I'm back! My Corner of the World

I am loving retirement!  I've been very busy.  I've not started subbing at the local schools yet.  I'm just enjoying being free to do most anything I want.  

 Sara and Jory and the kids came up in August for an important meeting for the family business.  I picked them up at the airport, dropped them off at the meeting site and took the kids to lunch then to our home. The  next day was another meeting, so Mike and I  watched Aaron and Abigail.  We went to the library, to the park, and to see and sit on Grandpa's antique tractors. The kids are great at entertaining themselves since they don't watch TV.  However they could watch Frozen so they watched it twice.  They had first seen it at the movie theater.

Of course, the visit had to include goodies from a local bakery.  The big part of that was the decorated cake with Happy Visit on it.  The kids love cake and rarely have it, so it's a huge treat when they get to have some.
For the past 3 years I've taken pictures of Aaron savoring every bite.

An important note: School for teachers began on the day I had to pick them up, so if I was still teaching I would have been unable to do any part of their visit.

 These pictures aren't in order. The first two pictures were from August and these next two are the Pumpkin Festival's parade. Doug brought his kids and we all watched the parade from a friend's house.

 Last week we watched Doug's kids overnight and painting pumpkins was a highlight of the evening.

I have been doing a lot of planting and maintaining our flowers.  There was supposed to be a frost on this night, so I took a picture of my begonia in case it was ruined. However, it survived as did others, so there are still colorful plants surrounding the house.  I'll show more pictures of them later.

Dillon played biddy league football on Saturday mornings and we got to almost every one of the games. I would have been too exhausted from work to attend.  Dillon is the boy in the center of the photo with his head turned the other way.

Peyton played volleyball on the 7th grade team at her school. The games were on various weekdays at 5:00.  We made a lot of them.  One night we took everyone out to dinner and I realized as we were leaving that normally I'd have been getting things ready for school the  next day and then going to sleep.  Therefore, I couldn't have stayed so late and would have missed some quality time with them.

This was a picture of Abigail during their visit in August; she wore the princess shoes most of the time when we were indoors.

 



The next three photos are from our trip to the Wilds. It's a preservation for all kinds of animals and it's only about 45 minutes away. We took Colton, Dillon, and Addy (Doug's kids) there on a special tour where you sat in the specially designed back of a truck and got literally up close and personal with them.(Peyton had volleyball practice that was mandatory and school was starting soon, so if we didn't go then, we could not have gone).

Feeding the rhinoceros.

We also kept Doug's kids for two nights and days in  July.  We have not done that since Dillon was a baby.  I couldn't handle it because of the fibromyalgia fatigue.  But what made it feasible was that now I could rest the next two days which I couldn't have done if I were still teaching.

There is more, but I'll post it later.

I've been reading book after book and can even stay up and finish a book if the suspense is getting to me.
I did organize the biggest walk-in closet and also the room that is attached to the back of the kitchen. We have to go outside to get into it.  We have our bulk items, pop, cleaning supplies, and Tupperware, etc. there.

Well, that's all for now.

Corner View: Morning Light

I got these online through Google, but they resemble what the sky looks like early in the morning on my way to work (when I was working).
For more corner views on morning light, head on over to Francesca's.

Our resident chipmunks

We have at least two chipmunks who live in the ground near the bird feeders.  They are quite willing to climb the poles and hang on the feeders to fill their mouths with seed.  They will run off if I tap on the window, but I have stopped doing that; I've decided to let them feed too.

The grandkids were here Thursday and Friday.  I looked up at one point to see Addy with a salt shaker near the bird feeders and Dillon beside her.  I got up and went outside to see what in the world she was doing with a salt shaker.  Here, their grandpa had told them that if they sprinkled salt on the chipmunk's tail, they could catch it! And they believed him, not understanding that if they got that close, they could probably catch it anyway. However, they would not get that close!

Corner View: Path

For this week's topic of path, I chose some favorite photos of paths we took when visiting Ireland 11 years ago.

 Path along the Cliffs of Moor.

This path leads to the first church in Ireland (supposedly).  I used this as my heading when I first came up with the name for my blog.  It was for me, B or Beth, meandering down life's paths.

Narrow road or big path on a near-by island off the coast of Ireland.

Me walking up one of many elevations.

For more on paths, head on over to Francesca's.

Corner View: Monochrome

 I especially liked how this turned out.  It's a little barn all by itself in a field near where I get my hair done.

 The next few pictures were taken in a cemetery that overlooks part of our small town.  We had had a deep snow and I trudged up there to get some shots.

For more monochrome, go on over to Francesca's.

Corner View: Paper

 I like to cut out items from the newspaper.  Such items include recipes, pictures featuring family members, and articles about interesting places to go or things to do. I stick them on my fridge with magnets.
Here are the bits of paper that are on my fridge now.

 Ogleby Park in Wheeling, WV has a children's zoo and train.  I want to take the grandkids there.

 I liked this list as I am going to have the grandkids one day a week.  We've done the chalk sidewalk art.

Grandson Dillon is the boy standing by the blond-haired girl in purple.  He has on a bight blue t-shirt with a design on it.

 My son's family company owns a Cross Fit gym and recently they did a special  work out in honor of a fallen soldier.  My son is 2nd from the right in the back row. He manages the gym as well as his other numerous duties as president of his family company (they have gas stations and roofing, heating, air conditioning stores.

 I think I will go to some near-by farmer markets because they are at other times in the week instead of the Saturday morning that our local one is on.

 I'm interested in getting the kids in the summer reading program, but they've been and are still on vacation, so hopefully they'll let them join late.

My grandkids' mother's family company is Mosser Glass in Cambridge, Ohio.  They were featured in the paper recently.  Mindy, my son's ex, is the woman in the printed sleeveless dress standing behind the cake plate.

For more corner views on paper, go on over to Francesca's place.

Retirement with the grandkids

The first week of retirement I scheduled a day with the grandkids.  Friday was their first day off from school and they would be staying Thurs. night at their dad's.   So I arranged to get there when he had to leave for work, so that the oldest, Peyton, could sleep in.  Dillon opted to go to the sitter's as there were going to be boys there that he hadn't seen for awhile.  That left the girls and me.

I had bought the game Quirkle for them for Christmas.  It's a game much like dominoes except it uses shapes and colors.  I had bought the extension boards for the game which makes it much harder to play. Peyton loves it.  It can't keep Addy's attention and Dillon hasn't played it yet. We learned one of the extended board games that day and we each won one game.

Next we went to the Cambridge city pool.  We arrived there a little before 11, so we got in right when it opened and found good chairs.  The chairs were taken up quickly.

Addy headed straight for the diving boards to jump off.  She did not go on the high one though.

Peyton hooked up with some friends who were there also.  Eventually, Addy found a friend there too. We  were there for 3 hours, I read an entire More magazine, and the girls had a blast.

After we went home and changed we went to DQ (Dairy Queen) to get ice cream.  They had pizza at the pool.

Peyton is the third from the left and then there is Addy.

The next week Peyton stayed overnight here so we could go shopping together at a near-by mall.  I drove to Cambridge and picked her up at her middle school after she finished a volleyball open gym. We went to Bob Evans for supper and took some food home to Grandpa.
The next day we went shopping at an Old Navy store where she got jeans, tops, and a bathing suit.
We stocked her up on purse size hand sanitizer at Bath and Body (her request), took some things back to Penny's, and made a quick stop at Target.  We had a lunch of broccoli cheddar soup and bread at Panera Bread. It's a favorite lunch of mine.
After we got home, we played another game of Quirkle, then I took her to her mom's. It was a wonderful day.

This past week they've been gone on vacation with their mom and her family.  They got back Sat. and left today for a week long vacation with another set of grandparents, their dad,  Aunt Sara,Uncle Jory, Uncle Eric, and cousins.
However, we managed to get a supper in last night.  Doug had to bring his dog over for us to dog sit. So I made tacos, corn on the cob, and pasta salad.  We then went for ice cream.  (I think that will be a recurrent trip this summer.)

The younger ones helped bring the bird feeders in and threw out corn for the lone deer that visits. They always enjoy doing that. It was another pleasant time with them.

Last day of school for me foreverr

 As of June 1st, I am officially retired.  These photos were taken on the last day I was at school. I had worked hard for several months on getting the room cleaned up and organized for the new teacher.  I sorted through 11 years of teaching and threw a lot of stuff  out.  The rest I organized into binders and crates of folders.

 The new teacher spent an afternoon with me and I went through everything and she used sticky notes to remind her of where certain things were.  She's in her thirties with 3 kids.  She has a lot of enthusiasm which is, of course, good.
I had the kids keep notebooks in the classroom and we stored them in crates.  I had no use for the crates so I left them for her as she too will be requiring notebooks.  It's for a 'bell-ringer' that gets the kids in their seats and copying a sentence to correct or a journal prompt to respond to.

 You can see some of the posted notes. Everything was in my car or at home that I wanted except for the printer.  Another teacher carried it out to my car to go back home. It's fairly new and a very good one; it was my husband's --he got a new one.  I needed one at school for printing a brochure project.  Our school does not have a color printer for general  use.
  I'm giving my old one from home to a teacher friend who teaches two rooms from mine.  She will have the tech guy hook it up  or she will just use it with her lap top.  Either way she is happy. No more leaving her classroom in the middle of a class to get something. Its color is not as good as the other one, but she doesn't need color.

I left the basic bulletin board stuff up too.  The janitors don't wipe down the bulletin boards so they tell us to just leave the stuff up.  She can change everything if she wants.  I left a lot of supplies for her also because I don't need them in retirement.  She was grateful as her husband has already warned her not to spend a lot on getting her classroom ready.
When I came there the teacher before me had a ritual of throwing a worksheet away the last time she used it.  She left me nothing: no worksheets. tests. or lesson plans and no supplies.  I was completely on my own and it was daunting.   I didn't want to do that to my replacement.

It felt  good to walk out and know I was done---that not only my summer was free and clear but the rest of my life also.

I will be trying to write regularly about my retirement.  This and the previous posts are the first installments.

Corner View: Together

The high school staff got together and had a surprise party for the five teachers who were retiring.
They had all kinds of delicious food and then a cake with our pictures on it.  They also got each of the women a beautiful inscribed keepsake music box and a prayer/praise daily stand-up calendar. We were truly surprised! They even had our spouses there!  I'm in the back on the right. I was officially retired as of June  1.  Hallelujah!

For more corner views on together, go to Francesca's.

Corner View:Bright

There are some bright pockets of color in my yard as spring has finally arrived.

Daffodils

Magnolia

Forsythia

For more corner views, head over to Francesca's.

Prom 2015

I am the junior class adviser. With that comes the responsibility of planning the prom and decorating for it.  It was this past Saturday April 18th.   It went great! No problems that night of and only minor, fixable ones beforehand.

Here I am ready to leave for the prom.  It was held in a near-by town at a convention hall.

Our theme was Sea of Love.  This picture doesn't do the dance floor justice.  It was quite elegant with a chandelier hanging down in the middle of columns draped with white and periwinkle organza weaved to look like sea waves. The blue rolls are the prom invitations rolled up and tied with twine for their scrapbooks.

Our wall of fish and shells.  They are suspended by fishing line on two twelve-ft. long fish nets.  The kids made the fish and spray painted and glittered white plastic shells.

Our ship wreck.  Unfortunately I don't have a picture of it lit up.  There were lights around the door.

My wonderful husband made the 8 ft. by 4 ft. ship masts which we then draped with organza and lights.  The seaweed was made from a kit with glitter added.

Our food table: cookies, pop, and water.  This doesn't show this area well either.  There are sea horses on small pedestals glued to a base that holds cookies.

The anchor and wheel which were built from a kit also (so was the ship wreck).

The senior prom queen and king.

 The senior prom court.

 My crew of 11 juniors who were a tremendous help in pulling this prom off.

Some cookies that I had made.  Prom 2015 is written in the sand with the sea waves lapping at the edge. I'm exhausted but thrilled. I rested most of the day.