Food for thought

I've had my head in the proverbial sand lately while working on some pre-holiday projects and the usual... but have gotten occasional emails about the Proposition 8 business in California. A friend has sons living there who experienced firsthand some pretty hostile behaviors against them as LDS church members. Ron was reading an online column tonight by Orson Scott Card and at the end he quoted a letter that has been going around the Internet (after checking out the statistics). It was written by a seminary teacher who noted many of his students had received targeted negativism from others during this dialogue and voting process in California. I thought it was worth quoting below... it was quite interesting...

Well... it won't let me paste it in here... so I'll put in a link for the article. The email I wanted to post is at the end. Hoping this will work...

http://www.mormontimes.com/mormon_voices/orson_scott_card/?linkTrack=mtEmail&id=5002

According to voting statistics, the Mormon vote in California was less than 5 percent of the Yes vote and approximately 2.4 percent of the total Proposition 8 vote. Exit polls indicated 70 percent of black voters supported Proposition 8 and the majority of Latino voters the same. So, it's interesting that there have been rumblings about a boycott of the Utah tourist industry and others have demonstrated outside LDS temples. It would seem that many who call for tolerance, are not so tolerant of the democratic process when it goes against their wishes. It's always difficult to see that, no matter who's doing it... whichever side of an issue.

The old saying that "we become what we hate" is so often demonstrated in history and our own personal lives. Better not to become SO impassioned that all perspective goes out the window.

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Phooling around with Photo Booth

Looks like a Statue of Liberty impression! I received a cute notepad thing from Charlotte and thought a visual thank you would have more meaning for her than just writing or calling. This was a reason to open and for the first time use Photo Booth on the computer (iMac). I knew Kristine and the Booth kin had hooted and hollered over it when she first got her laptop, but I'd not investigated the program in all the time I've had this computer. Well... the first image below was what I wanted to send to Charlotte, but after that, I played with the effects. There are others besides this "Funhouse Mirrors" section (my name... not theirs). It was all I could do to squelch my own laughter (to the point of tears) while taking these photos. I thought one of them made me look like the guy from The Incredibles. ;-)

Anyway... before writing, I'll drop those in... enjoy. :-)


I just realized this is in mirror image of my actual face and bedroom layout. I don't wear my wedding ring on the right hand! I'll have to flip this and see how it compares.

That's how my face actually looks. I think I liked the backwards version better. ;-)
Now for the goofy stuff... backwards but does it matter?!





Aah... that's gotta' be the best one. ;-)

Here are a couple of the screenshots Diane got the other day (Skype). The first one is cute with bird's head showing above Diane's inset frame:


On my screen, birdy was seeing a large image of Diane's face as she talked to him and whistled. It was funny to see him react to her.

[Warning... this is doubling as a journal so the following is a personal indulgence that will surely be less interesting to others.]

I had an interesting encounter yesterday after getting done at the dentist's office and running a couple of soap orders to the post office and UPS Store. I almost didn't stop but on a last minute impulse, swung into the Walgreen's to replace the horrible hair gel I've been using instead of the one I'd really wanted. The containers looked nearly identical and I'd tossed the old one before making a note of the exact name. Anyway... I cruised in there to check for a replacement and the first person I see when I entered was a classmate from the old Chico Elementary School (now the home of King's West Christian School... near Erland's Point). The last time I bumped into her was a couple of weeks after her mother had passed away and we'd had a little chat at Costco. I'll bet that was two years ago because the cute little granddaughter she had with her is three years old now. Her mother was a girl who was part of Michael's high school crowd and she'd been here a few times. Her little girl is very friendly and verbal and looks a bit like her mother in the face.

Anyway... the "other grandma" and I ended up chatting and it stretched into a trip into our pasts... maybe 30 minutes worth of talking? I'm not sure. We'd been friends when we were little but she was pulled into the popular crowd by junior high (she said they came after her) and I'd become ostracized by then, thanks to a kid in the class who became very popular and chose to use his influence in that way. She was friendly with him then and has bumped into him quite often even now and was more aware of his family dynamics than I ever knew. He's had a very high profile job in this town for a long time and has been successful in his career, but troubled in family and personal life issues. Hearing her perspective was somewhat enlightening. He just had to be the best and first at everything... the pressure he felt as a kid to be the "star" of his family must have been horrendous. It doesn't excuse some of his bad behavior (thank goodness I was never an actual girlfriend), but it fills in some blanks. It shouldn't matter at this point, but when you've suffered at the hands of someone over a period of years as a kid, it forever changes who you are... especially when it's in such a publicly humiliating way and you feel you are standing alone. I'm not angry at him anymore over it, but it's still part of my personal history.

After she mentioned some family stuff I'd never known, I told her the fact I ran faster than he did back then probably didn't help me any (he was a gifted athlete) and she said, "You were his intellectual equal... and he couldn't handle that." I never thought I was any smarter than she was, but I was probably less likely to agree with him if I thought he was wrong (and like most of the girls in our class, I had a huge crush on this kid... I was getting more of his attention than anyone and even though it was negative, it was some sort of notice).

Leanne has been a school teacher for years and just retired about a year ago, so she has a different perspective than me about our childhood and school experiences. She was probably more critcal in retrospect of some of our teachers and the fact she felt we didn't learn much from them. Also, she asked if I hadn't noticed how many kids from one particular gradeschool were brought into the accelerated class in junior high (they'd call it gifted now). She felt that was rigged and that the school in question had graded kids too high that were not really qualified to be there. I never thought much about it and didn't know what everyone's grades were... so never gave it much thought. Maybe her experience now as a teacher made her realize that such things can happen and likely did.

We laughed about the trouble we got into in first grade with some of our recess games (I'd come up with the whole sitting on eggs thing... rocks we gleaned from the playground... and the boys would try to steal them). I got sent out of class one day after smuggling one of my "eggs" into class and proceeding to lay it at the back of the room. This exercise was accompanied by loud clucking, etc. ;-) That poor teacher was the same one that one day in frustration said to me, "All right, Kathy... if you're so smart, why don't you come up and teach the class?" (Which confused me at the age of six, but I walked up front, took the yardstick from her hand and proceeded to do what she'd been doing... pointing to words on the blackboard and calling on students to read them. Looked pretty simple. Five years later it dawned on me that she was trying to get me to pipe down!)

Leanne laughed at a memory of my ponytail at one point being straight across the bottom because my dad had cut it off to even it out. I don't remember him ever cutting my hair, but maybe he took a whack on it for some reason. :-) The most surprising thing she shared was how she was mistreated by the mother of a mutual friend during her interface with them. The mother was her Bluebird leader and she apparently didn't like Leanne and pulled some sabotaging stuff you'd expect more from a teenage girl... not a grown woman. I guess she was going to be the Campfire leader when the group moved up and that was a deciding factor for Leanne to just drop out. The mother was always nice to me, although she was an unusual person... somewhat nervous temperament. When I was about 10, her daughter announced to me that her mother was an alcoholic. I'd never paid close attention to what she was drinking when I stayed over... it was always in a cup on the TV table. I suspect she would have handled some things better if she'd not had that issue and it surely shortened her life.

Having this sort of chat with someone from your past is not unlike one you can have with an adult sibling... where you compare notes and realize how differently you experienced some of the same events and context. Leanne had no clue how much I was suffering in my daily clashes with Danny... she thought I was handling it just fine. She said if that had been her she would have really come apart. I think I felt at the time I was handling it okay, although it was very uncomfortable. I remember wishing things were different but vowing that no matter what, he was not going to make me cry or show weakness under attack. I guess I did too good a job... or kids are just often not aware because we're all surviving and dealing with our own stuff. Everything about me seemed to be open to scrutiny and ridicule when possible, but at the same time this kid wanted to know what grades I was getting. One particular day in 6th grade, he demanded to know what I got on a Science test and I'd gotten an A. He asked if I'd read the chapter and I said I'd read part of it, but no... I'd not gotten the whole thing finished. His comment, "I read that chapter three times and I got a C on that test!" It almost sounded like I'd purposely done something to injure him with his tone of voice. Wasn't my fault. Excuse me for goofing off but somehow managing a good grade on the test. That was my crime, I suppose.

My advocate and hero during those two difficult gradeschool years (5th and 6th grade) was a wet behind the ears English teacher... Mr. Joe Hopkins. He was nearly 25 years old when he came onboard and at the end of one of those years, was getting married. He had wedding bells on the calendar for the week of his marriage... each successive set of bells getting larger and larger until the day of. He was a little disheveled around the edges with unruly straight blonde hair, dark horn-rimmed glasses and a tendency for one eye to drift when his glasses were taken off to shoot a few baskets with the Science teacher. He cried openly the day Kennedy was shot (we were informed while in class) and was unknowingly the butt of some jokes dished out by the kid who gave me such a hard time. Mr. Hopkins was not "cool" and maybe today he would be called a little "nerdy" around the edges... but he cared about people. This teacher tried to stop what was going on and talked to the two of us a couple of times alone and pulled me aside after one of the most demoralizing class periods (class elections) and gave me some words of comfort and told me that someday he was going to have a daughter just like me. He let me know that someone saw what was going on and they didn't think it was okay. I still get choked up when I remember that minute I was held after class... he reached out and straightened my collar as he said it. In my twenties I wrote him a letter after tracking down an address for him and he said receiving it really made his day. He'd gotten out of regular teaching and was working more in a special needs environment in Oregon at that time.

Getting back to the visit with Leanne... one other thing she commented on was how different our lives might have been if there had been the opportunities and resources for girls then that they have now... particularly she was speaking of sports. She would have turned out for baseball in a heartbeat and I would have turned out for track and field, had they had such a thing for girls. I was a fast sprinter back then... just barely caught the bus more times than I can name! These days I can barely walk briskly without some kind of ache and pain setting in! ;-)

Well... it is what it is. We'd have to have lived now to appreciate and take advantage of those opportunities, because we wouldn't have had the sense of entitlement this generation does... male and female. If we felt we were breaking some kind of social rule or were not wanted in those areas, we were less likely to push the issue. For my part, I don't know that it would have changed my choices in a profound way... but it might have been a lot of fun. :-) I always looked forward to being married and having a family. It wasn't a popular or glamorous choice in the era in which I did it... but it's been fine and I have no regrets on that front. You just don't get a lot of appreciation for what you do the same way people receive in a career. There are daily rewards, but also tons of tedium and frustration and often feeling unfulfilled and undervalued... but it's the bigger picture that matters most. It can take years for those payoffs to be evident. :-)

Well... that's my personal trivia for the day. Not nearly as important as the recent election that I've not mentioned. I was not totally smitten with either candidate, so I'm neither devastated by the outcome nor thrilled beyond measure. I hope Obama will be safe as he enters his years in the White House and that he will be blessed with wisdom. He has a huge task ahead of him. He'll need all of our bi-partisan prayers.

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The Last Lecture, Etc.

I wanted to share a bit out of a book I'm picking away at. I don't get a lot of reading done these days, in book form. Most is spent at the computer terminal and is correspondence/problem solving related. I'm halfway through a wonderful little book by Randy Pausch (thank you again, Debbie!). He's the educator from Carnegie-Mellon who passed away this year. His "Last Lecture" can still be viewed online and if you've not heard it, I highly recommend you take the time to do that. Below is a link where you can find different ways to experience his last lecture:

http://www.cmu.edu/uls/journeys/randy-pausch/index.html

The bit I was reading today struck a chord with me. This topic has come up more than once in my conversations with children who are now raising children. I thought his comments were valuable... I'll type in a couple of pages (it's not as long as you'd think... it's a small book):

From Chapter 24, A Recovering Jerk

It is an accepted cliché in education that the number one goal of teachers should be to help students learn how to learn.

I always saw the value in that, sure. But in my mind, a better number one goal was this: I wanted to help students learn how to judge themselves.

Did they recognize their true abilities? Did they have a sense of their own flaws? Were they realistic about how others viewed them?

In the end, educators best serve students by helping them be more self-reflective. The only way any of us can improve – as Coach Graham taught me– is if we develop a real ability to assess ourselves. If we can't accurately do that, how can we tell if we're getting better or worse?

Some old-school types complain these days that higher education too often feels like it is all about customer service. Students and their parents believe they are paying top dollar for a product, and so they want it to be valuable in a measurable way. It's as if they've walked into a department store, and instead of buying five pairs of designer jeans, they've purchased a five-subject course-load.

I don't fully reject the customer-service model, but I think it's important to use the right industry metaphor. It's not retail. Instead, I'd compare college tuition to paying for a personal trainer at an athletic club. We professors play the roles of trainers, giving people access to the equipment (books, labs, our expertise) and after that, it is our job to be demanding. We need to make sure that our students are exerting themselves. We need to praise them when they deserve it and to tell them honesty when they have it in them to work harder.

Most importantly, we need to let them know how to judge for themselves how they're coming along. The great thing about working out at a gym is that if you put in effort, you get very obvious results. The same should be true of college. A professor's job is to teach students how to see their minds growing in the same way they can see their muscles grow when they look in a mirror.

To that end, I've tried hard to come up with mechanical ways to get people to listen to feedback. I was constantly helping my students develop their own feedback loops. It was not easy. Getting people to welcome feedback was the hardest thing I ever had to do as an educator. (It hasn't been easy in my personal life, either.) It saddens me that so many parents and educators have given up on this. When they talk of building self-esteem, they often resort to empty flattery rather than character-building honesty. I've heard so many people talk of a downward spiral in our educational system, and I think one key factor is that there is too much stroking and too little real feedback...

It's interesting to note the generational differences in how parents and educators have approached children. Diane had an article posted recently about the "Millennial Generation" and their sense of entitlement and fragile egos. Maybe in the next generation we can find that middle ground... the best of both approaches. It always seems like the pendulum swings too far when people are reacting against anything. The good news is... people tend to be pretty resilient, no matter how their parents and teachers manage to screw them up... and we all do it in some way or another since none of us is perfect. ;-)

On another topic... Diane posted some cute photos last night. After having a conference call on Skype with she, Karen and Niklas... Diane and I had a two-party video chat. Toward the end I brought in birdy from the other room and had him on my shoulder. It only took him a few moments to zero in on Diane's onscreen face, as she made his favorite birdy noises. It was pretty entertaining. You can't hear the loud whistling he was doing... but if you click on this small image, you'll get a larger one and can better view of her post with pictures... or you can click on the link for her blog in the lefthand sidebar.

Well... I've successfully avoided fixing dinner and answering emails... so I'd best get moving. I got a little soap package ready to add to some other parcels in the mailbox, recorded a neat Education Week talk on C.S. Lewis for a couple of the kids and brought many of the ripe tomatoes in from the garden. There has been a break in the rain this afternoon... I hope it's like this tomorrow. Some narcissus bulbs still wait to be planted.

P.S. - Today I've had someone knock on the door, passing out Obama door hangers that urge me to get out and vote (for him) and also received a phone call this afternoon. The Obama people are looking for Michael... does he live here? Nope... not for a long time. They want him too. I've never seen so much co-dependent harassment about voting in my life. Yes... it's important and I've already sent off my ballot... but we are grownups and don't need to be contanstly harrassed about it... do we?

It's been assumed by most of us that Obama will win this election, but I'm thinking his people are still a bit worried... it's closer than they'd like. I'll just be glad when the election hoopla is over and the country can get back to the real business of running the country and not just running their mouths.

Sorry... I'm so tired of campaign ads. :-/

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My Aunt Joanne

Uncle Pete sent out a link to an online tribute for Aunt Joanne. There is a video slideshow there that was very nice. I got kind of choked up when I saw the later photo of her on horseback... she always loved horses.

I wish I'd had more contact with her when we were younger, but we lived closer to and saw more of Aunt Jean. I know all the families got together when we were small, but I don't remember Aunt Joanne's presence as much as the others... I wonder why. I suspect she receded a bit more into the background during those younger days, she being the baby of that family. The men probably did most of the talking (sports, etc. ... just my dad and Uncle Hage alone could keep up a lively conversation with little outside help). ;-)

Here is the link for the video slideshow:
http://www.hennesseyfuneralhomes.com/obit-sharing-memories.jsp?site=0417&id=35871

This was a nice memorial someone left at the site:

I was saddened to read of Joanne's passing. I know she had been ill for a while. The last time I saw her was at their community's art show this past summer where she had some of her beautiful work on display. It was my pleasure to have met Joanne through the Birch Bay Village Art Club. I had the privledge of teaching a couple of series of watercolor classes for the group. Joanne's talent, particularly with florals, was amazing. And not only was she a gifted artist, she was a gentle soul willing to share her creative ideas and friendship with those fortunate enough to meet her. My sincerest sympathy and prayers are with both her immediate family and her community. I know Joanne's passing leaves a void for many.

Nancy Grigsby
Blaine, WA 98230
Grandma Alice Hough with Joanne on her lap, Aunt Jean to the right and my mom, Arline, standing in the back.

This picture always impressed me when I was growing up. Her high school times as a drum majorette. She won a local bathing beauty contest later on. In those days the suits were modest.
The Hough sisters, taken in August of 2000 at the Hough Family Reunion in Montana. My mother, Arline, (on the left) died in August of 2006. Aunt Joanne (center) died October 19th. Aunt Jean (right) is now the only surviving daughter of Merle and Alice Hough. I don't think of the departed as "not surviving" you understand... just moved from one realm to another. There are a host of loving, warm and boisterous Hough relatives on the other side. What a welcoming committee they would be. :-) I recently had a chance to visit my cousin, Bill, and he shared an out of body experience he had when deathly ill with meningitis at Fort Lewis, back in 1969. He said, "You know when they say when you're dead, you're dead? That's not true." I've not had his experiences, but he was preaching to the choir.

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November already? Ack! So long Daylight Savings time.

I'm still in denial that it's November already. That means Christmas is bearing down upon us. Where did this year go?

As I write this, Ron is up front watching more programs. He came home from Costco last night with the first season of the original Get Smart TV show. The pilot was shot in black and white and the regular programs in color. We watched quite a few during dinner hour last evening and he thought he'd finish off the first DVD tonight... but last time I walked up front he was snoozing while a commentary of Buck Henry's was playing in the background. :-) A personal aspect to watching last night was during the credits on the first show of the regular season. They had a character (villain) in the show called "The Claw." ("Not "the Craw!" ... the Craw!" Not very politcally correct by today's standards, but funny just the same!) He was supposed to be Asian. As the credits rolled by at the end I saw the name "Leonard Strong" and knew who that was. Had to run it back and take a closer look at his face. One of his children is in our stake... Mickey Strong. He used to sing in the Bremerton Symphony Chorale and it was during that time period I found out during a chat with him that his father was a working Hollywood actor.

Leonard Strong did all kinds of supporting roles in movies and television, but because of his almond shaped eyes, he was most often cast as Asian characters. This was particularly true during WWII times when bonafide Asian actors in Hollywood were in short supply. A point of pride for Mickey was that his father had been in both movie versions of The King and I. He was the interpreter in the first version with Rex Harrison (Anna and the King of Siam... guess they have an even newer version of that one now) and he played the same role in The King and I with Deborah Kerr and Yul Brynner. He was the only cast member from the first film to be brought in to play the same role in the second. I just looked up his info at IMDB last night and it appears the several shows he did for Get Smart over a two year period were the last in his career. He died in 1980.

Today has been kind of nice. Got an email from Laura Long, who I've not heard from in awhile and also chatted with Nancy Skinner on the cell phone for a bit. I had to tell her what a fine job her son did in getting Karen all decked out for her office dress-up yesterday (pictures to follow... from her blog). While we chatted about this, that and the other... Nancy was sharing some of her shuttle riding experiences. For the most part, we've both enjoyed meeting people on shuttles or in airports. That reminded me of our ride home on the Kitsap Airporter. We didn't think we'd be able to catch the one that was to depart 10 minutes after our arrival at Sea-Tac late Saturday night, but the plane came in a bit earlier than scheduled. At that time of the evening there is no one at the desk so you have to go outside, find the driver and get your ticket right at the shuttle. We had this fantasy that we might actually catch the 9:20 one so we really hot footed it down to the baggage level. I ran outside to make an appearance to the shuttle driver while Ron headed toward the baggage carousel. To our amazement, we made it and got home an hour earlier than expected (not expecially early even at that). :-)

The thing I remembered was this guy who got on after us and how I probably dodged a bullet in that deal. Ron was delayed outside while trying to get our tickets over the cell phone so I got on first and saved him a seat. The only place available with two seats together by that time was the full bench seat in the very back. I was the first to sit there and put my carry-on next to the window since there was a wheel-well in that spot. If a person were to sit in the very corner, it appeared they'd have to fold themselves in a knee-chest position and that gets old fast! =:o

Before Ron got on, a nice woman came back and sat on the other end of the long seat and said her husband was coming along shortly. I figured the four of us could fit. Well... she sat over the wheel-well on the other end when she heard I also had a husband coming and she assured me it would be fine (they moved at the first opportunity when the bus started to empty). She needed a place to stash a suitcase that had glassware inside and I told her I could put it on my end on the floor. So... her suitcase was wedged between seat and wheel-well and my carryon was on top of the seat behind it. There were four people sitting back there and what appeared to be a blank spot in the very back corner next to me... and this portly, fortyish fellow in a baseball cap gets on, walks toward the back of the bus and announces to me that he needs to sit there. When I told him there was a wheel well at that spot, he didn't care... he was still determined that I should move my carry-on so he could climb over us and shoehorn himself into the back corner next to me. I was never so grateful to announce there was a suitcase sitting on the floor in that spot... and about the same time, some other passengers informed him that he was standing right next to an empty seat while we were having this exchange. He was so fixated on that back corner, he didn't see the empty spot/s right under his nose, I guess.

There was a gray haired woman in the window seat near him and almost as soon as he sat down she was regaled with stories of his Navy career, etc. etc. He might be the nicest guy in the world that would give you the shirt off his back... I have no clue. But... you sometimes encounter folks who have a way of coming in and filling up not only their personal space but yours and never noticing any boundaries in between. His approach to personal hygiene appeared to be somewhat casual also. I'm a friendly person by nature, but was grateful. I got to sit during that ride and be one of the "eavesdropping observers" instead of engaging in conversation (Ron snoozed part of the time). You notice a lot of things when you're not talking... I should do it more often. ;-)

Here are the photos of Karen's costume. Niklas visited the local D.I. and found the raw materials to create this and had to do any sewing by hand... true to Skinner tradition. :-) The top green portion was the bodice of a dress and it appears he cut off the skirt portion to make the leggings.
The next two were taken at Karen's office. Some random guy apparently drifts through each year in that scary get-up. Not sure who he is. I wondered if he was actually that tall or on stilts? If he's that tall... he'd be about the same height as Lynda's boyfriend, Tom. Tom bending over is nearly the same height as Lynda standing up... no kidding.

Another fellow from the office had people pose in their costumes for these nice black and white shots. This all started for Karen when she wanted to dress up in something to go with Niklas' Medieval sword. He loves Lord of the Rings, so this was his solution. :-)

Thanks to Facebook and one of Lynda's Digipen friends, I saw these of her Halloween preparations. I don't know if her carving is a specific character... but it looks pretty neat.

Here are a couple of local Zombies. Amber emailed a few photos over last night. She usually brings the girls by the house but it didn't happen this year. We did actually have three cute little trick-or-treaters, however. They were the three daughters of Michele Kolbas, used to be Wiler. She lives in the neighborhood again. The camera was all poised and waiting on the dining table after Kristine tipped me off that Michele was coming ... then I forgot because I had Michael on the cell phone at the time. Drat! Anyway... they each got FOUR fun sized candy bars apiece, since I knew they would be it for us. Kind of a full circle moment to see those little girls and remember the day when their mother and her siblings might come to the door.

Here are the two little Miller Zombies... Colette looks very non-threatening. ;-)

I received an email this evening from a nice gal from Green Bay, Wisconsin who had corresponded in the past about soapmaking. One of the great parts of having the website is "meeting" people from all over and every once in awhile having them drop you a line to ask how the family's doing and/or bring you up to speed on theirs. She's a very crafty person. Their family loves to do outdoorsy things and now she's retired. I had my best laugh today when I was reading her email and got to this part...

... My husband and I have a small lot in our village, however my brother-in-law lives in a community in the southern part of the state and has been working on establishing a prairie garden. I will definitely be giving his garden a boost. He is 81 and just is a delight. He and my husband were elk hunting in Colorado, then my brother-in-law went peasant hunting in South Dakota....

When I wrote back to her I asked, "Is that LEGAL?" :-D I didn't even know they had peasants in South Dakota. I'll have to ask my cousin, who is in the process of moving there. ;-)

I wanted to show the hats she makes. Such a nice thing she is doing...

I have been very busy knitting when at all of these appointments. I have been making infant hats. I have some in the local knit shop, and with what I sell, I buy enough yarn to sell one and save 1 for a hospital destination. Our little Matthew (now 5) was at Children's Hospital in Milwaukee after he was born for 10 weeks. We know first hand how little hats, blankets etc. made by caring people and sent home from the hospital with the baby are appreciated.

Rachel mailed a CD this past week, filled with really nice photos she took at Colette's birthday party last month. Here are a few of those. I hate looking at my tired, fat and puffy face... but that's how it was/is. I think that day was not one of the better ones with burning the late night oil the previous week trying to get a scanning project done and mailed out before our trip. Little did I know we'd not be leaving after the party after all... but had to wait another 5 days for Ron's orders to come through. :-/

The kids look cute always... even little Edward who was sick that day.

This is a really nice picture of Amber... presenting Colette with her birthday cake.

Edward is such a sweet natured little guy... when we walked in I could tell he was not feeling well and seemed kind of clingy, so I scooped him up and managed to get him to sleep for a bit. I love it when you hold a little one and they just snuggle in. Some of my kids were like that. Edward's father was the least cuddly of the bunch. ;-) He didn't like you restricting his mobility for very long. I love the mood of this picture... just wish I could put a bag over my jowly head. It could be captioned, "Sick and Tired." (Edward being the sick one.) But really... I feel "comfort" when I look at it and get over myself. I'm glad she took it. :-)


Here's little Calvin and those big eyes (and a not quite as big early walking wound). He was intrigued with what his mother was doing. Following that are a few more from the party showing Robert and Calvin and the girls doing some bead necklaces.




This is cute. Should have put it at the end of the blog instead of here!

The rest are the last of the leaves... just about. Within the last few days they all took a cue to come down with a vengeance... with some gusts of wind helping along. I love how the ground is covered with various circles of the different colors. Oh... and on Friday when I left the house with a big box to take to the UPS Store, the sidewalk was totally covered with those beautiful dogwood leaves. I wish I could have taken the time right then to take a picture, but there was none to spare without missing that day's pickup. By the time I got home, the light was fading and the flash kept going off. (If Robert reads this he'll want me to know I can disarm that and I know I should have... it's just hard to tell sometimes in daylight that the flash indeed went off... but the pictures make it clear later.)

You should have seen the car when I first walked out with the package. The front windshield, roof and hood were festooned with a ridiculous quantity of these leaves... like a confetti snowfall. I had to run the wipers and watched them flying off all the way from our driveway to Silverdale (4 miles).


The blueberries have almost completely turned now and look nearly as pretty as the Euonymus one sees everywhere ("Burning Bush").

This is a recap of the photo at the beginning.. only this has had the drybrush effect applied in Photoshop. I wish the flash hadn't gone off, because it really cancelled out the beauty of backlighting through the leaves. By the time the rain stops, I doubt this photo-op will still be there. If I've linked this correctly, the image when clicked will come up in desktop image size.

Guess I'd better call it quits and start turning back a few clocks. :-) Ron has come back to officially get ready for bed. A few of you have asked how he's doing and he seems to be doing very well. His PSA tests have come back in good shape and I think with a couple more months under his belt (no pun intended)... he may be free of the "protection" he's had to wear since the surgery. There is less and less need for that... but it takes time (possibly up to a year). Brother Chong said, "The larger the prostate, the longer the recovery." He was gone most of his day off yesterday helping one of his assistants in the H.P. group install a dishwasher and today he babysat for Amber while she did the paper route (that starts in the wee hours). So... he's not convalescing at this point. I just hope pretty soon he'll put us on the list. ;-)

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