Sat. 1st--I finally finished painting the fireplace and what a transformation! From brown and drab to white and fab! Only took 22.5 hours over five days. Not bad considering I did a lot of traveling that week...to Lubbock, Midland, and Seminole.
Sun. 2nd--Karcyn took over caring for the animals at Kevin and Chris's when Jake and Trina left. She took Dodge, the big boxer, out to go potty as soon as we got there. After Karcyn tended to the rabbit, turtle, lizard and fish, and we were getting ready to leave, Dodge came up to us, turned around and dropped those huge poop bombs right in front of us! SO gross!
*JJ sneaking a picture of his sleeping siblings on the Sabbath.
Mon. 3rd--Rolo folding his paws.
*This was my first day working as a long-term substitute at Ira School in the secondary wing. Fortunately, it was a teacher work day. We had a few meetings in the morning after breakfast, but most of the day was prep time. Thankfully, because my classroom was an icky mess. I spent most of the time vacuuming, dusting, cleaning, and trying to figure out how to arrange the oversized tables, but I finally got the classroom set up and done. The computer tables are huge and take up so much space! But it's the best we've got. The room was full of desktop computers, keyboards, mouse pads, etc. that were old, worn out, and broken. I always love a good purge!
I wish I had taken an up-close before picture of what the room looked like. These are all my after pictures. A handful of teachers and admin came in to the room periodically to see how I was doing. The superintendent stood there in awe and said, "Now this looks like a classroom." He said a few other things that gave me the impression that even if I only do a couple things, I'd be doing more than the other teacher ever did. In some ways, I was grateful for the expectations to be set super low. But at the same time, I was warned by several other faculty and administrators that I'd probably experience a lot of push back from students because they've never had to work in this class before. They've been able to play video games or be on their phones or mess around with the 3D printer. I, however, would have a classroom on the complete opposite end of the spectrum filled with structure, lessons, and extensions. Who's up for an adventure?
It's kind of plain, but I made it mine. To be fair, it is also a classroom that will be filled with 8th to 12th graders. I'm all about simplifying!
Tues. 4th--Happy 80th to my amazing dad! Even though he was an airline pilot and traveled every week, he always spent time with us as a family and each of us kids individually--taking us on all sorts of adventures, outings, and trips. He taught me the value of hard work, smart money management, and provident living. I have yet to find something he can't do or doesn't know. What do you get the man who has everything and has been everywhere? You name a STAR after him! I don't know how he stays looking so young. I need his beauty secrets. :)
This picture was taken the summer of 2002 at Eklutna Glacier, Alaska, after I had Cooper. (Dad--age 60.)
This picture was taken outside the Houston Temple in June 2021 after Cooper received his temple endowment. (Dad--age 79)
During...
After...
*We hired a man who lives across the street from Karole to pull the big bushes that blocked half the front of our house. The house looks so much bigger!
They also pulled out big, ugly fern-type bushes on the north side of the house and along the driveway. Now to figure out what to do with all the river rock in the front yard.
Wed. 12th--I didn't notice this before when I subbed in the library before Christmas, but JJ's cousin, Ayzlynn, pointed out that JJ is the top AR (accelerated reader) in points in the whole 4th grade class for that 6 weeks. JJ: The kid who doesn't like to read. I was shocked! But we'll take it!
And miraculously, all 10 chickens were still alive and thriving!
Tues. 18th--After school, Karcyn got a ride to the barn with one of the Ag teachers and I met her there once I was done dropping kids off. It was time for Karcyn to select three of her best chickens to take to the stock show on Thursday. While I was on the other side of the coop area, I spotted a chicken lying on the ground unnaturally next to the water. I asked Mr. Gates if that chicken was dead. He looked over and said, "Not yet." He reached down and shook the chicken a little and its eyes slowly opened. Mr. Gates said it probably had a heart attack. It was cold and getting stiff. It was hard for me to even think about. Mr. Gates said he'd put it out of its misery when they were done. I couldn't even allow myself to think about how that would look or sound...literally wringing their necks. Ugh. I know it's the circle of life and puts them out of their misery, but no thank you. I don't even want to watch.
When showing chickens, you hold them upside down by their feet so that the judge can run their hands up the breast bone checking for how much meat and muscle is on the chicken. Karcyn and her teachers each held a chicken and compared them to find the best of the trio, then they'd get a couple more and compare those together until they found what they thought were the best three.
At one point, Karcyn was holding the biggest chicken. And then her teachers instructed her to put it back in the pen. I was confused. Doesn't she want to show the big chickens? I learned that, yes, while you do want big chickens, that one was too big. The goal is to take your three biggest chickens that are the most uniform to each other. You want to "show" consistency. That makes sense.
*Later that night, Karcyn and Calvin were playing on the Switch and I was noticing their hands. I told them to put their hands up against each other to compare. What we saw was astonishing!
The heels of their hands are lined up. I knew that Calvin has some long fingers, but still...Karcyn definitely has some midget hands. He's two years younger than she is. He can totally wrap his fingers around the tops of her fingers!
These are their feet! Karcyn thought this was so funny. She said it made her night!
Karcyn had the day off from school. JJ and I had a half day at Ira (because most of the kids out there are in the stock show), but we had to leave Ira earlier than that because they moved the chicken showing up to 11am instead of 1pm. JJ told Karcyn he hoped she got 1st, 2nd, or 3rd place. Karcyn said it didn't matter to her if she placed. She was having a good time no matter what. She had a couple other kids help her hold her chickens because you can only hold one chicken at a time. :) She was the last to enter the ring and I was anxious to see how this selection process worked. The judges put some kids in the middle who, I figured, were the top chickens. Karcyn got moved to the right and then back to the left. I couldn't tell which way was the end of the line.
Either way, she was kind of in the middle. As she left the arena, the judge patted her on the back. She was given a ribbon. For participating. How nice. Except that when I went to go see her, she squealed in excitement, "Mom! I got 7th place!!" Wow!! There were at least 12-14 kids showing chickens. Even though she wasn't in the top three, she wasn't in the bottom five either. Super awesome for her first experience with chickens. I saw one of my 10th grade students from Ira after the show and asked him how he did. He got 10th.
s
I watched it for a minute or two in case it was just coming from an exhaust pipe up front. But the smoke appeared to be increasing in quantity as well as in darkness. Calvin was the only one awake at the time and I asked him what he thought. Because of the way the road was (straight) and the side the smoke was coming from (the right) we had a hard time determining where the smoke was coming from...was it more up front, or toward the center of the cargo container. I kept my eye out for any sign of flames, but there was none that I could see. I spent a mile or two debating about calling 911. I finally decided to. I'd rather err on the side of caution. And what if this poor driver has no idea that he's pouring out tons of smoke, possibly on fire?
I called 911, gave my best estimate about where we were heading northbound toward Lubbock on I-84. I was too far behind the semi to read his plates and there were no distinguishing marks on the back of the truck. I asked the dispatcher if I should pass him and he told me no and that they'd send someone to try and find him. He took my name and number and we hung up. The semi driver wasn't going very fast and I followed behind him at about 55 mph (speed limit is 75) waiting in case the emergency vehicles happened to find him. When I was traveling in a big bus with the stake YW to Colorado from Texas, we were almost run off the road by a reckless driver in a semi. I called 911 then in the middle of the night to report him. The dispatcher knew exactly where we were, because of satellites, I guess. I thought maybe that might be the case here, too. After five minutes, though, no one came. I decided to try and pass him and maybe signal to him to pull over. I passed and slowed down when we were parallel. I mouthed and motioned to pull over, but he just smiled and nodded and gave me a thumb's up. He clearly didn't understand me, sadly. I sped up and got ahead of him. Calvin took this picture out the back window. Perhaps it really was just exhaust. But I've never seen thick, black smoke pour out of an exhaust pipe on a semi before. Even if he wasn't on fire, I think there was something wrong with the truck. 
*At league, JJ wanted some advice from Bill. It was just JJ and one other boy, Andrew, who is about the same age, but doesn't know JJ as well as Gavin, their other teammate. Gavin wasn't there that day. JJ had asked Andrew if he could bowl with his ball one time and did really well with it. JJ thought that Andrew had said it was okay, but Andrew had really said he DID mind. So JJ felt bad about that. And when JJ went to help push balls out of the way, to make room for the ones coming out of the ball return, Andrew got caught in JJ's efforts and got pushed on accident instead. Andrew accused JJ of pushing him out of the way. JJ, who has a pretty tender heart, was very saddened by this. Fortunately, some of the older teenage boys sharing their lane encouraged JJ to get out there and not let that misunderstanding slow him down.
When league was over, we went to get a ball drilled that another coach gave to Calvin. It's a Golden Jackal strike ball. The thing about this one is that it will travel farther down the lane before hooking. Coach Scott thought that might help Calvin and he gave it to him. These coaches are super generous! We just need to get it drilled for his finger size and then plug the thumb hole because he's a two-handed bowler and it's against USBC rules to bowl two-handed with a thumb hole that you aren't using. Apparently that puts your ball at an advantage, but I have no idea how. ;)
We drove the seven minutes to the South Plains Lanes for the Youth/Adult Doubles Tournament and sat in the car to eat our sack lunches while we waited to go inside. We were pretty early, but it was nice not to be rushed. When we went in, we were one of the first to arrive. That alley is huge and we had no idea where Calvin would be bowling, so we just picked a table. I went to the ladies that were checking people in and we learned that Gary had come down sick that morning. He went to get tested for Covid, but the biggest concern was his oxygen levels. So Gary would not be able to bowl with Calvin. Darn! I'm sad about that, but really worried about Gary and sent him a text saying so. The organizers did say, that they had another adult, Matteo, who was willing to step in and bowl with Calvin as his adult if we were interested. I asked Calvin and he said sure. He actually met Matteo at the tournament that he won back in August. Matteo was bowling then, too. His average is 235!!
Because of how flat and straight the road is, I could still see this semi and the smoke when he was over a mile behind me. I hope everything turned out alright.
JJ earned two patches at league! One for over 50 points and another for a score above 75.
They came out strong in their first game.
Sun. 30th--Kevin and Christina spoke in Sacrament Meeting. I appreciated both their messages. Especially the anecdote Kevin shared from Elder Renlund and his wife, Ruth, who painted a picture about a person floating out at sea and after the miraculous relief of being rescued, felt that the conditions were less than stellar and eventually jumped back into the ocean, waiting for something better to come along. Utterly ridiculous, right? But that's how many people view the Church these days. But it will be to their detriment when they leave the safety of the Church, convinced something better will come along.
And even their second as they maintained the number one slot. But the third game got them both, even Matteo who is a machine with his consistency. Calvin got a 122 and even guttered a couple times. It was clear he was getting tired. He did SO well considering he had already bowled three games that morning, so technically he was working on his 4th-6th games. Like anything else, you have to build your stamina for more than three games. They didn't get first place. They probably came in second. But we didn't hang around to find out. I got Calvin some fried cheese sticks then we went to get gas at HEB and use the restrooms before hitting the road home.
I was also reminded that though the world is ever darkening and chaos is increasing, those who desire, seek after, and strengthen their faith in the Savior will in turn receive His power--the power of the Creator who is the ultimate navigator. His confidence and reassurances are real. I loved hearing this quote from Elder Neil L. Andersen again from August 2015. "As evil increases in the world, there is a compensatory spiritual power for the righteous. As the world slides from its spiritual moorings, the Lord prepares the way for those who seek after Him, offering them greater assurance, greater confirmation, and greater confidence in the spiritual direction they are traveling. The gift of the Holy Ghost becomes a brighter light in the emerging twilight...This added blessing of spiritual power does not settle upon us just because we are a part of this generation. It is willingly offered to us; it is eagerly put before us. But as with all spiritual gifts, it requires our desiring it, pursuing it, and living worthy of receiving it."
*As we were turning down our street heading back to the rental, the kids noticed the open field near the round-about was filled with litter...lots of plastic bags that have blown by the wind along with other litter snagged on the long thorn-filled shrubs. This picture doesn't do it justice but there was a lot of garbage.
I had mentioned several weeks ago that we should clean up that area before it got cold, but nothing came of my suggestion, so I let it go. On this beautiful day, however, they remembered this service opportunity and suggested we do just that. After lunch, we grabbed some plastic bags, put Rolo in his harness, put on some latex gloves and walked half a block to the field and started picking up garbage.
Kevin and Chris wanted to see how the house was progressing, so we met them over there at 6:30pm that night when Jared was done with work. There were trucks in the driveway and found Orlando and his dad there working. I told them I was sorry they had to work on a Sunday. The rest of the backsplash was installed, but the grout wasn't done yet. Orlando said they were discussing the stove vent. We were just going to put a vent above the cooktop that was flush with the ceiling. But it was too high. So instead of dealing with a hood that would block our nice open concept, Orlando suggested we just leave the hood out. He mentioned they have the same thing at their house and so far, it's been fine; Donell hasn't burned anything. :) The only purpose for the vent is to air out burn smells in the air. So that's what we decided. Fingers crossed it's the right choice. They are leaving the wires for the hood tucked up in the ceiling, though so if we change our mind about a hood vent, we can add it later. The carpet and flooring are scheduled to be installed on Wednesday! We're finally getting there!
I'm very proud of my kiddos. They put in about an hour before Karcyn's legs got all scratched up and they headed back to the rental. I stayed out another 20 minutes or so to make sure we had grabbed everything. While I was out there, a man who lived across the street, walked over with his dog. He asked me how much "they" were paying me to do this. I told him nothing. I'm just getting paid in blessings. We filled three large kitchen bags of trash. It was most fulfilling to know we were able to serve our street and in some small way, our community.
*Donell sent me a text to show me that our backsplash was in the process of going up.
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