The Icing

My brother Jim, sister-in-law Diane, and nieces and nephews Addie, Kenny, Rachel, and Josh left this morning. They arrived on Friday, just in time to witness my cooking frenzy. I made guacamole and taco salads for the whole crew. It was both a challenge and fun to cook for such a large group--but the food was done surprisingly quickly and it was good to eat and talk at the same time. They had just spent a couple of days at Disneyland, so they had lots of stories to tell about their trip. We played games and took a walk that evening. It was a nice, relaxing day.

Yesterday, we drove up to King's Canyon National Park to see the giant sequoias. Diane had visited Fresno during my first year here, and we'd made the same trip. She wanted her kids to see these enormous trees. I loved when we saw the first sequoia as we drove into the park. The kids oohed, aahed, and wowed, obviously surprised by how amazing these trees are.

We walked around the Grant Grove, admiring the trees and clambering on the rocks.

The kids crawled through tree crevices.

And gathered enormous pine cones.

We were all impressed by the General Grant tree, the third largest tree in the world, and the widest tree at 40 feet across.

We stopped at a fruit stand on the way home, trying different varieties of plums and nectarines. I wish I'd taken a picture of Kenny eating his first plum ever. This picture will have to do.

And Addie ate fruit all night, labeling her crisp white paper bag of fruit unmistakably as hers.

Last night, we made pizza, looked at pictures of Norway and San Francisco, and danced to disco music. You read that right. Jim and Diane did the swing in my living room. The kids did the worm and other impressive dance moves. I played the DJ and danced a little myself. It was a surprising turn of events--and so much fun. I wish we all lived closer to each other so this could happen all the time. I need more practice with my dance moves. Oh, and I really love my family!

A year ago, my then 16 year old niece Natalie had kidney failure. For the last year, she has been doing at home dialysis every night--in addition to living the regular life of a 17 year old girl. She's a good sister and daughter who still likes hanging out with her parents and siblings--but she also has a great group of friends. She's been on her high school dance team (she's an amazing dancer, the kind of dancer who everyone else stops dancing to watch), getting up early every morning to practice.

After a year of getting healthy, Natalie was finally put on the transplant list. Earlier this month, she was notified that there was a kidney available. She traveled to Salt Lake, arriving to find that a clerical error had sent the kidney elsewhere. Last week, she finally had a transplant. However, because Natalie is so petite and the kidney was from a much larger person, there were difficulties with the transplant. Eventually, the doctors had to remove the kidney. After a few days, they released her from the hospital. Over the last week, her body has tried to expel 11 liters of extra fluid. Yesterday, she fainted, stopped breathing, and was rushed back to the hospital. The doctors found three leaking arteries that they've now patched up. She's in a lot of pain, but we are hopeful that her health will now improve.

Please keep her and her family in your thoughts and prayers. They've all been through a lot this year.

My thoughts and prayers are with you, Nat.

Wow, I just scheduled my first presentation in Vennesia, Norway. I'll be presenting on an as-yet-to-be-decided topic on October 17.

I managed to find a picture of the train station in Vennesia. It looks quite picturesque, doesn't it?

Last week finally felt like summer to me. Grading done. Jury duty over. Unstructured time. Sometimes I don't do well with a lot of free time, so I made sure to plan a lot to do last week. Here's a partial list of what I've accomplished so far . . .

Weeded and pruned in my back yard.
Went to a Writing Project meeting.
Gave away roses to Denni and her friend Katie.
Made Indian food for my neighbor Lori.
Blogged.
Got three trees cut down.
Saw a summer blockbuster (which shall remain nameless) with John J.
Planned for the SJVWP Summer Institute.

Went to another Writing Project meeting, this one at Pangea.
Went to Cathy C.'s retirement party and saw former students and old friends.
Had waffles with Alex and Kyle (and admired their new house).
Went to another movie with Saul and Debbie, after which we ate at the Oaxaca.
Read a book on inaugurations (and continued reading B. Kingsolver's newest book).

Prepared one of my Norway presentations using a new program, Keynote.
Read a thesis chapter.
Gave feedback to Tracey on her teaching demonstration lesson.
Went to Fresno High to see student presentations (they were great!).
Had lunch with my former student Susanna.
Was convinced by my eye doctor that I have to go back to contacts in order to see better.

Not too bad for just one week of summer. I'm excited to see what I'm able to do this coming week!

Oh . . . so this is what my house looks like!

Although I miss the shade, I have to admit that it's nice to actually see my house now. Obviously, I have work to do on my front yard. First thing? Get the sprinklers fixed. Then, I can start creating flower beds and actually planting things in them. I could even transplant my tomatoes to the front since there's now so much sun. Any other ideas about what to plant?

I really love this tree in my front yard with its lacy network of branches and fluttery leaves. It provides a lot of shade for my house and is so visually appealing.

However, the root system has destroyed two of the sprinkler pipes and one of the roots abuts the corner of the house.

I can see cracks in the stucco that were likely created by the root and it also looks like it's starting to eat into the wall (and perhaps the foundation). I think I'm going to have to remove the tree--and have the root system ground up.

As I've looked closer at the house and the roots, I've realized that this removal will prevent further damage, but I wish there were another alternative. It will be hard to give up this:

And this:

My neighbor Lori suggested that I plant another tree in the yard (further away from the house). It will have 10 months to grow while I'm gone. That made me feel a little better . . .