Cirque du Soleil

Our local library had a drawing for free tickets to go see Cirque du Soleil perform.  The entrants had to be 14 years of age or younger, so I signed up James and Jacob.

Yesterday I got the call - James had won the drawing and was the proud owner of two tickets to see Dralion!

The kids wanted to know what the show was going to be like, so I found a video on youtube.

After watching that, the two younger boys grew VERY excited - which presented a problem.  James only won two tickets.  If I am to take both boys, we would need an additional ticket.  Fortunately, Jonathan doesn't want to go, and neither does Sean.  But finances are tough right now, and I was fairly certain we couldn't afford an extra ticket.

But Sean told me to make some calls and find out how much a ticket would be - if there was even a seat available next to the ones we had won.  So I called the library and explained the situation, and they happily gave me the seating info on the tickets - Section 110, Row 15, seats 15 & 16.  They also confirmed that the tickets did not specify adult or child, so could be used either way.

A quick call to the show center found that Row 15 was completely booked.  However, Row 14 had seats available - seat 16, right in front of the two seats we won!  When I explained the situation, the ticket lady was sympathetic, and gave me a small discount, enabling us to buy that needed third ticket for $78.25.

Now, we honestly can't afford that, but Sean said to go for it anyway.  We'll just have to be very very careful with our food budget this pay period - but I was able to work out a menu plan that should have us eating well the entire time for under $100.

Long story short - WE'RE GOING TO DRALION!!!!

Letter to Teacher

Dear Ms. Tripp,

I know this is the oldest excuse in the book, so forgive me for having to use it.  But this afternoon, the dog DID in fact eat Jacob's homework.

Jacob had spilled his drink on the kitchen table, and in the hustle to clean it up, homework got swept to the floor.  I was alerted to the catastrophe by my son's shriek of "Bad dog!  BAD BAD DOG!"  I spun around to discover our puppy happily munching on a sheet of paper.  The bits of mangled, slobber-covered paper I managed to recover had math work on it, and I could just make out the words "Even and Odd".

Could you please give him another copy of this worksheet?  I will make sure the baby gate is up from now on, so the dog can't get into the kitchen while the boys are doing their homework.

Sincerely,
Patricia Betts

Improptu Geography lesson

It's the last day of Christmas break, and the kids were happily watching TV while I did some internet research.  I placed a couple orders for free seed catalogs, and decided to look up what hardiness zone we are in.  For those who aren't familiar with gardening, each plant grows best in its own climate, and hardiness zones are a great way to know what will grow best in your area.

Each seed packet comes with info telling you what zone (or zones) it will grow best in.  (I pulled the above image from google - and you can see that it has the hardiness zones listed for Australia).

Anyway, I was looking at the above map to double-check my hardiness zone  (click the map above to see it larger).  I lived in La Crosse for so long that I keep having this mental feeling that I am in zone 4, and I have to forcibly remind myself I am now in zone 5. ~sighs~

"What's that, Mom?"  Jacob was staring at the colorful map in fascination.  "It looks kinda like the map hanging behind Ms. Tripp's desk."  I grinned and started to explain that Ms. Tripp's map was probably colored by state, while this one was colored by temperature.  The warmer the overall temp, the brighter the color.

At this point, James came up and pointed at the state of Texas.  "That's the largest state." he said confidently.

"Actually, James, Alaska is larger than Texas"  I said.  He looked quizzically at the map (which DID make Alaska look slightly smaller than Texas)...then grinned at me and laughed, thinking I was pulling his leg.  So I pulled up a more realistic-sized map of North America, and he caught on.  He also was indignant at the makers of the zoning map for "lying" about the state size (which was so cute).

Then the questions started coming fast and furious.  "Which country is the biggest?"  So I pulled up a map of the world, and they quickly figured out it was Russia.  ("Wow...you could fit three United States inside of Russia!")  With a little bit of prompting, they realized that Russia and Alaska are very close to each other, even though they are on the opposite sides of a traditional map.  "It's because the world is round, right, Mom?"  Yup!

"Which country is the smallest?"  So I pulled up a map of Italy and showed them Vatican City.  "Wow...that's really small!"

"Which country is the one that's been in the news lately?"  That one caught me off-guard a bit, because a lot of countries have been in the news recently - so I asked for more details.  "You know, the one with all the big bombs."

"Oh, I think you mean Iran."

"No, Mom - it was "North" something, like North Carolina but a country, not a state...and you said your Grandpa fought there?  And their leader is sick all the time."

"Ahh, you mean North Korea."

"Yeah!  Where is North Korea?"

I showed them where North Korea was, while puzzling over the "leader is sick" comment...then I realized the name of the leader of N.K. is Kim Jong Il (which sounds a lot like "ill").  I have to admit it made me chuckle a bit.

After the North Korea conversation, they kinda lost interest in the maps and turned back to the TV.  The whole "lesson" couldn't have taken six or seven minutes, but they learned a lot.

This isn't the first time they have shown an interest in geography.  I'm thinking I might have to get a couple of large, classroom-quality maps to hang up for them.  Definitely a United States map, and I think a world map as well.

" A child educated only at school is an uneducated child" 
         - George Santayana

The dangers of working on Christmas

Most of my family members work on holidays - myself included (when I worked outside the home).  My mother (who works at a hospital) was scheduled to work today as well.

At 5:45 this morning she was walking from her car to the hospital to start her shift.  The guy running the snowplow didn't see her in time, and backed up into her, striking her right side.  The impact lifted her off the ground and she landed hard on her left side, skidding several feet across the pavement.  The landing broke the upper bone in her left arm.

My mother being who she is, her recitation of the accident was full of humorous observations and macabre jokes.  But I could still hear the pain in her voice, and I knew she had taken meds that just weren't making a dent in the pain.  Her Christmas this year isn't going to be very joyous.

After I got off the phone, I realized that I could have very easily lost my mother today.  If that guy had been driving the plow slower, the impact wouldn't have sent her flying - rather, it would have knocked her down, right in front of the tires - and probably killed her.

I know the driver is probably a good guy - Mom said he was very concerned and helpful - but why didn't he have the beeper on when he was backing up?  Mom heard no noise to let her know the plow was backing up in her direction - just a split second where she saw it coming before it struck her.

But as Mom pointed out, he probably feels horrible for not turning on the beeper - and even worse that he struck her in the first place.  On top of that, he's probably terrified that he's going to be fired - and in this economy, wouldn't be able to find another job right away.  Trust my mother to think about this guy, and worry more about him than about herself!  But that's the kind of woman my mother is.

This is one of those times when I sincerely wish I lived closer to my family.  I don't work, and normally would be in the perfect position to come over and help her out.  But my hometown is a five hour drive away, and I don't own a car...and even if I did, I don't have the money for such a trip.

My only wish this Christmas is that I could go see my mother with my own eyes, and know that she is truly okay.

Eggnog

Got a new foster animal today.  This time it's a little puppy, just eight weeks old.  He's been given the name "Eggnog" (which I honestly think is a horrible name for a pet, but that's just me).  His mother was a German Shepherd.  His papers say that he is a Shepherd/terrier mix, but he looks more like he has some hound in him to me.  Sean thinks he has some golden Labrador as well (he's got that color coat).

I managed to get a couple pics...the flash on our camera sometimes works and sometimes doesn't, so some of the pictures are bright and others are dark.

Now, this is interesting for me, as I haven't trained a dog in over 20 years!  So if anyone has words of wisdom or just advice, I'll take all I can get!  Thanks for any and all help.

The weather has been bad all weekend.  It started out raining on Friday, which froze when the sun went down.  Saturday started with more rain, which turned to sleet and then snow by evening.  Temps began to fall Sunday night, and I warned the boys that they would have to dress warmly for school the next day.

Monday morning arrives, and Jacob comes to the table in shorts and a tank top.  And James had a tee-shirt on.

Seriously?

I made them march back into their room to put on appropriate clothing for the weather.  It ended up being one of the few days I had to pick out the younger kids clothing.  I stilled their complaints by explaining how cold it was outside, but they didn't really comprehend how cold it was until I opened the window.  One blast of arctic air and they changed their minds in a hurry!

As they dressed, I explained to them that the school has been closed all weekend and that the heater was off.  The school is going to be VERY chilly this morning, and they are going to want to have layers on.  As I explained this, I remembered my mother explaining the very same thing to me as a child.  I also remembered how grateful I was to her when I got to school and discovered she was right - the school was only about 40 degrees inside.  It warmed up over the day, but thanks to her dressing me in layers, I remained comfortable the whole day through.

Great...now I feel like I'm turning into my mother.

The Mysterious Ticking Noise

I've heard a lot about "The Mysterious Ticking Noise" and decided to look it up on youtube.  The video was so funny, I called the kids out to see it.  They were laughing so hard I'm suprised they could actually hear the song!  They asked to watch it twice more...and now they are in their room singing:

James:  "Snape, Snape, Severus Snape"

Jacob:  "Dumbledore!"

And they insist on singing the ending line with Voldemort together.  It's too cute!

Click here to see the video that started it all.