http://www.blogger.com/html?blogID=1755139666841541603 about a dream: February 2014

Thursday, February 27, 2014

It's still cold

Check out this forecast:



Wow! Yay!! It might hit the high 20s on MARCH FIRST! But don't get your hopes up folks, that won't last! We'll be back down to the teens and probably below zero overnight by early next week.

Worst winter ever.

Monday, February 24, 2014

More cold on the way...

Wow, this has surely been one horrid winter. Highs are only forecast to reach the low to mid 20s for the foreseeable future, with a mix of sun and clouds and maybe some flurries.

Ridiculous. If anywhere else in the country had better weather, I'd be tempted to pack up and move. Oh well.

Not much to report. It was back to school today, kind of feels like we never left. Vacation flew by, hopefully too fast for my students to forget everything they learned!

Saturday, February 22, 2014

Family yoga

Today, to help wind the kids down, Unk led us all through some very relaxing yoga poses.

For a large man, he's surprisingly flexible...

Even Nick got in on it!

If it requires grace, balance, and flexibility, Nina is sure to be a natural...

Maggie and Moxie demonstrate the true "downward dog"

You know why you don't ever see "Bring your dog along" yoga classes offered? Because it's chaos!

Even Marley tried to sneak a kiss!

It was poetry when it worked though.

It didn't have the wind-down effect we'd hoped, but boy was it cute!

Finally, a warm-up!!

Yesterday hit the 40s, Thursday hit 47 (according to weather.com), and today and tomorrow are supposed to continue the trend. Yippee!!

Thursday was not a great day though. I got a cavity filled at 11 am and spend the rest of the day with a numb jaw. And because I had to leave the house by 10:45, I of course didn't think to eat lunch. Then, as the dentist is drilling, my stomach started growling. Grr!! By then of course it was too late to eat, and I realized I'd have to go hungry until my mouth felt normal.

Nina and I made smoothies, and that helped some, but there was no pleasure in eating them. Then after the anesthesia wore off, that side of my mouth felt sore, so I ended up eating mostly soup for dinner.

Even worse, Maggie has a cavity! Poor kid. They're very careful to keep the process pain-free for kids, but that means they'd rather sedate her than risk any discomfort. We'll wait and see. To be sedated, she'd have to go to Topsham or something. Hopefully they'll be able to do it here in Boothbay, but she was NOT pleased to try the x-ray (the attempt failed), so at the moment, not looking so good.

Yesterday poured all day, but Aunt and Unk came! Today it's sunny and beautiful, so we'll be sure to break out the camera and get some photos.

Wednesday, February 19, 2014

Day 5

Troop morale continues to sink. Heavy snowfall overnight weighs on their spirits like concrete. From where we're camped, it's beginning to look pretty hopeless...


Kidding! More like hopelessly beautiful!

We woke up to about 7 inches of the fresh, powdery stuff. It's probably in the mid 30s out there too. And sunny, but clouding over. I think we're going to get some rain soon.

The girls and I were out there playing all morning. Even the car was playing hide and seek in the snow!

Where is she?? ...... There she is!
Well, the kids played, and I shoveled. Two cars, two decks, one boat, one trampoline, and half a path. I must have moved 1500 lbs of snow. I got so hot I had to take my hat and jacket off!

Yay for warm!!

(You know it's been rough winter when this is warm)

Tuesday, February 18, 2014

Vacation: Day 4

General hopelessness growing. Overnight lows around 0 (that's Farenheit), highs in the low-mid 20s. The troops are listless and sullen. Everyone is cold and tired. The youngest has responded to the hardship with pathological lying. The elder child is dissecting dead animals. She'd better grow up to be a doctor and not a taxidermist.

I dropped some reeses peanut butter cup and Moxie is moving the couch to get it. At least they're helpful when it comes to spills and crumbs.

If this weather doesn't lift soon, we're not going to make it. Oh and it's snowing again.

Monday, February 17, 2014

Happy Presidents' Day!

We celebrated by wearing stovepipe hats today. Ok not really.

We went to Brunswick today (me, mom, and the girls), visited with great-grandma, went to Wal-Mart and picked up 110 lbs of dog food, and then went to the McDonald's in Bath with the indoor playground for two hours.

Overall, a good day. It was frigid again. Not as cold as it has been (highs in the mid 20s), but the wind was just awful.

Now we're all just chillin. Marley is on his favorite spot on the couch, just as he was a few days ago when Nina got this picture:

Except right now, his eyes are closed. Sleepy guy.


Here's a close-up of his handsome face. Notice anything strange?

Besides that he's one good-lookin' dog?

Check out this ultra-close-up of his right ear:

It's an unexplained ear tuft, or UET.
  

We don't know why or how Marley got his UET, but it's so darn cute! It just keeps growing, slowly but surely. Dogs. They're so weird!

(But not as weird as the girl who took the photos!)

Saturday, February 15, 2014

VACATION!

Yay! I can't wait to catch up on my laundry and wax the floors. Damn I need a new hobby!

Vacation started off with a bang--a 2 hour delay at school! Which means for the second day in a row, I got up at 5:30. I really wish they'd make these calls the night before instead of leaving me anticipating an early phone call. I never sleep well when I'm expecting the call.

Then, since school was on after all, I had to get right up and make Nina's granola bars for her class Valentine's Day party. Then between the regular morning routine and all the shoveling, we barely got out the door on time. It was a heavy, wet snow, too, so my boots and pants were just soaked by the time I got done out there.

School was a breeze though, because we had two poorly-attended classes, one 15 minutes shorter than usual, and then winter carnival. I didn't get enough kids for trivia, so I went to the nail polishing, henna tattoos, and cookie decorating events. I have sparkly fingernails, a henna crescent, and I made off with two cookies and the rest of the tub of almond joy frosting.

The frosting thing actually got me a bit angry. All of the staff was like, "O-M-G are you eating that frosting from the tub?" and I was like, "Yes. And I'm going to finish it. Just look away if it bothers you." But after a while it was sitting kinda heavy so I set it down on the gym floor (the kids were competing in events and we were all in the gym), then 15 minutes later I went back for it and it was gone!

Gone!

I would gladly have shared it if anyone else wanted to lick frosting off of the plastic butterknife after me, but I don't think that was it. I think someone was jealous of my ability to consume seemingly limitless amounts of sugar without gaining weight and tossed it. That's what I think.

I'm going to let it go this time, because it was only like a tablespoon, and any more probably would have made me really sick to my stomach, but I'll also never forget. And never set my frosting down again, apparently.

Thursday, February 13, 2014

It's a nor'easter

We ended up with an early release from school today. Conveniently, they made the call for the early release before school started, so everyone could plan accordingly. Unfortunately, they make these calls at 5 am, so I got a phone call at 5:30. It's an automated call, I don't answer it, but then the voicemail makes a noise a minute after the initial call, and the dogs get even more riled up, and the kids get woken up. So maybe I should answer... instead though I go on facebook and see what the deal is.

And this morning, the deal was that school would let out at 11:30. That meant my last class at the high school got out 10 minutes early, which was fun for everyone. Especially me. :-)

It's really snowing out there too! We've gotten about 6 inches so far, and it's still coming down. It might switch over to rain (it sounds like sleet/frozen rain is already mixing in), so not sure what the total will be. It's supposed to finally wind down around noon tomorrow, so probably no school then either. Which means it's the first night of winter vacation! Woo hoo! Just cross your fingers that we don't lose power.

Unfortunately for me, I left my iPad charger at school. Grrr!! That means I have to use my other MacBook ALL VACATION LONG, which is depressing because it's old and slow. Oh, woe is me. I have my iPad mini too of course, but I don't know if I can stand using this elephant for a week and a half.

I'm sure I'll have a ton of snowman and snow fort photos to post tomorrow. A snowstorm, what a great way to start winter vacation!

Wednesday, February 12, 2014

Storm watch: What a winter!

There's another big storm heading our way! It's not supposed to arrive until tomorrow afternoon, but a few hours earlier and they'll cancel school. There's just no knowing until the morning. Excitement!

Unfortunately, it looks like we might not have school at all on Friday, which means no Valentine's Day parties for the girls. Boo.

Updates tomorrow!!

Sunday, February 9, 2014

Brace yourselves

The girls have grown a lot lately. Nina was jump-roping in the living room just now, and she's so long.  Long arms, long legs, long hair... Look at this:

She's even standing still for 2 seconds, so the picture's not blurry

This girl knows how to strike a pose!

I can't even tell you how much time I spend in a week brushing and braiding all of this hair. In this dry static-y weather, it tangles right up unless it's braided every morning.

Now check out Maggie:

She's getting so skinny all of a sudden too! Almost nothing left of that adorable little tummy. :-(

Here she is reading her book.

They're just so beautiful!

Saturday, February 8, 2014

Lovely February we're having!

It's a little chillier than normal for this time of year, but bright and sunny. We'll take it!

Today we went to a birthday party at the Y. Since no one reads this blog, I'll confess that we used the birthday party excuse to go swimming in the pool. Once you get through those doors and past the front desk ladies (who are stricter than librarians!), they don't care what you do. So we nonchalantly walked up and said, "We're here for Spencer's birthday party," and they said go on ahead, and Nick and Nina got right in the pool. HA! They swam for an hour while Maggie and I did the cake and presents routine, then I got Maggie suited up and she joined them for their second hour.

However, there was no lunch at the party, which took me by surprise since it ran from 11 to 1. We were famished by the time we got out of the pool, so we got lunch at the new Asian place in town. Delicious. We couldn't even finish the leftover for dinner there was so much.

After that, Nina and I stayed at the rink for skating and Maggie went home with Nick.

On the way home, I was reminded of an incident at Sunday school, and I can't remember if I ever wrote about it here. Just in case, here's what happened: We were talking about what makes God happy (love, kindness, all those new-agey new testament things), and the kids wrote about things they thought they could do to make God happy.

I look over at Maggie's and it says, "Give him money."

Really, I'm wasting our time with this church business. At least I'm the Sunday school teacher, so I don't have to worry about what other people will think.

Thursday, February 6, 2014

Snow beautiful snow!

The girls had a great time out there in the snow yesterday

Can you tell I took this photo from the warm safety of the dining room? :-)
 It was a beautiful, light fluffy snow. Horrid for snowballs or snowmen (the snowman in the foreground of the photo above is the headless, iced remains of Olaf, the snowman from our last snowstorm). Lovely snow for easily brushing off the car though. And yay for not losing power!

Then we had the most beautiful sunset sky this afternoon/early evening. Look:


It's hard to capture the colors, but there was a stunning mix of pink, purple, yellow, and green. Really beautiful.

Wednesday, February 5, 2014

This kid!

The kindergarteners are doing a unit on sexual abuse prevention right now. There was information about it in Maggie's home/school folder. It outlined some of the phrasing they're using, how they're distinguishing between comfortable and uncomfortable touches, that touching is never a secret, and genital touching is only appropriate for helping keep your privates clean or at the doctor's. Great! Keeping kids safe, that's great.

But you know Maggie can take this kind of information and use it to her advantage.

So today mom made zucchini with dinner, and Maggie didn't want to eat it.

"It makes me uncomfortable," she said. "My body's telling me not to eat it. You know I have to listen to what my body says, and my body says it's uncomfortable."

Clever.

I told her she had to try one yellow and one green, and see which color she liked better. She reluctantly chewed a yellow piece, made some retching noises, and choked it down.

At least I'm her trusted grown-up that she can tell these things to. She even drew a picture of me in her "trusted gown-up you can tell about uncomfortable touches" sheet. 

Anyway, I gave her french fries. Sometimes you have to know when you've been beaten.

Also, today was a snow day. Yay!

Tuesday, February 4, 2014

February already? And a sphagetti supper

Tonight was family night at the book fair/PTO spaghetti supper. Yum! Any night I don't have to cook is a good night for me.

Still, I'm in a grumpy mood. First, that stupid book Hello Jell-o! Was AT THE BOOK FAIR AGAIN!! I don't know if I ranted and raved here about that last year, but here's what happened. I was volunteering at the book fair, browsing through the offerings, and was bored enough to check out a jell-o recipe book. Lo and behold, I find an entire CHAPTER of the jell-o book devoted to boozy jell-o shots. Great! What a great book to sell to the K-8 set! Way to go Scholastic!!

I emailed, last year, but it's still there. Good to know they care. I should email them and say, how 'bout you publish my book so I don't make a big viral stink about this? But, coercion is probably not the best way to get a contract, so I'll just vent here. And write another email, this time more strongly worded.

THEN, there was a silent auction at the spaghetti supper, and I bid on a few items. I only got one though, wanna know why? The ladies manning the auction table bid a dollar higher on the items they wanted right at the end, and got all the choice deals.

Humanity. My faith in you is destroyed.