Lost our lease

From September to January....

What was and what is......

Medical Arts Academy is moving somewhere next year, right now there are a few possibilities in the air and nothing definite. Typical. My library is finally at the point where I wanted to go, now that it's done and really getting used by the kids and staff, and since we don't know how much will be intact in September here are a few pictures to show the beginning and the result. This is my second library re-do in three years, can't wait to do it again!

And the winners are...

the log splitter, Dave and the log splitter had an altercation and the result was 8 stitches in between his thumb and finger. Could have been so much worse.

the pace maker, Tony (Maia's Dad) got a pace maker today, yesterday he didn't feel well (understated) and ended up flat lining in the ambulance on the way to the hospital, all the planets were in line, thank God and he will be OK, heading over to the hospital in a few minutes

Dawning of a new age?

Along with most of America, I witnessed history today. What's to say other than I hope those shoulders are broad enough to take the load he's been handed. I wish our new president, his family and our country all the best.

Tuesday (and Thursday) mornings I start at Medical Arts and then move to the Main Campus mid-day. The awesome leader at MA had today planned to the last detail including having the teachers share a pot luck lunch. I really didn't want to leave, but had to go anyway. Friday we had the technicians in to make sure that the TV in the library at Main was working and don't you know, about five minutes before noon, it quit. Luckily there were almost no kids in the library and those that were there weren't interested in today's events so I went to the auditorium and saw it with a few hundred kids. What a cool thing to witness, the majority of students were interested and those few who weren't were quickly removed. I'm so glad to have been witness to this event.

Last, what a good looking first family and how nice to see the kids acting like kids and not being little soldiers. It's a new day.

Vanity

Went to see the surgeon Friday, after losing more than 160 pounds through gastric bypass more than four years ago, I'm going to take that final leap and have some body contouring done. Thursday April 9th is the big day... a belt lipectomy (mid body) and brachioplasty (upper arm) done together. Although I could live with what I have, I know that I'll feel better and be happier after the fact, although I will be moaning and groaning about how much it hurts right afterward. I'm waiting until Spring break so that I don't have to use too much sick time and still will be in shape to go to my niece's wedding in June. Speaking of which, off to see what it will cost to fly to Memphis for her big day.

Did you know?

This morning on the news with the weather being as cold as it is, I learned that mittens are so much better than gloves, what good news for my knitting! One year at Knitters Day Out I took a glove knitting class, but like with socks, you have to make two, or find a one handed person to go with that one footed person who would appreciate my sock/glove making. Anyway, mittens are not so labor intensive so getting through two would not be that big of a deal. I'm thinking right now that mittens are in my future.

So this evening I'm going through my patterns and stash and mittens will be on the needles before bedtime.

Stuffed

The 'tasting' at Mastoris was indescribable - wow - they were more than generous and the deal they are offering is one that we'd be fools not to take. Talking w/Maia's parents we decided that the wedding will be an even split between us and our gift to the kids. In this day and age the old traditions give way to new ones and since we are all good friends, it will make the day a memorable one for Eric and Maia. Enough wedding talk for a while.

Today in the paper there is an article that Trenton High has moved to the front of the list of schools to be replaced in NJ, how cool is that??? At one point in time, it was nearly to the front of the list when the schools construction corporation ran out of money. Now, with a new infusion of my tax dollars, its back on tap once again. There will be a fight with the historical society over the plans but hopefully one way or another we'll have a great building in the next five or so years which is pretty quick in terms of school construction. this is a picture of the front of the building, the library is on the first floor, right, but mirrors what you see on the left, its a grand building and I hope that they can come up with a workable plan to use lots of the old school, but I guess with costs being what they are, instead of a traditional school, it will end up looking like an airport terminal as the current trend seems to be. At least open space classrooms are out of favor right now, phew.

White Elephant

I'm invited to a white elephant party later in the month, basically what it means is bringing a carefully wrapped obscure gift and after dinner there is an exchange based on how nice the packaging looks. Once its opened then you can 'exchange' with someone else if their gift is more useful to you. Sounds like it would be fun. The Mercer Police and Womanspace are sponsoring the event. Let you know how it goes.

On another note, Dave is now addicted to his MBT Shoes, we went to Princeton over the weekend to the Walking Store for his second pair, since its not good to wear them day in and day out. I have a pair, too, but since I never had foot/leg problems, they are comfy but not a necessity and of course weren't on sale when I got them.

Tomorrow we are going to Mastoris for a 'tasting' for the wedding, not sure if we are picking the menu or just getting a general idea of what's available and the price range. Should be a nice dinner, and the bread there is to die for!

Quiet, thank you

This weekend is almost over, I was on call for domestic violence and thankfully there has been nothing to report. I'm glad that no one was in despair and needed me, and also glad that I'm not using the training as weird as that may sound.

Glanced at the weather and although the storm predicted for this weekend never materialized, the cold weather that's supposed to be here next week is not looking like fun. I think by the end of the week the prediction is for a high in the teens. Geesh, I'm not a cold weather fan ~ glad I'm not chaperoning the trips going to DC in this weather.

Speaking of which, Trenton High's band is marching in the inaugural parade, how exciting for the kids!

I brought a big TV in to school and hope that we can have it hooked up ASAP (it's only been there since before Thanksgiving) so that we can watch the big event. I have this idea that I'd like to run CNN with captions all day so that the kids, and the librarian, can see what is going on in the world. If there is no progress by Wednesday, I will get a quick lesson from Dave in wiring and do it myself.

First week of the year winding down

One more day to go, this week has flown by. It has been great at work, the usual for this year. Yesterday I was supposed to introduce a class to researching and citations, but the teacher had a conference so I had the kids for 90 minutes, sometimes I forget how much fun it was to be in the classroom ~ and how much running you can do in a small space. The project was fun, the kids were creating presentations on the authors mentioned in Richard Wright's Black Boy... each kid had a different author and I had make a quickie jumping off point to get them started, just click the pictures or the books. This group of sophomores have been in my favorite high school for two years now and are used to being held accountable for their work, anyway, they took the little crumbs offered and ran with it. They have to create a minimum of 12 Power Point slides including a bio, examples of work, and criticisms for each author. We had some fun figuring out what backgrounds to use to convey a work of importance, for example Mark Twain's background is a river scene with a rope swing hanging from one of the trees and Conrad's is a jungle. When this project is finished, I am going to try to sit in on some of the presentations.


This weekend I'm on call for Domestic Violence again, one shift for Trenton and one shift for Hopewell. I hope that things are calm and no one will be calling. Even after all the hours of training, I would be happy if there was no need to respond. Sigh



I'll leave you with a shot of a visitor to one of the trees out front.

Another day in the life of..

For whatever reason today I was up before 5 am and was at work before 7, but still the principal was there and ready to start her day. She is one awesome person. The way she runs a school would be top notch in the suburbs or rural districts, I just wish the test scores will show how hard she and her staff works to make the school one of the best in the city.

In a way I hope that she takes me with her next year to her new school (still in the same district), it would be closer to home, and they are going to be building a G&T high school at the same time and she will be in charge of it, that would be a neat thing to be in on the ground floor with.

The weather tonight was supposed to be wintry, so my Tuesday night Stitch n B*tch was postponed. Once a month we visit each other's homes for dinner and chatting, funny how the world's problems can be solved by us in just a few hours, Obama are you listening? Instead of the same Washington crew in your cabinet, tap into those mom's who've been juggling so many titles all these years.

Next month I think SnB will be here. That means finding a recipe that goes in the crock pot or can be cooked ahead ... not too hard except one of us has allergies to milk products and flour. That leaves out anything with cheese and breads. I may do a chili and put the cheese on the side or a nice soup if she can tolerate oats, those are things that can be cooked ahead and just heated. I'll see if she doesn't mind the smell of bread and I can set up the bread machine to have hot bread ready when supper's done.

Here's a picture of Rosey and Vickie, every day we put two beds on our bed and they inevitably end up in the smallest one together.

Back on track

Went back to work today, it was a nice quiet day. I enjoy what I do so much, it makes the days fly by. Just hope there are no changes for next year.

Fighting a cold, and have to say this is the best for the sniffles.

Last day of vacation

Tomorrow it's back to school. I'm kind of looking forward to it, how sad is that???

This break, I've been out to lunch every single day except Christmas day, out to dinner almost as often, and a few breakfasts, too. A little bit home cooking will be nice, now who can I get to cook... Monday and Tuesday nights I have meetings so I won't be home, meaning the earliest I can cook is Wednesday unless I come to my senses and figure out some other way to get fed.

I also need to read my knitting patterns a little closer, I'm in the middle of a real cute top-down shrug. The pattern says you only need one skein of yarn and it's very basic, increase at the shoulders until it reaches under your arms, then go on and finish up the body. I didn't read the fact that the prototype was for someone with a 30 inch bust. It must be a child, I don't think even fashion models have a 30 inch bust. What the heck. I'm now on my third skein of yarn, but I still like the concept and think it will be nice. But still, 30 inches, come on.

Took all the Christmas decorations down today and began to get Eric's bedroom ready to become a guest/dollhouse room. Eric moved out a year and a month ago. He left lots of stuff around and whenever we asked him if he was going to take it, he always said he has no room (hmmm, and we do?) He came over today, not by choice, to get out the last of his stuff, he threw out a bag of papers, when we went to put it in the trash, Dave noticed that he thew out a couple of years worth of pay stubs with his Social Security number on them along with old checks and a payment book for his last car. Now Dave is shredding all of Eric's trash ... after taking three large bags of clothes and shoes to the Goodwill. The last of his stuff will go up in our attic.

Here's a picture of this year's Christmas Tree and Village, I liked the way it turned out but like it better now that it's not taking up space. I like the bookcase/cubby in the living room, now it has my Lenox, I didn't know how much I had. Dave said he will be getting the furniture reupholstered as soon as one car leaves the shop. Soon, I hope since he's been booking work into 2010 already ~ great news for our personal economy bad news for getting things done around the house.

No voice

Woke up this morning without a voice, didn't even know I was getting a cold. Some might think this is a blessing.

Sometime ago, I caught the dollhouse fever when Dave gave me a kit for my birthday. Alan and I built it, it was all painted, electrified and wallpapered when I took it to Ewing Dollhouses for instillation of the lights. Anyway, don't you know, it was there when the shopping center burned down and everything was gone. I started another one two summers ago, but haven't worked on it in a while (I think Rutgers put a stop to this hobby and I just never got back at it)

Luckily my kitchen was not in the old house during the fire and I still have it. That's a dime in front of the stove, just for size. The 'fridge and stove are both lighted, how cool is that???

This Christmas, Dave bought me a new house all finished! The bug has bitten again, yesterday Sue and I went to the Dollhouse Factory in Lebanon and I got a few things for my new house. Between what I have here and what I bought, I need to finish the other one so I can put the stuff somewhere.

Dollhouse furniture and accessories are as expensive as those for the real house, so it takes a while to get them decorated. Half the fun is making things, I think its a frustrated decorators dream, now I have something to keep me off the streets at night :)

On the knitting front, I've been in a hat mode lately, everyone got a hat for Christmas, here are Eric and Maia modeling theirs.

Starting Over in 09

It's a new year and a new start to this blog. I am so in awe of my friends who blog so often, I'm addicted to reading the news in their lives and sometimes I think that there is nothing going on in my life worth reading.

So anyway, my resolution is to keep this more up to date. Ha, we'll see.

Catching up...

Eric and Maia are engaged and we are planning a July 3, 2010 wedding. Seems like it is far away but there is going to be a lot to do in the next year and a half. The wedding will be taking place at our house, we have the room for sure, at this point it looks like they are aiming at a good party for about 250 family/friends. We're all going to a food tasting Jan. 13th, no doubt there will be lots more on this. One day I'll tell about the engagement, its a great story.

Tony and Sue (my brother and sister-in-law) are separated. Not a surprise, I guess, but still - I don't want to take sides but it's hard not to see where each is coming from.

I finished training for Womenspace and have been out already, it will be interesting to see how that goes in the future, we were told it takes about 2 hours to go to a domestic violence call but I've quickly learned the legal system doesn't move that fast :)

In trying to blog more, I will stop now and add another soon ~ maybe even today!