Flat-Emma Makes it to West Virginia & Back!

Meet "Flat-Emma" and her amazing traveling envelope. Both were part of a fun geography experiment that the Colfax third-graders tried.

Each child created a cut-out version of herself and mailed it to someone in another state. Emma decided to mail the paper Emma to Susan.

Flat-Emma came back via the school mail yesterday. She arrived with a nicely typed letter from Susan, describing their adventures during her stay in West Virginia. Also included was a thick packet of pictures showing Susan and Jay with Flat-Emma.

The letter and pictures were so nice and so descriptive of Susan's life these days that I thought it'd be fun to include them here on this blog... so we all can spend a little time with Susan. So (with her permission), here are excerpts from Susan's letter:

Dear Emma,

I am currently in my last year of school, which means I'm going to graduate in May! I'm very excited about that! And during this last year of school, instead of going to class I do this thing called 'rotations'. Basically all that means is that I go to clinics and hospitals, and learn what I am going to do after I graduate.

For the past month, I've been doing my OB/GYN rotation, which is taking care of women, a lot of whom are pregnant. It has been really fun and different from anything I've ever done before.

I'm doing this rotation at a clinic called the New River Health Clinic. What is special about this doctor's office is that it operates on a system called "sliding scale". This means that people without health insurance can come and get seen by medical providers for really cheap, sometimes even free, depending on how much money they make.

New River is an awesome institution, it provides many services to the area, including some surgical procedures and even dentistry at a decreased price for many people. Everyone who works there is super nice, professional, and incredibly smart.

Now that I've caught you up on what I do everyday for work and school, I'll tell you more about what we do for fun around here. When the weather is nice, we like to go out to the state parks. We took Flat-Emma out to two of them while she was with me. First, my boyfriend Jay and I took Flat-Emma to Grandview State Park. You might remember when you came to visit a few years ago before Leila was born, we all went there together! Grandview has beautiful overlooks of the mountains. It has many trails to hike, some easy for the whole family, and some more difficult ones that unsuspecting Wisconsin folk sometimes still take the whole family on [sad by true-- I'll vouch for that!].

It also has an outdoor ampitheater where it holds plays every summer. This summer they showed Honey in the Rock, the Hatfields and McCoys, and Highschool Musical. It is a very peaceful place to go when it isn't crowded. They have good secluded areas where you can just sit and read a book. While we were there, we took advantage of said opportunity. Not to mention, Flat-Emma got a little rowdy, climbing trees and playing in the dense forest [Corniness-- love it!].



We concluded that day of fun with a trip to Cheap Thrills, where Jay works. Cheap Thrills is a locally owned record store. It's a cool place to hangout and chill out. They sell lots of used CDs, DVDs, and other various musical supplies there. That night, our friend Mitch was working. He's a very interesting guy and fits in well there, although he seemed a little confused with Flat-Emma.

Another thing we like to do around here is go to antique stores. There are lots of them around. We enjoy sifting through the junk to find cool treasures. One of the things we found on this particular visit was a very old-fashioned otoscope, used to look into people's ears. It was very cool. We also found a bit of blue-and-white dishes that reminded me of your mom :).

After we went to the antique store, we ate at this awesome restaurant called Pies and Pints. They have the best pizza in West Virginia (in my opinion). We had a great time with Flat-Emma, and plus, she's a cheap date since she doesn't eat very much.

One more thing that I would like to include in this letter is a new hobby that I've acquired. I haven't quite mastered it, but I've gotten into making bead jewelry. My favorite thing to make is bracelets, so I thought that I would include one of my original creations for you to wear after you receive this letter. You might want to hang onto it, it may be worth something someday :).

[Bracelet pictured at right].

Thanks for sending Flat-Emma to me! I had a really great time taking her around with me and showing her what I do. I hope that sometime soon you can come and visit again so that we can do all the things that Flat-Emma and I did! I miss you a bunch and can't wait to see you at Christmas. I love you!

Your sister,

Susan

Now that's a pretty nice letter, isn't it?

I told Susan that the exchange had me feeling like we met Jay. It was fun seeing him try to keep track of Flat-Emma during all her crazy escapades. In fact, I suspect Flat-Emma may be rather smitten with Jay. She said he's very handsome (some might even say "hansive").

So what else has been going on around here? Well, Friday we had something like a blizzard.

There was no wind or cold temperature (not much like a blizzard, huh?), but lots of heavy, wet snow within a fairly short amount of time... I'd say 4-6 inches. By the time the kids got out of school, the roads were bad enough that their busdriver didn't even try making it up our big hill. Instead, he dropped all the kids living on our part of the road off at the bottom of the hill.


None of the kids were wearing boots that day... but at least my kids had pants and regular shoes on! One neighbor boy was wearing shorts, while a neighbor girl wore crocs (very flimsy shoes) without socks.

But the neighborhood kids have gotten to be friends, and I think all enjoyed the camaraderie and novelty of walking up the hill together through the thick and unexpected snow.

They made a bee-line to our house, to tell us all about it.

After warming up a little, it was back outside... for the requisite snowball fight. It looked awfully fun out there, so I bundled Leila up to see what she thought of all that white stuff (she seems to have mixed feelings about it... so do I).

Jon's home on Fridays, so he was there when the kids came home. I thought I'd make a quick run to the store to pick up the few things we were missing for our Harvest Party on Saturday.

I didn't get far before realizing that it was a mistake to leave the house. The roads were unplowed and my car doesn't have 4-wheel drive, so I had to be very careful not to get stuck or slide off the road. Also, many of the trees still have their leaves, so all that heavy snow really weighed them down. Trees bent low to the ground and big branches began to snap off and fall into the road.

I debated whether or not to turn around, but decided since I'd come that far I might as well finish my trip to town. With a little luck and effort I made it there okay, but along the way I passed four cars that hadn't made it and wound up in the ditch. I didn't dare stop because I was pretty sure I'd get stuck too if I didn't keep the momentum going (no one was in the cars anyway, as far as I could tell!).

It seemed kind of ironic, but the next day Jon had to plow our driveway and instruct Michael to shovel off the picnic table so we could have our Harvest party.

Some of the neighbors and I had come up with the idea for a Harvest party during an apple cider-making session we had in September. It was such a good time-- scavenging bruised apples off the ground with the kids, learning how to turn nature's apparent discards into a delicious drink (with patience, elbow grease, and the help of a good cider press). We talked about having an neighborhood bonfire later in the fall, with a potluck meal that would showcase the things we'd been growing in our gardens.

I offered to have it at our house. And with the exception of all the wet snow we were hit with the day before the party, things went as planned.

The food was great! We had all sorts of pickles, breads, and pies to try (interesting combinations, too, like wild apricot and raspberry pie). There was squash, cabbage, green bean, corn, and other veggie dishes-- all things we'd grown. For meat I made a sauerbraten out of venison and beef. The venison was from a deer Jon'd shot on our land last hunting season; the beef was from one of Johnne's cows, raised just up the hill from us. There were also beef sticks, pumpkin seeds, and salsas to munch on.

We ate indoors but moved outside to the bonfire after dark. The kids roasted marshmallows and caramels (heated on a stick till they're soft, then pulled into a sandwich between two salty Ritz crackers-- a trick we learned at Girl Scout camp). There were scary stories for the kids.

Michael inexplicably played his bassoon for everyone.

The next day we visited Jon's parents, hauling along some of the left-overs to share.

By the way... there's a cute story behind the outfit Leila's wearing, at left.

Jane had found this little Scottish-looking plaid outfit at a thrift sale, I think, and gave it to us when Leila was much smaller. I had it stored in a drawer in her room and must admit I had kind of forgotten it.

The day of the visit I rummaged through Leila's closet, looking for something she could wear. I heard Leila open the drawer of the nearby dresser. Then little footsteps pattered down the hall.

"What's she up to?" I wondered. I turned in time to see her running down the hallway, wearing nothing at all but that little plaid hat on her head (she'd just had a bath so was bare-bottomed).

It was so dang cute that I decided to take it as a sign that she should wear the plaid outfit to Grandma's that day.

Well, I'll close on that note. Hope everyone has a safe and spooky Halloween! And thanks, Susan, for letting Flat-Emma (and us) take a peek into your life!