My Life in a Curtain Bag

For Christmas this year, my mom gave each of her children a pink binder. Inside the binder she has written her memories from birth to about 12 years old. It is great reading. Along with the stories, she has included the pictures that go with the stories. As she has been preparing this great gift, she has been pouring over the many boxes of pictures she has accumulated over the years. Not only of her, but of our family. As she when through all the boxes, she also sorted the pictures by child. So as a second gift, I recieved "My life in a Curtain bag".

Maybe I will share some of the stories I am reminded of after looking through these pictures.

Dinner and a Show with Austin

Tonight at dinner, we were serenaded by Austin. For some reason, this is a regular occurrence at the dinner table. We have been having discussions about not singing at the dinner table, but it does not seem to make a difference.

Anyway - tonight's song was Axel F. If you don't know what that is, it is only because you don't know the name of the song. I am sure that if you heard someone hum it, you would know in an instance. So, Austin starts singing it for some reason and the girls all join in. When they are done,

Grandma Alger says "Isn't that from 48 Hours?"

I say, "No, I think it is from Beverly Hills Cop, but they are both Eddie Murphy movies."

Austin says, "I don't know what those movies are."

I say, "They are 80's movies."

Without skipping a beat - - Austin says, "Oh, so they are in black and white."

OH, Austin.

Then last night we had issues with the kids all leaving the table and then coming back when we were having dessert. Grandma Alger clarified the rule that if you leave the table you are done eating, therefore not getting dessert. This clarification did not go over well, so the nice grandma that Grandma Alger is said, "OK - you all know the rules now but tonight you can have some dessert."

Tonight at dinner, Austin reminds us all of the rule about not leaving the table. We go through dinner (and a show) and have a lovely time. When Austin is done with his food, he stands up and clears his plate to the counter and begins to go downstairs. The Adults at the table are still talking away with no notice of what Austin is doing. UNTIL... He come running up the stairs and grabs the table and says, "I'm still touching the table."

It took us a minute to figure out what he was doing, but somewhere during his long journey down the stairs, he remembered that if he left the table, he would not get any dessert.

OH, Austin - We love you!!@!

Another Christmas Memory

Most of my childhood memories of Christmas have something to do with West Yellowstone, MT and snowmobiling. Since I was little, my dad worked for the Boy Scouts of America for the Great Salt Lake counsel. Every year during the Christmas break, groups of scouts would go to West Yellowstone to snowmobile. We were lucky enough to join my dad during some of these trips.

I don't remember a lot of details - - just bits and pieces. I remember one trip where my dad went up ahead of us and so we took the bus. I remember seeing cars stuck on the side of the roads along the way.

Another (could be the same - I don't know) we got tee shirts for night shirts. I remember wearing the shirts and jumping on the beds at the motel with the babysitter.

Just before I turned 8, our family moved up to West Yellowstone. Our parents ran the Big Western Pine Motel. The Motel is still there, but it has a different name now. I think I have more summer memories than winter after we moved there. But I am pretty sure we went snowmobiling every Christmas day (or the day after). What a great time we had.

One Christmas Aunts and Uncles and cousins came to spend Christmas with us. I remember that one because my sisters and I all got a camera for Christmas. We must have gone through 10 rolls of 110 film while they were all there. Not many of my pictures are in focus or even centered. But we sure had a good time.

When it was time for everyone to go home, we three sisters got to go home with the Wrights. That was fun. Then Uncle Ed and Aunt Mary brought us home. At least that is how I remember it.

A very tiring week

Last week I was a first grade teacher. I don't know how I got through, but I did. I have been subbing here and there for the last 6 weeks, but really only one day a week. The only reason I even have gone that many times is that I found a friend from high school on Facebook. After chatting with her back and forth, I found that she is a teacher here in Alpine. I felt a little dumb, but I sent her an email telling her I was registered with the district to substitute teach. She thought that was great and would keep me in mind if she ever needed a sub.

About two weeks later, Ms. Jones gave my number to the teacher next door to her. That was the start of my subbing. This teacher, Mrs. Bjornberg, is pregnant and needed a teacher while she had a doctors appointment. She was so organized. (I think I have blogged about this already).

Anyway - Ms. Jones then needed me to come in some days. While I was there, Mrs. Bjornberg asked if I would be interested in subbing for her class the week before Christmas break. She was due to have her baby on the 22nd of December, but it looked like the baby was going to come earlier than that. I told her I would be happy to sub for her. In the back of my mind, there was a little voice YELLING at me - - WHAT ARE YOU DOING??????? A WHOLE WEEK?????

I did it. I survived and the students did too. I actually had a lot of fun. The first day I went in early so I could read through her plans. The first item was the explanation of the PARENT CHRISTMAS GIFT which turned out to be a wood ornament that the students got to paint. WHAT??? I WILL HAVE TO PAINT WITH 1ST GRADERS????

This is not my cup of tea. I have a hard time painting with my own kids. So much so that I don't ever let them do it.

Luckily, Mrs. Bjornberg has an AWESOME assistant that comes in the mornings to help with things the students are doing. She pulled the kids back a few at a time and had all 28 students done in two days. It was great. I never had to get close to the mess, and she helped them keep the paint only on the ornament.

The other thing this class did was share different traditions their families have. Each day two to four parents would come in and share with the students a family tradition. Many were the same, but I learned about some new ones. The one I thought would be fun to do with my family is the white elephant game. Make sure to have a gift for everyone, then while reading 'Twas the Night Before Christmas, pass the presents around in a circle. You will know when it is time to pass the present every time you hear the word THE. Read that poem sometime - - there are a lot of THEs.

I was very thankful to have a good group of kids. For the most part. There were a few I wished would be swept off to their Disneyland or cruise vacations a few days early. But I had a good time. And have already talked to Ms. Jones about being in her class for a week in January when she gets married.

I didn't think I would like subbing, but it is working. I am always nervous during the drive there in the mornings, but I am excited and happy when I am there.

Christmas Memory

I have a vivid memory of a ward Christmas party when we lived in Holiday, UT. I must have been 5 or 6 years old. I can picture the gym full of people and stations where we did different crafts. That was the year we did Shrinky Dinks for Christmas ornaments. There was a coloring page station and the best of all, a Santa Station.

Santa sat on a raised platform. I remember having to climb the stairs up to talk to him. I remember his hands. They were so familiar. Then I looked in his eyes and knew right away who he was. I then whispered in his ear - so no one else could hear me - "I know it's you Dad. I won't tell."

Do we ever slow down?

I thought that finishing school would mean that I have more time to do whatever I want. So far that is not the case. I have just replaced school work with substituting.

I did get some fun books at Barnes & Noble. Digital Fortress by Dan Brown, Deception Point by Dan Brown, The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins and Catching Fire by Suzanne Collins.

I read Digital Fortress in two days. It was nice to not have to do anything for a couple of days. But then someone complained about not having any clean clothes to wear so I had to get laundry going. Then it seemed as though there was nothing to eat even though there was lots of food, so I had to go to the grocery store. I did start Deception Point. I am about half way through, but then I decided I better get some Christmas presents done. Then a teacher called for me to substitute for her class for Friday and Monday.

After subing for the whole day Friday, I came home made dinner and watched TV. My brain was fried. At 7:30 pm I was ready for bed - so I went in and thought I would read for a little while. I got through 2 pages and couldn't keep my eyes open. I was asleep before 8. I have not done that for a VERY long time. But at 6:15 am when Special K (that is the name grandpa is testing - we are not sure if she will let it stick) came in to poke my face, I was rested and ready to snuggle with her.

Then today I went with grandma to Ross. I don't think when we started at 9 am that we thought we would be gone until 3:30 pm, BUT we did get all of our shopping done. I have all my Christmas shopping done - all that's left is to wrap. And maybe a few more stocking things, but Santa can take care of that for me!

SIDE NOTE:
I did get my grades back on my finals - - B for Geology and A for Education Class. That means I passed both classes with a B and C+ respectively.