And One Year Ago Today...Part II

In the days after we closed on the new house, we began to feel that we might as well move into Lowes and Home Depot. We did a lot of searching for just the right paint colors, we had to get all the painting supplies, and we needed more boxes and tape!

Here is the bedroom sitting room as it looked in March--before we closed. The sellers were in the process of moving out. The walls were a color called Chaps Suede--the same as the living room and upper dining room. The bookeshelves were a kind of light green-blue. We thought it was too much contrast. Although it looked good with the sellers furniture when we first saw the house.




I wanted something warmer and not quite as dark. MLC and I ran around the house on Friday, April 28, 2006, with those three-color paint samples--the ones with the holes in them. For the master bedroom/sitting room, we chose a light color called Champagne Glee. The wall of the fireplace, we painted the middle color, called Badlands Taupe, and the bookshelves were painted the darkest on the sample, called Victorian Rose. In some light, these colors are pinker than I thought they would be, but they are light and warm--making the rooms seem very airy--even in the winter-time. Here is the sitting room after we moved in. More books have gone on the shelves since the picture was taken, but it is otherwise about the same.

The master bath was the same green as the bookshelves in the sitting area. It was very striking with the purple curtains. But there was no purple in the tile, and it was dark in the morning.

Still, the sellers made a lovely room there with the candles and the towel rack in the corner. I am still planning on doing something like the that in wrought iron. I have to save my pennies up!

MLC noticed that the Badlands Taupe picked up a color in the tile border, so we painted the master bath that color--except the corner wall by the shower (right in the picture) is the Victorian Rose.

The water closet had pure white walls and one purple wall. That seemed too stark for us. I painted the water closet the Champagne Glee and the purple wall is now Victorian Rose.

Painting a bathroom is a real project, let me tell you! We had to take the medicine cabinet down. And getting a ladder into a 4' X 2.5' water closet without removing the toilet was a challenge. Especially in order to reach those 10' ceilings! But it came out looking nice! The after picture was taken really "after"--I mean after we got the new tub in!

Thanks for indulging my nostalgia about the weeks in which we picked out colors and painted. And made at least one trip a day to a home-improvement store! At the time it felt frantic because we had a deadline for moving in. But I also remember the fun we had--picnicing on our new dining room floor. Camping out in the living room. Driving back to Albuquerque at dusk when the deer were feeding by the road. It was a pretty good time.

NOT that I want to do that again any time soon!

One Year Ago Today...

One year ago today, we closed on our mountain house.

After closing, we picked up N., loaded Henry with the first load of many boxes and drove on up to see our new home. Because we planned to paint some of the rooms before we moved in, we actually moved on May 19. We took our camera on that first afternoon. Above is the house as we saw it the first time we drove up as proud new owners.

This was the kitchen as it looked on Wednesday evening April 26, 2006. The sellers left us a card and loaf of bread. The wall below the wainscotting on the far right is dark blue.

Here is what the kitchen looked like after we moved in. We painted the wall below the wainscotting on the far right Belmont Green.

On the right is the dining room as it looked on April 26, 2006. Note the blue walls below the wainscotting, the chandelier and the blue flowered curtains. Although very pretty, we thought the blue was too dark. Which is why we replaced it with a color called Belmont Green.

This is the dining room after we moved in.

We replaced the curtains to match the walls, and we put in a new chandelier that we thought was more elegant and matched the upper wall color and complimented our dining room furniture.

To the right is the living room south wall on April 26, 2006. We did no painting in the living room at all. We liked it just the way it was.

We did paint Bruce's office, MLC bedroom and bathroom, N.'s bedroom, my office and the master suite and bathroom, however.

Here is the living room as it looked after we moved in. It is amazing what furniture and pictures on the wall will do.

Last year at this time, we embarked on a three-week project. Every Friday evening during that period we drove up, painted until it got dark, and had a "picnic" Shabbat dinner in our new dining room. Saturday afternoon and all day Sunday were devoted to "working on the new house." N. and I would drive up on Wednesday afternoons as well. I was teaching part time and left early on Wednesday. In Albuquerque, the elementary schools let out early Wednesday afternoon for teaching planning time, so N. was available as well.

Every time we came up, we loaded Henry the Big Red Truck up. By May 19--a Sunday--we had brought most of the boxes. That day, the Bruce and Friends Cooperative Movers rented a U-Haul and moved the furniture, washer, dryer, and other "big" items up. MLC and I brought up the cats and then the dogs, cleaned the new house and directed traffic. N.'s BSA troop obligingly had a camp-out that weekend, so he was safely out of the way.

It was a good move. We were able to pay off the new house with the proceeds from selling the old house--which was our plan. It all worked out very well. But I am glad that that three week period of chaos is over! I always forget how much work making a move is.

But at the same time, I remember that time with a certain nostalgic fondness. It was exciting to be picking out paint, going up to the new house as a family and working together to get it ready for a new phase of life...

But please, do me a favor. Sit me down and give me a good talking-to if I ever start mentioning wanting to move again!

B-B-B-Busy as a BEE! Carnival of Homeschooling

Almost there!



Last night we did our Mock Trial for Special Education Law.

I was worried because the case was difficult and had only one obvious strategy for the plaintiff's side--which was my group's job. Since I am the "Doc" student, I had to be a lawyer. Most groups had 4 people and 2 lawyers, but one student walked out on our group two weeks ago, leaving us with three students. That meant only one lawyer. Me. Have I said that I don't LIKE lawyers very much? Or maybe I should rephrase that--I don't like BEING a lawyer very much. But the others in my group worked hard and helped out a lot last night. Also, the other side did not anticipate our strategy and in fact, by adding a condition to the child in question, made our job easier! We'll find out who won next week, but we did a credible job.

It took hours for the adrenaline to wear off last night!

Today, I have to defend my hypothesis in Neurobiology. This morning I got up early to finish the slide presentation and practice. I couldn't sleep well last night due to that dratted adrenaline! So today I am tired. I hope I can get myself "up" for the presentation. It is 10 minutes with 5 minutes of questions.

Tonight is Guinness Time!

Tomorrow is "take your offspring to work" day at Sandia National Labs. Bruce will take N. I have the day off to recover. I intend to spend part of it over at the Carnival of Homeschooling at Sprittibee! It very appropriately has a "Bee" theme--that works for me!

I still have a reflection paper to write for the Mock Trial and a final to take for Special Education Law. I think the final is overkill after the work it took to do the Mock Trial.
Sigh!

I am counting the days: ALMOST THERE!

Field Trip Friday

Yesterday two big events were on the agenda.

First, the National Weather Service ABQ office held it's annual open house for weather spotters. We have maintained a NWS issued precipitation meter and we are weather spotter station 53 for their "CityNet" program--although we are now outside the city. They have added several other spotters in the East Mountains--soon they will have to change the name to "CountyNet."

So, despite looming paper and presentation deadlines, Bruce, N. and I hopped into Henry for a trip to the NWS.

Here you see N. standing in front of the antique computer that launches weather balloons twice a day, at 4 AM and 4 PM (Zero and 1200 Zulu). (Bruce has a cute way of stepping in with sandwich in hand when I snapped a shot. I lost a few because all you could see was the sandwich).

It is an antique, but it still works--so far.

It is telling that the NWS is one government agency that citizens get services from every day, and important ones at that, and yet they have severe budgetary restrictions going back to Ronald Reagan's presidency. It took them 20 years and countless lives lost in weather emergencies befure they got Doppler Radar in place. The TV stations had them long before the NWS! (They did not say this at NWS--they are good civil servants--but I read it elsewhere).

Here is N. at the forcast desk.

There are several stations at the NWS. There is the Aviation Desk, the Forcast Desk, the Long-Term Outlook Desk (which does 7 day forcasting) and then there is a communications center for talking to the weather spotters. If we get serious rain, wind, hail, snow or see a tornado, we call it in. We also call in temperatures and barometric pressures twice a day. With our terrain, they need this information to forcast winds more accurately. Communications is also important for weather emergencies--like the New Years Snowstorm!

We had a tour of every desk and learned how the meteorologists do their work. N. learned that most of them now have a B.S. in Meteorology and that there are only a few schools that have the degree.

After the NWS, we ran some errands, including getting supplies for N.'s Scout Camp-o-ree.

The Sandia district of the Great Southwest Council had their annual Camp-O-Ree at Cedro Peak--just a few miles from us. We took N. there instead of meeting at the church where his troop meets.

A Camp-O-Ree is not just a regular camping trip. Rather, many different troops gather together and they practice various field exercises. Two things N. mentioned were night orienteering and field first aid.

This year, in honor of the scouting anniversary, the theme was the Boer War. Lord Baden-Powell got his idea for a scouting movement for boys during his service in the Boer War in South Africa. So the boys learned a little something about the Dutch "Afrikaaners" and the English Colonists and the war they fought at the turn of the 20th century.

Here is N. all ready for his Camp-O-Ree experience.

He was not thrilled about my taking his picture, but I told him that was my job as his mother. "Someday..." I started.

"I'll thank you for it! I know, I know!" he completed my sentence.

These boys learn some amazing things in scouts.

This afternoon, I picked up a very tired and wind-burned young scout from his experience. He said the best part was crawling through a simulated mine-field at 3 AM using their compasses in the dark to orienteer.

Only a dedicated scout would be enthusiastic about that!

Where Are You Going, My Little One?

This morning, as I was placing his daily cup of hot chocolate breakfast drink before him, N. announced:

Well, today is the last day!"

"The last day of what?" I queried absently, thinking more about adding figures to my hypothesis paper than about what he was saying.

"Kamana." He replied. "Actually, Kamana I. Today I will listen to the cd about bird language, reflect on finding my secret spot and then take the "Alien Test."

"Well, then," I said. "After you do that, we will need to copy the pages that Wilderness Awareness School will want to see so that you can send in for your certificate. And we will have to order the supplies for Kamana II."

Inside myself I was thinking: "What? How did he get here so fast!" You see, he took charge of the whole thing. I was not even aware of where he was in the program. All I did was make sure that he had supplies he needed as well as drive him to the library so that he could check out supplemental nature books. And I read to him.

In the meantime, we did do some study about the Shoah--at his suggestion--but I was not teaching.

So somewhere deep within, I think I was wondering if the "guide on the side" method really worked.

There was an inkling of doubt about the whole unschooling approach. I mean, it works for those other kids--the perfect ones--but mine? He's not normal--but in a good way. But still...

I am really glad that I did not let myself get in the way.

Oh, every once in a while I would ask him about his progress. He'd tell me how to tell the difference between dog and coyote tracks. Or where to look for bear scat. Evidently, Ursa is picky about his toileting habits.

Last week, he snuck up on me while I was typing and nearly caused me to bolt from my chair. "I was practicing the 'fox-walk' Mom!"

So why do I feel surprised by his independence?

Or am I suffering preliminary "empty-nest" syndrome? This is what it means to be a mother: Watching your beloved child walk off into the sunset. Again. And again. And again.

It's a bittersweet moment every time.

"Where are you going, my little one, my little one?

Where are you going, my baby, my own.

Turn around and you're two,

Turn around, and you're four,

Turn around and you're a young man, just going out the door."

A Black Day

Where were you when you heard about the black day at Virginia Tech?

I was sitting in the SUB (Student Union Building) at The University of New Mexico. I had just completed a test and I was feeling pretty satisfied with it. I was setting up my computer to read my e-mail and check the blogs I follow. Then I heard the sound of shooting.

It was coming from the giant flat-screen in the corner near where I was sitting. And as I listened to the eye-witness accounts, I was thinking that I was seated in front of a floor-to-ceiling plate-glass window. If someone with a gun were to decide the shoot at the SUB..... well, I would be in harm's way. I didn't move.

As one does, at times like this, I was thinking that the peaceful scene outside the window--newly leafed-out trees swaying in the wind, undergraduates going by in flip-flops with eighty pound backpacks, a couple holding hands at a table outside--felt like it was not in the same world where this tragedy happened.

Thirty-three lives. Gone. Just...like...that.

It was hard to come back to my world...the one on a campus where such a thing would never happen. Would it?

There will be much to say in the coming days about the how's and the why's. I am sure there will be finger-pointing, calls for legislation, hand-wringing and lawsuits. I may even have an opinion or two. Maybe. Next week.

But for now, it is a time to think about the loss of 33 individuals--people with dreams, goals, joys and sorrows. Gone. Just. Like. That.

The Carnival of Homeschooling: A "Taxing" Proposition

The 68th Carnival of Homeschooling is up over at The Cates--Why Homeschool?

For the humor about taxes alone, it is worth a trip over. But there are also a number of thoughtful and interesting articles to read. I look forward to it every week. This week, especially, a diversion is a good thing.