Back to school with a little rain

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cat, rain, school

A summer of working results in not as much time to put the classroom back together. I was a tad worried, but nothing I could not accomplish. If push came to shove, my plan was to keep working until it got done no matter how late I had to stay at school. And then a small miracle occurred. Two former students asked if they could come back and help me. YES!!!! Of course you can! Within two days and with four students, everything was done. I couldn’t believe. Actually I could, because they are the fastest workers ever. Except when they talk…..and being on the forensics team results in a lot of talking. But I didn’t mind. I love just listening to them and watching them get excited about the same things I was excited about in high school. Living vicariously? Perhaps.

My start of class procedure is the best management tool I’ve ever implemented. Thank you Harry K. Wong!

New desk configuration. Seats face each other this year. We’ll see how this experiment unfolds!

Today we also got a very sudden-ish storm. We looked at the radar around 2 p.m. and there were just these tiny little splotchy clouds that seemed to fizzle out before even reaching the lower end of the state where we are located. Soon after I decide to go to Walmart to get some supplies for the weekend’s event. As I’m arriving in the parking lot, I can see the big clouds north of me. I was all “ooooooh a summer storm….too bad it won’t hit here.” I tried not to dally in the store because I hate loading/unloading the car in torrential rain/thunder. As I was starting the car, I hear the severe weather alert that it will be hitting the area in about 10 min. I almost made it made it home in time. There was definitely hail hitting the car as I turned on to our street. I couldn’t really see. I didn’t want to speed just to get to the garage faster because I was afraid of hitting someone/something or hydroplaning. Then I grabbed the bags with the ice cream and meat, ditched my sandals in the garage, and ran for it. I did not get as wet as anticipated. Bonus!

The intense rain drove away the heat nicely and gave us a froggy visitor on our grass!! This is the second SUPER humongous frog we’ve seen. The one I saw last year was a dark olive green with spots and this one is a bright spring green with a few brown specks in parallel rows. So weird. Naturally I had to take Twiggy out to see the froggy and she seemed intrigued!!! She kind of sniffed it and the frog bulged out its sides and lifted up its butt end. My husband shouts, “watch out! it will pee on her!!” I respond, “like shooting pee out of its butt?!!!” haha. So here is the pic of the froggy and the kitty saying hi!

Here, Twiggy gestures to indicate how big the frog is compared to her little kitty paw.

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Flowers and man caves

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cats, flowers, garden, house projects, man caves, yard

In the second spring in our home, we are settling into some spring traditions. Last year my mother-in-law helped a ton with planting several containers/boxes with me. She showed me the ropes and how to pick out flowers from the store and then how to fertilize the soil etc. Now this year, I felt comfortable accomplishing all those tasks myself.

So the asters in the boxes have not fared well. I’m not super upset about this because they cost 1.50 from Walmart. But still. I got flowers from there last year and they were fine. Are asters not hardy WI spring flowers? Hmmm. I guess not. Almost half of them have died. At least, I’m assuming they’re dead. The flowers have withered and died (so I popped them off, thinking/hoping new ones would sprout) and then the stalk turned brown. Not sure that’s a sign of life. However, the pansies are doing well and growing. Hopefully our little bout of frost Sun night (grrrr) did not hurt them too badly.

But in better flower news, the muscari have taken off and even a second flower sprouted out of each stalk! The hostas that I transplanted are all surviving too. They have filled in nicely. Lastly, the bright red tulips bloomed and so did the pink hyacinth. I love the color combo next to each other as well as the height contrast. I want more all around that rock. New goal. Then, in the shade garden all but one hosta (a bluish colored one) have come back and the bleeding hearts have shot up and bloomed and each of the two plants has two or three branches with flowers. So pretty!! Those are my husbands favorite. And yet…..he despises poppies because right now before they have grown a stem/bud/flower they look like weeds and he can’t stand them. I love them and I can’t wait to see them. I think we definitely have more than last year (haha). Because I want to keep them, I think I’m going to have a hard time convincing him to do so unless I figure out a place to transplant them to. So….now I’m wondering how do I transplant poppies? And where do I put them in my yard? They are growing int the “shade garden” which isn’t so shady when the trees don’t have many leaves.

Yesterday, on Mother’s Day, the cat caught a bird. I really enjoy the birds in my yard. And yet, I don’t feel bad letting her  catch and eat a bird. I figure it was not going to survive one way or another anyway so what does it matter. It’s only her natural instinct. After 7 years of living indoors, she finally caught and ate an animal. I’d say her life is pretty near complete!

Our third and last chair has arrived. We picked it up on Saturday. In buying furniture, I have totally followed in my mother’s path of don’t get anything white that will show the dirt. I don’t have time to clean or pay someone to clean my furniture. I brush the cat fur off and febreeze the room and we’re good to go. So my couch is a soft red color and my other two chairs are grey (not awesome for hiding white cat fur, but she knows not to go on them). Well, I still stuck to my mother’s advice and got  a dark colored chair, but this one has writing on it. I’ve ALWAYS wanted a chair with writing on it, especially since it became popular to have that rustic French writing on it. Yeah. Well mine is in Lation. hahah!!!! I was shocked my husband agreed to this fabric. When we have to pick out fabric or colors, I sometimes pick out the most ridiculous one just to see him get all grossed out by it because he’s a boy. When I pulled this fabric off the rack, he’s like “wow, that’s really fun let’s get it!”. I know my jaw dropped and the older couple near us was totally laughing and the newly weds picking out furniture together. I was like, “ummm alright” and then I had to contain myself from jumping and hugging him because we finally agreed on a pattern!! haha again! Since moving into our house summer of 2012, we have officially replaced all of our living room furniture. It feels really good and the living room has a very adult look to it! We are both very pleased. We still have all of my furniture from my first apartment (2 chairs and a couch from my grandma) and his “man bachelor” lazy boy recliner. That’s up in the computer room which has a newly obtained “man cave corner” complete with Hawaiian scented candle that I got in Maui on our honeymoon.

Surrounding Snow

Tags

cats, season of winter

Last year at this time, it was in the 60s, sometimes 70s. My crocuses, daffodils, and narcissus all popped up and bloomed and died back before Easter. Currently, a good deal of snow still covers the ground and at least it’s been warm-ish enough to melt the snow on the driveway, but the gravel/sand/mud mixture is kind of gloppy and mushes around my boots when I walk to the garage.

Last summer, we tore out a portion of the garden in the middle of the yard that was all mucky with weeds. We put down layers of grass clippings and cardboard hoping it will all rot over the winter/spring and we’ll have some good dirt for planting this spring. This garden strip is in full sun all day so it will be a great spot for planting all those fun sunny plants/flowers so they can come back year after year. I guess we really will have to wait until May to plant anything. I keep looking at too many photos of gardens and I just can’t decide what types of plants and flowers I want. I just want it to be pretty and survive the heat. That’s all.

It’s funny how the cat can tell when the seasons are changing. She is shedding like crazy; fur floats behind her as she walks from one room to the next. In the mornings (about 4) she runs around like something is chasing her. She meows incessantly while running. She has soooo much pent up energy from not being able to take walks around the yard. Soon kitty. soon. Today we sat on the deck (because it was clean and dry) and a bunch of birds started cheeping like mad and the cat ran out into the yard to go investigate, but realized she was walking on the cold, crusty snow, and she immediately stopped and turned around and picked her way back to the house. She was not so amused any more.

“Beast” Grading

Sometimes, I tend to pick up my kids lingo/slang. A few years “beast” was one of them. I’m a fan of words and how definitions change and I’m intrigued each year when new words become slang. So one day a few years ago, one of my students commented, “Wow Mrs. H – You are beast at grading!!” meaning I was really fast and super duper awesome at it. Why, thank you for your compliment dear student.

This weekend, I kept thinking about my student’s compliment. I made it my goal to grade 76 essays. Most of these essays were 3 – 6 pages in length. I almost made it. For as goal oriented as I am, I’m also good at prioritizing and assessing my work load when I realize my goal is a bit lofty. After the cat caught a bird (her first one ever (she’s an indoor cat too)) and after a lengthy phone conversation with my mother, obviously making it through all 76 papers was not a realistic goal. Yet, I really enjoy reading my students writing and giving them feedback to help them improve their writing. While I did not make any progress on any of my own personal household tasks (cleaning/organizing), I reveled in completing an entire section’s essays in time for class at 9:30 this morning. And I was happy to hear again, “Wow you are beast at grading!! I can’t believe you read all these this weekend!”

Autumn walks and character point of view

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cat

I thoroughly enjoy books written in first person because I love connecting with characters who tell a story in their own words. Like many active readers, I connect so strongly with a character that I literally feel as if I’m walking by their side, experiencing every moment with them. It’s very dream-like/movie-like. As a good/expert reader in my classroom, I try to verbalize these images/thoughts when I read aloud so I can model what goes on in the mind of good readers. Usually, my students snicker and think I’m totally whacked. I fully admit to being weird. I really do. And here is the next weird part: because I usually think in terms of other characters’ point of view, I constantly wonder what my cat is thinking. Oh to hear her inner monologue.

Many of us who have pets wonder this I’m sure of it. But today, as I walked my cat around the yard after school, her face overflowed with pure elation. The leaves crunched beneath her tiny paws, her claws sunk in to tree bark, the birds twittered overhead, and I gazed from afar. What do you smell? Do you really want to catch those birds? Could you if you put your mind to it and gave 110%? After being cooped up all day in a house, I wanted her to bask in the afternoon sun and breathe the fresh air. I would suffer the zesty autumn afternoon air because I, too, had been confined in a windowless room. Near the end of our outing, she trotted over to the shade garden. There, a pile of medium sized boulders makes a perfect kitty perch. She found the one smooth, flat rock and sat there. My mind wandered again….isn’t that stone cold on your bottom? Do you keep track of all the birds you’ve seen so far today? Aren’t your paws cold now?

Alas, I will never know what my cat thinks. As long as there is a happy look on her face or a peppy meow greeting me every day, I’ll take it as a good sign and take each moment to connect with my pet.