Signs of Summer AND a Fun New Game

Despite the snow clouds lingering on my mountain, and the freezing temperatures currently sucking the life out of my newly planted garden, I would like to announce that summer is only days away.
You would have to be blind (snow blind, perhaps?) to miss the signs of summer's approach.

Our styling new swim caps have arrived, and the pool is being prepped for our first early morning lap-a-pool-ooza.

Sweet branch buddies are appearing on my stoop unannounced to invite me on bike rides (The bike ride invitation was last weekend. This weekend they will be arriving unannounced via snowmobile) .

The snow cone place has opened. Oh, Peach-colada-berry. I think I've missed you most of all!

At school, the finals schedule is on the board.

The turn-in-baskets are as close to empty as they have been all year.

The giant pencils have made their appearance, and the Homeroom Security Testing Threat Level has been raised to red. Blood red.

And everyone and everything in the school, from the teachers, to the kidlets, to the pieces of tape on the back of my posters, have stopped functioning the way they are supposed to.

For example, one teacher that I know...lets call her "Lindy"... should have spent Saturday scoring papers, updating grades, and or cleaning her apartment. Instead, she spent three hours at a bridal shower, uploaded photos for a blog post, and went to see Iron Man 2. Oh, and she also spent a great deal of non-productive time coveting Yamammy and Zainab's hair. Covet, covet, covet.

Of course, all of that procrastination might have been in self defense. The alternative being thinking about the impending yearbook sorting and distribution stress-fest that is "the last two days of school".
Ahhhhhh!!!!!!! Yearbook Sorting and Distribution!!!!!!!!Ahhhhhhhh!!!!!!



Quick! Think about the hair! Covet the hair! Hurry!

Phew. That was close!

Now, lets continue procrastinating by playing a new game that I just invented called "Who is in in Line at Check Stand #6?"

The game is played like this... I go to Walmart to pick up the random odds and ends that I forgot to purchase during my Walmart run the previous day. You get to pretend to be the clerk and try to figure out who is buying these random items and for what purpose.

Don't feel bad if you can't figure it out. I go to Walmart, like, twelve times a week, so you will have plenty of opportunities to hone your skills.
So, if you were the clerk at check stand #6, who would you think is buying these items (extra sharp tent stakes, a shower curtain liner, raisin bran) and for what purpose?

A. A "Survivor-Man" wanna-be who is planning to attempt to survive a weekend in Massacre Rocks with nothing but a shower curtain liner tent, some cereal, and the clothes on her back.

B. A novice murderer who needs to dispose of a body and is somewhat confused about the term "serial killer".

C. A gardener with a black thumb who is planning on spending Saturday evening trying to rescue her newly planted garden from the late-May snowfall, and Sunday evening watching the finale of LOST while pretending to share a box of Dharma Crunch with Sayid and Sawyer.

D. An aspiring torturer preparing to do her homework from the Dick Cheney School of Interrogation who happens to have an affinity for dried fruit and a problem with irregularity.

or

E. (Insert your original guess here)

Feel free to hum the Jeopardy theme music while you answer.

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.