How do you feel about pot?

 

It has come to my attention that certain members of my circle of acquaintances are quietly smoking a substance that is at the present time illegal.  I can't say I'm surprised by this.  I imagine that it's quite common for individuals in any circle of friends to do things that are technically illegal.  Like parking too near a stop sign, or speeding on the freeway.  I personally know adults who have shoplifted and others who have cheated on their taxes.  I'm not immune, either.  I walked drunkenly down a street shortly after celebrating my engagement.  I regularly go faster than I should on roads that are not near schools.  I reuse stamps if they haven't been canceled.  And I have knowingly kept several extra mints from the bowl at the entrance to Macaroni Grill.  But the idea of smoking pot, well, that's kind of different.  I worry about the rather serious consequences of the act even as I acknowledge that they rarely happen.  I also worry about the problems caused when one is impaired.  It likely isn't much different than the effects of alcohol, however, the results can be much more significant.  So I wonder how others feel about this.  My generation has had their go at laws regulating mind altering substances.  What will the next generation do?  Is it looked on differently?  Should I worry about these friends or just smile and think perhaps I'm just old fashioned?  

Forced to tell people what I want

Along with the obvious, another reason I write this is that we had a dinner party yesterday.  People there wanted us to share a memory from our childhood holidays.  I have plenty of memories, just nothing I wanted to share with the group in attendance.  How does one get oneself out of such a "sharing" situation without looking like a total jerk?  When you know, let me in on it, because it made me pretty uncomfortable.

Now to the list:

This is a cute teapot and tea I've been wanting for some time.  It doesn't have to be this exact one, but one similar at least.

I would love some Honey Sticks, though I'm pretty sure you can get them locally.  And I don't care what variety as long as it isn't something crazy like lemon zest of jalapeno.

The Blind Side DVD

This book about online teaching

I would like a new carry-on suitcase in a color other than black.

I could use a 8 gb SD card for my computer and a new 4 or 8 gb jump drive with a STURDY way to connect it to my key ring.

27" half slip in extra large or size 40 in black.

A couple of seed starting items this and this. Though this is a big item and we're moving...

A back rub from Lucas (not a certificate which I tend to lose)
A dinner cooked by Kimmi
Dinner at Carrabbas from Mike

That's it. I can't think of anything else.

Following the Turkey down Memory Lane

Thanksgiving always makes me think of family.  We aren't a big group - five cousins from my mom's side, three from my dad's.  We spent our holidays in one of three places.  We sometimes went to my mother's mom who lived in Brigham City.  More often we went to my dad's mom who lived less than a mile from us.  (I walked that route, rain, shine, and snow more times than I can count.  I miss it, and her.)  We frequently stayed home and people would come to us.  We were the only kids in the valley at the time and it was easier, I think, for my grandparents and my aunt to visit us as they could send us off to bed when we got cranky.  My aunt was much younger than my dad and had her children later.  I was nearly grown when her first was born.  We started spending holidays at her home so when her kids got cranky...well you get it.  (Sorry, ladies, you did get cranky.)
Anyway, I miss those holidays.  Even though our family has made its own traditions based on Mike's family and our own children, I recall moments of those holidays as though they happened yesterday.  On Thanksgiving Thursday I made pies using the rolling pin in the photo.  It belonged to my Grandma Haynes.  (My younger cousins called her Grandma Lucy.)  She made her pie crust with lard and cooked her chicken for HOURS.  I could never duplicate her cooking.  I very much love having something from her kitchen, though.  Every time I use it I think about standing at her kitchen counter 'helping' her make something delicious.  Yeah, I bet I was quite a help back then.  Her kitchen seemed huge to me.  Later when my sister was living in that house I realized it was tiny.  I think it was Grandma that made it seem big.  She had room for all of us in there.
Happy holidays.

Birthday Season

It's birthday season at our house.  It starts in September with Mike's sister Patti's birthday.  My brother used to come next in mid-October.  Mine is the 26th, then Lucas on the 27th.  Finally, Norma's birthday is November 6th.  I know we have a small family but it sure seems like the birthdays are squished up together rather than spread throughout the year.  Our other birthday season is mid-March to Mid-May.  I should really graph them to see if it's more random than it feels.  Anyway, if you're a fall baby or know one, happy birthday to you.

Natural Design

We took a trip up to Logan last weekend to participate in the charrette for the new Logan Nature Center.  The team of planners was finding a way to fit a new building into the natural space of Logan Canyon.  It was fascinating to see architects, city planners, Stokes Nature Center staff and members, and graduate design students all working toward a common goal of a beautiful and functional space for the site which is called "Second Dam."   Mike and I watched and mingled, then helped clean up. Since I have taught classes at the current nature center I had a vested interest in how the classrooms were designed.  Here's what I learned:  I am a detail person and I have trouble sticking to the big picture.  As they discussed their ideas it was all I could do not to cry out, "For God's sake don't put the outdoor classroom that far from the bathrooms!  Do you know how long it takes to get twelve four-year-olds up a set of stairs like that????"  I barely contained myself which was good because that was not the time to get into details, apparently.  They were interested only in how they were situating the different aspects of the center onto the landscape and how the outside would function "in tune with nature."  Not the detail of how to get a wheelchair and three dozen fifth graders across a busy parking lot and into a multi-level building.  Ah well, my turn will come.  I'll be the one crying from the sidelines, "I TOLD you those six-year-olds would need a place to leave their coats and lunches when they visited!"

Meanwhile, we enjoyed the changing leaves in Sardine canyon on the way up and a chance to get away for a night from our busy household.  Happy October.

Gettin' Beat Up

I had to go have my pacemaker repositioned.  It was sticking out in an uncomfortable manner and caught on various things including my bra strap.  The doc was afraid it would erode the skin.  I was afraid I'd just pull the dang thing out one day while reaching for a bowl in a cupboard.  So it had to be re-placed.  That's as opposed to "replaced."  So now it's under some muscle and much less apt to catch on things.  Unfortunately I'm a little bruised and battered.  I'll be off work until Monday.  I'm grateful for it to be over, but dang - I didn't want to do it over this quickly.  I knew I'd have to have the thing messed with after 5 or 7 years.  Ah well. Done now and I'm on the mend.

Model U.N.

So here's the official mix for my classroom this year:

Languages - 6
English
Spanish
Kirundi
Vietnamese
MaiMai
Farsi

Countries - 6
United States
Cuba
Mexico
Kenya
Iran
Burundi

Native American Tribes - 3
Ute
Paiute
Navajo

Students being pulled for special services - 5
Students in gifted program - 0  (students who should be there - 1)
Boys - 11   Girls - 14    Total so far  - 25

Teacher aides - 0   Assistants - 0   Clerical help - 0  
Cost of living increase this year:  -0.5%

Motivation to retire when Mike does - 98%

Cheers!

Back to it

I spent the morning at the school sorting through the stuff I've purchased or ordered.  Found out I double ordered colored pencils and red pens, but hey, those things are always useful.  I had some helpers put together the little boxes of pencils, crayons, scissors and so forth while I moved boxes of copy paper off the counter and into storage.  The books are in the reading center again and the kids' names are on the cubbies, though those will change when we get the move-ins and move-outs list.  I almost feel excited about starting again - almost.  It's hard to look forward to the new year when nothing's really new.  Of the three different jobs I could have moved to I got none.  I'm back where I was last year.  I just can't seem to get charged up by that.  Ah well, it will be a year of differences.  We have a new principal and vice principal and they are both very young.  And with Mike retiring in May and Kimmi working at the school with me it should be a different year in some fundamental ways.  Just not the ways I was hoping.  Well, welcome to 2010-11. 

Home again, home again

We pulled in around 5 pm yesterday.  Didn't hit the big caravans of SUVs and motor homes you sometimes get on Sunday afternoons pulling back into Utah.  That was a nice surprise.  Thanks to the kids we got the cars unloaded in record time and I put my feet up by 8.  I think one of the big reasons for travel is to come home.  It feels so darned good to sleep in your own bed and spelunk for food in your own fridge.  I remember coming home with tired, dirty children and thinking how nice it was when they were washed and in jammies.  Good to go, better to return.  Ahhhh.

Just Another Happy Day in Paradise

We're in Oceanside enjoying 70 degree days and 60 degree nights.  The beach is lovely and crowded (Well, that's to be expected!) and the sky is the most amazing color of blue.  The kids got here Saturday and we drove in from the band tour last night.  Bare feet, sand everywhere, sunscreen fragrance, beachy haze burning off by noon.  I love the beach.  Wish we could live here.

Anna made me do it

She took this quiz, so I had to try it. Our results are kind of different.

This Is My Life, Rated
Life:	7.6
Mind:	7.8
Body:	5.8
Spirit:	10
Friends/Family:	7.8
Love:	9.1
Finance:	8.9
Take the Rate My Life Quiz

Far Out

I finally got tired of the old green background that was really for St. Patrick's Day.  So now Welfyville is just a little far out...

Update on the grant our school district wrote and won.  Two middle schools will participate in the grant this next year.  They are adding quite a bit of time in seat for the kiddies, and much more time in seat for teachers as well.  There will be professional development "until your eyeballs roll" was the way the district liaison put it.  Since our school is next on the hit list I went to the meeting last night to hear what they were planning.  Also, there is an Ed Tech job available at one of the middle schools and I am applying for it.  Not much chance of getting that as I didn't even get a second look at the jobs available at the district, but hey, I'm building interview skills.

Anyway, I'm going to put a survey on the side of the page to see who likes the new blog look.  If they did a survey of who likes the new school schedule I can only imagine what people would say.

Have You Noticed?

That Welfyville is always near the ocean?  Well, it is. 

Test Questions

I spent the past three days writing test questions for the science end-of-year assessments.  It sounds kind of easy.  It was HARD.  I mean REALLY HARD.  I've written to a prompt before.  This was the mother of all prompts.  We had to write a question that assessed the content, that gave some information about how students were doing with the intended learning outcomes, and that wasn't too hard or too easy for fifth graders.  Oh boy. 

It was an incredible experience.  The other teachers were there because they really wanted to be and the group I was with was intelligent, creative, and funny.  Even working hard from 8:30 am to after 4 each day I was able to write only 12 good questions.  Others wrote more, but 12 was average.  It doesn't sound like much when you realize that was only four questions per day.  But it really did take that long to come up with questions that met all the criteria.

I'm proud of the work we did.  We won't see any of these questions on a test until 2011 or 2012 at the earliest.  Still, it was incredibly interesting and I get to go back tomorrow to try writing questions that use flash graphics.  FUN!

Finally

About nine years ago Mike and I added a patio and pergola to our backyard.  We've loved sitting there in the afternoons and evenings, especially in the spring when things are beginning to bloom.  When we finished the pergola we planted clematis and wisteria hoping they would eventually twine over the top of the structure creating an arbor.  They both took off, spreading up the supports and over the top of the pergola just as we planned  The second year the clematis bloomed in shades of pink and dark purple.  By the third year we had to trim back the foliage.  We lost one of the wisterias and replaced it with another. They had yet to bloom.  We've found we could grow fuchsia against the house as it's cool enough for them there. 

We winter them over in the garage and they bloom in there before we can even move them outside.  But the wisteria continued to remain bloomless.  Until this year. 

Whoot!

ConGRADulations

Sean D honors degree in gender studies and psychology.  Welfycat BA in English.  Whoot!

Good Luck and Goodbye.

Great timing, Pauline. If I had been writing it as the climax of a novel it couldn’t have been better executed. Bide your time while showing more and more disdain for your daughter and her choices. But wait, wait until the time is exactly right before playing your ace. The graduates are all seated. The music has stopped and the dean of the college has risen to introduce the commencement speakers. Now. This is the moment to announce that you are leaving. You “just can’t take it” any longer. You hide behind dark glasses, though when you remove them your eyes look suspiciously dry. Then, instead of actually leaving, you hang out in the restroom three steps from our seats. You were easy to find. I imagine it was stupid of me to try, but I sometimes miss the obvious. I ask you to stay, still not getting it. You use the moment to deride your child, say horrible things about her that we both know are not true. How can you pretend they are? I don’t know why I thought you would want advice. When I try to give it you sarcastically tell me I must be “the perfect mother.” I realize it is a lost cause – that you are a lost cause and I leave. I don’t know how you will get back, but when we arrive your car is gone. No one misses you. Your daughter asks if she can finally cut the last string. I used to be your cheerleader. I kept thinking your daughter would be sorry if she cut you off completely. How foolish I was. She is the wise one. She had years to judge your character. I should have listened to her. She is changing her cell phone number and canceling the email account you use to contact her. I will not take your calls or your email. You have two more daughters to raise. Good luck with that, Pauline. I hope they find someone who will help them cut the string when the time comes.

Big Ugly Changes

Check out this article:  http://www.sltrib.com/education/ci_14894766
Our ever-popular (not really) superintendent decided to take the money.  It's always about the money, isn't it?  Anyway, they chose four schools to reconstitute and ours was one of them.  I'm not sure if I've calmed down enough to actually write what I'm thinking about this turn of events.  For years we have said, "If only we had the funding we could make so many important changes."  Things like a longer school day or more days of school were out of reach for us, and yet they could make so much impact in catching our students up to their peers. 

So now the federal government is willing to give us money - lots of money.  Enough money to really make those types of changes.  But not with the teachers currently working so hard to make these kids' lives better.  Nope.  Half of us will be asked to leave because apparently we don't have the vision or the dedication, or the whatever, to do the job.  It really feels like a slap in the face.  I can't think of a faculty I've EVER worked with that has done more professional development, has worked harder to develop a learning community, or to support students and parents than are at my present school.  What a shame that every underperforming school is painted with the same brush.  Sucks to be us right now.

Spring Break

Well, maybe it isn't Cancun or Hawaii, but at least I'm kicking back and putting my feet up.  It's spring break at last (or already!) and I don't really know how to enjoy it best.  It's tempting to just sit down in a comfy chair and do nothing.  On the other hand, there are projects beckoning, dirty corners crying for attention, and interesting places to go tugging at my mind and don't forget taxes.  We've let ours go until the last because we'll owe some and who wants to pay that too far in advance of the deadline?  So far I've had three days of relative quiet - took Norma and Kimmi to a play, spent Sunday reading with a few minutes of yard work thrown in to prove I wasn't completely lazy.  I spent this morning going over all the stacked up paperwork that needs attention.  Tomorrow is tax day and Wednesday I'm going in to work (yeah, it bites, but there are things that must be done when there are no kids there).  Thursday so far is free.  Mike is home on Friday and we're contemplating an overnight run out to Park City or even just downtown SLC.  I love quiet times at home, though, so I'm thinking I'll recharge right here in my nice comfy chair after all.  That is until Sean shows up to work on the coffee table/display case for the Millennium Falcon.  Happy spring, everybody.  I wish you a couple of days off with nothing much to do.

Now We Find Out

I have managed to lose the entire set of photos from our summer vacation.  I know I made a disk for someone, so they're out there somewhere.  I just don't have them anywhere here.  Not on my miraculous tiny jump drive, not on my computer, not on my camera and not on Mike's computer upstairs.  Likewise I haven't burned myself a copy of them and I didn't transfer them to the portable hard drive where all our other memories reside.  I'm really chapped by this and I've decided it's not so much the memories I've managed to lose.  It's the idea that I CAN'T FIND THEM.  So now we find out just how important that is to me.  Will I a) let it go gracefully knowing that they may turn up if the universe deems it appropriate, b) ask around to see if anyone might have them and then just wait it out, or c) keep digging like a crazed dog for a bone.  Yup.  It'll be C, I'm thinkin'.

Introducing Athena

 

Welcome Athena.  For those of you who can't immediately recognize it - Athena is about one year old, domestic shorthair kitty who is absolutely adorable.  Welfycat is head over heels in love with her.

New House for Sean

We've been pretty busy the last couple of weeks.  Sean and Andrew finally signed on their first house.  There were some last minute issues with the financing but it resolved itself and they officially spent their first night in their new home on Tuesday, January 12.  They still don't have a stove, microwave, or refrigerator.  Lots of take out pizza and Subway sandwiches.  Mike and I have been helping them move things as well as installing blinds, sewing curtains, and installing everything from curtain rods to smoke detectors.  We're even helping build a wine rack and tray storage for their kitchen.  It's a nice little house and I hope they'll be happy there.  A big party is being planned for sometime late in January - if we all survive the move-in.  Here are the photos, though I realize I don't have a photo of the outside yet.

Looking out of the living room

Main floor bathroom

 Kitchen (what there is of it)

Living room and dining area

There are two bedrooms and a bath on the main floor and another two bedrooms and bath downstairs along with a nice sized family room and an open area for the washer and dryer.  The person they bought from "flipped" the house so he cut a few corners.  But all in all it's nice and they're over the moon.  I hope that feeling lasts through the first round of payments!

Congratulations, Sean and Andrew.