Short Week, short post

The long holiday weekend is here already for me.  Next week we meet the students.  Part of today's professional development included first aid and CPR training.  It has been a while since I have had any certifications.  CPR has changed a little bit over the years plus now there are AEDs to learn to use.  Back in the day I was an EMT.  That didn't last long, people aggravated me more when I was younger.  Or maybe I was just too sensitive... or maybe both.  ¯\_(ツ)_/¯


They fed us at school yesterday and today.  The principal let me take some of the leftovers home so I have some salads to share tomorrow when I go to an event.  This act of kindness is my happy for today.

A sculpture I don't remember seeing before tonight.

Gideon had seen it before though.

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Ice Cream

The school I work for has its first day next week, but today was Gideon's.  His first day in First Grade.  He told me that he had a good day.  Met some new students and saw returning ones from his kindergarten class last year.

My work day was uneventful, but there isn't much I can write about any how because, school.  The students don't arrive until next week, this week is just professional development.  After work I visited with a coworker for a while before coming home for dinner and to watch an episode of Babylon 5.  This science fiction series from the 1990's is bringing up some memories from the first time I watched the series.  My apologies to the first season, but I am looking forward to season two.  

By people in other parts of the country I have been told that New England is where to go to get good ice cream.  Having recently been to Texas, they sell Ben & Jerry's, although not as large a variety.  They are also home to Blue Bell ice cream which is good stuff.  Any how, ice cream is definitely a dietary weakness for me.  Tonight Z bought something new for me as a surprise.  I don't eat chocolate and he found a caramel ice cream sandwich which uses a vanilla cake with a caramel swirl inside.  It was really good, thoughtful of him and my happy for today.  

This little frog was trying to hide on the stairs at home.

Pretty sure it is a gray tree frog.

☮🐸☮

First Day Back to Work

There are things I learned on the first day back to work after summer break:

• Like me, other people took the summer off
• Like me, they were also not as prepared for the day as those who did work over the summer
• There are some big changes this year with how the teachers grade the students
• New people, new things to learn

We did some vision writing exercises today; three of them- one personal/health, one professional and one family/relationship.  These strengthened my belief that a person's personal and health goals play a large part in how well they will perform professionally or family/relationship.  All of these things, to me, are tied together with one's health.  I didn't sleep well last night, ties into my health which then effects my job performance as well as how cranky I might be for the family.

After power napping in a parking lot I made it to rehearsal.  Of the 7 people we need to do this show three of them are new to this particular play and one of them is changing rolls.  The end result will be a similar bit different show.    

Today's happy is seeing the people at work that I missed over the summer.       

Sun rising over the dashboard.

☮

Last Day of Summer Break

Any thoughts I had for going on a hike today were squashed when I remembered I had a chiropractor appointment.  Chores and organizing got done and I did get out for a walk around town.  I finally purchased a new water bottle so I can stop getting myself wet with the old one. 😜

There will be a performance similar to one we did at Pennsic in about three weeks and rehearsals will start tomorrow night.  There will be a few different performers that I will get to meet then.  Two possible versions have been presented and I am hoping they choose the one similar to what we did.  This is not just because it would mean less work, but also I wasn't as crazy about the other one that was presented.  One of the characters my part performs with will be changing again and I am looking forward to that challenge.

K & Z got home safe some time in the middle of the night so I am officially off Gideon duty.  I want to complain about having Gideon all weekend, at the last minute, when there are other things I was hoping to do to close off my summer.  But it was a good weekend.  I'll need to schedule my time better to get those things done over the upcoming weekends that don't have SCA events.  Those things being climb a mountain or two and work in my storage unit.  My happy for today is finding a friend where she worked and getting a nice hug.  Hugs are awesome and there could be more in my life.  🤗

I stopped and smelled the flowers today.

My new water bottle.

I was hoping for glass, but they were sold out. 

 🏵   ☮   🏵

Gideon Sitting Day 3-Vlog

Sometime in the middle of the night K & Z will get home.  Gideon requested a Vlog again, so here it is:

My happy for today is getting two bathrooms, 2.5 loads of laundry and maybe a fourth of the kitchen cleaned up.  This will hopefully mean that I get to take a long hike in the morning after I take care of the rest of that laundry.  😉

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Gideon Sitting Day 2--Vlog

Gideon wanted to do a Vlog like we used to so here it is:

If I get a bunch of cleaning done before Monday, I hope to spend Monday hiking.  Today's happy is getting out of the house with Gideon and friends and having ice cream!!   

And the flamingos were pretty fun, too!

☮ 🍨 ☮

Gideon SItting Day 1

K went to a wedding and Z to a funeral at almost opposite sides of the country so I have Gideon for the weekend.  It has been a busy few weeks and this is the first full day home in a long time.  He played on his iPad, played with things in his room and watched stuff.  The one thing we did was go for a walk to the grocery store and play Pokemon Go.  I still have my old phone and so we could both play while we walked.  He even convinced me to try a Pokemon battle.  Pokemon Go might be the only way I get any walking in this weekend.  😉  Tomorrow there is a friend coming over to give me a hand.  Gideon is looking forward to showing her some things in town.  Today my happy thing is spending time with Gideon, of course. 

☮

Texas day 9, Plane and home

In one week I became more acclimated to the Texas heat than I thought I would.  It was in the lower 70's when the plane landed and that was fine, until we got in the car driving with the windows down.  I was wishing for a lightweight jacket or long sleeve shirt.  On the walk I took this morning the temps were around 76-80, I think.  It seemed comfortable compared to the 100+ they have had during the day.  Doing the math it is a 30 degree difference.  It seemed cold driving home with the windows down, but I expect it would be nice if I were out for a walk.

So, we are home.  It was a long day of flights and waiting for flights.  Now I am happy to be in my own room with my own stuff around.  It has been a long few weeks.  Next week I am back to work and I guess I should try to retrain myself into a routine so I don't fall asleep when I get there.  😄

Fungus??

On a plane.

☮

Texas Day 8-Bats

Today was our last full day in Texas.  Most of the day was just relaxing and hanging around but in the evening we went to see the bats fly in Austin, TX.  My friend from Texas (I'll call her Jak) kindly brought Gideon and I to the park where K, C and E met us and we waited and watched until they flew out from under the bridge.  There are so many bats that live under that bridge!  I think the website said it is estimated at around 1.5 million bats.  Depending on the types of bats, they can travel pretty far to find food once they leave the roosts.  Watching the bats is my happy for today.   Saying goodbye to friends and family was sad, but I think we had a pretty good visit, despite C's broken toe.

First photo courtesy of Jak.

Bats. 

Another late night sky shot. 

 🦇     ☮   🦇

Texas Day 7

Many years ago I lived in Texas.  The weather just before we moved was rain.  The total rainfall for one of those days was 15 inches with the heaviest falling about 2 inches in an hour.  This is easy to forget when it is hot, sunny and dry out most of the time.  It has only rained once since we have been here this week and only briefly.  This morning I went for a walk and was reminded not by it raining but by how parts of the trail was designed.  Many of the trails are along creeks.  They also do a great job of making underpasses for pedestrians and bicyclists to go under a roadway instead of having to cross.  As I walked along a particular trail today all the landscaping was concrete built to obviously aim the flow of the water to the trail and into the underpass.  The underpass in turn had drainage grates to collect the water and send it to the creek.  People have done a bunch of planning with the trails and numbers of parks and open land to help control where the water goes when it rains. 

I just liked the sounds... 

The bird and the boy. 

We went to play a game at a friend of my kids today.  It took the majority of the game before I feel like I was starting to understand the nuances but it was fun and is my happy for today.  Tomorrow is our last full day and we are hoping to see the bats.  

☮

Texas Day 6--With many pictures

This day started with no plans until this evening.   Just before I headed out for a walk we got an opportunity to go to Pioneer Farms.  They are closed today but we know somebody and were allowed the opportunity to walk around, we just couldn't go into any of the buildings.   The somebody did let us into a few of the buildings and I took many, many pictures.

There were blacksmithing things, carriages and ink wells.

We were told this building was relocated here and it used to be a stage couch stop.

There were also horses and Texas Longhorn to look at. 

There were different homesteads to see. 

Outdoor kitchen 

Large kettles and wash board. 

THE TREE

And the Native American section

There were bees flying into the tree.

K was able to remove the Mardi Gras beads from the tree branch.

Moving on to more houses. 

Do to extenuating circumstances, we were able to enter the Jourdan Cabin. 

And the Bell House and buildings. 

Weaving Stuff!! 

Lizard on the wall.

 The end of the day some of us went out to dinner to celebrate C's Birthday.

Austin at night. 

It turned out to be a great day.  Time at the Pioneer Farm was wonderful.  It was peaceful; just K, Gideon and I most of the time.  My imagination was going between two things.  The first, what it would be like going through with people there and all the questions that could be asked and the hustle and bustle.  The second, what it would have been like to actually live there.  The temperature was around 100 degrees with the sun burning down.  All the work that would have to be done.  Even if there was a local store, things were still made from scratch and even with an outdoor kitchen, it must have been so hot to cook over.  Planting and harvesting food, feeding chickens and other livestock, making and mending clothes, getting water, so many things to keep a person busy.  

Ending the evening laughing with friends and family over dinner is my happy for today.   My phone has been in my hands too often and I'm putting it down more to be with people as best I can.  Picking it up to take pictures now and then, or often, is good though.  With all the loss lately, I'm trying for being present more and pictures to share.

☮