It's almost 2008!!!

Well, Maranda enjoyed Christmas and she was okay with the number of presents she received. Most importantly for her, she got a digital camera. Although, by 2 pm on Christmas Day we heard about her BFF Anna who had received a Nintendo Wii for Christmas. The tone of voice implied that we should have gotten one, too. I told her that it's a good thing that we'll be living around the corner from Anna, because that way she can go over to play it. We won't be buying one anytime too soon. Plus, one of my co-workers was trying to get one for her kids and she was having a tough time finding one. We're happy with the PS2 and our ability to play Guitar Hero II & III.

So, it's New Year's Eve at about 7:45 pm. Maranda and Anna are in her room hanging out (Anna's spending the night). Mark should get home from work shortly after 10 pm, unless they hold him over for the next shift. So, we'll be ready to celebrate the new year just in time. I went and bought one firework to shoot off at Midnight. I hope it doesn't have the same result our Fourth of July had (don't know the story? pull up my July blogs).

We got the keys to the new house today and took a few boxes over. We're slowly going to move stuff over. The carpet layer that we're trying to use, returned my call from a few days ago today. Unfortunately, he called my cell phone and I didn't have it with me. I need to call him back...maybe tomorrow. We need new carpet laid in the master and spare bedrooms.

Then, I need to spend some time taping and preparing to paint a couple of rooms. I won't be the one painting...just getting it ready to paint.

Other than that, nothing too exciting going on. Happy New Year everyone!

Christmas Eve

So, it's Christmas Eve at about 8:30 am and I'm the only that's awake. It's kind of nice. I do still have a couple of presents to wrap and one to retrieve from the neighbors sometime later today. It was too big to bring in the house and keep it a secret, so our neighbors were kind enough to hold on to it for us. (I'd tell you what it is, but I'm worried the recipient may read this, so I'll tell you after Christmas.)

I'm taking time off for a few days after the holidays and not headed back to work until Jan. 7. We've gotten some help buying a house in the area and our "D-Day" for moving is January 11. So, I'll be spending some time packing. I haven't done ANY yet, but really just wanted to get through Christmas before I went too crazy. :) So, I'm taking a few more days off after the 7th to get through moving. I'll post pictures of the house after we get in there. We should get possession of the house on the 31st. When we get in there, we need to paint a couple of rooms and have new carpet installed in 2 of the bedrooms. We want to do that before all the furniture moves in. It's an older house, but the previous owner did lots of updates and it's in good condition. Plus, it's got way more room and they've got an above-ground pool. Maranda is happy about that. And, there's still room for her trampoline. (If you're interested in purchasing a house in Lincoln, we've still got one to sell there.)

This is the first Christmas where everyone in the house (except Mickey, but the dog doesn't really count) is aware that there isn't a Santa Claus other than the role we play for each other. And, I have to say, it takes a little bit of the fun out of Christmas. Maranda wants to know why all the gifts aren't just under the tree now and I'm insistent that our gifts aren't getting put under the tree until "Santa" comes after she goes to bed tonight. She's also been a little disappointed because as she gets older, she's got fewer gifts from others to unwrap. On the plus side, she's received a lot more money than she ever has before. But, I think she wanted more stuff to unwrap. I'll have to report back after we open gifts tomorrow to see how she likes it.

I'll try to get online and post updates more often. I haven't been too good about that this fall. In the meantime, Merry Christmas to everyone!

How is it almost October?!

Man...I've been so busy that I haven't posted any updates in quite awhile. I've been going crazy at work with the beginning of the school year. Thankfully, it's starting to slow down and next week is what the call "Long Weekend." There are no classes from Thursday, Oct. 4 until Monday, Oct. 8. Offices are open, but lots of people take Thursday and Friday off.

Since I last posted on August 13, I've run a peer leadership camp (1 1/2 days) for about 75 student leaders prior to the beginning of classes; trained our office student staff (1 day); did a couple of training sessions for our First Year Experience (FYE) mentors; worked with Week of Welcome events; worked with our Emerging Leaders program; went to and presented at the Emerging Leaders retreat (24 hours); did two presentations for Emerging Leaders workshops; participated in our Student Government Association retreat; participated in SGA meetings (I'm the advisor); and, I don't even know what else! And, that's just work. Although, I feel most of my home responsibilities involve schlepping Maranda around town and not much in terms of quantifiable activities. :)

I have a new supervisor at work and I feel like I've been late with things (much more than usual) and not up to my usual capability, at least with administrative tasks. So, I'm a little afraid that I'm making a bad impression. I know that's not usually one of my concerns, but I'd like my new supervisor to not think I'm a complete idiot! :) Maybe, I'll be able to be more on top of my administrative types of tasks now that so many of the "big" stuff is out of the way. Plus, I'm hoping that it's still acceptable to not have to be at work 60+ hours per week.

I also really need to get my butt in gear on dissertation stuff. That's one of my goals for the weekend. Maybe, I should start reporting back progress on my blog, although that might not be quite enough of an impetus to keep me moving. Sorry. :)

It's a beautiful fall here, so far. I love the weather. It's been a little warmer than usual, but the leaves are starting to turn colors and everything is so pretty. And, there are so many trees! ...at least compared to Nebraska. :)

I'll try to update more often, now. Happy Fall!

Keeping busy...how about you?

It's been awhile since I've written. No, my head injury didn't kill me. I've fully recovered. Although, I'm certain there's a scar under my hair. I just can't see it.

We're just getting into the busy part of work. New students arrive on campus next Thursday morning. Starting this week, we begin training all of the upperclassmen that help us in so many different ways to work with new students. I'm starting to be a little stressed out. Too much to do, not enough time and still I have a need to socialize with folks. Which none of you are surprised about. :) So, that means I stay late at work so I'm the only one there and less likely to get distracted. I didn't get home until 8:00 tonight. Tomorrow, everyone from the office is getting together for a potluck dinner. So, I'll have to hold off on my socializing until the evening. After that, it's full speed ahead into the school year. I'm excited, but I could really use a few more days to prepare. Although, I'd probably not be as productive as necessary and just be in the same place I'm in now...just a few days later.

Just got a new cell phone and finally with a local number here. Good-bye Nebraska and hello Wisconsin. Now, we just need to sell the house. That's going way to slowly.

Mark's getting close to being done with the training academy for the Department of Corrections here. This is the third state that he's gone through the training and it's not too terribly different. But, he's getting paid good money to sit in class for 40 hours a week. I guess he can't complain.

Hopefully, I'll have more exciting stories to tell soon. Just trying to power through the busy time now. I hope everything is going well for everyone else out there.

My Fourth of July

I referred to my Fourth of July injury in my status and some of you asked what exactly happened on the Fourth and some of you might just want to laugh at me. I thought I'd make it easier to tell by putting the story in a note.

As many people know, the Mummas do enjoy some fireworks on the Fourth of July. :) And, although we didn't have a large gathering here like we used to in Nebraska, we did have a few fireworks. Our neighbors on the other side of the duplex were also shooting off fireworks. We were all in the backyard which isn't separated, but spectators were always far away from what was being set off.

Well, our fireworks were done. Maranda, myself and a kid from across the street were toasting marshmallows and making s'mores. (We had a little firepit going.) I had just finished up a marshmallow and was walking over to the table where my graham cracker and chocolate were laying, when something came out of nowhere and hit me on the head. It felt like someone had come up behind me and hit me *hard* on the head with something big like a notebook or something. I said, "Ow" and felt like something was still in my hair. So, I figured it was something hot and started ruffling my fingers through my hair because I was much more worried that my hair was going to catch on fire.

I went to set down my marshmallow, still with one hand in my hair and thought my hand felt wet. It was kind of humid outside and the chairs had felt wet earlier, so I brought my hand down to look at it and it was all bloody. I told Maranda to go get Mark, because he was hanging out with the neighbors since they were still shooting things off. And, I leaned over a little away from my body so I wouldn't get my clothes all bloody, so blood starts splattering on the patio. This, of course, freaked Maranda out and she went running and crying for Mark.

He came over and so did the neighbors and their friends. One of the neighbors, who I thought was a nurse but she's actually a dental hygienist, came over and kind of took charge. She sent Mark off for something to put between her hand and my head while she put pressure on it. So, what does Mark come back with? A paper towel. BTW, this woman and I were the only two people that had had less than two margaritas that night. Everyone else was of no help.

After she puts pressure on it for a little bit, she looks at my head and then tells Mark that he needs to call 911. So, instead he starts asking if anyone there is in any shape to drive me to the emergency room, because he is not (which is generally true on any Fourth of July). (And, honestly, the assumption is always that he would be the one to get hurt on the Fourth, not me. I'm supposed to be the designated driver.) Nobody answers and, in my mind, the closest thing we've got to a medical professional has said to call 911, so I yell to just f*!^ing call 911. After Mark calls, he gets Maranda and the kid across the street to start picking up the remnants of the fireworks, because none of them are legal (as usual) and he doesn't want to get cited. So, Maranda (still crying) starts picking stuff up and putting it in a trash bag. The drunk neighbors are trying to tell her that I'm okay and I'm trying to tell her that I'm okay. However, I've got blood all over one hand, an arm, my leg and it's all over the patio and she's not buying it...any of it.

In the meanwhile, the woman that's helping me tells Mark to get a wet washcloth because the dry paper towel is sticking to my head and getting in the way of seeing what the deal is with the wound. There is some general debate between everyone there about whether I've been burned or cut and how deep it might be. By now, I'm just generally pissed off.

A couple minutes later, the neighbor looks at my head again and says it looks like the bleeding has almost stopped and maybe we don't need the ambulance. Mark calls back, but the dispatcher says they've already sent to the ambulance. So, we decide that I should go out front to sit and wait since all the fireworks remnants are out back. So, I go out front and sit down. Maranda is still crying and I don't want to hug her because I don't want to get blood all over her too.

An unmarked SUV pulls up with first-responder EMTs that come before the ambulance (I never knew about these types of folks, before). Three of them pile out of their vehicle and while they're trying to look at my head, one of them says, "Hi Maranda." I look at Mark wondering how the heck one of the EMTs knows my child. Mark asks her and it turns out that her son goes to school with Maranda and her son is in the backseat of the vehicle, so Maranda goes over to socialize with him while they're debating over the severity of my injury. Thankfully, that gets her mind off of the fact that her mother was bleeding all over everything. Then, the ambulance shows up. At this point, all fireworks in the entire neighborhood suddenly cease.

They come over, talk with the EMTs, look at my head and tell me that I have a V-shaped cut in my head and part of it looks like I need stitches. I tell them that I can get to the hospital, I don't want to pay for the ambulance ride and sign 5 forms that says I don't want to be transported, that they won't release my name and I don't know what else. Then a police officer shows up and wants to know where the fireworks came from and everyone's response is that we have no idea. We were just roasting marshmallows. I'm pretty sure he didn't buy it, but he didn't press it.

Finally, all the emergency personnel leave and I need to get to the hospital. Still there isn't anyone that can really drive me to the hospital, so I drive myself. Maranda was just starting to calm down, so I had Mark stay home with her. I didn't know what to expect in the emergency room and it really did hurt like hell, so I figured she didn't need to see anything else. I had to ask the EMTs where the nearest hospital was and if it would be in my insurance network. After they left, I had to go look up the hospital in the phonebook and get mapquest directions so I knew how to get there.

After I got to the hospital, they were very helpful and it was actually very quiet, so I was helped pretty quickly. Of course, I had to tell the story several more times and there continued to be debate about whether I was burned in addition to the cut and if I needed stitches. Finally, the doctor came in and decided that part of the v-shaped cut did need to be treated, but that I needed staples not stitches. The worst part of the whole thing was when he had to give me 2 or 3 shots in my head to numb the area before he stapled it. That *really* hurt. He also said that he could see some fatty tissue that meant that it was deeper than a superficial cut. I asked him if he was trying to tell me that I had a fat head and one of the nurses assured me that everyone has that same tissue. :)

So, now I have four staples in my head that you can see in the picture and a sore head. But, they come out on Tuesday night, which is good because I have to fly to Boston on Wednesday and I really didn't want to have to explain the staples at airport security.

My first summer orientation

Well, I lived through my first summer orientation sessions here. They were a little different from what I've been accustomed to. We had three sessions this week and they were all overnight sessions. We have one more session scheduled for July 30-31. I think that we do a bit of overkill during these sessions, but I feel good about what we accomplished.

I also had a great group of students working with the program. We trained for 2 full days prior to the first session. They were a lot of fun. But, it's been a long week.

Now, I need to work on my annual report. It was due on Friday. Oh well. After I get that turned in and have one more end of the year Student Life meeting, I'm on vacation until after the Fourth. We don't have any big plans, but I'm looking forward to not having a whole lot to do for a few days. This summer is going to end up going by much too fast!

It's been almost a year!

I can't believe that it's almost been a full year since we moved to Wisconsin. As of today, we're about a week shy of 11 months. In a couple of weeks, it will be officially one year since I worked at NWU. I think that's just crazy! The year has gone by so quickly.

Maranda just finished up 6th grade last week and already she's getting bored with summer vacation. She decided that she wants to stay home this summer and not participate in any summer program. And, she will be 12 at the end of summer, so we figured she was getting to that age. Plus, while Mark works second shift and doesn't leave for work until 1:30 pm, that only leaves her on her own for a couple of hours. Now we're just coming up with a list of chores for her to do each week. If she's gonna be home, she gets to help with stuff. :) She may end up regretting her decision. If you have any suggestions, let me know.

Mark was FINALLY offered a position with the State Department of Corrections. He starts their academy on July 9. He was quite excited to turn in his resignation letter the other day. For the next few weeks, he'll continue working security at Bay Shipbuilding in Sturgeon Bay. ( http://www.manitowocmarine.com/Facilities/BayShipbuilding.asp ) But, he's excited that he'll have the week of the Fourth of July off. I'm certain he'll be shooting off fireworks for the whole week.

Work is going well for me. Summer orientation is coming up fast, so it's starting to get to the stressful time of making sure all the details are taken care of. I'm also having a lot of fun planning for next year, now that I know what a school year looks like here. And, in July I'm headed to Boston for a few days to get trained on the research tool that I want to use for my research to complete my dissertation. I met with my advisor while I was in Lincoln a few weeks ago, and my goal is to present my dissertation proposal this fall (early - like Sept. or early Oct.), do my research, write the dissertation and defend it in July. That way I can participate in August commencement ceremonies when there aren't 5,000 people walking. I'm getting excited about being done!

I'm looking forward to taking some vacation time after summer orientation. I don't think we have any great vacation plans at this point. I think we're hoping to get the camper out and heading somewhere fairly close by for a few days, but other than that we'll probably just hang out at home. With Mark starting a new job, we won't really have time to go anywhere and gas prices make me not want to pull the camper very far.

If anybody wants to come visit, let me know!

Things I really like about Wisconsin:

1. Tornado season is like 10 days in mid-June and relatively speaking it's fairly calm.
2. Cheese curds
3. Frozen Custard (did I tell you? I'm trying to diet now...)
4. It's a heatwave if it hits 90 or above for 2 or more days in a row
5. Water everywhere...there are beautiful lakes, rivers, creeks (I wouldn't swim in the Fox River, but the lakes are wonderful)
6. It rains here...even though some of the lake levels are down, it's not the same kind of drought that Nebraska experienced while we lived there

Things I miss about Nebraska:

1. People here don't just reverse the name of their town/city/state to name events. :)
2. HyVee brand sparkling water....the flavors here just aren't the same, though I'm adjusting
3. I miss our pool that we had...even though we'd need a heater on it up here
4. and, of course, all of our friends (although several of you have moved in the past couple of years, so even Lincoln wasn't quite the same)

I know it's been forever since I last wrote something, so I hope that it won't be that long between now and the next time I post. I hope you're all having a great summer!

Spring in Wisconsin

Obviously, Maranda having her mole removed was not very traumatic since I didn't feel the need to blog the day she had it done. She still has 8 stitches in her arm - they did more stitches than they might normally do so the scar would be smaller - but, she did pretty well. Although, Mark said that she didn't appreciate it when they cauterized the wound and her arm began smoking. :) The stitches come out next week.

Well, it is beautiful here. For the past three days, I've watched students from my office window outside playing a variety of games on the lawn out front. It's 67 degrees here, sunny, with a slight breeze. Absolutely perfect. I think it might stay like this now.

On a completely unrelated note...our household was quite excited that Sanjaya finally got voted off of American Idol. I wasn't home during the show on Wednesday, but they called me to tell me the results while I was driving home from a student government meeting. Our favorite is Blake Lewis. So, if you vote....vote for him. :)

Happy Easter!

Well yesterday was Easter. We didn't do anything too exciting and, in fact, didn't even get around to dyeing Easter eggs until Saturday. When there was a half-inch of snow on the ground when we got up! It was April 7 and it was snowing most of the morning. The snow had pretty much melted by nighttime, but it was able to accumulate to almost an inch before it started warming back up.

You gotta love being at a Catholic institution. The place was closed down on Friday and today the offices are open, but no classes. It's really quiet. Maybe, I'll get my desk cleaned off today. Oh wait...let's not get too crazy. :)

Maranda had Friday off from school and her break continues today and tomorrow. She's getting a mole removed from her arm tomorrow. It's a pretty big mole that's been there since birth, but she says she's getting teased about it now and has been itching to get it removed since Christmas. Although, I think she's starting to worry. Last night, she started asking all kinds of questions about what the needle will look like, if it will hurt, etc. I've got meetings in the morning and Mark will be the one accompanying her to the Doctor's office. I think that may be for the best. I'll come home in the afternoon to take care of my baby. How wimpy am I? I think every mother out there can relate to that first time their child had to get immunized and they had to help hold their baby down, so the injection could happen. This kind of feels like that did, I think. You do it because it needs to be done, but it's upsetting and you hate that you have to do it. We'll see what she thinks of this whole process when it's over. Maybe, I'll report more tomorrow.

Back to work...

Last week was spring break at work and I took a few days off to work on research for my dissertation. I got some research done, but managed to procrastinate by cleaning house and taking a few naps. It was nice having those few days off, but I'm a little worried that tomorrow is going to seem awfully hectic now. I've got way too many emails that I've looked at subject lines, but not opened and read. Plus, it appears that I'm getting dangerously close to my limit on space in my inbox. I miss Jade...he knew how I was with my email and adjusted my space limit accordingly. It's always nice when former student employees get key full-time positions on graduation. :)

I also went to a woman's house to participate in their stamping event (not postage stamps, rubber stamps to make crafty things like cards). It's the second time I've gone to one of her stamping events and it's nice to get out of the house and talk to people about non-work-related stuff. And, I have a few cool cards to show for it.

What else? Not much else has been going on here. The weather has gotten warm (relatively speaking). As I write this at 10:38 pm, it's still 68 degrees outside.

OH...so, I think I've established that we live out in the middle of nowhere by my standards. Yesterday I let Mickey out back and I'm watching him from inside because we don't have a fence and he wasn't on a leash or anything. He goes sniffing around over by some rocks and shrubs and all of a sudden his eyes get super big and he begins back pedaling to get away from something. So, Maranda and I put on our shoes and go outside to check it out. There was this wriggling mass of, like, 7 garter snakes just hanging out in a pile in the grass by the rocks. And, today, they're still there and there's a second pile of 4 garter snakes a little ways away (kind of by Maranda's trampoline). Shelby if you're reading this, I've just completely scared you out of ever coming to the state of Wisconsin. Then, later today, there was a whole herd of kids playing softball out in our driveway and one kid decides he wants to see the snakes and catch one to take home, but he's too chicken to catch a snake in the bottle or glass that he's got. So, Maranda actually helps him catch the snake (this did NOT require her to actually touch a snake). Eeeeeewwwwwwwwwwww! (Sorry Shelby and anybody else that's freaked out by snakes!) The kid actually took the snake home...I hope it's not inside his house. If the garter snakes don't go away as the weather gets warmer, we're gonna have to figure out what makes garter snakes go away. Any ideas?

Aaaaaaahhhhhhh....parenthood

(You can tell this is gonna be good already, huh?)

So, a couple of weeks ago one of Maranda's friends invited her to spend the night at her dad's (she lives with her mom) for her birthday on the 17th. We didn't know if she could at the time, because that was the same weekend as the State Swim Meet and we weren't sure if Maranda would qualify to swim at state. She was highly irate at the time that we couldn't give an immediate answer. So, she ended up not quite getting the times she needed in a couple of events to qualify, which means that she was able to go to her friend's house. She was slightly disappointed about swimming, but excited about going with her friend.

Saturday was the big day. I dropped Maranda off at her friend's house and the friend's mom was driving them 30 minutes to meet the friend's dad and he was taking them the other 30 minutes to where he lives. Although, they were staying in a hotel room so the kids could swim at the pool there.


Saturday night, Maranda was gone with friends and Mark was at work. I didn't quite know what to do with myself. :) I watched a couple of movies on TV and did the dishes. I know I lead an exciting life. At 9 pm, the phone rings and all I can hear are kids having fun in the background and my child crying. Maranda didn't talk, just cried. (This is not the first time this has happened. She would do this in Lincoln, too.) So, I'm trying to get her calmed down enough to tell me what was going on and she finally says that she misses us and she kind of wants to come home, but kind of wants to stay and she's upset. (Did you get the part above, where they're an hour's drive from our house?) I keep trying to calm her down and get her to stop crying. After about 10 minutes, she sounds like herself and I tell her that I'm not willing to drive an hour just to get there and have her change her mind. So, I tell her to play with her friends for awhile longer and call me at 10 pm to tell me what she wants to do.

At 10 pm, she calls and tells me that she wants to come home. So, the friend's dad gets on the phone and gives me directions to where they are staying. I call Mark at work and tell him that I'm headed to pick up Maranda and he'd be home from work before we'd be home.

So, I drive an hour north of Green Bay. I go through Oconto, Peshtigo and Marinette. Then, I cross the Menominee river and enter the upper peninsula of Michigan! I had to leave the state to pick my child up from her sleepover! They were only a few minutes over the bridge....but, seriously...

When I got to the hotel, Maranda was in good spirits and still ready to come home. Thankfully, her little friends weren't mad at her and they didn't seem to be teasing her about leaving. We didn't get home until about 12:30 am and she promptly went in and went to bed. She slept in until about 9 am on Sunday, which is like sleeping in until Noon for other people. :) So, we survived, but I had to leave the state to get her. Can you believe that?

It's Spring....almost

Our snow is starting to melt! I think Mark's a little sad that he's working on putting up the snowmobile for the summer, but is excited that he's gotten to use it as much as he has. Since we live out in the middle of nowhere (kind of), there are snowmobile tracks all along the side of the roads. I haven't noticed people out riding on the way to work in the morning, but it appears that there are a lot of snowmobilers that have been out and about.

It got up in the 40s yesterday and I wore a skirt to work for the first time in like 3 or 4 months. I've gotten tired of wearing the same pairs of pants everyday. And, I was walking around without a coat for awhile. It's beautiful. Last night, I thought it was raining. But when I looked outside, it was just the snow melting on the roof and dripping by the front door.

It's 7:43 am and it's already sunny out and 33. Could it be spring?! I've really enjoyed the snow, but I think I'm ready to be able to do some things outdoors without freezing my butt off. :)

Maranda had the day off from school yesterday and she went over to a friend's house and spent the night. Mark was at work and didn't get home until Midnight. And, what did I do with my exciting evening? I went to the grocery store, gave myself a pedicure, watched What Not to Wear and read Newsweek. Am I old, or what? She's got Monday off, too. It's their version of Spring Break here. The college still has another week until spring break. Apparently, the drinking behavior for St. Patrick's Day was so problematic in past years, that they've scheduled spring break to include St. Patty's Day. I guess it's a Catholic thing. ;)

I'm planning on taking a few days off over spring break to work on my dissertation proposal. Maranda and I are planning to head to Lincoln for the NWU commencement in May. It would be nice if I could do my dissertation proposal for my committee at the same time.

Well, I should probably be somewhat productive with my day. Don't forget that Daylight Savings Time goes into effect this weekend. I hope you're all enjoying spring, too!

It's been awhile....

So, it's been awhile since I've posted anything and it's been an eventful few weeks....in some good ways and some bad. I guess I'll hit the highlights and we'll go from there.

I spent a few days in Dallas, Texas for a conference on the first-year experience. I went with a student and a staff member from academic affairs. And, fortunately, I had time to see a friend while I was there...which was great. I really enjoy when I travel somewhere for work and can see others for fun, too. The conference was great...gave us lots of ideas, and I enjoyed spending time with the others from work. But, I just have to say that the older I get, the more I enjoy being able to go to my hotel room and have a little alone time at the end of the day. Plus, I need my sleep. We left 10 degree weather for daytime temps in the 70s. It was wonderful to have a few days of spring. But, on the day we left it hit 80 and it was a little hot for schlepping luggage around town. Oh yeah....we were a few miles from Nordstrom's, so you know I had to go there. I managed to get a little shopping done...duh.

I managed to catch a cold during the trip and felt like CRAP at the end of last week. I actually ended up taking a sick day last Thursday and had to cancel my class for that day. You know I had to feel bad to do that. And, I spent Saturday laying around the house and moaning. :) I'm starting to feel a bit more like myself, but I'm still pretty stuffed up.

Then, the horrible thing...a student was found in his room - dead. Apparently, he hung himself after Ash Wednesday services and he wasn't found until the following night. He was an RA and had a single room, so it took a day for people to wonder where he was. The whole situation is a little surreal for me. I didn't know the student, but know a few students who did know him. But, since I haven't been here that long, I don't have the same connection with students that I had before. It takes awhile to build those kinds of relationships, or at least for me it does. So, I'm feeling a little detached and watching the whole Catholic process of grieving kick into gear has been fascinating. We've had two on-campus prayer services and a memorial service scheduled for Friday. And, of course, we've got a bus taking students to his funeral that's a few hours south of here. Our campus ministry staff and counseling center have kicked into high gear, but I've never witnessed this much religious response to such a tragedy before. Like I said....fascinating.

So, I've been feeling reflective ( yes, I know that's unusual...that's why I point it out). Being a person who always likes to know why people do things, this is one of those situations where we'll probably never know why he did this. And, as I hear our staff begin the process of debriefing their crisis response as well as, look at how to try to prevent such things from happening again, people really want to know why. How can you truly be preventive of such a situation? I'm not sure you can. If someone is really that convinced that this is the answer, I don't know that I've got an argument that will convince them otherwise. (This is why I'm not a counselor.) Anyway, I'm hoping everyone that I know and love is doing well and feeling good about themselves. Although, I'm not nearby many of you, you are all in my thoughts daily because you've all influenced me in some way and I am the better person for it.

It's a heat wave!

It got up to 13 degrees today. Woo hoo! It still dips below zero overnight. On the news tonight they said that we've had 7 straight days with sub-zero temps, which is a record for any February in this area. The scary part about that is that it isn't a record for all time, otherwise they wouldn't have specified just February.

In fact, all the schools (not colleges) in the area were closed on Monday because it was so cold that it was too dangerous to let kids walk to school or wait for the bus. And, on Tuesday most school districts were delayed for 2 hours for the same reason. Of course, I still had work. But, it was quiet cuz nobody wanted to leave their rooms or offices because it was so freakin' cold.

So, it's been a couple of weeks since I've thought about writing any updates. Not much has been going on that I think would seem exciting to others. :) Mark's working full-time....finally. He's working contract security for a shipyard up in Sturgeon Bay. It's about an hour commute each way, but they'll start having openings at different sites soon. Although, he likes what he's doing up there. It's considered a Homeland Security post, so they've gotta train him to do special stuff (I don't know what) and get some sort of response from Homeland Security about him working there. I guess that puts him on some sort of list they keep there. I would bet that I'm on the opposite kind of list somewhere in DC. :) W probably sees the emails I forward to others and knows that I was on John Kerry's email list and now on Barack Obama's email list. Plus, I get updates from the Human Rights Campaign and moveon.org. Clearly, I'm a communist.

Well, I wanted people to know that I'm not permanently embedded in a block of ice. I've gotta get to bed and remember to put a dollar under Maranda's pillow for her tooth tonight. Hope for warmer weather for us (I mean like 25 degrees....I don't want all the snow to go away). :)

First week of classes

It's 9 pm on Sunday night and I'm feeling pretty energized considering the time night, etc. It IS almost my regular bedtime, you know. (Sad, I know...but, I am getting older, you know.)

This week was the first week back to classes at work and this first week of spring semester has ALWAYS made me exhausted. My schedule doesn't gradually work itself into a frenzy like it does in August. It goes from 0 to 100 in five seconds flat in January and it usually makes me tired. And, I was tired yesterday. Other than taking Maranda to gymnastics at the Y, I pretty much sat/dozed on the couch all day long. I need a day like that every now and again. Plus, I had a sore throat. Bleah. That seems to be getting better, though.

This week was a great week, though. I had two separate programs that were my responsibility, which is really the first time that's happened since I started this summer. Everything else that I've worked with has had others really doing the bulk of the work and I just showed up. Don't get me wrong....that's been nice, but what a wonderful sense of accomplishment when your events happen! I did have help for both events...a committee for one and co-workers for the other....which was nice and very helpful.

One of the programs that I was working with was our Scholar in Residence program. This year, we had Susan Komives on campus for a day and a half. For those of you in Student Affairs that are reading this, you probably know how wonderful she is. Well, after spending all of Friday together and a good portion of Thursday together, I'm feeling really motivated about this whole dissertation process. I may change my topic to look exclusively at quantitative data (never thought I'd say that, did you?). And, she's suggested that I use a data set that our college recently collected through a survey that was done via her graduate students last spring. She also suggested that if that data set won't help me do what I want, I may be able to use the national data set that they collected (as long as none of their students are in process of a similar research question). How cool is that?!

Now, I've gotta make time to really start working on it. Plus, I need to make sure that my advisor is okay with using a data set that's already been collected. I can't imagine that he wouldn't be, but you just never know.

Today, Maranda was at a softball clinic for the most of the day and I was fairly productive while she was out of the house. Plus, Mark was at work....which helps. So, my goal for the week (at Susan's suggestion) is to somehow "touch" my dissertation topic once a day even if it's only for 15 minutes. So, I'm going to try to keep track of that.

Well, I hope you're weekend has been as energizing as mine and if you're taking classes, good luck with them!

OMG...What was I thinking?!

You should get a kick out of this. One of the gifts that I gave Maranda for Christmas was tickets to The Cheetah Girls concert that was coming through Green Bay. She got one in her stocking and I put one in my stocking. Mark politely declined the opportunity to attend.

Well, the concert was this past Saturday night. First of all, it's been forever since I've been to a concert, if it wasn't one I was helping to organize. Second, over 6900 girls and their mothers make a hell of a lot of noise! I think I saw three Dads while we were at the concert and the newspaper said that there were 6,907 attendees. The girls screaming were almost louder than the music.

The opening act was some group called Everlife. Apparently, they're three sisters that Disney discovered. They have a song on the Hannah Montana soundtrack. They actually sang. They were out of breath when they talked or sang sometimes. It was nice to see that they could actually sing.

Then, the Cheetah Girls came out. Number one: Raven Symone is in the movies as one of the Cheetah Girls, but she's too good to go on tour with the other three girls (well, probably too busy or Disney won't let her out of some other part of her contract to tour). Those three girls were their own band before the Cheetah Girls and they can't even go back to being that band when Raven isn't with them. That doesn't seem fair. Number two: Can you say lip sync? There were only a couple of times that I could distinctly tell ONE of them was singing. And, their vocals included 4-part harmony. Did you hear me say...Raven wasn't there? THERE WERE ONLY THREE OF THEM SINGING! Number three: They had boy back-up dancers and at one point they all (girls, too) started to step. They had a decent routine and I might have begun to be impressed. EXCEPT...there was a recording that amplified the sound from "their" stepping. So, it was like lip syncing, but stepping.

Thank goodness the entire concert only lasted a couple of hours. It started at 4 pm - they obviously know they're demographic - and ended around 6 pm. Since Maranda had a swim meet that morning, we went home and laid around the rest of the evening.

Maranda liked the concert and I've seen worse, but I don't know that it was necessary for The Cheetah Girls to refer to all of us moms as "Cheetah Mamas." I don't think I'm quite that cool.

New Year's Eve (yes, I know it was 17 days ago).

As most of you know, the Mummas enjoy some fireworks. :) Every year, we get one or two noisy ones to shoot off at midnight. You know our neighbors in Lincoln were accustomed to this. In fact, they'd usually come out front at midnight because they knew we'd be out there for a few minutes. See? We were providing a service. Plus, there are others on the surrounding streets doing the same thing.

Anyway, on our way back from Ohio we stopped in Indiana and bought a couple of fireworks for New Years. They're always noisy. There's at least one Saturn Missile with at least 100 shots (they whistle on the way up and pop loudly) and a couple of others. Now, since it's our first New Year's in Wisconsin, we didn't know what to expect. We tried to tell our neighbors on the other side of the duplex, but they weren't home that evening. I'm hoping they hadn't come home right before we shot everything off and got the crap scared out of their kids.

Maranda had a friend spend the night. And, not long before midnight, we cracked open the bottle of sparkling apple cider for them. (BTW, that stuff doesn't taste near as good as I used to think.) And, we opened a bottle of champagne for Mark and I. Then, the girls huddled inside with the dog (it was cold and the dog doesn't like loud noises!), while Mark and I went outside to set off the fireworks. Really, Mark is setting off the fireworks. I'm just good at standing and watching with a drink in my hand. (This is how it goes down for the Fourth of July, again as most of you know.) We've got the TV on so we can watch a countdown along with our timing and we countdown to midnight. When we get to midnight, Mark lights the first firework. Remember, we're kind of out in the middle of nowhere. But, there are still houses around. The first one goes off and completely echoes throughout the entire neighborhood. It ends and there's COMPLETE SILENCE. NOBODY else is doing anything noisy at midnight. And, it's kind of foggy. It's like the Twilight Zone. My reaction (of course) is to start laughing and assume that someone will call the cops. Fireworks are illegal, you know. So, I open the back door and tell Maranda and her friend to not answer the door if the police knock...come get us and we'll answer it. :) Meanwhile, Mark is lighting the second firework. Again, it's LOUD. Thankfully, when that one ended, we started to hear a couple of other fireworks way off in the distance and some people yelling Happy New Year. THANK GOD! I could not have handled it if people here didn't do anything for New Year's. That would have been too much! And, thankfully, nobody called the police. That would have been a little embarrassing to explain to Maranda's friend's parents. I'm not quite sure how I'd start that conversation.

So, anyway...Happy 2007. Be glad we didn't start the year with a citation from the local police. I hope your new year started off with just as much good luck!

But, that's what you wanted...

This year for Christmas, we got Maranda an iPod nano. It's bright pink and we had it engraved for her. She's been talking about wanting an iPod since last Christmas. So, this year that was her "big" present. She was very excited when she opened it. However, she also wanted a Nintendo DS Lite (new type of Gameboy) and she didn't get it. It costs around $120. This wasn't a big deal until we went over to a friend's house. Each of their two daughters got one of these Nintendos and they were playing with them. They each had some game where they had virtual dogs that they could pet, feed, take for a walk, etc. Remember those Tomagachi things? It's like that. But, the Nintendo DS Lite has bluetooth technology so, if both people were playing this same game and stood next to each other, one person's "dog" jumps from their Nintendo to the other so the dogs can play together. This is kind of cool, but not $120 cool especially after having spent $200 on the iPod. Now, she's sad she didn't get a Nintendo DS Lite and says she'll NEVER have enough money saved up to buy one herself. Even though she's got $50 left from Christmas money and Easter will be here before you know it. I guess you just never have everything you want. That sucks.

How I Spent My Christmas Vacation

Overall, the entire Christmas holiday went well. We drove down to Ohio on the Friday afternoon/night prior to Christmas. We waited and picked Maranda up at school and headed down late in the afternoon and Chicago traffic wasn't bad at all this time. It was a pleasant surprise. We got to my mother-in-law's house about 2 am and promptly went to bed.

While we were there we got to see family and friends. I reconnected with a good friend that I probably haven't seen in person since 2000. It seems like we just never have time to get together when I'm there, but she's originally from Appleton, Wisconsin (just 20-30 minutes down the road from here) and I called her when we decided to move just to tell her I'd be near her hometown. We've decided that we need to get together more often now, since there's a greater chance that we'll be near each other either in Ohio or Wisconsin now.

Maranda and I went to see Charlotte's Web with a friend and her two daughters. It's a pretty good movie. I like that they keep the story pretty true to the book. They didn't make it "too Hollywood" like they do to some remakes.

Maranda and her cousins also got their portraits taken. They all loooooovvve that! (I'm being sarcastic...I hope you knew.) Chelsea, 17, is a junior in high school and hasn't been interested in these portraits for several years. Tara, 12, thinks the world revolves around her and mostly just upset that she didn't have permission to spend her week of vacation from school at some friend's house. It was pretty much all we heard about on both days we saw her. Kylee, 2, is just happy to be hanging out with the big kids it seems. We were lucky she didn't start crying for the photographer, though. Maranda would rather have been other places, but didn't gripe just to keep the peace. She knows better. :) So, now we're waiting to get the portraits back. Thankfully, we only do these portraits every few years.

On our way back to Wisconsin, we spent one night in Valparaiso, Indiana. We had tickets to see the King Tut exhibit at the Field Museum in Chicago and I'm too cheap to pay for a hotel in Chicago. So, we stayed in Indiana and went to the exhibit the next day. I'll write about that in another post in the next day or two.

Our trip home from Chicago was uneventful, but I've noticed that the older the get, the more I appreciate coming home to my own shower, bed, couch, food, etc. I like traveling, but there's just something nice about returning home and being surrounded by all your own familiar, comfortable stuff.

The BIG talk....about Santa, silly.

It's snowing! It's even sticking a little! So, I know I said I was freezing at the Packers game, but you know I enjoy the snow. It's been so warm here the past few weeks that it's seemed like spring. In fact, my sinuses have been bothering me as if it were the beginning of allergy season. Finally, the temperatures are going down. The forecasted highs for this week are in the 20s. I hope we get real snow. The other day while we were driving to school, Maranda says, "Where is all the snow? The main reason I wanted to move to Wisconsin was for all the snow. This is a rip-off!" So, I think this is part of the reason that I want more snow, too.

Well, I haven't written since before Christmas and there are lots of things in my head to write about, but only enough time to write about one (I'd like to get to sleep at a halfway decent hour tonight).

The day after Christmas, Maranda and I had the talk. You know...the talk...about Santa. We were at the mall in Springfield and I was asking her if she thought there really was a Santa. She just kept saying that she didn't know. So, I told her I wanted a real answer and she insisted that she didn't know. Then, she asked if Santa really existed. Well, there were people walking with their little kids nearby and I didn't really want to spoil anything for other people, so I told her that we'd talk about it in the car. A little bit later, we're in the car and headed home and Maranda reminds me that I was going to talk to her about Santa. So, I explained to her that there isn't really a man in a red suit that brings gifts every year. We're all Santa in some respect by pretending there's a little magic every once in awhile. She didn't seem too surprised by this...she IS eleven. I've been putting off having the conversation...hoping that she'd just admit to figuring it out. So, the remaining 5 minutes we had in the car were spent by her questioning me about where I bought the stuff that came from Santa this year. And, Santa wasn't even that exciting this year. Mark and I bought her an iPod nano for Christmas and didn't say it was from Santa because I'd had it engraved and had already put music on it and charged it. (I figured since we were in Ohio, she didn't want a $200 paperweight until we got home...I know I wouldn't.) So, Santa brought things like Floam, Magnetix (you can build cool stuff with these things), and I can't even remember what else. Oh yeah....2 tickets (one for me and one for her) to go see The Cheetah Girls in a couple of weeks. I'm sure THAT will be interesting story. So, anyway, she wanted to know where I bought the floam and stuff like that. Weird. Oh, and she wanted to know where the Santa wrapping paper came from. I buy this roll of wrapping paper from Current that just says "From Santa" on it with little pictures of Santa all over it. I keep it hidden and no Santa gifts ever have other wrapping paper on them, which is how I started to suspect about Santa...he used our same gift wrap. Then, she wanted to be sure that we'd gotten something for Mickey when we got home. He always gets a stocking with doggie treats and toys. Other than that...she was totally satisfied.

Like I said, I'd been putting this off. I feel like this whole Santa thing is one of the first times that you learn something from your friends or you figure it out and your friends confirm it. Parents shouldn't be the ones to break it to you. But, judging by her reaction, I'm guessing that she'd had it figured out and was playing along in fear that the presents would go away if she admitted to something.

I don't really remember figuring it out. I just remembering knowing in 3rd grade, but pretending I didn't believe what other kids said until the next year. I played along for a year. Other than that, I don't really ever having a conversation about it.

Anyone willing to share how they found out about Santa? I'd love to know!