Cute little mouse so far away...Boo hoo

The good news is that I have beautiful grandchildren. The bad news is that I only see them a couple of times a year. I'm going to hawk something and buy a plane ticket to Denver! Here Mugsy....nice dog.

Row Row Row Your Boat!

Day 6 of our RoadTrip! Came in as #1 Favorite activity when we voted at the end. What these pictures don't show is some of us going in for a swim when the Snake River got more calm. I had a demon of time getting back in the boat! Picture trying to swing your leg about 4 feet in the air over a greased beach ball to hoist yourself up 4 feet and back into the boat! Apparently it was more fun to watch than attempt because EVERYONE in the boat (including the Chinese who one would have thought would be more genteel) had tears streaming down their faces.

Yes sir, yes sir! Four bags full!

Paco came home from the fair today with this surprise. He told me to follow him to the truck, close my eyes, and hold out my hand. Snikeys! Wool from a couple of black sheep! Not only that, but an invitation to attend a Dutch oven dinner in Geneva (not Switzerland. All of Bear Lake's hamlets have exotic European names. I think the settlers were homesick in a BIG way) where I will receive bags and bags of.....drum roll.......llama wool!!!! I guess I'll...wash it? Card it? Grind it into flour? I don't know. Stay tuned. Look for pictures of smashing handknit mittens next winter. My wool deliverer also offered an early Christmas present--wool carders. Does it get any better?

Back in the saddle again

Feeling lower than bugspit for neglecting this blog. I did 4 weeks of summer school classes in Idaho Falls, 3 weeks of a major fantastic roadtrip, and one week of company. With just two weeks left of my summer vacation I can do one of two things: scream and run naked into the field because the summer just went toooooo darn fast or pack each day left so full that it begs for mercy. Actually I fell off a stepstool yesterday. As I came crashing and twisting down to a pathetic heap on the floor, my life flashed before my eyes. Well, not my life really--just the possibility that I had "laid myself up" for the remainder of the holiday!!! And did THAT ever frost me! But fortunately today I seem to be walking with only minimal ankle discomfort, and even though my neck is stiff I think I'm going to pull through! (the crowd cheers...) Hey about this major road trip. I'll be posting some random pictures but until then allow me to recount some highlights: Raft trip down the Snake River outside of Jackson Hole, dragging my travelmates away from Old Faithful before it erupted (even though they'd traveled 1500 miles to see it) because we were going to be late for the Bar J Wranglers (where incidentally we were served a very mediocre chuckwagon dinner. If you're considering it, don't), zip-lining at the Olympic Village in Park City, UT, hot air balloon ride over Sonoma Wine Country (mahvelous!!!!), walking over the Golden Gate Bridge twice, Yosemite (yes and YES and YESSSSSS again!!!), 13 hours in Disneyland, seeing not one not two not three not four but FIVE cousins, bodysurfing in Malibu, Wicked at the Plantages, Grand Canyon at sunset AND sunrise, Cirque du Soleil Beatles Love show in Las Vegas (drop whatever you're doing and sell whatever you need to to go), and a good soul-cleansing 12 hour Greyhound trip. There you go--highlights. Pictures to follow. Thanks to Eileen and Cathie --who always add a decidedly Eastern influence to my life--and Lana--who is the well-matched Pancho to my Don Quixote. Pictures to follow. An early-in-the-trip camera mix-up made me dependant on my compadres for pictures. Not to worry. I hope I haven't lost readers. "Come back!!! I was going to make espresso!" (from Young Frankenstein. I see they're doing that on Broadway.)

Let my people go!

This may not strike some of you as unusual--maybe every day is like this for you. Jerry and I worked like DOGS (actually the only one around here who didn't WAS the dog, so where did that saying come from anyway?) mowing and weeding and tiling and digging dandelions and moving huge piles of construction garbage and watering and burning. We worked from sun up til sundown and I'm beat. I'm aching and dirty. But we stood out there in our pasture as the sun set and hummed a little bit of "This Land is Mine. God Gave this Land to Me", and it was like we'd stepped back a century. Forgive my sentimentality, but those were my musings. Would that the work were all done now. I'd say we probably have an entire summer of such Saturdays and well into the fall...ugh.

So you don't like the mushrooms? How about secrets???

Here's a random picture of my siblings and myself at my daughter's wedding in Logan. We're a motley crew. If you look really closely you can see the spirit faces of our mom and dad in the bricks because they were there too. John, Norma, and Nancy. We look pretty happy, huh?

Here are twenty things that may surprise you about me even if you think you know me:

1. I usually read between 15 and 20 books at a time.

2. I have NOT read past the third Harry Potter book--go ahead, kick me.

3. I have lost a toenail every summer for the last 6 years due to hiking extravaganza gone wild.

4. I don't drink milk.

5. I've only been REALLY lost once.

6. I feel about 16 inside. The graying temples and neck thing REALLY throw me off!

7. I have a recurring dream and wouldn't you like to know what it is????

8. I have been in love 6 times.

9. Once I slammed my glasses down into the bathtub because I was mad. Then I told my mom they "fell off my nose." Do you think they have internet in heaven so I can finally settle this with my mom?

10. Once I backed our Subaru into a tree but I told my husband, "Wow, I don't know WHERE that dent came from."

11. I have never ever cheated but as just admitted (#'s 9 and 10) I have lied.

12. I was a chronic hitchhiker one summer in my Jackson Hole days. During one of those escapades I rode in a car for about 3 hours seated between two guys from New Mexico, and I think that it was probably marijuana that I passed back and forth to them. Naiive. Dumb. Lucky to still be alive. Fun?........

13. After all this time I STILL can't do my hair.

14. I've watched Anne of Green Gables probably 62 times, and I still cry when Gilbert touches Anne's hair and calls her "Carrots".

15. A good percentage of the gifts I give originate at thrift stores, but I make sure they are impecably imperceptable as such.

16. I sang "You Can't Get a Man With a Gun" at the top of my lungs when I was on the riding lawn mower the other night.

17. I really want some chickens.

18. When I'm all alone, I waste vast vast amounts of time and then feel shabbily about it.

19. I will walk across huge cities for a perfect macaroon.

20. In my previous life I lived in Manhattan. I think I made jewelry down in Soho, but that part is still unclear. Now I'm working out some bad Karma in seventh grade.

Mushrooms in the Driveway

Fueled by a million created wings of fire the rocket tore a tunnel through the sky and everybody cheered.

Fueled only by the mystery of warm, most soil, and a beckoning sun, the seedling urged its way through the thickness of black--

And as it pierced the heavy ceiling of soil and launched itself up into outer space-no one even cheered. --Marcie Hans