caught in the act!

Weyhe family holiday photos

It was a cold day and the clouds in the sky mimicked the patterns of the ice on the lakes.

Minnie got antsy in the car, she whined and she shook and she panted.

She made my mom and i feel a bit anxious as well.

My dad told me i might find treasures in the basement at my grandmas, and i did. I thought it was funny to see an old, old book called "modern physics." The basement was full of dust and cobwebs but light poured through the windows and it was interesting to see old signs of life and days gone past.

Funny little things can make my day.

My mom liked the old books as well.

The Weyhe boys lineage.

A shared laugh.

Grandpa taking an interest in the books we brought up from the basement, some of which dated back to 1894.

A family portrait of sorts.
My dad was getting annoyed with my incessant picture taking. He was the only one who verbalized his irritation, at least.
My brother tends to fall into the background of pictures, and i often get a kick out of his expressions.

Grandpas famous face, captured.
"OOOHhhhhh!"

My dad conversing with a foot, a hand and a cigarette.

A murder of crows.

I felt lucky to have had a camera at this second, although it was hard to get a good picture through the windshield of my car, while driving. Thankful nonetheless for the timing.

One empty corner.

yours for the taking!

As my rats have demonstrated to me as of late, if you want something, you have got to take it for yourself.
My roommates were asking me to stop feeding my rats their dog bones. I told them i havent been, someone else must have thought it was funny to put dog bones in the rat cage or something.
A few days later, i woke up to find Chica out of her cage. Inside their cage, I find this:

They escaped their cage and robbed first the dog bones, later the candy jar,
AND THEN last night Chica climbed into bed with me at 4am.

And here i had been thinking a thing would be content to live confined to a cage.

Nothing is content living in such conditions.
As my rats have demonstrated: we each need an element of control in our lives, and if we are not given it, we take it for ourselves.

I've been paying close attention lately to my shifts in energy, as it is a precious commodity in my fast-paced life. When do i lose my energy and why? What triggers it? How can i help it? I've found that in the winter, it is more difficult for me to keep myself going. If i come home halfway through the day, i feel warm and comfortable and lose my motive to continue on through my tasks. And so alas, it is important that i power through my days, without taking breaks. It's like running a long distance race- if you start to walk, or if you stop, it is hard to start again. If you maintain your pace, you create a kind of rhythm for yourself that keeps you going.

I've got to make the conscious choice to keep moving.

My good friend Jenna once said to me,
"Sometimes you have got to fight by yourself, for yourself, against yourself."

i have found this to be true in my life time and time again.

You get what you give.
You get what you give.

some pictures

Not so long ago (Sunday?) we had a night of cookie making and cards and conversation at Jeremiahs grandmas. Here is the documentation:

leaving the house, into the brutal outdoors.

Mike, Netty, Jeremiah, and grandma Bernice frosting cookies.

cards with uncle mike, specifically speed, which we renamed slow in leu of mikes skills.

Of course we had to indulge in a couple silly pictures in the shiny pot we found.

on the way home we pulled over to take pictures in the pretty winter storm.

there was a theme today

I'm at my parents right now for the night, my dad got me to come home and work in the basement, but as it turns out there is a winter storm out tonight. That leaves me here.

I have an avid interest in coincidences. Today i encountered a small kind of coincidence: several different people revealed to me their belief in metaphysical things. It began while i was teaching at Bridges today, a little girl informed me about the nature of faries- where they can be found, how they behave, etc. I was happy to hear her thoughts about it, i was happy to know that in 5th grade little girls still believed in such things. I thought about when i was young, how i believed everything had a spirit- i was sure the dolls came alive when i left the room, that it was not good to slam things around because it hurt them, that cars and trees alike had feelings. I remember hugging a tree and breathing on it after hearing that trees take in what we breathe out. It occurred to me that i have not altogether abandoned this idea: there is a door at MSU that i will not go in or out of because it creaks when it opens, in my mind it "groans". I will not say negative things about my car in it's presence lest it take revenge and not make it up the icy hill this time.

At home i was surprised to hear that my parents put stock into the idea that things happen for a reason, an idea that i had entertained for much of my life, but that has taken a backseat in my mind in light of new information. This all- in addition to recalling a story Jeremiahs mom told about signs that had pointed her away from attending her company christmas party- had me reevaluating my resistance to the idea.

As it turns out, maybe things happen for a reason.

Getting snowed in for instance, and the conversations that result.

Highlights

Wednesday night i went to Madison and it was so fun! I went to a Dark Dark Dark show (one of my favorite musical groups, made up of a cello, a banjo, an accordian, and both a male and female vocalist.. and the girl graduated from Morris!) with Elena, and i stayed with Jeremiahs sister Dinah. When we arrived, her face was covered with blue make up and glitter, and she apologized for it explaining that she had been playing dress up with herself. I made cupcakes for Dinah that were frosted all different colors (vanilla frosting + food dye). I also left like 12 cupcakes at home for my roommates, less than 24 hours later they were all gone.
I got to talk to the band, and i think my enthusiasm came off as a little nutty.
Also, i wandered around on State St. and visited all kinds of neat little shops filled with handmade items like french barrettes and hand-knit scarves. This experience kind of rekindled my spark for crafts and i made several vows to myself. I resolved to learn to sew and make myself a christmas dress, to build shelves for all of my books in my bedroom (if you refer to an earlier entry you can see that all my books are lined up on the floor next to my bed), to learn to make button and pendant jewelry, and to go vegetarian again and make some nice meals for Jeremiah and i, who is conveniently attempting to live a healthier lifestyle.
Early this week Jeremiah came along to the MSU painting studio with me, and of course documented the events. You can find the pictures here:
http://figothecat.blogspot.com/

I need to get a pair of winter boots, but they are all so expensive. I get ornery though when the bottom of my pants are wet, because i often sit on my knees and then the rest of my pants get wet too.

I hope to take Spencer, Grant, Nation and Hugo out to play lazer tag today. That is my goal.

Hope all is well for those of you that read this, and for everyone else too, i suppose.

-T

little books

I learned how to make little books. Here are my first two attempts:

Hopefully quality will improve as i continue to work on them.
Here are details of the inside: