Cape Cod!

Hi guys. Yes I know it is a miracle, a post two weeks in a row. Amazing! This week has gone by pretty quickly. Monday we had swimming lessons and then we went to the beach about 45 mins from Glastonbury. It was very nice, kinda of crowded and no big waves, good for kids. The kids also went crabbing. I have always heard about "crabbing" but did not know what it entailed. for the kids it entails tying a string to a raw chicken drumstick and sticking it in places you think crabs are hiding. Kind of weird, I know. The kids caught 6 crabs though, then we released them back to be tortured by some other kids. Tuesday night Kim and I went to the midnight Harry Potter 6. I know I didn't think I would be able to talk her into it either, but she was very nice and indulged me. It was great. For the first time Michael Gambon (the guy who plays Dumbledore) didn't make me want to throw something on the screen. The movie was very well done, can't wait to see it again.

On Friday we went camping on Cape Cod. We stayed at a giant state park near the beaches. This is the view from our camp...


The first night we had a major storm and while we did stay mostly dry the adults did not get a lot of sleep. On Saturday we went to two different beaches, one on the cape side and one on the ocean side. The one on the cape side we went to for low tide. It was amazing the water receded like a mile into the ocean and you could go out and look at the tide pools left behind. Dave and G found a huge horsehose crab, A and I found several crabs buried in the sand. (I think this is a much better way to go crabbing) At the ocean side beach we finally found our big waves. The water was a lot colder but the waves were a lot of fun. This is G against the ocean, trying to stand against the big waves...











Here is I. having fun in the sun...










After two beaches we went back to camp, roasted hot dogs and went to bed, we were tired. This morning the kids decided to swim in the lake and here is Kim styling in the fabulous sun glasses we mysteriously ended up with... (she was desperate for sun glasses)



Next week is Kim's B-day and we go to D.C. Hope you all had a great week!

East for Summer

Hello all. It has been am long time so this might be a long post, you might want to prepare a snack now. I'll wait... Ok, Well first girls camp. It went very well! We had 16 girls from our ward go and we had no drama, no fights, nothing! I was very impressed with all of the girls they got a long great, made sure everyone was involved and unless they are all lying, had a great time! I had a great time, minus all the bug bites. Also all the girls got certified!!! I know there are a lot of people who do not think that girl's camp certification skills are important, but I do. I think these skills can help the girls become more independent and self-reliant women. The girls even got me to wear my bedazzled purple headband for a whole day, oh and our skit won! I wrote the script but the girls did all the work.

After camp I had 5 days to recover and get ready for my trip back east to visit Kim and family. I needed almost all that time to recover, I was exhausted when I got back. Anyway with a few minor delays I made it to Glastonbury, CT. So far I have watched a lot of Charlie and Lola. I am not complaining, as kids shows go this one is rather entertaining and the English accents are nice too :) We also had a fun girls night since the boys went to cub scout camp. We did pedicures, had homemade blueberry sorbet and I was forced to watch High School Musical 3. They should have stopped at 1 but the nieces enjoyed it immensely. Yesterday we went to the outlet mall near Glastonbury. It was really great. Big, lots of good stores and not very crowded. The only complaint is the lack of eating options but I did get a nice new shirt. That afternoon we went to the Hartford river festival on the Connecticut River. There were some kids activities, face painting and then fireworks. We went on a very long journey to find just the right spot to watch the fireworks from but we ended up right by a playground which when waiting for 3 hours with 3 kids was great. The fireworks were amazing. The finally was the best I have ever seen! Kim and Dave said it was better then the ones they watched last week in Boston. Well worth the wait and we made it to the car right before the downpour started. Tomorrow we are going to the beach after swimming lessons. Next week we are going to Washington D.C. Should be exciting. Here are some pictures of the fireworks, not great but ok for my camera. Also the cute kids.

Catch up

Hello all. It has been a long time. I have just not really felt like blogging for the last few months. Knowing that so many of you (snicker) have been waiting anxiously for news I have decided to end your misery :) Well I got through the end of the school year. I have developed a theory that there is a finite amount of time that most adult humans can be around 12-14 year old adolescences and still remain sane. I think the regular school year is just about that amount. Of course this could just be me :) I did plan better this year and most of my classes were watching movies that actually had to do with the curriculum the last week of school. Yea me!

After school got out my Grandma came to town for a few days, that was great! We went to the Ochre temple open house, saw the giant Kennecotte copper mine, and went for a picnic in the mountains. We had a lot of fun, thanks Grandma!

Since then I have been wasting a lot of time, thanks Farm Town on Facebook, and trying to plan Girls Camp. It should be very interesting, I have one more week to go before the big event. I am also ready to go visit Kim, Dave and the kids now! I hope all is well with all of you.

Catch up

Well it has been awhile. Here is a brief catchup on what I have been doing. I had to spend my legislative money by this week so I did quite a bit of shopping the end of last month. I bought some fun new toys like a wireless, all-in-one printer and my favorite a 5 foot Cat in the Hat to go on my wall!! I am easily amused some times, but I am proud of it so here is a picture-



Isn't it cute? I also went to Boise for Spring Break. It was a lot of fun and quite relaxing. I got to spend some quality time with my amazing Grandma, my cousins, Aunt and Uncle. I also had lunch with a friend from Junior High-High School. It was great to catch up and I realized that I had great taste in friends even back in Junior High! On the way back to SLC I decided to stop at Shoshone falls. I had never been there, really I didn't know much about it. Apparently the falls is only really cool in the spring with the spring melt. It is called the Niagra of the West and since I have now seen Niagra falls I thought it would be good to see the one in my own backyard. It was spectacular! Here is a picture of it-



Nice huh? This week Angie and I went to a play at the Hale Center Theater. It was a version of the Phantom of the Opera, not the Andrew Lloyd Weber one. I now know why the Andrew Lloyd Weber one is more popular, it is vastly better. Angie did a great and humorous review of it on her blog so if you want to know more read here (Angie if you want me to take the link off just let me know:) So this weekend Angie and I did watch the other Phantom, unfortunately the copy I rented was very damaged and it kept skipping, but it was still better:) This weekend I am holed up at home trying to deal with my stomach problems and caffeine headache. I think my stomach has finally had it from years of ibuprofen and diet coke and is rebelling. So I can't drink diet coke with out a lot of pain, which leads to the headache. I toughed it out last night but when it had not gone away today I got desperate and made flat diet coke. I really hope this is a temporary condition!

Cutest kids ever!!!

My brother in-law posted some new pictures on his facebook page and I have to share. I mean these are these cutest kids.... I am not just saying that because I am their Aunt, I think I can be totally objective :)

Happy Moments...

Hello all. I survived another week and as you are reading this it seems you did to, congratulations to us all! This week was very busy and tiring. I had several IEP's including one that I have been dreading all year. That one went surprisingly well thankfully. I also had a couple of Ward Sing practices to attend. Wait, before you all start cringing and thinking what is going on... i am not singing in the ward sing. I am strictly back stage help. This is my attempt to become more involved in my ward, get to know people more. Now I am wondering what I was thinking :) I think that the show is going to be great it has just been a lot of commitment and a lot more this next week as well. Oh well. I guess life is made up of experiences, the more the better. Also I have discovered that a member of my ward has a diet coke fountain with good ice in her house, available at all times. I am now trying to figure how to make good friends with this family :)

This weekend will also be busy. I have a practice at 7:00 am tomorrow morning, I am trying not to think about it, and my St. Patrick's day dinner. Tonight was a boost for my mood though, I went and saw Duplicity. It was very enjoyable and not only because I got to stare at Clive Owen for 2 hours. That was very nice though. So as a way of sharing I shall post a nice picture of him here. Just take a look, it is sure to make you feel happier!



Now wasn't that nice?

12 and 13 year olds, necessary?

So this week has been a bad one at work. As you can see by my title, today I am wondering if we can't just skip the years 12-13 in the growth process or at least maybe like speed it up. Like maybe if we had a fast forward button on each kid and speed through those years in like a week. I think that would be great. Then they would emerge more mature, they would not steal my dry erase markers, they would not forget what I have told them 3 times before- about 30 seconds after I told them the last time, they would not demand my help and attention all at the same time, right now!!!! Really it would be so nice, I bet parents would go for it too. So if any of you out there know of a brilliant scientist looking for a new project please pass along my idea.

The big problem when weeks like this happen is Ms. Crandall gets more and more sarcastic (they tell us not to be at all, like that will happen) for instance here is an exchange that happened today, Me- "Suzy I have asked you repeatedly to not throw things in class, please don't do it again." Student- "But Joe did it first." Me- "Oh, well that's OK then because obviously if someone else does it first that completely absolves you of having to obey any rules. So apparently you are free to just ignore all the class rules from now on."

Yes I know this may not be the best teaching method but I did get a laugh from my students who understand sarcasm and the offending student was quiet :)