Grateful Friday

It's conference weekend in October!  I think this is my favorite weekend of the whole year.  I love General Conference in October and April but I especially love autumn, so October wins.  The mountains are aflame with red trees and it makes my heart sing.

I'm looking forward to spending time with my family and spending time being spiritually fed and lifted.  

Mark's going to spend the weekend and we're going to squeeze in yard work between Saturday sessions (we promised Mark we wouldn't make him mow).  

I'm grateful for this weekend.

I'm grateful that tonight we're going with friends to see Nate Bargatze perform.  Adam and I have watched his Netflix special and he is funny!  It will be a good time and I will try my best not to turn into a pumpkin as I stay out past my bedtime.

I'm grateful for my glasses.

Yesterday we read a story about Benjamin Franklin and some of his inventions.  He invented bifocals!  I told my class that I had some.  "Did Ben Franklin make your glasses?!?"

How old do they think I am?

Then they all wanted to try them on and I told them they looked very fashionable.  One little girl who sits in the front because she can't see and has lost her glasses, said she could see!  It reminded me I need to see what I can do to get her some glasses.

I'm grateful for modern medicine.  I always am (see: Mark and all my other loved ones who are still alive because of modern medicine).  I have decided to try a new route with my neck/back/headaches.  A Spine and Pain Clinic opened nearby and if that isn't right up my alley, I don't know what is.  I went yesterday.  Assuming my insurance is OK with it, I'm going to get a nerve ablation and physical therapy. I called to report to my sisters and Marianne told me that it is good for her first year teacher daughters to read about my travails on my blog.

We're all in this together!

And speaking of that, I'm grateful for the teachers who share their stories with me.  I feel less alone too.  Yesterday another teacher had a student with an accident (number 2 and that is horrific) and a student throw up.  On the same day.

A different teacher cried when talking about low reading scores. (She may or may not be a 4th grade teacher with a lot of my former students....)  It feels so helpless and hopeless at times.

We have each other to laugh and cry and feel horrified with.  We try and we fail (the mean girl talk didn't really solve anything).

We try again.

And it's definitely not all terrible.  They think I'm funny (and not many people do after all).  Yesterday I sneezed and said, "I must be allergic to third graders!"

It slayed them.

Always an adventure

Yesterday Hannah, who is the third grade intern, said, "I still love this job, but somedays I think, why am I doing this?!?"

I said, "I know!"

She said, "It is always an adventure." 

And that is true.  

Yesterday the boy who lost his shoes had a missing backpack.  This one he was very stressed about.  He said, "It was my dad's when he was in high school!"

I sent out an email to all the teachers and within 30 minutes it was back in our classroom.  (Kindergartners had it....)

Even after school I had teachers emailing to make sure it was found.  

And someone also told me I had cute shoes.

Teachers are nice.  Girls aren't always nice.

I had a ring of mean girl action going on yesterday.  (Last year rowdy boys, this year mean girls.)

I had five of them sit at my desk while I took everyone else to computers.  I said, "I'll come back and talk to you."

I came back to five silent girls with nervous faces.

I told them that girls are REALLY good at being nice.  Better than boys, I thought.  I asked them to tell me what a good friend is like.

I told them that girls are REALLY good at being mean.  Way better than boys.  I asked them to tell me what a mean girl is like.

I told them it was up to them if they wanted to be mean or nice.

By the end they were all crying.  One sobbed in my arms and then I gave her a Kleenex and told her to go to computers.

My circus + my monkeys

Adam said, "I hope it wasn't your shoes."

There's that, at least.  My shoes didn't go missing.

Yesterday was A WHOLE DAY.  

For starters, it was picture day.  Before school, the teachers had to get their pictures taken and we were all a little cranky about it.  We stood in line and grumped.

Matt said not to go to recess until we had had our students' pictures taken.

But then it all took waaaaaaay longer than it was supposed to.  Guess who gets upset when their recess is late?

Third graders.

Everyone was increasingly frayed around the edges and they kept asking me when will it be our turn for pictures?!?

I could say I don't know a million different ways and it wouldn't have made a difference. (I know this because I did.)  There were the students whose mom made them dress up and they were unhappy about it.  There were the students who forgot it was picture day and they'd just worn regular clothes and they were either unhappy or fine with it.  Either way, they wanted to talk about it.  Then there were the students who brought the money for a picture order and the ones who did not and they were all stressed about it because Teacher, what do I do with this?!?  and also, Teacher, I didn't bring money! and Teacher, I think my mom forgot!

It's fine.  I said.  It's fine.

Finally, we got the call to go for pictures.  I had a student who refused to put his arms inside his sleeves and the picture taker refused to be OK with it.

I finally talked him out of the turtle look.  Then he refused to smile.  Re-fused.  The photographer was persistent.  Finally I said, "I think that is as good as it is going to get." She told me to move because I was blocking the flash.  (She did let the poor kid move on though.)

By lunchtime, I felt like I needed a nap, but we were just getting started.

Let me just give you the run down of the cast of characters.

The recess aide:  she is a mom and as such 1) refused to give up in the face of something missing and 2) knows shoes are important

The one who lost his shoes:  completely ambivalent.  He's the most chilled out islander around and shoes vs. no shoes?  No big deal.  He could have cared less.

The girls in my class:  little mother hens.  They were completely bent out of shape that the shoes were missing and they had all sorts of wild theories.

The boy who actually knew something:  Um, Teacher?  I know who took the shoes.  I appreciated his knowledge + wondered why he didn't come forward with the information about 15 minutes earlier.

The liar next door:  I didn't take the shoes (he had).

His accomplice:  I don't know anything about it (he did).

So Miriam's boys finally confessed and produced the shoes and I was left putting together the pieces.  Meanwhile, one of my students from last year was supposed to be at recess herself, but instead pressed her face up to the window of my classroom for reasons beyond my understanding. And let me tell you, my already riled up class was not having it.

I kept saying ignore her and she will go away and she kept not going away.

Later in the day, when things finally started to feel rebalanced, one of my struggling behavior champions (he's so good at it) flipped out so much we had to evacuate and lock down the classroom.

Just another day in paradise.

A little bit of light

Sometimes school is downright discouraging.

There are the students who struggle academically.  So much.  As in, I wonder how they will ever catch up.

There are the students who struggle at home.  Sometimes the glimpses into the chaos take my breath away.

They play video games that no children should play.  Some of them seem to have free rein on YouTube.  I heard the other day that this is the first generation of Americans that will be less educated than their parents.

It all makes me sad and...discouraged.

Yesterday though, we were reading a book about Abraham Lincoln and John F Kennedy.  It was outlining the similarities and differences between the two.  It talked about slavery and Jim Crow laws.

A student asked, "But Teacher, why would Black people not be able to go to the same school as white people?"

I said, "Because they were wrong."

I don't know how else to explain it.

When I read about the Emancipation Proclamation, and that it meant there were no more slaves, most of the class erupted into cheers.

It warmed my heart.

They are a diverse, multicultural group.  Some of them speak other languages in addition to English and are navigating a world their parents don't understand as well.  Some of them belong to churches and some of them don't. Some of them have strong families and some of them do not.  I love that they don't seem to see each other as "other."  I love that they recognize the inherent wrongness of racism.

It's not all discouragement.

Weekend

Friday I had an appointment with a podiatrist about a tailor's bunion on my foot.  What an exciting sentence that was for a starter.  He said that I have deformed foot bones and that I've probably had them my whole life, they are just causing problems now.  

I remember my grandma telling me not to get old.

I tried, Grandma.  I failed.

He gave me a shot on my right foot.  He said it would be sore for the weekend.  The weekend is when I do all the things.  I asked if I needed to take it easy.  He said, "Well, don't hike Timp, but if you need to go to the store, you can."

Also I don't think I'm at risk to become a steroid user.  It has made my cheeks flush and made me feel weird and shaky off and on all weekend.

Not all that fun.

Emma and I met for tacos on her way home from work, so that was a compensation.  We went to Don Joaquin which is so good.  I also know it's good because Edgar likes it too.

Saturday morning I went to my classroom to work for a little while because I'd left early on Friday and it had been a weird week and I had stuff to do.  I could have stayed for hours, but that will always be the case.  Emma met me and we went grocery shopping together.  I have a student who refuses to do his work mostly (he is on the spectrum and is super smart + super hard to coerce).  I bought him some mechanical pencils that he likes and he will use them (sometimes).  He burns through them and I have four that need to be refilled and I can't figure out how to do it.  I told Emma we needed to get refills for them but I didn't know if they would have them at Winco.  I would have wandered aimlessly, but Emma led me right to the aisle.  She is not a frequent Winco shopper.  She just had an inkling they would be over in the short aisles by the seasonal stuff.

Is she a wizard?

Mark is also a wizard and I decided to task him with refilling the pencils when he came over for Sunday dinner.

Maybe wizards are on my brain because Adam and Emma and Braeden and Anna are all currently rereading Harry Potter.

In the afternoon I pulled out some autumnal things.  While we were heating up some soup for dinner, I pointed out to Emma that I was not sure about the mantle.  She said, "Do you mind if I tinker?"

Of course not!  I felt so proud!

She climbed up on the hearth and moved the candlesticks a fraction and I said, "That is so much better!"

It's the little things.

We watched While You Were Sleeping.  It is one of those movies I could watch over and over (and I have).  The older I get the more I want to be Midge when I grow up.

Adam got home in the middle of the night.  He flew home early so he could be my emotional support husband for my sacrament meeting talk.

He's a good one.

As predicted, my talk was survived and I felt a lot better when it was over.

We talked briefly to Braeden and Anna and QE.  She is recently enamored with Curious George and Anna read the book to her so we could see her reaction.  She would say, "Oh no!" and "Oh boy!" and the little sounds she makes when she is trying out new words reminds me so much of Braeden!

We love that girl!

We had the group over for dinner which is always fun.  We ate, discussed Come Follow Me a little and went outside and played Cornhole.  We had four teams:  the Kepfords, the Johnsons, the Davises, and the old Davises.  Adam and Nikki were the most consistent and we decided that maybe it was because they didn't have any Dahl blood....

It ended up in our tournament with the Kepfords and Johnsons in the championship round (I think Hyrum and Clarissa won?) and the rest of us lost interest to see who was the winner of the loser bracket.

We're not very competitive as a family.

I'm looking forward to a week of Adam home.  It's the calm before the storm because October is going to be one busy month.

At least it will be October and I love October.

Grateful Friday

Another Friday.  It seems like it came around quickly.  

Adam's out of town and I especially miss him on weekends when we are mostly together.  I'll have to rope Emma into going grocery shopping with me.

I'm grateful she's around.  I don't even want to mention it because I don't want to jinx it, but I'm glad she's home for now.

I'm grateful that it's been such a topsy turvy week, I haven't even thought too much about the fact that I am speaking in church on Sunday.

I am.

Now that I think about it, I am nervous, but it will be over after Sunday.  I have a 100% survival rate for church talks so I think I'll make it.

I'm grateful it is autumn.  The air feels cooler, the mountains have a wash of red and orange leaves in spots.  I love everything about autumn.  The crunchy apples, the spicy scents, the cozy feeling, lighting a candle.  Sign me up.

I'm grateful my headache went away.  

I'm grateful I was able to talk to Braeden yesterday and hear QE babble in the background.  They were on their way home from Costco, where Braeden had bought "a lot" of ice cream sandwiches for a ward party.  He said, "I didn't know how many we would need or what the budget was so I just bought a lot."

I bet it will work.

I found two caterpillars on my geraniums while he told me about the high stakes exams he had just taken and the promising developments in getting a paper published he co-wrote.  Just when did he get to be such a grown up?  Also, I thought I pulled the geraniums inside before the caterpillars descended but it turns out I did not.

He needed to go and told QE to say good-bye.  She urgently said, "Nana!  Nana!" and how am I supposed to say good-bye to that?!?  Braeden said a cheerful, "Love ya Mom!" and they were gone.

I'm grateful every day to be a mother and a grandma.  I love how much they get me.  For example, both of my boys have told me, in September, what they want for Christmas.  They know their mother.  It just keeps getting better.

Weird day

Tuesday I had a headache all day.  I went to the chiropractor after school and it was one of the times where he was astounded by how messed up my neck was--my hip too.  I still had a headache.

We went to Culver's for dinner because it was Bonneville night there.  It is always a lot of fun.  The place is packed with Bonneville families.  My students who I'd just seen a few hours earlier and they weren't at all thrilled about it were over the moon to see me at Culver's.  I don't know.  Teachers outside the school are way more exciting than teachers inside the school.

My head still hurt and I didn't feel like eating much.

I had a hard time sleeping because my head hurt so much.  At 2:00 AM, I wrote some marginally coherent sub plans for the morning.  I decided that my headache would be gone by the afternoon.

I finally slept and woke up around 7:30.  My headache was gone but so was my energy.  I was completely sapped.  I decided to go tidy up the house a bit but I never did.  I just was empty.  

I wasn't hungry but I made a peanut butter and jam sandwich and took it with me to school.  When I let my students in from lunch recess, one of them said, "Finally! You're back."

They have zero sympathy for teachers missing a day of school.  They take it as a personal affront.

I felt a lot better, but it was clear to me that I was still a little foggy when I passed out papers and kept missing students.  "Teacher!  You forgot me!"

When they went to art class, I was finally hungry and I ate my sandwich.  The day was over really quickly (a half day will do that) and then I had a School Community Council meeting of which I am a reluctant member.

When that was over, there were definitely things I could have done around my classroom, but I went home and took a nap.

Don't underestimate the power of a nap at 5:00 PM.  Conventional wisdom would say it isn't a good time to nap, but they would say 2:00 AM is a bad time to write sub plans so conventional wisdom...well, it's not  wrong.

Adam is in Chicago and I had a dinner date with Janelle at Chubby's.  It was so good to see her!  I miss her.  We caught up on all the things and we planned a party.  We decided that we are going to have a teacher friend party every time grades are due.  That will remind us.  We got out our calendars and wrote a  guest list.  It was the most normal time in the 24 hours.

Retraction

My friend Erin commented on yesterday's post that I was "an inspirational teacher."

While that was kind, I am in no way trying to toot my own horn with these posts about the travails and delights of third grade.

Not at all.

Because that would make me a big fraud.

Some days I barely hold it together.

Yesterday I woke up with a headache which cuts my patience in about half.  I struggle to be consistent with all the behavior charts and situations.

I would really love it if one of my students would just be absent.  Often.

Also, I am not sure the mealworms are still alive.

Teacher life

Randomly during math, one student said to another, "I am older than you.  You know that, right?"

The other student solemnly said, "Yes.  I know."

We had a presenter come from Thanksgiving Point who gave us a lesson about life cycles.  She was having them draw and label the life cycles of a mealworm and one of them called out when she commented on how they die like every living thing does eventually, "Are they resurrected?"

She ignored that question like it never happened.

Another student asked how they reproduce.  She said, "They just do."

She made me a terrarium for mealworms to eventually turn into beetles.  She planted grass seeds inside.  She said as long as I keep the grass trimmed, the beetles won't be able to escape into the classroom.

So guess who is going to be really vigilant about grass maintenance?

I had one student distraught because his soccer ball was missing and had been since Friday afternoon.  I was in my IEP meeting so I hadn't known about the missing ball.  I said, "Maybe you left it outside?" He insisted he hadn't.  And he is super conscientious so I believe him.

Another student came late and he was carrying the ball.  I gave him a hero's welcome and said it was so awesome that he'd found the missing ball.

I knew, he knew, we all knew that he had taken the ball, but I still acted like he had done a great thing in returning it.

I trust that kid about as far and I could throw him, but hopefully it was good for him to feel like he'd done a good thing.  

In the afternoon we were reading a story in my small group and we came across the word abuelita.  I had one of my Spanish speakers come to the table and I asked him to explain the word.  I know what it means, but I always want to showcase the awesomeness that is the bilingual kids.  He told everyone it meant grandmother.  

Later a student was stumbling over the word in the story and I prompted them and said, "Remember, it means grandmother."

My Spanish speaker was watching from his desk and he gave me a thumbs up and an encouraging smile.

They wear me out and delight me in equal measure.

I'm also so impressed over and over by the good people I work with.  The third grade team had a loooooong meeting after school and after it was over, Hollie, who is the facilitator asked, "Can I ask you something unrelated to school?"

We said sure.  She ministers to a 36 year old woman whose husband is dying of cancer.  She said, "What can I do?'

We gave her ideas from take the 2nd grader to play at the park to tell her you are stopping at the store and what can you get her?  I showed a book for kids about grief that is really good.  We talked about our experiences and what helped and she wrote down notes.

What a good lady she is!

As sisters in Zion, we all work together and I'm grateful that I can be shoulder to shoulder with some of the best.

Weekend

It was a lot.

Friday was a lot.  It started by me being a little late to work because I couldn't turn left on State Street because of construction.  How could they do this to me?!?  I went to Geneva Road and made tracks and didn't get a speeding ticket.

My computer has been struggling and needed updating and the cookies and cache cleared and none of us know how to do that.  Ask an elementary teacher about phonemic awareness and she'll talk your ear off.  Ask about cookies and cache and she'll tell you that she knows how to eat cookies and that is about all.

I finally got it figured out.

I had students fighting at recess.  As in, one of them was laid out flat, crying.  I took them both to the office.  I talked to one of them about how much bigger and stronger he is than the other kids and how he needs to be gentle.

It's a conversation I used to have with Mark regarding the triplets.

Another student was knocked over playing soccer and he refused to get up because his mom said that if his back hurts he shouldn't move.  I called his bluff and a few seconds later he hopped up and kept playing soccer.

I had an IEP during my prep and the new school psychologist was there.  It was my first real interaction with him and it was not great.  Camie got our bottles of water and put them on the conference table for us because she is just really nice like that and this guy said, "I refuse to drink anything out of a single use plastic bottle."

Then he left for his office and returned with his sticker festooned water bottle.  He didn't take one drink out of it, it was just there so he could demonstrate his moral superiority to all of us.

A simple no thanks would have sufficed, buddy.

Matt escorted one of my students to his mom's car after school because he had threatened to beat up another student after school (and I was still in the IEP meeting).  It wasn't even a student who had been fighting at recess.

And my class is easier than last year.

Saturday morning I was vacuuming classrooms at the church because it was our turn to help clean it.  I came up with a murder mystery movie plot involving someone finding a murdered corpse in a church classroom on a Saturday morning while they were vacuuming.

I just didn't want you to think that that was unproductive time for me.

We did all the things and ate a charcuterie dinner on the deck in the sunshine.  Then we watched Junior Bake Off which we may or may not prefer to the Great British Baking Show.  It is a tie.

We thought about Raelyn, whose birthday was Thursday and Linn, who died 14 years ago Saturday.  They are two people we love and who we will feel the impact of forever.

Now that Clarissa is in the Tabernacle Choir, I've started watching Music and the Spoken Word on Sunday mornings.  I usually paint my nails during it.  I love it.  It leaves me feeling uplifted and love seeing glimpses of Clarissa.

We had Clarissa and Mark for dinner and then Mark left to go to a stake devotional (!) and the rest of us took a walk.  Clarissa and I rarely meet to walk anymore since she works in Sandy.  It's nice we can at least walk on Sunday.

Grateful Friday

It was kind of a tough week at school, but I'm grateful for all the support I get.

Some classrooms shifted and the school counselor is my neighbor now.  She checks in with me on the days that she is there and you could do a lot worse than have a school counselor checking in with you.  I don't know if kindergarten teachers or school counselors are the kindest humans around, but they are both really nice to talk to.

I have had the principal come and pull a student out of my classroom (at my request) twice in as many days.  He shows up with a smile on his face like pulling a third grader out of class is the best thing he could be doing with his time.

The assistant principal used to be the school psychologist, so she is a great resource.

Miriam and I both have some challenging students right now who are flexing their naughty capacity.  It helps to have each other to draw ideas from.

Basically there will always always be struggles around there, but it also feels like there will always be support.

And the kids are pretty funny too.

Yesterday at lunch recess, some of the girls orchestrated a wedding.  The boys came in grousing that it was "a sham" and "wasted half the recess."

Half of the kids came tattling to me about the wedding.

I don't know.  Are pretend weddings against the rules?  Because my friend Marie and I planned quite a fancy one at recess when we were in first grade.

Guests!

Last night Anna and QE came over for the evening!  Braeden is doing a few days of intense exams so the Carlsons flew them to Utah for the week.  They were generous to share with us and we were so happy about it!

QE smiled through the window at me when we answered the door, then she lunged for my arms.  Could anything be better?!?  She lunged from me to Adam and we both were as happy as we could be.  She ran right for the toys and books.  She found The Wheels on the Bus and brought it to me.  I read it a few times to her last night and at the exact same spot she closed the book and hopped down from my lap.  She only likes the first half of the book apparently.   It was amazing to see how she's grown up and changed just since July.  She is saying a lot more words and makes funny faces which remind us a lot of Braeden.  She remembered her best activity when she was here before.  She would go to the freezer and say, "Ice!" and pull on the handle until I opened it and gave her a cube.  She carried it around until she got too cold, then she'd hand it to Anna.  

Honestly, she could do anything and we would be entertained.

We FaceTimed with Braeden, but she didn't give him the time of day.  She was far too busy playing with dishes and pretending to eat plastic food.  After dinner, we went outside.  She loves the deck and ran from side to side saying, "Oh, wow!."

Mark took her on the trampoline and she was a FAN.  She'd start to get a little stressed out and go to her mom, then she'd say, "Again!" and reach for Mark.

Adam was taking a video of her and she got away and started running down the little hill toward the trampoline.  The most impressive part of the video was the trajectory that Anna took anticipating the whole thing and scooping her up just in time.

She's got Mom Powers!

As much as we loved seeing QE, it was great to spend a little time with Anna too.  We love that girl and are so grateful that she and Braeden are married.  My heart swells with love for their whole family.

Wow

Last night when I got home I told Adam I felt like I'd been through something.

It was parent engagement night, which we have because we are a Title 1 school.  Matt needed volunteer teachers to help.  They would get paid a small stipend.  I didn't sign up, because 8-9 hours at that place is usually enough for me.

Then Matt emailed that he needed more people and I reasoned that the parent engagement nights later in the school year are going to be a lot more involved and if I volunteered this time, I would have goodwill stored up and wouldn't have to sign up later.

Matt sent this email.

He wasn't wrong.  It did feel like I was maybe in the Hunger Games and fighting for survival.  It was crazy.

The gym had chairs set up but more and more families kept coming and the other teachers and I frantically set up more and more chairs.  Then I tried to corral two toddlers who were being really wild, but didn't speak any English so my efforts were ignored by them and their mother.  I told two boys to get off the top of the chair rack where they had climbed.  Their parents were sitting right next to them and had to be aware that their boys were six feet in the air on top of a wheeled chair rack, but they didn't seem to care.

Sometimes meeting the parents explains an awful lot.

After the presentation in the gym, my job was to go to the library.  I had pages of stickers and bags full of some literacy and math games.  One for each family.  I needed to stick the sticker onto the bag after they told me their last name.  They wanted to keep track so that the families who hadn't attended could get their games later.  On each sticker was the youngest member in each family and that student's teacher's name.  Not all the families have the same last name and I kept getting confused alphabetically with the teachers names and sometimes I couldn't understand the Spanish speakers so well and it was intense.  I also had to give them this packet of explanation for the games and I forgot to give the packet to the first several families.  I told Noemi, the assistant principal, that I was going to get fired.

After that, we served pizza to everyone.  I was dealing paper plates onto a table as fast as I could and Matt was slapping a piece of pizza on each one and people came along and grabbed the pizza just as fast.

It was dizzying, but we survived it.    

When I took the bins of leftover games to the office, Noemi told me I wouldn't get fired because I had returned them so nicely.  So there's that.  I helped take down some chairs and my last job was to help heave the empty pizza boxes into the dumpster.

The good news was that I went home with a box of pizza and we didn't have to make dinner.

Another good piece of news is that my dad is healing pretty well.  I talked to both my parents last night and they were in good spirits and doing well.  Cancer, broken bones, they take it in stride!  My mom is uniquely prepared by her life of tackling challenges with gusto and a refusal to accept defeat.  

She emailed an update to everyone and she is taking care of the chickens while my dad heals.  She said they got four eggs and have five chickens so they have a slacker.

The slacker will never be my mom!

September 11

Yesterday when we said the pledge of allegiance, I considered these kids, safely going about their day on a sunny September.  I considered the peaceful mundane-ness of it all.

I don't take it for granted, not on September 11.

After math and morning recess, I sat them down and told them about September 11.  None of them knew anything about it.  I showed them some pictures and told them a very edited version of events.  I didn't tell them how many people died.  I told them about the heroes that ran to help.  I didn't tell them that many many of those heroes lost their lives.  I told them about the feeling of sadness, but also of patriotism and unity.

I told them even though we have a lot of different people in our country, we are in the same country and we can be kind to each other.

It's small, but I couldn't let the day pass without at least talking about it and remembering.

After school, Mark and I were going to go to Costco.  He came to my classroom and I sat him down at my desk.  I handed him a paper and a pen and told him to make a list and a menu.  I'm used to being bossy in that room, I'm also used to being a little bossy anytime with my kids so it works either way.

We were just about to leave for Costco and I realized that I didn't in fact have my wallet.  I had failed to put it back in my school bag after the weekend in my purse.

So that changed everything.

We went home and I got my wallet and I told Mark he might as well stay for dinner.  We went to Costco and bought a lot even though they didn't have the good gluten free bread or the good gluten free pizza.  Rats.  

After dinner, I put Mark to work on building my dresser.  He and Adam got it done.  

Having my kids attend college 30 minutes away is the best way to do it.  A few hours away?  Zero stars.  Do not recommend.

Weekend

Happenings:

Friday night we went to IKEA and walked around and looked at pretty stuff and I got a new dresser for my closet because my current one was old twenty years ago and one of the drawers is completely broken.

(I miss Mark because I would have had him assemble that dresser in minutes.  It is currently still in the boxes.  Maybe tonight...)

I talked to my mom and got the report on my dad.  I think he is in pretty good shape considering he is a great grandfather who was bucked off a horse.  It could have been so much worse.  He is in a lot of pain though and I hope and pray he heals quickly

Adam and I did our Saturday errands and why is that one of the favorite parts of my week even though I don't love errands? I guess because Adam.

Three girls at Winco said, "Mrs. Davis!?!"  I said hello to them and I only recognized one of them although they all seemed to know me.  I think I know every kid at that school, but I don't seem to after all.

Saturday we went to Lucette's baptism.  I was glad we were able to go.  It was a nice event.  Lucette asked Mason to speak which I thought was delightful.  He said, "In case you don't know me, I'm Lucette's cousin in law."

He did a great job and I told him he should be an elementary teacher.  (He teaches 5th grade so I guess other people agree with me about that one.)

We had a delicious dinner afterward at Ammon and Melanee's house and I enjoyed everything about it but didn't take a solitary picture.  Olivia sent this to our family WhatsApp situation so I promptly stole it.

At one point, Marianne said, "Look at Ammon, isn't he cute?"

I said, "We did a good job with him."

I think we deserve zero credit, but we claim some anyway.

Sunday we had the gang over for Sunday dinner. It is great to have them.  We ate and visited and had a Come Follow Me discussion.  Then, Adam had to go to a stake youth fireside and the rest of us took a walk by the Lindon temple.  The girls and I walked a little slowly because Liberty ran a half marathon yesterday and was a little sore.  The boys strode out ahead.

I love being with all of those kids.

Grateful Friday

As much as I loved being in Nevada the last two weekends, I am grateful we are home this weekend.  I will be able to do all the weekend things on the weekend rather than squeeze them into weekdays.

I talked to Mark last night and he seems happy and healthy and enjoying his life.  That makes me grateful.   Also, like I told him, I feel like I'm getting away with something this year.  My class is easier!  I don't have a head-ache every day.  It's pretty amazing.  I feel much better equipped to help the ones that need it and I am enjoying all of them more.  They are not without their challenges, but I am not without my resources.

For example, one of them hates to write.  As in, he'll tear up his paper, throw things and declares that he quits.  (He has a speech problem so he actually says, "I twit!" and it is adorable but I can't let him know that.)

I talked with Jamie about ideas.  She gave me about 6 different pencils and said maybe he would like one of them.  Maybe he hates writing because it texturally bothers him.  He immediately preferred one of them and I immediately ordered a package from Amazon.  He's been using Jamie's pencil and has been reverently presenting it to me at the end of each day.  He loves that pencil!

The package I ordered arrived yesterday.

You just never know what it's going to take to make something work better.

I have one little guy who complains most mornings of a stomach ache.  Yesterday it finally occurred to me to ask him what he had eaten for breakfast.  He said, "Nothing.  I didn't have breakfast."

I got him a fruit snack he said, "Wow, teacher!  That really helped!"

Imagine.

I'm grateful that I can buys pencils and snacks when needed.  I'm grateful for every little way I can pave the road a little easier for them.

Because I love those kids!

Finally, something I'm decidedly not grateful for.  My dad was bucked off a horse yesterday.  (Will someone please tell my dad he is too old for stuff like that?!?) I'm grateful he went to the hospital. (It's not a foregone conclusion with that guy that he will go to the doctor.)  I'm grateful he didn't need surgery--at least not so far.  He has several broken bones in his back and his ribs.  I hurt for him and I'm so sorry for the pain he is enduring and will continue to endure while he heals.  

Last night as my siblings and I were glued to our phones for updates, I knew they were praying like I was.  I'm grateful my sisters are there to help (Olivia is dropping Ruben off at college right now, but she will be back and she is a force to be reckoned with much like Marianne is).  I'm grateful Tabor was coincidentally on his way there.

Families are a really good invention.

Things I love

I love being greeted enthusiastically by my former students.  A gaggle of fifth graders approached me yesterday.  The girls threw their arms around me.  The boys came toward me then took a few steps back, not sure.  I just greeted them jovially and it was all good.  My current students wondered who they were and I said, "Some of my favorite fifth graders."

They said, "You have favorites!" and gasped like they'd just uncovered a moral failing.

Well, I do.  I would never reveal which ones, but I'll tell you this for free:  it isn't the whiny ones.

I love the things third graders say.  I was helping a student solve an addition problem.  He was adding the ones.  "What is 4 + 8?" I asked.

He said, "That is usually 12."

I guess regrouping can cause you to doubt yourself at times.

I love the laughter at faculty meetings.  We are back to all liking and trusting each other.

I love the way fresh basil smells.  I bought a pot yesterday because the one by my kitchen sink is looking anemic.  I'm not ready to give up on it yet (I'm rarely ready to give up on a plant), but I needed basil, so what's two basil plants between friends?

I love that it's cooler and we can open the windows in the evening without heating up the house.

I love the Book of Mormon.  I read it between Memorial Day and Labor Day and it is like a friend I never get tired of.

Clip up clip down

I have a few students with behavior charts.  One of them is neither defiant nor unwilling to work, he is just impulsive.   He is big and loud and exuberant.  He calls out whatever happens to be on his mind whenever he wants.

He sort of reminds me of Mark at that age.

He has a chart and if he just can't stop yelling and bouncing and hurling himself around the room, the clip moves down.

If he sits still and does his work for a few blessed minutes, the clip goes back up.  If he ends on green, which is the top of the chart, he gets a prize at the end of the day.

Most of the day he is hurtling around at top speed or remembering his chart and asking if he can clip up.

The answer is usually 1) no and 2) sit down.

He is charming and funny and he knows it.  He also makes all the girls giggle.  

Yesterday I was right in the middle of a phonics lesson and he called out, "Do you hate Tongans?"

I said, "No."

He said, "Do you think white people are the smartest people?"

I said, "No."

I said, "These are good questions, but we are doing phonics right now, so can we talk about this later?"

He said, "OK."

During writing, we are doing personal narratives.  One choice is they can write from a strong emotion.  I have encouraged them to remember a time when they were happy, sad, nervous, excited, scared, etc.

I said, "For example, one time I was scared when my sister and I were driving in the snow and our car slipped off the road and we got stuck in a snowbank."

My irrepressible friend asked, "Did you pray?"

I said, "Yeah, we actually did.  And our dad came with a shovel and dug us out of the snow."

"Was it your dad or your Father?" He pointed to the ceiling.

I said, "It was my dad."

Another girl raised her hand, "You should pray when you're scared."

I agreed.

Sometimes they remind me in no uncertain terms that I teach school in Utah County.

I eventually got the lesson back on track.  I eventually got through the day.  We clipped up and down many many times.

Weekend

 Friday Adam and I drove to Nevada.  The sky was glorious.

The land of the setting sun.  Nevada sunsets will always be my favorite sunsets.

All was peaceful at our house--the owls have been awol and there were no furry friends in the traps which I'm still low key nervous to check every time we arrive.  It was windy though.  One of the big poplars in the front yard is basically a hollow shell being held up by its bark and that is a little unsettling when it's outside the bedroom, but we are living dangerously, I guess.  Dealing with trees is on the list.

It's a long list.

Saturday I cleaned the entire house from top to tip.  It's both not that dirty because nobody lives here and dirty because no one lives here.  It makes sense in my head.  I hung up a clock in our bathroom.  I puzzled about which wall to hang it on.  Do I want to be able to see it when I get ready at the sink?  Do I want to be able to see it from the bathtub?  Do I want to be able to see it from the bedroom?  In the end, I told Adam I let my grandparents make the decision.  There was a nail hole in one of the logs so I hung the clock there.

Marianne and my mom and I went to Olivia's to work more on Ruben's quilt.  Olivia gave me some fresh peach pie which was delightful.  Adam went to town to buy a ladder.  My mom, Marianne and Olivia all said, "We have a ladder!  He could have borrowed it."

I know.  Adam knows.  We all know.  That guy does what he wants.  I told him he needs to embrace the borrowing lifestyle there, but maybe like dealing with the trees, he will get to it later.

My next job after cleaning the house was to edge the front steps.  That maybe seems like not a top priority, but I started it anyway.

Started it, but then my dad came over on his buggy and I stood and visited with him and pet his horse and asked him what the weird looking bug thing was that I found.  He said it was a crawdad.  I said it was too small and too far away from the water.  Nevertheless, that is what he said it was.

It was about the size of my thumb and the crawdads I used to try to catch in Boulder Creek were about twice as big.  I don't know.

My uncle Drew drove up and he said that that poplar has been hollow for years, the home of the starlings.  That makes me feel better that it's held up this long and worse that maybe it can't hold up much longer.

I abandoned my step edging project because I was supposed to be at Marianne's.

At Marianne's we convened to get ready for Carolina's surprise party.  Marianne assigned me to assemble and frost the four layer cake.  Carolina decorates and sells amazing and artistic cakes and Marianne wanted me do her cake?!?  It was like her telling me to make some spurs for my dad and reconcile my mom's bank statement!

So it was with some trepidation, but I did the cake.  My dad and Olivia and Marianne made a balloon arch, Robert set up all the tables and chairs and Marianne kept giving my mom jobs that she would sit down to do.  It is a constant battle to get that woman to sit!  Everything came together and the party was in good order when kids started arriving.

Marianne didn't know who would come because teenagers aren't exactly the stalwarts of RSVP-ing, but more and more kids kept coming.  Everybody loves Carolina and that is all.  Marianne started worrying she didn't have enough food (and she had a lot of food-- also I texted Marianne later, and she didn't run out of food!)

Carolina arrived with some friends who had taken her to town and she was sufficiently surprised.

While I had been involved in all of that, Adam had tried to repair the roof where an ice dam had curled back the roof (it will need more help, but it's good enough for now), had trimmed along the brook some and had done some mowing.  

We were both pretty tired!  It's not always the most restful place to come to, but we also love it.  It's beautiful and it's ours and I love the neighborhood!

Sunday we went to church, which I always enjoy and came home to a terrific thunderstorm.  There was wind, rain, hail and a leaky roof (not by the ice dam, but in the bay window).  It was something!  Here is a hailstone I picked up on the back steps.

We were having everyone over for dinner and it was such a dark and moody sky, I wished I had tea lights for the tables.  Instead I went out by the garage and cut some of my grandma's cutleaf coneflowers that were drooping after the storm.  (My sisters call them goldenrod and I didn't think they were goldenrod, so I googled it.)

Whatever they are, they brightened the table almost like candlelight.

I also put a little crabapple at each place.  Even when it is decidedly unfancy, I love setting the table and my dad makes fun of me for taking a picture, but the heart wants what the heart wants.

We had a nice evening eating (everyone brought food, which is the norm around there and makes everything easier and better) and visiting. 

Monday morning I worked a little more on my front steps project, but was impeded by some big tree roots.  I took a walk with Clarissa...and some others.  (She told me she wanted to be featured on my blog so she was really an integral part of that walk!). Adam and I did exciting things like label the breaker box and we also watched some deer who came to sample the apples.

We made it home in time for dinner.  It was such a nice long weekend.  We had our projects, but enough rest too.  I love being there.  It never fails to remind me where I came from and that even after a big thunderstorm, the sun always comes back out.

Grateful Friday

A long weekend!  Adam and I are going to Nevada and I am not sad about it.

I'm grateful he is back from Phoenix.  He was gone most of the week, returned yesterday.  Last night there were two plastic forks on the counter.  He pointed to them and said, "I brought you something."

"Forks?"

He said, "They come with accessories."

There was Portillo's cake in the fridge.  The only thing better than Portillo's cake is a Portillo's strawberry milkshake and I know the 118 degree Phoenix temperature wouldn't have helped that along.

I'm also grateful for beautiful weather, behavior charts that work, my friends, our kids and getting to see my parents and sisters and some of their families this weekend.

I'm grateful it will be autumn soon because I love autumn.

And a long weekend with Adam.  Did I mention that?