MENTORING

This morning I went for training at the elementary school where I will be mentoring.  The training was very short.  The guidance counselor spoke for a few minutes, then the principal had a short power point presentation on the school.  They are currently constructing a new building that will be ready for students for the 2014-2015 school year.  The school provides free breakfast & lunch to every student.  97% of all students qualify for free lunches which allowed them to qualify for a community grant to pay for all lunches.  The school has a very transient population.  There are only 320 or so students in the school today; however, this school year they have had over 400 different students to attend. 
After the presentation we got to met our students.  Mine was already at lunch so we went to the cafeteria and the principal called her over and introduced us.  I asked her if she wanted me to sit with her where she had been sitting with her class, but she preferred moving over to tables that are set aside for the mentors to have a more private lunch with their student.  It was easier to talk with her one on one rather than have lots of kids around.  They gave us a questionnaire with questions to ask our students to help break the ice.  I found out quite a bit of information about my little mentee.  She's
in the 1st grade -- right in between my granddaughters, Kate & Gabby.  Her favorite colors are pink and red.  Her favorite food is sandwiches and her favorite thing to do is play.  When I asked her what she like to play, she said she liked to play outside.  I asked her if she liked playing out in the cold and she said yes, other than her nose getting cold.  I told her that she needed a nose "mitten."  She thought that was funny.  When asked what she buy if she had a million dollars I was surprised when she answered a dog.  Hmmm, a million dollar dog??  That goes along with her favorite books -- they're about Biscuit, the dog. 
She asked me if I'd be there forever.  I told her that I didn't have any plans of leaving and planned on being around.  She also told me that she was afraid.  I'm not quite sure that was what she meant as she didn't seem afraid at all.  She seemed excited and happy and I even got a hug from her. 
I think our first meeting went very well and I'm looking forward to going back and spending time with her.

W2's COMPLETED - MOVING ON TO ANOTHER ADVENTURE

I've been working at completing the W2's and all of the reconciliation paperwork at church for a while.  Last week I went ahead and handed out/mailed the W2's for all of the employees.  I let the Federal, State, and local forms sit in the file cabinet for a few days while I stewed over them hoping that if I had made any mistakes it would magically come to me.  There is nothing quite like completing forms for the government.  I always worry over my own tax returns that I file.  I can say that I always try to fill everything out completely and honestly.  Today I went to the post office and mailed all of the forms to the government agencies.  What a relief to get them finished for this year!   I should be able to cut down on the hours that I'm putting in as treasurer now that all of the year end paperwork is completed.

Tomorrow I go to the elementary school for training so that I can volunteer as a mentor.  Plans are for us to meet our "mentees" after the training.  I hope mine is there.  Evidently a lot of kids have been out sick lately.  I'm really looking forward to this adventure! 

RETIREMENT

It has been so long since I wrote a post that I'm not sure I'll be able to remember how to publish it!  As of January 1st I am officially retired.

So far I'm lovin' it.  I've been staying busy at home and at church.  I've spent a lot days going into church to get organized.  I've been working as treasurer since July but I felt like I was just doing the bare minimum to keep bills paid and payroll done.  Now that I have more time I've been cleaning out drawers, emails, files, etc.  Some things are getting stashed in a place where I can get my hands on them, if need be.  I don't think they're necessary, but I don't quite have the confidence to toss them yet.  When I was in school, many years ago, I could not do my homework until my room was all picked up.  I'm going thru the same thing at church.  I've got to get everything in order before I can dive into the W2s that need to be completed by the end of the month. 

At home, I've done a little photo organization.  I've sorted through duplicate photos that were my mothers or grandmothers.  I've labeled my photo albums by year.  This is a very loose labeling and I do know that there are some pictures in a few of the albums that don't really belong there, but there were empty slots or pages where those photos would fit.  More than likely, if you know the year that a photo was taken, you'll be able to find it.

I've also done a little quilting.  I embroidered a quilt top when the girls were in high school.  The youngest graduated in 1999 so  you can see how long it's been.  The quilt top has been stored in the closet with the backing and batting pinned in place.  Since I've retired, I've quilted 3 of the 12 squares in the quilt.  That's not bad....so hopefully I'll get it finished this year.

 

Guess I'd better get off of here for now.  I have a lemon cake in the oven and I need to get down to the kitchen.

 

Jackson's Orchard

 This past week I was on Fall Break from work.  The last few days turned into a beautiful fall weekend.   It was the perfect time to go to the orchard to get apples.  Years ago you could actually go out into the orchard and pick your own apples, but I don't think they let you do that anymore.  They were having their annual pumpkin festival with lots of activities for the kids including face painting, sand art, and wagon rides to the pumpkin patch to pick out that perfect pumpkin.  We passed on all of the kiddie activities but I did manage to take a few pictures.

The Cider Slide

 There was a kid inside of this tire - walking and rolling the tire.

 

  It's a little hard to pick out, but this is a tractor activity center with slides coming down from the wagon.  I bet the grands would have loved it!

 These tires were partially buried and the kids could hop from one to another and walk around the whole circle.

 We bought 2 - 1/2 bushel bags of Red Delicious apples to freeze for this winter.

I can't believe I didn't even get a picture of a single pumpkin while we were there :-(

DESTRUCTIVE HUMMERS

I usually try to feed the hummingbirds every spring.  This year we were at the cabin early and I put out the bright red sugar water for them.  It's hard to keep the feeders full when we aren't there full time.  I did buy a 2nd, larger feeder thinking it would keep them feed.  About a month ago while we were there, I kept hearing this really loud pecking noise.  We thought maybe it was a woodpecker, but we didn't ever see it.  Later that day we were on the lower back deck looking at the steps that handyman had been building and I looked up at our red, white & blue party lights.  This is what we saw:

Note only did they like the red ones... 

They liked the blue ones.....

 And the clear ones!

For now, the lights are still hanging, but I'm not sure if they will last long with the big holes in almost all of them.

Handyman's New Toy

Handyman recently sold his fishing boat.  It was a nice boat, ran really well, but it would only hold 2 people.  That's not good when we'd like to take others out on our boat.  So we bought a used pontoon instead.  It's rated to hold 10 people.  Last Saturday we did finally got it in the water and took a little boat ride.  The weather wasn't very good that day.  It had been raining and we had some raindrops fall on us while we were out on the water, but it was great to get out on the lake.  I'm looking forward to spending more time out on the lake just being lazy while handyman gets in some fishing.

The life jackets are all in -- 3 different kids sizes and 10 adult vests so we're all ready to go. No one will have to wear one of those uncomfortable, ugly, orange, yoke type floatation devices since we have enough vests for everyone.

Here are a few pictures of handyman's new toy.  Hope we'll have lots more later with family & friends on board!!

BUILDING A STAIRWAY TO THE WATER

Handyman is at it again.  He's started another building project.  This one will take him a while and he may not finish before he runs out of money and has to find another paying job before he completes it.  We spent the past few days at the cabin and I got to watch his progress.  Here are some pictures of his work.

Walking out towards the steps from the cabin.

Stairs from the side.  Looks like there may be some good places to plant some flower bulbs this fall so we'll have some colorful flowers next spring.

Walking down the steps to nowhere (at least for now).  The tall posts will get cut off eventually. 

Looking back up at the cabin from the bottom. It's gonna be a lot further down when he's finished.

Part way back up.

 We sure are going to have a lot of steps when he's finished!

 The walkway from the stairs and a few more steps.