All Manner of Pressing Issues

Olivia and I officially love dog parks. You’ll remember that Richard and I took her to one Sunday afternoon. I have taken her to another dog park in our area twice this week. This particular park has a creek for the dogs to swim in as well as an area for playing off-leash. It is a fabulous park and all of the dogs and dog owners are so friendly.

Believe it or not, Olivia swims! I knew she would get in the water, but she has never been in water deep enough to swim in until yesterday. She loved it! There was a dog (Nacho) that she wrestled in the water with forever. She swam in the deep part, too.

Swimming in the deep part brings us to this part of the dog park story: Olivia had been romping and swimming with Nacho and the other dogs for some time. She decided to take a swim in the deeper part which was totally fine with me. I was in the water with her and there were other dog owners around as well. Let me just insert this just to add to the story… I’ve mentioned this before, but Olivia could really care less about Richard or me when there are other dogs around. She will follow the dogs and their owner before she’ll even give one of us a thought! So… knowing that… back to the story. Olivia is out in the creek with the dogs swimming and playing. She gets halfway out into the deep part and looks at me and starts coming back. I get nervous that she is tired and is scared and having trouble swimming, so being the perfect puppy mommy that I am, I go into the water to get her. Now this is not a dramatic rescue. I had on running shorts that dry quickly. It was not a big deal. Well, it wasn’t a big deal until I got back to the bank with Olivia and remembered that I had my purse strapped across me–my purse that contained my digital camera, keyless entry for our vehicle, the FOB to get into our building and none other than my Palm Treo. My purse was so full of water I turned it upside down and about a cup of water poured out (small purse). The camera and keyless entries never skipped a beat. The cell phone is still recovering. I am able to make calls and send/receive texts, but my touch screen isn’t working. I am just glad the phone isn’t completely fried. Needless to say, all electronics were left in the vehicle today.

Long story short… (or vice versa) Olivia loves swimming and playing at the dog park! I took her again today and learned that she is a part mountain goat. She can scale the rock walls along the creek like it’s nothing! I hope she doesn’t try to be an escape artist one day. Hopefully the other dogs hold her attention enough!

**UPDATED UPDATE** Thanks to some technological magic worked by my husband, my cell phone now makes and received calls!  woohoo!

**UPDATE** Go ahead and delete “makes and receives calls” from the very brief list of things my phone can do. Ugh! Why on earth did I think I had to go in after that dang dog??!!??!!

Richard and I decided to take Olivia to the dog park. The city we previously lived in had a nice dog park by the river, but Olivia was too young to go. Now that she is old enough, we thought we’d give it a shot. We looked up dog parks in our area and decided on one called Congressional Cemetery.

When I thought “dog park” I envisioned a small fenced area (1 acre at most) with lots of dogs running around playing and their owners standing around visiting and enjoying watching the dogs. I did realize the word cemetery was in the name of the park we chose, but I just assumed that it was adjacent to a cemetery or a park for the cemetery, so you can imagine my surprised when we pulled up to an actual cemetery and Richard says, “We’re here!” At first I second guessed being in the right spot, but then among the
tombstones I saw a big dog running and playing, so I knew we had come to the right place.

We got Olivia out and we all went inside the gate. At this time other dogs and their owners were also starting to come in. Olivia wanted to greet every dog that came through the gate. I wasn’t sure we’d ever get to walk around. She was so cute greeting all of the dogs and playing chase with them. She was definitely more interested in walking with the other dogs than she was in staying with Richard and me. Westies were bred to be courageous dogs and to work independent of their owners. Courageous and independent are certainly two words that can be used to describe Olivia! She is not good to come when called (something we need to work on even though the trait is characteristic of Westies), but that is why we made sure we went to a completely fenced in dog park.

She ran and ran and ran and had the best time being off the leash with the other dogs. We knew she was exhausted when there was a new friend coming toward her within 10-15 feet and she continued to rest in the grass! We will definitely take her again!

P.S. The man in the picture is not Richard. That is one of Olivia’s new friend’s owners.

Richard and I had several errands to run today and decided to take Olivia with us. We usually take her with us on Saturdays and Sundays. The first trip she ever went on with us was only a few days after we got her (pictured left). She fit very nicely on my lap and from what I can remember, slept the whole time. She still rides in my lap, but as you can see, doesn’t fit quite as nicely. I think she thinks she is still itsy-bitsy. After a while of running errands, she gets sleepy and wants to lay down, but there isn’t exactly room in my lap for her head. If she is very tired, I resort to holding her head in my hand so she can sleep. It’s pathetic I know. We should just have her ride in the back of our SUV, but she likes to look out the windows and she’s too short to see out of them comfortably. I have decided I need a station wagon, so she can see out of the back windows and still have the space the back of the SUV provides.

Right now she is on the couch with Richard enjoying her new toy. We have had trouble finding a toy that she can’t destroy. We bought a hard rubber toy that seemed absolutely indestructible. It wasn’t the most inexpensive toy either, so I assumed it would be highly durable. I gave it to her as soon as we got home and she’s been playing with it ever since. However, the problem it that she is eating it. The toy I thought would last forever may not even last through the night. She kills every toy we get for her! She is a hunter by nature, so maybe that’s what the deal is!

Do you see the brown board on the wall? It’s magnetic, but not cork. I’m not thrilled about it, but I think I am going to use it for my world wall. I think I’ll put some bulletin board paper and a border on it.

I think I may be most excited about the organization of my books that will eventually be in the classroom library. I keep them on a shelf organized for myself at first. Once I read the book aloud to the students or at least do a book talk about the book, I put it in the library. I take books out of the library after they’ve been there for awhile, so the organization of the classroom library isn’t overwhelming and frustrating for the students. I’ll post more later about how I organize the books on the shelf in the picture. I even have labels on the outside of the baskets telling me what categories are in the basket. Please hold your applause until the end.

DH, do you recognize the baking sheet? I still have it! I have big plans for the red stool. It isn’t super-sturdy, but it’ll hold a 6-7 year old. I want to paint it all different colors, but am debating whether or not I should strip it first. I also need to get that fish tank you see set up. However, I am afraid to get fish yet, because the air conditioner in my classroom isn’t working and I don’t want to kill the fish before the kids ever even get to see them.

Labels are forthcoming for these containers. These shelves house our math manipulatives and some other items that needed a home. The green box on the left contains patterns (with blanks for students to complete) written on laminated sentence strips that also have magnetic tape on the back. I use these every day for calendar and the best thing about them is that another teacher gave them to me!! I didn’t even have to make them myself! They are such a life-saver! It would drive me insane trying to come up with a pattern every day, so I am very thankful to have these!

Above the cabinets I am storing plastic containers. Yesterday I asked myself the question, “If I am having to store these items, do I really need them?” I decided that I shouldn’t get rid of the containers until the year gets started and I see what I’ll need. On the floor between the counter and the cubbies I have some Earobics materials. While I am very glad our school has and uses this program, I am not excited about the boxes that came with it.

I feel the same way about all of these leveled readers that came with our basal reading program. I suppose they’re nice to have, but our school also has a book room for Guided Reading books. I shouldn’t complain about having too many materials should I?

I am also very pleased with myself for preparing platic containers for student supplies. Our school does community supplies, so I take up the students’ supplies on the first day and I store them in these containers. I will put supply containers on every table with enough supplies for everyone and replenish throughout the year as necessary. The only bad thing about this is that I am in charge of storing all of the supplies!

Things to do in the classroom:

1) Paint the yellow shelf and the
easel.

2) Quit thinking about the red stool and do something with it.

3) Keep thinking about whether or
not to put curtains over the shelves housing literacy and math materials.

4) Cover bulletin boards with paper
and border.

I worked in my classroom all day today and am now feeling much better about the progress I have made. I was beginning to worry that
I wouldn’t be able to everything finished on time, but after all I did today, I think I will make it.

I spent a lot of time today filing books. I organized them in plastic tubs with manila folders as dividers. I have different categories such as ABC, Families, Rhyming, Insects, etc. I will share more about this in another post. Organizing my books in this way enables me to quickly find what I need when planning lessons.

Otherwise, I spent my time opening and emptying boxes and putting the contents generally where they should be. A few days ago I went around the classroom putting post-it notes on cabinets and shelves to label what items would go there (i.e. math manipulatives, literacy materials, chart paper, etc.). That helped me today. As I emptied boxes I just put the items in the correct location and then I’ll go back to each area and organize it exactly the way it should after all of the materials are there.

The down-side to working in my classroom right now is that the
air conditioner isn’t working. As my luck would have it, the last week has been the hottest we’ve had all summer. I just try not to think about being hot and drink my water and keep working. I’ve lived through it so far.

Here are some before pictures from this morning.

Here are the after pictures. I am obviously not finished with any of the areas, but do feel that I made significant progress today. Yes, my desk is messier in the after pictures than it was in the before pictures. Remember how I said when I emptied boxes I placed the items in the correct area? Well, when it came to my desk, I was basically throwing the items in the correct area.

This is the stack of items I am giving away. I trashed a lot of things I found in the room, but there were some things that I knew other teachers could use and just couldn’t throw away. So, we’ll see if we have any takers.

I’ve got two appointments tomorrow, so my work at school will be a little sporadic in the morning, but the afternoon should be uninterrupted. Then I will have all day next Monday and Tuesday and the morning on Wednesday. Once in-service starts I don’t know how much time I will have to work in the classroom, so I want to have it all finished. I think if I have at least 3 days to work I can get it all finished. I’ll have to work hard, but I think I can do it.

I feel like it has been a month of Sundays since I last posted! We have been really busy. I’ve been working in my classroom a lot and running errands, etc. I had a dentist appointment this week and I also had to go get my TB test and then go back and get it read. I wound up having to take Olivia to the vet this week. Since we picked her up from our Philadelphia trip, she has had a runny nose (mostly at night). Otherwise, she was behaving normally, so we put off taking her to the vet thinking she’d get better. She didn’t get better, so I took her in. There is a picture of her below at the vet. She looks really pitiful in the picture, but she really wasn’t that miserable at the vet. She loves everyone there. Anyway–She has some sort of upper respiratory infection. The vet gave her antibiotics and after just one dose, she was better. We’ve seen continual improvement, so we’re all on the upswing now. A few minutes ago I put her on our bed to take a nap and I just turned around and looked at the couch–she snuck back in the living room and is on the couch with her daddy. She can be really sneaky with her collar off. I can’t turn my back for 1 minute on those two!

Richard took off work Friday to help me move my personal things into my classroom. I don’t know what I’d do without him. He is such a huge help to me. I am spending all of my time Monday and Tuesday in my classroom. It is a wreck right now, but I’m still making progress!

I can’t believe I haven’t posted about this yet. Last weekend Richard and I went to a Paul McCartney concert. It was the best concert I’ve ever been to and probably the best concert I will ever see. It was absolutely fantastic. My husband is a huge Beatles fan, so it was fun for me to be with him having so much fun! We had a wonderful time together!

My running is also taking up some time (although the scales aren’t showing it!). For our long run this Saturday, we ran 18.3 miles. It was as long as it sounds. I have a great group of girls to run with though, so it’s not complete torture. The next two weeks are “short” runs (10 and 12 miles) and then the next week we’ll do 20 miles. As it turns out, I am doing two marathons this fall– Marine Corps here in DC and SunTrust in Richmond. We’ll see how I feel after that before signing up for a spring marathon. I do have 2 races in Nov. and 2 in Dec. though–mostly for fun.

Knitting has kind of taken a backseat to all of the other things we’ve had going on. However, I did finish a baby hat last night and started a little felted purse while we watched “The Bucket List”. I really need to make a knitting to-do list so I can get some unfinished projects completed.

Richard is taking me to see “Julie & Julia” this afternoon! I’ve been dying to see it since I first saw the preview when we went to see “The Proposal”. I can’t wait! I can’t remember if I previously mentioned this or not (and don’t have the time to check), but in the spring when we went to the Smithsonian Museum of American History, we saw Julia Child’s kitchen.

Ok. Really need to go now! Hopefully it won’t be so long between posts next time!