Wednesday, March 18, 2009

I have so fallen of the planet. Not sure if I'm recommitting or not, but thought I'd make at least this entry. Worked a couple of hours at the high school after dropping Jack off at school. Trying to get all sorts of things organized for a huge student writers and illustrators conference hosted at the high school on Saturday. Nearly 400 registrants in the spreadsheet I've put together. Roger and I met one of the authors at Guru's for lunch to get some of her books for the bookstore. Fun to meet her! Ate way to many sweet potato fries. Worked a shift at the Brookside Elementary book fair. Grocery store, post office, picked up friends for Jack. Watched organizer Peter Walsh on Oprah (I confess I have a bit of a crush on him). Will be going to pinewood derby at cub scouts tonight, then off to the art museum for a book release party for Alex Bigney. A friend of mine conducts a children's choir which will be performing. (Update: pinewood derby ran long, bailed on the museum party).

Saturday, February 7, 2009

A very out of the ordinary Saturday! Out of the house by 9:00 to pick up Roger's mom. We drove to Salt Lake for Roger's uncle's memorial service. Uncle Ralph passed away about a week ago. They had a funeral for him in California, but he was being buried in Salt Lake where he grew up, so they had another service here. Uncle Ralph's son is married to President Uchdorf's daughter, and President Uchdorf was at the service and shared a few of his memories of Ralph. That was a special treat. I'm glad we took Jack with us. On the way home we stopped at the King's English bookstore to visit with friends who work there and to buy a couple of books for Jack. Then after a lunch stop, we dropped some paintings off to one of the artists in last fall's show. He and his wife recently moved to a home in Draper which is on the historical register. Very cool house! It looked just like a house he'd paint in a book! Another stop at Costco where Roger helped his mom pick out a new television. Then a stop at Roger's parents where he set the new television up. Finally home and into pajamas. I am so not 100%, but I'm trying to pace myself.

Friday, February 6, 2009

Got Jack to school on time, but didn't head up to school like I originally planned to grade papers. I am officially in procrastination mode on that front. Instead I came back home and spent some time getting organized - cleaned out my school bag, scrubbed the kitchen and took care of some emailing. In class I had my students write about the way Martin Luther King Jr. used language in his "I Have a Dream" speech and what it reflects about him, his purpose and his intended audience. It's one of my favorite assignments--students pick up on so many interesting things. Did many errands on the way home: post office to mail orders, pharmacy to pick up a prescription refill, museum to get the point of sale software registered (it worked this time!) and to pick up some pieces to take to one of the artists tomorrow. Came home and took it easy until Jack came home. We went to pick up Johnny and Benny, then later after we took them home, Roger, Jack and I went out to grab a snack. Jack and I started reading Danny the Champion of the World by Roald Dahl the other night, but stopped cold after Danny learns his father poaches pheasants. Jack refused to continue reading a book in which innocent birds get killed. I can support him in that.

Thursday, February 5, 2009

Sheesh! Another week has slipped by and here I am, trying to remember what actually happened. I've been sick (I think I've had a bit of a relapse because I caught a cold) so I've tried to get good rest and eat lots of vitamin rich food. I missed two days of work. I'm feeling a bit better today, but am frustrated because I'm so behind on so many things. I could write more about what I've put off in the past week than I can write about what I did! Some memories: Jack and I had fun putting in a couple of last minute bids for a set of "rare" Bionicle masks on ebay. We spent $1 more than we planned to, but we got them! A bit of an adrenaline rush. I better not do that very often! I was talking to a man and his daughter in my guitar class and discovered that I actually knew his family in Mass. I actually babysat for him at least once! I finally posted my 25 things on facebook (I had to write them twice because they accidentally got deleted). We went out for Mexican food at our favorite restaurant, Mi Ranchito. On the way home we visited with Roger's parents, who had news that Roger's uncle had passed away. All of a sudden we're having a lot of conversations with Jack about death (his friend Josh's grandfather died, Johnny and Benny's grandmother died, and now Uncle Ralph--all in the past few weeks). I spent 15 minutes on hold with a very nice Indian customer service rep who ultimately couldn't help me register the software because their servers were down. I got home from school on Monday just in time to watch Hilary Clinton get sworn in as Secretary of State. I like her. I hope she does a good job. We really need her to.

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!