Bits and Pieces

 I took this snap shot of my work area...I feel like I live at work sometimes. The junior high has invaded my subconscious so much that I often dream about random people from there or tasks I need to do...I should get paid for the space it occupies in my brain!!

A student's mom left this note for us (Wendy and I) the other day, it was kind of her to do that.

My mom brought lunch for Wendy and I just to be nice!

Another student's mom dropped this off for us at parent/teacher conference night.

After weeks of receiving nothing from my new secret pal I finally got this...Cadbury Eggs are a good one to make amends (I've been spoiling my secret pal of course).

 

Landon stayed home sick on Tuesday and Wednesday and left me all this homework to turn in for him, I was very impressed with how organized he was.

This is the note he left for me, very sweet!

I saw this beauty in the school parking lot, man oh man I didn't know these were still around.

 I had a very delicious car lunch with Michelle today.

We hadn't gotten together since our last car lunch back on February 8th so we had a lot of Smotherhood to commiserate about, things have not been easy lately for either of us.

Lastly, I received this hilarious bit of good mail from Lori.

To The Rescue

 

Last week Landon's rec basketball team had their first game of the end-of-the-season tournament. The coach wasn't able to be there, so my dad was kind enough to step in and coach (even though it was an 8:00 game!).

The team hasn't won many games this season, but have managed to keep the score fairly close.

But on my dad's watch they had a plan and some coaching from the sidelines (he was hoarse by the end of the game).

Landon had his highest scoring night of the season!

Woohoo, a full-court pass to Landon for a lay up.

Half-time coaching, he looked so official in his work clothes. They won the game!

Shmalentine's Day

A couple days before Valentine's Day Landon's friend Lexie came into the office to ask me if I thought Landon would agree to be her Valentine. Basically she meant that they would give each other something as friends just to make the day more fun. It cracked me up because a bit because they told each other they liked Kit Kats, so we thought it was basically going to be an exchange of Kit Kats.

It turns out that Landon got her a King Sized Kit Kat but she made him this cute poster full of candy and a cute rhyme. 

Wendy got a bouquet of flowers from her husband and from her son...no I didn't feel dumb and flowerless at all. Randy ended up giving me a couple gift certificates for pedicures and some truffles and chocolate covered strawberries.

Randy and Whitney made this cute English mailbox with Harry from One Direction leaning on it for her Valentine box this year. She's very lucky to have such an artistic dad, otherwise she would have to do these things by herself.

Sunday Thoughts

“Noble and great. Courageous and determined. Faithful and fearless. That is who you are and who you have always been. And understanding it can change your life, because this knowledge carries a confidence that cannot be duplicated any other way.”   --Sheri Dew

 I have to keep reminding myself of this about myself and about everyone around me!

12 on the 12th--February Edition

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1. Touching up my nail polish. I'm loving this gray but it needs almost a daily touch up.
2. Family scripture reading.
3. The $1.08 for my morning beverage at McDonald's.
4. My expression after a totally crazy morning at work. I made a Cafe Rio/sanity run which really helped (both the good food and the short break).
5. The pork tostada kid's meal I got for lunch, it's only $3.50 and it really hits the spot.
6. I actually got some good mail, a card from Claudia!
7. One of Landon's jobs on his chart this week is to do 15 minutes of indexing every day.
8. One of Whitney's jobs this week is to read out loud to me 15 minutes every day. (It turns out that recognizing punctuation while reading is key...Whitney hasn't embraced that yet.)
9.  Whitney's Valentine Box design sketch.
10. My table of D.I. goods at our Relief Society Swap.
11. The reminder note to put the clothes in the dryer (and start it) which I left on the mirror for Randy.
12. The book I just started.

Six for Saturday

1. We had a major health scare with Andrew this week. My mom sent a group text saying that the Group Home had called her because Andrew was sick and they were taking him to the ER. She didn't know what to expect but they thought it was the flu or pneumonia. I was in tears instantly as I thought about how hard it is to communicate with him and help him when he's sick. Lori ended up going to the hospital with them and texted that it took 4 people to hold him down so they could start an I.V. of antibiotics! They also took X-rays and did a CT and found that he had Cellulitis (a bacterial infection that causes a high fever, rash, swelling and achy body). My mom ended up staying in the hospital with him for 2 nights. Fortunately they were able to sedate him so he could sleep and receive the medications (too bad they didn't sedate my mom because Andrew snored like a bear and kept her from getting any sleep at all). He's doing much better now and is back "home" at the Group Home.

2. We had New Beginnings this week (it's hard to believe it's our 2nd one already) and Whitney wasn't one of the new girls this year (they looked so tiny). The program was really well done and we were out of there in an hour so that was a bonus.

They had all the girls bring a shoe that represents them. I thought it was fun to see all their personalities represented on the display. If I were to choose a shoe to represent me now it would definitely be a flip flop, but back then it would have been something different...possibly a white Reebok high top.

3. It was Parent/Teacher Conferences at the school this week and I always like to bring a treat or something to Whitney's teacher and to the secretaries, so this time I arranged with them in advance to bring them Cafe Rio and drinks for lunch. It was so fun for me to run around town (I left work for an hour) getting their orders. One of the secretaries said, "It has been so fun anticipating this good lunch!"

4. I got to anticipate a good lunch on Friday since Michelle had arranged to come to school for a car lunch. It's so nice to have something fun to look forward to. She brought very huge, tasty sandwiches from Kneaders, which surprisingly didn't end up dumping down my shirt (I wear a napkin bib and hold the container up to my face like a trough).

Several minutes after I'd gone back into work Michelle called to say her battery was dead. I printed instructions from the internet and went outside to help her (we both had jumper cables in our cars). A nice man helped us a bit, but we were all over it!

 5. Every Saturday Landon meets with the YM to play basketball, but I don't usually go to those games (some are at 7 & 8!), but today's game was at 10:00 so I braved it. It was so fun to see what an amazing group of Young Men we have in our ward and how talented and kind they are. They played a great, close game and ended up winning then they stayed afterward and divided up into two even teams to play another hour-long game! Meanwhile Randy and I were sitting on some very hard chairs (my tail bone can't take it!!) but it was fun to be the cheering section and to see them all in action.

I got these three to pose after the game...I'm so glad Landon has good friends.

6. We had a fun Super Bowl party at Lori's house last Sunday. She totally spoiled us with lots of good food.

We were cheering on the Ravens (since the Falcons didn't make it) because Wendy's (the other secretary at work) nephew is a starter on the Ravens. It's way more fun when you feel like you "know" somebody on the team. He had 2 sacks in the game!

Miscellaneous Monday

 Andrew and my parents came to watch Landon's basketball game last Friday night.

 We didn't know how Andrew would do in such a setting, but thanks to Netflix and my mom's new iPad he did just fine watching Dumbo.

This is Landon's version of mopping on his hands and knees. 

Another dinosaur still life by Whitney.

We've been trying harder to have family meals together (we have a tendency to forage and scatter) so we've been making a menu plan and committing one of us to being in charge of the meal that night. It is working out splendidly and has meant much better dinners and lots more time together. 

I've been wanting a little speaker set up for the kitchen and I found this one at Walmart today. It was originally priced at $19 but was marked down to $11 but then rang up as $5.50 woohoo and it works great!

I got a thank you note from the girl I gave things to as her Secret Pal at work. I found the note on my desk and immediately said, "Who's Gail?!" I thought someone had left it there by mistake, but it turns out the note was for me. The poor girl overheard me and was so embarrassed, she said "I know you're name's not Gail." (Apparently not.) Huh, Gail that was a first time for me.

Sunday Thoughts

I've been listening to last October's General Conference talks (again) while getting ready each morning and felt particularly inspired by Elder Eyring's talk from the Priesthood Session entitled "Help Them Aim High". In this talk he shares how he prayed to see the potential in each of his children so that he would know how to help them progress (wow, what a concept!) and then he carved height boards with an image and saying for each child.

 He said,

"The height boards I have described are only one way to help young people glimpse the grandeur God sees in them and their futures and the unique service He has prepared them to give. He will help you see how to do it for your children or for other youth you lead. But as you prayerfully seek to glimpse this future for yourself and to communicate it to the young person one on one, you will come to know that God loves each of His children as individuals and sees great and unique gifts in each of them.

God knows our gifts. My challenge to you and to me is to pray to know the gifts we have been given, to know how to develop them, and to recognize the opportunities to serve others that God provides us. But most of all, I pray that you will be inspired to help others discover their special gifts from God to serve."

I love these thoughts and shared them in our Key Scouters Meeting this morning (while blubbering of course) because as leaders of the Scouts (and also the Young Women as Girl's Camp Director) we are striving to help these kids recognize their potential and make good choices that will greatly affect their futures (no pressure). When I think back to my teenage years I am especially thankful for a wise Bishop who made the effort to know me. Whenever he talked to to me he looked at me with eyes of love and always made me feel like I was something special. He probably did that for all the youth, but he had a way of making me feel like he really saw who I was. This was an amazing gift for him to have and to share especially at a time when I was never happy with my parents!