No wonder men and women can't communicate

DH comes to the top of the stairs from the painting room.

"Honey, I have a big favor to ask. Can I use one of your spatulas? You won't get it back but I'll buy you a new one."

I got to the drawer, open it and grab one of the spatulas.

ME: "Sure, do you want the metal one or the plastic one."

DH: "The plastic one."

ME: "or do you want the mixing kind."

DH: "The mixing kind. That is a flipper." he says pointing to the spatula I have in my hand.

ME: "No, I say grabbing the plastic scrapper. That is a spatula, this is a scrapper." I say handing it to him.

Oh yes, there is a language barrier even with kitchen utensils.

Must get back to the lasagna and get the meatballs out of the oven.

The week in review

I kept thinking I needed to update, but have had a hard time sitting down and just writing.

Christmas and Christmas Eve were wonderful. Sarah had been sick in the days before (I think it was just excitement that made her tummy sick), but was well in time for Christmas Eve service.

Before we left for Church, the girls and I made cookies for Santa.

This year, Sydney carried the Baby Jesus during the procession (Sarah had carried it the past 3 years and now it was Sydney's turn). Sarah walked behind her, with her hands on Sydney's shoulders to help guide her. Sydney walked holding the Baby Jesus ever so carefully with a smile of pride and joy on her face. It made me wish I'd had a camera, I didn't think about using the one on my phone until it was too late.

We came home from Church and the girls found the jamies and slippers I left them on their beds. Then they went with DH to find the moose jamies I left him.

Note the present placement - the girls had spent that afternoon dividing all the presents into piles.

Christmas was wonderful. Sydney woke up around 7:30 and we watched shows and snuggled in bed (and I started the dough for the Carmel Rolls) while we waited for Sarah to wake up. Unfortunately, my Kitchen Aid broke just as it finished kneading the dough. But, the carmel rolls turned out great!

Bless the lovely people at Kitchen Aid who is sending me a new one. It was my Christmas present to myself last year, so just under it's one year warranty.

We had a lovely Christmas day with good food, naps, lots of presents, and overwhelmed girls.

Today, Sarah and I are going to scrapbook some pictures with her new scrapbook and Sydney will select some more pictures to put in her photo album.

Later, I will take pictures of my two favorite Christmas presents.

This week I've done lots of strange little jobs that I've wanted to do for a while - clean the freezer out, clean out the videos/entertainment center storage areas, and vacuum the basement (it's sort of finished in 1948 playroom, and DH's workshop is there so there is lots of dust. It's more storage room than playroom. But the girls got razor scooters for Christmas and needed space to ride them, so I vacuumed (ok, part of it was trying to figure out how much water damage we had when the girls discovered a couple of tiles in the floor coming up - but that is another story)

We still need to get our Christmas cards mailed (in reality, assembled, letter written and printed, etc) but my goal is to get them sent between Christmas and New Years and I can still meet that goal!!

And a Sydney funny: The other day she was wearing a mock turtle neck. She announced that she was wearing a "turtle neck" and a "turtle wrist" (for the wristband.)

The worst gift ever

I was reading the Washington Post online, and read this:

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/12/23/AR2007122302145_2.html

You Call That a Gift?!
A More Divine Doll

I was 5 years old. My straight, dirty-blond hair was cut into an ugly-but-manageable pageboy. And I desperately wanted a Velvet Doll for Christmas. She was beautiful. Platinum blond hair that, with a push of her bellybutton, you could pull out of the top of her head so it would cascade around her gorgeous ankles. The TV commercials on our old black-and-white Zenith showed a crank on her back, to magically wind the hair back into her head for a short and sassy style.

But my parents were good Catholics. You know, "Vanity, vanity, all is vanity." "More's the pity." "Offer it up" and all that. And that Christmas, despite my pleading letter to Santa, when I opened my shiny present I had an entirely different kind of doll. A plaster statue of Jesus. He was pulling his red robes aside and pointing to a bloody, fleshy heart with flames shooting out around it. I thought it was gross. My older sister, Mary, aptly, got a Mary statue. And my younger sister, Tessa, got a massive Saint Theresa.

For the snapshot, I did try to put on my best, solemn and holy "I really want to be a saint when I grow up" face. Secretly, I wondered if I would be sinning if I had him go out on a date now and then with my garage-sale Barbie.

My older sister's eyes are all puffy and red in the photo. And my younger sister, who, at 3, was too young to know and love the unattainable mysteries of Velvet, smiles like an angel and hugs her plaster Saint Theresa statue tight.

-- Brigid Schulte

I've never laughed so hard.

It's 3:00 AM and I just submitted my grades! I'm so excited.

Now I can finish my exchange fic tomorrow, wrapping presents, writing the christmas letter, mailing Christmas cards, cleaning the house, making menus, buying groceries, playing with the girls - and SLEEP!!

Night!

P.S. Melanie, we ended up chatting with you at our scrapbooking end of year dinner and ornament exchange. Chris Miller was there.

Santa brings

This would be fine too:

You Christmas Stocking Will Be Filled with Money

You've either been really really good this year... Or Santa is trying to pay you off!

What Will Be In Your Christmas Stocking?

But I think Santa is bringing me this for my stocking instead:


Ah the fun of picking out your own stocking gifts. You get what you want.

Grading, etc.

Paper #1 rewrite - LONG OVERDUE
3 papers to return
1 no graded, not enough changes
2 need to be graded

Paper #2 rewrite - Turned in Tuesday
6 papers to re-grade

Paper #3 - Turned in last Thursday
19 students
18 papers submitted
5 graded
1 reviewed
13 papers to grade

Informal paper
18 papers submitted?
18 papers to grade

Last class tonight.

Final dress rehersal for Nutcracker tonight (must deliver girl in costume), two performances this weekend.
Need Girl to finish homework
Need to start mailing packages/finish ordering/wrapping/etc.
Need girls to finish making bookmarks for family
Need to clean house!

Where is that magic wand so I can slow down time??

I had the best class tonight. . .

This is the 4th semester I have taught this class. This was the first time I've ever taught anything more than a 1/2 day seminar, each semester I learn new ways to present thing, new ideas of how to communicate.

I teach introverts. They are college freshman. They have little experience and interest in things like politics, religion, and business. The topic of the course I teach is Organizational Cultures and how organizations change. Most of the concepts I teach are things they have little experience or understanding of. The basis of my class was the things I wish I had understood when I first started working. I've told them on several occasions that what we are discussing are things that will make more sense to them in 10 years.

Tuesday, I had a brainstorm and realized that the best way to discuss the book they were reading was to have the students break down the concepts I had introduced to them and have them tell me how they applied to the company we were discussing. It really seemed to make a difference. Next week we do an exercises that I created my first semester when I was really pissed at my class. The last week of class, when all the papers are written, when all the books are read, when all the assignments are done - the students pick topics and they lead the discussion. I created it when I got tired of trying to force the students to talk to me and I wanted them to understand what it's like to be on the other side.

A funny thing happened on the way to the lesson - they really enjoyed it. So, I did it again with the next class and they loved it too. It's kind of nice because they have a purpose the last week that is a bit low key - and we get to be done with the intense stuff.

In today's class we were wrapping up the semester. I've never found a way to get everything wrapped up so it all connected. In a moment of brilliance (and that is only because it worked), I decided to try having them tell me what they learned. They really did start to get the connection - how it related - and really seemed proud of themselves for getting it. It was wonderful.

Now, if only their papers are as good as the conversation tonight.

I wish I had thought of that. . .

Oh wait, I did.

Two years ago, I suggested making an internal change that would better allow us to manage the students we pay from the grant I work on, but it was rejected because our director of research didn't understand what I was saying.

So this summer, I convinced her that we should make the change and she agreed. But, then my surgery hit and I didn't get the paperwork done for a couple of months. By then she changed her mind and decided to do an offline approval. So, we are now having issues with setting the students up for their spring and summer payroll because the timing of the index.

So, after telling one person what the plan was this fall, I get an email saying "no, you should fill out a time extension form." I explained that I tried that and it was rejected and this was the agreed on plan. The next email said "but, all we have to do is this and it would make so much more sense to do an internal change." I explained that Yes, I agree but it was already rejected. I was willing to submit the paperwork again, but not until I had an assurance that it would be accepted since the director changed her mind this fall.

So, I get an email from the director saying that we should do the time extension, but only until spring because by then we should have the funding in house.

I had to explain that if we do the extension, we should do it though summer because the students are on a 12 month appointment and if we do it until spring, that means the staff will need to put the students into the system 3 times this year instead of twice (and I had been working on a one-time entry that was rejected). - I'm still waiting for a response on the spring versus summer extension.I really wish I had thought of extending the time. . . .because their way is so much easier then the way we've been doing it for the past four years.

Things that go bump in the night. . .

This week we have been the beneficiaries of LOTS of snow.

At 5:50 this morning, I woke to THIS clearing snow off the sidewalk in front of our house.



(the picture was from last spring, but the machine and amount of snow is the same.)

Well, at least people can walk on the sidewalk for a day rather than the street. AND I was able to get back to sleep.