We Are Free to Choose Many Paths to our Success

When I hear a multitude of public speakers claim that America needs to produce more engineers or similar professions I think it is the wrong message for an entire group.  I also do not understand why American students are compared to Chinese students.  How many of us have lived in China (a closed society) and experienced life as a student?  I am friends with several people who have up close and personal knowledge of their life there.  There, the students go to school six days a week.  And they go at night as well as day.  In order for Americans to emulate this, the school day and year would need to be much longer than it is...among other changes as well.

It has also been observed that other countries are producing more and more data collectors.  That is something I have seen within the school system here.  The “bean counters” in the administrative offices are counting the test data of our students.  How many students passed the big test at the end of the year (and all the other tests too)?  Many teachers are being graded on that “success”.  There is no grade for the student who just arrived in the class one month prior from a different school.  There is no grade for a student who improved so much between August and April, but didn’t score high enough on the Big Test.  There is no removal of that child from an American public school to eliminate him/her from the data.

We need to remember that China screens students and also guides them to the area they would excel as an adult according to their data .  United States’ public schools teach whomever walks in the door.  China will not include the brightest students in the school’s test scores—those students are guided to a trade, which will best serve their country.  In their high school, there is one big test and if it is not passed there is no entry to college.  At all.

I also do not agree with the messages I hear every day that every child should go to college and therefore that is the path to achievement.  I live in a community of many cultures.  The students in my sons’ schools have parents who speak 40 different languages (this is regular public school and this is the South and this is a metro area which is actually more diverse than you would imagine).  Many students’ parents arrived in the United States with nothing and now have their own businesses and their children will work to help the family.  Maybe they will get a college degree but their parents’ success without a college degree should be recognized.

At high school here the required courses are offered in several levels, such as “basic”, “honors” and “gifted”.  What is the basic level called?  College Prep.  I don’t agree with that.  It is called that because the courses are designed that if they are passed, those are the requirements for college (4 years of math, 2 years of foreign language, etc.).  The high school drop out rate is higher than we realize.  And where is the technical path anymore?  Shouldn’t we offer trade learning?  I am not seeing job availability for engineers and architects but I am seeing successful plumbers, electricians, and more.  And the South will always need residential and commercial A/C companies.

And don’t even get me started on the too-high cost of a four year college.  There are so many paths to success and I hope that more students and families can know the value of a beginning at a two-year college after high school or a trade or a combo.  We know some local high school girls who do not score well on tests who have learning disabilities.  However these girls have incredible personalities and can speak well and interact socially.  I know they will be successful even though this is not reflected in an SAT score.   It is frustrating to see more and more value placed on bean counters and data.

So much to say about Education--I am so glad that Gretchen chose it for today's Spin Cycle theme.

Great....Now Everyone is an American Picker

You could say that hubs and I have been "green" about our household decor for as long as we have known each other.  One of our favorite pastimes is browsing secondhand stores around our town as well as when on vacation.

When we moved into this hourse over six years ago we needed furniture and decor for our screened porch and more.  We found a huge store packed from floor to ceiling with "treasures".  However, over the past two years we have rarely found something to bring home--the prices have really gone up.  We blame shows such as American Pickers.  I guess sellers realize people will now pay higher prices for "good finds".

Many rooms in our house have some of our treasures.  Here is an angled window high up in our family room:

These bowls were found for about $25.00--we still see them around but now they're at least $50.00:

Hubs really wanted this fan to go on our screened porch.  It was one of the more "expensive" finds a few years ago for $35:

It does a great job of creating a breeze but you'd probably lose a finger if it got too close.

We found a metal floor mat that says "WELCOME" and decided to hang it on the porch:

So now that we do not have a TV producer's wallet with us as we scout items for our home, we are glad that we found some treasures in the past to enjoy.  And as soon as it cools off outside we will go out on our screened porch in the trees.

I Wonder if This Will Turn into a Flying Blog

Did you see the Blue Moon last night?  I got to see it from my hotel room in Texas.  I had to fly from GA to TX on Wednesday and it was worrisome that a hurricane was arriving toward the three states in-between.  The flight ended up perfectly fine--you would have never known about the weather--I think we swung more north than usual to land right next door to LA.

I did have a new panic on the flight--for the first time I got really worried when a passenger used the restroom located very close to the pilot.  He was in air force fatigues, and he was seated to my right and prior to his getting up to use the restroom he was fishing around in his backpack.  It is the first time I ever panicked over a passenger being in the restroom.  When he FINALLY exited the bathroom I saw he had a toiletry bag--he must have been on a long journey and then the flight attendant gave him a lot of kind attention--moved him to a seat that had more legroom and stopped serving beverages to her row to go back and give him his beverage there.  It usually makes me very relieved to see a lot of big, healthy looking men on the plane.  I really need to take a pill like many friends have recommended to me.

The flight back to Atlanta yesterday was a smaller plane and I was seated in an exit row.  I won't do that again.  I should have traded with some big guy who would have loved the extra leg room.  I had to respond "yes" when asked if I would be willing to help open the door in the event of an emergency and help everyone out including the flight attendant.  I don't need any more reminders of what my mind already imagines.  And then the guy next to me was telling me how he volunteered to take this flight although he usually doesn't like traveling on these size planes as the pilots are not as experienced.  I said, "Oh, don't say that outloud" and he said, "Well, it's a fact."

Of course I made it home safe and sound and I got to kiss my four guys and a new face too (the kitty).  I also had to go straight to the grocery store after leaving the airport being in pre-weekend holiday bumper to bumper traffic at 5:30 pm to make sure there is food and drinks for dinner.  Some old friends had invited me/Hubs to an outdoor musical gathering and I had to decline.  All my guys have back-to-school colds and fatigue and I also cannot deny my urge to make them chicken, matzoh ball soup this weekend.

Body Scanner report: I am happy to report that I managed to have my body go through the "old fashioned" metal detectors and not have to have a body pat down after being directed to the newer radiating body scanners.

I now have enough miles earned to get a free plane ticket.

Publice Service Announcement about New Teen Driver

I previously blogged about how Oldest son got his Driver's License mid-July.  Back in February I was shopping for new Homeowners insurance which was with Allstate and I decided to have Allstate quote on our car insurance and I was amazed how much money it saved by switching to them.  I preface my post with this to state that for three vehicles in the family I feel we had done our due diligence on car insurance rates earlier this year.

And I've always heard it mentioned how much car rates go up when a teenager is added to the policy.

Go up?

Try DOUBLING THE RATES.

I think my insurance agent was afraid to call me back with this news.  When you have a new teen driver, he or she must be "linked" to one car on the policy and he picked, of course, the oldest car.  Our other cars are a 5 year old Honda and a 10 year old Suburban.  Our son is linked to the least expensive car--the 1994 little Toyota truck.  What is we had newer cars?  Sheesh!  What does insurance look like for families who get their teen a 2002 Toyota Corolla??  What tricks of the trade am I missing??

Our agent told me there is no law stating that I even had to cover him.  Our insurance goes with the car so the car is covered no matter who drives it.  But the sooner he has a couple years on a policy behind him the better.  I think it may be a little better for female drivers. 

My only consolation is how much more money it would perhaps--just perhaps as not all girls can be put in the same category--have cost me these years for toiletries and clothes and accessories I have not had to buy.

In January our Middle son will be getting his learner's permit (in some states this has to be added to auto insurance but in mine no need to add till the official driver's license is obtained) and that means in 1.5 years I will have an 18 year old and a 16 year old on our policy (until the 18 year old moves away). 

Wow.

Parents of twin sons--look out! 

People with kids older than I am probably looked at me a few years ago and thought, "Uh-huh--they will learn soon enough for themselves the realities of car insurance." 

So to those of you with kids younger than mine--this is my announcement to you.

Such a Sweet Girl

That is what I say about 50 times a day.  We have had our cat for a week.  My coworker and her husband brought her to our house last Sunday and her Hubs had gotten pretty attached.  As they drove off he said, "They got a good one."

And we did!  She does demand attention.  And she is vocal.  She meows to be petted.  She meows when she wakes up.  As in when she hears me talking to a client (!!).  I am having to lock her upstairs when I have a call that I cannot mute.

So here is my buddy during the day:

She starts her day after all the boys leave, at the window looking at flowers and bumblebees and birds:

(I covered a dining room chair with a towel.....to the left are some catnip herb pieces).

She has a mouse toy that has catnip on the inside and she likes to play with it:

 

She is over 3 years old but playful.  And she is a purr machine.  She purrs more than she doesn't purr.

All this from a cat that lived at a no-kill shelter for 1.5 years.  She is very special.  And just what I wanted: over the kitten stage and only scratches her cardboard scratch box.

Hubs is trying to not freak out over cat hair since he is a neat freak so the floors are getting swept and vacuumed often--she is short haired but maybe it is a summer shed thing--she loves to be brushed.  Last night I took the photo above--Hubs was rubbing her belly.

She hangs out with each of the boys.  They each get home at separate times and she greets them.  Here's Youngest:

 This sweet girl relaxes me and the boys say the same thing.  Having a cat is a big deal.  I told Hubs before we got married that I needed him and cats and books in my life to be happy.  He said OK.  The cats lived for 15 years and it has been about 10 years since I had one.  This won't turn into a cat blog but I had to share my sweet girl.

 

Oh--did I say that her name at the shelter was....Shirley!!  She doesn't respond much to it so I made a list of "EEEE" at the end names as I mentioned before and we still don't have an agreed upon name.  We like Roxy but Youngest said Harley Quinn (she does have sort of a mask) and we are also thinking of Whisky.  She may just be Kiki (Keekee) because that is what I call her mostly.

Work Connections

I am living proof that when you have lived in the same town for so long and have stuck with the same line of business, the adage of "don't burn bridges" rings true.  For me it is also important to "keep some bridges".

Work has been a roller coaster for the past 25 years.  But what I wanted to write to join Gretchen's Spin Cycle about is how important it has always been for me to bond with some people at work.  I have kept friends with one person at least from my many past jobs.  It is a very strong connection when together you weather much change in an organization and wackadoodle bosses, I feel, it is similar to how women connect with others when they share a pregnancy group or a new moms group.

There was a time back in 2004 that Hubs and I considered moving away to another state after I had to leave a certain crazy job.  We didn't though.  My coworkers sent me flowers and a card that I still have that said, "This is your opportunity to touch others the way you have touched us.  The Team."

Now that I am in my current job (for almost one year!) I have re-connected with some of those people I knew back then, which has been wonderful.

At my prior job which ended in May 2011 (thank God), it was a small office and I did not bond with anyone--which is not good for me.  What I did do to cope is tell my family at the dinner table some stories of things that drove me CRAZY so that we could all laugh about it.  One story the boys still bring up--particularly if they are eating a yogurt and we laugh our heads off....which feels great.

In the office next door to me was a much, much older man, a nice man.  He brought his lunch every day, and ate in his office and I could hear everything.  When he finished crunching away on his very loud crunching, chomp, chomp carrots, he then got out his yogurt.  He ate his yogurt every day with a plastic spoon and when he got to the bottom, he scraped.  He scraped the bottom of that small yogurt cup over and over and over.  I can understand two scrapes but it was about 8 scrapes and then a pause and then about 10 more scrapes.  I wanted to take the four steps to his doorway and yell, "I think it's all gone!"

So--it has been a year and 3 months since that time and sometimes the boys scrape their yogurt just for me and we have a good laugh and probably always will over it, which is a different kind of connection...it is a connection to my family for knowing me, just like some authentic coworkers from my past know me and vice versa.

Here's How We Cook Bacon Now

This past June I visited one of my sister-in-laws/brother-in-law in Highlands/Cashiers, NC for a weekend.  They had rented a house for a week and so I took Youngest with me and after we went horseback riding through a river (photos of that soon) we stopped by a couple of shops.

There is a potter in NC (Greenhill Pottery but I can't find a website) who makes pottery I had never seen before.  My SIL purchased a dish used for rinsing and keeping berries and another on which you place a chicken, neck side up, on top of a small, built-in well area in center of the "pie plate" -- same idea as the "beer butt chicken" where you place a chicken on top of an opened can of beer on the grill.

Anyway, I picked out a bacon-cooker pottery piece since I make bacon almost every Sunday -- by placing the strips on paper towels, on top of folded newspaper, on a plate in the microwave.

Here is my pretty pottery with a package of bacon placed lovingly all around it:

I chose this piece of pottery out of about 8--had to choose the prettiest one.

Here is another view:

You then place it in the microwave for about 8 - 10 minutes.  By the way, our microwave died after I used this a few times and when we shopped for a new one we had to make sure it was roomy enough inside to accommodate the new bacon cooker.

When the bacon is cooked I just pour the grease out into the trash and keep the bacon on the table and it stays warm for a little bit.  I am convinced that with a tall bowl set into a pie plate, would work as well.

(Here it is cooked and ready for breakfast or BLT's)

We tried it out right away in North Carolina and my SIL doesn't often buy bacon so at the grocery store I showed her how to look at a bunch of packages, opening the "windows" to find the meatiest bacon of all--everyone does this, right?  I can't be the only one to leave the bacon aisle with about 10 packages of bacon with their windows flapped open.