The First 5 Weeks of Summer...

If you're a teacher, many of the assumptions about summer is that you get 3 months off to relax, do nothing, and not work!  Well, we've had 5 weeks of summer so far, and none of those three things have happened in our house. Now don't get me wrong, I LOVE summer and look forward to it just as much as any teacher, but anyone who reads this knows that I don't relax well...or actually, my idea of relaxing is to be moving and doing things that I choose to do. I don't sit well. :)  

And...I really haven't stopped working yet this summer. But that is for another blog post. I'm not complaining about that either. There are a lot of exciting things on the horizon for some students at MTV and I can't wait for the new school year to start, but this summer is turning into a lot of "teleconferencing" with people from all over the United States on a daily basis. I could never be a corporate employee, and have to rely on email and conference calls. I like face to face conversations!!

But... what have the Rahns done for the past 5 weeks?

I've actually read 4 books - 3 trashy novels, and one professional. Don's lost count.

We were about 2 weeks into summer when...

Don sprained his Achilles Tendon and had to spend two weeks in a boot.

...and my sister sprained/fractured/twisted her foot also...matching boots!

We had Lobster Day #11 - what was going to be a small event, turned larger than any in recent memory. It was a fun day for everyone.  If you are confused about Lobster Day - read my previous post which will explain everything:

The 2012 Lobster Day Group

Watermelon Seed Spitting

Seafood - Clams - gone within 10 minutes

The Inaugural Lobster Cake

What was left of the Raw Oysters

Junior on the table - don't know why it is sideways

The token Lobster - before being cooked

Love my parents - and they haven't missed any of the 13 so far

Carleigh spent two weeks at Lyceum (formerly known as Summer in the Arts). She had a blast. She took four different classes - Mad Hot Ballroom, Broadway Show Pop Choir, Dramatic Interpretation and Cake Decorating :). She had a great time. The two weeks ended with a "show and tell" day for all the parents to see what the kids have been doing. It was fabulous!

on stage for Dramatic Interp

 

 

Broadway Pop Choir

Cake (cupcake) decorating - hers is the white with purple dots

 Katie had her 10th birthday on June 30 - Carleigh baked her cake and decorated it in her Cake Decorating Class -

 Junior turned 1 on July 5th - we celebrated with him by making him a special Doggie Birthday Cake - or big bowl of ice with fun stuff frozen inside it for him to try and get....

We made it up to Bears Den to see the sunset across the Shenandoah Valley...on one of the not-so-hot evenings.

Don and I turned 13 on July 3! Hard to believe we've been married for 13 years - it was about this time 13 years ago that the phrase "Seldom A Dull Moment" was born. :)  I love our adventures and love the memories that come with them. We did enjoy a nice date day - movie during the day and a nice dinner that evening.


We celebrated a quiet Fourth of July at home. The following pictures were taken from our driveway of our neighborhood "not so illegal" fireworks.

Lily and Junior have had lots of play time - and yes, he's still crazy and sitting in chairs, and standing on tables, and.....

Don and I got our first taste of Corporate America.  As teachers, we don't see the business side of the world. We don't do big meetings, conference calls, meet important people, brainstorm through email, and negotiate/compromise with executives.Well, we finally had our turn to do all of the above. Don and I headed into the Microsoft Offices in Reston for a BIG meeting. We were two of 15 people around the big table in the conference room. Decisions were made, announcements were announced, and seeds were planted for what will turn into an incredible learning journey for everyone involved in our 2012-2013 school year. If that sounds vague, it will remain vague for a few more weeks. Big announcement coming on August 9th.

Whew....five weeks have really flown by, and in two days we head off to year #8 at Emerald Isle. The same house, with the same people and we are all looking forward to old memories revisited, making new memories, and spending time with family and the sand and the ocean!

Sorry Junior, you're staying home for this one!!

Stay Tuned...next stop, Emerald Isle!

Want Home Improvement? Get a puppy!

You may be reading that title and be a bit confused...well in the Rahn house, you know we don't do anything the normal/routine way. We create our own fun, our own drama, our own games, and our own way of doing things. Well, adding Junior to our house has again proven that true.

Our house was getting cluttered, and needed some changes, but we were waiting for the right time to declutter. We were waiting for the right time to paint the walls, and complete the many other "Honey Do" tasks that both Don and I had on our lists.

Well, if you want a quick way to start doing those things - a form of motivation, you could say, well add another four legged crazy puppy to your house.

If you've seen  the movie, Marley and Me, you know how destructive puppies/dogs have potential to be. No, we don't have Marley, but we may have Marley's distant - slightly better behaved - cousin. Junior is adorable and you'd never know from some of the pictures, that he is a nuisance, but let me explain how he has helped expedite our home improvement list.

Let's start with the clutter:

Our coffee table used to have piles, and stuff just pushed underneath - now, it's never been neater, and nothing rests on top. Notice the baskets underneath - he tries to get into them, but isn't very successful.

Next, our video games/DVD's/Blu-Ray's/etc. used to be in an open shelf next to the TV - nope, not with a puppy that gets bored easily.

Notice the very nice, new cabinet WITH a  door that we got to house all of the "fun" that we have.

Our kitchen counters we are place to store food things, or put "stuff" that we would need later. Nope, can't have anything on the counters with "Drive By Junior." He jumps up, scopes out what he wants, gets yelled at and gets down, then comes back for the quick attack. 

Our kitchen counters have never been so clean and uncluttered.

Saving the best for last.....

1. There's probably an unwritten housecleaning rule somewhere about how often you should take down your curtains and clean them...well, I can guarantee we haven't followed that rule. Thanks to Junior, the shears in our front room have come down and will be cleaned before being put back up again.  He got a little frustrated that the curtains were blocking his view of what was happening in the front of the house, so he pulled at them and the curtain rod was a little unstable, so he pulled the whole rod out of the wall. Once he did one window, he realized he needed to do the other window also.

The curtains remained intact, though the curtain rods were a little bent and there were some nice holes in the wall...but,.....

He definitely has a good view of the front driveway!

The sheers will be going up again soon, after they are cleaned and new rods are installed.

2. We had (emphasize had) a nice coat tree that sat in the front corner of our foyer for guests to hang coats on, and admittedly we did clutter it up with our coats and hoodies, and hats, and umbrellas, and.....

Well, that was taken care of when Junior did a drive by and grabbed a coat that was dangling from the coat rack. He pulled and the entire coat tree fell over - put a small dent in the hardwood floor and broke in half. 

Goodbye coat tree and goodbye front foyer clutter.

3. Obviously his intentions are good, he is helping us clean up our house and moving items from the bottom to the top of our summer project list.

Next, when we lost the coat tree, we moved to hanging our coats on another coat rack that Don hung on the wall behind the front door.  It looked a little cluttered, but our coat closet is very small and it was an alternative to the coat tree of yesteryear.  Well, Junior didn't like that either. He did another drive by and with his mighty 85 pounds of strength - grabbed one of the girl's hoodies hanging on the wall and pulled.....pulled the darn thing right out of the wall - yes the coat rack that was anchored into the wall - OUT OF THE WALL.

He pulled this out of the wall - it was full of spring coats and hoodies.

So,....a wall in our front entryway with 3 giant holes in it. Also, one of the only areas in the whole house that was still the builder's white of 12 years ago. Though not so white anymore, more like a dingy gray with lots of touchup spots over the years.

At the bottom of our list was finding someone to come in and paint the entryway - but we hadn't gotten to that yet. We were too busy saving for vacations, and finding other adventures to take up our time.

We were in a quandry, do we rehang the coatrack or clean up the wall a little and do something different.

It's summer, I get bored very easily and I had 5 weeks until we leave for our first vacation. So...thanks to Junior - I decided to tackle painting the front entryway myself. Don agreed, as long as I didn't involve him, so off I went.

Day 2 of summer vacation and the front hallway was painted. I did accent walls, because I couldn't paint the whole two level entry area by myself.

This is the wall where the coat rack was hanging - with 3 big holes!

But, we're not done....If the hallway was painted that cappucino color, it would clash with the girl's playroom which was still the peach color that was color coordinated with a sofa that was in there years ago.  So, the playroom had to be totally repainted and changed to "grow up" with the girls. Thanks Junior!! :)

I am just about finished painting the playroom and de-cluttering that room. The girls are excited, because it looks more grown up and I am excited because it is a complementary color to the hallway color.

the peach color being replaced by Light Mocha

I left the two spaces for the girls to paint - they "wanted to help."

The room is done, the furniture is put back and all that is left is to buy new curtain rods and put the curtains back up - hoping Junior will not drive by again.

He's such a cute dog and we know the stage will pass, but until then....we continue to do more home improvements...the planned and the unplanned.

He loves chairs!!

After a walk in the rain.

He used to fit in that bean bag - yep, our 85 pound puppy!

Bad picture - but, yes he is in the hammock.

 Stay tuned for our summer adventures...they are starting and we are loving it!!

What do you want to do this summer?

 Only 9 more days of school! Lots to accomplish and lots to finish up, but then it's SUMMER!!! With summer comes the craziness of the Rahnsummer!! (Yes, that's one word - Rahnsummer is a noun that describes the adventures and escapades of the Rahn family after the last day of school, and before the first day of the new school year).


Borrowing the idea from a blogging friend of mine, here are the.....

ABC's of the Rahn Summer of 2012:

A- Airplanes, anniversary, Antler Arch pictures, Antelope

B- Beach, basketball camp, Bison, blogging

C -CD’s for the beach trip, Cat Ballou, Cody

D- Doing nothing

E -Emerald Isle, extra time for fun

F - Family game nights, feeding seagulls, Father's Day

G-Gardiner

H -Hotels, hikes, Hot Air Balloon Ride, Horseback Riding

I -Idaho

J -Jackson Hole, Junior turns 1!

K- Katie’s birthday, kites on the beach

L -Lyceum, Lobster Day #11

M-Medieval Times, Montana, Moose, movies, matching beach shirts

N- New recipes

O- Oysters

P- Peaceful mornings, projects

Q- Quiet mornings on the beach and in the mountains and on the prairie.

R- Rocky and Rina’s pool, read books, resting, relaxing, road trips

S-sleeping, singing in the car, staying at home

T -Tetons, traveling, taking pictures

U- Ululating

V-vacationing

W- Walking the dogs, Wyoming

X- Xenoliths

Y -Yellowstone

Z- zzzzzsleeping

Wish us luck as we persevere through the last two weeks of school!!! Lots of fun times ahead!

Stay tuned to see what happens first....... 

Less than 4 weeks and.....

.....SUMMER!
 
This is the time of year when we are REALLY busy as things start winding down for the year. People think, "Oh, you (as a teacher) must be so excited to be almost finished for the year!"  Yes, I am, but what most people don't realize is what goes into finishing the year and what is left to be done. The end of the school year tends to be the busiest time of the year, and I also have all the mommy and family things going on.

Just this past week my family was involved in 4 different SOL tests, 6th Grade Band Concert, Carleigh's Hip Hop Dance Recital, extended rehearsals for both and some very important afterschool teacher meetings.

Yes, I will miss my students this year, but I can't wait to be a stay at home mom for 2 1/2 months and not have to fit in my 7 loads of laundry on the weekend.

Enough griping.....I love my job, I love my family and I love being busy.....so as my college roommate used to say, we can sleep when we are old. :)

Carleigh is saying goodbye to her trombone after June 8th. She made it through the year, maintained a better grade in Band than I ever thought she would, and did not give up!  Her final band concert of her foreseeable future was this past week.

She's sort of excited....

Then we had her dance recital - it's crazy to think that we have been attending Carleigh's dance recitals since 2003!  She had a great time and this year danced with a great group of middle and high school kids.

I had fun trying to locate recital pics from years past:

2005

2008

2009

 

This is a video from her 2007 recital -

And here she is this year....

with 2 friends before the show started

Her final song - "Whip My Hair" - the first video is the intro and the second is the rest of the song - she's the tall blond in the back row - the final seconds and the expression on Carleigh's face make it all worth it. (And by all, we mean the other 18 acts that we had to sit through.:)

Carleigh had a great time and another year of dance is coming to an end. Only 4 more weeks and we are in summer mode. I can't wait!!!!!

Stay tuned for whatever might happen before we get to June 8th! At this point, who knows!?