It was a Monday

I woke up with a headache (which I resent).  I was about five minutes late for school (which I hate!) but at least Matt was walking in at the same time as I was.

I realized I had before school traffic duty.

My eyes were feeling allergic again, so I looked tearful and felt annoyed by them.

I still had a headache.

We had testing and first the internet wasn't working, then I didn't have a fellow proctor because of a mix up, then my student who doesn't speak any English was supposed to have it in Spanish, but just kidding, it actually needs to be in English.  I had two students absent and testing always feels stressful + a lot to manage.

We're still having intense conversation about next year and it is...intense.  I had a low key confrontation with another teacher and I hate that too.

Everything was out of sorts all day long.

After school we had an opportunity to get a $40 gift card in exchange for completing an hour long survey from a BYU student about our science curriculum.

Almost every teacher did it.

I did not.

I needed an hour to calm the crazy in my classroom way more than I needed $40.

It reminded me of Fried Green Tomatoes, when Kathy Bates character said she was older and had more car insurance.

Same.

Weekend

Friday was the typical situation where Adam and I were tired puddles of exhaustion.  We went to Marley's for dinner and there was a band playing outside and a lot of men in leather jackets milling around the Harley Davidson store that is connected to Marley's.  Adam walked through and looked at some motorcycles.

I can't even list all the reasons that make that a no.

Adam said, "Wasn't it fun in college when you rode behind your friends on their motorcycles?"

I had to admit it was.

Also, such a big no.

We looked at all the shiny objects though and then went home and went to bed like the sensible middle aged people we are.

Saturday was a big chore day.  Adam and I prioritized our list for our house in Nevada and categorized.  We did errands.  We contemplated the future of our deck cushions.  We came up with a curtain solution for a bookshelf in Nevada for when it is fly season.  We get very invested in bizarre projects.

While I did my chores, Adam and Mark tried to wash the robin detritus off the windows.  It wasn't easy and there is still a little remaining.  They used the power washer multiple times and Mark scraped the windows with a dish scraper but it was stubborn. They are thinking some enzyme spray will do the trick.  

We found ourselves at Winco at 9:00 PM, when we finally got around to grocery shopping.  We decided to divide and conquer to make it quicker.  There is a definite stream of traffic at Winco and I went the opposite way to meet Adam in the middle.

It reminded me of when Mark would get kicked out of Smalland at IKEA and I'd have to go upstream to get him.

Yesterday I taught Sunday School.  It makes me nervous every time, but I feel like I am learning a lot.  It is good for me to think about it and talk about it so much.  I immerse myself in the lesson because I don't want to look foolish in front of everyone, but that immersing is blessing my life.

Mark was sick again on Sunday.  He sent me these texts.

It is sobering to think about how vigilant he has to constantly be and to know that sometimes things just go awry despite his best efforts.  

He upgraded to a new sensor yesterday which is awesome because it is way smaller, taking up a fraction of space on him and he said it didn't hurt at all when he attached it.  All of that change and rigamarole messed him up though and he went really high and it made him sick.

Sigh.

I can't even tell you how few nanoseconds it would take me to take that away from him if I could.

Like I told him, God isn't thinking, "Oops...that got away from me."  He knows Mark and what Mark needs. 

This I know.

Marie Louise came over and after a long hiatus we worked on family history together.  It felt so good to be together again.  It's been several years since we worked (she showed me her list that is seven and a half pages long with her tiny handwriting of names of women whose temple work she has completed since we last worked together) and it was amazing to me that some of the names were still familiar to me.  There would be a married couple with record issues we were resolving and I would say, "Oh, that's the one that is related to you. I remember."  They have sunk into my brain.

She insists they're "our" family, not just hers.  She tells me that we're building an army on the other side to help us.  We fantasize about taking a trip to Berkshire together someday where all her family are from in England and we imagine meeting them all in heaven someday.

And she also makes fun of my American pronunciation.  

There's some of that too.

I went to a bishopric training meeting because they wanted the wives and then we had our kiddos over for dinner.

It was a good weekend, but I need a week of school to rest up after it!

Grateful Friday

This has been a busy week for Adam.  I could start every blog post that way, but this one has been extra.

It is a really busy time at work, with him working into the night editing documents.

He has had church responsibilities Tuesday, Wednesday and last night.  

I haven't seen much of the kid.

Last night I was already in bed--which has been the story of the week--when he got home.  He lay down next to me to talk for a few minutes before he got back to work.  It was brief and then he got up wearily to go sit in front of a laptop for hours.

He said off-handedly, "Does my haircut look OK?"  He cuts his own hair now.  

I said, "I think so.  I can see four of you."  My astigmatism is extra exciting at night when I'm tired and not wearing glasses.  I told him I would get a better look later and let him know about his hair.

I said, "I love all four of you."

He said, "We all love you too."

He left, but before I went to sleep, I said another prayer.  I'm grateful for Adam.  I'm grateful that he daily chooses the better part.  He acknowledges his exhaustion, but he never complains about the meetings/trainings/YM activities he has to do.

He just does them.

And I'm grateful to be married to someone like him.

Living the actual dream

Things I love:

blossoms on the trees

the green hills

sunny days

my class

being a teacher

School has been downright fun lately.  We laugh a lot and we read a lot and they tell me jokes and show me magic tricks and I love it.

While lining up for library, one of my students showed me how her book had medals on it.  One was a Newbery Honor.  I explained what Newbery Awards were.  I told her about Miss Hickory which is the wackiest Newbery I've read.

She checked it out at the library.

The secret to getting a kid to read a book is to tell them you dislike it and that is science.

Another student was reading Wild Animal Facts and did you know that narwhals don't have a horn, it is actually a tooth?

I was 51 when I learned that.

I also got hiccups yesterday and my students told me to "search it up on my phone" how to get rid of them.  Search it up on your phone is their answer to everything and anything.

I read that if I pressed my index finger between my upper lip and nose and breathed slowly for 20-30 seconds, my hiccups would go away.

I tried it.

They all tried it along with me.  I said, "You don't have hiccups!"  Solidarity though.

And it worked!  My hiccups went away immediately.

It's a small little life in the walls of an old and very un-fancy classroom, but I wake up every morning happy to go back and that feels like a gift.

A tale of two deliveries

Well, it's a tale of only one delivery.

In January, I got my new temporary driver's license.  They were going to mail the hard copy.

It never came.

I looked into getting it sent again and one place told me to wait three months before contacting them and one place suggested 8 weeks.

Are they attaching it to a carrier pigeon and just sending it in the general direction of Pleasant Grove?!?  Have they decided to live up to the nickname snail mail?  If it's snails you want, it is snails you get.  

I imagine the snail has not made too much progress from the DMV at this point.

It didn't ever come, so Monday I called and after the usual array of phone menus and button pressing, I finally got a person.  She seemed very unconcerned that my license had never arrived.  She said they would send another one.

She said, "And if it doesn't come in 8 weeks, call back.  We will send it again."

How often does it not work?  This staggers my mind.  How unreliable is our mail?

Also on Monday, my little retractable keyring/ID badge holder that I clip onto my waistband broke.  I need it so I got on Amazon and ordered another one.

When I got home from school...it was on my doorstep.

3rd grade program

We did it!  Our second annual 3rd grade culture program was yesterday and I loved it!

(I'm not biased or anything.)

The entire third grade sang three songs together, "The Alphabet of Nations", "I'll Be Nice" (which has a Ghanaian part), and "This Land is Your Land." Miriam's class sang an African song and did an African drum song.  My class sang de Colores (all those kids who speak Spanish are a huge help, but all of them did great singing in Spanish) and danced the Mexican Hat Dance.  Hannah's class did a Samoan sasa.

Here's my class doing the Mexican Hat Dance:

I didn't get many pictures of the event at all because it is kind of a full contact sport.  I was handing out flags for them to wave for one song and leading the music and directing students on and off the stage.  Phew!  It was exhausting but also really fun.

Please notice the balls that were a whole EFFORT to blow up (including driving home for our air compressor) and the flags which were another effort.

Miriam is 6'2" or 6'3" (yes, she played college basketball) so she managed the lower flags but, though we tried, the huge ladder was too heavy for us.

I had to ask and cajole and remind the custodians, but they hung the top flags for us.

The finale of our program is every student saying in unison:  We are better together!  Then, we sing "This Land is Your Land."  You look into the earnest faces of sweet kids with roots in Europe, Africa, Mexico, Central America, South America, Asia and Polynesia and try not to cry watching them sing "This Land is Your Land."

It gets me.

If I were in charge, my immigration policy would be this land is your land and the more the merrier.

During one song, I had a vantage point to watch the parents and it was delightful.  They were grinning.  I also loved the appreciative hooting and cheering of some islander parents during the sasa.  

It was a good time.

And now we only have to finish the school year, including all the end of year testing and prepare for the dance festival.

No big deal.....

Weekend

Adam and I were both beyond tired on Friday night.  He was even more tired than I was and went to bed earlier than me which has only happened a handful of times.  Sometimes life just takes it out of us!  We also wanted to go to bed early because we knew we'd have a full day on Saturday.

Saturday we left first thing for Nevada.  We had a few little tasks to do around our house there and some things to pick up (including our pressure washer so we could deal with the mess the insane robin has left on our windows).

My mom was gone--as were both sisters--but we visited my dad for a while and borrowed a level for one of our projects.

I did a little weeding outside and it was an extravagantly beautiful day.

Sunday we sang "How Great Thou Art" at church and the second verse sums up how I feel in the yard there.

When through the woods and forest glades I wander, 
And hear the birds sing sweetly in the trees.
When I look down, from lofty mountain grandeur
And see the brook, and feel the gentle breeze.

Then sings my soul, My Saviour God, to Thee, 
How great Thou art, How great Thou art.
Then sings my soul, My Saviour God, to Thee, 
How great Thou art, How great Thou art!

There isn't exactly a forest glade, but there are certainly birds in the trees, a view across the valley, a brook and a gentle breeze.  It is a lovely spot.

All the animal kingdom seems to agree and want a piece of it.

A hawk is very perturbed when we are there and lets us know.  Birds made nests in the sagging boards under the porch roof and then there are the mice.

My dad has been trapping them and we didn't see any when we were there and I'm very grateful to my dad! 

One of our projects was the porch ceiling.  We cleared out all the nesting materials (happily there was no bird actively nesting there) and I pushed the boards up ineffectively with a broom handle and Adam, atop a ladder, drilled screws to put them back into place.

It feels like a grand adventure.  We could be home doing things like laundry, or I don't know...resting...but instead we go there and work together and talk a lot and listen to podcasts while we drive.  We try our hands at many things we don't exactly know how to do and we dream big dreams.

On the drive home, I had a notebook and we made a list of everything we want and need to do there.  

It is such a long list.

We are having fun in the striving.  There's no one I'd rather do it all with.