Photo.Craft.Books

My practically-grown-up-college daughter came over yesterday and asked if I would help with a project she was doing in her Interior Design class. As an aside, let me say that she absolutely LOVE LOVE LOVES her major and is doing extremely well. She was chosen as her class representative to meet with some fancy big-wig Architecture association and I am so very very proud of her I can hardly stand it. I am so happy that she’s enjoying school and is doing so well in her major. If Interior Design didn’t work out I don’t know what she would have done as no other major held the slightest interest for her so we were very happy that she is so good at it and likes it.

Anyway, she came over yesterday and I helped her for a couple hours on this project. It’s complicated to explain but my part was cutting out intricate B’s. I had a big dent in my finger from the scissors by the time I was done but the project looked really good when we finished. We all had dinner together and it was nice to spend some time just the 3 of us as that rarely happens.

Today I came and checked my e-mail and had this message from her:

“Just wanted to let you know I made it home safe! Had a fun time with you tonight and I appreciate all your help! Watch this video when you have a sec, it made me think of you!” This was the video:

It made me cry when I watched it. Love ya, sweetie!

I’ve already talked about my pet peeve of rude and inconsiderate people but I don’t think I’ve mentioned my pet peeve involving trucks yet. I hate the view of the picture above if I had been in the right lane. You see, I have this thing about being behind a truck or other large vehicle. It makes me very uncomfortable to be behind one. I can handle it for a little bit, like if you’re trying to pass or if you’re about to turn but if you’re just traveling down the street, I simply won’t stay behind a truck if I can help it.

Part of the reason is because I can’t see. It inhibits my view of what is happening in front of the truck. This is a problem because I don’t know if the truck is paying attention or not and perhaps there’s a car that’s stopped or turning in front if the truck. If I can see in front, I can go ahead and start to slow down or change lanes but if I can’t see I have to trust that the truck is paying attention. I don’t like to leave my safety to some guy in a truck I don’t know.

The absolute worst (by the by – should this be worst or worse? I don’t know, hhmmm)  is a semi-truck on the interstate. I HATE being behind that. You can’t see anything behind one of those. And sometimes there’s not a way around them for a while and then you’re really stuck. This makes me anxious. There’s not a lot of things that make me anxious and uncomfortable but this can do it for sure.

Hubby has noooo problem staying behind a truck. This makes me crazy. He doesn’t even realize he does it. There are times when I can’t stand it any longer and simply MUST ask him to please go around or get in another lane. He usually just shakes his head and obliges me. He does NOT understand my angst over this but it is real and it is a thing over which I have no control so just – GO AROUND THE FREAKIN’ TRUCK ALREADY, WOULD YA!?!?!?!?!. The photo below would be my worst nightmare:

I would probably just drive my car off any availalbe cliff. Or crawl into the trunk of the car and let my Hubby get us the heck out of here!

This morning, I was getting ready and Hubby walked by the bathroom, looked at me and said, “You need to stop wearing clothes so much”.  Well, well, well I thought. Isn’t he enjoying this whole “empty-nest” thing to the fullest! I was really starting to feel sexy and wanted when he continued speaking and burst my bubble, “I’m tired of doing so much laundry”. Oh.

A blog I read regularly posted an entry today blasting Christians for home schooling their children and lauding praise on the public school system. There were over 150 comments about her post from people on all sides.  I am pro public schools but here are my thoughts:

* Parents act like the school system should provide ALL education. The school shouldn’t be teaching sex ed, religion or English. These are things that should be taught at home so the parents can impart their beliefs. The kids shouldn’t be in public school if they don’t speak English – there’s no way they can succeed.

* Parents aren’t involved with the schools like they should be – they don’t attend parent teacher conferences, school plays, field days, etc. and shame on them for complaining about it later. I had to volunteer to drive for my nephew’s field day in a week because my sister was the only parent who said she could drive out of a classroom of 15 kids. Where are the other 14 parents???

* Parents who would normally be involved in school but aren’t happy with what is happening in the public school systems are pulling their child out in favor of home schooling or some put them in private schools.  The problem with this is that doesn’t held anyone but their child. I was so frustrated when I would go to parent-teacher conferences and only 3 parents showed up and people love to complain about how awful they are but they can’t even take the time to show up?

* Mentally handicapped students are being put in mainstream classes which hurts the teachers and most of the other students because all the teacher’s time is spent catering to the needy students and the rest get left behind. Mental special needs children are the ones who should be home schooled. The mainstream classroom is not the most appropriate learning setting for most of these students. The parents are more concerned with their children not being treated any differently than the child actually learning something that could be useful. These students aren’t getting anything from mainstream classroom teachings and they’re hurting the other students by being there because the teacher can’t teach the rest of them. This statement may be controversial but in my area there are students who can’t speak, who can’t go to the bathroom and who have a 50 IQ in regular 3rd grade classes and they can’t possibly be learning anything. The parents are more concerned with them being “included” than the student actually learning in a setting that’s best for them and cater to their special needs. The fact is these students are different and mainstream classrooms can’t accomodate what is required for these students to learn as much as possible.

* Parents should take control of their children’s education – whether that means teaching them at home to address special needs, supplementing what the school is doing like we did with my daughter, and especially getting involved with the school to fix the problems.

* What makes homeschooling parents think they can teach trigonometry, calculus and other such classes? What makes them think THEY know the ways to impart knowledge on someone? Giving birth does not magically make you a teacher. I was a terrible teacher for my daughter. We were working on things at home like I would have learned them – by discussion. It was a teacher who realized my daughter was a “visual learner” – discussing it didn’t teach her anything – she had to see it to learn it. There is a reason teachers are required to go to college for 4 years. It is presumptuous and egotistical to think that just anyone can be a teacher. When my daughter was in high school she would come home and tell us about the “poor home school kids” (her words, not mine) who would come to her school in 11th or 12th grade and were so socially awkward and so far behind academically that most were never going to go to college and would be lucky just to graduate high school.

* Parents who home school because they “want to spend more time with their children” should be ashamed of themselves and get a life. Children making friends and doing things on their own is the natural cycle of life and parents are hurting their children by keeping them in a bubble because they can’t handle their children growing up and apart from them. Parents are NOT supposed to raise good children – they are supposed to raise good ADULTS and you can’t be an adult if you are still attached to mommy’s apron strings.

* It scares me that some people I know are home schooling their children because their grammar and their education is so atrocious they can’t possibly be teaching their children proper English let alone high level science or math. I know I don’t have those abilities which is why I didn’t home school but parents have to recognize their limitations.

I really see both sides. There ARE situations where home schooling is the best option and special needs students are the perfect example of that. But, for most mainstream students, public school would be good for them and we could make the public schools GREAT if all the home school parents and private school parents put as much effort into the school system instead of just their child. My child did go to both public and private school but I never home schooled. It wouldn’t have worked for us. I wouldn’t have chosen private school if we weren’t forced into it but it does seem that something really needs to change. Remember, “it takes a village to raise a child”.

Thoughts?

Hubby and I were watching TV last night. A woman came on screen with her hair braided and wrapped around her head, sort of like this:

Upon seeing this, Hubby turned to me and said, “Don’t ever braid your hair and wrap it around your head. It looks like a turd.” I burst out laughing.

An update about my weekend with (hopefully) pictures coming up tomorrow so make sure you come back

Apparently, I have an affinity for umbrellas. I carry one with me every day in the bag I bring to work. I have one I always keep in my car, another I always keep at the office, and 3 that sit by the front door at home. I prefer “pretty” umbrellas. The one I carry to work has Monet’s waterlillies pattern on it.

For some reason I like happy things on the umbrellas since it’s usually a dark and dreary day when you’re using them.  The one I keep in the car is pink and black and clear plastic I bought at the Mall of America (cool souvenir, huh?) with poodles and Eiffel Towers on it. The three that sit by the front door is a giant John Deere golf size, a tiny black “purse size” and one we bought out of desperation while in Disney.

Why am I telling you about all these umbrellas? Well, 4 of them were broken. Not big things where they didn’t work but tiny little things that would just annoy you when you used them. Yesterday afternoon, I gathered them all up and decided I was either going to fix them or trash them. I probably have too many umbrellas anyway but I hated to get rid of any of them if they all still worked.

The first one was my pink and black and clear poodle umbrella. One of the tips had come off the metal arm when you opened it and it would just dangle limply in between the other arms that were doing all the work. It also had a small tear where the seam had seperated. I took a bottle of super glue and squirted some into the plastic tip and shoved the metal arm back in the hole. I took a small piece of clear contact tape and covered the rip in the seam too.  In less them 1 minute, repaired!  Woo-hoo!  I was excited and on a roll.

Next up was the turquise one I kept at the office. It too had one little arm that dangled limply not supporting its weight. I looked and thought the arm had come apart from the connecting piece. This one was a gonner however, the second piece of the metal arm escaped, never to be seen again, so this umbrella was introduced to the trash can.

My confidence shaken a little bit, I investigated the third one. This was a simple fix, the end of the fabric was supposed to be attached to the metal arm with some thread making a loop through a hole in the arm. The thread had disappeared and the fabric wasn’t going to the end of the arm any longer. I took some clear plastic thread and sewed the loop back into the hole of the arm and TADA fixed!  Woo-hoo, that’s 2 for me and 1 for the trash.

Cautiously, I looked at the 4th one. It also an arm that wasn’t doing anything. This one proved to be the most difficult as the two pieces of the metal arm were supposed to meet in the middle and form a joint. The tiny piece that connected the pieces was gone. I got some heavy duty jewelry wire and managed to get the pieces taught enough where I could line up the two holes to get the wire through them both and wound it around the joint.  Success!  It worked perfectly.

So, in all, I had 4 crappy umbrellas that I probably would have just thrown away a year ago and bought 4 new ones. Now, my penny pinching self has 3 perfectly fine, self-repaired umbrellas.  Be honest – think I’m a dork?  My sister did buy an umbrella today for $1, hhmmm…

“Sometimes you just need a little push. Thanks, dad.”

If you don’t laugh at this one you aren’t breathing.  You’re welcome!

(insert your own expletive here)!!!  What a jackass! For those few of you who may not know, Taylor Swift won an award last night at the MTV awards. As the 19 year old started her acceptance speech, Kanye literally jumped on stage and took the microphone from her. He said he was sorry but Beyonce had the best video in a decade. Poor Taylor!  You can see the video and the comments all over the web. I’ve never liked him or any of his songs but now – I hope radio stops playing his music completely and MTV stops playing his videos and never invites him to the VMA’s ever again.  She’s a teenager for goodness sakes!  Thoughts?