Busy, Busy, Busy (& A New Camera!)

Wow! That last week of school sure is busy! The kids last day was Friday and our last day was Saturday. That included three meetings I had to attend: 1) the GT Committee met to go over the stories submitted and score them. 2) The second grade teachers met to sort the kids into seven new classes for their third grade year. 3) The big district meeting was held at the Jr. High as usual. The retirees were honored, people with 5, 20, 15, 20, 25, and 30 years with the district were honored with pins. Two of the 30 year people were from our campus. In 3 years I'll have my 25 year pin.

Last week we kept my niece's standard poodle while she and her fiance went to Las Vegas to be married. His name is Dragon and he is the sweetest dog. He and Rusty got along fine, but Rusty had to remind him sometimes that this is actually Rusty's home so he was top dog. She came and picked him up on Sunday.













Speaking of Sunday that was the day of David's family reunion. We all met at Salmon Lake Park. It isn't too far away, just about a 30 minute drive. Click on the link, click on Rental Photos then scroll down to Family Reunion Buildings and you will see a picture of the Crazy Horse Saloon building where our family meets almost every year. We took Ethan with us and he had a great time. The lake there is spring fed and he spent a lot of time swimming, and I spent a lot of time on the shore watching him. We all brought simple food. David and his cousins went through a lot of old photos and a good time was had by all.



Here is a portion of the lake.









May 26th was my birthday and, as promised, David got a new camera for me. A Rebel XTI! The store was having a "special" where you could get 75-300mm lens with the camera kit, so of course I had to get that. I got a case and two rechargeable batteries and a 4gb card because it was "on sale." Now I've never filled up the 1gb cards I have in my Kodak so why I thought I had to have the 4gb is beyond me, but there you have it.




Now I have a little free time to read up on this and try taking pictures!

Waiting at the Window

Early Saturday morning I was eating a biscuit standing at the kitchen sink looking into the backyard. I noted that the window needs to be cleaned. The morning was clear and bright, the sky a brilliant blue. I was waiting for my step-daughter and her Granny to come pick me up for a day at First Monday.

I noticed a mockingbird working over a pecan in the yard near the patio. I glanced at our lab, Bear. She too had noticed the mockingbird but seemed uninterested. Then she made a half hearted lunge in the direction of the mockingbird which flew to the fence and sat fussing at her.
Bear nosed the pecan then trotted to the back of the yard to visit with the dogs in the yard behind us. When she was a few paces away the mockingbird returned to the pecan.

I finished the biscuit and was watching a couple of squirrels playing in the pecan trees and thought I should call Rusty and let him out so he could bark at the squirrels, his favorite pass time. Before I could turn a crow flew down from one pecan tree and up to the next with a mockingbird in hot pursuit. I caught another glimpse of them as the crow was chased out of the yard and into the next.

Then I saw the truck, containing my companions for the day, and headed for the carport.

Snow!

It snowed here yesterday! Here in east Texas. It was snowing when I looked out the window a little before 7:00 am and kept on snowing till after 9:30. I was a "little under the weather" so was at home. I napped a lot so don't know exactly when it stopped. It was completely gone by 1.

My father, who is 83, said that when he was a kid here it used to snow 3 or 4 times in the winter with enough snow to play in, make snowmen, have snowball fights, do all the things kids love to do with snow. I found that interesting as we rarely get snow now and when we do it doesn't stick. This snow was very wet so wasn't good snowball snow.


It piled up on the grass and on the vehicles. As you can see it didn't stick on the pavement.
It piled up on this little garden toad. He sure looks cold.

Rusty saw snow for the first time. He sniffed and sniffed. Then he bounced around and played some. Finally, his feet got cold and he ran to the house to get in.

Happy Valentine's Day

First I'd like to wish everyone a Happy Valentine's Day, hope it is the best! Here is Rusty to help me.

Below is a picture of the card I made this year for Valentine's Day. Of course I was late in mailing them. No one will be suprised when they show a little late. The image is a little blury, sorry.

Here is an example of the little cards I made for my students.

Silly Picture Entry

I am posting this silly picture as an entry in a give away at ....and the rest is history. Julie is giving away a $20 dollar gift certificate to Amazon. And besides that, I love sharing pictures of Rusty even though everyone else has about had enough!

An Uneventful Weekend - Love 'Em

It was, totally uneventful. Quite and restful. I slept till 8! (See the afore mentioned pain preventing prescriptions.) My DH and I sat around the house then went to the cafe for lunch. We had both vehicles inspected. We both found some New Balance shoes on sale!

The main event of the day was a fund raising supper for a friend of ours who is running for constable in our district. Right now he works with my DH at the courthouse. He would do a great job. My friend D came with us.

After the supper the three of us went to see Cloverfield. I couldn't watch it, the jerkiness of the filming made me ill. It may have been a combo of a pain pill and chili, but I don't think it would have set well anyway. All the reviews I've read of it, by monster movie aficionados, say it is great. I don't see it. It starts out slow, then it all goes downhill quick, and jerkily. That's not even a word is it?

After we got back home, D helped me with an ongoing pantry door-Rusty problem! Rusty learned to pop the pantry door open by pushing it with his nose. I was keeping a chair in front of it, however forgot to pull it up one day. The results can be seen here, complete with guilty canine. The next day I came home and he had shouldered the chair out of the way and nosed the door open a little, not enough to get in, but enough to encourage him to pursue this line of shouldering. So I put two chairs up, and was going to the hardware store to get a hook or something to put over the handles of the door. Enter D with a spare shoelace. TA DA.

Weekend Snapshot

This is called "The Trade." It is at the entrance of the old part of the First Monday grounds.

First Monday!

Today the dear husband and I had a lot of fun or got a lot of exercise. Or maybe both. We got up and had breakfast at the Birds Egg Cafe, Wanda's place. I'm planning to say more about her at a later time. We then went back home, picked up Rusty and went to Canton to First Monday. If you live around here you know it's great fun. Acres and acres and acres of places to shop. What's not to like? Part of it is like a giant flea market. The pavilions have mostly new things to sell. The variety is infinite. The weather was perfect.The temp was in the low 70's with some wind. Wonderful!

We walked for around that place for about 4 hours. I bought three books for 50 cents each. Not just mass market paperback size, but the trade book size. I added a pair of large Shawnee style Smiley pig salt and pepper shakers to my collection. They are just there to hold a place until I can get the real ones. They are cute and if I don't tell anyone no one will know they are fake. Unless you tell someone!

We got two bottles of balsamic vinegar and two kinds of flavored pastas.

Tangerines were purchased from a farmers type market. Rusty got a pound of home made dog biscuits. He liked that shop! Almost forgot to mention the peanut brittle, yum.

Rusty was so good! He didn't pull his lead (too much.) He didn't dive for other dogs. He didn't bark even at yappy little dogs that barked at him. He usually doesn't get to go because of the heat. We see other people with their dogs there in the dead of summer and they look so miserable. The dogs, not the people. As I write this he is laying on the floor beside me dead to the world. He is just worn out!

Slowing Down, Gearing Up

Wow, I caught my breath today. It has been a busy week! As I said before I picked up my niece, her husband and the baby for New Year's Eve. We had a great time. Below is a picture of my niece and great-niece. Aren't they cute!

On New Years Day we decided to have a movie marathon so we went to rent some. We picked up popcorn and cokes as well. We stopped back by my friends house to pick up the camera I left there the night before, visited for awhile then came on home. As it was New Year's Day we had to have some traditional good luck foods: black eyed peas. My husband grilled chicken and we had black eyed peas and cornbread. No one wanted cabbage so I didn't fix that. I would have been the only one eating it. We played Skip-Bo for awhile then went back to the den for the movies.

We saved Happy Feet for the baby the next day. I took my niece & family to the new Pizza Hut Bistro for dinner and made it back home by six in time for the movie. The local nieces and greats were invited over. That was a total of 6 little kids - OH MY. Rusty and the cats had to stay in our bedroom, it overwhelmed them. We had plenty of popcorn, cokes, sweet tea, and other snacks. The kids enjoyed the movie for the most part. Part of their time was spent with Uncle David in the computer room talking and watching him work.

Thursday morning we got up, finished another movie and got ready to go. We went to Tyler for breakfast at IHoP. Lots of coffee & yummy food. After a bit of shopping I took them on home.

On the way back home I stopped at Hobby Lobby where I got a great sunset picture from the parking lot, and some stamping paper & ink from the store. Them on to Barnes & Noble for a Vinte Vanilla Latte. Love it, gotta have it. Also picked up another new book. This one is March by Geraldine Brooks.

Today I cleaned up the house. I'm about tired of cleaning. :) David and I ate out with some close friends at the Ranch House and went to the show to see The Water Horse. I wish I could get a copy of the little poster they were handing out to the kids. It would be great in my classroom. I always read The Mysterious Tadpole by Steven Kellogg to my class when we discuss thinking about the story as you listen or read, and for studying illustrators as well as real & make believe & well, lots of other stuff. This would be great for comparisons.

Have to get back in gear! Vacation is about up. School starts back up on Monday!

Notes From Children

I just love getting notes from little kids! This one is from my precious great-niece! She created it at her nannies house where we all were for Christmas. As you can tell, it is now on my refrigerator and it will stay there for awhile (a year?) before it goes into the file cabinet. She is in first grade in the school where I teach and is always so cute when we happen to cross paths.

Rusty now shares ;) my love of notes from youngsters because he recently got a Christmas card from one of my students. I posted it on his blog, but will re -post it here. The little boy created it especially for Rusty, drew and colored bones on the front. So cute.

They all know Rusty because I have him as the wallpaper on my computer at school. I also found a stamp that is of a Yorkie and it looks just like Rusty. I use it everyday on their folders. They have started calling it their "Rusty," as in :

"Do I get a Rusty today?"

"I want my Rusty upside down!"

"I'm making a pattern with my Rustys!"

"I didn't get my Rusty!"

"He doesn't get a Rusty! He was in trouble in PE."

OK, I'm still working on the tattling thing, but you get the drift. They have fun with it.

Walkies with Rusty -Funny Picture

I took Rusty to the town park for his walk today, Saturday. usually we walk around the neighborhood or David takes us to the big wooded park outside of town. This is the first time Rusty had been to this park. Ths statue scared him a little then he walked up to it to get a good sniff and a look. That guy sure is big and he smells funny!
I got him to sit down in front of the statue and stay. He is a good boy and knows several commands and words so he stayed. There are more words he knows on his own post. If you click on the picture you can see how windy it was. I laughed out loud when I looked at it on the computer. I had to share it. All in all it was a good walk. He always enjoys them and I need the exercise! The only way it could've been any better for Rusty is if there had been any squirrels to terrorize.

On Blogging & Teaching Old Dogs New Tricks

Old dogs have trouble learning new tricks or so they say. In my case I'm finding this to be true. When I started this last month I didn't have a clue what HTML was and very limited knowledge of blogs. I knew blogs existed but hadn't read any. Through trial and error I've come to realize that HTML is a series of seemingly random letters and symbols that represent pictures and actions. How you can get a beautiful picture of the sky (for example) out of a bunch of letters and symbols is beyond me. I've found that you can cut and past these numbers & symbols and, at times, have things show up on your site. Other times nothing shows. I've come to realize that you need to know something about it in order to easily work through the blogging world. Knowing more would have helped me yesterday and the day before. Also having a broader knowledge of the workings of blogs and and so on might have helped.

I have posted 3 pictures on each of the last two entries in this blog. Yesterday's blog had to be deleted and done over because I couldn't get the pictures placed correctly. The words were all squished up in a 3 or 4 letter column beside the pictures. Needless to say that was unreadable. I am assuming now that, if you want to use a series of pictures with writing in between, the pictures must be in the middle. I'd also like to figure out how to downsize the pictures I place here, use thumbnail pictures. My nephew gave me the address of a picture shrinking place but the pictures turned out the same size as before.

I have another blog for my dog. I tried to have it here but our profiles kept getting mixed up. I'd fix my profile and it showed up on his. I'd fix his profile and it showed up on mine. After 4 days of fiddling around and reading FAQs I still couldn't fix it so his blog was moved to another place completely.

I think I'm going to go to Barnes and Noble or to Amazon and see if they have any of those Dummy or Idiot books for blogs. They have them for everything else! This is something that should have done before even starting. In the mean time I'll just keep plodding along here using trial and error to get by. Trial & error has always served me well, so no need to abandon it completely or look disdainfully down on it. :)

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