All Manner of Pressing Issues

It was a beautiful day today and my classroom was a bazillion degrees, so I decided to pack up my students’ materials and go outside to complete some of our afternoon lessons. Most of my students live in high rise apartment buildings, so exploring outside isn’t something they get to do on a regular basis.  While we were in our school’s outdoor classroom, one of my students discovered this caterpillar. I had to bring it inside the classroom for us so we can watch it change into a butterfly!

Ok. So I have to tell on myself. Last night I heard my phone buzz that I had a text message. I got my phone out of my purse and noticed it was a little wet (slight water bottle leak). I dried it off and read the text. No big deal. Well, later I was bathing Olivia and took a picture of her to send to Richard (he’s out of town) and right after I snapped the picture, my phone died. The low battery indicator wasn’t on and I had hardly used my phone at all yesterday. I immediately thought I had fried my phone (water bottle leak).  I tried to plug it in to charge it and the phone was nonresponsive. I unplugged it thinking if it was wet on the inside, attaching the phone to electricity was probably not the best idea.

So, this morning I finally got the guts to tell Richard I fried my phone. I thought better to tell him now so he can be irritated a thousand or so miles away rather than in our house and so by the time he gets home tonight he’ll be slightly over it. He wasn’t irritated actually, but he told me what to do. So, I took the phone to the Apple store this evening after I left school. Well, bad day to go apparently since some special version of the ipad came out today. I waited in line and then was escorted into the store. It was crazy how busy they were. So the girl takes my phone to the back to work her magic. She came back out and said, “It looks like your battery was just really low.”

This is where I felt like a major moron. Taking my phone to the Apple store for a dead battery is like taking my vehicle to the dealership because I’m out of gas!!!! We got a good laugh out of it and she assured me I wasn’t the only person who made this mistake.

The good news is that we don’t have to fork over major bucks for a new phone!

Olivia and I just enjoyed some edamame and now we’re off for a walk!

Well, the new cleaning schedule is still working! Our house is always clean now! I love it! I am going to have to type this quickly before I pass out from the fumes coming from our bathroom. I have been on a vinegar and baking soda cleaning kick, but I found a bottle of all-purpose cleaner with bleach in our cabinet and went crazy with it in our all white bathroom. I bathed Olivia tonight, so it was definitely time to clean! She was one dirty girl!

I have decided our yard is a sanctuary for injured squirrels. Today when I came home there was a squirrel with one blind eye. During the blizzard, I fed the squirrels from our back porch and one of my customers had a badly scared leg.

Speaking of animals in our yard, our robin who built the nest in our vine is HUGE. I’m thinking she’ll start laying her eggs any day now. It amazes me that she and all those babies are going to fit in that nest.

This morning during our spinning class, the instructor showed the movie “Earth” (the Disney film). I had seen it before. Something about watching animals get eaten didn’t make spinning any easier. All that natural violence was stressful. The TVs in the spinning room had never been on before today. Not sure what brought about that change. I think I’m more of a Sunrise Earth girl–violence free.

This week has gone by quickly. Nevertheless, I’m ready for the weekend! I’ll run with friends Saturday morning and hopefully not a lot is on our agenda after that.

Last week I decided I was tired of doing my chores during the weekend and I developed a new cleaning schedule. I do one or two chores each day during the week so my weekend is free. This was the first week I implemented the new plan and it has worked! I have not known what to do with myself today! It’s been WONDERFUL!

As of next Saturday, marathon training season will be in full swing! I ran with my running friends this morning. It was so good to see them and get caught up. We haven’t consistently been running together since just before Christmas, so we were all glad to be together again!!

I’ve gotten into the habit of taking Olivia to our neighborhood dog park almost every day. Normally, when I take her she acts like she doesn’t know me except for her occasional “run by” to say, “Hey, mom look how fast I am…”. However, the last several times I have taken her to the park, she has basically ignored all of the other dogs there and has wanted to play ball with me instead of sociazing and chasing other dogs. I feel so special that she’s choosing me over the other fun she could be having! I think I’m up for Doggie Mama of the year!  ha.

I have finally made major headway in our backyard. We had all of this weird growth between our rocks and the fence and amongst the rocks. I am not sure what it was. We were told we’d never get rid of it, so of course I had to get rid of it. Long story short, I dug up every root which required me taking our stepping stones and rocks apart. It was a big job for me and I had very sore hands to show for it, but the yard looks so much better with that stuff GONE! The next job I have in the yard is to rake all of the little “propeller” things our maple tree so graciously gave us.  I’ll have to post some pictures soon of our yard! We have a little bird nest in our vine above our back door.

I think I’m in a movie watching mood tonight. The only problem is that I don’t really have a knitting project to work on while I watch. I suppose I’ll have to start something! I have three friends who are expecting, so maybe a baby hat is in order! I think I’d like to either watch Amelia or It’s Complicated (or maybe one of the Holocaust films I have from Netflix).

HAPPY WEEKEND!

It’s been a busy weekend! We started our weekend with a trip to Home Depot on Friday night. We both love home improvement stores. My favorite “department” is the Garden Center. I could spend a really long time looking and reading plant labels. We bought what we needed (and some things we decided we needed).

Saturday morning I got up bright and early (picture above) and went for a run on the Mount Vernon trail. There were very, very few people out. It was really nice to be out. The running bug has definitely bitten again, but I’m taking it slowly because I don’t want to injure my foot again.

After that, I took Olivia to the dog park for a long time. She played chase with lots of dogs and had a blast. She was exhausted by the time we left! Normally she doesn’t let me get anywhere near her at the dog park, but this time she actually let me pick her up and she sat in my lap!!!! She was tired!

Richard and I hauled some wood to the land fill (ugh!) and then went to buy some flowers for our yard. Richard also got a grill. I am thrilled that we have a grill again because this guarantees that I’ll get out of cooking a time or two a week! Some of my favorite memories from our time together in Little Rock are the times when he would grill for us and we’d eat out on our balcony.

I had a hard time deciding what flowers to buy. I was trying to coordinate colors, but am not sure I did such a great job. I got two flowering plants that attract hummingbirds and one flowering plant that attracts butterflies. The flowers on both of those are purple. I also got geraniums and petunias. I bought rosemary, mint and basil also. I wanted lavender, but they didn’t have any. I started some from seed, so maybe that will take off now that I have it in a pot.  As you can see in the picture above, Olivia had to inspect my flower choices. She ate the flower off the butterfly-attracting plant.

I’ve worked in the yard a ton this weekend. I’m doing the spring cleaning type things that aren’t quite as much fun as planting flowers. Lots of ground prep (pulling stubborn roots), sweeping, watering, etc. I’ve planted 3 azaleas. They have buds on them and I’m hoping they’ll bloom this week.

This afternoon Richard and I took a picnic to the mall. It was a beautiful day and the tourist traffic has finally slowed somewhat. We better enjoy that while we can because the summer tourist season will quickly be upon us!

I better go. I need to do a quick pedicure before I go to bed. I’ve got to stop wearing flipflops to work in the yard. It seems nearly impossible to remove all the dirt from my toenails. On a scale from 1-10, that is about 15 gross! At least I didn’t include a picture.

During Spring Break, I tried to keep a good balance between doing “at home” projects and relaxing and getting out to see and do things in DC. One of the “DC” things I did on Saturday was attend an outdoor yoga class at the base of the Washington Monument. The goal was for 1,000 people to practice yoga. I think the goal was met! There were a ton of people there. During our Saturday morning run, I talked one of my friends into going with me! I also ran into one of my friends from my yoga class. It was a lot of fun and I achieved Crow Pose! YAY!