June- Introduction

Since it is nearing the end of the month and I have not updated at all I will try to give a recap of what the heck we have been up to (and maybe it will be a good excuse of of my blogslacking). Since I am lazy I'll just publish the month of June in a series of lists and/or synopses. I'll try to put it in a logical order. So just keep reading until you have gotten to something you've already read. Unless, that is, you are totally bored. If that is the case this blog is not for you because you won't find anything interesting on it. Anywhere. Enjoy.

End of May/June: More Company

We didn't know this would be the case but in the last couple months we have had the most company at our house we have ever had in all our three years living here. You already know all about my sibling's visit. Then at the end of May my grandparents Burkhart flew into Saint Louis. We picked them up and they stayed the night at our house. The next day we took them to the Cathedral Basilica to see and enjoy its beauty. Then we headed to Normal, Illinois so that they could see their granddaughter (my cousin) Jessica's graduation. We all stayed with her parents, my Aunt Lynda and Uncle Dan. If you are ever in Normal stay with them. Even if there are ten other people staying in their house you'll still get top-notch hospitality and some tasty eats. It was a relaxing weekend in which we ate a lot of food and did a lot of sitting around talking and/or doing nothing. It was also nice to see my grandparents and get to have them visit me in Saint Louis.

Then a couple weeks later I was stalking people on Facebook when I get an instant message from an old friend named Tim. Tim and his family are long-time friends with Jonathan and Jonathan's family. Since Jonathan dropped off the face of the earth when he married me he didn't stay much in contact with Tim or any other old friends. (Tim did run off to Scotland for a few years though so Jonathan has a partial excuse.) Anywho, turns out Tim and his younger brother Nate and Nate's two friends are doing every guy's dream- traveling all around the country in an old motor home with no jobs, no responsibilities, for as long as they want (they plan to return in the fall) and playing music in the streets to earn some cash. After a Boise send-off concert they hit Portland, Seattle, San Francisco, Salt Lake, and Denver. Kansas City then St. Louis were next on their list. Tim, knowing we were in St. Louis, asked me if he could come see us on their way through. So long story short, the Great Northwest Secession (yes, they named their trip) spent some time with the Nelsons. We let them park their motor home in the back of the house. They came on a Thursday night and left Sunday morning.They pretty much entertained themselves. They walked from our house to the Arch, rode their bikes to the Zoo, and took late night bike rides around downtown. Friday night I made them dinner and then we hung out, talked, and watched Flight of the Concords. Saturday was my birthday (that will be separate post- shouldn't my birthday deserve a separate post after all?) but I had to work so Jonathan entertained them by taking them Frisbee golfing and then playing video games. It was fun to catch up with Tim and Nate and meet their friends- Ben and Sam. They claimed that they play music but I never did hear any from them. ( I did, however, get a free copy of Nate's CD) But I guess it's our own fault. They didn't need to wander around downtown playing music for food money because we fed them. I at least got a picture so I can prove they were in my house if they ever do get famous.
From Left to Right: Sam, Tim, Nate, Ben, pretending to be a "band"

If you would like to read Ben's perspective on their time here and more about The Great Northwest Secession you can click here.

June: Cooking, Music, and Books

As you know I am a picky eater. And fickle. That being said it is easy to understand why finding meals that I like is a chore. Once I do find meals I like I can get sick of them fast, so I am oftentimes looking for new recipes to try. It seems like this month has been one of those times. Just about every dinner Jonathan or I have made has been one we have never tried. Here is a partial list of the new recipes-
most of them came from my cookbooks or Taste of Home Magazines.

-stir fried scallops and pea pods
-chowmein chicken salad with turkey on biscuits
-volcano fold over pizzas
-chicken and penne dijon
-bacon cheeseburger buns
-hamburger macaroni and cheese
-mexican chicken manicotti
-ginger glazed pork chops
-chicken breasts in cilantro and parsley sauce
-stir fried basil chicken
-spicy sausage manicotti
-stromboli sandwiches
-ginger chicken

About 75 percent of those are keepers so I am happy about that. The next couple weeks I am going to try-

-creamy chicken enchiladas
-roast chicken with grape and blue cheese salad
-spicy nacho bake
-guilt-free mac n cheese
-sauteed chicken and peppers with coconut rice
-chicken salad in bib lettuce cups

I have also been on the hunt for some new music (I get tired of music fast too.) I found out I can check out 20 CDs from the library at a time! I had no idea because I figured it was the same as the 4 movie limit. I took advantage of that new information and went to town.
First the albums/bands I liked:
-Spoon- Ga Ga Ga Ga Ga and Gimme Fiction
-Bright Eyes- Cassadega
-Radiohead- In Rainbows
-Keane- Under the Iron Sea
-The Decemberists- The Crane Wife

I did not like:
-Neutral Milk Hotel
-Belle and Sebastian
-Nelly Furtado
-Jack Johnson

I haven't decided yet if I like:
-Death Cab- Narrow Stairs
-Arcade Fire- Funeral

I tried to get caught up on some reading and got a ginormous amount of books from the library. I have slowed down on the reading though. I'll have to get back on it.

I read:
-A Wrinkle in Time
-Clair de Lune
-A Single Shard
-Island of the Aunts
-Mirror Mask
-Flour Babies
-A Wind in the Door
-The Loud Silence of Francine Green

Currently I am trying to finish reading:
-Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy.

I still have these to read:
-Celandine
-Greenwitch
-A great and terrible beauty
-Book of a thousand days
-The love curse of the Rumbaughs
-The golden dream of Carlo Chuchio
-Over sea, under stone
-The MI strategy bank : 800+ multiple intelligence ideas for the elementary classroom
-The teenage liberation handbook : how to quit school and get a real life and education
-The well-managed classroom
-What Jamie saw
-Out of the dust

Were those the most exciting lists or what?!

June 14th: 23 Years

Yeah the actual day of my birthday wasn't the best. First I had to take the Praxis at 7 am- a high stress, seemingly no right or wrong answer, standardized test for teachers. I have to pass it to get my certification and to graduate as required by the State. I didn't study as much as I should have; I have heard too many people say they had to take it more than once. But when I took it it was easier then I expected so I am not sure if that was a good thing or a bad thing. After my test we stopped at the McBride's yard-sale and got some free dining table chairs (we only have two), which was a pretty good birthday present. Then we came home and I made some mini chocolate cupcakes to take to work. I wanted to have some fun on my birthday even if it had to be on the job, but I figured cupcakes would help.
I got a nice surprise though. Flowers delivered to me at work! Gerbera daisies in a short little green glass vase. (Why didn't I take a picture! Idiot!) I thought they were from a secret admirer or something. Turns out they were.... they were from my husband. Just kidding his admiration of me is definitely not a secret. Then I came home from work and went to bed. So yeah, not the best birthday day ever. But I am not too strict on celebrating birthdays on the actual day. Therefore Jonathan and I celebrated on Sunday by going out to lunch at Red Lobster for Shrimp Scampi, getting a new CD player for me at Best Buy (remember how I broke our old one in fits of rage?), and then eating some Breyer's Coffee ice cream. Plus I got some awesome presents.

From my darling mother in law:
-two cds (decemberists, and death cab)
-The Parent Trap on DVD
-some money to buy my favorite book, Jane Eyre
-there is one more on the way too!
Can you believe how she spoils me rotten?

From my darling parents:
-100 smackaroos

From my darling husband:
-56 kid's books (won on ebay)- all newberry honor or other award winning books and 90 percent which I have not read. (I have a collection going, you know)

Now I am going to have to use the birthday money to buy a bookcase.

From my darling friends Karen, Annika, and Lauren-
-a trip to Ted Drewes for a Fox Treat
-their lovely company in my home
-aren't they cute? Annika is on the left. Lauren on the right.



From my darling sister (who is dyslexic btw):
-unfortunately the package she sent was returned because she wrote my address number as 2337 instead of 2733.
-I LOVE YOU BROOKE!!!!!!
-I am sorry I just can't stop teasing you about this
I do believe in fairies, I do, I do!

Dear Readers,
I didn't mean to go over two weeks without blogging. Honest. I will be back soon. Check back for some exciting entertainment; hopefully tonight or tomorrow.
Thanks for your patience,
Sage

Evaluations

At the end of every semester college students are given forms to fill out to evaluate and rate the instructor and the course. If you ever had to do this you know it is a pain and you are so ready to be done with school that you just scribble something down figuring the instructor isn't going to read it anyway. Well you were wrong. Instructors do read the evaluations. And laugh at them. Then read them to their spouses. And they laugh some more. Jonathan got a significantly higher average score this semester so at least he is improving. Here are some notable things students actually wrote which I thought you'd enjoy.

This one was probably the nicest-

What is your overall rating of this instructor?
5 (on a scale of 1 to 5; 5 being excellent)

What is your overall rating of this course?
5

What was your overall opinion about the strength and weakness of the course?

I really enjoyed the class- I thought that the beginning in the Pre-Socratics made a lot of sense and helped to sort of ground the course. It helped to understand, at least to some degree, the relatively humble beginnings of Greek Philosophy and the heights to which it rose. I wish though we could have spent more time on Aristotle.

What was your overall opinion about the strength and weakness of the instructor?

I really appreciated Mr. Nelson's true desire to impart his knowledge of philosophy to us- his enthusiasm for the subject matter came across despite (or perhaps because of) his wry sense of humor. He was also willing to take questions/comments/arguments in the middle of a lecture and really encouraged participation by asking lots of pertinent questions.

Written comments are very important for improving a course. Please share any additional written comments here:

The time used to cover Plato was well spent- I really enjoyed the material. The breadth of information that had to be covered was staggering and Mr. Nelson did a great job covering it.

I would say this person was sucking up but you can't really suck up if you are anonymous.

This one would have made me cry if it was about me. It's also pretty funny-

What is your overall rating of this instructor?
1
What is your overall rating of this course?
1
What was your overall opinion about the strength and weakness of the course?

The course had great potential, but as we kept on going it kept getting more unorganized.

What was your overall opinion about the strength and weakness of the instructor?

- extremely boring
- shows no enthusiasm to teach
- paces back and forth and teaches nothing
- made me hate philosophy

Wow! Ouch. Could you get any meaner?

This comment sounds like Jonathan all right-

What was your overall opinion about the strength and weakness of the instructor?

Mr. Nelson is crazy. He lives in his own world, but he is very smart, and knows the material very well.

That cutting evaluation got us thinking. What if college professors got to evaluate their students in the same manner? It'd probably be something like-

What is your overall opinion of this students' performance in the course?

Between coming late to class, sleeping through the lecture, and constantly whining about the amount of coursework, this student was lucky to get a C-.

What is your overall opinion of the student?

Considering the complete lack of motivation, irresponsibility, and utter laziness portrayed by this student, how he ever got into college is beyond me.

Well that's the best I could come up with. I'll have to consult Jonathan's expertise on this one.

No this is not mine...

Remember how I heard the most wonderful news ever about my brother and sister coming to visit? Well, soon after that I got even better news than that, if you can believe it. You may call me AUNTIE Sage from now on....