Archives for 2013

Dec 31, 2013

Yet Another 2013 Recap Post

I’ve already seen several blog posts from others wishing 2013 a grateful goodbye. This year hasn’t been very good for many folks, and I hope the coming year will be kinder for everyone.

For us, it’s been a not-too-shabby year. It’s not the best year ever, but it’s had plenty of good moments. If the next year is at least as good as this one, I wouldn’t be upset.

There were a lot of happy moments this year. Aaron and I celebrated our 10th anniversary, and with that came our first big family vacation. We took the kids to Walt Disney World for their first trip to meet The Mouse (and the princesses). I wasn’t sure how well it would go, but the magic of Disney happened and we had a week with no major meltdowns and lots of fantastic memories. In a stroke of luck, we’ll be going back to Disney in 2014, something I didn’t think would happen for two or more years. I’m hoping for a repeat of the magic in the new year.

Letting our Disney Side show. Pure happiness.

I also FINALLY got this blog moved to WordPress. About time, right? I wish I would have done it sooner, since WordPress has a lot more versatility to it than Blogger. Like much of my life, it’s always a work-in-progress and I’m not happy with the current design. But I’ve been so busy helping with other blogs that I haven’t had a lot of time to tinker with this blog. So 2014 will likely see the design altered when I can make time for it.

Job-wise, I’m happy. In May I was promoted to a permanent position. I like what I get to do, and I love all of the people I work with each day. This job has made me into a pseudo-workaholic by choice, and I am continually grateful for the way fate directed me to this place. Aaron switched to a new position mid-year, finally ending the daily drive to Dayton each day. He’s much closer now, and while his job is contract based at the moment, we hope it’ll become more secure in 2014.

Our biggest challenge this year was probably in the areas of education and politics. Or the combined area of education politics, really. I’ve become more and more disappointed with our school district, from constant and epic failures with their transportation department, to a district administration that ignores parent input and seems to be tone deaf to the real needs of the students in favor of pet project agendas and fostering an atmosphere of crisis.

I still like our school and the teachers and principal there, but I’m growing increasingly concerned with Cordy’s experiences. In 2013, Cordy changed from being a child who loved math and was gifted in it at the start of the year, to now hating math and struggling in class. The girl who used to cozy up with a math workbook and do math problems for fun is now the girl who avoids her math homework, cries and protests when doing it, and says she no longer likes going to school. She’s also developed behavior issues at school, too, mostly in her math class.

how she feels lately

We have yet to pinpoint what could be causing the issue, but needless to say it’s distressing. In 2014, we’re hoping to have her psychologist shadow a day of school to determine what could be causing the problems, and hopefully all of our detective work will result in a better school experience for Cordy and her teachers.

My position as an advocate for Cordy also turned into becoming an education advocate on a larger scale. I didn’t plan or want to get involved in the school district’s levy issue in the fall, but found myself drawn in once I learned more of the details and realized the lengths the city and school district would go to in order to push a bad plan through to pull more tax money into questionable projects. I couldn’t in good conscience sit by and not be involved when they city was trying to take over the school district in what felt like a move towards the new “education reform” model that is really privatization. (See Chicago and Philadelphia schools as examples of this model.)

So I did what I could, which mostly involved writing, explaining what was and wasn’t included in the district’s plan, and bringing up questions about parts of the plan that were too open-ended and could be abused, and parts that weren’t developed at all. It was painful to be against a school levy, but this wasn’t the right plan. Did I make an impact on voters? I don’t think my words reached that many folks, but hopefully I helped sway a few minds. Considering the overwhelming defeat of the levy, I don’t think our campaign changed the outcome, but hopefully it helped more people think about what’s needed for our district.

While I may not have made much of an impact, my vocal opposition to the city and school district possibly landed me on the radar of a few officials. It’s impossible to say with any certainty, but it’s mighty unusual that Aaron and I received a city tax audit timed two days after the election, along with another vocal opponent of the levy. Since then, a third person tied to the opposition is having his business audited by the city, too. Coincidence? Possibly, but the odds of three out of eight vocal opponents being randomly audited by the city after the election are so unlikely that I’d be more likely to be struck by lightening…in my house. I’ll be submitting a public records request for more information on how our audit happened and why.

you’re on notice, Columbus

So it’s possible I now have a few enemies at City Hall, which is amusing considering we’re all in the same political party. And if the audit was politically motivated, they failed in any attempts to intimidate or silence me. Instead, it’s making me look even closer at the problems within my own city. 2014 will bring more questioning, more investigation of our school district, and likely more writing about the issues affecting the education of my kids (and other kids in the district).

I’m done with making goals to do more each year. Truthfully, I’m doing more than I can handle, and it’s probably better to make a goal to scale back a little. Instead of doing more in 2014, I’d like to do less, and do everything better: work smarter, use my free time more wisely, be engaged and patient in the time I spend with the kids (aka: get off the computer more), truly relax when it’s time to relax, and follow through better with promises made to family and friends. I’ve reached a point in my life where I feel mostly comfortable and confident in my skin, and it’s time to put that confidence to use.

As I wrote earlier, if 2014 is at least on par with 2013, I’ll consider it a good year. If we can make it even better than 2013, it’ll be a great year.

And when in doubt, make funny faces.

Filed Under: holidays, memories ·

Dec 26, 2013

Christmas Day Surprise

By Christina ·

The past few days have been a blur of cleaning and prepping for Christmas, followed by the flurry of activity going to Christmas parties and hosting some of my family here at our house on Christmas Day. We got everything ready in time, even though being “ready” partially involved throwing piles of clutter into closed off rooms or into the garage. And after everyone left, well, it was right back to clearing out the mess of the day.

Despite the chaos, there was the beautiful quiet of early Christmas morning, when it was just the four of us in our pajamas, gathered in front of the tree downstairs, the girls smiles shining through in the dim light as they waited to open their presents.

It was a very Frozen Christmas for Cordy and Mira. They both fell in love with Disney’s Frozen (we all did, really), and they have been talking about how much they want to meet Elsa and Anna someday when we go back to Disney World, assuming the two princesses are still there.

They went to Disney for the first time earlier this year. It was a fantastic family vacation, and we promised them that we’d go back again in two or three years, when we could save up the money for a big trip again.

A couple of months ago, I found out about the Type-A Workshop being held at Walt Disney World this spring. I registered for the conference, hoping we’d be able to find a way for it to also work out as a family vacation as well. Aaron and I studied our finances and started putting money aside, hoping we could make it work. We didn’t tell the kids, just in case it didn’t work out.

But it has come together and we’ve made the reservations for Disney. Aaron and I continued to keep the secret, planning to surprise the kids with the news on Christmas Day. Do you know how hard it is for me to keep a secret that big? I nearly slipped in front of the kids several times.

So early on Christmas morning, Cordy and Mira came downstairs to find a giant box under the tree, and they asked to open that one first, even before their gifts from Santa.

I think you could say our surprise was a success (apologies for my shaky-cam amateur videography skills):

They spent the afternoon showing off their dresses to family and telling them about how we’re going to Disney. They didn’t know at first that all of the family were in on the surprise until they started opening their presents and noticed that their great aunts and grandmother gave them Disney gift cards, too. (Aaron and I also received Disney gift cards to help cover the trip.)

It’s official: we’re going to Disney in the spring!

How was your Christmas?

Filed Under: Family, holidays, memories ·

Dec 19, 2013

Mary Poppins: Practically Perfect In Every Way (Review)

By Christina ·

We recently received the new Blu-ray of Mary Poppins. (Disclosure: it was a complimentary copy for review.) This is the first time it’s been on Blu-ray, and it was amazing to see how beautiful the remastered film looks. Here are our thoughts on this new release. (Aaron is the entertainment critic in our family, so he wrote this review, but it was based on thoughts we both had after watching.)

—

We all know the classic Disney film of Mary Poppins. Even if we haven’t seen the film in its entirety, it’s pretty much impossible to live in 21st Century America without having seen clips from the film, or at a bare minimum, being familiar with the songs “Supercalifragilisticexpalidocious,” “A Spoonful of Sugar” or “Chim Chim Cheree.” But most of us have seen the film, and have been enchanted by P.L. Travers’ enchanted nanny who comes to save the Banks family, and we are lucky to have done so.

Now, just in time for the release of Saving Mr. Banks the film based (loosely) on how Walt Disney acquired the rights to make Mary Poppins, Disney has released Mary Poppins for the first time on Blu-Ray. We were lucky enough to be given a review copy of the Blu-Ray, and we were all-too excited to rip the shrink-wrapping off the case and throw it into our player.

And how is it? Read on.

Official Synopsis (from Disney)
Released from the Disney Vault in celebration of its 50th Anniversary, this much-loved classic shines on Blu-ray with an all-new digital restoration. Winner of five Academy Awards (1964), including Best Actress (Julie Andrews), Best Song (“Chim Chim Cher-ee”) and Best Special Visual Effects, Mary Poppins is a movie experience your family will enjoy over and over again.

“Practically Perfect in Every Way” Mary Poppins flies out of the windy London skies and into the home of two mischievous children. With the help of a carefree chimney sweep named Bert (Dick Van Dyke), the spirited nanny turns every chore into a game and every day into a “Jolly Holiday.” Share the music, the magic, and the joy of Mary Poppins with a whole new generation for the first time on Disney Blu-ray.

The Feature
You likely already know the story of Mary Poppins. Either you’re familiar with the tale of Mary Poppins, Bert, and the Bankses, or you’ve been living under a rock. I will, however, say that if you haven’t seen the film yet, you owe it to yourself to do so. We shared the movie with Cordy and Mira for the first time on our way down to Walt Disney World last year, and they were so in love with it that they insisted that they had to make sure to visit Mary “along with all of the other Princesses” when we went to the parks. Sadly, due to a freak rainstorm, they didn’t manage to see Mary Poppins when we were in the England section of Epcot, but we’ll be correcting that next time we visit.

All that said, you may have seen Mary Poppins before, but you haven’t seen it like this – unless you’ve been fortunate enough to see one of the restored 35mm prints. The digital restoration of the movie is absolutely breathtaking, and it almost feels like you’re watching a brand new movie when you watch this Blu-ray.

Bonus Features
Disney has never been one to skimp out on the Bonus Features, and thanks to the depth of the Disney Vault, each new release manages to have something new attached. In this particular case, we get a “Making of” documentary titled “Supercalifragilisticexpalidocious: The Making of Mary Poppins,” which is fun, but is fairly standard fare. We also get “A Magical Musical Reunion With Julie Andrews, Dick Van Dyke and Richard Sherman” which is astonishingly fun. It may have been fifty years since the making of the film, but these three show how they really managed to capture magic in a bottle when this movie was made. In addition, we are treated to the deleted song “Chimpanzoo.” It’s a fun song, but there’s no reason why it needed to be included. Still, Disney fans will enjoy it.

These features have been presented in previous releases, but they’re still pretty great.

In terms of new features, we get “Becoming Mr. Sherman” which contains a conversation between Richard Sherman and Jason Schwartzman, who plays Sherman in Saving Mr. Banks as Sherman discusses the process of writing the songs of Mary Poppins, along with an all new “Mary-Oke Sing-Along.”

The one thing I miss is the Second Screen experience which seemed like it was becoming the new standard for Disney’s releases/re-releases. On the other hand, the Second Screen might have just distracted me from the joy of seeing Mary Poppins, Bert and the Banks children all over again, so perhaps they made the right call.

The Look
Mary Poppins won the Oscar for visual effects when it was released, and the beauty of the film and the seamless blending of animation and live-action actors has been apparent in all of the previous releases of the movie. But the digital restoration of this Blu-Ray brings the film to visual life in an all new way. If you are especially eagle-eyed, you can find some legacies of the transfer and restoration, but for the rest of us, what we end up with is a beautiful re-release of a film that most of us have seen, but have never been able to see in its full glory.

The Sound
The music of Mary Poppins is well-known and full of classics, but just as most of us have never seen Mary Poppins in the same vivid splendor that the original theatrical experience presented, we also haven’t experienced the music in the same way. Until now. The soundtrack has received the same tender restoration as the print, and the music is crisp and clear and beautiful in Dolby 7.1 sound.

Final Thoughts
Mary Poppins: 50th Anniversary Edition is a masterful release, and if you don’t already own a copy of the film, it’s a splendid addition to any Disney fans’ library. If you already own the previous DVD release, you don’t need to rush out to replace it with this version, but you certainly won’t be disappointed if you do. Cordy and Mira couldn’t explain why the film seemed so much more alive this time than the last time they saw it, but they could tell that it was “better.” We could describe the improvements once we stopped to think about them, but this is honestly a hard movie to be a critic of when it simply demands that you throw yourself into the experience.

We’re overjoyed to be able to add Mary Poppins: 50th Anniversary Edition to our library, and I think you’ll feel the same way.

Filed Under: reviews ·

Dec 17, 2013

For Once, My Procrastination Benefits Others

By Christina ·

This season started out strong for us. With Hanukkah beginning at Thanksgiving this year, we were into holiday shopping early. We put the Christmas tree up the day after Thanksgiving, like we do every year, and had most of the indoor decorations up at that time, too.

Then it snowed. And we weren’t super excited about trying to get the outdoor decorations in place in the snow. After buying the Hanukkah gifts, we also let a lot of the remaining gift shopping slide, too.

And now? We’re just over a week away from Christmas and SURPRISE! There’s still a LOT that needs to be done! So I’m back to frantically making gift lists, clearing out clutter from the downstairs in prep for family visiting next week, and deciding if I want to try my hand at making any treats for visitors to snack on.

It also occurred to me a few days ago that I didn’t order any holiday cards. It’s now the 17th…and I’m too much of a cheapskate to pay for express printing and shipping, so it’s likely too late for me to order cards. Besides, I’ll lose half a day browsing designs and trying to get the right design matched with the right photos, and then don’t even let me near the font choices, cause that’s at least another hour switching back and forth to find the right font to convey our warm wishes for a bright new year!

Holiday cards are usually hit or miss for us – some years we do them, some years we don’t. I’m kicking myself for not being better organized in doing them this year. After all, unlike most years, we had a fantastic photo of all of us to use! More than one, even!

There was this one:

Or possibly this one:

Or even these:

Yeah, the first trip to Disney World with the kids probably should have been the holiday card theme this year, but no one will be getting a card with these photos. Sorry!

Instead, I’m stealing an idea I saw on Facebook from Jen and I’m choosing to donate the money we would have spent on holiday cards to charity instead. In our case, it’ll be to PetPromise, the rescue group who helped us find our other much-loved family member, Cosmo.

So happy holidays, merry Christmas, and please forgive the lack of cards in the mail. The rescued pups and kitties at PetPromise really appreciate your understanding.

Filed Under: holidays ·

Dec 16, 2013

You’re Never Too Old To Stop Learning

By Christina ·

“Mom, why do I have to go to school? Homework is so dull and boring! It’s draining my life from me!” Cordy has always been one to tend towards the dramatic, although these outbursts have become more frequent in the last month.I understand her frustration. “Well, sweetie, we all have our jobs to do. Mommy and daddy each have jobs to earn money and help our companies with their purpose. And your job right now is to go to school and learn everything you need to know to be a successful adult who will make a difference in the world.”

“I can’t wait until I can be done with school and never need to learn anything ever again!” she huffed. I knew she didn’t mean that. She loves to learn and absorbs new material like a sponge. In this particular instance, she was just unhappy with the amount of homework she had cutting into the few hours she had at home before bedtime each night.

I gave her the same answer I’ve repeated to her several times. “You’ll eventually be finished with school, and it’ll then be your choice as to what you want to do from there. Many kids go on to college, where most of your classes will be in whatever subject you’re really interested in, and I hope you’ll do that. But I think no matter what, you’ll want to keep learning new things your entire life. Think of how boring life would be if you stopped learning anything new! Someday you’ll stop going to school, but education is something that should keep going for your entire life, whether you’re in school or not.”

And truthfully, I do believe education is a life-long endeavor. After all, since starting kindergarten at five years old, there have been just six years in my life where I wasn’t formally enrolled in a class in some way. (Yes, ONLY six years, and I’m 37!)

I went to college right out of high school, completing my four years and graduating with a BA in History, cum laude. I changed my major three times during those four years of college, mostly because I had too many interests and trouble deciding which direction I wanted to go.

After college, I immediately went into a Masters Degree program for History. However, halfway through the first year, I discovered my primary professor was planning a sabbatical for the next year, meaning I’d either have to take a year off from my program or choose a different focus. I quit the program before the year was up, choosing to work until I could determine what I wanted to do next.

A history degree isn’t exactly a perfect match for jobs in the real world, but my self-taught technical skills landed me a job in web design at a university library. I had been dabbling in HTML all through college (unofficial education), and that side-interest earned me a job.

I didn’t make it even six months before I decided I wanted to be back in school again. I applied for and was accepted in a Masters program for Theatre, specifically costume design and theatre history. I had also been working as a seamstress on the side, making costumes for our renaissance festival for myself and friends. I minored in Theatre in college, too, so theatre history was a good fit.

Thanks to my web design job, I had moved on to a job in online instructional design at that point, developing corporate e-learning courses for a private company. I worked from home for much of my time there, going above and beyond to meet and beat my deadlines while also taking graduate level courses in theatre history part-time, teaching Intro to Theatre classes to undergraduates every Friday morning, and serving as costume designer for one of the university’s plays that season.

I probably would have finished my MA, but after getting married in 2003 and then pregnant in 2004, we made the choice to move closer to family. I had planned to finish my degree remotely, since I was only a class and a thesis away, but the demands of work and baby pushed all of that to the back. I also realized at that time that I probably wouldn’t find a lot of jobs related to that degree.

It was just after Cordy was a year old that I got the idea to go back to school for nursing. When I was in college the first time, I considered going into pre-med. At 28 years old, I thought I was too old for pre-med, but still young enough for nursing school. My hope was that nursing would give me the job flexibility I needed for my family.

I started with the prerequisite courses first, and found them to be a breeze, giving me confidence that I could make it through nursing school. By the time I started my clinical courses, Mira had joined the family, so I was committed to a full course load, clinicals, and a preschooler and baby at home. (That was about the same time Cordy was diagnosed with autism, too.)

Cordy helped me study Chemistry back then

Was it easy? No way! It was probably the most intense period of my life. With all of the responsibilities on my plate, adding college into the mix was tricky. But I was passionate about the subject, which made it easier to stay up late doing homework while everyone else slept and study for exams with Dora the Explorer as background noise.

I graduated in 2009 and immediately got my RN license and a job. That wasn’t the best year for jobs in any sector, with the country in full recession, and I moved to another job in 2010 when it was clear that the birth center I worked at was going to close due to hospital budget cuts.

I worked two years at the next job, as a nurse and manager for a pediatric nutritional call center. My previous work experience prior to nursing helped me get the manager position, while my RN license got me in the door. It wasn’t the perfect job by any means, and I didn’t have the flexibility I was expecting in nursing. I considered going back to school for my BS in nursing, or possibly becoming a nurse practitioner.

It was in 2012 that I was abruptly let go when the company scaled back and got rid of the overnight shift entirely. I had been working when everyone else slept for three years, so I wasn’t sad to go back to the land of daylight.

Thankfully, through long-standing connections with blog friends, a job presented itself quickly and I jumped on it. Only it wasn’t nursing – I’d be back into the land of IT and computers. The position would challenge me with an ever-changing list of responsibilities, and required me to brush up on and grow my technical skills. I was ready for a new challenge and jumped at the chance.

Over a year and a half later, and I’m still in love with my job. It’s a position with variety, challenge, and the need to continue adapting to new products and situations. It’s also flexible and meets the needs of my family, too. While I haven’t gone back to school, I’ve spent a lot of time in self-study to improve my technical skills to be more useful for my company. And there’s a good chance I may eventually find myself enrolling in classes again to formalize and improve on my IT knowledge.

My nursing degree certainly hasn’t gone to waste – at the very least, it’s good knowledge to have for personal use. I take continuing education courses to meet the requirements of my license and keep it current, and if it wasn’t for the chain of events that ended with my previous nursing job, I wouldn’t be where I am now.

Nursing and IT are both hot fields to be in, and I’m glad to have experience and knowledge in both. Each step of my education has been valuable, including that BA in History from years ago. Working any job requires far more than just the basic skills listed on the paper – the whole person hired to work in that position can bring a wealth of unrelated, but possibly beneficial, skills to the job. I consider myself well-rounded.

My advice to my daughters will continue to be that education is never a waste. While it’s important to consider career potential, and consider the timing of when you’re seeking to improve your skills and knowledge, you’ll always have some benefit to education throughout your life. Who knows? Maybe I’ll decide to go for another degree in my forties?

—

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As an accredited university built on more than 75 years of experience,† Kaplan University offers a wide range of career-focused programs designed to develop the skills and knowledge leading employers seek. Our focus: to offer you the most direct educational path to achieve your goals.

Are you ready for a change? Learn more at kaplanuniversity.edu.

* Kaplan University cannot guarantee employment or career advancement.

† Kaplan University is regionally accredited. Please visit http://www.kaplanuniversity.edu/about/accreditation-licensing.aspx# for additional information about institutional and programmatic accreditation.

Filed Under: school, sponsored, the J-O-B ·

Archives for 2013

Yet Another 2013 Recap Post

Christmas Day Surprise

Mary Poppins: Practically Perfect In Every Way (Review)

For Once, My Procrastination Benefits Others

You’re Never Too Old To Stop Learning

Hi, I’m Christina!

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