A cluttered desk...sigh...

So, I had to sit down with my principal today and go over my formal evaluation.  And, once again, I got dinged for "clutter".

EXCUSE ME?

Now, look...I've always had a cluttered desk.  I actually don't sit at a desk at school.  I don't even know where the bottom of my desk is.  I NEVER use it.  I just use to to throw stuff onto.    I do use a table, which has my computer on it because I HAVE to use it to project my iPad to the pull-down screen in my room.  However, the projector light is now burned out after 10 years and my district isn't replacing the bulbs, so I am KAPUT.  ...sigh...

So, the week before he was to come to my room, I started cleaning.  I did NOT have piles of stuff anywhere, but my table did have a couple of piles of student work to be graded.  I got dinged.

HIS office is immaculate.  And cold.  And sterile.  It has no personality. My room has photos the kids took on their iPads, it has photos I've taken of my horses, and it has photos of my university.  It's very colorful.  However, one boy has constantly pulled off the bottom of my focus wall, and I got dinged for that.

...sigh...

I much prefer this photo and quote!   :-)  But, that's just me.  Oh, and by the way, two years ago, when he was getting ready to come do a formal observation, HE LOST the lesson plan I'd given him.  Well, I want you to know that I marched over to my CLUTTERED TABLE, reached in, and pulled it out.  SO THERE!

Hot days

It's so dang hot right now I could scream.  It was 100 degrees, in the shade, on our porch yesterday afternoon.  And, today it is forecast to be 102.  I'm hot.  The kids are hot.  My room isn't entirely cool.  The air conditioner IS working, but with 27 bodies in it, by afternoon, it's stinky and smelly.

I need to come home this afternoon and clean and disinfect every hummingbird feeder.  I don't want the little guys to get sick from the sugar mixture and, with temps this high, I need to do this.

Not much going on.  Hubby has to work Saturday, so I'll go up to the horses then.  I can't wait.

Bye bye cloudy skies!

It was perfectly clear here yesterday, not like our last few cloudy days here in the desert and mountains.  And, it was also 93 degrees.  Temps are expected to climb up to 97 by Thursday.  Ugh!  Our neighbors all had their air conditioners on yesterday afternoon, but, with all of our trees out front, we haven't had to turn ours on yet this week.  MAYBE on Thursday.

We got our water bill and I checked it.  We are allocated 29,000 cubic feet.  We only used 4400.  It's good to know that during this drought, we are using so little water.  It's only the hubs and myself at home now, and we only use the dishwasher once a week, and I only have TIME to do laundry on the weekends.  We do NOT wash our cars at home, and we don't use the automatic sprinklers.  Heck, we don't even have a lawn!

Anyway, we won't be seeing THIS for some time...sigh...

My dad...

It was way too chilly and way too windy yesterday to even THINK about going outside, so I decided to TRY to take some photos of old family photos with my new Samsung Galaxy Note 4.  I LOVE this cell phone and its camera!  We don't have a scanner at home and I was anxious to give this technique a try!

So, I took a photo of each photo, sent it to Facebook (I couldn't figure out how to email it to myself!), downloaded it from Facebook to my computer desktop, then I opened it up in PicMonkey to crop it, and THEN finally I posted it on Ancestry.com.  Phew!  What can I say?  It worked for me.

Of course, that afternoon, when we were having dinneer with our son and his family, he said, "WHY don't you just scan these?" and took them to his scanner.  HA, ha!  His scanner wasn't working!  Smarty pants!

So, here are some of the photos I took pictures of with my camera:

 That's my dad in his WWII Army uniform.

 My great-great-great grandmother.

That's me with our daughter, 1978.

More rain today?

It is cold and cloudy here in Palm Desert this morning.  And, I mean...COLD!  I haven't felt cold like this since we were in the Sierras last summer!  It's a nice feeling, though!  By next week, we will reach 100 degrees, so I'm not complaining!

The weather forecast calls for 100% chance of possibility of rain for Anza (where I board my horses), so I'm not even sure if I should make the 45 minute drive up there.  Hubby and I may just drive somewhere else today.  He's still asleep, so I'm not sure what we will be doing.  I've already done a load of dishes and 2 loads of laundry and it isn't even 8:00 a.m. yet!

More photos from Thursday's rain here in the desert.  Boy, that sure was nice!  The mountains, of course, got more rain than we did, but all areas needed that rain!

 I heard thunder just as I took this photo!

 I love palm trees, don't you?

 You can see the rain coming down up in our local mountains!

 Yes, the yuccas are in bloom!

Look how DARK the sky is!

We got RAIN this afternoon!

By late afternoon today, the sky in the south was cloudy and dark.  I couldn't WAIT for the school day to end and I dashed to my car as soon as the kids left.  I drove home, ran inside, and grabbed my two cameras.  I took my Nikon with me (my backup camera) in case the Canon froze again, but it worked just fine!  I heard thunder over the house and it was sprinkling at home, but up on Deep Canyon and the mountains, it was POURING!  So, of course, off I went!

There was water running across the road and several small rock slides.  There were big rocks in several locations and one even had a rock slide with a plant!  It wasn't until I turned around to drive back down the mountain that a California Highway Patrol officer was stopping and HAND MOVING rocks from the roadway!  Where is CalTrans when ya need them?  Gosh, I felt sorry for the fellow that was trying to do it by hand!

The temperature really dropped as I climbed the mountain road and I heard on the news that there was hail in Pinyon!

Hubby and I went to Whole Foods for an early dinner this afternoon and I looked up and saw SNOW on the mountains!  YES!  Snow in April!  I took a look at the Toro Peak Webcam and yup...there it was!

It was getting so dark on the mountain that I turned around and drove home.  I'm glad I made the trip.  It really refreshed me!

 Looking down into the end of Deep Canyon, toward Palm Desert.

 LOTS of rain coming down!

 Looking up toward Toro Peak and the webcams.

 Again, looking down Deep Canyon into Palm Desert.

Good Fences~Friday, April 24, 2015

These photos are from my archives, since I have NO new photos after our trip to Las Vegas!  HA!  They are from our trip to eastern Arizona, up on the Mogollon Rim, back in 2011.  We took a drive out toward Alpine (near the border with New Mexico) and there were some wonderful ranches there.

Good fences for Friday, April 24, 2015.   To visit Good Fences, please follow this link:   http://run-a-roundranch.blogspot.com/

Wow! Double pneumonia

Wayne, over at :    http://turnwhentheroaddoes.com/ just posted about his DOUBLE pneumonia!  Boy, he sure does have a positive attitude, however!  I'm going to send him my prayers.  You may wish to read about his ordeal at his blog, so I've included a link to it.

Having had pneumonia 4x now (3 times in ONE school year), I never want to get it again!  It nearly did me in, and this was...let me think...about 18 years ago (maybe 20).  I had it in early December, then again in February, and then in May.  Actually, I don't think I ever really got over it until that summer.  HOWEVER, now I get bronchitis easily and my lung capacity has dwindled.  I get easily winded and out of breath.  I even got altitude sickness when we drove up to the Bristlecone forest in the Sierras.  It is at 10,000 feet and, yes, I got a headache, nausea (I RARELY get that), and I was cranky!  (More than usual!)...Hubby drove us down off the mountain road and I was fine once we got back on Highway 395.  Then, HE got altitude sickness the last time (last summer) we visited our rented cabin near June Lake (eastern Sierra).

I'm finding that I can BARELY get through two weeks at school.  I've been back 7 days and I'm already exhausted!  Between my own limited lung capacity and 26 kids who, every afternoon, just seem to fall apart, teaching is wearing me out.  One more year and maybe another 1/2 year and I AM DONE!  HA!  That's IF I can last that long!

Hubby and I HAVE drastically changed our eating habits.  We eat a LOT more fresh (organic) fruits and vegetables and I don't eat beef AT ALL anymore (now for a couple of years).  He only eats it once every week or so.  That's a big change for a man whose stepfather was a butcher.  He tells me stories about how people would bring his dad deer back in PA and his stepfather would butcher them.  Yes, and don't even THINK about trying to fool hubby into a cut of beef!  He knows his beef!

But, we, too have made changes in our lifestyle.  I'm also finding that some weekends (like last one), I simply do NOT have the energy to ride 45 minutes each way, up a narrow, winding mountain road, to visit the horses.  I wish I did have more energy, but I have to face the reality that some weekends, I just don't.  After battling the kids all week, by Saturday (most Saturdays), I'm simply PLUM WORN OUT!  Sundays don't look too promising sometimes, too.

But, onward we go...
Take care.
~Cheryl Ann~

Ahhh....what energy!

No new photos, so back to the archives I went!

I didn't take any photos last weekend.  I didn't have time on Saturday and Sunday I was just TDT (too darn tired)!  But, I have a year's worth of photos on my laptop which hubby needs to put on the portable hard drive!  Maybe this weekend he can do that?

These were the grosbeaks that were here in April last year.  I haven't seen them yet this year...I'm awaiting their arrival!

Yes, this one landed on top of our huge green waste recycling container!

Nothing much going on here...

It was a quiet weekend.  We had breakfast with our son and his two children (the 6 year old and the 4 month old).  This was after the 6 year old's T-ball game.  Then, we had dinner with our daughter, son-in-law, and the 2 year old.  Drove home and fell asleep right away!   :-)

Yesterday, I stayed in my pajamas all day.  I was exhausted.  I really DO need one day of complete "down" time, I'm finding out.  Working 5 days, doing chores and errands 1 day, and then 1 day of peace & quiet is my new routine.

I do like to sit at my laptop and watch the birds out in the front yard.  I have 2 or 3 hummingbirds who now come to the feeders, doves, finches, and sparrows.  I hear mockingbirds down the street and one will occasionally land on the fence.  I haven't seen the grosbeaks yet, but it is still early for them.  And, I tend to my flowers out front.  I have daisies, California poppies, sunflowers, and some lavender.  There is a blue flower that the hummingbirds enjoy, also, but I haven't identified it yet.

So, no....I didn't get up to the horses this weekend.  Just too darn tired and worn out.  And, it's a long haul until the 3 day Memorial weekend.

 My old cat, Loki.  I believe he is now 18 years old. He outlived two of our German Shepherds.

 Cosmos out front...

Nice mixture.

Believe it or not, I actually use recycled bath (shower) water on my plants.  California is in the middle of a very extensive drought, so I don't waste water!  We don't have a lawn on the fence side of the front yard, we have rocks out in front of the fence, and we haven't had a lawn in the front yard for about 10 years, ever since the trees got big enough to choke off sunlight for a lawn.  We don't use sprinklers on any of it, either.  I hand water everything, and, like I said above, I use a bucketful of our shower water on the plants.

Friday end of week photos

Yes, IT'S FRIDAY!  Phew!  The first week back from spring break is nearly over!  I had to in-school suspend two little monsters yesterday.  One threw a book across the room and it nearly collided with my HEAD!  Bye, bye!  Another one threw a fistful of colored pencils in his neighbor's face.  Bye, bye!  I tell you, it was so nice and quiet in class yesterday without the two of them!!!  Really, and we go over manners EVERY MORNING!  Oye!

Moving on...

 Sunrise here one morning back in February.

 Sunset, again back in February.  It's been a while since I uploaded photos from my old Nikon.

 One of my nasturtiums.

 Our snow ... also from back in February.

Snow is ALL GONE now!   :-(  But, the weather service said we MIGHT get rain next week (later in the week).  That would be good!

Have a wonderful weekend!
Cheryl Ann

Arizona Rim fences~Good Fences~April 17, 2015

This is for Good Fences, Friday, April 17, 2015.  I was going through my archives and found this from summer, 2011.  I took this somewhere up on the Mogollon Rim.

Here's another fence from up on the Rim.

To see other fences, please go to this link:   http://run-a-roundranch.blogspot.com/

And, now...for a little color from home!

California now has watering restrictions, so I have to water before 8:00 a.m.  I always did that anyway.  Our water bill is only $11 a month anyway.  I am VERY conservative with water...always have been.

Anyway, my little garden out front is still okay after several days of neglect while we were in Las Vegas.  Our son came by last Thursday to water and fortunately it was only in the low 80's while we were gone those 5 days.  Everything survived!  Phew!  I worried about my daisies, poppies, and other plants.  But, they are all doing quite well.

Roses up at the ranch

Since I have a brown thumb when it comes to roses, I just have to enjoy the ones up at the ranch!  And, they are plentiful this time of year.  I just walk along the fence and take photos.  I took all of these with my old Nikon D40, since my Canon has been acting "goofy" and sending error messages.  Hubby took the lens off and blew out the dust between the connections from the lens and camera, so HOPEFULLY it will work now without sending me an error message after each photo I take!  I haven't tried it out yet, but I'll take them BOTH with me next weekend when I return to visit the horses.  I TRY to get up to the ranch every weekend, but sometimes I'm just too damn tired, or I'm SICK, or I have something planned for the weekend.  I try to leave my weekends open for "horse time", since it is a 3 to 4 hour round trip, by the time I do my chores and do my driving.

Here are the roses.  Aren't they gorgeous?

 This is the fence along which the roses are planted.  That's looking out into the large arena where the horses, one at a time, get to exercise.  You can see the horse corrals next to the arena.  Click to enlarge.

 Beautiful colors!

 Can't you just smell the roses?

I love this last beauty!