My Two Blessings

We packed up the car and headed out for Williams. We stopped off on Route 66 at Seligman for lunch at Westside Lilo’s Café, which was right across the street from Roadkill Café. As we turned into town, there were 3 wooden teepee’s, an old fire truck and other sights that were very reminiscent of the town from the Car’s movie. Lilo’s had pictures of old cowboys, plus stuffed boar, deer, bison, and other animals. We arrived at the Grand Canyon Railway hotel in Williams which was in the midst of a kid-o-rama with Day out with Thomas. We checked in and met the Marshall. After meeting a "real live" Marshall, Deputy James was ready to go. The first thing James wanted to do was go in the bouncy houses, so off came the shoes and in he climbed. He got knocked over and banged a few times by the kamikaze kids flying through the air, but seemed to love every minute of if. Then, he just had to meet “Sir Topham Hat. It was time to go for a ride on Thomas. W...

We headed up to Oatman, an old mining town on Route 66 and home to “wild” burros that wander the town. The burros’ are the descendants of burro's brought here by miners and when no longer needed were turned loose. There were a couple baby burros which you are asked not to feed. The rest of the burros are rather greedy however and will practically knock you over or follow you up on the porch to get a carrot. The Ghost Rider Gunslingers hanging out by the Oatman hotel were very interesting. One “Cowboy” told us about his experiences as a wrangler on trail drives. When James expressed interest in their guns, one handed a gun to James, at which both Father and I started stuttering, talking and gesturing at the same time. They quickly assured us it was a prop gun and not to worry. James received a lesson about gun safety after this picture. We had lunch at the historic Oatman Hotel where they have thousands of dollar bills (many signed) tacked...

My parents live in Bull Head City Arizona , just across the Colorado River from Laughlin , NV . In order to get to Bull Head, you have to fly into Las Vegas , rent a car and drive two hours. We spent more time at the airport waiting for our flight, rather than flying. Security was interesting….Shoes off, even sandals. Put everything in the bins to send through the x-ray machine. James’ cowboy hat set off the metal detector just by waving it in front of the thing. Turned out it has a metal strip in the hat band. So, that went through the x-ray machine. I neglected to take my laptop out of my carryall and TSA took it to a special machine where they remove it from the bag and swiped it for chemical explosives. “Do you have anything in this bag that will stick me ma’am?” he asks. “No sir!” I reply in my best manners voice. “All clear, move along” he says gruffly. Oh goodie, I passed the test…I am not a terrorist. Father was fascinated by the machine and h...

We are back from our vacation—exhausted, but happy. We have had a very busy, fun filled, packed exodus. We traveled to Arizona to visit my parents, drove route 66 to Oatman to feed to burros, went for a ride on Thomas and shook Sir Topham Hat’s hand at Day out for Thomas, took the train to and from the Grand Canyon, wondered the trails around the rim, and experienced being robbed by “Mean Jim” the train robber (special make a wish event) on the return train ride. As we wondered up one of the rim trails, James hand “firmly” clasped in mine, we realized that no matter how many pictures you take, it just won’t match the majesty of the place. As I sat there taking it all in, I couldn’t help but feel awed. It was absolutely amazing!!! Time went by so quickly and we barely scratched the surface of the place. We most certainly will return some day and spend more time exploring all aspects of the Canyon. Over the next few days I will tell you more about our adventures. ...

We are going here!!! And What a combination! Thomas is going to be at the Williams depot this weekend. We are visiting my parents in Arizona, doing a Day out with Thomas and taking the train into the Grand Canyon for an overnight stay. We will have lots of pictures to share when we get back. And in the words of Tigger: TTFN

Happy Mother's Day to my mom, sisters, sisters in laws and every mom in the world. Being a mother has been such a blessing. You suddenly see the world and get to experience it through new, unbiased, innocent eyes. What an awesome experience that is. Everything we take for granted is embraced, unwrapped, mulled over and absorbed by a child. I don't know if you have a child like mine, but James takes it in, analyzes, questions and questions until he has it figured out. Or he may get what we call "the Winston Churchill" look on his face and go away to mull it over and ask questions later. You can "see" the wheels turning, trying to wrap his mind around something. Through the eyes of a child, you learn to experience life and not just walk through it blindly. What was my mother's day like? It was very relaxing and I didn't have to do any dishes. Hee Hee. I went to Gottschalks and bought some shorts and a nice new wallet. I decided...

And now for your reading pleasure!  or would that be torture? I got a 100 on my midterm and just had to share it with you. I did amend it a little for easier reading such as deleting all the footnotes. Kick off your shoes, put on your reading glasses, grab a drink and have a seat. Oh, you are sitting! The only down side of an online course is that you don't get to read the other students papers. I always enjoyed that back in junior college, getting to read everyone's stuff. ENG360: Literature for Children and Young Adults Midterm Examination 1) Describe the importance of literature for children and young adults that both informs and instructs. It is very important to expose children and young adults to books that are both informational and educational such as historical, biographical, religious, or conceptual. Through the Eyes of A Child by Donna Norton discusses how "Informational books relay new knowledge about virtually every topic imaginable. Biogr...

Announcing the Grand Opening of James Godzilla Film, Toy, and Book Store James is pleased to announce the opening of his virtual store today. The store has Godzilla films as well as Mothra, Gamera and miscellaneous scary 50's movies. It also has books and film posters. Please drop by and visit his store.

10 things I should be doing right now! Oh, any number of things. I should be fixing dinner, but set the timer for 30 minutes. Then will cook some French fries for James and heat up left over from the barbecue from yesterday. J loaded me up with food when we left, so I don’t have to actually fix dinner tonight. Reading Chapter 9 about realistic fiction for my literature class, but uh uh! Researching The Giver and analytical theory. Wait! I printed off a bunch of information. Does that count. C utting James hair but that can wait until tomorrow. Cutting my hair but that can also wait until tomorrow and I will only have one hairy mess to clean up. R eviewing James 2nd grade curriculum and putting together schedules. O utside sanding down the eucalyptus bench so we can stain it, but the bees decided they wanted to use it more than me. I could continue to read “The Island of Lost Maps” bu...

As we are sitting around Sunday morning making our plans for the day, the phone rings. It is Father’s good friend calling to “remind” us about the bbq they are having that afternoon to celebrate his and his two son’s birthdays. He had told Father about it a few nights back during a late night jam session at a friend studio and Father had forgotten to tell me. Whoops! I had planned on doing multiple errands all by my lonesome, then work on my literary analysis paper while James and Father watched a movie. So, I dashed out to Target to get Tolkien’s new book “The Children of Hurrin”, which only Target had, dropped by Petsmart to get tadpole food, and got the grocery shopping done. Barnes and Noble didn’t have the book and why not? “They only stocked a few because they really hadn’t expected it to be that popular.” Amazing, a regular bookstore misjudges and Target does their homework and anticipated that a Tolkien book would probably be selling like hot cakes. Th...

James and I went out and bought some crickets for the the frogs, then "I" had to put them in the cricket keeper. They gave me the heebie jeebies at first, but I finally got over that itchy feeling you get when seeing a bunch of insects. You know, that skin crawling feeling like a bunch of ants are crawling all over you. (by the way, that's an experience you never want to repeat). We had a few run aways or should I say hop aways, but managed to catch them all. Now, besides the care and feeding of frogs, it also involves the care and feeding of crickets. Who, by the way, seem to like fresh carrots. The crickets hide all the time in a toilet paper roll, coming out to get water, eat, or investigate things when you pick up the cricket keeper. Godzilla stays hidden in the little cave in planet frog, coming out long enough to gulp a cricket, then back in he goes. Herbie's back legs have popped out and she is slowly morphing. In about another week or ...

Have you ever heard of a Cinquain? Me neither. A cinquain is a form of poetry which has specific structural requirements. Line 1: One word for the title Line 2: Two words that describe the title Line 3: Three words that express action related to the title. Line 4: Four words that express a feeling about the title. Line 5: One word that either repeats the title or expresses a word closely related to the title. My Attempt: (ahem) Baby Cute, Cuddly eating, burping, changing His smile is delightful Life or Ree talented, sweet, burping, yodeling, emulating Her talent is incomparable She

Hey! I got a 100 on my midterm essays........ yeehaw! I am so proud of myself. This week's chapter is on Poetry as you can probably tell by the Haiku from a couple days ago. I never really appreciated poetry. The one experience I remember with poetry was an English class in my first year of college (way back when). My professor seemed to make everything revolve around the subject of sex. We had to analysis a poem (forgot the name) about a tree being cut down in the forest and the feelings it experienced. Well, initially I wrote a juicy essay about it being symbolic of a woman's first time, blah, blah, blah... because I knew that would be right up the professors alley. However, didn't have the courage to turn it in. Wrote something mundane and got a B. He ended up making everyone read their essays out loud to the class. Oh my lucky stars, how embarrassing would that have been!!! I have been reading up on literary theory and decided to go with a Marx...

He is my true love His Love Transcends Time and Space My one and Only ********************* Little Boy Kisses Splurbits all over the belly breathless laughter, and tickling ****************** Wait! Do you hear that? What is coming over here? Could it be? Mothra! I can Haiku, can you? How to Haiku 3 non rhyming lines 1st line has 5 syllables 2nd line has 7 syllables 3rd line has 5 syllables Go on, get silly I dare you to imagine Try it, try it, now!