Warning!

Too much multi-tasking and too much on my fragile little brain can lead to this!

Surprise Encounter

Some people may say that there are few perks to being a teacher.  First on the list would be those glorious summers off work.  Hopefully that will be the topic of many posts in the future (actually in 7 months, but hey who's counting).  A lesser known perk especially to elementary teachers are the rare opportunities when you get to see students outside of the school setting.

That's just what happened tonight.  Amanda and I were at Walmart getting a rotisserie chicken for dinner, and we saw one of my students and his family.  Of course, he didn't want to acknowledge my presence, but his brothers sure did.  His little brother was quite happy to see me.  Then his older brother saw me, and with this look of amazement on his face, he says, "Why aren't you in your classroom?"

Absolutely priceless!

The LOOK!!!

We had a fabulous Halloween, but I will post more about that later. There are much more pressing matters at hand. My salvation!

We worried that we wouldn't make it to church on time today because my new bed loves me so much that I didn't wake up until 10:00. Ahhhhhhh! However, after much scurrying and rushing we made it, and on time no less. Quite an accomplishment! If I am teaching Amanda nothing else, I am teaching her how to get ready quickly.

We sat behind the cutest little family with 2 boys ages approximately 3 years and 9 months. I was playing with the baby a little bit by pulling faces at him and patting his hands. We were both pretty happy with that arrangement. But all good things must come to an end and his mom had to take him out to change him. Cue the older brother...

We started off innocently enough by sharing fruit snacks with him. Then Amanda's pocket calendar caught his eye. Knowing that Amanda would be upset if he took this, I quickly made a paper beak for him. Not wanting Amanda to feel left out, I made one for her as well. The boy's hand proved to be too small to make the beak open and close so he handed it back to me. Let the fun begin! That crazy beak chomped on his fingers, his nose, his ear, his cheek and his chin. All of this was met with quiet little giggles that progressively got a little louder. Next, the beak turned into a hat and sat on his head. This was met by a little squeal and he knocked the hat off his head. This action proved to change the rules of the game. Sensing that he didn't really like the hat, the beak came back. However, the response was the same as it was for the hat. He quickly swatted the beak away and was quite please with himself for doing so. Of course he wasn't afraid to voice it. After a few more attempts and close to raucous laughter, the moment came.....

Amanda taps my shoulder, give me the look and commands in quite a firm voice, "Mom, STOP!" The mother of the little boy got a better view of "the look" than I did, and she quickly turned away. By the shaking of her shoulders I could tell that she was laughing about as hard as I was.

And there you have it. I was officially chastised by my 6 year old for inappropriate church behavior! I won't be surprised if she doesn't let us sit by that cute little family again.

So I'm a little slow....

Well, I'm only about a month late. My brother and his wife welcomed a baby girl into their family in August. (Forgive me for not remembering the exact date. That old age thing is really kicking in.) Amanda and I had the wonderful opportunity of going to the baby blessing in September.

It was a great trip. We met my mom and dad in Burley, and then rode with them the rest of the way to Prosser, WA. We got to Steve & Nicolle's house on Friday evening and had Nicolle and little Ellie all to ourselves. We felt so SPOILED and got some great photo ops!
On Saturday morning, there was a hot air balloon festival in Prosser. About 25 balloons launched that morning and it was a pretty neat sight to see. I'll post some pics of that later.

We got to spend the rest of the day with Steve & Nicolle, and Lori & Curtis made it to Prosser as well. Nicolle's family made it to Prosser later that day. Nicolle has a niece that is about Amanda's age and she and Amanda hit it off. It was a lot of fun to watch them play, and I'm sure Amanda felt that Kirsten was a welcome relief from all of the adult company she had endured to that point.

All in all, we spent about 20 hours in the car to get to WA and to get home, but every minute of it was worth it to be able to spend some time with my brother, his wife and their new little munchkin. Just wished they lived a little closer so we could see them more often.

Time For Thanks

At 10:38 on a Sunday night, I look back over the past week (which has seemed like several) and feel thankful. First, I'm thankful that I made it to this point. Parent Teacher Conference week is always draining, but the conferences went well.

I'm grateful for a family friend that treated Sunshine (our parakeet). Hopefully it really is an absess and will heal and not a tumor like he originally thought.

My great Aunt passed away recently and her funeral was Saturday. I was fortunate to have 2 great aunts and uncles live within a block of me growing up. I was able to get to know them and also get to know my grandparents through them. Their generation truly is the greatest generation, I'm grateful for their influence in my life and I miss them very much.

I'm thankful for amazing parents that do so much for me and Amanda. It was so nice to have them come to the Primary program today and have dinner with us. We are very spoiled!

I have an AMAZING daughter who teaches me so much. She is so sweet, kind, caring, and tender-hearted. I am so proud of her, and can't imagine what life would be like without her. Loved the fact that during the funeral she told me that she would buy my casket when I die.

Bottom line is: I am VERY blessed and VERY grateful!

Lagoon!

Somehow we've managed to keep ourselves busy this summer. You wouldn't know it by the number of posts that I've written, but we haven't been just lounging around the house.

We decided that it would be a fun idea to go to Lagoon today. Usually that's a fairly predictable experience (except for that visit when my age crept up on me and I actually threw up after riding Tidal Wave). It began predictably with us enjoying the "Where are we going to put our lunch?" ride, and then the customary ride on the Jumping Dragon. This is the first ride we go on each and every time we go to Lagoon. I'm not sure if Amanda loves the ride or just loves the little act that we play while riding it. For those of you unfamiliar with the ride, it's a circular ride that waves up and down while going forward first, then slowing to a stop and resuming in a backwards motion. The act goes like this: we take our seats and the ride begins to move forward slowly, I comment how this is such a lovely ride and it's going to be so calm and peaceful, as the ride begins to pick up pace, I start to panic and scream, (Amanda is giggling like crazy by this point), then the ride slows and I voice my relief that they are finally going to let me off this thing, (Amanda has a knowing gleam in her eye at this point), then the ride starts backwards and I begin to bemoan the fact that they did not let me off the ride, I panic and scream until the ride begins to stop, (of course Amanda is delirious with laughter by this point) the ride stops and we get off. Amanda will not let us even consider riding the ride without the act. She starts reminding me of it as soon as we're buckled in. I'm sure the other people around us think I'm nuts. Aren't they perceptive?

Goodness, I got off on a bit of a tangent there didn't I? Today, we noticed that there were a couple of shows that we had not seen. (Actually we haven't been to any of the shows this year.) I don't know if it's a sign that Lagoon is doing well this year or a sign of the tough economic times, but these shows are not the usual Lagoon fare. The first was titled "Extreme Parrots" and they guy had come from Las Vegas. It was fun to watch the trained birds push miniature shopping carts, pedal a tiny bicycle, sing to us, and fly through hoops.

The second show was L'Orage presented by Cirque Innosta. As we made our way towards our seats, one of the workers asks Amanda how old she is and if she would like to be in the show. Since you all know how bold and outgoing Amanda is, I'm sure you can imagine her reaction. However, she relented and we were escorted to the reserved seats. I did the best I could to take video with my phone and here is the show:


Sorry it's so tiny! She's the one in the blue shirt and green shorts. Needless to say, we had a great trip to Lagoon today that will definitely be remembered.

Amanda's Sleepover with Grandma & Grandpa

While I was in LA slaving away in conference meetings, Amanda got to have a sleepover at Grandma & Grandpa Bennett's house. I actually should co-write this post with Grandma, but she's in Preston right now and I'm in Ogden. So you get my recollection of Amanda's trip. They came down to our house the day before I left to pick Amanda up. That was VERY helpful and saved me a bunch of time. THANKS!

So trips to Grandma & Grandpa's are so much fun because there is a seemingly endless list of things to do. First and foremost is the chance to play with/ride on Sampson.
They were working on getting 1st crop hay up, so she got to ride in the hay truck and also in the tractor with Grandma. This was pretty fun until the fields got rough. She got bounced around a little too much and hit her head. :(

Hay hauling has definitely evolved since I was a kid and they can clear a field in a few hours. This left time to make a new wardrobe for Water baby. Grandma sewed a nightgown, shirt, pants, and a baby carrier all out of "fabric" (not cloth) that Amanda chose. Needless to say, Water baby is pretty stylish now and her outfits coordinate with the teepee!

She also took a trip to Willow Park. She had a great time looking at all of the animals, but I believe her favorite was the Boa Constrictor. Of course Grandma planned the trip well so it included a fabulous picnic lunch, and then playtime at the park. Fortunately they weren't in a hurry to get anywhere else because once Amanda got a swing she stayed on it for a solid hour! Good thing she was with Grandma because I'm pretty sure I wouldn't have had the patience to wait for her to swing that long.

One of the highlights of the trip was going to the neighbor's house for pony rides. The Bradfords have a wonderful older pony names Sugar, and they have made an arena behind their house. According to Grandma, Amanda listened very intently as Lena gave her instructions on how to get the pony to do what she wants her to do, and then off she went!

If riding a pony wasn't great enough, she also got to ride in a pony cart.
With all of this fun stuff to do, I don't think she had time to even notice I was gone, let alone miss me. However, when I got to their house on Thursday night, Amanda ran to the driveway, gave me an ENORMOUS hug, and proceeded to tell me that she was so happy that I had "arrived".

Thanks again for a fabulous sleepover Grandma & Grandpa!

Los Angeles Trip

When I got home from Memorial Day festivities, I had a message from my district's Special Ed Director. She told me there was a conference in Los Angeles for a software program I have been using with my students for the past few months. She wondered if I wanted to attend. Considering the fact that I wouldn't have to pay for it, that I have never been to California, and that I really love the software, of course my answer was YES!

So I flew out on June 21st and was greeted at the airport with a person holding a clipboard with my name on it. I will admit that I thought that was pretty cool, even if it makes me appear like a hick. Although I resisted the urge to take a picture of her holding the clipboard if that does anything to redeem me.

Over the next 2 days, I spent my days meeting with the President of the software company, other company representatives and 7 other educators from across the country to discuss our experience with the software so far. We also got to see the vision for future versions of the software and provide our input on what would make it more effective for the students we work with.

In the evenings, we got to do some fun things in LA. We went to the Hard Rock Cafe at Universal City Walk (which just happened to be within walking distance from our hotel). On the second evening, we took a driving tour around parts of LA.

After the driving tour, we went to a restaurant called The Musso & Frank Grill. It's an old restaurant where apparently a lot of Hollywood stars meet. A few of the ladies that I was with were really hoping to see a big star, and it turns out that Scott Caan was sitting at the table behind us. He's not a big star, but the other ladies were pretty excited. I was actually more excited when they brought the cheesecake to the table for desert. This turned out to be a highlight for the entire trip and I actually regret not taking a picture of it before I devoured it. It is THE BEST cheesecake I have ever eaten! After dinner we took a walk down Hollywood Blvd.
The next evening, we took another short tour and ended up at Paramount Ranch. It's a pretty cool old western movie set. Obviously this is just one of the buildings.
The President of the company has a house on Malibu Lake, and we went there for a dinner party. Here's the view from his front yard. Not bad eh?
On the way back to the hotel, we took a short detour to Malibu Pier so we could see the ocean. The moon was pretty full so it was actually quite nice. I didn't bother taking a picture because I had my doubts that it would turn out.

The whole experience was pretty neat. It's always fun traveling on someone else's dime. Hopefully the information I was able to share about my own experience with the software can help others who choose to adopt it in the future. At any rate, if my District Director calls again and wants to send me to another conference, my answer will most definitely be YES!

Happy Birthday Amanda!

Ask yourself, "If I were Amanda, how would I kick off my 6th birthday?" By waking up your mother (who is most definitely NOT A MORNING PERSON) at 6:17 am. Those of you who know me realize that this is a full hour before I would drag myself out of bed to get to work. However, it was a really good thing that she did because we just barely got everything done in time. We didn't get plans coordinated until late Sunday evening so we had to start the day with a trip to the grocery store. Not exactly the most celebratory or festive way to start a birthday, but necessary nonetheless. Can't have a birthday without cake and ice cream, right?

Next came the presents! She made out pretty well. I can't decide if she's just hit that stage that all kids go though when they know they're getting their picture taken and pull a face that in their mind is just a perfect smile, or if she's channeling her inner Grandma Bennett. Check out the pictures and you decide.





My mom used to always let us choose a cut-out cake for our birthdays, and I thought this was a great tradition to carry on. However, I'm not as good of a cake decorator as my mother so I rope Amanda into helping decorate. Amanda chose a cat cake this year. I thought it turned out pretty cute.


However, this is a lot of cake so we had to get some reinforcements in to help us eat it. My friends Melanie and Mark were happy to come over with 2 of their kids, Mathew & Malinda to help us out. Granted, we still have birthday cake left.

Amanda then spent the next hour playing with Mathew and the walkie-talkies that I found when I cleaned the house. If I would have only known, I wouldn't have needed to go through the bother and expense of buying gifts. That was all we had time for because she got to go over to her dad's house to have Happy Birthday Part 2.

Regardless, it was a fun day and I'm sure she had a great time! I'm still trying to figure out where 6 years have gone... Can't remember what life was like before she came along and that's really good thing!

Let's give this a shot

So I have to admit that I may be suffering from the "keeping up with the Jones'" syndrome. I really enjoy reading blogs written by friends and family, however, I have long thought that my existence is not exciting enough to write about. Be that as it may, I'm going to give this a shot anyway. Worst case scenario: this effort falls by the wayside just like every journal writing attempt I have ever made. Best case scenario: my blog amasses millions of followers, and a movie adaptation is made with Amy Adams staring as me. Oh, wait! That already happened to someone else. Oh well. Here goes...