poetry

We are doing poetry in class again. That means I am writing poetry with my kids (I always try to do teh assignments with them), out theme is "Where I'm from" and we are taking a figurative view rather that literary. Here is my first:

Where I'm from...
I'm from catching polliwogs in the mud
and ruining rims across the street
hiding in sand traps, and taking golf balls
playing kickball in the summer's heat

Watching TV praying for a snow day
Penny candy from Bill's, in a small bag
Big bubbles in shop, gum mixed with saw dust
Girl Scouts after school, saluting the flag

Can I go to the pahk?
Ya, but don't go too fah!
And take your sistah too!
And Be careful for cahs!

New England boiled dinners with Dad's family
Getting cold cause my Mamie forgot her fake teeth
Coffee and omletes for breakfast at noon
Dad's broken leg from playing hide & seek

Comfort foods at Nana's - baked mac & cheese
Remember your manners – thank you and please
Swimming in the river, fishing off the dock
Getting stuck in the mud, losing shoes and socks

If you roll all this together
Add my friends and family
You'll see how I got where I am
What has made me be me

I am not completely pleased with it yet. I feel like it is still awkward in come places. Here is my college version:


Where I'm from (the college years)

From “this town smells like crap”
to a breeze that smells of cookies
tornado alarm tests
and negative 90 degrees

Printing papers in Kemper
Religon in Todd Wehr
Lit and writing in West
Lower campus at the rear

In the English Department
Professor Woods was the best
Doctor Martz passed away
He is now with Mae West

From Johnson and TriDorms
(Known as the Virgin Vault)
Scott Hall, the Quads and Merriman
Damages?? not our fault!

There was AchiO, ADPi
and my girls in PiDeltaXi
SigmaChi, ThetaChi and Merrimen
Tau, Phi Delts and LDA, (also me)

From 'RPN, to athletics,
There was a million groups for you
Help others, build houses, have fun
Oh, and those academics too!

I am now an “old alumni”
And the campus is not the same
Some buildings gone, some Greek names changed
and the drinking policy lame

The Ripon of my college days
Is still with me in a way,
the lessons learned, the people there
made me who I am today.

Clearly you have to have gone to Ripon to know exactly what I am talking about, but I am sure if you went to college, especially a small one, a lot rings clear.

Getting Old

I have finally faced the fact that I am getting "old." I remember going out to look for a dress for a formal and trying to find something that showed as much skin as possible while still looking nice. Julie's best friend is getting married Saturday, so I had to go out and get a dress to wear. I found myself out looking for a dress that showd as little skin as possible while still looking nice. That's it. I'm old.

I did find a dress, I really do love it. It is from Jump Apparel, but they don't have "my dress" on theie web site. I am sure after the wedding I will have plenty of pictures.

PDD

I had my first Professional Development Day of the year yesterday. They are in Worcester, which means I have to get up early and leave early to get there on time. That means I had to get Ali up early. She is so my girl!

Alarm going off in Ali's room. I walk in, run her back, say
"Good morning! Are you going to ignore your alarm, silly?"
Ali turn around, her hair a big messy halo around her and says;
"What do you FINK???? IT IS STILL NIGHT TIME!!!!!!"
I say "no honey, remember, I have that meeting today, so we have to get up early, It is morning."
She replies "When the sun comes through my blinds, then it is morning" and pulls her blanket over her head.

Wow, those were my sentiments exactly!

My nerd score

I had to. This was fun.

It's Friday!

Wow! What a week! My first full week in my classroom, Yeah! It is so nice to not only be back in a classroom, but to be in MY classroom. The one I set up in late June. I was nervous about the size, it is small, but now I love it. I even have some plants and a little Beta fish tank with two Beta in it (named Montegue and Capulet, I think). I have my normal dry erase board on one wall that I can put up the week's plan, and then the big huge one I made (with an old chalkboard and dry erase paint) on the front wall to use during class. I have my awesome Einstein picture up (click here to see it), my signed R. Lee Ermey picture with a fabulous quote I added to it, all of my posters and quotes and my podium. It is great. Back in MY element.

Alison is loving Kindergarten. She has made some great friends, Caroline, Nailani and Jaden. She was VERY disappointed at gym, all they did was go over the rules "SEVEN times" *add eye roll here* I promised it would get better once they know all of the rules. So far, according to her, in Kindergarten she has learned "To use grown-up words, like 'Can I use the bathroom' instead of 'I have to go potty' and how to burp with our mouths shut." Starting Monday she is going to an afterschool program on Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays at the school. Caroline is in the same program, so I am confident it will work out great. As an added bonus, the program runs until 6:00 pm, so I won't be in a rush getting out of work to get her.

The best quote of the week;
Me - "What did you do in school today?"
Ali - "Gus threw-up. It was milk. It got all over him and he had to go home. It was AWESOME!!"

Ah yes, my baby is in kindergarten!

Who da man???

I da man!!!
Why? Because I did my brakes. See my dirty hands? See my big smile? It was fun. I love hands-on work. Not to mention the fortune I saved doing them myself!
Here I am hard at work!

Here I am cleaning the brakes. I love that brake clean! It smells nice and helps me feel happy. All inappropriate high jokes aside, I did love doing them.
And look at those brake pads, not a moment too soon! The new ones are in the front, the old ones in the back.

I da man!

First Day

Today was Ali's first day of Kindergarten! I can not believe my baby is in school! Here are some pictures from this morning. We were lucky enough to step out of the door and see the Barnes'. Melissa Barnes is the lady who has the home day care that Ali goes to. Her son Christopher was starting today too. She was out of town, but her husband Jason was walkin Christopher, older sister Laura (3rd grade) and friend Sophie. Here is Ali chasing Christopher next to the school.
Here is Alison in the school yard in her first day outfit.
And lastly here is Ali next to new friend Caroline in the classroom. (Caroline has the same Tinkerbell backpack as Ali)
I worked half a day so I could pick her up after school. She had a "good" day. She said Kindergarten is harder than she thought, she has to raise her hand to go to the bathroom. Her teacher just got the job, so the classroom is not set up yet, hopefuly it will be ready soon!

Little Piece of heaven

We were introduced to a little slice of heaven this summer. I was looking for somewhere to take Ali for a beach day. She gave me directions to this wonderful place. I am not saying gthe name of the beach, nor the city it is in because it is a neighborhood beach, and I like it that way!! Here is Ali in the water.
Here is Ali eating a popsicle from the Ice Cream truck.
Here is Ali at her little tideal wall (not very effective!!)
We have been there a few times, I would go there every weekend if possible! I love it there! There is amazing sea glass and shells, hopefully soon I can post some pictures of some kind of neat craft made from the glass and shells!

Strange

My ex-husband has a girlfriend. Although he will deny it, I can tell. For one, he has not called Ali on the weekend for quite a while. He has always called her nightly, annoyingly nightly. Even when she does not want to talk, he still calls and calls. Suddenly he stops calling on the weekends. Also, as my sister has pointed out, if you read his blog (click here to see it) his entries all talk about "we". "We" did this and "we" did that. He has suddenly been pushing through our divorce, bugging me about something that until recently was somthing that was not his radar. He was still waiting for me to go back to him. It has been bothering me, him having a girlfriend, and I have been trying to figure out why. It is certainly not because I want to be back with him. Oh goodness no. I think it is because I know the him she is getting right now. The Will I fell in love with. The fun guy who goes places, takes you on trips, is always trying to impress you. He is charming and funny and great to be around. I want to call this woman and warn her "It is all a ruse, he will change!! He will get mean and nasty and sick of you", but then I realize that may not be the case. I would imagine that he has changed since I last spent much time with him. He claims that he has changed, but I don't know for sure.

Although that is part of it, I think there is more. I think it is because he CAN date. He can go out whenever he wants. He can meet someone and not have to worry about what kind of person they are, are they safe to one day maybe have around our child. He does not even have to ever mention that he has a child. If he does, he will give the "poor me" story. I got one of his poor me story. The one I got was about his horrible ex-girlfriend who treated him so awful. He is going to tell her all about the wicked ex-wife who took his darling girl, the light of his life, and left. For me, being a single mom it like carying around a huge banner that says "don't date me, I have baggage" If I were to actually to met someone who is not terrified that I have a child, can I go out? Can I get a sitter, and can I afford a sitter? Am I going to be taking time from my daughter? I feel bad enough that we only spend nights and weekends together as it is, can I take more time from her to date and actually not feel guilty? It really does make me angry that he has absolutely no responsibility for our child. Yes, he does pay support for her, although not anywhere near what he can or should be paying. But that is it. He sees her a few times a year, and even then he stays with us, uses my car, and I am always around.

Although I am complaining about this, when it comes right down to it, I have Alison. I would never trade that for anything else in the whole world. I love my baby, I love being her mom. She is the coolest kid in the whole world. He is amazing, and I can happliy live without ever dating again if it means that she grows up healthy and happy. It is easy to complain when I see him dating and lying to us about it all that is going on ("I just want the divorce for closure", "I should start staying in a hotel when I come to visit, I don't want to bother you guys"), but I have an amazing child and the wonderful blessing to be with her every day. That is better than anything else in the world.

Our Summer

Do you like my mower? Our lawn mower broke, and I told my step-father I would like to get one of the eco-friendly ones that run on good old human power. He said "I think we have one in the cellar." Sure enough we did! It is the mower that was here when we moved into the apartment when I was three. The building has been in my family for a long time, my grandmother grew up in the apartment I now live in. This is the mower my great-grandfather used to mow this lawn. And what would you know, it still works fine! The blades are still sharp after 20 somthing years in the cellar. Here is an after picture, although it is more of a pool picture!


Although you probably can't see it, behind the ladder in the corner of the yard is a small fenced off area. Last year it was where I planted the veggies, the groundhog got in and ate them. This year it has a corn stalk Ali started at her babysitter's house during the school year. I think it is Indian Corn.

Here is my back porch garden. In order to keep the groundhog away from my veggies, they are container bound on my porch. On the right is a tomato plant, on the left front is a strawberry plant, then behind it another tomato. At the back you can kind of make out the wire that is attached to a container which has peas in it. YUMMY!



And lastly, my herbs. They are in buckets hanging over the porch. The closest bucket is basil, then Dill, Mint (not quite up yet) and lastly Chamomile.


Someday I hope to have my own house with a nice yard, with a corner fenced off for our yummy garden. I can grow all kinds of veggies in it. Someday.

normal Saturday

Today we had a pretty normal Saturday, except we had Will visiting. We were waiting for the call from Doug that it was Yard Sale time, but that call never came. He went without us. We headed out around 10:00 (late for a Saturday) and headed for a Yard Sale. Of course, Will had decided he wanted to go out for breakfast and was hungry, so he was pretty much like a 2 year old, so we quickly checked out one yard sale, then headed out for breakfast. After breakfast at the diner we went to two yard sales (a record low) but fortunately one had a ton of good books, so I did make out well. After the yard sales we ran some errands, I paid for the first two weeks of camp for Ali and we showed Will around the Beverly YMCA. We came home for a nap around 2:30 and woke around 5:00 (Ali and I are good nappers.) Will wanted to go out for dinner, and wanted to go to Woodmans in Essex, but when we got there, the line was down the street. We decided to head to Gloucester and go to Amelia's, which has the best tarter sauce in the world. We ate out on the porch, and then headed to Good Harbor Beach across the street for "a walk." Good thing I though to bring a towel.
Here is Ali playing in the sand. Good Ali!

Uh-oh! What is this? "Can I get my feet wet?" turned into "I LOVE THE WATER!!!" And notice the devilish look on her face
Now we have given up all notions of keeping dry. Here is Ali running in the water, completely drenched.
But, best of all, look at this fabulous picture. Ali found a Hermit Crab. I love the beach!!

After the beach we stopped for Ice Cream at Cherry Hill (Ali got M&M, I got 5 Star General (blue mint with oreos and white chocolate chunks) and Will got cake batter). Will has a cab coming at 3:45 to take him to the airport for his 6 am flight. The airport is about 30 minutes away making bad time. By the time we get up for church, he will already be in the air on his way home.

Ruggles Mine

We had a blast at Ruggles Mine today!!! It was a long drive (about 2.5 hours) but mostly through beautiful NH. It was a bit expensive ($20.00 per adult and $10.00 per child) and we rented two rock hammers ($3.00 each, plus $10.00 deposit per), but it was so much fun! It is mostly an open pit mine, so you get to walk around in these huge open pits and look at the ground, the walls and everthing around. There were a lot of small caves to go in and explore, even one with water in it! Here are some pictures of the site.

This is what you see as you first walk down into the pits.

Here is a better picture with some people, it helps show the scale of it! You can make out Ali's head on the bottom of the picture, bounding ahead anxious to start looking for crystals!

Here is one of the underground ponds. Very pretty!

Here is my bounty, all washed and drying on a paper towel. --->


Here is one of my favorite finds, next to a dime so you can see the size. It is all mixy with quartz in it. I heart it.

Here is another favorite. I love the black vein going through it, although I have no idea what it is.

Alison was the mica queen. She found some big honkin pieces of it!

And lastly, some pieces of rock that I broke out of the wall of the cave with a rock hammer. I can not tell you how good it feels to bang and bang on a wall with a metal hammer and break pieces off. I should be a form of relaxation. It makes sparks too. How much cooler can you get?

time flies

I keep meaning to blog, but then life keeps getting in the way. I am at the end of my 3 week summer vacation from school. It has been fabulous, Ali and I played a lot, we got a lot done, and we went to NY for almost a week. Pictures from that in a bit.

First of all, we have a member of our family that has rejoined us from afar!!!

Jet is home!! Jet lived with us here in Ma, and in Ga and FL, but when we moved back from FL, we left her with my sister while we found a place to live, and since she got along so well with Julie's cat Shadow (RIP Shadow) she stayed there. Shadow died last year, and now with the twins, Julie felt like she was not giving Jet enough attention, so we took her back!

Will and I got Jet when she was about 5 weeks old. My friend had her mom, and she was the last kitten, and they couldn't find a home for her. She was a tiny ball of black fur. Although you can't really tell from this picture (she was not into getting her pucture taken) she is an absolutely adorable cat. She is rather smallish and thinish, with a small head, with BIG ears and BIG eyes. She looks a bit like Momo on Avatar. She is an absolutely delightful cat. She is very independent, she does not like to be held. If she wants to be patted, she will come up and flop down next to you and meow one of her "meeps" She is rather skittish in nature, so she is never underfoot. She does not demand expensive food or litter. She loves to roll around in catnip and sits behind my head at night and purrs with her mouth open. I forgot how nice it is to have a cat in the house, purring behind my head when I watch TV and sleeping at my feet at night. She does the silliest things, she doesn't really meow, she talks. She "eeps" and "meeps" and every once in while does the silent meow, when she looks at you, meows, but makes no noise. She likes to flop down on on side when you are looking at her then roll around and make all kinds of cute cat stretches. She and the bird get along fine. The bird squaks at her a bit, and she stares at the bird a bit, but they have an understanding; the bird stays up, the cat stays down.

As I mentioned, we also went to New York. My neices are absolutely adorable! Here are some wornderful pictures.

Mia is on the left, Lily on the right.

Lily, Ali and Mia. The girls just think Alison is the neatest thing since pureed peaches. They watch whatever she does, and laughs hysterically at all of her songs and dances and any other thing she may do. One day I caught Alison standing on the back of Julie & Pete's couch talking jbberish, I was about to tell her to GET DOWN, WE DO NOT TREAT FURNITURE LIKE THAT, when I noticed the girls in their bouncy seats watching her laughing away. It seems that the naughtier the action, the funnier it is to them. We are in a lot of trouble once these girls become mobile. Ali is going to have her own peanut gallary egging her on.

Tomorrow we are off to Ruggles Mines in NH for some mineral, rock and hopefully crystal collecting. I will post all about it soon!

Updates

This is horrible, it has been a month since I last posted.

We have been busy! School is winding down, so I have been trying to get lesson plans written, transcripts caught up and the summer session planned. Our move to the new facility looms large, so any free time at work is spent packing. Being the English teacher, I have the most books to pack.

Alison is playing soccer and she is very good! Of course, I am biased. I think she is one of the best on her team. However since it is the Under 6 team, that is not a HUGE thing, most of the kids stand in the middle of the field and talk. I found a new sitter for the summer which is very good news. The sitter from last summer is looking at colleges and won't be available as much. Ali finishes preschool in a few weeks, then after the summer she is off to Kindergarten. I can't believe my baby is headed to kindergarten!

The poetry slam at school was a HUGE success. The boys were incredible! The ones who participated did an amazing job. They really put themselves out there to perform and were outstanding. The ones who watched were the perfect audience. They listened quietly, clapped when they were done, and had even heard about the beat poets who snapped at poetry and did that. Everyone is asking when we are going to do it again!

For Bruce

Bruce Alyson Gates - 4/59-5/07

I’m sorry you’re hurting
But please don’t mourn me
For at last I am happy
I am finally free

I can soar with the hawk
High over the wood
I can rustle the leaves
Where in life I had stood

I’m the first ray of dawn
I’m noontime’s warm light
I’m evening’s first star
I’m the songs of the night

You can’t understand
Why I left you so soon
But you’ll now hear my voice
In the call of the loon

When you miss me look up
To the sky where I soar
Go out to the woods
To the place I adore

I am always with you
Look around and you’ll see
I am finally happy
At last I am free

Lisa Ritcher

Poetry Slam

Tomorrow is the first ever Poetry Slam against Alliance House. Alliance House is a treatment program near here, run by the same agency as us. Many of your boys go on to Alliance House when they leave us. I was sitting next to the English teacher at a professional development day when we hatched this idea, and now it has come to fruition. I am so nervous! We are hosting it (since many of our boys can't travel), they are coming around 10, and we are slamming it poetry style. I am excited, Alliance House is bringing close to 10 guys, mostly our former residents, and we have close to 10 that are going for it. I made muffins and congo bars (the Congo bars were a specific request), they are bringing cookies and we are providing punch. I would never ask my boys to put themselves out there unless I was willing to also, so I wrote a poem to perform. I had written one called "Ode to the N word - dedicated to Hansel and all of my boys who try to get me to say it", but I just don't feel like it is done yet. So tonight I wrote a new one. I think it is pretty good, I know it will be well received by the kids. Here it is: (untitled)

You think you’re sly with your
SugarHoneyIcedTea
Like you invented it
Like we were never kids

Or ShutTheFrontDoor
Sure…..

You try to pull a fast one on us with your
Fff this and Fff that
Ya, we never pulled that one either

How about the ring finger bird?
Nope, not an original

You flash your gang signs
Then act surprised when caught
Like we don’t know what you are up to

On dogs we do.

We sigh when you curse us out
You’re not the first
You won’t be the last

We roll our eyes when you complain about
Not using colored pens
Not wearing certain brands
Are you really surprised?

You try to play the race card
Claim it’s all about race

It is

A race against time
To show you who you can be
To help you find your way
To prepare you

A race against the past
Helping you find your way out
Proving you are more
Proving you can

A race against every bad thing
Pulling you in every direction

And we keep coming in day after day

Ready to race

Ready to force it

Ready to steal points

Ready for you

Lily & Mia

How adorable are my nieces???

Happy Easter!

Happy Easter!!

I know this is a day early, but we are going to be so busy tomorrow, I don;t think I will get the chance to blog. I love Easter. All week Ali and I have been talking about what is going on biblically. Today we discussed how tomorrow we get our "Alleluia" back and why.

Here is a picture of Ali with the Easter bunny last weekend.

writing

I have never been one to share my writing, but if I want to be a writer, I need to start! This is something I wrote yesterday at my professional development day. We were assigned the prompt "a turning point in my life" and had to pick either "when time stood still" or "when time flew by." I picked time standing still. I got some very positive comments on it. Here it is:

I remember the day I said goodbye to my friend Sarah. She was in my kitchen, we were 18, and we both knew we would never see each other again.

Sarah was my “drug buddy”, to use a phrase from a Lemonheads song. I had met Sarah through a mutual friend. At first she was the source of the drugs we did, but she became my friend. She had all the great parties I heard about but never attended. We hung out with skaters, taggers and druggies, all male. Not wanting to appear weak or girly, we had to keep up a strong front. Desperation to define ourselves drew us together.

Quickly my life hit a turning point, graduation. I had been accepted to a college 1200 miles away. I was the first in my family going to college. If I was going to succeed, I had to grow up. No more drugs. Mo more running from my problems. No more lies. I knew that meant leaving Sarah behind.

She came by one evening to say goodbye. We both pretended that we would see each other soon. We smiled nervously and talked about my first break. The moment is frozen in my mind, Sarah in my kitchen saying goodbye. Realizing I would never see her again. I hugged Sarah and said goodbye, leaving my rocky childhood behind.

Community Service

Today I took 6 of my students, one counselor (thanks Jeff) and went to my church to get some work done. Our parking lot was in bad shape. It is surrounded by a fence and other properties, and over the years trash, leaves and "crud" has piled up against the fence. We were there for four hours raking, bagging and cleaning the property. I think we removed about 30+ lawn and garden bags full of stuff! We also cleaned up all of the landscaping around the church grounds. I wish I could post pictures, but since they are juveniles, I can't. I wish I could show pictures of T, who has one of those smiles that makes you smile. He spent most of the time chasing Alison and playing ball with her. And A, who grabbed the camera and took about 10 pictures of himself. The same A who was in class last week talking about how he feels like a loser because of where he is and what he has done. There was J, a talented artist who rips up all of his pictures as soon as he is done, a talented write who says "I hate to write" who did the work of 4 kids. D, who misses his year-old son, who worked the whole time while joking with the guys. Lastly there was E & E. EA was away from his "boy from the out" for once, and it was nice to see him not putting on a show, and EG who worked hard and even seemed to forget that he is always trying to fit in, he just fit in for once. I wish I could show the great pictures I took of them when we were done, but they pictures go to the school, no where else.

There was one thing that happened that I will always remember. We went inside the church to use the bathroom, and the boys asked if there was somewhere they could pray. I opened the church door, and they silently went in to the darkened church, knelt down at the alter and prayed. As I stood at the door, and watched them, I saw them for what they really are. Not juvenile deliquents, not at-risk teenagers, but children of God. It is an image I wish everyone could see when they see them. Not rough teenagers looking mean, but children who kneel at the alter and ask for forgiveness. It is an image I will always keep with me. As we walked back out to get back to work, T turned to me and said "Now that was some good praying", and flashed that grin.

It is days like these that I know why I love my job so much, and why God led me to it.