Casey's Commentary

A Little Math For Your Reading Enjoyment

6 ~The number of hours I spent stressing out about my assistant head of school listening to my phone conference with a parent yesterday afternoon. This is the equivalent of the principal observing in a brick and mortar classroom.

5 ~The number of pumpkin scones that would neatly fit into a gallon zip-lok baggie for my daughter's school fund-raiser. I squeezed six in, however.

4 ~The insane hour of the morning that I had to get up to make said pumpkin scones for said fund-raiser.

3 ~The number of years I have been doing my job, so why was I nervous about 6 above?

2 ~The number of conferences that needed to be rescheduled yesterday, giving me two MORE students to try to get a reading assessment on by the end of the week.

1 ~The number of gigantic Diet Coke's I drank yesterday (very impressive for me these days).

0 ~The number of baked good items that I purchased from my daughter's school fund-raiser. With H1N1 and everything else, I'm not about to purchase anything that can't be heated to germ-killing temperatures. Does 30 seconds in the microwave kill Influenza germs?

If You're Handing these Out, I Could Seriously Use Some, or Hooked on Phonics Worked for Me!

Okay, so in my "spare" time, I work a couple of evenings at the studio where my girls dance.

Last week, one of the little girls in the beginning class forgot her tights. We do have loaners of that sort of thing (tights, leotards, shoes, etc), so she borrowed a pair.

This week, she returned them. They were washed and folded neatly in a Zip-Lok baggie with a note to the owner of the studio.

It read:

"Thanks for the tits."

Animal Crackers...

...and cocoa to drink (or coffee, if you're the mom).

This is the finest of Breakfasts, I think.

He Can't Help It...It's Embedded In the Y Chromosome

Due to an unfortunate event involving seeing how long french fries stay airborne in my vehicle while said vehicle is cruising down the interstate at 70 or so mph, my children got the job of cleaning out the car this afternoon.

Due to the fact that my oldest son is twelve, and therefore has a mental condition that requires him to test every one of my statements to see if it is true, such as "The next person that sends a fry flying in this car will also get the exciting task of vacuuming it after you three clean it out," my son spent some of his free afternoon with the Shop Vac.

After the task was supposedly finished, I noticed that the boys were playing football in the yard and the Shop Vac was still sitting in the driveway. I asked my son to put it away, please.

I ran an errand. When I got back, I noticed that the Shop Vac had been pulled into the garage just far enough so that the cannister was technically in the garage, but the cord, hose, and attachments were STILL in the driveway.

I'm sure you see where this is going. I called my son over. We went through the whole deal. The I-thought-I-asked-you-to-put-that-away...I-DID-the-actual-Shop-Vac-is-in-the-garage parent/12 year-old logic discussion.

As I walked down to the end of the driveway, I saw that one of the Shop Vac attachments was lying in the grass next to the driveway.

I called my son over. I held up the attachment.

"I just want you to know that it is taking every ounce of self-control that I can muster not to chuck this attachment at you as hard as I can." I told him. Sometimes there's just nothing to do but to tell the truth.

And then do you know what he did?

He took the attachment from me, gave me this heart-melting grin and said to me, "I love you."

What a male! Good grief!

Be Careful Who Your Friends Are...

...or you just might wind up with one of these!! Preacher's kids are the BEST influence!

I'm Still Here...

I've just got nothin'. Nothing blog-worthy to write at all. We are all still here, trucking along with those lazy, hazy crazy days of summer. Kids have been busy, Brian has been busy...I have been busy. Hopefully something funny, charming, or halfway interesting will happen to us soon so I can post. I love reading what's going on with all of you, though, so keep writing. I love you all!

Casey

A Tale of Two Trees

Memorial Day weekend at my house means a four day holiday for Brian. Something about making up for the bank holidays that he couldn't take during tax season. And a four day weekend usually means yard work, which he loves to do.

This weekend, he has been trimming trees and bushes...everything from the oak in the front yard to the lilac bushes in the back. The back is getting special attention as we are in the process of replacing our fence. So as Brian is trimming things, he is being very mindful of the fence line.

As I said, our front yard has a beautiful oak tree. The trunk is straight and true and it has beautiful dark green glossy leaves that provide fabulous shade for the house. In the fall, the leaves turn a beautiful dark burgundy. It doesn't drop crazy things in my yard. It is a clasically beautiful tree and it "behaves" the way a tree should "behave."

In the back yard, along our fenceline, is a mulberry tree. It is sandwiched between two snowball bushes, and it was here when we moved in. I have no idea if the former owners purposed for it to be where it is, or if Mother Nature did, but it grows on our property. In the seven years we have been here, it has grown to be quite massive. It provides a good deal of shade for our yard. It also produces a bumper crop of mulberries every year much to the delight of my children and many backyard birds in my neighborhood. One year, we even made old-fashioned spiced mulberry jam with its bounty.

This tree has become of interest to us because of its proximity to the fenceline. Upon close inspection, Brian noticed that it is not one tree, but three trees that have grown up next to each other. The trunks wind around each other and the branches are all intermingled. Our first proposition was to remove two of the trees and leave one...making a much more tidy looking tree and giving it plenty of room to clear the fence.

Friday afternoon Brian came to me and said, "I don't know, Hon. I worry that if I cut off those two extra parts of that tree it won't look right anymore. It will be bare and sparse and patchy in places." He made an excellent point.

And now, dear reader, we come to the point where I am sure you are saying to yourself, "What in the WORLD does this have to do with anything at all?!?!"

Well, the other thing that happened this holiday weekend is my baby brother graduated from high school. And high school graduations mean extended family get-togethers, which brings me to another type of "tree." The family tree.

Some of us have family trees that are like the oak in my front yard. They have one trunk that is straight and true. They have evenly spaced limbs and branches. They are, to the naked eye, uncomplicated and easy to explain. These family trees "do what family trees are supposed to do." And they are beautiful.

My family tree resembles the mulberry tree in my backyard. It is a complicated structure with interwoven trunks, branches, and leaves. But ultimately, it does what it is supposed to do as well. And it is also beautiful.

So I'm done wishing that I could prune my tree to resemble the oak. I can't. Not without losing much of the beauty and purpose of the tree.