Napkin Folding

My kids have been having a great time with a roll of paper towels (need to get some cloth napkins) and this book:

Mystery Light

A few months ago, when I first began planning our trip to the Upper Peninsula (hereafter referred to as U.P.), I discovered a website that helped me immensely. The website was created from a book that lists hundreds and hundreds of attractions of all kinds in the U.P. with in-depth descriptions including history. Places to stay, restaurants, hikes in the woods, waterfalls, museums, unique shops...they're all in there.

I really want to buy this book, but as you can imagine, they have to update it from time to time. Businesses close and new ones open, things change. A new edition of the book was due this year, but it was delayed. It will be out in Spring 2009. While I'm waiting, I bought a fold out map created by the same authors that lists much of what is in the book in an abbreviated form. I pore over this fold out much like I imagine people from a century ago may have pored over a mail-order catalog. Where can I go? What can I see?

Today, when I picked it up, I saw a site I hadn't noticed before.

196. Paulding Mystery Light. Paranormal mecca with eerie nighttime glow.
4 mi. N of Watersmeet, just N of Time Zone sign, turn W onto Old 45. In 1/2 mi. turn onto Robbins Pond Rd. At top of 2nd hill, pull over.

I wondered what in the world it could mean, so I did a little internet research. What I found is here, here, and here. Very interesting and a little spooky too.

I asked Joseph what he thought of it and he just shrugged and said that he was sure there was a very logical explanation. I tend to buy into the (play a little spooky Halloween music in the background) supernatural a little more than he does. Still, though, there are some strange lights in Paulding, Michigan. They have been documented for over 40 years and the oral tales extend back about a hundred years. Many people have tried to figure out what's going on there and there isn't a concise conclusion. Whether it's something natural like glowing gases escaping from beneath the crust of the earth, something eerie like the ghost of a brakeman, or something explainable like a prank that has gone on night-after-night-all-night-long for a hundred years (not too explainable, eh?), it's pretty amazing. It makes me think of those intricate patterns found in corn fields. They probably have a logical explanation too, but they are still really cool.

I am so there next summer!

How's that for an inspirational Sunday post?

It happened again last night

As I sat devouring a book about hiking in the Upper Peninsula (imagining myself there), I suddenly looked up and scanned my living room. Joseph was reading a book that Nathan had brought home from school (part of his current language arts project) called "The White Mountain" and was occasionally telling me about the parts of it that Stephenie Meyer stole to write her book "The Host." Nathan and Elijah were sharing a book called "Children from Austrailia to Zimbabwe" and talking about what they were reading. Brigham was going from person to person asking them to read his favorite book "Trucking" by Donald Crews. Sariah and May had to go to bed early, but if they had been up, they would have been reading too.

This is one of my absolute favorite family activities. I love to look around and see everyone in the family present and reading a good book!

Before bed, Nathan and Elijah persuaded me to read a few stories from our current read-aloud, "One Voice, Please" by Sam McBratney. It was a good night.

I've Got a European Cold!

I didn't even have to travel to get it, which doesn't seem fair somehow. It seems that a professor at MSU was in Denmark (I might have the country wrong) at some academic meetings and caught this terrible virus, bringing it home to the U.S. Then, some people in Joseph's office were with this professor at some mandatory meetings last week. Joseph told me about it and was feeling lucky not to have caught it himself, since he's a magnet for exotic viruses and homegrown viruses too, for that matter. This weekend, I started having painful joints and general weakness and then yesterday the cold part hit both Joseph and I. Down and out for the count...

Giving the Hummers a Good Send-Off

This is the first year that I've been conscientious about keeping the bird feeders full and clean. I've really tried to clean and refill the hummingbird feeder once a week. I guess that moves this whole "bird thing" more into the hobby realm because I enjoyed it, more than feeling it was just another job I had to do.

Thanks to some reading in one of our bird identification books, I learned that female and young hummingbirds usually migrate south mid-September from Michigan. The males go about two weeks before this (is this because they need the extra time to look their best for when the females come around?) Normally, by this time, I would have taken the hummingbird feeder down or started to ignore it. The bird book said to leave up the feeder about two weeks past mid-September so that any birds who are about to migrate can feed. I thought we had seen the last of them after our stormy weather this past weekend and then just yesterday I was surprised by a pair of them. Still, all around are the reminders that summer is almost passed.

Little Learner

I'm sure part of it is that Brigham is my last little one, but I'm just riveted watching him learn and grow. In particular, I love watching, er...listening to his language acquisition. He works so hard trying to make sounds correctly (without anyone pressuring him to do so), and he tries to say any new words he hears.

His main enjoyment these days is cars and trucks. Nathan came home from Utah with a new game made up by his cousin in which you get points for certain colors and makes of cars. Brigham has caught on to all that and can be heard yelling, "Nathan, there's a mini-Cooper!" or "There's a slug bug, Mama" or "Elijah, there's a cement truck!" sometimes even getting the colors correct. The only way we've tried to teach colors is the same way Nathan learned colors. We just name the color of the vehicle we are talking about.

He likes to do somersaults, jump, read stories, listen to singing, play with Play Dough, play endlessly with cars and trucks, and be pulled around the house (he holds one end of a blanket and someone else the other end and then they run like maniacs!) He's always got an armful of cars and usually a little plastic bear that he's carrying around with him. Lately, he's been o.k. when I tell him that he can only take one car with him when we go in the van or that he has to leave his toys in the van when we go into the store.

Joseph

It's his birthday. I won't say which because he's so much older than myself (inside joke).

I'm so happy to celebrate the birthday of this incredible person. He's the reason for much of the good in my life. Just four months after we were married, he agreed to let me go to Monterey, CA to study marine biology for seven weeks. Then two years later, he agreed to let me go again! We had such good times when he'd come from Utah to visit me there! This summer, he took us all to the upper peninsula. I don' t know when we ever would have gone, but he scheduled his meeting in Marquette, MI during the summer so that he could take his family with him. This past weekend, he took each of our children to a quiet place and had an interview with them. I loved reading the list of questions he had decided to ask them. Those are just three of many examples of wonderful things he has done to help me and our family.

This is the kind of dad he is:


FUN! We're all so lucky to have him around!

Happy Birthday, J!

P.S. He has great taste in menu too. Tonight's dinner is Teriyaki Chicken and for dessert Cream Pies!

Our River Runneth O'er

Well, really it's a creek, but river sounded better.

As we've been driving down the roads lately, we've been craning to see the overflowing creek and river beds. Wow! It rained quite a lot this past weekend after having a very dry summer. The result was a lot of run off into the rivers. The bulging, running waters mock the now sunny and dry skies that we have.

We came through pretty well, though our basement is not totally waterproof. Joseph did a lot of different things to try to keep water out of our basement when we first moved in. Soon after, we finished a room in our basement and crossed our fingers. That first winter when the ground was still frozen, the two foot high piles of snow began to melt and we had a trickle into our finished basement. Since then, we haven't had anything, until this weekend. We had to pull carpet up in a couple of places, but this really is nothing compared to what so many are going through.

I took Brigham for a walk today just so I could get a closer look at the creek that runs close to us. The amount of water is astounding!

This used to be a gravel road leading to some private property.

I hope these people don't have a basement. This made me feel really sad.

Here's the end of the bike path.

Look to the left.


And to the right. It goes way out there.

What was once a creek, is now a pond or small lake. I'm thinking about the people down river right now.

Creative!

Nathan made a card to go with a birthday present this weekend. I thought it was so creative. Notice the close-up, which refers to the picture he drew.

I Want to Go to Tuscany

I've got my vacation house all picked out. Well, I've narrowed it down anyway. Click here and here to see them. I also spent the last little while reading an article online from a travel magazine site, which has helped me to know what to go and see while I'm there. You can see that here. Plus, you can't be so close to Rome and not see the Eternal City. I'm going to research the topic "Rome in a day" and see what I can come up with. My vacation plans are inspired by two flicks, "Enchanted April" (I'm just finishing off this book and it is wonderful; the movie and book are neck-in-neck) and "Roman Holiday."

I need to be prepared for the time two decades away when I can maybe pull this vacation off! Plus, I had to stay up until my kids were all asleep. G'night.

What's your dream vacation?

P.S. I might want to cruise over to the Greek Isles while I'm in the area of the Mediterranean. Have you seen pictures of the cities that climb up the coastal mountains on those islands? Breathtaking!

A World Apart

Hands down, my favorite part of our upper peninsula vacation were the two spots we visited on Lake Superior with rock outcroppings. Presque Isle Park, Marquette AND Hunter's Point, Copper Harbor.

We picked up some take-out Tex-Mex one night (best taco salads we've ever eaten) and headed to Presque Isle Park. I had read that there were very old rocks exposed at this park, but didn't know what to expect. After we had eaten, we began to explore. We immediately came upon an inlet of water with a pebble beach, crystal clear water, and wildly red and green colored rocks. I had a feeling of instant happiness and any feelings that I might want to move away from Michigan to be near the ocean and marine biology evaporated completely. I'm pretty sure I never want to leave here. The feeling of happiness/joy was that strong for me.

Copper Harbor's outcroppings of rock were also dated back to possibly Pre-Cambrian times (the bedrock of basalt is exposed). We didn't know what we were seeing at the time and have since identified some fossils and types of rocks that we saw there.

These were both places I could never have dreamt up. Just incredible. I can't wait to go back!

Click here to see more pictures.

Good Use of Three Minutes

It is my belief that the world would be a better place if everyone were to take just three minutes to watch and listen to this segment of "The Magic Flute." It is called, "The Queen of the Night." I don't know what it means, but we are checking out a book from the library that will tell us what's going on. There are other versions out there, but this was our fav. ("Five star rating, without debate," says Nathan.) Here's another version by a talented little boy.



Marni is always a few steps ahead of me, but she's creating a great path for me to follow! I took this link from her blog post yesterday!

Bommarillu

When I was a student at BYU, I enjoyed going to the International Cinema and watching the subtitled movies. Occasionally, even now, I get the urge not just to watch a movie, but to read subtitles.

Joseph has been feeling some stress lately and asked if we could watch a movie together the other night. I went to the library to see what I could find. I picked up several. We watched an old movie on Tuesday night called "On the Waterfront," which we both enjoyed. Joseph picked that one out from the stack I brought home.

What's the good of a stack of DVD's, though, unless you watch them all? It was my turn to choose last night and I picked Bommarillu. It's an Indian film, though not Bollywood (from what I understand). We almost turned it off because it began and continued to be cheesy. But we kept on and watched the entire three hour film. The music and dancing were great fun and the storyline was great! A little view into (rich) Indian culture too.

Another subtitled movie recommendation: Children of Heaven. This one is from Iran. A very touching film.

Claiming my Independence

I grew up thinking I had a definite party affiliation. As it turns out, the state I grew up in (most of my young life) pretty much didn't even have two parties. And, I had virtually no interest in politics at the time. Except, get this, when Jimmy Carter's face came on the t.v. screen, I always had to go over there and cover his face up. I don't know why.

Over the years, I've developed a moderate interest in politics. Due to my previous prejudices, it took a long time for me to break away and really, really consider the two sides without bias (to the the best of my ability).

After much, much work (thinking, talking), I have come the conclusion that I'm an INDEPENDENT. And, there are many, many ideals and policies that leave me confused. I don't know where I stand.

From my standpoint, it's much easier to give yourself wholeheartedly to one party or the other. Then you get to participate in the funny little jokes that are created to bash the other side. The humor is bound to help us feel better. As it is, those jokes just grate on me, no matter who they are putting down. I don't like it. I guess I'm feeling pretty serious about politics at the moment and frustrated that I'm not sure there's a good choice out there.

I read a blog opinion a few weeks ago that made me feel better. The writer talked about having a political affiliation and a candidate in mind for November. She also said that no matter which way things go, it probably won't alter our lives quickly and dramatically. I like that idea.

I'd just like to say, though, that negativity produces more negativity. I wish the candidates would clean up their acts and send positive out. There is a second grade teacher that I know who has this idea down pat. She is the most positive person I have ever been around. I love seeing the response of the students and parents to her positivity. I commented on that once to her and she just humbly told me that she tries to be positive. I'd like to see more of that!

Fall is Nearly Upon Us!

I'm working on it!

The other day when we were in the restaurant, the waitress brought our drinks and then went away pretty quickly. May said, "Oh, darn, she left too soon!" I wondered what she was talking about. May proceeded to tell me that she is working on being less shy and more polite to people and had been hoping to try it out with the waitress. She did not get the idea to work on this from me. My best guess is that she has observed someone she admires using these skills and is trying to emulate it! Wow! What a good example my children are to me.

Holy CROW!

Ever since reading a National Geographic article maybe ten years ago, I have been fascinated by the intelligence of ravens and crows. Where hundreds of crows caw-cawing in a tree used to annoy me, now I look forward to the arrival of them. A couple of weeks ago, when we traveled to the upper peninsula, we started seeing their big brothers, the ravens. Sitting on the top of a dead pine tree, they look colossal! In our time up there, I never got a picture because we mostly saw them roadside.

The past few days I've had a little quiet time in the afternoon, so I'm finally beginning to wade through the many amazing videos over at TED.com. I just had to share today after watching a video relating to crows.

Click here to watch a ten minute TED.com video that demonstrates the amazing intelligence of crows! Enjoy!

Michigan: Visited and Revisited

I bought a map of Michigan for my kids at the beginning of the summer and had it laminated. Sariah picked some glittery star stickers for us to mark the places we visited. It's hard to see the stars on the store bought map because it's busy with graphics, so I created a new map this morning (below--I missed a couple of locations in the "thumb") to show where we've been this summer. Some places we visited for a few hours, some for a whole day, some for a few days. Besides that we criss-crossed the state via highways till I feel like I have a pretty good view of what my state looks like. Plus, as a huge bonus, there are places I still want to see and places where I MUST return (I still need to blog about some of that).

Last Year, This Year

How he has grown!

Last Run of the Season?

On a whim, we threw on t-shirts and shorts after church, piled some food in a bag and headed to the coast.

Looking at a fossil

What's Wordle??

My brother posted the answer to that here. Since it's late, I won't go into it myself.

It allows you to enter your own words or enter the blog address of your choice and then tweak the colors, fonts, and orientation of your text. The only bad thing is that it only analyzes only the last few posts of a blog.

Still, it's fun. Give it a try! Wordle.

The picture below is a link to my actual Wordle!

School Girl

Today Sariah dictated a letter at school to her favorite lady from church (Megan Finlay, called 'Miss Finlay' in the letter). I read it quickly before we dropped it off at her house. If I remember right, she talked about how she likes going inside the Finlay's house. The next line is where I caught the excited air of Sariah's school pride, "I won't be able to come to your house anymore because I'm in school all day." So cute!!

The Mighty Mac

Mighty Mac with a freighter passing underneath

Before 1957, the upper and lower peninsulas of Michigan were not connected and ferries were the only way to go back and forth between the two. On November 1, 1957, the Mackinac Bridge (also known as the Big Mac or Mighty Mac) opened. If you go here and read the section called 'Length', there's a lot of technicality explaining why it may or may not be the longest suspension bridge around (this Wikipedia link also includes a lot of pictures of the bridge). Suffice it to say, it's one of the longest suspension bridges in the world. The bridge crosses the Straits of Mackinac, which is where Lake Michigan and Lake Huron meet.


Every year, on Labor Day, one half of the bridge is opened to foot traffic. Other than that, no pedestrians or bikes are allowed on the bridge. Ever since I heard about this tradition, I have wanted to participate. However, the timing isn't great because it's about four hours from our home and school starts the next day. We've never walked the bridge.

I got the great idea this year to go and walk the bridge alone. Just before leaving I had a conversation with my friend, Sue, who told me that she's never had any inclination to walk the bridge due to her fear of heights.



I have a fear of heights as well, but didn't think it would be an issue for me.

As I was nearing the bridge, I stopped on an I-75 rest stop. This particular rest stop had a small hike up to an overlook. I figured, why not, a good excuse to get the blood flowing. The overlook was a platform built up to view across the highway. There was a body of water surrounded by trees (we are talking Michigan, after all). What happened to me up on that platform still gives me the shudders to think about. Due to my very unlucky fear of heights, I got electric nerve impulses to the ends of my fingers and to the ends of my toes that hurt badly. Enough that I had to get outta there quick.

A few miles later, I drove over the bridge and had the same experience, though slightly less painful. That bridge never bothered me when Joseph was driving.


Needless to say, I DID NOT walk the bridge on Labor Day. This just isn't my year to overcome my fear of heights, I guess!

Off They GO!

Everyone looked superb and they all were excited for the first day of school, especially the littlest one! I cannot convince her to stay home with me for another year...

Nathan had a minor surgery last week and a lot of people asked if he was nervous beforehand. I didn't really notice him being nervous, but I would reply that I think he internalizes things a lot. (His surgery went marvelously well and he's doing fine!) This morning, I realized just how much my comment was about me.

I had this yucky anxiety feeling this morning while helping the kids get ready for their first day of school. It was really no big deal. We had bought a new set of clothes and shoes for each kid last week. We bought school supplies a couple of weeks ago. They already had backpacks and lunch boxes (Thanks to L.L. Bean. Those things last forever.) I got up early and even had clean laundry for myself. There was cereal and milk in the house. By all accounts, I should have been fine, but I wasn't. Truth be told, change is hard for me. I don't cry, I just agonize inside. Hey, wait a minute, this post isn't about me!!!

Today was an open house for Kindergarten and a half day for the rest. Our tradition is to go to lunch on the first and last day of school. Chili's. This will help us ease ourselves back into school after an adventurous and appointment-free summer!

P.S. Look at Sariah's face in the b & w picture. She really is that excited about school!

P.P.S. May is 9 and still wants to wear dresses and skirts to school. I love it!