D-Day

Big day in town last Saturday: Demolition Day at Lee Vining Elementary! The 80-something-year-old building that housed the office, library, and 1st/2nd grade classroom was torn down. Brian and Jack, of course, had to be there for the big event.

Sad and funny at the same time...

I heard somewhere that 23,000 pink slips have been given out to California teachers this year. A huge chunk of ESUSD teachers are in that number, including all but one of the teachers at Lee Vining High. At least someone can have a sense of humor about the situation!

Sledding day

Yesterday was the final ski day for Lee Vining Elementary students. Brian has stayed behind at the school each week with the students who didn't go skiing (yesterday, a whopping three of them!).

I took the kids into town to, first of all, buy a sled, and then join the students on this sweltering day (really, it was quite warm!) on the hill behind the school. Jack, all excited, decked himself out in all his snow gear, and picked out a sled at Bell's Sporting Goods with much gusto. Top of the hill, and rarin' to go:

Jack's reaction to his solo trip down the hill: sheer panic! He tried it again, with his dad this time:

And that wasn't any better. Poor guy decided to abandon his sledding ambitions and stick to trudging up and down the hill, making "train tracks." Next it was Kate's turn:

Kate handled the thrill of the ride much better than her brother did. That general look of nonchalance that graces her face most of the day? It stay put for the entire sled ride. What hill? It's gonna take a lot more than that to satisfy this girl's daredevil tendencies!

C'mon, Kate, can't we at least get some kind of reaction?

There's a smile!

In-laws, binkies, Tonka trucks, and tufa

Brian's dad and stepmom are in town for a few days. Aaahhhhh... it's always so refreshing to have them here! Brian's dad always helps with projects around the house, and Lynn gives me creative inspiration for any sewing, beading, or any other crafty projects I may have lying around. Plus, we just enjoy their company! We met them in Reno on Wednesday night, where we stayed the night at the Silver Legacy and shopped the next day around the area.

Jack achieved a major milestone at the hotel, sleeping without a binky for the first time! (This wasn't planned; I'd forgotten the binky at home. And, of course, it was a miserable night for him. But we let him pick out the biggest Tonka truck he could find at Walmart the next day, saying he could only play with it once he traded in his binkies for good. As soon as we got home, he brought me his binkies, and we ceremoniously dumped them all in the trash. He reeeeally wanted to play with his new truck... and we haven't heard anything about the binkies since!) Today, of course, we had to take Rick and Lynn to see "downtown" Lee Vining and the south tufa.

Big Pine football

Yesterday, after spending the morning moping about my single-mom Saturday status, I decided to take the kids and join Brian at a football game in Big Pine, about an hour-and-a-half south of here. It was a great day for a game: hot and windy, but still beautiful, with snow showing on the mountains. The Caravan hit 100,000 miles on the way down. We missed the exact moment, but caught it a mile later. The poor thing's been through ma-aaany trips! Jack didn't care about the football, but did like playing with the cupholders in our camp chairs. Kate slept through the first quarter, and was happy through most of the second, before I had to take her to the van for a feeding. The game ended midway through the third quarter--a mercy ruling, at 50-0, in favor of Big Pine. The poor Lee Vining Tigers suffered a couple injuries, one sending a kid to the hospital in Bishop. We went with Brian to check on him; he'd suffered some chest bruising, nothing serious. We had dinner at a pizza place and headed home. Jack stayed awake on the way home--"Nemo" helped--but I conked out for most of the ride (gotta take naps when I can!). It was definitely a much better way to spend my Saturday than at home with two cranky kids. No offense, kids.

My kind of town

This is the kind of town we're living in:

1. I've only been to the post office a couple times, but Brian works across the street from there and has gone in several times. So Margie, the postmaster, knows our names. She calls Jack by name and knows he just turned two. Today, when she saw me come in, she rushed into the back, saying, "I was right the other day; you did get another package!"

2. After the P.O., I stopped by the Shell station to ask them to fix a leak in our tire. The owner came outside to meet me, and before I even had Jack out of his carseat, he was giving me price quotes on the snow tires I'd asked about two days ago. He included a "local discount" in the quote. After he'd fixed the leak, he charged me ten dollars... or "whatever you've got in there," he said, as I dug in my wallet.

3. Brian's school? No fences, or gates... anyone is free to walk on campus, anytime. (Although I'm not sure if that's a good thing or a bad thing.)

4. Tomorrow night, the whole community is invited to a tree lighting at the giant sequoia in the back parking lot of Nicely's Restaurant. It's not a big parking lot... yet I'm sure the whole community could fit in it.

5. Oh yeah, and Nicely's? It's the only local restaurant open year-round. And during the winter, locals eat for half-price on Monday nights.

Moving (yet again)

We've found a house in the middle of nowhere: Mono City, California. It is about eight miles away from Brian's work in Lee Vining, and near many of his co-workers and students. There is nothing in the town but houses. No grocery stores, gas stations... NOTHING. We said we wanted a small town; I guess God decided to give us what we wished for!

Forgive me if I sound negative. I really am looking forward to living there. It'll be--like everything else these past two months--an adventure!

Trivia time

Fun facts about Lee Vining:

1. Its population is 488, and its elevation is 6781. (Have YOU ever lived in a town where the elevation was more than ten times a bigger number than the population? I certainly have not...)

2. The town was originally called Lakeview, but then they found that there was already a Lakeview, CA, so they named it after Leroy Vining instead. He founded the town in 1852.

3. There is nearby ice climbing! (Which does not sound fun at all to me!)

4. Lee Vining lies close to Mono Lake, which is three times as salty as the ocean.

5. If you sat in Mono Lake long enough, you would become permanently encrusted in tufa, which is limestone that builds on the lake floor. Nowadays, many tufa towers rise from the lake because the water level is lower than it used to be. (Count me out on this one, too... the "sitting in Mono Lake until I become tufa" part, that is.)

Lee Vining

Brian interviewed for an assistant principal job in Lee Vining, California, on Thursday. He's applied for more than twenty jobs and interviewed for half a dozen, none of which panned out. We've gotten our hopes up more than once. We'd finally reached the point where we wouldn't grow emotionally attached to a place, because we knew that would just lead to disappointment. But yesterday we got a phone call from the Lee Vining superintendent, saying they wanted to offer him the job! I started bawling as soon as I heard the message on the answering machine. We are pretty sure that we want him to take it, but it will definitely be tough leaving our current jobs, friends, and church. One negative is that we will be moving, but we'll be nowhere closer to family. On the plus side: Lee Vining is the eastern gateway to Yosemite, so it is beautiful. The town itself has only 500 or so people, and we've dreamed for six years about living in a small town.