for this chance to be alive

Welcome to Monday and even though I have done a lot of complaining over the years about this first day of the normal work week and the end of the weekend, I have grown to appreciate it for what it really stands for.  Just like the other six days of the week it represents one good thing.

"the chance to be alive"

It's very cold here, yet we are not alone in the business of shivering these days.  Montrose's temperature at this very early morning hour is at 10 degrees.  Up on Monarch Mountain it's only 5 degrees warmer.  Back home in south central Kansas we are about even with the good folks in Wichita who have had more snow than we do here in our part of the state.  I remember some mighty cold days back there in the Midwest, especially as a kid growing up on a farm.  Frozen drains, having to break the ice throughout the day for the livestock so they could drink, my dad plowing through the snow with his Ford pickup so we could get out of the driveway, and upstairs bedrooms that were something akin to iceboxes, are some of the things that will never escape my memory for as long as I live.  Although those cold and wintry days were not the most pleasant of things to remember, remember them I do.  They helped to shape my character and to refine the strength that I would need in the life that would lie ahead of me.  It was all for a reason even though I was not aware of it at the time.  I just thought it was cold!

It will be very strange to return to work and school this day after being gone for 16 days straight.  I have missed the children and am anxious to have the chance to see how their vacation time went.  There will be stories aplenty to tell of the fun, excitement, and gifts that the Christmas holiday provided for them.  It will be nice to see their faces again and to get a hug from them all.  Today is an inservice day for teachers and staff, a day to prepare before the kids return tomorrow.  Much lies ahead for us to do in the coming weeks and with as quickly as the first semester has gone, the second semester will be over in the proverbial "blink of an eye".  My task at hand is to see to it that "the 21" are prepared for the second grade before they leave the classroom at the end of May.  I intend to do everything that I can to make that happen.  

Yesterday Mike and I took a quick trip to Ridgway to see the sights before going back to work today.  I never know how to quite phrase it, this going to Ridgway thing.  It's about 20 miles or so to the south of us here thus  I used to always say we went down there but yesterday Mike reminded me that part of the state is at a 1,000' higher elevation than we are down here in our valley.  So does that mean we went "up" there?  

Life's questions.

It was a beautiful drive, one that I went on with Mike now nearly two years ago when I came here for the very first time.  Yesterday I took a picture of my favorite spot in the journey, one that you can see just as you come around the bend in the road.  I loved it when I first saw it in January of 2013 and even though I have seen it many times since, I am still wondrously enthralled by it each and every time I am a witness to it.

It always seems, especially in its snow covered state, to be the entrance to some magical kingdom or something.  It's the kind of view that makes a person say "WOW" each and every time they see it.  To think that this farm girl from the plains of Kansas now lives within a 30 minute drive of it is kind of amazing to me.

Time for this new day to begin.  Time to return to the "real world", a place that really is not bad at all.  For the lovely Christmas memories that I stored up in my heart, I am most thankful.  For the friends and family that I saw back home, I will see you all again very soon.  Know that I am doing "ok" here.  No wait, let me rephrase that.  I'm doing better than "ok".  My life continues to play out according to "the plan".  I never once thought that plan would take me here but that's why I'm not in charge of it any way.  I only foolishly have thought that I was.

Sitting down for a "meeting of the minds" with the greatest teacher I have ever known, my sister Sherry.  We attempted to solve most of the world's problems over coffee and muffins during the 5 days we were together.