I've had four days off due to snow and ice, and perhaps more next week with the dumping of snow that's currently falling so I thought I'd finally take the time to update you about life the past couple of months. Its been packed with trips and changes, but its also been very normal as always. No winning lottery tickets (I guess we'd actually have to play for that to happen), no mysterious benefactors, and no surprise foreign vacations, instead its just the normal work, play, and the occasional trip out of town and that suits us just fine. Though if there are any readers who happen to win the lottery and believe they would like to become mysterious benefactors, please feel free to send me on a surprise foreign vacation!
In the meantime, here's a couple of highlights of the past six months.
1. We spent some time canning this summer, though my measly garden didn't produce much (the raspberries and rhubarb won't be coming back this spring). I did spend a lot of time canning with my in-laws as their garden is huge and my father-in-law gardens for our church also, so the vegetables are bountiful all summer long even if ours didn't grow too well. (We've since enlarged our garden and tilled in some lovely manure thanks to an uncle in town who has a lot of Amish customers. Our favorites this year were the end of summer salsa (made with carrots so it has a sweet flavor), amaretto-cherry jam, and a tomato basil sauce. We're already through the salsa and jam, but we still have a few sauces left for the rest of the year. I'm already planning our garden for next year and am looking through canning books. I'm thinking about trying to can some kidney beans and growing some peas (last year it didn't work so well).
2. In June, James and I joined his family on a trip out to South Dakota for the 90th birthday of his grandfather and grandmother. It was the last big family trip out to SD as his grandparents finally sold the farm and moved to Arizona full time. We had a nice time playing with younger cousins, visiting with aunts/uncles and older cousins, meeting people my mother-in-law knew growing up, playing Annie-I-Over and cards, and touring the town (which only took about 10 minutes as it only had five streets). We also stopped at the Wisconsin Dells and Madison on the way back home to visit some family and friends. We enjoyed a hike around the University of Wisconsin's arboretum, a tour of the capital building, and a tour of the war museum in Madison. James and his brothers went back out in August to get their grandfather's tractor (a Farmall 400), which was in our garage until recently. It finally has a permanent home at his uncle's farm.
3. Jobs have also changed in our family this year. Instead of teaching high school, I've been moved to a middle school in my corporation and now teach 8th grade social studies. Its been a bit of an adjustment and I can say that I honestly prefer the upper grades, but the transition has been mostly smooth and I've made it halfway through the year. Also, I have some added responsibility of being a mentor teacher this year to our guest teacher from Anshan, China. Its been extremely interesting to speak with her about the differences in teaching, education, society, and to some extent government between our two countries. Its been a huge adjustment to her, but she seems to be enjoying her stay and is planning to return to our school corporation next year. As for James, he finished his degree in December and was working part-time at an engineering firm, which offered him a full-time position at the beginning of the year. He seems to be enjoying his new position, and especially enjoys the lack of homework or studying in his current schedule though he is contemplating taking a professional licensing exam that he doesn't have to take but would enhance his resume and career.
4. For my job, I was scheduled to go on a trip to China again this year, but we didn't have enough student interest to warrant the number of chaperons the school was planning on taking (yours truly being one of them). I voluntarily postponed my return trip with the hopes of going next year, but was very surprised when I found out that I was scheduled for another student trip - to Washington D.C. over my birthday! I had only been to D.C. once before and enjoyed it immensely. This trip was very nice also though I can honestly say that if you're going to D.C. its better to tour without chaperoning 150+ students. I did get to see quite a few memorials that I hadn't seen before, but the schedule was so packed that it was hard to take everything in and keeping students interested in history/government for that long is a HUGE challenge.
5. The last big change for us has been a new addition to our household - Tipper has come to stay with us. For those of you who remember the large brown/black mutt that my parents had at their house (some of you better than others - sorry Melissa!), she came to stay in July and promptly became very ill. We thought she was feeling down due to homesickness and was just marking the yard with her frequent urination, but we had to rush her to the vet when we discovered her down on the back porch without enough strength to stand. It turns out that Tipper is diabetic, we were given two options - treatment or putting her down, so we've decided to keep her. During the past couple of months I've learned quite a bit about diabetes in dogs and surprisingly its very similar to diabetes in humans. I never though I'd be giving my dog shots of insulin every day, but she does well. If only we could now get her to kennel in the house without putting up a huge fight. Does anyone have any suggestions? Giving treats is out, but we've tried tons of positive reinforcement and assimilation to the kennel, but all to no avail. She's extremely stubborn and will only go into the kennel when she's ready. That's no problem unless we're ready for bed and need to kennel her for the night when its too cold for her to be outside in her garage kennel.
Other than that, not a whole lot has been happening in our neck of the woods. Please let us know how you're doing.
