IMAGINE

Imagine:  a "White Christmas" in Mesa, Arizona!

Imagine being married to a man who would borrow a dump truck from one of his buddies, drive north on December 24th and bring back a load of snow! 

Imagine that when the extended family gathered for the annual Christmas Eve Party (which you only get to host every four years)

they were greeted with a yard full of snow!

I thought this would be a great story to use for the word IMAGINE....

"Imagine: no possessions

I wonder if you can

No need for greed or hunger

A brotherhood of man"

As a little girl in the 60's how can I possibly think of the word "IMAGINE" and not mention
 John Lennon and the BEATLES??? 

My siblings and I would lip-synch along to BEATLES records before "lip-synching" was even invented?  We were playing....or I guess the four of us just IMGINED we were 

John, Paul, George and Ringo!!

Siblings celebrating LOVE - BEATLES style in Vegas

I am actually considering using this idea for one of the other words on my list.... beware, this 

FAB-FOUR may appear again in a future post.

After serious consideration: this post on the word IMAGINE

is dedicated to a very special person in my life.

TYLER LEE

Tyler, is our first born Grandchild.  He is also the first grandchild in his Mom's family....and both of his parents are the "firsts" in their families.  Therefore, and rightfully so, Tyler shows all the signs of a "type A - firstborn" child.  Here's an example...imagine "reading" the dictionary at age three!!! This is actually an alphabet book, (it reads like a dictionary). 

Tyler has ALWAYS loved books

This next photo is an example of his budding ENGINEERING skills and kind of captures this intense moment of concentration and balancing! (What this photo doesn't show is the room full of adults watching his every move and cheering on this great feat!) You can only "imagine" - right?

just TRY and duplicate this tower

IMAGINE how determined this "three year old" is to catch a fish in the stream with his very own fishing pole....and imagine how badly we all wanted him to catch one!

FATHER and SON  Fishing for Trout in the White Mountains of Arizona

IMAGINE how discouraged he felt when he didn't get so much as a nibble.

I shared the above examples to establish the "type A" - serious disciplined qualities of a firstborn child.....what I want to share, now, is the side of Tyler that amazes me, entertains me, and reminds me to celebrate childhood:
I'm referring to his fantastic
IMAGINATION

When the fish don't bite....what little boy wants to stand still and wait...when this pole can also serve as a wonderful sword for a "fighting ninja"??

Tyler has entertained us with his IMAGINATION ever since he could talk and play.  Barely two years old and he was the coolest "Buzz" ever!

Creative in all that he does....take swimming for example....he doesn't just jump....he blasts off like a ROCKET!  And why not?  Because ever since I can remember he shows great interest in ANYTHING that moves, flies, has a motor, an engine....or can TAKE OFF with great speed!!

A MAN AFTER GRANDPA'S HEART

IF THERE ARE BUTTONS OR GADGETS HE'LL FIND THEM

HE DOESN'T MISS A THING

What feeds this IMAGINATION?  I guess its everything he experiences, reads, hears, sees....basically the world around him. 

HIS EYES SAY IT ALL!

Now for examples: this playground (above) became a "ship" he was searching for "pirates".  This all had something to do with the little girl, wearing a pink tutu, chasing him around and yelling "ARGUE" (really wish I would have taken a picture of her).

While at our house....he is not "jumping on the tramp"  rather he is on the "ship" which is protecting him from the ferocious, vicious animals.....(the dogs) 

He doesn't JUMP, he blasts off like a ROCKET

With Macee

and Max

(The above pictures are included to show there actually was a time when Tyler "liked" the dogs)

Back to the topic of Tyler and examples of his IMAGINATION....  the photo below features a household item that may look like a regular ole shower squeegee..... but, Oh -NO...this is the "Squeegee Plane"  On many occasions Tyler would run into our house, run past a closet full of toys, (including toy airplanes) and run to the shower to get the "Squeegee Plane".  Then he would run through the house, holding this "plane" high in the air making sound effects like a flying jet.  I kinda feel bad that I never got a picture of him....can you picture it? Use your imagination.

BEST TOY EVER

Besides the tramp....our bathtub becomes a favorite "ship" to hide in, or use as his central base to fight the "bad guys".  IMAGINE "Grandma" crouching in this tub along with him helping to defend the fort?  Recently we were "hiding out" in our sauna/shower and I said something about "looking out for the Decepticons", all proud of myself because I knew who the bad guys are.  He looked at me with the most serious look and said "No Grandma, we are hiding from the ANCIENT SECRET BAD GUYS!!  (sheezzz - I never quite get it right)

Tyler's imagination has taken him through a TRANSFORMERS stage where EVERYTHING he talked about, played and (wanted) to view for entertainment was something related to Transformers.  He was either Bumblebee (see photo) or THE Optimus Prime. How I wish I could post a recording of him talking like Optimus...he's good!!


Tyler will "transform" right before your eyes....on the family room floor, holding stainless steel pots and pan lids or ladles or large wooden spoons or anything that he sees fit to evolve from some kind of vehicle to a powerful robot.  His motions along with original sound effects are epic!  

CHRISTMAS 2011

WARNING....do you have ANY IDEA how difficult these toys can be to TRANSFORM ?

Take note that the new TOY is still in the BOX....the toy of the day is an old golf club that he found lying around.  

His creativity doesn't end with squeegees or kitchen gadgets.  One day Emily called and told me she had just been talking to Tyler on the phone, evidently he told her he was busy playing with his 

"FUSION CANNON GUN"

I decided to do some research, his Mom told me that depending on the day, this 

"weapon of choice" may be called a

spinning gun, laser gun or protecting shield. 

it is NOT EASY to get a photo of him "in action" he's in a "don't take my picture phase"
photo courtesy of Kristin - THANKS

Here is a story to illustrate that every product of his imagination is not about weapons or battles or super powers.  One day Tyler and I were sitting together and out of the blue he said to me: "Grandma, is that when you were a PRINCESS??"

I thought.... what?  And looking around I realized he was looking at this bridal picture of Megan!

I LOVE his IMAGINATION!

A new phase has entered Tyler's world.  Transformers are fading out a little and he is currently becoming enthralled with SUPER HEROES!!

He loves them all, he knows them all, (their skills and powers) and on any given day will pretend to be any one of them.  From looking at the photos below (compliments of Jonathan) can you guess what SUPER HERO he emerged from his bedroom this particular morning as??

Use your IMAGINATION!

"HAWKEYE" of COURSE!!

I'll wrap this up by saying how richly my life is blessed by having Tyler as my Grandson.  He brings me great happiness!  His IMAGINATION is extremely creative and a source of joy for all those that know him.  He is one fantastic kid.... I'll close with this picture of him running along side of his Dad while Jonathan was finishing a half marathon.  I need to state here, that, Tyler wasn't just running, he was running like "Dash".  And in my eyes, these two guys are simply INCREDIBLE  and I'm NOT just imagining that!   

EXPLORE word #7

I feel that my life must be aligned perfectly with the universe right now as the word EXPLORE is the next word on my list to share.  I say this because I am currently having the unique experience, as a Grandma, to watch my nine month old grandson become "mobile".  He has suddenly changed from a babe-in-arms to a very active crawler.  I guess you call it crawling...but actually his way of moving includes hands and feet but not knees.
                           (see photo)  


Cannon's number one goal and desire in life is to EXPLORE.  Therefore, I decided to follow him around with the camera to document the life and times of a very young but determined EXPLORER!

As an experienced Grandma and babysitter of this little explorer I know he has his eye (and mind) set on a certain object in Grandpa's suitcase.  This is where I pull rank since I do not have a total sense of letting him "experience" everything and everywhere this flip flop has been....

                                   So I call out his name....


Instead of an ole dirty shoe, I hand him my favorite "Baby Einstein" toy that lights up and plays classical music.  (This toy is a dream, it deserves credit for assisting me in keeping this little guy still enough to make it through a diaper change.)

          A good explorer will touch and listen....but then comes the                 inevitable......to the mouth!




Is that look because of the taste?  Or how he feels about me handing him a manufactured toy?  After all, he wants to EXPLORE.....and go where HE wants to go...


                       So off he goes, now, here's something cool...


                   Before this documentary I did not know these things  just twist off....(ahhh the things we will learn from one who is willing to EXPLORE)....Look Grandma!



                                       and now to taste...


Little explorers can find the oddest things....like a spot on the plant stand where the paint has chipped off as interesting.  



   He spies the dirtiest and most germified object in the whole house...

                                   The DOGS tennis ball.



I refuse to take a picture of that dirty ole thing on its way to the explorer's mouth.  So, I take it away from him and set him in front of the....

Toy Cupboard!

(too cute for words)

Why would the little guy want to stay and EXPLORE in the brightly colored toy cove when he can find an isolated spot with nothing of true interest to explore....except the beaded fringe on the pillow that makes a cool sound?

I call it exploring...the developmental books use a term like teething.

Within a span of a very few days our explorer is pulling up out of his unique crawling position to standing on his own two feet!!
I better finish this post quickly or he'll be walking before I publish.

And what is this look?  Could he be tired of me following him around playing photo-journalist?

With that look I end my attempt to share the word EXPLORE by thanking Cannon for reminding me what an interesting and great world we live in.  Well, OK, so maybe we have only been exploring in Grandma's & Grandpa's house.  Yes, we know that the great big world is out there....but for now, my little one, thank you for finding our house an endless place of discovery!

ENLIGHTEN (word #6)

ENLIGHTEN

Is an "art" word and a "spiritual" word:

A number of years ago, eleven to be exact, I was given the assignment in a black and white film photography class to shoot a picture of "light". This picture of Gary is what I set up, shot and developed (in the darkroom) to turn in for the assignment and for class evaluation. The overall consensus was that this photo is very "contrasty" (no kidding), and that I had a handsome husband (right again)! What I learned: photography is ALL ABOUT "light". You know the saying: " add some light on the subject", or ENLIGHTEN? Well, that is an "art" saying and all about photography.

I LOVE shooting pictures at the beach. I LOVE the various affect the sun can have, depending on the weather and on the time of day and the suns position.

The filtered sun light on this foggy day has such a soft affect on Jonathan, Kristin and Tyler

Add light...and look how everything comes alive! Brilliant colors and a sparkle in the eyes!

On a spiritual note, consider the word "LIGHT" as representing "CHRIST" or "TRUTH",

and "sun" being synonymous with "Son".

(I don't know how to get rid of the underline??? How did this happen? So now that everything is being underlined, I don't know if I should keep posting or stop?

These two pictures were taken at our favorite "wave skiing" beach, "Old Man's" near San Onofre, California. The brightness of the sun has such a dramatic affect on the look of the photo. Look what happens when you add light!

The Arizona Temple can appear as if it has actually changed colors depending on the time of day and the position of the sun. I love the golden warmth from the sun at the end of the day. And yet there is nothing as cool and calming as the lovely soft white granite as the background for a bride and groom so in love and beginning their life together! These pictures I took of

Megan and Steve are great examples of this light.

Then check out Emily on the wake board! Notice the effect that light has on her!

At the beginning of this post I talked about a photography class assignment. These two black and white pictures of the girls and "Grandma Rogers" are some of the other shots I took for that light assignment. On the pictures of their profiles I had them looking right into the setting sun, (which was really hard to develop) there was just too much light on their faces.

When I took these pictures....I had no idea that it would be only a matter of months before my lovely mother in law would suddenly suffer a heart attack and the sun would set on her life here with us forever. I can not begin to express how thankful I was for this class assignment and to have shot these pictures of the girls with their Grandmother. I have good memories of us gathering together to do my "homework". I am reminded of the willingness that my family always had to be my subjects for my class assignments, to humor me, to stand in the light, or look into the light, or whatever I asked them to do, just to help me with school. Ultimately, isn't any kind of education, enlightenment?

Our lives can be enlightened with so many lessons of light and love if we look for it.

One last picture....I just love the many, many sparkles of light in this picture. This photo was snapped outside our window in Laie, Hawaii after a very rainy day. The rain stopped, the clouds rolled away....and suddenly our view of the world just sparkled...all we needed was a little light.

DAYDREAM word #5

DAYDREAM.....Friday, March 2, 2012, I tore off the page of my day-by-day Mary Engelbreit calendar to discover a darling picture of a girl, very relaxed, sitting outside in a lawn chair while holding a magazine that was titled:"DAYDREAM" a quote below stated "All intellectual improvement arises from leisure. by Samuel Johnson" I knew that "daydream" was my next word to blog about so I took it as my "sign" to open the blog and post again. So here goes.....

How do you talk about the word "daydream" without talking about school? Isn't the classroom the place that "daydreams" happen? I love the painting by Winslow Homer titled "The Country School" (see painting below) because it kind of reminds me of me. I went to college to become a teacher. Between ASU and BYU I took the classes to have a duel major in both special education and elementary ed, thought it would make me a more marketable teacher. But the truth is....I always felt a little like the way this teacher appears in this (cropped) version of this painting....staring off into space with the green grass outside and gentle breeze more appealing than the inside of the classroom. Thus, one of my great "conflicts" of life, that is, wanting to be smart, but not having a whole lot of discipline when it comes to cracking the books and studying. About teaching...I worked in the same elementary school in Scottsdale where I did my "ASU student teaching", in the "cross categorical" resource classroom. I enjoyed it, didn't absolutely love it....the school year ended in June, Jonathan was born in October and I never went back to teaching again....that is, as a paid teacher in a school ;)
Anyway, back to "daydreaming". YES, I was a daydreamer in school and what did I daydream about? What else but being a "STAR" of the theatre!! When I was in 6th grade my big brother took me to the audition of the high school musical production of South Pacific. I was cast as Ngana, Emilie de Becque's daughter. Act 0ne, scene one, the curtains open after the live orchestra had played the fantastic overture by Rogers and Hammerstein and there I am, in the spotlight singing a duet of "Dites-Moi". Thus my theater career had begun! Now, I must
state, that one of the great cultural events of the year, in Roswell, New Mexico, in the early 70's was the Roswell High School musical. The fact that I was fairly dark complected, had long straight dark hair almost to the middle of my back (type casting) and my big brother Mark, was a Senior, with one of the outstanding voices of the choral department, (definite IN) had nothing to do with me getting the part ;) That year and then the next TWO years I was a "middle school" student cast as one of the children in the high school show. I was also cast in Annie Get Your Gun, and Li'l Abner.....ya, those were exciting times for a young girl and I daydreamed in school during those years....A LOT. I loved the stage!

I mentioned above that the High School musical was ONE of the great cultural events in Roswell. The other: Bobbi Alcorn's Academy of Dance annual dance recital. Bobbi Alcorn taught me, or should I say: INSPIRED me to dance. I loved BALLET class. I loved to dance and worked very hard to acquire those first pointe shoes. I could write volumes on the amazing influence that Bobbi Alcorn had on so many young girls....but this blog post is about daydreams, so I'll re-focus. I daydreamed about dancing in a professional ballet. Because of Mrs. Alcorn I did have that opportunity to dance with the El Paso Ballet touring troupe when they came to Roswell to perform "Cinderella", I was a Paige....who walked across the floor ballerina style, such talent!! I still remember seeing the principal dancers backstage and being completely in awe! My favorite dancing reality....dancing on pointe to Tchaikovsky's, "Merry Widow Waltz" from the ballet "Sleeping Beauty" in a velvet emerald green and white tutu, no doubt the highlight of my career! Ahhh - good memories, and great daydreaming material. Disclaimer....neither of these photographs are me, (just gotta love the Internet)

What happens to daydreams? I believe they become a reality IF they become a true goal first. We moved from Roswell, New Mexico to Scottsdale, Arizona when I was a freshman in high school. I attended a school of ballet with a ballet mistress,

who was NOT at all a fan of my horribly flat feet, with absolutely no natural arch at all, the inspiration of an amazing teacher was gone. The pointe shoes were retired after one too many humiliating classes. However, I loved dancing in Coronado High school productions of "West Side Story" and "Oklahoma" both great dancing musicals.... I was never the star.

DAYDREAMS, come and go with the phases of our life....never did I realize that REALITY would bring such incredible joy!! The people in the following pictures bring more happiness to me than I ever even dared to daydream about. If I start writing about watching my own little girls as they danced, or of the excitement I felt as they developed into strong amazing dancers, well, this post would become too lengthy (too late) but who would have ever guessed? Or that true love would not take place on the stage, from memorizing a script, with a live orchestra playing at the right moments, but in the home that Gary and I built, with the music playing over the years from stereo turntables, to cassette tapes, to CD's to the Ipod?? (Okay, so I don't really use my Ipod..... YET)

Just think.....I could have avoided this extremely long post of how many words?? and simply used two words to describe my daydreams....GARY LEE ;)

BELIEVE (word #4)

I BELIEVE! I BELIEVE that happiness is a decision. I BELIEVE people are inherently good. I BELIEVE that freedom is what makes the country I live in the the "promised land". I BELIEVE in families. I BELIEVE in love. I BELIEVE in prayer. I BELIEVE in the POWER of both love and prayer.

And all of this....I believe... comes from my belief in Jesus Christ, I believe he is the Savior of the World, and I BELIEVE he knows and loves me and that he is my redeemer. Because the tomb was empty on the morning of the third day...because HE LIVES, I BELIEVE that life and love are eternal.

I feel that I have always known this. My parents taught me that "Jesus Loves Me" from a very young age. I remember as a little child, spending the night at my Grandma's house in Pennsylvania, laying in the dark (with I believe my older brother, sister and a cousin) and someone was teaching us the Bible verse John 3:16. "For God so loved the world that he GAVE his only begotten son...."

My faith grew and at the age of eighteen I read the Book of Mormon. I BELIEVE the Book of Mormon is ALSO a witness that Jesus Christ is the literal son of God. This book also witnesses of his coming, of his birth, of his life, of his death and of his resurrection. It testifies of God and of his incredible love for all of his children.

Reading and studying the word of God, whether from the records written of his life and teachings in the Bible or the Book of Mormon can bring great joy and meaning to life, I BELIEVE this to be true. This is based on faith. I can write of my faith and hope, I can not prove anything, but I know this to be true.

Recently there has been much media coverage over the question: are Mormon's Christian? (I'm guessing much of this stems from the fact that Mitt Romney is running for president of the United States and people want to attack him politically, which means personally, so let's go after his religion) The answer is yes, and if someone wants to debate this, please hold on while we pull out our SECOND witness of this fact and explain the Book of Mormon....again.

I BELIEVE religion is very personal. I BELIEVE in personal revelation. I BELIEVE that God does listen to our prayers and answers them. I know first hand that it may not be how, or when we want our prayers answered, but he does answer.

I BELIEVE peace comes from faith in Jesus Christ. He paid a price for me, this is something I can hardly comprehend. My gift back to him is my heart....."that whosoever BELIEVETH in HIM shall not perish but have everlasting life".

OK - so I believe in this guy too ;) life is too short NOT to BELIEVE!!