No study?

Someone asked what it was like not to have a study. I really don't know. Because I am a perpetual learner I feel like I am still in school

Writing
I have been writing, working on my book.

Reading
I have also decided to think about writing a children's novel. To do this I am reading every Newbury Award winning book that I can find-including the honor books. I have read 9 since school ended November 1st. I just went to the library and checked out 9 more. I was also given a book by the curator of the TW Woods, Joyce Mandeville. She wrote "Glory Days" and gave me a copy. I read it on the way home from Vermont.

Other Learning Adventures....
I put down a new floor in my living room, kitchen and dinning room. Though construction work is not new to me I always learn doing it.

I am taking a class in Belly Dancing!

YOUR LOAN IS PAST DUE?

Boy, no sooner did I get the exit counseling done and I get a notice from my lender saying that my loan is past due. I thought it was not due until January. Time to get on the phone with them, again and get everything straight.

Exit counseling

Today I received a letter saying that I had to go to this web site http://mapping-your future.org. and go through the process of exit counseling. I think they want me to understand my responsibilities of my loans. This is then sent to the school for verification. My loans now need to be repaid. I do have 6 months to become a partime student to have that deferment.

Van trapp lodge

Mike, Chris and I took a trip up to the Van trapp lodge to eat lunch. http://www.trappvillas.com

Our trip to Ben and Jerry's

Mike and Chris and I stop at Ben and Jerry's. Such tourists!

Leaving campus

Packing up!

Take good care of this room. It is the best! I'll be back for the MA. OF course I will want room 131!

Chris and I have our last meal in the school cafeteria

So long Dewey Hall, Vermont College!

More photographs of graduation

I was waiting on my daughter to send her photographs. Now that I have them let me post a few.

The pregraduates wait in the side room

While on stage we wait patiently for the conferral of the degree or "the magic words"


don't forget to change the tassle,one side to the other!

I could not help myself, I just kept on smiling!



Two chairs were left empty in memory of our beloved instructors Charlotte Hasting, and Dick Hathaway






The bagpipes play us out and down to the reception downstairs






My chickee girls at the party!


These are pictures of our after party, After a toast, we all grab hands and dance around the table.


BE SURE TO SCROLL DOWN TO THE OTHER POSTS OF GRADUATION AND TO SEE MORE PHOTOGRAPHS! Look for the post
FALL RESIDENCY - 2006- Wednesday-TODAY IS THE DAY!

A reception in Houston for Union Institute?

( Photo of Dr. McKinley and Sculptor Bridgette Mongeon)
A week after graduation and I participated in my first Union Institute & University Alumnae, Alumni, Learners, Faculty and Friends gathering here in Houston. It was wonderful. Besides meeting other people from undergraduate learners to those who have graduated with their PhD’s. I spoke with Union Institute and University president, Roger Sublett. We shared Dick Hathaway stories. Michael D. McKinley, Associate Vice President for Alumni Relations and Advancement and I talked about writing an article for the Alumni newsletter on the Hathaway Project. I was also excited to meet Larry Preston; I believe his title is the Dean of Doctorate studies. I was very interested in asking him if it is at all possible to either skip the masters and proceed right to the doctorate or combine the two. He gave me some names of people to work with concerning this. I would really like to try and do this, I am afraid that by the time I get through the process I could have obtained the masters. As of this date I have decided to proceed with both.

I hope they have more of these gatherings. There is just not enough outside communication in this program. Thank you to Debrah Hall, M.Ed, Ph.D. learner Chair, learner council and Neal Sarahan, Ph.D. for putting on this reception at their incredible Monarch school. The people associated with this University are some of the most interesting people I have ever met.

I asked some questions like-
Can we get more communication between students and even alumni online? I don’t know why this seems to stump people. There is a web site; it seems simple to set up a forum for the site. Spoken as a wife of someone into IT. I also want to know if it is possible to keep my library membership. As I have said before the Gary Library is an incredible resource. I hate to lose it because I have graduated. Many alum from other colleges have these privileges. I wish Union Institute offered it to us.

My goal is to learn more about alumni and the alumni relations add that to my list of things to do. I want to know how I can help and what is available. I’ll keep you posted.

More details on an MA at Vermont College Union Institute

Here is more information about MA program at Vermont College Union Institute and University.

You can apply and if you need to wait you can defer up to a year. So if I apply in April, but find I can’t start until October that is fine.

You only pay for what you are taking in the MA program. I have entertained the idea of starting in April with a light load, maybe 6 credit hours. My daughter is getting married in October and I have many things I would like to get done between now and then, including getting this book published.

Also there is an online application. You do need to set up an account and you can save the application. PLEASE NOTE- the paper application states that you only need two reference letters, and three if you are applying for MA in psychology. That is not the case when you are online. You need three for both.

Already?

I can't believe I am home for less than a week and I am filling in the application for the Masters Program. I have decided to apply at Vermont College MA, not the MFA. I really want to focus on art and creativity. I'll let you know how it goes. I still have my heart set on skipping the MA and going to the PHD. I am just not sure I can find the perfect school for me to do that. So in the meantime I am going to apply to Vermont College Union Instutite MA program.

So far I have
Printed out application
Requested two letters of recommendation
asked more questions to admissions
and am trying to reach two students from the program to talk things over with. Admissions was nice enough to have two contact me, one in creativity and one in writing.


ONWARD

Great News!

I just received a call from the TW Woods gallery in Vermont. They are going to be the keepers of the Dick Hathaway sculpture ( see www.dickhathaway.blogspot.com) I need 9,000 to finish the sculpture. I received 400. while in Vermont and an anonymous donor is donating an additional 3,500. We are almost half way there. Dick Hathaway will soon be home.

Fall Residency 2006- Sunday- Leaving Vermont

I hated packing up and leaving, but we did have to get back to our work and our lives in Houston, Texas. On the way to the airport we took a detour to Winooski and Francis Xavier Cemetery. It seems appropriate that my study at Vermont College was on my book that I am writing “Bringing to Life the Spirit of the Deceased-A Sculptor’s Journey.” And now my last very cold day is spent in the cemetery. My alma mater is not the only thing in Vermont, my genealogy and roots are there. This is the gravesite of my grandmother, grandfather, and great grandmother and grandfather. I loved walking in this old cemetery and looking at the gravestones most of them in French, and there were many Mongeon’s.

Mike and I ate lunch on lake Champlain, left overs that we needed to eat up. Then it was the long flight home. The luggage followed us two days later. Good thing we were going home and didn’t need it. I however really wanted to look at the diploma one more time. I have watched my daughter’s video at least twice and laughed and cried both times. The Dean had said “rights and responsibilities” that were bestowed on us with the degree. “What responsibilities?” I suppose it is as our speaker said, “come fly with me,” That is what we pass on, the knowledge of how to learn to fly. That is what this entire web site is about, being a perpetual learner and sharing with others how to do the same.

Fall Residency 2006- Saturday- HIKE-UP!

We wanted to hike as high as we could so we asked about smugglers notch. We would have picked somewhere else, but decided it was not that safe being it was the first day of youth hunting day. I can imagine, give a bunch of teenagers guns and send them into the woods. And me with my leather jacket looking much like a deer. The owners of the resort gave me a beautiful bright orange vest. There was a part of me that wondered if it was really youth hunting day or if they were trying to single out the city woman to see if she would ware such a vest. I wore it.













Apparently the notch is where the road is closed and it received its name because of the history of smuggling of booze through the area.

We were told we could drive up as far as we could and then park. There was an area to sign in, I guess so they could tell if you came down from the mountain. I signed in but was unsure what to put as my destination, so I wrote “UP!” It was a beautiful walk up the mountain road; we were told it was a mile. i loved the streams coming down the mountain with the frozen drips of ice. Though there was no snow when we parked we quickly found ourselves walking into a snowy wonderland, and at the top there was quite a bit of ice and snow on the road, along with what appeared to be mud and rocks from falling rocks.

We met some ice climbers from Canada. I hear that is a very big sport. To me trying to climb melting ice is not my idea of a safe and good time. It was a great day of hiking. Wish we could have gone to the top. The bottom picture shows the top of this mountain that we were on, from a distance of course.

Fall Residency 2006- Thursday- TIME TO LEAVE CAMPUS!

More pictures to come!
There is a funny feeling about leaving the Vermont Campus. I have such a desire to stay. Maybe I’ll come back for my Masters. My daughter, Chris, leaves Vermont today so we decided to take a drive up toward Stow. Stow is just a bit north off highway 89 between Montpelier and Burlington. When passing the Ben and Jerry’s factory on highway 100 http://www.trappfamily.com/ it was a must see for Chris. Then we drove up toward Moscow to the Von Trapp lodge http://www.trappvillas.com/ Yes, it is true. The same family portrayed in The Sound of Music. I heard that Maria ate lunch there the day before we arrived. We could not eat lunch at the lodge instead we ate at the gift shop. The lodge is open for dinner and breakfast. It was great to see this place, a bit difficult to get to, but worth the endeavor.










Chris went back to Burlington airport and Mike and I tried to figure out how to get to our cabin. We could travel up 100 and then 108, which for all intended purposes is quicker, but if you notice the yellow highlight area on the map, over 108, just north of the little red sky figures, is highlighted it is because the road is closed during the winter season, and even though it is only November 2nd, it was closed, so we had to go around the mountain to the other side. ( click on the map to enlarge) Our cabin was just outside of Jeffersonville. I would highly recommend Sterling Ridge Resort. http://www.vermont-cabins.com/ Our cabin had a Jacuzzi tub and fireplace, a full kitchen with all of the utinsels and was just a wonderful experience. The prices were good as well.

For the next couple of days we hibernated in the cabin, hiked in the surrounding woods and just rested. It was great!

The green route west of jeffersonville is our route out of that area on Sunday.

In the pictures you will see, Me on a rock with moss. Moss and boulders are some of my favorite things, oh no I think i am reverting to The Sound of Music again. The pond is the pond on the property that our cabin was. Sterling Ridge also offered a covered heated pool an outdoor jacuzzi. It was much too cold for us. The picture below that is the view from our cabin. The road with the two cabins is the road we took to our cabin our was off of the picture way to the right. The photograph with the shack on the left is where the free wood is stored. I loved that concept! the of course there is the front of our adorable cabin, a picture of our hiking sticks, and a view of the inside of our little cabin. God I loved this place!