Museum Docent..... What????

For any of you that don't know yet, I am currently a Volunteer (or Docent as I was called the last time I was there) at the Museum of Science and Industry. I've been volunteering since November of last year. It is turning out to be a perfect outlet for all of the useless knowledge crammed into my melon, and anyone that knows me knows that that is alot!

I decided to take some pictures of the cool things that I have to pass to get to my area in the Imaging Lab and of some of the things that I use on my Science Connections cart. I pass the Race Cars Exhibit on my way to the Imaging Lab.

I pass the 1914 Ford Model T, 1929 Rolls-Royce New Phaeton, 1930 Franklin Pirate Phaeton, and the 1971 Aston Martin Lagonda Limited. All pretty amazing automobiles if you ask me.

My area of "expertise" is Microscopy, or microscopes. On the cart I have (usually) 6 20X dissection microscopes.

This is my cart from a distance and up close. Since our microscopes don't have a platform light, one of the other volunteers put together this neat set up. Most people ask how the light set up works and how the Altoids power the lights and I usually tell them "Well, they are curiously strong mints." Then I tell them to open the tin to see the battery set up.

The first thing I do is help people get the hang of finding what they are trying to look at and using the focusing knobs by asking if they can find Lincoln on the back of the penny. Yes, he's there if you know where to look.

Go ahead get a penny...... now look at the back right in the center of the Lincoln Memorial you can see him sitting there with the naked eye. Under the microscope you can see him a little more clearly. Then if they are still interested we move on to some other slides. We have bee parts, butterfly wings, dot matrix color printing, sand, differnt kinds of cloth... the list goes on. It's really pretty cool.

The Mayonnaise Jar

I got this from a friend of mine and I thought it was worth sharing.

When things in your life seem almost too much to handle,

When 24 hours in a day is not enough; remember the mayonnaise jar and 2 cups of coffee.

A professor stood before his philosophy classand had some items in front of him.

When the class began, wordlessly, he picked up a very large and empty mayonnaise jar and start to fill it with golf balls.

He then asked the students if the jar was full.

They agreed that it was.

The professor then picked up a box of pebbles and pouredit into the jar.

He shook the jar lightly.

The pebbles rolled into the open areas between the golf balls.

He then asked the students again if the jar was full.

They agreed it was.

The professor next picked up a box of sand and poured it into the jar.

Of course, the sand filled up everything else.

He asked once more if the jar was full.

The students responded with an unanimous 'yes.'

The professor then produced two cups of coffee from under the table and poured the entire contents into the jar, effectively filling the empty space between the sand.

The students laughed.

'Now,' said the professor, as the laughter subsided,'I want you to recognize that this jar represents your life.

The golf balls are the important things - God, family,children, health, friends, and favorite passions.

Things that if everything else was lost and only they remained, your life would still be full.

The pebbles are the things that matter like your job, house, and car.

The sand is everything else -- The small stuff.

If you put the sand into the jar first,' he continued,'there is no room for the pebbles or the golf balls.

The same goes for life.

If you spend all your time and energy on the small stuff, You will never have room for the things that are important to you.

So... Pay attention to the things that are critical to your happiness.

Play with your children.

Take time to get medical checkups.

Take your partner out to dinner.

There will always be time to clean the house and fix the dripping tap.

'Take care of the golf balls first -- The things that really matter.

Set your priorities.

The rest is just sand.

One of the students raised her hand and inquired what the coffee represented.

The professor smiled.

'I'm glad you asked'.

It just goes to show you that no matter how full your life may seem, there's always room for a couple of cups of coffee with a friend.

New Year, New Blog

OK, so it's not really a new blog, I've just decided the change a few things. I have decided that I'm not going to warn you if there is knitting content. It's my blog and I am very proud of the projects I complete and I am excited about them when I finish them, so I'm going to make sure you all see them.

So let's start with the Christmas goodies. The boys and I put together a gingerbread house. Well I put it together and they got to decorate it. It turned out kinda cute.




At Stitch n Bitch we had a gift swap. I made out pretty good with a fabulous skein of sock yarn. And at the Christmas party for work I got two more skeins of really nice sock yarn. It's really awesome that my co-workers know me so well.





The boys got LOTS of LEGOs for Christmas and they couldn't be happpier! Deaglan got a scooter from Santa, Padric got a toy helicoper, and Joseph got..... a guitar. He loves learning to play. Here he is with my sister's beau, Shane.

Shane agreed to help Joe learn how to play.


After Christmas we decided to go to the Museum of Science and industry, aka: the Choo Choo Museum, Padric's favorite place. He only looks tiny inside the big tractor wheel.



In case you didn't already know I'm a volunteer there. I man microscopy Science Connection Carts. I get to teach kids (young and old) about microscopes. It's pretty cool. My spot is past the Whispering Gallery in the Imaging Lab. I volunteer 2 Sundays a month.


Nana and Papa gave the boys some awesome Lego sets and a fill a box at the Lego store. They crammed those things! Here's the "boat" Chris made for Padric out of the Legos they filled the box with.


I didn't go with them to the Lego store. Nope I went on a Knitting Fieldtrip to Marengo, Illinois to the most magical place in the world (so far), The Fold! It's a yarn shop. I bought the most beautiful light grey yarn for a sweater I'll be knitting for my sister and a skein of Mountain Colors sock yarn for myself, because you can't have enough sock yarn (4 skeins since the middle of December...... that'll make 3 pairs of socks, I'll have toasty toes!) Since I have the minivan we drove my car for the field trip. Well I had to do something with all the car seats. I think it's the new Honda Family concept car.

I just sent this scarf to the Middle East to a friend in the military. That's Shane again, he's such a sport to model it for me!

And I am currently working on a scarf for a friend of mine. I love the colors. He asked that it be striped, unfortunately for me he's picky and wanted the stripes lenghtwise. It will be gorgeous when I'm finished. I might have to keep it though!



Ricky (Padric) loves building with his legos. He built 6 "puppies". Pretty good for a 3 year old. He then proceeded to line them up and jump them Evil Kenevil style.

And last night the Sullivan's rented out the outdoor ice rink here in Evergreen Park and had the whole clan out for a night on the ice. I stayed home with Ricky while Chris took Joe and Deg. Chris didn't get the whole action shot but, I'm sure you can figure out what happened next.



Lastly, I just needed to show you all how big the boys are getting. Joe is big enough to wash dishes by himself, and Deg and Ricky, well they're just getting big.



I hope I haven't bored you all to tears, and I hope this finds you all well.

Bear

As Christmas quickly approaches, we've got our tree up, presents bought, and spirits are bright. But, I was in a pretty prickly mood this morning and I was yelling at all the boys to pick up their things. I yelled "We have a closet, use it!" and Deaglan sitting on the couch playing his DS simply said, "We paid alotta money for that closet." All I could do was laugh.

F-I-R-E spells Free!

Let me set the stage....

Back in May we decided to become members at The Museum of Science and Industry (MSI or the Choo-Choo Museum if your talking to Ricky). On the day we became members we had a great time, the boys pushed every button they could find, including the emergency button by the elevators (thank you Deaglan).

Fast forward to today.

I was 6 degrees of stupid today. The boys had a dentist appointment this evening at 4. I decided to take Deaglan out of school early. The Kindergarten program he's in is "full-day" in the sense that he's there all day. Kindergarten is only from 8:30 - 11:45, then he goes to lunch with the 1st & 2nd graders and hangs out with them for the rest of the afternoon. He's benefiting from being with them but anyway... This morning I decided I was going to pick him up at 2:30 so I could be home to get Joe and then we'd go to the dentist. Then I had a better idea; pick him up at 11:45 then I could be done driving for a little while and Ricky could have his nap at close to his normal time of 12:30. Brilliant! Deaglan's school is selling coupon books for Carson's one day sale on November 14th (drop me a message if you want one, they're $5) and the school sets up times that the classes can go on mini field trips to Carson's and sell them. Deaglan's teacher sent home a note last week asking if he could go (I say note because there's only 3 kids in his class so no real permission slips need to be used if I give my written permission). I totally forgot about the mini trip, called school told them I'd be there at 11:45. When I got there his teacher had everybody with her and it dawned on me that they were going. So I let him go, and told her I'd be back when the got back at 2. Mind you I live in Evergreen Park and the school is in Tinley Park, for those of you who don't have any idea what I'm talking about, it's 15 miles one way. (It takes me 40 minutes to get him to school) Padric and I left the school at 11:50, ran an errand but made it home by 12:45. I had just enough time to put something on T.V. for Padric and take a shower before we had to leave to get Deaglan (again). Padric fell asleep in the van on the way there. I got out to get Deg and I was told that he sold 3 more books making a total of 10 so far, Yay Bear! She looked at me an then told me that he also pulled the fire alarm. She and the security guard saw him do it. He had to announce over the intercom that there was no emergency it was an accident and the fire department had to come and turn it off. I wanted to crawl into the nearest crack in the asphalt!

When we got in the van I asked him why he pulled the fire alarm, he said "I thought it said Free." I then proceeded to explain to him that FIRE spells fire. "But mommy, it started with an F and ended with an E it said FREE." "No baby, FIRE spells fire." "oh, Okay mommy".

Padric woke up when we got to Joe's school. We stopped home and I let Deaglan change his clothes (he wears a uniform) and we went to the dentist. I thought I had everything under control. I had Joe do his homework while we waited, he and Deaglan had their DS game systems and I let Padric watch Dora on my phone. Unfortunately the dentist's hygienist had to step out and didn't come back, so our 4 o'clock appointment didn't end until 6 o'clock.

Padric sat in the chair and let the dentist look in his mouth, he did just fine.

Joe wanted to be a good example and went first. He hates the dentist. He has a very weak gag reflex and gags very easily. So he spent most of his time gagging but he didn't cry or fight.

Deaglan on the other hand screamed, kicked and cried the whole time. When he got done he ran out into the waiting room to Chris (who had to work and met us there). Chris asked him what was wrong, did he get attacked? Deaglan answered "yes! Mr. Slurpee attacked me! (the thing that sucks the spit out of your mouth at the dentist)

In the van on the way home (I drove Chris's car home), Chris asked Deaglan why he pulled the fire alarm. "Because I thought it said free and I wanted everyone to have everything for free."

Chris told me that in the van on the way to dinner after I dropped his car at home. I asked Deaglan if he'd told his teacher and he said "No, she didn't ask me, she didn't want to know why I did it."

When we got home it was already 8 o'clock, bedtime. Joe and Deaglan both needed showers. "OK Deg go take a shower." "But what about my homework?" "What homework?" "From Friday when we went to the Dr." "Why didn't you tell me about it earlier? You could've done it at the dentist like Joey?" "I thought you knew." So Joe took a shower while Deaglan connected the dots to make a Tee-pee and then colored it. Gotta love kindergarten homework.

And that was just today. Anyone want to give predictions for tomorrow?

A Whole Year!

It's hard to believe that I've been doing this for a year now. I'll admit I haven't been as consistent as I wanted to but all said and done, I'm pretty pleased with myself. It's really amazing to look back at the pictures of the boys I posted last year and see how much they've grown. (Go ahead, look at older posts, I'll wait)



I just wanted to say that I hope that this has been helpful to the family we don't see or talk to on a regular basis. Feel free to leave a comment at the bottom of the post where it says "comment". I'll post more as it happens.

A Quick Update

We are all doing well, getting back into the routine of school and homework.

Deaglan is learning to read small 3 letter words. He'll be really reading by Christmas.

Joey is doing well in school, he's easily distracted by a good book though. Padric is well, just getting bigger and growing up right before our eyes. It's sad to see him getting so big but exciting at the same time. He's getting so independent and opinionated.