27 October 2011

grad school

Today, I turned in the last bits and bobs of my graduate school application for the MAE program. It should be noted that I only decided to apply less than two weeks ago; everyone was certain there was no way in hell I could get everything in on time. But I did. So HAH!

Reviews of applications begin on Tuesday. Here's to hoping that I'm accepted!

16 October 2011

city museum

I made plans several weeks ago to go to St. Louis and talk to UMSL about their teaching program. And because I've been to St. Louis many times for school field trips, I know that there are quite a few fun things to do. About a week before we went, Camden and I sat down at the computer and looked at pictures and videos of the different places I knew: the science center, the magic house, the zoo, and the city museum.

From pictures and videos, the city museum was the obvious choice. Tunnels to crawl through, slides to slide down, gorgeous artwork, a bus perched precariously on the rooftop, etc etc! The city museum is a cross between a museum and a GIANT indoor playground. (Almost) Everything is hands on.

Of course, the week before we went, Camden came down with the pox. I was really worried that he wouldn't be able to go... Thankfully, however, he was deemed contagious no longer! So off we went!

My trip to UMSL was a waste, because it turns out that everything they had to tell me I could have found online. (Just want to say that when I called, the person I talked to said it was very hard to explain over the phone, and I should schedule an appointment to come in and talk. Thanks, person!)

Then on to the city museum! (And lucky for us, rooftop access was FREE that day. YES!)






A slide made of rollers (like rolling pins). Very bumpy and very uncomfortable! Camden loved it, though.



The fossil, bug, and skeleton room. The walls were covered with tons of displays of pinned insects. There was a nifty diorama of dinosaurs and a jungle area. And there were skeletons, including a cat skeleton, which was both cool and kind of creepy.



If it wasn't for all the other fun and awesome stuff, I'm fairly certain Camden would have stayed in this room much longer than he did.



They also had a room of architecture elements (I'm assuming they were pulled from buildings about to be torn down). Camden was not nearly as enamored with this room as my mother or I.



This column is in the food court area. Cam has a thing for frilled lizards, so he absolutely loved it. It hovered over us as we sat and had some snacks (we were planning on lunch, but the food was ridiculously over priced... What can I say? I'm cheap!)



The roof! See the school bus? The front end is hanging over the side of the building... 11 stories up. Have I mentioned I'm terrified of heights?



Oh, there's also a giant sculpture of a praying mantis. Why? I have no idea!



Do you see me? I crawled up the tiny stairs into the wire cage, which is perched on the roof. Again, I'm not good with heights, so I was pretty shaky the entire time. LOL It was fun anyway!

15 October 2011

to be a witch

To be a witch is to...

love and be loved

know everything and nothing at all

move among the stars while staying on earth

follow the moon

change the world around you and yourself

live with the earth, not just on it

dance and sing and hold hands with the universe

share and give, while receiving all the while

BE magic, not just perform it

be honourable or nothing at all

accept others

harm none

know what you feel is right and good

see beyond the barriers

honour the gods and yourself

be one with the gods

study and learn

be the teacher and the student

acknowledge the truth

be truly free

Found an image with this listing on it, except the listing was in a super random order (and it likely still is even after my tweaking) and had some grammatical errors... so I fixed it up. Every time it comes up (with a new person) that I'm a witch, they tend to ask me what that entails/what I believe... I'm thinking I should print this stuff out on business cards to hand out to the nosycurious people who should really just mind their own business.

09 October 2011

joys of the pox

Camden has chicken pox (as we well know). Since we'd be visiting my parents next weekend anyway, I decided that to save both my (and Camden's) sanity, we'd just extend the trip by a weekfew days. In the Ville, it was just me and Camden. And since he was ordered by the doctor and the woman from the health department to remain at home, no exceptions, we were both stuck at home. (I failed to ask them how I was supposed to buy groceries for the week if I, as a single parent, couldn't a) take him into the store with me, b) take him with me and leave him in the car, or c) leave him home (alone). But I digress.)

But at my parents, there would be three adults available for Camden-watching. Huzzah! Not to mention the acres of people-less land that Camden can enjoy, even if he is poxed up. So away we went!

Fun that we've had so far:

-Purging my room at my parents' of junk and old stuff

-Wading in my dad's new pond (he just built it a month or so ago, so it only has about a foot of water in the bottom of it. We need some rain so it'll get some water in it!) and throwing mud balls at each other

-Playing with Cat and my parents' dogs

-Making a mess in the living room with trains and monster trucks! (Camden's fun)

I'm planning another doctor's visit for Cam on Wednesday, to (hopefully) get the go ahead to take him in public. We've been planning a trip to St. Louis on Thursday for a few weeks now, and I know he'll be super disappointed if he doesn't get to go. I've once again marked his belly spots with marker (orange this time, so I guess he's fire belly, with his red spots and orange circles) to keep track of new spots. Praying and hoping for no new ones. If we go 24 hours without any new ones, he ought to be in the all clear! (But we'll still get the doctor's okay, I think. I REFUSE to be responsible for someone getting the pox.)

07 October 2011

christmas belly

Camden has the pox! Chicken pox. Despite being vaccinated against it (okay, only halfway so, but still) and not being around anyone who has it, he's covered head to to in itchy red spots. Last night, I was still thinking (hoping!) that they might be bug bites, so I circled them with a green marker (it was all I could find!). Have you heard of this? Circle the spots with a marker, then check the next day to see if there are new spots, and voila, it's chicken pox if there are more or voila, it's probably not chicken pox if there aren't. Well, we woke up this morning and there were new spots.

Voila.

Luckily, I had scheduled a well-child check up for him for today. So we went in, they made us sit in a private waiting room, then took us to the exam room where we sat for an hour before the doctor got there. She did the well-child stuff, then looked at his spots. "Yep, it's chicken pox."

Great.

So he and I are both out of school for the next week. He may be out of school for even longer: I'm not sure what his school's policy on chicken pox is, if he just has to be not contagious, or if all his crusties have to be gone, too. Either way, once he's not contagious, at least I'll be able to drag him to class with me.

(And just in case you didn't get it, christmas belly is because of the red spot and green circles on his belly.)
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