Thursday, January 29, 2009

Gotta get back on track! Highlight of the last few days include taking CDs with Roger's photos to family and friends all over the valley on Sunday afternoon, staying home with a sick Jack from school on a snowy Monday, watching Jack do a fine job hosting his cub scout troop and teaching them the history of the Lego company on Tuesday afternoon, enjoying a great book club get together on Tuesday night (fabulous creme brulee, Virlie!), taking Jack to hear the first two pieces performed at the high school chamber orchestra concert at the art museum on Wednesday night, great guitar lesson on Thursday night, hunting down and reconnecting with high school friends on facebook, and going to work. Another week comes and goes with amazing speed!

Saturday, January 24, 2009

Jack went to his good friend Josh's birthday party today. We bought Josh a couple of foam swords and one of those squishy, spiky balls. We decided to wrap up the swords end to end, like a long snake and then add the ball as though the snake just ate his lunch. We even added eyes and a forked tongue. It rained pretty much all day. I just hung out at home and wasn't very productive. I organized and cleaned a few things, did the dishes, did some blogging, found some old friends on facebook, made a lasagna, folded laundry, got caught up on some shows on the dvr, that sort of thing. Pretty darn mundane.

Friday, January 23, 2009

Dropped Jack off at school and headed to campus. I graded a stack of essays and put together some questions for my students to answer as they peer reviewed one another's papers in class. While they worked on that, I downloaded software and did a test run on the audience response system I've been wanting to use. It worked! I picked Jack up at school, we met Roger at his parents' house, then headed to scout headquarters to pick up a cub scout shirt for Jack. I have long known that if I pushed scouts (which I already have very mixed feelings about) on Jack that he'd push back hard. So while I've made him go to cub scout meetings in support of his friends and leaders, I've never made him wear a uniform or earn awards. But I always told him that if he decided he wanted a shirt, we'd get him one straightaway. After pack meeting on Wednesday, he announced he wanted a shirt. The errand cost us more than $75 (neckerchief and slide, belt, shirt, patches, book, and then stuff for Webelos because he'll be 10 in a few months). But he is SO excited. We had a wedding reception to go to tonight (good friends, art museum, big band for dancing). He asked if he could where his scout uniform. Why not? We had a fun time at the party. I made Roger dance with me once. And Jack asked me to dance, and we danced three times! Now there's a reward for mom!

Thursday, January 22, 2009

Another day at the high school, but it was far from routine. The librarian had a sudden emergency and she asked me to take over the class she was teaching, which wasn't on a good track anyway due to technical difficulties. I totally tried to wing it with mixed results (I did get them into the library catalog and into a few online databases and cajoled them into staying on task for a little while at least, but I had no idea what they were actually supposed to be doing). The substitute teacher had even less of a clue and was not too happy that we weren't doing what the teacher she was subbing for said we'd be doing. While I was walking through some things with the students in the computer lab I looked out into the main library and saw 40 students waiting to check out a novel for their English class. Our TA was missing (where did he go and why did he think he could leave, especially without checking with me?). So I left the computer lab hanging to go check out books. A crazy comedy of errors. But pretty entertaining, at least from a library tech's perspective. I don't think the substitute was entertained at all! Back at the high school later in the evening for my first guitar class. Very, very fun!

Wednesday, January 21, 2009

One of those days where everything went wrong. Class was a bit rough, mostly due to technical difficulties with the computer equipment I was hoping to use. I wish I'd pulled off what we were doing a bit more spectacularly. But by the end of the class, we did accomplish our goal. We picked a topic that we'll be researching as a class throughout the semester: separation of church and state (possibly as it relates to gay marriage because that's the topic that was a close second in the voting). As we move forward, we'll be gathering information and ideas from all sorts of angles: historical, political, legal, psychological, moral, etc. We'll be figuring out how to define terms, understanding what assumptions people come to the conversation with, etc. And we'll be narrowing down our focus, ultimately developing several potential thesis statements by the end of the semester. Fun times! Pack meeting at 6:00. Several of the scouts brought games to share with the group. Jack did a great job explaining how to play Sausage and the group had some good laughs playing a couple of rounds. I thought my first community ed guitar class was tonight. I spent nearly 45 minutes hunting all over the high school campus for it (it's a very crazy campus). Got home and discovered the class actually starts tomorrow. Well, at least I didn't miss it and I got some good exercise!

Tuesday, January 20, 2009

Inauguration all day long! Actually I worked from 9 to 3 at the high school, but we do have a television there so a few of us stopped to watch the actual inauguration. (I was a bit shocked at how little the high school paid attention to the event! I was glad that Jack's teacher turned it on for their class to watch). One of my favorite things: Aretha Franklin's hat! In another life I'd like to be someone who can pull off wearing a hat like that.

Monday, January 19, 2009

Spent a lazy morning posting pictures on facebook and reading. Listened to Martin Luther King Jr.'s I Have a Dream speech. What an amazing line he walked, rallying people to both passionate action and peaceful determination. Went skiing on the canyon trail with Roger and Jack. This evening we dressed up and went to our friend's inaugural ball in downtown Provo (Jack decided to go to a friend's house instead - I so wish he'd come with us). Limousine shuttle from parking, big band dancing, fairy lights and flags, a fabulous toast to our president elect (Utah Valley style with Martinelli's sparkling cider!), and lots of people who are excited about tomorrow's inauguration. Better get to bed. Back to school tomorrow.

Sunday, January 18, 2009

Church in morning, then a quiet day at home. Roger and I launched a new blog (blogs are apparently my duct tape - an all purpose solution!). We are meant to help the members of our ward build up their food storage, and we thought a blog would be a great way to encourage people to share information. The address is www.storingup.blogspot.com. We're going to be posting hot tips, links to other sites, etc. I think it will be fun. I hope it catches on!

Saturday, January 17, 2009

Christened our new skis today on a groomed trail up Hobble Creek Canyon. We invited Jack's friend Rex to come with us. We did the short loop once, then Roger took the boys over to the sledding hill and I did the loop again. When we were done we were starving! So we went to our favorite greasy drive-in for burgers, chicken and fries. Later we had a massive meltdown over cleaning up the family room, but we go it done!

Friday, January 16, 2009

Jack had the day off school (teacher development day), so he went off to a friend's house while I went to campus to teach my class. I've been trying to get set up with this fun audience response system in class, but it's been complicated trying to get all of it pulled together. Major setback when I found out the software wouldn't work on my mac and that it wasn't loaded on the PC in the lab where I teach. I'm hoping the IT people downloaded it per my request. But somehow I doubt they did. Oh well. I may have to go low tech. When Roger got home from work we headed up to REI in Sandy, then further north to another REI in Salt Lake in search of cross country skis (a Christmas present). Success! Jack joined us on our adventure, but had his nose in a book the whole time - the newest Diary of a Wimpy Kid came out this week.

Thursday, January 15, 2009

Worked at the high school library. I think we've got the faculty for our district writing conference nailed down. I checked out a book by one of the authors coming - Ann Dee Ellis. She started publishing after we closed our bookstore so I wasn't familiar with her. After school Roger and I went to parent teacher conference. We're so proud of Jack for doing so well in school when he'd so rather be doing other things. At 6:00 we headed to the art museum for a dinner for all of the volunteers. A Greek theme (the museum is organizing a tour to Greece later this year), and all of the museum staff were wearing togas and laurel wreaths!

Wednesday, 14 January 2009

Up early. Got Jack to school and headed up to campus. Scrambled to grade essays. Met with some tech guys in the library to try to get up and running with an audience response system I want to use with my class. Realized that it wouldn't work with my macbook. Will have to try again on Friday to get things up and running with the PC in my computer lab classroom. Met my friend Lisa for hot chocolate and a chat. She came to class with me to "observe" (I'd love to see her teaching at UVU). We discussed a couple of pieces of writing in class, including a very funny newspaper column written by Ann Cannon. Came home, regrouped, hung out with Jack, took him to meet Roger at his office, then headed up to campus for a staff meeting. Back home about 8:00. Into jammies. American Idol again. Now I'm going to read to Jack. We might finish our book tonight. Update: We almost finished the book. As usual, Jack fell asleep with three pages to go!

Tuesday, January 13, 2009

High school library. Finished cleaning and reorganizing the 900s in the stacks. Worked on re-cataloguing biographies (we're shifting them to subject areas). Worked on the district writing conference we're heading up on March (researching presenter bios, etc.). Time went by pretty quickly. Picked up a few things at the grocery store on the way home. Cajoled Jack into going to cub scouts. About 5:00 I just hit a wall. Lost all forward momentum. Soon after that I was in my pajamas watching American Idol. Yes, I am a true American.

Monday, January 12, 2009

Dropped Jack off, headed to a doctor's appointment, went up to campus to work on a few things, taught class (seriously underestimated what I could get through in the time I had!), came home and promptly put off all sorts of things on my to do list. I'm not exactly sure where all the time went. Listened to podcasts and played spider solitaire. I did mail some orders at the post office. I did help Jack get his homework done. I did write up a quiz for my class. I did get some laundry done. Jack and I read. 

Sunday, January 11, 2009

Family confession: I turned off my alarm this morning thinking that Roger would wake us all up in time for church. I didn't know that Roger had been up half the night with a headache and that he would sleep in. So we all slept in! Even Jack didn't wake up until 10:00! We ended up spending the day hunkering down. A nice, restful Sunday. Reading, Lego building, watching tv, writing thank you notes for Christmas presents. I actually spent quite a few hours in my office working on various things, including sorting through a stack of mail buildup, paying some bills online and preparing for classes this week. I signed up for a community ed guitar class. It's for 14 and up, so I might find myself hanging out with a bunch of teenagers. That'd be fun!

Saturday, January 10, 2009

I spent a good part of the day putting off things I should have done. But I did get some things done, including going down to the museum to meet the new "fellow" who will be working for the next three months and who uses the store as an "office." I caught the tale end of the opening receptions for a number of exhibition openings and talked with sculptor Jeanine Young, who sculpted the cat that was installed in front of our bookstore just before we opened. I gushed about how many people stopped to see the cat, hug the cat, pet the cat, kiss the cat, take pictures with the cat, etc. She was very gracious. Roger, Jack and I went to La Dolce Vita for dinner (mmm, gnocchi).

Friday, January 9, 2009

Not a day full of accomplishments. I'm still trying to pace myself, so I took it a bit easy today. I did get Jack to school on time (I didn't even have to ask him to wear his coat--missing recess is too big of a risk!). And I made it to my class on time. I gave them their first in-class writing exercise: a personal essay on their relationship with writing. It's my favorite essay to read and it gives me a good sense of where all of my students are at the beginning. I stopped to get a hamburger on the way home from class. That will not be a good habit for me to get into! Jack went home with his friend Josh after school, then they came to our house around 5:00. In the spirit of my new year's resolution (which I have been keeping), I cleaned out our cereal/snack/candy cupboard and got rid of all sorts of things that we've just never eaten. A quiet Friday night, including reading to Jack for about an hour.

Thursday, January 8, 2009

Bad mom confession of the day: We were running a bit late this morning so I told Jack I'd be waiting for him in the car. I don't know what I was doing, but I didn't see him when he got in the car. He sat directly behind me as I drove him to school. When I dropped him off, I turned to say goodbye and realized he wasn't wearing a coat! He laughed like he was getting away with something. Little did he know his teacher wouldn't let him go out like that for recess--I knew he'd learn his lesson! Worked hard, hard, hard at the high school library today. The librarian was out sick and I wanted to get a project, which involved cleaning shelves and moving books, done. I worked out a good system, but wasn't able to finish it before heading home to meet Jack's bus. Oh, well. I'll finish it next week. So, I got home in time to meet Jack's bus, but shortly after I arrived the phone rang. Jack missed the bus and needed me to pick him up at school. That was a first!

Wednesday, January 7, 2009

Dropped Jack at school, stayed for a PTA meeting, spent a really, really long time at the bank, got to UVU early for my first day of class. I took care of things in the office, like copying my syllabus, changing a grade for one of my last semester students, checking my new class roster, etc. Then I headed to class, hoping I would find a room full of students that I can have a good semester with. (Last semester with one really fabulous class and one class that often just stared at me made me a bit wary). Well, I think I got my wish. Students asked questions, they laughed, they started talking with one another. I think they'll be engaged and full of energy. Yay! I got home about an hour before Jack, who has early out every Wednesday. Spent the afternoon and early evening taking care of this and that in my office, feeding Jack, etc. Watched the season premier of The Biggest Loser, read to Jack and sacked out.

Tuesday, January 6, 2009

Told Jack that today was my grandfather's birthday, and that my grammie always tried to keep the Christmas tree up until then. I realized that memory is a funny thing. I don't know if she always did that, or if she did it one time and I generalized it, or if she just talked about the idea of doing it and never actually did. Another reminder of why I'm doing this micro diary. Can't trust my memory. Back to work at the high school library today, barcoding and covering new books, shelving dozens and dozens of books that we'd kept pulled last semester for a multi-class, cross-curriculum research paper (U.S. history/English). Basic library technician work. Called a friend (her husband just lost his job - construction project manager, company shut down). Shoveled part of the driveway (it snowed all day!). Sorted through papers and bills. Helped Jack with his homework (long division). Listened to some NPR podcasts. I actually do this a lot while I'm working in my office - or playing spider solitaire - and I never mention it. I also checked out multiple newspapers online, which I also do pretty much every day. Printed the roster for my new UVU class.

Monday, January 5, 2009

Lots and lots of snow today. I was so relieved to drop Jack off at school (oh boy, he didn't want to go!) and get home to spend the day getting organized. I got all of the Christmas decorations packed up, did some laundry, did some other picking up and sweeping and vacuuming, etc. I've still got a long way to go, but it sure feels good to have some forward momentum. I spent time in my office getting organized, including working on finalizing my syllabus for this semester's class. I'm changing some things, including having unannounced quizzes. I packed up several book orders and got them to the post office. I hauled two huge boxes of paper out of my office and dropped it all off at a recycling bin. Jack and Benny shoveled the driveway (in exchange for me going back out to get Benny after finishing my errands). I wish I could have a few more days like this before going back to work - house to myself without anyone messing up what I've just cleaned up. It was nice, however, to see Jack when he got home from school and Roger when he got home from work. Also, I had a fabulous swiss cheese and spinach panini grilled up in our panini maker (that I don't use often enough because it's a big old pain to clean up).

Sunday, January 4, 2009

The big change for the new year: church is at 9:00 instead of 11:00. So we got up when the alarm went off. I feel a bit sad that vacation is now over and we have to set an alarm every night (except for Friday!). But earlier church means longer afternoon and therefore a better chance that I'll get a Sunday afternoon nap. Surprisingly I never felt the urge! I just spent the day puttering. Started to get ornaments off the Christmas tree with Jack's help, etc. Our house is wildly out of control after Christmas, after months of me being sick and only taking care of the bare minimum and after weeks of Jack being on vacation. Little by little I'm going to get it put back together. Jack and I are reading The Prophet of Yonwood, the prequel to The City of Ember (which we've already read). 

Saturday, January 3, 2009

Nothing very exciting to report other than laundry and grocery shopping. A day spent puttering. Jack played with lots of friends. Roger put together a new nightstand we bought at Ikea. We both made progress on organizing some of the space in our basement. Roger is trying to get his studio completely functional, including the darkroom. He'll have plenty of time to work on projects now that he's done with school. At least we think he's done with school. He has to petition to get his last class (which he took at BYU, not Alabama) transferred.

Friday, January 2, 2009

Well, the second day of the new year was just about as unproductive as the first. But it was a good day. After a lazy morning at home doing this and that, Roger, Jack and I headed to Ikea. Again we lusted after Scandinavian design, but this time we dropped a wad on some items to help Roger get his studio organized and more functional (it was his backup Christmas present when the watch I bought him failed to work properly and he decided just to return it rather than to mess around trying to get it fixed). We also got some chunky floating shelves for Jack's room. The play place was too full of kiddies, so we checked out a Gameboy for Jack and followed us around the store engrossed in Mario Kart. Including having a late lunch in the cafeteria (mmm, meatballs), we were there for more than two hours! A stop at Target (where we ran into our newly married niece Sarah, who seemed quite well) on the way home to pick up Kung Fu Panda, which watched as we ate dinner. Without even realizing it, we had appropriately cooked up noodles for the event (you have to see the movie to understand).

Thursday, January 1, 2009

A great way to start off the new year! I didn't really do anything except spend time with family and friends! After a lazy morning at home, Roger, Jack and I (and a neighbor's daughter who was hitching a ride with us) headed to Highland to hang out with the Farrs. They used to be our neighbors here in Springville, but they moved away about four years ago. Jack is good friends their their daughter Gracie. We ditched Jack with the kids and us grownups headed north to Salt Lake City. We hung out at Copenhagen West, lusting after modern Scandinavian furniture and getting to know some of the salespeople a little too well, then we ate up lots of great Asian food at Cafe Trang, then we dropped buckets of ice cream off for the kids and headed to the Paradise Cafe in American Fork for hot chocolate and cookies. We finally headed home after 11:00, and fell into our beds in a sugar coma. A very nice way to start the new year.

Wednesday, December 31, 2008

A fairly tame New Year's Eve. Spent most of the day working in the museum store, taking a break in the afternoon to go see a movie with some good friends. We saw Doubt. Meryl Streep was amazing and we had a great conversation about the movie all the way home. I finished up the project at the museum and came home starving at 5:30. All I'd had to eat all day was a bowl of wheat chex, a banana and two fun size snickers bars from our Christmas stash. Johnny and Benny were hanging out with Jack so Roger and I ducked out to grab a bite. Hamburger and fries. I've gotta get back on some sort of healthy track! Ah, it'll be a new year. A good time to start! We celebrated with fireworks in the driveway.