Drumroll please....
We've just gotten the first set of test results for Josh's homeschooling. He got an 80% on the Algebra Test, and 82% on the Civics test, and...
a 98% on his English test!!! :)
Friday, September 30, 2005
Blogger Jennell posts at 9:24 AM CST
Wednesday, September 28, 2005
Blogger Bill posts at 7:51 PM CST
Hurricane Katrina Aftermath
I know this has nothing to do with anything Lambert, Polacek, Dwyer or even DeWeese but I have to post this.
Sixteen people from our church,including Pastor Chuck, went down to Biloxi, MS to help with the clean-up effort. Our pastor keeps a personal blog in addition to the church one. The title of this post is a link to his blog, it has a couple of pictures of the work they are doing there.
BTW: we are accepting donations at church to help with the rebuilding efforts at:
Reuinon Church
Relief Effort
PO Box 1238
Frankfort, IL 60423
Sixteen people from our church,including Pastor Chuck, went down to Biloxi, MS to help with the clean-up effort. Our pastor keeps a personal blog in addition to the church one. The title of this post is a link to his blog, it has a couple of pictures of the work they are doing there.
BTW: we are accepting donations at church to help with the rebuilding efforts at:
Reuinon Church
Relief Effort
PO Box 1238
Frankfort, IL 60423
Sunday, September 25, 2005
Blogger Bill posts at 9:47 PM CST
Welcome Joanne
We finally have all four Brothers and Sisters signed up on the blog. Welcome Joanne!!
We hope to hear from you soon. maybe you will find something to say to us.
We hope to hear from you soon. maybe you will find something to say to us.
Blogger Joanne posts at 9:46 PM CST
Blog Blah Blah
Here I am, stuck in the middle of a bunch of posts! I finally, with the help of Bill, thought up a name to use for getting the faceless Blogger Sargeant to let me in on the Lambert fun. Phew! That was exhausting. Now, with any luck at all, I'll remember what I called myself, and I'll be happy to let you in on my musings.
I have discovered that, while society says that men derive their identities from their work, I, too, have melded into identifying myself by what I do, instead of who I am when I'm just being. This can be a dull, lifeless phase, I'm finding, because at this red-hot moment, I don't really DO anything....Well, I'm really very busy not finding a job. I've been very diligent at this new endeavor, and successful, too. I've looked at temporary jobs, part-time jobs, and many nonexistent jobs. I've humbly presented myself, boldly asserted myself, and assured prospective employers that I'm their best prospect for whatever it is they do there.
Jennell was the first to step out where no man had feared to go and offer up her old place of employ as a grand starting point. When everyone in charge of the school had returned from their prospective vacations, they all gathered in a very small conference room to hear how wonderful I was. I told them I was proficient in all their current softwares and loved the philosophy of Christian education. I waited while they called around the school to find the new computer person who had been hired for the summer project of straightening out the grading system. (Earlier in the summer I suggested I could do that very thing for them, as soon as I arrived on July 11.) When this young thing was finally located in the building, she came in, sat down, and heard the big boss tell her cheerfully that I was Jennell's aunt, and I knew all about her new job, and, turning to me, asked wouldn't I mind giving the new girl some pointers! This made both of us feel equally uncomfortable. I left there having been told that, while they didn't have anything open right now, they'd be sure to think something up, because they sure needed me to work there. They are evidently still thinking, as I haven't heard from them again. Other school leads were as productive, and so I branched out into other venues.
Many are the experiences, and few are the lines left that any of we bloggers really want to spend on this dribble. One last effort, however, is really one for the job-hunter's books: enter Maureen, ever the fixit-type friend. All my family knows her, as she has shared many holidays with us all in Florida, and some even in AK. Today, Sunday, at 20 min. before 6 pm, she gives a quick call to ask if I have time right now, quickly before 6, to come a couple miles down the road where some nice people she knows are gathering up things after an afternoon at their little family business. It seems they have a menagerie of common animals which they load up and haul around wherever the market will bear. They have some cute name to the business, something about Noah's Ark, and they charge a small fee for you to bring little kids in to a petting zoo type thing. Now these animals are the types that little kids would love to pet, like donkeys and llamas, etc. They also have a little show they do with the animals. I was not made privy to many other details on the phone, except that they are "always looking for workers". Now, maybe I have been complaining too much and too often about the job search, but I never meant to convey that I was so desperate that I needed to follow donkeys around, or see if I could make llamas spit in a certain direction, or any of the other unusual things they must have thought up for barnyard pets to do, all in a circle. I hope I haven't lost a friend, but I was never so happy to have had an excuse as to why I couldn't drop everything and zoom down to see the folks and their furry friends. Apologies to any and all if I have made you take to the road seeking circuses and state fairs arcades where I might find work. My own ways of handling the job market search have gone in different directions, and even though I have nothing yet to show for my work, I have complete faith that God has something in mind for me to do with the rest of my life. For right now, though, I'd love to write some of these anecdotes down before I forget them. this way, when I'm in some boring office in front of a computer, and wishing I were outside in the sunshine, I'll remember that there were other people, in exotic parking lots and other places, having really different things I, too, could be doing! Much love to you all as you start out a new week in whatever it is that you do for a living. I'm going to bed now, to rest up for another grueling day taking typing tests, and bragging about myself and my abilities. Sweet dreams.
I have discovered that, while society says that men derive their identities from their work, I, too, have melded into identifying myself by what I do, instead of who I am when I'm just being. This can be a dull, lifeless phase, I'm finding, because at this red-hot moment, I don't really DO anything....Well, I'm really very busy not finding a job. I've been very diligent at this new endeavor, and successful, too. I've looked at temporary jobs, part-time jobs, and many nonexistent jobs. I've humbly presented myself, boldly asserted myself, and assured prospective employers that I'm their best prospect for whatever it is they do there.
Jennell was the first to step out where no man had feared to go and offer up her old place of employ as a grand starting point. When everyone in charge of the school had returned from their prospective vacations, they all gathered in a very small conference room to hear how wonderful I was. I told them I was proficient in all their current softwares and loved the philosophy of Christian education. I waited while they called around the school to find the new computer person who had been hired for the summer project of straightening out the grading system. (Earlier in the summer I suggested I could do that very thing for them, as soon as I arrived on July 11.) When this young thing was finally located in the building, she came in, sat down, and heard the big boss tell her cheerfully that I was Jennell's aunt, and I knew all about her new job, and, turning to me, asked wouldn't I mind giving the new girl some pointers! This made both of us feel equally uncomfortable. I left there having been told that, while they didn't have anything open right now, they'd be sure to think something up, because they sure needed me to work there. They are evidently still thinking, as I haven't heard from them again. Other school leads were as productive, and so I branched out into other venues.
Many are the experiences, and few are the lines left that any of we bloggers really want to spend on this dribble. One last effort, however, is really one for the job-hunter's books: enter Maureen, ever the fixit-type friend. All my family knows her, as she has shared many holidays with us all in Florida, and some even in AK. Today, Sunday, at 20 min. before 6 pm, she gives a quick call to ask if I have time right now, quickly before 6, to come a couple miles down the road where some nice people she knows are gathering up things after an afternoon at their little family business. It seems they have a menagerie of common animals which they load up and haul around wherever the market will bear. They have some cute name to the business, something about Noah's Ark, and they charge a small fee for you to bring little kids in to a petting zoo type thing. Now these animals are the types that little kids would love to pet, like donkeys and llamas, etc. They also have a little show they do with the animals. I was not made privy to many other details on the phone, except that they are "always looking for workers". Now, maybe I have been complaining too much and too often about the job search, but I never meant to convey that I was so desperate that I needed to follow donkeys around, or see if I could make llamas spit in a certain direction, or any of the other unusual things they must have thought up for barnyard pets to do, all in a circle. I hope I haven't lost a friend, but I was never so happy to have had an excuse as to why I couldn't drop everything and zoom down to see the folks and their furry friends. Apologies to any and all if I have made you take to the road seeking circuses and state fairs arcades where I might find work. My own ways of handling the job market search have gone in different directions, and even though I have nothing yet to show for my work, I have complete faith that God has something in mind for me to do with the rest of my life. For right now, though, I'd love to write some of these anecdotes down before I forget them. this way, when I'm in some boring office in front of a computer, and wishing I were outside in the sunshine, I'll remember that there were other people, in exotic parking lots and other places, having really different things I, too, could be doing! Much love to you all as you start out a new week in whatever it is that you do for a living. I'm going to bed now, to rest up for another grueling day taking typing tests, and bragging about myself and my abilities. Sweet dreams.
Blogger Jennell posts at 6:03 AM CST
Long time no type...
Things are beginning to settle down a little and I am feeling like I am just starting to get my head above water – or at least get little gasps of air now and then. Our schedules are finally sorted out at school and the class sizes have evened out. What a fiasco that was…I caused some trouble there, but it was worth it. I had a class of 23 and a class of 10 (way too small – who would have thought that would be a problem!). The guidance counselor told us three weeks ago that our team was the only one that had that kind of imbalance and that he would look at it again in a few days. After two weeks I asked him about it and he said that he didn’t think he would be able to fix it because of the advanced math, SPED, and ESL kids. I decided to try on my own and was able to even out not only my classes, but the Science and Math classes on our team as well. I emailed him and wrote out the 8 schedules that would have to change and asked if it would be possible to make those changes. He said no. Hmmm…why not? He’s too busy and I don’t understand how complicated these things are. Hmmm…can you explain then? No. Can we make the changes on paper and then have the computer program catch up with us later? No. Thank you for your assistance.
I talked to the AP and aksed if I could handwrite the 8 schedules. She said she wasn’t sure about writing out paper schedules and since the principal wasn’t in, we would have to wait until Monday to ask about that. But miraculously the changes I sent him were made by the end of the day. Guess it wasn’t all that complicated after all! Monday morning Mary (the Principal) asked me to come in and see her. Uh oh! She was just worried because she heard I was frustrated and she wanted to check on me. She is so nice! Too nice actually…had she yelled at me I would have been okay, but she was nice…so I cried! Yippee…my lovely habit of crying in the boss’s office has followed me around the world! Apparently Mary is used to this because she said there are other teachers who do the same thing and one who will burst into tears if she just looks at her. She handed me Kleenex, hugged me, and told me to stop apologizing. She then proceeded to ask what she could do to help with the Josh situation and what I had done to get him on my orders. We went over all of that and she had some ideas, so that looks like there is some hope there. All in all it was great to talk to her.
In general, work seems to be getting into a groove and that is really nice. Now all I have to do is figure out how to teach by standards rather than by the textbook. Since I don’t understand some of the standards, it could be challenging to teach them to students. I’m sure I’ll figure it out, but my “mentor” has cancelled three meetings we set up, so that has been a problem. The other two World Geography teachers don’t do anything even remotely similar to each other, and one doesn’t seem to teach geography at all, but instead does Economics and Government studies on random countries in the world. I am basically doing map skills and the five themes of geography while I figure out the rest of things. Our team finally decided to buy an Excel gradebook that would do weighting and that was okayed by the administration. It is pathetic and I miss Gradequick!!! At least it is something though because the official gradebook that we all must use doesn’t work at all and I can’t even log in. Progress reports are coming up (though no one knows the date they are supposed to be sent) so we had to have something. I finally caught up on my grading and input grades. I hate being behind!!! We’d had several conferences with parents where I was guessing about averages (faking it well though) and it was driving me crazy. I really think that once I figure out what the heck I am supposed to teach, I will be able to do the job almost completely at school during school hours. That point may come sometime in March, but the possibility is there.
It’s a good thing that the school thing is manageable because the home –school thing is hard! It would be hard if you had a great student who was motivated to learn. I don’t have one of those, so instead, he tries to argue on a daily basis about how much work he has to do each day. I think Josh is finally starting to see that I mean what I say and I can’t be talked out of the deadlines, but he loves to push the limits. Fun, fun! We were on a pretty good roll for a while and then he got a cold. We took a few days off this week and now I have a cold.
The house is starting to be a little organized. The downstairs is all set, and most of the upstairs…except for the middle bedroom and my closets. It looks good on the surface though, so I am working hard to forget what is behind those closed doors. Josh is pretty good about helping with the dishes, but he has an annoying habit of wanting to eat a real dinner every night…AND he thinks I should cook him a grand breakfast on weekend mornings. I’ve noticed that he gets crabby if I don’t feed him, so I try to keep up with that. J I should have learned to cook at some point though, because he doesn’t seem to think that crackers and cheese is a good dinner. On the other hand, he does think that Hamburger Helper is a real meal, so it’s not too hard to please him.
Well, I really should be doing lesson plans or something constructive, but it had been a while since I’d written anything. We haven’t been doing anything outrageously exciting, but all is well. I was really hoping that we would get a typhoon day tomorrow, but it hit today instead. They closed the base and cancelled all of the church services. We had invited Duke, Debra, and Evelyn over for dinner but that got put off because Debra and Evelyn are sick. Hmmm…all of us new teachers seem to be getting the same lovely cold. Instead, Josh invited Victoria’s kids over to play video games. I made spaghetti for them and they are so shy they didn’t say a word the whole time we ate. Josh proceeded to talk enough for all of us and they just giggled the whole time. An interesting meal to say the least.
Okay…gotta go. Konnichiwa!
I talked to the AP and aksed if I could handwrite the 8 schedules. She said she wasn’t sure about writing out paper schedules and since the principal wasn’t in, we would have to wait until Monday to ask about that. But miraculously the changes I sent him were made by the end of the day. Guess it wasn’t all that complicated after all! Monday morning Mary (the Principal) asked me to come in and see her. Uh oh! She was just worried because she heard I was frustrated and she wanted to check on me. She is so nice! Too nice actually…had she yelled at me I would have been okay, but she was nice…so I cried! Yippee…my lovely habit of crying in the boss’s office has followed me around the world! Apparently Mary is used to this because she said there are other teachers who do the same thing and one who will burst into tears if she just looks at her. She handed me Kleenex, hugged me, and told me to stop apologizing. She then proceeded to ask what she could do to help with the Josh situation and what I had done to get him on my orders. We went over all of that and she had some ideas, so that looks like there is some hope there. All in all it was great to talk to her.
In general, work seems to be getting into a groove and that is really nice. Now all I have to do is figure out how to teach by standards rather than by the textbook. Since I don’t understand some of the standards, it could be challenging to teach them to students. I’m sure I’ll figure it out, but my “mentor” has cancelled three meetings we set up, so that has been a problem. The other two World Geography teachers don’t do anything even remotely similar to each other, and one doesn’t seem to teach geography at all, but instead does Economics and Government studies on random countries in the world. I am basically doing map skills and the five themes of geography while I figure out the rest of things. Our team finally decided to buy an Excel gradebook that would do weighting and that was okayed by the administration. It is pathetic and I miss Gradequick!!! At least it is something though because the official gradebook that we all must use doesn’t work at all and I can’t even log in. Progress reports are coming up (though no one knows the date they are supposed to be sent) so we had to have something. I finally caught up on my grading and input grades. I hate being behind!!! We’d had several conferences with parents where I was guessing about averages (faking it well though) and it was driving me crazy. I really think that once I figure out what the heck I am supposed to teach, I will be able to do the job almost completely at school during school hours. That point may come sometime in March, but the possibility is there.
It’s a good thing that the school thing is manageable because the home –school thing is hard! It would be hard if you had a great student who was motivated to learn. I don’t have one of those, so instead, he tries to argue on a daily basis about how much work he has to do each day. I think Josh is finally starting to see that I mean what I say and I can’t be talked out of the deadlines, but he loves to push the limits. Fun, fun! We were on a pretty good roll for a while and then he got a cold. We took a few days off this week and now I have a cold.
The house is starting to be a little organized. The downstairs is all set, and most of the upstairs…except for the middle bedroom and my closets. It looks good on the surface though, so I am working hard to forget what is behind those closed doors. Josh is pretty good about helping with the dishes, but he has an annoying habit of wanting to eat a real dinner every night…AND he thinks I should cook him a grand breakfast on weekend mornings. I’ve noticed that he gets crabby if I don’t feed him, so I try to keep up with that. J I should have learned to cook at some point though, because he doesn’t seem to think that crackers and cheese is a good dinner. On the other hand, he does think that Hamburger Helper is a real meal, so it’s not too hard to please him.
Well, I really should be doing lesson plans or something constructive, but it had been a while since I’d written anything. We haven’t been doing anything outrageously exciting, but all is well. I was really hoping that we would get a typhoon day tomorrow, but it hit today instead. They closed the base and cancelled all of the church services. We had invited Duke, Debra, and Evelyn over for dinner but that got put off because Debra and Evelyn are sick. Hmmm…all of us new teachers seem to be getting the same lovely cold. Instead, Josh invited Victoria’s kids over to play video games. I made spaghetti for them and they are so shy they didn’t say a word the whole time we ate. Josh proceeded to talk enough for all of us and they just giggled the whole time. An interesting meal to say the least.
Okay…gotta go. Konnichiwa!
Friday, September 23, 2005
Blogger Bill posts at 2:37 PM CST
Jay sent this to me. I thought I'd post it here. Can you tell which one is him? 
Blogger Bill posts at 2:01 PM CST
Joanne and the Blog
I have sent Joanne an invitation to join us here (again). Bug her till she does it.
How is she getting on the Internet these days, anyway?
How is she getting on the Internet these days, anyway?
Blogger Bill posts at 1:47 PM CST
Chicago Botanical Gardens
I have lived in and around Chicago all my life. Yet I have never been to the Chicago Botanical Gardens. It is owned and maintained by the Forest Preserve District of Cook County so there is not charge for admittance, though I felt compelled to chip a few bucks in the pot for it as it was so beautiful.
On Sunday, Sept 18th, we played hookey from church to attend the Friends of the Parks bicycle ride called the Fall Frolic. It was a fantastic day, just about perfect. We rode 18 miles to the gardens and then 18 back, though I decided to take an extra 10 mile "long-cut" that Valerie and our friend, Lynette, did not. When we got to the park we had a special guided tour and got to see a lot of the grounds, though not enough. I would love to come again it was so lovely. I got so thrilled I only took a few pictures (well, that and the fact that I could not stay and slow people down)
When we got back near where our car was parked there was a Korean Folk Festival to celbrate the Ninth Full Moon of the year. It is a cellebration put on by the Buhdist Temple to honor their ancestors and to have a Thanksgiving celebration. We got to eat some great Korean food, play Korean games, and join in the making of traditional music. The people were very freindly and open. They were glad to have outsiders and to share all they had. "Look up at the sky and smile!" they would say. You could not help but do it. Maye I will post some pics of that too when I finish my work (yeah, like that will every happen).
On Sunday, Sept 18th, we played hookey from church to attend the Friends of the Parks bicycle ride called the Fall Frolic. It was a fantastic day, just about perfect. We rode 18 miles to the gardens and then 18 back, though I decided to take an extra 10 mile "long-cut" that Valerie and our friend, Lynette, did not. When we got to the park we had a special guided tour and got to see a lot of the grounds, though not enough. I would love to come again it was so lovely. I got so thrilled I only took a few pictures (well, that and the fact that I could not stay and slow people down)
When we got back near where our car was parked there was a Korean Folk Festival to celbrate the Ninth Full Moon of the year. It is a cellebration put on by the Buhdist Temple to honor their ancestors and to have a Thanksgiving celebration. We got to eat some great Korean food, play Korean games, and join in the making of traditional music. The people were very freindly and open. They were glad to have outsiders and to share all they had. "Look up at the sky and smile!" they would say. You could not help but do it. Maye I will post some pics of that too when I finish my work (yeah, like that will every happen).
Monday, September 19, 2005
Blogger Bill posts at 7:34 PM CST
Welcome to Megan and Jason
Welcome to megan and Jason, now that you two have joined the blog.
I hope you enjoy the blog and can post some interesting things yourself.
Btw: What's for dinner? Chicken I hope!
I hope you enjoy the blog and can post some interesting things yourself.
Btw: What's for dinner? Chicken I hope!
Sunday, September 18, 2005
Blogger Bill posts at 5:05 PM CST
A Couple of Notes to Josh
- You are a handsome guy.
- That escort you were with is H-O-T ! !
- Learn to dance, take lessons, chicks really dig it.
Saturday, September 17, 2005
Blogger Jennell posts at 5:37 PM CST
The big day finally arrived and Josh took a shower! Oh and he also wore a tux. I would say he danced, but that was not dancing!!! He basically shifted from one foot to the other in one place for a long time, while occassionally twirling around a girl. The "waltzing" was much less impressive than the tuxedo! He seemed to be having a good time - except while he was dancing! I'll let him fill you in on the details, but I thought I would post the pictures so you can see them. Click on the title above or go to http://www.flickr.com/photos/93529188@N00/.
The pictures you've all been waiting for!!!
The big day finally arrived and Josh took a shower! Oh and he also wore a tux. I would say he danced, but that was not dancing!!! He basically shifted from one foot to the other in one place for a long time, while occassionally twirling around a girl. The "waltzing" was much less impressive than the tuxedo! He seemed to be having a good time - except while he was dancing! I'll let him fill you in on the details, but I thought I would post the pictures so you can see them. Click on the title above or go to http://www.flickr.com/photos/93529188@N00/. Wednesday, September 14, 2005
Blogger Bill posts at 4:03 PM CST
Joanne on the blog
Joanne is not a member of this blog. She told me that she no longer knows her logon information, so I deleted that account.
If she would send me an email I will send an invitation to join at that address. Send to me at blog@billlambert.com.
BTW: The current members are :
If she would send me an email I will send an invitation to join at that address. Send to me at blog@billlambert.com.
BTW: The current members are :
- Bill
- Carolyn
- Jennell
- John
- Jay
- Valerie
- Sean (& Dani)\
- Josh
- Alex
- Trace
- Carrie
- Becki
- Megan
Blogger Carolyn posts at 10:33 AM CST
Joanne's letter to Sheila in England
This letter was written by Joanne and Gram L to Sheila, the daughter of Grandma's cousin who lives in London. (Jo can't post on the blog, because her passwords are lost, and no one knows where to find them! So I - Carolyn - am posting this per her request.) Here goes.....
Irene Lambert
6250 South Joshua Lane
Lantana, FL 33462
USA
September 13, 2005
Dear Sheila,
Thanks so much for you detailed letter. Yes, we do get our minds boggled by the names and the repeats! We have put it to a chart now, and we’re getting a handle on this family and its beginnings. From what you gave us in your letter, we see that we can trace back seven generations, if you start with the youngest of our family, a girl born just August 19, 2005, and you count back to William Castle, born 1822. This makes 183 years of history, with a generation being an average of every 26 years. Pretty good, by American standards, but I’m sure English folk can certainly feel more connected with additional centuries. At least that’s what Americans feel like.
This is Joanne typing right now, but Irene and Joanne are putting their heads together to make sense of things and get a note back to you, finally. Joanne has arrived in South Florida and is enjoying very much being only 5 minutes away from her Mom, Irene, in a retirement park. So far Joanne hasn’t started working a regular job, so we have a bit of time for the leisures of life, such as finding out what one’s relatives were like! Didn’t you say you were planning on retirement starting in May? Hope you’re enjoying your own Mum. We seem to be drinking quite a lot of tea, and enjoying the time, for sure.
We have a question for you, based on the way we read the letter. You had said in paragraph two that Irene’s grandfather, John, b. 1854 in Lambeth, Surrey, was one of six children. You did, though, list out 7 names, with Emily the famous child-rearing sister, being the youngest. Later in the letter, you mentioned that another sister, Martha, had looked after Walter, John’s youngest brother. Walter, then, would make 8 children, wouldn’t he? Help! We’re confused!
And now here's some of our information to help you fill in some blanks. Your Mum had mentioned a very dear friend of your Nan’s went out with John & Charles. Forgive my ignorance of the English, but that “Nan” is your grandmother, right? Anyway, she had hoped to marry this young man who was friends with the two Castles. My Mom, Irene, says Gladys would probably be speaking of Jim Stanlake. Ask her if that rings any bells in the memory. Jim Stanlake was often mentioned by Irene’s Mum, Ethel, as he was a good friend who stopped by Charles & Ethel’s home whenever in Chicago. He held the position of stewards’ supervisor in the dining car of the Southern Pacific Railroad. Every ten days the train would stop in Chicago, and he’d come visit the family. My Mum distinctly remembers these visits. For the record, he never married until almost retirement age (around 65), to an American woman. He lived in California and was good friends with someone named Bob Kettle. When he’d come into town, he’d contact Bob Kettle, and the two would sit around the Castle home on the old piano bench, and play cards. Ethel was still working downtown, and one day when she instructed the men folk to tend the chicken in the oven while she delivered something to her workplace, they completely forgot the chicken, burning it to the pot! She was quite perturbed with these guys, and the story lives on. An interesting note about Mr. Kettle, although he isn’t blood relative, is that he was the commodore on P.J. Wrigley’s yacht, which was moored in the harbor in Chicago. Wrigley was the chewing gum inventor. The yacht was large enough to have a large crew, as this man’s empire was already quite large at that time. Ethel would often tell stories of these two friends, and Jim Stanlake was considered one of their best friends. After Jim married in California, though, as an older man, the family didn’t see him. As you know, Illinois and California are 3 time zones away from each other.
Let’s fill you in on Ethel Maud Stallard, Charles’ wife, Irene’s Mum, and Joanne’s Gram, as she was called. She lived to be the mother of two, saw one buried before her, which she said was not God’s natural way of handling things, and gave many of her 8 grandchildren stories and memories, as well as instruction in all types of sewing. Her old English bar songs should’ve been written down, because only she could sing them with that lilting accent. We can only remember one about what happened in a bar one night when no one could get transport to get home. It gets funnier and funnier as the verses go on. We kids can still remember that one, but the others, I’m afraid have slipped into antiquity. Her spirit, her personality, and her legacy all live on, as most of our side of the family, Joanne, Bill, Carolyn, and John, measure many of their own traits by having watched them at first in her. We have so many remembrances of her alone, as she was widowed early on, since Charles was taken suddenly of coronary thrombosis one evening at the home, when all the family was together.
Ethel spent much of her life with our family, and we children begged to hear the stories of England. We never could understand the fact of her having come here to consider living permanently, and then never returning for a visit. She did, however, maintain many of the traditions, especially in the way she cooked.
Ethel was born 10/25/1885, the youngest of eleven children. Her mother died when she was young, and her older sister helped out in raising her. She remembers an outbreak of measles when she was young, when two of her brothers and she took sick and were temporarily blinded. Someone died in that plague, but we can’t remember if it was one or two of the children. She used to tell us she lived in sight of Tower Bridge. The story goes that she had told Charles Castle she’d consider coming to see America, and if she liked it, she’d stay to marry, but she wasn’t about to commit to that first! Later her brother wrote to say the dad had “died of a broken heart at her failure to return to London.
She set sail in 1911 and lived in downtown Chicago in a boarding house, across the street from where Charles lived. Each house was owned by a different lady, and those two spent some energy keeping tabs on the young couple! One day in December, 12/12/12, to be exact, Ethel and Charles passed by a jeweler’s on State Street downtown. They purchased a wedding ring there, with Charles asking her if she’d marry him now. They decided to marry right then, and they proceeded up the street to the Episcopal church, where the vicar said he surely didn’t often do weddings on the spur of the moment, but since he and they all came from England, he’d take the chance! That old church still stands today, lost in the myriad of large skyscrapers. Their names are written in that church in the marriage list.
Charles was born 1883 and lived until 1949. Ethel was born 1885 and lived to 1977. Their two children are Irene, 5/28/1917, and Robert Charles Castle, 5/18/1921, d. March of 1970, after a sudden coronary, just as his father was taken. He left Martha, or Marty, as we call her, and four children, the youngest being about nine years old. (He is the one who originally contacted you over the Internet...)
Irene Emily Castle and Edwin Lambert also had four children. More about them later.
Ethel’s mother was a Williamson, I believe. We’ll have to look up the records, but with Joanne’s recent move, who knows where those papers are to be found? Ethel, as a young girl, spent summers at the estate where her older sister was the head cook. She would tire of that kitchen, and she’d wander outside, where the butler and the carriage driver would convince her to go inside and inquire of her sister whether they might have some cold beer. She would manage to deliver the beer, and they’d reciprocate with a nice ride around the grounds! The butler was the one, Irene remembers, who once said of young Ethel that she had a “lovely box of dominoes…” referring to her nice teeth.
Joanne remembers being a student at Moody Bible Institute, founded by D.L. Moody, and on mentioning the old music director, Ira Sankey, combining their talents in large meetings in London, Ethel would tell of times when she and Charles would grab their dancing shoes and go to the Methodist Chapel to hear these two men. Irene tells me that her father would remember that he’d have to walk her home, and that’d involve riding on the local transportation, so he took to leaving his shoes on a metal fence post, take her home, and come back along to pick up the shoes.
John Castle was very active in the Sons of St. George, and once when Ethel had sewed a bunch of boutonnières for the men’s’ meeting, Charles took the opportunity to introduce her to his father. He must’ve been impressed, as the sewing was fine, and Ethel began to be a part of things after that. She would go to the Castle home on Sunday afternoons and play the mandolin. She’d play a popular tune, and when John came into the room, she’d quickly change the tune to play a hymn, but John would say he knew just what she was doing! I’m not just sure whether those Sunday evenings were mostly spent dancing or singing at the Chapel!
Charles & Ethel didn’t own a car until an old Hudson was sold to them by a Mr. Mugfor, neighbor. They bought his second old car, also a Hudson, with two jump seats that Charles put a plank over to seat all the kids from the neighborhood. They would take them all to a local park, either Ogden or Hamilton Park, near where they lived on at 547 West 61st Street.
Previous to living there, they resided on Green Street, where my mother was born at home. The move to 61st was made two weeks before Ethel was delivered of Bob, as Robert was called. She was going into labor, the doctor came, but she didn’t produce the baby until the next morning. She tells that the doctor slept overnight on the couch. Try to arrange that kind of thing in this day and age!
The three homes (including one on Stewart Avenue) were located on the south side of Chicago, near to where there is a cemetery where are buried John Castle, his wife, Annie, and their toddler son, Donald, and several other Castles. Irene and Joanne visited this cemetery some time ago, and we can easily recreate who is actually buried there, as Bill, Joanne’s brother is the last remaining Castle-type relative living in the Chicago area.
Details regarding the arrival to America of Ethel include that she spent two weeks on the ship in 1911 and came with a letter of recommendation from Welsh-Margitson, where she made neckties by hand. She had been apprenticed to this trade at age 14. To find employment in America, she went to Carter & Holmes, a famous men’s designer firm. Searching downtown for their location, she met a policeman who gave her directions. She lost her way in the buildings, and every time she found herself back at the starting point, the same policeman gave help. Finally, the last time, he personally led her to their door! Other than taking time off to have her children, she worked from 1911 and then through the Depression, and on for fifty years, always hand-sewing silk neckties. Her expertise was widely known in the company, as she and one other woman were the only seamstresses allowed to sew the imported silk for the Marshall Field signature ties.
It was during those hard years around 1935-40 or so that she would travel from her home to downtown on public transportation to pick up a large carton of the silk pieces and linings to be brought home and assembled. My mother still has memories of all those pins that would have to be picked up off the floor!
Once when she was working at the plant downtown, across from the Merchandise Mart, a fire broke out in the building. They were told to keep sewing, and they’d receive instructions. Finally, the word came to get your hat and coat and exit! When she reached for her things in the metal locker, she felt the heat of the flames. After coming down all those floors to get outside, an onlooker remarked that only minutes before there had been women working up there. She admitted she had been one! After the fire, Carter & Holmes moved across the street to the famous merchandising arena, the Merchandise Mart, which is still known to this day as one of the largest square-foot buildings. After graduation from high school in 1935, with her Mom still crafting ties, Irene was taken there to become an inspector of the ties for her first “real” job. Joanne grew up watching her Gram, Ethel, carefully pick out neckties for gifts for all the men.
Ethel gave up housekeeping for herself around 1949, age 64, and lived with Irene’s family and Bob’s family, staying exclusively with the Lamberts from around 1969-1977 when she died of kidney failure (and hardening of the arteries). Still, at age 92, she was helping raise her grandchildren, telling a few stories, sewing, washing dishes, making the dishes of Christmas pudding, bubble & squeak, and mince, and drinking tea. Her work in earlier years at the church provided many war-time sewn items.
We can’t believe that we’ve taken up this much of your time, but we did want to document some of things while we were trying to remember the details. We’d love to chat with you, now that we’re together in one room, and my Mom even suggested we call up one day, just to say we’ve talked! Our family has a blog site where we could share, and we’ll have to re-connect with David Castle and his Mom, Marty. They both love to get into all the bits and pieces of Castle memorabilia. We’re also looking into getting a scanner, because Irene has so many wonderful pictures which could be put on the computer and enjoyed by all. Thank you so much for your work toward reaching us, and let’s keep it up!
John Castle was called Jack to us. He was brother to Charles, and he came to America first, being older. John married Annie (Somerset, England, referred to by Charles as “silly Somerset”) and they had Donald and Marjorie. Jack was a carpenter by trade, having learned his work from his father, John, the barge builder. Annie didn’t work until Jack was killed by an Illinois Central train. She then went to the IC office and demanded work. Donald had died of pneumonia at about age three. The IC made her a ticket agent. Marjorie grew up as an only child and was three months older than her cousin, Irene. Annie lived to be quite old, alone, on 67th Street and Dorchester Avenue.
Marjorie Castle had married Mel Eckberg and they had two children, David and Marjorie Ann. Mel was a US Navy submarine commander. They lived in California. For a time they lived at the Great Lakes Naval Air Station, near Chicago. Marjorie Ann married and lives in Washington or Oregon. We have lost track of David. We haven’t spoken to any of these and don’t know if Marjorie still lives.
Irene Lambert
6250 South Joshua Lane
Lantana, FL 33462
USA
September 13, 2005
Dear Sheila,
Thanks so much for you detailed letter. Yes, we do get our minds boggled by the names and the repeats! We have put it to a chart now, and we’re getting a handle on this family and its beginnings. From what you gave us in your letter, we see that we can trace back seven generations, if you start with the youngest of our family, a girl born just August 19, 2005, and you count back to William Castle, born 1822. This makes 183 years of history, with a generation being an average of every 26 years. Pretty good, by American standards, but I’m sure English folk can certainly feel more connected with additional centuries. At least that’s what Americans feel like.
This is Joanne typing right now, but Irene and Joanne are putting their heads together to make sense of things and get a note back to you, finally. Joanne has arrived in South Florida and is enjoying very much being only 5 minutes away from her Mom, Irene, in a retirement park. So far Joanne hasn’t started working a regular job, so we have a bit of time for the leisures of life, such as finding out what one’s relatives were like! Didn’t you say you were planning on retirement starting in May? Hope you’re enjoying your own Mum. We seem to be drinking quite a lot of tea, and enjoying the time, for sure.
We have a question for you, based on the way we read the letter. You had said in paragraph two that Irene’s grandfather, John, b. 1854 in Lambeth, Surrey, was one of six children. You did, though, list out 7 names, with Emily the famous child-rearing sister, being the youngest. Later in the letter, you mentioned that another sister, Martha, had looked after Walter, John’s youngest brother. Walter, then, would make 8 children, wouldn’t he? Help! We’re confused!
And now here's some of our information to help you fill in some blanks. Your Mum had mentioned a very dear friend of your Nan’s went out with John & Charles. Forgive my ignorance of the English, but that “Nan” is your grandmother, right? Anyway, she had hoped to marry this young man who was friends with the two Castles. My Mom, Irene, says Gladys would probably be speaking of Jim Stanlake. Ask her if that rings any bells in the memory. Jim Stanlake was often mentioned by Irene’s Mum, Ethel, as he was a good friend who stopped by Charles & Ethel’s home whenever in Chicago. He held the position of stewards’ supervisor in the dining car of the Southern Pacific Railroad. Every ten days the train would stop in Chicago, and he’d come visit the family. My Mum distinctly remembers these visits. For the record, he never married until almost retirement age (around 65), to an American woman. He lived in California and was good friends with someone named Bob Kettle. When he’d come into town, he’d contact Bob Kettle, and the two would sit around the Castle home on the old piano bench, and play cards. Ethel was still working downtown, and one day when she instructed the men folk to tend the chicken in the oven while she delivered something to her workplace, they completely forgot the chicken, burning it to the pot! She was quite perturbed with these guys, and the story lives on. An interesting note about Mr. Kettle, although he isn’t blood relative, is that he was the commodore on P.J. Wrigley’s yacht, which was moored in the harbor in Chicago. Wrigley was the chewing gum inventor. The yacht was large enough to have a large crew, as this man’s empire was already quite large at that time. Ethel would often tell stories of these two friends, and Jim Stanlake was considered one of their best friends. After Jim married in California, though, as an older man, the family didn’t see him. As you know, Illinois and California are 3 time zones away from each other.
Let’s fill you in on Ethel Maud Stallard, Charles’ wife, Irene’s Mum, and Joanne’s Gram, as she was called. She lived to be the mother of two, saw one buried before her, which she said was not God’s natural way of handling things, and gave many of her 8 grandchildren stories and memories, as well as instruction in all types of sewing. Her old English bar songs should’ve been written down, because only she could sing them with that lilting accent. We can only remember one about what happened in a bar one night when no one could get transport to get home. It gets funnier and funnier as the verses go on. We kids can still remember that one, but the others, I’m afraid have slipped into antiquity. Her spirit, her personality, and her legacy all live on, as most of our side of the family, Joanne, Bill, Carolyn, and John, measure many of their own traits by having watched them at first in her. We have so many remembrances of her alone, as she was widowed early on, since Charles was taken suddenly of coronary thrombosis one evening at the home, when all the family was together.
Ethel spent much of her life with our family, and we children begged to hear the stories of England. We never could understand the fact of her having come here to consider living permanently, and then never returning for a visit. She did, however, maintain many of the traditions, especially in the way she cooked.
Ethel was born 10/25/1885, the youngest of eleven children. Her mother died when she was young, and her older sister helped out in raising her. She remembers an outbreak of measles when she was young, when two of her brothers and she took sick and were temporarily blinded. Someone died in that plague, but we can’t remember if it was one or two of the children. She used to tell us she lived in sight of Tower Bridge. The story goes that she had told Charles Castle she’d consider coming to see America, and if she liked it, she’d stay to marry, but she wasn’t about to commit to that first! Later her brother wrote to say the dad had “died of a broken heart at her failure to return to London.
She set sail in 1911 and lived in downtown Chicago in a boarding house, across the street from where Charles lived. Each house was owned by a different lady, and those two spent some energy keeping tabs on the young couple! One day in December, 12/12/12, to be exact, Ethel and Charles passed by a jeweler’s on State Street downtown. They purchased a wedding ring there, with Charles asking her if she’d marry him now. They decided to marry right then, and they proceeded up the street to the Episcopal church, where the vicar said he surely didn’t often do weddings on the spur of the moment, but since he and they all came from England, he’d take the chance! That old church still stands today, lost in the myriad of large skyscrapers. Their names are written in that church in the marriage list.
Charles was born 1883 and lived until 1949. Ethel was born 1885 and lived to 1977. Their two children are Irene, 5/28/1917, and Robert Charles Castle, 5/18/1921, d. March of 1970, after a sudden coronary, just as his father was taken. He left Martha, or Marty, as we call her, and four children, the youngest being about nine years old. (He is the one who originally contacted you over the Internet...)
Irene Emily Castle and Edwin Lambert also had four children. More about them later.
Ethel’s mother was a Williamson, I believe. We’ll have to look up the records, but with Joanne’s recent move, who knows where those papers are to be found? Ethel, as a young girl, spent summers at the estate where her older sister was the head cook. She would tire of that kitchen, and she’d wander outside, where the butler and the carriage driver would convince her to go inside and inquire of her sister whether they might have some cold beer. She would manage to deliver the beer, and they’d reciprocate with a nice ride around the grounds! The butler was the one, Irene remembers, who once said of young Ethel that she had a “lovely box of dominoes…” referring to her nice teeth.
Joanne remembers being a student at Moody Bible Institute, founded by D.L. Moody, and on mentioning the old music director, Ira Sankey, combining their talents in large meetings in London, Ethel would tell of times when she and Charles would grab their dancing shoes and go to the Methodist Chapel to hear these two men. Irene tells me that her father would remember that he’d have to walk her home, and that’d involve riding on the local transportation, so he took to leaving his shoes on a metal fence post, take her home, and come back along to pick up the shoes.
John Castle was very active in the Sons of St. George, and once when Ethel had sewed a bunch of boutonnières for the men’s’ meeting, Charles took the opportunity to introduce her to his father. He must’ve been impressed, as the sewing was fine, and Ethel began to be a part of things after that. She would go to the Castle home on Sunday afternoons and play the mandolin. She’d play a popular tune, and when John came into the room, she’d quickly change the tune to play a hymn, but John would say he knew just what she was doing! I’m not just sure whether those Sunday evenings were mostly spent dancing or singing at the Chapel!
Charles & Ethel didn’t own a car until an old Hudson was sold to them by a Mr. Mugfor, neighbor. They bought his second old car, also a Hudson, with two jump seats that Charles put a plank over to seat all the kids from the neighborhood. They would take them all to a local park, either Ogden or Hamilton Park, near where they lived on at 547 West 61st Street.
Previous to living there, they resided on Green Street, where my mother was born at home. The move to 61st was made two weeks before Ethel was delivered of Bob, as Robert was called. She was going into labor, the doctor came, but she didn’t produce the baby until the next morning. She tells that the doctor slept overnight on the couch. Try to arrange that kind of thing in this day and age!
The three homes (including one on Stewart Avenue) were located on the south side of Chicago, near to where there is a cemetery where are buried John Castle, his wife, Annie, and their toddler son, Donald, and several other Castles. Irene and Joanne visited this cemetery some time ago, and we can easily recreate who is actually buried there, as Bill, Joanne’s brother is the last remaining Castle-type relative living in the Chicago area.
Details regarding the arrival to America of Ethel include that she spent two weeks on the ship in 1911 and came with a letter of recommendation from Welsh-Margitson, where she made neckties by hand. She had been apprenticed to this trade at age 14. To find employment in America, she went to Carter & Holmes, a famous men’s designer firm. Searching downtown for their location, she met a policeman who gave her directions. She lost her way in the buildings, and every time she found herself back at the starting point, the same policeman gave help. Finally, the last time, he personally led her to their door! Other than taking time off to have her children, she worked from 1911 and then through the Depression, and on for fifty years, always hand-sewing silk neckties. Her expertise was widely known in the company, as she and one other woman were the only seamstresses allowed to sew the imported silk for the Marshall Field signature ties.
It was during those hard years around 1935-40 or so that she would travel from her home to downtown on public transportation to pick up a large carton of the silk pieces and linings to be brought home and assembled. My mother still has memories of all those pins that would have to be picked up off the floor!
Once when she was working at the plant downtown, across from the Merchandise Mart, a fire broke out in the building. They were told to keep sewing, and they’d receive instructions. Finally, the word came to get your hat and coat and exit! When she reached for her things in the metal locker, she felt the heat of the flames. After coming down all those floors to get outside, an onlooker remarked that only minutes before there had been women working up there. She admitted she had been one! After the fire, Carter & Holmes moved across the street to the famous merchandising arena, the Merchandise Mart, which is still known to this day as one of the largest square-foot buildings. After graduation from high school in 1935, with her Mom still crafting ties, Irene was taken there to become an inspector of the ties for her first “real” job. Joanne grew up watching her Gram, Ethel, carefully pick out neckties for gifts for all the men.
Ethel gave up housekeeping for herself around 1949, age 64, and lived with Irene’s family and Bob’s family, staying exclusively with the Lamberts from around 1969-1977 when she died of kidney failure (and hardening of the arteries). Still, at age 92, she was helping raise her grandchildren, telling a few stories, sewing, washing dishes, making the dishes of Christmas pudding, bubble & squeak, and mince, and drinking tea. Her work in earlier years at the church provided many war-time sewn items.
We can’t believe that we’ve taken up this much of your time, but we did want to document some of things while we were trying to remember the details. We’d love to chat with you, now that we’re together in one room, and my Mom even suggested we call up one day, just to say we’ve talked! Our family has a blog site where we could share, and we’ll have to re-connect with David Castle and his Mom, Marty. They both love to get into all the bits and pieces of Castle memorabilia. We’re also looking into getting a scanner, because Irene has so many wonderful pictures which could be put on the computer and enjoyed by all. Thank you so much for your work toward reaching us, and let’s keep it up!
John Castle was called Jack to us. He was brother to Charles, and he came to America first, being older. John married Annie (Somerset, England, referred to by Charles as “silly Somerset”) and they had Donald and Marjorie. Jack was a carpenter by trade, having learned his work from his father, John, the barge builder. Annie didn’t work until Jack was killed by an Illinois Central train. She then went to the IC office and demanded work. Donald had died of pneumonia at about age three. The IC made her a ticket agent. Marjorie grew up as an only child and was three months older than her cousin, Irene. Annie lived to be quite old, alone, on 67th Street and Dorchester Avenue.
Marjorie Castle had married Mel Eckberg and they had two children, David and Marjorie Ann. Mel was a US Navy submarine commander. They lived in California. For a time they lived at the Great Lakes Naval Air Station, near Chicago. Marjorie Ann married and lives in Washington or Oregon. We have lost track of David. We haven’t spoken to any of these and don’t know if Marjorie still lives.
Monday, September 12, 2005
Blogger Bill posts at 12:25 PM CST
Blog fix
I spoke with John on the phone to wish him a Happy FIFTITH birthday. Among the things we talked about were the fact the blog no longer has the author of a post's name on the top and that you have to scroll down to find out who wrote it. I told him I would fix it.
The "from the mind of " thing I invented for the last version has been done so we have a new tag line. I have been reading a lot of legal documents lately so I came up with this new one.
Comments? Complaints? Corrections? Post them here.
The "from the mind of " thing I invented for the last version has been done so we have a new tag line. I have been reading a lot of legal documents lately so I came up with this new one.
Comments? Complaints? Corrections? Post them here.
Sunday, September 11, 2005
Blogger Jennell posts at 7:09 AM CST
Home Phone Number
011-81-046-843-6527 or 011-81-46-843-6527
I know you are all dying to spend lots of $$$ to call us! :)
But, more importantly, I have internet access at home now!!! Yippee!!! I was starting to go through severe withdrawl...it's not a pretty site!
I know you are all dying to spend lots of $$$ to call us! :)
But, more importantly, I have internet access at home now!!! Yippee!!! I was starting to go through severe withdrawl...it's not a pretty site!
Friday, September 09, 2005
Blogger Carolyn posts at 9:30 AM CST
The Baby Turns 50!
Wishing a Happy Birthday to John, on the 50th anniversary of his birth. Have a great day, Dudley, and do you have any words of wisdom on this occasion? (Imagine how Grandma must feel when all of her children are in their 50s....)
Blogger Bill posts at 12:21 AM CST
Quinceanera
Quinceanera Tradition, Customs and Celebration: "Quinceanera"
This is sooooo kewl. Not only do you get to learn about another culture that appreciates BASEBALL (Japan) but you get to learn about several cultures that like Baseball (Hispanic)! Maybe you willl become a convert. (I just got home from a White Sox game -- half price tickets for giving a pint of blood to the Red Cross)
To learn about how important the Quinceanera is to the Hispanics click on the title of this post and learn. It is a "coming out party" for a fifteen year old girl. Her parents are now letting her date. The tradition is that she is being shown as available for marriage. It is important that you accept this invitation and treat it with the proper respect.
The tradition (though maybe not the actuality) is that she is being shown as a possible wife. All the men invited are to view her as such. To be invied is a BIG DEAL. You need to go with the proper resect for the custom and act as one who would be worthy of their daughter.
This is sooooo kewl. Not only do you get to learn about another culture that appreciates BASEBALL (Japan) but you get to learn about several cultures that like Baseball (Hispanic)! Maybe you willl become a convert. (I just got home from a White Sox game -- half price tickets for giving a pint of blood to the Red Cross)
To learn about how important the Quinceanera is to the Hispanics click on the title of this post and learn. It is a "coming out party" for a fifteen year old girl. Her parents are now letting her date. The tradition is that she is being shown as available for marriage. It is important that you accept this invitation and treat it with the proper respect.
The tradition (though maybe not the actuality) is that she is being shown as a possible wife. All the men invited are to view her as such. To be invied is a BIG DEAL. You need to go with the proper resect for the custom and act as one who would be worthy of their daughter.
Thursday, September 08, 2005
Blogger Carolyn posts at 5:40 PM CST
When's the Coming Out Party
Josh, when is the big dance? I heard you're auditioning for that new tv show where they compete in ballroom dancing..... WE WANT TO SEE PICTURES
Wednesday, September 07, 2005
Blogger Jennell posts at 7:01 AM CST
Household Goods - So happy to see them!!!
Today our stuff arrives! We are SO excited!!! Real furniture, rather than the fake, borrowed stuff! Yeah!!! The movers arrived at about 08:30 and immediately started unpacking the crates into the driveway. I started to get a little freaked out about how much stuff I had, but as they started bringing it into the house, I realized it’ll all fit. They handed me a clipboard and told me to stand by the front door. I checked off the number of the box they brought in and told them which room to take it to. I have LOTS of books! By about noon they had the crates unpacked and everything in the proper rooms. We all had lunch and then they started putting things together and unpacking all of the boxes. They don’t put anything away but we have to have them take the boxes away because we can’t throw stuff like that away. Now the fun of putting everything away begins!
Tuesday, September 06, 2005
Blogger John posts at 5:49 PM CST
Let's bug Josh
Hey Josh is going to a Quintella(?) Dance with a Spanish girl who turns 15 and has a dance-coming 15 type party! I hear that only close compardrays are invited. JOSH, WATCH OUT FOR PAPA!
Who would go to Japan to learn about Portirican customs?
By the way Josh, the dress shoes Mom bought you are in the mail. Along with the health book.
Today; tues I got up late 9;30 am and having a vacation day played a few games of trek28 Trying to get the mussels moving after a day of sking and testin out my new wakeboard I then started to change the brakes on Jean Lambert's Camaro. She was just getting home in time to see me careen off of Pine Drive on a fun filled Test Drive. She calls it wasting her gas... I can't get away with anything.
Who would go to Japan to learn about Portirican customs?
By the way Josh, the dress shoes Mom bought you are in the mail. Along with the health book.
Today; tues I got up late 9;30 am and having a vacation day played a few games of trek28 Trying to get the mussels moving after a day of sking and testin out my new wakeboard I then started to change the brakes on Jean Lambert's Camaro. She was just getting home in time to see me careen off of Pine Drive on a fun filled Test Drive. She calls it wasting her gas... I can't get away with anything.
Sunday, September 04, 2005
Blogger Jennell posts at 10:13 PM CST
New Contact Info
I got rid of the other cell phone number because it didn't get any reception on base. Here is my new number:
011-81-805-082-7108
If that doesn't go through, try 011-81-0805-082-7108.
Josh's new number:
011-81-805-658-4265
or try 011-81-0805-658-4265.
We'll be getting a home phone soon...I'll let you know the number there when I get it.
011-81-805-082-7108
If that doesn't go through, try 011-81-0805-082-7108.
Josh's new number:
011-81-805-658-4265
or try 011-81-0805-658-4265.
We'll be getting a home phone soon...I'll let you know the number there when I get it.
Blogger Jennell posts at 6:52 AM CST
No, I didn't fall off the end of the earth!
Sunday, September 4, 2005
Well, I knew that the daily blogging wouldn’t continue once I started working, but I didn’t think I could go for two weeks without writing anything. With school starting and moving out of the lodge, we’ve been pretty busy.
The work days at school were full of meetings and very frustrating because they didn’t seem at all organized. Different people were in charge of each segment of time and then when they finished, we were free to go back to our rooms – for about 15 minutes, until the next meeting. There was a lot of time scheduled for the tech department but the new computer system kept failing, so we still haven’t had any training on the new software and don’t have any way to do our grades (even though school has started). I asked if I could buy my own copy of GradeQuick to use and they said no because they want everyone to use the same program…the one that doesn’t work. Yippee! We also didn’t have accurate attendance lists for the first day of school. That still isn’t worked out either. I have 24 students in one World Geography class and 10 in another. The other two have about 18 students each, which I guess is going to be the norm. They said that they will work on balancing our teams on Tuesday. That would be nice so that I could set up some kind of list to start taking grades and keeping accurate attendance, but why rush!!! They finally decided that we could buy a gradebook called “Excel-lent” because it is Excel based. I’m going to look into that tomorrow. Thank goodness we have a three day weekend…I really needed it!
My classes are going very well. The students seem to be well behaved, for the most part, and respectful. Their personalities are beginning to show as they get more comfortable. Having about 80 new students is making learning all of their names very difficult, but I think I’ve almost got them all. There are some very unique names and there are kids from every ethnic background imaginable. It is so diverse that prejudice doesn’t seem an issue.
We had our Open House on the third day of school. Basically it was exactly like Meet the Teacher at SRCS, when parents and students just walk around and say hello to the teachers. It lasted from 16:00-18:00. It seemed like a long, long, long time! The parents who came were very nice and all of them said that they would be supportive if they were needed. J Hopefully the other ones will be also. I have no idea which parents came because at the time, I didn’t even know the kids, but it is nice to have that over with. We don’t have Curriculum Night or anything else with the parents until Student Led Conferences. Those sound like they will be interesting…can’t wait to see how the students do that!
Josh and I moved out of the Navy Lodge on Saturday, August 27, 2005. We should have moved out the day before, but Typhoon Mawar came on Thursday night and made things that much more interesting. Apparently the base commander is relatively new and this was his first typhoon. He decided to close the base at 16:00 on Thursday and that meant that everyone at school who lives off-base had to go home. Since we were still in the lodge, we could stay or go. I had my contract signing, so I went to do that. Luckily the appointment was for 15:00 because appointments that were later had to be cancelled. At the signing I got load of information about garbage. They separate everything here and have 5 different days for garbage. According to several staff members, if you mess it up, your neighbors bring your garbage back to your house and yell at you in Japanese. Doesn’t sound like a good way to start, so I’m hoping to get it right. I think I’ll just have to get several garbage cans and label them.
At the contract signing, I asked about my waterbed because when I read the lease I noticed that I had to get approval from the landlord to have it. She asked how heavy it is. Hmmmmm…I don’t know. So she is going to talk to the builder and see what he says. She is afraid that since the bedroom is on the second floor, it may not be possible. UGH! I love my bed!
Once the signing was over, I went back to school to work in my room. Josh came with because he wanted to ride around base in my new car. We did a little exploring before we went to my classroom. The car is a 1990 Eunos Roadster. In the US, it is called a Mazda Miata. Here though, it is the perfect sized car! Mine is red, and, like all of the others, it is a convertible. The car guy bought it at the auction, so I didn’t get to see it or drive it before I bought it, but he guaranteed that it would pass the base inspection or that he would fix whatever needed to be fixed. I did NOT like the idea of buying from an auction, but it turned out okay. The car is in great shape and the paint only has a couple of places where it is chipped. After being here for about two weeks, I was about ready to drive anything, but I really like the Roadster! The only problem is that the car didn’t have a CD player or working radio. No problem! Josh and I went to the NEX and bought one, and he assured me that he could install it within 10 minutes. A week later, I still have no CD or radio. Apparently since the car is so old, the connections have changed. To complicate matters, I bought an American CD player to put into a Japanese car. I was told to go get a conversion kit at the local “Discount Auto” look-alike and they told me the kit costs about $189! That doesn’t make any sense to install a $79 CD player, so I looked at their Japanese CD players and those don’t have the same connections either. I’m not sure how to solve this problem, so I have put Josh on the job. We’ll see how that goes…
Anyway, on typhoon day, I got the car at about noon and had to go to get Japanese insurance and plates. The car lot guy was great and he sent his associate with me to translate. By the time we finished, I had several documents I couldn’t read, but they assured me I could legal drive the car. We drove around on base for a while and I tried to get used to driving on the wrong side of the car. That is going to take A LOT of getting used to. I’ve had the car for about a week and a half now, and I’m getting comfortable…which is a problem because then I don’t think. I actually pulled onto the wrong side of the road on base the other day because there were no other cars to follow. The car driving straight at me was my first clue that something was wrong! Josh has decided that he is my driving assistant/instructor. Sometimes it’s helpful and sometimes I just want to smack him! J I seem to have overcome the urge to get in the car on the wrong side, but Josh is still doing it…maybe because he wants to drive.
After working in my classroom to pull out all of the junk left by previous teachers (somebody needs to check people out here!), Josh and I went back to the lodge to await our first typhoon. We were not impressed. There was no reason to close the base or cancel school…there were about three leaves on the ground and that was it! It worked out very well though, because the next day school was closed and I didn’t miss anything there. I had to be at the house by 13:00 to wait for the loaner furniture to be delivered and the gas man to come hook up our gas. The loaner furniture is a joke…Josh keeps calling it the fake furniture. The couch is way too small and uncomfortable, but it’ll get us through until my real stuff arrives. With no TV and no computer, we decided on Sunday that we needed to go exploring. I wanted to see the NEX at Yokota Air Force Base so I could check on TV prices (I want a big TV for the living room so I can keep my small one in my bedroom. Yokota turned out to be about 2 hours away and we left early to beat the traffic. That worked out well on the way there but the traffic was horrible on the way home. I realized, however, that we were right by the five-story hundred yen store, so we stopped there and Josh was impressed by the size and plethora of junk available. Yokota had a great store (not called a NEX – Navy Exchange – because it is an Air Force base…duh!) and we got several things we needed for the house. Josh was so excited to have to hold several bags on his lap (the trunk was completely stuffed) all the way home. When we got back to base I wanted to work in my classroom some. He offered to help since it was my birthday. After a while he realized that I had dragged him far away so that he couldn’t tell everyone that it was my 30th birthday. J Hehehehehe! That backfired because he called Debra who yelled at me for not saying anything. No food for Josh this week…I never like him anyway!
Josh was invited to see Dukes of Hazard (yuck!), so I was able to stay in the room and work until it was cleaned up and organized. I felt so much better when I had gotten rid of the junk in there and organized the other stuff. I didn’t hang anything up because I couldn’t stand the thought of having to re-do it when my stuff arrived, so it was a very blank classroom on the first day of school. I told the kids to imagine that it was decorated and I told them what to envision where. They thought that was funny and several of them described what to imagine to their parents when they came in to Open House. They also want to see pictures of Kitty…but I don’t have any because I got a new computer and all of my files are packed with my stuff. Oh well…maybe I can get Diane to take some to send me.
Our team at school, Gojilla, seems to be getting off to a pretty good start. The one guy we have is rather interesting and somewhat hard to work with, but he seems to be learning that he has to compromise. He now compromises a little tiny bit and then complains loudly about how inconvenient it is to change the way he has always done things. He sees himself as a technology guru…and can’t imagine why I haven’t come to ask him for help. Peggy, our team leader, calls him Mr. DeWalt and calls the rest of us by our first names. When he introduced himself to me he said his name was Alvin DeWalt, so I asked if he went by Alvin. He said he does…I call him Al. J
There seems to be some controversy regarding what the word “Gojilla” means. Everyone at the school said it was a gorilla, but the kids think it means Godzilla. Then I saw last year’s team shirt and it looks like a Godzilla. But the other seventh grade teams are Tora (tiger) and Kuma (I think that is their name – but it means bear), so gorilla makes more sense than Godzilla. On open house night I asked some of the Japanese speaking parents and they said it was Godzilla. I looked it up in my handy-dandy translator and it says that gorilla translates to gorira, but doesn’t say what Godzilla is. I am already tired of trying to figure out what Japanese words mean. The Japanese characters (there are more than 2000) don’t make any sense to me and you can’t type them into the computer to figure out what they mean because they aren’t on my keyboard. The spoken language is supposed to be easy, but again the characters are a problem because if someone is asking something, you can’t just look it up the way it sounds without know what character they are saying. Some things are in Romanji which means that the words are written with the same letters we use, but you don’t see that everywhere. Packages and directions and bills and labels on appliances are all written using the Japanese characters. So we have to guess what cycle the washing machine is using and what buttons to push on the remote control for the A/C and heaters. I think my phone does some very cool stuff, but I have no idea how to make it happen. I found some of the user guides and the previous tenant has translated some of the things, but I still have no idea what all of the buttons on the toilet and stove and hot water thingy are. So far, that has been the most frustrating part of moving halfway around the world. I went from being somewhat intelligent and able to figure out how to use my gadgets to being completely illiterate and very frustrated with them. That is why I bought the American CD player for the car and my TV on base! But the washer and dryer came from the base and they are in Japanese, so that is not always a safe be either. And I won’t even go into the nutritional labels on the food!
Speaking of food, Josh and I had our first food related trauma on Friday after school. Evelyn met us for dinner and we walked over to the mall. We decided to try someplace new since we had been to the Korean BBQ place twice. We ended up at Ducky Duck, which had pasta out in front. It looked good so we went inside. They didn’t have an English menu, so we pointed at the pictures we thought looked good. We ended up with fish flavored sauce on our pasta. Mine was also cold pasta. It was soooooo gross! We left and came home to eat Beefaroni…the only thing we can cook with our current kitchen supplies. Who knew Beefaroni could be such a welcome meal!
On Saturday (September 3) Josh and I went for a ride. We decided to go out of our neighborhood and turn right…something we have been dying to do since we moved in. We kept getting home after dark and so figured today was our chance. It is really very pretty over there. We found two beaches…they aren’t as nice as Florida beaches, but they weren’t too bad. There weren’t any waves, but I don’t know if that is how it always is or if it just isn’t the season. When we got back we decided to straighten up. As we were starting, the doorbell rang. It was Knurse Knapp’s brother Jack and his wife Wasana. They were very nice and didn’t even seem to notice our lovely cleaning attire. They showed us their house and I was amazed to see that they can actually see our house from their kitchen window! Jack showed us that we are supposed to have a net in the sink to keep gunk from going down there and told us that it should be thrown out with the Monday garbage…so many little details to remember! Wasana offered to take us to the grocery store and show us around, but we declined so that we could make it to Camp Zama before their bazaar was over. They are very nice, and offered to loan their van if we ever need it to move stuff around…can’t imagine why they would think that would be necessary. J Maybe they heard stories from the neighbors about how goofy we looked moving in from the Navy Lodge! We made it in two trips, but looked like the Beverly Hillbillies each time.
We went to Camp Zama. It is near the five-story hundred yen store, so we ended up going there for the third time in as many weeks. Traffic was horrible on the way there but we made it by 16:00. They had a lot of furniture and a few other little things, but I didn’t buy anything. I need to wait for a paycheck before I do that. It was nice to see what to expect when our bazaar happens at the end of the month (our PTO gets some of the proceeds). I really want one of those cool step cabinets and a Japanese table for my tatami room. After the bazaar ended we went to the 100 yen store and headed home. Luckily traffic was much better. We stayed up until after 22:00 last night…a first for us in Japan!
So far, today was my favorite day in our new house! I scheduled a cleaning lady to come! Hehehehehehehe! I loved it! She brought a Japanese guy and they cleaned out all of the cabinets and closets, the refrigerator and freezer, the bathroom and kitchen, and then washed all of the floors. It was wonderful! Now we are ready for our stuff to arrive. It is coming on Wednesday, so I got administrative leave for Wednesday and Thursday. I have to do sub plans, but I purposely chose Wed. and Thurs. so that I would only have to do one lesson plan since that is one A day and one B day. AND, I didn’t have to find my own sub!!! I have no idea who is coming to cover my classes, but I didn’t have to make a single phone call to make it happen!
While the people were cleaning, I was organizing the billions of papers that I have been given from school, housing, appliance people, etc. since I got here. I made file folders and filled them up…so now my house is clean and my papers are organized! A near perfect day! At about noon, Victoria and her sons stopped by to invite Josh to go to the mall. He was happy to get out of the house, not that we have been here much, and I was glad to have some time by myself. That whole introvert thing hasn’t been a problem for me, but when he left and the cleaning people were gone it was sooooo nice!
All in all, things are going very, very well! I really like Japan and the adventure of having every single place I go be new and different. It is much prettier here that I thought and not nearly as crowded as I imagined. I have been so glad that Josh is here, too. He has been great company and makes it easy to be far away from the rest of my family and friends. He seems to be doing well too. I decided that we would take a break from school work while I got things going in my classroom, but we will start that again tomorrow. In the meantime, he has been coming to the base with me everyday (he isn’t happy that we have to be out of the house by 06:00!) and wandering around talking to people. He has lots of friends and several babysitting possibilities lined up. It hasn’t been a problem getting him on base without an ID. Supposedly he is supposed to have a visitor pass every time and he can only come on base for 60 out of every 365 days. We have been here a month and only had to get a visitor pass for one day!
Well, I think I’ll go on base and post this since it has been so long. I’m sure there are lots of things I left out, so drop me an email if there is anything you are curious about. I’ll try not to let it go so long between updates…when we get internet access, it will be much easier.
PS – I thought I would update the blog first and respond to individual e-mails tomorrow. So if you sent me something, I’ll get back to you soon. Keep the e-mails coming...I love hearing from everyone! Also, I added a few more pictures to my Flickr site. Click the title of the post to see them. :)
Well, I knew that the daily blogging wouldn’t continue once I started working, but I didn’t think I could go for two weeks without writing anything. With school starting and moving out of the lodge, we’ve been pretty busy.
The work days at school were full of meetings and very frustrating because they didn’t seem at all organized. Different people were in charge of each segment of time and then when they finished, we were free to go back to our rooms – for about 15 minutes, until the next meeting. There was a lot of time scheduled for the tech department but the new computer system kept failing, so we still haven’t had any training on the new software and don’t have any way to do our grades (even though school has started). I asked if I could buy my own copy of GradeQuick to use and they said no because they want everyone to use the same program…the one that doesn’t work. Yippee! We also didn’t have accurate attendance lists for the first day of school. That still isn’t worked out either. I have 24 students in one World Geography class and 10 in another. The other two have about 18 students each, which I guess is going to be the norm. They said that they will work on balancing our teams on Tuesday. That would be nice so that I could set up some kind of list to start taking grades and keeping accurate attendance, but why rush!!! They finally decided that we could buy a gradebook called “Excel-lent” because it is Excel based. I’m going to look into that tomorrow. Thank goodness we have a three day weekend…I really needed it!
My classes are going very well. The students seem to be well behaved, for the most part, and respectful. Their personalities are beginning to show as they get more comfortable. Having about 80 new students is making learning all of their names very difficult, but I think I’ve almost got them all. There are some very unique names and there are kids from every ethnic background imaginable. It is so diverse that prejudice doesn’t seem an issue.
We had our Open House on the third day of school. Basically it was exactly like Meet the Teacher at SRCS, when parents and students just walk around and say hello to the teachers. It lasted from 16:00-18:00. It seemed like a long, long, long time! The parents who came were very nice and all of them said that they would be supportive if they were needed. J Hopefully the other ones will be also. I have no idea which parents came because at the time, I didn’t even know the kids, but it is nice to have that over with. We don’t have Curriculum Night or anything else with the parents until Student Led Conferences. Those sound like they will be interesting…can’t wait to see how the students do that!
Josh and I moved out of the Navy Lodge on Saturday, August 27, 2005. We should have moved out the day before, but Typhoon Mawar came on Thursday night and made things that much more interesting. Apparently the base commander is relatively new and this was his first typhoon. He decided to close the base at 16:00 on Thursday and that meant that everyone at school who lives off-base had to go home. Since we were still in the lodge, we could stay or go. I had my contract signing, so I went to do that. Luckily the appointment was for 15:00 because appointments that were later had to be cancelled. At the signing I got load of information about garbage. They separate everything here and have 5 different days for garbage. According to several staff members, if you mess it up, your neighbors bring your garbage back to your house and yell at you in Japanese. Doesn’t sound like a good way to start, so I’m hoping to get it right. I think I’ll just have to get several garbage cans and label them.
At the contract signing, I asked about my waterbed because when I read the lease I noticed that I had to get approval from the landlord to have it. She asked how heavy it is. Hmmmmm…I don’t know. So she is going to talk to the builder and see what he says. She is afraid that since the bedroom is on the second floor, it may not be possible. UGH! I love my bed!
Once the signing was over, I went back to school to work in my room. Josh came with because he wanted to ride around base in my new car. We did a little exploring before we went to my classroom. The car is a 1990 Eunos Roadster. In the US, it is called a Mazda Miata. Here though, it is the perfect sized car! Mine is red, and, like all of the others, it is a convertible. The car guy bought it at the auction, so I didn’t get to see it or drive it before I bought it, but he guaranteed that it would pass the base inspection or that he would fix whatever needed to be fixed. I did NOT like the idea of buying from an auction, but it turned out okay. The car is in great shape and the paint only has a couple of places where it is chipped. After being here for about two weeks, I was about ready to drive anything, but I really like the Roadster! The only problem is that the car didn’t have a CD player or working radio. No problem! Josh and I went to the NEX and bought one, and he assured me that he could install it within 10 minutes. A week later, I still have no CD or radio. Apparently since the car is so old, the connections have changed. To complicate matters, I bought an American CD player to put into a Japanese car. I was told to go get a conversion kit at the local “Discount Auto” look-alike and they told me the kit costs about $189! That doesn’t make any sense to install a $79 CD player, so I looked at their Japanese CD players and those don’t have the same connections either. I’m not sure how to solve this problem, so I have put Josh on the job. We’ll see how that goes…
Anyway, on typhoon day, I got the car at about noon and had to go to get Japanese insurance and plates. The car lot guy was great and he sent his associate with me to translate. By the time we finished, I had several documents I couldn’t read, but they assured me I could legal drive the car. We drove around on base for a while and I tried to get used to driving on the wrong side of the car. That is going to take A LOT of getting used to. I’ve had the car for about a week and a half now, and I’m getting comfortable…which is a problem because then I don’t think. I actually pulled onto the wrong side of the road on base the other day because there were no other cars to follow. The car driving straight at me was my first clue that something was wrong! Josh has decided that he is my driving assistant/instructor. Sometimes it’s helpful and sometimes I just want to smack him! J I seem to have overcome the urge to get in the car on the wrong side, but Josh is still doing it…maybe because he wants to drive.
After working in my classroom to pull out all of the junk left by previous teachers (somebody needs to check people out here!), Josh and I went back to the lodge to await our first typhoon. We were not impressed. There was no reason to close the base or cancel school…there were about three leaves on the ground and that was it! It worked out very well though, because the next day school was closed and I didn’t miss anything there. I had to be at the house by 13:00 to wait for the loaner furniture to be delivered and the gas man to come hook up our gas. The loaner furniture is a joke…Josh keeps calling it the fake furniture. The couch is way too small and uncomfortable, but it’ll get us through until my real stuff arrives. With no TV and no computer, we decided on Sunday that we needed to go exploring. I wanted to see the NEX at Yokota Air Force Base so I could check on TV prices (I want a big TV for the living room so I can keep my small one in my bedroom. Yokota turned out to be about 2 hours away and we left early to beat the traffic. That worked out well on the way there but the traffic was horrible on the way home. I realized, however, that we were right by the five-story hundred yen store, so we stopped there and Josh was impressed by the size and plethora of junk available. Yokota had a great store (not called a NEX – Navy Exchange – because it is an Air Force base…duh!) and we got several things we needed for the house. Josh was so excited to have to hold several bags on his lap (the trunk was completely stuffed) all the way home. When we got back to base I wanted to work in my classroom some. He offered to help since it was my birthday. After a while he realized that I had dragged him far away so that he couldn’t tell everyone that it was my 30th birthday. J Hehehehehe! That backfired because he called Debra who yelled at me for not saying anything. No food for Josh this week…I never like him anyway!
Josh was invited to see Dukes of Hazard (yuck!), so I was able to stay in the room and work until it was cleaned up and organized. I felt so much better when I had gotten rid of the junk in there and organized the other stuff. I didn’t hang anything up because I couldn’t stand the thought of having to re-do it when my stuff arrived, so it was a very blank classroom on the first day of school. I told the kids to imagine that it was decorated and I told them what to envision where. They thought that was funny and several of them described what to imagine to their parents when they came in to Open House. They also want to see pictures of Kitty…but I don’t have any because I got a new computer and all of my files are packed with my stuff. Oh well…maybe I can get Diane to take some to send me.
Our team at school, Gojilla, seems to be getting off to a pretty good start. The one guy we have is rather interesting and somewhat hard to work with, but he seems to be learning that he has to compromise. He now compromises a little tiny bit and then complains loudly about how inconvenient it is to change the way he has always done things. He sees himself as a technology guru…and can’t imagine why I haven’t come to ask him for help. Peggy, our team leader, calls him Mr. DeWalt and calls the rest of us by our first names. When he introduced himself to me he said his name was Alvin DeWalt, so I asked if he went by Alvin. He said he does…I call him Al. J
There seems to be some controversy regarding what the word “Gojilla” means. Everyone at the school said it was a gorilla, but the kids think it means Godzilla. Then I saw last year’s team shirt and it looks like a Godzilla. But the other seventh grade teams are Tora (tiger) and Kuma (I think that is their name – but it means bear), so gorilla makes more sense than Godzilla. On open house night I asked some of the Japanese speaking parents and they said it was Godzilla. I looked it up in my handy-dandy translator and it says that gorilla translates to gorira, but doesn’t say what Godzilla is. I am already tired of trying to figure out what Japanese words mean. The Japanese characters (there are more than 2000) don’t make any sense to me and you can’t type them into the computer to figure out what they mean because they aren’t on my keyboard. The spoken language is supposed to be easy, but again the characters are a problem because if someone is asking something, you can’t just look it up the way it sounds without know what character they are saying. Some things are in Romanji which means that the words are written with the same letters we use, but you don’t see that everywhere. Packages and directions and bills and labels on appliances are all written using the Japanese characters. So we have to guess what cycle the washing machine is using and what buttons to push on the remote control for the A/C and heaters. I think my phone does some very cool stuff, but I have no idea how to make it happen. I found some of the user guides and the previous tenant has translated some of the things, but I still have no idea what all of the buttons on the toilet and stove and hot water thingy are. So far, that has been the most frustrating part of moving halfway around the world. I went from being somewhat intelligent and able to figure out how to use my gadgets to being completely illiterate and very frustrated with them. That is why I bought the American CD player for the car and my TV on base! But the washer and dryer came from the base and they are in Japanese, so that is not always a safe be either. And I won’t even go into the nutritional labels on the food!
Speaking of food, Josh and I had our first food related trauma on Friday after school. Evelyn met us for dinner and we walked over to the mall. We decided to try someplace new since we had been to the Korean BBQ place twice. We ended up at Ducky Duck, which had pasta out in front. It looked good so we went inside. They didn’t have an English menu, so we pointed at the pictures we thought looked good. We ended up with fish flavored sauce on our pasta. Mine was also cold pasta. It was soooooo gross! We left and came home to eat Beefaroni…the only thing we can cook with our current kitchen supplies. Who knew Beefaroni could be such a welcome meal!
On Saturday (September 3) Josh and I went for a ride. We decided to go out of our neighborhood and turn right…something we have been dying to do since we moved in. We kept getting home after dark and so figured today was our chance. It is really very pretty over there. We found two beaches…they aren’t as nice as Florida beaches, but they weren’t too bad. There weren’t any waves, but I don’t know if that is how it always is or if it just isn’t the season. When we got back we decided to straighten up. As we were starting, the doorbell rang. It was Knurse Knapp’s brother Jack and his wife Wasana. They were very nice and didn’t even seem to notice our lovely cleaning attire. They showed us their house and I was amazed to see that they can actually see our house from their kitchen window! Jack showed us that we are supposed to have a net in the sink to keep gunk from going down there and told us that it should be thrown out with the Monday garbage…so many little details to remember! Wasana offered to take us to the grocery store and show us around, but we declined so that we could make it to Camp Zama before their bazaar was over. They are very nice, and offered to loan their van if we ever need it to move stuff around…can’t imagine why they would think that would be necessary. J Maybe they heard stories from the neighbors about how goofy we looked moving in from the Navy Lodge! We made it in two trips, but looked like the Beverly Hillbillies each time.
We went to Camp Zama. It is near the five-story hundred yen store, so we ended up going there for the third time in as many weeks. Traffic was horrible on the way there but we made it by 16:00. They had a lot of furniture and a few other little things, but I didn’t buy anything. I need to wait for a paycheck before I do that. It was nice to see what to expect when our bazaar happens at the end of the month (our PTO gets some of the proceeds). I really want one of those cool step cabinets and a Japanese table for my tatami room. After the bazaar ended we went to the 100 yen store and headed home. Luckily traffic was much better. We stayed up until after 22:00 last night…a first for us in Japan!
So far, today was my favorite day in our new house! I scheduled a cleaning lady to come! Hehehehehehehe! I loved it! She brought a Japanese guy and they cleaned out all of the cabinets and closets, the refrigerator and freezer, the bathroom and kitchen, and then washed all of the floors. It was wonderful! Now we are ready for our stuff to arrive. It is coming on Wednesday, so I got administrative leave for Wednesday and Thursday. I have to do sub plans, but I purposely chose Wed. and Thurs. so that I would only have to do one lesson plan since that is one A day and one B day. AND, I didn’t have to find my own sub!!! I have no idea who is coming to cover my classes, but I didn’t have to make a single phone call to make it happen!
While the people were cleaning, I was organizing the billions of papers that I have been given from school, housing, appliance people, etc. since I got here. I made file folders and filled them up…so now my house is clean and my papers are organized! A near perfect day! At about noon, Victoria and her sons stopped by to invite Josh to go to the mall. He was happy to get out of the house, not that we have been here much, and I was glad to have some time by myself. That whole introvert thing hasn’t been a problem for me, but when he left and the cleaning people were gone it was sooooo nice!
All in all, things are going very, very well! I really like Japan and the adventure of having every single place I go be new and different. It is much prettier here that I thought and not nearly as crowded as I imagined. I have been so glad that Josh is here, too. He has been great company and makes it easy to be far away from the rest of my family and friends. He seems to be doing well too. I decided that we would take a break from school work while I got things going in my classroom, but we will start that again tomorrow. In the meantime, he has been coming to the base with me everyday (he isn’t happy that we have to be out of the house by 06:00!) and wandering around talking to people. He has lots of friends and several babysitting possibilities lined up. It hasn’t been a problem getting him on base without an ID. Supposedly he is supposed to have a visitor pass every time and he can only come on base for 60 out of every 365 days. We have been here a month and only had to get a visitor pass for one day!
Well, I think I’ll go on base and post this since it has been so long. I’m sure there are lots of things I left out, so drop me an email if there is anything you are curious about. I’ll try not to let it go so long between updates…when we get internet access, it will be much easier.
PS – I thought I would update the blog first and respond to individual e-mails tomorrow. So if you sent me something, I’ll get back to you soon. Keep the e-mails coming...I love hearing from everyone! Also, I added a few more pictures to my Flickr site. Click the title of the post to see them. :)
Thursday, September 01, 2005
Blogger Bill posts at 3:04 AM CST
Evangeline Kitsune
Join us all in celbrating the arrival of a new member of the Lambert / Polacek / Dwyer bunch: Evangeline Kitsune. Picture available by clicking on the title of this post.
All you Lambert, Polaceks and Dwyers out there need to post once in a while so this stays interesting
Links
Previous Posts
- Obits
- European Ramblings
- Hey, is there any world travelers that can post here?
- A Poem
- Jesus said in Matthew
- MARCH MADNESS
- Icestorm in the south suburbs of Chicago
- MERRY CHRIST MAS
- Fa La La la la
- Always Lookin Fer A Fight
Archives
- April 2004
- May 2004
- June 2004
- July 2004
- August 2004
- September 2004
- October 2004
- November 2004
- December 2004
- July 2005
- August 2005
- September 2005
- October 2005
- November 2005
- December 2005
- January 2006
- February 2006
- March 2006
- April 2006
- May 2006
- June 2006
- July 2006
- August 2006
- September 2006
- October 2006
- November 2006
- December 2006
- January 2007
- February 2007
- March 2007
- April 2007
- May 2007
- June 2007
- July 2007
- August 2007
- September 2007
- October 2007
- November 2007
- December 2007
- January 2008
- February 2008
- March 2008
- June 2008
- July 2008
- August 2008
- September 2008
- October 2008
- November 2008
- December 2008
- March 2009
- April 2009
- June 2009