Easter, like every other holiday, was busy with lots of family....but slightly less busy since my family was out of town. Sunday was church, then home, then Grandpa Meyer's, then Grandma Becka's.
Here is Adam with his grandpa Arden. Love this picture--anything showing the different generations are so special to me, especially since Adam was the first grandson, and Isaac is the first great-grandson. Saturday we spent with friends and went to Blue Lake park to do an Easter egg hunt, meet the Easter bunny (I am not into that tradition, but it was kind of cute), and play at the park.

Okay, the title sounds kind of silly, but just read on...

I am so frustrated with the fire marshall right now. We spent hours, days, money, tons of time, decorating our classroom, making it a bright, cheery environment conducive to learning, and now the fire marshall came and visited our school and we have to take it all down! I am so sad and frustrated that there are no words. It breaks my heart that this person is forcing us to spend our time making our room less inviting.

Here are just SOME of the things we have to change in our room (because if there is a fire, having no paper on the walls will really save the kids):

*Every wall can only be covered 40% by anything (bulletin boards, chalkboards, charts, etc.), so we have to take down:
-Bulletin boards (no, not quite all of them, but still...)
-Birthday charts
-The Alphabet
-A-Z lists
*Also, things hanging from the ceiling must be at least 24" down (everything in our room is!!!!), but... it can't be made out of paper. And, if it is hanging down, it has to be sprayed with a stinky, dangerous, expensive non-combustible spray. So...
-ALL of the students work and art hanging from the ceiling must come down.
-The curtains in our writing center must come off
-More Alphabet charts have to come down

We also have to get rid of the letters students have written to us, get rid of our personal bulletin board...I am just exhausted thinking about it and want to cry. Obviously the fire marshall does not have children or they just plain do not support education, because SERIOUSLY...like making any of these changes is going to protect our kids any more. We wouldn't want them to take pride in their work at school--let them join one of the gangs that hangs out in the neighborhood. Maybe there they will gain some sort of identity.

My grandpa was probably one of the smartest men I have or will ever know. He knew something, and had something to say, about anything I ever asked. He also had this amazing ability to continue, and not stop, a single sentence for more than 5 minutes. :0) He impacted the world in so many ways--he was in the Army Air Corps during World War II, he worked for Pres. Regan in the Department of Education, he taught meteorolgy at OSU, was a Freemason, Toastmaster, and so many other things... He led an extremely full life, and was married to my grandma for 66 years. When asked what it what like to be married to her for nearly 67 years, he replied "I wish I had another 67". He followed my grandma only 9 days after she died. He is and will be, like my grandma, very missed.

My grandma was a very sweet, cheerful, caring woman. With no disrespect to my grandfather, who is also a wonderful man, when he married, he definitely married up. She rarely complained about anything, even after years of waning strength and poor health, and was always so happy to see others and help people in need. I am sad that my boys will not grow up to know or remember her. She and my grandpa were married for 66 years. She is and will be very missed.

Adam has had this old Mazda Protege since 2000. I went with Adam when he bought it. It was our first car when we were married. We left for our honeymoon in this car. We drove it all through college. I drove it when Adam joined the Marines and went overseas. It's lasted past our Jetta, our 4Runner, and we still have it with our Subaru.
I've kind of had this idea that we would just keep it until it just won't go anymore, then replace it with something nicer. So, in the hopes that that would be sooner, we've kind of neglected it, hoping to shorten it's life even more, but...

....it still will not die!!!

Let me try to paint a picture of this lovely beast (sorry, no photos, at least not of the Mazda, no way):

We do not change the oil in it--although we do check and add it if needed.
We do not take it in for tuneups or checkups or whatever.
Someone hit it while it was parked, and the person offered to pay for the dent, but we didn't want to make them pay several hundred for a worthless car anyways, so it's had a small dent in it since 2003.
It's been broken into three times, the last time being New Year's Eve of 2007/New Year's Day 2008. We never wanted to waste the $100 to replace the radio, so it has had a nice gaping hole for over a year.
The lock was popped out from the first time it was broken in, which we sort of fixed, but not really.
The passenger side door sticks when you try to open it. I think we honestly put duct tape on it at one time.
If you're driving with the headlights on, the brake lights remain on the whole time.
None of the inside lights work--not even the clock.
...
I hate this car. The thing is stinking embarassing to drive--if I have to drive it to work, I park in the back parking lot. But I've just never been the one to judge a person by their car, and I don't make payments on anything besides our house, so Adam has been so sweet with me and put up with it instead of buying a nicer one that we could probably have afforded. I guess the one good thing about it is that we don't need to worry about ever locking the car doors, because anyone stupid enough to steal this car is just asking for their own headache. Adam and I fight over who gets to drive our other car, so I finally mentioned to him that he should just buy a truck, so...here is our (ahem...Adam's) new truck!


Anyone want to buy a 1993 teal Mazda Protege? It's got...um...real personality.
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