MICE

THE MICE ARE BACK!!!!! Well, Denny saw one downstairs while he was watching TV. ARGH!!!

Tidbits from Madeleine L'Engle

Last Monday I worked at Bellevue East. I've subbed in this particular room several times. It's sort of a help room for kids who can't handle a regular class load and need extra help. There are two para's in there and two certified teachers. I sub for a regular teacher, so there are others in there already that know the routine and take care of the few students that are in there. Usually there are no more than 6. So several days I've read books. One day last year I read all of O Pioneers and another day I read A Swiftly Tilting Planet, by L'Engle. So this week I thought I'd continue the L'Engle theme and I read A Wind in the Door. These are fantasy stories and I wasn't in to that genre when I was 12 which is when most kids read these stories. Frankly, I think we get a whole lot more out of them when we're adults.

Here are a couple of quotes that I wrote down after I realized that there were a lot of things I wanted to remember.

from p. 172
The temptation...for man...is to stay an immature pleasure-seeker. When we seek our own pleasure as the ultimate good, we place ourselves at the center of the universe. A man...has his place in the universe, but nothing created is the center.

and from p. 183 I think this is referring to absolutes or following what we know is right; Obedience.
It's only when we are fully rooted that we are really able to move.

Good thoughts from a good book.

More birthday celebrations

Isn't she beautiful? My "little" sister, well one of them, turned 50 on Wednesday. This was her 13th. Finding those slides gives me more picture material.

This is the sister over at QuidNunc/QuidTunc. Our other sister has waxed eloquent about what she admires about this sister, and I will agree and add my two bits.

She is an AMAZING writer. Go over there and read her stuff. She is both funny and wise; witty and eloquent.

She is also amazing musically! She can play anything on the piano. It is lovely to sit down with her and sing through the hymnbook. When we were growing up, she and my dad would just take out the hymnbook and go through it. I used to take that for granted, but now I know very few people can do that.

And not only can she play, but she can sing. SING, I mean. She has some power behind that soprano voice. Since there are five years between her and the next youngest sister, Melinda and I spent our high school years singing together...in the car, doing the dishes, in groups at school, pretty much everywhere. She sang melody; I sang harmony.

And not only can she play and sing, but she can whip up an unsurpassable meal, and probably one that she grew in her own garden or canned or froze, but certainly one that she made from scratch. She probably thinks that I have energy, but I have always admired her ability to get so much done.

Oh, and she sews, too. Had five kids. Now has four grandkids.

Because of the age spread in our family, she and I share the most memories (besides our brother), so it's always fun to reminisce. However, she also has an AMAZING memory. Just ask Melinda about an event, she'll for sure remember it, and what everyone said, too, probably. This photo includes sister"What's for Dinner?
in the front left. Gives you an idea of the difference in our ages.

Happy Birthday, Melinda! After this you'd think your name was AMAZING Grace!

Family photo

Thought some of my siblings would like to what I've done so far. I'll put some on Facebook for my CIU friends. This one is so lovely, I thought you'd want to see it! It was taken at Celeste's wedding. There's another somewhere else of ALL of the girls with Mom. Our mom is beautiful!

The first of several

I have a list of blog ideas in my head, but lately I haven't had the persistence to sit down and focus on writing anything. So today is the first and we'll see how many I write after that!

We bought a scanner last night. Since joining Facebook I've scanned several old college days photos at Walmart to share with my friends. We're having a super "reunion" laughing at the photos, wondering where everyone is, wondering WHEN and WHERE THAT photo was taken! It's been really fun catching up. We bought the scanner, not just to scan these photos to share with friends, but to preserve the family slide archive. This scanner will scan those slides. Then I will burn them on to a CD and send them to the family. It will probably be a LONG project because there are TRAYS of slides and the scanner does 4 at a time. I can also edit the photos.


This photo of mom and dad was taken in October of 1999 at the Morton house in Nebraska City. I just scanned it on my new scanner! So you all, particularly family, may see some old goodies coming up. Beware! :) The second photo was taken in 1978 when Denny and I were engaged and visiting Joel and Melinda. The baby, of course, is Jeannette!

Deterrent to my commenting

That title probably doesn't make sense, but I just have to say that when I have to solve math problems or read some script that is barely legible, I really don't want to bother commenting. Do we really get that much spam? Yeah, I'm a baby. :)

Slower than expected

I thought my week would be more than it has been. Monday I buzzed around here cleaning things up that hadn't been cleaned in ages, like dusting the downstairs room and pushing the furniture around to vacuum. It felt good to make things clean. (The things that make me happy.....!)
Tuesday I got an afternoon job teaching sixth grade in Bellevue. It was lovely and I was happy to have my morning as well!
Wednesday was haircut day and I thought maybe I could meet up with friends; Thursday was a Dr. appt. and I thought the same thing.
So here I am today thinking maybe I should tear something out of a wall, or paint over something, or rearrange something or clean cupboards or wash windows or dust high shelves or....
OCA homecoming football game this afternoon. It's absolutely gorgeous weather!

Staying politically neutral. I see both sides have their hero (ine)! It's interesting to hear what each side says about the other's. They sound the same, but don't realize it.

One project I worked on for a little was scanning some old college photos. I posted them on facebook and we're all having a great time looking at them, reminiscing and commenting! Found lots more friends. Great to catch up. My college ones are more connected than my high school ones. I also bought matching frames for these little cuties that had been stored in a drawer.