A Funny Fact

I was on the phone last night with Sister Three,

and she was updating me on her moving from the city

to the farm.

She told me her new homestead actually

lies across the county line.

.

I found this quite funny.

Do you suppose the kitchen is in one county,

and the bathroom in another county?

I can see it now:

Sister Three will ask her hubby what took

so long?

He will reply, " I had to go to

clear over to the xyz county"

When I was younger and had to share

a bedroom my older sister Jenny, we

would draw a line down the middle of the room.

Each drawer in the dresser was divided in two, instead of

each of just taking our "own" drawer.

It was really bad for the sister who

didn't have the side of the room with the door on it.

We fought like cats and dogs.

I'm still not sure why I had to share a room with her.

After all I had two other sisters to room with.

Another question from childhool without an answer.

Sister Three promised to post an update with

picutes of her house in the country. Just as soon

as she gets settled in and figures out what her address

is, so the internet guy can get it hooked up.

Jeff Foxworthy on You Might Be a School Educator If ......

... you believe the playground should be equipped with a Ritalin salt lick.

... you want to slap the next person who says, "Must be nice to work 8 to 3:30 and have the summers off."

... if it is difficult to name your own child because there's not a name you can come up with that doesn't raise your blood pressure when it is uttered.

... if you can tell it's a full moon or if it is going to rain, snow, or hail without ever looking outside!

... if you believe, "shallow gene pool" should have its own box on a report card.

... if you believe that unspeakable evils will befall you if anyone says, "Boy, the kids sure are mellow today."

... you feel the urge to snap your fingers at children you do not know and correct their behavior."

... you have no social life between August and June.

... if you think people should have a government permit before being allowed to reproduce.

... if you wonder how some parents MANAGED to reproduce.

... if you laugh uncontrollably when people refer to the staff room as the "lounge".

... if you encourage an obnoxious parent to check into charter schools or homeschooling and are wiling to donate the U-HAUL boxes should they decide to move out of district.

... you think caffeine should be available in intravenous form.

... if you can't imagine how the ACLU could think that covering your students chair with Velcro and then requiring uniforms made out of the corresponding Velcro could ever be misunderstood by the public.

... if meeting a child's parent instantly answers the question, "Why is this kid like this?"

... if you would choose a mammogram over a parent conference.

... if you think someone should invent antibacterial pencils and crayons.

... if the words "I have college debt for this?" has ever come out of your mouth.

... if you know how many days, minutes, and seconds are left in the school year!

Track & Field

by Sister Two:

Daughter # 1 is at her first track meet of the year in Kimball.

She is competing in shot put and discus.

Updates to follow.

At 9:08 a.m. I sent a text message to daughter #1 regarding her track meet.

Sister Two: How is it going?

at 10:27 a.m. I get her first update.

Daughter # 1: suckish

Well I think to myself that doesn't sound very good. Hmmm...

I'll ask for more details.

At 10:46 a.m. I reply: Well??

10:50 a.m. daughter #1: didn't even place

I think to myself, aren't thirteen year old just so full of detailed information.

So I tried another approach and texts back at 10:51 a.m."Call me"

Most of you are probably aghast at such a suggestion.

To actually use the phone to place a call and not text

some shorthand version of some foreign language

only teenagers know how to speak.

The phone call came in at 10:56 a.m.

She threw the shot put 19 feet and the discus 48 feet.

She told me her results as fast as she could so she could hang up the phone

and hang out with her friends for the rest of the day.

She wasn't happy with her results, but I bet she did better than

she is giving herself credit for.

Next track meet is Saturday morning in Gering.

sisters

A tale of two daughters.

Daughter one.....

a serious, studious, more reserved teenager

occasionally happy go lucky

umm... dislikes her picture being taken,

and please don't take another picture of me

or the corn head gets it.

Daughter #2

a happy go lucky tween

adventurous, fun loving, sporty

Daughter # 1

goofy.

Daughter # 2

also goofy.

Maybe they are more alike than I first thought.

Today

Today we were supposed to get up at the butt crack of dawn and drive to Colorado for the annual Quilt Affair at The Ranch outside of Loveland.

We've gone for several years and enjoyed it each time.

Afterwards, we were going to get together with the Simpleton clan.

I was looking forward to that as much as the quilt show.

So much for that idea.

Wyoming got hit hard with snow.

Library Sherrie, rest assured that we will enjoy the kraut burgers.

So instead, I worked on my next medieval banner.

 

As you can see, I still have one section to go on the knight.

This is about six hours worth of cutting and piecing.

I also did mundane stuff like laundry.

I have to go to Denver tomorrow for a training for school.

I thought it might be nice to have clean clothes.

And yes, I went and bought new socks and underwear.

Just like always.

About mid-morning when I was grumping around because 

we couldn't go to Colorado, I get a picture-text from dear Sister Two. 

It read, "What are you doing?"

 

I have to admit I was a bit jealous even though I'm not a football fan.

I can't believe I just typed that out loud .... not liking football is

almost sacreligious here in Nebraska.

Is it evil to hope they got rained on?

April Showers ...

.... bring muddy roads,

robins on fence posts,

 

wet, smelly dogs,

 

and best of all, wild asparagus!

(But I'm not telling where.)

Medieval Times

Last week we were able to get in and see our new classrooms.

 

This is the south end of my new room.

It's very nice, but  I'm going to miss the wooden floors.

This is Vicki's classroom looking to the west ....

... and the view to the east.

Windows.  Ugh.

I love my basement classroom with the windows at the top of the wall.  

They let in plenty of natural light, but don't offer any distractions.

I've never had to contend with window distractions before.

 

Except when I was in school.  

You wouldn't believe everything that went on outside of Emerson. 

I watched Homer take Lucy out for a drive almost every day.  

Dr. Heimbouch left for the office at nine.  

Mr. Briggs took his dog for a walk after recess.  

 And I was a kid who paid attention in class. 

(At least I did in elementary school)

Now you know why I'm apprehensive about windows.

Somehow cows munching on corn stalks would seem

more interesting than doing our Colorful Language ...

which is essentially diagramming sentences.  

Can you believe we have first graders diagramming sentences?!

See how I've already digressed from the topic at hand

and there's nary a window in my computer room!

At any rate, this is a nook just inside my door that will be used for books.

I'll bet that surprises you.

Karen (my principal) watched us as we measured and muttered.

 

She missed out on the cussing and discussing how we 

are going to separate one collection of books into two rooms.

We think we have figured out how to manage all of the bookcases.

If we can fit the bookcases in, we can manage the books.

Did you notice the gross color in my room?

That's going to get changed.

A coat of paint and three or four

thousand books will make it seem like home.

Next year we are going to do a school-wide medieval theme.

Vicki and I already have some great ideas.

We're scary when we put our heads together!

We have doors that go directly to the playground.

I spent the week-end making the first of two banners to go on said doors.

I offered to help Sister Two cook for the branding,

but Martha didn't need me.

Isn't that door just boring and bland?

It will look much better with this on it!

Yes, I made that with my own two little hands.

Remember how I was teaching myself

paper piecing with the mariner's compass blocks?

Well, it sorta paid off.

I was able to take this:

and turn it into a block of a knight

and then a dragon.

 

Note, the butt in the corner:

When I put them together, I ended up with this:

Of course, I was not without help.

Lilly took it upon herself to guard my fabric.

 

But she did a lot of sleeping on the job!

Willowby (aka Momma San) kept my chair warm 

every time I got up to press what I had just stitched. 

I can hardly wait to get it sandwiched and quilted.

I'm trying to decide if I want to do the knight in red on the next one.

I'm leaning toward doing it in blue, just so that they are a bit different.

What do you all think?

Random Stuff

We drove out to Amador Flower Farm the other day and had a picnic. 

I was expecting fields of lavender, but apparently they specialize in day lilies which won't start blooming until June.  

They had some nice tulips though.

And some big fluffy sheep. Are those sheep or goats? I think they're sheep.

And we saw a mean llama.

Isabella liked climbing on the rocks, (although you can't see them in this picture.)

Anderson liked the turtles and the  frogs. (They're not as good as Trudy's big ol' bull frog though.)

Here's his turtle impression.

There were signs everywhere telling us to watch out for rattlers. 

Here's her cobra impression. She's our future yoga instructor.

We also saw a weird masked duck. 

I think this is a Muskogee. (sp?) 

They don't quack like the other ducks and they waddle really funny. Unlike regular ducks, who have barely laughable waddles.

Uncle Fred told Andrew and I about them once at the fair.

And here are some old pics I found of us at the fair. I think this is 2004.

Belated Easter Wishes

I hope everyone had a happy  weekend. 

In honor of Easter, I thought I'd post a picture of the best rabbit ever: Snickers!

Then I found this oldie of Easters past. I think this must have been Krista's second Easter. She looks about 18 months to me? (I don't know. I'm kind of bad with guessing ages and even worse at labeling pictures.)

She needed a nap after that chocolate rush. I think she kind of looks like Keith in this one.

I'm not sure when this one was taken, but it's been on my fridge for a while. 

(Justin?, Krista, Katie, and Alyssa)

And here's one of Krista & Dani when Dani was an uber-blonde.

I didn't want Trudy to feel left out, but I only have about three pictures of her.

(which is surprising since so many millions of them were taken when she was a youngster.)

I don't know when this was taken or who that baby is, but it looks like we are lying on a waterbed if that helps to set the time frame. Also, Trudy seems to be sporting an Alliance Swim Team Sweatshirt. And those gi-normous glasses on my face are making me think it was some time during my middle school years.

Monday

Just a quick update to let everyone know that I survived another day at the ranch.

We branded not quite 500 baby calves  on Friday,

and fed not quite 20 hungry cowboys.

It was a over cast day, but not terribly cold or windy.  

 

We had very good help and everyone had fun.

Except for maybe the baby calves that were crying out as were

captured, given shots and branded.  

I was able to take a few pictures  and still give shots.
I will post them later in the week.

Tommorow is only 24 hours away.

Yikes.

As I began to panic.

Even though we have gone through two huge
 blizzards in a short amount of time.

 Even though it is gloomy outside. 

Even though  we have snow flurries as I write this.  

Even though I have not remotely prepared for it......

Even though  it's a sure sign of spring,

next to the curlews returning to their

spring nesting grounds.

(we spotted them this morning at the ranch)

 

We are branding baby calves  in less than 24 hours!

How many baby calves are we branding?

Don't know.... one, two, one hundred, five hundred?

I'll find out soon when they hand me my processing gun. 

Why the sudden  panic mode, you ask?

Because several weeks ago, in a weak moment I made this comment:

"I'll take the day off and cook for you guys"

Why, Why, Why,  did I utter this?

In all truth it's not that bad or hard to cook a big meal.

If only I had prepared for it.

If only I hadn't counted on the bad weather

to blow into Western Nebraska  and post pone the event.

If only I had made a grocery list last night.

If only I didn't have to go to the grocery store

 at 5:00 p.m.

Yeah I know that's crazy time. 

Might as well go jump off a bridge rather than go

to the grocery store at 5:00 p.m.

Note to self:  It will be okay. 

 It's not your first rodeo

time cooking for a big bunch

 of hard working, hungry,

cowboys.  

Just put velveta on it,

and they will eat it.

May the force be with me.