Clean and White and back breaking!

Our first snowfall of the season. Thank goodness Jeff bought a new attachment for the riding lawn mower. It worked great and helped cut down on the hand shoveling!

You can't make this stuff up!

Yesterday in my Sunday School Class of 6 year olds:

Me: Ok kids.... in talking about the Restoration, we now have restored on the earth the two priesthoods- the Aaronic Priesthood and.............
CA (with enthusiasm): The Mechanical Priesthood!!!

Triplets in my backyard!

Two days ago, at noon, as I was looking out my bedroom window I saw three fawns! It was a remarkable sight. They enjoyed feeding on a mulberry bush by the pond.

They Got It!!

Today in my Primary class we talked about gratitude and blessings. And every time the kids said something that they were grateful for, they put a spoonful of water in a cup. Well James was getting nervous as the cup was filling up fast. He was very worried and said '"The cup is going to overflow!" I saw the lights go on in Claire A's eyes and she said "Our blessings are overflowing!"

I came home from work tonight and look what I found in our pond.......a mama duck with nine little ducklings. They are so cute, I hope they stick around for awhile!

Perceptions of a 5 year old spoken this morning!

Five year old daughter: Mom, I think Grandma is going to give me the most presents for my birthday.
Mom: Why do you think that?
Daughter: Because Grandma has more money.
Mom: But what about Grandpa, doesn't he have just as much money as Grandma?
Daughter: Well, Grandma has two jobs and Grandpa only has one job....Grandma has home and work and Grandpa just has work!

Wild and Wonderful!!

So yesterday at church ,my class was their normal wild selves. Fidgety, talking to each other and completely ignoring me. Then in closing exercises, one of my kids says "Sister Anderson, you are easy to love!"
Ahhhhh, all worth it!!

Yesterday we discovered that a boy, who had just finished his karate class next door, pushed over a small heart shaped monument and it casued a domino effect and knocked over 24 monuments ...all damaged..and with a retail price of about $48,000.! We were grateful no one was hurt, but were still feeling sorry for ourselves! Jeff was emailing a friend in California and told him of our misfortune, and....today, less than 24 hours after telling our friend, this scruptious gift was delivered to our home from California...and as you can see we ate two of the covered strawberries before I could get a picture!

The Marriage Plans of a Five Year Old.

Today in my Primary Class we were talking about how one of our members, Jacob, will be moving out West at the end of the school year with his parents. He was very excited that his mom was heading out first. He said with those huge excited blue eyes " And when my mom is gone I get to sleep with my dad every night!" I thought that was pretty cute....and then out of the blue, he continued talking and said "And I am still going to marry Abigail!"

'All is Well'

In the evening, when we are settling down from a busy day, my high school sweetheart strums on the guitar. I am someplace else in the house but I can hear and it is always a comforting feeling and I think 'all is well'.
One of my kids says she remembers that feeling too and it was always soothing to her as a child.

On a cute side note: little CA was over our house one day and I asked her to please go to the living room and get something for me and she looked at my with a puzzled look on her face and said "You mean the music room?" So now we have a music room, ....... lost a living room but I'll take the trade!

AGONIZING!

My service club, Zonta International, offers scholarships. I am one of the judges at the district level. That means I am reading and rereading applications from high school senior girls from Missouri, the Dakota's and Minnecota......and.....it is agonizing!! These girls are amazing!!
The scholarship is based on service to their community and their awareness of women's issues in the United States and the World. These kids are so outstanding in how much they do and how they think.....what the heck was I doing during my high school years!!

Life is good as a Primary Teacher

Today in Primary with my kindergarten age kids nothing crazy happened...but just the usual wonderful precious stuff...such a tribute to the kind of parents these kids are lucky to have.
I wish all children in the world had parents like my little ones have.

My own luxurious room!

This is the very new and very modern hotel room I stayed at this weekend. It is located near Chicago O'Hare Airport. The bathroom was so cool. And the bed aaaahhhh it was wonderful!

I am one of the VP's of our trade association and I was there for a board meeting. Our meeting on Saturday went from 7:30am to 6pm! I am new on the board and so it was all very interesting to me. Jeff was President of this organization in 1994, so I guess its my turn! It was interesting to kiss him goodbye in Austin and ME head to the meeting!

I am the only woman on the board, which makes it kind of fun! The board has members from Quebec, Oregon, Washington, Mississippi, Kansas, Ohio, Vermont, Florida, and Minnesota.

TRUE LOVE!!

As I was looking out my kitchen window I saw a male cardinal in the flower pot/bird feeder.
Then he flew up to a branch in the tree and there was his mate. And he fed her. He did this many times, back and forth, back and forth, back and forth. After she was full then he fed himself.
What a MAN! He was keeping her up 'on a pedestal' out of harms way. He was providing and protecting and taking care of her!

The Rosa Saga, part 2

Ok, so yesterday, in Primary Sharing Time, the music leader asked my little Rosa something...and I blurted out "Her name is not Rosa its Yajaira (pronounced a-hide-a). And mind you, I had previously had her write down her name for me so I would know for sure what to call her, and she wrote YAJAIRA!
And the Music Leader said, "Really, I thought it was Rosa." to which Yajaira said, "My name is Rosa"!
So again I have been calling that little girl by the wrong name!!
I told my mother and she had this story:
When my mom, Pauline, was 7 she moved with her family from small town Ticonderoga, New York to big city Albany, New York. She was painfully shy, really, really shy and when she started at the new school somehow the teacher got her name mixed up and the teacher called her Virginia. Pauline was too shy to correct the teacher and so everyone called her Virginia. When it came time to turn in her work she always got disciplined for not writing her name on the top of the paper, but this poor little 7 year old did not know how to spell Virginia!
After several weeks she finally told her mother, who told the teacher her real name. What a relief for my poor little mom, until she heard one girl in the class say "I liked the name Virginia better!"
I feel so bad for shy children, they are at the mercy of us adults!

Her first Day at the 'New School.' All Schools in her area require the children to wear uniforms: Kaki jumpers, pants, skirts or shorts. Don't you just love kindergartners!

Hilarious AND Precious!

Today in Primary one of my 5 year olds told us about her dad giving her a Father's Blessing at the start of the school year, and as she is telling us, her eyes start to water and two big beautiful tears slowly rolled down her angelic face.

These children are incredible and I can barely stand to wait until the next Sunday to see them.

Thses kids are hilarious!!

I teach Primary to the 5 year olds at my church, and they are hilarious with some of the things they say!
Here are a few of the things that they said that make me chuckle in the middle of the night!

Event #1:
Me: Who would like to give the opening prayer?
P: I will! Heavenly Father, thank you for the.....then he proceeded to list about 10 xbox games, (I don't even know if what I just said was right..xbox??) Anyway back to the story... and Heavenly Father thank you that I am better at the games than B. (Now mind you, little B was sitting 2 seats down from him and I yanked open my eyes to look at B and he was looking pretty sad!) and Heavenly Father I am thankful that B's older brother likes me better. Amen.

Event #2:
Me: Class, how can we get Rosa to talk? (Rosa is a beautiful little Hispanic Girl, who is very shy and just smiles at me but won't answer any questions or talk!)
J: Maybe if you called her by her name and not Rosa, then she would answer you!
Yup, the poor kid, I called her by the wrong name for months!!

Event #3:
Me: Class, what are some ways you can prepare to be ready for baptism?
C: We can Pray!
Me: Very good C, yes we can pray is an excellent answer.
C: I pray alot because I really want to swear alot!