Reaching a mile marker

Today was my 100th day filling in as a substitute teacher. I've been counting down the days ever since I found out I get a nice raise after 100 days. For some reason I pictured the 100th day being great, special, wonderful... well memorable is more like it. IT WAS AWFUL!! I had the worst second grade class ever! Everyone talked out of turn, tattled, crawled around, talked back, messed around with all kinds of strange objects from who-knows-where that I confiscated and piled on the teachers desk...it when on and on. I think in one day I sprouted more gray hairs than in the last ten years. Nothing like earning that raise!

New Jersey should thank me.

We had another whopping storm over the weekend - a bunch of rain and winds topping 65 mph. That is a mighty stiff breeze, so stiff in fact it blew me over in my neighbor's marsh of a lawn while I was out in the mini hurricane on Saturday searching for my other neighbor's dog. Very humbling. I've heard reports that we would have had over 30" of snow if it had been colder. I saved us all by heaping all our snow gear on the counter in the laundry room rather than packing it away! We have many, many trees down on base, shingles blown off rooftops, and a lot of water. We all kept our electricity except for a few flickers. Other parts of the state are without until tomorrow (Wed.). We would have been snowed in for a week with all that wind. Like I said - New Jersey should thank me.

BTW - Daisey was found Monday afternoon by a maintenance worker. He saw two people out walking their dog and asked them if they knew of anyone who had lost a dog. They pulled a flier out of their pocket (which we had spend Sunday afternoon passing out door to door - about 400 of them) and called my neighbor's cell phone! Hooray!

Do I Dare?

I have all our snowpants, hats, mittens, gloves, etc., washed and in the dryer. Do I dare pack them away?? The last three days have been in the 60's... but it is only mid-March... but I am really tired of having it in my closets or more appropriately - on my floor. I hate to jinx our warm weather and I don't even believe in "jinxing" but there is that underlying nagging thought that if I pack them away we will get dumped on. Help!!??!!

Fun Weekend Away

Charles had a weekend conference up in the Pocono Mountains of PA, at a resort called the Skytop Lodge. It was built in the roaring 20's on 5,500 acres.





It is a fabulous place.

They had so much to offer. We took advantage of the ice skating.







Ooops!

They had a warming room with free hot chocolate.



We also went snow shoeing with the resident naturalist who was fasinating! We saw a saw-whet owl which according to our naturalist is very rare to see. It was the second one he has ever seen in the 20 years he has been a naturalist. Sorry I didn't get a picture of it. You will have to google it on your own. It is one of the smallest owls. We hiked to some small waterfalls. The snow was still about two feet deep so snow shoes were needed.





You can see the falls behind Isaiah.

Chaplain Kirk and his wife Jo joined us on the hike. It was a great experience.



We also enjoyed some swimming.





Isn't he huge?? I call him Mr. Muscles.



We also played a lot of ping-pong, putt-putt golf, and shot some pool. This was all available in the basement of the lodge. It was a great get-away - however not very restful. I was exhausted when we got home!

Costumes, Uniform, Snow day, and a hint of Spring

COSTUMES:

Hannah was in a fabulous musical at her school called "Willy Wonka Jr." She played the part of Mrs. Mike Teavee. Grandpa and Grandma Causey came for supper that evening and then went to the musical with us.



I went back stage and took a few pictures before the show. You can see Willy Wonka (played by a little girl in our neighborhood), a couple of Oompa Loompas, and Violet Beuaregard (sp?).



And here is Hannah in action.




The play was a great success!

UNIFORM:

I had mentioned awhile back that Isaiah was in Sparks at church and working hard to finish all three books in one year. Here is an update. In January he finished his second book and is working on his third! Go Isaiah!



SNOW DAY:

This past Friday when school was cancelled I came downstairs to find Hannah making the most of her day off!



HINT OF SPRING:

We received 6 inches of snow on Friday but today it was in the mid 40's. It felt GREAT! Much of the snow melted and I noticed some daffodils poking up in our flowerbed. Last spring after we moved in there were daffodils growing wild all throughout the woods around the house. I sent the kids out with buckets and shovels and we transplanted some in our flowerbeds. There is hope!