Long time no write!  So I’ll catch you up.  I’m back in nursing school again! 

Mike knew he’d be losing his job at Chrysler last November so I went back to Kent State University to finish my nursing degree.  Still no job as of yet.  School is hard.  I’ve got a lot going right now.  Here’s my current undertakings:

1) My goal is to graduate with at least a 3.8 to get Suma Cum Laude.  So, Mike figured it out for me.  To accomplish this goal I can only get one B per year (3 credit hours).  The good news is last semester I made the Dean’s List and the President’s List.  The President’s List was cool to find out about.  It means that I got straight A’s with 15 or more credit hours.  I took 17 credit hours last semester!  Way too busy!  So I wanted to cut back this semester.  I’m only taking 5 classes this time.

2) I’m in the Honors College.  This fall I’m trying to take a graduate level nursing research course.  This will count towards my honors requirement.  It will also count as my senior level nursing research.

3) I’m trying to get enrolled in the BSN (Bachelors of Science in Nursing) – MSN (Masters of Science in Nursing) Bridge so I can take up to 12 credit hours while I’m still an undergraduate.

4) This Fall 2009 I’m registering for the first 2 credit hours to work on my Senior Honors Thesis Proposal.  I’ve never done a 40-60 page paper ever…so I am terrified!  In the Spring I’ll start my research and register for 4 credit hours.  Then in Fall 2010 I’ll register for the last 4 credit hours for this thesis work.  This is when I plan to do the bulk writing of my thesis.  Then, 30 days before I graduate I will have to give an oral defense of my work in front of a panel of experts and professionals.  I’m kicking around a couple of ideas.  The first things I considered is research on “how nursing job satisfaction impacts the bottom line of a company”.  I spoke to a research nurse from the Cleveland Clinic advised me that it was too much work for a one year project.  Another idea came from one of the nursing professors from Kent Main.  She said I could use her dataset from Thailand.  The study was on “Thailand women with AIDS and depression”.  One of my other professors has done research on “finding meaning in tragedy”.  The last thing I am considering is figuring out a personality test to give nurses to assist them in determining an area of specialty.

5) I forgot to mention that I plan on graduating a semester early by taking summer courses next year.  It’s a special program that you register for in your Junior Year if you qualify.  The students who have done this already said it’s really hard. So this year they are having trouble getting enough students to fill the classes.  I hope they still do it next year.

6) This fall I’m taking a really cool class.  It’s a web class on project management.  I love to organize events and projects.  So, I’m really excited to sharpen my skills.  We’ll be learning how to use Microsoft Project Management too, which I’ve always wanted to buy.  It’s really expensive, but it’s free for KSU students!  Yay, me!

Wow!  This is crazy when I read all that, but I wouldn’t have it any other way!  Go big or go home, right?  Uh, sure.  Well, actually, most days I just want to quit school and stay home with my little kiddies.  Hold them like they’re still little babies.  They’re getting big though.  There’s so much I could say about that, but I’ll catch that at another time. 

I know my school is important.  I can do it!  It’ll be great!  A year and half and I’m done!

Mark Twain came up with a way we can simplify English spelling. They say that English is one of the hardest languages to learn because of the multiple sounds from letters and all the exceptions to the rules. You know what I’m talking about. Read the following article and let me know what you think.

For example, in Year 1 that useless letter “c” would be dropped to be replased either by “k” or “s”, and likewise “x” would no longer be part of the alphabet. The only kase in which “c” would be retained would be the “ch” formation, which will be dealt with later. Year 2 might reform “w” spelling, so that “which” and “one” would take the same konsonant, wile Year 3 might well abolish “y” replasing it with “i” and iear 4 might fiks the “g/j” anomali wonse and for all. Jenerally, then, the improvement would kontinue iear bai iear with iear 5 doing awai with useless double konsonants, and iears 6-12 or so modifaiing vowlz and the rimeining voist and unvoist konsonants. Bai iear 15 or sou, it wud fainali bi posibl tu meik ius ov thi ridandant letez “c”, “y” and “x” — bai now jast a memori in the maindz ov ould doderez — tu riplais “ch”, “sh”, and “th” rispektivli. Fainali, xen, aafte sam 20 iers ov orxogrefkl riform, wi wud hev a lojikl, kohirnt speling in ius xrewawt xe Ingliy-spiking werld.

Here’s what he’s saying:

verse 1: all around the country coast to coast, people always say what do you like most, I don’t wanna brag i don’t wanna boast, I always tell ‘em I like toast.

verse 2: i get up in the mornin’ bout six AM, have a little jelly have a little jam, take a piece of bread put it in the slot, push down the lever and the wires gets hot, i get toast.

verse 3: now there’s no secret to toasting perfection, there’s a dial on the side and you make your selection, push to the dark or the light and then, if it pops too soon press down again, make toast.

verse 4: when the first caveman drove in from the drags, didn’t know what would go with the bacon and the eggs, must have been a genius got it in his head, plug the toaster in the wall, buy a bag of bread, make toast.verse 5: oh wee, monsieur. bonjour. cool cat. uh huh croissante. du bagette. maurice a vaulzey. effeil tower. o wee maria. bagette vouze.

For those of you who love this, there is a live version where he sings an extra verse. You also get to see him “playing the drums” on a metal toaster with a fork and a spoon! LOL! Check it out on You Tube!

Some other funny titles totally G-rated: 1) “Charlie Bit My Finger” (A baby named Charlie with his toddler brother. The toddler keeps sticking his finger in Charlie’s mouth.), 2) “18 Wheels on a Big Rig” (This is from the same guy that did the “Yeah Toast” song. Basically, they are just counting the wheels, but they do it in a really funny way!) 3) “Iowa Interstate 80″ (This is so funny to me! It is a short song about traveling through Iowa on I-80….not much else but fields of corn!)

Other title that is PG-rated (to me) because of 2 crude word phrases in it (“frickin’” and “oh my g*d”): “Charlie the Unicorn” (Very silly and retro-looking. Two cheery, simple-minded unicorns are trying to get a reluctant, deep-voiced unicorn to go to Candy Mountain.) “Charlie the Unicorn” is funny because all my daughter’s friends are always talking like the two silly unicorns, “Charlie. Chaaaaaarrrrlie” and “Look, Charlie! It’s a magical Liopleurodon!” What’s a Liopleurodon anyway?

I didn’t know either so I looked it up! A Liopleurodon is an aquatic dinosaur (Greek for “smooth-sided teeth”) that lived in the oceans during the Late Jurassic Period. It was about 40 feet long and 25 tons! It ate fish and squids. Click here for more info on the Liopleurodon.

I finally get the opportunity to be a “class mom”!  I’ve home-schooled my girls since they were little.  So, I’ve never got to be the class mom yet.  It’s so much fun, and I totally appreciate it more since I’m older now.  This is my youngest so in a way my life is slowing down finally and becoming more managable since there aren’t any more babies in the house.

Don’t get me wrong, I LOVED being pregnant and having babies.  That was great…for that time.  But, now I am happy NOT to be changing diapers, giving baby baths, and having to monitor their every move 24-7.  I miss it sometimes, but I don’t want to go back to it either.  I am content right where I am.  My youngest is still in the mess-making business, but she can feed, bathe and clothe herself.  It’s getting better.

I know as it starts to feel better that a new challenge will come along…like teenager-hood!  But, I am confident that together as a family with the support of my husband, we’ll make it through that stage in life as well. 

We know what season it is by what sport our kids are involved in.  We just got out of Basketball Season last week.  Our oldest daughter is almost 5’7″ in sixth grade!  She is by far the tallest girl on her team.  She was even the tallest girl on every single team we played, minus one or two girls!  She started the season off a little shaky by averaging only 2 points a game.  By the end she was averaging almost 8 points a game!  There were a couple of times when she broke away from beyond half-court to drive the ball to the other end of the court and score with the most awesome of lay-ups!  When we saw it happen, it was as if we were watching a slam dunk!  The crowds went wild!  We are so proud of her!

This is our daughter below with her friend and our kitty.  The whole team wears their red tournament sweatshirts as a uniform.  Every time I see one of them, even since the season is over, they’re wearing it!  Basketball has been good for our daughter.  Unlike the other sports she’s played in, she’s become much closer friends with these girls.  I think it’s because they’re always together so much in games and practices.  In comparison with softball, where the girls are so spread out in the outfield and only get quality “talk time” in the dugout. 

Their basketball coach was working so hard!  He scheduled them for a ton of tournaments to play in.  I think the girls played in almost 50 games!  That’s more than the pros play!  My husband helped coach too!  Together, they coached even more than this because they coached 2 teams of sixth grade girls!  These men were dedicated! 

After Basketball comes Softball Season.  This is the one I dread the most!  These games can last for up to 3 hours…just for the actual game!  Here’s the breakdown: 30-60 minutes early to warm-up, up to 3 hours for the actual game, then 30 minutes for Dairy Queen.  That’s 4-5 hours of commitment!  Crazy!  Well, we were crazy last season because we had all three girls in the same sport, and the worst one to boot (for time commitment).  This year we’re trying to limit the girls to 2 sports each.  Our oldest does basketball and softball.  Our middle does tumbling and cheer.  Our youngest is only in soccer this year.  The good news is they’re all spead out evenly.  We’ll see what happens when they get into high school.  Because I know that track will help with basketball.  I also personally want her to play volleyball.  So, we’ll see how that goes when we get there in 5 months!  Holy cow…5 months until she is in Junior High!

So, after Softball Season comes Soccer Season.  Our youngest is playing soccer this year.  I love this sport for selfish reasons.  The whole thing only takes two hours tops!  The game only lasts one hour, plus a half hour to come early and get warmed up, and a half hour for Dairy Queen!  Another selfish bonus is that it’ll run the frantic energy out of our electric kindergartener!  Hundreds of little feet kicking at the same ball!

Next comes Cheer Season.  Which actually has a few weeks of practice before the season actually starts.  Our middle daughter had Cheer Week last week, where they learned a dance, a sideline cheer and a floor cheer.  Their tradition every year is that the girls go through this Cheer Week together and then “try out” on Good Friday.  So, now she’s an official member of the squad!  Yeah!  She is a good little cheerleader!  She was made for this!  She is so bubbly and outgoing!  She practices relentlessly!  All the time!  She is always dancing and jumping and tumbling in our living room!  The next cheerleading thing is actually the last week of June and the first week of July.  They use this time to prepare for the Fourth of July Parade they march in.   Even though they “try out” so early in the year, Cheer Season doesn’t officially start until the end of summer, late August I think.  Then, it’ll be practice five days a week with games all weekend!  Once school starts though the schedule lightens up a little.  There’s also the opportunity to participate in many Cheer Competitions .  Then, in her off season she is involved in a tumbling class to gear up for her main Cheer Season.

 Then, Basketball Season starts it all over again!  Whew!

 So, here’s our yearly Calendar of Seasons:

1. October-March: Basketball Season
2. April-July: Softball Season
3. July-October: Soccer Season
4. August-January: Cheerleading Season

Every year our family tries to get away for a vacation.  Normally, we head to the Southern Outer Banks in North Carolina.  Something about a beach vacation just makes my whole self relax.  The sound of the loud waves crashing onto the sand, the constant winds blowing off the ocean which brings in the salty smell of the ocean air, the color of the stormy blue-grey sky…ahhh I just love it!  The header picture at the top of my website currently is an actual pic that I took of the ocean.

I always have to stay in an oceanfront accommodation, whether it be condo or house.  It is a huge part of the experience for me.  I usually leave the windows & doors open all the time so I can hear, feel and smell the ocean.  I love to fall asleep with my bedroom curtains blowing out into our room.  It really is like a dream.  I feel so fortunate that I can share this experience with my husband and girls.

This is a picture of them in the tot tub.  We LOVE hot tubs!  It is our ritual to walk the beach every night before we retire, and then to relax in the hot tub!  Doesn’t that sound nice?  This particular place had another amenity that was really cool!  A free racquetball court!  My husband and I definitely took advantage of that!

This is a picture of two of my girls sitting out on the balcony waiting for breakfast.  We all love to sit out there and watch the people and look for dolphins swimming by.  I love having the ocean out front; it’s the only way to go!  We don’t have to plan a special day trip to the ocean.  We just walk right out to it on a whim! 

 I love going back to the same community year after year.  You get to know and love the area and want to check out new areas each time you come back.  My family likes to go to the Atlantic Beach Aquarium.  They add onto it every year!  It’s awesome!  We get in free because we are members of the Cleveland Zoo…BONUS!  This past year we took advantage of a free guided butterfly tour.  Our nature guide knew so much cool stuff about the different kinds of butterflies and bugs that are found on the coast.

I’m a big fan of making everything in life educational.  That’s why I love giving the family a chance to learn about shells and shore-life.  We always bring a plethora of nature guidebooks: shells, insects, weather, night skies, trees, birds, North Carolina Shores, etc. 

There’re so many cool things to do at the beach!  One year we went out at night with flashlights and were chasing the crabs.  They are funny little creatures, and fun to play with too!  Then, there are those cool, little clams that are constantly trying to keep themselves buried.  So funny!  There’re also the sea turtle nests, the wild horses, and the bird watching.  We went to Bear Island one year and we found tons of whole sand dollars!  It was crazy!  This past year when we went there were a lot of horseshoe crab shells.  This one lady found one that was almost 4′ across!   

The girls love to play in the surf.  Our oldest was trying to ride the boogie board for the first time.  We don’t do much site seeing when we go; because we go for the ocean.  Stuff that we can do at home, we tend not to do on vacation.  For example, there is a huge Ferris wheel and amusement-type park in Atlantic Beach, but we’ve never done that before.  You know, like go carts and mini golf?  Not for me, thanks. 

We eat, sleep and go to the beach!  That’s how it should be!  Now, I don’t know if I feel so strongly about this because money is always tight on vacation or what, but it seems right.  There really are tons of free things to do.  Just being at the beach is vacation enough for me and I can’t wait!  Although, I don’t think we’re going this year.  We used to go in the off season, which was way cheaper.  We home-schooled at the time, and so that was not a problem.  But, since the girls are in public schools now, we only have the 3 most expensive months to choose from.  In June the water is still cold…so that’s a “no”.  School starts at the end of August.  So that’s when we need to go school supply and clothes shopping.  It is really a huge difference!  The difference between $1000 and $3-6,000!  It’s nuts!  The only way we can go now is if we can trick our other family members into splitting the cost of one of those immaculate sand castles!    Oh, I LOVE these!  They are private houses with 5-7 bedrooms, 4-5 baths, a private pool and hot tub, elevator, 2 kitchens, tons of tvs and game stations, pool tables, ping pong, you name it!  Did I mention the oceanfront location as well?  Hello!  If only I knew of a sneaky way to put the idea in their heads? 

IF YOU WOULD LIKE TO DONATE TO OUR FAMILY’S YEARLY VACATION, PLEASE DO NOT HESITATE TO SEND A PERSONAL CHECK IMMEDIATELY! 

Now where we live this next picture would be an unusual site, but not down there.  We were all shocked to see a dead deer hanging by their front porch!  My cousin, Stanley went hunting and brought back a deer.  Some people might think it’s gross or cruel, but they plan on consuming the animal.  It wasn’t just for sport; they’re gonna be eating the venison once it’s ready.  

let me digress….boy, my grandfather used to hunt fox and minx for their fur way back when.  Now he was a true pioneersman!  He had a couple hundred acres of land that he lived, farmed, raised cattle and hunted on in WV.  Him and my dad were walking down the hollow one day and my grandpa pointed out that some animal must’ve went down over the bank here.  My dad told me that earlier that day, my dad rolled a rock off the road and over the hill.  But, my grandpa knew something had gone over the edge.  Isn’t that cool!

My mother had to walk a 2 mile dirt road to get to a paved road where the school bus would pick her up.  (in the snow, up hill, both ways!)    She had a really cool childhood.  She milked cows, slopped pigs, fed chickens, tended the garden, learned the finest hand-stitching techniques from my grandma.  They had a separate building called a wash house where they went to do their laundry.  Did I mention no electricity?  Only one battery-powered radio.  No refrigerator or freezer.  They used a cellarhouse that was build into the hillside.  It kept things a cool 56 degrees year round.  They used a woodburning, cast iron stove and oven.  They used oil lamps every day.  No indoor plumbing either.  They had to walk about a quarter mile to get to the outhouse.  They were completely “off the grid”.  There was a well outside where we drew up the best water ever!  So cold, so good.  The bucket we used was an old Maxwell House coffee can attached to some rope.  My sister and I had fun as kids playing in the corncrib.  Pretending that the dried corn for the animals were our baby dolls.  We wrapped them in my grandma’s fabric scraps, and played with them.  So much fun!  They used to grind their own flour even!  It’s just amazing!  And we all say we’re busy now-a-days.  All I have to think about is my mother’s parents to remember how easy we really have it now.  I really could write a million pages on all this.  I have the best of memories from my grandparents WV farm.  I wish my girls could’ve experienced it.  I know it made me a better person!

I LOVE MY FAMILY!

 

 Based on the above information, Easter can actually be one day earlier (March 22) and that is rare. 

Here is the interesting information. 

This year is the earliest Easter any of us will ever see the rest of our lives! And only the most elderly of our population have ever seen it this early (95 years old or above). And none of us have ever, or will ever, see it a day earlier! Here’s why: 

1) The next time Easter will be this early (March 23) will be the year 2228 (220 years from now). The last time it was this early was 1913 (so if you’re 95 or older, you are the only ones that were around for that!). 

2) The next time it will be a day earlier, March 22, will be in the year 2285 (277 years from now). The last time it was on March 22 was 1818 so; no one alive today has or will ever see it any earlier than this year!

 

Here I am again, awake in the middle of the night thinking about my grandma. She passed away a couple months ago. I miss her so much. I’ll get the preliminaries out of the way first. I know that she is with Jesus; I know that she is not entrapped by her strokes or other health issues any longer. I know she’s better off where she is now. What I don’t understand is how to live without her. I am holding onto an 8×10 wedding picture of her and my step-grandpa. They both looked so happy. They’re giving one of those “side-hugs” to each other standing in front of a wooden fence. This picture just looks so pure and real. It almost feels like my grandma is here with me when I look at it. I stare at it every day, wanting to think about her, but afraid to. Thinking about her makes me upset somtimes. Sometimes, I cry. But, sometimes I just laugh, especially when I remember all her humorous antics.

Even as an adult she would make me stand in front of the kitchen sink and drink Alka-Selzer to settle my stomach. She almost believed those 2 fizzing tablets could make you feel better from almost anything. If I ever burned myself on the stove or a hot curling iron, she’s insist that I sit down while she applied the “first-aid” Vaseline. It makes me giggle to think about it even now. Our family used to tease her about these two wonder drugs. We used to say that “as long as you had Alka-Selzer and Vaseline you’d never die”! But, you know, I didn’t realize this until a couple years before she died: she didn’t like to be teased.  One of her sisters confirmed that for me after her second stoke when we were talking about my grandma. But even a few years before that I knew. When you’re around a person long enough you begin to notice their little quirks. For instance, my grandma was particular about stuff on the floor, whether it be crumbs or fuzz. Another thing that bothered her was what was placed into her living room trash can. Once again, our family was teasing her by putting her to a test. We placed a paper plate in the living room trash can and waited. After a while, she got up out of her rocker recliner, and was headed to the kitchen for something. But along the way she stopped three times. She stooped over twice to pick some fuzz off the carpet, and as the finale she took a couple more steps and leaned over to see what was in living room trash can. Without saying anything or making an expression, she snatched that paper plate. She then took it to the kitchen with her, and placed it in the proper recepticle, the kitchen garbage can.She kept a relaxed schedule. She woke up around 10am. She got out of the left side of her bed, and went to the kitchen. First, she would test her sugar because she had diabetes. And then, she would peel a banana and unscew a jar of peanut butter. She’d grab a spoon and dip it into the jar and place a little peanut butter on the end of the banana. That’s how she liked to eat her bananas. Then, she’d head back to bed until about 2pm or so. She never ate full meals. She liked bologna sandwiches, fried egg sandwiches, Hardees Bacon, Egg & Cheese Biscuits, orange juice and canned peaches. Those were her favorites. Every now and then, I’d open the frig and see a half quart of buttermilk.

My dad is somewhat of an unsung hero.  His humble legend stems from his quiet interactions with his family.  A great man that wields his power with trepidation.  He always seems to put others, especially his family, first above even his own needs.   It’s the small things I notice the most.

He’s not a brave war hero or an ingenius inventor.  He’s my dad:

CREATIVE.   CARING.  DEDICATED.  DETAILED.  KIND-HEARTED.  KAR-MAKER.   LOVING.  LOYAL.  GENEROUS.  GIVING.  INTELLIGENT.  INSPIRING.   THOUGHTFUL.  TREASURED.  WITTY.  WISECRACKER.