Time to Start Writing Again (We'll see how this goes)

So our church time has gone to 9:00 and I find myself wasting my day away doing nothing. I don't have to write to Jordan on his mission anymore which was kind of like my journal for awhile so I decided that I would start blogging again. Really I don't expect anyone to read this except for me, but I was trying to remember something I had written in a post a loooong time ago and went back to some of my past posts. I saw pictures and stories about my cute little kids, who are no longer all that little and not really so cute as beautiful these days, and remembered how much I was enjoying writing the blog thing. So here I go again I will try blogging again for awhile.

A lot has happened since the last time I blogged. Some major events have happened I am currently the Relief Society President in my ward. Jordan has gone on and returned from a mission in Guatemala and I now teach in the 6th grade. (I love it by the way.) I guess I will talk about my teaching this time. I was teaching 5th grade with Linda Gladwell for a few years and then Linda got hurt in a car accident and was basically forced to retire. I wanted to just find a new partner and continue teaching in the 5th grade, but circumstances made that impossible. I was going to have to find part-time job at a different school than Pioneer elementary. I was worried. I knew everything was going to be okay, but I didn't know what to expect and that made me worried. Luckily for me the 6th grade teacher Mr. Jeffs had to retire at that time too in order to take care of a sick mother. I was able to take his spot in the 6th grade at Pioneer with my new partner Cassie Christensen (Scadden at the time).  I was so happy to be able to stay where I was comfortable. I started teaching with the team of Phil Nestoryak and Mike Skeen. Mike was coming back to work as a teacher for a couple of years after retiring from the district level. He was the one who originally found me a part-time position at Pioneer over 12 years ago. Both of these men were great teachers and a great team to work with. Mike always said I could have what ever I wanted and Phil was good at keeping us on track. I had a great class and I really enjoyed being in 6th grade. The next year Mike had become our Principal again and we got a new teacher to take his place. Mrs. Sadie DeMille. She has made teaching 6th grade a blast. We spent the year sharing science ideas back and forth. She would try things and share them then I would try things and share them with her. It is great working together. She makes me laugh, and she is really good at what she does. She has become a good friend of mine. This year Sadie is still there but Phil left to become an intern - soon to become a principal - so we have another new teacher, Hillary Jensen. She is also very good at what she does. I see her as a new teacher the way I was when I first started teaching. She is very good with her kids. She is a friend to them and they really seam to like her. She is also easy to talk to and the three of us makes a really great team. It will be interesting to see what happens next year.

Cassie, Sadie and me (Hillary was outside with her class)

Just this last Thursday we went on a field trip to the Environmental Center. It is a field trip the kids always seem to enjoy. We have had a really strange winter this year and the snow that has fallen has all melted away, but there was just enough snow this year to cross-country ski again this year. The kids love the skiing, even if they fall down again and again. They want to go keep going, but there is only enough skis for each class to have one rotation of 45 minutes worth of skiing, so while one class is skiing the other classes are snowshoeing or playing in the snow (sledding, digging etc.) Our class started with the playing in the snow this year.

Next we got to go skiing. I always get so nervous to ski. I have gone for the past five or six year skiing on President's Day at the Environmental Center and also for the past three years with school, but I still get nervous to go skiing. I crash at least once every year. You would think that by now I would be pretty good at it. I can only guess that it must be because I am getting old. It is really exciting to me, probably the most "X-factor" I get, for I have NO desire to ever go downhill skiing again. Those memories are too scary, but you can still convince me to cross-country ski. It is fun.

After lunch it was our classes turn to do snowshoeing. I was the leader. I didn't really want the job, but neither did anyone else. I was head up a hollow but knew the kids probably wanted to go up on the ridge. So I turned around and asked and they wanted to go up. So I made a right angle turn and started up the mountain. I got us past the small stream and started up the mountain. The kids were in a hurry to climb, but I realized that it was a pretty steep place to climb and decided we need to go back down the way we came for a little ways and then head up the mountain. The three kids were already halfway up the mountain. I figured we would all meet in the same place so I told them to get on the ridge and follow the ridge until we met. I then took the one student who decided to follow me and we went back and then up. We were the first to get to the top of that group. The others who were behind me decided they need to follow the original three and do things the hard way. One of the kids couldn't make it up the hard way. The others told him to go back and follow me, but he wouldn't have it. Eventually, unfortunately, he got left. Everyone else met on top. We took pictures and yelled at the mountain to hear the echo. We could hear Uriel yell too but we thought he was back down at the base of the mountain. We had to hurry down the mountain because the buses would be leaving soon. Two of the boys that had come the hard way went back to find Uriel. I got back to the lodge and thought I might find him there. He wasn't there. I was thinking about going back out to find him (and the other two) when I saw him hobbling back along the path, visibly upset. He met us and was NOT happy. Apparently he had gotten stuck. He had to take off his snowshoe (sneaker and all) to get out. Instead of stopping and putting it back on he had chosen to walk - sock footed on one foot - all the way back to the lodge. Luckily for him the snow was hard and packed (we really didn't need snowshoes this year). I reassured him that we would not have left him and that I was about to come and look for him, but he was pretty upset (and rightly so).  I look back on it now and he didn't get left all at once, but all of us - one at a time- left him. I felt really guilty. He was a great sport though. By school time on Friday he was laughing about it. He was still angry at his friends, but he was also laughing. I think it will be a memory - whether good or bad - for many years to come. I hope he will be able to laugh. I know I will.

"B" is for Barn

I know I have talked about this a little when I wrote my talk for Jan's funeral, but I wanted to make sure I said it all in more detail. The barn was a great place for playing when playing outside was required.

When I was little my best friend Jan and I would often play in the barn. Mom didn't really like us to play in the barn when it was full of hay, I guess she didn't want us falling off of the stacks of hay, but we did it anyway. We would climb to the top and rearrange the bales of hay to resemble an office or bedroom and play house or other similar game. Our favorite thing to play was "Charley's Angels." Jan was usually Kelly and I usually played Chris, because of our hair color. We would talk in the "office" and then we would climb down in an effort to go catch the bad guys on our bikes. I remember we liked to play this game all of the time, but it was embarrassing if my brother Todd ever caught us playing because he would tease us about it. So, I was always on the lookout for him. Todd wasn't very nice to his little sister. Luckily I had a friend who had no fear of the "Toidy Bowl Man" :)

The barn also housed our clubhouse. I wasn't the one who started that. I think Todd and Lesa were the ones who originally built it. It was in the side rafters where it was easy to climb up and into. Todd put up walls and Lesa painted them. Somewhere along the road it was deamed "The Plant Place." At one point we even tried to buy plants and pot them and sell them. It was fun to pot the plants, but I don't think it was a very booming business, because it didn't last (There isn't a whole lot of sun in the barn), but we had a great time trying.

The other thing we liked to do in the barn was find the new baby kittens when they were born. Actually, the kittens weren't too little by the time we would find them, They would be small, but usually their eyes were already opened. Our farm cat, Harveyetta, would find a nice quiet place in the barn to have here litter. Jan and I were determined to hold them as soon as we found out about them. I am not sure how we would find them, but when we did, we would sit outside the hole and try meowing like a cat, in an effort to have them hear us and think it was safe to come out. Sometimes we would be rewarded and one would stick its head out and we would pounce on the poor little thing, and we would cuddle it and probably maul the poor little thing to death. Usually Jan and I would argue about the sex of the said kitten, but neither of us knew how to tell. Heck, I didn't know our current cat, Mousse, was a boy until I took him to the vet for the first time. It usually came down to - if the kitten was cute, it must be a girl, and if it was ugly it was probably a boy. Sometimes we wouldn't have any success with the meowing thing so we would just sit for what seemed like hours waiting for one of them to make an appearance. When we did catch one we never took it away from their brothers and sisters or the barn, because we didn't want Harveyetta to move the whole litter, which she did sometimes. So we thought it was best to just love them there next to the hole. With kitten hunting there was never a dull moment, especially for an eight-year old.

Valerie's School Musical

Ever since Valerie got into junior high school, she has wanted to be in the school musical.  She started out in Mrs. Sowby's musical theater class and was really excited about it.  The musical was to be Seven Brides for Seven Brothers this year.  Mrs. Sowby recognized that she had a lot of talented young men this year and I am sure this was a deciding factor.  Valerie tried out and got called back for a second audition, one of only two seventh graders.  She didn't get a major part, but she was happy to be a "lady with flowers."  She has spent many days after school for rehearsals and this week we were able to see the outcome.  On Monday night we had a family picnic in the gym and then we were able to see the dress rehearsal.  The kids did a really good job.  It was a lot of fun, and the boys were especially good at singing their parts.  We saw it again on Thursday night and they were all getting pretty comfortable with their parts.  It everyone was getting better and better.  They boys especially, were really playing up their parts.  Jessica said when she saw it on Saturday there was a scene where the boys had to change their shirts on stage and one of them put his shirt on backwards.  He had done this on Thursday too, so we told her that he did it intentionally, but then Jessica said that on Saturday, he had to tell "Millie" he was stuck.  She said it was so funny she was crying.  I would have felt sorry for the kid, but it fit so well with the whole play that it didn't matter and he was really good to just keep playing his part.  It made for a lot of fun for the audience.  We got to see Valerie selling flowers to the "lead" and we got to see here dancing with her friends during the picnic scene. She did a great job.  She had tons of fun and really enjoyed the "after the performance" parties that she was included in.  I hope she chooses to do it again next year.  She loves doing it.

A is for Amy

For awhile now I've been stumped as to what to write on my blog.  I was hoping to update my blog once a week, but I find that a little difficult when I don't know what to write about.  So I decided on the weeks that I don't know what to write about ,I will use my alphabet list.  I made a list of things I remember about my childhood that represents each letter of the alphabet and I will write about them, so here it goes. 
"A" is for Amy.  When my family was deciding what to name me they had pretty much decided on the name Heidi Gwen Higley, but when I was born, the doctor said I looked like an Amy.  I don't know why he would say it, if it was because he had been told the name Heidi and then forgot and thought it was Amy, or if he just thought I truly looked like an Amy.  I don't know what the reasons were, but my parents decided they liked it and Heidi was changed to Amy, and I am glad because I love my name, Amy.  My middle name is Gwen after my Grandma Griffin.  It has always been an honor for me to be named after my Grandma.  I didn't know her very well, but I feel I have a connection with her.  My name is very special to me.

A Beautiful Day at the Manti Temple

Our friends Tammie and Troy Nichols were getting sealed to their families eternally in the Manti temple last weekend.  We were blessed to be able to be a part of it.  Tammie and Troy wanted us to be there.  When they first asked us to come, I have to admit that I didn't know why we had to go clear to Manti, but it was Tammie's favorite temple and so gratefully we went.  And I am so glad we did.

Dale and I had been there before about 15 years ago jsut after the Manti Pagent, and I think it went under appriciated.  Yesterday was a whole different story.  I enjoyed the ENTIRE event. From the time we entered the temple until the time we left the temple grounds I just soaked it all in.  Fifteen years ago I think I was tired and I remember thinking, "How much longer is this session going to last?"  This time was a whole different story.  Surrounded by friends we waited in the chapel.  I watched Tammie and Troy come in and I was so excited for them and thought about how new all of this was for them.

The temple was so beautiful.  I looked at each window, bench, detailed wooden banister, doorknob, and hinge.  Each mural on each different wall was so beautifully done.  I thought of the talented people who painted them and was grateful for to them for shareing their talents.  Also the borthers and sisters who were performing the live session were very good.  I heard and learned things that I hadn't heard and learned before.

Tammie and Troy's sealing was beautiful too.  I am so happy they can be a forever family. It was really amazing to see their family all dressed in white and kneeling at as a family at the alter.  It was a special moment for them, and a special moment for me.

Once we were outside it was warm even for a February day, the sun was shining and the blue sky was a blazing.  Dale and I walked around the temple grounds and just enjoyed being with each other.  What a wonderful feeling.  It was a great way to spend Valentine's Day weekend.