I'm a teacher

I'm the eleven and twelve year old teacher in my ward now.  My class consists of seven boys and one girl.  What is it inside 11 and 12 year olds that compels them to be SO goofy??  The blatant sarcasm, taking the literal meaning of everything, the "I'm not touching you."  What is it?  I love my class but I look at them and go "Was I ever that rediculous?"  

Answer: Yes, and then some! 

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Recycling... reusing... conserving...

Just a thought:  If I try to conserve water I kill trees.  If I try to recycle I waste water, and if I try to reuse I still create waste and waste water.  This is something I have been thinking about all week. 

 Example #1:  I buy paper plates to conserve water and because I don't like doing dishes.  Paper plates do come from trees but a good percentage on the market are made from recycled paper.  I do buy dixie for special occasions though:)   So we use the paper plates, then throw them away.  Upside, I'm not rinsing dishes and running the dishwasher as much, thus conserving water.  Down side I am adding to the land fills and killing trees.  Hmmmmmmmmmmmmmm.  Which is better?

 Example #2:  I am trying to recycle all that I can.  Cereal boxes, pasta sauce jars, apple sauce jars, milk jugs etc.  That means I need to rinse out the containers and tin cans BEFORE I recycle them.  Did you know that it is necessary to do so?  Upside, I am doing my part and trying to save the planet one can at a time.  Down side, water is too precious to loose.  Our reservoirs are at 25% capacity right now and we are in our third year of drought.  They are threatening to ration water in SD.  I'm torn.

Example #3: I like to reuse plastic grocery bags for liners in the bathroom trash cans, holding wet clothes, and carrying other items.  What happens after they are reused???  They still wind up in the trash or I try to rinse them an use them again.  Thus, killing the planet or wasting water.  Do you know how long it takes for one of those plastic grocery bags to break down?  It can take hundreds of years for a bag to fully decompose.  See the article here.  I was watching Wall-E with my kids one day.  In the beginning when he is on earth and the wind kicks up you see what almost looks like sea gulls flying and fluttering around.  They aren't sea gulls my friends they are plastic BAGS!  

So what am I to do?  Maybe I shouldn't think so deeply about little things like this.  

 

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Here Birdie, birdie, birdie!

Ollie, just like any other boy loves to play in water.  We were at Jesse's mom's house about a month ago.  She loves all animals, including birds.  She has a few bird feeders and a bird bath for the wild ones around her place.  Wellllllll, Ollie just couldn't resist trying out their bird bath.  It was, after all, just cleaned and full of cool refreshing water.  It started with splashing with the hands and progressed to.... 

THIS!  If it's good enough for the birds it's good enough for Ollie:)

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Yes, I still miss you...

Some years are easier than others.  There are times when Valentine's Day flies right by and I don't think about you.  This year is not one of those years.  It is hard to mourn during the day of love.  My day of memorial and silent grief is interrupted by hearts, happiness, and public displays of affection.  I know it's not your fault.  I woke up yesterday morning with a song of sadness in my head that wouldn't go away.  My heart hung heavy as I trudge through the day knowing that tomorrow was coming.  There were several times that I just needed a hug.  Today was hard.  I lay in bed with that sad sound track in my head just wanting to roll over and go back to sleep.  Wishing to wallow in my sadness for a moment... as little children pulled on my covers and requested breakfast.  After fixing breakfast Frank and I had a sweet discussion about prayers and being able to pray for whatever you needed.  He needed to find part of a toy that was lost.  Thinking about prayer and how the Lord does bless us with what we need had me swallowing tears.  "It's ok mommy," Frankie said "you're alright."  Oh my sweet boy.  He is beginning to understand who you are.  I want him to know his name sake and I do the best I can to teach him.  I am so lucky to have had you in my life.  You taught me hard work.  The Barbecue Pit was a right of passage.  We were expected to do a job at age 12 and it paved our way into the working world.  You helped me to see that giving your best is what is expected and all that is required.  You bullied me into laughing at myself:)  R.O.P, Rachel out of Place was probably your favorite phrase to use at work when I was slacking.  I know I was your favorite to tease.  You showed me that having a sense of humor is a gift and not one that everyone possesses.  You gave me my love for music and showed me how a prayer of song reaches deeper into the soul.  Without music I would never have learned how to express the depth of my feelings.  You taught me gospel principles.  Jesus Christ is the firm foundation on which I stand.  Thank you, thank you for what I have.  There will always be a wish for more time or things gone unsaid but I am grateful for what was.  I still remember the last time you told me I was beautiful.  I was in your hospital room, just you and me.  You reached out a shaking hand to me and asked me to take off my mask.  You were still so unstable I was afraid of infecting you.  You insisted, and I removed the mask from my nose and mouth.  "You're so beautiful," you sighed as I turned a shade of red, "I have the most beautiful girls."  We both began to weep.  It was a moment I'll remember forever.  I know you look in on me from time to time.  I know you watch over us while Jesse is away.  I know that you love us, that you didn't want to leave us but had to go.  I know I will see you again... I know all that but I still miss you.  I love you Dad.

Love,

  Rachel  

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Fa, Faa, Faa, Flammin'!!!

Yes folks!  Here is my new riding helmet.  Jesse, my wonderful husband, asked me what kind of helmet I wanted.  I told him purple with ghost flames and whad up?!?!?!  He learned how to do ghost flames. He sanded down my old helmet and gave it a sweet paint job.  I still get high when I put it on from the paint fumes but it's starting to air out:)  Our friend Angela was so impressed with the paint job she asked Jesse to put flames on her kitchen aid.  Check it out!

Anything coming from this mixer is going to be hot!  HA, ha, ha, ha, ha!!!

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Funny Pictures

Kids are funny.... really funny.

New definition of a "juice bar"

Future Bikers

A cheaper way to travel.

Just few from the archives to keep ya'll smilin'.

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Is it Chemisty???

Seriously, Jesse and I just attract emergency situations.  We went on a date last night.  First to dinner and then a night cruise on the motorcycle.  Let me just say, chaps ROCK!!  I got mine last night and it made the ride so much more enjoyable.  Anyway, we cruised up a fun windy road on the reservation where Jesse works and just took in the stars.  It was so fun. On the way back we stopped by a gas station.  As we were filling up the bike we heard a clanking noise coming our way.  We looked to see what it was and saw a small sedan pulling into the gas station that sounded like it needed 5 quarts of oil.  The vehicle pulled up to an air and water station and the driver emerged.  A woman in black, from shirt to high heeled boots, stepped out of the car.  She hugged a thin tan sweater around her and within two steps almost face planted on the concrete.  Obviously drunk as a skunk, she swayed and wobbled her way to the convenient shop.

" Um, I don't think she should be driving," I said nodding over to her acrobatic attempt to step onto the curb.

" I'll have the store call tribal enforcement," Jesse sighed, throwing his gloves into his helmet as he walked away.

Ok, crisis averted right?  Tribal enforcement can take care of a lady too drunk to drive... only if she stays there until they get there.

The woman was slurringly asking anyone for help with her tire.  Jesse figures that changing it would stall her long enough for the "authorities" so he tells her that he will help her change her spare.  They walk over to the car and there is no tire to change!  The front tire is ripped off and the whole front side is streaked with paint barren scrapes!  That clanking noise we heard was her riding in on her rim.  

"Oh!" she exclaims, "somebody must have hit me."  RED FLAG!!  She doesn't even recall HOW the front tire came to non-existence.  Jesse takes the keys out of her hands and tells her she's not going anywhere and that the police are on their way.  She starts to argue with him saying she's fine, yadda, yadda, just had a few sleeping pills, yadda, yadda.  I decide to leave the bike to help because she starts to grab at Jesse and fight for her keys.  

"You touch me again and I will lay you on the ground, now sit down." Jesse says as he plants her on the curb.  She sulks for a moment then says she wants to sit in her car. 

  What the freak, where is tribal enforcement so I can go home?  You are totally ruining my date, chick! 

 She gets up and I tell her Jesse is serious.  She insists she needs to get to her car.  So we escort her to her car so she'll sit quietly.  She reaches in and grabs a 20 oz glass out of a cup holder  brimming with wine and dumps it onto the asphalt.  She rolls the cup under the car and then looks around like "I didn't do it.".  Yea, didn't see that honey.

Our sotally tober driver sits quietly for about thirty seconds when she decides to try to get her keys again.  She begs "Please, my children, I need to go to my children."

  Jesse stiff arms her once to put her in the seat.  She gets up again, drunks just don't get it, and Jesse takes her to the ground.  That is considered citizens arrest so now we are stuck there until CHP shows up.  LAME!!!  Anyway, we finally got to go home after two tribal enforcement cars, two sheriff cars, and one CHP car are on scene Oh and a partridge in a pear tree.  I guess it was better to meet up with her in the parking lot than have someone else meet her car on that windy road.  Just a recap in 2009 alone we have stop for a guy with a dislocated shoulder and had to citizen arrest a woman loaded with sleeping pills and alcohol.  Maybe I should start keeping a tally.

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