Celebration

Yesterday, Matt had his PICC line removed which means 6 weeks of antibiotics is over and he can shower without wrapping his arm in saran wrap and he can dress without snagging his line on his clothing. It also means that today he is very cheerful!!! I was surprised by how long the line was, I had no idea. I'm sure dad and Jay have inserted a thousand PICC lines but it was a new experience for me. So glad I got it on video.

My Daily Life

I feel pressure to have something new, different or exciting to post on my blog. However, my life is really a circle of seasons and I find our family repeating the same activites each year. It's a great daily life though and I love the things we do - especially spending time together. I think the activities are different for me because the kids are growing and changing each year. In July, we were back at Girls Camp.

We began the week with Matt featured on a talk radio show as an expert in Endodontics, which has nothing to do with Girls Camp. Doesn't he look like a relaxed expert?

We went on a new 3-mile hike at Harmony Headlands State Park. It is very dry this time of year but still beautiful. I can't wait to hike it in the spring when everything is green and the flowers are blooming. We pulled up and saw this No Parking sign. Emily saw it differently, she said, "Nobody with the letter 'P' in their name can go on this hike."

It is fun to race your big brother and win. It's also nice that he gives you a ride after you win.

I'm not a great photographer, but I just loved these limpets clustered together on the rock. Below them, is pictured an owl limpet, larger and more colorful than I've seen.

Thomas found this six-legged sea star, called a Brooding Star. Yes, they usually come with five legs. This one is also different because it protects its' young on it's underside for a couple of months before leaving them. Most sea stars broadcast thousands of young into the ocean without providing any protection. So it was exciting for us to see both a large (momma) and small(baby) star on the same rock.

I love watching the waves come in and crash on the rocks.

On the return trip, we turned a corner in time to see a dozen rabbits hopping back and forth across the road and feeding in the bushes. Click on the picture and look on the left side of the road to see 3 bunnies resting. Emily was very excited by this and no wonder, she keeps Beatrix Potters' Peter Rabbit on her nightstand.

Prior to teaching his marine biology class, Matt does a lot of prep work at home and then spends several hours for a few days ahead of time collecting kelp, invertebrates, crabs and whatever else he can find. This year the low tide was at 6:00am, so here he is in the early morning hours looking for creatures. (This is my own Doc Ricketts).

This is my favorite picture of the trip. There is only one child of mine who will get up on his own this early to join his dad in a hunting expedition. He is following in his footsteps, and this has so many meanings to me. I am so grateful to have married a wonderful man who is a wonderful father.

This is a chiton I had never seen before. The ones I always see are gray or black. This one gets its' color from the algae it feeds on in the tide pools.

There was a minus tide this year which makes for especially good tide pooling. We were able to get far out on the rocks where lots of interesting things can be found.

Matt taught over 100 girls, leaders and Priesthood support this year. I think it's rewarding to him that he can be the first to share his love of the ocean and God's creations with some girls that have never been to the ocean. It's also satisfying to see that the girls really do learn and retain many of the things he has taught them over the years. Girls that have been to camp several times, remember how tides, the moon and gravity work. They also remember interesting facts about his collections and seem to continue to enjoy searching the tide pools.

It makes me smile to see that Emily placed herself among the Young Women.

It also makes me smile to see that on the morning when the girls were coming to the beach, Scott was also happy to get up early and help out. See him in the background with his baseball cap on?

This a picture of our wonderful Stake Young Women's President, Erin, on the left and her able assistant, Lisa.

On Being Nice

Last week in our community's newspaper a local journalist wrote an article titled, "To Those Who Make Things Work". He began the article this way, "This is a tribute to Mercedians who make things work and happen. Who go above and beyond their duties to take that extra step to lighten our load a little, each in her or his own special way." He then went on to share some personal experiences and individually thank by name, people who have helped him.

No one in our family read the article, so we were surprised when someone called to tell us the Matt was included in the list of helpful people. It read, "Two dentists, Thomas LeQuia and Matthew Rowan, an endodontist. When my left jaw swelled up like a squirrel's last month, Tom diagnosed the problem and sent me to Matt, who fixed it. I'd rather be on a night infantry patrol in northwest Baghdad, than sit in a dentist's office. But both men exerted such a calming chair-side manner that I was able to get through the ordeal."

It's always nice to receive a compliment, but it's even nicer to just be nice. Matt is always very careful and patient with those who are nervous in his office. It's not always easy to be nice, in fact, it can be exhausting and many nights Matt comes home completly worn out by people who have the jitters. So I think it's nice that someone thanked him for being nice.

Matt in the Dominican Republic

Matt

Matthew left last evening for his annual excursion to the Dominican Republic. Yes, I am nervous with the earthquake just occurring in Haiti; aftershocks can be just as big or bigger anywhere on the fault line. I don't know enough about the area to know if the fault goes through the DR, but it does make me nervous about another earthquake or a tsunami. There are not a lot of things that would keep Matt from taking this trip, he really loves to help the people there. I know he loves seeing patients relieved of pain and having dental health restored. He is also touched by the gratitude extended to him. Sometimes it's hard for me to understand why he would take a week off work - to do more work. But there is something in Matt that loves service. I'd like to say I would go to the DR if I could, but I'm embarrassed to say that I don't have the same desire right now. I'd like to say it's because my life is already so filled with service that when I take a week off, I deserve a vacation. But Matt's life IS filled with service - from the office to church to home and he still has the desire to help others. I remember as students, when we lived near large university hospitals, Matt would check the hospital roster for LDS families. Then he would visit them and see if there was anything he could do to help them. We made some really good friends this way.

Matt is a good influence on me. I hope his trip is successful and he returns home safely.

Happy Doug

Bamboo grows in the large creek about a mile from our home. Recently, the city was cutting it down in order to clean out the creek bed. Doug asked me for days on end to please let him gather some to bring home so that he could build something with it. I wasn't too excited about loading the back of my van with long bamboo poles and I refused. Here he is after asking Dad one time. I'm glad he has a dad that understands why he would want to try to build something out of bamboo.

I've Done it Again

I've let my husband spoil me and now I'm paying the price. Matt knows how I love cherry tomatoes and so he plants more than enough for me to eat. Every morning I go out to the garden and pick a bowlful and then eat them for breakfast. Later in the morning I pick another bowl and snack on them all day long. Now, I'm getting canker sores in my mouth from eating so many tomatoes.....but they are so good I can't pass by the bowl without popping one into my mouth.

Happy Father's Day

Sometime in the last couple of months (without us knowing it) Thomas wrote an essay in school about his father and submitted it to a Merced County School Districts Father-of-the-Year competition. His essay won first place for all 3rd-graders. We haven't read the essay yet and Thomas can't remember what he wrote exactly but we are sure he won because of his excellent writing style and his amazing subject matter. Matt received a letter in the mail inviting him to be interviewed along with the winners for each of the other grades. You have to know that doing something like that is totally not Matt's style. He was lucky that Doug's Boy Scout troop had a camp out scheduled on the Saturday of the interviews and that we'll be on a family vacation the night of the banquet. It was a graceful way for him to express thanks but decline entering the competition. BUT we know he would have won; we all think he's the best dad. I'll post Tom's essay when we receive it.

100 Things You Should Do In Your Lifetime

Number 1

Go Tide Pooling With Matt

This is one of my favorite things to do. I highly recommend everyone spend some time with him in the tide pools. The only thing is, it's not like he'll sit down and teach you about them, or try to show you how much he knows about invertebrates, he just enjoys tide pooling himself and it's just fun to follow along or search for little critters yourself. I love that my kids now look in the pools and easily spot chitons, anemones, limpets, sea stars and urchins. It's amazing that they even know the Latin names for some of the them. Every time we go, Matt just shares a little insight with them and the kids are hooked. Last time we went tide pooling, he showed the feeding frenzy of the hermit crabs by cutting open a limpet and placing it in a pool, now every time we go back to the beach Doug performs the same experiment. Matt and I have caught an octopus, seen a nudibranch the color of pink bubblegum, walked among thousands of jellyfish called Vellela vellela and really enjoyed time in the pools. He and Doug found small eels right off the bluff by the beach house. Every year he teaches a class for girls camp, explaining how the tides work, and the different tidal zones; for many of the girls this is the only time they've been to the ocean or seen ocean life and he makes it so interesting and fun.

Yes, this is a definite must do in your lifetime.