Nearly spring

Isn't it exciting to see the snow melt? This patch was the thickest part in my yard as it was where I piled it from two sides while shoveling. I wish melting snow wasn't so ugly. It's exposing all kinds of garbage besides dead leaves and dirt.

Lettuce

I love it! Just an evening snack here at the tax job.

blogging life

do you ever find yourself neglecting your blog? i wonder if i neglect it because i'm so busy living or if it's because i'm so NOT busy there's nothing to say. i wonder if i'm feeling private or insecure or so confident that i don't need outer validation that i'm alive. either way, this morning i started to feel guilty. so... to put off death of the blog one more day, here is my exciting news for the day... my high school is competing for state in boys basketball. tomorrow we play some school at weber state. since many students will want to attend and since the community around here assumes that checking kids out of school is totally appropriate to support a school's game, our administration (and possible community council) decided to end school at 9:45 tomorrow morning. each period is only 1/2 an hour. crazy. how will i shorten my 90 minute lesson to 30? i have yet to decide. either way i'm a bit happy about it.

inspired by plewe

i laughed this morning when i saw plewe's blog had a post that just referred people to other blogs - very clever! as i was reading my brother's blog today i was tempted to do the same. unfortunately, his blog is restricted to only family. luckily, i know how to cut and paste. here is the funny story i wanted to link to:

I was taking the boys home from a fast food restaurant around Christmastime when Matthew suddenly said out of the blue, "The people in China are really nice to kids, aren't they Dad?" I looked in the rear view mirror and saw him inspecting his kids' meal toy. I guess he noticed that almost every toy he has says "Made in China" on it.

here is a picture of said matthew, in his holiday attire.

Snow or sand

We next headed for white rocks. Plewe found the contrast of snow and sand interesting. We eventually found ourselves some quilted lumps of rock free of snow to lie on. Sun is beautiful. Hooray for warmth in february! Kristin waited for us at the bottom of the puffy white rock mountain.

Pioneer names

You can't see them but they're above the head of the kid in the white shirt. Some pioneers came by in 1894 and painted their names in wheel axle grease. Kind of cool. Sorry it doesn't show. such is the art of cell phone documentation.

Sand dunes

Destination sand dunes was one of our top priorities today. I enjoyed looking for potential dinosaur prints. These were the only ones I could spot.

Lunch in snow canyon

We dined on beef salami sandwiches and tapioca pudding. It sure was tasty. For entertainment we watched a couple boys turn a picnic table in circles. They kept taking breaks to refuel - bites of their lunchables.

Temple

Another top tourist attraction in st george is the temple. I've always loved this temple! Here's a self portrait. I took a picture of plewe enjoying the water on temple grounds. The best part of this leg of our adventure was taking gracen in to the visitor's center to see the christus. Gracen asked if she could touch jesus's "owies." she was really cute as she interacted with his statue. I only wish i'd captured a photo of her reaching out to him with both arms. Cute!

Dinosaurs

For our big adventure today we took gracen (kristin's daughter) to the local dinosaur museum. It's pretty cool because it was discovered not bery long ago at all - like 2004 or something. Mr. Johnson was removing topsoil when he hit rock. Here I am posing with a cardboard cut out of the man. Gracen liked touching rocks and I think plewe liked encouraging her - here they are together checking out some good dino prints. At the end of the tour we took a turn at the art table. in the photo you can see Plewe is showing off her skills while she and I wait in the parking lot for gracen to visit the facilities. It was a sunny warm day!

Walking

The annual women of the world whirl wind tour is currently taking place in st george. We're staying in kristin's parents senior living community home. I got up this morning around 7:30 and decided to explore by foot. I saw quite a few distinguishing lawn ornaments. Here are a couple of favorites. I took a photo of myself near the end of the walk after the sun came out. I think I was incapable of smiling at that point - it had been a chilly walk! The neighborhood was smaller than i'd anticipated so I checked out a couple others near by. It was a refreshing walk with only a few gentle hills. I plan to go out again tomorrow morning.

jicama

i love it.

memories

some people in my high school class started up a website for us to stay in touch. i don't remember that many of them, and they probably remember me less, but it's still fun. today i found this photo posted on there. what memories! i am just to the right of the super blond girl wearing a white shirt - kind of in the upper right side.

Sub

This is the sort of thing you find in your room when you have a sub. That and a bunch of stuff out of place. If it weren't for the note on the board I may have been angrier. I can't help but wonder who dared to write on my board.

Teeth

I got new teeth today! Can you tell? Okay, they're not totally new but I got them bleached today. They are so white! They match my shirt. They hurt.

singing

i love singing. some of my favorite childhood memories (and current ones) have to do with singing along with family members. i think everyone in my family enjoys it. when father passed away people commented that they were going to miss hearing his voice at church. i remember as a child someone said they could sit in the back of the chapel and hear dad when he was conducting the music. stories like that always made me proud and want to sing stronger. when i was reading ny times article today about how much americans love a good sing-along, i couldn't help but want to share the quote that seemed to sum up my feelings: “No one can prove a damn thing,” Mr. Seeger said in a recent interview, “but I think that singing together gives people some kind of a holy feeling. And it can happen whether they’re atheists, or whoever. You feel like, ‘Gee, we’re all together.’ ”

Treat!

I visited my local asian market today. It's the closest one so when I want to walk to the grocery it's my best option. Trouble is, i'm intimidated by most things on the shelf. When I saw this treat, though, I decided I was up for the challenge. I think it's chocolate rice pudding. The name, though, is treat enough.

oh the agony!

this isn't exactly an appropriate post to follow the one i did yesterday about war. but it must be shared. while i was teaching my last period today i noticed the kids seemed a little whispery and giggly about something secretive. i got the impression it had to do with me - like i had something on my shirt or in my hair. well, i just now discovered (an hour after they're gone) that my zipper was down. ugh. sometimes my life is really really a tragedy.

sad story

my sister forwards an email to me that she gets from her neighbor who gets it from their husband (or some close relation) who is on duty in iraq. he drives a bus. that's about all i know. anyway, nearly every day there's a thoughtful detailed email that comes to me that really makes the war more real and personal. the guy is a good writer and i can't help but sometimes wonder if he knows and is consciously writing for a larger audience than just his family. anyway, today's email from him contained the story of a memorial service that happened for some soldiers he knew. he decided to also give the back story on "taps." i didn't know it so i figure it's worth sharing. maybe you all will be interested in it. here it is as recounted in the email from the random bus driver serving in iraq:

Taps was played for the first time during the Civil War, in 1862. Captain Robert Ellicombe and his men were fighting the Confederates at Harris' Landing in Virginia. As darkness fell across the field, Captain Ellicombe could hear the moans of a single mortally wounded soldier who lay somewhere in the night. Unaware as to whether the soldier was Union or Confederate, the captain crawled on his belly through the brush and the gunfire until he reached the dying soldier. He pulled the soldier back through the smoky haze of the battle until he reached his own camp. Then, holding a lantern, he was horrified to find that the dead Confederate soldier was his own son! The boy had been studying music in the South when the war broke out. Grief stricken, Captain Ellicombe asked that his son be given a funeral with full military honors, even though he was a Confederate soldier. The request was only partially granted, and Captain Ellicombe was told that he could not have a military band, but could have a single musician play a funeral dirge. He chose a bugler to play the handwritten tune that he had found in his son's pocket. It was the haunting melody that we've come to know at all military funerals, as well as at the lowering of the flag each evening.

"Day is done,
Gone the sun,
From the lakes,
From the hills,
From the sky.
All is well.
Safely rest.
God is nigh."

life!

today was father's birthday. my brother thought it would be a good idea to have his new baby girl born today. i agree. she came out around 3 pm. her middle name is the same as father's mother's middle name - claire. kind of cool. here's the latest family portrait. happiness.

Imax

Plewe and I decided we needed to blog our trip to the imax. Here she is ready with the phone camera. And some of the rest of the gang. We are watching U23D - pretty exciting!

Heaven

finally a clear sky - like a miracle. Enough to make me pause and take a picture.