Strange Critters

Two weeks ago, my buddy Karlenn (of Kar's Kith and Kin) kindly bestowed upon me an awesome blogging award. To officially accept this really fun and cool honor, I need to write a post that answers some questions that Karlenn posed. I have been wanting to do that since Kar posted the nomination, but have been to busy in the last week and a half to write anything, let alone compose answers that would do her questions justice. I should be able to post my replies to her queries one our stake Auxiliary training wraps up the middle of this week. But here is a little something to entertain you until then.


Part of my excess busyness this week was due to my required attendance at a district meeting, which necessitated getting a substitute teacher (Thanks again, Mrs. S!) and making sub plans.

My English classes are just starting our novel, Artemis Fowl, and don't really want to do anything except read about the adventures of this 12-year-old evil genius. Letting them read the novel the whole class period would have simplified my sun plans for those hours, but I didn't want them to make it though a whole 68 minute period in my class without writing something.

The kidlets have been working on identifying modiferes and using them to make their sentences more interesting, so I pulled some photos off of one of my favorite sites (I use their photos for all sorts of things in EVERY subject) and left instructions for the kids to write a few descriptive sentences about each photo.

I knew they would have fun writing about the very tall fuzzy-wuzzy-hippity-hop.

And I figured they would have a lot to say about the two-headed duck.

I was also aware that they could write some awesome sentences about this little guy...

...but it was the 4th photo that I knew would truly inspire them... to wet their pants.

Before I left for my meeting, I told my wonderful sub how sad I was about missing their reactions to the photos, especially the 4th one. So you can imagine how happy it made me when my wonderful sub texted me to say she had filmed 4B's reaction to the last slide and was emailing it to me.

It was so much fun to watch their reaction, I decided to film 1A when I did the same activity with them the next day. The video below contains clips of both. There was a little screaming, a lot of laughing, and I believe a few of the kidlets may have left with slightly damp trousers.

Oh, wait.

I should probably show you the photo too, right?

It is a pretty good one.

Pretty darn good, if you ask me.

And I think the kidlets agreed.

So please allow me to introduce you to the most Awesome Dog in the Word...
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Precious!

You're welcome.

Flashback to Summer

A few nights ago, I was rooting around in the dark corners of my laptop's hard drive looking for some wayward track photos. While I did (eventually) find the shots the yearbook kidlets needed, I also found a few unposted photos from my summer adventures. Those photos brought back some warm memories on a chilly evening.

I know I should be a little embarrassed that I took so many photos of snow cones but, in my defense, they were the most amazing snow cones on the face of the earth. And even though I wasn't as brave as Jenny, who tried flavors like rose, basil, or roasted pepper, I still dream about the cucumber and Juneberry.

And since my dear sweet older sister managed to procure some extra peach and lime syrups for me when Yuki closed for the summer, I will get to relive some of those delicious moments a few more times.

And from mouth-watering sweets, we go a sweetie with a very watery mouth: Alton.

I don't know how I made it though the whole summer without posting about his serious drooling issues. If Jenny would have let him play outside during the summer, Utah's drought problems would have been solved in a week.

I also found some fun reminders of a trip to the big city rodeo with my Idaho niblets. Kenna and Kylie are big rodeo fans...

... and Bubba loves rodeo nachos!

I even found evidence of some summertime craftiness: Max had a summer homework assignment to make a puppet he could use to introduce himself on the first week of school. He requested my help to make a Doctor Who themed puppet, and this is what I came up with: A dalek!

Who says summer homework is a horrible idea?

And how did I never get around to posting this year's fair winnings?

And then there was my fair and rodeo, which my two newest sisters-in-law were able to attend for the first time. They didn't mind the big, smelly animals at all...

...which shouldn't have been such a surprise considering they willingly married them.

And then there was this photo...which probably should have stayed buried in the dark corners of my laptop's hard drive.

Even though it was fun spend a little time basking in the glow of summer memories, I am very contented to settle into fall... Because this fall, Alton stopped drooling long enough to learn to make THIS FACE:

The changing of the seasons is a wonderful thing.

I can't wait to see what tricks Al learns this winter. 

Pride Goeth Before a Fail

How awesome was the Women's Conference Broadcast on Saturday night?
(Want to watch it again? Click HERE!)

The music was beautiful, the talks were uplifting and instructive, and by the end I just wanted to drive to SLC to give President Monson a hug.

I also wanted to drive to SLC to give President Uchtdorf a hug but, to be honest, I usually want to hug President Uchtdorf. I mean, he's just so darn...faithful, you know?

After the broadcast, our stake had a post-conference snack-and-serve shindig. Diane planed yummy treats, Jolene prepared tables full of service opportunities, and Sue made the ward/branch rounds inviting the sisters before helping out with the color coordinated decorations.

My assignment was to gather up the photos the wards had taken of their service efforts during the past year and turn them into a video using our theme for the year: Sweet is the Work. The video, complete with photos, music, and clips of Elder Ballard's talk, turned out really well. Truth be told, I was quite PROUD of my efforts.

Unfortunately, when it came time to set up the projector, the projector FAILED to project. 

Our diligent stake technology technician immediately began making plans to acquire another, more projecty projector from other buildings in the stake. But I, having experienced ill-timed tech failures on an almost daily basis during my years as a public school teacher, decided to take a peak at the instruction manual.

Then I decided to get my handy-dandy tool-thingy that I keep in my purse and open up the projector. After following the suggestions in the manual, and poking around in it's guts for a while, I reattached the back panel and hit the power button.

And guess what?

It worked!

Our diligent technology technician was impressed, the Stake Presidency was impressed, and (most importantly) my home teachers were impressed. By the time the weekend wrapped up, I was feeling pretty proud of myself.

But, as any Pintrest GIF could tell you, Pride is the Gateway Sin. Luckily, I have a loving Heavenly Father who, along with blessing me in countless other ways, does a great job of cutting me off from the Pride Train when needed.

Fast forward to Tuesday morning. I was still priding high from my projector victory when I had a close encounter with a sharp-edged TV cart during second hour that resulted in an unfortunate pants failure. For those of you who have never experienced it, ripping a hole in you pants during class in a junior high is a very humbling experience.I taught the rest of the hour with my leg to the wall, or sitting behind my desk.

I was feeling pretty blessed, however, because I had lunch right after 2nd hour and could run home and change before the next group of kidlets arrived.

Then I remembered that I had walked to school.

So running home to change clothes became RUNNING home to change clothes.

Then me and a fully intact pair of pants drove back to school where I finished out the day with a very humble demeanor. I thought I was out of the Pride Danger Zone, and then I checked my mailbox in the faculty workroom.

I had done a favor for our awesome librarian the day before, and he had decided to repay me by turning me into an adjective.Then he posted his artfully created definition up for all to see. And just like that, I fell off the humility wagon again. But, I did learn something from my unfortunate pants failure; and now I keep an extra change of clothes in my classroom closet.

I'm pretty proud of that.

Feasting Upon the Word of God (and pizza)

1. And now it came to pass in the early days of Mindy's aunt-hood, yea when Mindy's niblets could even be counted upon one hand;

2. In those days, was a tradition of competition established between Mindy and the eldest of her niblets;

3. And the eldest of her niblets was called Bentley, and Bentley was very wise in the ways of astronomy.

4. So wise was Bentley in the ways of astronomy, that he did challenge his Aunt, even his professional educator aunt, to a competition of knowledge, yea, knowledge of the heavens and of all the things therein.

5. And Mindy, secure in her own highly educated state, and knowing that Bentley, while wise, was only in 1st grade, did accept this challenge.

6. And Mindy did lose, yea she did lose miserably, yea she did have her  backside handed to her by a first grader.

7. And Mindy wept.

8. But notwithstanding her miserable loss and her weeping, Mindy did continue to accept challenges from her niblets, and as many challenges as Mindy did accept, she did speedily lose, even a Harry Potter challenge did Mindy lose to her very wise nephews.

9. And so it came to pass that at the end the eleventh year of Mindy's aunt-hood, even in the summer  year 2013, the traditional time of the traditional niblet challenge did arrive, and Mindy was sore afraid.

10. And just as Mindy was about to accept yet another challenge wherein she would have her backside handed to her by children, even children who routinely put their pants on backwards;

11. Before she could be schooled by these same niblets, Mindy's mind was opened to sudden inspiration and she did share this inspiration with her niblets via first class mail.

12. Yea, instead of challenging her nephews directly to a competition of worldly knowledge, Mindy did invite them to challenge themselves to learning scriptures, even to memorizing scripture mastery verses over the course of the summer.

13. And Mindy did promise her nephews that, if they would accept the challenge and memorize the scriptures she would send, they would be more fully prepared for seminary and for missions;

14. And she did promise them increased spiritual strength and power to resist temptation;

15. And she did also promise them, that if they did memorize the scriptures, she would take them out for dinner, even to a restaurant of their choosing.

16. And while the nephews did somewhat desire increased spiritual strength, they did GREATLY desire being taken out to dinner to a restaurant of their choosing;

17. And even though this challenge denied them the opportunity to heap great amounts of humiliation upon their aunt, they did accept the challenge to memorize the Word of God.

18. And it came to pass that Mindy did choose scriptures that would be of great benefit to her nephews, and she did type them onto cards of many colors and did mail them to her nephews.

19. Yea, every week she did mail one additional scripture to her nephews; and every week her nephews did memorize their scriptures.

20. And great was the memorizing thereof.

21. And at the end of the summer Mindy did visit her nephews and she did inquire of them the status of their memorization efforts.

22. And because she is a teacher, and because she had not given any tests or quizzes for three months, Mindy did give unto her nephews a scripture test;

23. And the scripture test did test the niblets knowledge of how to use the scriptures they had learned;

24. And it came to pass that the niblets did pass the test with flying colors, and did qualify themselves for a dinner out at a restaurant of their choosing.

25. And after much arguing and fighting and gnashing of teeth (because it turneth out that they each in turn hated the restaurant choice of their brothers) a restaurant was chosen, even an all-you-can-eateth pizza buffet.

26. And the niblets did indeed eat all they could, astounding amounts of pizza did they eat, yea, they did feast upon the fruits of their summer-long scripture feast.

27. And at the end of the meal Mindy did look upon her niblets, and she did see that they were full of pizza, and she did know that they were full of pizza because they were full of scriptures.

28. And Mindy was glad. 

Wherein I Meet My Squishy New Niece and Take Her Siblings for Ice Cream

This weekend I finally got to meet my new niece, Kristie Dawn. 

Isn't she sweet?

I also got to spend the afternoon with her older siblings. 

We played at the park, played at grandma's house, watched a movie at grandma's house, 

went shopping for fruit snacks, and then got ice cream cones. 

We forgot to bring an ice cream home for Kristie.

I am hoping she will forgive me before she turns goes to college.

Meeting Kristie was awesome, but now the real aunt-work begins.

I am on a quest to find Kristie the perfect nickname.

K-Rae has already been taken. 

The Monchichi has likewise been spoken for. 

And Bubba... well... the world just isn't ready for another Bubba.

Don't worry Kristie. I'll get it figured out. 

But until I do, we might have to use Cheeks McGee as a stand-in. Are you cool with that?

No? Ok. 

Back to the drawing board.

They Know Me So Well

I love my job for a lot of reasons.

For example:

The kidlets are so fun and weird and fascinating and hilarious.

I get to talk about books and words and life all day long.

And I am very rarely bored.

But the biggest reason that I can't even consider leaving my school is the grown-up people I get to associate with. They are awesome, in every sense of the word.

Case in Point:

I stayed late (very late) on the first day of school creating an awesome (very awesome) pre-assessment target document. When I finally finished, I emailed a copy to Jen, another English teacher at my school, asking her to proofread it so I could send it on to some other teachers in the district. Jen is very aware of my BBC addiction and my deep appreciation of Benedict Cumberbatch's acting abilities and voice (and eyes and abs).

This is the reply Jen sent me the next day...

"Looks great... kind of like this guy ;-o    Have a better day!"

And I did.

My Back to School Thunderstorm

Tomorrow morning I will start my tenth year as a school teacher.

Every year, FOR NINE YEARS, on the day before classes start, the heavens have opened and a magnificent thunderstorm has signaled the end of the summer, the cleansing of the slate, and the start of an awesome school year.

But this year (did I mention that this is my 10th year?) I thought I might miss my storm due to a change in our school calendar. Instead of starting classes the week after fair, the start of school was pushed back until after Labor Day.

We did have some rainstorms last week, and I did get to run through one of them as I rushed into a district ELA meeting, but it just wasn't the same.

My back-to-school-storm is usually on a Sunday afternoon or evening when I have time to sit outside and enjoy the sounds and smells of the rain, thunder, and lightning. Dashing through the high school parking lot in a downpour just wasn't the same sort of calming, renewing experience.

I thought Mother Nature might be making it up to me (or humoring me) last weekend when I was visiting my Utah niblets and attending the storytelling festival. A rainstorm blew in one afternoon, so I went outside under the guise of "rolling up my car windows". It was a nice little downpour, and I thought it would be enough to fulfill the tradition and get my school year (my 10th school year) off to a good start.

I was fine with my Utah substitute storm until this morning, when I realized I had missed a perfectly good storm because I  had windows shut and music playing while I worked on school stuff. 

When I went out to my car and saw the evidence of the missed storm, I was pretty bummed. 

But this evening, just as I finished choosing awesome first-week-of-school-outfits,  I got a second chance to carry on my favorite back to school tradition. I saw the lightning flash outside my window, heard the thunder, and didn't waste a single second. 

I pulled in my slippers, ignored the fact that I was already in my jim-jams, scooped myself an ice cream cone, and sat outside enjoying my storm.

This little thunder-filled, mud-scented tender mercy was a great reminder that Heavenly Father knows me really well. Between the thunderstorm and the awesome back to school blessing I received yesterday, I am really feeling pretty special.

So I hope that the rest of you folks here in Cow Town enjoyed my back-to-school storm. I will gladly take credit for praying the rain into our valley.

Unless, of course, the lightning started another fire or the rain ruined some part of harvest. Then all the credit goes right to the weather dude on channel 11.