This week it's been a year since my dad passed away. I miss him. He was an awesome dad and an awesome grandpa. Everything was about his kids and grandkids. I wish my kids had been able to have him in their lives longer. And me too.






Last Sunday we took the little kids fishing at the pond by the house. Most of the time I get Josh out of the house looking semi-respectable, and usually he goes to daycare looking OK-- well, except for the flood pants-- but check out this picture of Josh at the park.


Check out the gloves. I don't even know what's up with that, and I just didn't care to fight him on it. I guess he's doing some sort of ninja curse on the fish, I don't know.


Lexi is wearing capri pants with boots. She had chosen her own outfit that morning, and Sean let her wear it. It was a pair of black leggings with candy canes on them and a pink shirt. It was hideous. I had to change her before taking her in public, but her pants were all in the wash, so it was capris and boots and still pretty hideous. Remember how you used to look at pictures of yourself as a kid and say, "Moooooommmmm, how could you dress me in that? I mean, red corduroy pants? Reallllyyyy mother. So gross." Yah, well, now I know why I was dressed that way. Either I insisted, or it was laundry day.

Third term is all over but the begging!! It's a teacher prep day tomorrow, but I'm sure I'll still get a few last minute students and parents wanting to plead their case and turn stuff in. Last week I actually did have a student tell me that the dog ate her homework. She has a new puppy, so it probably did. The last week of the term is the worst. I spent at least 8 hours at home grading research papers last week, which I normally try not to do. I'm just so glad to be done with it all. Fourth term will fly by, and then it's summer! Yay! Got lots of plans for summer.

March Party

My friend and I were talking about how glad we are that spring is around the corner and she said, "I feel like I should have a party to celebrate that it's March and I made it through January and February." Amen! The two worst months of the year, behind us. So I came home later that day and proclaimed it time for a March party. I came up with some different ideas and different days to do it, but then never really decided, so it's been March party all week.

Tuesday we had a picnic at the park and flew kites. Well, the little guys did. The big guys were too cool so they stayed home.





We've been grilling and just generally being happy that spring is around the corner. My family is coming over for the March Party Finale tomorrow night. Not even sure what that will entail... we'll see. I'm thinking cupcakes, but that's all I've thought of.

This kid has the craziest hair. I had to get pics because it was cracking me up.




I wrote about all the changes up at WSU since I went there.... Courtney was up there for the state debate tournament tonight and came home with a parking ticket. Nice to know that some things never change....

Look how cute my sister Heather's new baby is! I just want to squeeze her. She looks so cuddly.

Nostalgia

Today was a long day. I went to work and sat through two hours of meetings this morning, which always makes the day feel longer for some reason, and then rode the school bus up to WSU with a bunch of awesomely cute high school kids for an English competition. It was a lot of fun. I got to judge the Reader's Theater, and there were some really great dramatic readings. Being back on the university campus always makes me want to go back to school, but this time was different. The last time I went up I was taking a test in the Social Sciences Building, and it made me want to take some classes and be a student again at this point in my life. But our competition today was in the student union building, and it just made me want to go back to *that time of my life and be a student again. I hope my kids will enjoy every minute of it and really jump into the whole college life with both feet, because there's so much fun to be had. They have completely remodeled the student union building, and it's beautiful, but it's a weird feeling when that happens. It's like... all my memories are gone! The Funky Carpet Room where we used to eat Subway for lunch all the time... Gone. The downstairs bathroom with the ratty old couch and the linoleum floor with full-length mirror where Nicky used to "practice" clogging just to be weird... Gone. The bookstore no longer downstairs, the vending machine no longer by the Wildcat Theater. It's just so weird to think back on that time of my life and how close it seems, yet how far back it really is. I can't even imagine going back to BYU at this point... I probably wouldn't recognize half of it.

Snow and Shopping

The snow sure looks pretty. As long as I'm not the one shoveling it. :) Sean was on his way up the canyon on Saturday, and there was a big truck pulling a snowmobile trailer that got high-centered over a snow drift. They were trying to dig it out when Sean came along, so he stopped to pull the guy out. He said, "I came along with my big, blue piece of [bleep] and they probably didn't know if I could do it, but I popped the guy right out." I'm just glad he can keep the big blue piece of crap running, because it does the job and we don't have to buy anything newer for a little while longer.


We've had some beautiful weather lately, especially if you can up high enough to get out of the smog soup.

I'm pretty much oblivious most of the time, just off in my own little world, but Sean notices things. So we were in Wendover one time, and he spotted one of the TV news anchors there having dinner. He was at the buffet getting food and their paths crossed, so he talked to her.

"What did you say?" I asked.

"You look much taller in person."

I think I laughed for like five minutes. It just struck me so funny, I don't know why. So today when we were shopping at Smith's he spotted the Channel 4 meteorologist doing her shopping. I asked him, "Did you tell her she looked taller in person?" She looked really pretty though. That would be the sucky thing about being on TV. You wouldn't dare to go to Smith's in your sweatpants and ponytail because people recognize you, and you are supposed to look glamorous, right? We were at Wal-Mart today and man, I decided I need to hang out there more often. It makes me feel much better about myself. Grown adults out and about in grubby pajama pants, slippers, all kinds of crazy clothing choices and hairstyles... Some guy about 40 or so with weirdly dyed skunk hair... like his daughter is going through cosmetology school and talked him into something unfortunate. Hey, I may be a frump, but at least I wore clean jeans and a clean sweatshirt (OK maybe some baby boogers on it) and combed my hair.

Winter, Work, Weirdness

This is absolutely my least favorite time of year. Christmas is over and so is the excitement of winter. It's frikkin cold, everywhere you go it's just brown iced-over snow and slush, the parking lot at work is a giant mess. The only way I get through it is to make summer plans. Sean and I go for drives through the canyons, past the lakes and streams, and talk about all the things we're going to do as soon as it's warm enough. I'm in the process of planning a Lake Powell trip, and I'm so excited. We'll see if we actually make it happen. Fully two-thirds of the plans we make never actually happen, but it sure is fun thinking about it. I think a lot of other Utahns are like us... had enough of winter. We went to Sam's Club on Saturday after a big snow storm had just ended, and there were people out in mini-skirts and shorts. We just all pretend like we don't notice the snow and cold. Denial. It works. A week or two ago, Sean and I were up in the Huntsville/Eden area looking for a place to get ice cream. Sean was in shorts. It was 16 degrees. Good times.

I'm so weird. I don't know what's wrong with me. I read this biography about Kurt Cobain a while back that made me really depressed... I don't know why. Somewhere along the way in reading it I made this connection with him somehow, or maybe it was with Courtney Love. Which is just bizzaro. I can't think of very many people that I am more unlike. Maybe Marilyn Manson. And Charles Manson. I think the connection... well, it's complicated, but I know what the connection is about but it's boring to explain. Anyway, I read that biography, so I used it the other day when talking to my students about the research papers they are doing. And now I've been doing a little more research so I can talk to them about sources and paraphrasing and stuff like that, and I'm just using him as my topic because it's still fresh in my mind. And here I am reading Courntey Love's myspace (she is like this awesomely adorable crazypants wacko btw) and getting all teary all over again about these nutmuffins that I've never met.

It's been such a nice weekend. Josh and Lexi had a Valentine's party in the daycare. I think the high schoolers that work there have at least as much fun as the kids. Brittney had a dance at school that sounded about as fun as you remember junior high dances being. Courtney's boyfriend made her dinner.

Sean and I had plans to go see John Michael Montgomery in Wendover for Valentine's Day, but the tickets were sold out by the time we decided to do it. We just ended up going out for dinner. We hit the President's Day sales today and found a good deal on a bed for Josh and some couches. Sweet.

I so don't want to go back to work tomorrow. I need just one more day. I've got grades due tomorrow and I'm not even ready, we have the accreditation team visiting our school this week, which is stressful, early morning and after school meetings, and then Parent-Teacher Conference. A co-worker and I were laughing about how we were both running around like crazy the other day... we kept seeing each other in the halls... and she said, "I just need one day without interruptions. One day at school, and one day at home. Then I would be organized and would feel like I was on top of things." So true, so true. One day to plan lessons and figure out a better way to deal with Macbeth with no interruptions or meetings. And at home one day to just clean and organize without kids following me messing it all up. I think I need like half a day every month just to deep clean and organize. Then I think I could feel like I was on top of things to some reasonable extent.

Well, off to herd Josh back to bed for the 9th time. Ah the fun of bedtime after a long weekend.

Anyone want to join me?

I'll bring the cold drinks and the disco ball...