A penny for your thoughts

I have become a comment junkie. After I write a new post, I spend the next few days checking and re-checking to see what people have to say about what I have written. (I know that I don't always comment on what others write.) Then I realized that its not so much that I need comments as much as I need to know that someone is reading what I am writing. I've decided to have a new routine for visitors to my blog. If you read my post, You dont have to think of anything to say because sometimes Im just talking and there really isn't much to say, but maybe you could just hit the "make a comment" button and type your name or a ;) or hi. I don't know maybe its a dumb idea. but it will give me an Idea that you are reading

A wonderful year.

Yesterday marked the aniversary of Daisy coming into my life. So I thought I would talk a little bit about my dog. I have wanted a dog for a long time. About the time I was 25 someone asked me where I saw myself in 5 years. I replied that I hoped I would be married and starting a family. I said that if That didn't happen I would live by my self with a big friendly dog. I as I was approaching my 30th birthday I decided it was time for me to get my own place and finally get the dog that I'd been wanting. So I found a place and got moved in. Petsmart was having a super adoption. This is where all the dog shelters in the state bring their dogs and cats to the downtown petsmart. They set up two huge tents. One for dogs and one for cats. They set up kennels with 4 or 5 dogs in each then. It is huge and I think there are something like 500 dogs. As you walk around they have pictures of the dogs and whatever they know about them. If you see a dog you are interested in you can ask someone to let that dog out and you can walk around with the dog. It is extremely overwhelming and chaotic. There are so many nervous dogs and tons of people walking around. I just kept thinking that I had no idea how I was suposed to decide on a dog. I must have walked through that place 3 times. I had them take a few dogs out but I was having a hard time knowing what I wanted. Then I saw Daisy. The name they had given her at the shelter was Dory. I had them get her out for me and the first time she saw me she snuggled right up to me and looked at me as if to say "please get me out of this madness.." It was love at first sight. I knew right then She was the dog for me. Daisy is a black lab with two white toes in back and a white belly. The woman at the shelter said that Daisy had been found wandering down the street in Idaho. They didnt know how old she was or anything about her. I have never regretted my decision to get her. She barks like a crazy mad woman when someone knocks on the door and she has a hard time warming up to people when she first meets them but I couldn't ask for a better companion dog. As I write she is laying at my feet and when I get up and walk down the hall she will follow me and laydown in whatever room I go to. She makes me feel loved and a lot less lonely. She treats me like I'm the best person in the world and I really love playing catch with her and watching her race a top speed to get the ball. Happy Birthday my sweet baby girl.

The Dragon in the Cave

A student in my class wrote a story that I found both hilarious and a bit disturbing. Its called the dragon in the cave. Once there was a dragon who lived in a cave. One day a scorpion came out of the sea. He found the cave. Inside the cave was the dragon. They became friends and played together and excersized together. One day there was another creature and it was a zebra. The zebra cme into the cave and when it came in all the creatures blew up and turned into meat. Then another creature came into the cave. It was an elephant. He ate the meat and was the only one who lived and didnt blow up. He made a house by himself in the cave. The end.

The tell tale lunch box

There is a kid at my school who I think is so great. He is a tall dark skinned kid who is just bursting with personality. One day during loading at school. My principal called sara, the name of a girl in his class. Sara is a tiny blond haired, fair skinned, girly girl. He turned to me and in a falsetto voice said "I'm Sara" I smiled at him and said "don't you think that sara's mom will take one look at you and say " where's sara, this isn't sara" and he said in a very serious voice. "yeah especially when she sees my lunch box."

Another post from me

"I never make mistakes, I thought I did once but I was wrong." This being said I have a story for you. I was having a conversation with my sister and we had a disagreement. I thought that I had written more on my blog than she had on hers and she said that there was no way that was true. I knew she was wrong, so I made her follow me to the computer and I got online. It turns out that she had almost double the amount of posts on her blog that I had so now I feel like I need to step it up and start cranking out some more blogs so I can catch up to (or pass up) my sister. So I hope you dont get tired of me.

I thought I would post these photos of my fav girl and catch every one up on my life. Next year instead of teaching kindergarten I am going to be an art teacher. I will be teaching art in all the different classes grades 1-6. I think this will be so much fun (also there will be a pay increase!) Im excited to try something new and this will be enough of a change to satisfy my need to do something different, yet is familiar enough that it wont be too scary. Today we were talking about the sun, moon and stars. My team teacher was trying to get the kids to say "stars" so she gave them the clue "our sun is one of these". A kid in our class rose his hand and said "a black hole!" (this is an advanced class?!?)

A random spattering of memories for your birthday

Its birthday time again for my Fav little sister. This got me to reminiscing about fun times had with my sister.
The Early Years
I remember when she was still sleeping in a crib(she was about 2) and we shared a room. After mom would put me to bed I would pinch lil sis and wake her up. I would get her all riled up and play games with her, then I would go tattle on her saying she was keeping me awake. (for this I apologize to little sis and mom). As we got older we still had many fun times after lights out. I remember we would play this game where one person would lay in bed without looking and the other would silently sneak across the room and try to scare the other person. She was also a sleepwalker and would frequently end up in the closet in the middle of the night.

I also remember how sweet she was. Once when I was sick she was saying her evening prayers and mom had reminded her to pray for me. She said her prayer and then started a new one. She was saying my prayer for me. It was so sweet.
I also remember the Christmas Eve when she was still a small and Santa believing child. She woke up late into the night (about 10) when Mom and Dad were out in the living room. She heard them and started down the hall. I saved the day by calling out to the parents and saying "come quick!!She's coming down the hall!! I guess this wasn't as much a fond memory of little sis as it was an attempt to make up for the first memory where I was the bad guy.
The Middle Years

When Little sis was 13. I took her to the church parking lot to practice driving. We were in my 12 year old Toyota. Because it had a stick shift and I wasn't as good of a teacher as my father., she stalled the car. Without thinking I said you "killed the car." She said "what are we going to tell Mom and Dad?!"
Little sis and I could never (and still can't really) sit next to each other in church. We would always have giggling fits and cause all kinds of problems.

Current Times

Lil sis and I have taken some fun road trips to Denver, Washington and Vegas. She has always been a good friend to me and drops what she is doing to help me. I really can't name the number of times the she has done things for me. She is always there with an encouraging word when I need one, and its never to long before she gets me to laugh. She is one of my true friends and I love her dearly. Lil sis has always been a good example for me of how I should be living my life. I still look to her and aspire to be as good and righteous as she is. Happy birthday Lil Sis

Happy Birthday little brother

As it is my brothers 28th birthday, I thought I would sit down and write one of my favorite memories of my brother. About ten or eleven years ago our family was camping in American Fork Canyon. I don't remember what every one else was doing, but my brother and I decided to go hiking just the two of us. We went to this pretty meadow and were playing around in the stream. we looked up this steep hill and saw a waterfall at the top. We decided we wanted to hike up to it and started hiking up the river bed. We spent the afternoon climbing over big boulders and getting our feet very wet and we started actually talking. Our family has always been close and we spend a lot of time together, but this was the first time I remember having a real conversation with him. I don't know if it was because I was 20 and had spent the previous 7 years wrapped up in my own life, or if it was because he was a teenager, but we hadn't really spent much time really getting to know about each other. While we climbed over the rocks (scraping all our exposed skin, and stinging ourselves with poison ivy,) I remember him talking about his friends and things that bothered him and I began to understand my brother. I don't think we even talked about anything too profound we just talked.
We didn't see anyone all afternoon, it was if we were in a remote part of the Forest. When we reached the waterfall there were 30 or 40 people playing in the water. We were surprised to see families with small children and wondered where every one had come from. We knew there was no way they had braved the rugged way we had just come. We realized that there was a well used trail that passed by the bottom of the waterfall and everyone had taken the easy way up. We had a laugh and took the trail back down. It took us about 1/3 the time to get down. I think it was a beautiful sunshiny day and I enjoyed spending time outside. But the part I remember most is the time I had with my brother and the friendship we started that day. Happy Birthday little brother

Today I learned why the French say bonjour. Lance told me that they learned it from the movie flushed away. Here is the newest in a collection of humorous stories from my students.

(I just put it in and its upside down, oh well just turn your head)

In case you cant read it it says:

when I came to school this morning my teachers were fish and I cooked them for dinner

Its been a while

The main reason reason I started this blog was to give me a chance to keep in touch with my family. I also thought it would be a good outlet for creative ideas and funny stories. lately I havn't really been interested in my life so I really didnt think any one else would be either. This is the part in my life story that Im planning on fast forwarding to until I get to the good part. That being said I have been having a hard time coming up with a subject for my blog so I thought I would entertain you with stories from my kindergarteners.