Mucho mejor

Now this is much better than this was.  Much more festive :)

This will not do

I have Tuesdays off until I start school the end of January--this is not always a good thing because today I saw this:

and I said to myself, "self, this simply will not do--clearly it is December, Christmas is in 18 days and the ground outside our house cannot be covered with leaves."
And herein lies my dilema-- this boy:

who I love so much-- is away at school in Idaho (where it is very cold by the way).  And typically in the past he has taken care of my leaf problem.  So I had to find the rake and do this:

by myself.  Steve told me he'd put them in the garbage cans when he got home, which is a big relief.  All that raking is a lot of work!


And while I was raking, I saw this:

which is not a festive front porch like this.  But tonight maybe I will do something about that!

noel lace

Merry Christmas to all......

Patience is a Virtue

I hate it when people honk at me when I'm stopped at a light when I'm driving.  It happened again today.  Let me make it clear, I am not someone who sits endlessly at a light without going--if I were, people could honk as much as they wanted to.

Take today for example.  I was unfortunate to be behind a Modesto City Schools bus that was belching unsafe quantities of thick black smoke.  I was also unfortuate enough to be driving "the truck" which does not have air conditioning, so I had the window down on a warm afternoon.  So when the light changed from red to green, I let the bus get a little head start so I didn't inhale too much of its' exhaust.  The person behind me honked!  I remind you, this was seconds after the light changed.  The people in the other lane hadn't even gone yet.  I feel this was very unnecessary.

Other occassions when honking is unnecessary....

• You really have to allow the person ahead of you enough time to move their foot from the brake to the gas before you honk.  We are not all sitting, gunning our engines like we are at the Indy 500.
• When people are still crossing the sidewalk, I'm not a fan of running people over just because they cross the crosswalk a little slowly.
• When cars run red lights coming the other direction.  I'm also not a fan of being broadsided just because the guy behind me is in a hurry.
• When there is a car in front of me. Don't honk at me, I don't ram other cars.

So remember, patience is a virtue!

A walk back in time

A couple of months ago I started what has come to be known as "the negative project".  I found that Costco will transfer your negatives to a DVD for a fairly reasonable price.  So I started going back through all my old pictures and taking the negatives one year at a time to Costco to have them put on a DVD.  All our pictures from one year are on one DVD--brilliant plan--the people at Costco hate me.  I'm up to 1994....

Love my kids--Happy fall!

Defining Ourselves

Today was not a fine day.  Generally I feel fairly confident about who I am, I try not to let the circumstances of my life define who I am or how I feel about myself.  But today was another matter entirely.  I hit a squirrel, with the car.  It was very unpleasant for me (and I'm sure for the squirrel as well).  But now all I can think is, "I am a squirrel killer".  I'll try to get past this new, unwanted definition of myself.

Middle Schoolers

I started a new job in the library of a middle school.  I really like it.  I was a little afraid of the idea of middle schoolers, but I've found they just don't know who they are--children and adults at the same time. 

I've got some catching up to do when it comes to "tween-teen" literature, so I've been taking their recommendations for books to read.  Just to further demonstrate their lack of knowing who they are--these are the first of their recommendations that I have read....

The Hunger Games Trilogy by Suzanne Collins--about a futuristic world where teens are sent into an arena and fight to the death, with only one left standing at the end.

AND

Ragweed by Avi--a sweet prequel to Poppy about a quiet little country mouse who leaves his home to find adventure in the big city (he actually starts a revolution against the cats in town, but that's another story).

A dichotomy--I think so.

California to Nevada to Utah to Idaho to Nevada and home!

We took Michael to school at BYU Idaho this past weekend.  I learned a few things during our bazillion hour drive.

1.  Beverly Hills, Nevada apparently has nothing in common with Beverly Hills, California.  Here you will see a picture of the sign saying "Beverly Hills".

You can't see the sign--I know.  Steve asked if I wanted to stop to take a proper photo and I said, "NO",  no stopping if it will add even one minute to this insanely long, boring trip.

2.  Anyone who says the world is overpopulated has never been to Nevada.

3.  Idahoans' love their Subway.  There are very few things in Rexburg, Idaho as far as stores go, but I counted 3 Subways.

4.  The state symbol of Nevada.....

August 2009

September 2010

               

orange road construction barrels.  There were tons of them, lining the roads of Nevada.  I first observed this phenomenon last year when driving to BYU with Jessica.  I don't know if they have lots of money for road construction, nowhere to store the barrels, or if they just like the look.  I counted 2733 right outside Reno on our way there.

5.  I love my boy, he's all grown up!

One of my favorite things about Modesto

It's no great secret that Modesto isn't always my favorite place.  But, at this one time of the year, every year, there's no place I'd rather be.  The 4th of July in Modesto is 100% hometown grown.

We start out our fourth of July celebration every year, for the last 16 years with a trip to Moband's concert in the park at our very own Mancini Bowl in Graceda Park.

We play games, eat good food, visit with good friends and enjoy a (hopefully) cool night in the park.

We listen to some patriotic music with a huge crowd of other people

And then we get to my favorite part--the salute to the armed services.  They play a medley of songs from all the armed services.  As they play the song from that particular branch anyone in the audience who has served in that branch of the military stands up.  It makes me cry every year, as those elderly (and some not so elderly) veterans so proudly stand and salute the flag.  It doesn't get any more patriotic than that. 

Happy Fourth of July!

Good Things to Come

I love Elder Holland--and this message is so classically "him".

One Year Ago

One year ago (June 28, 2009) we were here:

Tea at Kensington Palace on our 23rd wedding anniversary.

Today (June 28, 2010) our 24th wedding anniversary we are here:

Modesto, California--first 100+ day.  102 at 5:30 pm!

It's no mystery which year I wish it were!

The cyclemeter app leads to this....

I got a new app for my iphone on Tuesday, it is called cyclemeter and I am quite fond of it.  In fact, because of it, I have been riding everyday this week.  It tracks how far you have gone, your average speed....It even has a calendar to track which days you did which routes and compares your rides against each other.  So I decided that I needed to leave dear old Modesto and give my cyclemeter a try in a different location-- Monterey, San Francisco, or Yosemite; I didn't care as long as I got to use my cyclemeter.  So I left the decision to Steve and Michael.  They chose San Francisco and I was happy with that because I'd always wanted to ride across the Golden Gate Bridge.

So off we went on our adventure.  According to the on-line maps, you can ride from the Ferry Building on the Embarcadero to Sausalito and it is "about 8 or 9 miles of relatively flat riding".  Apparently relatively flat means different things to different people.  The people who made this designation must live in the Swiss Alps because there were 3 large and imposing hills to climb along the way.

Then there is the bridge itself.  It was a beautiful day in San Francisco, some wind but all sun.  All sun until we got to the bridge which was shrouded in thick fog with gale force winds. 

There are no pictures of us actually on the bridge, because I didn't want to be blown off the bridge for a photo opp.

In the end the ride was totally worth it, because we got to see things like this ...

Fun times with the family!

The "Real" Splasher

We've lived in Modesto for 18 years now and, as are all those who hail from Modesto, we are well acquainted with Splasher the frog.  Splasher is the MID mascot, who regularly warns children to stay out of the canals.  In fact he is the canal safety frog. 

In his mascot form he appears at various functions about town and makes the rounds touring schools for assemblies during the spring months.  Seeing what gets dumped in canals is enough to discourage me from going into a canal, but I digress.

This morning on my bike ride I was riding along the canal banks when I saw several "splashers"!  Not the tacky mascot form, but the real hopping thing.  Unfortunately they were too quick to get any photos, but I could have reached out and picked up their big slimy selves had I been so inclined (which I wasn't--got enough of that with Jessica's 3rd grade habitat project).  It reminded me once again of my darling nephew Cameron--"what's up with all the frogs?"

Toy Story 3

Seeing Toy Story 3 on Friday night was bittersweet for me.  You see, I have an "Andy" of my own going off to college in the fall--and he too loved Woody with all his heart.

Too Many Apricots

This is what happens when you have too many apricots given to you by a friend!

Apricot White Chocolate Scones--YUM!

Recipe from the new Betty Crocker Cookbook App on my Iphone--Love it!

Saturday afternoons

I love Saturday afternoons when I don't have 72 million things to do.  When I have a day like that, I do fun things like this.....

Not too bad for a first try.....

2nd grade logic

I love my job, the kids crack me up!  This is a direct quote from one of my little darlings today.  "I can't remember things that good cuz I just scraped my foot yesterday."  --Gotta love 2nd grade logic!

What's up with all the ducks!

Several months ago my sister took my nephew to see The Princess and the Frog.  During a quiet part of the movie, Cameron sat up and very clearly and loudly said, "what's up with all the frogs".  Since that amusing quote came into my life I find myself thinking, "what's up with...." anytime I see anything in any quantity greater than 2 or 3.

Yesterday on my daily bike ride along the canals I saw an extraordinary number of ducks...They were landing, swimming, taking off, waddling around...all manner of duckish behavior.  Then there floating along in the canal was a mama duck with her 11 babies--yes 11 babies!  What a fun thing to see!

I took a picture with my ailing blackberry, but you can't tell there are any ducks there, so you'll have to use your imagination. 

Simple pleasures in life, the best kind.

More festivities!

Another big event in our busy life--Michael's Senior Prom on Saturday night! 

Wedding Day

My beautiful daughter was married on Saturday.  It was a perfect day and I love her dearly....