A Thousand Cranes

This is our cry,
This is our prayer,
Peace in the World!

 

"I had just prepared breakfast for my baby boy, I had bent over his basket to pick him up when I felt a tremendous wind blow me across the room.....my baby boy has not followed me here."

 

 

My junior thespian just finished her first play! The story of A Thousand Cranes is a touching one...it never fails to bring tears to my eyes. Saduko is a 12yr old girl, who was two at the time the bomb was dropped in Hiroshima. Now, 10 years later she discovers she has lukemia. This is her story. It's a great book as well. Definitely worth a look.

Bethany was fantastic and we are SO proud that she overcame her fears and kept on auditioning until she finally got a part. Now we may regret encouraging her toward that goal as she has definitely been bitten by the Theater bug and can't wait until auditions for the next production are held!

From the shores of California!!

Wow!! The time has gotten away from me!! Recently, my friends convinced me to sign up for facebook...I warn you it is somewhat addicting!! As a result my blog has been seriously neglected...apologies to my small readership!!

My BABY turned 13 on October 13th of this year!! Her greatest wish for many years has been to swim with the dolphins...so we pooled our money (some of her savings and some of the money we would have spent if she had a party) and we loaded the car and headed out to Sea World, San Diego just my daughter and I. We spent the drive chatting and laughing. She spent our first day at Sea World worrying a little that she'd miss her appointed swim time with the dolphins and reveling in the fact that she was an "only child" for the day and got to call all the shots!! She was more than a little nervous about swimming with the dolphins by herself (I opted to not spend the money and get some really great pictures instead!) but she was also very excited. God is SO good...as we waited for her group to be called I overheard a conversation next to me and the voice sounded familiar...I looked over and standing next to us with her daughter was B's fourth grade teacher (her "first" teacher besides me, and someone she utterly adored!) waiting to, you guessed it, swim with the dolphins!! Turns out her daughter was celebrating her birthday as well and they had done the exact same thing as her birthday gift!! B got to be in their group and share the experience with them, and I was able to take pictures for her teacher, something she had been a little concerned about!! Here's a few pictures:

 

 

 

 

We also spent a beautiful sunset on the beach at Belmont Park, and then got dinner and Henna tattoo's!! It was quite the mother/daughter date!! (truth be told, I had as much fun as she did!!)

Happy Birthday, Sweetheart!! I can't believe my baby is a TEENAGER!!!

The Sunset from Belmont Park...

 

The photographer gets artistic....

 

 

 

 

Beth and her teacher.

 

This is a picture of a hole in the ice that Josiah actually started when we were at Sea World two years ago...two years of lemmings putting fingers into the same hole and it's now about 1.5 inches deep. We thought he might think it was cool that it was still there...and he did.

 

Beth thought the fish were really cool. They were part of a Halloween celebration.

 

Hanging out on the beach turned out to be a cold and windy proposition but we gutted it out for about 30 minutes, then we went to a local Greek restaurant and ate icee's and sandwiches served by the hot greek guy who worked there.

We went CATCHING!!

Tim took me away for our anniversary to White Horse Lake. For the record, he offered to take me to a bed and breakfast and I was the one who suggested camping. I'm not sure we've ever been camping without kids along and boy did we enjoy ourselves!! The fresh air, the cool water, the break from the desert heat were all a wonderful respite from our "normal" lives.

We went fishing Saturday morning and we actually caught fish!! After being skunked on our last few fishing trips that sure was fun!! The fish were biting so well it was almost impossible to NOT catch something. In the end we caught 14 trout, I caught 9 and Tim caught 5 but if you ask him he'll tell you he caught 6 because one of mine was caught on his pole. I cast it, I reeled it in....that one counts for me!! To his credit he was rowing the boat...but he also dropped two other fish I caught overboard!!

Saturday afternoon it started to rain so we decided to drive into Flagstaff and have a nice lunch in out of the rain. On the way down the mountain it started to HAIL!! Hail the size of small marbles fell for probably 10 minutes, so hard and thick it was hard to see to drive!! It was unbelievable!! By the time we got to Flagstaff it was a balmy 78 degrees and sunny. When we drove back all the hail had melted and the ground wasn't even wet!! Only in Arizona!!

We decided to take the boat out and try some more fishing later that afternoon. While we were out fishing we saw several heron, ducks chasing each other through the marsh, and a hawk who dove down and caught a fish of his own, then flew up to his perch to have dinner!! It was amazing. As the sun started to set the fish started jumping, what a sight!! I have NEVER seen SO many fish (outside of a fish farm) jumping in one place!! It was incredible!!

Saturday night we had a feast of fried fish and potatoes for dinner...then hid in our tent to get out of the rain! We kind of missed out on having a campfire and roasting marshmallows but it wasn't too bad snuggling in the tent reading a book and relaxing!

Sunday morning we relaxed by a fire, then we went out in the boat and caught some more fish. We wanted to have enough to take home for the kids. We actually caught double that!

Sunday afternoon happened way too soon and it was time to head home!! We had a great time and can't wait until Spring so we can take the kids up there (and maybe make another trip alone!)

 

This is our campsite. We were about 100 yds from the water.

 

This is four of the six fish we caught the first day.

 

 

Our fish and potato feast!! I realized this was the first time that *I* cooked the fish!! Usually we fish with my dh's parents and mom cooks the fish!

 

Our view of the lake from our campsite. Can you see the heron under the tree??

 

 

See?? I have proof I caught more fish!!

 

Finally!!!

About two weeks ago my littlest came to me with big alligator tears asking me, "Momma, how come ALL of my friends have loost toofs and NOT ME?!" I told her that everyone loses teeth at different times and that she would too she would just have to be patient. She told me she was still going to cry for a little bit because she was sad.

WELL...Thursday at school she was eating an apple and practically knocked her tooth right out!! It was hanging by a bare thread so when we got home she let her big sissy (this is B's official job in our family) pull it out!!! There was GREAT rejoicing as she put it under her pillow and asked me about a hundred times if I remembered to call the tooth fairy. She wrote a note asking if she could keep her tooth so she could show her class. She even drew a picture for the tooth fairy...when I asked her why she look at me amazed, "Mommy, if someone comes all this way to give you a surprise when you lose your tooth you should give them a picture or something to say thank you, that's only polite!" Well, yes it is!! That's my polite girl!! Needless to say the tooth fairy accepted the picture in leiu of the tooth so she could show it to her class, and left her a lipgloss AND a golden dollar! Never was there a more excited six year old girl on Friday morning!!



Here she is showing how she can breathe through a straw now with her mouth closed and her nose plugged because she can put the straw through the space in her teeth!! LOL!!

Sarah Palin for President!!

Some of my teacher friends are going to hate me, I'm sure, but I LOVE this woman. Granted, I don't know a whole lot about her yet but I like her style, I like her humor, and I like her gumption!! She has a beautiful family and isn't afraid to BE a mom while campaigning for the second highest office in the country. I can't wait to see more on her in the near future...I'm not big into politics but I had to comment...

Puppy Update!!

I realized I haven't updated about the princess recently. She's still as adorable as ever, but getting BIG!! Given the size of her paws, she's definitely not done yet!!

Beth said Chloe ws showing my students how to be in "ready position."

 

Beth likes snuggling with her puppy!

 

Chloe and Molly are finally getting along!! They play together and eat out of the same bowl...and we caught them sharing a bone!!

 

She's getting to be a little too big to be carried around...not that the girls don't try!!