Tuesday in Texas - A Farewell to Summer!

Not that you would know this by the 104 degree temperatures here in Dallas, but summer, at least as it is known to those of us who are teachers, is winding down.  This is the last week that my husband and I are off together.  He returns to school on Monday for teacher in-service.  His first day with students is the 24th.  I have a little bit more time to ease back into the routine, with a few required appointments at school over the next two weeks, but classes don’t start in earnest until August 31st.

This has been a lovely summer break for us.  We had a good bit of “down” time at home, a fantastic vacation, lots of opportunities to spend time with friends, and we have accomplished many long-neglected household chores.  Though I am not really ready to go back to work, as I face the inevitable start of another school year, at least I can say that I am mentally prepared to return thanks to having twelve weeks off.

Perhaps the most significant revelation that I have had during my summer break is that running a household is a full-time job!  I now realize why so many things at home are left undone between August and June; we simply don’t have the hours in our days and/or the energy in our bodies to get it all done.  You would think that I would have figured this out a long time ago, while I had kids at home.  I guess during those years I didn’t have the time to give the whole scenario that much thought.

Our days have included getting dogs and cats to the vet for annual check-ups and vaccines, auto maintenance, air conditioner servicing, electrical work done, cleaning out the garage, sorting through closets, rearranging to make room for the things that came from my parents’ home, and lots of other smaller tasks.  When I list them here, it doesn’t seem like so much, but somehow, on top of regular stuff like laundry, dishes, dusting and vacuuming, our days have been packed full.  

We joked, well sort of joked, that one of us needs to retire and stay home so that the house would be clean and cared for more than two months out of the year!  I think back to the times when two incomes weren’t necessary and homemaking was respected.  Think about it.  What would life be like if the laundry was done before dinner instead of during?  If you were home to get the packages left by UPS when they were delivered rather than after they’d sat in the rain, heat, or snow for several hours?  If you cleaned up the hairball right after it appeared instead of once it dried on the rug?  If the evenings could be spent enjoying time together doing something other than walking side by side while hauling trash bags to the curb or holding the dust pan while the other sweeps?

My quandary comes from both loving my job and wanting a calm, clean, cared for home.  Yep, I want to have my cake and eat it too!  I know there are many people who work so that they can pay others to do all the things that I just mentioned.  They have “a staff.”  Remember when I said that we are both teachers?  Well, we don’t have a staff.  In fact, we ARE the staff both at home and at work!  Oh well…

I guess I will enjoy my last few weeks of order and cleanliness at home and then, well…call before you come for a visit so I can at least sweep up the big wads of dog hair and put the toilet paper on the roll.  Don’t judge us on the state of our house. Know that we are giving our time and energy to educating your kids!

Tuesday in Texas - In Need of a Little Grass

I am happy to report that our plumbing project is complete!  That is a good thing because we had a slow start due to the amazing amounts of rain we had last month and now we are about to get slammed with more rain from tropical storm "Bill."  Hopefully the parts of Texas that are still recovering from the May deadly flood waters will not be hit again.

Our next project is to replace the yard that was destroyed during the replacement of the pipes.  I have to be honest here and say that we were never in contention for yard of the month.  We have put off investing time and money in the yard, but now we have no choice; it has to be done.  Though I love beautiful plants and flowers, landscape gardening is not my forte.  If I am going to spend time gardening, it is going to be vegetable gardening; and I haven't done much of that lately.  Thinking through this project has become kind of like the landscape version of the children's book If You Give A Mouse A Cookie.

At a minimum, the entire front yard has to have new sod put down.  We don't have a sprinkler system so we decided that this would be a good time to have one of those put in, while we have no yard to speak of anyway.  Then there are a few bushes that really need to go and some trees that need to be trimmed...you see where this is going.  We decided that it was time to call in a professional.  I went on the search for a landscape company with whom to work.  I first tried asking friends for recommendation, but came up empty.  Then I went to the Internet.  I looked for company's that were local and who had good reviews.  I looked for those that did landscaping, hardscaping, and irrigation systems.  I also checked to make sure that did residential work.  Still, it felt like I was working in the dark.  I narrowed my choices to two.  Then I made the first phone call.

This is how that first call went:

Woman on the other end: Hello. **** Landscaping.  How may I help you?
Me: I have a yard that is in need of some TLC and I am hoping that you can help me with that.
Woman on the other end: We don't do residential work.
Me: Really?  Your website says that you do.
Woman on the other end: Well, we do only if you are intending to spend $50,000 are more.  Are planning to spend more than $50,000?
Me: (Feeling perturbed) Well, I hadn't really thought about it in those terms exclusively.  I don't think we really have anything else to talk about.  Thank you for your time.  Click.

No.  We are not planning on spending $50,000.  LOL!  That is not what perturbed me. The thing that got me is that based on whatever, she made some determination that I was not worth her time.  How did she know at the point that she told me that they did not do residential work that I wasn't planning on spending $150,000?  This woman didn't know my name, my address, anything about me.  Even if I was going to spend that kind of money, it definitely wouldn't be with that company.

I know that landscaping is expensive.  I also know that landscapers can be kind of difficult to work with, but surely there is someone out there who wants the business of the average American citizen.  Everyone else wants my money!

Feeling a little skeptical, I made the phone call to my second choice.  Thankfully, that conversation was much more civil and relaxed.  The landscape architect came out this morning.

There is no question that he felt a little overwhelmed by the disaster that greeted him.  I suspect that he was worried about how much it would cost to accomplish what we need to accomplish, but he didn't make any assumptions about what we could or would be willing to pay; he simply talked to us about what we need and what we want.  We walked around the yard and talked about possibilities.  He and I seemed to agree on the general feel and style that we are going for.

At the very end of our conversation, he did finally ask what our budget was.  I told him that what would make me happy is if he would draw up a "dream plan" and see what that would cost.  Then, if we have to start whittling away at it, we will.  I don't want the whole thing to be driven solely by money.  Plus, I figured if I gave him a hard and fast dollar amount, he would spend every last penny of it even if we could do it for less.   We'll see what he comes up with.  Our first step is to have a survey done.

Funny story about the landscape architect...when he first got to the house, he and Weber kept looking at each other funny.  Finally Wil said, "You look familiar."  Weber agreed that he looked familiar to him as well.  In situations like this, the familiarity is usually because Weber has taught the person. After a run down of where the landscaper went to school and where they both had worked, the two finally realized that they had actually been colleagues back in 2003.  The landscaper had been the orchestra teacher at the school where Weber still teaches.   2003 was Weber's first year there and it turned out to be Wil's last year as a teacher.  He decided that being a music educator was not is calling and went back to school to become a landscape architect.

It really is a small world!

Stay tuned for before and after photos...

Tuesday in Texas - Gift Giving and Receiving

This is my last week of school for this academic year.  I have already given four exams.  I give two tomorrow and two more on Thursday.  I'll play in the orchestra for graduation on Thursday night, spend Friday finalizing and submitting grades and then it is over. Though I am more than ready for some much needed rest, I don't like that the end of the school year means having to say good-bye to those students who are leaving us and going on to continue their education at four year institutions.

There is one student in who is transferring in the fall that I will particularly miss though he has not even officially been in any of my classes this year.  I had him in a sequence of courses during the 2013-2014 school year; however, he has come to "sit in" on a couple of my classes throughout  this year as well.  He was a fantastic student when he was officially in my classes and has been an asset to this year's students in his unofficial capacity this year as well.

At the end of each semester, this student, whose family is Vietnamese, would bring egg rolls homemade by his mom, to class on the day of the final exam.  These were the best darn egg rolls that I have ever had.  This opinion was echoed by all who ate them!  On the final day of his last class with me, he gave me a gift of a whole pan of frozen egg rolls ready to be fried.  I had egg rolls for the entire summer!   This may have been one of the best end of year gifts that I have ever received from a student.  I found myself rationing egg rolls over the next several months not wanting to eat the last one.

Today, on this student's last day on our campus, he came by my classroom as I was giving a final exam saying that he had a gift for me.  To my surprise, he gave me a copy of his mom's egg roll recipe that he had handwritten himself, a package of frozen egg roll wrappers, and a few other ingredients that are most easily found at an Asian supermarket.  What a thoughtful gift!  It is moments like this that make all the long days and late nights in a teacher's world worth it!  I doubt that, even with her recipe, my egg rolls will taste half as good as his mom's, though that is certainly something for which to strive.  If I get good at making them, perhaps I will share the recipe in a Food Friday post.  Until then, I will have fun practicing.

On another note...

We have a winner in the gift basket giveaway!  Once the winner has received her basket in the mail, I will share here what my awesome gift-giving daughter chose for the basket.  I don't want to ruin the surprise for the recipient.

The winner was randomly chosen.  It is Sherri Stone!  Congratulations Sherry!  If you will send me your mailing info either via a Facebook private message or to my email address (kriselliott61@gmail.com), I will get your goodies in the mail.

Thank you to all of you who took the time to visit us here and leave a comment.  Tracey and I appreciate your support and your friendship!  Stop by often.  You never know when we might have something else to give away!

Tuesday in Texas - Teaching In Theory

I had other thoughts rolling around in my head for today's post, but since Tracey mentioned that today is Teacher Appreciation Day, I decided to play piggyback onto her post.

I have been a teacher since I was twenty one years old, beginning as a graduate teaching fellow and ending up where I am now, as professor of music theory and composition at the community college level.  The route I have taken is not one that I chose, but one that chose me.

I began college at age 17 as a music education major.  As an eighteen year old sophomore in college, I took my first music education courses, courses that involved going out into the schools and observing.  It was terrifying!  I was young and the thought that in two years I would be in a band hall all by myself with 70-80 students only a few years younger than I was did not warm my heart.  All of the band directors that I had ever had were older and male.  Mentally,  I could not put myself in that place.  And I was fairly certain that I did not want to be an elementary music teacher so I was left in a quandary.  Fortunately, at the same that  time I was taking this Foundations of Music Education course, I was also taking the final course in music theory, required of all music majors, with a professor who ultimately changed my life.  Mr. Searl is responsible for the teacher that I am today.  First of all, he is the one that first told me that I could actually major in music theory!  He had a more profound impact on me than any professor that I worked with in graduate school.  That doesn't seem right, but it is the way it is. 

What was it that made Mr. Searl different from other professors?  He genuinely cared.  He cared about teaching and he cared about me.  He recognized something in me that made him willing to invest time and energy in me.  Over my final two years as an undergraduate, he became my mentor.  He taught me how to read critically, how to write intelligently, and how to apply those skills.  His expectations  were high and his criticisms were “thorough.”  He helped me grow not only as a musician and a scholar, but also as a human being.  For all of that, I am eternally grateful.  

I was well prepared to begin graduate school when I left East Carolina University.  I was accepted into one of the most well-known schools of music and was awarded a graduate teaching fellowship.  Despite still never having had a young or female teaching role model, standing up in front of a classroom of 25 freshman music majors did not elicit the same degree of fear that standing in front of a high school band had just two short years before.  I was only a few years older, but I was much more confident as a musician and human being.  I knew the kind of teacher that I wanted to be.  I also knew that it would take time to become that person.

While in graduate school, I also learned about the kind of teacher that I did not want to be.  This too is an important lesson, but painful experiential learning!  Just last week, my office mate from graduate school, whom I have not seen since we finished 23 years ago, and I had an opportunity to see one another.  We relived all the miserable experiences that we shared in classes with those professors who hopefully were never considered by anyone as role models!

Just after finishing my doctoral coursework, I got a job teaching Foundations of Music at the local community college.  At the time, I viewed it as a resume builder, a job while I was working on my dissertation, a stepping stone to bigger and better things.   In school I was being trained as a researcher and scholar.  Teaching students to read music at a two-year college is certainly not what my major professors wanted to say that their students were doing.  We were supposed to get tenure track positions at prestigious universities.

As has probably become obvious, I never left that first  position.  I quickly realized that I loved teaching at the community college level.  The primary reason for this is that the focus is the students.  Student outcome rather than amassing personal recognition and research dollars was our goal.  I like having the privilege of working with students who are first generation college students, or who are coming back to school to begin a second career, or who are retired and just want to learn more.  In my years of teaching I have met some amazing people who have been successful despite a mountain of odds.   I have also had students who have become some of my best friends.  (This is OK in college:-))

When I am asked what I do, I always say first that I am teacher a second that I am a musician.  The fact is that my passion is teaching.  Music just happens to be the vehicle through which I get to share my passion.  Don’t get me wrong, I love making music, but something would definitely be missing in my life without the opportunity to share a love of learning with others.

Last week the school newspaper carried and article about me.  I knew what I had said in the interview, but I was touched by the comments made by several of my students.  If I can leave the same kind of mark on even just one of my students that Mr. Searl at East Carolina University left on me, then I will be satisfied with the work that I have done.  Mr. Searl taught me well as to what a good teacher is.  Let's hope that I learned as well as he taught.

Teaching is not easy.  It is not lucrative (at least in the humanities).  It is not glamorous.  But, if it is your calling, it is one of the most rewarding jobs there is.  I often refer to myself as a missionary to the field of education.

Don't forget that you can enter on each post for a chance to win the gift basket that we are giving away this weekend.  Just leave us a comment, or leave only your name in the comments section of each post.  At this point, you can have three entries.  Surely you are feeling lucky!!!

Monday in Michigan (even though it's Tuesday) - Happy Teacher Appreciation Day!

by Tracey G. 

Today is Teacher Appreciation Day - and let me tell there's a lot of teachers in my life I appreciate! I wish I could tell them all - but there are only a few I still have contact with and then there's my partner Kris - she's a teacher I greatly appreciate!! :-)

I can't believe that Harry's school year has just about 5 weeks left. It's flown by. It's been quite the experience as  well!! What started out fairly smooth really took a left turn, lol. We started with one teacher, Mr. K, who then left in December to pursue his dream of more of a management position, a Principal in a neighboring school district. We had a couple weeks of flux, with no one in the spot, then we got Ms. B. What a blessing she is and she certainly filled Mr. K's shoes quite well which was no small "feet", lol. (Yes, I know it's "feat", but "feet" and shoes was just too good to pass up, lol). I was very impressed when I got to meet her around parent-teacher conference time. We scheduled the meeting for the week after the conferences so there was no rush to get through it etc, and it was great. I left there so happy that she had taken the spot and that she was the one looking after and teaching Harry the rest of his first year of school!

And she's proven to be even more of a blessing with all the issues we've been having with Harry's anxiety and the health issues wrapped up in that whole mess as well. She's been so wonderful and kind and has gone far above and beyond the call of duty for us! Any of her students are fortunate to have her!

Her and I and the Elementary Success worker, Mr. D., got together for a meeting of the minds to come up with at plan to help him past this bump in the road - the separation anxiety with the added topping of fear of being sick at school. We ended up coming up with a plan that altered Harry's drop off routine, since him clinging to me and crying and calling for mama as he was being pulled off of me with the help of the teachers in the morning, was NOT a good thing, lol. Poor kid - hard on him and on me! So, we set up a temporary routine in hopes of short circuiting that reaction etc. We were meeting her every morning at the door by her classroom, which was a wonderful idea - that way any issues were easier to take care of not in the fray of students coming into school, etc. The first couple days were hard, I think the first day it took the 3 of us (Myself, Ms. B and Mr. D) to get him out of the car. Yep, out of the car. We chased him around the car! LOL INSIDE the car! It was actually quite humorous now to look back on it. Then we had to practically carry him to the door - the whole time he's crying and kicking me, lol. It's amazing I made it to the door without bruises! I told Ms. B. that the next day I'd have to walk backwards so I could get the other leg just as beat up, lol.

After that, every day got a little bit better and little bit better. Today, was the first day back to going into the front doors on his own. To help combat the getting sick at school anxiety, he now eats at home, and we go later. He used to like get there nice and early  to eat the breakfast at school (lots of fun and yummy choices!), but with all the tummy issues, and the getting sick at school anxiety, the eating at home helps so that all he has to do is go in, hang out in the cafeteria with his friends and wait for Ms. B to come down and collect all of them for class, and if he's having tummy issues he's got a little more time at home to work the kinks out. :-D I'm so happy today went well and I hope that it's the trend now - at least part of his issues helped out, if not eradicated at least lessened a bit. I know he still misses me while he's at school, he makes that clear to me and tells me every day. But I know eventually that's going to become a thing of the past as time goes on. Which means he's growing up, and it makes me a little sad at the bittersweet quality to it :-)

Anyway, throughout it all Ms. B has been so accessible, we text, email and call. She really keeps me in the loop as to how his day is going as she'll shoot me a short text letting me know, and it's really nice to be able to give her a head's up on days Harry's either not feeling so well, or having an "emotional" day, lol. :-) Communication has been the biggest thing through this all and I can't thank her enough for making that possible!!

So today if you know a teacher  - even if he/she wasn't one of yours or your child's - thank them for what they do. Their jobs aren't always easy that's for sure and really don't get thanked enough! I think they are all very underappreciated! I now am going to go and thank my favorite teacher, Mrs. M - I had her for 1st, 2nd and then 6th grades and I'm still friends with her today. I think I'm going to write on her FB page just how much she's meant to me through the years! And then I'm going to thank my wonderful friend and co-author here, on her FB page too!! :-D

Oh! I also want to remind everyone about our Gift Basket Giveaway! Kris's daughter, kindly agreed to put together a gift basket for us. The fun part is Kris left it completely up to her - only guidelines were to stay within the Pixels, Plates and LOLs theme as it were.  I think this is such a fun thing - I am so curious to see what she comes up with and I know I'll be bummed I can't win it myself, lol. To enter you just leave a comment on this or any post. And you can up your chances by leaving more comments! We'll choose the winner on Mother's Day, and once we have the mailing information locked down - out it will go! :-D Good luck!