Spring Cleaning a Little Early

What a sense of accomplishment! Wow. Chelsey came home for the weekend and we spent all of Saturday afternoon cleaning out the attic above our garage. Even thought we've only lived here for about 6 years, you wouldn't believe all the crates and boxes that have been stuffed up there. I think we have enough stuff to have a legitimate garage sale this summer. But, I hate having garage sales. Besides, nobody would find our house!! I guess we'll wait and try to have one with someone else in the neighborhood (and let them do all the work) ha ha!

We also bowled this Saturday to make up for the league game that we missed last Thursday. Oh how I sucked again. I am definitely on a not-so-good a run. Three weeks in a row of not hitting my overall average! Fortunately my team members came through and we still ended up taking 2.5 of the 4 points for the evening.

Our hot tub is our again. Sniff, sniff. Hopefully the repair man will come out soon and be able to figure out what the matters is. Thank goodness it is still under warranty. I miss my warm, outdoor baths.

Sunshine On My Shoulders Makes Me Happy

Literally…today was the first day of sunshine in weeks and it felt so good to be outside with those warm rays hitting my face, my arms, my legs, my back, my neck, etc.

Figuratively…I think the days of teaching the Language program at SR school are over. The program trainers came for observations at the end of last week and when they heard the details of my teaching environment they made quick work to let our administrators know that those conditions are not acceptable. So, now I’m waiting again to find out what they are going to have me do with my afternoons. How frustrating to have so of my time wasted this school year. I am hopeful that next year will be better. From what I hear, the powers that be want to leave me at CE all day and teach two session of the Language program there. I would very much welcome that. I am tired of being jerked around from school to school each year and having my program set up to fail.

Thanks John Denver for the title use of one of my favorite songs.

FINDERS KEEPERS

Last summer our school had a major problem with the city drainage system. I'm not sure of the specifics but I do know that it caused our septic system to overflow into the basement where our library is located. As a result we got a brand new library and it is beautiful.

Wednesday of this week was a very stormy day. It was raining dogs and cats I was up in the office taking care of some business when I detected an unexpected scent. Wow, that was nasty. I wondered where it was coming from. I asked if anyone else smelled it but I was not surprised when the answer was negative. I tend to be pretty sensitive to odors.

A few minutes later I headed down to the library to wish a friend a happy birthday. While there I detected the odor again and brought it to her attention. I expressed my concern about it as I was afraid that we may have a repeat of last summer's flooding. Nope. The librarian did not smell anything. So... Anna stop worrying about it. Maybe you're nose is just too sensitive!

Wednesday came and went with occasional whiffs and I started to wonder if my body was excreting odors as a delayed reaction from last week's colonoscopy. Or, am I passing gas? Or, is my underwear dirty? Or, ...??? On Thursday things did not improve. In the afternoon I teach at a different school and was surprised to STILL smell the sewer. Shortly after getting to my classroom my cell phone rang. I tried to find it in one of the many pockets of my raincoat that I was still wearing. I fumbled through several but the significant thing I found was not my cell phone. It was a ...forgotten doggie poop bag full of ... you guessed it! Mystery solved! No wonder the foul smell followed me around.

Oh, come on now you RESPONSIBLE doggie owners. Don't tell me this has never happened to you?!!!

HOW GOOD IT IS…

…to be loved by YOU! Yes it is. Especially this last week.

Yes, methinks I’ve got the winter blues. And it is always this time of the year when retirement is the most appealing. Foul weather, short days, hyperactive students, etc., how I long to go and find sunshine and adult conversation somewhere. The wind is howling outside and the rain is hitting our home horizontally. During the night I wondered if we might need to board up the window. We had several power outages this weekend, one lasting almost eight hours. This kind of weather is not even for the birds, speaking of which, I feel for the little critters as I doubt that they can hang on to any branches with gust of over a hundred MPH.

I did love cuddling up by the fire and reading a book by candle light. I also loved cleaning out closets and our office with John that haven’t been attended to in months. And I loved cooking for my love. I am thinking that maybe when I retire I will enjoy spending more time in the kitchen again. When will that be? Today I vote for June of this year but I know that this will change as the weather improves. Realistically… another year or two!

The results of the colonoscopy I had last week: all clear on the western front. I’ll probably never, EVER have another one! Although the prep was not anywhere as bad as I’d heard and although the actual procedure I can’t even remember, the psychological trauma was enough for me to never be admitted to the hospital again. Yikes.

Sigh! the three-day weekend was so nice. now it’s Tuesday again. Another work day.

YAWN!

OMG I can't keep my eyes open. They appear as they would if I'd been crying all night and then woken up with lids so swollen that you'd need a wedge to prop them open and keep them that way. What gives? Is it:

a) the major workout I got helping Chelsey move on Saturday...all the trips up and down stairs with arms loaded with HEAVY boxes?
b) a side effect of the prednisone I'm taking for the jellyfish sting reaction?
c) the non-stop pace we have had all through our vacation? OR
d) all of the above?

I've been exhausted, and I need coffee tonight just to help me make it through dinner. I'm glad that I only have two more work days this week followed by a 5 day weekend. Yeah!

Bitter Sweet

Well, we won the quarter final tonight but I'm not so sure we deserved it. The first game, all of us bowled UNDER a 100. How shameful is that! The second game we improved just a hair, and the third game we bowled our team average. So how come we still won??? The team we played had an even worse night than we did and yet they are the best team in the league. The way I look at it, we were given a gift, but WE'LL TAKE IT!

Ahhhhh, RELIEF

After just 12 hours of having taken my first day's prednisone and already the itchies are greatly improved. Yay!

Yesterday was my first day with students at the school where I'm assigned in the afternoons. Boy, am I going to have my hands full. These kids don't want to be in my class, and I don't blame them. In order for them to be with me all afternoon, they have to give up their favorite activities: PE, art, band, rewards day, etc. It must feel to them like they are being punished for being low in their language skills. They are getting not one, not two, but three hours of language arts all because the school schedule can not be changed and I can't be at their school in the morning. So by default they have to remain in the regular language arts class in the morning in addition to my class, wow. One of these days I'm going to have to figure out how to be at two schools at the same time.

Bowling night tonight!

Itchiest Itch EVER!

Now that I'm done telling you of all the wonderful things about our trip to Mexico, I have to just let you know how uncomfortable I've been the last week or so. I've gotten these huge itchy bumps all over my body. I finally decided to see my doctor today and he told me that it is probably a delayed allergic reaction to all the minuscule jelly fish we found out self in several times. And I thought I'd gotten off scott free. John and I are even. I have the itches and he has Montezuma's revenge. I just invested in large quantities of Pepto-Bismol. Ha.

Homeward Bound (Dec. 27th & 28th)

Out trip back to the US was much improved over the trip down. Our layovers where short and we caught all our connections. We ate our pan dulce on the plane that we had purchase the night before and had some coffee in the airport. It was nice to get back to San Francisco but it was even nicer to get home to Brookings the following day. Ah my bed. But the best thing about coming home was to see my Boys again. I've missed you two so much.

BUCKET LIST CHECK-OFF (Dec. 26th)

Sigh, our last day in Mexico. I know all good things must come to an end. Today then would be the GRAND FINALE, the day I have been waiting for since I was a little girl, plastered in front of the television watching FLIPPER. Do you remember that show? If so it dates you, doesn’t it? As I sat outside on the patio of our room, anxiously waiting for the day to begin something fluttered close to my face. I knew it was too early for birds to fly so that left me guessing it was a bat. I sat motionless hoping for the incident to reoccur, and it did. After just a few minutes I discovered it's (their) hang-out... no pun intended.
Our reservation at Delphinus was not until 1:30 PM so our tour director John expertly filled in the morning with a visit to a CENOTE where we could swim. Cenotes are larges holes in the ground made by meteorites that hit the earth many years ago. There were two cenotes close to each other just minutes from where we would need to be later in the day. Since only one of us could go and check them out, Nolan was assigned that task. We ended up at Cenote Santa Christina. The water was crystal clear and varied in its dept.
Our afternoon swim with the dolphins was all that I had hoped for and then some. The five of us were eased through different sessions with Fanny and Kenele. Both were seasoned and both had two-year old babes. Fanny did most of the work and we were to avoid Kenele all together. We were amazed at how soft their skins were and how gentle they are. Wow what a day. Upon leaving we just had to purchase some pictures and of course the video. They will have to last me until… yes, next time. I get to check swimming with the dolphins off of my bucket list. However, John made the mistake the other day of telling me there is yet another package available that let’s you train with dolphins for several hours. Guess what was just placed on my ever-expanding list? Yep, you got it!
Our final night in Cancun called for a repeat Mayan coffee at La Habichuela. It ended up just being John and me as the others were tired and had packing to do. Knowing that we would not soon return, we splurged and had the Mayan coffee and also another wonderful dessert that was prepared at the table.

Thank you Mexico for sharing your beauty with all of us. I truly love your country, your food, your people, and your culture.

CHRISMAS ON THE PENINSULA (Dec. 25th)

What is Christmas without a Christmas tree? John was determined to have two things on Christmas day…presents to unwrap and a tree to put them under. Prior to leaving home in the USofA , he had searched on line until he found what he wanted, ordered it, packed it in his suitcase, inflated it, and gave it a home in Chelsey’s room, the Gathering Room at our hotel. Yes, we packed all of our presents down. I’m surprised we were able to fit them all in our suitcases.
Before breakfast John read the Christmas story from the Bible and then we unwrapped our presents. We had too much to do today to further diddle dally at the hotel…on to today’s activities. We drove to Punto Morales where we spent a couple of hours snorkeling one of the beautiful reefs in the area. The waters were shallow so we felt lost in sea weed, coral, and the rest of the beautiful underwater world. It was a very different dive from the one we took a couple of days ago off the coast of Cozumel. When we returned to our car we were ready to find us another beach for some more relaxing time. We ended up at Playa Del Carmen, just minutes south of where we snorkeled.
Wanting to please those of us who had previously looked forward to having a tropical drink on a warm and sunny beach, Nolan volunteered to find us some. He returned a while later with some wonderfully cool, albeit huge drinks to enjoy on the beach. Apparently they only had the foot long plastic cups for take out drinks.
Once the sun went down we spent some time meandering down 5th Street that is nothing but shops for many, many blocks. We ate an early dinner at 5:00PM since we didn't have a true lunch. Dinners in Mexico are usually much later so we actually were able to take advantage of a lunch special. It was a definite upgrade from ye local taco stand but John's wish was to eat somewhere a little nicer. And, it was fabulous although not yet on the same scale as our anniversary dinner. Eventually we decided it was time to head to our lodging facilities back in Cancun. The day could not end however without some more churros and fried bananas.

BEACH TIME (Dec. 24)

Today was expertly planned as a rest day between all the outings we’ve had. After a leisurely breakfast we returned to Mercado 28 a final time. Our plan was to hit some of the beaches in Cancun right after the MERCADO and sip some fruity drinks while basking in the sun. But as it turned out the weather turned very overcast and it looked like rain was on the way. Plan B: we stopped off at Costco and purchased some goodies to take home while waiting to see what the weather was going to do.

By the time we were done in Costco, the weather had greatly improved. John had read that the best beaches could only be accessed by going through hotel lobbies in the hotel zone, if you dared. Of course we dared! The beach was beautiful and the water fantastic. The only problem was that we could not get any beverages at the bar because the hotel was all inclusive. We were also told that we could not use the lounge chairs that were on the beach. Poor all of us had to resort to sitting on our towels, except for Anneliese. She found a way to avoid getting covered with sand:
Before leaving the tourist area we stopped at a Starbucks so that Anneliese could access the internet with her phone to “call home,” or today’s version of that…send an email. Of course it was nice to get a drink as well since we missed out at the beach. Dinner tonight was planned at Don Javier’s. It is an economical sit-down joint where the locals eat. John and I shared a quesadilla and an empanada and they were both fantastic. Of course no dinner is complete without some churros or fried bananas.

I STILL LOVE MY DUCKS

Yes, so the Ducks lost to Ohio in the Rose Bowl but I still love MY DUCKS!
John and I just got back from our very quick trip from Pasadena and we are sooo grateful to be home again. We drove to Sacramento on the 31st and spent the night there. Early on the 1st we flew to Pasadena where we rented an economy car but were upgraded to a convertible Caddy and drove to Old Pasadena.
What a HOTTIE is that by the Caddy!

We caught just a glimps of the Rose Parade but we opted to head to the stadium using the shuttle service to collect our tickets. Everything was smooth sailing until after the game when people got impatient while waiting for hours for the return shuttle service. We stayed the night at Ramada Inn and then took the early flight back to Sacramento where our own car awaited to take us back home. Now we have just one day to catch up from from all our travels before work on Monday. I am going to stay in my PJs all day on Sunday!
Ouch! Can you tell John is not happy with the score?

PYRAMIDS IN THE YUCATAN (Dec. 23rd)

We made SURE to get up extra early so that we would get to today’s destination on time. We left our hotel at 6:00AM even skipping breakfast. The trip by way of the toll road to CHICHEN ITZA took a little over two hours. The gates opened at eight, and as recommended, we were there early to beat all the tour buses that would arrive in a few hours. Both CHICHEN ITZA and EK BALAM were magnificent! The later is less visited by tourist and more accessible in that we were permitted to climb the ruins. We spent three hours at Chichen Itza taking lots of pictures and looking at all the trinkets that numerous vendors were peddling. By eleven o’clock we left to have lunch in the town of Valladolid prior to going to Ek Balam.

View from the top of EK BALAM

After a long day’s drive and walk around the pyramids, we welcomed a bite to eat at some eateries where the locals eat back in Cancun. Yes we ate the usual Mexican food but we also splurged in the local sweets: churros, fried bananas covered with sweet condensed milk and cream, and thin waffles filled traditionally with a graded hard cheese and, in my case, Nutella. A strange combination you say? Yes, but oh sooooo good!
We have sooooo many more pictures to post of the Mayan ruins. John will be editing them and then posting them on our Picasa page in a few day.