Stargazing with a 9 3/4 year old

I took Marissa on a stargazing field trip in Grandpa's pasture last night. What an experience that was. We got the telescope on Saturn but it is so low on the western horizon now when it is dark enough to see, it is hard to really get a good look at anyway and forget trying to find Titan.

Then after much debate and finally making her sit on my lap so she could see we were looking at the same things we identified Libra, Virgo and Scorpio. Scorpio which sits toward the center of the galaxy is usually an amazing sight with a pair of binocs but it sits to the south right over The City of Driggs from our pasture location and for those of you who haven't noticed Driggs suffers from a deplorable case of light pollution now--- who would have ever thought. Oh well maybe I will need to go to our bulk plant to stargaze some night.

Marissa thought she needed to name a star last night,so she laid back, looked up and chose a very bright, almost- blue directly over head. We are reading the book , The Golden Compass by Philip Pullman aloud right now, so she decided to name that blue Lyra after the main character in the story. For those of you that aren't familiar with this stuff the big, bright, almost- blue directly over head at this time of the year is Vega, it was the pole star a few thousand years ago and will be again in a few thousand more and it sits in the constellation Lyra. We had a good laugh about the whole thing and named a different star Lyra but I bet she doesn't soon forget that lesson.

Our main quarry for the evening was suppose to be Jupiter which cleared the Eastern horizon at about 10:30 pm. But we had to wait for it to get a little higher so it would clear some of the atmospheric distortion---it is amazing how cold 59 degrees can feel after a day spent at 90 degrees---we got too cold so we gave up and came in before we looked at Jupiter. But it is rising a little earlier every evening, in a week we won't have to wait for it to rise high enough before we freeze. And I will get to spend another amazing evening stargazing with my daughter.

Signs of Summer--believe it or not

Yes-- that is a picture of a blue sky--- a blue sky that happened here, in Teton Valley Idaho Today. I know you can't believe it either. But it happened. It was still cold--- like 45 degrees and it cleared up in the evening so it is going to get colder. Time to wander out and cover the tomato plants and they live in a greenhouse. But there is still sunshine out there somewhere.















Here is another sure sign that summer is on its way....Some might recognize what these are. For those that don't, these are THE FIGURE 8 RACE CARS. As usual the race will be during the Teton County Fair in August. Brandon plans on racing again this year, and so does Josh--- we will have to see about that though. The rules say 16 years or older but nothing about Driver's Licenses (He won't have it until Oct).

Just for fun here are some more flower pictures from another walk around the yard. They are all pretty good pictures but someday I am going to have a macro lens that is going to let me take pictures of flowers that will look like alien landscapes I cannot wait.





This is probably my favorite of the pictures I took. It is of the apple blossoms on a neighbor's tree--- Our tree got blossoms but they weren't pretty and there weren't very many either. Our tree got broke during a snowstorm last June and it hasn't recovered.







Columbine in Grandma H's Garden , they look a little sad still but this picture is so cool . You can see all the yellow things in the center. It doesn't stand out so well from the red barn in the background though something I need to think about before I take the picture.





















my last post I mentioned what those little white flowers do to my car. Well, it looks something like this but on my car it loses some of the charm of course. Well it I am off to save my daughter from herself and my tomatoes from the frost.

Another Rainy Day

This has been our second rainy day this week. I sat inside feeling rather trapped wondering what I could possibly do today. On days like today everyone is a little stressed out. We are all on edge and we tend to argue more. My children really like being outdoor pets! Does anyone else have issues like these on rainy days? It always seems like the first couple weeks of June in Teton Valley are always this way. Jim checked the weather and it looks like we have 10 days more or less of this same weather.

I did notice that all this rain and the warmer weather has made the trees flower. So I took my camera for a walk around my yard and Grandma Hartshorn's next door. These are the pictures
I took.


The lilacs are blooming at least on this one bush
I wish there was a way to post the way they smell.









These flowers are on the Canadian Choke Cherry in my front yard. It looks beautiful but it is a mess. It leaves little white petals all over my car that is parked next to it









I am not sure what this one is but it lives in grandma's backyard flower bed. I think it is a small tulip it was just so cute.








This year the Bleeding Hearts over at Grandma's
are just amazing.











This doesn't have any flowers right now but it is pretty. This is the peppermint in the greenhouse. The roof is open right now and it loves this rainy, cool weather. I guess around here it is May showers bring June flowers.

Really Tired Today

Yesterday was the spring recital for Balance Studios… it was a great recital, all the girls danced so well. But that Company B sure has it’s moments. Girls will be girls I suppose but my girl doesn’t go to public school and doesn’t have the clique skills necessary to survive in there. I see her getting snotty like the other girls and I don’t want that to happen. I don’t think that it is a maturity issue, it is behavior issue that is not really acceptable from any of the kids. What am I suppose to do about it? How am I suppose to clique proof my daughter?

Anyway, trying to come to a solution last night, I did not sleep so well…and I am tired and I think I handled the whole thing badly by emailing the teacher and putting it in a not so nice way---just frustration on my part. Marissa loves to dance---there isn’t anywhere else but Balance for her to dance unless I want a very long drive 3 times a week. I don’t think that this well improve with time really because I don’t , like I said, think this is a maturity thing. Maybe with maturity she can learn to ignore the nonsense though. I don’t know, get a good nights sleep , issue a formal apology to the teacher and maybe I can come out with a solution that will work.

On a happier note ,Friday was the last day of school for Marissa. We need to finish a small amount of math and a little English for promotion, but I don’t have to worry about attendance. It will be great. Now to come up with some really great stuff to do for the summer!

on the way to drivers ed

Today I had to get up at 5:30 am so I could deliver Josh to Drivers Ed by 6:00--It was 2 degrees F in the driveway and 0 at the school. I don't know about everybody elses vehicle but my 2002 Dodge Caravan has electrical issues at the best of times but at 2 degrees things can really get weird and I never know how or if this weirdness is going to present itself. This morning it happened to be the windshield wipers. I turned them on to brush off the light dusting of snow that fell overnight and then they wouldn't turn off. I turned them on and then off again this time they turned off after about three wipes but they stopped in the middle of the windsheild. My wipers are the kind that both start in the middle and go opposite directions to the outside of the window. They were in the way. Soooo I turned them on again and quickly turned them off. They instantly stopped right in front of my eyes. I tried it a couple more times and each time they stopped instantly. I thought, hey this is cool ,they are stopping as soon as I turn them off (at least for the moment anyway). So I waited until they were all the way down and switched them off. Do you think in the all the way down position they stopped? Noooo that would be too unDodge Caravan like. They went 3 more times and stopped in the middle again. I gave up and let them run for awhile. When I reached the highschool I turned them off and they did the right thing(finally). Anyway the kid is at school and I am at home and I had time to post an entry to my blog!! So even if this is a silly post---it is all good in the end.
Make today a good day!

Just me trying to get this thing started

Today I decided I needed to finally start my blog. I did not realize how easy it was to get one started though so I don't know what I want to say at this very moment. Since Marissa will be ready to start school soon I will have all the rest of the day to think about it.Make today a good one!