Puppy and kitty getting all of the attention…
Life has been too crazy lately. I’m ready for a break. Too much soccer, too much homework, too many things to remember and do for the wedding in 20-something days. We want to just throw a big party, but there are still so many things to remember! I’m losing a little steam for my project with everything else going on. And the last few days I’ve been sick with an allergy-related head cold. Fooey!
Oktoberfest! In September! Two tables away, people started to create an empty cup pyramid…. it was fun to watch it grow as more people added to it. Kind of like a community shrine to honor good beer. My kind of people :)
On and off, all day long, he sits upstairs and bats at things to make them fall down to the first story. The dog, upon seeing something fall suddenly (and not realizing she’s the cat’s pawn), picks the items up in her mouth, one by one, only to get a little scolding for carrying around something that is not her toy.
The cat sits above, watching the scene, probably doing some cat-like snicker in his mind, and waits a few minutes until he can do it all over again.
Anything seems to be fair game. My shoe, one of the girls’ stuffed animals, today it was even the scrub-sponge from the girls’ bathtub, which meant he had to climb into the bathtub and retrieve it, carry it in his mouth to the right spot, and then drop it off the ledge.
You’d better believe this cat is controlling all of us. He sits up there and silently judges us as we all scramble like fools down below.
Another camping trip. Seriously, we have a sickness. We got there at almost sunset on Friday because of school, work, and soccer practice. But we got there just in time for the kids to hang out together for a while and literally ride their bikes in the dark :)
Afterward, the parents played some dice and maybe stayed up a little too late.
In the morning, everyone was up at the crack of dawn. Such is the life of camp-aholics.
At about 9am, the girls and I drove back home to go to our soccer games in the 105(ish) degree heat. It was miserable, and I truly don’t understand why games aren’t cancelled on days like that. But alas, we sunscreened ourselves and toted out our shade and cheered and were good sports. Afterward, we came back to the campsite tired and dirty to find that everyone there was tired and dirty, too.
The kids painted and went on a scavenger hunt and the adults sat around and watched and some of them may or may not have eaten 4-5 Rice Krispie treats and a half a bag of cheese popcorn. Ainsley also discovered that she and the umbrella had been separated at birth.
This morning we took our time packing up and I wandered around a while and took very important photos of very important things.
Avery and Ainsley went on a death-defying Jeep trip to nowhere. It kept them busy while Jared and I slaved away cleaning and packing up. All in all, it was fun and we have a good time whenever we go, but our RV/Camper envy is at an all-time high. The packing up on the last day is really almost like waterboarding to me. I despise it.
Before we left our campsite, we made sure to throw the birds some nuts and seeds so they’d pose for a picture for me. That never really panned out, but I did get a few of them in the trees while they waited for me to take my 12 inch zoom lens and get out of their forest, already.
Peace out, Angelus Oaks. I’d say we’ll be back next summer, but let’s face it, I’m going to get talked into this again in just a few weeks :)
My photo today is nothing special, just the globe in my classroom.
As I was editing it, I was thinking back to earlier this week, when I subbed for a first grade class at a low socio-economic school in my district. (Ainsley is a first grader, so of course I compared them to her all day). It was kind of a culture shock and a nice reminder that I like my middle schoolers, and that I love my school and my colleagues.
At one point, a boy in this classroom kicked off both of his shoes and they flew up high, almost to the ceiling (which was high and vaulted). While I was supposed to be doing quiet reading centers with the kids, he got up and refused to listen, ran around and started hitting and pushing kids while they sat nicely and quietly at their desks, and then started opening cupboards and pulling stuff out right and left. I was kind of in shock…
I eventually called the secretary and she answered the phone, “Are you calling about Tony?” I had to physically restrain him while I waited for the VP to come collect him and take him to the office. Their attitude was, “Oh, this happens every day.”
It was angry that no one bothered to mention this to me, and I won’t be going back to that school any time soon… a little professional courtesy would have been nice. All I could think was that they thought I was a “just a sub,” as opposed to an actual fellow teacher in the school district, and they had a very callous attitude about the whole thing. It made me very sad for everyone in this situation, but especially substitute teachers. What a crappy job that is if you do it to actually make ends meet…
I don’t know why I felt compelled to share all of that :) It’s been a weird week with that experience, and then going to my own classroom (I still share a teaching position as a ‘half-time’ teacher, even though I’ve requested to be full time for several years now…) My own students this year are just wonderful. I have a couple who need a little straightening out, but most days I leave my school and think “I love those kids!”
Anyway, here’s the photo that evoked all this randomness…
I was in the girls’ playhouse and she wanted in, too :)
“The Book with a Hole,” by Herve Tullet :) Lots of silliness caused by flipping through the pages…
