The Long Wait ...

The long wait continues. It's officially Spring. It's really cold here. Most days are freezing, right at freezing or below freezing. One plus, the sun has been out lately providing a slow melt of each new snow we get which thankfully is only an inch or so each time.

Sometimes you see positive signs so you know it's coming.


Then you are reminded that winter still has an "icy" grip!

It's been a quiet week and weekend. With H gone I haven't cooked dinner much. It's funny, when he is home and I cook for us, Scott is rarely home to each with us. This week he seemed to be home every night always asking "what's for dinner"? My answer was, "not much" or "where do you want to go". With H coming home tonight, dinner is already in the oven. One of the few things I've heard from him is he was tired of Korean Bar-B-Q!

I've chatted with my little sweet heart almost every night at dinner time. She's actually requesting to "talk" to her Mimi while she's eating. although she doesn't say much.

I think she just likes to see me for a few minutes, have me entertain her a little, see Charlie and Zoe, crazy Uncle Scotty and when she's finished eating, she blows me a kiss and says "bye bye dada". I love it! I hear she says "bye bye dada" to everyone, including DaDa.

Today I took the pups up to the high school field but we didn't stay long. To start, I saw a truck parked by the soccer field which meant someone was already there with at least one other dog and could appear at any time. That's never good. That means that Charlie could take off on me at any time. We played for about 10 minutes then came home before he could run off.

When we got home I decided to take Charlie for a walk. Now that I don't have any more foot pain I figured I should really try to start walking again. He was a complete spaz. Even though Scott supposedly walks him now and then, he was all over the place. It took a bit of time to remind him how he's supposed to behave on a leash! He finally got it though and walked nicely. We only walked for about 20 minutes. That was about all both of us could take.

So now the countdown begins. Only 5 days of school and then we are on our Spring Break. A whole week off and I'm really hoping for some decent weather. Not in the 70's, (let's be realistic) but how about some 50's?? We are having a special little visitor (plus our lovely daughter) and I would love to be able to take her to the zoo or on a walk without freezing!

Please Spring, please join us for just a week! The weather this coming week is supposed to be above freezing at least. I'm hoping it holds out for a little longer.

Have a good week!

Happy Spring, Happy Pups, Happy Family & Happy Birthday!!

Yes, it's officially Spring. And yes, we've had some warmer temps and major melting. This is what the pond looked like on Monday, complete with this beautiful pair of Canadian geese.

And this is what it looked like today.


A pair of ducks have become regulars too. Today I saw the male quite close to shore and then later they were both at the bird feeder. I'll have to remember to pick up some cracked corn for them this week. They seem so hungry!


So Friday night was bowling. H got back from Miami Thursday night so our whole team was present for bowling. We bowled a team that's way down near the bottom of the list but we had to give them 150 points! Ouch! We lost the first game by about 40 points. Then we won the second by about 60 and won the third too so we got 3 points, two games plus totals! That should help us move up a little. I think we are in 6th or 7th place.

Saturday morning we had to get busy because H had to leave for the airport around 10:00. He's off to South Korea this week! He was running to the bank and dry cleaners while I was printing his business cards. Apparently it's a sign of respect to give people your business cards there and he had given them all out while in Miami. Thank goodness we had some card stock here. He left here at 12:30 p.m. and arrived in Korea at 3:30 Sunday afternoon Korea time.

The weather was actually dry and sunny on Saturday so I was able to take the pups to the high school field for some frisbee. Boy, were they happy!









When we were finished we sat and enjoyed a little sunshine and practiced being patient. We really need to work on that.

Saturday night before I went to bed I decided to go outside and see what all the fuss was about with the full moon. It was full but it didn't seem any fuller than any other full moon. At least the sky was clear, no clouds, so I could get a couple pictures. It's amazing to me that my camera can do this!


I had fun Skyping with Quinn several times this past week. Apparently I'm her dinner-time entertainment!! She's actually asking to call me now, going to the computer and saying, "Mimi, Mimi"! She's so darn smart! I loved this picture of the little family. Can you tell what team they like?? Love it!


So, it's officially Spring! Yesterday it really felt like it. Today, not so much. It was cloudy and now, tonight, it's raining. The predicted thunderstorms are Springlike but later this week the forecasters are predicting freezing rain and snow showers again. I've been thinking Spring though. I bought my potato and onion starts yesterday and was hoping to find some lettuce for my porch pots but they haven't come in to the nursery yet. This flowering plant was the closest thing to Spring I could find.


Today Scott took the pups to the high school early because I thought it was going to rain earlier but it held off until this evening. They were so nice and calm all afternoon.



Tomorrow is Tyler's 26th birthday. Another birthday spent far away from home but I'm sure he'll have fun with his friends. We miss you son! Later this week he and H will be spending some time together. Tyler is traveling up to Seoul to see H for a day and evening. I wish I could be there too but it's just too expensive. But Dad is bringing a few gifts. I hope they work out for you son! Happy Birthday and I love you very much!


Our testing is winding down. We are finishing up a few kids this week and then finishing our paperwork. I'll be glad to get back to my normal schedule soon.

Have a good week!

Blah, Blah, Blah

That's how I'm feeling. I blame it on the gray. I think there was some sun on Friday, when I had the day off. I have a vague memory of taking a nap on the couch in the warm sunshine. Sadly it's not been seen since then. The other crappy thing about gray is that it's hard to tell what time it is. No shadows or moving sun to tell you if it's morning, early afternoon or late afternoon. On a semi-good note, the temps are a bit warmer this weekend and we are having some meltage.


On another semi-good note, I believe the forecast is for above freezing temps all week so we will have more meltage.


So like I said I had Friday off. Teacher's had to work completing report cards in the morning and then having conferences from 1-4. In this position I don't work conferences. Of course I don't get paid either. It's a trade-off. Our testing went well and I am almost finished with 2 of my schools. Hopefully by Tuesday it will be done and I can concentrate on my home school. I enjoyed the day at home catching up on some chores and taking that nap!

The rest of the weekend has been uneventful as well. I did a little cooking/baking. I made pizza for Scott and I Saturday night. H wasn't here Saturday night as he has a conference in Ft. Lauderdale/Miami this whole next week. The temps there are in the high 70's/low 80's for the whole week. He's so lucky! Not only that he will be able to eat Cuban sandwiches at will!

Today I tried baking these English muffins for the first time. It didn't sound like too difficult a recipe (compared to some I've seen) and I think they turned out pretty good. The recipe makes about 1-1/2 dozen so they will last for a while in the freezer.





Amber took these darling pictures of Quinn in an outfit that her Uncle Tyler sent her all the way from S. Korea. It fits her so well.



Look how much she's enjoying wearing it! She's so funny! And smart! And I'm not a bit biased. Not a bit!


Speaking of Uncle Tyler and S. Korea, I've been trying to get in touch with him since Friday morning when I heard about the earthquake and tsunami in Japan. Thankfully it seems the tsunami went away from Korea and I've not read or heard anything about problems in Korea, it would still be nice to hear from Tyler and hear that he's ok. Please Ty, when/if you read this, please get in touch somehow.


Two pups are not too happy with me this weekend. It's too messy out to take them to the field today. They would be a muddy mess. If they were better behaved I could take them for a walk, on a leash. But they are not well behaved. Or maybe I should say they are out of practice. I haven't walked them on a leash in a looooong time. They follow me from room to room and look at me with these sad eyes.




These last few months waiting for summer are the hardest. I need some color in my life! I keep buying these little pots of flowers to cheer myself up.



It's a very temporary fix. Hopefully we will have a couple sunny days this week. Plus maybe just a little more daylight in general, now that Daylight Savings Time is here.

Have a good week!

Still Winter To Almost Spring and Back to Winter

When there's not much to report, I can always count on the weather and visiting wildlife. We've had both this week. Early in the week I looked out the kitchen window and spied these beauties!



At one point one of them came up to the bird feeder to find out what leftovers were laying around. He didn't stay long and even this little herd moved on pretty quickly. I have no idea where they migrate to and from. This area, as most of you know, is in the middle of a subdivision with subdivisions all around so I don't know where they might be living.


By Saturday morning we were having a bit of a thaw and the edges of the pond were just water with the middle on the slushy side. When I looked out the window I saw these guys making their way up from to the pond to the bird feeder. Once we start seeing ducks you start to think Spring can't be too far behind, can it?



Sadly, our hopes of Spring were soon dashed because Saturday afternoon the snow started falling and when it was all said and done we had another 3 or 4 inches on the ground again.

Friday night was bowling. We were in 6th place I think but we've probably dropped down a place or two after our sad performance. We started by having to give the other team 50 pins. The first game H and Bill had great games, both over 200. I, sadly, did not even get my average. We won the second game and were up about 30 pins. The other team really stepped it up the last game and though we had great hopes in taking that one and winning 1 and totals, it was not to be and we only ended up with 1 point.

The rest of the weekend has been fairly uneventful. We stayed home last night and watched Robin Hood (the version with Russel Crowe that tells what happened before he became the Robin Hood we all know). Lots of fighting, death and violence.

Today the sun finally came out and even though there was a fresh layer of snow on the ground it was nice enough to take the pups to the high school for a little frisbee. They were happy!!




A couple of times the wind got under the frisbee and carried it across this little stream. Thankfully both Zoe and Charlie remembered to jump it instead of falling in it. Once the frisbee actually went right in but Zoe retrieved it without even getting a paw wet!

I thought this picture looked crazy! I have no idea what happened. It was very bright out but most of the pictures were either washed out like this one or too dark. Weird.



They had so much fun and are now sleeping soundly like good little pups!



H is out tonight. He has the suite at the Palace again and is treating some people to a Piston's game. They're playing the Wizards, Andy! You should have flown in for the weekend and you and H could have made a night of it.

I'm preparing for a busy few weeks. The ESL dept. (that's me now) is preparing for our annual ELPA testing which is an annual test given to English Language Learners to see how much they've improved in English. We have to test every student in four areas, listening, speaking, reading and writing, and have until April 15 go complete it. While I haven't done any of this kind of testing myself yet, the other girls tell me it's quite intensive and a bit stressful. If you don't get everyone tested by the end date your school is penalized for each day you aren't finished. We should have enough time but there is a week of Spring break in there so we have to work around that too. I'm hoping things go well. There's already been a bit of tension in our department between two other aides. I'm staying neutral if it kills me. They are having a bit of a power struggle and I'm just waiting until they're finished so we can get started testing. If the teacher would just step in and handle it that would take care of the problem but she doesn't really like to do that. She's in her own little world, doing her own thing, and let's the rest of the stuff get sorted out between us three aides. That would be fine except the other two struggle for all the power. It's kind of interesting to sit there in the middle and watch them go at it but also I just want to get started and get the testing over with so we can get back to helping these kids learn English!!

Ok, that's it for the week. Only two more weeks until Spring officially arrives. We are ready for it here. If only Winter would cooperate and leave!

More weather reports next week.

Have a good week!

My Baby Love Weekend...

So last Friday I took a personal day off from work and headed to Virginia to see Quinn and family. The weather cooperated so the trip was uneventful. I always worry when travelling in February that there will be a major blizzard or something and I won't be able to go. I arrived around noon to a 70 degree day! Talk about beautiful! We grabbed a quick lunch and then headed to the park. Quinn loves the park and it was a great day for it.
She loves the swings


The slide


Running away from Mommy


And hanging out watching the other kids do all the things she wishes she could do.


It won't be long Quinn.

Saturday we did a little shopping and then Saturday night Amber & Andy went into DC for a night on the town and their first night away from Quinn together. She and I had a fun evening with dinner, bath time and then off to bed. She let me sleep in until 6:30 at least. She's an early riser.
Here she is the next morning reading her books on Mimi's bed (air mattress). She loved this bed.


While she did pretty good being with just Mimi I will say that she started missing her Mama on Sunday morning. She had a couple sad moments so I had to do some major distracting. She was happy to see them when they got home but still came to me for a couple hugs and kisses. I would say their first night away went well.

Monday night, my last night there, Amber and I took a cooking class that Andy had arranged for Amber's Valentine's Day gift. We were cooking Greek. Our team of 5 made lamb kebabs with Tzatziki (which is the cucumber sauce) and Spanakopita (spinach pie) and Baklava. Between the Spanakopita and Baklava we used a ton of butter. I always thought Greek cooking was so healthy with olive oil and all but we soon found out butter is a huge part of their cooking. We spent about 3 hours there, ate what we cooked and then brought a bit home. Amber is lucky that this place is right down the street from her so she can take more classes there if she wants to.

The flight back home was uneventful too and I was home by about 8:00 Tuesday night. It was a great weekend and I loved being able to spend a few days with Quinn. She changes so much is just a few short weeks. I would hate it if I couldn't see her every couple months. And thanks to Skype there wasn't really too much of a warm up time. She knew who I was and wasn't shy or anything! Great trip!


Not much else going on around here. That snow that had melted before I went to DC was replaced with another 10 inches last Sunday. If Monday hadn't been a holiday (President's Day) we would have had another snow day. The weather has been cold and crappy all week, no sun, just yuk. Tonight we are supposed to have rain and maybe even some thunder. Crazy!

We did have one nice surprise this week. Tyler's box from South Korea arrived. It was full of goodies for the whole family. We have all been enjoying the snacks. It seems they really like things covered with chocolate which is ok by me. There was one thing kind of puffy and filled with air and it wasn't so good. Last time I chatted with Tyler on line he said he was considering signing on to teach for another year. He hasn't made up his mind yet but since his contract is up in May he's going to have go decide pretty soon.

Here was another surprise. We had this guy visiting the back yard one evening this week. He was practically in the back yard this time.

Tomorrow morning at school we have a meeting to talk about next year's budget. I've already heard that classroom aide time is being cut by at least 30% and I know there will be other cuts. My job could be on the line again but so far no news is good news? My job is paid for by Federal funds and I'm not even sure if the Principal knows what that budget is yet. Michigan is going to be one of the states that cuts it's per pupil budget, we've already heard the Governor say that. It's going to mean less teachers and larger classes and less services. And here I am still taking training classes. Friday I had a half day class for a reading program. On Tuesday afternoon I have another training class so I can learn how to do the testing we begin in March and continue through April. I'm really hoping I don't get laid off again as I really do love this job. Time will tell.

Have a good week! I hope you get a couple days at the park Quinn!! :-)