In a world of turmoil and uncertainty, it is more important than ever to make our families the center of our lives and the top of our priorities. (April 2003. L. Tom Perry. The Importance of the Family.)
This picture is entertaining because notice Peitra flipped her ponytail at the perfect moment?
Ohanapecosh means "looking down on something beautiful." Fitting, isn't it?
See that rock to the left of the waterfall? That's where we're about to eat our lunch 5 minutes later.
Hot springs along part of the trail we chose to hike around part of Mount Rainier.
Whose footprints are these?
Huck tried to taste the warm water and didn't think much of it. We wouldn't want him drinking from it anyway just because we don't know the composition of that water.
These trees were already 500 years old when Christopher Columbus came to America.
This tree had fallen over many years ago. Peitra was able to climb inside the rotted out center of it. There were too many spider webs for her comfort going inside too deeply.
We couldn't resist climbing trees.
Jaime and I joined a swing dance class every Friday nights for a couple of weeks. Peitra was here and was a good sport about coming to dance with us. The teacher pulled her aside to be his demonstrator. Swing dance is just the right mix of formality and plain fun hopping around.
At first, Huck was only going to get a special treat for his birthday, but then we changed our minds. At the last minute (calls at six; gathering at 6:20), we gave ourselves the libery of celebrating a special day when the Creator decided to send this puppy down. "Oh, why not? Let's call his friends and go for a walk together." The birthday boy was just plumb happy to be with everybody, which made it worth a few pictures.
I hurried and threw together sugar cookies in the shape of a bone to take with us to share with the humans. Everyone was such a good sport by bringing little goody surprises for Huck (aww...you guys didn't have to do that!). I used to laugh at people who made such a fuss over their dogs and now look at us! [sheepish grin. Oh boy!] But hey, before any of you say another word, let us tell you, we had fun and went to bed happy!
The kids and dogs succumbed to the temptation of flowing water. You can tell by seeing Bizzie's wet dress that getting in the water was totally unplanned. Who can resist?
Uncle Chris, Grandmother Tina, and Cousin Baxter (Florida)
Jaime's mom telling him how proud she is of him. (photo taken in Ft. Lauderdale, FL)
Ann's Mom and Dad enjoying an old-time themed party with family. (Party in Idaho)
Aunt Rachelle and Jaime standing just outside Grandma Helen's room in California.
Being out of state, we were unable to be with our family this day, but we send our love nonetheless. You deserve this special celebration!
This is the view we got while eating German pancakes for breakfast! It made our whole day!
Grandma Helen always said with such conviction, "Dark chocolate is good for you!" How appropriate, then, was it when we pulled out this chocolate piece at her funeral luncheon to find this message inside.
We went to see Aunt Rachelle's office at the Santa Monica Center where she does her counseling work. See her name 3rd from the top?
Ann and Uncle Norm doing their utmost to remind Aunt Rachelle that she is indispensable to us. Her office is very relaxing and the lighting and decor encouraged us to sit quietly for a while before bursting into silly stress-relieving fits of laughter.
Great Dane + 2 Door Civic = Backache = Need bigger car
You Are 78% Creative |
 You are beyond creative. You are a true artist - even if it's not in the conventional sense of the word. You love creating for its own sake, and you find yourself quite inspired at times. |
Audrey Schellenbaum and me. Audrey is another R.N. that has been working for about 8 years. If she can do it, so can I.
Jaime and me with Barbara Jane Howard, a deaf pharmacist. She too is having trouble convincing the state of Alabama to give her a license. She was working already for many years doing just fine and then some hot-shot authority figure new to the state board of licensing in Alabama decided because she was deaf, she could not be issued a renewed license. So all of a sudden one day she was out of a job. Grrr! Sometimes people can be so ignorant! The rest of us rallied around her, knowing that it could happen to any one of us any day to have the misfortune of some panel member with a strong opinion about "dangerous deaf people." [Rabid growling.....hssss!.....]
Ann standing with group of doctors. Wendy, me, Corrine, and Nghi Lu. Corrine is a doctor from Germany and was signing with a German accent; she told us she might have to leave her family in Germany to come to the U.S. to work. She said, "The boss doctor is fighting for my rights to stay home. I talk to the big boss and he no like woman doctors."
Saturday was a joint conference combining two groups: Registry of Interpreters (particularly those who are interested in medical interpreting), and Association of Medical Professionals with Hearing Losses (AMPHL). This was really neat because it was informative about issues such as being an effective team with the deaf professional and the interpreter making their way through school or a career.
Jaime and I were on a panel of four people. Each of us shared an awkward situation from experience and we had an open discussion on how to resolve them, how to avoid it in the future, etc. All of us, including the audience, were engaged in it enough that we took up a whole hour.
We had a nice banquet at the end of conference. Jaime--clinical psychologist; on his left is a medical student, her interpreter, Robert and Stephanie (good friends of ours who came to perform in a comedy show later on), a pre-med student, an R.N. and then me (another R.N.) behind the camera. Most everyone in the room signed, which was neat because in no other situation in the world can we talk about body parts not working properly in sign language. :)
