It is what it is

January 28, 2013 First snow/ice day in 2 years with school closed.  Dreary rainy day but who cares.  I can't believe I have not gotten to blogging since October.  School dictates a lot of my life and then came the holidays (and went). Will enjoy the day, I always do!  Have been quite sick with bronchitis and because I exams last week, I just kept going.  My asthma kicked up and had to go for a breathing treatment.  The first in 10 years.  Getting back to normal. The holidays were great.  Thanksgiving was childless but we had fun with Mike & Jan and Grams.  Then a day later we were decorating!  The kids were all here and gone before you could blink.  You look forward to something for so long.  At least Matt had been home a coupe times and with Dana 2 weeks before Christmas.  Andrew & Brian had been home in Sept. and then we had Jackie T's wedding in Traverse City in October with them.  But it had been ...

I can't believe it is almost the end of October.  I am having such a good time teaching math 4 times a day, I have forgotten to blog.  Of course, my writing has suffered.  We have been meaping and my posts on FB get longer every day.  So many Lucy antics to report, don't know where to pick up since my last chapter.  Need another month of just writing.  Hopefully will be able to get back to it!  Life is good....some days!  It is what it is!

Little did I know, after 2 years of teaching what I didn't want to teach, that I would get a math position at the middle school.  After the classes from hell last year with 8th graders, I was trying to get back to elementary.  I am so glad to have 7th grade this year and teach what I love, math.  I am a little rusty  (ha ha Holbrook peeps) but will be good with a little review.  It was the bestest summer.  I loved the EMWP but it did eat half the summer.  I still got to keep one reading/writing class so it was not in vain. The other half was tan and travel.  I loved my trips to Phoenix, LA, Chicago and Boston.  I could write a book for sure.  The move from hell:  Phoenix to LA with Amanda and a drive that included a major dust storm, 2 monsoon rains and LA traffic in a 16 foot Penske truck.  Arrived late, no electricity in the apartment, hotel horror, bribing the electric company in LA, 2 babes and a truck, I could go on and on...

So, it rained all day.  I had left over Costco chicken and it felt so much like fall, I chopped carrots, celery and onion and made chicken soup.  Watching HGTV because I can. Sleeping late because I can.  Staying up late because I can.  Watched the Dallas finale last night.  Been watching the DVD for No. 1 Ladies Detective Agency by Alexander McCall Smith after completing 7 books.  Reading The Help.  Not ready for fall....hate not being outside today.  Been home from Phoenix/LA for 4 days and still catching up on shopping/errands/around the house.....all the stuff I usually do in the summer without a class to impede my progress.   Leaving for Chicago tomorrow.   Very excited as it has been a year since being there to move Matt.  Have a lot of DVD's to watch...Modern Family, season I & II, the rest of the Ladies Detective Agency and Downton Abbey seasons I and II.  Boarding Lucy, have to get one more shot, looked into behavi...

Hard to believe that 3 years have flown by since we moved Amanda and Emily into the Villas on Apache.  Hard to believe that this is my third trip since May first.  Hard to believe that Amanda has graduated from ASU and is moving to California tomorrow.  We have almost everything packed.  Hard to believe July has raced by and it is the 29th, soon to be August.  My EMWP is finished, Amanda was home for nearly 4 weeks and summer is waning fast.  I am nervous about driving a truck to California.  I have never even driven in Arizona.  All my trips here, not once.  Someone else has always driven.  What have I gotten myself into.....again?  I can't believe how much stuff Amanda has.  She bought a bed, some tables, chest (all from Ikea, meaning assemble required), we have a couch and mattress to pick up today and still no refrigerator.  She only got this 500 sq.ft. place last Monday after spending the previous Thurs., Fri. in the ...

THE (MIS) ADVENTURES OF CASEY "Saving one dog will not change the world, but surely for that one dog, the world will change forever.  So did my life and the lives of my entire family.  Casey was part of and still is, a part of our family.  We are adjusting, but surely not forgetting.  We trip over ourselves trying to ignore the fact that she is gone. It is still just too sad to talk about.  We start things like "Oh remember when we were in the pool last summer and we had to keep Casey off the deck....." or "Gee, it's funny not to have Casey eating anything dropped, or not tripping over her as she was always under foot."  We reminisce without saying too much at all.  We are all thinking the same thoughts.  We are all wondering if we get another dog, what will it be like.  We wonder if it is too soon.  We wonder if it is disrespectful......then think wait......to a dog???  She was so human-like.  She knew wh...

June 29, 2012 The Little Red Hen in the 21 st Century Once upon a time there was a Little Red Hen.   Now, this Little Red Hen lived on a farm and was friends with a lazy dog, a sleepy cat and a noisy yellow duck.   The Little Red Hen started every day the same way, making breakfast for the dog the cat, and the duck.     She would call out “ Who will help me make breakfast”?   “Not I” barked the dog, not looking up from watching Sesame Street.   “Not I” purred the cat, staring at a bird outside.   “Not I “ quacked the noisy yellow duck, hardly pausing from Draw Something on his Mac Book.       “Well then,” said the Little Red Hen, “I will do it myself”.   And she did. When breakfast was ready, the Little Red Hen would ask,   “Who will help me eat this breakfast?”   “I will,” barked the dog.   “I will,” purred the cat.   “I will” quacked the noisy yellow duck.   One day, ...