Thursday, February 26, 2009

OUCH!

Hello my three followers,

As you all know, I have two children. My eldest, Levi, is not a terribly coordinated child (a gentle depiction, in my opinion). He is at an age (9), however, when boys are suddenly expected to be good at all sports. Needless to say, this is creating a challenge for us. So, in an attempt to help my beloved, I tried to play basketball with him after school today. Seconds after saying, "don't be afraid of the ball", he attempted a bounce pass which landed directly in front of me and then flew up and slammed into my little finger on the left hand. I felt/heard something bad happen (I'm assuming a sprain at this point), and I instantly became nauseous from waves of pain.

The first thing I thought about was my job. I type, on average, about 400,000 key strokes on Wednesdays and Thursdays. So here I am, doing a test run on my blog to see if my finger still works. I guess it's safe to assume I'm going to be alright.

Another highlight of the week occurred yesterday. I went on a field trip with Luke's class to the Wildlife Zoo about 10 minutes from my house. It's actually a really neat little zoo. They have several different types of animals including lions, tigers, panthers, giraffes, and a rhino, and they recently added a small aquarium. This is not your normal zoo, however. You can get much closer to the animals than in other zoos, and it is very dusty as nothing is paved. It's about as non-San Diego Zoo as you can get. I was put in charge of four kindergarten boys, two of which have an apparent hearing deficit and/or ADHD. Luke was among my four (obviously). Luke is a class clown and is not afraid to draw attention to himself and, by extension, his mother. We had just come to the camel enclosure, when beloved #2 suddenly yelled out, "Hey, a camel, c'mon--FART ALREADY!", much to the glee of all the boys with him, who took up the chant of "FART! FART! FART!" Mother of the year material, I know.....

Love you all, and I love my kiddos too! Mothering really is like taking your heart out and letting it walk around on its own.

Saturday, February 21, 2009

Devaluation

Nothing clever to say today. We paid 389,000 for our house, which was supposedly a "steal" when we bought it. Today, we got our official property value notice from the county, and our house, for tax year 2010, is worth 217,000!!! What do we do.....?

Tuesday, February 17, 2009

Calling woes

Hello everyone, I used to think that everyone really meant no one, but then I noticed that my entries actually have comments posted beneath them! Why has the technology train left me so far behind?? Anyway, that's beside the point. I need your help. As my nearest and dearest, I want you to be honest with me.

Ryan and I team teach the Gospel Doctrine class every other Sunday. You know how there's one calling at church where you say, "As long as I don't get that calling, I can do anything else." Well, Gospel Doctrine teacher was/is "that calling" for me. For the first time in my life, I verbally questioned my bishop to his face and asked him how he had come to that conclusion. It took me 3 weeks to agree to it and 3 more before I could start teaching.

I get very nervous when I teach, and it seems to be getting worse instead of better. The other thing that is difficult is when I ask a question, and it is promptly followed by a dead silence. I can hear crickets chirping under the chairs in the back. This would be okay if it were once in a while, but it happens A LOT.

So, from all of you (unfortunately, that means about 4 people), I would like to know what you like and don't like about Gospel Doctrine. Are there teaching styles you respond to better than others. What makes you want to fall asleep (other than 8 a.m. church, our current block)? I know you all will give me good advice, and I promise to put any and all suggestions to the test.

Monday, February 16, 2009

Fabulous Valentine's present

Hi Everyone,
Hope you all had a wonderful Valentine's Day! We had a fun day here. Ryan got me a great present. I have a hard time decorating my house because I love things that are real and tell a story. Hard to come by when you have a Ross budget. Anyway, we have a wall in our home that has 6 huge niches (nitches or neeshes?). They are on either side (3 on each) of an even larger niche for a T.V. For four years, I have had nothing to put in these niches, and they have remained empty. This has led many visitors, including family and friends, to wonder whether anyone actually lives here or not. Anyway, I finally decided that if I had to buy "stuff" to put in them, I wanted them to be things I really loved. I found a great store here in Scottsdale. The owners travel to Europe a few times a year and shop at antique stores, estate sales, garage sales, etc. and bring back things they really love. My present was one of their finds. It is a antique French spice scale from the late 1800's. It still has all the original weights with it and everything. It may sound like a crazy thing to display, but I love it, and I hope to find many other pieces like it to fix my "problem wall." I will post a picture as soon as I figure out how. Anyway, I love a decorating blog called "designwithchristine.com." Check it out ladies; you won't be disappointed!