Holy Cow, did I let a month sneak by again?

Winter plods on in our little corner of Minnesota. The slush and rain is ugly and grey, but hopefully will precede not so much flooding this spring,
We pulled over on the way home from school to watch a HUGE bald eagle just sitting in a field, hangin' out, minding his eagley business.
Kyle is home from a weekend trip to LA, where he had meetings and training for our job with EF There are so many awesome kids this year, we want to host them all. Instead, we're looking for awesome homes for them. If you'd like to host an exchange student and touch the life of a kid from another country, check out the link or contact me here.
My team goes to regional Knowledge Bowl competition tomorrow, and hopefully on to state from there.
Sorry to be such a poor hostess here. I've got spring fever and I'm itching to clean, putz and plant.
You all keep warm and THINK SPRING!!!

Snow day!

Made pancakes. Kid helped.
Kids did chores on their own. (they wanted something)
Got a few chores done.
Had a real conversation with my husband.
Made a big dinner. Other kids helped.
Cooked ahead for the week.
No wonder the day seemed to fly by.

Why I'm neglecting you

In brief:

Someone quit at Job2 and I'm working more lately.
Education cooperative gigantic inservice day
End-of-Quarter workday
End of quarter work load
Beginning of Semester lesson plans
Training weekend for foreign exchange program concurrent with...
Supervision of ski trip for 102 foreign exchange students
Watching the Vikings, yet again, snatch defeat form the jaws of a victorious season
Nearly weekly knowledge bowl tournaments disrupted by...
Nearly weekly snowstorms


Aside from all this, we're all well, if a bit winter weary.
Off to prep for next week's mayhem!

Take it Tuesday: Winter Blues

A recap for the Winter Blues theme: the view from the landing.

Mr. Murphy and the knowledge bowl tournament

Our New Year's Eve game party was mostly harmless. A good friend and "auntie" to the kids came out for a visit over the long weekend, bringing along the boyfriend of Thing 2. He's a great kid, and was nice to have around. We got in a good visit as we alternated shotgun duty... The kids have started inviting their friends for the NYE party, and this year it was kind of a pain in the butt. There is such a continuum of maturity in kids that age. Some of them were great fun to be around, and some were toddlers in teen bodies. I don't think they'll be invited back en masse. The grownups all behaved themselves fairly well.

I managed to spend a few hours that Sunday getting myself ready to go back to school. In our infinite wisdom, the regional Knowledge Bowl coaches planned subregional competition the day after break. I thought I did a pretty good job of laying out my sub plan and my preparations for our home tournament. Monday went fine and one of my teams qualified for regions. I came home and got to work on the tournament planning. Tuesday I accomplished quite a bit, and assembled my packets for the printer, planning to send them Wednesday. On Wednesday, school released early in the onset of a winter storm. At bedtime, Thursday school was already two hours late. By 5 am it had been cancelled. I got quite a bit more done working from home, and hoped for a late start Friday to get my tourney packets to the printer and set up the scoring software with the IT dude. They called off school. By 8:30, I'd made a few calls, and determined that if I could get myself to school and find a custodian to let me in to print, I was home free. By 11:30, I was there, none the worse for wear (the side roads were still plugged and the windchill was nasty, but the main roads had been cleared) and spent the day in a blind rush putting my tournament together. Saturday dawned clear and cold, and the tournament went off well, but not until after a good deal of hairpulling on my part. This past week I spent catching up all the stuff I let slide while I worked on the tournament, and putting in a few more hours to help cover at Job 2. Hopefully that serves as an explanation of my absence around here, especially when combined with the fact that my life has been pretty uneventful and boring.

We did discover another impostor cat, this one resembling our grey striped tabby, Raelin. This one is also much friendlier than the other impostor, inviting himself in. Our Vietnamese daughter let him in, not realizing until later it wasn't Rae. My sister-in-law was just here for a short visit and let him in on the way out. He was here long enough to have a quick snack and use the rest room, so I suppose he's no worse than the kids' friends.
Tonight the Vietnamese daughter must participate in "Snow Days" coronation, so I'll get in a little work time at school and get prepped up for the rest of the quarter. The school year is nearly half over. It boggles the mind.

New Year's Eve

I said to the man who stood at the gate of the year
"Give me a light that I may tread safely into the unknown."
And he replied, "Go into the darkness and put your hand into the hand of God
That shall be to you better than light and safer than a known way..."

Minnie Louise Haskins, "The Gate of the Year" 1908

Christmas break

Teachers get as excited for this time of year as students do. I've been having a lovely mix of lazy slacking and productive putzing through the Midwestern Snowpocalypse of 2009. Our local snowfall amounts were relatively tame, totalling 12-15" in spurts over three days, enough to make the backyard all purty and provide impetus for a snowfort. There were enough lulls in the storm for most folks to get out and dig in spurts rather than face an insurmountable mountain at the end. We only had one short trip into town for Christmas with my in-laws, then back home to snuggle in for the next round. The real crap came the day after the snow stopped falling, when it thawed just enough to get wet, and the wind blew to refreeze sheets of nasty packed snow and ice onto the roadways. This, of course, was the the day we were scheduled to drive to the cities for a Christmas party with friends. We made the attempt, but turned around after creeping along the sheets of ice until a 4x4 passed us in the opposite lane, then spun out directly behind us across our lane. We stopped by McDonald's on the way home, where they were all too glad to see our Things who work there, as so much of the help had called off due to weather. So, after forgetting to take the day off, then scrambling to cover their shifts at the last minute, they wound up working anyway. They always tell me they want money... The county roads still suck, but the major highways are finally in decent shape.
Tonight is our annual game party for friends and neighbors, and I expect goodtimes all around. It's been another rollercoaster year, with plenty of adventures and the loss of my brother to keep life interesting. We are blessed with relatively good health and steady income for the time being, and count our blessings as we face our challenges. May it be as well for your you and yours.

Rumors of my death have been greatly exaggerated

I'm here, all is well, just busy.
I have been keeping my nose to the grindstone and making some progress.
Knowledge Bowl has been fun, but no big wins yet this year. Saturday morning was the last day of firearms deer hunting in our neck of the woods. On my drive around the lake to meet the K-Bowl bus, I saw a hunter in full winter camo and blaze orange trudging back toward his vehicle. About a hundred yards behind him, a deer picked his way along the path in the opposite direction. I swear he was chuckling.
As mentioned previously, we're gearing up for a quiet Christmas at home. My family's big gathering is done, and no-one else can get together until January. Brother's wife #2 is visiting over the weekend, and we'll have some friends visit for a couple days over our annual NYE game party, but otherwise we'll enjoy some quiet time together.
While our December has been mostly tranquil, some of our friends and neighbors have been dealing with illness and death, and we keep them in our hearts.
I guess now I need to get ready for work. Take care!

Withdrawl

My internet at home has been down for 36 hours.
I think of a million things to look up or people to contact, then remember.
I am an addict!
Thank goodness for datsphones...

NABLOPOMO fail

28/30 in a very hectic month. Not so bad.

Ow.

After a cold, nasty, October, our November has been mostly dry and beautiful. Yesterday the temperatures crawled up into the low 50s, and the sun shone all day. We spent most of the afternoon out in the yard playing the yard games ma picked up on the Black Friday sales. The fresh air was welcome and a little disconcerting for those of us preparing to hibernate. After supper the bulk of us trundled off to the indoor ice rink, where I perched myself atop a couple of metal blades for the first time in over 20 years, and teetered around the ice for about an hour. I discovered a couple of new muscles in the process.
I'll check in again tomorrow, if I can roll myself out of bed.

Success!

Fat. Sassy. Sleepy. Thankful.

Thanksmas

Well, I got all the activities for this week completed, and managed to teach a little in between, too. Oy. Looking forward to four days with family for Thanksmas. I will get to curl up in a comfy corner and do a little grading. Our Thanksmas gatherings have plenty of activities to join as well as quiet time to visit and just chill. It will be nice not to have the housework and other distractions calling to me. It will be good to reconnect. Now it's time to pack and prep and bake a bit before we leave.

It's a wrap

Kids pulled off their show with aplomb. Not without a glitch here and there, but they had energy and carried it off despite lapses. I am very proud of them. And really, really glad its over for a while.

Show time!!

Matinee and 7pm tonight, then it's time to pack this baby up. I've had a lot of fun with these kids, and maybe they'll ask me back next year. I'll try to curb my response rather than run screaming or laugh in the poor woman's face.

Sweet irony

...that even as I struggle to get these kids on the stage and finish this play so I can have a little sanity, I think ahead to the next show and can't wait to start. Or maybe that's insanity and not irony. They both start with "i."

Philippians 4:13

...and it's a good thing, too, because I need all the help I can get.

The old gray mare...

Friday night. All I want to do is crawl into bed. When did I get boring?

home stretch

Four days until this play hits the stage. Enough coffe and aspirin and I may survive.

The story of my life...

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