mikey and trevis

We went to the tree hugger's ball. It was great. There was a raffle. I had twelve quarters and bought 3 tickets. There was a particular prize i wanted so much. For some reason, the last two raffles I have been to, someone has given me their tickets when they had to leave early. I was standing on the stairs when a couple came by
and handed me a stack of tickets and wished me good luck. I could feel the good karma radiating from the tickets, and I knew they would produce me my particular prize. Just before the raffle, the thought came to me that I should share the tickets with the people with me. It seemed the right thing to do. To pass along the generosity and good energy. But the very power that seized Smeagle's heart came over me. My hands began to sweat and clutched the tickets with a choking greed. But I wouldn't be had. I wouldn't be the weak link that broke this chain of the goodness of mankind. So I split up the tickets among us, and kept my good faith that if it was meant to be, I would still go home with my prize. The raffle proceeded. I sat anxiously coming to terms with the idea of watching my prize walk away with another person who I had given the golden ticket to. I stared down at the fateful numbers as one by one they read them off. They read my numbers! I ran down, tripping to see what I won. Then sheepishly walked back trying to go unnoticed when the announcer told me i was mistaken. Then again. They read my numbers. I got up to claim my reward, but sat back. I I was too embarrassed to be wrong again. But then I saw it. The particular prize. He held it up. Read the numbers again. I leapt from my seat. Ran down the stairs. Then I walked away, rocking my particular prize with amazement in my arms. So I would like to take this time to thank the two ladies that gave me their raffle tickets without hesitation. I hope the universe circles the good karma back around to you and that I always find the courage to pass it along!

As for the pictures, my brothers have both found new talents! Trev as a photographer, and Mike a model! I am so darn proud! These were my favorites.

i have a few things to say

but it's pretty late. and mostly i just keep getting so sick of the pictures on our blog that i want to update. there is only so much "watch dog" you can take.

i think everyone should know just a couple things, then i will blog what i really have to say later.
first of all we met a girl who saved a butterfly by giving it mouth to mouth. just visualize that. use it as your meditation mantra. "in, out. in out." and picture it flying away with all your troubles...

i took the kids from school skiing. it was a dream. i can't wait to get pictures.

the tree hugger ball is coming up for todd's work. it is on the 27th if anyone wants to go. if you come, i'll talk todd into keeping the chops.

Watch Dog

Todd told me his co-worker is starting a watch dog for the police to keep an eye on their inappropriate use of violence. Which is funny, isn't that what the police are supposed to do? Would you call this a paradox, ironic, or a simple oxymoron? Remember the guy who got beat up by the police for not 'watching' his 'dogs'? It was all because he left his dogs in the car. We all better watch it these days.

(a watching dog)
(a "watch" dog)
There is a "watch dog" at the library. Or maybe a library police? If you have chocolate milk on the side of your desk, he will stand up from his desk which is right next to yours and yell at you. He will worn you that it will only take a small momentary dash to knock it on the floor and cause "everyone in the library ALOT of TROUBLE!" Believe me, he's "been there before!" And he will continue to warn you as he sits down. And for a while after that. But don't worry, it won't be that awkward. Because he carefully talks as loud as he can so other people will look.


We like to "watch" the "dogs" at the dog park. Some people are normal, most are not. The dogs are usually normal. I see uncomfortable, forced chats among dog owners. Todd saw an old couple put their dog into a stroller after it played.



Now let us not forget to:

("Watch") (DAWG!)

Could we ask for a better "watch dog"? Thank you bounty hunter!

i am so sick of those tree pictures

well heck. we haven't blogged in so darn long. it's hard when you see people and you wonder what on earth they could possibly care about you blogging when they see you all the time. or see you enough. but i will just give you a few quick updates:

-todd started a new job. it is an americore position at a non profit called tree utah. it is cool. he is helping to plant trees, coordinate volunteers, and work at the U in an environmental class.

-Christmas was fun.

-We went to Hawaii. It was great. i don't have pictures yet, but when i do, i'll post some. So here is one from when we went last time. Todd mostly surfed. I tried but I got cold and wasn't very good. Todd wore his Obama shirt the whole time in order to provoke my uncles, cousins, brother, dad, and grandpa. it was a great success. and i skydived. so did some of my family like aubri, jared, and trev. it was neat.

-Everyone is having a birthday! Happy birthday Aubs, Ty, Jared, Alina, Star, Faith and baby EV!!

-I went with sar to a meditation this week, and i loved it! everyone should come. my favorite part was when we had sharing time and someone would say their name..like "i am will." and everyone would say..."will" "will"

-Today I was in an assembly at East High modeling African clothes with the African kids I work with. If you are wondering if that is normal, it is not.

yeah, i found those pictures. but i got them off of facebook, so they are tiny. o well.

disclaimer

if your name has been deleted off the side of our list, don't be offended. todd deletes them at random to make a point. it's nothing personal.

I thought I might amuse myself and compare last year's Christmas tree to this years. I suppose that you and I might have both imagined something a little more.... well something a little more this year considering that we are in the states. But lo, that was not in the cards for us, so here he is! A gentle little Cyprus. How fitting. But the happy thing about this one is that it is real, but we won't have to throw it away.


I have also been comparing last year to this one. Last year was, ironically, so much about things. I think that I felt so trapped and constricted in our 6 by 6 pink and red bedroom in our last host families house that I became fixated on things. When we finally moved out, I found a value in simple things that I had never felt before. I felt like I was buying our freedom and independence one fork, one pillow, one bag of flour at a time. Every time I went to town, I came back with new freedoms. A new broom, paint, pig tail buckets... their significance was astounding. (i am almost embarrassed that i used that word on the blog... but nothing else seemed to fit.) We then created the closest thing to a conventional life that we have ever had before, or since. We had a house, a yard, and even a dog and a cat. We had schedules..we went to bed early, got up early, cleaned and cooked almost every night. By the time we left Belize to come home for Christmas, we were practically the closest we have been to regular, functioning humans.

And now we are here. and this year Christmas is so much not about things for us. Things have lost their value to us. The way I see Christmas advertised is almost funny to me. Christmas shopping seems almost irrelevant and the kind of presents we want to give seem so different. We almost seem to be living even a little more simple now then we were last year, in our small apartment. So I think this fun little tree is a perfect symbol of Christmas to me, and i think todd too, this year. It is still 'alive' and still 'sweet' so to speak, but just a little different.

stumped

I love trees. I guess you could say I am in ‘tree hugger’ so to speak. Not just in the “stop the bush national forest give away” way, but literally. I hug trees. When I was little I would get distracted from yard work because I was hugging the trees in the yard. I was worried if I skipped one, I would hurt its feelings. As I have previously posted on another blog, when I left Alaska I hugged the trees good bye and I could see my sad face reflecting in their sap.

For a little history, when I was growing up I named all the trees in our yard. I stood sadly by the stumps of Wilma and George the cherry trees when they were cut down and even longer by Tom’s, their son, when he followed. I remember talking to the twin tree-bushes who had some stupid rhyming names like Whinnie and Minnie or something. (Try to remember I was like 10.) And it was almost more than I could bear when my parents cut down Elmo, the over grown weed tree. I was the best advocate the line of Paradise Trees in our yard could have ever asked for, and even now if any of them have to be cut down, my dad puts his arm around me and lets me down gently saying, “now, there is a logical reason why this one has to go.” Still to this day when I go home I greet the maple trees in our front yard with a kiss. They are dear old friends to me. Some people have been frightened by my talking to plants and trees, others embrace it. But, none the less, my name means “of the ash tree meadow” after all. And I have always thought the boy from the “Giving Tree” was a spoiled brat.

So if you are wondering why I am telling you this, there really isn’t a reason. Except for that I found this wonderful narrative about a tree in the book, “Endgame” by Derrick Jensen. I love tree tales, i love the one in Aldo Leopold’s book. This one is similar, not near as good and a little less known, but I thought I’d share it.

“… I thought of a 500 year old oak I saw in New York City, on a slope overlooking the Hudson River. I thought of all that tree had experienced. As an acorn it fell in an ancient forest….It germinated in this diverse community, witnessed runs of fish up the Hudson so great they threatened to carry away the nets of those who would catch them, witnessed human communities living in these forests, the humans not depleting the forests, but rather enhancing them by their very presence, by what they gave back to their home. I witnessed the arrival of civilization, the building of a village, a town, a city, a metropolis….Along the way the tree said good-bye to the wood bison, the passenger pigeon, the Eskimo curlew, the great American chestnuts, the wolverines who paced the shores of the Hudson. It said good-bye (at least for now) to humans living traditional ways. It said good-bye to the neighboring trees, to the forest where its life began. It witnessed the laying down of billions of tons of concrete, the erection of rigid steel structures and brick buildings topped with razor wire.
Unfortunately, it did not live long enough to witness all of this come back down. The tree, I learned last year, is no more. It was cut down by a landowner worried that its branches would fall on his roof. Environmentalists—doing what we seem to do best—gathered to say prayers over its stump.”

Nothing “stumps” me more than why someone would cut down any tree for a slab of concrete. And I can’t wait to hear the ‘sappy’ puns in your comments.