What a lazy day
30 Nov 2008 Leave a Comment
It was still snowing when we woke up, so that changed my plans a little. We went to church where we had an awesome service. We’ve started a new session called’ Let it be Christmas, a story from Matthew, Mark, Luke, John, George, Paul and Ringo.’ We’re using Beatles songs to get a fresh look at Christmas and maybe see it from a different perspective. So, today we talked about ‘Nothing’s gonna change my world’. About how the Jews had been waiting in captivity and hadn’t heard from God in over 400 years, about how they were scattered, a remnant and were waiting to hear about the Messiah. We talked about how Jesus coming as a baby in a ratty old manger rocked everyone’s world and boy, did it change. I hope our pastor didn’t think I wasn’t taking notes because as I thought about the waiting and the wondering of the Jews so long ago, I wrote a poem. I’ll have to post it later though, it’s in the car and James has the car.
After church and a shopping spree from Grandma at Wal-Mart we went home and played games and watched the snow fall. I had planned to go to the Fort for the farolitos lighting ceremony tonight, but it was still snowing at 4pm when we would have had to leave, so we missed it. I guess we’ll do it next year. We played scrabble and I beat my mom by 1 point, not bad. I made turkey noodle soup for dinner and some fresh bread, then after dinner we made gingerbread cookies.
This is the easiest recipe ever and they are sooooo good.
Easy gingerbread men
18 ½ oz pkg. spice cake mix
1 C flour
2 t. ginger
2 eggs
1/3 C oil
1/2 C molasses
Mix together cake mix, flour and ginger. Mix in remaining ingredients, beat on medium speed for 2 minutes. Cover dough and refrigerate for 2 hours. Place dough on a floured (or powered sugar) surface, roll out to 1/4” thick. Cut out shapes and bake on a greased sheet at 375 degrees for 8-10 minutes (8 minutes for chewy, 10 for crispy.)
Makes 1 ½ dz.
Tomorrow is rehearsal and recital, so wish us luck that we will dance with happy feet, hearts and souls!
Saturday
30 Nov 2008 Leave a Comment
in family outing, weekend
After playing scrabble and making gingerbread houses (warning they are smaller than the box leads you to believe) and a quick nap, we headed over to the Winter wonderlights at the Wildlife experience. Don’t our gingerbread houses look cute up close?
(Grandma’s house, the best one.)
Hannah helped too.
While we waited in line for ticket we saw elves playing violins and this soldier who was juggling.
All the kids were asking to see his juggling clubs and balls so when Joel asked (and said he could juggle) the guy let him have the juggling balls first. Joel did a few tricks with them and then the soldier let him try the clubs.
I don’t think the guy actually expected Joel to able to juggle the clubs. But, he did and everyone waiting in line clapped for Joel until the soldier guy decided that Joel was stealing his thunder (plus we had to move up in line.) We walked along the trail around the museum gazing at the lights.
The kids had those 3-d glasses too.
After the light trail we ended up in the museum in the discovery den and then went outside to the elf village. Lastly we watched ’How the Grinch stole Christmas’ on the extreme screen. I was a little mad that we didn’t get to go into the museum (private party), but after the movie I thought the kids had fun and it was something different to do. Plus with the snow on the ground, it felt like the start of the Christmas season.
Oh, my golly
29 Nov 2008 1 Comment
in information, kids, weekend
Have a holly jolly…snow day! Maisy thought the snow was the perfect birthday present. How cool is that? My mom comes in and we get snow! I’m not going to count the snow we had a few weeks ago that lasted a few hours. This is our first real snow this season, quite late too, but at least it’s here. So, after a breakfast of gingerbread eggnog French toast we geared up and headed over to the sledding hill.
Grandma was having a lot of fun (and wearing her newly knitted scarf and hat.) We sledded, snowboarded and ate snow.
Coming back up the hill is work.
Making snow angels.
We made monster snowballs (just like in the cartoons, start at the top of the hill and let it roll down.)
Here’s Joel with his, it was so big we eventually couldn’t roll it anymore.
Here’s Grace’s expression when she saw the snowball!
Here is Joel after he let a snowball fly and its recipient Grace just as it hit her (she wasn’t too happy.)
But, in general, it is my theory that snow makes people happy…see?
Thanksgiving
28 Nov 2008 Leave a Comment
in friends, holiday, information
We had a great Thanksgiving Day at our friend Krista’s house. We were joined by another lady from our HS group and her daughter, so we had 7 kids and 5 adults in the house. It was Krista’s first time cooking Thanksgiving dinner and she did great! We had chicken, sausage, stuffing, green beans, corn, potatoes, pecan and pumpkin pie and great conversation. Hannah found a computer and got onto webkinz and ‘did her account’ for awhile. Krista’s son Elliott made a paper titanic and we watched it sink in the backyard, it went down just like in the movie too (what HS’ers will do!) We watched some TV, ate and talked. I think we’ll invade someone’s house every year that doesn’t have family in town, it was fun.
Today we started on our Thanksgiving meal with my mom (she came in at 2:15pm) We had turkey, mac and cheese, stuffing, beets, broccoli and rice, green beans, pumpkin and apple pie and ambrosia.
I think that’s about it. Here’s James slicing the turkey.
We picked my mom up at the airport and went home to relax while we finished up dinner. Well, some of us relaxed, some of us played Wii.
We strung up our Christmas lights and as soon as we got them up it stared snowing.
Now we have about 3”, looks like good play snow for sledding tomorrow, yay!
I just finished up a hat and scarf for my mom, good thing too, she’ll need it tomorrow. And I still don’t have my camera back, these pics are thanks to my friend Heather who is letting me borrow her camera till I get mine back. Thanks Heather, I’m going to get great pics tomorrow!
And Happy Birthday Maisy! We forgot! She’s 1!
Thankful hearts
26 Nov 2008 1 Comment
I am thankful for:
Our health, right now everyone is healthy and we haven’t had an ER trip in awhile (I know I’m jinxing myself with that statement.)
Our families, though far away are still a part of our lives thanks to the awesome power of the internet, snail mail, and the incredible digital phone.
Our home school group. Many have looked far and wide to find a group like mine. We are eclectic, inclusive and quirky. We have the best people in our group because we realize that everyone brings something to the table (even if its sushi, because someone likes sushi.)
I am thankful for the fact that I live in a very nice homeschool state where we have every advantage to school our kids the way we think they need to be schooled.
I am thankful for my husband who works 2, no wait 3, no…sometimes 4 jobs (yes, even jobs that require work on the computer count) to provide for us. And not just bread and milk (sometimes mellocreme pumpkins too), but stuff we don’t need like dance, ballet shoes, bloomers and CAPSQTR stuff. He does this because even though we don’t need it, he thinks we deserve it.
I am thankful for our church, we have an awesome pastor and even though we lost our drama dude, things seem to be going well in that category.
I am thankful that Jesus loves me (this I know) even when I’m not the person He’s made me to be. I can only hope to be like a fine cheese and get better with every year (Hannah really likes cheese.).
I am thankful for my 18lb fat, lazy cat. Even thought he sometimes misses the litter box (quite frequently now) and sheds, he’s nice to lie on. I’m not quite as thankful for the other cat, AKA evil cat, but she’s ok.
I am thankful that Maisy the dog had a bath the other day; I might make that a weekly occurrence!
I am thankful for my house and car, my clothes and food in our pantry. I am thankful that we have the ability to have these things too.
I am thankful for my children (well, I didn’t mean to put them last.) I love them when they irritate me (because I have them to irritate me), I love them when they make me tired (because I have children to make me tired), I love them when they make me happy and when they make me sad, I even love them when they are very, very bad (sorry Dr. Seuss is coming out through me.) I wanted so very much to have children when James and I got married and it was 2 ½ years later before Joel came, that was a very long time it seemed. I can’t imagine life without them.
So, I hope you have a very blessed Thanksgiving Day. Of course I have a poem for you to read, it’s short though!
Thankful hearts turn to You and pray,
As we join with family and friends,
To celebrate Thanksgiving Day.
Once we’re past the turkey and gravy,
Games and fun,
Let us be thankful for all You’ve done.
Let us remember to thank in good times and bad.
For what we need and what we have.
For friends and family,
For laughter and sorrow,
For this day and for tomorrow.
-Liese
Stuff
25 Nov 2008 1 Comment
in dance, information, recipes, School Stuff
Yesterday the cable guy came by to fix out internet. The modem Comcast gave us went out, he said the cable was chewed up outside too and he replaced it. I saw the cable he threw in the trash though, it had one section that Maisy had obviously put teeth marks on, but it’s not like the entire wire was chewed to a thread. Dance went very well. Our teacher is having to dance in place of a girl that can’t continue. Her Dad died a few weeks ago and she has to work 2 jobs to help her family. It’s very sad for something like that to happen right before the holidays. Pray for her mom and whole family. I got my skirt yesterday and so did Hannah, they both fit. The circle skirts are so pretty when you twirl and they flow out around you (we wear bloomers underneath.) T minus 6 day till performance!
Today we did some extra school to catch up; we’re going to be off this next week when my Mom comes to visit. After lunch I had this craving for oatmeal cranberry cookies, like the ones we had at 4 mile this weekend. So I made some, good thing for my neighbors that I always make extra. I didn’t like the first batch though (so they get those….I threw in some later batch ones too, I’m not mean!) Anyway here’s the recipe (or receipt as Grandma Carberry would call it.)
Cranberry oatmeal cookies
1 C oleo (If you don’t know what that is Google it.)
¾ C white sugar
¾ C brown sugar
2 eggs
1 ½ tsp. vanilla
2 C flour
1 tsp salt
1 tsp soda
2 C oats
1 C cranberries
Cream oleo, sugars, eggs and vanilla. Stir in flour, salt, soda and oats. Mix well, and then add cranberries. Drop onto a greased baking sheet. Bake at 375 degrees for 10-12 minutes. Makes 3 dz.
They were good, craving gone!
I’m tracking my new camera on UPS.com too. I called because it was taking so long and the camera repair said that Kodak was mailing it to me directly (nice of them to notify me.) Then I called Kodak and they finally found my paperwork and said, oh it will be there today – here is a tracking number. Again, nice of you to notify me after you’ve had the camera since Nov. 11th. Hopefully this new camera will never break and I’ll never have to deal with Precision camera repair again, they suck.
List
24 Nov 2008 1 Comment
in information
My friend at Woodstone prairie did this and since she didn’t tag me (thank you) I decided to do this list.
10 Years Ago…
1. We had 1 child!
2. We lived in a house in Katy, TX.
3. Joel was 4, could already read and was a voracious HS’er.
4. I was pregnant with Bethany.
5. At the end of the year we were living in an apartment in Humble, TX and James was working for KSBJ radio.
5 Things on today’s “to-do” list
1. Get Comcast guy to fix internet (done)
2. Put up laundry.
3. Clean tubs.
4. Dance!
5. Make sure I get home in time to get Joel and take him to CAP.
5 Snacks I enjoy
1. Reese’s
2. Reese’s
3. Mellocreme pumpkins
4. Border’s javanilla shake
5. Pumpkin spice donut
5 Things I would do if I were a millionaire
1. Pay off all bills.
2. Buy some acreage and build a dream house.
3. Set up a trust for the kids.
4. Set up a fund for the church.
5. Go on a vacation.
5 Places I have lived
1. Katy, TX
2. Humble, TX
3. Kingwood, TX
4. Arvada, CO
5. Highlands ranch, CO
5 Jobs that I have had / or still have
1. Kindercare worker.
2. Kroger sacker/deli/milk/cashier
3. Tax return computer input person
4. Petco cashier
5. Mom/teacher
I’m not tagging anyone!
Happy Birthday Denver!
22 Nov 2008 Leave a Comment
in family outing, information, weekend
Everything you’ve ever wanted to know about Denver!
June 1858, GOLD! Gold is discovered in the South Platte River near Cherry creek. It is said that gold nuggets line the streets and waters and are just waiting to be picked up to make a man a fortune!
November 22, 1858 Denver City Town Company is founded by the William H. Larimer party from Leavenworth, Kansas Territory. Wanting to be Grand Pooba of the New Denver City, Larimer laid out street plats. Miners beware: grub stakes and land tracts are being offered up in Poker games. Be careful or you may end up with no stake and no home! Larimer was instrumental in the formation of the Colorado territory and making Denver the Capitol of that seat. He was expected to be Gov., but President Lincoln gave the seat to William Gilpin of Missouri. Larimer’s city was across the creek from the Auraria settlement (founded earlier) and when the two rivals merged, Denver City dropped its name to just Denver.
1861 Colorado territory created.
1870 The train’s a-coming! The Denver Pacific, Kansas Pacific and Colorado Central Railroads reach Denver, ending the town’s isolation and stagnation. Before this people arrived via wagon, or in some cases walking form the last train stop outside Denver (quite a ways off.)
1871 Clang, clang, clang goes the trolley! Ding, ding, ding goes the bell! First Denver street car line built from Auraria to five points.
1876 Colorado becomes the 38th state.
State Motto – Nil Sine Numine – Nothing Without the Deity
State Name and Nickname – Colorado / Centennial State
State Animal – Rocky Mountain Bighorn Sheep
State Bird – Lark Bunting
State Fish – Greenback Cutthroat Trout
State Flower – White and Lavender Columbine
State Folk Dance – Square Dance
State Fossil – Stegosaurus
State Gemstone – Aquamarine
State Grass – Blue Grama Grass
State Insect – Colorado Hairstreak Butterfly
State Song – “Where the Columbines Grow” and “Rocky Mountain High”
State Tree – Colorado Blue Spruce
State Mineral – Rhodochrosite
State Rock – Yule Marble
State Reptile – Western Painted Turtle
1904-1918: Mayor Robert W. Speer transforms Denver into a “City Beautiful.”
1929 Fly to Denver! Stapleton airport opens. Although air travel wasn’t new to Denver, back in 1919 you could fly from Denver to Colorado Springs for $12.50 in an open-air cockpit.
1930’s Denver develops its mountain parks system, including Red rocks outdoor amphitheater and Winter park ski area.
1947-1955: Mayor Quigg Newton modernizes Denver, installing Dr. Florence Sabin as head of Health and Hospitals; Hank Barnes sets up one-way streets and “The Barnes Dance” (diagonal pedestrian crossings downtown, we were the first city to have those – drivers hate them!)
1995: Denver International Airport opens; Denver builds a grand, new public library, incorporating the original 1955 landmark building, and restores historic branch libraries.
27 Denver landmarks:
1. Tivoli Brewery
2. Byers Branch Library
3. Speer Boulevard
4. Lincoln Hall
5. Oxford Hotel
6. Denver Gas and Electric Company
7. Baker-Plested Cottage
8. Corona School/Dora Moore School
9. Cheesman Park Memorial Pavilion
10. Baerresen-Freeman House
11. Bluebird Theater
12. Zang Mansion
13. Harman Town Hall/Greenleaf Masonic Temple
14. Douglass Undertaking Parlor
15. Clements Row House
16. Annunciation Catholic Church
17. Romeo Block
18. Queree House
19. Smith House
20. First Ave. Hotel
21. Washington Park Boathouse and Pavilion
22. Cory Elementary School
23. Four Mile House
24. Lowry-Eisenhower Memorial Chapel No. 1
25. Richthofen Castle
26. St. Thomas Episcopal Church
27. Civic Center Park
Today we headed over to the Colorado History museum to see Mayor Hickenlooper cut the ribbon to the new Denver exhibit.
It’s called Denver 150, imagine a great city. People gave a few speeches and we sang a verse of ‘Happy birthday to you’ to Denver.
In the new exhibit they have everything from the Rockies home base and dirt from the 2007 National league championship games to the money bag and gun from the Boettcher kidnapping. They have John Elways’ t-shirt, old printing press, wagon carts, historic pictures and a film about Denver stories. It was pretty neat and I’m guessing it will be a permanent exhibit even when the museum moves into their new quarters. The museum had a passport trip set up for the kids where they got a stamp at every site.
We got to pan for gold, lasso a steer, spark a fire, see an old schoolhouse, grind corn meal, see several touch carts and the mining cart exhibit was actually on (that’s the first time we’ve seen it working.) We saw a ski soldier reenactor, a square dance group, an Indian tribe dance and got a free Denver postcard at the end of it. If you haven’t been, go on Saturdays. They have cool family events and kids under 12 are free.
Next stop was the Denver Botanic gardens, also free today. They are tearing up the place for winter so most of it was closed off, but we did see what was left of the outdoor gardens. Inside the giant glass and steel structure is a rainforest cornucopia of plants, flowers and trees.
It’s very humid in there (reminds us of Houston.) Today it wasn’t so bad because it was only 60 outside. The new exhibit at the gardens was graffiti or urban garden art. We sat down and wrote our names graffiti style on paper and looked at this plywood art up close.
There were panels of graffiti art all over the gardens, and I must admit – they look like art to me. After rolling down the hill and playing tag we went to the last stop of the day.
Four mile historic park gets it name because it is 4 miles from Denver. Four Mile House once served as a stage stop, wayside inn, and tavern for travelers on the Cherokee Trail on their way to Denver City. We haven’t been here in 5 years. We’ve been back here 3 years, but we just haven’t made it by for anything. Half of what we saw I don’t remember from our last visit. We went in the visitor center, which I think is new, and headed out to the houses. We passed up the quilting bee house where some ladies sat quilting and we pounced on a cat that was lounging nearby (to pet him.) We went by the outdoor bakery where oatmeal-cranberry cookies and Christmas cookies were being cooked in an old Franklin stove. They were good! We saw the root cellar, tipi, miner’s camp, miner’s cabin and the blacksmith shop.
He was actually in there working on a piece. We went by the barn and saw the horses (the girl’s had them named in 2 seconds; Brownie, Snowflake and Rainbow.)
After petting the horses and looking at the goats we wandered back to the center and found dress up clothes to put on.
It would have been much more pioneery if there had been 5 feet of snow on the ground, but we still had fun in the sun.
That was the way we spent Denver’s Birthday.
Happy 150th!
CHRISTmas decorations came to our house
20 Nov 2008 2 Comments
in information
last night. I put up my mis-matched garland and lights in the basement, my snowmen on the mantel and my nativity sets in the front room. Oh, and the one set that I thought I lost (I did lose some of them) I found!
As I was putting them up the girls were singing, ‘Mary had a baby, oh my Lord, Mary had a baby in town’. Hannah was singing too and then said, ‘Did Mary have her baby in a mall or in a town?’ Um…in a town, well outside of town anyway, but definitely not in a mall!
Things to do in Denver this Saturday
20 Nov 2008 Leave a Comment
in information
Denver is turning 150 this Saturday and to celebrate here are some things going on:
Denver Zoo, Botanic gardens, Colorado History museum and Contemporary art museum all free on Saturday, cake too (at noon.) (9:45 ribbon cutting by the Mayor at the Co. History museum.)
Just in time for the holidays, get your greeting cards postmarked with a unique commemorative cancellation at Denver Botanic Gardens and the Colorado History Museum from 11 a.m. to 1 p.m.! Commemorative envelopes will also be for sale at both locations.
Four mile historic park is free from 12-4, blacksmithing, tours of the house and holiday fare.
Bring a toy for tots and get in free at the Buell Theater to see the Polar express, 11am.
Sporcle?
20 Nov 2008 Leave a Comment
If you have kids that love trivia learning, hop on over to Sporcle. It’s pretty neat (and amazing how much history I don’t know.) Try filling in the Gettysburg address or coming up with all the names of the Civil war battles! I haven’t even begun to find everything on the site, trivia games for language, history, science, etc. Have fun!
The Brown Palace Hotel
19 Nov 2008 Leave a Comment
in Field trips, HS group
Our HS group took a field trip to the Brown palace today. To learn about the history of the hotel, you have to go all the way back to 1860 when Henry C. Brown arrived in Denver City to build boarding houses. He knew that people coming to look for gold needed a stopover to rest and get supplied before they went up in search of fame and fortune. He built a row of boarding houses and stayed in business until the Cherry creek flood wiped out all his homes. Then he turned to homesteading and had 160 acres South of where Denver city was at the time. ‘Henry, Denver’s never gonna go that far South!’ people told him, well he must have been one smart cookie (and sly as a fox too.) When Denver became a sate in 1876, Henry ‘generously’ donated a nice little hill for the state to build a Capitol on. Now this hill was right in the center of all his land, so he sold more land for the courthouse and federal buildings, and laid out streets for a neighborhood called Capitol Hill. Then he thought, this end of Denver needs a hotel (most of the hotels were located near Union station where the train came in.) So, in 1888 on a little triangular piece of land near the Capitol, he started building the hotel.
First order up was to dig the well for water, 720 feet down! The hotel still uses the artesian spring water under its basement; if you want a sample try the water fountain in the lobby. It was the 2nd fire proof building in America (meaning there was no wood in the structure, just metal, concrete and between the floors terra cotta.) All the rooms have a window on the outside because of the buildings’ shape (hey, it is built on a triangle.) So when you check in they might ask you if you want morning sun or afternoon sun. The base of the building is made from Colorado red granite and the rest of the building is Arizona sandstone.
Unfortunately at some point they decided to clean the building with a sand blaster and lost all the decorations on the outside of the building that weren’t in relief (they were never replaced.) There are 26 medallions around the top of the building of Colorado animals carved in relief that you can still see. The building took 4 years to build is 9 stories high (but in the 1930’s they combined the 8th and 9th floors into 1 floor.)
It has an 8 story atrium and is built in the Italian Renaissance style (with dark wood, straight lines, the atrium and wood carving decorations, and that stained glass ceiling.) Total for work and furnishings when it opened in 1892….2 million dollars!
Inside the hotel are 3 restaurants, a ballroom, high tea area, posh carpets, stained glass ceiling in the atrium, and a spa (the entrance to the spa was the fireplace in the atrium, that was a big fireplace!)
Up on the 8th floor are private suites (only $2,200 a night) named after the guests who stayed in them. The Eisenhower, Reagan, Roosevelt and Beatles suites can all be yours to sleep in. In the Eisenhower suite they preserved the spot of mantle where he whacked it with his golf club (he used to play in the room.) Of course the bed the Beatles slept in is no longer the actual bed (that would be gross) and that room isn’t decorated like a rock star’s room, it’s just named that because they happened to sleep there. After Henry Brown died the hotel changed hand several times; in the 1930-80’s it was owned by the Boettcher family (another famous Denver family.)
High tea is served every day in the atrium, it’s a bit pricey, but it is very neat. You have tea and tiny cakes and sandwiches (current pricing was $30 adult and $15 children under 7.) But, if you’re going to do high tea there I would suggest going in January. That’s when they have the winning steer (a live one) on display right in the atrium. So, you can drink your tea and then get a picture with the steer! Yeah, sounds a little gross, but only in Denver! To get a look at the atrium and high tea area go here. Here’s a recipe for their baby cakes:
RECIPE
BABY CAKES
2/3 cup butter, room temperature
1 3/4 cups sugar
2 eggs
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
3 cups cake flour
2 teaspoons baking powder
3/4 teaspoon salt
1 1/4 cups milk
slightly sweetened whipped cream
fresh fruit, such as berries or kiwi
1. Preheat oven to 325° F Wash and dry 14 tin cans, 14 to 16 ounces each, or 14 small (1-cup) souffle dishes, grease and flour insides.
2. In large bowl of electric mixer, beat butter, sugar, eggs, and vanilla until fluffy. Beat 5 minutes on high speed, scraping bowl occasionally.
3. Combine flour, baking powder, and salt. Add dry ingredients to batter alternately with milk. Spoon about 1/3 cup of batter into each prepared tin can. Bake until a toothpick inserted in center comes out clean, 25 to 30 minutes.
4. Remove to a wire rack and cool completely, until the edges become dry and crusty Run a knife around the inside of cans or dishes to loosen edges, tap on a counter, then turn cakes out.
5. With a serrated knife, cut off and discard the rounded tops of cakes. Turn cakes upside down so cut edges are on the bottom. Cut cakes into two layers and fill with whipped cream and fresh fruit.
6. For a fun presentation, use pinking shears to cut out squares of colorful wrapping paper large enough to cover the center of your dessert places. Serve the Baby Cakes on the wrapping-paper.
That was a very fun trip, it’s neat to hear the history behind the old buildings and find out about people who thought about the future of the city when it was just a baby.
I am normal, Hannah can count, Maisy isn’t the smartest dog in the world (but you already knew that!)
18 Nov 2008 2 Comments
in kids, School Stuff
OK, so we had a pretty good school day. Grace was reading her phonics book, Bethany wasn’t crying about division, and Joel was doing math. Now I have teacher books for every course, but I hate that in higher math they don’t show how they got the answer. It’s not enough if I know what the answer should be, if Joel gets it wrong I have to determine how to do the problem and then work it through with him to figure out where he went wrong. So sometimes I have to work backwards and figure it out, like today. It said draw 2 supplementary angles, the measure of one angle is 58 degrees greater than the measure of the other angle. So I knew they added up to 180 degrees, but you have to say x(x+58) = 180, solve, then plug in the number. But still, it would be easier if they showed the whole problem.
After lunch we wrote our Tea Tuesday letters and I remembered to put the tea in this time. So if you got a letter from last week and wondered where the tea was, I forgot. I buy Celestial seasonings tea (ok, herbal infusions) because it’s made in Boulder and I live in CO, so why not? But I ran out of the commercial tea bags that are in a package, so I was just sticking plain tea bags in the letters. Last week I wondered why the envelopes where so flat, but this week I remembered and stuck in blueberry tea. Sounds like it’s time for a trip to Boulder again.
Then I cleaned the den and by that I mean that I vacuumed the tops of everything, the ceiling and the curtain rod, moved the couches to vacuum underneath them and then moved the furniture around. Wow, that looks nice. I took all the fall stuff down off the mantel so I could put my snowmen up there and moved the dog’s cage (which comes up later.) We’re going to get our carpets cleaned soon, yay! 6 people tramping on the same beige carpets for 3 ys. 5 months, plus 2 cats and a dog = yuck!
Normally I don’t rant about stuff here, but after we ate dinner we went over to Barnes and Noble to look around. We knew something was going on because there were jugglers and unicyclists outside the store. Inside there was a table that said free face painting and had a giant bowl of candy on it. Of course the girls waltzed over to the candy bowl and started pilfering. The lady handed me a paper and said sweetly, ‘Hi, here’s a voucher to use up front. If you buy anything tonight the store will give our school a percentage. Here’s the book lists, just pick the grade your kids are in.’ I said, ‘Oh, I home school, so we don’t use any of these.’ To which she responded, ‘Well, you probably don’t want that voucher then, I’ll take it back.’ I said I’d just keep it and walked off, but as is often the case, what I really wanted to say was…’Wait a minute. You’re making the parent’s buy the books for their kids at your school and then also getting money from the bookstore with every purchase? Yeah, of course I’m not going to buy anything with that voucher and give your school the money, I seem to think I already do that. What is that called…tanks….twitter….oh, yeah TAXES! Yes, I pay taxes so your school can buy books and here you are pushing it off on the parents, so what? So you can buy candy and hire unicyclists to entertain the kids? UGH!’ Maybe I conveyed all of that in my look to her, I don’t know.
Anyway we had a good time looking at books, meeting a few children’s book authors and then on the way out the kids gravitated to the candy bowl again. The lady, get this, put her hand over the bowl (but not before Hannah grabbed a piece of candy) and said, ‘I’m sorry, this candy is for High plains school children only.’ OMG, suddenly she is the candy-Nazi! Suddenly, I am not normal; I’m a wicked, evil HS’er?! I made Hannah put the candy back and we walked out with her boo-hooing, but again I really wish I would have said…..’Oh, before you offered us candy because you thought I was a parent of a kid that went to your school, but now that you know I’m a HS’er the candy is only for public school kids? Hmm., I think I’ll stand outside of your school with a big bowl of candy and ask kids as they come up, ‘are you a HS’er?’ And when they say no, I’ll just say, ‘sorry this candy is for HS’ers only’.’ OK rant over.
OK, lastly 2 funny things. Hannah found Bethany’s cat that is named Kitty 4,5,6 (don’t ask.) When she gave it to Bethany Hannah said ‘Here is kitty wour, wive, six, and I wound wishy (fishy) one, two, wee, too.’ So she can count to 6 just by naming Bethany’s stuffed animals. Too bad most numbers don’t start with a ‘t’ now that she can say it. The other thing had me laughing so hard I was crying. We let Maisy in last night and told her to go to bed (she sleeps in a crate and is trained to get in it when you say go to bed, which seems to make her pretty smart.) However, I had moved her cage to the other side of the room. Not a different room, just the other side of the room. I said ‘go to bed’ and she walked over to where her cage was and looked, and looked, looked at me, looked at the floor. In her mind I know she was thinking I was insane, what cage, where, I can’t see it! I kept saying ‘go to bed’ and she kept creeping over to the empty floor and then getting up and wandering around the room and coming back to the empty floor looking up sadly at me. I swear this went on for 10 minutes and I was laughing so hard I could barely say ‘go to bed’ anymore, I was on the floor gasping for air, and Maisy was still cowering over by the empty space looking around for the cage, all the while I’m pointing to it and Joel is telling her here it is, and finally we just dragged her over to the cage and….she jumped. Like it was a total surprise to her that the cage was over here. Oh my gosh, it…was….so…freaking…..funny. I can’t wait to see what she does tonight!
Monday
17 Nov 2008 Leave a Comment
in cap, dance, School Stuff
Well, we did absolutely nothing this weekend, except eat and go see Madagascar 2. (Save your money, go see it at the $1 theater, it wasn’t as funny as the first one and it had 2 gay references in it.) Today we did school and I had had dance (technically it was an off day, but our group decided to meet and practice.) Joel is reading ‘A separate peace’ and it’s holding his interest pretty well. Bethany was reading some short stories and a book that’s patterned after the diary of……books. It’s the diary of a girl who worked in the fields with Ruth, so it’s Bible based and so far she likes it. Grace took about 10 math tests, mostly adding up to 12 different ways and 1 subtraction one. Then she played with her phonics magnets and made some words. She was using the –ed magnet and made hed and ded, but I told her those need an ‘a’ in them to actually be that word. Bethany thought it was the end of the world during math (division.) She was crying as she divided numbers into other numbers and came up with the dividend, sigh. Joel did 3 sciences and I see that he wiggled out of math since I wasn’t noticing the board at the time.
After lunch I left Joel in charge and went to dance. We practiced for 2 hours, ouch. Next week I need to wear my skirt so I can see how to get on one knee and then get up again without ripping the skirt off. We also heard that the recessional is going to be done to ‘The carol of the bells’, so that will be pretty. They need 3 tall adults from our group to carry the banners, so I’ll probably do that. Recital is in TWO weeks, yikes! But, it’s looking very nice and we know all the moves and can concentrate on using the dance for worship rather than learning the moves, which is good.
James and Joel are off to CAP tonight. Joel really needed a hair cut; I’ll have to get him one before next week. He’s been reading ‘Job interviewing for dummies’, wonder what’s up with that? We had talked about him asking the airfield if they needed help or the pilot’s shop, but he hasn’t said he wanted to do it yet. I know he has his whole life to work, but it would be nice if he could get in good with the airfield since he wants to pursue work in that area. The funniest thing I heard today was Hannah telling me that I was ‘too young to eat a corn dog.’ I said don’t you mean too old? She said, ‘Yeah, you’re too old to eat a corn dog!’
Tomorrow is Tea Tuesday and Wednesday is our HS groups’ field trip to the Brown place hotel, posh!
Night at the museum
15 Nov 2008 3 Comments
Not the movie version. We had a very cool opportunity last night. In honor of Denver turning 150 years young next week, a bunch of museums stayed open till 10 pm last night and were free. It’s part of Denver arts week. If you know me, you know I don’t pass up an opportunity to go somewhere for free (when it’s usually a pay deal.) So, after work we ate and headed downtown.
The first stop was the Byers-Evans house. We had been there before, but James hadn’t. The city grossly underestimated how many people would turn out in 30 degree weather to see free museums. The place was packed. We had an introduction in the parlor and we got to stand on the side that’s usually closed off. The lady talked about the theater groups that use the house as their performing center. We found out it’s the only way you’ll get to see the upstairs of the house too. She read a letter from a Colorado nurse writing during the civil war. It’s one of the things they do in the summer called ‘letters from home’. They go to different areas of the house and read real letters from Coloradoans from US wars. After the reading we went into the living room, tea room and the music room. The original owner, Mr. Byers, started the Rocky Mountain newspaper, which is still publishing today. He sold it after 6 years to a business friend Mr. Evans (whose father was the Gov. of Colorado.) You’ll see a lot of things named Byers or Evans in Denver, these men came here to help build a city, so their legacy goes on. The house sits in the shadows of the 2 art museums that we now have.
Next stop was the Colorado History museum. For those of you in Denver, it’s free again next Saturday when the Denver 150 exhibit opens (free cake too.) We wandered around for a bit and then made buttons from pictures of Denver. The girls made some with the Capitol, mountains, and the library with pretty colors on them. Joel made one that said Denver’s 150th and one of a pilot leaving his plane at Stapleton airport. We also got a black and white copy of a parade down 16th street in what looks like the early 1900’s. We did want to go to the Molly Brown house, but we missed the shuttle and it was 6 blocks up (and therefore 6 blocks back.) James had given me a limit of 3 museums, so we left and drove to the next stop.
We have never been to the Forney museum of transportation before. It was very neat. We thought (because the paper had said so) that we would be exploring the museum with headlamps and lanterns, but they just meant that the cars and trains had their headlamps and lanterns lit.
We saw cars from the 1900’s, buggies, hearses (did you know children’s hearses where painted white and had colorful scenes painted on them?) We saw the history of bicycles, antique children’s ride on toys and tractors.
We saw this contraption from the 1950’s; it’s a car-plane.
Apparently it worked, but you’d never get me in there. Yeah, the words experimental are probably a good reason to stay away (that and it was made out of plywood.) We saw trolley cars, trains, and the Herbie car from the demolition scene in the movie ‘Herbie fully loaded’.
This picture turned out horrible,
but it’s the inside of the old KIT car from Knight Rider (we’re watching the new version of that show now, it’s not great but Val Kilmer has finally found his niche – being KITs voice!) We sat in a Model T, saw Colorado’s first art car (not that old, in Houston we have an art car parade every year, and it’s been going on for awhile.)
We also saw Amelia Earhart’s car! After looking at a few more cars it was time to go and there were still some things we hadn’t seen.
All in all, not a bad trip. Of course if James hadn’t been along I’d have dragged the kids to probably 8 more museums (Joel says good thing Dad was there.)
Oh, and I am soooooo ready to get my new camera in the mail!
