Merry Christmas!

Merry Christmas to (and from) Idaho, Utah, Arizona, California, and New York!

Forty Christmases and counting...

40 Christmases from Mindy Haws on Vimeo.

The Bridge of Death...

...but not THIS Bridge of Death.

Last week I was checking the weather, much like I do every afternoon, when a photo (that happens to be completely unrelated to weather, what is up with THAT, Weather Channel?) caught my eye.

This bridge looked awfully familiar. 

 It looked like the bridge I drive across when I go to the temple.

Or when I go to regional Relief Society training meetings.

Or when I go to State Department of ED meetings.

Or when I want to shop somewhere other than Wal-Mart or Cal-Ranch.

And do you know WHY it looked that that bridge?

Because it IS that bridge. 

I don't think this newly acquired knowledge about the Perrine Bridge especially dangerous and/or deadly is going effect my travels much. I mean, I already close my eyes when I drive across it. (Ha ha! Just kidding, Policeman  Dan!) What it will do is knock yet another point of interest off the list of places I can take my sister's kids when they visit my valley.

Jenny has already vetoed trips to Shoshone Falls (a.k.a. The Giant, Bone-Crushing Waterfall), City of Rocks (a.k.a. Home of Enormous Child-Squishing Boulders), and Massacre Rocks (a.k.a. MASSACRE Rocks). So now that the Perrine Bridge has been labeled "One of the 33 most dangerous places" (by the folks at the Weather Channel, the leading authorities on Bridge Safety) I am afraid that, the next time my Utah niblets visit, they are going to be spending a lot of time in my home.

But not in my guest room.

One of the world's 33 largest spiders was recently spotted near my computer desk, and I think it is going to take more than my two burley home teachers to drag him outside and put him in a horse trailer.

But then perhaps they could take him for a tour of the bridge?

Thankful, Part 4

And to wrap things up (albeit a few days late)...

25) I am, oh, so thankful for a four-day Thanksgiving Break!

26) I am equally thankful for beautiful driving weather so that I could spend that break with family.

27) Even though I haven't always acted thankful for him, I am glad that my brother Warren was born on November 29th.

28) I am thankful that, in the midst of the craziness that was Black Friday, I was able to find the one thing I really wanted: a Downton Abby hat!

29) I am very thankful that, during that break, I was able to be in the temple as my dad was sealed to his late parents.

 

30) I am also very thankful that my newest sister-in-law was willing to proxy-up with my brother during that sealing. My grandma threatened to haunt anyone who dared do her temple work, and now she will have to split her haunting time between four of us!

Thankful, Part 3

This week I am thankful for... 

14)...kidlets who get REALLY excited for a couple weeks of sentence dissection.

15) ...the end of our first sentence dissection unit and the removal of 100 sets of surgical gloves and masks from my cluttered classroom.  

16) ...the awesome people I get to work with every day.

17) ... A staff so awesome I have to count them TWICE!

 Click here for the KMVT news story about the best school ever

18) ... My sister's food blog. She posts her weekly menu and links to the recipes she uses. It rescued me from a dinner rut and is the source of some of my new favorite meals.

19) ... the opportunity I had to feed the sister missionaries last week. (I made the sweet balsamic glazed pork roast from Jenny's blog!)

20) I am thankful I was able to serve as a sister missionary. (I learned so much!)

21) And I am especially thankful for the people I met and was able to learn from.

22) And I am oh, so very thankful to have served in Canada!

23) I am thankful that Brianna and Spencer are having a baby! I am extra thankful that they are having a girl because I had the BEST niblet nickname picked out for a little girl from upstate NY : Buffy (the Buffalo Baby!)

24) I am also super stinkin' glad that my older sister was born thirty-something years ago. Happy Birthday Jenny!

Thankful, Part 2

 6. I am thankful for General Conference. I learned a lot when I watched in October, but I am learning even more now that my conference Ensign has arrived. For the past few weeks, I have been reading and studying conference talks during my 30 minute lunch break (instead of reading and pondering CNN.com). The result of my mid-day conference break has been a much more zen attitude during my afternoon classes.

In related news, the kidlets in my afternoon classes are also EXTREMELY thankful that I am reading general conference talks at lunch. They like conference-zen Miss H much better than cranky, news-consuming Miss H.

#7. I am thankful that I got to spend the weekend playing with every single one of my niblets when our family invaded Jenny and John's home. 

#8. And I am extremely thankful for the reason we all invaded Jenny and John's house: Bentley's 12th birthday and ordination to the Aaronic Priesthood. 

#9. I am all kinds of thankful that my New York brother and his super hero wife are going to have a baby this spring. I was very excited when Spence called to tell me that they are having a girl...which makes my nicknaming responsibility very easy: She shall be called Buffy, the Buffalo Baby.

#10. I am so very thankful for my FHE group. This week we had an early Thanksgiving dinner and a wonderful lesson on gratitude.

#10. I am thankful for my friend Valerie and her family. 

...and not just because she left a jug of her hubby's home-pressed cider on my desk this afternoon. I am also very grateful that Val does all sorts of nice things for me... like watching Downton Abby with me, and going to craft fairs with me, and listening to me complain on the days I read CNN.com at lunch instead of general conference talks.

#11. I am Thankful for adventurous and persistent kidlets. When I started spouting nonsense about having an adjective beauty pageant, they could have rolled their eyes and waited for me to lose interest. Instead, they made sure I followed through by doing things like this...

#12. And thanks to the creativity and perseverance of those kidlets, I am now also thankful for Adjective Beauty Pageants. 

#13. And (even though I am still cranky that it has taken so long) I am very thankful that there will be three new episodes of Sherlock this January. 

Thankful, Part 1

I realized the other day that, in all my years of blogging, I have never done one of those Thankful blog thread thingies.

You know, the kind where you post one thing you are thankful for each day in November? I've never done it. Not even once. Probably because I have commitment issues. Posting EVERY DAY for a month wasn't something I could commit to. I mean, EVERY DAY? Really? I just couldn't do that.

And I still can't.

Because I STILL have commitment issues.

So I am going to do a mutant version of the Thankful Blog Thread Thingy where I post a couple of things every couple of days.

Today is the 5th day of November, so here are the first five things for which I am thankful.

1. I am thankful for every single one of these whack-a-doodles. 

2. I am also thankful for this mini-doodle who was still baking when the above photo was taken. I didn't want her to feel left out [just in case she ends up being my rich niblet ;-)].

3. I am thankful for Kidlets who spent the summer becoming dedicated fans of Doctor Who. The best summer homework assignment ever!

4. And I am very thankful for so many strong and faithful former kidlets who have spent the week teaching me about covenant-keeping by living up to the covenant they made to mourn with those who mourn and to comfort those who stand in need of comfort.

5. And I am also thankful for the Smartboard in my classroom. It  not only allows me to kickstart the kidlet's writing processes by project ginormous photos like this ...

...it also allows me to doodle on those same ginormous pictures so I don't get too bored while the kidlets complete that writing process.

Coming soon....
I am thankful for a bunch of other things! Like adjective beauty pageants and new episodes of Sherlock.

2nd Born Children Love Winning Awards

My pal (and sister of my sister-in-law... sister-out-law, perhaps?) Kar was nominated for an awesome blogging award last month. She totally earned it. Her blog is entertaining, enlightening, and honest (the last being a very rare quality in the online world).  You can read her acceptance post here: Kar's Kith and Kin .

Kar and 1/5th of her Kin

Then, because she is sweet, she nominated me for the award. 

Then, because rarely do things when I am supposed to do them (thanks, in part, to my status as a 2nd born child), it took me a month to do anything about it. But this week I resolved to repent and do better. 

The procedure for accepting the award is as follows:

The Liebster Award is given to bloggers by other bloggers. The nominated blog must abide by these rules:

You must link back to the person who nominated you. CHECK! (Second children love checking items off of lists)

You must answer the questions give to you by your nominator. SOON-TO-BE-CHECKED! 

You must pick from 5-11 new blogs, each with under 200 subscribers, to be nominated for the award.  WORKING ON IT (2nd borns also have a tendency to leave tasks partially completed...we are easily distracted)

You must come up with at least 5 questions for your nominees to answer.THIS COULD TAKE SOME TIME (2nd born children naturally question everything!)

You must go to their blogs and notify them of the nomination.EVENTUALLY (2nd borns tend to be either super social or a tad bit anti social, I fall under the 2nd category communicating with others is not a high priority in my world)

So here are the five questions posed to me by Kar, and my corresponding answers. 

      1. What is your biggest strength? I think that would have to be the excessive amount of creativity I inherited/was blessed with. It has made all the difference in my teaching, in my Church callings, in my writing/blogging, and in my relationships with family and friends. Second born children have a tendency to say and do outlandish things (in sometimes misguided attempts) to be noticed. We also tend to spend a lot of time "in our heads". An abundance of creativity has also made the boring parts of life a lot more exciting. If you could see what is going on inside my head during dull meetings, long waits in line, when I am supposed to be grading papers, etc., you would be amazed (and probably slightly disturbed). 


2.  What's your pet peeve? It really bugs me when my kidlets try to be sneaky. I honestly and truly prefer the kids to be outright naughty than to attempt to cover their tracks via attempted stealth or subterfuge. I don't know if the sneakiness bothers me most because it 1) implies premeditation of badness, 2)demonstrates a lack of remorse/acceptance of consequences, or 3) they are just so stinkin' bad at it. Second born children often have a sneaky bent, myself very much included. Sneaky is an art. If you can't do it right, don't waste my time.

3.  What is the best advice you've ever gotten? Well, I am very grateful for my sister's advice to start watching Doctor Who (even though she has frequently expressed regret for giving that particular piece of advice). But as far as actual "life" advice goes, I haven't been able to pin point any exact phrases. You see, second children have trouble accepting unsolicited advice. Our independent and competitive natures don't mesh well with spoken advice, but we do respond well to example. The "living breathing advice" that has made the biggest difference in my life has come from watching the way my parents always do their part (and then go above and beyond their part) in our family, at their jobs, and in the gospel. Also, props to Mrs. Grace for giving me the heads-up about not letting Gabriela and Daisy sit next to each other in English. 

4.  If you weren't doing what you're doing now (whether it's employment or full-time mommy) - what would you want to do? This one was the trickiest for me. I decided I wanted to be a teacher when I was in 1st grade when I dressed up as a teacher (an art teacher, to be exact) for career day. There are days when I think it would be smart to do something else, like those few days when Daisy and Gabriela sat next to each other, or when I think about all of the things I want to do that my woefully small paycheck will never fund (Second children hate feeling like they are missing out on something, being purposefully left-out, or cheated in some way. We notice when things aren't "fair" and point it out every chance we get and the monetary compensation for what I do is soooooooo not fair). But if I wasn't in the front of the classroom, I think I would still be in a classroom. I would love to follow my friend, mission comp,  and hero Charlotte's example by getting a graduate's degree abroad. The closest I have come to world travel was the answering machine message at my first apartment in Pocatello ("Hello. You have reached ISU's study a broad...which broad would you like to study? Leah, Tiffany, Mindy, Shannon, etc.)

5.  Are you oldest child/youngest child/middle child?  Do you think it's affected you in any way? I am the second of six children and, um let me ponder this for a moment... YES!