Archive for April, 2007
April 17, 2007· Filed under Reflections
To all the students, faculty, parents and community members of Virginia Tech, my thoughts and prayers are with you all. There are no words that will we can say that will reduce the pain and shock you all are feeling.
My first visit to the very quiet, rural campus of Virginia Tech took place in 1985. I had gone there for a high school math contest (yes, I was a geek). I remember making comments about how we were going out in to the country and how things were so different from our hustle, bustle suburban Northern Virginia lifestyle. When considering my college options, VT was just too country for me. I opted for University of Texas at Austin instead - ironically, the site of another shocking school murder in 1966. After a year at UT, I chose to come back and finish my college education at George Mason University.
My brothers both chose Virginia Tech for their college experiences and enjoyed every minute of it! While they were there, I took plenty of weekend trips out to Blacksburg to visit them. It is just such a comfortable college environment.
Due to the school’s location, academic excellence and great atmosphere for that first step into the real world, many high school students from our area choose to go on to VT. I can envision at least one of my own children attending VT, too. Even though we are at least four hours away from the campus, everyone in our community is being touched by this incident. We all seem to have some connection to the school, know someone there or know someone who went there.
You never think it can happen to you or to your community. We all like to feel insulated from it all in some way. I hope that the Virginia Tech community can rally around itself much like other communities have in the face of tragedy and let the healing begin.
April 16, 2007· Filed under Monday Motivation
Whew! Spring Break is over and the big kids got on that big yellow school bus very happily this morning. My busy 5 year old is buzzing around doing her own thing and asking for addition worksheets to work on. I didn’t get much accomplished last week but look forward to this week with a very hopeful outlook.
Again I am taking Wendy Piersall’s Monday Motivation challenge to get my week officially underway!
Install cool CSS drop down menu on a site I have underconstructionUpdates on another client siteReview and file my taxes (uh, I know, I know - it’s that procrastination thing)Clear out some of my inboxReview some of the 100th link blogs
If I don’t get this accomplished today, I will give up coffee for a week - and that would be bad. I’ll be back throughout the day to update.
April 16, 2007· Filed under Blogging, Link Love
Last week I asked who wanted to be my 100th link in on Technorati and I got an awful lot more response than I expected!
Without further ado…
Thank you to Ponn Sabra of Empower Women Now for being link #100
When I checked my Technorati info this morning, I was pleasantly surprised to see that I am now up to 109 links, which means that Ponn and 8 of her cyber friends will all get notes from me this week with some helpful tips for their blogs.
Other kind linkers include:
And a big thank you to those who have already linked to me, but had encouraging words!
Remember this blog is a follower - meaning if you leave me a comment, you will automatically receive a link from me and that means more Google Juice in the end!
April 16, 2007· Filed under Menu Plan Mondays
The kids are back in school today after a week of little structure, late mornings, and fun. I am happy to return to the routine and our menu plan for the week.
- Monday - Slow cooker pork chops (back by popular demand), egg noodles, and steamed veggies
- Tuesday - Appetizer dinner for the kids - mini hot dogs, fresh veggies and fruit. I get to prepare a meal for a family of 6 at a new place in town called Dream Dinners - for free (I like free).
- Wednesday - Spaghetti cupcakes, salad and breadsticks
- Thursday - Our Dream Dinners meal - not sure what it is yet.
- Friday - Hamburgers on the grill, french fries or baked potatoes, green beans
I just discovered a fun new resource for recipes - Favorite Brand Name Recipes - the recipes use products from many of the brands you probably already have in your pantry. There are some pretty creative recipes on the site.
Here’s hoping you have a great week! If you are looking for more meal planning ideas, go check out the list at I’m An Organizing Junkie.
April 13, 2007· Filed under Family
Yesterday was the first nice weather day we have had in at least a week, and since the kids are home on Spring Break, we decided to take the day and go somewhere together as a family.
We took the kids to Busch Gardens in Williamsburg which turned out to be a great deal thanks to their Here’s to the Heroes Deal (if you or your spouse is active duty military you need to look into this). Because it was such a gorgeous day, it was very crowded, but that didn’t stop us from having fun.
Only our middle child (the gymnast) has any real rollercoaster riding genes - the other two are basically chicken. This made things a bit challenging, but with a little encouragement, we broadened everyone’s sense of adventure a little bit.
We started off by riding the train all the way around the park so we could decide which areas were priority. Then we headed to the log flume ride. We didn’t get too wet, but it was wild enough to get everyone’s heart pumping a bit.
If you have never been to Busch Gardens, Williamsburg, the theme is Europe and each of the park segments is fashioned after a European country. We had lunch in the large German Fest Haus and watched the German dance show while we were there.
We did a lot of walking, some eating, plenty of riding and playing, but most of all, we got out of the house and did something together as a family and that was the best.
Have a great weekend!
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