Getting through this month.

I will have to say that February is not one of my favorite months. There seem to be a number of significant losses that have occurred in my life during the month of February. I'm looking forward to this month ending. Only a few more days to go.

Today I had the day off because I took Alicia up to Rochester to get her spine looked at. She has scoliosis and we need to go to the specialist from time to time. The good news is that the curvatures in her spine are not getting significantly worse. The lower curve measured slightly greater, but not alarmingly. The best news is that Alicia seems to have stopped growing. She has topped out at 5'3", (That is three and a half inches shorter than I am.) This is good news because that means that the curvature won't get any worse. I never imagined that I would end up with a daughter who is significantly shorter than I, but I guess I shouldn't be surprised since her father is on the shorter end of the spectrum.

On Monday and Tuesday I began per diem subbing once again. I am not too thrilled to end up doing that again...but I am trying to be thankful for any work. Besides that, God had a few surprises for me.

On Monday I subbed at the 3-5 building in Pal-Mac district and saw one of my former students from Dewitt Rd. On "moving up day" in June last year, I had a handful of kids who came to the library because they were moving away from Dewitt and wouldn't be attending there anymore. One of the boys, J told me that he had moved to Marion and was currently being driven to Webster to finish out the year. Just for fun we "Google-earthed" his school. We found Marion Elementary School quite easily and he seemed pleased. However, there he was on Monday at the school in Palmyra instead. Apparently his father decided that they would move over the summer once again and so Palmyra it is. I said, "We Google-earthed the wrong school, Bud." He said, "Yeah. I know."

The next day I subbed at Schlegel Road Elementary School, which is within the same district as DeWitt. When I walked into the building, I saw one of my students (M) walking down the hall. He didn't appear to notice me and I couldn't think of his name quick enough to get his attention, but it was still nice to see one familiar face. I figured that would be the end of it.  At some point during the day, I had to deliver a book to a fifth grade classroom. I walked in and waited for the teacher to notice I was there, when I noticed a boy to my left calling to me. It was another former student. (C).  He seemed genuinely happy to see me. I have to admit that he was always one of my favorites. He was quite the little reader and always willing to discuss the books he was reading and tell me which books I should definitely read next. He was also always well behaved and a bit of a scholar. He was the kind of kid who didn't mind talking to a 40 something year old lady. That type is rare...believe me. He told me that I should get a job next year at the middle school he will be attending. That one made my day! Unfortunately, that probably won't be likely as I don't anticipate the librarian at that school being done with her job.

When I returned to the library, I was expecting a special ed class to come in. In walked 3 more of my former students. These three didn't move...but are now being bussed to the new school because of the services provided there. They are autistic and nonverbal...similar to my own brother, so it is hard to say whether or not they recognized or cared that I was there. That didn't matter to me because I understand not to take it personally. It still was good to see them. The above picture is of one of these sweet little boys that came in today. I took it last year at DeWitt.

Today I am nursing a bit of a cold and can't seem to get warm. I'm not liking the prospect of being ill.

Because I Know....He Holds the Future.

...I can face uncertain days because He lives.

I have two weeks left at my job. I have just loved showing up there every day. I have wonderful coworkers and the kids are great too!  Yesterday, it was Martha Brown Day and everyone was encouraged to wear Fairport attire.  So, I went to school in borrowed clothing. It was a fun day. I wish I had gotten a picture of myself with my two TAs. I hope I have occasion again to wear Fairport clothing to a school some day.

I will really miss it there when I leave. I wonder what will happen next with me. I will trust The Lord.

On the home front...it was Audra's 18th birthday on Thursday. It just seems so bittersweet that she is growing up. I'm really proud of the wonderful young lady that she has become. She's almost done living here full time...which is hard to think about. She has been accepted to all 5 colleges that she applied to...which doesn't really surprise me. She is near the top of her class. We shall see what the future brings. I have a bit of anxiety thinking about it...but remind myself that everything is in God's hands.

He has proven to me that He knows the past, present and future and we can trust it all to him. I wish I could tell my story to you...about how I know this.

In a few weeks, Audra and I will go visit Grove City College...which ironically was the college I wanted to go to at age 18. I tried to transfer there. I was not accepted...but not really rejected either. I was put on a waiting list because they had made their first choices of acceptance and I missed the first cut. In any case...my name never came to the top of the list, but it was in God's hands. He knew it. He knew where I would go and what would become of me.

In the same way...he knows all about my Audra. She is his first.

Allen called tonight. The school he has been working at in Boston was closed Tuesday through Thursday because of the big snow storm there. He has an interview at Gordon College on Thursday. Audra has been accepted there. Allen is trying to convince his sister to attend there with him. I think it is wonderful that my kids get along so well that they want to go to the same school. I hope they do both end up at the same college. It would certainly make things easier in many ways. Allen has not applied to Grove City and does not plan to. God knows all about the future of my Allen as well.

Alicia is enjoying her sophomore year in high school. Right now, I don't think she is thinking too much about college. Need I say the obvious? Okay, I will. God knows all about my Alicia's future too.

I am really proud of all three of my kids. God has been so good to me...there once was a time when I didn't believe that anything would ever be good in my life. I was so deeply depressed and broken-hearted. God knew all about it. He also knew about my future and he still does.

Happy Holidays!

From left to right: my husband Jamie, daughter Audra, daughter Alicia, son Allen and me

We have been blessed to have all of our kids home. Allen is home from Boston where he has been working with City Year as he rethinks his college plans. He has been trying to figure out what college to transfer to for the fall. Meanwhile, Audra is a senior and is exploring her options for college choices for the upcoming year as well. Alicia is a sophomore. I also am not sure where The Lord will take me as far as schools in the fall. Life is unknown right now. I thank God that it is not unknown to Him.

Living by the seat of my pants while learning to trust Him...as usual. The lesson never ends!

7th grade orchestra concert

Here is one of my favorite daughters during the 7th grade orchestra concert on Thursday night.  They sounded wonderful!!!!

Sewing Project

Thanks to a friend who let me borrow her sewing machine, Alicia and I were able to complete our sewing project. Alicia made the bathrobe that the middle doll is wearing. She did an excellent job! I sewed the one on the right as an example. I also sewed the one on the left...just because I couldn't resist! Click on picture to see more detail.

"Mom, I want to learn how to sew."...and the saga of the old sewing machine

Alicia decided that she would like to learn how to sew. I am quite delighted by this since I enjoy sewing (most of the time). We went to JoAnne's to find a simple pattern for a skirt or something she might wear, but Alicia found something that she'd rather sew. New clothes for her American Girl dolls (she has 6 of them...and no we did not buy them all).
So here is Alicia working on a bath robe for her doll. Yes, I realize that I have a quaint old sewing machine, but I love it. I inherited it from Jamie's grandmother when she passed away. It is a 1950 model Featherweight sewing machine. It has sewn countless articles for me since about 1993 when I became its proud owner. Unfortunately last night while I was sewing, something went wrong with it. It stopped working and there is a strange sound coming from the motor. This morning I called my sewing machine service and repair people. It is a business run by a Mennonite family in Penn Yan. I explained the problem to a woman named Rachel who answered the phone. She told me they probably can fix it because they have many old black singer machines up in their barn for parts. I just don't know when I can get it there since it is a hike for me.
Anyway, here is a finished bathrobe that I sewed in order to make sure I knew all the ins and outs of sewing this project before getting Alicia started on it. The first lesson? Make sure that if you have directional fabric, that you place the pattern pieces on accordingly. For now we have upside-down kisses! Oops!

Gone but not forgotten

Yesterday it was just Alicia and I here. I wanted to go for a bike ride with her. That is when I discovered that Alicia had no shoes other than flip-flops that fit her. We will be heading to Cape Cod next weekend and she will need more than just flip flops for that trip. So we went sneaker shopping. I figured we'd just go to the Shoe Department store here in town and be done with it, but Alicia had other ideas. She had her heart set on converse and the local store wouldn't do, so we went to the mall. She had mentioned in the past that she would like to go to her grandfather's grave and see it. I figured this might be a good day for that so after Alicia decided on the gray converse sneakers, we headed up to Oakwood Cemetery in Penfield. I hadn't thought to bring my camera along for this excursion. I'm sorry now. Thankfully, I have a sister who doesn't mind my borrowing images that she has taken. (Right, Mart?)This is not my father's grave, but it is my mother's father's grave. His grave is just three down from my father's grave. I showed this one to Alicia too. I have no picture of my father's grave. Perhaps Martha has one, but not one on her blog that I can borrow.Afterward we swung over to Webster for a bit to eat. We drove by the Dayton Corners School house on the corner of Creek and Plank and I decided to pull in and show Alicia the initials that her great grandfather carved into the post running up the outside. (This time my Father's father)
This of course is not Alicia pointing to her grandfather's initials, but it is my niece, Hannah in 2004. Grandpa P was born in 1904 and attended the school house when he was a boy. I'm guessing that these initials were carved in or around the year 1917. No one knows for sure though. Grandpa lived down the street in a big farmhouse. He was one of 6 children and the family owned quite a bit of land on Creek Street. The farmhouse is still there...right near a street called Royal View Drive on the opposite side of Creek Street. I drove down past it and pointed it out to Alicia. The house sits on an average sized lot and the barn is gone. All the farmland has long ago been parceled up into sections for more houses and neighborhoods.
Lately we have been busy cleaning out my parent's home in Webster to sell it. It felt strange to be so near a place I called home for many years and be unable to go there. I was pretty sure that no one would be there and the place is empty and locked up. Soon it will be owned by someone else...just like that old farmhouse on Creek Street. History gone but not forgotten.

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.

Merry Christmas!

Alicia made this little nativity set out of Sculpey Polymer Clay for me. Her father helped her bake it one day while I was out. Isn't it adorable? I love it! Click on photo to see more detail! Merry Christmas to all of you!

Crazy Days!

I just checked the thermometer and it's 4° outside right now!
It has been crazy here with barely time to catch a breath. I don't like that. I prefer a little down time...but it's not happening. Yesterday started out with going to my Bible study, then a quick trip to our insurance office, then home to work on a "secret project" (can't write it here in case one of my kids reads it), then to the DMV office, home with more "secret project" working, quick hiding of evidence before a school bus came, running off to a swim meet, home at 7 PM to cook a quick meal, and shortly thereafter to bed. Today I took kids to school, went to my job cleaning a house, ran few errands, stopped at the library, home for a quick shower, and was cooking dinner when my husband called to tell me the high school swim coach had called him and Allen was ill. They were actually calling an ambulance just in case. I totally freaked out! Jamie went up to the school and called to say Allen was okay and coming home. Apparently he had not had enough to eat. His blood sugar level was way low and they were giving him juices and stuff to get him going. He came home just as I was running out the door to Alicia's orchestra concert. Jamie stayed home with Allen to make sure he as okay.
Now I'm home...and planning on making Allen a BIG lunch to take to school tomorrow. I wish I had pictures of the concert...but I am still working with a camera that has a broken flash.

h1n1

I'm finally getting around to telling you that the swine flu has come to our house. The school called me on Friday to come and get Alicia because she had a fever of 100.5. That evening the coughing started.
All in all, she had a fairly mild case of it. Between doses of acetaminophen, she happily read or played with her dolls. By yesterday she was bored and I went to the school to get some work for her. Today I "home schooled" her. She is itching to get back to school. She no longer has a fever....but the cough is lingering. I talked to the school nurse today and she agreed that as long as Alicia has not had a fever for a few days she can come back to school in spite of the cough. No one else has caught it besides her. At this point, I think the rest of us will be spared.
These pictures were taken by Allen at the NY State Fair last summer.

Cool Birdhouse

Alicia and I have been busy with a fun project. My father made me this birdhouse last summer. I thought it would look cool with a piece of tin nailed to the roof. I wasn't sure where I'd get a piece of tin...but then found a piece on Saturday while walking the dog along the railroad bed near our house. When I used the tin snips from my grandpa's old tool box (he passed away 10 years ago and we inherited some tools), I found the little wrench. My husband said he didn't care about it, so I glued it on the front of the birdhouse.
Alicia and I thought it needed more stuff on it. We walked to two nearby antique shops and bought some other items for pretty cheap. We arranged and glued them today.
While we were at the shops we started planning our next birdhouse. We'd like to make a kitchen tool one, and a chunky jewelry one too.

Alicia's 10th birthday party!

So you'd think that now that school is done for me that I would have time to relax a little, right? Nope! Not a chance! Busy busy busy!!! Crazy crazy crazy!

Last week I traveled to Cooperstown with my son and some of his classmates for the NY state history competition. We stayed over night and toured the Farmer's Museum. I traveled 3 hours home on Friday and immediately began cleaning the house preparing for Alicia's birthday party. It started at Michael's craft store with 9 girls (including two of my own) working on a craft. That was followed by pizza and presents. One little girl then went home since she was not feeling well. The remaining 8 came back to our house. On the way home, Audra was dropped off at a friend's house...leaving 7 little girls. At our house, they ran around outside playing tag and building up an appetite for brownie sundaes.I just love this interesting shot that Allen took from his upstairs bedroom window!
Most of the girls brought along an American Girl doll. One girl did not, but we had an extra for her. They spent quite a bit of time trashing my living room with doll clothes and such! Another little girl went home, leaving 6 to stay over night. Thanks to my husband, who has a voice of authority, all girls settled down nicely and were fairly rested the next morning so I could take them all to church! Two little girls were delivered back to their own families at our church. I delivered 2 more to their homes after church. The last little girl came home and waited for her parents to come and get her after they got out of their own church service.

Phew! It was really a lot of fun, but I feel like I deserve a medal for doing this! LOL!

Its snow fun!

I couldn't find a good picture for my post today. I googled around and found beautiful ones taken around our town in the snow...but I couldn't take them. They aren't mine. So today I bring back an oldy, but a goody. This was taken two years ago. Alicia was 7 and she sure was having fun with her daddy going down that hill!
See? Winter can bring joy!

Martin Luther King Jr. Day

Alicia was one of the winners in her grade for the Martin Luther King Jr. poster contest. I'm pretty proud of her.

Tagged

I was tagged by Rachel.

So here are the instructions:

* Go to your sixth picture folder in your picture file on your computer, then pick your sixth picture.
* Pray that you remember the details.
* Post it on your blog.
* Tag 5 others, leave a comment to let them know they’ve been tagged.This is the 6th picture in the 6th folder in my picture directory.
I did not take this photo. I think Allen did when he was staying over night at Aunt Rachel's house. I was home. I trusted him with the camera. This is a pretty entertaining picture of my sisters, nephew, and daughter. Everone but Alicia seems pretty mesmerized by the computer. Probably looking at a blog!

I tag Jenny, Jim the 3rd, Josiah, Nixter and Dunja .

Still Swinging!

Hi everyone! I know I have virtually disappeared for a while. Things got pretty busy...I got really stressed out and didn't think I was going to make it. However, I've gotten over some major hurdles and things are looking good!

Highlights of my experience: I gave some book talks at Geneva High School on Friday. It was a great experience and I learned a lot. I was pleased with how things went. At another school, I was told by a second grade boy that he thinks that I'll catch on fast and be a good librarian some day.

I've written one research paper this past week. I have another research paper coming up. I am doing it on story telling traditions among Native Americans. I have all my participation activities lined up. I'm pretty excited about all of that. I will be facilitating two book discussion groups at an elementary school, giving a thematic storytelling presentation at another elementary story and helping with some collection development at a middle school. I've already completed the high school requirement...mentioned earlier.

Best of all, I have gotten good grades so far!

Love this picture of Alicia taken this past August!

Me I Am!

I have been tagged by Kim.
1. Link to the person who tagged you
2. Post the rules on your blog
3. List 6 random facts about yourself
4. Tag 6 people at the end of your post
5. Let each person know they've been tagged by commenting on their blog
6. Let the tagger know the entry is posted on your blog

1. I love poetry....particularly silly rhymes.
2. I'm really enjoying being a graduate student...even though it is a bit stressful.
3. I don't really have time for blogging right now in my life.
4. I am going to bake cookies with Alicia tonight because I love her and said I would do it.
5. Tomorrow I am visiting a school library in the city of Geneva.
6. I am very rebellious and refuse to do numbers 4, 5, and 6.

So there you have it!

Discoveries On My Camera

Here are more fun photos the girls took. Stopping to smell the flowers. Something we all should do.

I don't think I would have thought to take a picture like this.

Reminds me of a clothing catalog.

Pretty Girls at Watkins Glen

This sure beats those photo studios where you sit in front of a screen with a picture of a water fall. They were sitting in front of the real thing! My husband took the picture. I think I will get a print and frame it.