Monday, August 29, 2011

A new trend?

 It's been no secret that I've been excited about my newest cowboy boots from my Mom! 

Sunday morning, my friend, Lynne, sent me an email about bathroom passes.  (It's a teacher-topic)  At the end of the email she said, "Now for the important part... I got new BOOTS!" 

I was excited to say the least...Lynne was super-excited.  I told her I was going to wear my boots to school tomorrow (which was today)..so Lynne, being the sweet sista that she is, said she would just wear her boots too!

Jump forward about 15 minutes...and there I am talking to my friend, Jake.  I started telling her that Lynne bought some new boots and how we were going to both wear them for the first day of school.

"Well, I have cowboy boots, too!" Jake told me.

I didn't know she had boots...and so I told her she should wear HER boots too!  She had to think a minute...seeing as she was contemplating the compatibility of colors between the dress she was planning to wear and the color of her boots...

"Shoot, they'll be just fine!"

I replied, "Yee-haw!"
 And here we are today!
Just found out Mo has boots, too!

A new trend may have just been started! 

My last hurrah before the new school year!

 Back to Dorothy's I went...
 Last Wednesday... my last official day of summer...
 I went by myself...by choice...

I thought about going in to school...and working in my classroom.

I thought about it ... but not for very long.
I thought about this river view...  I thought about the pool...  I thought about the sunshine and the heat.
 I got there about 11 a.m.  First things first...I opened the house, fed the cats, and started the water on Dorothy's lawn/flowers.
 Next was putting on my swimsuit, taking the cover off the pool...
 and for about 3 hours I read my book, cooled off in the pool, read a little more, had a little something to drink, read a little more, cooled off in the pool...and on and on until it was time to pack everything up and head home.
 Like I said in an earlier post, Dorothy's place is a little bit of heaven.  It's just so incredibly relaxing...and Dorothy is so sweet to want to share it. 
...and beautiful!  Did I say it's absolutely beautiful? 

Just what I needed before I started a new school year!

Thank you, Dorothy!!!

Thursday, August 25, 2011

Thalia's motorcycle

No, this is not a motorcycle that Thalia owns... but it's a motorcycle that she DREW...

I get the sides of the brain mixed up...but I think Thalia is right-brained.   Isn't being called 'right-brained' when you have so many talents on the creative side? 

Ever since Thalia was a 'ruggie'... a little person, she has loved to draw... she would sit at the counter or lay on the ground...for hours and draw!  She didn't want crayon or colored pencils...nope, just a pencil and some paper!  I remember one time she drew a picture that had me in it...and I had a TINY waist:)  Ahhh...

Erica sent me this motorcycle drawing through our phones...I don't know if she drew it from memory or if she was looking at one while she drew???  (Thalia?  Was it from memory?) 

Drawing, singing, playing the guitar....  I think that's right-brained.

Regardless, it's a few of the things my Thalia does so incredibly well!  Your Mimi is proud of you! 

Wednesday, August 24, 2011

The Help


The Help... in my opinion... is a great movie!  Parts of it were hilarious...parts of it were so very serious...parts were so sad...and in some parts I just cried. 
 The actresses/actors were superb!  This is Hilly (above) and you wouldn't consider her a nice person at all... which means she did a great job acting!  What I found out after I saw it...this is Ron Howard's daughter! 
Skeeter was one of the characters you loved...

For us, this brought back a lot of memories...the dress, the decorating of the homes, the foods, the smoking cigarettes :(, and of course, the racial issues. 

I highly recommend this movie...I'd be happy to see it again!

Sunday, August 21, 2011

She's only 11

My sweet Thalia!

She's only 11... but she was invited to a friend's 'Sweet 16' party...  I told her she looks like she's the one who is turning 16!  She tried this dress on for me when I was down there...but she wore cowboy boots.  I told her she should wear those to the party... but I have to admit, the shoes she wore looked perfect!
How beautiful she is!!!

The Green Thing

I ran across this post today...and coupled with watching 'The Help' last night (which is GREAT!), I thought I'd post it here...  I honestly never thought about it this way...

In the line at the store, the cashier told the older woman that she should bring her own grocery bag because plastic bags weren’t good for the environment. 

The woman apologized to him and explained, “We didn’t have the green thing back in my day.”

The clerk responded, “That’s our problem today. The former generation did not care enough to save our environment.”

He was right, that generation didn’t have the green thing in its day.

Back then, they returned their milk bottles, soda bottles and beer bottles to the store. The store sent them back to the plant to be washed and sterilized and refilled, so it could use the same bottles over and over. So they really were recycled.

But they didn’t have the green thing back in that customer’s day.

In her day, they walked up stairs, because they didn’t have an escalator in every store and office building. They walked to the grocery store and didn’t climb into a 300-horsepower machine every time they had to go two blocks.

But she was right. They didn’t have the green thing in her day.

Back then, they washed the baby’s diapers because they didn’t have the throw-away kind. They dried clothes on a line, not in an energy-gobbling machine - wind and solar power really did dry the clothes.


Kids got hand-me-down clothes from their brothers or sisters, not always brand-new clothing.

But that old lady is right, they didn’t have the green thing back in her day.

Back then, they had one TV or radio in the house - not a TV in every room. And the TV had a small screen the size of a handkerchief, not a screen the size of the state of Montana.


In the kitchen, they blended and stirred by hand because they didn’t have electric machines to do everything for you.

When they packaged a fragile item to send in the mail, they used a wadded up old newspaper to cushion it, not Styrofoam or plastic bubble wrap.

Back then, they didn’t fire up an engine and burn gasoline just to cut the lawn.

They used a push mower that ran on human power.

They exercised by working so they didn’t need to go to a health club to run on treadmills that operate on electricity.

But she’s right, they didn’t have the green thing back then.

They drank from a fountain when they were thirsty instead of using a cup or a plastic bottle every time they had a drink of water.

They refilled their writing pens with ink instead of buying a new pen, and they replaced the razor blades in a razor instead of throwing away the whole razor just because the blade got dull.

But they didn’t have the green thing back then.

Back then, people took the streetcar or a bus, and kids rode their bikes to school or walked instead of turning their moms into a 24-hour taxi service.

They had one electrical outlet in a room, not an entire bank of sockets to power a dozen appliances.

And they didn’t need a computerized gadget to receive a signal beamed from satellites 2,000 miles out in space in order to find the nearest pizza joint.

But isn’t it sad the current generation laments how wasteful the old folks were just because they didn’t have the green thing back then?

Saturday, August 20, 2011

Dorothy's little touch of Heaven

 What a glorious day this was! 

We left home in the fog....and drove here to Dorothy's little touch of Heaven in the sunshine! We quickly pulled back the cover on the pool....
 ...went to visit Dorothy's friend, the spider...

 "We" consists of myself, of course, and my buddies Pam and Lynne...
Dorothy's mom lived here...there are lots of memories for Dorothy here...so now the resort belongs to her!  Her flowers are gorgeous...
 The view from the back porch... ahhh, I would love to be sitting out here every morning drinking my coffee!



 We absolutely loved being out here!  Lynne and I, both being 4th grade teachers, went out there to plan our year... Pam, a former 4th grade teacher - my former teaching partner who I miss so much - came to enjoy the sun, our company, and to read her book.  Lynne and I quickly decided we needed to read our own books for awhile before any 4th grade planning started...

so we read, got in the pool, read, got in the pool, read, drank a little pinot grigio, read, got in the pool, .... you get the picture...

and then we planned! 
One of us looked at the time, and realized it was 5:30 p.m.... time to start heading home. 

Thank you again, Dorothy!  You have a magical place!

Wednesday, August 17, 2011

They're writers!

 My little men are already writers!  I've talked to them about writing...told them about the JohnstonChronicles, of which the three of them - Benjamin, Emerson, & Thalia - are an important topic!  I told them I thought it was important to write things down...you think you'll remember, but you won't...at least not all the details.  So, my little men are taking the advice of their Mimi and they're writing! 
 Emerson very carefully was practicing his o's... he wanted me to 'Write ABC's, Mimi!'  and he would say the letter as I wrote it.  Notice the hand he's using to write?
I love this... love these two little men up on the stools at their Mimi and Papa's...writing their ABC's and drawing pictures to adorn my refrigerator!

 Emerson was nibbling on some Cheerios as he contemplated what to write next...
 Benjamin decided he was about finished for the day, so like a good writer, was putting the lid back on the pen...
 Emerson was pointing out the letters to his Mimi...
Oops..Benjamin decided to add a little more to his masterpiece...
 When my little men were finished, Benjamin noticed his Mama on the computer...so he wanted to join in...He noticed she was writing too...
He informed me they were talking to his daddy in Romania...

My little men...they'll be in kindergarten before I know it!