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Monday, September 28, 2009

Will Work For Free

Yes, you read that right.  I am currently working for free, otherwise known as volunteering, at the Clements Library at UMich.  So far the two days a week that I have been able to drag myself away from my babies and try to reintroduce the adult part of my brain to the land of the living have been very exciting.  Well, exciting for me anyway:)
I have been lucky enough to get my hands on some pretty priceless manuscripts including a ship's log from the early 1700's.  There was an interesting diary entry from the author about a service he attended in Spain.  It was in Oviedo and the priest there told a story that day of a chest full of wonders that came to rest at the church.  Well that piqued my interest to say the least.  I did a little research and found out that the chest indeed existed and is still in the church to this day.  It was said to have contained the Sudarium, also known as the cloth that covered Christ's face from the cross to the tomb, hair from the Virgin Mary, a few pieces of money that Judas got for betraying Jesus, thorns from the crown of Christ, and the list goes on and on.  Basically anything that could ever have had any value in Christianity was in this chest, placed there by the disciples of the Apostles when they left Jerusalem.
So that was pretty cool...
After that I worked on a very small diary written by a 16 year-old girl who, along with her boyfriend and another couple, rode motorcycles on day trips in 1914.  On the surface this would seem unremarkable until you factor in the date and her age.  A woman riding a motorcycle at any age in 1914 was pretty rare let alone a teenager.
So now I'm on to British Papers from the 1770's just before American independence.  In it there are questionnaires that were sent out to the Governors of the colonies asking about everything from population to agriculture, imports/exports/, number of white citizens vs number of black and so on.  It was really interesting to read responses from the Governors who all praised the Queen in their letters (of course) and gave such detail in their responses that the fear the people had of the British was presented in a way I had never grasped before.
After I finish the British Papers it's on to letters, letters, and more letters written by Lincoln, Washington and Jefferson.  I can hardly wait!  Hopefully I won't get sidetracked onto something else but no matter what they give me I'm sure it will still be interesting.  Now if only I could figure out how to get paid for this...come on job  opening:)

Wednesday, September 23, 2009

Miles Turns 3 and other Breaking News



Well, I officially am the mother of a 3-year-old.  I can hardly believe how fast time is flying by.  I panic when I think about it too long.  Miles' birthday party went off pretty well, as usual I felt scattered throughout the entire party and then stressed for a while after it was over about what I could have/should have done better, who I didn't get to talk to, how I forgot to pass out the kids party prizes (and subsequently had to drop them off at their houses the next day:)  Que sera!


Unfortunately most of the pictures turned out dismal, probably because I didn't take them (a fact I won't repeat in the future), and therefore it is difficult for me to share many of them because they don't convey Miles' excitement and happiness which is what you really want to see right?








Here he is channeling Mick Jagger (note the obligatory hand on the hip whilst grasping the mic!)  Thank you Susan for the mic and guitar, he loved it!













                                                        Now it's a group effort..


















Two days later Mile's got to have birthday party round two with his bff Simone.  Which means the dynamic duo of Desmond and Thayer were brought together to wreak havoc and cause mischief.  Capturing them on film could win me some money some day (Have you seen the garbage that wins money on Americas funniest videos?? I think I could beat their "winners" any day of the week filming myself performing a sock puppet show) and I pledge here and now to not be as unprepared in the future as I was that day.  But I did manage to capture some great shots of the kids playing in still life and something about a frozen moment in time...it can be so much more magical than a movie depending on the eye of the viewer.


                                                                    Cute little buddies!











Thayer coming at me to see the camera!


So the kids had a blast together and it was a beautiful fall day but the week was far from over as we had a wedding in Pittsburgh to attend.  It was a great trip!  A very rare road trip with both my brothers and my mom (Matt was there too of course).  I haven't laughed that much in a while and it made me miss my brothers.  I often wonder what life would have been like if they had never moved away...


To my dear sweet baby Miles:  I love you so much I wish I could freeze every day with you and have them all repeat forever and yet I love watching you grow into such a happy, polite and hilarious little boy.  So maybe don't freeze, simply slow down a little:)

Friday, September 11, 2009

Raspberry Picking

I took the boys to Makielski's Raspberry picking a few weeks ago.  Miles loved it and Desmond is...well Desmond is 1 so he ate dirt and fell a lot:)


                                                                  My little men...

Still a wobbly baby





This was a really nice day with my boys.
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