Ummm #2

Last Friday Jeff went to the high school formal with our homeschool group. I was so glad he wanted to go this year. I hope to post some pictures later this week. They had an hour at the church to take pictures and mingle before they went to dinner. While they were taking the pictures, some of us parents hung out and chatted.

One of the chaperones for the evening is a woman who is newer to the group and I really don't know her very well. She's just one of those people I'm not sure how to take.

She was very dressed up for the evening and I said to her, "You look lovely!"

She replied, "Thanks. ..... You look pregnant."

Okay then. It's good to know where we stand.

Sharon

Autumn walk

After at least a week of cold, cloudy days, we finally had a nice day, so Brenna and I went for a walk this afternoon. Since she's a little chicken, this means a lot of coaxing and encouragement.



This is the look she gives me when I'm trying to get her to go somewhere unfamiliar. Roughly translated, I think this means, "You want me to go that way?! No, no, no. We don't know what might be that direction!"

Just in case I might be confused by her coming to a dead stop and leaning back, she shows me where she would prefer to go. "Wouldn't you rather go this way? I think home is this way. Let's just go home."

Usually, with encouragement, I can get her to overcome her fears or at least resign herself to the fact that I'm leading the way but today I had to stop and pick her up twice and carry her for 10 feet so we could continue our walk. I try very hard not to look up at passing cars when she's doing this.

I was so glad I took my camera along. The leaves are almost past their peak here but there are still some lovely ones hanging on.

~Sharon

Random conversations

I was at the grocery store and I met this little old lady over by the cheese display. They had a sample plate out with crackers and a cheese spread (a small tub of cheese spread with some flavor in it). The cheese spread had been marked $30.0 and she was convinced she was eating thirty dollar cheese. Nothing I said would convince her that it was probably $3.00 and just got mis-marked.

She just took another cracker and smiled and said, "I just ate two dollars worth of cheese!" Later I saw her in the freezer aisle, chasing down another little old lady to tell her about the dove bars that were on sale. She was too cute.


***
One day last week a teen girl rang my doorbell. I seriously need to put up a sign that says, "If I don't know you, don't ring my doorbell." Usually, I just smile and talk through the window to the side of the front door but that day I was stupid and opened the door. She was with one of those junior achievement type groups that sends out groups of teens into an unsuspecting neighborhood to harrass the residents for no apparent reason. After we got past the "I'm with ___ and I'm just here to improve my communication skills" speech our conversation went something like this:

Her: So, like, I'm wondering what awesome skills you think I need for life? What awesome job do you have?

Me: I'm a stay at home mom.

Her: Awesome. You're a domestic engineer. Give me a high five on that. (raises her hand)

Me: I'm sorry. I just don't have time for this today. (I don't high five -- it's not really something I do.)

Her: (walking away muttering) You don't have to be rude about it.

Good night! Who trains these poor kids?


***

Wednesday at choir practice I was talking to a fellow soprano and I mentioned something about Jeff being 16.

Her: *gasp* You have a 16 year old?

Me: Yep. He's my only one.

Her: Do you mind me asking how old you are?

Me: I don't mind. I'm 41.

Her: *GASP* YOU'RE 41?!! I thought you were younger than me but you're OLDER!

Me: I guess so. Ha ha.

~Sharon
(trying to feel flattered but just feeling OLD)

Olympics

I love the Olympics! I love the spirit of the Olympics. I love that the mens gymnastic team was thrilled with their bronze medal. I love seeing Michael Phelps win. I love it when the favorite wins (as long as it's not the French relay team), I love it when the underdogs win. I love staying up late and not getting enough sleep because the olympics are on.


The news people drive me a little crazy though.

* During the men's high bar event in gymnastics the announcer actually said, "High Bar 101: Grab the bar. Grab the bar." Really??

* The headline after Michael Phelps won the 200 butterfly was, "Goggle Gaffe." I like alliteration as much as the next person but leaky goggles do not qualify as a "social or diplomatic blunder."

* The worst is the MSNBC anchor in the afternoon. I don't normally watch MSNBC so I don't know who she is or why she's there but she drives me nuts. She wears skintight shiny vinyl clothes. Monday, when they were discussing the shoulder tape worn by one of the beach volleyball players she started talking about her tattoos. She curls her lip when she talks even when it's a human interest story. Someone needs to tell her to stop doing this. She stumbles through her teleprompter reading, but it's even worse when she goes off-script. You can tell within two words when she stops reading from the teleprompter because it's usually inappropriate or embarrassing. She's in New York and the two people actually in China ignore her half of the time. I'm not sure if they're having communication difficulties or if they just feel like I do and it's best to pretend she never said that and move on.

But I will still keep watching because I don't want to miss anything.
Go USA!



Sharon

Fun

For all you Calvin & Hobbes fans out there, here is a fun way to blow some time. You can type in a word or phrase and see all the relevant comic strips.

If you enter "Calvinball" or "new rule" you'll get a glimpse of our day yesterday when we found out that Jeff's Chemistry teacher for the year decided after the school year was over to change her grading system.

Yep.
Jeff's course agreement and the syllabus both said that his final grade would be weighted: 50%/Tests, 35%/Lab Reports, 15%/Homework. But when I checked on his final grade, I saw that the homework wasn't figured in at all. I e-mailed his teacher to ask about that and she said she had decided to make a change because some kids were getting 100% on their homework and failing their tests. Her new grading system was 65%/Tests, 35% Lab Reports. I e-mailed her and stated very politely (really!) that we never received notification of that change and expressed the opinion that if the student was required to abide by the agreement and meet all the requirements/deadlines for the course, then the teacher should also abide by the agreement.

Her only response was to send me his "revised" grade. Hello! We homeschool. I could have done that myself. I was trying to discuss the principle of the thing.

Oh well.

You learn something new...

It was brought to my attention this week that the practice of typing two spaces after a sentence is obsolete. What?! I have been using two spaces after sentences for years! As a secretary, it's what I was taught to do and I've been doing it ever since, blissfully unaware that the world had passed me by. As I'm typing this, the compulsion to put two spaces after every sentence is driving me crazy. I keep typing two spaces and then deleting one of them. This is going to seriously lower my words per minute.

So what do you use? One space or two between sentences?

This is going to be a hard habit to break (if I decide I care enough to break it).
Sharon

Words

I was just reading a blog and the author actually used the word (?) "suddle" instead of "subtle." good grief.

Did you know that Webster's dictionary now contains "irregardless?" They recommend that you use "regardless" instead but insist that irregardless is a word because people use it.

Does it bug you when you read stuff like that? How about when people use the word "mute" when they mean "moot?" I have a friend who likes to throw around "behoove" all over the place. Sometimes it works, but not always.

Words I love: I never say this in conversation but I love when an author uses the phrase "hove into view." If you've never seen this particular phrase, try any of the Jeeves books by P. G. Wodehouse.

{Proverbs 25:11 A word aptly spoken is like apples of gold in settings of silver.}

Spring #2

I just love this time of year when things are blooming and everything is turning green. This is some brunnera that is spreading like crazy in our backyard. Love that blue!

I have to get a lilac bush for our yard. On our walks, I pass a bunch of them and they smell amazing. I don't want any of the fancy new ones, just an old-fashioned, sweet-smelling lilac bush.

Sharon

Happy Birthday Suz!

Today's post is for my sister. Happy Birthday! Your card is on its way. Love you!

Sharon

Bird-brain

This week we have been watching a purple finch pair try to build a nest on our front-porch lamp. Actually, the female has been doing all the work and the male has been tweeting directions from a nearby tree. She has spent hours flying back and forth getting twigs and fluff and bringing them to the lamp. The only problem is that not a single twig has stayed there. Every single one has fallen onto the mailbox below or onto the porch.

Every one.

But she still keeps bringing more.

There's a reason they call it bird-brained.

Sharon

Finally

Spring is finally on it's way. It's still pretty chilly but these snowdrops are braving the cold. We have a fairly large patch of these in our backyard and they're always the first thing to bloom in the spring.

Sharon

First day of Spring

It's officially the first day of Spring! Now if the snow would just melt we'd be in good shape. The snow from the blizzard was almost gone after a week of partially thawing and refreezing. Yesterday it started to rain. Then the temperature dropped 25 degrees and it changed to snow. I'd love to be able to get out and take a picture of the first sign of spring or any sign of spring but it's not going to happen.
---
Yesterday, I was at the grocery store and I was doing the self-checkout thing because I only had a few things, but there was a worker at the end of the conveyor belt apparently ready to bag anyway. Now, lately I've had trouble at this particular grocery store with the baggers putting the raw meat in with other food. I hate that. So, I said to her as the groceries were going down the belt, "I want the chicken bagged separately, please." She nodded and smiled. I go to pick up my groceries and the two packages of chicken are bagged separately -- from each other! One package of chicken per bag. At least they weren't in with the produce.

Happy Spring!
Sharon

Nothing much

I haven't had much to post lately. Our house has been hit by an end of winter/beginning of spring set of viruses. Scott started us off with a bad chest cough and laryngitis which lingered all week. I finished off the week with a lovely bout of the stomach flu. Our church's Palm Sunday musical is this morning and all three of us were going to sing in the choir but Jeff's the only one who is healthy enough to actually do it. Scott is at church for the service now but he doesn't have a singing voice yet. It's very disappointing to not be able to sing in it after all the practice we put into it. Oh well. Brenna and I are enjoying a nice, quiet morning at home watching the Food Network.

Sharon

Blizzard

As of 2:30 this afternoon we had 15 inches of snow! It's still coming down and is supposed to continue for the next several hours.

There's so much wind that the snow is not settling on anything except the ground, but I thought the drifting by the front door was pretty in it's own way.

Since Brenna is so small, Scott dug out a track in the backyard for her to run around. It's hysterical to watch her run around and around her little track.

She likes the snow in limited amounts. After a short time though, her little paws get cold and she wants to go back inside.

Sharon

Psalm 51:7

Cleanse me with hyssop and I will be clean; wash me, and I will be whiter than snow.

And it's only Tuesday

I was up late last night, unable to sleep because of some difficult inter-personal stuff (not my husband or son, thankfully) going on in my life. Ever feel totally misunderstood? I went downstairs and turned on the tv to watch a little Seinfeld. At that moment Elaine walked in Jerry's apartment and said, "I will never understand people!" to which Jerry replied, "They're the worst!" I just had to laugh because it was exactly how I was feeling.

Today, our adorable little puppy, Brenna, found a red pen in my son's room, chewed it, broke it and spread red ink all over the floor. So in between unpleasant phone calls, I was trying to get all that red ink cleaned up. Good times.

To work out my frustration I played some lovely Chopin pieces. It's always my first choice when I'm having a bad day.

As difficult as this day has been, God, as always, redeems my mistakes and shortcomings and works things out for His glory.

Sharon

Dixon Tigonderoga

Anybody remember in the movie "You've Got Mail" when they talk about bouquets of freshly sharpened pencils?

This is a picture of one of my favorite things: Dixon Tigonderoga #2 pencils. I love these things! Unlike most pencils you buy, these things actually sharpen without breaking. The graphite is perfectly centered so you don't get that weird lop-sided thing going. I got a new box of them this weekend and sharpened them all in my little electric sharpener. Who wants to reach for a pencil and find that it's flat?! I know, mechanical pencils are always sharp, but there's no way a box of mechanical pencils would look this beautiful on my desk.

It's the simple things that make me happy. :o)

Sharon