9/11

Monet invited us out to her house at Daybreak tonight for pizza and games. So we headed out there after Max's football practice ended. Monet has been redecorating her townhouse and wanted me to come and see it. My favorite part is her front porch though, the temple is on her street and it lights up the whole neighborhood. The boys still had on their red, white and blue, clothes from school today, where they had an assembly and sang the Navy, Army and Marine songs. I asked them if anyone talked about what happened on this day eight years ago and they said, no, they just talked about serving our country at the assembly.


After dinner, Rocco pulled out bins and bins full of Star Wars toys, Markus was in seventh heaven, while Max and Aria were having a pretty good time as well.

Aria was posing for my pictures of Monet's new furniture. It looks really different from when Rocco just lived there on his own - all he had in the front room were toys for his boys.

We played a fun game called Sequence until it was time to head home. Max has football every Saturday at 7:45 a.m.

Max-Bear

Max received his Bear rank advancement at Pack Meeting tonight. As well as a bunch of other pins and belt loops from camp this summer. He was pretty excited.

After Pack meeting was over Morgen wanted to go to Hastur's again to buy more Pokemon cards. They have a parking spot with his name on it over there I swear. lol

Beautiful Ride

I went on a beautiful ride up Emigration Canyon today with my friend Ciprianna. I forget how beautiful it is up at the top.

Friends

I feel so very lucky to have such great friends. Laurie invited me out to her house today for lunch with "the girls". The time goes by so quickly when we are all together and I meant to take a photo with everyone but Heidi had already left when I remembered my camera. So...

Laurie, Nicole, Carol (w/ baby Sam-bo), Olivia (w/ baby Izzy) and Kelli

After I picked the boys up from school, I went to teach at the rink and my student Amanda had a surprise waiting for me in the pro room...a bouquet of flowers, a balloon and a whole stack of cards, that she had everyone at the rink write a message to me for my birthday. What a thoughtful girl. It helped to make this day one I will always remember. :)

Labor Day

Morgen tried out his new fishing pole today. With the very first cast he caught the first fish of the day! He was so excited and made sure that I put it on ice so I could cook it at home for him later. My dad grabbed his net and helped pull it out of the pond, although it was so small I think he could have handled it himself.

Max kept trying different things, worms, sparkly clay, bread, but to no avail. He asked me later if I thought fishing was about skill or patience and I told him I thought it was a little of both.


Vivian Park, Provo Canyon

Aria didn't mind that she wasn't catching anything, she was just having fun watching the sun reflect off the water. And pretending the fairies were dancing on it!

Cole was all business...my dad has taught him a lot about fishing and he caught a fish eventually as well. As the kids were all fishing, the adults were all roasting hot dogs over the fire. As soon as I had a chance I borrowed Max's pole and tried my fishing skills, making sure to watch for the sheriff, as the pond at V.P is only for children and handicapped people. I only made a few casts but I like the challenge to see how far I can make it. I remember fishing with my mom once in Sun Valley when I was a teenager and she would hand me the pole to put the worm on and then cast it. Working as a team like that we caught our limit within about 20 minutes. We had a fish fry that night and I remember eating the trout and thinking that it was the best fish that I had ever tasted. Fun memory. My mom reminded me about it today, "Remember that time in SV...."

I saw this man out fly fishing in the Provo River, when we were leaving and I had to take his picture. Relaxing way to spend the holiday.

Here are my top 10 Labor Day quotes:

10. "Without labor nothing prospers". ~Sophocles
9. "God sells us all things at the price of labor." ~Leonardo da Vinci
8. "If any man tells you he loves America, yet hates labor, he is a liar. If any man tells you he trusts America, yet fears labor, he is a fool." ~Abraham Lincoln
7. "All labor that uplifts humanity has dignity and importance and should be
undertaken with painstaking excellence." ~Martin Luther King, Jr.
6. "All the so-called "secrets of success" will not work unless you do." ~Author
Unknown
5. "I'm a great believer in luck, and I find the harder I work
the more I have of it." ~Thomas Jefferson
4. "I've got a theory that if you give 100 percent all of the time, somehow things will work out in the end." ~Larry Bird
3. "The difference between try and triumph is a little umph." ~Author Unknown
2. "Opportunity is missed by most people because it is dressed in overalls and looks like work." ~Thomas Edison
1. "Labor Day is a glorious holiday because your child will be going back to school the next day. It would have been called Independence Day, but that name was already taken." ~Bill Dodds

Enjoy your Labor Day Weekend...As parents you never really have a day off, but take a few minutes this weekend to take a look at the reason most of you work so hard--and enjoy that time with the family!

46th Wedding Anniversary

My parents were married 46 years ago today. They were married in the Salt Lake temple and they had an open house in Portland, Oregon in December.

Swiss Days

Today after Max's football game against Woodscross this morning - they lost 14-0, and Morgen's Pokemon tournament at Hastur's - he won 2-0, I told my mom that I would come up to see her and go to Swiss Day's with them. It started raining right when we got there, but cleared up after not too long. Markus wanted to get another rubber band gun, since in his logic, "What is the point of going to Swiss Days if you aren't going to get a rubber band gun?"!!! He bought a 10 shooter this year so he can shoot off ten rubber bands before having to reload. The one he purchased last year only held one.



My mom bought me a hat for my birthday because she thought it looked like me. I am not sure when I will ever wear it again but, oh well.

Sniagrab

I always thought that was a different name for a sale but they did have some pretty great bargains. Markus needed a helmet for snowboarding this year and it came with goggles as well, all for less than half what the helmets are normally. I also bought a snowboard that was $220 off of retail - sweet.

Motivation

Today I was reading from a Suzuki piano book that I bought when Morgen was taking lessons a few years ago. It had a great chapter on motivating students and as I was reading I just kept thinking how great the ideas were and how easily they could be applied to teaching my boys and my skating students as well. So I made a list of them and some of the key points in the book for future reference.

Motivation
As motivating students is probably the greatest challenge and one of the most important responsibilities a teacher has, it is also one of the keys to human accomplishment. A desire to learn and practice needs to be developed. People do the best when they are doing what they enjoy and sincerely want to do.

Love & Respect
First and foremost - “To read a child’s mind, a teacher must first capture his heart.” – Dr. Ginnott

Honesty
A relationship without trust is not only non-productive, it is ultimately destructive.

Patience
Webster defines the word patience as: “bearing or enduring pains, trials or the like, without complaint or with equanimity”. Patience may often be a quality of good teachers, but the teacher who loves and respects students and who reacts with understanding finds that dealing with children is a joy and not a trial!

Empathy

Being able to sense and respond to the needs of the student with gentleness and understanding will help the lesson be more productive. Often an incident which seems trivial to an adult is serious to a child. "Nothing is little to him that feels it with great sensibility." - Dr. Samuel Johnson

Enthusiasm

The final and very necessary attitude a teacher must have in motivating children is enthusiasm. How can we excite a child if we ourselves are unexcited? Our spirit and enthusiasm are the greatest attributes we can cultivate in order to motivate our students.

Motivational Tools

Praise

A teacher can also use rewards as a simple motivational tool and praise is the best reward we can give. We can always tell a child what we liked about a performance, and we can always find something, no matter how small. However, always be honest with praise, never praise a child for something not done well. Children have high standards for themselves and lying to them will only destroy your own credibility.

No Criticism

Children need help and guidance, not criticism. One of the greatest obstacles to learning is a child's fear of humiliation either by criticism or failure.

Material Rewards

In addition to praise, we can sometimes use material rewards.

Humor

Children respond positively to laughter and fun, and if a teacher creates a happy atmosphere, the student will enjoy the lessons and learn better.

Motivation provided the impetus to eliminate smallpox and to put men on the moon. Our most important responsibility as teachers is to provide that motivation for learning. If a teacher loves and respects children, praise, enthusiasm, and empathy will come as a natural means to motivate. If a teacher conscientiously implements these natural elements with humor, specific instructions, successes, games and good experiences, the environment for learning will be sound and children will achieve great ability with eagerness and ease.

(Studying Suzuki Piano: More Than Music by C.L. Bigler and V.L. Watts)

Ride Like a Girl

For some guys it may be an insult to say that he rides like a girl, but to Chris (left in photo) he takes it as a compliment to ride like the girls in our cycling group! He actually prefers riding with us he says rather than the guys, since he gets a longer workout. He and Sharon have been friends for years (he teaches spinning at the Park Center) and they used to ride together all the time. He just recently started riding with all of us, he was the Bishop in his ward and graduated from high school the year before Sharon and I were born, but he can still hammer.

We try to go riding at least a couple of times a week. These photos were from our ride last Friday, before I was sick. I haven't been able to go this week at all, just need to get better first. We were up by the U on our way to City Creek in this photo - Abby, B, Alissa, Sarah & Sharon. Alissa makes necklaces and made me the one pictured above for my birthday. Riding like a girl is ok with me.

I went to lunch today with the cycling girls. Mimi's cafe was pretty tasty.

(B, Alissa, Sara, Ava, & Shawna)

Sleep

...what is that?

Most Beautiful Woman in the World

Today while I was trying to still recover from my stupid infections, I was reading Nienie's blog. She finally posted a photo of herself after the almost fatal plane crash one year ago. I could not contain the tears.

Click to see photo of Nienie

Pokemon

Morgen has decided lately that he really likes Pokemon. He has been collecting the playing cards since he was 7 or 8 but didn't really get into it until a few weeks ago. Attending different tournaments, trading cards, buying new ones, he is thinking he's gotta catch 'em all. I guess. Anyways, he wanted to go to the World Pokemon Series yesterday at Sugarhouse park. So we went and he was in his element. He played in several rounds (or whatever they are called) and we brought a picnic.

Markus was loving the free blue slushees that they provided all day long and playing at the park.

I spent most of the afternoon looking at the sky, lying flat on my back on the blanket. I could not get up without feeling dizzy and had the chills. So I just stayed wrapped up.

Max played a little as well and won this new playing mat, but he gave it to Morgen.

Markus won the t-shirt and Morgen won the Poke ball. Which I might add, he was pretty excited about. Funny kid.

After the tournament was finally over I went to Insta-care to see what was wrong with me, because by then I could barely walk, I ached all over. I found out I have two infections, Strep throat and an UTI. So the Dr. prescribed some heavy duty antibiotics and said I should feel like a new woman by Monday. Hopefully he is right, because I feel like an old, sick woman today, just sleeping in bed for most of the day. Argh! Oh, and the pain med. he prescribed me, made me completely sick and shaky and when I got up to use the bathroom in the middle of the night, I passed out and hit the wall on the way down. There is a huge dent in the wall and I woke up laying face down on the floor. I have never done that before, so weird. I am definitely not taking those again.

Oh, another crazy thing happened when I went to get my medicine. Wal-mart was closed so I went to Rite-aid instead. Right after I walked through the doors, there was this huge bang and the lady standing at the check out counter grabbed her leg. Then we both saw what had hit her, a golf ball! The driving range at Sports Authority is right next door and apparently someone had hit the ball so hard that it went right through the wall and hit her in the leg. You could see the hole in the wall where it had come out. I think she is going to be okay, but she filled out an accident report. So if you are ever in that Rite-aid make sure to duck when you come through the front doors.

Pre-Season Game

Max's first pre-season game was this morning at 9. They played Jordan, whom we found out afterwards, went undefeated last year. They held their own and only lost by 5 touchdowns. Oh, well...at least it doesn't count towards their ranking this year.

Markus was watching a video for most of the time with his friends.

Friday Night Lights

Max's team was asked to play a scrimmage game during the high school football games half time.

He was so excited to be playing under the lights and with such a huge crowd watching. It was the Murray vs. Hillcrest game.

He had a great time and I am sure he will remember it for a long time to come.

The game was really close and Murray almost came back to win, almost.

Back to School

These were the clothes Max and Markus were going to wear on the first day back to school, but since it was raining on Monday, they wore them today instead. It has been hard adjusting to the new schedule this week, especially for Markus. He hasn't been going to bed early enough at all after being on the late night summer bedtime. After his melt down tonight though, I put him to bed at 8:00. He was really tired.

Rollerblading

Last night the boys were out Rollerblading and racing with Justin. Markus was cruising when he ran off the sidewalk on to the grass and totally wiped out big time. He just laughed and got up to finish the race.

Silly Monkey

The boys and I rollerbladed over to the ballpark to watch the Babe Ruth World Series game that we could hear from our house.

We couldn't stay for very long since it was getting dark and late but I think they had fun watching for a little while.

Teaching

Toni

I am trying to just teach on Tuesdays and Thursdays this fall but I am having a hard time fitting all my students into those days so I may have to open up Fridays as well. I was going to take a photo with each one of my students today, but I forgot Callie and Nick, so I will have to post those next week. Also, I will try to remember to take my camera for my Thursday students as well.

Amanda

Ava

First Day of School

Markus started 1st grade today. He was so excited to go and had all his school supplies loaded into his backpack last night. He wouldn't hold my hand on the way into class and just walked right in when his line went in. I took some photos and kissed his check and then had to go outside before I lost it in front of the other moms. As soon as I made it outside, I couldn't hold back the flood of tears. As I walked around the corner I ran into a friend and she had tears in her eyes as well. She asked me if it was my first or last child and I could barely squeak out my last. She was nice and said it is hard after having kids at home for 14 years and now what are we going to do? I was wishing that I had my sunglasses on to cover up my puffy, bloodshot eyes, but I think she understood.

Max started 5th grade and likes his new teacher. He actually rotates through all 3 5th grade teachers, for different subjects. It is supposed to better prepare them for Jr. high but I also think it is fun for them to have more teachers throughout the day, to break up the time.

Morgen is in 9th. He goes to high school though for math which made his first day back a little tricky, taking him to two schools, but I think I have it figured out. I just pick him up after I drop the other boys off and take him back up to seminary, which is great since they aren't too strict if he is ever late getting there after math.

Skating in SV

Darlin and Jan in front of Mt. Baldy outside her condo

Breakfast at Perry's on the patio

SV Lodge

I didn't sleep too well and was up at 5, but Darlin slept in until about 10:00, she wanted to go skating after breakfast, so we did. It was just starting to rain but since the ice is covered by a screen it was like skating in a tropical rain forest mist.

Since Darlin skates and teaches 6 days a week, on her day off she decided to skate in hockey skates. Just for fun.

Darlin and Jan clowning around

Even though it was raining, skating in Sun Valley is a great experience. What I love most about it is the sheer joy of skating on outdoor ice that gives jumps their spring, flowing movement and deep edges, bright skies and glorious mountains, all of which lifted my spirits.

Darlin and Brewster

She is loving having her dog around and I can tell he loves her right back