Brand New Pair of Roller Skates

My sister-in-law got a pair of 1961 Sears and Roebuck roller skates, with a key, for her birthday. 

Hers were in better shape.  They had the original leather straps that went around your ankle.  For any youngsters that are reading this, you used the key to loosen and tighten the bolts underneath, so that you could adjust the size to fit your shoes. We put the key on a piece of yarn and wore it around our neck. 

I don’t want a pair of vintage skates for my birthday, but I saw her skates displayed on a trunk in the living room, and was immediately transported to summer days in the sixties on Cherry Drive.  I was a pretty good skater.  It wasn’t an easy feat.  There weren’t sidewalks, just rough blacktop, and the four metal wheels were a far cry from the rubber wheels on the roller blades that would be the rage 25 years later.  I’m sure I scraped knees, but seeing the old skates this week, made me smile – all happy memories of neighborhood friends and summer days on the best street ever.

Ready or Not

Today was my first day back on the job.  I arrived on time and stayed until about five thirty, but didn’t accomplish much.  I wandered around the school aimlessly.  I bounced from one task to another and completed nothing.  My mind was mushy.  I’m sure the room will be ready when students come for a sneak peak on Tuesday afternoon.  I’m sure I’ll be ready when the real thing starts on Wednesday morning.  I’ve never not been ready.  I just need to do something about my mushy mind.

New Obsession

Stacey told me at the beginning of the summer that I needed to get on Pinterest.  You can save and organize all of the ideas that you come across on the internet in one place – recipes, crochet patterns, crafts, thoughts, or anything that you love.  You don’t have to download to the desktop or bookmark or put in your favorites anymore.  You set up little bulletin boards for whatever categories you want and then start pinning things on your boards.  Now when you click on one of your ideas, you’re automatically linked back to the source (the tutorial, the blog, whatever).  You can also look at all of the amazing things that other people are putting on their boards and repin them on yours. 

The only way to get set up on Pinterest is to go through Facebook or Twitter.  This presented a problem for me.  I’m not doing FB.  Finally I opened a Twitter account and put nothing on it.  I can probably ditch it now that I’ve set up my Pinterest site.  It’s already apparent that this new obsession will be a time sucker, but very useful and fun.  Check it out.  I can send you an invite if you want.

Mom's Gift

It's my mom's birthday.  Every year my sister and I check out Arts in the Park for the perfect gift.  We usually go in on something together.  This year I went with Mom to Arts in the Park, and the only booth that she was tempted by was an artist, Julie Peterson, who painted pretty little flowers and birds.  I went back to the booth later that day and bought Mom a couple little prints.  One for summer, and one for winter. 

I returned to Arts in the Park the next morning, early, so I could get a good parking place.  A lot of the booths hadn't even opened yet.  I had just ordered a scone for breakfast and I looked across the way and saw my sister and her husband.  They had just arrived too, but Nan had already bought something for Mom's birthday - a little print of birds and flowers from Julie Peterson!

It was freaky!  I guess Nan just knows Mom.  I'm sure she'll love her birthday gifts.  I just need to order another frame so that the collection is cohesive.
 

Yo Yo

I’m battling my weight this summer and so far the pounds are winning.  Here’s the problem:

• I’m cooking dinner every night.
• I’m trying new recipes.
• We have left-overs for lunch.  That makes 2 big meals a day.
• The cookies, whoopi pies, buttermilk muffins, buttermilk syrup, and caramel frosting have been big hits.
• We had a 3 day family reunion with 5 big meals.
• We went to Education Week and Big Sky.
• We went camping and ate well all weekend.

But I’m really tired of seeing the same pounds creep back on, so I’m doing Weight Watchers (unofficially) with a friend.  The accountability and support help a lot.  She’s doing great!  She’s also writing down everything she eats, and trying harder.  I’ve been up 3 times and down once.  Hopefully I’ll get fully engaged mentally with this process because:

• Our summer guests are moving out and I won’t be cooking so much.
• School is starting and I won’t have time to try new recipes.
• A different routine and schedule has to be better than the one I’ve been on this summer.
• I won’t be traveling or celebrating as much.

I’m putting it down in writing here to help get me on track.  I’m sure all three readers of my blog will be waiting anxiously for updates.  I’ll keep you posted.

This is What Summer’s About

I’ve been wrapped up with family, cooking, and a little sewing this summer.  It’s been great, but we arrive at the middle of August, I realize I’ve been to lunch once with friends and once with my mom and sister.  That’s just not right!  Now in the four days before I report back to school I have to squeeze in what I’ve been missing. 

Monday I went to lunch at Willow Creek with old teacher friends.  We spent 2 1/2 hours on the patio.  Also on the patio were teacher groups from Liberty and Valley View, and a couple colleagues from the district office.  (Everyone must be thinking the same thing I am.)  I came home long enough to get something ready for the family dinner, then left for the movies.

It was perfect.  I love movies in the late afternoon.  I love the Flicks.  I love Woody Allen.  Mary and I went to Midnight in Paris.  I loved the movie - the shots of Paris, the clothes, the humor, the music, and Earnest Hemingway. 

This is what a school teacher’s summer day should be like.

First Annual Family Camp

It started out as an experiment to see if we could do it, if anyone wanted to do it, and if anyone had fun.  As a whole, we weren’t very experienced.  Terry has done several backpacking trips with the boys in the wilderness, but that’s different than camping with girls and kids.  I have camped a few times with my dad, who did everything, and I’ve been to Girls Camp many times.  Again, that’s different.  We have a picture of Bry, Brent, and Stace, when they were grade school age, camping.  That was the only time they went as a family.  Mike was a boy scout, but that’s not the same.  Thank goodness Amee joined the family.  She was the only one with real experience. 
Amee suggested a beautiful spot, Pine Flats, up by Lowman.  It’s a small, shady campground above the river.  There’s an easy trail, about 1/2 a mile, to some hot springs.  The campground also had 2 hand pumps for good well water and 2 outhouses that didn’t smell bad at all.  That’s a good thing because Hadley needed to make many trips a day to the potty.
We did it up right; three tents and three coolers, chats around the camp fire, tin foil dinners, s’mores, dutch oven dinners and cobbler, hot chocolate in the mornings, hikes, and the hot springs.  We came back with funny stories about our camp neighbors, ideas for next time, and good memories.  The only thing we need to improve is better shoes for the McClure kids.

 
 Mike in his GQ camping clothes, Our fire crew, Kids help with tents, and Bry with 4 tinfoil dinners

Hudson’s first roasted marshmallow was a burn-up dud.

Bry lost his wedding ring down by the pump.  It was found, and they’re still honeymooning.

Omelets in a bag, Sticks were big, Water boys, Hadley’s hangout

Entertaining the troops, Cars in the dirt, Amee’s magic bag that held everything for kids, Group crossword puzzles

Hiking to the hot springs, Haddie soaking it up, Haddie drinking it up, Bry’s fam reaches one of the upper pools

Dutch oven cooking

Tent clean-up

Last one out - He didn't want to leave.