Mom Retires

After a long and illustrious career as Head of the English Department at Rio Americano High School, my mom is retiring. She has been in the same classroom for over 30 years and she ahs sent thousands of kids to college with the ability to write a five paragraph essay, with eye catching openings, topic sentences and good transitions. I should know, I took her class. The teachers threw her a great farewell party, complete with a life sized, June cut-out, Readers' Theater skit and WWJD - What Would June Do? posters. She already misses her job and although the students may not miss her extensive homework, they are certainly missing out on something special.

Margaret

I'm up to June!

Patrick's cute cousin cam to visit friends in San Francisco and squeezed in a dinner with us. We found out that Abby (her sister) and Eric are expecting their first baby in November. They ahve come up with some truly unique names. I think I remember 'Thor' for a boy. Too many comic books Eric! Here's a yummy dessert I ate in Sonoma. Mmmmm, I love sweets!

Patrick's Garden

Patrick has been working in our tiny yard and making it beautiful! Here is a picture of some of our plants that he wanted to share. He is always buying these odd exotic things that I have never seen or heard of like black flax and night blooming jasmine. But he really has the green thumb in this family. I just look at a plant and it starts to wither and die. That's okay though because I don't really like to dig in the dirt. Right now he is growing me some new fruit trees for when we buy a larger house - avocado, white peach and mango-nectarines. mmmmmmmm.

A funny thing

I saw this in the store and it made me laugh. We Americans are innovative in our laziness!

Haircut

So, for the first time since the fifth grade, I cut my hair. I know that you are all shocked, but I was sick of it. I chopped off about 15 inches for locks of love and here is a picture of it straightened. It is much shorter when curly. I love it; it is so much easier to get ready in the morning and so much lighter. In fact, I think I'm due for another chop!

Safari West

One of my classes invited me to go on a field trip with them and we went to Safari West. It is a small, private, open air zoo somewhere in between Santa Rosa and St. Helena. We went on the jeep for part and walked all around. Our jeep got so close to a bunch of giraffes that you could touch one. The zookeeper feeds strongly dyed shrimp to the flamingos, but someone messed up the color lot for these birds! It was a hot, but fun trip.