Getting out...at last!

 We've had a lot of company, have more coming, since school got out.  It's been great, but as soon as school lets out I get antsy to get outside and out of town!  We are leaving next week for a little trip, but yesterday afternoon and today Paul had no work, so we did some getting out.  Yesterday we went up to Brian Head to look at some work that needs to be done at a cabin where we hope to have Family Camp this year.  Afterwards we drove down the other side of Cedar Mountain and stopped off for a little snacknic along the way.  So exhilarating to get out even that much!  It was crazy to see quite a bit of snow still on the mountain up there, but it's melting fast now.  

Paul was off today for a dental appointment at 2 pm.  We didn't just want to waste the morning, so we decided that the short, but very beautiful Double Arch Alcove hike at Kolob Fingers, East Zion Park, would be just right for our timing.  We got up and got off so that we were at the trailhead at 7:18 am.  Brrr, it was quite chilly/brisk, but felt good enough that we didn't put on jackets and headed off for our six mile hike in this beautiful place.  It was perfect.  Pictures were good, but the with the sun coming over the top of the Fingers they are just a little faded out.  It was great because there weren't very many people there that early.  We did meet some pretty cool folk along the way there and back though.  We met a young couple from the Netherlands.  They were so in awe (everyone was) of our beautiful scenery.  It was fun to hear about their country.  We met a guy from Sicily and talked Italy with  him and his friend.  We me a couple from Israel - They talked about the "original Zion" of the scriptures and we talked some about the terrible situation there right now.  Pretty sad, but they were trying to enjoy some peace being away for a while.  We met a family from Alaska.  They were fun to talk to as well as a lady from a rock hound club from Cedar City.  We shared info with her about Paul Bunyan's Woodpile and she was excited to learn about it.  One reason it's really fun to hike with Paul is because he does talk to people and includes me in it.  I really like sharing the visiting with people from different places. And they all agree that we live in such an amazingly beautiful place!  We made it back in plenty of time for the dentist...and now it's time to stay home and take care of Paul.  

 

Gaige graduates!

 It's another one of those sweet/sad days!  Sweet that Gaige has done the work and reached the goal of graduation from high school!  We are proud of him.  He did well academically and had a really great friend group through Cross Country that helped him get through some tough times and stay strong in his faith.  I will always be grateful to them.  To me, it's a little sad because it marks the end of that more carefree life that kids get to live and marks the beginning of being out there ready to face the adult world.  And oh, that can be a world with choices that take you in so many different directions involved with so many new people and places.  Gaige has made the choice to go on his mission as early as possible and that will give him this great 2 years of hiatus, and a time to really strengthen his testimony, and then go on to the real adulting world.  I'm so glad that he has made this choice and taken this opportunity and I believe his friends have had a big influence on him in this choice as well.  Again, I am thankful.  So proud of you Gaige and so excited to see the next chapter of your life unfold.  We love you!  Congratulations and good luck in the  journey!

  Ferf, Paul, Koen, Torin and I were the cheering section for Gaige today! Ryan was there too and that is always sadly uncomfortable.  We helped each other take pictures.

 

Afterwards we went and got breakfast pastries of many kinds and the swanky Farmstead place!  

Gaige has come a long way from the tiny guy he started out as! 

 (Jay and Gaige at a little less than a month old.)

 

It happened in kindergarten!

 For years funny things have happened in kindgarten...and I haven't written them down.  Now that I'm about to be done, I will start writing them down!

Kids write some funny things with their "kindergarten spelling".  Today they were writing about snails.  One boy wrote - snails are insex (insects).  Ha Ha!

Another writing funny with a picture:

2021-Two boys were fascinated watching bugs in the grass on the school playground. They would dig along the side of the grass to find bugs. They looked for bees in the dandelion patches. I asked if they were going to be entomologists when they grew up. What’s that?  Someone who studies insects. Oh no one said. He wants to be a “painbytogist “ when he grows up and study dinosaurs. I told the other teacher on the playground about it. She replied that he was already doing well on becoming the pain part of a painbytogist.

2021-A little ESL girl in our class was so excited to tell me “Mrs. Lillywhite, I know my “bowels “. I know all of my bowels!  A e i o u!  I know all my bowels!  I have 2 bowels in my name; a and e!  This is a great accomplishment!  I’m so proud of her for her hard work to learn all of her bowels!!!

During Covid - I could finally wear one of the shield masks when I work with kids for literacy interventions. It helps them hear and understand me better. One little girl was totally amazed and just stared at me from across the room the first time I put it on. I wear my reading glasses under it. She finally couldn’t stand it anymore and left the carpet to come and get a close look at me. She just stared and then finally asked if I had 2 faces. I said no I just had a new mask.   She went back to the rug and talked with kids around her. A minute later a boy came over to tell me that Stella said I had 2 heads. Did I really have 2 heads?  No. Well she says you do. After a few weeks she still seems fascinated. One day I took off my mouth/nose mask and my glasses and then put on my mask to show her all of my different mask combinations. I said that I’m like Mr. Potato head and can just put on and take off different parts of different masks and glasses. She seemed more satisfied, but still stared at me sometimes with wondering eyes.

As new kindergartners were being tested by the teacher one little girl named Margaret came for her turn. Lynne asked if she wanted to be called Margaret or if she went by Maggie. She said, “my mom calls me Margaret when she’s mad at me. You can call me Maggie!”

As another child was leaving after testing his dad asked if he needed to say anything to the teacher - a gentle reminder to say thank you. Instead he said he wanted to tell her a joke!  Why did the banana cross the road?…to eat the chicken! 

I was helping a little guy pack up his lunch box when he got done eating. He had brought 2 fun sized candy bars and had one left. I asked if he wanted to eat it or pack it to eat later. He said it was for the teacher and me; we could split it.  I’m trying not to laugh.  One bite each!  I told her when I went back to class. She said she had  enough treats and I should go ahead and eat both bites!

A new school year has begun!  It's a big adjustment for me this year with a new teacher to work for in a new classroom.  Lynne retired and I work with Miss Hillery Hunt this year.  I found out she's the daughter or our liability insurance agent that we've been with for years.  Funny!  She's a really nice lady.  She's kind and fun and works hard.  She's so very different from Lynne, but in some ways I like it.  She's very open about things and treats me well.  It will take a while for me to get used to her ways and her to me and mine I'm sure.  We have 3 pretty difficult students.  One is on meds for ADD, but seems very autistic to me and also has allergies.  Another one also seems to have some autism tendencies, but is much easier in most ways to deal with than the other one.  He is obsessed with cowboys and everything about them.  Nearly every paper he does gets a cowboy picture as a finishing touch and he does not want to stop doing it until he's "done".  He can be a real pain sometimes, but we are learning to work with him.  The other one is a non-stop ME, ME, ME guy and can be Very trying and very loud.  The last one is a little tiny mexican girl who just thinks she should be able to play whenever and wherever she wants to and doesn't come in from recess after lunch because she's not done playing.  I had to chase her down one day, and she really thought that was fun!  She's doing some better, but knows way more English than she lets on and knows what she should be doing but "doesn't want to."  Hopefully we get things figured out with these 3 and move forward without so much of them taking lots of time.  The rest of the class are pretty regular kids and pretty cute most of the time.  It's a work in progress!  This is some of their first writing.  The cowboy kids drew a cowboy, of course!  He's actually a really good little artist!  

The Mid Singles Ward

 A few months ago, well right at the end of the year, Paul and I were called to serve in the mid-single adult ward.  He was called as the first counselor in the bishopric.  I had just barely been called to serve in the Primary Presidency in our home ward and had to be released to go with Paul in the new calling he was getting.  I had no calling, but was supposed to go and "love everyone and be supportive" to Paul.  I was having a hard time with it.  It is a huge ward because many non-ward members attend "when they can".  Trying the learn names, especially when the are not even in the ward and on the tools app, looked very daunting.  I was so good at names in the YSA ward we served in a few years ago.  I felt so useful there helping Paul as the "ward clerkette".  In this ward, without any official calling, I was just feeling useless, lost and, frankly, forgotten by the Lord.  Didn't He need me anywhere? Was I just an appendage for Paul? Actually, I do have to say that I hadn't been that excited to serve in the Primary Presidency.  I worked hard for the short time I was there and felt like I did some things that were helpful, but I had been hoping they'd just leave me in Sunbeams.  So, really, getting released didn't make me feel too bad, and maybe just a bit guilty for not being that sad about it.  But, then to be just a no-calling at all person didn't feel very good either.  It's been a wait and see and hope it gets better thing for me. Finally after all my whining they did give me a calling to help on the Linger Longer Committee.  I'm trying to be helpful there and I am happy to have the calling.  And in the meantime, I'm coming to love the people in this ward...just what everyone kept telling me I should and would do.  I'm starting to get some names down, I'm loving the amazing sacrament meetings (so quiet), I'm getting to know people and who they are and what they do and how nice and how faithful they are (in difficult, not what they planned for their life circumstances), I'm having fun attending their activities, and love the Sunday School and Relief Society lessons by amazing teachers.  I even went to their New Year's Dance and danced a little bit.  They are faithful and talented and amazing and wonderful people. They don't need us to do everything for them like the younger YSA people did.  They are professionals in their work and take care of their callings and assignments without much help from us.  We just sit back and they take care of things.   Ferf even attends some weeks when Ryan has the kids.  So, yes, people were right, and the Lord wants Paul here, and me too, for whatever reason, and it feels like it did in YSA - like a little bit of a mission call that we can do here at home with still having Anna Lou and Bean in the mix of our life and care so we can't leave to serve an official mission somewhere else or really even here locally. Another lesson to me on trusting that Heavenly Father is in charge and knows what I need to be doing right now.  Thank you!

Yesterday we went to Warm Springs with the ward and it was lots of fun...the place and the people. 

 

 

Paul Bunyan's Woodpile - it's a cool thing!

 The day after school got out, Fun Friday, Paul and I took a long drive to see a cool thing that's been on my list for quite a while; Paul Bunyan's Woodpile.  I saw it on a USG calendar a few years ago and have wanted to get there ever since.  I started feeling really bad the night before, but felt some better and decided I wanted to go one way or another.  It turned into a really nice day and we had a great little day trip which we were so ready for.  

This is a really interesting geological formation kind of out in the middle of no where near Delta, Utah.  We did see a little family there coming down from it, but other than them, we were alone.  There's a stream running below it.  It's quite an uppity little hike on slidy decomposing lava to get up to the formation, and walking around it is rocky and you have to watch your step, but it was totally worth the effort.  So cool and unique to anything I've seen before.  It really does look like logs  piled up, only the logs are stone!  A picture's worth a thousand words!  Here it is.  We hiked all around it to see it from every angle. We should have used our walking sticks!  I found a tree limb walking stick part way down.   

School's out! 2023-24

 2023-2024 was another great year at school for me.  It was a really big adjustment working with a new teacher, Hillery Hunt, after working with Lynne Godfrey for about 20 years before that.  After the initial adjustment shock, which took a few months, I feel comfortable with the different style and way things run in class.  We ended the year with only 16 kids attending class: 2 were in SPED all year, and we had a couple move away during the year and they weren't replaced.  That was pretty nice.  We had a few that you could call challenging - Luca!!! Casen, Millie and Anna.  Cameron, who moved away, was a cute kid, but a real challenge, so it wasn't a bad thing when he moved away.  Luca made us pretty crazy all year long.  But, we made it, and this class was actually very academically high.  

The funniest thing of this year was that the kids were all so interested in getting Miss Hunt a boyfriend and getting her married off!  So funny.  They would nag and nag her about if she had a boyfriend yet and when she was getting married.  They asked all of the male employees at the school if they were married or if they could be Miss Hunt's boyfriend.  They asked some firemen who came to show their firetruck if they were married.  

One thing I really like about Hillery is that she's pretty chill and laughs things off.  She expects good behavior, but she could laugh with the kids about all of this marriage stuff and not get bothered by it.  She has a more laid back attitude, but works very hard to help kids learn.  She's a dedicated teacher in a different style than Lynne was. She's very nice and respectful with me.  At first I didn't think I was going to the way she ran the class, but now, at the end of the year and looking back I really do like her, her different style works, and I signed up to work another year with her.  

                                  Our last day of school - after out Kindergarten program!

             Chillin' in our class watching a movie - last day waiting for time to do the program.  

Miss Hunt had the class write these for me for teacher appreciation week.  She made a really cute book of them for me from the class and her.  

                                                              Cute things from the kids.

Just as it is every year, I've come to love these kids...some a little more than others, but everyone for some reason.  It's always sad to know our time is over and it won't be the same next time I see them.  Lots of them will totally forget me very soon, but some are still excited to see me for years afterwards around the school and if I happen to see them outside of school somewhere.  It's bittersweet to say goodbye and hope their lives turn out to be wonderful!  

Happy Mother's Day 2024

 We had planned to go to California for a Broadbent family reunion, but then I realized it was on Mother's Day weekend and it just didn't seem right to go and leave Anna Lou here without someone to wish her a happy Mother's Day.  So, we didn't go.  Then after all was canceled, Ross and Lerlyn decided to come over and surprise her with a Mother's Day visit.  That's really great.  Maybe we would have gone if we had known, or not.  But I'm glad they came.  If they hadn't, we might have gone camping, which is usually what I say I want when Paul asks me. But instead we took a beautiful walk up at Brookside on Friday afternoon and got all of our errands and grocery shopping done on Friday morning. We took little Mother's Day gifts around to the local daughter and daughter's-in-law on Thursday evening and had fun visiting with people there!  We took our usual morning walk as well and saw beautiful hollyhocks.  We also went down to see the new statues at the Town Square.  And we took Ross and Lerlyn on a drive up to Kolob Fingers.  So, it has all turned into a very nice weekend so far and Paul is making a really delicious dinner for this afternoon.  I feel blessed to be the mother of wonderful children, and to Anna Lou for being the mother of my wonderful husband!  I feel grateful to my mom for all she did to be a wonderful mom to me!  I am truly blessed!  Got calls, texts for visits, and presents from kids! Sweet! 

 

Here's the reunion crowd that we missed seeing.  Aunt Georgia in the wheelchair is the closest thing to a mom that I have left from my mom's family.  I do feel sad that I didn't get to see all of these people.  I'm not sure there's going to be a next time with some of them.

Grand Edventure with Kai and Jem!

 This was a first time for both of these guys I think.  For sure for Jem.  We have had to pretty much give up on these edventures since the kids are all getting so busy with their grown up lives.  But these two had time and we did too, so we had a fun little adventure going to The Home Depot's Free In-Store Kids Workshop for May.  They each got to make a Mother's Day present.  We all had fun figuring it out and putting it together.  They nailed, screwed and painted their cute flower picture frame projects.  Then we went to the Dollar Store and they chose gift bags, cards and some candy for their moms (and themselves).  After that we went to Wendy's for a Frosty and some cinnabon bites.  It was fun!  Jem couldn't wait to give it to Beacher and did so as soon as he walked in the door.  It was really cute!  Kai is 6, and he could wait and his mom wasn't home when we dropped him off.  He had to take his dad to his room and show him what he had made after we left.  I think we can call that a win!  Love spending time with these kids when it can work out with their busy schedules.  

March Birthdays!

 Started the month off with Ferf's 46th birthday!  She's amazing...and considering the hell she's been through the last few years going through a divorce, and finishing the nursing program and entering the workforce, she's truly amazing.  We are so glad she's got that behind her (as much as possible) and has moved forward in good ways and is happier and healthier and blessed and going on with her life.  Happy Birthday and happy coming year Ferf.  We love you and are proud of you in so very many ways.  Praying for a great coming year for you!  She's been getting some spoiling today.  Some of her sibs took her to breakfast this morning and then we took her to a late lunch this afternoon.  Her kids are doing more for her.  They are so good to her!  

Sweet Saria turned 13 this month!  We couldn't be there for it, but got to watch her open her presents via Facetime!  What a great thing for when you can't be there in person.  Can't believe these grands are getting so grown up.  Kinda makes me sad to miss them when they were little and their lives so much less complicated.  

We went up for Joel's birthday (celebrated) #10!  It was a fun evening with yummy food as always!  He was so excited about the laser guns he got!  We laughed our heads off watching their duck chase the dog around the yard too!

April Birthdays!

 Tomorrow is actually Christie's birthday, but we didn't want to interrupt her celebrations with her family, so we took her present over last night.  She's an amazing wife and mother and daughter-in-law.  She and Moss are so willing the share their beautiful home for family gatherings and to help out whenever they can.  It has been wonderful to watch her grow into a confident, talented amazing woman from the very young girl that she was when they got married.  That goes for Moss too.  They have both grown up and bloomed into the great people they are now!  Happy # 36 Christie!  You are amazing and we love you!