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!