My second week of work is over, and aside from the lice (still just one child) things are going pretty well. My new assistant is very efficient and willing to do the work. I don't yet feel like we are friends, but hopefully that will come later.
I started a blog for my class and I sent out several e-mails to the parents telling them about it, and I also posted a note about it on my door. After the first post 2 parents commented, but then I didn't hear any other feedback about it. I was beginning to feel like I was doing all that work for nothing, but I decided to do one more post yesterday. I sent out an e-mail telling parents that there would be pictures from our walk to the duck pond on the blog and apparently that was the incentive that everyone needed to check it out. My map went from 3 viewers (one of them in Erie) to a couple of dozen in the last 24 hours. I have a child whose father and extended family live in South Africa, and I see that they are now looking at the blog. A couple of parents e-mailed me to let me know that the grandparents are loving the blog too. Another mother told me that when she asks her son what he did at school that day he always replies, "Nothing". Last night they looked at the blog together and he described in great detail everything that he had done. That was what I had been hoping for when I started the blog, and I am finally feeling like it is a success.
On another note, my new next door neighbors moved in yesterday. I haven't met them yet, and I'm not sure whether it is the older couple who will be living there, or the younger couple with three small children. There have been a lot of people in and out and I am not sure which ones will be living there and which ones are just helping with the move. When I went out to pick my tomatoes this afternoon I found something that will thrill Ava, Liv, and Grandma, but it doesn't really make me happy!
Okay, I admit, it's kind of a cute weiner dog, and it has a funny, raspy little bark. Again, I don't know if this is a permanent resident or a visitor. Yesterday there was a black lab in the back yard. Who knows what might be there tomorrow!
Above is a picture of the house with the old roof, and below is the new roof. What you can't see on the top picture are the missing and curling shingles. Aaron says that the new roof shouldn't give me any trouble for 25 years, so I am going to hold him to that!
I also took the advice of Nate, Aaron and Jo and I bought a Black and Decker edger/trimmer combo. My old gas trimmer was heavy and it leaked fuel and it was a pain to start. The new one is light, electric, and a lot of fun to use. My only complaint is that so far the battery doesn't seem to last very long. I have gone through four batteries and I have only edged my driveway and the sidewalk from the north edge of my yard to the walk that goes to the doorway. Granted, I have a lot of area to edge and I haven't done it for at least 2 years. I have already recovered 6 to 8 inches of driveway that had been overgrown, and I haven't found the edge yet. I'm not sure that will be a good thing once I have to start shoveling snow, but it does look better. I also bought a leaf blower. With all of my sidewalk area and patio to sweep I don't know why I never thought of a leaf blower until Aaron was cleaning up the roof mess and asked if I had one. It makes cleaning so much easier!
Unfortunately it had a large wasp nest inside and that caused some problems for the guys on the roof. At this very moment my house is surrounded by a swarm of wasps and I am wishing that I had more than one wasp trap. There were a couple of other things on my roof that Aaron couldn't figure out what they were for, and they ended up taking those off. They did accidentally pull out my oven vent tube, but Aaron got that put back together.
