The Graduate!

Hurray! She did it! Lindsey Anne Mishler graduated from Grand Valley State University on Sat. April 28, 2007. See her blog for a description from her point of view. Ours was much less humorous - at least at the time. Stupid photographer (me) totally MISSED the big moment. Turns out that you can't really tell one person from another when they are all dressed exactly alike in matching caps and gowns. I was wishing Lindsey had done something creative to her cap, but in hindsight we'll just pay the money for the photo - cuz who knows what she would have attempted on said cap!

Mr. Cousino definitely wins the hero prize! He saved our collective butts by loaning us his car after van tire blew and we waited two hours for the tow truck to never come. He stayed with the van while we drove like a bat out of hell (D Cous at the wheel) for Grand Rapids. The tow truck arrived 1/2 hour later. Mr. C. even took our van and got new tires put on! Wow! Talk about service...! Here's the tire/wheel and a little something that it turns out I had been stepping on for quite some time while by the side of the road!

Hurray! She did it! Lindsey Anne Mishler graduated from Grand Valley State University on Sat. April 28, 2007. See her blog for a description from her point of view. Ours was much less humorous - at least at the time. Stupid photographer (me) totally MISSED the big moment. Turns out that you can't really tell one person from another when they are all dressed exactly alike in matching caps and gowns. I was wishing Lindsey had done something creative to her cap, but in hindsight we'll just pay the money for the photo - cuz who knows what she would have attempted on said cap!

Mr. Cousino definitely wins the hero prize! He saved our collective butts by loaning us his car after van tire blew and we waited two hours for the tow truck to never come. He stayed with the van while we drove like a bat out of hell (D Cous at the wheel) for Grand Rapids. The tow truck arrived 1/2 hour later. Mr. C. even took our van and got new tires put on! Wow! Talk about service...! Here's the tire/wheel and a little something that it turns out I had been stepping on for quite some time while by the side of the road!

Dinner was nice. Great surroundings, great company. Creative menu. Harried server. Everyone seemed to especially enjoy dessert....All in all a good day despite the rotten beginning. To top it off - Michael even fell asleep on the ride home! Whew!

Congratulate Lindsey - a fine effort, great outcome, she "even has a job in her field"! Take that Lorelle and Rick and all the other subjective graders. I'll take math/science any day over art school! (Not that I have any talent, mind you - but just for the record.)

The West Was Won

Finally! The long-complained about musical is over! Actually, I thought it was the best one! The costumes, props and scene backdrops were the best. The production flowed seamlessly. Noone cracked up too badly and the singing was good for a bunch of self-conscious sixth graders! Good job class.

This is Nora sitting around a campfire proclaiming that she's gonna build a soddie, or something to that effect.

You older kids are gonna be mad at Senora Ani Lu...this year the eighth grade did a play all together. AND Senora wasn't there for the performance! It was great though. Except I didn't hear a lot of Spanish speaking from the 3 "narriators". Mary Manney was supposed to be observing their accents. Talk about slipping standards....Actually, it's probably easier for the whole class to put on a play. That way Senora only has to watch ONE painful production.

Self distruct

"Don't push that button!" Or something equally scary. What was I thinking?! Maybe I SHOULD push it. That would prevent very scary pictures! (Happy now Maryn?)



Michael made these signs for our fridge...The one on the left says "Do Not Push!" and "Self distruct button" the one on the right reads "Cancel Self distruct". Funny kid. Maybe he's unhappy with the food options (lack thereof) in the fridge?

Maryn's Masterpieces

Since she thinks that she's unattractive in her waders and is miffed at me for posting the pictures, I have to post a pic of her beautiful masterpieces. How did she have the patience? How did her hand hold still? How do they not crack into a million or so pieces? Wow. That's all I can say.

River Roundup

Three posts in one day! Here are some pics of the ever popular river roundup. We go to different sites on the Huron or its creeks and look for macroinvertebrates. Maryn has all the fun. She found the largest crayfish she's ever seen. Nora fell in the mud and then of course had to 'wash off' . Daniel, as usual, is Mr. Sunshine on a Saturday morning at 10 AM. The day was gorgeous, so were the surroundings - at least the second site was - the Botanical Gardens. The first site was Millers Creek at Glazier Way near Huron Parkway. It's basically dead due to runoff from roads and parking lots. Thanks Pfizer.

Lemonade

The day after the drive from you know where, for Lindsey's show, Michael was in a performance at school. His class was doing a 'musical' called Lemonade. It was based on nursery rhymes (loosely), so he was the Cat with the Fiddle. I used my excellent seamstress/costume making abilities (NOT!) to make his costume. At least I have a real violin on which to pattern his cardboard 'fiddle'. He's on the far left. Great ears huh? Unfortunately, the mic on the left side of the stage did not work, so we couldn't hear anything that those kids (including MPM) were saying.

The tragedy that befell Mr. Coster was perhaps the most jarring moment. During a scene change for one of the older grades plays, he fell off of a bench. Down he went, loud gasps from the audience, up he came with blood gushing from his forehead. Nora reports that he now has 15 stitches in his head and his arm in a sling from the event. I hope noone told anyone to 'break a leg'.

Lindsey's show

Well, here are some pictures of Lindsey's show. It was great to see her college, her friends, and meet at least one instructor - the famous Lorelle. Oh yeah, her work was great too. Don't ask me about the drive in construction, by myself with Michael and Nora to keep me company when they weren't trying to kill each other, or the drive home when all I could think about was the fact that my alarm was going to go off at 4 AM. Yuck, yuck, yuck.

I don't think Alena is really sticking out her tongue....sorry.

Tippi Hedren

What is it with me and stupid animals??? This is a picture of a starling that somehow made it down our chimney. I heard it flapping around in the chimney this morning. Quite a racket! I used all sorts of packing tape and screening to make sure that it could not get out, then I opened the flue. Down the bird came getting a lot of soot everywhere. I closed up my improvised cage and left to ponder how in the world I was going to get rid of the animal! About an hour later, I saw it fly through the living room! So much for my improvised containment field (yes, too much Star Trek).

On go the leather gloves, out comes the trusty Aladdin beach towel. (Grandma is watching through the closed doors.) After much flapping about, crashing into windows, bookshelves and such- but luckily NOT the TV (that's another blog post), the stupid starling landed near a window. I opened a different one, threw the towel over it, grabbed the blasted beastie and broke it's nasty neck!

Ha! Gotcha. I actually released it. After all, my mother was watching. So I permitted the stupidest of all invasive species to fly out and try to perpetuate. Dumb. Oh well. Another day in my life, what can I say?

Good thing Nora wasn't home. I let her watch The Birds a while back. She would have freaked. The flapping/flying/noise was reminiscent of that movie. :) I don't have near as much money or good looks as Tippi Hedren (what a stupid name).

Michael Story

Greetings. Michael thinks the best part of Grandpa and Grandma's apartment is the trash compactor!

Here's a story that's been floating around for a while - I just keep forgetting to post it. Now I can throw away the sticky note I have reminding me to post it! Hurray. Maybe I'll sneak it into the Morgan compactor...

Some weeks back, I tossed some laundry down the stairs (hoping it would ambulate itself to the laundry room). Turns out, Michael was at the bottom and the light load landed right on top of him. He yelped. I said, "Oops, sorry." Then laughed and said, "Not a bad shot though, huh?" To which he replied, not missing a beat, "Yeah for an old woman!" Sigh.

Next time, I'll look before tossing.

Construction and deconstruction

Can it be that Easter was a week ago? I'm still tired...Here are some pictures of 'Fat Dory'. We had the job of finishing the pinata this year. Mrs. G. did the mummy wrapping, we painted the sarcophogus. Lindsey and Lauren did a great job don't you think? OK - I'm not as technically savvy as I thought (you're not surprised!). How does one rearrange the pictures on the page after they've been uploaded? Also, why did I have to upload each individual picture? Sigh - just pretend you're Chinese and read from bottom to top. That makes more sense. (Sorry - the right to left thing won't work, but that would be fun too!)

Holy Birdshot Batman!

So, after the toilet bowl wax, after the chapel dog poop and I think even after the bat, there was a starling...

One Friday I arrived to do my usual cleaning only to discover a starling flying around the Church. This has happened before, but usually by the time I arrive, they are somewhat hungry, disoriented and exhausted. Hence they stay low and are eager to be 'herded' towards a door. Not this guy! He decided to stay way up high in the spotlight cans, on the fancy lights, over the adoration chapel glass, and mostly - on the horizontal arm of the crucifix. That was the final straw! Not to mention he was leaving green calling cards on the upholstery, the sanctuary, and other places he should definitely not! (Fortunately, nothing on the tabernacle!)

After spending much too much time trying to humanely usher him out (which wasn't working) I decided to call 16 year-old-boy-with-airsoft-gun. He gladly came to the rescue. He managed to hit the birdbrain several times. Finally, the bird landed on top of the Mary statue, where 16 yo machismo brought him down with several direct hits. I covered him with a dustmop (what else?) and Larry reached under and grabbed him.

NO, we did not bash him over the head. YES, I did finally manage to find a tall enough ladder to reach the crucifix arm and clean off the poop.

The funniest thing of all is that our pastor OKd the purchase of an airsoft gun for just this sort of occurrence. I think he wants to get in on the action himself!

Ferdie

Panic...here is the long awaited picture of my friend/foe the bat. I'm getting too good at this picture posting thing. Watch out! I may soon have pictures of (gasp!) my family and other animals...

I'm back in blogland

Hello all! Yes, I'm back in the blogosphere. The real reason I haven't posted in soooo long is that I forgot how to sign in after CM gave me a new blogger account! Sigh.

Who is that crazy person in the ditch? Why, it's me, of course! All of my daughters can now refer to themselves as "The Ditchdigger's Daughter" (there is a book by that title - you should read it if you haven't). The contractor informed me that if they were to dig the ditch in which we wanted the electrical, phone, and cable lines buried that there would be a significant cost overrun. Did we still want to do it? Did we have anyone able to dig? I'm sure he was thinking of 16 year old boy in the house - but since he's usually in bed, watching ESPN, or at class that probably didn't stay in his head for very long. Yes, I answered. We do still want the lines buried and I can dig a ditch. After all - how hard can it be?! Well, the answer is that it is not technically difficult, just physically! MY ditch - yes very protective of the thing - is 50 feet long, 30 inches down and ~8 inches wide. The phone and cable lines are now buried. We're still waiting on Edison to come out....Oh yeah, 16 year old boy son did help me with about 10 feet of above mentioned engineering marvel!