September: Emerging amid the chaos

I wish I had taken before and after shots of our house and especially the yard. Rex tamed the wilderness of our backyard in time for the semi-annual brush-pick-up. The pictures below show how our pile grew and grew and grew as we waited for the garbage truck to come. It was a week and a half late, killing the grass in our front yard which grew back within a few more weeks. Rex accurately described our brush pile as the size of a Winnebago. The pictures don't do it justice.




It turns out that our PTA meetings are nothing but a show. Literally. I never attended a PTA meeting before, but I thought that there would only be a few parents in attendance and plenty of opportunity for input. But I was wrong. The place was packed -- full of parents who came to see their children perform. After the 2-minute formality of PTA announcements, one grade level per month puts on a performance. Sadly, because public schools are not allowed to do performances like we did when we were kids, they have to mask it as a PTA meeting since it is their only chance to sneak them in. But it guarantees parents will attend!