My Man Friday

I hardly saw Friday coming through the flutter of papers around me this week. Now my task is to escape the laundry room in time to enjoy its possibilities.

And I will try not to ruin the implied rest that Fridays should bring by staying up too late, savoring the freedom. Richard and I will watch a DVD. He’ll want to watch something loud, and I’ll want to watch something with women wearing gowns with empire waists.

I’ll let Richard win because he used his day off to teach two robotics classes and deal with a dying (wild) animal on our back patio.

We’ll crank up huge surround sound speakers and I’ll feed him freshly baked brownies and the frustrations will go away for a while. Richard is my consolation at the end of the week and I feel rewarded by his time spent with me. Richard is the main reason I love Fridays.

Folding laundry now,

We honored our Veterans

We held a Webelos flag ceremony in the morning:

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And hiked along the Santa Cruz river where the Mormon Battalion came through in December of 1846. The Webelos are carrying big bags of garbage they collected along the trail. It was so hot!

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(Mark hiked the whole way, too):

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Next, we visited the monument for the Mormon Battalion in Downtown Tucson:

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And we listened to Mr. Tossi speak about his experiences in WWII under General Patton. This man landed in Morocco, travelled through Northern Africa and up into Sicily; he went to England and then landed on Omaha Beach during the invasion of Normandy. He fought his way through Europe and Africa in a tank. Daniel asked to have his picture taken with him:

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She Danced and I Cried

Dance Studio opening

Saturday we watched Paige perform in the brand new dance studio. Mirrors multiplied her steps and brightened the beautiful room. It brought me to tears. There was just so much beauty. Photos could never capture that. But here she is just after performing, standing in the lobby.

If you can make it, we would love to have people come to Oh Holy Night on December 12. Paige plays the lead role in a beautiful Christmas story with numbers from the Nutcracker and even more numbers with a more religious theme.

Thirty-five

Favorite birthday moment of all time:

I was turning 7 or 8. I was walking home from school alone when I saw my mom coming toward me. Walking to and from school was always so terrible for me. It was the ultimate act of love in my mind if my mom walked with me to school. I remember one day she carried me. She knew it was what I needed that day. So, on this birthday I was totally happy to see my mom walking toward me. She met me near the Christensons’ house and we walked through the tough leathery maple leaves from the Mickelsons’ tree and then our feet swept and crunched the papery thin yellow leaves from the Stones’ tree. We opened my mail as we walked and she put her arm around me. That made me so happy.

I love simple gestures like that.

My thirty-fifth was full of simple gestures of love, too. And I’m thankful for those who took time to give them.

Forest Service Fieldtrip

I took the kids on a fieldtrip today to a Ranger Station near the border and a place called Pena Blanca lake. It was a day full of surprises, not the least of which was that Pena Blanca lake is not a lake. It’s gone. And we drove an hour to see it. Things disappear in the desert and if it happens to be water, it’s not coming back any time soon. The Forest Rangers sounded so hopeful for the future. One even said they were courting possible convenience stores to build near the lake… that is, once it fills up. Which could take a Very Long Time.

It felt a little surreal, driving into an apparent Risk Zone and not realizing it. Around the turns in the canyon were hidden border patrol vehicles full of agents, watching our envoy. After letting us through the Padlocked Gate for Rangers Only, The Ranger in charge decided to hand us this card as we sat down for a picnic lunch:

Um, Yikes!

“Traditional responses may not be appropriate. Check your gut.” probably means something pretty bad.

Meet the ex-con Mule that used to run drugs across the border. The Rangers said he’s really grumpy all the time now that he’s on parole working for the Forest Service. Just so you know, drug runners aren’t very nice people and they treat their animals badly. And poorly treated animals are G-R-U-M-P-Y!

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We had a good time and we met some wildlife:

Smokey

And ran away from some other wildlife (whilst wishing I’d packed the telephoto lens):

Pepe le pew

We learned that we shouldn’t play with fire, handled forest fire tools, tried MRE food that the Forest Service eats during fires, caught insects, saw a movie about Saguaros, learned to saddle a mule and a horse, hunted for toads… it was a great expedition.

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Good night!

Father Daughter Dance

Paige and I made Daddy and Daughter cookies for the dance tonight. Richard and Paige learned the swing and Paige wore her pretty white dress. The bald daddy cookies make me smile.

To Milestones, Benchmarks and Feats of Skill

There are some special days in the life of a Ross child: Birthdays, baptism day, the first day of school, and then there’s

THE DAY YOU ARE READY TO READ THE BOXCAR CHILDREN.

Timothy has reached that milestone. The book is tattered and coming apart. We glued and taped it together and embarked on the biggest reading pleasure in this young reader’s life.

Boxcar Children

“Hooray!” Mom cheered.

Timothy beamed.

Then Mom said, “You should write about this in your journal!”

Timothy October 2009

Do you remember your first fat chapter book?

Here’s to that special day for Timothy!

(Applause)

Costume capers

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The perennial Halloween shot on the front walk.

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Here we reveal the pumpkin artists from our last post.

The boys came home from church and found the backyard required some defensive tactics.

And now that October 31 is over we can get on to much better things.

We pulled out the Christmas music a week before Halloween. That last picture hardly looks like a Currier and Ives Christmas card painting, but the angle of the sun, the early dark nights and the smell of woodburning stoves is in the air in the evenings makes it impossible to ignore that little Thanksgiving and Christmas spirit, even if it’s 80 something degrees outside during the day.