Teenage girls...

I have developed a study habit...
Since I am now teaching 5 days a week I no longer have the luxury of Mon/Wed study days.  Which means I literally have to find slots of time to study before I rush into my next task.

So my new habit has been to drop my kids off at school at 8 on Mon/Wed and then head to SB to study.
Which may seem odd to some people because SB is loud and busy and frankly I leave smelling like burnt coffee which I really don't like...

However, I am able to concentrate better there than at home where the computer, TV, laundry ( you know what I mean!) is distracting me.

I tried another adorable coffee shop in town but it smells like ham which grosses me out more than burnt coffee...downtown Vancouver has a gorgeous new library and I love studying there but I don't have time to drive there since I have to be back at CAA by 9:30....so SB it is...

Last week I saw a friend of mine when I arrived at SB and talked with him for a couple of minutes before settling in to study.  I sat at my favorite table which is one of those long family style tables.  I like it because there is lots of room to spread all my stuff out but it does mean other people will most likely join me at my table...

On this morning two teenage girls sat down.  One studious girl and one not so studious girl...not sure why they were hanging out...anyway the studious girl I'll call her Mary and the not so studious girl I will call Barbie...Mary pulls out her notebooks etc and complains immediately at how noisy it is and that she really needs to be at the library, to which Barbie ignores her and tells Mary that Mark was texting and flirting with her last night...to which Mary offers a distracted giggle but is clearly trying to concentrate.  Barbie continues making comments about various boy girl relationships - such as - "Kelly only kept Ron for as long as she did because she kept telling him she thought she was pregnant" All the while Mary has her head down and is really trying to get something done.  Then Barbie asks Mary if she knows how to do such and such with her phone to which Mary says with great exasperation "I would love to help you but I'm really trying to get this done!"  Barbie just wasn't getting the hint...

Meanwhile, Shelly is obviously way too distracted by her neighbors but she is trying to focus on Thucydides who was a Greek who wrote about the Peloponnesian war and had a public purpose for studying the past...

My friend who was sitting behind me, had gotten up to leave when he leaned over my shoulder and told me my glasses made me look smart...I laughed and said "that's what I'm going for - the smart look" - he then walked off.

Barbie noticing the exchange said "excuse me, did he just hit on you?"  Hmmm, what to say...my ego wanted to say "oh yea, it happens all the time I just can't go anywhere..." But what I actually said through my laughter was "no, he's a friend and those days are long behind me" to which she gave me a sad kinda look...
To which I wanted to reply, just because a guy speaks to you doesn't mean he is "hitting on you" but maybe in her "Barbie world" it does...

Ahhh, back to reality

Frychik

FLS - The Cave

The Cave by Jose Saramago

"Winner of the Nobel Prize for Literature"

"A genuinely brilliant novel." - Chicago Tribune

"The Cave is yet another triumph...for Portugal's, or even the world's greatest living novelist. Read it." - The Washington Post Book World

"The Cave - like biting into a huge piece of Carmel which has lost its flavor, you have to chew and chew to get to the end..." -Shelly Fry FLS Book Club

Can I just say our book club is amazing.  This book was tedious! We all agreed that the end was interesting but I'm not exaggerating when I say that what is described on the back of the book is all that happens in the 307 pages! How on earth did it win the Nobel Prize for literature? (We all decided something must have been lost in translation)

But fortunately, book club is a little about books and a lot about friendship, conversation and food

Sadly, we were down 3 members this night.

Menu - usually the menu for the evening revolves around the food in the book. However, there wasn't any food in the book so I had to wing it.  And since some of our members were coming straight to my house after a day of skiing I figured something warm and hearty would do nicely.

Taco Soup

Corn Bread

Sour Cherry Coffee cake which didn't have any cherries in it I used mixed berries instead :)

And coffee provided by Suzanne ( I still have your creamer!)

But it truly is about the conversation.  We learn more about each other each time...sometimes we learn things that we really shouldn't know (#45?) we laugh, we cry, we make memories that are so precious to me!

And then my favorite part (except that it means we are at the end) the REVEAL for next month...Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close
It looks like a good one! I'm already at 120 pages and enjoying it :) and the plan is to watch the movie together after which sounds like a very fun plan indeed!

Can't wait for next month!

frychik

Weekend recap

This weekend was all about basketball...  The Kodiaks were at district playoffs.

Their first game was Saturday night so we headed north to cheer them on...

Sadly, they lost but we still had hope for the game on Monday...

Sunday the boys headed up with the youth group for night skiing but Jeff and I had a very important birthday party to attend...

She is 6!

Uncle Jeff will do anything for a smooch!

Boy thats a lot of girls! :) and one happy Nana!

Jeff and I then went clothes shopping for him...snore....dress shirts and dress shoes.  That boy is so picky! I'm the easy one to shop with! He wants the shirt with the buttons, but the fabric needs to be softer but also no iron and he doesn't like that color, or the checks, or the way the clerk looked at him...jeesh and he doesn't like ANYTHING that I pick out...which frankly rubs me the wrong way...

Then Monday we were making the 5 hour round trip back up to watch the Kodiaks play again...

They didn't win...
I will miss watching the games but I have to admit I'm glad we aren't driving to Spokane on Wed...that is a LONG drive!
Besides there is always next year...Josh's senior year!

Good grief...


Frychik

Loss

Love people!

Just love them!

It's been an emotionally draining week.  My sweet little nieces have lost their grandpa...they called him "pa".  He has lived with them and been part of their daily lives.  He is not nearly old enough to die (what is that age?) but his body has been abused past its limits.

What makes matters worse for those closest to him is that awful decisions had to be made...and now the waiting....

He was taken off of life support yesterday morning and as of tonight is still lingering...

My mom and I went through this a few years back with my Uncle and it is an awful process...as if the situation isn't awful enough...

My nieces don't know yet...they know pa is in the hospital and don't understand why they can't visit him...They are 7,6 and 3.

I was 4 when my Grandpa died

I loved him very much and I knew at that young age how much he loved me.  It has made a lasting impression on me.
I remember that he was sick (he had emphysema) I remember to be careful not to press on his chest when I sat on his lap.  I remember that we had an anointing of him and I remember praying so fiercely in my heart that Jesus would heal my Grandpa.  The second the prayer ended I crossed the prayer circle and asked if he was all better...

I remember the night my Grandmother came home sobbing, hysterically...
I was scared I didn't understand...
My Mom took me to the bedroom and tried to explain death and heaven to me...
I remember she was calm but very sad...

I remember trying to figure out what death was...what did it mean?
I'm not sure when, but I think the next day I walked out of my grandmothers house and noticed a dead bird on the ground...I remember thinking "oh that's what dead is"

But what I remember the most is how much he loved me. 
I wish with all my heart I could have had more time with him.
And I wish with all my heart I could spare my nieces this loss...

But I do believe in Heaven and I'm so thankful to have that reunion to look forward to.

LOVE YOUR PEOPLE!!!


Love,
Frychik

Happy VD-day!

Happy VD-day!  I'm not usually into this holiday at all, but for some reason I'm feelin it this year...

One of the things I love to do is read sappy, romantic, lines that have been used historically in letters (see last years post)
What can I say?  I'm a sucker for a good line!  Here are some I found today...


You know you're in love when you can't fall asleep because reality is finally better than your dreams." -Dr. Seuss


"Love is the condition in which the happiness of another person is essential to your own." -Robert Heinlein

"The art of love... is largely the art of persistence." -Albert Ellis

"For you see, each day I love you more, today more than yesterday and less than tomorrow." -Rosemonde Gerard

"For it was not into my ear you whispered, but into my heart. It was not my lips you kissed, but my soul." -Judy Garland

"If I could be anything in the world I would want to be a teardrop because I would be born in your eyes, live on your cheeks, and die on your lips." -Author Unknown

"Love is something eternal; the aspect may change, but not the essence." -Vincent van Gogh

"A life without love is like a year without summer." -Swedish Proverb

"Love is a promise, love is a souvenir, once given never forgotten, never let it disappear." -John Lennon

"A true lover always feels in debt to the one he loves." -Ralph W. Sockman

"Love is a symbol of eternity. It wipes out all sense of time, destroying all memory of a beginning and all fear of an end." -Author Unknown

"Trip over love, you can get up. Fall in love and you fall forever." -Author Unknown

"Anyone can catch your eye, but it takes someone special to catch your heart." -Author Unknown

"Love is a smoke made with the fume of sighs." -William Shakespeare

"Love is just a word until someone comes along and gives it meaning." -Author Unknown

"The minute I heard my first love story I started looking for you, not knowing how blind that was. Lovers don't finally meet somewhere. They're in each other all along." -Jalal ad-Din Rumi

"Life's greatest happiness is to be convinced we are loved." -Victor Hugo

Hope your day is filled with chocolate! - frychik

I like it

I'm selfish, impatient and a little insecure. I make mistakes, I am out of control and at times hard to handle. But if you can't handle me at my worst, then you sure as hell don't deserve me at my best.”


― Marilyn Monroe

Is it wrong that I like that quote?  I think not....

Hope your day is splendid and you didn't leave your purse 45 min away from home....


Frychik

Blah............

This week has been tough...
Not fun...
Emotionally frustrating...
Physically discouraging...

My new class is impossible...I know, I know I say that at the beginning of each class but this class is HARD!!!!!!! (yes I'm whining, can you hear it?) I realize I should not of complained about the other two!

Ever heard of...

Ludovic Muratori
Giambattista Vico
Pietro Giannone
Leopold von Ranke
Herodotus (he that sounds familuar)
Sima Qian
Thucydides
Polybius
Auguste Comte
Benedetto Croce

This is a very short list from the first 9 pages of the 80 I have to read for next week (a drop in the bucket compared to you Jill!)

My assignment this week is to write 500 words on the following

"Imagine you had a time machine that only had two settings on it, BCE and the present.  You step in and are transported back in time. You have only an afternoon to find and talk to any historian of your choice (China or Greece). Who do you seek out and why? what do you ask him (keep it history related)? What do you tell him about the history profession today?"

There are few problems I'm facing
1.  I am completely unfamiliar with this BCE time period other than Bible stories I am unaware of anything else happening BCE!  Can I pick Adam?  Can I ask him how he remembered all the names of the zillion animals he named and did he remember to give Eve flowers and chocolate on VDay?

2.  I hate "creative" writing when dealing with history it seems oxymoronish to me...

3.  With all of the stopping to look up words I've never heard of before (Ethnography, Othering, Diachronistically, to name a very few) and taking notes of people I've never heard of before (see list above) it has taken me 2 hours to read 9 pages!  I wish I were kidding...

4.  So as a result I have lost my flow...

5.  Last week I had flow, I was running, I was doing my Bible study, I was out taking pictures, I was teaching, it was flowing...

6.  This week it was not flowing...


I guess this is the bumpy transition period. 

Thanks for listening...
I feel a tiny bit better...
Mostly because Jeff is cooking me supper :)

Frychik

Night lights

Can you read it?  Sizzle Pie a pizza joint in Portland.  Last night I headed out with some students and fellow photogs to take some night pictures in Ptown.

It was fun.  I have very poor skills when it comes to "low light photography" so I appreciated the opportunity to practice and it was fun as we all looked at each others shots

It was a gorgeous evening.  Chilly, I have learned early on that if you are going to be a photographer you better know how to dress warm and a pair of gloves is ESSENTIAL!

We played with light.  This is a blue flashlight.  The kids had fun writing their names and making designs we also painted this statue

This is one of my favorite shots of the evening :)

Thanks for stopping by!

Frychik

Ahhh the Weekend!

It was a glorious, sunny, uncomplicated weekend...

Friday night was dinner together at the dinning room table followed by some family games.  Conversation, laughter, family time.  It was such a blessing to hit the pause button in the midst of crazy, insane schedules...

Sabbath was sunny and gorgeous and with no plans Jeff and I took off in search of views of Mt. Hood.  I have been craving time for photography but it is hard to find. The kids were completely uninterested and my oldest was in the midst of teenage angst so we headed out...

 I'm fortunate that Jeff loves to be my assistant and it is a fun couples activity to go out and explore our area

 It took awhile to find just the right spot.  We settled on Steamboat landing in Washougal.  The light was perfect!

 The sun was sunny and wind was windy so it was perfect for kite flying at Wittler park

 Teddy came along on our adventure and loved it :)

One thing I was startled to notice was this mountain...I don't think I have ever noticed Mt. Jefferson from Vancouver before.  Maybe its because St. Helens, Hood and even Adams hog the spotlight...

 I posted the above shot in CaptureClarkCounty.com and a fellow photographer informed me that this ladder was used for people as the came up to the dock which is long gone (only the pilings remain)

Saturday night both of the kids had plans and we didn't so we just sat at home and watched movies.  It was quiet and nice :)

Sunday was frosty, and sunny and gorgeous and I grabbed my camera and my hot assistant and headed up to the Ridgfield wildlife refuge to see what we could find..

 We were excited to spot a river otter right off the bat.  He was on Jeff's side of the car so I handed over my camera and he shot away :)

 At this time of year you are not allowed out of your car and since I don't have a lens the size of a canon its difficult to get some close ups.  Thank goodness for a sunroof and a bird that decided to perch over the road.  Jeff also got this shot he is especially proud of the sun glimmer in the birds eye :)

 We headed home and got our first bike ride in of the season :)  Which was awesome! I like riding so much better than running!

And then....
I have been craving french fries and a milk shake for months...
It was sweet :)

I hope you had a great weekend!

Today is the first day of Historiography...I'm missing the weekend already!

Frychik