Joyce's Journal

Annual Betz Buzz December 2011

2011-12-20T22:33:00.000-05:00

Published by

the Charles Betz family

Springport Michigan

Written by Joyce Choate Betz

2011 was a fairly quiet year in the Betz household, so quiet in fact that I hope you do not find this newsletter so boring as to put you to sleep.

Snow Storms…...

As usual the year started with snow. These pictures was taken on January 8, everything was covered in hoar frost. I can’t find any place where I wrote about it at the time but It seems to me like I drove to or from work in a snow storm every day

In February, we got a big snow storm that some were calling

Snowpocolypse 2011, I posted on Facebook that Lansing got 11 inches of snow, Jackson got 7 and we got about 9. You can see more pictures from that storm On my Facebook page

…And Wind Storms

On memorial weekend, we had quite a storm, as did many people in neighboring areas. We were coming back from a horse show on Sunday When they ended the show early because of impending storms moving our way. On the way home, we heard on the radio that there were tornados sighted in the area. (I swear I saw a funnel cloud) As we turned toward home, The rain was so bad we couldn’t see the road so Charlie stopped the car just off the road to wait it out. The wind really rocked the car, we both thought it might get picked up or roll over.

When it finally stopped we found out that the neighbor who happened to be a little way behind us pulled in to a driveway because they couldn’t see either, and the wind tore his camper off the truck and threw it into a tree.

It took us about two hours to get home (about 1.5 miles. All of the roads had trees down blocking the way, we were finally able to get through when the township crews were able to cut some of the trees on one of the roads. There were lots of trees, down in the horse pastures. Charlie was finally able to sell some of them to a lumber broker who moved them out. Here is a photo of one of the apple trees ripped up at the roots.

The Farm

In the spring Charlie sold a couple of horses in to a YMCA camp in West Branch Through that he became friends with Brandy and Ashley Nelsey.

Brandy and Ashley are riding their horses from West Brach, Michigan to Texas. They started riding in tember and are currently in Kentucky. They are helping raise money for clean water wells in Haiti. A project that their church had started.

The girls stayed with us for a few days on their way through and did a presentation the elementary school. This picture was taken by the Jackson Citizen Patriot on September 27. Charlie is planning on us taking a trip when they get to Red Banks Mississippi, which is where is son, Terry and his family live.

You can find out more about Brandy and Ashley’s trip at Facebook or friend them on Facebook as Horseback for Haiti or check out the blog

We also had a new edition to the herd, born on Easter Sunday so Charlie named her Lily. She is a friendly little thing, She loves to have her back or ears scratched . One day she followed me, and almost walked up in to the sun porch.

We had some baby ducks hatch this spring too, buteach day or so another one came up missing. We think that a snapping turtle in the pond got some of them. It could also have been the raccoons or coyotes.

As you may know, chickens don’t lay many eggs in the winter. Because we had some new ones this spring, when they started to lay we got a variety of egg sizes. From extra jumbo to extra small

Travel

Ed. and Joyce drove to Alabama, to visit Lois, Troy and Joe, in Birmingham. Ed got some golf in, I did a little geocaching. I found out that Lois and Ed, think it is rather silly, Troy and Harper, seemed to like it though, It was a nice break from the cold, and good to spend some quality time with some great people. Thanks Lo, Troy, Sheryl, Christian, Harper (especially for letting me use your bedroom) Joe and Kim.

We also had a Gilbert family reunion in AuTrain, Michigan in July, Hosted by the Larson’s. I have quit a few pictures , too many to add to this print copy of the newsletter, but you can see them on Facebook., I don’t have a picture of the whole group but here are a few of the scenery. I had not realized there were so many waterfalls in the area.

We also found Lakenenland between, AuTrain and Manistique. This guy had all kinds of welded “junk” sculptures.

This and That—Odds and Ends

Charlie and I celebrated our 25th wedding anniversary in June, and Shonda surprised us with a party. She did made all of the arrangements herself, and invited over 100 people. She did a great job. If you need an event planner she may be available. Her time maybe a little tight though because she is working full time at Springhill Suites in Lansing and is planning on taking 9 credit hours at JCC. She’s working toward her Bachelors in Journalism

As many of you know Charlie is currently having trouble with his back, the Dr. says it is muscle spasms caused by some kind of strain. It is getting better. He keeps himself busy around the “farm”

My car died a sudden unexpected death in September. So we had to go car hunting. We settled on a 2006 Buick Lacrosse.

Joyce has been busy at work all year, training library staff and patrons in how to use the new eReaders and devices.

May the love and peace of the holiday season be in your heart through out the New Year.

You can find us on the web.

We all have Facebook accounts,

Big Winds 5-29-11

2011-05-31T11:23:00.001-04:00

I am writing this hear to let everyone know that yes we are fine and give you a few details of what happened on Sunday.

We went out in the morning and did some Geocaching, then went to a horse show in Nashville, (no not Tennessee- Michigan) it is west and north of Charlotte. Danielle and her dad pulled the horse trailer we were just going to watch. The sky was getting really dark and the announcer said their was severe weather headed our way so we decided to leave early. On the way home, on Royston Rd. (here is a link to the map http://maps.google.com/maps?hl=en&tab=wl ) north of Bellevue Road the radio said there was a tornado sighted in Eaton county. I looked to the southwest and said there it is - there is a funnel cloud. We turned on to Springport /Holibaugh road and it looked like the cloud had dispersed, but you could see the line of storms. We got almost to Markle Rd. and couldn't see the hood of the car, so Charlie stopped and turned on the flashers. The wind was so bad the car shook, it felt like we were going down a really really bump road and the car felt like it was going sideways. I was sure it was going to break the windows. Charlie said he thought it was going to flip. I closed my eyes took a deep breath and thought OK what ever happens happens, there's nothing I can do about it now.

When the rain and wind let up we tried to proceed. Just passed Markle Rd. there was a tree, a whole tree down across the road. Since we had no chain saw or chain in the car we backed up thought we would try Markle. Nope two trees across down.

Back tracked, met a couple of vehicles that said they couldn't get through on M50/99. Our next door neighbor who happened to be behind us at the Bellevue Rd turn pulled into someones drive way and the wind took his truck camper off the truck and threw it against a tree.

We tried Royston.Lots of brush, water across the road and a wire down in the water that we didn't see until we were already on it, the utility pole was broken in half.

Another tree. two guys in a Pick up had a chain saw at home and went back to get it. By the time they got there there were at least 4 vehicles behind us including our horse and trailer. They cut through 3 trees, before we got to Love's farm. There was a tree on top of his tractor, and wires down across the road and the drive. Decided to try Springport Road again. The workers were out removing trees, so we were finally able to get through. It took over 2 hours to go less than a mile. At one point Charlie said we don't even know if the house is still there. I said if it isn't we can consider ourselves lucky that we weren't in it.

We were lucky, we lost trees, and have to repair the corner of the roof. But the house is still there the horses and the dog and the chickens are fine.
It's just HOT and humid and lots of clean up work to do.

Book Review - Water for Elephants

2011-02-23T13:57:00.002-05:00

I wrote this review for JDL home page in 2007. With the movie coming out in April. I thought it might be a good idea to publish here.
Inside Jacob Jankowski’s ninety-something-year-old mind dwell memories of himself as a young man, tossed by fate into the Benzini Brothers Most Spectacular Show on Earth. Memories of a world filled with freaks and clowns, with wonder and pain, and anger and passion; a world with its own narrow irrational rules, its own way of life and its own way of death. The world of the Circus: to Jacob it was both salvation and a living hell. Jacob was there because his luck had run out… Marlena,…was there because she fell in love with the wrong man….Rosie the elephant was there because she was the great gray hope, the new act that was going to be the salvation of the circus; the only problem was Rosie didn’t have an act—in fact she couldn’t even follow instructions. …”(from the book jacket)

This book takes the reader inside the life of the “Circus.” (How realistic it is, I can’t really say, having never lived in a circus.) It’s language and terminology: “a first or May,” “A Monday Man” “Rubes”, “Redlighting.” It made me think of the TV show I watched as kid, Circus Boy, (only because it was set in a Circus) actually it was much more like the movie the Greatest Show on Earth.

It carries the reader through a whole range of emotions:

Frustration of the frail old Jacob in the nursing home, not being able to remember how old he is (is it 90 or 93?), unable to remember the nurses name, impatience the other patients imperfections. The soft food he was forced to eat because some patients didn’t have teeth, even though he still had all his. Although this is a sad situation Gruen was able to write it in a way that made me smile (I thought of the Billy Crystal character).
Humor of an elephant that had no act and couldn’t follow directions but was able to sneak around the circus grounds un noticed to get the lemon-aid.
Anger at the mistreatment of animals and people
Passion and action -- walking on the tops of moving train cars, fist fights, etc.
The beauty and excitement of animal acts and for me a surprise ending.

A good book- and because I was listening to it on CD was more than one time, I “had” to sit in my car after I got where I as going, in order to listen to the rest of a chapter.

My opinions of the movie that I have not seen and has not been released yet:
The movie stars Hal Holbrook as the old man. I great choice.
Reese Witherspoon, she may be OK, I don't think that would have been my choice
Robert Pattinson (Twilight) I an not sure about this at all.

My recommendation READ THE BOOK before you see the movie. It was great.

Keep reading JB.

The Joys of Home Ownership.

2011-02-13T10:50:00.000-05:00

Last week we have some frozen pipes that had to be replaced. Yesterday Charlie posted on face book, about the day not starting well yesterday. Like a lot of people in the Springport area, we lost power Saturday morning about 4:30, It came back on about 7:30, right after Charlie left for an all day state wide equestrian meeting. Yeah power, water, heat. Oops wait a minute the furnace didn't kick on. Oh well, I was going to the District wrestling meet in Hudson to watch a young cousin, and the Springport team. I left a message on Charlie's cell phone about the furnace.

Even thought I am not a huge fan of wrestling, I had a great time at the wrestling meet. Seeing some old friends, and family members, that I don't get to see very often. Congratulations to Coty who took first place, and Springport's 6 wrestlers who will be going on to Reginals. Also Congratulations to Jake who also took first place on Friday night at the Jr. High District meet.

I got home about 5:30, Charlie was home but had not checked is messages, and didn't notice it was cold inthe house. It was 63 degrees, I think I have camped in cooler temps.

The pilot light had gone out. It would relight. after about an hour. He called a friend who works in heating and cooling, He brought a "thingy" and replaced the broken thingy. Yeah heat. !!!!

A few minutes later, we heard a strange kind of electrical pop we saw nothing amiss, no smoke so we went back to what we were doing. A few minutes later, we realized the furnace was not kicking on a GAin.
Charlie couldn't figure out what was wrong so we took one of our small space heaters in the bedroom, and decided to figure it out in the morning.

This morning found the problem, thought he could fix it but found out it wasn't a simple wire replacement. The relay, was shot. He is currently at the hardware store trying to buy a new one. I am wearing my sweats and wrapped in a blanket trying to stay warm.

At least it is not below zero like it was last week. As my cousin says "just livin the dream"

Annual Christmas Update.

2010-12-06T21:11:00.001-05:00

Annual Betz Buzz
December 2010

Well it’s that time of year again. A few months ago, when I started thinking about what I would write in this year’s letter I thought we hadn’t had much happen this year, but as I look back, although not wildly exciting. We did have a few things happen in 2010.

A New Hobby

Charlie and I started a new hobby this year, Geocaching (pronounce geo-cashing). It is kind of a high tech treasure hunt. You look up “caches” that people have hidden on the website (www.geocaching.com).They have entered the Latitude and longitude on the website. The searcher enters the coordinates in their GPS and go hunting. The cache is usually, hidden or camouflaged in some way. Like the one I hid in front of the Carnegie Library. We do it for the fun and challenge of the hunt. It gets us out of the house, away from the TV and computer, we get some exercise and fresh air. There are over 1,000,000 world wide. We have found 187 caches so far.

On the Farm Front

We had a few chickens this spring, and one of the neighbors gave us a rooster. We didn’t know it then but we soon found out he was an attack rooster. He became very protective of his hens and would run across
the yard to flog anyone he thought was he thought was intruding. He came up behind me once or twice so I carried a big stick in case he went into attack mode and tried to sneak up behind me. I had to use it a couple of times. After that he usually stayed away from me, but I could tell he was

watching me. One day a neighbor came over and the rooster ran from across the horse pasture, and flogged his shins, he had blood running down his leg. We finally had him butchered.
Charlie has been working on an arena for a while. The equestrian kids did use it to practice a little, but he was finally able to get a layer of sand in this year which is better for the horses and riders.

Extended Family News

An uncle passed away in June, my dad’s brother Larry. Although I had not seen him much in the 26 years since he moved to Florida his passing made me start thinking about all of the people with whom I have lost contact.
I have not been able to find one of the cousins I was looking for, I did find a couple that I and my siblings were not even aware that I had. My Father’s mother’s brother, Sherman Jr. moved to Texas in the 30’s. I was able to track down Valerie Hawley Hamby and and Cyd Hamby Margulies. We have exchanged a couple of emails, and are Facebook friends, Next year I hope to do a better job of staying in touch with everyone.
Susan Mills, the daughter of my dad’s cousin, Bill Mills, found me on Facebook.
Yvonne Choate, Straub Harper also passed away this fall.
One of these days, I will get around to setting up a time for we surviving cousins to get together with their corresponding families.
I have had fun posting family history pictures on Facebook this, and reading other’s peoples comments and reactions. I hope you have enjoyed them too.

Vacations

For vacation this year, we had talked about going Up North so Charlie could ride the Shore to Shore trail, that didn’t work out, but we did go camping for a few days at Farm Lane camp ground in Waterloo, It is right next to the Waterloo Recreation area, and Charlie was able to do some riding for a few days there. As you can see from the picture we had the whole place to ourselves most of the time.

In August we visited some of the Betz relatives in Pennsylvania. It is always fun to see them. From there we drove to Vermont for Charlie’s naval reunion in Bennington. The ship Bennington was named
after the Revolutionary war Batle of Bennington the.   The Ship’s bell is at the town hall. Some of the men march in the Bennington Battle Day Parade every August, but this year they held their reunion during that week so they could all participate in the Parade.
Because one of the Equestrian meets was the same time the “Choate's” were going camping, Charlie couldn’t camp with us, so I drove the camper to Harrison Lake, Ohio all by MYSELF.

On the Job Front

Even though Charlie has been retired for 3 years, I am continuing to work at the library. Teaching adults (staff and public) how to use computers. I have been teaching classes twice a week at Department on Aging Senior nutrition Centers as well as twice a week at the library. That comes to about 14 a month. After the first of the year I will be teaching about 22 classes a month.
A national library training group has requested some of my lesson plans, to use in helping other librarians across the country teach their
customers.
I attended the Computers in libraries conference in Washington DC in April, “I love this conference, I come back with all kinds of new ideas and feel recharged. Although the conference was only three days and a heavy schedule of workshops, I did manage to take a tour of the city one evening. Although it was dark, (it was a bus tour of lights of D.C.) I was very touched by the Viet Nam wall, it was too dark to read any names. Putting a hand on the wall gave me an almost overwhelming sense of sadness and loss. The Korean Memorial was very moving. The was way it was lit made it eerie, and almost other worldly.

Charlie's Health Update
As many of you know Charlie was helping a friend fix up his barn and had an accident with the Chain saw. I will not go into the whole story here, just know that he is doing fine, and was almost totally healed in just a couple of weeks. If you are interested all of the details you can read them at http://jbetzblog.blogspot.com/2010/10/this-post-is-rate-pg13.html

Community Involvement

Although we don’t have anyone attending the Schools in Springport you almost cannot live in a small community like this and not be involved in the Schools. Joyce was still involved in Destination: ImagiNation, by appraising in February for the tournament and in April for the State competitions.

Charlie coached the Junior High equestrian team this spring. There were only five kids but they came in first in the district for their class. He enjoyed being assistant coach for the High School team this fall. They had a large team this year, and came in second in districts, so they did not compete at the state level this year, but they had a good time.

He is serving on the Agricultural Advisory Committee.
The FFA won first place at the state Convention in March and 3 groups went to the National convention in October.
Each year for homecoming the FFA sponsors Ag on Wheels. On Friday morning the students drive their tractors to school and park them in front of the school This year three of the kids rode horses.
The Freshman used our pole barn to build their float.

The high school football team had a great season. Only the second time the school has own the conference Championship, the first time since 1973, I think that was a shared title. The first time ever they had a 9-0 regular season, the closest they have ever come was a 6-1-1 record in 1950. They made it to the playoffs for only the third time in school history, but lost to Mendon, a team that has been state champions 4 times in the last 10 years. Way to Go Spartans.

The Village of Springport acquired some land and decided to make it into a park. Charlie is serving on that committee as chairman.

Shonda Update
Shonda is currently working the Fairfield Inn in Lansing and taking 3 online classes this semester through Lansing community college. She is currently living in Portland, (Michigan not Oregon) with her friend, Eric.

Seasons Greetings

We wish you all a very Merry Christmas and a very prosperous New Year.
May the spirit of the season last in your heart and your homes and your lives throughout the whole year.

Chain saw follow up

2010-10-28T18:56:00.000-04:00

Charlie had a follow-up visit today. Dr. Clarkson, took out the stitches and I asked him, how many because several people had asked me. He said he didn't know he hadn't counted, but it was in the dozens, later he said at least 40. He said there are more important things, like the saw not breaking the sinus membrane or worse. He compared it to an egg, when you break the shell with a spoon, there is a crack and may a piece missing but the membrane is still intact. If it had broken there is a much greater risk of infection.

Charlie said he thought that when the saw kicked back his hand hit the "brake" like it was supposed to and stopped the chain. The Dr said that was probably right, some of the surgical staff was wondering why it didn't go have way through his brain. He also thought that the chain was still moving some although at a much slower speed, that is what caused the lacerations on his cheek. (All that stuff I was thinking on the way up to the hospital wasn't so far fetched after all)

After taking out the stitches the Dr. put on some adhesive steri-strips until it is fully healed. To remind it to stay together. Then he said it can be terribly embarrassing to go out for the evening and have your face fall apart.

He still can't blow his nose for 6 weeks just in case there is a tear in the sinus membrane. Blowing his nose could force air under this skin on his forehead. He has to go back in a month just to make sure

This post is rate PG13,

2010-10-23T09:12:00.003-04:00

Friday started out as an ordinary day, don't you hate when stories start that way, you just know they are not going to be good news, don't ya? Any way it started as an ordinary day, I left for work about 7:15. Charlie got up just before I left, I told him I would see him when I got home, we were planning on going to the Springport football game.
Charlie was going to a friends house to work on a project, on their farm,which included repairs to an old barn with log beams. .

About 10:30 AM, I just missed a call on my cell phone from a number I didn't recognize, they left a voice mail message: "This is Jim, Charlie has had an accident they are taking him to Eaton Rapids" "voices in the back ground" Oh they're taking him to Sparrow."

I'm thinking: Oh that's not good, Eaton Rapids hospital is bad enough, but Sparrow?    (Sparrow is in Lansing and it has a Trauma Center).

I immediately canceled my Dr's appoint and told my boss and co-workers what was going on, I did ask if they knew how to get to Sparrow Hospital, they did not.   I figured I knew how to get to Lansing, I'd get directions once I got that far.

About a mile down the road, I thought I should have looked it up, I called the reference Department, asked them to look it up for me, Tessa didn't have to look it up, she knew how to get there. Good thing it was easy I'm not sure I could have followed complicated directions.

I tried to call Shonda, and left a voice message to call me when she got mine.
All kinds of thought running through my head. What kind of accident, electorcuted again? Fell from the loft? Something fell on him?
About a third of the way there, My cell phone rang, It was the same number I didn't recognize. She said she was on of the firefighter, rescue first responders. She explained that Jim had used her phone to call me, she needed to verify, our address and Charlies date of birth. I asked her what kind of accident she said " a chain saw accident, he has some lacerations on his face." That's all she'd say.

So now I'm thinking "He cut off his ear, he cut off half his face..."

By the time I got to the hospital, and was pulling into the parking garage I got another call from the patient liaison officer. He told me to come to emergency and he would meet me there. .... The place is packed, there is no frickin' place to park. I think I drove around 3 levels twice.

I got to the emergency room which is practically next to the elevators, he met me, and took me back to the trauma center.On the way he told me that Charlie is conscious, and alert and told the plastic surgeon he wanted pictures of his face before he fixed it. (I have some here, but they are rather disturbing and I'm not sure how to do this without making some people sick) They said that he was lucky the blade caught right between the eye and the nose, missed the eye, the nose and the mouth.

(He was asked several times how it happened. and I'm sure you are wondering too. He was cutting a notch in a log, to fit in another piece of wood, to replace a beam that had to be removed. The chain saw, hit a knot or something and kicked back and hit him in the face.)

Right after I got there they took to x-ray for the second time, to check for skull fractures.

The trauma surgeon came in a couple of times, a small Japanese woman, I had a little trouble understanding, (It has been a few years since Makiko was here).

The nurses said the plastic surgeon would be back to decide if he needed do surgery of could stitch him up in the ER. He was there in a few minutes, and said that there was a small fracture above the nose and he would have to take Charlie to surgery to know the full extent of the injury. (He had a British accent, by the way). He told Charlie he was not to blow his nose today or for the next 6 weeks. Something about air getting into the sinus cavity and behind the eye. The operating rooms were all being used and they were not sure when they would be able to get in, sometime in the afternoon or perhaps evening.

We waited, a nurse cleaned up most of the dried blood, on Charlie's face, chest, hands and arms.
We watied some more, They changed the linens on the gurney.
We waited. They moved us to another room, with a TV. that neither of us cared to watch. He asked if they got RFDTV, so he could watch some of the FFA convention. (They don't, I checked) Charlie finally napped, I went to get something to eat. About that time my phone died, and I didn't have a charger. So I couldn't call anybody.

I went back. They said they had a room for him upstairs and were going to take him into surgery about 4. Charlie said to tell him to hurry because he had to get home to go to the High School football game.

A pleasant rather good looking young man took us up to the room, it seemed like miles, When we got to the room, Charlie said tell the surgeon, if he can't make me look as good as you, don't bother.
We waited, but not long, Jen, came in and introduced herself as Charlie's nurse, then said she had a student nurse helping her. Kelsy, came in and asked endless questions including, what is your name and your date of birth. She had about 10 pages of questions to ask and at least 5 forms to sign. Charlie said that it felt like there was something in his eye. Kelsey couldn't see anything, and naturally didn't want to disturb it too much.
He joked around with her about all of the questions she had to ask.

They took, us well him , I just followed along, to the surgical holding room. The Surgeon came in again. explained everything he might have to do including putting in a plate if the skull fracture was too big, something to the sinus if the saw had gone in too deep, so there would not be a problem of sinus infections, and even the possibility of doing a bone graft.

We were introduced to 3 surgical nurses, 2 Anesthetist nurses, and the Anesthetist . They all asked his name and birth date, checked the paper work and charts, and couldn't find the EKG that was done in the ER.
We waited some more
and some more
and some more. while ER looked for the EKG,
They finally sent someone down to do another EKG. (We better not get charged for two). Charlie mentioned again that it felt like there was something in his eye.

They finally took him to surgery about 5:15. I went to the surgical waiting room
and waited
and waited
and waited. Actually the surgery only took about an 1 1/2 hours.

The Dr said that there were a few bone chips, that he packed in place and they would heal. He had to cut of the rough edges of the skin and sew those together. Charlie will have scars, but the Dr. thought that because his face is already has a lot of "creases" I think he said, it probably won't show much.

As far as he was concerned Charlie could go home in the morning, but the Trauma Team also has to release him. He also wanted to have an Ophthalmologist check the eye, he didn't see anything, but wants to make sure it isn't scratched or otherwise injured. Charlie will be on antibotics for a few days.

I waited some more.

They finally brought him back up to his room about 8:00. I made sure he was settled in, he was dozing, so I decided to come home.

I got home about 9:30. There were 4 messages on the answering machine. a political survey and 3 hang ups. Someone had posted the score of the High school game on facebook I asked if she had an update, she wrote back, that she didn't and how's Charlie.
The neighbors had gone home from the game and noticed I wasn't home yet, so they were going to go up to the hospital, but decided to come by the house, first to double check. They had heard about it at the game. So it will be interesting to see how big this story gets.

Springport won by the way 19-0 the first 9-0 record in the history of the school.

OK here are the first pictures, if you have a weak stomach don't read any farther, or close your eyes and scroll down to the comments.

This was after they cleaned him up a little.

This was taken on Saturday Morning after surgery on Friday evening.

Springport Ag on Wheels.

2010-10-08T09:05:00.001-04:00

Springport's Homecoming is today. The Freshmen have been building their float in our pole barn and today is the annual AG on Wheels event. Sponsored by the FFA, The kids drive their tractors to school and park them in front of the school for the day. This year they also had 3 horses, one of the pioneers "original" tractors. Thought you all might want to see some pictures. Springport's football record is 6-0 this year and with a win tonight they will at least share the conference title, the first time in 37 years (1973 when the conference was first formed. GO BLUE - GO WHITE

August and September

2010-09-22T23:08:00.000-04:00

In Mid August we attended Charlie's Navy Reunion in Bennington Vermont. The Bennington was the first ship he was on in 1964. It was named after the Revolutionary War Battle of Bennington. Usually the reunion is in September or October, but they changed it to August this year so they could "march" in the Bennington Battle Day parade. They didn't really do much marching but as you can see several of them did walk. Charlie met one man who was one of the first sailors on the Bennington on it's first cruise in 1944. He was something like 90 + years old, he didn't walk they had a trailer for some of them to ride on.

One of the ships bells' is at the Bennington Town Hall

We visited the Bennington Monument, built to commerate the Revolutionary War Battle of Bennington (August 16, 1777)

In September Charlie had two Equestrian Meets, the first one on September 10th, I did not attend, I was camping at Harrion Lake state Park in Ohio, with my sister and brothers. Barry and I introduced Arthur to Geocaching. It rained most of Saturday afternoon, but we all had a good time.

Another Equestrian meet on the 17 and 18. It rained on Saturday, but the sun finally game out on Sunday. The Springport Team took Second in their class so their season is over for the year. Only first place teams go on to regionals.

The first 8 months of 2010

2010-08-10T08:53:00.003-04:00

It has been a while since I posted. I have kept up with most of my family and friends through facebook but realized that a lot of you do not use face book, (you probably don't read this blog either, but I'll write it anyway just in case you happen to check it. ) I also use this a journal of our lives, so here goes. There might be something new. I started this post in June, then forgot to come back and finish it until now.
.

January

Charlie and I started a new hobby something called Geocaching. It's kinda of like a High Tech treasure hunt. People hide caches, and post the latitude and longitude coordinates on a website. We put the coordinates into a GPS and go hunting, sign the log in the cache, then post the find on the website. As of today August 5, we have found 109

March

Charlie, decided to get dentures. He had his teeth pulled many many years ago, and had dentures at the time, but they never fit right so he didn't wear them. Some people are surprised. Others have paid compliments, some have said nothing. I will post pictures when I can get some.

April

I attended the Computers in Libraries conference in Washington DC. I love that conference, I went a few years ago and both times I come back with lots of new ideas for the library. They don't all get implemented, but at least I have planted a seed.

We got a few chickens this spring, Several hens and one rooster. If you come in the yard watch out for him. He has come after me a couple of times, and one of the neighbors a couple of times. He even drew blood yesterday. He runs across the yard to attack from the back, but he's not very quite so if you have a big stick you can defend your self. The neighbors also brought us some ducks and the Rooster has attacked the ducks.

May

Charlie Coached the Middle school equestrian team this spring, 5 kids. In Middle school they only have one meet. Springport took first place in their class.

June
Charlie took our neighbor girl, who rides one of our horses, went to an open horse show in Charlotte. She took high point in her age class.

We celebrated or 24th wedding anniversay. Well, we really didn't do anything, but our anniversary was on the 21st.

We went camping at Custer State park with the family early this month, and Charlie and went to Farmlane Camp ground the middle of the month so he could go horse back riding, the campground is right next to Waterloo Recreation area, where they have several miles of riding trails. We were the only ones there for the first 2 or 3 days. He would have liked to go up north and ride the shore to shore trails (from Oscoda to Empire) but we didn't make it this year. If anybody is interested in riding with him let us know.

August

After

Before

Charlie finally got sand put in the horse arena, so the horses have better footing and more realistic practices. He is also helping with the High School equestrian team this year. They have a one day meet and a two day meet (Districts) in September. Depending on how they do at that meet they could go to Regionals the first weekend in October, States in the third weekend in October.

Not enough time?

2010-08-06T16:11:00.001-04:00

I went to a memorial service for one of my uncles (my dad's youngest brother) today. He has lived in Florida for more than 25 years. The last time I saw him was 10 years ago at his sister's funeral. The memorial service was held at the Clarklake Beach Bar, which, after some thought I realized it is probably what he would have chosen. There was probably 35 or 40 people there, and one of my dad's cousins and I were the only relatives.

He was only 10 years older than I, that makes him 16 years younger than my Dad that may be why we were never very close (but we never were close to most of my Dad's family). I remember him as the uncle who was a little wild and always wanted to have fun. It seems like we laughed a lot when he was around, but I really don't remember much more than that.

One of the memories that someone shared was that he raced snowmobiles, he was good at it, and well respected by other racers all over the United States, the only problem was he wanted to win the race in the first lap. He apparently only had one speed. FAST. I vaguely remember that he raced, but I never saw him race, and I didn't know he was good.

It is a shame, that we didn't see much of each other, I could have called him, or written, I never did. On the other hand, he could have tried too. He apparently came up every year, and always went to see one of the neighbors that lived down the road from where he grew up. He never called me.

I am old enough to know that you always think you will have more time, and put things off until it is too late. Then you wish you had done more. So maybe I will try to find some of the cousins and friends I have lost track of before it is too late.

My weight loss story

2010-01-05T18:35:00.005-05:00

I have recently had a couple of people ask me how I lost weight, I have posted here on this blog, at different times, but I guess I have not written the whole so here it is.

I am going to start in December of 2007, that is when I was the heaviest.
In December of 2007, I told my Dr. on a regular visit that I was soooo tired, and Charlie complained about my snoring. He sent me to the sleep clinic where they determined that I had sleep apnea. this is a quote from the December 23, 2007 blog
".....I had a Doctor’s appointment, just a semi-annual Blood Pressure check, , He told me I looked awful. I told him I was really tired, and Charlie couldn’t sleep because I snore so loudly. He sent me to the sleep clinic for a consultation. They think I may have sleep apnea, and I have to go in the end of January so they can watch me sleep. Apparently, this is fairly easy to correct and can really make a difference in the way someone feels, when they get a good nights sleep.

This picture was taken at Christmas 2007

In August of 2008, I found out that I have a sluggish thyroid

In April of 2009, I found out my blood glucose level was 260, normal is somewhere around 100. It was beginning to affect my eyes, I know what diabetes can do. I was scared. I have seen people who have gone blind, or had to have dialysis, or amputations because of diabetes complications. The Dr. said you HAVE to lose weight you Weight Watchers or South Beach are both good.
That was Wednesday. I did some research and decided on South Beach, I started it on Thursday morning. South Beach diet starts with 2 weeks for 0 carbs, only vegetables, and protein. I ate meat and salad for two meals for 4 days. By Sunday I thought if I had to look at one more leaf of lettuce I would scream. Instead of quitting, I switched to cauliflower and Broccoli. I started the exercise bike for 15 minutes and added 5 minutes each week.
In April I could not walk a block and a half without my back hurting. by May 11th I had lost 10 pounds. (33.5 since December 07) by June I could walk 3 miles, and one day I walked 5. In August, I bought a bike, a single speed, coaster brake, fat butt seat. and rode it every evening, for at least 30 minutes. I had dropped 2-3 pant sizes.

By October this is what I looked like. 50 pounds thinner.

Last winter I sat on the couch eating potato chips, watching the Biggest Loser. This spring, I rode my exercise bike and watched the Biggest Loser.

I love potatoes of any kind, mashed, fried, scalloped chips, I have eaten maybe 5 spoons full of potatoes total in the last 8 1/2 months. People ask me how I have the will power? It is kind of like make a decision do I want those potatoes, or cake or cookies or my kidneys. Easy choice.

I went to the Doctor in early December and had lost a total of 63 pounds. I have maintained that through the holidays and we started up our support group at work today. (if you want to see what we discussed this morning you can find it here. I don't think it will go off as fast but if I can lose a little each week until March or April, I will be able to get outside and do more physical stuff.

2009-12-12T10:26:00.002-05:00

Ok, If anybody cares, here are the results of the Christmas movie poll.

With 1 vote:
Love Actually,
Sound of Music.
While you were Sleeping,
Amahl and the Night Visitors,
The Grinch Stole Christmas,
Holiday Inn w/Fred Astaire),
The Preacher's wife (Denzel Washington),
Single Santa Seeks Mrs. Claus/Meet the Santas

2 votes
A Christmas Story (there were 2 people who had never seen or even heard of this one)
Elf,
Christmas in Connecticut

3 Votes
The Santa Clause (Tim Allen)

4 votes
It's a Wonderful Life
National Lampoon's Christmas Vacation

Miracle on 34th Street - 5 votes

and the big winner----
White Christmas with 7 votes.

Christmas movies

2009-12-09T08:44:00.002-05:00

Listening to the radio on the way in this morning, made me think of something and I decided to take an informal survey.
What is your favorite Christmas movie. The one you want to see every year.
I started by asking some of the people in my office (those who don't blog or Facebook- What's with that?

There picks were: National Lampoons Christmas Vacation (2)
Single Santa Seeks Mrs. Claus /Meet the Santas
A Christmas Story (Darrin McGaven, Peter Billingsly)

OK so now- leave a comment, what is Your Favorite Christmas Movie.

My Christmas Card This year

2009-11-29T19:23:00.007-05:00

Just so you know- I never get my Christmas Cards done this early. Some years I don't get them done at all.

It's cold outside....

but we’re
wishing you the
Loving spirit of Christmas
to
keep you warm throughout the New Year

Charlie and Joyce Betz

Created especially for you by
Joyce Betz
2009

This is the newsletter I included with the card.

When I started this edition of the newsletter, I thought it was going to be pretty short, but I quess we did more than I thought this year.

Weather

It seems like we had a lot of snow earlier this year, and the temperatures were really up and down. The first picture was taken January 20.
A lot of the snow melted, , there was even some ground visible, I think the lilacs even started budding. The temperature was above 40 degrees on February 13th then on Valentine’s day it looked like this.

Animals

We have had our share of problems with our animals this year. We currently have 8 horses at our place. Six, are Charlie’s, two of them he got as a rescue, two of them are boarding,
During the summer, one of these horses, had a problem with it’s penis, it would not retract properly, was extremely swollen. One vet, after two visits, told him to take it to Michigan State University Vet Clinic, When he got there the receptionist announced over the loud speaker that the “problem penis horse” was there. They gave him some medication and fixed a sling (thong) to help keep it inside. That didn’t work. The third vet, pushed it back in, and stitched it for several weeks until the muscles could heal and become strong enough to hold it. If that hadn’t worked they would have had to do an amputation. All very strange, but kind of funny too.

Charlie bought several baby chicks this spring, and they were doing well, We came back from our camping trip in June and most of them were dead, he described it as chicken parts all over the coop. He is pretty sure it was a raccoon. We have one hen left, she apparently visits the neighbors and tries to eat the cat food. They call her Ninja chicken.

While Charlie was at the fair with the 4H kids, in July, I took the dog for a walk one evening and he ran out in front of car, and took a big chunk of flesh off his leg, He hobbled around for weeks.
A few weeks ago another horse became ill one evening. It was breathing hard, biting at it’s side, sweating heavily. He took it to the vet, it had become septic and had to be put down. Apparently the stomach wall had a thin spot and it ruptured.

Charlie built a horse arena in the back pasture so he and the neighbor kids could practice their horses. Then he agreed to become a 4H horse leader this year. He had 8 girls in the club. He took them to the Eaton County Fair the first week of July.
It was one of the girls’ first year in horse competition, she was riding one of Charlie’s young horses that had never competed before either. They did very well, she placed in all but one of her 8 events.
He is currently working on expanding the arena. It wasn’t long enough and it gives him something to do.

Springport Township Equestrian Partnership

Charlie spent most of the year working with a committee to write a proposal to build a big equestrian park in the area. They would have been able to hold international horse shows as well as tractor/equipment shows, rodeos livestock auctions etc. It would have brought hundreds of jobs to the area. Unfortunately the Michigan Equine Partnership picked a group on the east side of the county to receive the grant, A disappointment, but the facility won’t be too far away.

Transportation

This was not a good year for our vehicles.
Charlie took his truck into the shop in late winter and it seems like he was without a vehicle for over a month. He had to have the engine replaced. That costs several thousand dollars.
Then the car went on the fritz, it needed, a new head gasket. and that costs $1500. The car was 14 years old, but you can’t buy a new car for $1500, so we got it fixed, and I was without a car for over a week.
A week after we got it back we broadsided an SUV and totaled our car. Niece Michelle, offered to let us borrow her “extra” car, and we bought that one from her. It is smaller and get pretty good mileage.

Vacations

We bought a camper in the fall of 2008 so we have gone on a few camping trips this year. In the middle of May I went to Indiana, it rained on Friday and we woke up in the middle of a swamp on Saturday morning.

On Memorial Day weekend. We took the horses and the 4H kids and their families. Well, Charlie took the horses, I just hung around, and did some of the cooking.

In June we went to Custer State Park for a few days. The park was practically empty but the camp sites are wooded and sort of enclosed so it seemed like we had the whole park to ourselves.

In August we went to Tawas State Park, again with my family. This park is set out on point so there is water on both sides of the park but it was really crowded, but we expected that in August.

In November, just before Thanksgiving we took a short trip to Pennsylvania, the first time in about 6 years. It was good to see several people, although we didn’t get to see all of Charlie’s cousins. We have said that we need to get there more often.

On the Health Front

Charlie was having some trouble with what the Dr. said was “trigger finger.” The tendon locks up in the bent position and won’t straighten out. He had an injection in his right hand that worked for awhile. A few months later it came back, and he was having the same problem with his lef hand. He had surgery on his right hand this fall, and will have the other one done in a few months.
My yearly mammogram showed an unusual spot, I had that biopsied, thankfully it turned out to be nothing.

In April, I went to my optometrist, for a check up. She was concerned because my prescription had changed drastically. I went to my physician that day. My blood glucose level was 260. He told me I had to loose weight, and I started taking metformin. I started the South Beach diet and riding the stationary bike that day. In April I couldn’t walk a block and half without my back hurting, by July I was walking 3 miles. I bought a bike (a single speed, coaster brake, fat butt seat) by the end of October I was riding 5 miles.
As of Thanksgiving I have lost 63 pounds. The Dr has taken me off the metformin, and reduced the high blood pressure medication. I feel great. The picture on the left above was taken in December 2007. The one on the right was taken September 2009

Kids

Shonda finally got a full time job, after several weeks of unemployment last year, working as a bartender at the Eagles club in Charlotte. It doesn’t have any paid benefits, but at least she is working which is more than some people can say.
She has a new boyfriend, Eric. He is currently “between opportunities” but he is getting unemployment like a lot of other people in the state.
Chris’s Hofer, our exchange student a few years ago, came back for a visit. He spent a couple of days with us and spent some time with friends he made when he was here in 2007.
Shonda Christoff

We would love to have any of you come and visit, we have a spare bedroom, and a guest house, (the camper).
Charlie is retired now for 3 years, so he is home most of the time. I have lots of vacation time so I don’t have too much trouble taking days off. Give us a call anytime.

You are more likely to find me on facebook
(Joyce Choate Betz),

I can also be found on Twitter (betzja), although I don’t tweet very often.

You can also see some more pictures at
http://flickr.com, search for betzspt

Hoping everyone has a very Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year.

Thanksgiving day.

2009-11-26T17:11:00.006-05:00

I haven't been blogging much, because I have been using Facebook and I just realized that those of you who are not on Facebook do not get to hear the latest news. Facebook friends can see the blog, as notes on FB. I will try to blog more, but I recommend that you all join Facebook, it is fun and easy (find me as Joyce Choate Betz).

For those not on FB. I saw my Dr. on Monday. I have lost a total of 63 pounds, he has reduced my blood pressure medication, and I don't have to take the metformin anymore. I have to check my glucose randomly, and don't need to worry about it unless it gets up to and stays over 150.

My family all came here for Dinner today (a total of 12 adults and 2 toddlers). I got up at 6 AM, to put the turkey in the oven, I took it out of the freezer on Tuesday it was still a solid block of ice last night. We brought it in the house, but it in a bucket of water and I still had to run water on it to get the giblets out this morning.

Everyone has gone home. They all seemed to enjoy themselves and most said they ate too much, as evidenced by these pictures. Some took home left overs, That means I will have less temptation tomorrow. I did eat some of almost everything today. I checked my blood sugare at 5:45, about 1 1/2 hours after I had a piece of pie, ant it was 37. I little high, I knew it would be, I'll eat better tomorrow and it should go down.

I hope you all had a great day and if you are going out shopping tomorrow, be careful, you are braver than I am.

Happy Thanksgiving.

Halloween

2009-10-30T10:12:00.006-04:00

A few of you who are my friends on FaceBook have already seen this, but I think it is cute and thought I would pass it along to my friends.

One of my cousins said:
Forgot to get a halloween costume for saturday.... gonna have to whip something together like my mom did when we were young; wait my mom usually put some flannel on us and one of my dads hats and called us hunters... i dont have any flannel : (
The comments were: (without names)

From me
You could throw a sheet over your head, that was always a good one for me.

Wear pj's rosy your cheeks up, 2 pigtails and a pacifier-easy baby outfit!mao...like when my mom had me wear the boys football pads "here is your costume, you like football, and it will be warm"

from her sister:
Lol, I remember that. Go to Goodwill, get a poncho, make some horn rimmed glasses out of cardboard and go as Ugly Betty.

Ok now your turn. Good last minute costumes that don't cost much.

Catching up.

2009-10-29T09:50:00.003-04:00

It has been a while since I offically posted anything on this blog. What can I say? Nothing has happened worth blogging about. I am still losing weight but not as fast as this summer, I still have several pounds to go but I am down 4-5 sizes (depending on the style) in slacks, only 1-2 sizes in tops.
I have been busy this week teaching staff and public classes at the library. The new information system we have migrated to is, as with most things new giving some people fits, but I think it is a better system, and once they get used to it everyone, the staff and public will be happy with it.

We have a new horse, one of the girls down the road bought a buckskin and is boarding it with us.

One of the other girls has been diagnosed with N1H1. I hope we don't catch it.
Will write more later.

2009-10-22T11:33:00.007-04:00

I had the people in my computer class upload pictures to my blog for practice. These are just pictures are just sample pictures from Microsoft

Before and After

2009-09-29T15:29:00.007-04:00

I thought it was time to update my profile photo but to get the full effect you need to see the before and after so here it is December 2007 and today.

I still don't like the full shots but here are a couple of them. The one on the left was taken in 2006, the one on the right was taken today.

Feeling Better

2009-09-02T20:10:00.002-04:00

I am finally feeling better, still not 100% but getting there. Throat still hurts, but I have no fever.
I have not exercised since Thursday, I have lost 6.6 pounds since Friday because I had trouble eating very much. Not really the way I wanted to loose it but I'll take it. Hope I don't gain it all back next week.

Charlie had surgery on his "trigger finger (left hand), and an injection in the right hand today. It went well, and very quick. We didn't have to be at the surgery center til 9:30 and were out by noon.

Just finished walking 3 miles. It took an hour and half, which is kind of slow, but considering that I haven't done anything for 6 days and am still not real chipper, I guess it's not bad.

I lead such an exciting life. Type to you all later.

Sick

2009-08-31T18:16:00.003-04:00

I feel like crap. Sore throat started 5 days ago. Got antibiotics on Friday, that didn't help. Had fever (102) and chills all weekend can't swallow, one tonsil is 2x as big as the other, white spots on throat. Saw the Dr. today. Got script for a different antibiotic to start tomorrow. Now I have heartburn.

Good news. Lynn says I have lost 54 pounds, ( thought it was 51) Blood pressure is down, he decreased meds. OK I'm done b****** now.

Thanks for listening

Triva

2009-08-22T11:44:00.004-04:00

While we were on vacation we stopped at a restaurant at Foote Site Village, called Desi's It had pictures of old movie and TV stars all over the walls, and I mean ALL over. One of the pictures was of Roy Rogers, Dale Evans and Roy's sidekick, but none of us could remember his name (I said Dale Evans but they said not the other guy) . We remembered that he drove Nelleybell, but not his name . Charlie said Pat Butram. That sounded close, but not just right. I didn't have a chance to look it up til this morning. You can find the answer at classic TV westerns. Before I tell you the answer, did you remember who it was?

Ok, Roy's side kick was Pat Brady.
Pat Butram was Gene Autry's sidekick and may years later was on Green Acres.

Of course this brought up other Side kicks and other shows we used to watch on Saturday morning. Does anybody remeber Jingles Jones (Andy Devine) I also found out that he also played "Cookie" in some Roy Rogers movies. How about Sky King, and of course the Lone Ranger, and Sgt Preston of the Yukon. What others do you remember? Let me know either in the comments section or on facebook.

Back from Vacation

2009-08-21T20:13:00.010-04:00

We, Charlie and I, just returned today from 6 days at Tawas point State Park.
Spent time with my brother, sister and brother-in-law. Didn't get to spend time with the younger members of the family because they all had to work some of them couldn't come until last night or today and Shonda couldn't come at all and I had to get back for an appointment.

Having grown up and vacationed in Michigan, I have been to alot of places, but some how missed the Tawas area.Tawas is a nice park, right on Tawas point, so you have the bay on one side of the west side of the park and Lake Huron on the East. There a The campsites are pretty wide, but not very deep, and it was pretty crowded even though there were 10- 15 sites open each day.

The weather was good, it rained but not until evening, yesterday was absolutely beautiful.

Charlie and I went up the coast and stopped at to Iargo Springs, this is a picture of the steps going down to Iargo Springs this is a picture of the stairs going down to the Springs, and the sign.

These pictures are from the overlook at Iargo (by the way Iargo means land of many waters)

There were even more steps down to the river from the lumberman's monument that we visited yesterday.

I also got a some decent pictures of the lighthouse and the sunset. If I ever decide to start
p ainting again I may use them as models.

Chicken Fat

2009-08-03T11:16:00.004-04:00

Hey it’s only been a week since I posted last. I'm doing good.

Most of the time I agree with Jenn, usually what I do doesn’t seem to blog worthy.

I lost 4 pounds last week, but gained 2 over the week-end.

We have been having a discussion at work about exercise and fat etc.

I remembered a song called Chicken Fat or Go you Chicken Fat go (by Robert Preston) in the early 60’s for the President’s council on Physical Fitness.

Only 3 of us say they remember it, but I thought would share with all of you. Just for fun

This is the first one I found, just the song and a power point presentation

This one kind of what it looked like when I was in school, except that we only had 12 kids in my class. I am not sure I could do the whole 6 minutes now,

But I probably could do this version

This version the little cartoon just makes me laugh. It reminded Jean and I of a dance we used to do call the

Stuff

2009-07-27T20:32:00.010-04:00

It's been a month since I updated. Time certainly does fly. Haven't updated because I couldn't decide what to write about.

Here is a picture I took at Tom and Kathy's on the fourth.

Chris, came from Switzerland. We took him up to Houghton Lake to see Dick. He spend several days with his friend from school, Joel, and spent 3 or 4 days here.

Charlie spent the second week in July at the Eaton County Fair with the 4H girls. They did pretty well. A couple placed first in their class. One of the girls who had never done this before with a horse who had competed once or twice, but not a fair placed 8th, and one of the girls placed 2nd on one of her events. It was a looong week from Saturday through the next Sunday (9 days). I worked all week.

Then Charlie took Chris to the Airport on the 22nd.

Other news. I have lost a total of 40 pounds so far, and I walked 3 miles last week and yesterday. A few months ago, I had trouble walking a block.

The corn is starting to tassel and here is some I thought were kind of nice cool of new silk.

Took a camera on my walk this evening, actually I took the camera to take pictures of things I noticed yesterday but did not have my camera with me.

Family Reunion

2009-06-28T16:30:00.004-04:00

We had a family reunion yesterday, my mothers family, the Gilberts. Descendans of Ile and Mable Gilbert. We had a great time. Of course not everyone could be there, we did have 4 generations, and to my best calculation is that we had 80 relatives there.

Does anybody know how many Great great grand kids there are at the moment?

We took family group pictures, which was a major production in itself, and tried to get pictures of each generation but, we did not get the Great Great Grand children because some of them were napping.

I sent an e-mail to several of you, but just in case you read this and don't get my e-mail. I need names birth dates and parents names of our fifth (5th) Generation, The Great Great Grand kids,
so I can up date our family history book.

Here are a few pictures, I have also put the family group pictures, on Flickr.com. If you do a search for "Gilbert Family Reunion 2009 you should get 9 pictures, if you do a search for betzspt, you should get all of my pictures.

Here are a few that are not on Flickr.

8-80 days and cow plop

2009-06-22T09:57:00.003-04:00

Apparently I need to explain some things about Springport's 8-80 days for some people.

Barry asked: "sounds great, what exactly is 8-80 days?"

8-80 days is the local summer "festival." It is called 8-80 days because there are things for everyone from 8 to 80. They have pedal tractor pulls, frog jumping contest, Pet shows, cow plop contest, tractor pull, horse pull, belt sander races. The typical summer festival stuff.

Then Arthur said: "Cow plop contest? I have to see this one."

For the cow plop contest they make a grid on the ground in some kind of enclosed area, Springport uses the tennis court, people then purchase "a square," at the end of the day, they put the cow in the tennis court, and whoever purchased the square where the cow drops its "plop" or "pie" wins half the money.
Not the same as a cow pie tossing contest, where I have heard contestants throw dried cow pies.

Springport 8-80 days

2009-06-20T21:52:00.005-04:00

Charlie's 4H group rode their horses in the 8-80 days parade today. It was a beautiful day, and there were lots of people. Some years there don't seem to be very many, this was a good year.

Charlie had to have the farrier (horse shoe-er) come this morning before, they could go to the parade, to put a pad and shoes on one of the horses. The "girls" apparently were having her do sliding stops in the arena, yes Charlie has told them not to, and it has worn one of her back hooves down to the frog (the soft part of the foot in the center) The poor horse was in so much pain she couldn't walk yesterday afternoon, her back legs kept collapsing.

They do have roping and speed competitions where the horses do need to do sliding stops, but they have special shoes, so it does not wear down the hoof.

I am on vacation this week, but I don't think we are doing anything, or going anywhere.
Next weekend- the Gilbert Reunion. See some of you there.

Vacation

2009-06-05T19:40:00.009-04:00

Just got back from a camping trip to Fort Custer State Recreation area, in Augusta.

I have been there before, but Charlie had not. I had it confused with one of the other camp grounds where we had camped.
Some of the sites at Custer are a little samll, but most of them hav a lot of wooded space between sites. On Thursday about noon while the guys were off doing something, I drove around the park there were only 13 sites occupied. The first week of June, before school gets out is not a bad week to go camping if you can manage it.

We got set up on Tuesday and Charlie and the dog went for a walk. I was alone at the camp site and heard, in the distance, what sounded like somebody pounding on a tree with a hammer. It got closer and closer, then I saw it a huge Pileated Woodpecker, I went to get may camera and it was gone by the time I got back, but this is what it looked like. The sound it makes when it is peeking at a tree is really loud. Like I said like someone hitting a tree with a baseball bat.

While I'm talking about birds, I don't know if I have every mentioned this site before, but it is really cool, it has great pictures of birds, and you are able to hear the song, or call.

Ed came on Tuesday and went to gather fire wood he came back with a piece of wood about 8 feet long.
He and Charlie took a long time to cut it up so it would partially fit in the fire pit. We never did figure out what kind of wood it was, but it was really hard, and didn't burn very hot.

While we were gone, something got into the hen house and got several of the baby chicks, Charlie found parts and pieces of at least 7 chicks and we think a duck it got a duck because we haven't seen it around. Charlie thinks it was probably a raccoon and says he his going to sit out with his gun tonight and wait for them.

In the strange critter happenings category.

A neighbor down the road said he heard a cougar in the woods in back of his house. He said the horses and dogs were all upset. He called a few nights later and said it was out again. We went out and heard nothing from our yard. We drove down the road and definitely heard something but it did not sound like a cat, or a dog, maybe a mad raccoon.
A couple of other neighbors, said they have seen very large tracks that looked like dog track but had claw prints. One of them had a 40 pound bag of dog food carried off, leaving a trail to the woods.

Week-end happenings

2009-05-31T09:25:00.010-04:00

It has been a quiet week-end. I rode the exercise bike yesterday morning, I did laundry and grocery shopping on Saturday.

This morning I increased the exercise bike to 35 minutes.

A few weeks ago, Charlie bought some chicks and 2 ducks. He put the ducks in the pond a couple of days ago, but they ran right back to the chicken park.

Today he let them all out into the yard. The chicks apparently think the large ducks are their parents. They want nothing to do with the big chickens.

Several years ago I planted some Lily-of-the-Valley on the North side of the house. They have always come up, but I don't think they every had any blooms. This year they are finally blooming.

I am not sure where this little purple one came from, I don't even know what it is, but I thought it was pretty.

A New Blog Venture

2009-05-29T16:25:00.005-04:00

Last week, I was talking to a few people that I work with, who are trying to loose weight. They mentioned that it would be nice if a bunch of us could all do it together.

So we started a support group for the library employees. The JDL Fat Dumping Club.
There are 18 people signed up, about 15 % of the employees.

We each put in 5 dollars, the person who looses the highest percentage of weight in 6 months wins the pot.

Each person selects their own diet program, and reports their weight each week.

Since we are in 14 different locations and spread all over Jackson County (700+ square miles), we are communicating and supporting each other through e-mais and a blog I created. Each member of the Club can write in the blog, or send e-mails, to give or receive support.

Today is the first day and we have people who want to loose 18 pounds to some who need to loose over 100. I personally have lost a total of 44 pounds (17.74 percent since December 2007) and 24 (10.53%) in 7 weeks. My goal is to lose 69 more pounds.

Check out the Fat dumping blog for updates

Strange Bluebird behavior

2009-05-27T22:52:00.004-04:00

the
When we got home from camping on Monday, we had a bluebird fly up to one of the living room windows and sit on the edge of the screen. It would fly away for a few minutes, more like seconds, then come back and sit at the window again.

It doesn't peck it just sits there.

Yesterday Charlie tried closing the blinds, it still sat there.

I haven't seen it this evening, but it has been raining so maybe it found somewhere to stay dry.

It is just very strange.

Camping with Horses

2009-05-27T22:25:00.009-04:00

We went camping with Charlie's 4H horse group Memorial Day weekend. The camp ground is small (40 sites), privately owned, right next to a State park so there are 25+ miles of trails for horse back riding.

Update added May 29.
I forgot to tell you that the weekend, did not start very well.
On Thursday Charlie and Kayla, had to take her horse to the vet, and ran over something that blew out a trailer tire. So they put on the spare.
The were working with horses, put one in the trailer, Kayla was driving around the block and got about a mile away when the spare blew. I mean shredded.

On Friday we were on the way to the campground with the camper when a tire blew, again shredded about 5 miles from home.
We had to buy two new tires. those were apparently dry rotted. Now we have to get the other 3 tires replaced and a spare before we go Up North in August.

The campground was full because of the holiday week-end.

There are 27 sites with electricity, and 13 rustic sites, Port-a-johns and no showers. But the port-a-johns are kept really clean.

Charlie would like to go back for a few days when there are not so many people around.

There is a pond for swimming and fishing. One of the kids caught a nice bass.

I walked some of the trails to help set up a “treasure hunt” for the kids to follow on horse back.
It took about and hour and my back did not hurt. Another plus of losing weight.

I think every one had a pretty good time, but I was amazed at how rude and disrespectful some of those kids are. Calling their parents names etc. It probably didn’t help that 3 or 4 of the eight are 13 year old girls.

Camping in a Swamp

2009-05-17T17:39:00.009-04:00

Just got home from camping, at Chain of Lakes, in Albion, Indiana. Things did not start well.
I rode down with my sister and her husband, we got a later start than planned because they had some problems with their camper, the slide out wouldn't slide back in and there was a problem with the hitch. It rained most of the way down.

We got there about 5:00 PM, set up as did my nieces and their husbands. One in their camper, one in a tent.

We had dinner, sat around the campfire and it started pouring- it rained HARD all night long.
I slept in my brother's pop-up, which was nice and dry, but a little noisy what with the rain hitting the canvas pop outs and the metal center roof.

This is what we woke up to on Saturday morning.

I think my nephew will be writing a review of his tent on his outdoor blog, Simply Outdoors

The park rangers did let us change campsites, the rain stopped sometime early afternoon and although it was cold, we managed to hang in.

Sunday morning was beautiful, too bad we had to leave.

But as I have said before, we have to have something to remember our camping trips by this one will be waking up in a swamp.

Dr. Appointment

2009-05-11T07:16:00.005-04:00

Had a Dr's appointment this morning- @ 6:30 AM. I got out by 7:00 it's almost a miracle.

Weight: -10 pounds = a total of 33 in a year and 1/2

Blood Pressure 114/60 two weeks ago it was 140/?

Blood sugar has been this week was 131. That was after I ate some blueberries.

Yay

First camp of the season, sort of

2009-05-10T15:30:00.007-04:00

My sister and part of her family went camping this weekend, at som property they own. It is within the village limits but is set back off the road behind the houses. They have a pond and have built a pavilion. When your out there it feels almost like you are way out away from everything.

We went out for the day yesterday. The weather was really pretty chilly and it rained on and off all day, but it was an enjoyable day.

A couple of geese landed on the pond, We tried to get the dog, to chase them away, becasue they would rather not have geese nest on the pond and have to deal with all of the droppings. The dog, would have nothing to do with the geese, he would retrieve sticks all day, but not chase the geese.

One of my sisters's daughters and her husband just bought a new camper. They were loving it.

The 19 month old, kept us all busy. He loves being out doors, and anything that has wheels, a moter and moves, the lawn mower, the tracter, the 4 wheeler, even the stroller thingy that is made to pull behind a bike or jog with. He'd set in it and say vroom, vroom while somebody pushed him aroud. Kids are so cute at that age.

I am going camping next weekend with my sister, and brothers, Charlie is not going because he doesn't want to pull the camper 2 weeks in a row, and is too busy with his horses.

Getting our camper ready to go, we are going with Charlie's 4H group on Memorial Day weekend to Waterloo.

The weather today is not real great either, but I did manage to pick some lilacs for the table.

Happy trails... talk to you later.

Buds and blossoms

2009-05-03T20:42:00.007-04:00

It was a beautiful day. Temperatures in the 70's, I think, and sunshine.
I went out this evening and took some more pictures.
This is of some of the apple trees in back of the shed.
the center one is full of blossoms, the others are just starting to bloom.

This is one of the lilac bushes They should be blooming in a couple more weeks.

And these are the violets in the front yard

These phlox are in the north side of the house next to the well.

I spent most of the week a t Grand Traverse Resort for the Rural Library conference. The conference was good, as it usually is, I brought back lots of ideas for future programs and such.
Usually they have really good food, rich but very good. Not so much this week. The same salad, 3 meals in a row. the same vegatable for 5 meals. Breakfast one morning fruit and sweet rolls.
the next morning french toast and backed apple with granola topping. The meat was varied, but I found it a little dry. Maybe it is just because I am trying to stick to a diet, but it seems like there was more variety and better preparation at past conferences.

According to my scales I have lost another 2 or 3 pounds.

Before pictures

2009-04-27T21:28:00.015-04:00

I had a Dr. appointment today. There was good news and not so good news. My glucose level was down to 134 this morning. I have lost 3 pounds, Lynn says if I loose 15 more, I can go off all medication,

When I asked him if that meant blood pressure too he said "No, well maybe."

On the South Beach diet they say you should loose 8-12 pounds in the first 2 weeks. I only lost 3 in 10 days. Let me see if I can explain this- I had lost 10 pounds, when my sugar levels were high because I was urinating a lot, and that was urinating out calories.
On the medication I am not loosing as much water or claories

Since December of 2007 when I got the CPAP machine, and thyroid medication I also lost about 10.

Here are a couple of pictures.

December 2007 April 2009

This is my before picture taken today. I am determined to get down to a size.......

Diet, daffodils

2009-04-26T09:40:00.012-04:00

OK, so, last week I told you I found out I was diabetic, the Dr. said I HAVE to loose weight, if I do I should be able to control the sugar with diet. He suggested South Beach or Weight Watchers.
So I started SB on the 15th.

If you don't know about this diet: for the first two weeks you can eat nothing but protein and vegetables. I thought OK, I like salads, you just put some meat and cheese in it. So I ate 8 salads in 5 days. Sunday evening for dinner, I put a salad on the table and thought , I absolutely can not eat any more lettuce. :-) Of course I didn't have to, I ate other vegetables and a pork chop. One day I felt like I just had to have something sweet, I had some unsweetened jello, that did the trick.

I have been on medication and the diet for ten days. I feel better, I am sleeping better, for the last few days I have been able to get up early enough to ride my exercise bike before I get ready for work. I check my blood glucose level every morning and the numbers get a little lower everyday. I think I am going to have somebody take a picture of me so I can have some before and after photos because I am determined to loose this weight, by the Gilbert reunion in June I hope to be 25 pounds thinner.

We got a lot of rain yesterday. It knocked down a lot of the daffodils by the back door. I realized that I have three different kinds of daffodils. I can't remember the variet names.

These are a double variety

These two colored ones,

And these white ones

Oh yeah, We ran a stop sign, T-boned another car yesterday. Thankfully no one was hurt. The care is probably totaled.

Spring is Sprung?

2009-04-19T09:54:00.009-04:00

A beautiful day yesterday, temps in the high 60's, this morning it is only 47, gray and rainy. Here are some more photos.

The lilacs are budding.

I have no idea what these little flowers are.

The pussy willows are going to seed all ready

WHAT A WEEK

2009-04-18T10:20:00.032-04:00

I taught 4 computer classes and attended 2 workshops.

Wednesday
I had an eye Dr. appointment. After the exam, the Dr. said she was concerned because there was such a big change in my prescription. They called Dr. Van Wagnen's office and made an appoint for 3:00 that afternoon. at Lynn's office I sat in the waiting room for 45 minutes, then in the examining room so long, I thought they might have forgotten about me. I was there a total of 2 and 1/2 hours.

They checked my blood glucose level, it was 260, my blood pressure was 160 over 90.
So I now have a blood glucose meter, and have to check my blood everyday. I was not feeling bad, and I thought I was doing well, I had lost another 10 pounds. Lynn said it was because of the sugar, and I would probably put some of it back on, while we are trying to regulate the sugar. Yippee :(

I get home and found out Charlie had gone to his Dr. because his toes have been bothering him. A few months ago he had the Dr. look at them and was told it was a fungus, got some cream for the toes and spray for the boots. This time the Doc said he has no idea what it is, drew some blood and made an appoint at the podiatrist

A couple of days ago Shonda called to tell me she was going to the Med station because she has an abscess ( an in-grown hair?) or something in her arm pit. The Dr. told her it would probably have to be lanced, but gave her some antibiotics and told her to try those for a few days, because she has no insurance and a very low pain tolerance. So Wednesday on my way home from work she called to tell me she was on the way to the emergency room, the med station wasn't open, to have them look at this thing because it has gotten about 10 times bigger (her words not mine). She called at about midnight to let me know she was just leaving the ER. They had lanced the abscess.

Thursday
Charlie said he drove the truck over a bump and the wheels started shaking, He took it in today- wheel bearings need to be replaced.
My car sprung a coolant leak, I put more coolant in it, and decided to take it to the mechanic across the street from the library on Friday.
I put coolant in it, started for work, by the time I got to Jackson, it started to overheat, I managed to make it to work. It is a broken head gasket it will cost over $1000.

OK! ENOUGH! That was depressing, but like the song says That's Life.

Now the Good News
I have a job, we have our house
Charlies truck loan is paid off.
A friend has loaned his truck for the next few days
The weather has been beautiful the last couple of days

The daffodils have lots and lots of buds and there are even a few blooms.

The rhubarb, the Iris, even some lilies are sprouting

The pussy willow is already going to seed already. The forsythia and Periwinkle are blooming.

I have managed to stay on the South Beach Diet for 3 days and think I have already lost a few more pounds :)

Horses, spring and More Snow

2009-04-10T14:55:00.006-04:00

It has been almost a month since I blogged - sorry about that.
Let's see if I can remember what has happened. You know my life is so exciting.

One of Charlie's horses had some health issues and the story is really funny but it might be rated R and they would pull my blog. Let's just say that it is a gelding, but it was having problems with it's male parts. When you see me ask me about it.

The last blog said I thought Spring was almost here, but I had not heard the frogs enough times. Well the old wives tale must have been right because we got a few inches of snow dumped on us last Sunday night and Monday morning. Here are some pictures I took on my way out the door on Monday morning (April 6)

It is a beautiful day today the sun is shining and it is about 57 degrees in Jackson.

For those of you who are not "family" one of my uncle passed away on March 31, after a very short illness. It was good to see all of the family at the funeral, but it is too bad that it was for that reason.

I did some appraising at the Affiliate (State) DI competition on Saturday. There were some really good challenge solutions. Springport has a team going to Globals again. Our all girls technical team. Way to Go !

My home computer has been on the fritz for a couple of weeks, I am writing this at work so I guess I better close now. I'll try to write on Sunday and tell you all. for you southerners that would be y'all, about Easter.

A Peek at Spring?

2009-03-14T15:18:00.011-04:00

The temperature is about 52 degrees, the sun is shining,

The ice is off the pond

The chickens are out scratching,

The horses are really shaggy

The daffodils are sprouting,

The pussy willows are budding

Spring may really be on the way, but we have only heard the frogs once, so there is at least one more freeze.

Learning something new

2009-02-20T09:09:00.007-05:00

I just learned from Pioneer woman's blog how to make a diptych

You could use any pictures but I like some kind of a theme. These are from our trip to Florida about 4 years ago

These are obviously winter scenes. Taken in my back yard.

Really easy and kinda cool don't you think

Fooled Again

2009-02-14T10:26:00.007-05:00

The weather this week was absolutely fabulous. Earlier in the week the temperatures set new record highs above 60 degrees.
Yesterday the high was only 38 but as I was driving home I couldn't help but notice that all the snow was gone except for a few charcoal colored piles that the snow plows had created a few weeks ago. The grass and fields were brown but it almost felt like spring. As much as I am ready for spring I know that we still several weeks of winter left.

This is what it looked like at 10:00 this morning.

I can't tell for sure what the temperature is but the weather site says it is about 27 degrees.

Charlie just got back from a walk. He said there is about 4 inches, it is about done snowing and it is starting to melt (so the temp must be higher than 27)

The apple trees. I will have to go out and see if the forsythia and lilacs have any buds. They are probably frozen.

Charlie and some of the neighbor girls went for a long horseback ride (most of the day long).

He has been having some problems with his little toes for a few weeks. He finally went to the doctor. They think it is a fungus, from his winter boots that are several years old and the insulation has gotten wet. He has some medicine to put on them and had to spray his boots with a fungicide.

I have been busy this week, training new employees and holding public computer classes.
I taught computers for 5 hours on Tuesday, a total of 12 hours this week. We are also short handed in the Admin office I had responsibility for the phones all day Friday.

More Snow and ground hogs day

2009-02-01T18:58:00.007-05:00

The weather has been pretty cold all week, but it started to warm up yesterday, it was in the mid 30's but the wind was really bitter. Today the high was 41 degrees in Jackson. It even melted enough to see tiny patch of dirt in the driveway.

These are some pictures I took yesterday afternoon.
This one I took because I thought I like how the snow was draped over the railing like a swag.

This one of icicles on the back roof next to the kitchen window.

I will be really glad when spring is here. Tomorrow is Ground Hogs day, I think there is too much snow for the poor thing to even come out of his den. If he comes out and goes back in it means 6 more weeks of winter.
If he stays out it means an early spring.
What does it mean if he doesn't come out at all?

Book Review The Candy Bombers

2009-01-23T15:06:00.004-05:00

This is a long post, but the book is verrrry long. I listened to the audio version and it was just under 25 hours.

In 1948 American Forces were transporting necessary supplies to West Berlin by truck, train and barges. Russia in an attempt to control all of Berlin blockaded those transports in June. American and British pilots risked their lives to air lift billions of pounds. One Pilot and his crew won the hearts of German Children and their parents by dropping candy tied to tiny parachutes to the children.

Publisher's Weekly said that this book could have been cut by a third, I agree that this book is too long, and sometimes difficult to follow (at least in the first half.) The writing style while factual (taken from journals and diaries) is also very dry. I listened to the audio edition and the reader shows very little emotion and is very flat. It did improve in the last half.

I learned many things from this book. Considering that this took place less than one year before I was born, I would have thought that I would have heard someone talk about it

I don't remember ever even hearing about the Berlin airlift, I did not realize
• That the United States and their allies were very close to going to war with Russia in 1948.
• That the United States military force was very small and after much debate and argument, the draft was reinstated in the spring of '48.
• That, according to Cherny, the Berlin Airlift was a huge factor in Truman's re-election.
• That the Airlift , and the candy drops were one of the big reasons that Germany remained a democratic republic, rather than turning to Communism.
There are things that could be very emotional, the first time the airlift pilots say a bombed out Germany, the pilots meeting the German people and their feelings about saving them, when just a few years earlier they were trying to destroy them.

The writing style while factual (taken from journals and diaries) is also very dry. I listened to the audio edition and the reader shows very little emotion and is very flat.
It did improve in the last half. Even a few moments that were a little humorous, for example:
• When General Lucius Clay, military governor of Germany was preparing to return to the United States after being fired, everything in his house was packed up and they had begun shipping things home. They day before he was scheduled to ship out he was told he would be needed to stay. He went home and told his wife they were not leaving and she said but you can't, you have no pants.
• Some of the interactions between the very shy "candy bomber" Gail "Hal" Halvorson and his fiance and wife.
The airlift almost failed, but after Liutenant General William Tunner was put in charge the Airforce carried billions of tons of food and coal to keep the people of West Berlin alive during the winter of 1948-49.

Lt. Gail Halvorson became a celebrity and made the rounds of the talk shows on the new Television media. because he started dropping candy on handkerchief parachutes to children who were watching the planes come in delivering the supplies to a blockaded West Berlin.
Children and parents wrote thank-you letters to Halvorson calling him Uncle Wiggly Wings because Halvorson would wiggle the plane wings as a signal just before he made the drops, Candy Bomber , Bonbon Bomber, Chocolate Uncle.

As I said I had never heard about much of this. I knew that Gemany was divided, and that East Germany and East Berlin were ruled by Communists, but I had not heard of the Russian Blocade, the Berlin Airlift, or the Candy Bombers. Not from my father, who served in WWII, or my Uncles who were stationed in Germany in the 50's, or in any of my History classes in school.

I think someone could make a really good movie from this. If you like history in general and World War II in particular I would recommend this book, but read the text version so you can skim over the less interesting parts.

Birds at the feeder.

2009-01-17T15:20:00.019-05:00

OK this weather is really starting to get on my nerves. It hasn't been this cold for this long for quite a few years. We haven't had this many days of consecutive day of snow for several years either.
Charlie saw bluebirds at the feeders the other day. He got a couple of pictures.

I took these of cardinal this morning.

All of these were taken through the living room window It is too cold to stand outside and wait for the birds to come to the feeder.

Snow, what's new? - 4 H, family visits

2009-01-10T21:38:00.006-05:00

It snowed most of the night and most of the day, I think.

Charlie had a 4-H meeting, this afternoon and wanted to get "snacks" for the meeting, so he went to grocery shopping with me. I spent 1/3 more than I usually do.

Charlie's brother, Dick and his wife, drove from Houghton Lake to Lansing to see some of Charlotte's family and came down here for a short visit.

All but 1 of the 4-H members showed up for the meeting, and all but one of those parents, it was an organizational meeting, so he asked the parents to come. One of the families has 6 kids and all but one of them is not old enough to show horses. Boy do they have a lot of energy. The last of them left after 8:00.

Charlie says he is going ice fishing tomorrow, I guess in the evening we are going out to dinner. He told me on Thursday he was taking me out to dinner on Sunday for my birthday.
My don't I lead an exciting life.

Happy Birthday

2009-01-08T21:12:00.004-05:00

Today is my birthday. I turned 60 years old today and 'know what? I don't care that I'm 60. I have a great life, I like my work, I have a great family (all of them brothers sister nieces, aunts, uncles nephews), good friends, and I have my health. Sure I have a few things wrong, but that is what comes from 60 years of experience.

Turning 39 bothered me- Turning 60 feels great. Even if the day did start a little slow.
I listened to the TV weather and Darin Rockcole said there was about 1-3 inches of snow. OK that's not too bad even if I do HATE driving in snow.

I walked out opened the door turned around and put on my boots (I think that was more than 3 inches)
The car doors were frozen shut. It took a few minutes, but I got them open and dropped my purse in the snow.
Started the car- cleaned off the window, started for work
Got half way there realized I had forgotten my phone, it is home on the charger., guess I better make sure I don't go into a snow bank and have to call a tow truck.
Also realized I have a small crack in the windshield that was not there when I cleaned off the window.
Country roads aren't too bad. M50 is a little snow covered but not bad.

Got into town. - went through McD's for a breakfast sandwich.
Stopped at a light, it turns gree I started my left turn and felt the car slip and slid so I took my foot off the gas, the mini-van behind me is so close I can't see the headlights.
Stop at the next light. A little pick-up in front of me tries to take off and throws snow so I slow down and back off, the mini- passes me on the right to turn on to I94.

Traffic on the Main downtown streets, Michigan and West is back up about 3 blocks.
I got to work OK. I'm really not going to let stupid drivers bother me. I don't care.

Had a great day. I am training a new reference librarian who is full of energy and fun and really excited about working in the library.

Found out that in India turning 60 signifies a new stage in your life, a stage of spirituality and introspection. In India, couple renew their wedding vows when the husband turns 60.

Most of the Administrative staff suprised me with lunch at the Olive garden, flowers and gifts.

All in all a very good day

January 9, 2009
After I posted this I remembered this poem that I think may become part of my philosophy

Warning
When I am an old woman I shall wear purple
With a red hat which doesn't go and doesn't suit me.
And I shall spend my pension on brandy and summer gloves
And satin sandals, and say we've no money for butter.

I shall sit down on the pavement when I'm tired
And gobble up samples in shops and press alarm bells
And run my stick along the public railings
And make up for the sobriety of my youth.

I shall go out in the slippers in the rain
And pick the flowers in other people's gardens
And learn to spit.

You can wear terrible shirts and grow more fat
And eat three pounds of sausages at a go
Or only bread and pickle for a week
And hoard pens and pencils and beermats and things in boxes.

But now we must have clothes that keep us dry
And pay our rent and not swear in the street
And set a good example for the children.
We must have friends to dinner and read the papers.

But maybe I ought to practise a little now?
So people who know me are not too shocked and surprised
When suddenly I am old, and start to wear purple.

- Jenny Joseph (1961)

Math story problems

2009-01-07T19:22:00.012-05:00

It's snowing again, it took me twice as long to get home as usual. I wouldn't mind the snow so much if I didn't have to drive on it.

We, well the director, is writing a grant that involves teaching computer classes in low income neighbor hoods. He asked me to figure out a schedule for the classes, how many we would have to offer etc.

So here are the figures.
450 people need to take classes,
9 computers in the traveling lab.
Classes are 2-2.5 hours long and there are 9 sessions for each class.
18 months to complete the project

The director had worked on the grant writing for so long that he was no help by then, and didn't want to see it until our meeting tomorrow morning.

So I sat there staring at my computer. My brain had turned to mush. I couldn't even figure out what it was we wanted to know.

So I called a co-worker from down the hall the IT person. She took one look at and said I never could do story problem. I need a white board or something.

So we went to the conference room and called in her assistant.

He said, "the train arrives in Chicago at 11:30." Then he said he was going to call his pre-algebra teacher. By this time I had gotten the giggles.

Then the administrative secretary came in with a pad and paper.
The HR Administrator came in with a calculator.

The director told him we might need some help.

I told them the figures, They looked at them, and said it will take 5 years to do all of those classes. It has really been nice working with you.

OK so before I tell you the answer, how many classes do I have to offer to teach 450 people in 18 months?

No cheating. Don't look until you at least try to figure it out.

Have you figured it out? No peeking!!!

I mean it no peeking!!!!!!

OK so0000

Our target audience is 450 people.
Number of weeks to complete the project 18 months x 4 weeks per month= 72 weeks.
Number of weeks in each series of classes = 9
Number of series we can run = 72 weeks/9 = 8 series
450 people/ 8 series groups = 56.2 people in each group
56.2 people /9 computers = 6.24 sessions per week.

Very good.

2.5 hours per class session +2.0 hours of set up = 0.5 hours of travel + 5 hours per session

5 hours per session x 6.24 sessions a week = 31.2 hours a week.

Great!!!! - Good job

Comfort Foods

2009-01-02T19:47:00.004-05:00

Here I am staring a blank page and not knowing what to write about. We had my family Christmas on Sunday the 27th. We all had fun with the babies. I worked 2 days, then had 2 days off, then worked one day, and have two days off. Geeze, next week I have to work 40 hours, that may be hard.

It has been nice being able to drive to work on clear dry roads this week after so much snow for several days.

I didn't make any new years resolutions this year, I usually don't stick to them anyway.

My brother suggested that after I wrote the blog about what yuckky things, we ate or our parents made us eat as kids. I should do a blog about what are some of the good things we ate as kids, what was your favorite food? Do you still like it? Have you had it recently? Is it the same as it was when you were a kid.

I'll start: I used to love my grandmother's cherry pudding. I tried to make it a while back, using her recipe, it was awful.
I loved her molasses cookies but I can't make them either. I guess Michelle has figured it out.
Other favorites - Mom's potato soup. homemade bread, sugar cookies .....
Your turn. Leave a comment and let me know.

Lost Days

2008-12-27T16:10:00.007-05:00

What day is it? I have only worked 1 1/2 days this week, and with all that time off and holidays, I am having trouble keeping the days straight, Wednesday felt like Saturday, Thursday felt like Sunday and yesterday felt like Saturday again.

A couple of days ago, it was negative wind chills, today it is almost 60 degrees. A lot of the snow was melted by the time I got up, about 8.
Here are a few pictures.

This one is looking out toward the horse pasture, behind the barn.

This was taken from the front of the pole barn looking at the pond.

And this one is looking through the "gate" at the horse barn.

and this across the pond, at the back of the pole barn.

They look a little spooky and eerie. They also look like they are were taken in black and white, but I was using the digital camera and they were printed in color.

Charlie said that the pond water level is up several inches, and the water is "gushing" through the underground drainage pipes he put in and it is still running all over the pasture. He said the water in the middle of the pasture the area behind the first picture is about 10 inches.

Quiet Christmas

2008-12-26T22:02:00.004-05:00

Well, it was a quiet Christmas, Shonda came on Wednesday evening, we ate and opened our presents, then she had to get back to work on Christmas morning. Charlie and I just hung around the house and had steaks fixed on the new George Forman Grill that Shonda gave me.

Charlie got a new Michigan Atlas, he has used the old one some much it fell apart.

We also got some new camping equipment, cast iron swing away grill and cook set to hang pans over the campfire, there are pictures at Sportsmans Guide

Charlie and Shonda got a couple of dress shirts, and a new digital camera that didn't include the memory card (now wonder they were so in expensive.)

I sent the annual newsletter out on Wednesday, but if you read this blog, you had already seen most of it. I did forget to add that Charlie spent most of the summer building a large horse arena which will come in handy for the 4H kids to practice. In case I didn't mention before we now have 10 horses. Two of them were given to him because the owner didn't want to feed them all winter, three of them he is boarding, they pay for the feed.

I was supposed to work today, but just as I started out the door, it started sleeting, and with all the weather reports, I decided not to go. It was probably a good idea our driveway and road were a solid sheet of ice.

Gees, isn't this exciting? Hope you aren't too board, or maybe you should read this just before you turn in for the night, it might make you sleepy.

HAPPY HOLIDAYS TO ALL.

Podcasts

2008-12-23T11:43:00.002-05:00

I am so excited- I just created a podcast, and put it on the Library web page. It is a test, the location on the web page is not permanent, so check it out http://myjdl.com/minutes_12_11

We have a poetry contest in the Spring and are going to have the winners read their poems and put them on the website.

Stay tuned for more details

Winter

2008-12-22T10:29:00.033-05:00

This was supposed to be ... Just a quick post, I am stuck at home this morning because we have a snow drift over 2 feet high in the driveway. (the picture on the left. I'm waiting for somebody to come and plow it out so I can go to work.

The window box was drift was almost 15 inches and that was close to the house (the picture on the right).

I also took a few more pictures while I was out there.

....but I have been having trouble getting the pictures to line up the way I want them. So I give up.

Happy Winter Solstice

2008-12-21T11:39:00.010-05:00

Happy Winter Solistice (I noticed some churches are having longest night programs. When did that start?)

Shonda and I went to the Wharton center to see Grease on the 11th. It was great, most of the people there had probably seen it so many times they could sing the songs. Taylor Hicks played the part of Teen Angel, he was pretty good, in a suit that looked like it was made of glitter.

It looks like it could be pretty busy, at work in the New Year. They are writing a grant, to fund a partnership project with the library and Community Action Agency, to provide computer classes, in low income neighbor hoods.
I have contacted the Department of Aging about holding computer classes at some of their nutrition centers. If this all happens I may have to clone myself.

I finished my Christmas shopping this week, and even have it all wrapped. Yay!! I finished the last of it Thursday night, and the store was a mad house. As I was going in an older man on the way out said "Are you sure you want to go in there?" I had to, I had to pick up a prescription. I figured while I was there I might as well get it done. Part of the crowd may have been because of the impending storm, that was predicted for Thursday night/Friday morning.

The storm came, I left early to get to work, it took me over an hour. I got there - before everyone else, because .... the library was closed. I drove home, trying to stay in the tracks of the snowplow, and not get stuck in the piles of snow crossing my line, ice kept building up on the windshield wipers. Sometimes visibility was pretty low. I made it all the way home and got stuck in the driveway (backed up and tried again about 4 times.) Then I found a message on the answering machine that must have been left when I went out to clean and start the car at 6:40AM. Charlie didn't answer it because he thought I was still in the house.

I am writing this Sunday morning, It is now snowing and blowing again.

Charlie is watching hunting or golf or football on television, a few minutes ago, a Blue Jay flew in the screened porch (someone left the door open) and took some Boston's dog food. Then couldn't figure out how to get back out.
Charlie tried to shoo him out with the broom but he flew up into the house rafters, too far back to reach with the broom. For all I know he is still there. I assume if we leave him alone he will find his way out eventually. I hope.

I am trying to figure out how some people make their everyday lives sound so much more interesting than mine.
For example: Front Porch Indiana, or Notes from the Trenches, or Confessions of a Pioneer woman

D*** I can't believe it has been a whole month

2008-12-09T23:25:00.002-05:00

Geeze, I can't believe it has been a whole month since I posted.
No reason just nothing to blog about. Like I told somebody the other day, doing laundry and grocery shopping don't make for very exciting blogs.

Let's see what's been going on.

Charlie and I took a three of the neighborhood girls to a horse competition a couple of weeks ago. The first one 2 of them had every been to, and the first time for one of the horses.
It was cold- I think the weather kept some people away, there was about 25 competitors in different age levels.
They did well, they all places in at least one event.

Shonda moved into her own apartment about 10 days ago. She went shopping in my house before she left.
" I need a lamp"
"I'm going to take this book case, and this dresser.
"Can I take this display rack?"
"I'm taking these mugs", (as she takes them out of the cupboard- I got her some from the camper)
"Can I take this coffee pot?"
I asked if she needed plates, then decided she could take paper plates and plastic spoons. After all like Charlie said- why do you need real plates for pizza.

She has called several times, usually about putting money in her checking account. Says she has another job lined up to clean someone's house, and maybe another house cleaning.

Shonda and I are going to see Grease at the Wharton Center with some friends on Thursday. Taylor Hicks from American Idol has a part, I think the Frankie Avalon teen angel part. I'll let you know how it is .

Charlie is the new 4H horse leader. We found out the Springport Township was going to be discussing the possibility of a huge horse park in the township, so he went to the meeting. He is now on a committee. I am not sure the purpose of the committee, see what they can do to help, feasiblity ???

Oh, I have signed up for a twitter account. I am not sure about it, but I have been reading a lot of library and trainer blogs writing about it lately. So I thought I would try it see how it works.
so far, I'm getting really exciting comments, almost as exciting as doing laundry and buying groceries. It may take a while to get the right people for networking. find me at http://twitter.com/betzja

Found a really funny e-card maker today. It is called elfyourself http://www.elfyourself.com/. I sent a card to Jenn and Arthur. watch for one in your inbox. The one below (previous post) is one I made of people at work, Shonda and me.

Guess that's all for now- I'll blog ya later, or maybe tweet.

Elf Dance

2008-12-09T23:24:00.001-05:00

Send your own ElfYourself eCards

Beautiful things,

2008-11-10T14:54:00.000-05:00

Since I did 5 beautiful things a couple of days ago, I "get to do" one today.

A feeling of accomplishment, when the laundry is done and clothes put away, the groceries shopping is done and put away, and the dishes are done and the dishwasher is empty.

My version of 3 (actually 5) Beautiful things.

2008-11-07T22:43:00.005-05:00

Checking a blog and finding pictures of the great nephew and niece in the Halloween costumes

Yards covered with a golden carpet of leaves, glowing with sunlight on my way to work.

Seeing black cows scattered across the multicolored field

Walking across the parking lot and seeing the golden leaved trees framing the gray church steeple against an iron gray sky background.

Spending election night with friends and co-workers and celebrating together after winning a hard fought battle.

Yeah - the millage passed

2008-11-05T21:36:00.002-05:00

I don't think I ever wrote about this, I don't know why.

Jackson District Library had millage proposal on the ballot yesterday. The library was asking for .4 mills. This was for operations only. To keep the lights on and the doors open in all of the branches.

16 months ago, asking for .8 mills to expand and improve all of the branches. Most of the library buildings were never meant to be libraries, with increased usage and demand for more technology they really need more room and improvments. They had focus groups and questionnaires and thougth it would pass. It was defeated 2:1 6o% no to 40% yes.

The library got a 1 mill when they became a district library 30 years ago. It was renewed 10 years ago. But with the Headley amendment and tax captures for businesses, decrease in state aid and a decrease in penal fines. The library has spent most of it's savings and within 3 years will have a $1,000,000 deficit.

They decided they had to ask for an increase. Without it they would have to re-evaluate the and come up with a new model of service for the population of Jackson County, which would have most likely meant closing some of the branches. I for one was not sure even this would pass, there was a lot of negative comments and the newspaper was pretty negative.

Well

It Passed 62% -38%.

We all still have jobs, and we can begin to think about other things in the library. It seems like we have been thinking about only the millage and money for ever. Actually it has been 3 years, but that is a long time

Election Day

2008-11-04T14:57:00.003-05:00

Just want to remind everyone to

I don't care who you vote for, just vote.
If you live in Jackson County remember to vote Yes on the library millage.

I did. I looked at the clock and thought it was too early to go to the polls, so I waited until 6:45, I should have left at 6:30, there were 36 people ahead of me, some of them had been there since 6:30. When I left, the line was back and forth covering the whole area of the township hall.

Late Fall Camping

2008-11-02T18:51:00.020-05:00

Charlie and I went camping this week-end, Since we bought the camper in August, we have only had a chance to use it once so we decide to try it this week-end the latest we have ever camped. I checked with DNR and Bruin Lake State park is open until November 30, so off we went, I rather short notice although we had talked about it for several weeks.
The address for Bruin Lake is Gregory, but it is about a mile (by road) to Unadilla (I love that name, the way it sounds.)

The weather was great, a little windy on Sunday morning, and the rain held off until we were all packed up and pulling out of the campground.

We have been to Bruin Lake before, several times but we figured out that it has been at least 10 or 11 years since we were there last. We usually go there when we want to take someone novice canoeing because it is not far from the Huron River, a great beginner canoeing river.

Charlie went over on Friday afternoon and had things set up by the time I got there after work, and stopping to pick up a few groceries. Only one little glitch, he was backing the trailer in the site, make sure not to hit the fire pit and hit a tree. Not a lot of damage to the trailer but...

We also realized during our conversations that this was the very first time we have ever gone camping alone, just the two of us. some.

Fall is a great time to go camping, there is hardly anyone at the parks. Bruin Lake has 186 sites, and we counted 20 sites being used. Don't tell anybody, they might decide to try it, then it wouldn't be as nice because it would be too crowded.

Oh, the restrooms were closed for the season, but they did have an porta-john and we had the bathroom in the camper.

We ran into some people who said they had been camping for 3 weeks, there were two couples left, for this there last weekend. They had up to 7 families there at one point during the 3 weeks. They said they have been doing this for the last 10 years.

We went for a ride on Saturday, and found a horse riders campground. it was packed with trailers and horse people of all ages. Charlie had heard there was one in the area, and was checking it out for some of the kids he will be working with this year. He is going to be the horse 4-H leader, more on that in another post.

When we go camping, Charlie does most of the cooking over the camp fire. On Saturday night it was beef stew, it tasted great.

There are not a lot of trails but Charlie and the dog managed to find a few, they even walked to Undilla Sunday morning, about 5 miles cross country, on the trails and down a little private road.

We had a some nice campfires, I had to take a picture of this piece of wood, it looked a little strange. That is all one piece of wood See the picture below on the right.

We have talked about camping at least once a month, trying a different camp ground, each time, I was thinking April -October, but I found out that there are 10 state parks that are open year round. We are thinking about going sometime this winter, Anybody interested?

The worst weird things I or you ever ate.

2008-10-21T16:48:00.003-04:00

I haven’t been able to find a book on the subject so I may write one.

Some of my co-workers were discussing child hood memories one day and we started listing some of the weird strange gross things our parents made us eat.

For me it was my dad eating chicken feet, no way would I eat that. Now the pickled pigs knuckles I liked or the sardines, although now I can’t figure out why. When he was a kid he made a younger friend eat worms. Hey the older boys said her try this, so little Charlie did.

My dad wouldn’t drink is coffee without canned evaporated milk. Yuk. My mother used to make sandwiches out of left over bean soup. You know the navy beans and ham soup that when it was cold it congealed and looked gross. She ate that stuff.

For TE it was Vienna sausages, potted meat and spam. Oh yeah and SOS, or the more proper name Chipped beef gravy on toast.

MW agreed with the spam

JeD said creamed spinach, oysters

Big K said dry non fat milk was really gross. Another thing she hated was little green brains (it took a minute but she meant Brussels’ sprouts)

They both thought we were loosing it when JD and I remember having milk with cream on top and scraping it off.

JD’s dad ate orange marmalade and onion sandwiches,
EWWWWW
His neighbor ate vanilla ice cream and mustard.

Kalamari said chow mien, it looked like little white worms.

The worst think EP could come up with was oyster stew every New Years.

Okay your turn, leave a comment, what is the weirdest, strangest worst thing you can remember your parents eating or making you eat? After all if I’m going to write a book I need lots of material.

Catching up again

2008-09-19T06:07:00.006-04:00

OK, so it has been awhile since I wrote, again I am just going to list what has been going on the last couple of weeks.

Shonda and I attended Jenn's baby shower, on the 7th. She got lots of nice things, and I found out that you are not supposed to cover babies with blankets when you put them to bed, it is easier for them to suffocate. I made a comment that it is a miracle we “ the gandmother generation” made it to adulthood. I mean we didn't use seatbelts, or car seats, bike helmets, had drawstrings on our hoods, lead paint, no bottled water....

A friend of Charlie's, the one he went to Oregon with a couple of years ago, called him a couple of days before his appointment and wanted to know if he wanted to go to Phoenix to do some work,. Charlie told him he could because he had surgery scheduled. He had his doctor's appointment on Tuesday, the 9th. There was a misunderstanding somewhere, because it was just a consultation and not surgery. The Dr. suggested that he wear a brace at night, that it works better wearing at night than during the day. He has to go back on November 3. So he and a couple of other men left for Phoenix on the 12th at 8 AM.

WARNING Complain mode- I had a miserable weekend:

It started raining about 8:30 PM, Friday night and rained all night, the roof started leaking (are you ready for this) over the toilet, not into the toilet, on the seat. The kitchen sky lights have leaked before, but this weekend it started running along the ceiling to the wall, and running down behind the cupboard, water running on to the microwave, I had buckets and bowls setting on the floor, on the the bathroom,stool and on the cupboard. I rained all day. I emptied the rain gage at about 5 PM, we had 3.5 inches of rain.

I woke up at 5:30 in the morning, because my CPAP had quit, because I had no power. GREAT.

OK done complaining - it could have been worse at least I wasn't in a hurricane or have several inches of water on the floor.

Shonda and I went to see a movie Sunday, There was nothing elsed to do. We saw The Women, it was pretty good, but the critics didn't like it, I think probably because they are all men. We thought it was funny. I started working on my macrame chair, not very hard, a little tricky getting the first cords started, and the pattern on the back is a little difficult to count and doesn't look like much of a pattern at first.

I emptied the rain gauge at 6:00 PM there was another 5 inches.

When I called consumers abouut the power their projected reconnect time was Tuesday evening at 6 PM.

N0w for some better news, I had a Doctors appointment Monday morning, and a I have lost 10 pounds (since April) not a lot but it is a start, and I do feel better, with more energy, and more rested. I even took the dog for a walk when I got home tonight (Tuesday). Only 15 minutes, but it is better than nothing, but it was all I my back could manage.

The power came back on by 5:30 Monday. At least I didn't loose any of the food in the freezer like the last time we were without power.

Springport's homecoming is tonight (Friday) I don't know if I will go to the game, but I am going to the parade to campaign for the library millage for more information on that if you are interested see the library website

Labor Day Week-end continued

2008-09-04T09:32:00.002-04:00

After thinking about it for a couple of days, I decided I needed to add a couple of things about this camping trip that we will probably remember for years to come.

Charlie standing on the floating dock and Tom pulling him in.
Kathy using the paddles on the inflatable boat to maneuver the dock around the pond.
The frog that tried to eat a snake. I didn't see it and we have no pictures you will have to ask, Charlie or Michelle.
Tom floating around on the pond for a long time using the inflatable sides of a kiddie pool (the bottom had a big hole so they cut the sides off).
Little Benjamin toddling around falling down then having to crawl to something to pull himself up because he hasn't figured out how to stand up without some support.
Benjamin being so overly tired and overly stimulated, and not wanting to go to sleep getting so upset he was sobbing, and then throwing up all over daddy Ben. Papa (Tom) was the only who could finally calm him down.

Actually we might not have remembered them for years, but we will now that I have put it in writing and posted on the web for all the world to see.

Labor Day Week-end

2008-09-02T10:04:00.005-04:00

We used the camper for the first time this past week-end. We camped at my sister's property in Olivet. I know that sounds a little strange, but it is about 12 acres back off the road, they have built a pavilion, and although you can see a couple of back yards it feels more isolated.

This is a panoramic view of the campers taken from the hill near the pavilion

We saw several deer and 3 or 4 wild turkeys, although no rabbits or raccoons.
They have a pond with lots of little blue gill and bass, and some that are getting to be decent size. We even saw a blue heron fly into the pond, but it didn't stay more than a few seconds, too many dogs and kids.

Friday and Saturday was just family, including some of the dogs. My great nephew will be 11 months old next week and is toddling around and has a fascination for anything on wheels that makes noise. He particular likes tires, and they have to watch him like a hawk, because as most babies, he wants to see what they taste like.

My brother brought his dog Otis, who is about 14 years old and has arthritis in his hips and cannot hear very well. One day I watched him take a few steps, stop and do this have crouch lunge thing for a second or two, take a couple more steps and lunge again. I made the comment that it looked like he was doing exercises. (see the picture to the right).

Every camping trip or family vacation has to have something special to remember, this one was no exception. Sunday night, a lot of friends and extended family came for dinner. there was probably 30 people. There were a lot of people there who were dog people so they petted and played with both his dog and ours.

At some point in the afternoon Otis came up missing and without a huge announcement half of the people were looking for the dog. In the pond, in the "tall weed" in the briars, in the woods, and down the road. For about 15 minutes.

Then somebody notices that my brother-in-law's propane camp stove is in flames. He had left it on to burn off some of the grease and in the process of looking for the dog, forgot about it and the grease caught fire.

About 8 of us were trying to decided how to put out the fire before it burnt the pavilion down. We did get it turned off, but the grease was still burning. I had said don't use water it will just make the grease fire worse, they didn't listen, flames shot to within inches of the rafters. Somebody tried opening the lid that gave it more oxygen, same effect. They tried beating with a dry towel (yeah like that's going to work). My niece got a fire extinguisher from a camper, (out of date and no pressure) finally Charlie yelled but a wet towel over it. duh!!!! Sorry, don't have any pictures of the fire. (sorry no picture of the fire we were too busy trying to put it out)

OK, back to looking for the dog. Which we found about 20 yards from the campfire ring, lying in the weeds in the shade of a big tree. See the large tree behind
Charlie to the left of where he is setting, that's about where we found Otis.

Like I said every trip has to have something to remember.

Repairs, News (good and not so) and Horse Clinics.

2008-08-25T21:42:00.006-04:00

Well, I missed posting another week, I keep saying I am going to write ever week, but nothing seems to happen to write about.

Last week-end we decided we should check out the refrigerator in the camper before we took it anywhere to make sure that it worked. The electric worked, but the propane didn't. It looked like the flame was on, but when we unplugged it, the fame went out. Charlie took it someplace on Monday, we got it back today. It works!!! We plan on going to my sisters "lot" next week-end, Labor Day.

Shonda came into Jackson and had lunch me me on Thursday, I figured when she called me to have lunch something was up. There was. She told me she had a date that night, her first since she broke up with Brian. OK so she had a date, then she tells me he's 33, and what did I think about that. I said there is not much I can do about it, she is 21 and has to make her own decisions.
While we were on the way to lunch she also told me Charlie had flipped the tractor over on top of him that morning. The kid across the road was helping him tear down an old trailer and Charlie was trying to pull the roof off, it was heavier than he thought and the tractor went up and flipped. Luckily he was not hurt, a little sore but that's all. It could have been much worse.

Saturday we went to a horse clinic that Chris Cox was giving in Paw Paw. Chris has a TV show on RFD TV, his website is here. He uses a style that Charlie has found works well for him when he is training the horses. Those of you who don't know horses might not find this interesting but we did. Even me who doesn't ride or work with them.

We watched Cox, train 21 riders ( he says he used to train horses, now he trains people). I don't ride and I probably wouldn't get the technique right if I was out there on a horse, but I could tell when somebody was not doing something properly.

One of the riders said he had a 2 year old at home that he was having trouble with, every time he tried to ride it, she would buck for 4 or 5 minutes then they would be fine. Cox told him to go get the horse, he'd look at and tell him what he was dong wrong.

After he finished the clinic for the day they brought out this horse. The first thing he did was take the bridle off, (the rope around the horsed face with a lead rope) before he put the halter (the bridle with the bit and reins) on. the horse took off and they had to chase it for a couple of minutes. Cox told the guy the horse didn't respect him and didn't think the person was boss. Within 1/2 hour that guy was not only riding the horse, the horse was standing perfectly still and the rider was standing on his back. Amazing

His big thing is that the horse has to know you are the boss and has to respect you. He trains the horse by making it work then giving it "relief" as soon as he get results.

Lots of stuff-

2008-08-12T22:12:00.010-04:00

I can't believe it has been almost 2 months since I posted anything in this blog. We just do not have a lot going on in our household.

Let's see if I can remember every little thing that has been going on since I wrote to you last.

I went to the Dr. for a regular check up- and told him the CPAP was working OK, but I was still tired and had awful bags under my eyes, and was retaining fluid. He sent me to have a thyroid test done.

Yep- I have an sluggish thyroid. He has since increased it a little because it was still a little low after a couple of weeks.

So last week I woke up feeling dizzy, so I called his office they got me in that day. My blood pressure was up to 166 over something ( I can never remember the bottom number) Apparently a side effect of having a normal metabolism. He also told me to walk at least 15 minutes everyday. I haven't made the full 15 minutes yet, but I have started to park at the far end of the parking lot so I have to walk farther. I do feel much better, I can function well on 7 or 8 hours sleep, I used to sleep until 9 or 10 on weekends, and I think I look better.

I think I wrote about Charlie having a part-time job. He's working for the guy down the road, cutting trees. It started as part time, but after the storms we had a couple of months ago, he was working 50-60 hours a week. It has slowed down some but he is still working 40 hours a week, at least until yesterday, when he left because the “boss” flew off the handle for no reason. Charlie had threatened about 3 times before and finally had enough. Check back to see what happens.

He has also completed an arena for some of the local kids, and himself to train and practice various activities on their horses.

Charlie finally went to the doctor because his arm has been bothering him, he has to have carpal tunnel surgery on his left arm. (He had it on his right hand years ago, I think right after Shonda was born. That is scheduled for September 9^th.

Shonda's birthday is Friday, (the 15^th.) It is almost unbelievable that she will be 21. She is going to take a couple of online classes this semester so we bought her a second hand refurbished computer for her birthday.

For those of you that don't know, My cousin's husband died suddenly last week. He was only 53 years old. The funeral was huge. It is hard on the family when anyone dies but when it is so suddenly, and so young it is even more difficult. It always makes me want to reach out to my loved ones and let them know I am thinking about them and how I feel. So to all of you out there I'm thinking about you and hope you are all well and happy. Luv ya.

For years I have been saying I am too old and my back hurts to much to tent camp and sleep on the ground. Well Charlie mus have finally decided that he is too. He came home about 6 weeks ago and asked me if I thought we would use a camper if we had one. He saw one on his way to work. We went and looked at it, but after I checked the Internet and with the credit union, he was asking twice as much as it was worth.
We looked a couple of others, but they weren't in very good shape one a '98 and they was $1000.00 more, and the credit union would only loan about 2/3 of what they were asking. One we looked at was over 30 years old and they were asking $2,500 for it.
We drove back to check on the first one, (Charlie really liked it) but it had been sold. On the way home we passes one that had a for sale sign. So we turned around to look at it. It is a '94 but in really good shape, it is 26' and sleeps 4, it has a real bed, and a dinette table that can be taken out. They were asking less than the other 2 newer ones. I have been spending the last couple of evenings going through all of our camping stuff, and cleaning it up (I think it has been a couple of years since we used any of it)

I think that's all for now. I'll try to write more frequently. I thought I didn't have any thing to write about but this post suddenly seems a little long.

Birds nest

2008-06-15T17:20:00.008-04:00

Just thought I would post a picture of the robins' nest, while I think of it. There are 4 babies and I think they still have another 3 days to 7 days before they are old enough to fly, the first one had hatched on June 3 and the according to vegsource.com they are ready to fly in 15 to 20 days. It looks a little crowded in that nest, I'm not sure there will be enough room for them in 7 more days.

One year.

2008-06-14T21:10:00.004-04:00

It has been 11 days since I last posted, I had planned on posting last Sunday evening, but the power went out at 4:00 and I couldn't connect to the internet. I was off on Monday, and when I got back to work on Tuesday I wasn't able to get to it.

We finally got our power back at 2:30 AM Wednesday, Which meant not much sleep, because as you probably know, when the power comes, on things you didn't realize were on come on. Things like Bedroom lights and fans etc. I couldn't get back to sleep so I got up at 3:30 and began cleaning out the freezers and refrigerator. Everything in the freezer had thawed, luckily there wasn't much in there.

Charlie started helping out a guy down the road who has a tree removal business. It is supposed to be part time, but this week he has worked 4 11 or 12 hour days, and is going to work tomorrow. He didn't work today because he had a graduation open house he wanted to attend.

Here are some pictures of the robins. They were taken last week just before the rains came. '

I just realized it has been about a year since I started this blog. (I just checked, it has been exactly one year ago today).

Happy Father's Day to all the dads out there.

More later.

Robin's Nest Update

2008-06-03T14:34:00.008-04:00

When I posted the pictures of the robin's nest a couple of days ago, I didn't realize they were almost ready to hatch.

They look like little mice. On second thought more like tiny naked trolls with the little hair/feather tufts. I guess I have never seen baby wild bird, I've seen chickens, but never wild ones, and chickens have more feathers at birth.

We also have a nest in a cedar tree in the front yard. I thought those had hatched and flown a long time ago, but apparently not, as evidenced by this picture.

Our rhubarb has gone to seed, I never seem to get out there and pick it before it goes to seed, but it is rather pretty this way, but look at the size of the leaf compared to the chicken.

Pictures

2008-06-01T16:42:00.005-04:00

As I mentioned in the last post, we have a Robin's nest in a fence post. So I thought I would take a picture if it. The picture of the eggs didn't turn out real well, but here it is any way maybe I can get another one later

Nature at home - birds.

2008-05-30T22:41:00.004-04:00

As you regular readers may remember, Charlie finally got a pond dug a few months ago. See: http://jbetzblog.blogspot.com/2008/04/catching-up.html He has put in some small blue gills, and bass.
Since then we have seen a couple of ducks on it, a king fisher, trying to get some of the fish, http://identify.whatbird.com/obj/61/_/Belted_Kingfisher.aspx and some yellow warblers. http://identify.whatbird.com/obj/343/_/Yellow_Warbler.aspx. I don't know if the warblers are here because of the pond or we just never noticed them before.

I saw a hummingbird this evening, but not at the feeders,and I am not sure where it is nesting. One year we had a nest in the maple tree in the front yard.

A pair of robins have also built a nest on a fence post by the horse barn. it is only about 4 feet off the ground and has 4 blue eggs in it.

Kathy said she thought she saw an Oriole when they were here for Easter, Charlie has seen it, but I haven't yet this year.

We also have a couple of Bluebirds nesting.

About a year ago we found this really cool bird identification website; Whatbird.com. http://www.whatbird.com/ You can search by entering the name of a bird or it will help you figure out what kind of bird it is by choosing colors, size, beak shape, location etc. It even has a bird song feature so you can hear what the birds sound like.

I don't remember if I mentioned that we took the mare down to "visit her boyfriend" a couple of weeks ago, Charlie went down to pick her up yesterday so we should have another foal about this time next year. Here is a picture of the stallion.

Charlie put our other younger mare in with our stallion, we are not sure if that "worked" yet if not we will have them try again in a few weeks.

Vacation

2008-05-24T20:24:00.006-04:00

Well, it has been awhile, I just simply forget to write, because I lead such an exciting live. NOT!
Last week we went camping with my family. There are pictures of that trip on my nephew's blog at h ttp://www.simplyoutdoors.net/2008/05/22/camping-the-first-trip-of-the-year/

There were 11 people who camped and my one of my niece's in-laws came for supper on Saturday.

Michelle had the baby there, Benjamin is 7 months old, and they are so cute at that age, I forgot to take any pictures - AGAIN, but you can see some of them again on Arthur's blog at http://arthurandjenn.com/wordpress/?p=727

We had 3 campsites and our camping "gear ranged from tents, to pop-ups-to trailers, to mini-motor homes.

From Pokagon State Park we went to Redbanks Mississippi, to see Charlie's son Terry and his family.

We had a good time and as usual Charlie did a lot of things with the kids and came home with a little back ache, I don't think he's used to riding a bicycle about 5+ miles.

We hope to have them, or at least the three kids, come up sometime soon to see and ride the horses, and so we can show them around Michigan.

I took a few pictures, but I didn't get any good ones of Terry or Amy or Ruth. This is one of Logan age three, the great grandson, Sarah age 10, and Daniel in the background, age 14. Ruth is 12.

Passion Quilt

2008-05-02T14:54:00.002-04:00

I found this on blog that I read everyday, I would like all you at JDL to try this.

This is called a meme- it is kind of like a game of tag. One person starts it and tags several other people. They in turn answer the questions and tag someone else. I am not tagging anyone, but I think it is kind of neat and if anyone that reads this wants to try it or to comment please do so.

Here are the "rules"

Think about what you are passionate about teaching your students.
Post a picture from a source like FlickrCC or Flickr Creative Commons or make/take your own that captures what YOU are most passionate about for kids to learn about…and give your picture a short title.
Title your blog post “Meme: Passion Quilt” and link back to this blog entry.
Include links to 5 folks in your professional learning network or whom you follow on Twitter/Pownce.

Here are what some other people have done and said:

http://www.jasongriffey.net/wp/2008/04/27/connections-are-everything/
http://meredith.wolfwater.com/wordpress/index.php/2008/04/28/passion-quilt-share/
http://librarytrainer.com/2008/04/28/passion-quilt-meme/
http://tametheweb.com/2008/04/27/passion-quilt-from-helene/
http://tametheweb.com/2008/04/26/meme-passion-quilt-or-what-i-want-for-new-librarians/
http://heyjude.wordpress.com/2008/02/24/meme-passion-quilt/

Here is mine:
Behold the turtle. He makes progress only when he sticks his neck out" James Bryant Conant

Originally loaded by Marc Shandro http://www.flickr.com/photos/25411240@N00/756336236

It reminds me of a quote (actually several other quotes: (I have several of them on my bulletin board)

“We cannot become what we need to be by remaining what we are.” `- Max Depree

If you always do what you've always done you will always get what you always got -
source unknown.

In other words, no one is perfect, we always need to improve, and we can't do that by staying what we are. In order to improve you have to take a little risk. Sometimes it can be scary, but I think that most of the time the greatest rewards come at the greatest risk.

I am not tagging anyone but like I said if you would like to pass it along, please do so.

and please credit your sources.

2008-04-20T11:28:00.002-04:00

Six words, one sentence, a memoir.

I was looking at Youtube for the learning 2.0 blog I am creating at work and ran across this video.

Go here to see some responses to the video, then you try it. Send me the comments - your life six words right now. This could be interesting.

I'm headed up to Mt. Pleasant this week-end to appraise the state tournament maybe, I'll ask some of the kids for their response.

I had a long day yesterday ( Saturday) I appraised High School and Middle School teams from 7:30 AM to 5:45 PM. then stayed for the awards ceremony. Springport's structure team is going on to Global Finals in Knoxville, TN in May.

My six words: hmmm. Yesterday: Long day, awesome solutions, feeling proud.

Today: Great weather, Dirty house outside or in?

Spring Frog update

2008-04-14T11:12:00.003-04:00

We didn't hear any frogs yesterday or this morning- one down- one to go !!!!

Catching Up.

2008-04-12T15:51:00.008-04:00

Boy, It has been a month since I have posted. Where does, the time go?

I've had a lot of things going on at work.
The end of March I went to a Public Library Association conference in Minneapolis. I got there and had an afternoon off before the conference really started. So a friend and I took a bus tour of the cities.

There is a lot of art around the city, some peanuts sculpture, I didn't realize Charles Schultz was from Minneapolis, unfortuneatley the bus didn't stop so I could get any picutures of that. I was thinking that I did get a picture of the Mary Richards (Mary Tyler Moore) statue, but apparently I didn't because it is not on my camera.

We did visit the Mall of America (Yipee, shopping is one of my least favorite things to do) It is 4 levels of stores, with an aquarium and an amusement park. Most of it is the same stores, you can find at any mall, just more of them all in one place.

We, the Jackson District library employees, have had a rough couple of weeks. The parents of two employees died, not totally unexpected, but still sad, then the death of an employee (worked at the library for about 20 years) - totally unexpected - only 58 years old. She was a work and she wasn't feeling well, (actually hadn't felt well for a couple of weeks, had a bleeding ulcer, diabetes and had a heart attack a few years ago) at the end of the day she told another employee she was going to the hospital, where she died during the night. All three funerals were the same day. Then on Thursday another former long time employee died, she retired a couple of years ago after working at the library for 37 years.

Last week I got out cut some old plants out of the flower beds. Now we can see the daffodil plants. I trimmed the rose plants, I think I may have to replace them all, it doesn't look like there is any green on them, but we'll have to wait and see.

Charlie finally got his pond dug several weeks ago, he is hoping this will help keep water out of the barn, now he has to put in some drainage tile. Spread out the extra soil and he's planning on building a waterfall at one end.

For those of you keeping track we heard the frogs for the first time a couple of weeks ago (March 3o) and had heard them everyday since. according to dad and ed, we need to have two cold snaps or freezes before Spring is really here. It is cold and raining here today but we can still hear the frogs.

Oh, did anybody else see the giant human sling shot thing Charlie saw on Bill Engval's Country Fried Home Videos the other night. I missed it but, if you did too, or if you want to see it again check out Youtube. Anybody want to try it at the next family reunion????

View from Empire state Building

2008-03-11T18:34:00.002-04:00

View from Empire state Building
Originally uploaded by betzspt

Here is another picture from the Empire State building. I was trying out adding a picture to the blog from flickr. It works really well, very easy, just a click and type.

We're Back

2008-03-08T11:37:00.009-05:00

Here it is Saturday, We were in New York City for 5 days, (we spent half a day in the Airport)

A couple of mishaps to tell about:

First Shonda lost her driver’s license before we even left Detroit, She had it when we went through security, and put it in jeans pocket in case she needed it again. Just before we got on the plane, she checked her pockets and it was gone, We had stopped at a Starbucks and got a coffee, she went into a rest room. We walked at least ½ mile to our terminal (A2) the very end of the concourse.

Second, Are you ready for this- try not to laugh- Sunday afternoon, we started our tours, Ed and Shonda were walking just ahead of me, I caught my heel on the curb, took about 2 steps trying to get my balance and went down in the middle of the intersection. I had a huge bruise on one knee and must have caught my weight on my arm and jammed a shoulder. The shoulder is better, but now my whole leg lower leg is purple to yellow-green.

We saw Avenue Q on Sunday night, billed as Sesame Street for adults. One website billed it as Sesame Street meets South Park. I was doubtful, but got tickets at half price. It was hilarious. A musical, they had songs like, It sucks to be me, Everyone's a Little Bit Racists and The Internet is for Porn. You can see some of the videos on YouTube. These are from the British trip, so they are a little different but check this page for some other videos.

We went to the statue of Liberty, and Ellis Island, on Monday, the weather was beautiful. As we are walking through Battery Park to get to the Ferry, we spot a small statue of Liberty then it moved. Shonda started to take a picture and he motioned her over, draped an American flag over her shoulders, put a crown on her head and handed her a torch, and signaled for us to take a picture. Then he indicated that it would be $5.00. The picture didn’t turn out. On the way back out there were half a dozen statue people. We spent some time at the Statue, but did not go inside, we didn't realize we needed to get additional tickets in advance, but that's OK, we got some nice pictures outside. This is one of those things, you just don't realize the enormity until you see it in person.
We spent a little time at Ellis Island, but not since none of our ancestors came through there we really didn't spend much time.

We visited the Empire State Building, Again one of the things you can't get the real effect of until you are there. Shonda got some nice pictures, even thought it was a little hazy. We went to Macy’s I sat in the coffee shop while Ed and Shonda did Macy’s. My back is acting up, (so what’s new?) Shonda thought it was going to be different, she thought it was like a huge JC Penney's.

That evening we saw a play Ed wanted to see, a play put on by the Steppenwolf theater Company, August: Osage County , Steppenwolf is a theater company in Chicago where a lot of now famous people started. The play was good, kind of dark, the kind dark, but definitely makes you think. The kind of play Ed, likes.

Wednesday, Shonda and Ed went to Rockefeller Center and to see St. Patricks.
Wednesday afternoon we saw Wicked a really great show, but I will never watch The Wizard of Oz the same way again. If you ever get a chance be sure to see it. I wouldn't be surprised if they make the musical into a movie.

We had dinner at Broadway Joe’s. The menu said it was in the movie the FBI story with Jimmy Stewart and Shirley McLain was filmed coming down the stair way in Sweet Charity. I don't remember either one of those movies, so I am going to have to find the videos I guess.

On Thursday we went to the Metropolitan Art Museum, and walked through Central Park.

Our plane was supposed to leave NY at about 10:30 AM Friday Morning, but because of the weather, it didn't leave until almost 1:00 PM.

I have put some of the pictures on flickr. Search for betzspt New York City.

3-13-08 Notes: I have had a couple of people ask me if I saw Governor Spitzer while I was there. No. I didn't know anything about his scandal until I got back. I also didn't know anything about the Recruitment Center Bombing until I got up on Thursday morning, even though we were only a couple of blocks away.

23 technology things

2008-02-27T21:50:00.004-05:00

Last week I started a new training at work, and thought that some of you, might be interested in trying something new.

The purpose is to introduce the library staff to new technologies. Some of the employees are really afraid to try new things. So I borrowed an idea from some other libraries and started the Jackson District Library Learning 2.0 program.

Each week, I will post a new blog about a "new" technology thing. Each post will include some discovery resources and exercises.

If anybody is interested in looking at it go to the Jackson District Library, Learning 2.0 site.

You are free to follow along and try some of the new things, if you want.

Brain Pain Answers

2008-02-23T16:11:00.004-05:00

Here are the Answers to the Brain Pain Quiz I posted last week

26 Letters of the Alphabet

7 Days of the Week

1001 Arabian Nights

12 Signs of the Zodiac

54 Cards in A Deck with the Joker

9 Planets in the Solar System

88 Piano Keys

13 Stripes on the American Flag

32 Degrees Fahrenheit at which Water Freezes

18 Holes on a Golf Course

90 Degrees in a Right Angle

200 Dollars or Points for Passing Go in Monopoly

8 Sides on a Stop Sign

3 Blind Mice See How They Run

4 Quarts in a Gallon

24 Hours in a Day

1 Wheel on a Unicycle

5 Digits in a Zip Code

57 Heinz Varities

11 Players on a Football Team

1000 Words that a Picture is Worth

28 Days in February in a non Leap Year

64 Squares on a Checkerboard

40 Days and nights on the Great Flood

76 Trombones in the Big Parade

50 Ways to Leave Your Lover

99 Bottles of Beer on the Wall

60 Seconds in a Minute

1 Horn on a Unicorn

9 Justices on a Supreme Court

7 Brides for Seven Brothers

21 Dots on a Die

7 Wonders of the Ancient World

15 Men on a Dead Mans Chest

Let us know how many you got correct, by commenting below.

Brain Pain

2008-02-15T09:57:00.003-05:00

My siblings and I did something like this when we were kids, but when somebody broght this to work I couldn't remember what any of them were. I thought I would share it with you- see how many you can figure out. I will post the answers next week.

This is a test to gauge your mental flexibility and creativity, and jus tfor fun- can you figure out what words the letters in each of the phrases below stand for?
Hint sometimes it helps if you do the easy ones first- then put it down for a while the answers may pop into you head at unexpected moments.

Example: 16 = O in a P Answer: 16 Ounces in a Pound

26 = L of the A
7 = D of the W
1001= AN
12 = S of the Z
54 = C in a D (with J)
9 = P in the SS
88 = PK
13 S on the AF
32 = DF at which WF
18 = H on a GC
90 = D in a RA
200 = P for PG in M
(D for PG in M)
8 = S on a SS
3 = BM (SHTR)
4 = Q in a G
24 = H in a D
1 = W on a U
5 = D in a ZC
57 = HV
11 = P on a FBT
1000 = W that a P is W
28= D in F in a LY
64 = S on a CB
40 = D and N on the GF
76 = T in the BP
50 = W to LYL
99 = B of B on the W
60= S in an M
1 = H on a U
9 = J on a SC
7 = B for SB
21 = D on a D
7 = W of the AW
15 = M on a DMC

The 60's continues

2008-02-08T06:25:00.000-05:00

This is the picture I wanted to have with the previous post, but had to wait until I got home to find it. I know my immediate family will remember these lovely fashion statements, but now that I am posting it I notice that it is not offically the '60s, it is really 1959. Oh well close enough.

Memories -the sixtes.

2008-02-07T08:55:00.000-05:00

I don't have a lot of time, I'm at work, but I did want you all to see this. It is kind of cool and has great music . Great Memories- the sixties
Like it says, if it is before your time just set back and enjoy.

I have a great picture at home that I was going to but I apparently don't have it here so I will post it later.

Some of you may remember this clothing fad though.

2008-01-25T10:14:00.000-05:00

Well it has been almost 2 weeks, since you have heard from me. I keep promising that I am going to post at least once a week, but our lives are so hectic, I cannot find the time- NOT!! The truth is I have trouble finding things to write about.

I did get Charlie to go to a movie last week. We saw The Bucket List with Jack Nicholson and Morgan Freeman. Good movie! Charlie even said it was enjoyable. Somebody told me that the critics didn’t like it, but I don’t usually listen to movie critics anyway, or listen to any critics too much as far as that goes. The reviews that I have read since the movie are good. (See reviews at Internet Movie Database, IMBD.)

We haven’t been going to many High School Basketball games this year. Since they changed the girls games to winter, the scheduling is really screwy, the girls are having a fairly good season, but the boys have yet to win a game, so those are no fun to watch.

I have been using the CPAP for a couple of weeks now. Like I said before, it takes some getting used to. For several days I woke up with my eyes really puffy, eyelids and huge bags. I apparently had it too tight around my head. Now I wake up because it is a little too loose, when I change position it shifts and the air leaks, making noise that wakes me up. I do feel much better though. I have even been able to get up in the morning to ride the exercise bike before I go to work. I don’t feel like I need to take a nap mid afternoon, and the dark circles I have ALWAYS had around my eyes are noticeably lighter. I have a little more energy.

UPCOMING EVENTS:
Destination ImagiNation regional tournament- March 1- I will be judging, this year.
March 2 Ed, Shonda and I will be visiting NY, NY. ( I think there are probably better times weather wise, but that is Shonda's Spring Break)
March 25, I will be attending a library conference in Minneapolis, Minnesota (yippee Minnesota in March)

Try to stay warm. ^i^

Dresses, CPAP

2008-01-14T09:02:00.000-05:00

I just realized that it has been 2 weeks since I have written, where does the time go?

Actually not too much happening here.

Shonada got a call last week from her friend, Kylie. She is is getting married and one of the girls she had asked to be in the wedding backed out, so she asked Shonda. Shonda said she would and last week we went, to look at dresses, somewhere in that process, Shonda became the maid of honor.
Kylie saw a dress she thought she liked, but wanted to think about it. She found dresses she wanted for the brides maids, (her first choice of colors were John Deere Green or Mint green. She decided on "Clover" and "Honeydew" The Brides Maids will look like this (the sash and slip are a little more green than the look in the picture) The Maid of Honor will be the reverse.
The wedding was originally supposed to be in September, but they have had to change it to June, 7th, so Kylie is a little behind in the planning.

On the way home last week Shonda was on her cell phone calling the other Brides Maids and told them they all needed to meet this Sunday and go try on dresses.
Last week, Wednesday, Shonda and Kylie got together, and told Kylie, she needed to get things done. They got a canopy for the ceremony, it is going to be outside a a light house. A reception hall, a caterer and invitations picked out. They did have to change the date to June 21st, the reception hall they wanted was open all summer except June 7th.

This week the girls all met at our house, to go try on dresses, and Shonda told Kylie they were not coming home until she got her wedding dress. they all got theirs ordered. They even had the dress Kylie wanted in her size, so she got to take it home yesterday.

I finally got my CPAP (Continuous Positive Airway Pressure) machine, Wednesday for the sleep apnea. It does help, but it is also taking some getting used to. I wake up in the middle of the night, but only once instead of the several times an hour I apparently was before, without realizing it and Charlie sleeps better because I am not snoring. This is what it looks like. Lovely, don't you think?

Happy New Year

2008-01-01T11:39:00.000-05:00

We did nothing last night, Charlie didn't even stay up long enough to wish me happy new year. He was out before 9:00. I did manage to see the ball drop and call Shonda and wish her a happy new year.

We woke up this morning to more than 4 inches of snow. I managed to go out and get some pictures before there were too many tracks, even before breakfast. See what happens when you go to bed so early.

Irish toast
In the New Year, may your right hand always be stretched out in friendship, never in want.

Christmas at Our House.

2007-12-29T10:14:00.000-05:00

Christmas at our house- We all got lots of good stuff, I got a Garmin GPS for the car, Charlie got a new staple gun, We went shopping together, and got them at the same time, We were looking for something for Ben, and Charlie said - Oh I need one of these.

I said do you need it before Christmas, if not put it in the cart I will wrap it and put it under the tree.
He already knew he wanted to get me the GPS, so picked it out and we paid for it.

Christmas Day, as I was about to open my gift I said "Gee I wonder what this is" and he looked at me funny, I said it is from you, still no glue, I opened it and he said oooh.

He opened his and I something like Gee, I hope that is what you wanted, since you picked it out, He said, I did? I guess he's right he needs to remember to take his ginkgo biloba pills or something :-) He also got a professional picture of Shonda (and Anna)

I also got a magic bullet blender and some new mixing bowls from Shonda,

Shonda got a new coat and tickets to the Taylor Swift Concert at the Wharton Center in January.

Shonda went to Kentucky on Christmas Day evening, with Brian's family to spend time with Brian's mom's side of the family. I think they are planning on coming back today.

You may remember I told you a couple of posts ago that I was scheduled to go to the sleep clinic.
I was not scheduled to spend the night at the sleep disorder clinic until January 28th, but they had a cancellation and asked me if I could come in called me on Wednesday December 26th.

The Dr. had told me they would do it in two nights: the first night they would watch me sleep with out the apparatus, the second night, which was already scheduled for February , they would put me in the apparatus and compare sleep patterns etc.

They wired me up and I went to bed about 10:30. They came in at one point, I'm guessing about midnight, and put an oxygen tube in my nose, and asked me to sleep on my back, I always sleep on my side. At the initial consultation they asked all kinds of questions, one was, have you ever woke up thinking you were suffocating, at the time I said no. Now I can see why they asked that question, there were about three times, I could not get a breath. They finally told me I could get in a comfortable position.

At about 3:00 AM they came in and put me on the CPAP (Continuous Positive Air Pressure) machine. I slept until about 7, and woke up by myself. So I had about 4 hours of uninterrupted sleep and felt better than the previous day when I got 8 hours. I felt more rested and nothing hurt.

So somebody is supposed to call me to set me up with a CPAP machine so I can use it for a few weeks before I see the Dr. again on February 11th.

Lynn told me that there is some indication that the sleep apnea can contribute to being overweight instead of the reverse like they have thought for many years. He had a patient that weighed over 300 pounds, and year after being treated for Sleep Apnea had lost 100 pounds, without going on a diet. He just didn't feel like eating, and had more energy.

I hope it makes me feel better, I am tired of being tired all the time.

Exchange Student Update

2007-12-23T23:47:00.000-05:00

Charlie talked to our Area Rep from YFU today to find out how to get Anna-Lena's Christmas Gifts to her.
Yesterday afternoon, when Anna was taken to a temporary home, she of course pouted all the way there. When they got there they placed a call to the D.R. who spent 20 minutes on the phone telling her how things were going to happen-in know uncertain terms, including that she is to have no contact with PWSRN. Anna indicated that she understood. They hung up the phone and Anna asked if she would be able to spend Christmas with PWSRN. She is determined to have things her own way.

Family Christmas

2007-12-23T11:58:00.001-05:00

We had the Choate family Christmas at the Potawatomi Inn, in Pokgaon State Park, near Fremont, Indiana, on Saturday evening.

We had a good time, got lots of nice things the “guys” and Jennifer and Shonda went on the toboggan run I don’t have any pictures though will someone send me some? Here are some of the pictures I do have. These are the ones, I used to finish up the scrapbook Kathy started for me.

A Very Rough Week

2007-12-23T10:31:00.000-05:00

It has been a rough week. As you know if you have been reading this blog, Anna-Lena has not been happy. She has confided that to other people who, instead of telling a teenager

that she needs to listen to her parents,
that parents know what is best for their child,
or yes every child gets angry at their parent and they will work things out if they talk about it.
Or come and talk to us about their concerns,

At least two people people called the YFU office and told them Anna was unhappy and who knows what else, one Person, Who Shall Remain Nameless, filled out an application to have Anna live with them. Anna wanted to go stay with PWSRN, and was told, by YFU that would not be possible.

Anna doesn’t see that PWSRN has done anything wrong, even though we tried to tell her it is like calling the government and asking them to take a child away from their parents.

It was beginning to effect her health. she was having stomach pains, and one afternoon the school called, Charlie took her to the emergency room because they were so bad.

Anna met some kids from Holt and asked if she could transfer to Holt. Charlie told her it probably was not possible, for several reasons, not the least of which was that there is not bus that runs from here to Holt, a 30 mile trip one way, She really really wanted to find out so he told her he would check with the school and YFU (both said no by the way). She even had some check to see what busses ran from here to Holt.

We were asked to take her to a counselor last Sunday- the only one available was in Fenton, we drove there and back in the middle of the blizzard and saw several cars and a Semi truck in the ditch. It should have been a trip of a little over an hour and it took 3 hours

The counselor asked what we would all like from this “experience: What Anna said what she wanted was for me to spend more time with her, do more things with her, and that Charlie not be so strict, let her go to see who ever she wanted when ever she wanted. She thought it was too controlling to want to know where she was who she was with, how she was getting there and back and what time she would be home.

The counselor recommended that we all compromise, now that things were out in the open, what Anna expected what we expected. etc. That we try it for another 3-4 weeks and see what happens.

So for two days things seemed to be a little better. Then on Tuesday evening we got a phone call from one individual who told Charlie he was acting like he did not trust their family and that the way he treated Anna was disturbing and inappropriate

Before anyone else went to YFU with these accusations, Charlie called the District Rep and them and told them about it.
The D.R. Call Anna and talked to her, talked to Charlie and me.

Any way after several phone calls, and Anna telling us that the D.R told her something different that what was being told to us, We were told she would be moved, she could stay through Christmas until they found another family.
So she went to school yesterday, told them she was going to have to move, at least one teacher called YFU. Said she couldn’t take her but recommended someone else, All without talking to us again.
We had a huge emotional mess in the evening, talking to the D.R. Anna sobbing.
The D.R. Finally told us that every time she talked to Anna, PWSRN came up and Anna asked why she could stay with her again

She was sick, Friday evening, I heard her vomiting, she said she had an upset stomach.

She was telling us she didn’t want to leave she would miss her friends (the ones that she was so unhappy with last week) When I asked her if she wanted to stay in our home she refused to even answer.
She stayed at a friends home last night, the mother, another host mother, called the D.R, 3 times, again without talking to us.

In the end, Anna was moved Saturday afternoon, we are not sure what will happen, if she will be moved and stay on program, or go home to Germany. but she will not be coming back to Peters Road or to Springport. This has been very rough on us, especially for Charlie.

In the middle of all of this, I had a Doctor’s appointment, just a semi-annual Blood Pressure check, , He told me I looked awful. I told him I was really tired, and Charlie couldn’t sleep because I snore so loudly. He sent me to the sleep clinic for a consultation. They think I may have sleep apnea, and I have to go in the end of January so they can watch me sleep. Apparently, this is fairly easy to correct and can really make a difference in the way someone feels, when they get a good nights sleep.