Summer!!!

I know, it isn't technically summer yet, but... I am officially on my summer break! Yeehaw! Yesterday would have been my last day but, instead, it was my first day off! Let me explain. Our district opted to make Thursday a "double duty" day, so we all stayed until 8 pm. That is a really long day, let me tell you! Especially when you are pretty much all done with everything already. So, here is what I did. I painted a table and chairs for Gabe. I actually only finished the table and one chair. You see, Mike dropped Gabe off at my work at about 6:00-6:30, and so I hurriedly finished one chair, but then had to spend the rest of my time preventing him from chopping off fingers (paper cutter), eating paint, and running off down the halls. He LOVES school!



So, that's that. Here are some pictures of the table and the finished chair. Many of you know of Gabe's obsession with pirates, so this seemed a fitting theme. I think I will deck his room out in pirate stuff later this summer. I still have to varnish or polyeurethane the table to protect it, but I kinda want to wait for it to get a bit worn first. Easy peasie with Gabe on duty!

Sunday, bloody Sunday

So, it is Sunday evening. Started the day out by sleeping until 8. That is a rare occurrence for me, and it felt wonderful! We were at a friend's home until after midnight, watching UFC and playing cards. It was fun. We played progressive Gin, a game I had never even heard of. I am not very good at it and, subsequently, lost. I usually lose at card games. Give me a trivia game, or a game like Boggle, Scattergories, Cranium.. I will be a serious contender. Cards? Not so much.
The A/C in the church is not working, so we held Sacrament and then called it good. After leaving I filled up Gabe's little kiddie pool and started weeding the garden. Since it is the only time my body sees sun, I wore a tank and a pair of Mike's swim trunks and managed to get FRIED! My back is radiating heat. I need to take out stock in Solarcaine! Stupid me. But, I did manage to weed several rows in our garden before calling it a day, and heading into our much cooler home.
I received some not so great but not quite earth shattering news yesterday that my mother and her boyfriend of 15 years have broken up. I believe in marriage. I think that my mom and Dick should have gotten married a long time ago, but because of insurance and such, they didn't. So now my mom is without a home, has a very small income from a very part-time job, and is looking into nursing school. Hey, I say, "Go for it!" My mom is an intelligent and extremely hard-working woman. She is moving in with a friend who's husband died about 12 years ago (tragic... was killed by lightning), and intends to get started on her FAFSA asap. Mike and I have told her that we will do anything we can to help her out. I really wish that there was more we could do, but as it is, we are broke. But, Mom sounds optimistic, and I give her props for that.
Funny. I immediately thought about how my dad's wife is dying (cancer throughout the body) and my mom is single again. Perhaps God has something in store for these two yet? I guess a child never outgrows the desire to see their parents together forever. Silly, really. But, maybe, not so silly after all.
About 2 weeks ago I was rummaging through a box full of old photographs. I happened upon one of my mom and dad taken perhaps 30 years ago (maybe more like 28), and in it my mom is sitting on my dad's lap, she is hugging him and looking at the camera with a girlish grin, and he is kissing her cheek. They looked so happy. I had a fleeting wish, at that moment, in my garage, that my parents were still together. Hmmm....
Well... that is enough on that. I am having a hard time seeing. It is either from not wearing my glasses, or, perhaps, something altogether different.
-me

Cheatin'

Well, I wound up matting 6 works and floating the rest using a stapler. I know it isn't the most "pro" thing to do, but my hands were getting really sore and the cardboard I was using to as a cheap substitute for a "self-healing" mat was in need of sutures. So, I finished up around 10 pm with all of that and decided to catch up on The Office, a show that, since we no longer have TV, I have missed each Thursday this season and failed to catch up with online on Friday for the last two weeks. Had to get me Office fix!

Today I have to clean out what is supposed to be my in-home studio. I don't get to use it... ever... because, when I do, a tittle two-year-old wannabe Michelangelo runs in and swipes my stuff, colors on my work... basically, I cannt get anything done! But, Gabe is great and I love him too much to get angry with him, so I simply don't go in there and I keep it locked. SO... we have a friend from New Jersey who is moving back to Texas with his wife who is close to due with their first child. They are stopping here for a night en route to Texas. I have to fix up my studio as a temporary bedroom today. I think I will try to have that done and the house cleaned before Mike and Gabe return from camping around lunch time. Mike did a ton of housework before he left (thanks, honey! Love you!) but I still have a bit remaining, namely the bathroom to clean and floors to mop. Right now, as I type, I am watering the garden.

And speaking of the garden, none of my carrots have yet to sprout. :( I think that I will re-plant those two rows in a few days if there is still no sign of carrot sprouts. We had a really heavy rain the night I planted them. They may have washed away. Or the rain may have driven the seeds to deep. They need to be planted shallow. Regardless of the whys, there are no carrots and that needs to be remedied. On another note, we now have two rows of lettuce sprouts and I need to think lettuce, radishes, cucumbers, canteloupes, and watermelons. I think I will give the melon sprouts to someone. They look really strong.

Matting Mania

I am spending my weekend cutting mats.
I know you are all tremendously jealous! I have to cut 35 more before Monday; actually, before tomorrow night. You see, Mike and Gabe are camping as part of our Stake's Father/Son campout. So, I have until they return simply because it will be much easier to cut mats on the floor without a two-year-old trying to assist me. I have cut about 30-40 mats this week already, but I am afraid I will run out of matboard before I finish. I have to hang a little exhibit of art that my kids created this year in class, and since I started matting, I feel like I really need to finish them all. It is being judged and we are awarding ribbons and prizes, so I want every student to feel that their artwork has been given the same treatment as the rest. I did float (pasted to a board which is slightly larger) a couple of pieces, but, alas, I forgot my Yes! Art Paste at school. Bummer!!
I considered having every student mat their own pieces, but, my mattboard supply is limited, and it is my experience that every one work will need two mattboard pieces if a student cuts it versus one if I do it myself. I don't care that it would be an excellent experience for them, yadda, yadda, yadda... it is the end of the year, I am tired of teaching, and I want this show up and ready! For all those out there who think, "What a baby! Tired of her job as she is preparing to have three months off! Waaa!!!" You try teaching 150 ninth grade students for nine months and tell me that you don't feel like you deserve a break! Don't get me wrong, I love my work! I love what I do. But, having three months to recharge my batteries is why I have not yet burned out on this gig. Trying to help shape our future generations, numbers of whom do not have a parent at home desirous of doing that task themselves, is a tiring, time-consuming, all-encompassing little job for which I am certainly underpaid, underappreciated, and, well... underrated for doing. But I do it. I go to work each day and try to keep my energy up and my smile plastered to my face as I deal with all sorts of craziness that I won't get into here.
So... this "little" show will hopefully be my way of helping my students feel like this year has been worth something. That their work, however hard I pushed them to do better, do more, and do, is worthy of recognition.
I have a student who refused to listen to a thing I tried to teach him all year. He fought tooth and nail, assuring me that he was the better artist and that he could learn absolutely nothing from me. He received crap grade after crap grade for crap work that he refused to try on. His mom yelled at me for not recognizing the genius which is her son. I showed her his work, and she said something to the extent that if I had assignments that challenged more, he'd do better! Have you seen my other blog?? I challenge the heck out of my kids! Well, this kid comes up to me this week to tell me that he is sorry that he hasn't tried in class. Sorry that he has not allowed me to teach him. (Imagine that!) This last assignment, a still-life, was really difficult for him. I went over and gave him a few pointers and he actually tried what I demonstrated for him. Guess what!? It looks great! He is so proud of this one piece; this little still-life drawing that he fought having to do because "it is a stupid waste of time." This student spent yesterday after school working on his still-life, and came to my room for three periods today to work and stayed after school again today! So it took me all year to get to him, but I did.
Finally!!!

Strawberry Fields Forever

Today I introduced Gabe to the delight which are garden fresh strawberries! I am not too sure if I should have done this since now he has become a little strawberry pickin' fiend! At first he wasn't too certain about these little red thingies hanging from a plant in our yard, but, after I force-fed him one (c'mon all you moms... admit it... you have shoved something wonderful into that little mouth before to get your kid to "try this!") he was like a strawberry junkie! So now I have to be ever watchful lest the strawberries are picked before their time. Gabe ran around the garden singing, "Strawberry, strawberry!" I think I should teach him to play his little guitar and sing Lennon's Strawberry Fields and record it for youtube. Or wait... has something like that been done before? lol

SO anyway, here are some pictures from today. Enjoy.

Also, I ran much more quickly today. I feel a lot stronger, though my legs started to cramp because I am a lazy stretcher. I guess I need to improve on that aspect of this quest to better health, a smaller pants size, and a nice runner's butt! Once I have acheived that second one I will post before/after pics. Until then you must believe that my pants are fitting better and I feel stronger (though not as strong as I would like). Now onward to pants that are too freakin' big to possibly wear and a mini shopping spree for size sevens! Goal set. Game on!

Inverted Insanity!

We now have inverted tomatoes, inverted jalepenos, inverted habaneros, and I have begun sowing herbs in the tops of our "inverted planter" buckets. We have plants hanging on our porch and on our fence. I guess one could assume that we are now hooked on this form of gardening. As for our traditional garden, we have sprouts in our corn, beets, radishes, and lettuce. Last night, just before we were hit with a crazy storm, I also sowed green beans and sugar snap peas. I really enjoy working alongside of Mike in this little garden, and Gabe is really into it, as well. He loves to cover up my seeds with dirt! He follows us around, watering, pouring more soil on the seeds, putting stray fertilizer where needed. He is quite the little sod-buster!

I am certain Mike will blog about our little organic seed pots, so I won't wreck that for him. It is a really neat idea, and, if he doesn't write about it soon, I will photograph and write about it tomorrow.

Inverted Tomatoes and More

We have decided to plant our tomatoes upside-down in buckets. It is really quite cool. A few of our friends here told us about it. Maybe I am unique in that I had never heard of such a thing, and, at first, I couldn't imagine how something that sounded so backwards could possibly work. Hopefully this does work since I think we are about to transplant our entire crop of various peppers into upside-down pots! Look, a bucket costs $1.50 at Wal-Mart (I dislike Wal-Mart, but, unfortunately that is what we have here in Marion, ummm... West Memphis) versus a tomato cage that runs at least $6 for a decent one. If you don't want to spend $1.50, you can always go for the free and "recycler" approach and use 6 plastic shopping bags ironed together (see pic). And this little contraption makes for one fine hat, as well!!

So, yesterday I ran in the morning, which was the first time that I had done that since the fall. It felt really great. I am really glad that I did it. Later in the morning (at about 9:15) we went to the zoo and spent several hours there. I like the Memphis zoo, but I wish that they had those little feeding stations where you can buy pelleted food to feed the animals. At least at the water fowl exhibits, since they would be a lot of fun to feed for the little kids. Oh well. Gabe really loves to go to the zoo. I figured I would post a few pictures of that little trip on my blog. Enjoy!

This is SO AWESOME

I went to my brother's myspace and saw this. It is so amazing. I can't imagine that this little girl is any older than Gabe.


Check out this video: korean baby singing hey jude



Add to My Profile | More Videos

Two days without running

Yesterday I didn't run. I cannot recall why, exactly, but I think I probably just didn't feel like it. So today... well... today a couple of tornadoes touched down in the area, and so I decided that the weather wasn't really fit for running. So I had a bean burrito and now, as I type, I am noticing that it looks rather nice outside, but I have a tummy full of dinner and that will probably make me sick if I run. So, there it is; two days without running. Not too good, Beccabeck. Nope, not too good at all. Oh well. I will try to get out there tonight if I feel like my stomach can handle it. Or (and most likely this will be the case) I will run two times tomorrow. That should help. Besides, what with summer break approaching, I was thinking I would try to do that anyway, I just wasn't planning to start quite this soon.