Florida

Accompanied Sarah to FL for grad school interview! Fabulous results: she accepted a grad school slot for nurse anesthetist: 100 apps / 50 qualified / 17 called to interview / 14 positions awarded :) Wonderful validation of her nursing experience as well as personal communication skills. Rigorous interview process w successful outcome.

Will post pics for last two posts soon.

Flying back from Fl via Chicago to INDIANAPOLIS

Seems like a formidable yet fulfilling year ahead of me. Interesting things ahead.

Thinking about a book

Looking back at my life and how I would have acted differently if I had broken free of current restrictions: societal rules, family expectations, gender limits, geographical knowledge...hm. Will continue with musings...

Julie/Julia Dinner a Success

What fun! Great group to see the film with me. Loved it when the audience laughed out loud at both Julie and Julia. Today just saw an old Julia Child cooking video on TV. What a hoot. Streep was right on...nailed this one.

Pics from our boeuf bourginon dinner coming soon. Great wine and lots of delicious food ending with a Charlotte Markalof.

Wedding - Anna's fitting

What a great day! Yesterday, Anna and one of her bridesmaids, Ashley, met at the bridal shop to try on dresses. Anna looked exquisite. Adding a layered slip added just enough grandness to the skirt half - wow. Bought the belt to finish off the dress. Must remember needle nose pliers for the hooks to keep them closed...who knew tools would be needed to dress her????

Can't wait to post pics of the dress but must wait until the wedding.

OMG - Love my Kindle :)

Reading the lastest New Yorker as well as My Life in France AND anxious to start a reread of The Grapes of Wrath. I think I've mastered the highlighting, bookmarking, and note writing.... Plan is to secure a Lilly Teacher Creativity Grant this fall for next summer and spend weeks in Julia and Paul Child's France WITH cooking classes at the Cordon Bleu....best laid plans ... let's hope.

Ordered my Kindle2

I feel like a kid at Christmas! My Kindle - loaded with some goodies like Grapes of Wrath, Life in France,, , New Yorker, just can't wait.

Okay, great idea.... I have read The Sharper the Knife the Less you Cry, Julie/Julia, For Water Like Chocolate, Mastering the Art of French Cooking, and waiting on My Life in France....so I invited a group of friends - all women - to watch the movie August 7th and then to come over for a Julia Child dinner a la wine and conversation. Can't wait!!!! OMG! What fun!

Wedding, wedding, wedding

Wow! My daughter is getting married to a wonderful young man. They have been engaged for 4+ years...odd in these times and happily planning their wedding. Everything she has done is creating a wonderful wedding to be. Now the showers begin and I HAVE TO FIND A DRESS TO WEAR! Tomorrow I'm off to search. I helped my best friend find hers...now its my turn. I'll post a pic of the dress I think I'll wear. The wedding is in Sept so I'm going for a rust colored dress...was looking at short...now long. Such a beautiful day this will be...all our children will be there...friends, family, love, and memories.

Oh, and after 28 years of marriage we have decided to buy wedding rings...hippie remnants...just didn't need the glitter of gold an diamonds. ...so we are buying gold bands and I'm putting the diamond chip [actually according to the jeweler we're beziling the diamond in to the top of the band. David gave me the diamond when we had our fourth child and I seemed to think I should have something to wear on my ring finger as I paraded four children born between 1982 and 1987....]I'll post pics when we finalize the deal...hopefully in time to wear at our daughter's wedding.

Heading out w Wedding Planner

Anna and I are heading out to meet our wedding planner at the reception site and then on to the church. We'll connect with Tom Costello at Little Flower. Boy, that takes me back to a time when the children were little: 1st communion, baptisms -Anna and Zach -, grade school Christmas programs and graduations from 8th grade...ohhhh and kickball games. David and I loved coaching the girls' teams and watching them. Sweet moments in life.

Heading to Daytona for AP Reading - 3rd time :)

Looking forward to going to the reading. Taking pot luck on roomates this year...crossing my fingers. Takes me about two days to handle the pressure....what a great opportunity though.

Hoping to begin using a Kindle 2.0 before I go. Great way to read Steinbeck's novel [Grapes of Wrath]... this is my year to return to my creative self with more deep sea diving into activities and work for students. Not a snorkel year...

Been lost in minutia this past year as dept chair...book adoption...arrrrrrrg. I think we'll look at Kindles instead of books for next time...hm. Kids could buy outside reading books for $9.99 or just read from Gutenberg library.

Great Day!

Finally decided on The Grapes of Wrath as summer reading for AP Language and Composition. I'm incorporating Kelly Gallagher's ideas from Deeper Reading. Started a Facebook page and will have students create a facebook page for a character in the novel. Gotta go READ!

Frost Nixon

I had forgotten that moment in my life when I watched Nixon actually admit to letting the American people down...as portrayed in the Frost/Nixon movie. Moving...

French Cooking

Zach [21] was home from college, and we decided to make beef bourgiugnon from Mastering the Art of French Cooking like Julie Powell did for her blog / book. Success! We had two pounds of beef stew meat to begin. Zach loves to eat and has a healthy interest in cooking... soooo we assembled the ingredients: bacon, wine [Shiraz], olive oil, slotted spoon [absolutely vital], 1 carrot, 1 onion, salt, thyme, tomato paste, pepper, bit o flour, beef stock, bay leaf, small red onions [didn't have the white pearl ones and I loved the red ones], fresh bella baby mushrooms. The entire process took us about 3 hours with the result being wonderfully rich and tender. Loved the dark sauce ...did the whole sieve and scraping off of fat.... Sent Zach back to school with three meals and some frozen beef patties for the George Forman....Pic is actually of Zach making pecan pie.Mmmmm good.