The Wonderful Wizard of Oz

Most of you were probably not aware that the all time classic story of The Wizard of Oz is considered to be the very first American fairy tale. I learned that in my American Civilization class this semester and I am currently working on a report on it. Through my research I discovered that many people view the Wizard of Oz as symbolic of America following the Great Depression and the desolation our country was in following the Stock Market crash in the 1920s. I have heard that speculation as well but through further research found out that The Wizard of Oz was in fact written well before the 1920s and first published in 1900. That was an interesting bit of information to find out after reading about all the symbolism the story holds...turns out it's not true. I guess we learn something new everyday!! I thought I'd share some of the supposed symbolisms with you:

Oz = ounces (representative of the measurement for gold)
Yellow Brick Road = Bricks of ingot bars of gold
Scarecrow = representation of the legal "Straw Man"
Tin Man = representation of the Taxpayer Identification Number (TIN)
Cowardly Lion = representation of the once-fearless American people
Kansas = the heart of America, located almost in the center of the country
Emerald City = The Federal Reserve System
Wizard = the scum-bag, con-artist, of the day trying to make a living by cheating people out of their money/dreams
Toto (in Latin) = in total, all together (the witch wanted to take TOTO, everything)
The witch being destroyed with pure clean water = representation of liquidation

Anyway, that's just a few of them. You can see why people get confused as to the true origin and intent of the story? I just thought I'd try to make some clarification.

Happy Easter!

Our Easter was most definitely uneventful this year, but it was nice to have a mellow, relaxing holiday. The day before Easter we colored eggs with our niece and nephew, Andrew and Emma, which has turned into a tradition because we've done it with them for three years now. It's much more fun to dye eggs with kids than just by ourselves, although we always get something entertaining out of it. Easter Sunday we had dinner with Kiara's family and then a second dinner with Darwin's family and stuffed ourselves on yummy Easter ham and other goodies. Unfortunately now that Easter is over, that means our Spring Breaks are over as well and we're back to work and school as usual. We're counting down the weeks to summer vacation (which comes earlier for Kiara than for Darwin)!!

Slackers

Ok, I know that Darwin and I are slackers on posting on our blog, and I apologize. Quite honestly, our lives aren't the most exciting right now...we just do the same old things every single day, almost. Darwin is well into his first year of teaching at Union Middle School in Sandy, Utah, spending his days with 7th and 9th graders and loving it most of the time. I am currently going to school full time and not working. It's been great to just focus on school and I am proud to say that I have the highest grade in my astronomy class this semester (without any help from Darwin, for those of you who think he's the only one with brains in this family!). I am well on my way to finally finishing up with my associates degree and will be finished in December. Yay!! We are looking forward to Easter this coming Sunday, and once again for General Conference in the next couple of weeks. And, with the end of my Spring semester coming up in about 6 weeks, I am seriously going to try to keep up with our blog, and hopefully over the summer our lives will become more exciting.