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4.30.2012

mum's the word monday

Photo Courtesy of: Alli D Photography 
Blessings!

4.25.2012

Klever

I was talking to my friend Kaleb yesterday.Kaleb is pretty klever (alliteration)

I was telling him(probably more like whining) about how I have to do two presentations for two different classes.

side note: they only have to be two minutes long. I'm just dramatic. 

He brought to my attention that presentation has the word present- as in the synonym of gift. I'm not sure if this had ever occurred to me. He continued to explain how we all dread presentations but love presents. If only giving presentations was like getting presents.

Ohh the irony of it all.

Sorry about this post...kinda.   


Sincerely.
Me

Blessings!

4.23.2012

mum's the word monday


I seem to have left my phone at home...if any of ya'll need to get ahold of me shoot me an email...or a facebook message. Ready for the weekend. 

UPDATE: Found my phone...in my purse...in a pocket...safe...fancy that. 

Blessings! 

4.18.2012

::Aisi and the Arch::

Over my Spring Break my dad asked me to run an errand for him in K-town. ...Just where I wanted to go on my break-but I had asked if Aislyn could come over to play that day, so we just kinda shifted our plans and decided to take her with us and make it a fun little outing. When we got there I asked if she wanted to go to the Arch. She asked what it was and I explained to her that you wear headphones, listen to people talk and walk around. Then when she saw the actual arch and I think she was sold. 


She hopped out of the car and said "LOOK at that!" I said "Wanna picture with that giant buffalo?" She said  sure. She got up real close to it and did this. Senor Smarty Pants and I busted out laughing. 


Then she got closer and did this. This little girl is somethin' else. You never know what she is going to come up with.


Then I said "Ais take a picture with Jale (It's how Aisi says his real name) and the Arch." And she continued her antics. Hilarious. 


This is what you see when you first walk in and she was instantly eager to get up there. I was too, I really enjoy the Arch.


The figures are so realistic it took some convincing that they were just statues. She had all kinds of questions.


This trip was mostly about the adventure of the Arch for Aisi, and I understand that. I do think she got some history out of it...I think. I hope.



I think this scene is my favorite one. 


When you come to the end of the museum you can look out this window and see how fast the cars below are. I lost track of how many times Ais asked Senor Smarty Pants how fast they were going. 


This was part of the old Diner area they had set up. We all agreed that they should still have these little machines on the tables today. 


We played pretend Diner for a while and then it was time to head out. 

We went down to the gift shop. I was perfectly willing to buy her a bag of cool rocks, or maybe one larger one, you know something that related to the history. After all, the whole museum is about how Nebraska and the West was settled. But what did the little doll walk out of the Great River Road Archway Monument with? 

A necklace with a dolphin on it. 

I tried.

Blessings!

4.15.2012

April 15th


It's my Blogaversary, Blirthday. 

Ok I'll quite making up words. Basically today marks the 2nd year of me having this little space to write down my thoughts, feelings, and happenings. The spot to get my things out there, so my mind doesn't feel so cluttered. It's such a release to have this space. Thank you for stopping in every once in a while. If you haven't became a follower yet what's stopping ya? :) What a better present could you give to my blog? 

Anyway I'm thankful for my blog, for you guys who read it, and for two years of writing. 

Happy 2nd Blirthday/Blogaversary!

Blessings! 

4.13.2012

Catch UP--Auction Finds

I've left you all hangin'. Sorry about it. I went to the Lion's Club Auction a month ago. So much has happened in between now and then it seems but I was going through my pictures and I had so many and I wanted to share them with you.  


Ambulance anyone? What does one do with an ambulance they bought at the Lions Club Sale? Beats me.

Dad had to work, Mom had to help get ready for some school function so my wonderful brothers were kind enough to attend with me. I knew I kept them around for some reason. Plus I bought them lunch, actually only one of them the other one made me mad, so he bought his own. Yeah don't mess with Jess. 


This fire truck was really cool. 


It had all kinds of interesting knobs, buttons and gages on it. 


There were at least 4 boxes of pens like this. They were mostly old pens, from implements, car dealerships, etc. As I was taking this picture I was thinking why would you buy these? Then I decided that they would actually look kind of cool in the mason jar part of a mason jar lamp. My cousins used to have ones filled with colored paper clips and they looked awesome. But I still don't think you would need a thousand, maybe 40. 


Then you come to things like this. Sure you can super glue it and fix it, but why didn't the seller do that?! Rustic charm?


Then there is cool stuff like this camera. This find made me think of my friend Alli D. She loves photography. She would have keeled over for this piece of equipment. 


FURBIE. I have no words for this, except 10 years ago I would have keeled over for this piece of equipment.


This is one of my favorite pictures of the day. There was a massive pile of these. I was wondering how they would sell them. Surely not one by one. Probably auction one to set a price and then you would say how many you wanted. Now I wish I would have paid more attention and bought some of them. They look so cool.


I think this was Aaron's favorite find. Even though you can't tell. He laughed so hard when we found this guy. What shall we call him? Randolph? Fredrick? Moving on...


I am not going to lie that it makes me feel a bit old that things from my childhood are showing up here, that no one wants these things anymore, that they have out grown them. Ohhh NSYNC. 


Another neat piece of history. It's a good thing I'm suddenly shy at this auction, I could have came home with a lot of stuff. 


Who, What, and Why?


Lots of people, lots of junk/merchandise. It was so windy. When I got home the first thing I wanted to do was brush my teeth, numerous times. They were so gritty. 


Might be my favorite picture of the day. Love the color. I don't even remember what the vehicle looked like. 

I almost came home with a puppy. They had them for sale outside the gate. I loved on one and then quickly said "Boys, get me away from here." Dang it now I want a puppy again. 

Blessings! 

4.11.2012

Over the Weekend

Easter has left me feeling refreshed, and springy. 

So refreshed and springy that I took it upon myself to clean Senor Smarty Pant's apartment. This is actually the first time I have done that all year. Shocked? But don't worry, its not the first time it's gotten cleaned all year, he's a reeeaaaly neat person (emphasis on really.) This is just the first time I've been in the mood to really get down and dirty and clean the place and it needed done. 

In other news, I went home and dyed eggs with my brothers and one of their friends, Taylor. Taylor is color blind. We forgot this little detail until he said "I think I'll put this egg in the black." It was a really dark green, that spurred our general knowledge of Taylor and quickly informed him (aka had him guess because that's always funny.) which glass had the blue and which one had the purple. Sorry Taylor for amusing ourselves with your disability and inviting you to an activity that you have a major disadvantage. Our bad...

They were able to tap into their creative sides and we only had to tell them a couple times to stop writing inappropriate or mean things on the eggs. I'd say that's doing pretty good. 


It's always fun to see how just some scribbles on eggs can turn out to look pretty cool when you put them in dye and make them blue, or green.


While I like the eggs with scribbles on them as much as the next guy, its eggs like these that always are my favorites. I love the muted yet deep colors. 

On Easter Sunday we went to church with my family and then had dinner and spent the day with Senor Smarty Pants. It was a beautiful day. 

The neighbors had put together a little scavenger hunt and asked if we would like to do it. They had made the clues and hid them all around the one-horse town. Senor Smarty Pant's brother was all over it and so, Senor Smarty Pants, his brothers Jesse and Jake, his cousin Derek, and I decided to take part. We got the first clue and were off. 


This was down the block from the 2nd clue. I believe it read "This is a place where dogs love to visit." I instantly knew and ran to this spot. The boys all said to me "How are you so good at these?" I didn't know that one was such a brain teaser. It was then I knew it might be a long afternoon. They kept asking me "What's your woman's intuition telling you?" 

And when I was wrong Derek would say "This is why I'm single. Women think they know it all because of their intuition but then they don't." Hate to break it to you Derek but you might be single for different reasons....just sayin' :) 

For the record though, my intuition was helpful but not fool-proof. 


We'd find a clue and Jake wanted to read it first so he could run off and find the egg first. He stayed about 20 yds ahead of us the whole time. 


The hunt was really fun. It lead us all over the town of Bartley and it was great to see the old houses and buildings and try to figure out the sometimes confusing clues. 

There is a little shop in town. Ok maybe it's not so little, it takes up maybe 3 buildings, it's only open by appointment and from what I see in the window it has all kinds of interesting stuff. I'm thinking I'll be making an appointment.The house above is owned and lived in by a resident of the town named Gladys. Gladys owns the store I just told you about. I think that Gladys and I would get along famously. 


This is on the old school in Bartley. Isn't it neat? So much history in this town. At the end of our hunt the last clue said basically to look in the glove box of a car to see if the registration and insurance card was there. I'm not actually sure if it was because we all got distracted by the easter eggs with $1 bills in them. It was a pretty successful afternoon...

Hope you all had a blessed Easter.

Blessings!

4.05.2012

Graduate or Turn 18

I’ve debated on wether I should post this for a day or so, beings I’m an Education major and someone important might run across this someday. But this has been on my mind too often to not post it.
So it looks like the the Nebraska Legislative is going to pass some legislation that raises the drop-out age of our youth from 16 to 18. I know that our President has spoke on this topic and how he feels legislation of this kind is so important to our youth. Being an education major, I thought I should write about this. I’ve had courses on development in the Family Studies Department so I approach this issue different than I maybe would have say-two years ago. 
On the surface this law looks beneficial. Requiring all kids to stay in school until they graduate or are 18. Kids in adolescence are testing out their decision making skills and many times we are less than impressed with said skills. Their impulsivity frightens and makes us wonder how they will ever get out of adolescence alive. I feel like I can safely say that I’m out of that stage. But mandating such a law doesn’t fit for every situation. Take the Amish for example, I know Nebraska isn’t known for their Amish communities but the Amish have their children graduate school at the end of the eighth grade. At that time they go into their communities and learn the vocation that will be their life’s work. The Amish had to go to court to fight the 16 year old drop out law. And they won. I’m just saying that grouping everyone together and mandating stuff like this is a recipe for trouble.
Of course I believe that education is important and it would be nice if there was no such thing as a drop out rate. Thomas Jefferson wrote about how essential some educational degree is when he stated that it helps citizens to “participate effectively and intelligently in our open political system if we are to preserve freedom and independence.” It is suppose to help individuals be self-reliant and self-sufficient members of society.
I guess what bugs me about the whole situation is how we think that such a simplistic idea is going to solve the drop out problem. There are so many reasons why a student decides to drop out but I would be willing to bet that if you asked them it would boil down to them being uninvolved and unengaged. So if we take a look at these reasons I really think it becomes less of a drop out problem and more of a school, and teacher problem, they are the ones failing the kids, they are not engaging them in learning. We have too many standards to meet and not enough time to engage them in something that they might actually like and use, we are not valuing every child's interest and potential. Because let’s be honest, an Amish kid who is going to join the fold doesn’t need to know calculous, either do most of us, and it doesn’t make us any lesser for not knowing it. We do need to know how to think critically, and from what I’m hearing in class we need more basic human physiology...
We have made public education a “One Size Fits All” institution and it couldn’t be farther from the truth. Sameness doesn’t = Fair. Heck Sameness doesn’t = Equal. I really love this quote I heard once “Being fair does not mean treating everyone the same it means making sure everyone gets what they need.” Are we making sure every child is getting what they need or are we so concerned with treating everyone the same that so many kids are slipping through the cracks? They are entering the world knowing how to fill in bubbles on standardized tests and sit still. And we wonder why we are falling behind compared to the rest of the globe. It’s perfectly clear to me why this form of education isn’t right for everyone. Sometimes when I think about it, I can’t blame kids for  dropping out. This bothers me, doesn’t it you? 
By making this kind of legislation we are ignoring the real problem. We are putting a band aide on it and hoping that it just goes away. That kids will be 18 and graduating in a few months so they will just finish. Is that really how we want our kids going through school? The drop out problem is being chalked up to kids being immature and bad decision makers that can’t see the benefits of the education, which may have a sliver of truth to it but there are bigger issues. We are pointing at the children and saying they are the ones with the problems when really I think it’s the system that has the problem, and has had one for quite a while. The legislation is coming from a behavioristic point of view. We have changed the circumstances so now the individual will change. All it will take is one kid saying “I don’t care, I’m dropping out.” and your theory has been blown out of the water. Because you haven’t solved the problem, you’ve just glossed over it. Why aren’t we trying to engage our youth more? Make the world the classroom-not just the one building. Make them feel valued and at the very least, tolerate school, not be mandated to go until their 18th birthday. Over-haul the system and maybe we can try to fix the damage that’s been done. 
I have another question though, what the heck are you supposed to do with the 16 year old who wants to drop out but can’t for two more years? When they are counting down the days and failing their classes just waiting for that birthday? Riddle me that people in the capital. 

Whew. 

Blessings! 

4.03.2012

Prom

My camera cord has a short in it. The process of getting pictures from my camera to my computer then to you guys has became quite a bit more tricky. I now must plug in my camera to my computer. Stand on my left foot, raise my right arm in the air, and hold my tongue juust right.

You can see how this whole process is quite time consuming and so I haven't uploaded pictures for some time and now I have some catching up to do. I have enough photograph material for weeks. And I don't really know where to start. So I think I'll just jump in and start with Prom.


You would think having boys go to prom would be easier than having girls. You know, no hair, makeup, whining, all in all boys going to prom = less stress.

But here's the thing. You have to do everything for them. Pick out the flowers, pick out the tuxes, persuade them away from certain style choices, pick up the flowers and tuxes. Then you think your work is done? NO. Because pictures are at 5:15 and at 4:45 the boy is showing up and has suddenly forgotten how to button a shirt. As if this rented ill fitting shirt that has normal buttons on it is totally and completely different than the shirt that he was wearing 5 minutes ago. Then you have to deal with the tie and cuff-links. Suddenly your 15 and 18 year old brothers revert back to infants and you have to tie their shoes. 

But you know what? I wouldn't have it any other way. I'm sure my mom would say the same thing. 


Because after all your hard work and mad rush to the finish line, 15 mins later they look like this. Prom prep for girls is more like a marathon. Prom for boys is more like a sprint, a 400 meter dash. Equally as tiring, just a different race all together. 

This year Evan went with a group of kids that had sweet talked a guy in town who owned a limo to driving them to Prom. This guy deserves an award. 


We are never out of reminders that we live in a rural area. The limo had to follow the tractor the whole way up to our house. Quite the caravan. 
  

Oh that Allison. With her peaches and cream complexion. She can wear the most darling colors. That minty color looked so fabulous on her. She is such a beauty. 

And Evan was obviously enthused about his first prom experience.


Besides the beautiful dresses I just love looking at the flowers. So, so, so, pretty. 


Sniff, sniff, Aarons 4th and Senior Prom. I still remember when he was a little squirt in his first tux. And Kadee's dress was very pretty too. Such a beautiful color. Lots of bright colors this year made it fun to watch the promenade. 


They looked so classy together. Evan's shoes were my favorite. 


Did you know that prom was first started so that kids from other towns could get together and meet? They would have a Senior Prom with a couple different rural schools, kids would go meet each other, pair up and many would marry the next fall or so...but today looking at these kids, we are not advocating for that kind of message. Just get dressed up take some pictures and go dance! Then go climb the velcro wall and play Minute to Win it at Post Prom with our parents. We can talk about that other stuff in a few decades- I mean years...I suppose.  

Just another Spring-time milestone down. 

Blessings!