#1 UPenn-waitlist
#3 Cornell-accepted!
#4 Columbia-waitlist
I really don't look good in red....
Tuesday, March 31, 2009
Sunday, March 29, 2009
Exterior Change
Everyone knows how much I hate the exterior of my house. Ugly old aluminum siding with a coat of paint, no window or door trim and rusted gutters! 
I dream about ripping off the painted aluminum siding but I am very afraid about what will be found underneath. Will the clapboards be rotted? Can it be salvaged with a coat of paint? Did the siders retain the trim around the windows and doors? Will we have to reside the house with additional ugly siding? Now you understand why I don't sleep at night! I'm thinking baby steps here and we are starting with the gutters. When the house was purchased, the inspector said we would need a new roof in 5 - 7 years. It been almost 16 years and the roof doesn't leak so.... do I have to remove the 3 layers of shingles and put on a new roof? Who knows? So far, so good. But, I have lived with these rotted rusted gutters for 15 years, waiting until I also replaced the roof. Thinking that the two things kind of go together.
I convinced Rob to remove th
e gutters. The gutters are an eyesore and in some places the gutters have holes, which funnel the water onto the lower roof line and cause damage.
And look...Ian is helping too!
I dream about ripping off the painted aluminum siding but I am very afraid about what will be found underneath. Will the clapboards be rotted? Can it be salvaged with a coat of paint? Did the siders retain the trim around the windows and doors? Will we have to reside the house with additional ugly siding? Now you understand why I don't sleep at night! I'm thinking baby steps here and we are starting with the gutters. When the house was purchased, the inspector said we would need a new roof in 5 - 7 years. It been almost 16 years and the roof doesn't leak so.... do I have to remove the 3 layers of shingles and put on a new roof? Who knows? So far, so good. But, I have lived with these rotted rusted gutters for 15 years, waiting until I also replaced the roof. Thinking that the two things kind of go together.I convinced Rob to remove th
e gutters. The gutters are an eyesore and in some places the gutters have holes, which funnel the water onto the lower roof line and cause damage.And look...Ian is helping too!
Saturday, March 21, 2009
Change in mood...
The Evans and Fahey families appear to be on the same page and Diane, I know exactly what you are going through right now. We want our kids to have a great college experience...but not spend the next 20 years paying off debt. We were banking on Ian's brain to help with the college expenses and you were banking on Chandler's brawn.
Ian came home from SU Thursday all pumped up and excited about the science dept and the interviews and he was so nervous...wanting this scholarship more than anything. On Friday night, Ian's Coronat pals on FaceBook were announcing their admission as a scholar. SU must notify the winners by email and the rest will probably get a letter in the mail. We are waiting for the letter. Very sad here right now....
Ian came home from SU Thursday all pumped up and excited about the science dept and the interviews and he was so nervous...wanting this scholarship more than anything. On Friday night, Ian's Coronat pals on FaceBook were announcing their admission as a scholar. SU must notify the winners by email and the rest will probably get a letter in the mail. We are waiting for the letter. Very sad here right now....
Thursday, March 19, 2009
Change in free time...
Erika commented on the inactivity of this blog, so of course I feel the need to remedy this. We have all been busy.
Rob has is working 10 hour days house painting (inside of course) and spending nights at the studio painting for art shows and Alden Gallery. He does try to mark some time at night watching the Knicks...nobody knows why!
Ian has track after school, and when that ends he heads to the auditorium to volunteer with the stage crew for Corcoran's upcoming Music Man performance. In his spare time he does massive amounts of homework, fills out scholarship applications and essays, works at the Y and sees Erin. I am heading to SU this morning at 8 to pick him up after his 3 day stint of interviews, tours, seminars, etc. for the Coronat Scholar. He still hasn't heard from Cornell, Columbia or UPenn. They typically don't send out admission letters until March 31st.
I have massive amounts of work with the Corcoran PTSO; fundraising and planning After Prom. Not easy tasks in a school with 1600 kids and 1580 uninvolved parents. I am also on the Ted Grace Reading Grove board and our annual StoryFest is April 3rd. Last minute preparations are killing me...advertising, ticket sales, refreshments, student volunteers, meetings. I hope this is again successful. Last year we had a snow storm the night of StoryFest, this year we moved the date to April. Not always a reliable tactic in Syracuse.
Oh yeah...and I have to work too! I have a bookfair next week and an author coming in April to add to the stress.
Rob has is working 10 hour days house painting (inside of course) and spending nights at the studio painting for art shows and Alden Gallery. He does try to mark some time at night watching the Knicks...nobody knows why!
Ian has track after school, and when that ends he heads to the auditorium to volunteer with the stage crew for Corcoran's upcoming Music Man performance. In his spare time he does massive amounts of homework, fills out scholarship applications and essays, works at the Y and sees Erin. I am heading to SU this morning at 8 to pick him up after his 3 day stint of interviews, tours, seminars, etc. for the Coronat Scholar. He still hasn't heard from Cornell, Columbia or UPenn. They typically don't send out admission letters until March 31st.
I have massive amounts of work with the Corcoran PTSO; fundraising and planning After Prom. Not easy tasks in a school with 1600 kids and 1580 uninvolved parents. I am also on the Ted Grace Reading Grove board and our annual StoryFest is April 3rd. Last minute preparations are killing me...advertising, ticket sales, refreshments, student volunteers, meetings. I hope this is again successful. Last year we had a snow storm the night of StoryFest, this year we moved the date to April. Not always a reliable tactic in Syracuse.
Oh yeah...and I have to work too! I have a bookfair next week and an author coming in April to add to the stress.
Saturday, March 7, 2009
Tuesday, March 3, 2009
New Orleans Trip
Over break, I went on a trip down to the New Orleans area to help rebuild after Hurricane Katrina. We left on the morning of the first Saturday of February break, and drove in a van with 2 adults and 8 kids. We drove about ten hours the first day and slept on the floor of a church in Bristol, Virginia (NOT comfortable). The next day we got up and drove 12 more hours to Arabi, Louisiana, where we would stay for the rest of the trip. We stayed in an old hollowed out church filled with triple bunk beds. Quick stats on this place: 100 people staying, 4 showers, 2 toilets, which sucked. Every morning we would get up at 6 in the morning and drive to the Knights of Columbus hall to eat breakfast. The daily breakfast had fresh fruit, cereal, grits, sausage, and pancakes.
After breakfast we would get in our van and drive to our worksite. The place where we worked was the Islanos museum; we were repairing their ticket booths/snack shacks. They were rotten and the shutters were broken, and one was missing its roof. We had to bust out the rotten walls, add new ones, engineer a way to lock the shutters open and closed, and repaint the sheds. On top of this, there was a huge pile of old wood that had to be sorted. The good wood was stacked to be used in other build projects, and we broke up the bad wood and built a bonfire. This was what caused us to meet the first character of the trip; Charlito. Charlito is a carpenter from the area who restored old Cyprus wood to use in his builds because it was cheaper than buying new wood. In his thick Cajun accent he hilariously explained to us exactly what he would do with the "lumbah" that we left for him, and introduced us to his "adopted Mexican". During lunch on these workdays we would go to the house of a woman named Maria, whose home had been built from the ground up by the volunteer group we were with. As a form of repayment, Maria cooked lunches for the volunteers working in her area. She made delicious lunches of jambalaya and gumbo for us, and told us her Katrina story while we ate. When work was over, around 4 o’clock, we would go back to the church to shower and then head to the Knights of Columbus hall for dinner. All of the meals were made by the chef, named Ricey, that travels with the volunteer group.
On Thursday, instead of going to our worksites, we went to the local area high school and watched a presentation given by the students. Student ambassadors then paired up with us and we shadowed them during the school day. My ambassador was a sophomore football star named Johnny Ginart. Spending the day with him was funny because we spent zero time in class and instead walked around and butted into other people's classes. All of the teachers liked Johnny so we were allowed to do what we pleased. After school ended, we went with some of the students to a Mardi Gras Parade. The two parades that night were Chaos, a young but up-and-coming parade, and Muses, a classic parade in which all of the floats are filled with only women. As the floats went by people would throw beads, cups, Frisbees, plush toys, and assorted other things to the craziest people they saw.
On the next Saturday we set off to head home. Unfortunately for me, the person in the bunk below me had the plague, and halfway home I came down with the flu and pneumonia. I spent the night in Virginia throwing up, and the ride home after that was...uncomfortable. Overall despite the sickness I thought the trip was amazing. One of the most striking things about the trip was the widespread devastation. Even 3 and a half years after the storm, most people are still living out of trailers in their front yard or did not return to the area at all.
Pictures 1&2: These two houses were right across the street from one another. This was common in the area, one nice house followed by a gutted rotting house, and repeat.
Picture 3: This is Jackson Barracks, a national guard barracks that was right next to the homes above.
Picture 4: This is the concrete slab where a home used to be, but the home was washed away by the floodwaters, also on the same street as the houses above.
Picture 5: Maria.
Picture 6: This is the church where we lived for a week.
Picture 7: The living quarters.
Picture 8: The group and Rich. We spent half a day with Rich planting trees in pots, which you can see on the right side of the photos. The trees, after growing in a nursery for a year or two, are planted in coastal areas to break up floodwaters.
Pictures 9&10: The museum where we were working.
Picture 11: The sheds before picture, sadly I didn't get an after photo.
Picture 12: Cutting wood to hold the shutters open with.
Picture 13: The infamous Charlito.
Picture 14: Charlito's "adopted mexican", we never did get his name.
Picture 15: Float from the Chaos parade.
Pictures 16&17: Some of us at the parade, the short girl is from New Orleans.
Picture 18: A church in the Ninth Ward that we mudded and sanded for a day. The building used to be an old walgreens, but alot of the chain stores didn't come back, and this church bought the building and the members are restoring it while worshipping, with help from volunteers.
Sorry that this post is so huge, but there was so much stuff that I couldn't justify skipping.
-Ian
After breakfast we would get in our van and drive to our worksite. The place where we worked was the Islanos museum; we were repairing their ticket booths/snack shacks. They were rotten and the shutters were broken, and one was missing its roof. We had to bust out the rotten walls, add new ones, engineer a way to lock the shutters open and closed, and repaint the sheds. On top of this, there was a huge pile of old wood that had to be sorted. The good wood was stacked to be used in other build projects, and we broke up the bad wood and built a bonfire. This was what caused us to meet the first character of the trip; Charlito. Charlito is a carpenter from the area who restored old Cyprus wood to use in his builds because it was cheaper than buying new wood. In his thick Cajun accent he hilariously explained to us exactly what he would do with the "lumbah" that we left for him, and introduced us to his "adopted Mexican". During lunch on these workdays we would go to the house of a woman named Maria, whose home had been built from the ground up by the volunteer group we were with. As a form of repayment, Maria cooked lunches for the volunteers working in her area. She made delicious lunches of jambalaya and gumbo for us, and told us her Katrina story while we ate. When work was over, around 4 o’clock, we would go back to the church to shower and then head to the Knights of Columbus hall for dinner. All of the meals were made by the chef, named Ricey, that travels with the volunteer group.
On Thursday, instead of going to our worksites, we went to the local area high school and watched a presentation given by the students. Student ambassadors then paired up with us and we shadowed them during the school day. My ambassador was a sophomore football star named Johnny Ginart. Spending the day with him was funny because we spent zero time in class and instead walked around and butted into other people's classes. All of the teachers liked Johnny so we were allowed to do what we pleased. After school ended, we went with some of the students to a Mardi Gras Parade. The two parades that night were Chaos, a young but up-and-coming parade, and Muses, a classic parade in which all of the floats are filled with only women. As the floats went by people would throw beads, cups, Frisbees, plush toys, and assorted other things to the craziest people they saw.
On the next Saturday we set off to head home. Unfortunately for me, the person in the bunk below me had the plague, and halfway home I came down with the flu and pneumonia. I spent the night in Virginia throwing up, and the ride home after that was...uncomfortable. Overall despite the sickness I thought the trip was amazing. One of the most striking things about the trip was the widespread devastation. Even 3 and a half years after the storm, most people are still living out of trailers in their front yard or did not return to the area at all.
Pictures 1&2: These two houses were right across the street from one another. This was common in the area, one nice house followed by a gutted rotting house, and repeat.
Picture 3: This is Jackson Barracks, a national guard barracks that was right next to the homes above.
Picture 4: This is the concrete slab where a home used to be, but the home was washed away by the floodwaters, also on the same street as the houses above.
Picture 5: Maria.
Picture 6: This is the church where we lived for a week.
Picture 7: The living quarters.
Picture 8: The group and Rich. We spent half a day with Rich planting trees in pots, which you can see on the right side of the photos. The trees, after growing in a nursery for a year or two, are planted in coastal areas to break up floodwaters.
Pictures 9&10: The museum where we were working.
Picture 11: The sheds before picture, sadly I didn't get an after photo.
Picture 12: Cutting wood to hold the shutters open with.
Picture 13: The infamous Charlito.
Picture 14: Charlito's "adopted mexican", we never did get his name.
Picture 15: Float from the Chaos parade.
Pictures 16&17: Some of us at the parade, the short girl is from New Orleans.
Picture 18: A church in the Ninth Ward that we mudded and sanded for a day. The building used to be an old walgreens, but alot of the chain stores didn't come back, and this church bought the building and the members are restoring it while worshipping, with help from volunteers.
Sorry that this post is so huge, but there was so much stuff that I couldn't justify skipping.
-Ian
Reading out of my comfort zone....change again!
My reading tastes tend to children's books (no surprise there!) and mysteries...especially British authors. I patiently wait for Val McDermid and Peter Robinson to publish new books. I actually keep a list of about 15 authors and constantly scour the Internet for the publishing dates of the new books so I can be one of the 1st to reserve the book at the library. There is nothing worse than finding out a book has slipped through the cracks, reserving the book at the library and finding out you are #158 in the queue. Recently, the pile of books next to my bed diminished and I was forced 
to scour the stacks at the library for something to read.
Which is where I found this little beauty. I was first attracted by the illustration. The title jumped out next. While reading the first paragraph, I knew I had to read this! I 'm not a fan of short stories and I prefer books where someone dies within the first chapter, but this book summed up life for me so perfectly. Check it out!
to scour the stacks at the library for something to read.Which is where I found this little beauty. I was first attracted by the illustration. The title jumped out next. While reading the first paragraph, I knew I had to read this! I 'm not a fan of short stories and I prefer books where someone dies within the first chapter, but this book summed up life for me so perfectly. Check it out!
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