A Bitter Sweet Day - Saying Goodbye to the Seniors

Today was a bitter sweet day at work as we bid farewell and good luck to our graduating seniors. I have many of my students all four years of their time in high school. I will miss them tremendously. I wish them a bright future.

Springtime in My Garden

Last week when Ethan and I inspected the garden, I was worried that some of the things we had planted had died due to that last spring snow storm. However, this weekend shows that the plants were just waiting for better, warmer weather.

This is the Ethan Andrew Violet, named after my son. His grandmother Eleanor was involved in the hybridization of this plant and they honored use with the name.

These are more flowers from the backyard. The large on is a blue green hosta. The other flowers incllude Russian Forget-Me-Nots, Coral Bells and a hosta.

Here we have bush bean,peas, spinach and two kinds of potato plants. They are great fun to grow.

This is a shot from the front year featuring Baskets of Gold plants.

Hopeful About the Summer and Creating A Bridge

My history with my dad is very limited and I lived most of my life with a hole in my life, in my heart. At the funeral yesterday the family left a space for Ellie and I between my dad and my beautiful sister, Jami. At the reception we all had such a wonderful visit. My dad and I talked about art and ink and Photoshop. He works mostly with Corel, but has Photoshop. He would like to learn to use it. I use it often, so I am hopefully going to teach him how to use it this summer.

It was also great to reconnect with my Aunt Rosemary and visit with my cousin, Sherry, who is still about 14 in my head.

My cousin Rena did an great job pulling it all together. I am thankful that we can have such a huge gap in our communication and still feel so connected.

The photo poster I made was enjoyed and appreciated. I gave it to Mike, my Aunt Shirlee's husband of 29 years. It has to be so hard losing the person you have spent so much of your life with. He is a woodworker. He said he will make a special frame for it. I'm glad I could contribute in a meaningful way, even if it seems small to me.

Prepping for a Funeral

My Aunt Shirlee's funeral is this afternoon. I will see family members that I have not seen since my Grandma Micki died, which was about seven years ago. I am sad, excited and nervous.

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I have not seen my dad since that time. We simply do not actually know each other. My Grandmother was the one who made those get togethers happen. This time I hope things will be different. I am so looking forward to seeing my sister in person. We "follow" each other on Facebook; we send each other some private messages, too. She has her own lovely family and I am hoping to get to know them, too. My cousin Rena, the one that I have always felt like I could relate to, has help quail my nerves. I think of all of this as I work on the memorial poster. It will contain too many pictures for a nice, artistic composition, but a visual reminder of the stages of her life are more important than composition. I will do my best to make it look good.

Mother's Day - a Lovely Surprise + Caramelized Corn

My children gave me a wonderful surprise for Mother's Day. They set a lovely morning buffet in the back yard. It has green and so of lush now that spring seems to suddenly appeared after so much so of late. This gift is beyond the breakfast; it is the idea that they know how much I love a well set table. We ended up inviting Grandma Gay over for breakfast, too.

Ethan made waffles, Ellie prepared the fruit and the handmade gifts. My favorite mug, the one I use every day to have my morning tea, was a gift from Ellie many years ago. This new one fits my hands nicely and I love the polka dot accents.


Ethan had the day off so he came home from Glenwood Springs last night. It is a 3 hour drive one way, so it will not happen very often. He said it was nice to be home, see his family, be part of the everyday actions, smells, goings on of home. I think he is a bit homesick since he lives in a hotel and works really long hours. I wanted to send a care package back with him so I made chocolate chip cookies, a giant pail of bubble gum, 18 hard boiled eggs (sometimes it is hard for him to find time to get reasonable food and eat at work so I thought that the eggs might be quick, easy protein)and caramelized corn. Ellie left a bag of her caramel corn popcorn with a note in Ethan's vehicle.

I also made a nice lunch for all of us and Grandpa Don. I grilled t-bone steaks, made roasted broccoli and caramelized corn. That made Ethan very happy. We had a relaxed afternoon. The men chatted while Ellie and I played the Draw Something II game on her Ipad. We were playing the game with Kohlton. It involved drawing a picture and the other person guesses the word. The three of us make a great team. I feel lucky that we can enjoy eachother's company in such ways. It is a lot of fun.

Here are a few of the images we drew - Hamburger, Patriot, Candle.


My caramelized corn is popular and easy to make:

2# Corn, Frozen
1/2 cup Butter, Salted (1 stick)

Heat a heavy bottom saute pan on medium high. Add in a few tablespoons of butter into the pan, allowing it to melt. Add the corn and stir. Continue use to cook the corn in this way for about 10 more minutes. Add in the remaining butter, stirring the corn around once the butter is melted. Continue to cook the corn, stirring it from time to time. Some kernals will become browned. That is the goal. Cook until much of it is this way. With my pan this takes about 30 minutes. Add salt, if you like.

My Aunt Shirlee

On Friday morning I received an email from my cousin Rena telling me that her mother, my Aunt Shirlee, had passed away. I was very saddened by this news.

These are photos of her wedding day in 1955. That other beautiful woman is my Grandmother Micki. I miss her every day.

My Aunt Shirlee had such a generous heart, truly. She loved people without judgement.

November 19, 1938 - May 9, 2013

The funeral is on Tuesday afternoon. I will have a chance to see family members that I have not seen since my Grandma Micki died many years ago.

Working Hard in Glenwood Canyon

Last Sunday Larr went up to see where Ethan was working. Ellie and I were at the races so we did not go. I am glad that Larr took some great photos. Here's what Ethan is up to these days.

The main function is to fill up these large trucks with the materials that the guys on the road need to create or replace the current road. When the mix is dumped into the bed of the truck it rocks a bit.

There are other trucks that arrive with raw material. Unloading these rigs takes about an hour or more.

Ethan's job is to keep all of this going. He fixes, cleans and directs trucks.

See the gunk in the machine? He has to clean that out, too. He disengages some item then locks out the controls so that it cannot turn on while he is in there. The opening is almost as tall as he is - that's a big machine!

This whole operation is temporary and will be moved to another location once this job is done. It is called a batch plant and Ethan is learning how to run it.

This is the kind of work ethic my boy has. This is the kind of thing that makes them love him. When I look at this photo I hear, "Run, Forrest, Run!" in my head. (A quote from the movie, "Forrest Gump."

Ethan says that this was a clean day. The dirt makes it look like he has developed a thick unibrow.

They are working in Glenwood Canyon. It might just be my favorite canyon in Colorado.

My talented husband manages to find and highlight the beauty in everyday things that most of us would not even notice. That is just one of the things I love about him.

I miss my boy, but I am proud of him, too. The kitties miss him, too.