Sarah and her pony

Sarah's hair was getting a little out of control. It was very long, and very heavy and we weren't looking forward to trying to put in into a bun for ballet all year. But, it was so long that I didn't want to cut it unless Sarah agreed to cut enough to donate. It just seemed a waste. So, we've been talking about it a bit and Sarah started to warm to the idea. I was on the Locks of Love website to see how long it needed to be and Sarah was looking over my shoulder. When she saw those kids who needed hair, she decided she was ok cutting hers. We did it today:


Sydney got her hair cut too!
Me, I just had tears in my eyes.
Kirsten

The week is over

Orientation/Professional Development week is DONE!! The only thing left is to create an assessment vehicle and send it out for the students to fill out.The visitor is gone - faculty members (not all mind you) can be so - frustrating.

When I stopped by the meeting in the afternoon to see if he wanted to go to the picnic that night, he asked me how he was getting to the airport the next morning (he didn't rent a car and I had been shuttling him all week). The hotel shuttle drove him from the airport. I mentioned that I thought the hotel shuttle was the best option. He asked me if I was going to arrange it! (you are at the hotel, stop by the desk yourself.) Ok, what I really said was "How about we check at the front desk when I drop you off and make sure they can take you.

I'm exhausted and now sometime in the next few days we have two soccer games, I have to get everything ready for my class on Tuesday (note, buy marshmallows today so they have time to harden) and clean the house so it's ready to start the semester. (wonders if I should just get a cleaning person for the fall).

I'll be back more later.

And to think I was excited to open the box

The other day, I ordered a walking foot (aka even feed foot) for my sewing machine. I need this to finish the window shade a friend was teasing me that I would never finish. It will also help with quilting.

I have a cirica 1970s Kenmore 158.17501 that my Grandmother bought years ago and gave me!So, today my box arrived - giving me plenty of time to figure out my new attachment before the Labor Day Weekend sewfest! (and syllabus creating fest!!)

I open my box to find a foot control pedal. Obviously the guy looked at the list of parts for my model and chose this to be a walking foot! It seems that Sears Parts can only search for parts by model number of the product and part number. So, if I'm looking for an Even Feed foot, they can't search by words.

So, it seems that they make a different version of the High Bar Walking Foot I already have, but no longer make the low bar.

I think I'm dooomed!! (I'll try the local sewing stores, if not, I've found something online.)

I did convince Sears that *they* should pay for the return shipping on my part since it wasn't close to what I described.

The County Fair (part II)

I'll update more later, because there are some cute stories from this. But here are the results from the fair.

Sarah got two blue ribbons and one white (third)Her scrapbook page got third. While Sarah did a great job, I could see where the other two were just a smidge better. I don't know the ages of the other two (too far way to see their names), but Sarah was competing in the 7-13 age group.

She was VERY impressed with herself. (and so were we!!!)

DH entered one of the jewelry boxes that he made for the girls. I'll post a picture of the box tomorrow. He won a blue ribbon, a best of show, and a Yellow.Only four yellow ribbons were awarded in the adult class and it allows DH to send his box to the State Fair next year.

I'm very impressed with him!

I think it will be a busy weekend.

Work is a little insane. I had plenty of time to do everything for Orientation on Monday - until Thursday when I learned that the program director from our partner university was coming. He just assumed we knew. We assumed he wasn't coming. My boss has a policy that all visitors will be scheduled to meet with people every minute of each day they are here. So, we started to scramble to set up meetings.

So, before Monday at noon, the following needs to be accomplished:

Orientation/PD Week
1. Create Agenda for LL
2. Name tags for Welcome Lunch
3. Write John’s speech for Welcome Lunch
4. Arrange for Podium at Forestry
5. Arrange for microphone at Forestry
6. Final numbers to MUB for Welcome Lunch
7. Trainee Responsibility List
8. Associate Responsibility List
9. Scholar Responsibility List
10. Copies/packages for Trainees/Associates/Scholars
11. Complete IGERT Overview presentation for John
12. Complete Karl/Kirsten presentation
13. Final numbers to MUB for Box Lunches
14. Arrange for people to man table during Round table
15. Materials for Round Table
a. Sign up sheet
b. Scholars responsibility
c. IGERT Brochures
d. Course information
16. Grocery Shopping:
a. Sodas, cups, coffee filters (snack)
b. Garbage bags, disposable gloves, beverages (clean up project)
c. Charcoal, paper products (plate, forks/etc, napkins, cups), beverages, cooler w/ice, condiments, cooking utensils.

So, with the fair, birthday party, cleaning house, and getting ready for my class - I guess I have a busy weekend.

The County Fair (part I)

Today, Sarah and her dad brought her entries to the fair. Sarah has been working hard over the past week or so making her entries for the fair. She is finally old enough to enter the Jr. category and will be competing against kids up to age 13.

First, she drew a picture of our front yard. This was drawn using Crayola Oil Pastel Crayons. I tried to convince her to draw a few drawings, but she said this was perfect and there was no reason to make another. I agree that it was pretty good!! She was so proud of her multi-green grass.
Then, she made some Origami Angel Fish. She even made a tin foil pool to display them in. There are a mommy, daddy, and two kid fish.

Lastly, we made a scrapbook page. She was really hoping to just put the letters wherever she wanted, but I convinced her that we needed to center them and work at making the border consistent around all pictures. This was her design competely, including the idea of one single paper to accent the picture (which was harder then individual bordered pics).

And, for Aunt Melanie - this was a stamping up paper and jump rope sticker, with big letters and summer stickers from Creative Memories and word and month/year stickers bought at Walmart.

Judging happened at 7:00 this evening. I'll update over the weekend on how she faired!

She learns quickly!

Sydney is playing "Math Missions" on Sarah's leapster.

The character says "Thanks for helping us do these windows. What can I do to thank you?"

Sydney leans on my shoulder (I was holding the game) and says "Give me money?"

(for those who aren't familiar with Math Missions, you earn money doing math games that you can spend in the game's arcade.)

Too cute!

For once I'm ahead of schedule

Today I went to the Physical Therapy. My therapist, told me that I'm ahead of schedule for recovery. He told me that I'm doing really well and he wants me to continue to work in the pool (2 times a week now) and the rest of my exercises and to come back in two weeks. There isn't anything else he can give me to do until I get a bit stronger - and the best place for me to do the exercises that will get me stronger is in the pool.

So, I now have to do the following:

exercises for my hips
walk forward and back
walk side to side
step up, step down
pick up marbles with my toes
move my foot like a clock
push my foot out and in using a resistance band

Then there are the exercises in the pool.

So, my walking without my brace is going really well. My therapist was really, really impressed with my gait.

Now to catch up with the rest of my life.

Princess World

Last night, DH came into our bedroom last night and informed me that Sydney wanted to go to Princess World. One of her friends went their earlier this year. Another friend went to Mickey World.

This morning, I asked Sydney about Princess World. She told me that their were Princesses there and rides. And you could dress to match the princesses. Her face just lit up as she talked about it.

I told Sydney that I was thinking about taking the girls to Princess Land. Her face fell until I told her that the Princesses visited Princess Land also. I wanted to take them last year, but I guess that Sydney will be more into it this year, so its just as well that I didn't. Now I just need to plan it all. I need to talk to DH to see if we can go over the University Spring Break. I just wish flying out of here wasn't so uncertain that time of year.

So, I'm bound and determined that we will go this year!!

So, it seems my little girl is going to be Snow White for Halloween.

And now its time to panic

It's only a few weeks until the semester starts. I thought I had a series of Tuesdays and Fridays to finish up my prep for class.

Then, it turns out that I have to take four of those days to watch my kid and a friends kid. The summer program is closed for the last two weeks of summer and so . . . someone needs to be home. One of my friends and I are dividing up the weeks.

The other week, I was in the big city. When you are in the big city, one of the things you do (stick with me, this is fits the above theme) is wander the HUGE bookstore. It used to be that I would wander fiction and wedding planning. My DH must have rubbed off on me over the past 10-12 years because I started in Business, looking for interesting books. Then, I went to History. After I finished with those sections, I headed to biography. I did wander to kids, but I never made it to fiction. Actually, I guess truth be told I started in Bargains, then went to business.

One of the books I found was Sidney Poitier's autobiography. This was something I've wanted to read for a while. But, I found a great resource for my class. One of the components of my class that I struggle with is how to get the students to understand "culture." This is a major concept in the class and if they don't understand it, they will have a tough time.

In his book, he talks about his life on a Caribbean Island, in the Bahamas, and in Florida. He talks about how the culture of each of these areas was different. It's great!!!

I was also talking with another faculty member at a party Sat. Some of the things he said triggered a few ideas with me. One of the things he said was that the students needed to define what culture was. A few quick types of the keyboard and I realized that they could do this.

So, how would you define the culture you live in, the culture of the organizations you interact within?

General update on us part 2

It's been almost 7 weeks since my surgery. I'm starting to walk a bit better and this morning I could almost see the bottom of my foot.

I started physical therapy this week. I will be going twice a week and once a week I will do exercises in the pool. I also have daily exercises to do at home for my ankle and my hips.

So, here is my ankle two weeks ago:

And my ankle today:

Tuesday I moved from the walking boot to a brace with TWO SHOES!! I'm so excited about this. I am starting to get some mobility, although my left to right range of motion is very small. Yesterday I went to a party and I accidentally left my crutch at home. I was a bit sore this morning as I'm not used to walking long without support, but I did it! I'm taking it easy today though.

I can't believe how far I've come in just six and a half weeks. I still have 4-6 mos of recovery time, but something about wearing two shoes has made it so much easier to handle.

General update on us. part 1

Where to start - I think I'll divide this into two posts. One about the girls, one about me.

I finally convinced the girls to watch my Schoolhouse Rock videos. The girls really like them. I can't believe that when these were first released I was Sarah's age (7). I did have to explain to Sarah what a record machine was.

Soccer season has started. I requested Sarah's soccer coach for this year. The coach she had last year was very good at teaching ball handling skills. Many of the coaches are just parents who have never played (which wouldn't matter much) but the coaching clinic they do seems to be focused more on "don't forget snack" than resources for lesson plans, ways to teach how to get a more powerful kick and aiming your passes at a teammate than just kicking the ball.

During the first three weeks, they are suppose to have practice. Many of the coaches have no idea how to teach, so they just want to scrimmage. Sarah's coach has a rule that when she has practice time, she wants to work with her team they have time to play later. Her teams are always very strong.

Sydney is playing this year too. She is so excited.

Last night Sydney had a nightmare. She dreamed that she was scoring too many goals and they stopped the game and made her stop playing! She's too cute.

Sarah did two weeks of swimming lessons. She started the session floating on her back with a teacher holding her up and using a life jacket to go in the diving pool to doing the back stroke and jumping off the high platform dive (the one that is about 9 feet high). Quite impressive. It was hard for mom to watch her just walk off that board.

Update on the car rental

And the dollars keep racking up. I'm beyond frustrated.

The Avis in Green Bay finally agreed to our local Avis certify that the car was ok. I guess they are afraid that I will claim that I had an issue with the car after the fact. *shrugs*

So, I drive up to our airport to discover that the Avis closed on June 1st. So, my options now are 1) drive to the next closest Avis, 2 hours away, 2) drive to Green Bay, or 3) pay for a Avis employee to drive up from Green Bay to look at the car. These three options allow an Avis person to look at the car. Option 4 is to pay the $41 for the next few days until my car is fixed.

For some reason, there is no other human they trust to look at the car and as far up the chain in this organization I go, I'm informed the decision will stay the same. Well, it's Friday, I'll pay another $80 before Monday unless I take the 4 hour trip to have the contract revised.

I did talk to Avis Customer Service and they said that they don't need to see the car, but I need to sign the contract in person. I've not called back.

I'm beyond frustrated between the car repair place who didn't fix my car they way I told them I wanted (I wanted just the mechanics fixed and not the cosmetic work which I was going to have fixed here so I didn't have to pay the rental any longer than necessary. I told this to the guy at the collision place who told me today "well, USAA didn't say to only fix part. They didn't tell me they needed USAA to tell them this! I'm pissed at him too but I can't say anything until I pick up the car) - to Avis who can't let a non-Avis employee certify the car (I offered a notary, who can't lie) and I'm willing to offer up the Chief of Police and a friend who is a State Police Officer.

My car was suppose to be fixed today, but blah blah blah.delay, parts, etc. I may try Avis corporate again. . . . I HATE LIVING IN THE MIDDLE OF ****ING NOWHERE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Trying not to cry with frustration.

A national company, except when its not

Ten days ago, I needed to rent a car while I left mine in a city 4 hours to be repaired. We were able to rent the last vehicle in the city, but not from a rental company that did business in the city I live in.

Oh, our city does have an Avis rental car, but the Avis four hours away didn't honor contracts etc with the Avis in my town.

I've been able to learn that my insurance company does cover a rental car in the even of an accident, so I don't need the rental coverage on the car - which is more than doubling the rental price of the car.

So, how easy is it for me to have the insurance removed? I have to drive four hours away so they can see that the car is still in the condition they rented it to me before they can change the contract.

Now, there is an Avis counter a TEN MINUTE drive from me, but they can't certify that the car is in good condition because they don't do business with the Avis four hours south of me.

I'm wondering in what way this is a national company if they can't trust each others word?My car was suppose to be fixed today. They are now saying middle of next week. So, its going to cost me $45 per day for an additional 5 days because they can't get my car fixed AND I can't change my contract without driving 8 hours round trip to fix it.

I really want to understand the logic of this.