Spring In Review

The end of April and beginning of May have rushed by in a whirlwind.  We've had t-ball.  School has been crazy.  James had some semester end projects to finish.  I don't really even know where the time all went, but it did.  Here are a few things we've been up to.

Every year our school holds an annual Service Day.  It's cool!  Every advisory class participates in a service project.  My class has done a variety of things over the years, but this year we got to go help out at the daycare.  The little kids (and my big kids) were divided into 3 groups that rotated every half hour or so.  Two groups went around the school giving out cookies to other classes of high school students who were working hard.  The third group stayed to do some service for the daycare by tearing down an old rotted garden box and building a new one.  I stayed with the kids as they rotated through the garden box project because I wasn't sure if it was actually going to get done.  Eventually it did (though I sent some of my students later in the day to finish it off).

I didn't get a picture of Jack at work, but here is Molly with her shovel.

Here are three of my students - Jamari, Mason, and Sam.  I've had these kids in my advisory class since they were sophomores.  Unfortunately, Jamari is not going to graduate and doesn't have much of a plan for things after June 3rd.  I'm not sure what he's going to do, but I hope for the best for him.

Jack finished out the dirt project by getting between a 4 year old with a shovel and his teacher.  It wasn't his first black eye and probably won't be his last.  The shovels were put away shortly after the incident.

These two boys are best friends.  Individually they are both super cute, but together they are just nutty.  I hope they always stay friends.

James bought one of those patio fire pit things and has had a couple of bonfires already, though we haven't broken out any hot dogs or marshmallows yet.  Summer has yet to begin.

Parkie Warkie got his mission call!  He is headed to the Texas Houston East Mission and leaves in September.  His mission covers the gulf coast part of eastern Texas and then western Louisiana.  He will be gone before Willie gets back and I'm not sure what we're going to do during those months without a big iggy to keep us entertained.  I'm proud of this kid and his choice to go on a mission.  I think he'll be a great missionary and have a lot of fun getting to know people in that part of the world.

My kids looked really cute for church one Sunday so I made them sit for a quick picture before church.  They are both so grown up when they choose to be.  Jack loves to play with his friends in nursery, though he otherwise hates Sundays because he has to wear pants with a button.  Molly is a smart fart who is always so excited to tell me what she's learned in her primary class.  Last week she came running to me after church exclaiming that "Moroni is a real human!"  She continued to tell me that he wasn't just the statue on top of the temples, but that he was really a guy who lived and he buried the shiny gold plates.  It was pretty funny.

That's it for now.  Stay tuned for a full t-ball and house selling report coming up next.

We are looking forward to some birthdays coming up, sun, and summer!

Snow in April.

My tulips in the front of my yard FINALLY decided to bloom on a nice, warm Monday afternoon.  On Tuesday they were blown away by a major muddy wind and rainstorm.  By Wednesday they were covered by nearly a foot of snow.  By Saturday the snow had melted and my bent over tulips were creaking their stems for survival.  Insanity!!

Here is the beginning of the snow on Tuesday.

Here is the end of the storm on Wednesday afternoon.

Book Review

Every Day by David Levithan

So I continue to read in the realm of juvenile fiction.  Since reading "The Fault In Our Stars" last summer, I seem to have used the majority of my reading time in this genre?  Why?  

• It's light, quick, and easy to read.
• The stories I've picked out grab my attention and interest.
• They really are well-written, quirky, and witty.
• I just haven't found a good non-fiction book recently that has allowed me to get past the first chapter.  I'll keep looking.  It's probably time for some higher intellect.

The story of Every Day is a little weird. In fact, it is almost too weird for me.  I just about put it down at the beginning, but then I was intrigued enough that I wanted to know how it could ever possibly end.  

The story is about this thing-person-nonhuman named A.  I envisioned him as a "he" so I'll refer to him as such, but I guess you could call him "she," too.  A has been transferring from one body to the next his entire life.  He takes over the body of a person his own age for exactly 24 hours and at the stroke of midnight is whisked away to a new person.  The person later has a vague recollection of the events of the previous day and A, up until this point, tries to disrupt their lives as little as possible.  During this portion of his life, he is a 16-year old high school student.  He can be male or female and of any ethnic origin or culture.  He can be part of a functional or dysfunctional family.  He can be healthy, or sick, or even addicted.  He never knows where he will be the next morning, though he stays in a fairly small geographic circle.

The plot of the story begins when he meets and falls in love with Rhiannon (honestly, that name bugged me and nearly made me put the book down, but I continued).  He tells her his story and they begin this completely illogical relationship which can only occur by him hijacking someone's body every day, ditching school, and meeting up with her at a central library or coffee shop.  The story is totally far out there, but was written in such a way that I kept going.  Could this actually work?  Could A ever get his own body and be a regular person?  I kept reading, because I couldn't predict an ending.

Eventually I got to the end.  I was disappointed.  Without spoiling the ending for everyone, it's possible that I was just disappointed because I don't have a big enough imagination to interpret the ending.  I just didn't get it.

Here's what I did like about the book.  It reminded me of a book I once read called Star Teachers of Children in Poverty by Martin Haberman.  How do these two books relate?  They don't really.  The teacher book is about how teachers can have a positive impact on students who don't come to school with a very positive background.  The Levithan book felt like reading a day-in-the life of any kid who could be in my classroom and I learned a lot from reading dialogue (or lack thereof) between kids and their families and seeing the vast differences between one 16 year old and another.  I know a little bit about lots of my students and their background, but this book gave me an opportunity to see what things at home might be like for some of my students.  I think I liked that most about the book.

I would recommend the book to you if the premise seems interesting.  I am going to try another one by this author (or maybe find a good World War II book just waiting to be read).

Happy Easter Pictures!

Easter was on General Conference weekend.  I bought Easter clothes for my kids, but didn't let them wear them on Easter Sunday.  I usually get my kids' pictures taken sometime in May for their birthdays.  I decided to utilize the brand new Easter clothes and get some birthday pictures taken early.  Here are the results!

Sidenotes . . .
The kids were really good and cooperated (though I may have bribed them with ice cream).
Molly has a hard time smiling normally for a picture and would rather grit her teeth and make googly eyes.
Jack didn't like his sweater vest because it had "girl stuff on it."  I guess he meant the pink.
We tried Camera Shy instead of Foto Fly.  It was a good experience and we didn't have to drive clear to Draper.

Spring Break

Here is our Spring Break (in reverse . . .  Friday to Monday)

On Friday we got to spend time with Grandma and Grandpa.  We ended by going to the park and then hanging out at their house for a while.

We went to Menchies

We saw a Humpback Whale 3D movie at the Planetarium with the Howdens after a delicious lunch at Litzas.

On Thursday we didn't have much planned, but we did leave the house for a little bit to go rescue my dad.  He had a dead battery in his truck so we took him to the store, got lunch on the way back, and ate it at my parents house.  I can't remember what else we did on Thursday.

On Wednesday, Molly discovered Legos and thinks they are pretty cool. We made a few things according to the directions and then she started building her own random objects. This one is a narwhal.  "Hey buddy, I hope you find your dad . . .  or you could be a rocket." - Molly

We visited the Build a Bear store at the mall.  The kids had fun.  Molly made a pink bear named "Stuffy" and Jack made a puppy named "Ruff Ruff Chewy."  I let them each buy one accessory for their new pets.  Jack first just wanted a pair of shoes for his dog, but after some persuasion from mom and dad settled on a Utah shirt (the shoes were only going to get lost).  Molly couldn't decide.  We tried several outfits, shirts, a cell phone, etc.  She finally decided on a blow dryer until we actually got to the check-out stand at which point she dropped the blow dryer for a princess tiara.  

Our purpose in going to Fashion Place Mall was to pick up a prize we had won.  When we went there a few weeks ago to look at Legos, I entered a contest and this was the prize!  We were excited to get an actual prize and not just a time share schpeal (which is what I thought it might be when the said we won something . . .  just kidding).

We also drove by Molly's new school on the way to the mall.  She will be going to Liberty Elementary in Murray District.  She will still attend Spartan Station daycare with Jack and then the bus will take her to school and back.  She's excited!  I did tell her a small lie, though.  Every time we've talked about kindergarten, she can't not focus on getting shots.  It has been totally freaking her out and consuming all discussion of kindergarten.  I finally just told her she doesn't have to get shots.  That is totally a lie, but at least she is now excited about kindergarten.  I'll probably just break the news to her about the shots . . . after she gets them.

On Tuesday we went to the zoo.  It was super crowded.  We saw some animals and ate macaroni.  James even went with us (he went with us to the mall, too).

On Monday we didn't have much planned, but needed to get out of the house.  We headed to see the elk and buffalo in South Jordan, then stopped at Wendy's and took our lunch to a random park to play at for a little while.

Monday started out with total vegetation on the part of the two children who needed some quality television and youtube time.  Jack started with his typical tractor videos and then ended with his other typically favorite show lately, Peppa Pig.

Molly watched a few television shows she hasn't seen since Christmas break.  She was at least doing puzzles in this picture to show that she was exercising her brain (which has not effect on the fact that we still watched a ton of television, youtube, and netflix during our week off).

It was a good week!!