Fall Break, Part 2

OK, then!  On to the weekend...

Saturday

IT WAS BILL'S BIRTHDAY!  My good looking boyfriend turned 41 years old.  Yes.  You heard me, he is, in fact, younger than me.  Only by a few months.  Still a fact that I get some harassment for every year.  He chose to only do things he wanted to do on his birthday.  So, he went biking in the morning with a group of crazy mountain biking buddies.  Then he went golfing in the afternoon with Will.

Helena spent Saturday morning taking the ACT for the second time.  She was supposed to report in at the high school at 8 am...

... I woke up at 7:45 am with a vague sense of urgency that didn't seem to fit with a Saturday morning, until I bolted upright and realized that Helena wasn't up yet!  I felt so bad!  She was so rushed getting out the door that she didn't have time to eat breakfast or pack any snacks.  In fact, she also forgot her calculator in her rush and ended up taking the test without one.  GAH!  She was hoping to boost her overall score a couple of points, but I am afraid that the bad start might have prevented that.  We'll know in a few weeks, I guess.

Will spent Saturday morning sleeping in.

And me?  I went to Bill's niece's wedding.  She is also my niece, of course, but it might have confused you if you know my side of the family.  Helena is the oldest girl cousin in my family.  Anyway, Kaitlin got married yesterday morning.  Bill has so many relatives that we don't even try to make it to every event we get invited to. However, Kaitlin is special.  Once upon a time, she was in my 6th grade class.  I was her teacher and her Aunt!  Hmm.  That makes me feel old all of a sudden.

After the wedding, I spent a couple of hours in the kitchen helping prep the food for the reception and made an important note to myself.  HIRE A CATERER whenever Helena decides to get married (hopefully in the distant future).  I do not want her female relations slaving away in a kitchen on her wedding day instead of partying with her.

Once I got home from the reception, I quickly changed clothes and went with Helena back up to the U of U.  Her college tour was for an English class assignment.  In fact, she is not done with that, yet.  She still has to sit in on a couple of college classes.  But her AP Art History class has a term project to visit an art museum and write about it.  We were going to fit that into Friday's activities, but found there simply wasn't time for it.  So, we returned on Saturday just for the museum.

This was the first exhibit we looked at when arriving at the museum.  David Burnett was a photo-journalist.  HOLY COW!  His work is impressive!  Think of every major political/historical event in the past 50 years that you can... he was there and took AMAZING photos of it!  Helena and I were both in awe of his career.  I can't believe how many historically monumental events he was a first person witness to!  This turned out to be Helena's favorite exhibit, especially since she has been considering photo-journalism as a career for herself.

 This guy was a Western American painter who lived and painted during the Great Depression.  His works are very painterly and impressionistic.  I loved seeing the paint strokes!

In the two pictures above, I tried to capture the sparkle and shine of the paint.  He must have mixed plenty of oils into his paint (linseed probably).  These were painted in the 1930's, but look shiny and wet like they were painted yesterday!  I took a picture of the bottom one because I just loved how quick brush strokes can make the impression of everything in the picture!

 This might have been my favorite painting in this exhibit.  It represents all the down-on-their-luck unemployed men riding the rails looking for work during the depression.  It seems to resonate with today's economic climate.  The men are out of work and times are hard, but the painting is full of sunlight and color, which lends it a hopeful air.

 This horse looks like it is made out of driftwood, but the plaque says that it is bronze with a special patina.

 Lovin' the Native American room!  These are all Pacific Northwest Indian works, which is probably why they drew my attention.

 Maori Islander mask!  From the South Pacific room.

 In the European art section of the museum, there were pieces of furniture on display, as well.  I loved the wood inlays on the top of this table.  I can't remember how old it is... maybe 200 years?

 Helena taking notes in one of the European art rooms.  As we worked our way back in time, it got more and more tempting to touch the artworks.  The idea of age and antiquity are very attractive to me. I would love to touch the same paint that someone else put onto that canvas 300-800 years ago!  I restrained myself, however.

 I just liked how these statues were framed in the balconies overlooking an exhibit below.

 I am tempted to head down to Southern Utah and paint red rock just from looking at this!

 Ahhh!  From the antiquities section of the museum.  A Greek urn.  It is a good thing it was in a glass box.  I might not have been able to resist this one.  They did have a couple of Roman marble busts on display without glass cases, though.  I got nose to nose with one Roman dignitary, but I was a good girl and did not stroke his cheek.

Helena on the opposing balcony above an exhibit room.  The museum is cool.  If you haven't been to an art museum lately,  GO!

After the museum, Helena and I did the grocery shopping.  Usually, this is not a blog-worthy event, but something happened that I just have to share!  As we were leaving the check out, a little girl (of about 18 months) came walking up to us, shouting in baby jibberish and shaking a couple of packages of Hostess Ho-Ho's.  Apparently, her mom was in line a couple of people behind us, and Helena had been 'flirting' with the little one.  When we started to leave, I guess the little girl decided she wanted to give a gift to her new 'friend'... Helena!  When we wouldn't take the treats from her, she shouted again and threw them at us!  IT WAS SO FUNNY!  Her mom laughed along with us as she collected her daughter and the treats, and we chuckled about it all the way out to the car.

When we got home, we had another surprise waiting for us.  There was a kitten in the back yard!  Our dogs had backed it into a corner against the house.  Helena discovered it and put the dogs in the garage temporarily.  I snapped a few photos, then gathered it up and took it off our property.  It probably 'belongs' to the neighbors, you see.  They feed the feral cats and call them 'pets'.  It encourages the ferals to breed and we end up with stray kittens fairly often.  They just don't usually wander into our dogs' territory.  I just send them back across the fence.  I have more than enough pets at the moment.  It does look like Pepper could be the daddy, though, doesn't it?  There is no way, of course.  We had our cats 'fixed' when we got them.  We are not responsible for any stray kittens!

And, finally, some pictures of the fall colors in our yard!

There you have it.  Fall Break.  The kids go back to school tomorrow and I have one more day before returning to work!

Jonah Day

I have had a terrible day, and it is not yet 9 in the morning!

AURGH!!!

This morning, while getting ready for the day, we discovered that Pepper is missing!  He must have managed to sneak out the door sometime yesterday and hasn't been seen since.  Bill has a bad habit of not shutting doors completely behind himself, particularly if he knows he will be going back through the door again shortly.  Unfortunately, the cats will sometimes take advantage of that and get out.  I don't mind that much if Tigger sneaks out, because he returns quickly and rarely spends more than an hour outside before wanting to be let back in.  Pepper is a different story.  If he sneaks out, he doesn't come back until it is dark out.

Since no one noticed he was gone last night, that means he spent the night out in the coldest weather we have had all month!  The low was 0* F.

I am so frustrated because he is my favorite pet.  I tolerate the dogs for the kids' sakes, and I like  Tigger.  But I love Pepper.  He is my playful Siamese crossed kitty-at-heart cat.  I hope he is okay and that he comes home today.

Meanwhile, when Helena left for school this morning, she accidentally shut the back door on Demi's tail.  Demi is one of the dogs.  They are mini-daschunds and get under foot constantly.  Bill inspected her tail and found that no bones were broken, but there is a wound on the tip that bled all over my kitchen while he was trying to get her to hold still so he could look at it.  So, I had to bleach mop the kitchen in the middle of my morning routine.

The extra events this morning prevented me from having breakfast.  I took a protein bar and a glass of milk in the car to eat on my way to work.  A bump in the road splashed milk all down the front of my coat.  Grrr!

Hopefully the rest of my day will go better and I REALLY HOPE Pepper is okay and comes home soon!

A Welcome Home

Today was one of those nasty 'Minimal Mondays'.  I have to back up and tell you what those are.

Once upon a time, when the economy was strong, the school district decreed that on certain days the students would have a 'day of rest' (day off), while their teachers met together and learned ways to be better teachers.  These days were known as Professional Development Days.  The children of the land were happy, and while the teachers wished they could take the day off, too, at least they knew they would receive an extra day of pay for their efforts.  And so, everyone was content.

Then came the dark times.  The economy fell.  Money was scarce.  The district, in an effort to spend less money, yet still assign the teachers time to meet together and improve themselves, decided to do away with Professional Development Days and decreed a new system... Minimal Mondays!

Four times a year, students would be released from school at a ridiculously early time (12:30).  The rest of the day would be spent by teachers in meetings that would go much longer than their normal contract time.  In this way, the professional development could happen on 'face to face' instructional days and the district could cut out the extra pay needed to have the teachers come to work on non-teaching days.  Students have less time in the classroom, and teachers have less pay, what's not to like?  (insert sarcastic voice here)

Okay.  So.  Today was one of those 'Minimal Mondays'.  The kids got home from school before 1:00, and I didn't get home from work until 6:00 pm!  On a normal day, the kids and I usually hit the house at about the same time... 3:00 pm.

By now, you are probably wondering what this post has to do with the photo at the top?

Bill and I got home at the same time tonight, an event that never happens in real life.  Will was gone up the canyon with his friend's family, and Helena was asleep in the basement.  The puppies, missing the human part of their family, were OVERJOYED to see us and were wriggling nearly to pieces in their ecstasy and eagerness to slobber us with love.  Bill is the loving parent to the puppies and lets them 'kiss' him all over the face.  I am the evil puppy parent.  I will pet them briefly, but that is all.  And yet, they are still brimming over with love for me, too.  That is the beauty of owning a dog.  Absolute and Unconditional Love.  Where a dog loves, she loves with every fiber of her being.  There is literally no room in her body for anything else.  She is just bursting with it.  That is the annoying part, too.  I don't always want puppy affection.  But they don't know how to turn it off.

I think that is why I am a cat person.  Cats are more aloof and will mix equal parts love and disdain, just to make sure you know that you are NOT the center of their universe, thank you very much!

Puppy love

How can you resist the cute-ness factor of a puppy?

Kirsten's and Paul's mini dachshund had a litter of puppies not long ago. We played with them when we were over for dinner last Sunday.  These puppies are actually cousins to our dogs, Bella and Demi.  The puppies mom, Gretchen, is our dogs' 'aunt'.

Dinner was fantastic, too... but somehow I didn't get any pictures of the yummy food. Just lots of pictures of puppy cute-ness.

Not to worry, though. Our house has a two dog maximum limit. Puppy cute-ness is nice to visit, but I don't need more of it around my house!

Christmas Day in the Morning

As is usual, things looked much brighter in the morning. Everyone was cheerful, loving, and happy. We enjoyed the stockings first, down in the family room, by the fireplace. Even the puppies and kitties got a special stocking treat.

Then we went upstairs to the Christmas tree. The kids were very happy about their gifts... especially Will! He was overjoyed to receive a hunting bow because it is exactly what he wanted. He had convinced himself he wouldn't get one because I had told them we were scaling back on Christmas this year. :) The other photos in the collage are of the kids reading their candy cane letters.

I found a fun gift for my students to make for their parents. It is a letter of appreciation rolled up to look like a paper candy cane on the tree. A surprise gift. My kids knew about the students' gifts to their parents, so their candy cane letters were not a surprise, but they still enjoyed reading them.

After the presents were over, we had breakfast and cooked a coffee cake (another tradition), then set about cooking the traditional Christmas feast that should have happened the night before.

It ended up being a magical day. I don't remember a single fight or disagreement all day.

Why did the chicken cross the road?

I have to preface this post with a side story.

Our across-the-street neighbors 'adopted' a chicken that has been wandering around on our street since last fall. No one knows where the bird came from, nor why she initially decided that our street was the place for her. The neighbors bought chicken feed and leave it out for her every day. Now she roosts in the pine tree next to their front door and is quite tame.

Okay, now for my story.

Bill has been working in the yard today, removing damaged tree limbs and trimming the plum tree. He left the back yard gate open so that the dogs could follow him about the yard, front and back.

Eventually, the inevitable happened; Demi saw the chicken across the road.

Okay, so why did the chicken cross the road?

TO GET AWAY FROM MY DOGS!!!!

Sorry, couldn't resist!

Anyway, Demi tore off across the road after the chicken with Bill in hot pursuit. He chased Demi (chasing the chicken) all the way around our across-the-street neighbor's house and...

wait for it...

...across the road to our yard. There, Bella joined the fun and both dogs managed to catch the chicken in our back yard! Bella had it by the throat when Bill finally caught up with the melee!

I am afraid that Bill was not very gentle with Bella whilst rescuing the chicken from her clutches.

Fortunately, the chicken survived the ordeal none the worse for wear (sans a few feathers, of course) and Bill carried it back to the neighbors, who had come out to see what all the ruckus was about.

So there you have it, The REAL reason the chicken crossed the road! I should win the Nobel prize for solving one of life's greatest questions!

Ciao!

Oh, what a beautiful day!

I was going to go on another walk today, but decided to start transferring the food storage into the storage room from the garage. That was enough of a workout for today! It is good to see food starting to fill up those shelves.

I spent the evening just sitting in the back yard enjoying what I would consider perfect weather. Not too cold to sit in the shade and watch the dogs and the cats frolicking in the back yard. Yes, I said frolicking! Pepper has only recently been allowed to go outside now that he is over 6 months old. He is so funny to watch. He 'stalks' the other animals, then pounces. With the dogs, he just races up to them and swats them on the nose. I guess this is because, being dogs, they don't know the proper response. When Tigger gets "attacked" he wrestles with Pepper. I suspect that this is the response Pepper was hoping for in the first place.

Here is an update on Helena's portrait. I know it looks funky, but you have to remember it is a work in progress. My students love to check on it to see if it has changed from day to day. I even had a little girl (3rd grade) ask me why I was painting it these colors. She was tickled pink when I told her that was a very good question and told her that these are the colors of my daughter's room and that is where the painting will be going when finished. I am enjoying working with oil paints. I haven't done any oil painting in 20 years, so I think it is turning out fabulously considering my complete lack of experience in the medium!

Testing the video feature...

I uploaded this video of Bill's idea of funny...(Pepper and Demi tied to each other)... to test out the video feature of blogging. Mom, let me know if it runs smoothly for you because...

I ordered a new camcorder! Bill gave me the money for it for Christmas. He flat out told me that I find the most amazing deals he's ever seen, so he prefers to give me the money and let me do the shopping. I found one at 55% discount on amazon.com and it should be arriving within the week! Hopefully I'll be able to upload videos of the kids soon!

In the meantime, enjoy the video of the dogs and cat!

Stupid dogs eating stupid cat poo!

Yes, it is true. Dogs like to eat cat poop. If you don't like your neighbor's cat pooping in your yard, get a dog. Now you just have dog poop, instead! Okay, so it's not such a hot idea.

So, this morning I was hurrying to get ready for work when I suddenly realized that the bathroom smelled like cat crap. I looked down to see that one of our dogs...Demi to be precise...had rummaged in the cat litter box and had brought a 'treat' to munch on while keeping me company during my morning rituals. AURRRGH!!!!

It is Will's week to be in charge of the cat litter, so he got the dubious privilege of cleaning it up.

Cats and dogs, and Dogs and cats

Everyone is friends now! The kitten, Pepper, absolutely rules the roost. When food is put down for the cats, Tigger will wait while Pepper eats. I have come across the cats sleeping and grooming together. I have also come across the kitten sitting in the dogs' bed with them and wrestling with them. He loves to attack their tails.

Bill will feed the kitten anything off his plate! When the kitten got sick and puked, Bill grumbled about having to clean it up. I just smiled at him and thanked him for doing it. I didn't really feel the need to point out that the kitten was probably puking up whatever funky people food he ate off of Bill's plate.

Yesterday, Bill was finishing off a plate of beans, cheese, and salsa. I should note that Bill likes his salsa ON FIRE! as it were. That hot salsa was a bit too much for the kitty, but Pepper was VERY interested in Bill's egg nog. So...Bill poured some egg nog onto the left over salsa on his empty plate and put it down for Pepper. After a moment's hesitation, Pepper licked the plate clean!

Then, I sat down to eat with my plate of food.

(I should note that we don't currently have a dining room table due to the remodel, so we eat on the couches in the living room.)

Pepper came over eagerly to find out what I was having and to share it with me. Now, I DO NOT share my food with animals! I hissed at Pepper and he backed off at once. Will thought that was the most funny thing. It seemed to work, though. Terrible that I have to remind a little snip of a thing who's boss in this house. He thinks we are all there to entertain him.

The new kitten!

While Bill and I were shopping last night, we noticed 3 children loitering at the entrance of WalMart. They had a cute little kitten with them. It was the last of a litter of 6 that their parents told them they had to get rid of. Mom and Dad were apparently shopping in the store and the kids were hoping some sap would come along and take the kitten. Yes, I agree it was horribly irresponsible on the parents' part to leave their kids unattended like that, but the oldest was a Jr. high student, so I presume they figured he'd look out for the younger ones.

Anyway...I was the sap who fell in love with the kitten and took it home!

This is him! He is 2 months old and doesn't have a name yet. Helena wants to call him Kiwi but we haven't decided yet.

Oh, and Tigger (our other cat) hates him! The dogs, Demi and Bella, both want desperately to love the new kitten, but the kitten hates them, too! I told the kids not to expect much more than an uneasy truce.