I just love her little bones. Not sure how I forgot to post the St. Patty’s one back in March. . .
And my personal favorite. It is hard to see in the scan, but the girl is saying ‘it’s a Lepercon:’
Archive for the ‘Uncategorized’ Category
Tills Slays Me
Wednesday, April 18th, 2012It’s a Wonderful Life
Sunday, December 25th, 2011We had Christmas Eve at our house today.
We ate lasagna and drank wine. The kids fought and whined and cried and laughed. We let the kids open a present each. They loved it.
The kids were all riled up.
We snuggled on the couch. Lisa and I even took a nap on the couch together.
And the kids, did I mention they were cute and all riled up? They were crazy.
I got to hang with my two favorite girls.
And then tonight, Todd and I played Santa, and stuffed stockings.
This guy helped. And hindered. I miss Q, but I am glad to have him here, even if he is a fat pain in my ass.
And then we ate camembert and summer sausage for dinner, and drank more. We ate cookies and laughed over the letter Tiller wrote to Santa.
And read the letter Tills wrote to Santa. She is a sweetheart. (page 1)
Page 2: You have done well.
And page 3.
And then we watched my fave - It's a Wonderful Life.
I watch it every Christmas Eve. Something new is revealed every year – This year it was when Clarence died. After Tom Sawyer was published, but before Huck Finn. And this year, it rings just a little more true. Perhaps it is my age, but i think it more likely that it is the past year, which has taught me how fragile life has been, and that we all have, at most, a tenuous grasp of life on this earth, and it doesn’t matter whether we are plant or animal, young or old. We are at the mercy of things completely out of our control. To pretend otherwise is ridiculous. As is the very real desire to worry ourselves sick at the thought.
I cannot stop time and make my dog forever young. I can’t stop someone from murdering my loved one. I cannot stop a car wreck from taking a child away in mere seconds, or keep his parents for suffering as he lingers for weeks, holding on to life by a thread, against all hope.
It is all completely and totally out of my control, and all i can do is try to enjoy the now, because while we have it, it’s a Wonderful Life.
Merry Christmas, y’all!
What it feels like to fall off the face of the earth
Saturday, June 25th, 2011I know there are people who read my blog who wonder why I fell off the face of the earth.
I haven’t been able to write.
I know that sounds stupid, and in other times, times where I was blue, or down, or angry, i figured out something to write anyway, even if I wrote something meaningless, or if I just posted a picture with a caption.
All of my pictures right now have very dark captions.
I pride myself on honesty and truthfulness, and right now? My truth is dark, and undecided.
My dog died. He was, honest-to-God, the best friend I ever had. He wanted nothing and gave me everything. And somehow, i haven’t been able to write about him, because to put it down in writing makes it real and final, and I am not quite ready for that.
My cousin was murdered. I thought avoiding writing about the dog was painful. How do you write about a wonderful woman, who made you laugh, and shared your love for gardening and trivia, and who had a wicked sense of humor, and for many years grossed you out with her vodka and milk, who had her life taken from her by some piece of crap human for $600 dollars? And how do you write about her family who will never know the truth about what happened to her and yet have to live with the knowledge that no matter what exactly happened, it was awful and violent and that she must have died in fear?
And how do you write about all of this without finally coming to a damn decision about whether or not you believe in God? How do you write about losing loved ones if you don’t even know in your heart what became of them? How do you admit to those that love them, admit to yourself, that you don’t know if there is a heaven or a hell, or if we simply become the earth and food for worms?
I wish that i could be one or the other: An atheist firm in her belief that this is all there is; Or a woman with faith – faith that there is meaning in the midst of senseless pain and suffering. I wish that I could be ignorant and firm in the belief that there are things that exist that cannot be explained. Or intelligent and arrogant enough to believe that science is tantamount, and that nothing exists than cannot be explained.
I am just a girl caught in the middle, that wants so badly to believe, but can’t quite convince herself that there is anything there to believe in.
Northwestern Elementary
Tuesday, May 17th, 2011
Via Flickr:
Northwestern Elementary, Crabapple, GA. Late 70s/early 80s. No longer extant.
We only had one first grade, if I remember correctly. I had Mrs. Hamilton. I think there may have been no AC, and they left the doors open in warm weather. Sometimes a dog would wander in and traipse the halls. Mr. Martin taught music. They had field days there with big wheel races. We also one time had a family bring an elephant. I think the family owned a circus? And we had, kid you not, Turkey Shoots. At the school. Awesome place.
I am 39. How did that happen?
Sunday, January 23rd, 2011I am pretty sure this is the longest I’ve gone without blogging in . . . well, since I started back in 2004. Can’t believe it’s been that long, but yep. It has.
It’s my birthday. I’m 39. I love who I am today. I love my life. I can remember so many not great birthdays, or birthdays where something or someone was missing. I can remember one birthday which no human should have to live through. Today was not like that. Today was perfect in its simplicity and calm.
Today I am middle age. Halfway there. Halfway where? i do not know, because, for the most part, I feel like I am where I should be.
Did I mention that I had an awesome dinner with my husband, and we are going to Mexico in April for our tenth anniversary? Not a bad gift. Not bad at all. Plus, my husband understands me enough to know that I will enjoy looking forward to it as much as going.
I got good news tonight, too, and it made me happy. Things are good.
Oh, and Facebook? You can pooh pooh the book all you want, but there is nothing like receiving hundreds of messages, from family, childhood friends, former coworkers, and everyone else under the sun, on your birthday. it is a pretty amazing medium, to say the least. Thanks to all my wonderful friends who took a second to reach out to me. It was appreciated and every single one made me smile. Every one.
A few pictures from tonight. I look wasted. I am not. I am just 39. I probably look it and I am okay with that.
It seems crazy that we have known each other for over ten years now.
I find it funny that everyone thinks I hate Ronnie. I don't hate him. I actually really like him. For a gator.
I love him.
Love'em.
Not sure why i look so drunk here. I'm not. Perhaps it was just talking about the red bull and vodka incident that caused it.
It's like I am a poetess. . .
We Hope
Saturday, December 25th, 2010We hope you’re as excited about Christmas as we are!
Tiller and Rollie, waiting to go downstairs, Christmas Morning.
May your Christmas be Merry and Bright!
With love,
The Dogwood Girl family
Cousins
Friday, December 24th, 2010We went to my mom and Dad’s last night. They live in a house in Suwanee now, not Roswell, where I grew up. So, I’m not really used to it yet, and it doesn’t really feel like home, like their old house did. Part of their things are theirs from the old house, part of it is new, and part of it is stuff that was in my grandparents’ house. It is weird for me to see it all in one place. I think perhaps I like change less than I would like to admit.
So, mom and dad had the cousins over. Except only a few of us ended up able to make it. My cousin Lynda had to go to a funeral. My sister was home laid out with strep throat and an ear infection. Todd had to work. So, i packed up my two kids and Dash, my nephew, and went to mom and dad’s. My friends Jason and Camille were also invited, but Jason had a sinus infection, so he couldn’t come either. It was still fun, but there were some gaping holes there. There were people missed.
We ate chili. We laughed. We chased kids around. Dogs barked.
Wherein I Whore Myself Out for Free Cards
Monday, December 13th, 2010Well, not really. Because the cards are so cute!
Every year, I say I am going to get my Christmas tasks done early. I say things like:
“I will finish Christmas cards right after Thanksgiving.”
“I will be done with shopping and wrapping by Dec. 15th.”
“My house will be decorated the first weekend of December.”
“I will make five different kinds of Christmas cookies.”
I hear you laughing.
So, when my neighbor, Lauren, mentioned using Shutterfly to order her cards, and how easy it was, my interest was piqued. I had used Shutterfly before, for gifts like photo books. I also used them for a baby announcement. (Apologies to my second child, for whom I never even sent one out. Isn’t that always the way with the second? I love this little pink bird design so much, I could almost justify sending out Matilda’s birth announcements a little late. Oh? You think five years late is too long?)
I love the professional look of their photo books, and they have such great variety in designs to choose from. . . Cute travel book themes to document a family trip, or a Christmas theme. I also used them as a way to make a baby book. Sure – stop me if you’ve heard this one before – I started a baby scrapbook for both kids. . . and stalled out a few months into their first years. Much easier to just upload the pics, and create a photo book right then and there. You can use their designs or customize your own. They make great gifts. Someone on my list is getting one this Christmas, but I can’t say who – They might just be reading this post. . . .
And they’re affordable! They start at just under 13 bucks. Who wouldn’t hand over 13 bucks in exchange for having a baby’s first year documented and in your hand, without all the pile of half-finished scrapbooks all over the dining room table? Not to mention, have you ever been in a scrapbooking store? Pretty darn hard to get out of one for thirteen bucks.
So, I create my photo book gift online, and get my Christmas cards at the same place. That just made my life much easier!
Oh. My. And I just found this. You can have a photo printed onto canvas. How cool is that? May have just solved the “what to put up over the mantel” question. Just have to figure out which photo to use?
* Disclaimer: I have to admit that when we discussed Shutterfly at the bus stop, Lauren told me about their generous blogger promotion – You blog about Shutterfly’s products, you get 50 cards for free. Not a bad deal, I thought, since I blog all the time anyway, why not whore myself out for free cards? But when I thought about how cute the Shutterfly cards are sitting on my mantel every year, it was a no-brainer. I’m glad I’m getting them for free, but I think they’re cute, whether or not I’m getting paid goods or services to say it. I’d say it anyway!
P.s. Everywhere it says, “Christmas?” Just do a find and replace and insert “New Year’s.” KThanx.
Chamblee Charette Summary
Wednesday, November 10th, 2010I don’t usually post political stuff, but thought I would post this, since folks might be interested in how this went. I cross-posted this one on The Evansdale Porch, also. You must register to see that discussion.
I attended last night, along with three other Evansdale parents that I know of.
It started at 6:30 and we didn’t get home til after nine, so these suckers are long.
First, they (the consultants) discussed the “triangulation” strategy used in the 2020 Vision process they are using to make the recommendations to the board. More description of the charettes here.
So, they gave out the response cards – little mechanical cards, where you push a button corresponding to the answer you want to give. You would see the results after each question, in percentages. They asked questions for this portion in three parts: Demographics, Facilities, and redistricting&consolidation.
Demographics:
First they tallied the number of people in the room = there were, i think, close to 350.
They asked if you were a parent of a dek. student, a teacher, other, an administrator/employee of dekalb, a dekalb student, etc.
What high school cluster are you currently zoned for? Overwhelming majority in the room were Lakeside/druid hills/tucker or Chamblee/Dunwoody/and another, that seemed incorrect.
Facilities:
Rate the – (based on the COUNTY, not a particular school)
quality of a Dekalb County education
phys. condition of schools
overall safety
Physical disabilities access
Instructional spaces relative to the programs they are designed for
HVAC
Technology for students and staff
Exterior appearance (curb appeal)
Playgrounds, athletic fields, etc.
The last question had to do with what would play the most imp. factor in you voting to pass SPLOST IV:
Answers were things like: Transparency, knowing what exactly would be done with the $, . . . can’t remember the rest of them. The main gist of that question seemed to be to figure out the best way to get taxpayers to vote for SPLOST IV. . . .kind of angered me.
Redistricing and Consol:
Rate “strongly agree, agree, neutral, disagree, strongly disagree.”
Dek co. operates the “right” number of schools.
Dek. provides schools that are sized appropriately, capacity-wise
Program offerings are equitable across schools
I am satisfied with how dekalb provides and implements school choice options.
Portable classrooms are a viable long-term solution for overcrowding.
Which would be most imp. factor in reconsolidation decision. (Age/condition, geographical proximity, academic performance, ‘i have another idea’)
Which would be most imp factor in redistricting: geog. proximity, feeder school alignment, previous redistricting, Instructional capacity, difference in program offerings, another idea.
After that, we were split off into smaller groups (about 20 folks in each, but it was done by row, and should have been more random as we ended up with clusters of folks who knew each other in the same groups) and they asked us to talk about specific examples of what made us answer this way. For example, something like 80% of us said that overcrowding was a problem. They asked us about specific problems with trailers. With complete labs. With bathrooms. With HVAC. With groundskeeping. With school choice (choices and implementation). The overarching theme was that a lot of people mistrust the people who are going to be making decisions about reconsol, and redistr. When asked about SPLOST, most people said they didn’t want to pay more if they didn’t trust that the people controlling the money were managing it well. People complained about the questions = oftentimes, the answer for us would be “all of the above” but we were not given that option. There was a sense that folks thought the county was putting the cart before the horse.
A lot of people thought that this way of looking at it, with the surveys and the site visits, was not taking into consideration the culture of school districts, or the zoning of them. (for example, not looking at percentages of population of schools that will be in multi-family housing, or working with county zoning officials to understand what these populations would look like in five, ten, or 20 years.)
Some people mentioned that it didn’t take into consideration that people moved to areas with the sole purpose of attending particular schools, and the impact that the changes would have on these n’hoods. That there are areas where folks will refuse to send their child to a diff. school and will choose private instead, or will move to a different district again, thus changing the populations again. Or, might move to a different county altogether.
Complaints that it didn’t take into consideration that the most important factor for most of us was the quality of the education, not the quality of the facility.
We also had the opp. to talk to the head of the consulting firm and ask him questions. We asked what info would be published. For example, we wanted to know if they would be recommending closing/redistricting of SPECIFIC schools. The answer was yes. So, it sounds like we will have a better idea of what will happen in Jan when they give their recs.
We asked if the BOE had to use the recs. They said no – the final legal decision is up to the board. (Hopefully, there will be public outcry if we spend all this money on consulting and then don’t listen to the experts, though.) This also means that the squeaky wheel gets the grease may just influence the decision. (surprise.)
We asked what has happened in the past when they do this kind of study for a district. They did a similar one for St. Louis city schools. They recommended 29 school closings. The St. Louis school board only closed 17, i think he said. I also wonder if our closing list will be a similar NUMBER of schools. He said that we were similar districts, but that we had our own problems. One of the problems he listed, and the one that caught my attention, was our “school choice” or “school programs” – i inferred from that comment that maybe they have already identified programs like magnet and school choice programs as things that will probably need to go. (Note: he did not say that they would have to go, but he did list it off the top of his head as a problem.) So, i think that does not bode well for our magnet program, which does not bode well for our enrollment, which is not good. . .
Dec. 7 – the results from the charettes will be posted on the dekalb county website.
Jan – The Consulting firm’s recommendations for redistricting and consolidation will be given to the board (and will be made public.)
Feb – Board will approve or make changes to the firm’s recs. THE BOARD OF EDUCATION HAS THE RIGHT TO THE FINAL DECISION FOR RECONSOLIDATION AND REDISTRICTING. Which means, they do not have to implement the recommendations from the consulting firm. This is concerning to me, as we still have some of these idiots on the board, so who knows what they will decide in the end?
There was a lot more, but I honestly can’t remember it all – we were there over two hours. Perhaps other attendees can add to what I’ve put here. Was anyone else there?
Also, Dekalb School Watch Blog has a summary.
Dekalb is also gathering info online. Take the survey!
One last thing – they did allow us to fill out a form about our specific schools. i filled one out for all three (evansdale, HMS, and Lakeside.) They did not explain well how the information would be weighted, as far as tracking where the information is coming from, but the data in the large group was captured for which HIgh school clusters were present, and in the small groups, we filled out the questionnaires for our specific schools.
I cannot go to seven charettes, but I really, really think that it couldn’t hurt to try and have folks go to other ones. I am also really curious to see how the answers are going to differ at schools in less affluent areas. . . is anyone planning to go to a charette at a school in a different part of the county? I think we are deluding ourselves if we think their concerns are going to be the same as our concerns. (Hate to make it an us against them, n. dekalb vs. s. dekalb argument, but let’s be honest, those politics are at play here, or else the three Board members from those districts would not have been re-elected.)
Oh, lord. That was long. Doubt anyone is even reading this far, but if you are, give yourself a pat on the back.
p.s. Excuse any mistakes – don’t have time to go back and edit this.
p.p.s. Dekalb Parent notes on last night’s charette.
A Post for My Mama
Tuesday, November 9th, 2010Because she is awesome. Even if she doesn’t know how to subscribe to my blog with her new-fangled iPad. . . .
Click here, mom. (Shameless self-promotion: You don’t have to be my mom to use the link. Duh.)
Let me know if that works, mama.
Love,
annie