South End Going North

This my good friend's daughter on a camping trip. (My good friend's husband is my boss, but we won't hold that against her.) :-) She is an excellent photographer. The girl is looking for fish - Have you ever seen such a cute shot?!!!

Writing

I have been at the computer a good bit lately. I'm editing a memoir for an older man in our church. He's got it all written; I'm just cleaning up the punctuation, etc., so that he can print it off for his family. Then there is a Bible curriculum that needs work for next year, and I'm also working on another project that takes up a good bit of time right now.

Also getting Andrew off to camp. We went through his clothes yesterday. Whew! Couple WAY too much stuff - most of it old and just never disposed of over the years - with his inability to say "get rid of this," and it makes for a big job. (It goes back to his packrat days of keeping Little Debbie boxes, empty Fritos bags, etc. - I would find his closet full of those kinds of things when he was four and five years old.) And ML is busy getting back into her job and finding summer things to do as well.

I did a mile on the elliptical yesterday!

Somebody Touched Me

Andrew and four other men sang in this quintet on Sunday night at church. Thank you Danielle for videoing this!

Graduating Class of 2010

These are (were?) my seniors. They called me their "school mom" ever since ninth grade. Over the last five years I taught them eighth grade earth science, ninth grade geography, junior English, chemistry, and senior English, so I know them well. They are a very academically-minded group - it was very difficult to get the curve down as so many wanted to do well - which made them a delight to teach and fun to do creative learning activities with. I think some twenty of the twenty-nine graduated with some kind of honors - they were that bright and hard-working. I will miss these young people and have appreciated the opportunity to have some input into their lives.

Miscellaneous Pics.

Well, next week I've got to get down to serious computer business - working on a Bible curriculum and doing some writing which I will share more of later. So here is a series of miscellaneous pictures from spring 2010, each of which probably deserves its own post but is going to be memorialized in this collage instead.

With a very dear student, Ashley, who just graduated Thursday night. This is at the junior-senior which was held the end of April.

My dear college friend Barby came to see me a couple of weeks ago. She was staying close by and was here to pick up her son from college. I did not realize at the time that I was coming down with a massive cold - had 101 fever by the next morning - and was very relieved that she and her two children who were with her, and who were in our house and around me for four hours, did not get sick.

Andrew and my sister Rhoda in Atlanta at our niece Lauren's graduation.

Our family at Lauren's graduation party.

Last night - Franklin, NC - yes, the big A talked me into going with him to another Ernie Haase concert. This time we weren't offered front row tickets like last year, but Andrew scoped out an empty seat during intermission and moved to the front row then. I was happy to stay in the back. He will find a way! We didn't get home until 12:30 but we had a wonderful time together.

Random

--The last week of school / exams / graduations / etc., means not much time for posting on a blog.

--Andrew got my printer to work this evening. Wonderful - now I have a great setup on my desk. That's good, because I have a lot to do this summer here at the desk. Writing, working on a Bible curriculum, editing a memoir for someone in my church - it will be great to have everything right here at my fingertips, in my own workspace.

--I made a new, made-up recipe last night. Wish I'd taken a picture. It was ground chicken, made into meatballs with garlic powder, cracker crumbs, celery salt, egg, and tiny chopped up pieces of celery and onion sauted together. I browned them and made sure they were done all the way through, and then served them with some leftover beef gravy from Sunday. They were very good if I do say so myself!

--Graduation tomorrow night. This is the class that called me their "school mom" all the way through high school. They are a good class - very academically oriented - and they will be missed.

--Time to get back to the gym! I can tell it's time by the way some of my clothes are fitting.

--Don't order plants through a catalog. The ones we bought, that looked so beautiful in the pictures, are not growing at all.

--The knockout rosebushes that Mike put in last week are going to be lovely.

One of My Son's More Illustrious Moments

This is from last Christmas but I haven't had an opportunity to post it until now, with Andrew gone all semester, as it was only on his computer. These "elves" did this for a humorous student body program - it is a takeoff on something that the Dallas Brass group did when they were there for a formal concert. In case you can't tell, my (illustrious?) son is second from the left.

Demonstration Speeches

Just finished demonstration speeches with my 10th grade speech class. That is always the most-fun speech of the year. If they're prepared, and have something to say, they get a good grade. This year we had quite a variety. There are usually several cooking demonstrations, which I try to divide out among the five days of speeches so that we aren't too stuffed in one day. This year the non-cooking demonstrations were: painting techniques, CPR and the Heimlich maneuver (complete with dummies from the fire department), violin playing, piano playing, how to properly hit a baseball and how to deliver different pitches, hairstyling, and makeup application. The cooking demonstrations were cake decorating, cheeseburger casserole, oriental chicken salad, brownie delight, strawberry delight, and apple fritters!

Andrew got to enjoy the cheeseburger casserole and apple fritters day - he substituted for me on Monday since I was out sick. I figured a college speech major could handle grading demonstration speeches. And they enjoyed having him in class as well.

Today was the last day of class. We don't have an exam so I am done with them as of today. We've had a good year.

From my husband's Mother's Day card to me. . .

"...When times are trying, just remember a small boy with his pant legs rolled up, and a little girl with bangs wearing her beloved pink "joy-joy" pants, singing to entertain herself in her sandbox..."

Sunday Misc.

- Thanks to Mike's efforts and a $38 thermostat, our 27-year-old dryer is good to go again - maybe for another 27 years?

- Heard at church tonight of a friend who is in excruciating pain from a lower back disk that herniated when he sneezed last week. Brought back memories of the morning when Mike was home with Andrew, back in 1992, when the same thing happened. Tomorrow morning this friend will go to the same neurosurgeon that operated on Mike back then. Just hope he has the same success that Mike did.

- Andrew and the team have their last service tomorrow morning in a Christian school - then will drive home through the east coast rain. They are ready to be done even though they will also miss it.

Desk!!!

I have a desk!!!!!

I have needed one for a long, long time. It's not perfect - it's actually not in very good condition and really could use refinishing; however, an hour with Old English liquid for fixing gouges and scratches really helped. It's solid wood - Mike thinks pine because there are some small holes that look like a child dug into it. But it's not laminate, even in the back, and not veneered, so it can be refinished at some point. And - it cost $5! It was originally $10, and when the man having the sale saw that I was serious about it, said "You can have it for $5 if you want."

So now I have a place to pay bills, grade papers, work on the computer, write, and just headquarter all my paper "stuff." An added benefit - I can see birds at the birdbath, the resident chipmunk making messes, and the cardinals that appear to have built a nest in the bush right outside the window.

And if we do find a really antique desk, we won't exactly be out a lot of money. :-)