Last Day of Spring Break

I've been very busy spring cleaning my yard over my week long break.  I got several trees cut down (3 eucalyptus and a palm tree). I also trimmed four trees and got an overhaul on overgrown hedges and birds of paradise. Did I mention I have a half acre lot? It's no wonder I got a nice suntan while tackling my yard maintenance.

Tree trimming in action

 Eucalyptus tree being cut down

 Palm planter prior to being cut down

Then with the help of my parents I planted a Japanese Maple tree.

I'm not all done with everything I wanted to tackle in the yard, but the biggest areas of need are DONE. There's something so nice about seeing progress.

The joys of home ownership weren't limited to yard maintenance costs. I also had my water heater leak and needed to buy and install a new one to the tune of over $1,000.

What are your plans for spring break if you've not already had it?

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Spring Happenings

Hope spring is treating everyone well.  I recently returned from an 8 day vacation in Mexico for my spring break. This is the 3rd time I've gone to the Tulum, Mexico Riviera Maya area with my family to have some much needed rest and relaxation.  As I walked the beaches each day I found heart stones to add to my growing collection.

There are signs of spring in my own backyard too. A bird has set up her nest on my patio.
It right in front of the sliding door so I'm not sure if mama bird will be happy with Harley's "protect the yard morning barking" every morning.

And I get to see this mule pulling his owner in a rickshaw on the walking path near my home.

Happenings in my classroom include administering the state field test. We took the first portion on Friday. One down, 2 more sessions to go! My kiddos did their best!

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Backyard Delights

I get to enjoy my yard, work and all, during the summer.

My backyard is a 1/2 acre. Over spring break I cut down some palms that were breaking my planters.

I replaced them with a Crape Myrtle tree which is now blooming.

Look at those pretty watermelon blooms.

I'm still battling the asparagus fern sprouts that keep popping up which I also removed from the planter. I'm avoiding the need to clean up the dead blooms of my Bird of Paradise. I'll wait to do that on a cooler day.

Wild rabbits love my backyard too.

I came back from walking Harley yesterday and saw these two eating steps away from my patio.

Harley isn't fast enough to catch the grown ones, but last summer he did corner and kill a few babies :(

And yuck, Harley loves to eat the rabbit poop all over the lawn when I don't watch him.

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Workin It Wednesday

I'm joining in on Corinna's Workin It Wednesday.

My goal this summer is to have a regular walking routine.

One week into my summer and I am pleased to stay I've stayed on track.

My exercise routine is nothing special at all.

I just leash up Harley and walk along this bridle path.

2-3 miles is my average walk.

This path is well traveled by others walkers.

But the most unusual spotting on one of my walks was someone walking their pig on a leash.

Harley knew, spot on, that this was no other dog, and was desperately sniffing the air as we came upon Mr. Pig.

Pigs don't walk very fast so we zipped right on by.

I've also seen a gentleman in his rickshaw pulled by a donkey.

My favorite is to see the horses slow galloping along the path (except for the time my sister and I encountered a scared runaway horse and hid behind one of the trees to get out of its path. That was years ago though, so I think I've recovered)

Now, I really have no excuse for NOT walking, as I can view my walking route right from my front window. But sadly during the school year, even with a front row seat, my routine literally goes out the window.

My window view

Here's Harley today post walk. The coolest spot is the tiled entry way so he's chilling there.

And I grabbed a glass of water with lemon

Tomorrow's another day to ....Walk On.

What did you do to Work It Wednesday?

Link Up

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Spending Money on Spring Break

I spent money on Spring Break, and not in the way I wanted.

If I've not shared before, I have a beautiful yard, but it is a 1/2 acre.

1/2 acre = lots of my time maintaining it over Spring Break.

Good thing I have my good buddy, Harley, along to keep me company.

He gets to lounge in the cool mondo grass while I sweat it out with weeding
The start of spending money was on replacing 2 sprinkler valves plus broken sprinkler repair.

Sidenote Harley story:  My parents dogsit Harley at their house while I work when they are in town.
My dad took him on a walk the other day, and 2 loose dogs came charging up to Harley.
Harley gave them a back off warning growl, and that's when the dogfight started.
The 2 boxers had the advantage because Harley was leashed up. My dad was hollering, and went into the middle of the street with the 2 dogs following. A car stopped and tried to help by honking repeatedly to get the dogs away but it continued. Harley came out of the tag team fight with no injuries, but my dad was upset that numerous parents walking their kids to the nearby school did not even mention to him as they passed by that these 2 dogs were laying loose up the way in a driveway.
It would have given him the chance to change paths or avoid the confrontation.

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This pretty group of flowers sprouted up as a surprise.
Squirrels must have spread them to my yard.
Not quite sure what kind of flower it is though.

A big chunk of my unexpected Spring Break spending went to cutting down these 3 Queen Palms.

I wouldn't have cut them down except their roots were eventually going to destroy my brick planter. In order to save the planter, they had to go.

Cutting down in process

If yard work weren't enough add in some home maintenance.

My dishwasher has a leaking valve and needs to be repaired. 

Don't you love waiting for repairmen? I have a window of between 12pm and 3pm for it to be fixed.

Who has bets it is at 3 pm?

Hope your break will be more cost effective than mine or at least spent on something more FUN!

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Harley on Vacation

Okay folks. Here are some Harley highlights from my Utah mountain vacation.

Lounging on the deck. This is his 3rd year to my parent's cabin.

The first year he literally belly crawled across the deck to get inside the cabin.

He has now progressed to walking normally on it, but he still will not walk over the snow grate you see in this picture.

Watching the kids target shooting with their bows

Getting in some reading

Creek that runs right below the cabin

Wading in the creek

Trying to coax Harley down the stairs. He has yet to do it. Which made me have to go outside and around downstairs with a flashnight each night to get to bed.

We found he loves Ginger Snaps, so we placed pieces on the stair steps, but would only creep to the first step and come back up.

He wants the Ginger Snap so bad.

He FINALLY conquered his fear over the steps on our last day.

Going fishing on the lake was another new event. He did not quite like the swaying dock.

My family fishing trip was something else. We called ourselves the dork family, because everything that could go wrong did. My nephew's job was to remember the worms and marshmallows for bait and guess what we showed up without? Yep the worms and marshmallows. The owner of the boat place gave us complimentary worms thank goodness. Then my niece hooked a fish but proceeded to get it caught up on the anchor, which involved literally 5 of us to help untangle. She We got the fish though!

That's all until Harley's next year!

I'm Back from Vacation!

Long time no blog, but I've got a good excuse. I just returned from a wonderful Mexico vacation.

No school distractions for me for a whole week. Just the sun, sand, and some good beach reads.

Here's where I was, Gran Bahie Principe in Tulum, Mexico

I enjoyed a visit to the Tulum Ruins too.

I'll be posting about some of my Mexico beach reads on the blog Best Endings, as I am now a contributor over there.

I did have to leave my precious pup home when I went on vacation, but I read this book that's great for dog lovers. Be on the lookout for my review over at The Best Endings.

On another note the winners of my $5 shopping credit for Talbott's Teaching Trove are

Misty, Allison, Ms. Patterson, Becky, Traci, Corinna, Amber and Andrea.

If you left an email I will contact you so you can choose the files you want. If you didn't please contact me. Also, I came home to over 100 emails, and apparently at some point my store went offline while I was having fun in the sun. So if you tried to shop at my store and couldn't, it's now back up and running.

Back to reality now...work tomorrow!

Thinking of Thanks

I'm joining Oh Boy 4th Grade and What the Teacher Wants Thankful linkies.

Harley & Me

I'm currently typing this post as a one eyed teacher due to eye surgery this morning. I have a huge eye patch over one eye and it's taken me FOREVER to correct all my misspellings.  But I'm recovering with gratitude because IT is the way, even though the doc says I'll be black, blue and bruised for Turkey Day. Wishing you all a wonderful Thanksgiving vacation.

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