Memorial Day

Happy Birthday to my dad, today! I am excited to be able to spend Father's Day with him this year, if not his birthday. He assured me that next year we'd spend his birthday together. . . can't wait! He is a great dad, and I couldn't be more blessed than to have him as mine! My boys were talking the other day, and said they hope they get his beautiful white hair someday. I hope to have his gracious manners and people skills. I still remember going to a hospital to visit someone who was sick, when I was a teenager, and I learned a lot about compassion that day. He was so gentle and caring and knew just what to say. We didn't stay all that long, but I do remember his bedside manner, and strive to emulate that still.
These pictures were taken two years ago. For six years I had a Cub Scout and we would go with our troop and several hundred other Cubs, decorating the graves at the Baltimore National Cemetery. I missed that last year. It was during graduation, and I hoped to be able to get back again, but I guess not. As this is a time of remembering, missing, appreciating, and honoring, I guess its why I miss going to the graves, for its tangible remembrance. Thank you to all those who serve our country and who blessed my life. You are missed! Sadly as the years go on, there are more and more added to my list of missed loved ones.

I had one set of plans for today, but they all got changed when I found MyMike out filling up the trailer at 8am this morning. I joined him, and by the time we got it all loaded, with everything, including a kitchen sink (my faucet broke last week, and Mike got me a new sink and faucet -Yeah for me!) drove the 40 min. to the nearest dump, unloaded it all, looked for a place to license the motorcycles, and got back home, it was 2pm. I really enjoyed the time just the two of us got to be together. Going out together on dates is fun, but this was fun too, even though it involved some hard labor.

Before work this morning, BigBuddy pointed out to me the deer sitting in the shade under these trees. Since I was helping his dad, I didn't take pictures of the deer, but made a note to myself to capture our meadow, now turning green. We had a lot of rain last week, although the past few days have just been gorgeous, so we're enjoying feeling like spring has arrived, and its beautiful. I counted eight deer all together, for much of the morning as I went in and out. . . I love nature!
And, for a little bit of creativity, MyGirl decorated this cute fruit pizza. I loved how she put a little patriotism into it. And, my piece was a wedge filled with blueberries - So GOOD!

My Cousin's Husband

For those of you who know my cousin, Jen, you are blessed. For those of you who don't, trust me when I tell you she is just wonderful! I had fun when I was in college getting to stay at her house, and I really enjoyed the time she and her sister, Jill, came to Provo to stay with me. We don't get to see each other often enough, and especially now that Jen lives in Australia with her husband, Darran. He sent me this e-mail today and I want to pass it on. He is a movie maker and is working on a new project with great Christian values called The Playbook. I invite everyone to check it out. Project Update #3: We are truly blessed.

Posted by Darran Scott

As the days count down, we've been blessed with several more backers. We feel so blessed and grateful for the kind generosity shown by you all. And with only 7 days to go, we're now at 79% funded!!! Woohooo. To give you all an update on where things are at, we've been securing some wonderful locations and continue to tweek the script. We've attached some fine young (and not so young) actors which includes a beautiful 'animal' actor. 'Ella' is a 2 year old Golden Labrador who will feature as the family dog. She is well trained and is currently undergoing further training to teach her some behaviours that we will require of her from the script. One of the adorable things that Ella can do is 'say her prayers'. Whereby she places her paws up on a table or chair and drops her head between them. So cute! You can see pictures of Ella on our facebook page. If you haven't yet joined and liked our facebook page, we invite you to do so by visiting this link.http://www.facebook.com/home.php#!/pages/The-Playbook/268174842817 We've been very grateful in securing the support of the Inverloch Tourism Association. They've offered us so much in the way of help and suppport from accomodation for cast and crew, to catering, to securing sponsors and locations. For our American and other overseas friends, Inverloch is a beautiful little seaside town in the Bass Coast, Victoria, Australia. Set on a large inlet, it is regarded as a summer holiday town. A polished jewel in the glory box that is Bass Coast. This is where our film will be predominantly shot. We ask that you to please continue to get the word out about our film. We are setting for ourselves a goal of '100K x 2'. That is we are aiming to have a minimum of 100,000 people see the film at the cinemas and then sell a 'minimum' of 100,000 DVD units upon release. If we can do this we will have a very successful film on our hands and it will be because of YOU, our backers and supporters. Word of mouth is so important to our project. For those interested, our time line is the following. June 2011 - Continue development, financing, casting and locations. Negoiating sales leads July 2011 - Development Complete, begin contracting cast and crew. Continue with financing. Script workshops. Sales leads continue. August 2011 - Commence set building. Locations, cast and crew all locked in. Begin formal pre production. September 2011 - Begin rehearsals, finalise sets, wardrobe etc. First lot of incentives for backers sent out. 23rd Sep 2011 - Filming begins. 26th October 2011 - Filming concludes. 29th October 2011 - Post Production commences. (Editing, sound mix etc) January 2012 - First rough cut complete. Meetings with distributors. March/April - Intended release date. (TBC) Sincerely Darran Scott

Fresh New Looks

BigBuddy is working at the garden center. Today he came home sporting a sunburned face. He's loving his job, is busy all day being productive, and the people he works with are nice. Best of all, he gets weekends off, and is done by 5pm every day. . . .Yeah!

LittleBuddy got braces on this week. He's been in some misery, but fortunately, the reading bug bit him, and he's been so engrossed in Harry Potter, its helped to keep his mind busy.
I got my garden in this week, with much help from all my children, and hope it grows with our crazy weather. This year's selections included three roma tomatoes, 1 black tomato - (it should make for some intersting salsa, and I want to see if it tastes different - this is my curiosity experiment,) green beans, zucchini, cilantro, oregano, basil, and bell pepper. I planted it in half the space alotted for my garden, but twice as much space as the previous years. If this works well, next year I'm hoping to add more vegetables, and even some fruit. This year I'm tired of paying so much for fresh herbs especially, so I sure hope it all works. . . pictures will be coming.

Thunderbirds

When we first moved here to interview, my realtor picked me up where Mike works and she noted how close it is the Air Force Academy, and she said to me, "Wait until Graduation Day, and the Thunderbirds fly overhead, he's going to love being this close."

This is the U.S. Air Force Academy stadium on Graduation day. The graduation started at 10a.m. It's packed and the Secretary of the Air Force has given his commencement address, the cadets are wearing their dress service uniforms, and now the entertainment begins. If you don't like looking at airplane photos, then just leave now, because I took 106 and you're going to be seeing over 25. We met Mike in his parking lot, crossed the street, and parked in the Lockheed Martin parking lot, facing the Academy. We pulled out our lawn chairs and waited eagerly.
On Monday we heard some loud airplane noises and could see military planes flying overhead, so that's what I expected to hear, but instead I just saw smoke coming across the mountains.

The closer they got, the easier it was to see there were six jets, just coming over the Academy.
Here they are silhouetted against the mountains, still letting out their exhaust.
Smoke's off, and we see them flying in perfect formation, so close together, and going pretty fast, so its hard to imagine how they can do this, but it sure is cool to see.
They turn right in front of us. It's a bit cool, mid-50's, there are clouds mixed with blue skies and we're wearing coats.
Suddenly the pack of 6 finds 2 breaking away and going opposite directions.
Here come the four, circling around in front of Pike's Peak, heading back towards the stadium.
But before, they get there, one of the planes that had left earlier, swoops down, then the other, diving and coming up right after each other.
And now, here come the four - Upside Down! Pretty impressive, still super close together.
They really are beautiful and continue going around in all different directions, so we get lots of great views of them.
Here come the two lone rangers, one right side up and his buddy upside down, still super close.

Wow!
Here come two more. The smoky haze is leftover. There isn't a lot of downtime between one swoop down and the next.
These were my favorite, just watching them come from opposite directions straight at each other, going fast. Totally thrilling!
So awesome, they repeated it again.

Here they come again, the four in perfect precision.
This time they turn and head our direction. Mike works right off Interquest Parkway.
They're heading straight for us.
Right overhead, they sound loud.
And in seconds, they are pass us,
circling back towards the stadium,
into the clouds.
Then they come back and do it again, right over our heads. Isn't it neat to see clearly the thunderbirds painted on top of them.
And off they go,
now splitting all up to do what Mike called the Star, where they all cross over the stadium and then drew straight up, but you can only see one airplane come to the center at a time, and I didn't want to miss it, so no good pictures.
But eventually, they get back all together.
turn away from us, and one last discharge of smoke over the stadium, and off they disappeared, smoke off, quietly away from us, and then its over.
This show lasted about a half hour, and was fabulous! I can't wait until next year!

Coming out of Shock

Friday was the last day of school here. . . May 20. . . we're still in shock. Seriously, school lets out a month later in Maryland. My baby graduated from elementary school for the last time. Now he can officially start middle school again. I had tears in my eyes throughout the whole ceremony. I didn't think about why when it was happening. He has made the transition in the past few months and has nice friends and has learned a lot here and is happy. I'm pretty sure they were tears of happiness. I didn't feel sad, just gratitude.

Here he and his best friend are with their really cute picture of themselves in a graduation cap and gown. . . so cute! I like Jacob. Cute, quirky, respectful and has a very sweet mother.

Maybe the shock is coming from the fact that we had rain/hail/sleet - something that came down and left another 1/2 inch of white stuff in the yard again. This is an older picture, but it looked just like it again, then it all melted in less than an hour because its in the 40's and 50's. Who starts summer vacation with slushy snow stuff on the ground? Apparently, we do. And shouldn't it be hot when its summertime? We have a lot to learn.
This photo was from earlier this week. Look at how low the clouds are - below the mountains. We get very cool clouds here, all sizes, patterns, shades of gray and white, . . I'm becoming more of a weather nut each day, checking regularly for what's new out there. Often what I see instead are more wild animals. Today we saw two different coyotes, just a couple of hours apart, but definitely different sizes and coloring. Then around 5pm we saw eight deer in the field right behind us. BigBuddy just walked up to them, and got about twenty feet away before they stared getting nervous.

And, still in shock about this house. . . my parent's new one. Every time we drive past I say to the kids, "There's my parents cute house," and they say, "Is that all you think about? You say that every time we drive by it." And I say, "No, I just think about it every time I drive past it." I want to say, "Really, I'm still processing the whole thing. For almost twenty five years I've thought it would be great to all live on the same street, and now we're going to get to. . . really someone pinch me. And, it really is cute inside." But I don't, I just think those things and get happy, reminding myself I'm not dreaming.
The inspector was here today so I got to go through the house again, and had a good excuse to bring my camera. Every thing looks great. Notice the beautiful blue skies again. Today it was in the 60's. The house is ready to move into. Now we just have to wait until the middle of July for the closing date. By that time, school will start in three weeks. I guess we better get going on having a good summer now.

First we need to get tomorrow over with. All of us are giving talks in church tomorrow. Then I can get back to thinking about vacation.

The Air Force Academy

Remember that shirt I got for MyMike at the Air Force Academy? Well, today I thought I'd show you a little of our day there.
First we went to the visitor center. It is nestled right up against the mountains. We were glad we got in, as it was right after Osama bin Laden had been killed and the guardsmen there searched our car both going and coming, and even had a bomb sniffing dog walk around my car. Seriously!

There was an interesting movie that lasts about fifteen minutes, explaining the life of the cadets. I was fascinated by it. It gives a little history also. Inside there are nice displays helping you get a feel for what is expected and their goals. It was nice to know they have an honor code too. You can't get married until you graduate, and its quite competitive to get in. My oldest boy was tempted to want to come here too, but I think he'll be staying where he's at when he gets home from his mission. It is a neat place, though, and has a tangible spirit we could feel.
It was fun to be able to show Cowgirl this neat place just five minutes from our home.
Here we are walking across the campus. It is a university but it is also a training ground for future Air Force officers and pilots.
I loved this display of old jets on the middle of the walkways, just outside the building where the cadets go to eat.
This is the most noteworthy building - the chapel. We can see this from our little subdivision, it stands out with the sharp, white roof, against the green mountains behind it.
This is the interior - beautifully lit and I love all the stained glass.
Here is the upper chapel. There are two and this is the largest. The smaller one is below this. Six different religions share this facility to worship. Not the LDS, though, they are allowed to leave and go to their own chapel, less than ten minutes away, but they all have to be back by 5pm.

When you look straight ahead, notice the shape of the clear glass behind the pulpit. What do you think it looks like? A fighter jet to me.
A view from the back pews.
Outside, close-up. . . isn't it great architecture? I like that it points upwards to Heaven too.
When we were leaving, we saw a couple of helicopters flying right overhead.
The Air Force Academy is the next exist south of us on the freeway. Right next to the freeway is the Academy. About a week before we went to visit, we saw these skydivers jumping onto the Academy grounds. We regularly see gliders and light planes practicing their maneuvers overhead as we're driving on the freeway. Sometimes we see the gliders getting pulled. This is a neat picture because you can also see the path of the train going up Pike's Peak. Its the white line on the left of the snow behind and just right of the skydiver.

A week from today is the graduation at the Academy and we're looking forward to the Thunderbirds flying right over it. Another exciting adventure living in Colorado Springs.