sleep....

So it's summer, which means staying up late to enjoy those cool evening hours, and slowly crawling out of bed far into the morning. Well, that's what it means to MOST people...but me - not so much.

You see, Art is working a new schedule - his day starts at 6 AM and he works until 4:30, Monday-Thursday; then on Friday he works from 6-3:30; and on Saturday he works from 6-11:30... And with a 30 minute drive to work...that means we're all up at 5 - every day (and I mean every day, because by Sunday, my body and my dogs are so used to getting up at 5, that's what time we get up.)
I really don't have a problem with the morning - I'm an early bird. I function at 5 AM, however, I do not function at 9 PM, and this schedule is making it truer than ever.
Proof in point, last night we crawled in bed, cozied up in the blankies, shut all the blinds...and the room still sparkled with sunlight. As I got back up to find a way to block the light beating through the bathroom window, I glanced out to see that shining golden orb far from the horizon, over the fence the neighbor boy was mowing the lawn, out behind us the neighbor kids were busily scrambling up the ladder and going down their slide, a family rode by on their bikes, a few teenagers went skating past laughing, the world was still on the move, and we, well, I, was climbing in bed to join my already soundly sleeping husband....it was 8:30, and the young married couple with no children were off to sleep.

Sustainable Arts

I have spent the week at a class at the University of Utah called, "Sustainable Arts". I signed up for the Arts portion but was so fascinated by sustainable end of it, I was sucked in. We danced, painted, acted, and sang about the importance of saving the earth, and the principals of sustainability.

I have to say that it was kind of hard to find the motivation to get up and drive across the valley every day, but it was so worth it! Yesterday was our culminating project where we all taught an earth friendly mission that included all 4 art forms. It was so interesting to watch how these complicated concepts became simplified for kids and moved in such a creative way. We danced and moved for 7 straight hours yesterday, it was exhausting, but so incredible all at the same time. We began and ended with this song called "Save the Earth", which was beautifully sung by our Drama Chair, and danced by us!! Imagine 30 grown women, dancing, singing, and moving this song - and when it was over we all cheered, "Let's do it again! do it again!!"
The Arts work.

(Video will be posted later, when we get the DVD of our work.)

Summer Boredom = More Blogging....

Well, at least that's the idea of summer boredom, and it is working for Jamie!

So it's been rainy, in case you haven't noticed, quite rainy.

Art has a couple of days off because he's starting a new job on Tuesday, we were going to go backpacking in the Uinta's, but it's rainy, quite rainy.

So we've been filling time around the house, pretending we're on vacation. Yesterday began with a trip to the temple, then I came home to walk the dogs, but it was rainy. So errands came next, and then we ate lunch, and alas - a break in the clouds!

(Not actual break in the clouds)

So we threw on our walking shoes, leashed up the dogs, and headed to the park. As we walked over, we noticed the dark skies building in the west, casually mentioned that it might be a short walk. Half way around the park - it began to sprinkle, we decided we better turn around; walked three steps - it began to rain; started to run - it began to pour; ran much faster - it started to hail!

(Not actual hail storm - but in my clouded vision, this is what it looked like, only wetter!)

Lulu does not like being wet, especially when it's by torrent bullets of hail and drowning rain. So when we ran, she seriously ran (while simultaneously wiping her face with her paws -very talented dog). We ran from tree to tree trying to get a short reprieve from the intense water. Let me just say, by the time we got back around the park, we were soaked - water sloshing in the tennis shoes soaked. Nothing like running in soaking wet jeans with a panicked dog. It was fun! We finally made it home, left the dogs in the carport, went in and stripped off our dripping clothes. We toweled off the dogs, then put on some dry clothes.

(Not actual wet dogs - ours are much cuter!)

Art was standing in the front door watching the rain STILL pouring down, when he noticed the small lake building in front of the neighbors house. Then he noticed the neighbors son out trying to unclog the storm drain as the water rushed down their driveway. Art hollered, "We have to go help the Thompson's" and was off into the rain. I pulled on the dripping wet jeans (not easy to do...) grabbed the big push broom and headed out. The neighbors were madly pushing water away from their garage, and attempting to unclog drains all the way down the street. That's when Art noticed the neighbor two house in the other direction had a LARGE lake in front of their house. We ran down and began pushing water away. The water was 6-8" in front of their garage, had filled an entire window well and made a lake around the front door. Art went to unclogging the drain (which was covered in a piece of cardboard someone had neglected to throw away properly!) I began pushing water away from the house. Rain water is cold - very cold. I had on Keen's - my toes were frozen!! But I just kept pushing. Finally the rain started to let up and so we could get ahead of the water. It took about 45 minutes to push the water away from their house. Then we went inside, where they had several inches of water covering the entire basement! We rounded up some ward members and pushed water, and emptied the basement, and sucked a lot of water up. Art got on the phone to Sandy City, on behalf of the neighbor and entire block, and expressed our concerns. They were there in minutes with 10 guys, a truck of sandbags, and a very nice city worker. They sandbagged the neighbors, then we had them do us (we have a very nice finished basement that we don't want covered in water-this rain is going to last another week! (I'm not complaining, just preparing)) About three hours later we finally came home, dried off, and enjoyed the rest of the day inside, because, alas, it was rainy, quite rainy.

(The sun is shining this morning, I better stop blogging and go walk the dogs - you never know when it might rain again!)

Ahhhh Summer...

Take the aforementioned "Ahhhh" in a variety of ways to interpret my feelings on summer:

• "Ahhhh", as in the refreshing moment of realizing I have no school chores to get done before the sun comes up.
• "Ahhhh", as in the terrifying scream knowing it's just going to get hot.
• "Ahhhh", as in the questionable shrug I give as response when people ask what I'm going to do to fill the time.
• "Ahhhh", preceeding a giant "Yes!" because the freedom has come.

If you were trying to guess which one of these isn't true, unfortunately it is the last. I'm not good at summer. I hate to say it, because it seems so wrong, but I just can't stand not being busy! Usually I am fine during the summer because I have a lot of projects to keep me going (painting, building, flower beds, trimwork, you know - projects!). Last year I was finishing my Dance Endorsement so I took classes all summer. I've even looked into getting a job - but in this market, and I do have some classes and vacations that screw up the schedule. So what to do this summer...house is pretty much done, except for big expensive projects; classes got expensive this year, and the district doesn't have money to help fund, so I am now dreading filling the long days. I have some plans...walking the dogs a lot, hiking with my friends once a week, finishing my drama endorsement, writing, reading, keeping the house and yard nice, learning to bake delicious bread and well, that's all I got.

So here I sit, the first day of summer, got up at 5:30 (my four-legged alarm clock apparently didn't get the memo about sleeping in during the summer). And already, I'm bored. So I guess I'll put on my grubbies and go getting the weeding done, so I can mow at 8 and then come in and clean the house...(I considered putting it off until Monday so I would have "plans" but then what would I do today...) What a glorious start to summer...I guess I'll have cake for breakfast, that will have to suffice.

Our 5th Grade Play...

Well, another play is done, and thus I know the year is almost over. It has become a tradition to do a 5th grade play at the end of each year that puts together all that we have learned in some creative culminating way. This year I was dissuaded from doing "another one" - not by my team, but by those who didn't want me to work hard, and others who didn't want toes stepped on - but I couldn't resist. Even with our goofy bunch of kids, I knew they needed the chance to shine. So I looked at the dances they've learned and songs they love to sing and put together a show called "eMTV". It was basically the story of the kids breaking into the Faculty Room and discovering the teachers have a TV. They question what the teachers would possible watch, and then bravely turn in on. They then watch a series of videos that miraculously make them smarter. Some of the 'videos' were live, and consisted of kids dancing and narrating their learning experience. Other videos were actual music videos created and performed by the students themselves (I did the video editting - they're not that patient). At the end they realize they are watching "eMTV", what's that 'e' stand for? Educational, of course!!!

The show came together beautifully and the kids were quite adorable. One of the reasons I always push to do these plays is because of they change I see in kids as they perform. Our naughtiest boys volunteered to be in an extra dance because they saw the joy in being on stage. They were all so proud of themselves and excited to shine.

The show was very well recieved and we may even do an encore show in a couple of weeks so the rest of the school, and a few more visitors can come.

(Uneditted, and it cuts off the wonderful ending!!)

When I watch faces light up, wiggly bodies hold still, shy voices bellow out, timid dancers explode, and kids shine proudly - it's worth all the effort.

Lucky Lilac's Day

It's a little shaky - but that's because I had to use Highspeed to get all the fun in!

Lucky Lilacs truly is my favorite holiday, and when I tell people that, they look at me really funny!!!

In need of an update...

I need to update, but frankly life is pretty boring these days...I'll try a bulleted list to add excitement!

• We got a new computer! We've been struggling to share the laptop, so we decided to use part of the tax return for a nice desktop, it's pretty sweet - sitting over there on the desk - all shiny and new - while I sit here using the old laptop, I''ll get my turn!
• The house is still for sale...know anyone that is looking? Send them our way!
• Our fifth grade informance (it''s a fancy made up word that means a performance that shows we're learning something!) Anyhow, our informance is coming up in 2 weeks and most grades just dance a dance and call it good. Somehow I always seem to end of writing a play for ours, (how does that happen?) I always have fun coming up with lines and connections between curriculum, dance and song. This year our group is a little 'different' so I wasn't sure we could handle a full live performance so I wrote a script that involved making music videos with each of the classes. This week each class made their first video, have to say, they turned out so cute! I got to take each class and spend an hour taking their ideas and a favorite song and making eMTV (that's educational Music TeleVision). This week we are filming the second videos so we'll be ready for our show next week. I'm feeling hopeful and excited because not only are our videos cute but my class gets to dance my two favorite choreographers and they do it so well!
• Tomorrow is a big event, Rudy will be turning 1!!! I only know this because a year ago today I tried to take a very pregnant Lulu to the park for a walk, she got half way around and just couldn't go any farther. We came home and I knew puppies were pending. I spent the night with her as she labored, (Even dogs need a Dula) She was pretty miserable all night and so neither of us slept too well as she stirred and nested and fussed. By 9 when Art was headed off to teach primary she was in the heat of labor. About 9:30 she got up and started turning around, I sat by her and gave her pets, the next time she turned around out popped puppy #1. I helped her clean off the first puppy, she and I were both a little nervous, and about 10 minutes later she had puppy #2. I had Heidi come up after #2 to assist in birthing because I was nervous without Art home yet, Roxy got to watch a puppy be born which was pretty cool. It took until about 4 in the afternoon for all 9 babies to be born. (5 girls and 4 boys)... The cutest one of all was our Rudy, who is now a big loving loud-mouthed goof!
• 
• It's bed time - I think that's enough excitement.... (I'll be sure to post pictures from his One-Year-Old party with all his doggie friends - ok, I'm kidding, I'm not that nuts...I think I'll just steal him a tennis ball from school...)