Sunday, January 23, 2011
Jake got a scholarship!
Jake runs track for UVU. They are running indoor track right now. He has run at BYU, Pocatello Idaho, and Boise State. He was offered a scholarship Thursday for a full tuition. We are so happy. This could not have come at a better time. He is working hard for them and we are proud of him. Now we have 2 boys running on scholarships at different schools!
My friend
My friend has colon cancer. It hit me hard. I could barely function. I love this friend. We served in Young Women together for 3 years. I had countless meetings, activities and 2 Youth Conferences and Girls Camps with her. Oh, how you get to know and love someone spending time serving with them. She loves math, just started teaching it again at Salt Lake Community College. When she was supposed to be starting her new term on Tuesday she met with her oncologist.
She will have chemo every other Tuesday for several months. My friend and I made a blog to keep our friends posted on her condition. We used her name and said she summed it up as the title. We gave her a "chemo kit" before her first day of chemo and had a nice visit with her. She can do hard things!
I wish her the best!
She will have chemo every other Tuesday for several months. My friend and I made a blog to keep our friends posted on her condition. We used her name and said she summed it up as the title. We gave her a "chemo kit" before her first day of chemo and had a nice visit with her. She can do hard things!
I wish her the best!
Twins
Look at us. I had run to Faith's house during the day to get something. She came over that night to see me and was dressed as she remembered I was. What a joy to live in the same town as my twin sister.
Michelle's Bed and Breakfast
I am way behind on things I want to post because I have been waiting for these pictures. My camera is broken so I am at the expense of Kelsi's time schedule meshing with mine and oh man has mine been busy. My main secretary at my school is in Hawaii and so I have been working extra hours. I have had constant new students and 6 more starting this week. I have been experiencing difficult trials and trying to stay on top of my mood.
During the Christmas holiday I decided to treat my family as if I was at a Bed and Breakfast. Let me tell you I did this for my own self to stay mentally happy about serving and doing. I was at a pretty low time and could have just thrown it out the window. Let me tell you it worked. I made great breakfasts and cleaned it up. Once when the napkin holder was empty again I said to myself instead of grumbling about filling it again, "at a Bed and Breakfast I would fill the napkin holder again and again." It worked with the trash too. Sometimes during the 2 weeks of Michelle's Bed and Breakfast I would unload the dishwasher 3 times in a day! Yuk. I have teenagers who eat into the night and I would always go to bed with a clean kitchen and arise to something in the sink. Just the mindset that I was working a bed and breakfast made all the difference.
I used this handy cutter to cut fresh potatoes one morning for hash browns. Kelsi loves them this way.
Delicious muffins from Lehi Roller Mills mix and Betty Crocker.
A big pile of bacon and dutch babies and hot chocolate. It was so cold here during Christmas. You forget in the summer how cold it gets here in the winter!
During the Christmas holiday I decided to treat my family as if I was at a Bed and Breakfast. Let me tell you I did this for my own self to stay mentally happy about serving and doing. I was at a pretty low time and could have just thrown it out the window. Let me tell you it worked. I made great breakfasts and cleaned it up. Once when the napkin holder was empty again I said to myself instead of grumbling about filling it again, "at a Bed and Breakfast I would fill the napkin holder again and again." It worked with the trash too. Sometimes during the 2 weeks of Michelle's Bed and Breakfast I would unload the dishwasher 3 times in a day! Yuk. I have teenagers who eat into the night and I would always go to bed with a clean kitchen and arise to something in the sink. Just the mindset that I was working a bed and breakfast made all the difference.
I used this handy cutter to cut fresh potatoes one morning for hash browns. Kelsi loves them this way.
Delicious muffins from Lehi Roller Mills mix and Betty Crocker.
A big pile of bacon and dutch babies and hot chocolate. It was so cold here during Christmas. You forget in the summer how cold it gets here in the winter!
Thursday, January 13, 2011
Something new
At my job/school we are trying something new.
We are going to record all the children who come into our office by name and we have made a log where we are going to check why they came in. Sounds easy enough but can we keep up?
We are doing this for several reasons. The most obvious is to record an injury for when a parent calls mad and asks why their child came down and what we did to them. As you read this, you question yourself and say, "A parent calls mad? Why would they be mad?" And that is because you are not that kind of parent. Enough said about that.
Another reason is to document our frequent flyer's. We see the same children over and over for nothing. As a funny note we put tattle tailing on the spreadsheet.
It will be interesting to see how many children we average in a week. I say hundreds! No, not really but we do have a large population at our school.
We are going to record all the children who come into our office by name and we have made a log where we are going to check why they came in. Sounds easy enough but can we keep up?
We are doing this for several reasons. The most obvious is to record an injury for when a parent calls mad and asks why their child came down and what we did to them. As you read this, you question yourself and say, "A parent calls mad? Why would they be mad?" And that is because you are not that kind of parent. Enough said about that.
Another reason is to document our frequent flyer's. We see the same children over and over for nothing. As a funny note we put tattle tailing on the spreadsheet.
It will be interesting to see how many children we average in a week. I say hundreds! No, not really but we do have a large population at our school.
Thursday, January 6, 2011
For my friends and family who read my blog who live in Washington it is hard for you to understand how when it snows here in Utah life just goes on. When it snows in Washington (not Spokane) life stops for a few days and then continues on after the snow melts.
Here in Utah we get up and drive out on snowy days with the roads worn down to bare pavement but snow everywhere else. And it is so cold yet we carry on.
So this week I walk to work in boots carrying shoes in 20 - 23 degree weather and these past 3 days we have had a hurt child every day. Monday they carried one in from recess with a hurt leg. Tuesday one fell and needed 6 stitches and yesterday, Wednesday, one came in with a broken arm. It really adds to the stress of working in the office.
Added to this stress is the fact that I had 14 new children the first 2 days with 2 more coming I know about and 6 leaving and 4 that changed from A to B track to B to A track. This means my class binder is a mess! I will get to that today.
Here in Utah we get up and drive out on snowy days with the roads worn down to bare pavement but snow everywhere else. And it is so cold yet we carry on.
So this week I walk to work in boots carrying shoes in 20 - 23 degree weather and these past 3 days we have had a hurt child every day. Monday they carried one in from recess with a hurt leg. Tuesday one fell and needed 6 stitches and yesterday, Wednesday, one came in with a broken arm. It really adds to the stress of working in the office.
Added to this stress is the fact that I had 14 new children the first 2 days with 2 more coming I know about and 6 leaving and 4 that changed from A to B track to B to A track. This means my class binder is a mess! I will get to that today.
Sunday, January 2, 2011
Meet your Teacher Activity Saturday
I am part of an amazing Primary Presidency as an assistant secretary. Busy, busy this time of year with getting classes settled and class rooms assigned and teachers called for a small army of children. We got all the lesson books in binders and the necessary papers in the binders in page protectors and passed out to the teachers.
It's a delight to have so many children in our Primary. We have the largest group in our stake and we have the most classes taking use of every nook and cranny we can hold a class. We have used the kitchen and the back of the cultural hall.
Saturday we had a meet your teacher activity with the class lists posted on the moving bulletin board as they entered the building they found their name and saw what color the paper was by their class. If they were Jr Primary they went into the cultural hall, found their balloon color and sat down at a table for a hot cinnamon roll and met their teacher. If they were Sr Primary they went to their classroom, found with a balloon color and met their teacher and had an activity. Then we switched.
Nicely attended and all went well. So that was good.
Then after they all left the building we went down to the Primary room and set up our chairs according to the seating chart our president had mapped out to see if it would even work!
Let me tell you we moved chairs around for about an hour.
In Sr Primary we had to get 12 across one back side and 11 across the other and 6 rows of chairs up to the front. We have a man teaching who is in a wheelchair and we made it work for him. It's exciting that we can get the people we need and want to fill the callings.
In Jr Primary we have 2 rows each side of little chairs plus 2 teacher chairs. We have 6 babies in that group so we put teacher chairs right by the door so they can leave easily. Kim is teaching a Sunbeam class that sits in the front row other side opposite the piano and we had to put 3 little chairs in front of the row curved at the side. I acted out like I was him bopping them on the head with a paper towel middle if they don't behave. LIKE HE WOULD! The man has the patience and love for a child like no one I have ever seen! (18 new incoming Sunbeams!!)
Today at 2:10 I'm ready to see if it works!
New Year....New Church Time
I believe that there are definitely morning and night people.
I believe that you really can't change what you are.
Both Kelsi and Logan think it has to do with what time you were born because both of them were born at 4:14 in the afternoon and they both are night people.
I have struggled with being a morning person surrounded with night people, only Jake,one of my children, is a morning person.
I am a member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints. We attend church for 3 hours every Sunday. We have so many members meeting in our buildings that we have start times for each ward to meet. We all know as members what our time slots will be 9, 11 or 1. Since moving to Utah 4 years ago due to having new buildings we have never had to meet at 1.
Well, today it starts.
It is hard for a morning person to wait until 1 to go somewhere. I will keep busy with journal writing, scripture reading and stuff but I can guarantee I will also do housework, laundry and maybe in the summer sit in the sun. What else can I do?
I will keep a countdown running in my mind. With 52 weeks in a year and 4 taken out for conferences I will have 48 Sunday's to get through. And 12 fast Sundays, Yikes with hungry teenagers!!!
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