Eagles!!

When I was a young girl, I lived on the Wabash River. Never did I see an eagle or deer, or coyote, or any manner of wildlife for that matter. Eagles were endangered at the time, and between the use of DDT and the pollution of the Wabash, none were in the area.

How things have changed.

I just saw my THIRD bald eagle this week! I was driving up Happy Hollow Hill, and one flew over the road. Its white tail feathers and head were clearly visible in the sunlight. Sooooo beautiful!

The other two I witnessed were flying over the Wabash River bridge on 231 last Saturday. Craig and I were headed to Iowa, when these two GIGANTIC birds (they were flying very low) swooped up from the side of the bridge and winged out over the river. We could see the distinctive white tails, so we were able to confirm they were bald eagles.

Since we moved back to the area in 2006 I have seen several other bald eagles. Earlier this fall I saw one as I was driving over the 52 bridge. Another time I saw one out on 25 by West Point, and then, while driving from Hershey to Mulberry to visit my father two years ago, a Bald Eagle was on the ground in some bottomlands by the Wildcat off 900.

Today seems to be a real bird day - a red-tailed hawk is perched on a neighborhood sign, watching the fields for mice, and a Cooper's hawk flew beside my car, crossing Kalberer Road from University Farms to Arbor Chase!

It is refreshing, even exhilarating, to know that the Lafayette area has rebounded from earlier decades of pollution, and that the cleaner environment is evidenced by the return of these awe-inspiring birds.

Trinity's Sacrament Meeting Talk

Trinity wrote this talk herself for the Primary program last Sunday. I loved the testimony that shines through!

Trinity’s Talk for Primary Program


Jesus Christ is our Savior. He was willing to come to the earth and give his life for us. He wanted us to be able to choose whether or not we would obey Heavenly Father’s plan.

Jesus sacrificed his life so we could have the freedom to choose. He taught us that He would make a way for us to repent so we could return to live with Heavenly Father.

I believe that Jesus will forgive me for the things I do wrong. He has made a way for my sins to be forgiven. I am grateful for this choice

In the name of Jesus Christ, Amen.

JC & Trinity's Primary Program

This weekend it was time once again to head over to Iowa for JC and Trinity's Primary program. Craig, Curt, and Vanessa all came. Here are some pictures from our visit.

Boompa loves his grandchildren!

JC memorized John 3:16 for his part in the program. Here he gets in some last minute studying.

Me with JC and Trinity! I love these kids!

Sarah pulling up PowerSchool Gradebook to show me how she records students' progress. (I use the same program at Hershey.)

Uncle Curt is an excellent uncle! 

Vanessa doing her best "Samantha" (from the TV show "Bewitched") impression.

All she needs to do is twitch her nose to complete it!

Todd, ready for church, and checking something online.

How to Decorate for Halloween - Sarah Style

Start with the exterior - a nice touch as people arrive to your home.

Here's a close-up of the front porch, seen after you have parked the car and are approaching the front door. I especially like the lanterns.

Then have a Halloween greeting on the piano (made from an assortment of blocks) in the front room, lighted and accompanied by a large jack o'lantern.

As the guests move into the kitchen, even the cupboards are festive!

Halloween-themed glasses and dishes are a nice touch.

And functional, too! Just right for a hugry JC, anticipating trick or treating while eating breakfast and clad in his Halloween pjs!

Happy Halloween, Sarah-style!

That's My Girl!

I laughed so hard when Sarah posted the following picture on her Facebook page.

Trinity is doing her Math homework, and not only does it ask for her name and the date, it asks for the time as well.

So... Trin-bin asked her mama what time it was and Sarah relied, "Time for you to do you homework!"

And Trinity wrote that down in the blank provided (along with the real time of 7:14, too. She's bright enough to call her mama out!!)

Don't Fight It - It's in the Blood

This is me.

I know, I already posted this photo.

But I want to prove a point.

This would be my grandson, Braden.

Hmmm... notice any similarities to the photo of me?

No?

Well, then, take a look at this picture of my granddaughter, Adelaide.

See it now?

I tell you, the love of horses is in their blood.

Kyle and Ashley, you might want to begin thinking about purchasing property for horses.

After all, the back yard isn't big enough.

(That was the argument I gave my parents when I begged for my own horse as a child. 

And I did get my own horses as a teenager.)

Photos of the kids and their ponies taken by Ashley.

Fifteen Miles on the (Wabash &) Erie Canal

The old folk song goes:

I've got a mule, her name is Sal,
15 miles on the Erie Canal
She's a good old worker and a good old pal,
15 miles on the Erie Canal

We've hauled some barges in our day
filled with lumber, coal and hay
And we know every inch of the way from
Albany to Buffalo.

Chorus:
Low bridge, everybody down
Low bridge for we're coming to a town
And you'll always know your neighbor, you'll always know your pal
If you've ever navigated on the Erie Canal.

We didn't have a mule as our barge ran on electricity, but my mother and I did get to navigate the Wabash & Erie Canal today!

Our intent was to take a drive into the countryside to see the fall foliage. We drove out to Battle Ground and then headed down some country lanes, ending up on Springboro Road and near Camp Tecumseh where I had just camped with my class.

The site was open, so we drove around the camp, looking at the trees and the Tippecanoe River. Mom got out and walked onto the observation deck outside the dining hall that overlooks the Tippecanoe to check out the view.

Next, we headed into Delphi and poked around until we found the Wabash & Erie Canal and the park surrounding it. Inside the Interpretive Center we wandered around, looking at the exhibits. I picked up some information for scheduling a field trip - a visit to this place would fit well with my curriculum.

We both agreed that floating along the canal in a barge was a must-do. Here is the barge, aptly named Delphi, tied up and waiting for its 2:00 float.

We had our tickets purchased and were one of the first people onto the barge! We would only go a short way up and down the canal. The original Wabash & Erie Canal ran from Toledo, Ohio to Evansville, Indiana, and was 400 miles longer than the more famous Erie Canal! Part of it ran through Lafayette. In fact, Canal Street is part of the old canal.

The sides of the barge are open so you can see out. Long benches line the center, and a canvas roof, sort of like a tent, covers the top and keeps the sun and rain away. We sat close to where the docent would be as we wanted to be sure to hear about the history of the canal and its restoration.

This is a shot of the Interpretive Center and the dock after we had pushed away and begun our trip. We had the obligatory safety talk, although the docent chuckled that, since the canal was only 3-4 feet deep, if we sank, we would just step over the sides and stand in the water, waiting for another barge!

Low bridge, everybody down indeed! When we approached this bridge, built in 1901 and one we had just driven over in our car, I did not see how it was possible to navigate under it. But the steersman lined us up straight and true, and through the eye of the needle we went! Whew!

Here you can see the tow path that the horses, mules, and oxen used to navigate. Now it is a walking path for hikers.

Enjoying the view while we are underway. We had gorgeous weather for a boating excursion!

This was as far south as the barge could currently go. The railroad bridge has an opening for water, but it is too narrow for our barge. Here we turned around and then headed back north.

All too soon we had to head home. But we've got plans to return again, maybe even bringing JC and Trinity when they come next summer for Groompa Camp, and take another barge trip down the Wabash & Erie Canal!

And you'll always know your neighbor, you'll always know your pal

If you've ever navigated on the Erie Canal.

We have, and we do!

Zeus - Neck Lump

I was just giving Zeus a good scritching under the neck, and the cancerous lump I discovered nearly a year ago has suddenly grown quite large. Before, I had to press to find it, and it was about the size of a small marble or a grape. (The vet could not find it herself when I took Zeus in to have it looked at - I had to find it for her,)

Now it's about the size of a golf ball. The change has occurred very quickly.

::sigh::

I feel sad.

Camp Tecumseh Part Two

This turtle survived a fire in the Nature Center earlier this fall. The lights or the heater in its tank malfunctioned and caught fire, spreading to the wall behind it. The turtle's tank cracked and broke from the heat, dumping the poor turtle onto the floor. (It's a red-eared slider, by the way.) The turtle tried to find a way to escape by crawling around the perimeter of the Nature Center. When the fire fighters arrived, they found marks in the baseboard where it had tried to get away from the fire and smoke. The fireman who rescued the poor thing said he saw a large object on the floor in the smoke, took a look, and it was this turtle! The turtle has a scar under its chin (the grey mark on the right) and a burn on its shell, but it's happy and healthy now!

I know a fair amount about insect, bird, and animal identification, but I have never seen an insect like this! Neither had the camp counselors. I asked Tim Gibb, our former Bishop and an entymologist at Purdue, what this was. He says it is a black blister beetle with its insides squished out the back. Ew!! Wonder if one of our kids stepped on it accidentally? It was running all over the place, so it didn't seem bothered by the injury.

Kim Routsong, a friend from church and the mother of 7, including current 4th grader Lauren (I was her Primary teacher when she was 5), joined us as a trail leader. While we didn't get to be in the same cabin, it was good to be together at camp! Lauren comes by my classroom every morning and gives me a hug before school.

This is a shot of the Tippecanoe River looking east from the dining hall balcony. 

Jeff Toll, the only male teacher on staff at Hershey, and a horseman as well, posed for a fun shot with me.

And, he couldn't resist trying to gross us out by pretending to eat the leftover worms from the fishing station.

Every year each grade level takes a picture of all the teachers on that level doing something fun. We could not resist having ours taken in this golf cart because of a funny incident that happened Tuesday night prior to the campfire. 

Back row, left to right: Carrie Hovermale, me, Laura Wilson (student teacher). 

Front row, left to right, Kris Sharp, Allyson Anthrop, Jeff Toll.

Golf cart story in a nutshell.... After a parent and I went ahead of the crowd to the site for our campfire Tuesday evening, the counselors changed the location. Jeff and Carrie drove the golf cart through the dark to tell us the news and take us to the new site. (We had begun to wonder where everyone was!)

Only we got lost. We could hear the kids, but none of us knew which trail to take in the dark. Jeff was driving the cart, and we all were trying to figure out just which trail would lead us back to the group. We ended up negotiating a VERY narrow wooden pedestrian bridge. In the golf cart. Crossing our fingers and hoping we would not 1) discover after it was too late that the cart was too wide for the bridge and find ourselves not only lost but stuck, and 2) the bridge would hold the weight of us all plus the golf cart as we crossed. Well, it did, and we were finally able to find the main trail and join the other teachers and kids for an hour of songs and skits under the stars and moon. We are all still laughing about our little jaunt through the woods in the dark.

This is my favorite picture of the whole trip - the Tippecanoe River at sunset looking west.

Camp Tecumseh - First Entry

Yesterday I took my class with the other 4th grade classes at Hershey to Camp Tecumseh for the Indiana Pioneer program. We had perfect weather, and a wonderful time immersing ourselves back in the 19th century!

This is Ottowa and Osage cabins - sort of like cabin condos. Each side sleeps 14 or so. They were quite comfortable.

The old-fashioned school house, complete with a school marm who who was MUCH stricter than me!

A shot of the children gathering in between stations. They were broken up into groups of 10-16 which were led by parent volunteers. During our two day stay, the groups rotated through ten different stations and learned how early Indiana settlers lived.

Inside the school house. Zach was put into the corner and made to wear the dunce cap by the school marm.

Mr. Cederquist did a fantastic job teaching about how animals were trapped in the wilderness.

For one station, the children ground corn into meal and then baked cornbread and biscuits.

Candle dipping was a popular station. Every child got to make their own candle.

These are some of the tools used to make the wooden candleholders. The students sawed a piece of wood off a small log and then hand drilled a hole into the piece for their candle.

Here are some of them using the two-handed saw to make the candleholders.

Mexican Train Gone Awry

Sunday night Curt and Vanessa stayed late after Sunday dinner and challenged me to a game of Mexican Train. That just happens to be one of my favorites!

During our last round, neither Curt now Vanessa drew good dominoes, and so they had to build onto the Mexican train, waiting to draw usable dominos of their own.

Never have I seen such a long train. We ran out of table, so Curt improvised!

The Stone Cut from the Mountain

When I was baptized in 1975, there was a family ward and a student ward here in Lafayette. We were members of the Indianapolis North Stake, and Washington DC was our temple - a 14 hour ride each way. Well do I remember driving all day, getting up early the next morning to do sessions (we would do them all day since we got to the temple so infrequently; one day I did 7 sessions!) and then driving home the following day. We'd arrive home safely and spiritually fed but EXHAUSTED.

Fast forward to October, 2010. In General Conference last weekend, President Monson announced a temple for Indianapolis. I was traveling in the car to Illinois for Michelle Zimmerman's wedding, so I found out when Lisa texted me saying, "Yeah, Indianapolis!"

I was NOT expecting an announcement for a temple, so I had Curt text her back, "The Colts aren't playing. It's Saturday. What do you mean?"

And then she let me know that we had just gotten our own temple. I was literally screaming in the car, I was so excited. Curt and Vanessa were excited, too, and I remember I kept saying. "I can't believe we're getting a temple! I can't believe we're getting a temple!"

In 1985 when we got the Chicago temple, it was wonderful - a three hour drive as opposed to the DC marathon! The Chicago traffic was awful, but still it was much closer and easier to go to the temple.

And then in 1997 the Saint Louis temple was completed. We attended the dedication, as we had for Chicago. The drive was about the same, although the traffic wasn't nearly as bad.

President Hinckley then announced that the Church was rebuilding the Nauvoo temple. At the time, I was disappointed. I found the temple site to be a very holy and spiritual site, and loved walking around the old foundation stones and thinking about what had been there and how it had all been destroyed by mob, by fire, and by tornado.

But Nauvoo quickly became my favorite temple, and Craig and I were honored to be asked to be tour guides during the open house for it. What a privilege! And our kids got to help at the open house, too, putting booties on people's feet as they entered and then removing them when their tour was completed.

But the Indianapolis temple... That one is special. It is MY temple. It's on MY stomping grounds. It's in my home state! Already it is far more special to me than any of the others combined. I think about it constantly and have been thanking Heavenly Father in prayer again and again. I have a temple close by!

What about the rest of the growth during the past 35 years? There are now 4 wards and a Spanish branch just in Lafayette alone! And Lafayette is its own stake. In fact, I live a mile and a half from the stake center, and can see its spire from my upstairs windows.

And even as far as we've come, still we grow. I visited Crawfordsville's Relief Society today, and detoured on the way home so I could drive past the new ward building the Church is constructing south of Lafayette on 450. It is by Woodland School and should be completed in about a year. As Stake Relief Society president, I got to choose all the art work for the new building. (Which means there will be a Minerva Teichert or two on the walls! I love her work - it reminds me of my mother's drawings.)

Daniel 2:34 - 35 says:

 34 Thou sawest till that a ^astone was cut out ^bwithout hands, which smote the image upon his feet that were of iron and clay, and brake them to pieces.

  35 Then was the iron, the clay, the brass, the silver, and the gold, broken to pieces together, and became like the chaff of the summer threshingfloors; and the wind carried them away, that no ^aplace was found for them: and the ^bstone that smote the image became a great mountain, and filled the whole earth.

More Make the Teacher Smile

I just finished grading the students' independent studies on Native Americans. One of the things I love about teaching gifted children is that many of them have irrepressible personalities, and those personalities shine through in their writings. These two in particular made me smile.

I had reminded them several times that having an interesting introduction that would catch the reader's attention was good writing. Here is Noah's take on that:

My research paper is about... Wait; hold it, that is not a way to catch the reader's attention.

(I laughed out loud as I began grading his paper. I KNOW he was smiling when he wrote that introduction!)

And Lindsey is such a quiet girl in the class, but on paper she comes alive and cannot resist inserting her opinions.

Luckily everyone was treated the same with no slaves. This includes women. Thank goodness, I thought that I was going to have to get my angry face going! Phew!

I love teaching these kids. I am going to flunk every one of them so I get another year with them!

How to Make the Teacher Smile

Here's how to make the teacher smile: write her notes that show you are connecting the current assignment with something else we study. (In this case, classic literature.)

The sentence as written on the assignment for Daily Language Arts:

mr reid will learned the class how to count to ten in german

The sentence as corrected by the student:

Mr. Reid will teach the class how to count to ten in German.

And then Jon jotted in a little note:  They replaced "teach" and "taught" with "learned" in Huckleberry Finn, too!

I am still smiling.

A HORSE!!

I am in my element!!

This is Dixie. She's a flea-bit grey Percheron mare and she and I were instant friends. (Even though she's sticking her tongue out, she really did like me.)

The occasion? Michelle Zimmerman's wedding. 

I shouldn't have been surprised to see a horse at Michelle's wedding. After all, when she was a girl and our neighbor, she used to come over and play with my horse collection and chat horses with me. And when I quit riding, I gave her my riding boots as she was taking riding lessons and didn't have any.

The first thing Michelle did when planning her wedding was to go to the farm and check out carriage horses!

Curt, Cole, and Emily swam with Michelle on the Crystal Lake Nadiators team, and all of them ended up coaching the team together when they became to old to compete on the team.

Congratulations, Michelle and Brendan Bernardi!

October 2, 2010

Normal, Illinois