Phew. Glad that week is over.

Hi. This is Molly. I'm glad it's finally Friday night. What a week! This has probably been the longest and most traumatic week of my life so far. I'm glad I survived it and I think my mom did, too. I have been so confused all week because my mom is crazy and keeps taking me to different places and to different people. I think I am finally getting the hang of it, but here is the rundown.

Monday - My dad started his job and my mom had the first day of school, so I had to wake up at 6:00 a.m., have a bath, get dressed, and then get in the car when it was just barely light outside. My favorite cousin Meranda tended me and I liked it so much that I just decided to sleep all day.

Tuesday - Cousin Meranda tended me again and it was great again, but Tuesday night was pretty rough. My mom gave me a bath at night. I couldn't figure out why since I've always had a bath in the morning. I was so tired, but my nose was stuffy so I just kept waking up screaming and it took my mom a long time to calm me down. I woke up 3 times during the night (it was weird because I haven't done that since I was a few weeks old).

Wednesday - My mom woke me up at 6:00 again, but she seemed extra stressed. We left early and instead of going to Meranda's, I went to school with my mom. She had to be there for a meeting at 7:00. The people there tried to take good care of me, but my mom was so stressed she didn't give them very good directions. I kept trying to tell them what I wanted, but they just didn't understand me. I needed my bottle warmer. I wanted to be held facing forward. I needed a burper rag under my chin while I ate so my shirt didn't get all wet. I didn't want them to hold me anymore. I was too tired to settle down and I just wanted my mom. My mom told me she'd try to come visit me at lunch, but she didn't. That's ok and I didn't really notice, but she told me later that she just couldn't come see me because it would have been too hard to leave me all over again.

That evening, I was so stressed that I kept crying and was really fussy. My mom finally got me to take a bottle, but then something happened and I spit up the whole bottle out my nose and my mouth. It was yucky. I have never done that before. It was just a bad day all around. Luckily, though, it made me so tired that I got a good night's sleep.

Thursday - This day was kind of just a blur to me. I woke up, then fell asleep, then woke up, then fell back asleep. I was asleep almost the whole day at school. Miss Autumn, my new mom, said that she kept checking on me because I slept for almost 4 hours at school, woke up, then fell asleep again until my mom came. I was wiped out.

When my mom picked me up, we headed to Uncle Willie's football game. I stayed awake during that, but when I got home, my dad fed me and I fell asleep again. My mom woke me up at 8:30 to give me a bath. I fell asleep again after that and slept all night. It sure felt good.

Friday - By today, my mom seemed to settle down a little bit. She didn't seem quite as uptight as she has been all week. She wasn't saying, "I'm sorry" to me quite as much as she was on Wednesday. They take really good care of me at school, but I think my mom worries. She still hasn't come to see me at lunch. Maybe it's just because she keeps working during lunch so she can get me sooner after the big kids leave.

Tonight we went to another football game. I was happy, but then I cried. I heard my mom ask Grandma and Aunt Cindy if it was child abuse or just "training," bringing me to the game. They said it was just training. Hunter scored a lot. I don't like it when they score because everyone scrams and it scares me. I fell asleep, but I guess I didn't miss much this time because Uncle Willie didn't get in this week. It's ok, though. Grandma says he has a cute bum on the sidelines. The game was really long because they had to stop for the lightning for a while. Parker took this picture of me.

I'm glad it is Saturday tomorrow! Next week will be better.

Duped! Punked! Call it what you want . . .

. . . I must be stupid. Just when I thought I was a seasoned teacher and didn't let high school antics get past me, my overconfidence got the best of me. I made a less-than-rookie mistake today. I probably shouldn't admit my defeat and post it here, but I will.

I was (and still am) pretty excited to teach my ESL U.S. History class this year. I am looking forward to studying up on history as well as teaching the diverse population of Murray High School. Unfortunately, it takes a while to get the ESL kids identified and placed into my class. Right now my enrollment is a whopping 8 (compared to the 36 in my Algebra 2 class, which is exactly 3 more students than desks in my classroom, but I digress).

Let's cut to the chase and make a long story short. Four of the 8 students came to class today. We chatted for a while and then I decided to ask if they knew any of the other students on the role. They said they did and had seen at least 2 of them earlier today. I did what I NEVER do (because I'm just not that kind of teacher). I said, "Why don't you take both lunches today. See if you can find the other students and bring them back." So, they left. First lunch ended. They didn't come back . . . for almost 20 minutes!!! Ug! How stupid could I be? They had all gone to Carl's Jr. One of the students treated the other 3 to burgers. They had a great time! Whatever.

So, we cleared up the fact that being that late to class was not acceptable, we only took 10 minutes of 2nd lunch (we would have not gone to 2nd lunch at all, but I had to go to the bathroom and needed my Coke). Then, class actually went really well. The kids are great and I learned a lot! They apologized for being so late and even asked what we were going to do next class. We'll see how it goes. Live and learn.

. . . and here's a cute picture of Molly!

Did he pee his pants?

I called my mom this morning. I asked her, "Is he still smiling?" She said, "Let me look . . . yes." Next, I said, "Did he pee his pants?" She said, "Willie, did you pee your pants?" I heard Willie say something in the background. My mom's voice came back on the phone and she said, "almost."

Why all the excitement?Short story: Willie got to dress varsity for Hunter's first game of the season (against Kearns). During the last 2:16 of the game, Hunter had a strong lead (ended up winning 24-7), so they sent in a new O-line. Willie got to play left tackle for a few plays!

Long story: Monday was the last day I got to cart Willie from football to home and back. I reported to school on Tuesday and my summer duty had to come to an end. When I picked him up on Monday morning from practice he was pretty bummed. He said he had to be back up there in a couple of hours even though 2-a-days ended the week before. I asked why and he told me that the coaches told him to come back for the varsity practice. I told him that was cool, but all he could say was, "but I'm so tired." So all week long, Willie and a few other sophomores continued going to both the sophomore practices and the varsity practices. I think he literally had 8 hours of football every day this week. Crazy!

On Thursday night, we stopped by my mom and dad's for a minute to give James a job interview pep talk. Willie came home while we were there (granted it was after 8:00 and he had been at the school since 2:00) and he was sporting a new outfit and a smile wider than his face. He showed off his new Hunter football t-shirt and shorts. The shorts have his number on them - #74. My mom says, "Where is the rest of your stuff?" Willie giggles and says, "I even got a locker and now I can leave my pads there." Wow! He continued to tell us about practice, the team dinner, and the football testimony meeting afterwards. Weird.

He said, "I'm nervous. What if I actually have to play?" We all told him, "Don't worry. You probably won't get in. Just be glad to be there." I guess we were wrong.

And how did he do? After 400 years of my life spent watching football, I still just don't get it. I don't really know what each position is supposed to do and I really, honestly cannot tell you after a game if my brother is doing well or not. Is he supposed to hit that guy or the other guy? Is it okay that someone got passed him that time? Is he supposed to keep following that guy? I'll never get it. I think he did okay, though. He looked nice on the sidelines!

Hallelujah!

After nearly 200 applications in a flooded nursing job market, James finally was offered a job and accepted it today! Yippy! Yippy!

He's pretty excited about the job. He'll be working as a home health nurse and traveling around the valley checking up on the cases he'll manage.

It's a full time job with benefits. The people he met with were really excited to have him accept the job and he thinks it's a good move.

Congratulations!!!

Biorn Reunion

Last Saturday we ventured to Idaho Falls for the Biorn Reunion. All of the Biorn brothers and sisters, children of Wilford and Annie Biorn, were able to attend. It was at Freeman Park, just north of the Idaho Falls Temple. I met a lot of James' relatives I had never met before. Everyone wanted to see Molly! Afterwards, we went to Annie and Jared's house a visited for a while. It was a long day, but a good day. Molly slept all the way there and cried most of the way home, but otherwise was a trooper!


Other highlights included forgetting the cookies I made, which resulted in a trip to Wal-mart. Once we got out of the car at the Wal-mart, we realized that it was really cool, also, and though James and I both took a jacket, we forgot to grab Molly's. So, Wal-mart helped us out there, too. Oh well.

Here is Molly with her cute new purple jacket. It has ears.
Here is James' uncle Gene. He's the oldest brother and is actually older than my grandparents. Once we visited at his home in Ashton, Idaho, on our way home from Yellowstone. We visited with him and his wife and then he gave us a collection of trivets.Here are all of the Biorn siblings: Gene, Bob, Naomi, Don, Joyce, Kathy, Ina, and Mary