A Celebration of Life. . .

Yesterday we celebrated the life of Dan Burns. . .
. . . He was Rob's dad's best friend and he passed away after a long, difficult battle with cancer. . .

. . . It was a beautiful, meaningful service that was filled with hope and comfort. . .

During his battle with cancer, Dan wrote letters to all of his friends and family telling them how much they meant to him and how much he loved them. . .

The pastor read an excerpt from the letter Dan wrote to his wife, Diane, during the service. It was full of love and gratitude and all of the things we should say to each other everyday. . .

Dan will be missed. . .

This is Dan's obituary from The Idaho Statesman:

Daniel David Burns Dan passed away following a peaceful prayer, March 13, 2009. Memorial services will be held at 5 p.m., Wednesday, March 18, 2009 at Cloverdale Funeral Home. Daniel David Burns was born in Sacramento, California on Aug. 21, 1941 to David and Elizabeth Burns. As a young child, Dan, and his family moved to Elko, Nev. where he attended school and graduated from Elko High in 1959. Dan continued his education at the College of Idaho where he earned his Bachelors of Arts and his Masters of Education. It was in college Dan met and married Diane (Lohr) Burns. Dan began his teaching career in the small farming community of Cambridge, Idaho as a sixth grade teacher - a job he took after the class had run off the first teacher. He stayed and made it better. Dan and his new bride then moved to Boise where he continued to touch the lives of students and teachers in the Boise elementary schools as both a teacher at McKinley and as principal at Monroe, Owyhee, Valley View, and Jackson schools. During this time, Dan continued his education at the University of Idaho and earned an Educational Specialist degree in School-Administration. He and his wife welcomed two sons into their lives. During his career as an educator, Dan was renowned for dressing up in various costumes as the occasion required - he made a dapper Cat in the Hat for Dr. Seuss day. He was awarded Administrator of the Year from the A.C.A.E.O.P. and received The Red Apple Award from the Boise School District. Dan retired from his 35-year career in education in 1998 after his last educational assignment as the principal of Jackson Elementary School. After retirement, Dan continued to serve the Boise school district as a Resource Conservation Manager and then as an ISAT proctor for Amity School. His diagnosis of melanoma came on May 14, 2008, which he battled with grace and faith. The family would like to extend special thanks to Dr. Shawn Nowierski, Dr. John Swordloff, Dr. Steven Smith and the staff at MSTI as well as the nurses and staff with St. Luke's Hospice. Kendra, Gail, Heidi, and Amanda were Dan's special angels. Dan is survived by his wife of 44 years, Diane, and their two sons, David ( Danielle) Burns of Seattle, Wash., and Devin (Amanda) Burns of New Orleans, La., 4 grandchildren, Davis, Abigale, Conner, and Ainsley Burns, brother Stanley Burns of Hayward, Calif., numerous nieces and nephews, many special friends, and honorary grandchildren Bella and Gavin Baranko. Memorial contributions may be made in Dan's memory to the Boise Public Schools Foundation.

Field Trip. . .

The kids are finally feeling better after taking about a week and a half off from school. Today we managed to finish most of our school work by early afternoon so we headed to one of my favorite places EVER: The Library!:


The sky was a little overcast but it was a beautiful, spring-like day so after the library we walked a short distance to the greenbelt on The Boise River. . .


I didn't have a chance to scope out a running route on Saturday like I had planned so I took the time to study the map and make a plan for this weekend. . .


Turns out the zero mile marker is right under the old bridge next to the library.
From this point there are 4 different trails that are clearly marked in half mile increments. . .



After scoping out the trail situation we spent some time exploring the Anne Frank Memorial that sits between The Library and the greenbelt. . .

It's an amazing memorial. . .

I love this part of Boise. . .

It was a lovely way to spend the afternoon after being cooped up for way too long. I'll close this post with a relevant quote that is engraved on a stone in the middle of the memorial:

Running. . . Again. . .

While I don't want to go on and on about running ad nauseum, I did a lot of thinking about it over the weekend and I'm excited about running a 10K in June. This is a pretty big step for me. I've been more of a fly-by-the-seat-of-your-pants kind of a girl for the last several years due to the nature of our crazy life but I'm actually setting training goals and looking for some accountability. I don't really want anyone to nag me about it or even necessarily ask me about it, I'm just going to casually list what I'm doing on the side bar of my blog and see how it goes. It's working so far since I already ran and did my strength training this morning just so I could get this started!! I'm a little anal that way. . .

Since my blog has always been about pictures and I'm not planning to put any pictures of me running any time soon, I'll include a YouTube video every once in awhile of songs on my MP3 player that keep me moving. Here's one of my favorites:

Who knew??

So it turns out, I'm a runner. Pretty weird since I've never been the least bit athletic (remember, I lettered in Math Club) so I've been really surprised at my ability and need to run. It started by accident last November-ish when I was walking Emma and the constant leash pulling was driving me crazy so I decided to let her go at her own pace for awhile as I started to run (I'm not talking a fast run here, by any means!). The funny thing was, I just kept running until I got home. So I tried it again the next day, figuring I would just stop and walk every once in awhile but instead, I just kept running. No one can be more surprised by this than me. I only ran a handful of times before the weather turned too cold and my new found skill hibernated for the winter. When things started to warm up a couple of weeks ago, I tentatively tried again to see if the whole thing was just a fluke. So far, not a fluke! I even marked off a 5K route in my neighborhood and the adjacent neighborhood and started timing myself. Just to keep all of this firmly in reality, my time is app. 32 minutes for app. 3.1 miles which isn't great, but it's a start. The weirdest part of all is that I actually enjoy it! I put my favorite music in my ears, leash up one of the dogs and run. I've decided that my real motivation to run is because I can. I don't have any old sports injuries (one of the benefits of not being an athlete) and, for the most part, I don't have any aches and pains at all. So, I should run! Because I can.


My neighborhood is getting a little boring so today I decided to find another trail to keep things interesting. The greenbelt is less than 2 minutes away from the shop so I decided to map out a 5K there as well so I can vary my route. My plans changed a little when Rob decided to come along so instead of mapping out the distance, we just walked the dogs. For about 7 miles! We walked (at a pretty good pace) along the greenbelt for about 3.5 miles (almost to the fairgrounds) and then crossed Chinden and walked along the canal bank all the way back to the shop. And then we had lunch at Chapalas. But that's what happens when I walk with Rob!! :)



Since I've decided this running thing may be a long term condition, I'm planning to run an official 10K in June. Every year the Cherry Festival has a walk/run event on Saturday so it makes sense to set that as my first goal. Who knows what will happen after that. . .

Good. . .

Today was a good day. There were a number of things that happened that put a smile on my face throughout the day. First, when I signed on to the computer this morning to check my e-mail, I saw an ad for the laptop I've had my eye on and it was $150 cheaper for one day only, putting it within reach of our pre-determined budget amount. So I bought it. That was fun. Then I took Zach back to the doctor who said he's responding very well to the antibiotics and is much, much better. A huge relief. When I got home I took Emma for a walk and mapped out my 5K route so I can start "training". Pretty unbelievable, but true. And then, we went to horse lessons. . .

. . . And the sun was shining!! That really made me smile. . .

Next week will be the last regular lesson so the kids have been practicing for a final game day in the big arena. They have learned several race-type games during the last 6 months and they will have a friendly competition at the final lesson.

The horse Gloria rides, Buttons, is not a big fan of trotting. She prefers to walk. Slowly. The horse she's competing against here is my Cookie who loves to trot. I love Cookie. . . She always makes me smile. . .


While I've enjoyed all of the lessons over the last 6 months, there was something about the sunshine, the conversations, the relaxed atmosphere and the accomplishments of the kids that made today's lesson really stand out in my mind as a good, good day. I've even decided that at some point in the near future I'm going to take a few lessons myself!! Shocking, I know. . .

Later in the day, I dropped by the shop to pick up a few things and Rob decided we should take the 4-wheelers for a short ride. There is a canal bank behind the shop that will have to serve as a temporary trail until we're able to find a "real" trail. . .

It was fun. . .

Zach Has Pneumonia. . .

Zach continued to get worse instead of better when we got home from the meet. The doctor confirmed my fears when he told me Zach had pneumonia. It was severe enough that Zach had to have a shot in the derriere at the office as well as a double round of antibiotics to be taken over the next 10 days at home. He began to feel better pretty quickly and even ate 3 bowls of Laura's homemade soup for dinner! Her soup was the first thing he actually wanted to eat in several days. I'm posting this on Wednesday afternoon and Zach has been up and around all day and looks much, much better. . . He'll go back to the doctor on Thursday morning for a follow-up so I'll post an update then.

Last Quiz Meet of the Season. . .

Sometime in the middle of the night early Friday morning, I decided we just wouldn't be able to go on the quiz trip. Zach was still feverish and achy and we were up most of the night trying to bring his temperature down to a more comfortable degree. (I was so convinced we wouldn't be going, I even put together a blog post in my head about my experience in 5th grade when I worked so hard on practicing The Charleston for the school talent show and how I never even got to wear my green and white polka-dotted dress with the fringe because I had strep throat the day of the show. . .). I called Gary and Kristin around 7:30 a.m. to give them the bad news. Kristin suggested we wait a few hours and see how we were all feeling and then make the call on whether or not to go. I let Zach sleep for a couple more hours and then had him get up and around and take a shower. He was feeling much better so I left the decision up to him. He had worked so hard all season and it was the last meet of the year so we decided to take our chances and go on the trip. I was concerned about the others that would be riding in the car with us but they all said they weren't afraid of his germs. (They probably all changed their minds at some point during the trip!!). The weather was OK and the roads were good, so off we went.

The trip over was uneventful. We rode in style in this rented Ford Expedition (at least I think that's what it was. . . )

Gloria had felt fine when we left the house but by lunchtime she was beginning to feel a little bit achy. Her temp was up around 101. . .

Steph took good care of Gloria in the back seat and we made it to North Idaho without any problems. . .

It was a nice treat to stay with Dave and Jeanette who we've known for close to 16 years. They've been in Coeur D'lane for the last 9 years so we don't get to see them very much. . . This is Steph and Gloria with Jeanette's dog:

We all went to Applebees for dinner. . . Zach and Gloria were both feeling much better so I had high hopes for Saturday. . .

We had a fourth quizzer join us for this meet and it definitely worked in our favor. His name is Ben and he did a great job!


I was encouraged during the morning rounds at how well my team was doing. We won 5 and lost 2. Zach didn't feel quite as prepared for the verse-off but felt confident in enough of the verses to give it a go. . .

I knew he would do just fine. There were about 7 high schoolers that survived the verse-off, including Zach.

The afternoon rounds went really well. . .

. . . The afternoon rounds resulted in 6 wins and 1 loss bringing our record for the day to 11 wins, 3 losses (but who's counting??). . .

At the awards ceremony, Zach received his certificate for surviving the verse off. . .

. . . Andrew received a ribbon for placing 8th in the final meet . . .

. . . Zach placed 4th for the final meet. . .

. . . And our team placed 3rd for the final meet of the '08-'09 season!!!

At the last meet, the total scores are tallied and the top eight players have a final quiz-off against each other. It is very interesting to watch all of these very fast jumpers compete with one another as well as encourage each other as they all vie for the top three places. Even though Zach came in third score-wise for the season, he wasn't among the top three to quiz-out in this final round. Here is a sample of how it works:

Chris Lee once again came in first score-wise for the season but he also wasn't quite quick enough to make it into the top three in the final round:

It was good, healthy, fun competition!!

The activity for the evening was a trip to the local roller skating rink. I haven't skated in years and years but I managed to pick it up pretty quickly and had a great time. It was like being in the 80's again!!

Zach wasn't feeling well again so he sat in the corner and took some pictures for me. . .

When we got back to Jeanette's we were all pretty wiped out. I gave Zach his meds and he willingly went to bed. When I checked his temp a little later it was a little over 104! Yikes! I stayed up with him for the next several hours just trying to bring it down to a more manageable level. I was more than ready to go home in the morning. Zach slept most of the way home and couldn't even get out of the car for lunch. My guilt was overwhelming. With good reason. . .

Bearfoot

We made it home from the quiz trip in one piece so while I'm putting together my post about the last meet of the season, I'll post a clip of what Rob and Kurt got to do while I was gone. Even though I had fun on the trip and don't regret going one bit, I do regret missing this event. I've gotten kind of attached to this genre of music lately and it sounds like this was an amazing concert. These are videos I found on YouTube since, obviously, I missed the show. . . The name of the group is Bearfoot and they are originally from Alaska.

Kurt recorded a CD off of the live mix that turned out beautifully crisp and clear. Rob played it for me when I got home and I know I'll enjoy listening to it and pretending I was there to hear it live. . . This is one of my favorite songs so far. It has such an interesting message I had to include the lyrics below:


In Tall Buildings
By John Hartford, 1976

Someday, my baby, when I am a man,

and other's have taught me the best that they can

they'll buy me a suit and cut off my hair

and send me to work in tall buildings

And it's goodbye to the flowers, goodbye to the dew goodbye to sunshine and

goodbye to you

I'm off to the subway I must not be late

I'm going to work in tall buildings

When I retire and life is my own

I paid all my debts and it's time to go home

and wonder what happened betwixt and between

when I went to work in tall buildings

and it's goodbye to the flowers goodbye to the dew

goodbye to sunshine and goodbye to you

I am off to the subway I must not be late

I'm going to work in tall buildings