I  love this photo - can't do it justice this size on the blog. This is just inside Arizona.

This fellow was on our little patio today heading towards Roxie's food. Tom smushed him.

We are traveling every weekend and then I am working my self hard at school during the week. Last weekend we drove up to Four Corners and Shiprock. Ship Rock Peak was fascinating - we drove all the way around it. I believe it is over 1700 feet high just jutting out from the ground - a sacred rock to the Navajo.

Four Corners was nice, not too many folks and I found a really pretty Navajo horsehair pot that I liked and bought. Tom got an arrow to hang over the door for good luck.

Roxie goes with us on these trips - she loves the wildlife. We see loads of sheep, horses, cattle, Roadrunners. Saw some huge long horn steers the other day. Tom has seen coyotes several times - I can't see them fast enough. Still, my favorites are the Prairie Dogs.

This guy didn't even look up at us. Roxie of course was behaving very badly - trying to go through the window.

This past weekend we traveled to Canyon De Chelly National Monument near Chinle Arizona. There were 1000 year old dwellings built into the rock. You can barely see them in the photos - these rock canyons are huge.

Some Navajo still farm in the valley and I hope you can see the fields. We take Roxie everywhere of course - she and Tom cannot bear to be separated. We got out at one of the overlooks and walked down to the edge where there was a wall there to keep you from falling over and Roxie just jumped right up on top of that thing. The drop off on the other side was straight down - way down. Tom barely pulled her back in time. You can believe we held her tight after that.

You can barely see the houses in the cliffs. They were amazing, over 1000 years old.

Spiderwoman peak - she takes bad children to the top. I think I'd like to go.

Right snack dab in the center of this photo are the cliff dwellings.

I thnk if we ever go back to Canyon De Chelly again, we will take the four wheel drive tour at the bottom of the canyon. We would get to see the rock art and the houses up close. There is only so much time...

We also visited the Hubble Trading Post in Granado and dropped by Window Rock - which was out favorite stop of the day. There was a nice memorial to the Navajo Veterans.

I love this photo of Tom and this beautiful tree with the Window Rock in the back.

Yes, I have lost a little weight. The lap band is a wonderful thing.

Hubbel Trading post - very old place. They have $10,000 Navajo blankets in here!

If you look closely you can see Roxie in the truck.

This photo was taken late in the afternoon – a family was out herding the cattle to another area – by horse and 4-wheeler.

Grass is growing in our yard. It is lovely and hopefully will keep the Roxie mudtracks down to a minimum.

Yesterday we traveled to El Morro, a huge rock formation with a pool of water at it’s base. Used to take 9 or 10 days for the explorers and early settlers to travel from Albuquerque to Gallup and this was a stop because it had this great water. Some early explorers carved inscriptions on the rocks and of course they are still there. We enjoyed reading about the inscriptors!

Later we traveled over to El Malpais with I believe means bad country. Well it was certainly beautiful country. There is a huge valley covered in black lava  just huge. There were as many as 30 volcanoes in the area and the lava flowed to the same valley. We took about three hikes (could not have done that before my weight loss) and enjoyed climbing on some high cliffs – you could actually drive right to the top of them. There were also some lava tubes, some collapsed and some not – but we needed a 4-wheel drive vehicle with high clearance to get there. Maybe later.

We felt very alone in El Malpais – saw no more than 10 folks in the entire park. We did pass maybe 20 cars on the road. Seemed to be a really remote area.

I am posting a few photos. 

The tall rock formations of El Morro.

El Malpais - on the top of the rocks. I was almost dizzy.

I aksed Tom to hold tight to Roxy - cause it was a long way down.

Here's me and Tom. That is the lava field in the valley behind us.

This is La Ventura Natural Arch - eroded from sandstsone from the era of dinosaurs

We had a really great thunderstorm and downpour today. The weather has really been so cool and clear the last few weeks - so different from when we arrived.

Yesterday we drove over to the Painted Desert and the Petrified Forest - took about 90 minutes to get over there. Tom had never been to the area so he was quite taken with everything, had to stop at every place. We even took one of the hikes, and I could not have done that without my weight loss. I am right at 70 pounds. We drove to Winslow, Arizona afterwards and stopped at the "Standin' on the corner" corner that the Eagles made famous. Then we drove another 20 miles to see a Meteor Crater and it was fabulous. Tom had been there when he and his brother were in their 20's and there was nothing there but a little frame place. They actually climbed all the way down and then back up - which is quite a distance. But they were young...

Here are some photos.

It just goes on forever. 

This is Tom's first view of a petrified rock.

There's lot of dinosaus statues around. Roxie thought some were real.

The Wigwam Hotel

I felt like the wind was going to blow me over. It was very strong.

Tom was amazed at the vistitor center. Movies, gift shop, displays, Subway, elevators, well it was

 pretty different from when he was there 40 years ago.

We had a fire drill at school today and the Zuni fire department actually sent a firetruck out to participate in the drill. They always do.

When Tom drives me to school every day, as we turn the corner into the school property Roxie just goes nuts cause she is about to see all the stray dogs that one of our teachers feed each morning and she is also about to see the little prairie dogs.

We have met more and more of our teacher neighbors here. Not too many inbetweens - mainly younger teachers or people with lots of experience like me. Like Chevak, these folks are from all over the US.

Tom is cafefuly tending to our grass - he and Roxie keep it watered and go out to check several times a day to see in any grass is coming up.

Sunset on the way back to Zuni. The whole sky was pink.

Tom and Roxie wait patiently while I take photos.

We passed by this area - but one weekend we are going to explore it  - there are writings and drawings on the rock that are over 700 years old. 

While searching for the main gate into Kirkland Air force base we came across two of these rocky snakes. You are only seeing the first third of the snake.

Tom Bender has really been busy sine he arrived. The back yard is  now completely clear of the waist high weeeds. He has actually planted some grass seed in the dirt that was left. He has put up all my posters and pictures, put up all the curtains, and got us some groceries - lots of groceries. I believe he thinks he is still in Alaska and buying for four months at a time! We took a little trip to Alberquerque yesterday to get our tv set. I took a couple of photos along the way.

Finally posting a few photos. The prairie dogs are the best. Looking forward to seeing Roxie's reaction to these little creatures.


Okay, here is the famous mesa or mountain here. At various angles it looks completely different.

Below is the apartment complex where I live - built and maintained by the school. Each builing you see houses two large apartments. They are twice as big as the ones we had in Chevak. And only $417 a month.

Mary - here is some kind of bird house - there are hundreds of bird in this thing. They harvest the feathers, I believe. It is the brown structure. When I get my permit I'll take a better photo. I was taking these out of the truck window today.

And now we come to these precious little creatures - the prairie dogs at my school.

These guys must be big eaters.

These guys stayed still for the longest - like they were frozen.

I finished inventorying the fiction books today. It takes three times as long to inventory because the bar code might be on the back, it might be on the front, it might be inside the back cover, it might be on the title page and it might not be there at all. I would say at least half of the books so far have those yellowed smelly pages - many are paperbacks or bound paperbacks. i think one of my main goals will be to get lots of new books and many replacements for what we have there now. I discarded about 300 books today.

My reference books are inventoried and all have new bar code labels - on the bottom left of the front cover. I have started replacing the ones on the fiction, but it will take months.

The folks in our apartment complex are having a block party tomorrow afternoon. It is right outside my door so I guess I better go. It will be nice to see who lives here cause frankly I seldom see anyone around here period. I did go over to eat with a fellow teacher at my middle school the other night. Her apartment looked so homey and she has lots of comfy furniture. I think Tom and I are going to live lean this year till we know we are staying - well at least till Christms.

Speaking of Tom - he should be leaving Georiga tomorrow morning in my new used Corolla that I bought from Elizabeth. I just realized I have bought that car twice now - once when it was new and we bought it for her and now when it is used and we have bought it from her.......something is wrong here.

Elizabeth called me like six times today - she was at her library working on Saturday and I was at mine working on Saturday. Like mother like daughter. She found a card catalog in the office and was a little concerned. She is sure the library is automated though. I believe the high school has had major renovations this summer and was only opened for teachers this past Friday, the first day of work.

On Monday I am going to get my photo permit so I can take some photos of the Zuni area. They are very strict about photos.

The kids at school are great.

My office is finally cleaned out. We had open house tonight. Four of my libary assistants came in with their parents. I was so glad they dropped by.

Tom is flying home as I type this entry. I hope all his connections work and that he gets home safely. Elizabeth is having a great time. I believe she is full of excitement and anticipation. Her new principal is a former principal from Hart County - so she feels like she knows him already.

I am so looking forward to Tom's arrival. I have never missed him so much.

I am going to get some photos but you have to get a permit before you take any photos and I can't get out of school early enough. I think I might leave on time tomorrow, get the permit and then go back to school. I went to Gallup on both Saturday and Sunday this past weekend to pick up stuff we needed for our apartment. The drive is just lovely. I must get some photos soon.

I am about to finish my third day here and I am about to drop. I have finally cleaned out my office enough so that the custodian can actually vacuum. I don't know how I would have done it without my wonderful student library assistants. They have really been helpful. Next week I start on the library workroom which has hundreds of videos, and the equipment room. I just want everything in place, in order and it is going to be a job. For those of you who are interested in this sort of thing, here are some of the issues:

1. They had changed almost (to the 800's) all of the Dewey Numbers to only three digits so the kids could shelve the books easier. No more 598.2 or 599.97 or 796.35.
2. Only certain sections of the books are in order. I mean the 800's are just on the shelves in any order, and also the 900's.
3. This is the best! There are 39,000+ items in the Alexandria database. There are no more than 10,000 books on the shelves.
4. The librarian got marc records but did not load them. Instead the aide did brief cataloging on the new books. By brief, she entered the title and the bar code.
5. Many of the bar codes on the books and the computer do not match. For example, on the computer a bar code will match one title, but that exact same bar code will be on an entirely different book.
Mary, RoseMary and Elizabeth, you guys will understand my frustration and also the job ahead of me. I want to do an immediate inventory - but we cannot locate the handheld scanner.

There are hundreds of little prairie dogs around the school. They make holes in the ground and just pop up everywhere. Roxie will go nuts.

Tom and Elizabeth are in Alaska. They bought a 2007 Subaru Outback today. I imagine they will drive to Delta Junction tomorrow. I hope Tom comes on back soon. Well, I hope he comes back period...

I have put in a total of 11 work orders for the technology department.

My aide lived in Anchorage for nine years. What a small world.

I love this very small school - except I have bus duty morning and afternoon with the principal. I like her a lot. She is shorter than Elizabeth.

We arrived in Zuni yesterday and it seems like two weeks ago. Our apartment in "to die for"! Brand new, twice the size of the apartment we had in Chevak. The grounds are landscaped and there is even an automatic sprinkler system. The air conditioner is a little funky. We turn on the pump fist to get some straw wet on the roof, and then five minutes later we turn on the air. It works.

It is so hot here. Hot like in "Larence of Arabia" hot. We are totally exhausted from the heat. My only relief is that it is going to get cooler in about a month. Today a Zuni man asked us to come watch the dancing in the square. Then he told Tom that since we were not Zuni that we would have to go up on the roof to watch. Uhh - it would be too hot for me on the roof and besides that, how are we going to get up there. We decided to wait till a cooler day. The roof....

My library clerk is fabulous. The library is beautiful. The principal took me to every classroom to meet the teachers and kids this morning. We have our checking account, our post office box, our keys and we are set. If only I could get my computer to print.

The track youngsters were running and exercising in the heat afterschool today. I don't know the temp but it is crazy hot here.

Internet might not be much of an option here. The school intranet is severely structured and my favorite sites are all blocked. I haven't tried Netflx yet - but if it is blocked I might start crying. There is internet available in housing but it is expensive and hardly ever works. So, I don't want to put money out for something that isn't usable and available. Then, and here is the worst - I cannot use my laptop to log onto the internet at school. UMPH! MY frustration level has been reached with the technology here.

Our apartment was not furnished so we had to drive to Gallup yesterday - our first day here - to get a new mattress. We then went to Goodwill and found a couch and two chairs and two endtables. Tom went back this morning (the mornings are cool like air conditioning) and picked up a few necessary items from Wal Mart.

Tomorrow I will drive Tom to Gallup where he will catch the train to Albuqerque - I will learn to spell that. He will then fly to Phoenix to meet Elizabeth and they will fly together up to Anchorage. He will be back in about a week. I'll miss them both.

Maybe I can get some photos loaded tomorrow. I have been swamped with stuff to do.