The Palmer Post

Lighter and Brighter!!

2011-09-07T05:58:00.000-07:00

A Designer Backsplash adds to the decor (after several trips to Home Depot and Menards to find the right tile.

After taking doors off, now we clean and paint!

2011-09-07T05:53:00.000-07:00

Madison Kitchen update at Jon's house

2011-09-07T05:44:00.001-07:00

Here are the before, during and after pictures of the kitchen. The final completion picture will be posted later when the hinges arrive for the doors!

Pictures from our new house!

2009-05-23T09:16:00.001-07:00

This is the guest bed with the pillows that I made from the left over curtains:)

These are pictures of the guest bedroom. As you can see the pink ceiling fan is now white. The walls area nice green color, the curtains are brown, and Rick put up my bookshelves! I realized after that I should've taken pictures as a before, during, and after standpoint. But you'll just have to know that there was an ugly hot pink tree right were the chair/book shelves are now.

Here's a picture of our bedroom. With the new ceiling fan/light added in!

We're not done decorating any room yet -- but I like what we've done so far :)

We're getting new gutters put on sometime next week and the window replaced in the bathroom - it's currently this glass brick thing that's pretty ugly (and rusting).

Hope you all have a good Memorial Day weekend! I'm going to try to make my first rhubarb/strawberry pie - hopefully it turns out.

A Boat for Kathy

2009-01-27T17:24:00.000-08:00

Here is a boat I think we should consider, probably the last one unrestored. A PT boat without the guns and torpedos. They are moving it to restore. This thing is over 70' feet long and had a top speed of over 50 knots and carried full arms and 4 torpedos. I can't imagine what a ride on one of these would be like. You may want to go to www.pt728.com to see a sister ship.

Florida in January

2009-01-26T13:05:00.001-08:00

Here are some pictures of where I am staying and the sunrise from my windows in the morning You can see Zoe has a new friend. I have been studying under Willy a new way to fish. You simply through the net out and bring the fish. These are Talopia. The temps are now back in the 78's again what more could I ask for? See you all in spring.

Colorado Snowboarding 2009

2009-01-05T16:56:00.001-08:00

Hi All:

Matt and I made plans to go out to Colorado snowboarding on short notice and left on Wednesday December 31 and just got back today (Monday). We found a sweet deal for lift tickets - $99 for one day at each Steamboat, Winter Park, and Copper Mountain. Of course we forgot to take a good camera with, but we did have mine with very limited battery. So I took a few videos when we were out there and then stitched them together to make the following. We had a good time - no serious injuries.

Honeymoon & Wedding

2008-11-26T17:18:00.001-08:00

Rick & I got back from Jamaica safe and sound on Sunday. We had a great time!! Here's a picture from while we were there.

Here's also a picture of the family from our wedding. I know Mom said something about not having any good pictures from it yet. I haven't gotten any good ones of just Rick & I yet though.

Have a Happy Thanksgiving!!

A Busy Weekend

2008-09-23T14:51:00.000-07:00

We spent last weekend painting the exterior of Jon's house and garage in Madison. Friday - power wash, scrape and prime; Saturday - paint, paint, and paint the house and start on garage; Sunday - finish garage and trim on house and make repairs to the back door awning and other items. By Saturday night, Jon said he felt like he had been in a fight, Matt and I thought we were hit by a truck.....help from Jon's friend Wil was much appreciated on Saturday. Joe documented the event, was in charge of lunch and the shop vac to pick up the paint chips. He was also in charge of Zoe and Layla, who were taken on walks periodically! Job well done!!! Here are the before, during and after pictures.

2008-08-17T15:58:00.000-07:00

Here we are at Sawyer Glacier in Tracy Arm Fjords. Took a 4 hour boat ride to the glacier through the Fjords.....and finally at the glacier. Right amid the ice and while here, some chunks fell off the glacier, sounded like thunder. You can see we are dressed warmly. Our point of origin was Juneau where is mostly rainy and cloudy. Have also been to Skagway - took the Alaska Marine Highway - the ferry boat. Skagway was great - where the stampede of gold seekers landed and started their route to Dawson. Now in Haines - only 1 hour by ferry from Skagway. Would have been about 10 hours of drive time.

Also picture of of bison that Joe took on the way through - around Edmonton.

Edmonton, Canada

2008-08-07T12:31:00.000-07:00

The travelers are continuing to approach their first destination in Alaska. On the way, they stopped at Elk Park near Edmonton. I'll add the picture when I can re-size it!
Here is the message from Gary:
"We are in Ft. Saint John's, B.C., in a campground on Charley Lake. The weather has been beautiful after the midnight hail storm in Ross, North Dakota. We spent three nights in Edmonton because the wheelchair carrier on the camper broke (luckily we noticed it before the electric wheelchair fell off). We arrived Sunday night but Monday was a national holiday so we had to wait until Tuesday to get it fixed. Since we had plenty of time to get to Skagway, we weren't too upset. We were amazed to discover that Edmonton is a fast growing, booming city. Monday we spent much of the day at Fort Edmonton Park, a living museum with three time periods represented...outstanding! Late in the afternoon we went to Elk Island Park where there are herds of elk and buffalo. We saw lots of buffalo, some along the road, but no elk. It was a beautiful way to spend the forced layover. Have visited with some lovely and interesting people along the way. One of our neighbors tonight is from North Carolina and is riding his motorcycle all the way to Alaska. Tomorrow we plan to stop at Toad River campground about 500 Km (300 miles) up the road.

The Alaska Adventure Begins

2008-08-02T11:55:00.000-07:00

This section of the blog is titled:
3 Old Men and a Camper --
Gary, Dave and Joe are loaded and ready to roll on July 30, 2008. I don't think they forgot anything and are anxious to begin the journey to Alaska that has been in the planning stages for about 6 months.
The men have until August 12 to get to Juneau to pick up the wives, Mary, Joan and Kathy who are flying in for the middle of the trip.

Local Dog Breaks Dog Toy Destruction Record

2008-07-11T07:10:00.001-07:00

People sometimes ask why Layla doesn't have very many toys. Some possibilities are that I'm a terrible pet owner and don't really care about her, etc. or is it maybe that toys just don't last very long. I would favor the second opinion. Here is why....

One of my co-workers bought Layla a tennis ball bone toy - the type of thing similar to this one below:

After about a 2 hours of play - this is what remained:

New Car

2008-05-31T12:13:00.000-07:00

I am a proud new owner of a 2009 Pontiac Vibe. If you didn't hear about what happened to the KIA, here's briefly what happened - Somehow the bottom of the gas tank got pushed up to the top of the gas tank causing a hole in the top of it (I still can't figure out how this happened, since I have not hit anything or ran anything over). It was leaking gas pretty badly and not safe to drive - with an estimated cost to fix ridiculously high, I decided to look for a new car and use the KIA as a trade in!

Here's a picture of me with my new car:

It is a 5 speed manual, with a sunroof, power locks/key less entry, XM radio, onstar, stabilitrack, estimated 30 mpg on the HWY, and lots of other features! Also, since it's a GM car if I do have problems no matter where I am there's a GM dealer nearby.
It's very roomy and sits 5 people comfortably - so carpooling will still work out great! I drove Rick's truck last week to work and it was a manual and really liked it; I've also gotten pretty good at it :)

Otherwise I only have one week left of school, then I have off for the summer I can't wait!

Riding and Blogging

2008-04-11T01:02:00.000-07:00

I'm currently riding a bus from St Andrews to Edinburgh. For some odd reason I'm getting free wireless on the bus. So I decided to write a post just on the ride. I also made a little day by day "diary" last night at the pub waiting for the Masters to come on. You can read it here. Golf was great, I got on right away in the morning (7:30) and played with 3 Finnish guys. They were nice but not necessarily good golfers. I think they had the same problem that I have, that we haven't played golf in 6 months. Despite not getting any warm up or a single practice put, I managed to massage one down the middle, knock it on the green, and two put for an opening hole par. I played fine on the front, carding one birdie and 5 bogeys. The wind was with us the whole way on the front, which made the holes play much shorter. After rounding the turn the wind was now in our faces the whole way back, making 380 yard par 4's not reachable in two. My short game struggled with the rental clubs but I scraped in a 44 on the back nine. I didn't think that 84 was too bad, although I could have scored much better. I certainly have the itch to golf now because all I wanted to do after playing was to play again. Today I'm going to check out the Rosslyn Chapel from Dan Brown's novel, The DaVinci Code. Then tomorrow I'm going to take a 2 day highlands bus tour. It turns out it is a similar price to take a bus tour with many stops than it is for me to travel up there by myself with no tour guide or the ability to take stops.

The Pilgrimage...

2008-04-09T07:29:00.000-07:00

Well my conference is over and I left Edinburgh this morning on a bus. Just as muslims go on a pilgrimage to Mecca, golfers must go to St Andrews. Thus I arrived in St Andrews this morning and am staying at the only hostel in town. When I got here I asked how many people were in the town and he started to laugh and then said about 20. I think he meant 20,000. Below are a few pictures from my journey through St Andrews today, the ruins are from St Andrews Cathedral that was quite impressive, albeit many rocks and gravestones. I also walked around and found my way to the St Andrews golf courses. In total, they have 5 courses but are most renowned for a course named simply, "The Old Course". The British Open is played at St Andrews every 5 years and it is the home of golf. This course has been around for more than 600 years.

I am planning on playing tomorrow morning. Hopefully it will warm up and I'll get some sun. I haven't decided yet if I'm going to take a caddie but either way it won't be a cheap round of golf, however, when in St Andrews, you must play golf.

Tight Pants and Tighter Pockets

2008-04-09T07:22:00.001-07:00

Seriously, what size are this guys pants? They must have been all out of his usual size, XS. So he had to opt for the somewhat more snug and never going to have children size XXS. Great sneakers too. He must have met up with Bill and Ted and they gave him some Bogus shoes from the 80's.

I've also seen quite a few questionable haircuts, however I have been unsuccessful in capturing the moment on film and ridiculing them on the internet. This guy was not so lucky.

Things are quite expensive here. I seem to be spending a little bit more money than I thought I was going to, but the real fun will be tomorrow!

Update: The Land of Opposite

2008-04-05T05:54:00.000-07:00

Well it's becoming more obvious that things in the UK are certainly different than the states. An obvious difference is that people drive on the other side of the road. While this may not seem very important for somebody who isn't actually driving a car while in the UK, i.e. me, it is actually quite important. Think about when you cross the street. Generally you are suppose to look both ways, except that in the USA you always look to the left first because that is where the traffic is coming from. Well I haven't been hit by a car or bus yet, it actually feels strange crossing the street because traffic is in the other direction. A similar problem is taking the bus. When you want to travel a certain direction, e.g. east, over here you have to wait for the bus on the opposite side of the street. Seems relatively simple, however, there is just something about it that feels awkward.

Another interesting observation. Last night I got some take out chinese (actually take out is called "take away" here). I know that sometimes in the states you can't always understand what the chinese guy is saying at the A1 China Buffett/Delivery. But picture the difficulty of understanding a Chinese guy who's broken english is actually broken accent laden Scottish-English. I felt like it was an entirely different language.

Anyway, here are some picture from two days ago and my hike up to the top of Arthur's Seat.

Greetings from the Land of Scots

2008-04-03T08:44:00.000-07:00

Tourism has been going alright. Yesterday I went to the Edinburgh Castle, sort of an expensive 'tourist' activity, 11 pounds ($22 dollars). This is wear the Scottish Crown Jewels are kept (sort of underwhelming and I couldn't take pictures). This is also where something that is apparently important to the Scottish people, it is called the Stone of Scone. It's actually just a rock that somehow is symbolic of the Scots ability to rule themselves. However, England stole the rock around 1300 and it took them about 700 years to finally give it back. This stone is also the coronation stone for the English. Whenever there is a new king/queen, the stone would travel down to London and then back to the castle. I found somebody at the hostel to go with me so it was pretty fun.

Today I went on a free walking tour (about 3 hours) and it was nice. Albeit sort of strange, but my tour guide was from Australia and he did a fine job nonetheless. After the walking tour I hiked up Arthur's Seat. Essentially a very big hill that overlooks the city. The view was nice and the weather was great today. I'll put some pictures on a little bit later.

Greece pics

2008-03-29T12:18:00.001-07:00

Greece pics

2008-03-29T12:07:00.001-07:00

Returned from Greece. Athens is a large city, much like any other large city, lots of cars and high density living. The Archeological sites were terrific and the island of Aegina was great too. We managed to get everyone back to the US safe, although there were 3 girls (students) who I could have strangled a couple of times! Here are a few pictures.

Back to Jamaica...

2008-03-18T17:07:00.001-07:00

Matt and I have decided to go back to Jamaica next December. We've had such great times the past two years at Couples Swept Away that we can't wait to go back. Rick and Sarah will be visiting Couples San Souci in November and I'm excited to hear about their resort- I'm sure it will be wonderful.

Jamaica Trip 2

2007-12-30T17:35:00.001-08:00

The second time around proved to be just as great as the 1st. I'm sure we'll be back to Couples Swept Away in the future. It has everything we want in an all-inclusive resort.
This year we went with our friends Robin and Dan- they were great travel buddies.

Maleya turns 1

2007-12-30T17:28:00.001-08:00

We celebrated Maleyas 1st birthday before we left for Jamaica. She turned 1 on Dec 17th. It's hard to believe it's been an entire year since we first met her at the hospital. She enjoyed smashing her cake. Below is a picture of her wagon from Matt and I. It's equipped with cup holders, seat belts and a door.

Damn Ice Dams

2007-12-19T16:51:00.000-08:00

Well here are some images of the dreaded ice dams. Also you can see my "old" set of hose filled with salt on roof. The idea here is to dry to melt the ice to allow for a channel for water to melt down the outside of the house, not the inside - which it has been for about a week now. I hope there isn't any significant water damage...

Layla Rests up on New Bed

2007-11-24T15:57:00.001-08:00

Paris Wedding

2007-10-21T13:28:00.000-07:00

Here are some pictures of the wedding - lots of hats on the ladies!!

So we found one for Kathy to wear!! This was in the courtyard outside the chapel in the Ecole Militaire. Parents of the bride and groom!

Duck Hunting October 13th and 14th

2007-10-15T09:30:00.001-07:00

We went up to Perrot State Park to do some duck hunting. Fairly successful trip - we got 8 ducks each day for a total of 16. Four mallards, 5 gadwalls, 3 wigeons, 1 wood duck, and 3 teal.

Layla checks out part of her ducks

Mom's European Vacation

2007-10-07T11:17:00.000-07:00

Mark and Mailys' wedding was close to the Eiffel Tower. We stayed close to there at the Tourism Hotel. Took the Metro (subway) and walked all over Paris. The day I got there I went to the first platform of the Eiffel Tower. Next picture is from that platform and towards the Military complex where the wedding was - the building at the end of the green. They had excursions planned everyday so it was great! The wedding started at 3 pm. French dinners last a long time speeches between courses, and lots of courses. The dance started about midnight and went until 3:30 am. The french
young people said they usually go until about 6 am.

Saw the french countryside from Mon-Fri, staying in B and B. Saw Normandy beaches and museums and the American cemetary at Omaha beach where the worse casulties were taken by USA on d day June 6, 1944. Grandpa Jim was there either 3 days or 12 days after d day. Must have been awful. We walked the beach and took the route up to the hillside that the soldiers took - had been filled with mines. The german bunkers are still standing and show wher e the germans were hiding during the attacks from the allies.

Also saw 3 castles from the 1400-1500's for the rulers of the times. Many places to visit. Glad to have Mailys to speak french for us to get all arrangements and help with ordering food! She was also a very good driver. Her parents let us use 2 of their cars for the trip after the wedding. Most reasonable vacation, we shared rooms and breakfast was included, also 2 dinners at the places we were staying.

Maleya 9 months old.

2007-09-29T10:40:00.000-07:00

Here are a couple pictures from the weekend we had Maleya. The picture on the left is Maleya getting into Matt's work papers (she likes to rip up paper) and the other pictures is of her clapping her hands, which she did all weekend! We took her out to eat both Friday and Saturday night and she was perfect. Saturday morning Maleya and I went to the farmers market while the boys went golfing and Sunday we went swimming at Cherokee and shopping. For some reason she doesn't like Jon at all. Just having to be anywhere near him makes her cry! Sorry Jon, maybe its the facial hair?

Wedding

2007-09-23T17:35:00.000-07:00

Rick and I set up a blog for the planning of our wedding - since most of the people involved and in our families are not in the immediate area.
it's ricknsarah.blogspot.com
So if anyone is interested in that - just head on over there :)

School is still going very good, I'm just getting very busy between planning homecoming (the cheerleaders are in charge of the dance) and now planning a wedding as well, but I'm having fun doing both :)

Layla Can't Dance and I can't talk.....

2007-09-19T16:00:00.000-07:00

...the only thing about her is the way that she walks. I seriously don't understand this dog. This doesn't quite do the whole process justice, but basically she walks perfectly when she doesn't have a leash on, but when she has the leash on she thinks she is a sled dog or something. I think her demeanor changes as well; without the leash she is focused and business like and with the leash on she is like in play-time mode.

Any things to try let me know!!

2007-09-03T16:07:00.000-07:00

Rick and I took a day trip to Ho Chunk. After only playing one slot, he won 75 dollars!
We also wandered around downtown and got our picture taken...Now I just have to be ready for school tomorrow!

School starting soon!

2007-08-30T16:40:00.001-07:00

I've been busy these past couple of weeks! Between cheerleading practices, inservices and getting my classroom set up I haven't had much free time. These past two days I had the all staff inservice, on the first day it was district-wide, so there were about 500 people there! Today, however, was just the high school staff. We got to test out the climbing wall, ropes course, and the kayaks. They just received a grant to get a lot of new PE material, so today was a lot of fun!
I'm sure that I'll be spending tomorrow, and probably part of the day Saturday finishing getting ready for my classes, but I'm getting excited to begin! (I'm also excited for my first real pay check tomorrow)
I'll post some pictures up of my room and of my cheerleading squad once I get some - they're actually really good which makes it much easier to coach.

Layla after Haircut

2007-08-08T11:29:00.000-07:00

I took Layla to the dog beauty salon and had her trimmed nails cut and bathed, what a difference in shedding it has practically stopped. She is still full of energy and does get walked twice a day. We have cut down on her food. I think she looks good.

Hotter than hell takes on new meaning...

2007-08-06T15:50:00.000-07:00

The weather in Louisiana is incredible, and I mean incredible in a terrible way. The humidity is around 85--95% everyday and the sun is relentless. I've never sweat so much in my life. I can't believe that anybody lives down here - especially if you didn't have A/C. The first night here our A/C was broken and the temperature reading was off the charts on the thermostat - so greater than 85 F. When I woke up in the morning, I was covered in sweat and thought that a nice cold shower would at least give me a few moments of comfort. To my surprise, the water doesn't get cold in the shower - I would say it is about 80 degrees F which is utterly ridiculous. But our A/C got fixed now so I think I'll make it. It is just incredible though how fast you start to sweat outside and how humid the air is - almost feels like you can't breathe sometimes.

Jon

Maleya- 7 months old.

2007-07-26T18:42:00.000-07:00

We went to Sand Bay last week for a day and got to see maleya. She loves the water and finally fits into the dress we bought her in Jamaica.

YouTuber's are a Strange Breed

2007-07-12T16:44:00.000-07:00

So last night I was bored, but didn't feel like doing anything constructive so I started to play the guitar. As I was looking for a new song to learn on the computer, I realized that I have this camera on my macbook (iSight) and some very easy to use video editing software. I then proceeded to conduct an experiment. I made a video of me playing a song and uploaded it onto YouTube. (I have an account there so that I can put videos on this webpage). Either way, I finally got around to uploading the video right before I went to bed. So I said that I was conducting an experiment, well I wanted to see how little of an effort it would take for people to find you on YouTube, that is of course, assuming you had some sort of talent (which I don't). But there is a story of a guy named Andy Mckee who put some videos of himself playing guitar on YouTube and now has become fairly well known and has benefited quite a lot from it.

Alright, back to my experiment... When I woke up in the morning, the video had been "live" on YouTube for approximately 10 hours, and I already had 17 views and 1 comment! I was extremely shocked for a number of reasons: (i) it was on there during the night, (ii) I only gave it a few tags (used for searching for videos), and (iii) I'm not very good at guitar!

In my scientific opinion - it would be very easy to get recognized on YouTube because apparently people are on there in the middle of night browsing for material. All it would take is for a few people to like it, pass it on to their friends, to their friends, etc and you might be the next Andy Mckee.

Well that's all I have for now (and yes I realize that I didn't run proper controls in my experiment, but it was at least good preliminary data). If you want to check out the video you can click here.

New Job Country Western Judge

2007-07-07T15:48:00.000-07:00

Mom the country western judge. She judged the 26th annual Colgate Country Showdown held at the lake front. I guess Tyler W won. The salmon derby is also going on. So there was a crowd. I hope you can see the weed in her mouth. Zoe goes to Kurts week after next for a little training.

Organic Dairy Farming

2007-07-05T18:08:00.000-07:00

Long time no post, so I figured somebody had to do it. As part of my plant pathology field identification class we visited an organic dairy farm today. It was a pretty cool experience, they produce milk under the Organic Valley trade name. What I was most impressed with was their milking set up. They have about a 1,000 acre farm, which includes about 250 acres for the cows to graze and the rest is for producing certified organic feed for the animals. I included a little video of the milking operations because I thought it was super sweet. They have about 325 cows that get milked twice a day, each milking only takes 2.5 hrs with their sweet set up. Check out this video to see more.

After leaving the farm I was seriously thinking about buying their milk, sort of nice to know where your food comes from. On our field trip we also visited an organic vegetable farm, called the JehnEhr Family Farm, in Sun Prairie. They have a program called a CSA, which stands for Community Supported Agriculture. Basically it is a program that allows consumers to buy fresh organic produce directly from the farmer. For about $20 a week you get a large box of produce, the catch is that you don't have a choice of what vegetables and fruits will be in it, you just get whatever is ripe and in season. It seems like an interesting idea and I think Anthony and I are going to give it a try. You can read more about it on the JehnEhr website.

All for now, keep the blogging comming. --Jon

Fishing on Lake Erie

2007-05-23T17:51:00.000-07:00

Zoe's Haircut

2007-05-15T14:37:00.000-07:00

Zoe got a haircut and a bandana

Zoe growing up

2007-04-25T12:11:00.000-07:00

Congrats Matt. Skill? or Luck? We took Zoe fishing in AR pictures attached

Matt "Ace" Palmer Scores First Hole-In-One

2007-04-24T18:45:00.000-07:00

Congratulations to Matt for recording his first Hole-In-One. It was on #7 at the Oaks Golf Club, a 175 yard par-3 and he used a 9 iron. On a side note, we also won the golf tournament with a 3-man scramble score of a 61 (Tom Geer played with us). So we start out leading the "Cloud 9 Grille Cup" season long points race - you should be able to see the results here. (when they actually update their site)

Sunny Wisconsin!

2007-04-21T09:07:00.000-07:00

Maleya in Arizona

2007-04-14T11:40:00.000-07:00

Maleya with her great-grandma flowers from the funeral. She seemed to like them alot!
Maleyas 1st plane ride.
Maleya and her favorite aunt in her easter dress. And finally... Maleya soaking up the sun!

Another week older

2007-03-24T16:10:00.000-07:00

Zoe at 3/16/2007

2007-03-16T19:31:00.000-07:00

The pup is growing.

First Real Job...

2007-03-14T14:21:00.000-07:00

Student teaching is still going great. I'm just finishing my two weeks where I held all of the responsibilities.
I might soon be coming across a real job. So far there are 4 openings in the LaCrosse area for HS Math teachers, and the teacher have until April 15th so sign there contracts! So it's looking like a good year to be trying to get a teaching job around here.
I'm almost done getting the applications together, then I just need to wait and see. But hopefully I'll be apart of the working world and off the Palmer payroll soon.

Mount Bohemia

2007-03-12T11:00:00.000-07:00

Jim Halberg, his friend Burt, and I went up to Mount Bohemia this weekend. It is way up north in the Keweenaw penninsula of the UP. Bohemia is unlike any of the other ski hills up north, they don't groom any of the trails, promote skiing through the trees, do not make any snow, there is no ski lodge, and most importantly there is hardly anybody there! I think that the hill is about twice as tall as Indianhead or Powderhorn, so it was pretty challenging (only one blue square run, a few black diamonds, and then the rest double and triple black diamonds). I actually couldn't make it down a run without stopping to catch my breath. All in all, we had a good time, despite the fact that I got sick on Thursday (the day we left) and spent the whole car ride (6.5 hours) with a fever and drugged up on NyQuill. Miraculously I was feeling well enough to snowboard on Saturday. Jim took some pictures and you can see them here and read his blog of the event here.

Jamaican me crazy- Part II.

2007-03-05T19:06:00.000-08:00

Matt and I just booked our return trip to Jamaica. We will be going to the same resort- Couples Swept Away that we went to for our honeymoon. We're going Dec 13-20th and this time we hope to get fully certified in scuba diving and go a couple more times!

Zoe keeps up with Kathy

2007-03-04T09:43:00.000-08:00

I put Zoe on a lead yesterday and walked briskly to the mailbox and back. At first she did not want to come along.....had been following me all around, but not on a lead before. After a few tugs (more like drag) and whines, she trotted right along. I didn't say a word, just pulled when she stopped and kept a brisk pace. Later in the day we repeated the exercise, she did even better!

Today, Sunday, I walked her again, after a few tugs she tried to go ahead and I had to pull her back in line. When we passed Lambert's dogs Sasha and Chester, she quick scooted to the opposite side of me for protection! But kept up the pace......by April she needs to walk with a leash in Arkansas, so practice has begun!!! Got Dad the book, Cesar's Way, for his birthday and I'm reading it also.....I am the pack leader and showing my stuff....not much talk but alot of action!!

Mom, the pack leader

Garretts Popcorn

2007-03-03T08:16:00.000-08:00

If you've never had the chance to have Garretts popcorn, you are missing out! This is my all-time favorite snack in the world. Once you try it, normal brands of popcorn will never taste as good. Matt claims that it tastes the same as the popcorn we can get on State Street, but most people I've talked to disagree. You can order me a tub anytime at www.garrettpopcorn.com or if you're ever downtown Chicago stop by one of their stores and try some. My favorite is the cheese/carmel mix as shown below- its worth every penny. Yummy!

Massive amount of snow...

2007-02-28T14:15:00.000-08:00

Here's some results of the snow storm from last weekend...and this is after it has melted quite a bit...
Can you find the car in the snow bank? And look how much snow is hanging off of the roof in the back! (I knocked it down today - I know it's not good for the shingles) and then the bank of snow that went almost up to the top of my car at Rick's place.
All I can say is that I really hope it doesn't snow tonight, I put in my shoveling time for a year, over 3 hours of shoveling, between the sidewalk, and getting my car out (the plow put the snow half way up my door!)
Student teaching is going well. I'm just really busy between that and working.

Maleya 2 months

2007-02-25T10:22:00.000-08:00

Our niece is a little over 2 months old now. Her talents include sticking out her tongue and blowing spit bubbles. She is also starting to make little noises like she is trying to talk. Grandpa calls her boo-boo and grandma calls her lu-lu. Not sure which one will stick! She definitely is grandpas little girl and it seems that he cant get her to smile the quickest! Her sleep schedule is starting to become regular, she goes to be around 9-10 and wakes up at 4am and then again around 7-8 am. Not too bad! We cant wait to baby sit!

New Pictures

2007-02-24T16:32:00.000-08:00

More Zoe pictures

2007-02-21T17:22:00.000-08:00

Dads new dog

2007-02-20T16:17:00.000-08:00

loking for name of pup call with suggestions

Our niece.

2007-01-14T15:40:00.000-08:00

Our niece, Mayela, is now 4 weeks old. I went to watch her on Saturday while the Palmer brothers were busy playing sheepshead and poker in Milwaukee. She has grown so much and is starting to make more faces. She is still a very good baby and we all love her so much.

Portfolio complete!

2007-01-13T17:21:00.000-08:00

I finally finished my 2nd portfolio...now it's only 18 weeks of student teaching, then I'm done!
It's all done online, so here's the link to it, everything with SubTwo in it is part of this portfolio:
https://chip.chalkandwire.com/epgroup/viterbo/portfolio//19705//116795908826041.html

It feels good to have a few days to relax before I start, my first day is Jan. 22nd!

Biloxi

2007-01-13T14:32:00.000-08:00

Guys
What I saw in Biloxi was not nice -people still without shelter - a lady walked 2 days to get blankets and some food where i helped the first day. I also went on a roof repair job that day. The contractor had been paid but never installed boots around the vents - so the roof leaked. I was able to help around camp with small jobs they needed done so i felt good about it. I would like to go back as there is so much help needed and so much to do. They have a grant to rehab 175 homes down to the studs and rebuild them, i think the i might be able to direct some workers, we will see

Dad

From white to camo

2007-01-13T07:57:00.000-08:00

Picture this - a white 1991 Subaru wagon.....now picture it painted camo.....Yes! I saw my subaru just a few days ago with a new exterior look. We should have thought of this and that car would still be titled in my name! And running great. I will look closer next time I see it for the holes in the front fenders to make sure it was mine. Steve Kutchera bought it for $200....he probably re-sold it for a few dollars more and it is back in business. Wow...what a car!

Mom Can't Blog

2007-01-12T17:55:00.001-08:00

HA HA HA

An Inconvenient Truth...

2007-01-11T15:42:00.000-08:00

I had this email forwarded to me today. I fear the school system is failing these days. We came across a similar issue in an evolution class that I took in college - about the teaching of evolution in public schools and how an "opposing view" must be presented. Here is the email:

The school board in Federal Way, Wash., adopted a three-point policy on the showing of former Vice President Al Gore's documentary "An Inconvenient Truth" this week after the parent of a child whose teacher wanted to show the film complained. The policy requires teachers who want to show the movie to ensure that a "credible, legitimate opposing view will be presented" and that the principal and the superintendent must approve the viewing before it occurs. Also, any teachers who have shown the film must present an "opposing view," the Federal Way School Board said. The school board imposed the restrictions on viewing the film after Frosty Hardison, a parent who said that he believes the Earth is 14,000 years old, sent an e-mail to the school board complaining about the film.
It is amazing to me that somebody like Frosty here can control what is taught to other kids in a public school system, much less his own. It is fine with me if Frosty doesn't want to accept scientific thought - even though science is not absolute truth and has never pretended to be absolute truth, but rather scientific thought is what is accepted beyond a resonable doubt after intense strutiny and experimentation. I think that it is amusing that they need a "credible alternative source..." In my opinion, Frosty has missed the point - the documentary "An Inconvenient Truth" is about what we are doing to the Earth in the present day, to help make people aware that what we are doing to our environment has some major implications in the near future. The science behind it, is truly that, science. It comes from experimentation to the best of the scientific communities abilites. However, scientific facts are often used by politicians out of context and can be mis-used. Despite Gore's obvious short-comings (although without Al Gore this Blog would not be possible), I think he is truly trying to get the word out on global warming.

Jamaican me crazy

2007-01-09T16:37:00.000-08:00

We are safely back from Jamaica- everything was beautiful. The highlight of our week was learning how to scuba dive and going on our first dive in the ocean. We saw an octupus and lots of fish and coral. We'll try to post pictures of the dive later, they are on the water camera. The resort was great and had lots of activities, great food and an amazing selection of drinks. We took wind surfing lessions, played a little tennis, got massages, went cliff diving, shopped, but mostly sat in the sun with our fruity drinks and Red Stripes. Our room was a "hut" that was made up of all shutters and a big porch/deck with a hammock and a couch. We're looking forward to our next tropical vacation!

Dad's Duck Hunt

2007-01-07T17:33:00.000-08:00

Hi All. Just heard from Dad and the details of his hunt. It looks like they were fairly successful, but I'm sure there would have been more ducks if "dead eye" was there (i.e. me).

Also - Mom and Dad if you would like to post something, instead of just adding a comment - in the upper right hand corner is a link that says "new post".

The First Post

2007-01-04T21:11:00.000-08:00

Hey Guys. Just checking out how this might work to have a family blog. Let me know if this is something we would like to do, it may be fun! On the right we could put a family photo instead of the hunting photo, I would say one from the wedding but that might be too formal (much to Amber's dismay)....