Photo jam

This blog has never been a comprehensive record of every detail in our family, but I hoped to be a tiny bit better when I launched my photo-a-day project. Come on, ONE photo. Yikes -- I can't even do that consistently. Here's a look at our comings and goings, all the same:

April 22. Jeff and James work on a pinewood derby car.

April 23. Race-day greasing.

 James' car is the gray one, in the middle.

April 24. Samuel and James eat ice cream in the garden box Jeff assembled.

 April 25.

 April 26. Shoulder villain! I took the girls to see Uncle Matt in the Hale Theater production of "Arsenic and Old Lace." We loved it, and Matt did a great job playing Dr. Einstein. Here, Elise stands in front of a lobby poster. We are new fans to the Studio C comedy troupe and its "shoulder angel" sketches, so we couldn't resist this set-up.

May 2. Samuel at play. He is the most imaginative child; it was strange to see him playing with actual toys instead of sticks or kitchen utensils.

 May 3.

 May 5. Emma.

May 7. Spring rain.

 May 13. Elise cooks dinner. She earned the rank of queen for medieval day at school by completing a series of service tasks. Best homework ever.

May 14. Samuel was atop his scriptures in bed, and rolled over just as I came in with the camera that morning.

 May 15. Jeff earned a district level Scouting award.

 May 17. First dutch oven dinner of the season.

 May 18. Kyle graduates from seminary! (And slurps root beer floats.)

 May 23. Proof positive that it's time for school to be OVER. Here is a thank you note station in the school lobby, encouraging students to write a note of appreciation to a staff member. I was impressed by the one on the left that said, "Vous etes beau comme une fleur" (technically belle, but whatever). I guffawed at the note in front:

 "Susie. Drop dead. I hate you." I thought it was hilarious, in a Calvin and Hobbes comic kind of way. (Incidentally, Calvin's nemesis in the strip is named Susie.) One of the secretaries, when I pointed the note out to her, took it a bit more seriously than I did. She got on the computer. "I better find all the Susies so I can warn them at recess." Er, OK. Definitely time for school to be done.

May 24. Samuel waters the newly planted garden. He is getting so tall!

 May 26. Samuel adorns my brother's grave on Memorial Day. Samuel sadly was too young to have any memories of Uncle Ben. Someone always leaves pennies on top of the marker.

At the Midway Cemetery, where I have gone on Memorial Day since I was a child. (Kyle was with his cousin so didn't join us that day.)

May 27. My piano student and I got a kick out of his resemblance to the brown-eyed, strawberry blond boy illustrated on the lesson book page.

 May 28. Flag retirement ceremony at Pack Meeting.

Also May 28. Our garden changes so drastically from month to month. Soon it will be entering its scraggly "hot and bothered" stage, a look that matches the defeated gardener.

Context

My (ahem) smart phone comes up with auto-correction gold.

Texts so far today:

In response to a lady asking me about some details for a RS meeting tonight:

We should have all that CURED.

Aargh! COVERED.

Then, my conversation with a lady whose husband faces a kidney transplant.

I'm PAYING for your family.

Aargh! PRAYING.

The word totally got a total make-over. Oh, I RISKY forgot! 

My daughter Elise's name regularly turns into E KISS. Huh, there's an electronic version of that now, too? Last week I canceled a meeting, informing my colleagues that, "My children reminded me there's a school event they want me to TAME them to."

I asked a friend if it would be best for me to reach her neighbor by LANDMINE.

I offered someone the use of Jeff's truck to move furniture, but said he's not up to much BRAIN yet. Aargh! Should have been brawn. You know, because he wasn't supposed to lift so soon after his ... wait, brain surgery.

Hmm. Maybe my phone IS smart.

Thousands of words

I've been more miss than hit with my photo-a-day project because my heart hasn't been in it. My heart hasn't been in a lot of things lately. Yet, were it not for this project I wouldn't have grabbed my camera when Elise, Samuel and I went for a quick errand/walk in the neighborhood. It's just like the game hide-and-seek. Sure we can all stumble upon beauty, but searching for it frames the mind to recognize it in unexpected places.  I love this picture.

March 24. The path that goes along the left building, retreats into the shadows and then comes back forward toward the railing is the access ramp to a physical therapy clinic. No pain, no gain!

March 25.

March 26.

March 27. Jeff's 4:30 train pick-up. (He was still on driving restrictions.) Did you grow up on KJQ like I did? "It's 4:30, time for milking."

March 28. Emma flaunts her parking prowess.

March 29.

March 30. The trouble with trying to get little boys ready for 1 p.m. church is that there is way too much time to dig before meetings start.

March 31. Jeff and his neurosurgeon. We like this guy. Jeff liked the doctor even more when he gave the green-light to drive again. Naturally, instead of taking his usual train the next day, Jeff drove all the way to Riverton.

April 1. Snow!

April 4. My dear friend Nora and her baby, born March 30.

April 6.

April 7. Elise won $25 in an essay contest.

April 9. Emma adjusts the elastic on her pointe shoes.

April 11. Bee's knees. 

April 12. Prom nonchalance. Kyle was excited, but not even a tux-wearing dude in the kitchen could pull Jeff away from his laptop, nor Emma from her baking.

April 16. One of my favorite gardens in town. 

April 17. Front yard.

April 18.

April 19. Possibly Elise's last community Easter egg hunt. I wish she could stay little!

April 20. Rhubarb becomes the first garden-to-dish of the season.

 April 21. Fish at Red Butte Garden.

More of the same

March 1. Light fixtures.

March 2. Kyle and Jeff in the ER of hospital #1, at the beginning of Jeff's adventure.

March 3. Beep! Your patient is ready. 

March 4.  The hazardous waste bag holding Jeff's shaved hair. Yes, we kept it.

March 5.  James and adorable cousin Zooey, who came with her mom and sister from St. George to help us.

March 6. The children and I came home from the hospital to the bathroom vacant (obviously!) but locked. James helped me pull out the hinge pins so we could remove the door and tackle the lock that way. Amazingly, he and I worked faster together than Jeff and I have on other bathroom impasses!

March 7. Jeff received an elaborate cookie basket from his work. "Wishing you a speedy recovery!" Did I read too much into having a turtle as such a mascot?

March 8. Hat shopping at REI.

Also March 8. Around the corner from REI is a climbing outfitter where Jeff went to buy rope in preparation for a class he was scheduled to teach March 15. It was all I could do to not yell at the clerk, "Don't sell him anything! He just got home from the hospital yesterday after having BRAIN SURGERY! Because he fell! Did you hear me? BRAIN SURGERY!" The Fight Gravity hoodie is a nice touch. The class, held in a church gym, was about knots and harnesses, not actual climbing. Phew!

March 10. Home office.

March 12.

March 15. Samuel is passionate about soccer.

March 16. Samuel and bubbles.

March 17. My mother makes delicious corned beef and cabbage and homemade Irish soda bread on St. Patrick's Day, even though we're not Irish. I've made the meal myself a time or two over the years, but was decidedly not festive this go-round. No matter. James fashioned a forkful of tri-color pasta into the Irish flag. Bonus: his Oompa-loompa coloring evokes images of tiny, dancing men. No?

March 18. Ah, that's better. Last morning of braces! (Until phase two, anyway.)

March 19. First bloom in the yard.

March 20. This is not a political statement, I swear, just a composition exercise to capture the entire scene of what I saw one morning when I sought peace. Can you tell where I am? (The sticker says GUNS SAVE LIVES.)

March 21. Samuel wrote only an S for his name on this worksheet. When the teacher handed it back with the quizzical "S am?" Samuel wrote oui in response. Cracked us up.

March 22. Jeff's normal Saturday routine is to get up and drive out of dodge as fast as he can.  He likes errands! Having doctor's orders not to drive ...  well, drove him insane. When I awoke Saturday morning Jeff was whipping the pantry into shape. Samuel excitedly told James, "Mom says this is what 'cabin fever' looks like."