041- Sweet Violet

A couple of days ago when I was on a search for signs of spring I found this one lone violet blooming in a very sheltered flower bed on the somewhat-south-facing side of my garage. (*I'll give you a rant about that in a minute!)

Violets seem to love my yard, they grow here like weeds AND I LIKE IT! I wish all my weeds were this pretty.


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** OK so here is my rant-

I live in Utah, right? EVERYTHING in Utah is all about the compass; you know, all North, South, East, West. We lived in the Antelope Valley for 23 years which is also set up on the compass... it is so easy to find your way around. Oh, but my street??? Nope, it is set at 45* on the compass. So when I want to say the south side of my house I always have to qualify it with the adjective! Rrrrrr!

But the upside is that I get the nice winter sunshine shining in my French doors where I like to bask. See, I can always find the upside!

040- Dried Cherries

I was out documenting the progress on our roof earlier today when I saw *that perfect light* shining on my neighbor's weeping cherry trees. Look at that beautiful blue sky in the background.

We still have cold temperatures... but I can like the sun! I've done my share of basking the last two days. Good thing too the clouds are coming back tomorrow.

039- *New Boots*

I was getting ready to type my blog post title and this popped into my mind.

Funny story...

When Spencer was just a little guy, maybe 3, he found a pair of child size cowboy boots that used to be mine. He LOVED them, but they were too big, and frankly, too worn out. We were able to find him some boots just his size. The first Sunday after getting his boots we walked into church and instead of turning into *our* row Spencer proceeded straight up to the podium, proudly stomped one of his boots down in front of Bishop Lenker and excitedly stated, "NEW BOOTS!" Bishop Lenker laughed and so did we... what a funny little guy! (wow... 20-something years ago)

So this-day my house is getting to do the Spencer-routine and proudly state, "New Boots!" (or, perhaps, new hat!)


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Why a new roof? Our wind storm two weeks ago did more damage than we could see to the roof. The insurance adjuster said that 60% of our roof needed to be replaced... so we are getting a new roof for 40 cents on the dollar. Perhaps not what I wanted to spend my money on right now, but still a blessing.

038- Mum's the Word

I've been conducting an experiment this winter- to see if regular *basking* will help with my SAD. The evidence seems to show that it is helping but when I go several bask-less days I really feel it. I love the rain, snow, clouds and weather but I realize that I wouldn't be a good candidate for Seattle! ;)

So a few minutes ago I took my camera outside on this very grey day in search of some sign of spring's approach. You know what I found? Mum's the word! Down under the dried stalks of my Chrysanthemum (yeah, try to spell that without spell-check!!) I found the new growth brought out by our warmer (ha, ha 40*) days.

So for today... this is my sign of hope, and who knows- tomorrow the sun may be shining and I can bask again.


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037- Rain Drops

I woke up this morning to a some very grey light filtering in through the blinds and curtains. When I peeked out I found that it was raining. I just love the rain! As soon as I opened the front blinds I saw my photo of the day! My Japanese Maple sits just outside and was covered with thousands of rain drops- what a beautiful sight!


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The other thing I found today is the texture I used. It is from Jerry Jones AKA Ghostbones AKA SkeletalMess. What a talented and generous guy.

My other fun today (and it is just early afternoon)- we had *clean the church* duty again. Since I've been keeping my photo journal AKA Project 365 I can tell you that we did this almost exactly a year ago.

036- Winter Pond

I've been working on my Project 365/2009 book at Blurb. I'm in the proofing process right now. Today I was reading posts from last June with photos from the Angell wedding reception that was in Eaves backyard. I was talking about their beautiful pond and realized that I've never taken photos just of the pond.

So on this very mid-winter day I present my black and white world to you.


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035- Frozen Falls

I went on a little photo explore today... very little! My plan was to park at Nunn's Park and walk the Provo River Trail and take some fun photos of the frozen falls. HA! Can you say avalanche area? The best I could do is pull into the area that is supposed to be the turn in to Bridal Veil Falls (you know the area... the one that has the signs that say NO PARKING NO STOPPING! Yeah, that one.)

Luckily I brought my whole photo bag, not just the camera and one lens. I popped on my 75-300mm and clicked away! Wow, love that lens!



These photos don't show it so much but the ice was blue!


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034- Heart-Break in 1st Grade

Miss Camille, best loved teacher in 1st grade, had a handsome visitor recently. Kevin, a talented musician, came to see his sweetie in action and to sing with the 1st graders. What no one counted on was that this little visit from Miss Camille's boyfriend would cause heartbreak in at least one little infatuated 1st grader!


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Oh, what a sad lesson to learn at such a tender age. But not all was heart-break... do I detect some twitterpated little girls? (Yes, and maybe even one big girl in this class!)



And how do I know all this? I was that proverbial fly-on-the-wall. I was there on the same day to help Miss Camille get ready for parent/teacher conference. I am so thankful that I am close enough to do this. And this time I'm also grateful for Miss Jamie's camera and my camera phone, because my big one was at home. Sad...

033- Groundhog's Day

I have funny story to share... it's a bit long, but I hope you will enjoy it. It's kind of a Groundhog's Day story. Well, inspired by the movie... love that movie! ;)

   

 Camille's first year of cheerleading she was on a competition squad made up of little girls, 3rd-5th grade. Wildflower was the only school in the Antelope Valley to have competition squads so they had to compete in Bakersfield, which was about 90 miles away. There were about 8-10 teams there with which our girls competed. (Wildflower also had an older squad 6th - 8th grades which competed there and usually won.) We had a dandy coach, lots of parental support** and excited little girls. So most Saturdays from January through April found us in Bakersfield at competitions. Our team was good, they were sharp, and they started winning! But with any competition sport there has to be winners and losers... that's just the way it works. ** Here's the proviso... not ALL of the parents understood that this was a fun sport and that if we didn't win every week it was ok! (You know it's people like these ladies who give cheerleading moms a bad name!) 

Towards the end of the season our team lost a competition by a few 100th of a point. We were disappointed, but ok. All except the above unnamed moms... they appeared at school bright and early Monday morning and demanded to see the Principal. She graciously gave them an audience and listened to their ridiculous demands: They wanted the Principal to call the organization and DEMAND that they review their video tape (which they probably didn't have, only parents are that nutty!) to prove that the other team had cheated and award 1st place to our team! I'm not making this up! I worked at the school so I was privy to all of this early morning drama. These moms fumed and fussed the whole day. In an effort to placate these moms several SANE mothers agreed to watch the video tape. When we disagreed that the other team had NOT substituted older, and therefore more talented, team members in order to cheat and win these moms argued all the more. Finally in desperation I said to the most vocal of the two, "We've seen the video and there wasn't any swapping. We just have to accept this. You need to just stop." She turned on me and hollered, "DO YOU WANT TO TAKE THIS OUTSIDE?" I was momentarily stunned but then, making my best buck-toothed-ferret-face, quipped,

"Don't drive angry, don't drive angry!" 

She stuttered and spluttered, took her VHS tape and stomped out.

032- All Mine

Do you notice anything different about my house? Look closely... you might just see it! This house has no mortgage! Even 5.5 years ago I would never have dreamed that we would get a house paid for in my life time. But here it is... a wonderful blessing poured out upon us. We are so blessed.


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