Weekend Update

It's a pretty quiet night around here. Sean took Lexi up to his grandpa and dad's house to watch Gold Rush with them. He does that every Friday night. Courtney and Josh bought a new fish tank and have been busy all night assembling it. Brittney is asleep with a headache. I just finished cleaning the house and folding a billion loads of laundry. I always watch Hoarders while I fold laundry for some reason. Maybe it makes me feel better to watch it when I'm doing housework or something, because that's the only time I ever watch it. Now I'm going to read the latest Patricia Cornwell novel and not move until I fall asleep.

This week has been fairly good. Brittney got her driver's license on Monday, so that's really nice.

Last week Brittney got the chance to meet and hug the man of her dreams. She and one of her best friends found out that the guys from The Buried Life TV show were speaking at UVU and talked her friend's mom into taking them down there. So they skipped school and went. She and her friend have a list of things they want to do, and one of the things on it was to hug all 4 of these guys, and they got to cross that off the list. They got autographs, hugs, kisses on the cheek, and Brittney got to have a full-on conversation with the one she's in love with. A pretty good reason to skip school in my book.


Brittney's best friend Kylie in the middle in the striped hoodie with Duncan, the man of her dreams, and Brittney on the end


Brittney with her future husband, Jonnie Penn (and some other random girl)

Sean's fix-it-shop has been open for business lately. He fixed some stuff on my car for me, and he fixed my washing machine. Hallelujah. It would only spin on random occasions when it felt like it, so doing a load of laundry was an all day affair. I was not wanting to buy a new one, and he was able to figure out that what was wrong with it, buy the part for $50, and get it working again. Yay for that. He's going to be working all weekend, so no fun plans for us. I think I'll be doing the grocery shopping, trying to keep kids from killing each other, and reading my novel.

I love boys

I love boys. I love boys of all ages. I love teenage boys. They are pretty darn cute. I love how they are so much like elementary school boys. They draw pictures of sports cars on the backs of their quizzes and doodle little drawings of guys shooting each other and falling down cliffs. They think bodily functions are funny and they like to play tricks. They take any opportunity to throw things and try to make them into a goal or basket... wadded up papers into the recycle box, water bottles into the garbage can, white board markers onto the marker holder tray. They draw goofy stuff on my white board, people and cop cars and their names, and I have one super adorable kid, football and basketball player, smart kid, that makes me stuff using construction paper, scissors, and glue during study hall when he has nothing else to work on. Today he made me a monkey. Last week it was an Easter bunny and Easter egg. It's totally random. And totally cute.

I've had a sad awakening over the last few days with my teenage boys, though. Sexism is alive and well. I have heard some of the most jaw-dropping, at least for me, things over the last few days. Such as:
*It's a man's job to provide and it's a woman's job to take care of the kids. She had them; why wouldn't she be the one to take care of them?
*In a marriage, both people should have a say, but it should be the man that has the final say.
*Women want the man to support them, and the man puts in everything [by everything, he meant money] and she's just there, and then if they get divorced she wants half of everything.
*Seriously, how often does your dad make dinner? My dad never cooks. He doesn't know how. [some classmates agreed that their experiences were similar.]
*Men get better jobs than women, so they should provide.
We're about to read The Taming of the Shrew, so I gave them a list of about 13 statements that they had to agree or disagree with and tell why. Then we had a big discussion/debate about it. Some of the statements pertained to relationships, marriage, and gender sterotypes, because those are issues addressed in the play. I was blown away by girls agreeing with the guys on some of these. There are several purposes to discussions like these, and one is critical thinking skills. To have them challenge one another's notions and form and re-form opinions. And for me to push them to think more in-depth when necessary. One of the statements I like to give them for this purpose is "Boys should act like boys and girls should act like girls." They think it's so simple, but they really come up with some debate, and I push them to analyze what that really means and examine their biases and beliefs and better define them. But it's frustrating because they'll only dig so far before they become resistant or bored, and it's hard to get them to take the next step in questioning. What does it mean to "act like a boy" specifically? Who gets to decide? Why is one thing considered masculine and another feminine, and how do these things change over time? One thing I did love today was one of my favorites, a tough macho football player type who I get the feeling runs with a rough crowd, says, "Guys can be cheerleaders. It's not just a girl thing to be a cheerleader." Many people are quick to associate anything that is largely done by girls as girly, and I loved that he was considering each thing on its merits. He also brought up nursing as something that is often done by women but isn't girly. Then another student said that only girls are secretaries, and when I asked him why he thinks men aren't secretaries, he said, "It's a pretty easy job." I give up. I am quite curious, though, about the messages these kids are getting at home.

I've already hit a roadblock in my goal to be on top of birthdays. I bought a birthday card for my nephew, put a few bucks in it, it's all ready to go... no stamps. I tried to buy stamps at Smith's on Sunday, but it appeared it was going to take an act of Congress to get someone to sell them to me, so I left without them. So I'm late. But it will arrive in the same month as the birthday, and that still counts as improvement for me.

Strange thoughts

Term 2 has ended and the school year is officially halfway through. I had a little last minute scrambling by students, but not too bad. I did have one special soul who needed an assignment entered to bump her grade up to a D- so she wouldn't be grounded. She turned her assignment in at 1:00 Thursday afternoon, and by the time I got to work at 6:30 am Friday to enter scores she had e-mailed me twice and posted a message to me on facebook. Not my class facebook page, my personal one. Seriously?

I have the blahs. I'm in a screw-it sort of mood. I'm too fat, I spend too much money, I'm exhausted, so screw it. Who cares.

The pants I'm wearing are making me angry, so I think that's part of the problem. I wonder if anyone else's clothes make them angry like mine do. Like they seriously affect my mood. Certain things make me angry, just the sight of them, too. Like Sean's hair. If his hair is bad, it will put me in a bad mood just to look at it. I wonder if that's strange.

Speaking of strange... I was listening to "Red Solo Cup" on the radio the other day, and I noticed that you are allowed to say "ass" on the radio but not "testicles". I find that strange. Shouldn't you be allowed to use actual names for body parts before you are allowed to use slang? Hmmm... Also, that song is somehow the most stupid song ever written, yet strangely just a little bit awesome at the same time. Proceed to party.

I had a conference with Josh's teacher last week about his reading. He is always just barely below whatever benchmark he's supposed to hit. So he's always making progress, but as soon as he hits the fluency benchmark, they raise it. It's a little frustrating, because his comprehension is good. He just moves at a slow pace, and that's what his teacher thinks too. It's just his natural pace, and he likes to stop and think about things he's reading in the middle, too. Anyway, he does really well in math, and she told me that he is the fastest kid in the class at counting money. That cracked me up because that kid loves money. He's always trying to come up with a way to earn some, and he counts his money all the time. She said she'll hand out a paper on money counting, and before she can walk back to her desk he's finished. That's my boy. He's a lot like Sean that way, I think. Sean had a newspaper route or picked up odd jobs from the time he was little. He'd haul trees for the guy at the Christmas tree lot... anything to make a few bucks.

We had a derby meeting yesterday, and things are starting to come together. It's exciting. The girls have been shuffled around a bit, and there's been a lot of wait and see what other people are going to do, so they are now finally forming their own team and things are starting to come together. They came up with a team name (they are the Junction City Harlequins) and colors (red and black). They are designing a logo so they can get their shirts made up. They are setting up their bylaws and looking for venues to skate and bout, and they found an awesome coach who was willing to take them on. As soon as they get their shirts done they will do some photos, start making flyers, and start recruiting. I'm very excited for them! This new coach is already helping them so much. I'm so glad she agreed to it.

I think I'm going to do the Slim Fast diet. I do just fine all day until evening. Then I just eat whatever I feel like. So if I can have some Slim Fast in the evening, maybe that would help me. I told Heather it's because in the morning I'm motivated because I have to get dressed and look at myself in the mirror. All throughout the day I'm busy and I can only eat what I've brought with me from home, and I do fine with that. When they have donuts or candy at faculty meetings or things like that, I can resist just fine. But after dinner, I'm tired, I slap on some elastic waistband pj's, and all bets are off.

I'm reading The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo. I really like it. It's intriguing. I may have more to say when I finish with it.

2011 Wrap-Up

December came and went before I knew what hit me, but we did OK at having some fun. We saw the lights in Willard Bay and Layton and the Christmas villages in Ogden. Josh's school put on a Christmas concert at the high school, and he was pretty cute. We drove up to Hardware Ranch to ride the sleigh out to see the elk. It was a beautiful drive up, and there was a dusting of snow. That was the only way we were seeing snow for Christmas. I was the only one who would smile for pictures, though. Holy crap it was cold out there. It was about 20 degrees, and coming through parts of the canyon it was like 7 degrees.





We spent Christmas Eve at Cami's house, and the kids had so much fun.









Sean and Steve dressed up in drag and sang a song for the family "talent" show. Sean made such an ugly woman. He kinda looked like Sister Dottie S. Dixon's super ugly little sister now that I think about it.

Sean (Seana?)


Sister Dottie:

Yep. I'm seein it.

Dennis reads "Twas The Night Before Christmas" to the kids every year.



Christmas morning we opened some of our presents, and then Courtney went to work so we saved some of the things and opened them after she got off. The kids got an X-box, so that helped keep them entertained while they were waiting. I don't know if I liked doing it that way or not. It's nice to spread out the day and not have it over with so quickly, but listening to Josh and Lexi ask repeatedly when they could open the rest of their gifts was a special bit of torture.



Brittney will kill me for this one. Oh well.





Man I suck at taking pictures.

We spent Christmas night at mom's house. Katie made a really cool geneology chart that was like a piece of artwork, and we spent some time talking about family history. Scott, Katie, and I are planning a family history trip together down to St. George over Spring Break. Hopefully it will work out because it would be so much fun. Now if we could just get Heather there, too...

I got a lovely case of strep throat that hit me the day after Christmas. Luckily no one else in my family got it, but it knocked me down for a few days. Other than that, the break was uneventful. Perfect for me; not so great probably for my kids.

Sean's family came over for New Year's Eve. They brough such great food! Oh my gosh. Steve made dutch oven potatoes and Mindi made jello pretzel salad and Cami made rolls and Connie made the famous frog eye salad and Marilyn made ham and Dennis brought chips and they all brough tons of other tasty stuff besides. We played the classic Chamberlain favorite white elephant BINGO and some other fun games that Cami and Mindi knew.






I've been thinking about New Year's Resolutions. The new year is an awesome time for reflection. It feels like a nice clean slate. I think I'll make monthly goals like I did... whenever it was I did that. Last year? The year before? But I do have some goals for the year. I want to try to write in my blog more. I write posts in my head, but then I never sit down to put them on the computer. I bring work home, I have family stuff, I plop down in front of the TV with a trash novel, and whatever thoughts I had were lost forever, which is tragedy to no one but me, but still. So I want to try to do a weekly post. Also, I am going to stay on top of birthdays this year. I have family members on both sides that are great at sending cards, and I pretty much suck. But not this year. I am going to kick some birthday BUTT. And I am going to figure out a way to lose 15 pounds this year and keep it off. Sean and I ran into a kid we used to know at the grocery store the other day, and I swear he was going to ask me if I was pregnant. He looked at my stomach and was about to say something, but thankfully Sean asked him a question about something and he got distracted. I would have hated to have to punch that kid in the face. Heather is doing a Be Healthy sort of contest thing that I really should join.

Sean got 2 of the wheels on the go-cart. I wish I had taken some before pictures, but it's amazing already. It started off rusty and black. Now it's a really nice shade of maroon.







Our 20 year anniversary is Tuesday. That's some crazy stuff right there. It's been a ride, that's for sure. Lots of ups and downs. Lots of life. Not sure what we're going to do to celebrate yet.

Feminist Mormon Housewives has an interesting discussion going on right now about modesty, a pet topic for me. The definition of modesty has become so skewed now days in conservative circles. And I hate the way it hyperfocuses on the sexuality of women and young girls even. And the way it rarely focuses on boys or men at all. We were having a class discussion on something or other one day, and one of my boys said, "Modest is hottest." My gut reaction without even thinking was, "Ew, gross, no." And they all were like, "Huh?" And I said, "Modesty is about not showing off and not being vain and having respect for yourself and others..." and they said, "Oh! No! You misunderstand old crazy teacher lady! Modesty is simply talking about girls not wearing skanky clothes. So modest is hottest." And I was like, "No, I do understand... oh nevermind, we're moving on." Teaching modest is hottest teaches that the way girls dress should be all about being hot for boys. It never goes the other direction. Whatever.

Well, we've started the new year off right. Everyone is back in school and at work. Everyone is healthy. I'm looking forward to a new year.