Today was less busy, in terms of the number of students who came to my office, but in general they were more annoying than yesterday.  My day started off (before I even had time to clock in) with a student with pink/red/orange spiked up hair whose medical emergency was that he had to use my bathroom mirror to check to see if his hair was still standing up like he wanted it to.  No, it wasn't THAT windy out.  Most of the students today had legitimate complaints, although the girl whose eyes hurt when she kept them open too long was pushing it.  I told her she might need to blink a little more often.

It was 34 this morning and got up to 50 today.  This gradual daily warming trend is supposed to continue til the weekend. Not sure what to expect after that.  Reading ahead in the Farmer's Almanac, I'm  hoping it is wrong.

On the agenda for tonight.  A bit of engraving and step 3 in the stocking--cut out & assemble the 4 packages, and attach them. 

I'm finally adjusted to the "fall back" time.  The past 2 days I've managed to get out of bed with minimal grumbling and stumbling.  Another frosty morning, but the sun was shining by the time I got to work.  I was in a good mood, and looking forward to another day at work.  Unfortunately one of my first encounters was with a mom who just wanted to pick a fight with someone...and that was me.  Her daughter called her before school started and before she got to my office...and the mom was on the phone while I was assessing the daughter and her alleged illness (I was of the opinion she was good to stay at school), telling me why my decision that her daughter was ok to stay at school was ALL WRONG.  I told mom she didn't have a fever...mom wanted to know just exactly what I considered a fever and I said over 100.  Her mom then informs me that she had a medical document from when her daughter was in kindergarten, stating that over 98 was a fever for her daughter (her temperature was 97.9).  Then she wanted to know if her daughter had strep...I said all I could tell from looking was her throat looked a little red.  So after telling me off about how she knew her daughter and I didn't, blah blah bah, I told her she was welcome to pick her up and take her home it that was what she wanted to do. So she sent the dad (who works...and the mom was at home, not working) to pick up the student.  I didn't even bother to mention that the student had missed 12 days of school so far this year, because I knew it wouldn't make a difference.  You can't cure stupid.

Fortunately everyone I dealt with after that was (comparatively) nice. It was a busy day and then I had to make deliveries (engraving) and run a few errands.  I decided to pick up Papa Murphy's thin crust chicken with mediterranean veggies pizza. It was very good. 

I got the front & back of Jax's stocking cut out, along with the  "cuff" and embroidered his name on it.  Tomorrow I start cutting out and applique-ing all the pieces.  

It was a good night for TV. NCIS, NCIS:LA; and Vegas.  Call me a couch potato...

It was a typical Monday with lots of visits to the Nurse's Office in spite of assemblies and special projects all day.  I wasn't able    to get more than the necessary/routine things done today.  I suspect that will be the pattern for the week.  Teachers are trying to get students to buckle down and do their work this week, because there won't be much chance for the students to focus on learning next Monday & Tuesday--with all the Thanksgiving events, meals, parties and games that will be going on.                               

It was only 26 degrees when I got up this morning.  It only got up to 45.  Below freezing again tonight, but gradually warming a few degrees each day all week.  After the last rain and wind, the trees are bare and the landscape bleak.  Winter chill seems to be settling into the house, in spite of having the heat turned up to 70 degrees.                                                                      

Last night we got together with the Edwards' and Delano's to play Mexican Train.  For 6 allegedly mature and responsible          adults, there was a lot of trash talk at the table.  Also some excellent hummus with crackers and pita, chips and salsa, and       sliced apples with caramel dip.                                                                                                                                                  

Earlier Sunday I went to Scrappin' N Style and made the Christmas layout they were offering--kind of a cross between a class and a "make & take".  I hadn't been to anything there in a while, and it was a completely different group of women then the last few times I went to one of these events.  I was hoping to come home and scrap a few more of Jax's photos, but that's not going to happen until after Thanksgiving.  I'm too busy trying to put away and clean things to be be dragging more stuff out and making an even bigger mess in the dining room. I made another tiny baby step forward tonight.Tomorrow I'm going to Big Lots and look for a replacement rug to go in front of the couch.  The one we have is worn out and a bit small for the area. 

Today is the 3rd windy (but temperatures in the 70's) day in a row.  Unfortunately a cold front is about to blow in, along with rain that might change to slushy snow during the night.  No accumulation of course, since the ground is not frozen.  But it will be a shock to my body when I get up in the morning.  

I'll be at work tomorrow, but hopefully will get a chance to peak in the Veteran's assemblies during the day. Our school has so many students, who have so many Veteran friends and relatives who are invited to come & be recognized, each grade has its own assembly during the day.  Dennis has the day off and will be helping with the Veteran's Day Breakfast our church sponsors each year.  They have a good turn out.  

Yesterday, 3 of my friends and I kicked off our Christmas shopping in Rolla.  The stores on Pine Street offered 20% off on all items.  I found some good Christmas gifts which I cannot post about (since friends and family read my blog), but I also found a wonderful Christmas apron that I bought for moi.  We also shopped at the Rolla Craft Fair, which was also fun.  Since it was held at RMS, I saw quite a few people I knew...staff members as well as parents and students.  Since it was such a beautiful sunny day (in spite of the wind) we went to the Tater Patch for a late lunch.  Their "patio/garden" area is surrounded by a tall privacy fence, so that blocked enough wind to make it very pleasant.  Good food, a glass of wine, and lots of stories and laughter went on at our table.  Fortunately everyone else out there was also having a lot of fun and laughing.  It was a good time.

When I got home I had time for a quick nap before heading back to Rolla.  Vicki, Fred, Dennis & I ate at Colton's before going to the play. It was "Little Women: the musical".   None of the songs were earth-shattering, but it was well done.  The singing, acting, and staging were excellent.  

The Farmer's Almanac predicts Nov 12-16:  showers, cool.    That seems to fit with what the weather people are forecasting.  Of course it is not very specific.  

It was frosty and slick this morning--frost on leaves made for some slippery footing.  I walked carefully. Lucas did donuts around the yard.  He enjoys the chilly weather more than I do.  I'm not sure it was warmer today than yesterday, but the sun made it feel more comfortable. 

Today we had the Bus Safety Drill.  All students got on and off the busses without injury.

Our AED arrived this afternoon.  The cabinet (white box) it sits inside has to be hung on the wall, and the signs put up.  It sounds an alarm when you open the door of the cabinet.  It's supposed to go off when you shut the cabinet, but there are 2 keys to turn off the alarm, just in case.  I have a feeling the alarm will go off several  many times over the next few days as RMS students (and perhaps even a teacher or two) open the door to see what is inside.     

Things are shaping up for another busy weekend.  Saturday I'm going Holiday Shopping with girlfriends...and then have lunch. Saturday night we plan to see "Little Women" with Fred & Vicki.  It's an Ozark Actors' Theatre production in Rolla.  Sunday afternoon I'm going to a scrapbooking class--we'll make a 2 page Christmas layout.  Hopefully that will get me back to scrapping Jax's photos again.  Between all the other stuff I need to also do...  Hmmm. 

Which means I better get my engraving done so I can deliver it tomorrow and get that cleared off my plate before the weekend.

I voted.  I wish there was a "none of the above" choice.  

The past 2 days have been very productive at work.  It is the beginning of the 2nd quarter and the teachers are keeping students in the class to learn. As a result, Brenda and I have been doing hearing & vision screenings on 1 or 2 classes of 6th graders every day...and today we hit the half-way mark.  She's subbing at the junior high tomorrow but hopefully we can continue Thurs & Friday.  If we can keep it up, we'll be done before Thanksgiving break. That would be a wonderful accomplishment.

In order to stay focused and get things ready for Thanksgiving, I made a list of things that need to get done...and my goal is to get 3 of them crossed off the list each day.  Tonight I also baked biscuits and mixed up "molasses butter" to spread on them.  Tomorrow is the First Wednesday Club meeting and we are doing Breakfast for Supper.  I won't have time tomorrow, because right after school I have to get certified on the new AED (Automated External Defibrillator) that is going to be installed at the school.  It will be in the front "lobby" area, which will be visible and accessible.  Several teachers and staff are already certified, and 6 more of us will be after tomorrow. 

It was another gloomy, damp, gray, cold fall day.  It's supposed to gradually clear off and warm up so we have 50's and maybe even 60's by the weekend.  I'm looking forward to that. The Almanac says Nov 6-11 "Sunny, cool, then mild".  We've got the cool but not the sunny...yet.  The first 5 days were mostly accurate with "showers & mild".  The true test will be the prediction of snow later this month...

I've been listening to Nancy Sinatra on Spotify.  She has such an expressive voice.  I like her duets with Lee Hazelwood, especially "Summer Wine".  

Dennis and I were talking about how long could we survive in our current home without electricity or gas.  With the New Madrid fault not too far SE of us, earthquake is a possibility.  Tornado is also possible.  We could get water for washing and flushing toilets from Lake Scioto.  If the water lines weren't broken, we'd have running water from the water towers (assuming the law of gravity still worked) for a while.   We have a kero-sun that could probably keep the kitchen & dining room and the small bathroom under the stairs above freezing.  We have 5 gallons of kerosene--which would last about 5 days.  We have oil lamps and candles.  We aren't very well prepared at all.  It would be hard to last a week during the winter.  We'd have to cook outside on the grill.  During the summer it would be more like camping and we'd last longer. Bottom line--I'm a sissy and want all my modern conveniences. 

I think I slept my extra hour away this morning. Maybe not all of it because I managed to get several things accomplished today and a bit ahead of schedule.  

It was 37 and foggy when I got up.  The sun came out later and warmed things up a bit.  Dennis "mowed" the leaves (and grass) and got them all into the compost piles.  I got all the Halloween stuff put away and Thanksgiving stuff out. I baked the sweet potato cake...put the rum/brown sugar sauce on half.  I plan to take the other half to work tomorrow.   Minestrone soup is almost ready to eat.  Laundry is done but not ironed. An eggplant, some garlic and onions are roasting, to make a "dip" for either chips or pita bread.  There are several variations on it, most with lemon juice, salt, pepper and some sort of spice...cumin is my favorite.  I'll probably dig out the food processor to get mine all mixed up good.  Unless the veggies are soft & mushy enough to do it with a fork in a bowl.  

I started moving things around and cleaning.  The count down to Thanksgiving has started...tick tock...tick tock...

There's not much color left in the trees, but the fields/grass are still green...greener than most of the summer.  We liked both places well enough to see the inside of the houses next Saturday, if possible.  One is still occupied, but the other empty.  Both have 10 acres and are off the road.  Neither has an established garden, so we'd have a few years of hard work making a good garden spot.  Rabbits and chickens would be a must.  But we MUST wait and see if the inside of the houses look as promising as the outside does. 

We had a good time with Jax.  He pulls up and cruises when it is convenient.  When he wants to get somewhere fast, he crawls. He looks over his shoulder to be sure you are following him.  Too cute.  He's got his mom's gift for music.  He has Pepe wrapped around his little finger. They managed to "trap" one of the cats in Jax's dirty clothes hamper (turned on its side).  They are discussing what to do with the cat...which fortunately figured out how to escape before any plans were put into action.

I made Christmas stockings for each of my kids (and Sara when she married Matt) and now I am going to make one for Jax. 

It has cats on it.  That is going to be my next big project. 

I know that gets said a lot.  Some Fridays I mean it more than others.  

I went a little crazy at Kroger (after school). They had one of their special deals where if you bought 10 of certain items you get $5 off your total at the cash register.  So I stocked up on canned soups and pasta.  Saved 39% on the total bill, and only bought staples that we use on a regular basis.  Probably all the news about Superstorm Sandy put me in the mood to have plenty of food in the house.  I was not the only person there with the sale flyer, trying to figure out the best way to combine items for maximum savings.  

Plans always change around here.  We're going to Springfield tomorrow to drive by 2 properties for sale in Willard (NW of Springfield) and then hang out with Jax...and Sara, and Matt when he gets home.  If the places look good from the road, we'll arrange to officially look at them next Saturday.  I was feeling discouraged after the Oldfield place fell through.  I didn't see anything that looked promising for a couple of weeks.  Of course these may also disappoint in person, but they do look good on the internet. Both have 10 acres, some cleared land and some wooded.  Privacy without being isolated.  

Across the street from the high school, the students turned an old firehouse into The Firehouse--a coffee shop that sometimes offers food.  It is run by students (with supervision of teachers & community people).  Tonight was a special fund raiser, with a Mexican dinner special.  Authentic home cooked Mexican meal. We originally heard a rumor that the history teacher Mr. Mendoza was cooking it, but I think it was his wife. (that is based on the reference to "she" in several conversations amongst the students)  Rice, beans, a tamale, a taquito, and I think an empanada.  It was very very good, and just $5 a plate.  I am going to have to pay better attention to when they offer special meals.  The are open more hours during the week, but just serve coffee drinks and smoothies.

Our garden has been put to bed for the winter...except the lettuce & turnips.  We've had nice fall weather the past few days, but it is supposed to rain this weekend thru Monday.  This fits with the Farmer's Almanac prediction for the first 5 days of November.  

I was expecting a day full of stomach aches from all that Halloween candy...but it was just a normal day.  Brenda and I managed to do vision and hearing screenings on another 6th grade class.  3 down and 9 to go.  All in all, a good day at work.

Dennis dug more sweet potatoes.  I fried some pork chops, made a broccoli/pasta side dish and salvaged enough lettuce from the garden for salad. I got my engraving done and will deliver it tomorrow after school. I have another grocery list and I may be tempted to pick up Papa Murphy's pizza on the way home...

Hannah finally has a job in her field of fashion design out in Los Angeles...only now she may not get a paycheck for a while because Anne Taylor headquarters in NYC is in shambles.  There are times I wonder if the Brady name doesn't carry some kind of curse with it...and they say "the luck of the Irish"...only for us it doesn't seem to be good luck. 

The Farmer's Almanac says nothing in particular about today.  This is the "poem" for the month of November:

Flurries early, pristine & pearly

Winter's come calling!

Can we endure so premature a falling?

Some may find this trend distressing--

others bend to say a blessing

over sage and onion dressing.