Sometimes, in our journey to get out of debt, I have those moments where I truly wish I could just in the lottery. Do you know what I would do if I won the lottery? I would pay of my debt!! I swear! I would! I sometimes get so discouraged with paying our "stupid tax". Our past bad choices and mistakes often get in the way of what we want to do and be today. I have not blogged about our journey, although I did post a note on facebook that I should transfer over here just so it's all in one place.
Our "out-of-consumer-debt" date was set for June 1st. Then it had to be moved to July 1st (in March). Now it's August first and I am trying my VERY hardest not to move it again! We are using the Dave Ramsey method of getting out of debt. We are living on a WRITTEN budget using mostly cash (harder to overspend the budget that way). We have paid off 4 consumer debts including my car and 3 credit cards and have accumulated a very large snowball to throw at our debt and are making fast head-way. However, summer is here and the remodel on our house has begun. Our budget for the remodel is still looking on-target and like things will be fine, but we've taken a few spontaneous trips to tri-cities and spent money that was supposed to be "extra to debt" (on top of the snowball amount) on fun things. I should clarify that this is where Dave and I split ways. I am very intent on getting out of debt and I have my eye on it at all times and it's never far from my mind. However...I also feel that this is the prime of our lives. So, sometimes when I'm working on my budget and I have surplus income over our expenses for the money, I add more to our "blow-it" money instead of the "extra to debt" column. Here's the funny part. I feel a little guilty about that. Had we not "blown" that money, we could have stuck to our June 1st date of out-of-debt. Then I remember that I'm still paying A LOT OF MONEY to our debt each month!
A short back story is that Sam and I had "somehow" acquired about $20,000 in consumer debt. In March of 2009, my mom helped me with my taxes and we owed the government a lot of money. We had about $300 in our checking account and no savings. I was a wreck of tears and fears. We lived paycheck to paycheck and at the end of the month I would lose sleep hoping that the check I wrote at the store didn't go through before the check I deposited in the back to cover it. I would walk into Walmart and I could NEVER walk out for under $50. I hated living like that! My mom said that I should try living on a zero-balance budget. I argued that with a fluctuating income (sometimes as much as $1200 from month to month) any kind of budget was impossible! She helped me set up a month to month zero balance budget using Excel. Income here. Expenses here. The numbers have to match. Once I figured it out, I got really good at it. On August 1st 2010 (and not a DAY later) Sam and I will have paid off our $20,000 in consumer debt. Between mom's zero balance budget plan and Dave Ramsey's debt snowball, we've come a LONG way!! Just about all of our "extra" money and a lot of our not-so-extra money has gone to debt INCLUDING our huge tax refund!
So...I want to win the lottery. I want to be totally out of debt and have a fully funded emergency fund (3-6 mo. expenses) in my savings account. I want to be able to take my family on trips and buy some new furniture. I'm a simple girl who loves living a simple life. But there are things I would like to have. I don't want to be rich...I just want a nice living room set, a laptop, and a new bed. :)
Our journey out of debt has taught me a lot of things and I am ultimately grateful for it. However, I can't wait for the day when all that money is actually mine and I don't have to give it to someone else! Thanks mom. Thanks Dave Ramsey. Thanks to family and friends who are supportive and encouraging.
Now that I have processed my feelings, I'm going to make one of the last payments I have to my credit card. They are just such painful payments. :( It'll be worth it in the end.
Tuesday, June 22, 2010
Thursday, June 17, 2010
"The best piece of art ever!"
Today was a day of science and learning for Ethan and I. We went to the library and watched the "Mad Scientist" (Science-tist) from Porltland tell us all about water. We watched dry ice vapor pour down the side of a bucket and ice form before our eyes! We learned that it takes up to 12 gallons of water to flush the toilet and 25 gallons for the average shower. We learned that water has a skin and watched HUGE bubbles form from a huge wand! It was awesome!
Then, we tried a few experiments out of our new book...
We created static electricity in a plastic tupperware with daddy's wool sweater. We had pepper in it and the pepper jumped from the bottom and stuck to the lid. Then we took a paperclip and transferred the electricity and the pepper either fell to the bottom of the container or jumped to where there was still static! Ethan loved it! :)
We also learned how our eyes can play tricks on us. We drew a bird on one side of a circle and on the other side (upside down), a birdcage. Then we tied string around it and wound it up. When it unwound, the bird was IN the cage!! Ethan said it was "the best piece of art ever!"
Here are the instructions if you want to try it:
1. Make two circles on a piece of thick white paper, by drawing around a mug twice (we used a nalgene water bottle). Then cut them out.
2. Draw a bird on one circle and a cage on the other (make the cage a little bigger than the bird. Turn the cage upside down. Glue them together back to back.
3. Use a hole puncher to make two holes on either side of the cage. Cut two pieces of string as long as your arm.
4. Thread a piece of string through one pair of holes. Knot the ends. Do the same on the other side.
5. Hold the knots so that the circle hangs down. Flip the circle over and around until the string is twisted up tightly.
6. Now with both hands, pull the string tight. This makes the circle spin around really fast. What can you see?
What's going on?
As the circle spins, your eyes see one picture after the other. The pictures come around so fast that your brain can't separate them. instead, it merges the two. So you see one picture--of the bird caught inside the cage!
Then, we tried a few experiments out of our new book...
We created static electricity in a plastic tupperware with daddy's wool sweater. We had pepper in it and the pepper jumped from the bottom and stuck to the lid. Then we took a paperclip and transferred the electricity and the pepper either fell to the bottom of the container or jumped to where there was still static! Ethan loved it! :)
We also learned how our eyes can play tricks on us. We drew a bird on one side of a circle and on the other side (upside down), a birdcage. Then we tied string around it and wound it up. When it unwound, the bird was IN the cage!! Ethan said it was "the best piece of art ever!"
Here are the instructions if you want to try it:
1. Make two circles on a piece of thick white paper, by drawing around a mug twice (we used a nalgene water bottle). Then cut them out.
2. Draw a bird on one circle and a cage on the other (make the cage a little bigger than the bird. Turn the cage upside down. Glue them together back to back.
3. Use a hole puncher to make two holes on either side of the cage. Cut two pieces of string as long as your arm.
4. Thread a piece of string through one pair of holes. Knot the ends. Do the same on the other side.
5. Hold the knots so that the circle hangs down. Flip the circle over and around until the string is twisted up tightly.
6. Now with both hands, pull the string tight. This makes the circle spin around really fast. What can you see?
What's going on?
As the circle spins, your eyes see one picture after the other. The pictures come around so fast that your brain can't separate them. instead, it merges the two. So you see one picture--of the bird caught inside the cage!
Tuesday, June 15, 2010
Sheet rock is up!!
Well, the sheet rock is up and the tear-out pile is mostly loaded into the dumpster! We covered the huge hole in the wall with plastic until we can get the doors/windows in...here are a few pics...
Here's Sam putting the first layer of mud on the sheet rock. This is NOT his favorite job, but luckily, it's such a small space there are not many seams. :)
This pic shows all three openings to the house...the doorway to the downstairs on the left, the window in the kitchen and the doorway into the kitchen on the right. We didn't realize how tall our ceilings were until we took out that doorway and walk through that hallway! 9 foot ceilings are tall!
Just thought I would keep updating the process. :) I'll see if I can't add a few pics of the doors/windows....
Sunday, June 13, 2010
I love summer!!
I cleaned off the porch today and put out our "porch" table and chair set. This symbolizes the official beginning of summer. I also cleared my front little "hill" of weeds and planted some wildflower seeds. I turned on my ceiling fans for the first time. I worked in the yard and spent time on our reconstruction project.
I didn't spend much time inside and I didn't spend any time on the computer until now. Ethan's asleep, our friend Jon Larkin is helping Sam put up the rest of the sheet rock in the back of the house and I have finished my day. I submitted my grades, finished my board agenda for my meeting on Tuesday and finished up my last few invoices.
Today was the end of a lot of things. The end of the school year, the end of the rainy weather. Today also signifies the official closing of "Jamie Jacobson's Private Voice Studio". I have taught elementary, middle, and high school singers in the afternoons most nights for almost 12 years! Starting next fall, my goal is to be finished with work by 3:00 in the afternoon. I want to pick up my son from his all day Kindergarten class and spend the rest of the day with him! I will still work at the University and I will still have my Kindermusik business. I will still be willing and able to teach younger students private lessons as long as it's before 3:00 in the afternoon (home schooled kids, seniors with open periods, etc). I can't tell you how much I am looking forward to being free after 3pm everyday!
I love summer! I love the freedom that it brings and am very happy and lucky and blessed to be able to do what I do and have such a flexible schedule!
Sam worked pretty stinkin' hard this weekend to get our remodel project pretty far along! By the end of the night, he and Jon plan to have the entire section sheet-rocked! Next, we'll put in the windows, door, paint and put in the floor. It's going faster than I thought and I have to give him credit so far. In our lives, most of our projects get to a functional state and then not much further after that. Sam seems to have a plan this time. So far, so good. :)
This is my favorite time of night and I was up late, so I'm headed to have a beer on my porch chair and enjoy the cool of the night.
I didn't spend much time inside and I didn't spend any time on the computer until now. Ethan's asleep, our friend Jon Larkin is helping Sam put up the rest of the sheet rock in the back of the house and I have finished my day. I submitted my grades, finished my board agenda for my meeting on Tuesday and finished up my last few invoices.
Today was the end of a lot of things. The end of the school year, the end of the rainy weather. Today also signifies the official closing of "Jamie Jacobson's Private Voice Studio". I have taught elementary, middle, and high school singers in the afternoons most nights for almost 12 years! Starting next fall, my goal is to be finished with work by 3:00 in the afternoon. I want to pick up my son from his all day Kindergarten class and spend the rest of the day with him! I will still work at the University and I will still have my Kindermusik business. I will still be willing and able to teach younger students private lessons as long as it's before 3:00 in the afternoon (home schooled kids, seniors with open periods, etc). I can't tell you how much I am looking forward to being free after 3pm everyday!
I love summer! I love the freedom that it brings and am very happy and lucky and blessed to be able to do what I do and have such a flexible schedule!
Sam worked pretty stinkin' hard this weekend to get our remodel project pretty far along! By the end of the night, he and Jon plan to have the entire section sheet-rocked! Next, we'll put in the windows, door, paint and put in the floor. It's going faster than I thought and I have to give him credit so far. In our lives, most of our projects get to a functional state and then not much further after that. Sam seems to have a plan this time. So far, so good. :)
This is my favorite time of night and I was up late, so I'm headed to have a beer on my porch chair and enjoy the cool of the night.
Can't sleep.
I can't sleep. It's almost 2:00 in the morning, and I really can't sleep. There are a lot of reasons. One of the main ones is that the back of our house is not there. :) We tore it out in our remodel and will be putting in our new windows and doors in the coming week, but we didn't have time to put up plastic back there, so it's just a huge open wall. The weather was perfect today (in the 80s) and tonight feels just right, so that's been nice. However...see...there's this cat.
Her name is Chloe, but Ethan calls her Chuck the Cat. Chuck the cat is a stray that wanders around all the time and she and our cat gus gus have a very dog-like best friend relationship. They cry for each other at the door and run and play with one another when I open it. They have a little "love trail" through my front yard where you can literally SEE a place for EACH foot to go. Chuck the cat gets his name from our neighbor. Our neighbor leaves food on his porch for Chuck the cat and our neighbor's name is Chuck. Ethan therefore thought that Chuck that cat was Chuck's cat and now we have "Chuck the cat" and "Chuck the guy".
Chuck the Cat loves to be in our house. She sneaks in whenever she can and Ethan chases her back out again. All this to say that with no back wall, Chuck the cat is in for the night and pretty happy about it, but keeps making a crap-ton of noise. Nothing I can do about it, so I thought I would get up.
So...remodel is going great! Sam worked really hard today and got the back windows and wall torn out and framed in and the old floor removed and a new sub floor put down. Tomorrow, we are hoping to finish painting the outside of the last of the 3 windows and get to sheet rocking. It's going a good deal faster than I ever thought it would. The backyard is ATROCIOUS, but there is so much potential back there that once we have the time and money, working on it will be great fun! :)
So...Here are some pics....
This is the old house. blue asbestos siding with painted chipped and somewhat rotted wood siding underneath. Notice the storm windows over the wood windows. there are three and they are all different sizes and framed in with whatever wood happened to be around the person at the time.
Here is Sam removing the white wood siding and you can see my old vinyl bathroom window to his right. Notice the narrow back doorway.
Here is the inside of the vinyl window. You can get an idea of the not-so-great framing job someone did here as well. :)
Here's the new window from the inside. This window is solid wood and I LOVE IT!!! We are working on one side of the house at a time so we can pay for it out of pocket, but it will be worth it!! I think there is more glass in this window and it feels bigger! Sam just put the old trip back up, but we'll eventually trim it out in matching stained fir.
Here's what we did today:
notice the large HOLE in the wall? :) That's where those nasty windows were and where our pretty doors will be going. They are all three technically doors, but only one will have hardware and function that way...the others will just let in a lot of sunshine! :) I'll take some pictures of the rest tomorrow and post them. Sam got the tiny walls framed in and the header above where the new windows and door is going as well as put in the sub-floor.
I'll post some more tomorrow... I'm going to go try to sleep now. :)
night.
Her name is Chloe, but Ethan calls her Chuck the Cat. Chuck the cat is a stray that wanders around all the time and she and our cat gus gus have a very dog-like best friend relationship. They cry for each other at the door and run and play with one another when I open it. They have a little "love trail" through my front yard where you can literally SEE a place for EACH foot to go. Chuck the cat gets his name from our neighbor. Our neighbor leaves food on his porch for Chuck the cat and our neighbor's name is Chuck. Ethan therefore thought that Chuck that cat was Chuck's cat and now we have "Chuck the cat" and "Chuck the guy".
Chuck the Cat loves to be in our house. She sneaks in whenever she can and Ethan chases her back out again. All this to say that with no back wall, Chuck the cat is in for the night and pretty happy about it, but keeps making a crap-ton of noise. Nothing I can do about it, so I thought I would get up.
So...remodel is going great! Sam worked really hard today and got the back windows and wall torn out and framed in and the old floor removed and a new sub floor put down. Tomorrow, we are hoping to finish painting the outside of the last of the 3 windows and get to sheet rocking. It's going a good deal faster than I ever thought it would. The backyard is ATROCIOUS, but there is so much potential back there that once we have the time and money, working on it will be great fun! :)
So...Here are some pics....
This is the old house. blue asbestos siding with painted chipped and somewhat rotted wood siding underneath. Notice the storm windows over the wood windows. there are three and they are all different sizes and framed in with whatever wood happened to be around the person at the time.
Here is Sam removing the white wood siding and you can see my old vinyl bathroom window to his right. Notice the narrow back doorway.
Here is the inside of the vinyl window. You can get an idea of the not-so-great framing job someone did here as well. :)
Here's the new window from the inside. This window is solid wood and I LOVE IT!!! We are working on one side of the house at a time so we can pay for it out of pocket, but it will be worth it!! I think there is more glass in this window and it feels bigger! Sam just put the old trip back up, but we'll eventually trim it out in matching stained fir.
Here's what we did today:
notice the large HOLE in the wall? :) That's where those nasty windows were and where our pretty doors will be going. They are all three technically doors, but only one will have hardware and function that way...the others will just let in a lot of sunshine! :) I'll take some pictures of the rest tomorrow and post them. Sam got the tiny walls framed in and the header above where the new windows and door is going as well as put in the sub-floor.
I'll post some more tomorrow... I'm going to go try to sleep now. :)
night.
Tuesday, May 25, 2010
Geneology, I am doin' it....
So, most people know that I grew up LDS and was a devout LDS member through my freshman year of college. Having the large and amazing family I do and the strong values of the LDS faith instilled in me since I was a child, I have always been interested in family history. I worked together with my mom (mostly just copying her work) to put together our pedigree charts and family history as a teenager. I think we eventually got back about 18 generations!! It was a lot of fun...like a treasure hunt. I have always been one to love finding pieces of history and have always been inclined to leave pieces of my life for the future generations to find in their history searches.
I have always been a journal keeper. Since before I could write...mom wrote for me. I have them to this day. I am a scrapbooker. I keep photos and write detailed descriptions of events big and small. When we remodeled our kitchen I kept thinking how awesome it would be to find something from 1921 when the house was built to tell us about life then. So...I sat down and wrote a 6 page history of our family and what I knew about the house so far. I included a picture of us, put it all in an envelope and it's now between the wall and my corner cabinet in my new kitchen for the next generation to find. I write birthday letters to myself. It's true. Every year, I sit down and write myself a letter to open on my birthday the following year. I put lots of things in my letter. Hopes. Dreams. Accomplishments. Goals. Every year I find it amazing how much can happen in one year. It's beginning to slow down now that we are settled in a town and have a family and jobs, but things are just ever changing and for that reason, I look forward to my letter to myself every year. I hand write them and keep them in a file in my file cabinet. Once they are opened and read, I stick them back in the file and write the letter to myself for next year. On the 5-year birthdays (20, 25, 30, etc), I write one for 5 years later. I have two in my drawer right now. One for October 11th of this year when I turn 32 and one for the year I turn 35 that I wrote the year I turned 30. Some people may think this is silly, I enjoy it very much. :) I have started doing this for our son. I wrote several letters to him when I was pregnant and when he was a baby and am keeping them for him in his scrapbook for when he's an adult. History and learning about the past of family can be very fun.
This leads me to the reason for this thought. I was digging around in my basement the other day and I found the box of pedigree charts and family history papers that belonged to my mom in her search for her family history. There were letters and photos, birth certificates and marriage certificates. It was very fun to go through. Then, I struck gold...at least...what I consider gold. It's 76 pages of typed memories from my Great Grandpa Collins (on my mom's side). As far as I know, this is the only copy and it's a copy of the original. I have decided to type it out to allow me to have an electronic copy of such a treasure. I started just a few days ago and I have to say it's been SO fun to learn more about him.
I knew my great-grandparents well. I think I am unique in that way as I am sure that there are many people who have never met theirs. Great Grandma Collins taught me to play piano in her basement. Grandpa let me watch him build his doll houses and work in his garden. I can smell their house in Everett, Washington as I sit here typing. Grandma has been gone a long time now and Grandpa died a few short years ago having lived a very full life. I did get time with them both, especially great grandpa and I am very grateful for that.
His memory writings are just that. He doesn't seem to connect his paragraphs with any one thought. It's as if he wandered in to the type writer (or rather dictated to grandma as he didn't have a thumb...) and "jotted down" the memory that he was thinking of at the moment. One paragraph will be of swimming in the canal in the summertime and the very next one will be about the quarantines that were put on their house when he was very young. The following paragraph will be stories of he and his siblings and the next about winter in North Pocatello where his school was 3 miles away from their house.
I plan to transcribe every word directly as written and then attempt to put it together in sections. I am not sure there is enough information provided for me to do a chronological organization (although, I could probably map it out pretty closely based on what I know of his life already), but maybe themes or chapters. Or...maybe I'll just leave it exactly how it is and double space each paragraph so they can stand on their own as memories pure and simple.
I knew a lot about my great grandfather when I started this project, but I learn more and more every time I sit down and start transcribing. I knew he was a fire fighter as an adult, but I didn't know that as a young boy he and his friends and brothers blew up everything they could get their hands on. :) I knew he loved dogs and they had one when I was little (Missy), but I didn't know that he had the same breed of dog growing up and was VERY attached to that animal. I knew he had a compassionate heart and a loving tone, but I didn't quite know the extent. He sat and told me story after story about the trouble he'd caused as a young adult, but he didn't mention smoking behind the barn as a kid..... :) (hehehe...your secret's out grandpa, and if you were around....I'd be giving you a good deal of grief about it.....)
It's been a fun project. I guess I am just kind of nostalgic. I spent this past weekend with my grandparents on my dad's side. I was planning a visit to see them and my aunt and uncle and cousins that happened to coincide with a surgery grandpa was trying to keep secret. So...I went anyway and kept grandma company. Grandpa is home and just about as good as new and I learned a lot in my time with my grandma Donna. She has been losing her short term memory for quite some time now, but it's starting to get pretty bad. She'll have what my uncle Tim calls her "daily mantra" that she gets fixated on throughout the day until something (undetermined) gets her mind to move on to something else. I heard a number of fun stories and it got me thinking that I REALLY wish I had had a voice recorder with me so that I could capture some of those stories for the rest of the family and for posterity. I think this is something I would like to look into. I have a friend who often does oral interviews of family and friends and then transcribes them. Especially with the generational gap that we have in our society, I think it's most important that we remember and treasure the way things used to be. They lived through World Wars, the great depression. They experienced life without TV or computers. They washed their clothes by hand and from the stories that I have heard and read it took ALL DAY LONG!! My really old and cranky washer is done in about 20 minutes and I don't even have to be home! My great grandpa Collins and his friends had experiences as kids that my son will never have because in our world, it's not safe for me to let him out to ride his bike even down the block without being out there to watch him. My great grandfather and his generation grew up with each other. They had social bonds that were so tight, we can't even imagine them today. They had free roam and true adventure!
It's been fun to read and fun to learn and I'm excited to keep going. For now, I will share one excerpt and I'm sure I'll be back as I think on this wonderful treasure I found in my family history!
"There were no schools near our place so we had to walk about three miles to get to school. This was not bad but at times we did have some problems, especially during the winter. I remember that when the snow was deep, that the older kids had to go ahead and break a path for us younger ones. When the snow was three or four feet deep it did present us smaller kids with a problem. Later on they built a two room school about a block from our place where all six grades met in these two rooms. This lasted until they built a new brick school about a mile from our place and each grade had a separate room. I had a hang-up about going to the toilet while at school. Because of this I would hold it until I got home. Sometimes I really had to run fast and hope the bathroom was clear. This was a stupid hang-up, but that is the way it was and I always made it just in time. That is all but once."--Great Grandpa Collins.
I have always been a journal keeper. Since before I could write...mom wrote for me. I have them to this day. I am a scrapbooker. I keep photos and write detailed descriptions of events big and small. When we remodeled our kitchen I kept thinking how awesome it would be to find something from 1921 when the house was built to tell us about life then. So...I sat down and wrote a 6 page history of our family and what I knew about the house so far. I included a picture of us, put it all in an envelope and it's now between the wall and my corner cabinet in my new kitchen for the next generation to find. I write birthday letters to myself. It's true. Every year, I sit down and write myself a letter to open on my birthday the following year. I put lots of things in my letter. Hopes. Dreams. Accomplishments. Goals. Every year I find it amazing how much can happen in one year. It's beginning to slow down now that we are settled in a town and have a family and jobs, but things are just ever changing and for that reason, I look forward to my letter to myself every year. I hand write them and keep them in a file in my file cabinet. Once they are opened and read, I stick them back in the file and write the letter to myself for next year. On the 5-year birthdays (20, 25, 30, etc), I write one for 5 years later. I have two in my drawer right now. One for October 11th of this year when I turn 32 and one for the year I turn 35 that I wrote the year I turned 30. Some people may think this is silly, I enjoy it very much. :) I have started doing this for our son. I wrote several letters to him when I was pregnant and when he was a baby and am keeping them for him in his scrapbook for when he's an adult. History and learning about the past of family can be very fun.
This leads me to the reason for this thought. I was digging around in my basement the other day and I found the box of pedigree charts and family history papers that belonged to my mom in her search for her family history. There were letters and photos, birth certificates and marriage certificates. It was very fun to go through. Then, I struck gold...at least...what I consider gold. It's 76 pages of typed memories from my Great Grandpa Collins (on my mom's side). As far as I know, this is the only copy and it's a copy of the original. I have decided to type it out to allow me to have an electronic copy of such a treasure. I started just a few days ago and I have to say it's been SO fun to learn more about him.
I knew my great-grandparents well. I think I am unique in that way as I am sure that there are many people who have never met theirs. Great Grandma Collins taught me to play piano in her basement. Grandpa let me watch him build his doll houses and work in his garden. I can smell their house in Everett, Washington as I sit here typing. Grandma has been gone a long time now and Grandpa died a few short years ago having lived a very full life. I did get time with them both, especially great grandpa and I am very grateful for that.
His memory writings are just that. He doesn't seem to connect his paragraphs with any one thought. It's as if he wandered in to the type writer (or rather dictated to grandma as he didn't have a thumb...) and "jotted down" the memory that he was thinking of at the moment. One paragraph will be of swimming in the canal in the summertime and the very next one will be about the quarantines that were put on their house when he was very young. The following paragraph will be stories of he and his siblings and the next about winter in North Pocatello where his school was 3 miles away from their house.
I plan to transcribe every word directly as written and then attempt to put it together in sections. I am not sure there is enough information provided for me to do a chronological organization (although, I could probably map it out pretty closely based on what I know of his life already), but maybe themes or chapters. Or...maybe I'll just leave it exactly how it is and double space each paragraph so they can stand on their own as memories pure and simple.
I knew a lot about my great grandfather when I started this project, but I learn more and more every time I sit down and start transcribing. I knew he was a fire fighter as an adult, but I didn't know that as a young boy he and his friends and brothers blew up everything they could get their hands on. :) I knew he loved dogs and they had one when I was little (Missy), but I didn't know that he had the same breed of dog growing up and was VERY attached to that animal. I knew he had a compassionate heart and a loving tone, but I didn't quite know the extent. He sat and told me story after story about the trouble he'd caused as a young adult, but he didn't mention smoking behind the barn as a kid..... :) (hehehe...your secret's out grandpa, and if you were around....I'd be giving you a good deal of grief about it.....)
It's been a fun project. I guess I am just kind of nostalgic. I spent this past weekend with my grandparents on my dad's side. I was planning a visit to see them and my aunt and uncle and cousins that happened to coincide with a surgery grandpa was trying to keep secret. So...I went anyway and kept grandma company. Grandpa is home and just about as good as new and I learned a lot in my time with my grandma Donna. She has been losing her short term memory for quite some time now, but it's starting to get pretty bad. She'll have what my uncle Tim calls her "daily mantra" that she gets fixated on throughout the day until something (undetermined) gets her mind to move on to something else. I heard a number of fun stories and it got me thinking that I REALLY wish I had had a voice recorder with me so that I could capture some of those stories for the rest of the family and for posterity. I think this is something I would like to look into. I have a friend who often does oral interviews of family and friends and then transcribes them. Especially with the generational gap that we have in our society, I think it's most important that we remember and treasure the way things used to be. They lived through World Wars, the great depression. They experienced life without TV or computers. They washed their clothes by hand and from the stories that I have heard and read it took ALL DAY LONG!! My really old and cranky washer is done in about 20 minutes and I don't even have to be home! My great grandpa Collins and his friends had experiences as kids that my son will never have because in our world, it's not safe for me to let him out to ride his bike even down the block without being out there to watch him. My great grandfather and his generation grew up with each other. They had social bonds that were so tight, we can't even imagine them today. They had free roam and true adventure!
It's been fun to read and fun to learn and I'm excited to keep going. For now, I will share one excerpt and I'm sure I'll be back as I think on this wonderful treasure I found in my family history!
"There were no schools near our place so we had to walk about three miles to get to school. This was not bad but at times we did have some problems, especially during the winter. I remember that when the snow was deep, that the older kids had to go ahead and break a path for us younger ones. When the snow was three or four feet deep it did present us smaller kids with a problem. Later on they built a two room school about a block from our place where all six grades met in these two rooms. This lasted until they built a new brick school about a mile from our place and each grade had a separate room. I had a hang-up about going to the toilet while at school. Because of this I would hold it until I got home. Sometimes I really had to run fast and hope the bathroom was clear. This was a stupid hang-up, but that is the way it was and I always made it just in time. That is all but once."--Great Grandpa Collins.
Friday, May 14, 2010
The meanings of words and numbers....
The hours in my days that are spent with my son have been filled with answers (and sometimes no answers) to fun, interesting and sometimes difficult questions.
Mama, what does 'before' mean?
Mama, what is 'tomorrow'? When is 'last night'?
Mama, how many is 66? Is 98 bigger than a hundred?
Mama, how big is a five and a 0? 50? Is that a dollar? Half a dollar!!!? Like, you just tear your one dollar like this and you have 50?
Mama, when will it be summer?
Mama, how do you know what to eat?
Mama, how do worms hear?
Mama, how does our oven make things so hot?
Mama, what do flowers eat?
Mama, will you always be my mom?
Mama, what does night time mean?
Mama, are dinosaurs real? I mean...I know they are dead, but are they real?
Mama, why can't we see the moon when it's behind a cloud?
Mama, why do some people sing good and some people sing bad?
Mama, what makes it night time?
It's been fun and interesting to have a 5 year old. I've taken an idea from a Kindermusik blog (that I actually re-posted on my own Kindermusik blog) to make a list of questions to explore the answer to. We have made piles of skittles to see "how big" numbers are and compare them to other numbered piles of skittles. We have planted flowers, picked flowers, dug up flowers. We have looked online at constellations and talked about space. We have talked about our bodies and nutrition. I was reminded today by a friend on facebook about what I said the time Ethan wanted to know where he came from. I said he came from my belly. He knows about pregnancy, but he was only like 3 and I didn't want to have THAT conversation, so I told him he was a present for me from his daddy. I told him he was the best present I had ever gotten and ever would get. If I remember correctly at the time he made some comment about a quest to find a "better" present. :)
Being a Mama is awesome!
Mama, what does 'before' mean?
Mama, what is 'tomorrow'? When is 'last night'?
Mama, how many is 66? Is 98 bigger than a hundred?
Mama, how big is a five and a 0? 50? Is that a dollar? Half a dollar!!!? Like, you just tear your one dollar like this and you have 50?
Mama, when will it be summer?
Mama, how do you know what to eat?
Mama, how do worms hear?
Mama, how does our oven make things so hot?
Mama, what do flowers eat?
Mama, will you always be my mom?
Mama, what does night time mean?
Mama, are dinosaurs real? I mean...I know they are dead, but are they real?
Mama, why can't we see the moon when it's behind a cloud?
Mama, why do some people sing good and some people sing bad?
Mama, what makes it night time?
It's been fun and interesting to have a 5 year old. I've taken an idea from a Kindermusik blog (that I actually re-posted on my own Kindermusik blog) to make a list of questions to explore the answer to. We have made piles of skittles to see "how big" numbers are and compare them to other numbered piles of skittles. We have planted flowers, picked flowers, dug up flowers. We have looked online at constellations and talked about space. We have talked about our bodies and nutrition. I was reminded today by a friend on facebook about what I said the time Ethan wanted to know where he came from. I said he came from my belly. He knows about pregnancy, but he was only like 3 and I didn't want to have THAT conversation, so I told him he was a present for me from his daddy. I told him he was the best present I had ever gotten and ever would get. If I remember correctly at the time he made some comment about a quest to find a "better" present. :)
Being a Mama is awesome!
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