June 7, 2014

Day 1 Utah Adventure.

It has been a busy day, especially for Don. He flew in from Nashville this morning, unpacked, packed and then drove me and the two spoiled canines, and our trailer to Grand Junction! This is our first leg of our Utah Adventure. We will be meeting up with our friends, Karen and Gary, in Moab tomorrow. 

Here's a funny tidbit about Nashville. Alex and his best buddy Derrek have been driving across the country from San Diego to Derrek's new Marine Corp Band assignment in Virginia. By coincidence, they ended up in Nashville the same night Don was there! They all hit the Honky Tonks with Don buying the rounds!

June 6, 2014

D Day. Today is the 70th anniversary of D Day at Normandy. I don't know a lot about this historic event but learned more while watching the Brian Williams special tonight. They featured four veterans as they went back to France to visit the area for the first time in 70 years. They are all 93 years old now but by listening to them, they describe it as it was just yesterday. That just shows what an impact the experience had on them. Now we know to treat soldiers as they return from war for trauma, but back then they just had to "get over it" on their own. Having children in their early 20's, it really hits home as to how young all these soldiers were. I just can't imagine the bravery and fortitude these soldiers had to have to survive D Day- 10,000 didn't survive which is really incomprehensible! Thank you veterans of D Day and all other conflicts for the freedoms that I take for granted every day!

June 5, 2014

There are two reasons that I love the picture below. First, Jack Russells and I have a love- hate relationship. When the kids were little, we adopted a pure bred Jack who was rescued after being attacked by a dog. When I met him, I instantly fell in love with him..even after the drugs he was on were phased out and his real psychotic, energetic, squirrel obsessed personality surfaced. Chip was my special dog though he had his faults which were as wide as that famous one in California. I have so many stories of his years with us and it was very hard when he went off on his last great adventure and never returned. Now we have Miss Maggie May who is only part Jack Russell. We don't know what the other "part" is but it is something that neutralizes the psychotic runaway tendencies of her late brother and we love her dearly too. Oh...the second reason I love this picture? The wine of course!

June 4, 2014

Americorp. Thank God for Americorp volunteers! Both of my schools had two Americorp volunteers throughout the school year who worked with struggling readers to improve their skills. Right before school let out, the new math curriculum started to arrive. The last two days, two Americorp volunteers needing to complete their hours for the semester, started helping me. Today, we were almost done at one school when I got a call from the office. Another pallet of 1,000 pounds of books had arrived! I promptly called the other school. Sure enough, another pallet had just been delivered there too! These Americorp angels assured me that they were here for me through Friday and  would "make sure I would get to go on vacation!" Quite frankly, they were the only thing between me and a nervous breakdown! I love you Jenna and Eric!

June 3, 2014

America's Got Talent. I really enjoy this show. I think I've watched every season and I can't believe this is season 9. I guess I like seeing the variety of talent of all kinds of people and how the exposure on this show could change their lives. I admire how people can overcome their fear and put themselves out there in front of the judges and all of America to see. I can't hardly stand if someone frowns at me let alone buzz me! And sometimes we see local folks like tonight  there was a young singer from Monument, CO. He was very good. If you're looking for some good, clean entertainment, tune in!

June 2, 2014

Kindness. Today three women from the school district cataloging office came to one of my schools to help me with the mountain of math materials just delivered. Yes, that's right, I have three days until vacation and a truck full of new curriculum arrives...for both schools! Just like angels, the cataloging office offered their help to all of us split school librarians and I jumped on it. It was so nice to have those helping hands and expertise on how to catalog things like foam squares! Thank you ladies!

June 1, 2014

Wonderful weekend! We had a great weekend with my mom and two sisters. We stayed just outside Estes Park and spent a good part of Saturday in Rocky Mountain National Park. It was beautiful and surprisingly not very busy. I don't remember the last time I was there and it just makes me realize how many treasures we have like this in Colorado that we don't take advantage of. My mom loves the mountains but living on the plains, she doesn't get to go very often so it was fun to have her with us. All I know is that I hope when I am 87 years old I can still hike like she did! 

No tornados or hail this weekend but we were a little threatened by flooding. Our campsite was just feet from The Big Thompson river and our campground staff stayed up Saturday night to keep watch. I'm beginning to think that instead of the states chart for our camper we need a chart of all the severe weather we manage to survive!