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".