More Test Shots

Alyssa didn't like what she was wearing when I took these photos, but I wanted to play with lighting. She refused to rest her chin on her hand (the traditional pose from my high school days). Lately it's been too sunny and Alyssa's been too busy for us to work on her senior portraits.  When she's not at work, she's sanding her table, or going to movies at midnight. We've not seen Noah much this week.  He brought home a friend from open gym on Monday night.  Then Noah went home with the same friend after football last night and has been gone all day.  Forrest and I are meeting Alyssa at Noah's friend's house for dinner soon. Then he'll be off to another friend's house tomorrow afternoon.  Forrest is playing poker tomorrow night so Alyssa and I can have girl's movie night with both boys out of the house.  We have the Broadway production of "Rent" from Netflix to watch.

Senior Project

Alyssa working inside on a rainy day on sanding the base of  the antique table she is refinishing for her senior project.  We have to document all of the steps so she can include them in her presentation in January.  She'll give a 15-20 minute oral presentation which will include her employability portfolio, her scholarly paper on nuclear energy, and the 40-60 hours she will have spent on refinishing this table. She will give a Power Point presentation using the photos to document her work since the table will be too big to carry to school on the day of her presentation.
Most of the time she's been able to work outside or at least with the garage door open for fresh air.  When it's finished we'll use the table until she gets a home of her own.  Her biggest problem has been that someone at some point in this table's life painted the base baby blue.  It looks like the paint was put on raw wood and it seeped into the cracks.  I don't think she's going to be able to get all of it out. Thankfully most of it is on the feet, and you'd have to be lying on the floor to notice it. 

Next week she's going to be working 49 hours at the daycare (one lady is on vacation and one is on maternity leave).  Usually she works 20-30 hours. She won't have much time to sand so she'll have to put in some time this weekend.  I'm looking forward to an almost unscheduled weekend.  The only thing we have to do is take Noah to get fitted and pick up his football gear.  It's hard to believe that football practice starts in three weeks.  From August 3rd on Noah will have 3 hours of practice daily Mon-Fri.  After school starts they cut back to only 6 hours a week of practice.

Alyssa and I are trying to schedule a tour of Eastern Washington Univ. sometime in August during the end of their summer session.  Eastern has an Early Childhood Education program, and since she wants to teach kindergarten this school should definitely be on her list of schools to apply to.  

Hometown Fourth of July Parade

Noah and his teammates march with the rest of the basketball camp participants.

The "Old Bags of Arlington" make their annual appearance.
You can't have a parade without Boy Scouts.
Every fire engine in town was in the parade as well as every single tractor too.

Alyssa and Chloe wait for their brothers to walk by.  They were the 58th entry in the parade. They had a long wait. But Chloe collected a huge bag of candy.

Report from Spokane

Noah's friend, Kaleb, came over to Hoopfest a day early with us and stayed at Loon Lake at Forrest's mom's house. The neighbors tore apart their old dock releasing millions of styrofoam pellets into the lake. Forrest and the boys took part in the clean up with pool nets. The neighbor paid the boys $10 each for their labors. Money they quickly spent when we went to the movie, Transformers 2 in Spokane. A very long, loud movie
filled with lots of explosions and chase scenes.

Hanging out at the hotel.

Bradey, Noah, and Kaleb. Ty hadn't arrived yet. They lost their first game wearing the shirts Forrest picked out for them. The boys then decided to go "skins" for the rest of the weekend.

They won their second and third games shirtless before losing Sunday morning and being eliminated.

Boy Alyssa and I look small next to Forrest and Noah.

Alyssa got to spend some time with some of her girl cousins, 2 year old Savannah, 16 year old Nicole, and 14 year old Mikala.

Alyssa and I also stopped in Wilbur to see my grandma. We came home before the boys so Alyssa could be at work today. Forrest and Noah are staying at Loon Lake for a couple of more days to visit with other members of his family.

Gardening

From the looks of the fields around here there will be great crops of corn, hay, peas, pumpkins, etc. The wet spring plus two weeks of 80-90 degree temperatures to start the month got everything off to a great start. Local strawberries are ready. We can eat a half flat in two days easily. Raspberries are the family favorites so we're anxiously awaiting their arrival. We're also looking forward to local sweet corn arriving in August.

The family gardening projects look promising too. A photo of Forrest's tomato bucket has been requested so I will finally get around to posting that. For comparison sake I'll post a photo of the tomato plant I put into a raised bed (not quite a fair comparison since I planted two weeks before Forrest). Our walnut tree has put on lots of nuts this year. Last year we only got a handful. This year we'll have a large bowlful. The blueberry plants are growing slowly. I think I'll only get one or two handfuls of berries. The birds usually nab them right before they're ripe enough for me.

Noah has basketball camp this week so I'll be driving him to the high school Monday through Thursday. Wednesday nights his football team is meeting for informal games of Flash ( a type of free-for-all game where the boys can pass anywhere on the field). On Thursday we'll head east to spend Thursday night at Forrest's mom's house before we check into the hotel Friday afternoon for Hoopfest. Alyssa and I will come home Sunday night because she has to work. Noah and Forrest will stay for a couple of more days to see his sister, Jeweli, who will be in town from Albuquerque. One of Alyssa's co-workers is pregnant and due very soon so Alyssa needs to be ready to take on more hours to help cover her place.

Staffing

I get to stay at fourth grade in my current building.  I will be joined by a former 4th grade teacher who left 4th to teach kindergarten two years ago, another former 4th grade teacher who left fourth grade 8 years ago to be a remedial reading specialist, and a third grade teacher who is probably going to loop up with her current class.  As you might remember from previous posts two of my 4th grade colleagues were laid off.  Today I found out that my remaining teammate is going to be transferred to a school that laid off their whole 4th grade team so they need someone with experience.  We will now have just one elementary counselor to service all 5 buildings instead of just sharing a counselor with one building.  One of our first grade teachers is being moved to special ed. against her wishes because she has a Sp. Ed. endorsement that she has never used. There is a very weird vibe in the halls today. Relief for most of us, but agony for others.  I can't wait for today to be over.

Odds and Ends

We're trying to find a new home for our young dog, Cowboy. He is an escape artist. We just can't keep him in the yard unless he's tied up. He either needs a large acreage where he can have the run of the place or a kennel with a cement floor and a roof so he can't dig or climb out. I'll hate to see him go, he's a sweet dog, but I worry about him getting hit by a car when he's out.

Alyssa and I got to see a great Mariner game last Sunday. The M's won 4-2. Our second row seats were excellent. Forrest has been to two games and hasn't gotten to see a win yet. Alyssa and I must be lucky.

The fourth grade classes have been incubating chicken and duck eggs. So far none of my eggs have hatched. They've all been duds so I've been babysitting some chicks for one of the other teachers. Alyssa snapped the funny picture of Forrest posing with a chick named Caramel.

Noah's baseball season is almost over. His team scored a tremendous come from behind win last week scoring 7 unanswered runs to win a tournament game in extra innings. There is a great article with photos in the Arlington Times. Google the paper and check out the article in the sports section about the Stilly Valley Blackjacks.

Work is still very stressful. The lay-offs are set, but the staffing for next year is still in the works. I could be transferred to another building and/or be moved to a new grade level. The adminstrators were hoping to have news for us tomorrow, but it's not going to happen. I might not know anything till August. We can't make classlists or a master schedule for next year yet. Usually those things are done and ready for the fall by mid-May. Everything feels incredibly disjointed and everyone is out of sorts and jumpy.