Nice Day

Yesterday (Thursday) we let school out early. We had a water main break so we had to let school out at 1:00. Funny how we had school during a blizzard but a water pipe breaks and we run for the hills. (Side bar: in Mandaree when the water pipes break, you run home and fill your bathtub before you loose water pressure so you can use the toilet. You should also fill a couple of pitchers so you have drinking water too. We also do this when we loose power because the water pumps are powered by electricity).

So since we had the afternoon off and instead of using the time wisely like for planning, a neighbor and I went to Williston. It is about one and a half hours northwest from Mandaree. It is an old town with lots of brick office buildings not very pretty as far as architecture goes. But it has a couple of real cute shops. Antique shops ran by antique people. Fun to look in and talk with. I found a cute teddy bear. It is a Theodore Roosevelt bear complete with mustache, too cute. I found an old glass Christmas ornament that is a ruby slipper reminding me of my mom. Her high heal shoes and the fact that her name was Dorothy.

Then we went to Salvation Army and I found a bread machine. I have been wanting one since they first came out but never got one. I have been looking around for a new one since Mother's Day. I have been making a lot of Indian fry bread. Not many do this well apparently. Ever since my native friends taught me and tasted my practice batches, they call on me to help make fry bread when there is a fund raiser or a funeral. Either they want the fry bread or me to make my sister's famous buttermilk rolls. I think a bread machine is going to come in handy since my fingers do not knead bread as well as they use to. Especially when I have to do five loaves at once. Ouch!! Anyway, I could not find a new bread machine and I spotted this one at Salvation Army for $6.99. Yes the decimal point is in the correct position. It had the manual with it and all the pieces. I figured that seven bucks was not much to risk so I bought it. I am presently testing it out. So far so good, it kneads well and all the buttons work.

I wanted to take a personal day on Monday so I could run errands. Things like get my North Dakota drivers license and plates and tags. Fun stuff like that. In North Dakota they do not know what the DMV is. Every time I say DMV they say "What?" Here it is called the License center. There is a division set aside just for driver's license. North Dakota License Center is closed on Thursdays by the way. Why Thursday? Beats me. Well, the substitute teacher (Mandaree has two) that I called and prefer was subbing at another school on Monday. The other sub is a teacher/councilor that no one wants but has a contract so he is a in house sub. He is kept very busy because teachers get sick or need a day. He is sick so I have no sub for Monday. The solution was for me to take off a half hour early today (because my students have computers and leave for the bus during this time so I don't need a sub) and beat feet to the DLC. Luckily there is an hour time difference between Dickinson and Mandaree. Dickinson is an hour south of Mandaree but it is in Mountain time and Mandaree is in Central time. Go figure. Why? Beats me. Like one of my friends who is the new 6th grade teacher this year says "That's North Dakota for ya"' SO I made it to the DLC and it only took me a half hour. Can you believe it? It only took a half hour for me to take the eye test and show them my birth certificate and marriage license. Yes even though I have been divorce since 1992 I had to prove my legal name is Fry instead of my maiden name. Once I proved who I was and paid $10.00 yes only ten dollars. I got my licence handed to me.

All of you who live in Oregon know how amazing this is. When you go to DMV (Department of Motor Vehicles) you take a number and sit with 60 plus people to wait your turn. If you are lucky there are three people working the counter. (Not an exaggeration). Think of the movie Beetle Juice when they were waiting to see their case worker and you are close to the DMV waiting line. Please plan on being there at least two hours. Then after you prove who you are and where you live and that you deserve your license, you get a piece of paper which is a temporary license. Your real one comes to you in the mail after they check that you are not Alkyda or some other terrorist with forged documents that are always better than the real ones. Not only does it cost you a day of work but last time it cost me $84.00 to be renewed in 8 years.

Next up, I get my tags and North Dakota plates for my car. Not as cheap. I don't know how much the plates and tags will cost but since I am from Oregon and did not have to pay a certain licence tax it is going to cost me 4 percent of the blue book worth of my car. I also have to have my title with me in order to have it changed to a North Dakota title. That sounds like fun.

Oh, after the blizzard, when I got my shovel and dug out my front door, I found a momma cat and five kittens in my garage. I have adopted them and have found a farm for them when they are old enough to go. Momma and babies are doing well. I have made semi-friends with the mom but she is not ready for me to meet the kids yet. They are only about a week old, eyes are still closed. There are two orange stripped, two black and on gray. Mom is in the middle. She has a couple of extra toes and so do some of the kitties.

Update on Blizzard status

This is what I woke up to today. No it was not a snow day. It was a two hour late start but not a full out snow day. Crazy about keeping schools running thats us in North Dakota. The first picture is my garage door the other two are outside my front door.

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Possibly My First Blizzard

This afternoon I was handed a new phone tree (list of phone numbers of teachers and staff that work at our school). We usually do not receive the new tree until later in the year. It is used for calling around and telling everyone that there is a late start or school closure. Then I walked out of school this afternoon to find the wind whipping around small snowflakes. There is a rumor of a blizzard. This is so weird. Friday I was driving around with my windows down in above 70 degrees, sunny and warm weather. Now it's Tuesday and I may be watching my first real blizzard.

Where my house is we are in a small valley. A hole most people say. This hole protects me and my neighbors from most of the wind so I might not actually see a blizzard unless I go over the hill on the ridge. But I am not likely to do that.

The native man that is one of our custodians told me there was a weather advisory. It says if you do not need to go anywhere you should stay home. I said that I had things to do and he says ( and this was without skipping a beat) "Well you're from Oregon so go ahead and drive around all you want." I think he gave me bad advise. LOL

This is what the weather looks like from my front door.

OH The Times They are a Changing

I received an invitation to go out to dinner and a movie in Watford City which is about 30 minutes from my house. (The movie was The Switch). I was on my way and it dawned on me. There are at least five new oil drills within the sight of the road. These are only a month old at the most. Then I realized that there was a lot of traffic. Usually the locals call seven cars on the same road as you, traffic. But this was real traffic. Oh not as bad as rush hour in Portland but a lot of cars and trucks on the road going in both directions. Apparently the word is out that there is oil in North Dakota. All the restaurants are super busy. There is more traffic and people in every town I have been in lately. I can't believe how fast changes are taking place. I am out once a week and I see new wells being dug or pumps in or endless flames burning the natural gas off the wells so they don't explode. There are more job openings and help wanted signs then ever. Anyone in Oregon ready for a change could move to North Dakota and get a nice job. You may not have a place to live because the construction is slow but you will have a job. Just bring a trailer or RV and you will be set.

School is going well but I am super busy so this is going to be short and sweet. Hope all is well in the world. I wouldn't know I have not had time to breath let alone check to see what is going on anywhere that is not school.

October

Hurray!! It is October already. WOW this year is flying so far. I have been very busy trying to figure out a way I can teach and have the students be quiet. They sure love to talk but not to listen. While I have challenges this year, they are nothing compared to last year. I do not come home as tired and beat down as I did last year. I have a much sunnier outlook on life than last year too. The first year of any adventure is truly the hardest.

I don't know what it is about October and my injuring myself, but I did it again. Last year you may remember, I got my finger smashed in my garage door. It was on my birthday too. This year, I got hurt just before we took class pictures and yes you guessed it, I hurt my face. It happened this way.

The boys were all in the classroom ready to go get their pictures taken and the girls had to go to the bathroom one more time to primp. Yes this stuff starts in fifth grade. Everyone was looking wonderful too. Well the girls were making a lot of noise so I left the boys unattended to flush the girls out of the bathroom (no pun intended). Meanwhile back at the ranch (I mean classroom), the boys decided it would be funny to lock the classroom door. So the girls reported the door was locked by saying loudly "Miss Fry the door is locked!!" (insert high pitched, whiny voice here) So I tried the door it was locked, then I bent down and put my key (which I carry around my neck) into the lock. The lock is under the door knob and the door knob is not a knob. It is a lever handled that you pull down to open. As I did this the boys sensing danger, unlocked the door and opened to for me onto my face. The door knob thingy hit me in the nose, and upper lip and it cut my upper lip making me bleed.

Luckily, Lassie came to the rescue in the form of another teacher named Mr. Fry, no we are not related. I asked him to watch my class and I went and put a cold compress on the mouth. My teeth are fine and so is the inside of my lip but the outside is much the worst for wear. I had a very cooperative and apologetic class going into the gym to get their picture taken. The photographer said you couldn't see my owie in the photo which I hope is the truth. The girls suggested I cover it with make-up, however I do not think make-up would do the trick unless it was airbrushed Hollywood style. You be the judge, I have attached a picture. I hear it has swollen quite nicely. Yes for the 100th time it hurts.

Sorry but This has to be Short and Sweet

Man, this school year is kicking my butt. I have not had much time to do anything but teach, plan to teach, and grade papers. The fifth grade is great but I have a group of talkers. These kids can't walk down the hall without talking. We stop, everyone gets quiet, then as soon as we start walking it's like their leg muscles are connected to their jaw muscles because they cannot take a step without starting to talk.
Oh and the spit wads don't even get me started on them. I have done everything I can think of to get rid of the spit wads. Uggh the life of a teacher.

A friend sent me a cute little journal that is made for drawing and journaling. I needed to de-stress, so I did a couple of zentangles in my new pens and some gel pens. Thought I would share them. So here they are. I will write more when I have time.

First three day weekend of the school year

It is the first three day weekend of the school year. Saturday I went to Bismarck (The "big city") and did some shopping. I almost felt like I was back in Oregon because I found an Office Depot and a Big Lots and Dollar Tree store right next to each other. Also went to the Sam's Club which is like a CostCo for all us Oregonians. It is a three hour drive from my house. I passed the time by listening to my Oldest son lecture me about transmissions. Most of which was way above my head but by the way it sounds this time next year I will have one hell of a mechanic in the family. My youngest son is going for the auto body repair soon, so I just save myself a ton of money and I didn't have to switch to Geico.

Sunday I went to church with my new roommates. We go to the Watford City Assembly of God which is kind of a sister church to Four Square and as close as I can get to East Hill in North Dakota. Today after the worship part of the service a grandmother, aunt, mother, daughter and cousin got up and circled around the piano and sang a couple of hymns. While my family did not gather around the piano very often and when we did we usually sang other songs not hymns, this really made my miss my grandmother and mother and one of my aunts that are now sitting around God's piano singing with the angels. Then I come home and put in a sappy sad movie and now I am home sick, want my mommy and crying over a dumb movie. I think I need to go back to bed and start again.

My roommates will be moving out in a week or so. They don't want to wait till October for the three bedroom. I really don't want to move out of my cute house that my sister's unpacked and decorated from me. I am really happy with the plan. I think they are too. I was glad to be able to be a spring board for them to launch themselves from in North Dakota. Now they will fly off and soar with the eagles and not need my help any more. I am learning. I say yes to God no matter what He asks of me and I get blessed and the growth process does not take as long to accomplish.

I am enjoying teaching fifth grade. Totally different set of students in my class. Easier issues except they are a lot of talkers and I am trying to figure out how to stop thc constant talking so I can teach and they can learn. To those who know me well, Do not think the irony is lossed on me.

So that is my life in a nut shell.