Today I was contacted by a man from The Community Foundation for the National Capitol Region....www.cfncr.org...or in short someone from the Laura Bush Foundation.
Apparently they are going to do a little piece, sort of "like mother, like daughter" on how both mom and I have received the Laura Bush Grant. I got it this past May and mom won it a couple of years ago. I would give you the text, but I think I'll let him go ahead and publish it first! ha
What can I say...it's a family thing...librarians are so cool. :D
AND maybe we can finally lay hands on our photo of us with Mrs. Bush!!!!
Monday, September 14, 2009
Sunday, September 13, 2009
Mom and I made the Galveston Daily News!
http://galvestondailynews.com/story.lasso?ewcd=6e8c7ec3ac78cd31
Students use Skype to talk about Ike
By Hayley Kappes
Correspondent
Published September 13, 2009
GALVESTON — On a weekend when counting stories of Hurricane Ike is on every islander’s mind, a group of fourth-grade students at Rosenberg Elementary got a chance to broadcast theirs to North Texas.
Friday, the students used Skype, software that enables phone calls and video chat through the Internet, to interact with students at Sam Rayburn Elementary in Ivanhoe, near the Texas/Oklahoma border.
Kari Worsham, librarian at Rosenberg, uses Skype to keep in touch with her mother, Kimberly Hopkins, who is a librarian in the Sam Rayburn Independent School District.
Second-grade students at Sam Rayburn were studying hurricanes in science class.
“We thought, ‘Why couldn’t we try this at school?’” Worsham asked.
Hopkins’ students e-mailed questions to the Rosenberg fourth-graders regarding their Ike experience.
Some of the questions included how high the storm surge was, details about the weather patterns and how each student was affected after the storm.
They studied photos of destruction on the island.
“It helps put hurricanes in a real world context for the children,” Worsham said.
Worsham said some of the students had used Skype before to communicate with out-of-town relatives.
The video conference between the two schools was projected onto a widescreen in Rosenberg’s library.
Several fourth-grade classes and teachers came in to watch the exchange, which took place during last period Friday afternoon.
“I was excited when I heard the students were doing this,” Principal Sharon Delesandri said. “I had never seen Skype before.”
The Sam Rayburn students focused their questions on the Rosenberg students’ perspective of the hurricane, rather than scientific nature of hurricanes in general.
“(The sky) was greenish-brown when the hurricane came through, lots of lightning and the wind was loud,” Jonae Whitaker said in response to a question about how the sky looked during Ike.
Whitaker was the only student of the six who remained on the island with her family during the storm.
One student asked how long it took for grass and other plants to turn green again.
Another questioned if any of the students’ pets had died because of the storm, and where the students evacuated.
Worsham said this is the first time she has experimented with Skype as a classroom tool, and she wants to continue its use for students.
Toward the end of class, the Rosenberg students turned the table on the Sam Rayburn students, by asking if they have hurricanes in North Texas.
“No hurricanes,” the students said. “Just tornadoes.”
Students use Skype to talk about Ike
By Hayley Kappes
Correspondent
Published September 13, 2009
GALVESTON — On a weekend when counting stories of Hurricane Ike is on every islander’s mind, a group of fourth-grade students at Rosenberg Elementary got a chance to broadcast theirs to North Texas.
Friday, the students used Skype, software that enables phone calls and video chat through the Internet, to interact with students at Sam Rayburn Elementary in Ivanhoe, near the Texas/Oklahoma border.
Kari Worsham, librarian at Rosenberg, uses Skype to keep in touch with her mother, Kimberly Hopkins, who is a librarian in the Sam Rayburn Independent School District.
Second-grade students at Sam Rayburn were studying hurricanes in science class.
“We thought, ‘Why couldn’t we try this at school?’” Worsham asked.
Hopkins’ students e-mailed questions to the Rosenberg fourth-graders regarding their Ike experience.
Some of the questions included how high the storm surge was, details about the weather patterns and how each student was affected after the storm.
They studied photos of destruction on the island.
“It helps put hurricanes in a real world context for the children,” Worsham said.
Worsham said some of the students had used Skype before to communicate with out-of-town relatives.
The video conference between the two schools was projected onto a widescreen in Rosenberg’s library.
Several fourth-grade classes and teachers came in to watch the exchange, which took place during last period Friday afternoon.
“I was excited when I heard the students were doing this,” Principal Sharon Delesandri said. “I had never seen Skype before.”
The Sam Rayburn students focused their questions on the Rosenberg students’ perspective of the hurricane, rather than scientific nature of hurricanes in general.
“(The sky) was greenish-brown when the hurricane came through, lots of lightning and the wind was loud,” Jonae Whitaker said in response to a question about how the sky looked during Ike.
Whitaker was the only student of the six who remained on the island with her family during the storm.
One student asked how long it took for grass and other plants to turn green again.
Another questioned if any of the students’ pets had died because of the storm, and where the students evacuated.
Worsham said this is the first time she has experimented with Skype as a classroom tool, and she wants to continue its use for students.
Toward the end of class, the Rosenberg students turned the table on the Sam Rayburn students, by asking if they have hurricanes in North Texas.
“No hurricanes,” the students said. “Just tornadoes.”
Friday, August 7, 2009
Thursday, August 6, 2009
Tax free weekend date...
In Texas is August 21-23 —Applies to clothing and footwear under $100 (per item), backpacks under $100 (per item), and select school supplies priced at less than $100 (per item).
Just a general FYI :-)
Just a general FYI :-)
Sunday, July 19, 2009
Friday, July 17, 2009
Thursday, July 9, 2009
Trying for Baby~
Ok, so by now most of you know that I was just a little bit pregnant last month! Lol! You hear people say that, but according to the numbers it can be true!
What happend was at the very beginning of June I figured it out (sore boobs! ouch!) and took a home pregnancy test (ok, so I took 3 to make sure) and scheduled a Dr's visit. But then Gram came to visit and I was afraid she'd figure it out so I told her, then mom came down the next week and I'm glad she did because that was the week I miscarried. So it was nice to have the support. :-)
I am A- blood type so that could have been one of the reasons for miscarrying (tho I've never been pregnant and I've heard say that sometimes on the first one you might not need the shot because your body doesn't have antibodies built up against the baby yet) but whatever the reason, I'm okay with it. It's God's way of taking care of something that wouldn't have turned out to be a healthy baby.
So I had to have the Rhogam shot as well as my "vaccinations". ha. I've NEVER had chicken pox!! And I had such a light case of measles that I tested negative for that too! So I had to get my shots and have to wait 4 weeks after the chicken pox shot before we try to conceive again. Hopefully in that time frame I'll have a regular period too so we can go from there. Two weeks down, two weeks to go...
So anyway, we got all excited about the whole thing and now we think we'll go ahead and try for baby... :-) At this point we'd be shooting for April, May-ish...???!!!
What happend was at the very beginning of June I figured it out (sore boobs! ouch!) and took a home pregnancy test (ok, so I took 3 to make sure) and scheduled a Dr's visit. But then Gram came to visit and I was afraid she'd figure it out so I told her, then mom came down the next week and I'm glad she did because that was the week I miscarried. So it was nice to have the support. :-)
I am A- blood type so that could have been one of the reasons for miscarrying (tho I've never been pregnant and I've heard say that sometimes on the first one you might not need the shot because your body doesn't have antibodies built up against the baby yet) but whatever the reason, I'm okay with it. It's God's way of taking care of something that wouldn't have turned out to be a healthy baby.
So I had to have the Rhogam shot as well as my "vaccinations". ha. I've NEVER had chicken pox!! And I had such a light case of measles that I tested negative for that too! So I had to get my shots and have to wait 4 weeks after the chicken pox shot before we try to conceive again. Hopefully in that time frame I'll have a regular period too so we can go from there. Two weeks down, two weeks to go...
So anyway, we got all excited about the whole thing and now we think we'll go ahead and try for baby... :-) At this point we'd be shooting for April, May-ish...???!!!
Phone blogging
This is from the computer... :-)
If you use blogger, go to your dashboard...see the little phone icon in front of the name of your blog?? Click it and it will give you the steps to follow to set up mobile SMS blogging. Standard text messaging rates apply...If you have the unlimited texting then you are cool. (which we have btw, and for the record between me, Warren, Wanda, and Mom we've sent 567 texts in the past month!!! Unlimited is worth the $$!!)
If you use blogger, go to your dashboard...see the little phone icon in front of the name of your blog?? Click it and it will give you the steps to follow to set up mobile SMS blogging. Standard text messaging rates apply...If you have the unlimited texting then you are cool. (which we have btw, and for the record between me, Warren, Wanda, and Mom we've sent 567 texts in the past month!!! Unlimited is worth the $$!!)
Saturday, June 20, 2009
The Today show comes to Galveston!
Yay, just heard via @help4galveston on Twitter that The Today Show will be broadcasting Live from Galveston next week!
Wednesday, June 17, 2009
Big Grant winnings!!!
Woohoo! We won the huge Improving Literacy through School Libraries Grant/Program!! It's exciting because my name is attached to facilitate the grant! So...possibly this will be my job next year...will have to begin negotiations for salary and extra $$ for being in charge of it all...eek!
http://www.ed.gov/news/pressreleases/2009/06/06122009.html
http://www.ed.gov/news/pressreleases/2009/06/06122009.html
Friday, June 12, 2009
OMG, I haven't posted anything since April?!?! Gad. Always time for a list of updates then:
1. Warren started OB/GYN in May. So far he's delivered or assisted on 14 births! yay! All successful and everyone healthy. The first one he delivered was a boy. The midwife was there with him but she let him do the whole delivery. He said when the baby came out it (and him) were all slippery and he was afraid of dropping it! So he flopped the baby up on the Mom's tummy! ha! So far he doesn't care for c-sections, he says you lose too much blood, but he's doing okay with regular deliveries.
2. He is also starting to look into/for residency programs. He's having a really hard time deciding between Family Med. (which he likes) and Psych (which he excelled at in class/rotation). I think in the long run he'll go with Family, but we'll see. I told him if he was so undecided to just apply for both! He has a meeting this afternoon at 3pm with the head of Family Med to talk about career choices and options. So keep him in your thoughts...it's hard to decide what you want to do for the rest of your life. Both choices pretty much deal with getting to know patients for the long run and establishing a history with them, so he's in a predicament to decide. With family he'll have a wider age range to work with, Psych will be more of a set group of people. Either way he goes he'll be great.
3. Summer is upon us and I have taken to the pool for summer exercise! I love swimming and now that they have FINally opened the pool for summer I can go...often...like every day!! Warren on the other hand like does NOT SWIM. Hello! the water is only 5 ft. deep...grr. I'm nice though b/c I know he had a scary water experience, but it gets frustrating at times to try to get him in the water.
4. Also this summer, I'll be making extra pocket change $$ working at our school libraries doing general clean-up, weeding, donations, ordering with our grant monies, etc. It's a really nice summer job making a cool $25 an hour!! Yay! I'll pretty much be working for sure Monday, Tuesday, & Wednesday's...Thursday's occasionally and never on Friday's! I love setting my own schedule.
1. Warren started OB/GYN in May. So far he's delivered or assisted on 14 births! yay! All successful and everyone healthy. The first one he delivered was a boy. The midwife was there with him but she let him do the whole delivery. He said when the baby came out it (and him) were all slippery and he was afraid of dropping it! So he flopped the baby up on the Mom's tummy! ha! So far he doesn't care for c-sections, he says you lose too much blood, but he's doing okay with regular deliveries.
2. He is also starting to look into/for residency programs. He's having a really hard time deciding between Family Med. (which he likes) and Psych (which he excelled at in class/rotation). I think in the long run he'll go with Family, but we'll see. I told him if he was so undecided to just apply for both! He has a meeting this afternoon at 3pm with the head of Family Med to talk about career choices and options. So keep him in your thoughts...it's hard to decide what you want to do for the rest of your life. Both choices pretty much deal with getting to know patients for the long run and establishing a history with them, so he's in a predicament to decide. With family he'll have a wider age range to work with, Psych will be more of a set group of people. Either way he goes he'll be great.
3. Summer is upon us and I have taken to the pool for summer exercise! I love swimming and now that they have FINally opened the pool for summer I can go...often...like every day!! Warren on the other hand like does NOT SWIM. Hello! the water is only 5 ft. deep...grr. I'm nice though b/c I know he had a scary water experience, but it gets frustrating at times to try to get him in the water.
4. Also this summer, I'll be making extra pocket change $$ working at our school libraries doing general clean-up, weeding, donations, ordering with our grant monies, etc. It's a really nice summer job making a cool $25 an hour!! Yay! I'll pretty much be working for sure Monday, Tuesday, & Wednesday's...Thursday's occasionally and never on Friday's! I love setting my own schedule.
Saturday, April 25, 2009
Tweet tweet....
In case you haven't noticed and for those of you who don't Twitter or even know what it is...to the left I've added on a Twitter Tweets gadget which is like blogging only faster...it's a "microblog" and basically is a "What are you doing now?" type of thing. So that stuff on the left that keeps changing is me...talking.... :-) So if it's been a while since I've updated the old blog here you can at least look and see what is going on there on the side. Or become a Twitter-er yourself.
I can tweet from the web or from my phone (which is so cool by the way! luv my iPhone!). And I often can tweet photos too rather quickly, they are called twitpic's. The only catch is that I only have 140 characters to type in every tweet...so the talking must be very condensed and sometimes words loose vwls just to get it in under the 140 character limit.
Any @ with a blue name behind it is a person...for example I am @kareberrie, Warren is @warren_ace ...you get the idea. A twitpic is a link to a picture I've posted so http://twitpic.com/3yq1q is a photo. Sometimes a web link to a website or article is to long to fit in the twitter tweet box (remember only 140 characters) so it gets shortened to a tiny url like this link talking about former Pres. H.W. Bush and helping Bolivar penninsula this weekend http://tinyurl.com/dj5mox .
So when you see those things on the side in the Twitter Tweets gadget that is what they are and what you will see when you click on them.
That is how to use Twitter in a nutshell and what some of the things you see on the side means. Now, to go a bit deeper Twitter is basically a social networking site. Professionally it is great for me to follow library type people, companies, other librarians, authors, libraries, publishers, etc. Personally it is fun to follow famous people, people I know, and anyone else I find that I think is cool.
Following means that you "follow" them and you can see what they type...it doesn't mean they see what you type unless they also follow you. Therefore there are people you follow and people who follow you. Those you follow are people that you read what they say everyday. Those that follow you are people who read what YOU say everyday....
Hope this helps explain it a bit....now get to tweeting!
I can tweet from the web or from my phone (which is so cool by the way! luv my iPhone!). And I often can tweet photos too rather quickly, they are called twitpic's. The only catch is that I only have 140 characters to type in every tweet...so the talking must be very condensed and sometimes words loose vwls just to get it in under the 140 character limit.
Any @ with a blue name behind it is a person...for example I am @kareberrie, Warren is @warren_ace ...you get the idea. A twitpic is a link to a picture I've posted so http://twitpic.com/3yq1q is a photo. Sometimes a web link to a website or article is to long to fit in the twitter tweet box (remember only 140 characters) so it gets shortened to a tiny url like this link talking about former Pres. H.W. Bush and helping Bolivar penninsula this weekend http://tinyurl.com/dj5mox .
So when you see those things on the side in the Twitter Tweets gadget that is what they are and what you will see when you click on them.
That is how to use Twitter in a nutshell and what some of the things you see on the side means. Now, to go a bit deeper Twitter is basically a social networking site. Professionally it is great for me to follow library type people, companies, other librarians, authors, libraries, publishers, etc. Personally it is fun to follow famous people, people I know, and anyone else I find that I think is cool.
Following means that you "follow" them and you can see what they type...it doesn't mean they see what you type unless they also follow you. Therefore there are people you follow and people who follow you. Those you follow are people that you read what they say everyday. Those that follow you are people who read what YOU say everyday....
Hope this helps explain it a bit....now get to tweeting!
Friday, April 17, 2009
This was my student...
The little girl in this obituary was one of my students last year. http://galvestondailynews.com/story.lasso?ewcd=bcec4c9c573776b0
I went by last night at family night to see them and it was so so so sad. I can't stop thinking about them. Please keep their family in your thoughts and prayers, she has two little twin sisters in first grade.
The obit doesn't say but it was a stomach cancer. It started out with flu-like symptoms and stomachaches and doctor's just thought it was a stomach virus that she didn't really get over and they didn't run blood work on her until Easter weekend and by then it had metastasized too quickly and they couldn't do anything.
She was such a wonderful little person with great spunk and personality. I'm just so sad for them.
I went by last night at family night to see them and it was so so so sad. I can't stop thinking about them. Please keep their family in your thoughts and prayers, she has two little twin sisters in first grade.
The obit doesn't say but it was a stomach cancer. It started out with flu-like symptoms and stomachaches and doctor's just thought it was a stomach virus that she didn't really get over and they didn't run blood work on her until Easter weekend and by then it had metastasized too quickly and they couldn't do anything.
She was such a wonderful little person with great spunk and personality. I'm just so sad for them.
Thursday, March 26, 2009
Potluck dishes...
Tomorrow is a potluck day at school and since I will actually be on campus substituting for the librarian then I am able to take stuff! Our team is hosting it and our theme is "Pasta."
Since so many people are bringing pasta dishes I figured we needed something more vegetably as a side...but I don't want to make anything that would require staying hot. So I found this recipe on http://www.allrecipes.com/ which Mom and I share an account on.
The title on allrecipes is called Jonny's Easy Garbonzalicious Tangy Artichoke and Bean Salad...which is kinda
long...I like to just call it...
Cold Three-Bean Salad
Ingredients:
2 (15 oz.) cans garbanzo beans a.k.a. chickpeas, drained & rinsed
1 (15 oz.) can dark red kidney beans, drained & rinsed*
1 (15 oz.) can light red kidney beans, drained & rinsed*
1 (14 oz.) can artichoke hearts, quartered, drained
1 (6 oz.) can jumbo black olives, halved*
6 radishes, chopped*
2 carrots, coarsely grated*
*changes I made:
in place of the kidney beans, I buy 2 cans of the three bean mix that has dark and light kidney beans plus black beans, I think it's the Organics brand at Kroger so they are all already mixed and I don't really care for carrots or radishes so I chopped up half of a sweet red bell pepper and half of a yellow bell pepper and liked it much better, the olives I consider totally optional, I like them but occasionally I don't have them to add or I just forget...ha!
Dressing:
2/3 c. extra light tasting olive oil
1/3 c. red wine vinegar
1 t. garlic powder
1 t. Italian seasoning
1/2 t. onion powder
1/4 t. ground black pepper
1/4 c. sunflower seeds (optional)
(the dressing really is good...I think I may make it sometime as a marinade or just for use on salad...yummy)
Directions:
1. Combine beans, artichoke hearts, olives, and other vegetables you decide to use in large bowl.
2. Whisk together the olive oil and vinegar in small glass bowl (or I have a dressing mixer with a small plunger that I use, you could probably put all in a shaker type too). Add garlic powder, Italian seasoning, onion powder, and black pepper; whisk to combine. Pour dressing over the bean mixture and toss carefully to evenly distribute. Cover and refrigerate for at least 4 hours before serving. Stirring often to redistribute dressing.
3. Sprinkle with sunflower seeds to serve.
And we also had to take a dessert. I wanted something EASY to make that required again no cooking!!! So I did some research for a recipe that it had been a while since I had had and found the Weight Watcher Pudding Jello Fruit Fluff or what I like to call:
Fluff Pie
Ingredients:
16 oz. (two tubs) FAT-FREE cool whip, thawed
1 pkg. FAT-FREE SUGAR-FREE instant vanilla pudding mix
1 pkg. SUGAR-FREE raspberry gelatin
now this is where I like to stop in the recipe and is all really I like to use...mix well in a large bowl and pour into a graham cracker crust (buy the reduced fat one and HELLO yummie dessert where you could really probably eat the WHOLE pie and not feel guilty). Let set on counter for about 10-15 minutes to give gelatin time to kinda dissolve and then put in freezer. This is really good during the summer b/c it is so yummie frozen.
The actual recipe calls for the addition of fruit in the following quantities but I'm not big on the fruit in the pie with the raspberry flavor maybe just with plain cool-whip...
1 (20 oz.) can no-sugar-added pineapple
1 (16 oz.) can no-sugar-added fruit cocktail
1 (16 oz.) can no-sugar-added mandarin oranges
1. drain all fruit
2. mix jello and pudding into thawed cool whip
3. gently fold in drained fruit
4. chill
I see endless taste combinations with this recipe...how about cheesecake flavored pudding paired with strawberry gelatin? or vanilla & vanilla and serve in a chocolate graham pie crust! or vanilla and orange...like a sherbert kind of flavor? Maybe then I would add the mandarin oranges! The combinations are endless! YUM!
Try and Enjoy!
:-)
Since so many people are bringing pasta dishes I figured we needed something more vegetably as a side...but I don't want to make anything that would require staying hot. So I found this recipe on http://www.allrecipes.com/ which Mom and I share an account on.
The title on allrecipes is called Jonny's Easy Garbonzalicious Tangy Artichoke and Bean Salad...which is kinda
long...I like to just call it...Cold Three-Bean Salad
Ingredients:
2 (15 oz.) cans garbanzo beans a.k.a. chickpeas, drained & rinsed
1 (15 oz.) can dark red kidney beans, drained & rinsed*
1 (15 oz.) can light red kidney beans, drained & rinsed*
1 (14 oz.) can artichoke hearts, quartered, drained
1 (6 oz.) can jumbo black olives, halved*
6 radishes, chopped*
2 carrots, coarsely grated*
*changes I made:
in place of the kidney beans, I buy 2 cans of the three bean mix that has dark and light kidney beans plus black beans, I think it's the Organics brand at Kroger so they are all already mixed and I don't really care for carrots or radishes so I chopped up half of a sweet red bell pepper and half of a yellow bell pepper and liked it much better, the olives I consider totally optional, I like them but occasionally I don't have them to add or I just forget...ha!
Dressing:
2/3 c. extra light tasting olive oil
1/3 c. red wine vinegar
1 t. garlic powder
1 t. Italian seasoning
1/2 t. onion powder
1/4 t. ground black pepper
1/4 c. sunflower seeds (optional)
(the dressing really is good...I think I may make it sometime as a marinade or just for use on salad...yummy)
Directions:
1. Combine beans, artichoke hearts, olives, and other vegetables you decide to use in large bowl.
2. Whisk together the olive oil and vinegar in small glass bowl (or I have a dressing mixer with a small plunger that I use, you could probably put all in a shaker type too). Add garlic powder, Italian seasoning, onion powder, and black pepper; whisk to combine. Pour dressing over the bean mixture and toss carefully to evenly distribute. Cover and refrigerate for at least 4 hours before serving. Stirring often to redistribute dressing.
3. Sprinkle with sunflower seeds to serve.
And we also had to take a dessert. I wanted something EASY to make that required again no cooking!!! So I did some research for a recipe that it had been a while since I had had and found the Weight Watcher Pudding Jello Fruit Fluff or what I like to call:
Fluff Pie
Ingredients:
16 oz. (two tubs) FAT-FREE cool whip, thawed
1 pkg. FAT-FREE SUGAR-FREE instant vanilla pudding mix
1 pkg. SUGAR-FREE raspberry gelatin
now this is where I like to stop in the recipe and is all really I like to use...mix well in a large bowl and pour into a graham cracker crust (buy the reduced fat one and HELLO yummie dessert where you could really probably eat the WHOLE pie and not feel guilty). Let set on counter for about 10-15 minutes to give gelatin time to kinda dissolve and then put in freezer. This is really good during the summer b/c it is so yummie frozen.
The actual recipe calls for the addition of fruit in the following quantities but I'm not big on the fruit in the pie with the raspberry flavor maybe just with plain cool-whip...
1 (20 oz.) can no-sugar-added pineapple
1 (16 oz.) can no-sugar-added fruit cocktail
1 (16 oz.) can no-sugar-added mandarin oranges
1. drain all fruit
2. mix jello and pudding into thawed cool whip
3. gently fold in drained fruit
4. chill
I see endless taste combinations with this recipe...how about cheesecake flavored pudding paired with strawberry gelatin? or vanilla & vanilla and serve in a chocolate graham pie crust! or vanilla and orange...like a sherbert kind of flavor? Maybe then I would add the mandarin oranges! The combinations are endless! YUM!
Try and Enjoy!
:-)
Tuesday, March 24, 2009
The House of Worsham would like to introduce...
PETE the Magic Cat!!! Do not be Fooled by his cuteness of appearance for he is a formidable Magician of the First Order of Merlin.*applause*
Now...for his first trick...it is called The Disappearing Seaweed. This isn't just any trick now folks...the key is to apparate the seaweed out of the wicker basket on top of the 4 ft. high bar and have it reappear magically next to the dog bowl. The key to the trick is the dog bowl. It places full blame on the dog and grants our hero a clear conscience. (Of course the fact that the dog could in no way reach her 80 lb hiney to the top of a 4 ft. bar and delicately extract one item from a wicker basket so precariously placed is of no consequence.)
The seaweed should appear thus after trick is accomplished:
*note -- have tall, pretty, blond female assistant clean up random bits of seaweed and plastic bag on the ground before photographing for the world.
For his next trick The Great Pete will be performing the most fearsome trick of all...
*drum roll*
Cat Pulling Yarn Out of Butt !!!!!!
*gasp*
Yarn is to be completely unrolled and strewn about room for full effect! The secret to this trick is to have a cat yarn stash located somewhere in the house that no humans know about. Make them think they have ALL yarn put completely out of your reach and then, voila! Magic!
Yarn should be appropriately untangled...like so...
*note upon doing trick arrange it around the room for a most dramatic and crowd pleasing effect. Tall, pretty, blond female assistant can relocate it for photographing so as to get it all in one shot.
...and that concludes our entertainment for this evening folks.
Stay tuned for next time.
--Pete the Great Magic Cat
Tuesday, March 17, 2009
YARN Give-a-way...
I want to win!!! Reenie at Material Whirled has begun having a monthly yarn give-a-way.... http://reeniewhirled.blogspot.com/2009/03/2009-yarn-giveaway-3-egg-hunt.html . This month the requirement was to post a comment on her blog that was a poem.
So I posted the following:
Daffodils bloom,
spring is here soon,
Easter is on it's way,
with family we'll stay,
I'd love to take with me,
some yarn that is pretty,
and knit my vacation away!
:0)
So I posted the following:
Daffodils bloom,
spring is here soon,
Easter is on it's way,
with family we'll stay,
I'd love to take with me,
some yarn that is pretty,
and knit my vacation away!
:0)
Sunday, March 15, 2009
Life in general...
It's a lazy weekend Sunday and I'm listening to the rain come down and it's so relaxing. It's the perfect way to start Spring Break.
Mom got here today and we'll be running around this week to do some fun stuff!
I think I'll make a list:
Mom got here today and we'll be running around this week to do some fun stuff!
I think I'll make a list:
1. I cleaned house and flung stuff around like a mad person b/c Mom was on her way. It's always much funner to get it all together at the last minute. I feel very Trading Spaces when I do that. I only just finished painting the extra bed white yesterday, went and bought a mattress in the rain (strapped it to the top of the FJ...it was plastic wrapped), and zipped over to target today and bought this...cuz I felt like I needed something pretty in here!! I LOVE it and may just come live in this room myself! haha!
2. We have weird things growing in the aquarium!! Look at Warren's blog at some point I'll put pictures there, but OMG there is a worm/centipede looking thing that we finally saw out all the way today for the first time...and yesterday we saw finally the whole of another little organism which we believe to be TWO sea star things (the link is what they look like in our tank, we think that is what maybe we have) that all just spontaneously grew out of the LIVE ROCK! O.O
3. Warren started a new section of his Internal Med. rotation this week in infectious disease. He doesn't really care for the subject and is just going to hang in there for the next three weeks. He had his first med school patient that he's really followed die this weekend so he's a little sad too, but the guy had a "constellation" of problems (to use W's new word, lol) so I'm not really that surprised at the outcome.
4. It will be interesting to see how work pans out now that 2 ppl retired and 2 were RIFed (b/c we had two ppl not yet certified in library science, they are still in college taking their classes to be LMS's) so that leaves two positions for me to choose from but I'm trying to get them to create a 3rd spot to catalog all the "new" book donations that are in, AND my name is attached to a grant that if they win I could be the "director" and oversee that...so somewhere I will work for GISD next year just not sure where exactly.
K, I think that's all for now folks! Laters!
Thursday, March 12, 2009
RIF Notification
I have not been impacted for the Reduction In Force for the 2009-2010 school year.
OMG -- I DID NOT LOSE MY JOB!!!!!!!!!
OMG -- I DID NOT LOSE MY JOB!!!!!!!!!
Thursday, March 5, 2009
Upcoming RIF info...
Weblink for the newspaper article: http://www.galvnews.com/story.lasso?ewcd=dd8960c8cbbc1a73
Board Meeting weblink (which should be updated soon with this weeks meeting added on):
http://www.gisd.org/1635102515318260/podcasts/browse.asp?A=399&BMDRN=2000&BCOB=0&C=55715
And...
A Memo from our Principal's:
____________________________________________________________________
REDUCTION IN FORCE UPDATE
March 5, 2009
From: Mr. Bouldin and Ms. Wiley
§ School Board approved Phase II – reduction of teaching positions
§ School Board approved the staffing of 20 to 1 teacher/student ratio for next school year which would add additional teaching unit(s) to present campus enrollment count
§ Principals will meet with Human Resource and Superintendent Cleveland next week to finalize campus teacher numbers and names for reduction
§ As of date: teacher notification will occur prior to Spring Break
§ March 25, teacher names will go to School Board for the process of non-renewal positions due to reduction in force Friday, March 6 is deadline to be eligible for voluntary exit/retirement incentive. Paperwork needs to be completed, notarized and turned in to the Human Resource Office
Board Meeting weblink (which should be updated soon with this weeks meeting added on):
http://www.gisd.org/1635102515318260/podcasts/browse.asp?A=399&BMDRN=2000&BCOB=0&C=55715
And...
A Memo from our Principal's:
____________________________________________________________________
REDUCTION IN FORCE UPDATE
March 5, 2009
From: Mr. Bouldin and Ms. Wiley
§ School Board approved Phase II – reduction of teaching positions
§ School Board approved the staffing of 20 to 1 teacher/student ratio for next school year which would add additional teaching unit(s) to present campus enrollment count
§ Principals will meet with Human Resource and Superintendent Cleveland next week to finalize campus teacher numbers and names for reduction
§ As of date: teacher notification will occur prior to Spring Break
§ March 25, teacher names will go to School Board for the process of non-renewal positions due to reduction in force Friday, March 6 is deadline to be eligible for voluntary exit/retirement incentive. Paperwork needs to be completed, notarized and turned in to the Human Resource Office
Monday, March 2, 2009
I <3 Dr. Seuss
Saturday we had Saturday School from 8-1 to make up a "Hurricane Day." We passed out donated books at EVERY school in the district that day, mostly those that Jesse brought down! :)
And for Dr. Seuss week, I thought ya'll might enjoy seeing a "few" of our donated Dr. Seuss books....
Oh, and rumor on the street is Friday is D-day for finding out RIF info...yikes!
And for Dr. Seuss week, I thought ya'll might enjoy seeing a "few" of our donated Dr. Seuss books....
Oh, and rumor on the street is Friday is D-day for finding out RIF info...yikes!
Sunday, February 22, 2009
Warren is blogging...
Welcome Warren to the blog-o-sphere. We stared a Marine Fishtank and he is going to blog about the process...check it out here!
http://warrensaquarium.blogspot.com/
Also...I'm going to set him up a Dr. blog soon...so stay tuned..
http://warrensaquarium.blogspot.com/
Also...I'm going to set him up a Dr. blog soon...so stay tuned..
Dog Parade Day!
Today was the 10th annual Krewe of Barkus and Meoux parade hosted by the Galveston Humane Society. (Although, be sure you follow the link using Mozilla Firefox as your internet browser because they've got some viruses showing up on their site...be careful!! Oh, and Firefox is free.)
From their brochure this year...,"During Hurricane Ike the Galveston Humane Society partnered with the Houston SPCA to organize rescue teams from across the country to help with feeding and watering 500 pets who were left in their homes, rescuing over 1800 animals, placing 450 in foster homes around the Houston area, and celebrating 400 happy reunions!" I think that is amazing what they did. The Humane Society relocated to the old police station on Avenue S and roughly 56th street for more room. They will happily take donations of money, food, or supplies. Last Monday a show aired on Animal Planet about the rescue work during Hurricane Ike. I wish I had known and I would have Tivo'ed it.
This years parade began at 27th street and went down seawall to 41st street. 13 blocks!! (then we had to walk back to the car!) Longer I think than last years. Our costume theme this year was sparkly bowties. :-) and excuse some of the pictures...I only had my iPhone with me to photograph with! I can't believe I forgot the camera this time!
If you scroll over each photo you can see my caption..
From their brochure this year...,"During Hurricane Ike the Galveston Humane Society partnered with the Houston SPCA to organize rescue teams from across the country to help with feeding and watering 500 pets who were left in their homes, rescuing over 1800 animals, placing 450 in foster homes around the Houston area, and celebrating 400 happy reunions!" I think that is amazing what they did. The Humane Society relocated to the old police station on Avenue S and roughly 56th street for more room. They will happily take donations of money, food, or supplies. Last Monday a show aired on Animal Planet about the rescue work during Hurricane Ike. I wish I had known and I would have Tivo'ed it.
This years parade began at 27th street and went down seawall to 41st street. 13 blocks!! (then we had to walk back to the car!) Longer I think than last years. Our costume theme this year was sparkly bowties. :-) and excuse some of the pictures...I only had my iPhone with me to photograph with! I can't believe I forgot the camera this time!
If you scroll over each photo you can see my caption..
Wednesday, February 11, 2009
OMG I want to go to this!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
http://galvestondailynews.com/story.lasso?ewcd=23c6f6c3dc344892
Van Gogh is coming to GALVESTON!!! EEEK!!!
http://galvestondailynews.com/story.lasso?ewcd=23c6f6c3dc344892
Van Gogh is coming to GALVESTON!!! EEEK!!!
Friday, February 6, 2009
Wednesday, February 4, 2009
TV Week...
It must be my week to be on TV! ABC Channel 13 out of Houston came down today to do an interview and shoot footage of a book drive that a Houston student, Jesse Woodall, did for Education In Action as part of his leadership service. Jesse is an 8th grader at St. Thomas Episcopal School in Houston and here is his press release:
1. Tell me a little about yourself. I am an 8th grade student at St. Thomas' Episcopal School in Houston.
2. Why did you organize a service project this year? I am part of Education in Action's Lone Star Youth Leadership Council, and as a member, I had to do a service project.
3. Tell me about Education in Action and the Leadership Council. I was referred to the Education in Action program by my 6th grade math teacher at Baines Middle School. You have to be a good student and be a leader at school to be a part of it. I have attended two of their summer camps. In 2007, I went to Austin, and in 2008, I went to the one in Houston/Galveston. The Houston camp is the last camp. Now I am working toward being a camp counselor. In order to be a counselor, you have to go through their Leadership Council program. It's a two year program where I have to do leadership activities and service projects.
4. What made you choose Operation H.E.A.R.T. as your project? I wasn't sure what I was going to do, but after Hurricane Ike hit, I knew that I wanted to do something to help the kids in Galveston. I decided that a book drive would be a good thing to do. I read a lot after the hurricane when we didn't have any power, and I thought that it would be something that everyone would support.
5. Where did you collect books? I started at my church (Southminster Presbyterian) and its school (Southminster School). I collected a little over 2500 books from them in November. I also collected some books from my friends and neighbors in Sienna Plantation (about 500). My biggest drive was at St. Thomas where I collected over 6100 books in one week!
6. Did you do it all by yourself or did you get help? I had help. I was supposed to recruit people to help me since this is a leadership project. My parents helped a lot, so did my sister. I also had help from many people at church. A couple of friends in my neighborhood helped me get my collection boxes ready, and several of my friends at STES helped me collect and count the books at school. Mrs. Stewart, the school librarian, was my faculty sponsor who helped me get things done at school. Two of my friends are going to Galveston with me on Thursday (This was last week) to help me deliver the books to the school district.
Anything else you would like to share? I knew that people would donate books, but I never would have guessed that I would collect so many! My goal was to collect 1000 children's books.
1,000!! ha! He certainly met his goal and I think he is an outstanding young man!
So anyways, today there was a board meeting and I knew that I needed to clean out the board room (it's where we sort the books b/c it has the most room). I decided to dress comfortably...so I wore jeans and a nicer button up shirt and my fuzzy slipper/scuff shoes that Mom got me for x-mas. I dressed down a bit because I knew I would be moving around alot and wanted to be comfortable. Plus, I didn't know if Teresa would be there to help me or not. She was out the day before throwing up sick and generally not feeling well.
But it was a pleasant surprise when I got there this morning and she was there, so we get the books moving and are relocating it all to where we want it (eventually we round up some janatorial help) and at 11:30 a.m. we get a call that Channel 13 wants to come down and interview...at 1:30 p.m. That is 2 hours away! Not much time to get ready and look Decent because The News is coming down! Thank goodness that I wore full-makeup and not lite-makeup (cause there's different levels of makeupness...full-makeup includes eyeshadow, blush, and lipstick...lite-makeup is base, lipgloss, and mascara). But I was not Decent and was not going to wear jeans on The News. So I had to go do emergency shopping at Ross to get pants (which also required shoes) and I found some really nice dk. brown slacks for 6.99 and dk. brown snakeskin pointy toed mules for 12.99!
Now ya'll I don't talk on TV because I will sound all Ya'llish Southern and will get Red With Embarassment and will talktofasttomakeanysense. So I told Teresa she would have to do it (she is dramatic) and she did a wonderful job and even squeezed out some tears for the reporter lady(tho she was kinda questioning and sort of making her cry to get drama on The News).
I've been looking around on their website but can't locate an online clip of it yet...so keep checking and I'll be posting it when I find it so you can watch me move books around in all the boxes.
Warren says I'm famous. :D lol
1. Tell me a little about yourself. I am an 8th grade student at St. Thomas' Episcopal School in Houston.
2. Why did you organize a service project this year? I am part of Education in Action's Lone Star Youth Leadership Council, and as a member, I had to do a service project.
3. Tell me about Education in Action and the Leadership Council. I was referred to the Education in Action program by my 6th grade math teacher at Baines Middle School. You have to be a good student and be a leader at school to be a part of it. I have attended two of their summer camps. In 2007, I went to Austin, and in 2008, I went to the one in Houston/Galveston. The Houston camp is the last camp. Now I am working toward being a camp counselor. In order to be a counselor, you have to go through their Leadership Council program. It's a two year program where I have to do leadership activities and service projects.
4. What made you choose Operation H.E.A.R.T. as your project? I wasn't sure what I was going to do, but after Hurricane Ike hit, I knew that I wanted to do something to help the kids in Galveston. I decided that a book drive would be a good thing to do. I read a lot after the hurricane when we didn't have any power, and I thought that it would be something that everyone would support.
5. Where did you collect books? I started at my church (Southminster Presbyterian) and its school (Southminster School). I collected a little over 2500 books from them in November. I also collected some books from my friends and neighbors in Sienna Plantation (about 500). My biggest drive was at St. Thomas where I collected over 6100 books in one week!
6. Did you do it all by yourself or did you get help? I had help. I was supposed to recruit people to help me since this is a leadership project. My parents helped a lot, so did my sister. I also had help from many people at church. A couple of friends in my neighborhood helped me get my collection boxes ready, and several of my friends at STES helped me collect and count the books at school. Mrs. Stewart, the school librarian, was my faculty sponsor who helped me get things done at school. Two of my friends are going to Galveston with me on Thursday (This was last week) to help me deliver the books to the school district.
Anything else you would like to share? I knew that people would donate books, but I never would have guessed that I would collect so many! My goal was to collect 1000 children's books.
1,000!! ha! He certainly met his goal and I think he is an outstanding young man!
So anyways, today there was a board meeting and I knew that I needed to clean out the board room (it's where we sort the books b/c it has the most room). I decided to dress comfortably...so I wore jeans and a nicer button up shirt and my fuzzy slipper/scuff shoes that Mom got me for x-mas. I dressed down a bit because I knew I would be moving around alot and wanted to be comfortable. Plus, I didn't know if Teresa would be there to help me or not. She was out the day before throwing up sick and generally not feeling well.
But it was a pleasant surprise when I got there this morning and she was there, so we get the books moving and are relocating it all to where we want it (eventually we round up some janatorial help) and at 11:30 a.m. we get a call that Channel 13 wants to come down and interview...at 1:30 p.m. That is 2 hours away! Not much time to get ready and look Decent because The News is coming down! Thank goodness that I wore full-makeup and not lite-makeup (cause there's different levels of makeupness...full-makeup includes eyeshadow, blush, and lipstick...lite-makeup is base, lipgloss, and mascara). But I was not Decent and was not going to wear jeans on The News. So I had to go do emergency shopping at Ross to get pants (which also required shoes) and I found some really nice dk. brown slacks for 6.99 and dk. brown snakeskin pointy toed mules for 12.99!
Now ya'll I don't talk on TV because I will sound all Ya'llish Southern and will get Red With Embarassment and will talktofasttomakeanysense. So I told Teresa she would have to do it (she is dramatic) and she did a wonderful job and even squeezed out some tears for the reporter lady(tho she was kinda questioning and sort of making her cry to get drama on The News).
I've been looking around on their website but can't locate an online clip of it yet...so keep checking and I'll be posting it when I find it so you can watch me move books around in all the boxes.
Warren says I'm famous. :D lol
Monday, February 2, 2009
Didja watch AR?
Hey! We were there! We remember watching them film the American Surfing Ephemera, ca. 1960 and if you were watching for like 3 seconds towards the end of the New England Desk and contents, ca. 1760 you'll see us!! We remembered watching that too and marveling at all of the stuff coming out of the desk.
The thing is when you are there they are wearing body mic's so you can't hear what they are saying, it's just picked up by the camera. Or something like that is how it works...it's not "projected" like a normal microphone. So we couldn't hear what they were saying about all of the stuff...
The thing is when you are there they are wearing body mic's so you can't hear what they are saying, it's just picked up by the camera. Or something like that is how it works...it's not "projected" like a normal microphone. So we couldn't hear what they were saying about all of the stuff...
Friday, January 30, 2009
The Bloggies...
Go vote:
http://2009.bloggies.com/
You might come across blogs u know and find some new ones to read or look into :)
Happy Friday!
http://2009.bloggies.com/
You might come across blogs u know and find some new ones to read or look into :)
Happy Friday!
Thursday, January 29, 2009
Jury Duty!!!
(Previously, on Jan 23rd, I wrote the following...) I've been summoned!!! When I got home from xmas break, not only did we find a mouse, I also received a jury summons.
My first one!!!
I've never been in before...I have a theory going that it's because I've moved around alot and somehow got lucky in Denton that I wasn't ever selected.
(Now, present day...)Anyway, back to the post I was writing...just go to http://www.galvnews.com/ to see the big, ginormous deal case that I was summoned for...it's the Baby Grace case that is all over the news and headlines on today's front page. Thank goodness I didn't get picked cause I already think they are guilty, guilty, guilty.
So, jury duty was fun and interesting and there were a whole courtroom full of people that were pulled in for possible jurors. I got there around 8:30ish and went and sat by a sweet little old lady reading a book, which she prompty gave to me when she finished it!! I also was given a piece of gum by another nice lady in line while we were waiting to check in. People are so nice! :) Maybe it's because we all envisioned being there with each other forever while the selection went on. It was funny too because everyone there was trying to avoid eye contact with everyone else. Don't Pick Me might as well have been tattooed on everyone's forehead!
And there was some lawyerish looking guy there who seemed to be trying to get a feel for people as we all came in...I thought he might be on the lookout for potential jurors so I tried not to look at him.
Eventually the judge came in and told us we had been polled for that case because it was such a high profile case and he wanted to make sure that they had enough people to choose from, yadda yadda yadda, ya'll are dismissed and are free to go until your next summons. Yay! Score! I left by like 9:30 a.m. with a work excuse note that says I was there from 8-1! :D
So I piddled around Galveston, got my oil changed, car inspected, waiting until Warren was off to go eat lunch with him then went home and laid around and read and played WoW. Jury Duty was great!
My first one!!!
I've never been in before...I have a theory going that it's because I've moved around alot and somehow got lucky in Denton that I wasn't ever selected.
(Now, present day...)Anyway, back to the post I was writing...just go to http://www.galvnews.com/ to see the big, ginormous deal case that I was summoned for...it's the Baby Grace case that is all over the news and headlines on today's front page. Thank goodness I didn't get picked cause I already think they are guilty, guilty, guilty.
So, jury duty was fun and interesting and there were a whole courtroom full of people that were pulled in for possible jurors. I got there around 8:30ish and went and sat by a sweet little old lady reading a book, which she prompty gave to me when she finished it!! I also was given a piece of gum by another nice lady in line while we were waiting to check in. People are so nice! :) Maybe it's because we all envisioned being there with each other forever while the selection went on. It was funny too because everyone there was trying to avoid eye contact with everyone else. Don't Pick Me might as well have been tattooed on everyone's forehead!
And there was some lawyerish looking guy there who seemed to be trying to get a feel for people as we all came in...I thought he might be on the lookout for potential jurors so I tried not to look at him.
Eventually the judge came in and told us we had been polled for that case because it was such a high profile case and he wanted to make sure that they had enough people to choose from, yadda yadda yadda, ya'll are dismissed and are free to go until your next summons. Yay! Score! I left by like 9:30 a.m. with a work excuse note that says I was there from 8-1! :D
So I piddled around Galveston, got my oil changed, car inspected, waiting until Warren was off to go eat lunch with him then went home and laid around and read and played WoW. Jury Duty was great!
ANTIQUES ROADSHOW -- DALLAS cont...
It will be airing this next Monday and the Monday after that too...runs for 3 weeks. I didn't see us in the last show, but that was some cool stuff!
Check it out here:
http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/roadshow/cities/dallas_2009.html
Check it out here:
http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/roadshow/cities/dallas_2009.html
Monday, January 26, 2009
ANTIQUES ROADSHOW -- DALLAS
Is ON NOW!!! GO WATCH!!! Dallas is showing for the next 3 weeks!!! EEk, I'll have to remember to be watching for it!
I am wearing the following:
Look for the Large Leaf Purse.
Mom thinks she had on lime green.
Thursday, January 22, 2009
GISD Update
Over the past week and a half there have been Board meetings and stuff going on...here is the breakdown of what is going to happen as far as a RIF is concerned over the course of the next few months:
Currently there is a voluntary RIF incentive going on. The district needs 220 people to go with it broken down by catagory...my catagory in Curriculum & Instruction under "Librarian" needs 3 of us to go. Well, let me re-phrase that...the maximum amount of librarians that can leave and still get the incintive pay is 3.
The incentive amount is a percentage of your salary based upon how long you have been in the district. See below:
1 to 5 years - 1%
6 to 10 years - 3%
11 to 15 years - 5%
16 to 20 years - 7%
20+ years - 10%
Yep that's right....1%.....I think that's like $500 MAYbe. So of course I'm not going to opt out. If I opt out then I for sure don't have a job, but have only a little bit of money as cushion. If I wait and get RIFed then I could at least draw unemployment and THEN look for another job (well I'll still be looking anyways). If I don't get RIFed then I'm still going to be in some other job with GISD. It's just a drag not knowing...
...RETIRE ya'll!!! :) You can have your job back in a year!!
Tuesday, January 13, 2009
Jail-time!
Warren began his internal medicine rotation down here at UTMB, which will last till April. We do know that he will be here until then, after that his next two rotations depend upon if there is enough patient base for them to have opened down here in the next 3 months. The next one is psych...and while there are some crazy people down here...I don't think it will be enough to reopen the program. So probably he will go back to Dallas for roughly six weeks. Then after that is OBGYN!!! ha He is dreading it. But by that time people will be having "Ike" babies so maybe it will open or maybe he can be at a clinic...
His current rotation is broken into three parts, one month on clinic, one month on ambulatory, and one month in the jail. UTMB has a prison floor, for those of you who don't know, and they bring the prisoners from the county and farther who need healthcare here.
His first day going in he had to take off everything metal, take off his shoes, and get patted and wanded down before entering the floor. He also said he cannot take his cell phone with him into the area because they are afraid prisoners would try to take it and make a phone call. (!??!?!!! like they could call someone to come and get them?! I think it's a dumb rule and I don't like him being in there without his phone!!!).
Now (since I am writing this a bit after the fact..I post-date it back tho to closer when he began) he said he isn't always wanded everyday now, just alot at the beginning and I think it depends on who is on guard duty.
His current rotation is broken into three parts, one month on clinic, one month on ambulatory, and one month in the jail. UTMB has a prison floor, for those of you who don't know, and they bring the prisoners from the county and farther who need healthcare here.
His first day going in he had to take off everything metal, take off his shoes, and get patted and wanded down before entering the floor. He also said he cannot take his cell phone with him into the area because they are afraid prisoners would try to take it and make a phone call. (!??!?!!! like they could call someone to come and get them?! I think it's a dumb rule and I don't like him being in there without his phone!!!).
Now (since I am writing this a bit after the fact..I post-date it back tho to closer when he began) he said he isn't always wanded everyday now, just alot at the beginning and I think it depends on who is on guard duty.
Also, he finally spilled on the security...and...I don't want to say to much about it! I'm afraid some internet policemen might track me down for spilling the beans on how it is all laid out! So if you see Warren, ask him how it all works...it's really interesting. :)
Friday, January 9, 2009
The Great Mouse-capade
When we returned from xmas break and were putting away things in the pantry...I noticed that there was a bag at the bottom that had been 'broken into'. Immediately thinking of Petey (because he is the king at breaking into plastic bags that smell good) I thought we'd left the cabinet door cracked or something. Of course, he does have monkey toes so he could have broken in himself. Thief!
However, I went up a couple of shelves to sit away a can of soup and I noticed other things were chewed open too...the granola, a carton of chicken broth, some Homemade Gourmet seasonings, etc. Obviously that was more items than Pete could loot in a night so I came to the correct conclusion that we had a mouse move in (or maybe it was pre-existing?!) over Christmas.
So...we snooped around and found some droppings and I went and picked Pete up and put him the "Mouse was here" area. He got sniffy so Warren and I thought we'd see results...he's brought us presents before! lol (We really did mean to pick up a mouse trap but then got caught up in the fun of watching Pete on the hunt...and it gave him something produtive to do.)
After Pete got a whiff, he went on Mouse Patrol every night. I'd catch him perched up on top of the table keeping an eye out for it.
A couple of nights go by before we saw REAL evidence.
At 4:30 a.m., I was awakened by a commotion coming from the kitchen. I walk blearily into the dining room and there is Warren standing at the entrance to the kitchen holding my good rolling pin (!!!) and the kitchen rug. Petey is sitting in front of the open pantry door on alert, his tail whipping back and forth rapidly.
The rather fat field mouse is up on the highest shelf perched on top of a box of cereal.
Pete decideds that the mouse needs help coming down because it isn't going to voluntarily jump down. So he commences to CLIMB THE WIRE SHELVING!!! I have never seen anything like it! He was griping the edge of the shelving with his orange-cat-monkey-toes and pulling himself up with his body vertical in the air...like climbing a tree but not really...which is why it looked so funny.
The mouse sees Pete on his way to "rescue" it and decides to make his getaway by jumping over Pete's head into the kitchen.
Warren and I of course run screaming from the kitchen and I go stand on a dining room chair, which was right behind me and Warren runs to stand on the couch...about 5 seconds later Pete comes prancing out of the kitchen holding the mouse by the tail! And heads toward our bedroom! We yell, "NO Pete! " At which Grace finally wakes up and comes out of the bedroom which deters Pete from entering and he drops the mouse!!!! OMG! The chase was on!
Mouse and Pete are flying around the living room/dining room, Grace isn't awake enough yet to comprehend what she is seeing, Pete and mouse are just a blur running around and finally end up in the extra bathroom...where I go shut the door. Then I realize it could get out from under the door....which it did.
Into the extra bedroom which had lots of boxes in it.
The next day Warren rearranged the room so most extra boxes fit in the closet.
No mouse.
Pete kept patrol going for a few days.
As of yet we have had no more break-ins to the pantry, we haven't smelled anything, and there have been no "presents".
We think Mr. Field Mouse moved out.
However, I went up a couple of shelves to sit away a can of soup and I noticed other things were chewed open too...the granola, a carton of chicken broth, some Homemade Gourmet seasonings, etc. Obviously that was more items than Pete could loot in a night so I came to the correct conclusion that we had a mouse move in (or maybe it was pre-existing?!) over Christmas.
So...we snooped around and found some droppings and I went and picked Pete up and put him the "Mouse was here" area. He got sniffy so Warren and I thought we'd see results...he's brought us presents before! lol (We really did mean to pick up a mouse trap but then got caught up in the fun of watching Pete on the hunt...and it gave him something produtive to do.)
After Pete got a whiff, he went on Mouse Patrol every night. I'd catch him perched up on top of the table keeping an eye out for it.
A couple of nights go by before we saw REAL evidence.
At 4:30 a.m., I was awakened by a commotion coming from the kitchen. I walk blearily into the dining room and there is Warren standing at the entrance to the kitchen holding my good rolling pin (!!!) and the kitchen rug. Petey is sitting in front of the open pantry door on alert, his tail whipping back and forth rapidly.
The rather fat field mouse is up on the highest shelf perched on top of a box of cereal.
Pete decideds that the mouse needs help coming down because it isn't going to voluntarily jump down. So he commences to CLIMB THE WIRE SHELVING!!! I have never seen anything like it! He was griping the edge of the shelving with his orange-cat-monkey-toes and pulling himself up with his body vertical in the air...like climbing a tree but not really...which is why it looked so funny.
The mouse sees Pete on his way to "rescue" it and decides to make his getaway by jumping over Pete's head into the kitchen.
Warren and I of course run screaming from the kitchen and I go stand on a dining room chair, which was right behind me and Warren runs to stand on the couch...about 5 seconds later Pete comes prancing out of the kitchen holding the mouse by the tail! And heads toward our bedroom! We yell, "NO Pete! " At which Grace finally wakes up and comes out of the bedroom which deters Pete from entering and he drops the mouse!!!! OMG! The chase was on!
Mouse and Pete are flying around the living room/dining room, Grace isn't awake enough yet to comprehend what she is seeing, Pete and mouse are just a blur running around and finally end up in the extra bathroom...where I go shut the door. Then I realize it could get out from under the door....which it did.
Into the extra bedroom which had lots of boxes in it.
The next day Warren rearranged the room so most extra boxes fit in the closet.
No mouse.
Pete kept patrol going for a few days.
As of yet we have had no more break-ins to the pantry, we haven't smelled anything, and there have been no "presents".
We think Mr. Field Mouse moved out.
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