Counting down

I saw the Staples commercial this morning that shows the dad shopping for school supplies kicking up his heels and singing and the two kids scowling and dragging behind him slowly. What was missing from the commercial was me in the middle. As much as I love what I do, I am sad that vacation is just about over. I am even more sad because finally the nice weather has arrived and my thoughts and work are now towards preparing the classroom and myself for the upcoming 2009-2010 school year. When I left at the end of June, my class list was at 18. It was evenly 9 boys and 9 girls...thankfully since the past few years my 'girl' component has been much less than that. It is amazing what a difference it makes! Usually by this time in August, I am ready to go back, but this June we went until almost the end of the month so the time off seems shorter. I think back to my trucking days of 2 weeks vacation and no holidays or breaks and wonder how I ever stood it!

Update on the home projects.....garage--insulation is done! The insulating team of Mutt and Jeff finished the upstairs and part of the downstairs in record time. I think it was about 3-4 hours and they cleaned up afterward too. Then came the big decision...what to do about the floor upstairs. We decided to just paint and poly it. I went to Home Depot, Lowes, and Classic Flooring only to decide that I really just want a braided rug. With the walls and ceiling in knotty pine, I did not think that I wanted a wood floor. I went to LL Bean and looked at the rugs there and picked out a nice denim blue varigated to green and yellow braided rug. That helped me decide on the color of the floor...blue. I think it will look nice when it is finished. At this point, Greg just wants me to decide...I have a white wicker ceiling fan going in above so will probably go with blue/white color schemes. I had been leaning red/black but am thinking blue is a better choice. We went to Home Depot this morning and purchased paint, paint sticks, and rollers. Haliey was with us and felt we needed a painter's hat but Grandpa assured her that we could paint without one!

From Home Depot, Haliey and I went to Eight Corners to take a look! While I moved tables, Haliey supervised. I lost interest after about an hour so we decided to head home and return later. I can't do that too many times or I will not be ready!

We are heading to FLorida for Labor Day weekend. We got reward tickets on Southwest Airlines but ended up replacing them with tickets on Jet Blue from Portland. THe price was the same, both were nonstop flights, and we did not have the 2 hr drive each way. Our plans are to leave on Friday noon and return back Monday afternoon. This is an 'adults' only trip. We have taken advantage of some of the inexpensive resort specials, the free dining plan, and reward tickets so feel this is an inexpensive way to end the summer. This will be my last break until February school vacation week.

Today is the last day for EDU743 at UNE. THis has been one of the best online courses that I have taught! I am sorry to see it end but glad for the two week break coming up. More later...