Wijiji

From Aztec, we headed to Chaco Canyon, more specifically, Chaco Culture National Historical Park. We set up our tent in the campground and then headed for the Wijiji Trailhead as dark clouds began to loom. We had to get a permit to hike the trail to the Wijiji Lasting. I have no clue what the name Wijiji actually means, but if I had to interpret it, I would say it translates to something like, "Congratulations-on-driving-thirteen-miles-of-the-worst-washboard-gravel-road-you-will-ever-encounter-in-your-lifetime!"

We had a great view of Fajada Butte from both the campground and the trail.

Here's some texture from the trail:

We hustled out there and just as we arrived, the thunder boomed and the lightning flashed. We hurried around the roped perimeter and then started hauling back to camp. Too late. We got pretty wet. The thing that sets Wijiji apart is that it was built all at once. I guess all the other lastings were built in stages.

So we got back to camp and changed into warm dry clothing--such a blessing! Then we made sloppy joes for dinner complete with chopped onion and green pepper. And then we headed over to the evening program which was Astronomy. The campground host, Dan Fisk, had his own big telescope and showed us many wonders of the night sky including M13, a stellar nursery, and Andromeda. We were really going places. That man is full of knowledge and it's just his hobby, not his life's work.

Back at camp, we got ready for bed. I'm really good at camping and am very self-sufficient. I always get out my own bedding and roll it back up in the morning. I can sleep anywhere, really. I don't cause many problems. However, the second I put my head on the pillow, my sinuses began to drain, I started to sneeze, and I almost cried. Why? Because our campground happened to be in the middle of a bunch of blooming rabbitbrush, my personal nemesis! It's a chenopod and it always gets me in the fall! The Mister knew he had to take extreme measures right away so he asked if he could help. I sniffled and whimpered. He knew it could be a long night unless he took action, so he zipped himself right out of that tent and soon returned with water, lots of tissue, and some miraculous little allergy pills. Slept like a baby in Chaco Canyon.

Lastings

Once we got into New Mexico, we headed straight for Aztec Ruins. No, they were not constructed by the Aztecs. However, when the pioneers rolled through, that was the best name they could come up with and the name has stuck. I've been taught that the name Anasazi is offensive and negative, but pretty much everywhere we went, people were throwin' it around, including the Navajo. I didn't really hear anyone say "Ancestral Puebloan." So, please forgive the names I use in these blog posts--not trying to offend a single soul.

Speaking of nomenclature, I decided early on in the trip, that calling all of these structures "ruins" was a huge mistake. These places were built 900-1000 years ago! Nothing I ever build, influence, write (no, not even this blog) will still be around in a thousand years, so in my mind, I changed the name to "lastings."

Not only did they build, they did it with style and decor in mind:

Following are a few more photos from Aztec. The roof of the great kiva (a ceremonial chamber) is missing so someone reconstructed it. I find it interesting that all these great kivas have four round slabs of stone.

I really wanted to see the Anasazi pottery (white with black geometric designs). I thought it would be on display everywhere. Not so. Either it's all for sale on eBay ot it's way too precious to put in a glass showcase at some visitor center. We saw hardly any pottery anywhere.

One of our delights is that they let you actually walk around and through the buildings. What would people think if they got to walk through your home a thousand years from now?

From Andromeda to Zuni

I've been taking these history classes for a few years now and one of my teachers is Dr. Jay Buckley from BYU. Last month, he lectured about Native Americans and when he showed a slide of Pueblo Bonito at Chaco Canyon, I went straight home and told K that we would be headed there for Fall Break. And that's exactly how it all went down.

You know you're in Indian country when you see several sets of mano and matate sitting around (photo above). Grain grinder, powered by YOU.

We left at 4:00 p.m. after school on Wednesday and did not return until after 9:00 p.m. on Monday night. Yes, I am tired. But I am so glad we got to do all this and see all this. When my body is broken and I am older, I will stay home and rest. Yes, our home needs a little attention, but we just couldn't resist the chance to go and see and do. We packed it in as much as we could and had a grand time. It was lovely and I cherish all these memories made with my Sweetie.

We stuck to mostly National Park Service sites on this trip and I must say that although I am a former NPS ranger, they do such a fine job of telling America's Story. I believe we hit seven more "gems in the crown" on this expedition! We kept collecting stamps in our NPS passports, happily filling up those pages. You really should go! You can learn so much and have a ton of fun doing it.

I don't have time to write more just now, but I will be adding posts about the specifics of our Fall Break 2012 adventures. Stay tuned!

National Fossil Day

My husband cracks me up, catches me off guard, and says the most incredible things. We were going over finances last night, me at the dining room table looking at the statement and he about two feet away with Quicken pulled up on the computer. While he waited for me, he surfed a bit and blurted out, "Oh! National Fossil Day is coming up on the 17th!!!"

Who exclaims such things? With such excitement? My husband does, the man with the true heart of a National Park Ranger. And you know what else he says? He says he chose the Lofthouse soft sugar cookies with the pink ribbon sprinkles because it's breast cancer awareness month (or whatever the kosher phrase is). My grandmother and mother have both suffered from breast cancer, but am I even aware of this month-long ribbon campaign? No.

As I was headed to bed last night, I got a little whiney about not having finished my homework for my literature class this evening. I started the book on September 5th, but it's another from the ever-popular fantasy genre, and I've had a lot of trouble slogging my way through, much preferring to read other works in other genres. This is my third year in this literature class and it's the first time I haven't finished a book. I feel majorly guilty and am worried the teacher might cut my fingers off, but I am simply out of time, although I have been trying all weekend. Darling Husband asks with concern, "How far did you get?" I explained that I'm on page 186 out of exactly 500 pages. With an encouraging smile, he says, "So you've got the gist of it!" Laughed my head off. OFF! He doesn't understand how outlandish this sounds to a professional educator.

On a side note, I made butternut squash soup this morning from scratch and it is delicious!

Conferencing for Five Days

So I mentioned my root canal on Tuesday afternoon. And then I taught all day on Wednesday. And then I had parent teacher conferences on Wednesday afternoon/evening from 4:00 p.m.-7:30 p.m., but mine went over--due to late arrivals. And then I taught all day on Thursday. And then I had parent teacher conferences on Thursday afternoon/evening from 4:00 p.m.-7:30 p.m. My very last appointment did not show. I left school at 7:40 p.m. after the principal announced over the intercom that we were done. I could have tried staying a little longer, but I had another conference to get to!

I was lucky enough to attend the UCTE annual conference in Salt Lake City on Friday! UCTE stands for Utah Council of Teachers of English (at least that's pretty close if not exactly right). The conference began at 8:00 a.m. that morning, so my darling husband suggested we stay in the big city on Thursday night to make things easier Friday morning, especially since I had been through conferences, a lot of pain, and a root canal all in the same week. He is a gem, I tell ya!

K went to Golden Spike to visit all his ranger friends and to do some hiking. I went to the conference and just LOVED hearing from some amazing authors: Francisco Stork, Teri Lesesne, Shannon Hale, and Taylor Mali. They were all so fabulous! I also got to attend a workshop on Argument Writing which seems like something useful for my fifth graders. I also got to sit next to a sixth grade teacher at my school for part of the day and that was a lot of fun too! It was a GREAT day! And then it got better. I walked to the nearest TRAX station and took the train back to Little America. K showed up approximately five minutes later and we walked on over to The Melting Pot! It was our first experience.

They start you off with a cheese fondue. We chose the traditional Swiss. It was good, but we couldn't finish all the bread, apples, and vegetables.

We went ahead and ordered the most expensive thing on the menu which is called "The Big Night Out." I'll say. They gave us bits of every type of meat known to man. It was good. We cooked it ourselves, as K keeps mentioning, in a vegetable broth which we also used to cook vegetables: red potatoes, broccoli, and mushrooms.

Oh, I forgot. Between the cheese course and the meat course, they brought salad to us. It was good. My favorite part about the meat course was the assortment of sauces. My favorite three were: teriyaki, ginger plum, and yogurt curry.

And then came dessert! It really was the best part. In fact, if you're thinking of dropping some money at The Melting Pot, I would just go for dessert. It's pretty food and all, but I don't think we'll ever go for "The Big Night Out" again. Our chocolate pot had crunchy peanut butter mixed in along with blackberries, strawberries, and raspberries. In addition to all of those flavors melting in the fondue pot, you can see the yummy tasters we got to dip into it.

We went back to Little America and watched the game. This morning, we watched General Conference, my fourth day of conferences in a row! We had planned to go for their breakfast, but K wasn't feeling well, so he suggested I order Room Service. I have never before today ordered Room Service in my entire life (redundant on purpose to emphasize my parsimonious nature, especially because two nights in Little America doesn't sound all that parsimonious), because, you know, it's expensive. However, we determined it would be less expensive for one of us to order Room Service than for both of us to get breakfast at their restaurant, so I picked up the phone and requested the Canadian. It was delish! It was going on 10:00 a.m. and I was starving.

General Conference was wonderful, as usual. I got tears in my eyes when President Monson announced the change in ages for missionaries. I am so very grateful I was able to serve as a full-time missionary of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints in the Japan Fukuoka Mission. I was talking to my fourteen year old nephew in Iowa today who is a freshman in high school and taking a class called Japanese I. He was asking for help and speaking the language a bit with me. And then I talked to my seventeen year old nephew and mentioned the decisions he'll be making in the near future. It's all so exciting! I am so looking forward to tomorrow, my fifth day of "conference" in a row! I'm so glad my husband looks at my situation from his perspective and figures out ways for us to use our opportunities to spend time together and keep me rejuvenated. On the way home, we picked tomatoes and cucumbers from our garden and two orange pumpkins. Life is sweet!

JJ, an AMAZING Mom!

I guess I had better not reveal the name of the woman I am about to write. I don't want to get myself in trouble on the internet. I'm just being careful, you see. If I could, I would shout her name from the rooftops and praise her as publicly as possible.

Having said that, I guess I don't really KNOW this person all that well. We don't chat on the phone, we don't go out for lunch or shopping, we don't visit each other in our homes--it's not that kind of a relationship. But I DO admire her! Boy, do I admire her. She's the kind of mom I always wanted to be, but will never have the chance to emulate.

This mom, JJ, adores her children. She has a huge loving heart for them and everybody else, including dogs and chickens. She doesn't sleep because she works at night to earn the extra money for all the extra things five children may need. Here's the thing, sometimes I feel like one of her lucky children.
Case in point: The book fair is happening right now at my elementary school. We get the book fair twice a year, and every stinkin' time it rolls around, JJ purchases a book to donate to my classroom! Do I even have any of her children in my class this year? NO! And yet, the woman gives and gives and gives. This has been going on for years as her oldest is now sixteen and she belonged to me when she was a fifth grader. I didn't get to teach the second one, but I did get the third and we'll see what happens with the others. Fortunately, there are stickers inside the donated books that say "From: The J Family" so we can always remember their generosity. With five children passing through our school, I think she may eventually single-handedly build up the classroom libraries of every single teacher on staff!

Is she doing this for glory? No. Fame? No. Because she wants to be mentioned in someone's blog post? No. She does this because she is grateful. She never forgets to thank a teacher. And she keeps thanking us year after year after year. She is so appreciative. She is so happy to share her children with us and she lets us know by treating us.

You'll never believe what she does in the spring. During Teacher Appreciation Week, she invites all of the teachers from the elementary school who have ever had one of her children in their class over to the house for lunch. They live across the street, so that works out well, but what a generous thing to do. And just so you know, her cooking is to die for!

So last night, I was conducting parent teacher conferences and in the middle of my visit with one of my student's families, in walks JJ with a brand new book from the book fair to donate to my class. She quietly placed it on the table and snuck right back out of the room. No chance for me to stand and throw my arms around her. My heart melts each and every time. I cannot get over it! I practically weep when I think of her staying up all night long working from home to supplement the family income and then staying awake taking care of children during the day (because not all of hers have made it to Kindergarten yet). How does she do it? She does a lot of other amazing things as well, but I just want to say, "THANK YOU FOR THE BOOK, JJ!!!"

Dental Thrills

My boring little dental saga continues! Awhile back, in early September, I believe it was the 5th, I had my six month check up. Had to go back for more work due to that "cavitating" Number Three (or whatever they call that tooth). Went back on the 19th to get all fixed up. Been in pain ever since, but at first, I had Hope. I kept telling K, "It's getting longer and longer between the need for alternate doses of Tylenol and Ibuprofen!"

Well, last Friday, everything crashed and I've been in quite.a.lot.of.pain.since.then! I called the dentist yesterday morning at 7:30 a.m. sharp to plea my pathetic little case. They tried to get me in earlier, but I said, "I would rather endure the pain longer than get a substitute for my little band of thirty-five." They saw me at 4:30 p.m.

I have to go back today at 1:30 p.m. which means, I will be away from my class for the first time this year and yes, I have to explain to someone else just how to steer my particular ship. My darling husband asked with a wide smile, "Does this mean you'll be home for lunch?" I replied, "Yes, but all I had for lunch today was a soft peanut butter sandwich and a banana. Don't prepare anything too fancy."

The dentist kindly asked if I needed any pain medication to get me through to 1:30 p.m. today. I mentioned my little program of alternating the stuff processed by the liver with the stuff processed by the kidneys. In his candor and twisted sense of dental humor he asked, "Have you been LIVIN' on it?" Yes. Yes, as a matter of fact, I have.

Here's the thing. In spite of my title above, I am absolutely THRILLED to be getting a root canal today! Huzzah and HUZZAH!!! Isn't it SO GREAT that there are OPTIONS for me? Isn't it AMAZING they can stop the pain? What ever did the pioneers DO??? He told me how long the appointment would be and then apologized it would be a little longer for me because he was going to have to pull somebody's wisdom teeth in the middle of my appointment, but I don't CARE! I will bring a book to read to pass the time! Just KILL it! That's all I ask. Kill the pain. Kill the nerve. Make it go away! I am SO HAPPY to have access to great medical care! Do whatever you must! This is going to be one of the best days of my entire life!