Rachie's Christmas list

Electronic label maker
Cheap package of earrings from a store like Claire's (silver in color)
$
New Bible (the Message version)

Claire and James Lists

Claire:
clothes - pants size 7 shirts size 7 or 8

James:
clothes - 18 months for winter or spring
curtains for the 2 windows in his room

108th Birthday is the Last

Mike's Great-Grandma, Martha Bowman, died Saturday night. She had had a stroke earlier in the week, was in the hospital for a couple days, and then moved to a nursing home for a couple days where she died. She turned 108 at the beginning of November.

Brian's list

This all I got for now:
DVDs:
Seinfeld 8 and 9
Chariots of Fire
(I'm sure more will be added, but this is all I could think of for now)
Gift certificates for Gap, Structure
bowflex selecttech dumbells

Steph's xmas list

I think this is all I can think of for now. So in no particular order:

DVDs
Muppets From Outer Space
Looney Tunes Golden Collection series VOLUME ONE (NOW ONLY 1/2 PRICE!!)

a new watch (silver only, no stretchy bands, with a clear, white or blue face, preferably square in shape. no really intricate weavy designs.)

a Browns shirt
a Shin-Soo Choo shirt
(t-shirts or long sleeves, size M)

dressy tops
fashionable shoes
asian-style tops or clothing (there was some stuff i really liked at a store in the Easton Mall, called Forever 21, or something like that. i'd probably like almost anything from that store, and it's got great prices. i even have a picture of one of the shirts i liked, but i'd need larger sizes in the asian-style, it's all just so small!)

a good book to read

Dad's Christmas List

1. Light weight hooded rain jacket for carrying on bike and wearing when needed.
2. G.P.S. Tracking device. Suitable for carrying or mounting on a bike.
3. Biking shorts and shirts.
4. Bike odometer that has
a. distance 1
b. distance 2
c. odometer
d. clock
e. current speed
f. average speed
g. maximum speed
h. trip time
i. riding time
5. Wrap around biking sunglasses
a. keep sun out of eyes
b. keep bugs out of eyes
c. keep wind out of eyes so my eyes don’t dry out and I lose my contacts.

Sleepy

Ever have that thing where you're at work, and you think you're working, and then you realize that you're so sleepy you've spent the last five minutes refreshing an IE Window and not actually doing anything?

Working A Lot!

I have been subbing like crazy. Over the course of the last 2 week pay period at NW, I worked 9 of 10 days (23rd - 3rd, had Friday the 4th off). This 2 week period I will work all 10. I subbed at NW High on Monday and will do the rest of this week and all of next week at Black River Middle for a math teacher. His wife just had a baby this morning and he is taking off 2 weeks to stay home. Just thought I would let everyone know my life up until T-Day vacation :)

Margaret's Christmas List

Dockers "Metro Pants"

Books:
Ella Enchanted
anything by Avi
anything by Gary Paulsen
The Opal Deception, by Eoin Colfer
The Supernaturalist, by Eoin Colfer
anything by Walter Dean Myers (except Slam!)
Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants series
anything by Meg Cabot
fun with math books (for the classroom) (Like Math Curse, Sir Cumference and the Sword in the Cone, etc.)

DVDs:
Billy Madison
Ella Enchanted
Chicago

Wall decor for the living room
An Ipper Collens original painting

Notice to All Orlando-Bound Travelers

Keep two things in mind when you pack for Orlando:
1)There are a washer and dryer in our house, so you will be able to wash and re-wear items of clothing.
2) There is a heated swimming pool attached to the house, so bring your suit.

To those flying: Dad and I will be driving down, leaving either Friday night or early Saturday morning, so let us know if there is anything you want us to take down for you. Keep in mind, though, that we will be bringing Mike & Margaret and kiddles back with us, so space will be an issue on the return trip.

Dad and I received a Trip-Tik from AAA with several maps and tourist-type books. You are welcome to borrow them (briefly) or come over and look at them.

Mom's Christmas list

My wish list is very simple---anything you can get at fleamarkets or yard sales for the cabin:
dishes
silverware
cooking utensils
pots & pans (we will eventually get a stove)
games, toys
old books
jigsaw puzzles
old-fashioned hinges and doorknobs
blankets, quilts

ADDED 11/3/06: photo studio portraits of all of you (individually or together).

Carrie's Christmas list 2007

Carrie Christmas List 2007

-Calligraphy family tree back to great-great grandparents on both Smith and Miller sides, on parchment paper

- Countertop composter and replacement filters (in cobalt blue) http://www.nextag.com/norob/PtitleSeller.jsp?nxtg=9d880a240503-C4D5B7A8AC3B9BCC&chnl=main&tag=537010697&ctx=D3pmQjpiUjWJeXDiusIAeVcpLm7FaLTOY9JPtUZnGPqU2fLxG5PvfkqHYPfrg3%2Ft6e%2BwphqQR2v%2F%0A%2BJXkQNI8WNahGfa0tf9jj2irxnj7PG4AJJ3Ikbj50W7zi7h3HdS9&ptitle=526352780

- German bearded re-blooming irises (Blue, white,purple, and/or yellow)

- LOST Seasons 1,3 on DVD

-"America's Cheapest Family Gets You Right On the Money," by Steve and Annette Economides (this is a book)

- Betsy-Tacy books (by Maud Hart Lovelace); I have the first four; I still need: Heaven to Betsy; Betsy in Spite of Herself; Betsy Was a Junior; Betsy and Joe; Betsy and the Great World; Betsy's Wedding

- DVDs: Little Mermaid; The Chronicles of Narnia; Spider-Man 3; Shrek 3

It's Beginning to Look a Lot Like Christmas

Okay... it's midway through October. Time to pull out those Christmas lists and post them here.

There are two ways you can create your Christmas list. Both are fairly easy.

1) Just make the list as you would any other post here.
2) If you have an account with Amazon or Froogle, create a Wish List (I'll let you visit those sites to figure out how they work). Once you've created a list, either send me the link or post it directly to the blog. (If you have items that cannot be purchased or are generic, it would be better to create your list seperately and post it here).

Once you've posted the list or I've received the link, I'll put it in the Wish List section in the sidebar to the right. Right now there are question marks by everyone's name. Once somebody submits a list or link to me, I'll replace the question mark with "(UPDATED)".

If you need to make any additions or changes, just make the changes to your original post or off-site list, and those changes will be made automatically to the link on this page.

And that's it. When your secret Santa (or whomever) wants to find out what you're hoping for, they can simply click on the link and see what you have on your list. For example, when you click on my name over there, you'll be taken to a small list I created in Froogle.com, including an iPod, a TiVo (which I don't really need, but it's cool) and a set of Superman action figures (ditto). Please keep in mind the list is over a year and a half old, and these items will be removed or changed soon. I just want to be certain that the link works for everyone.

Pretty simple, huh? E-mail directly with any questions.

Merry Christmas, everybody!

New E-bay seller!

Well, we finally bit the bullet and put our precious but unused musical instruments up for sale---two saxes and a flute. It makes us very sad, but they were just worth too much money to hang on to for sentiment's sake (sort of like Carrie's & Wes's decision to let the barn go). Not only that, but it was sad to see them sitting unused. They were created to make beautiful music, and I hope whoever buys them will do that.

View them here, here and here.

Good-bye, Barn

On Thursday we got the final estimate on what it would take to get our barn into usable condition. The answer: $80,000.

Believe it or not, this was actually an answer to prayer, because this made it patently clear that we couldn't afford it and shouldn't go ahead with the project (this put it $30,000 over budget). If it had been just a little bit over budget that would have been a tough decision.

The same afternoon, I talked to Moose and she had the number of the guy who de-constructed Mike's grandpa's barn. He's from North Carolina (the barn guy, not Mike's grandpa), but when I called him it so happened that he was still in Ohio.

The next day he and one of his partners came to look at our barn. He poked around for a while, then came in to the house and told us, "Well, it's an awfully big job, and we couldn't get to it for a while."

So we were sad for a few minutes, until the guy said, "Could you possibly wait 3-4 weeks for us to get to it?"

Umm, yeah. We've waited 4 years. I think we can wait 3-4 weeks.

This guy works for salvage, so it's free to do the de-construction. He also asked us if we could do open burning, and we said yes, there's a big burn area 50 feet from the barn.

He said, "Great, we'll just burn any unsalvageable scrap for you as we go, so then you don't have a huge pile at the end."

So -- they work for free, and they clean up after themselves. Yeah, we're pretty happy about that.

Also, now we have our home equity loan to play with on the house!!!! We are accepting ideas at this point. ;-)

We're sad to lose this piece of history from the property, but happy that it will it get a new home as another barn or recycled into other useful things, and very happy that we can get some larger projects done on the house now.

First in line: a garage (that's gair-ahhj to anyone who's been in Australia or NA this year).

"...Frageelay."

I never even knew A Christmas Story was filmed in Cleveland, but evidently we can make a pilgrimage to the house starting in November.

What's the difference between the Yankees and a Haunted House?

Answer: A haunted house has bats.

(I have to credit Wes with that one.)

Claire scored a goal

I forgot to post last week that Claire scored a goal in her game. She almost scored one today but it got blocked. She really seems to be enjoying it - a lot more than softball. I think she just needs something where she's up moving the whole time.

We've met Taylor...

...and she is a great kid. We've gotten to spend a Friday evening and a Saturday afternoon with her now.

The first time we met her, we went out to dinner and she talked non-stop the entire time. She is the oldest of 6 kids, is in the 4th grade, is very smart, and volunteers at her school reading to the smaller kids.

She looks SO much like Dan and Bob. Dan has finally met her, although I guess "hi" was about as far as they got.

This past Saturday we were at Wes' parents' house; all 3 Smith grandkids were together, and Taylor hardly said anything. I guess Kayli and Christian talking a mile a minute was a little much to compete with. But the 3 of them seem to get along very well. Shockingly, well, actually, considering all the circumstances.

Taylor wanted to learn to crochet, which made Kayli want to learn, so Mary was very excited to teach the two of them. They were doing quite well working on a blanket.

We hope to have her up to visit someday soon. It is hard to catch up on 10 missing years all at once, but she is definitely worth it.

Goodbye Oliver

We had almost ten years with him. He wasn't the cutest, wasn't the smartest, wasn't the bravest, but we all loved him. And I know how much dad loved his little "surprises". We won't be able to hear his toenails clicking on the kitchen floor anymore, but soon dad's will grow long enough to fill that void. We watched him grow from a shaking, quaking, underfed little puppy into a plump, white-bearded old man. He didn't care to be around little children all that much when they were awake and moving, but once asleep he wouldn't leave their side, intent on standing guard over them. He was always so happy to see us when we got home from work or came over to visit, and he always had a sixth sense about when we were about to get into a vehicle and he had a fighting chance of going along.
Think of how old you were and what your life was like when we got Oliver. I was in fifth grade, Mr. Kline's class, I looked like a boy and wore flannel fairly often. In our family photo that year, I wore a flannel dress that looked more like a nightgown and I was mortified because instead of buttons it had bra hooks to fasten it together. For some reason, the day mom got Oliver, I came in the front door of the house when I got home. Mom took me into the dining room and introduced me to this shivering little black dog that peed all over itself with fear when I tried to get him out of his cage. We tried to make him sleep in his cage that night, but he cried until I let him into my room, and then he scratched at the door until he was allowed to go into mom and dad's room, where he finally went to sleep. I guess he was attached to mom right from the start. The last time I saw Oliver, he was in the back of mom and dad's big monster van. They helped me unload my stuff at OU, I kissed mom and dad goodbye, and I petted Oliver and gave him a kiss before they drove away. So at least I got to say goodbye.
I'm trying to think now. That food and water dish he had, the water dish was all chewed up. Did he do that when he was a puppy, or did Toby do that before him? We've had that dish for a very very long time.
Anyway, goodbye Oliver, no dog could ever replace Toby, and no dog will ever replace you. I'm glad I didn't cut your toenails at the vet's visit just last month, because I wouldn't want that to have been one of your last memories of being with me. Although you were mad enough when I took you home and gave you a bath. Have fun in doggie heaven, and eat all of Mike's steaks that you like.

Sorry, I tried to put a couple photos on here, but I can't get them to load.

name dropping

Ok, we are letting everyone know that when our daughter is born she will be welcomed into the world as..................... Johanna Eden Miller.

I could not figure out to add text to the photos, so I had to do it this way.
In the second set of pics you see a turkey leg hovering above her. That is her left arm with her hand next to her face. Maybe she's picking her nose. ------- ---- Miller stop that right now!

...have some more sllloooppppy joes....

Say hello to granddaughter/niece #2 (Miller side anyway)

• 

Good News/Bad News

Hasbro has officially updated the Monopoly game with modern properties across America and new playing pieces.

THE GOOD NEWS:
Jacobs Field is one of the properties you can buy or sell.

THE BAD NEWS:
It replaces Mediterranean Avenue.

Special Holiday Guest

Steph is mentoring a student from Hong Kong this quarter. Her name is Angel, and she speaks English very well. She is eager to experience all things American while she is in the U.S. Would anyone object to taking her along to Orlando in November?

Claire's soccer

Claire is playing soccer this year. I was waiting to receive a schedule and then I was going to post all of her games here, but I have yet to get one from the coach. Anyway, she has a game every Saturday through mid to late October. They are either 10 am or 11:30 am. If anyone wants to come feel free. They are at the fields behind the elementary - just like softball was.

BLOGGING

Well hoodah-I have now blogged. I feel better already.
That is it for now.
Dad

American Idols LIVE! Tour Report

For those who didn't hear, Carrie won tickets to the American Idol concert on Friday. Floor seats, about 8 rows back. The evening included a 'Meet & Greet' with the performers. There’s way too much information to get into real detail about any one thing, so I’m just going to list a bunch of random thoughts and impressions I got, starting with the ‘Meet & Greet’ portion of the evening.

-A representative from the tour met a large group of us at the Will Call of the arena. I was expecting for the meet & greet to happen pretty quickly, but we were all kept waiting just inside Will Call for 30-45 minutes or so. I’m guessing they had problems rounding the performers up and getting them to the meet.

-Now, I’ve never been to a concert meet & greet. Maybe I’m naïve, but I figured we’d get a chance to talk and mingle with the Idols. No such luck. We were ushered downstairs into a large room where the Idols were seated behind a long table with a box of Pop Tarts in front of every other person, signing autographs like an assembly line. If we didn’t have anything to sign, we were given picture of all the Idols.

-We were expected and instructed to keep the line moving. We were not to touch the Idols. We were not to ask to have our picture taken with the Idols. We were to not ask the Idols to say hello to our grandma (which is what I was hoping Elliott would do for a friend of mine).

-Even with the short time we spent at the meet & greet, the Idols behavior was consistent with what we had seen on TV. Taylor seemed to be humming along to a tune only he could hear. Ace made sure to make contact with every person in line and thank him or her for coming.

-I asked Katherine if she was getting tired of doing all this publicity. She smiled and said no, but she actually mouthed it. So, for what it’s worth, it did appear that her voice problems are genuine.

-Almost all the Idols seemed very pleasant. There was only one who seemed annoyed or bothered to be there. And, no, I won’t say who it was, other than to say it wasn’t anyone I’ve mentioned so far.

-I was hoping to get a bag of loot from the concert. A free hat or program, maybe a meal. Other than the cast photo, we got diddly.

-This is an indicator of the audience. Between the meet & greet and the concert, Carrie and I had supper at a pizzeria near the arena. Out of maybe 150 people in the dining room, maybe a dozen were men. The number of people under 16 was about equal to those above 16.

Now, the concert:

-I’d like to apologize to all the Idols on behalf of the audience. Mandisa started a trend of all the Idols of asking the audience to get on their feet. This is Columbus. Unless you’re singing the OSU fight song, we don’t do ‘get on your feet.’

-Mandisa mistakenly called Columbus ‘Columbia.’ Understandable mistake when you’ve been touring for a month and don’t know which state you’re in, much less what city. Still the audience let her know of her mistake.

-She dedicated one of her songs to the bass player in the band. He didn’t seem to be expecting it, so it makes you wonder what’s going on back stage.

-I would say the note of the collective scream the audience hit when Ace appeared on stage would be a B-Sharp.

-By the time Ace finished singning ‘Father Figure,’ every girl under 12 had achieved puberty.

-His version of ‘Harder to Breathe’ is a lot better than I expected it to be. I could see him doing well with that kind of music.

-Even though he did this weird thing with his chest that simulated a heartbeat. The girls seemed to love it, but I thought it was a little creepy, and Carrie couldn’t stop laughing.

-He’s awfully fond of the arms-outstretched-Messiah pose on stage.

-This is just my opinion, but Lisa got voted out a lot sooner than she deserved. She’s got a professionalism that’s beyond her age. I think if she had waited to audition until she was 21, she could have taken the entire thing.

-And she plays keyboards.

-On the flip side, she like mellow 70s hits of Elton John.

-Lisa called Paris her best friend.

-During ‘Waterfalls,’ they had fairly complex choreography.

-It’s something about Lisa’s smile. More than any other Idol—including Taylor—she looked like she was having the absolute time of her life the entire evening.

-On her own, Paris danced like she was getting her freak on.

-That reminds me, I just wanted to say that all the performers seemed much more comfortable on the tour stage than they ever did on the show. But Paris was the most noticeable.

-Not much to say about Bucky.

-Bucky and Kellie, on the other hand… During their duet of ‘You’re the One that I Want,’ neither one of them seemed like they wanted to be there, like they were more concerned with their choreography than with the song. In comparison to Paris and Lisa, Kellie and Bucky could barely do the box step.

-No offense to Kellie, but I have a jar of pennies on my desk that has more stage presence than she did. She moved gracefully but stiff, like she had adopted her training as a high school beauty queen as a way of life.

-To her benefit, when she took off her leather jacket to reveal a corset underneath, I totally forgot about her stage presence.

-She ended the first half of the show before the intermission, saying she couldn’t wait to get out of her corset so she could breathe again. But when she reappeared in the encore, she was wearing another corset.

-Before the concert started and during the intermission, people were encouraged to send text messages to a number and have their messages projected on the video screens. There were plenty of messages of people proclaiming their undying love for Ace and Chris. ‘ace I love u marry me,’ ‘chris have my baby,’ stuff like that. But I think my favorite was ‘Marry me PopTarts.’

-Oh, and evidently someone actually proposed via text message before the concert started. And she said yes, so that was kind of cool.

-At the beginning of the concert and at the end of intermission, they played the title sequence of this last season, followed by a fast-cut montage of moments from the season. Maybe it’s just me, but I was bugged by the fact that they didn’t actually put Taylor in the title sequence. How hard could it have been, and it would have been a way to acknowledge his place among the Idol winners.

-If the note for Ace was a B-sharp, the one as Chris took the stage was High C. And if the girls went nuts for Ace, all their mothers went straight into heat for Chris.

-Chris had more solo songs than any performer other than Taylor.

-Since smoking has been banned indoors in Columbus, and is generally frowned upon by society, most people don’t have lighters to wave anymore. But what do we have? Cell phones.

-Note to Elliott Yamin: Next time you duet with Chris, YOU pick the song. Nickelback just isn’t your gig, man.

-By the end of the series, Elliott had cleaned himself and looked really snazzy with his ‘Rat Pack Nouveau’ look. For the concert he looked rumpled in black jeans, a black button-down and backwards baseball cap. Totally the wrong look for the kind of music he soloed with.

-I was surprised by the fact that there were no back-up singers on stage with the Idols. Were they backstage, or were they on a backing track?

-Best Song of the Night goes to the quartet of Elliott, Chris, Ace & Bucky on ‘Patience.’ It deserved to be the bonus track on the CD, as it showcased the best skills of all four performers.

-Number of men who played musical instruments: 3 (Taylor on guitar, harmonica and tambourine; Chris and Bucky on guitar).

-Number of women who played musical instruments: 1 (Lisa on keyboard)

-Katherine is still under restriction and could only do two songs, ‘Black Horse and a Cherry Tree’ and ‘Somewhere Over the Rainbow.’

-She was in a cast from breaking her leg. How did I miss that in earlier posts?

-While almost everybody else either dressed casually or ‘stage casual,’ Katherine stood out by wearing a long, flowing black gown reminiscent of her infamous yellow gown.

-Another notable song missing from the line-up: the girls’ ‘Man! I feel Like A Woman.’ Which is too bad, because I was really looking forward to it. I wonder why it was cut.

-Taylor just rocks. He may not be the best singer of the bunch, but he is easily the best performer.

-He came charging through the audience from the back of the auditorium to the stage, passing right past my aisle seat. Yay me!

-I was close enough to touch him as he passed if arena security hadn’t jock-blocked me. Boo security guy!

-However, I was close enough to get a good look at the seat cover with lapels he calls a jacket.

-Here’s the reason Taylor deserved to win American Idol: he makes every song his own. All the other contestants were singing covers of a famous song. With Taylor, you forget he’s singing a Stevie Wonder tune about racism.

-And I finally figured out what his dancing style reminds me of: Elaine from Seinfeld.

-My number one pet peeve about any concert: Forced encores. Why do performers continue to insist on trying to fake out the audience? Taylor says good night and leaves the stage. The rest of the band leaves the stage, but nobody turns up the lights. Are we really supposed to believe that they’re NOT coming back? Encores should be spontaneous, when the audience just will NOT let the performers go without one more song. When they’re pre-planned, it makes the whole thing feel disingenuous.

-But even I have to admit this: I actually got chills watching everyone on stage doing ‘We Are the Champions.’

-On the other hand, I got the distinct impression that Taylor had totally forgotten the words to ‘Living in America.’

-Oh, one last thing—what I said at the beginning about Columbus not getting on our feet for anything short of a BCS Bowl… we got on our feet for Taylor and stayed on them.

You know, Brian, you could do this...

Who's the big winner?

I won two tickets to the American Idol concert coming to Columbus on 8/11, INCLUDING backstage passes for meet-and-greet.

Guess what Wes and I will be doing next Friday?!?!?!?!?!?

Try not to turn too green!

I bet it was Dad who stole this cat

http://www.dispatch.com/news-story.php?story=dispatch/2006/07/18/20060718-B3-03.html

Homecoming, poison ivy, and X-ray vision

Helllllloooooo.... Is there anybody out there? WELCOME HOME, TESSY!!!!

I have poison ivy on my face. By Sunday morning it had gone to my eyelids. The left one was all swelled up. I didn't go to church on Sunday. By Monday I had it in my throat. I went to the doctor and now I'm on the roids, so try not to be too jealous of the toned physique and cute little goatee I will shortly be developing.

I was framing some pictures to hang, and I showed one to Wes. "This is the goods," I said. He looked at it. "What is this, your dad? he asked. "Yup", I said, "but more importantly, look at what he's holding -- that's good blackmail right there, that is!" Wes said, "You mean the rabbit he's holding?"

Dun dun DUN.

I looked closely.

Wes and his stupid Superman X-ray vision. He's right. It IS a rabbit that dad is holding in that picture. And all these years I thought it was a cat. Stupid me. Stupid no more blackmail.

A Basket of Poo

Today I happened to notice a short story that I wrote exactly a year ago. Although you've seen it before, I thought I would post it for your enjoyment:

*********************

A Basket of Poo


Mr. and Mrs. Smith bought a house. “Look, look,” said Mr. Smith. “It is a nice house.”

“It is a very pretty house,” said Mrs. Smith. “We should have pets to live in this pretty house with us.”

Many pets came to live with Mr. and Mrs. Smith in the pretty house. Some of the pets were big. Some of them were small. All of the pets were stupid.

“Look, look,” said Mrs. Smith. “See our stupid pets. We have a stupid dog, and two stupid cats, and stupid fish.”

Mr. and Mrs. Smith did not know that stupid mice also lived in their house. One day Mrs. Smith came home. There was a mouse in the kitchen.

“Look, look,” screamed Mrs. Smith. “Look, stupid cats. There is a mouse.” The cats did not say anything. They were too stupid.

Another day Mr. Smith said, “Look, look, Mrs. Smith. There is a mouse running around the living room.” Mrs. Smith stood on the couch. “Look, look, Mr. Smith,” she screamed. “Catch the stupid mouse.”

Mr. Smith caught the mouse and put it outside. The next day Mrs. Smith went downstairs to feed the stupid cats. She put her hand in the bag of cat food. She screamed and ran up the stairs.

“Look, look, Mr. Smith!” she said. “There is a mouse in the bag of cat food.” Mr. Smith went downstairs. He was down there for a long time. He did not tell Mrs. Smith what he did with the mouse in the bag of cat food. She did not ask.

After that, Mr. and Mrs. Smith saw many stupid mice. One day Mr. Smith said, “Look, look, Mrs. Smith. Our cats are too stupid to catch mice. We should not have stupid pet mice in our house. We should buy mouse traps.”

“You are right,” said Mrs. Smith. So the next day she bought mouse traps at the store.

Mr. Smith took a mouse trap. He put peanut butter in it. He took it downstairs and put it in the closet next to the bag of cat food. “Look, look, Mrs. Smith,” he said. “I will catch the stupid mouse that likes to eat cat food.”

“Why don’t you look in the closet and see if you can find the mouse nest?” asked Mrs. Smith.

“You are right,” said Mr. Smith. So he looked in the closet. In the closet were many things. There were baseball gloves and volleyball knee pads and jump ropes. There were knee braces and shin guards and baseball bats. There was also a large basket to put all those things in.

Mr. Smith took the basket out of the closet and looked in it. When he had taken out the baseball gloves and volleyball knee pads and jump ropes and knee braces and shin guards and baseball bats, there were still several large lumps of something left in the basket. It looked like thousands and thousands of tiny somethings that had clumped together into three large piles.

“Look, look, Mrs. Smith,” he said. She came downstairs and looked.

“What is that?” she asked.

“It is a basket of mouse poo,” said Mr. Smith.

Mrs. Smith said a word. She said the word in Dutch.

“That’s right,” said Mr. Smith. “Poo.”

My thoughts

I think that all grownups should get a 3-month summer vacation. With pay.

Teenagers could continue to run Dairy Queens for us, so we'd be able to get our ice cream. And that's all you really need in the summer, right?

I saw a dead possum this morning

Is that thrilling or what?

We finished our winter projects on Saturday. Only about 3 months or so behind schedule, eh? But there is now a bannister in the upstairs hallway along the stairwell, making it much more difficult to fall down the stairs from the side, so that's nice.

We watched 4 movies this weekend:

The new Pirates of the Caribbean
Swingers
The Princess Bride
Hitch

This is what we are forced to do now that we have finished the high-pressure need to work on that particular remodelling project -- relax. It is a strange sensation indeed.

Update on Paul Janssen

The latest update from Chuck late Thursday night:

Paul is being kept in an induced coma in order to stop him from fighting the ventilator and other tubes going into and out of his body. The primary problem is his lungs. They were badly bruised in the accident, and he inhaled water while lying unconscious in a ditch. The ventilator and induced coma are to allow his lungs to begin healing. The idea is to gradually bring him out of the coma and encourage his lungs to work by themselves.

He went through a crisis on Wednesday evening. His chest cavity began to fill up with air, and his blood oxygen, pulse and blood pressure readings went down. The doctor (the doctor who was on call that night, who "happened" to be the chief of that department) called in Chuck and Shelley and said, "We are running out of options here." He did, however, say that as a last-ditch effort, they would change the ventilator tube. Chuck and Shelly went back out to the waiting room while that was being done and began to storm Heaven with prayer.

Within a few hours, Paul's vital signs had improved to a point where they were even better than before. Later that morning, the doctor saw Chuck in the hospital cafeteria and told him that he was amazed at Paul's recovery. He confessed that the night before, he had not had much hope of Paul's survival. The doctor recommended that Chuck and Shelley continue to pray, because "we are seeing a real miracle here." The doctor, by the way, is Jewish.

In the meantime, Paul's regular doctor (the one who has been in charge of his case since the accident) had expressed concern that no one had seen Paul move his legs. He told the Janssens he was going to order an MRI to see if there was a blood clot in the spine. Now, that morning, before speaking to the doctor, Chuck had suddenly recalled an old song we used to sing, that goes something like this: "Every place on which your foot shall tread, I have given it to you, I have given it to you..." Chuck was impressed to sing this song over Paul and pray for fulfillment of that promise---this was still before the doctor had expressed concern about Paul's legs. After the doctor talked to them about it, Chuck told Shelley about the song. Shelley's mouth dropped open, and she said, "But the Lord reminded ME about that song this morning, too, and I sang it over Paul!"

They laid hands on Paul's legs and began to pray. Paul moved his left leg back and forth. They ran out to tell a nurse, and she went in and saw Paul's leg move, too. When it was reported to the doctor, his mouth fell open. He cancelled the planned MRI.

So for now, prayer continues to be needed for Paul's lungs to heal. The plan, at this point, is to gradually bring him out of the coma over several days and see if he can breathe on his own.

a few photos

sorry, right now i'm too tired to explain in detail these photos. the one of me and naoki was taken my last night at Helan's house. notice the short hair. Naoki gave me his baseball hat from his Japanese team, that's what I'm wearing.

and the other two photos are from Ingrid's homestay, it's a really nice house, lots of old and antique stuff...i'll explain it later. just thought you might like to have a peek at it. okay, nitey nite for me! enjoy the 4th of July.

no photo yet

sorry, haven't gotten around to taking a photo of my hair. but i did go to a hair stylist and get it fixed up. it's not bad now, but a little too short for my taste. jamie summed it up pretty well the other day. i came downstairs early in the morning, having just been forcibly woken up by my alarm. he said "steph! look at your hair!" i said "what does it look like?" he said "it looks...tired!"

More on mice

So at lunchtime today I decided to fetch something from the downstairs freezer. I opened the basement door, and had to stand stock-still to take in the little tableau before me:

At the bottom of the stairs were two cat food dishes, from which our two indoor cats, Bert and Ernie, are served their ridiculously expensive meals (they’re on a special diet thanks to Ernie throwing the cat equivalent of a kidney stone last year).

Directly in front of one of the dishes sat Ernie.

In one of the dishes sat a mouse, nibbling away at the tidbits left behind after the cats’ morning buffet.

Ernie was boredly observing the mouse – not as if he were stalking it, not even as if he found the mouse particularly interesting – certainly not as if he intended to do anything about it – and the mouse continued to eat.

Ernie could literally have stretched out his neck to snap up a mouthful of mouse, but he chose not to.

Apparently our cats are taking their diet way too seriously.

Guess what Wes will be doing when he gets home tonight?

thine hair shall be chopped...

ying cut my hair this evening. i was terrified the whole time. i won't go into details...it looks okay. i'm just not going to think about it, maybe on monday i will sneak down to the hair salon and ask them to clean it up for me without making it look too noticeable that they did anything. i think mom would like the style, it's just kinda messily done. anyway..........only one week left in this homestay, then i'll be with some friends for a week, then Uluru, then home! i'll put a couple photos on here of my new hair when i get a chance.

Kra-KOOM!

So we all know that I'm going to a chiropractor, right? Well, I've been going to a chiropractor for the past week or two. This week I've spent three hours on what they call a 'decompression table' designed to seperate my vertebrae, but what amounts to a medieval rack. Because I'm just starting this therapy, I'm required to spend the rest of my evening on my back, usually watching movies on the couch so my vertebrae don't reset (tough life, I know).

ANYWAY... Yesterday a nasty storm blew through Delaware, and on my way home from the doctor's office I saw a half-dozen branches blown off the trees, and power was out on the main road through town. Every time a galer like this hits, I'm afraid that the trees just south of our house will blow over. That didn't happen, but something else did.

I was flat on my back (watching Foster's Home for Imaginary Friends, check you're local listings), when she asked me to come outside and see something. We walked to the back of the property, where she showed me that the largest remaining tree on our land had been split down to the trunk, and a large strip of moss had been turned black.

Looks like lightning, but since we weren't there when it happened, it's hard to tell.

When I was growing up, something similar happened to a tree in my parent's yard, where my family could see it. Lightening struck a tree and scored it in a spiral like the thread of a screw, then jumped to another tree with the same root system and shot up it like a bottle rocket. At least one of the trees died. I don't know what that means for the tree in our backyard.

In other news... I've formally and officially gotten Carrie addicted to Lost. Our local library carries a lot of DVDs of TV shows by season. I reserved the set at the beginning of April, and it just came in last week.

Once I got her to sit still for an hour, we ended up watching 17 episodes over the course of 2 days. She's so hooked she actually chose to watch a couple of episodes over working on the stairwell.

Hello Little One!

Here is what our Little One looks like. Everything looks good so far!

Kiss Me, I'm an Uncle!

So, among the other things my parents talked about as they were at our house for lunch yesterday, we learned that my brother has a 12 year old daughter he didn't know about. Dan was slapped with a paternity suit earlier in the year, and he took the test to fight it.

You can figure out how that turned out.

Her name is Taylor, but we don't know too much about her. We believe she is living in Kentucky with relatives. Her mother is unmarried, and we think that she has 3-4 other kids, each with possibly different fathers. Beyond that, we don't have much more info on her. Not even a photo.

Dan's going to have to pay child support, but in return he does get visitation rights. It's doubtful he'll pursue it, but my parents would at least like to meet their first grandchild, even if they know that they won't have much of an influence in her life.

This is the way we wash our clothes, wash our clothes, wash our clothes

This is how we get dressed in the morning now:

We get up, shower, brush, do whatever we have to do, and put on some sort of undergarments.

We pick out our clothes for work for the day, walk out to the end of the scaffolding that has been filling up our stairwell since Friday, and hang them on the end of said scaffolding.

(At this point I usually like to take my shoes and toss them over the end of the scaffolding in such a way as to maximize the scaring of the allegedly starving animals congregated at the bottom of the steps. (There are usually 5 (animals, not steps) at the moment, as we are dog-sitting for Drew and Lesley.))

Then we climb over (which scares the willies out of me, hanging 5 feet above the nearest step) or through (which requires one to do the limbo -- twice) the scaffolding, to get downstairs.

Then we can simply pick up our work clothes and get dressed downstairs!

Handy, aye?

Running

I have some exciting news. As some of you may know, I joined Curves about 3 weeks ago and have been working out regularly 3 to 4 times a week. I am feeling great and I really like it there. Anyway, I decided today that I really need to get myself in shape as well - not just lose weight - for soccer. (The team had there first game on Monday night for the Wooster league that they are in for the summer and just kicking balls with the girls and showing some of them proper techniques made me winded and tired.) So today, a day that I do not work out at Curves, I got up and ran before Mike left for work. I ran a whole mile without stopping at all. I was so proud of myself. I know for some of you this might seem silly and trivial, but for me it is a milestone. I have walked many miles for workouts, and walked/ran many miles, but it has been years since I have been able to run the whole mile without stopping. So I think Curves must be doing a lot for my stamina as well as losing weight and toning my muscles. It took me 13 minutes to run it and I could probably walk it just as fast if not faster, but walking never seems to get my heart rate up as much and I don't feel as good about doing it when I walk. Anyway, my next goal will be to get the mile down to 10 minutes which is about as fast as I ran it even when I was playing soccer in high school.

And by the way...

...you're standing in bull ka-ka.

James's first birthday

We would like to have a birthday party for James on Saturday, June 17th starting at about 1:00 and going til whenever. It will be kind of an open house with games and food and that kind of stuff. I know some of you are busy with house and yard work so if you can't come it is okay - or if you come late that is okay too. We are inviting lots of people including extended family so there might be people you'd like to see.

i don't understand this stupid blog. i'm trying to add a photo to my profile. i finally figured out how/where to go to add my photo to my profile, but it says the url is wrong, even though i just copied and pasted it from here. and it keeps saying something about i have to click on some "template" tab when i log in in order to change my links. where in heck is the template tab?? and why are there 2 separate sites, one to edit posts and another with the actual blog? and how do i get back to that original edit post site? i don't think i've ever gotten so worked up over something before. the blogger help is almost completely unhelpful, and the way this whole thing works is ridiculous. it's not good for my health to use this blog. i hate this stupid thing. i hate it, i hate it, i hate it!!! now i know how old people feel.

vacation

here are just a few photos from the trip. we had such a wonderful time. i couldn't ask for a better vacation.

james got his first tooth! it came in last tuesday. he is also doing the army crawl very well. he is quite speedy. no new words yet, but he was talking up a storm all week.

All I want for Christmas

http://www.nycgarbage.com/

What Harvard is good for

So I get one of the blah blah blah Harvard Alumni emails (translation: Give us more money! We only have the largest endowment in the entire world!), and I see a link in it to an article recently published in the Journal of the Royal Society of Medicine,
entitled: Obesity levels in U.S. are grossly underestimated.

I'll sum up the SHOCKING findings for you here:

"Based on this new understanding of the survey data, the authors found that, on average, women tend to underestimate their weight while men do not. When it comes to height, young and middle-aged men tend to overestimate their height more than women in the same age groups. "

Women lie about their weight and men lie about their height! Wow! I'm glad someone finally figured this out!

old people

so i got hit by a car today (on my bike). i waited patiently at a light, got the green crosswalk sign, and went on my merry way. an old lady driving didn't bother to look, turned left, and hit me. i screamed, got my back wheel kinda stuck in the car a bit, and so i pushed myself along a bit to get loose. when i did that, the lady started moving forward again!! i had to hurry to get out of her way, and she drove off!! i was kind of in shock, i didn't know what i was supposed to do, so, seeing that i wasn't badly damaged, i started riding again. a guy in a truck behind me flagged me down and wanted to see if i was okay. he took me the rest of the way to uni. he was really nice. i wasn't very upset about it for a while, i was just in shock, but now that i've had time to settle down i'm pretty annoyed. i should have gotten her license plate number. there's a big fine for a hit and run here. and my back wheel is really buckled now. the bike was really crappy in the first place and not completely safe to ride, but now it's REALLY not very safe to ride. so now with less than a month to go until classes are over, i have to pay money to get it fixed, or else pay money and take the bus. grrrrrr. (oh, and as for my own well-being, i've just got a bit of a skid mark on my shin, my leg's a tiny bit sore. but i'm fine.)

Family work day?

How about this scenario: Everyone come to our house for a work day on the 22nd of July (shortly after Tessie gets home) then that evening we all go see "The Lady in the Water"?

Serious Drama

I just got back from D.C. and I am taking a break in my packing for Orlando. Just thought I'd let you all know I got back safe and sound and right on time. I had fun, although I was rather grouchy by the last day. The only thing I can tell you right now is that 6th grade girls have got serious drama issues. It was actually quite amusing what went on within a 2 hour period on a boat ride down the Patomac (sp?). I will update everyone when I have more time. But for now, have a lovely week here in the Ohio weather (or Australian as the case may be) while I am visiting Mickey.

office space

i got chao and brice to watch office space. they thought it was pretty funny, but we couldn't get the subtitles on so they couldn't understand half the jokes. they talked too fast. now i'm preparing to watch a japanese drama. it only has chinese subtitles, so i'll just have to pretend i have a clue what they're saying.

I forgot to mention...

...that I shot myself in the left index finger with a nail gun last week. It was just a finish nail gun, so no permanent damage. It didn't even hurt that horribly.

But every time I see my finger and the scab, I think about Adam Sandler's boss from Happy Gilmore, and then I start giggling.

"And you can count... On me waiting for you in the parking lot!"

An author to check out

http://www.amazon.com/gp/search/ref=pd_sc/103-9735302-7747047?search-alias=aps&keywords=harlan%20coben

Harlan Coben.

I've now read two of his novels.

His writing style/diction is a bit stilted; his character development isn't the greatest; he recycles some stuff from book to book.

But boy oh boy -- 5 pages into it and he has you totally hooked. I can't put it down. I have to cover the bottom of the page with my hand so I can't see what's coming. I find myself disoriented when I stop reading, because I was so sucked into it.

Definitely worth picking up one of his novels.

And then there were three

So how shocked are we that Chris is gone and Katherine McPhee (sp?) is still on Idol, after her bad performance Tuesday night?

Honestly we thought Elliott would be gone this week because, well, he's the ugliest one left, and that's how Idol works. But then Katherine did so poorly on Tuesday, we thought maybe it would be her instead.

And now there is no more Chris!

Gift Ideas

If you are scratching your heads over ideas for Mother's Day/Father's Day gifts for your parental units, be advised that we are anxious to do some landscaping around the cabin. I think your father would be very pleased to get another flowering crabapple tree, like the one you gave him several years ago and which is now flourishing in our front yard. As for me, I would appreciate some hardy shrub roses in deep pink or burgundy shades. Make sure they are hardy shrub roses---I have a few from last year that are doing very well in the flower beds in front of the house. We also plan to plant myrtle on the slope in front of the cabin, and I could use one or two "Petit Bleu" for the border in front of the house. That is a small variety of spirea, also known as Blue Mist spirea, that is available at The Greenhouse Shoppe in Wooster.

And if you are short of cash, a couple hours of free labor in the yard would also be appreciated.

In case you were thinking of getting us anything. Not that I am asking. Just being helpful :)

Graduation Day

The grad and her very proud (and somewhat relieved) family.

Margaret receives her diploma and a handshake from the University president (the diploma is worth more).

The traditional graduation photo, under the crabapple tree in our front yard.

Family that came to Moose's graduation

I didn't realize we had some from the "Mullet" side come to the ceremony.

No Words Necessary

Here comes Peter Cottontail

http://www.snopes.com/photos/animals/giantrabbit.asp

and

http://www.ananova.com/news/story/sm_1541732.html

comments

i don't know if anyone goes back through their posts and reads comments posted, so i just decided to create a new post for my comments.

first, to carrie, of course i have already used my 25 maximum votes for the all-star game. you know what i find strange, though, is that they put all the positions for both national and american league on there. you don't have to put an entry for all of them, but there's always the tempation, if you're a trouble-maker, to vote for the best players in the league you like and pick crappy ones for your rival's league. if you're a true fan you'd want to pick the best so you can watch an enjoyable game, but there are plenty of people out there that would do so. anyway...

congrats to margaret! that's exciting to be able to work with the team you were a part of, it gives it more meaning. the only thing is, i seem to remember that you didn't think linda gray was the most wonderful person in the world. could be interesting. :)

and third, you should all definitely plan lots and lots of workdays for all the houses in the Miller family. Plan them all in May June, and early July if you like. You should really attack it with full force and get all those jobs done. Yes, most definitely. But I think maybe a good date to stop and be happy with your accomplishments would be...maybe sometime around July 18th. Yeah, that sounds pretty good.

oh yeah, and i've been hearing about this United 93 over here. (Well, just reading U.S news. Australians aren't really discussing it, that I know of.) Lots of people discussing whether it was too soon to make a movie, comparing it to other historical events and how long it took to make movies about them. The consensus seems to be that it's not too soon because it's just important to remember what happened. So does it have any famous people in it? I heard it was pretty hard to sit through, it's mainly just torture on your emotions, not something you'd go on a date to see. I'm not keeping track of many movies. There's some I really want to see, but it's just too expensive, and frankly I don't really care anymore anyway.

On a different note, I'm doing tedious research for my management essay, and really hating it. I went onto the 4th floor of the library and searched through rooms and rooms full of books to get more citations. And in the middle of all these voluminous academic novels, I found...Dilbert. So of course I stopped my research and just read this whole Dilbert book on Management. Chao is also in management, and Brice has a business background, so we were discussing it for a while, and I am now firm in my claim that next week I will make them watch Office Space. They've never heard of it.

K, I've got work to do. Have a lovely day!

Tis time soon

Rachel and I have been trying to get stuff done with the yard but decided we would like more company. So sometime in the not so distant future we would like to plan a family work day. Probably late May or June. First, we want to get input from everyone and find out what schedules are like. What do youins think?
Tonight we saw "United 93". Very sobering indeed. I have heard other people say they think it's too soon or stupid altogether. But I'm glad I saw it for educational purposes and for remembrance.

I have a job!

At least a part time one. I am the new assistant coach of the NW girls soccer team. Linda Gray, my coach and the still current coach, wants to retire after the '06 season and I asked if I could assist her this year and possibly take over next year if I like it. She got everything approved with the necessary people and I know have a job!

Not sure how this may or may not effect teaching, but I don't even know if I will get a teaching job and I don't want to turn down an offer. I am just praying that God will be in complete control of what happens and that I can happily follow his will for me.

July isn't that far off

Anybody start their all-star voting yet?

Fantasyland

Just finished reading Fantasyland: A Season on Baseball's Lunatic Fringe by Sam Walker. Wanted to through this one out to Dad, Brian, Mike, and Steph, and anyone else interested in the subculture of pro baseball known as fantasy leagues.

It's about a reporter's quest to beat the most elite, invitation-only members of the Tout Wars. Not only is it an entertaining (really funny, actually) look at the realities of modern baseball, but also a case study of popular strategies and a profile of the most famous originators, contributors and players of the game.

Highly recommended.

Kitchen cabinets

Yes,I know that this topic is not one that is going to make you say, "Gosh, I've just GOT to read this!" But I can't help being excited about the cabinets Dad & I bought at the Habitat Store Saturday. They are heavy, high-quality, lightly-used cabinets in an ususual style that fits right in with a cabin. Here is a photo of some of them as they stand in our garage. Aren't they nifty? Doesn't it make you want to immediately plan a trip to the cabin?

one interview down

i had my interview at smithville today. it was very grueling and intense. i walked out and suddenly realized my neck and shoulders were stiff as a board and i had a horrible headache. it lasted a little over an hour and there were two principles there, each with about 3 pages of questions to ask me. as i answered, they took little notes. i think i did okay. i know i didn't answer all of the questions perfectly, but i gave my best and thought through my answers before just blurting something out. me being self-critical, i've gone over and over what i could have said, but i don't think i did too bad. i won't be heartbroken if i don't get a second interview. i'm just happy to have this under my belt so that way i can prepare a little better for the next one. i know what to expect now. and what i really want is one of those 4th or 5th grade spots at NW if they are available. so this is good practice.

they said they will call me by the end of next week to let me know either way. i will keep you all updated.

important reminder

i just thought everyone needed a little reminder: in the words of Mary Roach..."Whatever!"

It's Official!

The cabin now has an indoor bathroom, complete with flushing toilet, tub/shower (featuring both HOT and COLD running water) and even (tah dah!) a DOOR with a lock! Granted, the long wall next to the bedroom consists of one panel of chipboard, the back of the bathtub, and a long piece of cardboard, and the door does not reach the top of the door frame, and there is no sink as yet, but----hey, it's miles better than old Sparky!

We also have a kitchen sink, with hot and cold running water, two drains, and a countertop made of plywood!

Three double beds and a futon complete the luxurious accomodations. We are now taking reservations for summer weekends or vacations.

ok, here is my first one

I will try my first post. Not much to say but I'll send a pic of my favorite nephew.

Several news items

1) Mike had a meeting with his bosses about the upcoming water division. Things are looking great. They want to buy more equipment than Mike expected, so they are diving right in. They will be buying a truck or van, and to start, Mike will basically go to all jobs with a foreman. He also discussed with them the possibility of being a part owner of the new division and they seemed excited about the idea. They were not expecting that, but they will talk to their accountant and work out details. If they agree, we will put in as much $ as we can to purchase equipment and be somewhere around 25% owners (we hope). This should benefit everyone involved.

2) We are now a 1 car family - for a little while. We sold Mike's aunt Lorie our Camry. She is going through a divorce right now, just moved to a rental house, and cannot afford to pay on the van that she purchaced about a year ago. She inquired about our car and we decided that with me barely driving anywhere right now we could sell it to her for a fair price, she can make payments to us, and we will borrow one of the Bowman's vehicles until we need to buy something. We will probably start looking in June, but we are not sure what direction we want to go. I could get a college grad discount on something brand new, but we may just get an old truck for Mike instead. We will be praying about it and waiting until God gives us an answer. The nice thing is, unless I get a job kind of far away, we are in no hurry to buy something. Gary does not need his extra truck until the snow falls and he needs the plow.

3) I have a job interview in Smithville on the 21st. It is for their Gifted & Talented program. I'm nervous, but I know that even if I don't get the job it is still good practice. I also talked to NW's elementary principle. The might soon have a 4th and/or 5th grade spot open when they are doing the internal shuffle from people retiring. If they are left open when the jobs are open to the public, I wanted to get my foot in there. So I breifly chatted with Mrs. McCumber (sp?) and dropped off a resume. She seemed interested, so that could be promising. I am continuing to look for jobs online, but it is still early in the hiring season. I am trying to be patient and stay calm, but it can be so hard to not worry with my future so uncertain. I am prepared with other plans if I do not get a job by the fall.

The Show Must Go On.

About 15 minutes after I got home tonight, I got a call from Dave O'Roark, the director of the drama ministry at our church. After we exchanged pleasantries, he took a breath and said, "Okay, so here's the deal..."

That is never a good sign.

Instead of a strict gospel presentation like our church has done for the past two years, this year they're doing a multimedia presentation, with music, video and dramatic pieces. We asked not to be involved because we were in New Zealand when they started making plans.

But last night, Mark Price, one of the guys doing a dramatic reading with Dave, broke his foot in the parking lot of the church.

So now I have to memorize a 6-minutes monologue in the next 19 hours or so.

Prayer would be appreciated.

And to top it all off, Ace wasn't eliminated from American Idol last night. His sorry butt keeps skating through each week.

You've got to be kidding me

http://www.lasikathome.com/index.html

we have a piano

we got a piano from mike's aunt lorie. if anyone has old beginner lesson books i would enjoy them very much. hopefully soon i can start claire on some lessons. also we don't have a bench so if you know where we might find one that would be nice too.

This is especially for mom

Spellcheque!

http://www.spellingsociety.org/news/media/poems.php

Hee hee

In case you don't get The Learning Channel, check out some of the ads they've been running recently:

http://tlc.discovery.com/fansites/lifelessons/lifelessons.html?dcitc=w99-530-ah-0013

My personal favorite is life lesson #73.

Food for thought

On Wednesday of this week, at two minutes and three seconds after 1:00 in the morning, the time and date will be 01:02:03 04/05/06.

Mike's exciting job news

Mike is going on his first water job tonight!! He has been waiting for this for over a year now. Mike has been pushing the owners to buy equipment and get going on water jobs, but they are a little tight with their money right now and they just keep putting it off. Today, a water job came in (in case you didn't know, they advertise that they do water damage and then they just sub it out, which is how Mike met them in the first place because they used to sub their jobs out to Servpro - they get jobs regularly so Mike has repeatedly reminded them that all they have to do to get the division going is get equipment because the jobs are already coming in, no advertising needed), and the owner asked Mike what it would take to just go out and do it instead of subbing it out. He said he could run and rent some equipment with no problems and go straight out to the job. So he and one other guy are working late tonight. It is the best type of job he could ask for - no contents, small basement, clean water - and he hopes that after the owners get a taste of what the bills look like and how much money they will get from it, they will decide to just go buy the equipment and get moving on this. Pray for Mike that all goes well and they will move forward with the water division.

New Zealand photos

What wonderful photos of New Zealand Wes and Carrie sent us! They are so beautiful! I viewed them at work, because I have cable there, so they download faster. Incredible! The only problem with viewing them at work is that occasionally I had to hide behind my monitor and wipe away a tear, caused by all the beauty I was seeing.

I am looking forward to the gathering on Sunday.

we need some updates!

i've been sending my updates via email, so i don't post on here all that often, but we need to hear more from mom, brian, and rachel! i just heard that rachel has been teaching once a week. holy cow, when did this start?! how is it going? what subject do you teach? we need to hear what's going on with you folks!

oh here's a bit of an update. i went to a rugby game last night, professional level. it would take me hours to describe everything there, how it works, etc., but let me just say that rugby is WAY WAY WAY better than american football. i don't know how i'll go back to watching the browns. sorry, i may sound like a traitor, but it's true. american football is boring and played by pansies compared to these guys. :) and you know what else? they're actually LOGICAL! the numbers on their jerseys actually mean something. they represent specific positions. and the rules make more sense. and they have SALARY CAPS!!! Harvey told me it was 3.5 million, and I thought, okay, 3.5 per player. no, its for the whole team!!! they don't let their players get out of control and demand millions and millions of dollars, and it levels the playing field so they don't have teams like the yankees lording over everyone! we really need these guys over in the states to kick some sense into our athletes. they were appalled when i told them the league minimum in baseball is a little over 300,000. anyway...

and i also saw a big puffer fish wash up on shore yesterday. it was still alive and flopping around, but when i helped it get back to the water, it wouldn't swim away, so i would guess the seagulls ate it. stupid fish.

Whales on the horizon

It's Thursday, March 23rd in New Zealand, and we're in Kaikoura, on the east coast of the south island. In an hour and a half we'll head out to see to go whale watching.

Since our last update:

Monday we limped out of Tongariro Crossing and rushed down to Wellington, on the southern tip of the northern island, hoping to make the 2pm ferry crossing to the south island in time to do a little sightseeing. We squeaked in at 1:40 pm, rushed in to return our car, and... found out the 2pm ferry was cancelled. So there we were, stuck at the ferry station (not the nicest part of town), until 6:15 pm.

We grabbed a bite and lounged around; things got a little more interesting when a very young "gentleman" (I use that term only to indicate gender) showed up to fix the 2 broken internet terminals in the station. Something (we missed the beginning of it) led to an altercation with a party van man also parked in front of the station, and soon we were treated to a 10-minute cultural display on the ancient form of fight-posturing by males of European descent. We also experienced a bit of a new foreign language, sometime known as "Kiwi cursing that would make Quentin Tarantino blush."

The ferry crossing was uneventful, though on an unexpectedly large ship (think smaller cruise ship), and we arrived on the south island in reasonable time. We hopped in a rental car and headed up to Blenheim, a small town about 20 minutes, where we discovered that everything (including hotels) in New Zealand shuts down much earlier than in America. After knocking on closed doors with "no vacancy" signs for about an hour, we finally found one bleary-eyed bloke working late who gave us a room.

Tuesday we took a vineyard tour (which ended at a chocolate factory -- God is indeed Good). The vineyards were absolutely lovely. We also learned a bit about how expensive and wealth-generating the wine business is. We got some great pictures which we'll share when we get back.

Yesterday we headed west along the northern coast of the island to Nelson, where we sailed out on a catamaran. It was a wonderful 6 hours out at sea and at a couple of small islands, including a tour of New Zealand's second-oldest lighthouse.

Today, as mentioned, we go to see the whales, and then we head to Hanmer springs, home of thermal pools and mud treatments.....

Sore and sleeping

Lessee, since our last email update, we have:

1) Gone blackwater rafting. AMAZING. Floating through a cave with all our headlamps turned off, looking at the glowworms on the roof meters above us.... Try it sometime.

2) Slept in an airplane. Our team stayed in this hotel that is all these funky rooms -- ours was in a made-over 1950's British air freighter (we stayed in the nosecone). This place also had a Hobbit motel -- I kid you not. We got good pix of it which will send when we get back and get everything downloaded.

3) Gone jetboating on some kind of boat that only needs 4" of water. We jetted around at speeds that I shudder to think of; it was great fun.

4) Wes jumped off a 154' cantilevered bungy jump thingy. (I stayed on the ground and prayed.) The jump was successful, in case you were wondering -- and we have the whole thing on DVD.

5) Gone to a Maori cultural festival and dinner, at which we ate foods that had all been cooked in an earthen oven underground.

6) Taken a walking tour of the geothermal springs in Rotorua. Have you ever seen mud boil? It was mesmerizing; like watching a lava lamp.

7) Ridden a water zorb. The best way to describe that is that it's like a giant hamster ball ridden downhill (with both me and Wes in it), also containing water. It was an absolute blast. http://www.newzealandnz.co.nz/activities/zorbing.html

8) Gone street luging (I even rode the advanced course! At no more than 20 mph, I'm sure.)

9) Eaten at the Skyline Restaurant, high above the city of Rotorua.

10) Hiked Tongariro Crossing (aka Mount Doom from Lord of the Rings) http://www.icdc.com/~neubauer/tong.htm. We did that today (18 km in just over 7 hours; not bad for beginners). That is why Wesley is currently asleep at 8:30 pm Sunday night New Zealand time, and why I am busily typing, because I am so sore I can't get up from this computer chair.

And all of that since Thursday morning!!!

We are heading down to the South Island tomorrow, and from that point on we are totally winging it in terms of what sights we see and what we do (our team split off last night), so who knows when/what we will report next.

Hoping all is well with you,
Wes and Carrie

James's first word

James said what I believe is his first word yesterday. He said "Dadda" or "Dad." He kept saying it and I said it was just him making noise, but then last night Mike was playing with him and then got up and walked away and James watched him go and as he got out of sight James said "Dadda" so Mike came back and James got happy. I don't know for certain he knew it, but Mike works with him all the time on saying dad so it is possible. Also James has discovered his own high-pitched squeal and enjoys listening to himself.

Well, let me see......

I decided to get on here and post something since it has been so long since I have posted anything. But once I got on here, I sat and scratched my head, trying to think of something to say. Compared to you jet-setters, I have done nothing, seen nothing, and tried nothing.

Oh yeah, Dad and I did go to the Habitat Store and found 22 sheets plus scraps of paneling that will be perfect for the interior walls of the cabin. Now mind you, I am not referring to that cheap paperboard stuff with the shiny finish that was so popular in the '70's, and which we used to finish the walls of Brian's bedroom in Mespo. I mean something that is only one step down from the real thing. The real thing, of course, would be 3-inch-wide boards that we would put up one at a time. This is 8-foot high, 32-inch wide sheets of thin pine boards put together in various lengths, with horizontal cleats attached behind, which stick out on either side like tabs. The tabs are staggered, so that when you put the sheets together, the tabs interlock like a jigsaw puzzle, and, tightly fitted together, it will look like one solid wall of 3-inch-wide pine boards. I think it will be very nice. We haven't decided yet how--or if---we will finish the paneling. We got it for $10 per sheet for the 22 complete sheets, and they threw in some chopped-up sheets free. I suspect it was used in someone's basement rec room. Most of the sheets are in perfect or near-perfect condition. I think if we were to buy them new (if we could even find them new) they would probably cost at least $20 per sheet. This will not only make the perfect interior walls for the cabin, but will save us having to do drywall, which is a huge plus. I doubt that it will be enough for the whole house, but it will definitely do the downstairs. Of course, we are not ready to install it yet---the next step is plumbing---but it is great to have it.

Things we have done and tried in New Zealand

Sunday March 12, evening

Here are some things I have read about in books and always wanted to try. So I have:

1) Marmite. Conclusion: really, truly, disgusting.

2) Vegemite. Conclusion: really, truly, thoroughly, amazingly disgusting.

3) Maori sweet potatoes. Conclusion: they taste surprisingly like plaintains and are pretty darn good, especially considering that I hate American sweet potatoes.

4) Ginger beer. Conclusion: Not bad. Tastes like a combination of ginger ale and Slice. (And like ginger ale, it is non-alcoholic.)

5) Beef Yorkshire. Conclusion: Not bad, but mine at home (although I make chicken with Yorkshire pudding, not beef) is better. ;-)

Words and phrases we have learned:

- Have a sticky beak = Have a look-see
- Homely = homey, comfortable (not ugly)
- Stopping = to apply drywall mud/plaster
- Good on ya = Good for you
- That's a load of turd = well, you can guess that one....

Scarily enough, we have grown somewhat accustomed to driving on the left-hand side of the road. I am now worried about driving again the first day after we get home!

Today was a day off, and we went yachting on a 38-footer. Walked around a reserve island, and then swam in the Pacific by jumping off the side of the yacht repeatedly. LOVELY is the only phrase to describe it.

Wednesday we had a half-day off, and we went on the "mystery tour" on Waiheke Island, about a half hour out from the bay outside of downtown Auckland. It was basically a scavenger hunt/road rally kind of thing, and it was BEAUTIFUL. The island was full of sheep farms and vineyards and alpaca farms. Just absolutely breathtaking scenery of the coast and the pasture lands. Unfortunately we have no way to upload pictures just yet; we'll have to send those around when we get back.

Saturday Wes and I built the frame for a deck for the house (by ourselves!) and tomorrow we'll finish it. It's really just a little landing area outside of the house rather than a full size deck, but it's nice to learn the principles of deck building.

We have 3 more days of the build, and then off to white water rafting, polynesian hot springs, black water rafting, hiking across Mt. Doom, and after that -- who knows!

Much love from across the world.

Regarding New Zealand

We're a week into our three-week stay in New Zealand. So far, the most surprising thing about life here is how dissimilar it is to life in the states. New Zealand is actually a lot like south Florida. Just like in south Florida:

Have a different accent
Have different stores selling the same things
Drive on the other side of the road.

First real job interview

I had a job interview today, but not for teaching. It was for the head coach position at Hillsdale for girls soccer. I didn't say anything before because I wasn't sure how things would go. I sent my resume in early last week kind of on a whim. I got called on Monday to schedule an interview and went in today to meet with the principle and A.D. I have mixed feelings about the interview. I think I answered some questions well and others I was very general. Since I've never coached before I felt like I really don't have a chance, but I went onto confident and ready for anything. I will know in another couple of weeks whether I will get it or not. I have no idea how many other people applied. I am not going to stress about it. If I get the job, great. Maybe then they will open up or create a teaching job for me as well. And if I don't get it, oh well. I talked to my old soccer coach to see if I could use her as a reference. She is quitting next year and said if things don't work out at Hillsdale maybe she could use me this year and then take over next year when she is done. So I have possibilities there.

On the teaching front, I am sending my resume to places, but it is a little early for schools to have definite job openings. I will probably be more involved with interviews and such after I actually graduate.

Here we are

It's something like 7 or 7:30 pm, Tuesday March 7th, in New Zealand. I think it's about 1 or 1:30 am for y'all on Eastern time.

Lessee.... The plane rides were somewhat eventful, in that we were delivered late to LA for no apparent reason, had to run clear across the airport (and if you've ever been through LAX, you know that it is at least a mile long, probably bigger), and barely caught our flight to New Zealand. On the flight I slept a full night (despite several Canadian teams travelling to the Commonwealth games in Melbourne; 3 track stars were standing right next to us talking at the top of their respective healthy track lungs for half the night), watched a movie or two, read a book... And still had 2 hours left in the flight. Wes was sitting in front of me on the last leg and managed to sleep most of the time.

We arrived and met most of our team (a nice group, ranging from an 18-year-old high school student from Akron to a 70-ish couple from Germany) at the Auckland airport at 7:30am on the 5th. We headed off to do a tour of the city first thing. At the very first stop on the tour, someone broke into our van and stole the purses of 3 of the women in the group. (Wes and I had our stuff with us, so we were ok.) These poor ladies lost all their money, travellers' checks, credit cards, passports, airplane tickets... The thing is, we had been told over and over how crime-free NZ is, so people weren't as vigilant as we perhaps should have been. I feel badly; if I had had my backpack with me instead of just my little travel wallet, I probably would have left it in the van and been ripped off too.

So instead, we spent most of the day at the police station. That was fun.

Then we went to a house dedication, which was moving, but also extremely long, as there were 4 different pastors and chaplains there.

Monday we started worked on our build. We are finishing one house (interior) and starting a second that is using experimental construction for the foundation, so it's been educational. On the interior, instead of 2"x4" framing with drywall, they instead use ~1.5" thick tri-board (that's something like MDF). No framing. Which means that you never have to locate a stud. Pretty interesting, if you're at all concerned about construction techniques.

Apparently today is also the New Zealand census, which we were required to take part in.

Today was blessedly uneventful; we worked on the build all day and just got back from supper. Actually my wrists are killing me as I type this, because I've spent the last 2 days mudding (or "stopping" as they call it here).

So -- not too much to report yet; tomorrow we work a half day and then go on a "mystery tour" somewhere near Auckland, so that should be fun.

Oh, I forgot to mention -- our team leader asked for volunteers to drive for the R&R portion of our trip (next week.) Wes and I got International Driving Permits (IDPs) so that we could do this. Well, no one else was stupid enough to volunteer, and then we found out that we were actually needed to drive the team around every day back and forth to the work site (we have two vans.) Driving on the left side of the road is waaaaaaay more nerve wracking than I thought it would be.

I should also mention that our hotel (during this portion of the trip) is about a half step up from a no-tell motel. Let's put it this way -- they do make our beds for us and there is this one computer (on which we have to buy time, and wait for other people to be done using it). But they don't change our sheets. The bathrooms are shared for our whole floor. No phones in the room. Etc. etc.

I'll try to report back again sometime when we have more time. Oh, and Stephanie -- we were told that New Zealand, Australia, etc. have way less ozone than most other areas of the world, so that's why you're getting burned so badly!!!

I do have to say -- the summers here seem maybe 5-10 degrees cooler than ours in Ohio, but it is soooooo nice to be in summertime! Looking at all the beautiful flowers and gardens is wonderful; I can't wait until we get to the second half of the trip and really get out of the city and into the countryside.

Until later,
Wes and Carrie

Depressed 2

I am feeling sorry for MYself because we started vacation tonight and are leaving the country tomorrow and can't go to work for 24 days.

Oh, no, wait -- I forgot. I don't feel sorry for myself about that at all.

Depressing Times

I am feeling sorry for myself knowing that if I were in regular classes at Ashland I would be on Spring Break next week. But because I'm on NW's schedule, I have another 6 weeks before any break of any type. Next week they have achievement testing so I will be working on my unit for Math class.

It's Official

I am officially going to D.C. with the 6th graders now. I guess some of the teachers were standing around after school the other day talking about me and Mid brought it up to everyone. One teacher was like "yeah, that's fine as long as she pays the $220." The one teacher that Mid thought would be the one saying this (Gary Edwards) actually is the one who defended me. He was all "come one now, she is part of the team right now and she's putting in a lot of hard work for us." And then Mid added that I could take a group (like a chaperone as opposed to the teachers who stay in the hotel rooms alone and do not have a group of kids to look after) and finally, after about 10 minutes of going in circles, Mr. Beck, the one who thought I should pay, was like "yeah, I guess, okay that'll work out." So now I get to go on a FREE trip (food included) with 106 6th graders for 3 nights and 4 days and then as soon as I come home I have to do laundry, repack, and head to the airport to go to Florida for a week. What have I gotten myself into people???!!!

Anyway, the reason for this long boring story is to tell you where I will be and when. I will leave early on May 9th (Tuesday) and come back home late on May 12th (Friday) then leave again early Saturday morning the 13th and fly back home late on Saturday the 20th.

Summertime toes and burnt armpits

Sunday night I waxed my legs and painted my toenails. I’m sure you all wanted to know that. But I was very excited to once again have summertime toes, even if it was snowing when I left the house Monday morning (and of course couldn’t wear sandals to show off my red toes.)

Yesterday I went to the tanning bed in preparation for leaving on our trip on Friday. As I get darker I have more and more prominent white stripes down my sides where I lie in the tanning bed with my arms next to me. So, I got this bright idea that I would lay there with my arms over my head. I carefully put on lotion on the undersides of my arms, but I didn’t think about the fact that my armpits have probably never in their respective existences seen the light of day, and so were especially tender.

Yeah. Let me tell you, it was a real joy and a treasure trying to put on deodorant this morning.

James is still sick

James still has the same bad cough that he has had since November or December. You may recall that we took him to the ER a while back and they said he had bronchiolitis (sp?) (this is different from bronchitis) and he was put on a nebulizer. He got mostly better, but not all the way. He has been to the doctor a couple times since and yesterday he said he still has bronchiolitis. He had x-rays and was put back on the neb again. His coughing was so bad that the doctor thought about hospitalizing him, but the x-rays were good and the nebulizer helped a lot so he sent him home, making sure that I was okay with bringing him home. I am now doing frequent breathing treatments with the neb, just like a month ago. If this does not clear up soon, he may be diagnosed with asthma. The doctor said it is hard to diagnose that during the winter with all the colds and junk that goes around. He doesn't want to call it asthma now and overtreat, but yet if in a month or so it isn't gone, he doesn't want to undertreat it by holding off on an asthma diagnosis. Asthma is common in preemies so I won't be shocked by this.

We have achieved tickets

Our tickets to NZ finally showed up last night, 6 days after they were sent off in an "overnight" package, and 15 days after the alleged travel agency allegedly really truly allegedly sent the package. (Every day we called for 4 weeks, they told us they had mailed the tickets "yesterday".) They also sent us two exceedingly helpful pages printed off the web demonstrating different New Zealand traffic signs (we had asked for tips on getting around.)

But we leave in 8 days, and that's what matters. Life is good.

where's the gru?

nobody's written on here for a while, so i thought i should say something. I saw some redbacks this evening. They're the most lethal spiders here, and also the most common. Nobody bothered to tell me that about a week prior to my coming here, the deck was infested with redbacks. Paul sprayed and killed them all, but it's still not a great feeling, especially when I keep my window open every night and it goes directly onto the deck. Taking a page from dad's book, life is good.

the french guy is here. definitely not tall dark and handsome, but he's nice. i'm doing my best to include him in things, show him around, let him know where things are and how things run in the house. nobody really ever showed me any of that and it was frustrating, so i didn't want him to have to go through that. he has no problem talking if talked to, but i think he's a bit shy. and the other guys here aren't making much effort to talk to him, so i have to compensate. i guess it's different being the new guy in a group of guys, rather than being a girl. especially if all the guys are asian and you're french. but he can take care of himself.

he showed me this awesome program called google earth. it utilizes all the satellites hovering around out there. you just hold down the mouse button and you can spin the globe around to any place you want, zoom in anywhere you want, and you can actually see some distinct land and buildings and stuff. i couldn't see our house, but i saw 71 and could sort of make out the high school, and of course all the different farming fields. he showed me parts of france, and we looked at a few other places.

there's a nature preserve in town that has everything except large reptiles like crocodiles. i've been wanting to go to it for a while. i suggested it to a couple people, and suddenly everyone wants to go, and i guess we're turning it into a big picnic on sunday and we'll all go together. i could say it will be fun, and i'm sure it will be, but it makes it a little more difficult with the family coming. i can't deny it any longer that jamie really is a brat, and helan will need lots of help with packing up all kinds of things. that's just what happens when you've got kids. so i guess we'll have a BBQ and then hopefully chao and bryce (the french guy, it's pronounced Breece, but soften the r) and camilla and whoever else my age can wander around on our own. scratch that, i will at least make sure that *I* get to see what I want to see. I'll wander around by myself if need be. I'm just getting a little tired of having to look after jamie. but it should be a fun day, and it was kind of neat to suggest it and have everyone excited to go.

okay, i'm tired. i should be in bed. have a lovely day!

A girl's best friend

No, diamonds are not a girl's best friend.

A girl's best friend is a clean kitchen.

I know because we spent nearly 6 months with a couch in the kitchen, everything covered in thick layers of grimy drywall dust. You couldn't walk through the door without tripping over extra baseboard.

We spent all day Saturday cleaning the kitchen and putting some stuff together in the living room, which is nearly done. Today the carpet cleaners came and took six gallons of crud out of the kitchen carpet. Of course, the front hall is still bare drywall, and you can't walk through the dining room without tripping over a chop saw. Or a table saw. Or a circular saw. Or 47 cans of paint.

But by golly, the kitchen is clean!

Things Claire said on Friday

1) Carrie: "I miss you lots, Claire."
Claire: "I miss you kinda."

2) Carrie: "I wish I could see you every day, Claire."
Claire: "I wish I could see you every weekend."

question and update

First, I wondered if Mike or Margaret could explain this whole thing to me about Waynedale saying we cheated and that they should have the WCAL title and what all they're saying about Teague and Hershey in the paper. I didn't quite understand what happened.

Second, at Carrie's request, I put my email update here on our blog so you can make "appropriately rude comments".


Hello again!
I’ve been keeping a journal and doing my best to keep it updated (which isn’t that great) but it’s been piling up for the past week or so, so prepare for a long e-mail! Here’s what I’ve been up to:
First of all, I’ve made a short list of words that I hear or use fairly often here. I put their meanings a little ways below, so you can try and guess what they mean if you want.
1. Cuppa
2. Good onya
3. G’day
4. Bogan
5. Esky
6. Muck Around
7. How you going?
8. No Worries
9. Petrol
10. Have a sleep
11. Sauce
12. Arvo
13. Training
14. Gridiron
15. Portaloo
16. Uni

Answers:
1. Cup of tea or coffee. Business people will normally have a morning and afternoon tea break, while blue collar or families will have neither or only the morning tea. Almost all churches have a morning tea after service. They invite everyone to “Come have a cuppa.”
2. Go for it!
3. Hello, good day.
4. Hick. I quickly discovered this word when describing Ohio to some Ozzies.
5. Cooler. The thing you put stuff in for a picnic to keep it cold.
6. Horse around.
7. How are you doing? I had a hard time with this one at first. They’d ask me How’d I go? And I’d think for a minute and say that I took the bus or something like that.
8. No problem/ It’s okay. They say this a lot.
9. Gasoline. They go to petrol stations. Which, btw, I may have said earlier that their petrol prices were very low, but then I found out that they buy by the liter. One liter here is at about $1.20 right now. 4 liters is about 1 gallon, so you’re looking at approximately $4.80 a gallon!
10. Take a nap.
11. Ketchup.
12. Afternoon.
13. Practice. Leroy starts practice for rugby tomorrow, but they call it training.
14. American football. We really are pansy puffy marshmallows compared to the sports they play here!
15. Porta-potty
16. University. If you go to college, you go to uni. College means something different here.
Also I’ve had about 87 people try to explain all the different rugby leagues and rules they have here. I watched a bit of one with Paul (my homestay Dad). He’s from New Zealand, and the one he was watching was Rugby Union, which isn’t quite so popular in Australia, but is in New Zealand. It was a combination of soccer, gridiron, and a couple other things. I personally think it’s much better than gridiron, as play still continues once a man is tackled. Other team members try to fight their way into the pile and fish the ball out and pass it and continue, whereas with gridiron, they stand around and debate for a while on a play, the play takes about 3 seconds, and then they stand around for a while to determine what in heck just happened and then decide on another 3 second play.
Okay, so now I’ll tell you what I’ve been up to. I’m not sure where I last left off, but I’m basically just copying and pasting bits from my journal, so it’s not the greatest organization.
I never expected to be learning about Asian culture living in Australia, but I am! Much like there is a lot of Spanish culture around the US because of our proximity geographically to Mexico and South America, Australia is probably closest to Asia, and therefore has a lot of Asian influences. The 5 Asian guys I’m living with in my homestay so far have been the best part of being here! They’re like my big brothers, and are so much fun to hang out with and learn about their cultures.
Not that you’ll remember their names, but Chao is from Taiwan, Ricky from Indonesia, Kazuki from Japan, and I’m not sure where Mon and Aroot are from. Ricky is just starting at uni, Aroot is still in grammar school, and the other three are well into their masters degrees. They all have different personalities. I talk to Chao and Ricky the most. Kazuki is a professional tennis trainer in Japan. I go to church with Ricky, and Chao and I seem to have quite a bit in common, so we enjoy discussing things and I always ask a lot of questions about living in Taiwan. I hadn’t realized this, but he says the U.S is the only thing protecting his country from being overtaken by China. He’s about to finish his degree here and wants to go to Harvard for another masters, so he’s been asking me advice while working on his application there (Like I’m a really big help or anything!).
Just for an example of what it’s like here at home: On Thursday I went out and bought a bike from a store similar to Wal-Mart. It comes in a box. I brought it home, and when Chao got home I said “Guess what! You get to help me put together a bike!” And he immediately sets his stuff down and wants to get to work on it. We go outside and start looking at directions and just having a good time working on it together. And when I say together, I mean that he worked on it while I occasionally read stuff out loud from the directions and watched him. Then we discovered we needed Allen keys, which Kazuki had. So Ricky and Kazuki got home a bit later and they came to the rescue with Allen Keys and the three of them start working on the bike together. Every time Ricky would touch the bike Chao would yell that he’s breaking it and he owes me $100. It may not sound so hilarious when you’re just reading it here, but it’s funnier because of their accents and sometimes broken English. I can just hear Chao in my head. “RICKEEEE! You break it! Hundred dollar.” The three guys had it put together within 45 minutes. Leroy (the 12yr. old) wanted to help too, and he came and tightened some screws and then rode it around for me because I wasn’t sure if their handy work was trustworthy. J It was great. It was at that point I just really started to like these guys. They treat me really well.
Anyway, another really nice thing Chao did was to take me and another one of his friends into Sydney this past Friday. Ricky and his friend Dewi (Day-Wee) had to go to their Indonesian Embassy and do some stuff, and Chao wanted to show around his Taiwanese friend Shalbie. Chao has a car, so he took us all in! I decided to forget all the campus tours and boring stuff I was supposed to do. So at 7:30am, we left. Even though it only takes 1 hour to get to the city, it takes another hour to maneuver into it. There is only one road leading into it, the Pacific Highway. This is the way it is in almost all Australian cities. There’s nothing but outback, so they don’t build a lot of roads.
The 5 of us walked around a bit before Ricky and Dewi had to go to the embassy. I’ll tell you about the restaurant we went to in a minute. We did a lot of walking. We bought drinks as Starbucks, took tons of pictures everywhere, and slowly made our way towards the Opera House. We rode the tram, looked in shops. I’ve found that when you go to any very large city in any country, they become fairly similar. They’re like international space stations. There’s a little bit of culture from many countries situated all over the place. There was a little strip of Chinatown there (that’s where we ate.) The difference between Sydney and NYC is the actual building structures. NYC has darker buildings and Times Square looks almost like a cartoon. It’s kind of artificial. Sydney has older more sophisticated or regal buildings. There was a huge shopping center that was a very very old building made into shops. I’m not sure what it was used for originally, but the inside looked like a huge train station like from Harry Potter The ceilings where what really made it look like that. I wish now I would have taken a photo of the inside. But anyway, there was a big cathedral in the middle of skyscrapers, and a round building that looked kind of like the NYC library. Stone pillars and stuff. The whole city is beautiful and clean.
So we finally got up to the Harbour with the bridge and the Opera House. We took pictures everywhere. It took a long time to walk around the Harbour. We saw lots of ferries, and there was a group of supposed Aborigines wearing body paint and playing a didgeridoo. It was cool, but I’m thinking maybe the guys were kind of like our Indians at home that don’t really dress up in headdresses and beat war drums anymore, but they’ll dress up like that just to make the tourists happy and get paid.
There isn’t a whole lot to say about the Opera House and Bridge. I guess it was kind of what I expected it to be. Just something to look at. But then after all that walking, we didn’t want to walk all the way back. Did I forget to mention how bloody hot it was!?!?! We timed it perfectly so that we were walking in the sun at basically the hottest time of day. The past several days it’s been around 95 degrees, with the humidity around 90%. It was terrible. So we were tired. For $5, we got to take a ferry around the harbour and back to Darling Harbour (which is where the Aquarium is, which Shalbie and I plan on going back to). Then we walked back to Paddy’s Market, met up with the others, looked at some souvenirs, and then headed home. The only souvenir I got was a nice sunburn. And that was my day in Sydney! It’s a great place to visit, but I wouldn’t want to live there. On the way home I asked more questions about their culture and found out that most of their names weren’t their real names, but ones they made up because nobody can pronounce their real ones. So I went around getting their real ones and writing them down and learning to pronounce them. It was pretty interesting, and it really impressed me that they take it upon themselves to learn English and even change their name in order to communicate with others. They’re very intelligent. Shalbie can speak 5 languages! It makes me as an American feel pretty stupid, taking about 6 years of Spanish and I still can barely speak it. Oh, and listening to the radio on the way home, we discovered we had just missed Tom Cruise’s arrival in the city. What a shame.
Okay, so I haven’t told you about the restaurant yet. It’s called Yum-Cha. I guess Yum-Cha has multiple meanings. It’s kind of a way of eating. All the food that we eat is collectively known as Yum-Cha. It was a very new experience to me! We walk in and the people seat us. The dishes we have are a very small cup for tea, a very small bowl, a small plate, and chopsticks. They immediately bring out a big teapot, and because in Asian culture it’s the duty of the guy to keep everyone’s tea cup full, Chao poured all the tea. So then the weirdness happens. Instead of menus, the people just bring around trays with lots of little wicker baskets that have different dishes. You point at what you want and they give you the dish. And you don’t pick stuff just for yourself. It’s all set in the middle and you all share. I was so bewildered when they just started setting these things in front of me and I didn’t know what any of it was (even after I ate it, I still didn’t know what half of it was). To be completely truthful, I was kind of scared. I didn’t know what to do! I didn’t understand what was going on and I felt so stupid and was worried the others would be offended because this is how they normally eat. But they got things explained to me and just told me to try some things. I decided I’d do my best with the chopsticks instead of chickening out and getting a fork. So Shalbie helped me a little with getting stuff off the plate and into my bowl. You only take one thing at a time and it goes in your little bowl, and then you eat it and put the next thing in the bowl. I had all kinds of different things and amazingly I liked all of them! It was delicious! I calmed down and got a little better with the chopsticks, and of course Chao kept my tea full. Dessert was an egg thing, I think an egg cake or something. It was very similar to flan, except it had the most delicious flaky crust. It was very good. Then the bathroom had a code on it that you had to enter a password to get in! I went there, couldn’t figure it out came back and sat down and said “okay, so how do you get into the bathroom?” and shalbie laughed and told me how. So yeah, that restaurant was a great experience. I’m so glad I did it. It was pretty expensive, and doesn’t really fill you up, but it was so hot that I didn’t want to eat the rest of the day anyway.
Random fact: At the request of Don Clifton, my father, and several others, I made sure to check which way the water drains here. It most definitely drains counter-clockwise. Just thought you should all know. You can sleep peacefully now.
This past Thursday I had a BBQ to go to for a christian group on campus. The meeting place was at Nobby’s Beach, which is the most easily recognized beach in Newcastle. It has the lighthouse and pier extending off of it, and this is how most Australians recognize Newcastle. At any rate, it was beautiful.
On the busride there, the bus driver and an old lady talked to me the whole time about different types of weather, and a lot of trying to explain all the rules in the 87 different types of rugby here. It was threatening to rain most of the time I was there, but it was perfect for me because it brought the temperature down to a bearable 75 degrees or so. I went on the beach for a bit, went into the surf up to my knees, took photos of the lighthouse and had a walk out on the pier. The meeting with NCS was great. I met a lot of new people, made friends with a girl that’s a huge cricket fan, and had an interesting conversation with some people about how the Australian government runs. It was interesting to see the differences with the U.S, and of course they also asked me a lot about the justice system in the U.S (one of them was just finishing her law degree). Hopefully some day I’ll actually be able to show you some of these pictures I took.
Saturday was the trip to Nelson Bay that I’ve been anticipating for a while. We were supposed to go on a cruise to watch dolphins. It turned out to be mostly a waste of my time. We got on the biggest boat in the harbour, but were only on it for about 1 ½ hours. I did get to see dolphins, and they were a lot darker than ones in the zoo. They were a very dark grey, almost black. At one point, a group of them were out a ways and they went underwater. I gauged where they would show up again, and so moved to a different part of the boat to get closer to them. I guessed right!! They came up right along side the boat exactly where I was, so I was pretty proud of myself. I was the only one at that spot. I got some really good pictures of them, and a baby dolphin was there too. It’ll be neat to see those photos.
But beside that, it was a waste of time. We had 4 hours to kill once we got back to shore. The buses took everyone to a beach nearby, but I thought I would die if I went. It was so hot and I knew I’d get sick if I was out in the sun much longer. Thank God I took one of Helan’s hats. But about 10 of us elected to stay back and shop in the few shops that were there. I tailed around with a Canadian named Heather. She was nice, but a bit fruity, or flaky, whatever you want to call it. But there was nobody else really to talk to. I was just happy to go into air conditioning. So we shopped around, I bought some ice cream, she had a drink at the pub there. Then we waited around to go home. I ended up talking to this guy Matt for a while, who I’d sat by on the Newcastle tour the week before. He’s from Finland, and very nice and good with English. I found, after talking to him, that I really don’t have a home accent anymore! I talk the same way as whoever I’m talking to, basically, if I’m around them for a bit. When I’m with Helan, I talk Aussie. With Chao and Ricky, I talk somewhat normally but fight the urge to use a bit of broken English. With Emma and Matt and Heather, I was definitely using a Finnish/Canadian accent. I think that one is the easiest. It almost sounded a tiny bit Amish, too! And I couldn’t help it! Really!
So then once we got back to campus, I walked the 2 miles home and was absolutely dead. I think I had a mild case of heat stroke. I got a nice burn, and I was too tired to do anything Sunday. I couldn’t eat, and I slept most of the day in my sauna that pretends to be a bedroom. I did go to a new church with Ricky, though, and I loved it. It’s exactly like any church back home. There were two guest speakers there, and I talked with them a lot after the service. They’re kind of like a comedy group with a good message. It’s hard to explain. They’re trying to get into the television business to get their program and message into more places, and so they actually asked for my email address to keep in contact! I told them it would be a long time before I graduated and even got into the business, but it is kind of neat to think I could be their connection to bring their show to the states. They also really valued my opinion on their program because I was an American. They said a lot of times Americans don’t tend to understand the type of comedy that British and Australian people do, so they wanted input on what I thought of the program. It was nice to help out! At any rate, I really enjoyed the church and will be going back. The only thing that really surprised me was that Ricky said it was very similar to churches in Indonesia. I guess I just kind of assumed that Christianity wasn’t very widespread in Asian countries, but apparently I was wrong!
So I think the last thing on my list to mention was what little wildlife I’ve seen here. I finally am starting to see the little lizards that people have told me are all over the place. They come in all different sizes. And yes, I have finally seen some spiders. And I hope never to see them again. When I finally discovered the bike path that runs around the uni, that’s when I found the spiders. Ohhhhh, the spiders. They have huge webs spanning trees that bend over the path, and they’re all overhead. The spiders are huge!!!! Big fat bodies with long thick legs. I saw four or five, and they were all different colors. They really gave me the creeps. I took a picture of one, and then as soon as I did I just got the heebie jeebies and wanted to get out of there as quickly as possible. The bike path is kind of isolated, and it was getting late and I was by myself, and I just felt like at any second one of those monsters was going to drop down on my head and eat me. Oh, they’re so disgusting.

I finally went to the park that‘s next door. It was fairly nice. There was a big group of people there watching a cricket game. The players all wore all white uniforms that kind of looked like what you’d wear to go golfing. I watched for about 10 minutes and didn’t understand what in heck was going on. Sometimes the spectators would cheer, and I had no idea what for. Since then I’ve had someone explain it to be a little better, and it’s very similar to baseball. I’ve got a friend at the uni that’s a huge cricket fan, so she may take me to a few matches.
Oh yes, one more thing. I was riding my bike home from uni today, and my handlebars started acting up. They kept swinging downwards and getting really wobbly. I guess the guys didn’t do as good a job as I thought! They need to be tightened. That was interesting riding home, being scared the bike would just fall apart on me! But I made it home in the lovely blistering heat. I don’t think I’m ever going to get used to these blasted UV rays here.
And the food here actually isn't that great. it's almost all very similar to american food, except with little things changed. i can't really put my finger on it, but they'll put different spices in their meats or something. its just...not quite right. and i'll do my best to eat it because i don't want to be rude, so i've ended up just eating much smaller portions and i drink lots and lots of water and eat fruit and cereal and pb&j sandwiches! it's actually kind of sad. They have restaurants like Hungry Jack’s (Burger King) but I don’t ever eat out. We also eat a lot more lamb here. Lamb, chicken, and beef are the normal meats. I don’t think I’ve seen any pork yet.
Okay, I think this e-mail is plenty long enough! Hopefully you’re getting a better idea of what it’s like here, and you’re not getting put to sleep by this extremely long e-mail. You can expect one in another couple weeks! Bye for now!
Love, Steph