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cinderella: the trip
Friday night was the fulfillment of a dream for my Blythie. She has dreamed of becoming a ballerina for pretty much her whole life. I have never been able to make ballet classes happen for her until this year…and now she is in whole-hog. She dances for two hours a night, three nights a week. It has overtaken our life and has been an amazing experience to see her progress so quickly. She was moved into the advanced class after three short weeks in the beginning class and was invited to go on pointe soon after that. However, we were hesitant to allow her to do so and wanted her muscles and ligaments to have more time to strengthen before we allowed her to walk around on her toes. Her Christmas presents this year were The Barefoot Book of Ballet Stories, a gift certificate for pointe shoes, and a gift certificate to see Ballet West perform Cinderella.
Well, Friday night was the night for the ballet in the big city. Her friend Madison received the Ballet West trip for Christmas as well and both Madi and Blythe allowed Keziah and her friend, Courtney to attend with them. We left gym a little bit early and drove the 3+ hours down to Salt Lake City and met my mom, Mikelle, Easton, and Oaklyn for dinner at our favorite place, The Old Spaghetti Factory. Then we rushed over to The Capitol Theater for the ballet. What an experience! People were in fancy-schmancy fur coats and elaborate evening gowns. The girls’ eyes looked to be popping out of their heads as they looked at all the beautiful architectural designs throughout the building. The ballet was so lovely…hilarious and inspiring and beautiful all at the same time. My favorite part was listening to them shriek with amazement at the different moves they were seeing because through the last six months of classes, they have learned how difficult those moves really are.
We only had Keziah’s little camera with us and the lighting was terrible, so these pictures aren’t the best, but they will have to do.
Staring at the Ballet West sign
The artwork alley right outside Ballet West – Courtney is a little bit of a goofball sometimes..
Posing in the Capital Theater.
A fancy chair in the balcony, terrible lighting, but they loved this set-up.
On the staircase.
They are a lil’ bit excited.
They died over the ceiling and chandelier.
The next day a massive snowstorm hit Salt Lake City and we drove very slowly to the Salt Lake Temple and spent several hours there doing baptisms for my ancestors. It was such a lovely experience. I met a wonderful woman who I am sure is going to become a dear friend and loved spending time with all four of “my girls” in the place I love best.
After we finished at the temple I took the girls to Gardner Village. I haven’t been there since I was a young lass and it was so fun to introduce these girls to the special shops that I fell in love with long ago. The quilt shop was full of fun sayings that I want to stitch up and put all over my house. Don’t you love these:
Cinderella is proof that a pair of shoes can change your life.
Or how about…
The roots of a family tree begin with two hearts aflutter.
And I love this one…
It takes each of us to make a difference for all of us.
I think this needs to be shouted from the rooftops…
Love isn’t something you fall into . . . it’s something you grow forever.
This was on a quilted wall-hanging that I wanted to bring right home with me.
To capture a miracle, you must first believe.
This one was in the antique shop on the back of a church pew. Mother Teresa is full of win.
There is a net of love by which you can catch souls.
And I think Jennifer needs to hang this on her wall outside her awesome sewing room.
Welcome To Our Sewcial Lounge
The girls went from store to store trying on scarves and shoes. They fell in love with these shoes.
And these ones.
And especially these ones.
I’m not at all sure if Courtney liked these glasses or not.
But I think she loves this pillow.
I don’t think the girls were supposed to make themselves at home on the beds and couches, but they right comfy, don’t they?
What was Madi doing?
Was she really this tired?
Courtney got back into the swing of things. Here is she kicking up her heels.
This store had awesome lacy, ruffle shirts on clearance for $5.99. Of course, we all had to stock up. And I’m pretty sure Kez and Court spent some time at that fudge shop in the back.
They got a huge kick out of the ducks wandering the premises.
Especially this one with a “hat” on his head.
I went to the Storybook shop and used my 25% off coupon to get Tell Me A Story Cards. Goodness, these are fun! They are similar to the Story Cubes I used last year in Zing!, my writing class, but tons better, especially for the younger set. You lay out the lovely picture and then create a fairy tale to go with the pictures. We are loving these! I couldn’t resist this Mix & Match 1-2-3: A Touch and Trace Counting Book. Annesley and I have had a blast counting planes, trains, and teddys. She loves making sure all four quarter-pages match. I love the traceable numbers, dots in sets of five, and the engaging activities.
After the fun at Gardner Village, we rushed over to Hale Centre Theatre for Chitty Chitty Bang Bang. It was FANTABULOUS! If you are anywhere near Utah, go to this show! We laughed so hard at the actor’s antics. A trip to Hale wasn’t in our plans this time, but thanks to half-price tickets and a last-minute cancellation by one of their season ticket holders, we were able to get in off the waiting list. Hint: just because a show says sold out online doesn’t mean it is so. It just means there are less than twenty seats available. Call anyway!
When we got out of the play at 7 p.m., we found a wet, messy, blizzard had taken over the roads. Everything was so, so slick and cars were off the road all over the place. We made the choice to stay over another night to avoid driving home in pure craziness. We headed back to Jessica’s parents for another night in their home full of love and I think this time the girls got some sleep. We were up early the next morning to head up to Idaho in time for church, but we still didn’t make it. I arrived in the nick of time to teach my Relief Society lesson on faith, but the other girls missed their meetings. Drat it all!
What a fun, fun trip! I love taking these girls on adventures and am so grateful their families are willing to let me steal them every now and again for these magical experiences. I am grateful to have daughters that love theater, culture, the temple, and spending time with me. I am so blessed.
hearts and brains
I love this picture so much. Mary Engelbreit is one of my favorite artists and her whimsical style always brings a smile to my face. This year I have her calendar on the wall in my kitchen and I am actually changing over the months in a timely manner (versus last year when I changed from April to October right before Halloween!). February features this Follow Your Heart picture and has had me thinking all month long.
Something about these words has worked its way down deep in my soul. I have thought and thought and thought about the balance between heart following and brain following, about reason vs. faith, about logic vs. passion, and have decided there is no “versus.” At least there doesn’t need to be. We don’t need to have reason or faith. We don’t need to have a heart or a brain. We need to have both. At least I do. I am most happy when my logic and my passion take me to the same result, but that doesn’t always happen, so I try to navigate my way through this life with both sides of me working together.
I taught at church on Sunday on this talk and was so grateful for the picture of airplane wings working together gave me.
Bearing in mind that faith and reason are necessary companions, consider the following analogy: faith and reason are like the two wings of an aircraft. Both are essential to maintain flight. If, from your perspective, reason seems to contradict faith, pause and remember that our perspective is extremely limited compared with the Lord’s. Do not discard faith any more than you would detach a wing from an aircraft in flight. Instead, nurture a particle of faith and permit the hope it produces to be an anchor to your soul — and to your reason.
Isn’t that a beautiful visual? Both parts are necessary. Both can work together to help us find peace. I want my airplane to fly with my heart and my brain.
one year later and wiser, too
Wednesday, February 20 marked the one year anniversary of my labral tear (if you would like to read the whole story of my injury, here is the archive of all the hip posts). I wanted to commemorate this time…I needed to commemorate this time to bring me some sort of okay-ness about having a whole year pass by and me still being injured. For the past week or more I had been living in a deep, dark hole of despair that year after year after year will pass by and I will continue to have hip pain, continue to be unable to do the things I yearn to do, and continue to be unable to have a baby.
So, on Tuesday I made a decision to cut my hair. If I was feeling frumpy and grumpy, I figured, at least I could look cute on the outside. Then I decided to throw a Hippie Party for myself and as many friends as could come. Then I decided to attend the temple.
All good choices, but I couldn’t figure out how on earth I would have the energy for all of them. Somehow it all worked out. Tuesday I was able to get in with my friend Becky’s stylist at the very last minute and she did a great job cutting my hair while I propped myself up in her chair on two large pillows. Wednesday I attended the temple and had a precious experience with the Lord. Thursday a whole gang of hippies devoured seven PARTY size gator bites.
It was exactly what I needed. I needed to tame my hair, re-covenant with the Lord that I was still committed to doing the work He has asked me to do with my ancestors, and laugh myself silly with my friends.
I am feeling much more at peace about being at the year mark and still being injured. I am learning to accept that this may be my life. I may always have this hip injury and the resulting pain and inability to do all the things I want. I am not thrilled at that idea, but I am learning to have some measure of peace about it.
I have learned a lot over the past year. Lessons I want to remember forever…lessons I don’t want to try to remember, but instead hope they have become part of my soul and will serve me for the rest of my life.
- God knows me.
- God loves me.
- My Richard is full of love for me and will do anything to help me.
- My children are strong.
- Pain is a humbling affliction.
- Pain turns me to the Lord.
- Pain gets really old, really quick, changes perceptions and behaviors, and I need to have compassion on others who are hurting, physically or spiritually.
- Laughter is good for my soul.
- We are not human beings having a spiritual experience, we are spiritual beings having a human experience.
- God can heal me. My job is to trust Him.
- My ancestors know me.
- My ancestors love me.
- My family of aunts, uncles, and cousins is amazing and full of support and love for me.
- Healing is a process, both physically and spiritually.
- The power of God is real.
- Priesthood blessings can and do work miracles.
- My support network of friends and family is absolutely wonderful. When I think back on the past year of service I have been given I am completely overwhelmed with tears of gratitude. I have been fed, clothed, driven, held, prayed for, loved, cleaned for, hugged, and anything else I have needed for the past twelve months. Thank you, thank you, thank you. Every single act of kindness has been recorded in my heart and has got me through many dark days.
- Immersing myself in the word of God brings peace.
- Spending time in the temple brings joy.
- Reality is not always what it seems to be.
- Some things are unexplainable with our mortal minds.
- Miracles happen. Daily.
- Clean sheets can transform me.
- Life goes on in spite of what is going on in my individual life.
- Little things make a big difference in my ability to cope. I want to be one of those little things for others who are struggling to cope as well.
- Jesus’ atonement is the only thing I really, really need. Coming to depend solely on Him is what I am here to learn.
- The covenants made in the house of the Lord change souls.
- Love always wins.
- God is teaching me and will continue to do so so I can grow in His ways.
- Living in the moment is a much better plan than living in fear of the future.
- There are seasons in our lives. I can learn and grow in each season of my life instead of wishing to be in a different season.
- Teaching my children is a precious stewardship.
- My marriage is a gift from God and I need to treat it as such. Richard is such a special treasure and I am blessed beyond measure to have him as my eternal companion. His love for me has created in me a new being and enabled me to fully trust God and give Him my heart.
Now for some pictures from our awesome Hippie Party. Everyone dressed up as a hippie (except for Joy, who is dressed up as a Scout, having rushed over from Den Meeting!) wrote on my poster board, laughed hysterically at the memories of this past year, and ate loads of delicious gator bites (little potatoes cooked in some secret manner and covered in cheese AND bacon – I don’t eat pork, but on gator bites I thoroughly enjoy the bacon – and then dipped in gator sauce). So much fun! Every time Kat and Jessica share the pee incident on the MRI trip, I die laughing. They are so, so funny. Now, these pictures are pretty funny…please laugh and give yourself a little joy. And yes, I know I look ridiculous…and my shirt makes me look pregnant…or maybe I have really gained that much weight in the past year…who knows?
Yes, it is blurry, but I love it so much. Kat and Jessica are dying that I am so loud and flamboyant.
A lot of our group, but not all…
Sherry
Gary and Kari (if you are local and need your car cleaned, Gary is amaze-balls!
Just ignore all those red eyes, I will fix them later…I love this photo of Sarah, Kat, Jess, Amy, and moi.
Jess and Amy
Everyone wrote love notes to me – thank you, your words bring me so much joy! Yes, I have awesome friends…
Then Keri gave me the most beautiful green (my favorite color of the moment) wooden bowl that her husband made. She shared some lovely thoughts with me about knots and nots and strength and beauty and filled my soul with her wisdom. I could listen to Keri and her heart-shaped words every single day.
Ready for the superhero moment? Some secret someone stole my bill for the seven party-size gator bites and PAID for them all! How fun is that! Whoever you are, THANK YOU! You totally made my night!
Thank you to everyone who has helped me this year. Thank you for your prayers, your time, and most of all, your hearts. I don’t think I could have gotten through this year without everyone’s love – it has made all the difference.
I love you all!
a new do
This morning I wrote to my friends and said “Sooo, I have been feeling dumpy, lumpy, frumpy, and grumpy. I am thinking of getting my hair done like this…including the color. Thoughts? Am I pixie enough to pull it off or is my face shape all wrong? Or am I just too old to be cute anymore and I need to start looking at matronly styles? If so, what are your suggestions?
Here is the hair cut I was considering…I am in love with it. I love everything about it. The cut, the color, the girl’s beautiful skin. Couldn’t I just pay someone a bajillion bucks to transform me into this?
My friends responded with encouragement and tips on color (keep it dark, they all said) and suggestions for stylists since this NEEDED to be done today and my darling stylist, Mikelle, has moved herself four hours away from me.
Jessica, however, gave me a whole earful of helpful advice. I can’t stop laughing hysterically over it and must share it with you all because you might need some hair help (matronly OR not) just as badly as I do.
“Top L-R: 1. The first one is always nice, you don’t even need a clip on hair wig to create the minimal, conservative beehive with flip. 2. For the next one, you’ll need a perm, but just think of the low maintenance. And you’ll have a soft pillow wherever you go. 3. This one is just perfect for the younger mother, just crossing over into matronly-dom. All you need are some side wings and some light as air, teased bangs. 4. I know lots of moms just love the Donny Osmond helmet head. It’s a great option, and keeps your forehead and ears warm through the winter.
Middle L-R: 1. The queen of all matrons everywhere. What could be more classic? 2. The wanna-be queen of matrons everywhere. All you need is a pixie with a mullet. Hot diggity dog. 3. An impressive beehive always says ‘matriarch’ to me. 4. I had this haircut when I was six. My mom must have gotten confused, because surely donut-heads are only for mothers of advanced age.
Bottom L-R: 1. Lucy and Ethel. Matrons everywhere still copy this hairstyle. It requires a weekly trip to the salon to sit under the heat, and then sleeping carefully on a satin pillow in a hairnet. Perfect for your active lifestyle. 2. When all else fails. 3. Because his lipstick and hint of some denim apron something or other makes me laugh.
So. Just pick one of those, and I’ll get you a floral housecoat and pink fuzzy slippers and you’ll be all set to sail into your old, matronly, non-cute world. Since you’re only what, like a year older than me, I’ll prepare to retire my rainbow assortments of jeans and prepare to crop my hair as well. Perhaps I should do the Mrs. Brady since I’ve already got the mullet length. Does this mean we’re signing up for Bingo next year?
All silliness aside, including your email, how could your face shape be wrong? That looks just like the a-line cut you and I both had. I love your hair dark, too, but I’m biased. Whatever makes you happy, and that haircut is cute on both of us, Annesley and B. agree, remember?”
Isn’t she the funniest person ever? Oh, she brought a smile to my face and made me not feel so lumpy, dumpy, frumpy, and how could I ever be grumpy for long when she is around?
Well, it is now cut…not colored…though I really want to highlight the heck out of it just like in the original picture. Here are the pics…taken on my Mac in terrible lighting and a messy school room in the background.
I guess my hair is too thick to pull off the wispyness of the original, but this is an improvement over the lifeless, heavy look I have been sporting for the past few weeks.
winnie-the-pooh
Fisher has been asking me to read him Winnie-The-Pooh for quite a while now. I have never read Winnie-The-Pooh and know very little about it, but he has been looking at our big, blue, beautiful treasury and has decided he must know all about this little bear.
We started it last week and while I still don’t quite understand the fascination with this story, I will keep reading it to him because he is loving it. It has sat on our shelf for years and years and this is the first time one of our children have been interested in it. What about you? Are you a Pooh fan? If so, why?
boo-hoo for me
I had a rough day yesterday. I was all geared up to attend church for the first time since January 6 and had a wonderful morning getting ready. Then I about cried my little heart out with love for the people I saw. So many hugs, so many kind words, so many smiles. Everyone’s kindness warmed my heart and I was thrilled to be there and was ready to partake of the Sacrament for the first time in many weeks.
Then my head started feeling like it was floating away, my arms went numb, and I got really weak. I made it through the meeting, but wasn’t doing so hot. Richard came to the back and took one look at me and told me I needed to go home and rest.
I AM SO TIRED OF RESTING!
I said, “No, I am going to make it through. I want to go to Sunday School and Relief Society and I can do it.”
He responded with “Trac, something is wrong. You don’t look right and your body systems are all over the place. Let me take you home. I am sorry this is happening. I know you want to be here, but you need to go home.”
Oh, the frustration. Oh, the questions that roll around my mind. WHAT THE HECK IS GOING ON? I had a great week. NO shakiness. NO going white. No anything.
By the time he got me home, I was shaking and white and felt like I would pass out at any moment. I spent the rest of the day in bed doing genealogy and listening to General Conference talks on faith for my lesson next week.
I am trying to live in the moment. I am trying to take each moment as it comes and accept them for what they are. I am trying to be grateful for my body in whatever state of functioning it is in. I am trying to praise God each and every day.
But this is hard.
Really, really hard.
thankful thursdays 2/14
Two weeks in a row of Thankful Thursdays! Can I have a round of applause, please? Or maybe just some of the Lamoreaux family popcorn? I am so in love with that stuff.
My heart is pretty full of gratitude today. I read through my past posts on Valentine’s Day and realized once again how blessed I am to have the husband I do. Even though he didn’t do anything fancy this morning like he usually does (We are fighting illness and sleep is a high priority for him right now. He hasn’t succumbed to the strep throat that Blythe, Annesley, and I have had and we would like to keep it that way so he can keep going to work!), he creates so much love in this home that it makes up for my occasional prickly-ness.
- My Annesley snuggles with me every morning. I used to be a tad put out by her intrusion into my warm bed and MY morning time, but now I welcome here in to rub my back, tell me all about her dreams in the night, and fill my heart with all her sweetness.
- I am grateful for my new jeans. They fit fabulously well and they were super cheap! What a rare combination.
- Yesterday at iFamily I was given four Valentine’s, including a delicious treat from our local chocolate store! How sweet is that?
- Today I had a long, hot bath in my magnesium oil.
- The Lamoreaux’s just brought us some Valentine goodies…so fun and I heard healthy as well!
- The joy my children had over their goodie bags…erasers, post-it notes, scotch tape, duct tape…so cute to see them excited about such simple items.
- This afternoon I took all the children to our local Variety store. It is a somewhat rare thing for all of us to go anywhere together in the day. Blythe is usually studying or gone to a class and it was so fun to have all my children together discovering little treasures. Luckily we made it out of there spending only $4.50 on a present for the Pink and Red Party tonight. Then I took them to the chocolate shop for a dollar treat of scrumptiousness and to the Sandwich shop for the best fries on earth. Such a fun hour of magic with my four favorite kiddos. We haven’t been focused on having fun and enjoying each other’s company for quite a while as survival, endurance, and catching up have been the name of the game.
- I found Blythe’s Economics textbook for $2.99 on the Kindle instead of $25. Wahoo!
Off to Kat and Jen’s Annual Pink and Red Party. A wonderful adult party with my friends sounds like the perfect ending to this day. Have a wonderful evening with your loved ones!
a few little funnies
Happy Valentine’s Day to all! This year our Valentine’s Day is going to be pretty low key. I have little gift bags I will be giving to my children and tonight Richard and I are attending Kat and Jen’s Pink and Red Party. It is guaranteed to be hilarious and delicious, both of which I need dearly in my life right now. What are you doing for your special love day?
The last few days have been full of some humorous events and I know I need more humor in my life and am assuming you need more in yours, so I will share them with you so you can chuckle.
Funny Story #1:
Monday night Richard and I drove down to SLC to get an old Subaru that we have been looking at for awhile. The jury is still out as to whether we made the right choice or not as there a couple of things acting up on it the last few days, but we are praying it works out for us and will save us a gob in gas. Anyway, the dealer we bought if from is a mechanic that buys cars with mechanical issues, fixes them up, then sells them. He has a small inventory so he leases part of a lot from another small dealer and together they share a office made out of an older home on State Street (a very busy street full of car dealerships) where consumers can sign paperwork and whatnot.
So, we get to the dealer after our 3+ hour drive and I have to use the bathroom, so we go into the office (house) and ask to use the restroom. That room was putrid. It looked like the urine in the toilet had been sitting there for months. The floor was filthy. The sink was filthy. The smell was overwhelming and I immediately started gagging and retching. But I also had to pee (and even more so now that I was gagging and retching). So I kicked the toilet seat down from its male-centric up position, both the seat and lid fell, so I had to lift the lid up with the toes of my shoes. And what did I find on the seat? Brown stuff. Who knows if it was poop or not, by this point I had to empty my bladder either on myself or in the toilet. I chose the filthy toilet. I squatted over it, not touching anything, gagging and retching the whole time and fully wondering if I would make it out of the bathroom alive. It felt like my lungs were being singed by the awful stench. I pulled my pants up, flushed with my foot, and rushed out the door to get some air.
It was that bad.
But the story gets worse.
Later when we were done with all the paperwork, Richard asked to use the restroom. The dealer told him where it was and said “Hold your nose” with a big chuckle. Then he turned to me and with another big chuckle said “There isn’t a woman here to clean it.”
I about died.
I am still dying.
There was a time, not that long ago, that I would have slugged any man who dared to say such an awful thing in front of me.
Now, it is a story for the record books and makes me laugh hysterically that anyone is trying to operate a business with that kind of bathroom. Those poor men need some humbling.
Funny Story #2:
On Saturday my friends took me shopping and out to lunch. It had been a long time since I had been out to a store and it was time. I needed to get jeans for Keziah who has been growing up and out for the last several months, some shoes for Fisher whose toes are hanging out the sides of his current pair, some Valentine’s Day gifts, return Keziah’s last Land’s End purchase, and most of all, see something besides the four corners of my bedroom. Well, after all the errands had been run and all the food eaten, it was about 10:30 at night. I finally decided that I needed to get a new shirt. Just one thing that I could feel cute in in my new larger-than-life body. Seriously, being so completely inactive for the past year has done me in. I am larger than I have ever been and feel dumpy, frumpy, and lumpy. So, Jessica swung into Walmart and we visited the Bella Bird section. Happily for me, there was a lot of stuff on clearance and I was able to pick up a few things that are pretty dang cute, including a new skirt, cardigan, and shirt combo. I wore this new, adorable outfit to the temple yesterday morning and that is where the trouble began.
The skirt is a just-past-the-knees full skirt.
Yesterday was windy.
Wind + full-skirt = skirt around the face, derriere showing multiple times situation.
I kept pulling it down, holding it down, but I couldn’t keep up with the wind.
While the girls were finishing up at the temple, I ran the two littles ones over to Great Harvest for a slice of bread. As we walked in, I held the door open for them so they wouldn’t get smashed to smithereens if it slammed on them in the wind, and right then my skirt blew up again. All the way up. Covering my head and breathing apparatus up.
In front of about fifteen people who were watching us come in the door.
Oh my.
What a choice. Do I let the door smash my Annesley or do I let go and cover my nether-regions?
Well, I tried to hold the door and recover my modesty and it was a sight to behold. Many smiles, smirks, and bursts of laughter fluttered around the store. To make matters worse, as we stood in the sample line gusts of wind would blow in whenever anyone entered the store and wouldn’t you know it, my skirt would blow right up again!
By this point, I knew I couldn’t make it through the day in this skirt, so we drove to Walmart and I found a pair of jeans that fit (on the first try even!) and are made of some super-snazzy slimming inventions that I think totally worked their magic. If you need some super-snazzy slimming pants and can’t afford the magic in Not My Daughter’s Jeans, you should check out these Lee Riders. Anyway, Annesley and I tried them on in the dressing room and I kept them on because there was no way I was going back into the wind in my flip-over-my-head-skirt. The ninety-year-old Walmart worker insisted on removing all the tags and stickers from my pants while they were on me, walking me up to the register, and announcing to the sales clerk “This woman is buying these pants and is wearing them out of the store. Please check her out now so she is not reported for theft.”
Oh my. So, so funny.
Funny Story #3:
Annesley crawls into bed with me this morning and says “Happy day! It is finally here! It is Valentine’s Day! Happy, happy day!” Then she rubs my back for awhile until breakfast is ready. After breakfast she says “When will the presents be here?” I say “What presents?” and she responds with a long lecture, “Mom, the holiday presents! That is what holidays are about and we always get presents on holidays and when will they be here? You always give us presents. I think they will be here at night because they are not here now and Papa is not here now, so they will be here later when Papa is here.” I pulled her into my arms and said, “Oh honey, holidays are not about presents, holidays are about love. I love you and I am going to hold you and hug you for Valentine’s Day.” To which she responded “I love you being my mama.”
She is so funny. I could listen to her all day long. I think I will go get their presents ready now and surprise them with their little goodies at Morning Devotional.
math alive!
I decided to teach a semester of everyone’s favorite math class, Math Alive!, because there are quite a few children that weren’t able to take it when I taught it in 2010 – 2011 and they will be too old to take it when I teach it for Fisher in 2014 – 2015. I hemmed and hawed because it is a GOB of work, but finally I decided I had to do it so Jacob and Rachel and the other twelve year olds who missed out the first time would be able to have the chance to discover math in a whole new way.
We have met two times so far and I am in love with these kids! The first week we talked about what math is, introduced them to my super-fun Challenges of The Week, and read The King’s Chessboard which is all about the risks one takes when one doesn’t understand math.
At the beginning of each class we have a ten minute math activity where we build things, solve puzzles, play math games, or create something…a get-your-brain-on-fire activity. The first week I took my magic blocks and the kids had a blast. The second week we made designs on Geoboards. At the 9 1/2 minute mark, the race begins and all the students work as fast as they can to put their supplies away and get ready to learn about our mathematician of the day.
Here are the awesome blocks.
Last week we learned about Thales and built pyramids out of golf balls. It is always a huge hit and super challenging to solve the puzzles. Drat it all, I forgot my camera! This week we will continue to learn about Thales and will figure out how he measured the Egyptian pyramids.
the hair
We all need some comic relief, right? Well, I have some good news for you. One look at the picture below and you will be giggling up a storm.
Here is the background:
This pic was taken when I was either a Junior or Senior in High School back in the last 80’s and early 90’s when hair was big and bangs were high. I have always been blessed with a lot of hair and, of course, fluffed my thick tresses to their utmost potential. I had a little curling iron and would spend hours curling every strand…what was I thinking? And how on earth did I have that much time?
This pic is my mom holding my school pic…so excuse the fingers and crookedness and grainy-ness.
Prepare yourselves for huge fits of laughter.
Here you go.
Are you ready?
Oh, my goodness. Every time I see it I laugh so hard. That is some huge hair. Notice how it is nearly touching the outside of the picture? Did you laugh out loud? Please do. Give yourself the gift of laughter at my expense. It is my gift to you, ha-ha.
I'm Tracy, a mama with big dreams, crazy ideas, loads of laughter, an insatiable desire to learn, and enormous piles of laundry.
