Whoa....that's a whole lotta stuff goin on!

It's about cotton pickin' time - I know. Long time no post. Hey - it's been a bit busy round these parts.
So, this may be a tad random, but this is a small record of the goings-on around here....
First of all - WE DID IT!!! Jason and I ran a half marathon together - his first! He was a complete stud about the whole thing. It was super fun running with him, and the scenery and weather couldn't have been any better - it was beautiful running down Ogden canyon! I tried several times to encourage him to run on ahead - this was his first one - go see what you can do! (He's LOTS faster than me). But he insisted on sticking with me, so we crossed the finish line together - which was awesome for me.



It is still a super challenging distance for me to run, so we're going to hopefully sign up for a couple more this summer and work for a faster time. (that would be ME working for a faster time....he can already DO a faster time :) ...just for the record :)
The kids came up with this great poster for Jason - it was awesome!





Next big item....Piano recital - one of my MOST favorite things about teaching! The kids time to shine! It's always fun to let them pick out some super fun music and go for it. In the process of letting the students choose their recital songs, one of my students in particular chose two pieces that were well above the level she is playing at - but she REALLY wanted to do them, so the challenge was given, accepted, and worked for. Then I watched as student after student took challenges and worked toward them. For some reason it really touched me this year, and I decided that it had been way too long since I took a challenge in that area. It had literally been nearly 20 years since I polished and memorized a piece. So - gave myself a challenge to learn and memorize a Jon Schmidt song - and I did it! I played for the kids at the end of the recital, and although I flubbed it up quite a bit, it felt fabulous to do it - set a goal and work towards it. Wahoo for goal setting!

Tyler, Tanner, and Emma all did well with their songs too. Tyler especially took on a difficult piece and nailed it! It was a duet we played together, and the looks on his face as we were playing were priceless! (this picture doesn't do it justice for sure...) He was doing great and he could totally tell!



Next goings on have been OODLES of soccer games (which we love!). In fact, 2 weeks ago we had 5 games and 4 practices (3 of which were from Highland, Park City, and Salt Lake) all in a 5 day span. Combine that with the homework, scouts, young mens, piano lessons, dinner, homework, and laundry - and that's about all we could do that week.

2nd grade extravaganza - triple amounts of fun! 4 second grade classes singing about all the things they learned this year.



Also, 2nd grade mothers literacy tea - This year in second grade they have really been focusing on the writing process. The kids have all written and "published" 6 or 7 stories, and they chose their favorite to share with all the mothers at the other literacy tea.
So, the first girl in our group shares a cute story about a little stuffed animal she found at the park and how she named it, and bought it a play toy. It's name was Sniffles, and she loved the dog. Cute, sweet story.
Yellow post-its were handed out and we were each to write something we loved about the story for the 'author' to put in her literacy scrapbook.

Then it was Emma's turn. She had chosen to write a 'true story' that happened to our family. It went something like this...

"Our family wanted a dog, so we went to the pet store and chose a black dog. Our dad named it Bentley because of his bent tail. He was a good dog, then he bit our friend Jilly really bad. Then my cousin came over and he bit her. He nearly bit half her arm off. So we had to take him back to where we got him, and our family has lived sadly ever after."
The end.

I think the book is going in one of those year-end binders with all their 'to-keep' work, so she wasn't able to bring it home. Otherwise I would include some pictures of it in this post.
My favorite picture was the one of an arm bone (you know, the one that was nearly bitten off) - it looked like something you'd see on an X-ray - only in color and with blood. (and I was thinking that only boys could come up with pictures like that). Oh my.
As the post-its were passed around there was an awkward silence. What are the mothers supposed to say to that? We couldn't honestly say 'loved the illustration of the blood and bones'. Hum.

As she was reading this story it was all I could do not to stand up and shout 'LISTEN TO ME PEOPLE! THAT'S NOT REALLY HOW IT HAPPENED AT ALL!"
Let me clarify (just in case some of you are wondering)....

First of all, Santa brought the dog. There was no pet store involved here people.
Secondly, the mom named the dog. Not that I'm having a pride issue about that - but it was a fairly fitting and cute name.
Thirdly, yes he did bite - BUT IT WAS NOT HALF OF HER ARM OFF PEOPLE!

So, I'm left wondering - was she just embellishing the story a little, or is that really her recollection of how it happened?
I wonder if some of my child hood memories are a bit skewed like that? Actually, I'm pretty sure they are. Even as an adult, we don't always see things as they really are, or as others see them. Sometimes our perceptions of things are much different.
Mental note to self - remember that.


Tyler finished up the requirements for his Faith in God award, which he got today. Super proud of him! Jason is a BIG stickler for not 'pencil-passing' things off. Meaning - unless he's REALLY done it, done it well, and understands what he's done - it's not passed off.
Articles of faith included. It doesn't count if you recite it once with out looking in the book. As of 2 weeks ago he had 2 that were still giving him a hard time - 10 and 13. (I have to admit, # 10 STILL gets me.....it's the one about the 'literal gathering' and 'paradisaical glory' .......you know the one :)
So - he finally took the CD player down to his room and started singing along to the primary songbook articles of faith songs - and LO AND BEHOLD HE GOT IT! Both of them. Every day since then at some random point through out the day he'll come up and say "hey - I still have it!" and recite them both. He was spot lighted in primary today for it, and was just beaming....so congratulations Tyler!

Well....that's like I said, a small portion of what's been going on at our house the past couple of weeks......sorry for the extra long read :)