G is for girls

I like pretty girls.  I like the saying that pretty is skin deep, but ugly goes to the bone.  My favorite saying is, "Hoo-rahed by a little girl," a line from the western movie True Grit.  If my husband is watching a movie I ask, "Are there any girls in it?"  Because movies with all guys are usually boring.  I do like one oldie movie that has all guys, The Treasure of Sierra Madre. My daughter-in-law and I were talking about how we always take notice of what female Fox News commentators are wearing and how their make-up and hair look and we have to comment about it before we listen to what they're saying. Haha!

Candid shots.

There was a 14-year-old girl at the lake.  The daughter of a friend of a friend.  She was quiet.  Serene.  An unusual quality for one so young.  Her profile was classic.  Big nose.  Indian.  American Indian.  I surmise she'll be an exceptional beauty when she's older.  She had gorgeous, silky black hair which she never tucked behind her ears.

She saved one of the babies from a bad water experience.  My granddaughter, the fearless three-year-old, boldly stepped toward the deep, then ran forward, and, unable to stop her momentum she went under not understanding that people cannot breathe underwater.  The older girl saw it.  Without hesitating for a moment and ran/swam through the water to the rescue.

Land of Enchantment

Today we changed our driver's licenses and registration from Texas to New Mexico.  My husband decided.  Now we can vote on local and state issues.  Yay.  Best of all, I took a good photo for my license.  I've never, never had a good driver's license photo.  I've had a lot of bad ones.

This state's motto is "Land of Enchantment."  Locals call it "The Land Of Entrapment."  Hehe.  

It's duperly windy out today.  We got Bella a fly mask to keep the flies from walking on her eyes.  She doesn't like wearing it.  She'll get used to it.

Sunday at 6:00pm is the big day.  We're buying our piggy for the fair.  He's going to be named Winston just like Winston of last year.  His pen is all ready with improvements.  We're so excited to add a pig to our family.  Well, he'll be in our family till October when we sell him.  We don't want to think about that though.  We remind ourselves of the good life he'll have before then.  Here's what they looked like on May 9th.  They'll all be bigger now.  They needed more time with their mom.  There will be 8 kids and they will draw numbers for who goes first to pick a pig.  Everyone hopes they're picking a winning pig, but last year the child who got last pick won first place!  You never know.

This little piggy was the noisiest.  The owner said we would have to be patient and wait a few minutes while he feeds her because she's the runt and requires hand feeding.  We couldn't talk till he was done because she was squealing so loudly. She gets some milk from her mom, but not enough.  She will be sold as a pet, he said.  It was awful cute.  You can tell she's smaller than the rest.

BP

Went to the doctor to get Zovirax for the herpes simplex type1 that was attacking my lip. I got to walk around all week and teach class with a giant scab on my face. So nice. Good thing I saw the doc too because although it was too late to use it for the scab on my lip, as soon as the lip one went away another started on my nose. The medicine worked on that one and it didn't break out! Thank you, Lord.

My blood pressure (BP) was 112 over 60. Pretty good!

Zumba is going well. My Saturday class is still small; six people last week. But it has a good vibe and I like it just as much as the larger weekday classes. It's a wonderful thing to see people gettin' into it and knowing the routines without having to look at me 100% of the time. When I look out at class and we're all dancing in sync it's very cool! Also, last Saturday I forgot my place in a routine and I looked at class and they were all doing it correctly. I took their cue and got right back into it. I loved it! I was happy. Also notable, at the last class I had no stomach ache, no retching, no having to go to the bathroom 10 times before class. Amen to that. I get a wee bit anticipatory before we start, but that's within the realm of normal. We like the realm of normal.

I haven't put up a photo for so long. Here's a camel. He lives in New Mexico. She, I mean. We petted her and she was so sweet and gentle. Her feet sink into the ground. That's what camel's feet do.

I had a Zumba song that I introduced on November 16. I tell ya, I had the impression no one liked it. The very first day we went through it - at the end there was dead silence in the room. You coulda heard a pin drop. Okay, I says to myself, maybe it's because it's new. We'll do it a few more times, see if they warm up to it. It's a song by Ivy Queen, reggaeton genre. We did it seven times and I decided to rotate it out. First day we don't do it, two people ask why we didn't do it and said they missed it. Sheesh kabob! I told them, ifns you like a routine you gotta let me know! You gotta clap or say something to me otherwise I'm trying to figure out if peeps like it or not. Haha! Live and learn.

I'm practicing a new cooldown routine this week, then I have two salsas I'm going to learn. One is a traditional salsa and the other a hotter "salsaton"; a blend of salsa and reggaeton. I felt guilty when I put my first playlist together back in August, that I had not a single salsa routine. Whenever people think of Latin music the first thing they think of is salsa. I looked and looked and did not find any salsas that moved me. When it rains it pours. Now I will have two at once!

Rock House

There was no pecan harvesting yesterday because the orchard owners had a medical emergency. We will go in January. So instead we went to the ranch (saw the horses below and our son got to ride one) and then we ventured out to a place I've never been before called Rock House.

There's not much out there except the endless miles of the very striking Chihuahuan desert. You know, I thought we were in the Sonoran desert until I watched a ranger presentation a couple weeks ago and I found out I'm not in the Sonoran desert. I'm in the Chihuahuan desert. Hhmmph.

My friend said he wants to camp out there a couple nights when it warms up, but I tell ya, I'm a fraidy cat. Maybe if I'm with a ranger or someone who has a weapon for protection, but I don't know about staying out there alone. My friend the journalist, he's up for it though. He's got a wild side.

So can you see Rock House? It's that leetle, tiny, house made of, um, rocks, on the left, that blends in with the desert. It was hard for us to see and we were driving there. It's 17 miles off the interstate. No one knows who owned it. Even the historical society doesn't know who built it or who lived in it. That's a bit peculiar. The desert can be a peculiar place.

And here's a shot of the house. This is its best side. The inside was no great shakes. I can't imagine who could have lived out there.

Here's a silhouette of a pecan tree. It was a cloudy morning in the 40s. Shiver-me-burrrsky cold! I had on a big warm coat. My husband picks good coats. Although it was cold at Rock House too, at least it was mostly sunny.

Yesterday morning

I'm putting up my practice shots till I get the one. Am kicking myself for being too cold to get my camera out on the day when the view was magical a week ago. I'm getting up early to get these morning shots. On this one I wish I'd done bracketing so I could brighten up the island. It's too dark. Uh, I don't know how to do bracketing yet.

I admit, I had a real nice Christmas. We had Turkey a la King over rice and fruit jello with whipped cream for the holiday meal. We had friends over and they brought the dinner. Good deal there. If you can find company who are good cooks who will bring food to your house and leave you leftovers too, go for it! I made the dessert. I forgot to buy whipped cream and the store was out so we drove to our guests house and got some from their trailer. It was real cream so I had to whip it with sugar and vanilla and I had to whip it a long time to get it fluffy. My arm got tired. I think I will never eat Dream Whip again. The real thing is much tastier.

I printed out a few Christmas songs like The Little Drummer Boy and everyone enjoyed a sing-a-long without music.

Tomorrow we're going to Las Cruces. I get to buy yarn! I want to make another scarf. My sister liked hers a lot. She emailed me and what she wrote made my night. Says she's going to wear it with the tag attached. Heh. I think I could get into giving handknit gifts.

My husband asked me what I wanted to get for our eldest son for a wedding gift. I've known from the beginning but I've been waiting for him to ask. And he said okay. I was surprised. He never tells me no, but I thought this might be the time he says no. I was prepared for a no, you never know when it can come, so I am happy with his answer.

Mourning Dove

Keeping warm. That's why he's puffy.

Snow geese wintering in New Mexico

I felt like I was in a National Geographic film. Never have I seen so many birds in one place at one time. The sound was incredible. Hundreds of birds. What you see in my lens is but a portion of what I could see at one time. They are to my right and left as well.

They winter in New Mexico at Bosque del Apache. I want to go there again! I could stay all day. The weather was nice. They were having the Festival of the Crane event and it was really nice. Lots of people were there and there were educational booths which is where I got some of the photos below.

When we walked down the ramp to the water I started to cry. The sight and the sound was such that I was momentarily overwhelmed. I had no expectations and so to set eyes upon all these birds. It was awesome. A Japanese guy (with a very fine camera lens) saw me and he moved and gave me his place to take photographs. I was all weepy and got a good photography location to boot.

One in flight

Barn owl

I had no idea this exotic looking creature is a plain old barn owl. All of these birds are rehabilitated and will never return to the wild. I think she has a wing that was broken and it didn't heal well enough for her to fly.

A burrowing owl! He is rehabilitated.

He was hit by a car and almost died. They saved his little life and now he goes to festivals and classrooms and teaches people about whoooo, whooooo, burrowing owls.

They live in old prairie dog burrows

A raptor

Red feathers on their head

Sandhill cranes in flight

If a picture paints a thousand words

Then this about sums up my day.

The Wall in miniature

This one isn't made of black granite like Maya Lin's. It's a retired traveling Vietnam Memorial Wall made of black sheet metal and inscribed with all the names of the men and women who died in the Vietnam War. It was our history lesson this day. We'll go back sometime because behind the wall is a small park with granite podiums - each inscribed with a synopsis of every war the U.S. has ever been in. The one for Iraq/Afghanistan is still blank.

My cousin was going to go to Canada if he was drafted. He was/is a pacifist. He never got drafted. I was 11 so I didn't understand anything.

I knew a man who was in his late 40's and still had nightmares. He was a stout man, but he dreamt that he'd been injured in Vietnam, not killed, and that he was lying on the ground with dead all around him. The Vietnamese, in his dream, were going from body to body stabbing them with the knives on the end of their weapons (I forget the proper nomenclature) to ensure they were dead. In his dream he'd turn over quickly to his stomach so he could play dead, and in his sleep even as large a man as he was, he could turn to his stomach faster than you can imagine. Very quick. Quick like a dancer, but he was no dancer.

When he awoke from this dream he scared my friend sometimes. She was very careful to remain a few feet away from him until he was completely awake. It was a recurring nightmare he had.

Photo taken November 14, 2006
New Mexico

Roadrunner, the coyote's after you

That was such a funny cartoon. Our whole family would sit and watch it on Saturday mornings. Well, my mom, my sister, and me.

This was taken yesterday morning through the kitchen window. Luckily the window was clean! She was coming by every day for awhile, then we didn't see her for a few weeks.

At first she was sitting on the wood all puffed up and when she saw us she kept an eye on us and moved her tail up and down, then she took off. I want a picture of the male. We saw them both together at the Visitor's Center once. He has fluorescent orange markings next to his eyes!

I notice when you enlarge the photo her feet are cropped. I'm not happy about this.

This squirrel

Caught in the act 

He lives right next door in a very nice burrow with many entrances and exits. He loves us. We're the most interesting campers he's ever had for neighbors. Our site looks like Ma and Pa Kettle live here, and with a kid the landscape changes every day. We keep him on his toes.

Jack O' Lantern

Nibbler 

This is yesterday. Mr. Nibbler has eaten such a big hole on top now that the lid fell in.

Distinguish a diary from a journal

Snapshot from Wednesday

I'm excited because we've started our fourth grade curriculum. God grant me energy and insightfulness to make it interesting to a nine year old, on the go, boy person. So here's an excerpt from lesson one in composition:

What Is a Journal?

A diary is private, meant only for the writer's eyes, while a journal, in some more developed form, is meant for a wider audience. Writers often use their journals to record ideas for subjects they might like to write about in later writing, such as funny bits of conversation, everyday events, descriptions of people they might want to include in stories, and questions they have about the world. It is not a place to write secrets, names of people the student likes or dislikes, or anything of a secretive natures. Your student should feel comfortable sharing anything he writes in his journal.

Now you know what fourth graders know about diary and journal writing!

Our son hates writing. This is going to be huge. I hope it goes well. Last week his handwriting was legible. I didn't tell him though because then he may have written worse just to spite me for the day!

The photo is of southwestern New Mexico. We made a day trip down to Texas, just over the border. Check out all the green. New Mexico has has record breaking rainfall this year. Flooding and the whole bit. Look at the green on those desert hills.