Molly in College

My baby girl is enrolled in her first college class: Japanese 101 at Mesa this summer. She loves Japanes, loves learning languages, and loves not being at high school. I love her growing sense of competence in the world. It's a good thing I have my kinder friends to help me stave off pangs of empty nest syndrome.

It's Still the Del Mar Fair to me

Yesterday at the fair I experimented with a new parenting technique called, "Let them eat whatever they want." Between them, they ate: a Tower of caramel apples and whipped cream, a pizza on a stick, shaved ice, polish sausage, and deep fried oreos. In between pushing the bounds of gastronomic good sense we played games and watched the pig races, and just generally moseyed around. Now if we get to the beach this week, summer will have officially begun.

I'm back

Blogging seems to be a summer thing. I'm sitting here, drinking a cup of tea, no report cards to write, no articles to read, caught up with my housework (more or less) and ready to rejoin my blogging community.
So, summer plans... this is my summer of creativity. I'm going to sew, try to learn to play the guitar, and Go To Mexico for an art class with Candace Lopez: http://www.sdccinsanmiguel.com/ . In the meantime, I'm up for getting in touch with neglected friends, going to the beach, and lots of reading what I want to read (starting with The Kite Runner).

Speaking of creativity, I'll close with a photo of the painting Molly made for my Mom for Mother's day - it's about 2" by 3". Someday I hope to have the talent of my daughter.

How I spent my summer vacation

During the school year, I'm thrilled if I have a clean table cloth on the dining table. Now that I find I have leisure again, I'm drawn to more creative domesticity. I have been buying one bunch of various flowers and breaking it into mini bouquets & arranging them around my house. This activity feels a million miles from research papers and practicum reflections.





Susan & Martin gave me this orchid and Molly painted the leopard in the background.

My mother gave me this incense burner - one of my prized possessions.

My favorite room. Lots of light.



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Well, I could apoligize for how long it's been since I posted, but since I notice that many of my friends have been off and on during the summer, let's just say I'm part of a trend.

First, our trip to Maryland, to see my parents and the sights.

Photo one: John in the creek behind my folks house. They don't live in the country, just a middle class suburb (Silver Spring). This reminds me that San Diego is a desert, after all.

Photo two: We pay a call on our nation's leader. The lights were on, but nobody was home.

Photo three: Molly, John and Bill had a vip tour of NASA's Goddard Space Center, courtesy of a dear friend of CJs. They saw many wonderous things and talked to space engineers, scientists, and astronauts.

Photo four: Another hightlight was a visit to the National Air and Space Museum. We are without a doubt, a family of geeks.

Okay - This link should take you to my album page which contains all the photos I've uploaded for this blog - including the Northern Arizona ones. Let me know how it works.
http://picasaweb.google.com/rileydoggirl/TheLifeAndTimesOfMorganFamily?authkey=h03rPCj0dF4

Kinder families in the wild

Emmett on the rocks


What we did: ate, talked, laughed, and ate some more. Oh, yeah- we went hiking too.

Our second toad

Claire with a dragonfly nymph (how do you rotate this, Emil?)

The lake

Intrepid rock climbers. Note camp mascot, Snowy.

This trip was an unequivocal success. We had all the essential elements: great food, delightful weather, camp fire singing, fantastic friends of all ages, and a little nature magic: toads, bats, an owl, hawk feathers, and perfect rocks for climbing. I have to say my favorite aspect of the trip was the opportunity for conversations with all my friends, large and small. Let's do it again!