Family

I have family visiting, which is either good or bad. My niece and her husband are here for tonight and tomorrow from Colorado. My parents are also here, but until Monday morning. We are probably headed up to Hogle Zoo tomorrow. We have never been although D and I pass the turn off every time we go to gymnastics at the U. The zoo has a baby elephant, so I'm sort of excited.

My house is semi-clean. I have two bathrooms that are okay and part of the living room is actually walkable. I'll see how much more I can get done tomorrow morning.

Click here to place a Stampin' Up order

latest cards

These are holders for gift cards. I got the idea from Angie (click here for her blog Chic' n Scratch). I didn't have the stamp set she was using nor the designer paper, so I looked through my stash (yes, I already have one) to find some DP that I liked for these. One is for my niece and the other for her husband.

Supplies used (all are SU! unless otherwise stated):

stamp set: Organic Grace (retired Hostess level 1 from Fall/Winter '08 IBC)
paper: Night of Navy, Brocade Blue, and Garden Green CS, Prestwick DP (ret.)
ink: Basic Grey classic
accessories: SNAIL adhesive, dimensionals, and white medium envelope

Supplies used (all are SU! unless otherwise stated):

stamp set: Eastern Blooms
paper: Kiwi Kiss (ret. '08-'09 In-Color), Pretty in Pink, and Whisper White CS, Raspberry Tart DP (ret.)
ink: Kiwi Kiss (ret. '08-'09 In-Color) classic
accessories: SNAIL adhesive, dimensionals, and white medium envelope

These have two slots inside—one for the gift card and the other for a little note. These were super easy and fast to make. I think it took longer to select the stamp set and DP than it did to make each one.

The emotional ups and downs of an over-stressed life

Well, March is over. Did anyone tell Mother Nature? It has been snowing and raining this week and cold. I thought this was April. Oh wait I live 5000 feet up and this is April weather.

The re-model is in its sixth month and unfortunately nothing is really happening. Jeff is busy teaching and grading papers, so he can only accomplish so much on the weekends. For him, school is out in a month. Of course softball starts at that point or maybe earlier, but eventually we will no longer have drywall dust everywhere. Let's not go toward the clothes that line all the floors. No closet upstairs at the moment. However, that is not the only problem with the clothes situation, but I won't go into that right now.

I have been an emotional wreck this week. It all started on Monday. I hate ants. I loath, despise, hate, abhor, etc. ants. Well I got to school and there were ants all over my desk. I had left an open package of Thin Mints on my desk. The ants crawled in a diagonal from the corner of the room, under my printer stand and up my desk to reach this package. I have never had this problem. I found a custodian pdq and let him take care of the problem. All classes were held in the library that day.

Tuesday—lunchtime. There are ants all over my microwave and refrigerator. I have a microwave and refrigerator in my classroom for 15 years no problem. That was the week. I don't even know if I can go back on Monday.

No one wants to see me when I have a melt-down from ants. Today driving home from the U in rain a cat decided to race in front of my car in Moroni. I tried to stop in time, but I don't think that I did. There was no way I was getting out of the car to check. By the time I got home, emotional basket-case.

My mother is in a nursing home because her right leg is paralyzed. She walked into the hospital to have back surgery and now she can use her right leg. My father, bless his soul, is of course, considering suing the surgeon. My poor mother has been there for a month. They won't let her go home to a mutli-storied house until she can walk and she can't walk!!! Pain management has changed in the last decade or so. Instead of managing pain, it seems that doctors allow pain until the patient screams and the he or she does something about the pain.

I follow several blogs and one of them had the distressing news of five month old little boy who is trying to stay alive. Some how or other I have become caught up in this Minnesota family's problems.


Somehow it has become important to follow this family through their problems. I have no idea why.

Yet another birthday!

Today, Jeff is 46! Happy birthday dear.

When we were pregnant with D, the only request Jeff had besides a healthy baby was for a different delivery day than his birthday. Bad enough that it is so close to Christmas, he just didn't want to share it. You know I don't blame him. Until family members started to die of old age, we had quite the holiday birthdays going. Here's the list:

• Dec. 15: Carl Gassen (my brother-in-law's father, died March 2006, in his 90's)
• Dec. 17: Lillian Coryell (my father's mother, died Aug. 2003, 91 1/2)
• Dec. 18: Deirdre
• Dec. 24: Grandma Dottie (my mother-in-law's mother, she's been gone for awhile. Awful of me, but I don't remember when she passed away. After D was born, I do know that. Pretty sure she was in her 90's too)
• Dec. 25: Brian Harris (our nephew on Jeff's side, Phyllis' son)
• Dec. 28: Jeff
• Dec. 29: Charlie Carney (my stepmother-in-law, I think that's her birthday, awful again of me, 20 years and I'm still not sure)
• Dec. 29: Linda Spencer (my cousin Jim's wife, again I'm not positive, but pretty sure)
• Dec. 31: Fred Spencer (my cousin)

Quite the collection of birthdays there in a two week time. Plus in January are four more: 5th: Nicole Spencer (daughter of Linda), 18th: Jim Spencer (husband of Linda), 28th: Barbara Spencer (mother of Jim and my aunt obviously), and 30th (I'm pretty sure on the date and don't feel like going upstairs to check my planner): John Carney (brother to Jeff).

The home remodel is moving along. Jeff has been stringing speaker wire the last few days. The new sound system will be on the south side of the new room. Wire needs to go to the speakers in the living room and the kitchen, plus the speakers in the new room. We have the most amazing speakers in our kitchen! I love being able to put on music and have it play in there, but not be blaring through-out the house so that I can hear it in the kitchen. Right now they aren't attached to anything, as we are listening to everything off of the TV sound system. Sounds complicated right?! You see Jeff builds speakers too. So, we have amazing speakers in our living room and we had speakers in our old sitting room for the TV. Now that the TV is in the living room :( all are connected to the receiver for the TV. But the kitchen ones are still (or were until today) connected to the receiver for the stereo system. Sorry, I just don't seem to be able to explain it properly.

Back to wiring: almost all of the electrical is finished. Jeff thinks we can hang drywall on Tuesday. Yippee! So, I'll be off to school tomorrow. The semester ends the Friday after we return (idiotic, I know) and I am nowhere near being ready with assignments to grade. I also need to prepare some for next semester.

D spent Friday and part of yesterday at Sarah's. They had a sleep-over and played Nintendo DS a lot. Sarah invited another girl over, Savannah, and the three had a blast. She has been pretty much reading and playing new DS games since Christmas. Last night we played Harry Potter Clue. It's a little different from the traditional game. For instance, you have to make your final accusation in Dumbledore's office. So if several people think they know the answer, it's a race to see who can get to the office faster. We played two games and if I remember correctly, D won both of them. We had a lot of fun; it's been awhile since we played a family game.

Paul Newman's death

One of my favorite actors died last night. Paul Newman was only 83, but cancer can get you at any age. When I came home from the Bridging and Awards Ceremony, Jeff told me. I realized that I really don't know any of the "young" actors. So, all the actors/actresses that I love are dying off. I loved the following quote from Robert Redford:
"There is a point where feelings go beyond words. I have lost a real friend. My life — and this country — is better for his being in it." — Robert Redford.
As a family, we watched in August The Sting and "Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid. So, Deirdre knows who he was and, of course, he was in Cars two years ago.

What a sad day for Joanne Woodward and the world in general. They were married for 50+ years. Such an uncommon occurrence in Hollywood. It probably helped that their main home was Connecticut. There are certain actors that you really don't want to ever die, because when they do, it draws home the age of your parents.

Yesterday was my mother-in-law's 75th birthday. I have decided that parents are not allowed to ever die. I, personally, can't imagine life without those people in my life. Even if I don't contact them as often as I should, I know that they are in Salisbury, MD or LaGrange, IL living their lives. The very thought that they might not be is awful to say the least.

Deirdre had Parent/Teacher Conferences on Thursday. She has straight "A's." Her mid-term shows a "C" for Orchestra, but she didn't know that she was supposed to be handing in practice sheets. That grade was resolved, and even more importantly by Deirdre, not me. She has had to learn to talk with teachers herself. I can't always "bail" her out. This becomes even more important as she gets older. Her current goal now is to start college two years before the rest of her age group at 16 instead of 18. With the grade skip and the fact that she can easily earn 7 credits a year instead of 6, like the rest of her friends, it will probably happen. This means that in five years (!!!), she might be off to college.

Tomorrow, I will post pictures from the Bridging and Awards Ceremony for Scouts. My girls are now official Cadettes.

Violin

All of the sixth graders have to take either orchestra, band, or chorus; Deirdre chose orchestra. When she moved into seventh grade, she stayed in orchestra. She chose to play the violin. I have no idea how difficult it is in comparison to other instruments having never played anything except the recorder (badly) and "banging" on the piano. I do know that many children (students) play the flute. Three of my Girl Scout troop girls are playing the flute.

With my tin-ear, or whatever it is, I can sort of tell when D can't hit a note correctly, but other than that I have no clue. I have almost no rhythm sense. When I had bad days during my dancing years, my teacher would have to clap the beat for me. When we did solo work across the floor I had to count from the start to the end of the entire group demonstrating. This meant counting to eight for five minutes or so. Anyone reading this who was a student when I did the Junior Prom will now understand why every song had to have a strong beat. If it didn't, I couldn't pick it out and teach the dance.

Deirdre is one of four new violinists in seventh grade, so they are "taught" by an eighth grader. Clarissa must have the patience of a saint to help these seventh graders. She is awesome fierce on the soccer field too! We love Clarissa!! And she lives around the corner!!! (I'm liking exclamation points tonight!!)

Deirdre is following in her great-grandmother's footsteps by picking up the violin. My grandmother played until she got married. My great-aunt, her sister, played the piano and could have been a concert pianist, but in 1924 women didn't do that. They got married instead. In hindsight, she should have been the concert pianist; she would have been much happier. My cousin, Jim, also played the violin. I always wanted to play and instrument, but there wasn't money for my ballet lessons ($1200 a year+), and instrument lessons. Plus, it wasn't like here in Ephraim where someone knows someone who teaches piano or another instrument. The suburbs of Chicago are a lot harder, surprisingly, to find teachers of instruments.

Right now, Jeff is helping D with her timing on "Ode to Joy". She has the notes down, but her timing is lacking. Some of her lack of timing is that she is not 100% sure of the notes yet, but as she improves, so will her timing.