Beneath the Wraps

           I know a post exists somewhere about how much Jenna loved the hymn book when she was younger.   Before she could speak she would treat books with respect and turn the pages.   But she never studied them quite like she would the hymn book.   Somehow the written music fascinated her.           On Tuesday I went to the band room (which isn’t normally a part of the aide’s agenda) and the instructor drew some notes on the board and added a tie.   I smiled at the memory of Jenna, when after she was talking, asked me why there were so many smiley faces in the hymn book.             In Myrtle Creek, the music teacher teaches three courses at the high school and ends his day teaching three courses at the middle school.   I would assume he gets to eat lunch sometime between.  

             I have noticed orange diamond shaped signs indicating construction.   At first I noticed them posted near unpaved streets figuring that perhaps they were being paved – although it seems to be an unrealistic thing at this time of the year now that I think about it.   But that is what I had thought initially.             This morning I heard what sounded like power drill noises.   What the heck?   I didn’t even check my window.   90% of the time I look for a source to match a sound, I don’t see anything.             I had a dentist appointment at 10:00.   It wasn’t until I left the house that I noticed the orange signs were on our street.   Why?   What are they doing?   Why are they making so much noise?   that's our house btw taken from our driveway It ...

“Fairy tales can come true It can happen to you              if you're young at heart” Each morning, for the last three days, that song has been playing in my head.   I don’t know why.   I don’t know if it was part of the bizarre dream that I posted on Monday or if I came up with it after I got out of bed.   It wouldn’t be so bad if I knew the words to the entire song instead of the same 15 words over and over . . . though sometimes “And if you should survive to a hundred and five” again, just one line.   I copied all the lyrics for the song that Frank Sinatra had sung.   But I haven’t committed any of it to memory except for what I have shared in this post.  

I thought I would share some thoughts on the bizarre dream that I had this morning – though many of the details were already gone before Roland requested that I make pancakes – and then chop up some vegetables for the meatball stew . . . “I’m not even dressed yet!” I thought.  After all I had mentioned that I had two hours before I would leave for work and that I needed to take a shower.  Thus this post has been put on the back burner.  So do I start with the dream or the cake?            I took pictures of the cake that we made on Saturday.  Jenna had done the entire cake part by herself and I frosted it and poured over coconut.  The intention was not for the purpose of giving the appearance of a giant snowball, but that is what I thought it looked like:           So moving on to the dream which took place sometime between 3 and 6 this morning....

            We have not adopted a celebration tradition for Martin Luther King Jr. Day – though Jenna did have a nice suggestion:   watch Tangled because there’s that song “I have a dream” – only we couldn’t seem to find our copy of Tangled and the Myrtle Creek library doesn’t even carry anything that recent.               We had three bananas that were somewhere between brown and black.   I planned to purchase some vanilla ice cream to make smoothies or banana ice cream.   This would be in honor of “milk” day as my niece had initially thought MLK to be.   I had told reader’s to refer to her blog in this post, but alas, she has made it private and so no one will have that opportunity anymore (including me).             Roland suggested we play Monopoly – and though it’s not mine nor Jenna’...

          A vessel, by definition, is either a ship or large boat or a hallow container usually associated with holding liquid.           I remember going to a young women’s camp as a leader.   We had an activity in which we were asked to hold onto the iron rod on our way to the tree of life.   Only in the case of our camp situation the iron rod had been represented by a rope.           As we were making our way from one area to another, we were faced with temptations.   I can remember being enticed by chocolate chip cookies.   Huge ones.   And I LOVE chocolate chip cookies.   But I wasn’t about to let go.   I rationalized that the main ingredient may have been salt.   A chocolate chip salt lick.   Yum.           I was going through the motions of ha...

          For the most part I turn off my phone before I go to work.   I leave it in my bag and do not carry it around with me.   I’m in class, after-all .   It’s not like I can answer it or have a conversation.   On Tuesday morning I went into Roland’s office to tell him that I was leaving to go to Canyonville.   Only he wasn’t in his office.                     The front door had been left open indicating to me that he must be outside.   I still couldn’t find him.   I called out his name but he did not answer.   As I pulled out of the driveway I saw him on the hill wearing a blue shirt.   He must have fallen shortly after I pulled out of the driveway – long before I got to Canyonville.   Unfortunately (or perhaps fortunately as I did not allow myself time to freak out) I did not get his message ...

                 On Monday I had an assignment to work in Canyonville.  It rained.  I had heard that students go out for recess regardless the weather.  Okay.  It’s pouring, but whatever.             It wasn’t pouring during lunch.   It was still overcast and cold.   I had worn my green coat and had retrieved my umbrella.   Apparently it is only K-2 that go to recess in the rain but the middle schoolers were assigned to go into one of two class rooms as the gym and labs were being used.             I guess I really hadn’t needed to drag my umbrella up to the cafeteria.   I stopped off at the last classroom where I was assigned and dropped off my coat, hat, scarf and umbrella along with the totebag that I was too lazy to put in the car after eating my lunch.   ...

                As I have mentioned in prior posts, the house I live in is manufactured – which means it was built elsewhere and moved to this location.   Manufactured homes were not designed for multiple generations to live in and yet we see a lot of that in this area.   The realty price is always for the land which surrounds the house but not so much for the house itself.   It will always decrease in value.           Before we had even moved into the house, I noticed a problem with the front door.   It didn’t seem to make a difference whether the knob was locked or not, if we pushed hard enough, we could get in.   But I could never manage to unlock the bolt from the outside and would always go around.             The knob on our back door has always worked and over time we were eve...

          I saw this sign in a math class at school yesterday.  It made me laugh.   I have observed many students now and find that people in general are either math people or English people.   There are some who excel in both.   And there are those who don’t get either.           Jenna prefers math.   Although there may be different ways of getting the same answer – the answer is consistent.   It won’t ever change.   There is only correct answer.   No exceptions.   English, on the other hand, is full of exceptions.   It’s a wonder that anyone is able to learn it at all!   I would think learning it as a second language would be even more challenging than it is as a first language – but I can’t say for certain as it is my native language – but still confusing at that.          Math NEVER ends.  S...

           There are five students in the seminary class which Jenna attends.   Each of them has an opportunity to present a devotional.   Jenna’s assigned day is on Wednesday morning.   This week she passed out this card: She challenged each member of her class to carry the Book of Mormon on his or her person (she is in actuality the only female student, but the female instructor had been challenged as well) and has been carrying the Book of Mormon with her ever since.   She not only reads it at school, but writes down her thoughts, searches for pictures to insert into her book to help her remember the focus of certain chapters, and will discuss her thoughts with whoever will listen.           I have been so blessed to have such an awesome daughter.

           There are five schools in the district – which I may have mentioned before.   Two elementary schools are from K-5 (I think both offer Pre-K.   I know that one does for sure), a middle school from 6-8, high school 9-12 and the Canyonville School ages K-8.   I will accept assignments for three of the schools.   I have worked at all the schools accept for the high school.   Currently I will fill in for aides at either the elementary school closest to the middle school, the middle school or Canyonville.   Four of the schools are about equal distance from my house (the two I accept assignments for are to my east and the other two are in Tri City to the west) but it takes more than twice as long to get to Canyonville as the others.                     I think the high school and other elementary are fairly new in comparison to t...

“Johnny Depp is great, but the fact that he is not Joey Fatone bothers me.” - Jenna on January 5. The quote made me laugh when Jenna said it, and then I had her repeat what she said so I could get the right quote, but still might not have it exact. Allow me to explain:   When Jenna was three Roland had purchased a copy of Red Riding Hood ( here )   which she has loved and watched often.   Joey Fatone plays the wolf.   In Disney’s version of Into the Woods   ( here ) , the Wolf is played by Johnny Depp.   You may not find this as amusing as I did.   But her quote did strike me funny enough that I thought I’d share.

Yesterday I was watching a movie on Hallmark.    The movie title is one I have seen before – but with a different description.    I enjoyed the 2019 version of “Christmas Town” starring Candace Cameron Bure ( here ).              The movie starts out with the focus on a man and his little girl.    He is struggling with some health issues.    The tree has been put up and decorated and he somehow loses his balance causing the angel to fall and breaks off a wing.    He promises that he will send it off to have it fixed.    If he had just used a form of Elmer’s or Gorilla glue, we might not have the story that takes place roughly twenty years later. Lauren has recently accepted a teaching position in Springfield, Mass. and is anxious to leave behind her life in Boston. We learn that she has a boyfriend and a promised relationship, but her wants and his wants are not the same.   ...