Time for Change!!!

I just got a Very Important Phone Call. Yep, it's the ONE I've been waiting for (in addition to that one that tells me I will still have a job) to make my decision. Barack Obama called ME. Sure, it was a recorded message, but it was for ME. At MY number. McCain hasn't called me. Hillary never called me. And Heaven knows Bush didn't pick up the phone and give me a ring with a happily recorded voice when he was running. Senator Obama told me how we need change. We need a new set of leaders - not Maverick-y people who hunt caribou or love George Bush's policies (he didn't say that directly, but I know what he was trying to say without really saying it). He told me WE NEED BARACK. And just because his recorded voice came over my phone, I think I'll go vote on Tuesday. I swear if your recorded voice calls me before then, I'll vote for you!

Trick or Treat!

Minnie Mouse and Sleeping Beauty chum it up before the big haul.

Minnie

Crazy hair day

Spirit week at school

Because I should be sitting down

It's not the best I've done, but the girls were thrilled....

Football, anyone?

I am not much of a sports fan, as much as anyone knows. Most of my friends and family know that I like to watch basketball on TV. Not religiously, but enough so that if it is on I will change the channel to see it- and I don't have a favorite, or even preferred team. Occasionally I will watch hockey, when it counts. When the Red Wings (our local team) is playing for keeps, I will watch. One time we even went to one of the sports bar type restaurants specifically to WATCH the Red Wings. Once. A long time ago. But if I am a casual sports enthusiast, my husband is a sports holdout. There is nothing about televised sports he tolerates well. For a while he even banned me from watching basketball (there's a long story there, involving a very bad back injury and a penchant for screaming at the TV while jumping around wildly, so he was well within his rights - but I cannot help but think he was glad to turn of the TV just because sports were on). It seems that we are an oddity among our peers and neighbors. Saturday afternoons in the fall see college flags sprouting out of houses like crocuses in the spring. Co workers have fantasy football and basketball teams and spend time breaking down the weekend matches.

Around here, there a few rival teams that you are supposed to pick from and root for. The first rivalry is University of Michigan versus Michigan State. My mom went to Michigan, and just to be contrary, every time those two teams were matched up I would bet against U of M for a week of no bed making or extra chores. I grew up in a time of Michigan's history when they NEVER lost. It sucked. But today, it seems, I should have bet something, because U of M is having a Very Bad Streak. Believe me, it crossed my mind. But I have never had any real loyalty there. The other strong rivalry, and maybe even bigger, is U of M and Ohio State. I have a very close friend that is a die hard OSU fan - her husband WENT to Ohio State and she must own every piece of clothing available to show your fealty. They both regularly attend OSU games, even now that they have 2 kids. This is big, folks. So last year, on the very day they were playing U of M I had to go to her house in a U of M sweatshirt. She almost didn't let me in. But, to hedge my bets, I had an OSU t-shirt on underneath. It works for me. But now something has changed. What? I don't know.

I have had coworkers all bent out of shape over the sports alignment before and I have ignored it. But it seems that this year is a little different. I think I am almost liking Ohio State. Why? Well, they seem to play a pretty good game. Their fans seem incredibly loyal. I like their colors and their songs. They have fun chants. It might be that last one. It's certainly NOT their mascot, Brutus. Why are they Buckeyes? Well, it IS about Ohio, where I guess they have a lot of those. But their little buckeye leaf reminds my of holly and Christmas time, and their oversized, anthropomorphized Aesculus species nut is a little worrisome. OK, a lot worrisome. And he dances. That is weird. But I digress. My coworker - the physics teacher across the hall - dissed Ohio State. That made me feel all protective of this team, for reasons unknown to me. So now I have aligned myself for the price of a bottle of Pepsi (which we both love more than Coke) with OSU. There. I did it. So I am watching the Ohio State vs. Penn State game right now (turns out Penn state is ranked #3 and OSU #10, so I am not sure what I have done here) and I have no idea why. I am struck by the overwhelming amount of RED in the crowd - Penn state seems under represented here. They keep up their chanting of O-H-I-O (I like that) and it is like a constant roar. Sounds like fun out there in Buckeye country. Strangely enough, I am a feeling a little bit like I should be wearing another color. I mean, looking at my green sweater you would have thought I was rooting for MSU today (only passively, of course), and at least I'm not wearing blue, which is Penn State's color. But I do feel like I'm missing out on some fraternal organization by not wearing red during this game. I mean, they DO look like they are having a lot of fun wearing red. It can't be the Nut dancing around because that is still weird. Very weird.

Emma is a Girl Scout!

Well, a Daisy Scout, at least. Thursday night we began the long career of Girl Scouts. At kindergarten (and now first grade as well), the girls are Daisy Scouts. I don't remember Daisy Scouts at all, so I don't know if they are a newer creation (well, in the last 30 years, I mean). What I do remember, is being a part of something BIGGER. I loved that. When I got to Jr. High, I still belonged, but we didn't do much. We were known by our leader as "closet Girl Scouts", because it wasn't "cool" to be in them. We just used it for time to sit around and talk, as young teens are want to do. So 5 little 5 year olds got together and learned hos to do the Girl Scout Promise. Tears threatened when Emma fashioned her fingers into the little hand symbol they use to recite the promise.


Then the Mommies got to order the little uniforms. They are blue (a color I never associated with scouts, to be honest) and we talked about the patches and badges they can get. Emma was not impressed with most of it, but she really enjoyed playing the drum set at the leader's house. She is also very excited about the idea that we are bringing snack next time. I remember being excited about snack. I also remember LOTS of little songs we learned and I think Emma will like that, too. She is also TERRIBLY excited about a mall sleep over the mothers talked about. You know, all of the IMPORTANT things the girl scouting brings to the table. Mary is jealous, of course. She keeps telling me that I shouldn't have picked Emma first, as if we went to some sort of Sam's Club for babies, saw them both sitting there, and chose Emma over her. Anyhow, I found out that Daisy Scouts sell COOKIES now (this is apparently a new thing). I can't wait until January!!!!!

Autumn Girls

Running errands with Mama

Black Friday?

In an effort to defray a projected 3.2 million dollar deficit in my school district, I have received one of these. Yes, Internet, it is to be wondered how cutting off my meager salary that is on the bottom of the pay scale can fix a budget flaw of that magnitude, but there you have it; a 33% cut in teaching staff proposed, increasing the day from 5 periods to 6, and raising the class limit to 35 students (a 30% increase in class size). It is a pending notice that starts December 1st if nothing else in the equation changes. Well, doesn't THAT make for a happy holiday season? Times are tough everywhere, I know, but you'll forgive me if I don't get out the fine linens.

Sick Day

Home with Mary.

At the Halloween store

Emma tries on a sweet ride.

Dinner Club

All set for a few (15) people tonight!

School Project

Emma's book bucket.

Darling Darla

Watching a remake of little rascals, we found an amazing likeness
right in our own family room!

Would You Like Fries with That? How About a Coke?

Today we had some errands to take care of and one of those included going right back to the mall we went to yesterday because the department store neglected to take the theft deterrent device off an outfit I bought for Emma. It was, of course, THE outfit she wanted to wear today (NOT tomorrow or next year, I was informed). So we trekked back there as a family and the girls played in the kids area while I went to fix the issue. On the way back I stopped into a popular soap and candle store to buy one scented foamy soap. Just one. Not three. Somehow this was very hard to get across to the staff. See, I only use the fancy soap at one sink in the house, due to the fact that the girls use soap like it is going out of style and I refuse to pay for fancy soap at every sink. So, I stopped in to get the one soap I needed. The floor staff was very solicitous and helpful, pointing out that there was this sale, see, and I could get THREE for the price of TWO. No, thanks, I said. But, she persisted, it's a SALE. Yes, I insisted, but I only want to spend $5. She wandered off and I went to the register. The cashier hardly wanted to ring up such a travesty of commerce and began with the same persuasion to purchase 3 soaps instead of 1. NO, I said, I don't WANT 3 soaps. But they won't go bad, she pushed. Thanks, I'm good with this. You would be getting one free!!! No, I would be paying twice as much for the ONE I want. Sheesh! When she finally got the hint, she felt compelled to show me the "cute little clutch purse" that was on sale FOR ONLY 5 DOLLARS!!!!! I. Just. Want. This. One. Soap. Nothing more. Next time maybe I'll wear one of those sandwich signs and put: The End Is Near. I Only Need One Soap! Or maybe I'll just ordered the darn thing online when there is free shipping.

Outing

Special Mama and Emma time. Mary and Daddy had their own adventure.

For My Dad, who surprised me today

Greetings again, Journiers. I am writing this because I called my parents this afternoon/evening on my way home from work (we dissected Owl Pellets today, Internet - MAD FUN!). AND GOT BLASTED. Apparently, my father has my blog on the equivalent of his home page and he is TIRED of looking at camping pictures of his grand daughters. Really, he said, I expected it to peter off NOT STOP ENTIRELY FOR THREE WEEKS. Well, I deserved that, I guess. What I did not expect is that he wouldn't let it go. Four or five times over. At one point I asked if he had seen the camping pictures and he said YES EVERY DAY FOR THE LAST THREE WEEKS!!!!! Ok, OK! I'll put another post up. But what to tell you all? School has started - yeah, you knew that. Emma started Kindergarten - old news. Mary is at daycare in a class without Emma - sad but true - also nothing new. There you have it, Journiers, we are on one of those stretches in life that is like driving through Ohio or Nebraska: you make progress but there's nothing much to report.

So there you have it, Dad. Corn fields as far as the eye can see.

More camping

Grandma Linda and Papa cooking hot dogs for dinner.

Camping at Papa's

Grandma Linda watching the girls enjoy the outdoors. This was after
some fishing and the campfire was set.

First Day!!!

Emmy has a pink bow on her head. She is doing well listening on her
first day!

Another Begining

Awwwww, Journiers! I see you've come by to check in with me... well, I'm doing just fine, thanks for asking. Of course, tomorrow is a big day, as you know! There's just about 10 useful minutes left in today before I crawl into bed and begin the rapid descent into tomorrow... Anxious? Well, yes, I must admit I am. There are a lot of things happening, after all, what with Emma going to Kindergarten and me starting up another year teaching all in the same day. Emma, by the way, has her clothes all laid out (even her shoes!), and her backpack all filled with first day things, sitting patiently by her bedroom door so that she can apparently dive right into her outfit and grab her bag in one sweeping movement on her way out the door. Mary is a little sad, wanting to be a part of the excitement somehow, and go with Emma. This will be the first time Emma is not in the classroom with her and she has some trepidation about that, too. We have tried everything we know how to make her Tuesday a special day, but it cannot compare. As for me, Internet, I have my copies made (for all week!), my lesson plans laid, and all things that need to be set up ready for tomorrow - as far as I can tell. See, this is the first year I will not have 3 or even 4 different classes to plan for. Think of that for a minute - my first year of teaching I had 4 different classes every day. That would be (EVERY DAY); 4 separate syllabi, 4 separate sets of notes, 4 separate group activities, 4 separate tests, 4... well, you get the idea. This first trimester of this year I have ONE class. That's it, Journiers, just one, all day long! I can't help but feel I've forgotten to do SOMETHING. Lunch? Did I not pack my lunch? Oh, yes, I've got sandwiches for the next 3 weeks made and frozen, waiting for me to pluck them out of the freezer every morning. Oh, maybe I haven't read the text... no, it's Biology. I've got that down just fine. Um, well, I can't seem to put my finger on it..... my first day outfit? Yeah, that's settled. Gas in the car? Of course Hubby already saw to that. Something to drink at school? Oh, yeah, I took a flat of water bottles in last week and filled my little fridge. I guess that only leaves a good night's sleep, which I am sure will be elusive. Maybe that is what I've forgotten- a little relaxation. It's hard to get that right now, returning back to work after 2 1/2 months, to new faces and names and a daughter in school. It seems, Journiers, that the one thing I need to be well prepared for tomorrow is the one thing I won't have. Now I understand why I feel like I've forgotten something!

Well, I should be off to chase that good night's sleep. Here ends my morning tea in the dining room, admiring the rose garden just outside the window, watching runners and dog walkers and mothers out and about much earlier than me. Here ends the snuggle naps with Emma, the rocking chair love with Mary, the fabulous long phone conversations with Lochmoor Mom, the trips to the Zoo and the pajama days that Emma always asks for. Here ends, my friends, time to think about things like laundry, seasonal decorations, and scrapbooking. Here ends my summer, Internet, and with it begins another 10 months of running and working and driving and teaching and tutoring and correcting and sports games and mothering and cooking and planning and doing everything except relaxing. Hats off to those who do this year round, as I can barely manage September through June. So, here we go again! Let the adventure begin!

At the movies

Fly to the Moon in 3D; everyone is waiting patiently for the movie to
start.

At kindergarten

Meet the teacher night.

Getting Ready

Emma, sitting at my front demo table where I teach. She and Mary came with me to "help" put up posters at my school. Their favorite thing to do was argue over who got to sit in the high stool Emma is in....

At the annual Corn Roast

Yummy cotton candy!

A Spinning Wheel Experience

With a scowling Emma

The Logical Pairing of a Snake and Cin

Some Marys have Little Lambs. Ours has a snake. Well, it's not a real snake, Internet, that would be another post entirely. She has a blanket and a vivid imagination. At the moment, this blanket has morphed into her 'pet snake', where she holds the corner a few inches down, making a fairly recognizable 'head'. I have humored this, mostly because it gives me a good excuse to sing, "Rattlesnake Bit the Baby" and "I'm Being Eaten by a Boa Constrictor" on a daily basis. I mean really, who could resist that??? And the question begs asking, why do I know so many snake songs? Anyhow, I digress: Mary has a snake. And an imagination.

Today, Mary decided to dress up to play. She put on her Cinderella dress and became a veternarian (which explains her fabulous pets). She also informed me that she could not have a full name until she had two jobs (I have no idea what this means, I am merely the messenger here), so until then I had to call her Cin (pronounced "sin"). And, she prodded, this is my snake. Well, I had to ask, you know, what the snake's name was. "Snake" she told me. "I'm Cin and this is Snake." Cin and Snake were as tight as old buddies all afternoon, wandering around the house arm in arm, even eating together (although there were no apples at dinner).

All in all, I just thought that it was odd that a 4 year old (who doesn't see the inside of a Church, I'm afraid to admit) can come up with such a pairing. It gives sudden creadance to unlikely probabilities like the Infinite Monkey Theorem. There's just no telling what else could surface here along the Journey!

Visiting School

Emma, in full first day of school regalia, visiting her school. The
excitement can be tasted.

School Shopping

Little Helper

Mary helping in the garden.

10 Things to Do While in Minneapolis

A list of things one could (hypothetically) enjoy:

1. See a movie
2. Eat at Enjoy!
3. See Chihuly glass chandeliers at Palomino's restaurant
4. Shop for new running shoes
5. Shop for a fancy dress
6. Run a half marathon
7. Take a 3 hour segway tour
8. Go to a wine tasting/barbecue
9. Eat at Hell's Kitchen (except the wait was prohibitive in our case)
10. Visit Yoda and friends at the science museum

Oh, and spend time with your BFF from grade school while wonderful husbands take care of all of the household and children paraphernalia. Hurray for husbands!

PS- YES I RAN A HALF MARATHON!!!!!

Science and Star Wars Exhibit

Minneapolis Science Museum

Women on a "stick"

On a tour!

Learning to ride a Segway

Headed out for a tour of Minneapolis on a Segway.

Well Heeled

Emma handling Charlie like a pro as Mary runs ahead (see, always
running) on a family walk.

At the Farmer's Market

Fresh corn!

Caught her!

At Target, dressed to match

Almost done!

Pond, looking good!

Emma the Incredible and her sister, Mary the Amazing

You may have noticed, Internet, that there are quite a few pictures of Mary and maye a serious lacking in the Emma Grace photo department. You would be right, you amazingly observant frequent Journiers! (Wait - did I just coin a phrase? I did! You fabulous friends that visit are hereby known as Journiers! And I am in love with my exclamation points tonight! Aren't you glad you stopped by?) Anyhow, back to the subject, which is the elusive 5 year old living here. Two things to note: 1) she does not like her picture taken. She now hides when the camera (or camera phone!) comes out. She is a victim of a scrapbooking, web blogging mother and she fears being captured on digital film. Also, and almost more importantly, 2) she does not sit still or stop moving long enough for me to get a picture. Usually her fleetness requires me to run after her, stopping her from imminent injury (or worse) and leaves me little time to grab a camera and take a flash photo. I am sure that in a short period of time Mary will accomplish the same degree of camera shyness and pictures will continue on, consisting only of things the girls have done in the minute before I grabbed a camera to record the moment and not actually any little people. There will be evidence of them, but probably fewer actual instances of smiling, shining little faces. Until then, Journiers, you will get to see lots of sweet Mary (mostly from behind, I am noticing, but occasionally from the front). I hope you can live with this, this small piece of the children growing up, because that is what I see, increasingly - the back of their heads as they push forward and continue to explore the world Out There, always in front.

Early Morning Melody

Mary, composing a "pretty song about Nemo's Mama and Daddy getting
married" for my morning enjoyment.

Summer Ride

Mary flies along on a beautiful summer evening during a family bike
ride.

The Birthday Chronicles and Wii Fit

Well, Internet, we had a nice time yesterday, completing the round of birthday celebrations for Mary's 4th. In our house it seems that birthday parties must be spread over a week's time, with school celebrations, dinner at a place where they usher in your new year with a song and a sundae, a party for the friends and a party for the family. So while Mary has been celebrating for over a week now, we finally concluded it all with a day long fiesta yesterday. Phew! Both of the girls had a great time seeing their cousins, Aunts, Grandmas, Grandpas (and Great Grandpas!) and extended family. There were Easy Bake Ovens, fabulous Dr. Seuss books, cute clothes, sparkly cards, Webkinz frogs, kid Cranium games, Princess birthday cake, superman ice cream in fun cupcake liners, Nemo pinatas and loads of food. Oh, yeah, and there was the Wii game time.

After a bit of time we pulled out the Wii. Kids were enchanted. Adults were amazed. It was better than when microwave popcorn first came out and everyone WATCHED it while it was popping! Most of the adults gave it a go, just to see if they could manage around a Mario Kart race track and the 2 year old twins found it enthralling to hold the steering wheels to no apparent affect. But it really was my cousin Darrell who enjoyed the challenges the most. At 13, who wouldn't? He showed off his maneuvering potential for a while, playing against Emma and easily winning. Then he tried the Wii fit. Have you seen the Wii fit games?



Well, Darrell enjoyed a lot of them, including soccer. He did great! It inspired me to get on the Wii Fit board later that night and beat every one of his top scores. It was the first time I had stepped on it even though Hubby has been doing it for 2 weeks now. So, my Wii Fit age is below my real age (yippee!!!) and my BMI falls within the 'normal' category (hurray!) and I can do yoga ans ski jumps and all sorts of fun to be fit things that will help me get rid of some excess baggage while quietly squashing other people's high scores (including Hubby's!). I am finding this latest installation of Wii games to be very satisfying indeed...

After the Party

With no nap and extended celebrations, Mary took her bedtime into her own hands long before everyone left.

The Pond Man Cometh

Soon our rocks, our fish, and our plants will fill this hole (along
with 1,000 gallons of water) and our pond will have been completely
"moved" from our last house. Exciting times!

McDonald's Birthday Party

Birthday girl

Happy 4th Birthday, Mary

At our traditional Red Robin celebration for family birthdays.

Village Picnic Activities

Emma and Mary race thru the inflatable course at our annual family
picnic for the village.

More Chemistry teacher seminar

Demos!

Chemistry Teacher Seminar

Flame test ferris wheel

Nature Walk Sunday

Local trails

Ms. Competitive Update and a Namesake

Recently, I wrote a post about my inherent sense of competitiveness. Amazingly, it generated a lot of discussion between myself and many people. So, recently, when I was talking to one of those people, I mentioned that there was an update on the blog entry - a punch line, if you will. If you have not read the post, I suggest that you do that before reading the rest of this one. Back at the ranch, I worked on Claire de Lune for about a week. Now a week doesn't sound like a long time, knowing what you know about me. But what you don't know is that I found out that Mr. Perfect was not playing the piano that night. IT WAS A PLAYER PIANO. ****HE**** prefers Rhapsody in Blue, which I do not like and will not work on at all! So, after making some progress on the singularly difficult piece I wandered off to other tasks. (It bears mentioning here that I still haven't made it to run 7 miles, although I did get to 5). Mr. Perfect diverted his attention the past weekend applying an epoxy floor to his garage, which I independently decided to do with our garage as soon as possible. I am, however, secure in the knowledge that my garage is bigger than his. Take that!

In other matters, we lack an odd thing. We don't lack for much here - although sometimes I could really use a Twix bar - but we find ourselves coming back to this same discussion again and again [dramatic pause!]:

We need a name for our house.

We have a funny habit of naming things that aren't necessarily in need of names, such as pianos and cars, and, well, houses. Our last house was Crestmore Cottage (take a quick glance at your address bar at the top of the browser - And now you know). The house before that was Elm Hollow (a personal favorite, named after Agatha Christie's 3 act play The Hollow, which we converted into a murder mystery dinner and "killed off" a good portion of our guests playing the parts). ANYHOW, we are undecided over here in our new house, only down the block from Crestmore Cottage, as to what we should name the place. The past names have always included some permutation of the name of the street. For example, Elm Hollow was on Elmhurst St. The street we are currently on is named after a president and I don't like the idea of including the name in our choice. I looked to literature first, as I like to say I did with my daughters' names (one could say they both came from Jane Austen characters), and I immediately went to my favorite book of all times: Jane Eyre. Thornfield Hall was not exactly what I was looking for, especially since the place burns dramatically at the end of the book - although we do have a tower where we could lock a crazy first wife, if only I weren't the first wife. My husband did some research on Napoleon. Why? I wish I could see your face, Internet, while you TRIED to make a connection with a potential reason for this. See, the house is built in second empire style, which is a reference to Napoleon III's reign in France. Moving right along, he came up with the name Fortune (for-tun-EH), which is the name of Josephine's dog that bit Napoleon. For which he proposed Le Maison Fortune, which is a play on words, since it cost us what we consider to be a fortune, but could mean that it is a place of good fortune. I like everything except the Fortune part, because no one would ever realize that it is the French word. And so the debate remains, as we drink some French wine, in a French styled house, considering and debating a French name. And I bet the guy next door doesn't have a name for HIS house.