Could I really be organized enough to get this done every day?

Have you ever looked at the amount of stuff you do in a day? Have you sat down, pulled out the paper, and listed everything you do in a day? I know I do when I've had more than enough of being the only one in the house who seems to be able to do anything. You know, when people you live with can't even put a glass in the dishwasher when they are finished with it. They can put it in the sink, but they can't put it in the dishwasher. Why is that? Is it impossible to make the transition from the sink to the dishwasher? These are thoughts that I am sure many women ponder on a daily basis, while they are working like crazy to take care of every other thing they have to do.

I took a class on Saturday, just a short 6 hour class. Now, in that six hours, I could have cleaned the entire house, baked bread, done at least three loads of laundry, some ironing, and maybe started on a sewing project. I love Rob, don't get me wrong, he tries hard, but in that same amount of time he washed six pots and some pans, did two loads of laundry, and cleaned up the bill pile. That's it. The house looks like heck, the bathroom really needed to be cleaned and ..... well, I could go on and on, but why. It's impossible to explain why it's a problem. It's also impossible to understand why they think this small amount of stuff is applaudable and that they should get a standing ovation for doing it.

I guess I should just be thankful that he did something. Did I mention that he didn't put the stuff he washed away? He just left it on the counter.

Today, I'm going to go home and throw something in the crockpot and then start working on a sewing project for Lilly for chanukah. I've got three such projects to do, and so much correcting that I can't see over the pile on my desk. I'm so ready for the break I can hardly stand it. But, it'll all eventually get done and I'll eventually not feel like I'm being covered in stuff.

General Junk

That's the day it seems to be. One of general junk. Got up this morning. Didn't make it to Torah Study. Didn't make it to Matt Stoll's eagle scout ceremony. Finished a skirt, started a skirt. Rob worked on the front porch with his tennis buddy Lorenzo. I had a head ache most of the day. Not functioning very well. Talked with Dad on the phone. Made a roast for dinner. Took a nap to get rid of the head ache. At the office with Rob working on this instead of a lecture on populism. I have a general junk malaise. Can't get excited about too much. We are going to Salt Lake on Wednesday for Drs. Appointments. How do you make that plural? Will be gone Thursday and then Friday, Rob has court in Wendover, so we'll spend the rest of the day there and then head to Reno, so that we can see Lili on Saturday. Doris is going to be there so we can do a thanksgiving dinner type thing. I called her and asked if that was something she'd like to do. She seemed to think that it would be great. She's bringing the turkey.

Then we have three days and it's time for Thanksgiving. We'll leave Wednesday and spend the night in SLC and then fly to Salina. We'll only have a thirty minute drive to my parents which is great. Then we'll come back late on Sunday.

I have to find a trip to Mexico for us to take. It's very difficult to find airline flights that aren't a gazillion dollars.

So it's just general junk.

Tena'im Contract

True and certain, established and enduring, fair and faithful, beloved and cherished, delightful and pleasant, awesome and powerful, correct and accepted, good and beautiful is this affirmation to us forever and ever.
Robert J. Lowe, son of Doris Lowe and the late Joseph Lowe and, Shawn Ann Welton daughter of Wallace “Rocky” Welton and Phyllis Welton agree to enter into the covenant of marriage, through huppah and betrothal, in accordance with the Laws of Moses and Israel.
The wedding will take place, b'ezrat Hashem, on the 11th day of July in the year 2009 corresponding to the Jewish date of the 19th day of Tamuz in the year 5769, at Lake Tahoe, Nevada.
Robert and Shawn commit to the following conditions for their marriage
• To create a home that follows Jewish rhythms, including a meaningful celebration of Shabbat and holidays, and incorporates Jewish rituals, traditions, and laws into their everyday life.
• To make tikkun olam a part of their everyday life by having an environmentally conscious home, being involved in social justice projects and organizations, and giving tzedakah on a regular basis.
• Robert makes a legal commitment not to withhold a Get should one be required.
• To live a life that affirms their belief in the importance of diversity and equality in their community and the world.
• To give friendship and support to one another and to work together as equal partners through life's challenges.
• To resolve conflict through listening to each other and empathizing with one another, and through taking responsibility for their own feelings.
• To support each other to be excellent in their professional endeavors, but, at the same time, to make their home life and time together as a family their top priority.
• To share financial responsibilities for the family and, at the same time, affirm each other's freedom to make personal spending decisions. They will also maintain awareness that money is a means to an end and not an end in itself.
• To share home responsibilities fairly, recognizing each other's abilities and constraints.
• To, God willing, be blessed with children and to raise them in a home filled with love for one other, dedication to Judaism, and commitment to inclusiveness.
• To create a warm and open home where their family, friends, and community always feel welcome.
They shall not run away nor conceal from each other anything with regard to their possessions; rather, they should equally share authority over their possessions, in peace and tranquility, as is the way of those who are children of the Torah and who are in awe of God. All this was done with perfect understanding and due deliberation,
AND EVERYTHING IS VALID AND CONFIRMED.

The Date Has Been Set

Finally, they all say! October 12, Rob and I set a date for a wedding. How auspicious, 12 years and we decided on the 12th. We are getting married July 11, 2009. We're headed to Lake Tahoe and hopefully, when the guy calls me back tomorrow, the venue I want won't be booked. I'm hoping to be married in the Aspen grove at about 7:00 pm on that day. I've got a book and I'm taping all kinds of ideas into it, but it's starting to become a little overwhelming. I've got the check list and have done some of the things. I have someone to marry us, I've figured out a dress, I just have to spend some time with Mom to get it all going, I've figured out about a ring for Rob, one of our local jewelry artists is going to do it for him.

I've talked to Rabbi ElizaBeth,and she will happily perform the ceremony. We're going to have blues and greens, like the Mediterranean, for our colours.

We had our engagement party/ceremony on Saturday, October 25. It's called a Tena'im. We read a contract that we have written, kind of like a pre-nup, only I get sheep instead of a lot of money, if we split up. Really, It's kind of cool. I've put it on the blog page, so you can read it if you are interested.

Then two of our older friends broke a plate to mingle our families together. Neither of our parents could be here, so that's the way we did it. We had about 20 people and it was a lot of fun.

This is when I really wish I lived closer. I miss everyone so much, and would like to share all of this with them, daily.

Remember when I said that there were three projects I wanted to get done this summer? One of them was the porch, well, Rob found someone who's going to do something to the porch, I'm not sure what, but we have to scrape it and prime it and something else. I really didn't want to do this when school was going on. But, there will be no tennis and no goofing around today, and we'll work on the porch.

Ick!!!

Back to Elko

I made it back to Elko on Wednesday, yesterday in hopes to get lots of things done for Yom Kippur. Unfortunately, that didn't happen. The house was a sty. Seriously, I've never seen something like it in my life. I thought for sure after I swept the house that the dog would be bald. There was more hair than you can imagine. I ran to the grocery store after I finished cleaning the house. I had hoped to have a leisurely afternoon, but we are having people here on Thursday evening for break the fast, so the house had to be clean and I had to buy food for Thursday evening. I'm just doing a big macaroni and cheese since we are eating dairy with salad. Mira is bringin gefelte fish and bagels, Marianne is bringing egg salad, I suspect that Herb and Barb will bring something, as well as Pam. I'll just have to find out when they come for prayer services at 11:00. I'm not sure what we're supposed to do there, but I'll figure it out.

I really do miss being in Abilene. I like being involved in family. It's nice that everyone supports everyone else and I'd like to be closer to do that.

Dad has an MRI today, and I am wishing him lots of luck with that and many prayers.

At Home

I've gone home this week to see my family.  So I'm in Kansas.  It's been a tremendous amount of fun and activity.  I got here on Thursday and then had to go to the emergency room with Mom.  She had an infection that was feeling like a heart attack.  We took care of that, and then Friday we had homecoming in Abilene.  That's where they are at now.  We watched Kane get to stand on the sidelines of the varsity game.  He was not happy and came home and said it was the most boring thing he had ever done.  

On Saturday we had Miller's soccer game.  His team won.  2 - 0. It was a hoot watching the little 5 and 6 year olds play.  Miller played goalie and he saved the day, keeping them from making a goal.  He also played the defense and up front.  They play all the kids in different positions.

Today, Sunday, I am going to watch Malorie play volleyball and then there is a block party for the neighborhood.  Meriam and Tate along with there kids are coming.  Hogan, Jadyn, and Tiger.  It should be a lot of fun to see everybody.  

Monday, we are off to the doctor for Dad, and then there's something else going on.  

Tuesday, there is cross country in Ellsworth and jv football here, so I'll get to watch Kolby and Kane.  The only two I didn't get to  watch were Keil and Audrey.  

I have to say that Dad's memory is much worse than it was in April.  It will be interesting to see what the doctor has to say on Monday.  Hopefully he will order a new MRI and we'll see how that goes.

Wednesday, Nancy is taking me back to the airport early, early, early, as I fly out at 7:00 am.  That way I'll be home, and can get things ready for Yom Kippur the next day.

It will be hard going back, it always is.  I feel depressed for a while, because I really do miss everyone a lot.  I like being here and being involved in what the kids do.  It's nice to have family so close by.

Why Can't I Find Time To Do This?

How is it that all the time I spent coaching cross country for all those years is now filled with other stuff? It's not as if I've taken on any extra projects, I haven't. What is the saying about time and a vacuum? Anyway, here is the next installment of "A Fisherman and the Rolling Stones."



This is when the tough negotiations start. Not between, Rob, Lili and I, but between Rob and Toni. Toni, who has never been further away from Peniscola than Barcelona, (an hour and a half away) wants to take the train to El Ejido. He wants to be able to smoke all the way there and they (I guess) have a smoking car on the train. So the negotiations begin. Rob has spent big bank on this rental car and it’s silly for it to sit in Peniscola while we spend money on train tickets. Rob is absolutely adamant that we use the car. I am too for that matter, who wants to take the train when you can sit in a car with a man who doesn’t stop talking for seven hours. Not me. Anyway, we go to the information booth on the beach to find out about the train from Peniscola to El Ejido. This is after we have been to the mini bull fight in one of the small plazas in Peniscola. I’m just not really sure of the appeal of the bull fight. I guess I get the masculinity thing, but I find it kind of awful all the same. We finally find Toni at the bull fight and we go to the info booth. The woman running the booth has a map of Spain and really the trip by train would be too long. It would be faster to take the car.
Toni, never really happy about it finally relents and says he’ll go in the car. Rob has to lay down some ground rules first. 1. No smoking in the car. It’s a rental and Lili is in the car. 2. Shawn has to sit in the front seat and navigate. 3. We can’t be up front at the concert because Lili doesn’t like the noise and we have to make her comfortable. Toni agrees, but you can tell he’s hoping he can sway Rob to stand with him at the concert.
Now I would never say that Toni had a surly attitude, because normally he’s a bright and cheerful person. But Friday morning Toni had a surly attitude. We had decided to leave mid morning. Toni though, not wanting to miss the concert, was up two hours early and waiting for us two hours early. We don’t move fast in the morning at home, let alone on vacation. As we are talking about the seating, Rob mentions that the seats are general seating. Toni pitches a fit. He’s not sitting in general seating and he’s not going, and thanks, but no thanks. So, I go to the internet, where I had ordered the tickets the night before and email the vendor and ask if we can turn the tickets back in and get a refund if we aren’t going to the concert. They reply telling me that it’s no problem. We can return the tickets. So the big question now is, “Have we returned the tickets or will they be waiting for us at the Carrefour (think Costco, Sam’s Warehouse, only better) in Valencia.”

Aaarrrggghh!

I guess the title sums it all up. I'm trying like all get out to make it through the week, but sometimes you can be way-laid by the most stupid things. Take this one for example. I teach, we all know that, I've been teaching for 20 years. That's a really scary thing, but anyway, I went to work yesterday and stopped by my mailbox, which I do every morning, and found some papers for a program that we do at our school to keep kids from getting zeros. It's not a program I participate in, because, it's time consuming, and I don't have time. So, the papers are in my box and I look at them and they say, Mr. Welton. Now, with the name Shawn, I've had to deal with being a Mr. most of my life, but never in the 20 years I have been teaching has anyone ever used Mr. Welton on any kind of paper work for me. I even taught in the same building with my dad for three years and never got mail addressed to Mr. Welton. I have to say that I was angry. Really, truly, positively angry. The vice principal who made the mistake ought to know better because his name is Keri. I suspect he has received mail addressed to Ms. or Mrs. his whole life. I guess that's why I expected him to be ultra careful about something like this.

I took the sheaf of papers and walked into the other vice principal's office, Donna and put them on her desk. My comment was "This is my dad, and he doesn't teach here." She looked upset and told me that she would deal with it.

Today I talked to her and she told me she told Keri that he should ask if he wasn't sure about things. It's really not the response I wanted, but I guess it's better than nothing.

I'm really fighting a lot of being depressed lately. I don't know exactly why. School, relationship, life, etc. Not a lot of fun I suppose. I hate this time of year. It's not fun for me. I let things get me down and am entirely too sensitive.

My car is being a pain in the butt right now too. It won't start. It just cranks and cranks and cranks. It needs a jolt, but I can't seem to give it one.

So this has been a total rant, because I can rant here and not worry about what anyone thinks. I realize all of these things are small potatoes, but they are potatoes none the less.

It's no longer summer for a teacher

It's started again, that dirty word. Teacher meetings. We started on Wednesday, and this year I made it through the whole meeting without being frustrated at the administration. I can't say that happened today, as I just sent an email to my prinicpal asking him to explain the most studid opening-day schedule that I have ever seen.

Where do these people get this stuff?!

I've had a minute or two to relax this week after last weekend. I converted to Judaism last weekend. I spent an hour in a Beit Din, which is a question/answer session that is really quite grueling. I was nervous through the whole thing. Once that was completed, the three members of the Beit Din, Rabbi Beyer, Mike Medvin, and Pam Zohar went with me to Lamoille Canyon which has to be one of the most scenic places in Nevada for my mikveh. The mikveh is a ritual bath that you take to become purifed. You have to immerse yourself three times. After the first time, you recite some blessings that the Rabbi repeats for you. The second time, the Rabbi sings a quick song, and after the third time, your attendant, (mine was my best friend, Mira Kurka), says a special vow and prayer for you. I have to tell you that the water was the coldest I have ever been in and my toes were numb by the time I got out. This water is mountain glacier run-off. Sooooooo cold.

We then went back to our house where we had a shabbat dinner that was awesome, even if I was the one to cook it. We had grilled portobello mushroom burgers and grilled salmon burgers with artichoke salad that Rob made and a rice and pea salad that I made. We had challah and some smoked salmon that I did on the smoker that Rob's mom gave us. All in all, I think it went very well.

My good friends Walter and Cindy came to Elko with their son Luke. It really meant the world to me that they came. They are lovely and caring people. They stayed with Rob and I and it was such fun.

Saturday we had a ceremony at the presbyterian church. We don't have a synagogue in Elko, we're just too small a community, so we have the presbyterian church. We had a regular Saturday morning service with the conversion ceremony thrown in for good measure. It was a lot of fun. I was called up to the alter and read the blessings for the reading of the Torah and then we relaxed Saturday afternoon after a great Indian meal. For dinner we went to the Star Restaurant (18 of us) and Rob fed us all a great Basque meal. It was a tremendous amount of fun. We couldn't have asked for a better weekend.

Sunday, we got up and took our friends Walter and Cindy and Luke to our friends Mira and Gary's house. It is an amazing house and Walter who is a metal artist is going to do some work for them. It was a lot of fun to see all of the house and Mira's plan for it.

Well, I must finish with my syllabi. School starts on Monday. Have a great weekend.

Can I Do It More Often?

It seems like I have really good intentions to write in this blog once a week, not happening. I'm lucky if I get it done once a month. So, I've decided to do this. I'm working on a story and I'm going to publish the parts that I finish as I finish them.

We have been busy since my last posting. Rob has been working like crazy. We've been playing tennis and traveling a little bit. We went to Reno and Lake Tahoe the last weekend in July. Did some shopping and relaxed at the lake. I've also been preparing for my conversion to Judaism. It's been a long process, but with the help of a lot of wonderful people, I'm going to make it. I asked my sister Heather, the master knitter, to make me a prayer shawl for my Rabbi, because I can't knit for anything, and she does absolutely beautiful work. Here's a picture of her work for me. Can you believe that she does such great work? It's awesome.

So, here's the story that I'm working on. It's based on our trip to Spain last summer, and it's called "A Fisherman and the Rolling Stones."

It’s the summer, and every year or so, my fiancé Rob, his daughter Lilly, and I (Shawn), go to Spain. Beautiful women, handsome men, pristine beaches, the Mediterranean, what more could a person ask for? Would a Rolling Stones concert with 40,000 intimate companions be the icing on the cake?
I’ll be honest; we hadn’t started the trip with any plan to see the Stones; just the opposite in fact. We were near Barcelona, but the Stones were going to appear there before we got to our little village Peniscola. They were to appear in Madrid but it would be after our trip was over. The only other venue in Spain was at El Ejido – seven hours south of Peniscola.
You have to understand about Peniscola for this story to make any sense. Rob has been going to Peniscola for thirty-some years. He has an interesting collection of friends. Chris is his friend from high school. Cristobal – ex-pat New Zealander – runs a stall in the hippie market during the summer in Peniscola. Chris and Rob have a love-hate relationship now, but when they were younger it was Chris, Rob, and Antoni.
Antoni, Toni for short, is a fisherman. He finished the eighth grade and went to work on the family fishing boat with his Dad. Toni speaks very little English, and what he does know he learned from rock and roll songs. The first English Chris ever taught him was “The sun is very hot.”
Chris, Rob, and Toni don’t hang out together much anymore. Chris got married, Toni didn’t. Chris quit getting blotto every night, Toni didn’t. They just grew apart. This has frustrated Toni because he’s a very loyal person and he has taken Chris’ behavior as a bit of a betrayal – but really, I digress.
Toni is a really animated guy—he smokes – always. I’m not exaggerating. He smokes always. He has a cigarette hanging from his mouth every waking hour. He’s a very affectionate person. He likes to touch you. He’ll put his arm around you to talk, and poke you in the chest to make a point.
Last year was a hard year for Toni. Both of his parents died. Toni had lived with his mother and his father his entire life and he and his father, Senor Martin, were the best of friends. Toni is living on his own now and all he does is fish. Rob and Toni were talking about the deaths of Toni’s parents and Toni told Rob that to go to the Rolling Stones concert would be “an injection of life”, as he made a motion of injecting a drug into his arm.
Toni thought it would be great for him and Rob to take the train to El Ejido and watch the Stones. Rob, not really believing that Toni was serious, said that it would be fun. The next evening Toni tells Chris that Rob is going to go to the Rolling Stones concert with him. Chris tells Toni that Rob doesn’t want to go, and that we’re on vacation. Why would they want to include you in their plans? Toni adamantly believes that we would go with him. Now here’s the rub, Rob can’t let Chris be right. Remember that love-hate thing? He certainly can’t disappoint Toni either.
Rob comes back to the apartment that we have rented and explains that we have to help Toni by going to see the Stones. I was vehemently against going. I don’t believe I can express to you how much I didn’t want to go to this concert. We had just seen the Stones in November, (Vegas, Baby), it’s a seven hour drive, and I just don’t want to go. We’re standing in the entry foyer to the apartment. This way I can’t walk away and do something else. I like to leave in the middle of confrontation. Lilly doesn’t want to go either. Loud noises bother her and she’s afraid to go to the concert because it would be too loud. She also wants to stay put, as we had been traveling for a week prior to arriving in Peniscola.
But, I finally see the light and where Rob is coming from. Lilly and I would find out if there were any tickets by searching the internet. If we’re really lucky there won’t be any tickets left for the concert.
Lilly and I get dressed and head to look for internet – Rob is going to the bank and then we’ll all meet up at Toni’s boat for a tour around the island with Toni and some of the other fisherman. It’s the Diada San Joan and that means the last day of the fishing season for two months. Lilly and I started up to the old city, because I knew of an internet café that had been there three years earlier. Of course, no luck, it had moved. On our way down, back to the apartment and the new city, we stopped at the info booth and asked about internet cafes. The girl at the information told us to go to the pizzeria on the corner. We look up the information and guess what? There are tickets.
Lilly and I would really like to find Rob to tell him this development, but he’s at the bank and we have to meet Toni at the fisherman’s bar the Hogar del Pescador. Lilly and I should have taken the trip around the island without Rob, but we both wanted him to be involved. Rob was late, because he couldn’t find a bank that would change his money. Toni is annoyed and well on the way to becoming intoxicated. Hey, he had a reason to celebrate; he was done with work for two months. Eventually he makes the best of it and buys us a drink while we wait for Rob. Lilly is taking pictures of everyone’s shoes while we are waiting. She calls it the shoe series.
Finally, Rob appears. I tell him that there are tickets, and that Lilly and I had talked, and we decided to go with whatever happened – we would go to El Ejido and make an adventure out of it.

So wait for the next installment tomorrow, or the next day, as I have to take Lilly to the plane today to send her back to her mom, which depresses me to no end. I really miss her when she is gone.

Back from Vacation

Went on vacation for a week and a half. It was fun, but it's always nice to be home. Don't you hate when you've been gone and the house feels dusty, and there's 300 loads of laundry to do, and the lawn looks awful, because the person you hired to water it didn't do a good job? Well, two out of three was what I came back to. We had the best lawn sitter ever. The grass was green, none of the plants in the pots died, we have red tomatoes, what more could you ask. Sara did a great job. We are so lucky.

We went to Tahoe for vacation. Spent some time at the lake and had a wonderful fourth of July. We met some of our friends up at the lake. Cindy and Walter Algarin and their son Luke, Gretchen and Jason Ivan and their son Tsilynn and daughter Reese. Rabbi ElizaBeth and her husband Tom came up for a while also. The day was cold and windy. Lake Tahoe can really be cold, but by the evening, the wind died down and we got to see fireworks from both sides of the lake. It was so awesome.

We played some tennis, did some shopping, did a few odd jobs around the condo, but really not very much. It was unusally mellow, but quite nice. The smoke got bad the last few days, as the fires in California have polluted the air to a Stage 1 air alert. That translates into, don't go outside.

Am going to call the porch guy today, so hopefully we can get something done along those lines in the next few.

Boy, It's a Monday!

It was hard to get going today. Too much to do and not wanting to do any of it. It's Tuesday and I really think it's a Monday. I have to finish cleaning. Not my favorite thing. At all. We talked to the concrete guy. 2,230 dollars to put in concrete pads. I need to call the guy to see how much it will cost to put an overlay on the porch. It can't be that expensive. At least I hope it can't be that expensive.

So, I'll call the overlay guy and make an appointment and then we'll use a stop gap on the sprinkler system and rob doesn't want me to get up on the roof by myself to paint the dormer, like I'm twelve and can't do it. So, I guess, it's time to paint the living room. How frustrating.

Flowers, Flowers, Everywhere!!

I've been trying to make the front porch look good. I've got to call the cement guy today and have him come out and look at the porch and the front walk way. Hopefully we can get that done. I've had about enough of the cracks and peeling paint. If we stain it, I'm doing it a dark brown. I want it to hide the water stains and all the things that land on it. I just know that anything he can do will make it look better.

Hopefully, I can get the dormer painted in the next two days. That has been driving me crazy as well. We also have to call the surveyor to come survey the back yard. We have got to have a new fence. The back is in really bad shape.

I'm planting the garden this week. It's a little late, but better late than never, especially with the price of food.

We have finally decided to take a small vacation. We are going to go to Lake Tahoe and then over to see Rob's cousin when he comes in.

First Project

Well, I completed a first project, not one on the list of projects that needs to be done outside, but one that has been bothering me for a while now. We have a couch and a chair that we have green covers on during the winter. A couple of summers ago, Rob decided that we needed a summer look. Cool! But, we had to get the covers made. The cushions were done, but the body of the couch and chair weren't. It took me some time, and a lot of creative piecing, because, of course I didn't have enough material. But, here they are.

thanks Mom for all the help. I couldn't have done the rest without you.

Three Day Weekend

I'm so ready for the three day weekend. We are getting ready to go to Lake Tahoe. It's certainly not going to be any warmer there than it is here. We usually have a big picnic to kick off the summer, but I'm afraid it's going to be just too cold. I'll post again on Tuesday. Finals week!!!!!

House Projects

I've got to do a lot of house projects this summer. I've decided to start with the front porch and actually, even though the summer isn't here quite yet, I've already put some planters out. Of course, it was 80 degrees when I put them out this weekend, and it's forty degrees today. What is with the weather in Nevada?

We are going to do some concrete work on the porch, stained and stamped concrete. I can't stand the old peeling paint we have there right now. Ick!!

We are also going to tear out the devil strips, median strips, boulevard strips, (what do you call them?) between the street and the side walk. We're going to put concrete in there also and stamp and stain it so it looks like pavers.

the next project is not mine, it's Rob's and that's to put in a sprinkler system. I don't have the technical skill to do it, but he has friends who have put them in and he seems to think that they can do a bang up job of it. I just hope it doesn't blow up in their faces.

So, with the sprinkler system and the new conrete work, the front of the house should be in good shape.

Oh, I've got to paint the dormer as soon as it gets nice. We only painted almost three years ago and the dormer on the right side of the house still hasn't been painted. I should get up there before the wasps return from Capestrano. I hate wasps.

So, front porch concrete, sprinkler system, paint the dormer. That's the front. Now on to the back. Brand new fence!!!!!!!!! We are going to put in a brand new fence. Ours looks like it has been there since 1800. I swear if we get too many more strong winds it will all come down in the back. It doesn't help that Montse, the wonder dog, does her best to did holes right next to the fence, thereby compromising further the structural integrity of the fence.

We also have to reroof the garage. It's leaking to the point we had dry wall fall down this winter. Then, I have to plant the side of the house next to the garage. I'm going home to take pictures of all of this, so that we can see before and afters.

I've got to get some grass going in parts of the back yard also. Again, thanks to Montse the wonder dog, we have some holes and some bare patches.

But I guess that's enough for now. Anymore, and I may want to go back to school to get a break.

It's Almost Here

My sister Heather started a blog with her knitting, which I thought was just great! She is really one of the most talented people I've ever run across. I look at her knitting blog and see all the truly interesting things she's created and I just can't get over them.

Well, her blog has inspired me to start a blog of my own detailing my adventures during the summer. It's great being a teacher, because you get to have the summer off. Well, sort of, I do know that I have a lot of work to do around the house and hope to get a lot of projects done. We'll see.

So, it really is almost here. I have 1.5 days this week. and 3.5 days next week. So, that means I have 5 days of school left. I haven't completed all my correcting yet, I'm working on this blog. I'm really procrastinating because I don't want to read one more really cruddy paper. At all!!

But here goes!!!