N is for Nasty

Janine (my youngest) has always been an animal lover.  As I type this she sits in an easy chair holding her seven month old (40 lb) dog, Annabelle.  Anyway, she told me a story a couple weeks ago that one of her guy friends shared with her.  It was a nasty story especially if you have any kind of imagination.

 Some time ago this boy owned a Mini-Lopp bunny .  You know one of those completely adorable bunnies with the long ears.  They're tiny and sweet--you can't help but love them.  One day, being the great pet owner he was, he had the little bunny out in his back yard to hop around a little. He was  focused on the bunny who suddenly stopped moving. He stared at the bunny when he should have had one eye on the sky.  A large bird of prey dove with speed, picked the little bunny up, and flew away with it.  Imagine this teenage boy looking up to the sky with his mouth hanging open, in shock as he watched an eagle or hawk fly away with his pet.

 Janine said, "Mom that isn't a nasty story.  The bunny wasn't hurt, it was just being carried away."  Optimist that she is added, "It was probably okay."

O is for Oriole

When our children were younger, they were involved in a bird club for kids.  They read about birds, dissected owl pellets, listened to speakers, and went on field trips.  One of the field trips we went on was to a place called Hawthorne Hollow a wild life preserve near Kenosha, Wisconsin.  The morning we arrived for our birdwatching hike, there were two trees filled with Orioles.  They had sliced oranges and stuck them on the tree branches. We learned Orioles love oranges!  I can tell you it was quite a sight.  Between the Orioles and the oranges, there was a lot of color. They were beautiful orange and black birds.

  Hawthorne Hollow was very supportive of our little group.  They had a public gathering and allowed the kids to sell bird houses at the event to make a little money for the club.


Answer to the Math Problem from P is for Problem:    Cut the cake horizontally through the middle then make an X on top.  That will give you eight pieces of cake.

P is for problem

I just love this math problem because I got the answer very quickly and more importantly before my husband.  That doesn't happen very often so I cherish the few times it does.  We saw this math problem in the Evansville Courier years ago.  Here goes:  How do you get eight pieces of cake by slicing just three times?  I probably got the answer in seconds because it was about cake. 

 One year I told the kids that came to our house for trick or treating that if they solved this problem they could have all our candy.  There were kids sitting on our front porch with pencil and paper working away while other Trick or Treaters came and went.  Unfortunately no one was a able to solve this problem so they each walked away, one by one, with one piece of candy and the answer to a problem that stumped them whispered in their ear.

For awhile I was doing Kumon Math.  I think the biggest problem for me with math is my horrible memory.  Anyway, Kumon was daily repetition and I had fun with it.  My daughter, Janine, did it as well.  Back then we drove to Terre Haute once a month to turn in our work and to get a box full of new problems to tackle for the next month.  They allowed us to do that because  the closest Kumon Center for us was in Terre Haute (2 hours away from Evansville).  Now there is a Center in Newburgh and one in Evansville as well.   : )

I'll post the answer to this problem in my next blog. 

Q is for queen

     I wonder if I was the only little girl in 1968 that thought being a queen would be a dream come true?  There's a lot of talk about princesses when you're eight.  The idea of being a princess didn't sound horribly bad to me, but being a queen sounded better.  Princesses were always getting in trouble.  Queens had long gowns and big crowns.  They had extra long hair, too, and they ruled the land.  Now, that was cool.  I thought a lot about being a queen when I lived in southern Minnesota.  I was in early grade school and played in my bedroom closet.  The closet had a big white wall perfect for drawing on.  It didn't even cross my mind that my parents might not appreciate my art work.  With crayons I took great care in drawing the most beautiful queen ever.  She was blue (my favorite color) and had a long trailing gown and a huge spikey crown.  When I was finished, I ran downstairs and told my mother.  I found out she didn't appreciate queens the way I did.

R is for Reality

I took an ethics class in college and still remember that first day when the teacher wrote: "Ninety percent of what we see lies behind our eyes.  How we perceive the world determines the way we react to it."  on chalkboard.  That makes sense and seems really obvious.  However, way back then when I was in college I hadn't really thought about that before.  There is no one reality.  We all have different perceptions.  I think we spend a lot of time trying to alter perception whether it be by debate, drugs, brain washing, hypnosis, reading, television, super interesting blogs, math, or education in general. 

A mental illness is a psychiatric disorder that results in a disruption in a person's thinking, feeling, moods, and ability to relate to others word IQ.com

Statistics About Mental Illness:


According to the World Health Organization (WHO), 1 in every 4 people, or 25% per cent of individuals, develops one or more mental disorders at some stage in life.

Mental illnesses are more common than cancer, diabetes, or heart disease.

Mental disorders can now be diagnosed reliably and accurately as the most common physical disorders; some can be prevented, all can be successfully managed and treated.

Treatment works. Yet, as many as two-thirds of all people with a diagnosable mental disorder do not seek treatment, whether for fear of being stigmatized, fear that the treatment may be worse than the illness itself, or lack of awareness, access and affordability of care.

Mental illness is a serious public health challenge that is under-recognized as a public burden. The toll of mental illness is tragic: http://www.myasha.org/node/12

No one wants to be mentally ill.  We want to believe what we perceive is true and we defend that truth.  In an argument other people can be so irritating and blind, right?  Think of all the religious and political debates we have with our friends and relatives.  We want to be right.  We want to win the argument.  They are wrong I am right.

Ten years ago I was feeling pretty good.  I was in good shape and just earned my black belt. I felt in charge of my life.  Our three kids were young and very involved with extra-curricular activities.  I won't go into the details, although it is a pretty interesting story involving a sparkly green dress, but I was diagnosed with bipolar disorder.  Not something I wanted to hear.  Not something I believed at first.  I was right and everyone else was wrong.  I resisted and was in the hospital for a couple weeks.  (Now that's something to write about.)  I realized my thinking was off when the medication kicked in.  They told me this condition was treatable.  Basically they needed to play around with my brain chemistry until something worked right.  Lucky for me, I have a doctor that I get along with and medication that works.  I've had some ups and downs since then, but nothing major.  I take my medicine.

Not everyone is as fortunate.  And there is this law out there that states if a person is 18 years old and older they cannot be hospitalized against their will unless they are a danger to themselves or others.  I understand why we have a law like that, but it really gets in the way of treatment sometimes.  Families feel helpless.  They know their loved one is sick, possibly getting themselves in huge debt, but there isn't anything they can do about it.  They pretty much have to sit back and watch them destroy their lives because they don't think there is anything wrong with them.

One book that was a huge help to me was "Taming Bipolar Disorder" by Lori Oliwenstein.  She wrote that book in honor of her father.  It's a great book for becoming more informed about the disorder and there are many other resources noted including websites.

Words That Roll Off Your Tongue

Words… we use them everyday! Certain words just roll off our tongues more easily than others. Have you ever thought of words as fun or pretty? Maybe it’s just me, I don’t know. Do you ever think about some of the words or phrases in your vocabulary that you find yourself wanting to repeat just because they’re fun to say. My husband and I often find ourselves repeating words that we like from advertisements or commercials that we hear. One of our favourites has been the word ‘certainly’ it just rolls out so nicely! We kind of add our own little accent to it! How about ‘cupcake’ or ‘lollipop’. I thought it would be fun to see if any of you have a favourite word! Share it with me here…

Here are some designs and phrases I’ve been creating for t-shirts. Come by my store to see a wider selection!

Technorati Tags: words,cute,funny,phrases,sayings,designs

S is for Suzanne

Suzanne Joy Perkett has graduated!!!  Yay!!!!  She is ready to take on the world and, believe me, the world is lucky to have her.  The question is "What's next?"  She has a masters degree in secondary education.  Her areas of expertise are Math and Spanish.  Will she go to Spain for a year?  Or will she stay in the states?  If she decides to go to Spain, what will she do?  Young, intelligent -- her whole life ahead of her.  It's exciting!



 You'd think by now the sibling rivalry would have eased up. No such luck.   Matthew and Janine were very jealous of Suzanne's accomplishment.  She may be small, but don't let that fool you.  She knows how to defend herself.  The ju-jitsu does come out.

Just kidding.  Suzanne and her siblings have always been close.  They still have a lot of fun together. 

For example when we went to Oliver's Winery to toast her victory, the frog in the pond outside the building was somehow inspiring to them all. They pretended to be frogs for quite sometime.  We older folk managed to persuade them to follow us eventually.

There was plenty of wine. After the kids proved their age, we toasted to Suzanne's success, and bought some wine to take home. But, was our celebrating over and done?  No Siree.  We also celebrated at a Japanese steakhouse where they dazzeled us with their fine food, fire and juggling abilities.

Suzanne has been a fan of Japanese food ever since she went to Japan.  She loves sushi.  She and her boyfriend, Adam, frequent sushi bars.  Well, as much as they can...they're kind of expensive.  We all enjoyed our food that night.  Sushi was consumed.

Suzanne is ready to begin a new chapter in her life and her siblings are right by her side.  We parents may not always be seen, but we will always present, too, supporting her along the way.  SUZANNE WE'RE PROUD OF YOU!