Slow Boat from China

That's what this post is like! Sorry I've been so slow. Man, I could hardly breathe this last week trying to get my homework done for class (barely, barely made it) and keep my head above water with lesson plans and a little bit of grading!

Not complaining. I am GRATEFUL to have a job that pays for me to take classes! Just running hard and panting a little!

Good news from Angela & Tim - the baby has turned and he is now head down. Yay! She was going to have to go into the hospital to see if they could get him to turn (I think it involves lots of pushing on the abdomen--ouch!--and it can sometimes start labor) but then the night before she was stretching her back and he did it on his own! She said it was pretty uncomfortable, but better than having the doctor do it.

Good news from Eric & Polly - he has made the first cut for a big scholarship. They liked his paper application well enough that now they want to do a phone interview for the next step. It's a very competitive (lots of $$) scholarship for prospective science teachers. They'll know if he gets into the program later this spring.

Good news from David & Holly - Arora is finally sleeping better. I gave them the little toddler bed I bought when Katie was little - it's been in storage over 20 years! - and she likes it really well. Kendra and Chris bought new bunkbeds for their kids recently too, and Abbi an Charlie are thrilled.

Yikes - I'm behind on birthdays. Need to get something in the mail to Polly, Angela, and the twins.

I have to do a training tomorrow morning for our in-service day, and then it's grading in the afternoon. The school year is 1/2 over! Hard to believe. Looking forward to our conversation on Saturday. Love you and miss you!

Cold

I'm coming down with a cold. Bleh. I'm not SICK, I just have a sniffy nose and I'm sneezing a lot. But I'm milking it for what it's worth. I told Mark I thought he should make me some herbal tea and rub my feet. Ha ha! But he's downstairs now making tea...we'll see if I get the foot rub...

PS - Don't forget to send me an email about how your workouts are going - when you have some time. What are your favorite exercises or machines? How long do you exercise? Do you like the gym and why? Do you have to take any precautions with the pacemaker? I think it's really cool to have 3 generations posting on The Skinny.

More weekend photos

The kids were so cute together.

Mark let the kids watch the "Chicka Chicka Boom Boom" movie on the computer.
(Maddy, Arora, Seth)

Maddy and Rebecca sure are cute together. Maddy was really watching Rebecca as she was eating. Afterwards, it seemed like Maddy was a little more willing to try eating some things.

Happy Birthday, Katie Carlson!

Katie was thrilled to be turning 5 today. Here are some photos from the day.

Blowing out the candles on the birthday cupcakes.

A hug with Grandpa Mark - she sure is getting big!

Rebecca is soooo close to walking! She took a couple of steps on her own yesterday.

Here she is enjoying Maddy's walker toy.

Story time with Grandpa Mark.

He played really hard with all the grandkids today and had a wonderful time.

Millie Sprague

One of my students, Emily, stopped me in the hall this afternoon to tell me that Millie Sprague passed away this morning. Apparently she had a stroke a couple of weeks ago. I haven't been over to see Dolores and Lud yet.

Emily knew that I live next door to her best friend, Shelby Carlson, who is one of Dolores and Lud's granddaughters. I really appreciate that she came by to let me know.

There's more about Millie on my other blog.

Quiet Evening at Home

Ahhh...a quiet evening at home...our only one for a while.

I'll grade some essays, make a lesson plan for tomorrow, do some reading in my next book for the PSU class (Twain's "Roughing It.")

Polly & Eric are coming down tomorrow after she finishes her sub job. They'll stay in the Jenson's guest room at night, but I imagine they'll be here quite a bit during the day. We'll celebrate Katie's birthday while they're here, and they'll head home sometime on Sunday.

Sure it will be fun, but I do treasure these quiet evenings!

Here are some fun pictures of Kaitlyn and Maddy on Julia's lap last weekend.

They both got dressed in polka-dot jammies.

Kaitlyn likes to give kisses.

Maddy's not so sure about that!

Kaitlyn doesn't give up, Maddy decides to kiss her, too.

Smiling for the camera.

Cheese!

Oony-koony-chah

Do you remember singing "A-oony-koony-chah-a-oonie" at Camp Natoma? There are hand/arm motions where the left arm/hand is held out straight in front while the right hand pats the left wrist - elbow - upper arm, and then the right arm goes out and the left hand pats, and then back and forth and so on.

This morning Kat told me she had been learning some Indian dances, and I asked her to show them to me. One of them was the arm-hand-patting thing, and I said, "Oh, that looks like Oony-koony-chah," and she said yes, that's what it was, but she didn't know the song.

So I sang Oony-koony-chah while I was standing in the kitchen making my lunch and she did the arm-hand motions, and we had a great time. It was so fun to have her know about the song. A substitute teacher taught it to her class.

How fun to have an old Camp Natoma song come into my life this morning!

Cute babies

Julia has posted a bunch of cute photos of Maddie and Kaitlyn on her blog. You'll enjoy them!

(11 people in the house for a few days! ....  )

Maddy & Kaitlyn enjoying an "early literacy" experience. :)

Uh-oh...looks like Maddy is discovering the stairs!

This Class is Going to Kill Me Off!

Oh my - started my PSU class Monday night, and it's a doozy. I'm sure I will learn many things from it, but it may kill me off in the process. We have to read 10 books in 12 weeks (nonfiction), and write a 3,000 word midterm paper and a 5,000 word final paper. Yikes! I'm scrambling to get to page 80 of "Walden" by tonight.

On a lighter note, Mark and I started a yoga class through community ed last night - it's held over at Mt. Pleasant School. The class is very good. One hour long, a good teacher, mostly women but one other guy in the class. The yoga poses were challenging but not impossible - we felt like our bodies were s-t-r-e-t-c-h-i-n-g and working hard. During the "relaxation pose" at the end, I fell completely asleep. And oh, how I slept last night! Deep and peaceful sleep, better than I've had in months, maybe years.

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Back to Work

7:00 am - heading out the door. Got up at 5:15 this morning to go down to Curves for a workout. Gosh, it was a treat to sleep in for two weeks! But it will be good to get back into our routine and doing the good work of teaching.

Yesterday at church they announced that next Sunday we'll divide the 4 Oregon City wards into 5 wards. Wow! When I moved here 30 years ago there were only 2 wards. Lots of changes...new callings, new people to associate with at church, new bishop, maybe even a new meetinghouse (there are 2 in Oregon City now).

It's rainy outside but I feel sunny inside.

January Play Day

Today was our Play Day for January, but we didn't feel like a huge outing because 1) we've actually had a play WEEK, and 2) Mark has a cold, so we didn't want to go hiking because 3) it's rainy out. So we rode the MAX train into Portland and went to the Portland Art Museum. They have an exhibit called "China Design," which I thought sounded kind of boring, but it was actually interesting. China is such a big country and I never think about it. There are those millions (billions?) of people doing things every day, and I never once give a thought to that whole huge majority of humanity. I just go along in my own little world, as if I were the center of it.

Anyway, the exhibit was some of the graphic design and architectural design trends in China today, and it was very interesting. Afterwards, we walked around downtown a little and got a sandwich for lunch, and then we rode the MAX back home.

I really need to stop procrastinating some things...like the pile of essays that I was going to get to the whole vacation, and they're still sitting there. I need to give them back to the kids on Tuesday or Wednesday, so I need to get busy. I also need to make some plans for cub scouts on Tuesday afternoon...I guess this vacation really is just about over.

Here are some photos from Arora's birthday party yesterday. She is such a cutie.

She couldn't get the hang of how to blow her candles out. Holly had to help her. Holly made cute cupcakes decorated as owls, Arora's favorite bird.

Arora opening up her gift from me and Mark - the "Chicka Chicka Boom Boom" DVD. Arora calls it "Boom Boom." Seriously, David and Holly may hate me for this. The song really gets stuck in your head. Arora loves it and can watch it over and over and over and over and over...you get the idea!

PS - I updated your blog list on the side. I took off the ones that are blocked, and I added a new one for Hillary Haynie and also "The Skinny" - the diet blog by me and Katie.