Friday, April 26, 2013

Retiring!

I finally did it.  I turned in my letter of resignation yesterday.  Or, I should say my letter of retirement.  My dean was very nice about it--acted like he was crying and really going to miss me.  I think part of it was an act because he is under so much pressure to eliminate positions and was really kind of relieved.  I had told him before Christmas that I was retiring this summer, but he couldn't do anything until it was official.  He gave me a big hug and told me I had done a wonderful job and the school would miss me.   

I have so many things I'm wanting to do when I retire--write in this blog more regularly, go out to lunch with friends, plant more flower beds, visit more with grand kids, go back to church, read some books I have been wanting to read for ever, sew more for the grand kids and figure out how to use my serger.  I would eventually like to do some volunteer work, maybe a couple of days a week.  I'd also like to join the Smocking Guild of America; they have meetings once a month in Crestwood.  They have a program called Wee Care, and they make smocked preemie gowns for babies who don't make it to be buried in.  I've thought about opening a shop on Etsy, but I really don't want to have to do something.  I just want to sew when I feel like it. 

We only have one more week of school, then finals week.  Then we leave that Saturday, the 11th, for vacation.  We're renting a different beach house this year, so it will be interesting to see how that works out.  The house has two separate floors, each with five bedrooms.  I think maybe we'll put all of the grandkids on the top floor and us adults on the first floor, haha.  The house has its own pool and basketball court and a really nice looking picnic area.  We'll get back on Sunday, the 19th, and on Thursday, the 23rd, I fly to Cincinnati to help with Stephanie when the new baby is born.  Chellie will have a c-section on Saturday, the 25th.  It seems like I'm just about already finished working, but I'll be there some in June.  I have about eight weeks of sick leave which I'll lose, and about three weeks of vacation that I'll either use or get paid for.

They are breaking ground for our addition on Monday.  We've been cleaning out the garden to get ready, and we have lots of day lilies and hostas to get rid of.  I've moved some stuff but don't have anywhere to put a lot of it.  A guy came yesterday to take the old air conditioner out and the utility companies came this week to mark place in the yard where the lines are.  I'll take pictures as we go along.

Wednesday, April 17, 2013

Wordless Wednesday


Evil

I just talked to my daughter in Boston, and we had said how fortunate it is that her children are with their father in California visiting their other grandparents this week.  She talked to Corinne last night, however, and C already knew all about it.  I can't imagine how children can deal with all of the shootings and bombings and terrorism that goes on now.  When I was a child my biggest worry was who would win the Irish-German basketball game on St. Patrick's Day, and what to wear to the school picnic.  I don't remember hearing of anyone being killed, until I was in eighth grade and JFK was shot, and a senior in high school when Martin Luther King and Bobby Kennedy were killed.  By then I knew there was evil and people were capable of killing one another for no reason (except for war when they are trained to kill the "enemy"). 

And when I raised my children I don't remember such violence.  We adults know that the chances are so slim of us being the victim of shooting or terrorism, but children don't have the maturity to realize this.  It must seem like there is terror lurking everytime they go out now, like to a movie theatre or to watch a parade.  They know at Sandy Hook twenty little children were killed in their own school.  In a safe place in an upper-middle class neighborhood.   And their was a woman in our neighborhood who killed her two children and then herself last summer.  My St. Louis daughter was on vacation and she asked us not to talk about it when they returned.  And the little eight-year-old Martin who was killed at the marathon.  I've seen a couple of things on other peoples' blogs and Facebook, and I'm repeating them below.  I know what they say is true, there are so many more good people than the few psychopaths, but how will little children process all of this?



To this day, especially in times of ‘disaster,’ I remember my mother’s words, and I am always comforted by realizing that there are still so many helpers – so many caring people in this world.’ ~Mr. Rogers.




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Monday, April 8, 2013

The Church Garden

RW has been working the past few weeks at emptying out the side garden and taking down the fence.   We call it the church garden because there is a church right next door to us.  The builders are supposed to start on our addition by the end of this week.  I took a few pictures of how it looks now, compared to last year.

These pictures were taken in April of 2012:

Looking at the garden from the back porch of the house.

The back of our house; I can't believe how green the grass was.  RW really works at making our lawn look perfect.


From the back again

Looking from the front yard

The clematis and climbing hydrangea over the arbor (later in the spring)

Astilbe

Hydrangeas at the front of the garden

From the front yard

Later in the summer, the arbor and fence covered with climbing hydrangeas





These pictures of the side garden were taken two weeks ago, when we had 12 inches of snow on March 25th:

We had already moved the arbor to the back yard, but the fence was still up.



These pictures were taken this evening, April 8, 2013:

The fence is down and there's an orange, plastic construction fence, and the garden is full of holes from digging up so many of the flowers and bushes.  I still have to dig up a lot of day lilies, hostas and dames rockets, but the big stuff has been moved.


I'm already missing all of our flowers, but I know the new kitchen, bedroom and wrap-around porch will be really nice.  We moved a lot of the flowers to other flower beds, and started a new bed we are calling the "Children's Garden."  We're going to let the grand kids plant and tend that garden.  A couple were over yesterday putting little statues in it, bunnies, frogs and gnomes.  I want to keep a before and after record here to watch the progress.  I'll be posting pictures weekly once they get started, if they ever do get started.





Saturday, April 6, 2013

Easter Decorations

These are some pictures of Easter decorations that I didn't have last Easter and a little jacket I made for Stephanie.       




John and Chellie gave me this for my birthday--they know I love all things bunny.  There's another picture of it further down with some eggs on it.












This was one of my mother's and one of my favorites, even though the second bunny lost his ear.

Thursday, April 4, 2013

Ten on Tuesday (on Thursday)

1.  I have a new great niece, Dakota Margaret, born March 22, 8 lbs., 9 oz.  She is my nephew Chris and his wife Rochelle's baby.  I had a shower for her back in December.  We saw the baby last Friday then they came here for Easter.  She looks so tiny--I can't remember any of ours being that little.






2.  I had a cold for a couple of weeks which ended up turning into a sinus infection.  I finally called the dr. last week and got an antiobiotic.

3.  John and Chellie came in town last Friday for Easter.  They stayed until Sunday.  Stephanie is adorable--walking all over and acting more like a toddler than a baby.  She'll be a big sister soon.









4.  We had Easter at our house, with 68 people.  Luckily the weather was great so lots of people were outside.  The little ones really seem to enjoy it; the big ones do too.


























 
5.  The Cardinals are playing again.  They opened with a loss in Arizona on Monday evening, then won Tuesday and lost again Wednesday night, after about sixteen innings.  I was watching it and fell asleep when they were tied, then woke up around two and the TV was still on and the Diamond Backs were all cheering.  The Cardinals will have their home opener next Monday, the eighth.

6.  I'm really starting to look forward to vacation.  We'll be going five weeks from Sunday.  I bought new swimsuits for the girls on line today.  I always end up buying too many matching outfits, so I'm really trying to hold back this year.  The older ones are starting to balk, too.

7.  So sad John and Chellie will not be able to come to Gulf Shores this year; baby Julia Grace will be born on May 25th.  We'll be on vacation from the 12th through the 19th of May.  Then I'll fly to Cincinnati on the 24th and help watch Stephanie while they are having the baby and help out that first week.  RW will drive to Cincinnati the following weekend to see the new baby and bring me home.

8.  We were supposed to go to the Architectural Review Board meeting today to get approval for our addition plans.  We closed on our refinance last week and are ready to go.  RW just got a call from our architect saying we are pre-approved and just have to get building permits.  We don't have to go to the meeting tonight.  The architect has to finish the building blueprints, which should take about a week.  The builder says it will take about four months to complete, so I hope they hurry up and get started.

9.  I think spring might really be here.  It is nice and sunny today and is supposed to get up in the sixties.  This weekend it's supposed to be beautiful.  Can't wait to work in the yard!

10.  That's all I can think of right now.