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???

This Old House

We've done some more fixing up. I'm loving our new paint

She is her step-father's step-daughter

The other day Brock was talking about some current event and the significance of the meaning of something or another, and Emma piped up with a contradiction to whatever he was saying (darn this memory of mine!). Brock kind of looked as her with his typical I-won't-believe-you-until-you-cite-your-sources kind of a smirk. With hands on hips and eyebrows raised, she smiled, cocked her head and said, "I heard it on NPR."

He was satisfied.

Did I mention she turned 14 on Sunday? Happy Birthday Lu!!!!!

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.

Student Writing Club

I started a writing club at my school a few months ago. It has been wildly successful! A couple of months ago I set up a blog for my students to "publish" their writing. Check it out! But if you leave a comment, keep in mind these are 8th and 9th grade writers--so please be kind. :)

Historic home for sale in MY NEIGHBORHOOD!

Cody, Brock's good friend, restored this beautiful old home in Willard. It would be a great home for a family with two or three kids. Check it out.

My stalker

Lately Sophie has been following me around everywhere I go. Even when I head to the potty, she sneaks in before I can close the door and she rubs against my legs and purrs until I'm done.

If she wasn't so cute and cuddly, I'd consider getting a restraining order.

All together now

We had all six kids for Thanksgiving this year. We had a wonderful time together. I didn't get a picture of the dinner, but we hosted it at our house. This was the first big holiday meal with extended family we've hosted since we've been married. It went very well. The food was fabulous (blowing my own horn) and it was great to have my parents, our kids, two nieces, a nephew and a nephew-in-law.

Every year, Brock's family hosts a non-denominational worship service. This year was Brock's turn. It was simply beautiful. The music was heavenly, the scriptures inspiring, and the poetry spirit-filled. Brock gave a wonderful reading of Christmas on the Prairie. The grandkids sang "Christmas Time is Here", from A Charlie Brown Christmas while Tawna played some great jazz piano. We had a musicians playing the trumpet, flute, bassoon, piano, organ, percussion instruments, and violins (Emma being one). We had a family bell choir in which Emma, Kate, Sarah, Brock and I participated. Lane's conducting was superb! He had the congregation anxious to follow his lead. Susan was fabulous on the organ (as always!) and Mark and neighbor Karalee read scriptures and poetry like pros--move over Garrison Keillor! It was a wonderful, spirit-filled evening that I won't ever forget. Our children loved participating. I don't think they really understand what an unusual honor it is to participate in such an event, and how rare these types of gatherings really are. I hope they remember how it felt to be a part of it all.

You'll shoot your eye out!

This trimester I have a student who seriously looks like a skinny version of Ralphie from A Christmas Story. I wish I could take a picture and post it, but there is that little issue of ethics.

More Kiln stuff

My new favorite picture of Brock!

Cody's wife, Kari posted some pictures and her recap of the burning of the kiln here. You can watch the KSL news story about the kiln here.

Yummy hot buttered rum

One of our favorite night time treats in the winter is hot buttered rum:

1 lbs. butter, softened
1 lbs. brown sugar
4-5 tsp. spices, we like cinnamon, cloves, nutmeg, ginger, allspice
2 Tbsp. rum extract
1 quart vanilla ice cream, softened

Mix the softened butter with brown sugar, spices and rum extract. Add softened ice cream and mix thoroughly. Freeze. Add one heaping spoonful to a mug of hot water. This recipe makes about 30 cups.

Best enjoyed with a loved one in front of a fire while it's snowing outside. Now if it would just snow outside . . .

Insert clever title here (too tired to think)

After all, between the two of them they have read the four books in the series a dozen times. So of course I took them to see the midnight showing.
I mean seriously, how could I refuse these darling faces????

And Reesa, of course, had to come. Cuz, you know, she's Reesa.

And how can you have a GNO without making kissy faces?

And eating popcorn. (which Reesa won in the pre-movie PAR-TAY!)

What the heck? A test at 11:30 p.m.? That's not right!

But winning a calendar is WAY right!

Bedtime, schmedtime!** I took my girls to see Twilight last night! I am the coolest mom EVAH!

**An 8:30 p.m. bedtime is strictly observed in our household on school nights with this one extremely rare exception.**

Writing clubs

I used to belong to a writing club when I lived in Salt Lake. We usually ended up providing free therapy for each other more than useful feedback on the writing we shared, but it was a fun, positive experience for me. I've been wanting to start my own writing group since I moved here, but I have never felt like I could find enough willing participants to make it really fly, so I've never followed through.

But then I realized that I am surrounded by willing participants every day in my profession. I asked my principal, and he said yes as long as I don't expect to get paid for my extra time (which, duh!, if I don't know that by now I must be pretty danged stupid!!!). So I started a writing club at the middle school. The day of the first meeting I was soooooo nervous. What if nobody comes? I thought. What if everyone thinks it's stupid idea? But guess what? Students came. Twenty-five of them. That's like a whole classroom filled with 8th and 9th grader who came willingly to an after-school writing club. WOW! And the next time we met, we had 27! I just couldn't believe it.

Sometimes I get so frustrated with all the apathy I see in many students from day to day. I sometimes feel like I'm not making a difference at all--that I'm sending an entire generation into the workplace without any real language and communication skills. But then there are moments when 27 kids show up after school to spend an hour learning how to be better writers and it brings some value into it all.

November is National Novel Writing Month. Writers all over the country participate by writing a 50,000 word novel between the 1st and 30th of November. I am proud to say that we have a group of students from Box Elder Middle participating! What a great experience for them. My Emma is even working up a file of character profiles in preparation for writing a novel (she probably won't make the 50,000 words in November, but she's working toward something, and I love it!). I just love being a teacher.

Yay for writing!

The kiln, continued

Last night we went to a dinner at The Athenian in Ogden (yum!) as guests of the historical society that funded the kiln project. They were so grateful for all the hard work the team put into the restoration project. Brock even got a nice little bonus check. It was a satisfying thing for Brock to be involved in this project.

Brock, posing of course.

Brock, Cody and Kenzie. Kenzie is Cody's sister. She's been working on the project from the start. I'm so impressed--those rocks are heavy! She is one hard-core gal!

Kate is GREAT!

I sure love my Kate! Isn't she just the happiest girl you've ever seen? Some of the best things about Kate:

• She has a natural ability to understand how people are feeling, and she often interacts with people based on her understanding of their emotions. She has incredible empathy. What a gift!
• She loves to read. She simply devours books.
• She is an artist. I've posted her creations before. She is always drawing something.
• She is very tender. Sometimes she tries to hide her tenderness, but I can always see it in her. I think this is what gives her empathy.
• She makes friends in a moment. She is surrounded by good friends wherever she goes.
• She willingly and happily practices her piano every day. I don't even have to remind her. She finds joy in the music. Once I watched her reflection in a mirror while she was practicing. With every staccato note, she raised her eyebrows high. It was just so cute. The next piece was smooth and graceful, and her hands became very elegant, her body swaying to the music. She is so very expressive.
• She got 100% on her language arts core test last spring. 100%!!! Speaking as a teacher who administers language arts core tests, that's pretty dang rare.
• She loves the mountains purely for the beauty of it all. Her dream is to go to a secluded spot with a notebook and draw the beauty of nature.
• Her teachers love her.
• She has a very sensitive gag reflex. She can't clean out the cat box without gagging. I think this makes her even more endearing.
• She has a joyful smile.
• She has beautiful skin.
• She has a gorgeous singing voice.
• She gets frustrated sometimes. I like that because it shows that she cares deeply about doing things well. I wish she'd be a little more patient with herself, but at the same time I see kids at school every day who don't care about anything. Kids can be so apathetic these days. Kate is not that way at all.
• She asks questions. Lots of questions. She endears herself to people by asking them questions--but it's not in a fake way. She is genuinely interested in the answers.
• She recognizes that the world is not black and white. She sees the shades of gray. She also recognizes the injustices in the world. She has her own opinions about the way things should be. She is an 11-year-old with actual opinions!
• She is not judgemental.
• She is open to trying new things. She wants to learn. She wants to experience life.
• She doesn't like to play competitive games. She does like to participate in cooperative games and activities. She is always looking for win-win situations. I suppose that goes back to the whole empathy thing.
• She loves all five of her sisters. They will be friends for life, I am sure.
• She has a great new haircut. It is even cuter when we flip it out.
• She gets innuendo. (Yikes! We have to be careful!)
• She laughs. A lot. And it's a great laugh.

I sure love you, KATE!!!! I'm so blessed to be your mother.