This is my last fall semester. Last for a while at least. I will eventually (or perhaps not so eventually) go back and get my masters, or something. Maybe I’ll just be so bored with all my free time that I’ll start taking classes again. Who knows.

With my current job, at a university, I have the luxury of just taking classes or auditing. I don’t have to worry about tuition or fees. Just an overly obnoxious form that I have to hunt down my boss and have a “chat” with him about my classes before he’ll sign. Actually that makes it sound like it’s awful. It’s really not. My boss, he’s pretty cool with all this.

My current countdown stands at 3*. There’s an asterisk because the actual count is 6. I requested incompletes in my 2 classes last spring. One of those classes has one project left. It would be done if said university had not deleted the software I needed. *sigh* So that is on hold and thankfully my instructors are super understanding. The other class? Um, yeah I was supposed to work on completing over the summer, but that didn’t happen. I have until the end of this semester to do that. *gulp*

My plan for the summer had been to not take classes. Until I found out that I could graduate in MAY 2011. GRADUATE! Like BE DONE! I’ve been taking classes since… (runs off to check unofficial transcripts…) Summer 2003. I’m vaguely burned out and I think I’m allowed to be. I dare you to tell me I’m not. I won’t listen anyway.

I don’t know how I’ve been working full-time, taking classes part-time, buying and handling a house, among the other things that get thrown at me. Please don’t ask me. If I think about it, it just falls apart. I just do it. I don’t have a choice. Well, I do. I always have a choice, but the other options were very much less desirable.

Summer, right…distracted much… I ended up taking 2 classes in summer mini 1. Somehow I ended up already having done much of the work for these classes. That was super easy. Then I was talked into taking a summer mini 2 class. Silly Beth. Again I requested an incomplete and I have until the end of this fall term to finish.

For those of you playing along at home, that’s 2 active classes and 3 incompletes that I’m finishing up on my own time. It’s going to be December before I know it.

She’d hand me the list and some cash. My route to the store would take me through backyards and across a dry creek, unless I had the wagon. Then I’d have to follow the main road that had no sidewalks. Once I even took my sister and brother in the wagon with me. They would have been 3 and 2 years old.

I remember getting all the way to the store one time and meeting a lady from our church. She was leaving with her groceries and wanted to give us a ride back home. I thanked her, but knew that I’d just have to walk back to the store to buy the groceries anyway.

I’d walk the aisles, picking out the items on the list that I recognized from our pantry. I didn’t know how to shop. I didn’t know about prices. More than once I had to make the call on what to put back when I didn’t have enough cash. I pretended not to see the looks.

In a way I was glad no one ever offered to help. I don’t know what I would have done. I know I would have felt even more sick to my stomach being indebted to someone in that situation. I knew we lived in a big house but I knew we were dirt poor. I was so scared someone would find out.

I don’t want you to think my mom was mean or uncaring. I think she was doing the best she could with what she had. I think she made some tough decisions that maybe didn’t turn out like she had planned. I think that maybe I turned out okay anyway.

Second, Elle and I had a fantastic time in our first 5k. Elle’s goal was the run the entire thing, and she did! She was fantastic. My goal was just to finish. I wanted to run as much of the course as I could, and I started out strong. The hills did me in. Doesn’t matter! I finished. I had fun. Everyone was smiling!

The best part is that I got to run with some really great friends. Plus I am looking forward to the next race!

Okay. Here is the part you’re waiting for. The winners. As a thank you to everyone who donated we had some prizes to raffle off. Three tickets to the Pittsburgh Zoo & PPG Aquarium and two $10 Amazon gift cards.

Zoo Tickets:

1. Moose
2. Uncle Ken
3. Anonymous (But I know who you are.)

Amazon Gift Cards

1. Belinda
2. Sue

Congratulations! We’ll be emailing winners tonight and tomorrow to get addresses. We’ve also got a stack of mini tutus to mail out, so we’ll be emailing for addresses too!

Thank you again. And thank you to Tanner!

About a bazillion red flags went off in my head, but I mostly kept them to myself. The Boy is generous, sometimes to a fault. If he can help he will and that’s great. Like, it’s already mid afternoon there, hotels keep credit cards on file for charges, why would he email friends individually instead of a mass cry for help, why…

He sent an email back with some questions only his friend would be able to answer. He asked me how to make a call overseas. I’ve only ever called overseas from Germany to home, but I have friends who know this stuff. It took me almost 4 tries to get him to just call his friend’s cell.

His line of thinking was, international call, mugged friend probably doesn’t have phone anymore, wasting time, need to help. And I get it, and he was making sure it wasn’t a scam before he sent anything. Still he had the Western Union webpage up.

I finally convince him that the call won’t cost us anything. It took him a second to see my line of thought. It’s probably a scam, twitter is telling me it’s a scam, the friend is probably still asleep, in bed, at home, in Pittsburgh, just call what do you have to lose.

He calls, the phone rings, the friend answers, “Oh, it’s you!?”

Yeah, totally a scam. If he had just listened to me 30 minutes ago I could have gone back to bed. Sleep, it’s a precious thing.

So cute and fuzzy!

Unfortunately, one of those baby birds refused to eat. You can probably guess which one, even from that picture there. We did everything we could really, but that doesn’t make it less sad.

Bird Watching

Even Morgan liked hanging out with the bird, affectionately known as ‘PEEPACHEEP!’, Peep for short. I’m pretty sure Morgan doesn’t realize this visitor is a bird. All she knows is Peep peeps a lot, and loudly. However, nowhere near as loudly as the conure parrot The Boy has back at his parents’ house.

By May 26 you could really see a change in Peep. At that point we still referred to it as him simply to avoid confusion with Morgan being a she. Peep started getting some real feathers and loosing some baby fluffy feathers.

Strutting for the Camera

I woke up early one morning about a week ago. Peep was awake but not yet peeping for food, but I opened her cage anyway and she jumped over to the bed and nestled in with me. There I am, cat curled up on one side and baby bird nestled into my neck on the other. Peep had enough after a few minutes and jumped back over to the window, but missed. She managed to mangle her one wing and break it. It was limp and she dragged it. I felt and still feel like the worst bird mama in the world.

We’ve babied her, more than we probably would have. We’ve definitely kept her longer. If she hadn’t broken a wing we would have been able to let her go already. She’s been eating baby food (beef in broth and chicken in gravy – yes I get the irony) and more recently meal worms. It’s so cool to watch her hunt them!

She hung out with me all this evening and even started jump/flying around a bit. Small leaps from one level to another. Then when The Boy came home she was all dancey for him. She lurves to tap dance on the mini cookie sheet we have for the toaster oven. So he put water in it, just enough to cover the bottom. She went nuts! It was great! After her bath she jumped up on top of the toaster oven and start preening, spreading all her feathers. For modesty’s sake I didn’t take a picture of that. I’ll just say she is definitely a she!

Bath Time

I’m just looking at the differences in Peep now. Her beak has changed, not only colors, but in strength. She also lurves to nibble on everything, ears, earrings, noses, lips, you get it. She’s tested every cables on both of our desks and reports back that none of them are in fact worms. Something I’m happy about but she’s probably pretty disappointed.

Another thing; worms are WAY more expensive than baby food!

Psst! More pics on Flickr.

This event runs from July 17 at 10am until July 18 at 10am. So, yeah come walk with us. Please? Don’t make me beg. It’s not pretty. GIVE US YOUR LEGS, ahem, please.

Sign up here: One Feet, Two Feet, Red Feet, Blue Feet

(Come one, you have to sign up now, we have the most awesome name for this!)

UPDATE: I realize this overlaps with the Bucco Tweetup on the afternoon of July 17, but if we can borrow your legs for an hour sometime before or after that… plskthx.

This evening started with the congestion. Just one side of my face though. At least everything is, um, clear… in color I mean. Yeah, gross I know. I just know that it’s not an infection. Tomorrow I try allergy pills. Oh, my life is so fun sometimes!

Walking into the room I was so happy to see so many green shirts!

I was disappointed in the general “Not in my backyard” attitude many of the neighbors had. That being said it was important for everyone to be heard. I think there was a balance in what was said; some for, some against this location, but no one outwardly said the treehouse shouldn’t be built. I understand there will be an increase in traffic, but I believe that will happen anyway. Many of the people I spoke to after the meeting ended said they walk to the parks. Many ideas, alternates, and anecdotes were presented and there is still much to consider.

It was nice to hear the people remembering Kate and Peter, which is who the treehouse is for. It seemed a lot of people lost track of that.

What I walked away with was that people are in general happy with the treehouse idea and it’s very important that we all work together to find the right place for this so that many many generations of children can benefit from it. In all I think that Kate and Peter would be most happy with that.

So, a big thank you to Amy and her family. Thank you to Ginny for letting us all know and reminding us about this meeting. Thank you to all the green shirts and in-spirit green shirts that came out in person or on twitter to support this project.

Photo by LadyGuinevere!

We’ve never met, but you’ve touched my life. Yesterday some friends and I ran a 5k just outside of Pittsburgh, PA in a beautiful, but very muddy, park called Hartwood Acres. It was pouring down rain. Everyone was drenched, even though we were all huddled under umbrellas or canopies. Despite the rain, lightning, and thunder – everyone had a big smile on their faces. Five hundred people registered for this race and four of us were wearing tutus. For you.

We thought of you while we were training. We thought of you while we were running the trail. And every single time a person came up to us and said, “Hey, I love the tutu. And that you guys are running this race in them is fantastic!” We thought of you and told them they were Tutus for Tanner.

This was my first ever race and I’m pretty sure I’ve caught this running bug. I’ll be wearing my tutu in the next race, and the next. And I will send you pictures. I just wanted to say thanks for inspiring me to live in the right now.

Thank you.