Reprise from 2007

Love on the High Plains
"Let the lover be disgraceful, crazy, absentminded. Someone sober will worry about things going badly. Let the lover be". Rumi

It started out innocent enough. I traveled with my family to Glacier National Park when I was 18 and saw the train. I remember that day clearly, because I decided I would take that train across the US one day. I'd ridden the train between Olympia, WA and Seattle, WA and Olympia, WA and Portland, OR many times as a child. Three years later, I got an internship in Washington DC and boarded the Empire Builder in Seattle. 4 months later, I prepared to return back west. At the last minute, I changed my departure date and I was re-routed from Chicago onto the Pioneer. Doug booked his trip to Manitoba to visit his family for Christmas. From Denver, he had two choices. He could take the Pioneer to Chicago, stay over night and then board the Empire Builder to Minot, ND or take the Pioneer to Portland, OR and then board the Empire Builder Eastbound to Minot. He chose the Portland route. He boarded the Pioneer on December 11, 1996 in the late morning. He wore an REI fleece jacket and used a backpack for luggage just like me.




He had dehydrated Nile Soups, peanutbutter, and frito's. After 4 months of guys in ubiquitous navy blue and black suits, Doug reminded me of home, of the west, of a life of less formality, friendly strangers and the calm of being away from caffiene spiked, horn blaring urban life. How did we start talking? Well, we started sharing stories about bad experiences on Greyhound, and the previous night's adventures with the hobo who disembarked in Denver, CO. I made Doug cringe with stories about parasites and tropical diseases, he shared his frito's. Somewhere in Utah, we were asked to double up to make room for passengers boarding in Ogden, UT. The line, the moment that sealed the deal, and changed both of our lives forever... "You want to sit together, so you don't have to sit next to any weirdos?". 32 hours later, we exchanged email, phone numbers and addresses and parted ways in Portland. A few days later I got a Christmas card from Manitoba. For Valentine's Day he sent me an FTD flower bouquet and I sent him a card with Conversation Heart Candies. I didn't know he couldn't eat sugar, but he saved the box of candies. In March, he took the Pioneer to Portland again. We shared our first kiss in the sand dunes in Seaside, OR. On March 26, 1997, we decided to get married and almost had the ceremony on a train. In May of that year, the Pioneer was discontinued. Today marks our 12th Anniversary.

Beliefs and Values: An exercise from a class at University of Idaho

I am in grad school, working on my PhD in Education. This summer I am taking a multiculturalism in schools class and a class on linguistics, literacy and the brain. Here is one of the exercises we did in the multiculturalism class. Try it out for yourself.

1. Past and future: Assume that you will have children. Why (or why not) will you treat your children the same way that your parents treated you?

I have 2 children and I think, for the most part, I treat them like my parents treated me. There are some things I definitely do differently though. I’m more involved in my older daughter’s extracurricular and scholastic life. My youngest is a toddler. I don’t remember how I was treated at that age! I do know that I was surrounded by family and that I was loved. I don’t live near family now, but my husband and I have created a surrogate family in our community, that love and support both of our girls. I also encourage her to be more involved in sports and other activities than I think my parents did with me. I made a conscious decision to live in an urban area to allow my daughters to have more immediate access to enrichment and culture. My parents always made me feel trusted, loved and respected. My opinions were encouraged and my intellect was nurtured. I was taught to have an open mind, to find the truth in things for myself and that caring about the common good was important. I was taught that it’s okay to disagree and argue. I wasn’t given a curfew, my level of independence as I got older was negotiated and reflected my parents trust and willingness for me to make my own choices. I want to do the same with my kids. But I live in a city too, and I know my kids aren’t living in a sheltered environment like I did. I discipline similarly to my parents. I don’t spank my children, I use logical consequences and teach values that I think are important.

2. Success and achievement: If you could wake up tomorrow morning having gained any one ability or quality, what would it be? Why would you choose that ability or quality?

I would want the ability to bite my tongue every once in a while at home. I think my husband and older daughter would say their biggest pet peeve about me is that I jump in too quickly in conversation, especially during a conflict or tense conversation. Partly it’s because I think aloud a lot and I have a desire to fix the problem. I need to sit back and allow for more pregnant pauses and be at peace with the uncomfortable silence.

3. Friendship and personal life: If you made up your mind to do something but when your friends heard about it they strongly advised you not to, why might you do it anyway?

I would hope that if I had made a decision that was going to threaten my life that I would listen to my friends. But if they are opposed to my decision say to travel to a Muslim country because they perceive it to be unsafe, then I would go anyway.

4. Possession and priorities: If you could have a wonderful new experience that you would remember for the rest of your life or be given something you have always wanted, which would you choose?

I would definitely take the wonderful experience over the possession of something I’ve always wanted. There aren’t many things I covet. Life experiences shape who I am and I learn so much from them. Material things are so fleeting and can be replaced.

5. Money and values: Would you rather be given $100,000 for your own use or $1 million to give anonymously to strangers? If you prefer the former, what would you do with the money? If you prefer the latter, how would you arrange to distribute it?

I think I would take the $100,000 to pay off debt so I could then go live somewhere like Egypt and educate future teachers.

6. Living and dying: Has your life changed dramatically as the result of some seemingly random event over which you had no control? To what degree, or in what ways do you feel you have control over the course of your life?

My husband and I traveled to Micronesia to live and teach in 2005. We left Spokane, looking for an adventure and a new cultural experience. We left with 2 children. I don’t think it was random though. I think the Creator works in mysterious ways. I think we went there for a reason. Having said that, I don’t see God as some old dude in the sky pulling strings. I believe in free will and I think I have a lot of control over the course of my life.

7. Physical well-being and disability conditions: Would you like to have a child much smarter than you? Much more handsome or beautiful than you? Would it bother you to have a child who was mentally handicapped, or physically unattractive?

I think my girls are smarter than me in some ways. One is bilingual and much more adventurous and open to new experiences than I was at her age. She is brave and beautiful. Both of my girls are more beautiful than me and if one of them was mentally handicapped, I would still see them as a blessing. I was childless, and at the point in my life where I figured I would never be a mom. I was resentful toward other women who were pregnant and felt guilty for not being more excited for family members who were having babies. I traveled half way around the world to teach and came home with 2 girls!

8. Leadership and responsibility: If you were given full responsibility for creating a one-hour television show that millions of people would watch and about anything you wanted, what would it be about?

I would create a travel show or a bioscience/forensics drama.

9. Individuality and choice: If you could be granted one magical power, what would you ask for?

I would want the ability to read minds. My toddler is grunting and wimpering and pointing when she wants something and sometimes I feel frustrated, wishing she’d just say the word for whatever she wants! I was so happy when she said “pato” the other day and pointed at the computer. Pato is a cartoon character. That was her request to watch a cartoon.

10. Social and personal responses: When should it be illegal to help a terminally ill person to die? If someone is not dying but has chronic pain, should that person be assisted to commit suicide? What if the person is in emotional rather than physical pain?

I think suicide whether self inflicted or assisted during terminal illness should be legal. Who are we to judge whether someone’s pain is so unbearable that they can’t go on living? I would hope that the person would seek counseling and I can’t personally imagine being that desperate, but I lost a friend recently to suicide and know several people who have attempted suicide or contemplated it at point or another in their life. I think suicide is selfish and causes great pain for the loved ones left behind, but I don’t think mental health should be regulated in such a way as to say it’s illegal to kill yourself. Likewise, if someone has DNR(do not resuscitate, I think it is wrong for family members to not follow the wishes of the individual who is sick or injured).

Culturally Based Science

Learn Science while helping the Tribe build a Pit House

Students in the 9th grade Physical Science class are learning about pit houses and science! The class visited a pit house site in the Burnt Valley with Randy Abrahamson right before Thanksgiving. Then the students created models of what they thought the house might have looked like.
The students learned about the physical and chemical properties of the materials used to build pithouses. They also learned about unbalanced forces by trying to build the strongest pithouse frame. The class added mass to the top of the pit house until it collapsed. Jeremy Campbell's design was the strongest, requiring 130 lbs of force to collapse. The students then created a poster display of the lab.

Following the pithouse demolition challenge, the students designed a model using paper mache. The domed pithouses were insulated with a variety of materials to demonstrate the properties of insulation in reducing the transfer of heat and cold. The students determined the best insulation based on which model had the least amount of melted ice after 30 minutes. They recorded the temperature inside the pit house every 3 minutes and measured the total amount of melt water after the time ellapsed. In the Spring, they will help the Culture and Language office build a full sized pit house on campus. In preparation for this, the students went outside to collect data on the proposed construction site.

The students made observations about sun exposure, tree density, and tree size. They noted the types of trees and which trees would be easiest to dig around due to root characteristics. Their next challenge will be to observe the changes in light throughout the seasons and determine the best location for the pithouse construction.

Summer: the Sacred Cow

Doug recently ordered the book "Outliers" by Malcolm Gladwell. He's the author of "Blink" and "Tipping Point". Outliers is about the circumstances people experience in their lives that allow them to be successful. I haven't read the whole book yet, but Doug pointed out a chapter about low income children and public education in the US. Gladwell suggests that the way we have been debating about public education and closing the achievement gap is backwards. He highlights the results of a study by Karl Alexander of John Hopkins University. The city of Baltimore administers the California Achievement Test in September and June of every year. The dual testing allows researchers to measure how much students learn in a year as well as how much learning occurs over the summer months. Alexander discovered that the achievement levels of low income and high income children were no different between September and June. But if you look at student scores from June to September, the reading scores of low income children only improved .26 points, children from middle class families only improved by 7 points and wealthy children improved by 52.49 points. Gladwell writes;

"An enormous amount of time is spent talking about reducing class size, rewriting curricula, buying every student a shiny new laptop, and increasing school funding-all of which assumes that there is something fundamentally wrong with the job schools are doing. The only problem with school, for the kids who aren't achieving, is that there isn't enough of it."

Based on information in Gladwell's book, South Korean kids go to school 220 days. The Japanese school year is 243 days. I've intuitively wondered about the summer vacation problem. It seems there are 2 solutions, creating programs for low income kids to keep them learning and engaged in structured activities throughout the summer or change our school year calendar. Why not go year round? Why not have more extended holidays throughout the year of 2 week length rather than a 3 month vacation? For teachers who can afford to travel or who don't have to take a summer job, the time off is great. This past summer I used the time to intern in a lab at a local university. But why are we holding onto summers? Is it really in the best interest of our students? Would I be laughed out of the room at a teacher association meeting for suggesting a change in the calendar?

Cob Oven at Riverfront Fam

Our neighborhood community farm, Riverfront Farm, has a cob oven. It's built out of recycled concrete, clay and corn straw. We had a cook out yesterday and roasted veggies and chicken. Our neighbor Andy is a chef for the Davenport Hotel. He provided the seasonings and coordinated the cooking. While we waited for the food to cook we stayed warm with a fire built in the drum of a washing machine. We discussed our plans for community gardening this year and talked about getting the Project X or Food not Lawns or whatever we're going to call ourselves, group together for a meeting. We also talked about how to create opportunities for low income families to access more locally grown food and how to bring the slow foods movement to the hood. Well, we sort of talked about that. I think some folks in the progressive camp don't know how to relate to or connect with poor people. So the trick is, how do you discuss gardening or buying organic food without sounding pretentious, preachy or uppity. Essentially the typical conversation or stance of a slow foodie is like that of someone staunchly opposed to Walmart. While I think the sticker "Mall-Wart. Source of Cheap Plastic Crap" speaks volumes, I'm not going to put the sticker on my car because it would alienate my neighbors and in all honesty I have shopped there when a limited budget dictated what I could purchase for my home and how much I could spend.

Martin Luther King Jr,, Obama and Piercings

Last week was an exciting week. On Monday, over 2000 people gathered in downtown Spokane to remember Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. The energy in the crowd was electrifying and greater than any other previous MLK Day event in town. Everyone was thinking about the events that would follow the next morning and how amazing it was that Obama's inauguration would occur the day after we celebrated Martin Luther King's legacy. We postponed finals at school, so students could watch the Inauguration. I think some of my students were more interested in who was going to the Superbowl, but a few recognized the significance of Tuesday's ceremony. I took Litcelle to an Inauguration Ball downtown, Tuesday night. We danced the night away with some friends. On Wednesday, the Wellpinit School Board met and a group of students and faculty attended the meeting to speak out against the anti-piercing policy. Our school doesn't allow piercing unless it's in the ear or nose and the nose has to be a stud, no rings allowed. It's a pain in the ass to regulate and a waste of time. Several students have their eye brows, lips or chin pierced. If they show up to school with anything other than a clear plug in those sites, they get a referral. My students were articulate and well prepared for the meeting. They offered a petition signed by students, parents and staff. They offered testimony about lost days of school due to being sent home for piercings and they offered a counter policy. A couple of teachers, including myself, spoke up about how problematic the policy is for us. We argued that the piercings themselves were not disruptive to learning. But having to police students for piercings was disruptive and detrimental to student teacher relationships. As a result of the students speaking up, the Board is going to change the policy. I am so proud of those students. They took a risk going to that meeting. They set a great example for their peers in how to be participants in how they are governed rather than passive observers.

CUC vs. Avista

I checked my utility bill today and thought I was back on Saipan. Avista decided to do an estimation for utility use for the last billing cycle. I suspect they couldn't get meters read with all the snow. My "what the f@#$" question is why are the estimates so far off. Avista claims a longer billing cycle is partly to blame. But 5 days of additional energy use doesn't account for a tripling in our utility bill. They have 12 months of energy use and a computer system to establish estimates. Seems like a major glitch occurred in the software. Our electricity usage has been between $35 and $40 all year. The gas usage varies based on weather. Our December usage was about 3.5 therms/day or $110. This month, Avista estimated our usage at 7 therms/day. Based on our own reading of the meter we used 5 therms per day. That's not too surprising since the average temperature for the last month was 20 degrees.

A friend of mine uses propane for heat and only pays Avista for electricity. He said his bill is usually $40 a month. This week, he got a bill for $400. Makes me think about CUC on Saipan and their estimated bills that charged people $1,000 dollars or our pay checks that were missing a couple of hundred dollars due to a computer glitch.

OOPS!!!

Christmas in Manitoba

We traveled to Manitoba Canada for Christmas this year. We decided to take at the last minute. Driving would have been stressful with the bombardment of snow storms and Helena's desire to be moving around almost constantly. The train was a nice alternative. Helena and Litcelle enjoyed it much more than being stuck in a car. We ate dinner in the dining car, hung out in the observation car as we passed through Glacier Park in Montana and stretched out in our reclining chairs with foot rests during the night.

Doug's uncle met us in Rugby, ND and drove us to his farm in Holmfield Manitoba. Doug and I hadn't been up to Manitoba in 10 years. It was great to see his family again. Litcelle helped Uncle Glenn with chores around the farm. She even got to drive the tractor. Farming is a fickle business and sometimes it seems like dumb luck if one farmer is prosperous and another is not. Doug's family made a go of it in the late 70's. They grew wheat, other cereal grains and canola. Doug's uncle grows cereal grains and raises a few head of cattle. He used to have about 100 pigs. But small scale pig farming is not profitable now unless you go into niche markets like organic meat. His uncle's too close to retirement and too low in energy to make the switch. He and other small scale farmers were driven out of the pork market by agribusiness. About 2 miles from his farm, a facility housing 10,000 hogs was set up. Even in minus 20 weather, we could smell the pigs. These pigs never see the light of day and live out their lives in large wherehouse like barns.
Helena got to hold a hockey stick for the first time. She and Litcelle also took a turn at Guitar Hero when we visited Doug's cousin in Brandon.
The temperatures got so low, my breath froze on my hair when we went for a walk. I could feel the tears in my eyes freezing!

Crafty Holiday

I picked up some new beads and made a new necklace. The center bead is hand made by a local artist. I'd really like to learn how to do that. Litcelle's got the beading bug too. Grandma Connie sent a beading care package. Litcelle and I also learned how to crochet over the break. I made the hat while riding Amtrak home from Manitoba. And I started making crocheted bracelets.

Beautiful Day for a Walk

Today, the sun was out and the sky was blue. It was a great day for a walk. We live about half a mile from the Spokane River and much of the shoreline is public, providing a great place for hiking and feeling like you are far removed from a city.

Dork In A Box

Some of you may have seen the Justin Timberlake sketch on SNL spoofing oversexed R&B love songs. It was called Dick in a Box. You can find it on youtube and hulu. Anyway, Doug thinks that sketch is one of the funniest things ever. Almost as funny as Pastor Gas (also available on youtube). Here's my dork in a box.

Moshi the Hypothyridic Frog

Meet Moshi. He arrived in the mail yesterday, special delivery from Great Gramma Shirley.
He croaks when you whack him on the butt. As you can see, he's a bit rotund, but oh so soft. I think he has a thyroid condition. We're looking into it.

Anatomy of a Sled

Maile made it to the post office just in time! Our new zipfy mini luges arrived before the entire city shut down from the snow storm. I saw the mail truck on our corner this afternoon, but there was no mail in our box. There were about 10 people trying to push the truck out of the snow in the middle of the intersection. My brother called to see if we'd used the sleds yet. He got himself a couple and they were able to sled in Seattle. Damon and I started reminiscing about our childhood and the rare snow days in Olympia. We'd be lucky to get 2 days of snow all winter and usually there'd only be 3 or 4 inches, which turned to slush within 24 hours. My mom would declare a snow day even if school was open, so we'd get the chance to play in the snow. Our house was ontop of a treed hillside. We used the driveway for a couple of years, until someone sled so fast down the lane, they crossed the main road and landed next to the pumphouse. The hill in our yard was forested with small Alders. One year we got sleds with hand brakes on the sides. Damon and I set a course, weaving around the trees. We called it the "cross country run". Later, the trees were cleared and inflatable rafts were used along with stolen realty signs (great for spinning). The raft ended up in a bramble of blackberry vines. Desperate to sled one year, we got the hose and sprayed the hill, knowing it would freeze overnight. We had a nice frosty, slick hill in the morning. Today, Doug, Litcelle, Helena and I walked to the edge of West Central to sled on the switchbacks down to the river. Most of the sidewalks weren't cleared and the snow was waist deep in some places. We used ruts in the snow, left by cars as a path. We had to break trail through the snow to the hill and with the help of some neighborhood kids with snowboards, created a nice sled run. The terminus of the run was a ditch full of snow. So you bottomed out and whitewashed all at once, with some icy cold snow going down the pants and shirt for good measure. (Glasses are not recommended, as you can see from Doug's picture below).

The zipfy is very light and easy to carry when you have to walk a mile to get to a sled hill. It also doubles as a snow pick, that can be dug into the snow to help pull you up after you slide down. There's a whole following for these little sleds. Check out http://global.zipfy.com/
This was Litcelle's second time to sled. There were screams of joy as she flew down the slope.
It's only supposed to be 12 degrees tomorrow, so I don't know if we'll venture out to sled. When we got home, there was hot soup waiting in the crock pot and cookies from Grandma Shirley. I ate the shortbread m&m cookies guilt free! Sooooo many calories burned today with shoveling snow and walking to the sled hill and back.

Snow Day

We have over 20 inches of snow! I got a call at 5:30 a.m. from Wellpinit that school would be 2 hours late and I was going to call in sick! Then 15 minutes later the phone rang again. School was finally canceled. Wellpinit doesn't close unless the weather is really bad. Or the power has to be out like yesterday and the day before. I wouldn't have made it there if I'd tried. The City has closed most of the hills in town which means we're trapped in our own little downtown, lowland island. Suits me just fine. I love how quiet it is when the snow covers the ground. Our neighbor said there are abandoned cars on Maple Street bridge. Doug saw a few abandoned in intersections in our neighborhood. I dug out the car this morning, not that I'm going anywhere, but the snow is supposed to keep falling til sunset, so I figured I better do it in increments of 8 inches rather than 24 all at once!

It's been so cold this week, the deicing solution the City uses on our streets is freezing. Damon and Maile sent us sleds for Christmas. They arrived yesterday, just in time for the snow. We're going to try them out today.

Children of God

The power went out at school this morning. We sent the students home at 9:30 and I got the rest of the day off. I finished a book called "Children of God" by Mary Doria Russell. It's a sequel to an earlier novel titled "The Sparrow". The story takes place in the near future. Life is discovered on another planet and a delegation of Jesuit priests and scientists are sent to make contact with the newly discovered beings. Throughout the story, the characters wrestle with questions about God and their role in expedition. For the Jesuits, their mission is to do work for the glory of God. Even with their modern understanding of ecosystems, culture, language and knowledge of the mistakes made by their predecessors, they manage to alter a society and cause the near annihilation of a group of 'people'. In addition to the foibles of the humans, the sentient beings from the other planet go through a transformation. Much of the story is about the oppressed being set free, revenge and forgiveness and about free will. The moral of the story is about the difficulty of seeking the Truth.

Near the end of Children of God, one of the characters says " I have learned that a soul's emptiness can become a place where Truth will dwell-even if it is not made welcome, even when Truth is reviled and fought, doubted and misunderstood and resisted. My own hollowed heart has made a space for others' pain, but I believe there is more, some larger Truth we are all heir to, and I want to be filled with it!"

This quote made me think of Gandhi. He believed that conflicts between people could only be resolved if we work at seeking the Truth. But we have to be open to the fact that our "truth" might not be the Truth. With that emptiness, we can find common ground. We can be open to growing and learning from our own mistakes.

Then I started thinking about the reporter who threw a shoe at Bush. What if Bush and many other Americans took the time to make room for the Truth to dwell regarding Iraq and other Muslim countries? What if we were the ones building schools, clinics and housing in Pakistan instead of the Taliban? What if we'd done that in Afghanistan after bankrolling their revolution against the Soviets? What would the world look like today?