Feeding the birds, travels through blizzard conditions, a trip to the pharmacy, being ID'd for shoe glue and other happenings.

The soundtrack you should be playing for this particular post would be Joseph Arthur.  :)  Just kidding.  It's just what I'm listening to while I write it.  I do highly recommend it if you haven't listened to it!  

Onward.

There have been busy weeks and days off for cold and all that.  

Last weekend, we traveled out to Alliance to hand feed chickadees at a park there.  We won't be giving free press to that particular park because the people working there had the personality of wallpaper paste.  It was much like the woman we encountered when we visited the NPS Johnstown Flood Memorial.  There are few parks we will NOT visit.  The few we have marked off the list are those with people who just don't care about the people visiting and helping them TO KEEP THEIR JOB.   My husband is a public servant and just doesn't understand why people can be so very crappy in that job.  He is thankful every single day that he has the job he has.  He knows that in this day and age of technology, he's a bit of a dinosaur that can easily be replaced by an app.  (Not in our eyes because he is truly VERY good at his job.  Still . . . ) 

At any rate, we tempted the thick layers of ice, hiked about 3/4 mile into the woods and found the site.  We didn't find the human handing out seed.  There were no signs.  It wasn't obvious to figure out what was going on.  We went into a little shack that they had and we may or may not have helped ourselves to the trash can of sunflower seeds.  We went out to start with the feeding and a somewhat disheveled woman, looking much like the bird lady from Mary Poppins, came up with a reused peanut butter jar of diced peanuts.  (I really though she'd say, "Tuppence a bag!")  Instead she said, "Oh, I see you brought your own seed!"  "Kind of."  

You have to stand still with your arm out.  It seems silly, but your arm starts to hurt rather quickly.

My girl had her handful.

M was the first with a visitor.  It turns out that he would be the only one of us.  Those chickadees are quick.  Not the greatest photo, but it's all I could do!

You see, there was a boy scout troop that came in ahead of us.  Now, this isn't to say anything against boy scout troops.  The boys do great things and can truly be wonderfully behaved.  These children were not those children.  They were loud.  They were running around.  They were throwing snowballs.  They scared all of the birds away.  In fact, we moved to the bridge to try to get away from them. 

My beautiful girl here trying to be patient.  Neither she or I corner the market on patience.  

In other news, these were hand-me-downs from my girl.  They are just slightly big on me.  I just figured this might the place I state that we can no longer share shoes.  Girlie wears an 8 1/2 and I wear a 6 1/2.  These happen to be Keens that run a half size small.  With thick socks, the 7 1/2's fit my feet just fine.  Still, girlie has such big feet!

I admit that we gave up.  K and I couldn't take the snowball fighting and screaming any longer.  I looked over at her and said, "If that were me, my mom would have beat my butt."  She smirked.  The ladies standing somewhat within earshot laughed and agreed.  

Yesterday was our 18th anniversary.  We had plans to go snowshoeing at The Wilderness Center.  We packed up the snowshoes.  We headed out.  People kept talking about how cold it was supposed to be.  We had planned for that.  What we hadn't planned for was this.  

The true white out photo is on my phone.  I had to stop a few times, put my hazards on and hope that no one hit us.  This photo is the same one as below.  They would come and in a minute or so, the white out would be gone.  Still, the driving was nasty.  

Add to that that we were in -- Amish County-- home to the unmarked 90 degree turns.

Oh, yes.  The 90 degree surprise turns about wiped us out.  The road suddenly disappeared.  "Where'd the road go?"  I asked M, then suddenly I found it.  "It's a curve!"  The traction alarm was going off.  We were sliding.  I was hanging onto the steering wheel with one hand, tempted to shift into neutral with my right.  My foot was on the break, but I didn't want to slam on it and cause it to be any worse. There was one very small, low arrow on a sign in the middle of the 90 degree turn.  Um, thanks for that.  I didn't want to shift into neutral because I thought the traction control wouldn't work.  It seemed like we were sliding for minutes, but truly, it was only seconds.  The traction control kicked in and stopped our sideways slide.  We weren't head first sliding.  Oh, that would be too easy.  we were sliding sideways across the turn with my drivers door clearly where the front end of my RAV should be.  She corrected it.  She pulled us all around.  She saved us from biting the ditch.  :shakes of the head:  Wow!  We did have a nice day and I was able to buy all of my spices in bulk.  I found that my spices were old and frankly, some were dead.  

Sunday brought us negative temperature weather.  I guess it got to -12 F last night.  What are my people doing today?  Oh, they are headed to the Columbus Zoo because it is free admission day.  :shakes of the head:  They wore so many clothes that K looked like Randy from A Christmas Story.  They promised to be down there for a few hours and to head back up before the storm hits.

I have a cold.  It isn't severe, but it's enough to make me feel a little funky.  Yesterday, we were stuck going to the Big Box of Blue.  M needed his cold drug of choice-- Advil Cold & Sinus.  I pop up and asked the pharmacy tech, "Can we get some Mucinex with that?"  "You have to purchase it separately with a different ID."  I told her that I understood.  She laughed and said, "Not that you guys look like you are a problem."  "We aren't.  I promise, I really do have a cold!  Besides, my teeth aren't rotting out of my face and my skin is surprisingly clear."  "Honey, you would be buying generic in the biggest box you could and would be faking a cough."  (To note, I bought the smallest box of Mucinex that they had.)  So we suited up with our cold remedies, K and I perused the leftover Valentine's items for Easter egg stuffings.  (I watch what I buy, but the kids don't care.)

M threw some shoe glue into the basket.  We were going as a line of ducklings towards the Kleenex.  M disappeared.  It's okay, because I had to stand and patiently wait for the tissue display.

There was a woman and her 9 year old daughter.  They had the entire display either blocked with the cart or the woman body blocking the rest of it as she dug through all of the boxes.  She looked up and saw me standing there.  I admit that a cold in combination with a delightful case of PMS may not have caused me to give her the loving look that our Lord would have preferred.  I think she was struck with a sick look combined with bewilderment.  "Oh, I just don't know why but I just had to dig through all of the designs!"  I reached over, grabbed the massive 4 pack and said, "Ma'am, I just need to wipe my nose."  Grant you, they are the marbly ugly Kleenex boxes, but I'm going through them so fast that it doesn't matter as long as the box doesn't empty out at the wrong time.

We went to the cash lane.  We obeyed the sign that talked about 20 items or less.  The girl flagged us and our basket over.  I was ID'd for the shoe glue.  "Are you 18?"  I laughed.  The gray streaks on the top of my head might suggest, but I told her, "I promise, we have shoes to repair.  No huffing at my house!"  She did laugh.  Just doing her job.  I get it.  She managed to somehow overcharge us for Airborne.  She caught it and charged us again.  She overcharged us by over $9.50.  She charged for 3 packages when we got 1.  Of course, I didn't find that out until we got to the car.  We schlepped everything back in.  They cheerfully refunded the money, but still . . . Rrrr.  I know, I know.  It's another reason of why I don't shop there.

K had a "snow" day on Friday for cold.  I think that they called that one too soon.  I envision another "snow" day for cold this week.  Never mind that they have today and Friday off anyhow.  I see Thursday being possible.  Who knows?

Finally, my husband handed me a bag of chocolate yesterday.  "No, really.  I bought this for you.  Please eat it.  If it runs out, I promise that I can buy you more.  Please.  Have chocolate."  Bless his heart.

Be warm!

A social media reminder. Not everyone wants their children posted on the internet.

"You know, there are pictures of your daughter on the internet."

"There shouldn't be."

I was flipping through a few of the blogs that I read regularly.  One of them has an Instagram account block on the side.  I clicked it out of curiosity.  There was a picture of all of the children on the basketball team.

Were the parents asked permission to place the children who DON'T belong to them on the internet?  I wonder.

I've been asked.  I appreciate it.  I've also declined.

I've gone into this in a few different posts in the past.  Every now and then, I think that people need to be reminded that if the photo is not of their child, they shouldn't post without permission.

I had an individual debating my internet choices for K.  "You know, if you are on the sidewalk here during the school walkathon, that is public property and I can place a picture of your child on the internet."

"No, you may not."

"It's public property."  :add sarcastic head bobble:

"My child is not on the internet for a reason.  It is not up to you to place a photo of her on there."

Our internet opinion is that K's internet story is for her to write.  It is not for me to write for her.  I do not post her face on here because of several reasons up to and including that 1. it is my right and 2. she is adopted and we chose not to.  The internet legacy lasts forever.  That follows them to every school they go to.  That follows them to every job interview they attend.  Again, it is not for me to write what will follow K all of the days of her life.

We have to issue reminders every now and then to people at school that our children might be children of a custody dispute . . . and that we simply can't post photos unless there is a written permission to print form on file.  The school has their own and the PTA has its own.

Does my child play sports?  Yes.

Have there been team photos?  Yes.

Should people print those all over?  No.

Can they?  Sure.

Should they?  No.

Don't assume a group photo is okay.  You may have known the parents for years, but do you absolutely know what their stance is?

Not everyone is using social media.

Not everyone wants to.

Let's stop to think about respecting those who don't.

Stepping off of my soapbox now.

Sheets of ice and piles of Common Core.

Do you know how the runs look for Olympic bobsled?  That's the side streets to my house right now. The road is covered in thick ice, which has thinned in some places.  I have determined that people must drive down the road in a drunken fashion because you get caught in the ruts, can't get out and you shimmy back and forth until you reach the next intersection.

Nice.

I'm convinced that Common Core is going to kill us all.  I'm just saying.  It seems that the right hand doesn't know what the left hand is doing and the kids are caught up in the middle.  I fully understand that I sound like a broken record here.  (Let it be a record and not vinyl.  I hear that those things can cause injury when broken.)

You see, K had some assignments last night.  She may or may not have a math test today.  Friday, she was told it would be Tuesday.  Monday she was told it would be Wednesday or Thursday.  Last night she was told that he didn't quite know yet.

Excuse me?

So, is the test today or tomorrow?  M prepared her in the best way he could but she was also sent home with this insane plotting homework that had NOTHING TO DO WITH THE TASK ASSIGNMENT AND STUDYING FOR THE TEST!  It was busywork.  Why in the name of Jesus and all of his men would her teacher do that to her?

M took the math book assignment and the test studying.  I double checked the plotting assignment.

I had to walk away a few times.  The stupid assignment had at least 100 plotting points.  Rrrr.

It took me about an hour to check it.  After I checked it and admit that I fixed some errors, then she had to color it.  Rrrr x 2.

Wouldn't you want your students to be allowed the time to STUDY?

After winter break, the kids had 90 more days of school left.  Of those 90 days, 45 of them are testing days.  The remaining 45?  Those are probably freakin' test prep days.

OST.

PARCC.

MAP.

DAP.

The State of Ohio and the city that I live in needs to STOP testing the hell out of my kid and every other kid out there.  My daughter has learned NOTHING this year.  They were doing spelling up until the middle of the year.  Now that they are teaching to test, they don't have time to do spelling so they dumped it.  There have been no projects.  There have been no reports.  There has been no consistency with anything even in the land of general teaching.

5th grade will go on the books as my daughter having attended it.  She has had a small section on science in the fall, though it has a section on the OST.  The reading finally started near the end of the first grading period and that has been so swell that I can't even begin to express my anger with that.  I'll just say that gone are the days that the child has spelling, vocabulary, and constant digging into a story during the week for prep for the test at the end.  Nosiree!  Reading has boiled down to a semi-coherent multi-paragraph cold read with some insane questions at the end.  Social studies, when done, is generally just sent home as worksheets.  Health has only been worksheets and no in-class instruction whatsoever. Language used to be spelling and an occasional paper.  There is no book, so it's not like she is learning the parts of speech or anything.  Frankly, I don't know what the hell they are learning with that.  Then there is math.  The math review for the test at the end of the chapter gave a lot of things to review and very little of it was actually covered within the chapter or the text in general.

5th grade is one hot mess and it makes me mad that my child is caught in the middle.  I understand the premise of Common Core, but wished that they put more thought into place before putting it into action.

At this point, it is making our children dumber.  They aren't teaching anything of quality.  They are teaching spots of this and spots of that, but none of it actually coincides with each other making the teaching that they are doing moot.

Please go back to teaching my child.  Whatever you are doing now is not it.

Super Bowl of Shipping: Good works from small things.

On January 14th, Ames Bros. announced on the Pearl Jam site that they were selling a PJ X Amesbros VS Hunger t-shirt with all proceeds going to their local food bank.  

Official Pearl Jam Firehawk T-Shirt designed by Ames Bros for the Seattle Seahawks Kick Hunger Challenge™ 

We are proud to unveil the Official Pearl Jam Firehawk T-Shirt for the 2015 Seattle Seahawks Kick Hunger Challenge. Represent the Hawks, Pearl Jam and fight hunger in one fell swoop. This Ames Bros Classic 100% Cotton T-Shirt is super soft and lightweight for excellent fit and comfort. Look good, feel good and be the envy of every other Hawks fan on the planet. Meanwhile, you'll help kick hunger in Seattle with the profits from every shirt sold going straight to Food Lifeline.   

Remember, we're the returning champions (Super Bowl AND Kick Hunger Challenge), so be a part of history as we do it all again this season and order the shirt now. 
For more info on helping kick hunger, visit the official Seattle Seahawks Kick Hunger Challenge web page and the Food Lifeline website. Get it at Amesbros. 

I ordered it as soon as I saw it drop onto the site.  Now, I'm not usually one to do that, but I really liked the shirt and the money went to a cause near and dear to my heart-- helping the food bank in their local community.  (I've helped with the food drive at K's school for years.)

I ordered my shirt BEFORE the Seahawks went and won in the last minutes of the game.  :whew:  I would've worn it anyhow.

The shirts weren't printed until January 19th.  I knew we were cutting it close.  PJ also announced their own shirt to benefit the same cause.

Y'all, I had more faith in Ames getting my shirt to me than PJ.  Love my boys, but their shipping times are never really quite great.

In the shipping Super Bowl of Ames vs. PJ, Ames won!  My friend Dave is in Columbus.  He ordered both shirts.  His PJ 12th man shirt is sitting in shipping purgatory 10 miles from his house, but Ames came through.  Mind you, his PJ shirt mailed 3 days ahead of my Ames shirt and 6 days ahead of his Ames, and they are both in Seattle.

Here's what I got:

My shirt started the shipping process on Monday, having left Seattle on Tuesday evening.  Ames uses first class USPS and PJ uses Mail Innovations which is a joint venture between UPS and USPS.  

Mailing anything by Mail Innovations is the equivalent of putting something on a slow boat from Siberia.  That we've definitely found USPS first class wins hands down.

Go HAWKS!  :)

ETA:  At least money went to charity and it is a cool shirt! 

The tale of two scans.

I will begin by telling y'all that I'm fine.  Completely fine.

I went on a Thursday for a mammogram.  Now, when I visited my family doctor in December, he kindly reminded me that it had been a while since I had a mammogram.  I didn't realize I had been so remiss.  I knew that I got an order for one back in April and honestly, I forgot all about it.

"Unforget," was the word that my dear doctor departed with.  He takes precautionary stuff like this very seriously.  I appreciate him doing that.  I went straight home and scheduled one.

On again to Thursday, January 22.  I was scheduled at 10 AM.  I went to the office that I had been to before.  I recalled it not being the most pleasant experience in the world, but it is what it is.  That very morning, K saw me go out the door with a stick of deodorant in hand.

"Um, Mom?  Why are you going with deodorant and not just putting it on?"

"You can't wear it when you have a mammogram."

"What's that?"

"Well, you go to have an x-ray taken of your breasts to make certain that they are healthy.  They have to use a machine that clamps your breast in it and squeezes it down real hard to make sure that they get a good view."

"Does it hurt?"

"Yes, it does."

"I don't ever want to have that done to me."

"A little pain from a mammogram sure beats breast cancer."

"Oh.  Okay, then."

I took K to school, volunteered for a bit, then ran down to have the mammogram done.  I was the only one at the office.  They took their time.  The machine, however, slammed down on my breast harder than anything that I could ever imagine.

"Wow."

The tech asked me if I was okay or if I wanted her to stop.

"No, I want you to do whatever it is that you need to do."

She did.  All was well and I went on my way.  I was certain, however, that bruising would crop up.  I seriously thought that she was trying to remove my sternum from my chest.  That pain lasted for a good solid 24 hours.

Fast forward to Monday.  I was brushing my teeth and trying to get out the door to work.  The phone rang.  It looked like it was some robocall so I didn't answer.  It was my gynecologist's office.

"Hi, Amy?"

"Yes," I say with a mouthful of toothpaste.  "Hold on.  Sorry!"

I got back on and she told me that I needed to go for a rescreen and a possible ultrasound because they saw some dense tissue in my scan.

"Should I be worried?"

"No!  This happens to me every single time I go.  Don't worry.  It's fine.  It's probably just some tissue layered over top of each other."

"Okay."

She told me that they'd call me that day to let me know of my appointment.  They did.  It was Wednesday morning at 9 AM.

Can I tell you that we were a bit concerned.  I know that the appearance of what looked like dense tissue could be nothing.  I also know that dense tissue could be VERY bad.

I should also add that this also crossed over what we consider the "dark days of January."  Our first kiddo, Bailey, died January 27 and was born January 29.  Those days kind of really suck.  We tend to be a bit more emotionally vulnerable at the surface and this didn't help.  :S

Fast forward to Wednesday.  They scheduled me at the local hospital.  I told work that I would most likely be late, despite being 5 minutes or so down the road and having a 9 AM appointment.  By the way, I was late by about 5 minutes or so.

I never realized how incredibly disturbing morning programming was until I heard Kelly Ripa yammer on and on.  I was seriously a nervous wreck and I didn't find her morning banter as a good distraction.  Thankfully, I brought my iPod.  The Talking Heads and Pearl Jam's Cincinnati concert bootleg from this fall were very helpful.

I did finally get called in, a half hour late, but I'd rather them take their time caring for people one at a time.  The woman did what she needed to do but I noticed something and spoke to her about it.  She let the machine down slowly with the peddle and hand cranked it the rest of the way.  The other lady let it down fast and it slammed.

It is here that I tell you that there was a HUGE difference between the two.  One hurt and one did not.  Let us guess which one was a bit better received.

"I've noticed that you hand crank it the rest of the way and not to have it slam down all of a sudden."

"I've found that it works out so much better."

"My guess is that you've had a scan or two."

"Yes, I have."  :smirk added:

I texted M that I was back out and was just waiting.  And waiting.  And waiting.  It wasn't really long but it did feel like an entire day of sitting there.

The world's best mammogram tech came out and said, "Good news!  It doesn't appear in any other scans.  You are good!  Keep up with your annual exams."

The sweetest words of my month.

I have a theory.  The instantaneous slamming of my breast in the machine didn't give it time to settle. It slammed tissue and as they said, could have superimposed tissue on top of the other causing the appearance of dense tissue.  When you roll the machine down slower, it allows flesh and tissue to more gradually compact and thus allowing a better image.  That and I might add that slow and steady doesn't hurt.  Slamming does.

So y'all, remember to go get your annual exam if you are 40 or more.  For some reason, I thought annual mammograms started at 50.  Oops.  I promise.  Every year.  Back to the hospital and back to the best mammogram tech EVER!

:wipes to the forehead:

Go, K, GO!

Today was the Science Expo.  Dang.  It was a long day.  It started last evening, though.  K had to go last night to set up her science fair project.  We got a gander of those around her.  She followed the strict guidelines in the workbook that was given.  Most others did not.  We walked away and I said, "K, did you take a look at what was around you?"  "I did."  "I'm feeling pretty good about your project!"  "Me, too!"

K had her interview at 9:45 AM this morning.  Poor kiddo was so nervous.  All of our girls were.  She went, they talked with her a few and she was done.  She was out in less than 10 minutes.  She was given a participation ribbon and she was pleased as punch.  Not exactly knowing all of the in's and out's of this science shin-dig, we opted to stay on for the awards.  K's teacher said that all of the children get awards, but I found that the awards were on a "rating" type system.  Their rating system was:  Superior, Excellent, Good and Satisfactory.  

My baby got a superior!  :)  

Sorry that it's blurry.  It is the best that I could do.

I had an idea of what a superior meant, but when she came out with sheets in hand, it was like American Idol.  "Oh my gosh, M, she's going on."  And she is!  My baby is going on to the next step of the Science Expo.  That is a larger Science Day held at the local university where K takes swimming lessons.  What day is it?  Oh, it happens to be on the EXACT weekend every year that I have to go out as a buyer for work.  

Drat it all.  Hubs is trying to get the day off work.  He promises that he will take lots of photos.  :sigh:  It makes me feel bad that I will have to hand the baton off and have Hubs handle this one, but as K so politely said, "There are a lot of things that Dad hasn't made it to that he wanted to.  This one is okay, Mom.  Dad can do it with me.  I promise I'm okay with it."  And she is.  I know that she is.  IF he can't get off, I'll arrange it through work that I'll drive to Columbus for Friday, drive back that evening, go to her Science Day on Saturday, drive back to Columbus that evening, go to buy with them on Sunday, then drive back maybe Sunday night or Monday night.  (Hubs is off Monday, so he could cover me on that one, too.)  It's doable.  The people I work for are great and completely family friendly.  Bless their hearts, they'll be pulling for her! 

The project that my baby worked on.  So many hours.

Proud of her!  Onward we go!

The school district science fair. AKA, what was I thinking?

K came home months ago talking about how Mr. H was talking about the science fair.  A kiddo who loves science, she was excited to participate.  We encouraged her.  She heard nothing.

And nothing.

Oh wait.

And nothing more.

When we had a teacher conference in December, I asked about it.

"None of the kids seemed interested."

"I know that K and C were both interested."

He hunted for the paperwork, which took him a week to find.  When he finally gave the paperwork, he told the kids that they had to come in the NEXT day to let him know what project they'd be doing. Since we had no time to research more creative projects involving the parameters set before her and her original chosen project of earthquakes, we settled on growing beans in different light, with different growing medium and at a lower temperature than normal.

They registered her bean project and she was off.

She planted the beans on Christmas Eve.  She wanted to do them on the 21st, but she was ill with the viral respiratory thing that gave her a fever and general unwellness, so we delayed.  But!  She's been growing and logging in about these beans since 12/24.

She's been working on the district assigned science fair workbook.  It's for 5th - 12th grade.  I want you to know, there is nothing 5th grade about it unless she is Sheldon Cooper and I assure you that in smarts, my kiddo is just a good average kiddo.  I'm college educated with a degree, consulted with my equally degreed spouse and we had to look things up to explain them to her.  My husband's degree is in science.

Nice.

K and I spent 8 hours in front of the computer today.  We researched together and I acted as her scribe.  We worked through the workbook together for the research paper requirements, my typing her very words and explaining things as we went along.

8 hours, y'all.  It is 15 pages double spaced and we still have an abstract to create and a reference page with a minimum of 5 references-- ALL FOR GROWING SOME BEANS!

Long gone are the days when you simply busted out a project overnight with a poster.  Nosiree.

Planting her seeds. 

The box that she drilled the holes in.  She had a lot of fun with the drill.

The box for the red light.

Plunking them up into the window.

A nice sunny day.

The best plant we have is the bean planted in the sterilized play sand. 

She has one decent plant in the red box.  The others are tiny.

One decent plant in the cardboard "shade mimicking" box, but she's tall and spindly.

Soon, my window will be mine again.  

I look at it like this.  This is an experience that I can give my kiddo.  She will not be getting graded on it, but she will also not be getting extra credit.  This is all on her own and she is one of four 5th graders who elected to work on the science fair projects.  The other three are working together in a group.  Their chosen project is biofuels and they have not created said fuel yet, nor tested it, nor written a word for a research paper.  Methinks that they are a hair behind.  My thought with K?  Give her something age appropriately more simple.  Give her a project that she can reasonably monitor and have the specific parameters met.  We were able to do that.  She'll be able to log this in as experience that she got in advance for a science fair in the future that will most definitely be for credit.  

Until then, this mama is tired.  But!  I can tell you the details of water crystals and their carcinogenic nature, the down falls of growing plants in sand and some further background on chemical plant foods found in bagged soil.