The sunny side

I had recess duty yesterday and recess duty when it is sunny and warm is divine.  I have a bucket of sidewalk chalk I brought outside and two of my girls were drawing on the sidewalk.  They said, "Teacher, we're doing math!"  I felt so proud that my students loved math that much.

One of them came to get me later to admire their work.

She said, "See!  I did 10 X a million."

She had written 10 x 1000 = 1100.

I crouched down and showed her the actual answer and reminded her of how to multiply times ten.

The first rule of teaching is don't get too cocky.  They may not actually have retained anything....

It was such a beautiful day, I didn't let it get me down though.  The snowy mountain practically glowed in the bright light and there wasn't a cloud in the blue sky.

The second graders go in from recess 5 minutes before the third graders do.  I help wrangle the 2nd graders and they had already gone in and there was a little guy sitting on the slide.  I knew he wasn't a third grader, but I wasn't sure he was a second grader either.

I said, "Hi I'm Mrs. Davis, what's your name?"  I thought he said Jack.

I said, "Hi, Jack, what grade are you in?"

He looked at me derisively, "My name isn't Jack."

I bent over so I could hear him better.  His name was Shep.

I said, "OK Shep, what grade are you in?."

He looked at me angrily and said, "I'm not in a grade!"

I said, "How old are you?"

He said, "Six!"

Was he homeschooled?  He seemed too young to be there on his own.  I said, "Where's your mom?"

He said, "She picks me up later!"  He was annoyed with my line of questioning.

I said, "Who is your teacher?"

He said, "Mrs. Astorga."  She is a kindergarten teacher and he said it like I was the biggest idiot around for not already knowing that information.

I said, "Let's go inside and back to class."

He was not having that.  I started talking to him about his favorite colors, all the while nudging him along toward the building.  He was happy to chat about colors and order them by preference.  He forgot about being mad and we went into the office and the vice principal said, "Shep!  What are you doing out of class?"

I left him in her capable hands.  (And when an administrator knows a kid right off the bat like that, they are office frequent fliers!)

The whole exchange kind of delighted me because it reminded me of something Ramona would do.  I told my class and it delighted them too.  It's fun to be a grown up 3rd grader and look fondly at those kindergartners, so young and naive!

This week we've read stories about Elizabeth Cady Stanton and Susan B. Anthony.  As a capstone I showed them the clip of Sister Suffragette from Mary Poppins.  Of course I did.

Then I had the lyrics in my head all day:  though we adore men individually, we agree that as a group, they're rather stupid.

Those lyrics are a very low-key revenge for centuries of oppression, but I'm here for it.

Tragedy struck during lunch recess in the form of a lost toy dragon.  One of my girls was sobbing and had looked everywhere and asked everyone.  All the girls in my class were worked up into a frenzy of sympathy, huddled around her, hugging her and offering suggestions.  One of them, who has been the distraught owner of something lost a few times, said, "Don't worry.  I found my squishy and my earring.  Teacher helped me."

So, no pressure....

To try to stem the tide of disaster in the air, I sat down right then I sent an email to all the teachers.  I got a careful description and read it back for approval.  They had a few clarifications to improve my description.

After that, they seemed satisfied that it would be found.

I was not so sure.  There are some sticky fingers around there.  I told them that Finders Keepers wasn't so great when you lost something so if you find something you shouldn't just keep it, but try to find the owner.

After school, I got an email from the head lunch lady.  She had the dragon!  It had been left in the cafeteria!

My reputation as the finder of lost things remains intact!

Yesterday I just had a really good day at school.  I realized towards the end of the day that it could be related to the fact that I had six kids absent.  Even when you love everyone, it is just easier when you aren't so vastly outnumbered.

And I do love everyone.  I told Adam, "I feel so sad to have this school year end.  I love my class!"

He said, "Well that's good."

Except that I feel sad to have my class move on.  There are no guarantees for next year; some classes are just hard.

I'll enjoy these sunny days while I have them!

I get by with a little help from my friends

Our 3rd grade culture program is next Monday.  We would appreciate your thoughts and prayers at this difficult time....

Miriam's class is performing an African drum dance and the "drums" are yoga balls in baskets.  They needed to be inflated.

I agreed to help her after school.  We got the two air pumps the school owns.  One is old and the other is roughly from the Civil War era (I'm guessing).  I grabbed electric tape in my classroom because I have a little bit of everything in there.  I tried to patch up all the holes in the hose but it blew air on one side and kept falling out on the other side.  It took me 10 minutes to do one ball and we needed 23.

I drove home to get our little air compressor.  I figured it would be worth the time it took me to go fetch it.  As I was driving, it occurred to me that I had only ever used it on car tires and I didn't know what I needed to do to use it on balls.

I called Adam.

I called Mark.

I called Braeden.

None of them answered.  So I called my dad.

He explained what kind of attachment I needed.  I said, "OK, so where is it in my garage?"

Happily there was a little compartment on top of the air compressor with attachments.  I wasn't strong enough to open the little door but it was see through so I knew I had what I needed.  

I called my dad with the good news. 

He said, "Do you have a wrench to change the attachment?"

I said, "Do I need one?"

He said, "Yes."

I had already left home and I had already left Miriam alone with 23 yoga balls to inflate.  I figured somewhere in that school there was a wrench.

Walking into the school I saw Ethan, who is a custodian about Mark's age.  I asked his help.  He popped the little door open like someone who doesn't have arthritis in his hands.  I said, "Do you know how to attach this?  He looked at it for a few seconds and said yes and did it.  He didn't need a wrench, so apparently this air compressor is different than my dad's.  

I went to the gym and Miriam was merrily filling balls.  My air compressor was about twice as fast as hers so I think it was worth the trip.  

Emily came and talked to both of us about special ed. referrals while we worked.  She had her laptop balanced on her knees and was sitting on the steps while we all projected our voices over the sounds of two little engines that could.

One way or another, we get things done.

Eclipsed

So we have an insane robin.  

It first showed up a week ago and slammed itself against our window repeatedly.  Like for two hours!  I googled it, like you do, and read that sometimes robins see themselves reflected in a window and try to scare themselves (?) away to eliminate the competition.

I banged on the window and told the robin to go away and he did, but he has come back every day.  Our window is a mess.  Is it blood?  Is it snot from the robin's nose/beak?  I don't know.  But it's gross.

Adam put blue painter's tape on the window as an indicator, "Hey bird brain, this is a window."

Sunday morning I watched the bird aim for the middle of the x.

Yesterday morning it was smacking into the window again.  It was early enough that there was no reflection because it was barely light at all.  I told it, as I have several times, that it was dumb and should go away.

I texted my family the bird report (because this is the kind of riveting content you are promised when you are in fam-a-lam.)

Braeden texted this:

He's the same kid who used to take spiders out carefully on a piece of paper rather than squash them.

We had an assembly at school and a man named Tom Ballard (not the same Tom Ballard I grew up with) was the presenter.  Before the assembly started and I was observing him interact with students, he struck me as the happiest person I had seen in a long time.  

He talked to us all about his rocks.  He cuts rocks into slices and then into hearts and then he gives them away.  He had one for every student and teacher in our building.

He said that giving them away makes him happy.

His very demeanor changed my day.  I sent this text:

The heart rock guy eclipsed my insane robin angst.

And that wasn't the only eclipse that happened.

My joy at seeing my students eclipsed the groan I felt in every cell of my body when my alarm went off at 5:45 AM.

During the actual eclipse, I had 6 pairs of glasses for my students to share, and share them they did.  They would exclaim in excitement and then pass the glasses on to the next kid.  I'm almost always just so proud of those kids!  They are kind and patient and understanding of lack.  They get it.  There are only 6 pairs:  we can work with this.

Adam conducted a funeral yesterday and here is part of his talk.

His wise words and the way they make me feel eclipse everything:

“At this moment, light is quite literally coming back into the world. While we have been in here, others have been outside staring at the solar eclipse. During an eclipse, the sun is emitting as much light as it ever has. It is only our ability to see the light that is temporarily diminished.

"Perhaps as we sit here or as we have sat with our thoughts over the past week, we feel like light has gone out of our life. We need not confuse recognition with resignation. We can recognize that the light has dimmed, at least temporarily, but we are not resigned to the idea that it will never be restored.

"Jesus Christ is the light and life of the world.”

Weekend

It felt like an extra long weekend because we were home Friday, which was nice.  We shopped with Mark and did a lot of the Saturday things.

Friday evening we had dinner with Shannon and Chris.  It is fun getting together with them.  We have some pretty fundamental differences of opinion about some things and I think it is good for all of us to get together and talk and say, "But I disagree," and then talk about why.

It is very easy to get in echo chambers and only converse with people who agree with you, so this is good for our brains.

Plus we really like Shannon and Chris.  

We don't just talk about things we disagree on.  We also give each other TV show and movie and book and travel recommendations and laugh a lot and Chris gets Adam's analysis on the latest Supreme Court happenings.

Dinner with friends:  one more great thing about being empty nesters.

Friday evening, Braeden called from Chicago.  I wanted to hear all about his presentations and he wanted to tell me all about the art museum which he had been to twice (he got free admission as part of the conference).  He told me he'd "get to" his presentations and proceeded with the art.  He shared his screen with me and I admired all the pieces he had seen.  I have set my sights on going to Chicago!  At the conclusion of my art tour via Braeden's phone, he said, "Thank you for teaching me about art."

I mostly wanted to teach my children about the Gospel, then reading, and art was third so that made me happy.  

I was also glad to hear about the political science/networking side of his trip.  That boy is hustling to make a career for himself and it is good to watch.  I've always been a card carrying member (the founder in fact) of his fan club, so if he needs a letter of recommendation, I am ready.

Saturday Mark came over (Emma was feeling under the weather so watched conference at home) and we enjoyed him.

I felt humbled and also inspired by watching general conference.  There are so many ways I could do better.  It is good to be reminded and also encouraged.

I always like a good project and on Saturday I worked on making crayon initials for my students.  I had brought home all the broken crayons in my classroom and Adam and Mark helped me some to peel off the wrappers and break them.  I bought a silicone mold from Amazon and experimented with different methods and temperatures.  None of them turned out exactly how I was planning, but I still like them.

(I guess that could be a metaphor for life....)

I had more crayon pieces than I needed so I made extra letters.  Maybe this will be my new thing:  Christmas ornaments for them in October conference and crayon initials in April conference.

Adam and I took a windy walk by the Lindon temple between the second and third sessions of conference.  It is coming right along!

Sunday was more enjoying conference.  Emma came and did a puzzle while she watched which feels like all is right with the world.

I really loved conference.  The message I want to remember is that God loves me and wants me back.  He has provided many ways for me to draw nearer to Him and make covenants.  It's up to me to decide how much I want to participate and enjoy those blessings.

As soon as it was over, I said, "Who wants to make an appointment to go to the temple?"

Mark said, "The website will crash."

He was not wrong.  This was for the Mt. Timpanogos Temple:

I will try again.

We had all the kids over for dinner.  There were ten of us and I didn't take a picture of the table, but I cut daffodils from the front yard so it was pretty.  We got to meet Clarissa's new fiancé, Matthew, and we were happy to meet him. 

I'm always happy to have those kids around.

Now it is back to school.  Monday after spring break is not for the faint of heart.  They either traveled and are exhausted and their sleep schedule is messed up or more likely they were home and played video games and watched YouTube endlessly and their sleep schedule is messed up.

In either instance, they are not ready to learn.

May the odds be forever in our favor.

Grateful Friday

I am grateful to be home, even though my to do list stretches in front of me.

I am grateful for conference weekend.  I love it!  I am looking forward to being fed by the good word of God.

I am grateful we had our trip.  It was a good time.  I loved the beauty and sunshine and variety.  It is a beautiful world we live in!

It's nice that Southern California is there for Utah County to relocate to every fall and spring break.  The Veenkers were on our flight (he is in our stake presidency and is the one who asked me to speak in stake conference and I've forgiven him so it was fun to see them).  They told us about two other families in the stake they'd run into and we told them about our PG friends we'd hung out with there.  

I'm grateful for pictures Braeden has sent from the Art Institute of Chicago.  He is in Chicago presenting at a conference (when did he get to be such a grown up boy?!?) and I love that he 1) went to the art museum and 2) sent me pictures.  Having children that appreciate art makes me happy.

The thing I'm most grateful for today is Adam.

I am fortunate to have that guy.  He quietly figures out ways to get the first class seats on the flight for a great deal and strategically uses vouchers from his frequent Marriott stays to get us amazing beach front hotel rooms.  Nyla was amazed by how kind he was and I just take it for granted.  He'd drop us off and pick us up and make everything easy for us.  He is also the first one to swerve to see something interesting.  There is no way to quantify the amount of experiences I have had because I hitched my wagon to his star.  

Good morning

 

I am sitting on the balcony of maybe the best hotel I have ever stayed in.  This is my view and I love it.

Blogging on my phone is cumbersome so we will see how long this lasts.

We traveled light so I didn’t bring my laptop.

It has been a great trip and we have done all the touristy things.  Point Loma, Hotel Coronado, Old Town, great Mexican food, great seafood, Balboa Park, Seaport Village, the USS Midway (more of a drive by than anything of that one, but it stressed me out when we did the tour—the deeper we went on that ship, the more I hated it.)

One happy surprise of the trip is that Emma’s good friend Vanessa and her mom Nyla are also in San Diego.  We met them in Old Town Tuesday night for dinner and then met up again at Balboa Park Wednesday afternoon and they spent the rest of the day/evening with us.  We spent most of the time on the beach outside our hotel.  The girls and Adam swam in the ocean and Nyla and I sat in beach chairs, wearing cardigans looking very much like the middle aged school teachers we are.

It was fun to have a teacher friend on the beach and I staged a campaign to get her to come to Bonneville.  I would love to work with her.

Now I will try for more pictures:

I took this picture to show Enoch how much leg room I had on the plane.  Take that, tall kid.  When you are the short one, you need to capitalize on any advantage you find.

Here we are in Smoky, which what we named our rental car.  He wasn’t actually smoky but had a very new car smell.  It was because of his color.

Balboa Park








The beach:








As always, Adam has
been the hero of the trip.  He makes good things happen.

Here are the cute girls at Hotel Coronado, looking properly posh:




That is all for now.  I know the formatting is wacky on this post and I will fix it and have more to say when I am on my laptop!  

Just for my mom:  here is a post!

Of mice and men

Mostly of mice.

It wasn't our best trip to Nevada.  We caught over ten mice in traps which was horrifying.  Through unspoken agreement, Adam is the one who deals with all the mice in traps and I am very appreciative.  On Sunday morning I pinned him down to have a real conversation if he wants to abandon this whole adventure because every time we come, there seems to be some sort of mishap. (We also had an under the kitchen sink leak.)

I feel guilty, like he is doing it just for me.

He assures me he isn't.

I went out into the kitchen (carefully, tentatively, checking the mousetraps just in case) and I looked around the beautiful room that I love and out the windows at the falling snow (Elko County springs are not for the faint of heart) and it is worth it.  It is very often a hassle and/or money pit, but I also love doing it all with Adam.  I have learned new things about him and learned new ways to appreciate him and that is kind of exciting after almost 30 years of marriage.

So we will forge on.

And I am going to try to convince an exterminator to come from Elko and figure out where the mice are getting in.

I wish we could figure out how to keep a cat around to catch the mice outside, but my mom said cats in the neighborhood are disappearing.

Saturday morning I saw a mountain lion/cougar/puma/choose your own adventure out the window down by the barn.

Do mountain lions eat cats?  That feels weird.

Wolves are officially in the area too, not to mention coyotes.

I don't know.  Now I'm just rambling about all the reasons I'm not going to let QE go out and play by herself any time soon.

As ever, it was nice to be near family in the neighborhood.  On Saturday morning we went to help my aunt Olivia and uncle Brad move into my cousin Hannah's new house that used to be my uncle Drew's house.  It's confusing so don't worry if that doesn't make sense.  Hannah and her family are in Europe for four months and Olivia and Brad are living there until they can build a new house.  

The Dahl family:  we re-use houses and names apparently.

Emma and I took a walk with my mom and Olivia (sister Olivia) in the afternoon and stayed and visited with my parents a little.  

We enjoyed a nice rest of the afternoon with our two kids.  We listened to music and Adam and Mark attached doors to a cabinet and Emma and I did a puzzle.  We went back to visit my parents and stopped and picked up my jacket I had left at Olivia and Brad's.  

I love being related to the entire neighborhood.

After church yesterday we had a lovely Easter celebration at my sister Olivia's house.  Aunt Olivia and Brad and my aunt Claudia were there as well as my parents and two of the Cobian family's friends, Riller and Gustavo.  The dinner was delicious and then Olivia had planned a very nice program.  We read scriptures and shared testimonies and sang songs.  I cried.  Olivia is a wonder as she orchestrated it all, switching between English and Spanish with panache.

I loved hearing testimonies from Olivia and my parents and my aunts and uncle.  

Like the rest of the Christian world, Easter has been on my mind.  I'm grateful for the Atonement of Jesus Christ.  I'm grateful for the hope and peace it gives to me knowing that this life is not the end and that I can repent and be forgiven.  Since I've known those things all my life, I think I take them for granted more than I should.  It's nice to have holidays to pause and remember and appreciate.

Adam and I drove back to Utah a day earlier than we'd planned.  We're having a Goldilocks problem because our bed there is not just right!  My neck and back, which have been going along swimmingly, were not happy with the bed situation.  Also, since we're going to San Diego tomorrow morning it seemed like a good plan to have a day home to regroup.

We weren't sad about leaving the mice behind either if the truth be told.