about school transfers, taxes, scholarships, financial aid, grading, testing, and the daily activities of life in general....and soon, as it seems, another month is gone.

Sometimes, it makes you want to go crazy, like the dogs in the yard.... or on the couch in this case.

So it goes... :-)