Clowns and Country Music

Today was a rather bizarre day at the Lincoln Home. I have given tours to a lot of class clowns, but never to a real clown--until today. Chatterbox, an official Shriner's clown (unfortunately not in costume), came to the Lincoln Home this afternoon. When he ran up to me, got right in my face, and said, "Hey, you're pretty!" I knew it was going to be an interesting tour. It would have kind of creeped me out except for the fact that he was an older gentleman who actually turned out to be really nice. In addition to Chatterbox, today's tours of the Lincoln Home included . . . country music! Nothing says Abraham Lincoln and 1860 like country music, right? The Lincolns are getting some new wallpaper in their front stairway, so that area of the home is closed off to visitors. While the plastic barriers put up by the wallpaper workers keeps the dust and steam out of the other rooms in the house, it doesn't exactly block out the sound of their radio. Maybe if they had the Mormon Tabernacle Choir "Songs of the Civil War" CD playing it would have been all right, but the country music kind of killed the ambiance.

Because of the wallpaper project, a top hat and walking stick that were originally displayed on a hall tree in the front entryway of the home are now sitting in a more prominent spot in the Lincoln's sitting room. The other day I had a tour group of 5th graders from inner-city St. Louis. They were mostly African American kids, and for 5th graders they were actually pretty well-behaved. Upon seeing the walking stick in the sitting room, one of the teachers asked if Lincoln had a walking problem or if the walking stick was more of an accessory. I explained that having a walking stick was stylish back then--it would have been part of Lincoln's look. A funny kid right in front of me said, "So, you mean Abraham Lincoln was pimpin'?" That made me laugh. All I could say was, "Yeah, I guess you could say that." According to the slang dictionary, "pimpin'" means "to make an accessory look good," so I guess you could say that was a legitimate question. The Lincoln Home is a strange and funny place.

The Master Bath

Here are some more results of our work here at the condo. The bathroom off of the master bedroom was pretty scary when we moved in, but removing the wallpaper border, painting it a nice shade of green, getting a new shower curtain, adding a medicine cabinet, installing a new towel rack, and hanging some pictures made a world of difference!

Here is the new-and-improved bathroom:

Slowly but Surely

Fixing up a house is a lot of work! But it is very rewarding, and it's fun to see it transform into your own place. Our condo is coming along slowly but surely. We have gotten most of our stuff put away, but we're still working on a few things. When Greg has a little break from school and work we'll try to get our downstairs bathroom finished--it needs new tile, a new toilet, and a new sink, but it's really nice to have two other bathrooms to use while we're waiting to finish that one. We are also waiting for our awesome new couch to arrive sometime next week--and then I think it will really feel like home. I'll post pictures as we finish up the different rooms in the house. Then once we're all done, Greg and I will walk through with the video camera so you can get a better view of the place. It is the perfect house for us.

Here are the before and after shots of the guest bathroom:













It looks much more inviting now, right? This is our farm-themed bathroom. I absolutely love the yellow paint in there--it really brightens it up and makes it feel nice and big. At some point we will get a new toilet in there, but the one we have is good for now.

Next we have the guest room (aka the sports room):

I didn't have any good pictures of this room from before we moved in, but it was pretty scary. The wall that now has the shelves on it was covered in some crazy wallpaper. As you can see, Lily has adopted the futon as her play area. We still have a bit of cleaning up to do in the guest room, but it's coming along nicely. It's great to have room to put all of our stuff around! So, the condo is keeping us busy, but we are making a lot of progress. Soon I will have pictures of the rest of the house.

Kids

I love kids. But they have to be 4th grade and under. Just kidding--but seriously, 1st, 2nd, 3rd, and 4th graders (and younger kids too) are SO cute!!! We're inching back into bus season here at the Lincoln Home, and after several horrible tours with 8th graders, it's a breath of fresh air to have some cute 2nd graders on a tour. Younger kids are so excited to be learning new things, and they all think that Abraham Lincoln is completely awesome. After the 4th grade, however, they become too cool to learn about such unimportant things. 5th graders can go either way--some are interested and some aren't, but by 6th grade they could all care less. Back in the day when I planned to become a teacher, I wanted to teach high school. But I have since realized that it's probably good I didn't pursue that path. The majority of middle/high school kids that come to the Lincoln Home are not very nice--in fact, most of them are terrible. And they are all a lot bigger than me. But little kids can turn a long day into a great day. Today I had some of the CUTEST 3rd and 4th graders ever from Indiana. As we were going into the house, one little guy said, "I have been dreaming of coming here for like a thousand years!" If only all of our visitors felt that way :-)

The Big #201

Happy #201 Birthday to Abraham Lincoln! And as I always say (at least since last year), there's no better place to spend his birthday than at his house. Last year I was one of the Lincoln groupies who went to his house just because it was his birthday, but today I actually got paid to be there! I was honored to be one of six authors they had signing books at the Visitor Center this morning as part of the birthday celebration. Lincoln has no connection to Zion National Park, but all of the other authors there had published books with Arcadia's Images of America series, so my book kind of fit in. In this photo of the other authors and me, the Visitor Center looks so peaceful. About two minutes after this picture was taken, hundreds of rambunctious school children burst through the doors and the madness began.

It wouldn't be Abraham Lincoln's birthday without Abraham Lincoln! He looks pretty good for being 201 years old, right? Mr. Lincoln stopped by to read stories to what seemed (and sounded) like millions of little kids. It was really fun though, and the kids LOVED it. When Mr. Lincoln opened it up for questions at the end, one little guy raised his hand and said, "I thought John Wilkes Booth got to you!" Mr. Lincoln replied, "Oh no, I've seen Mr. Booth perform, and his good looks get to the ladies, but not to me." The kids didn't understand this response, but all of the adults thought it was funny. So all-in-all it was a really good day. The only problem was that I felt terrible--I've had a bad cough, and my throat is on fire, so trying to yell over a crowd of 5th graders didn't work out so well. My voice is shot this evening, but at least I made it through the day. I am pooped though. In this photo with Lincoln you can see my awesome Lincoln earrings that Lindy gave me. I can't wear them every day because dangly earrings with bright colors don't follow "NPS protocol," but they were a BIG hit for Lincoln's birthday. Thank you Lindy!

Keep an eye on your spare change, and you'll probably start seeing some of the brand-new 2010 Lincoln pennies that debuted yesterday right here in Springfield. In honor of Lincoln's birthday, the U. S. Mint decided to release the new penny in his hometown. Lincoln's image on the front of the penny has been digitally remastered, so he looks extra sharp; and the Lincoln Memorial on the back of the penny has been replaced by the Union shield. The shield was a symbol often used at the time of the Civil War, so it is supposed to represent Lincoln's role in keeping the country united. The penny will be used for at least the next 50 years, so it's kind of cool to be a part of its beginning. Happy Birthday, President Lincoln!