Yeah, I'm still around...

So... What have I been doing that last few weeks?

Well, I have started substitute teaching a bit. I was pretty scared at first but now it's old hat. I subbed for the junior high band teacher. That was fun. The kids were pretty good and did what they were supposed to do and it was mostly just babysitting. It doesn't take a lot of smarts to put in a movie. I did get to help with 3 periods of theory, though. They thought they could whine and complain that they didn't understand it but since I know theory, they couldn't get out of it.

Next I subbed for the choir teacher at the junior high where I went in 7th and 9th grades. It was so weird to walk past my locker and remember what it felt like to be in junior high. Yuck. The classes were awful and disrespectful. They wouldn't sing unless I yelled and got mad. When they called the next day for me to sub for her again, I told them no way.

The last time I subbed was for a 6th grade teacher at my kids elementary school. N wasn't too pleased to have me so close (next door to her classroom) but it was fun. The kids were cute together but they were very chatty. It was hard to tell them to be quiet because they were all having so much fun together. It is unusual to see even the "quiet" and "less popular" kids joining in on the fun so I kind of let them have a long leash. I hope they enjoyed it. I gave them a spelling test with the most unusual sentences I could think of. It ended up being a funny story about Larry, a gumshoe detective, bound by duct tape in a burning building... Yeah, lame.

I love, love, love my new furniture. I've tried to take a picture but they have been dark. Now that Frank Zigmunt has moved back in, there is stuff EVERYWHERE and I refuse to take a picture of that. He put stuff in every room, including the entry. I'm going crazy walking around and over all his stuff (junk). He brought home 5 TVs. Why would an apartment of 3 boys need 5 TVs, you ask? So they could watch 4 different shows and, with the aid of a camera, watch themselves watching TV--all at the same time. Frank said everyone thought it was so cool. I think they thought it was insane.

Now that Dilbert is home (for good?!), we will start tearing out the carpeting in there and put down the tile. I can't wait to have it done. It is going to look so amazing! After that, we just have to finish the upstairs bath and the carpets in the bedrooms and we have remodeled the whole upstairs. Then to the basement...

BNLFAN_1 passed her driver's license exam today. She was pretty excited. And Frank applied for a job as a 911 dispatcher for Weber County. He would really like that job but I think it is a long shot. But there's no harm in applying! I have to say I love having him home. He's been such a huge help, running errands, being the chauffeur and babysitter and lawn mower. He helped BNLFAN with her jazz band homework last night (yeah!!!) And I love just shooting the breeze with him. He's got everything done on his mission papers (including the passport) except the bishop and stake president interviews. They can't do that until his records are back in the ward so it is another waiting game. I am so frustrated about that!!!

Ugh... I feel sick!

I haven't been feeling like myself lately and it is driving me crazy. I have been sicker in the last 3 months since I was called to be Primary President than I have been in the 5 years before. I know it is stress and it is driving me crazy. I usually can just let stress roll off me but lately it has been sticking to me. Maybe it is the unusual level of responsibility I have taken on, but also, I think it is that Dilbert has been traveling so much. Whatever the reason, I am NOT enjoying it. Fortunately Dilbert is only gone until next Friday and then he will be home for a while. The fun part is Frank Zigmunt will also be home next Friday for GOOD!!!

Yesterday I had H home sick, too, although I think she wasn't that sick. I went and worked out at the gym, which usually helps me feel better, but I came home and pretty much crashed until I had to teach piano lessons. I also took BNLFAN_1 to Barnes and Noble to hand in her job application. She would love to work there. She reads voraciously so it is the right job for her interests. I am worried about the hours (until 11 p.m.) and Sundays but she said she wouldn't work Sundays. That may keep her from getting the job, but I was proud of her for sticking to her guns. I worked Sundays as a teenager and it wasn't a good situation. I wish I had had the option of quiting but the plain truth of it was I had to work. Things were pretty tight when I was a teenager. I don't know where all my income went... I don't remember spending it... But I bet Dilbert says the same thing now.

Today is day 1 of my career as a substitute. Well, actually, today is day 1 of my availability to sub. I should be calling to see if there are any openings and snap them up but I am hiding from responsibility today, I think. I am going to clean my house (shudder) and get mentally prepared for 12 giggling girls to sleep over on Friday. (shudder again)

N's pictures

Here's N...
Then:


and NOW:

BNL_Fan's pictures

Here's the pictures I promised... Then:

and Now:

Happy Birthday, big sis!

Today is my big sister's birthday. She's awesome. There's nothing she can't do. She plays the piano beautifully, bakes perfect bread, she knits, and crochets and quilts and sews... She plays basketball, knows everything there is to know about computers, writes books, gets published, gardens and bottles her own produce... She hikes and geocaches, she's a yellow personality so she's always looking for a good time (which is weird, being the oldest in the family... she should be red, I think, and I should be yellow), she likes to ride horses, especially when she can ride them fast with her hair down, she dreams of Scottish moors, lightly misted... She's fearless, a traveler, a great mom, a voracious reader...

I'm getting depressed so I'm gonna quit now and I'm only half-way through.

Happy freakin' birthday, elle_cosette!

N has braces

Scout survived getting her braces on last week--barely. You would have thought she was going to die of malnutrition before the pain subsided, the way she carried on. Poor thing... she had them a few years ago and thought she was done but beauty was not to be an easy path for her. It's not a cheap path, either.

Apparently someone forgot to mention to me that I have abnormally large teeth and Dilbert's family has abnormally narrow lower jaws. The genetic combination has made a brood of kid that are smart and but have teeth sticking out the front of their faces. Attractive.

Anyway, there is a 20% chance the braces will not work for Scout and she may have to have her jaw broken. She's trying to be the optimist. Me too...

So N got her braces on yesterday. She's got an expander and braces on the top and will get the lower expander and braces on the bottom in 2 months. She can't talk and she can't eat... It's pretty pitiful, to say the least. But my food bill will go down!

I had a presidency meeting this morning. I came home discouraged because I have 8 callings unfilled and there's not a lot of hope on the horizon. I have had to find multiple substitutes EVERY week! Now I hear (unofficially but reliably) that there will be a letter from church headquarters soon saying that every class needs to be team-taught, not just the classes with male teachers. Sigh... It's just more staffing issues... I don't think anyone who hasn't been in the Primary presidency understands the staffing problems in Primary. No other organization has as many positions to fill and it is a constant battle. Many people just "refuse" to serve there (they've apparently served their time in Primary? Like it is a sentence?) or they don't have cubs so they don't "have" to do it anymore... It seems to be the dumping ground for people who are only half-heartedly active. And then there are the ones who accept the call but then never do the job. I have had 2 Activity Days leaders do that! How can you say yes to a call and then just NOT do it --ever! Okay... I am done whining.

Recipe of the day: Fish Tacos Yummy! Try it! Mahi Mahi was $5 and some change at Costco and the portions were way generous.

Snacktime!

Hurray! Barenaked Ladies are releasing a new album--FOR KIDS!!

Here's a sample (with video)

I think I am crazy.

I went to the district office yesterday and put in my application to substitute at the junior high and high school. I'm not freaking out about that yet... give me a few days. I haven't had a job in 20 years so the idea of having to be responsible is making me pretty stressed.

But more than that, I started my application to renew my teaching certificate and am looking at applying for a position at our high school. I just heard an English teacher is leaving next year and they are hiring. Yikes! I know I am not ready for full-time, but am I ready for even part time? I don't know!!! I keep thinking of all the class parities and the volunteering and the field trips I will miss in H and M's life and I get all uneasy about it. But this is an unique opportunity to be able to teach at my kids' school and it may not come around again for a long time. I loved teaching. I just can't shake the feeling the timing isn't right. But then again maybe the feeling is coming from the fear I have that I can't do it anymore--that I have lost my ability to think clearly and teach effectively...

I just get so frustrated with the quality of education my kids receive in their English classes. They don't learn to love literature or love to express themselves coherently through the written word. I want to see the excitement in their eyes as they discover truths and see themselves in novels rather than the boredom I see now... I want to see them passionate about words. I have that passion and want to pass it on. I learned to love literature and writing in high school thanks to a wonderful teacher who sadly committed suicide a few years ago. It feels like I am passing on her legacy if I can do that for other teenagers. But all these feelings are tempered by the knowledge that my children have to come first and M and H are still little girls who need their Mom to be at their Halloween parties and awards assemblies. Oh heck! Stay tuned, I guess.

Birthdays

It has been a couple of weeks of birthdays around here. First was BNL_1's birthday in February--sweet 16! She's turned into a lovely young woman with much maturity and a great sense of humor. I'm so proud of her!

Then it was N's birthday on March 24th. She's 12 now and has left Primary for Young Woman's, just as I was called as Primary President. Despite my sadness she is growing up, I am extremely proud of her, as well. She's teaching herself to play the piano and is picking it up very quickly. She practices the violin every day, as well. If I would get my act together and get her some good teachers, she would be very accomplished. She is the most self-motivated of all my children.

Then it was Scout's birthday on Saturday. She's 14 and a Mia Maid now (so now I have a Laurel, a Beehive and a Mia Maid!). She's been having a blast doing Mock Trial and she loves horseback riding. She's got quite a sarcastic streak which I love to bring out and she's grown into a lovely young lady. She just found out she qualified for honors English in 9th grade next year which thrills her. She's been writing her novel for a year now. She just got braces on which is causing her a lot of pain lately, but she's bearing it well. N gets her on Thursday so I will have 3 with braces at the same time, too. That's a lot of ortho trips.

Anyway, I am proud of my girls and how they are growing up! I will try to post pictures tomorrow.

My husband ought to kill me

I have been bad--very bad. I deserve to be grounded and have my phone taken away for a month. At least.

I have been looking at couches for a month or so on craig's list and ksl.com, wishing I had a beautiful leather sectional for my soon-to-be remodeled family room (well, remodeled is a nice way of putting it. We are tearing out the disgusting carpet and tiling half and putting carpet in the other half). Our old couch's frame is broken and the fabric has worn out. Slipcovers are okay but they move so much that they are always on there skewampus, despite my efforts to anchor them in place with pvc pipe and pins...

Anyway, I went to the new Ashley furniture store and found a lovely sectional with an amazing guarantee that they will repair or replace it for 5 years if anything happens to it--even if my kids color on it with a sharpie and then gouge it with a pair of knitting needles... so I bought it. Without telling Dilbert. I also bought a chair-and-a-half that makes into a hide-a-bed and has an ottoman with storage... How cool is that!

I knew I had 48 hours to go back in and cancel the order which I totally planned to do but when I finally broke down and told Dilbert he was kind of okay with it. I think deep down he doesn't like the "college" furniture, either but he likes the $$ in the bank account more. That is one of the things I love about him so I am not saying that to complain.

Well, I also saw a sectional that was extremely durable on ksl.com and went to see it. The guy didn't have anyone else look at it so he dropped the price to get me to buy it. So I did. I took Dilbert to pick it up (he wasn't happy that I bought it AT ALL) and when he saw it was another sectional, he was very quiet. It was late and he and Frank Zigmunt had to leave to go to the Priesthood session of conference so we left it in the back of the truck until after they got home at 8.

When they finally got home and had a very late dinner they tried to bring it in the house but to my dismay and just as he predicted, it wouldn't fit through the downstairs doorway. It was stuck on the stairs. They then tried to bring it in through the laundry room. Anyone who has seen the laundry room would know what a feat it was to clear a path through that disaster but I did it. Unfortunately the couch was too big to turn the corner at the base of the stairwell into the laundry room as well. It isn't a light couch, either. Frank and Dilbert were straining and grunting and sweating and pushing and, to be sure, swearing at me in their heads and not out loud only because they had just been to conference. Finally I suggested they bring it in the front door again and we whack the legs off the stupid thing.

So there we were, un-upholstering the legs and whacking them off with a hammer. It was still a chore to maneuver it into the playroom where the projector is but they made it. It looks great but it is here to stay, I think. I think we will sell it with the house someday.

I wish I had the foresight to capture the moment on my camera but at the time I was trying to keep from pushing Dilbert over the edge. I hope he forgives me soon!

Look what Frank Zigmunt was up to...

I got a weird text from Frank on Saturday. He sent a picture of himself looking all color streaked and funny. He said he had been here:
The caption under the newspaper article said: Revelers surf the crowd and throw colored chalk into
the air during the Festival of Colors in Spanish Fork on Saturday. One
of the most important Hindu holidays of the year, the celebration is
held to rejoice in the coming of spring and in the victory of good over
evil.

I am almost glad I didn't know until after. It looks like a bunch of college-aged students needing a break from studying. Rob said when they started throwing chalk, it was so thick you couldn't see anything--or breath! I am a nervous mom, I guess, but that scares me!