School Starts

This time of year has always been a very busy time. We have several family birthdays coming up, our anniversary, and the beginning of school. So there may be several posts in the next few weeks, which will really be a change because lately there hasn't been much to write about.

I think most people's lives revolve around the traditional school year and vacation times. Even though I grew up in the home of an educator, school starting was important because we were actually going to school, not just because our dad started working in his usual place.

Mom would spend hours making all of our clothes. We were lucky that she was such a great seamstress and could make such beautiful clothes. I think making clothes was a necessity because we really didn't have anywhere to get clothes. Back in those "olden-days" girls always wore dresses to school. It wasn't until I was in high school that we were "allowed" to wear nice slack pants to school. I remember one year it was so cold in the mornings that we wore pants under our dresses on the bus, and took them off when we got to junior high. Anyway, Mom made lots of dresses for us. When I got older it became my job to do the hemming on all those clothes. I would spend hours pinning them up and hand-stitching the hems in. I didn't know you could do hemming on the sewing machine. Mom insisted on a hand-stitched hem. Then I would press all of them. I don't think I had a store bought dress until I got my formal for junior prom.

Our first "beginning of school" activity, outside of fabric shopping, was the annual mutton fry picnic for all the high school teachers. I think they had the faculty meeting in the morning, then we traveled to the mountains for a big family picnic. I remember going to Old Folks Flat up Huntington Canyon and jumping around on the big rocks as the men fried the mutton and scones. I remember eating corn on the cob there. A few years we were in Indian Creek, but I remember being older then. The high school faculty was a very fun group who enjoyed getting together. I meet my friends Natale Johanson and Peggy Jorgensen there and we always had lots of fun.

On the first day of school we would pose for the traditional photo shoot. This picture must have been when Ruanne was in high school and I was still in junior high because Ruanne is in contact lenses and I still have glasses. (We weren't allowed to get contacts until we were starting high school.) And we were still in dresses. Look at that early 70's flipped up hair-do with bangs! You can't see my skirt here, but it was gold with big pleats. I am sure I have gold knee-hi's on as well. What wonderful fashion.

Now school is starting again. I am looking forward to a new class full of new challenges and lots of fun. I am excited for my grandchildren starting school again. I love that they are excited to learn new things and that they are good students. I love hearing about what they are learning and look forward to those phone calls full of excitement about their fun in school.

PS. I just looked closer at the photo. Notice the clippers sitting on the window sill. That was their traditional place! If we didn't put them back there we would never have found them again. Such a silly place to put clippers, but you always knew where to go to get them. What a funny memory.

Out With the Old, In With the New

Do you like my new background? I hope it reminds me to go to the temple more often, even if we have to drive for 2 hours to get there! And to read my scriptures more.....I suggest everyone reads The Old Testament Made Easier. The Book of Mormon ones were great and I am really get lots of in insights with the first volume of this one.

Several people have told me it is time to change my background, so tonight, while I had a little bit of time, I decided to do so. I never know when I will have a few minutes to change it again, so I wanted to choose a "generic" one, that wouldn't have to be changed to match the season. Mind you, I like all the seasonal ones, and I am seeing some very pretty things out there. I just don't do seasons well. My seasons seem to be "school's in" and "school's out". (Those are contractions for "school is", not singular possessive, for those school teachers out there.) Right now the season is "school's in" all the time because it is too cold to be out! Please pass warmer weather! Our students just can't seem to settle down right now. They sit inside with snowsuits on, hoping it will be warm enough to go outside. Those who brave the cold come in frozen but happy. Then they take 10 minutes just getting their coats, gloves, scarves, earmuffs, etc. all hung up out in the hallways. There is always the one who needs to go back outside to get a lost glove. Is it really worth is? The ones inside take 5 minutes to decide on a game to play, then 5 minutes to get it all set up, and then only get to play for a minute before I remind them they need to get to the restroom. When they get back, the bell rings and they spend the next 10 minutes cleaning it up. Or they leave the game where they left it, thinking I don't know it is their game to clean up. Then they fight about who needs to pick up what......Again, is it worth it? To quote someone dear to my heart: OH MY STARS!!!!!

I had a special holiday time with my family. Even though we experienced the lose of my dad, it was great to have all of my family in the same state at the same time. I so much appreciated all your love and concern for me. Hearing you all ask "How are you doing, Mom," shows me you are thinking of my feelings. I hope you are all realizing just how important fathers are, and reminding yourselves how wonderful your own father is. As much as you love your father, I love mine the same. Fathers are there to pick you up when you are down, to keep you laughing when you need to see the bright side, to offer a shoulder when you need to cry, to open their hearts when you hurt. Even old mothers like me need a dad now and then. He will be missed. I will miss his stories, even though I could tell them all by heart. I will miss our talks about school. I loved to keep him up on all the happenings in school, the new trends, the demands of the job, etc. I know he enjoyed hearing what was going on. I will miss that. There are times that I hear or see something and think how much I would love to share that with Dad. And that makes the tears come again. Like right now. I learned in the 30 years without Mom, it really never gets easier, just gets normal. There are still times when I wish I had a mom to talk with, to give me advice, to show me how to solve a problem. No one ever takes the place of a mom or dad. I just hope, in some small way, to be the mom that my children will look to for advice, a talk, help with a problem. Someone that my children will miss when I am gone. I know their dad will be that man, because he is such a great guy, just like my dad.

OK........I need to stop that......

Just the Tuesday and Wednesday before Dad passed away, I spent the school days in Huntington working on a project with our assessment supervisor, otherwise known as Jon. (Cousin Jon Boy as he calls himself.) We are creating mid-year tests to be given to all the students in 3-6, to measure achievement in math and reading to prepare for the state tests. I am responsible for the third and fourth grade math tests, and will be required to create two summative tests for each grade level. These tests must match the state curriculum, which means a lot of research and test writing on the computers. Because we only had a two days to get an overview there, and to get a good start, we (the four of us on the committee)are expected to put in more days at home, not on school time. We will be paid for some extra career days, and have been given a new computer to work on. Now, my questions is this: Is this computer mine to keep? I don't know and I don't want to ask! As long as no one asks for it back, I will keep it on my desk. If it is still here after the tests are completed and approved, and no one asks for the computer back, then I will assume I get to keep it..........What you have to do to get a new computer!!! Is it worth it? I think so. (Just don't anyone tell Jon that I am questioning this. He might just take it back because I am so air-headed.)

One more resolution I have for this year: I will go back through my posts and add tags for the entries, so the tag cloud is more accurate. Just something simple for me.

Frustrations of a School Teacher

This morning I am very frustrated. I know there is actually no need to be frustrated, it is really just a silly thing. But I do get frustrated when I know I should be able to complete a task and I can't do it. This school teacher wants to place a video of the classroom owl pellet activity onto the classroom website, and I can't figure out how to do it. I can't get the video to transfer to flickr, can't upload it from my own computer, can't seem to do it at all. Heck, sometimes I can't even find the silly file on my own computer! I think I will just stop trying. Why cause my own frustrations?

I am missing my little kids today. I wish I could be in Lehi, Salt Lake, and Kansas City all in the same day, to see them all dressed up and having fun today. That is the only thing exciting about Halloween. I would love to watch them so excited. I sure hope I get to see pictures.....hint, hint, hint......

This morning Garth went back to the school to finish up a project in the Spartan Center. They are refinishing all the benches and it is taking several days. With basketball starting the benches need to be done this week, so that is how he is spending his time today.

It is report card time at my school, so I brought home lots of filing to help me get ready. I have the reports mostly completed, just need to get everything in student files. Also trying to get things organized for the start of a new quarter. Back to the "real" learning.

I need to run to Price to get the fabric for the back of Koy's Christmas stocking. It has been completed for about 2 months but I keep forgetting to take it with me when I go to Price so I can match the back fabric. I will get it done, take a picture, and publish it for all the world to tell me how wonderful it is.

After finishing his stocking I completed another covering to take to the Manti Temple. It really is a pretty one and I hope they can use it in one of the rooms. The other two I finished were smaller and they will use them on tables or other places. I am now working on one that is really pretty and will be large enough for the Garden Room or the World Room. I also need to get back to doing a few afghans, both adult sizes and baby ones. You never know when I might need one for someone.

So today my plan is to ..... do something. The dust is bad, the bathroom worse.....other rooms need to be de-junked. Where is Mission Organization when I need them. I know....all my daughters.....all FOUR of you.....plan a trip to Mother's house and do some service for her.....help her clean up her house! No...If I knew you were coming I would have to clean before you could come and clean......I have no one to blame but myself...Get busy!

Another Sunday

I look back on the past week and I don't see that I accomplished very much. I seem to get further and further behind in school. I remember the days when we did a little bit of this and a little bit of that, an art pictures and sang songs, too. But now we don't even get a little this done. I still have the bulletin board I put up in August out in the hallway. We can't even get a piece of art completed! We have worked all week on writing descriptions of monsters for Halloween. I guess I am not the teacher I used to be because I can't get them motivated to write.

I found something fun in my files this week, though. I was looking for the picture of a large jar for the students to use for drawing their monsters to fit their descriptions. A Monster in a Jar) I found a booklet filled with descriptions of witches...completed about 19 years ago when NICKY! was in my classroom. Now I have proof that students actually did write very good descriptions. Some of those descriptions were 2-3 pages long! And they were written in beautiful cursive writing! We just barely got through the first round of the small letters in cursive. There was a time when all students were expected to write everything in cursive after the first of October, and I have the proof right there. Their writing was very neat, even the most sloppy writer (and I won't say who it was.) It was so fun to go through that booklet and read those descriptions. They used very good adjectives and really described every witch. You could draw a picture by their descriptions. How I wish my students would be able to do that now. Oh, well. We did our best. Maybe the next writing assignment.

We did make a graph comparing the cranes and herons, as well as the ravens and crows. Next week we are working on OWLS. Yes, owl pellets will be out during this week. We will work on writing facts about owls from our reading. Maybe non-fiction writing will be better than fictions. Facts and not details. We'll see.

What else did I do? Let's see. I played the prelude and postlude at Bishop Tuttle's funeral. I really felt on the spot because there were so many people just sitting and listening prior to the funeral. I think that was the quietest I have ever experiences during prelude music. The people were actually able to hear, and that made me nervous. I try to keep to just simple arrangements of appropriate hymns so people can contemplate the words and think about the meanings. I had several people compliment me on setting a special mood for the services. That made me feel really good. I need that every now and then, honest true compliments, not just "Thanks to Sister Labrum for the music" that happens without thought every week, just a robotic comment. These people really meant their compliments and I thank them for it.
I also went to the view for President Curtis. I talked with Marlene for a few minutes of course. She says she looks at his passing as his way of being there to help Colleen prepare for the temple. It won't be very long before the one-year mark of her passing and Marlene said Colleen must need her dad there to help her get ready. I look forward to that day.

Yesterday we, or I should say Garth, laid out the pavers for the steps from the driveway to the new shed. It looks really nice. He smashed a few fingers along the way and I felt badly that I couldn't help him more. I have spent the last week coughing a lot so I'm not of much use to anyone. The steps look really nice. A nice finishing touch to his hard work. He took down the trampoline, mowed up the lawn (and Charlene's as well), and cleaned up other yard work. I worked on the den and got a bit done inside.

I am walking better today than I have for about 3 weeks. I pray the pain will stay away the rest of the winter. Hopefully I will be able to walk better each day again. I was blessed with about 6 weeks of good walking, then it hit bad again. I hope this time it will improve and I will be able to walk pain free for a while. Walking and breathing are very important. I like both of them.

Tomorrow is Nicky's birthday. I will write another post tomorrow.

Preschool Pioneer

I added a new widget on the side, especially for those parents of young children. Check out the Preschool Pioneer website from Utah Education Network. It has great games for preschool children for learning letters, numbers, all about them, many great places for fun activities. The premedia has lots of great video clips, etc. It was piloted last year and my students really enjoyed it. Just thought you all might want to look it over.

Update

We haven't done anything fun and exciting at all this week, but live hasn't been boring. We have just been busy going to work/school and living an uneventful week, which is a nice break for us. The most excitment came while sitting by the stove watching Survivor! Wasn't that a great show! I bet that goes down as one of the best episodes every. I loved the look on Randy's face when he found out the idol wasn't real! It was a classic. Now we have to wait two whole weeks to find out if Bob is telling the truth about the other idol being hidden somewhere on the island. Is it a lie to lead people's attention in another direction, or is he trying to get a stronger alliance? It will be interesting to see what happens. But nothing will beat getting Randy off the show. I don't think I have ever disliked a player like I dislike him. I don't understand how he ever made it this far. So, that is our exciting lives.

This week in school we had our traditional Thanksgiving Dinner, but we made it a little bit nicer. We had "real" chairs, not the benches at the tables, place setting, centerpieces, the whole nine-yards. The pie was already set at each place setting and we asked all the kids to dress up a little bit. The teachers all wore dresses, except Mr. Winn and Mr. Jones, who had on nicer shirts and ties (yes, and pants as well!) Mr. Jones met us at the door and took us 8 at a time to the tables to be seated. The teachers sat with their class where we all practiced our good manners. We had talked about table etiquette (I had to look up that word), how the boys should help seat the girls, using your napkins, asking for rolls, butter, etc. Everyone had to wait until everyone had been served before they could start eating, then they had to stay in their seats until everyone was done. I wasn't sure I would like this, but it turned out really nice. I did have to tell a few boys they couldn't pick up their pumpkin pie with their hands, and remind them to use their knives to cut their turkey (yes, we did have plastic knives.) All in all, it was a very nice dinner and a good experience for the kids. The best comment came when we were talking about what was going to happen and how it would be like eating at a very nice expensive restuarant. One cute little girl raised her hand and asked, "What did we do to deserve this?" She was so serious and couldn't imagine being treated so well. She stole my heart, but then, I have loved having her sisters in my class before and she is a cute as they are.
I wished I had my camera there for the shot of the day: During lunch recess the sixth graders always play basketball, and there was Lexi Huntington, a tall sixth-grade girl, playing basketball in her high-heels! And she was beating out all the boys! It was so funny. (Can't spell hilarious).

So that, was our week. Nice and quiet but too much to do. Now I am off to read about 5 chapters in a boring math book so I am prepared to read it again tomorrow in my math class. So much for fun!