11-15-07

The view from my back deck. We live in a little forest!

11-14-07

Comfort food! Baked sweet potatoes are so good to eat on cool fall days.

11-13-07

Fall as seen from my front yard.

11-12-07

Fall has flung in central Virginia. This picture was taken on my way home from work today.

11-4-07

One day Dan and I will be making pictures like this with our grown children. Here's Dan with his parents and siblings. Three sibs are in their 40s, one is 30 something still...

Some days I get really sad thinking about the fourth child we lost. There's always an empty chair at the dining room table for what would have been a 3 year old this coming December. I still yearn for a baby I'll never have on this earth and wonder what might have been.

11-3-07

Yesterday we drove to New Jersey for Uncle Ed's birthday party. Here's a picture of the kids at the party. Jes had fun drinking legally at a family function from an open bar!

11-1-07

This morning I got up to watch the sun rise with my students. It was beautiful and silent. The only sound being the clicking of my camera. We headed home early this morning, as gale-force winds were expected later on in the day. I got home at 6pm, showered, ate dinner, packed up my computer, and headed out for school by 6:30pm. I was in class until 9:15 when I came home, exhausted from the day.

10-31-07

Halloween on an island in the middle of the Bay. It was a full day- picking up crab pots, having a feast, scavenger hunting for candy, and marsh mucking with rinsing off in the brackish Bay water.

10-30-07

Today I left early in the morning for an island in the Chesapeake Bay with 25 students and one other teacher. It was a long bus ride, then a long boat ride, but it was so cool to finally get there. We stayed in an old converted boat shed on Port Isobel, a marshy island east of Tangier.

10-24-07

Jes's bear and Aza's bunny on my office "couch" bed.

10-23-07

Fall is approaching but not quite here yet.

10-20-07

Squirt and Kels before the Homecoming Dance.
Got to the florists two minutes before closing
Got the last descent corsage
Picked out a tie for him at Belk with "black and blue" as my only clue
Washed and ironed his pants, his shirt
Packed his duffle bag for his overnight stay
Drove him to a friend's for meeting up---
Still a child, he is, in a tie with a pretty girlfriend.

10-16-07

My students presented their penguin houses and had the melt-off today. It was fun and a little chaotic.

10-16-07

I drove by V School today, the school that I started in 1995 and taught at until 2004. It looks different with the trees gone and I still miss being part of that community.

10-15-07

My students are getting ready for their penguin house competition tomorrow.

10-13-07

Today Dan and I went to the Garlic Festival. It was crowded but the weather was nice. We sat and listened to this Scotch-Irish band that was really good and we bought some German Red garlic.

10-9-07

My students are building little houses for the ice penguins to keep them from melting. I am teaching them heat transfer. Professor Goodling, you would be proud at what I can do with 6th graders.

10-8-07

Playing with the light. Shadows of me and Frisbee. The setting sun coming in and lighting up James (our piece of furniture that has a name.

10-8-07

I watered this thing last week and set it up to grow under my grow light, and Monday morning it had grass hair! The class thinks it's the coolest thing. It's our class pet. They all want to give it a haircut now.

10-7-07

Aza came home. Mittens is happy. See Mittens rubbing up against Aza as she reads? Her big sister is home and we are all happy.

P.S. Upon a closer look at this photo, I see that Mittens is actually licking the salt from inside the empty popcorn bowl. Oh well, it looked like she was adoring her big sister.

P.P.S. Upon yet another closer look, I see that Aza is not reading at all. She's trying to solve the Rubik's Cube!!!

10-6-07

I ordered these penguin ice cube trays for my students' Save the Penguins design project. I took this photo because of the phenomena where the ice forms a sharp peak sometimes as it freezes. The pressure of the molecules forming into their hexagonal crystal structure pushes the last bit to freeze upwards. Cool, hu?

10-5-07

Squirt can solve a Rubiks Cube in 1 minute 30 seconds.
He's a genius.

10-2-07

This is Mittens jumping down from my desk into my lap. She likes it in my lap. Does she like the warmth? Or me?

10-1-07

This morning I put all the clay tiles in a container to take to school. The tiles will be used for a construction project. It took me forever to cut up and bake all those tiles. I do too much for teaching-- really.

This evening Dan and I watched another two episodes of Gray's while the animals curled up on the couch with us. This was my view. Not a great photo and all... It was better in real life, seeing Mittens and Frisbee curled up with us. Nice. Now to get the dog from peeing on the kitchen floor and the cat from waking us up at 6am with a shreik of a meow that would raise the dead. Come home Aza, Mittens needs a head to sleep on.

9-30-07

Sunday. I miss the Bonneville. It reminded me of my girls. They are grown up and moved away, but their shared car reminded me of them every morning when I backed out of the garage. I miss the Bonneville. I miss them so much more.


Here's creepy dead daddy drawing/photo. It was drawn over 15 years ago, and the photo was taken when the girls were in highschool. They were wearing their Canada shirts, gifts from Carmen. I took the picture on the back deck. Only later, much later, did I run across that old drawing in an old letter- back from the days dead daddy actually wrote to me. The girls may have been like 3 and 5 when he drew what he predicted they would look like one day. Creepy stuff. It's a cool photo/drawing, and even though I took it a long time ago, I thought I'd publish on of my dead daddy's drawings today.

9-29-07

I got my hair cut today. Actually cut into a style. It's not drastic or anything, but it was a big deal for me to see my long long bangs go bye bye on the floor.

9-28-07

Today was our solar car competition. A group of four girls came in first, and a group of four boys came in second. I like when that happens. Parents came to watch, Jes came to take pictures, and my professor came to help out. It was a lot of fun. Plus, I got to tell students today that our trip to the Bay is on and that many scholarships are available! The were SOOOOOO happy!

9-27-07

The driveway without the "black car" in it. I'm sorry Aza, I tried to save it but your father wouldn't listen.

Today was an awesome day.
First, I got my IRB permission to do a pilot study.
Then, I got 12 scholarships donated by friends and family so I can take my students on a trip to an island in the Chesapeake Bay. I was so happy!

9-26-07

Oh my way to school I got behind this truck full of dead trees. It made me sad and afraid of getting hit by one. So, I took a picture while I was driving, which you may not think is a safe thing to do, but I've gotten quite skilled at it.

Today I was asked to give an interview for a magazine about my research. I'll be interviewed on October 1st. Way cool!

9-25-07

Before I left for work this morning I took a picture of the Bonneville. It was Jes's first car, then Aza's first car, and now it's got over 200,000 miles on it and although it looks great, the gas tank is rusted through and the brake lines are rusted through, and the gas lines are rusted through, and the master cylinder needs replacing, and the frame is rusting through. We are donating it to an organization that puts it up for auction and the proceeds to a charity of our choice. We chose Habitat for Humanity. Aza will be sad. Jes will be sad. I am sad. I removed the JMU sticker from the back window and put it on my car. The Dave Matthews sticker and the Gorilla sticker and the UVA class of 2008 stickers were too cracked to save.

9-24-07

It starts out as pieces and parts, and hopefully my 6th graders can make solar cars this week.