babies everywhere!

I never knew how much new life there was in the spring! There are the easy to see things like grass and trees, but it is a big time for animals, too! Yesterday I finally peeked into a nest that some birds built in an old and broken bird feeder hanging on the garage and it was full of tiny little birds! They are SO tiny and cute and ugly at the same time -- amazing!

Then, today, Mike was tearing a bunch of the damaged stuff off the west side of the garage and discovered a squirrels nest. He pulled it out because it was in the way, but then saw a baby, then another and another and two more!! They were SO scrawny and they didn't even have their eyes open yet! So, we put them in a cardboard box with a bottle of warm water and put the nest material over them and a couple hours later they were gone, so the mom must have gotten them and put them somewhere else.

We also have two nests in the eaves of our house where it is open a bit from re-doing the soffits and there are likely babies in there, too! Having never lived on a farm, it is kind of exciting to have all of this baby-animal stuff going on:)

school and things

Hi everyone,
Like Amanda, it has been a long time since I wrote -- thanks for the update mandas! How is coaching now that you have a few practices done? How was your appointment on Friday, mom? Dad mentioned that everyone was going to be home at some point for a meal....I hope it was nice! We went to somebody's house for a few hours for lunch and then came home and everyone took a two hour nap! It was absolutely splendid.

I thought that I might update you all on school stuff for me, in case you are curious. I met with three different professors about projects that I could work on while getting my master's (and they are basically funding my education through different grants that they have), but decided to work with this guy Sangwon who is in a very new field of study. He does some work with pollution prevention (changing what goes into production or finding a good use for a waste product in order to lessen pollution) and uses a lot of techniques that I came across in my research for my other thesis. He's also involved in industrial ecology, life cycle assesment, some network physics, and agent-based modeling (I thought I should throw some big terms in there to impress you even though I only have a slight idea what each on entails:) I am pretty excited about the project/thesis aspect of it because I get to be creative and hopefully do something beneficial and redeeming for the world rather than just change my own personal consumption habits. Some interesting things to go along with that are that 1. he wanted to know if i would be interested in doing a PhD because of the in depth nature of some of the projects and 2. he wanted to know if i was able to travel. This type of research is so new that I guess there are a lot of conferences for people to get together and learn from one another -- there is a conference in ann arbor, mi on the 20th and 21st of this month that he would have liked me to go to, but i told him that i would need a bit more notice for these types of things:) I'm not so sure about the PhD as that would end up being 4+ years, but we'll see. The traveling is a potentially exciting part of my schooling -- I think that grants/school would cover a lot if not all of the travel costs which would be nice. One other thing was that he invited Mike and I and the girls over for lunch on Saturday. He is married and has three kids who are 1, 3, and 5. There were two other student there, as well (advisees of his) and it was kind of cool. The 1 and 3 year olds are both girls so Mariah had a great time and we even spent over an hour at the park with them. It was hilarious, though, because Mariah is as tall as the 5 year-old boy! :) They were wondering if she was in school yet, etc., but we were like, nope, she's three. Anyway, if you are interested in reading about a project that Sangwon has worked on, check out http://minnesota.publicradio.org/display/web/2006/03/14/ecoindustry/ Does it sound like me??? I'm excited:)

I hope that you all are doing well!

Feeling Old

Well it seems I've been quiet for awhile so thought I'd give a slight update. I feel old. I feel like I have been getting beat up lately. A couple weeks ago playing basketball I was involved in a collision with another persons head. I tore up the inside of my mouth pretty good, poking one of my teeth out the front of my face just above my lip. Then this past thursday, a board feel off a wall I was working under--right as I was looking up at it. It hit me square in the face and broke off my already partially broken tooth. Now today after playing basketball my back feels very tight--it pretty much hurts wherever I try to sit or lay.

Besides that, things are going alright. We had Liz and Henry in town for the past week and it was fun. We played lots of Settlers (mostly Knights and Cities) and also watched a number of movies. One I recommed is Memoirs of a Gesha--a very interesting insight to another culture.

I was also excited, Henry and I finished veneering my speakers downstairs (we put on a Cherry wood veneer and stained them Sedona Red) and we also built a couple of speaker stands for the two front mains. They look fantastic, definately not a factory-finish quality, but usually the lights are out anyway, right?

I've got another hit and miss week of work coming up. Mostly side jobs that pay cash, so that is nice. Time to put mariah down for a nap!

shopping

Well, I enjoy having a conversation of sorts on the blog so I figured that I would post another interesthing article (out of Newsweek) if anyone is interested. Consider it food for thought and not that I am trying to make anyone change or say that they are living wrong. The author went for a year without shopping (except for food and some basics that are explained in the article) and then reflected on it. I find that sort of thing interesting because I am into simple living, so I just want to share.

In other news, Liz and Henry are visiting this week and we went to Prairie Home Companion this evening (the Garrison Keillor show). It was fun and nice to get out on a weekend night for a change:) It was decent weather today so Liz and I biked to a consignment store and I found a pair of jeans that might actually fit me (ever since having kids I have had a bear of a time finding jeans that fit how I want them to) so I am quite excited by that:)

On Thursday I went and talked to a professor at the university about potential projects for me to work on. Some of the research that he is doing is quite interesting (pollution prevention and using what is waste for one corporation to make another product that is useful) so I think that I could very much enjoy a stint in school (maybe then I'd be too busy to always post ecological things on the blog:)

How's the chincilla, Jos? How's volleyball, Amanda?

I have a funny story that you might appreciate, Jodi....The bank that we go to is in our grocery store which is nice for depositing checks, etc. and it has gotten to the point where one teller there knows that I often come in needing a deposit slip (she saw me coming one day and plunked one on the counter before I even asked). I was like, oh! my banker knows me:) Well, Friday I was getting groceries and realized just as i was about to pay that my bank card was not in my wallet so I was all prepared to bike back home with the kids until I realized, !! I bank here! maybe I can withdraw money, so I went over to the bank and of course it was the same teller and she was like, sure, you can do a counter check, so I did, but I just think that she must think that I am a ditz (which is sometimes quite true) but it just made me laugh and think about the many interesting people you come across....Oh, and I said a while back that i was going to reply to your post, and I apologize for not getting around to it....i'll get to it eventually....