July 10- 22...Where does the time go?

I swear! The time just gets away from me, and I don't really feel like I'm accomplishing much...but I guess I really am, in retrospect.
Let's see...what has kept me busy these past 2 weeks?

Sunday, July 10
JA WORK STUFF DAY
I'd been working on preparing a newsletter to send out to all of our Junior Auxiliary Life and Associate Members (the ones that are no longer "active"). They do like to know what's going on, what we have planned, and reminded that they are always invited to help us in our projects and such. I'd been working on this letter for about 2 weeks...not only preparing it, but then checking and rechecking addresses...and finally got them ready to mail out. All 85 of them.


Then I got myself organized and made binders/folders for the things I'm in charge of this year. I'm the Recording Secretary, the Public Relations Officer, and also the leader of the Crown Club (the group we started for our daughters and former members' daughters to help us in some of the things we do and also provide their own services through projects of their own.)


Monday, July 11
LAZY DAY
I got all those letters mailed out this morning, then came back and had a rather lazy day just watching season 2 of Northern Exposure, (and of course doing laundry and things like that)The kids are gone so it was rather quiet.
The dogs enjoyed my laziness, too!



Tuesday, July 12
SALSA!!
Greg was given a bag of purple hull peas, and a bag of fresh picked tomatoes by one of the preachers that comes and films a show at the tv station. Greg can't eat tomatoes anymore, and I could never have eaten all there were before they went bad, so we decided to try and make salsa. It was our first attempt...and it was a success!!


Wednesday, July 13
STANDOFF!
I spent the day at our local college attending the first of a 3 day class in CGI (Cognitively Guided Instruction...for math). This was Level 3, I'd already had 2 summers of this fun. Actually, it wasn't bad. It's basically teaching kids to solve math problems, by letting them experiment with strategies of their own, and then getting them to deeper thinking.

I know...blah blah blah....math.

When I got home, Greg and I cleaned off the back patio. He got out the blower and commenced to blowing the pine needles and frog poop away. (yes..frog poop. They live in our wood pile, and come out to eat the bugs on the ground that get zapped by the bug zapper at night. They leave quite a mess, too. I never knew frogs could poop so much!)
Maggie is so funny with the blower (and the vacuum). It's like she has to battle it.

At first it's a standoff...


but Greg gets the best of her...


Thursday, July 14
AND THEN THERE WERE TWO
Alex texted from his mom's house (where he stays during the week), to tell us that the little orange kitty had died. He was the runt, and we think he just wasn't getting enough milk.


Friday, July 15
TGIF!
back to the college for the third day of math fun. (actually, I do like math. I love solving story problems and algebraic equations.)
I saw this in the student center and really liked its message.


Saturday, July 16
THE KIDS ARE BACK IN TOWN, KIDS ARE BACK IN TOWN..
(think..."The Boys are Back in Town" song)
Well, just the M&Ms. They were suppose to stay at their dad's so they could work in at Bible School there all next week...but then they would miss their cousin's bday party next Thursday. So...the M&Ms chose to come to my house but Trey wanted to stay and do VBS.
Alex was here, too, of course. We enjoyed the kitties.



Sunday, July 17
MOM IS A GENIUS DAY
it's the little things, yanno?
Take a can of crescent rolls, fill them with strawberry jam, roll up, bake, and sprinkle powdered sugar on them. The kids thought I was brilliant! lol


Monday, July 18
BRING BACK AN OLD FAVE DAY
Planning meals is always a fun thing for us. Greg loves to grill, so we've been doing a lot of that, but occasionally someone brings up something we haven't had in awhile and ask for that for dinner. Today was that day...
Cheeseburger roll up. We use to eat it all the time, but it's been awhile.
It was still a hit.


Tuesday, July 19
SUMMER SCHOOL DAY
The first of 3 days this week I get to be back with some kiddos..and I fell back in love! I had 7 kids to work with, and by the end of the week, they were all begging to be in my first grade class this fall!




Wednesday, July 20
DOCTOR DAY
The M&Ms and I headed to Hot Springs (about 85 miles away...and my hometown) for my yearly mammogram and pap smear. I am diligent about doing this each year, keeping an eye on things. My grandmother had a mastectomy several years ago and my mom's cousin had a double mastectomy, so this is not something I shirk. And with my history of cervical abnormalities, that doesn't get ignored either. Since the kids were with me, we made a day out of it.
We visited their aunt in the hospital while we were there, went to lunch, and did a litle shopping at the teacher store. I got so much stuff!!
I decided to give up the "Monsters" and go with all "Furry Friends" for my class.
This year I'm focusing on the concept of "friends come in all shapes and sizes" as well as "respect/responsibility" (like always) and learning good manners.

Oh, and remember my dilemma over what to call my class? I've decided...we will be "Mrs. Bobo's Bunch"...and leave it at that.


Thursday, July 21
PEACE LOVE & POKER NIGHT
My nephew, and one of his cousins, both turn 16 this summer so they combined parties and had one big one. She wanted a hippy party, he wanted a casino party..so what do you do? Peace love and poker!

There were hippy things to wear, and 70s music playing...


and casino games to play.





They each started with $50 in chips.
Matt was the big winner with the most chips at the end. He won a mini-iPod shuffle.


The kids had a lot of fun, then I took them back to their dad's...35 miles from there, and then made it back to my house (another 80 miles) by 10:30 pm.

Friday, July 22
ERRAND DAY
No kids...things to return..things to shop for...
Took back some stuff I'd bought for school, and wound up buying more stuff at the teacher store in Texarkana.
Looked for and found a spice rack to give Greg for his bday next weekend.
Found tons of white serving dishes at Kohl's in the Food Network line. They are going on my Christmas list.
Shopped for weekend groceries...gonna grill some lamb chops and veggies tomorrow night.
Came home and relaxed.
Alex was back for the weekend...minus one more kitty.
The little white one that Molly is holding in that picture up there didn't make it. We think the mama cat is not producing enough milk to sustain them all.
Maybe now that there is only one kitty left (the little "smoky" one) he will have enough to make it.

We love playing with him!


(Here he's rolled over on his back in Greg's hand wanting Greg to rub his belly!)

So...that's been what's filling up my days lately.
The kids are gone now til next Friday.
I don't have any inservice coming up this week..so I'll be spending my days in my classroom. Time to unpack, sort, arrange, and decorate.
Then start the planning for Open House, and the first day of school (Aug 15th).

Greg's gearing up for Watermelon Festival Aug 11-13. Little Texas is coming to perform. I'm not a big country music fan, but I LOVE THEM!! Their music was big the year I lived in California (1992-93), and I listed to it over and over and over b/c it reminded me of home...the twangy accents and all!

Anyway..things will be busy for the next few weeks. Greg's bday is coming up, and we've got our family's annual August Birthday Bash, too. With all that...there will be lots more pics! Stay tuned!