Students

I don't really blog about teaching. I'm not certain why, I just chose not to. But something happened last week that I really need to share. I teach psychology and we were in the middle of our emotion, stress, and motivation unit (I noticed that these spell MES which could be a description of my desk ;)

To inspire discussion about difficult topics, I started handing out slips of scrap paper and having students write answers to questions like: What makes you mad? What causes you pain? What makes you happy? and other difficult questions to discuss out loud. I then read the answers and we talked about what we heard. We ended up having some wonderful discussions.

But the sad part was some of the answers I received. "It makes me mad when my dad ignores me." "It hurts me that I can't have a closer relationship with my mom." "It hurts when my friends make fun of me." "It makes me mad when people call me names." (These aren't actual answers; just my paraphrasing.)

These answers just break my heart. I wish I could share them with the parents of the authors. How could a father ignore a child? And what type of mother doesn't allow for a closer relationship with their child (daughter, I think) Some of them almost made me break Absolute Teaching Rule #1: Don't cry in front of my students (that's different from my Classroom Rule #1: No bleeding) Seeing the answers in stark pen and knowing the courage it took to write that made me very proud of my students. And this is just a little activity in one class.

Teenagers always get such a bad rap: They're loud, dumb, rude, disrespectful, etc.


On the other hand, they want closer relationships with their parents.


When parents choose others over their children, it cuts deep.


It hurts them when they're made fun of by the people who are supposed to be supportive and they don't know how to handle the situation.


They're just kids. Stuck in adult situations that no one is helping them with. A little empathy goes a long way.

All moved!

Well, I'm in the new apartment but Matt is still in NW Illinois. It's only been three days and yet, I don't like living away from him. I miss him so I guess it's a good thing that we're married and kinda supposed to live together. It was a traumatic move. It took 5 hours to load the moving truck, 2 1/2 to drive up here, and another 2 1/2 to unload the truck. Needless to say, we were all pooped by the end of the day. The kitties didn't fare so well though. While we were loading the truck in Illinois, I put them in the bathroom with all the kitty necessities: food, water, litter, a comfy place to sit, and an open window. Once we were ready to drive, we got the kitties in their travel containers (aka kitty jail) and drove off into the sunset, the entire time listening to cat yowls from the back seat. About half way there, I noticed a strange odor coming from the back seat: someone had had an accident. The odor got stronger, making me think that maybe TWO someones had had an accident. Once we reached the apartment, my suspicion was confirmed: two accidents in two kitty kages. So out came the cat shampoo (once it was purchased from the store:)) and after we got things moved into the apartment, Matt and I bravely went into the bathroom with two smelly cats and gave them both a bath. There is nothing more pathetic than a dripping wet cat yowling at the top of his lungs. Thank goodness they're declawed otherwise we would be in shreds. Now, I know that there might be some people who think that this treatment of the cats is inhumane but you do the best you can at the time!

So now I'm at school trying to get ready for the first day of school, which is September 1st. I'm feeling ok about some things and completely overwhelmed about others, which is probably pretty typical!

Bureau"crap"tic Blues

Have you ever thought that people are trying to make you crazy? Or that by trying to simply a process, it becomes more difficult to complete the twists and turns created by "simplifying" the process?

I'm trying to apply for my teaching license. My paperwork in one state is completed and is being processed. The state in which I live (and contrary to popular belief, it's not "confusion") has a completely different process for licensing applications. And different tests I have to take, different paperwork, and always, always more checks to write to pay for various "fees." Honestly, who came up with this process? M.C. Escher? Up one flight of steps, down another into a white duck, no, a black duck, no, a white duck..... Good grief!!

I will get my license, I will get my license, I will get my license, come on, chant with me. I will get my license....

A day in the life of a student teacher

7:30 Arrive at school
7:31 First sip of coffee
7:32 Finish grading/post grades/prepare for days lessons
8:00 Students arrive
8:01-3:19 Blur of activity, talking, collecting/passing out papers, talking, answering random questions, talking, reminding students of homework to be turned in, talking, more questions "Yes, you may go to the bathroom, No, you may not go to your homeroom, Yes, that is the right answer, No look at it again, Stop (Pick one) talking, cheating, talking, hitting your neighbor, talking, poking the balloon (long story), talking, grossing out your neighbor, talking, eating paste, etc."
3:20 Sit down and try to remember what happened but mind is oozing out of ears

I really enjoy student teaching but it is exhausting! Occasionally I have moments where I think, "Yep, this is right for me." Yesterday we were discussing Native Americans in Illinois history and one of my students came up to be later and pointed out in a book that she was reading that the book talked about Native Americans too. Now this might not sound like a huge connection to make but she's 10. To be able to connect something that she is reading for fun with something we are studying is great! It made me smile.

Monday I start teaching math. Luckily for me, we're doing rounding decimals. I think that I can handle that!!!

As for my window project, I have: (drum roll) 2 left!!!!! Yep, 2!!!!!!!!! Out of 24! I've done 22 windows so far!!!!!!!

It's time for Random time!

#1. Yesterday was the first Annual "Normal Gus" day. Actually we don't know if it was the first Annual but we certainly hope so!! As we all know, Gus is normally not normal. But yesterday, we had a breakthrough. First sign of normality: Normally at treat time, if 5 cat treats are given out, 4 are quickly eaten by Mac, the treat addict, and one sits in front of Gus while he thinks about whether or not he wants the treat. By the time he has come to the conclusion that yes, he wants the treat, it has been snarfed by Mac "Give me treats or I'll give you death" Lee. Yesterday, the total treat count: Mac 2, Gus 3!!! Gus ate more treats yesterday than he has all year. Matt said that Gus just went cat-wild over the treats! Good for Gus. Second sign of normality: Gus wasn't afraid of the plastic bag when I put it away. Normally, he runs in terror from the sound of lightly crinkling plastic. Not yesterday. Third sign of normality: He sat like a cat, tummy tucked in, paws parallel to each other and not like an old man, paunch hanging out, legs all askew. For one day, we had two normal cats. It was bliss......

#2. After much consideration, I believe that Belted Galways replaced Jerseys in the coveted spot of "Merrilee's Favorite Cow." While I will always have a soft spot for Jerseys in my heart, Belted Galways are funnier. (And yes, dear readers, that was the sole criterion) Not that I have actually met a Belted Galway but there is a herd near us. These are black with a broad white "belt" that goes around their middle. And I'm assuming they are from Galway. Many of the cows near us have the belt in the middle. Some, however, have the belt closer to their hind end, reminding me of boys who wear their baggy pants much lower than they should. These are the gangster rappers of the herd, the nonconformists, the hip, and the "cool ." They make me chuckle because I always tell them "Pull your belt up" again proving my oddity in talking to cows. However, since we're are driving by these cows and Matt already knows I'm strange BUT still consented to marry me, I feel safe in saying it. And I laugh at my horrible joke at the cows' expense. Also, about 2 miles down the road is a small herd with 2 Belted in it. We (Matt and I) have decided that these are the rogue spies of the bovine world, the "Beef, James Beef." (Portrayed by Roger MOOOre)(sorry, couldn't resist) Cows are funny....

#3. Our tomatoes have blight. Again. Stupid rain. It's been so wet they haven't had the chance to dry out. Stupid rain. I haven't been able to work outside because of the, well, you know.

#4. We might go to the Great Jones County Fair this weekend. It's in um, Jones County, in case you weren't certain. And I'll let you know if it is truly "Great," "Good," or just "Okey-dokey."


Well, I think that's all my random thoughts for today.

S-U-M-M-E-R

This week was the last week of classes and so far, finals week is looking fairly reasonable. Today is commencement (what university has commencement BEFORE finals week? And this is the normal schedule, not an emergency schedule because of bad winter weather!) I have three summer classes this summer and then student teaching next fall. I still don't know where I'm teaching, but I'm assuming I will find out sometime....

The last class I pre-student taught in (meaning fewer hours and less responsibility compared to REAL student-teaching) was a 5th grade class and they made me "Thank-You" notes. My cooperating teacher (who we bought our house from --it's a small town) dropped them off yesterday. The notes were so cute! Apparently, I "rock" if you're a 5th grader. They were fun and I appreciated my cooperating teacher letting them make the notes. And when I'm having a tough day in the future and think that I'm just standing up in the front of the classroom accomplishing nothing, I will pull those notes out and remind myself that maybe I am.

With the weather improving, I've been trying to take more walks outside (hence the constant run-ins with the vulture) and I really enjoy it. It's my hour or so to myself when I can think and just be. Although thinking while walking up hill is very hard and I do most of my thinking going downhill. During my down-hill endorphine rush, I've decided that we don't walk enough as a society. We are far too comfortable just getting in the car and driving there. When you walk somewhere, you are forced to slow down and truly look at the world around you. For example, the amount of trash on the roadside is disgusting. And people throw out the oddest things: pillows, pizza boxes (who is eating pizza in their car? Can't you wait till you get home?), and more. But on a positive note, I also get to startle cows, which is always funny but then I feel sorry for the cow and I apologize to her. So, yes, I'm talking to the cows. Gesh, am I weird.....

The end of school...

Is almost here!!! Yippee!!!!

Then it's onto summer school followed by student teaching followed by??????

I had a tough day Wednesday. In the morning I was talking with a classmate when I suddenly swallowed my gum. I choked a little but managed to keep on talking! Then I was walking to class and tripped over a bit of sidewalk in front of an entire class of 2nd graders on campus for some reason. Always good to look silly in front of 2nd graders.

When I reached home, I decided to go for a walk. On my way home, a vulture started to circle me. Now, I walk about 3 miles and while I'm climbing the last hill, I do sometimes think, "Oh, I'm not going to make it," but death is not really in the picture at that time. I thought that maybe the vulture knew something I didn't and that if this is what impending death feels like, I feel pretty good. Who knew there were so many endorphins connected with death!!

Anyhow, the vulture circled me a couple of times and swooped off somewhere else, apparently deciding that I was moving too much to be dead. Vultures are just ugly, prehistoric looking creatures.

Today in my pre-student teaching class, we made reticules. We've been reading a novel about traveling on the Oregon Trail in which the main character makes a reticule. So I got to teach about 9 5th graders to sew. It was....draining. "Mrs. Lee, my string came out of my thingy!" "Mrs. Lee, the needle is poking me." "Mrs. Lee, I broke my sewing." "Mrs. Lee, now what?" "Mrs. Lee, Mrs. Lee, Mrs. Lee" and so on. The kids had fun and didn't do a half bad job for their first time sewing. And, no major bleed-outs, necessary amputations, or anything else that might happen when you give a class of 11 year olds needles and pins!! It was tiring but fun and some of the kids really seemed to enjoy themselves!!!

Punishing Gus

Do other people put their animals in "time-out?"

Gus aka Sir Chunk-a-Lot, can be a naughty kitty.

Jumping onto and into anything he can. Picking on his brother Mac. Generally annoying all two-legged and four-legged roommates.

Swatting him and telling him that he is a "bad cat" doesn't work because he thinks you're just playing with him. Even squirting him with the water bottle doesn't help because it just riles him up more.

So he gets a time out. He is placed (gently tossed) into the bathroom, the door is shut behind him, and he remains in there for 5 minutes.

This happened Saturday. He was just being naughty and so received a time out. At the end of the time out, I walked over to open the door and nearly stepped on Mac. He was sitting outside the door waiting for his playmate to come back out. And his sensory deprivation time worked! He was relatively calm for the next hour or so. After that, Matt and I didn't care because we went to bed. Mac was on his own!

Once again, Matt and I would make great parents as long as we can: train our children to eat off the floor, use a litter box, put them in rooms along for extended periods of time as punishment, and take them to the vet's office when it's time for their annual rabies/distemper shots!



On an unrelated note, last night Matt made Chinese food for supper. Yum yum!!!! It was chicken with broccoli and other Chinese vegetables in a hosin/ginger/honey sauce! Yum!!! It's amazing to me how "international" American's diets are. One day you might have Chinese for supper, the next Italian, Mexican, Thai, who knows what!!

Last week we made a huge batch of waffles (supper for breakfast again!) and froze what we couldn't eat (about 15 waffles) We've been slowly using them up by: taking them out of the freezer, placing them into to the toaster, and enjoying! You know, it's such an easy thing to do, toasting these pre-made waffles, someone should start a business doing this.

They could name it "Wafflo" or "Toast-ems"....
Oh, right. Eggo....

MIA

So I didn't end up blogging quite like I had intended to over my Christmas break. Part of the problem: I didn't really do anything worthwhile enough to blog about and no one wants to read random Merrilee thoughts about: life, the world, living with cats, or the addictiveness of chocolate!!

School has started up again. I think my classes will be fine. So far I don't have any classes on Thursday so this Thursday I stayed home. But it wasn't a good day. I had some errands to run and as I was returning home and pulling into the garage, I knocked my right side view mirror off my car. It just totally popped off like a Lego AND the garage is fine, luckily. I took my car to our local garage and for a bit over $200, my car will be like new!
So that was my morning.

That evening, Matt and I were taking out the trash and the recycling. I stepped out of our front door, trying to be careful to miss the ice patches on the front steps. Unfortunately, I didn't know that the entire step was iced over. I tried to keep my balance but ended up flat on my rear. I didn't hurt anything but my pride. Although my bum was a little tender the next day.

Matt and I recently took a compatibility quiz in a magazine that I receive. According to it, we are 100% compatible! We knew what reality TV shows we would audition for (none), what we would order off of an unlimited menu (Matt: anything; Me: chocolate), where we could go if we could (Matt: Vermont, Me: England), and what books we are currently reading. We both agreed, however, to throw out the question regarding toilet paper (under or over) due to semantics and a poorly phrased question. So, yay!

Another grey day

Apparently, Wisconsin is trying to be England with grey days full of little spits of rain. What's odd is that the sun will be shining in Illinois when I leave but by the time I get to Wisconsion, it's gone and we have grey clouds covering the sky. Unfortunately, days like that make me want to 1. go back to bed and wait for the sun 2. drink tremendous amounts of tea 3. eat scones in companion with the tea 4. read long British stories involving a wealthy wayward duke, a poor but beautiful woman, and a traumatic event that throws them together. Basically, anything by Jane Austen or a Bronte sister. Please notice that none of the things on my list actually involve anything that I have to get done today or should finish today. Oh well.

Tonight I have an appreciation dinner for one of my tutoring opportunities. I'm helping a very nice lady who's about my age study for her TOEFL test, which is the test that foreign born/non-native English speakers must take to enter grad school. She is looking at attending grad school to study ESL. She's originally from Columbia and speaks/writes/reads English very well but sometimes the little detail rules are difficult (as they can be for native speakers!!). Last night we were working on the difference between "effect" and "affect." I told her that's tough for me too! I get them mixed up all the time. She's a little nervous, I think, but working on being prepared. I hope it works out for her because it would be a great opportunity for her. Anyhow, the organization that hosts the tutoring is having a dinner at a local restaurant tonight. I really enjoy working with my friend and I'm hoping that my schedule will work out so that even though I need XX amount of hours of tutoring, I can keep helping her at least through her test. I think it would be cruel to stop tutoring just because my goal is achieved when her goal isn't yet.

I registered for classes this week and it looks as though I will be able to do my student teaching next fall. So in and out in a year and a half. Then it's onto finding a real job. This stresses me out quite a bit but as Matt reminds me: there are more teaching jobs in the world than there are museum jobs and if I found a museum job, then I will find a teaching job too! I appreciate his support but I'll feel better when I actually find a teaching job that doesn't include coaching football. However, by the time I finish, I will be able to teach: US history, World History, Government & Current Events, Economics, Psychology, and Geography. Surely, someone will want to hire me, right?

OK, faithful blog readers, I have a request to help me (sorry for being selfish!):
What was your favorite part about studying social studies in school and why?

Funny things seen around town

First of all, canning season is done!! Yay!!!!!! It's officially done when I put away the water-bather pot (I'm sure this has a technical name for it but I prefer my use-descriptive one instead), I stop searching for Sure-Jell rather than any other lesser pectin, stop buying salt and sugar in abnormal quantities, and replace the tongs and jar lifters back into the drawer. I have no idea how much we canned this year but I'm pretty certain that we could live the rest of the winter on our applesauce, pear sauce, pickled beets, spaghetti sauce, and various jellies, although we would probably end up with some type of protein deficiency BUT we would be scurvy-free! Yay for no scurvy!!

We had been freezing our tomatoes as they came ripe so we could "can them at a later date" which made perfect sense every time you popped a tomato into the freezer but after a while, our freezer was only tomatoes and we had no room for ice cream (a true tragedy if you ask me!) So last weekend was "Can or Bust" weekend. Matt and I canned 5 quarts and 3 pints of spaghetti sauce which we cooked down in our Nesco cooker because we don't have enough large stock pots to cook down that much sauce (no one has enough stock pots unless you have an institutional kitchen with 30 gallon pots). We also made 16 jars of beet jelly. We could have made more. I had enough juice for one more batch but I was out of sugar, pectin, and jars. I only had jello and juice. SO, I made the hard decision and dumped the juice down the drain. Still, we have plenty of jelly! But now our freezer is ours again complete with pumpkin ice cream (very yummy!) and now when you open the freezer, frozen tomatoes don't come flying out at you like little frozen Ninja balls of death fruit.

School is going well. I found out that if I take a full load next semester (which I was planning on doing) and some summer classes (what else would I have to do in the summer), I can student teach next fall and then start job hunting/subbing more full time. Most of my classes are fairly easy but a couple (microeconomics) make me want to pull my hair out. But I just have to get through them and I will. (This philosophy comes with age, experience, and grad school, in my opinion. I would not have felt this way in Mer's undergrad experience, part 1, the saga begins)

Ok, for the true nature of this post:

Three funny signs seen this week:
Sign on a quik-lube place "Stop here for your tranny flush"
At a health foods place "Colon cleanse, yay!"
"O-B-A-M-A" spelled out on the sides of hay bales (true sign of living in the country, when you campaign for president using hay)

Yay!

I have some exciting news to share: I don't have consumption. No TB here!! Yay!
I had to have a TB test at the doctor's and I came up negative. Not that there was much of a concern that I would have consumption but I definitely don't. Yay! Now I don't have to move to a drier climate or live in a consumption ward. Goody!


Blog consumer update:

In an effort to be a little greener and smear fewer man-made chemicals on me, I switched to a greener deodorant. Tom's of Maine makes toothpaste and deodorant. I tried the apricot scent which smelled more like peaches than apricots but that's ok. And I found out something very important: if you are going to switch deodorants, don't do it at the end of July when it's 88+ degrees outside. Stick with your Secret powder fresh until the heat of summer is done. Tom's works for about 3/4 of the same time as Secret does. It doesn't have aluminum in it but instead has hops. And no, you don't hop around when you put it on nor do you make some kind of funky underarm beer (which would make for an interesting marketing technique if it did: "In a long boring meeting? Need something to make the time go faster? With Tom's of Maine hop underarm beer fermentation tank, you can have all the beer your underarms can make! Try our ale flavor as well!)

So I switched back to Secret until fall. A lesson learned.........


Last night I went for a walk. I'm not certain why but the everywhere I walked, butterflies were there. You know the little yellow butterflies that always end up on your car's grill? Those. They were right alongside the road in droves and as I walked along, they flew up and flutter along next to me. I think it might have been mating season but it was still lovely to walk along with the butterflies. Made me feel like a Disney Princess albeit a sweating, headphones and tennis-shoe wearing Disney princess.

Deep thoughts with Mer: I thought of something while I was walking last night. We have a country road near us called Pleasant Hill Road. Sounds lovely, doesn't it? Well, you know those treadmill programs that have you walk up an incline, down an incline, and repeat to simulate walking up and down hills? God made a natural one for us here. I personally think it should be called Butt-kicking Hill Road. It's a great road to walk on because of that. And I can say hello to cows, dogs, cats, and more cows. It's just a beautiful road!!!

As I was approaching the last steep incline, I thought, "Self, you know, this hill is hard to climb. Instead of thinking about how hard it will be to reach the top of this hill, I need shorter goals. My new goal is: walk to that mailbox, then the next driveway, then that patched bit after that, and finally that shady part. All I need to do is think about reaching that mailbox. And I do. Then that driveway, and so on up the hill. Suddenly I'm at the top of the hill and I didn't even realize how hard it was to get there. I just kept putting one foot in front of the other, listening to my Wayne's World 2 soundtrack CD, and suddenly I'm there! Goal achieved.

This is kinda like life. We all have long term goals in our minds: debt free, families, living in our dream home, a dog name Louie. But those goals are so far off sometimes that we have to make shorter goals: pay off a credit card, be happy in ourselves, save money to buy that dream home, occasionally pretend the cat is a dog named Louie. One foot in front of the other to the shorter goals and bam! Suddenly you and your husband Fabio have adopted Louie Dog to run free in your mortgage free dream home on 50 wooded acres. Just make it to that mailbox!

Rain, Rain go away

We have had enough rain already. Honestly, enough. Luckily, we haven't had any problems with flooding like other areas have had, i.e. Cedar Rapids, IA which is completely underwater. The only good news is that with all this rain, our garden is looking very nice. Our tomatoes and pepper plants are growing well and my beets are coming up! Matt's potatoes are coming up too!!Yay!!!!!

This past weekend was our Cemetery Walk fundraiser for the museum. We have it at a beautiful cemetery here in town: rolling hills, huge trees, and nice paths. I wore my '86 wrapper for a change (everyone always wears fancy clothing when they dress up, I like to wear oldey-timey normal clothing: proof yet again that I"m a social historian.) Anyhow, when I was putting on my dress, it felt like I was slipping into an old friend. You know that feeling you get when you put on clothing that you used to wear all the time and stopped wearing, only to start again? Yep, that one. I even wore my apron ( I needed the pocket for my keys and cell phone.)

I did have to chuckle to myself though: my dress was the only one with "authentic" wear patterns. Underarms and bodice front issues. Plus bleach stains on the hem!

I'll post pictures of our garden soon and show you all our new exhibit at the museum!

Umm, what was that?

We are officially in "school-tour season" here at the museum and I have some funnies to share with you. Now, I know that for all my intrepid blog readers, if you ever had the joy to work at a living history museum or are currently working there, you have far better one-liners than I do, but please remember that I don't have: fires, flies, chickens, or horse doo in the street to spur on some of the best visitor comments.

So here are my school tour comments, 2008:

Why do you have so much old stuff here?

You have nice teeth. I like them. (directed towards me from a middle school girl)

So which one is older, WWII or the war of 1812?

It smells like old stuff in here.

Is that a real man in the mine shaft? (it's clearly a mannequin)

I don't want to look at this junk, I want to go to the gift shop.


And my all time favorite which happened a few months after I started here:

This town is so old, it doesn't even have a Starbucks. (from a cranky 15ish year-old)

I'm the worst blogger ever!

Yes, it's official. I'm a horrible blogger. If you look at my blog, nothing has happened in my life for the last month or so. Apparently, I've been doing nothing. Well, as you can imagine, that's not true. I will now post many, many, MANY pictures in a not-so-veiled attempt to make it up to you. And maybe it will tell a story......

Even though we were all happily hibernating throughout the winter, Spring came anyhow. (This is what happens if I don't make the bed in the morning quick enough)

There was much rejoicing and feasting the end of the long hard winter.

Early flowers began to bloom. This is a now domesticated Jack-in-the-Pulpit. It was found running wild through the hills nearby, tamed (i.e. dug up) and moved to the wilderness preserve on Ash Street.

We all took our Spring baths in anticipation of what was to come.

Matt's potato garden. Yeah, I don't see anything yet either. This began as a spot to dump used potting soil, then a compost heap (see the pumpkin shells) and is now a potato hill. We'll see.

We received new toys to enjoy the spring weather.

We're all so excited about it, we just can't contain it.

We're all giddy about Spring! As giddy as schoolgirls, I mean, schoolboys.

THE END

The wonder of email

Email just fascinates me. It has completely changed how we communicate as a culture. Whereas written notes used to contain "frilly" phrases and words like "whereas," now with email, it is cut and dry. There is a meeting at 10 a.m. Did you receive that memo? You're fired. Things of that sort. However, it also allows us to communicate with people that we might not have ever had the chance to meet. For example, on Monday I received an email from the curator of the New York Botanical Museum. He had a question regarding our county. Now, I get plenty of work related emails but rarely from someone like this. We email chatted a couple of times about spring coming, the weather, issues with museums regardless of who or where you are. Now, in my professional life, I will never meet this man. Our paths would never cross. But because he had a question about Jo Daviess County and my email is on our website, I got to meet him. Fascinating.
www.galenahistorymuseum.org If you are interested. info@ is me.

I'm in the middle of war. With a mouse. He or she is leaving mouse artifacts all over our collections storage rooms, the absolute worst place to have a mouse. So far, I have lost one trap and the other was sprung with the bait gone. On the missing trap, it's just gone. I placed it on a shelf and now it's not there. I looked on the floor, behind the shelf, under the shelving on the other side of the room and nothing. If I did catch a mouse, I'll know in a couple of days....


Anyhow, I have yet begun to fight! More traps and PB are on their way!!!!!! The mice might have won this fight but I'll win the battle!!!!! It's Friday and I always feel more militant on Friday:)

A Beautiful Sight

Yesterday as Matt and I were headed home from church, we passed 6 wild turkeys and at least 40 deer. Deer are such an amazing sight to me. They are so graceful and beautiful. Roughly 25-30 of the deer that we saw yesterday were all in one cornfield and it looked like someone had turned them out to pasture. It reminded me of something that had happened to me last summer.
Last summer, I was picking wild berries on my in-laws property when I heard this odd little moan. I had no idea what it was but it clearly wasn't a cat or dog. Then the bushes about 10 feet away from me started to shake. I suddenly realized how far away from the house I was and the fact that I was completely alone, minus the berries and flies who were not likely going to protect me much! Then I heard the noise again but it was closer this time. The bushes shook again. I tried peering through the bushes and then I caught sight of a pair of brown eyes. The noise I had heard was a fawn calling for its mom. This fawn was all alone walking though the cornfield and fence line when apparently it thought I was its mom and came within about 5 feet of me. I was trying to think of how to adopt a deer when it ran away. It was so cute!! I'm not certain why it was alone. I hope that its mom was alright and that they had just gotten separated. The fawn looked exactly like Bambi!!!
When I see deer, I don't know how a person could hunt it. Sure, I understand all the logical reasons for hunting: food, keep numbers down with lack of natural predators, and while I'm certain I could hunt if I had to, I don't have to. The supermarket does all of my hunting for me. And shooting such a noble looking animal as a deer seems like a travesty to me.

Now, hunting for the boxelder bugs that have somehow survived the winter in my house, that is a different matter!!!!!

I have spring fever. I want to plant flowers and veggies, open all my windows, and turn off the furnace. I am also missing my flipflops, skirts, and open windows while driving. Is anyone else feeling this way or am I just crazy???

If I have one more meeting...

Honestly, how many meetings can one person have? Yesterday I had meetings at at 4:30, 5:30, and 6:30. That's insane. When I came home, I tried to give Matt an agenda for the rest of our evening and teach the kitties Roberts rules of order. They didn't get it.

On a happy note, our Christmas cactus is blooming. Just three months late. It's beautiful right now. There is one bloom right now and about 6 buds. Gorgeous and nice to see something in bloom right now.

Just in case you were worried, our sidewalk is still clear. No violations there. And, yes, I quoted Alice's Restaurant. It's a family tradition to listen to it at least once during Thanksgiving. And then quote it excessively the rest of the evening.

Last Saturday we had a business trade show in town and the museum participated even though we're not really a "business." We ran the 50/50 and "What is it?" We had three artifacts from the museum that people could try and guess what they were. We, of course, picked the three easiest artifacts, hah! We had an ancient wringer mop, carpet stretcher, and tobacco plug cutter, that I demonstrated multiple times without loosing a digit! Yay for me!

However, I did fail a very easy test: can I change a lightbulb? No, is the answer. I thought there was something wrong with the bulb or the socket but our handyman said he got it in just fine. I must have stronger points elsewhere, I just know it!
We tried to install wallpaper at the museum but it's not going so well. We worked really hard to find pretty, time-appropriate but affordable wallpaper and found the perfect stuff. Unfortunately, when our contractor tried to install it, the wallpaper started curling on the edges. Drat. He tried everything but what it comes down to is, we need to pick new wallpaper. The worst part is we already painted the ceiling to match the wallpaper so we have to stay in that color range. Wednesday was not a good day in the museum.

I know that this post is all about work but it's kinda what I've been all about recently. I called Matt to ask him out on a date for tonight because I've been so busy in the evenings. I have Subway and Pizza Hut coupons so we get to pick from one of those!! Yay for coupons!!!

Friends

Last night Matt and I visited one of our friends who has been in, as she put it, a "happy depression." She's just been in a funk recently and we thought we'd visit her for a while and maybe cheer her up a bit. We took over some baked goods and canned goods but she beat us in the yummy treats department. Rina, our friend, is a 70 year old Italian lady and she loves to entertain and cook. When we got there we talked for a little bit and then she looked at me and said, "Coffee or chocolate milk?" Well, that's a tough decision but I went for the chocolate milk, which turned out to be the best hot chocolate I've ever had. Rina doesn't simply heat water, or if I'm spurgling, milk, in the microwave, oh no. She got out a pan, poured in milk, and let it heat. She did use a hot chocolate mix but it was darn good. And to round it out, since she's Italian, she got out the Nutella and told us to put some in our hot chocolate. Which we did, since we do what Rina says! Oh, it was good. She also had made something called bumblinoni (not spelled correctly) which were a fried dough flavored with lemon. Very good. And perfect for a chilly evening.

Visiting Rina sometimes reminds me of visiting my grandma. No matter what time you visit, you will eat. Don't fight it because it will happen. We went over after 7 and we still had to have something while we were there. And she sent us home with food, homemade biscotti, yumm. Rina and her husband used to own a bakery and she says that his baked goods were always better than hers, but I find that hard to believe since her's are delicious (he passed away a few years ago).

I hope our visit helped. Rina is one of those people who is just always cherry and full of life. To see her upset is probably more upsetting to me. She's a sweet lady.

Did I mention that 1. She lived in Italy during the reign of Mussolini and 2. she grew up with Pavarotti? And now she lives about a mile from us? Wierd!

Jenny's Meme

My band: The Regar District

(It's in Tajikistan. Yeah, I didn't know that either.)

First album: Lived One's Life Properly

Cover

So I'm guessing that I'm some sort of Euro-pop band? Cool!

On a different note, I've had some thoughts on winter. I read somewhere that Midwesterners show the greatest amount of hope compared to any other region in the US because we know that regardless of how long the winter is, spring will come. There is no doubt about that. I think it's not just Midwesterners but anyone who experiences drastic changes in weather. We all know that spring will come. It's just waiting for the right time.

True for many aspects of life, just waiting for the right time.

For example, Matt and I would love to have a dog. But we're concerned about how our two cats would react. Matt suggested last night that we get a small herding dog who could herd the cats around. And while the thought did make me laugh and think about "herding cats," I'm afraid it wouldn't work. Oh well, eventually we'll get Scraps and Louie (our dogs, Scraps is a little fellow and Louie is a big silly dog) Yes, we've already named our nonexistent dogs! We need hobbies!!!!