A New Beginning

I have started a new chapter in my life. Actually I've just set the wheels in motion and we'll see where it takes me.

Today I received my final paycheck. Rather than continue to crawl around begging for teaching jobs, I've decided to change me career path. I'm not sure how all the details are going to come together yet, so forgive me if I don't provide much info. What I do know is that I've applied to a community college and hope to begin classes after Christmas. I still have to see what classes, if any, will transfer from my bachelor's degree.

The whole idea of going back to school is somewhat intimidating. The fact that I'm going to try a completely different field makes me a little anxious. I'm not that concerned about being so much older than the other students. I am worried about the 1 1/2 hour one way commute. There may be a move in our future, in order to get closer.

In the meantime I will just continue to plug along here. There are kids to raise, meals to cook, volunteering to do, and order to bring out of the general chaos of our lives.

Project Update

Mr. Socks sits on the grout haze--Bad Cat!!!

I was going to wait until we finished the floor to post pictures, but I changed my mind. I just finished the grouting on the area between the bar and backdoor. This is the most challenging part of the project because of the diagonal lines. Each piece had to be measured precisely.

Tiny details matter

A few tips for anyone who is considering putting down their own ceramic tile. Make sure you have the right tools. Although I don't have pictures of us actually working, we have put some money into getting the proper trowels, mixing utensils, sponges, floats, and a wet tile saw. I have also been using haze remover to clean up after grouting. You could use water, but the haze remover works after one application. Water tends to just spread the grout around. I learned to use rubber gloves as well. The mortar and grout really suck the moisture out of your hands.

Voila! The finished product

Leave It Alone

I have gorgeous impatiens taking over my bushes out front. Here is the view you would see if you drove by my house. The funny thing about these flowers is that I didn't plant them. Not this year anyway. They have reseeded themselves from previous years and came up volunteers. I did try to move some of them, but most I just left where they sprouted. They seem to like being right up under the bushes.

If you were to come knock on my front door and looked over the side of our stoop you would see them growing like mad behind the bushes. I consider it my Secret Garden.

Sometimes wonderful things can happen if we just leave it alone. The hard part is knowing when.

School Traffic

I remember the scene in Mr. Mom where the school crossing guard is explaining the drop-off/pick-up line to Michael Keaton. At the time I was in elementary school and I thought it was bizarre because everyone I knew walked to school. We didn't have an elaborate system for cars to navigate when picking up students. Occasionally a parent would pull up out front to get their child if it was raining or they had a dentist appointment after school. Now every school has a detailed guide for driving up to the school. Every year I have to sign a form promising to obey those guidelines.

Everyone picks their kids up. We don't have school buses for the city elementary schools. The county does bus all the students, but several choose to drive their own kids. If they didn't we would need double or triple the buses and I don't know of any school districts in the country who could swing that right now.

So we end up with traffic jams in our tiny town. Mostly this is because there is a one lane bridge going across the river. Notice that the traffic is only backed up on the side of the road where everyone has to merge. (Sorry such poor quality picture.) That is the middle school traffic. We don't have a middle school on our side of the river. Notice the other direction is pretty clear. That is the traffic going to the high school. They don't have a high school across the river. There are probably more cars going to the high school, but it doesn't back up because there are two lanes going over the river from that direction. Good reason to upgrade the northbound side of the bridge.

Until it gets fixed, we just make sure to leave early so we beat the traffic. You'd think living in a small town in the middle of nowhere you would be able to avoid traffic. Go figure.

Sick Day

After two weeks of school, and working 26 hours a week as well, S has hit a brick wall. She is sleeping as everyone else is off to school and work this morning. So being a good mom, I'm taking a break from my Monday Hike and staying here to lend moral support. Although, with her asleep I'm basically just doing normal house/gardening stuff.

Saturday the girls went to Six Flags with the youth group. Late in the sweltering afternoon, S passed out in line for a roller-coaster. Luckily two of the other kids caught her, so no serious damage. She threw up on herself while she was out, and then was somewhat disoriented when she finally came to. The park security offered to take her to their hut for some water, but she refused.

Sunday Hubby took her to the walk-in doctor who diagnosed a sinus infection and gave her a shot as well as anti-biotic and decongestant meds. Instead of looking better, she looked and sounded worse this morning. So I sent her back to bed. She was irritated; now she'll have to go in 1 1/2 hours early one day to make up a biology test.

I remember in It's a Wonderful Life when Zuzu has a 99 fever and the doctor makes a housecall. I don't know if that's an accurate portrayal of how illness was handled in the 1950's, but if it is we've done a 360. Now we push ourselves through until we simply give out and can't go anymore. I think it's a reflection of our society in general. No one takes time to just relax and let their body catch up.

A Belated Birthday

The 17th was S's 17th birthday. Her Golden Birthday. Since her work schedule is Mon, Tues, Wed, Fri this week, we celebrated on Thursday. After cake and ice cream she went to battle practice. When she goes off to school next year we probably won't even notice a difference.

We had planned on getting her a super cheap car for her birthday. After her speeding ticket we decided against that. Instead she got a super expensive (still cheaper than a car) laptop. The reason it cost so much is because we got the 4 year protection coverage. Usually we by-pass this, but considering that S is the one who accidentally stepped on Hubby's old laptop we thought it was a good idea this time. I think she'll get a lot of use out of a computer. Almost as much as a car.

Monday Hike

I decided to go here to hike this week. I had never been, so I'm glad I printed out directions before I left. TomTom hasn't been working lately because it can't find a satellite signal. M blames it on solar flares. She blames everything on solar flares. Radio station fuzzy: solar flares. Internet running slow: solar flares. Homework not done: solar flares. You get the picture.
There were several trails in the park. I picked Cascade Trail since it sounded scenic.

 The entrance was promising.

I saw these awesome, colorful mushrooms.

And here is where there should be something cascading down the hill. A little disappointing. I continued on some but was disheartened by all the construction in the woods. I didn't take pictures of it because it was so ugly. They have driven bulldozers through the woods and cut down lots of trees. The trees that are left all have bright plastic ribbons tied to them. Maybe they are doing some kind of massive overhaul of the trail system. I didn't ask.

There was a gorgeous lodge in the park. Although this wasn't the best hiking experience I think I'd like to come back in the future to see what, if any, improvements have been made.

Weekend Cocktail

This weekend Mr. C went to a trial fencing class. In the picture he is in the long pants and yellow mask. He loved it so we are signing him up for the three month beginner class. This will mean driving to the Big City twice a week after school. But he can do his homework in the van, so it should be okay.

M started the weekend with a lock-in at a friend's church. No sleep, so she was tired this weekend.

S worked 4-11 on Friday and Saturday. She also worked 4-10 on Wednesday, so she should have a good check coming. I wish they would have scheduled her that much over the summer. She also had "battle practice" on Tuesday and Thursday, which means we didn't see much of her last week. BTW battle practice is when she goes to practice choreography for the battle scene in Narnia, the community theatre play she'll be in in October. She has one line!

Hubby and I worked on the kitchen floor. It looks good, but the stove and dishwasher are out right now. What an inconvience!

Back to School

We have made it through the first week of school. Only 39 more left!

First day of senior year

 Smarty had a rough start. She absolutely hates the new principal. This is bizarre because she is extremely easy-going and gets along with just about everybody. The new principal, who the girls refer to as Umbridge, is obsessed with gum in the parking lot, water bottles in school, and talking in the classroom. I think maybe she thinks the school has had behavior issues in the past and is trying to stamp them out. However, this school hasn't had any behavior problems that I know about. What she should be concerned with is the fact that most of the students didn't have full schedules or were scheduled for the wrong class. S was put into band and she is most definitely not in band. She had it changed to art by Wed. so she's good now. This year S is the Reporter. She reports the school lunch and a joke of the day on the school news each morning. This rise to stardom has garnered her quite a bit of unwanted attention from freshman boys. Oh well, the cost of fame.

First day of sophmore year

 Marvelous is starting her second year of high school. She also has a problem with her schedule, but it's not until second semester. She's going to wait until the guidance counselors aren't so busy and then go get it fixed. She is one of the few students who understands chemistry in her class. Last night she had a friend over to help her with their homework. I am so proud of her! M has struggled some in the past, especially with math, so it was wonderful to hear her explaining exponents to someone else.

First day of fifth grade

Mr. Creativity loves his teacher this year. I think his favorite thing this year is going to be strings. We bought him a violin and he takes it back and forth to school 3 days a week. He's happy to be back with his school friends that he hasn't seen all summer. Since he goes to school out of district he has school friends and neighborhood friends, which are two distinct groups.

So the school year is off to a good, busy start!

Monday Hike

This is what I did the first day of school. After dropping Mr. C off, I headed to Little River Canyon National Preserve in NE Alabama. All these pictures were taken with my cell phone, so the quality isn't always that great.

Started by climbing down these rocks--about 10-15 feet

Followed the dry creekbed out to the river

Walking along the rocks in the river

A view down the river--actually pretty low right now

This is one place I crossed over the river--some rock hopping

There were several wildflowers blooming

Cooling off in the water-- notice the fish that wasn't afraid of my giant feet

The water made wonderful "burbling" sounds over the rocks

I thought this tree looked like a football goal

Waterfall--again there's not much water right now

The trail back out of the woods--after climbing back up those rocks

So I had a very enjoyable day. It was 83 when I started and 95 when I finished two hours later. I drank a water bottle of Gatorade and one of water during the hike. I was glad there was a latrine at the trailhead. I had such a good time that I'm planning on making it a weekly routine. I'm looking forward to my next Monday hike.

For the Last Time

We spent the weekend getting ready for school. It was tax-free weekend so we bought all the supplies as well as clothes. With all the sales and the added bonus of not paying the 10% tax, it wasn't too bad to buy for all three kids.

This will be Mr. C's last year in elementary and S's last year of high school. So we are having a lot of "lasts". M was telling S tonight that this is the last time she'll have to go through the "sucky first day of school stuff". S was quick to point out that she'd still be in school next year, just somewhere else. I had to leave the room to cry. What a wimp!!! I better suck it up.

It seems like just last week that Smarty was starting kindergarten. I don't feel like I'm done with her yet. Does she know enough to survive "out there"? I remember when I only let her watch PBS. I was determined she wouldn't eat junk food or drink pop. Well, she doesn't drink pop, but that's her choice, not because I stuck to my guns over the years.

I usually only relate the wonderfully glowing reports on my kids. I do this on purpose. What mom wants to accentuate the negative things their kids do? But when they do make mistakes I wonder what I could have done to make them more perfect and less likely to screw up. This weekend S got a speeding ticket. I have never had a ticket so I was pretty upset. But after talking to everyone today and realizing that for most people speeding tickets are common, I was a little less upset. Still, this summer a boy who is two weeks younger than S was killed in a car accident, caused by speeding. So I think that it's reasonable to expect her to drive carefully. How do you get them to really understand this? Sure she was shook up when the cop pulled her over. But after talking to all her friends and hearing their stories, she's accepting it as a normal occurance. I just hope that after she gets done with driving school she'll be a better driver.

Well, now you know my kids are not perfect. And I'm not a perfect mom. And school starts tomorrow. I could sit around and be depressed about it all, but I'm going to go hiking instead. 

End of Summer

To end the summer, Mr. C and I went to the science museum in the Big City. We had a great day. He's not too old to enjoy the exhibits and he's old enough to understand/question some of the science involved. Here are some pictures to share. The camera battery was about dead or I would have more.

The balls float in the fountains.

What is it like to be blind?

Racing away from a bicycle-eating dinosaur!

Standing in a "tornado".

Playing virtual soccer.

What does it feel like to be in a 78.2 mph wind? A little breezy.

Summer is officially over here. School starts on Monday.

Alternative Energy

With the huge mess in the Gulf, as well as the spill in China and the Mississippi River, it seems like a great time to seriously look at alternative energy sources. Actually I've been interested in this for a long time, but I'm going to write about it today.

I think that with all the brain power out there it should be possible to come up with new ways to power our cars and houses. There has been some work in this direction. Look at the increased use of corn to make bio-fuels. Of course this depletes the world's food source. Why not use kudzu which is completely useless and grows 14 inches a day?

It seems like with every new form of energy the exclusive problem of making them mainstream is the cost and availability. I know I have looked at the Honda FCX Clarity which seems like a great way to go in terms of the environment, but if you don't live in So. California you're out of luck. Even then there are a limited amount of them.

Several times I have looked into solar panels for our house. After all we have quite a bit of sunshine here. But the cost is so high that it makes it impossible for the Average Joe to have them installed.

Last  night I watched a progam that mentioned the possibility of using helium 3 from the moon for energy. How exciting! and expensive! Who would fund this project even if it would benefit the whole world? Probably no one.

So what is behind this halt in innovation? I believe that it's oil. We live in such a selfish society that anyone who has a finger in the big oil pie is not about to pull it out to invest in an alternate energy source (I mean more than just the small feel good projects they invest in so they can make a PR commercial about it.). I'm sure that coal industry is also part of the problem.

I was thinking about the Native Americans who lived in this area 10-12,000 years ago. They worked together to further the well-being of their entire community without regard to individual gain. With all the evolution that's supposedly been going on in that time, how many of us can claim the same?

Hot Weather & Lazy Days

The heat is cranking up for the last few days of summer vacation. I hate writing about the weather because it seems like that's what you talk about when there's nothing better to talk about. But sometimes, the weather is so severe that it consumes everything else. Our entire region is under a heat advisory and our county is under an extreme heat warning (what those mean is not clear to me) until 8pm tomorrow night. The heat index is supposed to be 100 before lunch today. The lady on the news said that some places in the sun will feel like 140 this afternoon. 140!!! I am sure that's what she said because it made me do a double take. Our curtains and blinds are all closed (they actually stay closed most of the summer anyway, just to help the old AC). I filled a big bucket of water in the driveway in case any of the roaming neighborhood dogs need a drink. Hopefully their owners have left them water too.

This weekend we worked on the floor. That's going to be ongoing for several weeks so I'll just post a "finished" picture when it's done. Probably around Labor Day.

Hubby and I scoured the countryside for used cars this weekend. We are looking for something cheap for S. By cheap I mean under 2000. It is hard to find something that runs for that price. I definitely don't want something that is going to conk out on her when she is driving home from work at 11pm. Hubby is going to try to go see this car after work.

When we were in North Carolina I bought some beads to make some earrings. When we got home we took the van to the car wash and vacuumed out all the sand--and the beads that were hiding in the cupholder. So I bought some cheap beads at the store here and made some earrings this weekend. Not very professional looking, but they're just for me.

Taking M to the orthodontist today. She had braces 3 years ago in SC but we had to take them off when we moved. Our current insurance wouldn't cover any pre-existing conditions. I would leave her mouth alone, except she has one tooth that sticks out and it causes a constant sore inside her lip.