Formal

Wilson took Hannah Hunsdorfer to the Winter formal Saturday night. They went with 2 other couples...the girls are all sisters. It was nice seeing him dressed up...but not so nice realizing how grown-up he actually is...sigh.

It Must be Baseball Season

One of the older "events" in the Garver family is the shaving of Dad's beard for the beginning of baseball season. Usually I keep head and face closely cropped, though one year I didn't shave for over half the year. I guess that is when the boys started calling me Old Man River. The pictures above show a progression of hirsute to clean shaven that takes days or weeks to fully complete. I dislike shaving; but for the good of the cause, I shave during baseball. It seems hypocritical to require it of the athletes, even when all they can muster is a bit of peach fuzz on their chin, and show up as their coach with facial hair.

The origins of the slow procession of shaving really has roots with brother-in-law Ken. One evening when the Kelloggs were living on Andrea Court Ken, being the dutiful husband he is, puts the kids to bed. He then shaved off his beard. The next morning he was off to work before sun-up to bring home the bacon. That evening when he tried to enter the house found the door locked. David, manning the door, refused to let Ken enter. He was being obedient to the "Don't talk to Strangers" rule, let alone let them into your house. Try as he might, Ken could not convince David that he was indeed David's father and that he'd better open the door. Eventually reason, wisdom or Stephanie interceded, and Ken was allowed to enter.

This morphed into the Garver tradition of plopping a young Garver on a stool next to the sink as Dad shaved part of his beard off. This repeated over a period of time resulted in Steve with no facial hair and no Garver child refusing entry to the Pater familias.

Thus a tradition was born.

P.S. Certain Exeter raconteurs, upon seeing me grow my beard back, will comment on how bad the Exeter baseball season must have been if I was trying to go incognito by growing a beard.

Me

I am going to try to write something!! We had a great time at Stephanie's. Lots of snow. Of course, I am not into "playing" in the snow. I stayed in and read. We had a nice Christmas and a great dinner. Mark, Michael and Daniel were home. David had to work, but Stephanie said he wouldn't have been able to get over the pass because of the snow.

I saw my eye doctor yesterday and everything is progressing nicely. He did say it probably would be another 3-4 months before my vision returns to normal.

I still have trouble with my right arm . I am going to have an MRI to see just what is wrong with it. I may just decide to live with it as I don't think I want surgery. Isn't this a pleasant posting.

I am still active in the women's guild at church. Went to dinner last Friday night at the Red Lobster with several of the gals from the guild. We celebrated a 50th birthday. I am not sure I would want to be that age again but maybe a little younger then I am now! My friend Lee received a gift certificate for Christmas so she is taking me to lunch at the Olive Garden. Can't beat that.

That's all folks! Mom

A few Christmas pictures

Just thought I'd throw a couple pictures out there from Christmas.

I thought they cleaned up real good.

Dinner and a show at Medieval Times. Fun times had by all.

Trip to Shasta

Photos taken by Robert (with his cell phone) Looks like fun....but cold!

Say a Prayer

Wilson started getting migraines a few weeks ago, so we'll be going in for an MRI on Monday. His doc said that he wanted to be cautious because his symptoms didn't seem like a typical migraine...no worries :)

Maybe he gets headaches because it's hard to see inside with SUNGLASSES ON!

Holidays in Napa

Hope you all had nice holidays. We stayed home for the most part. One of the kids favorite traditions is seeing Santa and his friends on the Napa Valley Wine Train.
They transform the train from a gourmet dining experience to a majical Hot Chocolate serving jaunt including Santa and his friends. Maya still adores Santa...


Maggie hides from Santa, but loves Frosty and Rudolph.



We took a New Year's Day hike to to top of the hill. We felt like the lucky ones above the fog (Mt. Tam is the island you see).






Happy New Year!

Ashley

Break is Over

For those with no children in school, the following might be a surprise.  For children, young and older, that are students and that think teachers don't have a life outside of school, I know this will be a surprise.

The break that you had, or are still having;  the time away from the prison you call school playing, video gaming, romping in the snow or surf, watching movies, or playing sports.  Many teachers didn't get one of those breaks.  I have a stack of essays to finish grading before I can finish posting grades for a class. Grades for some students who started thinking about the Christmas break in September, and their grade reflects their direction of focus.  Maybe they can cruise through the class better the second or third time.

After the essays I get to prepare for one of my favorite classes--Junior English.*  Great literature and a great novel to read that speaks to us especially today--To Kill a Mockingbird. 

*This is when I get to explain among other facts that the British won the French and Indian War because there wasn't a United States of America at the time.  Martin Luther King, Jr. didn't free the slaves, Lincoln really did give the Gettysburg Address in a little over 2 minutes after listening to the main speaker speak for over two hours, and Hitler did participate in the Holocaust.  That all came later after the Revolutionary War.