Life in general

I am starting to feel healthier. I am dealing with work. Everything seems to be getting under control.

I even folded all my laundry stacked up on the table. This is more miraculous than most people will ever know. I usually wash a load and then put in on the laundry table. Then we spend the next week fishing through there for various outfits. It is completely ineffective and frustrating. Every time I get it under control I resolve to never let my laundry get like that again. Here is to big dreams!

Bishop Budd

Bishop Budd had a massive stroke on Thursday. He is still in ICU. We love Bishop Budd. He really has been the best bishop I have ever had. He knows my family and he just seems to be a part of it. Don goes to him for advice and Bishop Budd always says the right thing. Don stopped by the hospital last night on his way home from work and told me how hard it was to see him that way. Apparently, Don cried and cried. He told Jacob how much like a father Bishop Budd is to him. Today we are fasting and praying for him.

A great reminder

Last night I went to the adult session of stake conference. It was great. It was worth all the pain and suffering the children make me go through for leaving them home. There were a lot of great talks. The most important thing that I heard was more of reminder than anything. A mother in our stake talked about what she does when things are bad. She serves other people. What better way to stop focusing on my troubles and start focusing on all the blessings I have. I need to reach out to other people and help them more.

A stitch in time...

I wish I could say this was a blog about how my favorite shirt was saved by my crafty sewing ability. Actually, this blog has little to do with sewing. But a lot to do with stitches.

I was greeted at my children's preschool by a curious preschool teacher asking me what happened. I of course had no idea what she was talking about. She went on to ask about how Dresden cut her head open and about her stitches. I again had no clue what she was talking about.

Then she told me what she knew. Don dropped the kids off a little later than usual and he said that Dresden had just gotten stitches. At that point I just wanted to see my little girl.

She has three stitches in her forehead. When I got a hold of Don he told me he was just getting out of the shower and he heard her start to cry, followed by "sorry, sorry" from Zander. Zander told me that they were wrestling. If you have ever wrestled with Zander, you know how tough he is. She didn't even have a chance. But I can't quite get the story from him, so I am not sure.

All I know is my little girl has stitches and I had to find out from the pre-school. "I'm not happy Don, not happy at all." (This is a line from "The Incredibles" with Bob's name replaced with Don)

What a few days can do

I am amazed. A week ago today was the beginning of a terrible week. I would go into details, but it mostly deals with work and so I can't blog about it. But everyday another thing would just make everything just a little bit worse. Friday was the breaking point and I quit. I told them I was done. They told me to think about it over the weekend, because it's not good to make a decision based on emotions.

So I spent the weekend trying to sort through all my feelings. I went to the temple. I got really depressed. Then I sucked up my pride and begged for my job back on Monday.

It has been stressful. My instructor describes it as a big cloud that has come into our classroom. I am determined to find a way through this and become better because of it. Parents are coming tomorrow to celebrate Constitution Day, so I am trying to normalize everything before they come.

So I want to thank a bunch of people. I want to thank everyone that have been praying for me. I appreciate the people that have noticed I have been stressed and have brought dinner over. I want to thank two of my neighbors that invited me to their house just to chat on Saturday. You have no idea how much I needed that. I want to thank my sister for dressing Dresden up in cute clothes and painting her fingernails. She has helped with the kids so much. I want to thank my mom for sneaking some of my dirty clothes and washing them. Whether you knew that I was having a hard time or not, all of you really made a difference. Thank you.

Real Life

As a child I had all sorts of dreams. I had so much hope for the future and what I would become. It all seems so uncomplicated looking back. I would get married and have a family. We would buy a home and live happily ever after.

I have no idea what I am doing

I have had this one idea for a book for a long time. I haven't done anything about it because I kept trying to talk myself out of it. Everyone says they are going to write a book and it usually doesn't amount to anything. But my brother asked me a week ago if I would take the pictures for a book he is writing. He is a graphic artist and he is planning on altering them to fit his concept. It flattered me because my brother has written several books and I never thought he would consider working with me on a project. We are still working out the details.

But it got me to thinking about the book I want to write. So I outlined out the book and it just all made sense. I e-mailed my brother to see if he would illustrate the book. We met and he gave me a lot of advice and steered me in the right direction. One thing he said was to put up an ad on Craigslist to see if I could find any graphic artists willing to work for cheap. So I did. Here was my ad...

Illustrator wanted to illustrate a LDS book. Seventy-five specific pictures wanted. Illustrator must have portfolio to display.
Location: Salt Lake City, Utah
Compensation: Negotiable
This is a part-time job.
Principals only. Recruiters, please don't contact this job poster.
Please, no phone calls about this job!
Please do not contact job poster about other services, products or commercial interests.
PostingID: 1446195379

Can someone just blog so I have something to read

I really need to get my mind on other things. Can someone just blog about their life today so I can read it and think about your life? I know, weird request, but I am begging you.

Waited too long

I think I wait too long to blog. I have things I can blog, but I don't because of this or that. I guess I just don't think it is good enough to blog. Then when I want to blog I am so busy weighing whether it is blog material that I just decide it doesn't meet my blog criteria. Crazy.

Dresden is doing much better at pre-school. My sister saved the day by going there and checking on her a few times. One of the times she went in an played with Dresden. That was just what she needed. Ever since then she is happy to go to school and happy when I pick her up. BIG IMPROVEMENT!

Things are going great at school. I was trying to teach my class what makes a sentence a declarative sentence. When it comes right down to it, they are sentences that end with a period. There were a few kids that just didn't get it. So I started drawing fireworks around the sentence whenever it was declarative. Now my class expects it. One of my students said, "No more declarative sentences for you." Another student asks why I haven't drawn any fireworks when I am trying to teach a different concept about grammar. It's really cute.