Sorry Mrs. Nielson

I substitute taught a 4th grade class today. Everything started out okay, but I quickly learned that there were a few students who have some behavior issues. I knew I wasn't too off base because they were the same students whose desks were around the outside of the room by themselves facing walls and the chalkboard. There was a great teacher across the hall from my classroom. When she heard me telling my students to be quiet while they were lining up to go to an assembly, came over and proceeded to tell them they owed me an apology and that they would be "SO SORRY" if their behavior didn't improve (that reminded me of my mom when we used to misbehave). Clearly most of the students knew not to mess with her. But there were still those five students who continued to test me throughout the rest of the day. I didn't feel so bad about my substitute teaching skills when they came out of Art class and the teacher there handed me a bad behavior card for the same students I had been having issues with all day. I told them they would be staying in from recess with the teacher across the hall. While I took kids from both classes to recess, they stayed in with her. When we returned, the five students all handed me their apology letters. They were hilarious. Here are some of my favorite quotes:

"Dear Miss Nielsen, I'm sorry I've been very bad and all by acting crazy and talking and making noise. I could've been better since I'm not as bad when Mr. Pedersen is hear."

"Dear Mrs. Neilson, I am sorry that I agravated you today. I was wrong because people shouldn't treat anyone like that. I could made a better choice by doing my work."

One student began her letter by saying sorry, and then this is how it ended:

"Next time you be our sub or we get any other sub I will be much better, and like I said "I am sorry.""

But the best letter by far was from a girl named Savannah who just decided to confess everything right at the end.

It was actually worth dealing with these kids just to get these letters from them. After all, it was just for one day...thank goodness.

Worry In America

Tonight Tanner and I watched a great show. It was a 20/20 program special called "Scared Stiff: Worry In America". Some of the things we had heard before like:

Children who grow up on farms have fewer illnesses than children who live in cleaner, sterile environments.

AND...

The rate of kidnappings has stayed constant over the last 20 years.

But we learned some other very interesting information that we did NOT know. Did YOU know:

Vaccines do NOT cause Autism. The seeming increase in the rate of Autism is the result of changes in diagnoses. The diagnosis rate of Retardation has fallen at almost the exact same rate as the increase of Autism diagnoses.

Since medicines have been required to have safety caps on them, there have been an average of 3,500 more accidental poisonings reported every year. The reason cited is because people assume they are safe and leave them in areas that are accessible to children, or some people leave them open because they are too difficult to reopen.

Children are more likely to die at a house with a pool than at a house that has a gun in it.

Cellular phones to not cause tumors.
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In fact, we have a lot of reasons NOT to worry:

2/3 of Americans who are diagnosed with cancer today are cured.

Infant mortality is 1/4 of what it was 50 years ago.

We are living an average of 30 years longer than they did at the turn of the last century.

Pollution in major cities and major waterways is the lowest it has been in the last 100 years. (I was SHOCKED by this one).

Our drinking water is the cleanest it has ever been.

In other words, life IS GOOD.

The Polka Dot Ball

Clark LOVES balls. He loves to throw them, roll them, and carry them around. I decided he needed a ball that he could really throw around the apartment that wouldn't garner expletives from the man living below us. When we were at the store today, I saw the classic wire cage filled with cheap, albeit not cheaply priced, plastic balls. I was immediately taken back to the days when we used to BEG my mother for one of those balls EVERY time we went to the grocery store. The minute Clark saw it, he was in love. He started bouncing up and down in the cart. I pulled out a few and asked him which one he wanted. He immediately went for the red and white polka dot ball. He has barely let it leave his sight since we bought it. Unfortunately I made the mistake of getting the ball at the beginning of our shopping trip (I know all of you experienced mothers out there just let out a big GROAN). He whined for it, and when I handed it to him, thinking that he would just sit quietly and hold it in his lap, he chucked it right out of the cart. He would giggle, and then start whining again that he wanted it. I put a stop to this very quickly, but it resulted in a somewhat whiney child until I filled the cart up with enough groceries to effectively hide the ball. After we got home, we played outside and Clark was just adorable. Tonight, he even caught the ball with no help 3 times! That ball is worth EVERY PENNY I spent and more.

Happy 30th!

Happy Birthday Trish! Even though you have to say goodbye to your 20s, I am sure your 30s will be just as good to you as you have said your 20s have been. I guess it is one of the blessings and curses of being the oldest. You always reach the milestones first! You must have been a great oldest sister because I always remember wanting to do whatever you did, listen to whatever you listened to, and wear whatever you were wearing. You were so cool, that even when you wanted to run away and were packing your bags, I remember standing there watching you thinking "Wow, she is SO COOL! She is running away!"

Even in the picture above, I was probably singing to try to show you that I could be a good singer just like you always were! I remember going to your modeling and dance shows and thinking you were some kind of celebrity. You were the epitome of style. Just don't look at the slippers in the photo below.



You have been such a supportive sister, from discussing my college major to what I should do about my boyfriends. You even cleaned up my throw-up after I ate 6 Tootsie Roll Pops on my birthday! That took serious sisterly love on your part.


I know we joke around now about how I was such a jerk when you got married, but you know that the real reason why I wasn't a fan of Dan was because I knew it meant you were moving on from our family and wanted to have your own. I think I only stopped mourning your loss when I got married!


From helping diagnose my child's illnesses, to helping me with my taxes, you continue to be an awesome older sister. Plain and simple, even at 30...you still da bomb!

Family Search Indexing

When we were in Utah in January, I was having a conversation with my Brother-in-law Heath. Heath is a Family Historian extraordinaire. He is so good that he gets paid for helping the church find new and improved ways to do Family History. I was lamenting the fact that at my stage in life, I just don't have the time or resources to do what needs to be done with my family history, but that I feel guilty for doing nothing. He told me about FamilySearch Indexing. The church has set up a site where you can, from the comfort of your own home, transcribe census records into the church indexing database. I was so excited! They have scanned in the images of the original records, and then you just punch in the information right into corresponding fields. I signed up last night, got my registration approved today, and I transcribed my first batch tonight after Clark went to bed and Tanner was playing basketball. It was names from the 1900 census in Chicago, Illinois. As I was doing it, I kept having memory flashbacks of watching my mom in a small room in the Crawley Chapel in England transcribing census records into a computer from an already transcribed paper version of the record. It is amazing how far technology has come...and from some of the things Heath has told me, it is only going to get more amazing. I forgot how much I love doing Family History, even when it isn't my own personal family lines. In the batch I did tonight, most were families that had emigrated from Russia and Romania to the United States and then settled in Chicago. I love thinking and imagining what their lives must have been like. There is so much you can learn from just names, dates, and places. I love it!

HAPPY VALENTINE'S DAY

All Clark knows after today is:

Valentine's Day = Cooooooooookies

For ONCE, my sugar cookies turned out decent! We also avoided a Valentine's day disaster when Tanner dropped Clark and I off at the house with my keys in the ignition. I realized right after he drove away that I didn't have my keys. Picture me, Clark on my hip, running wildly down the road, yelling at the top of my lungs TAAAAAAAAAANNER! He didn't see or hear me...which should be shocking to those of you who know how loud I can be. Clark had no coat and no shoes on. He was loving it...seriously, that kid loves the cold. We started walking toward Farmfresh (grocery store) to call a family member to have them email Tanner and have him come home and rescue us. On the way, I realized that having a cell phone is evil because I have started to forget all my family member's phone numbers because they are all on speed dial on my phone. Then I started to think about having to go into the grocery store and ask if they had a pay phone somewhere. A PAYPHONE!!!! I could just imagine the looks of disdain on other people's faces! Maybe someone would have mercy on me and let me borrow their cell phone. My stream of consciousness was interrupted when I saw Tanner coming back down the road, to rescue us. We hopped in the car (Clark must have thought this was a very fun game). He took us back to the apartment and we got the key situation sorted. When Tanner got home after school tonight, he brought me a purple daisy plant that hopefully I can keep alive! I had a big 'ol steak dinner waiting and sugar cookies! What more could a man want? Just ask Clark!

Moooooore Cooooookies

Elevation

Clark loves to stand on things. Sometimes he stands on things because it makes him higher and he can see things he isn't able to from normal elevation. Sometimes he stands on things because he likes the different feeling on his feet. And sometimes I think he stands on things because he just likes to try it out to see what happens.


And sometimes, he goes to stand on something, but he ends up standing IN something.

Flower Project

While we were visiting my parents in Florida for Christmas, my mom and I went shopping one day. We found some very cute flower holders for decoration. I bought one for me and one for my friend Jenn. We love doing our crafty projects together. She helps me WAY more than I help her that's for sure. We went to the Williamsburg Pottery and picked out our flowers we wanted to use. Jenn helped me a lot in figuring out how to structure my flowers. It helps that she worked in a flower shop for a year! We had a great time, and here is my finished product, which is now hanging in my living room. I love it...I think it might be my favorite craft project I have done so far.

Jenn's turned out really cute as well!

Playtime

Lately it seems that Clark has been going through a major developmental phase. He is interacting and responding a lot more. It has been so much fun for us as parents to watch all of his new developments. We were at our friends' house last week and their son kept taking Clark's toys away from him. Finally, Clark began turning and booking it over to where Tanner and I were sitting before the other little boy could take his toys away from him again. He wedged himself between the two of us. Tanner called it his home base. It was so cute to watch. Last night I was cleaning our bedroom, and Clark was buzzing around the room looking for things to get into. First he pulled out Tanner shoes and put one of them on. I saw this and helped him with the other one, and then of course he had to attempt to walk out of the room in them.





Later, I saw him pick up our trash bin and carry it out of the room. I heard him dumping the liner out in the hallway (which I was okay with because I had just dumped the trash, so there was nothing in the liner). I didn't hear Clark for a few minutes, and I have decided that when you don't hear a child for a few minutes, they are either making a HUGE mess, or doing something really cute. Luckily, when I peeked my head around the corner to check on him, it was the latter.

He had created his own little stage for his farm animals. When he placed the last of the farm animals inside, he looked up at me and starting clapping wildly with a big 'ol grin on his face. To which I also started clapping wildly and giving him much praise and accolades.

When Tanner got home and saw what he had done, we talked about it and decided he is a very smart boy (as if no OTHER parent thinks that about their own child).

Weekend in Washington

This weekend, we went to Washington, D.C. to visit Tanner's old mission companion and his wife and to go to the temple. On Friday, we went up and each did a session while the other played with Clark in the visitor's center. Clark was happy to sit in the faux house and watch lds commercials on a couch. We spent the evening catching up with our friends Corey and Eileen, and on Saturday, we all decided to see the National Portrait Gallery. We almost gave up and didn't go when we couldn't find parking, but at the last minute, we got a spot right across the street! We really enjoyed it, and after reading about Mark Twain and Walt Whitman, it made me want to read all of their published works!

The Crash

Last week, Tanner's laptop crashed. With help from his brother and the campus IT department, the diagnosis was grim. The hard drive was completely inoperable. The good news is that we just needed to get a new hard drive, not a new computer. We were very lucky because we had backed up all of our pictures and videos two months prior and everything since then was still on our camera. I told Tanner if we had not of done that, I would be absolutely devastated right now. When we went to buy a new internal hard drive, we decided also to invest in an external hard drive to backup all of our stuff. I was surprised at how affordable it was. We bought a 160GB drive for $58. It is definitely worth it ... I now sleep better at night, AND I get to say goodbye to storing a bunch of backup CDs. I am happy to be back blogging again!