Short

Good morning! Today is Alisha’s 27^th birthday so if any of you see or talk to her, tell her Happy Birthday for me.

In other news, I am tired. The garden needs attending to and I don’t want to do it. The house needs attending to and I don’t want to do it. I need to get grain for the goats. I need to go pick up my Strategic Management book at the college a bit before 10. I need to ride the bike or take a walk and do my Pilates. I need to shower and get dressed. I need to make the bed. The only thing I want to do is go to bed and take a nap. We’ll see how that goes; I kind of doubt it’s going to happen any time soon.

And that is all for now. Have a wonderful day!

Just Another Day

It has already been a busy morning. And a very pretty one. I got up this morning at 6:30 even though I didn’t want to and milked the goat and took a shower and got Seth and Joseph going (Cedric is pretty good at getting himself going—very Daniel-like) and took Amena to school because there was a volunteer breakfast and student council members were invited to be there as well. We left at 7:20 so considering everything, I think we did well. The only problems are that Cedric did not get the goats out and Laura doesn’t think they brushed their teeth.

I sat with the mothers of Dominic (Cedric’s friend) and Andrew (Seth’s friend). I didn’t know that Dominic’s mom makes soap. That’s so cool! Anyway, Dominic and Cedric really enjoy playing together but neither one will invite anyone over to play. I told Dominic’s mom that I might have to put a bug in Cedric’s ear and maybe even dial the phone for him. I like his parents even though I don’t know them well. Andrew’s mom is in charge of putting together the teams for fall soccer and she took on the immense challenge of being in charge of the playground fund and is discovering all the fun it isn’t to receive a government grant. I talked briefly with Seth’s teacher about the fact that he said he did his homework at school yesterday and turned it in. I hope he really did—he has in the past so it is possibly. I also talked to Mrs. LaRose and I will be going in next Thursday and Friday to make sherbet. That will be so fun!

Seth’s soccer practice yesterday was good. I took the truck so that Cedric could take his bike so he could ride around while I walked and that was nice. I think the road is about half a mile long which means I walked three miles in an hour and 10 minutes. I need to pick that up a bit. Cedric stayed with me the first time around and then just kind of took off and touched bases as he passed me. Near the exit is a gazebo with tables and one of them appears to be broken. It was fun to ride up and over. Cedric spent as long as it took me to go 1 and ½ times around riding up and over. The last time around he stayed at the truck. It was nice walking but it was so muggy I think you could just about have cut the air with a knife. I’d already taken a shower because I cut my hair earlier in the day. I was so sticky after walking that another shower would have been nice but I didn’t do it.

I took Seth and Cedric to church and got Joseph. Amena and Joseph went with Laura. Laura took some papers for Meredith (positions for labor) and soap for the Wests. I got there with the boys and Amena told me she’d forgotten her papers for camp. The papers were supposed to be in two Sunday’s ago and today is the last day to turn them in. Laura gave me the papers and the soap and took off home to get Amena’s papers. I exchanged the soap for $10 and then told Joseph that we’d be going as soon as Tyler’s mom got there so I could give her the papers. We had to wait about 20 minutes but when she arrived, I gave her the papers and Joseph and I left. Laura still wasn’t back but we saw her on the way home.

Joseph had already eaten so I ate while he did his homework and then he got ready for bed. We went upstairs and read ten verses of the whatever chapter of Nephi laying on my bed (which is fun when there are only one or two boys with me). Then he brushed his teeth and went to bed. We were getting some thunder and lightning at that point but it wasn’t that close and it wasn’t raining yet. It was nice and quiet with Joseph in bed and no one else home. Unusually quiet—it doesn’t happen all that often.

Earlier in the day, I made sour dough bread and got the counter in the kitchen cleaned off. I sorted through a bin of assorted dry goods Paul has been collecting. There was granola, rolled oats, some pasta, some whole wheat flour, and a few other things. The pasta is still okay but all the grains and flours are/were dated 2007 and 2008 so they either got dumped in the garden, fed to the goats, or are going to be fed to the goats. Now there is only a bunch of candy, mostly M&Ms and Hershey Kisses, and some drinks of the sort to put in lunches for children to take to school. I also did laundry so that the washing and drying could be done before the humidity really hit (which it has). I think there is another load to dry but it’s going to have to wait until tonight.

Laura got home with Amena, Cedric and Seth close to 9:00 which is about average. Seth and Cedric hadn’t eaten anything for supper (other than s’more’s for Scouts) so they ate quickly and got ready for bed and hopefully brushed their teeth. The rain had started by then and it didn’t just rain, it poured. Heavily. And the lightning got close. It was bright and beautiful and LOUD. Then there was a thunder clap/lightning strike so close that the noise happened instantaneously with the light and at the same time we were without light and noise (you know, the kind that happens from the refrigerator being on—some people call it white noise). Wow. It was complete darkness other than the screen of my laptop and the lightning outside. Very awesome! I just love stuff like that.

I let Amena take a candle upstairs so she could read. I lit a candle downstairs. I called my mom to let her know that I wasn’t suddenly ignoring her (we’d been chatting via Facebook) or anything. I went upstairs because Seth was bothered by both the light and the noise of the storm. Cedric seemed to be fine and Joseph was actually asleep although he did wake up with the commotion in the room. There wasn’t really anything to do downstairs so I got out a flashlight and hung it from the door handle of the front door for Paul and then went upstairs to read after calling him. He didn’t answer so I couldn’t tell him there was no electricity or about the flashlight and he didn’t call back which is unusual.

He got home around 10:30 after sitting outside talking to a friend of his who lives in Arizona. He thought he’d be able to cook something to eat but had to settle for bread and cheese. We talked for a bit downstairs and then I had to go to bed. He went up as well since there really wasn’t anything to do downstairs and then we talked some more. I think we didn’t stop until about 1:30 when Joseph crawled into bed. I fell asleep shortly after that and the electricity came back on shortly after 2:00 (Paul told me and I could tell from what the alarm clock said).

And that is that. On the agenda today are exercise, folding/sorting laundry and a bit of cleaning. Fun stuff.

Have a wonderful day!

Interesting Day

It is a beautiful cloudy/wet day out. It really is. It’s just green and white and wet and luscious. And 56°. Bonners Ferry is 50° and Yreka is 51°. Wow, they’re close.

Kindergarten yesterday was fun. I got to listen to about two thirds of Joseph’s class read. I usually listen to them which is mostly a lot of fun. They are so stinking cute and so individual.

When I got home from school, I got ready to go out walking. I took off and hadn’t gone far when a woman stopped me and said that traffic was stopped by Rietta on 68 and the officer said that she could get back to 68 going down Pitcherville.  Well, yes, you can, but it’s a rather long circuitous route with lots of turns. I kept walking, my goal was just 30 minutes yesterday, and there was a LOT of traffic coming down our road. On the way back, another woman stopped me with the same question. I explained that she needed to turn right at the fork, left at the stop sign, right at the next stop sign and right at the next stop sign. That would take her into Gardner, and route 68.

I’m still not sure why 68 was closed but I suspect it had something to do with electricity as ours went out for 30 to 45 minutes in the afternoon and Paul said they were doing something with a power pole when he drove by. I also know that when Laura went to work, the road was open and when she came home it was closed. By the time Joanna came home, it was open again. Paul suspects an accident (they seem to happen frequently there).

Cedric and Seth both had practice so I got supper ready to go and left instructions for Amena to turn the oven on. It turned out well and because practice for both boys was over at 6:00, I got home in time to make a salad. Laura and Amena did some cleaning which was nice and Amena made some brownkies although she said they weren’t for last night. I’m not sure why she wanted to make them but this morning almost half were gone and I suspect she took them to school.

I resurrected the Amish friendship bread starter and sour dough starter yesterday. I need to make sour dough bread today; the Amish friendship starter won’t be ready to go for another three days.

After my walk yesterday I took a stab at my fat-burning Pilates and decided it should be called thigh-killing Pilates. I can feel my thighs like I never did even on my most strenuous bike riding days. Today Cedric wants to take his bike when I take Seth to practice so that he can ride around the road that encompasses the fields and courts at Felton while I walk. It was my idea (thought of because I know Cedric loves to go for walk/rides), Cedric loves it, and I hope it doesn’t rain because I want to do it. I’ll check the weather soon in order to have an idea. As of last night, it was supposed to rain last night and this morning. It did rain during the night (and Joanna didn’t have the top on her Jeep) and looks like it could now.

Currently, I need to go make my breakfast and then take plants out of the van. Have a fantabulous day!

Exploring

Boys at the gate for 'alive' people.

And another good morning to you! It is another beautiful sunny day outside with our temperature currently sitting at 57°. Bonners Ferry looks to be cloudy and 50° while Yreka is cloudy and 49°. I don’t know what Dublin and Paris are as I removed them from my laptop and don’t care to look them up.

The gate for 'dead' people.

Yesterday was a tolerably good day. Paul and I took off around 10:30 to go get fuel and look at plants in Fitchburg. Fuel was got but the prices for plants were outrageous so we didn’t get any. We came home and had lunch and got boys ready to go out and left to look at plants in Sterling, West Boylston, and Leicester. We got lots of plants and our new favorite place to go is the one in Leicester because the people are super friendly, the prices were by far the best, and the plants are by far the best—sturdy and healthy.

A couple of the gravestones.

Once our plant purchases were complete, we went to the Spider Gate Cemetery. It’s an old Quaker cemetery and there are some old people buried there. The oldest ones I noticed were born in the early 1700’s. Paul said that the gravestones have been vandalized. Most of them are new, relatively speaking, because the original ones were, I think he said, slate. At any rate, it was very cool.

A drain. For what was it used? I wonder.

Our next stop was a WWII POW camp. Paul was at first disappointed because there didn’t seem to be any sign of the buildings that used to be there but then we found some foundations and there were two building still standing. One was built into a hill and the other is a solitary confinement cell block. There were tunnels under the whole compound but many, if not most, of them are now caved in or blocked off. There is one still by the solitary confinement building that the boys had fun exploring.

Another drain at the end of a trough.

When we came home, it was time to eat and get ready for bed so we could read another chapter of Nephi and have family prayer. Paul too his new toy to a repair shop down the road and then went to Leominster to pick up a shelving unit. He was going to pick Amena up from the church where she was with Laura and Joanna on his way but Laura texted me that they were on their way home so Paul was able to just keep going.

The boys standing in the doorway of an intact foundation.

Laura and Joanna had been at a YSA Family Home Evening. They had fun but the turnout was awful. Besides them there were only two other girls and two missionaries. The only reason Amena was with them is because of the attitude she developed about going with us to go exploring which she allowed to cause her to go exploring in our woods when it was time to leave.

This is upclose of the interior of the next one.

And that’s about it for today. Have a magnificent one!

This is just cool.

Cedric on the roof of the solitary confinement cell block through one of the holes in the roof.

Cedric on top of solitary confinement again.

Cedric peeking in one of the air vents of a solitary confinement cell.

Reflection of Joseph in water at the bottom of the tunnel. He was peeking in through a hole in the roof.

Cedric wanted to ride his bike so he got to for part of the way home.

Memorial Day 2013

Good morning! It is a beautiful day out! Sunny and warm (54° compared to 50° and cloudy in Bonners Ferry, ID, 48° and rainy in Yreka, CA, 54° and cloudy in Dublin, Ireland, and 63° and sunny in Paris, France).

Amena did a wonderful job of making red and blue pancakes with white cream cheese glaze this morning. There are just a few left. She is now cleaning in the livingroom which makes her an especially awesome daughter today.

While Seth was taking the goats out this morning, I moved their stakes so they have nice fresh grass for grazing. Since the boys are nearly two months old, I figured it was time to rubber band them. Laura helped me with that chore. While so doing, I discovered that they are androgynous. Next to each rather obvious scrotum were two teats. Never in my years of having goats have I had kids so obvious.

On the agenda today is a lot of unknown. There is a parade in Hubbardston in 14 minutes. If Amena was going to be in it, she should have been there 15 minutes ago. As it is, there is no way we could get ready and be there in time so I won’t say anything about it to anyone. At 2:00 we are invited to the Goguens. Every Memorial Day they have a get-together at their house; grilling, eating, swimming, etc. I’m not sure swimming is very realistic this year based on the temperatures we’ve had the last few days but we might go.

Yesterday after church we had stroganoff and salad. After that most of us went to the Gardner State Hospital. At one time it was a nearly self-sufficient asylum for the still functional insane. Currently, part of it has been restored and is functioning as a medium-security prison. There is one building left of many and one barn that recently collapsed. Paul hadn’t been out there for eight or nine years and in the ensuing time, all the buildings he remembered have been entirely razed. It would have been fun to see them but it made for a nice walk nonetheless.

When we got home from that, we had Family Home Evening taught by Cedric and rhubarb/peach/apricot cobbler. Then, after reading chapter 7 of 2^nd Nephi, and having prayer, it was time for bed.

Once children were abed, I was searching for information on the Gardner State Hospital. There isn’t much online to be found unless I am searching in very wrong places. All I found is that it began operation in 1902 and stopped in 1975. In about 1981 the prison portion was completed and began taking inmates. Currently the prison houses up to 1,000 inmates and before the buildings were razed, there were sightings of paranormal activity. Actually, I think there have been in the prison portion as well but because it is now a prison, it would be hard to check it out in person.

Near the prison, there are two wind turbines and they were moving at a good clip yesterday due to the wind. Cedric mentioned that it would be funny if they were going so fast that they sucked someone up. What a good idea! I said that would make an excellent story. An eleven-year-old boy is exploring with his family in the area and a wind storm comes up which causes the turbines to move exceedingly fast. The boy is sucked up into the air and deposited 50 years in the past. He now has the difficult job of not only getting out of the asylum but finding his way back to his family in the future.

This is partly why I wanted to learn more about the place but it appear I will have to go to the library to find it because there isn’t anything online easily accessible.

And now, have a wonderful Memorial Day remembering those who have served our country in the military and in other was as well as those who are now serving in God’s military!

Not Your Typical May Day

Good morning. I’m attempting to convince myself. I do not know who did it but yesterday afternoon one of my lovely children, and it had to have been Seth or his friend, let the kids out of the crate and in with their mother. Because they’d spent the night with her, I wasn’t able to get any milk yesterday morning so I had them put the kids in the crate during the day so I could milk in the evening. I went out to milk and discovered that there were no kids in the crate. Grrrrrrr!!!!! Cedric went out after supper and put them in the crate and I just came in from milking. They really like their grass; milk production is always down when they’ve been in even when they get hay and snacks.

Outside it is grey and overcast. I don’t mind that too much. The temperature is about 39° currently here and it looks like Bonners Ferry, ID, is the same. Yreka, CA, is 53° and it looks like overcast according to the computer. Dublin, Ireland, and Paris, France, are both sunny and 55°. I’m not sure that recommends them to me today.

Yesterday Amena got home around six. Riley’s mom came and got him between two and three. Paul was gone with Cedric and Joseph so Seth had the temerity to be bored a couple of times. That didn’t last because there is ALWAYS something to do around here. He got to help me clean and rearrange a bit in the back room (I’m not sure how two boys could make such a mess [albeit with help from two other boys so that most likely had something to do with it] but they did), the living room, and my bedroom. One of my lovely children took all the paper backings off a whole package of felt thing to put on the legs of furniture so the floor doesn’t get all scratched up. Lucky for them all the paper was behind the piano so I was able to resurrect everything. Not only did they take the paper backings off, they stuck them to the piano and made little piles with them. The other wonderful thing they did yesterday is get into my soap stuff and open my jar of pink powder that I use for coloring soap. I was wondering where on earth they got chalk because it looked like chalk dust. Then I followed the trail and discovered what it was. Joseph was the culprit that time and admitted he’d done it but said it was an accident. Those jars don’t open on accident so. . . . .

I found the paper I’d been hoping to find in my room which is one of the reasons I attacked it yesterday. Most syllabi or syllabuses say in them that the instructor reserves the right to make changes to the document. This one does not say that. It does say, “This is a Pass/No Pass course.” And “The clinical faculty is responsible for completing all Objectives checklists, reviewing them with the student and returning them to the Faculty Instructor who will make up the final evaluation.” To me, these statements indicate one: that I should not have gotten a B. If letter grades were given, they should have been A and F meaning pass or fail. Two: the Objectives Checklist should have been filled out and then I should have reviewed it. I was instructed to sign the document because my preceptor was not there that day. Had she been there and given me all 3’s, I would not have signed it. What do I plan to do now? Complain to someone. My first step will be to talk to my advisor and then I will determine an appropriate second step.

In this whole ordeal my greatest fear is that by complaining I will jeopardize my chances of being employed at Heywood because the instructor is the manager of a component of the lab which phlebotomy is also a component of. She might not like that I’m not satisfied and might curtail any attempts I make at finding employment there. On the other hand, perhaps she will find my temerity attractive and something to be desired in a phlebotomist. In reality, I don’t really know how much say she has in who is hired and who is not.

And now I must be on with things. Have a spectacular day!

Economics in Action, People

Good morning! It is another rainy one here. If you like the rain or not, it is still a good morning. I have four little-ish boys eating eggs fried in bell pepper rings and ham. Seth had his friend Riley stay last night and so far it’s been a good thing; I do hope that it isn’t so wet out that I can’t send them out after breakfast.

This is it. A 2000 TDI Volkswagon Beetle.

Yesterday I went to Boston yet again as mentioned yesterday. Riding with Devon was interesting. We talked about cars and food (he works at a Whole Foods Market in Boston) mostly. Driving the bug home was sort of fun. It would have been much more fun if I had been legal. In Massachusetts you are supposed to get your vehicle insured and then registered before you drive it home. That usually means going to the vehicle, getting the paperwork, going to your insurance place (in our case, The Insurance Place—I used to call it that because I didn’t know what the name of it was and it turns out that that IS its name), going to the registry, and then going back to the vehicle to put the plates on and driving off. Then, you have seven days in which to take it in for an inspection. In this particular instance, it would have meant driving to Boston (usually an hour and a half trip, one way), back to Gardner, to Leominster, and back to Boston. If done in one day, it would literally be an all-day endeavor. As it is, Laura and I went to the repair place where the red Prizm was, since it was fixed, I drove it home, we took the plates off (because they are the plates we’ll be using on the bug anyway), Laura took me to Devon’s, Devon took me to the car and stuck around until I took off, I paid for the car, we filled out the paperwork, the guy put the plates on, and I took off. The insurance and registry will have to be dealt with next week which means another day but the actual taking possession of the car took less than four hours. A trip to The Insurance Place and registry next week should take only a couple of hours and it will be done. Add in inspection time and it should be around three hours. Looking at it that way, buying a car involves not only the cost of the vehicle including registering and having it inspected but the time you spend doing what needs to be done. If you earn $10 an hour and it takes seven hours, that’s another $70. Economics in action, people.

This is one of the irises I planted in one of the stumps down by the creek.

When I got home, I could have hurried to the school to watch the last bit of the concert but I was so tired I ate some frozen yogurt and took a nap instead after I took the goats out and took a little walk down by the creek. I woke up about 20 minutes before the bus arrived and Seth and I went to get Riley about 20 minutes after that. Amena spent the night at the Trivitts because Sarah wanted her to and Amena was agreeable so they came and picked her up shortly after supper. The remaining children had chicken, salad and rice for supper. Laura and Joanna were both here which is somewhat amazing but nice.

Some ferns currenly IN the creek.

Paul and I were going to try a place we drove by last week because I looked them up they’re supposed to have really good clam chowder. The line was long and the wait was expected to be about 45 minutes so we went to Lunenburg (I think—it might have been Fitchburg) to a little (and I do mean little) place that sells wings and Mexican. They’re not bad, in fact they’re pretty good, but Paul likes the food more than I do so far.

The creek down by Daniel's grave.

When Joanna got home, she wanted to check the bug out. She really likes it and wanted to take it for a drive. Because it’s not legal yet, I would only let her drive it down the driveway, up the road, and back down the driveway. She likes it and thinks we should trade cars for a day. She’s so stinking cute.

This is actually by the driveway. Lilacs always make me think of my wonderful Aunt Julie.

Today’s plans are somewhat up in the air but Paul might be taking Cedric and Joseph up to Vermont to get a new toy. Laura and Joanna both have work. If Paul does go to Vermont today, we might go back to Moore State Park Monday. If he does not go to Vermont today, he’ll most likely to Monday and most of those of us at home will go with him.

And that’s about it for now. Have a spectacular day!