At least my pantry is ready for 2011!

This...

became

this...

One project down a brazillion to go!

New Year's: Look Not behind Thee

Man, I needed THIS one.

If I get a Flip camera for Christmas...

...I'm totally going to do this! I will dance like the dickens in as many places as possible.

(I've also heard that is brings happiness so, I'm trying it! Just thinking about it makes me smile.)

Then I'm taking all of my family to Disneyland and we are going to do this!

So, if Santa hears and grants my wish, who's coming with me???? I'll need backup dancers ya know!

Why I feel a little sad today...

1. Poor Melissa has a broken hand.

2. This

3. A major lack of moola here:

(but my son-in-law, Tyler, has assured me he will accept a plate of fudge rather than a video game for Christmas)...just kidding...he didn't say that.

4. I got locked out of my house tonight without my shoes or a bra on.

5. My throat is doing one of these.

6. The parent Christmas present my First graders made has the paint totally chipping off as it dries. No time to redo them. Maybe I will have the kids write them a letter and give them hugs and kisses for Christmas instead.

7. There is nothing good on the tube tonight.

8. This book is amazing but it does make me a little sad!

9. I miss all of the family who won't be here this Christmas.

10. My dogs stink!

Waa, Waa, Waa! Tomorrow will be better.

My Peeps!

One of my fondest memories will always be of the Grandview Nursing Home in Cardston, Alberta, Canada. My mother worked there for many years and I would spend hours there after school waiting for her to finish work so we could drive home.

I loved sitting in the supply closet and sifting through her bottles of beads, baskets of yarn, glue, and Artex paints (remember those?). You see, she was the activities director there. She taught those "old folks" how to bead and basket weave...yes, basket weave! She played all sorts of games with them. My particular favorite was BINGO. "Under the O 'clickety click'" (that's 66 in case you don't speak "BINGO"). I loved it there.

At the time, I thought that those old people kind of smelled funny and, in the beginning, I was a little frightened of them. They said wacky things and made interesting sounds. However, I loved watching my mother interact with those older people. She had a way of making them smile. I knew that they loved every minute with her...and she with them. Maybe that what made it seem so magical to my childish eyes.

Well, now I know that, while my mom was very special in her ability to work with the elderly, SHE was the one being blessed. It was the people she served that were REALLY serving HER! I understand that now because I have the privilege of spending an hour every Sunday with my own group of older friends. Terry and I teach the Gospel Doctrine class at Cove Point, a retirement/care center here in Provo. We get to talk about the Old Testament and Gospel truths with those who really "know" and tend to teach us far more than we could ever teach them. I absolutely LOVE it.

Some of you may remember how petrified I was to give the first lesson a couple of months ago. I almost suffered paralysis of the knees just minutes before standing in front of those blessed people. Now, I can't wait to get there every Sunday afternoon. You really should be jealous. I mean, just LOOK at these friends of mine:

Oh my! I love her!

This is my friend Fran who said to me after I taught my very first terrifying lesson:

"I didn't get ONE thing out of that lesson!"

If I'm not on my toes, Leo will give the entire lesson with just ONE

of his astounding answers.

John is one of the most amazing men I've ever met.

His body is tired.

He moves slowly.

His mind is alert.

He is a teacher.

Sheila tells me a story every Sunday about her years of teaching

Special Education.

Her friend (I can't remember her name at the moment...shame on me),

always has a comment about my shoes.

The comments usually begin: "I used to be able to wear shoes like that..."

Don't you wish you had my "job"?

John the Mayor (NOT John Mayer)

Today our school had a Parent Party. It was a party where parents came to school and read with their children. It took place from 8:30 am-9:10 am. It was a HUGE success! I can't even begin to express the feelings I have when I see parents taking an active roll in their children. Simply reading a book to them and then letting them read back to "show off" what they know. It makes my heart literally beat faster. And I won't lie by telling you I didn't tear up a bit watching the entire scene. To see more pictures and read a bit more about the morning go here. You'll see some awesome looking pajamas too. Did I mention it was a pajama day as well? Perfect.

As for this blog post, I must relate the humorous scene in my classroom today. We were picked to have the mayor of Provo, Mr. John Curtis, spend the entire half hour in our classroom. I know! What an honor, right? Or was it?

The organizers of this big shindig had extra parents, grandparents, school district members, and community members lined up to fill in for parents who couldn't make it. So, Mayor Curtis picked out Rebeca. All of the adults in the room were very excited to see the mayor sitting down with our little Rebeca to read. Touching, right? Or was it?

To Rebeca, it was just another adult invading her personal space. I whipped out my camera to take a picture of the two of them. No matter what I did or said, Rebeca would NOT smile. I felt like those seriously overthetop girls who take the pictures at Kiddie Kandids. Still...no luck. So, I made my rounds to the other duos in the room and circled back. As I came closer, Rebeca looked up at Mayor Curtis and asked in such a disgusted voice, "Who ARE you?" (The tone was more like "Who the HELL are YOU?" but we don't allow swears in our class!

The mayor held out his hand to Rebeca and said, "I'm John". She shook his hand and was just fine after that. I thought about it and it finally dawned on me that "John" was just some adult trying make friends and he didn't even ask her if he could.

I'm happy to report that the two became fast friends after that. I would look over at them and find them giving high-fives, laughing together, and pointing/sounding out the words in the book. At the end of the read-a-thon (which I think is so funny that they called it a read-a-thon when it was only 30 minutes!) I asked Rebeca, "Now do you know who was reading with you?" "Ya," she said "He's John!" Duh!

So cute.

At the end of the time, everyone received a donut! Yum! The school ordered 1200 Krispy Kreme donuts! We had 300 left over. I'm wondering how many donuts a person could eat before blowing up!!!

Rebeca with her new BFF John.

Me with John

23rd For My Little Bird!

I was the first to touch this beautiful woman. I carried her for 9 months and SHE has carried me ever since. I love my daughter and I've been so lucky to have her in my life for the last 23 years.

Why We Love Terry...

He lets me make him french toast for dinner. Then he puts his own

butter

maple syrup

and...

(seriously)

all

of

this

ICING SUGAR!

(at least a quarter of an inch high)

Sweet tooth of all sweet teeth!

And, boy, I love him for it.

Really, Tami?

Yes, they were all mine ( at one time or another) I may need an intervention.

In the Spirit of Thanksgiving

HP7

Last night was one of the most exciting, fun, weird, joyful, and memorable evenings I've had in a long time. It was the premiere of the this badboy.

The best part of the whole event was that I had my family with me. It all started at 8:00 when we met at Chili's for a delicious meal together. In attendance: Me, Terry, Erika, Tyler, Melissa, and Danny. It was delicious and fun to let loose, to laugh, and to talk and enjoy my girls and their boys.

I'm very proud of Melissa for controlling ALL of her fingers during the picture sessions!!

Ha ha!

My cute little baby who is pregnant with her own baby.

Melissa brought Erika and Tyler an adorable gift:

Pretty cute! Yes?

This little baby will be spoiled by his/her

Auntie Melissa (and possibly by his/her grandmother).

Our side of the table.

Their side of the table!

We had about an hour to kill so we went back to our house to get into our Harry Potter getups. Here's Tyler with Terry's awesome garage sale find.

Then, it was off to see the movie. Just so you know, Terry and I have NEVER done anything like this before. We were bamboozled by our children into thinking that we were ALL going to dress up as a favorite character. When we actually got there, you guessed it, Terry and I were the ONLY two of the six dressed up. After a brief cold sweat moment on my part, I decided I didn't care and went with the whole thing!

I am so glad I did! I had a ball. Terry was dressed as a death eater. I even tattooed the horrid death eater tattoo on his arm. I did a pretty good job too, if I do say so myself! (sorry, no picture! I just plain old forgot!)He disappeared for a while to the basement and came up looking like this:

What a great sport!

Then there is THIS

dingbat:

I love my left eye that looks crossed.

Whenever I look at this picture, I just have to shake my head...

kind of like YOU must be doing about now. Yes?

I absolutely LOVE Professor Trelawney! I knew I had to "BE" her for this special evening. Other than the borrowed glasses from my good friend Frankie, I found everything else in my house. I really enjoyed the final product. Somehow, putting on a wig, or even glasses for that matter, make me feel like I could behave in ways I normally wouldn't. Is that a "false sense of security?" I say yes.

DRUMROLL PLEASE...

Here we are! For some reason, I LOVE this picture! If you look closely, you can see Terry's tattoo and wig. For about 15 minutes I got to feel what it must feel like to be famous. We had several groups of people ask if we would pose with them for pictures. I loved it. We hammed it up and had a great time while our daughters pointed and laughed! (Wicked, wicked girls!)

We got our picture taken by the group at www.shotu.net. Presumably a picture of us will show up on their site in the next few days. There were so many amazing costumes at the theatre. Seriously! There was a guy dressed as Hagrid who could have been the real deal. I loved the group of school girls who bounced around the common area as one. They looked very cute. OH, and there was a toeheaded Draco Malfoy who was picture perfect.

The movie was wonderful. I kept commenting to Erika that many, many of the scenes were exactly as I pictured them when I was reading. It is probably the most comedic movie of the series. I was really laughing at the part where there were several Harrys in the room and Fleur saying "Look away Bill".

Now I know there are lots of mothers out there who are concerned about the "nude" scene. If you want my opinion, I mean...REALLY want it (and can take it), just email me and I'll tell you all. But, let it be said right here from me (and this is just my opinion), I thought the scene in question was not just thoughtlessly thrown into the movie like so many had predicted. The scene actually made sense and contributed to Ron's anger. Anyway, that's all I'm going to say about that! :)

Well, as you can see, I had the time of my life. I can't wait to do it again. I'm thinking of dressing like Professor Umbridge by sewing myself a pink woolen dress. I could walk around carving words into people's forearms! Or...maybe not! What do you think?

PS:

If anyone wants to go and needs a movie partner, I'd go again.

PPS:

Did you know that if you buy your movie tickets online from Jordan Commons theaters you get an assigned seat? It was great. We reserved our usual favorite place right in the middle front row where we could put our feet up on the bar. PLUS, we didn't have to go and stand in line for hours waiting for them to let us into the theatre.

PPPS:

I got home at 4:00 am! I was still wide awake. And, no, I didn't go to school today. I took the day off. I've had a very busy work week. Wednesday I was at the school from 7 am until 8:30 pm because of my regular teaching day (7-3:15), after school teaching (3:30-5:00), preparation for the Parent Party class I was teaching that night (5-7...I also threw in a little classroom clean up), and then, at the Parent Party, I taught a class about reading aloud to your child (7-8:30).

THEN...

Yesterday, I taught school from 7:30-1:30, and after that, I met with all 20 parents of my students at parent teacher conferences from 1:30-6:30. To find out what I did after that, just reread this post (ya, right, like THAT'S going to happen)>

SO...

as you can see, I'm fairly exhausted right now. But it's a great feeling. I'm loving my life at the moment. There's just so much to see, do, and look forward to.

OKAY...

I'm done now. If you're still reading, thank you, YOU ARE A SAINT and deserve all good things for your patience and perseverance!

The Sweetest Little Picture Ever...

On Air

At last! My summer project at the radio is going to be aired. The program called "Scripture Stories" will be aired tomorrow, Saturday, November 13 at 10:00 am MST.

It will be the first episode of the New Testament staring these amazing children:

Chloe, Katja, Emily, Lizzy, and Alex

Once the first episode has been aired, it is available for download and as a podcast on itunes. Each Saturday thereafter at 10:00 am there will be a new episode aired.

I'm so excited. Don't laugh at me...I get a lot better.

Listen here.

George Eliot and I Agree...

"Delicious autumn! My very soul is wedded to it, and if I were a bird I would fly about the earth seeking the successive autumns."

George Eliot

(I took both photos with my iphone...no special lenses or apps this time... in my school's parking lot as I left work tonight at 4:45. The way the sun played off of the leaves, and the dark sky took my breath away. Gorgeous!)

Exhaustion...and an apron or two!

This week kicked my butt. By this afternoon, I was ready to hit the hay. It has been a tough week for some reason. I just want to go to bed. I have perked up a little since I got home from school. I even continued my garage cleaning and organizing. It's looking very good by the way.

Anyway...Last night Erika and Tyler took me out to dinner at one of my favorite places...Yamato. It lifted my spirits and my tummy. I love spending time with my children. I love the grown ups they have evolved into. I guess I just love them and that is all there is to it.

A couple of weeks ago, I got an email from my Step-daughter/friend/daughter, Abbie. I love and adore this woman. She is an incredible mother of two who is the moral support of her husband, Forrest, who is currently attending Columbia Medical School in New York City. They are on quite a ride! Lucky ducks! She maintains and awesome blog which you can read here.

Anyway, back to Abbie's email and request. She has a beautiful little three year old daughter...my Audrie. Look at her and you will agree that anyone who sees her wants to eat her up.

So, Abbie requested a couple of little aprons for little Audrie. How could I say no. My problem was that I didn't have a pattern the size of a three year old. I did my best but know they are a little bit big. But, Abbie is resourceful and will be able to cinch up the extra fabric. I loved making these up for Audrie

This one is my favorite. The apple makes me very happy.