July23
I have one week left of classes, and I can’t wait. This year at Hollins has been fun, but I am ready for it to be over. We are headed out to Ryan’s family reunion at the beginning Aug, then off to San Diego for a few days, then to my family reunion, and finally back home so Ryan can start school again. Hahaha, I love going to school for 6 weeks. Ryan is such a sucker.
We can’t wait to be back with all our friends.
June9
Ryan and I have been searching around Roanoke, VA for the past few months trying to find someone willing to rent to us for only 6 weeks while I go to school. No apartment complexes were accommodating, so we had to think creatively. We found a few motels, extended stay hotels, corporate housing, and vacation rentals. Our first trip to VA was very disheartening and disgusting. The weekly rental motels were something out of a horror movie. The “kitchen” area of the room had creepy little critters waiting to greet us. They were just hanging out on their backs with their legs kicking in the air on the linoleum floor.
Gag.
We ran out of there and decided to do some more searching for our next trip up. Last Saturday we had some good prospects lined up, and we struck gold. We found a beautiful, quite, serene, relaxing lake house that is fully furnished. The owner agreed to rent to us for just 6 weeks. There are 3 bedrooms, 2 bathrooms and a hot tub, plus dishes and a washer and dryer.
We saw this dream house in the afternoon and still had a few appointments. But even our next stop at a creepy man’s house could not sway us with the grand tour of his basement (that Ryan couldn’t even stand up in) with no walls in the “bathroom,” two nasty cats roaming around, and a sheet hanging up as a divider; his mom (yes he lives with his mom) tried to seal the deal with Ryan by scratching her boobs while she was smoking in our faces and giving us a wary eye. It was a tough call, but the lake house won.
We are so excited not to be staying in a skeevy motel for my time at grad school. This place will definitely help me as I take on my first creative writing class. Hopefully we can send more pictures of the place as we live there for the next month. Now all we need is to get our hands on some kind of boat. Anyone have a canoe? 
May21
Another summer at Hollins. Hooray for me. I am taking my first creative writing course this semester and a Tomboy’s in Children’s Lit. course. It is so nice taking only two courses a semester, and both classes are in the afternoon. I am going to be one lazy dude this summer. Here is my list of books for the semester:
- Little House on the Prairie
- Little Women
- The Secret of Shadow Ranch (the old and new versions)
- What Have You Lost?
- What Katy Did
- Deliver Us from Evie
- Caddie Woodlawn
- The Hidden Hand or, Capitola the Madcap (American Women Writer’s Series)
- Lost in the Tunnel of Time (Ziggy and the Black Dinosaur)
- Uncle Elephant
- Canto Familiar
- On the Fringe
- Who Put That Hair in My Toothbrush
- I am the Messenger
- Bud, Not Buddy
- Places I Never Meant to Be: Original Stories by Censored Writers
- Rattletrap Car
- Water Steps
- When I Was Young in the Mountains
- And whatever scholarly articles, last minute books, blogs or whatever my teachers decide fits the mood of the moment.
I only have 4 weeks to complete the list, and then I’m off.
May12
Only a few years to go! We did it; we finished another semester. I am so relieved I could squeal like a pig. I took on two distance ed classes, one of which I had to create the syllabus for. I felt like I was cheating making my own assignments. I didn’t get to grade myself, but I did get to direct my learning. I love my school. It really encourages creativity, personal interests, and practical uses for writers.
Ryan is done with his first year of grad school, and he got EXCELLENT grades. I am so proud of him. Woo boy! What a fast year. Thank goodness we love it here, because we have a ways to go.
April23
This is an article I read for my mother class. So much good can come from hard times. Human resiliency is amazing.
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/04/23/fashion/23dads.html?_r=1&pagewanted=1&th&emc=th
March25
We are living in a time when Pediatricians need to medicate children with a healthy dose of free-play. Read this article:
http://www.aap.org/pressroom/playFINAL.pdf
March3
The Wind in the Willows is supposed to be such a great classic. A book for boys of all ages and times. I do not think this is a kid’s book at all. It is a book for adults who cannot let go of their childhood. A book for adults who idealize the freedom of children and wish they could go “simply messing about in boats” forever. Rat says this phrase at the beginning of the novel to Mole, and it made me think about all the adults who do their own messing about in boats in order to hold onto their childhood. Here is what I mess about with:
Swinging on swings
Seesawing
Playing in a pile of leaves
Reading children’s literature
Suddenly bursting into a run while on errands. Usually, Ryan is with me so he either has to run to catch up or be left in the dust.
Making sand castles
Twirling in a dress when no one is looking
Quoting undeniably childish things, ex.: Meatloaf, meatloaf, double beatloaf. The nonsense ones are killer
What are you messing about with?
February18
I am taking an online course this semester for graduate school. I am studying mothers and mother figures in literature for children. I wondered what the suffix -hood means. I looked it up on m-w.com and found -hood means these things:
1 : state : condition : quality : character
2 : time : period
3 : instance of a (specified) state or quality
4 : individuals sharing a (specified) state or character
The online dictionary didn’t use “motherhood” as an example for any of these. I think that is because motherhood is all of these.
Living in married student housing with so many other LDS people makes me feel that number 2 is the induction to motherhood. Once you have a baby you live in the time of motherhood forever after. Then you move on to number 4 and become part of the club. Move to married student housing and you will see motherhood is a clique. Not that any of this is necessarily bad, only that motherhood is exclusive. Number 1 and 3 are a matter of pride and living up to the ideal mother image.
December2
I am taking an independent study class and an online class starting in February. Here is a very long list of the books I will be reading. Thank goodness I have only 2 classes.
- Peter and Wendy
- Representations of Motherhood
- The Runaway Bunny
- Guji Guji
- The Reproduction of Mothering: Psychoanalysis and the Sociology of Gender
- Mother Reader: Essential Writings on Motherhood
- Are You My Mother?
- Toning the Sweep
- Mama, Do You Love Me?
- A Mother for Choco
- Sarah, Plain and Tall
- The Desert is My Mother
- The Magic Circle
- Hatchet
- The Great Gilly Hopkins
- Monster Mama
- Mommy?
- Shabanu: Daughter of the Wind
- Dicey’s Song
- Like Sisters on the Homefront
- Chike and the River
- The Book of Three
- Pinocchio
- The Chocolate War
- The Secret of the Old Mill
- The Wind in the Willows
- The Man without a Face
- Kim
- The Giver
- Shiloh
- The Man from the Other Side
- The Island on Bird street
- Treasure Island
- The Prince and the Pauper
- Miracle’s Boys
This doesn’t even include the extra articles I will be reading. My eyeballs will fall out of my head probably. Good thing some of these are picture books.
August3
Here is where I spent my six weeks in VA. The campus is beautiful.
