Miss H and the Long Weekend

I got a new short hair cut Thursday, so I decided to celebrate by having a long weekend.

Since my plans for world domination haven't progressed to the point where I can declare a national holiday to celebrate my personal style decisions, its a good thing Labor Day was already on the calendar. School has been in session for about a week and a half now, so when the bell rang on Friday, the hallways looked more than a little like this...

Long weekends usually mean trips to the big cities to visit family, but this weekend I decided to stay home and get some much needed rest. Not that it isn't restful to wake up at 7 a.m. with these little guys three inches from my face...
...but my return to the 5 a.m. exercise scene left me in need of some serious down time.

Since I wouldn't be visiting any of my family members and/or their laundry rooms, my weekend kicked off with a trip to my favorite laundromat. For more information about why I enjoy this particular laundromat, click here.
Normally I use my laundry time to grade papers or ogle rodeo cowboys but this weekend I had other things on my mind. Just previous to this laundry stop, I had a meeting with my stake president (a former rodeo cowboy himself). I thought the meeting was going to be about my lack of somberness while teaching Sunday school, but it turned out to be about making my busy life even busier, but in a good way. So I spent laundry time preparing for my new calling (a calling that I'm sure will provide plenty of blogging material, so stay tuned). One of my favorite weekend activities is grocery shopping. I know that usually isn't considered an "exciting" activity, but for me going to Walmart is like walking the red carpet at a Hollywood event. I always end up seeing at least a few of my students who all react in the same way...

1st- Shock. "Miss H? You're at Walmart?" They say it with the same inflection someone might use when they notice a lion has escaped from the zoo. (I remember how weird it was for me to see my teachers at the store when I was younger. It just seemed wrong to see them in any context that wasn't school)

2nd- Excitement. "Mom! Look! It's Miss H!" This is the part where my self esteem shoots up because I spend the next five minutes shaking hands with parents and listening to the my kidlet tell his or her younger siblings about how "cool" English is.

3rd- Pride in having thier teacher recognize them and interact with them. "See mom, I told you she likes to be called Mrs. Diesel!" I love listening to the comments they make as I'm walking away and they think I don't hear them. As long as I live in a small town with a Walmart I will never need Prozac.

My weekend schedule also always includes prep time for my Sunday school lesson. This week's lesson includes the chapters about Helaman's stripling warriors.
Because of the temple dedication, we didn't have meetings last Sunday. That means we have to cover two lessons this week to get back on track. To help the class cover all the information (and to help me stay on task) I made yet another Delightful Learning Experience that includes a section on how to be "Latter-day Warriors/Warrior Princesses". And since I made it through a whole interview with the stake president without once being chastised for my teaching style, I think our Sunday school class is going to have a pretty darn good time tomorrow.
One of my other much-looked-forward-to weekend activities is cooking. Real, honest to goodness, time consuming, sink full of dishes producing cooking is one of the few activities that allows me to turn off the blog narration that is usually bouncing around in my brain...and replaces it with a perky Rachel Ray-esque food network narration. Should I be concerned with the amount of dialogue that goes on in my head? Don't worry about answering that. I'll just ask my self about it later.
Tonight a made a pot of my favorite soup...a knock-off recipe of a spicy potato, sausage, and kale soup that I always order when I go to a certain restaurant that's name prominently features the word "Olive". I refuse to give the full name of the restaurant without being paid for my advertising services. A whole, like, ten people read this blog, so the folks at "*** Olive ******" should really take advantage of this advertising opportunity. Weekends are also nice because I (usually) have time to enjoy my food instead of scarfing it down on my way to a meeting or activity.
A less fun Miss H weekend activity is grading papers. With somewhere around 160 students this semester and only one preparation period every other day, I am going to be doing a lot of grading at home...and at FHE...and at institute...and in my car at stop lights.
So the smart thing to do this weekend would have been grade until I ran out of papers or my red pen ran out of ink. Too bad I'm not smart. I guess I could always do a little bit of grading after I read a few chapters...

Or not.

I guess its a good thing this is a three day weekend. Maybe I'll get something productive done Monday...but I wouldn't bet on it.

Tagged

List 3 joys, 3 fears, 3 goals, 3 current obsessions/collections, 3 random surprising facts about yourself.

Supermom/Super blogger Nat tagged me which, in my world of chalkboards and wall mounted pencil sharpeners, is as good as giving a homework assignment. So, since I am such a big proponent of turning in homework...

THREE JOYS

The Twin Falls Temple! Enough said, right?
My Nephews and Nieces. Being an aunt is great. I get all the perks of having small children love and adore me, without all of the parental responsibilities and stresses.

For more of my thoughts on the perks of aunthood, check out this post.

Preparation Time! When I took on the task of yearbook advisor this year, I also gave up my A-day prep time, which means I only get half as much time to plan lessons, run copies, grade papers, hang flying monkeys from the ceiling, and write dorky new songs for my kidlets to sing. The loss of my A-day prep time has made my B-day prep time even more valuable and joy-inducing.

THREE FEARS
The Sky is Falling! This is a new fear that I developed today when one of the ceiling tiles in my room fell down and snapped in two during 4-A today. (Note to Local Readers: The school bond election being held on Thursday doesn't include any money to give me a non-lethal ceiling, so don't let this post influence any decision you may be making regarding your vote. Thank you.)

Spiders. About two years ago, a creature I dubbed "Frankenspider" attempted to move into my bathroom. Having already made a personal choice not to kill anything that might make a noise as I killed it (Frankenspider would have "crunched" or cussed at me) I turned him lose down the street...where he promptly ate the neighbors dog and kidnapped a small child. I still have nightmares about this arachnid.

Driving in Weather. Notice I didn't say "bad" weather. I am scared of driving in any weather. Snow and ice terrify me, sure, but so do rain, wind,...basically anything on either side of the "partly sunny" graphic on the weather scale. Seriously. I have been known to complain about driving weather being "too sunny" and will cancel a car trip if there is a chance of high humidity.

THREE GOALS

My three goals are part of a three-step goal:

Keep a plant alive. Which would then qualify me to...

Keep a dog alive. Which would mean I was ready to...

Keep a husband alive. (Love ya, Vin.)

THREE OBSESSIONS AND/OR COLLECTIONS

Blogging. The other night, Elizabeth said, "Mindy is always blogging in her head," which of course gave me a great idea for a blog post about how I am constantly planning and writing blog posts . And the vicious cycle continues...

Books. I am not a library type of gal. If I like a book, I have to own at least one copy. The result of that obsession/collection is that most of the pieces of furniture in my apartment are either real book cases, or make-shift book cases.

Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip. I have a few TV shows that I take turns fixating on. This week it is Studio 60. I highly recommend checking out the DVD's.

THREE RANDOM SURPRISING THINGS

I am terrified of big people. Put me in a room full of teens and preteens and I will put on silly clothes, talk with strange accents, dance, sing, and just generally act like an idiot. AND ENJOY IT. But put me in a room with a handful of grownups and putting a coherent sentence together becomes near impossible and I blush worse than a nun in an NFL locker room.

I love country music. Especially the songs with slightly inappropriate lyrics. I didn't think that was surprising until Lacie nearly dropped dead from shock as I sang along with the radio on the way home from Twin on Saturday.

I am aging backwards. The older I get, the less mature I become. When I started teaching 4 years ago, I wore business casual clothes, drove my new car to school, and carried an expensive leather satchel. Now I wear jean skirts with "Dumbledore's Army" and "Hooked on fonix done good four mee" t-shirts and ride my bike to school while wearing my $10 Iron Man backpack.

Temple Dedication Weekend

This blog has to start with a recap on the events of Saturday, October 2nd, 2004. I was sitting in the basement of my sister's house listening to conference (and grading papers) when President Gordon B. Hinckley announced that a temple would be built in Twin Falls. I had only lived in my cute little cow town(just down the road from Twin) for 3 months, but I think I was was almost as excited as the magic valley natives. Of course, it takes along time and a lot of work to get from the announcement of a temple to the actual having of a temple but this weekend, all of the waiting and working paid off.

My temple weekend began with the Youth Cultural Celebration...a huge music and dance spectacular that the youth from all 14 stakes in the valley have been working on their numbers every mutual night since Christmas.
Our branch ended up with a handfull of tickets, so Saturday afternoon a bunch of us piled into my car and headed up to the fair grounds. Melissa drew the short straw and had to sit up front with me for the first leg of the trip. Amber and Elizabeth hung out in the back.

We stopped by the temple to pick up Lacie, who promptly took over the duties of co-pilot.
Here we are on the highway about a mile or so from the fair grounds in a TRAFFIC JAM. I had to take a photo since TRAFFIC JAMS aren't common occurrences in this part of the world. I thought my taking-photos-while-driving talent would impress my passengers, but it turned out they were more frightened than impressed. That meant Lacie chose to add blog photographer to her list of co-pilot duties. It was either that, or use her skills as a highly trained nurse to patch us all up after my attempts to drive and take photos at the same time eventually ended in tragedy...as we all assumed they would. When we finally got to the fair grounds, we found other members of our branch waiting for us. Melissa's seat was right by Brother and Sister Hobson on the second row. Yes, I said the second row. Those were pretty darn good seats, but not quite as good as...


...the front row seats Amber and I got. Yep, FRONT ROW. I think we may have been closer to the action than the visiting general authorities. Of course, good seats like that always come with a price. I am assuming Amber and I are going to find ourselves scheduled to speak in Sacrament meetings about once a month for the next two years.

Oh, and speaking of visiting general authorities...from left to right...Elder Costa of the Presidency of the 70 and his wife, Sister Neilson and Elder Neilson (our area authority, who is right behind the podium), then President Eyring and his lovely wife, Elder Cook of the 12 and his just-as-lovely wife, a random photographer, the PRESIDENT THOMAS S. MONSON, shielding his eyes from the sun and looking out at the hundreds of assembled area youth. It was an impressive sight.
The theme of the cultural celebration was "Living Waters" and the opening ceremony used blue flags, blue bandannas, and blue dancers to make you feel like you were watching the Snake River dance right there in the middle of the rodeo arena.

The organizers, the youth leaders, and the kids put in an awful lot of work to make this night amazing and they really exceeded everyone's expectations.


The performances were inspired by different aspects of the history of the Magic Valley. My favorite was the Paul Stake's hip hop inspired dance that they performed to a rap about potatoes. The dancing potato in the background was a real show-stealer.

We hated for the show to end...partly because it was so good but mostly because it meant trying to fight our way out of the field where everyone had parked before we could even start the process of driving home. But I managed to remain cheerful despite the cow pasture gridlock. The only time I cussed was when I was quoting what my dad would say if he had been there.
We took a lot of back farm roads on the way home which was fun...except for the 25 or so near death experiences that resulted from unmarked death curves, suicidal raccoons, and a driver who can't see in the dark. In my defense, I did mention that last part to my passengers before we left the nicely lit freeway and none of them tried to leave the car. of course, the doors were locked and I didn't slow down...but if they were really that worried that wouldn't have stopped them, right?
But we did manage to get home safely, just in time for me to fall into bed so I could get up for the dedication this morning. Here are Zealanda and I flashing our white tickets.

There was already a line when we got to the temple, but we only had to wait in it for a little while before our white tickets were noticed and we were whisked past the line, into the temple, and up to the Celestial Room.

The dedicatory session was such an amazing experience. Both President and Sister Gerrat spoke, followed by Elder Costa, Elder Cook, and President Monson. Zealanda and I were in the second row...less than ten feet away from the prophet the entire time! Elder Eyring gave the dedicatory prayer, and I got to use a handkerchief that belonged to my Grandmother (a magic valley native) for the shout at the end.

Afterwords, we met up with some of the leaders from our branch. Finding them on the temple grounds felt wonderful...like what I imagine meeting long lost friends will be like on the other side of the veil. Talk about a joyful reunion! Meeting up with the Barkers, Hobsons, and Woodhouses really helped put the whole experience into a proper context for me. I loved being in the Celestial Room and being there with the Prophet was a once in a lifetime spiritual feast, but something wasn't quite right. I spent quite a bit of time wishing my family and the rest of my wonderful branch could have been there with me.

Which means the real gift I received today was a renewed and strengthened testimony of Doctrine and Covenants 18:10-16. The fullness of joy does come from returning to Heavenly Father's presence as part of a group of people you love. Who would have thought that the old saying"the more the merrier" is an eternal truth?

The Return of Miss H

School has officially started. You can tell because my desk is starting to acquire its protective layer of clutter. Domesticated desks have lost this defensive adaptation over time as they came to be used in less dangerous environments. Desks out in the wilds of public education, however, still accumulate piles of stuff in an attempt to keep the damage to a minimum when stressed out teachers begin beating their heads against any hard, flat surface they can find. Chalkboards will work in a pinch, but a desk is better because, besides being stressed out, the teacher is also usually too tired to stand. Hence, the desk has become the optimal head beating surface. But school has only been in session for three days, so I am no where near the head beating stage yet. My desk, being quite old and wise and having seen many teachers in its long years of service, is just preparing for the inevitable.


I am actually still pretty excited about the new year, although the grueling schedule, stress of the new year, and my stupid goal to ride my bike to school and back has left me feeling a little wilted...kind of like some of my classroom decorations.

Wilting decorations not withstanding, it has been a pretty darn good first few days. Of course, it's hard to imagine a week that starts out with an iron man T-shirt and a new green pointing noodle turning out anything other than good.
See, here I am on the second day of school, ready to shape the minds and hearts of the future leaders of our government, industries, and society.
Friday, however, was less about shaping minds and more about pretending to electrocute myself when I messed with the cords that connect my computer to the LCD screen. You should have seen those little seventh graders jump when I hollered. Good fun.
The one thing I don't really look forward to at the start of a new year is re immersing myself in the paper correcting ritual that immediately consumes every waking moment of my school year life. I managed to get noun reviews graded, 159 favorite words commented on, and 158 written instruction practices scored at school. That left only 145 one page friendly letters to read, score, and comment on this weekend. I was all ready to buckle down and get some high quality grading done when... My phone rang. It was the devil asking me if I wanted to sell my soul for the chance to become Obama's VP.

Just kidding. It was Elizabeth asking me if I wanted to use some of my limited correction time to go and watch Tony Stark weld metal while wearing a tank top. Being the dedicated educator that I am, I told her "Thanks, but no thanks," and went back to work grading papers. Ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha!!! See the papers there on the floor by my feet? Sorry kids, but Miss H needed some quality time with Mr. Stark and that cute little robot that keeps dowsing him with the fire extinguisher (Seriously, how funny is that robot? They should give it its own movie).
I figured I deserved one more late night out on the town since the rest of my nights for the next 9 months are going to look a lot like this...
The strange thing is ... I'm kind of looking forward to it.