Rex Lee Run

Oh, the Rex Lee Run. So classic. 

Remember last year? No green, no water cups, and no pictures.

This year, the stripes were a pretty blue, there were plentiful freezing water cups that no one wanted to drink due to the freezing weather, and plenty of pictures (and videos).

I hope you enjoy these pictures as much as Morgan and I enjoyed the race.

Our classic pre-race feast: the new dorrito ranch taco.

The day dawned white and cold. Really cold. Really, really cold.



This is Morgan, being a snow angel to bless our race.

I'm sure the weather didn't help, but there seems to be fewer and fewer people running the Rex every year. 

Which we don't mind since it betters our chances.

Our goal was to beat this group with the wheelchair.

Actually, our goal is always to at least run the big hill and then walk/run whatever we feel like. 

We didn't make it.

This year, it was so cold, Morgan's toes almost fell off from frostbite. She was practically running on club feet. 

I told her to wiggle them.

My nose started running and the boogers froze before I could gracefully remove them. Hence I used my mouth to try and breathe up the hill. My throat quickly caught on fire as I felt that pain that only comes from burning cold. I couldn't breathe through my nose or my mouth and my throat felt like it had frostbite. Morgan told me to wiggle it.

New goal: be the very last people to hobble over the finish line. We purposely paused as often as we could to let people go ahead of us. We had to stop to take a lot of pretty pictures along the way to make it look like we weren't trying to throw the race :)

Morgan told me her favorite thing was always looking up when it snowed. We tried to capture it.

We also had some mini adventures.

Like watching this cup race us down the road.

Like mid-race reunions with old roommates.

Like showing off the forward front leg kick.

Like finding signs that encouraged us to do the opposite of our goal.

Like good old fashioned tunnel singing.

Like meeting this volunteer at the end of the race who reminded us of the Validation guy with his perky attitude and nice compliments ("Not many people would come out in this weather just to walk the race, you guys are awesome!") Seriously, if you haven't watched Validation on youtube, do it now.

And of course, like the grand slow motion finale.

 In the end, we weren't the last to finish so we failed our goal.
But look who just happened to come in before us. If we couldn't have been the last to come in, at least we failed in our goal to beat the wheelchair group and that's enough of a success.

Thanks for a great race as always, Morgan!

Look, a post!

Saw this list on a friend's blog, have been inspired by another friend's goal to blog once a moth, thought I should start with something easy to get back into the swing of things :) 

Currently I'm...

Reading Reading Streets (my daily lesson manual), Fablehaven, Chime, and The Greater Journey
Watching Total Blackout. I can't. help. myself.

Trying not to die of exhaustion
Cooking a practice wedding cake for the Young Women
Eating Valentine's candy every day for lunch. It's disgusting.
Drinking Cactus Cooler, I haven't had one of these in like ten years!
Calling parents to discuss behavior "opportunities"
Texting my wonderful friend in Oregon I get to visit next weekend!
Pinning onto my secret board.
Tweeting #I'veneverunderstoodtweeting
Crafting examples of art projects my students have to do. Like this lovely self-portrait for "If I were President" essays:

Going to the BYU Men's Volleyball game on Saturday. Rise and shout!
Loving teaching
Hating teaching
Discovering that lack of sleep + too much to do = zombie face
Enjoying Kelly's new juicer when she makes pure orange juice.
Thinking of Oregon and the trees and the rivers and the smells...I'm coming back to you soon, wait for me!
Feeling exhausted with an extra foggy brain
Hoping that summer vacation comes much faster than I think it will.
Listening to the Gardiner Sisters (by recommendation of Morgan)
Celebrating the coming of spring. Please come faster.
Smelling the gorgeous lilies Davy Gravy got me for Valentines. I can't decide if the smell is like an intoxicating greenhouse...or a dirty diaper. But I love them. And I love Davy.

Thanking God for all my blessings
Considering using my precious free time to edit the family reunion video or my students "Western Brass Knuckles: The Tale of the Subtraction Cowboys and Cowgirls defeating the Subtraction Outlaws in Subtraction Town" video (the title, the script, the characters -all their ideas, it's so cute!)
Finishing all my blog post drafts on mine and David's story, starting with first impressions all the way to now :)
Starting to blog again!

Spring/Summer Book Review

I have not been doing a great job with my blog lately. Sorry. In an effort to reinvigorate my writing efforts, I've been going through old drafts that I never published. Here's a book review list that I found from earlier this year:

***1/2 Warbreaker by Brandon Sanderson - Classic BranSan fantasy, so delightfully different but always with a hint of the divine.

***** No Great Mischief by Alistair Macleod - I've said it before and I'll say it again, if I ever get a tattoo it will be of a quote from this man.  I want his words to be with me, a part of me, always.  I loved this book so much that I went straight to the library and checked out a 'How to Learn Gaelic' program. I also now visit this site frequently.

**1/2 The Wise Man's Fear by Patrick Rothfuss - Meh. The first one was way better, it's slowly becoming much more of a "boy" story with pages dedicated to the physics of things as well as teenage romance. Blech.

****1/2 Major Pettigrew's Last Stand by Helen Simonson - I'd been hearing about this book for years, read the first chapter excerpt at least three times, and finally broke down and read it.  I loved it. It made me want to pay more attention to honor and duty and love. I recommended it to Alison's book group, they all came away depressed from reading it. To each his own I guess.

***1/2 The End of the Alphabet by CS Richardson  - This is a short, painfully sweet read about a man who learns he has only months to live.  Ever since he was a boy, he has been obsessed with alphabet lists and traveling.  So him and his wife set out to visit a city beginning with each letter of the alphabet before he dies.  I told my friend Rachel about this book and this is the conversation that followed:
R: "Sounds like you two would be friends."
Me: "Why? Because he's so adventurous?"
R: "No, you know, because of all your weird goals."

**** The Tales of Beedle the Bard by JK Rowling - Like everything this woman does, I loved it. The tales were as enchanting as any fairytale I grew up with.

**** 32 Third Graders and One Class Bunny: Life Lessons from Teaching by Phillip Done - Hilarious. Pretty sure everyone, teacher or not, would love this book.

****1/2 Zeitoon by Dave Eggers - I can't say enough good about this book. I've never read a book that has made me want to work so much harder at life. It makes me want to throw a broken bike on my back and run to work just so I won't be late. That might not make sense but it will after you read it. Read it. Now.

*** At Home with Flowers by Jane Packer - I want to put flowers everywhere.

*** Down to the Wire by Robert Shoop - A history of every Triple Crown winner. It's a book written in a style that makes you feel like you're listening to an announcer at the races. Kind of jumpy and quick. But I liked it.

*** The Best American Sports Writing edited by Jane Leavy - Fascinating tales of prodigy surfers,  NFL video games, and free divers who dive deep without oxygen tanks. Loved it.

**** Don't Throw It, Grow It! by Deborah Peterson and Millicent Selsam - Pretty sure I saved every avocado pit this summer in the hopes of planting them and never did. A girl can still dream, right?

** Surprised by Joy by CS Lewis - I was actually surprised by how little joy this book brought me. I was expecting a beautiful recounting of Mr. Lewis' changing faith but instead it was almost an entire book composed of his rational reactions to books on his life's reading list.  I exaggerate, but I'm pretty sure I couldn't understand half the things he wrote because I had never read the books to which he was consistently referring.

**** Persuasion by Jane Austen - Whenever I read an Austen novel I am always surprised by how emotional I become over basically nothing. I mean, nothing ever happens in any of her books and yet it becomes physically painful to put them down while reading - I just have to find out what happens or my heart will burst...over nothing really.

Separation Anxiety

Twice now I've been asked to leave my students in the care of someone else in order to go relay a message to another teacher.

Once was while they were being tested and I panicked at the idea of not being there to see them when they were finished. Who would greet them as they came out? Who would give them a high five or a hug and tell them they were brave for taking such a hard test? Who would give my loud-voice student a dirty look to remind him to use a quiet voice in the hallway? Who would know how to cheer up my crier and keep the tears at bay?

The second time was at an assembly and I panicked at the idea of leaving them in the midst of a sea of students. What if the person watching them didn't recognize when my ADD student got distracted and wandered off? What if my super shy student got scared of all the loud noises and I wasn't there to give her our secret thumbs up signal to tell her it was all right? What if I died in a horrible hallway accident by a stray swamp cooler falling on me and I could never make it back to them, would they remember to bring their show and tell on Friday for the 2nd grade ME Fair so that they wouldn't feel left out from all the other classes?

This much we know, I would be a wreck as a mother.

Three Wonders

Wonder #1: I'm posting on my blog, and it's not about school or children.

Wonder #2: A sweet potato that is forgotten and left alone in a dark, cozy bag:

Wonder #3: Caty and I posted on our photo blog.

First Day of School

Favorite moments of the day:

*I let the class vote on a name for the dinosaur pointer. The final decision: Master Yoda. I lost my heart to them in that moment.

*While writing a personal narrative about heroes, one student said his hero was his pet hamster. Because it would eat all the parts of his dinner he didn't want.

*I administered a total of three bandaids. I love administering bandaids. It brings me a strange joy, almost as if I had the strength of 12 years of medical school and the healing power of an angel.

*The moment I looked around the room at the end of the day and realized I already couldn't wait to see them tomorrow. They are so cute. Even the one who cried every hour on the hour...for an hour. Even the one with a sixth grader attitude. Even the one who thinks "Voices off" means talk louder. And especially the one who told me I was his favorite second grade teacher in all the world.

More Funny Kids

I was babysitting twin boys who had just finished first grade and they found out I was going to be a second grade teacher:
"Well, next year we'll be in second grade! Then third and by then we'll probably be smarter than you."

Those same boys were later playing "No Stress Chess"and one of them was winning by a lot and kept reminding his frustrated brother that he shouldn't stress out because it was "no stress" chess. This was the conversation I overheard:

Twin 1: "But I want it to be easy for me!"
Twin 2: "You don't always get what you want."
Twin 1: "You always say that and this time you didn't even say it with your happy voice."
Twin 2: "I'm sorry, I was trying to be happy about it."