January 30, 2017

Day 30 of 365. I watched the sun go from a huge orange ball to this on my way home today. 

January 29, 2017

Day 29 of 365. They say all good things must come to an end. Driving over the Cape Fear Memorial Bridge we get our last glimpse of Wilmington on our way out of town, and it is always a little sad. 

January 28, 2017

Day 28 of 365. Donald has been telling me for years about the creek behind the house in Wilmington. I have wanted to trek through the woods to see it, but timing has never been right. My assumption was it was about the size of a ditch with water in it. Boy, was I wrong. This little creek runs directly to the waterway. We saw tadpoles, and our next door neighbor Jeremiah said he has actually caught fish in it. Hopefully one day we'll clear a path to make it a little easier to access. 

January 27, 2017

Day 27 of 365. My monthly technology meeting was today, and I always leave at lunch so I can get back to Cabarrus Tech for clubs. Driving through downtown Concord I stopped to take these two photos. Pretty cool. 

January 26, 2017

Day 26 of 365. Thursday at work. We had a staff meeting this morning at the Opportunity School that was very different. We met in the gym where a guest speaker from the Cabarrus Health Alliance talked to us about ways to become a healthier person. Because of that, I took a little time to walk all the way around the school, and my goodness it was windy! 

January 25, 2017

Day 25 of 365. Back in the fall, my mother started noticing a change in her vision. A trip to the eye doctor revealed she had an occluded vein that was causing fluid to pool in her retina. As a result, she has lost most of the vision in her left eye. The good news is that she is responding quite well to the treatment of injections in her eye. We go once a month, and today I snapped this photo of the pre-exam before seeing the doctor.

January 24, 2017

Day 24 of 365. To play or not to play. That is the question.

January 23, 2017

Day 23 of 365. Once again, I did not get a chance to post yesterday's photo before the day was out. These three cats were kittens last year, and they still like to stick together. It cracks me up how they like to sit on the railing.

January 22, 2017

Day 22 of 365. He turned out to be a beautiful cat, don't you think?

January 21, 2017

Day 21 of 2017. Jolly Mon has been in big trouble today. It started early this morning when he tried to jump on Donald's desk and wound up knocking everything onto the floor. As such, he has been sticking pretty close to me all day, but has been trying to make up with Donald. 

January 20, 2017

Day 20 of 365. Late posting Friday's picture. I'd like to say that life was so busy I didn't have time, but the truth is I forgot until I went to bed last night. Oh well, such is life sometimes. 

On Fridays at Cabarrus Tech, we have clubs in the afternoon. My club is Cobratronics, which is a mix of all things technology. Currently, my students are planning an Hour of Code that they will then teach to the rest of the school. They are reviewing tutorials on the Hour of Code website, and filling out a rubric as to what they think will be the best for us to use. These are some super kids!

January 19, 2017

Day 19 of 365. We are in the midst of student interviews for the Early College Program. That means late nights for all of us staff members. Tonight, I had a room with a view.

January 18, 2017

Day 18 of 365. I have been hearing something on the roof of the barn on the days I put Gypsy up. The mystery was solved today.

January 17, 2017

Day 17 of 365. We started student interviews tonight for the Early College Program. That means it was a super long day for me, and I didn't get home until almost 9. All I wanted to do when I got home was sit down, and it looks like Jolly Mon was happy I was here. 

January 16, 2017

Day 16 of 365. I got new glasses today. I am still adjusting to the new look.

January 15, 2017

Day 15 of 365. I would say Jolly Mon was happy to see us when we got home today. 

January 14, 2017

Day 14 of 365. Today is Dottie's birthday! We celebrated by taking her to a hockey game, and as luck would have it, it was Star Wars night! We all got a t-shirt, and Patrick made it on the jumbotron! All in all, it was a great night. 

January 13, 2017

Day 13 of 365. I am lucky enough to work in a school with incredible diversity. Not only do we support students with diverse backgrounds, but we also have students with varying forms of disabilities. As a matter of fact, we have two service dogs. This one is our newest, and she works for a student with severe diabetes. I can't begin to tell you how hard it is not to pet these dogs!

January 12, 2017

Day 12 of 365. I have been participating in a digital learning cohort through NC State this school year. Today was a meeting day, so I drove to Asheville this morning. We had a breakout session this afternoon and I decided to take full advantage of the spring like weather. (Yes, spring like weather after single digit temperatures a few days ago. Welcome to NC.)

January 11. 2017

Day 11 of 365. This is Stumpy. He was Uncle Charlie's cat, and the whole time Uncle Charlie was sick, Stumpy didn't want to have anything to do with him. Until the very end, when he started sleeping at the foot of the hospital bed. We figured he knew something we didn't, and he probably did. 

Last summer, Stumpy went missing. Aunt Frankie searched and searched for him. After four days, she found him down by the long drive to the house. He was in pretty bad shape. He couldn't walk but he could drag himself around. Being that it was a Sunday, we took him to the emergency vet, where they surmised he had been hit by a car. They said he was not going to make it and told us we needed to put him out of his misery. Aunt Frankie couldn't do that, so we loaded him back in his box and brought him home. His recovery has been nothing short of miraculous. He has learned to walk again, even though it is with a significant limp. You can see his bad hip in this picture. Now he lives the life of a prince, with the best morsels of food off of her plate and he has the run of the house. 

January 10, 2017

Day 10 of 365. It finally warmed up today and lots of snow melted. There are still some patchy spots in some of the more remote areas of our county and for this reason there is a two hour delay in schools tomorrow. The clouds have cleared, and I saw the moon for the first time in a few days. 

January 9, 2017

Day 9 of 365. Boy, has it been cold lately. This morning, it was 5 degrees when I got up. With it being so cold, the snow has not had a chance to do any melting. There was no school today for students, and certified staff had the option to work from home, which is a nice perk. I still had to make a run to Salisbury to check on Aunt Frankie. All is well with her, and I stopped on my way out to make sure the horse had plenty of hay and water. It's a good thing I did, her water bucket was frozen solid.

January 8, 2017

Day 8 of 365. All the roads froze over last night after the snow storm. I am fairly certain Epworth United Methodist Church was the only church in Concord that still had a Sunday service. If any of you know my mother, you know she is in church every time the doors are open, and sometimes when they aren't. Anyway, Donald and I picked her up so she wouldn't miss anything. She and I went on in and Donald stayed outside to help folks get from their cars to the building. In the meantime, not everyone could make it due to the icy roads so he got snagged to serve as an usher. Don't judge me for taking a picture during the service!  

January 7, 2017

Day 7 of 365. Yesterday it rained, then sleeted, then snowed, then sleeted, and then snowed again. We wound up without about 2 inches over all at my house. Of course I had to go outside and noticed my beautiful camellias were blooming. My favorite are the red ones, they are so pretty when everything else is dull and grey. Here is a picture of one not quite in full bloom.

January 6, 2017

Day 6 of 365. All day long I have waited for snow. The forecast said it would start raining around 4 and snowing around 5. As soon as I got off work at 4, by golly it was raining! Donald and I had to make a run to Salisbury, and it actually started snowing while we were there. You have to look carefully, but there are teeny tiny flakes in this picture. 

January 5, 2017

Day 5 of 365. I can't help but wonder if these clouds will bring snow.

January 4, 2017

Day 4 of 365. Around these parts you can guess the weather forecast when you go to the grocery store. 

January 3, 2017

Day 3 of 365. Alas, today my long winter break came to an end and I went back to work. It was much easier than I thought it would be to get going as soon as I woke up, and I even looked forward to getting back in the swing of things. We got started this morning with a visit from our Instructional Coach. I am not required to attend these meetings, but I do like to be there so I can better support my teachers. Here is a quick snapshot of the morning. 

January 2, 2017

Day 2 of (hopefully) 365. Since January 1 fell on a Sunday this year, that means the school system recognizes Jan. 2 as the holiday, so no work for me today. We woke up this morning to heavy rain, and I slept until 7:45. Unreal! Most of you know I help my aunt and go out to her house several times a week. Today was no exception. She has a bad cold and needed some things from the grocery store. I made the Wal-Mart run, then headed to Salisbury to check on her. I knew she didn't want to let Gypsy the horse out since it was so bad. On the way in, I stopped at the barn to feed her and make sure she had fresh water and hay to last through the day. She was NOT happy that I didn't let her out, but to make it up I gave her plenty of her favorite treats, which she gobbled up.

January 1, 2017

As it turns out, I have missed taking photos. I can't promise I will keep this up, but for now I'm going to give it the old college try. Going back through past years, this photo a day project turned out to be a pretty cool way to document our every day lives.

So today, Donald and I woke up in Raleigh, packed our things and headed back to Concord after a week long visit. Coming home, I took a detour through Salisbury to buy Aunt Frankie some medicine, then we went to my mother's for the traditional New Year's meal. We are both now relaxing on the sofa, with Jolly Mon between us. Happy New Year!