newnews

this is a photograph of a ghost. a ghost that i created on an adobe wall in the backyard of the old meyer ave house that nancy and i rented last year. lets just say the bathroom was occupied. any who...i have a new blog/music space on the web. i've sent e-invites to all of you so you can check it out. the email should be from 'myspace' and the person inviting you will be 'ben telly', that's me new moniker! there are some songs to listen to and some photos that i've taken over the last year or so. come and see! :
http://www.myspace.com/bentelly
you can join 'myspace' and post things there, comments etc.
things here in tucson are going well. i have this great class this semester. it's a cultural geography/documentary film class. we're making a short documentary on border issues that will be shown at a small semi-film festival in flagstaff this april. we have access to all this great gear including a top shelf digital camera that we can use at our disposal. my professor is encouraging us to take risks, e.g. filming over the border, interviewing unstable individuals (like members of the minute men or other vigilante groups). good times.
do ya'll still check this blog?
you should you know.

love, love, love, love
chris

dispatch from 5th ave

'ello...
i'm still here. i've been trying all day to post some music of mine here on this ol' blog but to no avail. bummer. i'll have to set up a little website or something. i always think of myself as computer savvy but things have changed since my computer class at usu only 3 years ago. i'll let ya'll know when i figure something out, maybe i'll follow aaron hatch and jer bowen's lead and post my music on garageband.com. if you haven't heard aaron's stuff on that website you should. it's good. i know mom has, and matt too i believe, and i played it for nancy the other day, so that leaves annie and dad! he goes by freshbigmouf, so you can search his name or the song which is 'did it for no one'. read the reviews and awards, its pretty entertaining.
mom, dad and i had a good christmas. it was strange to be the only sibling back for the holidays, but its a reflection of the evolution of our family. mom took the classic picture of christmas morning: me, descending the stairs into the bountiful booty that santa had left. mom played the harp at church on christmas morning which was beautiful as always. she played with that skinny flutist, that one i always forget the name of. dad, and mom, sang in the choir as well, which left me there...on the front row of the chapel....alone, amongst many familiar and new faces. it was very strange to be in back in church, but i enjoyed it. my old friend elijah bush was there (he was in peter pan and oliver with me), and i realized from our conversation (and his newborn) that he and i are men now...strange. i guess that's not a totally new revelation but it really sunk in during my stay in logan. it was great to see matt for the few days he stayed before christmas. many laughs and great conversations.
schools back in session and i'm excited and anxious as always. i'm anticipating a fall graduation if everything goes accordingly. anyway, i'll write more later, just wanted to keep the blog alive.
the photo isn't mine, i just like it.
love, love, love
chris

'ello?

Just wondering if everyone's still checking the blog. How are things for y'all? I miss you!
Annie

My friend Jen flew out from SLC to run in the NY marathon on Sunday. Her daughter Laura and Maddy were great friends in Virginia so Maddy and I drove down for the weekend. The marathon is AMAZING. It was really warm that day so most of the runners had a harder time than they usually would have. But I'm in awe of the self control and motivation needed to run 26.2 miles. We had such a great time rooting for the runners. Many of them have taped or markered their name to the front of their jersey. Maddy was especially great at calling to people by name, saying "You can do it! You're doing great!" Wonderful to feel a part of it, even if it was standing by the side and yelling. Jen finished but a little longer than she'd hoped. We had pizza with her and her family and Sam & Deirdre, who were in town on business. FUN. 

Perfect autumn day in Central Park! Maddy's a great travel companion...non-complaining and game for anything. 

So, don't be alarmed by this picture--we're fine--but on Sunday night we had our second encounter with a deer this year. Late at night, coming home from the NYC marathon (and, ahem, going 80 mph on the freeway) I hit a deer. Amazingly, Maddy and I were fine (but shaken) although the deer came through the windshield. It flew up over our car and the car behind us swerved and rolled their car into the median. Stupid deer! We ended up with shards of glass all over ourselves. In fact, when I got home I found I also had deer fur and deer ticks under my clothes on my skin. (Too much information?) Anyway, I'm convinced the deer mafia has a hit out on us.... 

AAAARGH! She's a pirate. Maddy knew for quite some time that she wanted to be a pirate. She realized later that she wanted to have her sword and earring for the picture but by then my batteries had died. Imagine if you will..... 

Sorry for the fuzzy, ill-lit picture of angelic Lauren! Lauren was planning on going as a witch but then her friend persuaded her to be an angel and her friend would be a devil. As luck would have it, her friend was sick on Halloween so she went with another friend, who was dressed as a toilet. As hard as we tried, we couldn't come up with a cute, duo connection for an angel and a toilet! 

It was a no-brainer for Sam to choose Harry Potter for his Halloween character, since this has been his Year of Potter. He's whizzed through the first four books this summer and has been begging to read the fifth, which Lauren protests is too mature for him. 

SW x SW

These pics are from the Tumacácori mission just north of Nogales.
A very peaceful and haunting place. I think it may be the oldest in the US.
The court yard here is amazing, complete with a ceramicist and a tortilla lady.
Happy days to all! God Speed and Fare thee well.
- xo'z christopher

Go Rebels! 

Maddy in the huddle getting coached 

Shout out from the east

Hi all,

Life has gotten really busy for us. How does that happen? One minute we're enjoying the pace and the next--suddenly--we're over committed. I started my "part-time" job in September and really like it. But I've realized that, although they agreed to make it a part-time job, they haven't taken anything off of the full-time job description! Right now, I'm working on new curricula on bullying, grandparenting (for grandparents who are raising their grandchildren), friendship, bringing out the best in your child, and parenting children with special needs. It's challenging but I like the idea that it's giving preventive help and skills to families and parents, especially since we serve a lot of the homeless shelters and other parents who didn't have the chance to receive good parenting themselves, as well as good parents who just need a little support. Anyway, it's going fine. Although I have noticed that the laundry fairy doesn't show up nearly as often as she used to. If any of you happen to see her, send her our way :).

Greg just finished with his busiest week at work, where they were laboring to finish the bid for a big government contract. But it's done and submitted, and I think he's happy to see his bed before 2:30 a.m. now. To his credit, he still showed up with a smile to coach Sam's soccer practice and game last week. I don't think I would have been as engaged or up to it. I have a good man, there.

The kids are immersed in school and activities. Even keeping them to one music and one sport each, we're still pretty booked. Lauren started playing field hockey this year at school and really loves it, although she does come home with some pretty ugly bruises. She's getting great at the flute and started with a new teacher this fall. Maddy, much to our surprise, decided to play flag football, one of only four girls in the town league. She completely loves it, though. She especially loves playing defensive back...her interpretation is that she "only has to stand back there and pull someone's flag before they make a touchdown." I think she's been trying to get some playground credibility; someone called her a "girly girl" last year and she's been trying to prove them wrong ever since. (I asked her what's wrong with being a girly girl but apparently it's an insult to 3rd and 4th grade girls. On the other hand, she still loves her baby Emily and is asking for another doll for her birthday so she's probably a good blend of girly and sporty.) Sam's playing soccer still and loves having Greg coach. We had his belated birthday party a couple of weekends ago and there was an abundance of 7-year-old boy energy bouncing around the house!

Freaky weather here. It's been pretty warm and all the trees are still green, even though this is typically peak color weekend in October. No color yet.

I'm reading Wicked right now & enjoying it, although it is a little atypical for me to get into fantasy-type stuff (kind of like Matt and horse stories). The author Gregory Maguire's son was in Sam's 1st grade class last year...our little brush with greatness. Of course, I've never spoken to him because my response to encountering anyone remotely famous is to pretend I don't know they're famous. Maybe I can give Nancy's great line she spoke to Alec Baldwin--"Oh, to be famous...."

So that's us. Life is good. Love your blogs. And your guts.
xoxo, Annie

Sam and birthday crew--silliness aplenty!

autumn-omy

Hello Family

another picture of lyle. i love this dog. he didn't want to be in the picture so i made him......
so, thought i'd send a shout out to all me peeps. lets hear it indiana! now you utah, yeah! bring in the massachusetts! oh yeah.
ok. as nancy has indicated it is still summer here in the sonora desert, big surprise. the light is very autumn though...you know that filtered light? i'm all moved in to a little one bedroom apt in the downtown area not too far from nancy and dave and lyle. schools in full swing and alot of my time is focused on studies. when i do get free time i write songs (i picked up a used xylaphone at a thrift store, now all the songs i record have xylaphonic accompaniment), read or bike around town reading plaquards and going to local museums (inspired by sarah vowells 'assasignation vaction). the museum downtown has john dillingers arsenal and bulletproof vest. yeah, its pretty cool. he and his crew got busted here in tucson, afterwhich dillinger escaped from prision and then was shot and killed outside of a movie theater in East Chicago. there's also a big statue in the presidio of the mormon battalion gang. i didn't know that the President, Wilson i believe, organized the battalion to appease brigham's requests for financial aid to move out west. the mormon battalion reached tucson in 1846 and after a short time in San Diego returned to Utah. alot of them were then sent back to arizona to settle in towns like young, snowflake, and thatcher, the latter being the death place of great great great grandfather James Monroe Moody who died in 1886. small world, or more like small west. i'm planning a trip out to see GGGGrampa's grave in a couple of days, its only an hour or two to the east. JM Moody if ya'll care to know or didn't know was Grandpa pax's grandmother's (Urilda Pool) father. Urilda married William Reed Horizon Paxman, and they popped out William Monroe Paxman, etc. alrighty, enough geneology.
I went to philly to visit my friend sochi who is quite ill. she just moved there a couple of months ago from NYC and before that she was in Portland. anyway, she doesn't really have family to help her out and she was lonely and sounded like she was giving up, so i found a cheap ticket and flew out for a visit over labor day weekend. i kept thinking: this is so grown up of me. we had a great time and i was gaoot (that's 'happy' if your right hands drifts one position to the left on the keyboard), to see her in good spirits. we went to the mütter museum in downtown philly otherwise known as the medical oddity museum, which coincidentally is mentioned in s. vowell's recent book because they have a piece of charles guiteau's - pres. garfield's not very famous assasin - brain in a bottle AND a piece of john wilkes booth's thorasic vertebae, who is supposedly related to us through grandma paxman's side but i can't find any evidence yet, and i've been looking pretty hard. Philadelphia is a beautiful city and so is sochi (not a city though, she's a girl). i want to go back soon. i love you all!
ok bye
-chris