Day 446

I took hubby for a celebration margarita tonight. His official last day of school. For the next 84 days he will not be thinking about school and not taking any classes. His mind will be on summer.

Although after tonight's margarita his mind isn't on much of anything. One margarita and he fell asleep as I was driving us home. Poor guy, must have been a long day/year!

(The margarita really isn't as big as it looks - it's just the camera angle.)

Day 445

This sums it all up:

Peonies are blooming.

Vegetable garden is finally all planted.

Mama hummingbird is ready for babies.

I'm ready for a rest. My back is shot.

Now

May 2

Day 444

Through a series of one thing leading to another...an open July schedule for us and needing to gear up for a year of unknowns (we have major changes happening in both our school systems), a special fare sale, some expiring cruise credits, and just plum spontaneity, we decided last night after a two minute conversation that came out of the blue...we're going to Alaska.

Not just for a few days. Two back-to-back cruises on the same ship. 14 total days. Over my birthday. Just me and hubby. And the juicer.

Drive to Seattle, take in a Mariners game. Drive to Vancouver, British Columbia, leave our car at the hotel. Ketchikan, Juneau, Skagway, Glacier Bay, College Fjord, Whittier and then the same stops on the way back. And a suspension foot bridge thrown in near Yukon Territory to help me overcome my fear of heights. (See it here.)

Another fear was how to break it to my daughter and my mom. We took our daughter on a cruise to Alaska to get her the 50th state and I took my mom one year for her birthday. I already broke it to my daughter (she wasn't happy about it). Breaking it to my mom is happening right now as she's reading this. Sorry to both of them.

Maybe roses from the garden will help?

Day 443

Today was the last day of school at my husband's school and, as usual, the seniors pranked the school last night. In the past they have put an outhouse on top of the school, welded pieces of a car around the flagpole, and covered the grounds with realtor for sale signs. Last night they did their pranks inside the school building. My husband's room was one of those that received some attention. If my husband had a camera with him this morning I would be posting a picture of the sight he saw.

As a high school teacher, something he hears from kids year after year is
That sucks.
The assignment sucks.
That test sucks.
to which hubby always replies
Then get a straw.

When he opened his classroom door this morning, he found straws all over his room. Lots of straws. Thousands of straws. (Hubby actually was quite excited - now he'll never again have to take a straw to school for his juice!)

Since he didn't have a camera, today's picture winds up being another end of the school year related picture - the wall quilt I finished for the fellow retiring. A second bonus picture happened today when we came the back way home from the store and stopped at the lake to drink some juice we had bought. I thought the dead tree in the water looked interesting.

Fish, water, dead trees, and straws. An interesting day for us both. And I can't forget the Win it Wednesday prize winner. Congrats to...Kristin!

Day 442

Nothing like waiting until the last minute.

My husband has his end-of-the-year celebration tomorrow and I had promised a while back that I'd make a wall quilt for one of the retirees. But I haven't even started yet.

It's not like I haven't been busy. More 14+ hours days at work this week has left me little time to do much else. But guess how I'll be spending my day off today? Scrambling to get that wall quilt done. Fabrics need to be chosen and cut, pieces assembled, and the whole thing quilted. All in one single day.

Thank goodness I got myself up early to get started. Otherwise I would have missed a spectacular sunrise.