Bear Lake 2008

Bear Lake was a blast! Those who went: Marty and Nancy and their kids (Shalyn-14, Brandon-10, Amber-6, Ryan-3), Tracy and Daryl (Wesley-11, Anna-8, Brooklyn- 8), Allison and Cam (Erica-8, Emma-6, Chase-3, Leah-1), Deanna and Erik (Kris-8, Dallin-6), Travis, his girlfriend, Tiffany, and her son, Dawson (4), Ronnie, and me. I don't have the pictures we took on the boat, because they are on Deanna's camera. Oh well. If you want to see the montage, you might need to press pause on my playlist, so you don't have two songs going at once. I'm new to the One True Media, and didn't take off the music, and it's much too much work to go and redo it. Sorry.

Make video montages at www.OneTrueMedia.com

Funny Emma

I will post more later about my trip to Bear Lake... which we all survived. But, I just had tell a funny story about my niece, Emma. A few years ago, Emma fell and bumped her mouth, turning one of her front teeth brown. Well, at Bear Lake, Emma's brown tooth fell out (yahoo!) But, sadly, she lost the tooth. So, when she got home, she typed a letter to the tooth fairy, explaining why the tooth wasn't under her pillow. I was at their house when Emma woke up this morning, and was there when she read the letter that the tooth fairy typed her, in return. The tooth fairy explained that she would get $5 in one week, if she goes that long without sucking her thumb. Emma was ecstatic about the letter. She said, "I'm touching something that the tooth fairy touched! I love the tooth fairy! But, I love Jesus more. Everyone should love Jesus more than the tooth fairy." I couldn't agree more. 

A series of unfortunate events...

I am writing this as I rally from a serious case of the stomach flu. Ick. Let me back up... last Saturday, I was woken up by my cell phone ringing. It was my dad (my parents are out of town) asking me to turn the sprinklers on in the back. Surprisingly, I've never turned the sprinklers on or off... I finally figured out how to turn them on. A little while later, I went out to turn them off. You'd think that they'd turn off oppositely of how they turned on. Well, I'll spare you the details... after several minutes, I had them off- but, without a dry spot on my body. Shortly after coming inside, Deanna (who was here) got a phone call from Allison, wondering if I could come up to her house in Cedar Hills to babysit her kids while she takes Cam to the Emergency Room, because he had had a bad fall mountain biking. Well, I also had Tracy's kids here that I was baby-sitting (Deanna, Allison, and Tracy are my sisters). After some decision-making, I agreed to meet Allison at the Orem hospital, trade her cars, and bring her kids back here to the house. Deanna abandoned me. I had 7 kids here, and one of them (Erica) had the stomach flu. The day was completely chaotic. As it neared lunch time, the kids started complaining that they were hungry. I began making grilled cheese sandwiches (ew, the thought of any kind of food right now is seriously messing with me). I put Anna (age 8) in charge of Leah (age 11 months)... with the charge to not let her fall down any stairs, or put anything in her mouth. Leah climbed over to one of the stools, so Anna put her on it, but was still holding on to her. I don't know exactly how it happened, but Leah toppled off the stool, and started screaming. Anna felt badly about letting it happen, and as I'm trying to console the two of them, all 6 of the grilled cheese sandwiches got burned. During the whole debacle, the older kids were playing Rock Band at full volume (in the family area of the kitchen), and someone was screaming at Chase (age 3) at full volume. Meanwhile, I have Emma (age 5) telling me all the things I'm doing wrong. And on cue... Erica throws up in the living room. 

Allison and Cam got home in the evening, with the lovely news that Cam has SERIOUSLY messed up his shoulder... something that will take multiple surgeries and months to fully recover from (if it does, in fact, fully recover).  Our family has a big vacation planned to go camping at Bear Lake, and Al and Cam bought a new, fancy, camping trailer to take up there... and now, Cam can't drive it up there, so Allison, who weighs probably 100 pounds, will have to be in charge of this HUGE camper, if they go. And, to add insult to injury... Cam is also recovering from the stomach flu. Luckily, Tracy and Daryl are in town, now... and last night we had Anna and Brooklyn (the twins), Emma and Erica (Al's girls), and Amber (Marty's daughter) all sleeping here. 

Last night, I got in bed, feeling fine-- but, just a few minutes later, felt really sick to my stomach. I emptied ALL contents of my body between 3 and 7:30 this morning, and fell asleep for about an hour. Now, I have alternated from sleeping, and making an emergency trip to the bathroom all day. I ate 2 popsicles earlier, that quite promptly came back up, but about an hour ago, I ate 2 more, and so far, so good. So, I hope I'm pulling out of this. Oh, and just a little while ago, Emma was walking through the living room, turned her head, and threw up all over my mom's leather chair. Tracy sprung into action, cleaned it up, but cleaned it a little too well... the cleanser she used on it changed the color of the chair... so, it's pretty much ruined. Maybe, when I'm feeling well enough, I'll go take a picture of it, because it's pretty bad. 

Also, a few days ago, Ronnie decided to give Petie (our dog) a haircut... with scissors. It was embarrassing to be in the same room with the poor dog... so, Tracy went and bought clippers last night. I held him down, and Daryl tried to fix the haircut. Petie was NOT happy about that, at all. He's not above snapping at people, so it was a little scary holding him down. It was also scary, because the poor dog's epileptic, so I was worried we were going to put him into a seizure. I was covered in dog hair, and still feel like I have it down my throat. I'm sure I don't, because I was throwing up so violently, that I was afraid of throwing up the little hanger-down in the back of my throat (uvula??)... sorry. Too much information, huh?

Oh, and Travis is bringing his girlfriend home from Colorado, whom I've never met. They'll be here in just a couple of hours. And do you think I've washed my hair in like four days? No. I'm a mess. 

I hope my parents had a good time on their vacation. 

Where, oh where, has my little June gone?

Wow. I can't believe that it is already July 5. What happened to June??? This is only my second REAL summer as a teacher, because before last year, I taught at a year-round school in South Jordan- so I never had a "summer break." I guess I pictured myself spending my summer doing nothing... and loving it. But, alas... 'tis not so. June has been crazy. In fact, I had to set my alarm EVERY single night for the entire month... I did not get to sleep in ONE SINGLE DAY! That was rough. So, what has kept me so busy, you ask? Well, first of all, I taught for our Summer Reading Program at the school, so that had me up and at 'em by 8 a.m. (see cartoon above)...  I did have a few days off of that, but only to attend other early morning meetings, classes, or conferences. I went to the Core Academy in St. George, I took a class on iWeb in the classroom at the District Office for a couple of days (which, by the way, I created my own classroom website. I can't wait to get it up and running once I get my new laptop from the school), I took a Beginning Spanish for Teachers class this past Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday (Buenas Dias!)... for the final project, I had to write a one page paper in Spanish! So, those are the things that have kept my weeks busy... so, what about my Saturdays? Well, one of my Saturdays, I spent the entire day in my ESL (English as a Second Language) class because I'm getting my ESL endorsement (I'll be finished in December, yay!) and we are getting one of the courses finished in three marathon days during the summer. Also, my Uncle Gerry died (my mom's brother), and so we spent last Saturday with family for the funeral in Paradise, Utah. It was a sad day, because his death was completely unexpected, but it was nice to see all the cousins and other extended family again. He served in the Vietnam War, so his burial was done with Military Honors, which was neat to see. I can't remember how I spent my other Saturdays... I've sat here, thinking, and thinking-- but I'm gettin' nothin'. I think one of the mornings I had to wake up early to help clean the church... Anyway... this past week, I spent a few nights in Park City at a time share my parents had scheduled. I went down the Alpine Slide for the first time, which was a lot of fun. I went with Deanna and Erik. Next time I go to Park City, I'm going to do the mountain roller coaster they have up there- maybe I'll get brave and dare to do the zip-line. We have also been busy this past week because my sister's kids are here from Colorado. Last summer, I went and spent several weeks with them out there, but this summer, she sent them here, instead. They will be here until their parents come and pick them up when they come out for our family vacation to Bear Lake in a couple of weeks. Hopefully, we can keep them entertained until then! 

Well, now, it's July... and my schedule looks like it will be slowing down a little, but not much. My classroom is in complete and utter chaos. I'll take a picture of it before I clean it up, just so you know. Who ever said that teachers get three months off during the year? Hmph.