Washington and Jefferson

In honor of Martin Luther King, we had a day off of work, so I went and spent some time with Washington and Jefferson, two of our beloved Founding Fathers!

It was a BEAUTIFUL DAY with temperatures in the 50's and blue skies with minimal wind. Many families were out touring the monuments, so the run was not solo in the least (I loved seeing people from all over the country and world out in DC).

Here's what Pres. GEORGE WASHINGTON has had to say:
"Discipline is the soul of an army. It makes small numbers formidable; procures success to the weak and esteem to all" (letter to the Captains of the Virginia Regiments).


"Truth will ultimately prevail where there is pains taken to bring it to light."

A word of warning..."However [political parties] may now and then answer popular ends, they are likely in the course of time and things, to become potent engines, by which cunning, ambitious, and unprincipled men will be enabled to subvert the power of the people and to usurp for themselves the reins of government, destroying afterwards the very engines which have lifted them to unjust dominion" (Farewell Address, Sep. 17, 1796).

"I hope I shall possess firmness and virtue enough to maintain what I consider the most enviable of all titles, the character of an honest man."
Words from the mouth of THOMAS JEFFERSON:

"Never spend your money before you have it."

"But friendship is precious, not only in the shade, but in the sunshine of life, and thanks to a benevolent arrangement the greater part of life is sunshine."

"Do not bite at the bait of pleasure, till you know there is no hook beneath it."

"Educate and inform the whole mass of the people... They are the only sure reliance for the preservation of our liberty."

Seriously?

My 7th graders this year are incredibly respectful and generally VERY well behaved. Earlier this week, one student surprised me with this:
Response (admittedly not the most effective): "Don't let me see that again..." He put it away and we moved on. There was no time to rethink my response or waste time distracting the class from the lesson... Clearly they were not all as engaged in the discussion as I thought, afterall. Haha. I guess I'll have to be better on my toes next time.

Welcome 2010!

As the new year has come, I feel rejuvenated and ready to better take on the world ahead :) While that may be too large of a task, I will take each day as it comes and see the brighter side- it's all about the EXPERIENCE.

So, welcome 2010! You may see a new title to the ol' blog coming along, however I am happy with the notion still that there is something, at LEAST one thing, always to sing about.

I will not update on the past month, as I have shared it in my Christmas letter and my yearly update. In short, Christmas was spent relaxing and enjoying FAMILY FAMILY FAMILY. I love being with my FAMILY.

Post-Blizzard Thrills

Because of Saturday's blizzard, most local schools were closed, hence I was suddenly face-to-face with three additional days of vacation before I could fly home to be with the family.

While the thought of "don't you wish you had booked an earlier flight" was expressed by many, the truth of the matter is, had I booked it, I would have been stuck anyway, and had the "darn snow" not come, I would not have had these three extra days, SO I am happy with the situation... no complaints about three days to get things done that the hustle and bustle of everyday life does not generally allow, such as...

• Updating my blog ;)
• Christmas visits to friends with Adrienne
  
• Shoveling the driveway/street and reviving our cars of 24 inches of snow (Aubrey and I were joined by our new found friends (our neighbors) to help tackle part of the road)... It was actually really fun to shovel--- I think it might not be as fun if it was like this day-after-day, but it's sure a novelty here :)
  

• creating tutorials for my students
• going to the temple with Cara!
• DC monuments running in the snow... I repeat, I just never tire of this running route- our Nation's Capitol is Beautiful!

• Christmas runs to the local airports
• and, you know, "those" lerking errands
  

Winter Wonderland

The weather man was spot on! The big Dec 2009 storm started right at 9:00pm on Friday and did not cease until 11pm Saturday.

By late morning I measured 8 inches with my trusty ruler
By afternoon, my ruler was nolonger of use because the snow depth surpassed the ruler's abilities.
By 7:30pm I brought out the tape measured and measured 21 inches!
By 11pm I was too tired to measure again, so I will leave it to the news report... 24 inches!

While it was fun to watch the fun from the inside, it was even more fun to...
-Shovel the driveway of 15 inches so we could pile in Adrienne's car and try to find a good sledding hill
-Adrienne's windshield wipers broke so we turned around, headed to Kmart in an unsuccessful attempt to get some help from one of the few open stores, so we went home
-Run 10 miles up the middle of the local snow-covered roads
-Visit neighbors in the middle of the storm
-Make Snow Angels and Do flips in the powder in the front lawn- I've never done this at home before!!!

Images by Memory

Grateful that our Minds are Better than Supercomputers... For better or for worse, I lost my camera and did not find it until after I returned home from the road trip to Florida for Thanksgiving.

Hence, I did not manage to record the adventures with a single photo, however I am converted to the land and will therefore return at another time with camera in hand.

In short, I am grateful for incredible sites of dolphin backs, fading sunsets, ship lights on the horizon, beautiful birds, palm trees of plenty, the smells of the salty ocean, the tastes of freshly picked tangerines, apricot chutney, turkey and stuffing, the sounds of breathing fish, surfacing turtles, bubbling springs, and crashing waves.

Thankful for good memories, safe travels (all 1700 + miles of it) and enjoyment of some of God's creations which are so varied and uniquely beautiful.

Thank you, Tali and Whittemore family, for sharing your home with me!

Maybe Next Thanksgiving...

will be enjoyed off of Planet Earth! Welcome back to the Atlantis crew... Tali, AJ, Angie and I breathed the same air that the Atlantis reentered earth's atmosphere in this morning... Because of their early landing, we missed the site, but it was cool to be here so close!
Check out the video, and watch the third down on the right bar... now that looks like a pretty sweet Thanksgiving!

Atlantis Space Shuttle Landing

This year, it's been a lot of fun to hang out with Tali and her family, the Whittemores in Mims. After a delicious meal, we all went surfing at New Smyrna and caught some waves! The water was awesome... so good that we stayed out and played under the moonlit sky.... Now that's the way to overcome the post-meal sleepiness! Thank you Whittemores!

Perfect Cube

A month has nearly past since the start of a Perfect Cube year.
Renewed by a birthday in November, the year is 1/12th of the way in the past!

To celebrate, I enjoyed a run in DC with my friend, Annie, rounding the Lincoln, Washington Monu. and World War II, as well as passing by Arlington Cem. and the Pentagon... I just don't seem to tire of this run, so I treated myself to it in for a start to a great new year.

After a day of familiarizing myself with the age of 27, Adrienne and Aubrey, pulled off an incredible feat of creating a towering 27-layer cake! We had people over to celebrate as they shared in the delightful treat... much more cake than the average person may ever desire, but delightful nonetheless.

Adrienne, placing the last layer... steady, steady :)

Whipped Cream frosting

Art.
The party would not have been complete without a competition, inspired by Adam, of course... 4 men racing to inhale a quarter-pounder (of CAKE)... Jared pulled off the defeat with Patrick in close second (even with his handicap of additional cake due to his fresh stomach advantage)!

The incentive was disappointingly NOT 27 kisses from yours truly, but a steak... sorry guys, you'll have to be the extenders of invitations if kisses are truly desired.

Ready, set...

How you feeling, Jared? Victory!

Phone calls and kind wishes from family and friends were the icing on the cake---What a perfect start to a new year... Perfectly cubed, 27 is proving to be a great season of life... memories to look back on, bounties to enjoy now and more to look forward to!

Halloween

Halloween was quite eventful this year. Aubrey and Adrienne are really good at making costumes, so we had a good time pulling our creativity together. Adrienne and I found pieces at a second hand store to cut up and alter to create the majority of our costumes, and Aubrey worked her magic in making a plain pink hat into a strawberry shortcake hat!

Aubrey was a true Lisa Simpson, and Adrienne (not pictured) was an authentic Rainbow Bright.

On the Eve of Halloween we went to a barn dance, then on Halloween Kim (lady bug) and I went to Carrie's (Alice in Wonderland) farewell Halloween gathering then had some friends over for an non-costume halloween party where we raced eating donuts on a string and watched Monsters and Aliens.

President Uchtdorf says it well.