Tucumcari, NM

It was a nice drive today. We enjoy the desert scenery. We'll miss it. There was a wild wind here in the late afternoon, luckily after we were off the road. It was a warm wind and there were great, gray clouds, billowy white at the top, in the sky.

At dinner my husband asked us what was our favorite part of the day. Actually first he talked about the meaning of happily ever after. We talked about that for awhile and it led to our favorite part of today. His was how well the truck pulled the trailer. There was a long incline and the truck had no problems with the pull. Our son's favorite part was buying a decorative cedar box with a picture of horses on the lid from one of the truck stops. He had seen one like it at another Flying J store a month or so ago and coveted it ever since. He got money for his birthday and spent $20.00 of it on the box. It's smells so nice. I was surprised he spent so much on it. He really wanted it. My favorite part was when they went into McDonald's to get breakfast, and as I sat in the truck I observed the sparrows making a delicious morning meal of the insects on the front grill of the semi-truck next to us. I thought about sparrows in the Bible. It says God knows every hair on our heads, He forgets not a single sparrow, and He values us above the sparrow so we should not be afraid. I imagined myself a sparrow. I thought about how sparrows don't know about the Bible and how I wouldn't like to eat insects. Blech!

Tomorrow we're going through the panhandle of Texas and into Oklahoma. We're not looking forward to driving through Memphis in a couple days. Eeek.

My husband told me to go to bed. We need an early start tomorrow. Ciao!

Travel day

Tomorrow I'll be getting up at 8:00am. Hopefully we'll be on the road by 9:00am. I think we're driving to the other side of New Mexico - the east side.

Have a great Friday!

I got one done

Finally. One, entirely, complete leaf earring.

I'm teetering. I'm on the brink of insanity. I'm starting the second one now. Actually, it's a third one because the first one I made I need to tear apart because now it's not good enough to match this excellent one.

When the earring moves in the light, I think the beads glitter!

Uh

I can't get the sewing needle through the dried glue?

Tried glue

I made two more leaves tonight. Since the sewing on the first one looks so sloppy because I couldn't hold the tiny o-ring and two leaves together and see what I was doing at the same time, this time I dabbed a bit of glue between the two leaves and another dab on the o-ring. I'll let it dry overnight and tomorrow I'll sew them all together and the plan is that they won't constantly slip out of my fingers.

My husband says we can stay at Devils Tower in Wyoming for ten days. Hoooweee! I'm joyful. Prairie dog town here I come!

I washed and measured my hair today and it's 42.5. I hadn't updated my hair log for quite sometime. My ends are still straight across and lookin' pretty nice.

Well. It was a slow day.

Dentist

I need three appointments but I was only able to get one so far. We'll have our son go in first because our dentist in Nashville is just the best. Last filling our son got he didn't even feel the shot of Novocaine. That's a good dentist! Hopefully there will be some cancellations so husband and I can get in too. Our son will be getting braces later this year so he needs his teeth in a state of readiness.

My husband. He said my corner where I sit will turn into a rat's nest if I keep my current CDs in a pile here. He's got a nerve! I've gotta import them to my iPod. I'm unaware as to how papers, CDs, manila envelopes, drinking glasses, ear buds, pens and newspapers collect here but they're all things of interest and things I'm doing. I'm very active in this corner you know. If I put it all away I'll never get anything done.

My iPod froze up on me tonight. That was an hour wasted. One full hour of pure unadulterated stress. Finally I figured it out and it wasn't frozen at all. There's a minuscule micro slider button on the bottom. It's a lock that I must have inadvertently touched. All this time I had no idear there was a button there. Do the young, hip, technology people intentionally mess with us older people whose eyes are no longer sharp? I think they're stickin' it to me!

Three more sleeps and we start the traveling year. Good golly Miss Molly! Our plans have firmed up a bit and we're heading to Tennessee on our way to Pennsylvania (Gettysburg). We won't be spending a month in Wyoming. KOA Campground at Devils Tower, one of my absolute favorite places in the USA, has raised their fees. It will now cost us $1,290.00 to stay for one month. What? If I pay that much for a month's stay I better have a porcelain toilet instead of a plastic one and mints on my pillow at night. Needless to say, we may not stop there at all or if we do, only for a few days. I do love Wyoming. :(

I'm sleepy

I'm up too late again. I'm such a late bird.

Got my books from Amazon.com today and it looks like a truck ran over them. Why did Amazon send me my books like this? The covers are dirty, one is missing its placemarker ribbon and the other is crushed and ripped on the inside cover. Why would any human put those in a box and mail them to a customer?

A good day

[Myheart. Ourheart.]

I woke up. I had my favorite breakfast, coffee and toast. Got dressed in my new skirt and blouse, put my hair in a Chinese bun with my purple hairstick from Fox and we went to church. I, fully content with the fact that I got to tithe the amount from the date we left including every Sunday up to today. I had told my husband we didn't have to since we've been hemorrhaging money on account of me going to the doc's four times in six weeks. But I woke and there were the funds on my keyboard. It was the bestest Mother's
day present. I was surprised!

I fixed myself grilled cheese and Campbell's chicken soup for lunch and husband prepared gourmet macaroni and cheese with spinach for dinner. After dinner our son gave me a ginormous chocolate chip cookie and hand made card. During the evening he ate most of my cookie. Hehe! I could only eat a little bit. It was soft and delicious like I like it. Helen is so sweet to have made it with him for me.

The spinach in the microwave caused the A/C compressor to turn off again. Again it was like a hot box in here. Again we went for a drive. This was the most interesting part of the day. We drove to the far campground and found Speedy and Cheryl were there! Speedy is named Speedy because when he was 12 he was the fastest newspaper boy of any of the newspaper boys. He's not fast anymore and he has a bad cough. They pull their fiver with a semi. We visited for half hour then said good-bye. Cheryl talked to Reta just an hour before we got there. Reta's dear Jack died two years ago. No, it was three years ago. Where does the time go? She moved to Oregon and bought a condo but she's not happy. She's got the itchy feet but is hesitant to travel on her own. I wonder what she'll do.

On our way home two women were waving their arms and crying in the middle of the road. As we approached I hoped they didn't have a gun or anything. They didn't. I worry too much. Their car got stuck in the sand and Crazy Wayne was there. He was wearing a coat and underwear and a gray afro from the '60s and they were scared. A man before us had stopped to help them, but their cell wasn't working. We let them use ours. They asked if we'd drive them to town to get a tow and we said sure. So they jumped in and we drove. It was a mom and about a 15 year old daughter I'd guess. As we drove we saw a tow truck approaching. We all waved at him frantically (well we ladies did) and we both stopped on the road and talked through the windows. Apparently the man who first stopped to assist them contacted a tow company already! They thanked us, hopped out and got in the tow truck. They were pretty scared but they would be okay. They had two strong men to help them and they'd be out of the sand before dark set in. We got home and the inside of the trailie was comfy cool. I didn't have to do dishes because it was Mother's Day.

It was a good Mother's Day. Year: two thousand and nine. How many more will there be?

One good, one not

I found two sterling silver earring tops that look good with my leaves so I sewed the leaves together and sewed the o-rings on too. One earring turned out well and one not well. Give me a big tissue. Waaah. I can't tear it apart without complete ruination of the earring. I'll have to sew two more leaves and try again. I think I might put a dab of glue on them this time before I sew. They're very wiggly to hold, and the stitches are so tiny. I realize now it's gong to be hard to make the two earrings look similar. The two I have now are dissimilar. Can't wear them. This is why 99% of the Russian leaf earrings I've seen are singles. Ahhh yes, now I see the truth!

In other news, I've been meaning to do my toenails for three weeks. I've got to get that done tomorrow.

I'm organized

Last night I spent a couple hours cleaning out and organizing all my beading stuff. Our son helped me a lot. He took apart anklets and eyeglass leashes and earrings, unsuccessful beginnings, so I can keep the beads I don't want to part with. I found beads I forgot I had. I came across some Swarovski bicone beads in the bottom of one bag. I was completely refreshed but too tired to bead anything by the time I finished. Ha!

Saguaro

Catalina State Park, Arizona. May 2009
Nice park. Lots of saguaro. Nice trails. We only walked the one mile birding trail because of the heat but we thoroughly enjoyed it.



"Hey, hey, help! I'm all by myself out here!"

This park is unusual because literally across the street from the entrance there's a Wal-Mart, Petco, a shoe store, and two Walgreen's within three miles. Oh, and housing. Tons of housing everywhere. As we looked for the park we thought, Oh no, are we spending the night in the city in a state park? This is too weird.

But the park was lovely and we didn't hear traffic noise. Arizona is so lucky they staked out the area for a state park. It's eight square miles, north of Tucson (what, one foot from the city boundary?) has archaeological sites, and lots of bird life. The bird songs we heard were great!

The park was especially refreshing after Benson, Arizona, where we spent the night at an RV park. We called it the campground of the dead. It's one of those places that look perfect, not a pebble out of place, but look out. They won't come out and tell you forthright, but they're not child friendly. Example, my son and I went to use the jacuzzi one evening. No one was in the pool or the jacuzzi. No one was in sight anywhere in the whole park in fact. We were in for ten minutes when a man appeared and told us we had to get out. He said children under age 18 aren't allowed in the jacuzzi. I checked afterward and the sign said no children under 14 without parental supervision. He said sorry, but he wasn't sorry. They'd rather the amenities sit unused, than have a child use them. My husband was hot, as in not happy.

Our current plan is to leave here Friday morning and venture towards Gettysburg. My husband has wanted to see Gettysburg for years. There's an excellent historical novels called Killer Angels and if you want to get some history on the Civil War it's the book to read. It was so good!

Guess I'll do some beading now. I have to take a shower too. I better do that first because there are only two and this campground is full. I can't shower in the trailer because we only have water and electric hook-ups here. Have to conserve water. We'll have to button up and make a short trip to the dump station soon. That's a drag.

Well

Driving through southwestern New Mexico last week, side of the road looking out the truck window pic.

**************************************

Went to the doc today, an actual MD, and got a clean bill of health. Technically speaking, or rather, per se, I'm good to go. Nothing's broken the doctor said. Okay, I'll take that. My blood pressure is usually low but it was 132/86. That's the highest I've ever had in my life. I was Mrs. Anxious! I'm glad it's over.

I made another leaf tonight. Stopped at Hobby Lobby, it's Christian owned you know, and bought two earring tops but got them home and neither looks good with the leaves. Boo. I won't be able to wear them right away. Bummer.

The other night I expressed a desire to hear our pastor's sermons when I'm on the road and a friend from church brought me about 15 CDs today. Woohoo! It was sure nice of her. A bunch of them are about the book of Revelation which I know zip about so it oughta be superb listening.

My sister didn't write me tonight. She wrote today though. She didn't have a particularly good day I don't think. She's was happy about getting her nails done though. She gets tired from her job by the end of the week.

It was over 100 degrees today! Our A/C went off for a few minutes and we got hot. Had to go for a drive to cool down a bit. I wore a new blouse and a maxi denim skirt to my appointment today and they're really cute. Everyone is nice to me when I wear them. I wish I could wear them every day.

Progress

She did it! It was no small feat. A Russian leaf with veins. The veins are done with size 15 beads and I only have three colors of those so I lucked out that the silver actually complements the green and brown.

I plan to place the little one on top of the larger one, sew them together, sew an o-ring to the back, and add an earring top. Hope I can find a pretty one at Hobby Lobby tomorrow. None of the ones I have have the connector going the right way for me to connect to the o-ring.

I think the green leaf alone would look nice but the two together gives it an extra "ahhh." Now to start beading a match.

Evidently obsessed

I can't stop with the Russian leaves. I'm still unable to make one with veins. The one I finished (brown one) I am no longer satisfied with. The top didn't turn out nice enough. I simply cannot hang that from my ear and feel good about it. Back to the drawing board. It's pretty but too narrow to add veins in the center. The other one is the pitiful specimen I created in class. What I want to do, like the one I saw at the bead shop, is make two leaves and put one behind the other and sew them together to make one earring. The brown one is a nice shape for the back but I gotta learn enough peyote to get the veins added.

Ordered our curriculum for next school year. They do a sale once a year so I buy in May and it'll be online for me in September and they'll send us the books and consumables in September. I can't believe I'll be teaching 7th grade! Oh my gosh. I sure like teaching. I'd be a teacher if I could have a class of motivated students. In my dreams, I'd like to be an art teacher. Next year I'll be teaching Life Science (we're doing Earth Science this year), English (his favorite subject next to history), and the first of two years of World History (we're doing Civil War up to the modern era this year). Oh and math, but I don't teach math. When I had to start asking my husband for help in about second grade he said he thought he ought to take over. Heh. Good thing.

Our youngest son will be 12 this month and our eldest will be 31 this month.

Youngest made a friend exactly his age when we were in San Diego. He and his family moved to San Diego from Alaska. Said they got tired of not seeing the sun. I can believe that. They were from Eagle River not far from Anchorage. At first he told us he was from Anchorage and I said, man, that's the city all right. Then he said Eagle River and we said oh we've been through there. I'm sure it's just easier to say Anchorage because most people wouldn't know where Eagle River is. Our son and he were texting today. It's nice for him to have a new friend that he has so much in common with. I've ended two sentences with the word with. Am I okay tonight? It's not illegal to end a sentence with a preposition but you should find another way to express your idea because ending with a preposition is generally frowned upon.

Today we visited Tombstone, Arizona. It's so commercial. They want money for everything.

Tomorrow we're driving to New Mexico. I have to get up at 8:00am.

Guess what. I think I'm all well! I have no discomfort. As of tonight I feel safe to say it's all cleared up. I'm doing a happy dance! God is good. He's a little slow, but I guess to Him he's right on time. I prayed through it even when I wanted to lie there like a lump of misery. That's a change because in the olden days I'd just isolate myself. Shouldn't do that. You need to be part of the body, the body of Christ, and accept prayers and ask for them. And be thankful for them. I am. :)

Egret

The stately great egret (from San Diego). He's not a snowy egret because snowy egrets have yellow feet and are smaller birds. The great egret has black feet.

And he did some preening and had an itch to scratch.


I finished one Russian leaf today! It's pretty and it has potential.

I sense success

First a few photos from last week.

A beautiful pelican. It must be a male because he's so colorful.


An angelic face. As we left the beach area there was this one last seal lying on the rocks. She really responded to my sister. More people came over and took photos as the seal responded to my sister's voice.


And a baby.


I got a little over half of one Russian leaf done tonight. I'm excited. Perseverance!

I'm interested in using Skype or something for making calls on the internet and using the web cam. It's my sister's idea. My husband got a new laptop that has a web cam built in. It's quite fun and we're not even connected to anyone but ourselves yet. Haha! I need to make sure that video calls don't use too much bandwidth though since I only get so much per day.

The worst thing happened last week with my sister. We were talking to this girl, I'd guess a college student, Asian, who said she saw Arnold Schwarzenegger in person in La Jolla. As I walked up to my sister who's four years younger than I, the girl said, "Oh is this your mom?" Can I say how this has destroyed my ego? I already had a little ego (ego is different from vanity) and now I have no ego. Pffft. Gone, disappeared, annihilated. I was horrified. I covered my mouth and couldn't move a muscle from pure anguish. And the girl was horrified too. Then she tried to clean up and say she was going to say sister, but the damage was all done. My sister never even smiled and you'd think as a competitive sister she would have. But she didn't. And the girl couldn't apologize enough. I felt bad for her for half a second, but I've felt worse for me ever since. Sigh. In my defense, I didn't feel great, had been in bed the week before, I had my hair in a tight bun, and I have lots of grey hair and my sister has none. She keeps saying that if my hair was down the girl would never have said it. I don't care if my hair was up or down. I felt really bad.

My husband had a dream about me last night. He said men dressed in riot gear, holding both my arms, were escorting me out of a building. I hope it's not prophetic. I'm going on 50 and if I look like 70 someone's going to need riot gear before July 8th.

Beading

I took a class to learn how to make Russian leaves and I still can't make a Russian leaf. The one I made in class was pitiful. I got a little farther tonight but still get an F for fail. I'm going to try again tomorrow. They are so doggone pretty. I've just got to figure it out.

This is a baby squirrel getting the most nutritious meal a baby squirrel can get. Mother's milk develops the myelin that covers the nerves in the brain so this will be a healthy, smart squirrel. I know they're rodents but I like squirrels. And look at his little ear! It's a baby squirrel ear.

Leaving San Diego

This is La Jolla where the extremely wealthy folks live. We had a wonderful day here. The salt air smelled so good and the sound of the ocean waves and wind was music to my soul. When I was 23 I lived a few blocks from the beach and I used to jog three miles of coast, or sometimes I'd just sit in the sand and watch the waves in the evenings after work. Good memories.

See the little cove in the distance. That's were I wanted to go. Those are harbor seals lying about in the sand. When I was young it was a children's beach but sometime back the seals took it over and the people let them have it. I think that's nice. It's a treat to watch them although they don't do much but loll about in the sand and sleep.


See what I mean?


We'll be on the road at 9:00am tomorrow morn. We're off to see the saguaro cacti in Arizona on our way to New Mexico. I've wanted to stop and spend the night with the saguaro for a few years as we always pass them on the drive from New Mexico to California, but the campground has no sewer hook-up and we do like having full hook-ups generally. This year we're going to stop there and spend the night anyways. So spoiled are we. I did see the temp is supposed to be 94 degrees tomorrow so we may not stay a few days if it stays that hot. Saguaro cactus and joshua trees are fascinating. They look like a myriad of figures dotting the landscape, telling their stories. I imagine what each one has to say or what they say to each other.

In 15 minutes it's the first day of May! Happy May! May should be a good month.

Tonight I had one last fling with my sis. We went to Mimi's Cafe and had a dessert. My treat. I left the waitress a $10.00 tip because she was so good and so sweet. My sister can talk and talk she did. We must have been there two and a half hours. She didn't want to leave, I could tell. Finally I said, "Colleen, we can't stay here all night ya know." So we left. She said she admires how I exit and don't do messy good-byes. Hate the messy good-byes, eh? But I admit I teared up as she turned right and I turned left on the road home. I had to shake it off with the radio turned up loud.

She thinks I'll instantaneously be all well when we leave. We shall see.

I feel compelled to say sorry for not posting. If you clicked in all month, I'm sorry about that. Guess I fell off the horse. I don't usually, but hey, even monkeys fall out of trees. Perhaps some things are better left unblogged? I've had a case of the uglies and I hope that'll go away too for goodness sakes.

Oh I have to add - my husband went with me to see my dear old dad today. It was the best visit of all. Husband is my better half you know. Everything is better with him present. Even our son said, "Mamma, you were relaxed." What? Me, relax? Haha! With God all things are possible. My husband hadn't spoken to my pop for over five years.

Sweet, sweet May. Take me away. . . .

Hi!

It's a "Hi." and not a "Boing!" I've been not feeling well and am still not together enough to travel. I clicked to my blog and my pictures that seemed just okay to me before, are delicious to my eyes tonight. I want to be well. I want to feel GOOD and get on the road.

We've been in San Diego all month. Haven't done much but I've been to the doctor's three times since March 28.

Our son is going into arrears on his house this coming month and I'm heartbroken for it.

We found a church my husband likes and he's gone to church with us all month. Faith comes by hearing. The church is a Calvary Chapel and the congregation looks like it's stuck in the '70s. Perfect church for me. Heh.

We leave San Diego May 1. Going back to New Mexico for a wedding on the 9th and to make sure I'm well before we travel. I was thinking I might like to take photos of the bride preparing for the wedding. I'd like to take photos of her doing her make-up, putting on her dress, interacting with her bridesmaids and such. I told them I don't want to be the wedding photographer so they hired someone else. It was kind of them to think of me first though.

I don't know, but I might not update till May. I'm visiting family here. I am still crumbled up. I told my husband I'm using my mind and he said that's a scary thought. Haha! Maybe I'm better off miles away in New Mexico, eh?

My hair is doing well. That's something. Yes?

Love,

Liliana

Today's hike

Wild Cat Trail in not a maintained trail, so you have to keep your eyes peeled for the cairns. Gotta watch for venomous snakes and insects they say. We didn't see anything but a little old lizard. Didn't even see a bird fly by.

Found out Wild Cat Trail hike isn't free. It's cost us fifteen bucks. Why I oughta. Ya gotta pay to enter the area where the hike is. It's called the "fee area" and when you pass the gate you pay. Bummer, man! So we paid our $5.00 each and drove to the trail head.

This hike is 3.2 miles around the base of the monument called West Mitten, and in between the two Mittens. It was awesome. I mean, I am in awe walking up so close to the big rocks. I like rocks. See those two little pinpricks on the trail? Those are the guys who started right before us. Let's follow! We're going to walk the whole way around the Mitten shown on the right. Brochure says it starts out easy (that means downhill), becomes moderate (it's level part around the monument), then becomes strenuous (going downhill, naturally, means you have to go back up hill). Actually, the uphill part was slower going but not what I'd call strenuous. They were just being cautious in the brochure I think. Part of the way you walk through deep sand and that's good for the legs; harder walking, but good for the legs.


This is the other side of the Mitten.


We finished reading To Kill a Mockingbird. It was good! I think I did a good job reading because my husband was quite emotional and talkative at the end of the story. It was hard to read aloud. I found it to be the most difficult read-aloud I've done.

Also, I made reservations for the Tetons and Yellowstone, two weeks at each in July. Hope it turns out. Reservations and us usually don't get along. For some reason we have the hardest time sticking to reservations. They're hard to get for Yellowstone and the Tetons though, and you really cannot go without reservations and a big rig unless you're the bettin' kind. For Yellowstone I was lucky. I got one of the last two sites large enough for our trailer and truck. Whew! I almost cut it too close.

Tomorrow we're on the road to Arizona. This time we know where a McDonald's is for a nice cup of coffee. Well, Arizona is only about three minutes from here cause we're in Utah just across the state line, but we'll be driving about four hours to our next destination.

The road today

It was so cold it snowed a little bit today. And we got hail. We went for a drive to Kayenta about 20 miles away and came back to town - there was a dust storm! All this weather in one day. Now it's 11:00pm at night and it's 30 degrees. Oooooh, chillllly. I'm makin' chicken soup tomorrow.


There were only dust flurries at our campground and we were surprised the mesa got much more snow than we did. Look at it, will ya. Real snow!


And we passed this rock. It looks exactly like Shiprock, but smaller. I'm pretty sure, in the words of Wikipedia, it's the erosional remnant of the throat of a volcano. Looks like the Navajos have an old horse corral at the base of it.

There is only one hiking trail in this area that is free and if the weather will allow it, I sure hope we get to hike it before we go. Tomorrow's a homeschooling day but afterward we can do a little something. I absolutely must get back on track with my Bible reading. I haven't read it all week; not since we've been here. Eek.

Practicing

I'm getting my groove back! This evening I practiced catching the sunset with a couple Utah Junipers in the foreground. This one I took in RAW format which is a digital negative, and was pleased that it enabled me to bring out the colors so prettily. I am so waiting for the day when I can get a really awesome sunset.



One of the Mittens with deadwood. This stop is next to a place where Navajos were selling jewelry. A lot of the jewelry was very pretty. I was impressed and I'd have bought some if I thought I'd ever wear it. And the prices were very reasonable.



We drove the 17 mile loop and it was it bumpy! We never went faster than 15mph and it took us nearly three hours to go through it. We did stop a lot. This is a high contrast image. I am trying to learn High Dynamic Range imaging and this has the feel of an HDR image but it's not the real thing. It's turning out not to be so easy to learn. But, that is okay. I have time. :) An HDR image combines three images into a single photo: one standard exposed, one over exposed and one under exposed. This photo is just one .jpg though. I worked all last night trying to combine three images and ended up with zip, nothing, nada. Erf.

I'm all sandy. Even my hair is sandy!

Monument Valley

These are called East Mitten, West Mitten, and Merrick Butte and these hues are the exact colors our eyes saw!

We only went to the museum today and then out to dinner, early, at 4:00pm. I had an oxymoron for dinner. Jumbo shrimp with wild rice. It was quite good. It was so much that I have leftovers for tomorrow.

We did do lessons today. That reminds me, the other night our son crowed as he was reading in bed, "Woodrow Wilson is really interesting." Haha! I guess you have to homeschool to hear that one from your kid! I don't know a thing about Woodrow Wilson except he wore glasses.

We have full hook-ups this week and it feels like a luxury using as much water as I want. I'm in my husband's good graces because last week when we didn't have the sewer hook-up (not all campgrounds offer the sewer connection at each site) I discovered I can make our gray water tank last seven days instead of two and a half by washing the dishes in a large pot in the kitchen sink and dumping the water in our bathroom sink. Our trailer is unusual in that it has two gray water tanks instead of one. It's weird. One tank would be normal and so much easier. But the kitchen one is very small and the bathroom one is very large which is backwards because when you're roughing it you're going to shower at the campground showers and you're certainly not going to wash a load of laundry. You're gonna conserve your water as much as possible. Seems like the manufacturers decided to put in a huge tank in the back for the shower and clothes washer and a teeny one in the kitchen, consequently just washing dishes a few times completely fills the tank. We've never, ever filled the back tank up. Why didn't they just make one big tank for the kitchen and bath? We used to have to hook-up and pull the trailer all the way to the dump station to offload the gray water from the kitchen tank, or use the Blue Boy which is a plastic container that you put the dirty water in and you roll it to the dump station. It's not a pleasant job because the gray water stinks and it's hard to get under the slideouts to drain the gray tank for the kitchen (another mistake by the manufacturer). Anyhoo, short story made painfully long, my husband thinks I had a total brainstorm and is happy I saved him from using the smelly Blue Boy.

I accidentally ate a whole package of graham crackers and two Oreos with two glasses of milk at 9:45 pm. I don't know what overcame me. Alas, I was powerless as in, no will power.

Tip for photographing animals

I woke with a headache and various maladies so we're not going to drive the loop today. I think with it being as chilly as it is I'll end up all crickety and unhappy what with getting in and out of the truck dozens of times and getting frozen hands (I lost my fingerless gloves awhile back and haven't found a replacement).

Here's a pic from yesterday. I snapped everything handheld just to see how my camera and I would do. Here is a free tip.

Picture Takin' Tip and Trick

All critters run or fly away fast if they see a human approaching. There are exceptions, naturally. For instance, a black bear, a grizzly bear, a moose, or a mountain lion might come right toward you. I have no tip for dealing with that, except stay in the car in the first place!

For everything else that's cute, if you're in a vehicle and you spot a furry or feathered creature close by the road and you want a photo, if no cars are behind you, slow way, way down or even stop, but don't get out of the car. They're not afraid of cars and trucks! That's the tip. They're used to vehicles. What I do is roll down the window fast as I can and sit on the door if the animal is in front of us and snap best as I am able while my husband navigates. That's how I caught the horse above. But only people with good balance should try this. In all other cases, put your camera on Sports Mode (people will argue but it works for me), put all distractions out of your mind, concentrate fully on focusing and not shaking, and just shoot out your side window when you see animals on your side of the road. You might get a memorable shot.

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I've been practicing silhouettes. At the campground we winter at I didn't get a chance to drive out to any good silhouette locations so I got a lot of creosote bushes pretty much. Here, there's open range and so the animals can cross the road. It's a delight! The soil is so red here that in the afternoon if there are big clouds, we saw the bottom of the clouds reflect a light pinkish hue.

If this photo had an awesome sky I'd be satisfied.

Red Breasted Robin

Apparently his proper name is American Robin. He wasn't the brightest bulb though. He kept flying into our window. I think he saw the reflection of the tree in the glass and he kept trying to land. Poor feller. Fortunately he didn't fly very hard because the branch was only a couple feet away but it was rather distracting. We had to keep going outside to shoo him away. His is a fine specimen of a tweety bird though, isn't he? Quite handsome.

Woke up at 7:00am this morn and it was four hours till we got on the road. First, it snowed during the night! Quite exciting for us southern Californians. I walked about to take some snow shots, didn't get much, came back and husband was trying to get snow off of the tops of the slide-outs. I used to wonder why folks didn't camp in winter. Now, duh, I know one of the reasons - snow on slide-outs. You can't pull them in, or if you do you'll end up with very wet rooms. Oh dear. Finally we pulled out at 9:00am and had our tasters all set for McDonald's coffee and breakfast. There's nothing like McDonald's coffee and those cinnamon bun things when you're tooling down the road. Mmmm mmm. It's the only time I like McDonald's food. Couldn't find a McDonald's though! No way? Way. So we ate at a restaurant and it was like we were stuck in the '70s. Suffice to say, my dried up omelet with bacon bits was delicious because the restaurant ambiance made up for it. Cheap prices, lots of long hair (it's near a Navajo Reservation) and there was even a mini jukebox at each table that reminded me of dayzzz of old.

And we had to stop at Wal-Mart to buy a few last minute food items because where we were going there's not much shopping available. Like I said, finally got on the road at 11:00am.

And we're here! Monument Valley. It's incredibly beautiful. I took some test shots just to see what my camera would do. Ooooh, my camera likes the East Mitten, the West Mitten, and Merrick Butte. I practiced capturing sunset photos too. I am sure to find a good silhouette here! Tomorrow I'm taking my wide lens and my tripod out for a drive on the loop.

It's cold here, in the 40s today, but we don't mind. The crowds are much less this way.

We missed church. We listened to our pastor on audio last night and talked and talked. My son and I, that is. We miss our pastor.

Chaco Canyon NHP, New Mexico

Finally. I have photos of Chaco Canyon National Historic Park. Per se, it was a nice day. Technically, it was a bad day because we had clouds and heavy clouds make for a blah sky. Apparently it was too much to hope for puffy, billowy clouds or even a basic clear blue sky. On the up side it was not too hot to walk all over the place and we did do some walkin'. I've heard that it's pretentious to say "per se." Even so, I like the sound of it.

The road isn't paved all the way there, only part of the way, so four wheel drive is nice to have. Interestingly, we passed only a couple people going out there, but when we got there we found the campground was full! It looked fun, but it offers no hook-ups I think. On this road we saw three working sheep dogs herding sheep right across the road in front of us. They ran toward me so fast I was a bit alarmed, and not knowing whether their intentions were to bite me or lick me, I jumped back into the truck posthaste. Boo hoo. Turned out they were real friendly. She who is not courageous will miss great shots. I ended up with a photo of a flock of sheep behinds in need of shearing. It's not something people want to see.




We got to the Visitor's Center and were excited to walk to our first ruin. There's a loop you drive, about, hmm, six ruins maybe, and this one was a mile walk there and back, and too irresistible to pass up because it's right there at the Visitor's Center.


We climbed the hill behind the ruin and looked down. You have to remain on the trails in this park, you can't wander about, but the trail was very nice.


And here's a little higher behind that ruin. We came up here to see the petroglyphs. That's Fajada over there sticking up and you see the Visitor's Center, the parking lot, and people walking up the trail we came up on. The land is so. . . . vast! I do wonder if I should enlarge the photos more for people who like to click on them. I don't know if it would discourage people who might have slow connections from clicking on them, or if most people have fast enough connections and large enough monitors and want bigger photos.


Here are the petroglyphs.


This is the first thing you see at Pueblo Bonito which is the largest of the pueblos and is the one I most wanted to see. We didn't go to the others because, basically, after you've seen a couple pueblos you're about done. This one is the largest of all of them! It's like a maze almost. Fun to walk through. Long ago the pueblos were all over the plateau and were connected and were quite the accomplished culture between 800 and 1250 A.D. They traded far and wide even into Mexico. I'm fascinated by the Anasazi Indians. How could so many of them find enough water???

Boy, I need to learn how to put my own sky in there, don't I! Yes, indeedy. Must.


This shows some of the kivas. Perhaps they conducted sacred ceremonies here. No one knows and everyone wonders. It's about six feet deep so you wouldn't want to fall in there. I cannot IMAGINE how they dug these out of the hard ground.


Lastly, here is the spot I had all scoped out before we got here - four little doorways. I had planned on sunshine falling through the doorways onto the floor, but it didn't happen for me.


Tomorrow's supposed to be super windy so doesn't look like a promising photog day. I want to sit outside and try to capture some birds - digitally, that is!

Award day!

I got an award. It's from Jules at http://julesoneagleswings.blogspot.com/! Thanks Jules. It was the nicest surprise.

I am so happy with my blog circle and lately it's ever widening. The blogs I read are quite edifying! That means they build you up. Having gotten this award I'm inspired to really work hard on my attitude and gratitude. Starting. . . . okay, starting, now!

As to the rules for accepting this award:

1. Put the logo on your blog or post. (Done!)
2. Nominate at least 10 blogs who you feel are worthy of this award by displaying great attitude or gratitude in their blog! (I'm doing five because 10 is too many for me.)
3. Be sure to link to the blogs you nominate within this post.
4. Let your nominees know about the award by commenting on their blog.
5. Link back to the person who gave you this award.

NOW, on to the blogs I nominate for the Sisterhood Award! All of these blogs display great attitude and a spirit of gratitude so widen your horizons and check 'em out!

The Shaggy Dog Journal

Faith Moves Mountains

Sewing, Quilts, Cooking and Other Fun Stuff

Life Served Sweet

Fetafilter

Let me add, that if you don't wish to pick up your award, that is okay. I have to specify this because Fetafilter is a blog by a mom and a dad, and so no matter how hard he tries he can't be a sister, however this predicament is easily mitigated because the other half, the wife, is a sister. And anyways, I checked the rules and technically they don't call out that you have to be a girl to get the award.

I have to go to bed now. I will have let the nominees know of their award nomination status tomorrow. I have to get up very early tomorrow instead of my usual 10:00am so I really must get to sleep. I hope the Sisterhood Award Board doesn't fire me!

Quiet day

We got a lot of school done so it was a profitable day. We both actually missed our hsing schedule and welcomed our old routine. Monday was a driving day, Tuesday we were all three pooped, Wednesday we went to Ship Rock (I found out it's two words for the monolith and one word for the town) and it was a long drive there and back so we were pooped again. Today my husband took the laundry to town and washed everything while we stayed home and did lessons. It was nice.

This picture is from the walk we took this evening after dinner. There's an easy trail to go downhill and then you can walk the shoreline as far as you like. The kid was making me a nervous wreck because he had to be right on the edge throwing rocks in the water so when I couldn't stand it another minute longer I told him, let's go back home.

We may go back to Ship Rock for a closer look. Since it's on the Navajo Reservation I was afraid to take any dirt roads around it so we stayed on the paved road. I got one fairly nice pic but sure would like to get closer. I'm scared of the Indians sometimes! One time when we were on vacation on our way to Nebraska we stopped at a spot that had a cemetery on a hill. It was a wide, lush green area with rolling hills and anyone stopping would see the cemetery with its quaint white picket fence. I think, as I recall, it was a historic place but not a monument or a park or anything. So anyways, we three (this was twenty years ago with our older son) got out of the truck and walk up and into the cemetery and were reading the headstones. Out of nowhere, honestly we don't know where they appeared from, about six big quiet Indian men came inside and stood and stared at us. They didn't say anything. It made us so uneasy as no one was around, that we made a prompt exit. It was the weirdest thing. Thing is, if there was any signage that it was private, or if they said they rather people not walk around, we'd understand. No, they just came to scare us. Ever since then, I'm more careful of Native American places.

Anyhoo, I phoned the city and found out any of the dirt roads around Ship Rock are public and we're welcome to drive on them. 'Tis a shame I didn't call before we went the first time.

Navajo Lake, New Mexico

[This picture is from the campground looking to my right. I am standing in a camp site.]

We made it. We drove yesterday from 9:00am to 4:00pm and boy - are we out of traveling shape. We all had sore beehinds! We were shifting cheeks from noon to four o'clock.

We've never been to this place and had never heard of it but it's mighty beautiful. There are only a couple other people in the campground besides us so it's peaceful. It's a large campground with well over 78 sites. Temperature is about ten degrees cooler than in southern New Mexico. This is part of the Colorado Plateau and we are at 7,000 feet elevation so that's why it's cooler. And I can feel the air is thinner. The air is dry in our noses too. We had to settle for a site with no sewer hook-up so we'll have to move to empty our tanks in a couple days. The full hook-up sites are smaller and they don't have the view that the partial hook-up sites have. See all the houseboats at the marina! This place must be hoppin' busy in the summer months. We have not yet gone to the visitor's center but we plan to tomorrow. We also plan to go see a giant rock and some ancient Indian pueblo ruins tomorrow.

I am utterly fascinated by the ancient Pueblo Indians. They are called the Anasazi and for some reason around 1200 A.D. they vanished. Vanished without a trace, or so we think. Perhaps there was a drought some say, or perhaps enemies overcame them, or perhaps, right, aliens took them. I first learned of the Anasazi when we visited Mesa Verde State Park in Colorado. I didn't realize that the Indians vanished also from this area at the same time. Their disappearance is more widespread than I thought. I'm now more perplexed and fascinated by them than I already was!

[And this picture is looking straight ahead.]


I made scalloped potatoes tonight and they were really good.

Dog tired

All, as in all, my muscles are sore. Biannual trailer cleaning is done. Tuna salad is made for sandwiches tomorrow. Everything's in order to exit stage right about nine o'clock in the a.m.

On the road again! I just can't wait to get on the road again! Lalalalalalala. . . . Oops, I can't hold a tune.

Well

Was anyone going to tell me that BusyHomeSchoolMom has returned to us from the distant land called In Real Life? She has a March post up and not only that, she's working out. And not only that, she's doing the plank, like me. I didn't even know what the plank was until a month ago. I'm going to be very inspired by her blog. I need it. I've been a little depressed about leaving all my classes.

Today I cleaned out the closet and offloaded a bunch of weight. Most of the extra weight amounts to creative projects I've left unfinished. I packed away my knitting and knitting needles. Gosh, I love my knitting needles but I forgot about them all year. I packed two sewing projects (skirt patterns and fabric). I am so ashamed! I packed one baby quilt - this is my third year working on this little quilt because I'm stuck on a step. Overall, again, somewhat depressing. Face to face with my undone projects I felt knee high to a grasshopper.

I'm not sure if I mentioned we did obtain the storage space we hoped for here in town. It's huge and waaay cheaper. We could live in it it's so big! In April we will transport our household goods from storage in CA and store it here, closer to us. That'll be so nice. The alternative was to sell off more of our stuff this year as storage prices were rising and I wasn't exactly looking forward to that. Now it's worked out better than I could imagine. I think a still, small voice is speaking to us.

Tomorrow is our last day at our church. We'll miss it terribly. I think I miss it already. How will I stay strong without my pastor? I need that weekly spiritual food. I need that one day of the week to refill my soul to strengthen me to be in world for the next six days.

On Monday night I will be a-postin' in my blog from northern New Mexico instead of southern New Mexico! I will try to write Sunday but it's likely to be a busy day what with packing up. We need to rearrange things inside here to ensure nothing will fall or break while we're driving. Being stationary means we didn't have to worry about battening down anything. We're going to pull all the slide-outs in and move one site over so we can super clean our site before we go. My husband gets annoyed with me because at the last minute I get all caught up in raking the sand and making the site looks purty for the next resident. I explained to the men that I want to leave this site as we found it and when I wasn't here I found out my husband said to my son, "Does that mean we should throw trash back on the ground, put a sand dune under the picnic table, and replace all the dog pooh we cleaned up?" Very funny. Not. I concede, the site was in poor condition when we came but we have a reputation to maintain. I don't care about other people - this family will leave this site a clean and welcoming sight for the next camper who pulls in, and that's the name of that tune.

I am sad and blue about leaving and at the same time excited and anticipatory about traveling to new places.

Grahams

I ate some grahams and read stuff online. I'm putting together content for a week long lesson plan on the topic of drug abuse. It's kinda fun. I like doing research. We did extra lessons, or I should say he did extra lessons today to make up for Monday since Monday will be a driving day. Gonna love gettin' on the road. I have to find our Willie Nelson CD.

Son was at the neighbor's and I don't know how the subject came up but the dad asked our son if he knew who Nancy Pelosi was. Our son told him Nancy Pelosi is the Speaker of the House. Guess his jaw dropped. Heh. We can't stand Pelosi and I made sure our son knows who she is, where she's from, and what she stands for. I never thought the subject would ever actually come up though. It appears that a verse came to my mind just now:

"For we wrestle not against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this world, against spiritual wickedness in high places" (Ephesians 6:12).

Rain

We had two big rains today and one is happening right now! My husband told me to quit pounding on the keyboard and I told him I'm not pounding at all - it's the rain falling on the roof. It's as if we have a tin roof ya know. I like the sound.

I did yoga class today. My arms are still spindly and I can't hold myself up in the plank position for even a full minute but I have the strongest legs in class. Now that we're leaving I'll go to pot. Boo hoo. No, I will try to work out on my own. I will think positive. We leave on Monday. Oooh, I'm maybe getting excited. A little. My yoga teacher told everyone to say good-bye to me because today was my last day for class. She is so sweet. It was like being in second grade.

I need to buy a Mastex heating cap and I plan to do so soon. I need to upgrade my hair care regimen and that's what I think I need to add. I will do a hot oil treatment once a week. That's the plan.

There are a couple aches and pains bothering me and I will not write about them because I reject them. Do you hear that painful arm? Do you hear that achy knee? I reject your discomforting me and I do not recognize you. Go away!

I had a fair day today. Sort of have a case of the blahs almost, but not quite. My sister said it's the time change. Could be.

Took a pot of my home made chicken soup to our favorite ranger tonight. He has the flu. I told him it's a very manly soup and I warned him that if he sees a bay leaf in it, don't eat it cause it'll kill him. The guy will eat anything. He eats apples, core and all! I could not find that bay leaf but I know it's in there. I hope he likes it and I hope he will feel better when he eats it. Chicken soup really is the best thing for you when you have a cold or flu. That's not me talkin'. That's science! I want to take some to my aerobic instructor too. She has her hands full caring for her dad, shuffling to doctor appointments, taking care of her own husband and three children.

After pic 41.5"

Alrighty. As a few peeps know, I pulled my pics down yesterday. I, I, I freaked out a little. I'm back to 41.5 and as I blogged yesterday I realized my current after photo reminded me of another photo. So I looked it up in my blog and found one taken in June 2008 that looked just like my hair looks now! A slight mental meltdown immediately ensued and I took down my whole Tuesday post to give myself a chance to think. I don't know what I expected, but I guess I expected to get a trim and still be like maybe 43" or something. A girl has to go with the flow though and have a grip on reality.

I asked for two inches off. The measurement shows he did take off more than I planned but I saw what he intended to cut before he took the scissors to it (he held it up for me to see first) and I approved. Even my son was watching and he gave his okay. I trust Ivan implicitly. I know he would never cut more than necessary.

I think Ivan has a good eye. I think he did cut it to a better hemline even though it's back a little farther than I expected. I picked a different before photo than I had up yesterday because it shows the ends better for comparison purposes.

All day today I've felt great with my new ends. Once a year = new ends! How many times did I comb through my ends last year I wonder. I wonder such deep wonderments. Today I wore a single braid down, a style I don't normally wear, and I keep admiring my braid tail which is now a little stub instead of a wispy whisper of a tail.

On to some self-aggrandizement and edification.

This is the third year Ivan has trimmed my ends. Finally, this year he commented on my hair. It's about time. Thank you very much for throwing me a bone. He was talking to my son who was standing next to us (I think he thinks it too flirty to say it to me) and said, "Your mom has nice hair" and then he followed it up with, "Your mom takes good care of her hair." Well my head about puffed up too big to fit in the barber shop. Those two sentences were worth a three year wait! When he was done I stepped to my husband and swung my hair to the side and declared "What do you think!" And he liked it. I was happy. Altogether happy.

Two more hair incidents have I to blog. When we got home a man across the street walked over with his dog and said, "Wow, I've only seen your hair up. It's so long." I was ebullient. I know, it doesn't take much to give me a good day. And, best of all, today my son told me that one of the park rangers was waxing on in the office about how long my hair is and the superintendent said, "Really? I guess I need to see her hair!" Haha!

So, to sum it up. I wish I had hair like Jen's, so thick. But I don't. But my hair is not too bad. I enjoy it. It's different. It's part of who I am. The ends Ivan cut were woefully wispy and ragged and uneven. It will be ever so interesting to see how it grows back and how it looks at this time next year. And as my son watched me sit here and study and compare my before and after pic, he said, "Mamma. It's still long." Hehe. My son. He reads my thoughts sometimes. It's all relative, isn't it.

Today

I got my hair trimmed. I missed aerobics because our teacher is taking care of her dad. We got a new storage area and we're going to transport our California stuff from there to here. Husband got our awning fixed and reattached. Yay!

My child

I suggested he get a notebook and take notes during church. At first I suggested he write three brief sentences. I didn't think it would be too painful. I hoped it would relieve me of having to hear a single dollar bill get crunched around a hundred times, folded and refolded so tight you could smoke it, or watching him out of the corner of my eye scribbling on the bottom of his shoe for half an hour. Sitting beside him, even with an empty seat between us, when he does that it makes me wanna jump clear outta my skin. I bought him a little red spiral notebook. Talked it up. But he didn't want to take notes, and in time the little red notebook got beat up and ripped from bein' pushed around on the bookshelf. It got no love.

A month or so later I was talking about how I had to buy a second notebook because I filled my first one and oh how nice it was to have all my notes from the previous year to look back on when I needed them.

Then he said he wanted to buy his own notebook. I shrugged, well, go ahead, get one. He bought one. He picked a black one from Wal-Mart, small, with an elastic on it and a ribbon place marker in it. He used his own money even though I said I'd buy it for him. And he began to take notes - not three sentence notes. Tonight he invited me to look at his notes and they were nearly as thorough as mine. What changed him? I admit, I saw him peeking at my notes but I pretended not to notice.

And last night I offered to read the Bible before we went to bed and he was practically jubilant about the idea. I declare. What's got into our boy. I don't know, but I'm not complaining.

I'm teaching my husband about Gideon tonight and tomorrow night. He's my student guinea pig. I pretend to expect the best out of him and often I do get the best out of him! Aw, he could tell me to stop but he's good, he's been kind, about listening. Gideon is in the book of Judges in chapter six and seven. I read chapter six tonight and all the good parts are in chapter seven which I'll read tomorrow night. I cannot do two chapters in one night because my husband can't sit still that long. My son and I good naturedly josh him for not being able to focus too long on devotionals. It's okay. I am not discouraged. I'm a homeschool mom and anyone who's homeschooled a boy for kindergarten and first grade can teach a gruffily old husband too. Faith comes by hearing and I have to see to it he hears a little bit every day. You can't take anything to heaven except the souls you help save. It's a thing I'm working on little by little.

Antsy

We're antsy to leave. I don't know why but the closer it gets to time to go, the faster the time flies. I feel I want to catalog every view of the lake, every drive up the street, every song of the thrasher, every bunny and jackrabbit hopping by. How will I recognize them when I come back?

My aerobics teacher missed class tonight. Her dad fell off of a ladder off of a roof last week. He took that last step up to the roof and accidentally pushed the ladder away from the building. Did I mention that? And he was hurt badly but he was home from the hospital in a few days. Something must have happened with him. Her sister came here to help with his care but our teacher lives only about a block from him. She has three little ones too - her youngest son is only one year old. I wonder how they're doing.

Tomorrow I'm going to see Ivan to get my ends trimmed.

W/e

It's such a boring week-end. There's been wind for three days and there will be more wind tomorrow. It's been blowing from 25mph to 50mph - enough to rock the trailer sometimes. I like the wind but not this much wind! It makes a nice lullaby at night but I'd like a break.

Since I can't actually use my new lens I've been reading about it and looking at photos and making 3x5 note cards to remember what I want to try. Sigh. Not too exciting.

But I am having nice dreams. Photography gives me nice dreams.

In the evenings we're reading a new book, To Kill A Mockingbird. I remember the movie from when I was a kid and it was kind of scary and I didn't understand all of it. I understand more now. I am appreciating the humor and irony and little Scout's personality more completely as I read the book for read aloud. I'm still also reading Les Misérables on my own and I'm fascinated by the bishop character.

I'm thinking about High Dynamic Range Imaging photography where you take three photos (or more) at different exposures and blend them thus obtaining, capturing, more luminance; that is to say, more shades of light and dark in a photo. I successfully figgered out how to enable the automatic exposure bracketing on my camera so I can take three images in quick succession with a single click: one just right, one over, and one under exposed. Cool. For some reason when I tried this before, a long time ago, it was beyond me and I could not get it to work. Got discouraged and quit trying. Whoops, that's called fixed mindset instead of having a growth mindset. This time I read and read and reread till I understood it. Now, I am in need of a view. I also figgered out how to adjust exposure compensation to increase or decrease the exposure value. I am in need of a sunset sans the wind to test that one out. We had a spectacular magenta sunset a week ago. I hope another comes before we leave.

We leave to go to northern New Mexico and southern Utah in nine days!

Sometimes I lack eloquence

I should add that the word 'putrid' and all of its various forms such as putrefying, putrefaction, and putridity, has been all the rage with a certain 11 1/2 year old boy around here. As I reread, I believe I may have been suffering from arrested speech development in last night's post. Nevertheless! I did some research and found a page that answered my question. It took a few minutes of research though because all the pages I found at first used it just like I used it and as I understood it. I found Jesus hung out with sinners is a very a popular saying.

But he didn't. He moved in their midst. That's a big difference from hanging out with people. I think you could say he hung out with Mary, Martha and Lazarus, who were strong believers but he didn't hang out with the prostitute at the well.

Thing is, I heard the phrase from a youth pastor's wife whom I liked very much. Because she had said that, I felt justified and went ahead and made a MySpace page (I don't have it anymore) but I still felt unsettled about it so after a few months I deleted it. I told her why in an email (because she was one of my two friends and she asked why I took my page down) and she never wrote me again and she speaks to me very little too. I felt kinda bewildered. I didn't say there was anything wrong with her page I just said I thought it was not healthy for children and as an adult I thought I ought not be there when I wouldn't want my own child there. When I used to visit her page after I deleted my profile there would be sometimes extremely suggestive profile pics of other accounts at the bottom of her private page. Seriously, some were not even suggestive. They were blatantly s*xual. She has six kids and her eldest is my son's age. Our boys don't get along well.

Ordered my new lens tonight.

The evening was exceptionally beautiful. It was like an early summer night at 7:00pm. There was a bit of a zephyr and it felt wonderful against my skin.

I had a good workout last night and tonight although I had to put my step aside and do plain aerobics for part of the class tonight. I worry about my foot bones and one knee and my left foot didn't like the step tonight. After class I told the teacher I hoped she wouldn't mind if I set the step aside and not use it all the time and she enthusiastically said, "No problem." And she said she wished more people would listen to their bodies and do the same and that without the step is as good a workout as with the step. I don't know. I think I'm adjusting to having an older body. I'm not used to it not doing what I force it to do. Sometimes, it just tells me, "Liliana, we're not doing this." And that's the end of the conversation. So, I focus on form instead of speed. In dance we focus on form but in aerobics they focus on speed. It doesn't help me to do a lot of repetitions of a movement if I'm doing it in poor form. Either way I'm gonna be dripping sweat so I may as well go slow and sweat. Go slow . . . .and look good doin' it! Boom chicka boom chicka boom, boom, BOOM.

See, this post mostly goes in 2009 Spiritual Tour category but as usual I've got my topics all mixed together.

I thought of one more thing. Two of my scabs came off from where I got the laser treatment for brown spots (seborrheic keratoses) on the 23rd and there's nice light pink smooth skin underneath! I'm happy! One small spot was right between my, um, heavenly endowments, and what a place to have one. Why would I get a spot there? It's hardly in the sun. But I read that they're hereditary, not from the sun. Anyhoo, it's gone! I know it's no big thing but I sure feel good that it's gone. I'm not sure if the laser worked on the red dots though. I can't tell yet.

I think I know what she said

She invited me to join a gigantic prayer group online. I checked the site and found not a word of mention of Jesus Christ. It's a feel-good new agey thing (which I used to love), but it's not bible based. So I told her and did a bit of the email witnessing and invited her to church and she wrote me back the nicest comment. She loves me, yeah, yeah, and basically, ifns I water it down and take out the main idea, she told me to stick it where the sun don't shine - and she said it so kindly. I think she gave me a pat on the head too. Ah well. I'll give it another try another time. She takes verses out of context a lot or uses a verse and leaves out the part she doesn't want to say. Makes me kinda blue.

It occurred to me tonight that the phrase "Jesus hung out with sinners" might be putrid. As in, pretty much full of lameness. It makes it sound so smooth and cool, but the thing is, Jesus wasn't a sinner. I am one. That's a difference. That's the difference. A huge difference. Jesus was perfect. I'm pretty much not. Methinks the "Jesus hung out with sinners" line that's so easily bandied about might be a completely bogus charge worthy of review. It came to me when I was listening to my audio from church of a couple weeks ago. I listened to a section, a sentence, about 30 times in order to make out what Pastor was saying. He referred to this phrase and said it was a cop-out. Whuh? So that's why I gotta review it.

Truck's in the shop. We had to get her towed from our site to the repair place. How sad! Husband read about an improved method for replacing with fuel filter - and afterwards the truck wouldn't start. He was mad! He said, "If it ain't broke, don't fix it. Why did I do it differently from the way I've always done it when the way I've always done it worked just fine?" Well, there's no good answer for that so I told him you gotta be careful about over-reading on the Ford truck forums. I said it's like the time I read about applying mayonnaise on hair as a conditioning and beautifying treatment so I tried it. Son said, "Mamma, why is there mayonnaise on your head?" I mumbled something about how pretty my hair was gonna be, went and washed my hair and dang, I had stringy hair and leftover mayo in my hair for two days. That stuff's hard to wash out. So, you gotta be careful about what you read online. At times, too much information isn't a good thing.

A sweet tooth

After evening church I came home with a major sweet tooth and I knew just what I wanted. Cake batter. I found a box in the cupboard stamped best used by December 2008. I mixed it up and filled a Sesame Street paper bowl up and, yum, had a second bowl. It was just what the doctor ordered! My husband thinks I'm bananas but I know what I want and I'm not ashamed. Haha! He doesn't get sweet teeth like I do. There was plenty left over so I made a loaf shaped yellow cake. We don't have frosting but it came out nice and moist and I think it'll be very good with coffee in the morning.

Church was amazing this morning. I'll miss it here so much when we go. I'm gonna save my tithe money and give it to this church when we come back. In the past I'd give to whatever church we attended. Once we went to a Calvary Chapel in San Diego that didn't even pass a plate. We had to ask where can we leave our money. They didn't believe in passing the plate and those who chose to give put the funds into a box that's attached to the wall in the back of the sanctuary. We were surprised.

Welp. I'm gonna go to bed and read.