TeeHee!

This is one of the best blonde jokes ever.
apologies to those who have already heard it.

So That's Why They're Cutting the FaCS Programs!

They don't support a class they failed.

7 Things List

I am ending the list at 7 for now. I might add to it later, but I can't think of anything else I feel so passionately about. I need to get into a more regular writing habit and I think that a change in direction will be helpful.

7. My Family

My family is one of the most important things in my life. I’m concerned about not only the family I have now, but also my family of the past and the family I will have in the future. I’m trying to prepare as best as I can to raise and teach children, and developing skills so I can provide for them physically, spiritually, and emotionally.

I love learning about those who have gone before. I recently got a copy of my Grandma Ann’s journals and have been reading them; they’re so interesting. I love reading words she wrote to my Grandpa Max when he was stationed in the Pacific during WWII, the descriptions of family gatherings, the stories from my father’s childhood. I enjoy looking at the pictures of her mother, grandmother, great-grandparents and seeing their physical features in the faces of my family members.

I enjoy spending time with my family, immediate and extended. We work, play, laugh, cry, love and experience life together, both the good and the bad. I know that they care about me and my well-being as much as I care about theirs. As the ads
say, family is about time.

A year and a half ago my Grandpa Max went into the hospital. I visited him several times there and then nearly every other week after he was transferred to an assisted living facility. He died in September, and I was sad and cried, but I felt that I had been so blessed to be near him those months. I treasure the time I was able to spend with him in that last year.
On the day he died I walked home from class with my sister. We had a test the next day (which we postponed after hearing the news) and were going to study and have ice cream. My mom called my cell and told me, and I was so glad to be with my sister when we found out. It can't be coincidence that we decided to walk to my place together that day, we'd never done it before and both felt pretty ready for the exam, but we did.
I feel privileged to have such a wonderful and loving family, I know not everyone does. I hope that my future family will be as wonderful and loving, and I think it will. I have a great example to follow.

6. Feeding People

(Yes, that is a real cake, and yes, I did make it)
I know I talked about this in #3, but I love feeding people. There’s just something wonderful about working hard to create something that will make people happy, and nothing makes people happy the same way as good food does. Food can be a work of art. It can be beautiful, it can smell amazing, it can taste fantastic, it can have wonderful contrasting and harmonious textures, there are so many possibilities. It’s so good to be appreciated. I often feel like it doesn’t matter if I’m here or not, that nothing would really change if I was somewhere else, but when I feed people I know that people are glad I’m there. I think that’s why I have a hard time cooking for myself, I would eat whether I cook something really good or not, as long as I have food I’ll survive. But I LOVE to cook, to experiment, to try new things and try to improve old and familiar recipes.
Tonight I made an apple strudel to take to an activity. There wasn’t a single crumb left at the end of the evening. Everyone liked it, appreciated it, and enjoyed the experience of eating it. It was a wonderful thing to know that they were grateful I had come in a very tangible way. I’m sure they would have liked having me there even if I hadn’t brought food, but I was able to contribute something no one else could. As I told a friend my goal in life is to make other women look bad and be Betty Crocker, June Cleaver, and Martha Stewart all rolled into one. That’s not quite true, my goal is to not have a fat husband (I really think telling me my husband will be fat is an odd way to try and compliment my cooking.) Just kidding (kind of) my real goal is to be happy, and feeding people makes me happy.

5. Cleanliness and Organization

The two go hand in hand.
I like having things be clean; I hate dirt. Even when I was little I didn’t like dirt. My mom talks about me not liking going to the beach because there was “dirt” everywhere. I wouldn’t sit on the sand, I had to have a towel or blanket between me and the icky, dirty, gritty sand. Dirt is one of the reasons I don’t enjoy camping (bugs coming in at a close second)
I firmly believe in there being “a place for everything and everything in its place.” Right now if you were to see my room you wouldn’t believe me, but I promise it’s true. The problem right now is that there isn’t a place for everything, so everything can’t be in its place.