A New Home

Last fall I set out to begin the process of finding a house to buy.  This was a very new undertaking for me! There were (and still are) some aspects of it that I'd gladly hand over to someone else.  I anticipated looking for a little while before finding the right thing hoping I could move in after school was over in the spring.  No! The right house showed up in October.  By December the paperwork was completed (more paperwork than I care to think about) and it was mine.

The next month of cleaning, painting, getting the furnace working, buying furniture, and packing was just crazy.  It was bitterly cold and I was worried about the pipes freezing. The first neighbors we met...

One of the cats actually got into the house through the basement and scared me silly one day. 

God sent a perfectly timed snow day on the week of moving day.  That allowed me to work at packing and, when the roads cleared up by lunch, move boxes down as well.  God also sent an intern to my classroom that month.  I was able to take a day off without needing to make sub plans.
Moving day was a mild 50 degrees and sunny.  The snow had mostly melted.  What a relief!

Adjusting to a new house and learning all the ropes of owning a house has been quite an adjustment from evicting squirrels to organizing without closets.

Can you spot the squirrel?

I love living in town.  We have lovely neighbors that we finally met when it warmed up outside.  We had one last storm in which I was disappointed to discover that every business within walking distance closes for snow.  It was still a relief to be only one block off main street.

At last spring arrived! New surprises appeared every week.  Some of them, like the hugely overgrown lilacs, were cut down ASAP.  Others were a welcome addition.

And then school left out for the summer. Our small group helped us clean up the backyard and I was able to plant my garden and clean out the flower beds.  There is much to be done yet, but the summer is still ahead!

Thanksgiving Trip

After debating with myself over whether I should skip blogging about my trip at Thanksgiving and just jump ahead, or go back and include this old news, or not blog at all since I couldn't decide, here are a few pictures about an amazing trip back at Thanksgiving.  It didn't seem right to skip it.  I never take trips during school.  I don't ever remember doing a trip like this in all my years of teaching, but this was the year.  I didn't get to Grenada for 2 1/2 years and I couldn't stand to think of waiting another 1/2 year.  Plus my friend was having a baby right before Thanksgiving.  I was able to take the 8 day trip and only take off of school for 2 1/2 days.

My first goal was not taking pictures so I only have a few.  None of them include my flying partners, Sheri and Sonya, but it really was delightful to hang out with them again.  Then we arrived in Grenada and they were whisked away "Behind the Fence" and I headed for the Limes.

There were so many friends I wanted to see.  I knew it was not possible to see them all.  There were a few that got the majority of my time.

I can hardly believe that this dear friend is already a mother of two.

 Son #1

 Son #2 I held him as much as I could... until he cried or my arms gave out.  Funny how heavy little babies are when you aren't used to them.

And her hard-working husband on the steps of their lovely house.  I didn't see a lot of him but he did poke his head in every now and then and gave me a few rides when I needed them as well.  It was good to see him, too.

If you need balusters and you live in Grenada, this is where to go.  I don't know much about balusters (though I know a bit more than I used to), but I'd say these look pretty nice.  If you live elsewhere, like me, I doubt you'd want to pay that kind of shipping.

I didn't even get a picture of this friend, but her house has a constant breeze.  The view... I alternate between admiring this view and feeling like I need to plaster myself against the back wall of the veranda.  Sure wish I could stop by her house nearly every week to chat like I used to.

Of course I had to visit Mont Tout and I was surprised to find one of my friends has her own little house behind her mother's house.  It's adorable.  Just perfect for her and her son (who also happens to be my godson).

Of course I went to the beach.  Only once, though, and not for long.  Some things never change.

There were so many people I "just happened" to see as I walked the roads and shopped in town.  It felt like a special gift from God.  I never would have had time to go find them all.  There were a few friends I would have loved to see, but it just didn't happen.  

I'm not sure why I didn't get pictures of a few other people I spent time with, but I didn't.  Sometimes taking pictures spoils the moment.

These girls stopped to see me one evening.  I could hardly believe how tall they've grown.

Happy snow day! Spring is coming!!!

A Summer in Asia

This is long overdue...  I decided I'd better write about the summer before moving on to my most recent trip.

This summer I spent 4 weeks in southern Thailand teaching English.  What an experience!  I taught in the elementary school in grades 4 - 6.

After school I helped with the "Extra English Class" in the secondary school.

There were no other Americans in town so we had to find our way around on our own.  This turned out to be quite an adventure at times!

At the restaurant below, the menu was in Thai and the waitress could only speak Thai.   We finally thought we ordered cashew chicken.  When the plate came, the waitress was laughing because she knew we did not really want what we ordered.  It was a plate of cashews.  Finally with the help of Google Translate, we managed to order a real meal.

A border run that took all day.

Buying food on the street.  We spent much time finding food to eat.

After quite a search we did finally find a batik shop.  The owner showed us how to make the painted cloth.

We found ourselves at market during rush hour.  We got all kinds of food and brought it home to sample it.

Then I flew to Chiang Mai to visit Carolyn, my former housemate.

And I got to see the school that Nueng started.  How special to see the school she dreamed of years before when I dormed with her at FB.

Carolyn and I were both delighted to find rice paddies that were being planted.  I was happy to have a translator this time so I could find out what was happening.

 Yummy food and fruit smoothies.  I think I had a fruit smoothie everyday except one day.  Not to worry, I made up for that by having two on another day.

I was in Chiang Mai 12 years earlier.  So much had changed and I was not there long either time.  This market was one of the very few places that I actually recognized.

Then it was time to leave, but the adventures were not over.  In the middle of our travels home, Leona and I had 24 hours in Doha, Qatar.  For me this was the most unique part of the trip.

I never experienced heat like this before.  We were in Doha on about the hottest day of the year.  The temperature was around 120 degrees.  It put the Middle Eastern custom of resting at midday in a totally new light for me.

Clotted Cream, Science Fair, and Other Fifth Grade Tales

As my students discovered much earlier this year, I love giving them literal tastes of the countries we study.  I didn't do so well with Africa.  I guess I need to visit Africa and brush up on that.  But now we're studying Europe.  Tasty tidbits, here we come.  We just finished studying the British Isles, which I have been looking forward to all year.  After traveling in England and Scotland last summer, I had more ideas than time for this chapter.  I decided that they must experience a British tea.  Of course, tea in Britian is not complete without scones and clotted cream. I could call it Devonshire cream, but it's not technically correct if it isn't made in Devon, and I rather enjoy that initial look of distaste when I use the word "clotted".  I set out to make clotted cream with my students.  The last time I made it in the oven and it worked, I thought.  This time I set out to make it in the crock pot, until I forgot my crock pot at home on the day I needed to start it.  I found the best substitute in the school kitchen, an electric roaster, and hoped that no mom would show up needing it that day.  I put a inch or two of water in the bottom before putting in a glass baking pan and filled that with cream.  Then I turned on the roaster.  At the end of the day, I wasn't sure anything had happened, but it was time to go home so I put the pan of cream in the fridge.  Upon arrival the next day, I headed directly for the fridge.  Amazing!  There really was a perfect thick layer of clotted cream floating along the top.  It worked so much better than the oven.

Today was our tea party.  The menu: scones with clotted cream and jam, scones with Nutella, scones with lemon curd, cheese and pickle sandwiches, current jam and butter sandwiches, shortbread biscuits, digestives, and tea.  Real tea with milk and sugar.  The students were pretty brave.



The cheese and pickle sandwiches needed advertising, but the students who ate them were pleasantly surprised. Well, some of the students like them anyway.

We all enjoyed a break from normal class and about half of the students took the opportunity to wear dress clothes instead of uniforms.  I really hope that someday some of them will travel to the British Isles and also enjoy the lovely scenery that floats through my mind when I have British tea.

After weeks of work on forms and board and experiments and the scientific method, the time had arrived for our science fair.  My main goals were to lead the students through the scientific method and have them do an enjoyable project.  I heard very few groans about this project.

The entire project and fair was my experiment and I learned a few things as well: some students will try the experiment without the directions in front of them, results may vary for reasons beyond my scientific knowledge, and students love a chance to get out of class.  The other classes came to our fair as well as many of the parents.  I had all intentions of getting pictures of a few lovely boards, but I was far too busy to think of it then.

We planted lettuce in our window well. I'm not sure if the students noticed, but it's not faring so well.  The light is too far above and it is quite leggy.  We'll wait to see it it survives.

The students started their autobiographies.  This is the one project I really want them to get right.   They will do several drafts and make illustrations and covers.  So far I'm enjoying their stories.  One of my favorite parts of this project is allowing students to help each other with editing and improvements on their basic story.  I'm requiring them to include dialogue.  The students that do well with dialogue are helping those who don't really get it.  Very nice.  I'd love to help each one, but I simply can't get around to all of them and they think working with friends is great fun.

Then end of third quarter was today.   About 42 more days of school.  I bought plane tickets for Thailand a few weeks ago.  I'm spending 5 weeks there after school teaching English and visiting a friend.  I'm getting excited and trying to stay focused on school.