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.

Back to School

For the past two weeks, I have been seeing the tell-tale signs of summer's end all over town. Sure it still feels like summer, but when you see the freshly painted crosswalks you know the buzz of the early morning alarm can't be far behind.

I really started getting excited when I saw that Kings had their school supplies out (pre-bagged neatly by school and teacher, how cool is that?). I have fond memories of school supply shopping with my mom, grandma, and siblings at our local (and now defunct) Kings. Picking out the pencil box was my favorite part. But can I pause in the midst of these touching recollections to point out that the back to school signs are in the shape of coffins? Does anyone else think that sends a negative message to the kids?


Here's another sign that the school year is about to start...the early morning masochist walking society has taken to the streets once more. Aren't Lacie and I cute?


You know it was very early in the morning because Liz not only posed for this photo, but she also didn't try to destroy my camera or kill me after I took it. She must have been very, very tired to have had such a HUGE lapse in judgment (By the way, Liz, I'm gonna save this one and have it put on matching t-shirts for you and your future stud muffin to wear on your honeymoon).


The kidlet's lazy days' demise is even more obvious in my classroom. The content and language objectives I wrote on the board today read like summer vacation's obituary.

And nothing spells out "Back to School" more clearly than a fully decked out bulletin board. Don't panic if you suddenly start to smell the scents of pencil shavings and Elmer's glue as you look at this picture. You're not having a stroke. It's just the effect a photo of a properly decorated bulletin board has on people. Keep scrolling down and you'll be fine.

Even my wigs, witches hat, and Mo-bats are out and ready for the first bell to ring. My sister Jenny made me this great sign for my room that plays off my "wicked witch of the west" persona that says "Don't make me get the flying monkeys!" so of course, I had to hook myself up with some(Sweetums is on the right and his girlfriend Pookey is on the left).


Do you remember, back when you were a kid, organizing all your cool new school supplies in your awesome new backpack? How big of a nerd does it make me that I still do that? Wait, don't answer that. I had a good reason for doing it, really. You see, I am planning on riding my bike to school while the nice weather holds and I had to make sure my backpack was evenly balanced so as not to impair my already iffy equilibrium. That's a serious adult reason, right? RIGHT?!?!?

Another vital day-before-school-starts-activity for youngsters is going through your school clothes and picking out the perfect back to school outfit. As a teacher, I like to make sure that the students first impression of me really sets the tone for the school year. This ensemble, for example, makes it absolutely clear to the 12, 13, and 14-year-olds that...


...their teacher is a total dork.
Now, please excuse me while I go sharpen my pencils and repack my backpack for the umpteenth time. SCHOOL STARTS TOMORROW!!! WOOOO WHOOOOOO!!!!!

I've Got the Golden Ticket!

Sorry Michael Phelps.

You were my favorite person for, like, 14 hours this weekend and it was fun while it lasted.

Unfortunately for you, my stake president manged to come from behind to win the gold in the "Making Mindy Happy" competition.

What was that, Michael? You want to know how he pulled off the surprise win?

Well, he gave me my ticket to next Sunday's temple dedication.

My ticket inside the temple for the temple dedication.

My ticket inside the Celestial Room inside the temple for the temple dedication.

I'm just a little bit excited.

But don't be sad, Michael. We'll always have Beijing.

Rodeos and/or Rubies

I don't live all that far from my folks. I am just a mere 1 and 3/4 hour drive away from my childhood home. A home that I try to visit often, especially in the summer. My parents and youngest brother, on the other hand, find it harder to get away from work and church responsibilities, so they only make it to my little town for visits a few times a year. For the last three years, one of those visits has been to attend my county's fair and attend the rodeo. My mom calls the quick 24-hour trip her official "summer vacation".
My sister (whose family has only visited me here once, although her little boys still ask me why my town smells like cow poop) recently went to visit her fabulous husbands family in California. I mention their trip in order to point out a fun contrast between the locations of my sister's summer vacation and my mother's: Here is one of the trolleys my sister's family rode around on their trip to Disneyland (her three boys are in red)... ...and here is the courtesy trolley at our fair (yes, it is a tractor pulling benches with wheels). That really doesn't have anything to do with the rest of the post. I just wanted to point out the differences in lifestyle.
This post is really about the rodeo. My parents, youngest brother Greg, and I went Friday night which was also "Tough Enough to Wear Pink" night. Everyone got into the spirit of the theme...including the 4-H pigs.
Speaking of 4-H, I ran into my friend Melissa who had spent most of the week helping with her sibling's 4-H steers. Melissa is an Ag-Business Major and a genius at all things farm and music related.

We also saw my friend Danielle, our county rodeo queen. She was kind enough to take some time out of her busy pre-rodeo schedule to take another photo with Greg.

I had never been to a rodeo before I moved to my cute little cow town. I went with my brother and his wife's family the first year I moved here and fell in love the whole rodeo experience...especially the Wranger part of that experience. My parents claim that they always WANTED to take my siblings to a rodeo, but couldn't because of my older sister's strong objections to a sport she considers to be near-criminal animal cruelty. Which brings us to yet another contrast...or shall we say "inconsistency". Please remember that my sister, let's call her "Jenny" (because that's her name) objects to rodeos on the basis that they are built on the principal of people having fun watching lesser creatures suffer. Got that? Ok. Now meet my sister's current youngest child. Let's call her Ruby. Cute, isn't she? And sort of fuzzy. And makes strange little noises instead of talking. She has to be fed and cleaned. Does any of this sound familiar? Especially to any of you former 4-H-er's? Well Ruby is also scared of things...many things...most things...things as unscary as cheese can send her into fits of terror. Now, I realize that her mother can't protect Ruby from every scary thing in life (like going through the car wash as in the photo below), but please notice that before comforting the panic-stricken toddler Jenny reached for her camera to capture the moment for her blog. A blog that people read for entertainment. Do you see where I'm going with this?
So Jenny has problems with this (the tied-up cow part, not that cowboy in blue jeans part. Jenny is as pro-boys-in-blue-jeans as any other red blooded American woman, she just prefers it when the person wearing those blue jeans is is eating tofu burgers or vegetarian lasagna) ...


...but she doesn't have a problem with this...putting her 18 month old on a Disney ride that is even scarier than the car wash, then having an accomplice snap photos for a future blog post (A wonderful future blog post, by the way. Really Jenny, it was one of your top ten).

One more time, just as a review:

According to Jenny, THIS is bad...

...but THIS is fine. Hummmmm..... does it make me a super bad person if I admit that I enjoy both? If I had a slide show screen saver made up of photos of both rodeo guys and photos of Ruby screaming in terror I might never turn my computer off.
Maybe someday Jenny will rethink her anti-rodeo stance and bring her kids up to the fair and rodeo to hang out with the "barbarians" in the family. Of course, she would also have to rethink her policy of feeding her kids tofu corn dogs. Things like that can get a mother locked up for child cruelty around these parts.

Oh, and if any of you were wondering why Greg isn't in the family photo below, it was because he was busy. You see, Greg found the new love of his life last night at the fair. No! Not Danielle! She's taken and her cowboy boyfriend could totally take Greg (sure, Greg's 6'2'', but he's a lover, not a fighter) . Greg is now in a committed relationship with the Fair's famous Maple Bars. And dagnabit, if a love like that is wrong, Greg doesn't want to be right.