Shoes

Shoes, specifically, my shoes are the topic for today's blog entry (that means we did nothing blog-worthy today!). 

This morning, before heading to Spinning Guild, I decided to clean out the floor of my side of the closet, where most of my shoes are stored. I discovered that I had a lot of black shoes, or at least what I think are a lot of black shoes. See for yourself and you decide.

Now, some are sandals and some are sneakers, some are dressy and some are casual and I have worn all of them in the past year. There was only one pair that when I pulled them out I thought, "Wow, I forgot I had these!" They had the most dust on them! But I can honestly say that these are all useful parts of my wardrobe so I did not put any of them in the "donate" pile. Now I do have more shoes than this. There are the cowboy boots that I bought in Texas 27 years ago that no longer fit, some bright crocs, and my Christmas high tops. I have 2 pair of low hiking boots, my work sneakers, an old pair of sneakers, slip-on sneakers, Crocs that I wear around the house, white sandals, pink sandals, brown, dressy sandals, and my new Keens. Is this too many shoes? And I am asking that of my women readers, not you men who own maybe 5 pairs of footwear. I don't feel like I buy a lot of shoes, and especially when I look at some of these shoes and realize that they are five or more years old! Speaking of old, I forgot to mention my biking shoes, which are 17 years old! So let me know what you think. When was the last time you took a shoe inventory? Before I stop writing about my shoes, please note that I put 2.5 pairs of shoes in the donation pile today ( the other .5 may be on Jim's side of the closet, but I could not tackle both sides of the closet in one day!).

I spun at Spinning Guild and wrote report card comments today. Jim cut the grass and did some work at his parent's house. 

We are having some trouble with our TV now that the switch to digital has been made. We bought the new TV back in December so we did not need a converter box, and we bought what research said would be a good antennae, but now we cannot get 2 of the network stations. Jim went through the process of re-setting the channels but we are still not where we should be. I imagine (hope) Jim will continue to research the problem.

For the knitting report, I have about 12 inches of Tucker's sweater knit. This sweater is knit from the bottom up, so soon I will be at the armpit level, where I need to start knitting the back and front separately. 

Hope all is well. 

Field Day Follies

I awoke this morning, Field Day morning, to heavy, overcast skies and the threat of more rain to come. Various weather forecasters were predicting that the rain was  moving through and it was going to be a lovely day. So I arrived at school at 6:10 AM and started to get ready for all the activities. Various other staff people joined me and we all were convinced that the intermittent mist was going to  end real soon, so we took all the rain-proof equipment out to the fields. By 7:45 AM the rain appeared to have stopped so we got very serious about setting up about 35 different activity stations. The volunteers and kids arrived and things were looking good.

We started the day with a Flag Day Ceremony, led by the Music department.

Some classes made Tie-dyed shirts for Field Day.

The kids raced,

played with friends,

made enormous bubbles,

took batting practice,

and did some break dancing.

I declared the day a rousing success after the last large group performance of the Chicken Dance!
The weather ended up being perfect. There were over 70 parent volunteers, which are the reason we can do this event. Not one child had to go to the Quiet Room, which was a huge surprise to all of the staff. The kids did a great job, and went home happy and exhausted!

When I got home at 4:15 PM, I had 27,000 plus steps and was one tired PE teacher. I rested for a little while and then realized that I would probably feel a whole lot better if I took a shower and got cleaned up. That did the trick. 

Jim took me to dinner at The Garland House and we celebrated with a couple of beers while waiting for a table and then enjoyed a delicious meal.

It has been a great day.

Tomorrow is Spinning Guild!

Hope all is well.

Utah Trip

Here is a photo story of Jim's and Corey's trip to see Tucker in Utah.

Their adventure started with a 2-day trip on the San Juan river. 

Allison, Corey, Tucker and Kellem

There was belated birthday celebration for Corey on the river, reminicent of many birthday celebrations for Corey and Sally on our Memorial Day canoe trips.

When Tucker had to go to work on Monday morning, Jim and Corey headed for Arches National Park and hiked to 62 of the more than 2,000 arches in the Park.

After Arches, it was on to Fisher Towers and more unique rock formations.

Outside of Canyonlands NP, they stopped at Newspaper Rock to get the latest headlines!

A Canyonlands hike to the confluence of the Green and Colorado Rivers.

On to Druid Arch in Canyonlands. 

Back to Bluff, UT for a hike on Comb Ridge, Tucker's "office!"

They thought of me and brought back many desert flower photos. I love yellow cactus.

You know you are in rural Utah when they herd the cattle right down the middle of the road!

A hike up Centennial Peak in the San Juan National Forest.

Corey, talking to the alpacas at the Dolores River Days Festival.

A good time was had by all. Watch for more beautiful photos in future entries.

Tucker called tonight to tell us about a huge sting operation that went down in a little town north of Bluff, busting all the people who steal "antiquities" from the archaeological sites in Utah. He said it may be an interesting time to be an archaeologist out there, where 22 people were arrested for "pot stealing." Apparently a similar bust happened in 1986 and it caused a great deal of unrest in that area. I encouraged him to keep a low profile.

 

Tomorrow is June 11th and it is my Mom's 80th birthday! Happy Birthday, Mom! You make 80 look great! 

Hope all is well.

Sunday Update

Here it is, the Sunday night of Field Day week and already my mind is whirling with things that need to be done before the actual event on Friday. And I made the mistake of looking at the long-range forecast and it calls for showers on Friday. One more thing to plan for.

Oh, well, this has been a good weekend with lots of little jobs getting done. Yesterday I washed windows and put in the screens in the kitchen. I love clean windows! I hemmed a pair of pants for Jim and altered his USA running singlet. More on that another time. I had prints made of all the family photos I took at the baseball game and will distribute them at school on Monday. I went to GEVA theater yesterday afternoon for a performance of PUSH physical theater. This is a small troupe of actors/mimes/gymnasts who tell stories with their physical movement. It was quite impressive and they all moved their bodies with such fluidity. I enjoyed the show! 

Today's big event was the Tour de Cure, a fundraising bike ride for the American Diabetes Association. Thanks to all who made donations towards my effort.

I did the 25 mile ride and averaged 14 mph, which pleased me. I have not been able to ride my new bike as much as I would have liked this spring, so I was happy with how I felt while riding and how I feel now, 9 hours later. Twice during the ride, deer came out from the edge of the road and ran across in front of me. The first time it happened the deer was close enough to me that I needed to put on the brakes! Hitting a deer while riding a bike would not be a good thing!

I stopped at Medved on my way home from the bike ride, hoping to find a pair of sandals for my river trip this summer. I tried on 4 different pairs, Teva's, Chaco's, and Keen's. The Keen's were the clear winner. When Keen's first came out a few years ago, I like the toe protection that their sandals provided, but they did not fit with my hammer toe. This new style has a hole right where my hammer toe bumps up, so they fit perfectly! I think they will be great river-wear.

Gram and GrandDad came home from Jenny Lake today and came here for supper tonight. They look great and it was fun to catch up with them. Tomorrow Bob and Joanie spend the night here with G & G before heading to camp. G & G will join them at camp on Thursday.

And tomorrow Corey and Jim come home after a fabulous trip to see Tucker. I can hardly wait to see all their photos! Corey will head right back to Syracuse after a quick Garbage Plate with a friend. Corey starts his internship on Tuesday. It will be good to have Jim back home. It gets lonely around here after a while!

Hope all is well.