More Gratitude

1. I'm thankful that my mom taught me how to sew.  I love picking out patterns and fabrics.  I love spending a day creating something.  It's therapy to work through something a step at a time.  I'm thankful for my Pfaff 1222, my high school graduation present.  It still runs like a dream.
2. Ibuprofen.  I'm a whimp.  I don't like the slightest pain or discomfort.  I don't take it daily, but I take a lot, and it helps.
3. I love trees.  I'm getting excited to see the blossoms and all the leaves budding out.  I love their bark, branches, and unique shapes.  I love the birds and squirrels that hang out in them.  I think trees are almost like people.  They have their own personalities.    

Monday of Spring Break

I still feel crumby today, but I had signed-up to deliver milk to the women's shelter, so I ventured out.  Of course it started hailing.  What kind of spring break is this!  Actually it only lasted a few minutes and it made me feel good to donate milk.  It also made me feel good to buy all healthy, fresh vegetables and tofu at Winco.  I'm going to be making purees and using them in my sneaky recipes.  The sun came out with some blue skies.  My pansies are happy, and Terry is taking me to Blue Cow - medicine for my sore throat.  I've finished 4 books that I've been reading since Christmas.  I have my sewing machine out.  I've ordered the crochet patterns, and cleaned one room.  I think everything will be good.

Plans

At school I have to write lesson plans for each day.  These are my plans for Spring Break - which by the way, started yesterday and last  night I had a sore throat, and I've been feeling crumby all day - not a great start, but I'm still planning on great things.

I'll have to clean my house, write the primary newsletter, and spend a couple days on report cards, but after that I want to see Dad and Mom, Nan, Andrea, and friends.  Someone should be good for lunch, or a movie.  I have material for 2 baby quilts and a queen sized quilt for my bed.  I want to get at least one of them done.  I want to try a recipe, from Jerry Seinfeld's wife, for chicken sandwiches.  I also have a new cookbook from the sneaky chef, where she adds vegetables to everything, like cauliflower puree to macaroni and cheese.  I want to try a couple of those recipes in an attempt to find some standard recipes that are more healthy.  I also am ordering the patterns for these cute baby shoes that I want to learn how to crochet.  I have four books coming from Amazon on Wednesday so I'll be reading too.  I'd like to learn how to knit and go over to Eugene and see Ty, but I think both of those things will have to wait until summer.

Green Chutes

A very cool place has opened in the revitalized Collister Shopping Center.  It's an art gallery-studio-cafe-hangout-co-op.  I went to the grand opening with my artist friend Mary.  It's a mini Art in the Park with lots of places to sit and relax.  I think I want to hangout there.  I want a Green Chutes t-shirt too.  I'm definitely going back to buy some button beaded jewelry.  One of my former students was there with some of his work to be displayed.  I loved his prints - bright, funny, and happy.  He'll be a successful animator soon.  Right now he has to finish high school, but his name is Andrew Adams and I knew him when he drew darling cartoons on his fourth grade papers.

The Tale of Holly How

I've been reading ahead of my book group.  Our November selection is a mystery from a series call The Cottage Tales of Beatrix Potter.  I love Beatrix Potter and English cottages.  I've decided to spend a good deal of my summer reading this series, out on a patio swing, with lemonade, and maybe even cucumber sandwiches.  It's like a cross between the books of James Herriot and The First Ladies Detective Agency in Botswana.  The animals talk and help solve the mysteries and it works.  I've been delighted.

We were watching the basketball tournament this week and one of the teams were the badgers - maybe Wisconsin.  I've always thought of badgers as being mean and stinky, but now that I've read about Bosworth Badger, I really like them.  Bosworth keeps the history and genealogy of the badgers.  He has a beautiful library in The Brockery.  I like him better than Professor Galileo Newton Owl, and I've always loved owls.

This morning I was reading a chapter that started at breakfast in The Brockery.  There are a variety of animals at the table since the badgers take in permanent and temporary lodgers.  They were all rested and full of exuberant energy and interesting plans for the day--always a wonderful day, because animals rarely worry or imagine the worst of what is to come, as people do.  They are generally planning a picnic, or a foraging expedition, or just loafing on a quiet river bank.  I thought wouldn't it be great to have toast and marmalade with them.  What a way to start the day.

Last Minute Thriller

Watch for him in the finale.

Bry came over on Thursday night to watch BYU play Florida.  They lost in overtime, and it would have been a disappointing evening except we turned to watch the end of American Idol to see who was being sent home.  Bry has never watched a complete episode of Idol, so he didn't realize how momentous it was.  Casey, a genius of a musician, had the fewest votes so he had to sing for his life.  The judges never save anyone this early in the competition.  They weren't even to the top ten.  But when Casey started singing, Ryan stopped everything.  The judges said he didn't need to sing, they were absolutely saving him.  The eleven left will go on the summer tour instead of ten.  That five minutes on Idol was so much more dramatic than the basketball game.  The evening was thrilling.

Shout for Joy

As the primary secretary, I've been going down the hall to check on nursery, and then slipping into the RS lesson and spending 30-40 minutes.  It's just been years since I've been able to go, and I really miss the women and the spiritual boost.

Last Sunday the lesson was on the word of wisdom, and one of the quotes stated that in the preexistence when we found out that we would receive a body, we shouted for joy.  You looked around the room at a good number of middle aged women and wondered how many of them would shout for joy now when looking in the mirror at their body.  Since about the age of 12 most of us have struggled in some way with body image.  I can't say I love the roll around my middle or the fact that what few eyelashes I have are stubby and blond.  There's about 15 pounds of me that I don't like at all, but I am happy and grateful for the body I have.

I've been especially thankful for the good health I've always enjoyed.  I like my brunette hair and have never desired to be a blond (maybe a little auburn).  I have good eyesight, and even now that I use glasses for distance and reading, I can get away without them.  I'm glad I didn't blast music into my ears through headphones.  Hearing aides just aren't the same.  Physically I've been able to walk, climb, lift, carry, and work.  I have good balance.  I've never been too athletic, but I'm not competitive either so sports weren't a priority.  I'm most grateful that I was able to be pregnant and give birth.  That whole miracle was thrilling and enjoyable every minute.

So a shout for joy every morning might be in order.  What I'll be working on will be making good food choices, and staying limber and active.  I need to take calcium, vitamins, and get check-ups.  Most important I need to learn how to let my spirit have control over my physical body.  I'll work on those things.

So when I think about it, I could shout for joy.

Gratitude

Just a few things that I'm grateful for:

• The sky.  The colors of blue and the colors of a sunrise and sunset.  The clouds.  It's peaceful and always changing, and beautiful.
• Buds on the trees and spring plants sprouting out of the ground.  New life; strong and a pretty color of green.
• Little kid's voices and the happy, crazy things they talk about.
• I'm thankful to work in an elementary school because kids will skip, and twirl, and dance down the hall.
• Fluffy, warm socks.

Sunday's Spiritual Thoughts

It might be because it was High Council Sunday, but I really didn't get much out of the talks, except maybe a little sleepy.  I was struck by the music though.  Our choir director was an inspired call.  Who knew she was so talented.  Even when the choir is small in number, they are beautiful.  I love the arrangements and the music that she chooses.  I had never heard the song that they sang this Sunday, but I want to get a copy.  I need to write the director a thank you note.  She really amazes me.

The sacrament hymn was In Humility, Our Savior.  I was struck by the lines, Fill our hearts with sweet forgiving; Teach us tolerance and love.  Let our prayers find access to thee  In thy holy courts above.  I need to focus more on having a forgiving heart, tolerance, and showing more love to others.  I've also been struggling with prayers.  I want my prayers to be more meaningful, not just words.  I want to communicate and talk to my Heavenly Father in a more intimate way.  I want to know Him and my Savior better.  I want to recognize answers better.

Our closing hymn was an old fashioned one, You Can Make the Pathway Bright.  We sang it a lot more when I was young than we do now.  Here's a few lines that spoke to me:
You can make the pathway bright, Fill the soul with heaven's light
If there's sunshine in your heart;
You can speak the gentle word  To the heart with anger stirred,
If there's sunshine in your heart;
You can do the kindly deed  To your neighbor in his need,
If there's sunshine in your heart;
And your soul will glow with love  From the perfect Light above,
If there's sunshine in your heart today.
I want to do these things.  My dad has sunshine in his heart.  He "sends a shining ray" to everyone he meets.  I want to have that enthusiasm, optimism, and love of everything that he has.  I need to do more kindly deeds, and speak kindly. 

These were my spiritual thoughts on Sunday.  I rose on Monday morning and told myself that I was going to have sunshine in my heart that day.  It didn't really work out.  I had an early morning meeting which amounted to a lot of questions, problems, and stress.  My art mom came in without a plan.  She brought a huge mess of materials and just let them have a creative free-for-all for about an hour.  It was loud, and messy, and in the end they created blobs that I made them take home immediately.  We had two hours of science and I really don't like (or understand) the unit on physics that I have to teach.  After school I went to a two hour meeting for our teacher's association, which is being slapped around by the legislature.  It was depressing and in some ways an angry meeting.  As we left at 6:30 it was pouring outside, and I didn't have any sunshine in my soul.  I need to try again tomorrow. 

Opera in Boise

One of the students in my class had a lead in Opera Idaho's Children production of Mikado.  It's a Gilbert and Sullivan opera that I would guess was  popular at the same time as the Hope and Crosby roadshows.  Terry went with me today to the matinee.  He was thinking at intermission that they probably should have paid us $10 dollars to sit through it, but there were some redeeming moments.  The Green Show featured a little kid chorus and they were pretty good.  It was held in the Egyptian and I love that place.  I also love kicking around downtown.  If only it was a little warmer.  My student did a nice job.  He's very dramatic, talented, and mature.  He wants to be a director someday.  I think he's going to make it.  I'll be able to say I knew him when.

Oh the Places You Can Go

Here are some of the places I love to go and waste time:

Zen Habits

Everything Everywhere 

More Words Work

I've been wasting time today.  Once again I'm avoiding report cards.  It happens four times a year.

A Cooking Blog?

I have to post this story from a blog I read because it made me laugh out loud.

There are only three reason why I would rip the shirt off my body in public:

1.  If a kitten were on fire and I needed to smother him, put him out, cuddle him, give him food, and make him mine forever.

2.  If I discovered a bee… a ferocious, man-eating bee, down my shirt.

3.  If a handsome young fireman needed my shirt to wipe his sweaty brow after saving a grandmother and her fluffy orange cat from the top of a burning tree.  But even then… I’d make the fireman take his shirt off first.  I have standards.

Yesterday, I ripped my shirt off in a spazzy, screaming fit on Main Street in Santa Monica.  There was no kitten nor fireman in sight.  There was a bee down my shirt.  A live bee… buzzing down my shirt.  Standing in front of a bike shop and across the street from a busy cafe, I full on FREAKED OUT and tore my shirt off my body.  There was also FREAK OUT screaming involved.   Then I spent another agonizing ten seconds trying to brush the bee off my body with the shirt I was supposed to be wearing.

Then I was just standing there… on the street… shirtless… in my ugly bra… the one that looks like my grandma’s sportsbra.  I just stood there, holding my shirt and staring squarely at the ground… at the bee struggling to walk away… at the bee that had rendered me shirtless.  I knew that if I looked up from the ground I would be mortified times one million.

As I’m struggling with the sleeves, trying to get my shirt back on… I see a pair of feet stroll past me.  I didn’t see one of those red tipped seeing eye sticks, so this person was clearly a seeing person.  A witness.  Ok. Carry on.

My sleeves were all wonky, I couldn’t button my shirt inside out.  I was a hot mess… so I had to take my shirt off (again!) invert the spazzy sleeves and put my shirt back on.  That’s twice that I’ve taken my top off… Enough!

I never did look up from the ground.  I never did blush.  I did, however, want to dig a whole through the concrete and tunnel home instead of putting my shirt back on and riding home.  But that’s just what I did. 

And if anyone was pointing and laughing… well, I guess I can’t blame them.  I was quite the site.

Lessons were learned.  Always wear a cute bra.

This is actually a cooking blog that I love.  Her name is Joy, which I love.  The blog is joythebaker.com and if you go to Meet Joy at the top there's a recipe for Chocolate Peanut Butter Pretzel Brownies that I'm dying to try.  If you go to the Recipe Index it starts with Breads, Breakfast (which includes things like chocolate glazed baked doughnut muffins), Cakes, Chocolate, Cookies, Creamy, and Cupcakes....and also includes large sections on Frozen, Holiday, Snacks, and Sweets....which I love!  I recommend a visit.

Oh, and she has a cute cat named Jules Stevens, which I love.

Irish Eyes are Shining

My principal is Irish with fair skin and great green eyes.  Her grandparents live in Dublin and called her on Skype during school.  Today she treated the staff to Irish soda bread with clotted cream and jam, Irish cream for the coffee drinkers, and Irish oatmeal (steel-cut oats) with all the fixings-walnuts, raisins, and brown sugar.  Then in the afternoon frosted shamrock sugar cookies and tea appeared.  All during the day she was drawing names from a hat and handing out prizes.  I won a $10 Subway sandwich card.  Kids would get to choose a gold wrapped chocolate from her leprechaun pot when their names were drawn.  I took pictures of all the kids in green.  One of my girls has a green cast on her arm and green nail polish.  We also had drawings in my class for anything green I could find in the prize box.  After school many of us met our principal at the local pub for a little Irish cheer.  Mine was a cheery diet Pepsi.

Entertaining

I like American Idol this season.  I like the new judges, especially Steven Tyler.  Maybe tomorrow I'll be able to get a picture from the website, but right now, Steven is wearing a purple, patterned, sequined jacket - not a man's blazer type jacket- a Joan Collins type jacket.  He also has four necklaces.  One is a dollar store St. Paddy's Day necklace, another has four big shark's teeth, one has a white skull, and the other has some sort of big gold ornament on it.  He's so entertaining.

DWA

All of the 6th, 8th, and 11th graders in the Boise District take a Direct Writing Assessment.  One Monday and Tuesday this week, I joined with 15 other teachers to score the sixth graders' writing.  They had 90 minutes to write an essay on a place in or near Boise that they like to visit.  We read a lot of papers on the mall, Whahooz, Roaring Springs, and Bogus Basin.  You could tell the socioeconomic conditions of the school by the topics.  Some were writing about McCall, Tamarak, and rafting the Payette, while others talked about a hole in the dirt out by the parking lot where they played with little cars and army men.  I was struck by the fact that 95% (or more) of the papers mentioned food.  I guess all 12 year olds are hungry.  I loved the ones that wrote about riding bikes along the greenbelt (and stopping at the Ram for lunch), floating the Boise River (and taking a picnic), and playing in trees, ponds, and ditches of their neighborhood parks (and taking snacks).  The highest scoring paper in my class was written about Blue Cow, a frozen yogurt place.  Some of the other interesting papers were about Mountain Home (?), Chuck-a-Rama, and Vista Pawn.  It was great peeking inside their minds for two days.

Gratitude

It was mentioned at church that the youth speaker, a twelve year old girl, had heard a conference address by Henry B. Eyring a couple years ago, where he spoke of writing a journal where he recorded blessings.  He felt it was important to his family that a record be kept of the evidences of the Lord's hand in his family's life.  I remember that talk and how it really struck me, but I didn't do anything about it.  This young girl did.  She started writing about a blessing in her life, or something she was grateful for every day.  She has stuck with it ever since.  I'm so impressed with that.

I might not record things every day, but I do mentally go through my blessing and express my gratitude to my Heavenly Father through prayer.  I'd like this blog to be a record of blessings and gratitude too.  So here are three things that I am grateful for today:
1.  The McClure family in Georgia.  They have it together, and they are a happy family.
2.  My fifth grade teacher, Mrs. Thomas, who read Rifles for Watie to us.  I'll never forget the book, and I've used it to entice reluctant boy readers.  This month another one had success.
3.  The missionaries in Japan are all accounted for and safe after the earthquake and tsunami.  A miracle.

VT and HT

My visiting teacher and I were having an argument on Sunday about who was the worse visiting teacher.  I know how bad she is, and I know how bad I am, and so I know I'm the worse.  She's actually one of my favorite VTs ever.  She's funny, smart, entertaining, and doesn't come over and inconvenience me.  When she substitutes at my school we count it.  If she subs for me, her note at the end of the day counts.  I walked into book club with her this week and it counts.  Some months we could count 10 visits or more.  She also thinks about me, probably prays for me, and I know she'd do whatever she could do for me if I was in need.  Most of the time I just need a laugh, or a good conversation, or a sub.  A prayer never hurts too.

The thing that brought about our argument was the sacrament theme which made us each feel guilty, VT and HT.  The man that spoke on home teaching told a story that caused a collective silent gasp and some tears.  He told of growing up just a few houses away from his Uncle Lloyd and how connected they were.  He describe him as a WWII vet with the build of Superman.  Uncle Lloyd came down to see all of the fireworks that they had one Fourth of July, but said he wouldn't be around that evening.  He had seen and heard too many explosions during the war and just wanted to spend the night in a rocking chair with a lemonade.  After that his young nephew never liked fireworks.  He told stories of how they spent every birthday, holiday, and celebration together.  Uncle Lloyd was his idol.  Then when he entered the 7th grade his family moved out of state.  He missed everything terribly, but especially his Uncle.  Later during this year plans were begun for a family reunion.  He was so excited to see Uncle Lloyd again.  When he talked about his excitement to his parents, they were confused.  Then they explained that Uncle Lloyd wouldn't be at the family reunion.  He wasn't really his uncle.  He was their home teacher. 

DST

I can't remember ever forgetting about Daylight Savings Time.  Terry is the last person that would ever let that happen.  He has reminders that pop-up on the computer and he's always checking all the details.  For more than a decade he has done all the clock changing in the house and cars.  So imagine my surprise when he realized at 9:45 that it was really 10:45 and he had missed a meeting.  It threw off my whole day.  For some reason, missing that one hour meant that I didn't get papers graded or recorded, I didn't get my lunch packed, I didn't get a chance to blog, and I didn't get a chance to read my book.  I'm blaming Terry.

Momentous Meeting

On Saturday we met Bryan's girlfriend's little boy.  He is adorable, with big eyes and long lashes like his mom.  He's skinny with blond hair that makes him look like Bry.  I loved his little boy voice and his imaginative play.  He also likes books which makes me happy.  When he went outside with Terry and Bry to check out a car, I just watched the three manly guys doing manly things like kicking tires.  He was adorable and I think they would all be a very happy, adorable family.

Grandparents Day

To promote sales at our annual Book Fair, our school invites grandparents to lunch.  They make more money during the lunch hour that day, than they do the rest of the week.  The upper grades don't get as much participation as the younger grades, but we did have 13 grandparents in our room today.  The sixth graders were so cute when they introduced their grandparents and told a little about them.  They said things like, "she makes the best cookies" and "he took me ice fishing once".  We spent 45 minutes just talking to them and asking them questions.  They come from all over the country and sometimes from out of the country.  Today we had some who grew up in Los Angeles and others that grew up on farms and ranches.  Some went to parochial schools, some in one-room school houses (16 students in 8 grades), and some went to school right in Boise.  They tell the kids what they did for entertainment, what their chores were, what school was like, what they ate, how much a dollar would buy, things that were dangerous when they were young, and important events that they've lived through.  It was time well spent.  Everyone learned something, and enjoyed it.  Some even scored a new book.

An Episode of Lost

Attendees of the Town Hall Meeting

The morning after the Town Hall meeting craziness, Terry said he had been thinking about the meeting being an episode of Lost. What if we were stuck on an island with the people in the choir room?  It was hilarious.  We know that the 2 of the 3 standing in the middle would not be our chosen leaders.  We knew that the two women in front of me needed to be dragged away by the smoke.  I thought all day about which people who spoke might be good to align ourselves with.  When talking about raising revenue with cigarette taxes, one man asked how many packs a day we needed to start smoking to pay for education.  I think he might be the Hurley of the group.  The woman that lost to Julie Ellsworth by 6 votes was there.  She was smart and spoke calmly.  She reminded me of Sun.  Luna would definitely be Ben - one of the others -on the other side of the island.  His 3 education reform bills are the Dharma Initiative.  I've shared this with other teachers that were there and it's taken on a life of its own.  Now when we're at a rally or district meeting and recognize some of the meeting participants, we say, "There's Jack", or "I think that's one of the others".  In these grim political times, it makes us all happy.

Political Activism

I go to sleep every night with the Luna bills on my mind, and it's the first thing I think about each morning.  I'm so thankful to Terry who has e-mailed, stapled my signs, and come along to events.  I'm ready to stop thinking about it for a few days.  The 3rd bill hasn't come out of the Senate Ed. Committee yet, and we can't collect recall signatures until April 16th.

Tuesday morning I met a good part of the teachers from my school at 7:00 AM to picket on the corner of Gowen and Federal Way.  We had a lot of action with Micron employees heading to work and people stopping at Tully's and Albertsons for coffee.  It was 27 degrees outside and the wind was blowing.  We stuck it out for over an hour until we had to leave for work.  We were freezing, but it was a lot of fun.  I work with some funny people.  One suggested that we start every day like that.  Invigorating!

My BEA partner and our music teacher.

I've been to two sign making parties.  I love the LunA$$y sign.  Mine said "Idaho State House converted to Luny Bin".

Tuesday night Terry and I went to our legislators Town Hall Meeting.  If someone had lit a match, the place would have exploded.  Earlier that day the house had passed the labor bill.  It was an intense and interesting 90 minutes.  Two of our three legislators had reason to squirm.  There were several people sitting right in front of them holding "We will remember" signs.

Today (Wednesday afternoon) we went to the rally at the State House.  We were able to surround the block two or three deep.  There was chanting, loud music, speakers, and horn honking.  It felt good.  I know there will be some recalls and these laws will be repealed.  There will also be some educators running for office.  It's going to be a long process, but I'm on the winning side.

Going to Church is Good

On Sunday our bishop talked a little about the good experiences he has had going to church through the years.  He called the experiences sweet; a place where he found peace and comfort.  He also found love and caring from his ward family.  This is just how I feel.  Going to church is good.  There were years when I went to church in California, sat on the back row, and silently disagreed with some of the things being said, but then it dawned on me that Sunday was my favorite day of the week.  It was peaceful and happy for three hours in church.  I loved the people that were there.  I want my son and step-sons to know that just going to church is peaceful and sweet.  It's good to go every week.

Our new RS presidency has chosen, "As sisters in Zion we all work together" as their theme.  In their first lesson they had all of us brainstorm what our perfect world would be like.  Everyone listed things like being safe, fairness, working together, caring about one another, good health, beauty, and on and on.  Then we listed all the things that are keeping us from living this "Zion" life.  We had things like greed, selfishness, lack of time, and several things that would fall in the category of "the natural man".  Then our president talked about working together now to build a perfect world.  When things were listed in front of us, it was easy to see that there were many things that we can be doing right now.  I'm going to make a list of things that I can do and start.   

Gender Confusion

I thought it would be a cute for church.

I went to a baby shower yesterday for one of my former Laurels.  I had checked on both her registries and didn't find anything too exciting to bring, but there was one clue as the sex, some pink baby mitts, for girls.  So imagine my surprise as I sat my pink gift bag on the table of blue packages.  His name was printed on the cupcakes!  So along with a stuffed monkey and pink blankie, this what I got Peyton.

Tailgate

I've been to meetings, rallies, and town halls.  We've wore buttons, made signs, and e-mailed legislators.  Yesterday I went to a tail gate party and rally in the rain.  This is what I've concluded.  As upset as I am about these anti-teacher bills, it would be a lot easier to handle if I wasn't dieting.  What fun is tailgate party if you cant eat the hotdogs, chips and cookies.  (There was even a cremated dog left on the grill.)  When I'm leaving the State House damp and cold, it would be great to stop at Flying M with friends for hot chocolate and a big scone.  Every time Terry has joined me, we drive past Chicago Connection on our way home.  A pepperoni, mushroom pizza would comfort me.  I'm just saying, this legislative session and this diet have been a double whammy.

Might Join the Vibe Tribe

Zumba CD

Terry is starting week 8 of P90X.  He's a guy that has always exercised, but right now he's thinking that this program really isn't designed for guys his age.  I haven't really started.  I've experimented.  I've gotten to know Tony Horton a bit and spend 45 minutes to an hour with him 5 days a week.  I like him, but some mornings I really don't want to see him. 

Now I have a chance to try out the Zumba DVDs.  There's a group from church meeting on Thursday nights and I'm going to join them.  I was really excited last week...and forgot!  This week I'm going.  I might have to invest in my own DVDs.  I think Terry would take a break from Tony and do some Latin moves.  He'd be good at it.

Trio of Cowboys No More

It was a rough week for my cowboys.  John Wayne was eliminated from American Idol and didn't make the top 25.  I think that was a big mistake, and I don't even like country music.  My Amazing Race cowboys Jet and Cord were in big trouble down in Australia and would have been eliminated if it hadn't been a double episode.  They made up time in the second half.  Hopefully they're back in the saddle until the trail ends.

DWA Day

This is the day that all sixth graders take the Direct Writing Assessment.  I teach writing to the whole sixth grade so I was anxious about their skills and readiness.  The prompt this year was an easy one for all of them to relate to; write about a place in or near Boise that you like to visit.  All but one of the 96 got busy and did their best.  In the afternoon I taught two writing classes and we just celebrated their work.  Anyone who wanted to could share what they wrote.  The first girl who volunteered is an average student with a cute personality.  I was almost brought to tears!  It was soooo good and I was so proud.  I know we have a lot of strong, solid writers.  I can't wait until the 14th and 15th.  I'm one of the volunteers that will be correcting all of them.  I think we'll have to celebrate again when all the results come in.

Political Action Update

I went to a three hour meeting of our teacher's association on Monday after school, which was intense, emotional, and scary.  A statewide walk-out was in the works.  They were hoping to close all the schools in Idaho.  We were to spend the day not in our classrooms, but out in our communities educating people on the bills that are on the fast track in the House.  We held a meeting at our own school on Tuesday and that went for another hour.  Today we were receiving e-mails all day long with more developments.  Now the walk-out has been canceled, but they're planning all kinds of actions that we'll be involved in starting tomorrow.  I think we'll need something powerful and big to get our message out there, and to get the House to slow down and listen.  It's not a good time to be a teacher.  We're being attacked by our own State Superintendent.  It's Lunacy!

The Fizz!

Toasting to a good time.

Last week I had a student that brought in root beer floats for his birthday treats.  I wasn't expecting the "Fizz".  Three years ago his mom had seen these crazy things at an ice cream shop.  She then found them online and ordered a case.  She said that at the time you could order 50 or a case.  The case was only 20 dollars more, so she's been using these and giving them away ever since. 

Bottoms up!

You fill the Fizz cup with any kind of ice cream, then screw it onto the soda bottle.  When you gently squeeze the bottle, the soda flows up a tube and showers down on the ice cream.  There's an opening on top of the cup to drink out of, or stick a straw in.  The kids at school had a blast!  These floats with the Fizz kept them enthralled for a good half hour. 

The best thing is they're reusable.  I snatched 7 of them that kids didn't want.  The bad news is that this company took their idea on the show Shark Tank a few years ago.  Now they sell 4 or 12 at a time for about $2 a piece.  I was ready to buy a case and start handing them out at family reunions, giving them as VT gifts, taking them to potlucks, and on and on.  Now I'll just have to take care of the 7 I have and bring them out for special occasions only.

Girl's Night with the Academy

I've been going to Lydia's Academy Award party for over a decade.  She's the best host.  Her house is gorgeous.  Her basement is just real (with wood paneling).  It's the most fun.  The food is fabulous.  The TV is big.  The commentary is quick, sharp, and witty.  There are games, prizes, ballots, gift bags, and boas and boyfriends.  Best of all it just a Girl's Night.

Drinks are spread out on the treadmill.  We all bring food to match our favorite movie, and go home with a bag of movie candy prizes, Hershey kisses for each time we see our movie star boyfriend, DVDs, bling, bottles of wine, and more.
 
This year the food winner made cupcakes decorated like the martians from Toy Story 3.  I brought shrimp because all the daycare kids were shrimps.  It was a stretch, but it worked for my diet.  Jan brought chicken on skewers that was suppose to be squirrel meat from "Winter's Bone".  They were good and worked for my diet too.

My boyfriend was Keith Urban, I had 13 correct picks (middle of the road), won a book, Six Weeks to a Hollywood Body, and didn't bring home a bottle of wine because I still haven't used the one from last year. (I was going to cook up some great sauces with it that I learned how to make at one of Rebecca's classes.)  Best Picture for "The King's Speech" was a unanimous pick for us.  We loved the dresses and Anne Hathaway.

Next year will be the same - GREAT!  You just can't mess with perfection.   

Sunday

I want to jot down something from church each week that impressed me, or touched me in some way.  So this is the first installment. 

The speaker in church told a story of integrity that was related to her at her father's funeral.  A man wanted to purchase a food market in this small Idaho town and had asked her father, who was a small town lawyer, to check out the purchase and handle the legal work.  When her father reported back to the man that it was indeed a sound business decision, he said only the price was wrong.  The purchaser was excited to get the market, and for a better price.  Then the lawyer told him that the price was too low.  The seller had a prime location, he had made improvements to the property, he had built up a quality business, and now this sell would be his reward for a lifetime of work, and his retirement.  The lawyer told his client it was worth more, and to pay more was the right thing to do.  The man wondered who the lawyer was working for, but in the end, did pay the higher price.  He said he never regretted that decision.  It was the right thing to do.

Cravings

Here's a few things that sound really good, but I'm not going to eat them for another month or so: 

• popcorn that they sell at school on Fridays
• whole grain goldfish crackers
• a peanut butter and jam sandwich on multi-grain bread
• and of course pizza

Funny that there aren't sweets on the list.  It is hard to hand out Twix, Smarties and Laffy Taffy to the safety patrol at the end of each week for payment.  I just want to snack on one after another while I check my e-mail, but I think that's more habit than cravings.