More soccer, and Laying Pipe

Our good friends Aaron and DaraDee were at the soccer field on Saturday morning watching their son play on the team that played Libby's team. They were kind enough to take these pictures of Libby, and the referee - me.
I remember with fondness that little moment that Libby and I had together at halftime. Thanks for capturing it Aaron!

For Family Night, we had a work project to do, so Monday right after school we loaded everybody up in the truck and drove 1/2 hour over to Bruce's parents' farm. They own 20 acres and most of it is in grass hay. Bruce is in charge of raising this hay, and in the Wild Wild West, that means irrigating. We irrigate with sprinkler pipe, or hand lines, which have to be put out by hand. We started at 4:30 and stopped when it was too dark to see. Four and half hours of steady work.

Joseph had to go to a track meet, so he got out of it! But he worked plenty hard - he got a PR (Personal Record) in the 3200 meter by 30 seconds, and a PR in the 1600 meter by 2 seconds. Wow, Joseph - good job!!

Since Joseph was gone, Peter and Libby got promoted! Peter got moved up onto one of the pipe-laying teams, and Libby got promoted to driving the 4-wheeler. You should have seen their faces - they were grinning from ear to ear, they were so proud to be contributing. And they really were. It wasn't just a token job that they did - we really needed them, and they filled an important role.

While Bruce, Josh, Jesse and I loaded the pipe trailer,Mary, Peter and Libby would play on the swing set, or raid Grandma's chest freezer for all kinds of good eatins'.

The teams this time were Dad and Jesse,
Josh and Peter, and Mary and I. Peter could barely lift the pipe over the top of the trailer, but he managed to do it. Way to go Peter!
He can also play Superman.
Who's hands are these?If I hadn't taken the picture, I would say Bruce, but no - they are Josh's. These gloves come from the box at the front of the shed that is filled with work gloves. Every time we come out to work we dig through the box to find some gloves. These have seen a few pipes!
We got most of the pipe put down last night. We still have one field left to do, up by the shed. I'm proud of our kids. And we made it through with the least raised voices and tense moments on record! (Just keepin' it real.)

New Phase of Life

A friend of ours that goes to the Spanish Branch recommended my name as a candidate for a long-term substitute position at a local high school, (not the one my kids go to). One of the teachers of the English Language Development class is on maternity leave, and they need a full-time substitute for six weeks, so I took the job. I started with training on Thursday, and then teaching on Friday. Actually, on Friday they had been promised a movie, so that was easy. Today was the first real day of teaching. I have five grammar and writing classes, and one communications class. They are divided up into Intro, Intermediate and Advanced classes. The classes where there are 19 or more students are the most challenging - I have 3 of those. The other three were actually fun to teach. The three big ones are challenging, but not unmanageable. Today I realized that being a Mom of six active children teaches you a lot about classroom management. Part of it is just to laugh with the kids and have some fun with them. Part of it is distraction, and making sure they have something to do. Part of it is laying back a little and letting them have some room to decide to do what you asked them to do. Others just need some consistent asking. I haven't had any big troubles yet, but came pretty close today with a girl who seemed perfectly innocuous the first day, but proved much more of a challenge today. She was sitting in a teacher's chair and would not move when asked. This is when I laid back for a moment - and she ended up telling me about her knee operation. I listened intently, validated her feelings, and then turned my attention to something else for a moment. Next thing I knew, she was off the chair. If I wasn't Mary's Mom, I wouldn't have know how to handle that situation! :)

I love you, Mary. :)

Did everyone know that the Past Progressive Interrogative Tense in English is the following?
Singular: Was the fish swimming in the sea?
Plural: Were the girls dancing in the park?

That's what I taught all day today.

I was the only teacher today in the Staff Room (a small one - not the main one) that had a home-made dinner. It was Ham Loaf from yesterday. Everyone else had Easy Mac, or processed chicken nuggets or a frozen dinner. I was just burstin' my buttons over that.

After school I taught two piano lessons and then went to Joseph and Josh's soccer games (even though Josh didn't play). Joseph tied 1-1, and the Varisty barely won 5-4. The last ten minutes were pretty hairy. Clark and Mary Jeanne came at the end - they are so fun to talk to. I didn't know they knew soccer so well! And Dara Dee was there, as well as all my good soccer buddies - Mike & Karla, Betty, etc. I also had a really nice talk with Tim, who was disappointed that his bag-pipe reed was broken! He is a great guy. Well, obviously, this is turning into more of a Journal entry. But that's basically what this blog is anway.

Our Family Home Evening was around dinner talking about the state of the economy and the gangs that my vice-principal told me some of my students belong to. The message was, "It doesn't really matter what happens in the outside world. What matters is that our family is sealed together and we are keeping the commandments and serving the best we can. Everything else will just 'come out in the wash', so to speak. It doesn't really matter."

Tonight I'm grateful for ordinances, the plan of Salvation, experience in mortality, and the Savior.

Joshua ordained a Priest

Joshua was ordained a Priest today! Next Sunday he will give the prayer in Spanish in the Sacrament. Isn't that cool? He sounds really good. For not being a native speaker, he can pronounce it really well. It will be nice to have someone up at the table permanently. In the past, random priesthood holders were coming up haphazardly from the congregation to do the prayer. We have another young man that will turn 16 at the end of the month, so that will be great to have two priests.

We had Family Home Evening tonight because we have too much going on tomorrow night to fit in FHE, but we usually have it on Monday night. Libby gave the lesson, which she hasn't done for a long time. She used a puzzle that she had gotten in Primary today of the scripture "I am the light of the world." She was so funny giving this lesson. She was all business - telling everyone what to do, and looking for all the world like she'd given a hundred lessons before. If she keeps this up she will turn out to be a natural teacher. It was really quite amusing!

We went over to our friends house tonight for ice cream, and they had scones with honey butter to begin with (yum, yum) and then later they served root beer floats. They prepared a slusie for me out of cranberry/pomegranate juice. It was very thoughtful! We had a ton of fun playing their new Clavinova digital piano. WOW - it had so many features and the touch and sound were wonderful. Not quite as good as an acoustic piano, but pretty darn close. Someday, someday we will have something like that.

Loving the Olympics, of course. Michael Phelps - you are the man! I think he handled himself so well with all this press attention, etc. Watching Usain Bolt was stunning, but you can see the difference between him and Michael Phelps. He just seemed more cocky. But it really was amazing to watch Bolts' race. It doesn't seem like there's been such a clear winner in the 100 meter race in a long time. Does it just make you a little crazy that he didn't run his best all the way to the end?? Ah, that just makes me want to pound my fists, for some reason. I hope he does in the 200 meter.