Saturday

Aug. 14th, 2011 12:20 am
chochiyo_sama: (Default)

I finished that book today.  It was good.  I really couldn't put it down.  I sat up till about 1 am last night reading it, then woke up at 5:30 am and picked it up again.  Of course, this meant I did not get a ton of work done, but the book was just so intriguing.

It's kind of a conspiracy theory/alternate history/thriller.

Something is wrong with my EBAY account.  I will have to call them in the morning.  I looked at that link for the "MY Friend" doll patterns and someone was selling 2 for about $10 on BIN.  When I clicked to BIN, it did not recognize my password, and the "secret question" was replaced by gibberish. 

Something weird is going on.

Sigh. 

With a little effort, I can probably alter patterns I already have to fit these dolls.  The are so much slimmer bodied that the standard doll of that height.

Ah, well...I have too much crap now and no time to sew anyhow at this time.

Mom and her brother Jerry went to the funeral of their cousin Dee's husband.  I did not really know him.  I had met him years ago, and he seemed like a very nice guy.  He was a teacher, apparently beloved by all his students.  That makes me kind of sad that I never really got to know him.  We might have become good buds.

He died a slow painfilled death with cancer.

Fucking cancer.

The plumber came today to fix the drain.  He was supposed to come between 8 and 8:30 am.  He showed up at about 11:45.  I had been sitting upstairs in my mom's recliner reading my book after making myself a grilled cheese sandwich.  I used Swiss cheese, which is one of my absolute favorites, especially in a grilled cheese sandwich.

I don't really know how long he was here--probably till about 2 pm, then he left. 

Mom got home from the funeral and we sat and talked a while.  Then he came back, and he worked on replacing some faucets upstairs.  Mom went to Cora's birthday party at about 4:30, and I figured he wouldn't be here TOO long, but at 6:45, I decided to just go or the whole party would be over.  Of course, I forgot my stupid camera, so I cannot post any pictures of my niece with her gifts.  She got two dogs that bark and move a little and three cats that move, blink, meow, and twitch their tails.  They are really cute. 

I gave her a calico one.

She loves her stuffed animals.

I was hoping Kari would have her famous scotcheroos for Cora's birthday, but she had made brownies from a mix instead.  They were okay--but nothing as fabulous as her scotcheroos.  :)

My hand, especially the wrist, aches today from giving Lily that long massage yesterday.  I wish I had a cold ice pack to wrap it in.

Ah, well.  It will probably be better in the morning.  I haven't given any real long or powerful massages in a long time, so it was bound to get sore.

I have been feeling kind of head-achey and feverish today.  I feel like I have been outside in the hot sun too long, with it baking my head.  No idea what that's about.

It could just be that I did not have enough sleep.

Mom has taken quite a fancy to Peaches.  Peaches has always  been the most stand-offish, so Mom feels quite thrilled that Peaches lets her pet her and play with her.

I hope she bonds as much with the other two.  They are all really sweet cats.

Tomorrow Mom, Kari, Caleb and Cora are going up to Tammy's house north of the cities in order to help her organize her craft room.  I have decided to stay here and continue to work on my own mess.  It will also be very nice to just have some alone time.  I may go shopping or go to a movie or even call DeAnn and see if she'd like to go to lunch with me.  I'm feeling the isolation and I don't like it much.  They will be back some time on Tuesday--probably in the afternoon.

I have more laundry to wash, dry, and put away tomorrow.  I also want to finish sorting through all the paper crap that was on my desk.  I am almost done.  Then i think I will make it a practice to type a few recipes into my computer every day.  I have a bunch of them that I have collected from many sources in a wire basket.  If I could get them all typed up and put into my recipe book (a three ring binder with all my recipes kept in plastic "sleeves" and sorted according to what they are.

I also have a great big Walmart bag full of patterns or pieces of patterns that need to be filed appropriately.  I will have to pull my file cabinets out from under the desk to sort them properly--I may need to haul them into the family room so I can have room to spread out while Mom is gone for a couple of days.  I have the strong suspicion that I really will need one more file cabinet as well.


I cannot think of anything else of significance to expound on, so I guess I am finished.  :D

chochiyo_sama: (Default)
I spent the weekend at my mom's.  I left West Concord at about 8:15 pm.  I stopped at Starbucks for a green tea frappacino as I had a bit of an upset stomach, and that always seems to settle it down.

At mom's, I started my laundry as soon as I got home.  I had four loads.  I brought the laundry to my mom's in my big suitcase on wheels as it is easier to take it there and do it than it is to make 8 trips up and down my steep basement stairs to get laundry done. 

I worked on the doll clothes for my friend Dave Kelley's granddaughter.  I got them all made.  As soon as I take pictures of the doll wearing the last of the outfits that I made, I will send them all to him.  I hope the little girl likes them.

Mom and I stayed up till midnight watching TV, then we went to bed.  All day Saturday, I worked on my laundry and on the doll clothes.  I finished the four pairs of pants for the LeeAnn dolls for their "world scout" uniforms.  I sewed together the bodice linings for the shirts.  I will try to get the shirts sewn torrow at our faculty retreat.

Mom and I decided to go out for supper on Valentine's Day.  I took her to the Kernal.  We both had fish, but I had a baked potato and she had mashed with a yucky gravy on them that she did not like.

I called Kimbies and asked her to join us, but she was too busy with cleaning her house.  So, after mom and I were done eating, we each got a piece of pie to take home and I think that it was the most delicious coconut cream pie I have ever eaten.  On a whim, we bought a piece of chocolate cream pie for Kimbies and took it to her house.  We hung out there for a while and just chatted.

I learned something I didn't know before regarding my Uncle Rudy.  Apparently he was unable to sleep in the bed he shared with my aunt Darla after she passed away  When he finally felt able to, he went up to discover that some asshole had laid one of her nightgowns out on the bed. 

Apparently, he was devastated by this.  If I knew who did it, I would pay them a visit and we would have a little chat about appropriate behavior.  And I might have to punch them in the face too.

How could anyone be so cruel and nasty?  That isn't a prank or a joke.  That's cruelty.

I also learned that Kaylee was finally home from the hospital after four continuous months in the hospital.  She is apparently doing pretty well, too.

Mom scanned a bunch of old picures fo me, so hey.  I will be inflicting them on you, my dear readers.

Here's one of two of my sisters and myself.


Joni Beth is in the front.  Kimberly Kae is in the middle, and there I am at the back.  Joni was probably about one in this picture, so Kim would be three and I would be five.

I actually remember having this picture taken.  I remember the dresses were red and of a sort of shiny material. 

This was supposed to be it, as far as the number of kids in our family--but four years later, my mom had a surprise.  Tammy Jo was born, and two years after that, they decided to try one last time for a boy and got Jack.

I left mom's at 1 pm today.  When I got home, I cut out some more doll clothes to take with me to the faculty retreat.  I cannot stand to be bored, and so I need something productive to do in the evening after the meetings.

I also hauled my clean laundry upstairs and put it all away.

I got a pay-per-view movie "Righteous Kill" and watched that while I was cutting out doll clothes. 

I took a bath, then filled my big pill caddy.  My little pink pill caddy is mysteriously missing.

My digital camera, which had been missing all week, finally turned up tonight underneath my bedspread.  Thank goodness.  I was so afraid it was gone forever.

That's about it.

My big exciting weekend.  Whoo.

Now I am going to bed.  I'm very tired.
chochiyo_sama: (Default)

I have been working my way through the pile of "stuff" on my desk, and i am feeling better about it.  Most of the issue was just getting everything sorted into piles--then working my way through the stack.

Jay came in  to talk to my third hour class today about the behavior on Thursday last week.  (Jay was out sick himself Thursday and friday.)

He is so good with the kids.  He talked to them about how we are different from other schools because we trust the kids.  We give them a million chances to prove themselves trustworthy.  Almost all of them prove themselves worthy of that trust.  Some "get it" sooner than others--but most of them get to the point where they understand this sooner or later.

He told the story of Sam who was murdered in a driveby the summer before I started teaching here.  Sam was a kid who was heavy into gangs in California who had to leave there because there was no chance for him to make a better life for himself in California.  there was too much 'history' for him to overcome.  So he came here. 

In the old building, the door to the store was easy to get to open, even if it was locked.  All you had to do was rattle the door knob.  Well, one day when Jay went in there, the money was gone out of the cash box.  He talked to all the kids about the issue and asked anyone who had any information to chat with him about it.

A while later, Sam came into his office, dropped a wad of bills on his desk and said, 'I took it.  It was a temptation i couldn't resist--old habits die hard."  then he put his binder on Jay's desk--thinking he'd get expelled for stealing.  Jay said, "What are you doing?"

Sam said, "You can't trust me anymore."

Jay said, "Dude.  you just proved that we CAN trust you.  You brought it all back."

Later, Jay put him in charge of collecting the money for the sweatshirts they were ordering as a fund raiser.

jay said, "In all his short life, Sam never had anyone who trusted him--and we did.  That was huge for him."

Then suddenly, Jay choked up and got tears in his eyes--which of course, made me choke up and get tears in my eyes.  So we both kept looking at each other and getting more and more teary eyed.  Finally i tossed him the box of kleenex and i turned to grab one from my other box. 

He said, "I can do this....but I can't look at Cheryl." 

i said, "I can't look at you either."

So then he went on with his little speech about how we trusted them.  When there are no subs available, and often  there are not, we trust them to be on their own in the rooms and do what they are supposed to be doing.

It was a very good bonding experience for all of us.

I am so damn proud to work here.  I am so humbled that I was chosen for this wonderful place.  And of course, i love Jaymar and all our sweet kids.  even when they are naughty, i still love them."

The difference this school makes in kids' lives is HUGE--shoot, the difference it makes in MY life is huge.

That is all.

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