Spring Break

Jack and I left town over spring break and enjoyed a fabulous vacation on the east coast. Roger was home working and finishing up some final projects for school--his semester is just ending. By the way, he'll be completely done with his MLS degree in August!

We flew into Baltimore and spent a night at my brother-in-law Bill's house with his wife Lorraine, a 5-year old, a 3-year old, twin 1-year olds (who we met for the first time), and their big friendly dog. Their home is busy and happy!

Then we drove down to Washington, D.C. and spent a few days with good friends, Pat and Jack. Highlights included taking (my) Jack to visit the federal court where I used to work, having lunch with my cousin Julie (an honest-to-goodness lobbyist), visiting monuments after dark and taking the D.C. Duck tour. Jack especially enjoyed taking hundreds of photos at the air and space museum and the museum of natural history.

After that we headed south to Charlotte, North Carolina, to visit my cousin Tracey and her family. But we didn't take a direct route. We drove 150 miles out of our way to the Outer Banks, visited the Wright Brothers memorial at Kitty Hawk and spent the night at a hotel on the beach! It was very, very good for our souls to see the ocean.

We had a fun visit in Charlotte, mostly just hanging out and catching up. We met Tracey's one-year old daughter for the first time, and Jack and their older daughter reconnected. A highlight of the trip was going to our first Passover Seder dinner. Tracey's husband Josh is Jewish (reformed), and she recently converted. It was cool learning about Seder traditions, which were fairly raucously but lovingly observed in Josh's family. One of the highlights was singing a song about the ten plagues set to the tune of This Old Man, and I actually tried gefilte fish.

Jack was thrilled to get a $5 bill for finding a piece of hidden matzah. I won't be surprised if that's the tradition he remembers most when his Primary class studies the Old Testament at church.

Before and After

Here are some before and after photos of the Springville Museum of Art store. The after photos were taken before it was completely done, but they show the transformation. In less than three weeks and with a next-to-nothing budget, we were ready for the opening of the Wayne Thiebaud exhibition last Saturday. Phew!

Before:


After:

Zero to 60

A few weeks ago, my life shifted into seriously high gear. Not permanently, but all of a sudden I've got a lot of balls in the air at once.

For example, at the moment I'm writing this at the Springville High School library circulation desk, where I have been substituting for the last few days. Oops, hang on. I have to go help a student find books about ancient Roman baths.

I'm back!

Besides substituting at the high school several times this month, I've been busy at Jack's school helping out in the classroom, writing the PTA newsletter and creating door decorations for teacher appreciation week.

I've been busy at the Springville City Library as a newly appointed member of the library board, which will be a big adventure. The first hour of my first board meeting was pretty intense as we listened to a couple contest several books in the young adult section. First amendment issues right out of the gate!

I've been busy helping out with publicity for the 42nd Annual Art Ball, which is held every year at the Springville Museum of Art to help celebrate the opening of the Spring Salon exhibit, a juried show for contemporary Utah artists. The Art Ball will be held on May 3. Light buffet and big band dancing. Contact me if you want to buy tickets (I think I might have a quota to sell).

I've also been getting back to pulling together the art exhibit I'm working on as a guest curator for the museum--original illustrations from children's books. I met with the Statewide Art Partnership committee to talk about the exhibit and get their creative juices flowing with ideas about how to get schools involved. Their enthusiasm was very encouraging. The exhibit is scheduled from mid-September to the end of December.

I've also been at the museum nearly every day for the past two weeks working on transforming the store for the opening of the Wayne Thiebaud exhibit. I've been painting walls and creating fabric panels for the backs of shelves to bring in color, organizing and figuring out how to display inventory, designing new signage, etc. It's been a wacky, wacky ride. The exhibit opens on Saturday, so I need to have everything done by Friday afternoon.

And on top of all that, I finally got Jack on the ice with skating lessons and I finally got around to getting a mammogram (results ok!).

The Speaker of the House

And since I've been feeling patriotic lately, here's Jack practicing his part for the third grade patriotic program at school. He recited the first lines of the Gettysburg Address in front of the entire 700 member student body and did a bang up job!

Leap Year at the DMV

Jack and our red Jeep at the sand dunes, Fall 2003

I am thankful that February had an extra day this year. We missed the window for mailing in our registration renewal for our 1994 Wrangler so I had to do it in person. And of course I waited until the very last day of the month to do it!

I wasn't too worried. They've got a great system at the DMV in Provo. I had a nice conversation with the woman sitting next to me while I waited for them to call my number. It took less than 15 minutes even though the place was packed with people.

The DMV is a fabulous place to people watch--it draws in a cross section of the entire community. I heard at least three languages besides English.

Driving our Jeep in wide open spaces. Efficient government bureaucracy. Being surrounded by people from all over the world. This is the America I revel in.

Winter Fun

Every day there are dozens of things I think I'll blog about. But then I never seem to get down to it. So here are a few pictures of Jack enjoying the snow this winter to keep up the appearance of blogging.

Jack, Georgia and Gracie on a fabulous new sledding hill at Jolley's Ranch up Hobble Creek Canyon.


Jolley's Ranch also has great trails for cross country skiing so Jack will get lots of practice with the skis Gramps gave him for Christmas.


Coming home to a cozy warm house at the end of the day.

Who Should You Vote For?

Went online to this site and confirmed my voting instinct. See my results after answering a series of questions below.

I do want to say for the record that I believe Mitt Romney is a good person. I just don't agree with him on many issues. On a gut level, if I had to choose between Mitt Romney and John McCain, I'd go against the results below and vote for Romney. McCain's views on national security, which seem to come from a place very deep inside him, make me a little nervous, and I think Romney would be more capable of turning the economy around.

I can't remember where I heard this, but the other day some pundit defined Democrats as people who want "to fall in love" with a candidate and Republicans as people who want "to fall in line" with a candidate. I'm registered as unaffiliated, but am coming to the realization that I may actually be a Democrat. However, I really don't like fitting into a box, so I think I'm going to remain unaffiliated.

I am happy to admit that I have fallen for the aura of Obama. Yes, I have been swept up in the emotion of his rhetoric and his ability to inspire. But I wouldn't have fallen if I didn't also think that he has skills and plenty of substance as well.

Who should you vote for? (my results)

Barack Obama				66
Mike Gravel				57
Hillary Clinton				36
Ron Paul	-24
John McCain	-24
Mitt Romney	-63
Mike Huckabee	-84

Two and a Half Hours

Wow. A presidential primary with the chance to vote for a woman, an African-American or a Mormon. How cool is that?

I didn't choose my candidate because she was a woman, or he was an African-American, or he was a Mormon. I chose my candidate because I believe he is the best person for the job.

So I stood in line for two and a half long, long hours, asked for a Democratic ballot, and cast a vote for president that will actually make a difference here in Utah for once.

I haven't figured out why youtube won't accept my login, so I'll send you to this link for a video that captures the emotion of this vote for me today.

1963

I'm not sure why I seem to be obsessed with my birth (see here and here), but two stories I've been following in the news are linked to 1963, the year I was born.

The events unfolding in Kenya have been of personal concern to me because my brother has made his home in Nairobi. I've been following the news there mostly through BBC news. I learned today that Kenya gained independence from Britain in 1963.

Also of personal concern, but closer to home, we've been waiting for an announcement about the new presidency of the LDS church. President Hinckley, who led the church since 1995, passed away last week. Today Thomas S. Monson was announced as the new president. President Monson was originally called to serve as an apostle in the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles in 1963.

On a lighter note, I was browsing Wikipedia for other events that occurred in 1963 and discovered that 1963 was the year Tab, often my soft drink of choice, was introduced. According to Wikipedia, it seems I am a member of a cult after all (see halfway through the fourth paragraph).

713 Revisited

I came across our birth certificates while sorting through some papers today. Considering this post, it was a bit startling to see that I weighed 7 pounds 13 ounces when I was born.

I Like Hillary

It's true. It's sure (as heck) not a popular opinion here in Utah, but I like Hillary Clinton. I think she has a good mind and a good heart. She reminds me of some of the strong, intelligent women I've known and admired through the years, especially growing up back east. I think it would be interesting to hang out with her.

When her autobiography came out a few years ago, we carried it in our bookstore and at least half a dozen times some offended customer would turn the books around so people couldn't see the cover. A few months ago I was at a book club meeting and someone called Hillary ugly. I was genuinely surprised at how many people in the group nodded their heads in agreement. Ugly? Really?

I can understand having a visceral reaction against someone. I fight that every time I hear President Bush speak (and am pleased to report that I have tried to be mature about putting my feelings aside to really listen to what he's saying, and I do actually agree with him sometimes).

I can understand why people don't agree with Hillary on the issues. I can understand why people don't want her to be elected because of all the Clinton baggage. I can even understand why people find Hillary a bit offputting.

But I just can't relate to the visceral hate people feel toward her. Because I like her.

That said, I'm going to vote for Obama on Tuesday. I think it is very significant that he didn't support the invasion of Iraq. I think he is our best hope for moving forward together and finding our way as a nation in this new world of ours.

P.S. Though I'm not voting for him, it sure ticks me off that the media is basically writing off Mitt Romney (especially when the economy is such a critical issue). If all delegate votes counted regardless of states, Romney would be actually be the "clear" front runner. Also, I'm offended on Wyoming's behalf that their primary results were totally marginalized. No wonder people in this part of the country are suspicious of the eastern establishment. What a truly bizarre system we have!

The Year of the Rabbit

Everyonce in a while I think about the similarities between what the world was like when I was Jack's age and what it's like now.

Roger and I were born the year Kennedy was assassinated and spent our childhood against the backdrop of the Vietnam War, Watergate, the fight for civil rights and a growing energy crisis. And, like today, the economy wasn't so hot. Remember stagflation?

When Roger and I were toddlers, construction started on the World Trade Center. When Jack was a toddler, the towers came down.

The sixties were a defining decade for our country, and I believe we're again living in a defining decade. Sometimes it feels as though Roger, Jack and I are caught up in a cycle of history repeating itself.

Soon after Jack was born we went out to eat at a Chinese restaurant. While we were waiting for our food we read our placemats and discovered that all three of us were born in the year of the rabbit (1963, 1999), part of the 12-year Chinese zodiac cycle. Jack and Roger were even born on the same day.

Hmm.

Synchronicity

According to Wikipedia, synchronicity "is the experience of two or more events which occur in a meaningful manner, but which are causally unrelated."

The other day I was listening to a presentation given by author Carol Lynn Pearson about one of her books, Consider the Butterfly, in which she shares some of her experiences with the magic of coincidence and the lessons she's taken from them.

The next day I was watching an episode of Iconoclasts that Roger recorded for me more than a month ago with mind/body/spirit guru Deepak Chopra and comedian Mike Meyers. Several times their conversation turned to this idea of synchronicity. (By the way, this is a fabulously interesting series that, according to executive producer Robert Redford, "explores the intersection where two great talents meet.")

I believe I have had a synchronous event about synchronicity. Cool.

In the Genes

Roger just sent me a link to this bit about my Grammie buried somewhere in the Mt. Holyoke College website as proof of genetic heritage. I love all of the same little joys in life that she did!

I have often thought through the years about what I've inherited from both of my grandmothers. I definitely inherited wanderlust from my Grandma Jan, but I also inherited my Grammie's propensity for sleeping in (another little joy). The two don't always work so well together!

I was so pleased that our travels earlier this month allowed me to show Jack the campuses of Amherst College (Dad's alma mater) and Mt. Holyoke College (both Grammie's and Mom's alma mater). Mom and Dad met in college at a fraternity party where they were matched up according to height. Mom was the tallest girl and Dad's roommate was the tallest guy, but he didn't want to be matched up with the tallest girl so he switched dates with Dad.

The result? My unique combination of genes. And my genes have been especially loving that toast and jam lately.

Obi-Wan Joseph and the Wise Guys

Thursday night Jack and I went to our ward Christmas party at church. (Roger was attending his last MLS class of the semester. Yay!)

Usually ward Christmas parties are loud, raucous affairs with lots of joyful children running wild. Somehow the organizers pulled off an elegant, magical event. Dimmed lights, beautifully arranged buffet tables, the high school madrigal choir dressed in black tuxedos and red gowns. We even had that perfect, gentle, barely accumulating snow for the ride home.

The evening culminated in a still nativity scene with a children's choir singing The Nativity Song. The night before the boy who was planning to play the part of Joseph decided he'd be more comfortable playing a more anonymous wise man and his mom asked if Jack would play Joseph.

All we needed to prepare was a costume. Not really my strong suit. But this time I had a brain wave. He wore his burlap Obi-Wan Kenobi robe from the Halloween before last tied at the waist with a length of hand made rope. It was perfect, and Jack made a wonderful Joseph, holding a staff that he swore he would not turn into a weapon ("as long as the wise men don't say anything rude!").

Friday night we went to see Jack's good friend Rex in The Best Christmas Pageant Ever at the Springville Playhouse. The whole production was fun and very well done. I was familiar with the story, but had never actually seen the play.

Rex did a great job playing David, one of the boys in the pageant who had to play a shepherd because his mom wouldn't let him be a wise man. When the pageant director asks why, he shrugs and says, "I don't know. She just always says 'Don't be a wise man.'"

This afternoon we're off to find a Christmas tree--the third one we'll decorate this season after helping Aunt Linda and Nana and Gramps decorate theirs in Massachusetts. And tonight we're off to a neighbor's holiday party.

I think the Christmas season is well underway.

School Daze

For thirty years I pretty much ignored elementary schools (except as some of our best customers at the bookstore!). Then Jack started kindergarten three and a half years ago, and I've slowly but surely gotten sucked into elementary school culture. Being a helper in the classroom once a month, doing the newsletter for PTA, taking my dutiful shifts at the book fair, helping out in the library, etc.

This past week has felt like full immersion!

Last Thursday Jack and I were in Massachusetts, and we had the privilege of meeting my sister Linda's third grade class at Central Elementary School in Stoneham. Linda thought it would be fun for her students to have pen pals in the wild west. Jack's teacher agreed, they paired up the students and now they're at least two rounds of letter writing into the project.

Jack was especially looking forward to meeting his pen pal Adrianna, who was very nice and who helped us pass out the salt water taffy treats that we brought from Salt Lake City. And we bought salt water taffy treats in Boston that we'll be sharing with Jack's class here!

While we were visiting Linda's class we all sat in a circle and the kids asked Jack questions about their pen pals, about his school and about living in Utah. The very first question someone asked was "Why did Sam [name changed] spell hockey wrong in his letter to me?" Linda quickly said, "We need to ask Jack questions that he knows the answer to." Later in the car Jack said, "I knew the answer to that question, you know. It's because Sam is an idiot!" It's important to note that Jack knows better than to call people idiots. He and Sam are actually friends. Jack was kidding, but I'm sure glad he didn't say it in Linda's class!

The day after we got back from our trip, I helped out with a third grade class field trip to the planetarium in Salt Lake City. The only reason I signed up to help was because Jack wanted me to. I'm just very relieved that after three hours of wrangling kids we didn't lose any of them.

Ah, but my adventures do not end there.

Last night I got my very first call to work as a substitute librarian at one of the elementary schools in town. I signed up well over a month ago, but only to work in the libraries at the half dozen schools in our area, so I'm only expecting to get a handful of jobs over the course of the school year.

Checking books in and out and reshelving is only a tiny portion of the job. I had to teach six different classes for 45 minutes each, and do recess duty for half an hour! The regular librarian had planned a reader's theater based on the book Who Will Pull Santa's Sleigh?--just the thing to wind kids up!

Except for all of the shushing part, I actually enjoyed myself. Which is good because I need to go back tomorrow and do it all over again with six more classes.

But it's definitely not something I want to do every day.

Jar Cheeses

I'm here, I'm here! I've just been very busy getting ready for a trip, taking the trip (Boston, 10 days!), getting home from the trip and now catching up on everything after the trip. I promise I will write a bit about our adventures, but for now the following minor observation.

The grocery store we usually shop at has been recently renovated and now has new aisle signs indicating the type of items found in each aisle. I had no idea that "jar cheeses" was an important enough product category to be given its own billing on an aisle sign. Who knew?

Out of the Rut

Today was not an ordinary day. Nothing really exciting, but it took me to places I don't usually go and I found it all extremely pleasant. Especially because it was warm enough today to be out and about without a coat.

Jack woke up on his own this morning and got dressed before my alarm went off. That has happened maybe twice before. Maybe.

I had an appointment with one of the sixth grade classes at Jack's school to interview them for the next issue of our PTA newsletter at 9:40 (when recess was over). When I got to the school I discovered that all of the students were attending an assembly. Could I come back in half an hour?

So to kill a bit of time I took my guitar to get new strings. I bought the guitar in a small shop on Center Street in Provo--The Great Salt Lake Guitar Company--so I took it there. It's one of those small businesses that reflects the owner's passions: making guitars and making people happy by selling them guitars. (Just for the record I don't have a hand-made guitar; he sells factory-made guitars as well).

He said my guitar would be ready in an hour so I drove back to Jack's school to meet up with the sixth grade class. Perfect timing; they were just coming in from recess after the assembly. A really great group of students and a really neat teacher (I hope she's still teaching sixth grade when Jack gets there). Six of the kids in the class are working on redesigning the school website. They actually had to apply for specific "jobs" by submitting resumes and interviewing with the teacher.

After I was done with the sixth grade, I stopped by Jack's math class to give him a hug (he's still okay with that, but would have seriously protested if I'd tried to kiss him too) and then spent way too much money filling up the gas tank in our Jeep.

I had a bit of time to kill before my guitar would be ready, so I stopped by the Waldenbooks at the mall. I found both of the books I was looking for (Peter and the Starcatchers and Three Cups of Tea). I also made a very satisfying impulse buy: Firstlight by Sue Monk Kidd who wrote The Secret Life of Bees. Firstlight is a collection of some of her early autobiographical spiritual writings.

Back to the guitar shop just in time, and the new strings sound fabulous. I spent half an hour talking to the owner about the best and worst parts of being a small retail shop owner. We both love developing relationships with customers and hate paying property tax on fixtures and supplies.

Then I stopped at the grocery store for some provisions and to satisfy a new craving I bought really good bread and tomatoes along with some mozzerella to make paninis.

After lunch I picked Jack up at school and took him to Representative Chris Cannon and Senator Bob Bennett's offices in Provo to do some research on a trip we're hoping to take to DC. I don't think either office was used to having constituents drop by. They were very nice to us, but mostly referred us to their website and their DC offices. Did you know that you now have to arrange a White House tour six months in advance and get a security background check? Luckily, visiting the White House is not on our priority list.

On the way home we picked Johnny and Benny up from the China Cafe, but instead of going home we went to the park. Who knows how many more coatless days we'll have?

Pajama Day

Jack went off to school in his pajamas today. The school is having a big pajama party in conjunction with a read-a-thon.

What's especially funny is that Jack did not go in the pajamas he slept in. He thought it would be a bit embarrassing to wear his regular Spongebob pajamas. And he wanted to wear something clean and fresh. So he wore his black pajama bottoms that look like sweats and a comfy red long-sleeve t-shirt.

I also had to promise him that I'd take him home to change into regular clothes if we didn't see any other kids dressed in their pjs. Luckily we saw lots of kids looking like they just rolled out of bed.

Ah, he's growing up and becoming more self aware. Pretty soon it will be excrutiating for him.

I was talking to one of my friends this morning about how I read to Jack just about every night, sometimes for up to an hour. It's been such a good thing on so many levels, but I especially love the way the books we read spark discussions about really important stuff.

For now Jack is addicted to our nightly ritual. In fact, he'll step up and do just about anything (like, say, brush his teeth) if I threaten to send him to bed without reading time.

But one day he's going to grow out of it. That will be excrutiating for me.

Vote!

It is with a bit of a heavy heart that I will be tuning in to my little secret pleasure tonight--Dancing with the Stars. Yes, I'll confess I was curious about why it is such a big hit, so I started watching it at the beginning of the season and am now completely sucked in.

Since I'm not a voting viewer, I can't really complain, but last week the person I thought would win it all--Cheetah Girl Sabrina Bryan--was voted off. I was outraged. Really outraged. You can ask Roger. But even so I probably won't become a voter. I don't want to be that caught up in it all!

But I will be voting in the "real" election tomorrow. I've done my homework on the people running for our city council, and I think I've made up my mind on the whole voucher issue. At the end of the day, I've got to base my decision on my firm belief in the value of separation of church and state. So I'm going to vote against a program that would use public money to pay for tuition at religious schools.

And regardless of the outcome, may schools across Utah--both public and private--have a moment of silence in honor of the not-so-honorable battle.

Still Undecided

I'll let the subject go after this, but I just had to laugh when I got the mail and there were two anti-voucher program mailings in the box today.

So for equal time on the issue (see yesterday's post), here are two bewildering statements from today's mailings.

Quote 1

"Should Utahns fund unaccountable voucher schools instead of improving our public schools?" This question is misleading for two reasons.

(1) Voucher schools would not be entirely unaccountable. For example, students would be required to take annual performance tests. The anti-voucher campaign could claim that they don't think voucher schools would be accountable enough, but of course that is too subjective to be persuasive.

(2) The statement sets up a false dichotomy. Funding voucher schools and improving our public schools aren't mutually exclusive, and in fact voucher advocates argue that the voucher program will actually help improve public schools. Plus, I'm guessing that if the legislature matched the voucher program funding with an equal amount of additional funding for public education, that wouldn't resolve the issue.

Quote 2

"Referendum 1 would divert $429,000,000 of our tax dollars away from public schools, according to the State's Impartial Legislative Fiscal Analyst."

My understanding (based on a conversation I had with a neighbor who is a public school counselor) is that this statement refers to the $429,000,000 that would be pulled over the coming years from the state's general fund and put into the state education budget specifically to cover the costs of the voucher program. And if Referendum 1 doesn't pass and the voucher program ceases to exist, that money will go back into the general fund.

So the statement could be technically correct if it read that "Referendum 1 would divert $429,000,000 of our tax dollars away from the state education budget." But even then it's misleading, because the only reason the money is there is to fund the voucher program. It can't be used for anything else.

The bottom line for me? I'm still undecided, but I'm also not sweating the outcome of the vote. I think both sides have very compelling--albeit mostly theoretical--arguments. It would be interesting to see if the voucher program does pass how things actually play out--no one really knows at this point, it's all conjecture.

I just wish both sides would have trusted us voters enough to put their arguments out there in a straightfoward, honest way. Instead we got a whole lot of emotional manipulation and half truths. Blech.

The Truth of the Matter

Aaagh! I have been spun silly and now I officially believe that it is impossible to know the truth about anything in our society anymore. Take this article about the Jena 6, which basically reduces that whole situation to a media frenzy with little substance (and this is off my topic today, but it drives me crazy when we aren't careful about the battles we pick--it ends up being very counter-productive, working for the very things we are fighting against or vice versa.)

Anyway, today my beef is about all of the spin surrounding the school voucher program Utah voters will be voicing an opinion about on election day. Let me just preface my remarks by saying that I'm undecided about how I will vote. While I'm an avid supporter of public schools (does that make me a socialist?), implementing the program could be an interesting social and economic experiment. And using our tax dollars this way could pry open people's minds to consider, say, seemingly radical solutions for our health care crisis (yes, apparently I am a socialist).

That said, I'm going to quote from two pieces of mail I received today, both of which happen to support the voucher program. I'd quote a bewildering statement from an anti-voucher mailer too but the dozens of mailers we've received in the past few weeks have gone the way of the recyle bin.

Quote 1

"In addition to saving taxpayers thousands of dollars per child, vouchers do not take one penny from public schools. Instead funds from the voucher program comes from the state's general fund--leaving all money for public schools intact, but reducing the number of students to be educated." I'm sorry, but I don't understand how you can save all of those taxpayer dollars and increase actual spending at the same time.

The point about taking children out of public schools without reducing spending per child is well taken, but to start the sentence out with the phrase "saving taxpayers thousands of dollars" is extremely misleading. On the other hand, I do believe that the program may ultimately save taxpayer money because in my mind there is nothing to stop the Utah legislature from reducing public education outlays in the future or failing to increase education outlays as the population in our state grows.

Quote 2

In a letter from former Miss America Sharlene Wells Hawkes, she delivers one of the emotional arguments I've heard many times over these months: "Unfortunately liberal east coast unions are spending millions to ensure that parents don't keep this ability to choose."

It really gets under my skin when people use the word "liberal" to (wink, wink, nudge, nudge) imply "bad." (It also bugs me when people use the word "conservative" the same way.)

While I have issues with the role unions often play today, they have played an important role in making America a better place for many workers. And darn it! Public school teachers need and deserve to organize and advocate for frivolous things like, oh, a living wage and adequate health insurance.

And don't even get me started on the east coast bashing. Personal issues aside, whether anyone likes it or not, public school teachers all over the country have a vested interest in the outcome of Utah's vote. We're naive if we think we're living in a vaccuum.

So I wasn't even listening to her by the time I got to the last part of her sentence about a parent's ability to choose. Which is actually the main strength of the pro-voucher movement. (Do you think voucher supporters would mind if I started calling them "pro-choice"?)

I don't want to leave you all feeling as despondent as I do at the moment, so here's a tiny bit of light. For anyone reading this who will be voting on this issue here in Utah, I recently heard one seemingly rational discussion among local journalists who have been working hard to get to the truth of the matter (click here).

Jack's Fall

Jack has completed his first term in 3rd grade! His first report card of the year was fabulous--all top grades except for math, in which he got a very good (he had a 98% average on tests, but managed only to get half of his homework turned in--we're going to work on that!). I'm so proud of him because he'd rather not be in school, but he's stepping up to it.

His PE teacher gave us his scores on the Presidential Fitness test. They'll administer the test again in the spring, so we're going to work on boosting his numbers. Every night when we get in pajamas, we're both going to do situps and pushups. I think Jack will be surprised at how much he'll improve with consistent daily effort. And it won't hurt me a bit to do it alongside him!

Here are some fun fall pictures, including some with his good friend Rex. It's already snowed twice so far, but we've also had many days of spectacular autumn weather.

Through Amber Colored Glasses

I've misplaced my sunglasses and have been using a pair of Roger's that I found in the Jeep. The lenses give everything an orangey-pink glow. I tell you it's been fabulous driving around looking at all of the autumn leaves.

Years from now I'll be saying, "Remember how vivid the colors were in the fall of 2007?" and everyone will just stare at me like I'm nuts.

Theme of the Day

Within the last 24 hours, I've read two amazingly similar ideas in two dramatically different books.

From Fahrenheit 451, written in 1950 and which I'm reading for a book club discussion later this week:

"If only they could have taken her mind along to the dry cleaner's and emptied the pockets and steamed and cleansed it and reblocked it and brought it back in the morning."

From Peter Pan and Wendy, written in 1940 and which Jack and I are reading aloud:

"It is the nightly custom of every good mother after her children are asleep to rummage in their minds and put things straight for next morning, repacking into their proper places the many articles that have wandered through the day."

I can certainly see the appeal. I've got a lot of stuff crammed into my head, and it would be fabulous if someone could go in there and organize it all for me!

State Stats

The other day at Jack's Cub Scout Pack meeting we had an activity to get to know the leaders. One of the questions was "how many states have you been to?" I was very suprised that only one of the eleven leaders had been to more than half of the states (40), and even more surprised that only three of the leaders had been to more than 15 states. Four of the leaders had visited less than 10 states! (In their defense, however, two of them grew up in other countries--Brazil and Canada.)

Maybe it's just me, but don't these numbers seem awfully low?

I suspect part of the reason people here haven't visited that many states is that out west there just aren't that many states. And they're huge--it takes hours and hours of driving to get out of Utah!

Or maybe I'm the odd one out with a lifelong goal of visiting all 50 states.

Both Roger and I have only got one left--Hawaii. A few years ago it came down to two--North Dakota and Hawaii. So Roger and I made a point of going to North Dakota. Hawaii seems like a much more exotic place to finish up (although we did enjoy our drive through North Dakota!). And Jack has officially visited more than half of the states so far!

P.S. I just have to share a related incident that still makes me laugh when I think about it. One of our employees at the bookstore was a student at BYU and she spent a semester studying in Nauvoo, Illinois. The program was administered through the study abroad office, and so naturally the students referred to going to Nauvoo as "going on study abroad." Maybe crossing the Mississippi River counted?

It Is Done

"Of course it is happening inside your head, Harry, but why on earth should that mean that it is not real?" (JK Rowling, Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows)

After eight months, Jack and I have finished reading aloud the entire Harry Potter series. It was a rainy, gray day yesterday--the perfect weather for a marathon read of the last 120 pages in book seven. Except for a bath break, we read from 5:00 to 11:00 straight.

Whew! It was a great ride! It made me laugh and it made me cry. It made Jack pull the covers over his head whenever someone snogged.

JK Rowling gave us so many great, complex characters to think about. She gave us lots of opportunities to talk about what it means to have courage, how we can make good choices even when it's hard or scary or counterintuitive, how there are consequences for our actions, and how we can gain wisdom through reflecting on our mistakes and changing our course.

And as Jack gets older, I expect I'll bring Harry Potter up every now and then. How we need to be careful about rushing to judgment about people when we don't know the whole story. How we need to be careful about how we gain and exercise power. How we need to understand that sometimes following the rules and doing the right thing are not always the same. How loving others makes all the difference in the world.

Building a Lego Wife

Friends my age have children who are getting married! It's a little crazy entering this new phase of life, but I'm enjoying learning from their experiences. One of the challenges is having no control over who these children are marrying, despite all of the planning and scheming through the years.

My friend Linda, whose daughter Shelley got married last summer, said that she never realized that she'd been imagining her idea of a perfect husband for her daughter through the years--picking and choosing traits and putting them together in a nice package. Sort of like building a Lego husband she said. Then of course, Shelley brought home a completely different boy! But it's all good.

I wonder if I'll do the same for Jack. Or if I'll be one of those moms who picks out the "perfect" girl for him when he's, say, eight.

I must say that it's very tempting to do just that with Jack's bff Gracie, who moved away from our neighborhood a couple of years ago. We arranged for them to spend the day together on Saturday, and neither of them could sleep on Friday night. I swear it felt like Christmas Eve.

I like the idea of Jack and Gracie ending up together. They have an amazing relationship. Even when they have a rare disagreement, they work through it together with a great deal of civility. They genuinely enjoy each other and they're instinctively on the same page. And the silver lining is that I like Gracie and I like her family.

Gracie's mom, Diana, and I laugh about the possibility of them getting married someday. We're not really serious about that, but we think the connection they have is pretty rare and special.

What I hope for Jack is not necessarily that he'll end up with Gracie, but that he'll end up with someone that he can connect with so well. And it won't hurt at all if I like her too.

Chile

Photo by Tamara Trivino Ibar

I have been procrastinating writing my report on Chile. No reason other than that procrastination comes naturally to me.

But the time has come because the week of September 11th is nearly over. And September 11th is a pivotal date in Chile's modern history. September 11, 1973, is the day Augusto Pinochet, in a coup d'etat backed by the CIA, toppled President Salvador Allende, a socialist who was democratically elected. Pinochet established a military dictatorship and stayed in power for the next 17 years.

So maybe he wrangled Chile's economy, but at what price? Pinochet's name is virtually synonomous with human rights violations. And as I've dug, I've gotten the impression that the societal instability in Chile that apparently scared the U.S. enough to help overthrow a democratically elected leader was actually stirred up, in part, by opposition funded by the CIA.

Ah, but I do not want to make this report about how horrifying it is when U.S. foreign policy is shaped by fear, arrogance and greed.

I'd rather write about how wild it is that Chile is nearly three thousand miles north to south, but not even 300 miles across at its widest point (unless you count Easter Island, 2,000 miles west).

Or that the northern part of the country includes the Atacama Desert, which is the driest place on earth.

Or that the literacy rate is higher than 95% and that Chileans call their country país de poetas, land of poets. Chile has had two winners of the Nobel Prize for Literature: Gabriela Mistral in 1945 and Pablo Neruda in 1971. If I ever go to Chile, I want to visit Pablo Neruda's three homes.

Or that the Ceuca is the national dance (click here to see a video). How cool is that to have a national dance? Although I suppose if we had a national dance, it would probably be the square dance, and I had my fill of that in fifth grade p.e.

Next stop? Bali. I have made a pact with my friends Linda and Lisa. Within five years, we will have traveled to Bali together.

I'm Here, Really

I'm still here, just not apparently getting around to blogging. I keep thinking of all sorts of things to write about, but I don't sit down and do it. I'm still, for example, thinking about what I'm going to write in a report about Chile. And since I've already picked my next country to research (I'll let you all anticipate that one!), I'd better get going on my Chile report.

Lots of tennis this week, mostly watching US Open matches. The other night, though, I was all set to watch the Venus Williams match I recorded, then accidently saw the final score on the internet. So I half heartedly fast fowarded through it. I'm going to be more careful about my browsing until the tournament is over!

But I've also gone to the courts to play twice this week. We're trying to get a regular group to meet at a regular time every Tuesday morning, but I was the only one who showed up this week. There was another group of women, who are league players, at the courts and they invited me to play with them. I was intimidated at first because I have zero experience with competitive tennis, but I think I played as well as some of them!

This afternoon Jack and I made it to the courts after several days of trying (we kept forgetting to get our rackets and balls out of the car Roger was taking to work). We hit the ball back and forth (he's hitting them more consistently, and got several really good shots). Then I practiced my serve and he tried to return them. He did hit them a few times! Then one got him in the stomach. We kept playing. Then one got him in the forehead. Yikes! He may possibly get a bruise. But I don't think it was as bad as when Uncle Greg whacked him in the head with a Wii controller playing tennis doubles!

I also attended my first ever PTA meeting this week. What a slice of middle American life that was! I'm very happy that I volunteered to do the newsletter (I took my first issue to the district copy center yesterday). I can sit in the monthly meetings feeling absolutely no guilt whatsoever about not volunteering to help with the holiday parties or the fundraisers.

After the PTA meeting I ran into Jean, the school librarian I helped all last year (entering all of the books into the database). She had some thorny computer questions that I helped her out with. It felt good help out. She wants me to substitute for her when she needs a substitute. That isn't often, but it would be a fun thing to try. And a tiny bit of money would be involved, which is always nice.

Last but not least, Jack and I finally finished Harry Potter 6 and are now several chapters in to Harry Potter 7. I'm so afraid that I will hear something I don't want to know before I finish it--especially since Jack took a sneak peak at the epilogue.

Worth Reading

I just came across this blog story (click here) today that reminded me how important it is to remember that we are all connected in significant and meaningful ways.

Gender Preferences

I spent a good part of the morning sitting on the couch watching US Open tennis, including watching relative newcomer Agnieszka Radwanska beat defending champ Maria Sharapova in the third round--a big upset. I believe watching tennis at the grand slam level qualifies as a good workout (heart rate up, jumping off the couch at tense moments, etc.).

I don't usually watch sports, but I do get sucked into the elite competitions--grand slam tennis tournaments, golf majors, NBA finals, and, of course, the Olympics.

Over the years, I've discovered that I have a definite gender preference in most of the sports I watch. But my preferences vary depending on the sport.

I like watching women play tennis better. I like watching men play golf better. I like watching women gymnasts better. I like watching men dive better. I like watching women play soccer better. I like watching men play basketball better. The main exception is swimming. I am quite content watching either sex glide expertly through the water.

Is this normal?

Back to School

Summer isn't officially over, but it may as well be. No more long lazy days at the reservoir. School is now back in session. Actually, it has been for over a week here, and we've been busy! Jack is adjusting fairly well, except for the occasional "Mom, I'm just not used to going to school all day and having to get homework done, too!"

Because they completely rebuilt Jack's school last year, the school district had a ribbon cutting the day before school started. We went to get photographs of the event--I've volunteered to do the PTA newsletter this year. And we had a surprise guest at the event! Here's a picture of Jack with U.S. Congressman Chris Cannon.

Not only have we been busy with school,* but we've also had houseguests (Aunt Cindy came with cousin Sarah to get her settled into her new apartment and her junior year at BYU) and a family wedding (congratulations to nephew Jordan and his bride Cali!).

*I need to qualify this statement about being busy with school. I haven't actually been busy with school, only Jack has. But I've been very busy with lots of things I put off doing because I've had Jack at home with me (this summer was the first summer I've ever been a stay-at-home mom with a husband off at work all day). So I've been busy getting together with friends, running on the canyon trail, visiting the art museum, etc. And I really ought to get busy getting the oil changed in the car, grocery shopping, etc., etc.

At the Lake

Here are just a few of the fabulous moments we had at Lake Geneva!

Heading to the pier:

Jumping in:


Yikes! It's a water bomb!

Hanging out with new friends Elise and twins Jack and Lulu:


Hanging out with cousin Sarah:

Hanging out with cousin Ben:

The need for speed:

Watching cousins Tim and Ben sailing (we also enjoyed some sailing, but don't have any pictures of us!):

Light saber battles on the raft:


Cousin Oliver on a wave runner (his first solo adventure!):

Cousin Jean and the kids:

Noodling around:

First catch (and we're afraid this fish and the next both met tragedy, which pretty much put an end to our fishing adventure):

Feeding time:

Hanging out with Elise:

Squeezing as much swimming into the day as possible: