Connection

Last night Adam, the superhero that he is, got out of his meeting and joined me.  I was asked to help with a youth family history activity.  The youth were divided into groups and went to different stations.  My job was the "more" page on the Family Tree app.  We looked at Relatives Near Me and Map My Ancestors.

There were three families of kids who are my fifth cousins.  We were all descended from Archibald Gardner.  None of them knew anything about him so I enlightened them.  I wonder what it would look like if everyone in Utah County related to Archibald Gardner wore the same colored shirt one day.

One of the girls, a twelve year old who doesn't have a phone and scrambled to get logged into a borrowed iPad, finally was able to pull up her family.  Her great grandma was from the same town in Denmark where Adam's grandma was born.

She smiled like she had just won a big prize.

Learning about ancestors and feeling connected always, always, delights people.

And it delights me to watch.

We can't all

Yesterday was a hard day at school.

Not the hardest (I didn't cry in the principal's office, so there's that), but it was hard.

I left at about 5:00 and went to the grocery store for ice for our RS birthday dinner last night.

I went straight to the church to help set up a few things. Different women in the ward had each decorated a table and set it with their fancy dishes.  It looked beautiful.

Julia was admiring the tables and asked, "Thelma, did you do one of these?"

I said, "I brought ice."

She laughed but nodded knowingly, because sometimes ice is all you've got in you.

We had a lovely evening, visiting and eating delicious food.  The stake relief society presidency was there and they helped us clean up with gusto.  Michelle went with me to take the garbage out because last time I did that, I got locked out of the church and it was snowing. Michelle was my emotional support garbage helper.

The theme of our evening was because I have been given much I too must give.  Besides the decorated tables, women volunteered to advertise the event, say prayers, help clean up, bring a salad, or a dessert.  Everyone working together made it great.  Even though your only contribution is ice, ice matters and so does contributing.

I counted it will be 8 years this August that we've lived here.  Eight years is a good span of time for me to have made some really dear friends.  I'm glad I got to celebrate with them last night.

Nice to know

I called to transfer the utilities at my grandparents' house to us.  There aren't exactly street names.  The woman on the phone was 100% confused until I mentioned my grandparents' names.  Then she knew exactly what I was talking about.  They've been gone awhile now, but they are still the guidepost helping people know where to put me in the world.

My entire growing up years, I was one of the Dahls.  Maybe everyone didn't know exactly which Dahl, but I was one of them.  My identity.

It's nice to know that in one little town in Nevada, it's still the same.

Also, I'm really glad that we have Anna.  She is not only the maker of beautiful babies and the woman of my son's dreams.  She is smart and good and funny.

She sent this yesterday.

She said, "Who said babies don't come with instructions?"

There's no way that little girl isn't going to be funny.  Her parents are both witty.  

It's nice to know I have years of entertainment ahead of me.

Cleaning the church

Adam and I were part of the crew cleaning the church early Saturday morning.  Sun was streaming in the glass in one of the foyers, highlighting how terrible the windows looked.  Someone must have cleaned them with disinfectant or something because they looked bad.

Julia began gathering and emptying all the trash, Ethan started vacuuming the chapel, Verdon cleaned the kitchen and then started vacuuming.  Garrett was vacuuming the halls and classrooms too.  He had his toddler there in a stroller.  (His wife was home with their newborn.) Tara and Sione arrived and started in on the bathrooms.  Adam and I tackled the windows.

It didn't go too well.

We sprayed and wiped and wiped and sprayed.

I despaired of how they still didn't look great and Julia told me, "The windows look a lot better than they did."

We moved on to other windows around the church and while I was cleaning the inside and Adam was cleaning the outside, I thought about serving in the church.

Sometimes we botch things.   Sometimes we say the wrong thing and offend someone; we don't follow through with an assignment; we fail to come prepared. Sometimes we forget something important.  Sometimes we use disinfectant instead of glass cleaner.  

Sometimes, even if we're doing the right thing, using the glass cleaner, we don't feel like we are too successful.

Sometimes our children are the ones who make tiny handprints on the glass doors and sometimes we're the ones wiping the tiny handprints of someone else's children.

I guess what matters most is in the showing up.  I loved being there with my neighbors, fanned out across the church, cleaning it.  It occurred to me how sturdy the church is and that it was OK if we weren't perfect at our jobs.  We were trying.

Also, I showed Julia and Tara pictures of my granddaughter and Julia, whose daughters are friends with Braeden and Emma and who has grandchildren of her own, cried when she saw a picture of Braeden holding his baby girl.  Tara grew up in Virginia Beach and her parents are Braeden's (and my) friends.  Ever since his mission, Tara has had an interest in Braeden's life and she and I feel connected.

I guess if you ever want to feel part of something good, show up when it's your turn to clean the church early on a Saturday morning.

***

When our children were little, Adam started the tradition of taking them to McDonald's for breakfast after cleaning the church.  It was a reward for their service.  We still do it.  When the teenager at the drive thru window handed us our Diet Cokes (breakfast of champions!) we noticed that they were different sizes.  They weren't different enough sizes that one was a medium and one was a large, but they were different.

Ever curious and a seeker of answers, Adam asked, "Why are they different sizes?"

The morose boy said, "They aren't."

Adam said, "Look!" and he held them up to each other.

The boy was completely disinterested and mumbled, "Huh, I don't know," and sent us on our way.

The whole thing mystified and sort of delighted us enough that we took a picture and texted our kids (there's a reason cell phones were invented and it is to send pictures of two Diet Coke cups to your kids).

Mark immediately texted back:

And he was right!  I wanted to go back and tell the kid at McDonald's but I don't think he was nearly as perplexed by the whole thing as we were.

All of this is to say:  we're having adventures over here.

Grateful Friday

I'm grateful for my good friends that showed me love so well on my birthday.

I'm grateful for my family (parents, siblings, Adam's family, my grandma) who, in addition to showing me birthday love and regular love, have showered love and concern on our new granddaughter.  It feels like an enormous web I'm happy to be enmeshed in.

I'm grateful for my children.  It is such an ongoing honor to be their mother.

I'm grateful for Adam, my fellow birthday kid, my fellow empty nester, my fellow new grandparent, the person who has to also decide what is for dinner.  Everything is better with Adam.  Everything.

I'm grateful for this little cherub.  I love everything about this picture including, but not limited to, the pig standing as sentinel.

 

Seven squared

Yesterday was our birthday and it was a good day. I started it by seeing my parents!  They had stayed with us the night before and when I went downstairs for my breakfast, my mom was there, in a chair, waiting to say happy birthday.

You can turn 49 and it still feels more complete to see your mom and dad on your birthday.

They also took us to dinner the night before, which was very nice.  They went to Pride and Prejudice at BYU.  They loved watching Freja too!

On Monday, one of my students asked me what my favorite candy bar was.  I told her peanut m and m's.  She asked me what my favorite drink was.  I said, "Diet Coke."  She recorded both answers in a notebook.

She apparently spread the word because several students handed me diet coke or peanut m and m's when they walked in the door.  She's the same student that organizes other people's desks if they want her to.  She will make a great Relief Society president someday.

I also loved the already loved on pink bear...

Jamie gave me an Anne of Green Gables cursive writing book.  She said it was perfect for a 3rd grade teacher who was a kindred spirit.

Janelle hung a balloon on my door and gave me a gift card and treat.

There were cards in my box and the principal, vice principal and secretary sang to me.

Elementary schools are where it's at.  Almost always.  You get together that many (mostly women) who nurture for a living, they're going to be nice to you on your birthday.

I brought my class ice cream (which they'd earned as a reward) and birthday cake oreo cookies.  I also milked it being my birthday all day long.  

For example, when they wondered why I wouldn't unblock youtube during their few minutes of free time at the end of the day I said, "It's my birthday and I don't want to."

One of them said, "After all we've done for you!"

(He's not one that brought me anything, but maybe he felt like it had been a group effort.)

I said, "Even after all you've done for me.  It's my birthday."

Another of them said, "And she's the boss."

After school, my grandma called.  She wished me a happy birthday and Adam as well.  We chatted for a few minutes about me being a grandma, and her being a great-great-grandma.  We were about to hang up, and I started crying. 

She said, "Honey, what's wrong?!?"

I said, "Nothing, I just have to tell you.  I want to be like you.  When I think of what kind of grandma I want to be, it is like you."

I hope I can be.

My friend, Marie-Louise, teases me because one year Adam and I celebrated our birthday by going to Costco.  I think we eclipsed that glamorous destination this year though, we went to Target optical.

The day before, when my parents were there, my glasses broke.  My mom said, "Well, luckily, your dad is here."

He inspected the problem and said, "I'll go get my glue."

The man travels with superglue.

He repaired my glasses, but I decided it was time to face the truth that I really need new glasses.  I not only need frames that aren't crumbling, but I need progressives that make reading up close easier.

"But Grandmother, what big glasses you have!"

"The better to see you with my dear."

There were two pairs I was deciding between.  Adam took pictures and I said, "Text Emma."

The guy asked, "Your daughter?"

I love that that was predictable.  How wonderful to have a daughter!

Welcome to the world!

On the day you were born:

I checked my phone manically, as I had warned my students.  They were all excited too.  They get cranky when I'm going to be gone because they don't like having a sub, but they were disgusted with me that I wasn't right there to welcome you.  I explained that I was going during spring break.  They still thought I should be there.

(Honestly, I did too.)

Your grandpa and I prayed and prayed for months for your safe arrival.  Our prayers were answered and we are grateful.

I can't explain to you how much you are loved.  

My siblings, your great aunts and uncles, peppered me with questions throughout the day about everyone's wellbeing and with love and congratulations and told me they were praying too.  Your dad's cousins were excited and texted him congratulations.

Your great grandma Geri texted me at 5:45 AM (4:45 where she was) because she was up for a drink of water and knew I'd be awake and wondered if I had an update.

I guess you could say we were excited.

Your other grandma and I exchanged texts:

When we finally got word of your arrival, here's a little snippet of the text conversation:

Besides stopping by to hug Emma and cry a little, your grandpa handed out Baby Ruth candy bars at work.  

You are loved, Little One.  Guess what you did to make us all so happy?  Guess what you did to deserve our love?  

You exist.

I want you to know that from now to forever, that is enough for me.  You exist and I love you for it.  You don't have to do anything to ever earn my love.  (I would like to read you a story from time to time though.)

Love,

Your Grandma

(people have asked me what my grandma name will be...I have no idea...maybe I'll just have to wait until you can talk)

Weekend

Thursday after work, Adam and I drove to Nevada.  We stayed with my parents, which is always nice.  Marianne was being a chaperone at FFA state, but Olivia came over for a brief visit.  

Friday morning, Adam and I headed to Elko to go to a flooring showroom to look at...you guessed it...more flooring samples.  

We took the samples with us, needing to return them.  Taking another trip to Elko in the same day wasn't too exciting of a proposition, but like I told Adam, gas is cheap....

We got my dad to come with us for advice and we went to our house (which still feels weird to even say) and looked at the samples.  Adam and my dad disagreed with me about kitchen flooring but then my mom and Olivia came and Olivia agreed with me, my mom agreed with the men, then came over to my side.  Then I started thinking the one I'd fought for wasn't quite right.

We measured some things and went back to my parents' for lunch.  After we ate, my dad agreed to draw the bathroom renovation for us.  He kept asking me dimensions for different things (that I thought I'd measured) but I either hadn't measured parts or hadn't written them down or what I had didn't make sense.

If you want something measured, call me.

We decided to stop by the house before going to Elko (again) so we could get better measurements.  This time for real.

We went out to our car to find a flat tire.  My dad filled it with air and told us we'd better scrap the measurement plan and just get to Elko before the tire stores closed.

So we did.

Nearing Elko, the car started to wobble.  I called Enoch (who lives in Elko) for advice and mostly moral support.  He told me where Les Schwab tires was (since I was on my phone and Adam was driving).  We made it!

We got the tired repaired and the entire time we sat in the tire store and tried to reconstruct the bathroom measurements.  

Adam said, "We need to stop and measure again."

So we did and the entire thing was a very long day.

Here's what I know for sure though:  I love doing this with Adam.  Even though we aren't very good at lots of it (measuring...), it is fun to dream and scheme.  There's no one I'd rather go on the adventure with. Also, I love that house.  I love that place on earth.  We watched two huge hawks circle above us, landing in the tops of the tall trees, and it was so quiet and peaceful their flapping wings seemed loud.  Echoes of my childhood are everywhere I look and I feel connected to my grandparents just being there.  Besides, you can't beat the neighbors. 

Saturday we picked up Emma and went to Kaysville for Adam's beloved aunt Suzy's graveside memorial service.  Whenever I'm around Adam's cousins I am impressed with them.  Like he said, he hit the cousin jackpot.  They are all kind and welcoming to me and always have been.  His cousin Pam led the way in the service and she had several people, including Adam, share memories.  He said that he feels at such times he is representing his dad and he hopes he is doing it well enough.

He is.

I know Adam's dad is proud of him and grateful for the good life he tries to live.  I'm grateful for Adam's good parents who raised that guy!

I was deeply inspired by the words that were said about Suzy.  It leaked out all of our eyes.  Hearing everyone talk about her warmth and love and support and generosity painted a picture of a very good woman who touched so many lives.  All her nieces and nephews seemed to think they were her favorites.  

Since she lived in Atlanta, I only met Suzy a handful of times, but I felt her love.  

She called me darlin' and acted like I was a delight to be around.  What a blessing she was to everyone.  I love thinking about her reunion with her brothers in heaven.  She called Linn "Rags" and I'm sure she is still doing that.

Mostly this weekend was about waiting for our grandchild.  As I type this, Anna is in the hospital and getting close.  It has been a long and slow labor and my heart has been in California.  I checked my phone all night.  

I already loved Anna a lot, but thinking about her and praying for her and empathizing with her during this has only increased my love exponentially.  It is hard to be far away from them, but they have each other and that is pretty good company.

These are the days...

...of loving the Old Testament.  I really am.  The "Follow Him" podcast is great and really enhances my study.  I noticed something when I was reading:  In Genesis 33:10, when Jacob and Esau meet and Esau forgives Jacob, Jacob said to see Esau’s face was to see the face of God and it reminded me of the lyric from Les Mis:  to love another person is to see the face of God. 

I love that.

...of waiting for a baby.  Anna's due date has come and gone.  Good thing I'm SO good at being patient.  Ha ha.

...of figuring out flooring.  I have never spent so much time and energy on flooring.  I've looked at a lot of samples in a lot of stores and I think I have it figured out.  Subject to change.

...of loving teaching children.  I love third graders.  I love the first and second graders that pass me in the hall and know me by name and smile up at me, secure in their place in the school as beloved children.  I love working with my bright and cheerful niece Ruby.  We join each other for google meets and she indulges me in sort of boring and nonsensical routines that actually help.  I love seeing her and getting to know her better.

...of deepening my connections.  I am enjoying my emotional resilience class.  Get a handful of women together to talk about emotional resilience and you can get pretty real pretty fast.

Third grade

During my math small group time, I had a student with a heavily bandaged hand who came to me from Miriam's class.  He complained the whole time about how much his hand hurt.  It was hard for him to hold his pencil.  He told me enough times that his hand hurt that I finally told him there was nothing I could do about it, so stop telling me.

Guess how he hurt his hand?

Another kid told him to punch his cast as hard as he could.  Turns out he could punch it hard enough that it drew blood and needed to be bandaged.

When I picked up my class from PE, one of the students wouldn't get up off the stage where they had been sitting at the end of PE.  I said, "Go line up."

She said, "I can't."

I asked her why not.

She said that part of her medical condition was that she couldn't move sometimes.  This mysterious medical condition is news to me and it's March and she's been in my classroom all year.  I said, "Well, come to class when you can move again."  I started to walk away.

She popped up and said, "I can move again."

I was reading to my class from May B. by Caroline Starr Rose.  In it, May lives on the prairie and the book described buffalo chips by the stove.

I asked them if they knew what buffalo chips were.

They had all sorts of ideas about Buffalo flavored potato chips, or a spice that you can use on your food.  Maybe you grated the chips over the food for flavoring?

 One boy raised his hand and said, "I know what buffalo chips are, but I don't want to say it."

I broke the news to them what buffalo chips were and they were horrified.  Completely horrified.  They wondered how you could collect them.  I explained that they dried.  One girl said, "Maybe they used their shirts."  She demonstrated grasping something while holding onto the fabric of her shirt.

One girl said, "I'm never eating chips again."

I said, "Buffalo chips have nothing to do with potato chips."

"But what if they accidentally ate a buffalo chip?"

I said, "They didn't.  They knew what they were."

"What if they thought they were...chocolate?"

One boy said, "Why didn't they just use coal?"

I said, "They didn't have coal."

He said, "They'd better get some."

They were shaken by the whole experience. 

Third grade is amazing.

Springing forward

I was a little draggy yesterday.  The time changing always throws me off.  Also it takes me some time to reset all the clocks...

People who have a clock wall deserve what happens to them.

I have a wall of clocks but I obviously don't look at some of them to see what time it is because two of the clocks were completely dead and on the wrong time and I didn't even know it.

It was dark and felt too early when I left for school, but I did love how early and warm and sunny it felt when I left school for the day.  Yesterday was a teacher work day and work I did.  I kept my head down all day and churned through some filing and LETRS training and organizing and lesson planning.  I didn't do everything on my very optimistic list, but I did a lot of it.  

Now that I had a teacher work day, I need a church work day and a house work day (maybe a few of those).  How about a reading work day?  

There's never a shortage of things to do.

I'm happy for daylight to do it in!

Weekend

Seeing the Jorgensens was GREAT.  I miss Janet and being with her only reminds me of that.  It was just a dinner together, much too short.  We loved Freja in Pride and Prejudice though!  She is talented and looked so much like her beautiful mother with the brunette wig she wore.

Early Friday morning, I had texted Mark and told him to convince his dad to stay home from work because he was sick.  The next thing I knew, Adam had taken Mark to work with him.

  

Braeden texted this:

Everybody needs Mark when it's time to assemble something.

Adam sent this picture.

So I think they were having a good time at work.

Saturday we had planned to go to Nevada, armed with flooring samples and then we were going to take Mark back to Logan on Sunday, but Adam was sick and not getting better and we didn't want to take illness to my parents.

Braeden was triumphant with his building project:

Now we just need that baby girl to arrive!

Braeden and Anna went on "an explore" as Braeden called it.  (Mark also quoted Winnie the Pooh this weekend and when my children quote Winnie the Pooh, I feel like a successful mother.) They went to the Yuba City temple building site.

I love seeing pictures of those cute kids that I miss.

Mark and Adam and I watched a few episodes of Downton Abbey together Saturday night.  Mark was torn between spending his last night with his parents and spending his last night with his friends.  Then he realized that he could go hang out with Marek after I went to bed.  It's nice to have a mom that gets out of your hair by going to bed early!

Sunday after church we took Mark back to Logan.  I hate taking him back to Logan.  I hate his dismal apartment and I am starting to hate everything about the place (although Logan is lovely).

I just miss Mark.

On the way there, there were dementor clouds and I think the weather shared my sentiment.

And now, another week to be back at it.  The time has changed and spring is coming.  The nest is empty again and I love spending time with Adam.  Even though I miss people I love, life is good and my daffodils are shooting up.

Grateful Friday

The things we tried for behavior modification seemed to work.  For now.  It's always for now, but I'll take it.

We get to see the Jorgensens tonight!  Freja is Elizabeth Bennet in Pride and Prejudice at BYU, where she is a theater major.  We're having dinner together before the show!

Reframing things in my mind works. Three things I reframed:

1. Yesterday I woke up with day four of a headache.  I told myself, "It's going to be a good day."  And it was.  

2. I needed to get my car washed which isn't that exciting, but then I remembered Braeden saying he was giving Loki a spa day last summer and I decided I was giving Joan a spa day and it felt kind of exciting.  

3. I reframed paying a hefty amount at the pump.  I was sticking it to Putin.  If it keeps us from buying any Russian oil, I'll pay more.  (I doubt Putin felt the pinch of me filling up Joan, but let me have this one thing, OK?)

Finally, my mom is amazing.  She had a discouraging doctor visit recently about her lung cancer.  Since this blog is my personal family history, I want to preserve here what she wrote us in an email:

I read a little bit of a summary of Elder Gong's talk in which he said, "We can always trust God.  The Lord knows us better and loves us more than we know or love ourselves.  His infinite love and perfect knowledge of past, present and future make His covenants and promises constant and sure."  

Reading that made all the difference for me.  I thought, "I have believed in this religion and in God for almost 73 years.  If I can't trust God, then it is all a sham.  If we can't trust God, then who can we trust."

I know that I am his daughter and that He loves me.  I know that anything He does with my life will be for my best good.  I thought about my children and grandchildren.  I know that I would not do anything for any of them that I didn't know was for their best good.  I would never do anything that would not be good for them.  The problem is I haven't always known what would be good for them, but God does know.  He knows everything.  He knows what is for my best and that is what He will do.  All I need to do is trust Him and let His will prevail in my life.  I need to let him be the author and finisher of my story as Sister Camille Johnson said in conference.  

I can say, like the army of Helaman, that I do not doubt that my mother knew it.

She is a blessing in my life and always has been.

Actual things that happened yesterday

A student kicked a ball at lunch recess and his shoe flew off and it landed on the roof.  Later in the day, the heroic custodian brought in a very wet shoe.

For the first time ever, I pushed the emergency red button on my wall to have someone come and get an unruly student.  It worked!  I wasn't sure it would because that button is as old as the rest of the school.

The third grade team had an emergency meeting and we are making changes.  We have more behavior problems than we ever had, but we've got three good brains on the case!

A non English speaking (of course) family enrolled their 3rd grader (of course) in school yesterday.  That makes 5 new non English speaking third graders this year!  When Camie was talking to them through an interpreter, she invited them to partake of the food pantry that was there after school.  The dad said no.  Then he said, "Can we really?"  

She said, "Yes."

The dad cried and they took some food.

Did I cry when Camie told me that?  Yes.  Yes, I did.

Mark and I went out for pizza.  Adam had meetings.  I went to an emotional resilience class that is happening in our ward.

I'm not cured yet, but it's a 12 week class, so....

Just you wait.

Magnified

Yesterday was another one of those days (that happen quite often) where my class feels out of control.  A student threw a soccer ball--during class.  Two boys escaped to recess early--I retrieved them and made them stay in for five minutes during recess.  I had a new student who 1) sung tunelessly all day  2) didn't do any work 3) cried a few times.  There are about five people in the building who are able to set up new passwords for students.  None of them were there yesterday.

One of my very hardest students was in show off mode for the new student and he kept shouting out sassy answers to questions in an effort to be funny.

It wasn't funny.

We had a counselor lesson and the counselor talked to them about goals.  The above student's desk is strategically placed very close to my desk.  When the counselor had them write down their goals, he wrote he wanted to behave better at school.  He wrote: I will do it by listening to my teacher and being nice to other students and doing my work.

It melted my heart.  We are all trying.

***

Mark came to my class for the afternoon.  We did science.  They built bridges out of paper and tested them with pennies.  Also Mark kept sneaking Skittles and they all heard him so he didn't get away with it.

Mark walked around giving them tips.  But this group didn't even need much help.  They were pretty impressive.

After the bridges, we played with tracks and cars.

We tested the sweet spot between having an incline for the cars to go fast and too much of an incline where the cars fell off.  At the end we had a bracket to figure out the fastest car.  

Basically it was a big mess, but fun, and we got it all cleaned up.

I asked Mark what it was like to be in my classroom.  I said, "Does it seem like me or different?"

He said, "It kind of scared me.  It brought me back to being in the school room, but magnified."

I didn't think I was that scary.  I'm still not very scary.  But I'll admit to a teacher voice. A teacher/mom voice.

After Mark left the school, he went for a haircut.  Adam, the king of the before and after, took these shots.

I don't know why the sunglasses were part of the pictures.

And speaking of magnified, that kid...needed...a haircut.

Weekend

Friday we went to dinner with Shannon and Chris.  They are in our ward, our few-streets-away neighbors, and Chris's mom and my mom were college roommates.  (I learned that last summer at my parents' 50th/51st anniversary party.)

We ate pizza and got to know each other, connecting over things like pizza and adult children and national parks and the stock market and disjointed paths life takes you on.  Adam regaled them with Supreme Court anecdotes (like Adam can) and we agreed that you never met anyone who went to Harvard who didn't tell you immediately that they went to Harvard.

We had a good time.

Saturday we did the Saturday rounds and waited happily for Emma to bring Mark to us.  She drove to Logan and they went to the latest (of how many, hundreds?) Batman movies.  The weather turned from springlike to winter.  Adam and I had a temple appointment and I took a sweater but not a coat because it wasn't that cold.  When we came out of the temple, it was snowing and Emma and Mark were at our house.  It was wonderful.  We were sitting around visiting and my phone rang and it was Braeden.  Every time he calls now he says, "Anna is not in labor."  We talked to him anyway.  I put the phone on speaker and everyone talked over each other like we do.  We went for Thai food which was delicious and gluten free.  While Adam was paying and we were about to leave the restaurant, Mark asked if it was OK if he hung out with Marek.  I said sure.  We drove the 5 minutes home and Marek was waiting in the cul-de-sac, so I guess the asking was a formality.  I'm always happy to see Marek though.

Sunday I woke up to a winter wonderland.  Since Mark was home it felt like it was Christmas break and Emma should be here too.

Adam took these pictures that showed before and after the well attended deer party in our front yard.

The Honey Bucket and trusses spilling into the street?  Every homeowners' dream.  They're working on the next door behemoth in fits and starts and it's...lovely.

Sunday afternoon Braeden and Anna called.  What do you get when you combine a guy with a masters degree in international relations, a PhD student of political science, a woman who served a mission in Russia who also has a bachelors degree in political science, and a Mark who learned about WW II like it was his job growing up and who has lots of opinions?

You get a whole discussion about Ukraine.

I enjoyed listening.  I told Adam later that one of his many contributions to our family is the discourse that happens.  I love that they talked in such respectful and also passionate ways.  They disagreed wholeheartedly on some things and listened and asked questions to further understanding, not prove someone was wrong.  I wish everyone knew how to argue so gracefully. 

Emma came later.  We ate gluten free mac and cheese and had a gospel discussion about Jacob's ladder.  We even sang Nearer my God to Thee.

I made a flourless chocolate cake for dessert.  While I was dishing it up, Mark was teaching the others how to play a version of poker.  When I came back with the cake, he said, "I already told them how but you're from Nevada so I'm sure you'll figure it out."

Nevada didn't help me much.  

We had a nice weekend.  Today Mark is going to spend the afternoon in my classroom.  We're going to do science all afternoon.  We're going to build paper bridges and ramps for cars.  It's all under the umbrella of our force and motion science curriculum but it will be a lot of fun too.

My students cheered when I told them Mark was coming.  One of them said, "Mark is fun."

Another said, "Mark is a redhead."

Two true statements.

Grateful Friday

For the past two days it's been positively warm when I walked out the door after school.

It's the weekend which means more Adam time.

Mark has spring break next week!

Last night Emma met us at Lowe's and we looked at floor samples together.  Then we had dinner and she came to our house to get things like her tax returns because that girl likes to do her own taxes.  (Kind of like not camping, I like not doing taxes.)  It was fun to see her and have dinner together and just enjoy Emma being Emma.

We're going to dinner with friends tonight.  (I have decided we need to always plan that ahead of time if it will happen.  On Friday, after school, the decision fatigue is real.  If we already have plans decided, I'm happy to do them.  If I need to figure something out, I won't.)

Yesterday was rough at school.  It was like Tasmanian devils were occupying my classroom.  After school, to carry on with the Dr. Seuss theme, I decided I had shoes in my feet and brains in my head.  I rearranged the desks.  I tidied everything up.  I wrote the names on the board of students who wouldn't be going to Fun Friday because their work isn't done.  (Most of them will have it complete in minutes when they see that.)  Sometimes you just have to take back the reigns.

I have felt very sad and discouraged for Ukraine, but it also makes me realize how much I have to be grateful for.  If you are living a peaceful and safe life, you'd better be doing something good in the world.  

I'll keep trying.

Seuss

Yesterday was Dr. Seuss's birthday.  I love Dr. Seuss books and I'm glad that despite some effort to cancel him because of some problematic content, our school did not.  (I also don't think it's necessary to discount someone's entire contribution to the world because you don't agree with everything they ever said or did or created.)

You could say our principal was all in.

I read my students Wacky Wednesday.  It's the book none of them have heard of and all of them immediately love.  

So many quotes by Dr Seuss ran through my head all day.

Today you are you.  You are you-er than you.  There's no one alive who is more you than you.

A person's a person no matter how small.

The more things you read, the more things you will know.  The more things you learn the more places you'll go.

You're never too old, too wacky, too wild, to pick up a book and read to a child.

Today was good.  Today was fun.  Tomorrow is another one.

I am so glad I was not gone today!

That's what one of my students said and I felt the same way.  It was a good day to be a third grader.

We went on a field trip which is always slightly fraught.  Before school, Miriam and Janelle and I were bracing ourselves and asking each other if we were ready and what we were forgetting about.  

Everyone was very excited and math was a struggle but we did it.  My class had four dad chaperones which was pretty great.  They weren't very flappable or worried about anything.  I saw some mothers who were chaperoning the other third grade classes and they had the same intensity about them that the teachers had.  It was nice to have chilled out dads as a counterpoint.  

I counted heads at every juncture and we went home with the same students we left with.  A few of them were suspicious of the field trip in general.  A few of them were very excited.  A few of them were nervous.  (Will there be restrooms?)

On the bus, one little guy bounced up and down and said, "It's been years since I rode a bus!"  We have a walking school so any time they get to ride a bus, it is exciting times.  They were shocked there were no seatbelts.

Here are some things that delighted me:

The bravery it took to let a cockroach crawl over their hands.

The students that posed "like flowers" so a butterfly would land on them.

It worked!

The girl who stood perfectly still for a long time so a butterfly would land on her.

And it worked!

The student who produced a fraction tile from his shoe right in the middle of everything.  He said, "Remember yesterday when I lost this?  I just found it in my shoe!"

I said, "How did you not know it was in your shoe?"

He shrugged and said, "I just thought it was a wood chip."

One little guy is generally unhappy and was determined to hate the field trip.  I asked him to tell me if he saw any butterflies that they have in Guatemala (where he is from).  He got very excited at one point and, through Nola interpreting, showed me a tree that they have in Guatemala.  He was happier after that.  He is homesick, poor little guy.

We watched stick bugs and praying mantises being fed, we studied up on life cycles of butterflies, we saw tarantulas and scorpions and lots and lots of butterflies.  

when two magnifying glasses are better than one

It was a good day to not be gone!

It was a Monday

Adam was taking his car to have the windshield replaced so I was going to meet him there and then he'd take me to school and pick me up later.

My car wouldn't start.

So I had the van, and I know that is something to be grateful about but it threw me off and I felt stressed about why my car wouldn't start.

I didn't have the garage opener for the van so I had to go out the side door.  There were BIG tracks in the snow that looked like a mountain lion to my early morning imagination. (Adam said it was probably a big dog.  I don't want to come across that big dog either....)

School was chaotic like it always is after a sub.  They had lied to the sub, and seriously raided the skittle machine in my absence.

It was hard to get them settled.

The digital clock was an hour off for reasons beyond my understanding.  It is an atomic clock and I don't know how to reset it.  I have an analog clock but guess how many times my students freaked out about the time?

More than you'd imagine.

I finally figured out how to change it to Pacific time so then it was correct.

It was the teacher vs. student battle of the books and the teachers won but then I REALLY couldn't get my students settled.

We have a field trip today and for weeks I've been trying to wrangle chaperones.  Yesterday a student told me her dad wasn't coming.  I emailed him and got him back.

After school I had a long (over 90 minutes) leadership meeting and I had a boatload of stuff to do in my classroom.  Finally at 5:30 I went out to where Adam was waiting in my car (that he got working).  We went to the grocery store and picked up his car.

When I got home and took off my boots (hurray for the bootjack!), I had two holes in one of my socks.

It felt like a metaphor for the whole day.