Interesting

So I was scrolling through Facebook, looking at pictures of my nephews and other littles and thinking about when my Facebook feed had photos like this:

You see, if you don't follow me, these days it looks more like this

(Weird fog, right?)


















Or this....

 (This one didn't actually make it on to Facebook, its a photo of my students working for a class I'm taking--notice no faces..and want to know a secret?  Its' totally staged, because I forgot I had to turn in a "visual diary" and asked them to please pose (with their faces hidden...)











And occasionally this

(Notice he is walking away from me...)


















And while my Facebook page certainly looks different these days, I am thankful for my healthy children and their growing independence.  While The Girl is at a friend's house, the Boy, Mr IM and I went to a movie and to dinner--even though we had to wait, there were no crayons and no bribery (although The Boy did drink about 5 glasses of lemonade...hmmm.). The dishwasher is usually emptied by someone other than me, trash cans emptied, pets fed, bathrooms are cleaned.
 (well, not cleaned right now, but technically are cleaned by the children)...leaving me a few minutes this Saturday night to share this brave new world with all of you.  Enjoy where you are, my friends, but don't lament when you reach the next stage...each one so far has its own challenges and joys!

Bonus video from 10 years ago (!!!) this week when we moved into this house
YouTube November 2007, Tissue in the washer

End of the school year...or not?

I read the best blog last week--Jen Hatmaker's "Worst End of School Year Mom Ever" and couldn't stop laughing because it is like she is in my house.  We are also limping to the finish line...not sure exactly where/when it is, or what will happen when we get there...but we're getting there...

Once again, The Ranch is a one car household....about a month ago, on the way home from a late volleyball game with The Girl, Mr. IM's car "threw a rod through the short block".  Now, please don't ask me what all that entails...all I can tell you is that the car shop said 3-6 weeks and we are on week 4.  Thanks to the generosity of friends we have managed to get everywhere we are supposed to (school, work, music lessons....)--I realize again how wonderful our village is--one of my friends not only got me to and from work for almost a month, but loaned me her car often so I could get my kids (and I) from point A to B to Z...

School is fine, busy as always, but I think that all my end of year paperwork is done (or at least mostly done), so I can start working on plans for next year.  Unless things change (which they will) I will be teaching two US History classes  and two Government classes and probably a Freshman Orientation class.  One each of the History and of the Government classes are labeled "foundations", so I'm spending some of my free time surfing Amazon for great deals on the (almost) 20 year old text book that I love (1 cent plus $3.99 shipping?  Used--Very Good?  Done!!). I'm also continuing on the Advisory team--which is technically one more prep (but a fun one!)

The Girl "graduated" from 8th grade last week and we had both sets of grandparents here for the weekend. The Girl is going on a trip with her Grandmother next week, so Grandma is back this week. They've been busily packing and getting ready.  

Another indication of the level of crazy is that my garden is still in plastic crates in the living room--although it hailed again tonight, so I'm celebrating that it is (mostly) inside and not smashed...

I suppose the next post will be "What I read in May"....Stay tuned!

The Mane Event

Every year in early November the kids' school has a big fundraiser, usually at a hotel, with a silent auction, dinner, and a live auction.  The last couple years we've stayed at a hotel and The Girl has been in charge of her brother and a couple of his friends for the evening.

This year the event was at the Brown Palace Hotel, in downtown Denver, instead of at a chain in the suburbs.  I was (am?) actually in a bit of trouble, because when I tried to make reservations at the Brown, I found out that there was no way to have adjoining rooms or to guarantee rooms on the same floor to make The Girl's babysitting task easier...however, the Brown is connected to the Comfort Suites, which, amazingly, have suites. With some reluctance (tempered by the fact that a two bedroom two bathroom suite at the "other" hotel was only slightly more than a "Queen bed room" at the Brown) I booked a suite and was assured that the two hotels were connected by the "heated skybridge" so we could easily "run over" and back.  In a long-ish saga, that I'm not even going to try to explain here, we ended up not in the two bedroom suite, but in two one-bedroom suites on the same floor--no worries!  After finally getting into our fancy clothes, we four adults hopped in the elevator and headed for the 2nd floor to traipse across the street via the heated sky bridge.  But, lo and behold...when the elevator doors opened, we discovered that our event was actually on the Comfort Suites side of and on the bridge (yay!). In fact, the elevator was right in the middle of the festivities. Huh, aren't I amazing? Ok, I'm still in trouble because we didn't have the opportunity to stay in a potentially haunted Brown Palace room.  But seriously, a room at the CS could be haunted, too! It took so long to clean so we could get into the second room that we wondered if they were cleaning up after a murder or something...eesh.

The event appears to have been a success--we came home with several silent auction items and a live auction win to this cabin for spring break. We actually "won" it a few years ago, too and spent a week there with Mr IM's Dad, sister, and brother in law.  This time we'll be joined by some families from the kids school and potentially Grandude.

Sunday morning we enjoyed our "free" breakfast (mmm....complimentary continental breakfast), did a little sightseeing of the Brown and headed home to get ready for the week.

As we were leaving we chatted and decided that while the event was awesome and it was really fun to have in a historic venue...that next year we kind of hope they return to the land of suburbia and bigger rooms--it was pretty crowded while we all browsed the silent auction goodies in the hallway and waited for dinner!

Last Day of School

The kids finished school on May 30 and I finished on June 3...but here are some much delayed end of the year pictures...

 Yes, those are boxes (and a larger than life Johnny Depp) from my office in our living room...we packed up our offices for the summer, hoping for new carpet and paint...

The Girl was thrilled...

Excellent... a good picture!

In case you want to compare...here's a link to the first day of school pictures 

Fun with science

Over the years we've collected a lot of science and art project kits that have been squirreled away "for later".  About a week before school ended, I realized that kids are old enough to read the directions and do a lot of this stuff on their own--whoo, hoo! Today's project was bouncy balls.  Actually, all one has to do is pour the powdered stuff into a mold, hold it in water to saturate it, then let it cure for a few minutes...and wa-la...bouncy balls!

Stay tuned...this summer's "entertainment" may consist of me handing the children the rest of the science and craft kids to entertain them!

It's all about perspective..

Last week a friend of ours with little kids (both under 5) sent me a message asking for help planning her vacation.  She mentioned a dollar amount and the number of days and that she was asking us, because it seems like we travel a lot and have some kind of secret membership to save money when we do travel.  Luckily, we were chatting by message so she couldn't hear me giggling hysterically...I shared some of my secrets (see below) and started talking to Mr. Ranch about the difference in perspective--that I sometimes am disappointed that we don't get to go on "fantastic" family vacations, but that to someone else ,what we are able to do looks really exciting.

Mr Ranch and I started chatting and then we realized that we are actually very blessed and that we are able to do some fantastic and exciting things--we are able to do a reasonable amount of travel, especially when we take advantage of offers from friends and family.  We've been able to stay at relative's condos, on friends couches, and in RV's in their driveways, and we belong to every "hotel club" imaginable, in an effort to get the best price when we can't find a couch.  Our greatest vacation expense recently has been kenneling the dogs.  When we stay at a borrowed condo we try to eat in as much as we can--bagels and cereal for breakfast, casseroles or spaghetti for dinner, lunch and snacks out sometimes or sandwiches if we're near the condo.  When on a road trip we try to stay at places with a breakfast (friends or hotel...), eat lunch from the cooler, and then splurge for a meal in the evening or cook in the hotel microwave.

We also have been able to bid on and win a couple trips at the kids' school fundraiser--those are certainly not free, but are a reasonable splurge--a few years ago we stayed at a cabin in Breckenridge and this year we'll stay at a condo in Puerto Rico.  We've also splurged to go to a cousin's wedding in New Hampshire, but we shared a hotel room with Mr Ranch's sister and then stayed with friends, so the dog kennel and plane tickets are the big expenses there.  Several years ago now, the kids and I had the same spring break, so we splurged big time, drove to Phoenix, met Mr. Ranch's dad, and then spent 4 days in California, at Disney and other exciting places.  Even then we lucked out, our hotel not only had a kitchenette (and 2 bedrooms and 2 baths) but also a free (truly free) breakfast and a cocktail hour on Monday through Thursday nights--with real food (hamburgers and hot dogs one night, tacos another, cheese, fruit, crackers and other snacks the third night we were there)--again, all free with the hotel room.

This summer the kids and I will make the great Midwestern journey again--we are hoping to spend 1-2 nights in a hotel on the way out and back, and use couches the rest of the time.  I'm going to do some planning along our hypothetical routes--I'm not opposed to going out of the way if it means a free couch. I'm also not opposed to going a little way out of the way for something interesting--I found this website Road Trippers--I'm having a lot of fun playing around with it--it's amazing the weird things one can find in America. Like the Moai Dude in Altoona, Iowa, or the Largest Ball of Stamps in Boystown Nebraska.   I think that both of those locations could be on my route, if I really wanted them to be, but I'm not sure I care that much about either.  I'm sure I'll find something really interesting. A couple years ago, the kids and I actually "sacrificed" a day to visit the Lincoln home in Springfield, Illinois (free!  Well, $2 an hour for parking, but still!!!)

So there it is...it's all about perspective--I guess my vacations are pretty exciting after all, even if I don't really have any secrets!

Don't look a gift piano in the mouth?

A few weeks ago Mr. Ranch's law partner asked him if we would be interested in a free piano.  The partner is moving and the new house won't have room for the piano.  I keep asking for a piano but taking one without hearing it concerned me (a lot).  I hemmed and hawed, and then said, "ok".  After all, if I accept it as free, then someone else will in the future, right?

The piano apparently has quite a history--it has a stamp on it that says it was built in 1903. It also has a "I was tuned" sticker from 1976  in the small South Dakota town where my parents now live--weird! It is an upright grand and looks very pretty.  You can watch the innards if you play without sheet music and it has a harpsichord petal with makes it sound a lot like a really old harpsichord.

 Also in an interesting turn of events, The Girl has decided to teach herself to play the piano.  Every afternoon this week she has dutifully sat in front of the piano with the beginners book and practiced.  I think she has practiced piano more than drums this week.  Mr. Partner's daughters left all their books in the bench, so combined with all my books, The Girl has quite a selection to practice.  Alice  is helping by keeping the top from raising.

 Inside the piano--a 10 year guarantee that expired over 100 years ago if it was really built in 1903.  Crazy.

Some pretty interior details...









Now that we have it moved in, next on the agenda is to have it tuned--I should get to work on that this week!