For the love of Trains!

Dilly loves trains and anything else that has wheels. He especially loves Thomas the Train which he actually got to ride on later when they were in Utah. We rode a number of trains while they were in Phoenix. Dylan's eyes would get big and his mouth would open like an "O" in excitement and adoration. We rode the light rail in Phoenix to go downtown and see the sights. Actually the guys, including our friend Chris, were going to go to the NRA convention and see the exhibits but there was a 2 hour wait just to get in. They ended up joining Kirs, Rowan and I for lunch instead. The light rail has always been crowded every time we ride it, but I'm not sure how many are paying customers because no one ever asks to see your tickets. They are going to raise the rates in July and are thinking of selling the naming rights!
I set up the train at home when everyone else was at the store. We really had a fun, exciting time. Rowan was the engineer and Dilly the tunnel (he stood over the track) and conductor. At first Rowan would speed up so fast or reverse directions without stopping that the train went off the tracks about 40 or more times. All in all she was a great engineer. I had steel wool in the box for cleaning the tracks (the kids asked me what it was for and I told them). At one point when I was talking on the phone, I looked over and there was Dilly rubbing the steel wool on the tracks and sparks were flying 6 or 8 inches in the air! I dropped the phone and ran over and turned off the electricity to the tracks. We had our own little train fireworks compliment of Dilly.
We also rode the train at Encanto Park Kiddie Land. After riding this train Rowan and Dylan pose in front of the engine. Being at Encanto Park reminded me of fond memories. Encanto Park with its lagoons used to be the only place with water (except the canals) in Phoenix. We went there a lot when we were kids so Mum could sit by the lagoon because she was homesick for water, any water. Encanto park is very large and is a great place to explore as a kid. There are many bridges going over the lagoon, you can rent a boat or just explore the park. My favorite place in the park (other than Kiddie Land) was a large area where there were tall reeds. There were tunnels and paths through the reeds like a maze. It was really fun like finding your way in a jungle and trying to find the way out. We played chase games, pirate games and I had my favorite route. I know that area is no longer there, I suppose for safety reasons, but we really had great times in that maze! Kiddie Land has been revamped, but much is the same as when I was a kid and our kids were kids. We've had many a birthday party there over the years. The carousel is exactly the same, the train has a new engine, but most of the track and train is the same, the roller coster has the same track, but has been changed into a dragoon roller cooster instead of the plain one we had.
This is Kirs, Rob and the kids riding in the train at the Scottsdale train park.
This is the train at the Scottsdale train park.

Grandparents tour

Kirs, Rob, Rowan and Dilly were here from India in mid May. I took 5 days off school! We had a great time doing fun kid things. We went to the Children's Museum which was like old home week because this was one of their favorite stomps when they were staying with us last fall. We went to the Train park in Scottsdale. Here Dilly and his Dad are riding on the carousel. He wasn't sure he liked it at first, but he did ride it twice, so I guess it grew on him.
This was a train museum which was an engine and train cars used by 4 different Presidents. Dilly was very upset because we left this big train w/o it going anywhere. This is a hand cart in the museum.

Rowanisms: I need to wash my hands I was rubbing woshin (lotion) on them. When spitting at Dilly while saying "Swiper no swiping" (3 times like Dora the explorer says), Kirsten says, I don't think Dora does that! Rowan says, " Well I do!" Being a pirate, "tiber me shimbers".
Dillyisms: Oh, tay! DaDa let's dough! MaMa hold lellow parpar (parrot). DaDa, wide (ride) twain. RoRo dak my base (Rowan take my space). HaHa gan now (Hungry again now). TeTe TaTa (teeter-totter). Cincinlela (Cinderella)

Erika and Del together at last and other miracles

Erika loved her husband, her garden and flowers in that order. She is from Germany and might have moved back to Germany when Del died, but she wanted to be buried with him. I am her neighbor across the alley and have been close to her especially since Del died about 5 years ago. We shared our love of our gardens and flowers. She fell at home and was found by the mailman who also checked on her. She eventually had a stroke in the nursing home, I think because she was so mad because they wouldn't let her go home. She gave me medical power of attorney when she was in the nursing home and went into hospice when it was clear that she would never regain consciousness. The sad thing is that I found her unconscious and had to convince the staff at the nursing home that she had had a stroke. She died May 5 at Gardner Home which is a beautiful peaceful home run by Hospice of the Valley. I took the picture above today, it is the lettuce in her garden. When I was over there our neighbor was trimming the dead wood out of her citrus trees. He didn't know that she had died and she didn't think he liked her very well! People are very surprising. Our mailman, bless his heart, has visited her all through her illness and he was the hero in going out of his way and finding her when he noticed that she hadn't picked up her mail.

Floyd, the mailman, called me the other day and said, "I took a watch of Erica's to get repaired and I think she would like to be buried with it. Would you go over to her house and try to find it?" Well, I went over there found the watch, her wedding ring and looked in her closet for a dress she could be buried in. I was looking through all her dresses and saw this one you see below. It is a beautiful green with a scarf and attached to it just as you see here was a hand written note that said, "funeral home". I was so touched and so was Julian. She made all her own clothes and I'm sure she made this also.

This is a picture of Erika, taken at Christmas or Thanksgiving dinner and we were really in the background so the resolution isn't very good. This past Christmas I gave her an amaryllis. She called me and invited me to come over at the first glimse of a bud, again when it started to open and several times when it was at its most beautiful. I also had one in my house which I started later than the one I gave to Erika. I was impatient with all her calls, but happy to share her joy in the flower's beauty. As it turned out mine didn't bloom at all and if I hadn't taken time to go over to see her's I would have missed everything: her joy and the flowers beauty!

The Ugly Duckling Parrot

Julian called me at work the other day when I was up to my neck with the swine flu, had just heard from the doctor at the hospice home where my 90 year old neighbor was near death and reeling while trying to figure out how we nurses will handle 2 schools next year. Well the story he excitedly told me on the phone, made up for all those problems. He said that a little yellow parrot was eating from the feeder like you see in this picture. He was just eating away and stuck his head so far into the feeder that he couldn't get it out! He tried to get out but couldn't. There were sparrows on the feeder with him then and they shaked the cage trying to help him get loose. A larger parrot came up, stood beside him and pushed with his body and foot until the yellow parrot's head popped out! I realized later when I was taking these pictures that he has one injured foot that he cannot use. He said that it was the most amazing thing and it definitely was the shining light in an otherwise crazy and depressing day.

A Walk by the River

We took a walk in the Rio Salado in Phoenix. They have been transforming it into a riparian river walk. They have been talking about this since around 1970 when it was suggested by the ASU architecture students. The Rio Salado is part of the Salt River the great and world wide known river of Phoenix. It's right up there with the Mississippi, Amazon and the Brisbane Rivers. When Dad was courting Mum in Brisbane, she was feeling sad at the thought of having to leave Brisbane and the Brisbane River (which you will understand if you look at my Australian slides to the right). The Brisbane River is beautiful and winds back and forth through Brisbane. Well, Dad, trying to impress his girl said, we have a river in Phoenix too. He reached in his pocket and pulled out a map of Phoenix and showed Mum how the Salt River runs through Phoenix. Mum got to Phoenix and became very homesick for water. She kept trying to get Dad to take her to see the beautiful Salt River, he kept putting her off. Finally he could avoid it no more and took her to the Salt River which was dry as a bone due to Roosevelt Dam upstream! All the cottonwoods and other riparian vegetation had died. Roosevelt Dam was built around 1910 and the first time I remember water flowing in it was in 1966 when there was a flood! Needless to say she was disappointed and Dad had to take her to sit by the lagoon at Encanto Park whenever she got homesick for water. See the smile on Mum's face, she is so thrilled to finally see some water in the river!
This is the Desert Willow. We saw a lot of hummingbirds feeding on these beautiful flowers.
Jules walking down one of the paths with the trees touching overhead.
This is a picture of the leaves and seeds of the cottonwood tree. The seeds look like cotton and it almost looks like snow when there are many cottonwood trees.
I'm not sure what this is, but the flowers almost look like wattle.
We saw a jackrabbit which was at least twice this size but alas, it was the one that got away!

We saw a lot of birds. Snowy Egrets, Redwing blackbirds, Gambol Quail, Great Blue Heron, Cormorants, Roadrunners and many ducks.

What a face!

Look at my parrots. Well they are not my parrots because they are wild. They belong to no one. They are wild and free, can go where ever they want but choose to spend some time in my yard. They are chatty and funny and put smiles upon my face, which is always a good thing. I have to decide if I will keep my job and continue to fight the district about my job title, job description and my worth. "It's not personal", you understand, that they don't feel they need a nurse at each school. I'm watching "You've got mail" as we speak and Joe just told her that it's not personal that he forced her out of business. She said it may not be personal to you, but it is to me and many other people also. That's exactly how I feel. We were going to go to Flagstaff this weekend, but I was so drained and tired after Friday that we didn't go. I just needed time to breathe. I had a boy come into my office, walking and talking with a heartrate of 220. Well it took him a while to get up to that rate and our Principal told him that it was because of the cute female paramedic who responded to my 911 call or rather my non 911 call. His BP dropped and his heartrate kept slowly going up and his pulse was about 1/2 of his heartrate. I called 911 and all I got was a busy signal. Well I have the number of Firestation #17 which is cattywhampus across the street from the school. So I called them and they came. Thus they responded to my Non 911 call. They thought he was fine because by the time they arrived his blood pressure was better because I had him in trendelenburg and they took his pulse and it was normal. I was on the phone with his Mom and the paramedic asked to talk to her. He said, "I think he is OK". Then after they connected him up for an EKG they finally realized that his heartrate was 180 and going up, pulse was still normal. Paramedics never think to use their stethescope and listen. I felt vindicated because the paramedics reached their conclusion too fast. By the time he headed to ER his heartrate was 220 and going up. The untrained aides that they are putting in our schools wouldn't have recognized what was happening (the plan is an RN and aide for every 2 schools). So something like this had better happen when the RN is there or the outcome may not be as happy.




Aren't they wonderful!

Easter weekend brings visit from Diane & Bill

My sister Diane and Bill graced us with their presence this weekend. How's this picture for happiness and contentment? We had so much fun! We rode the light rail to downtown and ate lunch out on a patio on a crowded downtown Phoenix street. Who would have thunk it! We have seen crowds on game nights, but this was Good Friday at noon. Anyway it was fun to see and I wished my Dad was there to enjoy it with us. He spent most of his life either growing up or working in downtown and would love the changes.
I told Diane that our visit to the Chahuly exhibit and butterflys at Desert Botanical Gardens would be so amazing that it would blow them away. They said that we would just have to put rocks in our pockets. So, with rocks in our pockets and joy in our hearts we visited the gardens.











We had dinner with Faye, Javier and the boys on Thursday. We ate outside on the patio, a pre Easter gathering, food and company were great. The boys ran around outside fighting, chasing before dinner typical 4 boys. After we ate we moved inside to visit. Jeremy was bored, Nathan, Niko, Maceo and Faye played with leggos.