Not much happening

The finals are corrected and the grades are in. Tuesday is officially the last day and I have survived the last year of teaching. I received some lovely notes from students about how much they enjoyed my class, as well as a number of students who stopped in to wish me a good summer. I've not quite forgotten the crazy parents and unsupportive administration, but the second half of the year was a definite improvement.

I appear to have picked up some crud and will be calling the doctor on Tuesday as it has been ten days and I still can't shake it. I am sleeping as though I have mono - napping every chance I get.

We are taking it easy this weekend. PH actually took a parent free day yesterday and sat by the beach solo. As I will be leaving next Saturday for four days in Oregon, it was easy to be gracious about his day. Other than a cooking class on Sunday next weekend, I have NO PLANS in Oregon! I can not wait as most days are packed with children needing various levels of attention. I am so excited to be without plans. After that trip I will be home for a couple weeks and then it is off to Norway and Maine. This summer will be full of fun travel and family!

Hope everyone in the U.S. is having a safe Memorial Weekend!

Almost Done!

Out guests have left and it was a good visit. My children now use random french words that they picked up from their younger cousin and my niece has returned to France with an English vocabulary that is quite impressive for a not quite two year old. My daughter, concerned that she would not be able to speak with her young cousin, has asked us many questions about learning languages so it appears we have sparked an interest!

I celebrated my son's return to his own room (he was sleeping in our room during the ten days of our family visit) by becoming sick. I lost my voice and that made the last couple days of classes rather interesting with me whispering orders to my students :) I'm sure my voice will return and that my illness is more a result of exhaustion.

Friday was my last class and next week is finals. I expect it will pass rather quickly in a whirlwind of grading as the exam itself is only two hours on Monday. After my grades are in, I'm done. Fini! I will have completed my first year of teaching and I was offered a contract for next year which I have signed (I need one more year for my temporary license to become permanent). Knowing that next year I will begin looking for a different job, I have been in contact with an overseas education placement service and even though my license will not be final until next May, they have requested a resume for the fall so that I can be considered for positions for the following year. A good sign.

I am looking forward to my trip to Oregon, the first weekend in June. I fear that I may sleep most of the vacation, but I hope to rest up after this week.

Thanks to all of you who posted wishes and congratulations on my 100 post. I can't believe it's been a year. Look forward to returning to regularly posting in the near future.

100 post

I imagined that my 100 post would be insightful and witty, as I reflected on this past year blogging. Instead I 'm writing to say I will be back in two weeks. I have two weeks of classes left and I am drowning in work. Additionally, the french visitors who were to stay four days are now back for an unannounced additional week and our three year old is sleeping in our room to accommodate the visitors. I'll be reading others blogs just to escape, but I'm too exhausted to try to put together a coherent sentence. Back soon - Ta Ta!

This weekend: a dance rehearsal, a dance recital, drop car at airport, arrival of family from France, cooking for family arriving from France, laying of sod, 26 resaearch papers to grade, two quizzes to write, a cold and a partridge in a pear tree!

A Decision

So, a decision has been made. The week after I finish my first year of teaching, I will be going solo to Oregon for four nights. Oregon certainly wasn't my first thought when I began planning my escape, but a very cheap ticket and a look at pictures of the coastline convinced me otherwise. Additionally, I have never seen the West Coast and I have some unexplained aversion to California. And to top it off, I found a cooking class for one of the days and a nearby winery. So beach, books, wine, and good food - sounds perfect to me!

Interview Me

This has been making its rounds on the blogs for the last week so I had to jump on the bandwagon. Pam from American Spoken Here graciously agreed to interview me. Below are her questions and my answers. If anyone else wants to play just follow the rules.

The Rules:
Leave me a comment saying, "Interview me.''
I respond by asking you five personal questions (I will leave these questions for you in my comments) so I can get to know you better.
You will update your journal/blog /whatever, with the answers to the questions (please don't leave your answers in my comments unless you don't have a blog).
You will include this explanation and an offer to interview someone else in the post.
When others comment asking to be interviewed, you will ask them five questions.

So without further adieu (and Thank You Pam!):

1. How did you decide on 'Hexe' for your blog?
I had been to Austria and just fallen in love with the country. It was after that trip that my husband and I started the "what if" conversations. What if money were no object - where would we live then? What if we started to look for jobs overseas? What if I stopped practicing law and changed jobs so we could look for employment in two fields? What if we found jobs, could we move our kids overseas? As a result of these conversations, I began looking on-line for information about living overseas and stumbled upon blogs of expatriates. After months of being a lurker, I finally decided to start my blog. I didn't really have an intent or a plan other than to write about our hope to move soon. As we were not willing to announce to the world and my husband's job that we intend to leave in the next two years (now one year!), I needed a "code name." Because of my love of Austria, I used my German dictionary. I was just randomly flipping through it when I found the word "hexe" which is witch in German. It seemed to fit because some days I'm a good witch and I magically juggle home, work, husband, family, kids, and self and others I'm just witch (or substitute a "b" for the "w"). So Hexe I became.

2. If you could change any law, which one would you change?
Only one?! There are so many . . such as in Maine, you can marry your first cousin if you attend genetic counseling. If you're willing to marry your first cousin, then I have to imagine that genetic counseling is not the only counseling you need. Or that stealing a filled lobster trap is called molestation of a lobster trap! The tax code that more heavily penalizes the lower economic class. In Florida, if you kill a person through neglect and the deceased does not have a surviving spouse or children then no one can hold the negligent party responsible (e.g. drunken doctor kills 18 year old who is not married and has no children, parents can not bring suit). A minimum standard for universal health care. Laws that restrict the termination of parental rights - there is a presumption that the biological parent is in the best interest of the child. Biological parents who beat, torture, starve, and burn their children should not get a second chance. Okay, that's more than one - Sorry!

3. What experience of one of your grandparents do you want to make sure your children know?
My paternal grandparent's farm. As a kid I used to love to visit my grandparents and see the cows, the garden, and run in the fields. The cows are now gone but they still grow hay and keep a garden. It was great to see my kids riding on the tractor with my grandfather.

4. Your life story is a movie: who plays your part?
My husband says Felicity Huffman. I'd choose Dame Judi Dench.


5. What do you do when (you think)no one is looking?
Dance to the music in my head.

MESSAGE IN A BOTTLE

SEND HELP! Mother in law has arrived with numerous bags of "treasures." Children are full of Easter candy and screaming "Gramma" repetitively. More candy has also been brought into the house. Please send reinforcements!

Busy, busy, busy

The last week has been both relaxing and insane. My parents arrived Wednesday from Arizona. They are driving back to Maine after a few months of being snowbirds. Thursday, I took the kids to daycare and went to work for a few hours, then picked up the kids and brought them home to my parents, then I quickly threw some clothes into a suitcase and jumped back in the car and drove to pick up PH from work, then we drove a couple hours to the coast and checked in to a resort for forty-eight hours of child free time. In that 48 hours, we went for bike rides, went swimming, walked on the shore and stared at the ocean, went to yoga, went to a core class, ate at two restaurants, sat by the pool, had a manicure, graded papers, and read a book - it was great! Then we drove back and filled eggs and prepared for a visit from the Easter bunny. I got up at 6:00 A.M. to stop the chocolate hoarding and help find eggs. Next, we colored a dozen eggs and then spent thirty minutes and a lot of soap trying to scrub the dye off little finger. Additionally, I cooked a ten pound ham, a dozen potatoes and a meal for eleven people and then we went to my sister-in-law's house and did had an egg hunt for another fifteen plus children and I brought dessert for the meal for twenty plus people. In four days, I filled 84 eggs. Today, I said goodbye to my parents and then tried to prepare lesson plans and tests for the next week. Whew!

Friday Feast

Appetizer: What are you proud of?
I am proud of my family, of my insatiable need to continually learn, and of my stubbornness.

Soup: What is the best thing you’ve ever won as a prize?
When I was twelve my grandfather put my name into a drawing and I won a ten speed bike. it was baby blue and I thought I was all that and a bag of chips with the handle bar breaks. When I was in law school I won a mock trial competition and a set of law books with enthralling titles such as Opening Statements, Evidence, and Trial Preparation. I used the bike more than the books.

Salad: Name something you do that is a waste of time.
Bathe my children. Why bother - ten minutes later they are covered in dirt or food.

Main Course: In what year of your life did you change the most?
The year my daughter was born. Before that it was all about me, all of the time. Within six weeks of her birth, I changed jobs to work part time, and went from putting criminals in jail to representing them.

Dessert: Where is a place you consider to be very tranquil?
Any mountain - the Austrian Alps, Mt. Battie and Mount Katahdin in Maine, the White Mountains in New Hampshire, the Swiss Alps. A quiet hiking trail, a picnic of water, fruit, chocolate, and cheese, and cool air.

Oh, the romance . . .

PerfectHusband reads post that is below and then read the comment by the wonderful and talented Ms. Mac. PH turns to wife and says "If you fly British Airways to London and die at least you'll get to ride in first class . . . and I'll get stuck with the bill for it." I die and all he is worried about is the fecking bill for first class. Despite the 80 degree weather here, it will be a mighty cold night at Hexe's house.

Suggestions

Only 46 more school days until summer break. I know I sound like an over-anxious teenager, but in reality I am an overworked teacher who is ready for a break. This year has not been what I expected but I don't know if anything could have prepared me for this year. Every teacher not affiliated with the school where I teach claim that in their multiple years of teaching they have never experienced what I have this year. At least that gives me hope that another school may be a very different circumstance.

I still have not planned my four days away that PH's trip to Arizona entitled me too. I intend to take the four days right after school gets out but I still have not planned it. So far, I have looked at a eco-hotel with cooking classes in Nova Scotia, Quebec, Toronto, and Vermont, as well as whether I could get a direct flight to London (otherwise not worth it for four days). Thankfully, we have miles earned and vouchers from a previous flight so I am not worried about price, but more worried about time. I know previously some of you suggested places in the South but I really just want to escape from the South just to remind myself that there is hope and I will not be living here forever. At least that is what I keep telling myself. So any more ideas - I need to some motivation.

The Mother-In-Law

When PH and I decided to wed, I really didn't consider that cliche that by marrying him I was marrying his family. PH's family is insane - six siblings and all raised by my MIL after a brutal divorce from FIL and FIL has gone on to three additional wives and various adopted children and step-children. Generally, there is no communicating between the various sides of the war, but my house is Switzerland. We host the holidays and invite everyone - while you're here, you put the past shit aside and get along. There is some grumbling but it works, and generally I drink a couple glasses of wine on these days and ignore the passive aggressive bitching.

This is where MIL and I differ. The women is the Queen of passive aggressive behavior, whereas I tend towards erupting like a volcano when I have reached my threshold, and then hashing it out. On top of MIL's "helpful little suggestions," I have come to learn that her children are perfect, and the various spouses are not. As a spouse I take exception to the idea that PH is perfect and any faults demonstrated by him are a result of marrying me. Because of the Queen status, this is never directly stated to me, but hints are given and when that doesn't work MIL tells other members of the family how poor PH has suffered due to my ineptitude. I, in turn, get to hear about how PH's siblings suffer due their spouses incompetence.

I continue to encourage PH and my kids to have a relationship with MIL because I am selfish. Children learn what they see. When I am a senile, obnoxious, old bag, I want my children to remember that they saw me continue to try with MIL and know they have an obligation to still see me. So with that theory in mind, I invited MIL with us to the beach for four days.

Overall, it was good to have her with us. I got sick the day we were to leave for the beach and MIL and PH took the kids for a couple hours so I could empty my stomach before crawling into the back seat of the car between two car seats and riding three hours through Orlando traffic (it was a VERY bad ride). Additionally, MIL did offer and take the children on a few occasions so PH and I had a few hours to ourselves, which was very considerate. It wasn't that the other stuff didn't happen, it did, but some I've learned to ignore and some I save to share with PH. But it was this weekend that I got to see that MIL isn't always going to be around.

MIL is obese - not just overweight - hoarding food, no exercise obese. Her weight impairs her mobility and keeps her from being able to do what she would like to do. At the beach, we stayed at a condo that was no more than a five minute walk from the resort and pool. It was slightly uphill, but PH and I walked with both kids several times and never thought twice about it. MIL always called a shuttle for a ride. One time, she actually waited forty minutes with the kids and me rather than walk the five minutes. Seeing this scared me - I need to get my butt out of the chair and get rid of the twenty pounds that came with the kids. I refuse to let my weight keep me from doing all the activities I intend to do before I die. More importantly, seeing her helped me to understand that even though I will never be "good enough" for her and she will continue to favor one of my children over the other (a subject for another time), she will not always be able to go where we intend to be. If she continues, there will reach a point where travel will not be an option for her. Considering that her grandchildren and children now live on two continents and varying states, I feel sorry for her. I guess this means I'll invite everyone, including MIL to both Thanksgiving and Christmas this year.

Photo Tour of the Beach

The View From our Condo.

The Beach.

The Lazy River at the Pool

The Pool

One of the many shells

Proof that we were not alone.

Shaving Cream according to Hew

My Final Resting Spot

Nothing new

After a week, I should have something to write about, but I have nothing. I have been grading like a crazy person and doing lesson plans. Thursday we are leaving for the beach for four days - The kids, PH, and MIL. I hope to more later this week but for now nada. Hope your week is more interesting than mine.

Almost done . . .

Thirty-six papers read. Six to go. Insanity catching up quickly.

Just a thought . . .

After having been married for more than six years, Perfect Husband and I readily recognize each other flaws. I do not adapt easily. I know that change causes me stress which results in me raging and ranting during the adjustment. It is not pretty and I know it.

Perfect Husband also recognizes this character flaw and as recently as last night expressed his concerns about an overseas move. How will I deal with the inevitable feelings of stress at moving somewhere unknown, where it is unlikely that I will speak the language, and I will be working at a new job? (An aside here - Before meeting PH, I did move across country by myself to start a new job at a place where I had no connections and miraculously did manage.)

Yet, was it me snipping into the phone at some poor service worker as to why there was no technical support available ON A SUNDAY to help PH with his new Blackberry? It appears that I won't be the only one needing stress management when we move.

The swing of the pendulum

Received in the forty plus research papers and promptly got the stomach flu that KK had. The flu hit so fast that I actually had to run out of a class I was teaching to be sick. Have determined that I must now be dying as the sight of chocolate turns my stomach.

What I've been doing in my spare time

A little less than a year ago, we decided to pull up the old nasty carpet in our house and replace it with a wood floor. After several heart stopping quotes, PH and I decided to put down the floor ourselves - one room at a time. We were half way through the house when I started my new job in August and since then, the floor project laid dormant. We blamed my job, but part of our inertia was due the fact that the next room to do was the family room which is the largest room.

Last Sunday, after I finished my first 23 research papers (46 will be coming in on Wednesday so service will then again be interrupted), we decided to pull up the rug and put in the floor working every night after work. Never mind that my sister and her family were coming in a week for a visit before heading to Mouseland. Never mind that I was cooking for fourteen the following weekend. It was time. Here is our progress the first night . . .



Night one!






AND FIVE DAYS LATER . . .






Although we are tired, it is done and the last three rooms are substantially smaller. We still have trim work to do, but I am quite impressed with our work.

After Friday night, I still had to cook for fourteen. I made chicken breasts in a sauce of tomatoes, onion, thyme, parsley, and wine, with baby red potatoes grilled with olive oil, thyme and parsley, and some blanched green beans. I was so busy that I only snapped one picture while I was making the sauce.

But I didn't forget to take a couple pictures of the pear and chocolate tart.

Unfortunately, after all the working, cooking, and visiting, KK came down with the stomach flu and I am now cleaning bed linens. Ma belle vie!

Temporary Break

I will be back but I am currently buried under a stack of research papers that need to be corrected. Also, for some insane reason, we tore up the carpet in the family room and are laying wood floors down. Someday, I will be back . . .

Near Escape

A very busy week and I don't see a let up in the next couple weeks. Yuck.

We finally returned Hammy the hamster, but not without problems. Last Sunday night, the deviant hamster from hell made a dash for freedom at two freakin' o'clock in the morning. Even without wayward rodents, I hate Sunday nights. I can never get to sleep - my mind races with all the things that need to be completed in the up-coming week.

Before Hammy's break, I spent the first two hours in bed tossing and turning, making numerous lists of things that I will never accomplish. The next hour, I listened to PH snore. PH's snoring is not consistent. The volume increases until he nearly gags himself whereupon he wakes himself up, only to turn over and continue snoring whether on his back, his stomach, or his side. After numerous attempts to stop the variant decibel snoring, I finally went to the couch to sleep.

I had just dozed off after acknowledging that I would only have four hours of sleep to start my week, when I woke to the clatter of plastic hitting the tile floor in the laundry room. Damn Hammy, I thought as I stumbled to check on the freakin' hamster like the third child I never wanted. I flip on the laundry room light and the evil rodent is perched on the top of his cage and he has knocked off the lid. As Hammy sees me, his eyes widen with the knowledge that his escape plan has been foiled and he runs down the tube to hide in his exercise wheel. Damn rodent. I duct taped his cage back together.

Hopefully, this Sunday night will just be a normal sleepless Sunday.