What happens in the suburbs gets told on this blog

Once upon a time there was a mamma raccoon.

By day she slept in her cozy den 

somewhere in the secret labyrinth of the suburbs.

By night she scavenged for food, and bugs, and water, 

and raided bird feeders and fish ponds,

and climbed poles to drink the sweetness

from hummingbird feeders. 

In the cold, in the rain, in the snow, in the ripe heat of summer

she survived. 

One spring night she didn't come. 

Weeks went by and finally she returned, ravenous as ever.

One day she came, but she was not alone. 

4 skiddish, fuzzy, little clones scoured the area 

learning to feast and scavenge from their Mamma. 

This sweet little thing, who loves the camera

is believed to be one of those fuzzy little clones. 

But who really knows.

This is the moon at twilight shining over the suburban labyrinth
that we all call home.  It is a hard shot to get right - and it's still not quite, right.

In suburbia we text, and blog and play scrabble on our iphones, 

we cook and eat and play and we celebrate.

Here is one celebration for our teachers for 

National Teacher Appreciation Week. 

MONDAY Jars of Joy

Each student wrote a note for their teacher and put it into their Jar of Joy.

Izzy has 2 teachers - one who loves Mickey Mouse and one who loves pretty things.

TUESDAY - Morning Teachers' Day
Everyone wore Mickey Mouse stuff or Mickey Mouse
 colors and gave their teacher a hug

WEDNESDAY - Teacher's Survival Kits 
Each Student brought one thing to give to each teacher
Tissues, Gum, Nail file, Cottonballs in a baggie
labeled "ear plugs" small bottle of tylenol, things like that

THURSDAY - Afternoon teachers' day
Everyone wore blue, green or floral prints.
One girl put silk flowers all over her back pack.
They gave their teacher hugs
AND it turned out it was her birthday! Perfect!

Friday - A little bit of Everything 

These cute cans right now hold pretty flowers,

 but later hold a stash of extra pencils which I was informed they are always in need of.

And finally, these water bottles, filled with each teachers favorite candy... 

and adorned with a little packet that says 

Thanks for all that you do by "QUENCHING" 

our kids THIRST for Knowledge... 

and the packets have mini powdered lemonades.

Elsewhere in suburbia is Alex's preschool 

- where we have sent our own skiddish and not so fuzzy little clones

 over the last 5 years, with this year being the last.

We wanted to give them a special thank you 

and planned a delightful luncheon for them. 

BUT TRAGEDY STRUCK

and that I will tell you shortly 

but, being well trained in hospitality we improvised

 and still provided our teachers with a lovely luncheon.

TUESDAY NIGHT of TEACHER WEEK 

we proceeded as usual with the process of smoking the pulled pork - except the poor smoker, on it's last legs

showed it's age with a rusted hole at the bottom of the fire box. 

Again flexibility took over and a solution was found to keep it all together for one last hurrah. 

Thankfully the alarm is always set to send the cook out to check the progress every couple of hours 

and thankfully the cooks wife had LONG AGO

 insisted that the smoker be kept on cement and not wood decking

and thankfully the cook kept a fire extinguisher nearby

because we he came to the scene it was ALL ON FIRE!

Not a lovely fire either!  CCA treated wood that was in the vicinity

 billowed out a nasty toxic smoke and ash.

YUCK! talk about messing up suburbia. 

Talk about cooks wife has really gotten over her fears of fire 

because when Cook came in at 3 am to tell her that there had been a fire and 

the meat was ruined, and the smoker was ruined.... 

well, she only felt a small shudder go through her body before she uttered 

a small prayer for protecting her family and fell back to sleep.

There is no picture, out of respect to cook. 

I wish however that I had at least taken a picture of the raccoon tracks,

 made of ash, that lead up the stairs to the deck/

MOTHER'S DAY TEA and OLYMPICS DAY 

all wrapped up in one

lifted spirits for Mamma and Alex

I didn't take a single picture during the tea as I was so engrossed in the fun.  It was eye opening to learn that I am 60 years old, I did not know that so much time had passed.  

It was thrilling to watch the sweet little olympians.. and this year they each did their own little routine comprised of moves they selected themselves, and performed 100% on their own with out prompting from their teachers!  Sweet and awesome are adjectives that pale in comparison to the actual coolness of it all. 

And finally, something that I am sure occurs in places other than suburbia,
but happens to have just occured in our suburbia, FINALLY! Is the long awaited arrival of the
bunk beds.  Custom ordered from a sweet family back in DECEMBER - we were having frequent little panic attacks thinking we might not ever see our beds or have any way to get our money back.... many lessons learned later, they finally arrived CUTE AS CAN BE!
The girls made it 5 whole nights before we found them sleeping back together in the top bunk :)

And now, as I the sickly queen of this suburban snot house will bid thee adieu.

For now I must retire to my bed to take my decongestant, expectorant, cough suppressant with codeine, antihistamine, ibuprofen, eye drops, antidepressant, blood sugar stabilizers and most likely a Tums. 

Good Night Stars.

Good Night Air. 

Good Night Noises Everywhere!