Easter 2011....

It was our first Easter together in 14 years...or the first one that included Tim, and as a huge added bonus...Mandy and Brooklynn!! It is hard to believe that many years have passed since we shipped Tim off to Annapolis and became accustomed to Easter celebrations minus part of the family. But those years are over and we are enjoying every minute of the time we have had since they became Texans again!

It was not too hard to convince little "B" to grab a basket and head outside for the big egg hunt!
Practice makes perfect and Mandy and Tim had gone over the fine points of finding the hidden eggs and putting them in the basket for some time before the big day.
I love our family and the times we are able to get together. It is hard to believe that these are our kids...and our kids have kids of their own now. It is another generation and to have everyone be able to spend holidays together is perfect! I hope they will have as many memories of their times together as I have of the times I spend with my cousins.

And...having a grand baby to add to the mix is just the best part of it all. Loving a grandbaby is unlike any other love.
It was another successful holiday Shubzda style! Looking forward to what the rest of the year will bring because nothing can take the place of family bonds.

Calling It A Day....

Or a career. It is the end. Papers are signed and there is no turning back. I am retiring. I have spent weeks writing this post in my head. I have spent three weeks actually getting the right papers to the right places. Retiring is not easy...either mentally or actually! It is a huge decision and when you put your name on the dotted line it is real. I will not be going back to school next year. In August when all of my friends are dusting off their lesson plan books and looking at their class rosters, I will be home.
I am sure this is the right thing to do. Everyone says when the time is right you will know it.

But...when I dropped off the final set of papers at the administration building I realized this was life changing. I am at the end..the end of a very important part of my life. This is not a job change it is the end of my career. Being a teacher is different. I am not a secretary or a salesman. What I do affects not just me, but a classroom full of kids everyday. I love it and I have done a good job. I am confident that there are kids that have learned life lessons in my classroom, but my heart is moving in another direction. I know if you are not giving a 110% of yourself then it is time to move on...so I am. I am a bit weepy as I finish this. It is not easy to walk away from something that is part of your identity. The kids that have sat in my classroom have touched me in more ways than I can count. They have made me more patient, more understanding, more sympathetic, and much less prejudice. I have been blessed to work in a very racially diverse building and what I have learned about each and every culture is a lesson that is priceless.
I will be forever grateful for a job that did not even start until I was 40. The last 23 years have mattered to me.
In five weeks I will be finished. Boxes will be packed, files shared, goodbyes said, and I will leave with wonderful memories. No ruffles or flourishes or sentimental endings. No manditory luncheons or district bar-b-ques. I just want to close my door and walk away. A simple finish to something that will be part of who I am forever.
On June 4th things will be different, and I am ready....

TO BEGIN THE REST OF MY LIFE!!!

A Real Fish Story.......

This is it. The is the story I have been dying to tell, and I am sure the story you have been dying to hear...or maybe not! This is about my REALLY patient daughter and her love of fishing. She can sit on the dock for hours, pole in hand, waiting on that really BIG one. Not me. Either bite now or I am moving on!! Well, Sunday was the big day! She got the huge one she has been waiting for and I was prepared
with my constant companion (the camera) to capture the picture of the one that did NOT get away!! No fish story here about the weight or the length..here it is folks! By Tim's estimate at least four pounds and a whopping 20 inches (I'm guessing)! I am truly surprised this fish did not pull her off the dock. It took both her and Tim to reel it in and haul it over for the mandatory photo.
There was much debate over whether it was a big mouth bass, hybrid bass, black bass..or??
Does not really matter, it was the catch or the season, possibly the catch of her lifetime and it was not going back in the water like most of her fish do. This was a keeper.
Dad to the rescue. Knife in hand, this fish has seen his last day of freedom.
Eat your heart out tournament fishermen. This was simply a minnow and a hook and a patient young lady...and it is dinner soon!

"B" and Uncle Drew

Really no words necessary....just two weekend lake rats!

Mary, Mary, Quite Contrary.....

How does your garden grow?

Okay, let's go with Jimmy, Jimmy....but the flow was just not right with that in the title! This weekend the chief breadwinner invested in all the necessary requirements for a backyard garden. There were the forms from Sam's, the grass killer and soil from Home Depot, and the plants themselves from another local nursery. Hours of labor and installation and we were ready to plant. Tomatoes, peppers, and strawberries....... All to be harvested sometime this summer.

Price at the local farmer's market...cheap!

The thrill of picking your own ....PRICELESS!!!

When In Texas.....

Do as the Texans!

It is a right of passage for all children in the great state....Pictures in a field of bluebonnets! Spring would not be spring without seeking out that beautiful field of blue to photograph your family in. So being newly relocated Texans.... Mandy, Tim, and Brooklynn found the perfect spot and took the perfect pictures.

Welcome to a field of blue blossoms!

Sunshine, Baseball, and APPLE PIE.....

Mission Impossible..

but now

Mission Complete!!!

This is a story many years in the making and I am glad to report success!!! It was a "deal" I made with two of my favorite co-workers ....the North Garland baseball coaches, John and Christian. It is no secret that baseball in Raiderland as been a struggle. While soccer is the king at North, baseball is somewhat the stepchild. The kids try out in tennis shoes and jeans and most have never seen a baseball glove. So, when these two young men took over the program I promised that when they won a district game I would bake them the traditional apple pie (they were on their own for the hot dogs!) I am happy to report that after a ten year draught...they did it!!! A 2 to 1 win over the mighty South Garland. I was not at the game but I did get a play by play when the team returned to school. When the final out was made, the gloves went in the air and the whole team shouted APPLE PIE!!! No doubt the South Garland Colonels found this a strange response to the huge win. Lots of strange looks from the opposing bench. Let's just give the cross town team another reason to question the sanity of the Mighty Raiders! We get the win and the PIE! So, the apples were peeled and sliced... Piled in a pie plate (in a homemade crust, thanks to the skills I learned from Sharon)..... Baked to a golden brown, and delivered to these smiling young coaches! Thanks guys for completing the challenge before I packed up my teacher certificate. It is another great memory in what has been a terrific career. Go Raiders...and lets hope we do not go another 10 years before a win!

I Married a Good Man....

It is all about paint once again..... This will be the end of this tale but it does have a final chapter to report. It is finished...my kitchen, that is. It is repainted and I do like the color. I do feel so much better. It is good to want to cook dinner once again. It is nice to like the room. It has been a journey. You would not think that paint would be such an issue but it has been. As for my husband....he saved me. He came home from the lake early, picked up a roller, and went to work. He did not whistle while he painted. He was not a happy man, but he is a good man. He covered the beige that had an especially disgusting green cast with a nice soft beige that I can live with. I dare say that I will have to die with that color paint on the walls. If I even mention a change I am afraid that will be the end of our 40 year committment to each other but that is fine. I am not sure that I always say nice things about the man I married but today I am thankful for him because I was really in over my head!

Settling In.....

Possessions have arrived. Well, they actually arrived three months ago but the search for a home to put them in proved to be a more difficult task than anticipated. But now, contracts are signed, PODS delivered, and the new address is permanent! Tim and the family are REALLY home! They have a Texas phone number, a Texas address and now they are where they belong! For Tim it has been 14 years, for Mandy not quite as long, for Brooklynn, a VAGABOND since birth .......real roots. They are Texans once again. Father and son took on the grueling task of unloading all of their possessions. Jimmy, not quite a young man anymore, proved that age does not deminish strength! Two huge PODS in an afternoon and he was still able to get to work in the morning and then head off to the lake! There is indeed something to be said for the "older" citizen! Now their settling part begins. It is like Christmas. There are boxes that have been packed away for over a year. Items that are being rediscovered, things forgotten in their cross country trek. For Brooklynn it is a real home. It is not a life of rolling her suitcase from one home to another anymore. It is not a different bed on a weekly basis. She has a place she belongs...her bed, her toys, her books, her mom and dad....all together once again. And for Jimmy and I it means we are all here...our family. Separated as we have been for so long, we are not now and hopefully won't be anymore. A ten minute drive any direction and we can see our kids. As the "senior" years stare us in the face, they look pretty darn good!

The Problem With Paint.....

I have a serious problem with paint. There are hundreds of paint stores and even more colors of paint. There are beige tones that range from near white to almost brown...with green undertones, pink undertones, yellow undertones and so on. Is the light natural light, fluorescent, or incandescent? A two inch square paint sample does not give you any idea of what will be on the walls when you finish...it is a scam. It is a way to sell someone four different colors before they land on what they like. Paint makes me think of Forrest Gump and his famous quotation...."Life is like a box of chocolates. You never know what you are going to get." And so it goes with the color of paint.
I am on my fourth kitchen paint color in just as many years. When we bought our new house I thought I liked yellow...well I didn't, but I had freshly painted yellow walls and a very tired husband so I lived with it for a year. Then I thought the fix was to faux paint over the yellow with a tan finish...SUCH A BAD IDEA! That was worse. So I grabbed a paint roller and covered the faux paint and was back to yellow (yellow semi-gloss which is about as bad as it gets).
Okay so now I have a few extra dollars and a kitchen that I have never liked so I actually hired a painter and had the kitchen done. It was BAD. Really BAD. I knew when I got home from work that I could not live with this awful kitchen. After all the kitchen is my favorite room...it is a gathering place and no one was going to want to gather here...especially me.
So what to do??? I tried for three days to learn to like it. It just was not going to happen. Jimmy...oh, he was not going to be happy. He was not happy when I painted over the yellow the first time and this would be time number four (or five). You just have to be bold and grab a roller. So this morning I did. It is started. It may take a week or two to finish but the damage is done. It is a good color now.
I guess my poor husband will notice the change when he walks in the door from work tonight (about midnight). In the morning I will promise him that this will be the last time we paint the kitchen..until I decide I am tired of tan!

Back to Reality.....

It is over...that glorious week sandwiched in to the school year called "SPRING BREAK". It just happens to fall during the best time of the year...spring! In my 24 years with the school district I cannot recall a bad vacation week. Maybe the weather was not what we had planned or I was busier than I wanted to be but it has always been a "break".
This year was no different...actually it was better than most. Tomorrow I go back to work but the events that have been sandwiched into this short period of time are amazing. We began by watching Tim, Mandy, and Brooklynn move into their new home (another post), did some major clean up on the Shubzda house (really had been suffering for awhile), dined at Drew's house (great meal), headed off for a little surgery, recuperated, and ended the week at the lake!
The weather was better than perfect! It was that "wow, God's gift to the world has to be the beginning of spring" type of day. We sat, played with the dogs, read a few books and just enjoyed the best of what there is...time.
I really think one of our greatest gifts to ourselves has been our little house at the lake. We are different there...less hurried, more connected, and always reflective. This was a crazy emotional time for me for some reason. So many changes...Tim is home for good..fourteen years of a long distance relationship and he and his family are here...my whole family is here finally. I am looking at the end of the school year...so little time left and so much to accomplish with these kids that are so important to me. Just general thoughts on on all of the gifts that have been handed to me in the way of my health, my friends, my family, and my career.....blessings that no amount of money can buy.

And the week ended with the brightest moon in decades...just confirmation that all is well with the world.

I am grateful! What a fantastic week!

A Little Vacation.....

No, this is not the dining room at the Hyatt Regency, or room service at the Ritz....and to be perfectly honest with you it is not even good hospital food, but that is what it is.

Spring break and I thought I would use some of the time off to have a non cancerous mole removed and have another minor procedure done. Given the chance to stay overnight, I jumped on it! Who would not take advantage of someone waiting on you for 24 hours??

Really bad idea. The hospital staff does not wait on you. They consider you a total nuisance!

They made me feel really guilty when I buzzed the nurse and asked for help going to the bathroom.

Nurses question...."Are you dizzy?"
Patient (me)..."no."
Nurse...."Then let me show you how to unplug your IV, take off your circulation socks, and your oxygen mask and you can just go by yourself."
Patient (me)...."well sure, that will be fine :("


This was not a cheap visit. The hospital charges big bucks for that really great room....with a view of the Care Flight landing pad...which they used several time during my stay. Noise...YES...terrible.
Visitors...YES...all night long but not to help you go to the bathroom, just too see if you were still wearing your oxygen. Nothing you can sneak by these women! They have tabs on everything unnecessary.

Good Bye Hospital!

I am home. My husband makes a much better nurse. It is breakfast in bed for me and it taste much better than what you serve!

Spring Break.......

I have been obviously absent lately. Lots going on and lots coming up. So much to say, so little time to say it. I will hold all of these thoughts while I take a break this week. It is spring break and a much needed time to reflect.

Enjoy this beautiful spring time gift.