Jifundisha

TKD II

2009-04-08T01:34:00.002-06:00

This is another good shot. He leans back a little far during his kicks, but man can he get his foot high!

TKD

2009-04-08T01:29:00.002-06:00

I thought this was a funny picture, that is Richard mid-air in the middle of the shot. He was doing his form during testing. He should receive his new belt, 3rd degree Level 1, at the awards ceremony on Friday. Yay!

Mostly Offline, Spring, TKD

2009-04-03T15:10:00.001-06:00

I haven't been interested in posting much lately. I guess I just haven't been as comfortable being online for all to see. I originally set up this blog for family and other unschoolers to read, but the thought of less than savory people from my past reading it kind of creeps me out a little. I considered making it private, so family could still see it, but I want to stay in contact with other unschoolers too (though this really isn't all that much contact!). So, I have just been quiet lately, slowly getting over my issues! :-)

Though we had a seriously cold week or so, spring is here for sure. The cold snap, as usual, came after my peach tree bloomed. Hopefully it will be ok. This is a butterfly visiting my new lavender that my mom got for me. I have been teasing her because the lavender that I planted at her house when I lived there is *huge* and beautiful. I kept whining that I missed it, so she got me 2 replacements! Yay!

Richard tests today for his 3rd degree black belt. He is a little nervous, but I am sure that he will do great. It is hard to believe that he has been in TKD for this long. I will take pictures at the ceremony and try to post them this weekend. Pictures never do him justice though, you can't really tell in pictures that he is a 5'11" 13 year old! Sometimes I think he gets self conscious about always being told how tall he is, but I am so short that I really see his height as a blessing. I got elbowed in the head in Hastings one day by some tall woman, she didn't even see me! I tell Richard to be proud of his height, but also to look out for us short people!

Thanksgiving, Birthdays, Christmas.....

2008-12-18T18:24:00.007-07:00

Derek was giving me a hard time at Thanksgiving for not posting anything since Halloween, and now it is almost Christmas! I am just a slacker I guess. We have been busy though!

I got in trouble with Code Enforcement for multiple violations, (I am officially White Trash in the eyes of the City now...), one of which was that my "weeds" were too tall. But I just couldn't disturb the butterflies! There were at least 30 every day. It is all taken care of now, and I am finally off of the City's shit list (I hope!).

Mom and Alison went to Mexico. Mom and Tim used to go every year, so this was a sad trip. They managed to have some fun though! That is mom and friends, Al is behind the camera.

I need to crop this picture so that you can see better, the girls actually have camel toes!!

I don't think that they got brave enough to actually visit the Camel Toe Cantina!

Richard and Lindsey had birthdays. Lindsey turned 22, and Richard 13.

Richard had an idea for his candles... he put one in the middle, with the other 12 in a circle around them leaning in so that there was one huge flame! And it did get huge!

I think he had a good time! :-)

His big present was Guitar Hero World Tour. He already had Guitar Hero, so now he has the drum set, 2 guitars, and the mic. He recently figured out that you can use the xbox live headset that came with the xbox to sing while playing guitar or drums. This game has been so much fun!

We went to a Renaissance Faire in Las Cruces.

The greyhounds are always my favorite part. I want a rescue greyhound someday.

Pumkin bread, made for Thanksgiving.

Richard, mom, and I spent Thanksgiving with Derek and Teri. I usually offer to work so that I don't get the inevitable "what ARE you going to eat???" Hmmmm, 20 dishes on the table, only one has meat, I just cannot imagine what I will find to eat!!! But it was mom's first Thanksgiving without Tim, and Richard and Dianna have a tradition of always spending Thanksgiving with Dianna's family, so I figured I should be there! It was fun. We missed Tim a lot, and some of the other usual attendees were absent too due to illness and other events, so we missed them as well.

Richard and Lauren BOTH got Outstanding Instructor awards at TaeKwonDo! It was really cool. I think it is the first time family members have won the award at the same time, or at all. It was definetely the first time someone (Lauren) was nominated for both Junior and Adult awards. Lauren got the adult award, pretty amazing for a 16 year old! I may be a little biased, but she really is more responsible than many of the adults, so it really is no surprise that she got it. I am really proud of both of them.

Richard and I got toe socks. His have a Christmas monkey and mine are striped. Yes, I said (ok, wrote...) monkey. It is a Christmas monkey! How can you pass up something so weird and cute? I love socks, it is a weird obsession.

We found this sign while sock shopping in Kmart!

I got the Christmas present of all Christmas presents (early of course)! A Leg Lamp!!!!! I am so excited, the leg actually lights up! I would eventually like to have the full size one, but this is soooo cool! Thanks mom!

This is pretty blurry, but I couldn't get a good picture of the tree with the lights on with the camera phone. The dogs knock half of the ornaments off with their tails, and the cats knock the other half off climbing up it!

So, I missed a bunch of stuff but that is some of what has been going on. More pictures soon!

Happy Halloween!!

2008-10-31T12:55:00.004-06:00

Richard and Lauren and I carved pumpkins last night. We used a combination of patterns and free designs, and even experimented with sculpting. It was a lot of fun.

I may be a little biased, but I think Richard's jack-o-lantern is the cutest, sweetest ever!

He carved his kitty's name in the side, Ra.

We weren't sure how Lauren's would turn out, just because it has some really small thin parts. It is great though! He is so cute!

Lauren carved her initials in the side...

and a smiley on the other side.

And then there is my crazy one.

Too big? Puleeze!

2008-10-26T09:30:00.001-06:00

Richard's aunt Alison got him this chair when he was just a little thing, 3 or 4 years old. He loved it, but a few years ago it somehow (Tim???) found its way into the garage. We found it recently while looking for something else. Mom wanted me to donate it because Richard is "too big" for it. But you know what a packrat I am, I couldn't get rid of it, so we brought it to our newish house. Now it is again Richard's favorite chair, it is his gaming chair and he thinks it is a perfect fit!

ZZ Top

2008-10-24T17:05:00.001-06:00

Richard's tribute to ZZ Top.

Trinitite

2008-10-24T17:01:00.001-06:00

Here is a picture of some Trinitite in Richard's hand.

Cancer, Football, Mexico, Black Dog

2008-10-24T16:37:00.003-06:00

I really don't like not having internet access at home. We have done tons of things lately but I just haven't found time to get to the computer at mom's house to post them.

Richard and I went to an Aggie football game with my nephew and his grandpa. It was a lot of fun, even though NMSU lost. The university was raising money for breast cancer research, and the whole stadium was wearing pink, it was kind of a crazy sight. That is Richard in the picture, with his 18-year old cousin next to him, both in their pink shirts.

We went to Trinity Site last weekend. We joked that we got radiated in sympathy for relatives that have cancer.

Mom and Alison left for Mexico today. They should have a good time. Tim and mom always went together, so this should be an emotional trip. I imagine that there will be lots of toasting him with Tequila Rose on the beach.

Black Dog is doing much better. She has gained back the 15 pounds that she lost while she was sick. I was sure that she had reached her end, she is 14ish, but she is back to her old happy self again!

Cottonwood Festival, Movies, and Black Dog

2008-09-07T01:44:00.004-06:00

Mom, Richard, and I went to the Cottonwood Festival last weekend. It was pretty nice, a little rainy but not too bad. It is held every year on Labor Day weekend here in Alamogordo (Alamogordo means fat cottonwood tree).

People kept saying that there were more booths than usual, but it seemed the same to me. We checked out most of the booths (didn't buy anything though), got green chile burritos, and then sat and listened to the live music. Richard's friend's step-dad plays sax in a band, and even though they were missing a member they went on and sounded great. They practice in their garage across the street, so I get to hear them on a regular basis (which I love). They usually play on my watering night, so I go out and water my plants and listen to music. Cool.

The next band played a variety of music, but mostly rock. They were pretty good too. Richard really enjoyed himself.

After the Cottonwood Festival we went to Lowes, where Richard the Spartan guarded the aisle.

It was a good thing too, there was a crazy purse wielding lady trying to get to the stepping stones!

This week our local theater was having a "back to school" special, so Richard and I went on a "not back to school" movie binge. We saw 4 movies in 2 days! We saw Clone Wars, Babylon AD, The Dark Knight, and Death Race. They were all pretty good, but Death Race surprised me the most, I loved it!

Alamogordo is having an infestation of stink bugs, they are everywhere! They were actually falling off of the roof of the theater!

This one was getting a free meal by canabalizing on of his squished comrades.

It is still raining lots here, so we still have shrooms....

And the last peice of news is that Black Dog is still (or again?) sick. She has lost 10 or so pounds and looks terribly skinny. She is finally eating again and not throwing up as much. Hopefully she will gain some weight back soon. I may just have to invest in Veterinary insurance if this keeps up! Poor old dog. Every time I think this is it for her she pulls through. I think the one time that I think she will be ok will be when she leaves us.

Mom, Richard and I were going to go to the State Fair next week, but I don't think that we can leave her. Dianna, Richard and the girls could take care of her medicine and let her out and all, but she needs to eat small amounts every few hours. I think we will have to skip it this year. That is ok, she is more important. She has had 14 good years, and you never know how much longer she (or any of us!) will be here. Cleo died while Richard and I were out of town 2 years ago and I haven't quite forgiven myself for that. We don't stay home all of the time in fear, but I don't think we should leave town while she is sickly.

Oh, and to end on a lighter note, here is one of our most recent buggy visitors. She came knocking on the skinny window next to the front door. The cats were going crazy inside!

Wanna Smurf?

2008-08-29T16:44:00.002-06:00

I got a new Smurf watch, so cool! I am not sure "Wanna Smurf?" means to me what it is supposed to!

Homebodies

2008-08-29T13:35:00.003-06:00

I was going to write that Richard and I had been homebodies lately, but really we usually are! Richard goes through phases where he likes more human contact, then less for a while. I do my best to provide what he needs. Lately he has wanted to stay home a lot, which is fine with me! Home is usually where I would rather be.

The other night he picked up one of my crossword puzzles and started to fill it out. He stopped when he hit a few that he didn't know. He said he was trying to do the clues all in order. I showed him some of my half-finished ones. I never do the clues in order. The next night he was looking at a Sudoku puzzle that I had laid out to work on later.
He really had never showed any interest in those type of puzzles before. I thought maybe word and number puzzles just wouldn't be his thing. I am kind of a puzzle-geek (well, really an all-around-geek!), but I know plenty of people who never enjoy that kind of thing. It would be fine with me if he never liked them. But now I think he just wasn't ready yet. Hmm, another thing that I am glad that he didn't have forced on him too early through school. This may be a passing interest, or he may become a puzzle-geek too. Either is fine with me.

The dogs have been doing so well. Richard and I have been helping them learn that the house doesn't need to be marked, and that neighbors don't like it when they bark at night, and that the cats don't like to have their butts sniffed while they are eating. They are really learning quickly. Shylo just loves having friends to play with.
The cats are tolerating them, and Ren, who used to be called Devil-Cat for her dog attacks, is actually liking them! It is amazing what the simple removal of a uterus will do. If anyone reading this doubts the benefits of spaying and neutering early, please reconsider! With uterus intact, Ren would attack any dog she saw (and I mean *violently* attack!), as well as any humans in the vicinity. Now, sans-uterus, she is the sweetest thing, she actually sleeps within a foot of the three dogs. It is incredible.

Sydney is adorable, a typical black lab puppy. She has a ton of energy. We found out that she came from Tularosa, the owners got rid of the whole litter of pups way too young. Syd was adopted, but the new family returned her to the Humane Society because she was getting on the counters to get food. Well, she was a puppy! And missing her mommy! And probably hungry! Anyway, she hasn't done that at all at our house. In fact she is really well mannered.

And then there is poor Uno, who was neutered at almost 2 years old, and doesn't understand why it isn't ok to mark his new home. He is a sweet dog, he just had those hormone producing testicles for way too long. Now he just has an empty scrotum (ever seen a dog that was neutered as an adult? pretty funny...) and that empty eye-socket. Maybe we should have named him Lucky, like that old joke.

Shorty, one of the cats that lives at mom's house, is watching Richard mow the lawn through mom's front window. I just thought this picture was cute.

Richard came to my rescue the other night. I have been kind of distraught because I could not find my Across the Universe DVD. At first I was annoyed, but its absence was really starting to upset me. I love it, and I was set to buy a new one. Richard remembered the broken DVD player, he thought it might be in there. Next thing I knew he had gotten it out and was taking it apart. There was my DVD! Yay!!
I was so thankful, and he continued to explore the insides of the DVD player. A happy ending!

Uno

2008-08-14T21:36:00.001-06:00

Uno always has his head cocked to the side so he can see better from his one eye. He is so cute!

Shuttle Camp

2008-08-11T06:31:00.001-06:00

Getting ready to launch.

Shuttle Camp

2008-08-11T06:29:00.000-06:00

Richard "graduating" from Shuttle Camp.

New family members!

2008-08-11T03:01:00.001-06:00

We got 2 new dogs. Uno is the little brown one that is missing an eye, Sydney is the black one, and then there is Shylo, the multicolored one. We have had her for a while. They are all getting along great, they have been playing lots with Shylo, and they all seem really happy. They even get along with the cats! This picture was taken by Lauren at the vets office. It is a really good one.

Shrooms!

2008-08-11T02:51:00.000-06:00

It has been so wet, there are shrooms growing from the gate!

More yard stuff

2008-08-11T02:41:00.002-06:00

Just some yard pics.

Yard stuff

2008-08-11T02:34:00.002-06:00

Tarantulas

2008-08-11T02:32:00.003-06:00

Pretty large tarantula, he was outside the hospital where I work. They are pretty common around here. After taking his picture I moved him into a big plant so he wouldn't get mushed.

Tarantula getting irritated

2008-08-11T02:31:00.002-06:00

Tarantula rearing up, warning me to get away. :-)

Learn Nothing Day

2008-07-24T11:55:00.006-06:00

Well, it is Learn Nothing Dayand unfortunately learning is still happening. So much for our break! Richard is off at Shuttle Camp learning loads. As for me, so far I have collected morning glory seeds, washed Richard's JuiJitsu uniform for tonights testing, and now I am on the computer. What a waste of the one day that we could take a vacation from learning!

Richard found a really cool beetle the other night on our front walkway. He was pretty slow, we wondered if he was going to molt.

But the next morning we found him dead.

We brought him into the house, we were going to look at him with our microscope viewer, it is this camera that puts microscopic images onto the TV. But, the cats found him first. I don't know if they ate him or just dragged him off to live under the couch with the dust hippos, but he is gone.

We also found these weird cocoon like things in the grass. Some sort of insect inside I am sure. We will have to wait and see.

This picture was taken at the races a few weeks ago. I just found it when transferring pictures from my phone. They are cousins, but they are more like brother and sister sometimes. They are so cute.

Oh! And Happy Birthday to Sandra Dodd, who thought of Learn Nothing Day!

Dogs, TKD, swimming phones

2008-07-13T15:31:00.002-06:00

Richard has been dog sitting lately. First it was Toby, a sweet little Sheltie. He liked to chase the kitties, but got along great with Black Dog. We never introduced him to Shylo, but they probably would have done fine. Shylo has fought with Black Dog before, which makes me nervous, but they both want to be the Alpha females. That is why Black Dog lives at mom's house and Shylo lives at mine. They both do great with male dogs.
Toby's mom came home and now Richard is watching another dog. He has watched this one before, his name was Stanley then. He was just a puppy then, and his mom felt that Stanley didn't fit his personality. During the search for a new name he became Pupsie Pie. That isn't really what she was going to choose, but it is what stuck. We just call him Pupsie. He and Shylo have been having a great time together. This picture is through the screen, so it is a little grainy. They play all of the time. We haven't braved having the cats around with Pupsie. They go into their room (they have their own bedroom with beds, cat trees, cat box, and food and water of course) and the dogs come in. Pupsie has been sleeping in Richard's bedroom.

It has been interesting having a dog around who can go everywhere a cat can go. We are not used to small dogs! Here he is lounging on the back of Tim's chair, Richard is sitting in the chair.

It has been rainy lately. That always happens some around the 4th of July. It almost always rains before fireworks, nature trying to help out!
We have mushrooms in the front yard. It hasn't been moist enough for mushrooms in ages! You can see baby morning glories coming up too (and some weeds, and yes I know morning glories are weeds in other places, I just think that is weird though!). I haven't decided whether I will mow the lawn or just let the flowers grow. I imagine I will end up leaving them. I hate cutting down something so pretty.

Richard competed in (and helped judge!) our regional TaeKwonDo tournament a few weeks ago. He won a Gold medal in Sparring and a Gold medal in Extreme Forms, which is one that he makes up himself, and it has to have "extreme" moves in it like flips, rolls, and jumps. Here he is bowing to the judges and getting his medals. The tallest man in the center of his line of judges is Russ Ervin, the owner of the Las Cruces TKD school where the tournament was held.

We went up to the lake (Elephant Butte Lake, for those who don't know) for a week over the 4th of July. We had a good time. I sat on the beach a lot, and went for rides in the blue boat. Richard did LOTS of tubing, kneeboarding, fishing, boating and playing in the water. I would have pictures, but my phone went swimming! I thought I was done in the water for the day, and the wind came up as it often does at the lake. You just expect the wind to come up a little every day or so. Anyway, we got our stuff tied down pretty quickly with everyone pitching in, then went to help the neighbors. I jumped in the water to help the big Richard hold the neighbor's boat, and forgot that I had my phone! Ugh! So no 4th of July beach pictures. Unfortunately Lauren did the exact same thing a couple of days later! The price you pay for helping others I guess. We both got them replaced fairly quickly though. It was worth it for a good time at the lake with family.

Father's Day

2008-06-21T13:09:00.007-06:00

On the Saturday before Father's Day Richard, mom, and I went to Ruidoso to see Tim. We went to the cemetary, watered the plants that Eric and Ness had planted, and spread some more seeds.

Right now he just has a metal marker, but Gary has picked a marble, flat headstone for him. I think it will mention his military service, and hopefully something about his surveying and family.

One of the bigger plants is blooming, I am not sure if it is a Texas Yucca or a Red Hot Poker, but I imagine that it is a Red Hot Poker since Tim loved those.

There are flowers everywhere, and elk and deer scat. Tim would like to know that he is with the wildlife in the mountains. It is beautiful there.

After the cemetary we went to the house for a while, then came back down the mountain for dinner and hot tubbing at Dianna and Richard's house. That was just awesome. I am so glad that my Richard has family so close!

Working, racing, missing Tim

2008-06-21T12:24:00.005-06:00

Wednesday after work I took a nap then Richard and I did yardwork most of the afternoon. Most people I think don't like my wild front flower areas, but I like them, and that is what counts! I know it drove Tim crazy, he liked things neat and orderly.

Then Richard and I went to the Lake with Richard and Dianna Thursday. We had a good day, it is always nice being with them. We helped put new fabric on their awning, wish I had pictures of that!

After the awning we cleaned up mom's property a little, well, more than a little! We ended up with 6 trash bags full of sad dry bamboo. I would have brought it home to our compost pile but we also had trash mixed in.

Richard asked his Uncle Richard if duct tape solved all problems, since we are often teasing about that, this was Uncle's response:

We checked out the plants growing on mom's property, most native, some planted by mom and Tim, some just popped up. There was a tiny plant with the coolest seed pods, the seed pods were huge compared to the size of the plant.

My Richard had been up late working on a Lego project Wednesday night, and we got up pretty early to go to the lake. He worked hard at the lake, he enjoys physical work, but he was beat at the end of the day. Including the time he slept on the way home he slept almost 15 hours that night!

Friday night we went out to the races. We took mom, it was the first time that she had been in the pits since Tim passed away. She did okay until we saw Tim's old red race car that he had sold. It was the first time that it was out racing since Tim sold it. A couple bought it for their son to get started racing in, their son's name was............Richard! Crazy! They didn't paint it or anything, just took silver paint and changed the silver 77 to a 79. It was kind of emotional seeing it out there.

Richard hung out with Tommy over in the tech inspection area. Tommy and Richard's Uncle Richard are good friends, they went to high school together and work together. Richard is learning tons about race car set-up, track rules, as well as different ways to relate to people. Some of the drivers can come in kind of hot-tempered. Tommy is blunt but calm and cool.

You can't see much in this picture, that is the tech garage, and Richard is in there with Tommy and Cory, who is Tommy's son and has been a friend of Richard's for years.

I am glad that Richard is so out-going. He has been out to the track without me a few times this year with his engine-builder friend Bobby, so he has met quite a few of the drivers and crew. He was perfectly comfortable taking off on his own to talk to everyone in the pits. It is good networking for him, as he will be racing before too long!

Weather, remembering, growing up...

2008-05-29T19:22:00.003-06:00

It is beautiful outside today. The sky is crystal clear and it is hot, but not too hot, even in my house with the swamp cooler still not hooked up (I can't find the water tubing from last year! I may have to break down and buy new supplies.) Right now I am in my mom's house (no internet at mine), before big Richard's back surgery (which went well, by the way) he got her swamp cooler running. It is nice and cool and the mountains are beautiful out the front window. I would have stepped outside to take this picture so it would be clearer, but I didn't want the man washing his El Camino up the street to think I was taking a picture of him!!!

It stormed yesterday, we even had hail. This pic is of our front courtyard. Hopefully you can see the hail in the grass. The storm was short but furious.

Here is some hand-held hail.

One of Tim's racing friends, Dennis McMasters, made this decal and has it on his street stock. This picture was taken in the pits where it was kind of dark, but you should be able to see it ok. We miss him.

Speaking (or writing) of Tim, the day before Richard's surgery he took Richard the younger up to Ruidoso to get Tim's (Richard's) race car. Here it is in Ruidoso, all loaded up and ready to come home. It is sitting safe and sound in our driveway now. Richard (the younger) can't wait to start racing. We will have to start him in a lower class, Tim's car is a street stock.

He is off right now learning about working on race cars. He has a new engine-builder friend, my friend's husband, who is letting him tag along while he works on cars. He has been in the pits with him a couple of times at the races, and tonight they are off working on someone's car. Actually that someone let Richard ride in his race car last week! They finished 2nd in all of the races. Richard was so excited.

Dishwasher

2008-04-17T10:29:00.002-06:00

My dishwasher hasn't worked right in, well, ever! Since I moved in. It always left rust on the dishes, no matter how I tried to patch all of the rust spots. And it smelled like mildew inside! Who wants to eat off of something that came out of a mildew machine?! So anyway, now I have a new one! Yay!
A few years back I got my mom a dishwasher, hers worked ok (so I thought) but was horribly noisy, you couldn't hear the TV over it in the next room! So I got her a new one, and found out that the old one didn't work as well as I thought. So partly as a birthday present, partly as a thank you for spending my days off helping with Tim's stuff, and partly as a payback, she bought me a new dishwasher. Yay! Thanks mom.

Jenga

2008-04-17T10:14:00.002-06:00

Richard and I got a new version of Jenga, Jenga Extreme!

The blocks are cut at an angle, so the whole tower leans.

Our tower was pretty scary! The bottom rows only had one brick.

Richard is really good at it. I was the one who knocked it down each time.

Re-evaluation, Racing, Tim

2008-03-28T23:06:00.003-06:00

Today was re-evaluation day. Every 6 months Richard has to re-evaluate at TKD. He is a trainee instructor, and he has to prove that he still knows his stuff . He does all of his past forms, from white belt up to his current one, 2nd degree level 2 black belt. He also has to demonstrate the one- and three- steps for each belt and escape skills.

Here he is doing one of the forms, Fire form (red belt), I think. You can't really see it, but his picture is on the wall behind him with the rest of the certified and trainee instructors. Lauren's picture is there too, she is a certified instructor.

Here he is sparring with another black belt that was testing for rank. He wasn't testing, he was part of the dog-pound, black belts that fill in during the sparring part of rank testing. The girl that he is sparring with is younger and smaller than he is, but she is one rank higher than he is.

Now he is relaxing at his favorite activity, racing! I don't thing it really matters to him if it is 64 scale race cars (like he is playing with here), watching racing on TV, playing Nascar on the xbox360, designing race cars and tracks, or just talking racing, he loves it all, and it all relaxes him.
Tomorrow we are taking mom up to Ruidoso to sprinkle wildflowers on Tim's grave. He is in a beautiful spot in Hondo Valley where deer and elk graze, and there is a little stream that goes right by his plot. His plot number by the way, is 77, which was his race car number. His son Eric surveyed the plot, and left brass surveyors markers. I am sure that he would approve.

Easter Gift...

2008-03-28T22:54:00.002-06:00

On Easter mom and I were in the back yard, hanging out and talking about all of the things that Tim had wanted to do. I saw a bird feeder hanging underneath the patio, empty, and with the tags still on it. I asked mom why it was under the patio, and she said that she hadn't seen it before. She thought that I had bought it. We figured that it must have been from Tim. He did that, purchased things and then waited to see how long before someone noticed them. We checked with Richard and Dianna, and Alison, to be sure that they had not purchased it, but as we suspected they had not. I filled it with birdseed, and we hung it out where the birds can actually get at it. Mom was having kind of a hard day, so it was nice to have an Easter gift from Tim.

Happy Birthday Tim!

2008-03-22T18:14:00.001-06:00

Happy Birthday Tim. We miss you very much.

Gay Lynn Maupin

2008-03-22T18:12:00.002-06:00

We will miss you.

Multitasking

2008-03-20T01:20:00.003-06:00

We have been hanging out at mom's house a lot. Richard is a lot like me, I cannot just sit and watch TV, I have to be doing something else too. Richard is making pit stalls on his race track and watching one of his favorite movies, Ghostrider.

He loves those braided rugs for race tracks, we have all different sizes and colors.

He uses the braided rugs for oval tracks, using the masking tape to mark off the pits, grandstands, etc. He uses a sharpie to make signs on the track and number the pit stalls. He will also use masking tape to make different configurations of tracks on the wood floor or on a square rug that my mom has in the front room. He LOVES racing!

Mom's Wedding

2008-03-20T00:41:00.004-06:00

It has been a month since Tim died, and I realized that I have never posted any pictures of mom and his wedding. They got married on February 11, the day before Tim's surgery. They were married for 4 days. They were together for *years* before that though.

They were married in Tim's room by one of the doctors at the University of Utah Medical Center, he is also a minister. Mom said that they were going to go down to the chapel, but everyone there on the floor wanted to be a part of it! How sweet! She said that the room was full, as was the hallway outside, of both patients and employees. I should have gone. I feel bad, but we really thought everything was going to work out and I should save my sick leave to go help during his recovery.

The bouquet was a flower arrangement that someone had sent to Tim! They look good. Mom and Tim, not the flowers, though they are pretty too.

The man standing in the background behind mom is Tim's son Eric. The red-headed woman is T'Ann, she was a coordinator for the surgery and would have been involved throughout Tim's recovery. She was wonderful with mom. The doctor in the foreground is Tim's surgeon, Dr. Singhal.

This is the doctor that married them.
Tim had always told mom that he would marry her on a leap year, and guess what? It is a leap year! He is the one who insisted that they marry before the surgery. I think lots of people assume that it was for monetary reasons, so that she would be taken care of if something went wrong, but he had a will, and mom was already named in it, so that wasn't even an issue. He just wanted to do it. I think he wished that they had not put it off for so long.
We miss you Tim.

Spring

2008-03-19T18:49:00.001-06:00

The peach tree is blooming! Yay!

Coccooning, Ice Cream, and Movies

2008-03-19T14:42:00.004-06:00

Richard has been cocooning lately. It has been a hard few months, and I think his body and mind are resting. He has grown a lot lately, almost 5'7" at last measurement, his grandpa died a month ago, and yesterday a good family friend passed away. A lot to deal with for an adult, let alone a 12 year old.

It is almost 3pm, and he is still asleep. He has always been a late sleeper, we are a family of night owls, but he is definetely sleeping more lately. I will have to wake him soon, I hate doing that, but today is his "assist day" at TaeKwonDo. He is a trainee instructor and assists with 2 or 3 classes a week.

Last night we wanted comfort food, so we made ice cream. Richard has an ice cream ball, so we filled it with cream and vanilla and sugar and rolled it back and forth while watching the Simpsons.

It took almost a whole Simpsons episode of rolling the ice cream ball back and forth for the ice cream to be a good consistancy.

When it was ready, we watched South Park and ate yummy homemade icecream. Then we put in The Prestige, which I bought recently off of the $5 movie rack. It wasn't what I thought it was, I was thinking of the movie The Illusionist, which I loved. I liked The Prestige though, what I saw of it. I fell asleep. Richard watched the whole thing, and said it was good. Maybe I will try again tonight.

Happy Birthday Lauren!

2008-03-16T16:46:00.004-06:00

Lauren is 16 today. Hard to believe! Happy Birthday Lauren, we love you!

Stanley

2008-03-16T16:26:00.003-06:00

Richard is dog sitting this weekend. His name is Stanley, and he looks a little like an Ewok! He has been at my house for the whole weekend, but now I am going to work, so Stanley came to my mom's house with Richard. He has been doing pretty good with Black Dog and her cats so far.

At our house the only cat we locked up was Ren, she is a little aggressive. The rest of the tribe has been doing pretty well with him. I have been trying to get some good pictures of Stanley all weekend, but he just moves too fast! Even when Richard holds him, he wiggles constantly!

Richard has been having a good time with him.

Morning Visitor

2008-03-11T07:45:00.004-06:00

I put out lots of bird food, so there are always a lot of birds for my cats to drool over. I had a special visitor when I arrived home this morning though. I first saw him when I was walking in front of the house (in front of the window that is in the background). He was on the ground, I almost stepped on him. I thought he was hurt, but then he flew over to the finch sock. I was surprised at how close he let me get!

That is Stimpy in the window, bird-watching. Usually there are 3 or 4 kitties drooling over the birds, but this morning it was just Stimpy. The rest of the tribe must have been sleeping in.

Monsters

2008-02-20T19:54:00.003-07:00

I was reading Zenmomma's blog, and saw her monster name and Richard and I just had to get our own! We made monster names for everyone here, and had a good time cheering up the family.

Get Your Monster Name

Sad...

2008-02-19T10:43:00.003-07:00

Well, we lost Tim. He underwent surgery to implant the LVAS, and all looked well except he didn't wake after the anesthesia wore off. They did an EEG, and there was no activity. Many different neurological
tests later, they decided that he must have had a stroke either during surgery or immediately after. We got the news on Valentine's Day, and he died on February 15. The funeral is Thursday. My mom's birthday is Friday, she is going to hate her birthday and Valentine's Day from now on, I think. It still doesn't feel real, he was just here putzing around the house!

Tim

2008-02-09T18:29:00.000-07:00

Well, we have gotten a reminder that you have to be in charge of your own health, that you cannot rely solely on health care profesionals. Most of us know this, but I guess we forget.

My mom's long-time significant other, soon to be spouse, is pretty sick. His doctor has been blaming his breathing problems on adult-onset athsma, even as it got increasingly more difficult to breathe over the last month. Tim, as well as most of the family, has felt that there must be something more going on, but the doc was sure that it was just a problem with his lungs.

Turns out the problem is his heart. Sometime recently he had a heart attack and didn't realize it, and he has had a worsening case of CHF, that is why he hasn't been able to breathe! Grr! He went to the ER in Ruidoso one night a week or so ago, and they immediately shipped him up to the Heart Institute in Albuquerque. From there, they shipped him to the University of Utah Medical Center where he is awaiting a LVAS heart assist device and hopefully a heart transplant. His heart is too badly damaged for medications to do any good at this point.

My mom is up in Utah with him, and his kids have been taking turns going up there when they can. If all goes well, he will have the surgery to implant the LVAS Monday morning, and then will have to stay in Salt Lake for a while to heal.

Archive Meme

2008-02-02T18:11:00.000-07:00

Jenny tagged me with this Archive Meme. I was a little intimidated my it, especially since I really don't have that many posts to choose from! Going back, I really do have more than I thought, so here goes!

1. This link is supposed to be about family. When we went to Wisconsin for my Grandmother's 90th birthday,
it was the first time that I had even met some of my family!

2. Friends. Well, anyone who knows me well knows that I am not good at keeping up with friends. Most of my good friends that I actually keep in touch with are family! I have one friend in town that I see regularly, and most of my other close friends live out of town. So this post will have to be about Richard's friends!

3. A link about myself? Not sure that I have one of those! Well, really at the moment my life is all about the kids in my life, Richard and my neices (and I love that!). There are lots of things that I would love to do, mainly start painting again, but there is always something that needs to be done first. Getting my own house has probably been the biggest step that I have made toward having the time and room to paint again, so I guess this one will have to do...

4. Something that I love, well, my whole blog is about that! Here is one that I hadn't read in a while.

5. The fifth one is supposed to be about anything that I want. Well, one of my favorite things is the familiarity of my life. One example of that is my kitty Ren. Every time anyone heads to the bathroom in my home, Ren is not far behind. In fact she comes tearing in after you, at full speed. If you are sitting down on the toilet, she will rub and crawl all over you, looking for you to pet her. If you don't head straight to the toilet, or after you are done, she goes right to the sink! She just loves water! Crazy kitty!!

Archive Meme Instructions: Go back through your archives and post the links to your five favorite blog posts that you've written. ... but there is a catch: Link 1 must be about family. Link 2 must be about friends. Link 3 must be about yourself, who you are... what you're all about. Link 4 must be about something you love. Link 5 can be anything you choose. I think this is a great way to circulate some of the great older posts everyone had written, return to a few great places in our memories and also learn a little something about ourselves and each other that we may not know. Post your five links and then tag five other people. At least TWO of the people you tag must be *newer acquaintances so that you get to know each other better....and don't forget to read the archive posts and leave comments! Wow, a whole post with lots of writing and no pictures!

I am not going to tag anyone this time, I guess if you read this consider yourself TAGGED!

Dinos Alive!

2008-02-02T17:40:00.000-07:00

There is a new exhibit in the old movie theater at our mall. We got a brand new 10 screen theater last year, not too exciting to those who are used to such things, but we are a fairly small city and had a terrible theater up until now. I am so short that at the old theater, even a normal sized person in front of me blocked my view, and Richard has only gotten taller than me this year, he always had a hard time seeing before. Now the seats are angled so that even I can see with someone in front of me.

Anyway, so in the space where the old theater was, there is a temporary dinosaur exhibit that is really cool. There are animatronic dinosaurs, with plants and rocks all around so that they look real. They move and make sounds, and a tour guide will walk you around and tell you about the dinosaurs if you want. I guess the dinosaurs were actually used in the background of the Jurassic Park movies. Cool!

I couldn't get pictures of the animatronic dinosaurs because it was too dark, but there is a play room (oops, an education room :-) Ha Ha) that Richard had a lot of fun in.

Excavating dinosaur bones.

Richard LOVED the giant fabric dinosaur. You could create new species by putting lots of different parts together. He spent more than an hour putting together different parts.

CatDog Dinosaur!

Frogs

2008-02-02T17:12:00.000-07:00

We inherited 2 frogs from Richard and Dianna when they moved. The frogs lived in their HUGE pond at the big house, and I am not sure how happy they were in my 2 20 gallon tanks. They had lots of guppies to eat though, and places to hide.
A couple of months ago one of them escaped, I found him in the middle of my dining room, still alive. He died the next day, and I buried him under a bush on the side of the house.
The second one made his escape a few days ago (despite the lids of the tanks being taped down with duct tape!). He also died a day or so after being returned to the tank, but not before he ate BOTH of my new baby plecostomus fishies! I guess he felt that he deserved a last meal better than guppies. Richard and I buried him in the middle of the Frog Band, in the front courtyard. We figured that he would enjoy listening to frog music, while he fertilizes my grass and flowers.

Globetrotters

2008-02-02T16:47:00.000-07:00

We went to see the Harlem Globetrotters a couple of weeks ago. Mom's long-time boyfriend has been pretty sick, so I haven't had time to write. I first saw the Globetrotters when I was pregnant with Richard, though I didn't know yet. I took him to see them when he was about 6, and now he is 12. It was a lot of fun, the Globetrotters are always funny.

Christmas/Solstice

2007-12-25T21:30:00.001-07:00

The first ornament in the tree, that is Roo hiding in the branches. She had a perfect little niche for herself between a few of the branches about half-way up.
Stimpy, hanging out under the tree. All of the cats loved the tree skirt, very soft spot for a nap! They also loved the homemade beaded ornaments around the bottom. Last Christmas the kittens were only a few months old, and they just destroyed the tree. They climbed all over it and most of the lights and ornaments ended up on the floor. This year they are much calmer, still climbing the tree, but not being quite as chaotic.
My very favorite present of the season. When I bought the house, it had gas log installed into the fireplace. The previous owners told me that it worked, but of course, like with many other things that they told me, that was less than completely true. So, for winter this year, my mom had the gas logs removed for me and now I can use it as a real live wood-burning fireplace! Yay!

The Last Few Days....

2007-12-25T21:12:00.000-07:00

We've been doing lots over the last few days.

Making Cookies... Lauren wasn't too fond of having to mix the dough by hand in the last step!

Watching scary movies...

Playing video games...
(The smudge in the picture is a kitty's tail!)
And adding to the wish list...

8 Things About Me...

2007-12-25T15:46:00.000-07:00

Sandra Dodd tagged me with this, and the only real reason that I haven't posted it is that I couldn't think of 8 more people to tag! I am not online too much anymore since I don't have internet at home, and most of the people whose blogs that I read have been tagged recently. I decided that I was just procrastinating though, so here goes!

1. I like being tagged. I am not very social, and it reminds me that there are other people in the world and that I really like keeping in touch with the world, when I do it.

2. I love giving gifts. I love buying, finding, or making them, deciding what someone will like, wrapping them, everything. I just love the whole process (except mailing, I am terrible about that!)

3. I love tattoos. I want a 3/4 sleeve one day.

4. I always wanted to be an artist, a working artist. When I was a teenager and thought about stay-at-home moms, I thought No Way! I could never do that. I would hate it! Well, now I would love to be able to stay with Richard all of the time. My job allows me to be with him more than most working moms, but it is never enough for me.

5. I am a terrible procrastinator. I keep telling my self that I am going to be better, but I haven't been. I have gifts that I bought last Christmas that I haven't mailed yet (see #2).

6. Besides my son, my brother and sister-in-law are the two people that I admire the most. They are the most true and honest people that I know. I am glad to have them in my life, and especially glad that they are here in Alamogordo where they can be a good influence on me!

7. I purchased my own house last year. I never thought that I would be where I am in my life. I am a single unschooling mom, who owns a house. I never thought that I would be able to do that!

8. I have 8 cats, 2 dogs, one frog, 2 turtles, and many guppies, who are mainly food for the frog.

That was harder than I thought! Fun though.

The "rules":
* link to the person who tagged you
* post the rules
* name 8 things others don’t know about you
* link to 8 other bloggers

Here are my links:

Ironwood Farm Project
Our Hapa Home
Learning in Freedom
Bodhicitta
ZenmommasGarden
Wistful Wanderlust
Five Free Birds
Organic Learning

So busy...

2007-11-03T14:39:00.000-06:00

We have been so busy lately...

I have been working extra shifts lately, and the lady is out of town, so we are taking care of her house as well as ours. Richard has been staying with his aunt and uncle while she is gone and I am at work, and he has been helping them move.

We went to the X-Prize cup and airshow last weekend, it was awesome. I will have to post some pictures. We were going to try to go to the Modified Nationals this weekend in Las Cruces, but I didn't realize that the races started at 2pm instead of sunset as ususal. I am probably more bummed about it than Richard, oh well, next time!

We have birthdays coming up, Lindsey turns 21 on the 7th, and Richard turns 12 on the 19th. I don't know what I am going to do for Richard's birthday yet. Maybe just take him and the family out to dinner and have cake at home. We will see. He has been saving his money to buy an Xbox 360. He has been mowing lawns and saving his allowance. He has more in savings than I do right now! I am proud of him.

90th birthday

2007-07-28T15:51:00.000-06:00

This is Lauren with Grandma (that would be Lauren's Great-Grandma). It was Grandma's 90th birthday, and she got everyone together in Wisconsin where she and Grandpa Chuck always vacationed.

The whole group. Lindsey couldn't come, so not the *whole* group! Lindsey, cousin Michael's girlfriend, and cousin Lyndon and his wife Lorina were missing. Other than that it is the whole group. I think! That is Chuck's tree in the middle.

This one is not from the birthday trip, this is Richard at the lake after riding the jet-ski at Elephant Butte. He was very excited.

Many more pics to come.

Junior Zookeeper

2007-05-04T21:08:00.000-06:00

Richard participated in a junior zookeeper program at our zoo. It was a week long, and he had a great time. He got to help feed and clean up after most of the animals, and spent a whole morning helping to prepare the animal's food. He had a great time, and he got hugged (on the leg) by an otter!

P-Bear

2007-05-04T19:28:00.000-06:00

A few weeks ago Richard and I received a package in the mail, P-Bear clothes! My sister makes Paddington Bears (and their clothes), she made one for me when I was little (the lighter one) and one for Richard when he was a baby. Mine is all worn, there isn't much fur left. Richard's is nice and fluffy.
Well Richard's P-Bear has been wearing an old baseball outfit that was Richard's when he was a baby, waiting for clothes. Right around my birthday about a month ago we finally got clothes for him! Yay! Thanks Alison!

Monster Jam!!!

2007-03-05T07:38:00.000-07:00

Richard and I went to Monster Jam in El Paso Saturday night, it was incredible! I only have a few photos that I took on my phone right now, Richard took a ton that we still need to get developed. For now, here is El Toro Loco, El Paso's favorite truck. The crowd just went crazy every time the announcer would even mention El Toro Loco, and there were tons of kids running around with red hats with bull horns! So cute!

This is Maximum Destruction catching some crazy air. Max D won the Freestyle part of the night. You can see the crowd in the background, the Sun Bowl was completely sold out. It was crazy. We had so much fun, Richard got autographs and pictures with each of the drivers before the show. They were all really nice, and all were willing to take a second to talk to the kids, even though there were thousands of people there. What an awesome night with my boy!

H2O cat

2007-02-28T08:38:00.000-07:00

I don't even have normal cats! Every morning Ren sits on the bathroom sink until I turn on the faucet, then she sits in the sink and lets the water wash all over her. She just sits there and drinks and showers, loving the water. I guess that is what happens when you name your cat after a mosquito...

Myspace

2007-02-16T20:10:00.000-07:00

So Lauren and Lindsey convinced me that I needed to get a Myspace page. Well, I did it, but I am not too sure of the whole thing. They assure me that it is a very cool thing, but I kind of feel like a jr. high student again with the whole "will you be my friend thing." Lauren assures me that it is ok to ask someone to be my friend, that though I may be a total dork, this is not why!
Here is my Myspace page, if anyone is interested:
www.myspace.com/rejsmom

Black Dog

2007-02-01T16:55:00.000-07:00

My poor Black Dog, she is a mess without Bailey. She is bored and so she gets in trouble. That is my mom's brand new bamboo blind in the background, chewed to pieces. It hadn't been installed yet, she chewed the package open. She used to stay outside most of the day, and she was ok, she and Bailey ran and played, and chased kids along the fence. They had their own inside paito room with a dog door, and came all the way in occasionally to visit. She came inside more often with Jake (my sister and brother-in-law's dog) when he was down visiting, and though he helped her to calm down and be a good inside dog when people are here, she can't be alone inside because she gets into the garbage and chews everything. That still would be ok, but now she is not satisfied to ever be outside, ever! She is in at night now but needs to go out when my mom is at work and Richard is not hanging out over there.

Jake also taught her to knock down the dog-door cover, so she comes into the patio room and bangs on the inside door, she even knocked it off of the track. I tried to take her to my house for a while, but she chases the kittens (they just love to run fast, it is too tempting!) and she tears down my screen and patio doors trying to come in.

I know what the dog whisperer would say, she needs an hour long walk every day! She would probably be ok with a friend, but with the unexpected litter of kittens I am not sure I can do that yet! Hopefully when the kittens get a little older she can be with them. She is 13 or so, I would love to have her inside all of the time where it is warm during her last few years, but we can't have someone at mom's house with her all of the time.

A friend may have to be the answer, we will see....

Our Visitor..

2007-01-26T21:56:00.000-07:00

We have a kitty that comes and visits, we don't know where he lives, but he is pretty fat, so he probably has a home. We put food out for him anyway! :-)

He is mostly white, with black on his head, and has long hair. Richard has named him Tigger. Our kitties like to gather and talk to him through the sliding glass door. It has been so cold lately, I would love to bring him in. He is a little shy though. I am hoping that he does have a good home somewhere, since I kind of have a full house!

Stimpy, hanging out. He is very laid back.

Mew, she seemed to be really shy at first, not very social. But lately she has really become a people-kitty.

The twins, sort of. They seemed identical when they were little. Ren though, (the one in back) has become very fluffy. She has a full coat, not long, but full and fluffy. She looks like a snow leopard. Roo, the one in front, is sleeker and her coat is has stripes, while Ren has spots.
These two were always the first to do anything when they were little. They were the first to get out of their birthing area, the first to scale the baby gate, etc. They have calmed down a little, and Mew was the first to climb my curtains! Ra has taken over lately as the resident mischief maker. He loves to get into trouble.

Kitten pix

2007-01-26T21:40:00.000-07:00

These pictures are 2 months old. The kittens from our litter are 3 1/2 months old in these, and Lou is 6 weeks or so.

This is Lou, a friend from work found him on the mountain. She was going to keep him but her dogs were a little rough with him, so he joined our litter. Bastet has adopted him and he nurses with the others.

Ra (named by Richard after the Sun God), stalking something.

Lou.

Sir Lou, that is.

Almost the whole tribe.

Snow!!!!

2007-01-26T21:12:00.000-07:00

We have gotten a TON of snow over the last week (ok, a ton for Southern New Mexico). We really don't get too much at my house, even though we are within walking distance of a decent sized mountain. Usually you have to take a half-hour drive or so to see much snow in the winter. I really don't like the cold, but if it is going to be cold I would like to at least see some snow! Well, I got it twice this week. It snowed in the beginning of the week, and I actually still had some in my yard when it snowed again last night. It rained like crazy most of the day though, so now it is all gone.

This is my house at about 6 this morning. The clock on my camera is wrong, it says 6pm, but it was am.

The Ash tree in the yard had started to get buds on it before the snow, I am not sure if they survived the cold.

This is the Garden God in the first snow, he can still see the yard.

After today's snow he was pretty covered.

The frog and turtle checker board is still visible after the first snow...

But this morning it was gone!! :-)

The heavenly bamboo looked really pretty dusted with snow.

And my very favorite of the pictures, Richard enjoying the snow, coming down like crazy! He, by the way, took most of these pictures. He is a great photographer.

Busy days...

2006-12-30T17:48:00.000-07:00

It has been very busy lately, I guess it is a good thing that I haven't had much computer time, that means we've been doing lots of cool stuff.

The kittens are all comfortable in the new house, enjoying every inch of it.

Richard's favorite car is the Fort GT, so when the local Ford dealership got one in we went down to take a look. Richard was so excited! He was a little jealous that his uncle (who works for Ford) got to drive it, but he was still excited.

While in Albuquerque a while back we went to the Unser Racing Museum. Richard was really excited about it, and who do we see when we walk in the gift shop but Al Unser himself! He was really nice, talked to Richard for a few minutes and took a picture with him.

We had a good Christmas, though it seemed like it went really quickly. Richard loved hanging out with his Uncle Vince, they went to see Eragon at the movie theater and have been cruising around town all weekend. Richard will be sad when he and Alison head back to Colorado.

Cleo

2006-10-14T22:32:00.000-06:00

I haven't been keeping up with this at all. I have so many pictures to put up, new kitten pictures (2 months old now), pictures of the new house, from the Live and Learn Conference, TKD, etc. But I didn't really feel right putting up any pictures of happy stuff until I talked about Cleo.

Cleo died suddenly while Richard and I were in Albuquerque for the Live & Learn Unschooling Conference. Before we left for Albuquerque, I took Richard's cat Tut to the vet because I knew he wasn't feeling well. He had a dental infection, and was great with some antibiotics and pain pills. I didn't realize though, that Cleo was sick too. She was a fairly reclusive cat anyway, and wasn't adjusting to the kittens well, so I didn't worry about her hanging out in the bedroom alone. I found out during the big dinner that she had died. Thankfully mom found her so she didn't die alone. Dr. Staley kept her frozen for us, and Richard and I buried her in the backyard of our new house when we got home. Richard felt strongly that we take her to the new house even though she never lived there, so she didn't think we just abandoned her.

1701

2006-09-02T19:50:00.000-06:00

Well, I have been a home-owner for 4 days now! It feels like a month though, since I have been working on the house for almost that long. My loan (FHA) required that the house be painted and the owners wanted to sell as-is..... so......
I painted the house. Tim helped a lot, replacing boards and scraping and such. I did all of the painting over about a week. I did have a friend come by and help a little, but I pretty much did it all myself. The house was white before, now it is Holly Green. Now I have to start on the inside which is also all white!

First though, off to Albuquerque for the Live and Learn Conference. We are driving up Wednesday as soon as I get off of work, and staying until the following Tuesday. Should be fun!

Bailey

2006-08-23T23:22:00.000-06:00

We lost Bailey on Friday. She was fine when we went to bed Wednesday night, but Thursday morning she was bloated and groaning in pain. The vet said that she must have drank a bunch of water, then rolled around or something causing her stomach to flip over. They opened her up and drained a gallon and a half of water out of her stomach, then pinned her stomach to the sides of her abdomen so that it wouldn't flip again. He said that they have had really good luck with the surgery in the past, but she was just too old (13 or so). She made it through the surgery, and even was sitting up later, but the next morning (Friday) she had a heart attack. They were able to revive her once, but then she had another one and was gone.

She loved her stuffed "babies," she didn't chew them at all, just carried them everywhere.

Black Dog is lonely now. She has never been alone before. She has been spending lots of time with us, but I don't think it is the same.
We got a sympathy card from our vet today, that was really sweet. We lost Ginger, our 22 year old calico cat, in February. That makes losing Bailey harder, I think. There is always new life though, our new kittens are 3 weeks old and getting pretty mobile.

We'll miss you Bailey!

Dirty dish art...

2006-08-12T23:18:00.000-06:00

One of the (many) things that I love about Richard is his ability to find beauty anywhere. He came to get me saying that there was art in the dirty dishes. Sure enough, a beautiful spiral with a yin-yang in the middle, right in a soaking cereal bowl. I bet it was a crunchy, laid back cereal, like Kashi. I wonder if a more intellectual cereal like Boo Berry or Peanut Butter Captain Crunch would produce a more Fibonacci-like spiral...

Wasps in the window...

2006-08-11T22:31:00.000-06:00

There is a wasp nest in one of the bedroom windows, and one in the back yard. They really don't bother us at all, the only time we see them away from their nest is at the fish pond. They land on the algae to drink the water. Oh, and at the new hummingbird feeder, they love that. I need to get some pictures of that, but here is the nest through a very dirty window.

Uh, yeah that is a spiderweb going across the window... I just hate getting rid of spiderwebs.

2006-08-10T18:23:00.000-06:00

The Kittens are 11 days old now, they are so cute! They still are basically just sleeping and eating, but a few are trying to open their eyes.

Bastet (mommy) keeps moving them. The first time was probably just to get them away from their birth place. The second time was right after our male (Tut) came into the room and saw their hiding place. Tut was scared silly of Bastet, and ran, but she wasn't taking any chances and moved the kittens to the closet.

These pictures are from a few days ago, they are probably about a week old in them.

They are all piled up in the corner of the closet, under a shelf.

We tried to get pictures of all 5 kittens seperately. This one was mewling LOUDLY for mom, she came quickly!

This one didn't even wake up.

Their ears are still folded over, according to the books they probably are just starting to hear.

This one seems to be the most active of them, she also looks a lot like the male down the street! The rest look like mom and the male that I saw with mom the night that she snuck out.

This one looks the most like mom.

Kittens!

2006-08-03T12:55:00.000-06:00

Our cat, Bastet, gave birth to a litter of kittens Monday evening (July 31). I had been meaning to get her spaid, but on Memorial Day she was in heat, and snuck out, oops! Bastet is the bottom kitty in the above picture, the top one is King Tut. We have one other kitty, they all have Egyptian names, the one not pictured is Cleopatra.
Tut thinks he is the dad, he tried to mount her when she was in heat, but since he is neutered, well, it didn't exactly work. But since she turned up pregnant soon after he seems to think that he was able to accomplish something!

She is looking tired after the first kitten, you can just see it's head next to her body.

She looks like she wants to be left alone, but she would cry and chase us when we would walk away even for a moment.

She is eating the placenta and amniotic sac from the second kitten.

We could tell when the next one was coming by her panting, I don't know the history of Lamaze, but this sure looked like it.

She cleaned herself up between each kitten.

She is cutting the umbilical cord.

Here they are all cleaned up, there are 5 of them. At first we thought they were all black, but only one is black, with white markings. The rest are gray tabbys like mom.

Bastet was starving afterwards.

They are so cute!

Sweet dreams, kitties!

Shuttle Camp

2006-08-03T11:24:00.000-06:00

Richard attends Shuttle Camp every year, it is a week-long space camp put on by the New Mexico Museum of Space History (the former Space Hall of Fame).

They build a rocket during the week. Last year Richard's looked like a giant pencil! This year it is a red, blue, silver, and gold rocket based on one of the X-Prize rockets that we saw launched last year. Richard was first to fire his rocket.

Waiting anxiously...

They fire the rockets in the parking lot of the museum. It is on the side of the mountain with lots of desert surrounding it.

Making sure that it is all hooked up correctly...

I guess you can't see it, the rocket is in those shots somewhere. Richard made it a little crooked, but that made it launch so cool. It went straight up, but did this awesome spiral all the way to the top!

John, figuring out why one of the kid's rockets didn't launch.

It worked this time.

This is Richard's group. The man on the far left is Daniel, he was a leader of Richard's group last year too. The man on the far right is John, he has done space camps in Alabama (where he is from) too. Richard is almost dead center in the back row. Next to him on the left (with the orange hat) is a boy named Ian whom Richard got to be friends with.

So much going on!

2006-07-28T12:42:00.000-06:00

Things have been so busy lately...

Lauren hanging out on a guardrail by the tunnel.

Richard, looking cool.

Enjoying the beautiful New Mexico views.

A few weeks ago some members of the TKD academy did a demo at the Renaissance Faire in Cloudcroft. It was Richard's first demo as a black belt.

Mrs. Anna Scott, the certified instructor who ran the demo, asked Richard to do the red belt form instead of his current one. She said that it is one of the most difficult forms and that he does it beautifully. :-)

Richard's Aunt Dianna, Uncle Richard, and Lauren took my Richard with them to a TKD tournament in Mobile, Alabama. I don't have many pictures of the trip yet, but they sent this one to my cell phone. On the way to Mobile they stopped at both Six Flags and Sea World. Richard has been on roller coasters before, but I think now he is just totally in love with them. The higher and faster the better!
At the tournament Richard won a bronze medal in forms, a gold medal in sparring, and an honorable compeditor medal for his free design form.
Before heading home they went down to the coast and rode the "world's biggest speedboat." They had a great time, and got to see dolphins swimming in the Gulf.
Richard had so much fun on the trip, he is lucky to have such a generous aunt and uncle.

We've been up to the lake a few times, once when everyone went. That was a lot of fun. It is nice to have everyone down on the beach like when we were little. I didn't take the camera, I really just planned to take Richard up and drop him off, then come back home since I had to work Sunday night. Richard and Grandma talked me into going up just for Friday night. I ended up staying all weekend and coming home Sunday not long before I had to be at work. It was a lot of fun.

A lot of the plans that we had for the summer have been put on hold because we are buying a house, yay! That has been a lot of work, but I can't wait to close and get the keys! We will end up closing right before the Live and Learn Conference, so we will get the keys and then be gone for almost a week! It will be worth it though.

Katy

Richard is a Black Belt!!!

2006-05-27T11:07:00.000-06:00

Yay! Richard passed his Black Belt testing!! Now he is a First Degree Level One (Probationary) Black Belt! The belt has a red stripe to show that it is a probationary rank.

Here Mrs. Overstreet, one of Richard's instructors, is tying his black belt onto him.
Next to her (in the foreground) is Richard's main instructor, Mr. Overstreet.

Here is Richard and Cara, she just got her Red Senior belt, that is one level below Black Belt.

This is Richard, Lenore, and Richard's cousin Lauren. Lenore is a Red Senior, and Lauren is a Second Degree Level 3 Black Belt.

Mr. Overstreet signed one of the boards that he broke in a demo before the awards ceremony.

Richard wanted a picture with Mr. Overstreet after getting his Black Belt. Richard looks so happy!

One week until testing...

2006-05-13T01:34:00.000-06:00

It is Saturday, in exactly one week Richard tests for his Black Belt. I am so happy for him, he really loves TaeKwonDo.

This is him in the foyer of the NMSBVI gym. After every testing I take a picture of him in this same spot with his new belt on. This was right after he got his red senior belt. That is what he is now, red senior. He has really been working hard to get his form looking nice and crisp, and to get his sparring better and better.

At testing, to get his black belt, he has to do his form, break 2 boards (one hand and one foot technique), do 2 rounds of sparring, and then spar 2 on 1 (he has to spar 2 black belts at the same time), and answer some questions. I think he is ready.

Easter Ostara Spring.....

2006-05-13T00:39:00.000-06:00

Ok, so it is way past Easter/Ostara. But I am finally getting the pictures of our big egg decorating session posted. We had a great time, Richard's cousin Lauren and good friend Cara came over to help decorate eggs and eat lots of easter candy.

Look at those hands, definitely evidence of a great time!

They decided to dye one of the eggs after it had been peeled, and
Richard ate it!!! He said that it tasted the same, he was the only one
brave enough to do it.

This one cracked, so it needed a band-aid.

We dye 3 or 4 dozen eggs every year, and then eat hard boiled eggs for weeks afterwards. I was thinking the other day, that it is silly to only do it once a year. I guess people only do it annually because of the mess, but anyone that knows me knows that the mess isn't really an issue for me! :-) Besides, it wouldn't be any mess at all to use crayons. Maybe I will cook some eggs tomorrow.

Lego Creations

2006-05-03T13:21:00.000-06:00

This is a Delta 7 Starfighter.

The Turbo Tank, along with the Batmobile and some Jedi, Wookies, and various other Star Wars characters.

The Four Amigos.

Arc Troopers with a Commander.

The Ultimate Arena, with Spider versus Killer Rabbit.

These pictures were all taken by Richard, and of course all of the creations are also by Richard. None of the pictures have been photoshopped or anything, they look great!

Katy

2 Golds and a Silver!

2006-04-30T02:09:00.000-06:00

The tournament was awesome! There were 5 rings set up in the gym of the NMSBVI, and something like 150 competitors, from Tiger Cubs (ages 4-5) up to Black Belts.

We got there early to watch the Black Belt competition, which was amazing. Richard has just started this program called the Black Belt Club, even though he doesn't actually test for Black Belt for another month. In this "club," he gets to learn traditional Korean Sword forms and sparring, Extreme forms, HanMuDo, Ground Escape Skills, Tactical Short Stick, and Counter Defense Training. Some of those things are included in Black Belt competition, so it was great for him to get to see the higher ranks exhibiting those things that he has just started to learn.

My niece is a 2nd degree Black Belt, and she got a Bronze medal in her Traditional form competition and a Gold medal for her Free Design form. She did really well in sparring too, but she was up against this amazing young man from Las Cruces whom everyone calls Speedy, and he definitely earns his nickname! Our instructor was impressed that she was even able to score on him. Here is a picture of her with her medals:

Richard had a HUGE ring, with some pretty tough competition from all 3 schools that were included (Alamogordo {us!}, Las Cruces, and El Paso). He and a young lady from Las Cruces tied for the Gold medal in their Traditional forms, so they had to do a tie breaker. Richard earned the Gold, and she the Silver. Richard's good friend Cara got Bronze. In the Free Design forms, Richard earned Gold, which he was really proud of since this is a form that he made up and choreographed all on his own, to music that he picked. In sparring competition, Richard did awesome! He was in the first round, and just blew away most of his competition. When it came to the Gold medal round though, a young man from El Paso got in 3 real quick kicks to the head (worth 2 points each), and that was the end of it! Richard did score on him once, so that was great. The rounds go until one opponent earns 5 points, or until time is up, then the opponent with the most points wins. Punches and kicks to legal zones on the body are worth 1 point, and kicks to the head are worth 2 points. Jump kicks to the head are worth 3 points. In tournament sparring punches to the head are not allowed. If you are starting to panic, don't, they are well padded!

Richard sparring, he is the Red Belt executing a beautiful side kick. The adult Black Belts surrounding the sparring kids are judges. There are 3 on the mat while 2 kids are sparring, making sure that it all stays fair and safe.

Here he is doing part of his Traditional Form, he is chambering, getting ready to do a side kick (his favorite). In the foreground are his fellow competitors, and in the back ground sitting on the chairs are the Black Belt judges. There are usually between 4 and 6 in a ring, from all 3 schools.

This is Richard and his good friend Cara, with their medals. It is hard to see Richard's the way he is holding them, but he has 2 Gold and 1 Silver, and Cara has a Bronze. I don't think Richard could look any happier!

Richard and I have talked a lot about competition. I have told him that I would be proud of him if he came home with no medals, it takes a lot of courage to get out there and compete. And if he decided to back out of competition, I would still be proud of him. I hate to see the way some parents push their kids so much. Richard is in this because he loves it, and that is all that really matters.

Katy

Getting ready for tournament...

2006-04-29T00:26:00.000-06:00

Richard has a TaeKwonDo tournament tomorrow. He has competed in quite a few over the last couple of years, and he loves them. The last one was in Baton Rouge, Louisiana, it was an international tournament. Richard got his first gold medal in sparring there. He has worked so hard on sparring, so he was very happy. Forms have always come easy for him, but sparring is more difficult because he is large for his age, so when they sort the kids they put him with kids of the same size but are older than him.

This is a picture of him doing some crazy side kick:

And here he is with his medals, 1 gold for sparring, 1 bronze for traditional forms, and 1 bronze for free design form (which he put together himself, to We Are the Champions by Queen).

International tournaments are HUGE! In the above picture, they have already broken down the rings. But you can see how big the building is, imagine 50 or 60 rings, all with something like 6-10 competitors and 5 judges. After that our little regional tournament is going to seem like just another day in class!

So the tournament tomorrow, today actually, I didn't realize that it is after midnight, is here in Alamogordo at the NMSBVI (New Mexico School for the Blind and Visually Impaired, long name!). My niece and sister-in-law are competing too. I think this will be Richard's last tournament in his age class. He is 10, and in November he moves up to the "super junior" class that is 11-14 year olds. At the last one I was looking at the size of some of the 14 year olds, yikes! And Richard is big, I can't imagine how the little petite kids feel! Though I guess it may be easier to get in close to your opponent if you are small.

Richard is usually a night owl, but tonight he wanted to go to bed earlier so he wouldn't be tired tomorrow. So he took a shower and got to bed, we had some snuggle time talking about tomorrow. I have friends that have 10yo kids that don't want to snuggle anymore, I am so lucky!

I will have updates and pictures tomorrow!

Katy

Sacred Places

2006-04-27T23:32:00.000-06:00

I went to a young man's funeral today. I really didn't know him well, but his closest friends are my closest friends, so it was rough. I am always nervous going to Catholic services because I don't know all of the rituals, I can follow along, but I like to know what they mean. As it turned out, many , many people showed up so I got to stand outside next to the roses and the beautiful carved doors. Some people were not happy to be outside, but I was elated. I could hear the music and the bells, I could feel the early morning sun on my face, I could smell the roses, and I could run my fingers over that beautiful door. I love doors, I am not really sure why. Maybe it has to do with first impressions, or the possibility of entering a new world with each door, I don't know. The door at the church is beautiful, it is an old door, with carvings in the wood and a huge iron handle. The whole church is beautiful.

So I was standing outside with this huge crowd of people, most of whom I didn't know, and Mass was going on inside. We couldn't hear much, so most people were talking amongst themselves. At one point someone started to sing, now we had heard lots of music from inside the church, the organ, the whole church singing together, but this was just one person singing an old song in Spanish. The whole crowd just stopped talking all at once, 500+ people standing in the sun, listening quietly (or quietly crying) to this one captivating song. It was beautiful. I started thinking about churches, and how most people consider churches and temples to be sacred places because "god resides there." Well, I am not a religious person. I don't particularly like organized religion. That does not mean that I am not spiritual, I believe that we are all connected, and probably what most people call god with a capital "G" is the same force that I believe connects us all. It occurred to me that what makes places sacred is that people gather there in times of hardship, celebration, whenever they need comfort. It is the people that give a place, be it a church, temple, a sacred circle, or a home, its power.

Later, I was talking to my friend, the one who was so close to the young man who passed away, and she told me that I was having a "Deep Thoughts with Jack Handey" moment, and we laughed. It was good to laugh on such a sad day.

Katy

Pictures

2006-04-20T02:26:00.000-06:00

Richard is loving taking photos. He has a Star Wars Lego scene set up, and is taking pictures of it. He is turning on different lights, the overhead, the small desk light, the reading lamp behind the loveseat, etc. They each affect his pictures differently. He just decided that it is best to have a strong light behind him, and a smaller light behind the Leggo scene. This picture is one that he took with my camera phone, so the quality isn't the best because of that. He took the rest of the pictures with my digital camera, and those look great! I will add those soon.

Katy

Always Learning

2006-04-20T01:05:00.000-06:00

This is so cool, I wanted to add a links section to the sidebar, and once I had figured that out (blogger's Help section is really good), I wanted to change the font. It is really pretty easy, and now I am learning html!

The best part is that Richard is seeing my excitement. He is not interested in computers really, except for gaming, but he is excited for me. It is great to be able to share his interests, and to have him share mine!

Katy

Jifundisha

2006-04-17T13:15:00.000-06:00

I wanted a name for my blog that meant something...
I thought of things having to do with being a woman, with female empowerment, but nothing seemed right.
Then I thought about my son, he is the most important thing to me, and since we are unschoolers, something that has to do with learning seemed most appropriate. So...

Jifundisha!

It is a Swahili (Kiswahili) word meaning "to learn on one's own." How perfect! I mean really, all learning takes place "on one's own." Sure, I can help my son by providing opportunities, taking him cool places, "strewing" things in his path, but ultimately it is HE who does the actual learning! So Jifundisha it is.

Katy

The beginning of something...

2006-04-17T02:00:00.000-06:00

I have been wanting to start a blog for quite a while, but I have never been too fond of journals and the like.

This will probably be simply a place for photos and short tidbits about our adventures in life.

Katy