27 May 2007

The pool is open!




We had Dale, jane, & Amanda here for Memorial Day weekend, and the kids got to open the neighborhood pool of the year. Luckily, ethan and Amanda are evenly matched in he water - neither is Greg Louganis or the Thorpedo, but they are both happy enough to paddle around and splash each other in the 3 ft area without feeling like they have to have an adult to grab onto at all times.

I think I know how my remaining NC afternoons will be spent once school is out...

26 May 2007

Let's go shopping!

My mom has a new shop up on Cafe Press - it's got her watercolors and a few pencil and colored pencil pieces up for sale. You can get cards, postcards, prints, posters, T-shirts, mugs, aprons, tiles, you name it, it's there. So, what are you waiting for? Visit her shop HERE!

But what about MY needs?

My friend, Gillian, turned me onto the needs meme in her blog, so now I must do it. All you do it go to Google and type your first name followed by "needs." Hi-jinx ensue! Here's what I've learned about myself this morning:

Nanci needs to calm the hell down. - Probably true...

Nanci needs to remember that we only get to be in college once. And thank God for that! ;-)

Nanci needs to score her rental skis before we leave. Nanci has had some experience skiing, and has chosen to stick with the sure thing rather than brave a new sport.

Nanci needs to find guys that have more honor. Nah, Mitch has plenty :-)

Nanci needs to send out minutes from special meeting of August 23rd for review by Directors and approval at next board meeting. Oh God, one more thing I've forgotten to do!

Nanci needs to come home and find out what is going on with Iran. So long as the Shrub is around, i shudder to find out what may be going on there soon.

Nanci needs us! Duh.

Whoever said Nanci needs a stronger guitarist should hear this guy play. No, really, Edge is just fine!

Nanci needs some help with pre-made scrapbook pages.

And last, but certainly not least: Nanci needs our prayers for financial blessing. So, get those checks, PayPal transfers, etc in the mail ASAP, OK?

21 May 2007

Drop dead gorgeous





What's the point of having kids if you can't brag about them now and then? Ethan's spring school pics just came back and I am SO pleased with them. He's a knockout (esp. in the closeup head shot), if I do say so myself :-) Now onder he's the Ladies Man (apols to Tim Meadows) of his kindergarten class!

19 May 2007

From scarf to shining sea

The need to have a dress code at schools is a national issue for what I had found is a very important issue in the different school of our nation, from coats to coast.

Yes, it's grading time again! Oy.

Where I've been



It's been forever since I've blogged - gads, I hate to look and see just how long, but I've been busy!

I've got a full load of classes (6), and only a few people managing to pass, so students are taking up loads of time. The "main" house is on the market, and we are almost ready to list the old one. God I'll be happy when this move is over.

In the past few days, though, I've been consumed with getting all my genealogy stuff entered on a way cool new site Mitch turned me onto, Geni. I've got 10 generations of my mom's family entered so far, and we are still all from freaking North America. This is maddening! The crest you see at the left is the Mx family shield (Mx referring to Mullennix, Molyneaux, Mullinax, etc), Here's some interesting info on the family's possible origins in the US.:

The Mullinax line has been traced back to three brothers, however if this is true then the migration of the father of the three brothers was very unusual. The eldest, Ammannuel was born in upcountry South Carolina at a time (1730) when that was still Indian country. It was 25 years before the area was first settled by Europeans (the area was ceded to the "whites" by the 1755 treaty and large scale settlement of Scotch-Irish and Germans began pouring into the piedmont from the Shenandoah valley between 1765 & 1770). Then, the middle child John was born “about” 1737 in Tidewater Virginia, and the youngest Matthew was born circa 1755 in Dublin, Ireland. While the age difference is unusual (albeit possible), what is particularly questionable was the direction of travel. From Indian country, SC to Coastal Virginia and then to Ireland? If it was the other way around it would be believable but this direction of travel makes me very suspicious.

It has been claimed that all 50-odd variations of the surname (collectively referred to as Mx) descend from branch's of the Molyneux noble family of Britain, and thus ultimately from Robert le Diable de Moulins, suspected bastard of the Spanish noble-descended priest Peter Abelard and a French nun Heloise (though other version's say Peter was from Normandy or Brittany and that the child of the affair was named Astrolabe). Robert's sons were captain's in William the Conqueror's army and the many descendants of the family hold titles in Lancastershire in England, in Ireland, and elsewhere, including the main branch which were Earls of Sefton until 1972. While there were many branches of this family in Ireland at the right time, and while many of this family did have to flee Britain at various times for various reasons (mostly choosing the losing side in wars or under prosecution for their Catholic faith) (--This sounds very much like the family members I have grown up hearing about - we never pick the winning sides of wars!) I have not seen this connection proven so I have very little faith in this story. Many a time I have seen similar claims disproved. Nonetheless, I include it here as a bit of interesting trivia.

(Taken from this site.)

How cool would it be to be descended from Heloise and Abelard? I will admit, I squealed like a little girl when I read that for the first time! :-)

09 May 2007

I'm in Newsweek!

I've been published in Newsweek! LOL You can see my contribution here, in the Perspectives column.

Those of you wanting an autographed copy should send your copy of the mag, along with a SASE and $5 to...

01 May 2007

Oh, the irony

Yesterday, I received a note from a student telling me she'd be unable to complete her (past-due) assignment for a while, as her computer had been confiscated by her state's Board of Probations and Paroles. Today, she has posted a very nice, albeit self-righteous, comment to our discussion of plagiarism, in which she says it all comes down to honesty. It's dishonest to plagiarize, and, because she is a very honest person, she never has to worry about plagiarism. The next thing you know, she'll tell us what a "good Christian" she is. Christians are fine, but we have to watch out for the "good" ones - it seems they are always the ones I catch doing something dishonest.