The View from Here

Moving...really

Shutting down in the morning and moving. I'll be offline until next weekend so read through the archives or something. LOL

moving

If you haven't moved in a while let me just remind you that it is EXHAUSTING! I've been in packing-cleaning mode for weeks. Now we are also painting. We painted until 9pm last night. Hard on an old body, but my new office looks great! Nice soft green. We'll have to do the trim next week. Just don't have the time right now.

My uncle died and we're going to family hour tonight. The funeral is tomorrow. John was my mom's last remaining brother and my last uncle. Sad to think of him gone, but I know he was suffering and it was time. I'll blog about him in a few weeks. He gave me some of his writings a few years ago.

When I drove up to the house last night two Canada geese were circling the pond and finally landed. A good sign! I think this is going to be a wonderful place for us. We're physically moving on Saturday. Start praying for our stamina and good weather.

This Old House

          We’ve been cleaning and painting for three days now and I’m beginning to see some real potential in our little house. It has a much bigger kitchen and a better layout. It has an extra room. Has more storage space. That’s always a good thing.

We’ve changed my new office from robin’s egg blue to white primer. Next will come willow green with an olive green trim. The dining room is changing from baby blue to light “guacamole”. The two bedrooms will be warm beige. The kitchen will have to be a summer project because it has lots of wallpaper that needs to be removed.

I actually enjoy home improvement projects, but I don’t like doing them in combination with the stress of moving. I’m already tired from packing!

We did take a break this evening and we went to the movies. We saw “The Astronaut Farmer”. Very entertaining, even though I kept wondering if half of it was even possible.

Running out of energy so I’ll leave you with one of our new views. 

A new view...

We’re going out to clean our new house today. I say “new”, but it is actually an old Sears catalog house. Yes, between 1908 and 1940 you could actually buy a house from the Sears catalog. They sold over 100,000 of them! Be sure to check the link. I think you'll be surprised by the selection that was available. I don’t know the age of ours or the model. It’s been modified by the owners over the years. Our new landlady is the daughter of a friend and we’re very excited to be moving to her house. It needs a little repair, but the view is spectacular, and the yard is a “blank canvas” for a new garden. I’ll keep you posted. And of course we’re taking our camera with us this morning.

Elephants

I didn't post anything over the weekend because we were busy packing AND I was waiting to look at a house...hoping to tell you all about it. No such luck. Now we're all packed up with no place to go. Looks like rain for most of the week. This is not turning out to be the smoothest move we've ever made. However, we did move during ice and snow once. So I know it could be worse.

Here are a few photos from our trip to the elephant farm.

Send in the clowns...

           Today was kindergarten “dress up” day- the culminating activity to end circus week. I wore baggy pants, a sloppy red t-shirt covered with fake flowers, and big shoes with one red sock and one blue sock. I frizzed my hair and sprayed it red on one side and green on the other. I painted my clown face on and finished with a big red foam nose. Thank goodness for daylight savings time- at least I drove to work in the dark. 

There is something liberating about being a clown for a day. The children enjoyed it of course, but I enjoyed it. It’s fun to be silly and make people smile. ‘Course it made teaching math more fun too. Kids really pay attention when a clown with a big red nose explains subtraction! Maybe I should try dressing up as a different character each week. Could start a new trend in education.

elephants, llamas, and goats, oh my…

We went to the Carson & Barnes circus compound today. What a treat! The children enjoyed a peek “behind the scenes” at the costume shop and then visited with many of the animals. They were enthralled by the llamas, camels, and alpaca. And even though many have goats of their own, our students crowded around to see the pygmy goats. Then we saw a zebra, several Shetland ponies, a miniature horse, some Frisian horses, and a hippo. Of course our tour guides saved the best for last.

The Carson & Barnes circus has twenty-seven elephants- one of the largest herds in the United States. We were privileged to see a 60-year-old grandma, a three-year-old “baby” and a variety of other females. The children got to feed one of them and I know several who won’t soon forget the experience. They talked about it all afternoon!

And yes, I stepped forward to take my turn to feed the elephant and rub her trunk, too. It reminded me of my childhood in Fresno, CA and my trips to see “my” elephant, Nosey, at the local zoo. Be sure to visit the website for the Endangered Ark Foundation to read about the work they are doing and to see photos of the elephants. (I took several, but don’t have them back yet.)

The circus leaves on tour next week. We’ll miss them!

Springing Forward

I don’t care when we do it or if anyone else likes it, the day we “spring forward” into daylight savings time is one of my favorite days of the year. I am simply not a winter person and for me this signals the beginning of spring and my “normal” life. I feel different- more energetic, more enthusiastic- when I know I have a little extra daylight after work.

It was 70+ degrees today and it was wonderful! Gary mowed the lawn and I picked up a few things I’ll be taking with me soon. Moved the gazing ball and my little garden angel and my ceramic bunnies to the porch. I moved our metal lawn chairs out of his way and realized they need to be painted soon. Patches of pink are showing beneath the green. Pink is the color my great-grandmother painted them when they were hers. In fact, I ran across a photo of her the other day that shows the chairs behind her on her front porch. Wonderful memories! She had such a gorgeous yard. And she had this funny fake parrot that hung from the porch eave.

Big week coming up!! The circus is leaving town and before they go they will give a little performance especially for kindergarten. I have a feeling it will be a very special field trip for a lot of our students. I hope to get some good elephant photos. I understand they have a new baby that is pretty cute.

Still packing. Still don’t have a house. Still confident that things will work out. I’ll be sure to let you know when we have a “new view”.   

Rude

It was a young crowd for the Katona Twins recital last night. Lots of college students and a few high school and even middle school kids. The music director spent a few minutes introducing the twins and then asked everyone in the audience to please turn off any device that could talk. Then he asked the group to please remember their best behavior. That should have been our first clue.

Gary and I found ourselves behind four very annoying, rude young people who must have been required to attend because of some class assignment. They certinly weren't as enthralled by the performance as us old folks. The young man and woman in front and to my right kept playing with their hands and leaning together and whispering. The young man to Gary's left was obviously bored to tears and just kept fidgeting. However, the kid in front of me was just about "on my last nerve" as the saying goes. He kept fanning himself with his program. Not only was it visually distracting because it was blocking my view, but it was offensive because each flick of his wrist brought me a face full of wind permeated by his horrible aftershave. Finally after about twenty minutes of gagging, and trying to decide how to handle it, I got the brilliant idea to push on the back of his seat with my foot. Each time he started to fan I pushed. Took about three more times before he turned ever so slightly to look back and then stopped fanning. Whew! I enjoyed the last ten minutes of the recital in comfort. Next time I'm going to be more selective about where I sit! Later...

Out late...

so no blog last night. We went to a "recital of classical works for two guitars" performed by the Katona Twins from Hungary. They were brilliant and I'm not sure I realized before watching them that a guitar could even make those sounds! I have more to say, but will save it for tonight. Just wanted you to know my excuse for not writing.