I placed an item from the MIL’s house into its new home last evening.  On Sunday, we’d found a gently used Christmas decoration that I’d never use and don’t have room to store.  It’s a Christmas winter-wonderland skating rink complete with Ferris wheel, carrousel, skaters, lights, and more.  I immediately thought of the little angel across the street. 

     Her little face lit up so bright when I brought it in their door I knew I’d made the right choice.  I’m delighted to give them a new family tradition.  I’m betting after I left they tried it out because the little one was so excited about it.  There’s no way her mother could’ve stuck it away for a year without a test run.

     Mom was already eyeing up their coffee table as a place to set it up for next year’s holiday.  I hope they get many years of enjoyment out of it.

   We were finally able to get back into the MIL’s house to work on clearing things out again yesterday.  The snow has melted enough over there that we can park in front of the house.  After five hours, my car held another huge load for Goodwill and some treasures for G and me.

     We piled five more loaded garbage bags out by the curb.  The house looks as though we’ve done nothing.  I am beginning to wonder if we’ll ever get all the stuff out of the house before the nursing home takes it.

     G and I were so tired when we left we were dragging.  I have to go back on Sunday to put out the recycling cans that we completely filled.  Then I’ll load my van again.  We left stuff in the living room all separated into keep, give to Goodwill, and ask-anyone-if-they-want-this piles.  And we only worked on ONE bedroom!

     My next magical trick will be to find some strong backs and weak minds to move furniture.  I’m bringing a bedroom set, a desk, and a sofa home.  (Which means I need to get rid of one sofa bed and a futon.)  I don’t love her sofa but it is in better shape than my sofa bed.  

     I finally have my car back on the road.  We had to buy two new tires to do it but at this point, I don’t care.  I’m just happy to have Casper the van up and running.  Nothing makes cabin fever worse than not having a vehicle to use and feeling truly stuck in the house.

     We couldn’t even put the spare on the van for quite a while with the weather so iffy and all that ice.  The day before yesterday a couple of our neighbors helped DH do that.  Yesterday morning while I slept, DH drove the van over to a friend’s tire store and had the work done.

     I shall go gallivanting today and make up for lost time.

     He was a chemistry teacher.  I was absent the third through the fourth days of school.  When I walked into his classroom and sat down, he asked me where my worksheets were.  “What work sheets?  I wasn’t here to get them.”

     He told me to go sit in the hall.  When I asked him why, he opened his grade book and flunked me for the year.  I walked down to the principal’s office and asked for a transfer to another class.  I found out the teacher could prevent that, because he headed the science department.  In fact, he refused to allow me to switch to another teacher.  Oh, great.

     Now normally I was a quiet student who managed to pass all my classes with A’s and B’s.  However, since he’d already flunked me for the year, I was no longer a quiet student in his class.  I figured if I was getting that F he was going to pay for it.

     I became a real pain in his a**.  If there was a wisecrack to be made, I spoke up.  If he gave a test, I made certain to doodle all over it and write my own F on the page.  The principal and I became good friends.

     That teacher never taught summer school, he always claimed he had better things to do.  My summer school chemistry teacher gave me straight A’s and asked why I was in his class.  The man was shocked when I told him and then asked him if he would’ve done any work in the class knowing that he’d already flunked.