2/28/13

Hi,

I just thought I'd fill you in on a new happening here at home. I am now an official Davis School District employee, working for 1 1/2 hours each morning in Terri Wall's (Aubrey's) 6th grade class, as a teacher's aide. This has come about in quite an interesting way, and I feel that it is really an answer to a lot of pondering and some prayers. I have always kept my teachers license current all these 29 years since I left my teaching career for my mom career. But last spring I let it lapse, because it has gotten so expensive to take the necessary classes and pay the fees to renew the license. After it lapsed, Terri Wall approached me about the possibility of teaching a half day this year with her. The enrollment numbers were such that there was a possibility they would do a " 2 classes in the morning and one class in the afternoon" thing and she said that I was the one she would want to teach with. (This was a huge compliment to me because I have such respect for Terri as a person and as a teacher.) As it turned out, they didn't end up going with that plan, but it got me thinking. I didn't have a current license,, so I would have had to do everything to renew the license, AND learn the curriculum, AND learn how the schools work these days. Things are much different now in the teaching profession than they were back in 83-84. (Back in those dark ages, Roy Elementary was still using a ditto machine,, if you know what that is, rather than a copy machine.)

 

Then when Dad and I went to the girls' parent teacher conferences in the fall, the teachers were rattling off all these tests that the students had been given, and how to read them and what they meant. After the conference I commented to Dad how they didn't do any of those tests when I taught. I started to think that I should renew my license. It's always been a part of our life insurance plan for me to be able to step right back into teaching if the need arose. But while pondering all this for months and months, I realized that if any emergency were to arise where I needed to go quickly back to teach full time, I would be in way over my head. I would be dealing with the emotions of the emergency and helping our family to deal with those emotions, and also be learning a brand new way of teaching.

 

I was also trying to find the cheapest way possible to get the 100 points that I need to renew my license and I found out that I can count time working as an aide for 25 points per year for up to two years. So half my points could be earned without paying to take classes, and I could get paid a little in the process. Then, a little more than a week ago, I got a call from Terri. She has had about 5 new students move in recently and her class is up to 35 kids. The district had approved an aide for her class for 1 1/2 hours a day, and would I be interested. Well, I felt like I had been handed that opportunity on a platter. So I did all the necessary paperwork with the district and began this past Monday. I work from 9-10:30 every school morning, which is perfect because I still have a good chunk of time before the kids get home to accomplish things and spend time with G&G P.

 

It's been really good for me. It's a steep learning curve as I learn all the computer input stuff. So much is done on the computer and you all know how natural I am on the computer! But I am learning and getting faster. I am learning so much just being in Terri's class and watching how she runs her class. She is extremely well organized and she runs a tight ship, but she always speaks very calmly, but firmly and with respect to the students. When she first approached me, I asked Aubrey first of all how she would feel about me being there, and she was excited. That kind of suprised me. I thought she might have a problem with me being there.

 

So I am back in the schools, observing and working with and learning from an excellent teacher. I'm learning how the schools run, all about the testing, the computer, the grading system. I'm getting to know the kids in Aubrey's class. I'm earning points to renew my license. I think I can take the professional development classes that the teachers take for a very nominal fee now that I'm an employee, to get the rest of my points, and I'm earning a small paycheck each month, which always helps.

 

Anyway, I didn't mean for this to be an epistle, but wanted you to know what's been going on in my mind for the last little while.

 

I love you all,

Mom

02/17/11

Hi everyone,
After four days of spring like weather and Aubrey being able to wear shorts to school, the snow hit again last night. We went into Salt Lake to Kingsbury Hall for Viewmont's Broadway concert and it was WINTER when we came out. Snow swirling everywhere and hard to see the lane lines on the freeway on the way home.
Back to the concert, Blake had a most excellent solo. The sophomore choir sang a medley from Anastasia and Blake soloed in the Life is a Journey song. Aubrey and Tyler weren't with us. Their Jr. Jazz teams had tickets to the Jazz game. Levi was with friends, so it was Dad, Lauren, me, G&G Peterson and Williams.

Levi has an appt. with an Orthopaidic Dr. on Monday. He's getting close to turning in his mission papers, but his knee is clicking and hurting a little. This is from a cross country ski injury he had back in 9th or 10th grade. He had dismissed it as not important to mention when he went for his mission physical, but one of his friends is having to postpone his mission call because of knee problems, so Levi decided he better check his knee situation out before he turns in his papers. We are praying the doctor will be inspired to know what, if anything needs to be done. Dad thinks that if something is needed it will be a minor arthroscopic repair that will heal within a few weeks.

We celebrated Lauren's birthday last week and she had a good time. We had 12 girls over on her birthday and it was wild. A lot of action, noise and requests for help with the craft. I had underestimated the age ranges (we had kindergarten-3rd graders) and ability levels so I was trying to help a lot of girls with the craft by myself. I learned that I should have not done the craft or had another adult to help me. But the girls had a great time. The favorite activity was dividing into groups of two with one girl wrapping the other girl up from head to toe with a roll of t.p and making her into a snowman, complete with crepe paper scarf, eyes, buttons, etc. After we took pictures they unwrapped and shredded the t.p., tossing it in the air so it looked like the midnight celebration on New Years Eve. It was a great time.

We hope all is well with all of you. McKay, best wishes as you defend your thesis tomorrow. You are in our thoughts and prayers. Good luck to Katie, Clark, Becca and Nathan in your classes and work. And to Kyson, we love to see you on skype and we're so excited to see your antics in person when you come the end of March.

I love all of you,
Mom

11/17/2010

Hello to all,
One week from tomorrow is Thanksgiving, if you can believe it! We will have 28 people here: G&G Peterson, the Bastians, the Merrills, us (including Becca and Nathan), and probably Matt Peterson, and maybe his brother, Ryan. So I'm trying to decide where we will seat everyone. I am very excited to see my sisters and to laugh and hear their stories. The kids reminded me tonight at dinner about Aunt Julie's true experience the first time she went with the youth to the new Twin Falls temple, and accidentally walked into the men's dressing/shower room at the baptistry. I got laughing pretty hard remembering her story and I can't wait to have her tell it again. It is hilarious!

The youth in our ward went to the temple tonight to do baptisms, so Dad, Blake and Tyler got to do that. We are so lucky to live so close to the temple. Now that Lauren is in school, I have been trying to go to the temple twice a month on my own, and Dad and I go once a month together. The first and third Tuesday of the month I help out in Lauren's and Aubrey's classes at school and then I go visit my parents. The other two Tuesdays, I try to go to the temple before I visit G&G. This last weekend Dad and I went to dinner out in West Jordan and then we went to the Jordan River temple where we were married almost 28 years ago.

When I was visiting G&G on Tuesday, Grandpa asked me to help him put up their outdoor Christmas lights. So I was ready to climb up on the ladder, but he had other plans. He climbed the ladder and connected the lights, and my job was to steady the ladder and uncoil the lights for him. He went up and down the ladder over and over and over again- from the roof over the front porch, clear east to the end of the house. He is an amazing 80 year old!

Dad's sisters and G Williams sang in our ward on Sunday. We sang a medley of Teach Me to Walk in the Light and The Light Divine. But, of course, nothing ever goes smoothly as planned. I was sitting in our usual spot on the second row with our kids and Keon and Tanaeya. The rest of the Williams clan was on the left side, 3 and 4 rows from the back, because some of them had to leave as soon as we sang. I was enjoying the meeting just fine until I noticed Tabitha (who had come to tend Julie's Jaden and baby Mikelle while Julie sang) squatting next to our bench in the middle of the meeting. She whispered that Jaden had thrown up and Julie needed to leave fast and she needed Keon and Tanaeya to come quick. Apparently in the middle of the first talk Jaden had urgently told Julie that he needed to go to the bathroom. She barely got him in there when he threw up in the toilet. thank goodness. Then they came out into the foyer and Julie was trying to decide what to do, when he said he had to do it again. So they ran back to the bathroom, where he hit the spot again. Now Julie knew they had to leave before we sang, but her baby and two other kids where in the chapel. So she opened the door and tried to get her sister's attention three rows up. Laura brought Mikelle out and Tabitha fetched the other two. Jaden threw up on the way home in the car into a bag. And we sang without Julie. Never a dull moment!

We are hosting a bishopric party here on Friday night. Sweet Pork Burritos! The Sharps are in charge of games. This is for the whole bishopric, so I think we'll have about 16 people here. It will be fun!\

For FHE this week, we went to visit Matt Brown. He was just home from the hospital after having a ruptured appendix and emergency appendectomy. We visited the Browns for a little  while. Then we took our report cards to Krispy Kreme where they give you 1/2 dozen glazed doughnuts for each good report card. Then we went to visit Steven and Lacie to see their new house. A fun night!

I need to go pick up Blake from his friend's house where he just finished watching the BYU basketball game. He has applied to work at Dicks Market and just went back today to let them know he's still interested when there's an opening. It pained him to put on a pair of jeans and a polo shirt to do the job thing.He has worn basketball shorts and a tee shirt to school every single day this year, except for a few football game days when the coach prescribed other clothes they had to wear.
I keep telling the boys that it is okay to not be as comfortable as you are in your pajamas, but they don't believe me.

I love you all,
Mom

10/27/2010

Happy Wednesday everyone,
I used to send a family update to all of you who are away from home and I realized that I haven't done that for awhile.

We have snow on our roof! We've had rain and a little snow and a good hard frost at night the last few nights. Just a little snow on the ground across the street. I picked our last tomatoes from the garden before the storm hit and we picked the grapes and made grape juice. I'm not ready for winter yet, though. It's supposed to get back in the 60's this weekend. Yeah!

Blake's last football game was last week, but Tyler is still going strong. His last regular season game in Saturday in Park City, and then playoffs begin. Aubrey and Lauren finished soccer a few weeks ago.

Tyler's fall concert was last night at CJH and it brought back many fond memories of all of you over the years. McKay, you didn't sing in the CJH choir but you did art and there were art displays in The Blue so we thought of you, too. Blake's VHS fall concert is tonight, so we'll think of all of you again.

Our family Halloween party was on Monday night. G&G Peterson came over (the Williams were at Megan Brown's birthday party.) We had dinner and then we played Pin the Nose on the Pumpkin and Halloween Bingo. We all got a good laugh when it was Grandpa's turn for Pin the Nose. He was blindfolded, going toward the entertainment center where the pumpkin was taped,but he veered to the left and started down the hall toward the bathroom. I think he would have gone all the way down the hall, except that his arm brushed the wall, so he stuck his nose there. We carved our pumpkins that night and bobbed for apples, of course, too. Grandpa was remembering how the boys would put ice in the big apple bobbing bucket. Treats were doughnut holes and apple cider. A good time with lots of memories of when we would go to the Peterson's house for the party. It makes me sad to think of those days and to see how much Grandma's heath has deteriorated since then. When I get the supplies for the Halloween party out of the box and see things in Grandma's handwriting it makes me teary. (Grandma gave me all her stuff for the Halloween party a few years ago.)

We are hosting Thanksgiving dinner this year. We will have the Bastians and the Merrills with us, along with G&G Peterson.
The third weekend in December will be a fun one. The Wyatts and McKay fly in on Sunday, Dec.19, and Levi will move home that weekend, too. Becca and Nathan, we're still hoping you fly out of Salt Lake, so we can all be together for a little while.

We hope all is going well for each of you. I love you!
Mom

9/17/09

McKay, Katie and Clark, and Becca,
I thought I'd catch you up on some of the comings and goings of the family. My intent is to do this each week- an up to date email to you and a page in our family journal for me.

We are in the middle of fall sports. Levi and Aubrey are playing soccer. They both play on Tuesday nights and Levi also plays on Saturdays. Blake and Tyler are loving football. They practice 3x a week and have Saturday games. Dad also works on Saturdays until about 2:00. So you can see that Saturdays get a little crazy.  I usually rotate which of the boys games to go to.

Levi also tries to support every sporting event connected with VHS. He has appointed himself the most vocal fan position and apparently he and his friends have been asked by the administration and people from the other team on several occassions to tone it down or leave. They have a "senior couch" that they haul around in Isaac's truck and sit on at the games. Once he was in charge of tending Lauren one afternoon when there was a girl's soccer game, so he took her with him. She came home all excited because she got to sit on the senior couch with Levi and Isaac. They had food, too, she said. Life is never dull when Levi is around. Even when I'm mad at him, I sometimes end up laughing because he is so darn off the wall.

Lauren is in kindergarten and it was a little emotional for me. 25 years is a long time to be raising children full time at home. I was glad that Becca was with me the day we walked her to her first real day of kindergarten, or I think I might have cried all the way home. Even with Becca with me I still got a bit  teary. There have definitely been ups and downs and lots of hard times. I had many days when I thought I was loosing my mind, especially when the three of you were little and still so dependant on me. By the time Levi came along I had gained the perspective which is one of my philosophies of life: "Enjoy the good and tolerate the bad, because neither one lasts forever.'  As I walked home from leaving Lauren at school that first real day, I thought how there is nothing I would rather have been doing for the past 25 years than raising my wonderful children. It's like the day I nursed Lauren for the last time and I was counting up all the hours, which translated into literally weeks, possibly more than a month, worth of time that I had spend nursing babies and I thought there is nothing I would rather have been doing with my time than having that precious time with my babies. So it was a bit emotional to send her off, and still it tugs at my heart every morning as I watch Aubrey and Lauren and the 3 Carr girls riding their bikes up the street to school, but I have to tell you. I am loving having a few hours each morning to get things done!

McKay taught me how to change the oil in the suburban this summer. Well that time under the car came in handy on Tuesday when Lauren and I were at the Peterson's house visiting. We got in the car to go home and the car wouldn't start. The engine didn't turn over or anything. Frank from next door came over and we determined that the battery was fine. He thought it might be the starter motor. Then another neighbor came over and said the same thing. They both said that if it is a problem with the starter motor, if you get under the car and hit the starter motor, you often can get the car started enough to take it into the shop. They tried to get under the car, but were too big. So I said that I would get under the car. My son had just taught me how to change the oil so I knew I could fit. So I shimmied under the car and followed their directions to the starter motor, but it didn't do the trick. Grandma was extremely impressed when I dropped to the ground and slid under the car. She hasn't stopped talking about it! Anyway, we had to have the car towed to the shop and hopefully it will be ready today. Oh, well, it's just money. What would I do with it if I didn't have to repair a car?

Our sister reunion starts next Wednesday. All of us can hardly wait! Julie will drive down and pick me up and then we'll go to the airport to pick up Lisa and Jeanette. And then we'll go to the Petersons to have a sleepover and laugh and giggle like 4 immature Beehives. We made sure that the hotel in Park City has a swimming pool (for Aunt Julie) and a microwave and store on sight for Aunt Jeanette's midnight cravings for microwave popcorn, and the outlet stores close by for Aunt Lisa. And for me, I don't care what we do because I just like all the laughing we do.

I hope you are all well. Dad and I pray for each of you several times a day and think of you so often. I love you each very much.
Love,
Mom

7/22/09--Martin's Cove

Katie and Clark,
Just a quick note to tell you about Martin's Cove. In chronological order, of course. We left Saturday afternoon after Ty got home from Scout camp. We stopped at Little America for a bathroom stop and got ice cream cones. We thought of you because we were with you there about 2 months ago now. The drive to Martins Cove seemed much shorter than our drive of 11 hours to the Black Hills. No major meltdowns from Lauren. Yeah! We got to Missionary Village- that's the campground where we camped before and where the missionaries have their trailers-about 7:00. Grandma and Grandpa had arranged for us to stay in a mobile home there at missionary village. It had 2 bedrooms, living room, kitchen, bathroom. It was nice to stay there and not be dusty and dirty. Plus it was nice to have the extra space so we all could visit and eat together. We ate dinner that night and just stayed there to visit. McKay slept on a pull out bed in Grandma and Grandpa's trailer. Aubrey and Lauren slept in a double bed in one room, Dad and I had the other room and Becca, Levi, Blake and Ty slept in the living room.

On Sunday we went to church with G&G. It was fun to see how they live there. Church was in a log building with cement floors and folding chairs. Becca told Lauren that we were in church, and Lauren said, "this isn't church!" Grandma and I went to Primary with the girls for a while. The boys went to Sunday School with the youth. Missionaries are called to teach Primary and youth Sunday School classes.  The young women go with the women to R.S. and the Priesthood all met together for their lesson. The girls were hesitant to go to Primary, but there were only 6 kids there total. They kept everyone together and showed a cool movie called A Pioneer Miracle. They had Singing Time. Then after Grandma and I left to go to R.S. the Primary made covered wagons out of Rice Krispie treats, marshmallow, round crackers, etc. The girls each got a Prarie Diamond ring, which is a ring made out of a hammered flat nail. They got a fabric bag to put rocks they collect in and a necklace made out of left over handcart wood  with the Martin's Cove handcart insignia on it. Needless to say, the girls were very excited and impressed with Primary!

After church we went to the missionary potluck dinner. They do it every Sunday after church with all the missionaries and their guests. After that we went to the visitors center and watched the movie there. We changed our clothes and decided a walk to Devils Gate would be a good Sunday activity. So we walked right over to it down by the water. The girls were with us and G&G, but the 5 older kids went climbing on some rocks. After a while, G&G headed back with the girls and Dad and I went to find the kids, watching for rattlesnakes all the way, because there are a lot of rattlesnakes there. G&G have seen about 10 of them so far. When Julie and Mike and their family were there trekking to the Cove with their handcart, Landon saw one. They got to see the missionaries kill it with a shovel. Anyway Dad and I finally saw the kids, right as they were stripping down to jump in the Sweetwater River. They were pretty far ahead, right in the middle of Devils Gate. Tyler even stripped down to his boxers. Becca was trying to be the mother and keep everyone under control, but finally gave up and jumped in with them.

When we all got back to where G&G and the girls were, come to find out, no one is supposed to swim in that part of the Sweetwater River, even when it's not the Sabbath. There was a sign, but the kids either didn't see it or ignored it. All the kids were dripping wet, except Tyler. Grandma jokingly said that it looked like Tyler was the only one going to the celestial kingdom. I told her he was dry only because he was the only one who stripped down to his boxers to swim. Next we drove a few miles to Independance Rock. We were going to climb to the top, but there was a big wind and lightning storm, so we didn't think that was a good idea.

Monday we were at the visitors center by 8:30 a.m. because we knew it was going to be hot. We got a handcart and began our trek. We were the only ones on the trail that early, so it was nice. The kids went ahead and Dad and I stayed back to walk slower with G&G. Aubrey did pretty good on the way up to the cove, but Lauren complained most of the way if she wasn't riding in the handcart and Aubrey complained the whole way back. The spirit in the cove was beautiful, It is so touching to me all the sacrifices the pioneers made. I could have stayed there all day. Some time I want to go back and go to all the places- Martin's Cove, the place the Willie party was stranded in when the rescuers found them, Rocky Ridge, etc. On the way back G&G took us the way the youth trekkers go and we got to ford the Sweetwater River with the handcart. Then they took us upstream a ways so the kids could play in the river. We had a picnic when we got back. I just tried to imagine me as one of the pioneers, if Dad had died and I didn't have the older kids and how I would have made it in all that snow with little kids. It is nothing short of a miracle that anyone survived. On the way back we went past three statues that are new since we were there 5 years ago. They are monuments to the 4 young men from the valley who carried the freezing people across the Sweetwater River. Over and over they went carrying people across. It was so touching to me to see those statues and look at McKay and Levi and think that those young men were 17-21 years old. I think our boys would have done that to help freezing people, too.

We packed and cleaned our trailer after that and went to G&G trailer to cook our dinner. We ate outside their trailer on a little grassy spot, said goodbye and then started for home, stopping again at Little America for another ice cream cone.  It was a great vacation. Orbit finally let Becca have a day off, so she was able to have her first vacation of the summer.

We thought of you often. On the way home we read a  lot of "Fire of the Covenant" and it was cool because we read the part about Devils Gate and Independance Rock and we had just been there. The kids were also casting our family members in different movies and they decided that you, Katie, would be Belle and I can't remember the part they gave to Clark, maybe it was the candlestick. Then they cast us in Lord of the Rings, but I'm not familar enough with that movie to remember the parts they gave to you. I tell you that so you know that even when you're not with us, you are with us in our hearts. We think about you and talk about you often.

Last night we went to the Oquirrh mountain temple open house. It was beautiful!

I love you both very much!
Mom