Taraeire

2012-01-17T21:42:00.002-07:00

second week off work-
I am enjoying my time off so far by attacking some of the things I've put off.
One- I cleaned my creative space and became friends again with projects I've set aside (otherwise known as UFO's). In becoming friends, I've prioritized which ones to work on first. First up was some orphan stars I found in a thrift store several years ago. I sewed them to backing blocks and then, in keeping with their age, I used some reproduction 30's-40's prints to finish them up. Second up was my "summer of the bat" quilt I stared. I'm actually adding a 5 inch border around what I had and calling it done.
Two- in keeping with a general concept of socializing more, I attended a quilt guild meeting in town. It was fairly close to what I expected and made contact with a longarm quilter which I've seen around before. I handed over a quilt top I finished with fabrics from Quilt Market and we'll see how that goes. The Quilt was based on Modern quilting so it was quick and I think will be good for my son. I was quickly approached to give a talk about my quilting and possibly lessons. That fits in with my general interest these days of how to share what I've learned.
Three- I've spent several hours with my new family tree maker program and Ancestry.com. I've found several people using their "leaf" and now I'm down to making the harder connections.
I can't say I've had any true surprises but it's always interesting to see where you come from and imagine what life was like at different times in different locations. You'd think that I would have run into someone famous by now. LOL I read an account of a distant uncle which described how his father (my distant grandfather) developed the farm from raw land. Basically, he was the first white settler on that land.
Four- I'm moving ahead on my dental work. I imagine one more appt and the procedure will be scheduled. Trying hard not to think too much about it other than wanting the worst to be over when I go back to work.
Five- I've been cooking dinners more now and I finally tried making Risotto. I know, not a huge thing, but the rice to make it just showed up in our stores around here, and, honestly, I wanted to see what Chef Ramsey was always yelling about. Just how hard is it to make the stuff? Turns out, it's pretty easy, but takes a bit of watchful time cooking. I made mine with onions and regular button mushrooms, but I guess you could get pretty creative with it. It's even good warmed up and I had it for dinner a second night.
Sometimes, the schedule of people around here is hectic and often last minute changes rule. Tonight, I was going to miss one kid from dinner, then a second one, then the third- so Steve and I ate leftovers. Later, I picked up the girls (plus one) from the game. Somehow, Maura has become the acting drum major for pep band. Apparently, the real ones either quit or can't be bothered. (not sure what's going on there) She is still working hard on scholarships and was invited to be in a wedding too. She has quizbowl this Thursday and something Friday and she wants friends over Saturday. I learned all this while waiting for Delaney to buy notebook paper this evening. Interesting life!

2011-12-30T08:26:00.004-07:00

Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!
I am sitting here this morning with one more day of Painting parasols at the park ahead of me. Last night, attendance was more than projection and I'm thinking tonight might be as well. The nice weather has brought people to enjoy the last week. My sister Ann even surprised me with a visit. I looked up and there she was (looking really great too) with a couple friends from church.
Since I've been so busy this week, I've not had a chance to post here about Christmas or my anniversary or the play Maura was in.
The play was first- It's called "Promedy" and was basically a comedy about prom- Maura (who played Dante) wanted to go with a cheerleader, who wanted to go with a football player, who liked the goth girl and then there was the geek, who ended up with the promise of 3 different dates (one being with the entire volleyball team) and ended up with none.
Maura did a good job of playing the rebel type guy. The prom theme was a mash up of underwater, renaissance and future, so she wore the cape, spongebob slippers and dueled with a starwars laser.
All in all the kids did a good job and most came over for the cast party afterwards. (I was working, so that was all on Steve)
For our anniversary, we got each other sappy cards and Steve had one of our wedding pictures enlarged on canvas and I bought him a silver celtic design ring with the word "more" engraved inside. We did a bit of shopping and then had an early dinner at Landry's (which was a bit of a disappointment taste-wise, but we didn't mention that to each other)
Christmas morning and I woke up at 5 remembering I didn't bake the pies yet so i was the first up. I finally woke everyone about 7 and we celebrated Christmas. After gifts were opened, i spent the next few hours in the kitchen, we ate about noon and then I napped a few hours. When i got up again, i made some snack food for dinner.
I am very excited about a couple few of my gifts. I got a new Kindle reader which is about the same size as my old sony one, but half as thin... so light, I'm not having problems holding it while sleeping.
I got the new version of family tree maker- so I'll be delving into that again, on my time off. I got a new ruffler foot for my sewing machine so I'll be playing with that too.
I just learned i have to take Delaney to work, so I have to get a move on.
Love to all!

2011-12-14T22:03:00.002-07:00

Random chat-
I was happy to know the glass window piece arrived at it's destination safe and sound. Whew! A load off my mind. I cleared up my space to switch over from glass back to quilting. But haven't quite settled into a project. I bought a few yards of fabric from The Quilted Cow when they had their holiday open house/ luncheon. I plan on adding some of it to a quilt I started after market so I can have it quilted.
Everyone seems to be getting sick. at work, my manager was out for over a week and Delaney came home sick today. besides that, there are elderly co-workers who are struggling as well. Blood pressure issues and a general weakness put one in the hospital last week. I hope I'll hear he's feeling better when i work tomorrow.
The big news is that Maura's play is this week, Thursday, Friday and Saturday. I have no idea what it's really about, but just keep hearing about odd funny things. Maura is playing a boy- the lead male- and there's a kissing scene. Besides that, I get a call today, "mom, can you make a voodoo mermaid doll?" uh, ok.
" Mom, the person who was having the cast party can't, can we have it at our house?" Uh, ok?
(I'll be working, but Steve will host it) I made cookie dough and cupcakes today in anticipation of the party.
Delaney took a bunch of cans from the pantry to school for the food drive without letting us know so I got a bit steamed when I planned dinner and discovered the cream of mushroom soup wasn't there to use. She, of course, goes to school and tells how angry I got, really playing it up, so I look like a crazy woman who hates charity. It wasn't that she took them, it's that she didn't let us know and that's not how I wanted to find out.
She also decided to share with a classroom of students how I gave her the sex talk and expect her to use condoms. Lovely. It's not their business and I'm pretty sure she's trying to put nails in the coffin of my subbing career. Oh well. if anyone asks I can certainly say it's not their business.
She broke up with her boyfriend because she was bored. LOL She's such a flirt, I'm sure it did hamper her socializing. She's still friends with him, one in a long line of boyfriends to come, I'm sure. I've been holding one pass back, thinking that they might try to go to the park on a warmer night, but I guess I won't worry about that any longer. Maura took a friend out there on a day it rained. Sometimes I wonder about my kids!
I'm off work on Jan 6th and start back Feb 27. So, not too long of a break.

2011-12-11T08:31:00.004-07:00

Still playing with my camera and some of the effect settings. The photo above is a color select of red. Anything else is B/W. Also I learned any highlights also turn gray, so not always a good choice.
This shot is enhanced color- vivid! Probably a better choice in a candy shop.
Then I played with Sepia-tone for the older look of the Park. The mule was waiting outside the church as a wedding ceremony was taking place. The happy couple rides around the square afterwards. In this particular case, it was a celebration of their 50th wedding anniversary and they were re-marrying each other. I remember when they used to drive the mule and wagon through the park as part of the package pickup system. They no longer do that due to the number of people in the park these days.
This is the church at the park and the minister exiting after the wedding. They also have carol sings in the church through the holidays and yes, actual church services on Sundays.

2011-12-04T09:19:00.004-07:00

December already?

Yikes!
This has been one of my bigger projects since Summer. I still need to clean it really well, but I'm calling this baby done and will ship it off this week.

I turned 51 and my Dh bought me a new camera. I missed the telephoto lens I had on his 35 MM camera ( I cooped it as "mine" when we married) and so now I have a digital Cannon powershot SX40 HS and I'm still reading all the information on how to use it. Luckily, I have willing (or semi- willing) subjects around here. So, meet Psyche, the part Maine coon cat from the animal shelter who rules our home with an iron paw. Still, she was good about me taking pictures of her, at least on THIS day.
Not to be outdone, Lola was good about me taking pictures of her, interrupting her mid morning nap. She's also a shelter rescue. I'm still playing around, but I'm having a great time with some of the unexpected special effects. The most intriguing is the color highlight function. You can pick one color and that will be the only thing in the photo that is in color, everything else is b/w. Cool huh? I can think of two things I'd like to try with that feature, but it's raining today and both are outdoors. ICK! Rain! Which is better than sleet or ice around here, but snow is in the forecast, so we'll see what happens tonight and tomorrow.
Yesterday it rained all afternoon and evening but that didn't seem to stop people from going to the park. People did seem to come and go more and I felt some anxiety about losing sales because I didn't have the time to make enough parasols. Rainy days are also conflicting because, while you can use them in the rain, the paint has to dry 24 hrs, so you can't use them right away in the rain.
I need to get ready to head to work, everyone else is already gone and we're hoping the parade doesn't get cancelled due to rain tonight.
Decorating the house tomorrow- Steve said he'd put the tree up then. FaLaLaLaLa... Lalalala!

2011-11-06T07:43:00.005-07:00

My sister Louise- hat maker

I'm standing with my auction piece

fabric store in Houston

flying Home

acorns using the caps of a Burr Oak and felt

Houston Market!!!
Thanks to Ackfeld Manufacturing, we went to Quilt Market for the first time. I drank in so much information there, I am still processing it all. We saw new products and fabric lines, saw so many "rock stars" and generally had a blast meeting so many people. I'll make a post soon about all my impressions (as soon as I get the boxes I mailed to myself)

One thing I love about my sister is that she's so accepting of my weirdness- who else would drive me to a jack-in-the box and help me gather Burr oak acorn caps? They are so cool looking and huge- I wanted to make felt acorns for thanksgiving decorations. Not only that, but gave me the roving in perfect colors and did a phone consultation about needing to needlefelt the roving first before wet felting. How cool is that?

2011-09-12T06:28:00.006-06:00

Catching up-
It's been a while since I've posted, what with school starting and working, but here's a few things to talk about. Steve and I went on the Branson belle showboat. he wondered if it qualified as a cruise (but everyone said NO!) It was a pleasant 2- 3hours and included a show, dinner and lovely scenery. I enjoyed seeing the views from the boat, the dinner was a bit hit or miss. I thought the bread was a bit odd- a basket of 4 different breads for 2 of us. none of them all that exciting- the dinner was roast beef, mashed potatoes, green beans and chicken. The chicken was just odd- a bit tough, not seasoned at all. The dessert was a frozen pie,which was good, but my piece was about half the size of Steve's. That's ok, since I'm trying to cut back on that stuff, but was just inconsistent. The entertainment was mostly fun- the magician was just odd. He did the most simplistic tricks- stuff Steve carries around in his pocket, how many years after he's stopped performing?
The other performers were great. I liked the group and the violinist.
It seemed as though we didn't actually go very far, just twice around the area near the Dam.
We went to dinner at Greg and Debbie's to see the new addition- Henry! He's 5 months old and Debbie and Greg are having a blast with him. He looks a lot like Greg and he's very strong, especially in the torso. IMHO. Debbie told us several people think they are the grandparents. That is odd to me- she's 40 and he's 50, so yeah, maybe, except I don't wanna be a grandma any time soon. I just know that they really wanted Henry and are enjoying the heck out of him.
We went to the football game on friday. I wish I had a picture, but I only took video of the band. If you follow me, you know how I hate this stuff- oddly, I find it a bit more interesting now that I know so many of the football players so well. I've been around them since they were in kindergarten and have little memories of so many of them in my mind. I guess the band messed up pretty big on their piece. Not sure since I am not sure how it's supposed to sound and, honestly, too many people talk in the stands through the performance for me to hear much of it. Maybe I'll hear it at competition.

I spend quite a bit of time now at work and I meet some interesting people. For instance, this is when Charlie was warning us that he had tried a new version of BOD and we might be finding him irresistible. They are always cracking me up.
On 9/11, the park had a small program. This is what you saw when you arrived at the park- the flag is suspended between two firetrucks, one from Branson and one from Stone co. At noon, all the activity in the park stopped. They stopped the rides, all the shops emptied, the turnstiles stopped as well as parking. We cleared the store and stood outside, near the turnstiles, where explanations, directions and prayers were lead by one of the employees. Meanwhile, at the square, a lot more was going on and all the visitors were encouraged to go there if they could. There was a moment of silence and the national anthem was sung, broadcast over the loudspeakers, then a very nice statement was read and we clapped and went back to work.
I've gotten more emotional about the little things as I've gotten older. When he asked those who have served in the military to salute while the rest of us put our hands over our heart during the national anthem,I looked at this guy who probably served in Vietnam standing at attention, saluting, with great pride- well, it brought tears.

2011-08-20T07:26:00.003-06:00

Playing at the Outback Pub

Zach and Maura before his set

Delaney and Brooke shopping at ES

The Day before school started-
I spent the day with Delaney and her BFF Brooke at Eureka Springs where we enjoyed a shopping day. It was Delaney's wish to shop there. I know it's a cool town and the clothes there are interesting and definitely not something you see everywhere else, but the prices are a bit high for us and she left kinda disappointed. I am always impressed by how articulate she is with sales people and how they warm up to her quite easily.
I thought we'd head to Berryville and I planned to cut back north, but missed my turn, so we ended up going to Branson and then back home.
Later that night, I met up with Steve and Maura at the Outback Pub to see Zach play. I've never heard him play his violin before and, since he's heading to college, it was my only chance for awhile. This band is a "bluegrass" band, playing all original stuff. I got to meet Zach's parents there , I'm thinking for the first time, but his Dad said we'd met before.
Anyway, we called it a night pretty early because Maura wasn't really allowed to be there past 10.
I had a moment thinking how full circle things are at times. Imagining what, if anything, my Dad would have to say to Zach- thinking of how similar the setting was (yet decades apart) and even the music might be similar as to what my dad would have been playing in his youth.
Zach's dad made a comment that the violin cost more than his first two cars and had a bit of an unspoken "and this is why we spent all the money for it and the lessons, so he can play in a bar?"
Of course it's probably not the end destination of all his work and certainly not Zach's life calling to play in bars , but I bet he can pick up some spending money that way. I wish Zach luck on his pursuit of an art career beginning with his major wake up call in college. LOL

2011-08-10T07:53:00.002-06:00

Registered for High School-
Delaney was excited and nervous to head off to High School. Waiting in the lines with the other freshmen, she had a blast comparing schedules and trying to open her locker. Side note: She was the only one of my kids who actually figured out the locker combination on the first day. In the end, she took off with Brooke and I shopped and came home.
I signed up to sub again this year, but I'll do it on a limited basis as my other job will allow. I didn't want to loose my background check if something doesn't work out at SDC. I'm calling it a transition.
Moonlight Madness is over and I'm back to normal hours. I need to head in a bit early today to drop off the dresses I repaired for the dress shop and I hope to drop by the other painter's site to see if they have white paint pens. They'll just be open this week and then our spot will be the only place to get parasols.
Maura signed up for the ACT again. Hoping she scores higher than the 25 she has now. 30 seems to be a good number to aim for. She's enjoying her time with Zach before he heads off to college. I'm hoping to hear him play before then. Next week he'll play at Outback's and I'm looking forward to hearing him.

2011-08-07T07:32:00.003-06:00

Cardboard boat races and rain!
Maura and Zach competed yesterday in the Chances Cardboard boat race. They were in the extreme category and came in 3rd because they got shut out by the big firetruck boat. A shame that they had no maneuvering room and were basically paddling the shoreline.

http://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=2286395840284&set=a.2286387120066.133627.1260567876&type=1&theater

It was crazy hot there waiting for the race to begin. I was so hot and turning red- going inside for awhile helped. I missed the actual race because i had to go to work. They were missing some people, so I was put on a register in the "college" area. I am completely clueless about grown people being such fans of a team (any team, any sport) but I played it up as best I could. Someone kept turning the Texas stuff upside down. I had to ask guests why. Apparently, everyone (especially Oklahoma people) like to dis the longhorns. I spent the evening turning things right side up.
This is why I went to a school that had a shell as a symbol. LOL
The rain came and cleared the park out- sort of- people were coming and going at the same time- optimists and pessimists I suppose. One more day of moonlight madness and then back to normal hours. I get to go back to parasol painting tonight.
It's been miserably hot here, as it has been most everywhere, and we just kept missing the rain. Well, not last night. We finally got a storm and it was a good one. If you can imagine, we lost another tree- I don't think we have many left to lose- this one was along the property line and actually snapped with the wind from the storm, midway up the trunk. It got hung up from falling in the big oak so I'm not sure how we are going to get it down.
Delaney was swimming at her friend's dock and the wind blew things around quite a bit- actually broke their dock and it also came lose from it's right tie down. They had some scary moments with the lightning and wind.
Extremes seem to be the watchword for this year. We had a couple unusual snow storms in the area then a crazy amount of rain in the Spring which brought on flooding and the tornado that hit Joplin and now such high temps with high humidity for so long. I can only imagine what Fall is going to look like. Maybe an early cold one? Please?

2011-07-29T08:46:00.002-06:00

New Job-
I'm still working at the Amusement park, but I've switched to a new position and I'm loving it.
I get to use my art talent and connect to kids on a one-to-one way that I really enjoy. Being able to make a simple drawing and knowing that it makes people happy is fun.
Not long ago on the QA list, someone asked if we considered not making quilts. My first thought was no... but then I didn't get accepted into the Houston show with a piece I really liked. Oh, I know it can be just not the juror's cup of tea, it might have been my photos (my CD got cracked in the mail and I emailed photos directly which I may have forgotten to re-size.) It could have been how rushed I felt finishing this quilt at a time I felt so pressured with end of school year stuff. I might not know exactly why I didn't get in the competition, but it's effect is that I am second guessing myself.
Maybe I am stuck in this direction that isn't popular at the moment. My quilts are getting pretty dark and moody. Maybe I am needing to step back and make a quilt not for competition. It feels like any quilts I make is for competition and I don't have time to make anything else. Maybe I should step back and experiment and not be concerned about making something for anyone else.
How much will the constant demand of drawing at my job will affect my need to be creative? I'm not sure. At the most basic level, I'm working as an artist- not making BIG art, but still, enjoyable.
If I do keep making quilts for shows, I'll have to adjust my time frame for working. I have a hard time getting much accomplished when I'm working. The hours of the park take a large chunk out of the center of the day/ evening. I'll have a couple months off in jan and feb and then back to work. Any big stuff will have to be done then.
All kinda interesting.

2011-07-17T20:43:00.002-06:00

Changing jobs-
Today was my last day at the dress shop. I am moving "up top" to paint parasols. It's going to be a better fit for me for a few reasons. One, it's inside, so I won't have to be in such hot temps. Two, I get to sit down in a rocking chair. I'll be happier not standing on concrete for 8 hours. Three, it's fewer days a week (although not at first) so I can do some personal art again. Four, it at least has something to do with my talents and interests. I never would have thought I'd think painting parasols was gong to be the best use of my art talents, but... ok. Lastly, the job is until Jan. so I have a longer contract. It looks like I might be like a real local applying for unemployment for 2 months or so a year... but I'm getting ahead of myself.
I have a feeling working up top is different from working down below. I'll have a different set of bosses and a different set of co-workers. Probably more attention to costumes and more exposure.
Easier to get to the employee food and I guess I'll know more as I go along.
This week, I got my evaluation and got a 99.5 which was really pretty good. Part of the score takes the store's performance into account. In this case, the store is new, and it is exceeding expectations, so those scores are good. I am not sure what happens when you are against numbers you don't meet as a store. I am just going to do my best and not worry about the things I can't change.
Each day, I learn a bit more about the things they don't talk about in orientation. There's a sale day when the employees get 50% off anything at the park. There's a few other things like that that go on.. a vague reference to a sale in Dec. and days when the park is closed before Christmas and how we get new dresses for Christmas.
But, as always, the people have been entertaining this week, including the co workers. I'll always picture my co worker telling me to look at this guy. I turned and saw she had him by his ponytail and wasn't letting it go until I saw just how long it was. Ok, it WAS long- all the way to the ground- but she was so funny too. I've made some good friends there and have their numbers to keep in touch.

2011-07-09T22:22:00.003-06:00

Weird stuff-
Last night, when I was getting into my car at the employee parking lot, I discovered a wooden walking stick in the passenger's seat and the glove compartment was open. At first I thought someone had mistaken my car for theirs. I came home mildly amused. It was a nice walking stick with a compass embedded in the top and a leather strap. BUT- it wasn't mine and, even though it might be impossible to find the owner by word of mouth, i thought to do that.
This morning, I took the stick with me to work and started telling people the strange story. Some suggested it might be connected to the police car in the parkinglot last night so, when I got to my shop, I called security to report it. It wasn't long before I had visitors and it was, indeed connected.
I ended up making a police report since, even though the unknown bandit GAVE me a walking stick, he also TOOK some checks I had in the car. Nice that the police last night found them on this guy and took them from him.
This guy seemed so bizarre in his choices of things he took and left (not just my stuff) and I guess the checks were the only thing of actual value found on him.
The moral of the story is that I could have just blown the walking stick off as "oh well, their loss" and never would have discovered my checks missing. Always try to do the right thing.

2011-07-04T07:42:00.002-06:00

4th of July-
Kinda a non issue here this year. Steve is in Baltimore, I worked the entire weekend and the kids worked some days as well. Delaney went out on the boat with Aja and her grandparents on Saturday, the night Kimberling City set fireworks off. I came home, ate a bit and was PLANNING to watch them from our house- except I fell asleep. Delaney came home and said she had a good time. Maura spent the evening with Zac after work. I guess Tyler came home after work.
Working outside in a long dress during a extreme heat index (106?) isn't pleasant. At least we are in the shade and with fans, and I doubt I'm any hotter than anyone else out there and, honestly, the dresses sort of wick up the moisture. By the time I get home, my dress is wet and I peel off my layers first thing and slide something cool on then bask in the AC.
Sunday was our busiest day of the weekend. We were very busy selling and then struggling to still count in inventory and sort them. People were trying to buy the stuff as we were sorting. Days like today, we could use someone to just deal with inventory. We got a shipment that was so big, it has taken days to get it counted and sorted and I guess this was the last of it.
For the most part, the store is a success. There are a few items that are just ugly and poorly made and we've tried having them out for sale now and then, but they just don't do well. There are some that are just slow sellers. Not that they are bad looking, just boring or limited in the type of person it can fit.
That's another thing. It's a small shop and it carries dresses to fit several different ages and body types. There are so many times people think they should be able to wear any of the dresses there, regardless of their own size... even kids' dresses. Granted, some of the dresses are a bit specific to a body type (small chest or small hips) but it amazes me sometimes what people will squeeze themselves into and be happy with.
I'm on the fence about how me working this summer is affecting the Pozek household. I do enjoy making money during the summer, but I'm not having any time to enjoy it much. So many projects I tackle over the summer (painting the house, working on art projects) is impossible now. I am concerned about not being available to the kids and how Maura texts me where she is instead of asking if she can go. I'm so hot and tired after work and my days off are basically spent playing catch up around the house. (need to wash all my dresses today) The yard needs a lot of work and I just can't seem to want to get out there in the heat and work in it.
Yesterday, Tyler had to take the girls to work and drove off with Delaney half out of the car. She has a huge bruise on her arm. I know he was sorry, that it was an accident and that it is a big lesson in what NOT to do again, but it weighs on my mind.

2011-06-28T07:48:00.004-06:00

Textures

the squirrel who visits daily

Virginia creeper

Work stuff-
As the temperatures begin to get higher, working has become more challenging to say the least. It doesn't help when my co-worker keeps saying, "it gets worse" when it's pretty dang bad dealing with the heat and the humidity in a long dress. I'm enjoying my co-workers though. It gets better each day as people see you day after day and open up. I am still the newbie on the block and I really enjoy hearing some stories from the old timers. In fact, I have my eye on a guy as a portrait subject. I also see several kids from school working and I'm enjoying having a different sort of relationship with them (co-workers and not teacher). Maura quickly noticed my stress levels are way down compared to teaching.
There are some crazy things people do on vacation. People have really really distorted body images. For as much as our society talks about child proofing and safety issues, there are some people who haven't clued in on the basics. People cannot read maps. Apparently, there's still someone in America who thinks it's ok to leave their dog in a car at a theme park in 90 degree temps. for several hours. (honestly!)
Every morning, we have a squirrel (or two) who come for their peanut butter crackers. Occasionally, we'll also get a chipmunk, but they are very greedy, taking off with the crackers and storing them somewhere. The squirrels have been coming for years now and they will get right up in your face letting you know they want their cracker. They will take them from your hand, sometimes with their paw, but sometimes resting their paw on your hand as they take the cracker from your fingers. At first, I thought it was really freaky, but now I'm getting used to the whole thing. By the time the park opens, the squirrels have moved on with their day.
There's lots of Virginia creeper around the park. I think it looks interesting climbing on the random rustic areas and greens everything up in a random sort of way. It gives the park a more casual look- with landscaped parts and then the informal vines around. I am not as happy about it in MY yard. It's taking over my roses at the moment and I am going to attack it soon with some Roundup. I heard it would kill it. We've tried a few other things and it didn't make a dent.
I haven't figured out how to get much accomplished after working these hours. Work takes up the bigger chunk of the day (and evening) and I'm just so hot when I get home I just want to sit in the AC. I have so much I need to get done.

2011-06-20T22:11:00.003-06:00

Larger view of the formations

Rim stone

Curtain Formations

Talking Rocks Cavern-
Today, after I mailed off my latest cave based quilt to the exhibit "Deep Spaces", I was inspired to visit a cave. There just so happens to be one very close to where I live called Talking Rocks Cavern. It's run by SDC so Delaney and I were able to visit it for free. The last time I went to this cave was when Maura was in the 2nd grade and Steve's mom was visiting for her 1st Communion. That's roughly 10 years ago.
The cave isn't that large, but it's very vertical so you spend most of your time on oddly spaced cement stairs. It is also a closed cave, meaning no entrance open to the outdoors, so there are no bats living in this cave. I thought i recalled that there were some cave pearls in the lowest level of this one, but today, it was clear that either I was mistaken or the clay wash had made them disappear. They have been doing some digging in the cave, trying to discover more spaces, but it's a slow process that hasn't progressed much at all in those 10 years. I love cave formations, but hate it when they make up names for formations like, "angel" or "dragon". Of course, some official names for formations are imaginative, like bacon, or cave pearls, flow stone or soda straws.
Photographing formations is tough. The light levels are low, yet, if you use the flash, you lose all the mystery of the formations. It's all about the shadows. I enjoyed seeing the rim stone- tiny pools in layers built upon flow stone, like small dams or miniature terraced landscapes. I also liked the angle I could get on the curtain formations, like they are coming from nowhere out of the darkness.
I thought about how to create the texture of the rim stone in stitches, how it looks like a sea of stone. I thought of the abstract designs of the curtains and how strong a design it would make.
The cave is plenty wet and it would seem like it would be growing in more places that it is. It's been open to the public since the 20's, so there's been plenty of time to make mistakes there too. You can see damage to formations done when taking a piece of the cave home with you was a common occurrence. Not to mention the touching. There's places in the cave where they just accept you HAVE to touch to keep your balance through narrow passages and thus, the formations have discolored and stopped growing. Still, all in all, a nice cave and a great way to spend an hour or so.

2011-06-06T22:47:00.002-06:00

Playing Tourist-
Today was my day off and, after a few errands, Delaney and I decided to play tourist and see some of the smaller attractions in Branson. Because I work at SDC, I had a list of attractions I could go to for free. The purpose is that, once I see the attraction, I am more likely to talk about it to the visitors. So, today, Delaney and I went to the Butterfly Place, Titanic and The Family Fun center for a round of putt putt golf.
The Butterfly Place is a lovely building with the butterfly room in the top floor and a gently sloping circular walk leading up to it. The room has an air door and double doors to keep the butterflies in the room. It's a beautiful room, filled with lush vegetation and several different types of butterflies fluttering around. It's a relaxing atmosphere, slow down, take it easy and enjoy the chance of seeing a butterfly land on you. I was all set to enjoy taking several photos, when my camera died and I realized I didn't take the time to make sure it was charged before I went today.
Delaney had hers, but it's not as good of a camera, so the first picture was taken with mine and the second with hers. I'm just going to have to go back another time and make sure I have my camera charged.
Besides the butterfly room, they had a mini science area with other creatures, frog and lizards and such and then a mirror maze, which was kinda fun and an extensive gift shop with all sorts of things related to Butterflies.

We went to Titanic- no photos allowed so, I guess I didn't feel so bad about my camera not being charged up. This museum really tried to make the whole Titanic event very personal. At the beginning, they give you a card that has information about a passenger. At the end, you find out if you lived or died. I was the richest woman on the ship and occupied one of the two largest staterooms on the ship. I was traveling with my son, coming home to America after spending quite some time adventuring. Delaney was a teenaged girl traveling with her family who was also fairly well off. They had the only car on the ship (in the movie, that's where they made out) and also had one of the few dogs on board. The museum actually has two dogs of the breed this family had as part of the display. (live ones) There's a lot of reading, but enough interaction and a few unique displays to break it up. Still, you are confronted time after time with such personal narratives, making the whole thing overwhelmingly sad. At the end, we discovered that both Delaney and I lived, but I'm sure there are those who discover their person perished. Personally, the thing I found most interesting was a catalog of designs that were offered by a designer of the time who was on the ship. I would have bought a reproduction of that book had they had it for sale. I also liked seeing the celtic design china that was one of the official designs of the Titanic. They offered the blue and white china reproductions but not that one. It's an interesting museum.
Lastly, we went to The Family Fun Center which offers indoor blacklight minigolf and laser tag.
We just did the mini golf and it was fun. neither one of us are good at it but really, the fun part was seeing all the glowing stuff and the different themed rooms. The dragon was cool but I liked the underwater scene the best Delaney's clothes were glowing but nothing I was wearing glowed except my toenail polish! It was so crazy to see my glowing toes! There are several mini golf places in Branson, but on a hot day like today was, I think an indoor place was just perfect.
All in all, I had a great time exploring some of the smaller attractions in the area. I can't complain about a single one, especially in terms of service and friendliness. I'd recommend seeing any of these attractions.

2011-05-27T07:01:00.002-06:00

My Summer job- Here's a few pictures of the shop I am working at this summer. We sell summer dresses, purses, and inexpensive jewelry and hair accessories. It is outside, but undercover. So far, the weather has been fairly cool, so I'm not sure what it will be like wearing a long dress in the heat, but at least it's not in the sun and we have fans. I am enjoying it so far. It's a busy shop (unless we have storms) and we get a nice cross section of people coming in- not all kids and not all adults. I think it was great planning, putting it near the ride, "lost river" because people often get off soaked then- they can buy a cute little dress to wear. the bathrooms are just across the street, so perfect for changing. Somebody ate their Weaties!

2011-05-27T06:35:00.003-06:00

8th Graduation-
Delaney graduated last night from 8th grade. It's a pretty big deal around here and the girls really dress up, the guys often wear suits as well. The HS gym was packed! I found a seat in the nose-bleed section. Tyler and Megan came. Maura was working. I was so proud of Delaney! They decided to change things this year, give out fewer awards here, so the night would be a bit shorter, so I didn't know what it would be like. We knew she would get an award for being in Student council, but beyond that, it was unknown. She received an award for being on the A/B honor roll all year, for having perfect attendance, for being a good roll model in the school (wolf call) and a presidential award (with a certificate and letter from President Obama) After the awards, they handed out graduation certificates and then it was over and the mad crush of people surged out of the gym and into a much smaller room for the reception. It took me a long time to find Delaney, in fact, I waded half way through the room before I turned around and saw Tyler heads above everyone, and saw she was with him. Here's a benefit for him being so tall! After a while the room emptied out enough that you could see and take pictures of Delaney with some of her friends.
There was a dance after the awards and I think Delaney had a blast. The whole class goes to Silver Dollar City today and I am working. I hope all the ones I love come to see me and the ones who bug me stay away. LOL

Delaney and Brooke at 8th grade grad.

2011-05-25T06:33:00.002-06:00

Houston entry-
The deadline for the Houston show always sneaks up on me and this year is no exception. I have so much to do at this time of year and this year, I started a new job that is a 40 hr a week one, so suddenly, I have a lot less time to work on quilts. Still, I got it done and I'll finish up my application tonight/ tomorrow and mail it in. Wish me luck!

2011-05-07T06:23:00.003-06:00

Quilt Market- salt lake city
The local company, Ackfeld Wire is going to market and they are using two of my quilts to show off their products at market. I am excited to be part of their display and I'm looking forward to making some more quilts so I can use their products.

2011-05-05T10:07:00.003-06:00

Politics for a moment-
So many people have been circulating a statement around that goes somewhat like this: Obama didn't get Osama Bin Laden, the soldiers did. Ok, well, technically that's true. POTUS did not fire the weapon that killed Bin Laden, he just ordered the mission to be done. If we were to extend the same logic we could say that Bush did not send the military into Iraq and Afghanistan- the military just decided to go there and fight- because they just wanted to.
I'm all for supporting the military, don't get me wrong, but there are some people who are so adamant about bashing Obama as a President that they cannot give him credit for any action he takes whatsoever. They would rather believe that the military are acting on their own than accept he had anything to do with this. I call that just petty.
I am so tired of the birthers making an issue about his Birth certificate. He's a natural born citizen- born from his mother, who was a US citizen. Even if he was born overseas somewhere, the fact that his mother was a US citizen, makes him one. If Donald Trump wants to continue to make an issue about it, he should remember that several of his children have foreign born mothers (since he keeps trading his wives in for a later model)
I never thought we should have sent the military into Afghanistan but now that the "reason" is over, let the military action be over as well. Why should the US be fighting a war in a country that, ultimately, our enemy was not found? Someone needs to read a history book and get the heck out of there.
I know those who have family members who served , or are serving in the military in Afghanistan need to have pride in their soldiers and they need to have a reason for all the anxiety and hardship they have endured for this cause. I get it.

2011-05-05T09:47:00.002-06:00

Lola got a haircut-
Lola is the first dog I've ever owned that needed to be groomed, so this is a learning curve for us. In some ways, we treat her as a pampered pooch- she cuddles next to us and we are having fun dressing her up. But, otherwise, we want her to be a dog, so that means a nice romp around the yard and neighborhood (on a leash). That means that she gets dirty. She doesn't mind the baths, but she's been pretty squirmy when it comes to trims, so we took her to the pros for a full on haircut. This is a 4 blade and maybe we might want a bit longer hair for the next time. I also asked to leave her top alone so we could pull it back, but they trimmed it instead and then put bows in her ears. Those lasted a couple hours before she lost one and Delaney removed the other. She was adorable while it lasted!

2011-04-30T19:39:00.002-06:00

Waiting for Superman-

I finally saw the movie on DVD this evening and was very disappointed that they neglected to discuss rural schools completely. I don't know what to make of that. People are so fixated on inner-city problems they can't see beyond the city limits to see the thousands of poor rural kids with really no opportunities.
I do not mean to dismiss the challenges of inner city schools. I know that the schools in certain neighborhoods have a concentration of misery that rural schools do not have. But cities have benefits and opportunities that rural locations just do not have.
On trip to Chicago, we were able to visit the zoo and the Art institute without paying admission. Had we been there longer, we could have taken advantage of other "free days" from other museums and centers ( not to mention all the free concerts and cultural events held around the city and not even touching the free events at the universities.)
I don't understand why parents in the inner city do not take advantage of the educational opportunities around them, even if their schools do not. It's appalling to me that the city that has the most free educational opportunities have the worst education system and that no one seems to take it upon themselves to educate their own children, using the Smithsonian museums.
But no one seems to be talking about the rural situation. Yes, a rural school has children with a bit wider diversity of economic opportunities and perhaps parents with a wider diversity of expectations. But not that wide. The rural poor are stuck in the same economic cycle the inner city is. The rural poor deal with the same drug issues, and crime issues... most of the misery of childhood is not linked with location as much as economic situations and, in this way, there's no difference between rural poor and inner city poor.
Rural means that there is no museum around the corner, certainly no world class museum, no cultural opportunities, no free concerts and cultural events, nothing but nature and somehow, people think that's ok.
Rural schools are struggling to provide and education with very little money, and second hand exposure to the world at large. If a rural school is failing, there's no alternatives, no choice to get a better education somewhere else. If the school my kids attend was failing, I have no other school to send them to, public or private. It doesn't exist here. One school system in the entire area and this is not unusual in rural areas. Where's our choice?

2011-04-16T19:46:00.004-06:00

Maura in her Prom dress 2011

Maura and Zach Pietz at our home before Prom

Maura and Zach at the Branson Landing Fountains

Maura and Zach- they look like they are enjoying each other

Prom 2011- Tonight is the night and they were very excited. They spent time getting photos taken at our house, then Zach's Dad's then went to the hospital where his Mom was working and took pictures there before meeting me at the Landing for more photos.
So, once again, the statistics: Maura spent about 100 hours making the dress. It took almost 4,000 pop-tabs and she got donations from 12 different states. We did make the flowers from pop-tabs as well. Zach declined to wear the tie, thinking it was just too much glitz.
Don't they look great together?
When I left them, they were meeting up with another couple and were planning to have dinner before heading to the Hilton for the prom. I hope they have a great time!

2011-04-10T19:40:00.002-06:00

Prom dress 2011 made from poptabs

Finishing the finally touches on the dress

Prom Dress-2011

The big day is Saturday, April 16, 2011 and the project is in it's final stretch. We are working on the accessories now. For those who are following the saga, here's the statistics:
It took around 100 hours to weave the ribbon through the pop-tabs and a week to sew the dress. There are almost 4,000 tabs in the dress and almost 100 yards of ribbon.
People generously donated to the project. So many people were so captured by this dress, they were excited to contribute in any way. We had donations from 12 states. Some donated small baggies of pop-tabs and some donated huge bags of them. We received many more than we could actually use in the dress but, conveniently, Maura's school is collecting them for Charity, so they all will be put to a good cause.
Maura's date is very excited about her project. He's an artist and is currently doing a piece about trash and found objects- so this is in his wheelhouse. Obviously, we'll be taking more pictures on the day of prom, but I felt I needed to celebrate the completed dress.
Thanks to everyone who donated pop-tabs and gave your enthusiastic support.

2011-03-30T21:17:00.003-06:00

Lola - day 3 with us (above)
Lola and Delaney in Wolves attire (below)

Lola-
I don't know how this really came about. Honest. We had tried having a dog (after our long time buddy, Babe, passed away) and Rufus just didn't work out. He was a beagle mix and chewed everything all the time. In the end, we decided he was not a good fit for our family and found him another good home. We thought we just should stick with the cats and fish and pass on having another dog. A friend of Delaney's needed to give away her Yorkie and we seriously started thinking about having a dog again. Before we decided, they had found a home for it.
But then, Delaney and I went to the animal shelter thrift shop one day. I saw on their board a Bichon and I thought it might be possible to find a better dog for us at the shelter and took a quick drive out there.
They didn't have the Bichon, but they did have some new puppies that had just come in. We looked at them, came home, talked to Steve about them and then went out the next day to see them again. We were told all of them were boys. We chose the cream colored one. I picked him up on Friday and he was such a sweetie! He loved being held and cuddled and, as I was rubbing his belly I made the discovery that he was a she! By the time I discovered that, the shelter was closed for the day and, really, I didn't mind it was a girl, in fact, I preferred it. But I was concered about the paperwork being accurate. Delaney was concerned about finding a new name since Zeus wouldn't fit. It really didn't take long for her to pick Lola and it seems to fit her.
Lola is very needy- she has to be near you at all times. She's coming along with potty training and getting used to leash walking. We discovered that she doesn't seem to mind being dressed up and so I decided I should make her a t-shirt to support Delaney during track season. So, she has her own Wolves t-shirt in the right colors. It was easy to put together, so we might end up with a whole wardrobe of outfits for this little girl.

2011-03-20T09:44:00.002-06:00

Tyler turns 20-
We had a small family Birthday party for him with all his favorites. Corned beef and cabbage / potatoes and cherry pie. He opened gifts and then enjoyed the rest of the night with Megan.

2011-03-20T09:16:00.004-06:00

St. Patrick's Day Parade
It seems it's a tradition that it rains on the parade, and this year was no exception, although it was a tad bit warmer than last year. It's a fun parade and reminds me of the Kumquat sashay in Orlando (just a bit.) This was the Zombies and Finer Things Club's second year in the parade, but the group has a rotating membership. Tyler chose to go with Megan to St. Louis but we added new folks. Costumes changed from last year, but still within the general theme.

Maura and her Boyfriend, Branson, enjoyed the parade.
JJ was St Patrick and you can see Maura's friends, holding the banner. Chase was very impressive with his coffin and general dirty zombie look.

We had to wait hours before the awards were given out. Generally, everyone was cold and wet and wanted to go, but eventually, the awards were handed out and the Zombies won 1'st place again in their division. When we walked out the door, it was POURING and thundering. The hearse, with everyone's stuff, was parked about 5 blocks south, my car was 3 blocks north- so we had to trudge 13 blocks in the pouring rain. All plans of going to 1984 afterward was scrapped. We went to a Walmart and so many people came up to them and said how much they enjoyed them in the parade or wanted their picture taken with them. one guy asked Maura to hold his baby for a picture. The baby didn't cry but she clearly thought something was very wrong with Maura. The girls headed for home and I took Maura and Branson for some well- needed dinner. We had soup and hot coffee at Panera. We stopped at the Borders books store and then headed back to Branson, so Branson could get his car and we headed home.
This was the first time I met Branson, so the first I heard of her having a BF, but I like him. So, their facebook status changed last night. LOL

2011-03-14T09:11:00.002-06:00

checking in-
It's Spring break and we had a rather big rain storm last night with quite a bit of wind. I had just hung up the ST Pat's flag yesterday, so I got to hear it whipping around all night (right under my bedroom window). This morning, everything is damp and cold looking outside.
Tyler and Maura are working today and Delaney and I are planning on shopping for Tyler's 20th Birthday. He cracks me up sometimes. When I asked what he wanted, he said "I don't know" but then I find out he's been wearing heavy boots everyday because his other shoes are too small. UH- maybe you could have given me a heads up on that. He's 20 and I don't dress him anymore so I don't know what he's wearing or why. So, new shoes are on the list.. among some other things.
Delaney makes me smile- she's half way pouting because she has no grand plans for the break. She wants to do the Track practice over the break, but not today. She's sporting a sore on her arm because she got in a competition with some boy at school which was who could rub an eraser on their arm longer. Of course, such a competitor as she is, she won- but now has a nasty looking sore. OK, some days I'd like for her to look at the bigger picture. She decided to cook something yesterday, something she's failed at a few times. She neglected to read instructions (again) and things could have turned out better- but I ate it anyway. Hopefully, she will finish the buckeyes today and have a real win there. Sometimes her failure isn't entirely her fault. I have recipes I've written down and I don't write everything.. I know what I've left out- but she doesn't and she doesn't talk to me first- so things don't turn out.
My mom didn't do a lot of instructing when we learned to cook. She basically pointed us to the cookbooks, and critiqued us at dinner. Some days, it was demoralizing to hear all we did wrong, but eventually, we learned that you do put salt in the water when cooking potatoes and you don't when cooking corn (among other things).
Speaking of salt- we know it's important for our thyroids to get iodine but, with the concern about salt intake, I've been reluctant to use a lot of salt, since many half-prepared foods have salt in them. However, it crossed my mind that while I'm probably getting plenty of sodium, I may not be getting the iodine I've counted on getting from my table salt(if I'm not using table salt) so, I've made a point of not using my Jane's crazy salt as my seasoning and using a bit more plain salt instead.
The iodine has come up again connected to the recent Earthquake in Japan and the fact they are giving out "safe" iodine tablets so the people don't absorb the radioactive iodine (somehow a by product of the meltdown) and so, as prevailing winds might potentially bring radioactive fallout to the US- all personal speculation at this point- it would be good to have your body fully stocked with good iodine.
The footage coming from Japan is amazing to watch from a safe distance. Of course there's so much chaos involved with two major disasters such as the Earthquake damage compounded by the Tsunami and, potentially, compounded again by a nuclear power meltdown. If any disaster should be well documented and well orchestrated it should be this one in Japan. They have such a love for camera and video as well as a group mentality, it should be disaster relief at it's finest. We'll see.
I read a story yesterday about a young man who went to the coastal town in CA to see the Tsunami effects there and was caught by a wave and died. Tsunami watch doesn't mean you go to watch it. It reminded me of stories my friends told me of surfing in Hurricanes long after the area was evacuated. Same sort of mentality and I doubt there's any young Japanese kids waiting to see the power plants implode or wanted to surf the Tsunami. Just sayin'
Maura continues to work on her Prom dress and she definitely has enough tabs to do the dress and any accessories she might need. She has two pieces to go and then we can start sewing it.
Happily, my sister from Austin is coming next week and is excited to be part of the construction. Whoo Hoo! I've thought out the proccess as much as I could and I think it will work, but it's fabulous to know a smarter seamstress will be here to make sure it works. Our big hope is that we don't have to hand sew the entire dress. I'm happy she'll be here for the zipper too. I've only done one zipper and it was in last year's dress. Hopefully, we'll get to have some fun too while she's here.
Here's to enjoying the moments, big and small, in our lives.

2011-02-27T10:21:00.002-07:00

Sketchbook challenge- February's challenge- Opposites

I wasn't very excited about this challenge subject. I don't know why, I know contrasts are important in art (and Life) but I still was reluctant. It's taken me this long to decide to just go ahead and make "something" and not over think it so much. I did a basic sketch of Mona Lisa and then spent time filling in the different parts with doodles (mostly patterns). The best I can say is that it's done so I am keeping my promise to myself.

2011-02-25T21:12:00.002-07:00

What will it get you?
I went to the job fair today for the local amusement park. I went in open minded, open to any possibilities (except food) and I went in with a BA in education, years of experience working with kids, past experience working at amusement parks, and past experience in retail sales.
I ended up getting a summer job working in a new jewelry shop.
I'm ok with that. It makes it possible to fulfill my current obligations, keep the job I currently have, and doesn't conflict with my sister's visit or my own art projects in the works.
It gets me in the door, shows them what I can bring to the table and let's me see what it's like to work there.
I think I did well with the first interviewer, not as well with the second (mainly because she asked all the same questions he did with a lot less interest) and then got passed to the third who was perky but kept saying, "how does that work for you?" at the end of every statement. "It works great.", "it works fine", "sounds great" "ok"( hard to keep finding a different answer for what's clearly a habitual phrase for her.) After a lengthy meeting with the medical folks, who went over every section of the questionnaire again (no, I don't have anything wrong with me) I finally get to the final stop where, after 3 1/2 hours, I finally get to talk to someone I know (from the boosters)as she checks me out with the final report date, she tells me we won a bid at the auction the other night. Steve was convinced we didn't, so we left. OOPS!
So, I report in May for job orientation and then later, cash register training.

2011-02-24T08:56:00.004-07:00

Things in general-
Delaney has started pre-track this week. This gives the kids a chance to get back into shape and have an idea which events they want to try out for. Delaney has already been quite vocal about being a thrower again, but I suspect she'll also run in some event too. There was a bit of an issue this week but, I'm sure it will be worked out by the administration. Because the practice runs until 5:30, we took her with us to Branson to see the gong show. The Gong show was a benefit for Meals on Wheels and was more geared to local- ish talent than the "stars". Not to say there weren't some people in the show that have come to Branson to be stars, they just haven't made it (exactly). I didn't mind the hometown flavor of the show and I could sit through some of the bad acts, but the judges comments were very hard to listen to as they rambled and stuttered through their reasoning. Even Delaney was saying , "oh, come ON!". Margaret's husband Larry performed an original song that was quite humorous (and a bit cynical) about wanting to be a Branson star. I think of everyone there, the judges were most appreciative of the lyrics. But, there were people who had "shows" in Branson and several kids who wanted to be the next cutiest thing on a stage. A family from Ar won and, I'd agree that they did have the best show at doing a show somewhere. Not sure the sound system was set up correctly for all of them singing, but good stage managing will fix that. Nothing beats family harmony. One older man sang, messed up his lyrics, was going to gong HIMSELF, and the judges said, "go to the chorus" and then sang along to back him up. I loved that.
Anyway, Today, Delaney teaches after school in Gen yes, Tech yes until 5 and then we have Maura's Band concert. I didn't mention here about Delaney's trip to Jefferson City with gen yes tech yes or what it really means.
GYTY is a program that Mrs Elfrink from the tech dept at school has put together for kids who are very tech savy to teach teachers how to use new gadgets to enhance their classroom. The group is made up of HS and MS students and Delaney and her friend Brooke have taught 2 classes (3rd one postponed because of snow) and they went to the state capital to show off their program. They met legislators and others (like college students) and spoke to them from a booth. Delaney had no problem going to people's offices and asking them if they'd like to see their booth and there might be more in store for her since she does so well. I was jealous that she got a trip to the very top of the capital (outside on top of the dome!). I was glad she had this opportunity to see the capital since the NJHS trip was canceled due to fuel costs.
I subbed this week for the gifted teacher, because I am familiar with DI and her class is working hard to be ready for competition. I was concerned I would have to be careful, since I am judging a challenge, but this class was not doing my challenge, so it all worked out. They seemed to be concerned about the instant challenges... so we practiced a couple and then we talked about how they did. I think it was helpful.
Finally, I've been working on my latest quilt. It's in early stages, but I am enjoying the combination of patchwork and painting.. and also considering what the process is. I have typically worked on all the elements of the top before quilting and then binding. I'm changing that up little by little. In this piece, I think the quilting will come next followed by more surface design. I think that before the quilting, I need a border. I'm still thinking of what fabric that should be. Also, using quilting to provide a different visual interest in areas. I'm visualizing almost scribbling or hash marks in areas. But, I'm still musing about that.
In view of the recent commotion over a teacher blogging, I read through all my posts, just to be certain I didn't cross the line. I have made comments of the education system in general, some personal insights into the education process, but didn't get into specifics into any particular students.
As always, I maintain that I want the best for my own kids, the best for the kids in my school and the best for our country's future. I've had some enlightening conversations recently with one of my old college professors about the quality of a college education and how THAT'S changed.
If I was under any illusion about how kids won't be prepared for college, I guess I shouldn't worry about that any longer.
Speaking of college, Tyler had a "how to" speech in his public speaking class. He chose to do, "how to force a card" (as in Magicians forcing cards) and apparently, no one understood how he was forcing them... they just were amazed by the trick even though he went over it a few times. The Power of Magic! LOL
OH,I didn't mention the IBM challenge on Jeopardy with Watson. It was pretty amazing, but with some glaring holes in his education. You could tell baby boomers made him because he was well versed in Beatles' lyrics, but was a bit lost geographically. (Toronto is not a US city) but overall, I could see the value of Watson in the medical field very easily and it could be "House" without the attitude.
Maura continues to get tons of mail from colleges and we are amused by the variations of her name. Myro seems to be the family favorite. Speaking of her, she's on the third piece of her dress and is working on her solo piece for band competition. A piece, I might add that she was never "forced" to do by the previous band director, so she didn't bother. Maybe in the past between marching competition and winter drumline, she was happy to opt out of Spring competitions, but it never made me very happy that she was allowed to.
So, now that I've covered all three kids, I can close for now.

2011-02-14T07:01:00.003-07:00

glittery chunks

The second snow storm- This was round two of our storms and we got more snow and less ice.
The snow was powdery and ended up with a clumping of flakes, so the top layer was textured and then it sparkled like glitter was mixed in there. Click on the close-up pic to see the sparkles.
People are saying this will probably be our last snowfall. The temperatures have risen this week, so the snow is melting, the sun is shining, and people are thinking about gardens again.
The weather cleared up enough for my friend Margaret and I to travel to Carls Junction for DI training. It's been a while since I've seen Margaret, so we had a grand time together. We are judging 2 different challenges,and I was assigned to a more popular challenge, so I'll see more teams than she will. We've committed to spending the whole day there. This is my 5th year and this is her first. It's a great program, or I wouldn't be doing this again. Maura has participated in it for years, but this time she's not, still, I believe in encouraging kids to think creatively and this competition is all about creative thinking.
We only had a half day of training, so we were able to do a bit of exploration of Joplin. Every time I go, I try to get a better picture of the area. This trip, we searched out the Spiva gallery. The roads in downtown Joplin were still very slushy. The gallery was a very nice surprise. The attendant was very pleasant and explained they had two exhibits- one by Linda Mitchell, an artist from Atlanta, and the other by Gary Adamson, a local artist from Eureka Springs. They try to show a national artist and an artist from within 200 miles.
I liked her work but not her images. That doesn't make sense on the surface, but I liked the texture and colors and mixed media items combined, but didn't particularly like all the images she did of animals and stuffed toys. I've never been that interested in paintings of animals, especially ones that are dressed up. It's an interesting idea that she makes odd looking stuffed animals and then uses them in her paintings as models. I can't fault her on her mixed media- it looks complex, whimsical, it communicates her message well.
All in all, it gave me food for thought, which is a successful encounter in my opinion.
I don't think we'll have much time to explore the next time we go, but there has to be a time when I'm over that way (and the weather is nice) to see Carthage. I'd love to see the Older homes there and explore the Civil war history.

2011-02-06T10:29:00.002-07:00

Saturday's snow play day
The kids have gone out to play every day but this last snowfall was wetter and they were finally able to make a snowman and then have a snowball fight. I went out awhile to add food to the feeders and take some pictures. I love it when the sun is shining and we have snow. It makes for such interesting shadows.

2011-02-06T10:17:00.002-07:00

Dress in progress-
This is the second piece of the dress, but I wanted to show how the process is going during the snow day break from school. She's been watching movies and weaving and texting as she goes. ( in between sledding with her brother and sister)
We have had some success with getting tabs from other states. So far, we have some from Tx, Az,La, Fl, SC,IN,Pa,MO and VT with a promise from TN. A long way from the hoped for 50 states, but still quite impressive amount of support for a 16 year old girl hoping to make an unusual prom dress.

2011-02-04T13:19:00.002-07:00

Some thoughts on the recovery-

I had a thought today that had to do with a recent news story that was explaining how there were several thousand people who have been out of work for so long, they've stopped looking for work and are no longer counted in the unemployment statistics. I don't have any first hand knowledge of this, but I'm guessing that if you don't continue to show up at the state unemployment offices and do something there, they stop counting you in the list of unemployed.
I've also read stories of companies that laid people off are doing quite well in other locations- in essence, shipping their jobs off shore. Some of these companies have taken Government Bailout money (in the form of reduced taxes) without putting workers back on the payroll.
I wondered why all this money was being directed to the Recovery and wasn't working well as compared to the great depression and the WPA. I was also curious to wonder why there was no concerted effort , like the WPA, happening now.
I found this site :
http://www.recovery.gov/Pages/default.aspx
and there's a very cool interactive map which shows all the projects funded by the Recovery program. I have to be honest when I say any projects In my location did not result in any new jobs being created. I could be generous and say that for a few examples it at least kept the company and their employees working.
This is part of the problem- the government has decided to filter the recovery money through companies and the companies are not hiring workers or re-hiring workers, instead, they are using the tax breaks and grant money to move their business elsewhere. The money meant to put Americans back to work is not doing the job.
During the depression, the Government created jobs, but the money went directly from the Government to the employees to work on a variety of projects, from building to documenting
what life was like in the US. We have fabulous collections of art, photography, and writings as well as hundreds of bridges, public works projects, dams and roads that all were paid for by a government wanting to put the money in the pockets of Americans.
I'm not seeing that scope of work in the current projects. Are you?

2011-01-16T22:03:00.002-07:00

And So the Prom dress begins-
Today, there was nothing holding Maura back from beginning the long process of making her 2011 Prom dress creation. Here, you can see all the components needed for her latest prom vision. She is getting so much support for this project from family near and wide, friends (as well as our friends) and the local support has been great. Kids at school collect tabs for her, parents (band boosters) collect them from church and resorts, I asked my QUILTART group online and Steve's had friends contribute too. So far, people from 8 states have sent us tabs along with well wishes and support. I'm anxious to see the progress on this dress- there's a lot of work ahead of her - all the ribbon cutting, pinning, weaving, securing ribbon to fabric- all before the dress is actually put together. I hope this works!

2011-01-11T11:47:00.002-07:00

Memory seeds-January 2011
Finished my entry for the Spring IQA show which will be in Ohio this year. I'm fairly pleased with the results. I wanted to show a progress of time with a single subject. The idea that a year's worth of enjoyment begins with planting the seeds in the spring. Also, simple pleasures, like posing with the tall flowers is a time honored celebration. I used a photo of my Mother and her Brother taken in the early 20's, to show that aspect.
I wanted to show a more painterly approach, what I call nebulous or atmospheric areas to blend one area into another. I think this was greatly enhanced by doing rust dying on the fabric after one layer of painting. The quilting carries that concept a bit more than it shows in this shot. the quilt is 42 x 56 inches. In some places, the quilting is done like thread painting.
I may see a bit of composition issues, so we'll see how it goes. I hope to mail the application off soon, so I can hit the deadline, but the snow is creating a bit of a problem- I can't get to the PO today.

2011-01-09T08:04:00.002-07:00

Home again-
Showing off the cups we got- you can see the two handled white cups on the shelf- Those are the Forever Cups. I'm not sure this is their permanent home, but Steve got some humor from pairing these with the very campy cup Maura got me last year. It was a busy day with me trying to work much harder on my quilt, but had some drying time. So, we took down Christmas and are transitioning into valentine decorations and everyday items up on display. The wooden figure and chair were made by my Grandfather. The shell is one I've had for over 20 years and reminds me of UWF where I graduated. I didn't get far with decorating because I had to take Delaney and some friends to Tangled- so they could write a movie review for their school paper. All in all, a good crowd showed up- 8 students and 2 parents. While we were gone...
Psyche was sleeping in the chair and Bob was trying to get close to her. She is not very friendly at all and especially not towards him. He was fairly close, and then she woke up. I think this might be the closest he's ever gotten to her. You can see how happy she is about it.
One thing that the Forever Cup project has already done was start a conversation about things we have in the house. These are just cups- and we are to keep them forever- and because they were part of an art exhibit, they are to be somewhat elevated in our minds as art objects. But it makes me think (and Steve as well) about family heirlooms and how I know the stories of why they are important, but he does not. In some cases, I know the family story, but not the actual values of the pieces. So, we decided that I should start making a record of things- take photos and write their stories.

2011-01-09T07:26:00.010-07:00

Kansas City, day 2- The Kemper art museum
The sculpture above was done by Tom Otterness and is called "crying Giant". When we visited Jane in Indy one time, the city had several of his works placed around so we were able to see several of his works, large and small. The figure reduced to simple shapes and has a element of playfulness that really attracts me. This one reminds me of the Timbertoes cartoons in the Highlight magazines I read at the doctor's office .

So, this is the view of the painting when you are standing about 2-3 ft from it...

And this is what it looks like across the room. By Ed Blackburn from Texas (of course) Imagine collecting enough plaid fabric to make this a quilt.

This is by Larry Rivers- It's canvas mounted on carved foam core board. You can see it has some dimensionality from the front...
But if you walk to the side, you can see it much more clearly. Even the foam boards are different levels, carved in places, stacked in others.
Stephen Scott Young did this painting in watercolor. It is exactly what I'm struggling with in my current quilt- so this piece resonated with me. I was most interested in the way he did the dark smudged background and how he had pencil marks here and there.
The Museum is rather small- actually, it has 3 different locations and I only went to this one. It's very close to the Art Institute and the Nelson-Atkins, so there's little space to expand this location, but it is the hot spot in art for Art. I can see their dilemma. I had just missed the exhibition in one of the galleries (makes sense since I was there to pick up my cup from the end of that exhibit) but it was fun to see them dismantling the rather large metal pieces in the parking lot behind the museum with a blow torch. I should have taken pictures.
Before I went to the Kemper, I spent some of the morning waiting for a ceramic shop to open. The website had them opening at 10, but, after I wasted time walking around the mall (those are so boring and predictable) I drove up to the door where it said 11:00.I couldn't see myself wasting a whole other hour in that area, so I gave up the idea.
On the way home I stopped in Osceola, mo where there's a cheese shop. You can sample any of the different varieties. My favorite is a smoked cheddar with basil and tomatoes. I picked up a Havarti with pesto and then a silly string cheese and sweet butter. All very yummy.

2011-01-09T07:04:00.006-07:00

Kansas City, return trip part one

So, I did have a reason to head to Kansas City again- to pick up the cups we got from the "forever" exhibit at the nelson-atkins art museum. But, since i didn't want to drive all the way there and back in one day, I spent the night and was able to poke around to discover something else. I stayed in Independence and decided i wasn't exactly up for a visit to the Presidential stuff (Truman) but I was interested in the Puppet Museum. Here's what I discovered there:
This is a side view of a puppet theater so you can see how it was constructed and how the puppets move onstage.
Here's the theater from the front. As you can see in the background, these came in various sizes and styles and in some casses the puppets were worked from the top. These were on rigid wires.
This is an example of a Hazelle Marionette that talks. There's something I like about these faces- something old fashioned and unlimiting at the same time.
Here's a larger shot of some of the items related to Hazelle puppet company including some of her early works before she went into production.
It's worth noting that this company was founded by a woman in the middle of the depression and it went on to be the number one company (for puppets and Marionettes) in the world. The founder eventually sold the company and, of course, it went out of business relatively shortly afterward.
The cool thing about this place is that you can buy the "dead stock" that is still housed in a warehouse. There's an online order form which lists what they offer at very reasonable prices. The day I was there was a bit hectic for the director, who was extremely nice. They have a limited number of items there so I was able to pick a few things, but I think it would be best to just order from the website.
I am most excited about the Marionettes, but the company did make hand puppets made from a more flexible vinyl and I did pick up a couple heads to play with.
So, some potential play things for me at a later date.

2011-01-02T20:06:00.002-07:00

Highly Prized-
This is my first sketchbook page. After rambling through my thought proccess here, I did settle on "curiosity" and began with a definition. I was so surprised to find so many words that resonated with me in the definition. here are some of the main thoughts I have written down:
Curiosity is an emotion related to natural inquisitive behavior such as Exploration, Investigation and learning.
it is the main motive of scientists in its development as Wonder or admiration it is generally that which makes humans want to become an expert in a field of knowledge.
Human curiosity about curiosity itself, combined with the ability to think abstractly, leads to imitation, fantasy and imagination- eventually leading to human reason, being self- aware and Conscious.

Wow. There were so many words here I love- Wonder- exploration-imagination- being self-aware. It is a perfect choice for the theme, something I do "highly prize".
I knew I wanted to combine words with art in my sketchbook. I find such wonder in science and the Phi number sequence, science in general and a general campy- humor, like when i added "curiosity killed Schrodinger's cat " and added a cat doodle or when I doodled a rocket and wrote "dream big" on it. I'm willing to take this project a page at a time and allow the style resolve itself as it will. I do have the feeling I could have done several pages for this one word of Curiosity. We'll see.

2011-01-02T19:59:00.002-07:00

In progress photos- sunflower and seed packet painted.
Rust dyed results- I think this was a good addition to the design. It's moving the piece closer to where I want it to go, but it's still not there.

2011-01-01T21:10:00.002-07:00

January Challenge- Highly Prized
This is the theme for January and I'm just musing about things...
what do I Highly Prize? Well, of course my husband and our 24 year marriage. I do prize my kids (of course) but they are teenagers and some days it's hard to remember why I do.
What visual images represent what I highly Prize?
I am happy to be an artist. I remember the first time I got recognition for that was in Middle school with a charm at the awards ceremony. I have received ribbons over the years. Maybe art made by others I highly Prize? probably the most famous piece I own is a Keith Haring, but I do prize several other pieces of art I own by not so famous artists.
I highly Prize things passed down from my family. I had a great, great aunt Mary who was an artist and I own several things she owned. I was surprised to discover my heritage on my father's side. Which makes me wonder what do I highly prize from my family in general? My mother? My father?
Nature. I do highly Prize all sort of natural things. Flowers, trees, landscapes and Phi is just so interesting. I love great mysteries of the world.
Intelligence. I do highly Prize intelligent people. Maybe the brilliant people, like Picasso and Feynman but I especially love those people who explore the grays of the world. Not the black or white, right or wrong, moral or evil, but those who explore the places that have no answers or those who try to build a consensus of true.
I think the thing I most Prize is curiosity. Now, to think of images to support that.

2011-01-01T20:37:00.003-07:00

Happy New year- 2011
I missed the actual ringing in of the year. Maura had friends over and they were Rockband, dance,dance revolution nuts and I hid in my room. Choosing to read did me in and I fell asleep, only waking up when Steve came to bed. I was awake then until 3 am.
I made a full breakfast this morning for all the sleep over guests and watched the Rosebowl Parade. It took awhile to get back to making art, but I did make progress.
A friend posted on facebook that today should be spent how you mean to go on for the year. If you cleaned and did laundry, that's what most of your year would be spent doing. SO, I decided that making art today would be very important.
I am trying something a bit different for me with this quilt. I have some concrete images, but I want them flowing from one to another in some way. I've taken a bold step with rusting fabric I've painted images on. I'm hoping it is a good choice, but you never know with rust dying what you'll get exactly. I'm not sure what rusting will do to the painted surfaces - if the paint will even take rusting. I also want to depend a bit more on quilting to carry from one image to another and maybe some added painted elements. I need to look to the transitions to bring this quilt together, I think. Transition is an important word with this quilt.
Words that are also floating around in my mind are Sunflower, memories over the years through time, birth, growth,death,legacy,nourishment and re-birth.
Discernment was a word that resonated with me for this year. Looking beyond the surface and seeing deeper issues.
I signed up for the sketchbook project, something that makes me nervous on a few different fronts. I like making goals and I have enough integrity to work hard at following through. I like commitment. But, having an ongoing, monthly goal makes me nervous. Also, it's hard for me to make marks in a sketchbook. Especially those really nice ones. I like using a spiral ring notebook of graph paper. The notebook isn't so precious that I feel I can't make mistakes and I could even rip out the page if it totally sucks. I was surprised by the number of sketchbooks people seem to have going at one time. I never really thought about making sketchbooks for public consumption and the sketches i make aren't high art, just enough for me to know what I'm doing. So, this will be a struggle to make a sketchbook of worthy art.
But, for this challenge, I'm going to work single page and create a notebook around them. The benefit to this is that I can use whatever surface I want, watercolor paper, pastel paper, or computer papers without making a collage and spraying a book. This book will expand as needed and I don't feel either pressure or dismay at the number of pages bound into a book, the mistakes I might make or the quality of art there.

2010-12-17T06:33:00.002-07:00

Pizza and Conversation-

It's not often that my teenage kids want to have a conversation with me. They are all at the stage where everything I say is boring and predictable. I am probably boring and predictable because I'm saying all the mom things- "clean your room", "how's your grades?" "It's your turn to do..." and so on- Not to mention that, as a substitute teacher, I am strict in the classrooms, even if they are in them.
So, it's a real treat for one of my kids to have a real conversation with me, talking about things that are bothering them and having the opportunity to guide them a bit. I think it was a surprise for them to get real answers from me- not the "party line" that I must say at school, but my own real oppinions.
This one had a bit of a slip of values. Nothing that isn't forgivable- nothing that isn't just a sign of her age- but a slip nonetheless. This wasn't the first conversation we've had recently, but this one was a good conversation about serious things.
I see she's still proccessing what happened and the ramifications of what happened. Not only within the family, but the community as well. Seeing who was affected and who gets blamed for events and everyone's goals in the situation is good for her future ability to navigate these crazy waters of romance.

2010-12-17T06:19:00.002-07:00

I'm going to give this project a try.
I do use sketchbooks, but I typically don't show them. It seems so many people's sketchbooks are organized and beautiful, like da vinci's notebooks. Mine aren't like that at all, I wonder how I'll fair doing this project.
My sketchbook is a inexspensive graph paper notebook that I keep near me for notes and doodles. I put the date in the front of it when I begin to draw in it and I put the date I'm finished there next to the start date, so I have the time range for that notebook's life. I doodle ideas there, working out the designs, writing down words that strike me as directions to go in, and other things.
I'm not sure how beautiful my real sketchbook is-or how beautiful the drawing could be (using this sort of paper) so, I'm concidering using a different sort of sketchbook. Seeing that this project has a different theme each month, perhaps keeping it seperate from the other art designs is the way to go.

2010-12-12T08:34:00.002-07:00

technical difficulties-

Wow! it took me all day yesterday to realize that the entire song I recorded wouldn't publish here. So, I used the windows movie maker program and clipped a lot of the beginning and some of the end to make for a more precise video. It's a shame because the band had a slow build up to the full sound and then the slow ending, where everything dropped out except the bells. It was nice to hear Maura playing.
I think the holiday concert is one of the signs of Christmas coming. It's so nice to hear all the hard work the kids have put in and to share it with the community. The drawback continues to be that the school system thinks that the tiny stage at the Middle school is adequate for all the stage performances in the district and decides to build a SECOND gym at the HS. That means that all band performances are done in a cavernous gym with horrible acoustics.
It means that all the plays chosen have to have small casts. It means kids who want to perform cannot.
I don't recall having been asked if building a second gym was more important than a theater. I know if they hadn't undercut the bid on the Elementary school, that gym wouldn't have been too small. It's ridiculous that they have a gym that cannot have the bleachers pulled out AND have a game played. Instead, they had to turn around and build another gym to accommodate all the games played.
It's windy today and bitterly cold. Hovering around 0 windchill. The Branson belle ran aground last night and they decided to wait until daylight to attempt any sort of rescue. 500 of your best friends hanging out on a boat with no beds. At least they have entertainment and a story to tell all their friends when they get home.

2010-12-11T08:07:00.003-07:00

Christmas concert

Last night was the annual Christmas Concert at the school. Because we are a small school, the concert included the middle school band, the middle school choir, a percussion group from the Middle school, the HS choir, HS Jazz band and HS concert band. Each group did 3 songs, so it made for a full and entertaining evening.

I can't say enough about the attitude of the band directors and the hard work they've put in. I know the other directors probably worked hard, but I really like the communication these folks have with us. I like their management style. I could tell a great difference in the Middle school band and it bodes well for the HS band in the years to come.

Maura is sporting a short brown hair do these days. (if you are keeping score) She is dressed in altered clothing and a pair of sky high heels we got her for Christmas (black sequins) She is playing the bells and you can see her standing in the back left side of the band. you don't get to hear her much until the very end of the song.

It was good seeing all the kids performing and the parents we know in the crowd. I'm glad Steve was able to see it. He flew home yesterday and is already gone again today.

I took Maura to the school this morning to take the ACT then I did a bit of shopping to make sure we were ok if the snow comes tonight. (although having the freezer makes that a lot less critical) I'm hoping to experiment today with cookies. maybe try making a wreath (if I can find the darnned thing) and continue to work on making the ornaments I have in the works.

Making glass things is adictive. Just when I finish soldering the pieces, I start thinking about cutting more glass and the proccess starts all over again. especially these small projects. My mind says "just a few more pieces, just a few more.." and the next thing I know, I've got to grind 50 pieces of glass again.

BUT- I'm thinking of a quilt design and it's engaging me, which is refreshing. I know sort of what I want to do, but still thinking about construction and elements in the design. I have a hard time thinking about Spring when it's winter... and I wish they would have a different theme for the show. But, the show IS in the Spring, so I guess it works and is broad enough. I have done so many Spring subjects, I'm wanting to branch out to maybe a whole year of events that begin in the spring centered around a certain subject. So, I'm gathering reference images from my collection of photos and we'll see how I do.

2010-12-08T06:38:00.002-07:00

PISA ratings-

Here's a humorous view of the issue by my friend, Wilfred. Here's the world rankings For education via The UK Guardian (which is why the UK is highlighted in this image)

SO, The US is ranked 14th in reading, 17th in science and 25th in Math out of 34 countries participating. The test involve 15 year old students and we, as a nation, are dead average.

The fingerpointing begins. It's the (fill in the blank) the teachers, the parents, the government, the economy, the wacko fringe elements, the unequal testing groups... fault.
No one really seems to know why the kids are not performing in school, everyone seems to have an excuse. Having a front row seat (as it were) into the day to day workings of the local school, I certainly see changes in the system. Remember when you had a class assignment and a homework assignment? Remember those 50 problems you did at home? That's all gone. Why? because the kids just refuse to do them. Period. There are several kids who won't get the class assignment done and STILL won't finish them at home.

So, in view of that, maybe it's the parents' fault. Of course, that means they'd actually have to see their kids after school before they go to bed, which seems to be an issue. Seriously, between the parents who do not work 9-5 jobs and the divorce rate (which means single parents and dating) the parents are just not supervising the kids like before.

So, A few years ago, before any of of my kids participated in school activities, I realized that I had about two hours of "family time" with my kids a day. They got up at 5:30 am and got home at 4:30 pm. Less on Church night.

Then, the kids began to participate in band and sports. Less time for everything. Suddenly, we were eating a lot less home cooked meals, grabbing a lot more fast food and quick heat and serve meals and most of our conversations were in the car on the way to and from activities.

I noticed the class work changed in the schools. No homework because the poor football (basketball, track, wrestling, etc..) team kids had no time to do it. (remember when that was THEIR problem? Remember when EXTRA curriculum meant just that?)

So, This is what I see- I see an assignment given which is computer- based. I see the class head to the lab where the computers are. I see several of the kids chat and not do the work. I see several of them playing computer games instead of working. I see some kids at a loss how to find the information from the website. I see a few kids who got it done in one day. I see this assignment (a one page hand out) lasting 3 days. I see an assignment that can not be compleated at home because not everyone has a computer.

I recently realized that when I was in teacher training, it was emphasized that I was to manage the classroom by making certain I had everyone's attention and everyone was on task. If they were not, I was graded down. Now, I see very little evidence that teachers are managing their classrooms like that. Part of it has to do with the emphasis on working in groups.

I was told a few years ago that the business world was asking the education system to address the fact that business worked in teams now and that the kids should be prepared to work as a team. I saw them put that policy into effect in as young as the 4th grade- which caused, in the classroom, noise, confusion and off task activities. But the teacher was to allow all of that to go on- in favor of getting the idea of a team of work. Now, of you remember back to any time you had to work with a partner in school, you KNOW that there's one person who does all the work and the rest distract. The difference between school and work is that the slackers get fired. An interesting thought my husband added to this is, while the public schools are to be doing more team building, there are more online learning opportunities in college where students aren't even in the same PLACE anymore. What is more important to business then, team building in the 4th grade or in college?

Ah, but we expect so much from our schools. Things our society wants every kid to know because the parents don't seem to be doing the job. There's the emphasis on healthy exercise and eating, sex, drugs, checkbook use (really- personal finance is a required class)My daughter recently had a Hunter safety course in PE. Then there's computer skills (which is required at the middle school, High school and college levels) Then, there's the fact that so many kids eat free and reduced breakfast/ lunch at school.

It's a kid-centric world. To get your student's attention, you are to get on their level and make your examples about what they are interested in- lady gaga references and such. (I read that in a teacher magazine) They can't spell Pisa (or know what it is, or where it is) but they know all the words to the pop songs (and those pass for literature these days).

So, whose fault is it? I think everyone has equal shares.

The lack of parenting skills is a direct reflection of the 60's- where being yourself and doing your own thing led to kids being raised with little direction. The divorce rates beginning in the 70's where single parent households meant that the kids were less supervised and the parents more harried about how to make a living. The society that still doesn't pay women as much as men, the dead beat dads, the mobile society where family homesteads with grandparents living nearby no longer occur. Who IS watching the kids? The answer around here is daycare centers, the YMCA after school program and then, no one (unless they are in sports, then it's the coaches).

The kids. The tail is wagging the dog. Not even the best tail either. Imagine you are teaching 25 kids. The assignment is due tomorrow. 3 of them didn't do it. 5 almost finished it. 6 of them did it wrong.5 of them got quite a few answers wrong. 6 of them did well. How do you hand out grades that it doesn't look like you are a failure? The lazy kids and the kids who do not listen and follow directions are controlling your class. THEY are in control of your evaluations. Now, if you want to change that, I doubt you'd even be allowed to take a hard stand. I don't believe you'd be allowed to demand excellence or let the effort stand. It just looks bad when half your class fails. So, they extend the assignment times. They accept late work. They do it together in class. They dumb down the assignments.

It's no wonder we are average in the world.

2010-12-03T22:03:00.006-07:00

The Nelson- Adkins Museum of Art- the sculpture garden with shuttle cocks.

So, It's gotten to be a family tradition to interact with the sculptures. It began by accident when Delaney was pouting in the Chicago institute of Art and happened to be standing next to a statue with the same body expression. From there, we had Maura whispering in a statue's ear and Tyler mimicing a Picasso statue. So, it's only right that we join in with Steve being "one" with Buddah....

And I'm feeding the horse. We did some others, but I think I like these the best. The guards got a bit on the alert when you play like this, like they almost need to say something, which is amusing.

We happened to drive by the federal reserve and saw they had a museum so we stopped. We had to show our ID and get a name tag to get in- of course a metal detector... but then once in, was a slightly interesting show of historical money and specific history of the KC branch. We were free to take pics of all parts BUT where they are dealing with the real money. But, it was a bit mindboggling to see a warehouse VAULT with money stacked on pallets on shelves with deep perspective going off in the distance. A warehouse of MONEY. I really can't rap my mind around that part of it. I liked the historic money exhibit. In the end, they give you a small bag of shreded money. It was interesting to know they have a HS art competition using shreded money. I hope to share that with the art teachers here.

Also along the way we drove past the Train station which , besides being the amtrac station, has a science museum which is why we found this guy loitering outside in his festive gear.

So, of course, this post is in reverse order of what we did. Someday I'll remember to put the photos in backwards of how I want them to be. We spent the most time, by far, at the art museum and enjoyed it tremendously. We stopped on our way out of town to eat and then we forgot to keep our eye on finding the hwy 13 exit so we went too far on 71 before we remembered to look for it. Turned out- we had to cut east on small roads to get where we wanted to be, but hey- we saw an amish wagon with lanterns driving so that was interesting.

This was just what I needed to get me out of the dumps I was in.
I needed some adult one on one time. I needed to see something different from what I see all the time. I needed some art pick me ups too. Back to work on all sorts of projects.

2010-12-03T21:29:00.002-07:00

The BIG 50-
Ok, I was dreading the celebration. Not really the age, but the opportunity it gave all my kids to make old jokes for the day. Surprisingly, they were darned nice about it all. We went to dinner in Branson and Carrie and JJ, Megan and Debbie joined us. Sure there were a few jokes about it being a "cold day in Hell" and "when Hell freezes over" because it WAS darned cold that night.
I had such a good time. Some guy from the restaurant sang Happy birthday to me in Italian (with a very lovely voice) and honestly, the gifts were surprising. Maura bought me two shirts that were very nice for my figure. Tyler found Munys for me (I love those plastic guys) and Steve really surprised me with plans for a trip to Kansas City.
We left the next morning and got to Kansas City in plenty of time for Museum number one- the Toy and Miniature Museum. OK, so there's WAY more miniatures than toys there and, after awhile (not being that enamored with tiny stuff) it got tedious looking so many dollhouses and miniatures. The women working there were VERY enamored with tiny things and several of them waxed on and on about their collection. I would have liked to see more dolls from different time periods and more toys too. I don't think I cared much about the room full of marbles. The special exhibit was "50 years of Barbie" but, I gotta tell you- it was lightly covering the subject matter. Even so, there were a few things that caught my eye. The very old teaching toys were fun and a fortune telling doll was fun too. It was great seeing the doll Barbara Vannoy made. I remember when she made it and marveling over all the details. I expected more of that kind of thing in this museum.
If I were to give any advice about the museum, I'd tell them that it was great that they had two founding collectors who shared all their hard work but that they really needed to keep asking for a variety of things to round out their collections. I'd say that the "toy" part of their collection was light. I'd tell them that having more dolls covering all the different major eras and production would be better than seeing every variety of toy stove. The space dedicated to stoves vs dolls was shocking. More toys! fewer marbles.What about paper dolls? Ask someone to donate their hotwheels collection.
Real ethnic collection would be good too. Heat the building in the winter. Volunteers should ask if you need help but refrain from lectures. We had 5 different women go on and on about stuff, but the one question I had, they couldn't answer. LOL
Finally- let people take pictures. What's the big deal about that? Better gift shop.
We left feeling a bit overwhelmed by tiny stuff and underwhelmed by fun and we headed to the motel. It was a lovely room and we settled in then headed back out to discover more.
We noticed the market wasn't far from the motel, but it was not really open. I think this is something to do in warmer weather and something to look forward to another time. We drove to the Power and light area which is supposed to be the hot new entertainment area in town but really, nothing grabbed us. It looks like the kind of place you go for a specific destination- a certain restaurant or club, but isn't really conducive to walking around and discovering a place.
We drove on to the Country Club Plaza which is much more the shopping/ dining destination.
Quite a few high end stores there but we were hungry and ate at PF Chang's. Afterwards we did a bit of shopping then headed back to the room for some nice romantic one on one time.
This was day one.

2010-11-28T07:19:00.003-07:00

Post Thanksgiving-
It was a quiet Thanksgiving here. Tyler spent the holiday with Megan and her Dad's family so it was just the 4 of us. Delaney had requested the praline sweet potato casserole and I had her help make it. (She's not an intuitive cook and thinks she's a failure) We had all the favorite things to eat. Steve decided to dress up for dinner and the girls followed suit. I didn't since I was getting the dinner on the table. I guess it was his way of making it an occation. We had rain that turned to ice and snow flurries. That night, Steve fired up the cast iron stove and it got toasty warm.
I can't help but be reminded of the huge gatherings we had when I was a kid and how chaotic and entertaining it all was. I've thought my Mom was a bit psycho when it came to holidays and how "everyone" absolutely HAD to be there no matter what. The lengths I'd gone to be there were incredible and exhausting. I didn't want to ever become that way myself.
So, when Tyler asked if it was ok he go to Meagan's, I didn't argue. When Jane called to report she was having a grand celebration with her BF's family in JOPLIN and couldn't stop to see us over the holiday weekend or when I didn't hear from any of my family members... I still didn't argue or get angry (which can't be said of Steve) because I want people to be free to do what they WANT to do. That includes the Holidays.
Black Friday and Steve woke up at 4:30 am to head to the stores. Maura and Tyler were scheduled later in the day. Delaney and I stayed home. We had thanksgiving dinner part 2 that night. There were some specials at Joann's on Saturday so I headed up there and until about 12, the stores were very quiet. The stores and parkinglots began to fill up , but everyone (except one lady ranting in target) were pleasant. I was increasingly frustrated by what to buy for the kids. Too many times, what they want isn't there. I believe I'll have to make use of cyber Monday.
I drove home, Steve made dinner and then began to work on his pet project- the Projection TV.
I am not sure I want a huge screen hanging out in the room, but it makes him happy. We watched a few things on the big screen last night. It seems to work like he wants it to. Maura and Tyler worked and then Tyler headed back to Megan's to work on homework (spent the night again).
Steve, Delaney and Maura are heading out to Branson soon. I'll be cooking down the turkey carcass into soup stock today and start working on some glass ornaments.

2010-10-31T08:12:00.002-06:00

A crazy day-
The last band competition was Saturday at Missu. It's a long drive, so the kids had to be at the school at 4 am. That means we woke up at 3. Delaney decided she wanted to go and the band director allowed it. I took them to the school but did not attend the competition. I had other exciting plans....
Steve suggested that, instead of coming home for a few hours, I should keep going on my adventure, maybe stop to have breakfast...The problem with that little idea was that I was driving to a small town about 2 hours away, yes, but NOTHING would be open in those small towns at that hour of the morning. I ended up driving all the way to Ava in the dark and sitting in a mc donald's parkinglot for 3 hours. Ok, so one thing to note: the Springfield Plateau is a real thing and dramatically drops off on hwy 14 on the way to Ava. (just sayin' it's kinda scary in the dark with deer hunters on your butt driving down that curvy road)
So, I arrived in plenty of time for "the most fabulous fabric auction ever" and got a great parking place. Ah, but so did hundreds of other people. Sigh.
So, this was an estate auction of a woman who died and left hundreds of yards of fabric behind. (she who dies with the most fabric... ends up having this sort of thing happen) Of course, it looked like all her other worldly goods was up for auction as well and they decided to start with that. I sat through the auctioning off all the crappy knic knacks, all the glass ware, the cooking stuff, the outdoor equipment, the furniture and even all the plastic bins she stored her fabric in.
I noticed a trend. Everything was being sold for WAY too much. Someone spent $20 on a box of 8 cat figures that were from the dollar store. Someone spent $8.00 on a plastic storage bin that costs $4 (on sale) from target. An old sewing machine (from the 70's) went for $150 when you can get them all day long off of craig's list for less than $50. And so it went, item after item, way over priced, but surely, when it came to women and fabric, they wouldn't be so stupid...
Ok, a bit of description may be needed here. The fabric stash took up 1/3 rd of the room. It was sorted into lots of 9 yds (roughly) and according to colors. Most of it was cotton, some was flannel, most were yardage but a few were fat quarters. These were placed on two columns of tables. around the edges were tables and shelving units filled with odds and ends. Things like bolts of fabric, polyester double knits, notebooks filled with patterns she collected, batting, pillow forms, fiber fleece, etc. There were some quilt tops, some just not bound and a very few finished quilts. Then there were sheets and stuff like that.
Looking at the fabric, I recognized some of the pieces (which is always fun) and, since I had spent so much time in the morning, I knew that Ava's walmart was one of the few that still sold fabric, I recognized that much of this stash came from Walmart and not from a quilt shop. I knew because I had bought some of that same fabric when our walmart was getting out of the fabric selling business. Fabrics have annual "lines" just as fashion does and some of these prints were probably 8 years old.
When the auctioning of the fabric began, the women went nuts. Pure and simple. The lots were selling for $27 and then started going up from there... $30 and beyond. Remember I said they were sorted into 9 yard lots and most were Walmart fabrics.... so, you can buy them RETAIL and brand new for $32 and get exactly what you want. Why would you spend this much at an auction when you are getting a couple pieces you like and some you don't? None of the fabric was old enough to be antique.
In addition... the quilts. Most were two pieces of fabric sewn together with a longarm. Just plain comforters really. The few "quilts" were very basic and one was made of polyester double knit. EGADS! There was only one I would have spent any money on at all, a pieced tumbling pyramid and even it had a questionable border around it.
So, In short, I spent 8 hours at an auction and I didn't get one single thing. It's hard for me to think of anything good coming from the day but I'll try.
It was interesting to see the Amish families there. I've never seen many in their black and gray dresses and their suspenders, hats and long beards. The daughter bought a wind up music figurine. I am not sure of the other group. The women wear long dresses, and their hair in a bun under a transparent cap. They all were wearing warm up jackets from walmart though. Not sure what the rules for dressing are for them.
There were two ladies I sat near some of the time that spent all day there and left as soon as the fabric bidding started. I am not sure why since neither one were quilters per se. One said she had made a couple of them, but never finished any. I sat by another quilter who likes to do it just as a hobby and specializes in making memorial quilts. I left before she did... I guess she was still hoping sanity would return. Obviously the transparent capped ladies were hoping for dress fabric. The man who kept buying all the plastic bins was interesting. He had badly dyed hair which was growing out.. so picture black hair with an inch worth of white roots and then a swatch of white where he missed dying in the back. I would have liked to have seen who bid on the giant cedar chest and how much it went for. It was over 5 ft long and 4 ft wide. It was plain but beautifully made. Other than that piece, there was no furniture of note.
I was so tired, cranky from not eating, mad about the stupidity of the people bidding and how I blew the whole day for nothing, I ate at Lamberts in Ozark, for the comfort food before driving the rest of the way home. I got home around 7:30 and no one was here so I fell into bed. I woke up at midnight and spoke briefly to the family before heading back to bed (after taking some meds for the cold I just got.)
Well, today I feel cheated somehow, with so much promise of additions to my stash without a single fabric scrap. I keep having this internal voice saying "online shopping" but I think I'll ignore it and work on the quilt I promised Steve's nephew. If I can kick the sore throat from the cold.

2010-10-31T07:39:00.005-06:00

Winners of the Best Zombie prizes

Delaney as a Zombie

Megan, Tyler and Maura waiting to start the walk

Zombie walk-2010

Friday night, Oct. 29 th finally arrived and the entire family was set to enjoy the 2nd annual Zombie walk. Last year's event had 7 people attending but this year there was 41! People from as far away as California, Michigan and Canada participated.

It was monitored by the Mall security but, of course, the group did not do anything bad.(there had been rumors of all sorts of mayhem) It's just fun to dress up as Zombies and act the part as best you can. Some folks showed up LOOKING like Zombies, but forgot to ACT like them. (these are Brainless creatures folks)

All those who are members of the Zombies and Finer Things club were ineligable to win the awards but that didn't stop them from going all out on their costumes. Maura was quite the Zombie little girl. A few times, she fell on the ground and crawls along. LOL

Steve and I were judges and generally kept our eye on things. Karey's Dad brought his hearse and her mom and sister dressed up.

Meagan was a good sport and dressed up as a band zombie but she, like delaney, isn't really into the zombie culture. She was indulging us, and she's a good sport. I wonder if this means Tyler will have to see the Jonas Brothers? LOL

2010-10-06T21:34:00.004-06:00

Marching Band season-

Valhalla was the first competition of the season and we came in 4th in our division. With our new band director- Mr. Devos- we placed! of course, the show wasn't perfect and they keep working hard to make it better for the next show, Ozarko at MSU.

I'm really pleased with the new Director. He does a great job with the kids and never forgets to remind them of good manners and being thankful. He let's us all see (and hear) how the judges saw us and how we compared to the other bands, so we all learn more about the process and what to work harder on. We are a small band from a small school. It's nice to know there are great band directors who want to work for the small guys.

I'm working on a mural to go with the musical selecton the band is doing. I would love to see the band place again and bring home the dinnerbell award too- to show we have the best boosters along with a great band. Kathy is doing a great job as president. I think I'm lucky to know great people like her and her husband Tim.

2010-09-17T21:52:00.003-06:00

Busy days- I haven't written here since our trip to Austin. School started and I've been sort of busy ever since.
Delaney tried out and made the Volleyball team. Practice is after school every day until 5:30. They've played 2 games so far and won one and lost one. Parents take turn feeding the girls at the home games. Mine was last Thursday. Between the feeding and the games I was at the school for 5 hours. That's kinda amazing. I was happy I didn't work that day.
Today, the school voted for their student Council and Delaney made it.
Maura has been practicing with the band every Thursday night until 8:30. Homecoming is coming soon and she volunteered to do the costumes for the Speech and Debate team. She decided to make several Disney Villians and I think has about 2 more costumes to go (along with some parts) I only step in when asked- like sewing Captain hook's jacket. These are her own vision of the costumes, not a copy, so the jacket is fitted very differently, while still keeping the traditional colors of classic Hook. I feel like I'm a designer's assistant- sewing under direction.
Sunday, we are working the Iron man competition to earn money for the band boosters and it won't be long before marching competition is in full swing.
I've been making things, but not quilts. I guess I'd say I've been puttering with small projects for halloween. Things I've wanted to try doing. I zombie-fied a 12" skeleton. I'd like to try to find a full sized one to do. I think it turned out ok, but I still need to dress it and add hair wisps.
Maura mentioned wanting to knit a hat and, I only know how to do straight knitting. I thought about those round hat making things I gave Louise... and then I found another one at the thrift store, so I bought it. This one came with a tool to help slip the yarn over the pegs and a plastic tapestry needle. I sat down and looked at the instructions again, followed them closely and discovered You really do build the hat from the bottom up and it goes fairly quickly. I made the first one and it looked pretty good. I made a second one tonight in a couple hours. This one I made shorter- more of a decorative hat than one to keep you warm. It looks adorable on Maura BTW. I'll have to keep my eyes open for any interesting yarn for hats now. I think they could be cute embellished too.
I've been playing with small items out of glass for halloween, like ghost earrings and skulls and then ornament sized items. I might try spray painting a branch black and use it as a "halloween tree" inside. I'm not sure when it might be a good time to decorate. Maura says not until October, but that month is getting pretty busy and I'm not sure when we might have time to decorate then. I still need to work on making zombie wounds so we can cast them from latex. They are having another Zombie walk at the Landing.
Work has been kinda odd. Not a great amount of forwarning of jobs. So, I worked 3 days this week and have no jobs for next week yet.
I haven't felt like quilting much. I get a bit depressed hearing about shows (locally) and knowing they are done by a club that's closed to new members. I'm not quite sure what my direction should be at the moment.
One of my favorite Thrift stores moved and got bigger. On one hand, it's nice because they have longer hours now and take credit cards. But the down side is that the prices are higher and, as Delaney put it, it just doesn't feel like "home". I think that had to do with missing the familiar faces of the workers we knew. The last time I was in, however, I did see some of them there and they were having a 50% off sale on clothes, which brought it back to "normal" pricing.
Tomorrow, there's a church having a sale, so I think I'll check it out. Look for yarn and maybe an old book for a project I'm thinking of.

2010-08-10T15:44:00.003-06:00

Dallas-
Steve saw the Ripley's wax museum as we were driving to our motel for the night, so he turned around and we went through it. The sacry part was scary to me because it was so much like a haunted house and I kept expecting people to jump out at me. the wax figures were pretty scary.
Delaney wanted to pose with Johnny Cash

Steve wanted to pose with Dave.

2010-08-10T15:32:00.005-06:00

Ft Worth Scinece and History Museum- Special exhibit of Da Vinci machines. These were found in his notebooks as small drawings and someone built them on a small scale so they could be seen around the world. Some don't work, like this air screw.

Some were built on comission for a war

Some were kinda cool ideas.. like this paddle boat

Here's a copy of one of his notebooks

Here's a video of a simple machine that did work. Some of his "inventions" were improvements over the machines they were already using.

2010-08-10T15:24:00.003-06:00

The Wedding-
Here's the reason we went to Austin. meet Elizabeth and Geoff George, the newly married couple.

There's a sign somewhere that says the Wizard Academy is NOT affiliated with Harry Potter. Ok, it's a business school and they have a chapel on their campus where the wedding was held. You can read all about it here: www.chapeldulcinea.org/

As you are heading to the chapel, this is what you see. Cool.

2010-08-10T14:48:00.007-06:00

Austin- day one and two- Allen's boots- they were very elaborate boots here- costing about $400.00 a pair and the tall snakeskin ones were $1,500. A bit out of our price range, even IF we were boot people. Downtown Austin and the bridge where the bats hang out. We saw a nearby hotel advertize they had a "batio". I would suppose it was for prime viewing of the evening flight of the bats.

We saw this place on Food network- A candy store in SoCO that would make any number of sodas the old fashioned way. I had an Orange/ peach soda and delaney was thrilled with the gummy selection.

I love the name of the store as much as the store itself. Very nice displays of a myriad of old stuff.

Ok, so the wedding wasn't until evening, so we spent the day in a cave called Inner Space. I know! Why would we go all that way to see a cave when we live in the CAVE STATE!!??

Steve wanted to and I love caves and plan on doing more cave quilts soon. Caves all have something unique about them. I wish i was able to take better pictures in the cave. My camera wasn't very happy there and then the battery died.

Ok, so the cool stuff here was that there was a mixture of rocks, so not everything was capable of growing formations. It had a fault line and a colapse. It had bats (small ones) and we were able to use flashlights and explore an area by ourselves. Those few mins. were enough to let Steve and I know we are past our prime for crawling around in small places.

The down side to the cave was that for as recent as it was discovered (1960's) it was pretty damaged. I saw several broken formations. I absolutely HATE when they try to make up stupid stories to explain formations (princess castle, socks, etc..) especially when they try to make up a lame story to tie all of them together. Of course, some formations do look just like bacon, or pipe organs, but leave the elaborate stories behind.

2010-08-10T09:49:00.005-06:00

Austin Tx- day one

My niece, Elizabeth, was getting married in Austin Tx on the 7th of August. Steve, Delaney and I attended, but we left Tyler and Maura home. Tyler was getting ready for college and working. Maura had Band camp and a carboard boat race (for charity) she had been planning for months... and work.

So, we drove to Waco and visited with Steve's brother and his wife, Susie and their daughter, Abby. Abby and Delaney are about 3 months apart and so they get along like a house on fire. This year's plot was to move there so they could be together all the time... or have Delaney just go and live with them. LOL! Anyway, I got to see Susie's big cactus sculpture from horseshoes and her howling coyote. Of course, they were fabulous hosts. Steve toured the plant Joe manages while I was drinking coffee and trying to wake up.

The next day, we traveled to Austin and did a few things in Austin. We toured SOCO and had lunch at the Whole foods flagship store (yum) and then it was time to head back to meet up for the family dinner.

I don't remember the name of the place, but we ate in the Pope room. It is a round room with a large round table and a huge lazy susan in the center with a bust of the pope in a glass case in the center. The rest of the room was filled with various photos of the pope. We couldn't get a photo of everyone there, so Steve came up with the idea of doing a video and using the lazy susan to show everyone. It's fun.

2010-08-02T22:07:00.003-06:00

End days of summer-
I decided I would start work on a bigger piece for a set of windows in my Living room. It took me a couple days to do the rough cutting for the pieces that will go across the tops of the windows. But then, something happpened to my grinder. I called the company and they think it had something to do with the wiring and the switch- but told me to send it to them and they would fix it and send it back. I've had to set this project aside until I get my grinder back. So, instead of spending this week working on glass, I decided to repaint the bathroom.

I think I was just tired of the blue and the elves. It kept me busy while I was waiting to hear if I was going to texas with or without Steve. Sometimes his job is so exciting and hard to plan around. I finished stripping the table and now it's back in the Living room where it belongs. I probably should do the two smaller side chairs, but I got tired of inhaling stripping fumes. LOL.

It's gotten so hot here, hotter than normal, and it's cooking my garden. I finally got a cucumber. The squash died before any squash appeared. I've chased the japaneese beetles around from area to area in my yard. It's interesting to see what they like and don't like to munch on.

I'm looking forward to the trip to Texas and happy Steve will be going along. Looking forward to seeing the family and meeting the new ones at the wedding.

2010-07-14T12:42:00.003-06:00

Living Room Make over a bit at a time-
We've been working on the LR this summer and I finally got the pictures up on the wall. Not all of them, but at least enough so I feel like it's becoming a home again.

This first picture is The area next to the back door. It's missing the table that will be here (once I get it refinished) but it shows off art by Roy , Jeanette, Keith Haring, Wilfred and Rhee.

This is my "relaxing" corner. I just refinished this dresser and still thinking about what knobs to put on it. Also on my list is a lamp. The art here are etchings by Bob Plummer who passed away a few years ago. I had the idea I might have three here, but it looked better as just the two and the third one is on the other side of the sliding door. That area, along the staircase is not finished so I'm not showing that area yet.

This is the dining room area. Steve bought two new pieces of furniture to go in here instead of the fish/ turtle tank piece he made.It's working better than i ever dreamed! The lower chest holds all my "good" dishes and Christmas dishes and the tall one holds all the kitchen gadgets that I can't store in my kitchen.

We are still going with the concept of family pictures in this area but I think the arrangement is nicer than before. Also, delaney complained about having "old" pictures of them up, so we decided to concentrate on more recent pictures of the kids. Of course, Tyler doesn't get his picture taken, so his is a bit old, but one of my favorites of him. The Print of the house was done by Roy Nolen.

I haven't really decided how to display items exactly. I've been playing around with putting things here and there, but I have a mix of art made by people I love (like Jerry's raku pot), natural elements and antiques.

2010-07-10T21:27:00.004-06:00

Projects in Progress-
I started this quilt last summer to commemorate the "summer of the bat" in which we spent a week trying to save a baby bat... and failed. I had a limitied amount of the blue fabric I used for the background of the bat blocks and went on a search to find more. I didn't remember where I bought it. Anyway, I found a fabric that I thought would work and I have to say I'm liking the subtle differences. I'm just making this up as i go along and quite a lot of this is just pinned at this point. When I finish the rows of 9 patches all around, I still want to grow it another 12" wide and 24" long. Still musing about how to do that.
Another project compleated. This stained glass star in a wooden frame. I like how it turned out, especially the wooden frame with the glass. I might try to do more of that sort of thing. I'm thinking my next project might be panels to hang on the tops of some windows in my LR.
But, for now, I've been working on stripping a piece of furniture for my LR and am waiting for it to dry before I bring it up from the garage. Next- refinishing a table. I'm thinking that the base of it is in good shape- I just need to do the top portion. Hopefully, I won't get the stripper all over and have to strip the whole thing.
My garden is starting to produce several tomatoes, cukes are close, squash are dying (dumb vines) and I'm battling japanese beetles on my roses (among other things). We saw a mama deer and two fawns walking in our back yard yesterday. I don't mind them as long as they leave my veggies alone.

2010-06-19T22:42:00.002-06:00

Maura dresses up for work-
When they hit goal, they dress up acording to themes. This theme was "musicians" and Maura chose Devo. Last week it was "sidekicks" and Maura went as Robin. She's hoping they get to dress up again this week. her Zombie group is looking for donations (cash) so they can enter the cardboard boat races in August, which is a benefit. Can't you see a group of Zombie Pirates there?

2010-06-19T22:36:00.002-06:00

A storm came in late this afternoon and we had a lot of wind and rain in a short amount of time. It looked like it was letting up and so Delaney took Rufus for a walk and let us know there was a rainbow outside. This was one picture I took of it. It was huge and very well defined all across the sky. I liked how, in this shot, it ended at the lake.

2010-06-19T22:13:00.003-06:00

When recording Wii activities for the future, you must use Video. It's just too funny watching people play games. Delaney was playing wii fit hula hooping game and Steve and Tyler were boxing. I am hoping to use the wii fit for exercise, if i get a chance to play it all by myself (because you can bet I'd be funny looking at the time) It looks like it will be fun to try and it comes with a program that tells you how much overweight you are and how much you need to do to hit targets in weight loss. I tried some of the easier ballance games to start with.

2010-06-09T19:51:00.004-06:00

Family history project-
I dusted off the videos and decided to post them here. They were made in 2003 using 2 different programs. One was an early Movie Maker and I had to get a freeware program to make the voice recordings. Of course, I'm not that great of a speaker ( I don't have a radio voice) and I was getting a cold (or allergies) which you can hear as you progress from one video to the next. In the end, I had to stop because I had no voice.
The next person in line was Gideon, who was my ancestor who fought in the Revolutionary War. Imagine having 4 generations here before it was even a nation.
I was also perplexed about what my next step should be. I had information about my Mother's family to this date as well. Should I do one line (my dad's) until I am to the present time, and do a seperate set for my Mom's side? Should I merge the two? And what happens when I push My Mom's line farther back? Would I need to redo these?
Because my ancestors weren't famous, there's little mention of them and this is (of course) pre- Photography era, so I solved that problem by adding in images of inventions and events these people experienced. I was able to get that timeline from Ourtimes.com and just changed the dates for each generation.

2010-06-09T19:28:00.003-06:00

Part 6- John (another one)

2010-06-09T19:22:00.003-06:00

Part 5- Ebenezer

2010-06-09T19:13:00.003-06:00

pt 4- Elijah the Captive

Although Elijah is not a direct ancestor of mine, it was a facinating story and I wanted to include it.

2010-06-09T19:05:00.002-06:00

Part 3- John 1641

2010-06-09T19:00:00.002-06:00

Part 2- John1610- Coming to America

2010-06-09T18:54:00.002-06:00

Family History video project -

pt 1- The Introduction.

2010-06-04T14:13:00.004-06:00

I took Delaney with me to pick up my quilts from Jeff city and we stopped at Lake of the Ozarks in search of a place that might be cool. Uh- honestly, this wasn't. I still don't get the attraction to Lake of the Ozarks... Eureka Springs is MUCH better, and it has a lake too.

Delaney thought we were weird taking her pic as she mowed for the first time, but hey! It's tradition.

Delaney and her Track medals from this year.

2010-06-04T13:50:00.004-06:00

Dragonfly - all but the blue wings was scraps.

The head is a flat backed marble. This is supposed to be displayed on a wire so you can stick it in a pot. I've yet to get the right size wire, so for now, it's a hanging piece.

Dragonfly suncatcher- all but the blue is scraps. I

tried to make it to fit a wire ring, but was off by just a smidge-

so I'll have to try that again.

Shell- made from scraps

Stained Glass!!!

Ok, these are my first attempts at home (all on my own) of projects. I had so many scraps from my neighbor that I thought I'd try small projects and use this time to practice cutting and grinding better. I have a few more projects in the pipe, but these were finished today.I'd like to make another shell, maybe a bigger one and one that i chose the glass based on colors and not scrap size. LOL.

2010-05-27T21:53:00.002-06:00

NJHS-
I thought I had posted this already- Delaney was inducted in the National Junior Honor Society. I was teased by a teacher that it was just for me, not her. Hmm... well, yeah, I'm happy she's not my only kid that didn't make it in, but I still think it's a good thing for her too. And, just to be caty, no wonder he's not teaching here next year. I don't think that's an attitude a teacher should have towards students showing leadership qualities and good grades. Just saying.
This was a night I hate as a parent. A night when my husband is out of town and two of my kids are doing something cool. I had to miss Maura's band concert (and seeing her letter) for this. I wish I could have cloned myself.

2010-05-27T21:35:00.004-06:00

Yard updates- Here's a shot of the side of the house and the newly added planting boxes for blueberries.
I also have onions, lettuce and tomatoes growing here and a few herbs sharing the tomato box.
It might be awhile before we get blueberries, but I'm looking forward to them! The grass is coming in fairly well.

Here's a general shot of the backyard. The roses are looking fabulous!They are the only thing that survived the water issues in that corner. My cucumber trellis is up and the plants are just beginning to climb. Next to them are my hills for squash. I've even spent some time for the far back border, although truthfully, it's a work in progress. I've got some irises, daylillies, hollyhocks and I moved a peony there too. Still have a lot more to be done.

This year, these popped up in our yard. I think they are wild strawberries, but, they have yellow flowers, so I'm not sure enough to take a bite of them to find out.

Lastly, this is a shot of my first stained glass piece. I have a matching one in the other corner of the window. I have a long way to go before I am comfortable saying I'm good at this, but it's something I want to get good at. I have been playing around with glass scraps this week and getting more confident at cutting glass. I bought a glass grinder from a dealer on ebay and I'm very happy with how it works. I hope to make more things this summer when I'm not gardening and working on the house.

2010-05-09T08:10:00.005-06:00

Maura's 16th Birthday-

Maura wanted her Birthday to have an 80's theme. She was torn between going to Springfield to an 80's arcade, or roller skating. In the end, she decided skating. We met at the park first to have the cake. JJ and Karri stopped by there as well as everyone else. Then we all went to the skating rink.

OK, so Maura was quite challenging about Steve's and mine ability to skate, so, of course, we had to prove her wrong. Being almost 50 and out of shape, skating is probably not the thing you should do, especially after a 20+ year hiatus. But, I think we did a good enough showing to win that challenge. Steve fell and pulled something, so he's not feeling too chipper at the moment.

At some point, Delaney started an air hockey winning streak until she hit Morrow. I think Maura enjoyed her day.

Air hockey, Morrow and Delaney

Maura, jacob and CJ skating

Cake!

80's themed Cake

2010-05-09T07:59:00.005-06:00

WHAT DO YOU KNOW?

on air, chatting with the publisher of the Ozark Mountaineer

The Host, Michael and Steve

Clive, the drummer of the trio and Me

The NPR radio show, "what do you know?" came to Springfield for their show this week and Steve and I attended. It was fun and I know Steve really enjoyed seeing the a live radio show like this. The small reception after the show for a meet and greet.

2010-04-18T07:06:00.003-06:00

Delaney and Track-Thursday's track meet at Home. Getting ready for the 4x4 relay- Delaney's final event.
Shot Put event at Branson HS.
Delaney running the 4x4 at Branson HS.

So, Thursday, I had to take my quilts (3) to a gallery in Jefferson City. The only time I've been to JC was chaperoning the 8th grade Honor Society trip to the capital. (I've done that twice and hope to do it again if Delaney gets in) Anyway, It's a long 4 hour drive there and I found the gallery easily enough and was allowed to drop off the art work early so I could drive back and catch some of Delaney's home track meet. I only got to see her last event - the 400x 4 (4x4) which is a relay race and each girl runs one full lap around the track. I was sitting among the other kids and was cheering, "go delaney!" when all of them turned to me and said, "don't yell her name! she doesn't like that. It distracts her and makes her run slower!" Seems like a control issue to me. I asked her about it and she said, it's not bad at the track meets, but at practice, it really distracts her, so she asked them not to yell out her name. The thing that really amazes the kids is that she's not even winded after she finishes the race. She runs the entire race with her mouth closed.

She's doing well, I think. She's doing 4 events, both running and field events. At the home meet, her 2x4 team came in first and her 4x4 team came in 3rd.

2010-04-18T06:39:00.002-06:00

Prom Dress Makes the News-
Maura received an email from a news reporter asking to do an interview about here Prom dress. They wanted to set it up for Friday, hopefully, at the school. Maura went in Thursday and asked the office if it was possible, but it wasn't until they called the school directly that it was set up for Friday at 11:30.
I went into the school, with the dress, and hoping I didn't have to be interviewed. Luckily, they chose to just speak to Maura and her Principal.
You can view it here:
http://www.ky3.com/news/local/91097659.html

2010-04-11T06:42:00.003-06:00

Prom-2010

I think it might be fitting to show this picture, Maura and her Principal, first- I know he was very gracious about her dress last night and got quite a lot of teasing from the others there. He did say he wasn't going to under estimate Maura again.
Before Prom, most gather at the Branson Landing to take photos before crossing the street to the Hilton. Maura attracted a lot of attention of all ages. Several people wanted to take her picture, a few people even wanted to touch her dress. Here, Maura is getting her picture taken by a woman who went on to tell her she should put it in the paper, it was SO newsworthy.
Here is Maura with her date, Jacob. I've got to give him props. Not everyone would be willing to go to Prom with a girl in a Dorito dress. Notice his flower is also from a Dorito bag. We go all out, or don't go at all. LOL!

2010-04-03T10:01:00.002-06:00

Prom Dress 2010-

Maura, my daughter, has all the makings of a VERY creative person. Last year's Prom dress was all about the cutting edge of a fashion movement (Goth Lolita) that just didn't exist as a shopping option here. With the help of my sister, we pulled it off by putting a couple different patterns together and two days of Marathon sewing.

This year's dress began with the announcement, "I'm going to make a dress from Dorito bags". Our response? "hmmm.. ok. How are you going to do that?" Her answer was "Don't worry. I've got this". (her typical response to most of our questions actually. Truthfully, she usually DOES have it, so I wasn't too worried.) As time got shorter, however, I did begin to worry and consider how I would go about doing it. Finally, Maura asked for some help and we discussed ideas. This is what we came up with.

Dorito bags are rather thin so we used a fused plastic technique and sandwiched the bags between a bottom layer of black garbage bag and a top layer of thin painter's drop cloth plastic. The benefit of this was that she could "collage" the bags rather than sew them to each other and that she could make smaller sections (that fit each pattern piece) rather than make one large piece of "fabric". We purchased a pattern that allowed us to do smaller sections rather than large pieces and one that allowed for the stiffness of the plastic fabric. (She'll have no need of a tulle underskirt this year!)

At first, we thought the gathered layers would have to be made as "pintucks" instead of gathering, but we were able to gather it using a technique of zigzagging over a cotton yarn, which makes the whole gathering process much easier when you are using thicker fabrics. (and in this case, plastic) The bodice is lined with black cotton fabric and the under skirt is also of fabric. I believe this makes it more comfortable and breathable.

There can be no mistakes making this dress. There is no ripping out stitches. I think the zipper could have looked better, but given that it was the first time we'd put in a zipper and the plastic is a slippery thing, it's not too bad.

I would be remiss if I didn't also document that we had some opposition to this dress from the school administration.

Basically, the Principal heard of the dress and said "well, that's not going to happen." and that statement was relayed to Maura via a teacher. She was very upset and so were we on a couple points. One point was that he was condemning the dress without ever asking about it or seeing it. The second point was that they use Maura's photo at the school to celebrate the (desired) character quality of "uniqueness" and then were condemning her for it.

My husband went to the school and talked to the Principal for quite some time. The final upshot was that she would be allowed to try to enter the Prom with the dress, but if it did not withstand the dress code, she would not be allowed to enter. He also apologized to her for dismissing it out of hand.

We are completely satisfied with how things stand. We are happy that she is allowed to try to bring her vision to reality and that she is not singled out by having to conform to a higher standard that the other students.

We are rather pleased that she has this kind of creativity and aren't about to squash it.

This dress will not be the most elegant and probably will be considered a bit garish to some but it is certainly GREEN and forward thinking and creative, so I think it's ok it's not elegant. I also think it will catch a lot of attention everywhere she goes.

We plan on documenting the dress in stages and as a finished dress prior to Prom. Thank goodness her date is fine with the whole thing! He's a good friend to do this.

2010-03-15T08:14:00.002-06:00

Maura as a Zombie (banshee)

Zombies and Finer Things Club first official outing

Zombies at St Patrick's Day Parade in Springfield, Mo.

JJ, the manager at Tanger's Fudgery, Likes to dress up. He and his wife, Karey, also do reenactments (Civil War era) and, over the years, we've all enjoyed dressing up for movies. It's a lot of fun to go see Pirates of the Caribbean dressed as Pirates.

Last Halloween, JJ came up with the idea of a flash Zombie walk at the Landing. Others from work got involved and it was a blast. So, they have continued on from that event, creating a club called "Zombies and Finer Things Club". Their first official outing was this parade.

It was cold, windy and rainy, but that didn't stop this group from enjoying the event. Karey's dad owns (and drove) a hearse and they were all there to support the group.

Maura was a fairy (dead I suppose she was a banshee) and Tyler was a priest. Maura brought her debate partner, Jacob, dressed as a DR. There was Chase, the only one who has weird contacts to wear which makes him look very scary. There was a soccer player and Karey was some sort of beauty queen (I think) JJ looked like he was going for a Typical Irish partier that was a zombie.

The parade ended and the judging announcements were made at a pub. They ended up winning first place in their division (group or family) and they were given a beautiful hand blown glass award.

Now Maura can concentrate on making her Prom dress (with some help) from Dorito bags. I'm not sure how we are going to pull it off, but everyone is expecting it. Everywhere I go, people are asking me about it. Maura always says, "I got this" but I finally got her to admit she really doesn't yet. After the parade, we went to Joanns and bought a pattern for the dress. Now, we need to figure out how to make it from those bags.

2010-02-24T21:42:00.002-07:00

Last week-
This is my last week of long term subbing and it feels like two weeks long. This end is bitter sweet. I think I'll miss seeing the kids every day. I think I'll enjoy some days at home to work on my art and clean my house.
Am I the only person who wonders how people seem to do it all? I have a suspicion that they, in fact, do NOT do it all. The most unsuspecting people hire maids to do all the dirty work they don't have time for. So, I'm cutting myself some slack about the dust and the corners and feeling ok that the main spaces are clear and mostly clean.
I think we could all use a moment of two to contemplate our over scheduled lives. I wrote about over scheduled kids on the QA once and got the most aggressive "you don't know what the hell you are talking about, so shut up" response I've ever had on the list. (and I've had my share of mis understood posts) Wow! If the scientists are correct and we really cannot concentrate on more than one thing at a time (seriously) then we all need to think about how fragmented our lives have become.
Let me consider our ancestors who didn't have nearly the machines of convenience we have, yet still seemed to have time for life. The more we have, the more we do. I have more leisure time from the basics of living, but I fill it in ways our ancestors never attempted. I can make quilts all year round and at all hours of the day and night. For me, quilts are no longer a useful item to keep warm, but purely an artistic expression. I would say it's my "hobby" except that making art is more of a vocation that just doesn't pay well.
I spent some time this year reading "walden's pond" because I never did read it before, yet heard references to it all my life. It's a story about dropping out. Even then, the author complained about how much time was spent doing things other than what's needed to survive and an experiment in living a purposeful life. So many times we get caught up in what everyone else has- we start feeling like freaks because we don't have an Ipod or a cell phone. We seldom stop and ask ourselves if we really need those things. We just feel deprived because everyone else seems to have them. I feel like I need to stop soon and re evaluate what I really need and feel like I am living authentically again.
There was something nice (although repetitive) about Walden's Pond . The way he calculated just how much labor he would need to do to survive (which was much less than most people did)
and then how he spent the time left over, just enjoying spending the day in a spot of sunshine on the banks of a pond. The pride he felt in building his own home, including a fireplace, and cooking the simple home grown food for simple dinners.
I don't have plans of dropping out. But I do want to live mindfully. But, I get sucked in, just like everyone else.
Consider music for a moment. Music has always been a part of the human experience. For the most part, music was something you made yourself at home after working the fields. Occasionally, you would get together with neighbors and have a party of it. Then, a proper home had a piano and someone (typically mom) to play it, teaching the children and passing that down. If you had no talent, you sent your kids to take lessons, because a piano was a symbol of a real home. The recording devices slowly put an end to that. If you couldn't make music yourself, that was ok, because you could buy this machine that would make it for you. Famous people to sing and play it. Then, radio came along. Now, you could hear a variety of music and as the price of radios went down, access to it became more wide spread. step by step bit by bit and now we are in the present. We can have any sort of music playing at any time and anywhere in our lives. There is not a place we go that we can't have a musical soundtrack along and we don't even have to share it with the others around us (unlike the 80's boomboxes). But, are we really listening to it any more? I mean, with the concentration of those who gathered after working in the fields and sang to entertain ourselves? Is it part of a purposeful life?
On the other hand, it has given people like me with no musical talent the ability to enjoy music. Or has it kept me from acquiring a musical talent (of sorts)?
Just about every part of our lives could be examined in such a way. Cooking advances. Clothing we wear. The homes we live in.
I just think it's interesting to ponder from time to time.

2010-02-06T19:18:00.002-07:00

Saturday and a DI day-
So, even when I'm not working, I have to get up early to pick up two others and drive to Carl Junction (2.5 hours) to a "training day". We arrived on time and I find out the challenge I'll be judging. It is a challenge none of the kids at my school are doing, so I won't have a conflict of interest when I'm judging. I also learned the ins and out of the challenge and what part I'll be judging. With only 8 teams competing, it seems amazing that I'll have to get up at 5 am to get there in time.
So, just because I am subbing for a teacher who is in charge of DI at our school, I've gotten roped into all sorts of activities surrounding this DI event, including Judging for 2 events and today's training day. Here's some things I'm wondering about...
There are 5 teams of kids participating at our school. Each team has about 7 kids on them. Out of roughly 35 kids, I couldn't scare up 5 parents willing to be a judge for their kid. Out of our 5 judges, one is a teacher from the school and I had to be one. Me. A substitute. One Mom only stepped up when it was made clear that the team would have to pay a LOT more to participate since they didn't have a judge. Each team also has a volunteer. Two of our volunteers are HS students. Only three parents stepped up. Out of all teams, only one is really close to ready to go. That means I'll need to schedule weekend practice, which is time from my life I don't get paid for.
The question I get often is why is Carl Junction always the place we have to go to to compete and why is the state competitions held in Joplin. So, my answer has been that carl Junction really supports DI and it shows when they win so often and go on to globals on such a regular basis that they have a golf tournament every year as a fund raiser.
Today, while the judge and manager meetings were going on, the school was FULL of kids working on projects. There were groups meeting everywhere and backdrops being painted in several hallways. There's a community of support there that goes way beyond what we are struggling with at our school. I can't get 5 parents to step up to support their own kids.
It's shameful.

2010-01-30T16:01:00.004-07:00

drifting snow

a walk by the lake

buried under a day's worth of snow

Maura's friend is a great listener

2010-01-15T23:04:00.003-07:00

Mid January
Right after Christmas,we had extended cold and school was cancelled for a few days. On one hand, I was happy because that gave me more time to work on my own projects but on the other, I kept thinking about the time we were losing for class projects. So goes the dilemas for many a teacher.
Once we got back to school, the new classes seemed to be running smoothly except for DI.
I have been so confused about that proccess, I was getting incresingly snippy about the whole thing. It really started to feel above and beyond my pay grade. Luckily, another teacher stepped in today and took most of the headaches away. I'm feeling much better tonight, but I have to be honest and say I was very close to the end of my frustration rope.
Now, I need to focus on the kids being ready by March 6th and the rest will just have to work itself out. I am probably going be a judge and Maura just informed me her friends created a team so I'm feeling a bit better about giving up 3 saturdays and lots of driving time to DI.
That's an important point. When you have kids, there is a certain amount of volunteering that goes on, depending on what they are involved in. If you want any sort of family life and personal time, you really need to stick closely to volunteering only for those events. Even then, there will be extra meetings you have to do that your kids won't. Suddenly, you find yourself overscheduled. It really doesn't matter which organization you are talking about. It happens everywhere. Band, you get booster meetings, DI, judge training, 4-H - project meeting your kids might not be in and judging, PSR- teacher training meetings and child safety classes. It goes on and on. It can eat you alive.
But- I am a believer in the concept of "It takes a villiage" and I do love the kids. I do want to support the kids in everything they do and I'm not talking about just my kids. Today, I couldn't have been prouder of a student to received an award for an essay he wrote than if it was my own kid. I was so proud to have been there. Sometimes I feel so much pain for the kids and some of their situations. I start waking up in the middle of the night with worry for them. That's a dangerous place for me to be. It's one of the reasons I am a substitute instead of a "real" teacher. There's really only two ways I know to deal with their pain. By not getting too close to them or hardening myself to it. I'd prefer not to be hardened. So, I keep my distance. It's just a bit harder to do that when I am there for 4 months.

2010-01-02T21:22:00.002-07:00

Christmas 2009-
It slipped my mind to write in my blog until now. This Christmas, I think, was one of my favorites. I don't know why except I thought we did a really good job of getting things the kids were genuinely surprised to get. I didn't feel the pressure I often feel about the holiday "to do" list, maybe because some of those things were done by others this year.
There's no problem with going away for the day to shop, since the kids are all old enough to stay alone. There wasn't the pressure to make cookies... Maura made some and delaney and I made some and a few other treats as well. Even now, Steve is dipping pretzels in chocolate almost every night for an extended treat.
I spent the days following Christmas working on a quilt. I finished the piecing and have most of the quilting done. I probably won't make my (self imposed) deadline of having it compleated by tomorrow, but I'll feel good about having all the quilting done and ready to bind by then.
I had to get the grades in and, even though I was waiting for some kids to send work via email, I had to give up and post their grade as is. I needed help remembering how to post them to the grade cards and called up a friend and then another teacher for the help. Luckily, they didn't seem too upset I bothered them with this on their vacation time.
I'm terrible about sending cards out so, another year went by without sending the news we are alive and still kickin. I always feel guilty about that.
So, New Year's Eve is typically spent at the neighbor's down the street. This year, because people were going to be gone, they moved it up a night. It's one time we socialize with the people on our street, and are concidered the young kids of the group. We're a bit out of step with them all, but it's ok. So, that left New Year's eve as a quiet night at home and, truthfully, not a big deal to me to watch the ball drop at 11:00. I read a book and fell asleep much earlier.
Tonight, Delaney really wanted to go meet up with her friend, Josh, and sing kareoke. Steve passed on the evening, so I drove her down Indian Point to a small place that seems to be a hang out for the locals now that the season is over. When I say locals, I mean the Indian point folks.Everyone seemed to know each other and it was very family friendly. Josh and Delaney begged me to sing, but I assured them it wasn't going to happen and they really didn't want to hear me sing either! I truly hated to call the evening short, but it was snowing and I have a fear of getting caught trying to get up one hill on our road. Luckily, the snow wasn't too bad here.

2009-12-20T19:41:00.004-07:00

Elvis- he has the voice and at times, too much of the moves... he even has a glancing look of a young Elvis, but, somehow, he's not quite ELVIS.
The Blues Brothers. Does anyone else see this as ironic? Here are two singers impersonating two actors who were impersonating singers and the funny thing is, these guys can really sing.

Camille as Patsy Cline. She did a great job.. I think... I never really knew Patsy Cline.

Steve's manager at the Branson Landing is singing in the Legends Christmas show as Patsy Cline, so she got us tickets today so we could see her perform. We saw Buddy Holly, Patsy Cline, The Blues Brothers, Stevie Wonder and Elvis. It was a fun afternoon with Steve and Delaney and a nice break from Christmas shopping. Maura and Tyler were working. (poor things!)

2009-12-09T20:25:00.002-07:00

Thanksgiving and aftermath-
I did start on a quilt over the break, but I've yet to have a chance to get back to it. I spent last weekend putting together the "secret santa" stuff for the upcoming exchange. It's kinda impossible to have gifts of $1 leading up to a good one ($20) the last day. I found myself putting chocolates in paper boxes I printed out on my computer. Not sure what I'll do for the big gift yet.
I am somewhat of a homebody, so between working every day and the after school activities, I am dearly missing my "me time". Delaney has practice after school every day until 5:30, unless she has a game, then those begin at 5:30. I've gone to every home game, even though I grit my teeth sitting there and I don't understand half of what is going on. Her team is pretty bad. Delaney made the first basket of any of them, which was great. Since then, others have, but nearly enough to actually win yet. I have another game tomorrow night to attend.
Maura's HS band concert was tonight and it was good. The choir performed as well, then they did a couple songs together. It's fun to watch the kids shift from jazz band, to concert band, from band to choir positions then back again. A small school where kids are involved in more than one thing. Speaking of... Maura decided to join Quizbowl. it makes more sense that she's in it than it did that Tyler was, but i wonder if she's overloading herself with band, speech and debate and now quizbowl on top of working. Maybe the kids think I should just live at the schools! Maura was asked to be part of a wedding this weekend. She'll be spending the night (I guess a weird bachelorette party) and then the wedding is at the school's auditorium.
Tonight, we were waiting for Maura to put away the instruments and Delaney noticed a picture on the wall and said it looked like Maura. Steve said, "no, couldn't be" but we walked over for a closer look. Turns out it was! The school seems to be celebrating different qualities and using photos of the kids that best exemplify that quality. Her poster was about being unique, and it shows her dressed in one of her creations. LOL I gotta tell you, I was so proud!
There are so many times I walk the walk as a teacher and am constantly harping about good choices and good behaviours, it can make a person a bit rigid about good values. What a great reminder for me to see uniqueness being celebrated and certainly a quality I prize myself.
I had my first parent conference this week. Parents who wanted to question the grade their son got on a book report. I thought it went well and the Principal also said he thought so too. It was a first for me, since the schools I taught at long ago weren't the sort where parents actually cared much. I'm guessing I might be grading harder than the regular teacher does, but I'm also following her guidelines, so I'm not sure what else I can do. Hopefully, he'll do a better job on his projects.
I have begun to settle into grading and posting the grades. The gifted kids are very very concerned about grades and freak out when theirs looks bad for even a moment. I had to learn not to enter an assignment in the grading system too early, it drops their grades until theirs actually gets put into the system. I have some kids who are very quick workers and some that draggggg it all out. There was a large assignment due last week and I still have a few who haven't finished it and I doubt they actually will. I have some students who are working well above grade level and others that I think they write like elementary students. Shockingly bad! I keep saying to myself, "and these are the smart kids!".
Steve was to fly out Tuesday, but, since Wisconsin was getting a storm, he pushed it back until Thursday. He was able to hear the Christmas concert for the first time in 3 years, so that was very cool. It is frigid cold here with temps near zero and my car didn't want to start this afternoon and evening. Steve is going to replace the battery for me before he heads to the airport. I don't want to be stranded here, with the kids needing to go places, with a car that doesn't work! I do wish Tyler would step up and get his DL !!!!!!
So, one more night of activities this week (a game tomorrow) and then I get to coast until the weekend. Whoo Hoo!

2009-11-29T07:10:00.003-07:00

Delaney and her Magic Growing Bag

Day of Service-sorting toys at Salvation Army

Week 23-27-

Monday, the 23rd was the Middle school's day of service. Each group went to different places in the community. My group was assigned to work at the salvation Army headquarters in Springfield . They brought boxes and boxes of toys into the gym from storage and it was our job to sort them. These were toys left over from last year, so we had to categorize them into age groups and types of toys (stocking stuffers or bigger toys). I would say it was a very successful day. The kids all worked hard (some more than others) but everyone made a good effort in the face of toys they would like to be playing with. (such an transitional age)

We rode up on the bus with another group who was working at a thrift store. Delaney was in that group. They faced a mountain of clothes that they were to sort (no really bad clothes) and put into garbage bags, so they were more manageable for further sorting. I think it went well enough for there to be a repeat of the practice.

Everyone was happy for the Thanksgiving break. After grading some projects and figuring out how to post them (hopefully) into the report card system, I felt free to concentrate on home. I actually took down the Halloween decorations and put up a few Christmas ones. The weather was wonderful, warm and clear, so I took advantage of that to go over and do some work at Troy's. There was some trash and some things we talked about donating to the school (art books and some supplies) There's a couple pieces of furniture I wanted, so I got them ready to go.

It was a quiet dinner here with just the 5 of us and most of our favorite things. Delaney went to carsyn's that night and the rest geared up for Black Friday. With it being quiet here, I started working on a quilt I hope to enter in January to get back on track with my art goals.

Today it's raining but we are going to celebrate my birthday today since everyone is home today. We forgot all about doing the car tags, so Steve will do that for me tomorrow while I take his car to work. That's a great gift right there! I hate digging up all the old tax information and getting it inspected then getting the tags. Such a hassle!

Gearing up for another week of teaching! Happy holidays to you!

2009-11-22T08:48:00.002-07:00

Week of 16-20
This week progressed fairly well. I have a few questions I hope the teacher answers in email, but if she doesn't, I'm sure I'll muddle through. This week has been hard because I have to accept that there are kids who choose to fail. There are certain kids who are choosing to not do assignments in favor of playing video games, choose not to listen when I give directions, and choose not to read the directions clearly written on each asignment. I knew this would be the most frustrating part of becoming a long-term sub. Typically, a day sub worries about order in the classroom and that day's work, so this is something new for me.
I'm most nervous about the mid term grades that I have to post when we come back from Thanksgiving break. Next week, we only have two days.
Monday, the entire school is doing a day of service. each teacher leads a seperate group to do a different kind of community service in several different locations. My group will be going to Springfield to sort toys for the salvation Army, but other groups will be doing road side clean-up, ringing the bell at the mall, boxing food, etc... This is something new for the school system, so we really don't know how well it will work, but I'm looking at it as a GOOD THING and an adventure.
Tuesday will probably be fairly worthless as far as actual work getting done, but several long-term projects are due for the Gifted language arts classes. I anticipate using the time after school to grade several of the projects and bringing the rest home.
Delaney is on the basketball team and had practice after school until 6. Thursday night was their first game and it was away (2 hours away!) So, I didn't attend the game. Steve was in Orlando all week. Delaney sat out from the game because her ankle hurt, then she got the bright idea that, if she didn't go back in, a friend on the team would get more play and her parents were there. When the coach found out, she was mad, but other than a lecture not to do it again, things ended well. MY reaction was a bit more intense, as was Steve's. basically, we said she was doing her coach's job and it wasn't her decision. She was trying to control things she shouldn't have been, regardless of her good intentions. She didn't listen to me, and she didn't listen to Steve, so I cancelled her plans for the weekend and , while I was the bad guy, it certainly DID get her attention. She has to realize there's a difference between what's good for the team and what's good for the teammates and know that none of it is her decision.
Maura had a debate meet saturday and I had to get her to the school by 6 am, followed by getting Tyler to work in the afternoon. Steve was home and willing to pick them up at 8 pm.
Maura didn't expect to place, she's still learning the pacing of her pieces and I actually caught her practicing, so I know she is trying. She's been very pleasant to be around lately without her darker moods.

2009-11-14T08:59:00.004-07:00

Week 9-13-
Monday was my first official day of being a long term sub. I started the day with the computer tech people, getting me access to the grading system. It wasn't until the end of the day that we were instructed how I should get access to the computer system in the first place. Which gives you an idea of how the transition day went. I ended the day with my head spinning with minute details and not the bigger picture. (that came Tuesday)
Monday evening, we attended the induction ceremony for the National Honor's Society. Maura was invited to join. I got the impression that, in the past, the group was small enough to fit on the stage, but this group was so large, they had to have a portion of the auditorium roped off for them. That's a positive. Of course, the glaring negative would be that it was held at the Middle school because the HS decided building a second gym was more important than having an auditorium at all. Sigh.
Each day this week, Delaney had Basketball Practice at 6 am. The two of us woke up at 5 and we went to school (except 2 days where I met a parent part way down our road, so I could go home again for a while) There is a lot of running involved. Running for punishment, running for warm-up. By Thursday, Delaney was worn out, dehydrated and throwing up, so Steve had to come get her and take her home. Hopefully, the practices after school will agree with her more.
Tyler has met a girl, Megan, and she came over Wen. night. She seems nice. They went to the lake and watched the sunset together. (awww)
Friday, Delaney went on a trip with Student Council (stuco)that was an area meeting of all such groups. She seemed to have fun with team building, entertainment and such. Looks like duct tape was part of the mix. Anyway, I encouraged her to take our camera for pics for the school paper, or websites, or newspaper articles, which I am now in charge of.
And thus explains part of my chaos. Besides class work for 3 media classes, with it's own set of classwork projects, there's the mulitude of news media items to keep track of and then 2 gifted Language with 3 different large projects. I have a feeling that I will be doing a lot of grading work over Thanksgiving. This weekend, I am reading books I am not familiar with so I can grade book projects next week. I still have to find 2 more books. Thankfully, I have read the majority of those chosen!
Part of the proccess this week has been to organize my mind and the projects so it all becomes logical. The teacher left me with a clear plan (THANKFULLY) to follow.

National Honor's Society

STUCO

2009-11-05T06:53:00.002-07:00

It's been a good week-
Maura was invited to join the National Honors Society at her school. The Ceremony is on Monday evening. She received a letter in the mail from a college that, basically, gives her the option of heading to college now and the credits she earns will go towards HS and college. The drawback is that it's emphasizing math and science (which she says she sucks at) Free tuition sure is hard to pass up (along with those tantalizing mentions of their grads getting into MIT, Washington Univ, etc) I wish she could like science and math a little bit.
Delaney was reluctant to try out for Basketball for some reason, but she did and got on the team. I'm not much of a sport fan, but I'm all about doing what you love and if that means Basketball for Delaney, then I'm all for it.
Just to round out the parental blessings, Tyler met a girl and has been chatting to her alot this week. He's even mentioned college recently. Hmmm.. maybe a DL won't be far behind?
I called the neighbor's daughter about his situation and she has arrived to take him to the DR appt today. Hopefully, something will be decided while she's here and I won't feel so concerned about starting Monday working full time.
I'm looking forward to stepping into the classroom full time for a few months. teaching media, news media and gifted language arts. I've been subbing for 8 years now and I've come to realize the joy of that is walking into a situation cold and trying my best to teach the subject to my best ability. One day I am a special ed teacher working on the basic reading skills, the next, I'm teaching matter and elements in science. For now, for a few months, I'll be seeing the same kids and teaching the same lessons. I'm sure I'll find a different kind of joy in seeing a project compleated and a deeper appreciation of the students.

2009-10-31T08:38:00.003-06:00

Cell phone Zombies

Tyler as a Zombie

Zombies gathered for the 1st Flash Zombie Walk at the Branson Landing-2009

This was something cooked up by JJ, the manager of the Fudgery at Tanger. His wife, Karey, did a great job turning many of them into Zombies. Maura did her own thing. The reactions they got were fun. The smaller kids were scared, some adults acted like there wasn't zombies walking past them, but, most everyone enjoyed got into the spirit of the event. Some wanted their picture taken with the zombies. Afterwards, we all went to Waxy O'sheas for dinner, a showing of Day of the Dead and costume awards. Everyone talked about how to make it even better next year.

2009-10-25T09:07:00.005-06:00

Delaney is a teenager!

Happy Birthday to the baby of the family-

We are proud of all you do!