Tough day ahead

Today will be a tough day. We learned yesterday that one of our high school counselors (young, only 31, basketball coach) died by suicide. He had been out on medical leave since June.

We lost another counselor last May. Her family did not share the cause of death with the school community.

The district will have crisis intervention teams and extra counselors from neighboring districts on hand at the school today and into next week, but it will still be a long, tough day.

I'm glad we get to go play with grandbabies and celebrate Olivia's birth with her blessing this weekend. Love you guys.

Oregon Book Awards

I had SUCH a good time last night! I've wanted to attend the Oregon Book Awards announcements for years, and this year I finally went. It was a great evening.

I took my good teaching friend, Sheila Zachry, with me. Usually Mark goes with me to these kinds of things, but Sheila is teaching the Creative Nonfiction Writing class with me for the first time this term, and she feels nervous about being a teacher-writer, so I thought she and I would really enjoy the evening together. It was a good call - we both want to go again next year, and bring other friends with us, including Mark, of course.

The event was held in the Gerding Theater in Portland. It's in North Portland, just one block from the big Powell's Bookstore on Burnside Street, so we parked at Powell's and walked the block. The theater used to be an armory, but it's all remodeled and really lovely inside.

The MC was funny and literary and inspiring, and the authors were dear. They were so sweet about receiving their awards, and they, too, were funny and literary and inspiring. I got to see a number of authors and writing students, who I've met over the years, in the audience. Of course I bought three books that had been nominated, and I've already started reading the first chapters of two of them.

Afterwards Sheila and I went to Powell's to use the bathrooms (the ones at the Gerding were packed) and we each bought a book at Powell's, too, so we could get our parking receipt validated. We were home by 9:15 after a truly lovely evening out. So much of life has been so stressful lately - this was a wonderful, peaceful, relaxing, inspiring, funny evening out with a very dear friend. I felt nurtured when I got home.

A good Saturday

Maddy helping her mommy open a package.  :)

Mark and I had a good day yesterday. We got bills paid in the morning--gosh, I am so grateful for a good job with steady income--and then we went out to work in the yard. It was a beautiful afternoon, with a blue sky but still cool enough to be able to work hard without overheating.

We finally got the last of the pile of maple branches cleaned up. In a perfect world, we would have trimmed them all into kindling and firewood, but the reality is, that we just don't have time. We loaded them into Little Red for a trip to the dump. Before we made the dump run, we put all the lawn furniture away for the winter, gave the yard it's last (I hope) autumn mowing, and pulled up the last of the tomatillo and cucumber plants out in the garden--I had already pulled the tomato and bean plants two or three weeks ago.

My back is a little achy this morning, but it's a good ache, from good work well done with my sweetheart and best friend. I know you know that feeling! My pedometer had over 12,000 steps on it yesterday! It was a busy day.

Today: church, choir practice, and then I'll go over to Sheila Zachry's house to work on some plans she and I are hatching for the English dept - trying to move folks forward on actually teaching writing instead of just assigning it. A shift in thinking for some of the colleagues - not that they're being bad teachers, but just that none of us, including Sheila and me, were trained in how to actually teach writing. We became English teachers because we love literature, and we're all pretty good, more or less, at writing, but we do it as a natural skill, not something we've had to pay attention to how to teach and learn the finer points. I'm on my 15th year of teaching now, and I only just learned how to really teach comma usage, so that kids could learn and apply it, 4 or 5 years ago. And even though I've shared the technique with my department a number of times, it's taken until this fall for the entire department to agree to adopt the strategy. Sometimes the work is a slow go!

Happy/Sad: Here's a photo of little Garrett with his mommy, Ellen (Carlson) Goldsborough. The photo was taken about two weeks before he died. Such a beautiful, happy little guy. Such a sad, sad loss.

Working hard on my writing

I trying to finish my essay for my PSU class tonight. It's supposed to be 3,000 + words, and so far I'm at 2400. Sigh. I'm really tired tonight, so it's hard to make myself buckle down. Tomorrow night we have parent-teacher conferences, and the class is Thursday night, so I need to get busy!

Did I tell you that Julia is sick? She has pneumonia, and is having a hard time getting better. She's on antibiotics, but they're not doing much to knock the germs out yet. Some of the ladies from the ward have been helping with Maddy during the day.

This afternoon we had cub scouts. My den helped sanitize all the toys in the church nursery. We used lysol wipes and spray lysol. I think the boys got sanitized in the process, too!

OK, now I really do have to get busy with the writing. I love you!

I am so excited for Christmas!

Oh, I am so excited to come and share Christmas with you in the mountains! When things get hectic in the next few weeks, I will think about coming to Dragonfly Cabin and getting to spend time with you.

Also, I bought airline tickets yesterday to fly to Salt Lake City in time for David's college graduation from BYU-Idaho on December 19. I'll fly to SLC on the evening of Dec 17. Katie and Bryan will keep me at their apartment over night, and then I will drive with them to Rexburg on Dec 18. We'll drive back to SLC on Dec 20, and then I'll fly back to Portland on Dec 21. I hate to be away from Mark for so long, but he can't get the 18th off...too bad...

Here is a photo of David & Holly with their "Haunted House" pumpkin they decorated yesterday. They say it's not worth carving pumpkins in their cold climate - they rot in 2 or 3 days if they're carved.

And here is a photo of Arora getting her first haircut!

Olivia getting ready for her baby blessing

Looks like Olivia is practicing for her baby blessing! Here she is in the blessing dress Katie made for her. I think the first photo is sooooo funny. :)

Olivia

Katie posted some cute photos of Olivia on her blog that I thought you would enjoy. Olivia is wearing her family reunion onesie. Mark and I are really looking forward to seeing her again at the end of this month. (Her baby blessing is November 1.)

Maddy & Blake

Blake came over to visit for a while today. He and Maddy were really cute together.

Olallie Lake Campout

Here are some photos from out campout this weekend. We went to Olallie Lake, in the Cascades, about 3 hours drive from Oregon City.

Here's our rig when we go on short trips - little green Old Town canoe on top of the Subaru.

Here's a shot of Olallie Butte, across the lake from our campsite.

In camp - this is soon after we arrived, when it was still warm. By the time the sun went down, we had added ski pants, jackets, and gloves. When we got up this morning, it was 27 degrees!

This morning we were so cold we had to go for a hike to get our toes to stop hurting. Here is a view of our campsite from across the lake. You can see the canoe pulled up to the shore. (If you can't see it very well, just click on the picture - it will get bigger.)

Our hike to a nearby lake (Long Lake) took us through a burned-out area. The last time I camped in this area was in 1991, and has really changed a lot since then.

A view of Mt. Jefferson, burned-out trees in the foreground.

Mark wanted to fish in the canoe. I got bored, so I read my book. He caught one little trout last night, but it flipped and flopped around, and worked its way off the hook before Mark could land it.

Our backpacking trip in August

Here are some photos from our backpacking trip to the Jefferson Wilderness back in August. We had such a wonderful time. It was really beautiful there, and Mark was stronger and healthier for this hike than he's been in a long time. His knee was bothering him some by the time we got back to the trailhead, but that's because he'd been hiking 6 miles downhill by then!

Since then we've bought some more good equipment at REI, and we're looking forward to using it soon. Maybe this weekend - we have Friday off for the statewide teacher inservice day.

1. Mark and me ready to hike out - our packs weigh about 35 pounds each.
2. A beautiful field of wild flowers. It was just amazing.
3. Me by one of the many little alpine lakes. Looks like "Sound of Music." Hah!

Hi Mom and Dad

Hi Mom and Dad,

I've created this blog just for you. I'll try to add news and photos to it a couple of times a week, so do check back every so often. It's private, so only you can view it. (That's why you have an email invitation from me. No one else is getting the invitation.)

I think you can add comments to the bottom of the blog posts. Give it a try and see if it works for you. (Just click where it says, "0 comments." I'm not sure if you have to have a Google account to post comments, but I don't think so.

Here's a recent photo of Maddy with her hair up in a pigtail. She is such a little cutie!

Be sure to comment at the bottom of the blog or email me to let me know if you can get in!

Sure do love you, Kathy Lou