A Window For Their World

We got a storm door last week.

And here's why.

Aren't they just adorable?!

Tippy, the old family dog, used to sit in front of the door all the time and just watch the goings on of our neighborhood.

I had a hunch Maxwell was from the same mold as dear old Tippy.

McKay has had to warm up to it a bit.

But now it's old hat for the both of them.Ah, such is life for a dog.

The Flower Pot: A Moral Dilemma. (Or not)

I don't know what to do about the flowers my visiting teachers gave me a month or so ago. When I first got them I just expected them to die, like all flowers do at my house. It's not like I do it on purpose, but I just can't remember to water plants. The problem is, these things refuse to die after being water deprived for a few days.

I'll think they're dead, water them (don't ask me why I water them if I think they're dead), and they spring back to life. It's like they're on life support and I keep messing with the plug. Plug it in....unplug it! Plug it in....unplug it! Ha HA!

Here they are on their last leg:

And here they are an hour later, after I watered them.

I feel like I've got some sort of moral dilemma here. I don't want to keep taking care of them, but I can't throw them out until they're dead. But I can't just NOT water them when I see them in distress. And the darn things keep coming back to life. My negligence isn't killing them fast enough.

St. Patrick's Day

Leprechaun traps.

(I'm using the pictures of the traps the kids made in the classroom next door. I didn't take pictures of my kid's traps. :( Plus these look cooler.)

The traps are taken home under a shroud of secrecy (a brown plastic grocery bag).

And turned into "hats". (Film courtesy of Zack... who thinks the process is just so cooool.)

A Styrofoam cup and a cookie. That's all it takes to make a fanTAStic St. Patrick's Day for 7 year olds.

They spent the rest of the day looking for those pesky Leprechauns who stole into our classroom, turned over chairs, books and toys, left glitter everywhere (sorry, custodian) and posted this note on the board.

Random

Kids don't have to say the Pledge of Allegience. I can't force them to say it. Yet we say it every morning. I'm choosing not to tell them they don't have to say it. You try telling a 6 year old they don't have to do something we do as a class everyday. It just introduces anarchy. Instead I focus on showing respect during the Pledge. You know, stuff like "We don't lie on the tables during the Pledge" and "We don't try saying the Pledge as fast as we can to beat everyone to the end. It's not a race." Is this bad?

Does anyone else feel like a rock star when they play Rock Band or Guitar Hero? Because, dude, I can totally rock that guitar. We created two band members named "Abe Lincoln" and "Abe Lincoln Jr.". I call this band "Maxwell and the Abe Lincolns". Yet we don't have a band member that looks like Maxwell.

I've stopped reading adoption stories. I need to focus on my life at hand, not the life I hope to have. I've focused enough on that. I'm ready as I'll ever be. I feel good.

Someday I'll have to write a post about my comparison of the three degrees of glory and first grade. But not today.

In regards to an email sent eariler today: James Taylor. London. Cruise. Are you KIDDING me?!

Lunch Note

For those of you who don't know the reference:


Thanks Zack! I love you too. :)

We're coo' like dat.

Just wanted to send out props to my girl, Hailey, on her first birthday.

Co-Workers

Tonight Zack asked me if anything exciting happened at school today. I couldn't think of anything so I asked him the question back. He proceeded to tell me THIS:

His co-worker walked into the lab (where Zack and his friend, Thomas, are currently working until the new building is finished and they can hopefully get an office again) and said "Where's your alcohol? I'm going to drain the fluid from my knee. ...wanna watch?" Zack and Thomas just stared at each other in stunned silence and then Zack slowly pointed to the bottle of alcohol on the shelf and at the same time said, "Nooo."
The co-worker, who was now standing behind Zack, proceeded to pull up his pant leg and start dousing his knee with the alcohol. Zack, deciding that this was not something he wanted to see, turned back to his computer. A second later a leg appeared about a foot away from Zack's face. The guy was propping his leg up on the counter where Zack was working. This sent Thomas into uncontrollable hysterics of laughter and all Zack could say was, "I guess I will watch." I won't go into details, but he did insert a syringe into his knee and drain some fluid. According to Zack "it was probably about a tablespoon of liquid. It was.....blah." He then left to find some lab technicians in the building to see if they wanted to test his knee-fluid.

Seriously. Who does that?

His story reminded me of someone at my work explaining to me how he had an earache earlier this week and so he had his wife flush his ears with hydrogen peroxide. As I sat wondering whether or not this was an effective home remedy that I'd never heard of or just something really dangerous to never do to your ears, he finished the story by telling me that the next morning he couldn't hear out of either ear. "I COULDN'T HEAR MY ALARMS!" he said. "IT WAS LIKE A FREIGHT TRAIN!" (I'm not quite sure what that last part meant.) I'm going to place that one under "something really dangerous to never do to my ears."

Aren't co-workers fun?

Random

I added a new feature to my blog that tells me from what city people are coming to visit my blog. It's kind of fun. ...aaaand little unnerving. New Zealand? Tennessee? Michigan? I know nobody from those places. Blog-stalking is becoming a world-wide pandemic. Yea!

Note to all moms with elementary school-aged children: Cupcakes are the WORST birthday treat you can bring to school. Especially big giant ones with neon-colored frosting 3 inches high. You know, the kind with the rings on top? Do you want to know what kids do with the cupcakes you send? They put the gross, sticky, frosting-encrusted ring on their finger, eat the 3 inches of frosting off the top and throw the rest away. Here's a tip from me to you. The next time your child has a birthday, just send your child to school with some cheap plastic rings from your local party store and a bag of frosting. I'll put the rings on their fingers and then squirt the frosting into their mouths as they walk out the door at the end of the day. Everybody's happy!

Zack and I have decided that Friday night is our "get the house cleaned and in order" night and Saturday is our day for fun. Tonight Zack offered me this "deal" in regards to cleaning the house: I straighten up the house (takes all of about 20 minutes) and write a blog while he gives the puppies baths and mops the great room. It's grossly unfair, but it's his way of saying thank you for all I've done to help him during this past week at work. I had a hard time saying "No" when he gave me those puppy dog eyes and said, "Pleeeease can I give the puppies baths and mop the floor? Pleeease???" Who has a husband like that? :)

I just love how the word "intolerance" has evolved into meaning "you don't think the same way I do." Or as Zack refers to it, "Hey, Jerk, why don't you like what I like?"

We recently bought cross-country skis. I'm really stoked about going up to the cabin and trying them out soon. Really. Stoked.

Two of my most favorite songs from childhood are "I Guess That's Why They Call It the Blues" by Elton John and "For the Longest Time" by Billy Joel. Seriously, whenever I hear those songs on the radio I grin like a maniac and belt them out at the top of my voice. And I feel like I'm 10 again. It's awesome.

I'm loving Mikes way of remembering things about products he's used. "Rhymes" he calls them. Like "Crest is not the best" and "Huggies are horrible." They totally work.

Family Night Is Not For Dogs.

We had family night in the living room tonight. We didn't let the dogs participate. We don't like our dogs in the living room. We want one piece of carpet in our home to stay nice and clean. So when we went into the living room and sat down and our dogs came trotting in after us, we immediately told them to go sit on the laminate flooring.

Mckay seemed okay with it. Maxwell didn't like it.

Here's an account of what he did while Zack was giving his lesson.

First he goes and gets a bone and "accidentally" drops it on the edge of the carpet. Then he slowly lays down in front of it and starts to chew. We are in the middle of singing the opening hymn before I realize he's snuck his way clear over to the couch.

He is led back off the carpet.

He stares at us for awhile, occasionally taking a break to sniff the edge of the carpet.

He leaves and from the kitchen we hear the familiar "twang" of the door stop on the back door. His way of telling us he "needs" to go outside.

We ignore it.

It twangs again, this time repeatedly.

Zack gets up and lets him out.

He stands outside and stares into the wind, sniffing all the while. Zack lets him back in.

We resume the lesson. From the kitchen comes the sounds of Maxwell trying to get Mckay to play with him. (Growling, pawing on the floor, etc.)

He goes downstairs and it gets really quiet. We call for him to come because we don't trust him down there alone. He comes bounding up the stairs and trots towards the couch. The little sneak- he tricked us into calling him to us! We lead him back off the carpet.

A few minutes later Maxwell comes in with his ball and proceeds to "accidentally" drop it on the carpet.

He finally gives up, slumps to the ground, and stares at us.

The lesson is finally over and we give the puppies a treat for enduring our lack of attention.

Glasses, Babies and Rain

I am thankful for glasses. I'm even more thankful for contacts.
However, last week I was hoping I could rid myself of them for good.

When I was in 8th grade I had Mrs. Southwick for Health class. I only remember a few things from her class. One, she taught us the names of all the bones in the body using little memory tricks. Because of those tricks I still remember them today and use them in my class to get attention. (Nothing quiets a class faster than "If you can hear me, touch your patella.")
The other thing I remember was the day she told us that her son had gotten his near-sightedness fixed. He didn't need glasses or contacts anymore. I was stunned. You can FIX that?

Ever since then I've waited for the day I could get my eyes fixed. This year Zack and I decided that the time had come.
So, last week Zack and I went to Hoopes Vision and the Moran Eye Center for free consultations for LASIK. I was a little shocked when the doctor at Hoopes Vision told me that I didn't qualify for LASIK or PRK.
The Moran Eye Center told me the same thing. Apparently I have two things going against me and the combination of both makes LASIK out of my reach. My prescription is high and my corneas are unnaturally thin. I don't have enough cornea to shave off to fix my vision.
I was disappointed. I almost cried. I had wanted this for a long time.

Before I could let myself get too depressed or upset I reminded myself that I can still see. I may have terrible vision but because of contacts and glasses I can see. Having to wear glasses for a week before my eye exams made me acutely aware of how much I needed them to function. I tend to forget about that when my contacts are in. But glasses brought it all back. If I took them off I was blind. If they bugged me and I took them off I was reminded that taking them off wasn't an option. I HAD to wear them. It was a little unnerving to realize how dependent I was on them. If I didn't have glasses or contacts I couldn't work, drive, read, or anything really. (I could probably walk around...as long as it wasn't dark.)
So when I took that into perspective I decided it wasn't too bad that I couldn't have LASIK. At least I live in a time where there are glasses or contacts that help me see.

My brain likes to take what I learn in one area and try to see how many other areas I can apply that same information. The lesson of "being grateful for what I have and not being upset because I don't have more" suddenly applied everywhere. I know I've been taught that my whole life from my parents and Sunday school teachers, but it's always good to have a real-life reminder.

The application immediately when to Zack and my struggle to start our family. It's easy for me to be upset that I have to wait so long for something I want so badly. Why don't we have kids? Why was Joshua taken from us? What else are we supposed to be doing with our lives?
But instead of being upset I'm trying to look at it from a better perspective. We've had 7 years just to ourselves. We have a child that, because of the sealing power of the priesthood, will be ours forever. I've had the privilege to teach first graders for going on 9 years now. I have learned things during that time that I would not have learned anywhere else. The experiences I've had are invaluable to me. And now we have the privilege of being part of the adoption world, a world where the more I learn about it the more I recognize Heavenly Father's hand in the lives of all his children. It is truly a divine plan. I have learned so much. All because of the trial of not having kids. (Side note to anyone willing to listen: It's okay for me to say that I should be glad I don't have kids, but it's NOT okay for other people to tell me to be happy I don't have kids. Okay, I'm done.)

I heard a quote yesterday and I like the way it puts into words what I'm trying to do with my life. I don't know who said it, but I like it.
"Life is not about trying to endure the storms that come your way. It's about learning to dance in the rain."
If we never learn to dance in the rain, we might never be happy. When you think about it, isn't dancing in the rain one of the best kind of dancing there is?

Without rain, things couldn't grow. Without my trials, I wouldn't grow either.