Holiday Cheer for One and All

It's in this time of year that it seems to be evident in how much we have and all that we have been blessed with. In realizing this, it is also important to think of others that do not have as much as we do - those in need.

Our classroom is sponsoring a little 6 year old kindergardener (from a low socioeconomic school in Chicago) whose wish was to get a Bratz doll of her very own. Each student has brought in a dollar in order to contribute to her request to Santa. I had no idea how they would approach this as they are 6th Graders and many of them have not yet discovered the world that exists for them outside the realm that they know.

I was pleasantly surprised when they broached this with open arms. They thought that our little girl sounded so cute and some even began to offer up more than a dollar to help out other children at the school. They asked me what religion she was in order to get the appropriate Holiday decor on their little notes to her that will be sent with her gift. Several children said that they couldn't believe that her family wasn't able to buy her gifts themselves. I was stricken and touched by these thoughtful, outside of the box statements that my lovelies were able to make about a little girl that they didn't even know. I am so proud of them!

Another teacher and I chose to pick up a few extra kids on our own to sponsor as we found out that many children still had not been selected a sponsor. We found out that if children didn't get sponsored, it was the teachers, faculty, and staff at that Chicago School who meet the remaining wishes - what dedication!




Jed went with me to Target last night to purchase the gifts for my classroom's sponsored child and another little 4-year old girl. I had a lot of fun picking out size 4-T Pajamas and matching slippers with a little baby doll for her to play with. We also found the requested Bratz doll and found a pink hat with matching mittens. I can only imagine what more each little girl would need this Christmas that they don't have.

I found such joy shopping in this way, and I would gladly do it again next year. If you have the opportunity to do something like this through a church or some other organization, I would highly recommed it. It's worth it to make someone else's Christmas all that much better.

Bandaids and a Manicure

Two stories of the week:

1. Carolyn and I found a mysterious mess of bandaids on our printer this past Wednesday. We took these pictures for evidence, but so far no one has fessed up.




It gave us quite a chuckle, however, thinking that this had to have been done in the middle of the class stealthily as neither of us noticed the mess until the passing period. There must have been at least the shells and wrappings of 5 to 8 bandaids strewn about. The ziploc bag holding the bandaids had been nicely attached to the wall, but after this fiasco, it was no longer in its usual residence.

2. I made it for 20 days straight of daily flossing. This is a habit that I have been attempting off and on for years. Though I am still not quite as 'hooked' and excited to do it as I should be, at least it is a step in the right direction. My reward: a manicure! Whoo-hoo! I got a burgundy color that is rich and delightful, perfect for fall and winter. Flossing not only paid off for my pearly whites; my hands were happy as well.

p.s. I had to set a timer and prop the camera between my elbows to get both hands in the picture...what lengths it takes to get a picture for blogging!

Happy Thanksgiving!

Hello all! We wish you a Happy Thanksgiving wherever you may be! Fun facts about our little trip so far.

1. It only takes one hour with public transportation to get to O'Hare on one of the busiest days of travel of the year.

2. When a flight (not ours) has to take off and then land again due to something going on in the plane, all runways at the airport have to be closed down until it safely lands.

3. When there is a back up of planes, a 777 plane does not have first priority in take off because it needs extra space on the runway.

4. In order to best appease passengers, throw in some movies, and you won't hear a peep.

5. If you would like to reduce the cooking time of a 24-pound turkey, buy a turkey bag and it will carve off two hours! Wow!

Happy Thanksgiving!

Viva Las Vegas

Jed and I went for a brief weekend trip to Vegas over the weekend. Here is a collection of some of our pictures. I don't know how to get the song off of the slide-show, so you may want to mute it. (The song doesn't fit very well). I promise I will get better at these in the future! Enjoy!

Halloween!

The family out on the driveway in our lovely costumes. We didn't do much scaring with our outfits on Halloween.

Carving a pumpkin! Go mom and Jed!

Marshie got into the festivities in her little costume. Too bad she could hardly move and spent her time in disguise frozen in front of the heater.
Our pumpkin on display. Happy Halloween!

Day #1 of Learning at the Museum of Science and Industry Museum

I feel so lucky! I applied to do a professional development program at the one and only, great Museum of Science and Industry here in Chicago. Today, we explored nature and activities in which to guide our students to appreciate and observe nature (no matter what the environment you may be given).

We saw a presentation on "CO2 and You" in which there was a large globe and we could see the effects of pollution, temperature, and other items on our world. It is definitely worth seeing if you have the chance.

In general, it was a fantastic way to spend a Friday! Yea!

Science Fun

Skittles: Try This!
Put a Skittle in water with the 's' side facing up. Not only will you see it virtually lose over half of its mass in a mere 5-7 minutes, you should notice another cool surprise as well!

Coke vs. Diet Coke: Try This!
Put a can of Diet Coke and Regular Coke in a container of water. (You can use your sink or bathtub filled up if you would like). Observe whether they sink or float.
Try and figure out why each can did what it did.

Yes, I am a nerd. I love science. I love math. I love to share it with those around me! Happy experimenting!

Marit and Benj!

Marit and Benj got hitched this weekend in Chicago. Jed and I were able to be a part of their special day.

After the marriage ceremony, there was a processional across Foster Ave. to Hamming Hall. No processional is complete without bagpipes and bagpipers in kilts. Though they are not pictured here, you can get a taste of the day outside and the adorable couple.

Arriving at Hamming Hall.
Oh my goodness, there were cupcakes galore! Yum! Marit is a huge sweets lover, and there is no surprise here with the assortment of goodies for one and all. Let me tell you that everything was fabulous, especially the cupcakes. If you were lucky enough to get a chocolate cupcake, there was a surprise hostess-like cream filling that was so good!
Candy Jars of some of Marit and Benj's favorite candies.

Jed, Nathan, Sanne, Barbara, and Anders enjoying the food.

Me and my hubby.
The toasts were given by several special people to Marit and Benj. One memorable story that her brother told was about how as a little girl Marit was a wanderer around camp in NH. Her parents had a shirt made that said return to the campsite. Now, it has been crossed out and says if found, return to Benj - really cute!

Getting lifted in celebration on chair during the first folk dancing number.

There was more dancing that ensued, and it was a lot of fun. Congratulations to the newlyweds, Marit and Benj!

Retreat at CPBC

Jed and I were just gone over the weekend with our lovely jr. highers to Cov. Point in the UP....What a weekend!




It started on Friday with our departure from the church. Jed and I lucked out with a van full of five girls, Greta, us, and lots of luggage while the other van had four leaders, and ten very excited campers.



We arrived at camp very late that Friday, and on Saturday we made it out to the island to enjoy the summery-fall weather.

We took ourselves and darlings out on the pontoon boat to travel to our destination around a mile away: the island. On the island, Jed and I were given the duty of supervising crayfish hunting/hanging out in the water (yes, it was warm enough outside for us to be doing this...) This is the life!

We played games out in the big field and in the Tab. In one game, kids played hot potato with a shoe and had to put cotton balls on their faces if out. In another, Colby played the sinister "Mustachio" and ended up getting thrown in the lake at the end of the game.

We ate outside for a barbeque. It was fantastic! We love Cov. Point!

Fog Rolling

Stumbling out of bed and looking out the window this morning, I noticed a darkness and mysteriousness outside unlike mornings I have seen in a while.

It almost seemed to be the middle of the night still and here is was - 6:30am.

I turned on the tube: today's forecast: decent temperature and FOG.

Foggy it was.

Driving in the car this morning, I was inundated with fog creeping up my windshield as I cruised along. I tried to stop it by turning my air conditioning on and off again, but as it was a cool morning air conditioning was not the best solution. Argh!

I couldn't help but wonder if there was a better solution to alleviating foggy windows in the car. I am sure there is a way. Oh well, I guess I will just have to hope for less fog tomorrow.

The Hair We Wear

It is always so hard to know when the time has come to finally get the inevitable haircut. For women, it is probably easier to just let your hair grow and grow without much thought whatsoever. No one comments to tell you that your hair is getting too long, while in the mean time, you do all that you can do to throw your locks into a 'do' that is boring, plain, and possibly outlandish if you let loose what your ponytail really contained.

I go back and forth often about where to get my hair trimmed, chopped, or just plain updated, and I keep going back to the direction that my pocketbook might not be happy with me for.

This summer, I chose to get my hair cut at a bad time. Ladies, do NOT get your hair cut when you feel out of sorts. Believe me, it will end up making you feel worse rather than better. Unfortunately, my decision was during the time in which Jed was gone on the Mission Trip. I felt like a fresh cut would do just the trick in order to distract me from missing my hubby. However, when in the middle of my haircut, my hairdresser warned me that her dog was at the vet about to arrive out of surgery and there might be a slight chance that she would need to pick up the call from the pet during my cutting, I knew there was trouble.

Of course, the phone happened to ring about three times, and each time, she loudly asked the phone picker-upper if it was the vet. Obviously distracted, she managed to only cut one side of my longer/mini bangs. I had to politely ask her to cut the other side to match. In addition, after announcing that I was finished with my hair she brushed me off, and stood me up to look in the mirror at the finished product. My hair was uneven. Argh!

I hate having to ask any hairdresser to fix my hair, and I asked her if she thought that the cut was a little bit off, and she said, "I don't know, it's your hair." Yes, it is my hair, but she is the professional. In the end, she ended up taking small chunks and hacking them off until things looked okay. I got into the car frustrated, annoyed, and ready to pull out my hair.

So this is what I think of right now when I am thinking of going to get my hair cut within the next few months, and let me just say that I could do without another experience like that one.

This Week

Two Highlights of the week:
1. The start of Youth Group.
















2. Getting Thursday off from school.

Jed and I found ourselves driving with the top down driving to the Museum of Science and Industry. We were able to eat a lunch in a park close by. In the museum, we went crazy exploring many areas around the museum.

We went on a coal mine tour, learned how to make a polymer strongly resembling 'gak', looked at genetically altered frogs who had glowing green eyes, used the snowboard and skiing simulators, learned about toy creation, and walked through a 'circus' just to name a few things.

One cool thing we had both always wanted to try were the two wheeled scooters that we both had seen cruising around the city. We were told to sign a waiver 'just in case' and we got to tool around in a little area of the museum. It was harder than it looked to ride these things. At first you shake so much that you feel like you will fall right on your face. Luckily, we made it through and got the hang of it, and it ended up being quite a fun ride.

Jed got really excited about both the mini cities of Chicago and Seattle. They were perfectly proportioned down to size, and there were trains racing back and forth between the two cities. Fascinating.

The submarine downstairs was really cool as well. This was the captured U-505 German Sub that the US took over many years ago. I liked the video that they showed displaying how the submarine got to be where it is in the new wing of the building. It used to be housed outside the museum, but it was moved in 2004 because of damage that was shown to be starting on the outside of the sub.

Thought of the Day

In logging into Chase today, I noticed that our recent payment was posted. They always say "Thank You for Your Payment!" no matter what the payment size.

Wouldn't it be cool if the number of exclamation points matched proportionally to the size of the amount you just paid?

For instance, maybe 100 dollars would get you a THANK YOU FOR YOUR PAYMENT, while 500 dollars would be THANK YOU FOR YOUR PAYMENT!!. If you pay something off into the thousands it might be THANK YOU FOR YOUR PAYMENT!!!!!!! as they would be really excited for you.

Alas, I suppose the generic nature of banks and payments does not allow for this cheer you on to pay up enthusiasm. But, oh what fun it is to think about.

101st Post

Things are finally settling down at the Bassett household. Yea! Here is what our life has been up to these past few weeks.



Winnetka Cov.(The Old and Young Team) and Ravenswood Cov. played in the championship game. It was a close match and tension ran high. The Ravenswood Team ended up victorious. They got to keep the very large travelling trophy for one more year. Congratulations guys, there is always next year!

Ben, Jed, and I travelled to Duluth the first weekend in September. We spent quite some time hanging out in the car and enjoyed every moment of it. Driving through Wisconsin was quite warm, and we coped with our windows down. Ironically as we drove over the bridge to Duluth, the temperature dropped almost ten degrees and we found ourselves in quite a fog. The three of us needed a little bit of a warm pick me up, and stopped by a local Caribou for coffee and a chocolate muffin. A walk around town soon followed.

Jed figured out a feature on our camera to take a picture as if it was snowing, and he captured this Poe-like photograph as we were walking along the riverish area.
Homesick for Chicago, we ate with friends at the local restaurant, Old Chicago. Good food, not quite like the pizza we get can get back in our hometown, but it sufficed for the evening.
And of course the highlight of the weekend was the wedding of Aaron and Aimee. The day could not have been more perfect. Blue skies, nice temperature, a pleasant breeze running through the air. Gorgeous. Aaron and Aimee looked so happy, and Jed and I were happy to be a part of their new start of their life together.

Other than that, there has been teaching, subbing, festing, hanging, fellowshiping, jr. high commencing, running, walking, and just plain chilling. A lot. But, what fun it is.