Cat Fight

Well, here are my two cats, Madison(no tail) and Snickers (calico), fighting over who gets to drink from the faucet first. This ritual happens every morning about 5:45 AM as I am getting ready to go to school. Now, I am not one of those old ladies who dotes on her animals and treats them as children, but I do turn on the faucet for them. The nice thing about the whole situation is that I have two sinks, so I just turn on the other one and then let the cats decide who gets to move.Remember, I am not one to dote on her cats, but I do let them take over my bed at night and turn my king size bed into a single size for me. They have the rest. Now remember, I am not one to dote on my cats, but when Snickers wants to go out at 2:20AM, I get up and let her out. Then at 3:15, when she wants back in, I get up and let her back in. No, No! You can't call me controlled by my cats!!! I wonder why I put their special canned cat food on separate plates for them each morning or buy them special evaproated milk for them to drink? Yikes! The more I reveal the more I do sound like one of those old ladies who spoils her pets.Well, at least I don't have four or five of them like others I know. That's a comforting thought, don't you think?

In With the New and Out With the Old

In my classroom I have one white board and one real blackboard. For the last 10 years I have held on to that blackboard because of what it represents. To me, a school teacher has a blackboard. I never felt I could be a very good teacher if I didn't have the chalkboard to write on. When I was a little girl I always played school. Of course, I had to be the teacher. My parents bought me a blackboard and chalk to use in my pretend classroom.

I am one of only two teachers at Burk who still has a blackboard. So the princpal asked me the other day if I wanted to replace it with a new white board. I told him I had to think about it. The only positive reason to keep it is for the sentimental value. I took a very hard look at that board from a student's persepective. One, you can't read what is written on the blackboard as well as you can on the whiteboard. Two, it way more fun to write on the whiteboard than on the chalkboard. Now from my point of view. One, I am allergic to chalk and so I get to sneezing from the dust. Two, I won't need to have my overhead screen because I can use the white board for that. Three, the white board is smaller than the chalkboard and I will gain some wall space. Four, a white board is much easier to keep clean. No chalk dust.

So, I went back to the principal and told him I would venture into the 21st century and replace the old blackboard with a new white board. Now, I am debating on whether I am going to have to take some days off for grieving when the change is made.

An Address Book?

This week I had a phone call from one of my older cousins who lives in Utah. Dolores is my Aunt Louva's daughter. (my mother's side) She is quite a bit older than I am and I don't remember when the last time was that I saw her. I think it was when I was six or so and had the measles while on vacation visiting her family in Toole,UT. Anyway, she said she was wondering about my Dad and how he was doing. She hadn't heard from him in two Christmases and was concerned. She said she was looking through her address book and came across my name and address. She googled me and got the phone number etc. We had a nice visit and I told her that my Dad was still living in Albuquerque but his short term memory was going, and so he probably had forgotten to send any Xmas cards at all. After our talk, I got to thinking about the status of my family members' addresses. They are on post- its scattered through out the house, or I have torn them off envelopes and they are in a little wooden basket by my desk, or some are on a list in my desk drawer. Bottom line is: they are not in any organized format. So one of my New Year resolutions is to take all those post-its, ripped envelopes, and the list, and compile it into a new address book. I have to admit, going to buy a new book will be fun. Not only do I get a high going into book stores, but I get high going into office supply stores as well. Go figure. I want someone to check on me at a later date to see if I have accomplished this task. If I know I will be accountable to someone, the job will most likely get done!