Ken & the kids were up by 3:30 this morning getting ready to leave to go to Elk City to catch the Greyhound bus. I was up, too, not because I particularly wanted to or because they were noisy. Instead, I was up because a spectacular thunderstorm was going on that I couldn't sleep through. But at least it meant I could see the kids off. I was able to go back to bed and get a few more hours of sleep, though.
Upon awakening, I had a message from Jonathan. Apparently, the bus was to leave at 8:00 a.m., not 6:00. Now, this was my mistake, but I'll tell you now, my eyes are getting old and the print on the itinerary is tiny. Eights, sixes, and nines look an awful lot alike; I especially have a hard time with them on the computer. So none of the three was very happy with me. But it was helpful, in a way. Ken couldn't have taken them so late and I would have been rushing back to do stuff I needed here. Plus, as Ken said, they would have missed out on the lightning storm as they drove and it was (I hear) really cool.
The kids got on the bus all right, with Jonathan texting me updates as needed. The house was eerily quiet as I got ready for my morning stuff. About 10:00, Brother Sturges, the Regional Director of Seminaries and Institutes, came by to give me a little orientation. That included a stack of books, videos and binders. If you wonder what I'll be doing with my kids gone...it'll be studying for Seminary. On top of that, I'll have a big training, with teachers from all of Western Oklahoma, in August. It's a big, somewhat intimidating job. The church does not take Seminary lightly.
After that, I had to zip over to Walmart and get supplies for my creative writing class that afternoon at the college. I grabbed a bite to eat and headed over to WOSC. My class is three-hours long, with a snack break in the middle, and runs through Thursday. The classroom is really cool; the college is very high tech! I have a Smartboard, which functions as a screen, an electric whiteboard and a computer monitor. Also, the overhead projector projects right onto it. Awesome! I could get used to that.
I have four students in the class: two teenage girls and two girls around 11, I'd say. One is the granddaughter of a sister in our ward and is friends with Analiese. We also have a "kid wrangler," a teen who sits with the class, fetches things as needed, and escorts the students to and from class and snack time. Today's wrangler was a young man named Noah, who seemed to entertain the girls as much as anything else.
It was a good class. They had fun and were excited to be learning about being creative and expressing it through writing. I showed them a video, we talked about parts of speech and did exercises, and ended by decorating composition books to be journals. Already they are asking if I'll teach this next year and were even excited that I gave them a "homework" assignment (writing in their journal).
My busy day wasn't over. I went home, got changed, went to water aerobics, came home, got changed, went grocery shopping with Ken. I am tired and my feet ache something awful!
Tuesday, June 24, 2014
I had told Jonathan last night to let me know when they have their big layover and bus transfer in Phoenix at 3:30 in the morning. So, I got woken up then. I couldn't go back to sleep until I knew they were on the road again, so I figured I'd get up, have breakfast and do a little work and then go back to bed after hearing from Jonathan.
Today is Nasly's birthday. After class, I'm going to take her to dinner. I had promised her an "American" birthday cake so I got this fancy cake mix and am baking carrot cake...at four in the morning. At least it smells good. On top of that, I started reading through the Gospel Teaching and Learning book for Seminary teachers. I'm not sure how much retention I'll have this time of morning, but we'll see. As it is, I am already struck with how much trust the Lord puts in the Seminary teachers to live worthy to have the Spirit and help guide the students to have a testimony of Christ and His Atonement. It's hard to feel like I'm worthy and capable enough of that great a responsibility. I know I always felt my Seminary teachers were so spiritual and knowledgeable; as a teacher now I don't feel that way about myself at all! It's a lot to live up to! This is going to be a very humbling experience, I can tell.
Second day of class at WOSC was all about story-writing. The bad thing about this is...I could take a month and it might be enough to cover the subject. So we went over some basics (plot, setting, characters) and I gave them a bunch of handouts they could take home and work on over the summer. Not because they have to...but because they WANT to!
In the middle of class, I get a text from Jonathan...and then one from my Dad. They are in California safely! Thank goodness, the trip was the only thing that worried me! I guess Dad brought Rachel and Ammon with him to pick up the kids and they all chattered loudly and crazily all the way back to the house! It sounds like a good start, that makes me happy!
I took Nasly out to Chinese food tonight after dropping the cake off at her house. She apparently loves Chinese, so that was a good choice! She was so cute about it all and kept hugging me and thanking me. She had said her mom had spent all their money going to Honduras so she wasn't going to have a birthday celebration. Well, I gave her a little one with me! The waitress at the restaurant is Hispanic and heard us speaking in Spanish, so she would talk to us in Spanish, to which I replied in English. Too funny! Nasly and I spent at least two hours eating, laughing, and talking about the gospel, which she is still new to. She is eager to come to Seminary and be a part of my class in the fall and even wants to do her scripture mastery in English.
Wednesday, June 25, 2014
Ken is at work and the house is so QUIET this morning. I figured my kids would forget all about me once they reached Grandma's house, but Jonathan has been texting me some this morning. They went to Jay & Logan's baseball game last night and had a good time. Wendy is keeping me in the loop, too, by sending pictures of the kids together. I am willing to pay the price of solitude to give my kids this opportunity (and my nieces and nephews, too!)
Today's class was AWESOME!!! We started the first part by describing things using all of our senses. I had brought Jonathan's rabbit, Twilight, to class to use as their example. I could have brought anything, a flower, a piece of fruit, fabric, but I felt this would be more interesting to the girls. And it was! They loved watching him hop around the room and sniff things, they dug deep into his plush fur and...got a whiff of his cage - Phew! I think our smell phrase ended up being "retchingly scented." This was all before snack and was plenty of fun, but afterwards! Wow!
We talked about poetry, I showed a couple of video clips and read a few poems, even letting them help me decipher Tennyson's "Crossing the Bar." It was great, but then it got even better. I introduced them to blackout poems. That is where you take an already existing text, like a newspaper or magazine article, or a page out of a book and find significant words in it to make up a poem of your own, while blacking out the rest with pen or paint. I had copied off pages from four books: Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets, Ender's Game, The Hobbit, and Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy. My three girls in attendance took the first three pages to work on and my teenage boy assistant, Eric, took Hitchhikers. This was the first time he wanted to actually participate in writing!
They were marvelous! In particular, the one girl who took Ender's Game made a lovely poem about sitting under a tree and even drew a tree with the sky and sun above and the ground below. One line mentioning resting beside the tree was...resting beside her tree! I was serious impressed. All of the kids (even my helper) LOVED the activity and couldn't wait to try it at home. One girl said, "You really like poetry, huh?" The truth is, I haven't been that inspired to do it or even read it, but today changed everyone's minds, mine included!
The evening was almost anticlimactic. I went to water aerobics and then to dinner with a girlfriend from church. However, sitting in Applebees talking our heads off for two and a half hours probably isn't insignificant. Tarah's a beautiful person inside and out and it was good for the both of us to have time to bond better. I'm so grateful that, a year after moving to Altus, I can say with confidence that I have friends here.
Thursday, June 26, 2014
Final day at WOSC Kids' College. We worked on Personal Narratives today (basically, essays about a specific moment in your life). Not as exciting or snazzy as stories and poems and no bunnies were present in the making of this writing, but I think they still learned a lot.
And enjoyed the class. Because, as they were leaving, they said to me, "See you next year!" Will I be doing it next year? I don't know. It was difficult getting students. But maybe we can get the word out and have more next time. Also, I've learned a lot of things and I'd make changes to how I'd teach certain things. I think it was a good experience for all of us.
The kids and I Skyped some later in the day. Jonathan & I had been texting back and forth and Ken wondered why he didn't just call or we Skype. So, they got on Grandpa's computer and we had a good visit. They are having fun, though Jonathan looked beat. He's doing Youth Conference there this week on top of having just arrived by bus. I asked my mom if she was tired of them yet. She said, "Nope! Not yet!"
Ken and I had a nice quiet night this evening. Finally. I made dinner and then we just sat on the sofa cuddled together listening to Jeff Foxworthy on Pandora. Ken loves the Blue Collar tour and all the redneck jokes. I like Bill Engvall (the sarcasm just drips off of him), so I didn't mind. It was nice to not have anything specific to do.
Friday, June 27, 2014
Ruth, my visiting teacher, came over this morning to help me weed my veggie boxes. Poor things, they were being strangled. But we got a good two hours worth of work put in and enjoyed our visit, too. The weather cooperated nicely and didn't really get hot till around 12:30 when she was going home.
We had doves and a bluejay visit us. Plus, my honeysuckle is blossoming out a second time, which is lovely to smell! Oh! We have pecans coming on our trees. I saw them...
Other than water aerobics, I stayed home and did housework. I did not want to go anywhere or do anything. I was tired!
Saturday, June 28, 2014
Lucky me! With the kids gone, I had to clean all three rabbit cages myself. One at a time, I'd put a rabbit in the front bathroom while I emptied and cleaned each cage. After that was done, I cleaned the bathroom. I've put down these doggie pads (like flat diapers) around the cages to help catch some of the mess and it seemed to help some.
I made beef stroganoff for dinner tonight to serve with rice for the missionaries. They liked it and ate it almost all up, but what really thrilled them was the homemade chocolate chip cookies I'd made during the day. You'd think they'd never (or rarely) had them! I know at one point one had eaten six, but I think the new elder ate more! It was no biggie, just chocolate chip, but apparently it struck their missionary hearts. I gave them the rest to take home - I'd made about four dozen. I don't really need more temptations around here.
Sunday, June 29, 2014
I have a confession to make. I didn't post photos all last week and almost didn't this week. Why? Because I couldn't find my camera. I've been sweating it all week because I didn't know where it was. What if it fell out of my purse when I was out?
I really wanted it, too, because next week Ken & I are going to OKC for a couple of days and I wanted to take pictures of the city. So I've been hunting in all the usual, and unusual, places. No go. It seemed frivilous, but I prayed, too. I didn't want to have to admit I lost it to Ken and I didn't want him to feel that he needed to buy me a new camera.
So, I get ready for church and I go to the closet to get out my church bag. And there, in the front pocket of my bag, was my camera! I can't begin to tell you how relieved I was. I wasn't really worried about losing photos, I only had this one of the kids putting together their puzzle:
All's well, that ends well, I always say.
