Braces

Haley got her braces today. It was pretty cool, though probably a lot more interesting from my point of view than from hers... A nice assistant was in charge of Haley on this visit.

First she pulled Haley's lips away from her teeth to help keep them dry.


Then she glued the little brackets onto her teeth, one at a time.


Once the brackets were all in place, she used a cool blue light to harden the glue.


Once that was done, she freed Haley's lips. Yay! Then she laid a wire over the brackets, and hooked neat colored rubber bands over each one, holding the wire in place.


Here is the final result!


Haley picked heart shaped brackets for her two front teeth, and pink and red bands, so she's in good shape for Valentine's Day. Every time she goes in for a checkup, she'll have the opportunity to pick different colors of bands, so she can get a new look every couple of months :)

Basketball

What is the phrase again? Maybe "glutton for punishment", Although "sucker" is nicely succinct. Yes, I've signed Haley up for another sport. Goodbye Saturday morning sleep-ins...

Actually, basketball isn't too bad so far. Of course it hasn't started yet, but still... You see, we're early. The only practices are 1/2 an hour before the games (which is astonishingly low key). Anyhow, I assumed that meant we were to show up 1/2 an hour early for our game time, and then the kids would practice. Nope, the given time is actually the time they want us there (astonishingly practical!) So we're early. If this were an 8am game, I'd be a bit resentful over the mixup, but since it's 2pm, I find myself sitting in the sunshine, taking the time to blog a bit. Yeah, I think our earliest game is going to be at 11 :)

Also, as everyone knows, basketball is an indoor sport. The benefits of not having to sit in the drizzle to watch her games cannot be understated. Of course, gyms are noisier, but nothing's perfect :)

For years, Haley hoped that her soccer uniform would be purple. And for years it has been a wide variety of colors, none of them purple. Yellow, lime green, grey... Naturally, her first basketball team is purple :)



Her coach teaches 7th grade history at my school. His wife coached one of the opposing soccer teams this year. It'll be good having him as Haley's coach; teachers tend to make pretty good coaches, since they already have so much experience dealing with & directing kids.


The kids are practicing now -- more info and photos to come when the game starts.

***

Well, Haley's team won. Haley didn't "score any goals" but she did shoot once, and was able to make a couple of blocks when her team was defending. Luckily it looks like the kids get a lot of exercise -- the court is a lot smaller than a soccer field, but they're running the whole time :)

Coming Home

It's always nice coming home. The view of Crescent City was particularly beautiful this time. The sun had set, but the glow of the sunset lingered.


It was so beautiful Haley wanted her photo taken!

New Year's Eve

It's become a tradition for my group of friends to gather to celebrate New Year's Eve together. The cool thing about being a grownup is that the potlucks get a lot better. Everybody brings real food, instead of just bread and chips. I brought beef potpie, chips, and carrot cake. We also had two salads, homemade salsa, and roast pork. For dessert there was homemade lemon pie, apple crisp, cookies, and fresh whipped cream. Yummy!

This year a lot of us left before the ball dropped, but Nancy, Cynthia, and I stuck it out. All of our kids managed to stay awake until the big moment. We poured pear cider into plastic champagne flutes, and counted down while watching the ball drop. Then we toasted the new year.

Nancy's neighbor then set off a lot of fireworks. The kids gathered around the open sliding glass door, cheering for each bottle rocket. I'm sure the neighbors knew exactly how much their unexpected audience enjoyed the show.

Christmas

We drove down to Mom's early this year, so we had lots of time to get ready for Christmas. A good thing too, since I wasted one of the days being sick. (Note: If you're shivering in a sleeping bag wearing a long-sleeved shirt, two vests, and a sweatshirt and you're not camping, you might have a fever.) Luckily we were all in good health for the big day.

We had a great Christmas, following our traditional routine: We had a big dinner at Mom's on Christmas Eve. Ham and scalloped potatoes, with double cream lemon pie for dessert. Then we opened our stockings (cause when we were little Andrea and I couldn't wait until Christmas morning). Christmas morning, we opened presents with Mom. Then I was in charge of making waffles with strawberries and whipped cream for brunch. After that, we waddled over to Dad's house and exchanged gifts with him. Then we enjoyed Christmas dinner with Dad. Turkey, stuffing, mashed potatoes and gravy, biscuits... Haley helped "Grandpa" open the biscuit tubes, which was a very exciting experience for her. It was apparently a little disconcerting popping the tubes with someone who startles as easily as Dad... *grin*

Haley got the watch she had been desperately hinting for


She also got one of the Fancy Nancy books


Mom got a bottle of Arpège perfume


Here's a photo of Andrea helping Haley to open one of her presents:

Thanksgiving

Another successful Thanksgiving :) The weather was nice, as usual, so we played tennis every day. Here's Dad, ready to serve.


Somehow, Andrea manages to look a bit more intimidating when she's about to serve. Course, that may be because I've seen how fast she sends the ball flying!


Every morning, two news papers were carefully dissected over the breakfast table.


And as usual, we got our "let's get a family portrait before we go!" photo.


We stopped at the Golden Gate rest stop on the way back.


And took turns taking photos :)

Halloween

This year, Haley was determined that she was going to be scary, and NOT CUTE. She pretty much recycled last year's costume. "But it's totally different, Mom. Last year I was the Spider Princess. This year I'm the Princess of the Dead!" My friend, Molly, came over and did our hair. If I were going to the prom, I would definitely be begging her to do my hair!

Here's Haley's hair before we sprayed the black and purple dye on it. It was so gorgeous I hated to color it!


Here's a movie of Molly and Haley, after we colored her hair.


This was my costume. Much less impressive, but still cool :)


We started trick or treating just as it was starting to get dark.


We later returned home and lit our pumpkins so trick or treaters could come to our house. Check out the wicked cool cat shadow behind the rats on my pumpkin!

Soccer in the Rain

You may not be able to tell in this photo, but it's raining :)

We were positive that Haley's game was going to be canceled today. It's been raining for 2 days, and there was a 100% prediction of rain for today. But when I called the hotline this morning, the games were on. It ended up being pretty fun, in a cold and wet kind of way. Several kids didn't show because their folks were sure the game was canceled, so the team didn't have any subs until a couple kids showed up at halftime.

The score was tied until the last few minutes, when the other team kicked a shot that slipped out of the goalies hands. Both teams played hard (with lots of missed kicks due to slipperiness) and it was a good game :)

Going to the Eye Doctor

So I had an eye appointment today. Not because I really wanted one, but because my optometrist wouldn't sell me any more contact lenses without a current prescription. It wasn't just the little exam either, but the full on, eyes dialated, after-images-like-a-bar-code-floating-in-front-of-my-vision exam. Haley's comment? "You look creepy!"



The doctor didn't like how extensively I wear my contacts, but was surprised by how well my eyes were doing given that info. He did recommend that I switch my contact cleaner to another brand. It's actually pretty cool. You put your contacts in a little cage, which is then suspended in a tube which you fill up with a special hydrogen peroxide solution. The case includes a gear thing which is coated in something that reacts with the hydrogen peroxide and causes it to separate into oxygen and water. It kills all the germs and then subsides into a solution that won't cause agony when you put it in your eyes. The catch is that you have to let it sit for at least six hours, so you're not sticking H2O2 into your eyes. But I'm a "desperately need more than six hours of sleep" kind of person anyhow, so that's not really a problem :)

The neatest part is watching it fizz :)

Seat Sacks aka Chair Pockets

I was going to order my chair pockets off eBay. I had email exchanges with several vendors. I finally decided to make them myself, however. That way I know the fabric is prewashed (and preshrunk!) and the pockets will look the way I want.

I ordered green canvas from hancockfabrics.com. When it arrived I took it to the laundromat and washed it and dried it on hot. (One of the vendors didn't prewash her chair pockets -- the finished products were dry clean only!!!). Now I'm in the process of ironing, cutting, and sewing 39 chair pockets.

Surprisingly, the fabric didn't shrink at all horizontally, it just got shorter. So I really can cut out 3 20" pockets side by side from my 60" wide fabric. The sewing is pretty easy, but the ironing and cutting are miserable. I finished one last night and took it to work today. It fits perfectly on my chair, and looks pretty snazzy :) When I'm finished, the math textbooks will have a place to live where they're easily accessible, and the students won't books scattered all over their tables :)

Body Butter Batch #2

So my palm butter and essential oils arrived, so I made another batch of whipped body butter :) This time, I ended up with a much thicker batch.

Ingredients
100g	Shea Butter
60g	Palm Butter
40g	Coconut Butter
2 tbsp	Corn Starch
1 tsp	Vitamin E Oil
1/2 tsp	Vanilla Powder
1 tsp	Crème Brulé Essential Oil
1/8 tsp	Cinnamon Leaf Essential Oil
100 g	Shea Butter

Method

Just like the last batch. I measured out 100 g of shea butter, 60g of palm butter, and 40g of coconut butter. This time I used a bigger bowl, to make whipping easier. Unfortunately, that meant I had to use my crockpot bowl as my ice bath. It used a lot more water, and I ended up not having as much ice as I needed. Next time, I want to make sure to have 2 trays of ice before beginning.

I added the essential oils and the vitamin E. As I mixed, it didn't harden as fast as I was expecting. Next time I'll let it sit for a few minutes and see if that fixes it, but this time I melted another 100g of shea butter and added it (since the shea is the most aggressively solid of the butters). Eventually, it cooled and began whipping properly. I have mixed feelings about the different proportions of shea butter to the last recipe. It's less creamy, and more solid. However, I think shea butter is the big good ingredient, so having more of it is probably just great as far as the skin is concerned.

The scent ended up bordering on too sweet. Definitely too sweet in the jar, but once on it leaves the skin nicely scented. Haley loves it, of course. Is there a scent too sweet for an 8 year old girl?

Anyhow, the next day I brushed it through Haley's hair before her shower, and then shampooed it out. After the shower I melted some in my hands and ran it through her wet hair. It's been 2 days, and her hair is smooth (not greasy!) and feels really moisturized. It's much less tangly than before :)

Body Butter Batch #1

I got some cool body butter in Canada from a fellow hostel guest. It had the recipe on the side, so I've been planning to make more. Naturally, my ingredients haven't all arrived at the same time. I picked up some coconut oil at a local health food store, and my shea butter arrived today. Even though my palm oil and new essential oils haven't arrived, I'm almost out of the stuff I got in Canada. On the theory that anything containing Shea Butter and Coconut Oil is probably going to be pretty OK, I'm going to give a partial recipe a try.

Ingredients
100 g	shea butter (solid @ room temp)
65 g	coconut oil (solid @ room temp)
35 g	almond oil (liquid @ room temp)
2 tbsp	cornstarch
	essential oils

Method

I put a pyrex bowl on the base of my scale and set zero. Then I scooped in 100 grams of shea butter (the metric was more finely graduated). I scooped about 50 grams of coconut oil, then a little more. I was worried that too much almond oil would make it too runny at room temp. Then I added almond oil till the total weight was 200 g (I had to thump the counter to get the scale to register).

I put the 200 g of oils in the microwave and cooked on high at 30 second intervals for about 2 minutes (stirring every 30 secs). The shea butter still had a few little lumps in the bottom, but I left it on the counter about 5 minutes and they were all melted when I came back.

I put the bowl in an ice bath and began mixing with my hand mixer. This is *lots* better than sticking the bowl in the freezer!!! I added the cornstarch while the mix was still pretty liquid. I tried to measure by weight for consistency, but it was too light to register, so 2 tbsp it is!

I added essential oils when the mix began to thicken. I used rosemary, tea tree, eucalyptus, and peppermint. Too much eucalyptus -- i thought one of my bottles of eucalyptus was peppermint, and I couldn't figure out why my mix kept smelling like eucalyptus and not mint!

Kept mixing, now on high speed. I scraped the sides with a spoon several times -- the mix would harden because of the ice water bath. Eventually, it seemed colder than room temp, so I stopped. No point trying to cool it further, since it'll just warm up again. I spooned it into two short cream cheese tubs; they're each about 3/4 full.

Result: Fluffy off-white goop. Kind of a whipped frosting consistency, between cold cream and cool whip. It melts quickly on contact with my hands. I feel the cornstarch as a very very fine grittiness when I'm rubbing it into my skin -- it helps it keep from feeling slimy/oily, but I'm not sure how I like it. Though the mix is very strong smelling in the tub, it's not that strong on my skin.

The Gym

So after significant pestering and begging, The Club has allowed Haley to become a gym member. Every week, Tues - Fri, we get up at 5:15 and stagger over to the gym to work out before school. I generally feel pretty miserable while I'm brushing my teeth at 5:30, but after running for half an hour and showering, I feel great :) Haley jogs on a treadmill while I run on an elliptical runner right beside her. Haley's coach noticed a big difference in how much she was able to run during yesterday's game :) :)

Haley's got soccer practice on Monday and Thursday afternoons, and I've got a standing tennis game on Sunday, so we're doing pretty well on the exercise front right now :)

We ♥ Potpie

Potpie is one of the best foods EVER. It has stew inside, so it's good like stew. But it's stew wrapped in *bread*. Meat, potatoes, and bread, all in one beautiful package. Plus the stew has veggies in it (meat flavored veggies -- the best kind!) so you can almost feel virtuous about eating potpie :)


Mom visited this weekend, so I made this potpie with leftover chicken stew. It was the first chicken stew I'd ever made, so I was excited to show it off. Mom said it was pretty good too :)

Soccer Games

Haley is having a good year in soccer! Her coach is great. Lots of positive reinforcement, as well as corrections. Having listened to some of the other coaches screaming at their teams this year, we're feeling pretty lucky.


Haley's ball skills are getting better and better, and she's learning to steal the ball rather than just let her opponents have the shot. Her team is really starting to pull together on the field, which is neat to watch :)

10,000 Miles

Today my new Prius hit 10,000 miles on the odometer :)

First Day of School

Haley was all ready for school :)



Her new teacher is Ms. Weir, and so far Haley *loves* her. All the other teachers I've talked to have good things to say about her, so it's shaping up to be a great school year :)

Labor Day

I promised Haley that if she got her room clean,we would go to the river. Yay bribery -- she got it clean! We went with some friends. Here are Haley, Sierra, Julie, and Sierra's little sister. The girls spent the day catching crawdads and frogs.







Unfortunately, there were also snakes at the river. Huge vicious snakes! They must have been this big:


Although I promised a river trip, I am anti sun. It was too hot to wear my sweatshirt, so I hid as much of myself as possible under light towels for most of the time :)



Finally we got to -- er -- had to leave for soccer practice. While the girls practiced, Cynthia and I walked a couple of blocks to the pier. It's so beautiful here!


The pier is a great place to walk. On nice days there's usually at least one amateur crab pot dangling off the end of the pier.


The view is great. This part of the sea wall is pretty neat looking :)


Cynthia took my photo for me -- proof I didn't just download these photos from a National Geographic or something :)

My Fantastic Classroom

Haley was a trooper last night -- we were at my classroom till 7:30 last night. But I'm done getting ready for the first day -- we won't have to go back this weekend to finish up! I have all my photocopies done and organized. (We have these crazy packets to hand out -- about 8 pages that parents need to sign and return -- permission slips, picture forms, and more!)

I got a deck of cards and took out one of each rank. I taped one card down on each desk. The other three of that rank went into a deck -- when the kids come in, I'll hand them a warmup quiz and they'll draw a card, and they'll go sit at the table with the matching rank :) It's a good way to randomly divvy them up and seat them three to a table.

Anyhow, my classroom is looking pretty good! I even have, get this, POSTERS on my walls! I know, crazy, huh? I guess it is about on schedule though -- it generally takes me a few years to decorate *grin*

Here's a video I made of my classroom :)

The Mighty Fava Bean

Today began with a 4 hour staff meeting. Blah. Unfortunately, most of what was covered really needed to be discussed, so I can't even complain that much. Then I had a lunch meeting with Cindy M. Then I had a 45 minute AVID meeting, and then a partnership meeting. Yup... A whole day of meetings. But... the meetings were mostly productive. For example, during our lunch meeting Cindy & I went to the library and covered our new class sets of books with snazzy new covers and then hauled them back to our classrooms. Jeff gave me one of his old computers, so now my classroom has a Strawberry iMac as a student computer :) He might even end up giving me another, so then I'd have two student computers :)

Haley and I joined the gym today. We're going to try working out in the morning before school. We'll see how that works out... But Haley really enjoys running, so I thought that the treadmill would be great for her. We have so much miserable weather (for weeks at a time!) that we can't count on outdoor exercise.

On the way home we went grocery shopping, and we bought this funny thing that looked like a giant string bean. It turns out that it's a fava bean. Tonight's dinner was fish sticks, guacamole and chips, and a few raw fava beans each. They taste a lot like giant peas :)