Encyclopedia of an Ordinary Life Karen Marconi

AAndrew

• Andrew is my BABY! He is my ‘one and only’ child and I truly cannot imagine my life without him! Andrew is clever and funny; earnest and truthful; literal and loving.

BBill

• Bill is my wonderful husband and yes, he IS taller than me!(6’5”) He is calm and even-tempered, logical and rational to my emotional and high-strung. Bill balances me out and is a great partner.

CChussy

• Chuss/Chussy is the nickname that my sister, Laurie, and I have for each other. We made it up while we were in high school. (It actually means “dear” in German, but we had no idea of its meaning when we started calling each other that!) Our birthday &Christmas presents say “to Chuss from Chuss” on the tags!

DDurham

• I grew up in Durham, NC and am one of the few North Carolina natives left! My parents still live in my childhood home! Durham, for some reason, has always gotten a ‘bad rap’ as a dangerous place to grow up, but. . .Duke University? Durham school of the Arts? The School of Math & Science? The Durham Bulls? The Bull City was a great place to grow up & to ‘be from’!

EEmotional

• There are many, many “E” words that have been used to describe over the years; energetic, enthusiastic, ebullient, effervescent….but emotional is the one I hear most frequently. My mom always said I “have a tender heart”; I feel things very deeply and tend to think with my heart more often than I do with my head.

FFirepit

• I love to work on home improvement projects! I recently built a flagstone patio and firepit in the area where Andrew’s playset used to be. This outdoor entertaining area is one of our favorite places to spend time together with friends/family.

GGoggy

• My maternal grandmother was nicknamed ‘Goggy’ by my brother when he was trying to say ‘Granny’ and it stuck! All her friends even took to calling her ‘Goggy’! Goggy passed away at the age of 95. She was creative and clever and kind; not a day goes by that I don’t think of her and appreciate her influence on my life. Goggy loved to draw and paint birds and often used Marjolein Bastin’s artwork to inspire her.

HHood

• My maiden name was Hood. Karen Makepeace Hood, to be exact. I am the youngest of three children-my brother, Art, is six years older than me, and my sister, Laurie, is two years older than me.

IIce Cream

• Ahhh . . .my cursed sweet tooth! Ice cream, specifically Breyer’s Mint Chocolate Chip, is my downfall. I have eaten an entire half-gallon of it in one sitting before. . . actually, more than once!

JJaden

• Jaden is the PRECIOUS kindergartener I worked with last year at Barwell Elementary! He started the year not knowing ANY letters (not even the letters in his own name), but had mastered them all by Christmas! He was energetic, loving, and definitely kept me ‘on my toes’!

KKK

• My nickname has always been KK. My parents still call me that to this day. My husband’s sister is ALSO named Karen and her nickname was KK, too!

LLegos

• Andrew loves to build and create with Legos and they have taken over our entire Bonus Room. Lego Star Wars, Ninjago, mini-figures. . . you name it, we have it, and he’s built it!

MMarconi

“Ma-cro-ni”, “Macaroni”. .. no, “Mar-co-ni”-I remember when Bill and I were first married and I commented on the fact that I was astounded by how many people mispronounced our name! He just laughed and shook his head and said, “well, get used to it!”

NEverything old is New again. . .

• I enjoy being creative and finding new uses for things. This patio was made mainly of flagstone a friend was getting rid of, the stools around the firepit are logs a friend wasn’t using, and the various decorative aspects are things I found either at thrift shops or around my house!

OMountains

• The mountains of North Carolina are one of my very favorite places to be! Hiking, gem-mining, leaf-watching. . . sitting in the hot tub watching it snow…bliss!

PPonies

• Andrew and I went to Shackleford Island this past March and were fortunate enough to be this close to the wild ponies which inhabit the island. It was such an exciting and magical experience.

QQuality time

• I have a truly wonderful family and enjoy spending time with them. We love to play cards, board games, go out to eat, travel, and watch movies together whenever we can.

RReader

• I am an avid, voracious reader and have always been! My love of words, of language, grammar, etc. is a direct result of my love of reading! I have lost myself in books, experienced a multitude of emotions, and learned more about the world and myself through reading-it is the BEST way to entertain oneself!

SSolitude

• For as much as I love my friends and family, and for as outgoing as I am, I actually really enjoy solitude. I enjoy having time completely to myself just to think, read, do . . .I am never lonely.

TTexas

• Last October, I tagged along with my friend Lisa when she went home to Dallas, Texas. We bought cowboy boots, watched a rodeo, toured the ‘Sixth Floor Museum’ (the location where JFK’s assassination occurred), shopped, rode bikes all over town, and just had a blast together!

UHUnger Games

• In the Spring of 2012, I went on a girls’ trip with several friends to Dupont State Forest in western North Carolina. We planned to hike around the waterfalls, do a little shopping, and sight-seeing. The Hunger Games movie had just come out and we happened to be near

VVariety

As the saying goes, “Variety is the spice of life”! I have varied interests in pretty much everything: TV (Downton Abbey to Vampire Diaries), music (Rihanna to Vivaldi), & books (Charlotte’s Web to War & Peace).

My friends are diverse as well! They vary in regards to age, race, gender, ethnicity, religion, beliefs. . . I have close friends who I’ve known my entire life, some who are twenty years older than me, some who are ten years younger! I have friends who are Catholic, Jewish, agnostic; African American, Native American, Caucasian. They each bring something special to my life and I’m so truly thankful for them.

WWork

• “Do what you love and you’ll never work a day in your life.” This is my eighteenth (!) year as a teacher! I find it amazing that former students are now married and have children of their own! In my mind, they’re still 7 or 10 or whatever age they were when they were “one of my all-time favorites”!

X-Ray• When Andrew was a baby,

he toppled off the changing table, even though I was standing RIGHT BESIDE him! He started to cry, his face turned gray, and he held his arm limply by his side. (I started to cry, too!) We took him to the pediatrician where he had an x-ray and it was determined that he’d broken his chubby little wrist! He had to have a cast from his hand all the way up over his elbow!

YSnow DaYs

• Teachers love snow days just as much as kids do! Getting bundled up to go outside and play; making snowballs & snow angels, sledding down the steep hill at the end of our street. After a few hours, I enjoy coming back in and putting on comfy, dry clothes, starting a fire in the fireplace, making hot chocolate, and just relaxing and hanging out with Andrew.

ZZeal

• I have a zeal for life! I love learning & discovering new things, being open to new experiences and sharing them with my family! I enjoy being surrounded by people who make me laugh, who help me look at things from different perspectives and who I can “just be me” with!

Reflection

“It is the sweet, simple things of life which are the real ones after all.”

--Laura Ingalls Wilder (1867-1957)

• How I’ve found the extraordinary in my own ordinary life