Things On My Mind....

Things That Make Me Want To Yell...
Things That Are Annoying Me...
Things That Must Go....
Take your pick; they're all accurate. They are as follows:

I'm in the family room/bedroom/backyard. Kid (usually it's kid... sometimes it's husband) calls to me, "Do we have any yogurt?" "Is there any leftover pizza?" "Well, where in the fridge is it?" Hey, just let me pull out my trusty little map that I made of the contents of the fridge, because I keep it in my pocket for just this occasion! How the heck do I know where in the fridge the string cheese is? Look! Move things around! Clean it out while you're at it. Sheesh.

In the week that I've been off work I've eaten too much and spent too much money. That's why I work. It forces me to be out *making money instead of home figuring out ways to *spend it. And I can only eat what I bring with me at work. Or buy in the school cafeteria, and honestly, who wants to eat much of that?

Crazy weather. This year has been really weird! We wanted to go out boating this week, and it's been too cold and rainy! It's been too cold to go boating in June! Not right, people!

There is a middle school health teacher (in another district, not mine) who got into some trouble when parents complained that she was answering their childrens' questions about sex and sex-related topics. This is against the law in Utah. She was put on leave and there is an investigation pending. Fine. Sounds appropriate. If she was out of line, I'm sure they'll reprimand her or take her license. However, that wasn't good enough for some of the parents, who promptly held a meeting to discuss how that teacher could be fired without giving her due process. Without hearing her side of the story or completing any investigation. And, they are pressing their representative in the legislature to make it a criminal offense for a teacher to discuss anything related to sex that is not approved by the legislature. A bill will be sponsored next year in the legislature to make it so that a teacher can go to *jail for saying anything not in the approved curriculum. I'm fine with them having a curriculum, and with firing someone for not sticking to it, but jail time for a teacher who says, "Being gay is OK" or "If you are having sex you need to protect yourself"? Honestly, this is an offense worthy of criminal proceedings? People who have never spent much time in front of class, a high school class especially, might not understand just how crazy this is. There are topics that come up as you read novels and discuss literature, as you discuss events in students' lives, and you make a good-faith effort to stay within the boundaries of what's acceptable and appropriate. I take that very seriously. And not just sex-related topics, either. Religion. Politics. Biases and prejudices. A recent example of this in my classroom was when we talked about stereotypes in English class. In every class, the kids brought up the stereotype of the "slut" and I feel like that's definitely a valid one and we talked about it. I was very careful, but the conversation could definitely be construed wrong and I could get into trouble for discussing sex in a non-health class. Now I have to worry about doing jail time if I say the wrong thing? I've always just felt like if you use common sense and good judgement you'll be fine, but who knows? It feels like the legislature and at times the parents are suspicious of and even hostile towards educators. Anyway, why don't these parents get together and have a meeting to discuss why their kids are looking for info from their 8th grade health teacher instead of asking at home, if they're so bent about it. Teacher shortage indeed.

I'm really tired of everyone dogging on and making fun of Hilary Clinton for not bowing out of the race. I understand the issues and the problems it presents, but I think the people have the right to vote for the candidate they want. I am a Clinton supporter, and there are plenty others out there who are as well. She won, what, 5 of the last 6 primary races? Who gets to say that she should step aside for Obama, when there are plenty of people who support her. Last number I read showed that she won the popular vote... it's just that Obama has more delegates, which leads me to another issue. The Democratic National Party needs to make a change to the way we do this. We need to put candidates on the ballot based on the popular vote, not on super delegates. I admire Clinton for sticking it out, even when the odds got long, because that's what this country is all about, by damn, the democratic process. My vote is extremely important to me, even if my candidates seldom get elected here in Utah, and I want the right to exercise it, not have a bunch of super delegates trump that and take it away. Hmph. I'll still support Obama, but I think Clinton would do a better job, and it's my right to have the chance to say so.

In other, non-complaining and ranting-like-a-crazy-person news... Lexi went to the doctor for her one-year checkup. She has dropped to the 20%ile for her weight, while in the 70th for height. She still looks chubby to me, and the ped said that she doesn't look like she's hurting for food. She still has fat rolls. Her eating has really dropped off as she's gotten picky, and I've been afraid to give her a very wide variety of stuff before a year, but he said it's fine now, so it's game on. I'm finding a lot more stuff she likes now that I feel like I can try more things.

Josh went to the doctor and I pushed him to retest for at least some of the basics, so we'll see what comes back. He cried when they took his blood, and the nurse was almost in tears too because he was just so sweet and trying to be brave but not quite hacking it. His skin looks really great right now, but he's on about a billion meds to try to get it/keep it that way. Hopefully the tests will tell us something, and then we can take him off everything but the allergy med.

I bought albums to start making my kids memory books. You know, Courtney will be in college in 2 years, so I figured, hey, maybe she should have a baby book! Better late than never? I'm an unrepentant slacker, what can I say. That's one of my projects for this summer.

And now I must go lie on the floor and say, "I ate too much!" (shout out to my brother Scott) because I had a Cafe Rio salad for dinner and I'm *stuffed.

Lexi's Birthday

Lexi is one year old now. It's really fun to watch her little personality develop. From the very beginning, Lexi has been different from the rest of my kids. It's been kinda funny, actually. Even the pregnancy was different from all the others... It has been really amazing, actually, all the things that could have gone wrong and that they thought might be wrong with her, and everything has just kept turning out fine. From the perfect timing of her due date, and then some of the testing coming back scary, and then her not staying head-down at the end and her heart rate dropping, my heart rate dropping in labor... I just feel so fortunate that everything has been fine. She's my only baby that's gone over the due date (and by a week no less), my biggest baby, my baby with the most hair, my only baby that wouldn't take a bottle, my sleepiest baby... In fact, in the beginning I couldn't wake her up to eat. I tried everything. She slept through the first bath I gave her, in a sitting up position... She is my only baby that wasn't walking at around 10 months... she's just been different, and she's scared me a few times, but she's super sweet and worth it.





Brittney made her a butterfly out of cupcakes.



Josh was excited to see if she would like her cake. I didn't give her one with frosting because she was really tired and I didn't want to have a melt down when I had to clean frosting out of her hair.






Sean's family came over to help us celebrate, but then Lexi slept all through her party. I felt bad, but she was so cranky earlier in the day until she fell asleep that I just hated to wake her up. It was fun to have them come over, though, and really it was just a good excuse to get everyone together anyway.

We went up to the cabin today. Here are some pics. I got sunburned while I was mowing. I don't know why I can never remember sunscreen.

Before:




After:




The river is running pretty swift, but it hasn't flooded. Yay!


I've gotta take Josh in to the doctor for an allergy follow-up this week. I'm going to push for re-doing the testing. If they won't do it for me here, which I don't know why they wouldn't, we're going up to Primary Children's. We may end up there anyway. It's just getting way too bad and no one has any answers.



Tomorrow I am going to make my menu for the month again, and then do a big shopping trip for the entire month. It really worked out pretty well last month. Then maybe we'll hit the library and go look for some good mindless summertime reading. My favorite kind.

Thoughts on life

Today was my last day of school. I have graduation tomorrow, but I'm all done in the classroom. It's such a strange thing.... I really look forward to summer break, but there is this melancholy feeling on the last day of school. These kids get to be such a huge part of my life for almost a year, and then one day, all of a sudden, we're done and they have to move on. I get really stressed out during the school year trying to juggle my family life with my work life, but I really do love my job. I can't imagine not doing it. So on the last day of school I get a little freaked out at the thought of not having my schedule and my routine and not doing all the little things I'm used to doing every day. But by Monday? Pffffttt.... I'll be like... school? Don't talk to me about school for another 10 weeks. I think one thing that makes the end of the school year more melancholy for me is having kids in the daycare. The high school students and teachers get so attached to the kids, and it's really hard to say good-bye. All these kids that Josh has been in the daycare with for 4 years, including his best friend, are moving on to elementary school, so that's hard for me too. I really didn't want this year to go by very fast, because I knew that Lexi would be a year old when it was over, and here we are. :( It makes me so sad. I look at the pictures that the daycare puts together for us and it just makes me tear up to look at the sweet little baby she was at the beginning of the year and how big she is now. It goes so fast. Her daycare teacher was trying not to cry thinking about how much she's going to grow up this summer, and so was I. It's just crazy to look back at the pictures of them trick-or-treating around the school and playing in the snow, and how far away summer seemed then.

We had the end-of-year assembly and yearbook signing today. Watching the assembly, and watching the kids, I thought about how important and yet unimportant high school is at the same time. I hope the kids have a great time and build great memories and use the time to do great things... and yet know that their whole lives are ahead of them and it only gets better. Anyway....

We went up to the cabin the other night to check things out because we were bored. It was too dark to see most of the pics I took, so I'll have to get some this weekend. The weeds are crazy high. We're going to kill all the dandelions, but I'm pretty sure there will be nothing left once we do. They've taken over.

As you can see, the weeds are as tall as Josh in some spots.



Sean painted Lexi's room last weekend, and I like how it turned out.


Well, this weekend we have lots of yard work to do. We're having Lexi's birthday this weekend too. Should be fun.

Memorial Day

Thank goodness for the weekend. Let's see if I can think of what's happened the last week or so.

We've been busy. Yup, that about sums it up.

So Sean painted Lexi's room this weekend. It's a light green, and I like it. I would post a picture, but my camara has no batteries. Gotta buy some. Then I'll put up some pics.

We went out to Bountiful today and put flowers on dad's grave. It was nice to go out and see mom and Katie.

We took the kids to dinner and it was like $60 and you know how it's not all that enjoyable juggling the 2 little folks and the place we went was like 90 decibals of clattering plates and loud children... I was like... seriously... for $60 we could have gone to Wendover and got a room *and dinner. And if I played my cards right (ha ha I'm so funny!) I could have probably got breakfast comp'd. Just think... right now I could be sitting in the casino lounge with a giant margarita listening to whatever mediocre lounge band is singing and watching drunk people dance. Hmph.

So update on the eye... It went totally scary colors. And people kept saying, "Oh, wait, is something wrong with your eye? I thought it was just your makeup at first." OK, I totally want to know on what planet I wear plum, rust, and lime green makeup? At the same time? I hardly wear makeup at all, let alone those colors all together. So people probably went around thinking I was some sort of fashion tragedy all week. Which, I sort of am, so whatever.

So here's a sad story for you. One of my students from last year asked me if I'm pregnant again. Yep. I was waiting for that. I think it was partly to do with I was carrying this big load of binders and trying to balance them, so I was standing kinda funny, and what I was wearing, and then the fact that I still have 5 baby pounds to lose, all in my stomach, and then I have about an additional 10 on top of that to lose. Blarg. I did the elliptical 3 times this week, but some days I'm just too busy. I have this way cool friend who is totally in shape, with really great muscles, and she loves to run and swim and bike and hike. She isn't married and has no kids. So we'll have these conversations where I'm all... I really need to exercise, and she says... just do it after school. Or before school. You just need to decide you're going to do it. Yes... but... no. Some days it really is impossible to fit in, and it's not an excuse. I feel better and eat better when I've exercised, especially when I do it right after work. I get this burst of energy and it keeps me from eating a ton of junk in the afternoon/evening.

Well, that's it for now. I'll be back with a few pics and whatnot before too long.

Mother's Day

Mother's Day was really nice this year. I'm not going to lie... it's not my favorite holiday. It ranks pretty far down on my list, actually. It just makes me feel guilty for every shortcoming I have as a mom. You get hit from all directions with these images and ideas of how mom is so perfect, and I'm not, so then I just feel bad for not living up to the ideal that people are putting out there. Anyway... Mom and Katie came over for dinner, and brought red potatoes and Katie's homemade rolls. Sean made chicken cordon bleu and shrimp cocktail and picked up a chocolate cheesecake from Cheesecake Factory. So the food was fabulous. I got some homemade gifts and cards from the kids and flowers for the yard from Sean, and my mom and Katie brought me some gifts as well. It was all very nice.


My poor baby needs a haircut, but I don't even know where to begin. She has such crazy hair.

Survivor commentary: Yuck. That is all I have to say. Yuck to Parvati, yuck to Amanda, yuck to Jeff's stupid inane questions at the reunion show. Yuck to Joel the supreme jerk, yuck to Jonathon and Yau Man getting no screen time even though their awesomeness factors are off the charts, yuck to Erik's stupid "I didn't win because I'm too good a person" speech.

I got my portfolio finished and signed off, so I'm done with that whole project. The program I'm in charge of is tomorrow, so that will be all finished. It's pretty much down to the end, and all I have left to do is grades. Yay! So excited. I want to take a vacation right when school gets out, but to where? That is the question.

So, I'm such an idiot. Two nights ago I was exhausted and I turned out the bathroom light, turned to walk out of the bathroom and get in bed... and I hit into the wall. Hard. I gave myself a big bump on my eyebrow and a bit of a black eye. Luckily the bruising is in the crease area of the eyelid, so it's not too noticeable. I just look like I put on some purple eyeshadow like a 5 year old playing in mom's makeup probably. Or a hooker. My family hasn't even said anything, but my students asked me about it today. I told them that the story was too stupid to tell, so they needed to help me make up a good one. So they came up with something about a bank robbery, I was pistol whipped in the eye, but I got the robber with my master karate moves. Then they paused to imagine me doing karate moves and laughed at me. Nice.

Messy Marvins

So our toys were exploding out of control all over the house. Josh would carry stuff upstairs and down, and then when the older girls would pick up they would just throw toys in whatever bins and containers were handy. So last Sunday Sean and I finally went through everything and organized it all. So far we've gone 3 days with it all still cleaned up. Woohoo! Here's how it looked when we pulled it all out and were sorting it. Notice who is right in the middle of it all.




Josh went on his field trip today to Tasty's donuts. He was very excited. This year they were supposed to get to "help" make the donuts, so we'll see how that went. Hopefully they didn't get rained on, because they walked over.

I stayed home with Lexi today because she's sick. I swear, we can't keep everyone healthy and well around here for more than a day. It's not even that the bugs pass through the whole family... it's different bugs. One person gets something, then a week later someone else has it... no one else gets it, but then a week later someone different has something else entirely. So frustrating. But it's been nice being home. Brittney is off-track, so she's hanging out with me, and she's fun to hang out with.



So Sean and I were talking about our intense and burning hatred for grocery shopping. Not just the actual shopping, because that's bad enough, but the planning meals and list-making that you have to do first. It just seems to drag on forever, and I've stopped shopping the ads and price-matching because I just couldn't stand to take the time. So we decided that we are going to try shopping for an entire month at a time. I made a menu for a month, made a big list, and went to Sam's Club and Smith's. I'm not sure I bought enough stuff... we may run out, but that's OK. It's an experiment, and we'll adjust for the next time around. If it works, it will save time and probably money. We'll still have to run in for things like produce and milk every week, but that's super easy compared to buying *everyhing. We'll see.

It really is time for spring to come to Utah once and for all. Josh went out to play this morning, then came back in and put on a knit hat, red mittens, and a purple scarf. Lovely fashion sense that one has. And just for the record, he took the red hat off because he couldn't put his helmet on with it, and he does wear a helmet when he rides that thing.




You'll notice in one of the pictures that there is clearly a newspaper in the driveway. I'd like to enter that into evidence as Exhibit A. When I went back out to get it, no paper to be seen. My neighbor's little 3ish yo boy steals it. Grrrrr.... And she can't figure out that a)it's not hers so b)she should bring it back and figure out whose it is. He does this regularly between my house and another neighbor's, along with taking toys out of our garage, leaving things in our yard, taking stuff out of our mailboxes, and starting some car that was at her house that someone left the keys in.

Josh had fun at his birthday party today. It was for Josh's best friend at daycare. They've been there together for 4 years now... since they were both just Lexi's age. And the mom is my good friend too. It was an Army themed party, and some of the kids got their faces painted with camo. I asked Josh why he didn't, and he was like... Because then I'd have to wash my face later. That's my boy. Always thinking ahead. Heaven forbid he has to wash his face more than absolutely necessary, right?

We took a nice drive afterward, went up past the cabin, up to the lake, up past some of our favorite camping spots, got all excited for a camping trip.

I'm trying to decide what I want for Mother's Day. Narrowing down the possibilities. I wanted this really great tube they have at Sam's Club for pulling behind the boat, but Sean suggested a porch swing for the backyard. The tube would be fun, but I'll probably be doing a lot more sitting on my fat butt this summer than flying across a lake on a tube, so... I want to go get the boat and go out on it because it reminds me of my dad, but yet I don't want to because it reminds me of my dad. Weird. One thing I want is a new Nalgene water bottle because mine is one of the ones with the chemical in it that is supposed to possibly be going to kill me or maim me in some way... it's really cute, pink with a hibiscus on it. Dang. Have you noticed how everything is so dangerous? Like you just can't do *anything or eat anything without it being dangerous, toxic, fattening, unhealthy, whatever. It's crazy, people!

Survior commentary (Heather don't read this until you've watched it!)
OK, so first, NOOOOOOOO!!!! Not my lovely TV boyfriend James! Luckily he'll be on the jury so that we can still look at him every week, because dang. He brings the hot. But, that Tribal Council was, like, awesome. One of my top 5 ev.er. Made me not dislike Amanda quite so much. I think I'm now rooting for Cirie for the win. She's the only one that's really been playing this game, except for Parvati, who is also playing an awesome game, but I hate her with the fire of a thousand burning suns so I can't root for her.