This is the first road trip I've ever taken when I had the car looked at before we left. And also the first time the mechanic said there was nothing wrong! Drive it to Michigan! And so we did.
We drove to the church yesterday and I mentioned to Mark that the steering wheel was kind of shaking and feeling a little funny. He couldn't feel it as a passenger, and we just shook it off. When we got to the church, the air had a really weird smell. When we got back to the hotel, THAT air had the same really weird smell. Curious. Was the smell following us?
Mark smelled around the tires and figured out it was actually us that was smelling. Duh. He drove to WalMart, where they could not look at it and would be closed Sunday. But he talked to Sears and they'd be ready to look at it first thing in the morning.
After some detective work it was determined that a brake pad had gotten stuck, causing so much heat that the rotor warped and the calipers fused together. Nice.
Of course there are no calipers to be had in Saginaw on a Sunday morning. They did have everything else, though, so they were going to try to get the calipers apart and see if it was drivable then. They used compressed air and mechanic mojo and got them apart, and cleaned them really well. Everything else was replaced.
They are 100% positive we are safe and able to get home. That's from the mechanics at the Sears in Saginaw, if that ever needs to be documented!
We'll be making our way home shortly and I'm sure it will be uneventful. Hm.
Sent on the Sprint® Now Network from my BlackBerry®
Sunday, May 23, 2010
Thursday, May 20, 2010
IMG00097-20100520-2220.jpg
My aunt (mother of the groom) that we haven't seen for 20 years pulled in right next to us at the same time! That was really fun. We haven't seen anyone else yet but that should all get underway tomorrow.
I got a call from my back up doula that my June 1 client went into labor around 7:00 tonight so I won't get to be there for her birth. I was her doula for her first birth and she chose me for the second time too - I can't believe I won't be there :( I am really bummed about that. She is in fantastic hands, so all is well. Who really needs income anyway?!
The trip was mostly uneventful. The girls did great and entertained themselves almost the whole way. They got a bit antsy the last 45 minutes or so, but I think we all did. It was a long 45 minutes!
I think they were most impressed by the various (to them) interesting things you can see in gas stations. It was really funny to watch them walk around wide-eyed on their way to the bathrooms. Glittery dragons and jelly doughnuts and barbecue potato chips IN THE SAME STORE?! When you have never been inside a gas station, who needs Disneyland?
More tomorrow!
Sent on the Sprint® Now Network from my BlackBerry®
Tuesday, May 11, 2010
Worth a post . . .
Alright - so LOTS has happened that has been worth a post. But I have 1 hour before I pick up Jillian and this is driving me crazy. So I am posting.
I try very hard not to talk too much about the public school system around here (JCPS) because I do not want to sound judgemental toward those who send their children to publics schools. We have chosen not to send our girls there, and I do not want to come across sounding elitist - or whatever - about that decision. But this is my blog so I get to say whatever I want.
About a month ago, I got so ticked off about a quick news story concerning the school board needing to have a session regarding the budget. They were having to create at least twenty new bus routes for next year to meet this new goal : No child would have to ride the bus for more the 75 minutes. WHAT ?!?! Where do I even begin? First of all, what the hell kind of goal is that? 75 minutes? they are hoping the possibly no child would be on a bus for more than one hour and 15 minutes? That is just totally insane to me. Granted, it is better than the kindergarteners that get off the bus in our neighborhood at 5:30 or later. But it is not a goal to be proud of. It is ridiculous. Secondly, it is proof positive that JCPS had lost site completely of the issues they have created for themselves. The problem is NOT that there are not enough bus routes. MAYBE we should not be bussing children all over creation to send them to school. I pass three public elementary schools on my 20 minute drive to Erin's school. Yet there is a really good chance that she would not attend ANY of them had we chosen public school for her. Most of the buses in our neighborhood do not go to those schools. The more times JCPS tries to fix this, the more convoluted, complicated and absurd the problem gets. It just blows my mind that this is not abundantly clear.
NEXT:
Two weeks ago, standardized testing began across the county. Now anyone who has ever had this conversation with me knows my stand on this issue, and it's another blog entry entirely to discuss it. Let's just say for now I don't like standardized testing. At all. So anyway, all across the county kids in public schools are taking standardized tests to prove what they have learned and how good their schools and teachers are. Schools and teachers can loose funding if their scores are consistently not good enough (that makes sense - let's take money away from the schools that aren't doing well), teachers can loose their jobs and schools could be closed if students consistently do poorly enough on the tests. So on the Monday of this big testing week, the local news does a peice: "Be sure your kids are eating a healthy breakfast and getting plenty of sleep. It's testing week!" OH MY GOSH!! Are you people serious?! First of all, has the news ever once mentioned before that kids should eat a healthy breakfast and get enough sleep? NOPE - not until testing week! And HELLO?!?! Should kids be eating a healthy breakfast and getting enough sleep BECAUSE it is testing week, or because it is GOOD FOR THEM EVERY SINGLE DAY?!?!? Good freakin' grief.
And then last night, JCPS just sent me over the edge. Really.
A day ago, the superintendent announced that one middle school would be closed based on their consistently poor testing scores (see previous rant.) So the news interviewed a representative of JCPS who clearly thought that this school should stay open. Please understand that this is someone who represents JCPS, who was allowed to talk to the media on the behalf of JCPS. She said that the Frost Middle School has 90% free/reduced lunch kids, many of them are homeless, they come from broken homes. They just can't expect these kids to make the same test scores as kids from other schools.
AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
WHAT?! I could barely pick my jaw off the floor. Ok - if I was going to give that quote the very reaches of the benefit of the doubt . . .if the standardized tests do not measure what ALL kids can learn, then OBVIOUSLY they are not an adequate, reliable, appropriate measure for the success or failure of a school.
However, that is not my problem with this statement. My problem is that this statement epitomizes another example of the way JCPS has completely lost site of the CHILDREN it is supposed to be serving. If you serve a population that are facing those kinds of challenges, and you believe that they cannot succeed the way other kids can succeed, than they are absolutely not going to. Of course that school is not 'successful'. It is not expected to be. And it is not just that school, it is the overall attitude that that's how it works that just burns me up.
(The superintendent has since decided that rather than closing the school he would fire a bunch of teachers and the principal. I don't think this really changes my point at all. I just thought I should include it.)
I really don't like to rant and rave about something without coming up with a solution. But this system is too big, and frankly too broken, for me to fix (God grant me the serenity . . .) All I can do is continue to go broke (and let my dad go broke!) sending my children to a school that is not part of this screwed up system.
I try very hard not to talk too much about the public school system around here (JCPS) because I do not want to sound judgemental toward those who send their children to publics schools. We have chosen not to send our girls there, and I do not want to come across sounding elitist - or whatever - about that decision. But this is my blog so I get to say whatever I want.
About a month ago, I got so ticked off about a quick news story concerning the school board needing to have a session regarding the budget. They were having to create at least twenty new bus routes for next year to meet this new goal : No child would have to ride the bus for more the 75 minutes. WHAT ?!?! Where do I even begin? First of all, what the hell kind of goal is that? 75 minutes? they are hoping the possibly no child would be on a bus for more than one hour and 15 minutes? That is just totally insane to me. Granted, it is better than the kindergarteners that get off the bus in our neighborhood at 5:30 or later. But it is not a goal to be proud of. It is ridiculous. Secondly, it is proof positive that JCPS had lost site completely of the issues they have created for themselves. The problem is NOT that there are not enough bus routes. MAYBE we should not be bussing children all over creation to send them to school. I pass three public elementary schools on my 20 minute drive to Erin's school. Yet there is a really good chance that she would not attend ANY of them had we chosen public school for her. Most of the buses in our neighborhood do not go to those schools. The more times JCPS tries to fix this, the more convoluted, complicated and absurd the problem gets. It just blows my mind that this is not abundantly clear.
NEXT:
Two weeks ago, standardized testing began across the county. Now anyone who has ever had this conversation with me knows my stand on this issue, and it's another blog entry entirely to discuss it. Let's just say for now I don't like standardized testing. At all. So anyway, all across the county kids in public schools are taking standardized tests to prove what they have learned and how good their schools and teachers are. Schools and teachers can loose funding if their scores are consistently not good enough (that makes sense - let's take money away from the schools that aren't doing well), teachers can loose their jobs and schools could be closed if students consistently do poorly enough on the tests. So on the Monday of this big testing week, the local news does a peice: "Be sure your kids are eating a healthy breakfast and getting plenty of sleep. It's testing week!" OH MY GOSH!! Are you people serious?! First of all, has the news ever once mentioned before that kids should eat a healthy breakfast and get enough sleep? NOPE - not until testing week! And HELLO?!?! Should kids be eating a healthy breakfast and getting enough sleep BECAUSE it is testing week, or because it is GOOD FOR THEM EVERY SINGLE DAY?!?!? Good freakin' grief.
And then last night, JCPS just sent me over the edge. Really.
A day ago, the superintendent announced that one middle school would be closed based on their consistently poor testing scores (see previous rant.) So the news interviewed a representative of JCPS who clearly thought that this school should stay open. Please understand that this is someone who represents JCPS, who was allowed to talk to the media on the behalf of JCPS. She said that the Frost Middle School has 90% free/reduced lunch kids, many of them are homeless, they come from broken homes. They just can't expect these kids to make the same test scores as kids from other schools.
AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
WHAT?! I could barely pick my jaw off the floor. Ok - if I was going to give that quote the very reaches of the benefit of the doubt . . .if the standardized tests do not measure what ALL kids can learn, then OBVIOUSLY they are not an adequate, reliable, appropriate measure for the success or failure of a school.
However, that is not my problem with this statement. My problem is that this statement epitomizes another example of the way JCPS has completely lost site of the CHILDREN it is supposed to be serving. If you serve a population that are facing those kinds of challenges, and you believe that they cannot succeed the way other kids can succeed, than they are absolutely not going to. Of course that school is not 'successful'. It is not expected to be. And it is not just that school, it is the overall attitude that that's how it works that just burns me up.
(The superintendent has since decided that rather than closing the school he would fire a bunch of teachers and the principal. I don't think this really changes my point at all. I just thought I should include it.)
I really don't like to rant and rave about something without coming up with a solution. But this system is too big, and frankly too broken, for me to fix (God grant me the serenity . . .) All I can do is continue to go broke (and let my dad go broke!) sending my children to a school that is not part of this screwed up system.
Sunday, March 21, 2010
Catch up . . .
Does it count if it is really the next day in my mind?? When I woke up this morning I realized I hadn't blogged since Wednesday, but it didn't AT ALL seem like it had been a little over three days. SORRY . . .I just haven't been able to stay awake long enough!
THURSDAY:
Birth went great, exactly as planned, awesome family, healthy baby and actually positive experience at Suburban (which is rare.) I won't go into it here as most of my readers aren't all that interested in the details. Let it suffice to say that newborn care (and really even labor and delivery) at Suburban all of a sudden has taken a MAJOR turn for the better in the last few weeks and I hope that it wasn't just a fluke. I got home about 6:00pm, but with a splitting headache (which I usually have after a birth, regardless of how long I am gone.) So I ate and went to bed. I purposefully do not have any clients for April. Although I will miss the income very much, I have to build in some down time or I end up hating babies and their stupid pregnant mothers. :)
FRIDAY:
I chaperoned a field trip with Erin's class to see "If You Give A Pig A Party" at Stage One. This was super cute, very fun and the kids enjoyed it. We were back to Chance by 11:30. The funniest part was when the two girls I drove in my van (along with Erin) got in, they asked me if I could turn on some music. I asked them if they were in their car, what would they be listening to? In unsion, they both yelled, "LADY GAGA!!!" Seriously?!? They are 6! I apologized that I was not cool enough to have any Lady Gaga on hand, and resisted offering some good Music Together or Harry Connick, Jr. We just listened to the radio instead. After that, I had a fabulous afternoon of QDoba in the sunshine with Helga. After lunch, she said, "Now we need ice cream! Is there ice cream around here?!" We were in Westport Village and I couldn't believe she had not even heard of The Comfy Cow! I couldn't throw away my trash fast enough, and I practically galloped there. Apparently all special times lead to Comfy Cow, because when we walked in we ran into Mark and Jillian, who had just come from Hounz Lane park. So we had ice cream together before I went to pick up Erin. Next, I finished all accounting for the Girl Scouts, got the cshier's check and turned in our final payment for cookies. For the most part, 2010 cookie sale is OVER!!!!!
SATURDAY:
Erin and I spent the entire day at Camp Shanituck, the Girl Scout Camp in Shepherdsville, with 9 of our other Daisy Scouts and 6 of their parents. We did crafts, took a hike, did a princess obstical course, took out the trash for the camp, beaded braclets for autism, played games, ate lunch . . . a major day of fun and scoutin'. All the girls really enjoyed it, and I did to. I was glad the weather held out - it turned out to be a gorgeous day. Now I feel like I know my way to and around camp. This will be where we go each day for a week this summer (July?) so it was a good preview.
TODAY:
YEAH birthday breakfast for Brian!! Now the girls are palying outside and I am trying my darndest not to do anything. Maybe knit, eat a bowl of ice cream, not much more than that.
There - does that count for three posts in one??
THURSDAY:
Birth went great, exactly as planned, awesome family, healthy baby and actually positive experience at Suburban (which is rare.) I won't go into it here as most of my readers aren't all that interested in the details. Let it suffice to say that newborn care (and really even labor and delivery) at Suburban all of a sudden has taken a MAJOR turn for the better in the last few weeks and I hope that it wasn't just a fluke. I got home about 6:00pm, but with a splitting headache (which I usually have after a birth, regardless of how long I am gone.) So I ate and went to bed. I purposefully do not have any clients for April. Although I will miss the income very much, I have to build in some down time or I end up hating babies and their stupid pregnant mothers. :)
FRIDAY:
I chaperoned a field trip with Erin's class to see "If You Give A Pig A Party" at Stage One. This was super cute, very fun and the kids enjoyed it. We were back to Chance by 11:30. The funniest part was when the two girls I drove in my van (along with Erin) got in, they asked me if I could turn on some music. I asked them if they were in their car, what would they be listening to? In unsion, they both yelled, "LADY GAGA!!!" Seriously?!? They are 6! I apologized that I was not cool enough to have any Lady Gaga on hand, and resisted offering some good Music Together or Harry Connick, Jr. We just listened to the radio instead. After that, I had a fabulous afternoon of QDoba in the sunshine with Helga. After lunch, she said, "Now we need ice cream! Is there ice cream around here?!" We were in Westport Village and I couldn't believe she had not even heard of The Comfy Cow! I couldn't throw away my trash fast enough, and I practically galloped there. Apparently all special times lead to Comfy Cow, because when we walked in we ran into Mark and Jillian, who had just come from Hounz Lane park. So we had ice cream together before I went to pick up Erin. Next, I finished all accounting for the Girl Scouts, got the cshier's check and turned in our final payment for cookies. For the most part, 2010 cookie sale is OVER!!!!!
SATURDAY:
Erin and I spent the entire day at Camp Shanituck, the Girl Scout Camp in Shepherdsville, with 9 of our other Daisy Scouts and 6 of their parents. We did crafts, took a hike, did a princess obstical course, took out the trash for the camp, beaded braclets for autism, played games, ate lunch . . . a major day of fun and scoutin'. All the girls really enjoyed it, and I did to. I was glad the weather held out - it turned out to be a gorgeous day. Now I feel like I know my way to and around camp. This will be where we go each day for a week this summer (July?) so it was a good preview.
TODAY:
YEAH birthday breakfast for Brian!! Now the girls are palying outside and I am trying my darndest not to do anything. Maybe knit, eat a bowl of ice cream, not much more than that.
There - does that count for three posts in one??
Wednesday, March 17, 2010
Well, I will be heading to a birth in the morning (she has decided to be induced and is going in at 5am.) So I should be asleep. The computer is already shut down for the day, so I'm emailing this from my phone before I go to bed.
Today Mom came over for awhile and played with the girls outside. Erin decided they would have a club. The purpose of the club was for them to design outfits and hair accessories for me to knit so they could take them to poor people. So they sat at the itty-bitty picnic table, drawing pictures with markers of dresses and fun ponytail holders. Then Erin would run them inside to me and see if I thought I could knit them according to her design. She also said some of the things would be woven with things from nature. Then they would take all our handwork to poor people.
Now, where did all that come from?!
(Pics to come when I don't have to get up before dawn!)
Sent on the Sprint® Now Network from my BlackBerry®
Today Mom came over for awhile and played with the girls outside. Erin decided they would have a club. The purpose of the club was for them to design outfits and hair accessories for me to knit so they could take them to poor people. So they sat at the itty-bitty picnic table, drawing pictures with markers of dresses and fun ponytail holders. Then Erin would run them inside to me and see if I thought I could knit them according to her design. She also said some of the things would be woven with things from nature. Then they would take all our handwork to poor people.
Now, where did all that come from?!
(Pics to come when I don't have to get up before dawn!)
Sent on the Sprint® Now Network from my BlackBerry®
Tuesday, March 16, 2010
Secret Message (7 of 21, I think . . .)
I don't know how well you will be able to see this . . .Hopefully if you open it in it's own window it will be a bit darker.
"MokIBETYooHADAFUNDA ?"
Jillian wanted to leave this on the table by the door one day as a surprise for Mark to find when he got home . She was sure he'd never know who it was from, hence the question mark at the end.
And yes, she came up with the idea and sounded it all out by herself!!
Sunday, March 14, 2010
Shouldn't it be the other way around?
I - and my house - have been consumed by cookies!!!!! Since Feb. 15 when I picked up cookies at the wharehouse, everyday has involved some sort of Girl Scout cookie activity. One would think this is like a dream come true, but I actually have eaten hardly any cookies. Carried, counted, sorted, stacked, sold, juggled . . .yes. Eaten, not so much. Our troop sold 1,236 boxes of cookies and they all crossed my van and threshold at least once at some point! I haven't gotten all the money from everyone yet, so I am not throwing a party just yet. But I can see the finish line and I am happy!
The girls really did a great job at the Kroger booths. Usually they were very very quiet and shy for the first 30 minutes, but once they warmed up a bit they spoke to everyone that walked by. They each felt very proud of themselves when they left.
I forgot to blog yesterday. Just plain forgot!!
Friday, March 12, 2010
An evening with the stars! (6 of 21)
Tonight we went to The Comfy Cow to see the cast of the Center Stage's Wizard of Oz production. (oh - and The Comfy Cow is THE BEST local ice cream/dessert spot in Louisville, hands down.) Dorothy, Tin Man, Scarecrow and the Cowardly Lion were well dressed and accomodating. And the Scarecrow was very convincingly walking like his legs were made of straw, which either totally freaked the girls out or made them feel very sorry for him. Either way, the picture turned out awesome and I got some darn good Dulche de Leche de Salte ice cream. You must try this ice cream, it is amazing.
Erin now wants to see this play, and Mark and I can't decide if we should take them or not. Really this movie has some very scary parts, but who knows what the play is like. And I am also not sure whether or not Jillian can sit through a whole play. But if it worked out well, it would be really be fun. So we need to find out if there are some reviews or wait a bit to see if anyone we know sees it. We'll have to decide soon!
ZZzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz (5 of 21)
See what you've done to me? I woke up at 3:15 this morning and realized I had fallen asleep before blogging! AHHHHHH! I debated about getting up and doing it then, but figured that was just a little silly. So here I am, a little late but blogging again.
Erin and Jillian were up before 7:00 this morning, although Erin does not have school today. Why?!! Erin wouldn't get out of bed before 7:00 on a school day to save her life. I have to drag her out of bed, and often I give her a few extra minutes, making the rest of the morning rushed. But, since we aren't going anywhere, she's up and at 'em.
They have gotten into this fun game of switching jammies, Erin wears Jill's, and Jill wears Erin's. Then they skip in together holding hands, saying, "Ta DAaaaaaaaaaa!!" I am not sure why they think this is so fun, especially since what Erin ends up wearing is almost always something she wore all the time last year! But they love it. What Mark and I find most amusing about it is that, although Erin is now markedly taller than Jillian, they must be close to the same diameter because Jillian's jammies always still fit her! They are just always shorter. Why do we even buy toys? Or new jammies?!
You will all be able to sleep better (if not later) to know that we found the camera. It was under the seat of the van, obviously having fallen out of the bag at some point. WHEW! I will get the pictures off of it and these posts will start being more appealing!
LAST cookie booth today - Prospect Kroger 3:00 - 6:00. I collect everyone's money by Wednesday and this year's cookie sale is OVER. YIPPEE!
That's what I've got for now - pictures and more later! Have a lovely day.
Erin and Jillian were up before 7:00 this morning, although Erin does not have school today. Why?!! Erin wouldn't get out of bed before 7:00 on a school day to save her life. I have to drag her out of bed, and often I give her a few extra minutes, making the rest of the morning rushed. But, since we aren't going anywhere, she's up and at 'em.
They have gotten into this fun game of switching jammies, Erin wears Jill's, and Jill wears Erin's. Then they skip in together holding hands, saying, "Ta DAaaaaaaaaaa!!" I am not sure why they think this is so fun, especially since what Erin ends up wearing is almost always something she wore all the time last year! But they love it. What Mark and I find most amusing about it is that, although Erin is now markedly taller than Jillian, they must be close to the same diameter because Jillian's jammies always still fit her! They are just always shorter. Why do we even buy toys? Or new jammies?!
You will all be able to sleep better (if not later) to know that we found the camera. It was under the seat of the van, obviously having fallen out of the bag at some point. WHEW! I will get the pictures off of it and these posts will start being more appealing!
LAST cookie booth today - Prospect Kroger 3:00 - 6:00. I collect everyone's money by Wednesday and this year's cookie sale is OVER. YIPPEE!
That's what I've got for now - pictures and more later! Have a lovely day.
Wednesday, March 10, 2010
Name That Tune (4 of 21)
I have been thinking for a really long time that I need to document Erin and Jillian's reinterpretations of song lyrics. They keep us laughing and give us a short window into their funny little minds. Here are some I can remember right now:
- "Supercalafragilisticmakesmealidocious"
- "ABC, easy as 1-2-3, simple as do-re-me, ABC baby UMC"
- "Doe, some deer, some female deer. Rain, a drop of golden sun. . ."
I know there are more, but I can't think of them right this very minute that I would like to be blogging about them, of course. But I have saved they very best for last . . .my all time favorite . . .
- "Oh make believe, why can't you be true?!"
I love what the girls like to listen to. Many times, of course, it is Dora, Sid the Science Kid or the like. But just as often it is Harry Connick Jr., Jackson 5 (one of their favorites), Beach Boys, Elvis, Brian Setzer, Chuck Berry or even Soweto Gospel Chior.
On a similar note (hee hee, couldn't resist) I got all of Erin's winter progress reports today, and the one from her music teacher is all S's (which basically means she has mastered everything in music that they expect her to do by the end of kindergarten). The last one is "Can match pitch" and next to the check mark indicating she had mastered that, the teacher wrote "WOW!" I will be copying this and sending it to Ms. Miriam, our Music Together teacher. :)
Tuesday, March 09, 2010
Already? (3 of 21)
See?! I knew this would happen! I have been trying since the girls went to bed to figure out what to post about tonight and I got nuttin'. Really. Today, I hung out with a great friend - my October '09 client who has become a great friend - while she looked for a baby bathtub and the perfect Easter sweater vest for her son. (She found both at our last stop.) Erin and I got Dairy Queen during the 45 minutes between the time I pick her up and we go to pick up Jillian. There ya go.
I know there are things that I could post about that happened since last October, and I am sure I will use those to keep up this manic blogging pace. But I need to ration that stuff. I've got 18 days to go!!
Erin is working a cookie booth at the Springhurst Kroger tomorrow 3:00 - 4:00 (the booth goes until 6:00) if anyone still needs cookies! I sure hope the rain doesn't hold people back from their cookie cravings - I would LOVE for these cookies to *POOF* disappear from our living room.
Sorry this is so boring but it really is all I've go today!
I know there are things that I could post about that happened since last October, and I am sure I will use those to keep up this manic blogging pace. But I need to ration that stuff. I've got 18 days to go!!
Erin is working a cookie booth at the Springhurst Kroger tomorrow 3:00 - 4:00 (the booth goes until 6:00) if anyone still needs cookies! I sure hope the rain doesn't hold people back from their cookie cravings - I would LOVE for these cookies to *POOF* disappear from our living room.
Sorry this is so boring but it really is all I've go today!
Monday, March 08, 2010
Thank you Jillian!!! (2 of 21)
So this video totally describes my trip with Jillian to the zoo today. We had no plans to go, but we just went. No stroller, no snacks, no lunch. Just did it! And that girl was so doggone happy, I can hardly describe it. It must have been the weather. She really skipped through the entire zoo. And she kept saying such funny things - even more than usual. She made me enjoy the sunshine perfectly and I am SO glad we went to the zoo together today. I had a thousand other things to do today, and NONE of them were more important.
Sunday, March 07, 2010
1 of 21 - OR - Happy Birthday Grandpa!!
So research tells us that, in order to turn a behavior into a habit, you have to do it 21 times. And since the one person in the entire world who actually cares if I blog or not celebrated his birthday this weekend, I decided to make today the first of 21 straight days of blogging. There, I have committed. Happy, Bobby? Oh . . .I mean, Happy Birthday Bobby!! This is your gift - hope you like it :)
Today we went to the Maple Syrup Festival at Leane and Michael's Sugarbush in Salem, IN. This is our second annual trip to this FREE festival, and we will go every year from now on. The girls were so excited that we were going back this year. Last year it was 28 degrees and cloudy, today it was somewhere around 60 degrees and sunny. SO much better!! We have learned so much about the process and history of maple syrup, and the festival has tons of fun activites. This year there was a record breaking crowd at the festival and we did not get our year's worth of pure maple syrup because they sold out by the time we got to the Sugarhouse (store)! It is available online, but I am afraid it won't be pure from the Sugarbush; there is only a small window of time when you can get sap from the trees to make syrup. We'll keep our fingers crossed!
I took lots of fun pictures for this post, and now I cannot find the camera. I am hoping that it is not flopping around on the back of the tractor that took us back to our van at the end of the day. I have to believe that, like so many things, it will just magically appear in the morning. If it does, I will post those pictures tomorrow. If it doesn't, I will be very very upset. Either way, I already have material for 2 of 21!
Today we went to the Maple Syrup Festival at Leane and Michael's Sugarbush in Salem, IN. This is our second annual trip to this FREE festival, and we will go every year from now on. The girls were so excited that we were going back this year. Last year it was 28 degrees and cloudy, today it was somewhere around 60 degrees and sunny. SO much better!! We have learned so much about the process and history of maple syrup, and the festival has tons of fun activites. This year there was a record breaking crowd at the festival and we did not get our year's worth of pure maple syrup because they sold out by the time we got to the Sugarhouse (store)! It is available online, but I am afraid it won't be pure from the Sugarbush; there is only a small window of time when you can get sap from the trees to make syrup. We'll keep our fingers crossed!
I took lots of fun pictures for this post, and now I cannot find the camera. I am hoping that it is not flopping around on the back of the tractor that took us back to our van at the end of the day. I have to believe that, like so many things, it will just magically appear in the morning. If it does, I will post those pictures tomorrow. If it doesn't, I will be very very upset. Either way, I already have material for 2 of 21!
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
