A Very, Very Long Answer to a Simple Question

This week at FHE Courtney, one of my former 8th graders who is now a member of our singles branch (do not even get me started on THAT) , asked me how I was. I told her that I was "tired and ready for a nap", to which she responded... "Tired? How can you be tired? Its summer vacation and you are a teacher! Why on earth are you tired?"

Well, my dearest, sweetest Courtney... I might be tired because the first two weeks of my summer vacation have looked something like this:

I worked in my classroom for a couple hours each day, lesson planning and trying to organize the files I spent the last 9 months scrambling.

I have been cleaning and organizing my apartment...an important task that the giant mutated dust bunnies and the new forms of life growing around my bathroom window tell me that I have been seriously neglecting since last August.

I drove back and forth to Utah TWICE.
I attended and cheered at a t-ball game, a coach-pitch game, and a stake softball game.

I "finished up" the yearbook stuff AGAIN. Turns out, there is no such thing as "finishing up" yearbook stuff. It just goes on and on and on and on and on and on and on and on and on and...

I said goodbye to my most baby-est brother as he entered the MTC.

I discovered the joy of eating the only cupcakes on earth that are worth $3 a pop.

And I have been walking with Elizabeth in the mornings to walk off those $3 cupcakes. But, since it is summer vacation, I no longer have to get up at 4:45 a.m. to exercise with Liz. In the summer, she lets me sleep in until 5:45 a.m. I LOVE summer vacation!!!

I have watched about seven of the ten edited "Band of Brothers" episodes that I DVR-ed off of the History Channel over Veteran's Day weekend.

I have also been doing some reading. During my five-day stay at my sister's house I read...Band of Brothers (twice) by Stephen E. Ambrose, The Invention of Hugo Cabret by Brian Selznick, Aunt Dimity: Vampire Hunter by Nancy Atherton, and four or five of the Princess Tales books by Gail Carson Levine.

I have been working hard to reach my goal of significantly increased temple attendance by taking advantage our our beautiful new temple as often as possible.

And planting and tending to my cute little gardens.

Oh, and I have spent several days chasing around my little niblets. Here is my nephew Jonah modeling a few of the items he purchased when I took the three oldest boys on a shopping spree at the dollar store. I don't think I am allowed to take the three oldest boys on shopping sprees to the dollar store any more.
And even though it is summer and school is out, I am still spending the bulk of my time in lesson planning. Between my Sunday school and institute classes, I have a lot of lesson prep that needs to be done each week.

For example, this week's lesson on the three degree's of glory required some posters that showed a few of "the world's" beliefs about life after death...

...and some easy to understand explanations about the degrees of glory, as explained in Doctrine and Covenants section 76. I was going to go with the whole "sun, moon, stars" thing, but after having my backside handed to me in my recent space knowledge competition with my 7-year-old nephew, I decided to take a different direction. Imagine the Celestial Kingdom as spending time in a beautiful temple where every night is prime rib night in the cafeteria. The Terrestrial Kingdom could then be compared to spending the afterlife in the Tabernacle. It is a nice looking building with great acoustics and occasional visits from general authorities...but sitting on those hard wooden benches for eternity? No thank you. That leaves us with the Telestial Kingdom as compared to a never ending Elders Quorum service project. There are worse ways to spend eternity, but come on. The Elders Quorum doesn't even serve refreshments!

And think of the time it takes to brainstorm, build, print, and fold a travel brochure for the lesson. Handouts like that don't just grow on trees!

So, in answer to your question: Yes, Virginia, there is a Santa Clause. He lives in... Wait.

That wasn't the question I was answering.

In fact, this stinkin' post has gone on for so long that I don't even remember what question I was supposed to be answering.

I guess I could scroll back up to the top of this post...but that would take so long and I'm pretty darn tired. I think I'll just take a nap.