siblingesque moments

From November birthdays (just saw these photos) 

 to the May birthday.

Helping the baby bro kick off a new decade~and no, that's not his correct age, but a smart remark  by him earlier in the afternoon prompted his younger sister to change the number.

Fun afternoon of grilling and games and stories and lots of baby cuddles.

step, step, stumble, step, step~oh, let's just dance

"Presence is where the payoff is, just be with what is going on in front of you. The next best step comes from that place."

~Danielle LaPorte

bittersweet

Even though I've been teaching for few years, it is always hard to say good-bye to students. Yes, I am excited for their plans and what's ahead, but I miss them. Also a smidge envious of all their travel plans~Dubai, Jeddah, Chicago, San Francisco, Sao Paulo, Florida, and New York.

And a story problem has come to life in our school kitchen~yikes. It's also annoying that most of the appliances are not an even number of amps. I've solved it by unplugging everything except the item I'm using. Voila.

toe bone connected to the foot bone

My Beginners reviewing for tomorrow's final~I shall miss this very fun group. They assure me that they'll return in August. 

Final product! 

Brene Brown is providing some lovely free prints to hang in classrooms, so I put this one up today.

I'd recognize him anywhere!

After class, I popped over to watch my VA 'phew do the Kindergarten graduation thing. They were super cute and mostly well-behaved~even the rabid relatives with telephoto lenses were mild.

Action shot.

And of course, little sis wanted in on the cool hat action.

Fun toys from Uncle Les. A truly lovely evening that my dad was able to attend. Hard to believe that only a week ago, he was having major surgery.

don't mind me

foot fingers

Today's class was on body parts and my students kept saying 'foot fingers'. Turns out that in Arabic and Portuguese and Mongolian~the word for 'fingers/toes' is the same. We laughed and laughed over this.

The Potomac continues it's roaring way to the Chesapeake Bay.

Since traffic was ever so lovely tonight, I was able to get some good pics from my car.

Made it home prior to dark and was able to have a short walk~it is GORGEOUS out. 

Well, a leetle humid, but there was a breeze and the flowers were intense in colour and scent.

Remember that row of peonies? Fully blooming! 

A little bedraggled from being bashed with endless raindrops, but still pretty.

We're going to have a whole lotta blackberries later this summer. 

So symmetrical, it looks almost looks man-made.

And best of all? Dad is out of the hospital and happily enjoying Chinese food.

walking & water

The Potomac was wild when I drove across it this morning! Guess we're in great shape for a growing season with all the rains we've had. 

My dad continues to improve~all needles and tubes are out and he's beginning to slowly zip around the 3NE wing.  After finding fermented peaches on his dinner plate, I popped down to the cafe to see if there were better options. He was very happy to have a mango bar~I imagine that once he's out of hospital, he will find a very willing mango ice cream accomplice in his eldest granddaughter. (She has some food allergies, so mango sorbet is her go-to summer treat.)

Hopefully the patient gets sprung tomorrow~I don't know how anyone can heal in a hospital. All those beepings and buzzings and crashing of myriad carts and the endless poking/prodding doesn't seem conducive to recuperation. 

Gloria Patrick

After I shared some good news about my dad's recovery, a friend texted the above title~noting, with a laugh that her phone evidently doesn't speak Latin. I thought she was being cool and trendy and voila! We have a new term. The conversation meandered through the hells of airport travel juxtaposed with our curiosity and interest in international travel and we decided that we needed our own private jet.

And here, it is!

Laughter may be the best medicine, but I'm sure that homemade love comes in a very close second. The Littles are missing time with their Boppa and are happily creating cards of cheer and healing wishes.

In case you're curious, today is St. Dunstan's Day. Somehow, I had never heard of the Devil & the tongs story before, but I enjoy thinking that my ancestor may have done this.

a great-full heart

Hey look~when you have a major surgery, not only do you get some nifty free socks, you get an autographable incision-cough pillow! Happy to report that Dad is doing well and will hopefully be out of ICU soon.

And in random historical news~on this day, in 1908, Mt. St. Helens blew. How do I remember that? Well, how many times in one's life does a volcano erupt? We were having a school picnic and had to evacuate the park in case of flooding. It was a couple eruptions later that our town got covered in ash.

Grateful that it's Friday and only one week of school left before a little gap of holiday time.

paying it forward

As the hospital where Dad is at is far away from any Metro stop, the hospital provides a free shuttle service. Last night, I had Ms. Adams~one of the kindest and chattiest drivers I've experienced. I saw a sign at every stop/shuttle door with an email address to let them know about service. So, I sent an email last night letting the company know what a stellar employee they have~just got a reply that, because of my compliment, Ms. Adams will get a letter and gift from the president (no, not that one.) I hope it makes her day as she made mine!

on the upside

So, Dad won a bypass tomorrow morning. The upside to all of this is that he's back here. It's nice to be able to pop into hospital to visit. We had a short visit as he finally got to his room. His surgery is early tomorrow.

TIL

Or maybe it should be: TIRTIALT (Today I Remembered That I Already Learned This)~that communication is 93% nonverbal. Not sure if that takes pressure off being a language teacher or not, but it was an interesting class discussion.

We had a wild t-storm last night, but the weather is still hot & humid~hoping that it lifts soon!

roller coasters

Just about to head out to hear a concert by one of my favorite bands!!.  No doubt I will be deaf tomorrow, but totally worth it.