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Greetings from OLS!

September 14, 2011 By

Hey! Hi! Hello!

Remember me?  I’m still around.  Just had a hard time finding my way back here from the far away land of Online School-ooool-oool-ool.  (<–lame attempt at an echo)

That’s where I’m writing from today!

It’s nice here.  It was sorta hard to find our way around at first.  But, we’re getting the hang of it.

At first, being here in the land of Online School-ooool-oool-ool took up most of my time.  And in the beginning, figuring out the customs here was a learning experience.

Though we were having fun, it took an awful lot of time and energy and paper and ink.  But, as we became more comfortable, we started to find ways to have the fun, learn the lessons and still have time to do other things.  That last part has made it extra nice.

Here’s a little of what we’ve learned so far: (<–if a colon wasn’t required here, forgive me.  We haven’t gotten to that lesson yet!)

  • The obscene amounts of ink and paper I was using aren’t actually necessary.   The materials are mostly already here in printed form once I figured out where to look.
  • Helpful tour guides(teachers) and locals(friends who were already dwelling in the land of  Online School-ooool-oool-ool) make the place much more inviting.
  • Mitochondria, osmosis, diffusion, cell walls and cytoplasm are just as boring as they always were.  But, I know more about them than I ever have in my life.  And more importantly, so does Adam.
  • Some people learn better in the morning.(Adam and Mack) And some, or rather,  the one(Sam) is more ready to learn in the afternoon.  And that’s okay, because the land of Online School-ooool-oool-ool is flexible like that.
  • Crab cakes and pasta with Gail’s special pesto sauce are preferred over school cafeteria food,  hands down.
  • Sometimes, you just can’t sit still.  And when you can’t, you can have a light saber battle while going over your spelling words.  And you can still score 100% on the test.  Lightsabers are considered lucky here in the land of Online School-ooool-oool-ool.
  • You can totally spend your day in a bathing suit or pajamas here.  No shirts, no shoes, no problem.  Except for me, the learning coach, I frown on going topless.  I wear a shirt.   Every.  Single.  Day.  Without fail.  ‘Cause, I’m cool like that.  (And everyone, everywhere thanks me for it!)
  • Being able to say, “I’ve had enough.  They’ve had enough.  Let’s take a break and do something else.  We’ll come back to it after awhile.”  is smiled upon here!
  • Lots of options, materials and ways to teach an objective are there and finding the one(s) that best works for your child is a gift.
  • I still really am crazy about the other folks traveling on this trip to the land of Online School-ooool-oool-ool.  And they seem to still like me.  And each other.  No one has been voted off of the island as of yet!

So far, it’s great.  I’m glad we’re here.  And it’s getting easier.  And way less time consuming.  And we have no plans of returning!

Though, I will, hopefully be able to squeeze in more time in the blogosphere now that I’m getting the hang of navigating the land of Online School-ooool-oool-ool!

For now though, the weather’s beautiful! Wish you were here!

Lula Lola bird signature

 

12 Comments Filed Under: Life with the kids, Lula Lola Tagged With:

I Wish….

August 12, 2011 By

My mom’s mom was a tiny little lady.  My mom was 5’1/2″ tall and she was taller than my grandmother.

The best I can remember, she was a sweet, quiet, hard working little lady.  She was always smiling and hugging.

My dad once pulled in her yard and she was standing on a crate and was helping change a fan belt.  He said all you could see was her feet sticking out.  She had to be nearly 80 at the time.

My memories are pretty spotty.  I saw her every other Saturday when my mom went to visit her.  We’d take her to the grocery store and out to lunch and to Kmart.

She died a couple of months before my mom.

And I wish I remembered her better.

Because, when I look at the life that she lived, I think she must have been pretty amazing.

Just to remain standing would have made her amazing.  Much less smiling and hugging.

My grandfather owned a small sawmill.  And every morning my grandmother got up and made breakfast for his entire crew.  That’s a lot of biscuits.

Not to mention her crew.  She had seven children.

One of them she lost to some sort of fever when he was very young.

Two of her older children were left with pretty severe brain damage from this same fever.

They were always referred to as “retarded” after that.  And in that day and age, making fun and ostracizing people with handicaps was pretty commonplace.  I can’t imagine how that hurt as a mother.

 Her “retarded” daughter was one of my favorite people when I was a kid.

And I really hate that word.

One of her sons was killed in World War II.

And another was killed in a horrendous car accident as an adult leaving three small kids behind.

Her husband also passed away.  Leaving her to take care of the two special needs adult children and herself.

I always looked at her as this meek little lady.  And now, I wish I’d known what I was seeing.

A brave, brave woman.

A hero.

I wish I’d realized what a pillar of strength she was.

And what she’d been through.  Until I grew up and had my own family, I don’t think I ever really considered her.  I’m ashamed to say.

And I wish I’d learned more from her.

I wish I’d recognized her quiet strength.

Next time, I feel like complaining, I need to remind myself of her.

I think I’ll find her picture and frame it.

It’ll serve as a reminder that I don’t know hard.

But, I do come from strong stuff.

And that even when you know hard, you can smile anyway.

Do you know people like that?

Amazing people that you didn’t realize were amazing?   If they’re still around, take the time to get to know them.  I wish I would have!

Lula Lola bird signature

 

 

8 Comments Filed Under: Lula Lola Tagged With: , ,

The High School Smoking Area

August 10, 2011 By

Today I’m linking up with the oh so funny Poppy of Funny or Snot fame.


 

Adam, the Vintage Idiot,  was rifling around in some of my old albums.  Stored in the same place was a school newspaper.  From 1989.  My senior year.

I’m not sure I even read it in 1989.  So, I paged through it and ended up finding it hysterical.  Lots of inappropriate New Years Resolutions.  Some pretty bad grammar.  But, one article really jumped out at me.

Smokers Are People Too

Apparently there was much buzz about the relocation of the smoking area.  Mind you, this smoking area wasn’t a place for the teachers to have a Marlboro after a particularly rowdy economics class.  Nah, I think they were probably still smoking in the teacher’s lounge at that time.

Nope, this was for the students.  The high school students.  Because, you know,  it would be cruel and unusual to make kids spend a whole day at school without burning one.

In the article, the principal said that it needed to be relocated because of visibility and neatness. “Trash cans and cigarette butts on front campus present a negative view for visitors.”

Okay, I’m thinking that a gang of teenagers standing around in a haze of smoke would have more  been off putting than the trash cans and cigarette butts to the visitors.

But what do I know?  It was a different time.  I can hardly remember 1989.

I’m very old now.

And if smoking was allowed, that meant a bunch of 14 year olds were running around the school with lighters too?  Craziness!

Though the place never burned down, so, again, what do I know?

I wish I weren’t facing technical difficulties, because I’d love to scan the photo that accompanied the article.  It was a bunch of kids standing around in Members Only jackets and tight jeans smoking.  “Seniors Chill in the Smoking Area,” was the caption beneath.  I know their parents were proud that they’d made the paper.

I can’t help but wonder if you had to have a permission slip signed from your parents or not.

Very odd, this eighties living.  Makes me think, WTF?

I’m just thankful that they didn’t have a drinking area.

I’d have never graduated!

Kidding. Maybe. ;)

Click on that link above and see others pose the burning question, WTF?

Y’all have a good Wednesday!

Lula Lola bird signature

 

 

23 Comments Filed Under: Funny Stuff, Lula Lola Tagged With: , ,

Summer Doesn’t Last Forever!

July 25, 2011 By

I’ve not appreciated summer very much this week.  It’s been really hot.  Not really fit for man nor beast.  But, I remembered this post and needed the reminder. I thought I’d rerun it today.

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“Rest is not idleness, and to lie sometimes on the grass under the trees on a summer’s day, listening to the murmur of water, or watching the clouds float across the sky, is by no means a waste of time.” John Lubbock

 

People are always in such a hurry.  There are items on lists waiting to be scratched off.  There are things to do, people to see, bills to pay, errands to run, laundry to fold, dishes to wash, dinners to cook, diapers to change, calls to return, emails to compose, lawns to mow, practices to attend, carpools to drive, assignments to complete.

hydrangea, summer, flower, purple, blue

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But, summer is here.

Slow down.

Let the grass grow.

Order take out.

Blow off practice.

Enjoy a sunset or sunrise.

Realize that the laundry and the dishes and the errands aren’t going anywhere.

beach house pool sign, Dive Inn, handpainted sign on driftwood

In fact, throw that list away.

It’s summertime.  And it doesn’t come around but once a year.  Enjoy it.

Swim, play in the sprinkler, grill, catch lightning bugs, pick flowers and tomatoes and berries, look for arrowheads or seashells, sit on porches laughing and visiting, shell beans or shuck corn while you’re sitting there, listen to your favorite music over a cold drink with friends, stretch out in a hammock and take a nap, do cannonballs, blow bubbles.  Spend time in rocking chairs and porch swings.

Enjoy.

The phone won’t stop ringing, but you can turn it off.

The world won’t fall apart if all the laundry isn’t put away(trust me on this one).

buoys, green and white, hanging on fence, pool,

Taking a walk isn’t a bad way to spend an evening.

Turn the TV off.

Summer is here and you want to remember the sweetness of it, don’t you?

Slow down.

Eat a Popsicle, churn some ice cream.

Boil some shrimp.

Enjoy every second of it.

It won’t last forever!

This is the season for laziness, the season for adventure. My favorite time of year.  And friends, I don’t want you to miss a second of it!

23 Comments Filed Under: Lula Lola, Playing with Photos, Travels, Uncategorized Tagged With: , ,

Lessons Learned from The Cleaning and The Packing

July 18, 2011 By

I left the beach yesterday for three weeks.  During that time, I’ve got renters coming in and had to get ready. Between that process and coming home, I learned a few things about myself and the world.  And since I’m not one to keep anything to myself, I’m going to share.

  • The level of cleanliness that I can live with would offend someone renting our house.
  • Sam is a hoarder.
  • I really should look in the back of the refrigerator more often.
  • Soy sauce stains concrete.
  • Clothes hangers are not strong enough to unlock car doors.
  • My telephone isn’t very important to me. {After a summer of hardly charging it, I left it at the beach and didn’t even notice. The renters let Wayne know.}
  • Putting everything in the refrigerator into a cooler, but not immediately running to the store to get ice may not be a big deal.  But, locking it in a car in SC during the month of July is probably a mistake.
  • Coming home isn’t my favorite thing. {I already knew this, but coming home confirmed it}
  • Renewing your AAA when the notice comes should be a priority.
  • Next time I’m missing spoons, I’ll know to look under Sam’s bed.
  • Having a good, kind and responsible neighbor who renews her AAA when the notice comes is a real benefit.
  • Families(not toddlers) who raise their voices and get in stews over things like missing volleyballs would not be fun to vacation with.  Especially when the voice are being raised on Day 1 of the vacation, not after a full week of vacationing with the extended family.
  • Bacon grease left in a pan with the air conditioner in a house turned off smells very much like what I’d imagine a colostomy bag on a dead, people food eating campground opossum if left in a hot car for a week would smell like.  It does not make coming home from the beach easier.
  • Having a husband who owns up to and gets rid of said bacon grease does make coming home a little more bearable.
  • A scatterbrained, somewhat irresponsible lifestyle breeds flexibility.  People who regularly lock keys in cars don’t expect to know where the volleyball is in the first place, therefore, no one gets their feelings hurt when it’s missing.
  • One way or another, sometimes you have to leave the beach.  Even having your eight year old lock the keys in the car doesn’t do anything but postpone the inevitable.

So, there it is!  What I learned from the cleaning and the packing and the unpacking and the locking and the unlocking!

Have a great Monday!  What are you learning this summer?

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10 Comments Filed Under: Coastal SC, Life with the kids, Lula Lola Tagged With: , ,
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