Drains R' Us

2011-11-20T20:21:00.000-08:00

Since most of the country thinks that summer ends with August, I will gladly play along, and only wish that that was the case in Arizona. Usually, summer ends by the beginning of November and we can finally turn off the AC.

Over Labor Day weekend, Lonica and family talked us all into a camping trip up north and out of the heat. We have come to avoid traveling on long weekends because the traffic in and out of Phoenix is so awful. We decided to brave the potential lines of cars just to have a little reprieve from the heat. (August had been the hottest on record.)
We found a great little spot and set up camp. We all loved just sitting around and eating and reading. I think Raquel was the only one who wanted some more action.

We had fun building campfires, roasting marshmallows, getting dirty, and playing with Amelia and Millie.

After one night of babies crying in stereo in the middle of the night, Raquel and Dave packed up and headed home. The rest of us toughed it out and had a much better night the second night. The weather was perfect and even the traffic wasn't bad getting home. We will definitely try it again over a long weekend.

The end of September my mom came to stay. It was the first time she had meet Amelia and Millie. Those two darling girls quite captured Grandam Joan's heart. She taught Amelia how to play "two little birdies" and Amelia was fascinated that the birdies would hide in her ear or on her bow or in her mouth. Sorry the picture is so blurry - none of them turned out.

We had to take some four generation shots. Don't we have some beautiful women in our family?

I think my mom was tickled with her trip, at least we hope so, so she will come back again soon.

We had to throw a little dancing into the mix as well.

Over October break Garth and I took sometime and went to Winslow. Yes, I know not a travel destination high most people's list, but it should be. There is an old 1930's hotel that is slowly being restored and it is will worth the trip.

La Posada was built by the Santa Fe railroad and opened just when the Great Depression hit. It was designed by Mary Colter and is a beautiful old hotel. It was closed in the 50's and the railroad used it as offices and destroyed some unique features.

In the late 90's a couple purchased the hotel and began restoring it. Garth and I's room was recently completed, but the wing our room was in is still under construction. They have a famous restaurant that has wonderful food and a man playing an acoustic guitar the echos through the Spanish styled halls. We watched the train pull up and people get off to spend the night, just like they did 60 years ago in the hotel's hayday.

The couple live in the hotel and the wife has an art studio there as well. One of the big halls is her gallery and to say her art is very interesting is an understatement. She has had showings of it in the Smithsonian and some of it is still there. In this picture, she has a self portrait next to Gaddafi and Hussein.

We headed to St. Johns and I talked Garth into going by the petrified forest since I'd never been there.

It really was quite amazing to see the huge trees that had completely turned to stone, and now were so beautiful.

This tree, in the picture below, was actually a bridge. Due to some careful photography angles, you can't see the cement that now supports the bridge. It wasn't always like this though. The history of the petrified forest tells that just 70 years ago there were many more trees, but due to souvenir hunters much has been destroyed.

I really got a kick out of the stories and letters that were told and displayed at the visitor's center. I guess there is a curse on anyone taking petrified wood from the National Park, and there were numerous letters from people returning the rocks they had taken hoping the curse would be lifted, and their lives could return to normal. Needless to say, I didn't take any rocks.

Two weeks later it was Halloween and our family had one little Curious George monkey who had to carry her tail ,

and one little strawberry who never pulled her hat off.

Both of them came over to our house to go trick-or-treating around our neighborhood. Here is Curious George with the Man in the Yellow hat.

Here you can see our little trick-or-treaters along with my new front door that hasn't been stained yet.

It didn't take Amelia long to figure out that at each door people were giving her candy. Millie had just started to walk the week before and she would slowly teeter up to the door. Amelia was much quicker and would have grabbed a handful of candy for herself and then grabbed another handful for Millie. Amelia would proceed to dump the candy in Millie bag and knocker her off balance with the weight. It was quite the sight!

At every house we got quite the comments on how cute they were, but how could we not - just look at those darling girls. No one cared that Amelia had taken half their candy.

Two weeks later it was Millie's first birthday. Yes, she was one on 11-11-11! Her master cake decorator mother, made her this birthday cake that looked just like her favorite taggy blanket. You can see part of the blanket at the bottom of the photo.

Raquel had a dinner at their house and then we had cake and ice cream. Millie was excited to eat her cake until she tasted the fondant icing that it was made with!

She also had some little helpers to open her gifts.

It is so hard to believe that she is already one. The time goes so fast!

Wrap up of the summer that ended months ago

2011-10-30T21:20:00.001-07:00

It is now November and I thought I really should wrap up our summer because it was very eventual, and I know that in the blink of an eye it will be Christmas and this year will be over. So this week I will quickly update you on our summer and hopefully next week I will update you on our fall.

The month of June was spent mostly in classes for me. Garth and I did have a quick trip to Las Vegas to see Garth's cousin's daughter get married. It was fun to ride with Paul and Lee and we got to go over the new bridge bypassing Hoover Dam.

I also had a quick trip down Havasupi once again. Here is the twin sisters rock formation that towers above the village and serves as the Supi tribe symbol.

I went with a teacher from school and her sister. Neither of them had ever backpacked before and they both did great carrying their packs down and up.
And here is a look at one of the new falls -the new Navajo Falls, but they aren't officially named that yet. The Elders of the tribe have to vote on the new name and they haven't had time in the last three years since they were formed. They are the absolute best to jump off of.

We had lots of time to swim this summer and it was especially fun to have Amelia and Millie come over to swim. They both loved the water and the pool.

It was great having Lonica and Scott back. They waited all summer to close on the house they made an offer on in May. They actually got the keys last week on November 1!

For the Forth of July we decided to head out-of-town and the heat of the valley and spend the day up on the rim north of Strawberry. Paul and Lee came with us and we had a great time just relaxing and eating.

Things did get a little wild, as usually happens at Drain parties, and Jason thought he could wear Amelia's sunglasses.

Then Paul thought he could wear Millie's hat. As Amelia would say siwee (silly).

A couple of days later the boys and Garth and I flew to Hawaii for a week. We spent a few days in Honolulu checking out Pearl Harbor, Wikiki, Hanauma Bay and the Polynesian Cultural Center.

Then we headed to Maui for four days. Our second day there we headed up to the top of the dormant volcano, Haleakala, and road our bikes down 29 switch backs from about 10,000 feet. It was the easiest bike ride ever - hardly any pedaling! You just had to keep from going too fast.

The rest of the week was spent snorkeling, lounging by the beach, looking for good places to eat and driving the very memorable road to Hana. There is a narrow windy road that leads to Hana on the south end of the island. All along the road are waterfalls, spectacular views of the ocean including black sand beaches, fruit stands where wonderful fresh smoothies are made and we ended up at Wai'anapanapa State Park that had this amazing volcanic beach. We gawked at the force of the ocean on the rocks and I knew it would be certain death for me if I fell in.

Preston thought in every picture we took he needed to give the hang loose sign and stick out his tongue. I hope some day he will grow up.

The boys took surfing lessons one day and they both did pretty well for the first time. Unfortunately, they both got really sunburned on the backs of their legs while they were laying on their boards waiting to catch a wave. Here is Preston.

A couple of days after we got home from Hawaii I had surgery on my foot which incapacitated me for the rest of the summer. After spending a week in a chair with my foot elevated and working on vocabulary tests for the fall semester, I decided to tackle the job of refinishing Garth's grandmother's Victrola. Paul had given it to us years ago and it took us about 3 years to pick it up out of his garage. It then sat in our garage for about 8 months. It was really dirty and the finish was in bad shape, but it still worked and came with lots of records.

After about a week of stripping, sanding, staining and varnishing, we made a new home for it in our living room. We've had great fun showing it off and dancing with granddaughters to it. Come by and check it out.

But the biggest event of the summer came on August 22 when Preston gave his farewell talk before he headed to MTC and then on to Brisbane, Australia. He had lots of support from family and friends. Here are those that gathered with us for brunch after church.

Tuesday night Pres. Ahlstrom (our stake president) came to set Preston apart and give him a blessing. He did a wonderful job and we are all interested in seeing how the promises in his blessing are fulfilled.

Here is our missionary son. For years I knew the day would come when my older kids would leave home, but the one I never planned or prepared to leave was Preston. It has been a big adjustment, one I'm still not sure I want to make. Preston has been my pal for years - going hiking and camping with me, playing in Europe with me, helping fix my computer or set up my classroom, he talked to me while we worked at our computers each night and listened (at least I thought he listened) to me drone on and on about whatever I had on my mind.

While I know there is no other place I would rather have him be right now, it is still hard to have him gone. I live for his letters each week, just like I did for Jason's, but this time I don't have someone sitting next to me while I read it to them. I'm thrilled that he is so happy and growing and learning while having the opportunity to live in Australia.

He left for Salt Lake early on August 25, so Garth and I were the only ones who got up to take him to the airport. One of his friends from our ward was on his way to the MTC too and was on Preston's flight, so they left together

The last event of the summer was having Amelia's second bithday on the 29th of the month. She was so excited about the balloons, presents and cake. But she loves everything. It looks like Christmas with that stack of presents for her.

She was thrilled with every present she opened. Millie didn't really understand what was happening, but she wanted to be close to he action.

Lonica and Scott had been working with Amelia to teach her how to blow out the candles, but she couldn't quite do it. Luckily mom was right there to get them out.

Once again, the summer flew by, yet the heat lingered forever it seemed! I guess that is what you get when you live in the desert.

Grand Canyon - Phantom Ranch

2011-06-28T21:20:00.000-07:00

A year ago last May, I got up early (before 6:00 am) and started dialing Xantara - the company who makes all the reservations for Phantom Ranch. I was only the 19 call and I still couldn't get the cabins and dates I wanted. The Grand Canyon is a difficult place to stay, but I did get reservations for two nights at the bottom of the canyon. I was supposed to be taking Preston, Jip and my friend, Terry, but Jip ended up not being here so Preston asked his friend, Garrett, to go with us. We spent the night at the top of the south rim and although it was May, the weather was nice, so we didn't feel rushed to be up at the crack of dawn to beat the heat.

We headed down the South Kaibab trail and it wasn't long before Preston and Garret were light years ahead of Terry and I. With my bad knees I'm slow at going down and the Kaibab trail is extremely steep - almost 7 miles of switchbacks.

While the trail is steep the views are breathtaking and I wanted Preston and Garrett to see how beautiful the canyon is. You get a completely different perspective of the canyon as you hike down into it than the view you get from the top just looking over the edge. Everything is so much larger than it looks from the top and so much further away.

After about 4 hours Terry and I finally made it to the river and the ranch. Preston and Garrett beat us by about an hour - youth!!

Phantom Ranch was built around the turn of the century and is the only place where the post office delivers by mule. In fact, all their supplies are delivered by mule.

We stayed in dorms that house 10 men or women and you get the opportunity to meet people from all over the world. You receive a 4:30 am wake up call each morning for hikers who are hiking out that day.

We all enjoyed a nice soak in the freezing water of Bright Angel Creek that runs through Phantom Ranch. The temperature at the bottom is about the same as Phoenix's, so the creek was a nice place to stay cool as well.

The next day we headed up the trail towards the north rim about 6 miles.

A good portion of the trail follows Bright Angel Creek crossing it several times and is shaded by cliffs and cottonwood trees.

In the end you are rewarded with Ribbon Falls - a beautiful waterfall. This picture doesn't do it justice or give you the perspective of how big it is. We arrived early and were the only ones there for about an hour. The falls were still in the shade and the water was freezing!

While this looks like the top of the waterfall, it really starts hundreds of feet above this spot. I think places like this are what make the Grand Canyon so wonderful. You are hiking along in the dust and then you come to a place with ferns and moss and beautiful water - so unexpected.

Preston was the bravest of us all and while the falls were still in the shade and very cold, he went in under the falls and on the top of the falls. He also hiked as far as he could along the crack in the wall and you can see him - just a little spec. Again perspective is everything and you can't tell how high or far he is.

We spent most of the day playing and laying around the waterfall, and when it finally warmed up enough, I made a couple of treks into the falls.

Preston was also the first to check out the hole under and inside the falls which we all ended up making our way into.

Here is Terry gingerly picking his way to the little "cave" through the icy water. The wind was blowing and would shift the falls and the mist and absolutely take your breath away if you were hit by either.

The little rocks were sharp and none of us had brought water shoes.

Here I am looking through a hole you could climb up to after going in the bottom hole. You can see it just above Terry's head on the previous picture.

We got nice and wet and then started the 6 mile hike back to the ranch to listen to the ranger talk and have dinner.

The next morning we got up early to start our climb out of the canyon. Here I am crossing the Colorado River on our ascent.

Preston and Garrett decided to hike back up the Kaibab trail, while Terry and I headed up Bright Angel. We had three more miles to go than the boys, but Bright Angel is not as steep and we are old. The boys ended up beating us by about an hour again, but they both said that hiking out was one of the hardest things they had ever done (wait until they get on their missions).

Here's Terry smiling away as we leave the river.

This is looking back at the part of the trail known as Devil's Corkscrew. It is a devil of a trail, and we were glad when we had finished this part. While the trail can be daunting, you are rewarded with unsuspecting jems like this waterfall

that looks small but really was quite large. Here is Terry finally making his way out- after 10 miles and 5 hours. You really have to admire him. He carried a 25 pound pack down and up and is 71 years old! All total, we hiked about 30 miles in 3 days, of which 17 of it was straight up or straight down.

The Grand Canyon is a magnificent place but it can really kick your butt! Garrett, we loved having you, but Jip we wish you had been with us!

Easter

2011-06-23T20:47:00.000-07:00

We had a nice Easter this year. It was even better because Jason was able to make it home for a long weekend.
Here are my little boys, Easter morning with their Easter baskets. Look at those happy faces.

At first the Easter egg hunt was low key and fun. But when Jason wasn't looking, Preston would run over and grab an egg out of Jason's basket. At first Jason didn't notice and then because he had so many more eggs than Preston he didn't care too much. But it didn't take long before Jason's natural instincts took over and the Easter egg hunt turned competitive.

By the time they had found all the eggs and Preston had pilfered about half of Jason's eggs, and Preston ended up with the most eggs. Still Jason didn't seem to care too much - that was until they started to open the eggs and Jason realized that there was money inside of them.

Then someone really seemed to care that his eggs had been snatched right out of his basket and he was on the short end of the egg count.

In the end, Jason wasn't too happy with only $13 - after all he is a poor starving student.

Preston was thrilled with his $22, because he too is a poor starving student who lives with his parents, who pay for his car, room and board, wash his clothes, cook his meals and pay his insurance. He didn't need to share with his brother who he stole eggs from in the first place and has to pay for his own gas, room and board and has to wash his own clothes and make all his own food.

That evening, Raquel, Dave and Millie came over for dinner. When Raquel was told about the Easter egg business, she demanded money from both of the boys who still owed her money for Christmas gifts! So in the end a child who hadn't even participated in the Easter egg hunt ended up with the most money.

Millie looked adorable in her first Easter dress,

and Raquel made her first ever carrot cake that was delious.

But if you asked Millie what the best part of the day was - she would say getting ready for bed and having Grandpa feed you your bottle. Can't get any better than that!

Spring Break

2011-06-15T17:49:00.001-07:00

Well, summer has been in full swing for about three weeks now and I'm trying to get caught up on life, that seemed to stop while I was teaching. That means that I've been attempting to clean my house, organize the mounds of papers I had left at the end of the school year, take some classes to help me be a better teacher next year, finish photo albums and catch up on blog posts.

I've actually debated whether to just bag blogging altogether since it seems as though I have no time for it any more and I seriously doubt anyone reads them. But I really do like the help blogs give me for journaling and having a starting point for photo albums. So I'm still attempting to blog for the time being.

To catch way up, here is our trip to Utah over spring break. Since this was Preston's last spring break for a couple of years, I asked him what he wanted to do and there was little hesitation - snowboarding!

He and I drove up to Utah and skied/boarded one day at The Canyons, where I'd never been before. The snow was typical spring skiing snow, but not too bad yet.

Here we are on the gondola to the mountain.
Here's Preston anxiously waiting for him mother to take the picture, so we can get on the slopes. I thought the snow park was the most fun part of The Canyons and I made Preston go down it time and time again. I did go off some fairly high jumps (at least for me) and did do a couple of rails. Preston was braver that I and tried some really big jumps and did great. But we did see some amazing jumps that people did on the huge jumps and were in awe. That will never be me - too old!

Here we are at The Canyons.

Raquel and Millie flew in that night and we all crashed my mom's house for the week. My mom is the BEST hostess and had a wonderful dinner prepared for us each night we were there.

The next day we headed to Snowbird, can you tell the difference? Look at the size of the mountains. The Canyons is more on high hills, whereas, Snowbird is on MOUNTAINS.

It had snowed over night so there was a couple of inches of new snow on top of ice - typical spring skiing conditions. It was super windy and when we would get to the top, the fresh snow would sting our faces like sand in a dust storm. Preston loved Snowbird and got much better at black diamond runs and moguls - another thing I'm too old for.

The following day Raquel went with Preston snowboarding and my mom and I got to babysit. Raquel gave us very explicit instructions as to what we were to do to take care of Millie, but we didn't do a very good job of following them. Millie survived though and we had a wonderful time with her!

She sat in her bumbo chair and watched us cook and grade papers all day. I think she loved it! We also had to have a photo shoot of four generations of girls. I didn't get any pictures on my camera and the ones on Raquel's didn't turn out too well. But this one of Millie did!

Thanks mom for letting us all camp at your house for a week and providing all the wonderful food you did! Your the best!

A Call to Down Under

2011-03-27T20:06:00.000-07:00

From the time we Preston was born into our family, almost 19 years ago, Garth and I have been dreaming of the day he would get a call to be a missionary for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints. That dream came true last Friday night when we had family and friends gather as Preston opened his call. Unfortunately, Preston has a mom that totally forgot to have everyone there guess where he would be going. Then just as he opened the envelop, I realized that we hadn't guessed and wanted him to stop so we could - a little too late. You can see it all on the video at the end of the blog. We were all surprised when he was called to the Brisbane, Australia Mission. Not one I had even thought about.

Preston's Sunday school teacher was there and he claimed he knew were Preston would be going because he had an Australian flag in his pocket that he gave to Preston. And here is Preston with all the girls who came to watch him.

We has heard from a lot of people that who have been to Brisbane and they say it is beautiful place and that the people are wonderful. We are all excited for him, but now he has to play the waiting game because he doesn't leave until August 24 - 5 months away!

We are so proud of him and the amazing young man he is. We know he will work hard and be a great missionary.

Look who growing up

2011-03-13T20:34:00.001-07:00

Yes, I know it has been months and months since I've created a new blog, and I've toyed with the idea of just giving up on blogging. But I do like the written record it creates, so I'm going to try to get back into it a bit. Teaching full time had definitely cut into the time I used to have.

A couple of weeks ago we had a little spend the night with 3 month old Millie. And guess who got to give her a bath the next morning.

She is such a happy little thing and loves to be in the water.

Isn't she a cutie!! What a fun way to spend President's Day.

Look who made her debut

2010-11-14T20:04:00.000-08:00

When I woke up last Thursday morning, I had a bunch of things planned for Veteran's Day, none of which sadly had to do with veterans. But all my plans quickly went out the window as Garth told me that Dave had called and said that he and Raquel were at the hospital having the baby!

At 8:04 little Millie Kate made her debut weighing 6 pounds 8 ounces and was 19 inches long. Unfortunately my camera wasn't working either of the days that Raquel was in the hospital, so there pictures were taken shortly after they got home.

Don't you love those fat little cheeks and all the dark hair? She is taking after her mom in those areas, although Raquel had even more hair on top that stuck straight up.
She has already won a spot in Garth's heart.

Millie had lost 7 ounces by the time she came home yesterday and you can tell here just how tiny she is. She is pretty strong though and does pretty well at holding up her head.

Look at that little angel.

Preston held her like she was made of glass. He's not too comfortable with newborns yet.

We are SO glad that we have this new addition to our family and that both mommy and baby are healthy.

the Oregon Trail

2010-10-31T20:13:00.000-07:00

WARNING: Lots of scenery photos ahead.

This year for our anniversary, Garth and I headed to Portland, Oregon. We decided to go there, one, because it was the only western state we hadn't been to. Two, we had heard that it was beautiful and three, it was the only place we could still use our free airplane tickets by the time we decided to go over October Break.

We picked up our rental car and headed up the Columbia River Gorge and decided as we looked for some place to eat that we wouldn't eat at any chain restaurants on our trip. So we choose Tippy Canoe because one, it looked interesting and two, it was the only place we could find once we got out of Portland and three, we were starving.

We chose well. Not only was the food and service great but it was all decked out for Halloween. The waitress told us that we should come back at Christmas if we really wanted to see it decorated.

I had emailed Janice, an old Texan friend, who had grown up in Oregon and she had given me great suggestions for our trip. Our next stop was at Vista House where we were blown to death. Both Garth and I were raised in pretty windy places but I had never experienced anything like this place. I couldn't even stand still to take a picture. It did have beautiful views of the gorge. though.

We headed up the river gorge and stopped at all the waterfalls along the way. Most had short hikes to the base or top of the falls. Of course I wanted to go and see every vantage point but the day was getting late and we still had so much to see that I had to make choices - darn.

This is Bridal Veil Falls.

And this is Multnomah Falls, one of the tallest waterfalls in the US. It was the most developed and had the most people as well. There was a story that in 1995 a bridal party was standing on the bridge you can see in the background and a rock the size of a bus fell off the side of the cliff. It sent a 70 foot wall of water out of the pool and over the bridge drenching the whole bridal party. I'm sure that made their wedding memorable and it gave me a good laugh.

More pictures of Multnomah Falls.

We finally made it to the town of Hood River where we would spend the night and decided to take a drive around the fruit loop as they call it. We headed towards Mt. Hood (the large snow covered mountain in the background) and drove through apple orchards. It was beautiful and reminded us of Amish country in Ohio last year.

Here is a picture of our hotel, The Columbia Gorge Hotel, which is almost 100 years old. It had beautiful gardens that we wandered around in and even had its own waterfall.

This is a picture of the Columbia River from our hotel as the sun was setting.

The next morning we headed back down the river gorge with a small stop at Beacon's Rock. It is the 3rd tallest monolith in the world at 848 feet high. It was just about a mile to the top but one of the steepest miles I've ever done - straight switch backs. Unfortunately, I forgot my camera so no aerial views from the top. Once again the wind was blowing like crazy and we were glad that most of the trail was on the lee side of the rock.

One last photo of the river.

We headed to the Oregon coast and Cannon Beach. We weren't disappointed by what we found!

Our first stop was at Ecola State Park and we did a couple of hikes to different look out spots and were thrilled by each new view.

This is Tillamook lighthouse. Said to be in one of the most exposed lighthouses in the country.

More views from Ecola State Park.

We then headed through town and found our hotel. It just had 5 rooms and they had these chairs we could sit in and watch the sun go down.

I sat for about 5 minutes until I realized that we needed to walk up the beach to get the best pictures of Haystack Rock (very famous). Reluctantly Garth followed me along. He was glad he did though when we were treated to beautiful views of the rocks, sunset, ocean spray and sand reflections. Here are just a few of the hundreds of pictures we took.

Thursday was our only rainy day while we were in Oregon. I think we were very lucky. After breakfast at Pig in a Pancake, we still stuck to our plan and headed south along the coast stopping at all the lookout spots and hiking to the beach.

When our family went to Alaska, we hiked in a very similar forest and I have a picture of Preston posing in a hole in a tree. I found one similar and posed the the same way.

We did some shopping the town and then headed back to see if there would be another beautiful sunset. Since it had been cloudy all day, we didn't expect much and we could tell no one else did either because there were very few photographers out. But we were amply rewarded and thought the sunset was even prettier that night because of the clouds. So here are some more pictures of Haystack Rock.

Before we headed out Friday morning, I had to take one picture of Haystack Rock in full sun.

We stopped at Wanda's for lunch. To say the decor was unique would be an understatement! That is an old TV with a fake fire going in it at the end of our table and a genie lamp on it with the skeleton faced native guy in the sombrero. Unique decor and great food!

We then stopped by the Tillamook cheese factory and watched them process their cheese that Garth eats every night. Garth's dad loved this cheese as well and we both wished we could call him and tell him where we were.

We headed back to the coast and stopped by a lighthouse and the Octopus Tree that has 8 trunks.

It is in Ripley's Believe it or Not.

We sat on the coast as long as we could just watching the waves crash on the rocks and then headed back to Portland. We found the Portland temple and were so impressed by it. Garth decided to tell Jason to look for a girl from Oregon to marry, because it was such a beautiful temple.

We hit horrible traffic in Portland and it look us much longer than we had anticipated, but we eventually made it to the Rose Garden in Washington Park. It wasn't the season for roses but we were still treated to some beautiful roses.

The next morning we headed to the Saturday Market and had a good time realizing where all the hippies from the 60's moved to and what they are doing now - selling stuff at the market!

I cracked up at the headbands with pencils, hatchets, screwdrivers, hammers, etc. on them. They looked really good but didn't stay on your head very well or we would have bought a couple.

One last photo of a beautiful city and state before we had to head back to the desert. Oregon is definitely a place we want to return to.

One last look at Mt. Hood from the air.

We loved the lush green vegetation, all the waterfalls and especially the coast. We had had wonderful food and were glad of our decision not to eat at any chain restaurants, it paid off.

Babysitting

2010-09-22T20:45:00.000-07:00

Raquel and Dave took off for the week to visit someplace cool - (such a novel idea, it was 111 degrees last Sunday!). So we get to watch their dog Ellie.
She too is a dachshund but long hair and she is Dieter's best friend. They can hardly leave each other alone. Just chase and play with each other all day and then crash every night.

She is great to have except when she just decides to bark in the middle of the night and you can't get her to stop! That better not happen again tonight or she is in big trouble!

Another Havasupi trip

2010-09-15T20:07:00.000-07:00

Jip had only been here a couple of weeks and I figured I needed to get these two out of the bedroom and away from the computer, so what better way to do that ... than have them hike to Havasupi at 5:00am? Look they even have smiles on their faces!

After about a 3 1/2 hour hike, there is never anything better than soaking your feet in the cold water of Havasupi creek. We sat here a while debating on a campsite and finally decided to move down the creek a little ways.

There had been another large flash flood only about 4 weeks prior to our hike and you can see the sand bags that have been placed to try and save some of the camping areas. I was amazed at how much things had changed since June - especially the campground. Most of it was gone. The river had changed course and now flows over the best camping areas. The area left to camp in is where the river used to be and it is rocky and uneven. We settled on this spot but moved the next day when our neighbors left.

After setting up camp, we headed back up to Havasu Falls. There were drastic changes here as well. Once again the river had changed course and now misses most of the travertine pools that these falls are so famous for. The boys had a good time going behind the falls and coming out on the other side of the falls. They enjoyed it so much that they did it both days a dozen times or so.

Could there be a better place on earth to eat lunch?

After exploring Havasu Falls we headed down to Mooney Falls. This has to be the safest part of the hike - not!

Again, more changes here. The pool under Mooney is very shallow (just like under Havasu) and you can walk right up under the falls. The problem is that the water is coming with such force that you feel as though rocks are being thrown at you.

We hiked down to what used to be the best rope swing in the world. The rope has been replaced and the rock to jump off of is still there but the river is shallow now. There was one spot that was deep enough to jump into but it was difficult to get the right angle to hit it. We had a good time trying though.

We then decided to walk back up the river instead of using the trail. We had a great time climbing up water falls and wearing our legs out (as if they weren't tired enough from hiking down) going against the current.

Check out the buff men I'm hiking with!

The next morning we finally found some food that Jip didn't like - instant oatmeal!

If you are familiar with Havasupi you may recognize this area where you go to get water. You can see the dead trees, that happened with the 2008 flood, but notice that one of the bridges is missing. We had found it down below Mooney Falls the day before along with a bunch of picinic tables. This area was completely different from when I was here in June. Notice how milky the water is as well. It was just like this below Havasup Falls, above the falls, it was clear and blue like you expect it to be. Not sure why that was the case.

We headed up to Rock Falls (not the official name yet) the first ones in the series and the closest ones to the village. They are difficult to get to (check out the boulders you have to climb over in some of the pictures) but so fun! Preston is behind a small part of the falls.

Here I am about half way up the falls.

And here are the boys up on the top. We were almost able to get to the top going straight up the falls but we to one spot where the current was too strong, so we found a little trail off to the side.

Next we went back down to the 'new' Navajo Falls for come waterfall jumping. About half the campground had left that morning, so we had the falls to ourselves. It was great! Here is Jip jumping

and here is Preston

and here am I. At the end of the blog is a video of one of Preston's jumps and he does a little dance too.

We then decided to look for the cave that I'd been told about and we succeed in finding it. At one time someone had been mining in it and there were still rails for the cars. We only had one flashlight and didn't go too far. As we were coming out we met some people who know all about the cave and they asked if we had gone to the drop off. We realized that we had turned around right before the 50 foot drop off and were very glad we had, because our lighting was so poor we all probably would have fallen off.

Both evenings we sat on one of the many picnic tables that are now in the water and soaked our feet and played cards. Nothing could be better!

Our alarm didn't go off Monday morning and so we got off about 1/2 hour later than we had planned but we beat the sun and that was our goal. Here is Jip after his first backpacking trip where he saw his first waterfall, ate his first dehydrated meal, jumped off his first waterfall and saw his first Indian village. He did great - better than me that is for sure!

I decided that September is a great time to go to Havasupi. The weather wasn't too hot and the water was perfect. I could get in it and stay in it easier than any other time I had gone, because usually the water is just too cold for a cold blooded person like me. Plus, there were no scouts!

Our new son

2010-09-11T21:12:00.000-07:00

Almost a month ago, Jip came to live with us. He will be here the whole school year and we are so glad to have him. This isn't the best picture of him, taken as he got off the plane after about a 16 hour flight.

He is my friend, Anita's, son and has come over from the Netherlands to go to school here this year. He and Preston are good friends and were supposed to be going to Mesa Community College together, but in the middle of July we found out that Preston received a four year tution scholarship to ASU. We hastily registered Preston for ASU and so the plan for Jip and Preston to go to school together is no more.

Both the boys are enjoying their school experiences so far - just hope that continues after the first tests!

Jip is great to have a round - fun, easy and always happy. We are planning on showing him a real American experience this year and hope he still likes us after spending 9 months with us!

California here we come

2010-08-29T15:43:00.001-07:00

Since I am over a month behind in blog post and my girls have already done posts on our trip I will let you read their posts. Plus they both do a better job with the photos and the text. So here is Lonica's and here is Raquel's. Probably more about our trip than anyone person would want to know!

We had a great time and after we all recover we will do it again in another 10 years!

Another Funeral

2010-07-27T21:12:00.000-07:00

So I'm extremely behind in writing blogs and I've had this one written in my head for over a month, just no time to sit down or if I did I was finishing my last class! I started my student teaching last week and we had wonderful company for a month - enough excuses.

Just four days after we got home from my cousin's wedding in Utah we got an early morning call telling us that my father-in-law, Ralph, had passed away. We weren't surprised because he had been sick for the last five years and had fallen the first of June and things had not been going well. But you are always surprised even when you know that death is coming.

Garth spent one weekend in St. Johns helping his mother make all the decisions and make all the funeral arrangements and then we had the funeral the next weekend. Garth's family is a little musically challenged, but they still had all the grandkids sing a song. Here is the practice and everyone was worrying they would be embarrassed by their lack of ability.
And even though Lonica hadn't played the piano in years, she was called upon to play a solo. Catherine had to listen and okay the number.

In the entry way to the church, Jill, Cara and Lora set up some pictures and memorabilia of Ralph's.

Garth and his brother, Keith, both spoke as did a grandson, Adam; they all did a great job. Lonica's solo went well too. The grandkids song was after Adam spoke and everyone was in tears and couldn't sing. So their singing abilities were never questioned because it just looked as though they were too emotional to be able to sing. Jason and Preston were the only ones who were able to help everyone out and sing the whole song.

It was really warm the day of the funeral but you can't tell that from the pictures. Here are all of my boys looking so handsome in their suits. Keith is also looking good in his new suit.

Since St. Johns is such a small place, the guys had to lower the casket into the ground themselves. Jason was on the corner and the soil beneath him gave way and he almost went in on top of the casket. You can see a man who came to his rescue and held on to his belt. Garth's cousin, Royce is a mortician and is always called on the for these affairs. He is so good and does such a wonderful job.

After the luncheon, I made all the grandkids get up and take a picture together. I think the last one they took, when everyone was together, was over 10 years ago. By the end of this year there will be 9 great-grandkids as well.

In the evening, Colleen, my mother-in-law, wanted to go back out to the cemetery and have another look. She had been holding up so well all day and just wanted one more chance to say good-bye to her husband of over 60 years.

For the last few years, Ralph couldn't make it much further than his kitchen table, unless he was having a really good day. He said he held down the command post right there and talked to everyone on his cell phone and kept up with the blogs and knew what was happening before most people in the family.

The last time I talked to him was on my way back from Havasupi. I had been gone for three days and when I got back into cell range, I listened to a message from him telling me that I needed to call him right away - it was important! I called and he told me that the message had been left days ago, and just where had I been?

After explaining where I'd been, he proceeded to tell me that Raquel had just found out she was having a baby girl and Kyle and his wife were expecting twins. He even knew about my granddaughter before me!

I have been amazed how much I have missed the crusty old guy and find myself wanting to tell him so many things. He can finally take a full deep breath and I'm happy for that, but we miss him so much!

Look who's come for a visit

2010-07-25T20:16:00.000-07:00

Our favorite 10 1/2 month old in the whole world has come to visit from Ohio for a month!

She did bring her mom along and we like her as well. We are going to have a great time with them.

Preston's 18th birthday

2010-07-24T21:15:00.001-07:00

Tuesday, July 6, we all gathered in our usual places to celebrate Preston's 18th birthday. Now Garth and I can relax a little - all our children are considered adults and we aren't legally responsible for anything stupid they may do! Actually, I was pretty sad, a whole chapter of my life in raising children has come to a close.

At any rate we helped Preston celebrate becoming an adult by having him sit in the present opening spot.

As usual, Preston was very grateful for anything he is given and he loved the movies, book, swimsuit, magazine subscription, Zune passes and especially the snow gloves. Yes, we know it is July but the kid has snowboarding on his mind all year round.

After present opening, we moved into the kitchen for the blowing of the candles and the singing of "Happy Birthday". Preston is not a big cake eater so Raquel made dessert crepes and we had to strategically place the candles in the crepe to keep them upright. In case you don't understand our unique numbering system for candles, the 1 represents 10 and then you have to add the 6 + 2 to get 8 to give you 18. We really don't see any reason to actually buy the numbers of someones age you just improvise with what you have from leftover candles from birthdays in the past.

Preston was able to blow out all three candles in one breath and we were so proud of him.

We also received his AP grades this month and had more reason to be proud of him and all the work he did in high school that lead to a scholarship to ASU for next year. But we are especially proud of the young man he is becoming - hard working, responsible, fun, dependable, caring and strong. We love you Preston!!!

My Cousin's Wedding

2010-07-24T19:48:00.000-07:00

The first of July, Garth and I made a quick trip to Utah for my cousin, Ryan's wedding. He has been living in Canada for the last few years so it had been awhile since we had seen him. We thought it would be a great opportunity to visit my mom and Ed, see some of my family and get out of the heat.

Ryan was marrying Irina who was from Bangladesh and lots of her family and friends were flying in from all over the world for the wedding. A couple of weeks previous to the legal ceremony (they had in Utah), they had had a religious one with an Iman in Canada.

Friday night, before the wedding, there was a kind of 'meet the family' dinner and participate in Bangladesh wedding traditions. Her family had rented a big house in Salt Lake City and when we got there they had it decorated and lots of food. Irina entered under this canopy.
She had all kinds of jewelry from her grandmother and she and Ryan had special clothes just for that night.

The mothers had to tie a kind of flower bracelet to their wrists that they had to wear until the wedding ceremony the next evening.

Then Irina's father explained how we all would use a turmeric paste to put on their foreheads and our own and then feed them something from the trays of food on the small table in front of them.

Here is my mother applying the paste to Ryan.

Then Irina's sister danced for us and Ryan's sister, Jennifer, did a belly dance for us.

We then were served the main dishes and the desserts. We had already had the appetizers and those had filled us up. My mom, Ed, Garth and I were especially full because my mom didn't think there would be food and we had gone out to dinner before coming. This is a picture of just the desserts. Irina's mother and aunts had made all the food and her father told us that they were the very best of cooks. For first time Indian/Bangladesh food eaters, it was really different for us, especially the yogurt sprinkled with curry.

After dinner they started painting all the women's hands with henna and it was amazing how good they were. I really wanted to get my hands painted but my mom wasn't feeling well so we had to go. Dang!

Here is my cousin, Shari's daughter, Sydney, with her had partially painted.

The next day we drove through the Avenues and found a great little deli for lunch. It was so nice to be able to sit outside and eat - that wouldn't be happening in Arizona this time of year! Then we explored the old Salt Lake City cemetery and yes it was fun.

That evening we went up City Creek Canyon were the ceremony was held. It was a beautiful evening and a perfect setting. Irina's family had gotten the measurements of all of Ryan's family and had suris made for his mom, sisters and Shari's children. Here are Shari, Stephanie and Jennifer in their specially made suris.

This is a picture of Irina's beautiful sister and Irina and Ryan exchanging rings.

We then went inside to eat and here are Ryan and Irina now legally man and wife.

A few people spoke, sharing wishes and memories and then we all danced to Bollywood music.

Then Irina's sister and her cousins and friends danced and danced for us to Bollywood songs that they knew very well and we'd never heard. In this picture Irina is dancing with them after she had changed into a more western styled wedding dress - that is now three beautiful dresses she wore.

Garth and I had such a good time and we were so glad we had made the trip up. Irina and her family were so friendly and impressive and we could see why Ryan had fallen in love with her. What a wonderful experience to see some of the traditions of another culture and enjoy this time with family. The world if filled with so many good people!

Havasupi

2010-07-04T21:58:00.000-07:00

In June I fell into some reservations to one of my most favorite places in the world - Havasupi. There were reservations for 20 and I did my best to find 20 people to go (if I didn't invite you sorry) but I ended up with just 9 of us hiking the 10 miles down into a canyon with some of the most beautiful water and waterfalls in the world.

Here is our group Leila, Kristen and her daughter, Sydney, Helana and her mom, Bridget, Shalmarie, me, Kristy and her daughter McKelle. Only Bridget had hiked it before and that was when she was 15. So I had a group of inexperienced hikers who were very experienced by the time we got out two days later. We left at about 5:00am and it took us about 4 hours to make it to the bottom, pretty good time when you consider we have 8 and 9 year olds.
One thing that everyone learned quickly was to get out of the way when you could hear the horses coming. They come along pretty fast and they have the right-of-way.

In August of 2008 there was a huge flood that went through the village and the river changed course creating two new waterfalls and eliminating one of my favorites. I hadn't been down in a few years and was anxious to see what it was like since the flood and the changes that had taken place.

Here is our first view of the second of the new falls. The first is just above this one and can be seen from this one but not until you have hiked down further. The new falls don't have 'official' names yet but this one is being called the New Navajo Falls until the counsel decides for sure.

You can see the beautiful color of the water hasn't changed and vegetation is coming back but there are no big trees for shade and it was hot.

The next falls we hit was Havasu Falls and it has changed as well. The huge pool at the bottom of the falls had filled in and you can almost walk up to the waterfall now. Everyone in our group was so impressed and was glad that it looked like the long hike was worth it.

We quickly found a place to put our things down and headed for the water.

Unfortunately, about 1 1/2 hours later the beautiful clear water turned to mud. They were excavating up the river aways to prevent future floods from taking out the cemetery. The rest of the day the river was a mud mess and they were suppose to excavate the next day as well. Who wants to swim in that? I was so upset that the Indians would take our money and not even mention that you wouldn't be able to swim in the water.

After setting up camp, we decided to hike back up to the new falls which were above the area they were excavating. As we hiked back up, we found this great little swimming hole and played around here for awhile.

Then we went back to the falls we had seen on our hike in. They have a large pool at the bottom and are about 35 feet high. They are perfect falls to jump off of.

We watched a few people jump off and then Shalmarie and I decided to jump. Here is Shalmarie taking off.

After playing some more in the pools below this waterfall and jumping off some ledges, we headed back to camp for dinner and some well deserved rest. I think we all went to bed about 8:00.

The next morning we got up early and hiked the 1/2 mile down to Mooney Falls we wanted to see them before the water turned to mud again. It too had changed and the large pool at the base of this fall had filled in as well, but it is still spectacular.

After setting my timer on my camera about a dozen times, I finally got a good picture of us. We are getting soaked right here from the spray of the falls and it is early and a bit chilly. That will change quickly though.

Luckly the water never did turn brown again and we played at Havasu Fall and then later Shalmarie and I decided to hike up to the very first falls that we hadn't really seen. What a good decision that was! From down below you can only see a very small portion of Rock Falls - their temporary name. They are wide and lush, but difficult to get to. You have to do some boulder hopping to get to them.

More of Rock Falls.

Shalmarie in front of part of Rock Falls.

And me in front of Rock Falls.

Again we hit the bed early because we had a long hike out the next day. Bridget and Kristen started an hour earlier than the rest of us because they were worried about how their girls would do. But everyone did great and we made it out in about 4 hours. When the rest of us got to the top, Bridget had cold watermelon waiting for us and that was heaven. We don't look too much different from our pre hike picture but we sure smelled different!

The worst thing was having to wait a couple of hours for the horses to bring up our packs, but we found some shade, ate watermelon and talked. We then headed for the Road Kill restaurant in Seligman and had great hamburgers and fries - our Havasupi hiking tradition.

We had a great time and even though the last mile and a half are hard when you hike out, everyone agreed that all the hiking was well worth it. I'm glad that one of my most favorite places is still beautiful and wonderful and I can't wait to go back again and explore the new waterfalls some more. Next summer!

Garth's birthday and Father's Day

2010-06-28T19:39:00.000-07:00

Garth's bithday coincides with hot weather and good deals at resorts in Arizona, so this year I decided to take him for a night at the Scottsdale Princess Resort. Friday night we went to dinner at Tommy Bahama's (we would highly recommend it) but I didn't bring enough money for dinner, so Garth ended up having to pay for his own birthday dinner - not the first time that has happened.
When we checked in I was told we had a view of the lagoon, but we actually had a view of trees and a roof. Oh well, the room was great.

Saturday morning we walked around the 75 acre resort -no we didn't do the whole 75 arcess, but we did take a nice walk. This is the lagoon our room was supposed to look down on. The Princess is where the Phoenix Open is played and unfortunately I didn't get Garth a tee time. I figured he would much rather spend the day with ME right? Besides if I didn't have enough money for dinner the night before, do you think I had money for golf?

We spent the rest of the day swimming and laying by the pool and just being lazy. We decided that we don't need to buy each other gifts any more - a night a way is the best gift.

Sunday was Father's Day so the kids had gifts for Garth to open. He had to sit on our offical family gift opening spot (the fireplace) to do so.

Here is the gift opening audience - look at the excitement in their faces.

Since Dave will be a father this year, he got to open a gift, too. See Raquel's cute little pregnant tummy? Tuesday was Garth actual birthday so we had dinner and he had more gifts to open. He didn't make it to our offical family gift opening spot and just stayed in 'his chair,' is that a sign of old age?

Here is the gift opening audience with the addition of Paul who moved Jason to the floor. The rest are in the exact same places. Did they ever move?

We then sang "Happy Birthday" to Garth while his candles dripped wax onto his lemon supreme pie. He then blew extra hard to blow out those two candles and blew wax all over my granite counter tops, but since it was his birthday I didn't say anything (I thought I'd wait for my blog). If you want to see how old he is just look at the candle numbers. He doesn't look that old does he?

I think this is the 31st birthday that I've celebrated with Garth and I hope we have another 31 to celebrate together. I know there isn't a better husband, friend and partner than Garth to share my life with! Love you!!

What can a 5# block of ice do?

2010-06-20T16:50:00.001-07:00

Ever wondered what would happen if you were standing on cement, holding a 5# block of ice waist high and dropped it on your foot? I know you are all shuddering at the thought right now and I don't blame you - I still do the same although I know what will happen and how it will feel now.

A couple of weeks ago Garth and I were preparing to go on a trek with our stake and we had forgotten to fill our coolers with ice. We quickly stopped and bought some ice and proceeded to fill the coolers. Well, my block slipped and landed on my toes! I did a little dance off the porch we were on and I'm still feeling the consequences of that accident.

I was lucky to only break the top of my one toe (when it happened it felt like I'd broken all of them). Below is the nasty picture of it four days later, so don't scroll down if you don't want to see it. We still went on the trek and so I know that you can walk 16 miles on a broken toe. I plan on hiking down and out of Havasupi this week and I'm hoping you can do that on a broken toe as well. I'll let you know.

The Last High School Graduation

2010-06-17T20:42:00.000-07:00

May 27, 2010 was quite a memorable day at our house. We started the day with shocking news that Garth's Aunt Judy died and spent most of the day with his Uncle Paul. Judy was a huge part of our lives and we were all stunned. We will miss her terribly

Later in the afternoon we got things ready to have a family dinner for Preston's graduation. Both my parents had come into town for the celebration and luckily it was the nicest weather we'd had at any of our kids graduation.
After dinner Preston quickly opened his graduation gifts before he had to head off to school. He was thrilled with all the cards, money and gifts he received and wanted to check things out especially his new Zune HD, but he didn't have time.

My mom came to her first graduation in Arizona and as I mentioned we had beautiful weather which she was glad of. Lonica and Jason's graduation nights were stifling hot and during Raquel's we had a dust storm roll through, so we happy to end on a pleasant note.

Preston had a graduating class of 775 and 40% of the graduates had a grade point average of 3.5 or higher. It was the highest the school had ever had. Lots of competition in scholarships.

A view of the whole class.

Here is our graduate. He received a scholastic diploma and a seal for having done over 150 volunteer hours throughout high school. He also has the stole for being in NHS.

Raquel armed herself, Dave and Jason with cans of silly string and when we finally found Preston (it took us about 20 minutes) they plastered him!

Over and over again.

Here is the whole proud family.

And the proud parents.

Preston's 4th grade teacher, Mrs. Dillon, found him and gave him a hug.

One last picture of our last high school graduate. We are so proud of him and his hard work. But we are most proud of the young man he has become.

I have had such mixed emotions having my youngest graduate. I'm excited for Preston yet so sad to have this part of my life over with. Preston will be staying here next year and going to the community college before he leaves on his mission next summer, but after having children in school for over 20 years it is so strange to think that it is all over. I will be doing my student teaching in the fall and now I'm the one that will be tied to the school schedule!

Spring Break

2010-05-23T15:26:00.001-07:00

Yes, I know that spring break was two months ago and I am just a bit behind in blogging, but ever since I took a long-term sub job teaching 9th graders English for 10 weeks, my life has not been my own!

Prior to loosing my life and freedom, Garth and I went backpacking with our friend, Terry, and his grandkids. Those of you who read my blog, if there are any, will recognize Terry and his grandkids. They are my regular hiking buddies.

We did a hike that I had been wanting to do for years and we were able to luck out and get some of the very limited permits into the Aravipa Wilderness Preserve.
The hike is up a stream that was unusually high this year because of all the rain and snow that we received. So the going was difficult, strenuous and slow. Garth was not happy when he realized that the whole 5 miles would be in the stream going against the current. He took off and left the rest of us behind.

When we did catch up to him, this is what we found! He looks happy doesn't he?

Here are Terry and the grandkids cleaning out their shoes and resting once we found our camping spot. Rocks and gravel were a constant presence in our shoes.

We found a great little camp spot, got set up and a fire going. By the time the sun went down at 7:00 we were all ready for bed. Nothing fills you up and makes you want to sleep more than dehydrated meals!

I love sleeping outdoors and I've never worried about critters until this hike. While we didn't see any wildlife, their footprints were everywhere and all night I was sure something was creeping around me.

The next morning, before heading back, we crossed the stream and hiked up a side canyon. We were rewarded for our effort and saw beautiful pools, waterfalls, rock cavities and formations that were amazing.

Here we are at the top of the first waterfall.

There were deep pools all over in these rock cavities. If it had been warmer and we'd had more time, they would have been great to swim in.

This was such an amazing little canyon and this was just one of the many off shots from Aravipa Canyon. You could spend weeks exploring them all. Terry's grandkids were great and I never heard a complaint from any of them. Carson was my little hiking buddy quite a bit of the time and he is a great kid.

The going back was much easier because we were going with the current, so it didn't take us near as long, but Garth said he was never going hiking again. Too bad, that makes me so sad because there are still so many places I want to go. I guess it will just be Terry and I and the grandkids.

My Birthday

2010-04-04T12:12:00.000-07:00

So two days ago I reached the ripe old age of 50. I had been trying to wrap my head around it the last few months, so I didn't have a big melt down or anything like that. I can't believe that I'm a half a century old. That is OLD! Now if you are older than 50 you are probably disagreeing with me and if you are younger than 35 you are probably are looking at 50 the way I am.

In my head I just don't feel any older and although I color my grey hair (I've been doing that since I was 35) and I'm beginning to get wrinkles, I don't think I look that old yet - that too may just be in my head and be kind and don't burst my bubble.

I've just begun to wonder when I have to start acting older. For instance, when do I have to quit going off the jumps and the rails when I go snow skiing? Or when I do I quit repelling or water skiing or sledding? Or playing games like "will the subway door open where I'm standing" with my kids or other kids? Or jumping over the posts that we happen to be walking by? When do I have to quit scaling the rock to have a good lookout spot to see what is up the canyon just a little further?

The only thing I would like to quit doing is dying my hair, but I would definitely look old then.

So what constitutes old? And is there a time when we have to start acting our age?

Currently I'm teaching 9th graders - 14 and 15 year-olds - yikes I hear you say. I'm wanting them to act their ages or at least sit in their seats and stop bugging the person next to them. So if I expect them to act their age, am I supposed to act my age? And exactly what does that entail?

A couple of weeks ago Garth and I went backpacking (future blog post coming) with our friend Terry and four of his grandkids. Terry will be turning 70 this week and he is my inspiration. He carried a 50 pound pack along with his lucky horseshoe and is counting down the years until I can go skydiving with him (Garth won't let me go as long as we have children at home). He is curious, active, fun and annoying, but that is an endearing quality.

So last Friday, when I had the day off of school and I had lots of friends and family, call, email or post a comment on my facebook page wishing me a happy birthday, I thoroughly enjoyed it.

I don't think I'm going to be old just yet.

When will I learn?

2010-03-28T18:55:00.000-07:00

So this week I will have my birthday and officially turn OLD. You would think that someone 50 years old wouldn't have to keep learning the same lessons over and over again. Yet I am still having to learn the lesson of proper sunscreen application.

When I grew up my parents had a boat and all summer long I was having to relearn the importance of putting sunscreen on shoulders, thighs, feet and ears. I knew the places that the sunscreen needed to go, I just didn't always get it there.

Then I had children and I learned the lesson over and over again, that sunscreen was the most important thing to do and it shouldn't be done on the fly. Also, it needed to be reapplied throughout the day and to be rubbed ALL over several times to make sure every inch was covered.

I learned that you don't just slap some sunscreen on your hand and then try to put it on your own back - you will end up with a white hand print and a burned back.

I learned that spray sunscreen still needs to be rubbed in - I had little white dots all over my body.

So when I took Preston skiing over spring break and we had a beautiful sunny, clear day - I knew that it was really important to use sunscreen. (I have been burned really bad from skiing - I also know that you never ask the lift operator how he got so tan and then use his suntan oil when spring skiing.)

We were late getting to Snowbowl and anxious to get on the slopes. I hastily put on some sunscreen and thought I had done a good job. But at the end of the day when we returned to the car, I noticed that my chin was burned - oops, forgot my chin. I also noticed that I hadn't quite gotten the sunscreen clear over to my ears - oops, line down my cheek. And I didn't get my neck down to the top of my turtleneck - oops, line around the middle of my neck.

I looked like some freak with white lines and splotches all over my face. Oh well, after all it was only my FACE! (At least it didn't have blisters like the time I used the lift operator's suntan oil). You really would think I would have learned the sunscreen lesson by now,but I was only 49 when all this happened and maybe once I turn 50 I will be smarter.

Another Ohio Trip

2010-03-19T19:07:00.000-07:00

The end of February I had to make a trip to Ohio to see this sweet little face.

Amelia had been wanting her grandma to come visit so I had to oblige her.

While I was there, Lonica and Scott showed me a great time. We took Amelia on her first tubing expedition and she had a great time.

I've been tubing just a few times, but it has been years and I had a great time, too.

Here is our little Ohio family.

Then we went to the R-pac (sp) or recreation center at Ohio State and took Amelia swimming.
She thought that was great too.
And so did I.
I got to go with her to music class and we both thought that was great, too.

And one day we went shopping which was great and she got this great hat.

She also worked on eating table food some of which she didn't think was great at all. Luckily, Lonica and Scott are wonderful cooks and everything I ate was great.

While I was there Amelia started to roll from her back to her stomach and she was almost sitting up. I thought that was really great that she would do those things while her grandma was there.

All in all, my five days in Ohio were GREAT!

Geronimo's Cave

2010-03-14T20:21:00.000-07:00

On President's Day, I got together with two of my hiking friends (Cindy and Terry who didn't know each other) and two of Terry's granddaughters (Camille and Bunzer, Terry's nickname for her) and we headed out to the Peralta trail head for a hike to Geronimo's cave. When you hike with Terry we always have to have a pre hike photo, so here it is. You've got to love those lovely blue knee braces I've got around my ankles!
We have had so much rain this year that the desert was so green. Okay, I know that if you live anywhere but Arizona you are going to say that looks dead and brown, but to a true desert dweller with a discerning eye - this is green and we are going to have wonderful wild flowers this year.

Instead of going on the heavily used Peralta trail we turned right and followed a trail that most of the time wasn't a trail and we had to look for cairns to follow. In this photo you can see the 'cave' - the dark spot just below the rim and at the top of the yellow rock. We had to scale yellow rock which was anything but easy.

Terry had done all the research for this hike and was hoping to find Geronimo's bathtub. He was so pleased when he did, that he had to sit in it for a picture.

Here is Terry in the cave which was bigger than it looks in this picture. Most of the cave is behind me and several people could have slept in it if they wanted to endure a night on solid uneven rock. We were all pretty sure that Geronimo never actually was in this 'cave' but the name was intriguing and part of the draw to the hike.

Once at the cave, we had to find a way to the very tip top of the ridge, and here I am on the top. while Camille is making her way up as well.

On the way back down we took one last shot of the cave and where we had been. Can you believe that beautiful blue sky? No photo shopping done here. It had been a beautiful day all the way around - beautiful scenery, beautiful weather and beautiful friends to share it all with.

How do we spend our time?

2010-02-24T20:38:00.000-08:00

Last week as our family was watching the Olympics, Raquel asked me why we didn't go to Salt Lake when the Olympics were there.

I remember at the time of the Salt Lake Olympics my mother calling me multiple times inviting us to come. She told me how exciting it was just to walk around downtown and how beautiful the city looked. We had a free place to stay (at my mom's) and even some free food (my mom's a great cook and I'm sure she would have fed us at least a couple of meals), yet we didn't go.

I tried to remember what my excuses had been and why we hadn't taken the time to spend a few days in Salt Lake at a time that would have been forever etched in my family's memories. It really was a once in a life time opportunity and we let it pass us by.

It started me thinking of all the "things" that take up our time, consume our thoughts, waste our energy and overwhelm us. And yet the very next week we can't even remember what they were. How many other opportunities are we letting slip away because of all the "things" we have going on?

I would like to think that I'm a little smarter and wiser now, but I'm afraid that I still let all those "things" consume me. But if the Olympics were held in Salt Lake again, Mom, I would be staying at your house.

The perfect plan

2010-02-14T19:47:00.000-08:00

Last Monday, Preston and I decided we needed a break from school and decided to take advantage of all the snow Arizona has received. We headed up to St. Johns Monday night, spent the night with Garth's parents and then headed up to Sunrise Tuesday morning.

I don't think I have ever seen as much snow as they had and we were psyched for a great day of skiing and snowboarding. The plan we had was perfect - go up in the middle of the week, avoid all the crowds on the weekend and have great snow, roads and weather before the next storm came through on Wednesday. I was a little worried when we got to the slopes and the temperature was only 11 degrees, but our Arizona sun never lets you down, and it kept us warm all day.
As you can see by all of the snow and the bright blue sky, our plan was perfect and the mountain and snow were absolutely breath taking. The added bonus was the buy one, get one half price on the lift tickets on Tuesdays! Perfect plan!

You can see by the few tracks and lack of people on the slopes that we avoided the crowds. The best laugh of the day was when we were going down the snow park for the first time. I went first and I went off the side of a jump rather than going straight off it. Preston followed me and was headed straight down the jump and at the last minute went off the side like I did. He fell in such an awkward, funny way that everyone on the slope watching started to laugh. There was group of snowboards off to the side and they told him that was the funniest thing they had seen all day. We all had a good laugh including Preston.

To add to our perfect day, we had Indian tacos made with real Indian fried bread for lunch and since they had all their lodges open we didn't have to wait in one line the whole day - not for the chair lift, bathrooms, or food. What could be better?

Our only problem came on our way home. I completely forgot to fill up with gas when we left Show Low - not such a good plan. As we watched the digital gas display count down our miles until empty, Preston informed several times that he was not going to push the car when we ran out of gas. We drove almost 50 miles from the time the display said we had no gas, so we really coasted our way into Globe on fumes. Luckily running out of gas didn't ruin our perfect day in the snow, it just gave us something to concentrate on for an hour or so.

"You've been selected"

2010-02-06T17:09:00.000-08:00

Those are dreaded words if you are part of my husband's family. "You've been selected" does not mean that you have won a prize or will be honored with some recognition.

"You've been selected" in my husband's family means prepare yourselves - you are about to be hosed, taken advantage of, inconvenienced or required to buy a steak dinner for 16.

Everyone is his family has their name blocked so when you answer the phone your caller ID can't tell you who it is; otherwise you would never answer the phone if you saw it was a member of the family. You just don't dare, you never know when you will be "selected." And it can be an expensive experience.

You can answer your door and have a family member standing there telling you that "you have been selected" to feed them lunch that day or let them spend the night or take them out for ice cream.

Don't get me wrong we have taken advantaged of this tradition, too. When Jason's car broke down in St. George last Thanksgiving, Garth called his cousin to let him know that he had "been selected." Garth wondered if his cousin had hung up, there was such a long pause on the other end. His cousin was very relieved when he found out Jason just needed to spend the night.

Every January I start to worry. I know we are going to be "selected," once again, to host the Super Bowl party.

So two weeks ago I wasn't surprised when Garth told me that yes, once again we had been "selected," the Super Bowl party would be at our house.

It used to be that we varied who had the party. We would head to Flagstaff, play in the snow, go ice skating, visit the Grand Canyon or go to Winslow and visit the "Standing on the Corner" monument (that's about all there is in Winslow) and have it at our house every other year. But that was long ago when we still had all our kids at home. Now no one wants to get cold (I think everyone but me is getting old) and so our house "gets selected."

The Super Bowl party is quite a tradition in my husband's family and we all look forward to seeing all the family, eating way too much, and watching the "big game."

So I shop for food and stock the fridge with cokes (our budget is so thankful that no one drinks beer) and Garth's one uncle brings his delicious salsa and his other one brings a half eaten box of chicken wings and you just hope no one invites too many friends they didn't tell you about.

I talked to Jason today and he was sad he would miss the Super Bowl party once again. I talked to my son-in-law and he wondered if we could set up Garth's laptop and Skype he and Lonica in. Then I remembered all the wonderful memories I have of Super Bowl's past and realized that while "being selected" can be expensive, it can also bring together a great family and create memories that will last a life time.

I guess I can handle "being selected" once again.

How not to start a conservation with your mother

2010-01-25T15:44:00.000-08:00

I feel pretty proud of myself that I am not that obsessive, worrying type of mother. I thought I was pretty cool under most circumstance.

When my almost two year-old was standing at the sliding glass door with blood covering his face and needed 30 stitches, I calmly grabbed a towel covered his head, instructed my daughter to call her dad and then stood on the driveway holding him until Garth came and picked us up. I then laid on him for an hour to hold him still while the plastic surgeon stitched him back together. I was calm.

When the same child fell off a couch I let him walk around on a broken foot for two weeks before taking him to the doctor and finding out his foot was broken. (I know that sounds cruel but it was a couch a foot and a half off the ground for heavens sakes.)

When my daughter was head butted in soccer and had her lips smashed into her braces and her jaw dislocated, she pulled her lips out and a father on the team realigned her jaw, we rinsed out her mouth and she continued to play. No wasted trip to the hospital and I didn't freak out.

When the same daughter informed me that she had repelled off a train tressel hundreds of feet high, in the middle of the night, with trains going across, I didn't freak out. Just reminded her that that probably wasn't the smartest thing to do.

When my son was sent to live in Bogota, Colombia for two years, I didn't freak out. And when he told us how he had been bitten by a dog, held up at gun point, chased by gangs, and almost choked to death, I didn't freak out.

When my 16 year-old called to tell me he had wrecked my car and was in his fourth accident in less than a year - I did freak out. Well, wouldn't you have?

Overall, I feel as though I have a pretty good track record, so when my son who lives 600 miles away calls and starts a conservation with, "Okay mom, don't freak out." What are you supposed to think? Obviously, you think of accident, right? But how bad can it be because my child is talking to me on the phone, so he isn't dead yet. But of course, your mind races way at a thousand miles a second thinking of all the worst things that could have happened.

He then proceeds to tell me that he hit heads with another kid and has a gash on his forehead that needs stitches. Is that all? All those visions of mangled cars, broken limbs, or severed fingers for just a cut that needed stitches! Doesn't he know his own mother? Doesn't he know I'm not the "freak out" type of mom?

I guess not.

Maybe I ought become that "freak out" mom type and show him just how lucky he has been all his life.

"Oh, the weather outside is frightful"

2010-01-22T17:00:00.000-08:00

I live in the desert. We don't get much rain. We average 7 inches a year; that is our average and we haven't gotten that in the last couple of years. We average 364 days a year of sunshine. That means that we never have to worry about getting rained out of anything. We only worry about heat and pray for a change in the weather.

So imagine our surprise when last Sunday the meteorologist announced that the Phoenix area would be getting 8 inches of rain this week. There would be change in our weather and next came the media blitz! Since the media gets excited anytime there is a prediction for change in our weather, and most of the time it doesn't happen, we were all doubtful that we would end up with even an inch of rain.

Well, this time they got it right. Monday it started to rain a bit, but Tuesday evening we got hit with the first big down pour (we've hardly had a reprieve since). At about 6:30 I was fixing dinner when I got a call from Garth on his way home from work. He had a flat tire on the freeway, almost at the exit to our house. You know every person that creeped by him that night was so glad it wasn't their vehicle with the flat.

His truck is a monster to change tires on and he wasn't in a safe place to do it, it was raining buckets of water and it was dark. We debated what to do, called a couple of friends to get advice and eventually I borrowed a heavy duty jack and set off to help Garth change the tire.

By the time I got there, one of the friends I'd called was already that and he and Garth were about done (yea, I didn't have to get soaked) They were soaked to the bone, but within 10 minutes Garth was home. Thank goodness for great friends!

Moral of the story is, when the tire pressure light goes on and you can get off the freeway and find shelter and light at a QT, don't think you can make it home. And sometimes the meteorologists are right in their predictions.

It's About Time

2010-01-19T19:48:00.000-08:00

As you can see it is past the middle of January and I'm barely getting around to blogging about our holidays. (I hope that isn't a sign of what the year to come will be like!)

Once all our family got home we had plenty to do before Christmas even got here. We had to take Amelia to have her first picture with Santa.
Take a family photo for our Christmas cards that never got made or sent. (Sometimes something just has to give and that is what I gave up on this year. I've had terrible guilt but it will eventually go away.) We do look pretty good don't we. What is even better is that we didn't even plan on taking our picture that day and everyone just happened to coordinate. I just love it when things like that happen.

We had to make a quick trip to St. Johns so Amelia could meet all of her great-grandparents, aunts, uncles, and cousins. My dad even came over from Albuquerque. Here is Garth with his mom and Amelia.

Amelia also needed her first hair cut which I wasn't too happy about being chosen to do. The top and sides turned out pretty okay but the back looked awful. Good thing Lonica has her wear headbands all the time.

And of course we had to play with Amelia every moment she was awake.

Finally, Christmas Eve arrived and we all sat down for dinner. Without Anita, Rob and their kids here this year our table seemed kind of empty. But for the first time in two years we had Jason home and that was wonderful!

After Christmas Day, we just sat around for the next week in a messy house, eating, playing games and going to movies. It was wonderful. Here we are having a fondue dinner with Preston's friend, Clark. He was really impressed with fondue and we taught him to play hearts. That is all he still wants to play.

Scott also made us a speculaas-cake. Anita had brought the recipe and spices for it last year, but we never had time to make it. None of us had eaten it before or knew what it was supposed to look like but right or wrong it was delicious!

Finally, on New Year's Day I decided to get outside and get some exercise by hiking with a friend, Terry, and his friend. This is a picture at the beginning of our hike (actually we'd probably gone a mile already) and you can see Flat Iron (our destination) way in the background, it's that point clear in the back.

Once we got to the top of Flat Iron we could see the top of the Superstitions about 1/2 mile further, so of course we had to go up there. Here I am at the top and you can see Flat Iron down to the right of me. It was a good way to start the new year - on top of the world (or the top of the Valley).

Since that day life has gotten back to normal. I'm taking four classes this semester, Lonica, Scott and Amelia went back to Ohio, Jason went back to Utah, Preston started his last semester of high school, Garth, Dave, Raquel and I all went back to work. So while life is back to our same routine, we will always look back to this past Christmas as one of our best - just a lot of family time, good food and relaxation.

Look who's here for Christmas

2009-12-17T13:30:00.001-08:00

Last Tuesday night the little girl Garth and I have been waiting to see, made it to our house to spend a couple of weeks with us. Amelia was as thrilled to see us as we were to see her and she has given us lots of smiles to let us know how happy she is to be here.
We are thrilled to see Amelia's chubby little face around our house and we are glad to have those other two that she brought with her - Lonica and Scott, too. Although we do have to split awake time with them - dang!

Jason will be home this weekend and our family will be complete. Bring Christmas on! Oh, wait - I'm not ready yet. I'm glad we have another week.

How the time flies

2009-12-13T11:47:00.001-08:00

Twenty five years ago, a couple of days before Thanksgiving, I went to the doctor and he told me my baby was ready to come and could be born at any time. The stars were aligned, my body was ready and so when my family came from Utah and New Mexico for Thanksgiving, my mother was certain that she would have a new grandchild before she left to return home. Well, we all waited and waited and waited, everyone was ready but the baby. Finally on December 12, I decided I'd had enough of this waiting stuff and so I walked, vacuumed and cleaned all day. Early on the morning of the 13th, Garth and I headed to the hospital. Of course when we got there my contractions stopped, but I was ready to have the baby and they didn't dare send me home. We were told to go walk around the hospital. It was probably 4:00am and it was cold, (the next day was the first time since I had moved to Phoenix that I would see snow on the Superstition Mountains) and we were both tired. After making one trip around the empty, cold corridors, Garth found a couch and told me to wake him after each trip around - my pillar of support!

After a few more laps, the nurses checked me and broke my water. 40 minutes later, Garth and I had a brand little girl with tons of hair. We kind of wondered if she was an Indian baby because she had so much hair that wouldn't lie down, just like most Indian baby's. The next day I sat in the hospital, going though our name book looking for a name that would fit our beautiful little girl and I came across Raquel. It just seemed to fit this newest gift from heaven and so we had our little Raquel Millie that would join her big sister, Lonica, and make our family a foursome. I think the Lord new I needed a good baby since I already had one that was only 15 months old, so he sent me Raquel. For the first year, we couldn't have had a better baby than her. She loved to cuddle and be held and you could always make her happy if you just held her.

When she turned one though things began to change. Raquel came to life and from that moment on we always knew she was around. She was full of life and excited about everything. She made up her own mind and would let you know if she wasn't happy about something or squeal with delight if she was. She seemed to always have a smile on her face and loved her babies, stuffed animals, food, her Daddy and especially her big sister. She was full of life and you could see it in her eyes. She loved to sing and dance and perform and talk and talk and talk. When she was 3, her voice went hoarse and it never got better, after a couple of months I took her to a doctor who asked if she was a loud child. I said, you could say that. Apparently, Raquel had damaged her vocal cords from being so loud and I was told to keep her quiet for 6 months and they should get better! Luckily they did, but I'm still amazed that they ever healed, I certainly wasn't able to keep her quiet. Raquel loved life and she wanted to share that with everyone.

When she started kindergarten, she also started playing soccer which would consume her life for the next 12 years at least. Raquel loved running and she was fast and could beat most of the other players and was a delight to watch. When we moved to Texas all the girls' teams were full so Raquel played on a boys' team for the next two years. Although the boys helped her to develop a killer instinct, she could still out run all of them and there was nothing Garth and I enjoyed more than to watch Raquel whip by some boy and out maneuver him. That was our little princess!! Raquel decided in 1st grade that she really wanted glasses and found this lovely pair, bought them and proceeded to wear them all the time. Her school teacher thought they were real, as did everyone else and she loved that. No one loved holidays more than Raquel, especially Halloween. She started thinking about what she was going to be for the next year as soon as Halloween was over and she came up with some great ideas. Over the years she was the Mr. Peanut man, Van Gough, a reporter, Dorthy from the Wizard of Oz, and Jackie Joyner just to name a few. The only one she wanted to be that I could never figure out a costume for was the Pillsbury Doughboy.
As Raquel grew so did her love for the Lord, for life and for her family. She was never as happy as when the family was all together and playing games.

She worked hard in school and in everything she ever did. We watched her play the piano and the saxophone, run track, play soccer and softball, become an editor for the yearbook, coach a YMCA soccer team, participate in countless service projects, become a swimming instructor, enjoy crazy dates with boys and laugh and eat with her best friends. If Raquel was around, you were having fun. After graduating she went to Northern Arizona University and continued to love life, work hard, make new friends and grow into a beautiful young woman who fell in love with Dave. She still loves holidays, is crazy and is so much fun to be around. In deed, she has magnified the gifts and talents she has and developed others. She is now our cake decorating expert, is learning to sew, is amazing at teaching children to swim, is working on becoming a physical therapist assistant, continues to use her graphic design skills and of course still has her sensitive heart and concern for others. Last summer she even indulged me and hiked 14 miles in the Grand Canyon with me in one day. I know it was hard for her but she never complained even when we were being pelted with rain, were soaking wet and were freezing cold. For the last 25 years I have been able to love and enjoy Raquel and watch her grow. I have loved being her mother and can't wait to see what the future holds for her. She has blessed my life in countless ways.

Happy birthday and I hope you always know how special you are to me.

Love, Mom

Twinkle Toes

2009-11-19T16:30:00.001-08:00

Last spring, while my son was still on his mission, I had to register him for school for this fall. I spent days calling and talking to a counselor, planning his schedule and trying to guess just what career path he would take. In the middle of all this a mother of one of his friend's, who was going through the same process, called and asked what I registered Jason for. She proceeded to talk me into registering Jason for beginning ballroom dancing with her son.

When Jason found out he was registered for ballroom dancing there was no note of excitement in his voice; in fact, I think it was disbelief and disgust. I explained that it was a great way to meet girls and that he would have a friend to suffer though it with, and besides if it was really that bad he could drop it.

Well, school started and I would inquire occassionally how the dance class was going and I always received the same reply, "It's okay." Those of you who know my son know that's about all a reply I can expect from him.

Then a couple of weeks ago the relpy to my usual question about the dance class was, "It's pretty fun." Imagine that - three words and with emotion!

I also found out that Jason's friend had dropped the class the second week of school and Jason had continued to dance by himself (well actually he did have a female partner, that was "pretty cute"). I was amazed that my 'macho' son seemed to be liking and was sticking with ballroom dancing.

A week ago Jason told me that his teacher had told him the he "a lot of potential" and Jason seemed really pleased. (What was happening to the son I knew? Could he actually be enjoying something as cultural as ballroom dancing?)

It all came to a head last Saturday when I made my usual call to check in on him and found out he had missed a coveted intermural flag football game, that was a play off game, to attend a dance competition! He and his partner had made it through all the morning rounds and had to go back that night to finish the competition. He was excited and I guess he must be pretty good to make it that far - right?

Later that night Jason and his partner made it to the quarter finals before being eliminated. In other words, they made it down to be one of the last 12 couples out of about 100.

Kids never cease to astound you. You think you have them figured out and then out of the blue they like ballroom dancing and do well in a dance competition and actually enjoy it.

So when Jason was registering for classes next semester I asked him if he was going to take the next ballroom dance class. He said no, he was good, but he really would like to learn how to country western dance! As long as we have kids, wonders will never cease.

Glimmers of Hope

2009-11-11T14:46:00.000-08:00

I have always tried to instill in my children a desire to give service and to enjoy it. When I woke them up early years ago to help pick corn at our church's welfare farm they didn't seem to happy but they went. When my kitchen was a disaster and I was trying to prepare a dinner for an elderly couple, they helped me clean, cook and carry and they did it pleasantly. As I hauled my boys to the Humanitarian Aid Center for hours every summer to iron, sew, pack, bag, clean, haul and do whatever they asked, they did it without complaint. But as a mother you always wonder if they are really internalizing what you teach or are they just obedient and want to avoid your wrath.

Last night I had a glimmer of hope that maybe this one teaching was sinking into my 17 year old. My husband is in charge putting up some of the tens of thousands of Christmas lights that adorn our temple each Christmas season. He had informed us several weeks ago that he had a large group coming to help and he needed Preston and I to help, too.

As Preston and I drove down to help, Preston remembered that he was supposed to check and make sure his group of boys had a service activity for their weekly meeting tonight. He called his adult advisor to see what he needed to do. Preston was told that since his whole youth group would be putting together gift bags for the city of Tempe on Saturday and five of the boys would be setting up flags for Veteran's Day today, that that was enough service for this week and they would do something else for their activity tonight.

My son hung up the phone, explained the situation to me and said, "Can you do too much service?"

He then proceeded to spend the next four hours hauling boxes of lights, running extension cords and sitting at the top of an orange tree stinging light around it and I never heard a complaint or a whine. At this time of year when we turn our thoughts to the things we are thankful for, I am thankful that maybe, just maybe, one thing I hoped to instill in my son has taken root. And I hope he continues to see the value and joy in service though out his life.

Quality Time with my son

2009-11-01T20:38:00.000-08:00

This week Preston and I spent some fun quality time together. A month or more ago Preston pointed out to me the The Phantom of the Opera was coming back to Phoenix. (I had promised him I would take him when it came back - dang his good memory!) So a couple of weeks ago I noticed that there was a Thursday matinee with tickets almost half price and there was still good seats. I decided that Preston could miss his last two classes of the day and we could go, besides I love Phantom so he didn't have to do too much talking.
When I went to Gammage to purchase the tickets they told me it was cheap because there was no parking on campus because school was in session. I next decided that he would have to miss all his afternoon classes so we would have time to walk from wherever we could find to park. Then I remembered Phoenix's move into mass transit and we decided to ride the light rail into Tempe and walk across campus. After having ridden mass transit in most large American cities and a few in Europe and Japan, I feel as though I'm pretty experienced and a fairly good critic.

So last Thursday, I picked Preston up and we headed to the park and ride lot, bought our tickets and climbed aboard the clean new train. Needless to say we were very impressed and we got to Gammage about an hour early - it was much faster than I had anticipated. We both felt that Phoenix has moved to the big time with their light rail - just too bad it isn't underground and much bigger.

We had a great time at the play with the bus loads of old people that came in from all over the valley, but what do you expect who else can take off in the middle of the week, in the middle of the day to see a play? Preston loved the music and we hummed it all the way back across campus and on the light rail home.

Then yesterday we had to carve our pumpkins for Halloween. We usually go all out on the pumpkin carving but both of us were feeling a bit pressed for time so we opted for easy designs.

Here is Preston's trick-or-treater pumpkin

and my witch.

I don't know what I will do when I no longer have a kid to hang out with and especially one as great as Preston.

Ohio Trip part 2 - Hocking Hills

2009-10-24T22:26:00.000-07:00

On Columbus Day, we waited for Scott to get out of class and we drove to Hocking Hills State Park. It was about 1 1/2 hours from Lonica and Scott's and Preston, Lonica, Amelia and her car seat and I all squished into the back seat for the ride. Good thing we all love each other.

At Hocking Hills there are lots of different hikes that lead to water falls, caves, canyons, or lookout vistas. We chose a couple of hikes we wanted to take and then had to get ready. Any time you take a baby anywhere you know how long it takes before you actually leave.
You can see the excitement on Preston's face, he just can't wait to go!

Amelia is excited to go on her first hike.

The fall colors were just about at their peak and we had some beautiful views. Our first hike we took was to Old Man's cave and we were thinking of Arizona hiking. We weren't prepared for Ohio hiking; the 'hike' took us about 10 minutes to get there and was paved the whole way.

Here is Scott, Lonica and Amelia in the 'cave' which was actually just an overhang. We could have done the whole 6 mile loop but decided not too. Preston and I had to go check out the old stone bridge though. We are the little specks on the bridge.

From there we decided to do the 'hardest' hike in the park but that offered the best views of the fall leaves. We found that is definitely wasn't hard but it did offer great views.

The weather was perfect and we had a great time wandering around in the forest. At least this time the trail wan't paved.

Scott had Preston walk along this log to get some cool looking pictures.

And here he is 'flying' off.

On the way home we stopped by this little dive deli that Scott had seen on TV. They had a Dagwood (from the comic strip) challenge. You had 30 minutes to eat a pound of fries and a sandwich with turkey, ham and roast beef, lettus, cheese, onions and a large bun. It looked as though there was a pound of each of the meats. For doing all this, you got your picture on the wall and a tee-shirt. The record was eating it all in 4 minutes and 33 seconds. Preston and Scott were up for the challenge.

Look at these optimistic faces.

Scott was winding down after about 20 minutes. He did a good job on the fries and made it about 1/2 through the second half of the sandwich.

This face says it all - they were defeated by the Dagwood.

Needless to say, we didn't have dessert or win a tee-shirt and no one's face is on the wall of the Ohio Deli and Restaurant from our family.

Ohio Trip part 1 - Amelia's blessing

2009-10-21T08:28:00.003-07:00

We had a very auspicious start to our Ohio trip when Southwest Airlines was looking for someone to give up their seat to Chicago and would pay them $200. Unfortunately, I had booked our tickets late and we couldn't use our free tickets on the nonstop flight to Columbus so we were leaving 20 mintues later than the nonstop but arriving 2 1/2 hours later after changing planes in Chicago. When I heard the announcement my mind starting working and after they asked several more times I went up and offered one of our tickets if they could move the person to the nonstop flight that was leaving in just a few minutes. Scott's parents were on that flight and I thought we could send Preston with them and Garth and I would fly on our original one. When the gate agent found out we had three flying together she said she would try and move us all but could only give $200 for one seat. At this point I didn't care about getting any money if we could all get on the nonstop flight. As luck would have it we all made it on the nonstop one but our luggage did not, it had to go to Chicago, but it didn't complain much.

We picked up our rental car (the guys all loved it - a fire red Dodge Charger) and followed Scott to their house. Here are some pictures of everyone meeting Amelia - the reason for all the traveling.

Garth thinks she is 'pretty special' and told her that over and over while we were there.

Uncle Preston wasn't too sure what do with a baby and thought she was pretty worthless - 17 year old. He did warm up to her and feel more comfortable holding her after a few days.

Here she is with her Rowley grandparents, Robin and Paul.
And here she is with her grandmas. Since the Rowleys were only going to be there until Monday morning, we let them do most of the holding, we would have plenty of days to spoil her.

Sunday moring we had to leave bright and early, church was a 20 minute drive and it started at 9:00 am. All of you know how hard that is to do when you have a new baby, but we made it. Once we got to church we changed Amelia into her dress (it wasn't too conducive to riding in a car seat) and I was so happy to see that it fit (I guess we should have done that the night before). She wasn't too excited and promptly fell asleep. She slept the whole meeting expect for during her blessing. She woke up just before, was wide eyed all during it and then went back to sleep as soon as it was over. Scott did a great job and we hope she will live up to the blessing she received.
Here are a few pictures of Amelia in her dress. I had carried the dress on the plane with me and I had so many women come up and ask to see it. I was glad that it turned out well and was finished. I barely got it done Friday night before we left Saturday morning.

Grandma Honey (Robin) had crocheted Amelia's booties and they fit perfectly.

After church we did a 'family photo shoot' in front of the temple. The Colombus temple is just across the parking lot from Lonica and Scott's building, so we didn't have to go far. The day was sunny but it was a bit cool, especially if you had just come from Arizona where it was in the 90's.
The new little family
Our whole group
That afternoon Lonica and Scott had a bunch of friends over to celebrate and it was fun to meet them and of course to eat all the wonderful food Scott and Lonica had made. They are quite the chiefs. I get parinoid now when I have to cook for them.

Even in Lonica and Scott's little house they were able to fit quite a few people and their kids. It had been a great day and I was glad we were going to be staying most of the week.

Crazy Porters

2009-10-17T20:40:00.001-07:00

Last weekend Christine's (my sister) kids come down for a quick visit. You could tell they weren't Arizonans because they wanted to swim in our pool. Everyone in Arizona knows that even though the sun may shine, unless you have a heated pool you don't get in it after Labor Day. Most valley residents won't put a toe in a pool if the water temperature is under 80 degrees, me included. We are cold blooded creatures!

At any rate I tried to deter my nephews from entering the pool, and they told me they would wait until the day heated up. As I was folding clothes at 9:30 am (in preparation for our trip to Ohio) I heard splashes in the pool and went to investigate. I found Ross trying to not get wet on the pool mat (he did manage to keep his head from getting wet).
And I found Shawn shivering on the side, he had gone under twice and has 0% body fat

to help keep him warm. They continued to 'play' in the pool for a few minutes, but I guess even New Mexicans like their pool water a bit warmer!

Homecoming

2009-10-09T21:14:00.001-07:00

Last weekend was Homecoming and Preston went with Christina. She had asked him to Sadies last spring and they hung out most of the summer and here she is again. She is a cute, smart and fun girl.
Here is his whole group that went to the mud caves the week before for their day activity and then to Rustler's Roost for dinner. Check out the girl in her tennis shoes. She had on black ones and her date had on white ones.

Preston had a great time but wished he hadn't been so quick to say he would bring Christina home a midnight when he was asked what time she would be home. Next time he decided he will ask the girl's parents what time they want her home. Since he had told her parents midnight, they had to forgo all the after dance activities. Both of them where bummed but they had a good time the rest of the night.

It's almost done

2009-10-04T20:34:00.001-07:00

Well, after some frustrating work today I almost have Amelia's dress done. I had to resew the skirt to the bodice about a hundred times, but I finally got it on right.
Now all I have left is some hand sewing on the lining and I have to figure out how I want to close it - with buttons, snaps or Velcro. I'm leaning towards buttons if I can find some I like.

My sister thinks I need to embroider Amelia's initials on the end of one of the sashes. What do you think? After all, now all I have left to do before we leave on Saturday is finish the Anne Bradstreet essay that I keep putting off and read Emerson's Nature and Self Reliance and do the homework question. The joys of being a student!

We have a top!

2009-09-28T14:22:00.000-07:00

I now have the bodice done along with the sash. I had started doing the embroidery last summer and just about had it done when Amelia arrived.

I am down to just 11 days before we leave and still have my Anne Bradstreet essay to write and a mid term to take. I will start on the skirt tonight I hope. Got to keep those priorities in order!

We have a cap!

2009-09-22T15:20:00.000-07:00

After debating whether I should work on my essay about Anne Bradstreet's Puritan poetry or sew Amelia's blessing dress, I chose the dress (really not much of a choice). Well, actually I worked on the cap. I had started it in the summer but didn't get it finished. Yesterday I finished it up. Notice the cute little pink trim around the front - that was a last minute addition.
Can't you just picture the back of a cute baby's head wearing this cap?

I do have the sleeves done and about ready to attach to the bodice, but since I'm kind of making this up as I go, it seems like I put something together and then take it apart realizing I needed to do another step before the one I just did. But that is totally OK because I have plenty of time to redo steps.

My in-laws got here yesterday and will be here for the next week or so and they sat and watched me work. They assured me that I won't get it finished on time (17 days). My father-in-law says that if Amelia has a cap and a pair of booties (which her other grandma is crocheting) that she doesn't really need a dress. We can just wrap her up in a blanket. I guess there is that option.

Home Again

2009-09-16T17:41:00.000-07:00

Well, I had to leave Ohio and that adorable little Amelia and come back to real life. I really hate every time I have to do that; I wish life could be one very long vacation. But I had to come back to cleaning my own bathrooms, back washing the same clothes and back vacuuming the same carpets. It is amazing that housework isn't so bad when you are doing it for someone else. But I had to come back to taking care of the two helpless men left in my house, doing homework for the two classes I'm taking and making the blessing dress for Amelia. And worst of all I had to come back to the heat. When will it ever end?

I have just three weeks to get the dress done in (I do have the bodice embroidered and it cut out) before we fly back to Ohio for her blessing. But I have to do homework for my American Lit class I'm taking that is do tomorrow. The question of the day is do I write up my homework (What is the theme of Rip Van Winkle) or do I work on the blessing dress or do I write up a new blog? As you can see I'm not doing the first two but I do have good intentions of doing both.
I like to try and fill my life just about as full as possible, as I'm sure most of you do too.

When I actually get started putting the dress together I will put some pictures of it on my blog. My idea is to have a beautiful dress that Amelia can save and possibly bless her children in some day. We are looking for an heirloom here. Hopefully, it will turn out well enough that we will even want to bless Amelia in it.

I grew up in a family where my parents owned clothing stores and we had absolutely no need to make our own clothes. After all there were two stores we could walk into and take anything off the rack we wanted. But for some reason I really wanted to learn how to sew and I took multiple sewing classes at the Montgomery Wards store that was in the same mall as one of my parent's stores. Since then I have made lots of Halloween costumes and some maternity clothes, some choir dresses and mended and hemmed countless pairs of pants, made some quilts and drapes but it has been years and I mean years since I've made anything for someone to wear. Let alone something that I want to be an heirloom.

Wish me luck!

More pictures of cute little Amelia

2009-09-05T15:30:00.000-07:00

Here are a few more pictures of the adorable baby. She has been so good - just eats, sleeps, burbs and poops - everything she is supposed to do. Lonica has had a few problems nursing and so we have been feeding Amelia bottles of breast milk that Lonica has been pumping. It has been quite the process but it has been such a treat for me to be able to feed Amelia bottles all the time. Things are beginning to work out and Lonica should be back to nursing full time in the next couple of days. Scott has had fun feeding her too. Look at our little Buda baby.

This one is upside down but it doesn't matter because she is cute no matter how you look at her.

Here she is getting her hair washed today. She does like that. In just the few days I've been here it is amazing how much better she can hold up her head and how awake she has become. I got her some toys to look at and she loves it. She doesn't look like she is missing any meals, does she?

Here are our birthday girls - Amelia 1 week old and Lonica 26 years old. They are looking pretty good don't you think? We are going to try to all go out to dinner tonight to celebrate, the timing has to be just right. Wish us luck.

Our New Little Angel

2009-09-02T14:26:00.000-07:00

I made it to Ohio on Monday afternoon. When Scott and I got to their house, Lonica and Amelia were trying to take a nap but once we arrived that was all over. Here I am with the cutest little baby I have seen since I had my own babies.
Amelia slept really well through the first night home, only waking up once. The next morning she ate and then promptly went back to sleep and we all thought we needed to have a photo shoot because she was just too adorable!! Here is one of the darling poses Scott got.

Here is the shot I got of the the proud parents trying to get the perfect shot.

Later in the morning Lonica and I gave Amelia her first bath. We started out using this bath thing Lonica had been given but it didn't last too long. We ended up just using some towels on the table and they worked much better until someone decided to pee.

While she didn't like the bath, she loved getting her hair washed and having warm water run over her head - a true sign of a girl. She definitely wasn't happy when we finished even if there was crown on her towel for her to pretend to be a princess. I guess that will come later.Right now it is hard being 3 days old!!

She was great all day long and really takes after her mom in the sleeping department. You can't wish for more than that from a newborn. We just hope it keeps up.

Lonica felt great all day and at times I wondered if she even needed me here. The nursing has been a bit challenging but hopefully that will all work itself out.

Amelia Marie Rowley

2009-08-30T21:28:00.000-07:00

Yesterday Lonica and Scott changed our lives. Garth and I entered a new phase in life - grandparenthood. Amelia Marie was born and surprised us all at the size of her appearance 8lbs 15oz. Her mom was only 6lbs. 13oz. and their birthdays are only a week apart.
I leave in the morning for Ohio and I can't wait to see that darling baby in person.

Looks like she is already taking after her mom - she was a good thumb sucker too.

I'm not sure what this new phase of life will be like. Everyone says it is the very best. I sure hope so. It is a great way to end the summer. Columbus here I come.

We're Back in the Saddle Again

2009-08-26T19:46:00.000-07:00

Well, August has come and is almost gone now and life is returning to normal. Preston is back in school - his senior year now. I think he tried to take the very hardest classes he could find, AP Physics (his favorite), AB Calculus, AP Government, and British Literature. Naturally with classes like, he had homework from day one and I worry that he won't have anytime for fun.

Jason has left our home once again last Saturday, this time to attend BYU. Prior to leaving he spent three weeks installing solar electrical systems on roofs and made some good money before leaving the nest. Anyone that can work on a roof 10 hours a day in the middle of August in Phoenix ought to be able to handle Utah winters, right? Garth drove up to Utah with him and helped get Jason all settled into his little apartment that he is sharing with his cousin, Adam. Garth got back last night and so today was Jason' s first day by himself. I think I had roughly 10 phone calls from him and one email. I wonder how this is going to work out.

I finished one summer class I was taking and started three others (well one doesn't start until tomorrow night). As I started one of the classes on Monday, my anxiety began to rise. I read through the first lesson and realized I had about 70 pages to read in the textbook (that cost me over $100) three journal entries to write, and had to make up questions to interview two parents and their teenage children and then write the interviews up and all for 5 points! Sure makes you wonder if it is worth it. Then once I get to lesson 3, I get to start my practicum in a junior high classroom which will be 20 hours and then I just have 7 more lesson, a midterm and a final. And I haven't even gone to my Thursday night class and who knows what that will entail! If I tell you I'm a bit stressed can you understand why. Don't get me wrong I love to learn and to go to school but online classes just stink - too much busy work and no interaction with teachers or peers.

It would seem as though things are back to usual but we have this big event hanging over our heads and don't have a clue when it will happen. Lonica's baby is due in just four days. She has already been to the hospital and come home empty handed once (the contractions stopped when she got there). I scheduled a flight for Ohio for last Monday but the baby didn't come, so I moved it to today, but the baby didn't come. I have now moved it to Sunday and I'm hoping I don't have to move it again. Come on little baby Rowley, we are anxious to see you! With all the things I have going on to worry about, Lonica's baby is the one exciting and fun thing to worry about. But in between my classes and subbing, I'm making a blessing dress for her and I'm not too sure when that will get done (I can't really start it until I find out how big she is). Add that to my things to worry about.

Baltimore

2009-08-19T22:27:00.000-07:00

Since we were flying out of Baltimore, we decided to spend the night there and check it out. Garth had been there years ago on business and so he wanted to show us around. Our hotel was on the Inner Harbor but around the harbor from most of the attractions. From our hotel we had a short walk to find a place to eat and then we headed over to the National Aquarium. We had to purchase timed tickets for entry and had about an hour to wait. It had just started to sprinkle (I had carried my umbrella the entire trip and just taken it out of my backpack, figures). As we walked around the harbor (which is a great place), it started to pour. Garth was our guide and he just kept walking but the boys and I headed for cover as the sky opened up and they announced over loud speakers that Baltimore was under a tornado watch for the next few hours! We couldn't believe it. When the rain finally let up enough to leave our cover we headed back to the aquarium and were just in time to go in. The triangle buildings are two of the buildings of the aquarium.
The aquarium was packed with people and was HUGE! It is made up of four interconnected buildings, one of which have five floors. It really was one of the most amazing aquariums I have ever been to. We went though the Australian Out Back, a rain forest (there was a three toed sloth right next to the path), fresh water fish, shark and manta ray tanks that spanned two floors, and tank after tank of salt water fish, plus a large exhibit of jelly fish. They were my favorite.

We had been to so many museums in the last week that we had a hard time concentrating and finally headed back to the hotel to rest.

Baltimore was full of Red Sox fans because the Orioles were playing them that night. We had debated about whether to go or not but with all the rain we figured the game would be rained out. But after our rest we went outside and the weather had cleared up and we decided to join the throng of fans and walk over to the stadium to see if we could get tickets.

Several years ago we had gone to a Red Sox game in Boston and we love their fans, they are great. We thought it would be fun to go to Camden Yards to see them play even if the Orioles were lousy this year. The area around the stadium was just packed with fans and it had turned out to be such a gorgeous night we really hoped we could get tickets. We were able to get some and even though our seats were up high, they were good, the stadium was great, we got funnel cakes and we had a great time. The stadium ended up almost full and it was a picturesque night for a baseball game.

We sat behind some Red Sox fans and got to be friends with them. We helped them cheer on their team and the man would give us all high fives when things went well. It ended up being a great game, with four or five home runs and the lead changing hands several times. It went down to the ninth inning and the last pitch of the last batter before the Red Sox finally pulled it out. We love going to visit all the other baseball parks while on vacation. And especially love to going to Red Sox games.

On the way back to the hotel we watched a street performer and then walked down to this area were we could hear music coming from. The boys were all excited as they watched a guy get pepper sprayed and I thought some girls were wearing really funny hats and whey I pointed them out the boys informed me that they were Play Boy Bunnies with ears on. I have really bad eyes! Needless to say we didn't stay long.

The next day we wanted to go to Fort McHenry that is only assessable by water taxi or car (which we didn't have). So we picked up the water taxi right in front of our hotel and found out that we had to switch boats at another dock. Someone messed up big time because there weren't enough boats running to the fort and there were tons of people wanting to get out there. Half of Boston had come down for the Red Sox/Orioles series and were site seeing with us. Jason and Preston amused themselves by playing this game where you tried to touch the other person with your finger while we waited in line. The crowd around us gave them plenty of berth and they entertained the whole line while we waited an hour for a boat.

Even Garth had to give it a try.

We finally made it to Fort McHenry and only had about an hour and a half to look around before we had to head to the airport.

Since we had just seen the actual 'Star Spangle Banner' flag in the Smithsonian, we felt as though we had come full circle by coming to the place where Francis Scott Key had seen it flying in its battered state and written his poem. We had a good time walking around the fort and looking at the views of Baltimore. It is a great city with a good mixture of old and modern buildings.

There was a great video that told all the history leading up to the Battle of Baltimore and at the end they opened the curtains and there is the flag flying over the fort. Very touching and patriotic.

We were lucky because the day we were there, they had volunteers dressed up as the fife and drum corps and they played and marched around. They also shot off one of the cannons.

As we waited for the water taxi to return, our 21 year old decided to be a jaguar in a tree. I don't think they ever grow up and I'm glad - that way I always have someone to play with.

We had had a wonder week - walked our legs off, saw amazing sites and were reminded of the blessing we have of living in this country and being a family.

Gettysburg

2009-08-12T21:44:00.000-07:00

One day on our trip we rented a car and drove up to Gettysburg, Pennsylvania for the day. It was just about 1 1/2 hours from Washington and it was a nice break from the walking we had been doing every day. Like so many other places we visited, they had just opened a new museum and visitor's center and we spent a couple of hours going through everything there. Once again Preston finished way before the rest of us and I was the last one finishing and had to skip all the last part. We don't do much shopping but we hit the gift shop and everyone made a purchase there.
One thing we purchased was the audio guide CD to tour the battlefield with. It came with a book and map and the road was marked for the audio tour but we missed the very first turn. This delayed the start of our tour by about an hour by the time we went through road construction, then realized we were lost and then went back through the construction and found the spot we needed to turn. We did get a nice drive through rural Pennsylvania though.

We finally got to the first audio stop and were so impressed with all the monuments that cover the 25 square miles of the battlefield. Every state militia that fought there had a least one monument to them and some militias had several. This monument is to the Pennsylvania soldiers.

The monuments lined the roads that run through the battlefield. You can see people walking along this road and it gives you a sense of scale.

The area is beautiful and still similar to what it looked like over 140 years ago. Some of the battle field is being farmed again and some of the original barns and farmhouses that where in the battle are still there. In this picture we are standing on the Small Round Hill which was the scene of fighting on the second day of the three day battle. The Union army held this high ground and the Confederates almost succeeded in taking it.

This is the scene of Pickett's Charge where a mile long wall of Confederate soldiers, numbering 12,500, came out of the woods and advanced towards the Union army. The men who saw this advance stated that is was an amazing site to see. I took this picture where the Union forces were at ant you can see the trees far in the back where the Confederates came out of. While we were there two guys (one in Confederate uniform and carrying a flag) who walked across the field and finally made it just as we were leaving.

Gettysburg was the last time the Southern army was ever on the offense and the furthest point north they ever got. After the losses the Confederates suffered here they were never able to recover. The cannons and wagons are placed where they would have been during the battle only there would have been many more.

It was getting dark (we'd wasted too much time being lost) by the time we made it back into the quaint town of Gettysburg and since we still had a long drive back to DC we didn't get a chance to stop on go through the town. And much to my dismay we never saw the signs to the cemetery or memorial where Lincoln gave the Gettysburg's Address. Once we got back to the hotel and I laid out all the maps I found that we had driven by it at least four times!

"The Best of" Six days in Washington DC

2009-08-06T17:26:00.000-07:00

Instead of giving you a blow by blow account of our trip back East, I thought I would just tell you of our favorites or "The Best Of ..."

"The Best Museum"

Since this is a city full of museums and we visited our fair share of them, it was quite a task to pick the best one. But all of us agreed that the new museum at Ford's Theater was very good and Preston chose this one as his favorite. The last time we were there the museum below the theater was in dire need to be updated and the new one is very nice. This is a picture of the booth Lincoln was sitting in when he was shot and not the museum but...

Garth's favorite museum was the Holocaust Museum and I don't have any pictures from there because pictures aren't allowed. While the Holocaust Museum is a great museum, I couldn't pick it as my favorite just because of the subject, you definitely don't come out of there happy.

Jason and I both picked the National Gallery of Art as "the Best Museum." With an extensive collection of Renaissance Art including a di Vinci, a nice gallery of Impressionist Art, a large collection Spanish armor and American art we all enjoyed this museum. The added bonus is that the building is beautiful with nice atriums for resting. Preston likes art museums because they always have lots of benches to sit on and study the artwork. Here is a Manet beggar with the boys trying to look poor - kind of hard to do when you have an ipod ear piece in your ear.

"Best Memorial or Monument"

Preston choose the new Korean memorial and it was a close second for Garth. The statues of these 19 soldiers is just a portion of this memorial. In fact, one day we got off the subway into the middle of the Mall and noticed all the flags were at half mast. Not having kept up with the news we wondered what had happened. Silly us, we didn't realize that July 27 is Koren armistice day (end of the Korean war) so there were wreaths and flowers all over this memorial.

Jason and I chose the Lincoln Monument; you can't help but be impressed with this stunning monument and Lincoln himself. In fact we did something related to Lincoln almost every day of our trip.

Garth's new favorite and my second choice is the new WWII memorial. The architect did an amazing job with the design and the symbolism he used throughout the memorial. I loved walking around, guessing what something symbolized and then find out if I was right or not. There are volunteers at many of the memorials who give little mini tours or answer questions.

"Best Building"

We had four "Best Buildings." A night time visit to the temple has to be a highlight to anyone who visits DC, even if they're not Mormon.

A close second was the Capitol and even though it was packed with people, it is a beautiful building and is full of amazing works of art. We just felt bad that they have restricted access to so much of the outside since 9-11.

Preston's favorite building was the Pentagon. We all thought is would be neat to tour the Pentagon but you can't take pictures and they don't show you anything other than where the plan hit it on 9-11. Preston enjoyed finding out that no movies are allowed to go on location there but you could pretend you were giving a news conference.

The Ford's Theater was also a family favorite. A man pretended to be a policeman in the audience the night Lincoln was shot and gave us a detailed description of what happened. It was another highlight of the trip.

"Best House"

Okay, you think we have to say the White House right? Not by a long shot. The tour they do is terrible now, you spend more time going though security practically. They just herd you through the rooms with no explanation of anything. Everyone felt like you can't go to DC and not go to the White House, but it was voted the best waste of time. It is beautiful but...

George's home, Mt. Vernon, is a beautiful place as well, but since there was a two hour wait to go through it we decided just to look at the grounds which are wonderful. Garth sat on the banks of the Potomac and watched bald eagles. The boys and I explored the grounds and had a great time making videos, swinging on vines in the trees and looking for Duke and Earl, the oxen that work the place today, who we never did find. The new museum was very good and we even got to see a set of George's false teeth.

Actually, we didn't have a favorite house. Arlington House (Robert E. Lee's home) was being renovated and there wasn't anything to see there and none of males in my family were to hip on looking at any houses.

"Best Things We Saw"

While it was very difficult to choose the best thing we saw because there was just too much, both boys chose the one shot pistol that John Wilkes Booth used to kill Lincoln.

Jason also liked the display of emeralds because they came from Colombia.

And I liked the guy protesting out in front of the While House. If you could read the sign, his anti-nuclear weapons group has been there since 1981, 24 hours a day every day of the year. I think they are making progress though, haven't you heard about them in the news?

"Best Celebrity Citing"

Who would have ever thought we would see Robin Williams in the Natural History Museum? We were surprised.

Actually, he is just wax was standing next to Teddy Roosevelt. The figures were there to promote the "Night at the Museum" movie that came out this summer. The Smithsonian had all kinds of exhibits and events related to the movie.

"Best 3-D Glasses"

Do you think they could have found any more attractive eye wear than these? We watched the 3-D movie "Deep Sea" and rested our legs and most of us also had a nap. I mean fish are fish.

"Best Joke"

Because we are the loving, kind family we are, we would never do anything that would embarrass a member of our family all day long right? Wrong! After leaving the Capitol where we had to wear these stickers the whole time we were there, everyone tried to stick them on each other's back without that person knowing. You have all played that game before. But someone got Preston good and he walked around the rest of the day with a sticker on his butt. Jason and I couldn't look at each other because we would start to laugh.

"The Best Tutorial"

As I said before, Preston had a great American history teacher last year and Jason claimed that two years in Colombia had made him forget everything he knew about American history (yeah right). Well, Preston took it upon himself to help bring his brother up to speed on what he was seeing and this was most apparent at the Vietnam Memorial. Preston's teacher had spent more than two weeks on the Vietnam War and Preston knew his stuff which he imparted to his elder brother.

"Best Places to Eat"

One of the boys' top priorities was eating, of course, and we found it difficult to find many places to eat later in the evening (everything seems to shut down early near the Mall) and while our hotel was conveniently located for subway riding there wasn't too much for dinning unless we made the 7 block walk to Georgetown. After a day of walking, 7 blocks just isn't too appealing, but if we wanted good food that is where we went. Plus, it is a great place to look around. Georgetown University has a beautiful campus and the harbor area has great views of the Potomac, the Kennedy Performing Arts Center and the Watergate complex.

On Vacation

2009-08-05T16:20:00.001-07:00

We decided that we were done vacationing in big cities, so when it came time to plan our vacation this year I looked into going to Oregon. It met our qualifications - cool weather with the possibility of rain, mountains and nature abounding and no major big cities. When we asked Preston where he wanted to go he chose Washington DC. The complete opposite - heat, humidity, lots of people and one very large city. Last year he had an amazing American history teacher who instilled in him a desire to see our nation's capital. So we waited until it was nice and hot and then spent 9 days in or around DC.

I have quite a reputation in my family for not making our vacations very relaxing and in fact usually we need a vacation from our vacation once we get home. I figure that while you are in place you need to see everything there is to see, who knows if you will ever be back. So granted we usually walk our legs off but we always have a good time. This year our flight left at 7:00 am so we had to be up early to get to the airport by 5:30 am to check our luggage and make it through security. Wisely, Garth and I went to bed early the night before, but our boys thought a party in the basement was a good idea and didn't make it to bed until 1:30 am. That makes for a very long day the next day and as a result this is what they did on the subway the first day and most of the days afterwards.
The rest of the vacation we all went to bed at the same time; Garth was up an hour earlier than I was and I was up an hour earlier than the boys but this is what we got every day.....

and this.... no matter where they were sitting or standing they would fall asleep.

Some how Garth and I were able to go all day without napping every time we sat down, although we did have a hard time when we watched a video and the lights went out. But we actually had to stop at 10 in the morning to let Jason take a nap or he wouldn't have made it through the day!

But this was just ridiculous though sleeping on a cement barricade while we waited for our bus! I know they are growing boys but really.

I'll do another blog with more pictures of our trip and put some in when the boys were awake because they were some of the time, especially when it came time to eat.

The dog days of summer

2009-07-16T21:37:00.000-07:00

Ever since Jason has come home, the temperature has gotten hotter and hotter. And as the temperature soars, my energy level drops. I think that the heat is like the dementors in the "Harry Potter" series and it just sucks all the life and happiness right out of you. With temperatures consistently above 110, I have a real hard time getting motivated to do much of anything let alone go to the grocery store - getting in and out of a hot car just makes me sweat to even think of it. Besides who needs food when you just lay around all day? Answer: my two boys who have bottomless pits for stomachs! If I don't wake up before 6:00am to get started I won't ever get anything started. The nice thing is is that everyone who lives here understands that 'the heat' is a very good excuse for anything.

Yesterday we had a close call at our house. I manged to rise Preston from the dead early enough to have him help me clean a small part of our garage (we're working on small parts because we would die if we did the whole thing in a day). Dieter our marvelous, adorable, fun loving little miniature dachshund never misses a chance to ride in the car and if you open the car door in he goes for a ride. Preston went to back my car out of the garage so we could clean and Dieter must have jumped in. A few minutes later I opened the car and put up the shade screen and then we left it in the sun for the next hour or so as we cleaned the garage. Once I wondered where Dieter was because he usually loves to be around us when we are working outside, but I figured that he probably thought it was too hot to be outside and was lying under the ceiling fan on his bed. As we finished picking up our cleaning supplies I told Preston to move my car back in the garage - I was sweating enough and didn't want to get in that oven to move it 5 feet, besides that's what teenagers are for right? When Preston opened the door guess who came jumping out! Neither Preston or I could believe that Dieter could have survived that long in a closed up car that was sitting in the sun in 100 plus weather. Dieter ran and got a drink and then Preston stuck him in the pool to help cool him down. After just a couple of minutes Dieter was just fine and we were in awe of our little miracle dog.

A Busy Weekend

2009-07-05T20:38:00.000-07:00

The weekend that Jason got home, we decided to try and crowd in as many events as possible while Scott and Lonica were here.

Even though it was late by the time we got home from the airport on Thursday, Jason's friends came over to play and talk. You can see that he still has on his missionary name tag but that didn't last too long. Our Stake President came over and released him and Jason came away with tears in his eyes saying, "I'm not a missionary any more."
He got out all the sovereigns he had brought home for everyone and food for us to try. One of the things missing from this picture are the caramelized ants he brought - they haven't been too popular.

Everyone got T-shirts, though Lonica's won't fit her for a couple of months.

Of course he had to bring home a Colombian flag and there are a few things on the mantle, a hat, a gold statue, a spoon, plate and one lady gave him an emerald.

Garth and I stayed up until 2:30 in the morning talking to him and hearing about the last two years. It was absolutely wonderful!!! Poor Jason had been up since 5:00 am and it was 5:30 am his time before he went to bed. It was just so great to have him home.

What do you do the day after to get home from your mission? Go golfing of course! Garth and all the guys took off to go golfing while Lonica and I ran some errands and got some food ready for the next day when we would have a baby shower for Lonica. Raquel was at home working on the cake she was making for Jason. Jason also worked on organizing his photos from the last two years for the show later that night.

For dinner we couldn't think of anything better or easier than Barrow's pizza.

Although Lonica, Garth and Scott don't look to excited right here while they were looking at Jason's photos, it really was a lot of fun and very interesting to see what it was like in Colombia. We were glad when Grandpa Crockett showed up to watch the pictures with us.

We took an intermission and had the special cake that Raquel had made for Jason. It was really yummy with a crushed Oreo (his favorite cookies) filling. Even though everyone was pretty tired we had another late night viewing all the pictures.

On Saturday we got the table of food all set up for Lonica's baby shower. Once again we had great food thanks to Robin, Lonica's mother-in-law, Alyson, Lonica's friend, Raquel, and Fredda, my friend. Many hands make light work and this was certainly the case. Thanks to Fredda and her decorating skills, the table looked as good as the food tasted.

We had bunches of friends and family that came and they brought lots of nice things for Lonica's baby. Here is Lonica and Raquel with the quilt Raquel made.

The hit of the shower was the gift that Grandma Joan had sent. It was lots of little gifts to go along with a finger play that has been in our family for generations. "Here's the big umbrella to keep the baby dry."

Just look at the pile of clothes for this yet to be born baby. I know she will be well dressed.

That evening we had a barbecue for family and Jason's friends. I was so glad to have Scott back to cook all the hamburgers, I miss his grilling skills.

Once again we had lots of help getting all the food ready, my kitchen was full of people helping; we so thankful for family.

Paul whipped up his famous salsa in just a matter of minutes. The Rowleys brought wonderful vegetables out of their garden and we had some of the great corn that is grown just down the road from our house.

We so appreciated having all the Patterson's come and

my dad and Dee and of course Paul and Judy - she's not in the picture.

Once again Jason's friends showed up; it is a given they will be there if there is food!

Sunday, Jason spoke in church and did a wonderful job. The spirit was strong and you could tell he had worked hard, loved the Colombian people, studied the gospel and strengthened his testimony. He had left as a boy and returned as a man. It was all I could ever hope to ask for.

Right after church Lonica and Scott had to catch a plane back to Ohio. It had been a whirlwind kind of weekend - lots of food, friends, family and fun - we couldn't have asked for anything more. Thanks again to all of you who came or sent your wishes. We love you all!

Thirteen Days Ago

2009-06-29T14:54:00.001-07:00

Thursday June 18, Preston and I spent the day cleaning the house, preparing food and trying to keep ourselves busy until Lonica and Scott flew in at 6:45 that evening. Garth came home early from work because he couldn't concentrate. We picked Lonica and Scott up in terminal 4 and then headed over to wait for Jason's plane to come in about an hour later in terminal 3. Terminal 3 is dead and we couldn't even do much people watching while we waited. We did get the scoop on what Lonica and Scott had been doing and that was good plus we got to see Lonica's little pregnant tummy for the first time and feel the baby kicking.

It wasn't long before Ben and Christian (two of Jason's friends) were there waiting with us. They were almost as excited as were we and almost as early. They had both just gotten home from their missions in Argentina and Taiwan two weeks before.
As our little group of welcome home wishers grew, we couldn't sit any more and stand so we can see down the hallway, we still had a half an hour to go. Time always amazes me - it goes so low when you want it to move fast and it goes fast when you want it to slow down. Here Garth is joined by Skyler who returned from the Philippines the first of March and put off his wedding until Jason would be home.

We are so blessed to have so many friends who have supported Jason the last two years and made the effort to come to the airport. We were a little worried though when Raquel and Dave hadn't made it and the plane had arrived. They

are known to get lost and since we were at a different terminal than we usually use, we were worried, but they made it in time. In fact as people started coming down the aisle, it was Dave who was asking where they were coming from and found out that they indeed were from Atlanta. The suspense was definitely building. I had kept myself really busy all day and tried not to think about seeing Jason too much, but when Garth started saying that he could see him coming my feelings were just overwhelming, I just wish I was a bit taller! Once I got a hold of him I just hugged and hugged him as I sobbed. It is hard to describe what I felt - excitement, relief, pure joy and amazement that this moment was finally here.

He looked so good and so skinny! He had on funny Latin shoes that he had literally walked the soles right off of and spoke with a great accent that thirteen days later he still has some of. Although now he doesn't look to me for words he can't remember near as much as he did that first night. Doesn't he look great!

Preston has garneredd the most comments from all of Jason's friends as they come home and as they couldn't believe how much he has grown, and Jason was no exception. Although Preston is Jason younger brother, he isn't little anymore. There were lots of smiles all around and laughs as Jason hugged everyone there except the single girls whose hands he shook - he was still a missionary.

I was the lame mom who didn't make any welcome home signs but luckily Robin and Lisa Rowley brought some balloons for him. Thanks!

As you can see smiles were easy to come by. It was a day I had imagined since he was born but I had no idea it would be that wonderful.

After two years, once again our family was all together!!

What do you do the day before your son gets home?

2009-06-24T21:04:00.000-07:00

When your friend calls and wants you to go hiking, what else can you do but go? Besides Jason wouldn't be coming in until 8:30 pm so I had all day Thursday to clean the house and get ready.

Terry is an old friend and he and I have about the same adventure level. Although the Willow Creek hike he planned last fall was over the top. This week he wanted to go to Araviapa, a canyon that I'd been wanting to hike for years. It is difficult to get permits during the cool months but since it was June Terry didn't have any trouble. In fact we were the only ones there.
Terry loves to take his grand kids hiking but their mothers don't like them hiking alone with just their grandfather, so I'm the designated hiking partner that has to get them out if something happens to Terry. I've told him that I promise to get the kids out but that I'm not carrying him out - I will call for help for him though.

This day we had 10 year old Carson and 9 year old Hayden with us. It was a cool beautiful day which is very unusual for June in Arizona. If you can tell, there is one of us that isn't smiling quite as much as the rest. We would soon find out that he wasn't too excited to be there that day.
From the very start of the hike we had to walk in the water and that was agreeable with us all, in fact Hayden plunged in and couldn't wait to get really wet. The stream was mostly in the shade, the water was cool and we were ready for our 8 mile round trip hike.

We looked for wildlife, posed for pictures and played as we went but did notice that one of our group was lagging a bit from the very beginning. Terry said he liked to day dream a bit but that he was a good hiker so we let him fall behind a bit.

Once when we stopped to let him catch up with us we noticed that he was limping. He showed us that his shoe had fallen apart. Carson had questioned the big roll of duct tape that Terry made him carry but as his shoe was duct taped back together, he was very glad we had it. Now was he not only slow but his shoe was a mess.

It wasn't too much longer before the other shoe fell apart too and as you can see from our group picture at our lunch spot, Carson had matching Tin Man shoes. We didn't make it to our destination because we were going so slow, so we found a shady spot, had lunch and prepared to head back. At this point our poky hiker became excited and declared that he was going to run all the way back. That lasted about 15 minutes and he returned to his snail pace which was just driving Terry crazy.

Araviapa Canyon is absolutely beautiful and in many places the saguaro cactus come pretty close too the stream. Since we were going pretty slow we had lots of time to look at the scenery.

The rocks were amazing and I keep telling Terry that he needs to take a geology class so we know about all the rocks that we see when we hike. There were bright orange, green and blue ones and lots of layers of rocks as we got deeper into the canyon.

It had been partly cloudy most of the day but on our way back during the hottest part of the day the clouds left us. So what do you do when your walking in a stream and your hot? Find a deep spot and get soaking wet

and then have a little water fight!

On our way home we stopped for drinks and Carson wanted a Dr. Pepper. We questioned whether his mom let him drink Dr. Pepper and he assured us that she did. After drinking the whole thing, he was bouncing off the walls all the way home. Terry declared that next time he would have the Dr. Pepper before we started to hike. Originally Terry had told me that we would be home about 1 o'clock and I figured I would still have a good portion of the day to get things done. Well, we didn't get home until after 5 but that was okay. We had had a great day in a cool stream in the middle of the desert. Araviapa is a place I will definitely be going back to.

Count Down

2009-06-09T21:46:00.000-07:00

Just 8 more days until Jason is home!!

Grand Canyon Hike

2009-06-04T20:41:00.000-07:00

One week ago Raquel and I were preparing for our hike in the Grand Canyon. We headed up there Friday afternoon and meet our old friend Dennis Schaub and his friend, Terry, and Dennis' brother, Clarence and Clarence's wife, Kelly. They had gone up earlier and had camp all set up. All Raquel and I had to do was pitch our little tent (and she reminded me all weekend just how small it was) I tried in vain to put up a hammock, but I had brought a crappy rope that kept breaking and after falling on the ground 5 or 6 times I gave up.
Saturday morning we got up early and Clarence dropped Terry, Dennis, me and Raquel off at the Kaibab South trail head. We were hoping to see the sunrise in the canyon but we were just a little too late. We would hike 4 1/2 miles down before cutting across on the Tonto Trail to the Bright Angel trail and heading up. All total of about 14 miles but 9 of it was either straight up or straight down.

Here are a couple of pictures on our way down.

You can see the color changes in the canyon as the sunrises higher.

We were just 1 1/2 miles from the bottom of the canyon when we turned and started across on the Tonto trail. This was also about 4 1/2 miles and this trail was flatter and we were out in the open - or exposed to the hot sun. While it was only about 8:30 when we started this trail it was HOT. We enjoyed the change in trails though after 3 hours hiking straight down it gave our knees and feet a rest, plus it was nice to not see any other people on this part of our hike. The other two trails we hiked are very popular and have quite a few people on them. It was a great experience to be in the heart of this canyon and see no one but our little group. From this picture you can't even tell that we are in a canyon. The canyon rim is so far it can't be seen. The rims you see in the background are false rims. It is an immense place.

One of the great things about hiking the Grand Canyon are the surprises it brings. While we were hiking through dry desert terrain, we came upon a tree lined creek with shade!

We reached Indian Gardens at about 11:00 and we were ready for a break and lunch. I found a great little spot where we could soak our feet in frigid water, get out of the sun, eat our lunch and rest for a bit. After the heat of hiking the Tonto trail, I was worried about how hot it would be hiking out. I knew that the last 4 1/2 miles up Bright Angel trail would be extremely difficult if it was really hot (I'd done it before). We were all very glad to see the sky become overcast while we were eating. Terry was especially glad because the heat had really affected him.

Indian Gardens is another one of those surprises in the canyon - you just don't expect to see lush green spots in this vast seemingly dry canyon.

As we headed out of Indian Gardens it started to sprinkle on us and we loved that. Raquel and I left Terry and Dennis and started out at a faster pace. The sprinkles really rejuvenated us and I thought we would have an easy time getting out with the overcast sky and sprinkles. About 1/2 mile later the sprinkles became drops and a 1/2 mile after that the drops became a torrential down pour. At this point Raquel was really glad I had made her pack a rain poncho and for the next 3 1/2 miles out of the canyon we hiked, slushed, slipped and plodded up the mud puddled switchbacks. The wind and rain made the temperature drop and since we were wet, it was cold.

Once again, you never know what kind of surprises the canyon will bring to you. While there were a few places we could have taken shelter, we decided just to keep going because the trail was just getting muddier by the minute. We saw mud waterfalls begin and lots of drenched hikers. Our one goal was to beat the mule train we caught glimpes of far below us. They slowly caught up to us but we managed to beat them out by just a few seconds.I think the whole hike was a bit harder than Raquel thought it was going to be and at one point she turned to me and said, "I'm trying really hard not to complain." Bless her little heart! We were definitely having an adventure and while I don't think Raquel was liking it much, I was loving it.

At a mile from the top we finally did stop and rest and so did the rain. As soon as we started hiking again the rain started also. When we got to the top Clarance was just pulling in to pick us up. As you can see, while we look a little worse for the wear, both of us can still smile. Clarence was great. He drove us back to camp fixed us hot chocolate (it was cold at the top) and he and Kelly made dinner that night of stew, bread and watermelon. It was great!

Actually, I was very glad at how well my knees had done and that revived my ideas for hiking to the bottom again and maybe from rim to rim. I don't think Raquel thought it was fun but I do think she would hike to the bottom with me some time.

All in all, it was a great three days with my daughter and I appreciate her willingness to come along with her crazy mom.

Counting Down

2009-06-01T20:00:00.000-07:00

Only 16 more days until my son comes home, but who is counting?!!

Update

2009-05-27T21:56:00.000-07:00

Just to let you know, in case you were wondering. Garth's back is doing well. In fact he has gone golfing twice so I think the healing is complete. The physical therapist has given him some exercises that he will have to do probably the rest of his life but since he already exercises religiously, adding a few new ones to his routine won't be a problem.

Garth's dad had a pacemaker but in and then came home to stay with us for a week. He and Colleen went home yesterday and we hope and pray that he continues to regain his strength.

I have one more preparation hike tomorrow before we leave for the Grand Canyon on Friday. I know Raquel will make it easily but I will probably need all your good thoughts and wishes. I'll let you know how I did.

Our biggest news is that we found out that Jason will be coming home on June 18! That means only 22 more days until I see my son again!!!!

Getting Ready

2009-05-22T21:36:00.000-07:00

About a month ago, a friend invited me on Grand Canyon hike. Garth and Preston will be on Preston's super activity and the Canyon is always calling me back, so of course I accepted. Since then I have frantically been trying to get in shape, I know it is in vain because I don't think anything can really prepare you to hike that place. In addition, I have also had the challenge of getting new hiking boots - that has almost been harder than getting in shape.

Well, every Saturday I've been hiking Camelback Mountain in preparation. The first week I didn't do so well and was sore for four days afterwards. Since then I haven't been sore but I'm definitely not fast. Last week Raquel decided that she wanted to go to the Canyon as well which thrilled me, but I told her that she need to go hiking with me.

Since school was out and it was rainy and overcast on Friday we decided to go then. It is about 1/2 mile from where you park the car to the trail head and you can see Raquel heading up the street. There are huge, gorgeous homes all along the street and about the only ones in Arizona that haven't lost their value. The small hump in the background is the first hill but not the top of Camelback.
A cloudy view of the Valley from about half way up.

Here is Raquel sitting at the top, she wanted to quit before we got to the top but I wouldn't let her. Ever since I didn't go to the top of the sand dunes on a hike in Colorado one time with my boys, I always go to the top.

We had sprinkles fall on us most of the time and there was a nice breeze but it was hot and we decided that it felt like being back in Texas with all the humidity. You can see that Raquel's hair in all wet.

I was surprised to see that the saguaros were already in bloom. They usually don't bloom until the first of June but we have had the hottest May on record so I guess they are early this year.

I choose the Cholla Trail up Camelback because it is steep and thought it was about the best preparation I could get. I had planned on doing it several times in one day but that hasn't happened yet. With only 5 days left it probably won't.

We won't be hiking to the bottom of the Grand Canyon, just doing a really big loop trail all in one day. It will be almost 14 miles -about 4 miles down, 4 miles across and 4 miles up. Luckily we will stop at Indian Gardens for lunch and to rest and replenish our water. I can't wait to get up there Friday.

On Saturday, keep us in your thoughts and prayers, I'm sure I will need all the positive energy I can get to make it. We figure it will probably take us 8 to 9 hours. In spite of that, the Canyon is one of my most favorite places on Earth and it draws my heart back there and I can't wait to get back into it. I don't think Raquel will have any problem on the hike - she ran the 1/2 back to the car when we were coming down. I just hope I don't hold her back too much.

My Most Avid Reader

2009-05-16T17:07:00.001-07:00

I have one person who reads my blog religiously, he never makes a comment on it, but I always get a phone call comment. I hear "you really made me laugh," "when are you going to write a new blog?" "I can't believe all the things you are doing," or my favorite "you really are a good writer" (I'll take all the compliments I can get). This reader is my father-in-law, Ralph. As you can see by the photo, he isn't in the best of health and in fact about 5 years ago he was air lifted down here and things didn't look too good for him, but he is definitely a fighter.
A year ago last January my mother-in-law was air lifted down here and things didn't look too good for her either. She was in ICU for over a month and then in hospitals or rehab facilities for another two months and during those three months, I had the privilege to have Ralph stay at my house and take him to the hospital each day.

We got our routine down, 20 minutes to downtown Phoenix (thank heavens for car pool lanes), drop Ralph at the door, he got his wheelchair, I parked the car, I pushed him up to ICU and we checked to see how Colleen was doing that day. Later, we'd go downstairs for lunch (gotta love that hospital food), go back up and visit some more and then I pushed him backed downstairs, went and got the car picked him up and we headed home.

During that time I got to know Ralph much better. I saw him worry over his wife of almost 60 years, patting her hand telling her everything would be alright; reassuring himself as much as her I think. We thrilled over every bit of good news together and worried when things did go well. We laughed when Colleen (due to drugs and lack of sleep) told us she was going to Montana or that the Chinese grandma came visiting or that she spent the night freezing in the fairgrounds parking lot. We cowered when she pointed and shook her finger at us and were puzzled when we couldn't make out her handwriting (she was on a respirator for several weeks and had a tracheotomy and couldn't talk). Although it was a very stressful time, I received great blessings by being with Ralph every day.

Before my father-in-law got sick he was an extremely hard worker and it nearly killed him to watch us work and not be able to help, so we found jobs for him. I would pick oranges and drop them on the ground and Ralph would go around picking them up - that was quite a big chore for him. He loved to juice them and that was an intense workout. But his hardest job was to walk down to the corner and back each day in 6 minutes. I don't know that he ever made that one.

In February, Preston decided that he would trim our neighbors' trees that came over on to our property and Ralph was right there supervising the whole time. Once Preston learned to listen to him the tree trimming went much easier. He didn't have to put in near as much effort to get the job done if he followed Ralph's directions - experience really does make a difference.
While he was here last year I also took him to doctors and dentists and teased him about what a baby he is. I couldn't tell him when his appointments were until that day because he would get himself all worked up. He listened to me ramble on for hours - I had a captive audience. I complained, explained, cried, worried about my kids and my family, dreamed about vacations and he got to see just how weird I am. The nicest thing is is that he still seems to like me!

After three months my mother-in-law was finally able to go home and since then Ralph has called me at least every week, sometimes daily - just to talk to me. Of course he would comment about my blog and ask how everything was but Garth gets a bit jealous because Ralph calls me more than he does him.

Well, last Tuesday he was air lifted down here again (my in-laws like to make it a big deal when they come down I guess) and once again things didn't look to good. He was in ICU for 4 days until they figured out what was wrong with him this time. It seems that his heart is beating irregularly and he will have surgery tomorrow to fix that. The doctor's say everything should be fine; there will be two very simple invasive surgeries and he should go home on Tuesday. We are sure praying for that.

At the end of June Ralph has two boys coming home from their missions. Kyle has been in Oklahoma and Jason, my son has been in Colombia. I know they are both very anxious to see their grandpa just as he is anxious to see them.
Indeed I feel very blessed to have married into a great family and to have a father-in-law who I know I could always turn to for anything and at any time. He has been a blessing in my life thus far and I pray for many more years to come.

Lastest from Jason

2009-05-07T21:58:00.001-07:00

This week Jason sent us a great picture of himself over looking Bogota. He also said that he will be home June 23 or 24. That means 47 or 48 days to go! That is one thing I've grown to love (do you hear the sarcasm) about just getting emails from him - he is always vague. I just hope we get an actual date and time so we will be at the airport when he comes in.

Random thoughts

2009-05-01T20:58:00.000-07:00

Well, life has been over the top, too crazy, too busy, in the fast lane, hectic, etc. and will get even worse as the month goes on. I only have one class period left and I'll be done with my class (yea!) but I'm now in charge of Cub Scout day camp at the beginning of June (boo!). I have to declare a winner to my free give away (congrats Aselin) and thank most of my small readership for not taking my offer and forcing me to make some gift for you (the idea probably scared you away). It was one less thing I have to stress over. Right now I have an essay and day camp that are doing a pretty good job.

As the temperature rises, my energy level decreases as does my desire to do much. I feel like living in the desert should bring some rewards like taking the summer off, since it is just too hot to go outside, clean, fix food, wash or move from under the fan. Unfortunately that isn't the way it works, so I try to accomplish as much as I can before the heat overwhelms me (which is usually the end of June). Oh how, I wish I was spending the month of July in Europe again (Anita, don't you need me?). But July 1 my son, Jason, will be coming home from Colombia and that will be so great to have him home again. Here is one of the few and most recent pictures we have gotten from him (Jason is the one with the lopsided hair). He is looking pretty thin so I'm afraid I'm going to have to cook it JULY!

61 days and counting!

One heck of a week!

2009-04-19T21:05:00.000-07:00

About a week and a half ago, I came home from my class to find Garth leaning on the counter in pain. His back had gone out while he was in the shower and both Preston and I were gone. He rolled out on to the floor and laid there for about an hour before he was able to get up and crawl into the kitchen. I massaged his back for about 1/2 hour and realized we were not going to be able to make it through the night the way things were going. Luckily for us we have a good friend who is a sport/med doctor and he came and gave Garth a shot and me a couple of prescriptions for him. We were very grateful for all night pharmacies that night!

Well, Garth made it through the next week, he was moving kind of slow but he was doing pretty good. Then on Easter Sunday in the middle of church, his back went out again. It wasn't as bad as the first time and he did make it to work the next day but not for the whole day. But that night about 2:00am he got up to go to the bathroom and ended up with huge back spasms that put him on the floor. He tried several times to get up but was in such pain that he spent the night on the floor. About 7:00 am the next morning our friend was over again giving Garth another shot and telling him to get into his office that day.

After a crutch, back brace, more shots, lots of meds, an MRI and a physical therapy visit, Garth was able to make it through the week. He sleeps on the floor because the bed is too soft and he moves very slowly and carefully but he is able to move and get up and down. We did find that he hasn't got anything wrong other than the same problems that have plagued him for years which was a relief. The physical therapist hopes to give Garth some new exercises to strengthen his back next week and prevent future problems. Personally, I will just be happy to have him put on his own socks and tie his shoes!

My baby's having a baby!

2009-04-14T17:03:00.000-07:00

Last Christmas, Lonica and Scott announced to the family that they were expecting a baby. They asked us not to tell anyone for about a month, which I didn't, Garth wasn't as accommodating with their request. I have had a hard time wrapping my head around the idea that I was going to be a grandma and as a result I haven't shared it on my blog. Plus, with Lonica thousands of miles away her pregnancy is kind of surreal to me.

Well, today they found out that she would be having a little girl the end of August and I figured it was time that I faced reality, accepted the fact that I really am old enough to be a grandma and my daughter was old enough to have a baby and I needed to start getting excited.

It just doesn't seem that long ago that I was pregnant with Lonica and yet at the same time that seems like a completely different life. What an exciting time it was - having your first baby and realizing that you have no clue how to be a mother.

This is a picture of Lonica when she was a year old. Could there have been a cuter baby on Earth?
We have always laughed and wondered what Scott and Lonica's children's hair would look like, since both of them have an over abundance of curly and in Scott's case Afro type hair. I invision their little girl with tons of beautiful curly locks that will drive Lonica crazy as she tries to tame them.

My hope and prayer for Lonica and Scott is that they have a beautiful, healthy baby like Lonica, who slept through the night from the time she came home, who loved playing and was so excited to learn new things and have her daddy come home. I know they will be great parents and I will try to be a good -- GRANDMA?! Can I really do that?

Free give away . . . of sorts

2009-04-10T12:15:00.001-07:00

I have been very lazy lately about new posts. I just haven't had any great ideas - not that any of my posts are very great anyway. I considered a post on the 10 ways I know spring has arrived or on my son's most recent accident or my latest essay grade or I really should have done one on my birthday last week (special dinner at Arby's and a story telling festival) but I didn't.

Today I was reading my cousin's blog and liked her idea. So here it is...I copied this from her blog.

Pay attention everyone!

Here's the dealio: The first five people to comment on this post will get something made by me.

My choice.

For you.

This offer does have some restrictions and limitations:

1- I make no guarantees that you will like what I make.
2- What I make will be just for you.
3- It'll be done this year.
4- You have no clue what it's going to be. It may be a story. It may be photography, I may sew or stitch or bake something. Who knows?
5- I reserve the right to do or make whatever I want!

The catch? Oh, the catch is that you must re-post this on your own blog and offer the same deal to 5 of your own lucky blog readers. So, the first 5 people to leave a comment telling me they are in, win a FAB-U-LOUS homemade gift by me!
Oh, and be sure to post a picture of what you win when you get it.

Good Luck!!!

My Essay

2009-03-12T21:42:00.000-07:00

I have been going back to school the last year or so but all of the classes I've taken have been on line. This semester I'm actually sitting in a classroom every Thursday night with a bunch of other much younger students studying American Literature. I have thoroughly loved this class, the stories we've read and trying to get my old brain to work again.

Several weeks ago we had our first essay assignment and had two weeks to get it written. It was the first paper I'd written in over 25 years and the first literary analysis essay in probably 30! The cold sores on my mouth and the sleepless nights attest to the stress I put myself under. I sent my essay to Lonica (our in-house editor and expert writer) and she tried to reassure me that it wasn't really the piece of crap I thought it was.

Well, tonight was my moment of truth - we got our papers back. It was incredible the anxiety I felt as my teacher began to talk about the papers. I was transported back to my school days when you were so nervous about receiving your grade on a test or paper. I was sweating and just wanted to run out of the classroom.

My teacher began by saying there were several papers that were excellent examples of what he wanted and he proceeded to read one of the student's answer to one of the short answer questions we also had to do. As he read the paper, my doubts were confirmed and I just wondered what in the world I was doing thinking I could succeed in this class let alone become an English teacher. He picked up another paper and said it was a great example of what he wanted in the essays, especially the way the quotes and support blended into the writing. He then began to read my essay! I couldn't believe it and hearing it read out loud, it sounded much better than I remembered writing. My self doubt vanished and I thought maybe I can "grow up" and become a real teacher.

We left class with our next essay assignment in hand and when I got home and reread the topics we have to choose from all that anxiety and doubt quickly returned. But hopefully, I can get through this essay without any cold sores!

Friday the 13th

2009-02-18T15:04:00.000-08:00

While Friday the 13th is supposed to have an ominous shadow over it, my last Friday the 13th was great! I subbed in a 1st grade classroom that was well organized and the students were well behaved. Or a least as good as they can be on the day of their Valentine's party.

It has been years since I attended a first grade Valentine's party and was I in for a treat. All day long I had students asking me if it was time for the party yet. Of course I had announced to the class several times what our schedule would be, but when you are six and there is a party - you just can't wait.

Finally, it was time to pass out the Valentine's and I got such a thrill watching them carefully drop their cards and candy into each others bags. At last they all sat down, well some couldn't even sit they were so excited, and began opening them. The joy on their faces and the sounds coming from their mouths was what childhood is all about.

There was a darling little boy named Jose who kept coming and showing me the Spiderman cards he kept opening - they were holographic - nothing could be better. As I stood watching them, Jose came up one more time and asked me if I had any Valentine's cards and I said no but that was okay because I was just a substitute. He then handed me one of his cherished holographic cards. When I protested he said that he didn't want me not to get any cards and that he had a lot. Jose then proceed to offer me some of his candy. I was amazed that this little boy would think of me, really a stranger, in the middle of all this excitement.

We ended the day with sundaes covered in chocolate syrup, carmel, sprinkles, candies, nuts, and topped with whip cream. The students thought they looked SO good and had to make sure their sundae had EVERYTHING on it. Then they took three bites and promptly threw them away. The joy was in the anticipation and the making - not the eating.

After spending this Friday the 13th/Valentine's Day with this first grade class, I was reminded of the joys of holidays, childhood and the goodness of a child's heart. So in the midst of home foreclosures, the stock market crashing and rising unemployment, life is great especially when you are a kid or with them!

Catching Up

2009-02-15T18:04:00.000-08:00

So it took me FOREVER to finally finish all the blogs from over the holidays and I figured I would catch you up real quick with what has been happening since then.

Preston played basketball with our ward during the month of January and every Wednesday Garth and I got to watch him play. The last week of the month his team won the tournament with Preston sinking quite a few 3's to help them win. They were hilarious to watch because only Preston and one other kid could even dribble the ball (kind of tells you about the competition they had). Several boys were soccer players, one was a football player and one thought he was a basketball player but only in his dreams. Preston was by far the best ball handler they had and we were proud of him.
Over Martin Luther King day my friend, Cindy, invited me and my friend, Wendy, to go hiking. I had a million things to do that day but I was so glad to take a little time and hike with my friends. We went out to Ussery Pass and the day was perfect. I miss hiking with my friends all the time, they are so great!

We were selected, as usual, to host the Super Bowl party this year. Our numbers were few with much of the family on a South American cruise (you can see those who weren't invited - they were at our party!). I had it easy this year, Uncle Paul did most of the cooking. He made beans, enchiladas and green chili wraps and I just made some appetizers, a salad and cornbread. Frank and Dawna brought a bunch of food also. We definitely needed more people to eat all the food we had.

We were excited to have the Cardinals playing in the Super Bowl but at half time a lot of those hopes had died. The Cardinals ended up putting on a pretty good show though and came back in the fourth quarter. It got really exciting at the end and we actually thought we had it won until the last minute or so. Such a heartbreaking loss.

I started back to school again and have been taking two classes that I really have enjoyed so far. We celebrated Jason's 21st birthday without him and are starting the count down until he comes home - just 4 1/2 months. And Dave celebrated his 29th birthday by getting a new puppy, Elle. Life is good, you can't beat the weather here in the winter. In just a couple of weeks we will have five huge orange trees loaded with ripe oranges. Come and visit and you can have as many as you can pick and carry!

Fiesta Bowl Parade

2009-02-01T20:35:00.000-08:00

Our day began early with taking Anita, Rob and the kids to the airport at 5:00 am. Rob had forgotten his most important luggage - his golf clubs - so while Garth ran home to get them I was able to spend a few more minutes with one of my best friends. We had had such a great time having them all here. It was busy and fun and we hope they will come again.

Our next stop was Paul and Judy's house for their annual Festivas brunch. We never miss that because the food is to die for. After filling up we headed to the Fiesta Bowl parade. We were disappointed that Anita and her family couldn't go to it, so most of these photos are to show them a little of what they missed.

Since Ohio State was playing the Fiesta Bowl, we were anxious to done our OSU apparel and show support. Notice who isn't wearing the red? The Ohio State student! It took us a bit to find the parade route because it had been moved since the light rail now runs down Central Ave. where the parade always went. The parade just isn't the same without all the tall buildings surrounding you and even though we were late, we found a great spot to watch from. It looks as though we are about the only ones there but we are behind a couple of rows of people sitting in chairs Disappointment was on the horizon though when we found out that we had just missed the Ohio State marching band - the the one entry we really wanted to see. But we showed our spirit by doing the OHIO sign and yelling to any other Ohio fans we saw.
Of course the Fiesta Bowl queen and her court came by in their carriage.
And as you can see, the Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade isn't the only one with big balloons.
There were some entries with some pretty crazy costumes like this one from the Caribbean.
And no Arizona parade would be complete without the Mexican dancers in those dresses Lonica always coveted.
Since we had just had Dutch visitors we were especially aware of the marching Dutchman band from the Midwest.
Check out these "wooden shoes", I can't imagine walking the whole parade route in them.
The Bill William's Wild Man always have to appear in the parade
along with their counterparts, the Wild West Women.
But our favorite entry of the whole parade were the Star Wars characters. Check them out! Darth Vader and the storm troopers,
C-3PO, Princess Lea and Hans Solo,
Chewbacca, and every other Star Wars character you could think of.
It didn't matter if you couldn't walk or you were very short, there was a character for you!
All in all, another great day in the Valley of the Sun.