Gathering Around The Table

2/6/08

I Am Milk Chocolate !

You are Milk Chocolate

A total dreamer, you spend most of your time with your head in the clouds.

You often think of the future, and you are always working toward your ideal life.

Also nostalgic, you rarely forget a meaningful moment... even those from long ago.

What Kind of Chocolate Are You?

Winter Beauty on the Morning Drive

In northeastern Washington we didn't get as much snow as anticipated last night. I still left very early this morning not knowing what condition I would find the roads. This provided an opportunity for me to appreciate the morning beauty as I drove along Lake Roosevelt. It also gave me enough time to snap some pictures. Barnaby Island above has been featured often on this blog, but I was glad I caught it during this snowy season. The snow west of the island is where the "big lake" is freezing over.

The landscape changes often during my sixteen mile drive to work. This corridor of trees provides a tunnel-like feeling during one part of the journey. Looking down the road I anticipated a beautiful sunrise.

Quickly I moved out of the trees and into the open fields of farmland where I could enjoy the soft, pastel clouds of that sunrise.

This is the last big hill I have to gingerly navigate each morning. I also know I am close to my destination.

When I turn the last corner the sunrise, mountains, and my school will come into view. I realize the snow is causing much difficulty this winter season, but it also carries with it a peaceful beauty.

2/4/08

Happy Blog Anniverary Silver Valley Girl

Saturday, February 2nd was my sister's one year anniversary for her blog Silver Valley Stories. If you haven't visited her blog you can find it here.

This last year we have been invited into my sister's life through her humorous words, photo images, touching stories, history lessons, words of faith, honest posts, and a view of a backyard tree almost every day. Her blog posts have highlighted her three beautiful daughters as one won a trip to Washington, D.C. as a Idaho History Day contest winner, another talked to the astonauts in space and met Barbara Morgan later, and the third daughter graced Teeter's Field and a few weeks later the KHS stage by being part of the Homecoming court at my alma mater and playing Fairy May in "The Curious Savage". We have followed her husband's successful balancing act as an actor, director, teacher, husband, and father.

About fifty- three weeks ago my sister created our Sibling Assignment we do each week with our brother Raymond Pert. In reference to our weekly ritual this is what she said on her blog post yesterday,

" Another nice thing is the interaction I have with my siblings Raymond Pert and Inland Empire Girl. Besides our weekly sibling assignments that we share, I love learning about their lives and thoughts and memories as I read their posts. It has drawn us all closer together this year, and helped us learn more about one another."

I agree with her. It is amazing how three of us could have lived in the same house and reflected on the same events and have such different perspectives. I think because of Silver Valley Girl each of us has been about to reflect on our growing up years in a deeper way and it has given all of us a purpose for writing memoir each week.

Happy Anniversary SVG! I look forward to another year of learning, laughing and finding inspiration through Silver Valley Stories.

here is Silver Valley Girl celebrating another first.... her first birthday!

2/3/08

Weekend Snapshots: A Contrast in Thawing

Where the sun hits the eastern side of the house we are getting quite a February thaw today.

The snow is off the trees and the railing and we can almost see the table that was buried in snow a few days ago.

Under the eaves on the western side of the house it is a different story. Icicles still cling to the evergreen shrub.

Above the door the thick ice holding up a row of icicles that keep growing. Maybe today as it thaws we will find the missing dog toys and other odds and ends that have been buried in the drifts of snow. To find other weekend snapshots go here.

2/2/08

Sibling Assignment # 53: The Disco Queen

This week our sibling assignment came from Raymond Pert: "For this week's assignment focus on one piece of music you listened to between the ages of twenty-five and thirty ( I fudged and used twenty-four). If possible, post a video of this song, but not required. I guess you could make your own video if you wanted to. With this piece of music, open the door to some aspect of yourself at this point in your life and what the song makes you think about in whatever way works for you."
Raymond Pert's tour down the early years of MTV and Phil Collins is here and Silver Valley Girl's poignant post is here.

It was the spring of 1979. I was living in my hometown and two-thirds through my second year of teaching. I had a circle of friends that knew how to have fun. We played on a town basketball team, danced late into the night at the local hot spots, and found reasons to have theme parties, birthday parties, and other gatherings. Most of us were single and at that time I had a stereo that played music loudly when I came home from school each day. Donna Summer and her album "Live and More" epitomized that time in my life. She was the Queen of Disco. She belted out lyrics that made lipsyncing with a perfume bottle work perfectly . She had moves that were too much for the Sunshine Inn in Kellogg, Idaho. As we emerged into adulthood we were trying to embrace responsiblity and hard work, but still wanted to hang on to the good times that were part of our lives after high school and/or college.

The song from the album that always takes me back to that spring is "Last Dance." At that birthday party in March of 1979 we played that song over and over again and everyone sang the lyrics until our voices were hoarse and did the best disco moves we knew. It was a time when things were easy. We had fun, enjoyed our friendships, worked hard, and laughed our guts out. Within a year many of us met our future husbands, times togethers were more adult, and we moved into a new era of music.

One day a couple of years ago I was at the drugstore in Kellogg picking up stuff for Mom. It was a difficult time for our family. I walked down the aisle and "Last Dance" began on the speaker system in the store. I smiled and took my time listening to the slow part at the beginning and waited for the beat to pick up and Donna to belt out those famous lyrics.

Whether is is on my MP3 player, at a class reunion, or just in a conversation with friends from that time period hearing those first few bars of "Last Dance" takes me to a time that was "too easy." It reminds me of singing the lyrics in my upstairs apartment on Mission Ave. I remember everyone yelling loudly when they heard those first few bars of the song where ever we were. This song was the best thing that happened to the movie Thank God It's Friday. It also won a Grammy and an Oscar for Best Song in 1978. I guess the Disco Queens of Kellogg, Idaho had good taste in music even then. Enjoy this live performance of Donna Summer's " Last Dance" and perhaps you can reflect on a time when things were easy.

Sunday Scribblings: Fowl

I had lots of foul things I could have shared today, but I decided instead to take the liberty of using a word that sounds the same. Fowl has been spotted all over our property. Above the cardinal brightens up the driveway.