"..... with the power of an oxen!"

: ) ... minus the zilching

today kyler crushed his size 3 oz dixie cup in one hand as he walked to the garbage can to throw it away. he smiles at me and says, "i can crush lettuce, too." : )

it was only kyler and hayden left outside and i couldn't help but laugh. hayden asked why i was laughing. if you tell them they're funny they get annoying trying to be, so i said i just liked being with them so much it made me smile... and sometimes laugh.

the choice to be grateful

well... not to be cliche or anything, but...

will is my best friend : )

he is smart AND wise, funny, a hard worker, worthily holds the Priesthood, supports me, listens to me, teaches me, is patient with me, and strives to make me happy. he willingly helps around the house, knows what i like, and has been the best weekly grocery shopping date for the last 4 (give or take : ) years.

we're excited to spend our first christmas with just us. not because we want to be away from our family, but because we're embracing the opportunity to begin our own family traditions and enjoy the simplicity of a small christmas with just our family.

though it's small and simple, we have everything we need, and i'm aiming to focus on our many, many blessings. how excellent that the Ensign's First Presidency Message this month is about gratitude! i really appreciate that it is titled "the choice to be grateful." boy, it's a choice all right! : ) while are always things i can spout off that i'm grateful for, there are more blessings that might not be realized readily... thank you President Eyring for the reminder!

http://lds.org/ensign/2011/12/the-choice-to-be-grateful?lang=eng

check it out!

i am especially grateful right now for the opportunity we have to think about and celebrate the birth of our Savior, Jesus Christ. i am also grateful for my knowledge and testimony of Him - to know that through Him we will all, too, be resurrected and live eternally, happily with our families in the presence of our loving Heavenly Father.

any hardship, heartache, or trial we may have can and will be made right through Him. if it's not ok, it's not the end. thanks, mom : )

violet red

for some reason, THE color of crayon to get at preschool is violet red. too bad they can't figure out for themselves when they've got it or not : )

sometimes they each get their own little cup with fat (for little fingers) crayons that are only in the main rainbow colors + brown and black. think like a beautiful box of crayola markers (ok, before they added pink and grey to the box). it's not really that much of a hassle to distribute, because each of the cups is a different color, and they all have a color of the day, so they match. sometimes i get tired of those little cups, or i think it might be nice for them to be able to use other colors aside from the big 8, so i just set out the baskets of regular sized crayons that come in just about every color.

once the skinny crayon baskets have come out, they start digging frantically and shouting, "hey! i have violet red!" they make sure their friends know, and then get on with their coloring. sometimes they like some validation so they'll ask me if "that says violet red." they hold it very carefully so i can read the part that says CRAYOLA or ROSEART. i usually say something like, well let me see and twist it a little so i really can read it. sometimes i can give them the confirmation they want and say, yep, you have violet red! but usually i say, nope, that just says red. they're a little disappointed, but it colors the same as it did before they asked so they usually just move on.

thanks a lot crayola, because sometimes i tell them that that have red violet. there is no difference to a 4 year old!

what else aids in their confusion? the fact that we also have violet blue and blue violet out there!

so the odds of getting a crayon with violet somewhere in the name is higher than you might think. it has lead to questions such as:

is this violet green? is this violet pink? is this violet purple? and so on.....

i'm not sure how many of them say violet. i think it's usually biolet. regardless, they REALLY want violet red. i'd rather hear about violet red than some other things we could get stuck on. i think i'm pretty lucky.

now that you know the violet red background, here is a short story:

one day they had scrambled for their crayons and while the boys are already coloring, my two girls have this discussion (not exactly the same words...this happened a few weeks ago): hey kylie do you have violet red? yeah. me too. let's see if they're the same. ok. do you have a r first? yeah. then a o? yeah. then a s? yeah then a e? yeah. then a a? yeah. then a r? yeah. then a t? yeah! we both have violet red!!!! (beside themselves with joy)

i just about died. that was one of my favorite moments. the thrill of a roseart crayon... : ) i can't stand coloring with roseart ones.

just this week carson has also adopted a love for orchid. he gets a look like he's getting an ice cream cone when i tell him he has orchid.

i hope this lasts until may : )

benefits

when i taught 2nd grade, i was getting health insurance benefits. it was great.

now that i'm teaching preschool, two states away, luckily i'm still getting benefits.

sing "it's august, it's august" to the tune of "a tisket, a tasket" to yourself. now sing it again. now sing it again. and again. and again. and about 352 more times. good. now you're starting to benefit from my benefits... : ) that line of a song, and several others have been stuck in my head for a while! that's right, i get the benefit of singing myself preschool songs all day long. i usually spare will...

i also get the benefit of hearing the cute and funny things they say. well, let's clear up one thing right now: 2nd graders are funnier than preschoolers... BY FAR : ) i didn't say 3 and 4 year olds can't be funny... just not as readily or often. i did get the benefit of hearing this yesterday, though:

while i'm working on painting someone's foot for their "about me" book, the other kids are playing. a little girl playing with doctor toys had found two spring-loaded toys (for "shots"?). she had one in each fist and was pounding them on my back, alternating. i was enjoying my little massage and, just looking to amuse myself i said something like, "thank you kylie, that's just what the doctor ordered." as i said it i was thinking to myself that it was maybe silly to have said anything because i didn't think she'd hear me (facing the other way and above all the other noise). well i don't think she understood my comment, but did hear and understand the "thank you." i know she did because then i hear "don't mention it, partner." i laughed out loud. coming from a 4 year old, it was pretty funny. i'm about to ask her if that's what she really said, and i hear, "haha, i just called miss ashley 'partner'... haha." she was cracking herself up over it... so i laughed out loud again.

there are a few other benefits, too...

preschool benefits aside, i miss 2nd grade. i miss amelia earhart. on monday i went to help clean the house of a family who is moving from the ward. i met one or two new people there. one of them didn't ask me if i had kids, she asked me how many kids i had. the first thing that came to mind to say was "zero," so i did. later, back at home i wished that instead i had told her, "24, and they're all starting 3rd grade today!" that afternoon at 2:30 (3:30 utah) i realized they were all getting out of their first day back at school. i was pretty sad. i also wore my school tshirt earlier this week... : ) i miss my little kiddies.

i learned so much in that one year and i wish i could have had another chance at it all. after a year i knew things that i loved and would do again, and i knew things that i would never do again. i'm a little jealous that ali gets that chance. maybe someday....

i went to get a zucchini from my friend the other day and saw her daughter's school papers. i saw a "book" (one sheet folded in half) called "counting with the ducks." i know that book! her daughter is in 2nd grade. that's the first book/corresponds with the first unit of the exact same math program amelia started (k-3) last year... : ) i'd recognize it anywhere. so i told her and she said, oh yeah, they have these colored papers that she brings home. i know.... : ) she was trying to find it in the stack, and i could easily spot it only seeing the corner. i found myself even missing envisions math!! : ) so as soon as all this silly subbing/credentials stuff is sorted out i'm going to make sure i can sub at banta so i can do more envisions math.... : ) woohoo

yes, we went to discovery kingdom (formerly known as marine world africa usa) last saturday. yes, we celebrated our 3rd anniversary on tuesday. and yes, we currently have a long-term scrabble game going on (free app : ) .................. so I KNOW that we need to "catch up" and post some more.. maybe even put up some pictures?! (woah, i know... : )

ps.. i ran 5.3 miles on monday, then have been prevented from running this week since (boo : ( (thanks a lot water maintenance and car woes..... and preschool? : ) well, it's really mainly because i dont' want to run when it's 90 degrees. there goes my half marathon down the drain..... just joking... hopefully back on that a sap.

that's life... : )

AND where we're going on saturday.... : )

i'm looking forward to seeing what's the same and what's different from how it used to be. though, i really doubt i remember much of how it really was back in the 90's. i only have faint, though very fond : ), memories of the good old "marine world africa usa." i love that there will be animals and shows.... and rides : )

i guess what i mostly remember is the shows... elephant, lion and tiger, seal and sea lion, dolphin, whale, water skier, chinese acrobat... wow, they had a variety! i also remember elephant rides and playing tug of war with the elephants. they always won... : )

so excited for the best kind of day with my best friend : )

pinterest confession

after "hearing" about pinterest several times i finally decided to check it out (a few weeks ago)... well, i'm a little bit hooked now : )

here's the thing... i'm not exactly doing my part contributing new ideas, i really just take from other people. fair? i have not pinned a single thing up for the first time. i only ever repin.

i like to think that by repinning i've at least passed it on... : )

i must have over 50 pins (at least) by now. how many of those things have i made/used/done? one : ) but really, i've done one! i made the strawberry lemonade bars. they were pretty good. a little on the sour side first, but then we either got used to them, or they balanced out? we took a plateful to our friends, and then put some in the freezer. they are pretty good alone, but a dob of whipped topping was pretty good with them, too.... : )

i try to limit my pinterest visits, otherwise i'd spend far too much time there.... (it's a website if you've never heard of it, no gas needed!) that's kinda why i couldn't look up exactly how many pins i have because i already was there this morning... and i can't go back for at least a few days... : )

time to pick a new pinterest project. because what's the use if i never DO any of it?!

...the world keeps spinning round and round...

this morning i ran 3.6 miles in about 37 minutes (just going off of the wrong time on my mp3 player...)

go me : )

i'd like to attribute some of my success and probably my fastest mile to this song:

(there are better quality ones on youtube, but not all of them allow embedding)

yes, i listened to it twice in a row this morning. yes, i wish i could dance like that. no, i do not condone swearing.

thanks to my brother on his mission, who introduced me to this music a few years ago. he would watch hairspray movie videos on youtube, which i didn't recognize, so i watched some with him. that was probably about 2008 (visit home before the wedding?). i didn't see it until 2009 (a los alamos-boredom-buster-$5 movie-bin-at-smith's purchase). sometime since then we've downloaded this song and have been enjoying it ever since. thanks for putting me in a good mood this morning. : )

we've got a list of dances to learn from movies, and if hairspray isn't on there, it is now. somehow zac efron usually seems to be involved.. ha : ) and when i say we, i don't mean me and will... : ) (though he is more than welcome...... : )

well folks, just livin the dream in california... whatever that means... : ) oh, i must say, a large portion of the time when i hear "tracy" (our town name) i do think of hairspray...ha... sad? 10-4

teaching love : )

warning: i don't usually write like this.

are you a teacher? were you once a teacher? are you training to become a teacher? we're talking public school teachers. everyone is a teacher in some way or capacity, which is wonderful, but right now i'm talking about public school teachers.

if you answered no to the above questions, then calm down. if you answered yes to any of the above questions, then i support, applaud, and understand much of the hard work and time you put into your job. mmmm... actually, thanks for dedicating most of your life to it.

to the person who would be a noer (you answered no), please do not think that you are going to get any other sort of degree or training and then go out to save education. please don't think your law, business, math, arts, or science degree informs you of what's going on in our public schools.

if you are a yesser (you answered yes) then you know that you had many ideas and visions of what it was like to be a teacher. then you became a teacher and discovered there's so much more to learn that one simply CANNOT understand until they have been the teacher.

noers, listen up: teachers do what they are told/asked to do. teachers don't make the laws. guess what, it's not principals either. next time you are thinking about teachers who aren't teaching enough science or arts, or using assessments that don't seem developmentally appropriate, remember that we do what we're asked - even if that means doing something we wouldn't choose or changing multiple times in the same school year. we didn't write the standards, but we are required by law to teach them. you may have ideas of what is or isn't working in our public schools. you may have ideas of new things to try. innovation and change are how we can improve, so please bring on the ideas. but remember this: until you have been the teacher, there are things you will just not understand. listen to teachers! they're the ones that have been eye-deep in authentic experiences. if you want to "save" education i invite you to obtain the proper training and credentials, then try it. i offer you my personal guarantee that you will make some new discoveries and have your eyes opened to things you did not realize before.

while on the topic, as a teacher, let me give you my suggestion. smaller class sizes. quit letting teachers go. teachers just can't be everything to everyone all of the time. not with classes so big. brand new technology isn't always the answer. i'd rather have a person teaching my child than a computer.

lastly: no, i didn't choose my major or field to attract a husband and get married or to take "the easy way out". thank you very much. do you think that major/job is easier? teachers must make it look easy because they enjoy it so much. aren't we lucky? : )

thank you, world. those things have been bothering me for a while now.

"The noblest of all professions is that of teaching, and ... upon the effectiveness of that teaching hangs the destiny of nations." - President David O. McKay

i am grateful to have the example of my Savior, Jesus Christ, the Master Teacher. it is my goal to teach children temporal things as well as share our Savior's love with them. until i am blessed with my own children, i am grateful that i can teach and serve in this fulfilling capacity. : )

: ) : ( : ) : ( : ) : ( : ) : ) : ) : ) : ) : ) : )

i am trying to compare two job options..... ugh......

i can only know certain aspects of each job once i am there working.... couldn't they just give me a month trial at one, then a month trial at the other?

there's always just subbing if i wanted that.

and let's not forget the applications that i've submitted weeks and months ago that no one has bothered to get back to me about. (and what if after i take a job i hear back from a better option?!)

what if i choose the wrong job and i'm miserable?! how would i know if i'd love it or be less miserable at the other??? now i'm just being dramatic... : ) there is one option where i'd be very surprised if i were miserable. and the other? well? i could always go back to subbing the next year : ) orrrr.... who knows.. : )

this is what happens when life doesn't go according to your own plans, people!! good thing that i know that i have a loving Heavenly Father who knows me, what i'm experiencing, what i need, and has a plan for me : ) without that knowledge i may be very sad and lost. not that it can't or doesn't ever get hard! striving for patience often feels like i'm swimming upstream. and i try to do it with a smile on my face : ) as well as in my heart... : )

on another note... it's my mom's birthday!!!! : ) she has been a great example of hard work and service to me over the years. she has taught me so much! in so many ways i want to emulate her. to the woman who doesn't give up.. i love you, mom!!! : )

All that hair

"...brush and brush and brush and brush and brush my hair..."

I'll spare you the full explanation, but yesterday I was in the car with 3 kids in the back seat on the way home from the beach. Tangled was on in the car for them to watch.

Today I was helping out at Cub Scout Day Camp in the "tot-lot" and they put on a movie for the kids to relax in the middle of the day. That movie was Tangled.

Two days in a row. Good thing it's a cute movie. I didn't even watch all of it either time! And yet that line is stuck in my head....

Also... what would it really be like to have hair that long?? Someone (an adult) posed that question today. My immediate (and almost no-thought-required) response was: miserable. I can't hardly take care of my hair now... imagine washing and allllll that brushing.... : ) Props to her for handling it so well.... : )

Announcement to the world

I think ever since we moved somewhere with a dishwasher we use more silverware.

Go ahead... judge... If you live somewhere without a dishwasher I'm sure you understand... : )

Life is so easy now... : )

Next up: washer and dryer! (yes I do rewear some things before washings, thank you very much!)

3 weeks... i guess we've made a habit out of living here... : )

"we could have had it all!" ... nothing significant, it's just stuck in my head right now... : ) (probably from the nba draft last night) and now that i've told someone i can move on with my life... : ) that's been one of the hardest things about this move, i guess. i used to spend hours every day with 7 and 8 year olds and other teachers. then when i got home, there was will. and when i needed her (which seemed often : ) jenn was right there too. sometimes i really enjoyed my alone time in the car. not because i felt crowded or bothered by being around all those other people, but just to have some time to think (usually about school.. : )

i've always known i'm a people person and now i miss it terribly!!! for the first week or two we were here i'd think of something clever or funny (happens a lot, huh? : ) and i'd want to go tell jenn... or i could hop on gchat and tell will. but jenn isn't upstairs or across the street anymore, and will can't be on gchat... now i spend hours on end every day with just myself... little old me all alone... greg asked me yesterday what i do all day... ... ... ... : ) ... ... ... i told him that's what i wanted to know. ha : ) i'm slowly learning to do things for myself and by myself (very difficult).

anyway... now i'm resorting to my readership (all... 0 of you?.. : ) just joking... i go back and read my own posts sometimes : ) to listen to everything i have to say. here are some things that i would have made will or jenn listen to already today:

1. first and foremost, jimmer is coming to the sacramento kings!! i feel entitled to say coming instead of going now that we live in california... : ) like i emailed dad last night, we'll have to start saving up our pennies so we can go see him play!

2. there is a kindergarten position at amelia... how perfect would that have been?! i don't really know how to expound on that except for, again, how perfect would that have been?! : ) good thing i know we're supposed to be here and i'm happy to support will.

3. i ran somewhere between 33 and 35 minutes this morning.. ok, jogged, really.. and discovered i went 2.7 miles. and i know i could have gone farther... easily... hallelujah : ) i was following my "schedule" which said to do 25-30 min of easy running today or cross training... i chose the jogging. when i was out there, however i couldn't remember how long it said. so i decided 30 was safe. but then i had to stop at a stoplight once so i added some extra time. and then there was a nice older man taking a break on his bicycle at the corner i was planning on turning at and he decided to start going again right when i got there. poor man in his nice Indian clothes sitting on his bike... he kept apologizing and after i was sure i hadn't given him a heart attack i kept going. for that incident i also added a little bit of time (though that one really happened all in about 10-15 seconds). then when i was about to be done i liked the song that was on and i knew it wasn't too long, so i decided to just run out that song... (fascinating, i know : )

4. there is someone (or multiple someones) who occasionally/frequently puts up hot air balloons in a field not too far south of the train station... which is not too far south of where we live!! and it happened again today! it is incredibly delightful to be driving south to take will to the train station and see the summer-feeling inducing hot air balloons!! yes... sometimes there are more than 1! reminds me of the tigard balloon festival that we'd go to sometimes growing up... or the freedom festival balloons in provo. while living in new mexico we went to a hot air balloon museum in albuquerque (i can't remember the actual name) which was pretty cool. shame on us for not blogging about it two years ago!! : )

5. i check edjoin every day and there aren't really any new teaching jobs around here... boo... i'm destined to my life here.... or other jobs... which would be less desirable? ask me again in a month or two... : )

6. so the song that came on at the end of my run this morning (i think) was "under the sea." if you're reading this i hope you know me well enough to know i'm a little bit of a disney lover. and if you didn't... you do now... : ) so i was delighted to bebop my way through that one as a finale. i have fond memories of a certain little boy that was in my 2nd grade class.... in case his mom would care, i'll leave his name out of this. almost 2 years ago in a class at byu, with a group, i wrote new lyrics to "under the sea" to teach about christopher columbus. if you ask really nicely, i may post those lyrics (which i think are ingenious, thank you very much : ) so of course last october i couldn't pass up the opportunity to teach my kiddos the song!! it was catchy and they were all 7 (except maybe one at that point). we learned it and performed it for our other 2nd grade friends. we didn't really sing it past that week. aside from that we had "2nd grade music time" all year long. each week we'd take turns having all the 2nd graders come into one of the classes (rotated) to sing. the other teachers could use this time for remediation. this extremely fun (unless you are one little girl i love) literacy activity went on, like i said, all year. so at the end of the year when i told them we were going to learn a song (and i cannot remember which song or for what) it was fairly common practice. well my dear little friend shouts out (of course : ) "what's it gonna be? 'let's talk about chris columbus.'" well... at the time i did not appreciate his shout out (or sing out, as the case may have been : ), but i was tickled that he remembered the song... : )

7. this is already too too long and i have laundry to look forward to today! : ) but this is my reminder to myself to share (and preserve for generations) one of my favorite stories from this little boy.

8. last... : ) i love "chinese" food. i also love free food. if you are lucky enough to be reading this today... know that panda express is giving away a freebie tonight only after 9. that's all... : )

we're going to the oakland temple tonight for the first time and i'm so excited! it's beautiful and i've been yearning to go to the temple these last few weeks. so that will be good : )

and in case you were wondering what i really do... i run, read, pretend i can sew, sometimes clean : ), talk with family, eat, unpack, and play piano here... it really is nice to relax : ) sometimes i get the bonus activities like helping out at mutual, going to other activities, or picking cherries... life is good : )

oops : )

well now it looks like will's the one who revived this thing.... i can't figure out how to change the "author" of the last post so..... just know that i wrote it and will did not. nor did he marry a man. i did. : )

that's what we get for having 2 gmails logged in at once i guess.. : )

priorities

now that i have tons of time on my hands that is not officially dedicated to anything, i suppose i will try to reenter the world of blogging. at least a little bit...

we've talked for some time about working up to a half marathon. we have been thinking that a 10k first would be a good idea. we could do a 5k (we like to think : ) but we'd need to work up to a 10k. so we'll start there and then hopefully keep going to a half. i don't know if or when we'd get to the marathon... that's just a little too lofty right now.

last night we were talking again about it and looking up people's workout schedules to work up to a 10k. then we started looking for potential "real" races we could run in august. we found several options in the central valley and tons in the bay area. we both thought it would be pretty cool to do one that goes over the golden gate bridge. surprisingly (or not?) there aren't that many... at least over the summer. i think we may have found one possibility that we'll think about. as we were trying to think of more that might and look them up, will suggested that we look up the san francisco marathon. it in fact DOES go over the golden gate (how could it not?). not only do they have the full, but i think it said they have at least a half with it. we looked up the date (this year, next year.. whenever) and began talking excitedly about it. then we realized...

the san francisco marathon (and half, etc) is on a sunday. i said, "oh, it's on a sunday." and will said oh. and that was the end of it. no questions asked, no further discussion. (aside from comments such as, bummer, or that's too bad.)

story 2: then we were looking up fun things going on in the area over the summer. we looked up the summer outdoor movies. then we looked up the summer concert series. it just so happens that the first one is this friday night. so we said we may as well go and check it out.

then i said, "oh, no we won't. that's stake temple night." and that was the end of it. no questions asked, no further discussion.

i'm so grateful that i've married a man who has his priorities in place and will not change them when they're inconvenient or could cause disappointment. there was no question about it, we would keep the Sabbath day holy and choose to not participate in any runs on sunday, no matter how spectacular or fun they may be. if there really are none, we'll either just go walk or run across the bridge ourselves some time, or we will just forget about it all together. there was no question, we would not skip an opportunity to attend the temple with our new stake in order to go to an event in the park. will we need to eat dinner in the car that night? or eat a really late dinner after? probably. is it worth it and important? definitely!

i'm grateful that will wants to live according to the teachings of the gospel of Jesus Christ. i am grateful that he is supportive of me in our decisions together. i know this brings us blessings and happiness. he is my best friend : )