So much to blog about, so little time...

Starting back to school for both me and my kids is kicking my butt!  I've already gotten my obligatory migraine whenever I start something stressful out of the way but I am still trying to drink from that fall fire hydrant.  Also- man,  I forget how expensive August is with back to school shopping, registering for school, refilling lunch accounts, school pictures, PTA memberships, starting to pay for piano, dance, football, etc. August is the new December in terms of expense!
There are so many things I want to blog about- the kids going back to school, Finn playing football, Katie and I doing a family triatholon on Labor day, teaching my neighbors how to speak Southern red-neck- I will have to post about that one, teaching children who speak 7 different languages- yes! SEVEN different languages are spoken in my kindergarten classroom.  They are english, spanish, turkish, burmese, arabic, albanian and farsi.  Luckily most of them can communicate fairly well except the girl who speaks burmese.  She is the cutest little thing and any english she knows she has picked up from watching cartoons- at least that is what a translator told me.  Her favorite thing to say is "Yep!".  One the first day I took the kids on a tour of the school, which included a trip to the bathroom.  I was in the girls' bathroom while the male school counselor was in the boys.  After explaining how we behave in the bathroom- remember I teach kindergarten to a population where about half of the kids have never even been to school so I have to explicitly teach every school behavior- I asked the girls if they needed to go to the bathroom.  Most of them said yes and went into a stall.  My little burmese girl just stared at me.  I looked at her and asked again if she needed to go to the bathroom.  She smiled and said, "Yep!" and just kept staring at me without making a move.  Its going to be a long year!
But I got side tracked- I wasn't planning on writing about my class.  What I wanted to write about was a camping trip our family took about a month ago with our friends, the Murrays.  We went up to Tanner Flats- which is only about 20 minutes away.  We had a great time playing,
riding bikes,

exploring,

eating yummy food,

glowstick dancing by the camp fire

and we even got to watch the Tour of Utah bike race as it came up Little Cottonwood Canyon.

But I have to say the most entertaining part of the camping trip was Suzie and her one liners.  She said some of the funniest things in relation to our trip. 
We had packed our car to the gills with all our camping stuff.  Eric remarked that is was like "The Grapes of Wrath."  Neither I or the Murrays caught that literary reference but everyone nodded along until I called him out on it.  In fact if you can figure it out what having a packed car has to do with "The Grapes of Wrath", I'll make you a treat!
Anyway the kids had stuff in their laps, on top of their heads and under their feet.  We figured since we were only going 20 minutes up the road, they would be okay.  After about 5 minutes Suzie remarked, "Now I know what my toys feel like in my toy box!"
Our campsite was next to a beautiful waterfall. 

It was fun to watch and I personally thought was relaxing to listen to as we were going to sleep.  But Suzie didn't think so because after laying in bed for about 20 minutes on the first night said, "Can someone turn the waterfall off?"
During the day we went on a hike and every time Suzie bent over to look at something or pick something up you could see her underwear.

 I kept telling her to pull up her pants up so we couldn't see her underwear.  She said, "It's okay mom.  They're green...you know... for nature."
And her best observation of the weekend came at the end.  We came home and found a very foul smell in our house.  We were sniffing around- in the trash, in the fridge, in the sink, etc. to see what might be causing such a awful stench.  After a few minutes Suzie lifted her arm and smelled her armpits and said, "I think it might be me.  I smell bad."
Oh Suz... you keep us smiling!

Quotes to remember

I just finished a fantastic book and wanted to jot down a quote & poem from the book so I can have it for later.  The book is "The Hiding Place" by Corrie ten Boom and how I have lived for almost 39 years and not read this book- I just don't understand!  It seems like it should be a must read for life type of book.  Though there are several noteworthy quotes- here are two from what I read today that I want to have.
"It is not on our forgiveness any more than on our goodness that the world's healing hinges, but on His.  When He tells us to love our enemies, He gives, along with the command, the love itself."
- Corrie ten Boom

"My Life is Like a Weaving"
My life is like a weaving
between my God and me.
I do not choose the colors
he works steadily.
Sometimes he weaves sorrow
and I in foolish pride
forget  he sees the upper
and I the underside.
Not till the loom is silent
and the shuttles cease to fly
will God unroll the canvas
and explain the reason why
the dark threads are as needful
in the skillful weaver's hand
as the threads of gold and silver
in the pattern he has planned.
Grant Colfaz Tullar

Girls' Camp and Summer Randomness

So after a few years of leaving my kids at home to go to girls' camps, this year Annie finally go to go with me!  It was a lot of fun and a memorable experience for both Annie and I.  Annie has been camping many times with our family, so camping wasn't a big deal to her.  She had a lot of fun with all the awesome girls in our ward. although I did have to remind her a few times that at camp I am her YW leader and not her mother- meaning I don't clean up after her or get her food or set up her tent for her, etc.

Our stake theme was "Keep calm and stand in holy places" and our ward theme was "Keep calm and learn." Our girls decided to put a nerdy twist on the theme and dress up with suspenders, nerdy glasses and pocket protectors. 

They put on an awesome skit that was set to the tune "Part of your world" but had the message of "Part of His World" where part of the girls were investigators singing their questions about the gospel and the other part were missionaries answering their questions and hoping they will all become "Part of His World."

At the end of camp Annie's award was "Mud Slingin', wasabi burnin' ginger hair camp beauty."  The mud slinging was from the beach day we had at Jordanelle and she and her friend Lauren got into a mud fight on the shore.  Unfortunately I didn't have my camera to record the ruckus.  But luckily the mud slinging too place next to a big ole' lake they could clean off it!  The "wasabi burning" refers to the 3 mile hike we went opn were our hike leader had wasabi almonds as a snack.  Not everyone would try them but Annie- true to her mother's form- isn't afraid to try new food so she had some.  She didn't mind the heat from the wasabi in her mouth but her eye sure didn't like it.  She had been having trouble with her contacts while on the hike and after she ate the almonds she didn't realize that the wasabi residue was on her fingers still when she went to rub her eye.  Poor girl had an angry wasabi red mark on her eye where she touched it for the rest of camp.  Then of course the "ginger hair camp beauty" refers to her beautiful red hair.

My camp award was a bit more scandalous and not nearly as glamourous.  (I can't imagine why not- see above photo!) I was awarded the "Cat/ cow twerkin', car pep talkin' kick boxer" award.  The young women were talking about a new dance all the "youngsters" :) are doing called "Twerking."  After showing it to me I decided I couldn't do it and still hold my temple recommend;)  so they taught me a milder version that involved arching my back like in the yoga move- "Cat/cow."  The "car pep talkin'" part is because when I was driving back to camp after Jordanelle with a carload of girls I was afraid my car wasn't going to make it up the steep canyon roads back to camp.  So I turned off the A/C and kept encouraging my car out loud.  Then the kick boxing part was because I was showing the girls my sweet kick boxing moves.  Yeah- they were pretty impressed and decided they wouldn't want to ever meet me in a dark alley!
Here is one last picture from camp. 

I thought all their suspenders made their bums look extra nice so we got a rear view picture of all the girls.  After looking at the picture I had decided that I need to teach Annie the art of the "hip pop" for pictures!

And speaking of "hip popping" here is a picture of Finn, Suzie & I doing hip pops in our Sunday afternoon aprons.  I was making cookies one Sunday and Suz decided she wanted to wear hers also.  And Finn- never one to be left out on any domestic goodness- pulled out the one he made in Home Ec last year and suddenly we were the "Apron Triplets" and needed a picture.
If you have ever seen the movie "17 Again" then you have heard the sentiment that Finn feels a lot these days- he is hungry all the time!
Here he is enjoying some hot wings he walked over to get from Little Caesar's one summer afternoon. 

Yesterday we were at a family reunion with my mom's side of the family.  We always eat really well, in my opinion, but apparently not in Finn's!  When he found out we were eating every meal with that side of the family Finn was a little discouraged.  When I asked him why he said, "When we have dinner with your family, I never feel completely full because they never have red meat.  It is always white meat."  Finn is a dyed in the wool red meat lover and he is right-  that side of the family doesn't eat a lot of red meat.  Could explain their smaller waistlines and long lives but that seems to be a trade -off Finn is willing to make in the name of filling his 14 year old bottomless pit!
One last summer-boredness inspired picture. 

My kids recently discovered that they could play roller derby with their roller-ball chairs (which everyone except Suzie has in their rooms) on the kitchen/living room wood floors.  It was a short lived though because once Dad got home and saw what they were doing he put a stop to it before the walls and cabinets got too damaged.  Man! Dad stops all Finn's good ideas- like the one he and his friend had last year to put the trampoline next to the shed and jump from the shed roof onto the trampoline!

The strange world of 14 year old boys and the difference between my girls.

So this was the scene on our trampoline recently- Finn and a neighbor kid wrestling on our tramp with another kid looking on.  They were locked in the pose on the bottom picture for a good 10 minutes.  Annie was walking back and forth through the backyard getting stuff and when she came back in she said, "Finn and Kalian look like they are hugging." Pause "They have been like that for forever." Pause "I don't think anyone is going to win."  The whole thing really baffled both Annie and I but I'm assuming it is pretty normal behavior for 14 year old boys to act like bear cubs.  I know it is nothing to worry about but it does cause some problems when Finn tries to do these moves on his sisters!
And speaking of his sisters- I recently had an experience with Katie and Suzie that concisely shows one of the main differences between these two girls.  I had gone out into our garden to get some basil for a salad I was making.  Suzie and Katie were both standing by the sink when I went to rinse it off.  Katie said, "What is that digusting smell?" While at the same time Suzie picked up one of the basil leaves, held it to her nose and said, "This smells awesome!  What is it?"  Suz is destined to work in food.  What 6 year old enjoys the smell of basil?!?

Our 4th of July Holiday week

With 4th of July being in the middle of the week, we felt like we were celebrating all week long.  We had some highlights and some lowlights as well.
Highlights:

Getting to see some of my college roommates- some of whom I haven't seen in a few years.  It was great to catch up with these fun and amazing women
Lowlight: It was only for an afternoon- too short! (But I think Becky, Liz and Stacey will agree that it is my own fault it was too short.;)

 Watching the parade with lots of fun family and friends and ringing our "dingers" ( that one's for you mom!) as best as we could much to the embarrassment of my kids.
Lowlight: Having all the blankets I set out the night before to save our spot get soaking wet by the first rain we've seen in months and then trampled on by all the people setting up vendor tents right behind where we sat.
Another sad lowlight was having my aunt break her ankle in three places while walking to our spot in the park.  Luckily she was surrounded by paramedics within minutes because we sit by the end of the 5K route so there were still alot of them around.  And the park is right across the street from IMC so she got to be in the parade via an ambulance that took her across the street.  It was a pretty bad break.  So sorry Aunt Deirdre!

 Listening to Michael's clever parade banter.   Even though this nephew of mine looks a bit "special" in this picture- he really is a funny kid. When the floats with the different cities' royalty would come by he would he shout out, "My cousin here thinks you're hot!" while pointing to Finn.  Finn would smile and laugh sheepishly.
Lowlight: Having my neighbor's daughter get whacked in the neck by a flying otter pop that my brother-in-law threw out during the parade.

Watching the motorcycles pop wheelies.
Lowlight: Watching the zombies in the parade that are advertising the haunted house.  I do not enjoy this entry in the parade at all.

 Suzie and Katie doing some pretty sweet headstands in the Fun Days headstand contest!

Lowlight: Neither won but to quote Suzie, "At least I tried."

 

Getting to see Katie and Ava bust a move 3rd grader style!
No lowlight here- It was all pure joy!

Watching the street home-lit fireworks and the city fireworks.
Lowlight: Having one of the home-lit fireworks tip over and then go all haywire- firing into the bushes and within inches of people.

Watching Annie in her softball allstar tournament- unfortunately I forgot to take my camera.
Lowlight: Sitting in the 100 degree, humid weather on metal stands with very little shade and then they lost both of their tournament games.  But they gave it a good try and we still have one more tournament to go.  Hopefully I will try to bring my camera next time.
All in all- it was a great weekend!  Happy 4th!

The story of why I work

(Pre-reading warning: This is a very long post I wanted to record for myself, so if you don't have the time to read it all- at least scroll down to the last paragraph and watch the video.  Its a good one!)
So now that I am done with my first year teaching kindergarten and my first year back teaching after an eleven year hiatus, I thought it might be time to tell the story of why I have to work.  I taught for 5 years back in the late 90's and during that time I got married, had Finn and got pregnant with Annie.  Once I had Annie I was able to quit and I thought I would NEVER go back.  People would ask me, "Do you think you would ever go back to teaching?" And I would answer, "Well I would if I HAD to."  But really never believing that myself for two reasons-1. Because I didn't honestly believe I would ever HAVE to because if there's one thing my husband is good at- its being a good provider. 2. If I did happen to have to go back to work- I didn't want it to be teaching.  Only someone who has been a teacher- or at least tried to be a good teacher- truly understands how much work it is- especially your first couple of years.  You spend hours and hours preparing your lessons and the pay doesn't even come close to compensating you for your work.  In fact if I ever tried to figure out how much I make per hour based on the number of hours I work beyond my contract hours- I would be so depressed.  In fact just last night Eric and I figured out that one of our teenage neighbors makes more per month mowing lawns than I do teaching. And the problem when I was teaching before was that I never had the same grade two years in a row.  So I was always having to come up with new lesson plans.  So every year was my first.  So 12 years ago I left teaching and tried to not let the door hit me on the way out!
So fast forward about 10 years, 4 kids and life in general later- and I find myself not quite in the life I had planned.  Which, by the way, I could write a whole post about because whose life really does turn out the way they planned it?!?  I think that may be one of the points of life but I won't go down that philosophical road for the time being and just say that my plan of never having to work was slowly dissolving.  Eric was diagnosed with a potentially debilitating condition that could render his awesome "provider powers" useless if he didn't get the medication he needed to slow down the disease process.  And being a self- employed provider superhero, his insurance didn't cover the medication he needed.  And there was no way we could afford the medication on our own- can you say additional house payment?
At this point in my tale I am going to go one a little side journey.  Eric was diagnosed with this condition in 2007 and for about 3 years his doctor was trying lots of different treatments/ medications.  The aforementioned "house payment" med is a last resort- not only because of its price but also because if it doesn't work -nothing will.  We were coming close to the end of the road with the other treatments when I went on a little girls retreat with some friends to St George.  I was talking with a friend who was asking me that all too common question "Do you think you will ever go back to teaching?"  I half- heartedly said(because remember i didn't really want to ever go back to teaching) "Maybe if I could go part time because but it was hard to go part time these days because most districts have phased out job shares- unless of course I taught kindergarten."  To which she replied, "You would make an awesome kindergarten teacher."  As soon as she said that I had an experience I have only had maybe once or twice in my life.  It was like those words completely skipped my ears and brain and went straight to my heart.  I immediately knew that was what I was going to have to do.  It was such a peaceful feeling, very unlike the feeling I had had before when I even thought about going back to teaching before, that I knew it was beyond me.  And it important to note that this conversation happened about a month before this next one.
Eric and I were driving somewhere and he started talking about his latest doctor visit for his condition.  The conversation went something like this: his doctor said he needed to figure out a way to get the "house payment" medication because nothing else is working and if he goes untreated he would be in a wheelchair by the time he was 45.  And the only way he could figure out to make it all work would be for me to go back to teaching so we could get government insurance- which despite the lousy pay- is a great benefit for teaching.  I think if I hadn't had the previous experience I would have been a lot more resistant to the idea of going back to teaching.  But because my heart had already been prepared, my reaction was "Well, of course that's what we'll do." 
So 3 months later I was signing up for courses at the University of Utah to get my early childhood license and now 2 and 1/2 years after that I have finished my first year back.  So needless to say I have felt very "supported" on this journey back to teaching and having to work part time outside the home.  I don't want to sound overly sentimental or trite, but I really do feel like the Lord provided the way not only for my going back to school, but also in finding a job.  There are few part time jobs out there where one can get health insurance but I just happen to have a degree in one of them- for which Eric and I are very grateful.  Between my insurance and a copay assist program Eric's "house payment" medication is covered 100%!!!! (Although who knows what "Obama Care" may do to that benefit but again- a different post!)
But I wanted to record down some of the funny things my first year kindergarteners have said over the past year because I tell you what- 5 year olds are pretty darn funny!
*At the beginning of the year my mom came in to help on Fridays.  Then halfway through the year she stopped coming because she was getting ready to go on a mission to Vegas.  The last Friday she was there she explained to the kids why she wasn't coming anymore- because she was going on a mission.  She didn't really explain what this entailed or that it was a church service mission because one of the kid's questions was whether or not she got to carry a gun on her mission!
*I work in a very low income school where the kids speak 31 different languages.  Luckily the only languages spoken in my class this year were english and spanish and even though my spanish is limited- I took two years in high school- I can still understand and speak un poquito.  The kids LOVED it when I tried to speak spanish.  And I did get to learn some spanish swear words!  But I had one student who had much more than a language barrier going on.  He was very immature and I had a suspicion that he had some sort of developmental delay.  But there are a lot of hoops you have to jump through to get a child qualified for special education, especially when the parents are not on board or don't understand you- which was both the cases for this child.  I had to be constantly assessing these kids on the kindergarten requisite skills- one of which is counting.  I had to record how high each kid could count and this kid counted like this- "1, 2, 3, 4, 5, chicken".  Funny enough there was no "chicken" spot on the numbers recording sheet!
*I had one extremely complimentary student.  He was always telling me how pretty I looked.  Needless to say he was one of my favorites!  One day we were at recess and he told me all the girls in kindergarten he thought were pretty.  And I must say he had really good taste!;)
*Another thing I have to assess is how well the kids can read sight words.  There are 25 required words the kids should be able to read by the end of the year.  At the end of the year I was testing one particular boy and he was cruising through them- not an easy feat and one not everyone can do.  After he finished he looked up at me and said, "I'm like a machine!"  Yes he was!
*In this day and age- besides fire and earthquake drills- we also have to do lockdown drills.  Our school has protocol for both a soft and a hard lockdown and by their names you can guess that one is more intense and intrusive than the other  We were getting ready for a hard lockdown drill and I was trying to explain to the students under what circumstances we would have a hard lockdown.  This is a tricky thing to explain to 5 year olds because they are very curious and need to be given some information to keep them from getting upset, yet too much information isn't a good thing either.  So I went with this explanation- "We are doing this drill so we can be ready in case anything dangerous comes in our school."  One kid raised his hand and said, "Like if a tiger comes in our school?" Exactly!  If a tiger ever came in our school, we would for sure need to go into a hard lockdown!
*And by far this is my favorite story from the year- I was handing out papers and the students started asking me questions like "Do you have a house?" or "Do you have a bedroom?" One kid asked me if I work.  With a smile I said "Yes, I work.  In fact I'm at work right now."  One little girl's eyes got real wide and she said "You work here?!?" 
And in case you ever wonder what it is like to teach kindergarten, this video sums up very nicely what I do for 3 hours a day:

Soccer Season

 

 

Katie just finished her spring soccer season.  She has played before but it has been a couple of seasons.  What she lacks in skill, she makes up for in scrappiness!  She is quite the little speedster.  It was amazing to watch her little legs move her across the field.  It was like her legs went twice as fast as the players around her.  And they very well could have because she is about half the size of some of the other players.  She is picking up the skills of the sport and even though she never made a goal she made some great passes and was a fantastic defender.

Even though she played in a rec league, her team was quite competitive.  This was in part because of their coach.  He was such a great coach but he sure liked to win.  It was kind of entertaining to watch him on the sidelines.  It was like you could physically see the battle within himself of trying to balance the strong desire to win and the delicate egos of 8 and 9 year old girls. While on the sidelines the girls who weren't in the game, would pepper him with questions like "Did you notice my new haircut? or Do you want to see our secret handshake? or Watch me do this handstand!"  He would try to validate them but let's be honest what 30+ man notices even when his own wife gets a haircut, let alone one of 10 girls on his soccer team?!?  He was constantly trying to redirect their focus back to the game.  And being a person who is a professional redirector of children's attention, it made me smile to watch. 
My very favorite of these moments was after the game.  The coach would gather all the girls around and they would have a little breakdown/debrief of the game.  Coach would ask things like "So what went well during the game?" or "What do you like about soccer?"  Without fail some girl would pull the conversation off topic and soon they were talking everything but soccer.  It was hilarous to watch the coach's face.  It went something like this:

But he really was a great coach and we would request him again for a great non-competitive winning season!