At the Park and the Elephant Tree

We took the kids to the playground at Clinton Elementary this afternoon. It was so nice to be outside! I tried to capture a few "feet" photos.

 Jonah

Hazel

Ez

Ez really isn't holding onto Jonah's feet, but it looks like he is.

Here's Jonah again.

Ez, looking through one of the handles of the monkey bars.

 Under the elephant tree. This tree is pretty well known.

 I love this photo of Hazel.

 Ez had fun taking pictures with my camera today. Some of them turned out better than mine!

Hazel's Hands

We had Jonah, Ez and Hazel for a couple of days while their parents went to Mesquite. They are great and good and fun, but I was very tired by Sunday night:)

I decided to focus on Hazel's hands for these pics.

Ez had a slight fever and cough and fell asleep early.

Jonah is in first grade. It's so sweet to receive love notes from him.

UCET Conference

I attended the UCET (Utah Coalition for Educational Technology) Conference at Murray High School today. Murray is my old stomping ground when I attended court reporting school and not far from the high school. It's also not far from one of my favorite parks. I attended sessions on photography, the Web 2.0 classroom (google docs, blogs, paperless classroom) and Twitter tools for teachers. Amazing how exhausted I am from using my brain today -  in a different way.

I was delighted to find my friend, Pat O'Connor in the vendor area. He was here from Colorado with Lightspeed and the Redcat portable audio system. He is a walking miracle and has an incredible survival story which touches anyone who hears it. Recently his story was told on a Denver TV station commemorating the one-year anniversary of the accident and can be viewed here. (They don't talk about the mystery man who showed up out of nowhere and provided a lighter to keep him warm, but can be read off the site.) http://www.9news.com/video/default.aspx?bctid=62379621001

I really liked  UCET's clever poster this year, advertising the conference.

Storm Clouds and Rays

An interesting sky on my way home from work on SR193.

Jelly Beans at Work

Having this bubble gum machine house jelly beans instead of gum just makes kids and their parents happy when teachers drop in to register or to ask a question. No sticky gum...whiney, tired kids smile when they can pick a penny from the bucket, put it in the slot and get some jelly beans:)

The Dreaded Mammo

"Why yes, I did have a mammogram this morning...Why do you ask?"

I went first thing this morning for my annual mammogram.  I really don't dread it - in fact, it's a good thing to do every year, just like donating the three vials of blood for a myriad of standard testing, which I also did this morning.  About six months ago Ogden Regional Women's Center installed a new digital imaging machine. This is a much improved method and the radiologist can see pixel by pixel. They even invited me to check out the images on the computer monitor. No more sitting afterward in the waiting room in a skimpy top, feeling vulnerable while waiting for the cumbersome x-rays to be processed, which didn't always show everything anyway. In 1995 I had a biopsy, which was negative, so I'm very thankful for tests that help us keep healthy.

It's Good to Feel Wanted!

This picture sits next to me at work. Cathy created it a couple of years ago and gave it to me for my birthday. It IS good to feel wanted!

Tending Weston and Lacie

Jared and Carrie had a very dear friend pass away suddenly. He was only 31. Aaron and his wife attended every birthday and other event gatherings of Jared's family. He worked as a heating contractor and fixed our furnace last year. I tended Weston and Lacie while they attended the viewing Sunday night.

Lacie woke up very sad to find her parents gone. Weston tried to comfort her - so sweet.

Weston and I played with his set of Magformers - 3d magnetic pieces which we gave the grandkids for Christmas a year ago. He built a submarine. He said, "Grandma! Take a picture!" (Just what I LOVE to hear!) It's nice to find a toy that kids will play with for long periods of time.

When Weston asked me if I wanted to play "dress-up" (and I said,

sure...") I didn't expect to be crawling into a child's fireman costume. He was very patient while we tried over and over to get a decent photo on remote.

David's Birthday and the Antique Show

Today is David's 31st birthday. Hard to believe Dave's the third child I have who is over 30!! We had a little celebration get-together in the afternoon. Dave and I share a love of reading and trade books with each other.

Wendy and I always attend the antique show, held at the Weber County Fairgrounds twice a year. As always, we had great fun. She doesn't like her picture taken, so she took mine (I don't like my picture taken either:)

I did purchase the watering can. It's very unusual to still find the spouts attached on these old cans.

 I do believe I should have waited until the antique show to purchase my new eyeglass frames. Don't these retro frames look FABULOUS??? (I live just to embarrass my children.)

My Mother's Hands

Mom's hands are always busy - always have been and hopefully always will be. She cannot sit without doing something, even in the car. She has crocheted many, many hats for disadvantaged school children, bandages for leprosy patients and hundreds of crocheted bookmarks, which she gives away. She still quilts every Tuesday at the ward, doing charity quilts for an organization.

New Eyes

I had to update my eyeglass prescription so I decided to update my frames too.

One Hundred Eleven Over Fifty Eight

This is the time of year when I have my yearly physicals from two different doctors, including blood workups, x-rays, updating prescriptions, and the dreaded mamogram. It's always nice to know that the body parts I still have left are in good working order:)  My blood pressure has always been low. In earlier years the nurse would bring in another machine to recheck, thinking that hers must be broken!

Kitchen Shelves

I can finally say that the kitchen is DONE. Two shelves hung and a bit of grout was all it took to complete. It's taken an additional three months, but that seems to be how it goes. Once you move in, it's hard to get back to finishing.

 A fun place for these old pitchers.

 A home for some of my Watt pottery collection.

Matty's Birthday and Repurposed Wool

We have more birthdays in February than any other month.  Most of the family birthdays are lumped into about a one month time period - from January 19-February 20 (Jared, Hazel, Ezra, my mother, Shaury, Matt and Dave!)

Mike and I took Matt to lunch today at Cafe Rio's. I forgot to take a picture, so I pulled this one off his facebook page.

I love working with wool and found a super buy at Savers this afternoon. Everything was half off today. So I picked up quite a few 100% wool sweaters for between $2 and $3 each.

I will felt them by putting them in the washer with a few tennis balls, hot water and detergent. The agitation will break down the fibers and is the first step to "felting" wool. After placing in the dryer the pieces will be ready to be used. Sometimes these two steps have to be repeated a few times.

 I plan on making a few more puppets.

Shaury's 31

Today was Shaury's 31st birthday. We enjoyed yummy cheescake, played some wii games and had a good visit.

Vancouver Winter Olympics

I love watching the Winter Olympics. I especially enjoy the human interest stories. This year brings back memories of when they were hosted here in Utah and I was teaching SEM at Clinton Elementary. I remember meeting with the principal to propose creating a course in which all students who would be attending one or more of the events would be able to attend classes and learn the history of the Olympics and the event they would be attending so that they would be more prepared when they actually attended an event. We also had triva games going on and other activities. It was very rewarding to watch them at the events and hear their comment on things they had learned in class. I thought it might be fun to look through my collection of Olympic pins - if I can ever find them!

 Apollo Ono

 The size of the skis has to do with the size of the skier.

I thought it might be fun to look through my collection of Olympic pins, if I can ever find them. But I did run across my 2002 Olympic quilt. Each person in my quilt group created one of the icons, then we all traded so we all had one of each. We were even invited to have them displayed in the Salt Lake Capitol during the Olympics..

Good Luck, Nate!

The stepson of one of our administrative secretaries, Nate Roberts, is participating in the Freestyle Olympics on Sunday.

The opening ceremonies tonight were absolutely amazing. My favorite was an acrobat who performed an aerial ballet over a prairie to Joni Mitchell's song, "Both Sides Now." I had to download the remastered version to my IPOD.

I was amazed at the imagination and creativity of the opening ceremonies.

6:40 a.m.

I was surprised when I looked out the window this morning to see the beautiful snow. When I returned from the gym, I took my camera and tripod out on the deck. It was still very dark. Time always passes so quickly when I'm with my camera.

 I didn't like the color in this photo, so I changed it to black and white.

 Looking out from the window seat in the living room this morning. The geraniums are still growing strong.

Daily Bread

Our  food storage arrived yesterday.  Hard to believe that just a few boxes of freeze dried food will sustain us two meals a day for six months! And it has a 25 year shelf life (as long as we don't open the packages.)

Mom's Birthday

My mother's birthday was yesterday, but she had other plans, so Mike and I took her to Maddox tonight for dinner. She's 85.