As the Grass Grows....

And now for another installment of our soap opera based on the ever-evolving joys of home ownership (which today includes lawn care) : "As the Weeds Grow..." (other names under consideration: "One Lawn to Mow," "Days of our Lawn," "The Lawn and the Restless." Suggest other names if you have some.)  Last time, you'll remember that I posted a picture of the path that meanders from the patio to the pond. Well, it's still there and it's still not done. But that's okay. It's almost done. Someday it will really be done. Someday. I keep telling myself. Yes. Someday. Sigh.

What I have for you here instead is a look at a before and after. Because it is important to reflect on what HAS gotten done (especially when one's thoughts tend to turn to what hasn't been done), I thought we should take a look at the pond area when we moved in and now. I stumbled upon the before picture a couple of days ago and so went out and took a better one of now.

Before

After

One thing I did notice from these pictures is how badly the bird house has fallen into disrepair. I tell Ken that we are slum lords because we provide inadequate housing for our tenants. That's one of the projects being added to the list. I know we need to clean and paint it, but I'm not sure how to go about that while there are still birds living in it. If anyone knows what to do, please advise. When I look at these, I'm amazed at how overgrown it was -- and we thought this was awesome when we bought the house! Yikes. Of course, now we know how much work it actually is to care for a pond plus fish. (I made Ken clean the filter again...ewwww.)

More to come.

Thrift Store Happiness

We just returned from one of our regular trips to IL to Matt and Lisa's for a fun-filled time of shopping at thrift stores in the 'burbs. My major finds this trip: books, books, and more books! I don't usually find that many that I like enough to want to get, but this time I went book crazy. I found books on gardening, managing money, general fiction, a book on the guy Rudy for whom the movie bearing the same name was about, and random other items. It seemed like everywhere I went I found books I had to - for some reason or another - purchase.

So now my dining room table is covered with books that I really don't know what to do with right now. Some will make their way to my office at school as I thought they had some general educational potential ( at least at the time I bought them-now I'm trying to remember what that was). One cool find was a small republished Sears & Roebuck catalog from 1909. It's really fun to look through that and see what was being sold and for how much. Surely, I can make some sort of lesson out of that for my HCC classes, right?

I'd try posting a picture of the table, but I'm upstairs lounging and don't feel like going all the way down (12) steps to do so. Please don't take my laziness personally.

How to Read a Cat

Our cat, Tucker, is notorious for throwing up. Hairballs, food, food, food, hairballs. Finally, though, after all these years, we believe we've learned the signs of the impending upchuck. We will generally hear one of two things. If you have cats, you probably know what I'm talking about.

1) The Hacking Drum Cough
Known for the rhythmic beat and seizing body, this is the most obvious sign of a hairball, but we've learned that it may also signal the removal of too-quickly-eaten food. When you hear this, run to cat, scoop, remove from carpet/rug, and deposit quickly on easy-to-clean surface. Tucker has a lot of experience in this department.

2) The Low Growl-Yowl
This one is tricky. If you hear the low growl-yowl, it can mean one of two things: Tucker is about to yack up a hairball (this noise is reserved for hairballs only - not food removal) or Tucker has spotted another cat in his territory and is boldly trying to assert his neutered masculinity. If the situation is the latter but you read it as a hairball alert, be prepared to be viciously attacked/maimed for your stupidity in misreading the signals.

Just a few moments ago, we heard the low growl. Now this proved to be a bit challenging and hard to read given the fact that Tucker was sitting on his perch near the window looking out the back yard. It was a toss up -- hairball or testosterone-induced rage?

We decided to go with hairball which was a good read as he produced a lovely milky-white fluid containing a finger length of disgusting twisted hair. Ken was closest to Tucker and so was blessed with the task of scooping, removing to kitchen, and then cleaning the mess. I had to laugh from the family room as I heard the following:

Tucker: Hack, hack, hack, puke. Silence.

Ken: (Sarcastically) No, no, Tucker, that's okay. Just walk away. I'll take care of it. Ah-gain.

Bloom of the Evening

Isn't this pretty? It's one of the flowers I have in a pot in our back yard that's just starting to open up and bloom. I had to take a quick pick as I know it'll be gone by tomorrow.  Sadly, it's too darn hot out to do anything fun in the yard, like finish the path to the pond. However, I did make Ken clean the pond filter tonight as it was getting pretty nasty. (Note that I really do know how to clean it, but I keep telling him he needs to do it. I just don't want to because it is such a stinky/gross job. I don't think he reads the blog so no one tell him!)

Thinking about Dad

My genealogy quest for info on the Seibles has been most interesting. Tonight I spent time (hours actually) scanning pictures of my dad, his brothers/sister, and additional pics of our immediate family to share with Uncle D and cousin Sandy, Seibles I've recently made contact with (see previous post). I also received an email from cousin Sandy containing two pictures of my grandmother (Marie) and grandfather (George) together. I was so amazed!  I'd begun seeing pictures of him from Uncle D, but I hadn't seen any of her, let alone him and her in the same pic! Here is a picture of them in 1938.

I'm really hoping to learn more about Marie as I've been able to find so little. I hoping Sandy can shed more light on her. She did say she has more pictures, so that's a good sign!

When I was scanning pictures from my mom's photo albums, I was primarily looking for pics of my dad that I could share with his half-brother so he could see what dad looked like. More than anything, as I looked through some of the albums, I tried to see the images of my dad as a stranger would -- not a daughter who knew him. I was trying to see him as a half-brother might see him for the first time.

When I saw was my dad, a loving father. I mean, I always knew he was a loving father. He always told us how proud he was of us and he was always playing games and spending time with us. In the pictures, I saw, however, I saw dad -- Dave -- the attentive, patient father. In picture after picture, he's with his kids, putting gifts together at Christmas time, carrying someone around, etc. Here you see dad putting a baby Melissa on a pogo stick one of the kids got for Christmas. Corrina and Connie are also in the pic. It was probably their pogo stick.

I continue to be surprised at what a good father he turned out to be. His parents divorced when he was about 4 or 5, he went to live with his maternal grandmother, had little to no contact or rearing with his mother or father, went to live in a juvenile home in his early teens, and lived/worked in a county home his his late teens/early twenties. He was really pretty much on his own. How did a man with so little family become such a big family man?

Here is one of my favorite pictures of him. It's Christmas, probably around 1981 or 1982 when I was around 4-5 years old. I'd made him a present in Sunday School and he was opening it. You can tell from my expression that he obviously said something nice about it. I wish I could remember what that was. But my expression tells me all I need to know. He liked it and I was glad that I made my dad happy. I miss my dad.

Helloooo Summah!

Summer time is the best time ever...if you are a teacher. I keep getting a lot of slack from others who work "real" jobs whenever I describe the wonders of summer break, but right now I don't care. I'm happy! Oh, I am so happy!  Not only has this summer been truly great, but I have been taking on new challenges and learning new things about myself, my family, and my life.  Oh, dear loyal reader, where to begin (and yes, I know I used the singular form of "reader" - who knows who's even reading this thing anymore. Lord knows I've been terrible at writing and posting).

1. Work: No work! Ah ha! Seriously. I'm not teaching anything this summer, but I did take on a few projects, including writing some lessons for the NROC group (Google it if you want to learn more). That task was actually taking up a lot of my time as I had to write about 6-8 lessons almost every two weeks. I think I got way ahead of their expectations though because in a phone call a week or so ago, they asked to slow down because they need time to reassess where we're going with all of this. That was music to my ears! Since then, I've been able to relax more around the house and just be lazy.

However, I am working on some tutor training sessions though to present when school gets back in session next month. I also really should be working on syllabi and class materials for fall...which I have, only just a little though. Agh, that can wait; I'm on vacation!

2. House Projects: This year Ken and I tackled two major projects: build a path to the pond and paint/re-cover the free wicker furniture I got from Dr. G last summer. Ken is just about done with the path. We need to buy a few more bricks to round it all out, and I finished painting and making new covers for the patio furniture. Note that the path isn't quite finished. We have a few more bricks to place at the end to curve around the pond, and we need to get the rest of the new wood chips sprinkled about. On the lower right, you can see half of my raised flower gardens I also created. We used to have one big vegetable garden here, but I got tired of maintaining it and we never really ate anything from it anyway. I wanted something lovely to walk through and something to help the bees do their work. Enter my two egg-shaped raised gardens. The one you cannot see is growing nicely with a "pollinator's blend" of flowers, etc. and the one you can see is going to be all zinnias.

3. Travel: Minimal travel this year. It must be our off year given we took some big ones last year: Seattle,  Niagara Falls, etc. This year, we stayed a bit closer to home and made a trip to Sioux City, IA so I could meet some relatives (see next section below about genealogy below), and we're also planning a short trip to the Oregon, IL area to see Matt & Lisa. In short, I've enjoyed the time at home.

4. Genealogy Project: Ah! Here is where life gets interesting! Finally, after all my time spent on ancestry.com (which during the semesters isn't much given the time I have), I've made contact with some Seible relatives! Oh, I don't know if you can grasp the magnitude of this for me. Seriously, I feel great about it. All my life I've known next to nothing about my father's side -- the Seibles. Here I am with this last name and no knowledge about who carried it before me (other than my dad). During my trip to Sioux City, I met my dad's cousin Diana and her husband Jim, who shared pictures with me and drove me to a cemetery where many Seibles are buried. (I also got to meet their dog Snowball, a real hoot!) I also met her brother Mark and his family, which included two second-cousins of mine. Everyone was so nice and welcoming!

In addition, I've also made contact online with my dad's half-brother and we've been exchanging emails and pictures. He also shared an email from one of my first-cousins on my dad's side that I haven't seen or heard from since I was 2, and she wants to correspond! This is truly amazing to me! I am learning so much about my father's father (my grandfather whom I never knew or heard much about) and his life after his divorce from my paternal grandmother (whom I also never knew or heard much about). I am also seeing pictures for the first time of people I've never seen before. It never ceases to amaze me at how people look like each other. This man, who is technically my father's half brother, making him my half-uncle (though I don't know if he is quite ready for me to start calling him "Uncle D"), has been a gift to me -- I am learning so much and filling in some of the blanks about my ancestors. Also, I hope, I am making familial connections that will last longer than the scope of this project. What a great feeling!

So that's where I am. I'm enjoying this summer like no other summer before...which is a good thing because I've really shot myself in the foot for fall in terms of the workload I've taken on. But I'm not going to think about that now...I'll think about that...well...not tomorrow...no, or the next day....agh, forget it; I'm on vacation!