Grateful Friday

Yesterday my class noticed that I'd put up an Easter decoration.  I was filled with regret because they got so riled up about it.

Discussion ensued:

Was the Easter Bunny real or not.

Was the Easter Bunny creepy or not.

What were we doing to celebrate Easter in class?  Were we having a party?  Is today Easter?!?

Easter is on a Sunday.  On April 9.

Is it always on Sunday?

Why is it on Sunday?

Why can't we have school on Easter?

All from a Mary Engelbreit Easter picture that has never caused any discussion in the past.

I'm grateful we won't have school on Easter.

I'm grateful for spring break and conference weekend and a road trip with Adam and Easter with our family.  It feels like a lot to look forward to and I'm here for it.

Last night Adam and I went to Salt Lake (which was noble of Adam because he'd just been to Salt Lake).  Adam dropped me off and then found wifi to work and Emma and I went shopping for her birthday that was in February.  I was seated on a comfy chair outside the dressing rooms and Emma came out with a big smile because she liked the clothes and it made it all worth it.

Making my children happy is the best.

Adam came back and we ate dinner at Cupbop and then Emma went home and Adam and I bought my birthday gift.  It was a birthday sort of evening.

My laptop is ten years old and I got a new one!

Yesterday there was driving snow on two occasions.  A complete whiteout that drew my students out of their chairs and had them pressing their faces against the window.

"Sit down," I said.  "I know you've seen snow before."  We've.  All.  Seen.  Snow.

I'm grateful it won't last forever.

It won't last forever, right?

Tired

Two days ago I was mad (and sad).  Yesterday I was just tired.

So tired.

My class had library and as usual, the librarian stopped reading aloud to my class because they could. Not. Be. Quiet.

They seriously can't.

After library she said, "I've never seen anything like it."

Same.

She hugged me and told me I was doing a great job and it was almost spring break.

No one has ever been more ready for spring break in the history of the world.

After school we were talking about what the third grade class should do for the dance festival.  Miriam had an idea.  My class is the weak link.  She said, "Do you think they could do it?"

My student teacher laughed out loud.  Then she looked a little shamefaced, like she shouldn't have been quite so honest.

But she is not wrong.

sigh

Yesterday my student teacher said, "I read that article about the shooting in Nashville.  I knew I shouldn't read it."

I said, "I know.  But you couldn't not read it?"

She said, "Yes."

Three nine year old children were shot and killed and we spend our days with 8 and 9 year old children.

More children die from gun violence than any other cause now.  I guess it would be different if there was a powerful lobby of we-don't-want-to-use-carseats-and-seatbelts people donating millions of dollars to political campaigns.  Since there isn't such a lobby, we've managed to pass laws to make children safer in cars.

We are unable/unwilling to protect them when they are at school.  Same goes for the teachers.

Thoughts and prayers; you're on your own.

I would never bring up these shootings with my students and I hope they don't find out either.  The smartest of them would realize it could happen anywhere; it could happen to us.  We have our facade of lockdown drills, but we are sitting ducks.

I'll just do the only things I know how to do.  I'll pray.  I'll keep showing up.  I'll read aloud to them and keep an eagle eye at recess.  I'll turn one end of the jumprope and teach them jumprope chants I knew in elementary school.

I'll vote.

Confusion reigned

I talked to my dad on the way home from school and he told me that 1) he'd plowed us out so we could get propane delivered at Pleasant Hill, and 2) the gauge read 80% so maybe they already brought propane?  But he didn't see any tracks (so they are stealthy) and it is at 80% so if they did fill it up, maybe we have a leak.

I got home and Adam's car was in the garage, which made me very happy.  I had a headache all day and I'd taken some Excedrin at lunchtime, which sometimes makes me feel all better and sometimes makes me feel really loopy and this was one of the loopy times.  Adam's car in the garage made me feel better.

Except Adam wasn't home.

Mark was home, working.  I asked him between phone calls where his dad was and why his car was in the garage.  

Mark didn't know but had a vague notion that there had been a white Honda in the driveway at some point.

So was Adam kidnapped?!?

His phone showed he was still Salt Lake and Mark got another phone call, so I was left to puzzle that out on my own.

I called one of my besties at Wells Propane.

She said, "Yes, your tank was filled up on 3/23."

I said, "My dad said it is at 80%, so do you know how much it was filled?"

She said, "It was filled up.  I think they put 50% in."

I said, "50% or filled up?"

She said, "Yes."

I said, "It says 80% now."

She said, "Yes, we filled it up."

I wondered if there was a hidden camera somewhere watching me.

I said, "I don't understand.  Isn't 100% filled up?"

She said, "We don't fill it up all the way so it can expand when it gets warm."

Ahh.

Then I went to take a nap.  The nap didn't take, Mark got finished with work and we theorized about Adam's whereabouts.  

Finally, Adam called me.  Mark said, "Put it on speaker phone."

I said, "Adam, have you been kidnapped?!?"

He said, "No."

Mark said, "Say something only Adam would know."

Adam said, "There's a logical explanation."

And there was.  It involved his coworkers and the WGU car.  

Our theories were much more interesting though.

Weekend

I'm ready for spring, let me count the ways. Ugh.  I'm tired of snow and ice and cold weather!  Thursday and Friday we had inside recess.  On Friday three students lost the privilege to sit on wobble stools because they were standing on them (!) or kneeling on them at wild angles or turning them sideways and rolling on them.

I know they need recess, but I'm trying to keep them from bodily harm in the meantime....

We got five inches of new snow at our house.

Adam and I helped clean the church on Saturday.  He went earlier than I did because he was the leader of the cleaning team.  I parked on the sheet of ice that was the parking lot and held onto Joan for dear life until I got to the middle where there wasn't so much ice.  Our friends Stephanie and Rick were walking in at the same time and I said, "Is this how we die?!?"

Stephanie was clutching Rick to stay upright and said, "Maybe!"

Later, Adam was doing his thing in his office and I asked Mark what he wanted for dinner this week.  He said chicken tikka masala and that started a whole chain of events.

Cost Plus has had the Tiger Tiger tikka masala sauce we like most + I had a coupon for there that they sent me for my birthday.  I considered maybe we should go to Cost Plus (the closest one is in Fort Union) and then maybe we should go to IKEA to get some things for Pleasant Hill.  

I walked into Adam's office and asked him, "How would you like to be involved in a money spending opportunity?"

I'm like a multi-level marketing schemer, but opposite.

He saw my plan and raised me to Pirate-O's.  They have lots of international foods too.

So we abandoned the Saturday chores we had outlined for ourselves and hit the road.  I loved spending time with Adam although we were thwarted repeatedly.

We never found Tiger Tiger tikka masala (but we bought some other brands to audition as its replacement).  We also bought a Lion Bar to split and some Turkish delight for Emma.  I bought some Bakewell Tarts for Marie Louise just because.

At IKEA, they didn't have the bookcase or the nightstand I was after.  Temporarily unavailable.  Then I saw a really pretty tablecloth on display and asked about it and it is sold out.

Ever since the pandemic, IKEA needs to adopt the tagline, get used to disappointment.

We finally made it home, ate a mix of leftovers for dinner and watched The Adam Project with Mark.

Adam is my favorite person to not get our to do list accomplished with.

Sunday we woke up to more snow.  We got home from church and Emma was here.  She stopped by on her way home from Las Vegas.  She went to the Taylor Swift concert with Marianne's girls and had a great time.

We ate and visited and listened to music (I fell asleep on the couch), then I took the Bakewell Tarts to Marie Louise and had a good visit with her.

I looked at the menacing dark clouds on the horizon.

I hope we will have outside recess today; we got more snow.

Grateful Friday

The other day I read these words:  You were born with a limitless amount of encouragements.

You can encourage over and over and over and never run out.  

I was thinking, There are a lot of things that are limitless.  You can also never run out of smiles and you can never run out of hellos.

You can also never run out of happy birthdays.  I was grateful yesterday for all the people who said happy birthday to me.  I think every adult in the building that I interacted with said "Happy Birthday!" to me with enthusiasm.  Several students in other grades did too!  So kind!  

I loved getting texts and phone calls and emails and messages and even some cards in the mail.

It was the first time in my life my grandma didn't sing to me on my birthday, but I thought of her so it's almost like she did.

Also, if you want to have a good birthday as an adult, an elementary school is not a bad place to be.  Teachers are thoughtful and that is all.

Adam came home from Phoenix yesterday and we went to dinner together and talked about being 50.  I said that everyone says, "Wow," when they find out you're 50.  Then they may add, "You don't look that old."

They are still saying you are old, you just don't look it.  Which I guess is better than also looking old.

I wondered if the best part of my life is over, but then I remembered our granddaughter.  Nope.  The best part is not over yet.

Fifty with Adam: a list

1.   Adam, Robbie, Erin, Rachel and I had dinner together at the Cannon Center almost every night of our freshman year at BYU.  The boys’ goal in life was to make us laugh so hard we would “spew” or they aggravated us with a game called snaps. (Seriously, it was months and months of us trying to figure out the game.)
2. Adam sat through biology class twice in a row, one time he listened, one time he talked to me. (I didn't know he went twice and thought he was so smart to get such good grades when he clearly wasn't listening.)
3. As my home teacher, he made me pop a balloon (a futile attempt to make me unafraid of balloons) and taught me how to drive in a city.
4. We wrote lots and lots of letters to each other while he was a missionary in Finland.  We’d trace an outline of our hands on the letters and I don’t even know how that started.
5.   I have every letter he wrote me.
6.  We started dating after his mission and it felt very natural because we were very good friends.
7. Except we broke up, and then got back together.
8. He almost didn’t ask me to marry him the night he did because I was cranky.
9. We wrote letters every day to each other when we were engaged and separated in Nevada and Washington; we called each other twice a week.
10.  We were married on an incredibly hot August day.  It was still a great day.
11. He forgot his suit and had to borrow clothes from my dad for our reception in Nevada.
12. We went to Vancouver for our honeymoon.  I was terrible at navigating and he impressed me with his metric system prowess.
13. Our first apartment was in a basement and sprouted mushrooms through the carpet.
14.  We moved to the third floor when I was pregnant with Braeden and blamed the basement apartment for my morning sickness.
15.  Braeden was born in a snowstorm and Adam has never driven as slowly as he did the night we brought our baby boy home from the hospital.
16.  We moved to Connecticut for him to attend Yale for graduate school.
17. We got over the culture shock of weird shaped butter and weird colored cheese and ended up loving it.  Especially the pizza.
18.  Adam carried me to the hospital bed when I was in labor with Emma because I was in a panic and irrationally wouldn’t move.
19.  He went to playgroup with Braeden the next day and had his own labor and delivery story to share.
20.  We made lifelong friends.
21. We became brief Mets fans and one night I sent updates of the Mets’ games to him on a pager while he was at the stake center working as an assistant stake clerk.
22. He interviewed for a job in Boston and called to tell me that we were moving to San Francisco in 3 weeks.  I immediately started making a list.
23. We drove across the country in our Saturn with our two babies and Melody Time on VHS, which got stuck in the tiny TV/VCR situation we had wedged between the seats.  We bought a set of screwdrivers and took apart the VCR in a parking lot somewhere in the Midwest to salvage the TV/VCR for the rest of the trip.
24. We moved to Pittsburg, which we didn’t even know existed until Adam found a cheap-ish apartment there for us.
25. Adam took the kids swimming on Christmas Eve and we loved the balmy weather and proximity to Safeway.
26. When Adam lost his job, we moved to Washington and lived with his parents.  Braeden prayed that Adam wouldn’t get a job so he could live with Grandma and Grandpa.
27.  After many months and angst, he finally found another job and we moved to a tiny charming old house near the Snohomish River.
28.  Mark was born in the same hospital as Adam.  He outgrew newborn diapers before we left the hospital.
29. Adam’s company went under so we were again without a job and we moved to a little (kind of gross) rental in a beautiful spot on the Stillaguamish River.  Adam and the kids swam a lot.
30. Adam started working for another company but then was offered a good job at Amazon. He told me halfway through dinner in the same casual way you would tell someone you had gone grocery shopping.
31.  It meant we could buy a house.  We moved to Pinehurst and made more lifelong friends and lots more memories.
32.  Adam traveled to London, a lot.
33.  I went with him twice to London; we took Braeden and Emma with us one time. London was not ready for a 5 year old Mark so he stayed home with his grandparents.
34. We did the whole YMCA sports, cub scouts, swim lessons, swim team, suburban thing.  We were happy.
35.  We lost Adam’s dad and it left a giant hole in all of our lives. 
36.  Our kids got older and went to public school and we became the parents of drama kids and our lives suddenly revolved around their schedules.
37. For about a year, one of Adam’s former coworkers periodically tried to convince Adam to move to Utah.  
38. We finally prayed about it and decided to go.
39.  Many, many times we wondered what on earth we had done to our perfectly good lives.
40.  Adam changed companies a few times.  Once, when he had been let go from a job under really unfair circumstances, he put a reminder on his phone to not be bitter.  It popped up every day to remind him.
41. Braeden served a mission, which blessed our lives in many ways.  But we missed him.
42.  Challenging circumstances continued to rock our lives, but they drew us closer. And we discovered we love National Parks. 
43. Adam landed at WGU and is very happy about it.
44. I started working full time, teaching 3^rd grade, and Adam has been my #1 cheerleader and supporter.
45.  Mark was diagnosed with not one, but two autoimmune diseases and we are figuring it out.
46. Braeden married Anna and we couldn’t be happier to have her in our family.
47. Braeden and Emma graduated from BYU and we have actual grown up children.
48. We purchased my grandparents’ house in Nevada, which has felt wonderful and like we’re out of our depth at the same time.
49.  We became grandparents.  It really is 100% as great as everyone always says.  We don’t know how one little person could make us that happy by just...existing.
50. Today we are 50.  It feels old and like we should have more things accomplished, but also like our life together is a gift and I’m glad I get to share it with him.

Spring-ish

The calendar says it is spring.  I have about 3 inches of daffodils shooting up.  

For two mornings in a row, there's been fresh snow.  It's only up where we live and doesn't last the day, but we're clearly not fully invested in spring yet.

Still, I've stopped wearing my puffy coat on principle.  

We've started soliciting season.  The doorbell rings and there is an urgent knock and if I'm not smart enough to know better, I answer the door.  It's inevitably a tall blonde kid with floppy hair and a polo shirt or jacket with the insignia of whatever they are selling.

They are invariably "in the neighborhood" offering whatever service and are named Logan or Preston or Jackson or some other variation of the same.

It comes with the warmer weather and later daylight.  Sometimes I tell them I am sorry, but we have "no soliciting" like it's a policy that I'm beholden to and have no control over.  Sometimes I just say no thanks and close the door with them mid sentence.  I think it depends on how bugged I am at being interrupted.

I've forgiven daylight saving time.  It took me awhile to adjust.  I'm basically a toddler and struggle when my schedule is disrupted, but I love the longer days.  I love daylight while I'm making dinner.  I love the fat bumps on the tree out the window that will soon be green leaves.

3rd grade culture program

Yesterday was one of my favorite days of the school year thus far.  It was our 3rd grade culture program.  It seemed like a great idea back in August when we hatched it.  It has felt like a less great idea as the day approached. 

I had a dream the night before that my brother Ammon came to the program and he was wearing a hoodie and wouldn't take the hood off.  I am in a constant battle to get my students to not wear their hoods.  They ask me why and I say because it is my rule.  I've started calling them Bartholomew Cubbins (From Dr. Seuss's book The 500 Hats of Bartholomew Cubbins).  I say, "Take your hood off, Bartholomew Cubbins!"  They grin and take it off, but then next time I turn around, the hoods are back on.  I'm not sure why this hoodie angst translated to Ammon....  

Miriam had a dream that a student fell off the stage.  So I guess you could say we were stressed.

We worked so hard!  And we did it! We performed for the school in the morning.  I had two teachers tell me that they teared up during it.  I didn't; I think I was too busy.  The students did a great job though!  

In the afternoon, we performed for the parents (and some grandparents too!).  I loved watching the students' faces light up when they saw their parents arrive.  It mattered to them!  I loved watching the faces of the parents while the students' performed.

Miriam's class performed an African drum solo and sang a song in Ghanaian.  My class sang De Colores in Spanish and performed the Mexican Hat Dance.  Janelle's class performed the Hawaiian hukilau and a Samoan sasa. We have students who are African and Mexican and Samoan (and from other countries besides!) and I loved watching them shine.  

They sang louder and did even better for the parent program.  We were proud teachers!  I got a little teary at the end.  Watching their earnest faces sing "This land is your land, this land is my land..." while behind me was a gym full of parents, a lot of whom are immigrants to this country, made me feel really grateful that they're here.

On Friday, when we were getting the stage ready, we were using binder clips to attach our decrepit curtains together and I felt Abbott Elementary vibes.  We are just doing our best with what we have.

I felt proud of us though, proud of my students who struggle so hard, but also work so hard.  Some of them have incredibly complicated families.  Some of them escaped harrowing situations in their countries.  Some of them really just struggle to get to school and show up dirty and hungry and with ripped clothes.

I like to think that the teachers at my school are like the Statue of Liberty.  Bring us your huddled masses.  We will do our best.  We will show up every day and teach our little hearts out.  We will plow through the discouraging days which are many, but we'll be all smiles on those rare days when they sing De Colores for their families with loud clear voices.

They are singing The Alphabet of Nations here.  I taught my class to sign A,B,C...while we sang, "Algeria, Bulgaria, Cambodia, Dominica..."

Weekend

After school on Friday Miriam, Janelle and I got the stage all ready for our 3rd grade culture program on Monday.

It is either going to be really great or really chaotic.  It depends on if they get it together in front of an audience or not.  They know all the songs and parts, just the transitions are like trying to orchestrate pieces of paper in a wind storm.

We are singing songs and performing dances from different cultures and we decorated with flags and a poster of the world they colored.

Those balls are drums for an African dance Miriam's class is doing.

It made me laugh when my students were coloring their part of the poster and someone accidentally colored part of the ocean green.  They decided that it was algae.  Tell me you're from Utah County without telling me you're from Utah County.  These kids are growing up next to a green algae lake!

Janelle and I were climbing on a box which was on a wheels to try to hang the map and Riley, the head custodian, was there and NOT happy about it.  He is always lecturing me about climbing on things.  We remembered that Miriam is 6'2" so we stopped our efforts and got her to do it instead, which worked much better.

Riley and I also argued about which way a flag should be displayed vertically.  He said he would bet me $100 and I was confident, but not $100 confident.  And it turned out he was right.  All those years of teaching citizenship at Cub Scout Day camp were in vain.  Because I remembered wrong.

Saturday night we went to Temple Square and to a concert in the tabernacle.  Clarissa is in the Tabernacle Choir now and her training choir, The Chorale at Temple Square, was performing.

We picked up Emma on the way and stopped at Chipotle for dinner, which Mark didn't like because he's always cranky about Chipotle, but I loved.  We talked and laughed through dinner and I always have a good time with those three.

We sat on the second level of the tabernacle, as far as we could to house right.  We had a perfect view of our beautiful girl:

It was a wonderful concert between the choir and the orchestra and the soloists.  Humans are pretty remarkable!

Sunday I taught Sunday School for the first time.  It was terrifying.  Before, Mark told me that it was going to be so bad that the church was going to catch fire.  He was trying to make me laugh and it worked.

And the church didn't catch fire.  

Grateful Friday

 A list:

I'm grateful I slept very well last night after a few nights of not sleeping as well.

I'm grateful Adam is home from his latest travels.

I'm grateful that even though I sort of forgot my student teacher's first day was yesterday (oops!), I pulled it together and I think things will be good.

I'm grateful we got to meet the new principal (again, a new principal!) we have for next year and he seems nice.

I'm grateful it has been sunny, but I'm also grateful the mountains have broken the record for snowpack this year (just melt slowly!).

I'm grateful it is Friday!

You never know what will happen

Yesterday it rained, hard.  It was an inside day.  My before school "traffic duty" was in the cafeteria, trying to keep the peace.

Mostly that meant stopping little boys from chasing each other.  

It was time to line up and three kindergarten boys were shoving each other.  I went over to them and told them to keep their hands to themselves.

One of them kept messing with the kid in front of him.  I said, "Hands to yourself," and I positioned myself so he knew my eyes were on him.

He looked up at me and asked, "What is your name?" like he was ready to report me to management.

I said, "Mrs. Davis, what's yours?" 

He might be in my class someday.  I need to make friends while I can.

During reading, we came upon one of our vocabulary words for the week, "conservation."

I asked what that meant.  One of my students said, "It's when two people talk to each other."

I wrote conservation and conversation on the board and I said that I saw why he got them confused, but they are two different words.  I said what each meant.

The student, who isn't a native English speaker, said, "That tricky *&%@#!"

Only one other student picked up on the swear word.  His eyes kind of bugged out of his eyes and I couldn't react (sometimes I actually miss my face mask).  I had to hold it together so I didn't alert anyone else.

Also, we had a pretty epic bloody nose, but no one threw up!

Focus on the good

Yesterday morning my friend Michelle sent me a text.  Included in its message were the words:  You can do it!  Focus on the good!

Everyone needs cheerleader friends like Michelle to text them in the 7:00 AM hour.

I hadn't slept well and felt grumpy, but I noticed the pink puffy clouds over the mountain as I walked into school.  I was trying to focus on the good.

I had traffic duty, which I have a love/hate relationship with because it takes my time, but it also gives me chances to chat with the kids which I enjoy.  I tried to focus on that part.

We had a rehearsal for our 3rd grade culture program which is coming RIGHT up and we're NOT ready for it.  (At all.  Not at all.)  It was in the gym and it was chaotic.  One of my students asked if she could go get a drink.  I said no.  A few minutes later she got up and ran away.  She is a runner anyway and just last week I had to call the office because she was on the lam.  This time though, she made a beeline for the garbage and threw up in it.

I was so proud of her for thinking to use the garbage!

I forgot all about trying to focus on the good.  I just was that grateful.  She is my fifth(!) student to throw up this year (but who's counting, right?) and the first one to have the presence of mind to use the garbage.

Later, I remembered how I was trying to focus on the good and I patted myself on the back for feeling so optimistic about the garbage thing.

It's the little things, you know?

It was a hard day, which is always the case when I am tired and they are too.  I had rearranged the desks and one student told me that it gave him more room to run around.  He wasn't wrong.  I kind of forgot about focusing on the good and then after school, I remembered.

Here was my low bar focus on the good:  we all survived the day.

High fives all around.

(And I may rearrange the desks again.)

Encouragement

Yesterday was another teacher work day.  I've heard more than one parent complain about teacher work days, because we have more of them than they want.

We have more than I want too.

We are doing online LETRS training, which is a reading program.  It is useful and also the days are SO long.  I was in my classroom and every chance I got, I would go into Janelle's room to chat.  I just needed to walk around for one thing.

I was not made to sit at a desk all day.

Also, at some point in the afternoon, I realized, "I am REALLY cold."

I noticed it was 63 degrees in my classroom!  Which isn't great.

So I went home cold and weary (time change!).  And then I remembered something that happened on the way to school that encouraged and lifted me.

Before leaving home, I texted Janelle that I would get Swig (Miriam was out of town or I would have picked her one up too).  I placed my order at Swig and it used up one gift card so I fished out another gift card.  I told the girl working, "I'm a teacher so I always have several of these cards."  They are the teacher gift of choice and I'm not sad about it.

She said, "What do you teach?"

I said, "Third grade."

She said, "I loved my third grade teacher!"  She went on to tell me his name and why she liked him so much.

People remember their 3rd grade teacher.  I want the memories to be good ones.  The Swig drive thru:  you never know when you'll get inspiration to keep on trying.

Weekend

It was a just what the doctor ordered sort of restful, but also get stuff done, sort of weekend.

And I got behind on dishes and they'll be waiting for me when I get home from work today.  Adam and Mark made this delicious tri tip, mashed potatoes, roasted squash,  and roasted asparagus dinner on Saturday night and the dishes have been trying to catch up ever since.

(My low bar lifestyle:  I'm not about to wash something that can wait its turn for the dishwasher.)

Yesterday I reset all the clocks.  I know I have a lot of clocks and I know that is my fault.  Still.  I just wish we could keep the same time!  (Also I get sleepy.)  I told Adam that I wished there was a company that could come in and change all your clocks.  I said, "I would pay them $20."  

I don't know if that is a successful business idea, but Adam came up for a name for the company:  Thyme.

So if anyone wants a business where you don't make much money two days out of the year, there you go.

It was nice to go to church after being away.

It was nice to have Emma over.  We played Qwixx.  I made a new recipe for potato ham soup that was really good and I made a mochi gluten free cake (from a Trader Joe's mix) that was not good at all.

I keep trying.

  

Grateful Friday

It's Friday!  This week has been a short work week for me, but has not felt like it!

I'm grateful for what I'm hoping is a quiet weekend at home.

I'm grateful that I got to take a fabulous trip with Adam.

I'm grateful that spring is nigh.  The weather is holding onto winter somewhat, but that can't last forever.  A change is as good as a rest and I like when the seasons change.

I'm grateful for the funny things my students do that delight me.  2/3 of them are boys, which sort of sets the stage for the class.  They are rambunctious and physical and loud.  The girls are outnumbered and quieter and usually more civilized.

I have a reading intervention group of four boys every afternoon for 15 minutes.  It's one of my favorite times of the day because of the boys' outsize personalities.  They are all competitive and if I promise a game the last few minutes of the time together, they work really hard.

Yesterday we played a game called oink.  You get a card.  If it has a word, you read it and get to keep it.  If you get a card that says you fell in the mud, you have to give all your cards back.  If you get an "oink," you get to steal a card from another player.

The words all contained oi/oy vowel teams.  When the word was ahoy, I told them my pirate joke:

"What is a pirate's favorite letter?"

They all said, "Arrrrrrr."

I said, "You'd think it be R, but it be the C."

They cracked up.

I pretty much slay in 3rd grade and that is the only place my jokes are very funny.

Another word was toilet.  That also was somehow hysterical to them.  Then every time one of them got to steal a card, they picked toilet and the one who lost it mourned and tried to get it back.

3rd grade boys are not like regular people.

I'm still grateful I get to spend my days with them.

Here we go

I felt like a ping pong ball all day yesterday.  I went from situation to situation.  I said a lot of, "OK, I'll have to figure that out."

There was the pile left behind by the sub, that is a whole thing.

My iPad that I use in my document camera situation was completely dead and needed to be recharged before I could use it.

I had students demanding answers, "How many Lexia units do I still need?"

I had no idea.

I (guess what?) had a new student start yesterday who (guess what?) didn't speak any English.

My microphone wouldn't work and the computers were all shuffled.  One student's had a name tag on his computer and that student isn't even in my class and nothing made sense.

Everyone was either naughty or extra naughty or kind of naughty like they'd all returned from a birthday party where they had too much sugar.  I did my best to wrangle and contain.

Grades are due Friday.

I drove home in a snowstorm.

It was a lot for a girl who so recently was living a life of warmth and leisure on the Gulf Coast.

My students hugged me though.  They missed me.  I missed them.  Other third graders from other classes, who I don't even interact with on a regular basis said, "You're back!" and "How was your trip?" and "I went to California once."

Being a school teacher is always hard; it almost always feels worth it.

Rude awakening

Yesterday we woke up in Mobile, Alabama and went to sleep in Pleasant Grove, Utah.  

We went about our day in the same lazy way we had approached every day on our vacation.  We had a leisurely breakfast and went for a walk.  We went into a huge cathedral and walked through its garden.  We walked to the Spanish Plaza Park.  It was all very lovely.  

The night before we'd watched the documentary The Descendants on Netflix which was all about the descendants of some Africans that were captured and brought illegally to Mobile on the Clotilda.  It all should have been illegal anyway, but bringing these slaves was illegal because it happened in 1860 and bringing slaves to the United States was illegal after 1808.

It was a really interesting documentary, especially since we were in Mobile.  After our walk, we drove to Africatown, where the descendants still live.  We saw the cemetery that was also in the documentary.

Adam had found a store he thought I may like.  It was a Christmas store, so we stopped.  Mostly, it was not tacky stuff, but all crammed together in ancient glass cabinets with faded price tags, it was a lot.

And some of it was just so bizarre.

Amazing this stuff isn't just flying off the shelves.

We wandered around longer than seems reasonable, since we weren't interested in buying anything, but it was just so absurd that was captivating.

From there we continued on our way.  We had a leisurely lunch/dinner at Cracker Barrel and then started realizing what time it was.

We were cutting it closer than we should for our flight.  

Adam kept saying we were fine; we were in plenty of time.

As we got closer to New Orleans, there was increased traffic and slow downs.  I was increasingly nervous, but Adam wasn't concerned.

"We're fine," Adam said.

We stopped to get gas and the pump didn't work and it took time.  

"We're fine," Adam said.

We returned the rental car.  We got on the shuttle that takes you from the rental place to the airport.

"We're fine," Adam said.

And then we sat.  It was 5:00 PM and we had a 6:00 PM flight.  The longer the shuttle sat there, the less fine I felt.

"I'm starting to get worried," Adam said.

So that translated to me feeling a lot of worried.  Adam said, "We'll either make it or we won't.  There's no use worrying about it."

Sometimes I wonder how we are the same species.

We sat for ten full minutes of anguish and anxiety as the shuttle didn't budge.  Adam said, "I can't believe how long we took at Cracker Barrel."

Adam said, "We shouldn't have stopped at that Christmas store."

I started considering sub plans in case we missed the flight.

We finally headed to the airport and it was the most circuitous and slow route and I was dying.

And also praying.

Adam was TSA approved, so he said he would hurry and let them know at the gate that I was coming.  He said, "But I won't get on the plane without you."

It was 5:30 when we finally got to the airport!  We hurried and security was pretty empty but also SO SLOW.  Adam hurried through and I was waiting behind the least rushed people in America.  The little conveyor belt next to us stopped working, so they merged those people into our line and no one (except me) was in a hurry.  I finally made it through and my phone started ringing and it was Adam.  I said, "I am through security!  I am coming!"

It was the second closest gate to security and despite everything, I was in my seat at 5:40.

It was kind of amazing and also felt like the vacation was over.

Adam and Thelma's 40 minutes of high anxiety.

So now I'm off to school.  Ready to wade through what was left behind by my sub and ready to see those cute faces again.

Can we just move here?

I have asked Adam that many times since we got to Mobile.  Not just because they drop a moon pie at midnight on New Years Eve, but maybe that is part of it.

People are amazingly friendly.  The lady at the hotel breakfast took us in hand and told us ALL the things. A couple at Bellingrath Gardens did the same.  First they warned us about the nearby water moccasin, then they became our tour guides.  I think they would've taken us home and fed us if they sensed we needed feeding.

At the recommendation of our breakfast friend, we went to Bellingrath Gardens.  In the early 1900s, Mr. Bellingrath convinced the company to let him bottle coca-cola  here in Mobile and let's just say it was lucrative.  They built a summer home near the river and an amazing garden and then they opened it to the public in the 1930s.

It seemed like a movie set for a really beautiful period piece.  I loved it.

We went to Dauphin Island and ate blackened shrimp and went to the beach.

It was in the twenties at home.  And snowing.  The water is definitely not blue like I would expect the Gulf of Mexico to be, but I think it is still in the Mississippi River estuary.

Adam stopped to chat with some fishermen and I filled my pockets with seashells and sea glass which was on brand for both of us.

When we got back to Mobile, we drove around through some delightful neighborhoods and ended up at Mo'Bay Beignets (again, at our breakfast friend's recommendation).

Can we just move here?

LA to AL

Yesterday we left New Orleans and meandered our way across the narrowest part of Mississippi and ended up in Alabama.

We drove along the coast mostly.  We didn't always see it because of the trees and the low country, but we saw a lot of interesting things.

For miles and miles, every house was up on stilts.

The houses in Bywater and the 9th ward in New Orleans were up on cinder blocks, about 3-4 feet off the ground.  These were much higher.

This was a rest stop in Mississippi.  I have no words.

In Mississippi we got to the coast and the road went right along the beach.

I didn't take pictures of the houses on the other side of the street, but they were enormous and up on even higher stilts and all pretty new because I think those communities were wiped out by Hurricane Katrina.

We got to Mobile and I really like it so far.  We took a walk in the dusky light and it was lovely.

That's our hotel, looking like the moon is its lollipop.  We sat in the square outside a cathedral and listened to the bells and I told Adam I didn't want to go home.  (We had talked to Mark and it continues to snow.)

Here's the view last night from our room on the 27th floor.

Today we're going to go see what there is to see.

Serendipity with Adam

Yesterday we went to the venue where the WGU graduation was happening.  We were right there almost exactly when the jazz band marched out, leading the graduates.  We could not have timed it better.  We were by the bus, which is a hot spot for photographs and I saw so many tearful graduates hugging people that it made me a little tearful.  I just felt such joy and pride for these people I didn't even know.  Adam pointed out that without any affirmative action, it was an extremely diverse group of graduates.  "There is a lot of advertising though," he said.

I texted Mark and Emma, whose jobs are to help people pay for college, that for everyone who yells at them (because there are some), there are these jubilant graduates, posing for pictures.  

Working in education can be a grind, but it also feels like the most worthwhile thing I can do.

Adam loaded Cameron and Kaden and Brandon and a guy I never found out the name of (and Adam didn't introduce me because he wasn't sure) into the van and drove us to a sort of shady part of town to eat po boys at a place where they make the "original" po boys.  Adam dives deep into things and that is all.

I mentioned something about it to the boys (who are grown men, but it felt like a carload of teenage boys) and they said, "Yeah.  Just wait until he starts talking about the supreme court."

I am aware.

We pulled up to the restaurant and I said, "Are we really eating there?!?"

We were.  And it wasn't as sketchy as I thought and it was really good food.  

After lunch, we dropped them off and went exploring.  Besides diving deep into topics that interest him, Adam is also one for spontaneity.  We had no plan.

Adam said that New Orleans looks like it's been through something and I think that's pretty true.

We drove through some kind of rough places and then stopped at a gas station to use the bathroom.  Adam noticed on the map that we were near a National Cemetery and then he realized it was the site of the Battle of New Orleans.

And yes, I played the Johnny Horton song on my phone while we drove there.

It set the mood.

We went to the visitors center and talked to the guide and watched the videos and read all the things like we do.  It's nice that we're so compatible and want to find out about the same kinds of things.

We walked around the battlefield.  It was beautiful and serene.

But still had the ramparts and some cannons to remind you that it wasn't always so serene.

It was a pretty amazing battle.  2,000 British troops either died, were injured or surrendered and there were 20 American casualties.  

We walked up the levee to the river.  There was a staircase and it was 26 steps (I counted). Here's the view from the levee:

This house was built after the battle. The original house was burned by the troops so the British couldn't get it.  I wonder about the conversation with the homeowners.  

The view on the other side of the levee:

Bordered the battleground, there was a National Cemetery.  There were a few soldiers from the Battle of New Orleans and many many Union soldiers from the Civil War.  There were veterans buried there from World War I and II and Vietnam too.

I love a cemetery.

It's the only cemetery we've seen that isn't above ground.  

After that, we went to City Park.  The serendipity continued.  The weather was perfect and the park was pretty amazing.  There was a children's museum, art museum, sculpture park, little amusement park, sport fields, playgrounds, people picnicking and strolling.  I loved it!

We took a walk and looked at the sculpture park.  It was lovely.

We worked up an appetite to go to the Cafe Du Monde they had at the park.  We split an order of beignets.  I think the park may be my favorite part of the city.

If all I'd seen of New Orleans was the French Quarter, I would have missed out on a lot!

Today is a travel day.  We are off to Alabama.

Good times

Yesterday Adam and I drove up the river a bit to Whitney Plantation.  It is the only plantation here that is presented from the slaves' point of view and that was what we were interested in.

I really love exploring new places with Adam.  There is a lot to see in this beautiful diverse world.  We drove for awhile in this boggy cypress tree area.  It wasn't exactly water, but it didn't look like you could walk there either.

We went over a beautiful bridge over the Mississippi.  It appears my ghost hands are holding it up.

Two things are striking to me about the Mississippi River.  It is super muddy and also very busy.

I didn't take any pictures at the Whitney Plantation.  It felt slightly disrespectful, plus I was so engrossed, it didn't really occur to me to take pictures.  We did a self guided tour with a headset recording giving us information.  It was a pretty objective look at what life was like for the slaves.  It didn't feel like it was trying to make us feel guilty or manipulate our emotions, but it was sobering.  I appreciated that it didn't celebrate or glamorize the antebellum south, just gave a glimpse of what it was like.

The family historian in me loved one part in particular.   107,000 entries had been gathered from historical records to create a Louisiana slave database.  There was a memorial with the names listed.  They were the names given to them by their masters and were mostly French.  Seeing all those names was impactful.  They represented lives I can't really comprehend.  As is often the case at times like that, I consider my fortunate life and realize I better do good in the world since I have been given so much.

At the recommendation of the woman at the Whitney Plantation museum, we went to a tiny seafood restaurant on the edge of the river.  What is strange about being on the edge of the river is that there is a huge grass covered levee and you can't see the river.

It was a cultural experience eating there.  Rabbit, frog legs, and alligator were all on the menu.  I had shrimp and Adam had half a shrimp po boy and gumbo.  We split a piece of the best pecan pie of my life.

After eating, Adam said, "I think there's a road on top of the levee."  He found a dirt road leading up to it and I told him he couldn't go up there. 

He did anyway.

25% of our marriage is me telling Adam, "You can't do that!" and him doing it anyway.

We went back to our hotel and Adam talked with some coworkers in the lobby and I went and took a 15 minute nap which is usually all I need to recharge.  We went to the venue of the party for alumni and graduates, which was right outside the Superdome.  It was a festive atmosphere.

I pretended to help get the Sage Coach (the WGU bus, cleverly named by Adam because Sage is the owl mascot of WGU) ready for the event.  At one point Cameron told me I was "part of the crew now" and I couldn't tell if it was a compliment, an insult, or a threat.

There were food trucks all around the venue and one of them was Cafe Du Monde, which multiple people told us was the best place for beignets.

They weren't wrong.

Also, the amount of powdered sugar that got all over us was an adventure as well.

There was a company hired to set up a curtain that would drop for the big reveal of the new wrap on the Sage Coach.  The mechanism wasn't cooperating so Adam and his team were up on the Sage Coach to manually drop the curtain at the big moment and they tasked me with videoing it.

My photography skills are wobbly, but I did my best.

Here's the before and after:

Some of the people featured on the bus were there, which I loved.  I also loved that during the university president's speech beforehand, he talked about the impact the graduates were making in their own families and gave a statistic about the likelihood of their children getting college educations because they had.  Standing in the middle of the crowd like I was, I could see the graduates with their children and proud families beaming and it made me a little teary (I know, never happens).  I felt proud of the work that WGU does to make education accessible to so many (even though I have nothing to do with it beside videoing the unveiling of the Sage Coach).