An Identity in Brush Strokes

A year after creating sort of a bare bones blog, Rob and I spent some serious time revamping it a few weeks ago. Last week, I decided that Ed Mell's masterpiece of the Grand Canyon was really the picture that needed to head up our blog - our identity. After all, I was trained by my parents to love Ed Mell and to worship the Grand Canyon. And Rob and I were part of the great Hinckley Expedition through the Canyon two years ago - four days roughing it, drinking water out of tadpole infested streams (our water purifier broke on about day 2), eating oatmeal mush made from the silty Colorado River, and hiding in our tent from the immense rain storm. A truly extraordinary experience and yes, we'd do it again tomorrow if Clark sent the clarion call.

Anyway, it has occurred to me that if we are reporting Team Lesan's adventures from Loveland, Ohio, the Grand Canyon really isn't the best heading picture. So I've replaced it. But it brings up the very unanswerable question of identity: what is it, and how do we create it? And what is the soundtrack and the setting? What melodies and brush strokes? Things I can't possibly answer on a Sunday afternoon. Anyway, this Western girl just can't take Ed Mell and the Grand Canyon off the blog forever; it would somehow indicate that the Grand Canyon is part of a past and not current identity. So here it is, forever preserved, and I hope I haven't violated very many copyright laws in displaying it. Mr. Mell, it's only because you capture the Canyon vista so wonderfully, so please excuse me.

Every Castle Needs a Queen

Yes, doesn't it? To that end, HRH QE2 and I made our first trip to the Loveland Castle last week. Yes, Loveland has a castle: Chateau Roche. A man named Harry Andrews spent his life building the castle - by hand - on the banks of the Little Miami River. According to the castle's website, Harry had an IQ of 181. In the early 1920s, Harry ran a small Boy Scout troop that met for activities and camping along the banks of the river. Harry decided he would start a new Boy Scout-ish organization that would sweep the nation: Knights of the Golden Trail. And so the knights needed a castle. The movement never really took off, but Harry's KOGT still maintain the castle and give tours. I didn't really get the full story from the knight at the front desk; I'm not sure how you get to be a knight these days, but I do know that the only thing the knights really do now is maintain the castle. The knights all seem to be middle-aged.

Harry actually lived in the castle, in a tiny room on the second floor. Apparently he also had a secret room that was discovered some years ago. From time to time, other knights have lived in the castle, but the knight we spoke with said that has never really worked out. Apparently, the castle does have it's own ghost...

Anyway, it was a gorgeous sunny day, and Ellie and I had quite a wonderful time exploring the rooms and gardens. We met tourists from as far away as Kentucky and Florida. We even saw pictures of weddings the castle has hosted, as well as video clips of Harry building the castle through the years. A truly Loveland afternoon. For those of you who need to know more about Loveland's Chateau Roche, you can visit its website: http://www.lovelandcastle.com

Ellie's Adventures

Ellie has been exploring her world lately in a serious way. For a long time, she moved herself about with an army crawl, necessitating daily washings of whatever outfit she happened to dust the floor. Then one day she suddenly found her hands and knees, and she's been going crazy ever since. Then she discovered that not only could she pull herself up on furniture, she could pull herself up the stairs. We've only had two major falls - she's pretty good at it, and she doesn't seem to consider a bad tumble a setback of any kind. What a champ. She's also learned to pull all the books off her shelf and thumb through them at rapid speed. Today at church she found something very new and fascinating - the organ pedals. We are practicing for the Primary program in the chapel, and to keep Ellie occupied I let her pound on the organ manuals (organ off, obviously). Then she saw the pedals. So I put her on the floor and she crawled all over them like an obstacle course. It was a perfect plaything, and I sincerely hope that the organ can't be ruined while it's off. If so, I suppose this blog is me owning up that it is my fault if the organ starts making strange sounds - or no sounds.

Ellie also *loves* her sunglasses. She won't keep any sort of bow or headband in her hair, but if her sunglasses fall off, she immediately tries to get them back on. She gets lots of compliments on them, and looks very sophisticated at the park, in the car, walking in the sunshine, or sitting in church.

It's also Buckeye Football Season (yes, in caps), meaning that Ellie has a new Buckeye jersey and must wear it every game day. She loves the feel of the fabric and is quite happy to crawl around at Grandma and Grandpa's house while we watch the Bucks win week after week after week. Nothing says autumn has arrived like football at THE Ohio State University. Go Bucks!

(And in case you haven't heard, Gordon Gee, a fellow Mormon, is returning to Columbus for an encore performance as President of THE OSU. Good thing the OSU song, Carmen Ohio, is set to the same tune as Come Ye Children of the Lord!)

Golden Throat, this is Jazz Square: We May Have a Problem

Well, obsessions come and obsessions go, but I think this one may be here to stay for quite some time. A few weeks ago, we started hearing rumblings about something on the Disney channel called High School Musical. Apparently, the made for tv movie came out some time ago, and a sequel was debuting. One member of our bishopric had to miss a major sporting event, because the TV in his house was surrounded by high school girls having a High School Musical 2 debut party. So he shrugged his shoulders, sat down by his five daughters, and watched it with them. Another friend happened to call a home full of teenage daughters on the Friday of the debut. Before she could explain why she was calling, the mother said, "I hope you're not looking for a baby-sitter, because High School Musical 2 debuts tonight, and you won't be able to find anyone in the stake willing to babysit for you." Ada told me that she was planning a HSM2 party with Erin and Alex, and that the movies were filmed at East High (Go Leps - wait - Wildcats!) and in St. George. What is this phenom? We pulled out our trusty DVR and set it to record #2, as well as the rerun of #1. Several days later, we sat down after putting Ellie to bed to see what all the fuss was about.

The rest, as they say, is history. We haven't been able to watch anything else for days and days and days. Even now, we're watching highlights from HSM2. For those of you who know the shows backwards and forwards, we watched all the big songs: You are the Music in Me, Gotta Go My Own Way, whatever it is that Troy laments on the golf course, and Everyday. Well, it ended all too soon, so now we're recaping the first one. It started because I just wanted to see the opening Start of Something New, but then Rob wanted to see the winking girl in the musicale tryouts, and then we couldn't miss Gabriella's soliloquy, with that light in her hair and her cool dance moves on the East High stairs. So here we are, singing along. Yes, iTunes has been most obliging in providing us with our favorite songs, so we can memorize the words while we're driving.

So that's all I really wanted to say. For those of you who are yet unschooled in the stories, put some fresh batteries in your Tiki Warrior costume and get going...Wildcats are in the House!