Indianapolis Adventures

I'm still here in Indianapolis - at the Extension Galaxy Conference. In case you are wondering what the "galaxy" stands for - it refers to the fact that all of the Extension professional organizations are involved. So this conference serves ag educators, consumer family science educators, 4-H educators, natural resource educators...and there are even more. I think I heard that there are 2,400 people at this conference. Wow!

The workshops have been good, and there have been a fair number of activies that have just been plain fun (those are the things that I have shared in pictures here). Kim and I have been running every day - it's allowed us to see the fun stuff around town. We

ran along the canal today (it reminds me of the riverwalk in SanAntonio) - it was gorgeous. We've shared some good meals with friends, and done a little sight seeing. You'll see the skyline here...it is quite a nice one.

The odd thing has been the smell. Apparently the barametric pressure change here has released some sewage gases. Yep. It stinks - throughout the whole city...just in occasional sudden whiffs. The funny thing is the the acronym for the university here (you see the acronym everywhere) - it is IUPUI (Indiana University Purdue University at Indiana). The way the signage is done it looks like this IUPUI. Ha! PU is right :).

Here in Indianapolis

I am here in Indianapolis at the NAE4-HA Conference. Indianapolis is a really pretty city...not that I have had much time to play :). Lots of meetings and sitting during the day but the nights have been fun. Last night we went to the State Museum for a reception - where there was an Imax movie of racing and the Mario and Michael Andretti, tonight we saw a screening of Secret Life of Bees with Dakota Fanning. You would like that book Anna. It is a good one...and a good movie. I did drag Kim out this morning for a run - she loved it :). Note the picture here of Kim looking up at the skyline under one of the skyways (they seem to connect everything downtown).

Choosin' Health

Last summer our office began an educational campaign called Choose Health as an effort to promote childhood obesity prevention. I did a lot of the work developing the logo, taglines and promotional pieces...and I guess the messages began to slowly sink in. I started wearing a pedometer around (and realized that chasing a then 3 year old around isn’t really “active”), we began using sandwich plates for dinner plates, bought a treadmill and I started checking serving sizes on everything (drives my girls crazy I’m sure).
My new year’s resolution this year was to run a 5K. Although you may be thinking “no problem”, my 40 year old lungs thought differently. But after several months of training...I ran (along with Jeff, Anna and Cara) in the Tompkins County 4-H Duck Race in April. My goal was to finish the race—and I did it! We ran again in the Millard Fillmore 5K in July. And, Anna is running with the Cross Country middle school team this fall. I’m still trying to get 3 runs in a week...and enjoy running with my dog (sometimes I drag her, sometimes she drags me), and with Jeff on weekends. If you want to feel good about yourself, go ahead and challenge me to a race (5’2” doesn’t equate to “built for speed”)...I don’t mind.

Growing Stuff

This year’s garden, thanks to the plentiful rain, was incredible! I don’t think that I’ve ever had such luck or such beautiful tomatoes. It was touch and go for a while—a sheer battle between me and the cucumber beetles, but in the in the end we both got to eat a lot.
And recently I bought a neat little gadget called a Foley Mill that is allowing me no excuses for using up all of the nearly perfect tomatoes that are being produced this year. With the Foley Mill you cook tomatoes (or whatever you’d like) with skins, seeds and all...and then run the cooked product through the hand-cranked mill to squeeze out the good stuff and leave the skins and seeds behind. Come to think of it—I think my grandmother did the same thing with a cone shaped ricer and a wooden spoon, but it didn’t look like fun. My kids are fighting over whose turn it is to turn the Foley.
More on growing…Mr. Haight, one of Anna’s teachers, assigned the class to make a “project box” where they built a simple kit, and wrote directions for someone else to follow. There was much deliberation in our house about what kind of kit would be fun to do, and simple enough to explain. In the end Anna decided to build a kit for home-made chia pets—something that is always done as a hands-on project in the youth building at State Fair. She took lots of time to create her kit, label the contents, neatly write the directions and try it out. She was so excited to bring the project box in to school.
Well, when it came time to trade her box with someone else who was going to try it out, and grade her...she ended up with one of the boys...who doesn’t like projects. “This is stupid” he said as he added half of the soil. Anna tried to point out that he was supposed to decorate it. “I’m not going to do that, you can bring it home” he said. “Boys!” was her comment. She brought home his discarded, half-headed, chia pet and we got a chuckle as it began to grow.

Workbench Adventures—with Jeff and Company.

This summer saw a few projects completed around the house. I re-arranged the wood pile and made it much more attractive - no more pallet walls with big metal poles sticking out. Shelley and I finally painted the master bedroom; almost two years since we bought the paint for it. I kept waiting for my sister Beth to help me - but she moved to North Carolina. Also, got to add new parts to the John Deere lawn tractor, steering lever broke and battery went dead. While Shelley and the girls were at State Fair, Jeffy was my helper for a few projects. We had to paint the bedroom and closet doors in the bedroom, 6 doors in all. Jeffy helped with the power sander and the vacuuming of the doors after we sanded them. He really enjoyed the vacuum, especially when he saw a bug. He also liked to paint with the roller more than the brush, but he didn’t like getting paint on his hands. Good thing we still have baby wipes around. When he got bored, he rode around and around the garage with his bikes. Then, we had to patch the garage floor. There were numerous holes in the floor that needed fixed. I tried a new patching compound that worked really well. Now I can move the grill around without getting stuck in potholes. Finally, Cara and I (and Jeffy too) put together 1 of 2 Adirondack chairs that Shelley had gotten me for Christmas. (Hey, I was waiting for another piece and it just came in.) It is really comfortable and only one mistake (that you can’t really see). I should have taken some BOCES classes back in school instead of English or German. Come see for yourself :)

Owasco Lake “Staycation”

Some of you know that we found out this summer that Jeff’s dad was going to be busy undergoing chemotherapy for a soft tissue sarcoma (cancer) in his thigh. With this news and the outrageous price of gas...we thought this would be the year to stick closer to home.
While searching for a place to rent, we were asked to be guests at Ashland, a cottage owned by the Newhart family. What luck! We loved it, had such a nice time, enjoyed the company of friends and family the whole week, celebrated Anna’s and Jeffy’s b’days, fished, enjoyed the company of the Wells family—our friends who were renting just two doors up, kayaked, ate leisurely dinners as late as 8pm…
We spent most of the week wondering why we had never done this before. Owasco Lake is in our own little community, beautiful...and a destination for others. It may just be a destination for us again.
Special thanks to the Newharts for sharing their little slice of heaven with us! And to the Wells family for sharing in the fun and bringing the family out for some boating adventures. Did I mention that Anna got up on water skis?

Lookout Goober Ahead

Jeffy had a great summer, with lots of highlights including his wiggly eyes (see picture), and his millipede bracelet (see other picture).
His quote of the summer was, “I’m 4 and I don’t care!”. That sort of sums it all up anyway.
He is playing soccer this fall. If you are thinking—”wow, a four year old playing soccer!”. You are quite right. It is, as I see it, a strategy to keep him busy while Cara plays soccer (they play at the same field on the same nights) and to try to tire him out a bit.
He spent much of last Thursday with a cone on his head, sitting where one of the goal cones should have been, explaining to any other 4 year old trying to kick a goal that “he was a cone”.
So I guess we have a cone head.

Cara Meets the Jonas Boys

I often say that I’d like to skip to the end of the book of life to find out what happens with my children. Some things do seem predictable.
In Cara’s case, her pleasant persistence is what drives me crazy, but delights me at the same time.
When she heard that the Jonas Brothers were coming to the NYS Fair she started saving her money, writing letters to Jeff about why she should go, making lists of the things she would bring if she did go...the list goes on. But we held our ground as we didn’t really think she needed to go.
While at the State Fair I had a casual conversation with a friend who works for Ag and Markets, who had tickets for his daughter to go the concert. His comment was—I’d gladly give up my ticket for Cara to go.
Although I forgot about the conversation, he didn’t... in the end Cara did go with his daughter. The most amazing part were the seats in the meet and greet section. Good thing we had originally said no—eh?

What is NOT to like about September?

The end of the summer means State Fair for our clan. Shelley, and now the two girls, spent 13 days and 12 fabulous nights at the 4-H Youth Building—working, playing, eating, seeing old friends, and meeting a few new ones.
The girls worked in the incubation and Embryology exhibit where Anna got to hand out chicks and show small children how not to squish them. Cara’s talents for being a general fun loving goof-ball were quickly discovered and she was made the voice of Eggbert—the talking egg for nearly all of her working hours. When we heard Eggbert singing opera style—”Hellooooo, My Name is Eggbert, what’s your question?” We knew right away where Cara was.
One night at home...then it was back to school. Anna was nervous to start 7th grade in the middle school—lockers, bells, changing classes...yikes. But the team of teachers at the middle school set us all at ease. The middle school has “Houses” (think Harry Potter), where the students earn points for their house and are recognized for their individual and house achievements regularly. The teachers work together in a team approach to stay on top of behavior and academic problems. VERY different from the nuggies that I recall from my middle school science teacher for late assignments.
Jeffy started UPK this fall—attending every afternoon in Mrs. Denman’s class. Bless her heart. She has called twice to report what a delightful young man Jeffy is. She might have him confused with someone else—we aren’t sure...but he seems to love school, and Mrs. Denman.
Shelley, as usual, took the first two weeks of September off to recover from the Fair, and get a handle on the garden and house after a busy summer.