The Scampering Horse

It is with great curiosity we celebrate the life of Crystal Alvarado. The curiosity comes because we are people and people want to know how other people died. The answer will come shortly.  Crystal was also known as Dora the Explorer, and Cristal, misspelling her own name until her senior year in high school. When she stumbled across her own birth certificate, verified by her social security, and confirmed by her mother, her name is actually spelled with the "y": Crystal.  Her favorite lunch throughout her life was tortas, served with ham and avocado. She would have loved to drink them with the traditional coca (Coca-cola), but her mom wouldn't let her drink soda. Her mother was wise and prevented many cavities for her daughter. Crystal died with beautiful, undecayed teeth. (Sponsored by Colgate). Crystal enjoyed reading, and was a high school cheerleader. The pep she gained from cheering pierced her deep in her heart, and was the ultimate cause of her early and an...

This is another post about depression. I have been wading through the muck of it for the past few months. For some reason, winters are harder. Science something. SAD something. Blah, blah, blah. It has been a long, cold Nebraska winter. And it won't be over for months. I am still me. I am still the silly one who makes slightly inappropriate jokes. I am still the one who enjoys a Saturday run, and a night out with friends. I am still a mom who makes dinner sometimes, and goes to work every day. I am still me. Just sometimes the depression takes over. It feels like waves in the ocean. I am at the top and then the bottom, and sometimes the waves go up in elevation, and sometimes they go down into a valley. I've been fighting the wave that has been going lower and lower. I am not doing well with the fight, but I keep fighting. Some days I actually feel like I am getting better, and then the next day I am reminded that no, I am actually getting pulled lower. So, this is a...

I went to a beautiful dinner at "The Bread and Cup" in downtown Lincoln, NE. It was beautiful, but will haunt me forever. It all started because I was attending a training for afterschool programs, more currently being called Extended Learning Opportunities, or ELOs for those that speak the jargon. I do. I speak the jargon. But nobody would know what I am talking about if I speak it. So, I won't. Well, I will for the next paragraph but then I promise I won't. More specifically, the training focused on the afterschool model called Community Learning Centers (CLCs) that partner the afterschool staff, students, and parents with communities, schools, businesses to offer really awesome science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM) educational opportunities through hands on, relevant, super awesome learning opportunities outside of the normal school day. The idea is to show that science is all around us, with as much youth engagement and "hands on minds on...

We know it is never a funny thing when a young mother dies. And young she was. At the blushing age of 32 Evelyn has moved to the great round-up in the sky. Evelyn Hornbarger, or is it Evelyn McNeill, we don't know since she never legally changed her name from McNeill. Yet it was changed on the records of the church to Hornbarger, so it is a matter of church vs state at this point-a legal matter in which we don't want to involve ourselves being mere writers of obituaries. Evelyn was surrounded by family. Like, literally, since they all climbed into bed with her as she took her last breath. The two year old was asking for juice in a sippy cup. The four year old wanted a turn on the ipad, and the elementary aged children were fighting over whose turn it was on Minecraft. Ian was lovingly caressing her face, and heard her mutter,"There just wasn't enough chocolate." Evelyn's five brothers were shocked at her passing, and instantly began setting Ian up with...