Mission Accomplished

Five years ago, I began to work on my Master's Degree.  I've been sidetracked by family illnesses, death of loved ones and life in general.  Over a year ago, I made a promise to myself.  I was going to finish my Masters Degree.  Come hell or highwater, I was going to finish this degree and get it done.

I had a child go off to college.  The last one started high school.  And I kept plugging on along.  College applications for the middle child have gone out, and a college has been chosen.  And through it all, I've been plugging and chugging, working on my Master's degree.  The papers have been steadily written.  My laptop has  gone on vacations with me, and I've been reading papers and writing papers and completing projects on the side of sports fields, in hotels around the country, and in libraries around the area. 

And the perserverance has paid off.  Last night, I submitted my final posts on Blackboard.  I submitted my last project.  Everything is finally finished.

I didn't know whether to laugh or to cry with relief.

My kids were thrilled beyond words for me.  They have sat with me while I've worked on papers.  We've gone to Wi-Fi hot spots and bitched about our homework together.  I've maintained a straight-A average, and the kids have seen the amount of work and dedication that has gone into keeping those grades up where they belong.

This last class has been the most frustrating of them all.  I loved the class before this one.  This class was not a good match for my personality.  It has been a struggle for me to slog my way through these classes, assignments, and readings.  As of now, I have an A in the class, but there are still 3 papers that I have submitted that have not yet been graded.  As long as I get a C in the class, I will graduate.
HOWEVER, I would really, really like to keep my A average at this point.  I'm patiently waiting to see what will happen next.

It is a strange sensation.  Earning my Master's Degree has been a goal of mine since I graduated from high school.  25 years after I graduated from College with my Bachelor's Degree, I will be graduating with my Master's Degree.  I've accomplished a major life goal.  Knocked a major tick off of my bucket list. 

Within 10 crazy days this summer, my middle son will graduate from high school, and I will walk across the stage and receive my diploma.

I love the feeling when you accomplish a dream.

I had posted this on the old blog on March 8, 2013.  This seems like a great Throwback Thursday!
 This post originally appeared in my now defunct "Mom's View" blog.  I moved it to this blog at the request of my kids, who wanted to have all of the various posts that accompanied their high school years in one place.  I've matched the publication dates here to their original post date.  If you're reading these posts, I sincerely thank you for taking the time to go back through them all! 

Several Comedies of Error

This post originally appeared in my now defunct "Mom's View" blog. It originally appeared on May 24, 2012.  Oh, the woes of a substitute teacher!  Those were the days!

  
I've been subbing a lot the past few weeks.  Jobs have been plentiful... and the motivation that says "You won't get a paycheck for June, July, or August" has kept me moving pretty quickly on taking up the jobs.  Today is a rare day off, so I thought I would share my comedy of errors over the last few weeks.

I normally only substitute in K-3rd grade, because that is my area of certification, and it is the age group I am best at teaching.  Unfortunately, several of the jobs I took over the past couple of weeks were "supplementary", which is the grab bag of the substitute world.  I didn't know what I was getting into until I walked in the door of the building that morning.  Surprise!!

I spent one particularly memorable afternoon in 5th grade.  The teacher had left us with a DVD to watch, and had trained the kids how to turn it on and get it to go.  Her final words to me before she left "You don't touch anything.  Only she does." (pointing to a child in the class)  Okie Dokie!  We finished up the lessons she had left, and then we attempted to start the movie.  Nothing happened.  The girl tried again, and nothing happened.  The kids became very, very helpful.  (overly helpful) Yet still, nothing happened.  I called down to the main office, and they sent an Assistant Principal down to "show us" how to fix it.  He ended up calling the media specialist, who then ended up calling the technology guy from the county who was in the building working on the network. So, while all of the great minds were working on getting the DVD to run, what were the kids doing?  We started playing "Simon Says".  Twenty minutes later, the crew of four adults looked at me and said "It's not working."  (Insert evil teacher/mom glare here.)  I asked, "so what do I do?"  "Oh, said the AP, you follow the plans she left you."  I handed him the plans that said in clear letters: "Watch movie.  The kids know how to turn it on.  Dismissal begins at 3:15".  Thank heavens, the teacher next door poked her head around the corner at that moment and said "We're just getting ready to start the movie.  Why don't you bring them in here?" 

I spent one day with an assistant teacher who couldn't remember my last name.  She kept calling me Mrs. Jones, no matter how many times I corrected her.  Finally, I gave up and let her call me Mrs. Jones for the rest of the day.  I found out yesterday that she calls every sub in her room Mrs. Jones. 

I was reading a book aloud to a group of students, sitting in the rocking chair when *CRASH* the entire rocking chair broke apart underneath me!  There I was, one shocked woman, sitting amidst the remains of a rocking chair!  (Once I finally caught my breath and figured out how I ended up on the floor, we called the story finished and went outside for a quick extra recess.)

On my way out of the building yesterday, I was accosted by a teacher that I subbed for last week.
"Did you hear the news?"  she asked.  "No, what?"  I replied.
"Seven kids in my class have lice.  They found them the day after you subbed for me.  You need to get checked before you leave today."

What a wonderful, wonderful couple of weeks it's been!

Blue Hair

 This post originally appeared in my now defunct "Mom's View" blog in 2013.  I moved it to this blog at the request of my kids, who wanted to have all of the various posts that accompanied their high school years in one place. Enjoy!

My 16 year old daughter dyes her hair.  I'm not thrilled with it, but if this is her form of rebellion, I can live with it.  Dyeing her hair is so much better than many other ways she could choose to rebel.  (Drinking, drugs, sex, etc.)

Usually, she dyes that beautiful head of brown hair red.

I came home to a different experience Thursday night.

Her hair was blue.

She had bought a bottle of blue hair dye at the store, and attempted to dye the red/brown mass blue.

Do you remember the story in Anne of Green Gables, where Anne attempted to dye the mass of red hair black, and it turned green?  This story reminds me of Anne's attempt to dye her hair.

Not only is her hair this hideous color of blue-green, so is her scalp.  And her hands.  Her neck.  Her ears.  Her nose.  Her forehead.  Her fingers are really blue, and her cuticles are just freaky.

Of course, she chose to do this on a Thursday night.  Do you see the problem yet?  She still had to go to school yesterday.  The good news is that hand sanitizer does remove some of the dye.  The bad news is, she's still a ghastly shade of blue.

Fortunately, she has a good sense of humor.  She went to school with a scarf around her neck to hide the dye on her neck.  She left her hair down so it would cover her ears.  Her face and hands are still a ghastly shade of blue, though.

When questioned about the blue, (as any normal person would), she told people one of three things:

1) I've been feeling a little blue lately.

2) I'm releasing my inner smurf.

3) I decided to go Avatar.  Didn't  you get the memo?

I honestly can't imagine what her day was like.  I offered the option of staying home, but she decided to go to school.

I'm proud of her.  It's not everyone who can pull off the blue look and hold their head up in school for the entire day!

Senior Week

This post originally appeared in my now defunct "Mom's View" blog.  I moved it to this blog at the request of my kids, who wanted to have all of the various posts that accompanied their high school years in one place.  I've matched the publication dates here to their original post date.  If you're reading these posts, I sincerely thank you for taking the time to go back through them all!

We never wanted to put our kids into a situation where they could find themselves pressured into decisions that they were just not ready to make.

So, middle child was given his choice of where to go for his graduation trip this year.

He settled on New York City.

He and I spent 3 wonderful days hopping around museums and visiting the 9-11 Memorial.

We hit up the Museum of Modern Art (MoMA), the Metropolitan Museum of Art (Met), the Guggenheim, and the American Museum of Natural History.

It was a whirlwind 3 days.  I've now been to the major museums on the East Coast.  I can honestly say that the Met was my favorite museum.  It just goes on and on and on.  Every single room leads to another discovery, and then another discovery.  It was an amazing experience, and I don't feel that I have even scratched the surface.  I need to go back at least two more times to see it all and absorb everything that is there to be seen.

We just got back home a little while ago.  Both of us are exhausted beyond words.  He's asleep in his room, and I'm ready to fall asleep at the keyboard, but I'm too wound up from driving home. 

I keep forgetting that New York - and all of those amazing museums - are only 4 hours away from my house.  I need to head up that way and explore the museums a little more often!

Graduation Present

This post originally appeared in my now defunct "Mom's View" blog.  I moved it to this blog at the request of my kids, who wanted to have all of the various posts that accompanied their high school years in one place.  I've matched the publication dates here to their original post date.  If you're reading these posts, I sincerely thank you for taking the time to go back through them all!

I finally finished it.  Middle child's graduation present.

I made him a photo album.  Not just any photo album, I made this album into an A, B, C album that encapsulates his life thus far.  For example, "A" is for "Awesome", and I have his Senior Pictures. 
"Z" has been the hardest one so far, but we finally came up with an answer last night.  "Z" became "zzzzz" and I have pictures of him, falling asleep on his textbooks and the computer keyboard over the years. 

Putting this album together has been a challenge.  It's been fun.  Attempting to narrow down the boatloads of pictures that we have and find words to match the pictures has been more of a challenge than we expected.  But, I think we have  keepsake here that will last him a lifetime.  It's definitely a unique look back on his life to date!

A Kindergarten Story

I was subbing in a class of kindergartners yesterday.

We'd had a very interesting morning.  And I don't mean interesting in a good way. 

As we got ready for centers in the afternoon, the kids were all sitting angelically with their hands raised, ready to be chosen first to go to centers. 

I looked at them and said, "You guys know how this goes.  The first people I'm going to choose are those people who've been trying hard all day, doing their best job, and showing their pride."

I hear one little voice say "That's it, I'm screwed."

*This was originally published in my now defunct "Mom's View" blog on5/24/2013.*

AP Exams

 This post originally appeared in my now defunct "Mom's View" blog.  I moved it to this blog at the request of my kids, who wanted to have all of the various posts that accompanied their high school years in one place.  I've matched the publication dates here to their original post date.  If you're reading these posts, I sincerely thank you for taking the time to go back through them all!

If you've got high school students, you know that AP Exams occurred over the past two weeks.

My two youngest kids took their exams over the week.  DD only had one exam- in AP US History.
She studied like a crazy woman, watched videos, and was worried about how hard the exams were going to be.  When the day of the exam finally arrived, she told me after the fact:  "The exam was easier than I was expecting.  I thought it was going to be impossible.  It wasn't impossible, and I knew a lot of the information.  I guess I was prepared enough."

Younger son, who is a Senior in high school, took multiple AP Exams.  AP Calc BC, AP Physics, AP Microeconomics, AP Macroeconomics, AP Literature, AP Language, and AP Spanish.  Most of these classes he took this year, with the exception of AP Literature and AP Language.  His English teacher encouraged the seniors to take both the Literature and Language exams if they felt up to the challenge.  Younger son has taken other AP exams in the past.  He was not as concerned as his sister was about the tests.  While he was concerned, his strategy was to stay up to date on his homework throughout the year, and he attended every review session his teachers held throughout the year.  Taking this many exams, his biggest concern was getting enough sleep every night, and eating well each day to make certain that he was able to get through the tests.

While AP exams are time consuming, and they do cost money, they are cost effective.  Colleges and Universities will take AP scores and offer a corresponding amount of credit for the scores.  Whether the scores are counted in major, or as electives, or for how many credits, depends upon the college.  This is one of those crucial things you research in depth when you are looking at colleges.

We won't know the results of these exams until sometime in July. 

No matter what their scores, I am so proud of them for trying.

Blue Hair

 This post originally appeared in my now defunct "Mom's View" blog.  I moved it to this blog at the request of my kids, who wanted to have all of the various posts that accompanied their high school years in one place.  I've matched the publication dates here to their original post date.  If you're reading these posts, I sincerely thank you for taking the time to go back through them all!

My 16 year old daughter dyes her hair.  I'm not thrilled with it, but if this is her form of rebellion, I can live with it.  Dyeing her hair is so much better than many other ways she could choose to rebel.  (Drinking, drugs, sex, etc.)

Usually, she dyes that beautiful head of brown hair red.

I came home to a different experience Thursday night.

Her hair was blue.

She had bought a bottle of blue hair dye at the store, and attempted to dye the red/brown mass blue.

Do you remember the story in Anne of Green Gables, where Anne attempted to dye the mass of red hair black, and it turned green?  This story reminds me of Anne's attempt to dye her hair.

Not only is her hair this hideous color of blue-green, so is her scalp.  And her hands.  Her neck.  Her ears.  Her nose.  Her forehead.  Her fingers are really blue, and her cuticles are just freaky.

Of course, she chose to do this on a Thursday night.  Do you see the problem yet?  She still had to go to school yesterday.  The good news is that hand sanitizer does remove some of the dye.  The bad news is, she's still a ghastly shade of blue.

Fortunately, she has a good sense of humor.  She went to school with a scarf around her neck to hide the dye on her neck.  She left her hair down so it would cover her ears.  Her face and hands are still a ghastly shade of blue, though.

When questioned about the blue, (as any normal person would), she told people one of three things:

1) I've been feeling a little blue lately.

2) I'm releasing my inner smurf.

3) I decided to go Avatar.  Didn't  you get the memo?

I honestly can't imagine what her day was like.  I offered the option of staying home, but she decided to go to school.

I'm proud of her.  It's not everyone who can pull off the blue look and hold their head up in school for the entire day!

T - Shirt Quilt

This post originally appeared in my now defunct "Mom's View" blog.  I moved it to this blog at the request of my kids, who wanted to have all of the various posts that accompanied their high school years in one place.  I've matched the publication dates here to their original post date.  If you're reading these posts, I sincerely thank you for taking the time to go back through them all! 

 For middle child's high school graduation, I am making him a t-shirt quilt.

I have amassed a pile of t-shirts from his robotics tournaments and such not over the years, and I have piled them all up into a great, large pile of shirts to make into a quilt to give him when he graduates.  (Yes, it's in less than a month.  Think I could have waited any longer?)

The most important part of making this quilt is to make certain that all of the fabric has been sized, and gone through the washer a couple of times.  I have three new t-shirts for this shirt that he's never worn before, so I've run them all through the washer and dryer several times over the last week, so that they will have shrunk up, much like the older shirts that he's worn many times over that are going into this quilt.

The next step is to cut the shirts up.  That's where I am now.  The shirts have been cut apart, so the arms and backs have been removed.  I have just the fronts, uncut, with the logos and pictures on them. 

I also have the backing from the fabric store.  There is a special backing that is ironed onto the back of the cotton jersey in order to give the fabric stability, so that it won't stretch oddly out of shape when it is sewn together with other t-shirts, or with the cotton squares I'll be using for contrast.

I bought other fabric at the store to tie it all together.  I'm not expecting to have enough shirt fronts to fill an entire quilt, so I am going to alternate blocks of t-shirts with blocks of fabric. 

And now, we arrive at my conundrum.  I have all the t-shirt fronts, but the designs are all different sizes, and I need to find a consistent size that will hold all of the designs so that I can cut the fabric blocks the same size. 

Ahh... Math.  I always wondered when you would rear your ugly head!  If only my math teachers in high school had told me that I'd need to know this in order to do craft projects, I probably would have paid closer attention!

Seriously.  I have a large mat - 36" x 36" for cutting out quilt blocks.  I'll be pulling out the mat later on today, and measuring the designs on all of the shirts and finding the one consistent size that I will need to cut every block.  I'm planning on going for the shirt with the largest design- and then adding an extra inch and half on every side- so that there is a fabric border around the picture, and 1/4" all the way around for seam allowance. 

I'll post the pictures tomorrow.  This promises to be an interesting experience today!

Spring Cleaning

This post originally appeared in my now defunct "Mom's View" blog.  I moved it to this blog at the request of my kids, who wanted to have all of the various posts that accompanied their high school years in one place.  I've matched the publication dates here to their original post date.  If you're reading these posts, I sincerely thank you for taking the time to go back through them all! 

I should be cleaning the house right now, but I decided to take a break and write for a while.  Okay, I'm procrastinating.  With graduation looming, the house needs to be cleaned.  I decided I start in the basement - in the family room.  It's a disaster area.  Literally.  We had some flooding over the winter downstairs.  While we've dealt with some of the damage, much of our stuff was just tossed to the side while we attempted to stop the onslaught of flood waters.

The source of the flooding is evident- our house was built in the 1970's.  I called a plumber out after the flood, he took a look at the house and said

Two Things need to be fixed before you start renovating the basement:
1) The house has settled.  You need to call in a professional to re-grade the slope around the house and then you need to add new landscaping.  Those bushes planted next to the foundation are the original bushes, aren't they?  Most likely, the roots are tampering with your waterproofing on the foundation.

2) Replace the gutters.

Okay, so we still haven't tackled the landscaping.  I want to be able to pay cash for the landscaping, I don't want to do it on credit.  My goal is to have $1,000 in cash before we contact someone.  We are very close to achieving that goal.  I don't even want to talk about the gutters.  I know they need to be done, but the roof will need to be done at the same time, and I'd really like to add a porch onto the front of the house at the same time.  That is not going to be a cheap endeavor!

But the fact remains that I still need to clean out the family room before graduation.

I began early this morning.  I've found notebook paper.  Lots of notebook paper, scattered all over the basement.  Nothing is written on it, it's just evenly spread across the floor.  Lots and lots of old e-mails.  Those are gone now.  I found the smashed remains of an old Easter basket, and socks.  Oh my heavens, the socks.  I know where the other end of the black hole for socks on the East Coast is now- it is in my family room.  I am currently running a washer load full of socks.  I seriously doubt if any of them have a mate, but I'm willing to sort through them and see what matches up.

Pencils.  So far, I've liberated 100 pencils.  They are all sharpened, and the erasers are all hardened, but I don't think we're going to have to buy any new pencils in this house again, ever.

I am curious what other treasures I will find down there while I'm cleaning.  I'm beginning to think of this as a treasure hunt.  Wouldn't it be nice if I find a couple thousand dollars while I'm at it?

It Takes a Village

 This post originally appeared in my now defunct "Mom's View" blog.  I moved it to this blog at the request of my kids, who wanted to have all of the various posts that accompanied their high school years in one place.  I've matched the publication dates here to their original post date.  If you're reading these posts, I sincerely thank you for taking the time to go back through them all!

It's a trite saying, and we've heard it often.  It takes a village to raise a child.

I have been thinking of that statement a lot recently as I look back on the experience of getting the middle child through high school. 

Middle child has always been a challenge.  He sees school work as more of a guideline than a hard and fast rule.  He hates the drudgery of assignments that require you to regurgitate information, but lead to no actual learning.  He has a winning, smiling attitude, but if you are a teacher and he is bored in your class, you are going to have an interesting challenge on your hands.  I've had calls from teachers over the years as he's done everything from pounce on their math errors to submitting pages of information on grammatical and spelling errors on the school web site.  Let's not forget the 24 page lab reports for the chemistry teacher who told him he didn't give enough detail in his first assignment.   Fortunately, most of his teachers have been understanding and have taken this as a sign of him needing a greater challenge and have risen to the occasion and given him the challenge he desired.

However, nothing met this need for him as much as FIRST robotics.  In his Freshman year, his homeroom teacher snagged him for the robotics team.  He began working on the public relations team, and enjoyed the educational outreach.  He found out more about programming and began programming, and worked on the build team, helping to make the robot better.

Throughout the last four years, he has had all of the project based, meaningful learning that his heart could desire.  Keeping up with the drudgery of classwork was difficult, but he did it because the team requires a 2.5 average to remain on the team. 

The other parents are, without a doubt, my village.

Each of us has stepped in to guide a child when the parents are fed up and the children won't or don't want to hear what is being said to them.  The firm parental guidance of another parent (mentor) who respects your child and yet will also listen to them and help them through their frustrations with school, family, significant others, and yes, parents, has helped each of our children succeed.  They all know that there are other adults they can safely talk with, who respect them, and who will help guide them through their turmoils.

I have watched my son grow and mature over the last four years.  I can look at the three mentors who have worked so devotedly with the build team, and I can see the influence each of them has had on him.  Where 5 years ago, he would have yelled and thrown something if he didn't understand a new concept, I now hear the voice of one of the mentors as he says "Can  you go through that again for the dumbest guy in the room?  I got lost after you said....".  Everyone laughs, tension is relieved, and he gets another explanation of whatever it is that had tripped him up.

We have all taken each other's kids under our wing.  We are a family - a village - of people with one common interest.  Some people find their village through church, others find their village through scouts, or sports, drama, or music.  It doesn't matter where you find your village.  What matters is that you get to know the other parents of the children your child is friends with.  Only then can you help each other out, and watch each other's backs where the kids are involved.

I have been very fortunate.  I found my village.  I have helped many other teenagers through the challenges of high school, and I am truly blessed.  These are amazing kids who will go on to do great things with their lives, and make the world a better place.

Do you have a village in your life?

Getting Ready for Graduation

This post originally appeared in my now defunct "Mom's View" blog.  I moved it to this blog at the request of my kids, who wanted to have all of the various posts that accompanied their high school years in one place.  I've matched the publication dates here to their original post date.  If you're reading these posts, I sincerely thank you for taking the time to go back through them all! 

My middle child is getting ready for High School Graduation in a month.

It's hard to believe that so much time has passed.  It seems like only yesterday I was tracking down birth certificates, residence requirements, and shot records to register him for kindergarten.

When I think back over the trials and successes of the last 12 years, I can't believe how much we've been through.  The struggles with learning to read.  The frustrations he had when his school curriculum wasn't challenging enough, and the joy we experienced when we finally found teachers and schools who pushed him - and kept pushing him- until he finally found the thrill and joy of learning, and began to push himself to do more. 

I look back fondly on the last four years of high school, and I am so thankful for a staff that has allowed him to reach, stretch, grow, and try new things.  I've watched him become a self-confident young man with plans and dreams for his future that include earning a PhD.  He's come a long way for a child who didn't learn how to read until he was almost 9.

I've been working on his graduation paper work today.  Lots and lots of paperwork.  I think I'm tracking down almost as much paperwork now as I did when he started school.  The school wants the list of where the kids are going to school, their scholarships, number of seats we need for graduation, permission slips for the end of year activities, and the list goes on and on.  The senior handbook is 50 pages long, and I've ignored it for far too long.  There is much that is due in the next month - both to the high school and to the university that he will be going to in the fall.

It's a bittersweet time.  I'm thrilled beyond words that he has discovered what he wants to do and is ready to launch out into the world.  I am also sad, that my little boy is no longer my little boy.

*sigh*
 

A Day in Baltimore

This post originally appeared in my now defunct "Mom's View" blog.  I moved it to this blog at the request of my kids, who wanted to have all of the various posts that accompanied their high school years in one place.  I've matched the publication dates here to their original post date.  If you're reading these posts, I sincerely thank you for taking the time to go back through them all! 

My youngest takes a class in Baltimore on Saturdays.  While she is in class, I take the opportunity to roam around the neighborhood.  I am always surprised at the beauty I find, hidden in between row houses, waiting to be discovered.



I found this little gem next to a row house.  Like most of the Mid-Atlantic, spring has not quite yet sprung.
Flower bulbs are out, but the bulbs are still furled tight.  You can see the daffodils on the far side of the pond, but the tulips are still deeply furled inside of their green leaves. The forsythia hasn't even come out yet!

Finally!  A tree full of cherry blossoms!  This was the only tree in bloom that I could actually find. 
Look at the blue of the sky.  I love when the sky is this shade of blue.  It's a sure sign of a great day with low humidity!
You can tell that not all of the blossoms on the tree are out yet, but there are many that are opened.

This is the door of a sweet little Catholic church.
Gorgeous wreath.  And look at the iron scrollwork on that door!  It's amazing!  The doors are big doors- old doors.  The church itself is well over 200 years old, and I'm thinking that the scrollwork is the same age.  I'm not sure about the doors.  They may have been replaced once or twice.  They are very thick, heavy wood doors... I think they are close to 10 feet tall.. it's part of a set of double doors, there were two sets on the bell tower - one set on the main street, and one set on the side street.

When I finally got back to campus, I sat and watched a game of "Zombies vs. Humans".  A rather hilarious game, since the kids were dressed in morph suits, tagged with plastic ribbons as to whether they were zombie or human, and carrying Nerf guns and large cardboard war hammers.  I tried hard not to laugh at the kids, but they were so cute, running around, chasing each other through the green grass and hiding behind trees.  The energy and joy of youth!  I'm glad I had the opportunity to sit and watch them, and share in their unadulterated joy for a while!

(By kids, I do mean college students.  I guess the better term to describe them would be "young adults".)


Cherry Blossoms

Yesterday, I traveled down to Washington, D.C, hoping to see the cherry blossoms with my daughter.

The Cherry Blossom Festival was in full swing.  Tons and tons of tourists lined the Tidal Basin.  The reflecting pool was surrounded by people.  The line to get into the National Archives was over an hour long.

However, try as we might, we couldn't find open cherry blossoms anywhere.  Right as you enter Washington from Virginia, there is a beautiful garden that is usually full of tulips this time of year.  We found ten tulips in bloom - and hundreds- literally hundreds - of green tulilp foliage that was about 6 inches tall.  If we looked closely, we could see the tulip bud still wedged, deep inside of the greenery, waiting.

The weather in the Mid-Atlantic Region has been unseasonably cold.  We had snow last week.  Snow in March is practically unheard of around here.  Even stranger, this was our second March snowstorm. I think the tulilp bulbs are hiding so far deep down in the tulip greenery because they are afraid to come out.  They know that spring still isn't really here yet.

Finally, after much searching, daughter and I stopped and sat on a bench near the Tidal Basin, looking across the water to the Jefferson Memorial.  There was a cold wind blowing, and the water in the basin was very choppy.  There were two paddle boats out on the water, and the occupants were struggling to keep the boats going. They were attempting to paddle upstream towards the bridge, but the water was blowing so hard, they couldn't go anywhere.  They were in the middle of the basin, but making no progress no matter how hard they paddled.  Finally, the Dad climbed over from one boat to another, and moved one of his children to the boat with his wife.  He paddled the first boat back to the pier, dropped off two children, picked up a rope, paddled back out, and tossed the rope to his wife and then towed the wife and remaining child back to shore.

It reminded me of one of those logic math puzzles we used to get back in school.

My daughter and I got up from our bench and began walking when we saw IT - across the basin - next to the 14th street bridge.  One lone cherry tree, in blossom, all by itself.  The crowd around the tree was massive.  We counted over 50 people stopped around the tree.  They were all taking pictures, posing with the tree, and taking pictures of all of the people crowded around the tree.  It was kind of funny.

And then, we saw IT.  On a tree branch, right next to us.  A single blossom had opened it's petals, wide and welcoming to the world around.  Oblivious to the cold, windy day around us, the flower was open and spreading the joy of new beginnings to everyone around it.

My daughter and I took pictures of the flower.  We were standing in the cold, shivering, and a light rain had just started when all of a sudden, we couldn't stop smiling.  Somehow, the miracle of the single cherry blossom had brightened our day and made the trek and the traffic worthwhile.

As we walked away from the trees, searching for the nearest Metro station, we looked back at the tree, and we saw a group of 20 people, huddled around the tree with the blossom.  As we watched, one young man dropped down on a knee, and handed a small box to a young woman who started crying and nodding her head.

Even though we didn't see all of the cherry blossoms in bloom this particular day, we saw so much more. 

Mission: Accomplished

Five years ago, I began to work on my Master's Degree.  I've been sidetracked by family illnesses, death of loved ones and life in general.  Over a year ago, I made a promise to myself.  I was going to finish my Masters Degree.  Come hell or highwater, I was going to finish this degree and get it done.

I had a child go off to college.  The last one started high school.  And I kept plugging on along.  College applications for the middle child have gone out, and a college has been chosen.  And through it all, I've been plugging and chugging, working on my Master's degree.  The papers have been steadily written.  My laptop has  gone on vacations with me, and I've been reading papers and writing papers and completing projects on the side of sports fields, in hotels around the country, and in libraries around the area. 

And the perserverance has paid off.  Last night, I submitted my final posts on Blackboard.  I submitted my last project.  Everything is finally finished.

I didn't know whether to laugh or to cry with relief.

My kids were thrilled beyond words for me.  They have sat with me while I've worked on papers.  We've gone to Wi-Fi hot spots and bitched about our homework together.  I've maintained a straight-A average, and the kids have seen the amount of work and dedication that has gone into keeping those grades up where they belong.

This last class has been the most frustrating of them all.  I loved the class before this one.  This class was not a good match for my personality.  It has been a struggle for me to slog my way through these classes, assignments, and readings.  As of now, I have an A in the class, but there are still 3 papers that I have submitted that have not yet been graded.  As long as I get a C in the class, I will graduate.
HOWEVER, I would really, really like to keep my A average at this point.  I'm patiently waiting to see what will happen next.

It is a strange sensation.  Earning my Master's Degree has been a goal of mine since I graduated from high school.  25 years after I graduated from College with my Bachelor's Degree, I will be graduating with my Master's Degree.  I've accomplished a major life goal.  Knocked a major tick off of my bucket list. 

Within 10 crazy days this summer, my middle son will graduate from high school, and I will walk across the stage and receive my diploma.

I love the feeling when you accomplish a dream.

This post originally appeared in my now defunct "Mom's View" blog.  I moved it to this blog at the request of my kids, who wanted to have all of the various posts that accompanied their high school years in one place.  I've matched the publication dates here to their original post date.  If you're reading these posts, I sincerely thank you for taking the time to go back through them all! 

When the Brakes Fail

I wish this was just an imaginative title for a post.  The brakes on our car failed last week while my husband was driving our daughter home from camp in the city.

He went to take an off ramp from the Beltway, and the brakes were not working as he entered the deceleration ramp and went into the curve.

Fortunately, this was not the tight, inside edge of a clover leaf ramp.  this was a long, curvy, but mostly straight ramp with grass on the left side, and woods on the right.  The ramp is an uphill ramp, with a stop light at the top of the ramp.

My husband mentioned that he noticed the brakes were having problems before he entered the exit ramp, and his foot had been off of the gas pedal and on (and on and on) the brake pedal for quite some time before he hit the C/D ramp, and he had his emergency flashers on.  His car had slowed to 40 mph, and was continuing to slow, but not fast enough to stop at the light.  He lowered the car down to 3rd gear, and then to 2nd, hoping the weight of the engine would slow the car down more.

As they entered onto the exit ramp itself, he pulled on the emergency brake, and lowered the gear down to 1st as they went up the hill. 

Miracle of miracles, the car slowed as it went farther up the hill, and he was able to pull safely into the grass on the left side of the ramp.  The car stopped about 10 feet into the grass.

I got a rather shaky call from my daughter, explaining what had happened.

My husband just shrugged it all off and said "It really wasn't that big of a deal."

We towed the car to a garage.  They showed us the remains of the brakes. 

Today, I am thankful.  Very thankful.  Very, very thankful, that this story had a happy ending.

Travel safely!

Super Hero Summer

As far as movies go, this summer we've had a plethora of Superhero movies based on Comic Books.  The Avengers and Spider Man come quickly to mind.

I saw The Avengers with my middle child over Mother's Day weekend.  What an amazing movie!  I am so in awe of that movie.  I was especially touched that the directors seem to have gone to great lengths to find an actor who is very reminiscent of Bill Bixby, who originated the role of Bruce Banner on the television series back in the late 70's, early 80's.  Iron Man was new to me.  I've never been a big fan of Robert Downey, Jr, but his portrayal of Iron Man sold me on his acting abilities.  And Thor... *sigh*... what's not to love about Thor?

Today I went with the boys to see Spiderman.  Another excellent movie.  It's not the version I originally saw back in the day, but I really enjoyed the special effects and the acting.  Seeing Martin Sheen and Sally Field in the role of Peter's Aunt and Uncle was an unexpected pleasure. Oh, and the special effects.  It goes without saying that the CG special effects were off the charts, blow your mind fantastic!

One big thing I noticed today is that the authors are no longer writing wimpy, helpless roles for women.  No longer are they just sitting by helpless, and hapless, waiting to be rescued.

In Spiderman, when Gwen faces down the giant lizard man - not once, but twice - I was impressed.  When she used her brains to help solve a very large problem (and looked smoking hot while engaging in science related activities!) I was in awe of the genius who wrote the plot.

In the Avengers, the Black Widow is a gorgeous, beautiful, smart, intelligent, kick ass woman who can take care of herself.  My personal favorite scene in the movie is at the beginning.  She is being held captive by an evil criminal overlord.  And she's wearing her classic little black dress. When it is time for her to exit the scene, she breaks free of her bonds- by herself, and gets rid of the bad guys- by herself, then picks up her stacked black high heeled pumps, straightens her dress, and sashays out of the room.

Stan Lee, thank you for writing strong roles for women!  No longer are we relegated to be beautiful but stupid, or smart but ugly.  You are writing roles that show women in all of their glory- strong, smart, beautiful, and capable of solving any problem that comes their way in a well thought out, well reasoned manner that doesn't make them look hapless and hopeless.

You are truly showing the beauty and power of women.  We are amazing, we are powerful, we are smart.  We have the power to change the world.  Thank you for capturing this!

This post originally appeared in my now defunct "Mom's View" blog.  I moved it to this blog at the request of my kids, who wanted to have all of the various posts that accompanied their high school years in one place.  I've matched the publication dates here to their original post date.  If you're reading these posts, I sincerely thank you for taking the time to go back through them all! 

Derecho Wind Storms

Last week, we had a pretty phenomenal weather event roll through the Mid-Atlantic:  A Derecho Wind Storm.

Winds of 70 mph destroyed homes, trees, and our power grid.

I'm sure that by now, you've seen pictures of the damage around the Mid-Atlantic region, and seen the close up pictures of how bad the damage was in and around the DC Metro area.

Our power is up and running now, and I have a few observations I'd like to share:

1) Gas runs out quickly.  If you are fortunate enough to have a generator and a garage or shed to store gas in, keep the tanks full.  Fill a new can as soon as you use it up. 

2) Generators make life bearable.  Keeping the refrigerator running and the fans moving the air made life not quite as miserable.

3) Sleeping outside in tents or screened in porches can get downright chilly.  That's right.  When it's miserable in the house, it gets downright cold overnight in a tent.  We live in the outer suburbs, and felt quite safe sleeping in a tent.  Many of our neighbors spent the night outdoors, also.  It was a great bonding experience!

4) Solar Powered LED lights are a thing of beauty.  I have solar powered garden lights.  Put them out in the morning, they charge in the sunlight.  Bring them in at night, and they lit the house without danger of fire.  The only problem we had was that we couldn't shut them off! 

5) Hot showers are a wonderful thing.

6) Cooking can get tricky when the power is out.  We used our grill.  I experimented with our solar oven.  We have a propane camp stove that we used.  We also have a fire pit and cast iron cookware that we used.  The best thing about this is that we used it outdoors.  Yes, we have a gas stove, but we didn't really want to heat up a hot house by using a gas stove. 

7) Food at the store runs out quickly.  Since I am a home canner, we have a lot of food that was safely stored in the basement, ready to be heated and eaten.  I heard that the lines at the grocery store were long, and that they'd had to throw out everything from the freezer and refrigerated sections due to the power outage.  I stopped by the grocery store this afternoon, and a lot of the aisles are still very low.  According to the store manager, they've been wiped out.  They just can't stock the shelves fast enough.

8) This was an awesome time to meet the neighbors.  Spending time out of doors, trying to stay cool, heading down to the lake to fish, we ran into a lot of people we've only ever had a waving acquaintance with.  Nice to actually learn their names and talk with them for a while!

9) Solar Powered cell phone charges have moved to the top of my "must have" list.  My birthday is at the end of the month, and that's now the ONE thing I want.  Yes, we could charge it with the generator, but we had to pull a fan out in order to charge the phones.  Next time, we'll have a solar charger.

10) A hand cranked emergency weather radio is a very nice luxury.  Ours came from L.L. Bean.  It has an LED flashlight on the end, and gets bulletins from the NWS, as well as all AM and FM stations.  Just a few cranks would power the radio for quite some time!

I hope everyone who reads this is safe and sound.  It's been an interesting week in the Mid-Atlantic. Stay safe!

Taking the Boys to Camp

Both of the boys are working at a Boy Scout camp.  From our house, it's a two hour drive up there and then a two hour drive back down.  Since one chooses not to drive, and the other one isn't old enough yet to drive on Boy Scout properties, I get to drive them.  You need to understand, the boys live outdoors in a canvas tent all summer.  They each have a cot, and they are up off of the ground on 4 old wooden pallets.  The flaps are open all summer long, and they each have mosquito netting over their beds, but all matter of creepy crawlies roam through their tents.

Anyway, yesterday I got set to take them back to camp.  We took our daughter off to Girl Scout Day Camp first.  As we pulled out of the parking lot, I had the windows rolled down and I saw something big fly into the back seat of the car.  I almost drove off the road as oldest child - a very calm, unexcitable 20 year old, screamed like a little girl over this big fat beetle, flying around the back of the car.  I pulled over while he tried to flick it out of the back seat, stretched across the car so it wouldn't get him.  Finally, the 17 year old got out of the car, opened the back door, and flicked the beetle out.

I should have taken that as a sign.

We headed up 95, pulled off our exit, and were within 5 miles of camp when the road was closed.  Detour, back down the way we'd come and then up route 1.  It took us 40 minutes to make that detour. 

I got the boys into camp and turned around to head out.

Herd of mini-goats standing in the road, refusing to move.  The owner eventually came out and moved them off the road.

Continue on, make the left turn onto the big road that leads back to highway 1, go 500 yards, and end up behind a line painting truck.  Spent the next 45 minutes behind that truck, traveling the 2 miles down the road to highway 1.

Go down highway 1, work my way over to 95, and traffic comes to a dead standstill.  2 lanes are closed for construction.

I finally made it home many more hours later than I had planned on.  I took an unscheduled detour through a Target because I needed to get out and stretch after sitting still for so long... and I still had an hour to go to get home. 

Argh!

This post originally appeared in my now defunct "Mom's View" blog.  I moved it to this blog at the request of my kids, who wanted to have all of the various posts that accompanied their high school years in one place.  I've matched the publication dates here to their original post date.  If you're reading these posts, I sincerely thank you for taking the time to go back through them all! 

A Day With Mr. Murphy

I went with the robotics team earlier this week to the kick-off of the Summer Reading Program at our local library. 

Mr. Murphy (of Murphy's Law) decided to spend the day with us.

We were supposed to show up at 9:30. 

So, 9:30 rolls around, and I'm sitting in front of the library with my daughter and a 150 pound robot in the back of the van. 

No kids.

9:40 rolls around, and one other member of the team shows up.  There's still no way the three of us are strong enough to lift the robot out of the van, so we begin calling kids and rousting them out of bed.  Two of them are on a cross country road trip with their dad.  Two others are enrolled at music camp for the week, and are unavailable, others are at work.. well, you get the idea.  We finally tracked down the four kids who said they'd be there.

10:00 all kids are present and accounted for.  Robot is in the library, and the little kids are coming in.

10:05 robot is working, picking up balls and shooting them.

10:10 robot stops working.  The kids, in a panic, attempt to find out why it's not working.

10:10-11:30, I and the two young ladies with me, explain to all who come to stop that they are watching engineering in action.  Just look at the way those engineers are looking for the problem.  See?  They are going through each and every possible problem and testing it to make certain that it works.

10:30 - a mother starts to argue with me that that's not what engineers do.  They solve problems!  They don't get their hands dirty!  A long discussion ensues with an older gentleman who is a retired Civil Engineer of 30 years experience, hanging out for the day with his grandchildren.  Mother ends up leaving in a snit, because "Engineers have clean jobs!  They don't take things apart!  They solve math problems!"

10:45, in desperation, we pull one of the smaller FTC robots out of the trunk of another car.  We bring it in and realize that NONE of the kids present know how to work one of the FTC bots. 

11:15 - we isolate the problem.  We need one specific tool and it will be fixed in a jiffy.  I have a van full of tools, but the tool we need is in the warehouse.  We don't have the key to the warehouse.  We track down the parent who does have the key to the warehouse.  He answers his phone, would love to help us, but at that particular moment, he's in San Diego, getting ready to go into a meeting.

11:30 - Summer Reading Kick Off Ends.  Oh, and we manage to fix the wiring without the missing tool, robot now runs fine.

What a wonderful example of the thrills of technology! 

This post originally appeared in my now defunct "Mom's View" blog.  I moved it to this blog at the request of my kids, who wanted to have all of the various posts that accompanied their high school years in one place.  I've matched the publication dates here to their original post date.  If you're reading these posts, I sincerely thank you for taking the time to go back through them all!