Minnesota nice?

The people in Minnesota are, for the most part, very nice, considerate and helpful. There's always someone to help you at the grocery store, willing to work with you when you're frazzled and give your kids stickers (so I've heard). However, when it comes to driving it seems like they can't help tailgate each other. Now, usually when someone tailgates they want to pass you because you're driving too slow. About half the time that's the case here. You'll be going maybe 10 over the speed limit and even then someone races up behind you and sits in your tail (seriously, with inches to spare) until you move or they get around you. However, the other half of the time they'll just sit on your tail and when you move over they pass you going maybe 2 mph faster then you are. So I'm not sure why "Minnesota nice" doesn't apply to driving and why people insist on following so closely. One of these day's I'm not going to feel so "nice" and slam on my breaks and show them "insurance nice." :) Ironically, this picture is from a Florida agency and Florida drivers are known to be a bit crazy but at least they admit their mistakes here! Now I'm probably the pot calling the kettle black because I've tailgated myself, but this is just getting out of hand here!

I should have been a nurse

I'm a bad patient. I should mention that first before I explain myself. I self-diagnosed myself with strep over a week ago. I've been sick all year with colds off and on as I've been surrounded with germs at school. Ironic that we just studied germs...anyway...So I went to the doc and he agreed and gave me some antibiotics. I took them faithfully until a week later all my symptoms came back with a vengence. I went to the quickcare Friday and got a stronger dose of antibiotics. Well, we also realized that I was only taking half my dose before because I didn't pay close attention to the perscription. Anyway, doc thought it was best to just nip my now diagnosed tonsilitis in the bud. So, I took the new antibiotic faithfully until I noticed red spots on my arms in church. These spots spread all over my body and now my face is swollen with them. Apparently they are called hives. Never had hives before and wouldn't reccomend it! So I figured that looking like I have the plague wasn't good for work so I took the day off and went back to the original doc. He took me off antiobiotics (I guess I'm allergic now) and am taking antihistimines. I'm wondering if I was a nurse or something if I would know better or be more careful about taking my medicine..or recognizing hives. Whatever, I get a day off. With 3 weeks left I might as well use up my sick leave. :)

Triops, Tri-tablefauna and cults

These aren't really exciting things to note but this is our humble life. Whoo-hoo!!

1. When we were in Victoria we went to this bug museum and found these weird little shrimp/crab-like creatures called triops. Well, Kurtis hasn't been able to get over the novelty of these things and so he bought a triops kit online. $5.99 for eggs, food and water conditioner. He took them to work and tried to get them to hatch. On the 5th egg, Tito hatched and is now .4 mm long but a very active little guy. Kurtis is very proud of him. So Tito sits on his desk and distracts Kurtis and his colleagues all day from their highly exciting and motivating desk jobs.

2. My mom gave me these nesting tables which amazingly fit into my suitcase and survived the plane ride home. "Nesting tables?" Kurtis has asked, "what are they for?" Well, since we've had them (1 month or so) they've just been sitting safely nested by the fireplace. Then I uncovered this little starter plant kit someone had given me and decided to plant the seeds. The little kit fit perfectly on the smallest table. Yesterday, I asked Kurtis to by me a palm tree for a mother's day gift instead of flowers. For $12, who could pass up a tropical plant (in MN mind you) that will naturally clean the air and beautify a home? I couldn't. So the tree fit on the biggest table. Well, Kurtis then mentioned that I needed a medium plant for the medium table. Voila! Today at church all mothers and grown women received a cute little geranuim plant for mother's day. These fit on the middle table. This is my life. I have plants, I usually kill them but I'm hoping this time it's different. This is my garden.

3. Kurtis wanted to go to all the thrift stores in the area to get a lamp to keep Tito's (see #1) water warm. We were in Savers and split up to look around. I noticed that Kurtis was talking to an older man who I assumed worked at IBM also and was just chatting with Kurtis. Then as I neared them I thought, maybe he's a Jehovah's Witness and they're having a nice conversation. Well, the man did work for IBM many years ago and he was a sharing a religious message, but it wasn't quite so kind. He explained that he and his wife had been involved in a brainwashing cult and had their eyes opened last year. Now they have been born again and are concerned for the Salvation of others. Great message! However, when they found out we are LDS their eyes rolled and they became extremely concerned for us, saying that we too were brainwashed and were exactly like they were when they were younger. Needless to say, Kurtis did an excellent job of trying to bring the message back to asking the Lord to know of truth and trying to show these good people the similarities of our beliefs. Well, I was agitaged and didn't like to be told I was going to hell (is that prideful??) but they seemed to like Kurtis and were amazed by his sincerity. I think they gave up on me because they addressed everything to Kurtis.. they even prayed for him. I guess I wasn't worth saving. Oh well. They wanted to show us an anti-Mormon movie in exchange for coming to church with us. Maybe we can open their eyes again because they certainly won't open ours. I am grateful for my Savior and for the ability to turn to the Lord for answers. I know that if we seek we shall find, if we ask we shall receive, if we knock the door will be opened unto us to understand all things.

Springtime..almost

So it's really leaning toward being spring here in Minnesota. I use the word leaning carefully. There still are the occasional flurries (yesterday) but there have been a few days in the upper 70s. The lake by our house has completely melted so I think that's a good sign of spring. The trees are budding, the bulbs are coming up and the birds are busy chirping early in the morning. I think it's safe to say that spring has come!

Kurtis and I went to Washington for spring break for Steph and Kyle's wedding. Julie was the matron-of-honor in the wedding and apparently has captured the heart of her nephew Grant with her red vixen dress. I don't know what I did Jana! Aunt Kathleen and Uncle Steve surprised us with a fabulous trip to Victoria, BC on the Victoria Clipper for a night. THANKS AGAIN!! We had a great time and even with Julie's cold and Kurtis having to work a few hours, we got to see the gorgeous Butchart Gardens, the BC parliament building and pay extra in Canada with our pitiful American dollars. It was a great vacation from our vacation to embrace our Canadian heritage. :)

School ends the beginning of June for Julie. She has survived her first year of teaching. Her colleagues say that she's done a tremendous job with our group of lovelies this year. One teacher is actually threatening to take a "mental leave of absence" because he's never encountered so much disrespect and defiance or been so frustrated in his 14 years of teaching. She recently took 5 hours worth of tests to get an official MN teacher license. Hopefully she passed all her tests even though she messed up on the bubble sheets multiple times and even wrote an essay on the wrong page! Kurtis is liking IBM now that his contract load has gotten manageable. This summer Julie will teach a 2-week community class to incoming 6th graders on how to cook (yes!) and then she's heading back to LDS Girl's Camp as the camp director. Later this summer Kurtis' sister will get married in Utah so we get to see all his family!

We had such a great time seeing all the Gillman's (even Mark on the computer!) in Washington. We love and miss you all and can't wait to see you again.

What's with the tears?

Julie has a few things to say...

I've made it halfway through my first year of teaching. Whew! It's been an adventure. Dealing with over 150 12-13 year-olds, parents, and faculty on a daily basis leaves me feeling like I'm a chicken running around with it's head cut off some days! There haven't been any major catastrophes but I still have to convince myself that I'm not ruining any lives and that I'm doing the best I can. As a perfectionist, those are not easy things to accept. However...

I'm a little concerned. I've made a number of people cry and it's not just students...I had a parent cry on me yesterday. No joke. I felt like the biggest jerk in the world, and I didn't really do anything! I just assigned a science fair project! Oh, no, did she say "science fair project?" you might be thinking. Yes, it was time yet again for the dreaded science fair project. It's a huge part of 7th grade curriculum! There was no way around it. Anyway, there were many parents upset over their child's' performance on the project and I tried to explain that if the requirements weren't met, there were fewer points awarded! It's a simple concept, I thought. I even gave most of the kids a whole WEEK to work on their project (the final write-up) in class. On computers and all. They had plenty of time to ask questions and to make sure they had everything. They had a requirements sheet. They had examples of experimental procedures in class. But some of these kids still don't get it, or they leave their requirement sheets at school, or they aren't paying attention because they're too busy talking and goofing off. Anyway, this parent was upset because her son worked very hard on his project, which I could defiantly tell, but his grade didn't reflect that. I tried to explain everything that was required when she realized she was the cause of her son's downfall. When he went to her for help, she told him what he had done was too much, she made him cut it parts out. (I should mention that he was one of the students who left his requirement sheet at school. Mom didn't know any better!) Anyway, she felt TERRIBLE and started bawling, leaving me thinking, wow, I don't think making a parent cry is a good sign. I, being the naive and inexperienced teacher I was, tried to console her and lift her spirits. I told her I'd talk to her very shy son and figure out a way to award him more points on his project so he didn't have to suffer from Mom's unfortunate errors in judgement. She was more then grateful and felt like an idiot for crying. But hey, I've made others cry, at least it seems that way, so maybe I should just get used to this. Hopefully not. I guess the moral of this story is: Parents, don't help your kids too much. They should learn from their mistakes, not from yours.