Lindsey's Prize-Winning Poem

This mom has been very remiss!  Last year Lindsey won first place in literature in the "Inspirations" contest (the Utah Charter Schools version of the "Reflections" contest that's put on by Granite School District).  I thought I had posted her poem here, on my blog, until I was looking through the 2010-2011 blog book that I just had printed.  Her poem is not in there! Oh noooo!!

The theme of the 2011 "Inspirations" contest was If Only, and while there were lots of versions of things like, "If only I could . . . (fly, have a ton of jelly beans, etc)," Lindsey had a unique take—and a very mature idea, I think.  So I am posting her work now because it's a great poem, and I'm very proud of her.  (And it's almost April—what better way is there to lead into National Poetry Month than to post a really good poem?) 

Here it is:

Dreams and Nightmares

by Lindsey North

Gone forever,

while the

If Only's

remain.

Sometimes

gone for

a while

But still

the If only's

remain.

If Only;

The words of

dreamers

and sinners.

The words

that float in

and out 

of Dreams

and Nightmares.

Don't I have a talented daughter? :-)

Spring Break 2012

It is spring break!  I am working on cleaning my house, which means I can have a really clean house for one. whole. week.  Yaaayy! Yesterday I got the house marvelously clean—well, the kitchen, living room and bathroom are done—and I made sure it stayed that way clear up until bedtime.  This morning I took the kids to school, then came home and made breakfast for Bruce and me, and it was sooo easy to clean up afterward!  This was our conversation as I put away our dishes:

Me:  It's easy to clean up the house when the house is clean.

Bruce:  (laughing) That sounds circular.

Me:  Well, more people should get in the loop.

Bruce thought that was very funny. (Some talented person should make this into a comic for me. :-))

But seriously, this was our kitchen last week:
 

And this is our kitchen today:

I think I never want spring break to end!

Fear

This afternoon as I hurried to my train stop I noticed a young black man sitting, waiting for the train. (Yes, I said, "black."  I understand that his skin isn't really black; but my skin isn't white, either. This whole "politically correct" business makes me crazy—can't we just speak? Anyway, I have really digressed now.)

I didn't pay too much attention to him as I passed by to find a seat and wait for my train—not until he started walking toward me; it was obvious that I was his destination.  Instinct made me pull my bag a little closer to myself, and then, because his eye was on me, I felt stupid for doing it.  He walked right up to me and said hi; he said he liked my hair, and he asked me my name.  I was a little nervous, but I told him my first name.  He held out his hand and said his name was Paul, and shook my hand with a nice, firm grip (I hate wimpy hand-shakes). Paul asked where I was headed, and I told him what train stop I was going to; he said he was headed into Salt Lake. As all this exchange was going on, I was a little, tiny bit uneasy in the back of my mind.  Who was this guy and what did he want? 

Paul is young—maybe in his mid to late twenties, wears his hair in short dreads, has a little goatee, and he's blind in his left eye.  He wasn't dressed as well as the kids I go to school with, but he didn't look homeless, either. I found out that he works in Salt Lake City; he's been here for about four months and he thinks Salt Lake is "different."   He's from New York, but he's been to several places across the country. He has family in New York and in Jamaica.  He was in Jamaica when he was eight years old, but I don't know if that means that he lived there, or if he'd just gone for a visit. He's been hitch-hiking around the United States for the past ten years or so; he lived in Las Vegas for about a year and I have the impression that's the longest he's stayed put. I asked him, of the many places he's been, which place he liked the best.  He said he couldn't choose one.  "They all have their pros and cons; when you total it up, they even out."  But he did like living in California because he could go to the beach every day, and he says that in San Diego the weather is perfect all the time.  I said I couldn't imagine living that way—moving around all the time—and asked if he liked it.  His answer about life was kind of the sameas his answer about places:  he has good and bad days, same as anyone; you can decide to like it or not; you make the best of life.

In turn, Paul found out that I've lived in Salt Lake all my life except for three years in Tennessee.  He knows that I don't like very hot or very cold weather, but if those are my choices I'd prefer cold (he'd prefer hot.)  He learned that I am going to fashion design school, but that I don't know what I'm going to do with this education later.  We talked for about ten minutes, waiting for and then riding the train.  At his stop he said, "So long, sweetie," and left to switch trains.  He was a nice young man.

So I thought about this for the rest of my train ride.  My very first instinct when I saw Paul was to hold tight to my stuff.  Really, if he had taken it he'd have been more disappointed than I would have been—a textbook, a bolt of muslin, a notebook, and a sewing kit.  I am embarrassed by my reaction.  All he wanted was someone to talk to for a few minutes. 

You know, most people are pretty nice.  So why are we all so afraid of them?

Family Outing

Last Saturday the Norths decided to have a Family Outing. 

in the van, ready to go

Bruce and I have been thinking that since we've never taken any kind of family vacation away from home together—not even camping—that maybe it was about time we took our family camping this summer.  But we have no camping gear.  Well, almost none; my scouts have sleeping bags and mess kits.  My sister and my mom have both told me what a cool store Cabela's is (although they say you can't afford to do more than look), and I wanted an excuse to break in my new camera. So for our big North Family Outing we decided to go to Cabela's. 

I'd thought we'd leave between 10:00 and noon, but instead we were piling into the van around 2:30.  This is kind of typical.  And we were hungry, so the first thing we did was go to Smiths and buy some sandwich stuff.  Since this was a Family Outing, we took all the kids into the store to help choose lunch stuff—this is not nearly as stressful as it was about five years ago. Then we ate in the van as we drove to the library to drop off some stuff, and then to another Smiths store for more bread and some cookies. (OK, and to go to the bank inside their store, too, which is another story.)  And then we were really on our way.

waiting for cookies in the van

 

on the drive

 First we drove down to Provo to look at an old car.

well, it was a little cooler in person

It's a 1965 Chrysler Newport—a cool-looking car, in its way, but with a NOISY engine, and needing some work.

 

We are not really the "restore an old car" type; it sounds like fun, but it also sounds like more time and $$ than we can invest right now.  But the little girls enjoyed taking it for a drive with their dad.

Then we back-tracked to Cabela's, and it is a pretty cool store.

We got there just about the same time they'd fed the trout in their big aquarium.  We walked into the aquarium place where we heard lots of children hollering and squealing.  There was one poor goldfish left, being chased around by those great big trout; finally one of them ate it and all the kids left. 

Lindsey says, "Mmmmm, trout!"

Well, our kids stayed and looked at the fish for a while.  Let me tell you, catfish are plain, old ugly.  Why would you ever see one of those and want to eat it? There was some other, even uglier kind of fish there too.

looking at ugly catfish

When we finished looking at ugly fish, we went to the Savana and saw a bunch of stuffed animals leaping about.  Taxidermy is kind of weird, don't you think?

Then we headed right on upstairs to look at camping gear. 


chillin' in the camp chairs

Rachel tries out an air mattress inside a tent.

Jessica tries out the air mattress.

Ryan and I try out the table inside the tent.
Right now we are pretty evenly matched—not for long, I bet!

Hmm.  Bruce and I look rather portly.
What does Bruce see up there?

We ended up spending about two hours at Cabela's.  Then we were hungry again (at 8 p.m.) so we drove back to Salt Lake, went to Harmons to buy some dinner, and headed home for a very late meal.

We did not buy any camping gear—just looked. But we are planning on a camping trip this summer. So I guess we'd better get ourselves in gear!

In Today's News . . .

Here is some real Leap-Day silliness:  After four months of the mildest winter in years (very cold, but almost no snow), we got dumped on for a couple hours on Leap Day, and now have about six inches of snow. 

Yesterday was Michael's birthday!  He is twenty years old. Here's to another sixty to eighty! 

Today is my wedding anniversary!  My marriage is twenty-two years old. 

Here's to another forty to sixty years!