Congrats Justin!

I went to Provo,UT this weekend to attend my little brother's college graduation from BYU. We were able to visit the Manti, Draper and Salt Lake City temples while we were there as well as going to two graduation ceremonies.

I'm so proud of Justin and his achievements! He's moving to San Diego soon to take his first job as a construction manager. Way to go!

Anything for a Buck

Yesterday the kids and I were in the backyard pulling weeds. It was then that I realized we needed to get on some sort of poop-scooping routine. The conversation with Cam went something like this:

Me: Cam, we need to work on scooping up this poop.
Cam: No way! I'm not gonna do it!
Mara: poop is gwoss.
Me: Skyler does it at his house. His mommy pays him money to do it.
Cam: She gives him dollars? I'll do it if you give me some money. I'll do anything for money. Anything at all. Except walk in hot lava. I will not walk on lava. That can kill you. I wouldn't go in a volcano hole, either.

So, I guess he has his limits...

He's So Cute!

That's what Mara said when one of this guy's pals was flying around our house. (S)he is a Mosquito Wasp. Good thing to have around if you're not fond of mosquito bites. Not what I would consider cute, though.

The Golden Apple Award- Excellence in Teaching

Ask almost anyone who their favorite teacher was, and they'll remember. They will most likely remember the time, effort and love that person invested in their education. I remember hearing something in an interview of a famous athlete that earned millions of dollars every year. He said some of the most influential people to him were teachers in school growing up. One person who I know is making differences in young people's lives is my mom.

My mom has been a middle school science teacher for about 15 years. She really does an amazing job teaching with all kinds of fun activities. Some of the things that stand out in my mind are: dissecting hearts, having a greenhouse that the kids work in, having an invention competition, raising trout from eggs then releasing them into the wild, cleaning up a local lake and doing water testing, launching rockets, the list goes on and on.In addition to her teaching, she has an amazing classroom filled with animals of every sort, jobs the kids all have to participate in, a weather monitoring station, and they even have palm pilots to use for research under teacher supervision! While she is very humble and would never tell you how awesome she is (because she doesn't realize it), her peers and students would definitely report that she is great.

Recently, she was selected to receive a prestigious award for excellence in teaching. It's called The Golden Apple Award. "The Golden Apple Foundation of New Mexico (Golden Apple) is a nonprofit organization with a mission for recognizing excellent teachers and improving the quality of teaching. Each year Golden Apple recognizes seven teachers from around New Mexico with the Golden Apple Award for Excellence in Teaching. "

There was a pretty intense process in which the award winners were selected. They had to submit portfolios, their students, peers, student parents and administration were all interviewed, they had observers in their classrooms during a normal school day, and then they had an interview themselves.

My mom is the first person in her school to win this award, and I just wanted to say Congratulations! I'm so very proud to have such a great example as a mom. It's been a good lesson for me to see the hard work she puts into making someone else's life more meaningful through education.I can only hope my children will have teachers like her as they go through school! Way to go Mom!!!!

Our Growing Family

That title lured you in, didn't it? Don't get too excited. We aren't pregnant, and in fact have no plans of increasing the population of Round Rock anytime soon, if ever. This is just a way of getting people to read my blog posts.

Mara made me laugh the other day. She says stuff that makes me laugh all the time, but this incident would be pretty funny to anyone, in my opinion. She and Cam were watching Disney channel the other day when I walked by and stopped. This is what I saw on the screen.

In case you are unfamilliar with this teenie-bopper, her name is Hannah Montana. She's has her own tv show, line of clothing, etc. Anyways, I walk by and see the kids watching her in concert on TV and know who it is but ask them just to see if they know.

"What are you guys watching?" I say.

"Hannah Montana." Is Cam's reply. (picture him staring into the TV without so much as turning his head to acknowledge me.)

Then little miss Muffet (as I refer to Mara) pipes up "Thats my sista!"

So you see, our family is now growing into one that includes pop stars. I didn't know I had such talented children...

HOW TO WORK OUT FROM HOME

I saw this video on Kristi's blog, and laughed so hard I wanted to share it with you on my blog. I love how this dad really uses his resources!

Revision to Previous Plan

Some people raise their small children in a way they believe is shielding them from what they view as inapropriate subject matter.(That's fine with me. Whatever floats your boat...)You might hear said people calling certain body parts by alternate names such as weenie,willie,boobie,pee-pee,vajayjay, etc. You know what I'm talking about.

At our home I have made a concious effort to use language that is more along the lines of what a mature adult would say- maybe what your doctor might call the nether regions of your body. You know...the given anatomical labels.

There are those of you who know this about our family, and have heard a funny story or two of my child speaking of his "privates" in a blunt manner using said label without realizing it might not be accepted by all. Because of this, I have revised my origional plan of staying strict on the anatomical labeling.

The revised plan now includes instructions to my children that they are to refer to their genitals as "privates" or "private parts" when discussing them in public. Don't get me wrong, they don't go around spouting off random remarks about them. It just so happens that when you're young and discovering the world around you there are lots of questions to ask and statements to make. Mara hasn't been the one to inspire the revised plan, if you know what I mean. Cam is the scientist of our two children.

I guess we have to improvise as parents. That's what I've come to learn,anyway! I really love this part about parenting, because it means I don't have to be perfect. Good thing, too, because I'm not by a long shot.

There might be another post to come about my discussion with Cam about where babies live before they're born. Interesting story. He really "gets it" (on a 6-year old level).

What revisions to your parenting plan have you made? Or better yet, do you have a plan? Do share!