Thursday Thirteen: Road Trip Photos

Thursday Thirteen is a meme I enjoy on many blogs each week.The original site is here. This beautiful header was created by samulli here.

I was inspired by the Thursday Thirteen meme this week at Dog's Eye View. Here is mine:


This summer my siblings and I organized some outings to beautiful places around the inland empire of Washington and Idaho. We experimented with our digital cameras, appreciated many beautiful places, enjoyed good food, and had lots of laughs. Here are my thirteen favorite photo images from our summer outings. A few automatically repeated!

Books That Have Changed Lives

Every summer I have high aspirations of moving through a list of "must-read" books. Now here it is time for my summer to wind down and I gaze longingly at the basket of still unread books wishing I had just a few more weeks to immerse myself in reading. I love to read and I love a variety of books. A fascinating volume I just finished was " The Book That Changed My Life" edited by Roxanne J. Coady and Joy Johannessen. Writers wrote short essays on books that changed their lives. Some were expected and others were surprising. Here is a sample of the powerful words these writers penned about the books that changed their lives:

Jacquelyn Mitchard chose "A Tree Grows In Brooklyn" by Betty Smith. " She writes," I take from this book lessons in writing, courage, and the absolutely intransigent necessity for utter honesty. Perhaps because of who I am , and from whence I came, nothing else between two covers has ever meant more to me." That makes me want to read this classic again.

A favorite title many writers chose was "To Kill a Mockingbird" by Harper Lee. Susan Vreeland writes," Atticus's lessons of respect for all people and his efforts to instill in Scout a sensitive awareness of others culminate when she greets Arthur Radley with the simplicity of 'Hey, Boo'. It's one of the greatest lines in literature because it acknowledges a human being naturally, on his own terms, without requiring anything of him in return, which is the highest kind of love." I related because I remember getting to that scene in the book and having tears streaming down my face as Scout first greeted Boo Radley. This book changed my life also.

A book I have always wanted to read is "I Buried My Heart at Wounded Knee" by Dee Brown . After reading what Sebastian Junger expressed in his essay about this book I am more convinced I need to add it to my list. "We wiped out 90 per cent of the native population-even using Gatling guns against Sioux and Cheyenne villages in the last years of conflict. By any modern standard, that is genocide. Dee Brown's great service was to bring that painful truth to a country he clearly loved." When I converse with elders in the community where I teach this book often comes up. The words of Dee Brown helped many of these Native Americans come to terms with the history of their people. I hope to read it soon.

A few other titles recommended in this book are:
" The Bluest Eye" by Toni Morrison
"Catcher in the Rye" by J.D. Salinger
"The Nancy Drew Mysteries" by Carolyn Keene
"The Great Gatsby" by F.Scott Fitzgerald
"The Power of Myth" by Joseph Campbell
the Works of Shakespeare
the Bible
"Jane Eyre" by Charlotte Bronte

For book lovers that are always looking for titles to add to a must-read list, this book is a good resource. What books would you add this list that have changed your life? Please share and I will post a book list on the blog.
The love for reading began early for my brother and I. This is a picture I treasure of our dad reading to us on our parent's bed when we were very young.

The Blue Between

The Blue Between


Everyone watches clouds,
naming creatures they've seen.
I see sky differently,
I see the blue between-

The blue woman tugging
her stubborn cloud across the sky
The blue giraffe stretching
to nibble a cloud floating by.

A pod of dancing dolphins,
cloud oceans, cargo ships,
a boy twirling his cloud
around a thin blue fingertip.
In those smooth wide places,
I see a different scene.
In those cloudless spaces,
I see blue between.
by Kristine O'Connell George

photos taken by inland empire girl around northeastern Washington.

Anticipation!

One week from tonight I will be eagerly anticipating my first day of school. I will set the alarm for earlier than usual, make sure my " first day of school clothes" are ready, and find my coffee mug and lunch bag. Right now this hall looks quiet, but next Tuesday it will once again be filled with excited voices of middle school students. As I begin my thirty-first year of teaching I still get butterflies thinking about the first day of school. This year I will loop the 7th and 8th grade languge arts students I had last year, so we will pick up where we left on in the spring- which is nice. We have built a community of learners. They have writing waiting on computers to be finished. Books they didn't have time to read are on the shelves. We will all have stories to tell about what has happened since we said good-bye in June.
The classroom sits empty and bare, but soon the walls will be filled with learning materials, the tables will be heaped with notebooks, and the floor will be covered with backpacks. Students will find their assigned seats, sharpen their new pencils, and life in the classroom will begin again. I can't wait to see my students again.

" I Get That Sinking Feeling...": Sunday Scribblings

I get that sinking feeling when I remember my dog Emily Elizabeth and fireworks. I adopted Emily Elizabeth in the summer of 1996. I had just moved into the home I live in now. It had been a difficult spring and summer. My father had died in June, my 15-year-old springer spaniel Nikki had died in July. I was living alone with another dog Lucy, a springer/cocker mix. That August I decided it was time to get another dog.

I found Emily at the Kootenai County Humane Society in Coeur d’Alene, Idaho. She had been running loose on Kathleen Ave. After she was picked up nobody came to claim her. She came with some fears. She was uneasy walking across door jams. She was nervous around campfires. Brooms made her run away. Her biggest fear was fireworks. When loud firecrackers and fireworks started their noisy prelude the first days of July each year I knew we were in trouble with Emily.

The first year she hid in the closet. Another time she scratched the carpet trying to get into the bedroom where she felt safe. When the Fourth of July came around I always got that sinking feeling for Emily.

After JEJ and I were married we decided one year we would go with friends to watch the fireworks display in Colville. The dogs were safe in our fenced land. Emily was handling the holiday noise very well. When our friends came to pick us up Emily began to show nervousness by pacing around and I got that sinking feeling I should stay home. I almost said something as I looked over my shoulder uneasily when we drove away. Emily was standing at the gate panting and pacing nervously. Why didn’t I listen to my gut?

When we returned home a few hours later Emily was gone. Once again I got that sinking feeling. Why didn’t I stay home? Why did we have to go and watch fireworks that weren’t that entertaining? I was angry at myself. I was also frantic.

We called her and searched our property first. No holes were found around the fences. I checked closets, sheds, any places she may have taken refuge. I was not brave enough to go drive along the county road calling her name. I made JEJ go. I couldn’t deal with seeing her hit by a car or injured along the road. If she came home I wanted to be here. I continued to call her, search, and pray.

JEJ returned and reported he had seen no sign of Emily. It was now getting very late and I attempted to go to sleep. I tossed and turned as I wondered where Emily may have gone to escape the loud noises of the fireworks. I couldn’t lose the sinking feeling.

I got up very early the next morning and decided I needed to go walk around our neighborhood and call her. When I opened the gate here came a wet and dirty Emily Elizabeth. When she saw me her eyes lit up and her tail wagged. I ran to greet her and covered myself with her dirt and smelly water. I yelled to JEJ that Emily was home. Relief.

She was tired and hungry, but unharmed. She was nervous, but happy to be home. The other dogs greeted her with enthusiasm. We will never know where Emily went, but we suspect she jumped the gate and went down into the gully where Martin Creek flows. The rushing water may have masked the loud noises of the firecrackers in the neighborhood.

Since that ordeal we have never left our dogs alone during that time around the Fourth of July. Even if a dog doesn’t seem bothered by the noise, one firecracker can put them into panic.
I also learned through this experience that when I get that sinking feeling, I need to listen to what my gut tells me.

Emily died in December of 2004. She enriched our lives and taught us many important lessons about life. We loved her and miss her every day.
You can read other Sunday Scribblings here.

Sibling Writing Assignment #33: Still Life After a Dry Period

I gave the sibling assignment this week.

We were to use the topic Still Life

with words and pictures.

Raymond Pert's is here and Silver Valley Girl's is here.

With the weather conditions we have experienced

in August I am surprised I still have life in the gardens.

Lack of water, dry winds, warm nights,

and hundred degree afternoons

have challenged all our plants,

but these sunflowers came out victorious.When the rains, cooler breezes, and lower evening

temperatures came, these beautiful flowers lifted

their faces to heaven and smiled.