Curse of the Black Spot (or heart shaped post-it)

There are many changes in my school district due to the economy. Class sizes will be bigger next year so we are losing positions. Enough veteran teachers took the "golden handshake" that no one was laid off. Thank you for retiring all of you!

They didn't necessarily leave the school site or grade level that needed to lose classes though. Our site had to move two teachers to other sites. Now our site is shifting teachers to different grade levels. Third grade, my grade, is going to bigger classes, so we need fewer of them.

Yesterday during an assembly I was passed a small note, "Claire, can you come and see me for a minute, Roni." I immediately thought of Treasure Island and the curse of the black spot. Sure enough, I will not be a third grade teacher next year. I'm "graduating" to fourth.

I've thought about teaching the older kids. I'm really not into "cute" as much as my fellow primary teachers. On the other hand I'm not thrilled at the chance of having some of my more difficult students for a second year.

I'm not just changing grades, I'm also moving to a new classroom. A room in a real building. My entire teaching career has been in portables. My new room has a door to the computer lab and there is an adult restroom in the building too. These all are good things. On the other hand, instead of 20 or the new 24 students in third grade, I will have 30 or more.

Well, I'm not going to waste too much thought on this now. There are 4 school days left. I'll pack up my room and move next week.

On Monday of my break we had a skid steer delivered. It's like a small bulldozer. It took a while to get good at digging and leveling, but I did pretty well. It was a little scary because it was easy to tip, but we never rolled it over.

Autumn and the girls came on Wednesday. Elsa is working on giving up her morning nap, so she was fragile. Charlotte and Ramona loved the Horse Tales videos I bought for them. I had never seen them before, but when they turned up on the sale shelf at Von's I thought what the heck. They are awful! But the girls were thrilled.




We girls, all six of us, went to the mall. While Autumn and I hung out with the little girls, Caitlin shopped for a new swimsuit. She found a really cute one and it didn't break the bank.


Gayle and Rene came on Saturday. We took Alex to Mom Can Cook, a local Thai place, for his 20th birthday. It's a little place so our group of 10 filled the center. The food and service were great as usual.

Gayle cooked Easter brunch. Yum, yum. Monkey bread and egg/hash brown pie.

After brunch we all (except my mom) went to the Gentle Barn. It is a rescue for farm animals. We pet horses, cows, and pigs. There were chickens and lamas, an emu, goats, and even a regular old farm dog. It was great fun. After that we went to the Big Oaks Lodge for lunch and a beer.

My mom was getting over being sick so she missed out on most activities. We hired Comfort Keepers to stay with her. They get double on Easter! Since mom was sick all week my ideal break didn't quite happen. I was hoping she would go to daycare so I could have time off from taking care of her. Oh well, she's better now and I did have a wonderful time, especially on the weekend.

Spring Break!

Hurray!!

Spring break is here. I have many plans and some down time.

I've already finished a book. It was a sci-fi romance. I like sci-fi, but I think I was in a mood for more romance and less quantum physics. I'm still slogging through Uncle Tom's Cabin. Not because I'm enjoying it so much as I'm unwilling to let Beecher Stowe defeat me with her mire.

Today we are having a small bulldozer delivered. The plan is to level the backyard. Right now it slopes toward the house. We also want to dig some footings for the patios. I so desperately want a yard I can enjoy. With the dirt wasteland we have now the dogs are always dirty and so our carpet is always dirty. Even the heroic roomba can't keep up.

Yesterday I visited an assisted living facility. I'm trying to decide whether it's better to have mom at home with caregivers or at a facility when we go on vacation this summer. It's a lovely facility, but I'm not sure she would get enough supervision at night. She would have a little studio apartment with a door that is closed and locked. She's not locked in, other residents are locked out. Caregivers have pass keys of course. I just don't know how they deal with checking on residents at night. Jon, the man who showed me around, assured me they would assess her needs and monitor her, but I'm not sure. It would be cheaper than in home care. Also in home care seems harder to set up with mom going to daycare and being sure someone is at the house when she gets home. Having multiple strangers stay at the house to care for her makes me nervous. Of course if we go with a facility we would have to kennel the dogs or find a house/pet sitter.

Tuesday I get my hair cut again - yeah

Wednesday mom has an eye appointment. I dread it. I like the eye doctor, but the staff has no idea how to deal with dementia.

Mom's neurologist took her off of Aricept. She says at this point in the disease it isn't doing anything. That made me sad. Another step in this long goodbye.

Wednesday is also the day Autumn and the girls are coming. I'm looking forward to playing around, dying eggs, and generally hanging out.

Friday I see an elder law attorney. I want to make sure I'm dealing with finances in a proper way. Also I want to protect mom's assets as much as legally possible if someday (ok, when someday) we have to place her in a facility.

Saturday Gayle and Rene are coming. It's Alex's big 20th birthday! I'm not sure what we're doing for dinner. He's currently a vegetarian. He says anywhere is fine, but I want to take him somewhere that has good choices for him. I better get a cake ordered today. It will be hard to beat the Star Wars cake Gary got for him last year.

Sunday we will go to The Gentle Barn. It is a rescue organization for farm animals. They are having an Easter event.

Somewhere in the week I need to fit in a few classroom hours, too.

New Pet

We have a new pet. Gary and I have been watching it as it explores the house. We chuckle over how cute it is. And grumble over how loud it is. So far it still only has the name it came with, Roomba.

Eventually it will get a new name.

The last few days have been beautiful. Warm and sunny, like spring. Today it is spring and a little cooler. The weekend though will be cold windy and maybe even wet. Where is the justice?!

I'm really looking forward to spring break. Maybe we can get started on the yard. It's been little more than a vacant lot for he last two years. When I see pictures of its former lush beauty I feel awful.

Many home projects waiting for something else to happen first. A log jam, but that first log is so big it feels like a Herculean task to get started. Herculean and a money pit. One step at a time will not get it done. It feels like trying to build a sandcastle as the tide comes in. Baby steps get washed away before you can get to the next step.

Rambling to myself

I haven't blogged for awhile. So, this is just a ramble - fair warning.

I loved the movies Escape to Witch Mountain and Return to Witch Mountain when I was a kid. Now there's a remake. I think it's being remade to remind me how lame a movie can be and still be great to a kid.

We went to the opera Wednesday. Das Rheingold. It was Alex and Caitlin's first opera. I wish I had chosen a different one. It was good, but I think they would have enjoyed Mozart more. It was so great to go out with them though. We have to do it more. Maybe we need to just visit the family in Riverside for the day next time.

Mom had a UTI. It made her pretty sick and completely gone mentally. Fortunately we saw the symptoms early enough to get her on antibiotics without a hospital stay. She seems pretty well recovered, although she still hasn't gotten up this morning and it's already 8:00. Her sheets will be pretty wet!

OK, if I'm going to go all medical...I've been having lady issues. Or to be more exact - a lack of lady issues. After some tests the doctor determined there's nothing wrong with me. I'm just menopausal. Cool, I guess. It's one less monthly complication. I'm only 44 so it's a little young, but that's how averages work. Some are younger than 51 and some are older.

I went to the PINK support rally at one of our major intersections. http://www.the-signal.com/news/article/10553/ For those of you not into California education yesterday was Pink Friday. The day pink slips had to be given to teachers for next year. About 40 were given out in my district. There were teachers from our district and the high school district at our selected intersection. There were groups at major intersections throughout our city. It was a little windy and hard to hold up signs that were like sails, but I spent two hours with my coworkers doing it. Several of my friends there received their pink slips a few weeks ago. My district is really trying to help them by giving them as much information as they can as early as they can. It's so sad. Many people who are losing their jobs have young families and have just bought houses. One single librarian got her pink slip. She has cancer and needs the insurance coverage. Brutal.

I'm reading Uncle Tom's Cabin. The style is so different from the last book I read, Old Man and the Sea. I feel like slapping Harriet Beecher Stowe sometimes. I like a crisp style and this is more like deep dish stuffed crust.

I signed up for Twitter. HATE IT... ok that makes it sound like I care. It just doesn't make sense to me. Why would anyone want to use it? Are you so self-important as to think I want blow - by - blow a report on what you're doing? If you are that important, let me read your blog not your short reports with links to blogs etc.

That's it my blog of the month is done.

Charlotte and Ramona are coming to visit for a few days. I'm excited and am planning some fun adventures. Autumn and Rene are going to Spain for a symposium so we get to babysit.

My biggest plan is taking them to a ranch for what they call a play day. Basically it's time grooming horses, feeding goats, and just hanging out on the ranch. Along with that they will take a 30 minute horseback ride. We'll probably do that tomorrow, hopefully the weather will hold.

Other ideas are bowling, indoor playground, IHOP for breakfast, making and decorating Valentine cookies, or maybe just Valentines with glue and glitter etc.

I'm taking off 2 days from work and then we have a 4 day weekend which means I'll be off 6 days! Gary picks the girls up today and they;ll be there when I get home from work. I can't wait!

Maybe after 5 or 6 days I'll be better at telling them apart.