One of my favorite poems of all time

Traveling Through the Dark
by William Stafford

Traveling through the dark I found a deer
dead on the edge of the Wilson River Road.
It is usually best to roll them into the canyon:
that road is narrow; to swerve might make more dead.

By glow of the tail-light I stumbled back of the car
and stood by the heap, a doe, a recent killing;
she had stiffened already, almost cold.
I dragged her off, she was large in the belly.

My fingers touching her side brought me the reason--
her side was warm, her fawn lay there waiting,
alive, still, never to be born.
Beside that mountain road I hesitated.

The car aimed ahead its lowered parking lights;
under the hood purred the steady engine.
I stood in the glare of the warm exhaust turning red;
around our group I could hear the wilderness listen.

I thought hard for us all--my only swerving--,
then pushed her over the edge into the river.


I love the contrast between the deer and the car in the poem, and how the car (in stanza 4) almost comes alive, at the same moment that the fawn is dying.  And the speaker of the poem is so conflicted with what he knows he has to do.  There's nothing else to be done, and yet, there is a sadness and responsibility contained in that decision.

Family Pictures

Look at these two!!  They are so cute and getting so big!

 Look at these two!!  Aren't they just darling!  haha

 This is the last picture I took before I dropped and broke my camera  :(

School's over, summer plans, and here we are...

Today was the last day of the semester!  Hypothetically, this means I now have time to do other things, like write on our long-neglected blog.  Yay!  I'm not even sure anyone out there still reads this, but here we are.

My first year of grad school feels like a whirlwind.  It went by so so fast; it's unbelievable.  I've learned a lot (more than I thought I ever needed to learn!) and hopefully taught some things, too (since I was teaching English!).  This summer will be spent taking classes, and preparing my syllabus and schedule and lesson plans for English 2010 in the Fall.

This summer is also a summer of projects (or, so planned).  I have some things on my mind I want to accomplish, mostly home improvement/decorative little things.  I'll post update emails to show you all what I've got going on over here.

We also have a trip to St. George planned for the end of June (Justin's anniversary present to me) and I'm so excited about that!  We haven't been back for four years, and I really miss it.  I'm scared to see how much it's changed (I hear it has changed quite a bit).

Justin's softball league starts in two weeks, which we're all really excited about.  The kids and I love going to the ball park to watch him play.  Jude and Ciaran run around with their friends, Amelia and Jace, and I get to sit and chat with Annie.  Their team name this year is "Ima Hufflepuff" (previously named "Loganlicious").  :)

We also signed Jude up for tee ball this year.  The league is actually for 5 and 6-year-olds, so we'll see how it goes.  He's been hitting off a tee forever, so I think he'll do great!

Speaking of projects, I'm working on a version of this for our house:
http://seejamieblog.com/morning-board-calendar-time/

For what she calls the "memory verse" section on the board, I want to do children's poetry, since poetry is kind of important to me (I'm doing a poetry thesis for school).  Here are some that I've made so far:

So cute, huh??
That reminds me, anyone have a laminator I can borrow?

The Oscars--Makeup and Hairstyling

Dallas Buyers Club

BEFORE--Matthew McConaughey & Jared Leto

AFTER

Jackass Presents: Bad Grandpa

BEFORE--Johnny Knoxville

AFTER

The Lone Ranger

BEFORE--Johnny Depp

AFTER

The Oscars--Costume Design

American Hustle

The Grandmaster

The Great Gatsby

The Invisible Woman

12 Years a Slave

Justin's Predictions for the 2014 Academy Awards Nominees

Best Actor
Bruce Dern--Nebraska
Christian Bale--American Hustle
Leonardo DiCaprio--The Wolf of Wall Street
Matthew McConaughey--Dallas Buyers Club
Tom Hanks--Captain Phillips

Best Actress
Amy Adams--American Hustle
Cate Blanchett--Blue Jasmine
Dame Judy Dench--Philomena
Emma Thompson--Saving Mr. Banks
Sandra Bullock--Gravity

Best Picture
American Hustle
Captain Phillips
Gravity
Nebraska
Her
Inside Llewyn Davis
Philomena
Rush
Twelve Years a Slave
The Wolf of Wall Street

Best Director
Alfonso Cuaron--Gravity
David O. Russell--American Hustle
Martin Scorsese--The Wolf of Wall Street
Steve McQueen--Twelve Years a Slave
Woody Allen--Blue Jasmine

Best Original Screenplay
Gravity
Her

Best Adapted Screenplay
The Wolf of Wall Street

Best Animated Feature
Despicable Me 2
Frozen

Best Special Effects
Gravity
The Hobbit: The Desolation of a Good Book
Iron Man 3
Thor 2

Jude's Doctor's Appointment

Not surprisingly, Jude is still in the high ranges for height, around the 90th percentile.  He has actually gone up in weight, the highest he's ever been, around the 60th percentile.  

We have had a cold at our house this past week, and we found out at the appointment that he has an ear infection!  He has given me no indication that this is the case.  It is impossible to tell how sick Jude is because he's one of those kids that just goes, goes, goes no matter what.  He's also starting to get pink eye again, which I did know.  Soooo, we got an antibiotic that should knock both of those infections out.

The doctor was having this medical student ask Jude questions and give him smarties when he answered correctly.  Questions about what colors things are, and "if an elephant is big, then what is a mouse?"  This is all fine except that Jude gets pretty introverted when there are strangers around.  So, he wasn't really answering very often.  So, the med student said, "he's pretty shy, isn't he?" and "I understand, when there are strangers around," etc.  But, it just annoyed me because after it was all over, he said, "well, he's probably smarter than what he is showing..."  So I said, "yes, he's very smart, he knows his colors, animals, and letters; it's just that is is very shy."

Ugh.  I just wish he could have seen how smart Jude really is and didn't have to take my word for it.  I don't know if he believed me.

Funny thing, though.  I got Jude some Perry the Platypus shoes because they were really the only boy sandals in Jude's size that would work.  But, Jude doesn't watch Phineas and Ferb so he just thinks they are duck shoes.  The med student asked Jude who was on his shoes and Jude said "duck shoes" but the doc thought he was answering wrong and corrected him.  "Is that Perry the Platypus?"  Jude just looked at him like...??

Thankfully, there were no shots, so it was one of the less painful appointments.  :)