Yes, Mila, You May Look!

Earlier this week in anticipation of the holidays and having grandchildren in and out of the house, I emptied the china hutch in the living room and Craig anchored it to the wall.  Now that that has been done and it is not tippy,  I am much more comfortable when this happens.

 In the past, I  would push the loveseat up to it so that my grandchildren could not get back there, or I kept an eagle eye on them and would not let them go too close to look at the horses. Not only did I want to protect my chinas, but I did not want the kids getting hurt, either. The cabinet was tippy, and the glass panels are breakable. (I know because the first one I had broke when the delivery men brought it into the house - they accidentally broke out one of the glass panels coming into my home. This is the one they brought to replace it.)

 So, today, when Mila wanted to look at my horses, I felt comfortable letting her get close up so she could see everything. She spent a long time, squatting down and just gazing at all the pretties, and occasionally pointing one out to me so I could tell her what it was. (No, I did not say "Special Run Buckskin Spanish Horse from the Hagen Renaker Collectors Club," I simply said, "Circus Pony... Quarter Horse... Arabian..." which was still probably too much for two year old ears!)

Clearly, Mila enjoyed the experience of looking at Grammy's china pieces. And I am thrilled that now I can share part of my collection with my grandchildren. Maybe this will even cultivate a love of horses in her!

Little Notes

Little notes from my students inevitably make me smile. Some are humorous, some are expressions of love, and some, like this one, are gratitude.

I have a 4th grade girl who works her heart out and always tries her hardest. But she makes many mistakes despite that great work ethic, more than the other kids do. She'd scored a 60% on her Daily Language Arts assignment this week, and I did not have the heart to write that big letter D on the paper. So, I just wrote the percentage.

Since she cares about her work and how she is doing, she approached me and asked what letter grade that 60% had earned her. Her eyes filled with tears when I gently told her that it was a D and that I had not put it on there because I knew she had worked so hard and would be disappointed.

I decided then and there to give her a second chance to do better, and told her that she could make some corrections. Using a green pen, I wrote, "Second Chance" on it with two hearts and told her that she could fix any errors and hand it in the next day.

She did, and she added her own note to me:

This is one of the many reasons I love being a teacher.

Chess Tee Shirts

With the help of Coach Tim Schnepp, my students designed their own tee shirts for our Chess-shire Cats Chess Club!

He was able to incorporate every design the kids created, from the chessboard tree with the cat in its branches and then a chess piece with the cat's smile on the front...

 ... to the cat's head and another chess piece plus the kids' signatures on the back!

And, he did it in orange and blue, Harrison (and Illini) colors!

The Best Principal

Linda Fields is a wonderful woman and the best principal I have ever worked with. Today I had yet another experience that showed me why that is so.

I arrive early to school each day, and always pop my head into the office to say "hello" to Linda. This morning when I poked my head in, she said unexpectedly, "Lynn, I have been thinking and thinking about you. Are you feeling okay?"

That came out of the blue. How on earth did she know I was feeling poorly?

My eyes got teary as I replied, "Actually, I don't feel well at all. Everything hurts right now."

And that was true. When I woke up this morning, it hurt to stand, it hurt to walk, it hurt to move. I ended up taking a couple of ibuprofen just so I could function and yet I still hurt.

Linda offered to come take my class for me any time I needed a break, to lie down, to get off my feet, etc. And she meant it - she never says things she does not mean.

She ended our conversation by saying that she would light a candle for me when she goes to Mass tomorrow morning, and I left her office deeply, deeply touched.

The Collectors' Get Together

Nancy Falzone's get together was pretty incredible. Believe it or not, for the first time in my life, I actually went into horse overload. She has THOUSANDS of china models, and there is glass case after glass case chock full of them in every room of her home! (Nancy is one of the top three china collectors in the world. I soon saw why.)

And almost all of the big china collectors in the US were there. Actually, only one of the "big three" in the world was not there (Ed Alcorn from Florida.) More than once I looked around and wondered why I was invited - I have a nice collection, but certainly not one on par with most of these folks' collections.

 Front (l-r): Liz Isham Cory, Yvonne Rott, Donna Conners, Dawn Sinkovich, Steff Bodamer, Linda Shawhan. Middle (l-r): me, Ardith ??, Michelle Oviatt. Back (l-r): Jamie Rott, Paul Francis, Kristina Lucas Francis, Liz LaRose, Nancy Falzone, JoEllen Arnold.

Nancy's basement had a shelf that went around the perimeter of the room. That shelf was covered in several thousand mini Hagen Renakers sorted by category (cats, birds, wildlife, etc.)

A view of the living room - the pieces on tables are those we were asked to bring for a fun show and tell. (And that was fascinating!)

 One of Nancy's many china display cases.

Kristina Lucas Francis and Dawn Sinkovich were my seat mates on the couch during the show and tell.

Liz Isham Cory, former editor of Breyer's Just About Horses, shares some white bisques she was given by Breyer. They're molds from Hagen Renaker that Breyer was considering using for production. Wow!

Nancy shares some tidbits about a few of her favorite pieces. (How she selected just a few out of those thousands is beyond me!)

Author Nancy Kelly (standing, on right) was in attendance. She is going to include our get-together in the book she is currently working on about hobby history. (She took the earlier group photo.)

She also photographed all our show and tell pieces for her book. This is my West German Steha Circus Pony taking its turn in the photo booth.

What a day that was - certainly one I will not forget. It was great fun being a part of such a gathering. But best of all, despite the "illustrious" group of folks, everyone was down to earth and friendly, and I felt like I fit right in.

Heading Out of Town Again

For the third weekend in a row, I am heading out of town again. This week I am going to Oregon, Illinois, and I am very, very excited about the trip. I received an unexpected invitation to attend a gathering of china collectors at Nancy Falzone's home!

Nancy and I have been friends for years (since the early 1990s.) But still I was surprised to be invited. She is one of three premiere Hagen Renaker collectors in the model horse world, and people are FLYING in to attend this get together, people who are very big names like Nancy.

I'm not a big name. I collect, but never would one call my collection one of the top in the world like Nancy's. Jo Ellen Arnold from the east coast? Yes. (And she's attending.) Liz LaRose (Michigan), Ed Alcorn (Florida), and Kristina Lucas Francis (Tennessee)? Also invited and coming (although I've heard that Ed may not be able to make it after all.)

And if you read the last paragraph, author Nancy Kelly will be in attendance and photographing us for her next book! (She's spending three days with Nancy, interviewing her.)

Needless to say, I was surprised to be invited, but I've got my dish for the potluck (white chicken chili), a door prize (my extra HR Circus Elephant), and a couple of my circus ponies for the photo session.

I can't wait!

Fall Break - Day 3

Sunday morning was busy with six people needing to get ready for church (fortunately, we had until 11:00) and me needing to make a pie for dinner.

 How many people do you see in this picture? Look closely!

 Titan was having fun hiding behind his mama while she read.

Jessica did not have a pastry cutter, so we made the dough the old fashioned way by cutting the butter into the flour with knives. Andrew gave me some help towards the end - my elbows and wrists were burning.

 The finished apple pie - I used Rome Beauties, an old family favorite.

 Cambria and Titan take a look. The pie was yummy!

After church, things were pretty quiet.

 Titan brought out his new teddy bear.

 And we played with him and it on the couch for a bit.

And we sat down at the kitchen table and "played games" with the kids.

Which meant that we watched while they played with the cards and pieces.

The adults played games after the kids went to bed, but we all had a fairly early night as Jess and Andrew had to go to work in the morning and Craig and I wanted to get an early start to our ten hour drive home.