Twinsanity B2S

Sam and Luke go to "Meet the Teacher" Day

Wouldn't life be better if nursery school teachers ran the world? I mean, forget McCain-Palin and Obama-Biden...I'm voting Secchia-McCorriston! These ladies show SERIOUS leadership skills.

(If you can get a dozen four-year-olds to cooperate around a parachute, world peace is totally a non-issue.)

Preschool starts Monday! For the first time in 9 1/2 years, I will have regularly scheduled child-free time. Here's my plan for the first day...

• Walk through Sephora and smell every hair product, sample every lipstick and enjoy walking by the glass bottles without worrying about anything getting smashed into teeny tiny pieces.
• Browse the shelves at Barnes & Noble. Smile sympathetically at women pushing double strollers and completely avoid the children's section.
• Meet a friend for lunch at a restaurant that does not serve french fries or beverages with plastic lids.
• Grocery shop without any dirty looks from cashiers.
• Take a nap.
• Clean out all closets and drawers. Relish the fact that no one is dumping entire bottles of shampoo or "making snow" with the insides of the sofa cushions in another room.
• Listen to NPR and the Mamma Mia! soundtrack with no complaints from the backseat.
• Finish reading New Testament and plan six weeks' worth of Seminary lessons.
• Work out, including 45 minutes cardio, 35 minutes free weights, 20 minute yoga stretch--followed by 90 minute sports massage.

Think I can squeeze it all in between 12:45 dropoff and 3:15 pickup?

Getting a Fourth-Grade Education

What were you doing sixteen years ago?

It was 1992 and the Summer Olympics had just left Barcelona. The Bush/Quayle ticket was fighting a losing battle against Clinton and Gore. I was 22 years old and ready to educate the world. Or at least a handful of fourth-graders from Provo, Utah.

I don't know why parents are so often unhappy with first-time teachers. Those days I was bright-eyed and filled to the bursting with innovation and enthusiasm. In the classroom at 7:30 every morning and often the last one out the door. Each night I took home a teetering stack of lesson plans, teacher manuals and dialogue journals to mark with scratch-n-sniff stickers and my trademark purple pen.

I stayed remarkably healthy considering the size (closet) of my classroom and the hygiene (questionable) of my students. In fact, the only day I missed all year was the time my husband broke his face, using his cheekbone to stop a "grounder" at a church softball game. (They won.)

Maeser Elementary--my first teaching post

These days it's a senior citizen complex. Maybe I'll retire there someday.

I taught a class of fourteen children in an old storeroom of the almost-100-year-old building. There were no cubbies or lockers or whiteboards. My students used cardboard box "tote trays" and my carefully-chosen teaching wardrobe was quickly dandered in chalkdust. After recess, I would hike up my long denim skirt, climb on a chair, open the room's one tiny window and pray for a strong breeze.

The most embarassing moment of my teaching career occurred during an evaluation. I knew a senior administrator would be coming in to observe a writing lesson and I had planned carefully. It was October, so we were writing scary stories. The interest level was high and the children were excited to make their Halloween tales spooky and bloody.

After the direct instruction, I sent the students to their seats to begin their rough drafts. I circled the room, feeling like a seasoned professional as the administrator scribbled comments on his clipboard and the classroom hummed with gory excitement. Suddenly one of the boys piped up, "Hey, Mrs. L! How do you spell {insert amazingly-intricate-anatomically-correct-completely-terrifying-male-reproductive-term here}?"

Little Kevin didn't realize how truly scary his ghost story had become. I froze and felt my blood run cold. Fortunately, the administrator was even more frightened than I and finished his visit in record time.

Well, I've seen a lot of Olympians and a few presidents rise and fall in the past 16 years. And my scary/sweet little class of nine-year-olds has gone and grown up. Now I'm the mother of a fourth-grader, dreading the long-division homework without a teacher's manual.

This week I'll come out of retirement to teach again. Big kids this time. Seminary teachers don't make any money...but nobody goes into education for the paycheck. Since it's voluntary, I'm not worried about poor evaluations or getting fired. I'm a little less innovative and a lot less bright-eyed. But what I lack in energy, I've gained in experience. Heaps of life-lessons to share. (Lesson #1--for example: No scary stories...)

I can't wait.

September Morn

1st Day O'School ...Yippee!

Back to School Bunch

Summer has been great and all, but these days everyone is really ready for school to start on Tuesday. (And by "everyone," of course, I mean "Mom.")

Preschool can't start soon enough for Luke...he's been climbing the walls for days.

And if the teacher needs help locating hidden chocolate chips, Luke will be a star student.


Sam's favorite subject will undoubtedly be snacktime...

...or dress-up.
(In this shot, Sam has been dressed by Emily who wishes she had a little sister. She calls him "Savannah." His father is thrilled.)

It's unfortunate that Auto Shop is not offered for 4th graders.

The highlight of Jake's week was taking apart our neighbors' broken vaccuum cleaner.

Just in the nick of time...Em lost a front tooth.

Which everyone knows guarantees her some serious social status the first day of 2nd grade.

Best of luck to all the back2schoolers!

Tune in next week for a photo of Mom turning cartwheels behind the school bus.

Seven Questions...Bloglove

Blogging can be fun, entertaining and educational. It can also be addictive and sometimes distracting. How do you balance real-life with cybertainment? What makes a blog so entertaining anyway?

D-Dawg (Denae in real life) is a long-time blogger who seems to have a few of the answers. Her blog is highly entertaining and completely random. A great mix of funny observations on life along with lots of deeply inspiring thoughts. Plus cute shots of her blogogenic family.
You never know what you are going to get when you click into D-Dawg's world...and that's what makes it so fun!

Here are Denae's thoughts on blogging with boundaries...

#1--I know you've been blogging for a long time. How and why did you get started? Did you ever think you'd have SO many readers and make so many new friends?
I started blogging almost 3 years ago. It was a cold winter’s day in Utah where I was visiting my techno-savvy brother. After a deliciously satisfying turkey dinner, he said to me, “Sit down and start a blog.” He handed me his laptop and the rest is history.

At the time I didn’t even know what a blog was and I didn’t know anyone else who blogged, so I had no idea that I would make friends, or meet new people, or have so much fun with it!

#2--What are the pros of sharing your life on a weblog? How about the cons?
I like to pretend that I am writing this blog for posterity and/or to keep a record of my family, but really, it is all for me. It is my thoughts, my place to vent, my hobby, my break from the real world, my pictures and my entertainment.

The pros are (I won’t lie) getting comments from so many fun and interesting people, getting a good laugh from commenters, hearing others’ opinions, advice and experiences, keeping a record of my daily life that I know I’ll go back and read many times, feeling supported through struggles, and hearing from random people from my life who read my blog and enjoy it-- I love that. There are so many pros!!

The cons are worrying about privacy/safety, and trying to keep up on so many great blogs. That part is hard.

#3--How do you decide what to post? Are there topics or experiences you consider off-limits? What do you think makes a good post?
Whenever there is a thought stuck in my mind for more than a day I have to write about it. I usually sit down and post something at night and whatever has been on my mind all day is what you get!

There are definitely topics that are off limits. I would tell you what they are, but I can’t talk about them because they are off-limits.

I think a good post is short and sweet with a great picture to go along with it. Also, I love lighthearted posts that make me laugh. I have definitely written my share of serious posts, and I love thought-provoking ones, too, but really my favorite are the funny ones!

#4--When you are tapping away on your keyboard, who are you writing for? Yourself? Your children? Friends? Who is your imagined audience? How does that affect what you say?
When I am typing away I am actually thinking of no one in particular. I’m just getting it out! I’m sure sometimes I write for someone else, but mostly it is just for me. It’s my therapy.

When I’ve written about my miscarriages and baby woes I’ve definitely thought of the women who have emailed me and shared their stories. So many women have reached out to me and helped me so much through this! I think about them a lot and hope that I can help someone like they’ve helped me.

#5--What are the best "techno tricks" you have discovered for making your blog more interesting?
As far as techno-tricks go, I like to keep my sidebar and blog simple so it’s easy to load. I love my label cloud and I love messing around with new headers, but that is about it! Oh wait, I also love to make blurb books. It takes a little time, but is so worth it.

#6--What three pieces of advice would you give to someone who is just starting her own blog?
For someone just starting out:
*Do not use your full first and last name as the URL.

*Find your own blog personality. Don’t copy or try to be someone else. Do what you want to do for yourself, and don’t worry about who will like it. If you like it, that’s all that matters!

*Write for yourself and let it all out. Honesty and openness helps and heals everyone involved. I often think about this quote from Gordon B. Hinckley "You will have significant experiences. I hope that you will write them down and keep a record of them, that you will read them from time to time and refresh your memory of those meaningful and significant things. Some may be funny. Some may be significant only to you. Some of them may be sacred and quietly beautiful. Some may build one upon another until they represent a lifetime of special experience." That’s what I think a blog should be.

#7--How often do you work on your blog? How do you balance your cyberlife with the real world?
I work on my blog usually once a day, at night when my kids are in bed. My goals are to not be on the computer when my kids are home from school, and to hang out with my husband for a while every night.

Also, I try not to blog on weekends. Let’s face it, people, there are too many blogs out there to keep up! I only read people I like. If a blog doesn’t make me feel good, I don’t read it. And I only comment sometimes. Please forgive me for not commenting on every post. I have to put my real family first, even though I love my blogging family too!

P.S. I am not perfect at my goals.

But D-Dawg! That's exactly why we all love you...

If you are new to Planet Earth and have not yet read Denae's blog, click here. Posts like this one will keep you coming back.

Squeezin' Out the Last Drops of Summer

What I Do Not Have:

• Baby Bjorns and Snugli sacks


• Cans of Enfamil and a dishwasher full of rubber nipples


• 247 cloth diaper burp-rags


• Baby monitor, Desitin, mylicon drops


• Jogging stroller, umbrella stroller, Peg Perego stroller, snap-n-go stroller


• Baby Einstein DVDs and lullaby recordings


• A sweet-smelling, milk-loving, shoulder-warming teeny-beany

What I Do Have:

• Cicada exoskeletons and a broken wasp's nest


• Bottles of Gatorade and a dishwasher full of Ikea plasticware


• 247 unmatched greying tube socks


• Gameboys, Legos, a Batman cape


• Hot Wheels, training wheels, Heely wheels, broken wheels


• Superhero DVDs and Jonas Brothers recordings


• A sister with a sweet-smelling, milk-loving, shoulder-warming teeny-beany

This post is dedicated to the love of my life, the girl who will seamlessly and selflessly trade her Bumble & bumble for Johnson & Johnson, who will say goodbye to Williams-Sonoma and hello to Fisher-Price, and who will avoid all parenting mistakes because her big sister has already made them.

Congratulations, Dan and Marta. Welcome to the Land of Boy.

...and you get a free weapon when you're done!

Why do I post recipes on my blog?

Mostly because there's a pretty good chance one of the kids will burn my house down and I don't want to lose them!

I got this recipe from an old Oprah magazine and it's definitely worth saving from the fire...the marinated chicken alone is delicious, but the satay dipping sauce really puts it over the top.

Chicken Lollipops with Peanut Butter Dip
(inspired by Ina Garten)

3/4 cup freshly squeezed lemon juice (4 lemons)
3/4 cup extra-virgin olive oil
2 teaspoons salt
1 teaspoon freshly ground pepper
1/2 teaspoon dried thyme
8 chicken breasts , halved, skinned and boned

Marinate chicken overnight in above ingredients. Then grill, slice and skewer.

Satay Dip:
1 tablespoon extra-virgin olive oil
1 tablespoon dark sesame oil
1 small red onion, diced
2 cloves garlic , minced
1 1/2 teaspoon minced fresh gingerroot (or a few shakes of ginger powder)
1/4 teaspoon crushed red pepper flakes
2 tablespoons red wine vinegar
1/4 cup packed light brown sugar
2 tablespoons soy sauce
1/2 cup smooth peanut butter
1/4 cup ketchup
1 1/2 teaspoon freshly squeezed lime juice

In a large skillet over medium heat, cook olive oil, sesame oil, red onion, garlic, gingerroot and red pepper flakes 10 minutes, or until onion is softened. Whisk in vinegar, brown sugar, soy sauce, peanut butter, ketchup and lime juice, and cook 1 minute longer. Cool to room temperature and serve with chicken.

Yum!

After-dinner swordfighting is optional.