Grateful Friday

 We are having such a wonderful time!

I have thoroughly enjoyed spending time together.  Talia and Jackson and Kain are these grown up, interesting and fun to talk to people and I have loved watching them interact with our kids.  There has been a lot of laughter and reminiscing and it feels great.  They pulled out photo albums and remembered all the events surrounding the pictures.  They talked about the mints Grandpa Linn had in his car and laughed at each other's hairstyles and poses.  They shared a lot of good times and I am just so grateful for the happy childhood Linn and Geri created for those kids.

I have loved reading to QE.  I love when she takes my hand and wants me to go upstairs and play with her.  She asks, "Want to play, Nana?" and I am powerless to say no.  Sometimes she just says "C'mon Nan" as she casually walks away, confident I will follow her anywhere.

At one point yesterday we were walking upstairs and she said, "I love you, Nana."

That is all I need in the world.

She discovered the glory of Megan's My Little Ponies from the 80s and Megan sat on the floor and combed pony hair with her.  At one point Anna took her to the backyard.  I was washing dishes and Braeden was drying and he sighed the happiest sigh when he looked out the kitchen window and saw his daughter tromping through the wet grass with her rain boots just like he used to do.

Thanksgiving dinner was delicious and Geri always does a spectacular job orchestrating it all.

I'm grateful to be part of this family.  For nearly 30 years, they have made me feel welcome.  They've tolerated my quirks and lack of athletic ability and no desire to camp.  They've given me a seat at the table anyway.

Family is a pretty great thing and I'm grateful.

Phew!

It's here!  We are off to Seattle this morning and we are excited.  

Yesterday was quite a day at school.  (They are all quite days it seems.)

The students were very amped up and I had altered expectations for the day.  We did some legitimate work and some Thanksgiving math pages and Thanksgiving writing pages and we made snowflakes for the door.

(I had everyone pick up 30 things off the floor when we were finished.)

I was very ready to send them home when it was time because they were pretty much bouncing off the walls like they do when there is an upcoming break.

They all basically looked like Olaf in the above picture.

We had teacher Turkey Bowling after school.  We set up pins and bowl with frozen turkeys and it's bizarre and fun.  We each got a practice bowl before we actually bowled against someone in the bracket.  I went against Lacey and we both had gutter balls (no gutters, but you get the idea).  We switched places because we'd both veered in opposite directions.

Noemi, the vice principal, said, "C'mon Thelma!  Put some faces on those pins!"

I hit a strike which does not reveal any violent tendencies on my part...I promise.

We laughed a lot and it is ridiculous things like that that make me love working at that school.

Mark came to help me decorate my classroom for Christmas.  Matt had said we could all go home early and he stopped at my classroom and said, "Thelma, I said you could leave a while ago."

I said, "I have stuff to do!"

Mark said quietly to me, "Does he have to stay until you leave?"

No.  That would be crazy.  Because teachers tend to stay late and come early.

Mark hung up snowflakes and set up my Christmas village while I decorated the tree and hung up some other things.

He took a picture of the village.

I'm excited for my students to see it all.

I'm hoping I can keep a certain someone from messing with the Christmas village.  I can already predict it....

Baby it's cold inside

 Back in August when my room was in the 80s, I knew this would happen.  I was talking to my team back then though and we decided we would rather be cold than hot in our classrooms.  Nobody wins with sweaty whiny children. You can always put a jacket on.

Yesterday tested the limits of we-would-rather-be-cold-than-hot.  I would rather be cold than hot to a point and yesterday was past that point!

It hovered between 58-60 degrees all day long and I was cold and cranky.

It's not that I am a complainer or anything...but I did text whiny stoic texts to my siblings and children and Adam.

I wore my coat and eventually my gloves.

The kids were cold too.  There are only so many rounds of head shoulders knees and toes you can do.

The faculty room is always warm.  It's often uncomfortably warm.  I was holding out for lunch time.

Then when I was walking my class to lunch, the hall was cold too.  I saw Matt in a coat.  I said, "Is the whole school cold?"

He said yes.

It was too late or I would have driven home for a space heater.

Finally, about the time the kids were going home, the heat kicked on.  It got up to 67 in my classroom and I was as happy as I could be about it.

I passed Matt in the hall after school and he looked back and said, "Oh, Thelma?  The heat's working."

I told him I knew that and it was why I had my sunny disposition.

I guess it's a good thing to have the heat not working occasionally to make us appreciate it.

Speaking of appreciation, I read one of my favorite picture books, Boxes for Katje to my class yesterday.  Partway through it, a boy said, "This is a really good story!"

Reading to children is my love language and when they like the story, it is my favorite thing ever!

Weekend

I told Adam that we have come full circle.

When Adam was in graduate school and we didn't have much money, our big treat was to go to McDonalds for dinner.  Adam would get a meal and I would get a cheeseburger.  I would share with Braeden, who was a toddler at the time.  We would all share the fries and I would share the drink with Adam.

Friday night Adam and I were not all that hungry and split a kids meal at Iceberg.

Staring down senior citizenship....

Adam was gone for a good part of Saturday with the young men so I decided for the first time to start decorating for Christmas before Thanksgiving.  Thanksgiving is late and we're going out of town and I decided I would be happy to come home to decorations.  

I have not done the trees (waiting for Emma) and I still have things to move around, but it is mostly done and I'm not sad about that.

I just love red.

Also, I was happy to be home and listen to an audiobook while I hauled boxes and unwrapped treasures.

(I miss my boys in the hauling boxes department.)

In the late afternoon, Adam and I went to Fashion Place Mall, which is such a hopping place.  Malls may be dying, but nobody told Fashion Place Mall.  

We hit the Lego store Insider Weekend along with a lot of other people.  It's not that exclusive of a club!

We stopped at Crate and Barrel for my Stendig calendar.  

I asked Adam if he was going to wrap it in last year's calendar paper (which is my wrapping paper of choice) and he said that the pages weren't big enough.

Church was good on Sunday and then I did family history with Marie Louise, which is always edifying.  I just love her so much.  She told me that she was having a really frustrating time getting names printed so she decided to do three sessions in a row at the temple, just to show Satan that she could.

Don't mess with Marie Louise!

I am 100% convinced that I have an easier time finding names for her because of her tenacity in temple attendance.  We are a team and neither of us could do it alone.

I went to choir practice and we are slowly getting a larger choir, which is nice.

Mark came over and we talked to Emma in Washington and Braeden and Anna and QE in California and we are so happy that later this week, we will all be together.  Mark got a ladder and did the high decorations for me.  I told him he can never move away.  I was reading to QE in the other room and Adam and Mark hung the wall hanging above the fireplace at a 90 degree angle.  I liked it, but Adam told me, "We were prepared to put it the right way if you didn't."

It's almost like they know me and they've done this before.

Extra

Yesterday after school the vice principal came into my classroom where I was meeting with my team and tongue in cheek asked, "Can third grade stop with the fight club?!?"

I wish and also we're trying.

Yesterday was A DAY.  I had a student come to school in tears which is always an auspicious way to start the day.

One girl stuck her tongue out at another and they were both upset.  I talked to them and one had been singing and the other told her to stop because it was annoying, so the singer stuck out her tongue.

We talked about other ways it could have been handled, because I am into futility like that.

My ebullient student who is as adorable as he is naughty, came to school late and sad.  Turns out I like him bouncing off the walls more.  I was trying to help him with math (again me + futility) and I noticed he had tears in his eyes.  I asked, "Are you sad?" He nodded.  I asked him if he wanted to talk about it and he hesitated.  I asked, "Do you want to talk about it in Spanish?"

He did.  I left my class in control of their out of control selves and took him to find someone who spoke Spanish.

I pulled a student out of line on the way to art so that we could have a heart to heart about behavior.  A quick redirection turned into about ten minutes of her airing all of her grievances against everyone else in the class to excuse her being mean.  

During art, another student was flinging paint around so he was invited to go clean tables in the art room during recess. 

During lunch the secretary came and got Miriam and me because of...third grade fight club.  There were 7 kids--mostly mine--who'd been brawling at lunch and they didn't have the sense not to do it in front of the office windows.  

When they were in full scale denial of wrong doing, one of the secretaries said, "We could see you right out the windows."

The students turned around to see what the secretaries' view was and stopped their denials.

One student started rapid fire angry Spanish and a few others joined in and a girl said, "Stop!  In English!  The teachers don't understand!"

Miriam had recess duty so I told them they'd all be with me during recess.  A few of them were accepting and a few of them were sizzling mad about it.

We had the whole conversation (again, we've had it many, many times) about if someone does something to you, you have options besides hit them back.

I had a student unrelated to any of the rest of the drama in complete sobbing tears because she'd hurt her friend's feelings in the morning and had been rebuffed in her apology efforts.  So I pulled the friend aside too and they were both sobbing until I unraveled that.

I had my students who missed recess scattered about the room working.  One of them wondered if they could talk about what happened at lunch.

Absolutely not.  (Do I look like Judge Judy?!?)

I said I knew what happened.  They were hitting each other and that's not OK.

A student got bonked in the head at recess so he was holding an ice pack to his head when they came back in.

It was a whole scene.

The student who cleaned tables in the art room came back and told me that the art teacher had said I would give him candy since he'd done such a great job cleaning tables.

I said, "OK, I'll talk to her about it."

He said, "Oh no, Teacher.  Never mind."

I thought so.

So then I had a parent meeting after school unrelated to all the rest of the day's drama, but with enough drama for daytime television at least.

No days are completely free of travail, but some of them are just PACKED with travail.

Elementary school

There were accusations.  First, I didn't warn them there was going to be a sub and second, there was a sub.

I told them I was sorry and I explained that I had a headache.  They kind of huffed like they were going to let me get by this time, but I'd better not let it happen again.

The sub was a delight, or at least the note left behind was:

 In case you're not as accustomed to wobbly spelling and handwriting like I am, here's the translation:

I apologize as I am sure my penmanship is hurting you to read as a teacher.  It is usually better (slightly) but I foolishly hit the gym too hard and my arms are shaky.

It was so delightful to me, I texted it to my family and Emma summed up how we were all feeling: 

One of my students had something "very big" to share.  He first had everyone raise their hand if they are a BYU fan.  (Third graders love to have everyone raise their hand if...)

After he had found out who was a BYU fan, he proceeded with his story.  His parents are British and I love the way he peppers his stories with little British phrases.  He said they thought they were going one place for dinner for his brother's dinner, but his parents "were being cheeky" and it ended up they went and met the BYU football team.  He was so excited telling them all about it.

One boy raised his hand and asked, "Was Michael Jordan there?"

"No!"

"He's dead," someone said.

"No I think just retired," another one said.

"Plus he played basketball."

"Wait, were the Lakers there?" still another kid wanted to know.

"That's basketball!"

The poor story teller had a look on his face that reflected how I feel 75% of the day.

***

I had assigned them an online math assignment when I was gone and seven of them had done it.

"The sub didn't tell us!" the rest of them said.

"He only told these seven?" I asked.

That gave them pause.

I made the rest of them do the assignment.

***

Walking down the hall, I saw two 2nd grade girls, deeply engrossed in conversation and one of them said, "I have a loose tooth and I am so stressed out about it.  I mean, it could come out at any minute!"

I rounded the corner and another kid was oblivious to the world around him and singing for all he was worth.

There is always something exciting happening at an elementary school.

Migraine day

 I get way fewer migraines and headaches in general than I used to.  The difference is that I no longer feel the need to be a hero.

I stayed home from school yesterday.  

I wrote wonky sub plans in the 3:00 AM hour and then slept for a few more hours.  I mostly felt like I'd been hit by a truck.

Contributing to my migraine was a super stressful and somewhat confrontational Monday.  There are strong personalities in those after school meetings and sometimes I'm one of them.  We all want the best for our collective students and we don't all have the same opinions, but we need to work together.

I stopped by Walmart on my way home for 4 things.  It took me 45 minutes.  I don't go to Walmart all that often so I don't know the lay of the land and I was looking for pretty specific things. I searched high and low.  Imagine me studying the boxes of lightbulbs for the correct kelvin number, because Adam told me that was key, while trying not to get run down by the blue vested guys pushing enormous carts and filling pick up orders.

It was a whole scene.

After that I sat in the Walgreens pharmacy window line for an interminable amount of time.  Emma called and said, "Would it cheer you up if I told you I bought you a Christmas present today?"

I said yes.

She said, "How about if I told you that I bought you a second present because I found something you would love on my way out of the store?"

Emma is a giver of good gifts and highly generous.  We're lucky to have her.

Adam and I had dinner with Mark (Mark Monday) and my head hurt a lot and I wanted to lay it down on the table, but the table looked kind of dirty.  Mark kept looking over at me and patting my shoulder.

We went home and Adam rubbed my back, which is heroic of him.  I slept for awhile, but then I spent several hours of quality time feeling like I might die.

Who has more fun than me?

I spent the day resting and napping and being mildly productive (if you count working on my Christmas list while sitting in a recliner productive).  We had tickets to The Best Christmas Pageant Ever but Adam ended up having church commitments and Emma ended up forgetting all about it.  Mark and I went along with Lili and her boyfriend Josh.  Adam bullied me into eating some toast before I went.  I still didn't feel great, but I loved the movie.

"Hey, unto us a Child is born!"

Weekend

 Friday night we pretended it was Saturday and went grocery shopping.  These are the kind of thrilling details you can come here to read all about....

Saturday we hit the road early for Nevada.  I drove and Braeden and QE called and she wanted me to read to her and I hate telling her no.  We told Braeden our brilliant plan to go visit them during the Christmas break and that is when Anna's parents are already going to go visit them.  So it was Braeden's turn to say no. We get to see them over Thanksgiving though, so we will share.

We also had good conversations and I love being with Adam.  Road trips are the best because we just have time to talk.  

We got to our house and a few limbs had blown out of the maple trees and will have to wait patiently until we can drag them away somewhere.  Otherwise the poor house probably felt very neglected.  We haven't been there for a while and thankfully my dad winterized it and Omar is our mousetrapper, which we appreciate with our whole hearts.

We didn't have water and didn't want to un-winterize just for the day so we didn't thoroughly clean but we vacuumed and the little cordless vacuum we have there is invaluable.  I set up some outdoor bait stations for mice.  

I would say it isn't personal with the mice, but it kind of is.

Adam and I organized the store room, which was long overdue, and I gathered rugs and bedding to take to Utah to wash.  We took a break for lunch at Marianne and Robert's.  My parents were there and Morgan and it was a delicious lunch and so nice to visit in their warm and cozy home.  (Our house was freezing.)

Adam went back to install thermostats and Robert and my dad went too.  I visited with my mom while they were doing that.  She had me pick out an advent calendar to take to QE.  My dad came back after a while and I kept quizzing him about what he wanted for Christmas.

I told him it wasn't about him.  I said I wanted to give him a gift, so he had to tell me what to give him.

Pretty much daughter of the year when the words, it's not about you, it's about me come out of your mouth....

Later, we watched a bit of Isaiah's game.  Enoch and family are there in Rhode Island watching a few games so we played Where's Waldo and found them in the stands.  (Enoch isn't terribly difficult to spot.)

Adam came over to retrieve me so we could head back to Utah, but Isaiah had already made three three-point shots (he ended up making 7 in the game and one 2 pointer besides).  It's fun to watch him play basketball.  

We drove home and were exceptionally tired, but we listened to Nate Bargatze comedy which helped. 

Adam spoke in church on Sunday and I enjoyed hearing him. I was asked to sub in nursery and that is a different gig since last time I was in nursery. It is half as long and there were three very sweet and calm children who tenderly played with the toys and patiently waited for their snacks.

As a bonus, my neighbor Jenn was the other sub and we were able to visit about grandchildren and adult children and how cute those nursery kids were.

Later in the afternoon, we scooted our kids out of Sunday dinner early because Adam had two meetings at our house.  (I made cookies then happily sequestered myself away.)

I went upstairs and Braeden and QE called and I read her two stories and she modeled how she was using a scarf to be Little Red Riding Hood. 

We're back at it today.  

Grateful Friday

 Wednesday we had an unexpected faculty meeting right after school.

Nothing like ending an exhausting day by being told that amidst the swirling uncertainty of the district splitting and us joking that our district will either be called "The Leftovers" or "The Scraps," our Title 1 funding will not exist next year.

We also talked about the fact that some in the state legislature want to drastically change the way public education will be funded (spoiler alert:  it won't be funded well).  There are many who believe that public education is evil/wasteful/the enemy.

We often feel like we are barely holding on and now our support staff will be slashed. It is wearying and discouraging to be told that all our efforts are neither appreciated nor supported.  

I looked around at the grim faces of my fellow teachers and I knew that their thoughts, like mine, were reeling because we need that support staff.  We need more of them.

We have many students who are a year or more behind academically.  We have students who come to us without their basic needs met.  We have students who do. Not. Know. How. To. Act.

The gap will only widen.

I didn't really realize how disheartening it all was until I talked to Braeden last night about it and started crying.  I guess it had been there, below the surface for awhile.

About the time I'd finished cleaning up the dinner dishes, I realized I also had a lot to be grateful for.

For one thing, as Dr. Seuss said, I have brains in my head and shoes in my feet.  I can keep doing what I can do.

I'm grateful to have a son who understands me thoroughly and knows what to say always.  One time when he was three years old, I was crying about something completely unrelated to him and he brought me his blanket.  He's always been like this and it feels like Heavenly Father must love me because he sent me Braeden.

I'm grateful to have such a great principal.  He said, "What questions do you have?  I have facts and opinions and I will tell you which is which."

He thoughtfully answered our questions and then he said, "This doesn't change what we do within these walls.  We will keep focusing on numeracy and literacy.  We will stick to the essentials."

I'm grateful for the stalwart people I work with.  I can't tell you how many times a kid is positively flipping out and an adult has a serene poker face and just handles it with grace and kindness.

I'm grateful that when I was driving home and my mind was mulling things over and I thought for the hundredth time since the election that maybe I should consider changing schools, an answer came into my mind.

It was a clarifying course to follow.

I'm staying put for now.  Just call me a member of the orchestra playing the violin while the Titanic sinks....

I'm also grateful that maybe things will be OK.  There is a good chunk of time between now and next year and maybe something good will happen.

There's nothing wrong with hope.

You can't make old friends

Erin and I went through a rebellious phase and this was it.  We had a hammock and it was forbidden.

We also couldn't tie knots (not an Eagle Scout between us) and we tied an excessive amount of inferior knots hanging the hammock between bookshelves.  When our resident assistant was there, knocking on our door in an effort to catch us in the act of using our hammock, we furiously untied 12 million knots (give or take) while trying to suppress our giggling.

We have both gone on to live upstanding law abiding lives, so I guess we got it out of our systems.

I love Erin.

It was my very good fortune when we were matched as roommates our freshman year at BYU.

We talked on the phone the other night, for over an hour, and it was sublime.  We decided we need to talk more often.

She is one of my oldest friends.  We knew each other when we were as young as the above picture.  We've visited each others' childhood homes.  We know each others' siblings and parents.  We have a lot in common and when I talk to her I feel understood and loved and I benefit from her wisdom.

She is a woman of faith and humor and resilience.

We've known each other almost 25 years and at any time in those years, if we'd seen each other, we could have talked like no time had passed.

You can't make old friends.

YEN

 If I have people over and don't take a picture of the table, did it even happen?

A lot of our guests wanted an explanation about my clock wall.  I don't have one except I like it and it's a pain whenever the time changes.

Also, I only ever look at the biggest clock to check the time, so no, it doesn't bother me that some of them are a few minutes off. (I welcome anyone else calibrating them if they are so inclined.)

Then I told them about how my grandmother's grandmother clock identifies as living in Hawaii because it is always 6 hours off no matter what I do.

Then Marcia realized I was wearing a shirt with clocks on it.

It was a whole theme.

We had four kinds of soups, bread and scones, brownies and peanut butter cookies.

You know who can cook well?  Empty nesters.  They've had practice.

I had a game planned, but we never got to it because everyone sat around the table for hours talking.

(And it's a miracle some of those men are still alive after hearing some of their teenaged antics.)

Two of the men got up and quietly rinsed dishes before they left.

It's a quality group that enriches my life!

Turkeys and limes

 Yesterday my students made fact family turkeys.  They were each given a domino and they had to use the two numbers as factors, then multiply and divide the fact family.

A turkey leg got severed and my desk was the turkey hospital.  I made a cast and then everyone wanted one.

(The cast clearly didn't do much for the math.  Please believe me when I say I am trying.)

They also wrote things they were grateful for on leaves.  I stapled them to a bulletin board.  No surface is safe.

I particularly liked these:

I am imagining there are multiple ways to spell it....

On another topic, do you remember in Little Women when Amy desperately wants to take limes to school, because they're all the rage?

Well, let me tell you, Mini Brands are the most exciting thing in the young lives of my students.  Yesterday was 27 school days until Christmas break so we started our advent calendar.  They were beyond thrilled with the little door and the fact that they are all going to get a turn eventually.  

I get a little excited about the door too.  It's cute!

They asked many clarifying questions like, "What if I'm absent, but my picture is behind the door.  What happens then?"

I told them that I'd choose someone else and we'd do theirs another day.  

They asked over and over, "So we all get one?!?"

Yes.

My little English learner exclaimed, "I LOVE you Teacher!"

I said, "I love you too, now sit down.

Weekend

 School has been a little frustrating.  Teaching division is not for the faint of heart.  My practicum student and I have been trying to teach them about the connection between multiplication and division.  I called several of my students up to my desk one at a time so I could help them.

Me: draw a picture showing three times five.

(They can do it; not a problem.)

Me: now write the multiplication equation that goes with that picture.

(Again, no problem. )

Me: now write the division equation that goes with that picture.

They write 3 ÷ 5 = 15.

Me: You wrote three divided into five groups has 15 in each group. Does that make sense?  Here are three counters.  Divide them into five groups with 15 in each group.

They honest to goodness take the counters and try to make five groups of 15.  Eventually they see it is impossible but we're not any closer to them getting it.

I dreamt about it all weekend.  In one dream my students were in danger and I was trying to protect them + teach them division.  In another dream, they were playing with hackey sacks in the back of the classroom, while I was trying to teach them.

Maybe things will go better today.

Friday night we went to a wedding reception for a girl who was a beehive while I was YW president and I've always liked her a lot.  It was fun to see and talk to so many of our friends.

Saturday afternoon we went to the BYU art museum and invited Mark to join us.  

I love art museums.

Also, our sweet little QE fell and hurt her head.  Braeden rushed her to urgent care and they glued her up (which would have made her great grandpa Dahl approve--he's a gluer of wounds).  Braeden called us from the car after the doctor visit.  He was shaken.  She, sporting a big bandage on her forehead, said cheerfully, "I have no shoes on and I am in the car!"

Braeden took her to Medicinal McDonalds as he called it because her favorite thing in the world is to get orange juice at McDonalds.  Then they went to Target and looked at books which, on second thought, she probably likes even more than orange juice.

I felt empathy for Braeden.  We want so much for our children to never be hurt and here we are in this mortal world where people get hurt.

I think her attitude was instructive too.  Sometimes we worry so much about our kids, but they are going to be OK and are just marveling at the novelty of being in the car with no shoes on.

Sunday was a marathon of church, family history with Marie Louise and dinner with our kids.  I had Mark move furniture to accommodate YEN, which we're hosting tonight.  Emma told me a story about catching a glimpse of her outfit reflected in the elevator at work and thinking she looked like she "won 5th prize at a regional dance competition."

She certainly can paint a picture with her words.

Grateful Friday

 I am grateful for FaceTime!  I love talking to QE and reading her stories (she says, "Can I read you a story, Nana?" and "Another one!" and it is the most irresistible thing in my life).  Her little voice could solve world peace.

The other night she said, "Something on my toe is bothering me."

Braeden inspected her toe and trimmed her toenail and I just marveled at her sentence.  How is she so grownup to say something is bothering her?!?  She's growing fast and it just keeps getting better.

I'm grateful for time with Adam.  He's been home lately and I'm glad.  I appreciate time to talk about things great and small.

I'm grateful that we are having a grown up transfer of power in the country, because it could have gone the other way and that would have been anything but a grown up concession.

How bottom of the barrel are my silver linings on that one?!?  

I'm grateful to be a teacher.  That usually makes this list.  Those kids are cute and smart and witty and easy to make laugh.

I'm grateful to be a mother.  Those kids are cute and smart and witty and not as easy to make laugh, but less whiny.

A lot less.

I'm grateful it was super quick when I got my oil changed.  Is there anything better than a sort of dreaded task ending up easy? It's the little things.

I love autumn.  I love November.  (Although recess duty is cold.) I love Thanksgiving.

There's always something to be grateful for.

Counterweights

 I talked to lots of teachers at school yesterday.  The district split didn't come up as a conversation one time.  I think we're all processing and waiting and seeing.

What is going to happen is thrumming through my head.

I'm not great at change or uncertainty.  So here's a chance to practice I guess.

To offset those feelings, here are some good things that happened yesterday:

A girl I didn't know stopped me in the hall.  She asked, "Are you Mrs. Davis?"

I said, "Yes."

She told me her name and proudly said, "I'm in second grade."

I said, "Well, I will look forward to you in third grade next year!"

She smiled and ran off to recess.

I just love their earnest friendly little selves.

On Tuesday we had some girl drama and one of my girls was distraught so I sent the practicum teacher with my class to the counselor lesson and I stayed behind.  We chatted.  She cried and I handed her Kleenex and told her I understood.  We moved on to more cheerful topics and she told me that she had traded in her candy with her parents for Mini Brands at Walmart.

I asked, "What's a Mini Brand?"

She was so shocked she gasped.  She couldn't believe I didn't know.  She reached over on my desk and grabbed my phone and said, "Google it."

I did. 

She told me about all the different kinds and then yesterday, she brought me one!

I was as pleased as I could be.

Here's a picture of what was inside (the pen is for scale).

They all gathered around my desk because apparently everyone loves Mini Brands and here I had no idea they existed.

I explained to them what a VHS tape was as well as a film reel.  

Then at lunch I went on Amazon and ordered a Mini Brands advent calendar for my classroom.  We'll start next week and instead of counting down days until Christmas, we'll count down days until Christmas break.

I love the exchange of knowledge.  I'm teaching them what I know about multiplication and division and we had an in depth discussion, including a globe and a map, about Columbus yesterday (they had no idea who he was) and they're introducing me to the wide world of Mini Brands.

I'd call it a fair trade.

Well

 I feel disappointed this morning.

I am disappointed that the worst of the I-can't-believe-these-are-our-best-options won.

It's not like he's ever hidden his personality from us.  In a deeply divided country that is crying for unity, we've got...him.

Tabor said recently that President Nelson was his president.  Mine too.  Yikes.  Mine too.

Also, the Alpine School District split into three.  PG and Orem are left in the decimated leftovers (and we didn't get to vote on it--if I had some tea I would go throw it in Utah Lake.  Taxation without representation).

Either the quality of education will decline or taxes will increase and that is all.

Yesterday I read from someone in Lehi that they wanted to break away from Orem and Pleasant Grove because those cities wouldn't pass the bond.

And that is completely valid. 

And makes me sad.

I don't know exactly how it will affect me (probably way more than anything else that was voted on last night).  I know that I'm going to walk into a school of stressed out adults for the same reason.  We'll have solidarity in that.

We'll also have solidarity in teaching our little ones.  They deserve our best.

Election day

Well, today is a big day.  We are introducing division in 3rd grade.  They love it (at least at first).  Between cursive and multiplication and division, 3rd grade is like being invited to sit at the big kids' table.

Oh, yes.  It's also Election Day.  I'm probably not the only one with a pit in my stomach.

Last night over gluten free macaroni and cheese (Mark Monday), Mark told me we're going to be fine.  He laid out all the reasons.

I said, "What about the school district decision?"

He said, "The district is the airplane, but you are the pilot."

I guess the takeaway is if you need a pep talk, ask someone with two autoimmune diseases.  He knows something about getting through things.

This morning I was thinking about the pilot thing and the words from the song Jesus Savior Pilot Me came into my head.

Jesus, Savior, pilot me,
Over life's tempestuous sea:
Unknown waves before me roll,
Hiding rocks and treach'rous shoal;
Chart and compass come from Thee–
Jesus, Savior, pilot me!

As a mother stills her child,
Thou canst hush the ocean wild;
Boist'rous waves obey Thy will
When Thou say'st to them, "Be still!"
Wondrous Sov'reign of the sea,
Jesus, Savior, pilot me!

When at last I near the shore,
And the fearful breakers roar
'Twixt me and the peaceful rest–
Then, while leaning on Thy breast,
May I hear Thee say to me,
"Fear not– I will pilot thee!"

That feels better than me being the pilot.

Weekend

On Friday Emma texted me:  Do you want to go shopping tomorrow?

It was as shocking as if one of my boys had texted wondering if I wanted to go to a craft store with them.

The girl hates to shop.

I said yes.  Of course I did.

Also Friday night, Adam and I went on a recliner quest.  I decided to upgrade my arrangement in my office.  Turns out I'm not just a Goldilocks where my bed is concerned, also my chair.  

We got separated in Costco, and I gave him very precise and helpful directions to find me.

Then he texted our children this:

How did he not know where the sharpies usually are?

I love being with Adam.  We came home and watched the Great British Baking Show which is about the best thing that could happen to me on a Friday night.

Saturday I met up with Emma at Walmart in Fort Union.  She needed a vacuum and a file box for choir music.

A guy stopped us to ask where the garbage cans were, including some expletives because he was frustrated about not being able to find them.  I pointed him in the direction of my best guess and I told Emma to get ready because the older she gets, the more people will ask her for help at a store.  I get stopped for questions about which cereal to buy, to identify vegetables and which pineapple to pick.

(I give them my grandma's advice on pineapple picking.)

We found a vacuum and I showed her the file crate that every teacher I know has in spades.

We went to lunch and ordered the exact same thing.  I told her about the berry agua fresca I had added to my Diet Coke with brilliant results at Chipotle the night before.  She told me she had also eaten at Chipotle and we had ordered the exact same thing (except she had put the watermelon limeade in her Diet Coke).  She is very much her dad's girl, but sometimes she's mine.

We went to the Fashion Place mall and she bought a cute dress and cardigan.  

Again, I can't tell you how shocking this was for me:  Emma shopping and not under duress.

We wandered a bit more and then I headed home.

Adam and Mark had gone to Costco to pick up the recliner that was the winner.  They assembled it and set it up and I'm perched in it right now.  

I am a fan.

Sunday morning I changed clocks.  I can't really sleep in anymore so I get no delight in the time falling back like I used to when I was a teenager.

After church-family history-choir practice (I'm no good at it, I go in solidarity to Emma), I got things sorted for Sunday dinner.  I made a gluten free cake and then Mark's pump had gone haywire, his blood sugar was way high and he didn't end up coming.  We enjoyed our time with Emma and our bonus kids and Liberty and Nikki took some food back to Mark which was very kind of them.

This morning I woke up an hour early.  Experience tells me I'll adjust.  

Grateful Friday

 Oh Halloween.  You exhaust me!

My mother was 100% accurate that I did not indeed sit back and relax during the party.  The parents who came to help were wonderful--I've never had such a great crew--but I still felt like I was juggling flaming torches.

By the end of the day, my floor was covered in popcorn (room parents always think the popcorn in a clear glove would be a fun activity--it always makes such a mess!), the students were amped up with excitement or desolate because they'd lost part of their costume or overheated because of their layers.

I let everyone go 5 minutes early.  We all needed it.

What I feel grateful about is my school.  Halloween endears these people to me (they are already endeared to me--it endears them further).

The teachers had a theme of cartoons.

This was in the office and I want it to stay there forever.

Every team was pictured on a different TV along with cereal and milk.

(Sadly the kids have no idea about Saturday morning cartoons.)

My team dressed as characters from It's the Great Pumpkin Charlie Brown:

Here's most of the staff--some weren't there yet, or busy elsewhere.

I love these people and working at this school!

Also, I'm grateful Adam and I have landed on a great life hack.  We went to Costco last night.  It was empty.  There were employees waiting idle at the check stands.  I love being where the people aren't, especially after Halloween at school.