Member of the Month - August 2017 - Monica

[Kane]

Where is this summer going? Some of us hearing the cicadas' shrill sounds in the tree, and even seeing some trees' leaves turn with autumn a'comin'. It's like we just got here! Time is just slippin' into the future, ins't it?

 

By unanimous staff vote, we are happy to declare that August's Member of the Month is ...

 

 

 

            MONICA!!!           

 

Monica hails from Canada (as do I) and has delighted us with her adventures with her intrepid daughter Viola for our great admiration. Should only so many other moms be so dedicated! Monica is no stranger to the hunt and has actually spent time up in the frigid north. As a fellow educator,  she spares no time in introducing our fossil passion to the next generation. I take it as a personal honour to welcome @Monica to the ranks of MotM! 

 

In our time with us, Monica has been a veritable sponge of information. She went from just "flipping rocks" to hammering them, and we all delight in Viola's love of brachiopods.  As someone with a handle on biology, she is well disposed to paleontological inquiry. And, to see her transfer her passion to her daughter for us to see is just fantastic. Monica has been not only on her own quest, but has helped many others. Her kindness and knowledge contributes strongly to our community.

 

 

Monica -  Thanks for all you do and contribute,  here on the Forum!

Congratualtions Madam ! Wear this Crown with joy as you earned it!

 

Care to tell us about your journey here to the Fossil Forum Monica ??  This is you opportunity to tell us about your journey.

 

On behalf of the staff here on TFF, congratulations! 

 

[ynot]

Hey hi Monica,

Congratulations and welcome to the "club"!!!!!

[Doctor Mud]

Congratulation @Monica your field trip reports are always delightful.

So heart warming to see the bond you obviously share with your daughter.

Heres to many more fossiling adventures for you both 

[Fossildude19]

 Congratulations, Monica!  

It has been a pleasure watching you learn and grow in fossil knowledge, and to see you pass it on to your daughter.  

Congratulations! Well deserved. 

Regards, 

[Monica]

Wow - I am completely and happily surprised!!!  What an honour!!!  I just finished putting Viola to bed (which included bagging up those last few Peace River teeth for her after getting some help on TFF to identify them), and was logging on for one last check of things and I got this wonderful notification from @Kane!  Thank you so much, everyone - I truly am honoured!

 

As for my journey...here goes...

 

I've always been interested in animals.  Back in "the good ol' days" before you could watch any TV program you wanted, whenever you wanted (i.e. you actually had to sit in front of the TV at a certain time on a certain day to watch a particular program that you were interested in), I used to watch nature programs with my dad on Thursday evenings (my dad is also an animal fan).  I was simply mesmerized by the variety of animals inhabiting the earth with us, and this fascination led me to study Zoology in university.  I was also a pretty fearless person back then (i.e. before I had children to worry about!), and took advantage of any opportunity that came my way, including two job-related trips up to Resolute, Nunavut to collect samples of extant (and a few extinct) specimens as well as a university field course that took me down to Queensland, Australia.  While I was completing my undergrad, I was looking for inspiration because I was still unsure of what I wanted to do after completing my B.Sc., but I realized that my greatest joy came from helping and tutoring others, and so I decided to become a teacher.  But not just any teacher - a biology teacher, of course!

 

After I finished teacher's college, I again decided to embark on an adventure - this time to Hong Kong to teach at a Canadian school over there.  It was an unbelievably amazing experience!!!  I was able to teach math/science/biology at the high school level, and I was able to travel quite a bit on my holidays - definitely a dream-come-true!  While I was living abroad, my love of animals did not waver - I saw lions mating while on safari with my dad in South Africa; I swam with seals and visited with penguins in New Zealand; I admired kangaroos, koalas, and kookaburras in Australia; I dove in the beautifully clear waters of Palau to see the fish hanging out at "Blue Corner"; I shared a moment with a cuttlefish - just the two of us, looking into each other's eyes - in the Philippines while the other divers were peeking in at a white-tip reef shark that was sleeping in a little cave; I watched and chuckled as the dominant male orangutan stole all of the bananas at a sanctuary in Malaysia; I listened to the gibbons call to one another in the forests of Thailand; and I stood in awe (at a safe distance, of course!) of the komodo dragons in Indonesia.  None of these trips involved fossils of any kind - my interest in extinct organisms really began about a year ago...

 

As many of you know, my interest in fossils really began when my daughter Viola was learning about dinosaurs in school (senior kindergarten).  She was keenly interested in them, and their fossils, and our conversations reminded me that I had collected a few fossils myself many years ago.  She was interested in looking at them, so I fished them out for her, and her eyes about doubled in size when she saw them - she was hooked, and so was I.  Now, she's my fossil-hunting buddy - we go out when we can, and as Kane has said, we've graduated from "flipping rocks" to actually hammering them - we've found many goodies thus far, and hopefully there will be many more hidden fossil surprises that we'll find together in the future.  My daughter is really the reason why I'm here - her keen interest has prompted me to learn more, too - so I really have to thank her for helping to ignite this new passion in me (I'll have to wait until the morning, though, since she's currently asleep ).

 

Thank you so very much for this honour - I really appreciate it.  

 

And I also want to thank all of the wonderful people here on TFF who have helped me and Viola learn so much over the past year.  Your deep knowledge, patience, and generosity have helped guide us on our fossil-hunting journey - a journey that I hope continues for many years to come.

[Miocene_Mason]

Much deserved, congratulations! Best of luck on future fossil hunts!

[Pagurus]

              

 

Thanks for being part of this motley crew, Monica.

[abyssunder]

Congratulations, Monica! Well deserved trophy!

[jcbshark]

Great story and congrats on MOTM

[jewelonly]

Congratulations, Monica! Looking forward to more reports of your and Viola's adventures.  

 

Leah

[Coco]

Hi,

 

Congrats Monica and welcome with us !

 

Coco

[doushantuo]

Mother AND daughter are herewith congratulated, intellectually curious and inquiring minds that you are.

Your threads are very enjoyable reads!

The limousine will pick you up later to take you to the yacht.

You are herewith entered into the TFF "Hall of Fame".

 

[PFOOLEY]

Congratulations, Monica! 

[old bones]

Congratulations, Monica! 

[digit]

First off--congrats! Huzzah! Huzzah!

 

Great story with unexpected depths. You are one of the fortunate few who were lucky enough to have the opportunity to travel--and were smart enough to answer when opportunity knocked (it does so ever so softly most times). I'm really glad to hear of the places you been and the sights you've seen. I'm doubly glad because, even without a deck of tarot cards at hand, I believe that I can see a bit into Viola's future and I believe she too will be blessed with the curiosity that will take her places to witness some amazing things. Possibly not "attack ships on fire off the shoulder of Orion or C-beams glittering in the dark near the Tannhäuser Gate" but some really great sights on this fascinating planet.

 

Your enthusiasm for sorting and identifying the fossils from the assortment of "Peace River extras" that I tossed in to fill the space on one of your Rolling Auction wins impressed me as you turned it into the opportunity for you and Viola to learn more about the diversity that comes from the river that I am lucky enough to share a state with. I'm also humbled by not having some nicer material at hand when I was packing up your box of goodies. I will have to gather together a better assortment of goodies from Florida and send them north to make sure that both you and Viola have ample materials to kindle your rediscovered interest in fossils. As passions go, fossils are a relatively safe addiction (for most of us).

 

Wear your MOTM well (this month and into the future)--and I hope Viola lets you have a chance to borrow that diadem from time to time so you can try it on too.

 

 

Cheers.

 

-Ken

[FossilDudeCO]

Congrats Monica, well deserved to an outstanding Forum member who is always there to help!

Welcome to the club!

[FossilDAWG]

Congratulations Monica (and Viola too, I always think of you guys as two for the price of one).

 

Don

[Shellseeker]

Congratulations !!!!   Monica.  What a great life story -- curiosity and family. You add warmth and enthusiasm to out TFF community.  Thanks for all you do.  Jack

[Darktooth]

@Monica Congratulations! I really enjoyed reading about your journey. It was very interesting. 

[Jeffrey P]

Here, here!!!! Congrats. Pictures of your daughter smiling are moments to be treasured always. 

[snolly50]

Delighted

[Malcolmt]

Big time congratulations.... and by the way your ammonite is pretty much done.....

[Ludwigia]

Congratulations, Monica. I'm looking forward to meeting you and Viola someday on one of my sojourns over there.

[Monica]

Thanks for all of the congratulations, guys and girls - I really appreciate it!

 

@doushantuo

When I read your message to Viola, she actually thought that we were going to be picked up by a limousine to go somewhere - so cute!

 

@digit

No worries about not sending "nicer/better" material from the Peace River - it was a really nice bonus, and Viola and I learned a lot just by going through it!  All of the vertebrate material is currently residing in a drawer under her bed, bagged up and labeled - I think she might end up gifting some of the items to her classmates, but we'll see if she ends up being willing to part with them...

 

@FossilDAWG

I also think of Viola and I as a team!  By the way, she really liked how you referred to us as "two for the price of one" 

 

@Jeffrey P

I think Viola would like me to take a picture of her with her MotM crown on and then post it on TFF - it might just happen - we just have to make the crown...

 

@Malcolmt

I SO cannot wait to see that ammonite - it's been covered in rock since I found it in 2000  - it only took me 17 years to find someone to uncover it for me - thanks again! 

 

@Ludwigia

Viola and I would love to meet you, too!  Hopefully it'll happen the next time you're in town...

 

 

[Spinosaurus]

congratulations monica with your accomplishment!