My Week - Utter Chaos

Okay, I just deleted a long and rambling account of my crazy (or as I like to call it, because it was super crazy, - my cra-crazy day).  I was reading it over and making sure it all made sense and thought, nope!  you don't really want to hear all the nonsense and stuff that went on today - tea spilling all over my desk and floor and papers - students wanting stuff from me right and left - how do mom's do it?  Oh, yes, they only have 3 or 4 kids wanting things all at once, not 15-20.  I swear, I think they all got together and decided to ask questions all at once.  I even threatened to scream at one time and a student told me to do it.  I didn't this time, but I have before.  It gets their attention and makes them realize they are driving me crazy.  I had about 60 work related e-mails all wanting me to send something, fill out something or just post something.  Some even wanted me to do some things next week!!  Then there was a fire drill!  (our second one in two weeks.  Are we going to have one every week?)  How do they expect me to teach these two dual credit courses in the 15 week semester we have before Christmas and get everything else we do in there done?  I only have 13 weeks left and I haven't even started the course work yet.  It's a good thing some of this was taught in last years classes and I can just re-fresh their memory on part of it.  I hope they retained it! 

When a sub walked into my kitchen to get some ice about 2:45 this afternoon, I was talking to a maintenance man about my pilot lights (that is a totally different story from earlier this week), while I was trying to get the tea in my room cleaned up, get the students papers turned in, the video re-wound - the machine kept kicking it back out, the mop washed out, the pantry stuff put away, the food out of the fridge, lids for the coffee/cocoa cups for the kids,  and everything else done in that last few minutes before the students left, because I had to leave within a few minutes after them to go downtown to turn in some paperwork, I just had to laugh. 

Okay, I know I told you I wasn't going to tell you all of what happened and I didn't.  Truly.  This was just a little bit of the chaos that happened today.  I didn't even leave school when I planned, but did make it downtown to turn in the paperwork before the end of the day.  However, leaving the building, the heavens opened up and poured.  Yep, that about sums up the kind of day it was.  Actually that was just a part of how the entire week went.  I hope next week goes much smoother. 

On the bright side, I did manage to make another chicken pin cushion and a little bag from just playing around in the studio.  I hope to spend several hours in there this weekend de-stressing from this past week.  That is after I roast the 25 pounds of Hatch green chili's I got at Bountiful Baskets tonight.  What was I thinking????? Anyone want a pound or 5 of green chili's?

Retreat Quilt and Weekly Ramblings

Whew!  I have been busy!  Since we got back to school from Thanksgiving we have been cooking up a storm at school and living through a couple of ice storms that have blown through here.  That first week back to school, we cooked for the restaurant and for our open house.  It's a good thing I had a premonition that we wouldn't have school on that Friday and made everyone work really hard and try to get the majority of the items made early.  Well, as it turned out, the ice came in early and I only had one class on Thursday.  The district deemed it not safe for the kids to travel to our building and kept them all on campus the rest of the day.  That meant I had to have restaurant for those that chose to get out and drive in the icy cold all by myself.  My principal said they would come and help me (when she told me I wasn't getting any more kids) but we sent her home early since she lives in Midland so I didn't have any extra helpers.  I ended up serving  it home style where everyone had to come into the kitchen and serve themselves.  Home style worked since everyone that came were mostly friends and "family".   There were a few with reservations that did not show up, a few teachers that had reservations that we sent home early, since they don't live in Odessa and the roads were getting bad and a lot of extra people/teachers that didn't sign up, but didn't want to leave the building for lunch and wanted food.  We had only made enough to serve about 28 since I knew it was a last minute restaurant and I was late in letting anyone know we were even having a restaurant that week.  However, everything went wonderfully and a good friend even helped me wash some of the dishes before she left.   So, it went very well.   I got to go home early (only about an hour earlier than normal) and we didn't have school on Friday - ice, ice and more ice. 

On Monday, we had to scratch a couple of things off the menu for open house due to time constraints and added an easy item that my first year students could easily make.  Then Tuesday was open house, we call it Merry Mingle.  We had lots of great food, drinks and wonderful decorations and even though I took my camera, had my tablet and my phone all there, I didn't get one picture!  I usually take at least one and sometimes have my students walk through and take some just to get their perspective. Unfortunately I didn't do any of that this year.  We had a great turnout.  Lots of our usual  people came by and mingled with us and we had a lot of new people.  Fun was had by all.  It's hard work, but a lot of fun.   We had a bit of leftovers so the kids were really happy and they dug in on Wednesday (after cleaning up a bit).  Thursday we set up for a surprise birthday party for our director.  My kids hung decorations, set up tables, decorated tables and made the punch for the party.  They didn't get to participate, but we did have punch leftover so they were happy.  Now, this next week they have to get down to business and prepare for the final (either on Thursday or Friday)  It has been a fast and furious first semester and we are already having requests for caterings for next semester!!  So, that is looking like it will be another full semester, also.  Which is good.  It keeps everyone on their toes and makes it more fun. 

So, needless to say, I have been really tired when I get home from school, so not much sewing has been going on.  Last night I did put two labels on some quilts and did the binding on a miniature.  That feels good to get those finished.  Now I need to make the binding for about 5 quilts and put them on.  Then labels, and then deliver - finally - to the people that the quilts were made for to begin with.  I need to get moving on that, but yet here I sit typing on the computer.  LOL  I did finish one quilt top that I don't think I posted so I will post that now.  thanks to my students that held it up so I could get a good picture. 

 



This is the quilt top I worked on over the Thanksgiving holidays and is the example for the retreat quilt I will be teaching in February at our retreat.  It is a simple pattern called Disappearing 4 patch and comes courtesy of Jenny Doan of the Missouri Star Quilt Company.  My mother had seen this pattern in a magazine and suggested it.  I had seen it on-line in a Youtube video from the Missouri Star and since I didn't have any other ideas and it is really simple so my newbies can do it AND since it can be done with charm packs (newbies don't have stashes) I decided that this would be the project.  I made mine a little different from the magazine/video.  I only had a bit of fabric that I was going to use for the background, so what I really needed to do was determine how many 5" squares I could get out of it and leave enough for a float border.  I decided to make 25 blocks (I could get 50 squares from the background fabric) so, I pulled 50 squares of prints from my box of pre-cut 5" squares.  It really comes in handy to have squares and strips already pre-cut when you are making scrappy quilts.  I think I have spoken before about my boxes I have put together full of my own stash pre-cuts.  After putting together my blocks and a float border I decided it need a really wide border (8 1/2") for some fun. Turns out, mine is 60" square while the original is only 52" X 60" with only a float border.  Hmmm. Not bad and I really like the red border.  I ordered some charm packs to make the original and will make up a few blocks from them and leave a few in progress so I can use them in the demonstration while teaching this quilt, but I really think I will order some yardage of that print fabric so I can put a border on it if I want.  Or I could order another set of charm packs (print/background) and make it much larger.  Hmmm.  Something to think about. 

I guess I should get going on something and quit typing around and playing games on here.  I plan on trying out a new recipe and need to make my cookies for our cookie exchange on Tuesday (might put it off and make them Monday night), but in order to do all of that I have to go to the grocery store.  I missed my usual time of 8:00 this morning.  I was up, but I was too busy snuggling with my dogs.    I don't really like to go when it is so busy, even though I see my friends there, so I am not sure if I will get out now and go.  However, this cake recipe (crème of coconut cake) that I got off the internet is calling my name.  I like to zoom in, zoom around the store and zoom out.  Not have to dodge carts that are being driven by children who don't have their cart licenses yet, by people that are texting and driving and by bored husbands that don't pay attention to where they are or think that we are all playing bumper carts.  Ugh I may have just talked myself into waiting until the morning to go shopping.  I think I will have some lunch and think about whether or not I want to bundle up and head out or take a nap and snuggle some more with my dogs. 

Scrappy Triangles

I am thankful for all the great publicity my culinary program has gotten this year.  My friend Liz, just e-mailed me that we were on the front page of the ECISD website again.  That link will take you right to the story - which is what you really want to see - and not the front page of our school website.  I have also had someone from the newspaper call about this story and we had a TV photographer come and video all morning while Roy was presenting and speaking with my class. It was a truly awesome experience.  I plan on using my resources better next year and bring in more chefs and restaurateurs in the area next school year.  Even though I would love to win the lottery, I really enjoy teaching this class and think that I would stay here until I can't do the work anymore or am old enough to retire.  (It's a lot of hard work - like tomorrow night's event for 200 people - and the students don't always help out like they should or I wish they would, but it's really truly a lot of fun. 

Speaking of fun, my mother sent me a link to another string project that she is working on.  I was not smart enough to look through the quilt tutorial tab so I just searched the entire blog for the scrappy triangle blocks.  I found a picture of a pillow and thought - hum, I can do that.  I pulled out my string box and sewed several together in rows.  Then I went to my rulers and found my equilateral triangle and cut me some triangles, sewed a few together and this is just the start.  Then, a couple of days later when I called my mom and told her I was working on the triangles, she said she was using phone book pages to piece hers on.  HUH??  I went back to the website and searched a little better - still not seeing the tutorial tab - and found that, yes, she did use paper to piece her triangles.  OH, well.  I am still going to do these like I have been and will probably only do enough to be a part of a pillow cover.  This time I have taken pictures along the way - not totally along the way - forgot to take pictures of the strips all sewn together so now, there are a few in-progress shots.  Yea, me!! Now to download them from my camera and get them on here.  Just a sec.  whew - my batteries held and I got them downloaded.  I thought I had a picture of the strips and was so excited.  I had it on here at first and then realized it was scraps from my scrap exchange - working on a second project from those scraps - and that it wasn't a part of the triangles so I deleted it off here for another blog posting.

 

Okay, I can not get these two pictures - the one above and the one below in the correct order.  Every time I move it the right way, I stays for two seconds and then goes back to this.  I don't know what is in the air with this one.   

 

 

The triangles are sewn into two rows and they are then laid out here just to see how they look.  I have made a few more triangles with other fabrics to break it all up just a touch more.  These are probably larger than the ones on the blog.  I am cutting them at the 4 1/2 line on my ruler.  I will try and get a picture of the ruler next time.  wait - you can see the edge of it in the picture below. It's that purple thing with the point almost touching my rotary cutter.  I picked it up at Tuesday Morning along with an orange ruler that is a different shape - can you tell I have no clue what shape it is?  I think it may be hexagonal, but I don't know right now.  I have never used them, but since they were on clearance at Tuesday Morning (= cheap and worth the splurge even if I didn't know if I would ever use them or not - If nothing else, I could gift them to someone else)  The major problem with this purple ruler is that it is so dark it's hard to see the lines.  The next pictures I take, I will include both of the rules so you can see.  For now, it's late and time for me to go to bed - busy day tomorrow.  Hope this inspires you. 

 

String Bag Finish

I finished my latest project from the string box.  I pulled out a lot of green strings and began sewing them together. When I got a piece I thought was going to be big enough, I pulled out a bunch of pink strings and sewed them together.  Then I combined the two sections into one large piece of fabric.  I used up little bits and just had a great time seeing what I could combine.  I had no plan on what I was going to do with it until I had a piece of fabric about 18 X 65 inches.  I then knew it had to be a large bag.  I sewed a final strip across both ends to unify it at the top when it would become a bag and began quilting.

 

 

I sewed some wavy lines along the length of the fabric and then I began filling in each section with some different quilting.  I really need more practice on my free motion quilting so I took this time to create and have fun.  Below is a combination of pebble and ??? kind of a flowery/paisley creation.  There was no plan and I just let the needle take me on that journey.  It was a lot of fun and it took a bit of time to quilt.  I was surprised at how long it took, but I like the result and am glad that I took my time with it.  Believe it or not, this section is a close up of the above picture.  The color distortion is amazing.  There is no peach in this bag and yet, here the pale pink takes on an orangey hue. The above picture and every other picture is more a true color than the picture below.  I don't know why this picture turned out this way, none of the others did.  It's a conundrum for sure. 

 

 

Below is where I practiced making swirls.  I really need more work on going slower on parts of the swirls.  I don't have a stitch regulator and have only my speed to control the stitch length.  I did one more section where I stitched flowers with stems and leaves.  I don't have picture of it, but it turned out quite nicely.  The flowers kind of go in a line up and down the bag. 

 

I adhered fusible batting to the made fabric (outside of the bag) before I started quilting  - since it was handy on the night I decided to begin quilting.  Then after all the quilting was done and I sewed it in bag form with boxed corners. I knew it needed something a lot sturdier.  I didn't want to use Timtex since that can be a bit too stiff and that wasn't what I wanted.   Light bulb!!  I have some canvas I purchased for another purse project that I have yet to make.  I will use that for stability.  I then found some fabric for the lining and added some pockets from fabric laying around - but in the pink vein - and added one large one across the bottom inside of the bag - sorry no pictures - and divided it into three sections.  Then one more smaller one toward the top for keys or things I need to keep handy and quickly get to made out of the lining fabric and the lining is ready to go. What next?

 

 

Handles of course.  I cut long strips and using the fusible batting scraps, I made nice thick sturdy handles to go with my bag.  Even though the two fabrics are different in the handles, they are from the same fabric line and coordinate with each other and go nicely with the fabrics in the bag.   This is just another string project I can use to show in my strips and strings class.  I can't wait to use this bag.  I may have to pack it up for school tomorrow.  Maybe not, I will keep using one of my "grocery" bags that I made and have been using all year. (again, no picture - I am going to have to get better at taking pictures along the journey of the project and not all at the end)  Maybe this will inspire you to get out your strings and start sewing them together.  



 

After I finished this bag tonight, I got out the scraps I received from Chris and began sewing them together for some made fabric.  Don't know where this one is headed, but I am ready for that journey.  I will try and get some pictures along the way so you can see where I am going on this next one. 

 

*Update

By the way, still no disposal at school, but we do have running water, so we are having to do our best on washing dishes, but good note,  the dishwasher doesn't leak anymore  - had to put up with stinky glue smell for a few hours, but so worth it - so we may just rinse the small stuff and run it through the dishwasher if we can.  We are in cooking mode.  Not a whole lot done today just made and froze 4 cakes and boiled a ton of chicken breasts and diced up about a dozen large onions.  I also saved all the chicken broth from the pots to use in making the casserole and rice dishes.  (about 40 quarts I can freeze what we don't use and save the canned stuff)  Also made 4 quarts of ranch dressing.  I am thinking that is not near enough.  It was a great job for my first years to make and introduce them to our recipe.  We are busy, busy, busy and depending on the day, I may or may not have a full class of students due to testing and late buses.  Fun times in the school!

 

Scrappy Trip and Strings

I finally completed my scrappy trip around the world quilt.  I am sorry to include a picture of one of my students in this one, I couldn't get it to crop out.  I guess I don't have the right programs to do that on my laptop.  So, just ignore him and the arm of the other student on the other side.  I don't know what the deal is with the two blocks in the second row.  I think they may have been too light or something, but since I didn't put the blocks up on a design wall, but rather just picked them up and sewed them together, I guess that is what I get.  It's kind of interesting and once you get past that, you can see that a few more blocks stand out also.   This was a lot of fun and the majority of the blocks were made while my students were elsewhere taking their state mandated tests.  I probably made half of the blocks at school.  So, I need to come up with a name for this quilt that reflects it's origins. 

 

I think if I do it again, I will make a concentrated effort to make that diagonal line more pronounced.  Instead, I let it be the fabric I liked the most or that stood out the most in that set of 6 fabrics.  So,  it could be a very pale fabric, a bright fabric or a dark one.  Then, I think I would make the two fabrics on either side be a major contrast to the main diagonal fabric.  That would make it stand out even more.  It was a lot of fun, but this quilt is HUGE!!  about 72 X 96.  Okay, not so huge, but still quite a large quilt.  I love seeing all the greens in there along with the pinks and reds.  Fun, fun, fun.  If you haven't tried making a block I highly suggest you make at least one.  The pattern comes from www.quiltville.com and I blogged about making the block way back here.

 

 

I just finished this pillow cover.  This is made from the scraps I received from Chris.  I am working on samples using strips and in the scrap bag were some wonderful strips already cut in various sizes so I just pulled a few out and started sewing them together.  Once I had them sewn up, I had to determine the shortest length and what size I could cut them into squares.  Then I decided I wanted something else, so I sewed on corner triangles.  Well, I sewed one on the wrong corner so I just made those two blocks have double corners so I could get the middle the way I wanted.  With the leftover sewn strips, I cut them into 1 1/2" strips to use around the outside.  I dug through the bag again and found the black and white print and just had enough to go around the outside of my four squares.  However, I wasn't going to have enough of the strips to go all the way around the block so I dug through the bag again and found a large piece in some of the same colors and VOILA!!  I have an almost 16" square (15 3/4" or so) I added some batting and quilted the top in straight line stitching - don't look too close in the center - that was the last little bit I did and I went too fast and it's not straight, but I am not taking it out.  Then, I dug through some of the fabric I took with me to Quilt Con and found enough to use for the backing to make an envelope opening for this pillow.  I can't wait to put a pillow form in there and see what it looks like all "blown-up".  This was a lot of fun and went together really, really fast with very little thinking on my part.  Which makes it so relaxing, I think.  Anyway, now I have one for two - a project from the scrap bag and a strip project for a class on strips I will be teaching in a few weeks.   Now, I need to post this over on 15 minutes Play blog so everyone can see it. 

 



School Registration

Way back in late April or early May, I told my principal that I would assist with registration at one of the high schools here in town. Registration can be a crazy, crazy time with 3000 students, their parents, their siblings and sometimes Grandma all coming to register their one student.  I signed up to work 2 days, Tuesday and Wednesday.  As it got closer to my appointed time, I dreaded going.  I was giving up my free time to work?  Who does things like that?  Oh, yes, I forgot I was getting comp time for working.  Then, the television newsman - which I very rarely watch - was saying that registration had changed and it was only going to be for new and incoming students to that high school.   The next day I called a friend of mine that is an AP (assistant principal) at the high school I was volunteering for and asked if they needed me.  The answer was no, they didn't think so, but to remember they were just an AP and not the Principal.  YEA!!!  I made appointments with a plumber and a small appliance guy to come an fix several problems I was having with my kitchen sink/disposal/dishwasher for the next Tuesday.  (I called a week before I was scheduled to work and the maintenance guys were super busy.  Tuesday was the first day they could get me in!!)

Anyways (lol  I know, it's not a word and I am only putting it in there since my friend and I just talked about it not being a word!!) Anyways, I get a phone call at 9:00 a.m. the Monday before I was scheduled to work on Tuesday, that I am to report to the other high school (I had been traded) to work registration!!
WHAT???  I told my story about checking in, etc and was told they would get back with me. Then at 10 a.m. I got a call from my friend and was told that I was needed to work at their school on Tuesday.  I told them the entire story about the phone call from my school, being traded, checking it out and said I would text them back.  Next phone call 2:00 p.m.  - "yes, you are to work on Tuesday at the second high school, please check your e-mail."  Who checks their work e-mail when they are on vacation?  WHO??  Not me, says the little pig!!  So, I go to my school e-mail, wade through all the junk and guess what?  I was supposed to be at a meeting at the second school that morning at 11:00 a.m.  Can't be at a meeting you didn't know about, now can you?  So, long story short - yea, now I shorten it, huh?  I go up to the second school, (tried calling twice, but no answer - typical of this school) wait for the VP to get out of a meeting (school is closing down in 5 minutes!) speak with the VP telling them about my Tuesday appointments and can I come in on Wednesday as scheduled and then on Thursday instead?  The answer is yes and can you work on Friday?  Well, I have nothing better to do and it seems like he may be shorthanded on Friday, so I say yes, but . . . I check in with MY Principal to see if it's okay - since I am working for comp time.  So - - worked three days - - get three days off later in the year to go quilting - - life is good! 

Well, maybe not so good.  This is what I looked at for three days - - three looooong 8 hour days - - -

NOTHING!!  See how empty the tables are?  This is on day two of working and I told my table partner that I was going to take a picture.  He said, "there isn't anything there".  Of course, that was the reason I was taking the picture so you could see 1) how busy we were 2) how gray my scenery was and 3) how bored I was to be taking a picture of NOTHING!!  (okay, I know there are chairs and tables and I know it's not nothing, but there aren't any people there registering their students) 

I think in the three days, 48 hours, 2880 minutes, that I worked I may have helped or spoken with about - 15 families (max)  to assist them or just to have them put their final check-off papers in the box.  (Check-off papers:  papers that tell you where all you need to check in and take care of so you can be finished with registration.  Papers that were printed before they decided to change up registration and so they decided to use them anyway.  Papers that did not have ANYTHING to do with how registration was run this year.  Papers that were going to be thrown away at the end of registration.)  When someone would ask about what to do with their paper - can't they see that the box in front of me has a copy of that paper taped to the outside and others had left their paper inside the box - now I know where the student gets it from - I would smile and tell them to just drop it in the box.  They would then ask for a pen so they could put their name on it - WHY?  I would just tell them not to worry about it and drop it in the box. 

It wasn't as bad as it could have been if I didn't have a great table partner to talk to and if I didn't have my tablet with a kindle app so I could read and when I got bored with reading - or had too many interruptions from all the workers talking (not people registering)  - I could play angry birds or any other games I had downloaded. (don't you love a run on sentence?)   Now, it's over and I only have about a week before we start 10 days of inservice.   The good news is we don't have convocation anymore!! (hated that - total waste of time and money!)

Business Cards

I used to teach Coop or Career Preparation and I was out in the community checking on my students that were working and always had a business card to hand out or to introduce myself.  I did this for about 8 years.  Whenever I would make a change in classrooms or course titles I would change up my business card and really enjoyed making the changes in style from time to time.  I think I had three or four different cards in those 8 years.   I wish I had kept at least one of each of them, but didn't want to keep old information around  so when it was time for a change, I would tear up or shred the old cards and move on.  When I started teaching Culinary Arts two years ago, I knew I needed business cards for this new venture in my life.  I would go to meetings or meet someone new and they would say, "do you have a card?"  and I would have to say, "No, sorry, I don't."  They would hand me one of theirs and look at me pitying the poor teacher that didn't have a card to hand out.  I would leave that encounter embarrassed and depressed that I hadn't gotten around to making new cards for myself.  WELL, NO LONGER!!!!

I just got my cards in from VistaPrint.  If you haven't used them before, give it a try.  I have gotten business cards from them for the last 10 years!!  They are wonderful quality and I really enjoy being able to get on there and arrange my cards just the way I want!  Also, they are really, really reasonably priced considering I paid almost $70 for my first set of cards from a local shop and I paid $10 for 250/one side printed cards and $22.50 for 500/two side printed cards.  Below are my new cards for Culinary Arts.  The front has my name and all my information and the back, has the name of our student run restaurant.  I just love these!!  The colors are the same as the walls in our restaurant.  A perfect match.  I can't wait to start handing these out to everyone.  I may even have to mail some to friends I made at Culinary Educators school a couple of weeks ago.  I want to be like Maxwell,the pig, and yell, "Whee, Whee, Whee" out the window.  : )

 While I was ordering cards for me at school, I decided I needed cards for my life as a quilter, teacher and designer.  I needed contact cards for students in my classes to have that included my blog address - I know it's weird and long, but it really fits my life.  So, I ordered some cards for me.  I saw the pink background and knew right away that this is what I wanted my cards to be.  I debated about using the fun font on my name, but when I would put it back to the original font, I couldn't do it.  I needed my name to be in a totally different font and to stand out.  I put a slight rush on the the printing so these cards would be here for next weekend when I teach a class for the Andrews quilt guild.  I now have professional cards to pass out to everyone in my class.  Just what I wanted!! 

P.S. This is not an advertisement for VistaPrint.  They have no idea who I am, I just love their products and can totally recommend using them the next time you need business cards, postcards, etc.  Check them out http://www.vistaprint.com/

Mostly about school stuff

The table runner is quilted and the binding is attached, but I just need to hand sew it down on the back side for it to be a done, completed, marked off project.  Thank goodness, that one was fast and painless.  I will post another picture when it is totally completed. 

Today was the last day for the restaurant to be open for the year.  A little glad and a little sad.  Everything turned out great, even though the guys were slow and tedious about their food and were totally focused on getting their items done and didn't help out until they were finished.  We really could have used their help since I had 4 girls out sick!!  Oh, well, life goes on and Kaylee did an amazing job as waitress to ALL the tables by herself.  At one point she had 4 small tables and a large - 8 top table!  She was amazing! 

Now, all we have to do is finish cleaning tomorrow, finish up making the chicken salad for Saturday, prep for the banquet for 100 people next week, take finals and oh, yes, clean, clean, clean!!!  It will still be a busy week and a half of school.  It's coming up a whole lot faster than I expected.  If I hadn't said yes to the last two things, we would be done except for the cleaning and finals part.  This is what I get for being nice and helping out friends and co-workers. 

It's getting late and I am tired.  Maybe tomorrow I will be able to get into the studio to work on some round robins. 

Let it Snow, Again

 You never know about the weather in west Texas.  A couple of days ago it was in the upper sixties/lower seventies and today - - - today we have another 6 - 8 inches of snow on the ground and more falling. 

This was taken about 15 minutes ago over my back fence.  You can't see the snow falling in this picture due to the angle of my camera. 

This picture - taken 25 minutes ago - is out my back window and you can see how hazy it looks with the snow coming down.  Little bitty snow flakes now.  The flakes  were big and fat on the way home from school. 

Yes, we did have school today, but unlike every other school district around us, we were there all day.  Most of my students weren't, but I was.  My largest class of the day (83% there) was this morning when there was only about an inch of snow on the ground and the roads were slushy.  I ended the day with only 28% of my class at school.  I had no students at all from one of the high schools.  (I teach students from two different high schools and they bus over during the day for my class).  When you live in the desert, anytime it gets really cold here, attendance drops.  Add in some snow (okay, a lot of snow today) and attendance is practically non-existent.  We just aren't used to this.  This has been our third major (more than 4 inches) snow storm in about one month.  We had a large one in early December where we got to stay home and have a snow day.   We had a beautiful white Christmas for the first time in about 18 years and now, another white day.  Like most of the students, I am hoping that our school district calls for a snow day tomorrow, but they don't make those decisions until about 4 o'clock in the morning.  So, I will  have to wait until tomorrow to know if I get to stay home and sew or not.  Oh, well, I will get up early to find out tomorrow.

Speaking of getting up early, I read until almost 1:30 this morning finishing a book and then the dogs woke me up at 2:30 barking.  My first thought, was great, they are out of water.  But, no, it had started raining and Taegan is afraid of thunder storms.  So, they all joined in to wake me up. (except Irish, who slept through the entire night.  Being deaf, has it's rewards)

Previous picture of Taegan sleeping on the floor

Now, it wasn't thundering, mind you, but Taegan knows that thunder and rain go together and so, when it starts to rain, he panics.  I got my phone, set the alarm clock, grabbed a quilt and layed down on the couch to snuggle with my scardy cat dog.  I also got McCallum and Fiona in the snuggling deal. 



Fiona and McCallum out in the snow today.  They would look at me and then I would start to take their picture and they would turn their heads. 

Once Teagan was comforted and had moved out of my arms to the other end of the couch, I went back to my bed - much more comfortable than a couch with three dogs laying on you.  However, the alarm went off really, really early and I am looking forward to an early night tonight and hoping for that snow day tomorrow where I can crawl back into bed and sleep for a couple extra hours. 

edit:  school just got cancelled for tomorrow!  This is unheard of for them to cancel this early (6:00 p.m.) but I guess too many parents had complained and we are expecting more snow overnight.  I am glad that I don't have to even set my alarm clock tonight.  Enjoy . . .



The New Year Begins and other things

Back at school for two days and already I can tell that it is going to be an "interesting" year.  I am going to hope for the best, but we will have to wait and see what this year holds.  I am looking forward to my classes and what I am teaching, it's just the higher ups that are causing a dislike. 

Last week, being the only week to have completely off for the summer - no outside work - I planned on sewing, sewing, sewing and I got very little done.  I took a nap almost everyday and was a lazy bum for the most part.  I had lots of dog and me appointments - grooming, vets, doctors, etc. and got the majority of them taken care of.  I have a few more on my calendar for this month and I think the dogs are taken care of for a bit.  I really needed to cut my 300 - 6 inch - squares for our exchange tomorrow night and I got 150 light squares cut and ready to go, but I have to cut my darks tonight.  That may or may not happen.  It is thundering outside and I think I have more than the usual one dog afraid of the storm.  I may have to go back downstairs and cuddle with a couple of them to reassure them that the storm is not going to get them. 

A couple of years ago, a major thunder and lightening storm settled over the top of my house.  Being two story it seemed that it may come through the roof at any time.  This was at 2 in the morning and Taegan, Irish and I were fast asleep.  Then BOOM! BOOM!  BOOM!!!!!  Taegan was up and on top of me so fast that I couldn't figure out what was going on.  I thought someone might have broken in and he was protecting me, but no, he wanted my protection from the storm.  He had never been scared of storms before, but that was a scary one for sure.  Ever since then, if it is thundering or there are fireworks or other loud noises going on outside, he comes running for his momma and either climbs in my lap or sits as close as he can get for my protection.  That one storm really scared him.  He was probably fast asleep at the time and it scared him awake.  So, tonight, he has the other dogs stirred up and every time the thunder booms - not very loudly, but still a boom - he starts barking and the others join in with him.   I think Irish is just telling them to be quiet, since he managed to sleep through that storm a couple of years ago. 

Tonight is the final competition night on So You Think You Can Dance and guess what?  Our Fox station is not working!  BOO!!!!  I was looking forward to watching them dance tonight.  I am hoping that I can watch it later tonight on the computer.  I may have to wait until tomorrow night.  : (  That show is one of my favorite shows to watch. 

Well, so much for my rambling on.  I did take a picture of one of the only things I got made last week.  It is part of a new quilt design.  I had originally planned on this being a two color quilt and I wanted to see what it would look like using scraps.  I also want to see if I could make this block without getting technical and writing out all the directions, sizes, etc.  Because if it didn't work, I didn't want to be out all that wasted time when my time last week was spent . . well, you know, you read all the way down to here, now didn't you.  I love a good nap.  I really like the way this turned out.  I can't wait to make the rest of the quilt or at least a baby quilt using scraps.  

The Summer is about to Hit the Fan!!

Okay, no picture of the grill. Although it was a nice big grill and trailer with a metal awning so you don't have to stand in the sun to grill your burgers, it wasn't anything really outstanding, awesome, unique.  You have just looked at the picture and gone, "that's a grill, nice".  See, no wow factor. 

The lunch went well, except for the wind blowing the plates and napkins around.  It was only about 85 to 90 while I was out there around noon for lunch.  We had 3 awnings to keep the sun off our bodies, but you couldn't stay out there for to long or you would completely melt.  It felt really good coming back into the building to cool off.  Needless to say, not liking the heat much, I wasn't outside all day.  I also had classes that I had to take care of.  Next year we will do it before the 100 degree temps start clocking in.  Yesterday we set a record high of 106.  Today, it is supposed to be 110!!  Thank goodness for central air conditioning.  I am going to a ladies luncheon at my friends church.  I know what I want to wear, but I have got to find that little black button that fell off the shirt during shipping.  Thank goodness I found it in the packaging,  Now if I can figure out exactly what I did with it.  I thought I left it on my dining table which means, since I couldn't find it this morning, that Taegan might have eaten it thinking it was leftover crumbs.  I know he has been up there a few times lately since my stack of mail has gotten knocked off 2 or 3 times in the last month.  Plus, I came down the stairs and he was laying on top of the table.  I don't know how he gets his fat little body up into the chair to even get on the table, but he does. 

As soon as school is out I have the weekend before I start one of my summer jobs of working for a local restaurant.  I spoke with the owner on the phone yesterday and he said he was going to start me in the kitchen.  That probably means I will be washing dishes for a couple of days.  Which is totally okay.  This is supposed to be a quick 4 week immersion into the restaurant business.  I have to go in next week to find out my schedule, what I need to wear and fill out all the paperwork.  I will be working two weeks there, then I start summer volleyball, my other summer job, going to family reunion, the food expo, culinary educator's school, more summer volleyball, another two weeks working at the restaurant, finishing up summer volleyball, maybe going to see my friend get her 40 year teaching award in Dallas and then a day or two off before starting back to school.  Sounds really busy, but I also have to put in there somewhere, quilting, reading, cleaning the house and garage and mapping out the next school year and what I really want my students to learn.  WHEW!! That is a busy, busy summer.  I am so glad that I am not going to have to go back to school early, because I don't know where I would fit that in!  Well, gotta go find that button and get it sewn, put some rollers in my hair to make it pretty and get ready for that luncheon. 

I spell checked this post and it says I misspelled trailer and yesterday - what?  I have it spelled exactly how spell check is trying to make me change it to.  I don't think it likes that I had already corrected those words right after I typed them wrong the first time.  It also doesn't like my dog's name, but that one I know it hits every time. 

Winner and Life, but on to the next 100

Thank you to everyone that commented (or tried to) to my last post.  It seems that a couple of people had a hard time posting a comment or either didn't want their comment available for public viewing, so they e-mailed me personally.  Thank you for that.  So, since they took the time and trouble to actually find my e-mail address I couldn't leave them out of the count, but I don't know what number they would be, so I couldn't do a random generator to pick the winner.  Hmmm what to do?  The next best thing of course, old school! - literally.  I wrote out all the names on slips of paper and had one of my random students - he had come up to my desk to get some lotion, that means he volunteered to be the chooser.  I jumbled them all up over and over again and told him to pick one.  He studied them carefully - they were all folded and he couldn't see any names - he asked what it was for - he knows that I have them, on occasion draw for jobs, recipes, seats, etc and wanted to make sure this was a fun drawing, meaning that he wouldn't be stuck washing the dishes - after getting all the information I was going to give him - just draw one, it's for me. for my blog. for a giveaway.  JUST DRAW ONE!!!!  He finally came up with one that he deemed would be the winner and the name that he drew ...... drum roll please.......... Ellen!  congratulations you are the winner of this fat pack: 

I still have your address in my e-mail files - yeah for keeping the good old e-mails - and it will be on it's way to you tomorrow.  Congratulations!  This was fun.  Be on the lookout for more giveaways in the future.  I won't wait another 100 posts before I have the next one. 

Now on to my life.  School is winding down and finals are here.  Am I ready?  NO!  Do I have my final made out?  NO!  Do I have to give one tomorrow?  YES!  Okay, it's only one student so I am okay with not having it completely finished.  I can give her the practice test as her test, it doesn't have to be the same as the rest of the class. She is my only senior in a class of predominately sophomores - yes, feel very sorry for her, she has put up with a lot this year

Since our district is trying something new this year and having the seniors in the afternoon classes take their exams early (6 days counting weekends and Memorial Day) I won't feel bad if I don't get another exam typed just for her. 

This is me telling myself that it will be okay and won't be a problem.

Okay, I think I may do that.  I will try and get the other exam finished tomorrow morning, but if I don't, I am okay with that. 

I know, I really should be typing it right now, but it's almost my bedtime and I don't want to go downstairs, out to the car and get my thumbdrive and the practice test, come back upstairs, plug in and start typing.  Just too much work and not enough night ttime left.  You are also asking, why wouldn't you get it typed in the morning?  Well, we are hosting lunch for about 100 tomorrow and it is being run out of my kitchen.  I am not cooking - thank goodness  - but all the "stuff" is in my restaurant/kitchen/refrigerators.  We are having hamburgers cooked out on the grill.  Not just any grill, but one made by our welding classes.  It apparently has it's own trailer so it can be hauled around.  It apparently is massive.  They say it is larger than the last grill they made and it was almost the size of a Hummer.  It was made to resemble a train and had a bell inside of the cab.  Really cool.  I will try to remember to take my camera with me tomorrow - and new batteries - and get some pictures.  The welding teacher is coming over to cook, our other foods teacher has had her students cutting tomatoes and onions and baking some cookie - she knew I was busy so she didn't ask me to do anything and I am sooooo glad.  I will help her set everything up tomorrow morning.  Okay, she totally cheated and used store bought dough, but it's the end of school of  everyone.  We are all busy and having this lunch was a crazy idea, but it will be a fun time. 

Busy?  Whatchoomean busy? 

Well, in the last three weeks we have done a dinner for 21, lunch for 16, a retirement party for 200 and today, a breakfast for 16.   Plus, I only have two more days to get everything washed and put away for the summer!!  (tomorrow is included in those two days!)  I am hoping I don't have to sweep, scrub, squeegee and mop the entire kitchen by myself along with washing and putting away all of those dishes.  That is one reason I am totally okay with using the practice test as the real test and not re-typing the entire thing.  There is just tooo much to do in one week especially when three days of that week we are not even in school.  whew!  Busy, busy, busy!

Spam . . . Food or Friend(s)?

Spam Box? Blogger has enabled spam detection for comments and I should look in my spam box. hmmm. This begs the questions, "Is this box blue with yellow letters?", "Does it have a winter home in Hawaii?", "Can I mix it with potatoes and onions for a type of hash that I can smother in ketchup?" sorry, got a little carried away there. It was bringing back childhood memories. With 4 growing kids, my mother had to find nutritious and filling meals on a budget. That was one of our favorites. Believe it or not it was good. (I can't believe I said spam and nutritious in the same paragraph)

Okay, I will look in my spam box, if I can find it to see if I have any other comments from all of you that I might have missed.

On to the reason for this posting, I know you were all sitting on the edge of your seats just waiting to know if I had to go to school today or not. The answer is ... yes, I had to come to school today. :-( Before you feel too sorry for me, remember, that I am going to have very few students today due to one high school keeping all their kids on their own campus for testing and since it is cold - bitter cold for us since it was 70 yesterday and today it is currently 17 degrees with a wind chill way, way below that. (probably into the single digits or below - I haven't looked lately) We have had a touch of snow, but it is very dry since we haven't had any rain or moisture in over 48 days (I live in the desert - ie: wasteland) until last night. (got sidetracked) Anyway, since it is so cold, a lot of people here won't go out in the cold. Some of the students that did come to school today came in with only a sweat jacket on - NO COAT!! No gloves, no hat. (Sweat Jacket - a jacket made from sweatshirt material that has a zipper up the front and a hood) I really shouldn't' say anything since I ran from my car to the school carrying my coat and sweater in case I get cold in the building. Silly girl. Almost time for my one student to arrive and yes, I am blogging from school today for the first time. Nice to know that I can, but it makes it hard to post any pictures since they are on my computer at home and un-accessable here at school.

Just Talking - No Pictures

Just a quick blog here. I have been wanting to check in, but life was very, very busy last week. My culinary class along with the hospitality and fashion design classes hosted our Holiday Showcase to our friends and faculty. We made lots of food and goodies while our fashion design teacher decorated the restaurant. It was beautiful!! I just wish I had remembered to take my camera with me that day. Thank goodness my mother brought hers and took pictures. Unfortunately, I don't have copies of them to share, but I will as soon as I can.

Now that life has slowed a little bit, well as much as it can at this time of year, I have been able to sew. I finished the binding on "The 3 Crosses" quilt for a friend - see previous post - and added a label on the back. It is now ready to go. I have 2 secret santa parties Friday morning and I only have one gift made- note to self, take a picture of gift before you wrap it - and have absolutely no clue what to do about the other gift. I will have to find something tomorrow for sure. It's not that I am lazy and don't want to shop. I have looked. okay, only a little bit, but I have looked. I just don't know what to get her. Something will come up. I mean, it has to, right?

For the first party tomorrow morning, I have to make cinnamon rolls. I am making the fun and easy rolls that my sister shared the recipe for and I have improved upon where you put them in the oven over night and turn on the oven in the morning and voila! beautiful, perfect gooey cinnamon rolls. The only problem is that if I do them at school and leave them overnight it will be about 16 hours before they are cooked. That is not good. Way to long to proof in the pan. We will have huge cinnamon rolls and dough that has possibly jumped ship (pan). The solution? I will make them at home and take them to school with me and put them in the oven there. I just hope my oven is large enough to hold the huge pans overnight. (little bitty oven here) I may can cover them and put them on the counter top. I will have to find the recipe and see what my options are. I just know that I can't make them at 3 Thursday afternoon and expect perfect cinnamon rolls at 7 the next morning. Lots to do tomorrow and the dogs are barking - literally, along with the neighborhood dogs. I will share pictures, etc. in my next posting.

Food - enough said

Finally got my pictures to download out of my camera. I thought I was going to lose them forever! I don't know about all of you, but I have had a couple of really hectic weeks, up until this week, that is.

At school, we had an advisory lunch, advisory meeting and a luncheon for 40! That last one was a bit scary, but we did it! My kids pulled it off. We plated and served almost 40 people. They were an hour late getting into the restaurant than what they had previously told me, but thank goodness for my hot/hold we were able to serve a great meal when they finally arrived.

a couple of days before that, I got the chance to go to Frisco to their culinary showcase. The students of Friso and Wiley teamed up and created a wonderful menu of delectable items that was beautifully presented and served. It was a wonderful experience to get to go there and view what they are doing and see the possibility of what my students will one day soon, be doing.

Here are some pics of the food: Okay, I thought I uploaded my pics. Let me try one more time. I don't think I was patient enough for them to completely load last time. Here we go: This is what we were served:

Butternut squash soup with cinnamon creme fraise (don't know if that is how it is spelled or not - pronounced fresh) with caramelized shallots



Field Greens with cranberries and sugared pecans with a round of fried goat cheese


Braised short rib with root vegetables served over blue cheese polenta (which was very creamy and wonderful)


and last, but not least - and my favorite of the night even though everything was simply delicious - apple dumpling with cream and a caramel sauce. Just let me say that I have never liked cooked apples and apple dumplings until this year when my mother made me some of the Pioneer Woman's apple dumplings. This is my next favorite apple dumpling recipe. Speaking of which, I need to e-mail that chef and ask for the recipe.



Hope you enjoyed the pictures and I didn't make you, too hungry!

Cooking again

Okay, it hasn't been as long as I thought it had been since I last posted. I know, tomorrow will be a week, but I really had thought it had been much longer than that. Yes, life and school are both a little hectic, but not near as bad as a couple of weeks ago. However, it's starting to heat up again. The good thing is that the kitchen is starting to come together. There are a few things I need to work on getting, a few phone calls I need to make and an upcoming luncheon that I need to really sit down with the recipes and plan out. Figure out what I can order from my food supplier, what I need to pick up (can pick up) at HEB or Sam's.

Today, my students got back into the labs and made snacky items for the Principal's meeting after school. Things turned out really well. I am pleased how much better they did this time. However, there is a WHOLE lot of learning they have to do before I think they are up to where they need to be. Believe it or not, I had a student ask me today, "now what does the little "c" stand for?" People, that is what I am working with here. She was even a student that was in a foods class all of last year! It is so frustrating. They paid better attention to what they were doing - for the most part - and didn't seem as frazzled as they did the first time. They even got all their dishes washed (by hand) before the end of the period! Baby steps, people, baby steps. We may have to make something else, before the luncheon to get them back in the kitchen.

Classes - both quilting and school

Just finished typing out 3 - count them - 3 proposals for teaching at the Ogallala quilt festival. One is to teach how to make a simple bag like this one:



One is for this quilt, divide and conquer.



And the last one is for the spider web quilt.




All of them would make good classes and I might just propose them for the Andrews store, also. They weren't the ones I was thinking about for Andrews, but any one of them would be great. I think I can make the divide and conquer quilt with a jelly roll and a charm pack. I just need to sit down and do it. I know the bags can be made with a jelly roll, since most of my bags are made up of left over jelly rolls.

I got a lot accomplished this weekend, but there is still a whole lot more to do. (like lesson plans for tomorrow, yikes! gotta get busy)

I love it when a plan comes together

Ha, ha, I know, yesterday's blog posting was not fun (even though I got a chuckle out of it) So here, today, I am going to add - - wait for it - - pictures!!!!!!!!! I know, most of you thought I have forgotten how to download pictures or maybe I forgot how to take them. So, here, without further ado, is a picture:




Bazinga! (as Sheldon would say) I know, not what you wanted to see. even though he is beautiful, but a little bit blurry. that was taken with my new camera with a major zoom in and I need to learn how to hold still while I take a picture. On to more stuff you would rather see than my baby boy.

I am a bit on the excited side. Since my towels weren't delivered and I still don't have hot water, I had my class go through the kitchen today and find out exactly what type of tools we had. We found the rubber scrapers, but they are in poor shape. Don't know what they did with them, but I will be looking to purchase more of those in the near future. After about 6 phone calls, I finally have towels to begin tomorrows cleaning. However, I still do not have hot water, so we won't be doing a thorough clean. Here are a couple of pictures of my kitchen at school.



The stoves/ovens in the top picture sit back to back with the stove/ovens in the bottom picture. It is really quite large! In the bottom picture you can see a wooden top table that is part of the pastry center. Then in the back are a shelf of spices. In front of the spices are a couple of long prep tables. It really is a great set up. I would like a prep sink that is separate, but am lucky enough to have use of one in the other room that used to be the schools cafeteria. Since we are just an annex type school where all the students are bused in from their respective high schools, we don't require a cafeteria. Yea for me that they left an octopus, a large dishwasher and the sinks when they removed the majority of the kitchen at the end of the year. There may be a deep fryer and an ice machine in there also. Oh, yes, the best part is a walk in refrigerator and freezer. Even with all the struggles I am having I asked myself if I would have taken this job knowing everything I do now and I said yes, so I guess I will put up with everything this year and make it a perfect place next year.

Another thing I am excited about is that the paint purchase order finally went through and my maintenance man started painting this afternoon. He taped everything off this morning and was cutting in the bottom half of the wall when I left. I think he will have all the bottom part done by tonight. Can't wait to get back to school and see what he has done. The bad part is that it has been really humid here and I don't know if it will dry enough for him to do the large "chair rail" done before I leave school on Friday.

here is picture of the room's old colors. I wish I had taken pictures of the whole room before I took down the "lovely" decor. The wicker cornucopias stuffed with some greenery and hanging haphazardly were my favorites.




Below is a picture of my samples I painted on the wall of the colors I chose. The top is called key lime pie. (I know, sooooo me) then the bottom is twilight meadow. There will be a faux chair rail of brown velvet that will be a cinder block width since that was the easiest for the painter and I think it will balance nicely. That gold frame thing hanging on the wall in the picture above will be painted the chocolate brown, also. There are two other ones that are not that large that hang on another wall. I also have a nice raspberry color that I am going to use for some accents and canvases.



Now if I can just come up with a new name. I will be all set.

School, dinner and shoes

YUM!!! I am sitting here at the computer enjoying my dinner. I stopped by Schlotzsky's for some potato and bacon soup and an original. I am so angry at myself. I always tell them to make it without the onions and this time I didn't. I had to pick off the onions. Now, don't get me wrong, I have been picking off the onions (and other stuff I don't care for) most of my life. I am just angry with myself that this one time I didn't do it and now my room smells like onions. There were a lot of onions on this sandwich today. If I were to chop them up and measure them, they would be about 1/4 cup. That's a lot on a sandwich. While I was waiting for my "onion" sandwich, :) the lady in front of me threw out a piece of paper from her car. DELIBERATELY!!! I couldn't believe it. It looked like a receipt, probably the one from her order, that was folded over and over on itself until it was about 1/2" wide and then that strip was folded in half. (what is the deal with all my fractions tonight?) I wanted to get out my car, pick up her paper and hand it back to her along with a couple of trash items from my car and say, "ma'am, I believe you lost this and as punishment for littering you have to take some of my trash." Then I would smile and tell her to have a good day and walk back to my car. Of course, being the type of person she is, A Litterer!, she would probably just throw her paper and my trash out the window. Just for the record, this woman was well over 50 and definitely should have known better.

I stayed late and worked on getting an ISS assignment together. I am putting together a generic packet so that when one of my students is put into ISS, the teacher there can just pull out my packet and the student can work on the assignments there. I have one that it going in on Monday for a 10 day stint. He must have done something really bad. However, not bad enough for him to go out to the alternative center or even jail. I got 4 days done and brought the rest home to work on this weekend along with my lesson plans, quilting and watching movies.

I wore my Gee's Bend shoes to school today and the people that saw them loved them. I did, too! I will have to remember to take both pairs to Bee tomorrow. I can't wear them because then, I would have to untie them and take them off to sew, slip them back on to walk around and then back off again to sew. Yes, I am one of those people, a bare-foot sewer. (notice I did not get and exclamation point) When I was teaching apparel class at the high school I had to make sure I wore shoes I could easily slip off and on just in case I had to sit down at some one's sewing machine and work on it. I know, I have it really bad.

Blog, blog, blog

Okay, Ree in her blog yesterday (Pioneer Woman) said to blog no matter how you feel. Yesterday I knew I needed to blog and felt like blogging, but got sidetracked by reading all the blogs. Today, I am excited about blogging and I am going to come here first before I venture off into blog land to read what everyone else has been doing today. I finally picked the new colors for our restaurant at school. The top will be a color called "Key Lime Pie" and no, I didn't pick it because I happen to LOVE!!!! key lime pies. It just happened to be the perfect color. At about chair rail height, there will be a band about a cinder block width of a deep chocolate brown called, brown velvet. It is luscious! Then on the bottom of the wall is a turquoise color called twilight meadow. Together these three colors are dreamy! After it gets painted I will post pictures of the before colors (ugly brown and ugly maroon) and pictures of the new room. I am sorry I didn't take pictures before we took down all the gaudy ugly decorations, but I will post what the restaurant looks like once it gets its paint job and decor. It will be fantastic. I can't wait. Enough about school. That last class wore me out. Trying to take notes with a class full of chatty Cathy sophomore girls and one boy that seems to feel like it is his duty and honor to interrupt you every 5 minutes!! It was like pulling teeth with them. I am going to have to do something majorly different in that class tomorrow. The sad thing is that 1/3 or them don't plan on going into the food industry. They are just biding their time until they can be in cosmetology as a junior. Hopefully they can learn at least a little bit. I am just trying to make it through safety and sanitation.

One of the reasons I was so excited to blog today was that yesterday I got my new shoes!! (can't transfer picture, but you can go here) I started to wear a pair today, but my feet were calling out for some sandals. I was glad I didn't have them on when I hit my elbow on the side mirror of my car this morning spilling my coffee all the way down the front of me causing me to go back inside and change clothes. Let me tell you, it was a rocky start all the way around this morning. I got to our faculty meeting without my calendar, because I went straight from my car to the meeting (one minute to spare). Luckily I had a notepad and calendar in my purse and was able to transfer all the info to my other calendars. Next time we have a faculty meeting I will not be trying to get a little more shut eye as a reward for not having zero hour. I will just get up as usual and get to school early.