For our anniversary we went to Springfield. We went to the Abraham Lincoln Presidential Library & Museum. It was really cool! There were awesome artifacts to see and great information to learn. We recommend it to all.
We got to see the marriage license for Abraham and Mary Todd Lincoln and learned that President and Mrs. Lincoln were Married 4 November 1842. That is 164 years before us, to the day. So, this weekend they would have been celebrating 165 years! Happy Anniversary to them too.
For a while now, I have thought about cutting my hair and donating it to Locks of Love. Jacob had an appointment to get his hair cut yesterday, so I went with him. While there I asked Betsy where my hair would end if she cut it for Locks of Love. She showed me and I decided that I was ready to do it.
Here is the before picture:
Yes my hair did go past the cape!
Here is Betsy making the cut:
Here is the final length:
I do not remember what we agreed the number of inches to cut would be, but I measured the length cut off (yes I did keep a small lock of the cut portion to put in my journal!). We cut off 12 inches (or was it just over 11 and a half)!!!
For those of you that know me, this may seem to be cause for concern. Normally I would be going through withdrawal, but not this time. Mostly because it is still pretty long, and also because it is being donated to a great cause. I know many people who have cut their hair for this purpose, many are less than a third my age. I have liked the idea, and finally got myself to the point where I can handle the event. I know, I know, it really ought not be traumatic. I just really like long hair on myself.
Monday I went to the store for some milk. I love milk, however I do not love the price… That is a whole different topic that I am keeping far from my post. The odd thing is that I only purchased one gallon of milk, but the receipt shows 2 items sold. Here is a picture of the receipt.
I just thought this was funny.
Today I was at the preschool again, which means I had a fun day. Here are some fun things I heard from the young’ins.
For sharing time:
Boy S-Age 4: (Standing with his hand in his pocket) It is a mystery, you have to guess what I have.
Child 1: Is it a rock?
S: No.
Child 2: Can you eat it?
S: Yes.
Child 3: Is it a hotdog?
S: No.
Child 4: Is it broccoli?
S: Yes! It is broccoli that looks like a ninja. (Takes hand out of his pocket and opens it to reveal his imagination, and proceeds to show the rest of the kids one by one his hand. Most of the kids play along)
Boy A-age 4: Rolls his eyes while saying “Cool” very unenthusiastically.
Girl R-almost 5: (Feeling the need to make him realize it isn’t there, yells) Your hand is empty
S: (Just continues on, because he knows it is pretend. Half way around the circle, he tells the kids…) It is cooked, smell it, it is good. (At the end of the circle he carefully places his ninja-broccoli in his pocket and sits down.)
It appears that he on a regular basis has an imaginary share item-I wonder if he chooses this ahead of time, or if he just forgets to bring a real thing….
In the middle of this broccoli presentation, Boy L-age 3 has some trouble sitting still, so the teacher asked if he needs to leave the circle, He responds, “Yes” and gets up with his share item and walks away and put his item away. That was indeed a good response for him, he had been having a bad morning.
On the playground:
It was chilly/windy and we had the children wearing their jackets/sweaters. Girl A-age 2 had a broken zipper on her jacket, she came up to me and told me, “Take your pockets out of your hands.” A few minutes later she came up to me and was cold, so I told her to “put your pockets in your hands.” She placed her hands in her pockets and played for a while before taking them out.
Boy L-same one from before: I’m trying to hurt my friends because I’m a pterodactyl!
In the room, while playing in the dress-up area…
Boy S-same as above: Give me a shot, I’m sick.
Me: OK, I’ll give you a shot. Where do you want it? In your arm?
S: Yes. (Lays down on the couch like it is the Dr’s table)
Me: Give me the needle. (it is the plastic pretend syringe that doesn’t have any sharp parts)
Teacher overhearing him calls out: In the cheek
S: (Sticks his tookus up into the air) Do it slower.
Me: (I proceeded to give him a slow shot into his arm)
S: Thank you, I feel better now.
Up in the loft Boy C and Boy Y were playing (both age 3) and C was saying, “Knuckle head” over and over. It was clear that he was meaning it as a fun term of endearment, and Y didn’t mind at all. That is good, because Y generally has really tender feelings.
I was at the Preschool yesterday as well, and one of the teachers had to leave in the middle of a book, so I finished reading the book. It was Click Clack, Moo: Cows That Type by Doreen Cronin. Her books are great! While I was reading, one little boy, Boy J-age 3, asked me, “What is an ultimatum?” After I answered that, he asked, “Why was Duck a neutral party?” He seemed content after that to let me finish the book.
A week or two ago when I was at the preschool, a little girl asked me to read her a book Froggy Plays In The Band by Jonathan London. This is another author I really enjoy. When I got home I had to tell Jacob about the book and he seemed interested in it. So, I went to every bookstore I passed after that, hoping that I might find the book. After more than one week of searching and many stores later I found one copy in Iowa City. I would have liked to have found 3 copies….
While Jacob was at band rehearsal I did some grocery shopping. When I was exiting the store a stranger came up to me and asked if he could ask me “a silly question.” I asked if it would cost money, he said it would not, and it would “only take two minutes.” So, I thought to myself, “I could go for a silly question, it has been a while since I have heard a good silly question.” So I told him he could ask.
He started with, “Where are you from?”
Me: (thinking- this is not silly) Here in town
Stranger: Are you really from here or did you move here from another place? (indicating he was doing a survey for the local university)
Me: I moved here
Stranger: Me too, I am from California. Where are you from originally?
Me: I was born in Iowa
Stranger: Well I am here with 1400 other people trying to collect points towards a scholarship fund, and there is a contest to see who can collect the most points talking to people. This scholarship will pay for school and beer. Do you drink?
Me: No
Stranger: Then it is for books and tuition. Do you ever read magazines?
Me: Sometimes
Stranger: (handing me a card with magazine names on it) Do you ever read cosmo?
Me: No
Stranger: (takes back card and hands me a card with different magazines titles and explains) Each magazine subscription is worth different points. If you were to get a post card in the mail, what would you prefer? Tropical, funny, romantic or exotic?
Me: Funny.
Stranger: That would be me in my boxers.
Me: Laughed (very abruptly, I may have hurt his ego…)
Stranger: That was supposed to be a joke. Are there any two that you are interested in?
Me: (so he was trying to get money…) There is only one I would be interested in.
Stranger: Ask me how much it would cost.
Me: No thanks, I can read it for free at my in-laws’ house.
Stranger: There are 1400 of us out here and if you buy a subscription, you can tell them*
Me: (*interrupting him) That I have already donated to the “beer fund”?
Stranger: (Laughed) Never heard that answer before. Would you be able to buy a gift subscription to go to a homeless shelter?
Me: I don’t think so.
Stranger: Just go away.
Me: (walked away, and drove home)
**I stopped quoting the conversation because he used lots of profanity, and I really do not care for that. Which, while I do not approve, had he only used one word in a very logical point in the conversation, I may have considered buying the one subscription, but the words kept slipping, and I decided secondhand reading is good enough for me. Besides, by the time he got around to the real point, he had taken about four minutes of my time. And, I still didn’t get a good silly question out of my “two” minutes!
So I have been working on a project lately that has me using Google Maps. I have learned a few things while doing this. One thing I wish to share is odd, these maps do not read the letter “E” as an apartment number. It reads it as east, every time. Which is frustrating if the address is “123 Street Ave Apt E/ City, State Zip”. The other thing which is just hilarious to me, is that the map source has one street (that I know of) misspelled. The name of the street is “Whiteroe” but on the maps it is spelled “Witheroe”. Just to be certain, Jacob and I took the opportunity to cross town and find the street, sure enough on the street sign it is written “N. Whiteroe”.
I spend some of my days subbing at a preschool on the local college campus. There is one little girl there that is currently 2 yrs 9 months old. Last winter and spring she called me “Jerry” and had other adults that help thinking it was my name. She did learn my name, and I like to quiz her to see what all she knows (I do this with all the kids). Yesterday while we were outside playing, I was holding a baby, and she came over to me to see the baby. I was quizzing her on what different animals say, and here are a few of the questions and answers:
Me: What does a monkey say?
Her: ooooo oooo aaah aaah
Me: What does a doggy say?
Her: bow wow
*after many more animals, I tested other things*
Me: What does (child’s name) say?
Her: I talk
Me: What does a teacher say?
Her: I love you
Me: What does a Mr. Scott (one of the preschool teachers) say?
Her: Time to put our books away, books away, books away, time to put the books away and lay down for our nap *I am not sure if that is how the song goes, but that is what she hears*
Me: What does mommy say?
Her: I am proud of you
Me: What does a police car sound like?
Her: (in a deeper voice) Come with me, you are going to jail
I really like this job. Most of the kids remember me from time to time that I work which is great since I am not there “regularly” and I just can never be too sure what will escape their mouths.
Last spring one of the little girls got a new baby sister, and on one of the occasions that I was there and holding said baby, the big sister was cooing at the baby. One of the other little girls, who is an only child, came over while big sister was playing with baby sister, and told me that she wants a baby sister. I told her to talk with her parents about it. They got a pretty good chuckle out of the story.
Apparently this weekend is the time for my annual summer head cold. The human body is an amazing thing, and today I am particularly amazed at the incredible amount of SNOT the human head can manufacture in a short period of time.
Fortunately, this is just the summer sickness going around (at church today fully half of the guys I talked to were in various stages of the same thing), and from all accounts, I’m at the peak of it and it should subside within another 24-48 hours. Thank goodness?
We may sound just a little crazy when I tell you that we got up at 3:30 this morning to watch the eclipse. We stayed up for two hours with the telescope watching the shadow begin and become a full eclipse. Here are a few of the pictures we captured, from our front porch. The moon set while the eclipse was full.
Short version:
Long version:
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2L51HHNWZGw[/youtube]
This is a good site to see what other things may appear in the sky, just look around.
No, there is too much; let me just give you the pictures. These are signs found in my town this week….
& 