Computer woes

I have some truly awesome images to share with you of our garden in full bloom, or actually, more like full produce. But we are having technical difficulties with our computer(s). Multiple computers are now not working. We currently have two towers, a monitor, and a keyboard/mouse on our kitchen table trying to get the computer(s) to hook up to the internet. We'll get it resolved. Or we'll go all "Office Space" on our computer(s). Please, please tell me that someone knows what I'm talking about, where they take out the copier into a field and destroy it. We're not quite that frustrated with our computer(s) but it's close sometimes.

Anyhow, since I can't post any pictures, let's paint some pictures with words.

Green leaves growing,
Tomatoes reddening,
Potatoes completely overtaken by pumpkins
Beets just "beet"iful!


I know, I'm a poet, what can I say?
I'm Poet-Laureate of northwestern Illinois! (No, not really)

Ok, what's your favorite Olympic sport?
Mer: Swimming, gymnastics
Matt: Gymnastics, some track and field
Kitties: Greco-Roman wrestling, tumbling (they practice all the time!!!!)

This is why....

I want to teach.

Overheard today in the museum:
A girl says, "I didn't learn nothing, and I'm glad!"

Now, maybe there's something we don't know. Maybe she had said that the only way she would go to the museum was if she didn't have to learn. I don't know; I stretching here a bit.
Anyhow, she's glad she "didn't learn nothing." And I'm glad for the reminder of why I want to teach.

News

There has been something that has been weighing on my heart for a while. Even though I love my current job and generally enjoy what I do, I feel as though I'm being called in a different direction. Although topically similar. I love history. There is no denying that fact. Sometimes, it feels like history is flowing through me like my blood. I honestly can't remember a time when I didn't enjoy history. It hurts my heart when I hear people say that they hate history. (now, I hate math but that is a completely different matter. I'm certain that when I say that, it doesn't hurt my dad's heart (math teacher)) Just kidding, Dad!!

History, to me, ties all people together. It is the great connector. History can be great events: war or small events: rising gas prices. It can affect two people in completely different ways depending on those individuals' personal histories. And to me, that is fascinating.

History is more than the study of events; it is the study of the human heart. What makes people react in certain ways to certain events? If you were a recently freed slave in the 1860s, how would you feel? How would you react? How about if you were a slave owner? How would you feel? Regardless of where or when a person lived, we all react with the same range of emotions.
Greed, hate, love, lust, anger, jealousy, kindness, compassion, and pain have been around for millennia. All of human history has at least one of these emotions involved, if not more.

So, after this diatribe on my passion for history, I'm resigning from the history museum and returning to college to get my teaching license. I'm just a few credits shy and it will take roughly 2 semesters of classes plus one of student teaching. I told my executive director yesterday and gave my month's notice and she accepted it well (I had mental images of her yelling at me and telling me to leave but I knew she wouldn't do that!) She agreed, I have to follow my heart and she wished me well.

Matt is completely supportive. He has been wonderful through this entire process. I'm constantly amazed at his supportiveness and can only hope that I return it in some small manner. (He's also excited about being with a college girl and that I now get the student rate at movie theaters!!)

I should have my schedule worked out soon. I also might have an on-campus job already. They need some help in the school museum and the regional archives located on-campus.

So in less than a month, I'm returning to school (again). I'm attending UW Platteville (Home of the Pioneers) and am looking forward to it although I'm looking forward to having it finished more than anything else. I would like to teach jr high/high school history. I think I can help the most in those grades and younger than that I would also have to teach math. Bleh! Hopefully I can help explain that history is not singular, unrelated events but rather a long string of interconnected events. And help to bring it to life for my students: even if that means wearing funny clothes!

So that's my news!