Husband, Dad, Mechanical Engineer, Bass
Player ...
Obsessed with all things Engineering.
AMY
Wife, Homeschool Mom, Webmaster ...
Obsessed with all things Political.
RACHAEL
Daughter, Sister, Sophomore ...
Obsessed with all things Geological.
NICHOLAS
Son, Brother, 8 year old ...
Obsessed with all things Historical.
(especially Egyptian!)
Favorite Books/Curriculum
The Well-Trained Mind Singapore Math Greenleaf Guides Apologia Science AIG Science curriculum Story of the World
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Day 273 - An Engineer's Perspective
Monday, September 29, 2008
Jeff took these photos of the Union Station canopy infrustructure. Definitely an engineer's perspective...
My mom took us out to a local Mexican restaurant for lunch and to drop the kids off. I slept in until 9:30 this morning and was still tired! On the plus side, Rachael did a great job of getting all of her school work finished. Jeff didn't get home until 8:30. We went to Long John Silver's for supper.
After a fitful night's sleep, we received our hotel bill only to find out that someone had charged $16.00 to our room from the hotel bar. Thankfully, they did remove it after we complained. When we got to our car, we were elated that it started right up. The plan was to drive straight home without turning off the car. We first had to stop at my Grandma's house to pick up Nick's braces that we had left there last weekend. We then went through the Jack in the Box drive-through in an attempt to get one of their Angus burgers. We waited in line for an eternity only to find out that they were out of the burgers. We left and stopped at the gas station. Unfortunately, Jeff accidentally turned off the car. Of course, it wouldn't restart. After over 45 minutes of unsuccessful attempts, we called the Roadside Assistance number provided by our insurance. They could only tow it to the nearest dealer. We talked through dozens of plans from renting a car to having my father-in-law pick us up, etc. Jeff knew that it was the starter and that he could fix it if only he had the proper tools. My grandma had my grandpa's old tools, but not the metric sockets that he needed. He also didn't have a pneumatic jack or jack stands. Luckily, my aunt was still in town. She was able to borrow her brother-in-law's truck and tools. Jeff & I had lunch and wandered around Target for a few hours while we waited for my aunt and grandma to return from Washington, MO. We bought a new starter at Autozone and after an initial confusion about an elusive bolt, Jeff was able to fix the car. Pretty soon, we ought to have a new car. In the last couple of months, Jeff has replaced the alternator, the battery, the starter, and we had new struts and tires put on...
After we were on the road again, we stopped by Coldstone for some ice cream. We were both exhausted, but at least we got a good laugh when we saw the following sign on the Chinese restaurant next door...
After a brunch at the Hard Rock Cafe, we went to the St. Louis Science Center this morning for their Engineering Day. We definitely need to bring the kids back for it next year. They had all kids of cool robots, engineering schools, and engineering companies displaying some of their most innovative products. While at a math booth, I also met another homeschool mom who has a math whiz like Rachael. She, too, used Singapore and loved it.
For dinner, we found a Persian restaurant that was only about 2 miles from the Fox Theater. My dinner was awesome! I had the joojeh (jujeh) chicken kabobs with saffron basmati rice. Jeff usually gets the kubideh (ground beef) kabobs, but instead chose ground chicken which had sort of a potted meat consistency. We left the restaurant with about 40 minutes to spare, yet were 15 minutes late. We got stuck in a huge traffic jam. There was an environmental "go green" street fair which ironically caused a huge bottleneck and greenhouse gases galore!
Jim Gaffigan was so funny! He's Jeff's favorite comedian, and he didn't disappoint. The photo above is the only one that I was able to take before I was banned. (apparently no photography is allowed) Jeff laughed at the photo because Jim does a comedy bit about being so pale. As a matter of fact, one of his cds is entitled "Beyond the Pale." I guess the photo was fitting since he's glowing!
After the show, we were stuck in the parking garage for so long that as soon as we got out, we went to the nearest drugstore to use the restroom. When we returned to our car, it wouldn't start. Fortunately, we were able to start it again after several minutes. We drove straight back to the hotel, shut it off, and tried unsuccessfully to start it again...
The photos above are of our hotel room and the lobby.
Jeff & I dropped the kids off at my mom's house this afternoon and traveled to St. Louis for a weekend getaway. Jeff's favorite comedian is Jim Gaffigan. Since he's having a concert at the Fabulous Fox Theatre tomorrow, I decided to surprise Jeff with tickets. Fortunately, I bought them months ago, since the concert is now sold out. I also booked us a room at the Hyatt Regency St. Louis at Union Station. This was another Priceline bargain at $45/night! My initial goal was to get the kids dropped off early so that we could spend the whole day together, but we didn't get going until late. Had we gone straight into St. Louis, we would have hit the traffic jam (the Cardinals & Blues both had a game). Instead, we decided to hang out in Fairview Heights, IL for a few hours. We ate dinner and visited the cemetery where my dad and Jeff's uncle & grandparents are buried.
After checking into our hotel, we walked down to the "Taste of St. Louis" festival which was being held just down the street. I ate some Gooey Butter Coffee Cake from Gooey Louie's. I do believe that it was the best that I've ever eaten! We decided to stay long enough to hear the band Everclear. We both remembered that we liked one of their songs when it was popular, but neither of us could remember the name of it or anything about it. We listened to the first song (which was pretty awful), but decided that we'd stick it out until we heard the song we recognized. Then the political rant happened... Of course, (like pretty much all of pop-culture), they were vocal Obama fans. At that point we walked back to the hotel...we were willing to listen to bad music for awhile, but we didn't sign on to an impromptu Obama rally...
In lieu of co-op today, several of us took a field trip to Indianapolis. Since I'm currently teaching an election class, we toured former president Benjamin Harrison's home which also included an election exhibit. After walking around downtown, we ate lunch and visited the Indiana Historical Society, which we grossly underestimated. I thought it would be a small historical building. Instead, it was an expansive museum. We only made it to two of the exhibits before it closed. The coolest one being the 1940's store which was complete with a shopkeeper and "customers" dressed in period costumes (complete with wingtips and all!) The shopkeeper even had ration books and stamps and explained the war effort to the kids. We will definitely be going back when we have more time!
After Rachael finished her schoolwork, we went apple picking with Heather, Sophia, & Mary. Unfortunately, our horse friends weren't there. I'm pretty sure that Heather and I did most of the picking, but the girls had a lot of fun catching bugs while Nick ate and ate and ate...
Here are the pictures that my aunt sent me from my grandma's birthday.
We started off our school day with a science test which Rachael completely bombed. It wasn't that it was difficult (it was matching scientists with their achievements), she just didn't study. As a result, she is writing a paragraph about each of the 10 scientists that she missed, then retaking the test. As much as she HATES writing, I don't think she'll be goofing off during her study time anymore! Sometimes it's kind of fun getting to be a mean mom... ;-D
Today is my grandma's 84th birthday. Since it's also the end of the fiscal year and Jeff had to take off on Friday, he ended up working today. My mom and I took the kids to St. Louis to see my grandma and my aunt (who is still visiting from Hawaii). We ate at a Chinese buffet and got a DQ ice cream cake. We played some cards, had a visitor, stopped by Eckert's Farm Store and then drove back to Indiana.
I forgot my camera again, so I'm posting some outdoor/evening pictures that Jeff took of the museum. My aunt is supposed to send me some pictures of Grandma's birthday, so I'll post them when I receive them...
On an even brighter note, I was able to pawn my package of frozen beef stroganoff off on my mom - even after she read my blog. Either she's really brave or she's planning on being really cruel to my stepdad...
My in-laws agreed to watch both kids this afternoon so that Jeff & I could eat dinner & see a movie. We saw Ghost Town (Good Movie!) and ate at Shyler's. I didn't take my camera, so I'm posting pictures from Chuck E. Cheese's. We ate there last night after the museum...
Because of Nick's CP, we were able to get free tickets to a preview of the cMoe's newest traveling exhibit, "AccessAbility." The exhibit was pretty interesting. You could type in Braille, try out a hand-powered stationary bike (which is what Nick needs!), and see what it's like to attempt many everyday tasks while being handicapped in some way. However, it wasn't the exhibit that affected me the most. Since this was the preview, the museum was closed to the public and was only open to disabled children and their immediate families. Whenever I'm in situations like that, I am always reminded how incredibly blessed we are. While, yes, Nick does have some motor deficits, the fact that he has no cognitive delays or communication issues is such a blessing. We would have loved him unconditionally, no matter what his disability might have been. But on those days when I start feeling sorry for him because he can't do a lot of things that the other kids do, I need to remember evenings like this. There are so many other kids with the exact same diagnosis who struggle so much more than he does.
II Corinthians 12:9 - And He has said to me, "My grace is sufficient for you, for power is perfected in weakness... "
Today was the first day of the Election Class that I'm teaching at co-op. I thought that I had 6 kids in the class, but it turned out that I had 10! The class went phenomenally well - even better than I had anticipated. The kids were excited and eager to learn. It's apparently a subject that most of them were truly interested in. I'm thinking we might possibly have a few future politicians in that class! Today was more of a general overview. We discussed the Constitution, the Balance of Power in government (including a breakdown of the roles and responsibilities of each of the three branches), the qualifications and term lengths of different offices, and the history of voting rights (women's suffrage, the 13th Amendment, etc.)
Lori was kind enough to watch Nick while I taught. He loved playing with Sara - he's missed her over the summer!
After having problems with our DVR for months, we finally broke down and called Insight for a new box. I hated to do it because we had so many things saved that I didn't want to lose. This box has a little more storage, but Rachael & I agree - compared to the old one, this one is just plain UGLY! Jeff thinks it matches our tv, but I still think it's ugly. Oh well, at least this one works...for now...
Name: Amy Home: Indiana, United States About Me: I am a Homeschool Mom of 2 awesome children. This is my attempt at Project 365 - to chronicle our world through daily photos... See my complete profile
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