Banda!!
Six o'clock. Saturday evening. What do I hear? A tuba warming up. A live tuba. 15 minutes later - the whole band kicks in. My roommate and I took a walk around the corner to find a small, private party of older couples dancing in a garage with the band playing their classic music. Oh, hello Mexico!
Two posts in one day!
While I was at home, I took the opportunity to use my grandma's sewing machine. I did a few small sewing projects this summer at my parents' place, but the machines frustrated me, and I only got through making stuff for other people - not myself, like I had planned.
So, off to Gram's house I went, armed with some pretty cotton lining I received as a gift for my birthday, and some fine red corduroy I bought at Fabric Depot. And voila! I made myself a new purse. This was fun because it's a different style than I've done before. After the fact I looked up how to do pleats, so my next one will be even better. I even made it official by making (and keeping!) the pattern to the bag. I'm making strides!
In more exciting news - my cousin in Toronto called to say that she really wanted to ship an old sewing machine of hers out to me! It was a hand-me-down to her, and she never uses it, so I get it! I should have it at the end of the month. I'm beyond excited!!
As I said before - we went on a bus tour on Wednesday - here are a couple shots of that.
January Sunshine
Well, I know I don't keep up with this, so we'll what information I can give that can correctly sum up the last few months. Obviously, I kept really busy with school stuff. We had our first and second bimesters fly by. I got into a smoother routine with my third graders, and my fifth graders were actually starting to wear on me. I had to figure out some classroom management techniques just to make sure the kids were actually listening to me. I think we've got it straightened out for the most part. Days pass by really fast - teaching, tutoring, gym, correcting papers, making worksheets, etc. Sometimes the days just run together.
I went "home" to Portland for a couple weeks, which was a really, really nice break. This was the first time in, I think, 8 years that I haven't had to work over a Christmas vacation. Every other year I've been nannying (sometimes even on New Year's Eve), and trying to schedule making money to pay the bills, and times with family and friends isn't always fun. So, it was especially nice to have 2 1/2 weeks to just do whatever I wanted. And yes, it was cold and rainy in Portland, but YES we had heat in the house and I didn't have to sleep in a sweatshirt, under 5 blankets! AND I've decided that the most luxurious item ever is the clothes dryer. My clothes hadn't been in a dryer since June, so getting fresh laundry out of a dryer is just... spectacular.
So we're back in town and the weather is gorgeous. It's sunny, in the 70s, and clear every day. Wednesday we took the open air bus tour around town and made buddies with the driver and assistant guys. Yesterday I did my lesson planning out in the sun on our patio. Today we're headed to a cafe to do work. It's not such a bad life :) I'm happy to be back with my kids. Sometimes they drive me nuts, but I have to admit that hearing "Miss Meeeeeeghan what are we doing today?" or "Miss Meeeeeeeeeghan why did you write that?" makes me happy.
In more exciting news - my cousin in Toronto called to say that she really wanted to ship an old sewing machine of hers out to me! It was a hand-me-down to her, and she never uses it, so I get it! I should have it at the end of the month. I'm beyond excited!!
