Sunday, February 27, 2005

Tulips on Table


Tulips on Table
Originally uploaded by mtnester.
I love my dining room table and I love my kitchen. Chris made my table. It looks especially nice when it is free of the piles of paper clutter that seem to multiply on it's surface every week. I managed to take care of the clutter and serve a fairly decent dinner to friends at this table on Friday night. We had the parents of Chloe and Andy (2 other exchange students) over for dinner. We talked of our kids (glowingly of course) and our upcoming plans to visit them in their host countries of France, Spain and Italy. We miss them but none of us are wallowing in sadness. I guess that's because all 3 kids are truly having 'the time of their lives' and pretty much thriving on their exchange experience. 4 bottles of wine and nearly as may hours later they made hasty departures as is the way with ferry commuters. The time went by altogether too quickly. I am hopeful that we will get together at least once more before the kids get home.

Doe???


Doe???
Originally uploaded by mtnester.
We knew something was afoot when the neighbors replaced their 6 foot high cyclone fence with a sturdier and taller one topped with spiral strands of razor sharp barbed wire. It began to look like Stalag 13. While we do live in an unincorporated area, this is the edge of Seattle. The city line is only 2 blocks to west of us. Yes, these are deer, but not blacktail or whitetail deer. They are more chocolately brown in color and what do you think; could a doe have antlers?

Fawn


Fawn
Originally uploaded by mtnester.
We live in unincorporated southwest King County. It is a place with a generous share of characters living alongside rather ordinary middle class families like ours. Amongst our family we refer to the owners of these deer as 'Ma and Pa Kettle'. They have owned, at one time or another, goats, sheep, geese, rabbits, a donkey and two burros (I'm no ass, I know the difference). And now the deer.

Deer Here


Deer Here
Originally uploaded by mtnester.
Tonight in the waning hours of my mid-winter break I could write about a variety of things I did during the past week. But house cleaning, taxes, consulting with designers about window coverings, skating in the sunshine on Alki, pruning roses, cutting down ferns and pampas grass, are all pretty tame stuff compared to Chris' discovery of these critters in the backyard of the
house that is kitty corner to the back of our lot.

Sunday, February 13, 2005

Mr. Nelson Chats with the SCATS


Mr. Nelson Chats with the SCATS
Originally uploaded by mtnester.
Nothing like a few words with the principal to boost a performer's confidence.

Take My Picture Mrs. Goethe!


Take My Picture Mrs. Goethe!
Originally uploaded by mtnester.
The first of this year's kindergarteners to to be in a SCATS performance shows off his 'cross over' in the hall.

The Little Mimic


The Little Mimic
Originally uploaded by mtnester.
Rene Bibaud, world class rope skipper is warming up in the hall and this little guy is intent on her every move, trying to copy her. Even without a rope he couldn't come close!

Dinner Bell

"Dang, there's the bell!" Anna Rae declared about half way through our phone call today. Then she said "But it is o.k. we can keep talking." It seems they have a dinner bell and it rings precisely at eight every night for dinner. She told us that the timing of dinner NEVER varies. Let's say she has plans to be at a concert or theatre performance at 8:00. Her host parents are in a tizzy saying, "Well, what about dinner?" sounding helpless as to any solution such as eating maybe at 7:15 or 7:30. It drives AR nuts. At our house if you aren't around at dinner we say, "Fend for yourself." meaning you reheat left overs or think of an easy alternate dinner for yourself if you need to eat early. Dinner time varies by as much as 2 hours at our house. The only rule that Chris asks me to adhere to is: we must be eating before 8:00. This rule is rooted in the opinion that sleep does not come easy with a full stomach. I have friend whose husband did not like to eat before 10:00!! I definitely prefer Chris' 8:00 ultimatum. One hour of eating is not superior to another. It is just one of the little things that can be irksome to AR. Hearing her refer to the dinner bell brought many a childhood memory to mind. I remember standing on the back porch on summer nights hollering at the top of my lungs, "JEFFFF...DAAAVID, TIME TO EAT!!!" Then at some point my mom had enough of this uncouth bellowing and she and several other neighborhood families instituted the 'bell system' (this was the '60s and our block probably had 40 kids under the age of 12). We were expected to know our bell tone and come running. When we were up at the cottage we had cowbells and iron triangles to clang that served the same purpose.
Anna Rae had just returned from another day of snowboarding when we called. She was delighted that her new long underwear and snowpants kept her totally dry. In her opinion her snowboarding skills are improving as we well imagine they would with all the slope time and lessons that she has been having. In the morning they are given 3 hours of instruction which she could opt out of but she has found very helpful. Today's instructor referred to her as bilingual and that really made her happy. Comments like this show us how far she has come with the language. She was happy to get the surprise Valentine's Day box from us although she suppressed a chuckle saying she can't foresee when the weather will warm up enough to wear the short sleeve shirt and cotton skirt I bought for her.
I was hit with my first whopper of a cold on Friday afternoon. I have been on a steady regimen of sudafed since then and tonight I can actually breathe through both nostrils. Last week there was something EVERY evening and I managed to still get up every morning at 5:15 to do my usual exercise at the Y. This was my schedule:
Monday: St. Vincent de Paul Meeting; Not everyone in attendance but we spent extra time on the spiritual aspect of our meeting. We had an interesting discussion about our thoughts on just what heaven might be and in the process learned more about each other.
Tuesday: The Campaign for Youth dinner/meeting at the YMCA
Wednesday: An 8:15am Student Intervention Team meeting, A 3:50 podiatrist appointment to pick up my orthotics (YEAH! They feel great!) 6:15pm Assist with the serving of dinner at Hospitality House (South King County's only homeless shelter for women without children)
Thursday: Chris and I were invited to the home of one of my student's for dinner. This was fun and the dinner was scrumptious East Indian vegetarian with delicious Indian tea with cardamom to top it off.
Friday: Collected and counted money raised at our Tsunami Relief Performance held at West Seattle H.S. Several elementary schools unicycled, tumbled, jumped rope, and danced to raise money for World Vision. I left just before it ended and at that point we had counted $3500.
Aside from Valentines being exchanged in the classroom tomorrow, this promises to be a quieter week. At least I hope so!

Sunday, February 06, 2005

Writing Station


Writing Station
Originally uploaded by mtnester.
When a student begins to apply classroom
instruction into her 'play time' we can be pretty sure it is internalized. This little girl is using a Bubble Map as an
organizer for Math for One. In the middle she wrote: Math for 'Won' and each of the circles around it has an equation with the answer always being one. This was a totally child chosen activity with no adult prompts. We were so excited to see this transfer of learning taking place and I was lucky enough to catch it on my camera!