Chuckie Cheese at 10 AM

I have five very cute grandkids.  They were all at Hudson's birthday party at Chuckie Cheese.  Everyone had a great time for 2 1/2 hours.  Hudson was one big grin, with a mohawk.  I was impressed with the event organizers there.  It was a perfect party for a 5 going on 6 year old.  Pizza, balloons, games, rides, cake, giant furry cartoon characters, prizes, a crown, gifts of Legos, guns, and trucks.  Who could ask for anything more?  

Huds and Tanner don't look like little kindergarteners anymore.  They're just kids.  It sure happens fast.

I had never been there before.  I must not have been a very good mother.  Thank goodness "the village" helped me raise Ty and he wasn't video game/arcade game deprived.

 

Just Have to Share

It's probably funnier since I know this animal loving art teacher, but she wrote this in an e-mail:


How to make your own Jackson Pollock - by Murray
When you are home alone and feeling creative try this fun activity:
In the kitchen find the drawer with cat treats. In the front of the drawer are heavy cans of food to keep dogs from getting to the treats. You will use these cans for your painting. First, chew on the drawer a little while you pry it open. If you'd like, it might be helpful to use the drawer hardware below for leverage. If you break it, don't worry, anyone with thumbs can buy a new one at home depot.

When you get the drawer open, carefully chew on the side of the can until you puncture it. You will need at least three cans in contrasting colors so choose wisely. In my drawer, I chose green enchilada sauce, petite diced tomatoes and a can of black beans. Also, i find it works best with two to three puncture holes, but one will work if you have a small canvas/kitchen floor. Remove the punctured cans one at a time and drop on the floor. You will want to drop them hard so they roll and create a splatter. Be sure your splatters of color overlap in a fractal pattern, just like a real Jackson Pollock. Continue dropping and rolling until you are happy with your work - or until your dog brain gets tired.

Then, step back and enjoy the masterpiece you have created. Lastly, reward yourself by eating the cat treats tucked away in the back of the drawer. Eat as many bags as you want want, you've earned it!

I haven't ever met Murray, but I think that's a great name for a dog.

New Math

I remember the "new math" of the sixties and early seventies.  Actually, all I remember is using [sets] and input/output functions.  We're doing new math again.  I spent Wednesday at a workshop, which was really good, but I'm still concerned about being ready to teach this stuff next year.  I'd just like to let parents of students, K-8th, to know a couple things.  First, a vocabulary lesson.  We will not be adding, subtracting, multiplying, or dividing.  Instead we will be composing, decomposing, iterating, and partitioning.  Second, instead of taking ISATs next year, we will be attempting a crazy experiment.  I predict a mess of mathematical meltdowns.

Former Students

I've been teaching long enough, and I'm getting old enough, that former students turn up in strange situations.  One of my friends was diagnosed with breast cancer last fall and had a mastectomy.  Her oncologist's intern was a former student.  Another friend went to her son's engagement party and met the identical twin of her soon-to-be daughter-in-law's mother.  (That's a lot of hyphens...and confusing.)  Anyway, my friend was her sixth grade teacher.  The mother of the bride was in the other class and hated her teacher.  I haven't run into former students yet (except finding them in arrest records in the paper), but it's just a matter of time.

The Value of Vintage Toys

My friend Mary and her family had an estate sale in the North End.  They were clearing out the family home that her mother had been in for probably 50 + years.  It was a big sale and her family are not experienced garage salers.  They tried really hard, but in the end, the one thing that wasn't marked with a price sticker were three naked GI Joes from the sixties.  They had looked the value up on the internet and they could go for 40-100 dollars each.  They had decided to go high, because if they didn't get a buyer, they would be light and easy to send cross country if they sold them on e-bay.  For some reason, after their research and discussion, they just hadn't marked them.  Mary's family members were each assigned a room or area to be in charge of that day.  The first guy through the door made a beeline for the vintage toys.  He asked the nephew how much the GI Joes were and he had said "a quarter".  So before they had been open for 2 minutes, they sold all three for 75 cents, and lost about $300.  Pretty funny. 

Conference Weekend

I love Conference weekend.  I love no meetings, church on TV, church in your pajamas, church with food served.  I'm always anxious to listen to hear the prophet, hear news, be inspired, receive direction.  I had the whole weekend cleared of all activities.  I watched all four sessions, but I was either ironing, cooking, or I was sitting with my laptop turned on, so I didn't really focus.  I'll need to watch/listen/read the whole thing over again.  It was still good.  The whole weekend was good.  I should have gotten a lot more out of it, but I got a bit, and a lot of wash and ironing done, dinner made, cookies baked....and a little bit of Pinterest.  I'll have to wait and post my favorite parts of conference after I've reviewed it all again.

Funeral Revelation

Between sessions of conference on Saturday, I attended a funeral for 93 year old man in our ward.  He use to be our home teacher.  He hardly ever said anything.  His wife had a lot to say.  My only memory of him that stands out was when he volunteered to drive the teenagers to girls camp one year.  He was in his eighties.  Who has a van, wants to drive a few hours in the mountains, with teenager girls in the car, when you're 80 something?!!  Why would you volunteer to do that?

I found out at his funeral.  He was an amazing family man.  His grandkids, all young adults now, love, love, love him.  They have amazing memories.  He was patient, fun, fun, fun, and always concerned and interested in others.  He was hard working, devoted, and a master mechanic.

He hardly said anything!  I knew him for 14 years, and never knew him at all.  A couple years ago there was another elderly man that I knew from church, who hardly said anything, but I found out that he was a nuclear physicist and WWII hero.  This funeral brought it home to me that we don't value, appreciate, or respect elders in our culture, like they do in others.  I knew these men, but never asked them anything, never asked about them, never listened, never got to know them.  My lack of effort and appreciation probably wasn't much to them, but a great loss for me.  I don't want it to happen ever again.

Back to Mutual

I love being back in Young Women.  They are so fun to be around - full of energy and crazy stuff - and I love their leaders.  The best thing is that I'm only committed to the first Wednesday of each month.  I'm back in YW, but without the huge time commitment.

I'm mentoring a girl with her personal progress.  I started in February.  I decided to do the experiences along with her.  I thought it would be good for both of us.  We could motivate each other.  At the meeting last night neither of us had finished anything - even with a week off at Spring Break.  I'm loving it, but we really need to get going! 

Not an April Fool

This was the first day back from Spring Break.  A Monday.  I spent it with sixth graders.  Not one person mentioned a prank.  Not one.  Not all day.  I wonder if this holiday is fading away.  Pretty soon it will be like May Day.  When I was young, some people left little bunches of flowers on doorsteps.  I even danced around a Maypole once, with ribbons that braided a pattern around the pole.  Not any more.  Not in a long time. 

Happy Easter

I feel like an Easter Scrooge this year.  I did get my colored eggs and bunnies out, but we didn't have any jelly beans or peeps.  The last couple years my family has gotten together and for a spring picnic and an Easter Egg Hunt for the little ones.  This year, nobody even mentioned a get-together.  I also thought a lot about what we could do for our grandkids.  I didn't get anything else done.  I just thought about it.

Easter was not dismal though.  I thawed out a ham that I didn't cook at Christmas and made a jello salad, a tossed salad and dessert.  Bry and Amee, Tanner and Isaac came to visit for a couple hours.  They brought us an Easter gift - a beautiful "Blessing" frame.  We even got plastic eggs with candy inside.  I delivered cupcakes with green coconut and jelly bean eggs with my visiting teaching partner, and we went to church.  I love the Easter hymns.  I love to see the girls in their Easter dresses.  I love it when our ward choir performs.  But this year, the very best, was Cody's talk on the atonement.  It was touching.  It was honest truth.  It was humble.  It was powerful and memorable.  (Even though it was memorable, I want to get a copy of it.)  It was a happy Easter.

Best of Spring Break

Too many of these involve food, but here's the best:

• Beautiful spring weather
• Loving & funny texts from Ty
• Lunch at 36th St. with Mom & Nan
• Bodies Revealed with Dad & Andrea
• Lunch at Lucky 13 with Pam
• Giant soda and shared tots at Westside with Mary
• Trip to Blue Cow & Idaho Pizza with Terry
• Book Club friends (Walk Two Moons)
• Morning walks with Terry
• Sleeping-in
• Finishing 3 books
• A solo trip to Blue Sky Bagels
• Found a new front mat and planted pansies on the porch

 Not the best, but I'm glad I got it done:

• Shampooed carpets
• Substituted the four year olds in Primary
• Helped with 2 meals, and 2 quilts
• Comments on report cards finished
• Made a free Shutterfly book
• Colored my hair and painted my toenails

Mourning

We had to put my pretty kitty Nedee down Monday.  She was fine when I went to feed her at 6:30 Sunday night, but when Terry put her to bed at 10:30, something was wrong.  She didn't seem to be in pain, but was lame.  The vet said that there was a blood clot that lodged in the main artery that separates and goes down each hind leg.  This morning she was paralyzed in both legs and had to scoot.  Apparently she's always had a heart problem.

It all happened so fast.  I'm so happy I wasn't working this week.  I was a mess at the vets.  I didn't want to be present at the end, and I didn't want to see her one last time.  I had to go sit in the car and have Terry handle everything.  I helped him dig the hole to bury her.  She's in the backyard that she hardly ever left, right under the shed roof where she would hang-out for hours.

I'm surprised at how hard this has been.  I cried a lot on Monday.  Then when I pulled myself together and let Ty know on Tuesday, I cried again.  As I'm writing this, I'm crying again.  I'm the only one that really appreciated Nedee.  I miss her, but Ty said she's in Kitty Heaven with a bowl overflowing with Temptation kitty treats.  That makes me happy. 

Quilting Bee

I got together with some other ladies from church today to work on quilts.  We have an ongoing project of making twin size quilts to give to foster children, and now we're trying to get some ready for a tri-stake humanitarian project that will be giving quilts and blankets to refugee families in the area.

I love getting all our fabric scraps together and trying to patch together quilt tops.  We tied one BSU quilt, and started cutting squares.  We've decided on 6 1/2 inch squares, but really anything goes.  We're working on a vibrant animal print, a blue quilt top that is full of stars, and I'm most excited about fabric with pink and powder blue Thunderbirds on it.  Right now I'm just a little part of a group effort and it's fun.  My excitement will probably fade as I cut out 140 squares and sew them together. 

Terry is Missed

Terry went down to SLC with Brent and Bry for a few days.  I always like having a little time to myself.  It's good that it doesn't happen too often though because I eat junk, stay up late, keep Neds inside, and watch junk TV.

On Thursday evening the power went off for a split second.  My computer blinked, but didn't lose power.  I had to reset one clock that night.  I went to bed at about 9:30 and didn't even look at the clock upstairs.  I woke at 5:30 but couldn't talk myself into getting up.  I slept for another hour and decided I had to get moving if I was going to be on time.  After getting ready, I went to bring in the paper before heading out the door.  I was surprised by the snow that covered the lawn!  This is the third day of spring.  I couldn't believe that our paper hadn't arrived yet.  It was 7:45.  Then I noticed that it was really dark out.  Then I figured out that it was really 4:15!  I had gotten up and got ready at 3:00.  If Terry had been home, this would never have happened.  He pays attention to details, like the clocks.

I ended up putting in 3 hours on my report cards before I went to school.  I really needed that.  School was easy too because my students were having a read-in, my intern was entering test scores on the report cards for me, it was early release, and the PTO treated us to a Baja Fresh lunch.  I still have all my comments to make on the report cards, but that will happen sometime after I get a little more sleep.

Time Off

I had a workshop on Critical Reading all day today.  That means for the second week in a row, I've been out of the classroom on Tuesday and Wednesday.  I'm sure my class and their parents are wondering what's going on.  One of my subs called in unable to sub, so it ended up taking five subs and my intern to cover my class for the four days.  Makes me feel pretty valuable and indispensable.

Lobbying

I've pulled back from politics this school year.  After the referendum and working so hard to get pro-education people in the legislature from our district, I was more than burned out.  But, they put out a call for 100 teachers to take a personal day and lobby, and since I'm the BEA (Boise Education Association) rep for our school, I volunteered. 

I actually really enjoyed the process.  The Capital is a beautiful building.  I went first to watch the House Education Committee hearing.  It was inspirational to hear teachers speak before the committee.  In the end, a tie vote defeated a measure that we didn't want to pass.  I was able to speak with our District 18 representative which was really informative.  Later I watched the House in session from the galley.

I was glad that I left before the Senate Education Committee hearing.  I heard that was ugly.  I had a chance to share my good experience with two people before I read an e-mail from my representative that said there was going to be a re-vote, and two members had decided to change their votes - the wrong way.  Discouraging.  This is not a good time to be in the education field.  I've decided to pull back again and focus my energy raising money for the IEA Children's Fund, and gathering donations for a baby shower that they're giving to the Booth Memorial School (for pregnant high school girls).


 

DWA

For the past several years I've volunteered to help grade the sixth grade Direct Writing Assessments.  There are usually about 20 of us and it takes two days.  I enjoy rubbing elbows with other teachers from around the district, and it helps to be a better writing teacher.  When you read a couple hundred essays, you see what works. 

This year they were to write about their favorite place and how it changes from winter to summer.  Kids wrote about places from Hawaii, to Chicago, to Lisbon.  There were several in each batch about camping spots, Bogus Basin, and the greenbelt.  I found out a lot of families from Anser school that have places in McCall.  There were also a lot about their own backyards, school, and my favorite, Grandma's house.  Two essays had me completely sucked in.  I want to spend some time at Flat Campground by Rupert, and in the little town of Superior, Montana.

Another big plus was time to go out to lunch, and a crazy shopping trip at Goodwill with Vonnie.  She is a master.  When I wear my great deals, I should take pictures and post the price. 

This is Art

Nobody can do carnivals or art nights like Trail Wind.  We have art parents that come in and teach lessons two or three times a month.  They teach about different artists and come up with amazing projects for the kids.  Then they spend a week lining the halls with black butcher paper.  This year the PTO spent $450 in duct tape to keep everything on the wall. 

I might be biased, but I thought the art from my class was the most impressive.  We had four mobiles of origami cranes hanging from the ceiling and a table full of ceramic food that looked good enough to eat.  Everyone raved about the yarn wrapped animal sculptures (from Central America), and paper collage self portraits.  We also had paintings of the Boise foothills, collages of aspen trees, and a Grandma Moses scene.  I took pictures, so I'll post those later.

Besides the explosion of art everywhere, there are musicians in every hallway, and hors d'oeuvres being served on trays carried by students in their Sunday best.  I had a student playing the harp, another playing the cello, and one in a little band playing trombone.  It was a spectacular!

Jane Eyre Revisited

Book Club went with a classic and attendance was great.  We had a couple English Lit. teachers and a Canadian that has visited Charlotte Bronte's home in England.  There was a special Bronte table cloth and special cut-outs in our napkins, fruit, cookies, and a tart - just like having English tea.

I had read Jane Eyre in high school (on my own, not assigned) and loved it.  When I reread it, I could only remember the burning of the curtains, and the insane wife.  I didn't remember about Jane's childhood, the orphanage, her life after Rochester, or how the book ended!  I loved the book all over again.  I was also very impressed with myself as a teenager.  It wasn't a light read.

Biggest Loser

I'm on our school's Biggest Loser for Life team.  It's just a six week commitment.  Each week we focused on a different important strategy like eating whole grains, adding activity, and eating smaller portions.  This week we're suppose to eat healthy breakfasts.  Our school nurse organized a potluck which was delicious.  I ended up eating breakfast about three times - first oatmeal with walnuts, fresh blueberries, and brown sugar stevia, then at break, Greek yogurt, granola, and lots of fresh fruit, and finally I added more fresh fruit, cheese, and a pumpkin muffin to my lunch.  Our team is losing the competition, and I'm not losing weight.

The Oscar Party!!!!

My friend throws an amazing Oscar party.  She spends all year preparing and collecting.  This year was the 20th anniversary of her first party.  I've only been going for about 15 years.  It's always one of my favorite days of the year.

The excitement started earlier this year with the pre-show starting at 4:30.  We also moved to a new venue - upstairs.  This year we all had soft seats, the TV had DVR capabilities, we had the whole dining room table for food, and drinks were no longer relegated to the treadmill.

Every year we:

• have boas to wear
• get gift bags like the stars with trinkets and bling
• pick boyfriends and collect kisses every time we see them or hear their name
• bring food to match our favorite movie of the year (This year's winner made a football field with veggies for Silver Lining Playbook.)
• play movie trivia games and match movies to bottles of wine
• collect many, many prizes for picking winners on our ballots (Prizes are also awarded for not picking any winners.)
• offer opinions on all dresses, hair styles, make-up, and acceptance speeches
• critique the host, presenters, and musical numbers
• catch-up on Hollywood gossip from one attendee who reads Star magazine weekly
• laugh - a lot!
• and then head home with a bag full of books, DVDs, movie tickets, marquee night lights, glittery feather pens, and every kind of movie candy you can imagine

It is an award winning party!
  

Evaluation

Every year your principal has to come into your classroom to watch a lesson and do a formal evaluation.  Even after decades of teaching it still makes you a little nervous.  It's like live TV.  The students are always a wild card.  I really don't mind the observation.  Anyone can come and visit my classroom any time.  But as the years have gone by, formal evaluations have gone crazy town!

 I spent 3 hours on Tuesday filling out my pre-evaluation form.  It probably wouldn't have taken so long if I hadn't had an attitude problem.  All the information I put down was just reworded by the principal on my final report.  I think I was doing the administrators job, writing my own evaluation.  I could make it sound good, but it wasn't a fun process. 

Then I spent 2 hours on Wednesday night writing a lesson plan.  Again, it might have taken less time if I hadn't had an attitude problem.  My school district has developed their own lesson format with several different templates that you can choose from.  In my opinion, this instructional model is a confusing, smooshed, mess.  I think the superintendent should be embarrassed to have our district's name attached to it.  We've had a lot of training, and I have a lot of experience, and the lesson I taught was thorough and engaging, but after 2 hours, I could not fill out the template.  I finally just faked it. 

Today my principal came in and observed for about 20 minutes.  The kids were sharp.  I was smooth, and the lesson was a hit.  The outcome would have been the same without the 5 hours of prep.  I could have used those 5 hours grading papers.

Recruiting

I love the women in my family.  They're my favorite people to be around.  Almost all of us got together for a lunch in Eagle yesterday.  Marisa was visiting and we all want her to move to Boise.  We have everything figured out for her, except the job, but Dad is working on that.  She would have so much support up here, and we're fun.  We don't all get together and go to lunch all the time, but we can - and on short notice.

V-Day

It's always fun to celebrate Valentine's Day with elementary kids.  For a week they have been sending each other Friendship Grams.  It's a fund raiser for 4th grade.  It only costs 25 cents to have a pink slip of paper delivered to a friend with a piece of penny candy taped to the back.  A lot of sixth graders spend a couple dollars a day sending friendship grams to themselves.

I blew my healthy eating habits for the day.  Fifth grade celebrates with an Italian luncheon.  I had a whole plate of pasta and two giant frosted sugar cookies.  That was an hour before our class party which was just a lot of sugar and noise.  I finally got them settled down and watching a Berenstein Bear Valentines Day video.  Sixth graders are pretty funny.  You never know what will work.  Last year's group had an impromptu dance party.  This year a video for 5 year olds worked.

The most impressive part of this year's celebration was the homemade valentines.  My class learned how to do origami birds for a big mobile that they're making for Art Night.  That led them to origami videos online, which led to several individually made origami valentines.  I was impressed. 

My First Wreck

I don't even want to write about this.  It was just a little wreck.  No one was hurt.  It happened on a pretty quiet street.  The police arrived in just a few minutes and everyone was nice.  If it was going to happen, it happened in a nice way, but I could have gone through life without that experience.

I caused the whole thing.  I was just around the corner from my house, on my way to work, and I looked down at a dead raccoon that was on the side of the road.  He was big, and his face was looking back at me.  When I looked up, traffic was backed up in front of me and I screeched to a stop, but didn't make it.  I hit the car in front of me, and she hit the car in front of her.  When we got out, the person in front of me was a teacher from my school!  When I called the office to let them know that I might be late, the secretary was shocked.  She said, "Weird, Emma was in an accident this morning too."  We both made it to school on time, but I was greeted all down the hall with comments and questions.  I thought I should have sent out an e-mail.

I was shaky, a little sick, and greatly embarrassed all day.  Even though it was just a minor fender-bender, it's going to add up to a big expense.  My car didn't look much worse than a bent license plate and a couple scrapes, but the estimate is $1,300.  I am grateful for the best insurance company on the planet - USAA.  (Thanks Dad, for being an officer in the military.)  Now I just have to deal with my fine for the inattentive driving ticket that I received. 

Head Games - Wow!

My nephew Matt has been all over channel 7 and on the radio lately.  He's the community outreach person for the St. Luke's Concussion Clinic.  My family turned out on Saturday night to support him in a community event at the Egyptian Theater.  I really wanted to see Matt in action.  He's an impressive young man, but I was worried about spending 3 hours listening to stuff about concussions.  As it ended up, we were there 4 1/2 hours there, and it was amazing. 

The theater was almost full, more than 600 people.  They showed a documentary Head Games, which was stunning.  Everyone with kids that play sports needs to see it, also every coach, PE teacher, and young athlete.  After an intermission, Dee Sarton moderated a panel discussion with questions from the audience.  The panel consisted of Matt, an NFL player, 2 doctors, the legislator sponsored the concussion legislation last year, and the head trainers from BSU and Boise High.  They were all informative, funny, and sharp.  It was fascinating.  It was so good to be there as a family.  We all learned a lot, and Matt was amazing.    

Personal Progress

I've been asked to be a mentor for one of the Young Women in our ward, to help her with personal progress.  We'll all be getting together on the first Wednesday each month, so Feb. 6th was our start date.  It was so good to be back in YW.  I was thinking during opening exercises how much I had forgotten about all the energy of teens.  We don't have many kids in our ward, but there was plenty of activity. 

We played a get-to-know you activity with all the girls and their mentors.  We did get to know a lot about each other.  Then we had time to see where our girl was on her personal progress and help them make a plan for this month.  I had read the new PP book online and was a little overwhelmed.  I'm excited to be working with Val, and I was really excited to see that she has a lot done already.

I've decided to complete the activities and projects along with Val.  I'm glad that she's done everything up to the last activity and project for Choice and Accountability.  So this month, I'll be working on honesty, and spend 10 hours cleaning and organizing my loft.  After that well have most of Good Works, Integrity, and Virtue to do.  It might take a year and a half, but it's going to be fun working together.

Literacy Luncheon for the Learning Lab

I have a friend on the board of the the Learning Lab, and for the last two years she has been in charge of the centerpieces.  I'm one of the people that she has recruited to help get everything set-up, which is fun, but better yet is our reward of having a table at the luncheon and getting to hear the speakers, participate in the auction, buy raffle tickets, and basically just spend the whole day with books and people who love books.

The centerpieces are mostly books (workbooks for a new language, GED help, children's books) with ribbons and colorful doodads that add interest.  People buy the centerpieces, then donate them back to the Learning Lab.  We collect the ribbons and doodads to use again next year.  Last year we had 72 tables, this year 84.  I'm sure the fundraiser was a big success.  I was outbid on all my baskets and books, but I brought home a list that I'm ordering from Amazon, and plenty of ideas for auction baskets for BEA or Trail Wind.

I saw several nice outfits - not like what I usually see when I'm with a group of school teachers or church ladies.  Our chicken dish was surprisingly very good.  The speakers were both excellent.  They always have a student from the Learning Lab and an author.  I found out the they're changing the GED at the end of the year and if you haven't completed all of the tests, then you have to start over.  That doesn't seem fair.  And I had a very enjoyable day off work. 

The student speaker had dropped out of Capital High in 1996, just a few months before graduating.  She was pregnant and thought it would be easy to pick up her GED.  It wasn't.  She had tried to study on her own, and enrolled in another program that didn't work, before she found her way to the Learning Lab.  She's now passed four of the five tests with honors, and is learning algebra and geometry so that she can take her final test this summer.  I was so struck when she said that since 2009, when she started, she's read 13 books - and she liked them!  Imagine the difference it makes in the lives of her children, when she succeeds and reads.

The author grew up in Boise and I knew her mom as a school board member.  Alyssa Harad has written a memoir that deals with her study of scents and perfume.  She told a story of a time when she was working with young people in the mental hospital here in Boise.  A boy of ten who couldn't read or write attended her poetry writing classes and was a rock star among the others because of his poetry.  She would start the class by reading a few poems, then the students would write and share their own.  This boy would pretend to write, but really only drew big loopy scribbles.  He "read" his poems and others were wowed.  Once at the beginning of class she stopped reading because she thought this boy was getting upset.  He told her not to stop, because he found his poems in the poetry that she was reading.  She then encouraged us to not stop reading, because others find their poems or their stories through our reading.  It was very powerful in a room full of book lovers.

 

Jury Duty

I've been called once before, but that week I only had to call in.  This time I had to go in.  I was jurist number 5, but when we walked into the court room, the defendant waved to me.  I had worked with him for 12 years at Jefferson.  He was accused of driving fast or recklessly with endangerment to another.  The first question the judge asked after we were sworn in was if any of us were related to or knew the defendant.  Two of us raised our hands.  The other school district employee didn't know him that well and thought he could still be fair.  I would like to think that I could judge fairly and have integrity, but I told the judge it would be hard.  I was excused.  They gave me a $3 coupon for lunch downstairs which ended up being half a turkey sandwich, and I drove out to Mom and Dad's for a nice afternoon visit.

Ice Day!

When I checked at 5:00 AM there was no snow.  They wouldn't call a Snow Day, and they didn't.  They should have called an Ice Day.  I have never driven in more treacherous conditions.  My 10 minute commute took 45 this morning.  Federal Way was a parking lot.  Every turn was a skid.  You couldn't go slow enough.  There were flashing lights everywhere.  Everyone on the road between 6:00 and 9:00 had a scary, scary drive.  Walking in the parking lot or on sidewalks was not much better.  Can't wait to see what tomorrow brings. 

Back to Blogging

I'm back to blogging, but it gets out of control so easy. 

Blog 1 - Mine.  I love to do this.  I want to do this.  I'm struggling to find the time or routine to get it done.  Just once or twice a week.  It shouldn't be hard.

Blog 2 - My students are blog buddies with a group of sixth graders in Hansen.  We meet at the end of the year for a field trip at Bruneau Sand Dunes.  This is the month we're finally starting.  Everyone is in a group.  Everyone has a password.  Everyone has been trained, and most of them need help  - if not with blogging, then just with writing in general.

Blog 3 - I'm taking a writing class through BSU that focuses on new expectations that are coming with Common Core State Standards.  We're called the Teachers Writing Collaborative, and I'm suppose to set up a group blog for us to post writing lesson ideas, links to interesting books or articles, and other stuff, I think.  I'm not real sure how I'm going to move forward on that.

Blog 4 - It's a new year for my Relief Society Book Club.  We have a group blog that has never caught on.  At the beginning of each year I spend an afternoon figuring out how to get our new book selections on our bookshelf widget, and list the new titles we've selected.  I usually post a couple other things during the year - good things - but I don't think anyone notices.  It all started because everyone kept losing their book lists.  My thoughts were that we would have a blog with information about our books, recipes from our meetings, and something like our own Good Reads where we could share other things we were reading or anything about books.  Like I say, it hasn't caught on.

So in just a couple weeks, my blogging is out of control.  What usually happens isn't anything crazy.  I just quit.  

FrEEEzing !

Wow!  We're in a cold snap - a freezing cold snap.  I don't know what else to say.  I use to laugh at my dad's journal entries which were all short weather reports.  I laugh at Terry because he checks the temperature on his phone, the computer, and on his own mini-weather station installed on the front porch, several times each morning, and gives me the stats.  But the temps here in Boise are unusually low and it's lasting for weeks.

MLK Weekend

It was our anniversary last Thursday, #15.  I always recommend getting married on a little holiday weekend - nothing big like Thanksgiving or even the Fourth of July, but something like Veterans Day or MLK Day.  You have your own little holiday, without big crowds at restaurants, or parties going on.  We put off our celebration until our weekend..

First, I had to plow through my report cards.  No matter how hard I try, I can never get it done early.  After putting in long days all week, I still had all my comments left for the weekend.  It was Early Release on Friday and I spent five hours chained to my computer, stress eating anything I could find, mostly popcorn and safety patrol candy.  By the time I got home, I didn't feel like going to dinner.

Saturday morning we got a text inviting us to see Hadley's little dance/gymnastic recital.  Our loud and crazy girl was suddenly shy.  She was really good at standing on her blue tape and sucking her fingers.  Then she changed out of ballet shoes and into tap shoes to stand on her taped spot again.  We did see one turn around before moving to gymnastics.  Still shy in the gym, but she did hang on the bars, walked on the balance beam, and collected her certificate.

After all the excitement we decided to celebrate with some KFC.

 

 

   I spent the rest of the afternoon shopping and writing comments on report cards.  The KFC ruined our appetites for dinner that night.

One of my favorite people spoke in church.  It was a nice afternoon.  On Monday I went to brunch with a couple teacher friends.  It lasted four hours.  I finished my comments by 5:00. 

Even with the extra day on our little holiday, we still didn't get to celebrate our anniversary.

8 Days with Ty

It was so good having a Ty around for the holidays.  He usually spends day and night with his friends.  He still did, but somehow he worked in several meals with family.  Grandpa took him out to eat about four times.  He saw most of the extended family, some of them several times.  It helped that he was injured because he went to see his Uncle Bill a few times to be aligned.  It was nice driving out to Kuna with him.  Both Terry and I had good talks with him.  He also brought his friends by.  It was good to see Josh, Dylan, and Alex.  I miss them too.

I dropped Ty off at the airport after school today.  It was pretty funny watching him try to stuff everything into a carry-on duffel bag.  He had to wear several layers.  His roommate has to pick him up just after midnight.  Fun-filled, happy, eight day break!