Happy Birthday, Sally!

Today is Sally's Birthday! I would say which birthday, but most of you know already, because the large majority of us are the same birthyear.

I have known Sally almost all of my life. The only person I have known longer, that is not a family member, is Stephanie Stalls Carrerra Whatever, and we all know that she hasn't been in the picture in years.

I met Sally when my family moved in next to hers on West Second street, when I was four and a half years old. That's a long time folks. A very long time. How many of us can say we have friends that have been with us for over thirty years?

So this is to Sally. I am including several photos. If I had really thought about it, I would have gone over to Mama's and gotten some of the really old photos out to put in here, things that would probably have been forcibly retracted at a later time.

These first ones are two of my favorite pictures. Sally took our engagement picture, you see, and so I took one with Sally in my spot, just to see what it would look like.

Good picture, huh?


Looking through the pictures I have, it's funny how all of the really good ones revolve around the wedding - I guess I need to get better pictures of Sally, huh?

So Happy Birthday, to someone who will always be older than I am!

My Inspiration

Two years ago I stumbled across a blog called Dooce. Heather Armstrong was writing about her life - her daughter and husband and stuff that happened to her. She is hiliarious. I hope only to be half or a quarter as witty and funny as she is.

So she is now part of a wave of "Mommy Bloggers" or something like that. It's a booming business according to the Today show this morning. And here's a link to Heather's interview.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IGKh6lbtKQ0

And I feel very comfortable calling her Heather in references, because I just know if I were to meet her we would become best friends and hang out all the time.

Not really, but it would be cool.

So after you guys watch the YouTube link above, definitely check out Heather's blog - www.dooce.com

And let me know - do you think she is as funny as I do?

Finally someone is bringing money in . . .

Well, Sassy got her prize today for winning in the Humane Society's photo contest under favorites. A $15 gift card to Tractor Supply Company - which works, I guess, because we ARE supposed to spend the money on her - right?

Anywho - with $5 to enter her, $5 to enter Pete (who did not win and is still recovering from the depression of not being chosen), that leaves us with a $5 profit.

Now only about $545 more dollars to go and we can call it even.

How Quickly It all Goes Away

Okay, I hate to admit this, but I have just spent thirty minutes pretty much spending my entire paycheck. Where does it all go?

I'm going now in search of something really sweet to get me through this.

Shooting Star

Okay, I have spent about two hours today and a bunch of tape fixing what can best be described as a mini-studio.

I saw this somewhere, somehow - it's amazing how if I really sit still long enough at the computer I can find all kinds of things and never really know how I got there.

http://www.strobist.blogspot.com/2006/07/how-to-diy-10-macro-photo-studio.html

This is a link to the spot where I found out how to make a cardboard light box or whatever they call it. Anyway, I am really looking forward to playing with this, not because I may start selling small items on Ebay - who has time? - but really because I just love making stuff and seeing if it will really work.

Needless to say I am already happy with the results, and this from simply holding a lamp next to the box while shooting the picture. Actually, I balanced the lamp on my knee while shooting the picture, and not even using a tripod as suggested in the article.

Read the article if you are interested in photography. I love the stuff he does in the article linked at the bottom of the link above - he uses granite and foam board to make a picture that looks like it could be in a magazine or catalog. Amazing.

Expect to see some odd stuff from me. But just for fun - lol. And here are a couple of my first shots.

Sassy

Well, the trouble child Brent and I have has finally made us proud. I have just found out this afternoon that her picture has won first prize in the Beaufort County Humane Society's Photo Contest in the Favorites Category.

Below is the picture I took, about seventh months after we got her. Brent and I both knew that was the picture we would send in for her.

I just hope that Petey can stand the star power we have here with her as part of the family. :-)

So, who has pets? And are they prize winners like ours?

National Boards

I have been wanting, for a long time, to write some about my experience with getting my National Board Certification.

I found out in November, and that was probably the best thing that happened to me all fall and winter.

Getting your National Boards for a teacher means several things -

1. You've spent up to three years trying to prove that you are a really good teacher/media coordinator. Which really means you have jumped through several hoops while having it videotaped and then you sat down and "reflected" on the hoop jumping - like how high did you jump, what would you do differently next time, did everyone get something from your hoop jumping, etc.

2. If you work in North Carolina, getting your certification means a 12% raise in pay. And that's the reason North Carolina is number one in the nation for the number of teachers who have their certification, in my honest opinion.

3. It also means that you get to hang a great certificate on your office wall so that everyone can see that you are Board Certified.

4. And finally, it means that you get recognized at a dinner held in a high school cafeteria this week, along with the others who earned their Certification this year (I think there were only four of us in the county this time.)

So, that's sorta it for that. Dinner on Thursday with some other National Board Certified Educators. Should be a hoot.

The Garden

2008_0411odds0023
Originally uploaded by leaseuhd

For those of you following the flowerbed, I have posted pictures to Flickr, because if you are going to get into this Web 2.0 thing, you might as well dive in head first.

So, what will hopefully happen is that the picture I am using will let you click over to Flickr to see the rest of the pictures.

Keep your fingers crossed.

Harbinger of Spring

I was reading an article in one of Brent's fishing magazines earlier today, and I saw an article entitled "Tuna: Harbinger of Spring."

Well, I don't know about you, but I'd have to say that they missed me with the whole tuna thing.

What I say is the "Harbinger of Spring" is our local ice cream truck. Ice cream truck, you say? In these days and times? Yes, folks, in this part of Washington, there is an ice cream truck, and he drove by today.

I was sitting inside watching TV when I heard the harbinger of spring - the tinkle of the ice cream truck's music. And for some reason, that made me happy. Like, YEAH, it's finally here. (Although we are reportedly going to have a frost on Monday night, because the temps are going to drop so low!)

And no I didn't run out to get an Eskimo Pie, or Rainbow Pop, but I may next time, now that spring is here.

Twenty Years Later

I had a wonderful thing happen to me at a meeting I had to attend on Thursday for school. A lady came up to me and asked if I was Lisa Williams, and I said I used to be, and she said, "Do you know who I am?"

And believe it or not, I did.

When I was a freshman at NC State, I met lots of people, especially as part of the Teaching Fellows Program. I met September there, and we are still friends to this day. I also met a girl named Debbie White, who was from New Bern, and who was married and pregnant, but her husband was in the Marines, so she was living in the dorms like we were.

Debbie White is now Debra Kinsey, and get this, is the Assistant Principal at John Cotten Tayloe right here in Washington. Amazing!

I am actually tickled to death to reconnect with her. We exchanged some information about our lives, and I told her Sep would not believe it when I told her - and she didn't. So now we are going to try to get together here in Washington - if I can get Sep down here - and have a good old remember when session.

So, I was thinking, I have some pictures from our wonderful journeys we took as Teaching Fellows - lovely shots of people that look a little like the people I know now. But what is really cool about this picture I am including here is the date on the back of it - May 1988 - twenty years ago - when in the hell did I ever get to be this old?

So enjoy folks! (Debbie is the one in the middle, and Sep is the one on the right.)

Finally, Pictures

Before

After

For a better shot -

For those of you from around here - that dark and light on the grass - that's sunshine and shadows - sunshine - can you believe it?

Twitter Updates on the Web Site

It's really the silliest thing. You sign up for an account, and then you can send just brief bursts of nothingness from your cell phone. It's addictive. You can also access it from the web. Very cool. Great for doing when you are sitting still on Highway 17 for ten minutes.

All Summer In a Day

Ray Bradbury wrote a story about a planet where it rains all day everyday for like seven years in a row, with one day of sunshine every seven years - well, I am living there. And it is damn depressing.

Flower bed pictures on hold for some natural light.

Flower Bed Redux

Okay, I have just finished showering after a very busy morning during which Cindy finished up the flower bed out front. I helped, and Brent helped a little (he did all of the clearing before this part of the project), but Cindy really did the lion's share of the work.

And it looks gorgeous, so I will take some pictures later today or tomorrow - hopefully the sun will shine.

So be looking for those.

The worst part of today was the fact that it rained so much yesterday and Friday night that if we stepped into the new part of the bed, we sunk down to our ankles. Seriously. So we haven't been able to test out the stepping stones, and we have a really, really muddy porch, which I want to spray off, but will wait to do.

But it was nice visiting with Cindy, and it is a beautiful flower bed with lots of promise for the years to come.

My Little Blue Car

Okay - here is a picture of the final product of my little blue car I made - with Brent's help on the stand. The theme for the spring bookfair is "Take a Reading Road Trip," and the clip art includes pictures of cars piled high with books on top like luggage.

I really wanted him to be much bigger, but it just didn't happen. But I think he's cute.

Naps are Wonderful Things

Well, folks, today was my first day back after Easter Break. I felt great at work - walked all over, talked to people, sorta moved some stuff - really got some stuff done. So . . .

By four o'clock as I was rolling into the carport, my body had decided that enough was enough. I went in, talked to Brent for a few, and then took a nap. An hour nap during which I did not move after falling dead asleep. An hour nap which was the most blessed thing I have had over the past three days.

Do you remember taking naps as a child? I remember summers at my Grandmama's house where we ate lunch right at twelve - while my grandfather listened to the livestock report on Channel 9. Right after lunch, we washed the dishes, and then we went to bed - no questions asked.

My Grandmama had a chenille bedspread on her back bed, with the chenille making a pattern that always made me think of a garden - like the English gardens you see in pictures and such. I would trace my finger around the design until I fell asleep. That's why one of my most favorite possessions from my Grandmama's house is a chenille bedspread with that kind of pattern in it. I doubt that it is the same one, I remember there being pinks and greens in the pattern, and the spread I have is actually all white, but it doesn't matter. It reminds me. And that's enough.

As Friday comes upon us

Well, I would say I have enjoyed my Easter vacation, but I have not vacated nor rested much. On Monday I actually did have a day where I sat around watching bad tv wondering if I should put real clothes on or if my pj's would take me through the day - I think I actually changed over to sweats - only to go pick up dinner . . . gotta love take out Chinese food.


Tuesday Brent and I - mostly Brent - cut out the new and expansive sections of our flower bed out front - what my cousins Cindy and Alan will be coming down next weekend to help with. The hard part was rolling the sod and picking it up - seriously. It weighed a ton. Who knew grass could weigh so much. But Brent pulled the trailer around back, and we attempted transplants in bald spots our dogs have created. We're still watering daily folks, so wish us luck.










Wednesday we took that piece of equipment back, and we got another one - a carpet cleaner, because, girls, if you are going to have men and dogs in your lives, you are going to have spots on your carpet. So after picking up the cleaner, and going for lunch in Choco-hoco land, we came home, and as it was such a beautiful day (the weather has turned out much warmer and nicer than I thought it was going to be), we decided to go fishing for a couple of hours.

Now, let me stop here and say that fishing always sounds better to me than it really is. I don't know why I don't remember from one trip to the next how much I suck at it, or how frustrating it is, or how uncomfortable those seats are in the front of the boat - but anyway . . . We went fishing, and it was actually nice and peaceful. We go up Bear Creek, which is actually not too far from the boat ramp, and it's all trees and birds and quiet. Blessed quiet. So overlooking the fact that I only caught one fish, and so did Brent, it was a nice relaxing trip.



Then we came home and cleaned carpets - until eleven o'clock. That's right - crazy - yes -- but the proud owners of some clean carpet? - yes as well.

Today I was all excited about getting to see my friend Todd. He's home for a long weekend to visit with family and friends. I got up, returned the carpet cleaner (after Brent had cleaned the couch, chair, and ottoman), got my oil changed, ran a couple of other errands, and then came home. Todd showed up sometime after lunch and hung out helping with odd jobs and such around the house.

While all of this was going on, Brent had gone out fishing again - only caught three today - but still had a good time.

And tonight I have worked on a display for school -something for Book Fair - which I will post pictures of once it is done.


Tomorrow, I plan to have lunch with Cathy, and finish a couple of projects around here.


So - if you have made it to the end of this post without falling asleep from the mundaneness of it all, thanks!

Happy Easter

Brent, Daddy, and I went down to Acre Station to walk around the house and look at stuff. Daddy always takes advantage of those times to tell me where every plant came from. I hope I can remember enough to pass some on to the nephews. What I really hope is that at least one of the nephews cares enough to even want to walk around and look at plants.

So, I thought I would include a few pictures from the trip. Didn't take many, but here's one of Daddy, looking very stoic . . .

And here's a patch of spring growing by the front door - actually growing right by where the flag pole used to be.

So, Happy Easter, and Happy Spring!

Saturday Morning Crafts

Well, I couldn't let my spring break begin without a craft for Saturday morning. On the way back from Greensboro on Tuesday Lisa A. and I stopped at World Market in Durham - if you don't know what World Market is, you are really missing out on something. http://www.worldmarket.com/home.jsp

I have been looking for some handmade paper to cover a lampshade in the living room and wouldn't you know it, they had tons of it.

So here it is guys - come by the house for a better look when you are in town.

And just so you know, as I was making this, rose petals kept falling from the paper. Like maybe someone somewhere in a factory has the job of sticking some rose petals and leaves on regular paper to add to the handmadeness of it. (That's right, handmadeness) So here's a picture of the mess.

Riley's Birthday

My nephew turned 6 on March 20th - the first day of spring - and since my sister doesn't want me to post pictures of the boys on the Internet - damn you Internet freaks out there - I am posting this one which is actually a little funny -

Happy Birthday, Riley!