July 2 Photo-a-Day #2

Let the wild rumpus begin!!

July Photo-A-Day - - #1

July 1st...

Self Portrait

YOU guess which one is me!!

Sunday Salon

We now return you to your regular station....
I used to hear this a lot on old fashioned-3channel-television. I guess it's how I feel since I've been out of the blogging loop for a bit. Now I feel ready to start by returning to the Sunday Salon. So, without further ado...

 

Outside my window.... Saturday evening and waiting to go to dinner with friends....yumm. It's still sunny, but the shadows have changed. The light filters sideways. It looks cool and peaceful....it's deceiving!!  It's still 108 degrees! Yep, at 6:10pm! But...it's a DRY heat. (For my son in Biloxi, Mississippi that has a LOT of meaning!)

I am listening to...gentle conversations in the background, Rich watching Zen on Masterpiece Theater, Jase and his Dad talking, the purr of the cat, the rustle of the dogs' collars. Just background noises for sure.


Favorite things from this week...It hardly seems that last Saturday we were in San Diego. It was fantabulous. So to try to compete with the goodness that is SD we went to hear Jeffrey Deaver at a book signing. Love going to the Poisoned Pen because it means pizza at Grimaldi's too! Add shopping for fun stuff, meals with friends and dates with the husband and it was a wonderful week.


I am thinking...how much I L.O.V.E. summer, weekends, free days, free schedules, freedom....

I am grateful for...the cool of the morning, ice cream, watermelon, nouns & verbs, my iPad, Mexican food, good books, lively conversation, NPR, and a free schedule.

I am reading...The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks (still), The Little Prince, Teach Like a Champion (still - let's just call this a book for the summer and just assume that I am reading it every week, shall we?!?!), True Sisters, and Lots of Candles - Plenty of Cake. Jase and I went to the library yesterday and brought home The Duckling Gets a Cookie (LOVE Mo Willems - I WILL use this with my 4th grade class this year!!), Five Little Monkeys Jumping on the Bed (Jase read this over and over and over yesterday) and The Diary of a Worm (again, another must do with my 4th graders. Why do I forget these things?!?!)

I am listing...things I think of in the middle of the night.

I am creating ....Pinterest boards. (I did try three things off of Pinterest this week....my shower glows and we had two yummy meals. She shoots, she scored!)

Plans for the week.... Prep work and painting of the living room/library!! Finally! (The hubby will be astonished.) Meet a sweet friend from HS for lunch, go to the movies, eat popcorn for dinner and celebrate our freedoms with hotdogs, family, watermelon and gelato!! I also solemnly swear that I shall read until I'm tired every single day this week......

 There...that's better. All should be in tip-top working condition again now.

I had to make a list...

I had so many books that I had not recorded here that I had to make a list.

Before I forgot.

Maybe I did forget some.

My brain is like that.

So, in no particular order I have read...

Fablehaven by Brandon Mull (again - with my class - LOVED it!)

The Dressmaker by Kate Alcott (liked it)

Wings by Aprilynne Pike (for Book Group - liked it)

Tender at the Bone by Ruth Reichel (for Book Group - Loved it!)

Divergent by Veronica Roth (liked it)

The Fault in Our Stars by John Green (liked it)

The Future of Us by Jay Asher (sorta liked it)

Poison Flower by Thomas Perry (sorta liked it)

What Alice Forgot by Liane  Moriarity (really liked it)

Magyk (audio) by Angie Sage (LOVED it - so will my class!)

I am still reading...

The House of Tyneford (loving it and recommending it to everyone)

The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks (for 2 Book Groups. LOVE it. NF that reads like a novel!)

True Sisters by Sandra Dallas (can this woman NOT write a good book?? So yummy.)

Lots of Candles, Plenty of Cake by Anna Quindlen (Love her. Love her writing.)

Teach Like A Champion by Doug Lemov (awesome..wish I could just get like this through osmosis or absorption. I sleep right next to it. It should work, shouldn't it?)

The state of the TBR pile is embarrassing. 

Books that came to my house this week....

The Apothecary's Daughter

Silent Governess

Fables by Arnold Lobel (for school)

Sarah Plain and Tall (for school)

Fire by Kristin Cashore

Turtle in Paradise by Jennifer L. Holm

People of the Book by Geraldine Brooks

Thinking is the Key

XO by Jeffrey Deaver

and

They were only $1.00. They were looking sad and needed to come home with me. I swear.

 
Thank you Paperbackbookswap, the library book sale, AND vacation souvenirs.

I will never feel lonely.

Officially my slate is now clear and I can write my feelings about my books again. 

Yeah.

One more thing I can check off on my list...

Oh Where is My Hairbrush...oops Summer!

We sing this song around the house whenever we can't find something. 

Perhaps you've heard it..."Oh Where is My Hairbrush?"

Larry the Cucumber has become my go-to-guy when I wonder.

So, in a new rendition, Oh Where is My Summer...

Classes...

Teachers spend their

summers in classes.

Many of them.

They make us better.

When we can remember them.

 

Shopping

 Cute huh?

Didn't get it.

I feel like Goldilocks. 

That one is too hard, too big, too squishy, too small (for my main guy), too expensive, too....

I have made many small trips to find the perfect furniture for the living room/library. 

But I am narrowing it down.

I now have 3 chairs, 1 floor lamp, 1 table lamp and a gorgeous set of bookshelves....

I have a deadline....July 23.

No pressure.

San Diego

Okay!!! Can we have a "wahoo" here?!?

We squeaked in a baby-trip to good ol' S.D.

In the few years that we lived there we had NEVER been ON Coronado Island!

I know!

But it was a toll bridge and we were too cheap and too poor.

S.D. was wasted on us. 

But I love it.

Soak up some fun with me...

Can I move in???

Can't you just picture a princess here?

My favorite spot is Pt. Loma. A serene spot. "Some gave all..."

Just Junk...

My summer also just gets eaten up in the small things.

I DO have a cleaner shower...thanks to Pinterest.

I DO have a taller TBR stack...thanks to Pinterest.

I DO have new teaching ideas for next year..thanks to Pinterest.

Yep, I fell in that Pinterest hole. 

Yikes.

BUT...

I have also read a few good books, attacked the audio section of the library and just wandered through the stacks.

I've had two F2F book group meetings, gone to lunches with  friends, visited family for a BBQ, and just vegged.

I don't want June to turn into July - - YET!

I LOVE SUMMER!

What an irony to read those words...I have complained about the heat and the 

$350 a month A/C bills for years.

No longer.

I apologize June, July and 1 day of August.

I take it all back.

I LOVE SUMMER!

 

The Sunday Salon with a little light....

Let's shed a little light on this subject....(New lamp for the library!)

Sunday Salon - Wait, It's Sunday?!?!

 What? It's Sunday?? I can't believe it? 

Don't I look worried and confused??

(We were babysitting the grand-dogs this week...naturally they were as good as gold!)

Yes!!!! School IS out and now the wild rumpus can begin!! Usually I have decompressed by now, slept in and read several mindless books, but summer has started a bit differently this year...

I left town on the last day of classes to nurse my mom through full knee replacement surgery. She was a real trooper, but that nursing stuff is HARD!! I loved being with her, serving her and visiting with my stepdad but worries abound when you're caring for someone. I remembered the times I worried over sick kiddos and tended to their needs. Now I was blessed to do the same for her!! She was/is such a terrific patient and she's doing so well!! Yippee!!

I did go on a field trip while nursing the sick and afflicted. I met my oldest son and went to lunch one day. YUM. He always know the coolest, hole-in-the-wall places and introduced me to Sonoran Hotdogs. Delish! His office building is right next door to Barnes and Noble so who can blame me for getting sucked in?!?! I bought this book after a really great review by Jill at Rhapsody in Books. I love the "You May Also Like..." that came with my receipt. What a great, passive up-sale!!

Christmas came late - - we had promised ourselves these lovelies at Christmas time but held off til the NEW Ipad was released. Then it was just easier to wait until summer when I could take the time to really learn how to use it. I must confess (head hung low) to reading my book group book on this baby right now. I have made a solemn oath to my stacks of books that I will continue to love them and care for them. This little pretty (who has not been named yet) will not come between us. She (or he) will only be a side dish -an accompaniment.

As icing on the cake to our techie-summer we got new phones. Yuck. I don't mind the phone entirely, just hate getting accustomed to new stuff AND the dreaded transfer of contacts and data. How complicated can it be to figure out ring tones and how to answer a call?!?!?!?

So....what am I planning to do next!?!?!? The list says it all.

Reading..... I finished What Alice Forgot by Lianne Moriarity and Heaven is Here by Stephanie Nielsen. Now reading Daddy Long Legs by Jean Webster for Book Group I and The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks for Book GroupII.

Plans for the week.....Find chairs for front room, decide on paint color for the library, Math Mapping with my coworkers for two days, Professional Development classes for two days, dinner with my in-laws and plan a birthday getaway to San Diego for my cute hubster. Shhh. Don't tell.

Yep, I'm really ready for summer to start. Now, I know not all my friends want this, especially those with kids home from school, but I want the days to really go S.L.O.W.

I need me a good dose of summer!!