DIY

I think I should begin my very first post of 2014 by saying that Heavenly Father loves me very, very much.

I know that He loves me very, very much because He did not allow the Arctic Vortex to settle anywhere near my cute little cow town this week, a week that I was assigned outside lunch duty.

Sure, we got a some snow, but it was soooooo much easier to warn the kids that throwing, kicking, or in any way propelling snow would result in four hours of Saturday school without chattering teeth and icicles forming in my nostrils.

And, even though I know the weather is not a contest, I would still like to point out the differences in temperature between my home and the towns where my niblets reside. And then I would like to point out that, if the weather WAS a contest, I totally would have kicked trash this week.

This first week back to school after the wondrous and beautiful two-week break, was kind-of-sort-of busy. Besides the start of ward conference season, it was also the week before semester tests (a.k.a The End of Course Assessments, or EOCAs).

The kidlets had two full weeks to forget everything they have ever learned about English, communications, and creative writing. Over the break, months worth of information leaked out their ears and into their pillows. So this week was my last chance to try to sneak some of that info back in before testing begins on Tuesday.

I have to admit that I was kind of looking forward to getting back in my classroom after so many days off. I was really hopping that, while I was gone, the tech people would have received and installed the new projector my awesome principal bought for me (I think he might have sold one of his kidneys to finance it...) 

When I walked into my classroom Monday morning, I thought that maybe my new projector would be waiting on the ceiling with a big red bow on it. But alas, when I turned on the light, the corpse of my late-projector was still decaying above me.

I have been able to use the library projector since mine bit the dust back in October, but the whole situation has made my life more difficult that it needed to be.

Having this expensive equipment perched precariously on an unstable cart from the late 80's, taking up a whole aisle in my classroom, and various cords stretched across the main thoroughfare was very dangerous. I mean, have you seen junior high kids try to move around a room? Watching them try to navigate their spazzy little bodies kind of makes you think uncoordinated aliens have taken them over and are trying to steer using their toes on an old computer joystick. It is a miracle we don't have more injuries every day even without the the cart of death in the middle of the room.

Things started to look up on Tuesday, however, when my principal hand delivered my new projector to my classroom. There was great joy and rejoicing in 1A English that day.

But now I am waiting for the tech folks to take the projector from down here...

... and put it up here. And let me tell you, waiting patiently has NEVER been one of my strong suits.

For Christmas, my awesome parents got me an adorable standy-uppy cupboard thingy from IKEA. I couldn't WAIT to put it together, so I broke into the boxes to sneak a peak at the instructions.

Upon opening the instructions, I was happy to learn that I can speak Swedish fluently (probably a pleasant side effect of eating so many Swedish fish over the years). and was quickly able to discern that I should not attempt to put the standy-uppy cupboard thingy together by myself.

I have very tool-centric home teachers who I knew would be more than willing to help me when I got the thing home, not to mention a best pal who is married to a retired tech center principal/current building supply store guru, so I wasn't worried about getting it put together. I just didn't want to WAIT. So my mother, a 20 year veteran of cub scout wood working projects, agreed to help me before I even left.

WARNING: THIS SECTION OF THE POST CONTAINS VERY SPECIFIC AND TECHNICAL FURNITURE-BUILDING TERMS. PEOPLE WITHOUT EXTENSIVE FURNITURE-BUILDING BACKGROUNDS MIGHT NEED TO ARRANGE TO READ THIS SECTION WITH A PROFESSIONAL NEARBY TO ANSWER QUESTIONS. 

We put together the big rectangularish part. Then we put together the base part with the cute little feet. That way, once I got it home, I would only have to attach the base feety part to the big retangularish part, slide in the shelves, slap on the doors, and I would be good to go.

I wanted to finish up the little project as soon as I got home, but between time consuming school stuff and spirit lifting Relief Society stuff, I didn't get time to work on it until this afternoon. Thanks to all the work we had done at my parents house, it didn't take very much time or effort to finish it up. 

I think it looks great in my guest room (Thanks Mom and Dad!). 

Putting it together went so smoothly that I started thinking that maybe I could take on another Do-It-Yourself project this week while the kids are silently (Ha ha!) taking their finals. I mean, how much more difficult could it be to take a projector from down here...

... and put it up here? I think I could do it.

As long as the instructions are in Swedish. 

Holiday Wrap-Up

Flashback to Thanksgiving: Greggie and Kristina drove up to the Parents Place for Turkey Day Weekend, and we were thankful that they did because we put them right to work. They helped Homely and I with the lights.

And they aided my mom in the heavy labor part of the fudge production process.

And Greggie even helped violate, I mean, prepare Turkey Lurkey for dinner.

Investigating the turkey was actually part of an informal homework assignment from Greg's anatomy professor at BYU.

Considering Greg's aversion to germs and obsession with clean hands, I hope he got A LOT of extra credit for this.

Homely ran some treats around to one of his home teaching families and came home with two real Christmas trees. One for the living room, and a tiny Charlie Brown-ish tree for the front porch.

Because there hadn't been a REAL Christmas tree in the house for over thirty years, we were woefully unprepared to host our arboreal friends. A lot of different Macgyver-ish attempts were made to try to get an old tree stand to work...

... but in the end Homely and Greggie ended up making a Walmart run to procure a new stand for the indoor tree. Then the newly weds used a variety of books and dvd cases to help it stand in such a way as to not drive OCD Greg completely crazy.

The next day, I found a simple, redneck solution so the old stand could would with the tiny outside tree.

The Christmas Season officially started in my cute little Cow Town with our junior high staff Christmas party.

Visual approximation of our junior high staff Christmas party. I didn't get any photos :-(

And then the next week, Jolene and Paul hosted our December FHE/Ugly Sweater Party.

President Jones won the ugly sweater competition.

But when we sat down to an amazing dinner, we all felt like winners!

My Christmas break started out back at The Parents Place. It was so fun to watch Kristie celebrate her first Christmas.

The IF temple visitors center was having a special art exhibit, so Warren helped me take the girls one Sunday afternoon.

Kylie's favorite part was petting the "pony" in the nativity display.

Kenna wasn't feeling great and was less than impressed with, "The place with the Jesus pictures."

My mom, Becky, and I continued the family tradition of making sugar cookies. My IF niblets are excellent bakers.

Bubba made some pretty fun sound effects when it was his turn to cut cookies. After cutting out his cookies, he wanted to put all of the scraps on his pan too. He didn't want to waste any dough.

While the cookies were baking/cooling, the girls went on a treasure hunt. I wrote/drew clues and hid them around the house that led them to some Christmas activity books my mom had wrapped up for them. Kenna and Kylie enjoyed the treasure hunt to much, they wanted clues left for all sorts of things the next few days. I think we might have created some treasure-hunting monsters.

Eventually the cookies were frosted...

... and decorated....

... and sampled. 

Christmas dinner was celebrated with Christmas crackers (and the accompanying crowns).

Kristie didn't get a cracker or a crown... but she didn't seem to mind too much.

My folks and I made a quick trip to see the Utah niblets after Christmas. On the way, we stopped at Ikea to pick up my big, cute gift from my parents (More on that in an upcoming post. I have a feeling that my attempts at putting it together will be very blog worthy.)

My mom made Jenny's kids quilts for their beds, but the kids didn't really get the "for their beds" part.

They dragged them around for the three days we were there so they could wrap up in them at all times and in all things and in all places.

I gave the older five kids bow ties, but Alton got a new shirt with his awesome nickname on it. Behold Stormageddon, Dark Lord of All.

I'm sure he appreciated the shirt, but it appears that all Stormageddon really wanted for Christmas was his thumb and his momma.

Homely spent some quality sports watching time with his eldest grandson, both wrapped up in blankets made especially for them.

While the quilt-making grandma read stories to the other kids upstairs.

Except for catching some sort of evil alien virus the day after Christmas, this is shaping up to be one of the best-ever holiday seasons.

And not just because Warren gave me one of the best-ever Christmas presents...

A Cumber-pillow!

What a great way to start a new year!

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!