Mom in the Mums

Mom and I were having so much fun yesterday that I forgot to write on my blog! And today we were having so much fun that I didn't get to the blog until now. Before I catch up on yesterday, here are some pictures from today's adventures. First you'll see Mom and me in front of a giant blue covered wagon at the Lincoln Log Cabin. Next, what is that? A used car lot? No, it's a used buggy lot! Must be Amish country. Mom and I went up to Arthur today and went to the Great Pumpkin Patch. There we took pictures of Mom in the mum patch, and me with the scarecrows. Wait, which one isn't a scarecrow? They all look equally scary!

So, I have a bit of catching up to do. Let's see--Thursday night was a little rough because I wasn't feeling very well. I think I'm either getting a cold or have become highly allergic to corn. :-( So it was a little hard to wake up yesterday, but once we got up and going, Mom and I drove out to Dr. Small's house to take care of her kitties while she and Mr. Riccio are away for the weekend (they both go by "Riccio" usually, but Dr. Small's academic name is Dr. Small because that is how she's known in the published world). Then we went shopping for EIU souvenirs at the campus bookstore, and had lunch at Jitters and Bliss. After lunch I had to go back to campus to work with Dr. Hardeman, but when I got there, he wasn't feeling well, and he knew he would have a really hard time staying awake while reading his students' papers (that would make two of us who would fall asleep!), so he decided to not have me stay for the afternoon. So, Mom and I went for a drive over to Mattoon. We hit a couple of book stores downtown, and we went to the ORIGINAL Burger King. The original Burger King was started in Mattoon even before the Burger King chain started down in Florida. Supposedly the two started independently, but the one here in Illinois started first. Problem was, the Florida people had more money, so they got to call the shots. The Mattoon people got to keep the name, but they never got any money for coming up with the idea. We had a tasty cherry-vanilla Coke there! After Mattoon, we went back to Charleston and took my buddy Kristen to dinner at the Thai restaurant for an early birthday dinner (her birthday is on Tuesday). Then we hung out at the apartment for the remainder of the evening.

This morning Mom and I went out to take care of the kitties again, and then we went on over to the Lincoln Log Cabin which is only a couple of miles from the Riccio's house. The Lincoln Log Cabin is an Illinois State Park, and they've done a pretty good job with it considering that they don't have any of the original Lincoln structures left standing. The cabin that today represents the home of Abe Lincoln's father and stepmother, is a reproduction built back in the 1930s. Supposedly the original cabin was shipped to Chicago for the World's Fair back in the 1890s, but it mysteriously disappeared. They have people out there acting as if they are working on the farm in 1845. So it's a pretty fun place. I'll be out there next weekend making brooms out of corn for the Fall Frolic. That reminds me, I need to learn how to make brooms out of corn this week.

After Lincoln Log, as it is known around here, Mom and I stopped at the Moore Home State Historic Site just down the street. That is the house where Abe Lincoln stopped when he swung by Charleston on his way to Washington to become President. Here he supposedly dined with his step mom and the Moore family before going to visit his dad's grave at the Shiloh Cemetery about a mile away. Of course, the next stop on today's Lincoln pilgrimage was the cemetery where Thomas Lincoln and later Sarah Bush Lincoln were buried.

After the Lincoln stops, Mom and I took off for Amish country. First we went up to Tuscola to have lunch at Flesor's Candy--the fun place where Alyson and I had lunch not long after we started school. Mom and I had the BEST Reuben sandwiches ever!!! They were made with red cabbage--delicious. We also had some tasty fresh peach ice cream. After the best lunch ever, we of course had to stop at Amishland--the big red barn that says AMISHLAND on the roof. Mom thought that was a fun place, and we were able to purchase more apple butter. One of our favorite shops there at Amishland featured Halloween costumes for geese--seriously! They had all kinds of goose costumes, including witches, draculas, and pumpkins. My personal favorite was the scarecrow costume--but I imagine that would be a goose's least favorite, because their wings would have to be stuffed inside the sleeves of a shirt.

After Amishland, we headed south to Arcola--another Amish town. We hit the Arcola Antique Mall, which was totally awesome. I could have stayed there all day, but we wanted to head to Arthur to visit the Great Pumpkin Patch. It was the coolest place ever!!! There were giant pumpkin people made out of hay bales, giant mountains of squash, and more pumpkins than one could ever imagine. Of course we had to eat some pumpkin ice cream and pumpkin cookies! It was so much fun--very fall-ish. What could be more fall-ish than the Great Pumpkin Patch out in the middle of the cornfields of Arthur, Illinois? I think nothing. On our way back through town, we passed a bunch of Amish people in their buggies heading home for the day. They can pretty much cruise at high speeds in those buggies. Those horses mean business.

After the Great Pumpkin Patch, Mom and I came back home and watched the General Relief Society Meeting online. It's pretty handy to be able to watch BYU TV anytime from anywhere. Well, I'm off to bed. Unfortunately my body is giving out and succumbing to whatever it is I managed to catch from somebody (probably a cold).

Barn Measuring

Yay!!!!!!!!!!! Mom is here!!! It was so fun to see her this afternoon, and it's been great spending the evening together. She arrived at about 5 p.m. after flying into St. Louis and renting a car. When she arrived, I was putting the finishing touches on dinner. We had chicken, black beans and rice, cornbread, summer squash casserole, salad, and sweet potato pie! Dr. Reid came over for dinner, and she and Mom had a great time chatting and getting to know each other. It was a really nice evening.

This morning for Historic Preservation, we had a "barn measuring" party at Dr. Small's house--instead of a "barn raising." The barn is already there--has been for a while--so we just measured it. We got to learn the "how to's" of architectural building surveys. We measured the barn in groups of three, and all of us came out about 2 feet off course. We students believe that it's because the barn is not totally symmetrical, but Dr. Small maintains that it was we students who were a little off in our drawings :-) She is a really nice lady, and we had fun out tromping through the grass, weeds, and cobwebs with her. After the barn measuring, Dr. Small even gave us lunch! It was a little crazy getting over to her house this morning though because it was completely FOGGY outside! When I woke up and looked out the window, I couldn't even see across the courtyard here. Luckily as the sun continued to rise, the fog slowly disappeared. It looked kind of creepy out across the cornfields that are no more--with the fog making everything look dark and misty. Very Halloween-ish!

Where Have All the Cornfields Gone?

Awww, our cornfield out behind the apartment is gone :-( It was so pretty. I guess that the ethanol has to come from somewhere though. This morning when I woke up it was raining, thundering, and lightninging (is that a word?), and I turned on the weather channel, and it said that there was 94% humidity outside! What is this--Mississippi? When Aly and I went out to get in the car this morning, the windows had a thick layer of moisture on them. It was a little cloudy today, but it felt really nice once the humidity went down a little in the afternoon. There is definitely a hint of fall in the air (which makes sense--considering that it is fall).

Yay!!!!!!!! Tomorrow Mom is coming to visit! I am soooooo excited and have been cleaning up the apartment this evening in anticipation of her arrival. We are going to have tons and tons of fun. Tomorrow night Dr. Reid is coming over for dinner so she can meet Mom, so I'll have to whip out something impressive as far as food goes. I'm thinking of making a sweet potato pie for dessert.

Today we had a guest speaker in our Administration class, and he just so happened to be the man I'm supposed to have help the Piatt County people with some exhibit planning. So that worked out nicely for me. Mrs. Miller, our teacher, made lunch for everyone afterwards, so I was able to chat with Mr. McKay (the guest speaker) over a roast beef sandwich. Mrs. Miller rocks at cooking!! At lunchtime I also went with Kristen to try to get her parking ticket taken care of. She got a parking ticket for parking at her own apartment, and they made her pay it!!! We were so mad. She got an appeal form, so hopefully she can get that resolved.

I loved my Material Culture class this afternoon. We talked about Windsor furniture--so I got to talk about my chair from the Arlington House, and we talked about French Rococo Revival-style furniture too--the kind of furniture they have at Melrose in Natchez! So that was fun. I learned a lot of things. We then had a meeting about Tilford Dudley, and then I came home and started cleaning. Alyson and I went grocery shopping, and now it's almost time for bed. "Bones" was really good last night--I'm glad it's time for the fall TV shows.

Better Day

Today is an infinitely better day than yesterday! Yesterday I was completely stressed out, but today was much better. I was trying to figure out why I was kind of grouchy yesterday, and I think it was because on Sunday night when we met as a class to discuss our museum exhibit surveys, it took us three hours to get through everything! In fact, I got to leave "early" at 10:45 p.m. to go pick up Alyson at the train station in Mattoon--everybody else was still discussing things back in the classroom. It's cool that everyone wants to meet to get things done, but everything we do takes a really long time! So I was a little grouchy yesterday, but not today. This morning for my Research and Interpretation class, we did more Tilford Dudley work. Then I went over to the Stowell's house, and Missy (the mom) gave me a loaf of bread right out of the oven! It is delicious. I was then going to get some work done here at home, but my late night last night wiped me out, and I had to take a nap for a little while. Then, I have another meeting tonight with everybody! At least before the meeting I can watch the season premier of "Bones." I liked Bones better in season 1--last season was kind of lame, but maybe they'll redeem themselves this season. I like that show because the main character is a forensic anthropologist, and all of the plots are quite exciting. Hooray--Mom is coming to Charleston on Thursday!!!! I am very, very, very excited!

Windsor Chairs at Midnight

Whoa--it's the middle of the night! Even though it will appear to you that I am writing this on Tuesday, it is still Monday in my book because I haven't gone to bed yet. :-) I've been up late tonight writing about this little guy here on the left: a writing arm Windsor chair that is part of the National Park Service collection at the Arlington House in Virginia. This chair belonged to Robert E. Lee's father-in-law, George Washington Parke Custis. I'm approximating its place and date of construction to be Philadelphia in the 1790s. Anyway, it's been a busy day today and I needed to get this report done--thus the late night. My two classes seemed soooooo long today, but it was probably because I was thinking about all of the other stuff I needed to do. This morning for Museum Exhibits class, we met over at the Tarble Arts Center here on campus to plan some things for the museum exhibit we'll be putting up there in the spring. That will be a big job, but it should be fun. After class today I had to meet with the department tech guy about updating the Historical Administration website--which is one of my assignments for the Museum Exhibits class. Then, it was off to a BBQ with some people from church. I am the new Latter-day Saint Student Association president in the ward (which is funny because I think there are only two of us student-age people here), and so tonight we had dinner with our advisors the Clowards. Then I had to pick up some groceries, and after that: work, work, work. Before I knew it it was 1:00 in the morning! So, I'm off to bed now. Dr. Reid gave me a shape note singing book today--wasn't that nice of her?! She rocks!

Shape Note Singing

Happy First Day of Fall Everyone! It's another beautiful day here in Charleston--warm and sunny. This morning I went to church and had a good time there. Then some of us students went over to the Methodist church to participate in something called shape note singing with Dr. Reid. I learned a little bit about shape note singing when Angie and I went to the Louisiana Country Music Hall of Fame (aka Rebel State Historic Site, or the Tomb of the Unknown Confederate Soldier--the most random place I've ever visited) during the summer--they had some info. about it. Shape note singing is something that people used in the South to sing hymns since not everyone could read regular music notes. We were the youngest people there (usually Dr. Reid is the youngest), and they all loved that we were there. Now I have to head to a meeting with the HA students because we have a project that needs to be finished before class tomorrow. Then, I need to go pick Alyson up at the train station in Mattoon at like 11:20 tonight. Yikes--today has definitely not been a day of rest!!! It's hard to keep up with everything. I also need to write a paper about a chair from the Arlington House in Virginia sometime within the next couple of days. Hmmm, I don't know how everything is going to get done, but I guess it will!