Teacher Appreciation Week

I got roped into helping out on the Teacher Appreciation Week Committee at Addie's school (the committee is mostly church friends, so they already knew my skill set and schedule so I couldn't pretend I'm clueless! ;)). I found suprisingly little on the internet as far as ideas go, so I thought I would share our ideas via the blog for future reference.

First of all, this is the itinerary the committee came up with for the week:

Monday: Decorated Doors plus Muffins & Juice
Tuesday: Mailbox Treats
Wednesday: Luncheon
Thursday: Wish Tree Gift Bags & Sharpening Service

Friday: Dessert Bar

***

So Saturday, as I mentioned, we got together and decorated all the teachers' and staff doors. Here are some of them:

In L-R order: "We're blowing the WHISTLEbon the two best playground aids ever", "You are the HEART of our school", "We love our teacher", "You're out of this world"(outer space theme), "Thanks You for giving us the building blocks for a great future", A huge blue ribbon for Best Librarian, "You're the KEYS to our success", "Here's the SCOOP: You're the best!", "You're SUMbody Special (w/ calculator)", "HATS off to an Awesome Teacher", Handprints with quotes from the kids that can be taken down and bound into a scrapbook, "We're LUCKY to have you for our teacher", "You rise above the rest" (balloons), "Recipe for two great Kitchen Aids/ Lunch workers", "P.E. is a BALL", "Thanks for Helping us Bloom and Grow" (flowers), "Teacher, teacher, what do YOU see? I see GRATEFUL students looking at me!" (scanned from the ever-popular Brown Bear, Brown Bear book), "You Deserve a Standing Ovation (hands clappping)" and "We're glad you're part of our STAFF" (for music teacher), "You're a FROGtastic Teacher" (a frog for each student), and the skinny one you can barely see shows caterpillars that say "You're the kind of teacher that TRANSFORMS her students" surrounded by butterflies with students' names on them.
Today I was in charge of the Mailbox treats. We bought boxes of candy bars at Costco, them tied on cute tags with the week's theme: A Teacher takes a hand, opens a mind, touches a heart, and shapes the future. James and I just got home from delivering them. The only thing I have yet to do is help bag and tag all the items that were brought in from the Wish Tree so we can give them to the teachers on Thursday. We tried to think of some kind of helpful service gift we could give them (like massage gift certificates or something), and we came up with Knife and scissor sharpening (our committee chairwoman's hubby has a mobile knife-sharpening service). The teachers will also receive gift certificates to the legendary drive-in, Mark's In-n-Out (donated at cost by the owner). That will be way-fun for them--there's nothing like a malt at Mark's on a summer day in Livingston!

For the Wish Tree we used a little plywood tree (about 40" tall) that Rich made for me to use as Primary chorister. It has little velcro dots on it and I have little numbered apples, leaves, and flowers (to use seasonally) that correspond to songs--the kids choose a leaf and we sing the song with that number. Anyway, we made paper leaves and told the teachers to write down some items they would like for their classrooms that were under $5. Then we put velcro dots on the back of the leaves and placed the tree in the school lobby with a collection box and instructions. Today was the last collection day and all but 5 of the nearly 60 leaves had been taken. I hope the teachers are pleasantly surprsied!

Our Week in Photos (& some text)

Last Sunday we celebrated Uncle Davey's birthday with a barbecue at his house. The kids had a great time playing in the sunshine...James, Addie, Rosalie, and Heidi sitting in camp chairs
Uncle Mike pulled the kids in a red wagon
Weee! Addie and Heidi hitch a ride with Uncle Mike
Addie tried pulling James around, but he kept jumping out!
It was a fun, sunny day!

***
Tuesday I went down the valley early in the morning to visit teach in Emigrant. It was so beautiful I was converted to living out of town (maybe someday we'll relocate to the ranch and live off solar and wind). I kept singing the "Oklahoma" song, "Oh, what a beautiful morning" in my head..."All the cattle are standing like statues/ they turn their heads as they see me ride by/ but a little brown maverick is winkin' her eye/ Oh, what a beautiful mornin'/ Oh what a beautiful day/ I got a beautiful feelin' everything's goin' my way." It was a great start to great day, but I really got worn out. Rich went home teaching that night and I fell asleep with the kids before 8pm!
Wednesday my visiting teachers came over, and Steph brought baby Kimberly. She is soo cute! Her Aunt Kim just left on a mission to Brazil, and I promised to take pix of Baby Kimberly each month for her (she said her family is bad at picture-taking & sending), so here is the first:

Smile, tiny princess!


Later Wednesday night, I went to Kiwanis Club Charter Night at St. Mary's school (Rich and his Dad are charter members of the new club). We had a lovely dinner and learned lots about the club and its Montana chapters, and things they are doing internationally. After dinner the mountains (SE of town--Absaroka-Beartooths) looked so beautiful from the parking lot!

***

Thursday in Helena

Thurday morning at 9am, James, Heidi, and I headed to Helena to take Aunt Laura out to lunch and see Postums. We went to Chili's at about 11:30am and had fun eating and keeping Heidi occupied.

James loved sitting by Aunt Laura...
SMILE! We love Aunt Rola!
After lunch we went to JoAnne's to get some crafting supplies (clips for home made hairbows and flowers, scrap paper, ribbon, stickers, etc.) and then hung out at Laura's for a bit. Matt came by with his boys--he was trying to keep them busy and give Aunt Amie a rest because she was sick. Matt and Nana bought this pink elephant for Heidi off ebay--she LOVED it! She was very excited to see her buddy, Jake. We had a lovely visit with Laura, Darrin, and Matt, but I was wiped out with my cold/sinus thing by 3pm, so we headed home. Rich had already left for Stake meetings in Bozo, so we picked up Addie from Grandma's, had snadwiches for dinner, and we all fell asleep at 7:30pm. I got up at 8:30 and watched The Office and Scrubs, then crashed again.

***

Friday, Heidi and I had a "flare-up" with our coughs, so we just stayed home and got things ready to decorate teachers' doors at Addie's school. We waited anxiously for mom to call about the results from her CT scan and found out she has some lymph nodes that will be biopsied on Tuesday morning. It was not good news, but we still have to wait to find out the results of the biopsy before we know how bad it really is. We had a fun family movie night watching Alvin and the Chipmunks (Jason Lee is so cute without his Earl mustache). I ended up making two of each set of decorations for the teachers' doors because I had a sinking feeling that we wouldn't have many volunteers show up to decorate Saturday. Rich helped me and we snuggled up to enjoy and full hour of my BELOVED Ben Stein on Glenn Beck.

***

Saturday morning and I got up and did some chores (like washing out the greasy Olay body wash that Rich washed the girls' hair with Friday night--it will take a few more washes, but boy, they smell great). Then Rich went to help his mom with her computer and I took Addie to the school to decorate doors. She was excited because her friends Gracie and Kelli and George were ther and they had a great time. It took us three and a half hours to get every door for the teachers and staff decorated, but it was pretty fun and the school looks really festive. I ended up doing 9 doors instead of 4, so it was a good thing that I made double decorations. I think I will go take some pictures tomorrow so I have a data base of ideas if I ever have to do this sort of thing again (and I probably will, with three kids going to that school over the next 10 years). We took a nap and then we put all of our flower starts from the window sill into our little flower bed in the backyard. Now we are starting vegetables and hoping that our flowers won't freeze!

***

And that brings us to NOW, a sunny Sunday, post-nap, post-church, hangin' with the family, having smoothies for dinner. My raspberry smoothie smells exactly like roses! Are roses and raspberries related? It's yummy. We may go out and play Norwegian Golf in a bit. At any rate, it's a beautiful day and we're thankful for another great week. Our prayers are with Nana, hoping her doctors will make her better with simple interventions, that she won't be in so much pain, and that we can spend lots more time with her! Have a great week, y'all!...

Hi

Still Alive
Still sick with sinus/cough thing
Still busy prep 4 teacher appreciation week
It was warm for three days and then it started snowing again Wednesday
The kids are great
Heidi getting over fever/cough
James cut new tooth
Addie well and excited for summer vacation
Rough spring--
seems like everybody is sick and it's lingering!
Rich has a purple toe from dropping huge hammer on it
Learned lots of interesting (or alarming, depending on your situation) at Stake Preparedness Committee meeting last night.
The next four years are gonna be a fun ride, y'all!

More later when I feel better
and Teacher Appreciation Week is under control...

Lots of pix to post, too...

PS: Anybody fasting this weekend, please include my mama and her abdominal pain and numb leg in your prayers! She had a CT scan yesterday looking for lympohoma or colon invaders...pray it's something easily treatable!

Manic Monday

Hola, amigos! We survived a very busy weekend and another week is under way. Is anybody besides me freaking out that its already MAY???? Where does the time go?

Last Thursday night I had Auxiliary Training meeting in Bozo, so I made a date of it with my friend, Jenn. The Girl Who Has/ Can Make Anything (Jenn) is hard to get "things" for, so I decided a dinner date would be a great way to celebrate her bday (which was March 18th, but she was traveling & we've been sick, alternately). We went to dinner at Johnny Carino's, then to our meeting at the Stake Center, then to Famous Dave's for a "nightcap"--bread pudding! It was lots of fun, although I ended up driving home in a blizzard and felt like I was driving through space a la Star Wars (I hate driving in snow at night--it totally freaks me out). It was almost 11pm by the time we got home because I drove about 40mph...but it was a lovely evening out.

Friday James and I had full-blown colds, so Rich had to take the girls to the Winans School Carnival. They had a blast, James and I had some rest, and we were graced with a visit from Matt & Amie on their way to the Billings Temple (HOORAY!!!!) That really made my day. So even though I felt like poo, I got all the laundry done and the kitchen clean in preparation for Super-Spring-Cleaning -Saturday, and Friday was a Good day.

Saturday morning we got up and started gutting our home office (aka "junk pile with computers") and picking up all the carpeted rooms so we could shampoo while the kids went to the Primary Activity day. Rich finished up in the nick of time, and we spent the rest of the day sorting through stuff (I threw away three garbage bags of papers and junk). I took a nap with the girls and then we got ready for Sunday.

Sunday was a truly warm and sunny day! Hallelujah (altough the snow is supposed to be back this week)! After church we ate some gourmet veggie pizza and we all took naps. Then out hometeachers came at 4:30 and we went across the street to the Gray's to celebrate Uncle Davey's 27th birthday. We had a yummy barbecued dinner with family and enjoyed the sunshine and our cousins. Rich had to leave for an Elders Quorum fireside called "Grow Your Own Gorceries," and Rosalie came and help me put the kids to bed around 7pm. They were so wound up they didn't fall asleep til 8:30 or 9pm, and Rich's fireside ran way-late. So we just put off any evening projects we had, snuggled up and watched Extreme Makeover Home Edition (a really great episode that inspired me to be a better example of service to my kids).

So this morning I feel like I have a pachyderm sitting on my face (gnarly sinus pressure), but I am carrying on with Spring cleaning and preparing for the Great Bedroom Swap of 2008. I have to work at the hotel tonight, so I need a nap and some drugs, so I better get my stuff done. I just wanted to say howdy and let you know we're alive and kicking!

PS: I found this CD single of The Innocence Mission's "Bright As Yellow" in my cleaning and I wanted to share the video with you because I LOOOOOOOVE this song. I was living in North Carolina in 1995 when my friend Lisa sent me that CD single with a note saying "This song reminds me of you." After learning (and loving) the song, I feel that's one of the best compliments I have ever received. Enjoy...



And you live your life with your arms reached out.
Eye to eye when speaking.
Enter rooms with great joy shouts,
happy to be meeting.

And bright, bright,
bright as yellow,
warm as yellow.

And I do not want to be a rose.
I do not wish to be pale pink,
but flower scarlet, flower gold.
And have no thorns to distance me,

but be bright, bright,
bright as yellow,
warm as yellow.

Even if I'm shining, even if I'm shouting here
inside.
Even if I'm shining, do you see that I'm wanting,
that I want to be so
bright, bright,
bright as yellow?
Warm as yellow.

Update and Random Pix

James loves brownie batter
Addie and Heidi had some after-school creative time in which they made these "monster trunks" and "monster toes."
James loves to look at our photos on the screen saver---he gets so excited to see his family and calls out our names as he sees us
This is James on Heidi's birthday--I had some things to do, so I turned on "Backyardigans" and gave him some popcorn and water. I heard him giggling, so I went to see what he was doing. He was just chillin' like this, laughing at the silly show.
It's the return of...

CAPTAIN UNDERPANTS!!!

James is obsessed with this particular pair of Heidi's underwear. He loves to wear them over his clothes.

***

SHOUT OUT to Susan, my de-lurking old friend...welcome to the blogosphere!

***

Last Wednesday (the day after Heidi's birthday) I woke up with a dull throbbing headache. I tried to take it easy that day and do things around the house, but my headache got worse and worse until it woke me up at 1am Friday. The pain was so bad it made me throw up and I couldn't keep down another dose of Excedrin migraine. I tried to stretch, ice, heat, etc... and nothing worked. I eventually woke Rich up and asked him to help massage it out, but that didn't help either, so he drove me to the ER around 3am.


I am sad that I went there because all they did was treat my dehydration, nausea, and pain, and they did NOTING to locate the source or the reason for the pain (this is why I HATE seeing MD's for pain! Pain is a message to fix something--I don't want to mask those messages until we know why they're there!). I got adjusted the next day and my chiro was furious that the ER doc hadn't even ordered an X-ray, so he did. He wrote up some notes for my regular doc and I told him I would meet with her the first week of May for my regular Grave's check up. The adjustment does help the pain--it's not excruciating, just chronic at this point. I haven't thrown up since last Sunday, but now I have some kind of cold that obviously involves a sinus infection. UGH!


SO ANYWAY....here's my plan. I am going to ask my doc to test for what ever other illnesses I may have that cause pain (MS, FM, RA, Lupus, etc). Meanwhile, I am going to ask for a physical therapy referral and I am going to find out what stretches and exercises I should be doing to strengthen what's hurting. Then I am going back to Curves where I will use the info from the PT to exercise properly (I know I will feel better if I exercise more, but lately all my efforts just cause more pain, so we gotta fix that). We'll see how it goes.

The Misses Dashwood

Jill called and told me to check out her new blog layout (love it) and take the Austen Girl quiz. I already knew that I AM Elinor Dashwood, but I took the quiz anyway...

Take the Quiz here!

Jill, you should know how much "Sense and Sensibility" is/was a part of my life with Erin, Heidi and Jeanne. First Jeanne and I had a class where we had to read some Austen books and we cracked jokes about them all the time and caught ourselves talking like the characters all the time. And then the movie of Sense & Sensibility came out when Erin, Heidi and I were roommates and we would just turn in to Dashwoods at the drop of a hat.

Edward Ferrars: I hope I find you all well.

Marianne: Thank you, Edward, we are all very well.

Margaret: We've been enjoying very fine weather. [Marianne nudges her]

Margaret: Well, we have.

Edward Ferrars: I'm glad to hear it. The roads were very... dry.

Erin used to write me letters about the weather and the roads all the time (because that is polite conversation!) and invite me to "come stay a fortnight"...it was great fun!

Too Much Cuteness!!!

We love you, Sariah & Kaylee, and hope you had FUN birthday celebrations!

We're so glad you were born!

THANKS, Uncle Spam & Special K!

Yesterday right before I went to work, we got a package in the mail from Phoenix...Heidi & Addie were so excited!

(Addie and I were having a beauty day, so she was fresh from a bubble bath)

Look at the pretty shirt Uncle Sam & Aunt Kristen got for Heidi in Hawaii!

SHAKA, BRA!

James sports his Jack Johnson look courtesy of S&K

This is Sam & Kristen in Laie(...I love that ukulele shirt!) SO CUTE!

All three kids say "THANK YOU!" Addie looks like a little surfer girl in her shirt...

We love our "Aloha" sign and the yummy chocolate macadamia nuts (that's what's all over the kids' faces in these pix). It was sentimental for us because Rich gave me chocolate macadamia nuts the night we met! Thanks for thinking of us!

***

Heidi wore the dress that Grandma Rosalie made her to church today. I dont' know why it looks shiny in this photos because it's cottony with just a little sateen sheen...she looked sweet!

"Not That There's Anything Wrong With That..."

I have been listening to lots of discussion about the Texas raid on the FLDS-"YFZ"" Ranch, thinking about the legal/ civil liberties aspect of the case.

This is, of course, a touchy subject for me being a "mainstream" (REAL) LDS person--I think the general public has figured out that the LDS church is not like (and does not condone) these polygamist groups. Although I oppose polygamy and I HEART the Rule of Law (and obeying it per The Articles of Faith), I can't help but wonder at the hypocrisy of taking legal action against its practioners. And although I oppose polygamy, am descended from my great-great-grandfather's seventh wife, who was loved and well-cared for all her life.

I think it's unfair to other polygamists for the FLDS to get so much publicity focused on the polygamy when the problem is the underage marriage and sexual abuse, not the actual plural marriages. The FLDS do some scary, just-plain-wrong stuff (like bleeding the beast, not supporting their wives and children, etc). So I think it is important, as the Texas officials have said, to separate the abuse issues from the polygamy issues, because at this point, opostition to polygamy has no legal leg to stand on.

If the Supreme Court can repeal anti-sodomy laws because it's nobody's business what we do in the privacy of our homes as consenting adults, that argument can stretch to cover a myriad of activities ("rights"), the least bizarre of which is polygamy. I wondered if anyone else has noticed this weird hypocrisy, and I googled this article. Turns out the argument was made years ago. And, PS, how can California tell me how to educate my children when I am free to do what I want in my own home? (Well, they can't tell ME--I don't live there and never will--but I mean its citizens). It's really lame.

I guess the same argument can be made with the abortion issue--you either believe the government has no place in your personal business, or you believe they can tell you what to do. For the record I believe in the "Rape, Incest, Mother's Health" law, and I don't believe any public funds should be used to end human life under any other circumstances. But that just leaves so much open to interpretation. It's really hard to define all this stuff, but I am always in favor of judicial restraint--less government, less regulation is generally better when it comes to our homes, families, and income.

Also, another little strain of sympathy I have for polygamists comes from this thought: So, it's okay to be a Baby Daddy as may times as you want/ can afford (and by okay, I mean legal), but don't even think about marrying, housing, supporting, etc. your Baby Mama(s) because THAT would be illegal. HUH? I know we can jump in with lots of arguments about protecting the sanctity of marriage--one man + one woman in a religious context, married before God--and I happen to be all for that. In my mind, marriage is religious and civil unions can/ should be something outside of the religious union in the civil/legal arena. If you defend 'traditional' monogamous marriage, you have to condemn gay marriage AND polygamy. If you oppose traditonal marriage, then polygamy and gay marriage are fine. But you can't pick and choose, legally speaking.

So I'm trying to have as much integrity as possible in my views. I believe that my government should protect me and our constitution, promote my genereal welfare, and put up no road blocks in my pursuit of happiness (how I worship, educate my children, take care of my body, entertain myself, etc). I believe it should be up to me and my neighbors to care for those around us and meet the needs of the less fortunate--not up to the government. I believe we should be free to choose what goes on in our own homes as long as it upholds the constitution and doesn't impede others in their pursuit of happiness. We are free to choose the actions and accept the consequences without whining for a bail out or a special break. I wish the states and the Supreme Court would get all of this stuff in a straight line, too. Privacy, marriage, civil liberties, parental rights, etc...our governing principles have to be evenly and fairly applied; we cannot pick and choose to have government intervene against one lifestyle choice while supporting--or even promoting--another.

Spring School Pictures

We purchased portraits of all three kids from Addie's Elementary school since we have hardly any portraits of them. I was slightly horrified when I saw the backdrops, but they didn't turn out so bad. So check out my cuties and right click to download these pix to your computer...

Yesterday in Bozeman

I forgot to mention that it was an almost-record 74 degrees and sunny on Monday, then on Tuesday we woke up to a high of 50-ish and THIS: Here's the snow in Bozeman pass...




...and here's the snow in downtown Bozo (this is where we had dinner, Lisaree--remember?)
Snowy trees on main Street
Snowy tree at Nova Cafe...

Gotta love spring time in Montana!