picture day

Today was the day my Senior class, who I co-sponsor, went out to take their traditional Senior class picture. It will go on their composite which includes all their Senior pictures and will hang in the hallways of Encampment School for eternity. We have frames dating back to the 1940s in our hallways! Today we left school and headed to Baggot Rocks outside Encampment. We climbed up what seemed like miles of rocks to find good spots to take pictures. It was high noon, I was fighting direct sunlight and shadows, but I compromised and took pictures where they really wanted to, because to get these 14 kids to agree on anything is a miracle in itself, so I just shut up and took the pictures. :)

Here is the Encampment class of 2008:

my son has a friend!!

Josh came home from school today saying we had to go to a concert- a really good guitar player that did an assembly for their kids today. He built a new prototype of guitar with a man who has a guitar shop here in Saratoga that builds guitars for all sorts of famous people. So, we went to the concert tonight. B came too. Deb and Jake and their kids sat one aisle down and across from us. While waiting for it to start, Chandler, their 3 year old, came to say hi to Brecken. B thought that was great. As Chandler left, B ran to his diaper bag and got out two rolls of Smarties that I had in there to bribe him into being quiet during the concert, and ran over to where Chandler was sitting and gave them to him with a big ol' grin on his face. Chandler said, "Thank you, Brecken!" and B nodded and then ran back to us. He shared with a friend! How nice. That's the first time he's shared like that. He shares food with us, and with anyone else that happens to be around while he's eating, but this is the first time he's gone out of his way to get something and bring it to someone!!

He liked the concert but had a hard time knowing to be quiet. He danced and danced, though. He really liked the music. The guy was excellent. Writes his own songs. He's kind of a motivational musician- Josh said he talked about bullying in their assembly this afternoon.

i see london, i see france...

I see Brecken's underpants! His pants got dirty today so I threw on some of his new shorts that were handy. I just bought them a month or so ago, for the summer. They are size 6/9 months.

And they are falling off.



I feed my child, I swear!

same word, different meaning

When we woke up this morning, B had a runny nose and a cough. I asked him, "Do you have a cold?" He replied, "Brr!"

Time to teach him the meaning of homographs. :)

give them a hug

We watched ESPN2 tonight, there was a story about a girl I went to high school with on it. She is a fantastic runner, and is trying to make the Olympic team this summer. But the story was really about her husband, who died during a marathon last November. They were training together to make the Olympic team. The worst part of the story is, they were married for 4 months. That's it. It reminded me of how fragile life is. Alicia, the girl in the story, told her husband she loved him at the starting line to the race and never spoke to him again because he collapsed a few miles into the race from a heart problem nobody knew he had. I cannot imagine losing my husband, especially after only being married 4 months.

I read a story once upon a time about a woman who lost her husband in a car accident on his way to work. Someone asked her how she could cope so well. She said that they made a point of ALWAYS having the words "I love you" be the last thing they said to each other as they went to work. The morning of the accident, they had a big fight and he stomped out of the house mad. She chased the car down as it was backing out of the driveway. She made him stop, roll down his window, and she gave him a kiss and said, "I love you" and meant it. She said that is how she could cope so well- she knew that the last words he heard his wife tell him was "I love you". That story sticks in my mind every day. (Though the story said it much better than I just did.)

Hug your husband, your wife, your children, your parents, whoever you love in life. Never take a single moment for granted.

the bug

I think I have B's bug today. I woke up with a bad stomach ache. I haven't puked, but I slept until noon! Good thing Josh is home now.

Brecken was SOOOOO glad to see Josh yesterday. We were watching out the window for him, and saw lots of trucks go by. But when he saw Josh's, he yelled, "DADDY!!!!!!!!!" and knocked on the window so hard I thought he was going to break it!! Josh brought him a stuffed wolf puppy and a board book about animals you see when you go camping, and I got a t-shirt and a new mug for my soup.

Josh had to go down to the community center this morning to get his health fair results. While there, Senator Barrasso walked in and right up to Josh! He introduced himself and I guess had quite a long conversation with Josh. They talked about the Teton Science School, Gillette, (Josh said I grewup there and he said he was there last night for the Crawfish Feed!) and a few more things. I asked Josh if he asked Dr. Barrasso to interpret his results for him. :) He said no, but the aide took their picture while shaking hands and then asked Josh for his mailing address. I told Josh we now have Washington covered- I know Sen. Enzi and he knows Sen. Barrasso. :)

Today Josh was supposed to help out with the track meet Saratoga is hosting, but it got cancelled because it was snowing hard this morning. It quit snowing but it didn't ever get very warm today.

Brecken can now identify Mickey Mouse. He pointed to the poster we have of him in the bathroom, and said, "Mappy!" That's good, since we only have two months until we leave for our trip to Disney World!

We were invited up to the Hayes' house for a BBQ tonight, but I stayed home since I'm not feeling that great. Josh and Brecken went though. It's kind of nice to have the house to myself for once!

not-so-fun field trip

I had to take my choir kids to Cheyenne yesterday for our annual music festival, where they sing for judges. They did great- my solos got 26 out of 30, 27 out of 30, and my duet got 34 out of 35! I was proud of the kids.

However, yesterday morning at 3:00, Brecken woke up puking. He puked again at 6:30. I couldn't leave him at the babysitter's, so I had to take him with me since Josh is in Jackson. What a not-fun day. He puked all day long. My two students were awesome though- never batted an eye, helped take care of him in the car, and even took turns reading books to him. What troopers I have!

When we got back to the school I told my secretary that I'd need a sub for today. Brecken puked before bed, but slept for 12.5 hours and didn't puke. Hooray! This morning he woke up and asked for water, which he promptly threw up. He slept some more, then has been able to keep down some Saltines and Gatorade. He has slept most of the day today. I did make it up to the store to get some Pedialyte and Pedialyte popcicles, so we'll have those this afternoon. He's sleeping again. Poor kid. And poor Mommy- what bad timing for Josh to be gone! Cleaning up puke for two days by myself isn't my idea of fun!

prom night

I had two smokin' hot dates to the Saratoga High School prom last night. The little one danced his heart out until about 10:30, when he finally gave in and fell asleep on my lap. HOW he slept through that loud music, I don't know. But he did! He loves dancing, however, so he had a blast. Plus, there was pretzels and cake with chocolate fondue, so he was in 7th heaven. :)

Here is B, ready for the Prom:

Dancing with Dad:

Even dancing while snacking:

growing up

You know how it just hits you like a ton of bricks sometimes, that your baby is no longer your baby? Tonight was one of those nights.

and this little piggy went wee, wee, wee... all the way home

These little piggies didn't go wee, wee, wee, but there was plenty of snorting! Josh's Ag teacher breeds pigs each year and B and I went up to see them this afternoon. I wish I would've known when they were born because they would've been a lot cuter then! But they aren't too ugly right now. B didn't scream this year. He didn't get too close, but watched them pretty intently!

I haven't been very good at keeping up with the blog lately. I feel bad, because I know there are people that check in every night! I'll try to be better. I guess we've just been pretty busy. Josh had Parent/Teacher Conferences twice last week at night, and B and I went to hang out with him for a bit each night. This week, he is setting up for prom from 4-7 each night, so we won't see much of him this week, either. And next week, he'll be gone all week on a trip with the 8th graders to Teton Science School. Then maybe we can have our daddy back!!

This past weekend we went to Lyman to see Beth and Jeff. We had a great time. Saturday we spent the whole day shopping in Park City and Salt Lake City. Everyone found great deals except for me. Rats. We had a wonderful weekend though.

It was BEAUTIFUL today. I love it when we don't have to wear coats! Brecken even had to have a bath at daycare because he had mud everywhere, Deb said. Even in his hair! He must have had one heck of a time playing outside this morning! He was wearing his extra outfit when I got him after school because his clothes he went in, plus his coat, were all in the washing machine. :) He's an outside lover, that's for sure.

spring

I went outside today, hoping to find signs of Spring. This is what I found instead:

But after searching hard, I found signs that Spring should be here soon:

trick rider

bubbles

I forgot to mention in my below post how long we were stuck on Sunday. I wrote it in my original post, but as I hit "publish", the internet said, "Cannot display the webpage" and I LOST everything! I had to start over. Anyway, we were stuck in the truck stop for 6 1/2 hours. Yes, SIX AND A HALF HOURS. It was miserable. But not as miserable as some people- a teacher I work with just got back from Rawlins this afternoon! She didn't get out while they were letting Saratoga people go on Sunday night and she got stuck all night, all yesterday, all last night, and all this morning. She finally got back after lunch today. Wowzers.

Back to the subject of bubbles. Craig and Lennie were here for a couple days to babysit for us. It was wonderful and B had a great time! They brought him some Easter presents, and his favorite of them is a big ol' bubble tube. He and his grandparents spent some time outside today blowing bubbles. This afternoon after they left, he asked me, "Bubba?" which means bubbles. I asked "Do you want to blow bubbles?" and he nodded yes and ran to the bathroom, where he takes bubble baths! Silly kid. So we blew bubbles in the bathroom.

stuck and going nowhere fast

We had a great time in Gillette last week. It was nice to sit around and relax! My grandma came over for a few days too and had fun playing with Brecken with his cars. The Easter Bunny left lots of new cars for B, so he was in 7th Heaven.



Yesterday we headed back for home. After Casper, you have two choices for which way you want to continue on to Saratoga- through Medicine Bow or through Rawlins. Each is the same amount of time, and one usually has a bit better roads. We chose to go through Rawlins. As it turned out, that was the WRONG choice!! We left Rawlins and the sign was blinking to tell us the road was closed at Sinclair, 6 miles up the interstate. So we stop at the gate that was keeping the road closed and talked to the highway patrolman, who said that there was a bad 12 car/semi pileup at Ft. Steele, another 10 miles up the interstate and they were working to get it cleaned up. So we pulled in the truck stop parking lot along with at least 100 other cars, thinking it would be an hour or so. We got B out of his car seat and he sat up with Josh in the driver's seat, "driving". He looked out the window at all the cars and said, "Oh geeze." HAHAHAHAHA. I didn't know he knew that phrase! He said it a few more times and we cracked up. :) After about an hour, Jeffrey called because he and Beth were on their way back to Lyman and passed the wreck- he said nothing had been cleaned up yet. So, knowing it was going to be a while, we made our way back to Rawlins. We stopped at the TA Truck Stop in Rawlins and said hi to Beth and Jeff for a very fast minute so they could get back on the roads before the snow, which was falling, became worse. We let B pick out a treat from the truck stop and we settled in one of the tiny little booths from Subway, which was inside the truck stop. This was a much NICER truck stop than the one in Sinclair- no smoke smell, had tables, and was a lot cleaner and friendlier.



There were a ton of people at the TA that were stranded with us, and there was a line of semi trucks so long that I couldn't see the end of it. There was a grandma and grandpa with their granddaughter who was probably 7 or so, and they were sitting next to us. The grandpa asked B if he wanted one of their bananas, and was just really nice. And through this whole thing, B could've been a monster and I wouldn't have blamed him, but he was AWESOME. With no toys or anything, he just sat at our booth and watched out the window and watched the people in the store with us. A few times he wanted down and would run around for a minute or two but then would sit down again. He was incredible.

Josh had been in touch with the dispatcher from Saratoga's police dept., who was giving us updates from the Highway Patrol. As we were sitting and waiting, waiting, waiting, we got the bad news that National Weather Service had called and said we were getting a big storm at 7:30 (bigger than what we were getting already!) and that the HP wasn't going to let anyone through on the interstate. Even "local traffic" (those of us that live in Saratoga). That totally bummed me out. We were making plans to stay overnight in the truck stop when Josh got a call at 8:00 or so from a guy he knows, who was also stuck in Rawlins, saying the HP was letting us go through. So we hurried up and got ready and headed out. It was pretty eerie- the usually very busy interstate had two of us on there- our car and the guy Josh knows. However, I much prefer that to traveling with all those trucks and the 7 bazillion cars that were waiting to get out!!

I would've documented the whole exciting ordeal with pictures, but my camera battery died in Gillette and of course I didn't have my charger! BUT, we're all home safe and sound.

thunder and snow

Right now, in Gillette, we are having snow so thick it has covered my mom and dad's deck in the past 5 minutes, and with it we are having lightning and thunder! What a strange combination.

B and I went to story time at the library today. Gillette has a fantastic library. We actually almost missed story time- I thought it was at 10:00 but it was actually at 9:30, with one for 3 and 4 year olds (and younger, but the majority were older preschoolers) at 10:30. We made it in time for the last song, and then B and I played with the puzzles, played in the great fort they have just for little guys, played with the bead table in there, climbed on the outside up the ladder to the reading nook where B played "BOO!" with me, picked out a movie to check out, and then the other story time started. B didn't want to participate in the song they were doing but was very interested in the surprise box, so interested, in fact, that he let a stranger help him down the stairs so he could get right close. After that, however, he lost interest and we went home.

B gets to hang out with his grandma and grandpa tonight while Josh and I go to a movie. That is, unless we get snowed in and can't get to the theatre. :)

eggs

B has been busy today. He decorated 3 eggs (and in the process, spilling green egg dye all over the table) and then found 10 more at the Easter Egg Hunt we went to this afternoon. Whew! Big day for a little guy.

spring

Happy SPRING!! Saratoga is welcoming the new season with a forecast for snow. Of course.

We had a busy week this week. I spent Tuesday and Wednesday nights at school until 8:00 p.m. for Parent/Teacher Conferences. I hate Conferences. This year was especially boring, because out of the 8 hours I spent at them, I saw a whole one parent. Whoop-dee-doo. And being at school for over 12 hours a day wears on a person!! I went to school this morning feeling like I had a hangover! Josh and Brecken came up on Tuesday night for a few hours and had dinner with me, which was nice. Brecken likes it at Mommy's school because I have lots of noisy instruments to pound on in my room. :) He also found the lockers and discovered that he fit inside of them. He thought that was pretty hysterical. :)

We had an early out day today, we got to go home at 1:30. Josh had a full day of school, but neither of us have it tomorrow because it is the start of SPRING BREAK!!! Hooray! We are leaving tomorrow to go up to Gillette. We haven't been to my mom and dad's house since August so we're looking forward to the visit. We'll stay until next Sunday.

luck o' the irish

Some of you may remember this adorable picture from last St. Patrick's Day...

I tried again this year with another hat but B had other ideas. I was barely able to snap this shot before he threw the hat with all his might across the living room with that "ug" of disgust:

Sorry it's blurry- he moves fast!

the bear

Our Advanced Art class at my school did something awesome: The State Wildlife Museum gave any school that wanted to participate, a fiberglass bear. Plain white. Nothing on it. Their job was to decorate it somehow, like the Pronghorn project here in Carbon County, or the Cow project in Chicago. I think Cheyenne did something like that too. All of the bears that were decorated by art classes around Wyoming are going to be judged at State Art and a winner will be determined. I think our kids did awesome. ALL of the things on the bear were made of clay and they are so tiny I have no idea how they got the details painted on! All the boulders are made of clay, all the little tiny animals are made of clay, everything was painted. Teeny tiny. Some of the little chipmunks are so small that you miss seeing them the first time you look at the bear! It's quite amazing.

You can see the rest of the pictures I took at: http://www.flickr.com/gp/14494706@N03/Mn8LMH

Click on "view as a slideshow" to get the full effect.

a tornado

A tornado went through our house. Or, that's what I'm going to tell people when they ask why it's so messy.

We decided to put our house on the market, hopefully next week. The realtor is coming on Monday to give us a Market Analysis on it, so we're feverishly going through things and not only throwing a lot of stuff out, but packing up things that aren't needed, that way when we DO get to move, we won't have *as* much packing to do. We have simply grown out of our house. It's a tiny little 1200 square foot house and we simply need more room! We don't have any storage, only 3 bedrooms, teeny tiny bedrooms, a tiny living room, etc. The only thing I'll miss about it is the beautiful view we have out our front windows! We've looked at 3 houses now, and fell in love with one, but it only had 2 bedrooms and I really don't feel up to an addition on the house right away. Turns out, it didn't matter because an offer went in on it the very next afternoon! We've had our eye on one house and it's supposed to come on the market within the next week. We'll go look at it and hopefully it will be wonderful and in our price range! It is supposed to have 4 bedrooms, a finished basement, and a brand new kitchen. However, if this isn't the "right" house, we'll just wait for another one to pop up. The nice thing is, we don't HAVE to move. We can take our time looking. When we moved to Saratoga, we had one day to look at houses and out of the 8 we saw that day, our current house was the only one that was in good shape. So we had to take it. This time around, it will be nice to not have to settle, and wait for the right house to open up. I HATE moving, so I don't want to settle for something we won't be happy with in a few years!!