Lunch!

On our way to Greenfield Village we stopped at a fun Burger King.

Garden Helper

In a fashionable bathing suit!

Sweet Snack

Mary is thrilled with her chocolate covered cone!

At lunch

Ikea!

Reflecting

Commencement Day!

Easter Cookie

The girls were very proud of the cookies they decorated yesterday.

Mary

Mary meets a little lamb, fleece as white as snow...

Easter bunny!

Treat Time

Mary/Mama time.

Playing

Sweet sisters swinging

Lovely Ladies

Dress up!

Shopping

Spring dresses in style!

The Passing of a Legend

My Grandfather was buried today. The following is the eulogy that I wrote and read for him.

Poppy’s Pearls – My Grandfather’s Wisdom

My grandfather gave me these pearls, and I have cherished them every day, one by one. I am sure that each of you who knew Bob Peaslee knew about the pearls of wisdom that he modeled all of the time. In his long life, he showed me how to be a good person, one story at a time.

He showed me how to be a persistent person – When he was a young man, just in High School, he watched a pretty girl walk by his house every week on her way to violin lessons. When he decided he wanted to meet her, he took up playing violin himself – so that he could walk with her. Poppy played the violin on and off for the rest of his life. The pretty girl became his wife.

He showed me how to be a practical person – When he was searching for a job in college, he interviewed with the gas company. Because it was more affordable, Poppy rode an Indian brand motorcycle around Cincinnati. (As an interesting footnote, my Very Proper Grandmother zipped around with him in a side car!) During a particularly bad snowstorm, Poppy bundled up and rode into the interview. When he arrived, his competition was lined up – one pressed suit and polished pair of shoes after another. The interviewer came out of the office and saw Poppy, snow covered, in boots and a heavy coat and realized this was a man ready for action and hired him on the spot to do outside meter repairs.

He showed me how to be a person with a sense of humor – A metallurgist by career, his original interest was purely chemistry. My dad recalled a saying that always made Poppy chuckle: Once there was a chemist, but now he is no more, for what he thought was H₂O was H₂SO₄… In case your chemistry is a little rusty, the unfortunate example drank sulfuric acid in place of water – and in rhyme!

He showed me how to be a passionate person – He took up the field of brazing when it was in its infancy. He sold nickel brazing to manufacturers that, by his definition, didn’t know they wanted it. He would win them over by asking what problems they had, and then go about solving them with his new product. He developed and taught the Brazing School that was attended by international participants. He always talked about his adventures discovering the “footprints” that metals left behind. In his own words, he said, “Just like footprints in the sand tell a story by showing the direction someone has gone, how fast they were traveling, and the length of their stride, brazing footprints also tell a story of many variables and provide clues to the reasons certain conditions occur. One must know what to look for.” That quote is from the preface of his own book called “Brazing Footprints”. It was even translated to Japanese. He was so very proud of that.

He showed me how to be a diplomatic person – As a sort of mediator and purveyor of metallurgical goods, Poppy frequently found himself between the engineers and the metallurgists – kind of a brazing “rock and a hard place”. When he wanted to do something new, these two sides would come together to tell him why it wouldn’t work. The engineers would say, “that’s impossible!” and the metallurgists would proclaim, “the engine will fail if you do that!” Poppy would say, “Let’s let the engine decide whether it will work or not”. When the two parties got stuck and could not see the other person’s viewpoint, he’d bring out a ping pong ball that was painted black on one side only and hold it so that each side could only see one of the colors. When he would ask the one side, “What color is the ball?” It was, of course, always the opposite of the other team. When the whole ball was revealed, the meeting proceeded with a renewed camaraderie. He used to say, “Every problem has a solution, but the hardest are people problems!”

He showed me how to be a person of understatement – During a time 15 years ago when Poppy was under the weather, I called to ask him if we could come up and help him out. “That would be fine” was his reply. Probing, I asked if he needed the lawn mowed, since my husband was offering to take care of this. “Well, it’s growing” he stated. Upon seeing the “growing” lawn, it was clear that what he meant to say was, “Well, it’s becoming its own prairie”.

He showed me how to be a frugal person – on time we drove to the Post Office and he circled around a long time for a parking spot. Poppy passed up 2 or 3 good parking spots. I remarked that I had plenty of change if he needed some for a parking meter and he said he was looking for a meter that already had time left on it. I told him I would gladly contribute a nickel for the meter. Poppy explained that he only needed less than 5 minutes and there was no reason to pay for those few minutes if he didn’t have to. He asked me, “Do YOU have a penny for every minute of your day?” I never forgot that lesson.

He showed me how to be a person who loves the Earth – He always had a compost pile going from his garden and he always tended to his flowers with a consistent flare. When he became good friends with my maternal grandmother, he gladly planted the flowers she picked out in a section of his garden. One time he was taking a walk around my garden with me and he commented on my beautiful irises. I was flattered, but told him they had come from his garden originally. He said, “Well, good! You can give me some back!”

My grandfather was a strong, kind and generous person, known for his a suit and tie. Around the office he was known as “Bowtie Bob” – he didn’t know that. He was a knowledgeable and pragmatic man and we were all better people just by knowing him. The pearls of wisdom he gave me will never be forgotten and neither will he. Today we come together to honor and remember him. We do not say goodbye to him, but with the words of Mr. Yukimatsu who translated the Japanese version of Brazing Footprints, we say, “sleep restfully”.

If you would like to leave a message about my grandfather who passed last week, please click here.

Birthday Girl

Pump it Up birthday party with 25 of her closest friends. Emma found
this comfy spot to take a rest.

The New Yoga

Emma was trying to do yoga after I got done with my workout... I guess
this is what I look like to her!

Snow Fun

Snowball fights in the yard with the neighbors

Bread and Chocolates

With love!

Daisy event

Emma, Rhiann, Angel

Birthday Present

We all make good use of my new foot bath.

Celebrating Mum's Birthday

At dinner.

At a Birthday Party

The other mouse

Homework

Daddy helping Emma count 100 pennies.

Fun at Breakfast

Family movie night

At Emma's elementary school, the girls tuck in for a showing of Kung
Fu Panda.

Staring Down Saturday

All of the grading yet to be done... ((Yes, that is a BUCKET of papers)

Warming Up

Emma wears Daddy's sweater to warm up after dinner.

My Little Shadow

Mary colors while I fix soup and a roast.

Pajama Fun

Making cookies on our pajama snow day.

Ghost Town

It's so cold, even Sugartown is deserted...

Frozen Pond

Coldest day ever! The pond is still running underneath the ice.

Back to Normal?

Emma is back at school today, against her protests. Seems she really enjoyed a day with Mama, playing chess (8 times), making snowflakes, doing puzzles on the floor and watching a movie snuggled on the couch with me. I can't imagine why?! Well, she did enjoy it (go figure) and today it was next to impossible to push her out the door and that had nothing to do with the -10 wind chill. I traipsed back to work and had dissection day for my Anatomy students (brains!) and review sheets to the Chemistry classes for tomorrow's tests (hurray! Test Day Friday!). With any luck, and the snow dances of all Chemistry students in 126B (and possibly, but not necessarily, me), we will get a day off tomorrow and me and both of the girls can engage in day-off shenanigans. Hubby, on the other hand, is off on a business trip and will not be enjoying any stay home, day-off fun whatsoever. Sorry, Hubby!

Rest Day

Emma at home with a kidney infection. Keeping her quiet is nearly
impossible...

Fun times

Waiting at the Dr office

Afternoon walk

Giant "snow eggs" to the delight of the girls.

Laptop Nation

A family that computes together...

Christmas, disassembled

Taking it all down...

Sleepy

Charlie snuggling with sleepy Emma on our way home.

For the Love of the Game

Emma teaching Mary how to move chess pieces. Because we couldn't do
one more game today...

Favorite Presents

Both of the girls got modest piles of presents this year. Santa brought Mary a rocking chair, a new blankie, and her very own nutcracker. Emma received a sleeping beauty doll, a sleeping beauty horse that walks by itself, and a Barbie B smart computer. Mary is spending a lot of time reading books on her rocking chair with "New Ann" (her blankies are always named Ann). Emma is obsessed with a chess game we got her. OBSESSED. We have been playing it every minute of the day since yesterday morning. I am quite tired of the whole thing, as I have played no less than 10 games of chess since yesterday at 2 when we opened up the No Stress Chess game. And, incidentally, she read her first unassisted, unknown word when I put the board down. She said, "Rook! Mama, this says Rook." I asked her how she new that and she explained the whole process of knowing the word BOOK and replacing the "R" with the "B" and THERE YOU HAVE IT. Then she wanted to know what it meant and why it was printed on the board. We've been doing chess playing marathons ever since.

Resistance is Futile - You Will be Assimilated

This commercial is the undoing of all attempts at avoiding media control:


The girls hug the TV when this horrible thing comes on. The worst part? It is advertising TRADING CARDS. You know the girls are expecting fully animated horses that will befriend them and love them.

The robots are coming! The robots are coming!!!!! Save yourselves!!!!

Family Drive

Annual Lightfest

Lights for Dad and Mom

Lighted lighthouse!

Lights!

Creative Mary Toy

It's a bird, it's a plane, it's SUPER BOTTLE! That's from the doll
house and is wearing a tag from gloves. How can Christmas compare??

Another Santa visit

"A rocking chair to sit in by my window and my very own nutcracker".

Stolen Moment

Christmas House Tours

More photos at Kodak Gallery. We had a Christmas in the Village event where people got to see the decorations at 8 houses and we were one of them. It took us 4 full weeks of decorating, borrowing decorations from my Mom and Dad, borrowing expertise and help form my Mother-In-Law, and countless purchases at Michael's. I'm glad it's over!!!!

Holiday Egg Nog

Three chefs celebrate their posset.

Christmas house tour

String quartet on the balcony!

Santa steps

Almost done decorating!

Every now and then, I turn domestic...

I go back to work tomorrow, like a good portion of the United States professional world, and I don't want to go. It's a little bit of a selfish thing (ya think?) but when given a couple of days off, I fear returning to imposed order. And I want to quilt. I have never successfully quilted, so I don't know why I turn into quilt woman wannabe. For example, I LOVE this project - check out the mouse! And I want to embroider. And scrap book. I am not really thinking of new schedules (brand new trimester with new classes and new rosters!). Sure, I've got the lesson plans done, most of the copies made, the notes ready to be given, and the quizzes scheduled. I'd just rather be crafting. That is a sign. Usually a sign of stress, but I think it is more from a taste of freedom. Now, I know I'd be bored in a matter of days, but when facing down a whole new agenda and different classes than I've been teaching (in other words, no momentum), I'd rather not. Who would? At least I've got the summer. Isn't that just around the corner? In wild anticipation of all that time without tests, papers, and lesson plans, I think I'll order the Tulip Fairy Stitchette. Hooray for June!

Emma Evidence

When Emma gets a hold of my phone I find odd pictures of pet
elephants. Sally and Lucy look on defiantly here as they lay on the
pastry counter where they KNOW they are not allowed.

Christmas Village

Some of the Precious Moments sugartown village-couldn't fit it all in
one picture, but one more decorating thing is off the list!

Tommy Turkey Undercover

Emma's disguised turkey for school.

Tweet! Tweet!

I just signed on with Twitter, so if you are on Twitter, I am Sciteacher and we can Tweet!

Who Knew?

I got called back for my job! Three work days before the layoff was to start, with NO news either way, an innocuous envelope was delivered to my classroom door and signed for that said that my services would, indeed, be needed for this school year, if I wouldn't mind terribly. Otherwise, if I felt that I could not fulfill the duties outlined in the contract, please contact the superintendent of the district within 15 days. Get the chalk, Georgie, we're goin' in! Time to print some syllabi and assign some homework, because I'M BACK.