The First Thanksgiving

We all know about the first Thanksgiving, the whole Indians and pilgrims thing. We all made those funny belt buckle hats in grade school. But I'm not here to talk about that, I'm here to talk about a more important first Thanksgiving: The B&B Hanna Thanksgiving.

The first B&B Thanksgiving went off without a hitch. In fact you probably wouldn't be able to tell it was the first one it was so good. We, my mom and I (mostly my mom) made a nice 13lbs turkey that Beth so graciously carried all the way down West Broadway. I also made a pumpkin pie, which I am now famous for at Notre Dame (my work). Beth made an unusual fruit salad. You can look forward to the new secret surprise recipe at the future family functions. My grandmother made her famous mashed potatoes and my mother made green bean casserole. My sister made three acorn squashes. I thought this was very excessive considering my grandma and I don't eat it, and Beth doesn't love it, but never fear my sister finished all three by the end of her trip.

The china wasn't fine and there wasn't enough silverware to serve everyone, but the food was good, and the company was even better. I had such a wonderful time with my family I'm so happy they could come, and now I can't wait to go home for Christmas.

Change of Plans

I am going to put the information for the wedding pictures on here. As Bill so astutely noticed, there really is no reason not to: "What's the problem? They might buy pictures?" So here goes:

Go to the website http://www.collages.net
User name: Hanna-Guilbeault
Password: 5487

If you see any of these pictures circling the internet... blame Bill.

Birthday Notes

My birthday/weekend/week continues with a very fun weekend. Friday night we regressed back to a college-style party on my orders. All of my new Boston friends were there and it is obvious they know the real me as my presents included a M&Ms, Miller Light, and a cheese platter. I wore one of my graduation presents -- a shirt that says "Wholeseome Midwestern Girl" -- so it was almost like being in Wisconsin. Nice.

Saturday was a small Green Shirt reunion. Aunt Nancy and Uncle Vinnie invited Bill and I to their place for a very nice family dinner. We were even lucky enough to see their kids and their kids' kids. Because I hadn't seen them all in a decade, I had a lot of catching up to do. They definitely aren't driving ice cream trucks anymore. Of course they wanted to know what we thought of Boston and we told them our observations: too much money, too much traffic, and too many Dunkin' Donuts. When I told them I missed cheese they thought I was trying to be funny, but the joke was on them because they have never heard of cheese curds. Poor New Englanders.

Besides learning that our cat Lola is terrified of the vacuum cleaner, which is surprisingly entertaining, the rest of the weekend was uneventful. I got lost trying to find a Target. But that was probably a good thing because we are poor. By the way, I don't recommend having a birthday on a Monday. It's a little anti-climactic. At least I have Thanksgiving to pretend is a continuation of the party. So Monday birthday = bad, but November birthday = good.

Good News!

Thanks to my dad and his wonderful HR skills, Bill and I finally received notice that our wedding pictures are on-line. If you would like to look at them (and they are definitely worth looking at if not ordering), please e-mail me. I will send you the special information you need to sign in: elizabeth.guilbeault@mu.edu Seriously, they are beautiful.

Even better news is that my birthday is quickly approaching. Bill and I went to pick out my present early. We are now proud owners of Lola the cat. I know you're laughing and saying, "What?! They have a cat?" but we love her. She is 4 years old and very sweet. I guess even hard-core dog people can learn to appreciate a cat when they live in an attic and are gone about 10 hours a day. We're still getting used to cat behavior though. She definitely does not come when we call her and she jumps like no other. It seems a little unnatural to me that an animal is able to jump 4 feet off of the ground. Maybe that becomes less shocking with time. Either way, she was a wonderful birthday present.

P.S. Don't forget about the pictures. Looking at them is like going to the wedding twice!

IKEA

I told you I wasn't kidding about writing more frequently. I should write in and tell high-speed internet how it's bringing us all closer together. That sounds commercial-worthy. Next thing you know, you might be seeing me on tv!

So my real purpose in writing is a phenomenon Bill and I experienced called opening weekend of an IKEA store. One opened a few miles from us and it was advertised so well that we were practically brainwashed into going. Actually, the whole East Coast seemed to be brainwashed into going because we met up with them all on the highway. Once we realized that the line on the highway was all traveling to the same place we were, we had a decision to make: be a lemming and follow the crowd or turn ourselves away. Of course, I decided that the line made me want to go in even more (a good marketing strategy if I've ever seen one)and since I was driving and Bill had a map to keep him busy, we stayed in line. The store was huge of course, but being on the budget we are, the hardest part was trying to convince Bill that we need tupperware and other cool-looking storage units. Thankfully, he stayed strong and we only ended up spending $4 for a completely unnecessary bill holder. I can't say that other people we so lucky by the amount of U-Hauls we saw leaving. I kid you not. In summary, if you are volunteering and making only enough to have shelter and food, IKEA is not the store for you. Don't be a lemming.

"Up North" East Coast style

Thanks to the Murphy grandparents, Bill and I were able to visit Jamestown, Rhode Island this weekend. It was a little blast from the past for me without the million Smith descendents that Jamestown used to entail. We drove around the whole island and began to notice that even with a few minor differences, Jamestown is quite similar to Up North Wisconsin. Case in point, during the drive we spotted both cows AND a deer. The East Coast influence traded Up North trucks for BMWs and Mercedes, but our Saturn is used to feeling out of place, so that was no big deal. The biggest difference was the size of the homes. No trailers in Jamestown; only million dollar homes. And a shore house. The best shore house on the coast. It has undergone some changes from the time when the Murphy clan overran it, but it still is recognizable. Hopefully, we'll figure out how to put picture on here so you can see the changes yourself. There's a huge dock and the inside is full of fancy furniture. I still love it though. We are very grateful to Grandma and Grandpa for sponsoring the outing.

More good news is that we finally have high-speed internet so posts are going to become much more frequent. I'm serious this time.

Attempt Number 2

I swear this was a really funny post when I wrote it last week. Obviously I haven't checked back here in the recent past. So now I'll rewrite it so everyone knows what I'm talking about.

My program is very good about letting the teachers take their kids to work. I'm sure this would be very convenient if I was a teacher and my kids had a day off. But because I am a childless teacher, I just spend my time chasing extra kids around. Usually the kids are older and don't know the rules, so they create choas. This wouldn't be so bad if I could just say stop, but because the moms are also teachers, they are always perching there letting the kids do whatever they want. This is not helpful.

The second perchers that I deal with are the moms themselves. Many of them have school in the same building their kids are in so they are always around. This is less of a problem on the average day because they are all terrified of the lead teacher Kathy (just like everyone else in the building), but on field trips the moms let lose. Not only do they perch and allow thier kids to break the rules, they encourage rule-breaking by teaching the kids to not listen. This is also incredibly not helpful for me.

The moral of this post: Give your kids' teachers a break and DON'T PERCH. Also, if you could spread this message around so it has the potential of reaching South Boston I would appreciate it greatly.

The importance of separation between PERCHing and STATE-funded programs