field trip

Today I took my class on a field trip to Silver Springs. It was a beautiful...as in picture perfect day! We left the school at about 8.30 this morning and returned home about 5.15 this evening. I am tired tonight.

style magazine

A few weeks ago Dad told me that while I was at school, someone had called and asked a few questions about our house. They told him in a upcoming issue of their magazine they were going to do a little feature on it. Yesterday my friend brought this to school.

chytraus exaggeration

In spite of all my effort to the contrary, I am prone to a disease called "chytraus exaggeration." Daddy has a way of saying it that is an exaggeration in and of itself, which, unfortunately, I cannot duplicate here on the blog. I have worked to overcome this for years and have had some small successes. Then, suddenly, and without warning, it is back with a vengeance. As part of my ongoing efforts to curtail this disease in my own life. I feel it is my duty to point out the symptoms when noted in others. For example, last night...I was making smoothies and it was my intention to use some yogurt from the freezer. Brianna said, "Mom, don't use that one, we've had it for years." "Come on, Brianna...YEARS?!?"

And in her own inimitable way, I knew that she wasn't going to let it go until I proved to her that it was perfectly good. So I upended the carton to show her the date code on the bottom of the container.

scalp back together again

Here is a picture of dad's stitchesless head. It is looking fine...which is a good thing, because we may be seeing more and more of his scalp in the next few years.

science fair---bah! humbug!

"Don't be cross, mom!" said the child. "What else can I be?" returned the mom, "when I live in such a world of fools as this? Science Fair! Out upon a great project! What's Science Fair to you but a time for doing homework without resources; a time for finding yourself another project, but no ideas, a time for balancing all the minutes in your day and having every second in 'em full and busy. If I could work my will," said mom indignantly, "every idiot who goes about with 'Science Fair' on his lips should be boiled in his own experiment, and buried with a thermometer staked through his heart. He should!"

J is for...blog?

Today Brother Donald Welling was wearing his J. He reminds all of us at church to write in our journals. I remember the first time I saw him wearing a J. I thought that the J probably stood for Jesus. I thought that perhaps he was a primary teacher and wanted to remind his students to think about Jesus during the Sacrament. It was some weeks or months later that he gave a most memorable talk in Sacrament meeting about keeping a journal. Over the past five years that we have lived here, I have heard the talk or portions thereof a few times. He preaches with the Spirit and his words never fail to impress me.

I am thankful for the sacred stories I am able to learn from in the scriptures. I am thankful for the Mormon heritage that I am aware of because of someone's journal. And I am thankful that Tricia has started us all writing blogs. I love the part of each day when I see a little picture into the lives of my beautiful family. It always makes my day!

murphy lives in my refrigerator!

Since our refrigerator has been working poorly for two weeks now, we were very excited that the repairman was coming on Friday. He got here late and barely got the job done before we had to leave for the game in Vero Beach. Dad was quite hopeful of a successful operation. When the job was finished and the doors were closed, the temperature gauge read 70 degrees. Twenty minutes later it read 41 degrees. With the hope of a promise we went out for the evening. This morning, we woke up and went downstairs to find a very quiet kitchen. We opened the refrigerator and all was dark. We had no temperature reading at all!!! In actual fact, we realized the whole house was quieter than normal. Brianna was at the Gronlund's, so we had to assume that the road construction crews on 441 had something to do with this phenomenon.

We were without power...
...if it's not one thing it's another!

baseball fever

10 gallons of gas for the 164 mile trip to the treasure coast

$25.10

2 tickets for 2006 spring training

$36.00

being with dad at the field of dreams in Vero Beach, Florida

priceless

my flat friend

I have a new friend. We met in October last year. He is one of those kind of friends that never calls, but if I call him, or drop by, he is always happy to see me. Actually, I sort of enjoy this no strings attached relationship...some friends can be so needy...and he is not, so that is nice. Everytime I go to see him, he always makes me tacos. When Doug is with me, he makes him burritos. You know how some people have a first name that can be a last name and vice-versa? Well, this week, I had a visitor named Flat Stanley. I feel badly that I didn't take Flat Stanley to meet my new friend, Tijuana, because Tijuana's last name is Flats. And besides the similarity in their names, I think they have a few other things in common.

a new anti-christ

And it came to pass in the commencement of the two thousand and sixth year , there came a man into the land, and he was Anti-Christ, for he began to preach unto the people against the prophecies which had been spoken by the prophets, concerning the coming of Christ. March 18, 2006
"It is the first time in the history of mankind that a religion is prosecuted directly in a law case..."

Clearly they haven't read Alma, chapter 30
about 74 BC

poor papa

We were out working in the yard today. The chickens needed food and water and Papa was taking care of that. He had cleaned the water tank and went over by the house to fill it with water since the well water goes moldy too fast in the chicken coop. It seems to help to have the chlorinated water from the house. As he stood up after filling the tank he inadvertantly hit the corner of the open window. I gasped! "I am fine," he said. I was looking at my husband with a small fountain of blood spewing from his head. "No, no you are not fine!" He reached his hand up to his head and realized that he was a bloody mess and that he was getting messier by the second. I called the doctor, and he said to go straight to the emergency room. We left Florida Hospital Waterman two and a half hours later. They gave him a couple of stitches and a tetnus shot. He was quite pleased that he had taken his stitches without an anesthetic. He has to go and have the stitches out in five days. Tonight...he has a big headache.
Poor Papa!

I am a teacher!

Last week, Monday and Tuesday were teacher workdays. I went to school on Wednesday, but Wednesdays are minimum days and I only have students for one hour. Thursday and Friday I was out spending time with Tricia and her family who were visiting. Today when I came into school and there was a happy hum in the classroom. The kids were whispering, "Mrs. Carter's back!" They were all smiles. And that's what keeps me coming back!!!

orange blossom time

Today I learned that the truck that helps harvest oranges is called a "goat". The orange blossoms are in bloom and the perfume in the air is heavenly. I remember the first time I drove home from BYU at the end of my freshman year. As we started down through the San Bernardino mountains the smell of orange blossom filled the car. I thought, "I'm home." When we moved to Tustin from Long Beach, we told all our friends we were moving to the country. Tustin has changed a lot and I fear for the future of our country community here in central Florida. Ahhh, but the smell of orange blossoms...that has not changed.