My Essay

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

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

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

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.

The Last Day

Okay, it is ridiculous that it is now February and I'm still trying to finish blogs from the Christmas holidays, so we are gong to do the condensed version. Well, maybe it didn't end up being too condensed.

Below is a picture taken 14 years ago at this mining town out by the Superstition Mountains that I take Anita to each time she comes. You can see how small Preston and Jip are plus all the other kids. (click on the picture and you can get a close up of it) Well, Anita wanted to go back to that same mining town to take Jip's picture in the same place that she has previously, so on their last day here we headed back out there.Here is everyone in front of the big saguaro in the middle of the "town". But this wasn't the one she was looking for. We walked all over looking for that certain cactus with no luck. We took time out to watch the "gun fight" in the middle of the street.
And then found a substitute cactus to take pictures with. Wouter was the bravest of all and he hugged the saguaro.
Everyone else just stood in front of it like Jeske or

tried to jump. Years ago when Jip was just almost three, Anita had asked him how tall he was going to be and he jumped as high as he could and said, "This high!" while she took his picture in front of the giant saguaro. So everyone played, "How tall are you going to be?" Here's Jip

And Maxim

And my three kids who had a really hard time all jumping at the same time.Do over - one, two, three, jump!

One, two, three, try it again! Oh well.

Finally Anita and I tried and we had just about as hard a time as Lonica, Raquel and Preston did, but we have an excuse, we are older!

For dinner that night we made Anita cook and make us a Dutch dinner of hutspot.

One thing we didn't lack over the holidays was food or hungry people. We had plenty of both and had a great time trying and sharing Dutch and American foods.

Here is the hutspot. Yumm

After dinner all the boys went to Bass Pro Shop to check it out and play at the shooting gallery.

Jeske's last request was a little car but Rob refused her for once and they didn't take it with them the next morning when they left.

Everyone had to come home and pack up because they had to be to the airport at 5:00 am for the long flight home. We hated to see them go and we all knew we had had a holiday that we would never forget. Thanks Creemers and de Vries for coming and sharing your vacation with us. It was GREAT!!!

New Year's Eve and Day

Anita treated us to another Dutch tradition on New Year's Eve by making us oliebollens (translated oil balls). She fried them out back on our grill which I'm quite sure they don't do in the Netherlands. The sticky dough is filled with currents and after they are fried you sprinkle them with powdered sugar. Their name is misleading because they are very good. We enjoyed sharing this New Year's tradition with them.

The rest of the day was spent playing games and eating; every one's favorite pastimes. That night all the kids went ice skating with our ward and the adults went out to eat at P.F. Chang's.

None of us are great party people, so we watched the New Year come in on the TV with all those in Time Square and then headed to bed.

New Year's Day we planned a barbecue and invited Garth's Uncle Paul and his wife, Judy and Mrs. Cooper, Judy's mother. We started early in the all day getting the baby back ribs and pulled pork roasting. Lonica made some great green chili cornbread and Judy brought coleslaw and Paul's famous salsa. Needless to say, we had plenty of food! I appreciated all the help I got from everyone and especially from Scott. I really miss having him around when we barbecue.

We also planned to have a white elephant exchange and I'd told Anita to have everyone in her family bring something for it. They were intrigued by a game where everyone brought something they wanted to get rid of and wrapped it up nice. During the day everyone had snuck into the office to wrap their "gift".

Here are pictures of our group while instructions and rules are given. You can see the excitement building in their faces.

Wouter and Garth look as though they can hardly control themselves. We actually had a really good time opening the wonderful white elephant gifts and "stealing" them from each other.

We were blessed with things like stuffed bears, really small sunglasses, pictures of Lonica, bobble heads, Corvette pins, world maps. But I ended up with the most coveted gift - gloves that could peel a potato in 8 seconds! After the game, Preston had to run get a potato so we could try them out.

As everyone gave it a shot, none of us able to peel the potato, let alone do it in 8 seconds. So if you see the infomercial for these gloves, resist the temptation and don't buy them. As amazing as they sound you WILL be disappointed.

Day 4 - Zion's and Las Vegas

We woke up in this beautiful setting on Monday morning and after a quick breakfast, headed back to Zions for another hike.
Ever since we had first hiked the Narrows I had wanted to come back and hike Angel's Landing. Luckily for me one of the few trails that was opened was Angle's Landing although not all the way to the top. Here you can see the first switch backs we had to climb. We lost Garth before he got to this point.

As you can see, it was another beautiful day even though we were hiking in the snow it was warm. This was the point that we lost Rob, Jip and Preston.

These short and steep switch backs were amazing the way the snow covered them.

Maxim beat us all to this point but started down before we could get a picture of us all.

Here is another great shot of Anita and I. It almost looks as though we have be cropped into this picture.

At this point the trail narrowed and you had to use chains to pull yourself up with and when we got to the next small set of switch backs, I lost Anita, Wouter and Jeske.

I hiked up to another amazing point where I could tell that I still had a long way to go (when hiking it always seems as though you are almost there then you top out and realize you have further to go) and too many people waiting for me. So another hiker and I took pictures of each other and started the decent together. While the trail was definitely narrower up here, the snow gave you a false sense of security and I think it will be really interesting to hike it again when there is no snow.

Just a couple more photos of this beautiful canyon covered in white.

From Zions, we started our longest day of driving thus far as we headed to Las Vegas. Once we hit the city we hit traffic jams due to construction. Garth got off the freeway and when we got closer to the Strip we hit more traffic jams. Las Vegas is just one big traffic jam day and night!

We were staying at the Venetian and had quite a time just trying to find the entrance. Once we got out of the van and knew we didn't have to drive anymore we were thrilled. Then we walked into the hotel and looked around and we were even more thrilled.

Check out our room that looked down on to the swimming pool.

After a little rest we headed out on to the strip. Here is an outside photo of the Venetian.

Our first stop was the Mirage and we managed to get there just minutes before the volcano erupted so we stood around with all the other tourists to wait.

Here Maxim is pretending to be a Oriental tourist with his peace sign.

We were all rewarded and warmed when the volcano erupted.

From the Mirage, we went to see the pirate show at Treasure Island which has always been one of our favorites. We waited a half hour or so and we were so disappointed. It is longer the family entertainment it once was. The pirates now fight the sexy sirens who sink their ship and bewitch them. I wouldn't recommend it to anyone.

At that point we just walked down the strip looking at all the hotels. Earlier in the evening we had talked about getting some Italian ice, since it is a favorite of Rob's, and when we were in Caesar's Palace I saw a store so we headed over to have some. They had cups displayed of the various sizes and I chose the smallest size and Rob started ordering his family's in the next smallest size. There weren't any prices displayed and when I walked around the counter to pay for mine I couldn't believe that it was $14! And then I noticed that the size Rob was buying multiples of was $17!! I went and told him how much they were and he didn't order any more but he still ended up paying $92 for Italian ice! The price kind of took the sweetness out of the ice.

As I said before one of the nice things of going right after Christmas was seeing all the decorations still up in the hotels. The Bellagio's decorations were absolutely outstanding. Jeske is standing in front of just a few of the many huge presents and ornaments they had on display.

After checking out the inside of the hotel, we went and watched the wonderful fountain show in the frontand thought about the Ocean's Eleven movie.

From there we finished off with New York, New York and then headed back to the Venetian because our legs were tired and it was after 1:00 am.

As we were walking to our room Preston talked Garth and I into walking down to the Encore that had just opened the day before to get him a chip as a souvenir. He was sure that their chips would be really special. I can't remember when my legs and feet had been so tired but we decided to go. We walked though the Wynn which is connected to the Encore and then had to find the cashier cages to purchase a chip. While Garth was buying a chip I thought I'd take his picture for future blackmail threats, but as I was about to take the picture the security guard came up and I quickly took a picture of the beautiful mosaic floor - or so I told him. Actually they were very beautiful. The chip on the other hand wasn't special at all and the ones at the Venetian were much nicer. It was after 2:00 am that we finally drug ourselves back to our room where we slept in as late as possible.

We headed back to Mesa the next day and we were all very happy with all the sites we had seen. The trip had turned out perfectly.