A few random things.....

Friday at school, everyone was a little tired after the long meeting yesterday, but it was still a fun day.  Carol (our predecessor) came back from Wisconsin for the Octavas' (one class of seniors) Štuskava party that night.  Everyone was really excited about seeing her again.  A full day of classes went by in a blur -  we have such neat students and wonderful colleagues!!  :-)   

This huge flower "bloomed" inside the pitcher.
It's a kind of herbal jasmine tea. 

It came all shriveled inside a normal-sized foil teabag, and when
hot water was poured in the pitcher, it slowly blossomed!!  :-)
Beautiful!!   (Note the green leafy bottom, the pink flower, and then
the white flowers extending up the top!!)

We watched some awesome Iowa high school football this week.  It's amazing that we could watch online in real time - just like on TV!!  Congratulations to the Wapsie Valley of Fairbank Warriors, the Class A State Champions, AND to the Ankeny Hawks, the Class 4A State Champions!!  Each of those teams had special story-book endings to undefeated seasons.  Wapsie Valley of course is where Tim and I met in our very first teaching jobs, (and where Lute is teaching now, in his first H.S. math teaching job), and the two assistant coaches there have been close friends of ours since then.  They were groomsmen in our wedding!  And this was their last game as coaches after 81 combined years at WV.  How cool to go out with another state title!!  Of course, we both finished our public school careers teaching in Ankeny, so we were excited that both schools won in the finals.  And this is the last year that Ankeny will be unified in one high school, because the second H.S. will open this fall, so the kids will be split into two complete north/south feeder systems.  It's a Cinderella story to have the Hawks win one more state championship too!!  

This morning we were out on errands, and this bank of clouds
was spectacular in ways that don't show on this picture.
There were pastel colors shooting from the bright white edges.

On this one, the rays of sunlight were spectacular coming down onto the buildings.

This morning we slept in after our late-night football viewing this week.  After breakfast and a cup of hot chai tea latte, we headed out on some errands.  Many of the shops were closed do to a national holiday for the change from socialism to democracy.  We are very relieved because we FINALLY found a room in a pension for kids to stay over Christmas.  We had been checking places for a while, but all the hotels are closed on the 24th and 25th of December.  It will be so fun to have them here!!  :-)