Wednesday, December 10, 2014

Dear Ann Eliza

Dear Ann Eliza,

Hello, my friend! I hope this letter finds you well. I am to the understanding that you are interested in learning about how we communicate here in the future. I assure you that things are very different from how they are in your time.

Communication is much more accessible now. We carry cell phones (A device where you are able to speak to someone who can be in any location, not just right next to you!) around with us every day. At least a lot of us do. On these cell phones you can call (by which I mean speak to your friends and family members), text and do a variety of different things. Texting is sending a written message, much like a letter, to the intended receivers phone. It is a glorious thing!

Another thing we like to do on our cell phones that can also be accessed from a computer (a computer is a pretty complex thing to understand. It is a device that in a sense has a brain, but is not alive. I assure you it is not as scary as it sounds!) is socialize on social media. Social media has many different categories. Sites like Instagram are mainly for showing photographs of pretty much anything. Children, the weather, anything. The point is to share a little bit of your day with friends and even people you may not know.

Twitter involves short posts. A great post would be 
“Minnesota Problems ‏@MNproblems  23m23 minutes ago. Have a minnow shot at a bar on a lake! http://kare11.tv/1aUMir4  via @kare1.”

 The gibberish would be the website that the news article can be read at, just to clarify, since you have not experienced the joy that is “the internet.” The main disadvantage to Twitter is the limitation of the lengths of posts. I have also noticed a lot of advertising on Twitter lately. This is frustrating to me. It is nice to scan your Twitter feed with everyone else’s posts. You can get little laughs, or find out news information. Although, it’s never a good idea to 100% trust the internet.

Facebook is my personal favorite form of social media. You can post pictures, links, songs, pretty much anything. You can post all this stuff to Twitter as well, but you have a space limit. On Facebook you can just let the words flow. You can share this information with whomever you choose by adding people as your friend, or denying them if you do not want them to be your friend. This is one of the best ways, in my opinion, to keep in contact with people. You do not have to talk to them every day to actually know how they are doing, see pictures of their children (this might be nice for you will all of your step-kids) and maybe even get to know them a little better than you already do. Another nice thing about Facebook is you can share exactly what you want. Give direct information, just jokes, or anything you feel is the best. I think Facebook is the most open of all social media as you can pretty much do whatever you want.

One annoying thing about Facebook is that they constantly change things around. Once you figure everything out, it changes again. It’s almost like the weather in Minnesota.

Blogs are another great form of social media. It is basically a public diary. You can write whatever you feel on your blog and post it publicly. There are endless kinds of different blogs. Parenting blogs, gardening blogs. Anything that can be done can be blogged about. I have a blog about my son who was born prematurely. It is our story and all the hurdles he overcame. I also have a blog I had to use for Jocelyn’s class. They are really a great form of social media. The great thing about blogs is that you can document your life. It can be shared publicly or kept private. Blogs are generally longer, meetier posts. If you are reading someone else’s blog, be prepared to get sucked into a time consuming hobby! Even writing blogs takes a lot of time and can be very personal. We don’t always want to share that much of our private lives.

In ways I would say that you are missing out on not being able to experience life as we have it now (washing machines are really amazing!), but in ways I think we are the ones missing out. Back in your time, you had to really go out of your way to spend time with someone. You had to really put forth effort to communicate. Now, we can call someone with a flick of our finger, or a few finger taps to shoot off a text. There is nearly no heart behind most communication. We take for granted face-to-face and even phone conversations.

 That being said, I can’t say you would feel less lonely. We are surrounded by people and easy access to conversation, yet most of that is empty. It’s a like on a picture, or a “Lookin’ good” comment on Facebook. We don’t actually invest. It’s the sad truth.


 In general, I would just say enjoy your letter conversations and face-to-face endeavors. We take those things for granted these days and it should be cherished by as many generations as possible. 

Monday, November 3, 2014

Holiday Catering Specials at Meg & Matt's

Are you ready for the Holidays? Having a lot of people over for Thanksgiving or Christmas and worried about what to feed them all? We have a solution for you! Meg & Matt’s caters! We will cater all or just some of your holiday meal. Got the side dishes taken care of already? We can provide the Turkey, Ham or even Turduckin for your next family get together! We will provide just what you want! With a variety of options to order, Meg & Matt’s can provide you a home cooked meal in a low stress way at a reasonable cost. Let us take care of the kitchen work so you can enjoy your holiday!

On top of all of our regular meal options which are always available to be catered we also offer holiday specific menu planning items.

Our meat menu options include:

  •        Turkey (Roasted whole, roasted pieces and/or shredded)

  • ·         Roast or shredded Beef
    ·         Ham (A variety of seasonings and glazes available)
    ·         Turduckin
    ·         Roast or shredded Chicken

Our side dish menu of all homemade items includes the following options:
  • ·         Green Beans
  • ·         Green Bean Casserole
  • ·         Potatoes (Mashed with gravy, scalloped, Cheesy or baked)
    ·         Homemade buns (Sold by the half dozen for those ordering smaller amounts)
    ·         Squash
    ·         Stuffing
    ·         Gravy
    
We also have a variety of dessert options ranging from traditional, to just plain tasty!

Desserts:
  • ·         Apple Pie
  •              Pumkin Pie
  •         Peacan Pie
  • ·         Turtle Cheesecake
    ·         Homemade Ice cream
    ·         *New* Chocolate Brownie Supreme
    ·         *New* Pretzel Carmel Delight
    ·         *New* Apple cheese cake bars

All of our catered food will be delivered inside of size appropriate crock pots or roasters to keep your meal hot and ready to eat! We also provide serving spoons for your convenience.

For your holiday meal, we provide all of the cooking supplies. We can even supply the serving supplies at a low cost if requested!

Meal cost is only $7.50 per plate with one meat, two sides and a homemade bun. For a two meal tray, the cost is reasonably kept at $9.50 per plate including two sides and a homemade bun.

Interested in only ordering meat? Or sides? Flexible options are available for what you order! Any combination of the food offered is available per your liking! We are here to make your holiday a memorable experience without all of the stress!

Need space to feed all of your family, with or without catered food? Meg & Matt’s back room is available for rent at a low cost. We can even supply a cash bar stocked with Coke and Pepsi products as well as a variety of alcoholic options.

 Please call at least one week prior to the holiday in order for us to best meet your needs. Our top priority is delivering products that you desire promptly and deliciously. Giving us notice helps us do that.


Consider including Meg & Matt’s in your holiday celebrations! Give us your “to-do list” and let us do all the grocery shopping, prep work, and cooking for you! We are here to help with whatever services you desire for the holidays!

Monday, October 20, 2014

Meg and Matt's Place

     A few weeks back my boyfriend and I tossed around the idea of opening our own bar. He has bar-tending experience, I have bar-tending experience (thanks to him helping me get the job), and we have both always wanted to own our own restaurant. I'm not sure if this dream will ever become a reality, but I would love to have it come true. I loved working in the bar/service industry and have had many customers compliment me on my service with a smile.

     Back story aside, welcome to the world of Meg and Matt's! Family atmosphere by day, small town hang out by night, we are here to cater to the needs of any customer. Our lunch and dinner specials are different each day, but we try to keep the specials consistent weekly. Monday come and enjoy our burger special where all burgers are $1.50 off! Fridays starting in January we have a Fish Fry fundraiser for a local charity. Saturday's dinner special is a free kids meal with a paying adult meal. Sunday's during football season we have game day specials that vary weekly. Call ahead to see what we have going on! We also have Bike Nights all summer long on Monday's. Bike Night specials include raffles for great prizes like Meg and Matt's gift cards, Twins jerseys and a cash prize of $150 at the end of the summer. We also provide a complimentary pop of your choice for all bikers on Bike night.

     Safety is incredibly important to us here at Meg and Matt's! We provide a complimentary can of pop to all sober cabs. If your group plans on staying a while, we appreciate the business and will keep your sober cab from going thirsty on the house.

     Every weekend we have different kinds of entertainment including bands, DJ's and karaoke nights. This coming Friday is Ladies night. $.50 off all drinks for ladies over 21 starting at 8pm. The local band Starstruck will be playing from 8pm-1am. Saturday, we have karaoke with our very own, Chad. Free to all our customers, karaoke is always a great time!

     At Meg and Matt's our philosophy is to have the best customer service around. We try to do that for our customers by having a wide variety of food, pop and alcoholic choices. With over 12 different kinds of canned pop on stock at all times as well as the best alcohol variety in the county, we are here to give you exactly what you are looking for! Our service is also a top priority here! Our customers are the focus of our business and poor service won't be found here. We keep Meg and Matt's well staffed to ensure low wait times and prompt service with a smile.

     We have off-sale available with the full selection we have on our shelves. Please keep in mind we have a duty to follow all state laws regarding all services provided, this includes legal age to buy alcohol and days and times allowed to sell off sale. We thank you for understanding.

     We also cater for events ranging from 20-250 people. Our back room is also available for rent at a low fee! Ask any staff member for details.

     We look forward to seeing you soon!

Tuesday, October 14, 2014

The Journey

     The last two weeks have been interesting to say the least. It's been this massive uphill journey with a happy ending and more happiness to come. I have learned more than I thought possible, and cried more than I ever have in a short period of time.

     On October 1st, I went into preterm labor. I was 31 weeks 2 days. My hospital is only Neonatal Care rated to care for babies born after 32 weeks. Some babies born before can be cared for there, some born after need more help than they can offer, but that is the guideline. Because of this, I had to get transferred to Abbott in Minneapolis while on a wonderful drug called Magnesium Sulfate. 

     Magnesium sulfate (or Mag) is some of the worst hell I have ever been through in so many ways. It's like being drunk and hung over at the same time. Head ache, nausea, dizziness, blurred vision, I would even have what I called "episodes." An episode was when I could no longer control myself on over the drug and it would do what it wanted to me. I remember one episode, my boyfriend Matt was watching the Vikings/Packers game and I just started shaking. I had a chill. I couldn't open my eyes because any light hurt my head ache. My body hurt. My ability to control what I said was gone. I apparently was talking to him but I was slurring my words so he didn't know what I was saying. This lasted for 5 hours.

  Finally, on Saturday the 4th, I was discharged on bed rest. I was so excited to get my older boys back on Sunday morning I didn't care what restrictions I was on. I just was happy to be home. Sunday morning when I got up to get ready to get my kids, I realized I was bleeding and contracting again. My labor was back on. 

 Sunday morning I got admitted into my hospital. I was put back on Mag. I sat there until Wednesday and continually was given different answers. "You're going home tomorrow." "Never mind." "You might just go into labor with these drugs anyway." "Never mind." No restrictions except pretty strict bed rest and those hospital beds suck.

All night Tuesday and part of the day Wednesday I was somewhat lying to the nurses. I was contracting, and I was having them give me Tylenol for the pain from them. I told them it was for a headache. I was set on busting out of that place to see my kids. The nurses could see my contractions on the monitor but they couldn't see me fighting them in my room by myself. I didn't care if I had to come back, I just wanted out.

 The whole thing was so frustrating! I was missing my kids and feeling like a failure, but a half hour before I was finally going to be discharged on Wednesday the 8th, my water broke. Suddenly, the bitch who had been cooped up eating hospital food and not allowed to leave the bed aside from going to the bathroom was incredibly happy! I called Matt and told him to get his ass to Waconia, he was going to be a daddy. Then I called my nurse. Order of importance here. 

 At 7:42 pm, three hours after my water broke, my little angel was born a healthy 5 pounds 2 ounces, and 18 inches long. They were expecting a closer to 3 and a half pound 16.5-17 incher. He was always able to breathe on his own but needed a little help keeping pressure in his lungs for the first 12 hours. Since then he has been breathing entirely on his own. 

 When I saw him yesterday, he was almost back up to birth weight, coming off of the iv fluids that give him some of his nutrition, got taken off the incubator because he is warm enough on his own to have clothes and blankets on, AND he nursed for the first time! These are all incredible steps towards coming home. I can't wait! 

 This whole process has been an emotional journey. I've gone to crazy, psycho, pregnant bitch to happy "I love my baby, I'm so blessed" mom, to "I'm a failure, I couldn't even stay pregnant, now I can't breastfeed. I am a failure to my son." to "I can do this! If my son can grow and be strong after being born so early, I can stay strong for him and his brothers. I can do this. Before I know it, he will be home." This journey has not been an easy one, and it will not get any easier. This process will have more destinations, some that I wouldn't mind staying at, some that I will wish I never stopped at in the first place. Until then, I will have the most beautiful little family even if we are separated. I am so incredibly blessed!

Jack Mathew Schlueter
Born October 8th
7:42 pm
5 pounds 2 ounces
18 inches long
7 weeks 5 days premature



Monday, September 29, 2014

The Curse of the Lego War Zone

     I love my children. I do. They are the most important thing in my life. As fantastic as they may be, they can be just as trying. This is especially true in the days immediately after getting them back from being at their dads house. An example of this would be my nearly 5 year old waking up 3 times in 3 hours. My thoughts immediately drift into "why won't you just SLEEP?! Am I the only one in this house who is incredibly tired? No? Apparently not..." After then, the 2 year old wakes up and the cycle continues. This is merely the beginning of my struggles so far this week.

     My sons are die hard Lego fans. They build extravagant buildings, (one they refuse to take apart is called the "library") take apart their mini-figures and make new characters such as Ninja turtle Spider-man, they even build personalized race-cars to race around my house. That being said, their creativity knows absolutely no bounds. It simply cannot be contained! For instance, it must spill out on the floor instead of staying inside of the Lego Star Wars case. It most definitely cannot stay simply on the table! The creativity must overflow onto the floor, all of the chairs and even in the walk ways surrounding the dining area. It also, most definitely cannot be put back into said Lego Star Wars case upon the completion of the creative moment.

     Do not be mislead, I love Lego! Building with Lego has many brain stimulating and educational benefits! Lego bricks create an excellent pass time that encourages imagination, creativity, independent thinking among other things. It also creates a war zone on your floor similar to having a million minuscule IED's waiting for you to step on them in order to reek havoc upon the feet of unsuspecting parents. If you have ever stepped on one I'm sure you will agree with me. 

     Not only is this grand pile of Lego bricks parading across my dining or living room slightly concerning to my poor feet, but the mere sight of it alone causes my anxiety to rise! Millions of Lego bricks scattered everywhere, and I mean everywhere. It makes my house look like a disaster! That is why the minute they are finished playing I open my mouth and ask for them to get onto the clean-up portion of playtime. They are great about picking up their toys, usually never a real problem. Maybe a round of "I don't wanna"s may come from their tiny little mouths but generally the battle is quickly won. Mom: 1, Children: 0. When it comes to picking up their land mines, though, they are incredibly hesitant. Hesitant is not even the right word. More defiant than the most stubborn of mule's sounds pretty spot on.

     Despite the stubbornness and inability to tidy up, I still continue to buy them more Lego sets. Perhaps I enjoy torturing myself?

     Don't mind me as I pretend to open a glass of wine and quietly sip away the head aches for today while I enjoy listening to them play together. This is what makes it all worth it in the end.

Accept what life offers you and try to drink from every cup. All wines should be tasted; some should only be sipped, but with others, drink the whole bottle.” 
― Paulo CoelhoBrida

Wednesday, September 17, 2014

What if?

     Ever wonder how different life would be had you made different choices? You know, the "what if" game. Granted, it can be incredibly depressing, and it is unproductive, but, what if?

     What if you had taken that chance? What if you had let go sooner? What if you had not done what you did? How different would life be?

     Because I got pregnant so young people often ask me if I regret putting myself in that position. I always answer "no." Thought I would never trade being a mom, I do wish I could provide for him how an older mother would be able to. I wish I was not in school for 3 of his 4 and a half years of life. I wish I made more money but I most definitely do not regret having him. I feel guilty even playing the "what if" game when it comes to my children.

     I do have major what if moments I often consider, though. What if I had never married my ex? What if I would have left him after our second son was born when I was starting to see the path things were going down? What if I had not met Matt when I did? Would I have still had the strength to get out of a bad relationship even when I had absolutely no support from my family? What if I would not have gotten pregnant so early in Matt and my relationship? How different would things have turned out?

     It is interesting to consider. In ways, it can be like rewinding the "movie" of your life and rewriting the ending. The question I have is, is it a happy ending? Do the past possible alternatives really come to a better final destination than the choices that were already made?

     Food for thought.

Tuesday, September 2, 2014

An Aristotelian Analysis of a Video

Upon hearing about this assignment a video came to my mind that I have watched a few times in the last few years. As a heads up, the link to the video is here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xJHt-m3VX6o
One reason this video seemed like a good fit is that it has a clear message, it's understandable and incredibly relate-able for me. I was homeschooled until my senior year when I went to an online High School.

The guy who is sending the message in this video graduated from being homeschooled. He seems like a guy who would be fun to talk with because of the way he presents himself and his sense of humor.

 His credibility is established by showing how he went through the issues that he brings up in the video. These are common problems for homeschooled students as I also had all of these issues brought up to me regularly. Those of us who have also been homeschooled can relate to these experiences which proves that he actually does know what he is talking about. On top of his personal experience in this area, he leads us to believe what he says is true from his delivery method.

The audience for this video is slightly varied. The main point of this video is education and comedy. He is trying to communicate that these common misconceptions are not necessarily true for students who may know homeschool kids, parents looking into homeschooling and for parents and students who are a part of the homeschool community. I believe that is why he not only presents the facts but he does so in a humorous way.

This video is just a portion of the negativity towards the homeschool community. As much as I wanted to go to public school in High School (I was not allowed), I did thoroughly enjoy Homeschooling. My teachers at BlueSky (my online High School) said that most often Homeschool students and young moms were their best students. I was both.

 But, back on point. People do not understand what Homeschooling is all about. The whole "real school" term is not only demeaning to the work that students do daily, it is uneducated. Education is education. The location of such is irrelevant. Homeschooling is a legal way to educate your children, and is a right to American parents. I feel that it should be honored as such, even though it currently is not in many cases.

 This is one of the many reasons that I like this video! The creator uses facts and his experience to appeal to the audiences. His demeanor shows that he is clearly not shy or anti-social and that alone debunks the classic line of "you must not be socialized." For us homeschooler's who are watching, he connects with us with the emotions we encountered on a regular basis. We were all assumed to be shy, anti-social or not socially "normal" (whatever that means!), and told we should go to regular school. He presents his facts in a logical order and gives, though humorous, examples of these situations. This also establishes his credibility. If someone who had never been homeschooled would have made a video for their friend who was, this would prove nothing. The pizzazz would not be there and credibility would be lost.

 My question for you as the reader is if you could relate to being on the other side of any of these situations? No judgement or accusations here, but I am curious if you have even thought of some of these scenarios.