The Great Debate

The tension has been pretty thick at our house recently. To help get young people get interested in and prepared to participate in the political process the Middle School/High School here in Moab held a political debate. Dave was asked to represent the Republican side of things and John McCain in particular. Most of the tension was over the fact that Mr. Defrancia, a well respected, quite opinionated, very eloquent, high school math teacher was asked to represent Obama. All of our kids are math whizzes, have taken classes from Mr. Defrancia, and every one of them shook their heads and said, “Oh, no, Dad is so going to loose” when we told them about the debate. Brennan was actually awarded math student of the year by Mr Defrancia and tutored for him when he was a senior, so I thought he might be of some help. I wrote and asked him if he had any advice for Dave and his reply was, “What! I’m coming home. I have to see this!” Not that we don’t have faith in Dave and his passion for this country. The thing is, you just never know what Dave is going to say in any given situation and he isn’t above blurting out just what he thinks. So, the tension was high. The debate was yesterday, and the good news is we aren’t out looking for somewhere else to live. I am waiting for some pictures that are coming from a friend who was at the debate with a MEMORY CARD in her camera, so I will fill in more when those come. For now, just know that I am oh, so proud of Dave. He did well.

Just a Little Obsessed

O.K., I know it's going to be several years before there are any little boys running around begging to snuggle in a dinosaur quilt, if they ever do, but I can't help myself. Once I start a project, I have to piece and sew and iron seams because I can't wait to see how cute the final project will be. So today, after work, after dinner, after listening to Drew tell me about his day, after my weekly e-mail to Brennan, and after Dancing With the Stars, I made several of these - dinosaur bones! To go around the edge of the dinosaur quilt. I have sixteen of these to make. And I still have 10 books left of my 50 to read before the end of the year. Somebody stop me!

Four Grandsons

We love our grandboys, Dave and I, and we have an unspoken, underlying competition for their love and attention. Dave has an ace in the hole because he has motorcycles and tractors, so I have to be creative. That's why I spent my "I've been working so hard I get to do anything I want today" Saturday making a dinosaur quilt. So far I've made six of these blocks. . . .

And two of these.

Because in a few years these boys are going to come to my house to visit, and after the motorcycles are ridden and the tractors are quiet, they will come inside all worn out and tired and I'll pop in a movie and make them some popcorn and then one of them will shout, "I dubs the dinosaur quilt!" And that will prompt someone else to shout, "I get the dump truck quilt." And suddenly I will be the favorite. It's all part of my master plan. But first, I'm going to have to make a dump truck quilt.

October Ride

While Kimbrey and I were shopping, hiking and making cards last weekend, Dave and Daniel were doing this.

The above photo is Dave, by the way. It's hard to tell unless you know their gear!

And this - that's Daniel, trying to make a submarine out of his bike.

And even some of this. Watch Kimbrey's Blog, I think she is going to fill us in on this exciting story. It was a three day motorcycle ride and they had a good time, even though Dave called me nightly pleading for a ride home. Too old or too out of shape, I'm not sure which. But I made him stay and finish, because we don't start something and then not finish it!

Among the beautiful scenery they rode through and around, they saw this - A Mars Society Desert Research Station. Now if you don't watch Lost you can't appreciate the surreal feeling they had as they walked towards this thing to look into the hatch, fully expecting to see an ancient computer with blinking lights and somewhere within, the numbers 4,8,15,16,23 & 42. Oh, the interestingly bizarre things you see when you ride motorcycles in the desert.

My Happy Place

While reviewing the pictures on my memory card and trying to force myself to erase some of them, I came across this - a place I really miss, especially when the days are long and the work is hard I can't just pick up and go there. And thinking about this reminded me of . . .

This! One of our family's talents in the family reunion talent show. If you've never seen the Fart Man video clip you might be a little mystified about what on earth Kenny is doing here, and I'm not going to post the clip because of, well, irreverence issues.

But whether or not anyone else understood the talent, it made me laugh. Harder than I've laughed in quite a while. I hope seeing these will make Jill and Kenny laugh. Because it was so brave . . and so funny . . and the first time Kenny has ever participated in our family's talent before. Well done, Kenny!

A Year of "For the Last Times"

The State Cross Country meet was yesterday, and I was within my few feet of a grandboy, so no post for me. This was Drew's last cross country race. We have a whole year of those lasts to look forward to. This is Drew's running buddy, Ravon. Let me tell you a secret about Drew. He doesn't have a competitive bone in his body, so he has a unique running style. He picks a buddy and runs by him. This year it was Ravon.

See, in every picture I took, there was Drew running side by side with Ravon. It was comforting to him, because at the region meet Drew hit the start pretty hard and got quite far ahead of Ravon. It was his fastest time and his best race. I was telling him later how proud I was of him and I asked him how he felt about that race. He said, "I don't know. It felt weird running without Ravon." Incidentally, at the state meet these guys couldn't wear their black Lycra shorts under their running shorts. It was a uniform violation. Really! A uniform violation. One of the runners in the girl's 5A division who took second place was disqualified because she had the top of her shorts rolled down. So instead of nice Lycra shorts under these boy's running shorts, you can see their boxers. Now THAT isn't a uniform violation?

Happy 18th Drew

I know, I know, I'm a day late - it was Drew's birthday yesterday, but we did celebrate it all weekend, and he's my baby! He's not supposed to be turning 18, so he's just going to have to give me some time to deal with it. Who knew when we had this darling baby picture taken it would only be something like a week later . . . . . .that he would look like this. By the way, I can't take credit for either of these pictures. The first is by Kiddie Kandids and the senior picture is by our resident photographer and cute daughter-in-law, Michelle. Both are going in the year book, after much protesting by Drew on the first one. Why is it that boys don't want to face the fact that they were once a cute baby?
Happy Birthday Drew. I'm glad we still have at least another year with you. It's you, ya know, and you alone who will make us members of the dreaded club called "empty nesters".

In Moab, All Trails Lead to an Arch

Yes, it's been six days since I've posted and I realize in hindsight I should have given Jill a disclaimer when I began this challenge to blog every day. The days when I am within a few feet of a grandbaby don't count. And for the past six day I've had at least one, and some times two, here to play. And play we did. We hiked with Ellen and Rick's family, to Left Hand on Friday for an unplanned night hike, and up Negro Bill Canyon to Morning Glory Arch on Saturday. The arch was hard to get a picture of - this one was taken standing under the arch looking up. I wish the sky had turned out, it was beautiful on Saturday.
But it (the sky) shows up better in this picture that I took of an old tree we passed along the way. I have a thing for old trees, I don't know why. These pictures are really for my brother Jay. I just wanted to show him that you don't have to travel the world to see beautiful things. You just have to come to Moab. :) Now here are some people who were on our hike. Kyle and Porter are posing with Ellen. Actually, Ellen tried to walk out of the shot just before this and made my picture all blurry in the process, but I made her come back.

And look at this old 1970ish style baby backpack we found to carry Chase in. Don't laugh, I used to carry my kids in that thing when they were babies. We have been a hiking family for THAT long!!! And look how Chase loved it.Here are the babies playing together at the arch. They are starting to have a pretty good time together. And they are SO cute when they play. Actually, they are even cute when they don't play, but I may be biased just a little. And that chronicles just one day of our six day weekend, but it's enough for now. Back to real life - dang it!

These Guys Are Going To State!!!

It was the Region Cross Country Meet here in Moab today and Drew's goal was to run fast enough to qualify for the state meet. As it turned out, he didn't have to because their WHOLE TEAM qualified! These guys here? They are the Cross Country Seniors and they are all friends from, well, as I've said before, since time began. Left to right they are John, Drew, Tristan, Charlie and Nathan. That's Harris in the back. He's not a senior, but he is part of the "group" so they let him stand in for the picture, as long as he stood in the back. Let me document the race for you . . .

Here they are all apparently making sure their shoes are tied securely. I've never seen them do this before, but I guess they've had a problem with it, or thought they might have a problem with it . . .And they're off. See Drew? Right there in the center? His eyes may be closed, but he's not asleep, he is in the zone, man. Zoned in on that finish line.

Here he comes. . . .

And there he goes. I was too excited (busy yelling at Drew to run faster) at the finish line, so didn't take pictures of him finishing, but his time was a personal best of 18 minutes and 57 seconds. Isn't he awesome? State meet, here we come!!!

The Cousins

Just when you think your day was so mundane there is nothing for you to blog about, two cute little kids from across the street come over to play. Jessica was instructing Brady on how to slide down the long, smooth rock on our hill until she saw my camera come out. Then she scrambled up the hill to slide with Brady. Not only are Jessica and Brady neighbors, they are cousins. The related kind, not the "it's your last name" kind. I wonder if there is anything left of the seat of their pants?

Ranger Dave/Safety Dave

My kids will recognize this man. He was showing Nicole what he thought was a good pose yesterday on our photo shoot, but we both just glanced at him and said, at the same time, "That's a guy pose." And went back to our picture taking. That vest Dave's wearing? It weighs about 500 lbs and contains everything we would need to survive if we were lost in the wilderness for several years. That's where he gets his name. Right there. The epitome of safety. He can't help it, but I never worry about being covered in an emergency!

Photo Shoot

It only took 3 1/2 hours and 383 pictures, but I think I got one or two good shots of Nikole, my senior guinea pig. Of course, she is a darling girl, so it wasn't hard to get good pictures of her. In fact, in was kind of fun, traipsing back and forth through the freezing cold creek water to get to Lefthand, running up the side of the mountain to get to the train tracks. We really do live in a beautiful place! Here are a couple of my favorites.

This first one she is sitting on the ground and I am up in a tree. What I won't do for the possibility of a good picture.
This one was an afterthought. We had a few minutes of light left, so I said, "Why don't you go lay down in the grass over there and lets get a few more shots. Cute, huh?

Now I'm going to go take a bath and get warm again. Lefthand in October is a whole different world, let me tell you!

Rusty

Every job has it's idiosyncrasies. Those things that make a job interesting to talk about, keep you from getting bored, and give employment character and personality. At Packards we have Rusty. Rusty was a cowboy for most of his life. He has lived just about everywhere and has done a little bit of everything - mostly alone. Now he is in his eighties and lives at Packard Distributing. We've tried to get him to move into some very nice apartments for seniors here, but he is happier living alone in his camp trailer, which is parked next to Packards, and entertaining us with his cowboy stories - famous people he's met and famous things he's done. He not without character, our Rusty. Take today for instance. He was showing me a National Geographic magazine from January 1954 that had a large article and photos of him cowboying in Zions National Park. I was intrigued with the old colored photos and listening to the stories he was telling me about each one when I happened to look down and noticed that he had a cowboy boot on one foot and a regular shoe on the other. I said, "Rusty, you have two different shoes on." "Yep, I know," he said, and went right back to his stories. A cowboy boot on one foot and a shoe on the other. On purpose. Now that is character.

A Flood of Memories

The excitement in the air over the announcement of a Temple in Rome, Italy has brought memories back to my mind like a flood. It was eleven years ago to the day that the announcement was made there would be a Temple built in Monticello and the excitement in the room when that announcement was made could have been cut with a knife and eaten. I don't remember when the thought first occurred to me, but a yearning started to build in my heart to be in the Celestial Room at the dedication of that Temple, because I knew our Prophet, President Hinckley would be there. The trouble was, the Celestial Room was so small I knew there would be limited space, so I racked my brain for ideas that would insure Dave and I a spot in that room. I was the stake young women's president, did that pull any weight? Could we get Dave a quick call into the Stake Presidency? Then I found out that a choir from our stake was going to sing at one of the dedication session. The choir wouldn't get to stay in the Celestial Room, but they would walk in, sing, and then walk back out several times. That seemed like the next best thing to an actual seat in the room, but even that seemed unlikely as I really am not one of the four best altos in our stake. So, when a member of the stake high council came to my home one Sunday morning and asked me if I would play the organ at our stake's dedication session!!! Well, I didn't let the fact that I don't know how to play the organ keep me from saying YES! I figured I had four months, I would learn to play the organ. Because the choir director and organist and their spouses got seats in the Celestial Room! It was one of the hardest things I have ever done, (think Hosanna Anthem on an organ), but oh, so worth it. I was close enough to President Hinckley I could have reached out and touched his shoulder. It was an incredible experience. Dave and I were ushered into the Temple before anyone else was allowed in so I could start playing prelude music while people filed into their seats. I was SO nervous at that point I was almost a basket case. Dave had to give me a blessing, and I still was a bundle of nerves. As we walked into the Celestial Room, I noticed little note cards on our assigned seats, mine said "Organist" (I asked if I could keep mine and they graciously let me) and Dave's said "Organist's Spouse." Somehow that struck me funny and I started laughing. Dave, thinking I was finally unraveling, muttered, "What are you laughing at?" I said, "Look" and pointed to our note cards. "If you get into the Celestial Kingdom, it's going to be on my coattails!" That little bit of humor allowed me to relax and have one of the best experiences of my life. I love our Monticello Temple with a love indescribable. So, good for you people of Italy. You are in for such a treat!!

A Day Off

It's been ten weeks of working full time at Packards plus trying to keep up with my seminary job AND take care of bookwork around our office here at home. Ten weeks. Since the middle of July. The summer has passed me by, fall is here, winter is on it's way and I've been working. Today I finally had a day off and I was NOT going to spend it indoors cleaning, cooking, bookworking, or any of those mundane things that really needed to get done. I am taking senior pictures for a cute girl in our ward - yeah, don't ask - and her Dad is a photographer. If you don't think THAT is intimidating. But, another story for another day. So I went out looking for good spots to take her pictures and, low and behold, I discovered the wonder of a polarizing filter. Dave got me a 50mm lens (thanks, Michelle) for our anniversary and he got a couple of filters with it, including a polarizing filter. Look what a difference it made in these shots. They are straight out of the camera, no photoshop at all, this one without the filter. . . . and this one moments after the above photo, but with the filter. What a difference, huh? The colors are richer, the sky is bluer, and I learned something new. A productive day off, I must say. Now, does anyone want to come to Moab this weekend and take Nikole's senior pictures?

These Smart Cozzens Boys

What do you do if the transmission goes out in your car? Your 1996 Avalon with nearly 200,000 miles on it? You bag it and buy another car, right? Not if you grew up in our world you don't. You buy a transmission on e-bay, have it delivered to your brother's place of business four hours away from where you live because that's where the car is, and then head on over at your earliest convenience to rebuild the sick and broken car. That's what Dave and Kyle did last week. It nearly kicked their butts, but they did it, it works, and all is right with the world.

Next question . . .How many Cozzens does it take to fill a new transmission with oil?

Now this here is the smartest of the Cozzens boys. He set aside his Sandra Boynton Doggies book for Drew's Splinter Cell book and read the whole thing out load to me. It was a very interesting story that included somewhere in it, a cow. I know it did because as Porter was reading it to me I distinctly heard him say Mooo!!

Fair Weather Runner

While the rest of Utah was hunkering down enjoying the rain the past weekend, Drew and I were out standing - or outstanding - in it. It's all in how you look at it! Drew had a Cross Country meet at UVU on Saturday, and they don't cancel those meets for something as minuscule as rain, so they ran. Look at Drew's face. Do you think he's enjoying running in the rain? Of course, this was near the end of the 3 point something miles he ran . . . in the rain.

Now look at his back! His face got happier once the race was over and he could stop running in the rain, but not mine. I have to get the mud out of that white jersey.

A Favorite Book

When Jill was going to Snow College I went to a College sponsored Mother/Daughter weekend with her. I was experiencing some deja vu during the event because it had just been something like a week earlier I had been at Snow College's Mother/Daughter Weekend with my own Mom. Or so it seemed. But at Jill's weekend, we were quite a hit. Out of hundreds of Mothers and Daughters, we won the Mother/Daughter look a like contest. Imagine that. I won't post our picture, it was pretty pathetic. Not that we weren't photogenic, it was the lame photographer they had hired. But, one of the many lasting memories from the weekend was the book I bought after listening to Carol Lynn Pearson, who was a speaker there. It is entitled Picture Window and is a collection of her poems. They are a treasure to me, they are down to earth and compelling. Here is one of my favorites to whet your appetite. It's called Provision for the End.

What to do when
The dawn brings night
And the moon spins out
And the stars fall white?

Wait calm in the silence
The black sky spilled
Your lamp will light -
If it is filled.

Mount Tukuhnikivatz

This is Drew standing atop Mount Tukuhnikivatz, the SECOND highest peak on the LaSal Mountains. Don't ask why they climbed the second highest peak in Outdoor Ed Class, it doesn't make any sense. Actually, Drew doesn't know why and you know Drew, he'll just make up an answer because he doesn't know how to say the words, "I don't know". But he had a great time climbing the SECOND highest peak on the LaSals this week. Even more amazing than the climb are the two young men standing with Drew on the peak. Charlie, Tristan and Drew have been friends since time began. Now they are seniors and are looking off into varying futures. Drew's will hopefully include a mission, but Charlie and Tristan aren't members of the Church, so their futures will be somewhat different. I'm glad they have this last year to build memories.

By the way, no I didn't let Drew haul my nice camera up the mountain. He took these pictures with a little point and shoot of Dave's, so forgive the quality, but enjoy the view from the top!

Brennan update

Brennan is now in Pau - and apparently the pronunciation isn't as simple as I originally hoped. No, it isn't pronounced pow - it isn't even pronounced peau (thank goodness!) According to Brennan, you say the P and then the rest has to come from your nose. Not happening. I'll spell this place, too. But look, Kimbrey, they have palm trees in Pau, although, do they really have to prop them up? This is what Brennan has to say about it :
"Well, Pau is a sweet place! I am thrilled to be here! THERE IS A WARD!!!!!!!! I got to sit in the congregation on sunday which was massive! No more conducting sacrament meeting for me! We are having a great time here! Pau is a beautiful city with tons of people! 144 000 of them for you Apocalypse of John fans!"

This picture was taken before Brennan left Mont de Marsan. This is a family from Utah who are living in France. The husband plays on a basketball team there. Brennan was thrilled to add a few more members to their tiny little branch. Then he got transfered. Here is the rest of this week's letter.

"We have a bunch of sweet amis too! We have an ami with a baptismal date for the 19.10.08! His name is Clément! He has been an ami for a few months! He used to be a construction worker, and he was working on a bridge one day and fell off! He broke several bones and went into a coma for a few months! He is slightly mentally handicapped, but he is still mostly there! He is sweet!

We also are teaching a lady that was excommunicated in Orléans about 20 years ago! She was contacted in the street a few months ago, and she had been taught one lesson! We went over on thursday, and she told us the entire story! In 1990 she met the soeur missionaries and was taught and baptized! She was active for almost a year, but then she got excommunicated because she had a son, but no husband! The thing that makes no sense is that her son was already born and she had split up with the father already, so there should not have been an excommunication under these circumstances! Anyway, we encouraged her to see the bishop about it, but she doesn't feel comfortable with that yet! She was pretty offended from her excommunication, so she wants to take some time before she talks to him! We asked the permission of the bishop to teach her, and he gave it to us so all should be well!

We also have a new ami that read up to 2 Nephi 24 in a week, and came to church this week! He is sweet!"