This is Halloween

Emma is Katniss from The Hunger Games

Kate is Glinda the Good Witch

Jane is a Zombie!!

Em had a party with friends. She made bones and fingers for dessert.

Please don't tell me you didn't get Where the Wild Things Are. My lands, this was the saddest movie I've ever seen. Tragic--but with flare, and finese, and heart. I was astounded by the depth of emotion I felt while experiencing this movie. Wow. If you see it, try to see it through the eyes of a torn child. It was nearly overwhelming for me. Maybe it's because I've just been reading the tragic autobiographies of 165 8th graders, maybe it's far more personal than that, but I just couldn't stop crying. This was one of those life-changers for me.

Salt -n- Peppa's here!

I haven't dyed my hair in over a year. It's a strange thing. I found my first grey hair at the ripe old age of 21 whilst serving as a young sister missionary-to-be in the MTC. I was horrified. I swore then and there that from where the sun then stood I would dye my grey hairs forever.

But the thing is, hair-dying is such a commitment. You can't just dye it once and forget it. You have to do it every 6 weeks or suffer the consequence of nasty roots. Therefore, I found myself with an inch or more of a floured path following my part every few months for the next dozen (or more) years.

Then I married Brock. He's a historian, most of you know, and it was his opinion that prematurely grey hair was the desirable feature in eras gone by. He suggested (read: begged) that I grow out my greys. He insisted that it would add to my youthful glow rather than detract from it. Grey hair frames a relatively young-looking face with the contrast of the unexpected. The idea being that the grey hair makes the youthful face look even more youthful. If you follow . . .

So I tried to grow out my greys when we got married three years ago. After about 2 inches of conspicuously contrasting roots, I caved and bought a box. I tried again the next year, but some event came along that required me to become vain and, therefore, I succumbed to the box again. I tried again the next year, and after a couple inches of growth, I decided that if I were to ever successfully grow out the greys, I'd have to chop my hair. So chop I did. And now I'm grey.

So . . . what do y'all think of my salt and pepper mop? (see pictures below) Am I:

a) waaaay too young for grey hair

b) looking rather age-appropriate (I turn 40 a week from Tuesday, yo!)

c) pulling it off like a pro. I mean, you can't BUY highlights like that. Ya know what I'm saying, hmmm???

*a cute aside*

One evening when Kate was 3 or 4 years old, I was in the process of my bi-monthly coloring job--my hair was dripping with dye and piled on top of my head. She came into the room, saw (and smelled) that I was coloring my hair, and said, "Hi Mom. Is your hair dead yet?"

Out of the mouths of babes!

Some pictures of this and that

Move along. Nothing to see here.

Well, it's been eleventy billion years since I last blogged, and . . . not much has happened, actually. The garden grew. We swam. We camped. We hiked. We family reunioned. You know--all the normal summer stuff.

The big news here is--school starts on Monday! I have to say I'm pretty excited for a new school year. I have new ideas for teaching writing. I'm planning to enhance the rigor of my curriculum. I am going to produce more writers, I've decided.

So now that that's out of the way, I need to figure out something really important. What am I going to wear on the first day of school????

organically and locally brought to you by . . .

We decided to take a stab at selling our produce in a small fruit and veggie stand in our front yard this summer. Today was our first day to give it a try. We put out cherries and peas--and we sold all the peas before noon. We've sold about a third of the cherries we put out so far. There are about a dozen little cherry stands on the stretch of highway where we live--but apparently not many peas for sale.

How exciting!

Trek

Up

Just cried my way through Up. Sheesh!

Happy Birthday Brock, my love

Memorial Day hike

I was going to post this last week, but the last days of school have been consumed with students buzzing around my head like a hive full of bees. "Mzzzzzz Cheeeeeneeeeey," they buzz, "Mzzzzzzzzzz Cheeeeeeeeneeeeeeeeeeeeeeey!"

Deep breath . . .

On Memorial Day, Brock and I took Emma, Kate and Jane on a 10 mile hike! They trooped their way up and down the mountain to see a really old tree--The Jardine Juniper. It's over 1000 years old. You can kind of see from the picture how gnarled the limbs have become. It's a pretty cool thing.

I was so proud of the little squirts. Ten miles is a long way for a 9 year old kid--but little miss Jane did it without a complaint. Kate had a bit of a hard time coming down the mountain. I think her long and lean legs were taking quite a bit of impact that she wasn't used to. Emma was very strong on the mountain as well. I was happy that she had this experience so she can feel confident about the pioneer trek we're going on in two weeks. If she can do a ten-miler, she can trek.

Kate thought this rock looked like the heads like those you see on Easter Island.

Good job little squirrels! Brock and I are so proud of you!

We have a lawn!

Hooray!

Plenty of work yet to do, but at least we have sprinklers and grass. What a difference it makes!

Poetry Slam!

We had a school-wide poetry slam at BEMS yesterday. The Ogden Standard Examiner came and covered the event. Read about it here. There is a short video with some pictures at the bottom. The chick pronounced my name wrong (that darned Dick Cheney and his long "a"), but oh well.

We wrangled some excellent poetry out of these 8th and 9th graders. One kid even brought a bongo drum and played during his poem called "I am a Soldier". It was seriously good stuff. I was proud of every one of them.

We had one slam for every class period throughout the day. All the kids enrolled in language arts that hour came down to the auditorium for the slam.

Emma got 2nd place in her class hour. There were four classes competing--so about 120 kids, give or take. She did an excellent job. I was quite proud. She won this impressive glitter ball for her efforts. (Love the black!)

But the coveted first place prize was . . . The Black Beret!

And since it's not exactly beret season in our local shopping mall, these are hand-crafted. By me, of course. Six lucky kids won the black beret from a sea of about 800 language arts students. It was a fun, fun day.

National Poetry Month

I went to the Utah State Poetry Society convention over the weekend. I heard some wonderful poetry. I wasn't going to go, but the contest chair called me and asked me to read the winners in one of the categories. I was so glad I went. There is nothing like hearing a poet read his/her own poems.

And here's the good news: I got an honorable mention for this lovely little ditty (warning--it's kind of weird!):

The Offering

The kitchen drawer paring knife
with the bent tip
pierces the skin between
the long thin foot bones above the
second and third toes.
not a clean, smooth scalpel drawn line of blood
but a jagged, meat-torn window
to where the bones are.

That’s what I’m after:
The bones.

I remove them, one by one,
from the right foot
and pile them,
clean and white,
like kindling
on a clean white plate
with a chipped rim
carefully placed on a clean white cloth
with one frayed edge
at the head of the dining room table.

Thin, delicate, unbroken.

I harvest the bones to the ankle.
I pause.
Why am I doing this? I ask myself.
And I can’t recall.
I just know it must be done.

The newly emptied fleshy flap of skin
sags at an awkward angle
from my right ankle
as it rests on my left knee.

Enough, I say.
And it is enough.



And the big news is . . . I won FIRST PLACE in the sonnet/villanelle category for my winter sonnet!!!!! I was soooooooo excited. I was up against some very good, very experienced poets. I recognized the names of three of the people who placed LOWER than I did!!! I BEAT THEM!!!!!! Huzzah! I've been validated!

This frigid wintry wind still blows forlorn;
From blue-black north the steel-grey clouds are sent.
The mountains with white fur themselves adorn,
And with that heavy fur, the firs are bent.
Look! Lacy crystals, gossamer they seem;
Yet look again, their jagged edges found.
And sifting down from heaven? No, they teem--
Collide, cascade, conflict, contend, crash down.
Benumbed are all by endless brumal skies;
All flesh is bit with brisk and bitter breath.
Abysmal, boundless winter -- future lies,
Hell frozen o’er, in truth’s a hellish death.
What’s this? In snow, a crocus head I see.
Thou, Winter, who deals death, soon dead shall be.


I was pleased with it all. There are some incredible poets in this state! I was happy to rub shoulders with them for a moment.

It's been a while . . . (update)

• Spring break was nice, but it was hard to come back to school yesterday.
• Let the countdown begin--31 days until summer!
• School budget issues are getting me down.
• I'm impressed by the creative solutions our superintendent has conjured up.
• By "creative solutions" I really mean "multiple and non-negotiable teacher salary and benefit cuts", and by "impressed" I mean "pissed off."
• Good news! I passed my Praxis! That means I qualify for a change of level accompanied by a salary cut!
• I'm also nearly done with my ESL endorsement. Which means I qualify for a lane change.
• One of the impressive ideas is to suspend all lane changes.
• Back to spring break--we made some good progress on the yard. Brock is putting in a sprinkler system. It involves a lot of digging. The girls and I cleaned up a side bed and put in a patch of strawberries. We've tilled the garden and planted peas, spinach, radishes, lettuce and onions. We have 70 tomato starts and 50 pepper starts growing in our mud room. We're going to have a killer garden this year! Which is good since we won't be able to buy groceries next year.
• We saw Monster vs. Aliens. It was very, very funny.
• We went on a great little hike in the mountains across the street from our house. These mountains are craggy and steep. We discovered a beautiful spring waterfall.
• We went swimming after the hike at the BEHS Natatorium.
• Easter was nice. Brock and I went to the Episcopal Church for their Easter services as well as our own church. The music at the Episcopal Church was very good. We went to Brock's parents for dinner. It was very nice.
• We had a Seder feast on Thursday evening for Passover. We used a script I got when one of my college professor's had a Seder at his house for his students. Brock and I do this every year, but it was our first time to involved my girls. They liked it. We just finished up a Holocaust unit at school, so it was great for Emma to make some connections with what she learned at school and the Seder.
• Jane had a birthday a couple of weeks ago. I can't believe she's nine years old! She is such a sweet child. She is always trying to be helpful to others. I'm so glad she's my girl!
• I'm teaching poetry this month! I'm the luckiest salary-slashed teacher alive!

I'm Not Dead Yet

Good news! I ate the apple on Friday and I'm still alive and well.

I almost always eat food gifts from students, and I haven't been sick yet. What do you think, too trusting?

The find!

We found a great carved wood screen at a little consignment shop in Idaho over the weekend. I coveted it, but we had no room to transport it back to Utah.

Sunday evening, there was a knock on the door, and when we opened up, the beautiful screen was there--thanks to my fabulous brother, Greg.
This is not a great picture, but it looks pretty cool through our window at night. I'm diggin' it!

Jane Says

"Mommy, is your sweet tooth a baby tooth or an adult tooth?"

"It's not an actual tooth, hun. It just means you like sweet things."

"PHWOOF! I thought I was going to lose it!"

An apple for teacher

I found an apple on my desk this morning. Still cold.

Happy Fat Tuesday!

Last night during dinner we talked about Fat Tuesday, Mardi Gras, Ash Wednesday and Lent. This morning we had pancakes and bacon for breakfast. Brock had accidentally bought a bottle of sugar-free syrup, and Kate made a comment on how weird it was. Jane, with a shocked look on her face, said, "Sugar-free syrup? But isn't it Calorie Tuesday?"

I have enemies!

"You have enemies? Good. That means you've stood up for something, sometime in your life." ~Winston Churchill

I came across this quote today.

I like it.

I live it.

My new niece

I'm a great-aunt!!!

My great-niece, Jovi, was born about an hour ago. I adore that bottom lip! Princess Steph's baby was born with a pout! How fitting. Congratulations Steph and Jared!!!

Brock in the news

Brock has been working on a book about pioneer foods for the last several months. The Mormon Times published a feature article about some of his research in both their print and online versions today. You can read it here.

Brock submitted his proposal and first three chapters to the USU publishing department yesterday. Cross your fingers!

Em got the oh-so-popular bangs-over-the-left-eye haircut. Am I ready for this? It's a good things she such a great kid!

Valentine Box Derby

It's Valentine season again. This year Jane opted for pretty rather than time-consuming. Hooray! Ain't she cute???