Family of Fifteen: Already into November!

I had a new experience this week - being on the other side of the table as the Teacher instead of the Parent at Parent/Teacher Conferences. I really enjoyed meeting the parents and putting the child with the parents. That was fascinating! The four hours each night went really fast. I really do love to meet people.

It took me away from home from 4-8 pm on Wed and Thurs., so that was hard. By Thursday night the house was in total chaos. Thank goodness I had Friday off. I took Libby on my lap and said, "I get to be with you all day today!"

On Thursday I took pictures of all my classes. These are the two wonderful teachers I taught with:

And some pictures of some of my classes.

I really had to talk them into taking these pictures.

This class (below) loved throwing paper wads, and here they show them off. I can laugh about it now, even though I made them stay in the classroom after the bell rang on the last day.

The last night, walking out of the room, was tough. It gave me a small glimpse in to how women feel that have a career and come home and take care of children. What it also emphasized in my mind was that you care a lot about whatever it is you put your time into. I've given a lot of time, energy, thought and prayer to these kids for the last six weeks (perhaps not as much as I should have, but as much as my family commitments would allow), and what I found is that I cared deeply about what I was doing. Overall, it was a great experience, and I'm really grateful to have had the opportunity. And a bright spot is that I will be back again substituting in that class on Friday, as the teacher has a training that day, so I'll get to see them again. Yeah!

We left on Friday afternoon to go down to Utah for my Aunt Marzelle's funeral. I wanted to leave by noon on Friday, but the older kids didn't want to leave their classes. I finally conceded, thankful to have good students as children. In actuality, I really needed that time to play catch up around the house.

We left around four and got down to Provo at 10:30 pm. The party at the Robinson's was still in full swing. We were playing a game where you pass a disc back and forth between two teams and one person has to try to describe a word for the rest of their team to guess. Some funny moments:
- Grandma describing "kidney" beans
- Joseph describing "carbohydrates" as a C on the elemental table, and the Greek word for water (and this after being left out of the game at first because he was too young - ha ha)
- Jesse describing "happy as a clam" and saying "It's a simile", which made everyone laugh again about the kids being too young to play. (I wish I could remember everything Jarom and Craig said about this - they went off on it - it was hilarious).
- Mary had the word "unknown" and she started out by looking at the group and saying, "You don't know this". There was a pause, and then Josh Haycock pointed at her and said, "You're right, we don't!"
- Clarissa was so entertaining to watch, especially when her hubby was the one describing the word. The expressions on her face were priceless.

Then we sang some hymns and had some words and experiences shared from Grandma, Grandpa and Angie that were very inspiring. Mom and Dad looked so great, and it As we left, I felt that if we turned around and went back home the next morning, it would have been worth the drive just to be there for that two hours.

I love being with my brothers and sisters, and my parents. I feel, as Jesse's simile described, happy as a clam. Jeana, Clark, Julie, Angie, Chris and Craig were all there - 7 out of the 10 of us. And then Stetson and Whitney, Clarissa and Josh, Jarom, and our six kids. Darcy, Cristen and Lindsey all had dates (or close to it) that night, so they couldn't be there. Of all the things! We missed Cheryl also.

We slept at Sylvia's that night. They have a basement room circled with couches and spare bedroom downstairs which fit our family perfectly. She was so kind to let us use it. I enjoyed spending a few minutes the next morning with Sylvia, Lynn, Murlene, Emma and Stan.

We had a Whetten family brunch at Clarissa and Josh's - who were gracious hosts. It was so fun to see their cute and fun apartment. To see pictures of the morning, go to my Picasa Web Album.

The funeral was a wonderful tribute to Aunt Marzelle and her life. Rene gave her life sketch, and Cynthian told about her early life in Chupie. Sylvia spoke of Aunt Marzelle's gifts - obedience, gratitude, being a hostess, love of family, and peace. While she spoke, I thought of how similar these gifts are to her little brother Jean's. When Dad got up and said a few words, all were touched. He said that two words could be put on her gravestone that described her life, "She served". I love Aunt Marzelle, and I'm grateful for her love for me and being a great example of what kind of person I want to be.

Our trip home was long, but we made it home safely. I was grateful for Josh being able to drive! When we got home at midnight, Josh went upstairs and jumped on Bruce and made him yell. He thought there was an intruder in the house.