A scene from Jesse’s music room.

We continue to work on the inside of the house. When Laurie’s Mom and Dad visited this summer, Laurie and her Dad added a small closet/pantry under the stairs in the family room (shown at right). It has a pocket door and gives us much-needed storage and access to our crawl space under the house. We also painted the entryway, kitchen and part of the dining room (sage green). My Dad helped us install a new dining room chandelier and kitchen light, as well as fix our living room ceiling fan (we were going to pitch it, until the guy at the fan shop noticed that it was an expensive model that he could fix for less than 50 bucks. We like that guy.)

Thanks to our two Dads for all the DIY help this summer.

UPDATE On Aug. 12 my grandparents on my dad’s side came to visit. My Grandma Ellen helped me paint with acrylics and watercolors. I completed a clay dog, painting of ducklings and a Native American drum. I had a great time learning the fine points of painting. I look forward to painting so much more!

Our little patriots

At Sylvan Lake in Custer State Park

Papa Coulson and Grandma Ellen came up from Tennessee last month for a visit and to join us on a trip to the Black Hills. We stayed in Custer at the Bavarian Inn, where we have stayed on previous trips. We visited Rushmore, Crazy Horse (where Indians still get in for free), Custer State Park, the world-famous Corn Palace, Deadwood and even drove to Wyoming, just to say we’d been there. We had a great time, although we didn’t see as many animals on this trip as on previous trips. Probably the drought.

Group shot at Crazy Horse Monument

One funny animal-related story: On our way out of town, we stopped at Mount Rushmore. As we drove in, we got stopped at a traffic light. While we sat waiting for a green arrow, Papa said wistfully, “I really wish we had seen some mountain goats on our trip.” Just then, a mountain goat and her baby walked out of the field and in front of our car. Without missing a beat, Laurie said, “I wish I had a million dollars.” We all laughed pretty hard. Here is a picture of the mountain goats.

All in all, it was a wonderful trip. The girls really enjoyed spending time with their grandparents.

School’s been going fantastic! Once you get the hang of Eastview you can really get around fast (unless you have a crippled ankle). I can successfully say I have only gotten lost twice on my way to Spanish, first time I was on the wrong floor and the second time I turned the wrong way at the top of the stairs. I never was late though…

Just thought I would give you an update from Eastview High School, home of the Lightning!

The eggplant

The Sweet 100 tomatoes

Here are some photos from Jesse’s veggie garden this summer. We made my mom’s famous eggplant parmesan with the eggplants from Jesse’s garden and have been eating tons of Sweet 100 cherry tomatoes all summer. As you can see, she has a really green thumb.

The signs in Tahlequah are bilingual

My language teacher and me

I had a chance to visit the Cherokee Nation in Oklahoma, where my grandmother was from, last month. I was in Oklahoma helping to lead the Native American Journalists Association summer college newspaper project in Tulsa. While I was there, I visited the tribal offices in Tahlequah and took my Cherokee language teacher Ed Fields and tribal linguist Anna Huckaby to lunch. We had a great time visiting, laughing and eating catfish and cornbread. At the tribal office, the head of our cultural affairs department, Gloria Sly, dragged a map off the wall to show me where my grandma’s family lived back in the day. It was pretty neat to meet someone who knew my mom’s family in the old days. All in all, a great trip. Here are some pictures from my visit.

Reeses

Scooty

Here are some better photos of Reeses and Scooty, the newest members of the family. Man, can they eat — and squeal. Now I know why they’re called Guinea pigs and not, say, Guinea lambs or Guinea deer.

Girls at the Mighty, Mighty Midway

The girls with Goldy the Gopher, our state’s fine mascot

We visited the State Fair the other day and we’re just getting around to posting some pictures. We rode some rides, checked out farm animals and ate lots of fried food — on a stick, naturally.

Here are some belated pictures of our high schooler and our fifth-grader. Holy crap. We’re old.