I've heard it all now...

This morning in our paper was an article applauding our local and very excellent marching band, The Ft. Myers High School Green Wave Marching Band. Seems the band has been invited to participate in a parade next New Year's Day in London, England. What a prestigeous invitation, right?

Well, the invitation was turned down by the Superintendent and someother mucky muck here. The reason given? London is not a safe city! Are they also going to turn down invites for the science team to NYC for competitions? Are they going to prevent the football team from going to state? What is next?

Based on an incident in London over a year ago when a subway was bombed, the "officials" of our school district have effectively slapped England in the face. Seems to me this should be up to the students' parents to determine. Sign a release and the band marches, right? London's mayor even invited the supe and his side kick to London on London's nickle to appraise the safety of the town for the kids's visit.
The supe stated he didn't have the time.

I doubt this will be the end of the issue. Seems also that this supe and a few of the board members are up in arms because another member of the board would like some finanacial accounting for spendatures over 25.000 by the district. The very nerve...lol.

This is the same school district that recently announced it would be considering building affordable houses and condos on school property for the teaching staff...now we're into real estate as well as education. Why not pay the teachers what they deserve and let them find their own homes away from the sanctions that I am sure will be imposed on residents on school property.

What better investment in our future than our children's education?

Posting from Paradise: Kayaking the Great Calusa Blue Way

Posting from Paradise: Kyaking the Great Calusa Blue Way

Kayaking the Great Calusa Blue Way

What a great morning we had. We tried a new section of the Calusa Blue Way. This is down near the causeway to Sanibel and the trailway was so beautiful. We thought that Adventures in Paradise marina would be more expensive than we were use to but it turned out to be very cheap ($20.00) for the two of us in a double. We paddled for about an hour all around Connie Mack Island. There are sure some huge and very lovely homes back on this private island...wow.

After about an hour, e's back was hurting and with his recent bout with melanoma, we thought it best to head back. The weather was amazing with a balmy breeze off the Gulf.

Just another great day in Paradise.

One week and counting

I think my honey is just about as excited about the girls and I going on the cruise as we are.

He is heading home to spend some time with his mom who is not doing so hot memory wise (like I should talk). She called the other night wanting a phone no. of someone to call to find her tv remote for her. It is sad when this happens to our parents. Neigher my mom nor my step-dad had reached this point before they died but my uncle had and my aunt was nearing this point.

I am so sorry Janet will be unable to join us on the cruise but understand completely her need to be close. Lots of reminders this past week about aging parents and relatives. Hope my kids are prepared should this occur to me.

On to more pleasant topics: THE CRUISE!!!! I can't wait...have I said that? and right after that is the EK extravaganza class that a few of us are taking at Ruban Rouge and then the Elsie Flannigan one in May...summer will be here before we know it!

Off to get some sun on these ashen legs of mine and read myself silly.

(there Kip...are you happy now? One updated blog)

Another week closer to the cruise

I did it...I am finally packed. I stuffed all fifteen of my class kits (and boy was I generous with goodies!) organized and packed the paints, inks, stamps, beads and tools I'll need to teach the class. My XXL tote weighs a ton. I did manage to get one of my personal projects for scrap time into one of the side pockets and packed two more plus my tools into the Chatterbox large suitcase that Janet M gave us all.

All I have left to do is iron and pack my clothes. Can you tell I am excited?

Janet M and Anne (our new Sadie Sadie Married Lady) will both arrive here in Paradise on the Tuesday before the cruise ship leaves. Hopefully Teri will be able to get a sitter and join us. My honey is planning a feast for that evening. The nex moring, I take him to the airport and we all go to Demo Day at the stamp art store, with shopping and snacks on the agenda and plenty of fun times in store.

On Thurs. Kip and Kath and Kip's roomie all arrive here around ten and we caravan to the ship where the real adventure begins....I am really looking forward to this.

Welcome to Paradise

We are in for some amazing weather here. Highs in the low 80s and lows in the lower 60s...yahoo. It had been getting warmer and warmer and far too fast for me.

My roses, which had been in decline, are blooming all over the place and my jasmine is starting to open up too. Sitting on the front porch is ambrosia to the senses. So I think I will...it is a good day for biking or kayaking...so I think I will. It is a good day to enjoy being alive...so I think I will...welcome to Paradise.

Welcome to Limbo Land...

Our open house on Sunday brought 2 couples and 3 realtors through and no offers, at least on our house. One couple wrote a contract on the house similar to ours (but it has a small lot, no front porch, no tin roof, etc.) for 34,ooo less than our asking price. This house needs lots of work too as renters have been in and out for over a year. Oh well.

The mb is all over the place and it is hard to find people. The new mb seperates everyone even more into the nsbr and the sb crowds and the new gallery, easy as it is to upload layouts has a "popularity" factor built in...how many and who actually view your layout. Hmmmmm. SSmb is slow but picking up the pace. Thank heavens for the Monkey Board. What a refuge this has become.

Limbo Land: not much movement back or forth and that is what my problem is. I don't sit still for long periods of time well. I need to figure out a way to cope as I have absolutely no control over any of this constant Limbo Land thing. Perhaps that is the problem....

Last quote about change

Ralph Waldo Emerson was always one of my favorite authors to teach. Once the kids got into the transcendentalists, there was often no turning them back...as if I would want to.

Here is the last of my quotes on change:

Do not go where the path may lead, go instead where there is no path and leave a trail.

Thursday's Quote

"All is connected...no one thing can change by itself." Paul Hawken ("Natural Capitalism", YOGA Journal 10/94)


I think this explains a lot of the reactions to change. When I taught high school, our district was infamous for finding a new program, and jumping into it full force, wanting the faculty to support the idea totally.

One program in particular comes to mind. We were told that all children are capable of becoming brain surgeons and that we should teach to all this way. Ok...if the distract hadn't taken this so literally, perhaps the concept would have had some chance in hell of succeeding.

A test group of teachers across the board was formed. I was one of the Oldies choosen from my school and department. Guess they thought if an old broad can learn and accept this stuff, it will fly anywhere. Ha! The premise was that we should all change our curriculum and lesson plans to teach to the upper 1/3 of the class and that the rest would, as they put it, "catch up". Now, most of these "they" people hadn't been in a classroom in ten years and the impracticality or the fall out of all of us actually teaching like this had totally escaped the powers that be.

If you bought into the concept and agreed to impliment it (and this was after a half day training, right?), you were free to go. The schoold district also decided not to get the teacher workbooks that the classes were to be designed from but we were told we were bright and could figure it out. Those of us who did not catch on right away...and that would be yours truely, had to return for another session and still a 3rd. Finally, I got it...without us, they could not impliment the change. The last group of us, nodded, said we'd do whatever the plan was and never heard of the program again.

Makes ya wonder. It's all connected but sometime some of the dots are missing, ya know?

Change Quote for Wed.

"People don't resist change. They resist being changed." Peter Senge.

Maybe this quote sums things up for me. I feel undue and unnecessary pressure to change and go with the flow and be loyal (to what I am not sure) and to not make waves and not work through my decisions etc. and so on. Let me make up my own mind about how I feel and I might just surprise you and actually find my way all alone and undirected.

It has also dawned on me that some of the very people who are placing this pressure are as frightened by the change as are those of us they would like to join them, be like them, do as they do. It is a scary thought to leap off a cliff into the unknown but less scary if one is falling with dozens of others and some even holding hands.

I am just one of the cautious ones who likes to look before I leap and I am a wee bit picky about with whom I hold hands...lol.'

P.S. Thanks to all who have been posting. I've been inspired by comments and the words have made a difference...thanks.

Another quote

I've decided to continue quotes about change through Friday. I have always taken change hard. I attribute this to the fact that, due to my dad's job, we moved constantly during my school years. I attended at least 9 and maybe more schools in my 12 years of public education. Change was not just a constant in my life but a given. So, with that in mind...here is today's quote. I am loving what you all have to say!

"If you are in a bad situation, don't worry, it'll change. If you are in a good situation, don't worry, it'll change" John A. Simone, Sr.

Change is in the air...

This has been a constant theme for the past couple of months for me. First, all the layouts, altered projects etc. for the DT have to be on the theme of change. Then the mb goes high tech and less intimate, and now trying to make up our minds to open a store/not open a store, return to a work week plus/ or continue our leisurely retirement? Egads.

I've decided to post a short series of quotes this week from some I downloaded from the internet to use on a layout. I'd love to hear your reactions to these and your comments...thanks to all who play.

Monday quote: "We did not change as we grew older; we became more clearly ourselves" Lynn Hall

DON'T MAKE ME GET UP OFF MY CHAIR...oops! Too late!

So, the message board that so many of us love is going to be shut down and a "new and improved" mb is replacing it within a short period of time. The new board will have a gallery (nice), and lots of bells and whistles (fun) and you can use the "Quote" devise to reference what others have said. That being said, I will miss the old board's intimacy...the small town USA feel to it.

I've met and become rl friends with so many wonderful women from this mb. The whole Cabana Crew originated on ckmb and that has lasted almost five years, give or take a bit. One of the reasons we were able to converse with each other was the sub post ability. This is lacking on the new mb. You can only quote what someone has said, not directly address it. That is my problem with the new mb. Is it the format? Yes, that aspect of it is what makes me sad. And I know most "modern" mbs are all set up the same as this.

Now, we come to my imputus to "get up outta my chair". I tried to make the transition from the old mb to the new and also started posting at a sister mb of ckmb that is set up like the old one. I posted a "getting to know you" on the new, made plans and announced them on both the old and the new for a "Farewell" party hosted by our very own Cabana Boy, Hank, on the last day of the old board and did a challenge at the SS sister mb. I was keeping my options open....the key word is WAS. I've decided that I will lurk at the new mb, join SS with great enthusiasm, and feel exactly whatever the hell I want to feel.

What has helped me make up my mind is this: in a nut shell, I resent the women who have done the following all wanting all of us to move to the new mb, leave the mb or not say anything (guess they are the only ones entitled to an opinion.

On the new board and the old I ,and others ,have been told the following:

1. to grow up, get over the old mb closing, and quit whinning....(and we are not entitled to our lack of enthrusiasm with the new mb or the sadness for the passing of a time?)

2. the Farewell party should not be that but should be a Celebration of the new board (it's my party and I'll say goodbye or whatever...and you do the same. Throw your own party)

3. there is nothing to feel sad about. Move on...(thank you for telling me what is appropriate for me to feel, Dr. Phil)

4. we shouldn't leave a mb just cause the format is different (but it was the old format that helped us to make the friends we have)

5. we should show how young we are and learn something new (ya, know what...I am 58, not terribly stupid, and I wouldn't go back to be "young" again for all the tea in China and since when, is learning something new equated with being young and vice versa?)

I could go on but won't (well, not right now). It is comments like this that are sending many women away from the new mb. Don't tell us how to feel, or what to feel or what to mourn or celebrate or anything of that nature; don't tell us to get with the program, stop our bitchin', and its just a mb. Come to the Farewell party, don't come...suit yourself but don't try to tell me what I should do. I am old enough to make my own decisions, feel my own emotions, and make up my own mind, thank you very much.

Sitting back down in my chair...for the time being.

Ten things I want to do before I die

My roomie from CHA, KelliBlueFrog, was talking about lists on ScrapLovers mb and mentioned mine (thanks Kelli) so I thought I'd post these:

1. See Greece

2. Return to my hometown, Waterloo, Iowa and revisit the house where I grew up, the cemetary where my beloved relatives are buried, and walk the grounds of the YMCA camp where I spent many and many a summer.

3. See my grandchildren marry.

4. Take a trip somwhere with my dd...she and I have such fun together but this is something we have never done.

5. Spend a week on the Washington/Oregon coast...spent a couple of days there after a sb convention but only got a taste of the wonder.

6. Complete my 30 miles in one day bike trip before I turn 60, let alone before I die.

7. Have everyone (that means you too Clare) be able to participate in Anne and my 50/60 birthday bash.

8. Take a meditation class.

9. Open our own paper boutique.

10. Have a magazine do an aritcle on my as the world's oldest scrapper...I'll be 102 at the time!

The Ultimate Altered Art

This has to be the ultimate in altered art. We saw this driving down HW 41 coming home from an outing last Thursday. I couldn't tell if it was someone's idea of a joke or if the owner just had a tape fetish. There were lots of Highway Patrol decals so perhaps it was an ad for safe driving.
We got as close as we could with Anne leaning out of the window taking shots with her camera as fast as she could. The sunglasses on the top were one of my favorite "embellishments".
Only in Paradise!

Ten things I DO NOT want to do before I die

Anne and I were talking the other day about doing layouts about the things we have done that we wanted to or things we want to do but haven't. Then we discussed things we had no desire whatsoever to do before we died...and just laughed ourselves silly.

Here is my List...what is on yours?

1. Parachute out of an airplane (bones don't heal as well or as fast at my age)

2. Find out if tapping a gator on the nose makes him shut his mouth (I also don't sprint as fast as I use to)

3. Get "Hell's Angels Forever" tatooed on my chest (although there is ample room for this and a motorcycle tatoo as well, I'll pass on the pain).

4. Parasail, paraglide or any other para event (see #1)

5. Travel to the Orient (I'd rather go back to Italy or Germany...and I don't like sushi)

6. Climb Mt. Everest (my upcoming 30 mile in one day bike ride will be sufficient, thank you very much).

7. Run a marathon (too much sweating)

8. Ride a bucking broncho (although I almost rode the mechanical bull one night out with some friends after a sb convention...and that was before we had a few toddys but we all went to another restaurant instead)

9. Take up white water rafting (I like the thrill of a quiet kayak ride down our docile Florida streams much better...more conducive to cat naps)

10. Write a book (this has been a maybe thought in the back of my mind since I was twelve but realize now that the best stories are those told by others)

What are your ten things?