Grandmama

Grandmama died last Saturday. With all of the events of Froglet's birth and our current living fiasco (more updates on that in a few days), we've barely had time to process her death.

My grandma was 93. She lived a full life and always talked about how lucky she was to have wonderful children, grandchildren, and great-grandchildren. We always told her it was her "fault" - she must have done something right to end up with a great family!

Grandma was the matriarch of the family and held us tightly together. I hope that we can remain close without her presence to tie us together.

Little Froglet will never get to meet her great grandma - but Grandmama got to meet her. The last time I visited in August, I held Grandmama's hand to my belly and watched her face light up as Froglet kicked her hard! So, we'll get to tell Froglet the story of how she kicked her great-grandma and how excited she was to hear about Froglet's impending arrival. Of course we'll have tons of other stories to tell about great-grandma - picking blueberries and huckleberries at her house, making hotcakes, and working in the garden, and how much fun stacking wood can be.

Reaching the end

I've mentioned before (but not for a while) that a classmate of mine is struggling with the recurrance of her cancer. We just found out that she was moved to a hospice home this weekend after a brief visit to the ER. She's got a great blog set up and it's so nice to see all of the messages of support from the friends she made far and wide. But it's terribly sad as well. Her father has been able to fly in (he's not local) and her sister and niece have come to visit. But this feels like a sudden downturn and has come as a shock to most of us.

No one's talking about time lines, but hospice is a clear signal that recovery isn't what we're hoping for now. I just wish her peace and hope that her family has left nothing unsaid.

[tap, tap] Is this thing on?

If you haven't noticed, I've been terrible at updating this here blog. Since last August, I have been on quite the roller coaster of school craziness. And now with the impending birth of Baby X, I'm sure things aren't going to slow down.

But I've decided I miss writing on this here blog. Not for you. For me. Writing run-on sentences about inane details of my life is strangely fulfilling. So I'm going to try to be better. And K and I have been cooking some more lately, so I may even post something onto our eating blog, which is super neglected, but, in my opinion, a cool idea waiting to happen. [We made Raspberry Fool this weekend, in tribute to the Rimsky Korsikoffee Shop. It was beautiful and tasty.]

No promises, as who knows what will happen next with life. But I am going to try to do something with this here blog. Maybe even Cole will get a chance to post something.

Stephen Hawking and my dad

With the news today that Stephen Hawking, the great physist, has been hospitalized, I had an immediate recollection of my experience listening to Stephen Hawking speak.

I was a fairly nerdy young teen/girl... prone to fantasy and wild escapism. I think my dad, an engineer by both profession and personality, often wondered what to do with me and how we were to connect. My Christmas present from my dad one year, a special present just from him to me, was a pair of tickets to see Stephen Hawking downtown. I remember that the tickets were in an envelope on the tree rather than wrapped as a traditional present.

We went off to see the lecture, and it was so cool. I was there with my dad and he didn't know much about this topic (advanced physics and black holes) either. We were both learning something new. I was one of few women (and likely the only girl) in the audience. I remember being mesmerized by the talk, by Stephen Hawking's voice (computer synthesized) and the fact that he took questions and laboriously typed out answers during an intermission between the talk and the Q and A period. I remember an assistant changing the overhead transparencies he used to demonstrate different aspects (remember overhead transparencies!).

After the talk, we went to a diner with some of dad's friends and had pie and ice cream and talked. I remember these men talking with me as if I was a full member of the discussion, rather than a kid. It was so great taking part in this conversation and talking with this grown ups about this exciting talk. 

I didn't get much mileage out of this at school, attending a science talk not being a particularly "cool" thing to do. But I remember this fondly. I feel so fortunate to have had a dad so interested in spending special time with me.

I cherish these special times I was able to have with my dad. I hope that Stephen Hawking can safely recover and return to giving his great talks, writing his books, and inspiring new teens. 

Happy New Year

Well, it's been a little quiet here on the blogfront. We spent a busy winter break getting Stuck on the East Coast while visiting family and friends. We have driven back East for the winter break two years now (because we're crazy like that). This year, we got to enjoy Christmas with our little niece 1900 and many of the family in New York. It was a balmy 60 degrees on the day after Christmas! After the deep freeze we had had here at Farm U for the end of the semester, it was a lovely change. I bet it was warmer than the Rose City even! Of course, we had our 7+ kinds of fish for Christmas Eve and Peter got to play with Transformers on Christmas Day with a family friend's son. He was pretty happy about that.

We headed up to City with a Famous Harbor after Christmas to see more family and friends. We got to connect with several people we hadn't seen in a year (or maybe more?) and I even got a bunch of lesson planning and syllabus prep done. Plus, we went to Trader Joe's. That place rocks. We definitely need to live in a town with a Trader Joe's in 100 miles next move.

We had one of the best New Year's Eves I've had in a long time with some of Peter's friends (well, I'd call them my friends by this point too, but they were PEter's first) at home. We played games, ate homemade chili (and I might have to have a chili-off with the cook), and drank too much. Luckily, we planned well and were able to spend the night in the spare bedroom. We all went out to a fancy breakfast (well, brunch really) and met up with even more people.

And then.... then the car broke. We were driving back to drop off our lovely hosts after breakfast when we heard a loud thunk. I thought some kid had thrown a hard snow ball at us, or maybe we had run over a rock. But, it turned out that the clutch broke. Yep. The clutch cable snapped. Luckily, we were driving about 20 mph on a quiet suburban street. Imagine this happening while we were going 80 in rural upstate NY. Or Ohio or something. Ugh.

So, we called The better world club (the gree alternative to AAA. Comes recommended by the Car Talk guys!). They were very helpful and called lots car repair places, but wouldn't find a single open one. Remember, this was New Year's Day. So, we had the car towed to our friends' repair shop, thinking that we'd go back on friday and talk with them then. Of course, our plan was to LEAVE the East Coast on Friday, but that clearly wasn't going to happen. All of the passengers in the car thought this was a workable plan and Peter waited for the tow truck, left eh car, and slipped the key in the drop box.

Friday morning. We call the car place. No answer. We wait an hour. No answer. We eventually drive over and deduce that they are closed. And the next day is a Saturday so they'll be closed through the weekend and OH CRAP. We really wanted to be home by this point.

So. We call the guy taking care of Miles and arrange for more visits. Then, we drive around, looking for an open car place. We find one! It's actually only a block or two away on the same street. So, we ask about the repair, explain that the car that is broken is parked in their competitor's lot down the street etc etc. They had the cable and agreed to put it in. Now, we had to figure out how to get a car without a clutch two blocks down the street. The car guy said, don't worry, we'll take care of it. So, we walked back to the car, he hopped in, started the car and drove it without the clutch the two blocks. Amazing.

That afternoon, they called to tell us that the car was ready. We packed that night, after a sushi dinner (!) and hit the road early Saturday morning.

Miles was happy to see us Sunday night.

So. We're back to Farm U, safe and sound. PEter and I started classes yesterday and I start teaching at SLAC (small liberal arts college) next week. I'm sure we'll both have updates about it all shortly.

I hope that you're all well and that 2009 is good to you.

Annoyed

Things I hate right now:
1) temperatures in the negatives, with wind chills in the negative 20's;
2) research papers.

That's all, really.

Congratulations

Just a quick note to congratulate Kimberly on passing her first major test for her program: she passed her portfolio!!!!!!!!

I think she'll take a few weeks off, then start working on that dissertation thing.

Congrats wifey.

Heartbroken

We got some very sad news today. Miles has some tumors that are likely cancer. They seem to be growing quickly (we noticed the lumps right before leaving for Thanksgiving) and the test results suggest that they are affecting his liver.

We'll try to be the best pet parents we can be; which for us means to make sure he's comfortable and happy for as long as possible. The vet thinks that some diet changes might reduce the strain on his liver and give him a little more time. It's likely that we won't be entering him in the best housecat competition at the state fair next year. We're both pretty shaken up and sad that we're losing our little furry friend. I don't know how I'll finish all my classes without his help.

Miles at his most content - sleeping

_______________
update 12/4: Turns out that the tumors are definitely impacting his liver. His blood test results show that he has liver damage and maybe some kidney problems (although that could also be due to dehydration). The vet recommends that we try a prescription cat food and a medication that reduces the stress on a damaged liver. None of this will cure him, but it could keep him going a little bit longer before we have to deal with organ failure.

Wind

As a west coaster through and through, my experience with a range of weather conditions has always been limited. hot, warm, cold, wet dry. Only at the coast did we have weather. And it's memories of weekends and vacations there that come rushing back during days like today. It's not that it's cold today, it's above freezing, it's just so windy.

I remember flying kites with Dad at the beach when I was 14, 15. He'd wrap his arms around me to hold me down as I felt the wind pull the kite and us. We'd have to measure the wind with the little wind gauge to determine which lines to put on the kite (and which kite could handle the wind speed that day). We'd launch kites and fly and it was so great to spend that time together. One of the last things I packed before we moved out here was a kite. My sister and I sat on the floor and tried to decide what to do with them. We sent a special pair to our Coast Friends and my sister and I picked a kite and related equipment each. It's bundled up the closet here, but I should remember it in the spring. It's surely flat enough here to fly it.

Or Dad and I would go fishing out in the ocean or sometimes in the bay. Mom didn't like it when we went in the ocean and we stopped going that far out at some point after the sand started filling the mouth of the bay and it got dangerous. I think some boats capsized even, coming back in against the waves. We'd go early in the morning and spend a lot of time out there. I think back now and wish I had a tape of our conversations out there. I don't remember what we talked about, and I suspect we didn't talk very much. It wasn't really about the talking but the being together and watching the boat rise and fall with the swells, reeling the line in and out, and replacing the bait as the sneaky salmon ate it off our hooks without our noticing. Of course, we caught some too, back in the days when people caught salmon in that bay. We'd catch them and they'd be all slippery and shiny, with their scales shimmering. Of course, then you'd have to bonk them on the head which was never nice but I didn't feel too bad about it, better a quick bonk than slow suffocation was my idea. One time, we had a terribly unsuccessful fishing trip and just gave up. We were outside our normal area and decided to turn our fishing trip into a scenic tour. We drove around and saw different parts of the shore than we normally saw. A whale surfaced oh, 100 yards maybe from us and spewed foul smelling breath. I remember be scared (that thing was probably under us!) and delighted (we saw a whale!) almost simultaneously and I remember Dad looking for the lifejackets, just in case.

I remember our walks to town. It was almost always easier to walk towards town because the wind was at your back. We'd wander into the same 3 stores (with changing names and merchandise). And then we'd head back, against the wind. It was never nice to walk back with the stingy sand and rain against your face.

I remember a crazy walk on the beach with Mom. There's a great photo somewhere. We headed out into an awful storm repleat with ponchos, one orange and one clear. We walked in the rain and the wind with the stormy seas and came home with pockets of sand dollars (we gave those things away to school friends for years). We were soaking wet too as I remember. The fire was always going during the winter at the coast (and the dryer was always running!).

So today, I remember the coast and the wonderful times we had there. There was always a cozy couch to curl up in and read a book (or the special reading nook that Dad made) and a fire and cocoa and my mom and dad and sister. As much as they drove me nuts during my teen years (because I was an annoyingly difficult teen girl more than anything else I'm sure) what I remember now is the time we spent together.

In a few days we'll be home and I cannot wait. I miss them all terribly, although I'm often so busy that I don't have time to notice. It's days like today, when I'm not rushing from place to place and dropping of sheer exhaustion that the memories flood back, triggered by a little wind.

My Life As a Grad Student Begins

I'm already fairly busy.

I haven't been in school for almost a decade. Any kind of school. Since we moved to Iowa and I left my career in Portland, I decided to go back. I am currently enrolled in a Master's of Architecture program; it's designed for people who have no previous architecture experience - a first professional degree.

As it turns out, several people in my class have experience in interior design. And a bunch have a lot of construction experience. About half of us are returning students, mostly with kids or spouses. The other half are all right out of undergrad. So far it's made for a weird dynamic.

We walked into class the first day and got our first assignment: redesign our entire studio space for 18 students. Go!

We spent the first few days planning, making drawings, talking. Then we started working. One of my fellow students started a Flickr account to document the progress. You can find it here. I'm not in control of it, so I don't know how often it will be updated, but be sure to check it out.

First Day of School

So, as Peter predicted, posting has been light here. While I've been generally excited to be back in class (yay, friends! yay stuff I'm passionate about!), we've both be swamped. I'll let Peter share his stories here, but let me just point out that I'm teaching a new to me class, taking a class with 2 giant research projects, and working on the portfolio that determines whether or not they'll let me stay for year 3 of the program. So, yeah, busy is the word of the day.

However, we did get some first day of school photos for you.

Here's Peter, all dressed nicely for the first day. He's not holding up his fingers (part of the first day rules) showing which grade he's in because he wussed out.

I'm not holding up my fingers either because we couldn't actually figure out who many I needed... too many...

So, we're hoping that we'll find some time for this here blog (maybe Miles can step in for us?) and looking forward to this year's adventures. One week done already!

The Magic 8-Ball Says...Less Posting in the Future

Tomorrow morning, Kimberly returns to Farm U for the second year of her program. Additionally, after an 8 year hiatus, I will be returning to school to pursue a Masters degree.

Although I am taking more credits than Kimberly, we both have commitments beyond our class schedule. Kimberly will be teaching one class and assisting on another. And somehow, I was assigned as a teaching assistant for an undergraduate class.

On top of that, I have a list of clubs and extracurriculars that I hope to partake in, one of which may or may not be trying to play on the Farm U Ultimate team (can a 30-year old compete with a bunch of 19-22 year olds in a fast-paced sports environment? I might be slightly insane). And I know Kimberly has a stack of school projects to work on, not to mention this small thing called a dissertation to start thinking about and planning.

Basically, what I'm trying to say is that things around here are about to get really busy. And as important as this blog is, it is rapidly moving down the list of priorities. So if you thought we were bad about posting our inane thoughts on the internet for the world to read up to this point, prepare to be even less impressed. We'll do our best to keep things up to date, especially on the picture/Flickr account, but I'm just not sure how much we'll be able to post, especially me.

So wish us luck. Especially me. I really think I might be insane.

One down, three (?) to go

So today's the day. Today marks our one year anniversary of rolling into Iowa.

Maybe you remember our first month, me complaining about the weather, Peter looking for work, the State Fair.... It's been an adventure ever since.

Now, we are enjoying our last two weeks of quiet relaxation before new adventures begin. What's in store for us? Well, this year, I'll be helping Peter go off to school for the first time in 8 years. I'm sure you'll get to read lots of posts detailing "those undergrads", "people in the Middle are crazy", "food on a stick", "the weather", and updates from Miles. Although, as I reread that list, that's what you got last year too. I'm sure it will be as funny, enlightening, and wacky as ever.

Thanks for following along with us. The Middle isn't half bad.

Triste...

Well, Friday was my last day at the Tec. And my last day with Gabriela. I'm pretty sad, because we became good friends during our 5 weeks of talking each day. We've exchanged email addresses and offers to come visit (as well as offers to help with our respective languages over email and Skype). And Friday, we discovered that we share a love of Italian food! She's incredibly jealous that I live with such a fantastic cook, and I'm supposed to mail her recipes for gnocchi and pizza dough when I get home.

Although I'm happy to see Mom and PEter and to get to travel and see new parts of Mexico, I'm very sad to be leaving the wonderful friends I've made here. My teacher, Suzie, is absolutely incredible and was wonderful to learn from (both Spanish as well as teaching ideas).

Being back in Queretaro has been a wonderful experience and I'm so sad that my 5 weeks are already over.

Home again

A lengthy Mexico City post coming soon, but I'm tired and it'll have to wait to tomorrow to be posted. The trip was good but rapid, the students behaved well, and gosh there are a lot of stairs (Mom, Peter, start walking the stairs, you're going to need it!).

Just finished reading Harry Potter and the Philsophers Stone in Spanish. Will probably go buy the second one today. I'm learning all sorts of useful vocab like spell, witch, whimper, and ghost.

More tomorrow...

Quitting Time

I gave 3 weeks notice at work today. Despite the fact that I don't really like my job because of the constant physical and mental stress it puts me under, I was a little sad. The people I work with are pretty cool. And occassionally, I have a good time at work, even when I'm really busy and want to stab people with knives (can you believe that someone once ordered a peanut butter & jelly sandwich to-go from my restaurant. A PEANUT BUTTER AND JELLY SANDWICH!!!!! I refused to make it, I was so upset, both that I had to make it and that someone would actually order a PB&J to go).

Anyways, in 3 weeks I'll be heading south of the border to meet up with Kimberly in Mexico for 10 days, then I start school in mid-August. We've been in Iowa for almost a year. Time really flies here in the middle.

Stories from the house

I promised earlier some stories told by Alfredo and Cristiana. They are great storytellers and also have tremendous patience with my varying spanish ability. My favorite recent story tells about the orgins of their house.

Cristiana's father was just married to her mother and they were living in a tiny house on the edge of town. While he was sleeping one night, he was awoken by a ghostly woman. This woman told him about some money that was buried beneath the orange tree. She wanted him to dig up the money (that had been buried when there was a war against the Christians) and release her soul. He did this and found a huge stash of money. He used the money to buy their big house near the centro and raised 11 children there. Alfredo and Cristiana later bought the house from him.

Cristiana spent a lot of time making sure I understood how these ghosts are not frightening, because they have no strength of will over a person. They can only hurt you if you give them the power to hurt you. However, she said that they are stuck here until someone can help them finish whatever they were doing before they died. It was a facsinating conversation, not particularly sentimental or emontional but rather matter of fact. She was just describing reality, not something mysterious, or something to really exert much energy on.

Other stories don't translate as well, but I've been learning lots of great words and jokes... in particular, two handy words. A fresa (strawberry) is a person who's kinda stuckup. A mango is a person who is so sexy that you drool.

fun fun!

Plans!

Well, plans are happening! The confusion of yesterday seems to be over and we have some tenative plans in motion. Today J and I taught our first English conversation class. There are 14 students and they're very eager and chatty, so it should prove to be fun. I'm excited to get to know them a bit and also to be back in the classroom. It'll also be interesting to work with J. She's a lot younger and new to teacher, which means that although there's a lot she might not know, she's also very eager and willing to try things out and see what happens. She's close in age to our students, so I'm also expecting that that may provide some interesting topics for conversation. Tomorrow I should know a bit more about them and perhaps a bit more about the schedule of teaching that I can report back on.

As for my classes, I think I've worked out a plan that will get me both what I need and want and also satisfy the rules and regulations. I'll stay in the grammar class (gosh how I need to work on grammar!) and then not attend the conversation class with the other American kids (I say kids because a lot of them are 19 and this is kinda like SPRING BREAK with ALCOHOL for them). My grammar teacher loaned me a review grammar book as well for the summer so I can brush up on verbs and conjugations. Then, there's a girl here from Paraguay who needs to prepare to take classes in English. The Tec is moving to teaching its content courses in English, so all students need to demonstrate proficiency. Thus, we're going to meet and focus on our different needs. I want speaking practice and someone who will correct me when I make mistakes. She wants practice listening and some writing and speaking as well. We'll meet up tomorrow to sketch out a plan! Hooray for plans!!

And, speaking of plans, J and I are headed to Guanajuato this weekend for a little sightseeing. It's a cool, historical town and I should have stories to tell about mummies! Keep tuned to find out!!!

Life in Mexico

So not much has happened yet, we're still spending our time going from office to office to get id cards, classrooms, placements test, and figure out when. where, what, and who we're teaching. Not much to report on that front, so I thought I would give you an overview of a typical day here thus far.

We get up in the morning andgo upstairs for breakfast (desayuno). The father of the house (Alfredo*) prepares breakfast. We always have fresh squeezed juice (orange, guyaba, etc), fruit (platanos, papaya, pina etc) and then eggs or quesadillas or toast and jam. Alfredo also roasts his own coffee. He sits with us and we talk about various things. Often he'll tell us historical stories or legends or teach us something. All of this is in Spanish, although Alfredo speaks English and will translate a word if we just don't get it.

After breakfast, we'll typically go to the Tec (our university). It's a short bus ride away which is always an adventure. J and I will take spanish classes from 9-1 M-F (I placed into Intermediate 2). We'll teach English and lead a language exchange after that (exact times and days to be determined... hopefully soon!). Then we can either head home for comida, the big meal of the day, or eat out. Much like in Italy, Mexicans eat a big lunch with several courses. A siesta is also typical after that (lunch break is typically from 2-4). Dinner, if any, is a light snack around 8. J and I are still adjusting to the sun and the altitude. It's about 5400 feet here, and any amount of walking is surprisingly tiring.

Cristinana* is the mother of the house and she prepares comida and dinner and sits and talks with us. She speaks less English, but is an animated storyteller. She adds lots of sound effects a gestures to help clarify her stories. She tells us about the history of the house, the town, and her family. Thus far, it's a great place to stay and really feel involved. I doubt it'd be possible to feel isolated here.

I'm looking forward to sharing more stories with you. Today wil be busy again, trying to figure things out. But tomorrow our real schedule begins. I'm not sure I've ever audited a class before, and though I need to do the homework, I'm looking forward to being motivated solely for learning, rather than for a grade or transcript. The American kids seem pretty young, so it'll be interesting to see if I'm the 'old' lady. Most are around 20... which is more than a decade difference.

My love to you all. Let me know if there's something particular you're interested in learning about.

(*Note that as always, all names have been changed)

Current Events

Sorry for the lack of posting recently, it's been a bit hectic in our household these last few weeks. At the moment, we're hanging out in lovely Tucson. Some dear friends are getting married and we're happy to help them celebrate. Lots of posts are brewing (including photos from our new garden, my thoughts on education, saguaro cacti in bloom, Peter's latest adventures, and Miles' hard life). Also in the latest news, I'm heading to Mexico next week for a 7 week stay. Posting will be unpredictable, as although the university has wi-fi, computer access is unreliable.

We'll keep you updated the best we can...