March Madness

March is going to be a busy month for us.

Kylee won't be attending school for the next 3 weeks.  Why?  Well, next week all the PreK classes have to move.  Not just to another part of the school, but to another school entirely, which technically is in another town.  Albeit, like 3 miles away.  They will soon be starting the renovations on Kylee's school and during that time, then entire school will be housed at Bayard Elementary...which is obviously... in Bayard.  The PreK building has asbestos that they have to remove before renovations can begin.  So, that means that next week PreK is cancelled while the teachers pack up and move.  Then the following week it's Kylee's (and Tracey's) Spring Break.  Then after that is my Spring break and the girls will be with my parents at the ranch (more on that later).

In 2 weeks (during her spring break) Tracey will be having her 3rd surgery on her arm.  It will be exactly like the first one where they injected glue (which is considerably more painful than the foam).  I will talk more about her surgery in a later post.

Then it's my spring break (WOO HOO!!)  It's our 10 year anniversary on the 17th (yes, St. Patrick's Day :)) and my hubby is planning a trip to a surprise destination.  I am so excited about that I can hardly stand it.  I looooooove, loooooove surprises!!  The girls will be at the ranch while we go....where it is we are going.

That about covers March.  Oh yeah, and track practice starts the week after Tracey's spring break.  She should be ready to run, despite having surgery.

Plus, I am happy to get my bookclub up and going for March!  

Book Club Suggestions

Okay fellow book club friends-

Here are some books I thought looked interesting.  Vote for which you would like to read.  For those of you who are not used to commenting on blogs, just sign in as Anonymous and make your comment.  Easy peasy.

After each image, I have included the brief synopsis of each book. 

Also, I am looking at creating an online discussion forum where we can discuss the books and trying to come up with a name.  I FBed everyone my suggestions.  If you have any other name suggestions, please let me know. 

In the late 1970s, Larry Ott and Silas "32" Jones were boyhood pals, Larry the child of white, lower middle-class parents and Silas the son of a poor, single black mother. Their worlds were as different as night and day, yet, for a few months, the boys stepped outside of their circumstance and shared a special bond.

But then tragedy struck: on a date, Larry took a girl to a drive-in movie, and she was never heard from again. She was never found and there was no confession, but all eyes rested on Larry. The incident shook the county—and perhaps Silas most of all. He and Larry's friendship was broken, and then Silas left.
Over twenty years have passed. Larry, a mechanic, lives a solitary existence, never able to rise above the whispers of suspicion. Silas has returned to town as a constable. He and Larry have no reason to cross paths until another girl disappears and Larry is blamed, again. And now, two men who once called each other friend are forced to confront the past they've buried and ignored for decades.

Paris, July 1942: Sarah, a ten year-old girl, is brutally arrested with her family by the French police in the Vel’ d’Hiv’ roundup, but not before she locks her younger brother in a cupboard in the family's apartment, thinking that she will be back within a few hours.

Paris, May 2002: On Vel’ d’Hiv’s 60th anniversary, journalist Julia Jarmond is asked to write an article about this black day in France's past. Through her contemporary investigation, she stumbles onto a trail of long-hidden family secrets that connect her to Sarah. Julia finds herself compelled to retrace the girl's ordeal, from that terrible term in the Vel d'Hiv', to the camps, and beyond. As she probes into Sarah's past, she begins to question her own place in France, and to reevaluate her marriage and her life.

One beautiful summer afternoon, from her bedroom window on the second floor, Jody Linder is unnerved to see her three uncles parking their pickups in front of her parents’ house—or what she calls her parents’ house, even though Jay and Laurie Jo Linder have been gone almost all of Jody’s life. “What is this fearsome thing I see?” the young high school English teacher whispers, mimicking Shakespeare. Polished boots, pressed jeans, fresh white shirts, Stetsons—her uncles’ suspiciously clean visiting clothes are a disturbing sign.

The three bring shocking news: The man convicted of murdering Jody’s father is being released from prison and returning to the small town of Rose, Kansas. It has been twenty-six years since that stormy night when, as baby Jody lay asleep in her crib, her father was shot and killed and her mother disappeared, presumed dead. Neither the protective embrace of Jody’s uncles nor the safe haven of her grandparents’ ranch could erase the pain caused by Billy Crosby on that catastrophic night.

Now Billy Crosby has been granted a new trial, thanks in large part to the efforts of his son, Collin, a lawyer who has spent most of his life trying to prove his father’s innocence. As Jody lives only a few doors down from the Crosbys, she knows that sooner or later she’ll come face-to-face with the man who she believes destroyed her family.

What she doesn’t expect are the heated exchanges with Collin. Having grown up practically side by side in this very small town, Jody and Collin have had a long history of carefully avoiding each other’s eyes. Now Jody discovers that underneath their antagonism is a shared sense of loss that no one else could possibly understand. As she revisits old wounds, startling revelations compel her to uncover the dangerous truth about her family’s tragic past.

Join Our Book Club!!

In a previous post I mentioned about my friend and I having a bookclub.  I have had more interest in the book club so I've decided I would formally invite lots of my long-distance friends to join the bookclub (Jill....). 

I know we all can't get together and discuss our books.  I know in this day and age we have Skype and such (which I must confess, I've never used), but I think time would be a big factor in coordinating getting together.  Several of the bookclub members live on different continents.  (Yes, Mum-me, I am considering you a member!!) 

I had an idea for some book suggestions.  Since we all live in vastly different locations, both geographically and culturally, I thought it would be fun to pick a book(s) that reflect our local culture.  That way we could all learn about eachother's culture/country.  (golly, I sure do sound like a teacher...guess that's why I am one.  lol)

So, if you're on facebook, friend me if you haven't already (Dayna Hubbell Jones) or email me at wildfirewife317 at hotmail dot com. 

Beach Photo

I hope you guys like my new blog title photo.  It was taken 3 years ago when we were in Florida for my cousin's wedding.  The 2 girls in it are Tracey (right) and her cousin Cheyenne (left).  The wedding was on the beach at sunset, so it was the perfect backdrop for wedding photos. 

Welcome to the randomness of my brain.

Okay, here are some random thoughts.  Don't say I didn't warn you.

*We did super good this year and got our taxes done and e-filed about 2 weeks ago.  Then we heard back from them and they had been rejected because the employer ID number was wrong.  We double and triple checked it and it's correct.  So, what does the fabulous IRS advise to do?  SNAIL MAIL them in!  That's right, we had to pay (again!) to do them and print them out to send them in the old fashioned way.  That means we won't get our refund for 7-10 weeks.  Not happy about that, but we'll survive. 

*I have decided to commit to doing P90X this summer.  I really don't have the kind of time right now that it needs so I will wait til school's out this summer.  I am really looking forward to working out hard. 

*Aaron ate his first salad last night.  Yep, you read that right.  FYI- Aaron is my husband, who is almost 31 years old.

*My house is a perpetual disaster...I think I need a maid.  If I had the money I would pay for one, just to at least do my dishes and laundry.  And vacuum. 

* My friend Pami and I have started a book club.  She's the better bookclub member.  She's actually read the books.  I took 2 months to get a copy of "Water for Elephants".  I was too cheap to buy the book, the public library didn't have it, but luckily I carpool with the high school librarian who ordered it and loaned it to me :)  Our book club has strict guidelines (HA!) to join.  Our requirement is that you must live very far away from each other.  heeheee.  At least that's how we justified it.  You see, I live in New Mexico and she lives just a few miles away in Hawaii.  Anyone else like to join?  Illinois?  Australia?  Georgia?  You know who you are ;)  Any book suggestions?

* I love to collect magnets.  I'm not sure how many of them I have, but I do know that only about half of them fit on my fridge.  I am working on getting pictures to share with you.  I gather magnets from all the places I visit and I also shamelessly ask anyone I know who is going somewhere to bring me back a magnet.  I've collect many foreign magnets from places like Denmark, Guam, Australia, New Zealand, Morocco, and some unpronouncable town in South America to name a few. 

* Next weekend we are going to Albuquerque to celebrate my niece's 2nd birthday!!  Such a beautiful, miraculous, tough little girl. 

* I love full moons.  Must be my inner werewolf.  Go Team Jacob!!

Goodnight ya'll.

This blog post is going to be titleless because I can't think of a good title.

I have a problem.

I really need to learn to blog what's on my mind, not what's in my camera.  Everytime I check my blog (which is ALL the time, because I'm always logging on to read other blogs), I feel totally guilty because I know I need to write something, but I don't.  I keep thinking that since I don't have any pictures to share, then I don't have anything to share at all. 

Well, pthhht to that.  So I will start writing more of what's on my mind. 

I know you guys all want to read my random thoughts, right?  RIGHT?

Humor me.

State of Emergency

What a week it's been!!  Below 0 temperatures are not normal for us down here in the Southwestern deserty areas of New Mexico.  Although we can get pretty cold since we are close to the mountains.

However, this week brought the coldest temps to Silver City that I've ever seen.  All over the state we were setting record lows.  When we got the big snowstorm over New Years it was 0 degrees, but this past Thursday was even colder than that.  It was 10 below zero (F)!!! 

It was so cold Thursday and Friday mornings that we had ice on the INSIDE of our windows. 

We were very blessed during this time because we rely primarily on wood heat for our house.  Our little woodstove is great and keeps our house nice and cozy.  We also have 2 infrared heaters that we use as supplemental heat when we need it.

However, others is Silver City and around New Mexico weren't so lucky.  New Mexico had a natural gas and power shortage this past week when the temps dipped so low.  Here in Silver City about 300 people lost their natural gas due to no pressure in the lines. 

Schools have been closed for 3 days, one for weather and the other 2 days for not having any gas for heat.  Our governor declared NM to be in a state of emergency and urged all schools to close.  (Of course my school didn't cancel :( 

On Thursday the high during the day was around 20 degrees and we had water when we got up that morning, but by that afternoon one of our pipes had frozen and burst.  It froze during the DAY!!! Isn't that just crazy?  Luckily Aaron was able to get it fixed pretty easily and it wasn't a critical line, it was just the pipe that goes to the yard water. 

*******
In other news:  Ole Punxsatawny Phil did not see his shadow, so winter shall soon be over.  :)