Memorial Day 2010

I have a strange fascination for old cemeteries. Yesterday I visited Fairview Cemetary in the village of Naples, after enjoying ice-cream with my daughters at Bob and Ruth's. I thought about Memorial Day and took several pictures of graves that had flags marking the resting place of veterans.Some were too faded to read. After doing some homework, I figured out that this grave is actually the grave of an infant girl name Lillis Ann Oakley, who died at age 11 months. Thus the flag was put on the wrong grave. I also found out that little Lillis Ann's father (William) passed away less than a month earlier at age 39...making me wonder if there was some sort of sickness passed about. Her poor mother (Ann Oakley) and sister (Elizabeth) were left behind.
This photo is presented in honor of Captain Nathan Watkins who fought with the 12th Massachusetts Regiment during the Revolutionary War. Nathan Watkins was one of the first white settlers here in the area. He constructed the fourth house in the settlement of "Watkinstown," later called "Middletown" and finally renamed "Naples." The house was made of logs. He later constructed the first barn. You can read about it here if you'd like.
And this photo is in honor of Sgt. Jabez Metcalf who also fought during the Revolutionary War.
I found out that Jabez Metcalf may have been instrumental in naming the town of Naples. (I say "may have"...because any good librarian knows to check her sources for reliability before declaring anything as truth)

...the original name of Naples was MIDDLETOWN...and, it was changed to Naples in 1808....Jabez Metcalf ran a tavern in Naples. One frequent guest was a Duke from France who remarked that he loved the area because it reminded him so very much of Naples Italy, one of his favorite places. In that era there were six communities named Middletown. Consequently, when anyone said where they were from, they always had to explain which one. The folks grew tired of that and wanted something unique. They held a meeting and during the discussion, Jabez mentioned the Duke's comment. Middletown was changed to Naples.

He also helped erect the first saw mill in Naples.

If you like history: Find out more here.

It all started out to be simply photographs of old graves with flags on them. Then I Googled the names and found out so much more about them. I'm always fascinated by stories and history.

In any case: Thank you to all our veterans. We remember and appreciate you!

New neighbors!

We have new neighbors. I was pleased to discover that a little family of house wrens has taken up residence in the birdhouse that my father made for me last summer. I was really hoping someone would. I thought it would be very special since my father is gone now.
I think this caterpillar is treading dangerously close to becoming the next meal. I don't know if house wrens eat caterpillars...but assuming they do, this caterpillar better take off in another direction.
I didn't stick around to see what the eventual outcome was.
Once this little family moves out...I will re-glue the calipers onto the peak. It fell off onto the grass below last week. Check out the original post about this birdhouse here and you can see the calipers.

Hawaiian Dog

On a lighter note: yesterday while walking to school, Alicia and I found a lei just laying on the sidewalk waiting for someone to come along and pick it up. I put it on Sherman's neck. He didn't seem to mind at all. We got a lot of attention from the school children, as well as adults when we walked onto the school grounds. I wish I had a picture of him during that scene...but alas I did not have my camera with me. I still do not have a camera bag for it and am a little leery carrying it while walking a dog. That is how I dropped and broke the first camera. It slipped out of my hand as Sherman tugged on the leash. I'm not going to repeat that mistake.

More Prayers Needed

I went up to the hospital today to see my Uncle Chuck. He is in ICU with pneumonia and is sedated. I knew that I really wouldn't be visiting with him in a sedated state, but had hoped to offer encouragement to my aunt. She had been there earlier, but wasn't when I was there. I wrote a little note and left it on the table next to his bed.
It was rather disconcerting to see him in such a state. I hope he recovers to be here longer with us. I don't know if I could bear to lose another family member just yet.
Here he is pictured with my father at the 4th of July picnic last summer in Penn Yan.

Wahoo! Good News!

The good news is that the school budget in the school district where I want to do my internship passed! That means I get to do the internship and don't have to scramble around to find another one. If it did not pass, the school district would have most likely given the librarian a nice incentive to retire so that they could eliminate her position.

Frittering

Today I went to talk to one of the librarians I will be doing a practicum with in the fall. I really like her. I think she is a fabulous school librarian. I look forward to working with her. My other potential position is hanging in the balance. It all depends on how the school budget votes go in her school district as to whether or not she will be around to mentor me for 4 weeks. I voted today.

I saw a coyote on the way home. He ran in front of my car. No picture. Even if I had had my camera with me, it happened too fast to get a picture.

Not much else is going on. I've been frittering away my time...which is absolutely shameful!

Distressed...but trying to trust the Lord!

I never did blog about Mother's Day. I had a very pleasant Mother's Day visiting my dear mother in Webster. Now that we have lost our father, I can't help but wonder how long I will have my dear mother. His health was always so good and he took care of her...who's health quite often has hung in the balance. We just never expected to see him go first. I get distressed thinking about this. Please pray that we will make good decisions for her care while she remains with us.

After our visit, which included lunch and a few hours of visiting, our family decided to grab a quick dinner out on the way back to our town. So we stopped at DiBella's in Perinton to eat some subs. Here are our three children. I love it when they seem to be enjoying one another's company.

I have another bit on my mind lately. A "little bird" told me that a certain school librarian will be retiring this year. (this is not public knowledge yet and has been posted in-house only) I really want her job! She is in the school that is within walking distance of my home! However, I am not quite done with my degree. That will be done in the fall some time. Two different people told me to apply for the position anyway. I don't have my portfolio together...and I also really want to do my student teaching. I feel like I am going to learn so much from that experience. I don't want to skip it. Another library friend of mine ended up skipping her student teaching to accept a position. The University gave her credit for student teaching anyway using her new position. It worked...but it is not really ideal.

Another bit of distress and regret...which I am trying to let go of, but it is difficult! I'm just saying, "Ugh!" right now. Two of my classmates each got a hold of me lately to inquire if I am taking any summer courses. I am not. They are both taking "YA Lit." I am so disappointed because when my father became ill, I needed to make some tough decisions. I knew I needed to take the fall semester off to spend as much time as I could with him and assist in caring for him while he was on hospice. I only had two classes left to take-"YA Lit" and another class. I emailed my adviser asking her if it would be prudent to take one of the classes in the spring semester while student teaching...leaving me one class to take. I knew that "YA Lit" was offered last summer and inquired whether or not it would be offered this summer. She wrote back and said that it was NOT going to be offered this summer. She strongly suggested that I take all of my course work first and student teach in the fall. I have followed her suggestion. Now I find out from my friends that "YA Lit" IS being offered during the first summer session...which means that I could have been completely done with my degree at the end of June! This would have solved a multitude of problems I am having being delayed until December.

In all fairness to my adviser, I like her very much. I know that she would not have lied to me about what was or wasn't going to be offered this summer. I am sure that she was telling me the truth as she was aware of it as of the first week of September this past fall, but I am so disappointed and feel very distressed.

I'm wondering if you lovely ladies could pray for me and offer up encouragement. Oh...and there is some good news. I found out I passed my ATS-W teacher's exam, which I had been afraid that I had failed!

I did it!

I did it! I finally started training for the Crosswinds 5k! I am totally out of shape and it is my first time out running in about 2 years. I actually did better than I thought I would. I ran/walked the entire length that I had set out to do...actually running quite a bit of it. I thought that I must have run/walked for at least a half an hour. When I came in, I was a bit amused to find that I had only been out for 17 minutes. Not so great...but it is 17 minutes of exercise that I would not have otherwise had.

Alicia's Birthday

Today is Alicia's 11th birthday. We actually celebrated it last night because today Audra had a track meet. The track meet was at the middle school that I attended when it used to be known as a junior high school. (Incidentally, my father attended there when it was a high school.) It is just a stone's throw from my mother's house. Alicia opted to hang out there instead of watching the meet. Here she is playing the marble game with her grandma.
Afterward we went to Charlie's in W. Webster for dinner.
I have to chuckle a little bit because of my sister Martha, who is a fabulous photographer. She would have made sure no one was holding the newspaper in the corner of the photo.

Cool decor that no one enjoys...except for the woodchucks

This is a picture I took behind my father-in-law's barn. This wheel has been sitting out here for many many years. I thought it would make a really cool edition to my garden a few years ago. I cleared away a lot of brush to get to it. I then discovered that it is not just an old wooden wheel sitting there, it is connected to some rusty apparatus of some sort. This strange "thingamajig" is half buried under the ground. It looked hopeless...so I left it. Maybe I should try again sometime. For now...it sits.