Who is Ranger Anna?

Okay, I'll play.

I've been reading a couple-a blogs where the blogger lets the bloggees know a little bit more about herself.  And since I've got no original or even vaguely interesting thoughts or projects right now, here goes.

Sitting on a dock in the bay..... okay, it was really a boat in a fjord.  I have a ski-slope for a chin.  

1. I'm a mid-western girl thru and thru. Actually, I'm really a Great Lakes girl.  I totally wrap myself in the sturdy mid-western values (think Prairie Home Companion here), and I need my Big Water Fix on a regular basis.  If you haven't stood on the shores of a Great Lake, you haven't been in touch with the 75 percent of you that is water.

Did you know that the Mighty Maumee River is the largest watershed of any of the Great Lakes?  Now ya do.

I'm Heinz 57 American.   My Dad was born and raised in Toledo, and his Mom was from West-by-God.  His Dad's roots remain a mystery, despite my Sis and BIL working their fingers to the bone trying to find something about the guy. Zip. Zilch. Nada.  And since he worked for the B&O Railroad, there should be records, but there ain't.  Hmmmmm...... WITSEC?

My Mom was born and raised on an island in the Tampa Bay.  Did you hear my use my Florida accent when I said that?  She was a very head-strong and determined young lady, which explains a lot about me.  Did I ever write about my 'rents WWII work?  Remind me to do that next week, if I didn't already write about it.  Anywho, I spent my first and only vacations as kid on the beach at Indian Rocks, Fla.  So I have a hefty amount of salt-water in my veins, too.  Oh, wait a minute..... Well, you get my drift.

Terra Ciea use-ta be a real island.  Not no more.

2.  I'm a mom.  Dang that's hard work.  I have the world's greatest step-daughter.  A mere technicality in my opinion, since she lived with her Dad and then her Dad and me for the majority of her growing up years.  I think of her as my daughter. We had rocky times (due to the insanity of her birth mother), but now we be bffs.  Yea.  See side bar for cutest pic evah of her and my darling SIL.

I have two sons.  Both adopted.  Both have autism.  I write about them a lot.  Things are very, very rocky with one of them right now, which has me plunged back into that perpetual state of grief where parents of kids with special needs always live.  I've said before that it never goes away, cuz it don't. See sidebar for pics of Thing One and Thing Two.

3.  I'm a wife.  Hardest job ever.  Sharing your life with someone opens you up for all sorts of stuff--the good, the bad, and the ugly.  My DH is 14 years older than me.  I fell in love with the big jerk before I figured this out, and by then it was too late.   But who can resist a guy in uniform?  It was dang near love at first phone call.  See side bar for DH doing his thang.  He's silly.  A 72 year old fart, masquerading as a 12 year old.  Oh, and he's lost 40 lbs since that pic was taken.  I'm so proud of him!  Sadly, I found most of that poundage.  Damn this middle-aged business!!

3.  I have two useless Master's Degrees.  I earned them in 2 years.  Yep, over-achiever all the way.  See note about my Mom.  I went to a small, Presbyterian liberal arts college called Alma College.  I may be unemployed, but I can take on any topic at a cocktail party.  I loved Alma.  Still do.  If anything horrid were to happen to my DH, I'd move back to AC in a heart beat.

My B.A. is Environmental Education~~Majors in Nat. Sci (a group major so I had to take 2 more classes than a plain 'ol major) and El. Ed, and minors in Sociology and 2ndary Ed..  See note about my Mom.

4.  I love to organize stuff.  Big events.  The bigger the better.  Just do what I tell you to do, and it will work out fine is my organizing philosophy.  Committees usually suck (which is blasphemous for a Presbyterian to say, we invented the evil things.  Sort of a self-abuse thing we do),  so I try to avoid them at all costs.  By the by, my next really Big Event is Whitehouse Winterfest in Feb.. Oh, yeah, you'll be hearing a lot about that.

5.  Crap.  Can't think of anything else.  Oh, yeah, there is that ranger business, but I'm not s'posed to write about that.  Hells bells.

I'm so freakin' iconographic.

Well, there you have it.  And last but not least, I'm the World's Laziest Birder.

You're it.

The Real Me

You didn't ask for it, but here it is: The Real Me. Photo by Karen Berger, AW Mirror






Presenting the Golden Sled Trophy

Photo by Tom Duvendack

Whitehouse Winterfest!

I haven't written much about this, but wow did we have fun.

I've thought for a long time that Whitehouse should have wacky cardboard sled races. We have one of 5, yep, count 'em, 5 sledding hills in NW Ohio. It's so flat around here you can actually count the hills. Scary, eh? And our hill is the tallest with a steep side and a bunny hill side. Anywho, a couple of months ago, I mentioned this to the Community Development person from the Village. We've done several other events together. She said that she was trying to come up with a winter "thing" in the Village, and voila, Winterfest was born. We brainstormed ideas and came up with the sled races, snowball throwing, snowman and angel making, a 5K, food booths, music, carriage rides, and on and on. Yesterday, we made it happen. (Yeah, baby, Barb and I are a force to be reckoned with.)

When we were choosing a date, I did a little research and found that the coldest two weeks here are the last two of January, but the snowiest are the first two weeks of February. Lo and behold, the Farmers Almanac said we would have a big storm before Valentine's Day and one after. And did we ever. This is very, very unusual for around there, but in town there's 12 inches of snow on the ground. When we thought this up, Barb and I fretted that we wouldn't have any snow. We did have back up plans, but yesterday was quite literally the best weather day we've had this winter. I could go an and on. And on and on. So this post is really a shout out to me. How's that for hubris????



DH took most of these photos, and I put them together with iMovie. Love my Mac. We only had 4 sleds pre-registered, so being afraid that no one else would show, I made one for my great-nephew, Lil Ripper, and one for the Glass City Rollers. But holy cow, some of the thirty that showed up simply rocked the house. We have more great ideas for next year, including a pre-race Sled Show and Judging, and lots more. So y'all come on out!

(Okay, I will tell you which one was my favorite, but I didn't figure it out until today--the Cherry Bombers. They had a "pie pan" for sled, the girls wore red jackets and had red balloons in the sled with them, and on their helmets, they put red covered with criss-crossed masking tape to look like a cherry pie lattice top. Get it? They were a cherry pie! Too creative! Tom's favorite was the Hillside Harley--the 'dashboard' inside was hilarious! And those chickens didn't want to got down the steep side of the hill with the rest of the grown ups. Next year, we'll let grown ups go down the bunny hill, too.)