Another day spent stalking other sites..............

Well it has been raining and storming all morning. I sat down at the computer to check my email this morning and just realized I have been sitting here for the last three hours. I just love looking at other kindergarten sites to see what others are doing in their classrooms. I often find a lot of the same things I do, but I also find a lot of new things too! I may have taught for 27 years, but I feel that there is always something new to learn.

I started a list of things I want to revise for this fall. I am refraining from hitting the Dollar Tree, Target, Michaels and the Parent Teacher Store! There are so many things I want to go buy right now! However, we are on a shut down so I can't get in my building and anything I buy would have to be stored at home- and well I can't exactly let the Mr. see what I bought, not all at one time anyway- lol.  Oh he knows I spend oodles of money on my classroom but I try not to flaunt it in front of him. He prefers not really knowing-- at least I think it's better if he doesn't.

I have so many projects to "build" and I really want to get started on them, too. But again where would I store them? I NEED to make a light table, a sensory table and this morning I decided I need to buy some metal sheets and make a magnetic word wall! Unfortunately, I am not proficient in keeping track of the ideas I see and want to copy. So I can't go back to see how others have done these things. I have to go by my memory. I hope I can pull it off. I'll post pictures of anything that works- hehee.

I haven't been able to keep up with this because of all the crazy normal things that have gone on this summer. For instance, on Monday, June 24th was just another day in the life of the Rice family.  We have been fighting with the pool company since April to get them to come back and stretch the liner they put in. There were wrinkles like crazy everywhere which was unacceptable. Anyway for the past three weeks I had been calling then- before, during and after hours trying to reach them. I think they were screening their calls! Soo, I finally used a different phone- sneaky- called at 7:45 AM and someone human answered. Hmm imagine that. So he tells me he will be here on Monday morning. Monday comes and at 11 AM still no one has come, so I call. Some lady answers and I explained that I was waiting for "Bob" to come fix my pool. She refers me to "Dad" and gives me his cell phone number. I call that number and get the grouchiest man on the phone. Explain why I am calling and what I need done. He informs he that it can't be done because there is a 30% chance of rain. Ugg. I look up weather.com and see there is a 10% chance of rain on Tuesday at 10 PM. After he continues to gripe at me for a few minutes, he finally agrees to send "Bob" over to drain my pool. Oh but first he does growl at me that if it rains it is all my fault. (Whatever!)

So "Bob" shows up at 2 PM. I was on the phone with the gas company because of course they need to change my gas meter and had to schedule or they were going to disconnect our service. (Like I said just another day in the life of the Rice family) So before I could get off the phone "Bob" had left. He had dropped the pump in the pool connected to the electric and stretched the hose across the yard in less than five minutes. He also had brought his two kids with him- my guess is he was afraid I would say something to him and figured I wouldn't if his kids were with him. He also entered my backyard through the side gate without letting us know he was here. My guess is he wanted to avoid me altogether. My kids went outside while he was there and he told them as he was leaving he would be back around 9 or 10 PM that evening.

Midnight, still no "Bob". My husband stayed up to 4 AM to make sure the pool was drained and turned the pump off so as to not burn it up.

9 AM Tuesday "Bob" and two other workers show up to fix my liner. They were all  very nice and talked to my husband and I as they worked. All went well and they were finished by noon. They left, my husband went to bed. Oh and there was not a drop of rain the whole time. Yippee- glad I didn't have to take the blame for any.

After they left the girls and I were sitting on the front porch relaxing, when my son yells from the basement. We all go running. Yep the main drain had backed up into the basement. Wouldn't be so bad but the girls had decided to have a yard sale next month and there were boxes and boxes and stacks of clothes all over the place they had been sorting. We all started grabbing things and piling it up around the outside of the basement (it isn't a finished basement, so that helped too). My son asked if I had called a plumber yet. I had not because my main goal at the moment was to get everything out of the flow of water. The carpet was getting wetter by the second too.

I had to leave the house at 1:00 because my daughter had an eye appointment at 1:15. I called the plumber on the way there. Got his voice mail.  After her appointment, I called him again. Got his voice mail. About an hour later he called and wasn't going to be able to get to me so he gave me the name of another guy. I called him and he was at my house in less than an hour. Woo Hoo.

They arrived cleaned the drain out (went out 80 feet) and got all those tree roots out of the way. We should be good for another year.

I am getting so excited about next year. It is official that there will be some new changes happening. I'm not at liberty to say yet, but it is exciting!

 
On the other hand, I cannot believe that there are only five more days of school left with my wonderful, talented, adorable, caring first graders. I have to make the best of these last five days with them. They are an awesome bunch of kids!