What's a Nice Girl Like You - Doing in Des Moines?

Off the Fence

2012-06-08T16:49:00.001-06:00

I was really on the fence regarding this movie. I knew the previews were good, but just wasn't sure. Bottom line...loved it. VERY British and charming!

I Will Not Be Sucked In, I Will Not Be Sucked In......

2012-06-06T08:20:00.000-06:00

So.....what's the harm of a Pack List? Nothing, because I love travel and also love the planning and getting ready to go! But........

This picture is from Pinterest and I fear another step in my addictive behavior! My friend, Kay, posted some of her pictures on Facebook this morning, saying that she had surcumbed to her promise NOT to be involved with it.

With that post, it reminded me that I was issued an "invitation" to join Pinterest, but I had deleted it for my own safety. Now, I have re-requested an invitation just to put myself even further down the road to distraction. I have no willpower. That has been well established.
Oh, and should I also mention that I am now doing Words with Friends? I'm screwed. :(

Hello Einstein!

2012-06-05T08:40:00.001-06:00

I went to Illinois on May 24 and had a terrific time! Visited my only living relative, Cousin Laurie and her husband, Brad, as well as many, many friends throughout northern Illinois.

I so love pets - here's Laurie's fine dog - Einstein. He's only 6 months - perspective here doesn't really show how BIG he is! A mix of Standard Poodle and "something" else. I think that the "something" is usually crossed with a smaller breed of poodle, but this guy is a biggie!

I tried to relate Einstein's crazy behavior to the fact that he's a puppy - but he was one energetic guy! Have no idea how he just stopped and posed for this picture, but he did! :))

If I lived here........

2012-05-19T12:49:00.001-06:00

If I lived here....and if I did this......I would not feel frustrated that my car would not start this morning!

Downside:

I did, but didn't listen to the man who checked my battery a month ago. He said that it "measured" "low" and that I should get it replaced.

Upside:

1. I found someone to come with a new battery AND who knows how to "override" an after market alarm system.

and

2. That I kept all car-related stuff so that would remember that I needed said override.

and

3. While waiting for that miracle-man to come for the car, I have been tearing around (nerves) doing things to get ready to go away later this week!

Thought this was cute!

2012-05-04T19:47:00.002-06:00

Let's read TWO!

2012-05-04T17:52:00.000-06:00

Second in a trilogy by Veronica Roth........this one came out pretty quickly after the first.

Found a softback version at Savers in the children's section. Looked it up.....there are EIGHT of these babies!!

Reading both books with my Kindle app on my iPad.

Read on, Sister!

2012-05-04T17:02:00.000-06:00

Good old Nancy Drew here!

I so loved her and still like to look back and remember that I couldn't get enough of these books!

But, now I have moved on to so many other genres.

Currently crazy for fantasy, science fiction (heavy on the fantasy) and end of the world books, hopefully in a series.

http://www.fantasticfiction.co.uk/

This is my favorite site for getting every book in a series and their exact order.

Here's A POSITIVE for "The BIG Korea Return"......

2012-04-27T21:03:00.000-06:00

It's CANDY and UNDERWEAR sold under a tent, across the driveway from Baskin Robbins!

Cats ARE Always Good!

2012-04-27T20:54:00.001-06:00

Just spending time indulging myself with cat pictures.......The biggest CON on my "maybe going back to Korea" list....no.cats. :(

Back At "It"........

2012-04-27T20:35:00.003-06:00

Hey....I'm back at ye ole blog........

Thought I would try it again, mostly motivated by my friend, Betsy who has returned to blogging and some by the fact that I contacted a guy who works for Hundye (DEAR GOD!) how do I spell THAT? in South Korea and teaches English to their corporate staff. DREAM job for me AND it's in my old town, Jeonju City. (Obviously, my writing skills are rusty, as that is World's Longest Run-On Sentence.)

And then that made me think of all the crazy stuff I saw in Korea, like this hand-dryer thingy, and I was back trying to figure out how to blog again.

Also have been thinking about the pro and con list of seriously considering going back to Korea. Will save that, but for now, going back is officially in my brain! Yikes!

Special Delivery - Firestone Complete Auto Care

2011-01-30T20:34:00.001-07:00

I so wish I had a baby picture of the kid that sets the fire in this video. He's budding actor/comedian, CJ Vana. I knew CJ before he was born because I worked with his mom, Maria, at DuPage County in our employment and training days. Maria went on to have 3 girls, one of whom she named after a charachter in a book I recommended to her!

Our friend, Crystal, who passed away almost 2 years ago, and Maria were pregnant at the same time. I learned SO much over those nine months sitting in the cafeteria as they compared notes and got ready for the "special delivery"......OMG! :)

Dedicated to My Friend AJ

2011-01-15T19:56:00.001-07:00

Martin Luther King said that faith is taking the first step even when you don't see the whole staircase.

Behold the Girls and a Cactus or Two!!

2011-01-15T18:38:00.002-07:00

Can't get this heading thingy to work...but you get the idea. No more "Boise, America", but instead....HELLO! Arizona!!

I'm soooooo thankful to be back in Phoenixburg, but sorry to have left my co-workers and friends in Boise.

By way of an update, I had a chance to come back to Phoenix-IRC, and jumped at it. I'm really happy and grateful for the opportunity! More about what I'm doing late, but in the meantime, here's a picture of Bunny (Visnja) and I taken with the first cactus we stopped to pose with.

We really had a fun time, driving down to Phoenix with a guy, a truck, 2 cats, and....well, I guess that's enough!! Who knew that a 2 night, 3 day circus could be so cool!! Wish I had more pictures....will look for those. In the meantime.....I'm home!!!!

Two Points of View.....

2010-07-07T10:56:00.000-06:00

I'm back in the office after the holiday, feeling really good and productive today.

I started thinking a lot about Korea and am wishing that the exchange rate would keep getting better! Roughly 80 cents on the dollar are where things stand. Know it will take much more time for things to eventually even themselves out rate-wise.

So, having said that, I'm still in the US, and working, as most of you know, for the employer that I spent 9 years with in Phoenix, the International Rescue Committee (http://www.theirc.org/).... only this time in Boise. My first year has passed and I made it!

Leaving is seldom far from my thoughts.....not because of Boise, per se, but I just can't shake the "wings not roots". However, I'm also a "bloom where you're planted" kind of person, who is grateful to be working and add to it, i a beautiful setting.

These are two pictures from my office. On top is our "arrival board" showing that we really have a full plate of refugee arrivals for July.

The second picture is of the toys I have on my desk. The toys aren't for me, but for anyone who happens to sit down for business or pleasure, just like the candy dish is kept on my desk in Prescott, when I worked for the paper there. Anything fun is a great draw to my desk. Two toys are from friends traveling in Sweden and Thailand and the carved wooden cat is mine from Mexico!

I think I better........

2010-07-05T08:40:00.000-06:00

.....gooooooooo to the movies!!

Despite going to bed so much later than "normal", I'm up and at 'em this morning!

I've heard good, funny (operative word) things about "Knight and Day" so that's the choice and as luck would have it, "Toy Story 3" is showing right before and right after it, so it "feels" like a no-brainer. Don't worry, I'm only slightly tempted to comment that the two movies are like night and day from each other. :)

Yesterday was spent doing basically nothing but fun stuff, just putzing around home and loving every second of it! AND what a joy to go to bed on Sunday night and know I didn't have to go to the office on Monday. Feeling VERY grateful today for the big and not so big things.

Broadening My Book Horizons........

2010-07-02T08:28:00.000-06:00

Book club attendance was disappointing last night. I was the only one that read "Wolf Hall", but everyone else had all read the "Guernsey......Literary Potato Peel". What can I say? I can never remember the full title, in the correct order of things.

Anyway, I vowed that I would not recommend a book this time, as I had with "Wolf Hall" and I kept the courage of my conviction. However, as we were talking about other books we read in June, everyone became intrigued with "The Passage." So, THEY are reading it, which surprised me no end. And, the other book recommended was one I had not heard of, but NOT my favorite author, Stephen King.

Amazon describes it as a "psychological thriller", as opposed to a "kill-someone-with-lots-of-blood" horror book, which I associate with Stephen King. Though I admit, this isn't the case with all his books. My college students in Korea LOVED the movie "Misery" when I showed it for my "Movie English" class. Not much blood to speak of, but lots of "thrillerness".

So, got the book and I'm ready for the 4th of July. :)

Jim in July........

2010-07-02T08:23:00.001-06:00

Here's Jim!!

This month's picture of "The Office" calendar is so funny! Jim has a family tree of Dwight and Michael creating a watermelon, and then Jan and a sperm donor creating a baby. There's also a receipt from Jim and Pam's visit to Schrute Farms and much more. LOVE "The Office"!!

Next up? Pam!!!

Learn to Appreciate Technology

2010-06-02T08:51:00.000-06:00

Train Station at the DMZ

2010-05-24T13:47:00.000-06:00

As part of my tour of the Korean DMZ, we were able to tour the never used train station at the southern edge of the area.

Trip to the DMZ

2010-05-24T13:42:00.000-06:00

On my first trip to Seoul, I found a bus tour to the DMZ. Could not wait to see "the sights".
This is the gentleman who directed the tour.
Tours were cheap and frequent. I could have been picked up, at my hotel, throughout the morning and early afternoon.

Looking across the DMZ to North Korea.
The tour included a trip to the beautiful, never been used train station that will eventually (here's hoping) be used for those coming into the DMZ by train, and several other stops. VERY MUCH worth the trip.

First Book Club....

2010-05-24T11:23:00.000-06:00

Going to put my toe in the water for my first book club tomorrow night, via my friend, Johnna and www.meetup.com/books.
I would have never touched this book with a 10 foot pole, as it's not my genre, and written by the son of Stephen King. But, because of this book club, I found I liked it.

"Horns" caught me from the first page and I'd give it 2 stars. Not sure I'd go back and read Joe Hill's first book, as I had planned, but we'll see.

Lost....as in Lost show and Lost Blog :)

2010-05-24T10:11:00.000-06:00

Trying to get back in the swing of things...feeling more "blog motivated".

Loved the Lost finale last night AND the two hours before kind of recapping the last six seasons. (Did I really watch FOUR hours of that stuff?) Read a book during the commercials, which seemed to be A LOT in the last two hours.

I missed a lot of the series while in Korea, but every once in a while, I'd see a stray show, at a really weird hour of the day AND did see some on http://www.hulu.com/ , once I learned about that site!

God Bless Netfix (again)

2010-02-28T19:41:00.001-07:00

Guess I must have been looking in "Documentaries" when I came across this film. Just watched it, and there wasn't a dry eye in my house. This video runs over 8 minutes, but it's totally worth your time.

Betsy's Season of Giving and Student Teaching

2009-12-12T08:01:00.002-07:00

My friend, Betsy, is almost finished student teaching. It's been and up and down experience, but this is a HUGE "up" to me. It's a testament to incorporating what you love into a curriculum, even for little kids, to start instilling humanitarianism! This made me feel so good! With Betsy's permission, I posting it here:

Our theme for this month is "A Season of Giving." Kids tend to think only of what they are getting at Christmas, so we wanted to balance that out a bit. Among other small service activities and lessons on giving, we--as a class--are raising money to donate livestock through Heifer International. The kids are so excited about it!

Yesterday I started the unit by reading a picture book about a girl in Africa who had a goat donated to her family and how it changed their lives. Then I showed pictures of houses (basically shacks) and dilapidated schools in developing countries (from National Geographic) and discussed how the lives of the very poor in other countries differs from our lives here in Utah. Then, later in the day, we watched short, kid-focused video clips (downloaded from the Heifer website) about the different animals we can give and how they will benefit the family that receives it. And at that point the kids were really excited! :)

Today, just one day after introducing the unit, we already have $30! I made this little chart to track our progress. The kids are cracking into their piggy banks to donate all they have, and they are doing chores around the house to raise money.

It's so fantastic to see them so excited to give. Kids rule. :)

My Second Boise Snow!

2009-12-12T07:35:00.001-07:00

OK, it did snow last night....but this picture is not Boise, America. It's more like one of my old towns, Aurora, Illinois. Picture is from the AP, via http://www.huffingtonpost.com/. It didn't snow as much as the picture, but that would have been good, since it's Saturday.

Pretty soon, I'll stop saying "This is my _________ Boise, America snow." Just like in Phoenix, every summer I would say, "This is my ______summer" and then go on to say that it was 117 degrees during my _____ summer.

It's not like I haven't lived in snow longer than lived in 117 degree weather! I was born in Kansas and didn't move out of the Midwest until 1994. But, suddenly have this feeling that age might be slipping up on me!

All this repetition about weather reminds me of the days when I would take my mother in the car for just a drive or errands. As she got older, she would read every sign that we passed. "Piggly Wiggly", "Road Work Ahead", "Hardees." I find myself doing the same thing when someone else is driving and then I'll stop, laugh, and say my mother used to do the same thing.

Repeat after me....it's OK to read all the signs, talk about how often it snows and how hot the weather was in Phoenix!