Crayon Breaker

When it was time to clean up and leave the library, one of the kindergartens refused to stop coloring. When I took away his coloring sheet, he looked me in the eyes, held up his crayon, and snapped it in half. 

It kind of felt like the glove slap of a duel challenge. 

Nate's tshirt quilt

For the past few months I've been working on a t-shirt quilt for Nate. I used 20 squares from his tshirts (all backed with iron-on interfacing) and 4 of his dress shirts, plus some fabric he picked out. The back is a true patchwork quilt. I did all of the top-stitching by hand, first around each square and then by adding accent stitching around the designs on the shirts. 

This was one of the most enjoyable projects I've ever worked on, and I'm so proud of the result. It's so Nate. 

Lead Climbing

On Sunday Korra went to a different climbing gym to learn how to do lead climbing. That's where you clip your rope in as you climb. It's cool that she has the opportunity to learn such a cool skill and I'm so proud of how much she's grown in her confidence. 

Weak Coffee

I brewed an entire pot of coffee... but forgot to put in the coffee grounds. Good thing I'm not in a hurry this morning. 

Puss Caterpillar

The kids found a couple of these venomous caterpillars on the farm today.  Cute but potentially dangerous!

https://www.gpb.org/news/2022/09/07/despite-its-innocently-furry-appearance-the-puss-caterpillars-sting-brutal

I want that

I want this so bad

Used Bandaids

I don't know what's happening around this school, but I have picked up so many used bandaids in the library this week.  It's disgusting.  

Coffee by Myself

At my school, we are allowed one late day per week- a day when we can come in 45 minutes later than our usual time. Today I took my late day because I had a 7 AM dermatologist appointment, but I didn’t know how long it would take. The appointment only took 10 minutes so I decided to spend my remaining 30 minutes of time before I had to be at work at a café, enjoying a blueberry muffin and a latte and my book. It was a lovely start to my morning. 

Restful Long Weekend

 Over the long weekend, we went to the Dragon Con parade, went swimming with friends, and then had lots of quiet downtime.  I finished a 1000 piece puzzle while listening to an audiobook and took 3 naps.  It was exactly what I needed.

Tree Branch

A bad storm blew through last night and while we watched on our balcony, on the other side of our building a big branch fell, just missing the AC units, cars, and neighbor’s windows.  

Coloring Dad’s Tattoos

Korra got a set of temporary tattoo markers for her birthday. She’s been coloring Nate’s tattoos since she was little, but these have upper her game. 

"Reverse Scavenger Hunt"

We've had inside recess the last few days because of the extreme heat.  Two 5th grade girls came by and asked if they could do more of the library scavenger hunt that we did in class.  I said, "what if we do a reverse hunt? I'll give you a book and you show me where it should go."  They did this for 20 minutes and told me it was the best recess ever.  And all my books got shelved :)

Birthday Measurements

Today is my girl's 14th birthday.  

Since she was 2 years old, we've measured her every 6 months and every 6 months, she's consistently grown 1-1.5 inches.  Not this time though.  Since March, Korra's only grown half an inch.  Guess the pediatrician was right when she told us Korra was probably about her adult height.  She's currently just shy of 5 feet tall.

iRobot Customer Support

Twice in the last week, our new robot vacuum has become disconnected and won't reconnect.  Both times I filled out the "contact me" form on their website and waited 3+ days before calling the phone number and then waiting on hold for over 30 minutes only to have them suggest a factory reset.  Yes, it has fixed the issue both times but I would prefer not to have to do a factory reset once a week.  This robot vacuum is supposed to save me time, but it’s currently doing the opposite. 

CMA Drama

Over a month ago, we decided to have Korra's birthday party at the neighborhood clubhouse.  Because we're renters, we don't have access to the portal. The CMA (community management association) insisted we needed to go through our homeowner, who lives in Maryland, is 75 years old, and who is caring for her husband who has dementia. Yeah, not going to happen. A neighbor said she would do it for us, so she started the process on the portal and then sent me the paperwork. I filled it out, scanned a copy to her which she uploaded, and then I mailed the print copy along with the check to the provided address. 3 weeks later, CMA emailed her that they had not received payment. I checked with our bank and they had already deposited the check.  How they could deposit a check that was wrapped in the application, a check that had our name and address and the date of the reservation all on it and somehow not know what it was for... it's confusing.  They then sent a confirmation of the keycard number that will unlock the clubhouse.  It was not the keycard number I provided on the form.  Nope, they ignored that completely and went to the trouble to look up our neighbor's keycard number.  When she requested they change it, they refused (so why send the email asking to let them know if the card number was wrong?!)

Thankfully, everything went smoothly on the day of the party but I'm dreading some sort of follow-up email that we didn't scrub the toilet with a toothbrush or something.  

Box Seats

On Saturday night we attended the Atlanta United match with some friends who had box seats through their work. The match was awful, but the seats, food, and company were amazing. We’re becoming quite spoiled when it comes to soccer matches. 

Korra’s Birthday Party

On Saturday afternoon we hosted 8 of Korra’s friends at the neighborhood pool/clubhouse for her birthday party. Korra requested a Bluey themed party despite not watching it as a young child. They played “keepy-uppy” and pass the parcel and threw each other into the pool.  I got zero pictures, but they all seemed to have a good time. Nate and I survived but reading on the periphery. 

High School Reuinion

Last night at Korra's climbing gym, a man came up to me and asked, "Is your name Katie?" When I responded yes, he said. "I'm Philip."  He looked kind of familiar so I was racking my brain for a few seconds about how I know this dude and then he said, "we went to high school together!"  The small talk was awkward, in part because I barely remember him.  It's nothing personal, I just barely remember anyone from high school.  Graduation was over 24 years ago and I didn't go to college with any of them.  It got extra weird when he asked to take a selfie to send to one of my best friends from high school that he said he still keeps in touch with.  I was like. "Oh, please don't send that to her. We don't talk anymore" and then I rambled for a minute about how our friendship crashed and burned 15 years ago.  It was, as the kids say, cringe.  He asked for my phone number and introduced me to his wife before I was able to leave.  It was so very weird and I haven't stopped thinking about it.  

Poop

Kindergarten was just in the library and now it smells like poop.  I figured out one kid who the smell was coming from and sent them back to class for a change of clothes, but the lingering smell leads me to believe that there was at least one other poopy-pants I didn't catch.  Ah, the joys of teaching elementary school.  

Copier Fairy

A teacher came to me frantic because she needed 2 extra copies ASAP, but the copier was jammed.  I asked her to go to one of the other 3 copiers while I unjammed it, but she said ALL FOUR copiers were not working.  I don't mind unjamming, replacing toner, etc, but the fact that multiple teachers noticed the copier wasn't working and then walked away without fixing it or even just letting me know infuriated me.  I guess they thought the copier fairy would just notice and fix it.  So annoying.