Snail Mail

Hello! 

I know it has been a while and I have been busy. I have started to send snail mail again. It is like getting a little present in the mail. I love sending it. 

These were some of the letters I sent out for Valentine's day. I have been sending out ones each month. 

I will update with more soon! hope you are all doing well.

1 house full

Good morning!
It is a beautiful monday morning and the sun is shining in my window. I have work then class today but a little update is in order.

We have an attic dweller. That means that we now have 8 people living in the house with 2 frequent weekend visitors. We have filled every room and are now moved on to the attic and are looking into getting a shed out back. It is a house full of nonsense and music. In a way it's kinda crazy and in another way kind of amazing. There are some big personalities in the house and something is always happening it seems. My bedroom has become more and more of a sanctuary and you never know what will happen when you step out my door. You might go to get coffee and have to push a boy out of the way while he plucks the cactus spikes out of his tongue. You might try to make dinner and get caught up in a discussion of gangis kahn. Oh and I forgot the animals. There are 2 dogs, 2 cats, and 2 chickens will be joining for a little while soon. I think my mom dreams of having an empty nest at this point. We are running out of bathrooms though. It's not a party house and most of us are very intellectual so it works out fine it's just intense. like some crazy reality show where they throw a bunch of people into the same house to see what happens. Well we are going to see what happens.

Have a great day and don't forget to smile!
mce

new things in my world post

Good day dear friends!

it has been a while since I last posted here. I have not been lazing around mind you. I have been busy busy busy! Let me fill you in on a few changes I've made.

The first is that I have moved into my mother's house with Jono. We moved in last august before I started school in september. Yes dears started school again. It has been a while since I was sitting in a classroom but I have now finished my first semester back and am halfway through my second. If I stay on the track I have planed and the school doesn't mess it up I will be graduating with my BA in the winter. Isn't that crazy? I still can't really believe how close it is. 

To stay on track I am taking 5 classes this semester as well as 5 in the fall. And still working at the daycare. And doing my homework. Have I gone crazy?! yes, yes I have. I am so happy to be back in school but the work load is intense. Much more writing as an anthro major then I did as a theater major for sure. But I find it all so interesting. Let my give you a little taste of my day. 

                                                          (My study space)

My day of classes in note form:

Education across cultures

    preschool in japan- not a lot of teacher enforced discipline. expect children to take care of their own problems without adult intervention. Used to instill the collectivism of their society and teaches the children to rely on each other and to know how to deal with each other. 

Human Growth and Development

      Epigenetics- the study of the way that genes are turned off and on. Events in a mother's life during the pregnancy can affect the child.-e.g. if a mother goes through a highly stressful event the child can be born with higher levels of stress hormones making it more susceptible to stress and anxiety disorders. 

Study period

Global Ethnography

     The trobrianders- Yams- used as a type of wealth only among the men and traded among the group between only men. Seen as extremely sexual objects and can not be given to a woman directly. Men are the only ones who grow yams. 

This is just a taste of what goes on in my little notebooks during the day. This is also just 3 of my classes and I have two others that I didn't mention. Overall I find them all very interesting. Thankfully since I have to put in a lot of work to get all the readings and essays done. 

Have a good day everyone! 

School on the horizon!

Hello!
So I have some good news! Hopefully if all goes as planed I will be back in school at Long Beach State. I will be an anthropology major. I am hoping to take some of the classes over the summer at SMC so I can take more classes in the fall. I am hoping to take a full load of 4 to 5 classes. I'm hoping I can finish in 2 years and then start in on my teacher cred. I will also be getting a special ed cred at the same time. Just you all know!

And lets not talk about the stress I've been going through.

hugs+kisses
mce 

Refocus

Hello all!
I know it's been a long time. Life got crazy and stressful. I was just trying to get by each day.
But I'm back!

So I have started cooking again. I find that when I stop cooking it is a sure sign that I am not taking care of myself or anything I need to take care of. I don't eat as well when I'm not cooking. So here is what I've been cooking.
Soups, lots of soups. I've made a lentil soup that turned out really well. Jono has started to go vegetarian so I've been trying to find more way to cook veggies. I also made a potato leek soup tonight that turned out really well. I have found some old moosewood cookbooks of my dad and mom's from way back when that are really amazing! Very old school but classic and awesome.

I've also gotten back into farmers market. We go every sunday morning and it's a really nice time to relax and get good veggies. And cheese. I have become addicted to cheese. Mostly goat cheese but other harder cheeses that I can spread red pepper jelly on. It's amazing. 

I'm going to try to keep track of the different things I make since I seem to forget things.

Hope everyone is doing well!
mattie

Dad

Good morning!
Everything has been busy. The kids are all catching something we think and the babies are still teething. It also has gotten crazy hot here. Doesn't feel like Fall at all.

But on another note I want to talk about my dad. I realize that for some reason I don't talk about him as much. But he has always had a huge impact on how I live my life. When I was in high school he helped me learn how to be understanding. To step back and think "well wait what is going on with them that is making them act like that. It might have nothing to do with me at all" He taught me how to think. He taught me to question everything. He taught me how to read. Not just the mechanics of it but the difference between good literature and fluff. He has had an effect on my day to day life more then anyone I think. I got my goals from my mom and my mind from my dad. And my dad taught me to see that. To be able to look at how I think and really figure out what I want.
For that I salute you dadda. I love you.

hug+kisses
mce

everything's fine

Hello!
I know it's been a long time since I updated. I've fallen into a new schedule. This is kinda how my week is looking now.
monday
work from 7am-12:30pm, come home and eat lunch. then I run errands if I have any. I try to workout in the afternoon and I end up taking a nap sometime in there. Around 6pm I go back over to my adopted-mother-in-law to be's house for dinner and puzzle and talk. I am in bed around 9:30-10pm.
Tuesday
same schedule in the morning and afternoon. But on tuesday's I go over to my moms house to work on my pottery in the garage. Sometime (I hope) I go to the food trucks with Lars.
Wednesday is the same as monday all day
Thursday is the same as tuesday.
Friday is the same as Tuesday and Thursday.
Saturday we go to the market and run any errands that we need to do together. We relax and clean and nap. Jono still works Saturdays and Sundays.
Sunday is pretty much the same as Saturday but at 6:30pm we go for date night to the nook for their $20 sunday special dinner. It's 3 courses, hardly ever the same thing twice and always amazing. We took Lars with us one week and are taking Marlyn and George with us this week.

Over all I feel like I'm getting things done. I get a lot of work done when I go to my moms and I missed having a place to work with clay. It's been really great. I'm in a really good place.

hugs+kisses
mce