Apparently, someone higher up than me thought I would make a good ward literacy specialist at Church. Seeing as a live in an area where most of our church members are well-educated and not in any sort of need of remedial reading efforts, I’ve struggled for some time about how best to fulfill this position.

After a lot of thought, I’ve decided to create a literacy blog. Essentially, the blog is meant to be a forum where women in our Church can discuss issues relating to literacy—how they help teach their children to read, what sort of good books they’ve been reading lately, or how they determine what literature is worth reading. I’ve had some volunteers who are willing to participate in this effort. Many have selected a topic and are willing to contribute their knowledge and expertise towards the endeavor.

The hope is to pass the literacy message along to as many people as possible. If you’d like to read what we have to say or participate in anyway, feel free to join along with us. You can find the blog at www.blogforliteracy.blogspot.com. Everyone’s welcome. Hopefully, you’ll enjoy it as much as I do.

Lonica Stuff | 1 Comment »

Busy building light boxes and warming stations for plant seedlings.

Busy planting little seeds.

Busy joining “seed trains”. Any idea what a seed train is? I wasn’t aware, until Scott got his in the mail and shouted for joy.

Busy growing flowers. So I’ll have a beautiful porch this year, that blooms, and stays within budget. Hopefully. At least that’s the plan.

Our growing garden, Scott Stuff | 2 Comments »

Today was declared a snow day. Apparently two inches of snow, an inch of ice, and then five inches of snow qualifies for a day off—from school, work, and even OSU. This last was a surprise. A blizzard won’t do it. A hurricane won’t do it. But, an inch of ice on top of snow and then covered by snow is a good excuse to cancel law school.

With all my past experience, I had to show Scott how to thoroughly enjoy a snow day.

First on the agenda: sleeping in.

Second: make a yummy breakfast you don’t have time for when leaving for work at 6:40 in the morning.

Third: Putt, putt around on the computer and check weather updates.

Fourth: Watch trashy t.v. you don’t usually have time for.

Fifth: Take a walk and enjoy the beauty.

I don’t think our experimental rosemary will make it through the winter, do you?

I think it will take a LONG time to clear the inch or two of ice off my cold car,

but the ice in the tree branches sure make it all worth it.

Being Scott, going for a nice walk wasn’t enough. We had to try to snow tube down the walkways.

But that wasn’t exciting enough either. Instead we ended up sledding down a small hill in a nearby park with all the other local nine and ten year-olds. I even managed to take one of them out, when he didn’t dodge my incoming tube quickly enough. Scott thought that was funny.

All in all, it was a really good snow day. It was nice I didn’t have to go on my traditional snow walk alone.

Life in OH-IO, Lonica Stuff, Proof of the Existence of Four Seasons | 5 Comments »

After returning from Mexico, we spent quite a bit of time hanging out with my family and our visitors from the Netherlands. Together we went out to the Superstition mountains and visited an old mining town.

We took a bunch of silly photos—do you know how impossible it is to capture three people jumping at once?—and thoroughly enjoyed exploring what life must have been like in the Ole’ West.

We even got the opportunity to watch the most ridiculous gun show you’ve ever seen. I’m not sure who wrote the script, but they sure deserve a Emmy award for their stellar performance.

The big action happened on New Year’s Day, though. We introduced our vegetarian Netherland visitors to American barbeque. Complete with ribs, pulled pork, cole slaw, and corn bread. Afterwards we had a White Elephant Gift exchange. We had a good time.

Scott’s most coveted gift was the as-found-on-tv Tater Mitts. Apparently they could peel a potato in eight seconds flat. Of all the gifts available, Scott wanted to go home with those Tater Mitts. He forgot to mention to everyone though that the mitts were actually the gift he brought to the party.

That didn’t stop him from going after them at every chance. The cut out picture of Lonica held no appeal. My old bottle of nasty smelling perfume was of no interest. It was all about the Tater Mitts. I have to say, I was just a bit offended.

Eventually, though my mother ended up with the much-coveted Tater Mitts.

Preston put the “peel a potato in eight seconds or less” challenge to the test. With no success. After such a disappointment, my mom was more than willing to pass the Tater Mitts off to Scott. Yeah! We wound up with a as-seen-on-television gadget that was of absolutely no use. One more thing to fit into our suitcase home.

We ended the weekend by attending the Fiesta Bowl parade. We were hoping to catch Ohio’s marching band in action, but unfortunately just missed seeing them pass us by. We still managed to bring some Buckeye spirit to the festivities, though. I’m sure those sun-loving Arizonians were a bit confused by our odd behavior—Raquel for one had to be introduced to exactly what an “H” looks like. On the other hand, every Ohioan will understand exactly what is going on in the above picture. Despite OSU’s loss in the Fiesta Bowl, we had a good time cheering them on.

Our stint in Mesa came to a good end and we were sad to have to return home and back to normal life. More than anything, though, it was fun to spend time with our family and enjoy the holiday traditions.

Lonica Stuff, No Place Like Home | 2 Comments »

The day after Christmas, we headed down to Rocky Point for some relaxing on the beach.

Most of us traveled down by the traditional method (riding safely in the car), others, who were a bit more adventurous decided they would fly down.

Either way, almost immediately upon arrival we spotted a school of dolphins off the back patio. Definitely an auspicious beginning to the break! It made me happy.

Dave spent a lot of time golfing.

and doing this…

Those of us who were up for a rocking good time headed out to Bird Island.

Paul was rearing and gearing to go.

They came back from the Island with all sorts of amazing photos.

You would have thought they worked for National Geographic.

Meanwhile, I spent a lot of time doing this…

…and this—two of my favorite things to do on the beach in the winter. It doesn’t get much better than this. We had a good time hanging out and relaxing.

Lonica Stuff, Mexico, No Place Like Home | 2 Comments »