St. George

Still Has the Charm!

No matter how much I love Mesa, I have to admit that I still hold a permanent place in my heart for St. George, Utah. The vistas and red rock cliffs are magical!

I had a few free hours Thursday afternoon and went on a downtown walking tour. I thought perhaps those of you who feel the way I do about this beautiful little city would appreciate the review and for those of you who have never been there...you are missing out on something very special. Here are a few of my favoite places like the St. George Temple, Bear Paw restaurant and one of the best little inspirational shops, Urban Renewal Consignments. It was also fun to spend some time with Jen. I have included a picture of her with a few of her ballet students at Vista.

I hope you enjoy the walk down memory lane as well as the beautiful fall colors. What a special way of remembering our blessings this Thanksgiving season:-)

Vista

Vista Visit....

Thought you might like a sneak preview of the new Vista Charter School that I am working on as a design consultant;-) Right now it is only K-6, but as you can see by the artist rendering, they will soon be adding the middle school. Although it is not an easy project...it is certainly a fun challenge! It will be a "paperless" school rich in technology, music, dance and theater. Teaching our children a new way to "apply, analyze and create".

The photo above is of me with my "boss" Steve Goodman who is the Principal of Vista and one of the major "brains" behind the unique concept of this school. We are having breakfast with Jen (who teaches ballet at Vista) at one of my all time favorite places...The Bear Paw. If you have ever had one of their breakfasts you know what I mean!

As you can see it is located in one of the most beautiful spots in St. George (Ivin's really) near Tuacahn Amphitheater and Split Rock on Snow Canyon Road. Wow the pictures just don't do justice to the real thing! Lucky kids;-)

The following YouTube video was produced by Jordon, Utah School District and was one of the inspirations for Vista. I thought you might enjoy seeing the future we plan for our kids in St. George and hopefully many more Vistas to come. You may want to mute the music on my blog before watching the video.

Still going strong...

I could not help but laugh when I read a recent comment on Facebook from one of Micah's friends...he said, "it's nice to see you are still active"! Well, I too, am thankful that I have been blessed to be;-) In fact, I am rather proud of my most recent project...a dry creek in my front yard.

It was one of those "ideas" that wakes you in the middle of the night. I have seen this sort of thing in other neighbor's yards and decided I could do one too! Well, you know me...once I get an idea in my head away I go....

Micah DID offer to help, although as you can see he mostly provided the entertainment;-)

Here are a few pictures to prove that, yes, I am STILL active...still going strong;-) Although, I must admit, the next morning I was feeling the pain! But after all was said and done, I think it was all worth it.

Boo! THE SPOOKS ARE GATHERING! LOOK OUT!!!

Happy Halloween and hope you are having a wonderful day!

I have been starting mine lately with a morning walk now that the water in the pool is just too chilly. So each morning I try to get up and out just as the sun is coming up. Believe it or not, it has really been inspiring for my whole day!

The weather has been a little cool lately, but this morning was beautiful and as I walked along I found myself clicking pictures with my cell phone so as not to forget the magic of the moment. Fortunately we have walkways that go throughout our neighborhood. I thought you might like me to share my pictures with you. You will notice that some of the pictures are of homes I passed. They really have the Halloween spirit as you can see! So fun to see what families do for the kids (and probably themselves too). Now I really want to go back to see them tonight:-) Maybe it will inspire me to do more next year!

I loved the way the sunbeams were playing games with the tree branches as I walked along, so enjoy the views...I feel so lucky to be able to start my day this way;-) Come take a walk with me!

Happy haunting!!!

This 'n That...

Ok, so I am inspired again! Thanks to everyone for your comments...it helps keep me going;-) btw for those of you who respond via email, I hope you remember that if you click on the blue lettering "My Invincible Summer" at the bottom of the page it will open up to my actual blog so you can get the full effect with music, wallpaper, etc., etc....not to mention you see pictures of all my cute grandkids and can click on older posts at the bottom to catch up on those.

Well, I have another new book to recommend that I am so into that I am having trouble getting back to The Poisonwood Bible...and that is saying alot! So, I contacted my local library and found out that The Poisonwood Bible is indeed on CD and so now I am listening to The Poisonwood Bible when I run my errands in my car and reading Blink by Malcolm Gladwell when I have a free moment at home. This is usually just before I drift off at night. My book club ladies described it as "life changing". I am only on the second chapter, but will let you know. It is about the power of thinking without thinking...in other words how we process information in our brain in the "blink" of an eye. I understand his first book The Tipping Point is also really good, which is described as "little things can make a big difference". I will probably look for that one next. This one, like Poisonwood Bible, I found at Savers for $1.99--don't you just love a bargain! Anyway, if you have ever wondered why some things just don't "feel" right and you can't put words to it...Blink is the book for you.

Continuing on about new fun things I have discovered...my friend, Debbie, was cleaning her tile floors when I visited her the other day and going on about her new floor steam cleaner. Ok, so I was sold and stopped at Costco and picked one up for me (a pre-Christmas present or so described by Tom--ya right!). Anyway, it is the new little Shark steam floor cleaner they are featuring and I love it as much as Debbie said I would! If you have alot of tile floors to clean and it gets as "gritty" as mine seems to (desert dust, I guess), wow, does it get it clean! I cannot tell you how many times I have gone over my floors with a mop; and tried so many cleaners but to no avail still had a film.

Debbie said she was on her third go round with the steamer and is still picking up some black on the floor mit. I have only gone over it once and was amazed at how much it picked up! Now I plan to do a second run later today. I think this could be one of those "addictive" things if I am not careful! Oh yes, and it costs $99 and worth every penny...it also has two other size "mops" for smaller areas. You only use plain old water, so no chemicals:-) It will also "fluff" up carpets.

Anyway, I have included some pictures of Blink and the Shark mop. I have also thrown in a few pictures I took around the house today to get in the spirit of the season here...60s in the morning and about mid-80s by 4 pm with tons of sunshine. Perfect for me!

That's all for now. Hoping you will all keep in touch! It is so great to hear from you...

Amy tells me it is ok to talk about myself on a blog because that is what they are about! I like that! So...for all you book lovers out there this is for you. My girls all tell me they don't have time to read which is certainly understandable:-)

Anyway here are a few I have read recently if interested and I am currently reading, The Poisonwood Bible by Barbara Kingsolver. I also read The Bean Trees by her which is shorter but I like this one better. Poisonwood Bible is the story of the wife of a Baptist preacher and his four daughters (who are very real in their antics). They are called on a mission to the Congo. It takes place in the late 50s when the Congo was struggling for their independence and is pretty fascinating reading--described as a "dance between the dark comedy of human failing and the breathtaking possibilities of human hope."

I just finished The Marriage Bureau for Rich People, takes place in modern India (pretty cute) and Pavilion of Women by Pearl S. Buck, which I have recommended to my book club for November. I started Ken Follett's The Pillars of the Earth, which I loved except for the rather explicit sex scenes...so gave up on it about a third of the way through...really good story, but be warned!

If you have some new ones to add to my list...I am always looking for good stuff to read. As for explicit sexual ones...my imagination works just fine without it thank you--maybe even better:-) Give me romance anytime!!!

Let's Make Lemonade!

I have plenty of things on my list today...but I did promise myself that I would do better at keeping up my blog so here goes...

Micah started his new job on Monday and so we knew we needed to get some extra "chores" done around here before he was "too busy" with school and work to get to them. It has been great having him home to help out with the yard, pool, etc. because he is really good at it. Unfortunately, we have ignored the Mesquite tree out front for too long and it's branches were almost touching the ground again. I knew it was something that needed attention and right away...so true to form, he took care of it! Thanks, Micah! It looks great again:-)

Yesterday we were finally able to put in the lemon, orange and grapefruit trees. It is really exciting for me to look out the window and see my new little lemon tree loaded with lemons! We are hoping to have fresh squeezed orange and ruby red grapefruit juice by February! Just in case anyone is thinking about heading this way...hint, hint...

By the way, the reason my lawn looks so sad it that they skin them back this time of year (it looked really pretty until they did) to broadcast rye seed for the winter lawns...it will be a gorgeous kelly green (hopefully) in a couple of weeks! I just threw in the picture of my orange hibiscus as added incentive to you:-)

Anyway, here are some pictures just to "wet your whistle" as they say:-)