A teaser :)

The soccer season ends next week. Deirdre's team has been unbeaten this season. I hope I didn't just jinx the rest of playoffs. I, of course, have not seen any of the games as they are all on Tuesdays and Thursdays. This week was an added game on … Monday—the other day I have class. BUT next week is fall break at the U, so no matter what day the game(s) is on, I can go. Hopefully it won't be on Wednesday though, I have Service Unit meeting and since I won't be there next month (Parent/Teacher Conferences), I need to be there next week. AND I am the SU Director and in charge of our next activity.

All the years of going to soccer games and I wait until most likely her last year in soccer to try and get pictures. Not only that, but I have to recruit Jeff into taking said pictures. D has played goalie the majority of this season, which I think is a responsible position. She has always played defense and goalie a few times, but in the last six games at least she has been THE goalie.

About to drop kick the ball. I think that is our silver van in the background. :)

Watching the action at the other end of the field. The tournament has been at Wasatch Academy's fields and the coach and girls hate their fields.

This was just a teaser for everyone. I have tons to "report." I'll be back soon.

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Cloud Rim

Deirdre left for Camp Cloud Rim located at 9211' above Park City. I dropped her off yesterday morning. She'll be there for a week have fun working on her "High Adventure Interest Project Patch" while sailing on Lake Brimhall. Here she is posing with the lake in the lower left corner and the Wasatch Mountains behind her (actually all around her, but you can only see them in the background).



There were several girls checking into the same group as D when we got to Cloud Rim. She decided to wear her "CIMI" t-shirt as an ice-breaker—at least that is what I assume. She rarely wears any shirts at camp other than Girl Scout ones.

Twilight camp

Last week I took my scouts to Wheeler Farm for Juniper Service Unit's Twilight Camp. They always hold their camp in the afternoon and evening because of the heat. So camp ran from 3:30 to 9:00 on Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday. We commuted back and forth each day leaving around 1:00 or 2:00 and getting home between 11:00 and 11:40.

At Juniper, accompanying adults are put with groups that don't include daughters, so I was with 8 year old Brownies. It was different working with the younger girls. I was supposed to be the helper for the group, but on the second and third days the unit leader didn't come, so that put me in charge of our unit. For our skit, the girls had Harry Potter since we were the "Broomsticks". They did a good job with almost no adult help. We did help them the first day figure out who they were, but after that they were on their own. My unit had really cute girls in it.



The far left group composes of Heather as Hermione, Hannah as Hagrid, Amelia (her back is to the camera) as Ron, and Celia as Harry. The middle group are the "evil" Malfoy (Serena), Crabbe (Cara), and Goyle (Alex). The last group is the twins Samie and Katie as Voldemort and Quirrell.

Getting pictures of my cadettes wasn't easy since I wasn't with them, but I did capture a few.


Watching the magician and eating dinner (D, Maddie, and Malynn and D, Sarah, Malynn, and Maddie).


Coming back from putting dinner back in the van (Malynn, Maddie, and D, and Sarah).

We have added a new member to our troop—Maddie from Ftn. Green. We are excited to have her along for the ride.

These pictures are from the girls helping the younger ones. Maddie worked with a Glass Slipper (the five year olds) while the others helped with Poppies. The girl sitting with her back to the camera next D is Jaydn, daughter of Melinda Despain, who I had as a junior back in the 1993-1994 school year. It truly is a small world.

Isn't this beautiful?

I set this picture as the background on my computer. Deirdre saw it the other day and asked where I got it. I said, "my daughter took it." This is from her CIMI trip last October on the way to Catalina Island.

At last

Today we actually delivered three of the bags of stuffed animals that have been living in the Odyssey for the last eight months. They (the bags of stuffed animals) are from the girls' Bronze Award (more info on what that is here) project. While delivering information for next week's trip to Wheeler Farm for Juniper Service Unit's "Movie Magic Twilight Camp," we dropped off three of the bags in Moroni to be put in the ambulances for small children. I was going to drop off another bag at the hospital in Mt. Pleasant, but didn't. We still have five more bags of stuffed animals that have to be delivered before the first of August; otherwise, there is no room for six people's things for Gooseberry!

First game and more

Well we lost 11-6 against Moroni. But, they had an extra week of practice. Until last Wednesday the people in charge of city league games weren't even sure there would be a team at the Filly level. There is no team at Fox (7-9 grade) this year, only six girls signed up.

The team looked good. Our catcher was crying after the game, because she missed a few balls and one major error. But, it was the first game. D did a great job at first base. She, the pitcher (Megan), and the SS (Olivia) had some great in-field plays. If you saw her leg you would be extremely impressed. From knee to almost ankle is missing the first layer of skin plus some gashes. She really did a bum job yesterday playing baseball.

For Scouts we made scrunchies. D had done them in FACS (Family and Consumer Science) and was happy to be able to teach a class on how to make hair scrunchies. JoAnne (really Malynn) and I brought our sewing machines to the meeting. I had thread, pins, and ribbon. I thought I had the elastic that was needed, but I didn't. So JoAnne ran down to the local fabric store and bought some 1/4" elastic. She was already to write a check out from the troop when the owner tallied up the amount of 60" of 1/4" elastic for $.51. Surprisingly, she would not take a check for only 51 cents. :) The girls made their scrunchies for their Design It IPP. I have a feeling that now that they know how easy they are, they may make some over the summer. I have the lucky experience of wearing the one D made first. Hurrah!!

Turning the news to me—I received an A- in my harder of the two classes. I was soooooo happy! I reread the articles before the final and reviewed my notes, but it seemed that I could not remember anything, so I only got an 87% on the final. I received a 93% on the final that I spent all day and night doing. The final was 35% of my final grade. I was pretty thrilled with an A-. As a matter of fact I wasn't sure I wanted to open the e-mail that told me my grade. It's been 12 years since I did any schooling that had a grade attached, so I should feel good. And you know what? I do. I'm not some 22 year old going to school full time—I teach all day, drive the 100 miles each way to class, run a Scout troop, and try to have time for my family. I should pat myself on the back for a job well done.

Mother's Day and more

If you are reading this, then you noticed that I updated the header. I got tired of the same old same old and tried something new. While looking for quotes on writing I found a several that I really liked, but not enough to have permanently on my blog. So from a few of my favorite authors are the following:

"Almost anyone can be an author; the business is to collect money and fame from this state of being." ~A. A. Milne

"Everybody walks past a thousand story ideas every day. The good writers are the ones who see five or six of them. Most people don't see any." ~Orson Scott Card

"I hated school. I don't trust anybody who looks back on the years from 14 to 18 with any enjoyment. If you liked being a teenager, there's something really wrong with you." ~Stephen King

I really have to agree with Stephen King. Mother's Day was a very relaxing day. I did nothing, but read. It was very nice. I called my mother, who is HOME! Yes that is right. She has been shipped home. She starts physically therapy today after a break. One of the things she wants them to do is teach her how to walk with a cane when she can't feel the ball of her foot. Jeff called his mother. See sometimes we are good children.

The first softball game is tomorrow! Unfortunately D slid during a baseball game at school and really scraped up her leg and knee. It's so nice to live in a small town. She called me at school, because Jeff wasn't home. I can't go get her, so the secretary who lives in our neighborhood took her home. Jeff came back just as they were going to go drive around Ephraim looking for him. He took her back to school after cleaning it up and bandaging it. Poor kid.

My freshmen and sophomores are writing alphabet books. "A is for Arthur who was king of the Celts." The sophomores are doing them for the Myths and Legends unit they are finishing. The freshmen are doing them for the books they just finished reading Literature Circles. I did this idea a few years ago with sophomores as a book report on the book they were reading. It takes a fair amount of work to do it right. I have these students working in groups (Lit. Cir.) or pairs (soph.) or for those who hate working with someone else they can work alone. I needed something to do for the last week of school in those classes and borrowed the idea from D's seventh grade lang. arts teacher who had them write alpha bios. They were due today, but I found out about last night at 7:30. URG save me from pre-teens. She stayed up and did it, while Jeff and I went to bed. I cut her paper for her and left her to it.

We are making scrunchies at Scouts tomorrow. They should be interesting to say the least. Cutting, pinning, sewing—what fun.

Memories from March and April

I totally forgot that I had a bunch of pictures on my camera, so I was pleasantly surprised when I looked at the chip and found 150 pictures that I hadn't even remembered. The first one is our last day of Cookie Booth at WalMart on Saturday, March 28. We did pretty well for cookie booths this year and sold out of a few varieties.

The following weekend found us in Reno for a Moody Blues concert. We stayed at Circus Circus, which we enjoyed last year, but found ghastly this year. There was some major wrestling tournament going on the same weekend and the place was full of boys of all ages. Our room was right next to the fire stairs and people were using them, because the elevators were so slow and full. Unfortunately people didn't realize that they could be heard through the walls. I swear every person who came down the stairs had to jump the last couple of steps.

This is from before the concert at the really good (and expensive) The Steakhouse at Circus.

Justin Hayward and John Lodge near the beginning of the show. In the background you can see Gordon Marshall on drums. I had to look up his last name, because I couldn't remember it and read a really interesting article about him at a website in England. If interested you can read it here.

Dino shuffle

"Question" This song always ends the show.

The very end.

Last call

Deirdre and Sarah taking an order from a neighbor. All cookie orders have to be in by tomorrow (Wed., Feb. 4). If you haven't order any yet and want to— drop me a comment.

Cookie Rally

Yesterday was the Cookie Kickoff for Girl Scouts. I happen to be in charge of it, again. We start selling cookies next Saturday (Jan. 17). To rev up the girls and help them learn about the cookies, we hold a rally. As usual the girls took home a bunch of paper products. They made ribbons for a cause, thought of ways they could package cookies to sell more, tasted cookies (including the new one Dulce de Leché), sang a song about the safety rules, set a goal for what incentive they planned to work toward, and listed ways they could donate. This year's theme is "Imagine If …" and philanthropy is a strong part of the cookie program.

I had four of my girls at the rally. Deirdre worked with a Senior PA (Program Aide) to help her earn her hours toward becoming a Junior PA. Girls who have finished sixth grade or are 12 can become Junior PA's. These girls are a big help to running events. It also helps the girls to learn how to deal with younger girls. Some groups need a lot of help and others don't. This was D's first event as a PA.

Malynn Christensen, Sarah Jacobson, and Samantha Olsen pose with Gayle Jensen, our SU treasurer, after making the cookie chains for booth decoration. D came up with the station title "Imagine If … you could chain-ge the world". Gayle was going to retire from GS after this year, but Uleda talked her out of it. With Lynette, our current SUD, leaving as of this week, I am now SUD and I barely know what I am doing. I know for a fact that I can't or won't put the time into being SUD that Lynette has. I just can't.

As you can see from this picture D spent most of the time alone as a PA. Amanda is a junior in high school and this was her last event as a PA. D said that she (D, not Amanda) found being a PA pretty boring. She flat out refuses to be a PA at day camp. It's okay, she has to have even more training to do that. But in a few years she might not want to go around doing things at day camp; we'll see when she's 14/15.

Here is Uleda Westland, our Girl Services Volunteer (basically a liason between the Utah GS Council and the local Service Units), taking a picture of D being a PA. Also pictured are Malynn, Sarah, and Samantha. The other three girls are from Marysvale. The troop down there brought 12 girls to our rally because they didn't have one in the Fishlake Service Unit.

This is Malynn, Sarah, and Samantha making their elephants. After tracing their fist and coloring the resulting elephant, each girl decided what she wanted to work toward in cookies sales.

Here all four of the girls with their paper chain that Sam, Sarah, and Malynn made. They are standing on the stage after the rally had ended.

Of course we have to have a silly picture to go with a "nice" one.

FYI:Because of school starting, I will probably only post once a week on Saturday or Sunday.

And the remodel continues

The latest update. I don't have better pictures right now. I haven't taken any (you know gone over the weekend) lately. The new wall is up (just studs right now). The old hall wall from the back of our bedroom closet is partial gone. We walk through the old closet to get to our bedroom. It's sort of a maze right now. The electrical has been a problem for Jeff as he tries to figure out what wires go where and power what. As stated before, our electrician wasn't the best. It's pretty exciting to see the way the area is shaping up.

And here is Jeff relaxing on the Sunday of Thanksgiving weekend. He worked all weekend on the house, but had to read The Color Purple for class on Monday. After only four and a half years Rocky and Greymalkin have declared a slight truce. We gave Rocky a reprieve right before Thanksgiving. He actually has perked up.

On to me:
I was accepted into The University of Utah. My classes start on Jan. 14. I will be taking two classes Spring semester: one on Wednesday and the other on Thursday. On days that D and I have gymnastic meets than I will travel up to SLC three days in a row. I haven't figured out how I will make it through the next couple of years, but somehow we will manage. When I leave school on Tuesdays, I will have to be prepared for classes on Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday. I need to move Scouts to Tuesdays. I will miss Service Unit meetings unless they are moved, and worse I'll miss Stamp Club for Feb., Mar., and April., maybe even May depending on my finals schedule. I can do this—at least this is what I keep telling myself. Wish our family luck for the next two years.

Our busy weekend

Last Thursday (12/11) was the Candlelight program. All the orchestras, bands, choirs, guitar, and music appreciation classes all performed. Then the candles were presented to worth local citizens. This little old lady was one of the recipients. She was so funny. She is 97 and lives in Manti. Her 97th birthday was the next day. She stood on the stage at the Eccles Center and said "I'm wearing my gardening shoes, my cowboy shirt, and my hair hasn't been combed in a week." What could the audience do but laugh. This year there were seven eighth graders with 4.0 g.p.a's from sixth through current semester to present. Some years there are only a couple. With luck Deirdre will be one of the presenters next year.





Deirdre and I spent Friday and Saturday at Trefoil Ranch. It snowed like crazy on Saturday. When we got to the bottom of 189 it was closed. Boy were there a lot of angry people. Unlike last year, there were only about 25 people there (mothers and daughters). D and I deliberately tried to pick activities that we didn't do last year. So we learned about Kwanzaa instead of Hanukkah, the Netherlands instead of Russia and did new crafts. It was a lot of fun. The girls were older this year too. There were a few 8 year olds, but most were 11 and 12. The food was pretty good too. We ended early on Saturday, so we could get on the road a little earlier. D and I drove on up to Salt Lake City to spend the night there. Because…

We had our annual tickets to The Nutcracker by Ballet West. This was the last year Deirdre wanted to the Sugar Plum Fairy party after the matinee. We have been going to The Nutcracker since D was four and the party afterward since she was six. We spent the night at Embassy Suites and did some shopping before the ballet. We were scheduled to see Beau Pearson as the Snow Cavalier and the Waltz of the Flowers Cavalier, but he hurt his shoulder in Madam Butterfly rehearsals. So we were treated to Soloist Jason Linsley in Snow and Principal Christopher Rudd in the Waltz. Both of these males are my favorites with the company. Due to Beau's injury, Ballet West has brought in a male guest artist to help with the performances. We decided that next year, we might go to an evening performance, spend the night in SLC, and then do Christmas shopping the next day on the way home.

Happy Thanksgiving & Construction messes

The picture on top is what the living room/hall/foyer looked like on Tuesday. The bottom picture is what it looked like yesterday when I got home at 6ish. We have no electricity in part of the living room, dining room, or kitchen. Luckily all three of those rooms do have some power in the plugs. Also the appliances are on different breakers. Our electrician was an idiot, I believe. He had to come back twice after we moved in and it would have been more times, if Jeff hadn't just figured it out on his own. But we are talking electricity—the one that kills if not used properly.

Today, Jeff has been dealing with attic insulation. The drywall on part of the ceiling had to be taken down, as well as, some 2 x 4's. This means a ton of insulation has fallen to the floor. So far, he is at 10 bags of insulation to be put in the dumpster. At some point either today or tomorrow we are hanging new drywall on the ceiling. Luckily it is only a few pieces that need to go up. Although, I think I prefer hanging the ceiling rather than walls. I don't remember, I have deleted the Thanksgiving of 1995 and summer of 1996 from my brain. When we decided to try for a baby, we also decided to finish the basement. So, the summer before Deirdre was born, we drywalled. Hard to believe that was 12 years ago.

This is the first remodel that we have done that doesn't have us thinking "resale" value. We might have really changed how much our house is worth by deleting an upstairs bedroom, but at the same time we are making the remaining two rooms larger. But we aren't selling until D leaves for college, if then. Who knows what the market will be like. No matter what we sell the house for, it will most likely be more than we built it for even with the additional costs of the remodeled kitchen, both upstairs bathrooms, the finished basement, and now this one.

I have a pumpkin pie baking in the oven as I type this. I love pumpkin pie! I like pecan pie even more, but D doesn't so it's pumpkin for us. We are having Cornish Hens, stuffing, mashed yams (mashed potatoes using a yam), peas, maybe spinach souffle (I had to buy it when I saw Albertson's had it), rolls, gravy, and pie with real whipped cream. Jeff doesn't really like turkey and D hates it, so Cornish Hens it is. Cornish Hens are easier to cook than a turkey anyway. I am also about to make the honey butter for the scones for tomorrow's bake sale in Manti. I have the dough thawing for the scones. I also have Rice-Crispy treats, brownies, and maybe sugar cookies to make. This is one of our fundraisers for Girl Scouts. Besides a small profit from cookie sales, as a Service Unit, we do two big fundraisers: the Manti bake sale, and during pageant time we clean the tables at the "food court" and hand out the Sanpete Messenger's pageant insert to the people entering the temple grounds. The majority of girls in our Service Unit live in Manti. As a matter of fact, our Junior troop there lost more than half its girls to aging out (They should have come to mine, but didn't reregister.), the troop was down to about 7 girls. She is back up to 17!! I can barely get 5 to come to our meetings.

Well have a Happy Thanksgiving everyone. I'm off to clean and cook.

Volunteer thoughts

As the SUD-Bud for our Service Unit, I am in charge of finding ways to honor our volunteers. For our October meeting, I copied an idea that I received from Jostens many years ago. It involved M&M's as "pills". Each color represented a "cure" for a different problem. I made cute little "diaper pouches," filled them with M&M's. I wanted everyone to have at least two of each color and then a few more. They took forever to make 40 of. The top one shows the different components and the bottom one shows the finished product.

supplies used: all SU DP Ghostly Greetings, CS Basic Black, Whisper White, and Pumpkin Pie, Batty for You, Pumpkin Pie classic ink, scallop and 1 3/8 punches, misc. ribbon (from WalMart :( ), I printed the list on my laser printer on white cardstock.

For November's meeting I enlisted Deirdre's help. She doesn't like to CASE (Copy and Share Everything) ideas. I keep telling her it's how teachers function. Beg, borrow and steal ideas! She was very unhappy that I don't have a lot of patterned papers in fall colors. I tend to go for soft subtle backgrounds. I had just purchased some "holly" paper from ZIM's (25 sheets for $2), but it looks fall, not Christmas and I had another patterned "fall" color paper that she liked (also from ZIM's going out of business sale). I was going to make all 36 like the more complicated one below, but decided it was going to take waaay tooo long!!!

supplies used: SU scallop square, scallop circle, horizontal slot, and tag corner punches, orange cardstock unknown source, four different fall ribbons from Michael's, patterned paper from ZIM's, laser printer for tag.

We had a great assembly line going. Deirdre punched the orange tags and put the scallop papers on the mints and stuffed the bags with mints. I punched the scallops (those punches are a devil to use) and tied the bags closed and tied the tags on. They didn't take nearly as long as the previous month's. Then I left them at home! So everyone will get two in December.

I already have my idea planned. I am going to use my new BigShot and new Top Note Bigz die. I am doing red/white peppermints in bags with the TopNote used as the closer. I just don't have the "inspirational" saying or the stamp set decided yet. I already have the paper for the closers and the peppermints too. I need to get working on these soon too since the house is going to need my help soon too.

CIMI update

"The girls had a great visit at the Long Beach Aquarium. Stephanie says they got to drag net some plankton, look at lots of marine life, and were still pretty excited to be on the way. There was also a chance that the girls were going to be shuttled to the ferry, eliminating the dreaded 10 minute walk with luggage. The girls were enthusiastically supportive!"

The above came in e-mail today from our "at home" contact. Every time a group of Girl Scouts travel, there has to be a "at home" contact person. This way if there is a problem, or in the CIMI trip case updates, this contact person does the contacting.

I ran into (not literally) Mr. Halling at WalMart. I have only met him once at Parent/Teacher Conferences. I kept asking myself "who is that man? why does he look familiar?" On the other hand he remembered me and asked how D was managing on her trip. Actually he asked "how's the world traveler?" It's interesting some of her teachers were excited for her opportunity to attend CIMI and others only saw it as missing class time. As a teacher, I know that what we do in class is the most important thing (it isn't really, but we all like to pretend). As a parent, I know that opportunities like this can't be missed.

On that point of not missing opportunities I nominated D (sneaking of me I know) as a student for the People to People Leadership Summit program. I also nominated some of my students, which is what they wanted me to do. I read about this program that was started by President Eisenhower in 1956 and it sounds fantastic. Of course I scoured the site for information regarding the cost, but it couldn't be found. I believe that by nominating her, we will receive information. All they wanted was an address, gender, and grade in school. The summits are held at places like Harvard, Stanford, UCLA, Johns Hopkins, George Washington University, and Columbia. According to the website "As a Leadership Summit Student Leader, you'll join some of the world's top 6th through 12th graders for a week of interactive and hands-on training from top college students, college educators, and professionals in your area of interest."

CIMI

This is the whole group that left for Catalina Island Marine Institute (CIMI). There are 28 girls from sixth through tenth grade and four adults. The girl immediately to the left of Deirdre is the one who she will probably hang out with the most. Hopefully she is in D's group. I don't remember her name or I could look it up in my information packet. They flew out this afternoon and return at 10:30 Friday night.

One of the girls designed the picture and at their last CIMI meeting they tie-dyed the shirts. They decorated flip-flops too, but I just remembered that so they're not packed with D's things. Luckily the adults made the reservations before all the new flight rules went into effect, so everyone could check two "bags"—for most this meant a suitcase and a sleeping bag. They snorkle several times—once at night, disect a squid, learn about the ocean and science.