Birthday Boy

September 20, 1999 – Spending the evening getting Seth’s Birthday card and present ready. Sitting in my sister’s bedroom surrounded by American Dolls and flowered wallpaper a smile spreads across my face because I have a brilliant idea. His favorite song at the moment is “All-Star” by Smash Mouth. So I decide to make a tape-recording of the song playing over and over again. That way, he won’t have to rewind the tape as often.  He told me just the other day that he could listen to that song forever. Well here I am making his dreams come true. 

Waiting for the song to record, I dump my markers out on the floor, fold a blank paper in half and begin block-lettering ‘Happy Birthday Seth!’ in my best 3-D letters. I know I’m a horrific artist, but go ahead and draw a giant cake anyway. At this point we’re really into homemade cards as opposed to store-bought – they’re much more personal and we’re cheap.

The next day as the Birthday Boy opens my present his blue-grey eyes light up as he exclaims, “Hey! All-Star!” He looks up at me with that signature-dimpled smile and I know I nailed it.

September 21, 2012 – My alarm goes off at 6:20am as I make the slow ascent back to consciousness. Recognizing the tune coming from my radio while I float somewhere between asleep and awake. Thoughts and memories start to connect as my eyes flutter open and realize, “All-Star” by Smash Mouth is playing.

I roll over and smile. Happy Birthday, boy. I love you. 

Ostrich Pillow

Our pals Neil and Mike, who are discoverers of all things weird, e-mailed us this little tender mercy the other day and I will be forever grateful.

It is called the ostrich pillow and is supposed to produce unbelievable power naps. I can't imagine walking into someone's office and seeing this. You can't tell me that after pulling this off your head you're going to look normal.


God Bless America.... or wherever this was made.

Mixed Feelings

Fall is in the air everybody. I love Fall, it is my favorite season: the air is crisp, the mountains are gorgeous, and I can wear big sweaters again!  Fall also means back to work. I like starting the school year, getting back into my normal routine. It's weird how they tell you all the time that kids do better with a routine, well I have never grown out of that. I love my routine, probably too much. I am so much more productive when I get up early, go to work, go to the gym, and get to bed early. I'm happiest when I am productive. Well, I'm back to my routine and though it hasn't been easy to get back to the patience level needed to be a teacher of 7 year olds I'm slowly getting there.

On a lighter note a student in another class told me that my shirt was see-through today.  I had nothing to say back to him except, no it's not. He probably said it 5 times and I just ended up walking away. Was I just bullied by a 7 year old? I had to bite my tongue because I really wanted to say, "listen kid you can insult me when you learn how to read and cut your own fingernails." Clearly my patience needs work. But seriously, it shocks me how disrespectful and rude some kids are these days. Note to self: don't let my 7 year old kid pierce his ears and become a demon.

I do have some great news: one of my students has six toes on one foot and is very proud of it. I have yet to see them, but I will let you know the synopsis.

Cheers to 11 toes and not being bullied!

I'D CAP THAT!

So my gal pal Al told me about a certain app that adds its own captions to your pictures. If you download this app I have to warn you most of their captions are foul, like really foul but sometimes they nail it.

I wish I could post some of the other ones, but my mom would slit my throat. See me mom, keeping it classy! You're welcome!

Old photos

I have been scanning photos for my dad this summer. My grandma constantly had a camera in her hand, she didn't want to forget anything and tried to capture as much as she could with her camera. Well, as a result of her mad photog skills there are a zillion pictures scanned and yet to be scanned.

There is something about old photos. I'm not really sure what it is that is so appealing, but for whatever reason I am mesmorized by them. Take a looksy...

 I mean, is this real life? Cutest furrowed brow ever.

 Ocean City, MD Beach Baby Hal. So adorable.

 Pops worked construction on the DC temple.

 Pops on the bike. Gpa holding large dog.

 Hal age 17

 My grandparents eloped to Vegas with some other couples. This is their wedding day.

 Great Grandpa Abe was elected to congress. This was his first trip back to DC, fixing a flat tire.

 Redskins win!

 Beaver high basketball

 Cutest grandpa.

The best of everybody.



Bunnies and Stuff

 Kate falling in love.

 Cabin crafts

 etc...

 etc...

 The cutest of the nappers.

 Cutest skirt my mom made for Ruby.

 Milkshakes in Ashton.

 Teton National Park hike.

 J. Crew models returning from religious activities.

Idaho sunsets.

4th of July Sandlot festivities.

San Diego Bliss

Never turn your back on the ocean.

Best place to bike.

Well it's mid summer. I've been out of school long enough to rarely know what day of the week it is. What a great feeling that is...... Kate rolls her eyes every time I ask if today is Monday. Should have been a school teacher everybody.  I've been saying that for years and nobody seems to listen, face the facts you dum dums.

Here is the 411 in the Sugarhouse. Trips, Trips Trips. A few days in Coronado, CA were quickly followed by 2 weeks at the cabin and then a few days on our annual river rafting trip. Lots of fun to be had by all and a decent amount of relaxation.

Somewhere in there I gave into my ever present desire to own a bunny. It was discussed extensively over a lunch and within the hour I had the little darling in my arms. I picked the laziest bunny because I  wanted it to lay around 95% of the day.  We named her Lorraine Rose for obvious reasons. She turned out to be the opposite of lazy and could jump out of her bin "cage" within a few hours. She grew very fond of human food specifically cooler ranch Doritos (yes there has been a debate already over cooler ranch vs. cool ranch with no resolution in sight), chocolate chip cookies, and bananas.  Bunnies are adorable and soft and usually pretty cuddly, but here's the problem...... they're not clean.  We let the bun run around our neighbors' apartment because they didn't have much on the floor so she could run freely. Well once she got a taste of freedom there was no going back.  She wanted to be out all of the time. 10 days later we donated our bunny back to the pet store. We couldn't give Lorraine the freedom she deserved. Was it worth it? Hells ya it was worth it, I had to get that out of my system. Imagine going through life never knowing what it would be like to have a bunny of my own!


On a lighter note.... the little boy I've been tutoring this summer told me today that his very expensive siamese cat is no longer alive.  "Frank got smashed by the garage door, landed right on his neck." The kid seemed unfazed while retelling the story even when he got to the part where they couldn't get the cat's eyes to close.

Cheers to bunnies and garage doors with sensors.