School's Out For Summer!

It was so great to see the kids cheering and throwing backpacks in the air when they were dismissed at noon today. I love working at an elementary school and sharing the enthusiasm of the students.

The kids also got to meet their new teachers today and we are very pleased with Sophie's 3rd grade teacher, she is super nice, calm and very organized...things lacking in Sophie's home environment! I got to take a group of 1st graders down to meet their new teacher and it was a lot of fun.

I feel a bit down with the end of the school year, which I guess is normal, although I'll still be working during the summer. I think it's the end of my routine that bums me out. I don't handle change well.

We are looking forward to some fun things this summer: going to Bear Lake, playing at the park in the cool evenings and visiting my family back east. I love early mornings and evenings during the summer in Utah!

Well Said

I went to the graduation of South Campus today, the school where Steve teaches. I loved the speech given by one of the students. He was very matter-of-fact when he said that his biggest motivation was all the people who told him he would never amount to anything, couldn't accomplish anything, etc. and what he would say to them now is, "In your face." I love that, because it's honest. This is how people feel and to disguise it beneath flowery language doesn't give it the weight it deserves. This student thanked those who played a big role in encouraging him: Nev, a teacher at SC, and his parents, but he acknowledged what was real in his life, a bunch of naysayers who put him down, for whatever reason, and now he can say, "In your face."

Yummy Sandwiches

Tiffany Vail made completely decadent sandwiches for our teacher luncheon 2 weeks ago and today I made them for lunch. They weren't quite as good as her's, but still really, really good. Here's the recipe:

Melt 1 cup butter and 1/4 cup Worcestershire sauce over medium heat. Pour in 1-2 tsp onion powder.

Put together ham and swiss sandwiches on dinner rolls (she used poppy seeds on the rolls). Pour sauce in sandwiches and over sandwiches. Cook for 10 min at 350. Be sure sandwiches are tightly closed.

I try not to eat pig products, but for this I did...not sure it would taste the same using turkey. Steve loved them so much he wanted them again for dinner.

Summer

It has been hot this weekend and yesterday the slip-n-slide came out. Sophie and the neighbor kids had a blast slipping and sliding and eating peanut butter and jelly sandwiches while sitting in a pool of water. We probably reached our quota of water for the year and although I applied sunscreen to Sophie twice, she still got a sunburn. Ugh.

When it gets this hot I think back to when Sophie was a baby and we didn't have air conditioning in Michigan, so in the afternoon I would fill the tub with cool water, plop Sophie in it and sit in the bathroom and read...for hours. We don't have air conditioning here either, so we'll be getting creative again. At least if you sit in the shade it's pretty cool, no humidity in Utah.

The Heritage Festival went well, I think. I was so stressed that I could barely pay attention to what was going on, but the feedback has been positive. My goal is to only tackle big events with a strong committee. I tend to like to take over anyway though, so I need to learn to let others do their thing without feeling threatened.

Soph and I've been playing Pokemon today and I must say, I'm now enjoying it, because I'm winning.

Gardener's Market

Steve and I were quite pleasantly surprised when we visited the Gardener's Market last year for the first time, it's about twice the size of the Ann Arbor Farmer's Market. Yesterday was the first market of the season. We got some yummy gouda cheese, handmade lotion and a lemon pastry. Sophie had a few dollars and she bought some knit bears, rubber ducky soaps and her last dollar was spent on making this cool bracelet.

We're hoping to take the pears from our tree down there and let Sophie sell them from a wagon. Our 2 apple trees are too new to bear fruit, but when they do, we'll add them to the selection.

I took Sophie and her friend to a play last night, "Greensleeve's Magic" put on by the local children's theater and it was very well done. The girls seemed to really enjoy it. I was impressed with the young people's abilities to memorize so many lines!

Life in Logan is good...local markets, plays, and Steve and I love our jobs...who knew Utah could be so cool.

Stress

I am completely stressed right now. I am behind on some things, scrambling to put together other things and trying to remember all the things I'm suppose to be doing. Ugh. And why is it when we have 50 tasks that are out of the ordinary we still have to deal with the ordinary in addition to the out of the ordinary.

I took some great photos the other day too, to post on the blog, but of course the memory card wasn't in the camera. Why didn't the camera tell me? I am officially mad at the camera, playing me in that way, thinking I had some really great photos and there was nothing, nada.

Back to stress. I tend to forget that other people may also be stressed, which the people around me are right now. It's testing week at our school, which makes it feel like a tomb. I would love to see a giant walkout during testing week, but more than that, I'd love to see politicians teach a first grade class, a class that has not been prompted to be on their best behavior, and after a week see if they can still sleep at night without increasing the salaries of our teachers.

Happy May Day...from Utah

This is what it looks like outside our window this morning and yes, it is May 1!

I went to a volunteer conference in Provo, Utah (land of BYU) and had a wonderful time. I learned a lot of great things, met some really neat people and made a few connections that will hopefully benefit our school.

The other women I went with were a lot of fun to hang out with and Tuesday night we walked around the town and had dinner at an Indian restaurant that was fabulous!

One thing I was impressed with from one of the workshops about conflict was how the speaker talked about conflict being good for a workplace. He stressed that you don't want to work for someone who doesn't allow for conflicting views to be voiced and that someone who tries to constantly maintain the peace isn't really benefitting the corporation. I was glad to hear that, because I feel like I cause conflict all the time at my workplace!

It's good to be home, I just wish it were a tad bit more like spring outside.