As I left for work yesterday morning, I glanced over and noticed that my little apple tree was still covered with blossoms despite last weekend's snow and below-freezing overnight temperatures. Thankfully, it wasn't a hard freeze, and my baby apple blossoms seem to have survived. My dream of small, sweet, autumn apples has been revived! (But I think I need to learn how to prune the tree back this fall, before those low branches take over...)
The blossoms are even prettier up close.
I snapped a quick picture of the tree and then went on to work, but then this afternoon, after I got home from work (TGIF), I decided to take some pictures of the blossoms themselves. They are so lovely. And I was pleased to see that the tree was buzzing with busy little bees. Dozens of them, maybe even hundreds, were flitting from bloom to bloom. That's good news, because I've been told there will be no apples without cross-pollination from the hundreds of apple trees in our area.
An even closer shot. So beautiful!
I spent several minutes snapping one picture after another, trying to get a close-up of one of those industrious little fellows, but they moved so quickly (and sometimes, admittedly, I was pointed at the wrong flower), gathering their pollen and then buzzing off to the next blossom, that I couldn't seem to catch one on film.
No matter how many photos I shot, I couldn't capture even one busy bee!
I don't usually take my camera to work with me, but yesterday I happened to have it on hand because of the special annual event taking place at the our high school football field yesterday morning. Every year, in April, Blue Ridge hosts the BR Games, a local Special Olympics event for the special young athletes of our community and neighboring towns. It's a big deal. Classes are released to fill the stands with cheering students, alongside members of the community.
The Special Olympics athletes compete in the softball throw at BR Games.
21 April 2016
One of the especially cool things about the BR Games is the fact that it gives the youth at our school an opportunity to provide service by helping the sweet-spirited athletes at their events throughout the morning. My son Dylan, who is a senior this year, has been a volunteer for the BR Games every one of his four years at Blue Ridge High. And every year he falls in love with the young athlete to whom he is assigned.
In fact, all three of my kids (and their dad) have always had a sweet spot in their hearts for children with disabilities and love spending time with them. It's one of the many things that make me so pleased and proud to be their mom.
Dylan and his clipboard on the field with co-officer Mary Lawrence,
keeping an eye on the events and making sure the BR Games ran smoothly.
This year, Dylan's involvement went even deeper when he was elected to be one of the officers in charge of planning, organizing, and carrying out this year's BR Games. He was involved from the start and then, yesterday, he spent almost six hours doing his part to manage the event. By the time he came to my room at the end of fourth period to return a fan he'd borrowed for the announcer's box, he was quite sunburned (too busy to put on sunscreen, he said).
I didn't think to take a picture of the stands filled with fans,
but you can see that even the area in front of the stands was packed!
Today I got a call from Barb Goza, the teacher who sponsors and puts on this event every year. She told me how valuable Dylan was as an officer this year, how he took charge and made sure everything under his purview went smoothly, including managing the people assigned to work under him. Not only was he awesome at the games yesterday, she said, but he had even come to her two days before the event to discuss several areas where he saw potential problems so they could troubleshoot them ahead of time. She was very impressed with his leadership skills and said she has no doubt he has a bright future ahead of him.
As Dylan's mother, I already knew he had all these great qualities, of course, but it's so nice to hear it from someone else who has witnessed his talents in action. Way to go, my son. You make me proud!
Saturday, April 16, 2016: A light snow falls on my front yard
from before 6:30 a.m. until sometime after 11:30 a.m.
If you like snow, Star Wars, and live concerts as much as I do, then yesterday here on the Mountain would have been a pretty much perfect day for you! When I got up at 6:30 to drive Mark to work, I found a fine swirl of pebbly snow falling from the sky. By the time I returned home, it was starting to stick pretty well.
We had such an early spring, and now it feels like the end of winter is tardy but finally here. It just got lost for awhile but found its way home to finish its job. Unfortunately, my lone little apple tree was covered with blossoms, promising a harvest of sweet little red apples, but now those blossoms will probably freeze off, killing my dream of juicy, fresh apples in the fall.
37 seconds of peaceful, silent snowfall at 7:05 a.m., after I got back from driving Mark to work.
To my surprise, the snow continued to fall solidly for several hours. As the day warmed up, the snow that had adhered to the ground, cars, and buildings melted off and the snowflakes became fat and fluffy, falling more gently. That's my favorite kind of snow.
One minute of my favorite fat, fluffy snow, three hours later.
That's our "zombie-cat," Gimli, that you see at the start of the second video clip. He is old, he drools (as you can see in this clip), he's lost most of his teeth, his ratty hair is falling out, and we expect to find him dead daily.Yet he keeps on going. He even brought home a baby rabbit and killed it on our porch a week ago (and ate all but the bones and head). Broke my heart, but you gotta give the old guy credit...
White Mountain Symphony Orchestra in concert.
April 16, 2016
By the afternoon, the snow had mostly stopped, except for a flurry here and there throughout the day. That was good for the driving I had to do later in the day. A little after 2:30 I picked Mark up from work and we drove straight to Blue Ridge High School to attend Sarah's concert at 3:00.
This was a special concert by White Mountain Symphony Orchestra, because it featured movements from John Williams's score for Star Wars: A New Hope. If you know me, you know I'm a big Star Wars fan. Jake loves Star Wars at least as much as I do, but he and Dylan both had to work and thus missed the concert. Jake was extremely disappointed that he wasn't able to attend.
So I did the next best thing: I filmed it for him. The first half of the concert featured a series of classical concertos and performances by the two high school students who had won a concerto competition, but, after the intermission, the second half of the concert was dedicated exclusively to the music of Star Wars.
The first 27 minutes of the Star Wars half of the concert.
I don't know why, but for some reason my camera shut itself off at this point.
I thought maybe my battery had died or my memory card was full, but
I started filming again and captured the final 9 minutes (below) without issue.
It was awesome. There were moments when it seemed like I was listening to a soundtrack directly from the movie. Amazing sound from a small orchestra from a small, rural community.
Unfortunately, you can't see Sarah in the photo or video clips, since she was seated toward the back. But she was there! We occasionally got a glimpse of her between two other people's heads and saw the tip of her bow gliding up and down behind the others.
The final 9 minutes of the concert. By this time my hands were getting a bit shaky
from holding the camera up for 36 minutes, and it may look somewhat tipsy at times,
but the music is still good! A little boy was seated in front of me
who was getting pretty antsy by now, but I don't think he was too disruptive.
After the concert, Sarah, Chris, Mark, and I went out to dinner at Denny's. It was after 6:00 when we left the restaurant. By then the snow was just a memory, leaving behind icy wind and cold fingers. At the end of the day it was wonderful to step into my warm house and curl up with a great book (The Fifth Wave) for the evening. It truly was a good day.
Chris with his ice cream cake at his birthday party.
April 3, 2016
On March 28th, my son-in-law Chris celebrated his 38th birthday, but it kind of slipped away from us. On March 25-26 we had been in the Valley to attend David Archuleta's concert and spend a whole day at the Renaissance Festival, and then on March 27th, after we'd gotten home from the Valley, it was Easter. On top of all that, I was still sick as a dog with a chest cold, so I didn't even realized that his birthday this year was the day after Easter.
I felt even more guilty because Chris had made our family Easter dinner for us (except I did manage to prepare the ham) and brought it over on Easter night because I was so sick. What a son-in-law!
Chris and his gifts.
Thus, after I started feeling a bit better, we made up for our lapse the following Sunday, just six days after his actual birth date. We enjoyed grilled burgers for dinner, after which we watched Chris open his presents. Then, following a rousing rendition of the Happy Birthday song (see below), we served up his cookies-and-cream ice cream cake (and sugar-free chocolate-chip cheesecake for Sarah and me).
Better late than never, right? We hope it was ALL happy, Chris: the birthday and the party!
"Above the City Lights" was this year's Prom theme,
evoking a romantic snowy evening in New York City.
The annual Blue Ridge High School Junior-Senior Prom has come and gone. Hard to believe I'll only have one more Prom to chaperon, and then I'll be retired. Although, one of our counselors pointed out that I can always come back to chaperon as a volunteer! This year the event was held at the Hon-Dah Casino's conference center. This is the most common venue for Prom, although sometimes it is held somewhere unusual, like last year's Prom in an auto dealership. Probably the most unusual and fun location was the 2008 Prom (Sarah's senior year), which was held in a theater and under canopies between the businesses outside the theater. At midnight, after the dance, the theater showed the scary film Prom Night to the students for free.
Science teacher Carmel Raney (Sarah's geometry teacher in 2006-07) and
culinary arts teacher Kay Shores model the Prom Queen and Princess crowns
while guarding the Royalty voting table.
I really do enjoy being there to see the students all dressed up in their fanciest finery. In fact, I often find them difficult to recognize because they look so different from their ordinary classroom-selves. And it's fun to enjoy them at their best behavior. We haven't had a problem in many years with anyone trying to spike the punch or arriving drunk and disorderly. These kids (or their parents) spend a lot of money and a lot of time preparing for this night, and they don't want to ruin it.
Behind the scenes: math teacher/student council sponsor Kenya McKinney
and a student council member pose for a traditional Prom picture.
This is Kenya's final Blue Ridge Prom. She has accepted a teaching job in the Valley.
The worst problem we ever really see nowadays are occasional dress code violations. Which is crazy, because the Prom dress code is so very relaxed from the daily school dress code. Still, we see some girls arrive with too much cleavage, skirts too short, and dress backs much too low. I found it humorous that, at any moment throughout the night, I could look around and find at least one girl self-consciously hauling her strapless top higher up under her armpits. How much more comfortable would these girls have been with a little support, even spaghetti-straps?
English teacher Mike Morrin (in fact, he's Dylan's current senior English teacher)
as chaperon, along with principal Jay Cox and assistant principal Greg Schimmel.
Nonetheless, most of the kids were beautifully, colorfully attired. Best of all, their eyes were shining with excitement and fun while they hugged, visited, snacked, had their pictures taken, and, above all, danced the night away.
The deejays for the evening, who traveled to us from Tucson.
I always take my camera to capture the memories (which isn't always easy in the darkened venue), but three and a half hours of chaperoning can really start to drag after the first couple of hours. Last night went by more quickly, though, thanks to the company of Dylan's English teacher (pictured, above). This was Mike's first Prom at Blue Ridge, and we chatted throughout the night. Or, perhaps, I should say we yelled throughout the night, since the music was so loud we pretty much had to shout into each other's ears in order to be heard. And, like the aftermath of a concert, all sound to my ears was muffled following the Prom, due to my eardrums being buffeted all night.
Since it's Junior-Senior Prom and I teach mostly freshman and
sophomore English, I usually see only my former students at Prom.
However, this pair are currently in my 3rd period class.
Besides making the time go by faster, Mike's company was beneficial to my diet, as well. For instance, to fill the hours at Prom I will usually visit the refreshments several times during the evening and eat/drink things that are not low-carb. I was a bit concerned about overdoing it this time, since I'm working hard to lose weight and get healthy in 2016. However, since my fellow chaperon was a male-type person, I was too self-conscious to make a pig out of myself in front of him. I went to the refreshments table only once and got one each of the four sweet morsels. And I stuck with ice water; no punch for me. More sugar than I should have had, but less than I might have had!
The refreshments were more sparse this year than I've ever seen them.
Just these small lemon bar, cream puff, and brownie bites, plus a bowl of
no-bake cookies. Not as elegant as usual, but definitely less tempting!
Little New York City touches, all around.
The students had this area to relax, visit, and enjoy refreshments.
A quick 40-second clip of the dancing at last night's Prom, starting off with a conga line.
Easter baskets for Dylan and Jake, with Mark's in the middle, on
Easter Sunday, March 27, 2016
Our holidays are so different these days, almost too laid-back to feel like true holidays the way they did when our kids were younger. I guess that's to be expected, since Sarah and Jacob are both married and living on their own, and Dylan's an adult now, 18 years old and only eight weeks away from his high school graduation. In just a few months my nest will be truly empty for the first time in 27 years. Hard to imagine that this is probably the last time I'll fill an Easter basket.
Dylan and Jake with their Easter baskets.
We got home from the Renaissance Festival about 10:00 on Saturday night. Being so sick with a bad chest cold (I'm just barely starting to feel a little better now, a week later), this Easter Bunny was too tired to even think about Easter baskets and goodies, so she went to bed. When I woke up the next morning, I didn't even remember what day it was until Dylan got up and asked, "What did the Easter Bunny bring?"
Oops. I said, "Maybe the Easter Bunny is really sick and slept in..." Fortunately, the Easter Bunny had stashed three bags of goodies in her closet a week earlier, so she closed her bedroom door and made the magic happen. Better late than never, right?
Life changes, sometimes for better and sometimes not so much. I'll miss the fun of seeing my little ones stumble into the living room or kitchen and watching their sleepy eyes widen with wonder at the sight of a magically-filled stocking or basket. Still, I hear that those joys are only magnified when you get to enjoy them with grandchildren, so maybe the best is yet to come...
Mary with her favorite Drabbit at the Arizona Renaissance Festival.
March 26, 2016
Last weekend was the final weekend of the annual Arizona Renaissance Festival, which runs from the first weekend of February to the last weekend of March. On Saturday, our whole family (except Jacob and Danielle, of course, since they are in Utah) was able to spend the day enjoying the shops and shows for which the festival is renowned.
Mary always gets her hair braided at the festival ($25) so she can stay cool.
The desert temperature was in the low-80s during our visit.
We arrived just after 9:00 that morning, which put us near the front of the line, which grows to be quite long by the time the gates open at 10:00. If you're at the back of the line, it can take nearly 30 minutes to get inside, and I hate to lose that much of my festival play-time. It's also better to be near the gates because you can hear the humorous banter between members of the royal family and other Renaissance folk during the last half-hour before the gates open.
Because of my hair's length, I always get the braided "crown."
Once the gates opened, I made a beeline for the braiding tent to have my hair french-braided before a line could form. I've learned that it gets uncomfortably hot by mid-afternoon if my hair is on my neck. Usually I wear my pearl-wrapped, soft blue roundlet and its attached black veil over the braid, but I was aghast to realized I'd left it at home this time. The Renaissance Festival is, of course, pretty much my only opportunity to wear a roundlet. Many people at the festival dress up to the hilt in Renaissance costumes, so I felt kind of bare without it!
Dang! For the first time ever, I forgot to bring my royal roundlet and veil!
So I just had to buy this beautiful blue-jeweled circlet instead!
Luckily, I soon discovered a shop selling the most amazing array of delicate jewel-and-chain circlets, and I quickly found the perfect one with pale blue stones to match my roundlet. Next year I can wear them both together! (That's if I don't forget them both!)
We spent a few minutes watching this glass-blower's amazing handiwork.
Once my braid was done, we spent the next hour and a half exploring the festival's more than two-hundred shops and artisans. I always wish I had a thousand dollars to spend on the whimsically creative goods on display. On this trip I did, in fact, have three hundred dollars that I'd been setting aside for several months so I could purchase a few items I'd had my eye on for years. The circlet was NOT on my list, but it was my only splurge for the day. Everything else was a planned purchase.
An area featuring the medieval lifestyle, from outdoor cooking to spinning cloth.
Besides the hundreds of shops, there are also dozens of shows on thirteen stages throughout the festival grounds, as well as medieval (man-powered) amusement park-type rides (for an extra fee). There are also a petting zoo and elephant rides and, for the kids, llama rides. If you're not faint-of-heart, there is a dark and claustrophobic display of medieval torture devices, as well. I've gone through it twice over the years and decided to forego that particular pleasure this time around.
A new show this year was the Sea Fairies (mermaids).
Personally, I've always been more about the shops than the shows, although I do have a few that are favorites. We always attend the jousts (three times daily) and I love to listen to the bagpipes of Tartanic. We caught a few new ones this year, including the brand new Sea Fairies.
A mermaids pops out of the water to greet her visitors...
...then she slipped back into the tank to swim about for the cameras.
When swashbuckling Captain Francis Drake stepped up,
Chris was quick to ask for a selfie with him.
In his British accent, the captain quipped, "What's a selfie?"
After Chris snapped the first shot, Capt. Drake said,
"Oh, I've heard of these! Wait, I know the face one is supposed to do."
So Chris got a great pic of himself and the captain's perfectly pouty lips!
Sarah and Chris pose with a second, fish-out-of-water mermaid.
I missed the first two jousting events. Three days before this trip, I'd woken up with a nasty chest cold. It hit hard and fast, and I was still pretty miserable on our day at the Renaissance Festival. I was wheezing and coughing and clammy all over, with sinus pressure behind my eyes and ears, but I still managed to have a great time. The real problem was that my energy was easily depleted.
The elusive Green Man appeared from between two buildings
while I was resting, so I snapped some pictures of him.
The Renaissance festival has grown to be a very large village, probably much larger than many actual villages were back in medieval times, and the jousting arena is at the opposite end of the festival grounds from the entrance. By the time we headed back toward the arena for the joust, I'd already been on my feet for more than two hours, and halfway there I knew I was never going to make it. So I sat at a picnic table and told Sarah, Chris, and Mark to go ahead without me. It was good to just sit and watch the world around me for about twenty minutes.
I'd always wanted to see the Living Fountain show at Pan's Oasis,
but we'd never found time. This time I caught the very end of the show
as I walked by on my way to meet the others after the joust.
Once I'd recovered some energy, I slowly continued on toward the arena and met them as they were leaving after the event. They had joined Dylan and Jake at the joust, who had gone off on their own earlier with their friends Destiny and Chris, but they'd split off from Sarah's group again when the joust was over. I had thought we'd all have lunch together, but it turned out they had eaten earlier in the day (by now it was about 12:30).
What I saw of the Living Fountain was pretty awesome.
Next year I'll see the entire show for sure!
However, we all ran into each other again sooner than expected at one of my favorite shops. I had been telling Jake about this shop that sold the coolest wands and most amazing wizardly staffs, and how I was going to buy myself one of each this year, so I guess I shouldn't have been surprised to find him and Dylan there.
Jake, Mary, and Dylan show off their new wands.
I started out looking at the bigger. earthier, costlier wands ($25) on the top shelf, but I was disappointed that none of them really seemed to fit my style. The cheaper wands ($15) on the lower shelves hadn't interested me because they'd seemed almost mundane, even cookie-cutter-ish. But then Jake pulled one out that was pretty unique and showed it to me, so I took a closer look at the selection. And there it was: a delicate swirl of silvery-blue wood with a slender vein of violet twined around it. I knew that one was mine. After all, "the wand chooses the wizard."
Jake, who is a huge fan of Dr. Who, found a wand that was topped with TARDIS (the blue "police box" in which Dr. Who travels through time and space) and he knew it was the one for him. Dylan found another TARDIS wand, but when I saw him holding it I said, "You don't even like Dr. Who! Keep looking. If your wand is in there, you'll know it when you see it." A few minutes later he came over and excitedly showed me The One. It was red-gold (red is his favorite color) and had a cool dragon burned into the wood of the handle. "This is it, Mom," he said. "I knew it as soon as I saw the dragon." The wand chooses the wizard...
Mary with her new staff. (Not too fond of this photo;
it definitely highlights the swollen glands in my neck!)
The shop also has a large collection of lovely staffs. I was looking for one with a glass ball in a filigreed-type silver setting, hopefully in blue and/or purple, with a staff made from a light-colored natural wood, but the shopkeeper said they'd only had a few blue-colored staffs, which had sold out during the first few weeks of the festival. So I had to settle, although I do love the purple orb and the flame-like, red-gold metal fixing it to the top of the staff, as well as the beautiful wood grain in the staff itself. The green leather wrap seems to clash with the color scheme--a rich, deep violet would have been perfect--but otherwise I'm pleased with my new staff.
After lunch we spotted Dylan and Jake on this bridge nearby.
After making our purchases, we went our separate ways again. Sarah, Chris, Mark, and I went to get some lunch. There aren't many low-card options at the festival (I don't care for turkey legs, though Mark and Dylan love them), but I did pretty well by ordering roasted chicken with a small side of mashed potatoes (no gravy). The potatoes were delicious, and I figured they were at least healthier carbs that ordering something containing white flour.
Sometime after lunch we stopped into another favorite old shop.
Chris actually bought this little blue Drabbit, which I think he named "Blue."
It perches on your shoulder and moves its head all around and up and down.
Kinda freakish, but we love them.
We stopped to enjoy harpist Sarah Mullen.
Mark wanted to see the fire show.
Geoff Marsh juggled fire, among other things.
His bit using children to balance spinning plates was hilarious.
This artisan does some creepy things with stretched leather!
Someday I will have a bookshelf in my house that looks like this!
I've decided that when I finally finish my book, sell it, and get rich, I'm going to buy myself a slightly larger home with a nice den, and that den will become my "Magic Room." In this room I will have artifacts from the books I love. My wand will be displayed on a rack, and my staff will rest in a corner. On a side table will be a Hogwarts chess set, and the Marauder's Map will be framed on the wall. The One Ring will reside in a place of honor, under a glass dome. You get the idea. And it simply must have a row of books with wrinkled covers and glowing eyes!
This man puts one-of-a-kind faces on everything!
I finally made it to the final joust of the day, at 5:00.
Luscious desserts for the end of the day at The Chocolate Shop,
but nothing sugar-free to be had. After consulting with the proprietors,
we determined that the "Lusty Wench" was the best choice with the least sugar.
It was my planned cheat for the day!
I left the joust a few minutes early so I could get good seats for Tartanic.
I love the sound of bagpipes (I even bought their CD this time)
and, besides, rugged men in kilts are just plain sexy!
The Queen and her royal party made a surprise visit and danced to the
sound of Tartanic's bagpipes.
It was a lovely, fun-filled day, and I managed to survive despite being so sick. The Renaissance Festival ends at 6:00, but it's always after 6:30 by the time we make our way to the gates and out to our vehicles. Then a three-hour drive took us home, and with us we took home another year's worth of happy memories. See you next year, Renaissance Festival!
A brief clip of the show by Tartanic (aka "Men Without Pants")
at the Arizona Renaissance Festival on March 26, 2016.
I love being part of a family! This quote says it all: "In this house... We do real. We do mistakes. We do I'm sorry. We do fun. We do hugs. We do second chances. We do happy. We do forgiveness. We do really loud. We do family. We do LOVE." I thank God everyday for my noisy, messy, imperfect family and the love we share!
