Somewhere in the Suburbs

Movin' On Up

2007-09-06T15:12:00.000-06:00

The lure of the password-protected post has led me to join many of my other blogging friends over at wordpress. Please change your links and join me in my brand new suburb at http://somewhereinthesuburbs.wordpress.com/

Ahhh....

2007-09-05T19:51:00.000-06:00

Contentment is not the fulfillment of what you want, but the realization of how much you already have.

"This is really sad," Adventure Guy said as he joined me lounging in bed last night. We had assumed the position: pillows propped, laptops on laps, television tuned to an episode of Weeds on DVD. The kids were in bed, and we were enjoying those precious moments of quiet before bed, our time.

And that time is far from sad. While we may need to ditch the electronics from time to time, that comfortable familiarity is something I value most in our marriage. After nineteen years together, he knows me far better than anyone else. He's my confidant, the one I want to talk to about the good and the bad, the exciting and the mundane.

Contentment is not exactly something I've striven for in my life. I'm much more of the type to disregard accomplishments as soon as I've achieved them. I've always been the one looking toward the next task, the next challenge, the next thing to possess. But, suddenly, I find myself in a place I really like, a place I have to call contentment.

Careening toward forty at a rapid pace, content is not exactly where I expected to me right now. I hated turning 39. I had been dreading the next birthday. But, now, admittedly 6 months from the big date, I'm not focused on that milestone like I was earlier. I attribute much of that feeling to Adventure Guy, but I also know that my new job has something to do with that as do the current ages of my kids. I love the new challenges at work right now, the opportunity to make a significant difference in the operations of All-American Public Schools. And I love having older kids, even dealing with Dancer Girl, our resident teenager. I enjoy being able to have a different level of conversation with my children than I could when they were younger, and I especially enjoy catching those glimpses of the adults they'll turn into in just a few years.*

While I'm sure that one day soon readers will surf by the find me bemoaning the latest personal or career crisis or the everyday craziness that is my life, for tonight, all's right in Suburbia.

*In case the above post made anyone feel like throwing up just a little bit because of the sappiness, I should mention that my current level of contentment does not rise to the level that I would feel comfortable posing nude for a Times Square billboard like the women I just saw on Ophrah did. There's got to be a limit to this whole contentment thing.

And A Points-Free Weekend Was Had By All

2007-09-03T23:27:00.000-06:00

After logging another thousand mile trip on the trusty Suburban, we have returned safely home and promptly panicked once Adventure Guy and I realized all the coordination it's going to take to get our three children and ourselves to our evening commitments tomorrow night (that's commitments, not being committed, though it feels like I may need a little "rest" by the time the evening's over).

But I digress....back to the long-weekend which is much more fun to contemplate than is the beginning of the work week.

The weekend went very much according to plan. We were ready to hit the highway once we picked up Soccer Boy from school--his school starts and finishes an hour later than the girls' schools do, so we had already retrieved the other kids from the bus. Our trusty new route did indeed cut off a good amount of time, so we rolled into town in time to begin our eating tour of College Station.

My friend over at The Testosterone Zone often writes wonderful reviews of classy restaurants which serve gourmet food. Her posts make make my mouth water. There will be none of that here today. As I told Adventure Guy when the Suburban rolled into town Friday night, "This is an official points-free weekend." He suggested I use that as the title of my post. In total disregard to my Best Life and Weight Watchers efforts of late, I decided to eat whatever I wanted during the weekend. I had saved all my bonus points for the occasion, but, trust me, there's no way I stayed within the total. But I have lived to diet another day.

First stop on the greasy and/or fried food whirlwind was Double Dave's Pizzaworks. Double Dave's started in College Station and has since expanded to other cities, but it's a rare treat for us, having not made it yet to a location near Suburbia. We were happy to have a franchise open in my hometown, so it's not quite as rare an indulgence as it used to be. We had just enough time to down a dozen and a half pizza rolls, soft drinks for the kids, and not-so-soft drinks for Adventure Guy and me before heading out to midnight yell practice. It was fun to introduce the kids to an Aggie tradition that Adventure Guy and I enjoyed while we were students there, but it made for a late night. By the time we rolled into the house at around 1:00, everyone was more than ready for a good night's sleep.

There's a saying about the "spirit of Aggieland" and the traditions at A & M, "From the outside you can't understand it; from the inside you can't explain it." I'm finding that to be true in my accounts here. I ran across a new song during our visit, though, by an Aggie who's trying to make it in country music these days. Check it out at his myspace page. I wish I could share the video that they played at the game, but I'm not having any luck finding it yet.

And now, back to the eating! Saturday morning the girls and I slept in but were treated to round two of the food tour by Adventure Guy and Soccer Boy who were nice enough to go fetch us Shipley's donuts for breakfast. Forget Krispy Kreme. These are the perfect donut food, especially the plain glazed ones still warm from the oven. Then, sugar fix taken care of, we set out to buy an obscene amount of Aggie paraphernalia at the local bookstores. We bought Best Friend her requested A & M logo for her car, Mother-in-Law some t-shirts, and replenished the kids' stock of shirts, shorts, and jerseys. Oh, and I bought a cute belt that has no Aggie logo whatsoever.

After stopping by to visit Father-in-Law and his wife, we continued the food tour, going to Wings 'N More for lunch. While the rest of the family indulged in the signature chicken wings, I, in true no points barred fashion, had the steak fingers. And the onion rings, and, of course, the cream gravy as a dipping sauce. Fried-food heaven, I tell you. It's a good thing I only have the opportunity to eat this stuff once or twice a year!

The next stop was campus for a visit to the Memorial Student Center, where Adventure Guy and I were both involved in a number of student activities while we were at A & M and the Quad, where we watched the Corps of Cadets step off to march in to the game. Adventure Guy was a corps member as were my father and his father. We ran into several people we know and also met up at the end of the afternoon with our friends from Houston who were in for the game. I'm sure Adventure Guy would want me to note that one of the people we ran into was a yell leader during the time we were all at A & M. The term yell leader should automatically be translated into "big man on campus." After we finished visiting with him, Adventure Guy said, "Please tell me I've aged better than Yell Leader." I was able to assure him that he decidedly had!

Adventure Guy's ego appropriately stroked, we began the climb to our seats for the 6:00 p.m. kickoff. The kids were excited because we split them up so that the girls could sit together with their friend from Houston and Soccer Boy could sit with her brothers. This left Adventure Guy and me with the really good seats all to ourselves in the new endzone club area. I have to admit, I prefer being out with the general public, though the bathrooms in the club area are primo. The game itself went fairly well, and I'm happy to say that A & M did not go the way of Michigan this weekend.

After the game we visited with Father-in-Law a bit more and then turned in for the night. He left the next morning, and we decided to run on over to Houston to visit some more with our friends there, instead of spending more time in College Station as planned. The kids got to swim, and we got to conclude our feasting weekend with a trip to our absolute favorite Tex-Mex place, Lupe Tortilla. Their chicken enchiladas with green chili sauce are the best I've ever eaten, and the fajitas are fabulous too. I managed to indulge a bit in both and left absolutely stuffed. My two older kids were introduced to Mexican food at Lupe's and I can still remember Dancer Girl as a toddler powering down their barracho beans like she'd never have a chance to eat again.

This morning we drove the kids by our old neighborhood and showed them the two houses we lived in when we were there. Dancer Girl can remember a bit about the second house, but Gym Girl was too little when we moved to remember anything. Soccer Boy finds it strange that we lived anywhere else before he joined the family and emphatically states that HE never wants to live anywhere other than Suburbia unless he can take all his friends with him when he moves. That being unlikely, I think we'll stay put!

So, now we're home, and I'm the only slacker who's not unpacked. I've been wasting time catching up on blogs and having a nice glass of wine instead of getting to work. But I'm sure there will be plenty of time for that tomorrow.

We Are The Aggies; The Aggies Are We

2007-08-30T22:27:00.000-06:00

Here in Suburbia, we're ready for some football. Tomorrow as soon as Soccer Boy's school is out, the rest of the family will be waiting in the parking lot, Suburban (appropriate, isn't it?) loaded, prepared to make the pilgrimage to College Station, Texas, home of Texas A & M University. Aggieland. Adventure Guy and I both graduated from A & M as did both of our fathers. While we do not quite rise to the rabid level of fandom that leads some Aggies to refuse to pay for their children to attend college elsewhere, we do view it as our duty to sufficiently brainwash the children into "choosing" to attend there on their own. This is more of a challenge now that we live out-of-state rather than 90 minutes away in Houston. But, we do typically manage to get to at least one game in Texas and one away game each season.

Tonight we were well into our preparations (The t-shirts were chosen, the bags packed, the pile of movies for the car trip prepared) when Adventure Guy arrived home from a meeting intent on making his own preparations. Those preparations involved the following:

One incredibly ugly shirt, vetoed by LSM.

One highly annoyed black Labrador refusing to cooperate for cute photo op.

Once we had selected a lovely polo shirt with a discreet A & M logo for Adventure Guy and given up on torturing the dog, we quickly finished up the travel preparations. Barring any unexpected developments, we'll be on the road by 4:00 p.m. tomorrow. We may even make it into town in time for Midnight Yell Practice.

Several of our friends will be in town with their kids, and Adventure Guy's dad and his wife will be there as well. We're looking forward to a weekend of eating our favorite college-era foods (I've been saving WW points all week!), hanging out with old friends, and then taking the kids to the George W. Bush presidential library* on Sunday before making our way back leisurely on Monday.

I'm always amazed at how much I need a long weekend by Labor Day. I'm even looking forward to the long drive. Adventure Guy and I get some of our best chats in while we don't have the distractions of work and home. I may or may not have time to post while I'm gone, so I'll catch up when we return. Have a great weekend!

*Disclaimer: One of the things I pride myself upon is that I never, ever voted for anyone named George Bush in any election. Not for governor, not for president. However, this is history, people. It seems like a shame not to take the kids to see some history while we have a chance!

The Holding Tight, The Letting Go

2007-08-29T20:55:00.000-06:00

My heart leapt as I saw him round the corner. A carefree boy and his dog, my little man. The boy who no longer likes to hug his mom when she drops him off at before school care, the one who hates it when I tell him he'll always be my baby.

Tonight, we engaged in the timeless tug of war between parent and child. Him seeking independence, me seeing the toddler he was seemingly just yesterday. It was a beautiful evening in Suburbia, and Soccer Boy wanted to take our dog on a walk around the neighborhood by himself. Recently, Soccer Boy's responsibility and maturity levels have increased significantly. It was time to reward that, to recognize that he is growing up. So I said yes.

No matter how much I know that our neighborhood is a safe place, that the likelihood of abduction by a stranger is truly slim, I was unable to still my mind, that mother's heart, unable to relax until my fledgling returned to the nest. I finished the dishes; I started a load of laundry. And then, as the sky began to darken, I set out to find my boy and his trusty canine companion.

And I was rewarded, as I stepped beyond our yard, with the sight of Soccer Boy rounding the corner, our miniature dachshund scampering by his side. He was so proud of himself for taking on the challenge of walking the dog by himself. I was so proud of myself for allowing him to go, for letting him take one small step on the journey that will ultimately lead him much further than around the block. But tonight, I took advantage of the moment to hold Soccer Boy tight. Just for a few moments, holding tight while letting go.

For Better, For Worse, For Back to School Nights, For Boy Scout Meetings

2007-08-28T20:42:00.000-06:00

I owe Adventure Guy. He and I are both trying to get back into the swing of the whole working out thing. Except that he has more incentive than I do because he'll be running the Marine Corps marathon in a couple of months. But tonight, he postponed his workout so that I could make it to my Pilates class. My gym offers a number of classes, but I can only make the Tuesday evening and Saturday morning ones because of my work schedule. The last couple of weeks, I've had one thing after another come up, and I've had to skip class.

But tonight, I was set. I was determined to make it to class. I had a plan. I had worked it out with Adventure Guy that he would go run in the early-evening time frame and then take Soccer Boy to the Boy Scout informational meeting at 7:00. I would go to my class from 7:00 to 8:00, and we would all meet up happily afterwards at home. Ah, but the best laid plans o mice an men gang aft agley, and Robert Burns' mouse had nothing on us here in Suburbia tonight.

At 4:00 p.m., my cell phone rang. Gym Girl asked, "Mom, did you remember my Back to School night is from 6:00 to 7:00 tonight?" Uh, no, because it was on my calendar for Thursday night. Gym Girl said that not only was it written in her agenda for tonight but that her teachers also reminded them before they left school today. Great. I double checked the district publication that listed all the Back to School nights....6th grade, Gym Girl's school, yep, Thursday 6:30-7:30. I called the office to double check the night and time. Voice mail. I called the assistant principal's super-secret line (there have to be some benefits to this job). She confirmed a misprint in the district guide and mentioned the correct time in on the marquee outside the school and that there have been reminders in the agenda. Ummm...must not have noticed that.

I called Adventure Guy to inform him of the situation and tell him that I won't be making class after all. He promptly volunteered to go to Back to School night before heading to the Boy Scout meeting. The two schools are close together, and the timing actually worked as well. Since I am working hard on not feeling like I have to do everything myself and taking him up on his many offers to help, I actually agreed to this plan and thanked him. I felt guilty. But I went to Pilates.

I'm convinced that in all marriages, it's the little things that matter. Both the little good things and the little bad things. While seemingly small, Adventure Guy's willingness to put aside his own desires so that he could help me get a little time to myself means so much to me. It's those little gestures that say "I love you, and you're important to me." And year in and year out, I'll take a dozen little kindnesses over a dozen roses any time.

1 Down, 35 To Go

2007-08-26T12:21:00.000-06:00

I am truly enjoying my new job. It's exciting to have new challenges. Having been in my previous position for several years, much of my work there had become routine. That said, last week, the first full week of the school year, brought about a number of challenges. When Friday afternoon rolled around, I was thankful for the weekend. I'm hopeful that the remaining 35 weeks of the school year will not be quite so eventful.

Thanks to the people who continued to surf on over to the Suburbs since my last post. My goal is to post at least every other day, which I obviously did not achieve this week. So, to catch up quickly here's what been up in Suburbia since Tuesday.

I helped host a shower for the new wife of a colleague. It's interesting to see how showers have evolved now that most of the brides involved are no longer 20 somethings. This shower involved dinner at a great restaurant, good wine, lots of laughter, and a limo to make sure no one had to drive after all the fun.
I dealt with my first PR crisis at work. It's always fun to talk to the media, particularly when our local paper is guaranteed to get something wrong or misquote you. This time they didn't misquote me but they did get some facts wrong. I often had to speak to reporters in my previous position, so at least I'm used to that aspect of things. For this issue, I also was the liaison between the district administration and our school board members, which is a new role for me. I just had to remember my earlier statement about being excited about new challenges while taking on this task!
Gym Girl had a school crisis involving not being selected for a program she was really hoping for. I'd rather be disappointed a hundred times than have to deal with one of my kids being disappointed. She's dealing with it pretty well now, though she was upset on Friday when she got the news.
We had a new fence put in since our old one was rotting out at the bottom. The fence is lovely, but it took three days longer than it was supposed to, requiring the dogs to stay in the kennel that much longer as well.
Adventure Guy's mom gave his step-dad a surprise 65th birthday party. We all went over for a cookout and got to see some family that came in for the occasion.
My father in law and his wife were in town and visited us from 8:30 to 9:45 a.m. on Saturday. Yes, really.
Gym Girl and I travelled to the state capital to attend the All-State Gymnastics banquet. Gym Girl was named to the All-State team last spring, and this was the recognition event. She had her name announced and received a plaque.

Amidst all that excitement, we managed a few more mundane things as well. I introduced the kids to one of my favorite television series, Freaks and Geeks. We're through the first season. It's been fun spotting all the actors who went on to big careers. I loved this series when it came out because it captures high school so perfectly, and the kids seem to be enjoying it as much as I did. Hey, it's one aspect of Judd Apatow's work I can actually share with them. It's not likely we'll be taking them to see Knocked Up or Superbad any time soon.

On tap for today is actual relaxation. We went to church and Sunday school, and, while I'm currently doing laundry, my only other big plans for the day involve taking the girls to see The Nanny Diaries. I loved the book and am hoping the movie is better than the reviews indicate!

Full Circle, Geometrically Speaking

2007-08-21T21:22:00.000-06:00

In a land far, far away, in a time long, long, ago, I took high school geometry. Okay, so it was in Texas and it was 1984, but I digress.

Let's set the stage. As a student, it was hard to miss the Garfield (remember, it was 1984) poster on the teacher's podium which stated, "I'm not hard of hearing. I'm ignoring you." Makes you feel all warm and fuzzy inside doesn't it? Mrs. R was not a warm and fuzzy kind of gal. And I could have used some warm fuzzies. Geometry was not my thing. I was a good student, and I wasn't used to having to work hard to understand academic material. I had done fine in Algebra I the year before, but I was not remotely getting Geometry. Mrs. R's helpful explanations, such as "It's that way because of the invisible line that bisects the plane," (I swear this is true), were not proving very helpful. Now, I will admit that I might have been a tad distracted by the presence in the class both of my crush of the year and the resident mysterious bad boy who was repeating the class as a senior in a last-ditch effort to graduate, but this teaching style was NOT matching up with my learning style. Unfortunately, no one cared much about that in 1984, and parents, particularly my parents, had certainly not yet learned to write all about their child's unique learning style when asking principals for special consideration in class placement.

Fast forward to the end of semester one. Texas had just changed the passing score from 60 to 70 thanks to Ross Perot and House Bill 72. Mrs. R gave a looong speech about how out of the pure goodness of her heart, she would be raising the grades of students who had a 69 to 70 so they could pass the semester. And there I was, staring at my grade of 89. So channelling Tracy Flick about 15 years early, I shot up my hand and asked, "So, does that mean you're going to raise 79s to 80s and 89s to 90s?" And the answer? "HA, HA, HA, HA....NO!" And it's there until this day on my high school transcript. Geometry 1: 89. Accompanied by Geometry 2: 89. Yes, really.

Why am I telling you this? Or, better yet, why am I still bitter so many years later? I'll leave the second question for future psychotherapy, but as to the first question, well, Dancer Girl is now taking geometry. Since she is in 8th grade as compared to my sophomore year geometry experience, the reader can assume that my quest to marry well in the math department so as to pass on better genes to my children has succeeded. Thank you Adventure Guy, engineer. Tonight, for the first time since leaving Mrs. R's class (and going on to do quite well in Algebra II and Pre-Calculus and well as 6 hours of college math thank you very much) I was faced with the prospect of geometry homework. Dancer Girl had some questions and said, "I'll wait until Dad gets home and get him to help me." In an effort to dispel the notion that Mom can't do math and therefore convey somehow that girls in general aren't as good at math as boys, I said, "Well, I can take a look." She demurred until I added, "And, your dad won't be home until late, so you're kind of stuck with me."

And then I had NO IDEA how to solve her problems. It makes you feel good, I'm telling ya! I was hoping for a few more years before I became obsolete in the math homework department. Fortunately, Adventure Guy got home earlier than expected and saved the day.

But, this story does have a happy ending in another way as well. Remember, like the infamous Mrs. R, I too became a high school teacher. While math was NOT my field (I taught English and history), numerous students benefited from her teaching philosophy. Because in Mrs. M's class, a student never, not ever, earned an 89, which in my book is even worse than the proverbial Peppermint Patty D-. Nope it was either an 88 or a 90, but 89 did not exist in my classroom world.

Teachers often work for years without knowing how much impact they have on their students in the long run. My guess is Mrs. R has absolutely no idea of how much her actions way back in 1984 affected future generations of students. And I'm sure they'd thank her for it, even if I can't quite bring myself to do the same.

P. S. That hot guy? The senior trying to get out of geometry? She passed him. I'm convinced it was only so that she never had to see him again (particularly after that little incident with the scantron for the exam from first semester which he was auditing that spelled out "Merry Christmas Mrs. R). Oh, the injustice of it all. But I'm getting over it, really, I am.

Sleepy In Suburbia

2007-08-19T21:38:00.000-06:00

I thought weekends were supposed to be relaxing. For one that didn't have any big commitments, this weekend was quite tiring. We're still adjusting to being up and out of the house at an earlier hour for school, and the kids were really tired by Friday night.

We played it low key on Friday. I treated myself to an "end of the first week of school" pedicure that afternoon since I didn't have any afternoon carpooling to do. Then I cooked dinner while the kids settled in for the High School Musical II viewing session. I had put on beef tips in the crockpot that morning, so I just made veggies and mashed potatoes. I usually serve the beef tips over rice, but the kids requested the potatoes this time, and it's just as good that way. My tip for great mashed potatoes? Add some garlic and a bay leaf to the potatoes while they're boiling. Then mash them with some whipping cream and butter. Definitely yummy, though, of course, far from low-cal. Adventure Guy got back late from his sales conference in Las Vegas. His plane was delayed, and he arrived about 1:30 a.m.

Saturday morning, I went to my Pilates class. I was proud of myself for actually getting up and going since I woke up when Adventure Guy came in and didn't get back to sleep for a while. I love the Saturday morning teacher, though, and I always get a good workout from that class. Saturday afternoon we babysat for my niece and nephew. My sister-in-law had helped me out one day when I had a babysitting crisis earlier in the summer, so we owed her one. I must say, however, that I think it's a bit more difficult keeping up with her 1 year old than it is watching Soccer Boy! Her daughter is 5, so she's no problem at all, but I'm out of practice with a toddler. I spent lots of time closing doors, monitoring toilets, and making sure he didn't get anything tiny in his mouth.

Adventure Guy and I took turns running errands with the girls while the other did babysitting duty. He took Gym Girl to the music store, and she is now the proud owner of a viola. She's starting orchestra this year and is so excited about it. Swim Chick plays cello, and I've enjoyed the benefits of her choice of a school-provided instrument. No such luck on the viola. It was less expensive than I expected, though, so that's a plus. I then went out with Swim Chick to buy her new dance supplies. In fact, I need to formally rename Swim Chick. She has not been swimming with a team since last January when she broke her collar bone. When she took a hiatus to recover, she realized just how little she missed swimming competitively. I'm a bit sad, since she's been on swim team since 3rd grade, but she's moved on. She's decided that she'd like to return to dance lessons, which she gave up when she started swimming. Her goal is to be ready to try out for the pom squad in 9th grade. She'll be taking a ballet class, a pom technique class, and a hip hop class. So, I guess Dancer Girl is born!

Having spent all our money on various kids' stuff, Adventure Guy and I took our friends up on an invitation for a low-key Saturday night. We went to their house for dinner and then played canasta. It's funny how things go full circle. When they were still childless, they'd come over to our house so that we could play cards after our kids were in bed. Now, we go to their house because they have four kids under five! Yes, four kids under five. Unfortunately, one thing that hasn't changed is that Adventure Guy and Best Friend's husband continue their reign over the canasta series. They are two for two in our recent matches. They also own the historic advantage. I'm sure Best Friend and I are about to come into our own, though. I guess we'll have to make more time for Saturday night card games in the near future.

Today was church and Sunday School. Adventure Guy and I are teaming up to lead a series of discussion about effective discipline for kids in our Sunday school class. Teaching adults is interesting compared to my experiences teaching high school kids. A lot of the techniques work just as well, but it's honestly more of a challenge for me to work with adults rather than teens. After church, I worked on my scrapbooking. I am now officially less than one year behind. I just finished October 2006. I also moved all my supplies upstairs to the gameroom. Now that it's nice and clean, I have a new cabinet to store all my stuff there instead of in my bedroom. It looks much nicer now.

And, now, it's time for our traditional end of the weekend experience: watching Entourage. I love Vince--those eyes!

There's No Crying in Preschool...Or Maybe There Is

2007-08-16T21:49:00.000-06:00

After what seems like months of preparation (oh, wait, it was months of preparation), All-American Public Schools opened our doors (some newly refurbished) today for the start of the 2007-2008 school year.

My mommy duties involved delivering all three children to their respective school sites (Yes, I have three children attending three different schools. This will continue for another 5 years until Swim Chick and Gym Girl are together again for high school.) My work duties involved visiting all the classroom buildings at our five elementary school sites. With approximately 4500 students in grades Pre-K through 6th, that's quite a challenge. But, as I learned, not quite as much of a challenge as accomplishing the mommy duties.

We actually got off to a fairly good start this morning in Suburbia. Remember, I am operating in single parent mode since Adventure Guy is off at his sales conference. Having a husband who is an equal partner in this whole raising kids operation is fabulous, but getting used to that level of help and then having it disappear for a week is a challenge. But I digress. Other than a burned bacon incident (Gym Girl and Swim Chick cooked bacon, eggs, and toast this morning), things went well on the homefront, and we were out the door before 7:00 a.m. The plan? Drop Swim Chick off at her school (starts at 7:50 a.m.), swing by Soccer Boy's school to drop him at before school care, then drop off Gym Girl at her school (starts at 7:50 a.m.) and visit teachers and administrators there until time to go back by Soccer Boy's school to pick him up from before care, deliver him to his classroom, and visit more teachers and administrators at his site. It seemed like such a good plan.

Until I hit the traffic. The middle school where Swim Chick attends school is notorious for traffic jams. That is why I left the house at 6:55 to drive 3.5 miles with the target time of arrival being 7:15 or so. I should have known it was a bad sign when the traffic started slowing a good 2 miles from the school. We inched our way along until we finally arrived at the school at 7:30. No problem, I'd just revise the plan, now officially known as "Plan A" and drop off Gym Girl at her school, go to drop of Soccer Boy and return to Gym Girl's school for my visits. The younger two kids' schools are right next door to each other, so this would not be a big deal.

Until we came upon the flipped car. Yes, major wreck on the way to Gym Girl's school. We sat and sat through green light after green light until the police evidently arrived and began directing traffic. By this time, Gym Girl was panicking at the thought of having to get a dreaded tardy slip. Why couldn't all my students at All-American High have been that concerned about being tardy, I ask? I pointed out to her that there are no fewer than five school buses behind us, and that she will be fine. The principals understand traffic issues on the first day. Fortunately, I delivered her under the wire at 7:48 a.m. and she was not subjected to the horrors of the tardy slip.

Things did improve over all once I had everyone delivered. I was even able to reassure a nice couple who had just dropped their child at preschool for the first time. I came upon them first as I witnessed their escape from the classroom, leaving behind a wailing boy on the teacher's lap. I decided visiting another classroom at that point would be nice, allowing the teacher to get things under control without the assistant superintendent watching the process. By the time I had stuck my head in across the hall and made a bit of small talk, I was able to return to the first classroom and observe a content preschooler listening to a story, while still claiming the prime real estate of the teacher's lap. It's amazing what these preschool and kindergarten teachers can do. I watched teachers establishing procedures and building relationships that will carry them through the year, all in the span of a morning. Teachers at older grades do the same, but it's an art when your students are 4 and 5 and may have never been to this place called school before.

I was happy to run into the above mentioned couple later in my rounds of the school. I assured them that, minutes after they left, their preschooler was content and told them that my son had had the same teacher, that they'd be very happy with their son's year with her. They shared that they'd moved back to our state simply so their children could attend All-American Public Schools. It's comments like that that make my day and help me know that I'm where I'm supposed to be, making All-American Public Schools a place where any parent would want to send her children. 2007-2008 is off an running, and it's going to be a great year.

There's A Distinct Possiblity I Have Sunk To A New Low

2007-08-14T23:02:00.000-06:00

I just finished reading all the blogs on my links while sitting in the bathtub. I know this is wrong on many levels, but I just couldn't help myself. Does it count that I balanced the computer on the edge of the tub rather than actually holding it over the water? Somehow I'm guessing the folks in IT won't think so. And Adventure Guy would definitely point out that I had crossed the line, that is if he were here to comment!

Usually I have the opportunity to check in to the goings on in the blogosphere during lunch, but with my new job that hasn't been happening. Evenings usually work well, too, but tonight I didn't get home until around 8:00, and then I was doing battle with rampaging ants and falling shower curtains, not to mention dinner preparation.

And, did I mention, my feet were in serious need of soaking? In fact, that's what lured me onto this dangerous path in the first place. I figured, I could just stick my feet in the tub while it filled and do some surfing at the same time. But, of course, I wasn't finished reading when it was time to hop in that beckoning warm, sudsy water. The really scary part is nothing bad happened. No morality tale to keep me from risking water damage in the future. But really, I'm going to reform. I will; I will!

Today was "meet the teacher day" at all our elementary sites in All-American Public Schools. We start school on Thursday. I needed to take both Gym Girl and Soccer Boy to meet their respective teachers, and, in Gym Girl's case, to buy school supplies, pay innumerable other school fees, and decorate her locker. I also wanted to make appearances at the three other sites, particularly in the buildings that were remodeled over the summer. The teaches there have worked tirelessly to get their rooms ready, and I wanted them to know I'd noticed.

So, I left the office at 2:30, went home to pick up my kids, and headed to Soccer Boy's class. Fortunately, we were able to do most of the paperwork and all of the fee paying on Saturday, so all we had to do was deliver his supplies to his classroom, meet his teacher (who was also Swim Chick's 3rd grade teacher), and fill out a bit more paperwork. Swim Chick and Gym Girl visited a few of their old teachers while Soccer Boy and I were in his classroom, and then I dropped Gym Girl off at practice and the other kids back at home. I then spent about 45 minutes at one elementary site that did not have any construction projects before going to one of the intermediate schools and the elementary site with the most extensive renovations. While it was fun to see the classrooms all complete and the happy kids ready for school to start, it was draining walking between the two sites, in heels, with the temperature reaching around 105 degrees.

After a conversation with the principal at the elementary school about her burgeoning class sizes (new developments are going in around her attendance zone, and it's hard to determine exact numbers until everyone actually shows up), I picked Gym Girl up from practice and went to her intermediate school, where I filled out forms and wrote checks in seemingly unending fashion. Much poorer, but with supplies in hand, we went to meet her new teachers. She'll have two teachers this year in a teamed situation. I know one of them well and just met the other, but both have excellent reputations.

Did I mention that all of the above events were the good part of my day? I called from the car to tell Swim Chick to defrost the hamburger meat for the tacos I had planned for dinner. She got the microwave started, and I told her I'd be right home. Do you think this would have been a good time to mention that ants had invaded our pantry? I'm thinking yes, but Swim Chick was evidently thinking no. I arrived; she and Soccer Boy pointed out the ants (they're looking everywhere to get out of this heat), and I spent about twenty minutes clearing things out and killing ants. During this time, I asked Soccer Boy to put his comforter that I had washed over his shower rod since the comforter was a bit damp still. Of course, he managed to pull the entire rod down in the process. I did get it fixed, only to return downstairs to be informed by Swim Chick that she had gotten nail polish on the table runner in the kitchen. Serves me right, I guess, for still having the 4th of July decorations out.

So, can you see why I was driven to escapism in the form of both bubble bath and blog reading? Calgon, take me away!

We've Shopped Til We Dropped

2007-08-12T21:01:00.000-06:00

I am not much of a shopper. I don't like to deal with crowds at the mall, and I don't tend to shop for recreation. Now, I love to buy clothes and shoes, but I tend to do it in big clumps of power shopping rather than as an ongoing activity. But, it's back-to-school time, and my girls convinced me they could not return to school without a few new things. Swim Chick actually needed the most since she insists on continuing to grow at an alarming rate now that puberty has set in full-force. She had passed down several shirts to Gym Girl (who, fortunately, is still pretty receptive to this), and had also outgrown most of her jeans. I am also fortunate that neither girl is tremendously hung-up about labels, and Swim Chick loves shopping at Plato's Closet, a resale shop geared for teens. We took in several of her nicer things last week after the mass cleanout and found a couple of pairs of jeans she liked there for about a $5 net cost.

But, yesterday, we spent the afternoon buying school supplies, first at Soccer Boy's school, where they sell pre-packaged sets for each grade and then at a local store where the girls got locker shelves and organizers, plus some really cool crayons that roll up. I also bought some new frames at Hobby Lobby to use in my new office. I've framed several of the photos Swim Chick took at Sea Camp this summer. We were planning on the mall trip occurring yesterday afternoon, but I managed to end up with a lap full of Diet Coke after Soccer Boy and Gym Girl decided to fight over the french fries at our late lunch stop. Natural consequence? We all went home. Adventure Guy and I had a wedding to attend last night, so there was no time for going back out to finish our shopping trip once I had to come home to shower and change.

So, on shopping trip take two, we managed to find several things the girls liked at our various stops today. I picked up some new shirts for Soccer Boy at The Children's Place, and, better yet for everyone involved, Soccer Boy did not have to go along with us because he was invited home with a friend after church. Once we picked him up, we had dinner and then went grocery shopping. Adventure Guy is at a national sales conference in Las Vegas for the week, so we planned some quick meals for the rest of us.

I can't believe that school starts Thursday. Summer has flown, but I'm excited about the upcoming year. We meet the younger kids' teachers on Tuesday, and they are looking forward to that. We already know a few kids in their classes, but it's always fun to see the whole class list. I'm just hoping that it will cool down a bit before then. It is hot, hot, hot right now after our record cool June and early July. I guess it's finally summer...just in time for the first day of school!

Here are some of my favorite photos from Swim Chick. I think she has a good eye.

A Life Cut Short

2007-08-09T21:50:00.000-06:00

Tonight I attended a rosary service for a woman I barely knew and left wishing I had known her better. One of Gym Girl's teammates lost her mother on Monday after a three-year battle with cancer. As a parent, how do you explain to your child why a ten-year-old girl and her sixteen-year-old brother no longer have their mother? In addition, I struggled with the best solution to Gym Girl's desire to attend the funeral tomorrow. While we've never really hidden the realities of life and death from our children, they've been fortunate not to lose anyone close enough to them to attend the funeral. Several of the other team moms mentioned to me that they were taking their girls to the rosary as opposed to the funeral, and I decided Gym Girl and I would join them.

Seeing the glow on the face of Gym Girl's friend when her teammates walked in made any trepidation I had about attending fade away. The priest began his remarks by saying that, although it's often difficult to know what to say to families during times of great loss, simply being present is what's important. It was clearly true for Gym Girl's friend, a friend who looks so like Gym Girl that her mother and I more than once remarked at meets that we'd mistaken each other's daughters for our own. Both girls dressed in identical leotards with their hair pulled back were almost impossible to tell apart. But now, Gym Girl has a mother, and her friend doesn't.

It's a thought too painful to consider for very long. The thing that stood out, though, from what her friends, family, and her very brave and strong husband had to say about her was that this was a woman who made a difference in her world. By being a mother, a friend, a wife, a daughter, and by fighting valiantly against the disease that would eventually take her life, she showed people every day how to appreciate life, how not to allow yourself to take the good things in life for granted, and how to truly believe that God would take care of you no matter what earthly trials had to be faced. She touched so many people during her battle, including my friend dealing with cancer, who credits her with encouraging her to go to the doctor instead of avoiding dealing with her symptoms. My friend believes this woman literally saved her life, while ultimately losing her own.

My prayers tonight go out to the entire family and especially to the precious children she loved so much and left behind. Her thirty-six years were well-lived, but, so very, very short.

Well, hopefully I won't be living in the doghouse

2007-08-08T20:57:00.000-06:00

"You're the big dog now, it's time for me to drive you out to see your buildings." That's the way that our head of construction at All-American Public Schools greeted me this afternoon. And I think he meant it as a compliment. It came across that way, at least.

The buildings that inspired this bit of show and tell today are the buildings that have been renovated, and in one case added on to, at two of our elementary schools over the summer. Both schools were built over 25 years ago, and they needed some TLC and some deseventiesization. Yes, I made that word up all by myself. We've now brought them into the 21st century, and it was great today to see the teachers excited about moving into the refurbished rooms. At one site, they were having electricity problems, but the lack of airconditioning didn't stop the teachers from checking out the changes in their rooms. It was great to see how excited they were, and I know the students will appreciate the new digs as well. I am fortunate to work in a district where the voters continuously approve the bond issues that allow us to do these renovations, build new schools, and purchase technology equipment.

While new buildings were the topic of today, new teachers will be the focus for tomorrow. The newly hired teachers reported to their schools today, and tomorrow they'll spend the entire day with us at the district-level. I'll do two presentations, my first since taking the assistant superintendent position. These are key events to conveying the culture of our school district. It will be a long day, but I can't wait to see all those new, enthusiastic employees, one of whom I ran into today. This freshly-minted 3rd grade teacher was walking the halls of All-American High just four years ago. She's gotten married, so I didn't realize who it was until I actually stepped into the room. It's amazing how fast time flies! It's great, though, to see high-quality students like this young woman become teachers and return to All-American Public Schools.

I have to be at work bright and early to make sure everything is set up for the training tomorrow, so I'll sign off now, but not before making a blatant plea for some comments already. I've been seeing that "0 comments" tag for far too long!

Just Another Relaxing Weekend in Suburbia

2007-08-05T22:54:00.000-06:00

I'd like to report that due to Nazi-like enforcement techniques (thanks, Adventure Guy!), our game room and the three children's rooms are still lovely to look at this weekend, just as they were last weekend after we finished the massive cleanup project. My own closet even remains pleasantly clean and organized. It's so nice not to feel that sense of dread when I venture upstairs. One week down. Now, my goal is to keep at this organization stuff for the rest of the school year so that we make it a real habit. So far, predictably, Swim Chick has been the most resistant to the room upkeep. She did react well to my threat on Saturday morning (or actually afternoon), though. After she'd been asked to get up more than once by the emissaries I had sent from downstairs, I went up and told her that laundry was being sorted downstairs and that she could either get up and bring hers down or she could do her own laundry. It's amazing how quickly a "sleeping" teenager can move under such duress.

Our weekend started slowly and then ramped up. I was able to join some colleagues for a late Friday afternoon "meeting" that involved margaritas at one of the local Mexican restaurants. I then took myself to the mall for some shopping. I tried on some dresses with the thought of buying a new one for a wedding we have coming up this weekend, looked at some shoes, and then settled for replacing some makeup that had seen better days. I came out far to the good by indulging at the Clinique counter rather than in the shoe department.

Saturday morning I made it to Pilates class. We had a substitute, and, while she ultimately gave a good workout, she just wasn't as dynamic as the usual teacher. It was also a good thing I knew what I was doing because her instructions weren't very complete or clear as to proper technique. She must have tipped her hand by subbing at the Friday morning class too because Saturday morning is typically packed, and attendance was low this week. Once I was home and dressed, Gym Girl and I went out to pick up her birthday cake and a few last minute favor items. Then it was off to the laser tag place for her birthday party. The group played two games of tag and then had the party room for 45 minutes. Fun, easy, and not too expensive: a definite birthday party success. Gym Girl's best friend came home with us to sleepover for the evening, and I took everyone to Blockbuster to spend one of Gym Girl's gift certificates she received at the party. The kids settled in for movie night, and Adventure Guy got ready for our party Sunday afternoon by preparing brisket and ribs for the smoker.

Adventure Guy has been wanting a smoker for a while, and I bought him one for Father's Day. This was the first time he'd actually tried it out, and a friend from church who is an expert came by to show him the ropes. They did all the prep and got the meat smoking. It smelled mouthwateringly good, but we wouldn't know the results until Sunday afternoon. In the meantime, we got some sleep and then went to church and Sunday school this morning. After church we came home to prepare for the Sunday school get together that inspired the brisket and rib preparation in the first place. Fortunately, the house was in pretty good shape, though I did hang a few pictures that have been sitting around forever. The main task was getting the yard in decent shape. Why does grass tend to grow just fine in my flower beds but not so well in the places I want it to grow? We all worked outside for a couple of hours and then got cleaned up for the party.

I must saw Adventure Guy's first run at using his smoker was quite a success. All of the meat turned out great. We went through most of it, but he does have enough leftovers for dinner tomorrow night. Other people in the class brought all the side items, drinks, and desserts, so I actually had little to do to prepare. It was a fun evening. We are truly fortunate to have such a caring and fun group of people in our class.

Tomorrow I begin my first full week in my new assistant superintendent position. I can tell already it's going to be a challenge as I make the transition. I'm excited, though, about all the possibilities for impacting students' lives. In each position I've worked in in education, I've viewed my work in light of how I can affect kids. First, it was the 140 students in my classroom; then it was the 2200 students at my school; now, it's the 9300 students in our district. No matter what else happens, I intend to keep the well being of students in mind each and every day as I go about my work. After all, I have three very special reasons for doing so: Swim Chick, Gym Girl, and Soccer Boy, three of those 9300. And as for the other 9297 kids? Well, they're all mine now too. And they'll have someone at All-American Public Schools looking out for them.

Repeat After Me

2007-08-02T22:05:00.000-06:00

Change is good. Change is good. Change is good. I have officially been in my new job now for two days. I'm a bit overwhelmed because I've been doing both jobs since the Board of Education confirmed my appointment to the assistant superintendent position July 9th. Invariably, if I was at the high school, I was needed at the central office, and vice versa. But now, my replacement is hired, and I've done some transitional work with him this week. I'll be available tomorrow as well, and then I'm going to concentrate primarily on the new job. Of course, I'll always be open to answering questions that come up, but I'm not going to schedule time in my old office after tomorrow. In fact, I moved out the last of my things this afternoon, and I'm almost settled in the new space.

Getting settled involved transferring all the already-scheduled meetings and to-do's. I now have 59 new things "to do" than I did at the beginning of the week. Wow. All I can say is that my predecessor was very organized, and I appreciate the detail that she left me about what needs to be tackled as I make this transition.

On other fronts, I am continuing with my Best Life program and counting my points on Weight Watchers. I'm doing well on avoiding fried foods, increasing my fruit and vegetable intake, and eating whole grains. I'm still having more of a challenge with eliminating soft drinks. I'm doing okay at limiting them. In the two weeks I've been diligent, I've lost four pounds. I'm particularly pleased about that because I've had several "events" that I've been able to manage while staying within my points. I've got another 8-12 pounds to go to goal. Even though I've lost at two pounds per week so far, I don't expect that to keep up. In past experience, I slow down to between half a pound and a pound per week eventually, so I expect it will take me about ten more weeks to get to my goal. I'm hoping reporting my progress here will help keep me on track until I get there.

Also, as my summer winds down, I'm starting to look forward to a couple of trips I have planned for fall. Over Labor Day, the whole family is taking a road trip to Texas for a long weekend of college football at Adventure Guy's and my alma mater. Then in October, I'll be attending the annual August Mom's reunion in San Antonio. I can't wait to see everyone there since I haven't been able to make it the last few years.

I seem to be rambling now, so I'll sign off for the evening. More later on the big weekend...Gym Girl's birthday party on Saturday, and a Sunday School class get together at our house on Sunday.

Happy Birthday, Gym Girl

2007-08-01T21:03:00.000-06:00

Eleven years ago today, Gym Girl joined our family and forever changed our notion that we "knew about girls" after having had Swim Chick first. Gym Girl is our quiet, sensitive child. She is very caring toward others and has a huge heart. She's also tough as nails and highly competitive: tell her something is difficult to do, and she'll work tirelessly until she has mastered it.

It's easy to tell that Gym Girl is growing up by the way she organized her birthday party. She decided to have it at the local laser tag place and then went with me to pick out party supplies. She coordinated the plates, napkins, and invitations and took care of rounding up her friends' addresses and addressing the invitations. She also knew exactly what she wanted the cake to look like and described it to the bakery. She decided on one that looks like a wrapped present. It should be cute. So far, we're expecting around six girls for the party and are waiting on RSVPs from four more.

While the official party is on Saturday, we've already begun the celebrating here in Suburbia. Gym Girl invited her best friend to come along with us to Shogun tonight. It's her favorite restaurant and the one she typically chooses for special occasions. We had a fun chef who really played things up during the cooking portion, even if he did guess that Gym Girl was turning nine rather than eleven! It's also really neat that the friend who went with us tonight has been Gym Girl's best friend since they met in daycare at 18 months. It's amazing to me that two girls who loved each other on sight when they were toddlers can still have so much in common and be so close almost ten years later.

In non-birthday news, Gym Girl is looking forward to starting sixth grade in two weeks. She goes to an "intermediate" school with grades five and six, so her class will be the oldest kids there this year. She's decided to follow in Swim Chick's footsteps and take orchestra, though she'll be learning to play viola rather than cello. I actually tried to talk her into taking vocal music and P. E. (alternate days) because she has a nice voice and has taken voice lessons in the past. She wasn't thrilled about the idea of P. E., not because she's not good at it but because she spends two and a half hours per day in the gym. As she explained it to me, "Well, Mom, if I don't start orchestra in 6th grade, I'll be behind everyone else. If I don't like it, I can take vocal music next year in 7th grade, and I won't have to take it with P. E. then." Uh, that makes sense. I hate it when they're totally right!

Happy Birthday, Gym Girl. I'm looking forward to watching you continue to develop into a wonderful young woman.

I Should've Bought That Stock in Hefty Bags

2007-07-30T22:14:00.000-06:00

I am the de-cluttering queen. This weekend, the great cleanup began in Suburbia. A quick search of my blog reveals that I have posted about the need to get a handle on the pit that is our upstairs game room no fewer than nine times since December. The references increase in frequency as we near the conclusion of the summer and my relatively more relaxed work schedule.

So, finally, this weekend I decided to actually do something about it rather than type about it. A novel concept, I know. Over the course of two days, I cleaned out the dressers and closets for all three kids and myself. I'm embarrassed to admit that I sent five full lawn-size Hefty bags of clothes and shoes to Goodwill from my closet alone. But, now, not one thing that I haven't had on my body in the last year is residing in my closet. It's a good feeling. I also have all the kids' clothes to the point that they can put away their laundry in an organized fashion and actually have room to see what they own. I found several pairs of jeans that previously belonged to Swim Chick that Gym Girl has deemed wearable, decreasing my need for school shopping considerably. Gym Girl is my child with clothing sensitivity, so the broken-in feel of hand-me-downs is good. I just can't guarantee that the fit and style will be right for her. Of the seven pairs of jeans I thought would work (and I tossed several pairs on sight), she kept three.

While I was on the closet odyssey, Adventure Guy tackled the much-dreaded game room. His dad generously purchased computers for the kids as an early Christmas present, and this gift provided the catalyst for the cleaning frenzy. The time had come for the game room to move from toy depository to usable space. We purchased new computer desks and then literally excavated the floor, cabinets, and bookshelves until we discovered a room where people could actually bring guests as well as hang out and play games, work on crafts, and enjoy the air hockey table without dodging lots of cheap plastic crap that was thrown around the floor. I'm so excited about how nice it looks now, that I want to paint and work on the rest of the general decor. Anyone have a good recommendation for a slipcover company? The dreaded circa 1970s couch that Adventure Guy inherited from his mother to take to college is still in the game room, 17 years after I made Adventure Guy agree as part of our prenuptial arrangements to get rid of it as our main living room furniture. After all, "It makes a bed!" Just ask him, he'll tell you. The fact that it is also hideously ugly (think squares in many shades of brown) is beside the point in his book.

I should have taken before and after pictures, but, alas, I did not. I'll try to remember to do so when we tackle the last remaining task in our de-cluttering frenzy: the study. As I remarked to Adventure Guy when we finished the game room, "Quick we've got to paint this place and put it on the market. It's never going to look this good again." In reality, I plan on staying and enjoying the fruits of our labor!

Blogger Issues?

2007-07-27T12:30:00.000-06:00

Is anyone else having a problem with Blogger not actually posting a post? The last two times I've posted, I've hit "publish," then "view blog," and the post has looked fine. Then, the next time I go to my blog, the new post is not there. It's in the posts list, and I haven't actually lost anything, but it's not showing up on the blog. Weird!

Trials and Transitions

2007-07-26T18:06:00.000-06:00

I am deep into the "transition" phase for my new job. Except, that right now, that means I'm trying to do everything in both jobs, but I don't officially leave the old one and start the new one until August 1st. I'm also dealing with spotty childcare right now since I was not planning on working a lot these last couple of weeks of July (based on my old work requirements). While theoretically, those requirements are still in place, I'm getting invited to a lot of meetings that are related to my new job, and it's very hard to say "no."

I am mostly taking the day off tomorrow, though I do have to go in and do an interview. We're in the last-minute hiring phase, and I don't want to miss the opportunity to nab this candidate if she's as good in person as she is on paper. She has an offer from another district, but I caught her before she'd accepted, and she says she'd prefer to come to work at All-American High. So, I'll go in tomorrow and interview her, even if that means going in for a while on my day off. I'm also planning to go in some on the weekend to finish packing and clearing out while I won't be disturbed.

On the home front, Swim Chick and Gym Girl are now in my hometown, visiting with their grandparents. I met my parents half-way last night, and my mom will bring them home either Sunday or Monday. I think I'm going to lobby for Sunday so that my mom can help with the above-mentioned childcare dilemma for Monday. That means, though, that I should do more in the game room than I had planned to do on Saturday. That, or I should just buck up and admit it's a pit, and not let it bother me. We'll see. The problem is that we have far, far, too much junk that's collected over the years of conspicuous toy consumption, both on our part and on the grandparents' parts. Theoretically, I really want to do a major cleanout of that area and our study. The problem is, I really, really want someone else to do it. Since that is unlikely, I'll have to figure out a time I'm willing to put aside all the fun things I'd rather be doing like hanging out at the pool, scrapbooking, reading, blogging, sleeping...the list goes on.

I am looking forward to tomorrow night, though. Adventure Guy and I are going out to dinner at Flemings with a friend of his from work and his wife. I have dutifully calculated the obscene amount of Weight Watchers points I will need to cover this meal and have worked it into my weekly total. I'm trying to decide if the fried onion strings are worth breaking one of the Best Life rules for--I've done very well so far with the "no fried food rule," so I'm not sure. I've been pleased with what I'm seeing on the scale this week, and I want to hold out for a good weigh-in on Monday. (Yes, I know, I'm only supposed to be weighing-in once per week. That isn't going to happen!)

Deathly Hallows, Parties, and Dieting, Oh My!

2007-07-23T20:00:00.000-06:00

It was a fun-filled weekend in Suburbia. On Friday night Swim Chick and Soccer Boy both had sleepovers here while Gym Girl went to sleepover at a friend's house. I decided to take the easy route for dinner and ordered pizza for the group at our house. I am proud to report that I was able to work a couple of pieces into my points for the week, though I did violate the "no white flour" portion of the Best Life rules.

Once we'd finished dinner, Adventure Guy took Swim Chick and her friend to one of our local Border's for the Harry Potter party. Evidently it was quiet the place to see and be seen for the local middle-school set. The girls had a great time taking in all the excitement, and then, shortly before midnight, they set off for Wal-Mart where they purchased our three copies of the book. Adventure Guy was glad he had the girls with him because, while Wal-Mart wasn't requiring pre-purchase, they were limiting the books to one-per-customer. And, yes, we bought three copies. As I've said to many people who wondered about that, I've spent $18 on lots of things I didn't get as much enjoyment out of--Adventure Guy and I weren't willing to share, and we decided that Swim Chick ought to have her own copy as well, having shared with us the last time around. We could have lived with two copies, but now that Adventure Guy and I have both finished, we've loaned our copies out, so I feel we're doing a good deed. I'll write more about my thoughts on the book once a few more people have had the chance to finish it.

Saturday we had a lazy morning and a great afternoon at the pool. It was fun to relax and spend some time outside without risk of rain! The water is perfect right now, and we all enjoyed visiting my with my inlaws. That evening I ran to the store to prepare for the second big party of the weekend, my mother-in-law's birthday, which we were hosting the next day.

Adventure Guy grilled his beer can chicken again for the crowd. I made side dishes, cheesy potatoes and baked beans, and we bought rolls from our favorite artisan bread store. Adventure Guy's step-dad took care of the cake, and my sister-in-law brought salad. Everyone thanked Adventure Guy again and again for "cooking." Anyone want to explain how seasoning two chickens and putting them on a grill is immensely more difficult in society's eyes than making all the rest of the food?

Other than the party, which lasted from about 3:30-5:30, Sunday was all Harry Potter, all the time. Adventure Guy and I both finished, though he is still bitter that, even though he had a head start on the book, I finished before he did. There are not many things that majoring in history and English in college guarantees, but reading speed is one of them. It's impossible to do that much reading and not get pretty fast at it.

With all the eating and sedentary activity (read, lying around with a book in front of my face) that made up the weekend, I am pleased to report that I am down 1.5 lbs. for the first week of dedication to diet and exercise. Since I knew that the party was coming, I was extra careful with my flex points this week, and finished with a few points to spare. When I count points and exercise, I tend to lose .5-1.o pounds per week, so I'm expecting that it will take me 15-20 weeks to get to goal. That seems like a long haul, and I know that will take me right into the holidays, so I am intent on getting there and not "slipping" like I did last year around the same time. One thing I had confirmed for me this week, is that I am a much better at getting my exercise in if I do it in the morning rather than waiting until after work. Not only is it easier to come up with excuses later, but I the workout seemed so much harder the day I went in the afternoon. So, bright and early again tomorrow, I'll be hitting the gym.

A Little More Fluff, Please

2007-07-20T18:18:00.000-06:00

In the true spirit of summer reading, I've completed Dedication by Emma McLaughlin and Nicola Kraus, Lean Mean Thirteen by Janet Evanovich, and The Corset Diaries by Katie MacAlister. None of these novels will be in any danger of winning the the Nobel Prize for Literature anytime soon.

Dedication, by the authors of The Nanny Diaries (looking forward to the movie of that one!), follows a woman as she confronts her former boyfriend from high school--the one who stood her up at the prom and then went on to become a famous rockstar whose lyrics detail all the specifics of their relationship as well as her mother's shortcomings. This book is a quick, fun read. I stayed up late one night finishing it because I just had to find out how the heroine resolved the conflict with the ex.

Lean Mean Thirteen is the latest installment in the Stephanie Plum series. For those of you unfamiliar with these books, Stephanie Plum is a single woman living in New Jersey who, because of job difficulties, has gone to work for her bailbondsman cousin as a bounty hunter. There are a number of continually colorful characters, including Stephanie's two love interests, Ranger, a fellow (and much more effective) bounty hunter, and Morelli, a local detective.

I didn't discover the Plum novels until Evanovich was on book eight or so. Once a friend of mine passed on the first one, One for the Money, I quickly sped through all the ones in print. Trust me, Adventure Guy loves it when I find a series I really like. He was so excited by this reading spree that he asked, "How many of these things are there?" You can tell he was just wanting to be sure I was entertained. Since the time I finished those first novels, I've been able to count on Ms. Evanovich to provide me with one new Plum novel per year. I have to say, the last few have not been nearly as exciting or interesting as the first part of the series was. Stephanie is always trying to figure out whether she should marry Morelli and settle down. I think it's about time she did. Having said that, I'm sure I'll buy number 14 next summer.

I had high standards for choosing my latest read, The Corset Diaries. Whatever I started reading on Wednesday had to be something I could complete by this evening. After all, I'll have Harry Potter to keep me company as of tomorrow. The same friend who introduced me to the Stephanie Plum series passed this book along to me. I don't read a lot that could be classified as "romance," but this one was a fun read. There was plenty of romance included but also a lot of humor. I literally laughed out loud on more than one occasion. The premise is that a group of people are recruited to reenact life in Victorian England, similar to Frontier House on PBS. The main character is added as the duchess at the last minute, and, quickly falls in love with the man playing the duke. The humor comes in the difficulties of living without modern conveniences and with some decidedly inconvenient aspects of Victorian life, such as corsets. The romance comes from plenty of love scenes between the duke and duchess. I recommend this is you're looking for a nice escapist read at the beach or poolside.

And speaking of the pool, after what seemed to be an endless monsoon season, summer has arrived in Suburbia. We have not had rain for a now record three days in a row! The kids and I celebrated today by heading to the neighborhood pool, and we're going swimming again tomorrow afternoon at my inlaws. Happy weekend everyone!

Sometimes I Hate My Cell Phone

2007-07-18T17:10:00.000-06:00

Today was one of my days off this week, though I spent it doing quite a bit of work. While the cell phone is a lovely invention overall, it makes me far too accessible. I got calls from my secretary, the athletic director, the clerk of the school board, and a technology vendor. I also had to set up interviews with potential history teachers, so I took care of that at various times during the day and kept up with my office email. But, other than that, I didn't think about work at all!

I could have made myself less available, but the days are ticking away toward my transition to the new job. I still have so much to do, and now only four more official work days in which to do it. Of course, I do have more days between now and August 1 that I could go in, but I'm trying to actually get my contracted vacation days taken (they don't roll over under my old contract, though they will with the new). Fortunately, I don't think my activities today interfered much with the main goal of my taking time off: spending time with the kids.

Gym Girl had practice from 9:00 to 1:00 today, so I dropped her off and then headed to the gym myself. I like to work out in the morning because then I have less excuses for not exercising. It's a bonus that in the summer I don't even have to get up particularly early to take care of it then. When I got home, Soccer Boy and Swim Chick had actually woken up and were hanging out watching television. I straightened up some so that the maids who were coming in the afternoon would be able to actually clean, and then we went to pick up Gym Girl before heading off to see the Harry Potter movie since the girls hadn't been yet. Following the movie, we ran to the store to pick up more lunch supplies and a few other things. By the time we got home, Adventure Guy was in and was preparing his beer can chicken to go on the grill. We'll have that along with the fresh corn and green beans I picked up at the farm stand for dinner.

Here's the recipe if you're interested in an easy summer meal.

Beer Can Chicken

1 whole chicken (4-5 lbs.)
1 23 oz. can beer (room temperature)
2 cloves garlic, minced
2 sprigs fresh rosemary
2 tsp. olive oil
1 tsp. dried thyme
1/2 tsp. red pepper flakes, crushed
Juice of 1 lemon

For rub:
1 tsp. paprika
1 tsp. salt
1 tsp. fresh rosemary, chopped
1 tsp. dried thyme
1/2 tsp. ground black pepper
1/2 tsp. lemon zest

Combine all rub ingredients in a small mixing bowl. Set aside.

Remove giblets and the neck from chiken. Sprinkle all over with rub, including cavity. Open can of beer and discard half of it. Place minced garlic, roesmary, thyme, lemon juice, and pepper flackes in it. Make sure to pierce two more holes in the top of beer can. Place chicken on top of can.

Preheat grill. Place bird on grill balanced by the beer can. Grill over indirect medium heat for 1 1/2 to 2 hours or until internal thigh temperature is 180 degrees. Remove chicken and let sit (with beer can still intact) for 10 minutes before carving.

Adventure Guy plays around with this recipe some, using whatever herbs we happen to have on hand and substituting tandoori powder for the paprika. Tonight, we threw in some fresh basil, parsley, and some sage because I have a ton of all those growing in my herb pot.

Two Days Down

2007-07-17T20:01:00.000-06:00

I'm proud to report that two days in to my new program I am doing well. I don't think I mentioned in my last post that I am also counting Weight Watchers points while I'm making the Phase Two Best Life changes. I've found Weight Watchers to be the best fit for me overall as far as portion control. Best Life just helps me with being healthier overall. So far, the biggest challenge I'm running into is the "no soda" rule. I drink too much caffeine, but I don't drink coffee, so eliminating soda completely led to a caffeine withdrawal headache. I decided to aim for only one soda per day and then hopefully cut it out all together.

With no sleep-away camps remaining for the rest of the summer, I've scheduled the next few weeks with a lighter workload so I can be home more with the kids. I worked today, and I'll work Thursday, but I was home Monday and will be tomorrow and Friday as well. It's been nice to have some down time with the kids home. Of course, I can't resist taking on some household things while I'm off. I need to clean out my closet and get that organized and then take on the girls' dressers and the game room. Fun, fun, fun!

I have worked in some real fun while I have a more relaxed schedule. I finished Dedication and am well on my way through the Stephanie Plum novel (more on those later). I also had a facial on Monday, and I've worked out both days this week: elliptical machine Monday and Pilates tonight. I also made a run to our local produce store to pick up fresh corn and some other goodies. We'll be grilling that tomorrow night along with some chicken. I'm hungry already!

My entries lately seem a bit mundane when I look over them. I hope people aren't bored to tears. But I'm enjoying a bit of the lazy days of summer and the opportunity to focus more on myself and my family.

All The Chickies

2007-07-15T21:39:00.000-06:00

As of 9:10 p.m. all three of my little chickens are back at roost here in Suburbia. I met my parents half way between here and my hometown to pick up Soccer Boy, and the girls arrived from Houston by plane tonight. All went smoothly except for a moment of panic when we realized the girls needed their birth certificates to fly. I don't know why I didn't think of that, but fortunately, Adventure Guy was able to fax copies to his dad in time.

Speaking of Adventure Guy, now that our fairly long second-honeymoon period is over for the summer, I am determined to get started on my much delayed Best Life diet. Having the kids gone all of June, taking a vacation the week of the 4th, and then having the kids gone for another week was not at all conducive to watching what I was eating or in eliminating alcohol. My waistline, unfortunately, is showing the effects of too much indulgence.

Tomorrow, I will begin Phase Two of Best Life, the keys to which are eliminating six specific foods from one's diet: soda, trans fats, fried foods, white bread and pasta, and high-fat dairy. I also have to get back in the exercise habit. I made it to the gym once last week, which was not what I was aiming for. Fortunately, Gym Girl has to be at her own gym for practice now in the mornings, so I won't be tempted to sleep in on my days off. Realistically, I need to lose 10-15 lbs., which isn't a lot, but it's been hanging around for a while now. I was at my new goal weight last summer and fall, but I started steadily gaining once the holidays came around. I also didn't exercise like I should have from that time until now. Not sure why I'm surprised with the gain. My days of being able to eat whatever I wanted to are long gone now that 40 is much, much closer than 30 for me.

Other than turning over a new leaf tomorrow, my big plans involve more laundry. Yes, more laundry. The kids have brought home several big duffel bags of dirty clothes once again. I think this is my penance for all the fun Adventure Guy and I have had while they've been gone!

Closest Book Meme

2007-07-12T12:30:00.000-06:00

Continuing my literary theme from yesterday, I thought I'd pick up the "closest book meme" that's been circulating recently. Thanks to Doc Thelma for the original post.

The game:
1. Grab the nearest book to you.
2. Open the book to page 123.
3. Find the fifth sentence.
4. Post the text of the next 4 sentences on your blog along with these instructions.
5. Don't you dare dig for that "cool" or "intellectual" book in your closet! I know you were thinking about it! Just pick up whatever is closest.

From Rick Smith's Conscious Classroom Management: Unlocking the Secrets of Great Teaching comes the following

As a matter of fact, much of the information will come to you naturally, even if
you don't go looking for it.

Ah, ha! I have been spoken to, not exactly from above I guess, move like from "beside" since I pulled this off the top of my desk. Now, on it's face, Rick Smith's book is a great resource for teachers, all about setting up effective classroom procedures, designing lessons that keep students engaged, and dealing with student behavior issues that arise in spite of the first two items. But I took the sentence above as more of a sign relating to my current transitional phase as far as work is concerned.

My new position will involve working in some areas that are new to me, and I've been focusing on upping my knowledge in those areas as well as on reassuring those who'll now be working for me of my competence. Honestly, I don't even think that my competence is what's in question, just that they need a little reassurance that I'll be understanding of their daily challenges. If the past week or so since my appointment became public are any indication, I believe that the information I need will come to me naturally. People are coming out of the woodwork to share information with me. Now, I just need to process and fit all this new information into my own scope of reference. In all respect to Mr. Smith, I'll also say that I'll be doing a little fact-finding of my own as well.

August 1st, my transition date, is speeding toward me faster than I can believe. Tonight, I'm going to stay late at work and do some packing. I have a quick Junior League meeting this evening, and then Adventure Guy and I are going to see the new Harry Potter movie. I'm trying to relax and enjoy this process as much as possible, and the movie should be a nice distraction.

Catching Up on My Reading

2007-07-11T22:24:00.000-06:00

Summertime means more time for one of my favorite pastimes: reading. And I've read a lot so far, but I haven't taken time to write my usual reviews. I'm combining several here because, honestly, I haven't read anything lately that was truly worthy of a solo entry.

My Father's Secret War by Lucinda Franks is a memoir written by Franks after her father's death. It details her quest to uncover the mystery of his wartime activities, all the while she deals with her father's declining health and worsening dementia. It was an interesting read, one which felt personal to me both because of my father's wartime experiences and because of our family's recent challenges with my grandmother's memory issues. Franks' father was a World War II veteran, and my father served in Vietnam. Like Franks' father, my father is very reluctant to speak of his service, which, again like Franks' own father was in the intelligence area. Franks account of her father's one stock tale of his wartime work, one that involved stealing a pet pig, reminded me of my father's own tale of sleeping through a mortar attack, which he makes into a humorous escapade.

Nineteen Minutes by Jodi Picoult resonated with me for an entirely different reason. This novel traces two children and their parents as the children grow from toddlers to teenagers. The action alternates between their childhoods and the event alluded to in the title: the nineteen minutes of a school shooting. As a high school principal, it's hard for me to read about school violence, even when it's fictionalized. I can't help but relate it to All-American High. We spend a great deal of time planning for contingencies such as the situation presented in Nineteen Minutes. Honestly, when I picked this book up, I didn't realize the exact subject matter. A few years ago we had an incident with a student who brought a gun to school. Fortunately, the situation came to a peaceful end with no one injured, but I will never, never, forget what it feels like to run down the halls of my school behind a SWAT team. I was glued to this book, and it was a quick read, but I'm sure I would have enjoyed it more if I'd had a bit more distance from the topic.

I picked up Best Friends by Martha Moody because the blurb on the back reminded me of my own relationship with my best friend. Like the main characters in the novel, my friend and I met in college and have followed each other through various phases in our lives. In the novel, which is set in from the 1970s through the 1990s, the two main characters have their ups and downs as they struggle through career changes, marriages, family difficulties, and parenthood. I'm happy to say that my own best friend and I have had a smoother journey through life so far. I enjoyed most of this book, though it sort of sputtered to an end. And, when I think back on it, neither of the characters was particularly likable by the time they'd suffered through all the twists Moody dealt them. I did learn that the author is also a practicing physician. I was left wondering how she managed to fit in a writing career, but that answered some of my questions about the fact that the physician character ends up being by far the most sympathetic in the novel.

Currently, I'm working on some fluff reading as a break from my more serious professional reading I'm doing for my new job. I'm reading Dedication by Emma McLaughlin and Nicola Krause (Nanny Diaries) and planning on reading the latest Stephanie Plum novel as well. Reviews of those to follow soon!

I'm Officially Official

2007-07-09T20:57:00.000-06:00

Tonight the All-American Public School's Board voted in favor of our superintendent's recommendation that I be named to fill the position of Assistant Superintendent. The interview process and offer came at the end of June, but nothing is solidified until the Board's vote. I am happy and ready to get started in my new position, which will happen next month.

Leaving All-American High is very bittersweet. I have good friends there, and I love the administrative team I have worked with for the last seven years. I'll miss the day-to-day interaction with the students as well. But I am very excited about the opportunity to focus solely on curriculum and our school improvement process. These areas reflect my true career interests, and I am both challenged and humbled by the opportunity to affect students across the district.

Wish me luck as I finish my commitments at the high school and make the move "across the street." It's going to be a whirlwind for me between now and the beginning of school in August.

1236.8

2007-07-08T19:37:00.000-06:00

That's the number of miles the "trip" setting of my odometer registered as Adventure Guy and I pulled into the driveway this evening upon our return to Suburbia. Since we took off last Tuesday, we've visited two different cities, learned one new time-saving route, eaten at two of our favorite Tex-Mex restaurants, endured three days of pouring rain and threatened flooding, caught zero fish on a half-day Gulf fishing expedition, spent quality time with 14 relatives hailing from three states, and divested ourselves of all three children for the rest of the week. Ahh, vacation!

Swim Chick and Gym Girl are attending a week-long Sea Camp at Texas A & M Galveston. No, we really don't farm out the kids for the entire summer, but my father-in-law proposed sending them this year, and the timing was great with our 4th of July visit. We were able to leave them with him to take care of drop off on Saturday, and they will fly home next Sunday. Gym Girl is in the Adventures of Marine Biology session, and Swim Chick is taking Coastal Photography. We've sent her off with our digital camera and all the accessories and are hopeful she'll be able to teach us a thing or two when she gets back.

While the girls were spending the week away, it worked out perfectly for Soccer Boy to have his week at what we fondly refer to as "Camp Nonnie and Grandy." The kids spend a week with my parents each summer, and they like to divide it up so that Soccer Boy goes one week and the girls go another. That way my parents can cater to the different interests that the kids have at this point. On Soccer Boy's agenda for the week were playing lunar golf, swimming at my grandmother's house, a trip to the Star Wars exhibit in Ft. Worth, a children's play, and lots of interaction with his three cousins.

Since the kids are gone, Adventure Guy and I are going to take advantage of the time to get caught up at work after being out on vacation. We've also both vowed to get back into our workout schedules and to clean up the game room while the kids are gone and can't protest about the stuff we want to get rid of. Yep, we really know how to have fun!

You've Gotta Love The One-Day Work Week

2007-07-02T19:57:00.001-06:00

Today was both my Monday and my Friday this week. Tomorrow we are leaving for Galveston, Texas, where Adventure Guy's dad has a beach house. We'll do all the 4th of July celebrating at his place and then drive back up through my hometown to visit with my brother and his wife who are coming in from California.

The kids are looking forward to seeing everyone, and I am looking forward to that and a few more days off. This week is always pretty dead at work, so it's a good time to be away. When I get back, I need to wrap up hiring and finalize our technology order. I'll blink and it will be time for new teachers to report.

I'm not sure how much updating I'll be able to do while I'm in Galveston, but I'll post for sure when I get to my parents' house. Happy 4th of July to everyone!

Nice Weekend

2007-07-01T23:21:00.000-06:00

Why is it that I am able to post less frequently in the summer when my schedule is theoretically less hectic than I am during the school year? I'm not sure the answer to that question, but I noticed I hadn't posted anything since Thursday. I'm sure everyone has been waiting with bated breath to find out what was going on in Suburbia this weekend.

Friday night we went over to Best Friend's house for a little dinner and game night. Except everyone was too tired to actually play any games, so it ended up being dinner and sitting around their living room until we all admitted it was time to go home. Our lives are exciting. The good news was that this was a mutually agreeable conclusion. Best Friend is still in her baby and toddler parenting years, so she had not gotten much sleep the night before between night feedings and scared kids arriving during a thunderstorm. Adventure Guy seemed to suddenly be coming down with a little virus that's been making the rounds and wanted to get home to sleep as well. Fortunately, he seemed to recover during the day on Saturday, and it doesn't look like we shared the virus wealth with our friends.

On Saturday, we slept in and then the kids went to see Ratatouille with the same friends we hung out with the night before, or actually the older kids and the dad. Best Friend stayed home with her baby, and her husband was willing to take along my kids in order to have some help corralling his own. I was just thankful to have some time to work on my scrapbooking and to not have to actually see this movie, though my kids agreed with the good reviews it's received.

Saturday was also Adventure Guy and my 17th wedding anniversary. Several times during the day I thought about some nice things that I could post about that, but I never quite got around to it. I was too busy enjoying a nice dinner out and a trip to a grownup movie, Sicko. Suffice it to say that I am very happy that I was smart enough at age 22 to marry Adventure Guy and even happier that we have managed to grow together rather than apart over the last seventeen years. I know I've said it before, but he's truly my best friend, and I couldn't ask to have a better father for my children.

Today it rained, again. Just like it did yesterday and the day before and the 15 or so days before that. I am so tired of rain. We had a very relaxed day today. Went to church, ate lunch out, looked at some open houses (mainly just for the fun of it, though I'm always looking for the perfect house), and watched a couple of movies. I continued to work on my scrapbooking, and I'm officially up to July of last year. I'm feeling good about the progress I'm making on that front. I swear I will not ever get this far behind again! My goal is to finish at least all of last year by the end of July and then get started on catching up with Swim Chick's school album and this year's family album. The good news is that I actually find the process relaxing; I just got behind and then didn't put aside time to get caught up until now.

That's all of the excitement in Suburbia this weekend. I'll have a short week at work as we are headed out of town on Tuesday to visit Adventure Guy's dad for the 4th of July. More on those plans later.

Elements of Style

2007-06-28T20:26:00.000-06:00

No, I haven't been reading Strunk and White lately. Instead I picked up Wendy Wasserstein's first and only novel, Elements of Style, which was published shortly after her death in 2006. This fairly short book introduces us to high society of New York City, shortly after 9/11. The main character, Frankie Weissman, is a pediatrician, struggling to maintain her reputation as "the" doctor to see while also fulfilling a personal calling to serve underprivileged children. Through Frankie, we meet the cast of characters who are all connected to Frankie either through past school experiences or through their children, her patients.

There are lots of juicy details about fashion, dinner parties, affairs, and managing the household staff to take in as the plot progresses. Much of the detail seems designed to show just how shallow everyone other than Frankie truly is. But there's a sense that at least some of the characters may figure out what's really important in life, putting into perspective the loss of life and the feelings of hopelessness brought on by 9/11. I was enthralled, wanting to find out just how it turned out. Would the obvious social climber find acceptance? Would the woman whom everyone wanted to be discover that she actually wanted to be herself? Would Frankie find a man who appreciated her and whom she could truly open up to?

In the end, I have to say I was disappointed. Like Wasserstein's own life, Elements of Style seems cut tragically short. The novel's ending left me unfulfilled, wondering what I'd missed in the lives of the characters. I can only wonder if Wasserstein might have ended the book differently, had she not been dying in Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center, just as one of her characters does. All that said, Elements of Style is still a worthwhile read. The wondering about how the lives of the characters turned out has made this a book that's stayed with me, even after I turned the last page.

The Sound and The Laundry

2007-06-27T23:39:00.000-06:00

Laundry has taken over my life. I actually found myself earlier today lauding my spot removal ability to the children. Later, I marveled about my talent for getting my whites really white. What spurred all this focus on clothing cleanliness? Three children, 25 days of camp, three trunks, three huge duffels, three dirty clothes bags. Need I say more?

On the way home yesterday from Branson, I made Adventure Guy stop by the store so that I could purchase supplies. I exited Albertson's with the new Tide with Febreeze, a large tub of OxyClean, and a fabric softener refill. When we arrived home, Adventure Guy backed the Suburban up to the garage door, and we proceeded to empty all the luggage onto a tarp I spread out on the floor of the garage. Everything the kids owned seemed to be smelly and damp. Some key phrases, "Soccer Boy, why didn't you change your sheets? This new set is still in your trunk." "Oh, mom, I didn't even know those were there." And yet, they are damp and smelly. Impressive. I just calculated, and I believe that I have been doing laundry for over 27 hours. I'm counting all day today while I was at work because I started the socks and all other bleachable whites in a pre-soak mode and then stopped the machine and let them soak all day. When I got home, I had to run the rest of that cycle and then run them through another cycle after taking one look at the water from the pre-soak load. Currently, the last load is in the washer. I just have to wait for the dryer to finish, and I'll be home free. Until I need to start on the regular wash this weekend.

After having an amazingly quiet (and clean) house for a month, I have to admit I'm thrilled with the noise level around here. The kids are getting calls, watching television, having friends run by the house. It's great to have them home. I'm missing the neatness, but I'll trade that any day for the bustle of our life here in Suburbia.

I can't resist posting a few shots from camp. While neither of the camp tribes my kids are part of won the overall competition this term, all of them had a great time and did well in their sports clinics and in the end-of-term sporting events. Gym Girl won "best all-around athlete" for her age division. She's below in the process of doing her back tuck off the beam which she mastered at camp as well as doing the high jump. Swim Chick also placed in the standing broad jump and won all her events in the swim meet. Soccer Boy did not win any big awards, but his counselors reported that he didn't let his cast stand in the way of anything he wanted to do or accomplish while he was at camp. Unfortunately, I don't have any great action shots of him since the boys didn't have any sports demonstrations as part of the closing and did swim meet (harder to shoot) rather than track meet while we were there. Nonetheless, I'm one proud momma all the way around!

Vacation's All I Ever Wanted

2007-06-23T20:13:00.000-06:00

I'm sitting on a deck in the Ozarks, waiting for our freshly-caught trout to be fried, and updating my blog. And to top it off, between yesterday and today, we've caught glimpses of both Gym Girl and Soccer Boy at camp--illicit glimpses stolen while we were out boating on the lake the camp abuts. What more could a girl ask for?

This morning began at 7:00 a.m. when Adventure Guy woke me up and asked me if I wanted to go out fishing with them on the first shift or if I wanted them to let me sleep in and swing back for me later. While I relished the idea of a little extra sleep, I opted to join him and our friends on the boat. I didn't regret it. We're on Lake Taneycomo, which is fed with water pulled off the bottom of Table Rock Lake. Current water temperature? 55 degrees. In the morning, the fog was still hovering over water, and there was a chill in the air. We drove out in the pontoon boat, huddled in sweatshirts, taking in the natural beauty as well as the best haul of fish we've had in several years. The trout have been finicky on recent trips, but today, they were jumping. The guys fished, while the women read and occasionally pitched in on fish netting. I finished one book and two magazines, and I honestly haven't felt this relaxed in a long time.

Here are a few shots from this morning. It's hard to capture the fog drifting over the lake, but it's beautiful. We've had rain showers on and off through the trip, so we've even had moments of fog midday.

We stopped off at Branson Landing for lunch before hopping back on the boat for more fishing and another run by the camp. This time, the boys were all out competing in the track meet. We were able to spot Soccer Boy as he ran his last event, the long-distance race. We were able to see him finish, well ahead of most of the pack. Considering that he is one of the youngest campers there, we were really proud, and I was thrilled to be able to see it.

Tomorrow, we'll get up early and go to camp for our first official activities. I can't wait to hear all about the term from the three of them and to watch the girls' track meet and the boys' swim meet. And we'll be rooting for the kids' camp tribes, the Choctaws and the Kickapoos to win at the final ceremonies on Monday!

Kids or Bust

2007-06-21T21:34:00.000-06:00

We are headed out early tomorrow on our way to pick up the kids at camp. I'm looking forward to our last couple of grown-ups only days but even more forward to seeing everyone on Sunday. I may have limited access until we're back on Wednesday, so don't give up on me if I don't post for a few days!

Blur

2007-06-19T19:56:00.000-06:00

Was that June speeding by? With the kids at camp, I expected to have plenty of time to relax and also to get some things done both at work and at home. That did not exactly happen. I'm amazed each summer by how much more work seems to materialize in my office. I swear I had some down time during the summer when I first took this job seven years ago. People often ask, "So what do you do up there in the summer anyway?" In fact, my colleague said to me yesterday, "If one more person asks 'What in the world do you guys do up there in the summer anyway?' I will not be held responsible for my actions." So yes, the question comes up often.

What we're doing is trying to hire the best possible professional staff including in my direct responsibility three counselors (two retirements, one transfer left these positions open), one special education transition coordinator, two social studies teachers, and two special education teaching positions (plus one more if I hire internally for the transition coordinator). I've been in what seems like nonstop interviews. I'm also finalizing the master schedule, which is somewhat dependent on hiring decisions and has a deadline of July 3rd in order to work with a planned system changeover in the technology department. Yesterday I spent all day out of the office at a district-wide administrators' retreat, thinking about what I could have been doing with my time back at the office. Not that it wasn't valuable, but it seems like the timing for that annual event is always off somehow. I am looking forward to tomorrow, though, where all I have on my calendar is one meeting with my social studies curriculum specialist and a haircut, the latter of which is sorely needed.

Adventure Guy and I have done pretty well as practice empty-nesters. We've eaten out a bit more than usual, and we worked together in the yard on Sunday between rain storms. We've also watched some good movies from Netflix and thought a number of times about going to see Waitress, which is still on my list. Maybe an all out last-ditch effort will be made tomorrow night. Oh, and did I mention our newest addiction? In the not good for the waistline category, we have the local organic bread store. Best Friend introduced Adventure Guy to this culinary delight on his birthday when she presented him with his very own rustic baguette and a "frequent loafer" card. What can I say? She knows my man. All month now he's been saying things like, "Since you're nearby, can you run by the bread store?" The baguettes are good but the challah is to die for. I'm also likely to be found on Saturday mornings circling the lot in hopes of finding the chocolate filled croissants in stock.

Thursday night our friends whose kids are also at camp will arrive again from Houston. We'll pack up the respective Suburbans and head to Branson on Friday morning. Friday and Saturday will be devoted to boating, fishing, and shopping (in no particular order). Then on Sunday we'll get to see the kids for a full-day of closing activities: track meet, swim meet, family vespers, cabin awards ceremony, carnival, camp term movie. Monday morning it will all wrap up for another year with the announcement of major camp awards and the results of the tribal competition that's been going on all month. By ten o'clock we'll be headed back to our rental cabins on the lake and soon after we'll hit the pontoon boat with the kids in tow this time.

It's hard to be this close to seeing the kids and not be missing them desperately, but things like this make it easier to take. That's Soccer Boy, clearly letting his cast keep him from enjoying camp!

Lazy Days

2007-06-16T16:39:00.000-06:00

Yesterday and today I have been enjoying a couple of days off. Yesterday was my first day off since the end of school that I spent at home. I grabbed a few quick days at the first of the month and visited my parents, but Friday brought the first opportunity to sleep late in my own bed, and then get up and wonder, "hmm...what am I going to do today?" It was heavenly.

I ran a few errands on Friday morning and then met for lunch with the teacher who will be going to China with me in March. Our task for the day was matching our students with the students who are coming from China. We have profiles from each of the Chinese students, and we worked to pair them with students we think they'll match up well with personality-wise. Each step we take on this journey takes us a bit closer to the reality of the students' arrival in September. We can't wait to meet everyone. I've been emailing one of the teachers, and our students will begin emailing their partners now, so it will seem like they already know each other by the time the kids arrive.

Friday night Adventure Guy and I went out to dinner. While we were waiting for our table, we wandered in to a furniture store and found the family room furniture we've been looking for--on sale! I've been campaigning to replace our sorely worn set for a while now. Ten years of kids and dogs has done in the old stuff, though it held up well considering what we put it through. We'd been looking for a while but not finding exactly what we wanted. Adventure Guy has a good eye for decorating, better than mine really, and he immediately liked this couch. It's a sectional that curves into almost a semi-circle. It has nice leather piping trim, so we matched it with some leather chairs. They delivered it today, and I'm really excited about our new look in that room. Of course, I'm sure that this will likely start an updating trend for us. We need to paint and replace some of our carpet. We're also looking at updating the kitchen countertops. Decisions, decisions!

Today I made it to yoga class. My intention was to go to Pilates, but the instructor had a last-minute family crisis and all the other Pilates people were in a training seminar. So, yoga it was. It was a good class, and I enjoyed it. I can tell I haven't done a lot of those moves recently, though. I'm feeling it a bit this afternoon. After I got back from the gym Adventure Guy and I went to lunch and then ran a few more errands before meeting the furniture delivery guys. I worked on my scrapbooking (yes, I'm actually catching up), and now we're about to meet my inlaws for dinner.

Tomorrow, all we've got on the schedule is church and Sunday school, so it should continue to be a pretty laid back weekend. Unfortunately for Adventure Guy, the camp schedule means he doesn't have the kids at home for Father's Day. I'm getting him the smoker he's asked for, but his day should be pretty uneventful for the most part.

I'm also still waiting for the results of the ultrasound I had done last Thursday. Hopefully I'll have the report on Monday. At this point, I'm just trying not to worry too much about it and working on enjoying the weekend.

Eat Pray Love

2007-06-13T22:17:00.000-06:00

My first official summer read this year was Eat Pray Love by Elizabeth Gilbert. This memoir takes place after Gilbert realizes she no longer wants to be married at age 31. Following a bitter divorce, she puts her furniture in storage and arranges to spend a year travelling. Or actually, a year spending four months at a time in three distinctly different locales: Italy, India, and Bali.

Gilbert is a novelist, and this memoir often reads like fiction. I was drawn in immediately to her tale, and, in the end, I couldn't help wonder what happened after the close of the book. I'm also now interested in reading some of her other work. After all, I need a few more titles to add to my ever-growing bedside stack.

One quote from the section relating Gilbert's experiences in India particularly struck me. Gilbert's guru there expressed the idea that,

Happiness is the consequence of personal effort. You fight for it, strive for it, insist upon it, and sometimes even travel around the world looking for it. You have to participate relentlessly in the manifestations of your own blessings. And once you have achieved a state of happiness, you must never become lax about maintaining it, you must make a mighty effort to keep swimming upward into that happiness forever, to stay afloat on top of it. If you don't you will leak away your innate contentment.

I love the idea that happiness is not something that we luck into but rather that it is something for which we can strive. I've always been someone who tends to look on the bright side of a situation. Generally, I'm happy. That's not to say that I don't have those moments of frustration or anger, but I'm a happy person.

I've got a few things going on here in Suburbia that have made me think about what makes me happy. There may be some changes coming soon at work (and then, again, there may not be), which has me thinking about my career goals and what type of position would ultimately bring me the most satisfaction. I also got news today that I need to go in for a breast ultrasound after my recent mammogram. I should have more details tomorrow, but I can't keep from being nervous, imagining the worst. With those things going on, I'm glad to have this passage to remind me that being happy is something that I can choose, no matter what the circumstances.

A Step In Time

2007-06-10T17:36:00.000-06:00

Adventure Guy's first job out of college was completing a management development program with Conoco. The program provided excellent training and was recognized throughout the industry. The only problem? It was located in Ponca City, Oklahoma, the original company headquarters. The good news was that he would spend one year completing the program and then be transferred into Houston, the current company headquarters. I was finishing college at the time, so our plan was to marry after I graduated and he was transferred. I would find a teaching job in Houston, and all would be well.

You may have guessed already that things did not work out exactly as planned. Only a few weeks before our June wedding, the director of Adventure Guy's division determined that it would make more sense for Adventure Guy to stay in Ponca City to complete his first independent engineering project, which was based in Wichita Falls, Texas, a city closer to Ponca City than Houston. All of the sudden, instead of moving to Houston, I was headed for Ponca City, which has a population of around 30,000 people but feels much smaller. Did I mention I wasn't certified to teach in Oklahoma? I've always told Adventure Guy that my willingness to follow him to Ponca City must forever prove my dedication to him and our marriage.

While the location was not ideal, the circumstances we found ourselves in led to real bonding with the other MDP trainees, all of whom were young, recent college graduates. We hung out together in bad bars, roadtripped to the nearby college town of Stillwater, and spent hours enjoying ourselves on beautiful Kaw Lake. I worked as a legal secretary for a local law firm and made more money than I would have as a first-year teacher in Oklahoma at that time.

Nine months later we were indeed transferred into Houston. The best part about it was that all our friends were going with us, all the Conoco employees having finished up their first projects. We are still close to a number of these people as well as to several who joined us in Houston, having completed the MDP in Denver, Atlanta, or Lake Charles. We enjoyed life in the big city, buying our first houses, eating in decent restaurants, and eventually beginning families. Little by little, people were either transferred back out into the field or chose to leave the company for other opportunities. And suddenly, it's been 17 years since we were all living back in Ponca.

About a year ago, Adventure Guy's boss from Conoco decided it would be fun to have a reunion of the people who were in Ponca City during the two years she spent there. She single-handedly pulled off the get together that took place this weekend. People arrived from multiple states to converge on the company party room for barbecue and catching up with each others' lives. It was fun to hear about who was still working for the company and what had happened to those who had left. Several people had brought old pictures, and it was amazing how little the group had changed. Adventure Guy and I got to spend most of our time with another couple we'd lived near in Houston and have kept up with but not seen in a number of years.

The town itself has, unfortunately, not changed for the better. Since our move, Conoco merged with Phillips, and most of the Oklahoma managerial positions were moved to Bartlesville, the Phillips headquarters. The shift in demographics is obvious, and the town has the feel of one that is in decline. At one point, as I stood outside a convenience store looking at the desolate landscape, I turned to our friend and said, "We actually used to live here. Can you believe it?" He replied, "I just try not to think about it." Though I haven't thought about our life in Ponca City for a long time, the thing I know I'll never forget is the friends that we made during that time.

Some Texas Hidden Here In My Heart

2007-06-06T18:55:00.000-06:00

Whoa but were doin fine, we can travel and rhyme
I know we been doin our part
Got a caribbean soul I can barely control
And some Texas hidden here in my heart

~Jimmy Buffett Migration

The opening strains of Margaritaville reached my ears as I eased onto State Highway 259. My long weekend was about to come to an end, but summer and my first road trip of the season were just beginning. Miles of highway and hours of time alone stretched in front of me. A strange mix of memories and anticipation mingled with the songs from Jimmy Buffett's Meet Me in Margaritaville as I remembered summers gone by and looked forward to my reunion with Adventure Guy after several days apart.

The drive from my parents' home in Texas back to Suburbia is a long, rather lonely one. Each time, though, I'm struck by the natural beauty I come across during the trip. Wildflowers, rolling hills, and sparkling lakes grace either side of the highway. Often, my car is one of only a few cruising by the cattle grazing and the maize and cotton crops growing in neatly plowed fields.

And, best yet. There's the occasional "rest stop."

Don't worry. I'm a girl who favors the classics. Rather than partaking of the chili cheese meltdown hunger buster, I indulged in the ever-popular chocolate dipped cone. The locals were a bit concerned by my out-of-state license plates and my propensity for photographing the DQ sign, so I cut my stay short and headed back out on the road. Back to my music and back to making steady progress home.

I love my life in Suburbia: my work, my kids' schools and activities, my friends, our church. But each time I cross the border out of Texas, my heart aches a bit. I'm a Texas girl, born and bred. And no matter how long I'm gone or how far away I move, there will always be "some Texas hidden here in my heart."

Or Maybe It Doesn't

2007-06-02T22:28:00.000-06:00

"Believe it or not, it does get easier." That was my enlightening and, I'm sure, ever-so-helpful comment to my sister today. I arrived last night at my parents' house and visited with them and my grandmother who lives across the street. This morning I slept in, then took my grandmother to her hair appointment and met my sister and her three kids for lunch. My nieces and nephew are almost exactly the same spacing in age as my own children. Right now they are 5, 3, and 1. Sometimes in the craziness that is my own daily life, I forget that when the kids were younger it was harder due to the sheer physical exhaustion that parenting young children can bring. There are definitely challenges to parenting older kids, and at times I'm flat-out scared about soldiering through the teenage years with them, but I'll admit right out that I'm enjoying these years more overall.

At the same time I had the opportunity to observe my sister, the young mother, in action, my own mother's experience with my grandmother provided an odd juxtaposition: the child becoming the parent. I've posted before of my grandmother's recent decline. Her memory continues to be a challenge. When I visited last, she talked constantly about the grass in her front yard dying and how unhappy she was about it. My mother arranged to have a crew come out to trim the trees and cut one down so that they could plant new grass that would have a chance of getting some sunlight and living. Last night, my grandmother was very concerned because she didn't want the tree cut down. She insisted that she didn't care about the grass and loved the trees. My mother told me that they had just had a long conversation about what to do, and that my grandmother had agreed about cutting down the tree. But, she called the tree service and made sure they only trimmed it and didn't take it down. This is just a small example of what my mother deals with daily, and I respect her so much for taking good care of my grandmother, even though it is often a frustrating task.

Part of what is so challenging about my grandmother is the seeming unfairness of her situation. While most people would not think it unusual for an 89-year-old to have some memory issues, dementia is not something we've had to deal with before in our family. Why did I take my grandmother to her hair appointment today? Because my mother needed to serve as driver to my 95-year-old great-aunt, my grandmother's sister. She was in need of a chauffeur to deliver her to her speaking engagement, a conference for aspiring authors where she delivered presentations to over 200 people at two breakout sessions. My aunt is an accomplished author who has published several books and too many articles to count. My guess is that few in her audience would ever put her age at 95. Even better? Their 99-year-old sister is busy redecorating her living room. Of course, she's having the furniture recovered rather than buying new and bought a rug on sale because, even though she happens to be a millionaire, she doesn't want to waste money she might need in the future! All that longevity and mental acuity is wonderful, but it really brings home my own grandmother's frailty.

On a bit happier note, tomorrow I'll be attending my nephew's first birthday party. He's a cute little guy, and I'm looking forward to seeing him dig into his first cake. I'm also looking forward to seeing some candids of my kids at camp. The camp posts daily pictures online, but there haven't been any up yet. From past experience, tomorrow should bring the first set. They do have cabin photos posted, though, and I can see that Soccer Boy is already wearing an outfit that doesn't match, leading me to believe that things are right on track. I'm betting that he is having a fabulous time complete with no mom to tell him that maroon and green are not the best pairing. And, really, who am I to say they're not? Have fun Soccer Boy, have fun!

Anticipation

2007-05-31T18:20:00.000-06:00

I write from the calm at the eye of the storm. Tomorrow at 9:00 a.m. my children will board a bus that will take them to camp. In preparation, I have labeled many pairs of socks and underwear, filled prescriptions, paid enormous sums for strengthened contact lenses and eyeglasses prescriptions, purchased "pink ladies" jackets for one of the costume parties, and packed everything needed for 25 days into one duffel and one trunk for each child.

We are now awaiting the arrival of our long-time friends, the best man in our wedding and his wife, who are driving in from Houston to put their three children on the bus with ours. Adventure Guy and Best Man met when they themselves were kids at this camp. They've been best friends ever since. I find it amazingly cool that our children are now attending camp together at the same place. The ages line up nicely. We have pairs of 13 year olds and 10 year olds bracketed by a boy at each end, one 15, one 8. After pizza tonight, we'll let the kids hang out, dreaming of all the excitement that's in store while the grown ups dream about almost a month of childfree days and nights. But we'll be sad when we send them off tomorrow, really we will!

I'm also looking forward to a little R & R of my own starting tomorrow. I will wrap up our big retreat event at work and then take off for Texas to visit my family. Adventure Guy is, appropriately, running an adventure race this weekend, so I'm going to take advantage of the down time to spend a few days with my parents and my sister and her family. My nephew will have his first birthday party while I'm there, and I'm going to do as little as possible until Tuesday when I'll head home to start hiring new teachers and finalizing the master schedule. And, I am going to Catch. Up. On. My. Scrapbooking. There. I've said it in print. I must do it. I'll keep you posted!

School's Out For Summer

2007-05-30T22:12:00.000-06:00

Well, almost anyway. This week the rest of the staff at All-American High and I are officially being professionally developed. Thanks to the infamous "ice break" back in January, we missed all of our spring professional development days, one during that week and two more that were used to make up instructional days. I'll admit that I'm not fond of this particular schedule as it makes the end of school seem very disjointed. Teachers are trying to finish up and post their grades, pack up their classrooms, and meet all the various continuing education requirements, all in four days.

The good news is that we have some truly wonderful opportunities this week, meaningful sessions that should make a difference for students when school resumes in August. Yesterday, I attended a session on improving literacy across the curriculum with Cris Tovani. She presented a wide range of strategies for improving reading comprehension. We are fortunate not to see many students at All-American High who can't read, meaning can't decode the words on a page, but we certainly see students who don't understand how to really interact with a text and gather meaning from it. Even more exciting, this morning in a departmental meeting I attended, teachers were already planning ways in which to implement Ms. Tovani's strategies next year.

Tomorrow I will attend a session with Dr. Douglas Reeves, a speaker I've been fortunate to hear previously. Dr. Reeves does a great deal of work with standards-based education and grading practices. Tomorrow's session focuses on leadership for educational change. I am always open to new ideas for successfully changing school culture and ingrained practices, which in my opinion, is one of the greatest, if not the greatest, challenge school leaders face. School is such a familiar institution that many, both inside and outside the system, resist any changes that aren't cosmetic in nature.

The event I'm looking forward to most this week, though, is our annual staff retreat on Friday. Each year we invite a representative group of staff members to attend. We've dealt with a wide variety of topics over the years, but one thing that remains constant is the format of addressing "our" issues in the morning and then hearing teachers' concerns in the afternoon. Since we began the practice four years ago, the positive impact on staff morale has been amazing. We have also been able to gain buy-in that we likely would not have had for the issues we've brought to the teachers in this manner. As a result, we've been able to implement a wide range of initiatives from small refinements to the tardy policy to the much more impacting implementation of the AVID program at All-American High. This year, we'll be focusing on clarifying the "vision" that's in place at our school, encouraging teachers to reach for what brought them into teaching in the first place and to develop plans for addressing any barriers that might stand in the way of making a meaningful difference in the lives of students.

What I've enjoyed most so far about this week is that, even amidst the hundreds of questions and little issues that come up at the end of the school year, I've had the opportunity for real reflection and for meaningful planning with the rest of the administration team. When we're talking about where we want to go and how to get there, with all of our staff in tow, I know that I'm spending time on what is important, not just urgent. I only wish I was able to prioritize in this way all year long. That will be my vision for the coming year.

The Post-Birthday World

2007-05-28T14:10:00.000-06:00

Finally, an update in the "What I'm Reading" category. My reading pace has slowed considerably during the craziness that is the end of the school year, and I've been working through Lionel Shriver's The Post-Birthday World for quite some time. This doesn't reflect the quality of the book, just the quality of my leisure time!

In The Post-Birthday World, Shriver takes the concept of "what if" to a new level. Her main character, a children's book illustrator, has the opportunity to cheat on her significant other after a birthday dinner with a mutual friend. From that pivotal moment on, alternating chapters of the novel trace the developments of her life in parallel universes: one in which she stayed loyal and the other in which she began an affair. I found the writing particularly impressive in the way that Shriver bends the details of certain events that happen in both lives, subtly changing things to reflect each world's reality. I also liked the ending, which I won't ruin for those who would like to read the book. Neither decision leads to perfect happiness or complete ruin. In one universe Irina, the illustrator, writes a children's book that can be read two directions and tells two stories. In her book, the moral is that no matter what choices we make our lives will turn out okay in the end. In The Post-Birthday World, Shriver sends the same message.

Of course, this book prompted me to think about the choices I've made in my life and how things might have been different if I'd taken the other paths that have been presented to me along the way. Fortunately, I don't have any key moments where I regret the decision I made, but that doesn't completely eliminate the wondering at times.

I'd say the biggest decision I wonder about was my choice to change my major from pre-law to education. My father is an attorney, and he had always encouraged me to follow in his footsteps. I know he secretly hoped that I'd still change my mind and go to law school right up until I took my current job. There were a number of people in my life that didn't see teaching as a career that lived up to my "potential," which is quite a commentary on where our society places its values. This list included my former high school principal who, when I returned to do some observations that were required in my teacher education program, sat me down and asked,"You can do anything you want, why are you doing this?" Nothing like a little professional encouragement!

Why did I change my mind about becoming an attorney? Honestly, it was because I didn't see how I could achieve what I wanted both personally and professionally by choosing that career path. I wanted to marry Adventure Guy, and I didn't see postponing that for three years while I finished law school. I also knew that his career was not likely to keep us in one place for three years, so being married while going to law school wasn't a great option either. I also knew what it took to be successful in the legal field, the kind of hours it took to make partner and the type of dedication to career over family that was required. I knew I wanted to be a fairly young mother and that I didn't want to put off children indefinitely in the pursuit of career. But I also knew that I didn't want to put aside a career completely and that I was not the type of person to pursue one half-heatedly.

What I didn't realize at the time I made this decision is how much I would truly love what I do. Working in the field of education, both teaching and in school administration, has been personally fulfilling in a way that I don't believe practicing law would have been. Of course, I'll never know that for sure, but my career choice has allowed me to combine my family and career in a way that works for me. I was able to continue to study subjects that interested me, my teaching fields of history and English. My hours are flexible enough to be conducive to my children's schedules. But perhaps the best unforeseen consequence is the satisfaction I get from knowing that my professional efforts can and do change the lives of thousands of students for the better.

I'd say the best answer to the question of "what if" lies more in the answer to the question, "If you could do it all over again, would you do something differently?" In my case, I'd have to answer with a resounding no because, as in The Post-Birthday World, everything has definitely turned out okay. In fact, it's turned out better than okay, and I don't think I could ask for anything more than that.

There is a God And Other Weekend Ramblings

2007-05-26T15:56:00.001-06:00

Today I entered the mall (on Saturday after finding a convenient parking space), walked into Macy's, saw the swimsuit in the picture, thought, "hmm, that's cute, and I really need a new suit," tried it on and bought it. No endless trying of suits that were not flattering, no agonizing about how the fluorescent lighting inevitably highlights both the paleness of my skin and the cellulite of my thighs. It's a miracle. I've needed a new one piece for a while and haven't found one I liked, and now I'm all set for the summer. Well, I'll be all set if I can bring myself to get back into the gym more regularly so that the two-piece that I have and do like is also an option! But, pay no attention to that. I look exactly like the model does in the picture. I promise!

I didn't actually set out to go swimsuit shopping today. Gym Girl had talked me into taking her to the mall to get her friend a gift from Limited Too, mecca of pre-teen shopping. This week has been birthday central. Soccer Boy and Gym Girl both had slumber parties to attend last night. Swim Chick went to a 13th birthday luau today, and Gym Girl has a party at the rock climbing gym to attend next Wednesday. Thank goodness for Webkinz, both popular and relatively inexpensive. I successfully hunted down two for Soccer Boy and Gym Girl's Friday parties.

Tonight we are concluding Adventure Guy's birthday celebrations with a trip out to dinner with friends. I'm looking forward to a nice, relaxing dinner. It's been a while since we've gotten out on our own. I don't think we'll make it to a movie tonight, but I'm not worried since the countdown to camp and 25 days without children is well underway. We'll have plenty of time to catch up on things like movies then. In fact, our major task for the weekend is getting everything labeled and packed for camp and picking up anything that the kids still need. Fortunately, we've been working on that for a while, so we're pretty close to finished with shopping.

Oh, and I also got a new phone today. I'm now busily trying to figure out all the bells and whistles, and I got the simplest one I could find! Hopefully, I'm up for the challenge. And, most importantly, I have achieved the status of having a phone that's nicer than my 13 year-old's.

New phone, a swimsuit that fits, and dinner out with Adventure Guy. All's well in Suburbia.

2007-05-24T15:03:00.000-06:00

May you live all the days of your life.- Jonathan Swift

Adventure Guy entered my life in a sea of red--red coveralls, red Converse high tops, and red dot stickers covering every exposed area of skin from face to hands. I'm sure you can see why it was love at first sight, or actually, why it wasn't! I should mention in his defense, that this particular outfit was a part of the introductory event for the freshman orientation program we would be leading at our university. Adventure Guy was the co-leader of our group, and I was one of the counselors. Our group color? You guessed it, red. I was 19; he was 21. Sometimes I think we should have some sort of voiceover narration for our lives, something like, "See that guy in the red coveralls? He will be the father of your children." At the time, I simply thought he was cute, and rather interesting, but there were no fireworks.

Fast forward a few months to our orientation group's summer activities. My interest level had definitely increased as I got to know Adventure Guy better, learning more about his drive and ambition as well as a decided "cool" factor I, the proverbial good girl, was attracted to. During a trip to Dallas, I managed to finagle a spot next to Adventure Guy on the couch during a showing of Robocop and fell asleep on his shoulder. He tells me that was his, "hmmm, there could be something here" moment. It took me years after our marriage to admit to him that there was any engineering to that "chance" occurrence. But Robocop is still our movie, romantic I know!

We were both in summer school that year, and Adventure Guy summoned the nerve to call me up and ask me to go to a movie. Then his conscience kicked in, there being a "no consorting" rule for the freshman orientation program, and he called back to let me know one of his friends would be joining us. They picked me up;we went to the movie; they took me home. No rules were violated. I wasn't sure what would happen next, but I was thrilled when he called and asked me to go to a concert on the 4th of July. He picked me up that evening--and brought along yet another friend, the eventual best man in our wedding. Even though we were still not out on a solo date, at least this time we weren't pretending it wasn't a date. We were making progress, and I've always counted the 4th of July as the anniversary of our dating. Two years later, we were on our honeymoon.

And, now, almost 20 year later, Adventure Guy is celebrating his 41st birthday. I don't know of anyone else who more lives up to Swift's challenge to truly live every day of our lives than he does. Adventure Guy skimps on nothing, not his work, not our marriage, not his parenting of our children, and not his desire to push himself to the limit. I admire him greatly for all these things. He makes my life both more challenging and more fulfilling than it would be without him. I thank him for pushing me out of my comfort zone at times (think scuba diving) and for understanding that there are just some things I will not ever do (think skydiving and marathon running). I thank him for being someone who's not afraid to argue. We're not the "hold it in" types, and there are often things we disagree on, sometimes rather heatedly. I have no problem articulating my position on various social issues because of our conversations. People often seem surprised that we disagree on a number of things but are still quite happily married. At least the poll workers seem surprised when we show up together and they have to look up our voter registrations in two different books! And while I have not lived up to his initial hopes that I would "see the light" and join him in his political party affiliation, I do hope, more than anything, that we've exceeded his expectations of what married life would be back when we jumped out into the unknown at 22 and 24.

Happy Birthday, Adventure Guy, and may you continue to live all the days of your life.

Of Tires And Men

2007-05-22T20:26:00.000-06:00

I am a woman who likes to be taken care of--an admission I realize I'm not supposed to fess up to as an independent 21st-century woman. It's not that I need to be taken care of; I'm perfectly capable of doing that myself. Instead it's something I want.

Today, I exited my office at around 3:30 to make a quick run to pick up Gym Girl and get her to practice. I usually don't make this run, but I needed to because the girl who usually drives her was busy with graduation events. I hopped in the car, put it into reverse and immediately realized "something is drastically wrong here." A quick check revealed the back passenger-side tire was completely flat. So, I called Adventure Guy. After all, flat tires are the reason cell phones, roadside assistance, and husbands were invented.

Now Adventure Guy and I have a mixed history regarding my perceived need for rescuing and his inclination to provide such services. This is the man who went along to rescue someone else's wife during the 1992 Houston floods when I was trapped on the opposite side of I-10 from where we lived. His comment when I arrived home from work at 9:30 p.m. rather than my usual 4:00 p.m.? "Oh, I knew you could take care of yourself, so I wasn't worried." And, I know deep down that this attitude does not reflect a lack of caring, as it might appear to on the surface, but instead really does reflect his deep respect for me and my abilities.

Fortunately, today's event was much less critical than historic flood levels. Adventure Guy offered to come and help me change my tire, but I rose to the occasion and said I'd check with my Cingular roadside assistance plan first. He helped by looking up the number I was supposed to call, and I kept him updated on the progress. I am happy to report that the roadside assistance was prompt and effective, and I was also able to take the tire in to a local shop for repair prior to having to be at the gym to pick up Gym Girl (I had arranged another ride for her to get there in the first place!).

I'm pleased with the evolution of Adventure Guy's and my relationship in this area and our avoidance of any conflict over this particular event. I did find it amusing to observe the actions of the various other men whom I encountered during this particular escapade. First, my boss offered to change my tire (and meant it) and then, after I assured him that help was on the way, recommended the tire shop I ended up taking the tire to as being "good, fast, and cheap." He felt comfortable enough with my explained plan of action to head home without checking up on me further. The next man who arrived was a teacher from another one of the district's school sites. I know him, but not well. He also immediately offered to help me change the tire. We were talking when the roadside assistance guy arrived, and he wandered on off but stood across the parking lot to watch the process from afar. Two of our young teachers then arrived to check out what was happening. Both said they would have been happy to help me change the tire but also seemed relieved that the work was well underway. They stood around with me watching and making sure all was set before leaving.

I should mention that one woman recognized that it was my car that had a flat and came in to make sure I knew. I also had two offers of assistance from female colleagues. One offered to call her AAA service for me, and the other, whom I'll call Farm Girl, offered to take care of it for me herself. She once jumped my battery for me and changes her own oil, so I had full faith in her ability. As I did with my boss, though, I assured her that I had it covered. None of the three women seemed to feel any inclination to "check up" on my progress with the flat as most of the men did.

So the lesson for today? As I've always known, I am capable of solving problems like this on my own. And, as I now know, I also have plenty of people willing to back me up if I need a little help along the way.

Confirmation: The Recipes

2007-05-20T14:17:00.001-06:00

There's been no posting of late because I've been busily preparing for the brunch I hosted today after Swim Chick's confirmation service as well as visiting with my parents and grandmother who were in for the occasion and attending a Leadership Retreat for Junior League on Friday night and Saturday morning.

If I do say so myself, the brunch was a success. Adventure Guy's mom and step-dad joined us as did his sister and her family. My parents and Adventure Guy's parents get along well and enjoy visiting with one another, and the kids all enjoyed having their younger cousins around to play with (my niece is five and nephew almost one).

The nice thing about the meal today is that everything except the salad was prepared last night. All I did today was bake the casseroles and make the salad and dressing. Here are the recipes. Enjoy!

Baked Ham with Bourbon Glaze
1 c. honey
1/2 c. molasses
1/2 c. bourbon
1/4 c. orange juice
2 Tbs. Dijon mustard
1 6-8 lb. smokes ham half

Microwave honey and molasses for 1 minute. Whisk to blend. Whisk in bourbon, orange juice, and mustard. Remove skin and excess fat from ham, and place ham on a rack in roasting pan. Bake at 325 degrees on lower oven rack for 1 1/2 hours or until a meat thermometer registers 140 degrees, basting occasionally with honey mixture. Bring remaining glaze to a boil in a small saucepan. Remove from heat and serve with sliced ham.

Cheesy Potatoes
2 lb. frozen hash browns, thawed
1/2 c. melted butter
1/4 c. chopped onion
1 can cream of chicken soup
1 pt. sour cream
10 oz. graded sharp cheddar cheese
paprika

Completely thaw hash browns. Combine with all remaining ingredients and pour into 3 quart baking dish. Sprinkle with paprika. Bake 1 1/2 hours at 350 degrees.

Mandarin Orange Salad
1 head iceberg lettuce
2 heads romaine lettuce
1 small purple onion, sliced thin
8 oz. mandarin oranges, drained
2 1/2 oz. sliced almonds, toasted

Dressing:
1 c. vegetable oil
1/2 c. tarragon vinegar
1 Tbs. sugar
1 tsp. tarragon
1/2 tsp. Dijon mustard
1/2 tsp. salt
1/3 tsp. white pepper

Layer all salad ingredients in salad bowl. For dressing, combine all ingredients in blender and process 3o seconds.

Crunchy Brunch Egg Casserole
2 c. plain croutons
4 oz. Cheddar cheese, shredded
4 eggs, slightly beaten
2 c. milk
1/2 tsp. salt
1/2 tsp. mustard powder
1/4 tsp. onion powder
1/4 tsp. pepper
Bacon, crumbled (optional)

In bottom of greased 9 x 13 dish combine croutons and cheese. Mix remaining ingredients except for bacon and pour over crouton mixture. If using bacon, add to top. Bake at 325 degrees for 50-60 minutes. May be prepared several hours in advance or overnight.

Blueberry and Almond Cottage Bread
2 c. flour
1 Tbs. baking powder
1/4 tsp. salt
3/4 c. sugar
2 eggs
1/4 c. butter, melted and cooled
1 c. milk
1 tsp. almond extract
1/2 slivered almonds
1 1/2 c. fresh or frozen blueberries, drained

Mix the flour, baking powder, salt and sugar in a bowl. Beat the eggs with the butter, milk and almond extract in a bowl. Make a well in the center of the flour mixture and add the egg mixture and the almonds, stirring just until mixed. Fold in the blueberries.

Pour into a greased and floured 5 x 9-inch bread pan. Bake at 350 degrees for 1 hour or until golden brown and a tester inserted in the center comes our clean; the top of the bread will crack. Cool on wire rack for 10 minutes. Loosen from the edges of the pan and remove to a wire rack to cool completely.

The Merry Month Of May

2007-05-16T21:09:00.000-06:00

I think I've mentioned previously how crazy May is in Suburbia. It's the month where all fronts in the balance challenge that is my life collide. Work brings state athletic tournaments, the senior awards assembly, our culminating assembly for our year-long theme, graduation, and building next year's master class schedule. The kids are involved in numerous year-end activities of their own: music programs, gymnastics banquet, Soccer Boy's birthday, and, this year, confirmation for Swim Chick. We are also in full-swing for camp preparations; they leave June 1. Adventure Guy also has a birthday this month, and he's involved in year-end soccer events now that he's joined the association board.

This weekend is shaping up to be a hectic but good one. My parents and grandmother are coming to visit for Swim Chick's confirmation. In the meantime, I also have a Junior League leadership retreat that I have to attend Friday evening and Saturday morning. Fortunately, my guests are understanding of our crazy schedule. They'll get in fairly late on Friday night and then hang out with the kids on Saturday morning while I'm gone.

I have been prepping for the visit, though. I got all my outside pots and hanging baskets planted over the weekend, and today I finished some planting in my front flower bed. I put hot pink petunias in, and I think they'll look really nice this summer. I've also got my menu for the brunch following confirmation on Sunday all planned since I'll need to grocery shop tomorrow.

We'll be having:
Baked Ham
Cheesy Potato Casserole
Green salad with mandarin oranges and candied almonds
Blueberry Almond Bread
Bacon and Egg Crunchy Brunch Casserole
Brownies
Theta Shoppe Vanilla Bars

The nice thing about the menu is that most is doable ahead of time. I'll have everything ready so that all I need to do is bake the two casseroles on Sunday. Now I just need to check my silver to see if it needs any work and plan my serving dishes!

Unexpected Beauty

2007-05-14T17:52:00.000-06:00

I'm not sure what it says about my outlook recently that I've been actively thinking about finding something for Sock Girl's "unexpected beauty" challenge of a month ago ever since she issued it, and I've just now found something worth posting. Since today has been one of those days I'd rather not remember the excruciating details of in the future, I thought it would be a good moment to share what caught my attention recently during my daily carpooling circuit.

At Soccer Boy's school, I came across this scene, which had literally exploded overnight because of the rain we've had recently.

The poppies are planted by the fourth graders at Soccer Boy's school each year to honor our veterans. The students spend time preparing for a Veterans' Day concert in the fall and send postcards of thanks to veterans in the spring.

During this time of war, I'm hopeful that everyone will take time to remember the contributions of our veterans and the sacrifices of those currently serving overseas. On my part, I'm praying this current conflict will be over by the time the poppies bloom next year.

The Dessert

2007-05-12T21:57:00.000-06:00

I've now made these twice to take to events recently, and I've come home with an empty pan each time. Try them, you'll like them!

Theta Shoppe Vanilla Bars

Crust:
1 box Duncan Hines yellow cake mix
1 stick butter, melted
1 large egg

Filling:
1 8 oz. package cream cheese, softened
2 large eggs
1 tsp. vanilla
16 oz. powdered sugar

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Grease 13 x 9 pan. Mix ingredients for crust together. The batter will form a ball. With your fingertips, pat the batter evenly over the bottom of the pan, smoothing it out with your fingertips until the pan is covered and the top is smooth. For the filling, place the cream cheese in the same mixing bowl that was used to make the crust and with the same beaters mix cream cheese for 30 seconds. Add eggs and vanilla, then add sugar. Beat on medium speed until sugar is well incorporated. Pour filling over the crust. Bake for 45 to 47 minutes until browned. Cool on a wire rack for 30 minutes. Cut in squares and serve.

Store at room temperature for 4 days or in the refrigerator for up to a week. Can be frozen. Thaw frozen cake overnight in refrigerator before serving.

No Slumber in Suburbia

2007-05-12T10:00:00.000-06:00

Having a "slumber" party which involves six eight-year-old boys is a bad idea. I know that most people are aware of this already; I was actually aware of it prior to last night. That did not stop me from hosting said slumber party for Soccer Boy. He just could not narrow his guest list down from the five boys he invited, and I figured at least one of them wouldn't be able to make it. They all arrived bright and shiny at 7:00 p.m. last night.

Within 10 minutes of their arrival, they had found the soft drinks, shaken them up to see how much foam they could spray (thankfully this occurred outside) and settled in to their first burping contest of the evening. Within 20 minutes of their arrival, I had established the following rules: no running up and down the stairs and no slamming doors. In many ways, the evening did improve from there. There was pizza to be eaten and Spiderman 1 and 2 to be watched. I did naively assume that once we started the movie, they would quiet down. Not so much.

Did I mention that Adventure Guy was still away on his business trip last night? Our schedules have been so crazy that we couldn't work the party in any other time. He was on his way home, and our plan was to have the guys watch the first movie then pause to do cake and presents when Adventure Guy got home. The evening would wrap up with them settling in for the second movie and falling asleep. That was the plan. Only Adventure Guy, who I thought was arriving at around 10:00 p.m., actually didn't arrive until midnight. We had moved on with the presents and cake by that time, but he officially took over party duty for the viewing of the second movie. I also did not feel the least bit guilty about letting him do the morning donut run and the corralling this morning when the boys woke up at 6:30 a.m. He has now taken them to see Spiderman 3. I am sitting in a totally quiet house. I am not going upstairs because I have a strong suspicion it will make me very unhappy to see Soccer Boy's bedroom and the gameroom.

I'm now off to make a dessert for the party we're going to this afternoon. It should wrap up pretty early, and it will definitely need to be an early evening for us in Suburbia tonight. We've earned it.

And, yet, there's more rain

2007-05-10T20:29:00.000-06:00

My previous poetry entry seemed to stave off the rain storms for a day or so, but the rain started again last night and picked up in earnest right before it was time for me to do courtyard lunch duty. Fun times.

I was able to avoid focusing too much on the miserable weather, however, because I was so busy today I couldn't fit that particular pastime into my schedule. My day, in not quite a nutshell:

Soccer Boy was thrilled to be awakened at 6:00 a.m. rather than his usual 6:30 wake-up time. I had to be at work today at 7:00, and Adventure Guy is out of town, so Soccer Boy had to go earlier than usual to before school care. And the fun part is that we get to do it all over again tomorrow morning.
My morning efforts were repaid by the purpose for my early arrival: the first set of interviews for students who are interested in travelling to Chengdu, China next March. We'll select the 15 students who will go based on their applications and these interviews. It's exciting to hear these young people express their desire to learn about a different culture and to really get to know the Chinese students and their families. It's also phenomenal what many of these kids have accomplished already in life. So often we only hear those "kids today" stories about the decline of American civilization that's sure to happen when these teens are adults and in charge. But my experiences in working day in and day out with kids, rather than scaring me, gives me plenty of hope. I'm looking forward to learning what many of these kids do with their lives, and I'm really looking forward to experiencing China with a group of them this spring.
The rest of the work day sped by, made up of special education issues, state-mandated testing, AP testing, and master-schedule building. I'm also getting ready for our big year-end assembly next week and preparing for professional development sessions the week after that.
I spent the afternoon interviewing more Chinese program applicants, again leaving impressed with most of the field. It is going to be such a challenge narrowing down to 15 students. An interesting note, far more girls applied than did boys and we take an equal number of each for the trip. I wonder what it is that makes girls at this age more comfortable participating in this type of experience than boys.
Post interviews, I rushed to the grocery store so that I have some hope of sticking to my Weight Watchers points for the week. I was completely out of healthy options for tomorrow. The weekend is going to be a big challenge to staying on track. Tomorrow I have PTA end-of-year luncheon and Soccer Boy's birthday party (no way am I passing up the Baskin Robbins ice cream cake; it's a once per year opportunity). Saturday our Sunday school class is hosting a party for our associate minister who has been appointed to his own church and will be moving, and Sunday is Mother's Day, which will likely involve some type of dining out experience.
After some impressively efficient grocery shopping (if I do say so myself), I ran home, put away the items in need of cold storage and hopped back in the car. I picked up Gym Girl, dropped Swim Chick off for her orchestra concert, sped to KFC to get dinner for Gym Girl and Soccer Boy and arrived back at the school in time to let them eat in the office before we joined the crowd in the performing arts center for the concert. All was well until I realized the drive-thru guy had neglected to give us any plasticware. A quick search of the office revealed their only hope for downing the mashed potatoes: the plastic spoons that are taped to the pens the students use to sign in and out of the office. It was a proud parenting moment. But, hey, the kids were fed.
Swim Chick's concert was excellent. They played four numbers. Her 7th grade group followed the sixth graders. It's amazing how much progress her group has made in a year. There is such a marked contrast between the two groups. I remember thinking the same thing when she was a sixth grader last year, though I'm also always impressed with how much the 6th graders learn with just one year of formal training.
After a quick run through for Chinese food for Swim Chick, we finally made it home around 8:30 p.m. Agendas were signed, homework checked, baths taken. And now, everyone is in bed! I'm going to watch Grey's Anatomy and then join them.

Gray

2007-05-08T22:48:00.000-06:00

The sky has given over
its bitterness.
Out of the dark change
all day long
rain falls and falls
as if it would never end.

--William Carlos Williams

It's been raining here forever, and gray is a good way to describe both the weather and my mood today. I'm convinced that the weather is really impacting everyone's mood, both at work and at home. Teachers are feeling the stress of the end of the year, coupled with state-mandated testing that seems never ending this year with the addition of two weeks of field testing on top of the usual testing window. Today I got several complaints from people who don't usually complain, and one very long, detailed complaint from people who do normally complain. And, of course, I'll need to deal with all of them. At home, Adventure Guy is grumpy as well. It seems that several things around the house have chosen this particular moment to break, costing him time and money. He's also leaving town for a business trip tomorrow and knows he'll be behind at work when he gets back, which is not adding to his good mood.

I'm trying to focus on the positive, though. Today I made it to Pilates, which I really enjoy and which has been difficult to fit into my schedule. The gym I go to has added a 7:00 p.m. Tuesday class which actually works with my work hours and my carpooling responsibilities. It does not work with my dinner responsibilities, but I've decided that once a week that is not a problem. I always feel more relaxed and happier when I'm working out, but it's constantly a challenge to fit it in with everything else. I'm also looking forward to Soccer Boy's school music show tomorrow. He has been excited about it for weeks, ever since the teacher assigned parts. Adventure Guy's mom is also attending, so Soccer Boy will be well-represented.

So, with those things in mind, I'm going to take a deep breath, finish watching the Desperate Housewives episode I recorded Sunday, and hope for sunnier days ahead.

Happy Birthday Soccer Boy!

2007-05-06T20:24:00.000-06:00

My baby is eight. I truly do not know how this happened; I've blinked and eight years have flown by. My cute, roly-poly toddler has gone somewhere and left me with a gap-toothed, Under Amour-wearing boy, dead set on barrelling toward independence, one who spends more time riding bikes, exploring the neighborhood with his friends, and mastering his new Nintendo DS than hanging out with mom.

Soccer Boy loves spending time with his friends, riding his bike and his scooter, practicing his basketball shot, reading, and learning interesting facts about history and science. His favorite subject recently is United States presidents. This thrills me, a former history teacher, because neither Swim Chick nor Gym Girl has ever showed much interest in my field. Soccer Boy is also creative. His latest effort involves developing a series of comic books featuring Super Worm, a character he and two friends dreamed up. Super Worm is currently on his eighth adventure, with Soccer Boy serving as writer-in-chief and one of his friends contributing the artwork.

Movies are also a big part of Soccer Boy's life, an interest he shares with Adventure Guy. Want to know the opening date of any summer blockbuster? Just ask Soccer Boy. Though he does claim to be hazy about the exact date the new Nancy Drew movie opens. All he'll give up for his sisters who are waiting for the film is, "sometime in June." I think he secretly has that date committed to memory too but isn't giving them the satisfaction of fessing up. This summer will be a good one for him with new entries in the Spiderman, Pirates of the Caribbean, Harry Potter and Shrek franchises opening.

Though he can be sensitive, particularly with relationships with friends and his sisters, Soccer Boy often amazes me with his toughness. Ironically, with the name I've chosen for him, soccer does not come incredibly easy to him. He's been working hard this year, and he's become good at playing the goalie position. What does seem to come easily is skill at distance running. He has a number of 5K races under his belt and plans to run a 10K with Adventure Guy soon. I'll never forget his first 5K. I agreed to run it with him since Adventure Guy wanted to run the race for time and knew Soccer Boy would be slower. I figured he'd get tired along the way and we would end up walking a lot of the race. Let's just say that Soccer Boy's own time would have been far better if he had not had to keep stopping to look back and check on his mother's progress. For the next 5K we did, Race for the Cure, I told him just to go ahead and run his pace, and I'd meet him at the finish line when I made it. Tact not being his strongest point, he did complain that he'd had to wait "a really long time" for me to come in!

His toughness has also shown through this last week in dealing with his broken wrist. The boy broke two bones and has still not had any pain medication. I'm adding the fact that we didn't take him in to be x-rayed until 24 hours after the accident to my list of reasons for mom guilt. A little obvious pain would have been helpful in triaging the situation, however! He's dealing well with being in the cast, and I'm thankful it's his left arm since he's right-handed.

Next month Soccer Boy will be taking on yet another adventure, going to camp for 25 days for the first time. Last year he went for 13 days and did great. His sisters have gone for the full-term before, but neither of them was quite as young when she started as Soccer Boy will be this summer. I would have sent him for the half-term again, but he was absolutely insistent on going for the full time. He can't stand being left out of anything that his sisters are doing--especially if it's something that's as much fun as camp. I just know that it will be tough come June 1 to stand in the parking lot and wave as their bus pulls away. The great thing about it, though, is that I know Soccer Boy is ready. In fact, he's looking forward to the experience. Which just goes to show, he's truly not my baby anymore.

Antoine

2007-05-04T21:13:00.000-06:00

I'm often inspired by what I read over at Oh, The Joys. The blog is irreverent and unfailingly humorous, but from time to time, it's an absolute tearjerker. Today's post was one of those that had me drawn in from the beginning, and it drove me to do something I've been meaning to do for a long time: find out whatever happened to one of my all-time favorite students, Antoine.

In any teaching career, there are students who are unforgettable. For me, Antoine was the first of those students, one who has influenced my career in many ways. There are two memories from the year he was a student in my U. S. History class that stand out, the first being the very moment I met him. Standing at the door and greeting my students was an important task for me each day, and it was especially important on the first day of school. I wanted students to know that I was happy to see them, and that I was looking forward to a great year. As I waited by the door in August of 1992, a 24-year-old, second-year teacher at a Houston high school I'll call Multicultural High, I spotted a nice-looking, black kid, wearing a white undershirt with the sleeves rolled up and perfectly styled jeans, hovering outside the room. He'd given himself away by glancing first at his schedule, then at the room number, and then at me. More than once. So, I asked, "Are you looking for U. S. History? Come on in." He hesitated before saying, "I don't want to go in there. I'm not going to like that class."

So many things rushed through my head at that point, and this instance illustrates what makes teaching both an art and a science. Nowhere in my teacher education classes did anyone instruct me in how to respond when a student informs you, without previously having met you, that he is not going to like your class. I managed to respond neutrally, "Oh, really, why not?" "Because it's not MY history," he responded. I could feel the challenge in his words, and I knew that my response would be key for our relationship and my ability to reach him throughout the year. And I had only a few seconds to craft an answer. Instinct kicked in, and I responded in a way that was both truthful and, for this student, right. "Well," I said, "Come on in anyway. I think you'll be surprised. In this class we learn about how all kinds of people have contributed to making our country great. I don't leave anyone out or just focus on groups once a year during Black History or Women's History months." In he went, and I could make out the first glimmers of the bond that we would form over the year.

I quickly learned that Antoine was smart and that he was gifted athletically. Recruiting letters often arrived for him during my class. I must have delivered contacts from 30 different colleges over the course of the year. After our conversation that first day, he was always unfailingly polite, and he worked hard. He was being raised by a single mother, one who cared tremendously for her son and knew his potential. A humorous moment came for me when his mother arrived for teacher conferences. I now knew where Antoine got both his size and his looks. Good for him, not so good for her!

Antoine willingly participated in class discussions, and this led to another key moment for me, one which I've related on numerous occasions to others. My class, full of students of color and recent immigrants, was discussing the civil rights movement. The question posed was does discrimination still exist today, or has our society conquered such attitudes, essentially, "Is there a need for further civil rights work today?" I'll admit to having been honestly taken aback when the majority of my students stated that they did not believe discrimination was a big issue in modern-day America. I had expected our discussion to take a different route, in fact, I was rather depending on it to help in my efforts to make the these events of the 60s and 70s relevant to the 16 and 17 year-olds in my class, for whom those years might as well have been eons ago.

Finally, Antoine spoke up. This 6' 3" guy, weighing in at about 250 lbs. said,

"If you think there's no such thing as discrimination these days, you need to walk home from school with me. When I get to the corner of Cook and Bellaire, I have to wait for the light so that I can cross. Every day, all I can hear are the automatic locks clicking on the car doors around me. People don't see me at that corner. They see a big, black guy. And, you know, all I'm doing is walking home from school. I'm a kid, walking home from school."

It absolutely broke my heart. Both because I knew he would never do anything to hurt anyone and because I knew that if I didn't know him, I might be afraid too. It taught me about myself, and it taught me a little, just a little, about how it must feel to walk in his shoes. I never took him up on his invitation to walk home with him, but I often wished I had. Later, when I moved to Suburbia and began teaching at All-American High, a much less diverse school than the one I had left, I shared Antoine's story with my new students, students who had even less reason to believe that there were still issues with discrimination than my Houston students had.

Antoine left my class that year with us both knowing that he had been wrong in his assumptions about U. S. History and his role in it. He kept in touch the next year, and I enjoyed watching his achievements on the football field. I celebrated when he accepted a football scholarship to a quality, four-year university. Antoine was the kind of kid that college athletic scholarships were designed for, a kid who was talented both athletically and academically. I knew he was smart enough to get a degree, and I hoped that he'd be able to overcome some of the circumstances in his life that made it less likely that he would cross the stage with a diploma in hand. I hoped he wouldn't let the distant prospect of a career in the NFL distract him from taking full advantage of the academic opportunity he'd been granted.

I saw Antoine again the following year when he came home from college and stopped by to visit. He told me about his classes and his experiences in football. He'd been redshirted, which he said gave him more time to focus on studying and also more time to complete his degree. He also told me about his "coat allowance." He was thrilled to have a "real coat, not these pretend coats people wear down here." He was making friends, enjoying life, and eating well. He was huge! Those college strength and nutrition programs are nothing if not effective. I hugged him and wished him well. He walked out the door of my room, and I haven't seen him since.

But I've always wondered. What happened to him? Did he get the degree? What's he up to now? Moving away made it difficult for me to keep track of my former students, and Antoine was one of the ones I regretted not being able to contact to let them know where I was headed and why I would no longer be working at Multicultural High.

Today I found out. Inspired by the post on Oh, The Joys, and aided by the vast array of information out there on the world wide web, I found Antoine. Since I knew his full name and where he attended college, it really wasn't too difficult to find references to him, especially if I was interested in his football career. But I hit paydirt when I unearthed a report for a project he worked on recently that listed his credentials: a degree in economics from the previously mentioned quality, four-year university. He's a consultant working in the field of public transportation design. A little more searching revealed an address, and the Big Brother satellite in the sky allowed me to zoom right in for a shot of his home. From the suburban address and the house size, I'm also guessing he's married and has a family. What I know for sure, though, is that he's come a long way from that street corner with its accompanying soundtrack of locking car doors. It's great to know he achieved his goals, and I'd love for him to know that he also helped me achieve mine.

May Day!

2007-05-03T18:56:00.000-06:00

So, I'm running a little behind schedule with the title of my post, it not actually being May 1st and all. However, I must note the irony of the fact that May Day is all at once the celebration of socialist ideals, a time to leave baskets of flowers for friends and dance around a maypole, and a cry for help upon the high seas.

I'm afraid in my life right now the latter description is the most fitting. Though I do remember my great-aunt leaving surprises for us on May Day when I was a child, this charming tradition seems to have faded totally from practice. For me, May is always one of the busiest months of the year. Soccer Boy and Adventure Guy both have birthdays this month; school is coming to a close,with all the attendant year-end events for both All-American High and the kids' schools; Junior League is also ending its calendar year, bringing several additional commitments; and camp preparations are in full-swing. This year, we also have Swim Chick's confirmation in a couple of weeks. My parents and grandmother will arrive for that weekend, and I'm planning to host lunch for them as well as for my in-laws after the service.

On tap for this weekend: a little soccer, a little dancing, and a big celebration. Soccer Boy is determined to attend his soccer practice and game regardless of the fact that his arm is now in a cast. So, we'll be heading out to the fields tomorrow evening and Saturday afternoon. Evidently, it's up to the ref whether or not he'll be allowed in the game, so we'll see. In his league, the play is not too rough, so I'm not really worried about him further injuring himself if he does play.

Swim Chick has her wrap-up Odyssey of the Mind get together Saturday as well, followed by her big event on Sunday: the party that culminates the ballroom dancing lessons she's taken this spring. Nothing like 50 7th graders all dressed up and waltzing at the nicest country club in town. The dance lessons are a long-standing rite of passage here, one in which I'm pleased Swim Chick has had the opportunity to participate. Watching the boys, often a head shorter than the girls, escorting their partners out at the end of each lesson brings back memories, mostly fond, of my own experiences with learning ballroom dancing in 8th grade. How is it possible that I'm now the mom in this whole equation, rather than an awkward 14 year-old hoping to luck into being paired with one of the popular guys?

What I'm looking forward to most this weekend, though, will happen prior to Swim Chick's big night. Sunday afternoon after church, there's a surprise picnic (shhhhh!) for my friend who has just completed all her scheduled chemotherapy. She's had such a positive outlook through the months of treatments, losing her hair, and dealing with the fear she has of not being around in the future for her kids. I can't begin to put into words how much I admire the grace with which she's faced this challenge that has been placed before her. While we won't know the true effectiveness of her treatments until after some further testing and a lot of hopeful waiting, her friends and family are ready to celebrate with her the end of this phase of treatment. We'll head to a local park, dig in to all the potluck dishes, and enjoy each other's company. And, really, what more is there to life than that? Friends, food, love, and hope.

Best Life Update

2007-05-01T20:02:00.000-06:00

Recently someone visited my blog searching for information on The Best Life Diet. I've been woefully remiss in updating on my progress. That could be related to the fact that my progress is woefully remiss as well. I have lost four pounds. I'm not sure it has anything much to do with following The Best Life plan. I have about ten pounds to go to feel good about how I look this summer in shorts and bathing suits.

So, I am vowing to turn over a new leaf and on day two of this week, I'm doing okay. I made it to the gym yesterday morning, and I'm going again tomorrow. I've also decided to start tracking points again on Weight Watchers. That's the system that's worked best for me in the past, so it makes sense to do it again. What I hate is the maintenance phase. Well, I don't love the weight loss phase either, but my real issue seems to be grasping what it takes to stay at the weight I'd like to be year around. I tend to slack off around the holidays and not really get back into it until this time of year. I also hate that I can't eat pretty much whatever I want and stay at a good weight just by exercising like I could when I was younger. Damn that slowing metabolism!

Taking the Best Life topic a bit less literally, here's a few updates on the rest of life in Suburbia.

Soccer Boy is now sporting a camo cast on his left arm. His whole class signed it today. He's doing very well with it, and I'm thankful for the new developments in casting technology that allow him to get this one wet. The doctor estimates a month in the cast. It turns out Soccer Boy's wrist is broken in two places, much to everyone's surprise. He's a tough little guy.
I spoke to the counselor at Gym Girl's school today about placement for next year. It seems all the math changes are still pretty fluid, and we will chat more during the summer. I am not going to push for having her tested at this point but will if it appears to be needed later.
The process for selecting students for the trip to China that I'll be leading next spring has begun. It's wonderful to see the applications and the caliber of student the trip is attracting. We've also received the profiles of the Chinese students who will be coming here in September. Their excitement about visiting the U. S. comes through so clearly in their essays, it's almost palpable.
Adventure Guy is running another marathon this weekend, the Flying Pig in Cincinnati. He's well on his way to his goal of running one marathon in each state. So far, he's completed Arkansas, Florida, Illinois, Massachusetts, Oklahoma, and Texas. He wants to have them all completed by his 50th birthday, which is 9 years away. I'm holding out for the Hawaii race!
Work is crazy right now. I have so much to do and so little time in which to do it. 18 school days left until 2006-2007 is over at All-American High. So forgive me if I'm a bit slow on updating the blog until the end of May!
On June 1st I'll put all three kids on a bus to camp. This will be Swim Chick's 5th year, Gym Girl's 4th year and Soccer Boy's 2nd year to attend Kanakuk, the camp Adventure Guy attended as a kid as well. This is the first year they'll all be going for the full term. Adventure Guy and I will be on our own from June 1st until June 25th. I'm wavering between elation and sadness at the thought! Hopefully, by the time we arrive to pick them up and spend a few days on the lake, I'll be looking good from my Best Life efforts. That's the plan anyway.

My Cluttered Mind

2007-04-26T19:15:00.000-06:00

Life has been hectic lately in Suburbia. Nothing bad, just lots to keep up with. Spring is always a busy time because school events increase for the kids and for me. I am thankful for my pocket PC which keeps me on track and for Adventure Guy who really lives up to the term "life partner"--not that either one of us is likely to actually use that phrase.

Here are a few things that have been floating around in my brain lately, in no particular, and in fact somewhat random order.

The Gym Girl math dilemma. Where should I go next, if anywhere? I had an email yesterday morning from her teacher explaining the matrix they used to identify those students who were tested. Having seen the components, which I actually don't disagree with, I know why Gym Girl didn't qualify: one particular test she took two years ago in 3rd grade. I'm pondering my next move, and I think I'm going to give it a bit of time to shake out. Knowing what I know about parents in our district, I will not be alone in my concern. My guess is that the school will end up either doing more testing or allowing parents to opt their children in to one of the higher math classes. We'll see.
Master scheduling. Creating a schedule of classes to be taught at a large, comprehensive high school is like solving a huge puzzle, a puzzle I must complete before students leave for the summer so that we can notify students if there are any problems with their course selections. All-American High offers 32 Advanced Placement classes and a variety of other specialized electives, some of which are only once a day, and it's inevitable that some students want two classes that are scheduled at the same time. We try to avoid this, and teachers try to work with students on options, but at times students have to choose one course over another.
State-mandated testing. We have now spent two full weeks testing students in four core subject areas. We've given over 3,000 tests. We've disrupted the schedule of the entire school in order to meet the various time and scheduling requirements for the tests. We are also being required by the state to pilot two new subject area tests for which the testing window is entirely different. The test window begins May 7, and we have yet to receive an actual administrator's guide for the testing. Teachers are annoyed that they have not received more information and that we are unable to train them at this time in the online testing protocol. Can you blame them? I can't. I'm all for accountability. When this is all over, the paper will publish our scores, and people will compare All-American High to all the other local schools. How about some accountability for those responsible for this whole process? So far the pre-coded testing labels have been incorrect, the test materials were late arriving in our district, and the entire online pilot testing program has been rushed and ill-prepared.
Another nod to the impact of technology on our lives. I just took a break from writing this post to give Soccer Boy his spelling words. When he spelled August, he said, "Caps lock A, u g u s t." Can't say I was aware of such a thing as a Caps Lock key in 2nd grade. Of course, my stating that I did not have a computer at home until I was in high school makes my children look as me with the same disbelief and pity that I directed toward my mom when she admitted to not having a television until 5th grade. Gym Girl is also on a campaign for her own cell phone and was SHOCKED to learn that I did not own a cell phone until the age of 28.
Gymnastics. Gymnastics has taken over our lives to a greater degree than usual these days. The state meet is tomorrow. Gym Girl's level is conveniently scheduled to start warmups at 1:00 p.m. in the state capital two hours away. Lovely. I could have gone to work, rushed frantically through several things while constantly worrying about being late, and picked Gym Girl up just in time to drive through someplace to pick up lunch before hitting the highway. Instead, I've decided that Gym Girl and I are both taking the day off. We are sleeping in a bit, and then I'll help her get ready for the big event. In other gym news, we had the pre-state team dinner on Wednesday night. In honor of the occasion, the computer system at the restaurant promptly went down, requiring all orders to be entered by hand. This led to dinner taking over 2 hours to complete and therefore to my spending over 2 hours in a room full of girls between 7 and 13 years old. Let's just say that I now know that I was correct in my choice to work at the high school level.
Housecleaning. I am looking around my house and admiring all the sparkling surfaces. No, I am not bragging on my own performance. Adventure Guy decided to surprise me with an early Mother's Day gift and contract with a cleaning service. We've had help in this area for most of our marriage, but last year we decided we needed to cut back on expenses, and the maid was one of the things that went. Theoretically, the kids are old enough to pitch in more. And they really did to some extent. We've just learned that we're a lot happier when we don't have to worry about spending the weekend cleaning.
Presidential debate. It's almost like the kickoff of football season. With the Democratic presidential hopefuls debating in South Carolina tonight, the opening bell has sounded for 2008. I'm not sure who I'll support in the election, so I watched the debate tonight with interest. I had the chance to meet John Edwards in person last time he ran, and I still have a fond feeling for him. I'll admit to being wooed a bit by Barack Oboma, and his performance tonight was impressive. He's clearly very intelligent as well as thoughtful. Bill Richardson is someone I want to watch. I think he may break into the running more than has been expected. Of course, that leaves Hilary Clinton. I would love to see a woman elected president. I wish there was a woman running for whom I felt comfortable voting. I defended Hilary when she was first lady. I thought she was unfairly criticized simply for having an opinion and being willing to state it. And, of course, for actually having had a successful career of her own. I have not been impressed, though, with Hilary as a candidate. Her opinions seem based on nothing more than pandering to the latest opinion polls, and she comes across as condescending.
Sleep. I am tired, and I don't really have a good reason for it. Sunday night I had difficulty sleeping, but I've gotten over seven hours of sleep each night since. Maybe getting a few extra hours tonight will help.
Babies. My best friend's new baby is adorable. He's tiny and looks like an old man. He's a great snuggler, and I've been unduly accused of being a "baby hog" by my children who also wish to hold him. It's amazing to me that Soccer Boy is almost eight. Wasn't it just yesterday he was tiny like that? I'm happy, though, with our decision that our own family is complete. I find that as much as I loved having babies, I love having kids who are more self-sufficient and able to really interact with us even more.
Fear. Today a 7th grader was abducted from her bus stop after missing her bus. She was by herself when two men stopped and one pulled her into their car. She was able to get out and run to a church for help. I know that abductions by strangers are rare and that it's unlikely to happen to my children, but hearing reports of this kind of event is chilling. Especially when this happened two miles from our home. I try not to let it scare me unnecessarily. The kids were out riding their bikes in the neighborhood this afternoon, and one of our neighbors told them about the abduction attempt and sent them in. Again, mixed emotions about that, annoyance at the interference, appreciation for the concern shown, desire not to allow fear to control our actions.

I am now going to try to put all of the above items out of my mind. Instead of pondering these and other things, I am going to watch Ugly Betty and Grey's Anatomy while sponge rolling Gym Girl's hair in preparation for tomorrow's meet.

That Thin Line

2007-04-24T20:27:00.000-06:00

There are perks to being an administrator in the school district where one's children attend school. There is also the inevitable downside. Today, I tried to walk the thin line than exists between making sure that I'm looking out for the good of my own child (as well as for the good of the 2200 other children whose parents entrust them to me each day) and taking advantage of my position to benefit my child.

I try very hard not to interfere in my kids' education more than the average parent would. I'm not the person who emails the teachers constantly, and I don't expect special treatment for my kids because of my position in the district. During the seven years that I've served as principal, I've received varying responses, encompassing the range of nonchalance to obvious discomfort, from my children's new teachers upon my entrance at "meet the teacher" night. In my kids' entire experience thus far in the district, I've only been less than pleased with two teachers, and we've gotten through those years without incident. Have I "disclaimered" enough now?

The latest: our district did some new math placement testing for incoming 5th and 6th graders, of which Gym Girl is one. However, Gym Girl was not tested. Only certain students were selected. The only parents notified of the testing were those whose students had been selected. Kids who tested will take regular math, pre-Algebra, or Algebra I based on the results. I learned of all this when Gym Girl's school principal called me to ask a question about the rules for teacher certification. I deserve bonus points in my book for not quizzing him about my own child during this conversation.

Instead, I quizzed Gym Girl when I got home.

Me: "So, have you taken any special math tests lately."
Gym Girl: "No, but some people did. They got a letter about it."
Me: "Hmmm....that's interesting. Who tested?"
Gym Girl: "I'm not really sure."
Me: "Oh, I see."
(Subject dropped as to not make Gym Girl paranoid)

I'm lost as to why Gym Girl would not have been tested. Honestly, I figure that she might or might not qualify for more than the regular math class, but she's always been good at math and has scored "advanced" on all the state-mandated tests in math over the past couple of years. She also makes A's in math and has seemingly "phoned in" the 5th grade material. If I were to guess, I think she'd score in the middle group, being ready for pre-algebra but not algebra. Why do I care? I've been living through Algebra I with Swim Chick in 7th grade, and while she qualified for the class through testing in as well, she would have been better served by taking pre-algebra last year rather than 6th grade math (though this was not an option for her class). If Gym Girl is going to do 7th grade Algebra, I want her to do pre-algebra next year.

So, risking being the overaggressive parent convinced that her child is a true genius who has been wrongfully overlooked, I sent an email to Gym Girl's teacher. I noted that I had learned of the testing and that I was surprised that Gym Girl had not been tested. Then I inquired as to what the criteria had been for selecting students to test. As of leaving work at 5:00 p.m. I had no answer. I'll be curious as to how he replies, knowing that just my sending it can be perceived as pressure. And I'm not sure yet how much pressure I want to put forth in this issue.

One of these days this parenting gig is going to get easier, right? Oh yeah, I think that's scheduled to take place around the year 2022 when Soccer Boy should be graduating from college! I'll keep you posted.

Obsession

2007-04-22T20:24:00.000-06:00

After a bit of a reading dry spell, I just finished Jonathan Kellerman's latest, Obsession. Well, I have been reading, because I just can't go without, but I've been pretty limited to magazines recently, having been too distracted by the general pace of life to dig into anything deep. Not that this book would qualify as deep, but it was at least a full-length novel.

When I spotted this latest Alex Delaware novel on the shelf during a recent escape to Border's one evening, I was excited because it's a series I've always enjoyed. Typically, the plots are fast-paced and ensure a bit of escapism. The plot in Obsession revolves around a death-bed confession from the mother of one of child psychologist Dr. Delaware's previous patients. Alex and his friend, police lieutenant Milo Sturgis, unravel a series of clues to discover what the "really bad thing" the mother confessed to was, saving the daughter in the process.

Obsession lacks much of the excitement of the previous novels in this series. I was never really engaged with the characters, and there were no real surprises or plot twists as the mystery unfolded. I've got a stack of books sitting on my night stand, just crying out to be read. While Obsession was a good warm up, I'm looking forward to delving into the others. I'll hope that the next Kellerman novel better lives up to the previous entries in the series.

Off to the Prom

2007-04-21T13:18:00.000-06:00

For many, prom night is a once in a lifetime experience. For me, it's an annual occurrence. Yes, earlier today I was actually considering which shoes would look best with my selected prom outfit. No prom dress this year. I've decided to go with the dressy pants and top look. And my shoe selection dilemma focuses more on what will be comfortable for standing at the door for four hours rather than which pair best compliments the outfit.

As prom season approached, I noticed several bloggers were reliving their own prom experiences and posting pictures. I am not so brave. I attended two proms when I was in high school. The first was at the high school that was my school's cross-town rival. I went at the behest of my date's mother who called my mother and asked her if I would go. Can you imagine just how popular this guy was? To top that experience off, we entered the country club for dinner just as a group of the most popular girls from my high school were being seated with their equally popular dates. Beautiful. For that event, I wore the 80s classic off the shoulder, tea length light blue taffeta concoction. For my own senior prom, things went a bit better, though I did attend with my newly-ex boyfriend. We'd dated most of my senior year, but he broke up with me a few weeks before the dance. Having been planning to dump him as soon as was convenient prior to my leaving for college, I was not distraught about the breakup and had the presence of mind to inform him at the time that I hoped he didn't think this was getting him out of taking me to the prom, it being far to late for me to acquire another date. We went with a group and had a good time. I honestly have fairly vague memories of the whole thing other than that year's dress which departed a bit from the standard by not being taffeta. This time, it was a tea length royal blue lace dress with a sweetheart strapless neckline which my mother was not a fan of but let me buy anyway. There's a picture in my senior yearbook from that night that is cropped in a way that makes me look like I'm not wearing anything. Nice.

Girls today seem more confident about their fashion choices than we were. Tonight we'll see all different styles and lengths. Fortunately, the "genie" two-piece look seems to have gone out of style. Hemlines are getting shorter, though, so soon we'll have to worry about that. I enjoy working at prom each year because with it being a "seniors only" event, it's smaller than our other formal school event, the homecoming dance. We also rarely have any inappropriate behavior at prom. It's a nice evening, watching the kids who are about to leave us have a really good time. It's bittersweet in many ways to see those students who I've known since they entered All-American High as insecure sophomores experiencing one of the last "big events" of their high school careers.

Not to be outdone by all the students, I have prepared for prom by getting a lovely pedicure, and one of the other principals and I are going out to dinner before hand, hopefully at a location that will not prove popular for our students. She and I have been fairly successful in our choices the last couple of years, so I'm hoping our luck holds. It's just not as fun for either the students or for us when we end up at the same restaurant. We've learned over the years, though, that anonymity for us in this town is unlikely. Part of the job is making sure we're a role model at all times. Last night, when Adventure Guy and I went out to get some sushi, we chose a restaurant that's not in the district. That did not, however, stop us from being seated by a hostess who's a former student and being greeted by three of my seniors who were at the table behind us. I've even run into students on vacation in Belize and on a cruise that left from San Juan. It's really amazing in some ways how often that happens.

Outside of prom this evening, our weekend is pretty uneventful. Soccer Boy had a game this morning, in which he scored a goal, his first of the season. Swim Chick has gone to a movie with friends, and Adventure Guy is doing the lawn. Everyone is supposed to be engaged in cleaning up the game room and their rooms, but that seems to be happening in stages. Gym Girl is diligently working, and I predict the others will regret not putting in the time earlier when she's finished later today. I figured that since I'm working on getting the mounds and mounds of laundry that have piled up done, I should take a bit of time to update the blog. That's my excuse for not doing something more productive. That's my excuse, and I'm sticking to it!

So Where Does This Go In The Baby Book?

2007-04-18T18:38:00.000-06:00

Today Swim Chick achieved a developmental milestone. I was headed home from dropping off Gym Girl at practice when Swim Chick called to report that one of her friends from the Odyssey of the Mind team had locked himself out of the house so he was walking over from his house to ours. Yes, Swim Chick was having a BOY over for the first time. And, I hadn't thought to ever discuss with her the ground rules for having boys over to visit. Because we'd never had a boy over to visit. The good news: she called me to tell me what was up and I was going to be home to supervise. I proceeded to spend the next two hours pretending to be nonchalant about the whole thing while making sure I was around but not right with them. I did learn not to underestimate the effectiveness of the annoying little brother who wants to join in whatever activities his sister and her friend are doing.

When Adventure Guy got home, I suggested that this would be a good time for him to go by the game room where they were playing video games and say hello. He, amazingly calm about this whole development, said, "This is really freaking you out, isn't it?" I told him I'd feel a lot better if I had had a chance to preview minor details like, "No taking boys in your bedroom." Adventure Guy wisely said that this would be a great reason to have that conversation after her friend left. Which is exactly what I did. I was met with the typical teen eye roll and the statement that they were just friends, so I shouldn't worry about anything like that. Actually, I think this is the case, and she didn't take him into her room or do anything else even remotely inappropriate. I still feel better to have spelled it out.

I know this parenting a teen thing is not cut out to be easy, but there are plenty of days when I look back at some of the things I agonized over when the kids were babies and toddlers and think that was the easy part. The physical work was more grueling, and sleep deprivation is never fun, but now I'm walking the tight rope of trying to be both sufficiently strict in order to provide boundaries and appropriately open to Swim Chick's growing need for independence. It seems like a daily issue. Can she go to the movies alone? Can she have a boy over? Next, it will be can she go to a movie alone with a boy. I am not ready! I helped give a baby shower yesterday for a teacher who is due soon. I had to leave a bit early to get Swim Chick to her orthodontist appointment, and I was struck by how quickly thirteen years has passed. Wasn't it just yesterday that the teachers I worked with were giving me the baby shower? I told the mom-to-be to enjoy her time with her new little one. Those moments are as sweet as they are fleeting.

While I was trying to be unobtrusive and good-mom-like this afternoon, I figured making dinner was a good activity. Somehow, Baked Ziti seemed appropriate for its warmth and homeyness. I'm not an Italian mother, but somewhere in the amalgam that makes up my children's lineage, there are some Italian ancestors. If you're aiming to feed a crowd, double the following recipe. If not, this serves four adults or two adults and a couple of kids.

Baked Ziti

8 oz. ziti, cooked
1/2 lb. hamburger meat
3 links Italian sausage (I prefer the "hot" version, but mild is good too)
1/2 onion, chopped
1 1/2 c. marinara sauce
sliced Mozzarella cheese
Parmesan cheese

Brown hamburger and sausage with onions in large skillet. Drain fat from meat and add ziti and marinara. Stir to combine. Spray 9" square dish with cooking spray and add 1/2 of ziti mixture. Top with half of mozzarella. Add remaining ziti mixture. Cover with foil and bake at 350 degrees for 25 minutes. Remove foil and add remaining cheese. Sprinkle with Parmesan. Bake, uncovered, for an additional 15 minutes.

Marinara Sauce

1 Tbsp. olive oil
1/2 Tbsp. chopped garlic
1/2 onion, chopped
32 oz. chopped tomatoes
1 Tbsp. lemon juice
1 Tbsp. Italian seasoning
Bay leaf

Saute onion and garlic in olive oil until onion is clear. Drain half the juice from tomatoes and add to onion mixture. Add remaining ingredients and bring to a boil. Reduce heat and simmer for 20 minutes.

Then Again...

2007-04-15T15:13:00.000-06:00

I am reminded after my last post of the famous song that begins, "You can't always get what you want." If lyrics hold true, I then must assume that yesterday Swim Chick somehow got what she needs. I actually don't doubt that it was one of those "life lessons" we all must learn along the way.

Since last summer, Swim Chick and a group of six other 7th and 8th graders have worked diligently preparing for Odyssey of the Mind competition. More here on her teams chosen problem this year, The Large and Small of It. They won the regional competition and put in even more hours preparing for the state competition, making improvements based on the comments of the judges at regionals. Saturday morning at 5:00 a.m. they headed off, intent on placing 1st or 2nd at the state competition and thereby qualifying for Worlds, which they competed at last year.

When I watched Swim Chick's group present their skit, I knew that they were not as "on" as they probably needed to be. It was good, but it wasn't great. They were followed by the 1st place team from the other regional competition; that team was indeed great. The consensus among the parents was that their finish would largely be determined by how well they and the other team did on the "spontaneous" portion of the competition, where teams are given a problem and asked to solve it creatively. We thought they still had a chance at 2nd, though our guess was that the last team up would take their division's 1st place.

Cue the awards presentation. At least the wait wasn't long. Only the top three teams in each division were recognized, and, you guessed it, Swim Chick's team was called to the podium first, in 3rd place. To make the defeat even more bitter, the 2nd place team was a team they had beaten in the regional competition. In addition, they had beaten both teams in the spontaneous problem, but they had scored too low on the long-term problem for it to make a difference. To the team's credit they were gracious in defeat, accepting their medals with thanks and shaking hands with the other teams. It was only when we reached the car that the tears began.

I hate this part of parenting. There's no way for me to "fix" this disappointment. I know it's something everyone has to learn to deal with at some point, but it would be nice if those lessons could wait a while longer. I did have a very interesting conversation with Swim Chick about the whole experience, though. We were talking about their performance, and I told her that I just didn't think their skit this time was a good as it had been in the past. I told her that happens sometimes, and it's hard to say why. She said, "I know. I didn't think it went very well, but afterwards, everyone else said, 'Oh, no. It was great!' It makes me mad that they would say that when it wasn't." I reminded her that I had not told her it was great, and she said she knew I hadn't, and she was glad that I didn't try to lie to her about it. This seemed to sum up for me the reason that I avoid insincere or automatic praise for my kids. They know when they've done well, and they know when they haven't. My goal is to provide them with encouragement to give whatever they try their best effort and to congratulate them on their achievements. And now, I guess, my goal is to commiserate with Swim Chick and encourage her to think about what could have gone better this year so that they improve for next year. The good news is she's eagerly awaiting the announcement of the new projects so that her team can start planning for a return to Worlds in 2008.

And speaking of not always getting what you want. Wish Adventure Guy luck as he runs the Boston Marathon tomorrow. It's a once in a lifetime opportunity for him, but unfortunately, this year' s race comes with this advisory. Since there is no way he'll back out of something like this, I am thinking very warm thoughts for him!

Sometimes You Get What You Want

2007-04-13T20:44:00.000-06:00

The year is 1988. Two girls (I know, I should say "young women" but girls is how we thought of ourselves; girls is what we were) lie awake in their room in the sorority house, talking about life and their hopes for the future. One girl talks about the boy she's dating, how he excites her, challenges her, and exasperates her all at the same time. How she knows, just knows, that he's the one. How she's not sure how she'll make it through the next year when he's graduated and moved away. She talks about wanting to make a difference in the world, teaching kids the joys of literature, bringing history to life for them. She knows her own kids will be in the picture too, wants three just like her own family. The other girl wonders where her path will take her. She's been dating several different guys, but none seriously. She knows she wants kids, preferably four. She's worried about what she'll do with that journalism degree once she graduates the next year. She's done an internship at the newspaper and doesn't feel a real "fit."

The years moved on. Girl Number One married that guy, oh, let's call him Adventure Guy, and he still excites her, challenges her, and exasperates her all at the same time. The three children were born exactly according to plan. The career took a bit of a detour out of teaching and into school administration, where she still hopes she's making a difference in the world. Along the way, Girl Number One introduced Girl Number Two to Adventure Guy's friend from high school. They followed the first couple down the aisle two years later. Girl Number Two found that her journalism skills paid off both literally and figuratively in her career as a technical writer, and she moved up the corporate ladder quickly. All seemed right on track until Girl Number Two started working on the four kids part of the plan, which did not go at all as she had hoped. There were eight long years of dashed hopes and disappointment before the second couple welcomed--twins! Girl Number Two was thrilled, but she shared quietly that she guessed she'd never have the four children she had dreamed of, not now, at her age and with her medical history. Surprise! Baby number three arrived a mere 18 months later.

And tonight, in 2007, Girl Number One made a special trip to the hospital. It was to see Baby Number Four, a beautiful little boy who completes the dream that Girl Number Two had so many years ago. He's a miracle in many ways, and I am so, so happy to report that in the case of Girls One and Two, you do sometimes get what you want.

Deep Thoughts By Soccer Boy

2007-04-12T17:27:00.000-06:00

I picked up Soccer Boy from his after school program at 5:40 p.m. today. By the time we got home at 6:00 p.m. he had asked me the following questions.

Why did Abraham Lincoln free the slaves if he was white?
Why did Abraham Lincoln go to the theater?
What play was he seeing?
Weren't there any policemen around to stop him from getting shot?
What state is Washington D. C. in?
Why do they have both Washington state and Washington D.C.?
Can the moon be blown up?
What would happen if the moon was blown up?
Did you know Pluto is not really a planet, it's just a big chunk of ice?
Do you know what planet we're trying to go to next?
Do you know how to say "friend" in Russian?
What did people do before there were shoes?
Who invented t.v.?
Did you know that George Washington didn't really chop down a cherry tree?
Do you know who Monty Harper is? He sings a song about having a loose tooth!
Do you know how to remember the order of directions on a map? "Never Eat Stinky Walnuts." I made that up!

Nothing like a good mental workout after a day of work! One thing I learned long ago, though, it's always best to say, "I don't know. Let's find out," than to bluff your way through an answer. So while I was impressed by my ability to dredge out some of the information from my memory banks, I'll be teaching my little sponge how to locate some of these answers on his own.

Sniffling in Suburbia

2007-04-11T15:42:00.000-06:00

I haven't posted for a couple of days because we're suffering from colds here in Suburbia. Swim Chick came down with the first symptoms on Saturday afternoon and was sporting swollen, teary eyes for all the Easter pictures. I first assumed that seasonal allergies were the culprit, but she began running fever Sunday evening, and both Soccer Boy and I were feeling bad by Monday. Tylenol Cold Complete is my new best friend. I can tell immediately when I reach the end of the four hour effectiveness period. Wait six hours to take another dose? Forget it.

Adventure Guy also fell to whatever virus is sweeping the house, so that leaves only Gym Girl feeling fine. She reported she ran the mile today at school in just a bit over 7 minutes, so she's evidently still in top form. I couldn't resist asking her how her time was in comparison to the rest of the class, not that I'm vicariously competitive or anything, and she reported she was the first girl to finish and that only a couple of the boys were faster. She really excels in individual athletics and has a great drive to succeed, something I'm sure will pay off for her in the long run.

I've been too busy lately at work to take time off to nurse my own cold, but I did turn in for the night yesterday before 9:00. I don't think I've had that much sleep in months, but it felt good. We're at the time in the school year where the end is in sight, but it's just not close enough. There are no more holidays to be had, and people are tense because of the upcoming state-mandated, high-stakes tests. Our schedule changes during this time, teachers have to do a variety of extra duties leading each of them to believe that she is working harder than anyone else, the guidance office personnel are stressed to their limits, and everyone looks to me to solve the inevitable problems that arise. On top of that, I'm working to develop next year's schedule, looking at hiring needs, selecting students to participate in the Chinese exchange program I'll be running next year, developing our campus improvement plan, and completing classified staff evaluations. And I did mention I'm doing all this with a stuffy head, right? On a brighter note, though, I got an unexpected bouquet of flowers at the office today. It was from the medical director of one of our local hospitals. He's recruiting a new doctor who has a son with special needs. I met with the family to go over our school's program, and they were pleased with what we had to offer. The flowers were certainly a nice "thank you" and made my day.

Since I was still feeling less than my best, though, I decided to give myself a bit of time off by coming on home this afternoon at a reasonable hour. I'm devoting my time to catching up with the blog and with my personal email, and then I'm going to do a little reading before I leave for an evening meeting. Think healing thoughts for us here in Suburbia. We need them!

An Eggcellent Easter!

2007-04-08T16:15:00.000-06:00

Sorry, couldn't resist the pun in the title of this post. Our Easter preparations began yesterday with the kids attending an egg hunt and then returning home for cookie baking and egg dying. We don't always make sugar cookies for Easter, but we skipped baking them on Valentine's Day, so we whipped out a batch of butterflies, Easter eggs, and bunnies in honor of the current holiday. Gym Girl really enjoys cooking and helped me make the dough. She then took over most of the rolling out and cutting of the shapes as well as the baking of the cookies. She's really growing up lately, something we sometimes miss since she'll always be younger than Swim Chick. When the cookies were baked, we took a break, had dinner, and then dyed eggs. We tried out one of the "marbleized" egg kits this year in addition to the regular dye. I wasn't a huge fan of the process, but in the end the marble ones turned out pretty well. We'll use some for decoration and refrigerate the rest for eating, a detail I insist on even though Adventure Guy reminds me that we always ate the eggs that had been out when we were kids. Well, he did anyway. I've never been a hard-boiled egg fan.

Another sign of our kids growing up is that we didn't do the Easter basket thing until we got home from church this morning. In our family tradition, the Easter Bunny hides the filled Easter baskets somewhere in the house, and the kids have to hunt down their baskets to discover what the bunny has left. This year, no one woke up early enough to hunt before church, so they looked for their baskets when we got home. We will have a nice supply of Peeps, Reese's eggs, Pez, and chocolate bunnies for a while.

This afternoon we went to my in-laws' house for lunch and another egg hunt. I took along the cookies, but it was nice not to have to prepare a holiday meal. They played it casual too, with pork tenderloin on the grill and some easy side dishes. For the egg hunt, each of the five grandchildren had a specific egg color. Swim Chick's eggs were blue and yellow, Gym Girl's eggs were metallic, and Soccer Boy's eggs had a camouflage print. Note for future hunts: camouflage eggs are actually difficult to find! Gym Girl was also excited about nabbing the most coveted of the five "prize" eggs, the one with a five dollar bill in it.

We're now all at home. I've responsibly uploaded all the pictures from the day and sent some via Ceiva to my father-in-law and my parents. Swim Chick has practiced her cello; I've helped Gym Girl with her homework. Soccer Boy is riding his bike, and Adventure Guy is watching golf. My next biggest items on the day's agenda are napping and catching up on my reading!

I hope everyone reading had as nice an Easter or Passover as we did. If you're interested, here's the sugar cookie recipe we use. I like them because they are neither too hard or too soft. This makes a lot of cookies, approximately 8 dozen 3" cookies. I usually half the recipe or make it all and save some of the dough for eating later.

Sugar Cookies

6 cups flour
3 tsp. baking powder
2 c. butter
2 c. sugar
2 eggs
2 tsp. vanilla
1 tsp. salt

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Cream butter and sugar. Add eggs and vanilla. mix dry ingredients and add to butter mixture. Mix well. Divide in half. Chill one portion of dough. Roll second portion to 1/4" thickness and cut into desired shapes. Bake 10-12 minutes. Repeat with refrigerated dough.

Decorating Icing

1 lb. powdered sugar
4 tsp. powdered egg whites
1/3 cup water
1 Tbsp. fresh lemon juice
1 tsp. vanilla (use clear vanilla if planning to leave some of the icing white)

Beat together all ingredients in a large bowl with an electric mixer at medium speed until just combined, about 1 minute. Increase speed to high and continue to beat icing, scraping down side of bowl occasionally with a rubber spatula, until it holds stiff peaks, about 3 minutes with a standing mixer or 10 with a handheld. Divide and color as desired. Pipe as is, or thin with 1 tsp. of water at a time until spreading consistency is achieved.

The "Holy Week" from Hell

2007-04-06T17:27:00.000-06:00

In a meeting today a colleague described this week as "the Holy Week from Hell." I'm willing to risk blaspheme to agree with her. In fact, I am currently skipping the Good Friday service I had planned to attend tonight because I couldn't stand the thought of doing anything except for getting my kids and heading home to curl up on my bed and relax.

I haven't posted for several days because I absolutely have not had time. It's not unusual for me not to have time to post from work, though I do sometimes take time after hours to do so. It is unusual for me not to have any time at home in the evenings. Wednesday night I had a Junior League board meeting that lasted until after 10:30 p.m. Yesterday I was out of town recruiting at a job fair, and when I got back I went straight to watch the All-American High soccer teams in action. I am pleased to announce that both teams were victorious.

Today was simply "one of those days" at work. I didn't have all that much on my calendar, but I ended up being out of the office most of the day dealing with one issue or another. We have now entered the dreaded "state-mandated testing window," preparing to give over 3,000 tests between April 17th and April 25th. My first meeting this morning was with my guidance office staff to review preparations. They are already on edge about getting everything done in an environment where the state sets some fairly unreasonable requirements about the number of days ahead of time in which we can receive testing materials and the time frame in which the tests must be administered. I assured them that they were on track and that I appreciated their hard work and then let them get back to the preparation process.

I then moved on to lunch duty, where I learned it was snowing outside. The latest snow I can remember in the ten years I've lived here was on March 30th, so this is quite unusual. Of course, it's just in time for Easter, and it's not projected to be any warmer by Sunday. My kids are supposed to go to an egg hunt at the country club tomorrow, and I'm not sure that is going to happen. Actually, it likely will happen, but it will be moved inside. And this is also the year I broke down and bought something new to wear after last year's question from the kids, "Mom, why do you always wear that same dress every year for Easter?" I won't be wearing the same old dress this year, but I won't be wearing the new outfit either since it would look best with bare legs and sandals.

After lunch I met with my boss to go over projected class sizes for next year. I'll be sending out the number of sections we've determined we need to the department chairs next week so that they can begin working on creating teaching schedules. Once that's set, I create it all electronically in our master scheduling software so that we can begin creating class schedules for students. That brings me to the recruiting I was doing yesterday. Part of the process we're completing right now is determining our staffing needs for next year. We need to add two positions, but we've already been told that we are not likely to have any additional staffing approved because of the amount of funding we're projected to receive from the state. We're looking to see if we can find a way to reduce in other areas so that we can still hire for the needed teaching positions. What makes this so frustrating is that the legislature is in the midst of approving additional tax cuts that will guarantee that our funding will remain low. All in order to allow each taxpayer to keep an additional $20 in his pocket. Most people won't notice the $20, but they'll notice when their kids have larger classes next year.

We adjourned our meeting to go to another meeting with some of the district administration. We were asked to share our thoughts on a proposal and did so. However, our opinions differed from those of some of the key leadership. It's challenging at times to feel confident speaking out, but I believe it was important to do so in this situation. Eventually, our position carried the day, but, in observing the reaction to the legitimate "restraining forces" we brought up, I was reminded of the Aldous Huxley quote, "You shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you mad." Oh well, my hope is that I will continue to be respected for being willing to be thoughtful in my response to such issues and to bring up concerns when necessary. It's just never a comfortable situation to disagree with the senior leadership.

Next it was on to an IEP meeting which lasted from 2:30 p.m. to 5:30 p.m. The team was generating ideas to help a student who is not succeeding academically. Unfortunately, this is a situation where the academic struggles are only a small part of the overall problems. The family circumstances are heartbreaking, and it's one of the times when I find myself searching for the best course of action. I wanted to cry when they left the room because I was filled with such a feeling of helplessness. We can change many of the things that are adding to his difficulties in school, but we can't bring back the mother he lost a few years ago or solve the problems he's having with his father.

At the end of the day, I reflected on all the bright, enthusiastic young teacher candidates I met yesterday at the job fair I attended. The format allowed us to meet all the candidates who came by our table during the opening hours and then set up twenty-minute interviews with those whom we were most interested in, primarily those who were certified in areas we know we will need because of upcoming retirements. I was impressed with several of the people I interviewed, but after today, I'm left with the nagging thought that they are not prepared for the realities of meeting the needs of the students who will enter their classrooms next year. They've been studying how to teach English, or math, or science, but have they been studying how to teach kids? The kids who come to school feeling unaccepted at home or socially isolated at school. The kids who come to school hungry but are unwilling to risk the embarrassment of receiving free or reduced lunch. The kids who need more attention in order to learn. The kids who have been drawn in to drug use, alcoholism, or promiscuity. That's my job, each and every day. Making sure that every student who walks through the All-American High doors is met by a teacher who wants to take the time and make the effort to truly teach them. It's my job to be sure that every teacher knows that the leadership team will back them up in these efforts, creating a safe, respectful environment for them as they venture out to do such important work.

That's my job. But for now, I'm just going to sit back, take a deep breath, and enjoy the few hours I have this weekend to spend focusing on myself and my kids. Today, I'm just too exhausted to spend more time fixating on the societal problems that are reflected in the microcosm that is All-American High. I'm just glad that tomorrow is another day, a day where I'm sure things will look a bit brighter.

A Good Post Gone Bad

2007-04-02T20:06:00.000-06:00

So, I've had this nice post floating around in my mind today, ideas coming and going, and jelling into something I thought would be a bit more meaningful after the general drivel I've been posting lately. Then, at dinner, we had The Incident. I would like to be the sort of parent that deals happily with things such as The Incident, but I will admit, I am the type of parent who can let little things turn into bigger things, particularly when those little things lead to more work for me. By now you're probably wondering what happened to rise to the level of Incident status. We were having an enjoyable dinner together, you know, those family dinners that are supposed to be such a key to the future success of our children. I had made tortellini carbonara, which is something the kids really like. Swim Chick likes it so much that she had run out of bacon and wanted more. She decided to obtain said bacon by grabbing it from Soccer Boy's plate. Without asking. He responded by grabbing his plate away, promptly sending his Sprite flying across the kitchen. If he had tried to hit every possible surface, he couldn't have done a better job of covering the floor, the wall, and the table.

Did I mention that I am the calmer of the two parents who live in this house when it comes to things like this? So after Adventure Guy and I had finished sharing our opinions about this behavior at the table with the children, our pleasant dinner had become definitively not so pleasant. They got the table cleared, some of the drink wiped up, and then I broke out the mop. I'm trying to view it as a good inspiration for some cleaning that probably needed to happen anyway, but I know I'll be finding hidden sticky spots for a while.

So, what was that nice post that I was going to write? Believe it or not, it was to be a treatise on "how well my children get along." Well, in reality, it was to be on "how well Swim Chick and Gym Girl get along." I'll be the first to admit that Swim Chick and Gym Girl often find themselves a bit annoyed with the antics of their favorite little brother. I think that is the way of the world. One of my great-aunt's favorite story about my childhood involves her arrival to our home just as one of my friends and I were removing my own dear little brother bodily from my room. And, I'm sure he deserved it!

In an effort not to lose my kind thoughts about my children, I will attempt to recapture the mood and share my positive feelings for the remainder of this post. A few days ago, I read Her Bad Mother's poignant post on deciding to add to her family and the mixed emotions that decision brings with it. I commented and said that both her life and that of her first child would be enriched by adding a new child to the mix. This morning, I was reminded of how true this is for our family.

My morning started out at 5:15 with my first trip to the gym for the week (more on how the Best Life thing is going later). I arrived home to find everyone up and about, quite a bit earlier than usual. Evidently Adventure Guy couldn't doze off again after my alarm, so he had gotten everyone up and was headed out the door on his way to before school care with Soccer Boy. Our bedroom is off of the kitchen, and I could hear Swim Chick and Gym Girl's conversation after I got out of the shower. They were working together preparing breakfast and making their lunches. I could hear Swim Chick filling Gym Girl in on some important fashion tips. It was so nice to hear the sisterly chatter. I didn't have a sibling close in age, and I really missed out on those types of interactions. When I checked in with them, Gym Girl informed me, "Dad woke us up fifteen minutes early, so we used our time wisely and straightened our hair." I then watched as they headed for the bus stop, united in their common goal of achieving silky, smooth hair, valiantly fighting the forces of nature: wind and humidity. Neither is yet willing to admit that she lost the battle at conception when she inherited my curly-hair gene. All I can say is, I'm glad they didn't waste that extra time this morning!

Even after The Incident tonight, I am pleased to report that Swim Chick and Gym Girl are upstairs working away on their projects that are due this week; Gym Girl researching the history of the Pledge of Allegiance on the Internet while Swim Chick has broken out the glue gun and Popsicle sticks to construct a cage for her mouse, one of the characters in Flowers for Algernon, the book she read for her project. Even their school assignments are an interesting juxtaposition. Gym Girl has spent much of 5th grade history learning about early-American history and the origins of our government. She is currently conducting a survey about whether or not Americans should be required to say the pledge. She'll collect and disaggregate the data and report the results to her class. Fortunately, most respondents have mentioned little details like freedom of religion and freedom of speech when they've explained their thought that requiring the pledge would be un-American. Meanwhile, her sister is reading what, to my knowledge, is her first book from the 100 most-banned book list. It's number 47. Oops, having just perused the list just now for the first time in a while, I realize she's well on her way to following in her mother's banned-book-reading, literature-loving footsteps. She's also read numbers 7, 9, 22, 27, 43, 51, and 96. And, I've been trying to get her to read the Judy Blume books that I loved at her age, many of which are on the list. She's just not into them.

In my attitude toward books and whether or not they should be banned, I am following in my own parents' footsteps. I was fortunate enough to grow up in a house filled with books. My parents both read constantly and clearly enjoyed it. My mother still belongs to a book club that she and her friends started in the early '70s, and they've always selected a wide range of books for their discussions. If the book club read it, it was available in the house, and my parents never discouraged me from reading anything there. The one and only incident I remember about a "banned" book was that infamous title by Judy Blume, Forever. When word got out among the 5th grade parents that the book had been placed along with all the other Judy Blume books in the young adult section, my mother asked me if I'd read it. I truthfully reported that I had not. She simply said, "Well, that's a book I'd like you to save until you're a little older." I did, and I'll admit that it's not a book I'd want my 5th grader to read either, but I've always respected the way my mom handled the topic. I didn't feel like it was a "never" kind of thing, and I wasn't tempted to go out and get a copy.

Ahh, the joys of the rambling post. Now that I've managed to range from soft-drink spills to censorship, I believe my work here is done. Next up? Easter preparations. We've got cookies to bake and eggs to dye. I'm sure those activities will generate plenty of sibling interactions to report on!

Just Another Sporty Day In Suburbia

2007-03-31T22:10:00.000-06:00

As with most Saturdays today was sports central here in Suburbia. I actually began my day with some exercise of my own, making it to Pilates class. I really like what Pilates does for me when I'm able to go regularly. Unfortunately, my work schedule and kids' commitments tend to interfere with getting to class. This morning's class was a mat class, but I went to a demo class using the reformer machine on Friday. It was really cool. I'm considering coughing up the extra money to take weekly classes. It would definitely help in my efforts to be happy in a swimsuit this summer.

After I finished class, I picked up Swim Chick from her friend's house where she had spent the night and dropped her off at her Odyssey of the Mind work session. Gym Girl and I then headed for the soccer fields to watch Soccer Boy play his game. He and his team, coached by Adventure Guy are playing up a division this year and had still been dominating the other teams thus far in the season. Unfortunately, that ended today, and they lost by four goals. The other team's players were significantly bigger than our boys and had a great goalie with a good foot. Our team let themselves be intimidated, even though they had the better overall playing skills. It will be a good lesson as they move through the season. They were also getting a bit cocky since they won their indoor soccer division this winter and were rolling over the other teams so far this season. This should inspire them to work a bit harder.

We had just enough time after the soccer game and before we needed to leave to go out of town for Gym Girl's meet to get my car wedged out of the parking lot where another big SUV had blocked us in. Yes, I'm guilty of big SUV driving myself, but I'm not guilty of creating a parking spot where before there was none. Once Adventure Guy got the car out, Gym Girl and I ran by the house to pick up her things and do her hair and then hit the road for the state qualifying meet. I am proud to report that she did indeed qualify for the state meet and did it in style. She had a great showing on both bars and balance beam and good results on floor and vault. Her team also won the meet, so it was a good night--with the exception of one bizarre thing. As I was sitting in the bleachers calmly reading my magazine and waiting for the warm ups to be over, I heard a very loud series of belches from behind me. As the odor of whatever meal had caused this phenomenon wafted toward me, I couldn't help but turn to see what young boy was demonstrating his burping expertise. But there was no boy in sight. Then, it happened again. And again. I tried to ignore it and not look around a second time, but finally, after it happened yet again, I realized that it must be the elderly man behind me. Not once did he even say "Excuse me." I'm going to be nice and assume that this was some kind of health issue, but please, does he have no manners? And, his wife was sitting right there. I can't imagine not giving Adventure Guy a hard time if he ever did something like that. Again, I am just going to assume this was some medical issue he couldn't control!

Tomorrow should be a bit less hectic. I'm looking forward to relaxing a bit and also to refraining from sitting on any bleachers, at least until next Saturday!

2007-03-30T21:47:00.000-06:00

"I'm sitting in our house, ALL ALONE." This was how I answered Adventure Guy this afternoon when he called and asked me what I was doing. I can't remember the last time I had the experience of being home without anyone around. My mother-in-law took all the kids to a play tonight, and she picked them up fairly early, giving me some time to catch up on my email and read some new blog entries.

When Adventure Guy called, I talked him into taking me out for dinner at a new restaurant that just opened. We sat out on the patio overlooking the river while we waited for our table. It was nice to have an uninterrupted chance to talk and catch up. We've both been so busy at work and with our other various commitments that we hadn't really talked for a while. Besides the nice atmosphere, the food was quite good at the new place as well. I'm sure we'll go their again.

After dinner, we headed back home so that we were there for the kids' return. Then I left to go by All-American High's Relay for Life event. It's exciting to see the fruition of so many students' hard work. This is our fourth annual relay, and it looks like the evening will pull in over $30,000 for cancer research. That will bring All-American High's total fundraising since the first relay to $130,000. The best part about it is that our event is truly student-run. The kids take responsibility and make the night a success. The first year the American Cancer Society reps that we worked with were shocked that the sponsors weren't the ones really doing the work behind the scenes. The lessons the students learn here are just as important as those they learn in the classroom: how to work as a team, how to manage a budget, how to inspire buy-in from others, and most of all, how our actions can make a difference for hundreds of people. Watching them work hard and play hard reminds me why I went into this line of work in the first place. It was a great way to end the first week back from Spring Break and a perfect start to the weekend.

And So It Goes

2007-03-28T19:31:00.000-06:00

We're slowly settling back in to our usual routine after our week off for Spring Break. So far, it's been a pretty smooth week at work. I have several projects I'm working on right now. Believe it or not, we're already actively preparing for next year at All-American High. Pre-registration was completed in March, and we're now working to determine the number of class sections for each course. We'll then create the teaching schedules for next year with the input of our department leadership. Once that's all set, I'll use the computer to build a master schedule and place students into classes. If all goes well with getting teaching positions approved, we should be finished with the process in June.

I also met today with an outside team that's part of our school improvement process. We're beginning a new accreditation cycle, so we've been working to determine the goals that the All-American High staff will be focusing on for the next five years. What's rising to the top is the need to continue to increase enrollment in our most challenging courses, particularly to encourage students who might not automatically enroll in these classes to branch out and reach higher. Our AVID program, which began this year, is already helping us to achieve this goal. It's so exciting to see students accomplish more than they ever thought they could academically. Another area of focus will be developing a more effective character education program by more fully integrating our character concepts into the curriculum. This is a challenge because we want to avoid teachers feeling that we're adding on "one more thing" to their already full plates. We also want to be sure that teachers have appropriate training as to how to teach about ethics, morals values, and character. It can be tricky ground to convey these things effectively. Finally, we'll be working on improving our test scores--something that cannot be ignored in the world of No Child Left Behind. Don't forget, all students must be proficient in math and English by 2014. We won't talk about the statistical probability of that. We'll just keep working hard and teaching our hearts out so that we can keep those scores headed in the right direction.

On the home front, we're also back into the groove. Swim Chick is working hard preparing for the state Odyssey of the Mind competition. Her team is doing a problem called The Large and Small of It this year. They've created a wonderful skit about a royal family experiencing some unexpected money problems--thanks to Swim Chick who plays a princess who has gone a bit over the top with her purchases, which just happen to include a magic Phoenix. I love the creativity that this competition encourages! Gym Girl also is getting ready for more competition. This Saturday is the sectionals meet. She needs to do well there to qualify for the state meet next month. Soccer Boy's big event this week was a field trip to the air and space museum. He's been excited about it for weeks and loved it, especially the planetarium.

I'm looking forward to the weekend. It will feel good to have the first week back from break under our belts. It's a fast run to the end of the school year from here!

On Holding Off Time

2007-03-26T18:52:00.000-06:00

Thanks to all those who offered me encouragement about my concerns for my grandmother. It's so difficult to watch her age as dramatically as she has in such a short time. That combined with my other posts about the fact that I did not exactly embrace my recent thirty-ninth birthday makes me think that this would be a good day to address my own attempts to hold back the aging process.

I mentioned recently that I decided to try out the Best Life plan from Bob Greene's new book. If it worked for Oprah... I am currently in week three of the four-week Phase One. It involves, among other things, not weighing during that time period. As someone who usually weighs daily as a habit, this has been tough. I'm curious to see if I've lost anything when I'm allowed to weigh next week. The other parts of this phase involve eating a healthy breakfast, drinking plenty of water, being more active, and avoiding alcohol. I've been doing a fair job at all components, but I can't say I've been totally dedicated in any area. I do feel good about getting back into the habit of going to the gym, something I've done regularly for the last several years but had let slide since before the holidays this year. I'll post about my progress or lack thereof next Monday with the official weigh in.

At left is another one of my beauty attempts du jour. I have come to grips with the fact that I am not meant to be tan. For someone who has had plenty of experience sweating in the Texas sun while bathed in baby oil, this was a hard realization to come to, but I'm also someone who has a family history of skin cancer and who has been "blessed" with pale skin that burns first and tans later when left to its own devices. So, no tanning for me. Much better for both health and beauty in the long run, but the decision leaves me with the ongoing concern of frightening people with my glowing white legs this spring. Enter Jergens natural glow lotion. I can vouch for this product's effectiveness and natural look. No orange streaks here! Even better, this year's version promises toning as well as tanning. What more could a girl want? Evidently the toning thing will be kicking in after two weeks of use. I'll let you know about that too.

So now that I'm working on the pre-bathing suit toning and weight loss program and developing a tan (albeit an "unnatural" one) I may have to consider a few highlights to complete my summer look and cover up those pesky grey hairs that keep popping up in my bangs lately. My goal is to look even better next year at this time so that I can welcome forty feeling fabulous. I think that will go a long way toward erasing my concerns about reaching that milestone!

On Aging

2007-03-24T20:07:00.000-06:00

Do not go gentle into that good night,
Old age should burn and rave at close of day;
Rage, rage against the dying of the light. ~Dylan Thomas

"What are we going to do about Bunnie?" This question came at the end of a nice lunch recently, right after my grandmother left the room in obvious confusion. At almost eighty-nine, she's just not herself anymore. The questioner? My great-aunt, her sister, who is ninety-five. One of life's ironies is that amongst all her siblings, my grandmother, the baby of the family, is the only one to ever have had any memory issues. All but one of the other five children have lived into their nineties. While their bodies may have failed them eventually, their minds never did.

The decline we've seen in my grandmother over the last year is drastic and truly disturbing. She's always been such a vibrant woman. Beautiful and smart. Now, she's anxious, often asking the same questions over and over again. This year, she's misplaced all her tax forms so my parents are working to get her an extension until they can get duplicates. She's just recently been forced to stop driving because of her eyesight. Fortunately, my mother lives right across the street and can keep tabs on her, but this is a strain as well. It's draining to try to calmly answer the same questions or explain the same procedures day after day. There's also guilt; we know it's not something she can control, but this doesn't eliminate the frustration.

Then there are the harder questions to answer. Like the one my aunt asked. What are we going to do? My grandmother is surprisingly still very social. She plays bridge several times a week and is active in other community and church activities. I worry that if we push toward an assisted living center she'll lose out on these connections, connections that were hard built after her move to my hometown a few years ago.

The Dylan Thomas quote above always struck me, even as a high school student who thought little about death or aging. I know that the common interpretation is that the lines are an exhort against dying young, against suicide. But as I read that old age should burn and rage at close of day, I am struck by how much my grandmother is not able to rage against the dying of the light. I'm afraid that in the end, that lack of rage, the seeming acceptance of the fading is what will lead to the light that is my grandmother being extinguished forever. And, while I know that moment is inevitable for all of us, this slow decline is achingly hard to bear.

So, That Really Was A Break

2007-03-23T14:42:00.000-06:00

I'd like to have some really good reason for not having posted for the last couple of days. The real reason is that I've been so relaxed, I've had absolutely nothing that I thought was worth writing about. Several times I thought, "hmmm....I should update the blog." I thought about some different stuff I could write about, and then I thought, "nah, that would take too much thought and energy, and I'm on Spring Break!"

We did travel home from our visit with my family yesterday. The car trip went smoothly, and we made good time. I even managed to avoid a breakdown over the children's right below the radar bickering until after we arrived and they thought it would be a good idea to ride their bikes rather than help unload the car. Uh, think again.

Once that chore was taken care of, we settled in to eat the freshly imported Double Dave's pizza rolls I had brought home with me for Adventure Guy. We are quite happy that a restaurant has opened in my hometown, even if we still can't get them here in Suburbia. Having been duly initiated into pizza roll eating during college, we've missed this particular delicacy after moving away from Texas. And speaking of college, we then proceeded out to the local sports bar to watch more of the basketball tournament, unfortunately succeeding in viewing our team lose. An experience we could not have at home because our local stations were carrying a different game.

Today I thought about doing some spring cleaning, but it hasn't progressed past changing the sheets on my bed. Instead, I went to Pilates class, the one that never fits into my schedule when I'm working; ran some errands; dropped off baby clothes I'd brought back from my sister to my friend who is due soon; and decided to agree to the kids' request to see The Last Mimzy. If you have kids who are at least 7 or so, go see this movie. I enjoyed it more than any recent kids' movie I've seen (and I've seen 'em all). It has a nice conservation message, and the plot moves fast enough to keep everyone engaged.

We finished the movie just in time for me to make it to my massage appointment. Oh, I failed to mention that our gym has an Aveda spa? My reward for going this morning was noticing the "spring break special" on massages and the notation that they had "appointments available today." Ahhh.......the massage left me so relaxed that my subsequent trip to Super Wal-mart for groceries didn't even phase me. It was a great way to end my week off!

A real break

2007-03-20T09:08:00.000-06:00

I am thoroughly enjoying my low-key spring break. Not that I can complain about the previous two years' literally fabulous vacations. I'd take both those trips again in a second, but there is definitely something to be said for doing nothing. Which is exactly what I'm doing this week. I've found that being at my parents' house is a major factor in my being able to guiltlessly do nothing. If I were at home, there would be chores to do and projects to complete. Here, my major responsibility is to spend quality time with my extended family. I can do that.

I've had the chance to sleep in for a couple of mornings, and I woke up on my own this morning feeling refreshed and rested. The kids have planned a series of events for our stay here, and they are about to head out to the local indoor play zone with my dad. Later today we're having lunch with my grandmother, and then the girls are going to the beading store with my mother. The only thing I have on my "to do" list in all that is the lunch part! Ahh....spring break!

The More Things Change.....

2007-03-18T22:38:00.000-06:00

The more my hometown remains the same. We pulled into town about 3:30 yesterday afternoon. I'll admit to feelings of nostalgia as I entered the familiar landscape. Once a Texas girl, always a Texas girl. I did resist singing Texas, Our Texas as we crossed the Red River this trip. An urge I am not always able to conquer.

I arrived in time to finish watching my college team make it to the Sweet Sixteen. My dad, who is also an alumni, and I were on edge to the final seconds and the winning baskets. My sister who lives in town also arrived with her three kids. She had invited me to join her family at a St. Patrick's Day party hosted by some of their friends. Soccer Boy and I took her up on the invitation. Swim Chick and Gym Girl knew that all the other kids would be much younger, so they passed and stayed home to help my mom babysit my youngest nephew.

A number of the people at the party were actually classmates of mine. It was fun catching up with them, though I did see them recently at our class reunion. We had a great time, but I was reminded of why I needed, yes, really needed, not to move back here after college. People were still talking about the same people we talked about in high school. The gossip-mill runs fast and deep in small towns. Reputation is everything, and it's hard to get beyond a bad one. The social scene is also very tight-knit with prominent families intermarrying. As my brother said, "It's like all these people woke up one morning at 27 or 28 years old and said, 'Well, I guess it's time to marry someone suitable and take over the running of this town from our parents.'" I do really like my sister's group of friends, though, because, while they are also pretty well-connected in their own right, they have incorporated some of the newcomers to town, particularly those who are professionals--a couple of physicians and the newspaper editor for example. This group is also more ethnically, if not socioeconomically, diverse than is typical in "these parts."

Today we went to church at the church where I grew up, was confirmed, and was married. After lunch we watched more basketball; I finished up a work project I had brought along; the kids played outside with their cousins, and we visited my great-aunt who recently turned 95. Tonight, Soccer Boy is spending the night across the street with my grandmother. One of the things I do regret about living so far from here is that my kids do not have the opportunity to see their great grandmother, great-great aunt, and grandparents almost daily like their cousins do. It's why I make it a point to return several times a year. I want them to grow up hearing the same old family stories and laughing at the adventures of long-ago children as I did when I was a kid. That sense of family and the ties binding me to my own personal history are in a large part what has made me what I am today. My hope is that in 30 years my own children can say the same thing.

39, Going Once!

2007-03-16T21:22:00.000-06:00

I have officially turned 39 for the first time. I am observing this momentous occasion by taking next week off from work. Well, it's also Spring Break, but I'm going to think of it as an extended celebration.

Today Gym Girl started off my day by bringing me a card she had made on the computer. She's very quiet and caring. Pair that with being the middle child, and she sometimes gets a bit overlooked, but she was the first to think of me today. Adventure Guy had an early appointment and didn't wake me before he left. I had a minor wardrobe crisis, kissed the girls goodbye as they headed for the bus and then dropped Soccer Boy off at before-school care.

I was pleasantly surprised during the day by several people dropping in with birthday wishes. One group of people I supervise brought by a card and a luscious brownie with a bit of cherry filling and white chocolate curls on top. It made for an excellent breakfast! My boss treated me and the other assistant principals to lunch, and my special ed department gave me a card made by the kids and signed by all the teachers and a number of the students.

Of course, work didn't go away just because of my birthday, so I had to deal with the arrival of the drug-sniffing dog (he comes by on random days, not scheduled by us) and a little pre-Spring Break shenanigans when a student got to one of the teacher's computers and sent out an inappropriate message via the "broadcast" function of Microsoft messenger. Fortunately that just went to teacher computers, and technology notified us right away. We were able to get down to the classroom and find out who was responsible before the bell rang to dismiss for the day. There was an article in the local paper this week about community members who had shadowed principals in another district recently. One of the quotes I liked was

"I thought several times, 'How in the heck do they do this?' " America said of principals. "We began our day with a visit from an accreditation officer, and then you have to switch gears to humanitarian. "You've got to have so many skills, and you've got to do everything so fast!"

I couldn't agree more; it's both what I love most and what is most challenging about my job. It is definitely never boring.

Once I left work, I celebrated by buying myself two cute pairs of shoes, one even on sale! I then headed home to get ready for dinner out. Adventure Guy and I joined another couple for dinner tonight at a restaurant I've been wanting to try. We had a wonderful dinner with good friends. It was a great way to end the day.

Tomorrow I'll be heading down to Texas to visit my family and do a bit more celebrating. I hope everyone has a great St. Patrick's Day. Don't forget the green!

100 Book Meme

2007-03-14T16:22:00.001-06:00

I borrowed this from Doc Thelma. Reading has been a lifelong passion for me. Reviewing all the books that I've read below makes me all happy inside!

Bold means you've read this book
Italics means you haven't read it, but would like to.
Plain text means you haven't heard of it or have no real interest.

1. The DaVinci Code (Dan Brown)
I love conspiracy theory books even if I don't often buy in to the theories themselves!
2. Pride and Prejudice (Jane Austen)
Read it in high school. I have friends who are obsessed with this book so I have to be at least moderately well-versed in order to speak with them.
3. To Kill a Mockingbird (Harper Lee)
This book meant a lot to me when I read it as a teenager growing up in the south. It meant even more to me when I taught it to my 9th graders, many of whom told me it was the first "real" book they'd ever read and enjoyed.
4. Gone With The Wind (Margaret Mitchell)
Both my grandparents and my parents saw the movie early on in their dating careers. Adventure Guy and I missed out on that experience, but no way would I miss out on the book.
5. The Lord of the Rings: Fellowship of the Ring (Tolkien)
I dislike the fantasy genre as a whole.
6. The Lord of the Rings: Two Towers(Tolkien)
7. The Lord of the Rings: Return of the King (Tolkien)
8. Anne of Green Gables (L.M. Montgomery)
I don't know how I missed this one as a child.
9. Outlander (Diana Gabaldon)
10. A Fine Balance (Rohinton Mistry)
11. Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire (Rowling)
The exception that proves the rule for me on the fantasy genre. I love Harry Potter!
12. Angels and Demons (Dan Brown)
13. Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix (Rowling)
14. A Prayer for Owen Meany (John Irving)
15. Memoirs of a Geisha (Arthur Golden)
I couldn't put this book down. Yet another example of the book far exceeding the movie.
16. Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone (Rowling)
17. Fall on Your Knees (Ann-Marie MacDonald)
18. The Stand (Stephen King)
I've never read a Stephen King novel.
19. Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban (Rowling)
20. Jane Eyre (Charlotte Bronte)
21. The Hobbit (Tolkien)
I tried; I really did! It's unusual for me not to finish a book, but I put this one down after reading about 1/4 of it.
22. The Catcher in the Rye (J.D. Salinger)
23. Little Women (Louisa May Alcott)
24. The Lovely Bones (Alice Sebold)
25. Life of Pi (Yann Martel)
Everyone who has read this one tells me it's great, but I haven't gotten around to it.
26. The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy (Douglas Adams)
27. Wuthering Heights (Emily Bronte)
28. The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe (C. S. Lewis)
29. East of Eden (John Steinbeck)
30. Tuesdays with Morrie (Mitch Albom)
31. Dune (Frank Herbert)
32. The Notebook (Nicholas Sparks)
33. Atlas Shrugged (Ayn Rand)
34. 1984 (George Orwell)
35. The Mists of Avalon (Marion Zimmer Bradley)
36. The Pillars of the Earth (Ken Follett)
One of my favorites. Ken Follett varies so much in his writing, but this one is great.
37. The Power of One (Bryce Courtenay)
38. I Know This Much is True (Wally Lamb)
39. The Red Tent (Anita Diamant)
Beautifully written with an intriguing plot. One of my favorites.
40. The Alchemist (Paulo Coelho)
41. The Clan of the Cave Bear (Jean M. Auel)
The sex scenes were a bit eye opening for me as a pretty innocent high schooler.
42. The Kite Runner (Khaled Hosseini)
43. Confessions of a Shopaholic (Sophie Kinsella)
44. The Five People You Meet In Heaven (Mitch Albom)
45. The Bible
46. Anna Karenina (Tolstoy)
47. The Count of Monte Cristo (Alexandre Dumas)
48. Angela’s Ashes (Frank McCourt)
49. The Grapes of Wrath (John Steinbeck)
50. She’s Come Undone (Wally Lamb)
51. The Poisonwood Bible (Barbara Kingsolver)
52. A Tale of Two Cities (Dickens)
53. Ender’s Game (Orson Scott Card)
54. Great Expectations (Dickens)
What To Kill a Mockingbird was to positive teaching experiences, Great Expectations was to negative ones. A student review at the end of the year: "They should have burned Great Expectations along with Mrs. Havisham in the fire."
55. The Great Gatsby (Fitzgerald)
56. The Stone Angel (Margaret Laurence)
57. Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets (Rowling)
58. The Thorn Birds (Colleen McCullough)
High school again. This so appealed to my romantic side!
59. The Handmaid’s Tale (Margaret Atwood)
60. The Time Traveller’s Wife (Audrew Niffenegger)
61. Crime and Punishment (Fyodor Dostoyevsky)
62. The Fountainhead (Ayn Rand)
63. War and Peace (Tolstoy)
Yes, I really read it.
64. Interview With The Vampire (Anne Rice)
65. Fifth Business (Robertson Davis)
66. One Hundred Years Of Solitude (Gabriel Garcia Marquez)
67. The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants (Ann Brashares)
Swim Chick and I have read this entire series. It makes you remember what being a teenager was like.
68. Catch-22 (Joseph Heller)
69. Les Miserables (Hugo)
70. The Little Prince (Antoine de Saint-Exupery)
71. Bridget Jones’ Diary (Fielding)
72. Love in the Time of Cholera (Marquez)
73. Shogun (James Clavell)
High school. Summer. Sunbathing. Shogun!
74. The English Patient (Michael Ondaatje)
75. The Secret Garden (Frances Hodgson Burnett)
76. The Summer Tree (Guy Gavriel Kay)
77. A Tree Grows in Brooklyn (Betty Smith)
78. The World According to Garp (John Irving)
79. The Diviners (Margaret Laurence)
80. Charlotte's Web (E.B. White)
81. Not Wanted On The Voyage (Timothy Findley)
82. Of Mice And Men (Steinbeck)
83. Rebecca (Daphne DuMaurier)
84. Wizard’s First Rule (Terry Goodkind)
85. Emma (Jane Austen)
86. Watership Down(Richard Adams)
87. Brave New World (Aldous Huxley)
88. The Stone Diaries (Carol Shields)
89. Blindness (Jose Saramago)
90. Kane and Abel (Jeffrey Archer)
91. In The Skin Of A Lion (Ondaatje)
92. Lord of the Flies (Golding)
93. The Good Earth (Pearl S. Buck)
We still teach this one in World Literature. I still hate it.
94. The Secret Life of Bees (Sue Monk Kidd)
Sue Monk Kidd is a friend of my aunt. They both used to write often for Guideposts magazine. I liked this much better than The Mermaid Chair.
95. The Bourne Identity (Robert Ludlum)
96. The Outsiders (S.E. Hinton)
97. White Oleander (Janet Fitch)
98. A Woman of Substance (Barbara Taylor Bradford)
99. The Celestine Prophecy (James Redfield)
100. Ulysses (James Joyce)

So from a brief analysis it looks like I do well on the classics and popular fiction and not as strongly on more recent "literary" stuff, particularly non-western titles.

2007-03-13T20:41:00.000-06:00

Other things may change us, but we start and end with family. ~Anthony Brandt

When I googled "family" today, the quote above stood out. After my rather whiny post yesterday, I am pleased to report that today was a vast improvement, both on the home and work fronts. My evaluations are complete and dutifully turned in; I was able to make progress on several smaller projects that had been shoved aside by that looming deadline, and we went out for a nice family dinner during which we spoke civilly to one another and actually spent quite some time laughing together. All is right in Suburbia.

Except for my Dish Network DVR timers. Yesterday I noticed that the timers were off by an hour even though the guide had updated to reflect daylight savings time. I diligently corrected all my timers so I wouldn't miss anything. Tonight, however, I find that Dish Network has evidently done some kind of fix, and rather than being one hour off, my timers are all now two hours earlier than they should be. Once again, I went through all the timers and reset them. All I'm saying is that I better not miss anymore crucial programming. Fortunately, House was not on tonight since American Idol is running two hours right now. People laughed when Adventure Guy gave me the DVR for my birthday a couple of years ago. They thought it was a typical "husband buying wife something he really wants" gift. Nope. DVR has changed my life, although I probably watch more useless television because of it. I love watching what I want to when I want to watch it. I, however, do not love it when glitches like yesterday make my technology malfunction. I'm spoiled!

Speaking of spoiled, I'm feeling a little neglected by the lack of comments to my recent posts. Where is everyone? If you stop by and are not a regular reader, drop me a comment so I know how you found my blog and what you think. Now that I've stooped to begging for comments, I'll sign off and venture out to post some comments of my own!

Monday, Monday

2007-03-12T21:12:00.000-06:00

Gee, only four more days until Spring Break. The kids think they are happy school's going to be out for a week, but they've got nothing on me. I really need to get away for awhile. Today lived up to it's Monday reputation in so many ways.

I returned home from the gym this morning to find SwimChick in tears. "Why are you crying?" I asked, a seemingly logical question in my mind. "I don't know!" she sobbed, "Have you seen my Croc's? I can't find them." Of course, lost shoes are clearly a reason for a complete breakdown. I suggested she look in my car since she changed clothes there on the way to her dance class yesterday. The fact that I had asked everyone to clear out all their junk on Sunday night in no way guaranteed that wasn't where they were. She returned, newly-found Croc's adorning her feet. But the sobbing didn't stop. She continued to sniffle all the way to school. I took her this morning because she had done something weird to her cello and needed the orchestra teacher to take a look. One cannot transport a cello on the school bus. It's actually a rule. I was proud that we made it to the parking lot by 7:18 a.m. because that meant I was ahead of the traffic pattern and would make it to work on time. Anyone ever hear that pride goeth before the fall? SwimChick stepped out of the car, picked up her cello, said, "I forgot my backpack" and promptly burst into tears again. While I know that the logical consequence would have been to let her deal with the issues that caused for her at school today, I instead told her to get in the car, and we made the 20 minute round trip to pick up her stuff and return her to school. I was officially late to work.

Work today was a series of meetings and deadlines. Nothing terrible, nothing particularly good. I hate when I'm out of the office so much for meetings. Plus our evaluations are due tomorrow. A few years ago the central administration promised to reduce the number of meetings we have right around major deadlines. So today I had a three-hour central office meeting and tomorrow I have one that will likely last two hours. Hmmm.....

Speaking of meetings, I had a Junior League one tonight. I got home and learned that SwimChick had continued with her bad attitude, causing Adventure Guy to refuse to take the kids out for dinner like he had planned. This put him in a bad mood, or rather reinforced the one he's been in the last couple of days. I hate it when we get in this cycle. He's annoyed with SwimChick; I translate that as his being mad at me for being gone tonight; he gets mad that I think he's mad at me. Ugh! I just want things to calm down some.

And, I'll admit it. My birthday is coming up, and I'm not very happy about it. I'll be 39 (really), and that seems entirely too close to 40. I've never really been bothered by birthdays or getting older, but I can tell that 40 is going to get to me. I'm also in that trap of not really wanting anyone to make a big deal of my birthday but being a bit disappointed that it's such a non-issue. Adventure Guy and I are going out with my best friend (whose birthday is today) and her husband on Friday to celebrate. I just hope we're both a little happier by then.

1985

2007-03-10T23:24:00.000-06:00

St. Elmo's Fire has been lurking around my Netflix queue for months now. I was in a bit of a nostalgic phase prior to my high school reunion in November, and I put several classic mid-eighties films on my list. I've been moving the current movies in front of them, but recently, Rob Lowe, Mare Winningham, Emilio Estevez, Andrew McCarthy, Demi Moore, Jud Nelson, and Ally Sheedy arrived to provide a glimpse of my past.

In June of 1985 when the movie premiered, Gorbachev had just taken over as the Soviet leader, Madonna was launching the Virgin tour, "What's Love Got to Do With It" earned Tina Turner the best album Emmy, and I was about to begin my senior year of high school. I can remember seeing the film in the theater with my best friend. The characters' struggles with what to do with their lives after college graduation spoke to us as we wondered where the choices we would make that year would lead us.

We were sure of a few things, though, as we sat in one of our cars, hanging out before it was time to go home to make curfew, listening to Air Supply, Foreigner, or maybe even "Man In Motion" from the movie. We knew that, no matter what the adults in our lives told us, we'd always love McDonald's. A Chicken McNugget happy meal was clearly the perfect midnight snack. We knew that we'd always be friends, and nothing could come between us. And of course, we knew that no matter what, and whether we wanted to admit it or not, come May of 1986, everything we knew was likely to change.

And it did. Oh, the scene in St. Elmo's Fire where the mother whispers words like cancer, extremely wealthy, and drugs still makes me giggle, just like it did then. But the drugs aren't so funny anymore, and they're what came between me and my friend. Her descent into the world of eating disorders, alcohol abuse, and eventually drugs ended any chances we had of remaining close. I lost her well before her conviction for distributing meth last year. When I think of her, I try to picture the smart, beautiful girl with the world outstretched before her that I knew rather than the mug shot that is the most recent photo I've seen. We chose different paths, and her negative-image life helps show me how fortunate that I am.

Mare Winningham, who played the innocent, serious daughter to that rather uptight mother, is now playing the "mother" roles, most recently as Meredith Grey's step-mother in Grey's Anatomy. Twenty-two years can certainly do that to an actress' career. I'm amazed, though, when I consider those years went by so quickly. And now, somehow, I'm the mother. Swim Chick will be the same age I was when I saw St. Elmo's Fire in four years. I just wish I knew as much now as I believed I did at 17. Don't we all?

This and That

2007-03-09T23:29:00.000-06:00

I wasn't sure where to really go with this post, so I decided on some random musings.

I'd give myself a "C" on week one of my Best Life program. I'm supposed to be exercising at least 150 minutes per week. This week I made 80 minutes so far. I'm going to aim for taking a walk tomorrow and getting to a yoga class on Sunday. I didn't do so well on the three meals per day rule since I skipped a couple of meals on Wednesday and Thursday because of my crazy work schedule. I did eat breakfast every day, though, and I have upped my water intake and abided by the "no alcohol" policy.
Today Adventure Guy left, appropriately, for an adventure race in Texas. He's running it with some friends, and this is his third or fourth year for this particular race. While I wish him well in his endeavors, I will note that his being gone this afternoon left me with the predicament of needing to be in three different places for three different children at 5:30 p.m. Fortunately, there was a bit of flex in the schedules, so at 4:35 I left work, picked up Soccer Boy, ran to buy a birthday present for Swim Chick's friend, swung by the house to get Swim Chick's outfit for the murder mystery party and a drink for Soccer Boy, dropped Soccer Boy off at his soccer practice (5:30 event #1), picked up Gym Girl from her practice (5:30 event #2), and picked up Swim Chick from Odyssey of the Mind practice (5:30 event #3). In reality, I had Swim Chick picked up by 5:45 and dropped off at the party on time at 6:00, leaving me plenty of time to get back to soccer practice before it ended at 6:30.
Not much going on tonight. Gym Girl, Soccer Boy, and I played Scene It; I caught up on some blog reading, cleared up my email, wrapped up some details for my Junior League committee, and talked with one of my friends on the phone. Now I'm watching What Not To Wear, and the woman has a similar figure to mine. I'm taking notes!
Lots of stuff going on the rest of the weekend. Swim Chick has to be at her Odyssey of the Mind coach's house by 7:00 a.m. to leave for contest. The rest of us will meet her there around 9:00. Once the competition is over, we'll head to Soccer Boy's game. Tomorrow night I have a 40th birthday party to attend for a friend. Sunday is church and Sunday school. Swim Chick has an extended confirmation class. They are doing the "death and dying" session, complete with a visit to the cemetery. She is fortunate not to have had much experience with death, so it should be interesting to discuss it with her. Then one of my friends is having a Kelly's Kids party, so I'll go check that out even though my kids have outgrown that line of clothes--I still have nieces and nephews to think about. I'll also need to go into work to finish some evals and to enter the course number changes for next year. We completed enrollment for next year today, and next week the volunteers will be in to do the data entry, which depends on having those course numbers up-to-date. We've had several changes this year because we're revamping our science offerings. And, of course, I can't forget either the yoga class or the laundry. Anyone up for making this weekend longer rather than shorter? I'm going to miss that hour we lose to daylight savings time!

Would That Be "Big Sister" Watching?

2007-03-08T22:40:00.000-06:00

I always feel like somebody's watching me
And I have no privacy (oh oh oh)
I always feel like somebody's watching me
Tell me, is it just a dream~Beatfreakz

Now that I've given Adventure Guy quiet a laugh at my rendition of the above lyrics as I was searching them out on the Internet, I'm free to share the experience today that brought them to mind.

Today, I misplaced my lifeline, otherwise known as my handheld computer. It has everything in it that I need to coordinate the various aspects of my life: the soccer games, the gymnastics meets, the evaluation conferences, the contact information for all of the important and not so important people in our lives. I realized that I didn't have it at about 5:30 today. Mid-panic session, I ran into one of my friends in the hallway. She informed me that she was sure we could find it and helped me search around my office, my secretary's office, and the bathroom--the only places I'd been since I returned to my office. No luck. She then began questioning if I had really had it when I came into the office after having been at teacher conferences. I swore I had. She then said, "Let's check the cameras."

All-American High is the proud owner of 32 security cameras strategically located around the campus. They've been around for a couple of years, and I tend to completely forget about them unless I need to check out some specific event. I certainly don't think about them as I go about my day-to-day business around the school. But tonight was one of those occasions they came in handy. My friend, Mathwhiz, and I took ourselves right down to the other assistant principal's office and let ourselves in to view the camera monitors (it's good to have a master key). We were able to track my earlier progress from the cafeteria, down the sidewalk, and to the door. It's really a rather bizarre feeling to watch yourself on camera going about your regular life. But, besides noting that I should keep up with my newly reinstated gym efforts, I could see that I did, indeed, have my handheld with me when I entered the building. We were working out the details of switching from one bank of cameras to the other when my colleague walked in. Did I mention that to get a really clear picture on the monitor, you need to turn off the lights?

After he recovered from the shock of unexpectedly finding two women in his office sitting in the dark viewing video footage (don't go there), my colleague graciously helped us switch over to the other bank of cameras. We then discovered that either an invisible thief managed to swipe my handheld, or it was still in the office. Mathwhiz kindly returned with me for another comprehensive office sweep. I believe it was when she was busy crawling around my conference table that I happened to roll my chair over a bit to look more closely under my desk. I was then forced to call the aforementioned colleague and point out that a camera beneath my desk chair would have been handy for this security issue. I don't know how it happened or how we missed it in the first two rounds of searching, but the handheld had fallen under the chair and I'm assuming had been hidden by the base before I moved it. Nothing like feeling stupid! Mathwhiz will let it go, but I'm sure I'll be hearing about this incident from my colleague for a while. Cause really, our team is like that.

It's been a long day, and I am now going to bed. Where I'll rest assured knowing that my handheld is safe and sound.

Two Thoughts for Today

2007-03-07T22:59:00.000-06:00

I am so thankful today is over. It is not a day I'll look back on fondly anytime soon. Too much to do, too much crap to deal with for one 24-hour period.
I am even more thankful for my work schedule tomorrow. Because of parent teacher conferences, I don't have to show up at work until 12:30. Yes, I have to work until 7:30, but it is so worth it. I am going to ignore all the "should do" things on my list and sleep in!

It's All in the Details

2007-03-06T21:56:00.000-06:00

One comment people seem to make about the allure of blogging is that reading the details of others' lives, mundane as those details may seem to the author, draws them in. I'm feeling uninspired today, so here's a rundown...a day in Suburbia so to speak.

Wake up to alarm at 6:10 a.m. Snooze until 6:28 a.m. Shower
Put together roast chicken recipe for dinner and start crock pot
Get dressed, do hair and makeup
Grab granola bar and water. Eat breakfast in car on way to work
Check voice mail and email
Visit special ed English class
Attend IEP meeting
Visit AP World History class
Drop by room where special ed teachers are eating and discuss progress toward meeting new "highly qualified" standards under NCLB
Stand in courtyard doing "lunch duty"
Eat lunch
Consult with colleague about school trip to China next year
Visit speech pathologist and watch individual student session
Visit World History class
Meet with social studies curriculum specialist
Talk to district testing coordinator and set up meeting
Answer emails, return voice mail messages
Sort through huge piles of papers on desks
Vow to keep desk cleaner
Begin work on gathering data needed for yearly civil rights audit
Ask custodians to leave door unlocked until 9:00 p.m. so that teacher can hold parent conferences
Leave to pick up Swim Chick at Odyssey of the Mind practice
Arrive home, check on chicken, start load of towels in laundry
Read blogs
Put on side dishes for dinner
Greet Adventure Guy, Gym Girl, and Soccer Boy as they return from various athletic practices
Eat dinner and visit with Swim Chick's friend who has joined us
Clean up kitchen
Watch American Idol with kids
Tuck kids in to bed
Check email and learn that custodians locked doors at 8:00 p.m. causing teacher to miss a conference and scheduled parents to return home. Apologize and vow to make sign for tomorrow night
Watch House while updating blog

And tomorrow, I get to do it all again plus attend an evening meeting!

By the way, the crock pot chicken is worth trying.

Vanilla Roasted Chicken

2-3 lbs. whole chicken, cut into pieces or left whole

1 clove garlic

8 sprigs fresh tarragon or 1 Tbs. dried tarragon

1/4 tsp. salt

1/2 tsp. fresh ground black pepper

1/4 c. chicken broth

2 Tbs. vanilla extract

Wad up three pieces of aluminum foil into fist-sized pieces and place them in the bottom of the crock pot. Rinse the chicken and pat dry with paper towels. Rub inner cavity with garlic clove. With your fingers, gently loosen breast skin and insert a tarragon spring under the skin of each breast. Stuff remaining sprigs in inner cavity and truss with kitchen twine. Rub the chicken all over with salt and pepper. Place the chicken on top of the foil. In a small bowl or cup measure, combine the broth and the vanilla. Pour over chicken, into crock pot. Set crock pot to high for 1 hour then turn down to low for 8-10 hours. This turns out like roasted chicken. The foil keeps it from cooking in its own juices, so it browns.

Day One, Phase One

2007-03-05T22:10:00.000-06:00

I've alluded several times now to my plans to focus on getting back on track with my diet and exercise. I've been working up to it (and working through the Girl Scout cookies in the meantime) for a couple of months now. The reality is that I'm not terribly overweight, but I'm not as fit as I'd like to be, especially after a four-month hiatus from the gym. Intellectually, I know that exercise will make me happier in the long run, but somewhere amid the holiday- preparation rush it became that "one more thing" that was going to send me over the edge.

A while back I, along with most of the rest of the free-world if the bestseller list is any indication, purchased Bob Greene's new book The Best Life Diet. I've been reading it here and there as I tried to find the motivation to begin. Today, however, I took the first step, literally and figuratively, and went to the gym before work. My screaming thighs during the treadmill workout were a good indication that this move came none too early. My goal is to feel comfortable in my summer wardrobe by June.

Bob Greene's program has a series of phases, and I'm currently beginning the four-week Phase One. In this phase, I'll be

Increasing my activity level
Ending all eating at least two hours before bedtime
Eating three meals plus at least one snack daily
Staying hydrated with at least 8 servings of water per day
Eliminating alcohol
Taking a daily vitamin supplement

Also in this phase, I'm not actually supposed to worry about cutting back on eating so much as aiming to choose healthy breakfasts and snacks. The idea is to establish good exercise habits and preparing your body for the process of weight loss. I'm also not supposed to weigh again until the conclusion of the four weeks on Phase One. That's going to be a challenge for me, since I'm used to weighing daily. I'll admit that the biggest challenge, though, is going to be drinking enough water. Coke Zero, no problem....water more of an issue!

Now that I've made this goal public, I'm hoping the blog will be a part of keeping my efforts on track. Wish me luck, or even better will power!

Little Lady, Big Apple

2007-03-04T20:41:00.000-06:00

This weekend was such a nice, relaxed one that I managed to finish my new book, Little Lady, Big Apple. This sequel to The Little Lady Agency by Hester Browne left me looking forward to the next installment of the series, which is conveniently previewed online. The first novel follows Melissa Romney-Jones, the daughter of a British MP, as she establishes her agency, a business designed to provide "all the girlfriend services a man could need except for sex and laundry" to British bachelors in need of a woman's touch, and then meets the man of her dreams in the line of duty. Little Lady, Big Apple picks up where the original book ends and traces the new couple's developing relationship as Melissa follows her boyfriend to New York and struggles with his desire for her to change the nature of the agency.

Both novels are fast-paced and fun and come off as a fresh take on the chick lit genre. I will admit that I expected a different turn of events at the end of this novel, and I'm not sure that my predictions won't come to pass in the next book. I'm not going to mention my suspicions here in order to preserve the suspense for anyone who decides to pick up these two novels. A move I highly recommend, by the way!

I am now turning back to nonfiction in my reading. I think it's time for something that requires a bit more thought! More to come on that in later posts.

Friday, I'm In Love

2007-03-02T21:47:00.000-06:00

I don't care if Monday's blue Tuesday's grey and Wednesday too. Thursday I don't
care about you. It's Friday; I'm in love ~The Cure

Yes, I'm in love with Friday. This week, I wasn't sure we were going to make it, but now, all's right with the world in Suburbia. Today started off right when each and every one of us went to school and work. I'm still swamped, but I accomplished by goal of working the entire day--a first for me this week between travel and rampant germs running through the house.

Gym Girl had a birthday party to go to at the local rock climbing gym this afternoon. It gave me a good reason to go ahead and leave the office at a decent time for Friday, even though I "should" have worked late. Once I was out of the office and had dutifully dropped her off at the party, I had even more motivation to catch up with some of my friends from work for a couple of drinks. Never underestimate the power of an apple martini and good company.

I met Adventure Guy back at home after he had dropped off Swim Chick at her Odyssey of the Mind work session. Our region's competition is next weekend, so it's crunch time. They worked a couple of hours this evening and are scheduled for all day tomorrow. In the meantime, the rest of the family headed out to one of our favorite local places for a quick dinner. Friday night, no cooking, another reason to fall in love!

Adventure Guy is headed to Arkansas this weekend to run the Little Rock marathon. The rest of us have a pretty low-key couple of days ahead. After this week, we deserve it!

When I Said There Was No Place Like Home....

2007-03-01T12:01:00.000-06:00

I didn't really mean I wanted to stay here indefinitely! I arrived back in the office on Tuesday after my trip to the NASSP convention and my family promptly began coming down with a variety of illnesses. Swim Chick hadn't been feeling great for a couple of days, but she didn't have any fever or specific complaints, so I sent her on to school. I mentioned in my parenting observations post that she has strep throat. I found this out after getting a call from school to pick her up Tuesday morning. We made it in to the doctor and got the antibiotics. I left her home to rest and got back in to school to do some work that day. Yesterday, she insisted on going to school saying she felt fine. A lot of that had to do with her desire to go on a field trip she'd been looking forward to, but she didn't have any fever and had been on the meds for enough time not to be contagious, so I sent her.

Meanwhile....around 9:00 a.m. yesterday I got a call from Gym Girl's school nurse. Gym Girl was there saying her stomach hurt. No fever. I talked to Gym Girl asked her if she wanted to come home. She said she wasn't sure. Talked to nurse who said they were going to feed her some crackers and let her rest. Told both Gym Girl and nurse to call me if she needed to come home. Went to do a classroom observation. Mid "philosophers round table discussion" in AP European History, my number was called over the radio. Gym Girl had thrown up and needed to come home. I picked her up, got her settled, brought jello, sprite, and cold washcloths, and watched as she slept. I also got some cleaning done in my "found" time. By 2:00 p.m. she was running a fever and continued to until she went to bed.

So far Soccer Boy is doing fine. I'm keeping my fingers crossed that will continue. Last night Swim Chick came home and seemed fine. I dropped her off at church for youth group meeting. When I went back to pick her up, I took one look at her and knew she wasn't feeling good again. By the time we got home, she was running fever. So, today, the girls are all home together. Gym Girl seems to be feeling much better, and Swim Chick is doing okay. I expect we'll all make it back to school tomorrow. And I'll probably end up in on the weekend for a bit to try to catch up from missing so much work this week. Oh, well....life has a tendency to work out that way, doesn't it?

I'm trying to make the best of my time here, though. I'm planning to catch up on my movie viewing from Netflix and start a new book. I'll do some more cleaning, and I've got one of my favorite easy crockpot meals going for tonight. For a dump it and go meal, you can't beat this one.

Beef Tips
1-2 lbs. lean beef stew meat
1 pkg. Lipton onion and mushroom soup mix
1 small can mushrooms
1 can Campbell's Healthy Choice cream of mushroom soup
1/2 c. red wine

Combine all ingredients in crock pot. Cook on low "all day" or at least 7 hours. I serve this over rice, but noodles work just as well. Pair it with green beans and biscuits or pan rolls.

My Latest Reads

2007-02-28T17:06:00.000-06:00

During my plane trip home from Vegas, I quickly polished off Ophelia by Lisa M. Klein. The story, narrated by Ophelia of Hamlet fame, fills in the gaps left by Shakespeare's play. Ms. Klein mentions on the book jacket that since Shakespeare is not around to write stronger women's characters, she thought she'd take on the task. And she does it beautifully. The story begins when Ophelia is a tomboyish girl of ten and traces the events of her life as she matures and joins Queen Gertrude's court and becomes involved romantically with Hamlet. The events in the novel depart from the plot of the play a bit, but I don't want to give away anything the reader will enjoy discovering herself. Technically, this is a young adult novel, but it does not require that the reader indeed be a young adult to enjoy it. I am, though, planning to pass it along to Swim Chick, who is thirteen, when my colleague returns it. She promptly snatched it up when I finished it during our trip. We both see interesting possibilities for its use in English classes when they are studying the play.

Speaking of teaching and Shakespeare, anyone who is involved in the education process or who wants to step into the world of truly excellent teaching should pick up Teach Like Your Hair's On Fire by Rafe Esquith. Mr. Esquith teaches in inner-city Los Angeles and is the leader of the famous Hobart Shakespeareans. I had heard a spot on them on NPR not too long ago, and I was pleased to receive this book as a Valentine's gift from Adventure Guy. If anyone believes that one person cannot truly make a difference in this world, please read this book. It takes hard work and serious dedication, but teachers all across the country are daily making a difference in the lives of children. Mr. Esquith does not sugar coat the reality of the fact that there are bad teachers, and, oh yes, to my disappointment, bad administrators out there. He's pretty blunt in his criticisms. But he shows what a difference high expectations, consistency, and trust can make in a classroom. I'm planning to start a book study for our staff using this book. It's very timely in that some of our teachers seem to believe that not all students can truly rise to the high expectations we set at All-American High. My answer to that? Ask them to shoot for the stars, truly show them that you believe they can get there, and then be there to support them as they go!

It's Good To Have Friends

2007-02-27T17:52:00.000-06:00

In my efforts to catch up on all the blog reading I missed while I was at the aforementioned crappy hotel in Vegas (no Internet access, free or otherwise, except in the business office for $1 per minute), I have been surfing the sites on my favorites list today and have found some inspiration.

From Sockgirl and Rambling Mom, I've picked up a thread on 5 Parenting Observations. My observations, number one being from my own personal experience today:

If you are completely swamped at work and have no idea how you are going to get everything done, that will be the day one of your children will come down with some kind of illness. The illness du jour here in Suburbia is strep throat.
You will actually be thankful when the doctor announces your child has something that can be cured with antibiotics rather than a virus that has to "run its course." You will also feel guilty about wanting to cheer when she makes this pronouncement.
Having two or more children of the same sex does not guarantee that you will have any idea how to handle the subsequent child(ren). I thought, "Oh, I know how to handle girls" when Gym Girl was born. Surprise! She and Swim Chick are two totally different kids who need totally different parenting.
Making a home-cooked meal will guarantee that at least one of your children will dislike at least part of said meal. Most likely, different children will dislike different things.
When helping children select a musical instrument to play, weigh both the annoyance factor of listening to that particular instrument being played by a beginner and the cost of said instrument when making recommendations. Example, cello: less screechy than a violin and available for $50 annual rental from school! I thank one of my colleagues, a former band director, for this gem of wisdom.

As I clicked through links, this post caught Adventure Guy's eye. His comment, as we both sat side by side on the bed, working on our laptops, the perfect post-modern couple? I want that! So, that he shall have. I can always count on my favorite Jewish mother to satisfy our "need to feed" around here.

Speaking of the need to feed, is it fair that on the exact day I decided "something must be done" to get back on track to healthier eating and good exercise habits the Girl Scout cookies I ordered were waiting for me when I arrived home? I think not. So, once I get finished eating the Samoas, Tagalongs, and Thin Mints, I promise I'll be posting more about my toning and weight loss efforts!

There's No Place Like Home

2007-02-26T21:37:00.000-06:00

I'm back! I got into town about 4:30 this afternoon and have now had time to run to the grocery store, cook dinner for my family, and settle down with everyone to watch The Amazing Race which they had recorded for me while I was gone.

My head is swimming right now with everything I heard while I was at the conference. Nothing that was totally new, but several sessions focused on areas that I have been wanting to examine more carefully recently. Particularly, we need to move at All-American High toward a more collaborative model of teaching. I liked an analogy that was used to describe the typical high school: a group of educational entrepreneurs connected by a common parking lot. With high-stakes testing, changing demographics, and the need to truly prepare students for success after high school, there's a need for teachers to work together to determine the best way to meet these emerging demands. Too often the "just close the door and teach" model is still in effect. I'll be working to move forward to promote more collaboration over the next few months. As with anything, finding time, both for myself and for the teachers, will be the biggest challenge.

I was very pleased with the way our presentation went on Saturday. The feedback on our evaluation sheets was excellent. I was not pleased with our stay at the Riviera hotel. If you go to Vegas, my advice is stay somewhere else. I knew it wasn't the fanciest hotel on the strip, and it lived up to my expectations on that front, but what was most disturbing was the rude and inefficient staff. Nothing like being snapped at by the desk clerk during check-in. It's also inconvenient since it's located at the far end of the strip, necessitating a cab ride to the nicer hotels and casinos. It is close to the convention center, which I'm assuming is the reason it was the host hotel. Many times during the last four days, I regretted not booking in time to get into the Courtyard Marriott, which was our other option but was booked six months in advance!

Tomorrow it's back to the office to catch up on everything that happened Friday and Monday. Amazing how the work doesn't do itself while I'm gone!

None of the Ashes; All of the Guilt

2007-02-21T21:27:00.000-06:00

So, today is Ash Wednesday, the beginning of Lent. I should have gone to church, and in years past I've tended to be very observant of this day on the religious calendar. This year, it's all passed in a blur. I have been thinking a bit about whether or not I'll give anything up this year, and I haven't decided. I'm nearing the point of committing again to a regular exercise regimen and a healthy diet, but I dislike that kind of thing as a Lenten commitment. For me, things like committing to doing more charity work or more Bible study or devotionals seem more on track.

Not one to miss out on anything, however, I did not let the fact that I did not attend a service that would encourage me to think about atoning for my sins prevent me from piling up a few more items to regret over the next few weeks. Life has been hectic here. I leave for the NASSP convention tomorrow afternoon, so I've been running at full-tilt at work preparing both for the presentation and for being out of the office for two days. My Junior League committee commitments are also at their peak right now, and I've had late meetings the previous two evenings. I came home today intent upon having a nice dinner with the family and a calm evening.

It didn't happen. I arrived home at about 7:00 having run errands all afternoon and then picked up Soccer Boy from daycare and Gym Girl from the gym. It was clear that Adventure Guy was not in the best mood. We got dinner on the table, but the tenor was not quite what I had hoped. Everyone was a bit on edge since the kids had not been as responsive as they should have been to being asked to take care of some things around the house. After dinner it went downhill from there when Swim Chick needed help on her Algebra homework. She tends to completely shut down if she doesn't know how to do a problem, conveniently "forgetting" things she's been able to do routinely for months. Let's just say the interaction between Swim Chick and Adventure Guy and then Swim Chick and myself was not pretty. The grownups need to learn to deal a bit better with frustration, or at least to deal with it a bit more quietly. Oh well, what's an Ash Wednesday without a good source of guilt?

In the end, tears were dried, homework was complete, and kids were put to bed. Now I've got to get packed and try to take care of Adventure Guy whose earlier crankiness I've now discovered is likely related to the 102 degrees of fever he's running. And, yes, I'm leaving him until Monday to take care of the myriad details of the weekend kids' activities. GUILT, GUILT, GUILT!