What can I say?

I was a sub twice last week as an intervention specialist. I pulled specific kids out of their classrooms to work with them on math or grammer. I was helping this one boy do a math problem. About halfway through it, I realized that I was doing it wrong with him! a simple subtraction problem! How could I do that? In my defense, I was looking at it upside down from his paper across from me. We got it just fine, but I felt stupid. Oh well! I didn't feel so bad later when a REAL teacher corrected a boy's spelling on his paper and she still spelled it wrong! On another note, Ben is in Washington DC this week with all the 8th graders. He will get to see all those fascinating sites. He's been looking forward to this for a long time. I was anxious to get a call from him last night to hear about his first day riding over on the bus and seeing Mt. Vernon. But he never called! I kept the phone close beside me so if it rang, I would get to it before Donnie. You would think that he would check in with his mom. Luckily, the adult in charge is posting every so often on twitter what they are doing, or I might never know!

"I looked out the window and what did I see?"

Sometimes life is full of surprises. This past Friday, I was cleaning up the kitchen and doing laundry. I had the kitchen window open and I could hear a chain saw being used somewhere in the neighborhood. I didn't think anything of it. We have huge trees that border the north side of our subdivision and I thought the city was trimming them. They do that sometimes. I then walked into the living room and I saw Kevin in the front yard with a chain saw in his hands standing next to a huge pile of logs and sticks where our front tree used to be!  It was quite a sight! Our front yard tree (a newport plum) died this past winter. The trunk of it had completely split so we knew we needed to get rid of it before it fell over onto the house or something. A couple of weeks ago we got a quote from a tree service to have it taken out. It was a ton of money. I guess Kevin decided to take it down himself. Since we seem to have every tool imaginable, Kevin got our chain saw out and went to work. Now I have a stump in my front yard. There is only one thing that bothers me---- he didn't let me know so I could watch it come down, and that I didn't get a picture!

Too much vacation

By the looks of it, Dad's vacation here was a little too much for him to handle! Ha!  I have no idea how he could sleep with all of the talking and noise around him, but he did. We were so glad to have them here.  They spent the time here sleeping in, taking naps, visiting the mountains, sewing, going shopping, reading, and watching TV. Some additional highlights include: Mom's fabulous organ lesson; Dad's awesome trip to the grocery store where he came home with a cake, a box of donuts, 2 boxes of cookies, Ding Dongs, and ice cream bars--not to mention the awesome salad he made; Mom's tender repair of my worn out quilts (thanks!); the elk we saw in the mountains and the jays that hovered over us and our lunch; Riley passing the sacrament for the first time in front of his grandparents; watching the snake eat; and Mom playing the piano while Elizabeth and Derek sang.  I am so glad they came! I was nice to share my everyday life with them. I hope they come again soon!