New Year's Poem

In yesterday's mail we were pleasantly surprised to find a padded envelope from Howard and Ramon, neighbors at Jenny Lake. In the envelope were several photos of this year's Polar Bear swim at Jenny Lake and this delightful poem, written by Howard and Ramon!

A Visit from the Robinsons

T'was the week before New Years, when all the house,

Not a creature was stirring, not even a mouse

(because Olivia had gotten them all!)

The Ortega's and I, in my sweater and cap, 

had just settled down for a long winter's nap.

When outside our camp, there arose such a clatter,

We sprang from our beds to see what was the matter.

And low and behold it was Marji, Jim and sons,

Sledding and skating and having great fun.

We invited them in to share dinner we'd made,

But all they would have was wine and Gatorade.

Then what to our wondering ears she told a wild story,

How each New Years in the lake go Jim, Tucker and Corey.

No way we all said,

It's a fable in your mad little head.

It's the truth they insisted.

Come watch and see, they persisted.

So Ramon and I, with camera in hand, and still very skeptical

Followed the crowd to watch a great spectacle.

They spoke not a word, but went straight to work,

And took off their clothes, and turned with a jerk.

Then holding their fingers over their nose,

Into the water they jumped and nearly froze.

But out they came. oh what a sight.

And we became believers that very night.

Enclosed are some pictures that tell the true story,

Of Marji, Jim, Tucker and Corey.

All too soon they left, quick as a whistle,

And away they all drove like the down of a thistle.

But we heard them exclaim, 'ere they drove out of sight,

"Happy New Year to all, and to all a good night."

So there it is, a great tribute to the swim of 2007 and the craziness of Jim, Tucker,Corey and Bob K. Thanks again, Howard and Ramon. The poem has become a keepsake!

Jim left for France this afternoon and will be gone until Thursday night. That means I get to turn up the heat in the house! He called from New York to report that the first of 3 legs of his journey was on-time and uneventful.

This morning we went to a local appliance store and picked up to stove boxes for me to use at school. Next week I will be setting up the wildly popular "Scooterville" in the gym and one of these boxes will become the Scooterville Car Wash and the other one will become the Scooterville McDonalds.  I will put some photos in the blog of this event because it is truly a favorite with my students.

The sun is actually peaking out today which is always a treat. The snow is all gone around here, but some is forecasted for next week. Wind has been the big story around here, but that seems to have blown through. 

Tucker called while driving back to Utah from Colorado. He has had a great time skiing and visiting with friends. He got to have dinner with our friends John and Ann in Dillon, Colorado which was a nice treat for him. I have a photo of John giving Tucker his bottle, when Tucker was just a wee one! Many years later, Tucker was John's stoker on the back of a tandem bike as they rode across the state of Iowa! They have been bonded for many years!

I guess that's all for now. I only have 4 rows of knitting left on my Baby Surprise Jacket and then some finishing work on it. I will post photos when it is completed.

Hope all is well.

New Toy

My new iPod arrived today - an iPod Touch! When the Kuehl's were here for Christmas dinner, Liz brought along her brand new iPod Touch and it was a very impressive toy! In addition to playing all my music, I can use it to surf the internet if I have access to wireless internet! It is really slick to use and I am looking forward to learning all that it can do and how to do it. I downloaded an 85 page manual from Apple that will tell me all that the iPod Touch can do. The first photo is of the screen that shows when the iPod is turned on. The icons give me the choices of what I can do. The second photo is of my blog, using our wireless internet. There are quick little finger movements I can do on the screen to enlarge or reduce the website I am reading. It has a keyboard if I need to type something and it changes the view from either vertical or horizontal. Like I said, it is really slick! If you gave me money for Christmas, this is what I bought with that money. Thank you very much. I think Jim thinks this was a much better purchase than the yarn I might have bought with my Christmas money!

This afternoon I returned to my Weight Watchers meetings after a 6 month absence and gaining back a chunk (but not all) of the weight I had lost. It feels good to be back on the wagon again. Now I am back to counting points and looking longingly at cookies!

Time to go play with my new iPod. 

Hope all is well.

The Friendly Skies

Tucker made it back to Colorado today as planned. His three flights were either on time or early and he had no "mechanical" problems! Yipee! Alleluia! Hip-hip-hooray! So now he will spend a few days skiing with friends and then back to work in Bluff. 

It was good to have both boys home but now that they are gone, the house is quiet and tidy again. We'll see Corey at an SU basketball game in the near future and then meet up with both boys in San Diego in February.

Jim  and I drove to Henrietta to try to see The Bucket List on a free screening pass. When we pulled into the movie theater parking lot, the line to get in was very, very long, and that was 40 minutes before the show was to start. The older I get, the more I dislike lines, so we just kept driving and came home. I guess we will pay full price at the movie theater right next door to us sometime to see the movie. 

Did I mention how quiet the house was?

I had my Yoga class tonight and I almost fell asleep during the meditation part right at the end! Tired and relaxed is a deadly combination when one is lying down with the lights out and soft music playing in the background.

Another record breaking day for a high temp, somewhere in the high 60's. Thunderstorms are in the forecast for tomorrow, with cooler temps on the way.

Time to get back to my knitting in our very quiet house (where there are no dirty glasses or nacho plates on the living room table and only 2 chairs at the kitchen table).

From our very quiet house, hope all is well.

100 Ways to Keep in Touch

100 blog entries later and The Empty Nest is still going strong! Thanks to all of you who have become faithful readers. I love the comments you have left on the blog and to me personally. Let's keep this thing going!

Yesterday Tucker was joking around, wondering why no one had commented on how good he was looking in the photo on Saturday's post. And then this morning, there was a comment from Amy saying just that! Thanks for noticing, Amy. Just before Christmas, there was a TV commercial for the Mens Warehouse showing a young man coming home for Christmas dinner in his brand new suit, and his mother looking so pleased! I related to that commercial when I saw Tucker "dressed to impress!"

Today it was back to school and we had a good day. My classes usually meet in the small gym and the older kids have PE in the larger, new gym. Today, one of my colleagues wanted to do Yoga with her 4th grade classes and thought the small gym would be a better location for Yoga, so we switched venues. My little kids were thrilled to go to the big gym and then were doubly excited when I told them we were going to play a game with the 3rd or 5th graders. The older kids did such a great job with the younger students that my colleagues and I will have to look for more opportunities to have the different grade levels work together.

Our high temperature today hit a record high, 62 degrees! More of the same tomorrow and then a return to winter. I told Jim he needs to be hanging the clothes outside tomorrow!

Corey had an uneventful trip back to SU yesterday. He has since discovered a few things that he left here. I hope we can get to another SU basketball game in a couple of weeks so he will have to wait until then for the delivery of these items.Tucker leaves tomorrow morning, early. He hopes to get back to his car in Colorado Springs in less than 3 days (he is flying!). He has plans to go skiing with some friends in Colorado before heading back to Utah. He cooked dinner for us tonight, quesadillas with stir-fried veggies. It was delicious. Tucker and Corey cooked dinner for us several times while they were home and that was such a treat! I didn't care what they made and was willing to clean up any preparation mess. I am glad that they are both confident and comfortable in the kitchen. I cannot take any credit for that. They both learned to cook and enjoy it when they were river guides.

When I got my haircut last week, my hairdresser gave me a free pass (for 2) to see a special screening of the new movie The Bucket List. The showing is tomorrow night and I think we are going to try to go. The pass indicates that many more passes were distributed than there are seats available, so if you want a seat you need to get there early. We'll go out right after my Yoga class, and if we're too late to get a seat, oh well. But, maybe we will get lucky and find a couple of seats. We saw a preview of this movie and it looked like it could be funny, but Time Magazine panned it. 

After going great guns on knitting sweater for me, I have put it aside and am working on a Baby Surprise Jacket for a friend who is having a second child. I will post pictures of this neat jacket when I finish it. Since the whole jacket is done in the knit stitch (no purls) I have been once again trying to learn to knit in the continental style and this time I have it. I will have to find a project that is all purled, and use that as my practice time to learn to purl continental.  

I am including 2 more beautiful photos from our trip to Jenny Lake. The first one was taken on Saturday morning, after they guys had shoveled some slush on the lake on Friday, making a potential skating rink. The next photo was taken on Monday morning, after 10 inches of snow fell. Hope all is well and let's continue on for another 100 posts!