Almost finished!

Waking up Sunday, I thought that there was no chance of us working on the deck. The weather was gloomy and the rain was yucky! Eventually the rain cleared out and a beautiful day ensured! We managed to frame the deck and place all of the decking boards that I had bought down. We only have 9 more boards to go and then put up the railings and we will be finished. Although it will have to wait a week because we are going to San Antonio this weekend for my cousin James' wedding.

Framing up the deck!

Digging the trench so the boards will lay straight.

Mom supervising the project.

Isabelle just had to check out what we were doing!

This was about how far we got before we ran out of wood. So in two weeks it will be finished!

Summer School Training

I spent Thursday and Friday training to be a helper for summer school. Let me tell you that Thursday would have been fine with a half day.

Thursday was spent at LaSalle Academy. This place is a lot different than from when I went to high school 10 years ago. I tried to poke around and see all the changes and wander around like a dork. They have carpeted every square inch of that building, the nifty diner tables in the cafeteria are gone as is the junior/senior cafeteria...it became a computer lab!

So Thursday we spent an hour learning about the mission of the Summer Explorers program (aka summer school). I have learned that there are 2,050 students attending this years program. Up 500 students from last year, so the program must be doing some good! Then we broke out into smaller rooms where we learned what we would be doing.

I am a helper. What this means is not what I thought it meant! I thought I would just wander around the room helping students with certain concepts or if they became stuck on a certain part or be the cheerleader for the students...tell them what a great job they are doing! Nope...helpers are to be in charge of fluency or the art projects. Let me tell you, I'm teaching! Not that I mind, but $10 an hour is kinda low if I am taking on the responbilities of a teacher!

Friday was spent at our school site. I am at Jefferson and I am thrilled because it is literally 5 minutes from my house! No 30 minute drive here!!! So we all met who we are working with and how this whole operation will run. We are there from 8:15 until 11:45 every morning. The students pick up breakfast when they come and go back to the room and eat then we begin with the lessons for the day!

I am working in a fourth grade classroom with a teacher, instructional assistant, and another helper. So there are four of us in a room helping this students achieve. I have come to find out that the lead teacher taught at St. Mary's when I was in school. He was in charge of the Music/Art portion of our elementary block. Small world, although I barely remember him. The instructional assistant is a guy still in college at Ball State. I'm a little perplexed by this assignment. We were told at the Thursday meeting that all teachers and instructional assistant (I.A.'s) jobs were held by certified people. Gee if I would have known that they were taking people in college to do the I.A.'s job, I would have applied for that position. It is $20 an hour!

Needless to say the other helper in my group is somewhat outraged because she is a permanent building sub and she has more teaching experience than the college guy. She is also having issues because when the lead teacher was assigning the roles of fluency and art teacher. He felt that I would better as the fluency teacher because I have a license as a teacher. Gee that sent her into a tizzy. Oh well....I guess it pays to have a teaching license!

So summer school starts on July 7 and runs through August 1. It is something to keep me busy in the morning hours. Let's face it...I am mentally ready to be back in school. I just need a two or three week break to catch things up around the house. That's why I would love year round schooling...longer breaks throughout the school year rather than one big long break!

Bridal Shower Invites

My cousin Maria is getting married in October and we are throwing her a bridal shower either July 27 or August 3. We are still working out the details of the location and the date. However, I am working on the invitations and I would like to know what your opinions are. Her wedding colors are chocolate and champagne.

The first two choices feature a chocolate paper that has some texture to it. I have both samples with a large bow and then one with a small bow.



Or I have a shiny chocolate brown paper with the large bow and the small bow:




I also tried using a brown colored font for the invite, but I believe it is too hard to read

Okay now I want to know your opinions. I asked hubby about the bow...he feels that I need a bow that is smaller than the large one but larger than the small one....something in between.

Any suggestions would be helpful! Thanks!!

Ode to a Candy Bar

Rosie made it back from England on Sunday night and she brought candy back with her. Of course I grabbed the white chocolate bar. Due to the fact that I am not a fan of plain chocolate unless it has peanut butter inside of it. =)


As I was reading the packaging last night, I saw that it said all natural ingredients. So I flipped over to the back of it and the list of ingredients impressed me. As I was reading the ingredients said where the ingredients came from in red letters. Gee that is something we don't have in the United States. It just lists things that we have no idea how to pronounce let alone know what in the heck it is. For example one of the ingredients listed was Emulsifier lecithin (made from soya beans and holds the ingredients together.)

That alone impressed me! I guess I am delighted by the small things in life! =)

The Beginnings of the Deck...

Hubby and I decided that we needed a deck. Well mostly I decided because I need someplace to put the grill because I hate having to grill out in the garage. It is a pain in the butt to drag the thing outside every time we have to use it. Plus it would be nice to actually sit in our backyard from time to time.

So I went to Lowe's on Wednesday last week and they loaded up the wood for me into the pick-up truck. Then hubby helped me unload the wood when I got home into the garage. So my garage has been full since Wednesday and that means that I cannot park in it until the deck is finished. This only stinks when it is the weekend because parking on the street is at a premium.

We were going to set the posts on Saturday night and begin the deck on Sunday. However, hubby and I had a wedding to attend. So we set the posts yesterday. They are nice and strong in the ground. So this weekend it should be finished or somewhat close to being finished.

This is the place where we are placing the deck. If you look closely at the wall behind the AC unit, it is the color of blue. I am in the process of painting this color around the entire base of the house. It matches our front door, garage door, and shed. I also plan to take the shutters off of the windows and also paint those the same color.

Here Hubby is digging a hole for the posts. He really liked the post hole digger.

Tony showed up to help. Well he had to show up because my dad forgot his saw and Tony needed to bring it. So here he is! Although he should be the one mixing up the cement.

See Tony does know how to work! My mom wanted to make sure that she was in the picture eating a strawberry from the garden. Gotta love her!

Happy First Day of Summer

Well it is officially summer. Although with the weather being in the 70s all week with a slight breeze it has been wonderful! I wouldn't mind that weather all year round. I just love having the windows open in the house!

Well this week the soffits and fascia have been completed! Here are the before and after pics:


Here they are when the dang thing was falling off of the house. This happened in October.


Here it is completely removed. We found out that this entire side of the house had completely rotted away fascia boards. The house looks so sad!



Here are the completely new and pretty soffits and fascia!


This pic just cracked me up because Lucy was so interested in what was happening outside the house. She just sat there and watched!

What I love about all of these pictures are the loveliness of the sky, especially the last picture because the sky is so blue!

I hope everyone has a fantastic first day of summer. I have a bunch of run around things I have to get done because we are going to a wedding tomorrow. I still have to get the card and gift. Arrgh!

England Please

Nope I'm not going to England, but my sister Rosie should be on her way. The technical word is "should" because they should have been on their way yesterday. She is going to England with her friend, whose husband is stationed for the next three years in England. Rosie was helping her friend out with the baby. All Rosie had to do was pay the sales tax on the tickets because her friend's sister is a flight attendant and I guess that is how the tickets work.

Anyway back to England. Rosie was supposed to leave at 6:30 Chicago time and arrive in England at 8 AM their time. Well they were on the plane and they were going down the runway, the wheels and the nose of the airplane lifted up off the ground and then the pilot steered it back to the ground. The plane was having technical difficulties.

So they taxied back to the gate and hauled everyone off the plane and said sorry folks were not leaving tonight. The plane needs to be fixed. So here is a hotel room come back in the morning and maybe we will leave tomorrow.

Needless to say Rosie is not pleased because on every flight she ever tries to get on it is always delayed for an enormous amount of time. (My dad mentioned to me that he is sticking Rosie on a different plane for San Antonio because of her luck with flights!) She told my dad that if she does not leave off of the ground today (4 PM) she is renting a car and coming back home.

I am guessing that she is on her way because I haven't heard anything.

Say hello for me to jolly ol' England Rosie because I have a feeling Rosie is not going to be jolly! :)

Neighbors

At last the neighbors next door have moved out. I cannot tell you how happy I am. Granted they probably would have been better neighbors if they actually said hello. I tried my darndest to be friendly and all they did was ignore me. Their 5 children were left outside unsupervised all the time and they got into things.

However the neighbors left with one pile for us to remember them by:


Now isn't this pile of trash lovely. I just love looking out my kitchen window and looking at this. Who in their right mind would think that the garbage man would pick this stuff up. It was a bigger pile but some dumpster diving people were by and rummaged through everything and left a bigger mess than there was before. It is slowly encroaching onto our yard. I am slowly throwing it back into their yard. If it is not picked up by Friday, a city official is going to get an earful!

Plus, I don't think that they sold the house yet (and yet the pile of trash makes the house all more appealing!). So the house will probably sit empty. Which is all together fine with hubby and me. If it were up to us we would live in the middle of nowhere with not a neighbor around for miles.

Also an odd thing is that the front door has been open all day and nobody has been there. Oh well...not my worry.

Ranch dressing please!

Yesterday was my cousin Josh's graduation party. It was hotter than heck (although I think my wedding day was hotter) but there was a nice breeze. My aunt placed her food down on the table and went back inside to get something. Next thing I know I have a plate flying at me and ranch dressing in my hair and on my clothes. So the only thing I could do was laugh. Too bad my camera wasn't close at hand. =)

When it rains, I guess it pours!

So we are getting our gutters, soffits, facia, and facia board replaced sometime in the next few weeks. At the moment they look not so pretty. I would take a pic but it is kinda dark outside at the moment and the neighbors might think I'm nuts.

We are also getting a new furnace unit also! How lucky are we? The blower just keeps running and running. My furnace man came out yesterday and replaced the thermostat because he thought maybe the dang thing was shorting out because the buttons would never increase or decrease the temperature until you were actually smacking the dang thing. Then he told us to call him if it was still acting up.

I believed that is finally regulated itself out last night and we had no problems with it. When I woke up this morning it was doing it again. So furnace guy came back this morning and first asked me if we wanted our old thermostat back and I gladly declined that offer. Then he took a look at the furnace and the computer part is shorting out. He said he could go ahead and replace the $250 part, but in less than two years the furnace would die!

He mentioned that he would not like to do that to us by replacing the part in then coming back and then replacing the furnace. Apparently our furnace has months left in its sorry little life. Apparently, we have the cheapest furnace that was made!

So rather than taking our money, he mentioned that my dad would not do that to him with his trucks and he would not do that to us. (See it is nice having a dad who knows people!) So he took measurements and he believes he also has one back at the shop. So he is going to get back with us and let us know.

Here's the kicker...my parent's AC bit the dust yesterday also. They are getting a new one replaced Saturday morning. When I told my dad about ours tonight he was wondering if furnace man would give us a deal because we are giving him so much business! :D

What I think is also funny is that furnace man said that my Uncle Frank called him yesterday also to get serviced for the AC. See when it rains, it really does pour!

Waiting

So my classroom is all packed away. It was very easy to pack it all away because of the fact that I just have to move everything back to the other third grade teacher. This is due to the fact that I am teaching 2nd grade next year. St. Matt's never called me back or e-mailed me. I just believe that is plain rude. Who wants to work for that kind of school? So it is another year of driving back and forth to Plymouth. That is unless someone calls with a job opening a week before school starts someplace else. Which I have a feeling is going to happen.

The only thing I have left to finish at school is the School Improvement Plan. The principal needs to finish her end so that I can do charts and graphs and plunk them into the document. Sometimes I hate knowing so much about certain programs!

She would like me to come in tomorrow so I can get going on it, but my furnace's fan has been going off randomly when it is in the off position. So that means that I have called my heating and cooling people. They said that they would put the work order in for today but it doesn't necessarily mean that they will get to me today, it could be tomorrow.

So this means that I get to lay around the house waiting for my person to show up either today or tomorrow. Good thing I am finally watching Heroes Season 1 that I got for Christmas because that is all I am doing for the next two days. Which I have to say is a really good show.