Did you miss me???? Here's the latest. A BIG THANK YOU, TOO.

(1.) Check out my new grand puppy, Becky the Basset, at my son-in-law's blog, Sheep Days. The gorgeous little boy is my grandson, Thomas.

Now Brett will understand the old expression, "Love me, love my dog."

(2.) I decided to redecorate my office because the new floor is so gorgeous. This has become a much bigger project than anticipated, but I am motivated. I was living in terror that the HGTV people would show up at our house and do a remodel as per requested by our daughter in one of those "My parents are stuck in the last century" episodes.

(3.) Please forgive my griping about our weather. We do not live in San Diego where it is law that the weather and climate is always perfect. However, we have now had 31 days of temperatures above 110. This is especially bad when one is teaching and the kids can't go out for recess. Of course the kids can walk back and forth from school. Someone wrote into the paper saying that the rest of the country has snow days and that we should have heat days.

Ah, this too shall pass. ( I just made that up.)

(4.) A HUGE THANK YOU : I want to publicly thank the people who read my blog, comment on it and those very precious friends who email me regularly from around the world. I have always believed in the goodness, kindness, warmth and amazing humor of people and this is continuously shown by small group of blogger friends. I treasure your words.


Life is good.

I still love it here.

I was born in Madison, Wisconsin. I lived in:
- Baraboo, Wisonsin
- Eleva, Wisonsin
- Elmhurst, Illinois
- Ellendale, North Dakota
- Charleston, Illinois
- DeKalb, Illinois
- Morgantown, West Virgina
- New Britain, Connecticut
- Madison, Wisconsin
- Grand Forks, North Dakota
- Mesa. Arizona. I love it here.

I love Arizona. It's beauty is haunting. The weather is magnificnet from November through Aprtil, and then it gets hot. The last two weeks have been the hottest on record. Our students can't go out for recess. They can, howver , walk to and from school. Someone suggested that in the rest of the country they have snow days, so perhaps we should have heat days. Tomorrow it will much. much cooler; 98 degrees.

We must go through the worst to appreciate the best.

Remember Murphy Brown?

I am on my husband's computer so I can't seem to add any images.


Remember on the show Murphy Brown, the contrator who was a permanent resident because he was always working on a project? Well, that's happened at our house, but here is the good news; our contrator/handyman is delightful and the remodeling although going very s-l-o-w-l-y is worth the wait. The floor is much better than I hoped for. The new doors look gorgeous. A shiny light and fan will brighten my office, and have decided that paint and wallpaper will look much better than the crappy stuff (which I loved at one time, but everyone else hated) has to go. This is all a bit tricky with teaching full time, and my day starts early. I'm at school before 7:00 am. Oh, well, I can sleep .... later.

It's been said that remodeling is as stressful as a divorce, but aside from the appliance death watch, death of an beloved pet ( oh, yes, another a/c unit has been leaking which caused ceiling damage and we could have bought a really high-end washer for it's repair) but who's counting? I think we have done very well and only mild irritation over furniture placement and removal (yea, - way too much firniture before) and major LIGging (see blog below) on my part, have keep kept us sane. After having watched many episodes of HGTV we should realize that everything costs more than estimated. Oh, well, who's counting. (I said that didn't I?)

When I get my own computer back I'll post pictures.

Every School Year is Different, so I LIG.

Every school year is unique because there are millions - literally - of combinations of factors that make so many things different. For example, brutal heat; 113 degrees the first day. One less sixth grade teacher, and larger classes. The entire sixth grade has a personality that is wildly different from last year's group. (Human, for one thing.) These kids are much less worldly. thank goodness.

Add to that being in the midst of major remodeling here at home which means that when I come home there isn't any real relaxation. Why is it that I don't feel the bone draining exhaustion that would normally swallow me up?

I'm glad you asked.

It is because I have finally learned to LIG. That is my new acronym for "Let It Go."

Of all the goals I have worked towards in the past four years LIGging has been one of the most satisfying because it has done the most to get stress under control.

As the Serenity prayer suggest you must let go of things you can't control. I had no idea how little I controlled. I had no idea that giving up that control would have the unknown bonus of giving me energy that was utterly wasted on things out of my control.

Ah, it's good to know I am still trainable.

All Dogs Go To Heaven

Bruno, our eighteen and half year old beagle, died this morning. Only last month he was out dancing in the backyard under the moon. No one told him he was old and deaf and blind and dancing was only for young dogs. It has been a year full of dog deaths. Bruno's sister Mollie died last October. They were both ancient dogs. We loved them, but it was time.

The toughest death was Josephine (JoJo) beagle, who had to be put to sleep on Christmas day. It was just like having someone shove their fist down your throat and then rip your heart out. Josephine was much younger. She had shown no signs of illness. She was sweet beyond sweet and full of love. Jo the peacemaker. My son held her in his arms, like a baby, as she died.

My dear, dear, friend Pat, died On Christmas day, too. The day after that Gail's mom died. The unexpected deaths are something you never get used to. Christmas will never be the same.

Our beagle girls; Freddie, JoJo's sister, and the little girl dogs, Roxanne and Mabel are all that is left of the pack. They are bewildered today. They don't know death, but they do know loss.

Our friend Austin said an amazing thing about dogs, "They stay puppies their whole lives, then they die and break your hearts." How true.

But I have always said our pets are only loaned to us.

I could get everything done if I didn't have to sleep.

We are remodeling, which means moving decades worth of stuff, but so much stuff was thrown out, too. Good riddance. Appliances have made a suicide pact. We bought a lovely new refrigerator. Hooray.

This week has been filled with before school meetings. School starts with the kids on Monday. Tonight we had "Meet and Greet" where the kids and parents come to meet the teacher. All but two of my students showed up. That's a record.

Lots of former students stopped by to say "Hello", which is something that can't be put in a paycheck. Everyone of them said they were still goal-setting. I couldn't be prouder of them.

I am woefully sleep-deprived, but as happy as I can remember. I busy. I'm tired. But I'm not stressed. I wish I could bank this lovely feeling. Oh, I know. I can blog about it.