Blog Archives

Advice

3/29/2015

Lately I've been pondering the power of advice and it's impact on my life. I've had some pretty great advice from some pretty and some great people, words of wisdom that have changed my life. Next week I hope to share some of those gems with you. This week I am going to share the best advice I have. Are you ready?

Come unto Christ. Come unto Christ. This is the best advice I can give. Particularly in this Easter season, Seek Him. Actively.

The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints (the Mormons) has published a video and Easter Week outline that will direct and focus your efforts. Use it. View it. Read it. Hashtag it. #BecauseHeLives LOVE IT!!

0 Comments

More Stories....

3/22/2015

1 Comment

“Ladies and Gentlemen, we are experiencing some technical difficulties and will have to stop the show for a few moments.    We will return shortly.”

We, with about 600 other Hale Centre Theatre goers, found ourselves in the light and in the dark; in the light because the house lights were on in the middle of the show and in the dark because we had no idea why.

Hale Centre Theatre crowds are generally friends and matinee crowds are generally elderly and friendly. All of us sat, generally quietly, patiently awaiting the resolution of the “technical difficulty”, whatever it was.   All of us, that is, except Grace.   A few minutes into our wait she suggested to her father that they start The Wave.     She asked the right person—one of the things I adore about Lance is that he is game; nothing embarrasses him.

[NOTE: Hale Centre Theatre in a theater-in-the-round; its 613 seats circle the center stage.]

They recruited Miles and Cooper.   I agreed to participate as well, though very half-heartedly. (Maybe only quarter-heartedly….). Tanah told them, emphatically, “No”.   Grace rose and waved, as did Lance and I raised my hands. Miles and Cooper rose and waved as well….and The Wave died there.   Not to be deterred, Grace and Lance rose and waved several more times.   After three half-hearted attempts, I went back to my book.   Grace and Lance did not go back to their books. Nor did they go back on their goal. Rise and wave and wait….rise and wave and wait…….again….and again…..and again.

After six or seven attempts, one person to the side of us rose and waved….and someone directly across from us did the same thing.   Encouraged, Grace and Lance rose and waved again. A few more people joined in, including a significant number of people sitting behind us, who saw and supported our efforts.   (I say “our” efforts because, by this time, I had put my book down and was an eager participant, as was Tanah.) The Wave rippled weakly around the theater. More people joined….and more….Momentum built….. and The Wave was on!   It circled the theater several times, with nearly 100% participation and in full audio. “Wheee” we roared as we rose and waved.

The show, “Ghost”, was fabulous—great acting, great message, a great story that elicited a full range of emotions—and we’ll remember it for a long time.   Better than the show, though, was the fact that Grace successfully started The Wave—we’ll remember that for a much longer time.

The right to tell some stories requires people to rise from their seats, other stories require people to rise from their beds…    Paula, a kindred spirit of mine, texted me about a story-creating opportunity in Roy.   Get Air, a local trampoline park, was unveiling its new Ninja Obstacle Course and the first 100 people there would get in free. Doors opened at 5:00 a.m.    Grace, Miles and I were the 16-18th people there.   Miles loves trampolines, I love stories and Grace loves both.

Grace also loves having her cast off (YEA!) and Miles loves his new haircut.   Months ago Miles told me I was no longer allowed to cut his hair. [Chick was in high school before he fired me as his stylist.]    Miles’ hair got so long that Elder Hislop (Chick) did not recognize him in photos.   Wednesday he got a haircut and now I almost do not recognize him.

I applaud haircuts (even when I have to pay for them). I also applaud spring.   YEA and YEA for longer, warmer days!!   My toes are free and happy again—toes were never meant to be enclosed—and my garden is growing as are our lambs.   Onions, peas, spinach, carrots, lettuce, and beets are planted; grapes, berries and fruit trees are pruned—I’ll be posting pictures of protruding plants soon. (I hope!)

Stories, stories, stories………… Life is the stories you can tell.   The stories I can tell are good, not Earth shaking, but good.   So is my life, not Earth shaking, but good.   Very, VERY good.     Thank you, God, for a good—very, VERY good—life.

Love,
Teresa

Before haircut...

...and after.

Inch by inch, row by row, Someone bless the seeds I sow.... (please!)

Miles poses as Vince Lombardi at Midland Elementary's Wax Museum.

The Suffolk lamb poses as a hay eater in the Hislop pasture.

1 Comment

Engineer

3/15/2015

0 Comments

What does an engineer look like?   Thick glasses? Pocket protector? White lab coat?    In our home an engineer looks a lot like Grace….

This week I awoke one morning to find a pig in my kitchen.   Grace, wanting some extra credit points in English, created an essay-eating animal to present her writing project.    Weighted with washers, funneled by tubes, and transported via ribbons, 20 essays (each independently attached) were drawn through the pig’s mouth into the abdominal cavity where they hung, available to be read and appreciated.

Wikipedia says “An engineer is a....practitioner of engineering, concerned with applying scientific knowledge, mathematics, and ingenuity to develop solutions for technical, societal and commercial problems.”

This is certainly Grace. But not just Grace….. The person who sent Grace a box FULL of yellow goodies and a note that said “A little box of SUNSHINE to brighten your day” applied social science knowledge and ingenuity to develop a solution.   Engineering is all about building and you, whoever you are, built up my sweet Grace.    Thank you!

One of the reasons Grace needed a sunshine package is that she is on the injured (but not reserve) list.   Several weeks ago she was “hangin’” with some friends at a local fun center. The guys were punching a bag, hitting it hard and competing to see who could record the highest score.    When the girls joined the fray, the competition was over; their scores did not even approach the boys’ scores.   Enter Grace.   She would show those boys that girls can hit hard, which she did.    Her score was competitive.   And her hand was broken.

Though her right hand is casted, Grace scored high enough on the evaluation rubric to make a spring league AAU basketball team.    At the end of a very difficult school basketball season Grace swore that she would never touch a basketball again……which made her acceptance of Bev Rose’s invitation to try out for the AAU team very surprising. [After try-outs she said, “That was FUN!”   Thank you Bev!!!] I guess she should not swear……

Miles believes that Mormons do not swear. (He has never heard me milk cows….).   In a family game of “Catch Phrase” ( a game where one tries to get one’s teammates to guess a word) Miles’s clue for the word “donkey” was “Mormon ass”. In his mind, a Mormon would substitute the word “donkey” rather than say the word “ass”.   The logic was somewhat twisted but his intent was pure….so was our amusement. It’s a story we’ll be telling for a long time.

Speaking of twisted logic and pure intent……… As a family we are reading selected stories in the Old Testament (pure intent) and last Sunday’s chapter was Jonah 3, which has only ten verses.   Tanah, who wanted to go to bed, asked “Can we read only half the chapter?”

“Really??” was my thought.

“NO,” was Lance’s response.   “It is only 10 verses. You can survive 10 verses.”

“Then let me read all ten,” Tanah begged.   “Please.   I bet I can read the whole thing in 20 seconds.”

Game on!! Grace manned her stop watch and Tanah powered through the chapter. 42 seconds.

“Let me try it,” said Grace.    Grace read the chapter; her time was over 42 seconds.   Tanah got cocky so I had to try it.   38 seconds. Tanah could not be outdone so she read it again.   42 seconds. And again. 41 seconds. Grace tried it once more as well.   All told, we read the chapter six times.   Sixty verses….instead of five.   Something got twisted!

Lance asked his boss for a letter of recommendation so that he could apply for other jobs.   She wrote him a nice letter…. and posted his job as open.   So, there is an opening for a geography/keyboarding/computer teacher at SAA.   Should he apply? Or would that be twisted?

Perhaps not twisted but definitely not normal, I spent a day observing my boss this week. [Usually it is the principal who observes the teacher….] Amie, who is a chemistry-teacher-turned-administrator, taught my classes Wednesday.   She was awesome—rainbow glasses, green fire, flaming hands—it was science at its best.   The kids loved it—what’s not to love about fire!, she loved it—“oooh’s” and “ahhh’s” are intoxicating, and I loved it—it was great to watch a master teacher, to watch enchanted students, and to just watch, rather than perform.

I am really enjoying watching our eldest son grow.   In a letter he said that patience was Christ’s characteristic that he best emulated last week. When I asked for more details he wrote that “nothing in particular” had caused him to exercise patience but that he simply feels “less likely to push and resist” and more likely “to trust through trials.”   Sounds like a definition of faith to me.   Beautiful.

Somehow the theme of this letter has twisted; we started with engineering, right?   But that is okay, engineers deal with twists and I can turn it back.

We are all engineers, are we not?   We certainly can be.   By applying knowledge, be it science or social, we can use ingenuity to develop solutions. Engineering is all about building and we can build.   Be it essay-eating pigs or struggling teen’s self-esteem, family memories or professional opportunities, personal patience or faith in Christ, we can build.

What does an engineer look like? An engineer looks like Grace…and like me….and like you.    Be an engineer today!

Love,
Teresa

P.S. How fast you can read Jonah 3?

An essay-eating pig

An engineer with a casted broken hand

A little box of SUNSHINE

An engineer with a splinted broken hand

0 Comments

Get Out!!

3/8/2015

1 Comment

Get out. Get out!! GET OUT!!!!!!!!!

Get out and do something.   It’s another variation of the “Life is the stories you can tell” theme AND it is great advice.   Get out of the house, get out of the door, get out of the car and get going! This weekend, thanks to my parents, we were able to do just that. For Christmas, Mom and Dad Noel gave us a chunk of change with the charge that we use it for a family outing. GET OUT! We got out, got going, and got stories, some of which I am going to share now.

Our first “get out” happened in the Soldier Hollow parking lot where we got out of the car, got into our snow clothes, and go onto some tubes. For two hours we rode up (a tow rope took us up) and down (gravity brought us down) a giant snow slope. It was tubing cruise-boat style (i.e. luxury) and it was fun.

That night we checked in to (and checked out!) the Homestead Resort in Midway, UT.   There were three in the bed and the little said……..”I’ll sleep on the floor instead” which was nice of him.   Grace and Tanah took one bed, Lance and I the other, and Miles was grounded, voluntarily.   (He often chooses to sleep on the floor in our home too. Crazy.) Though we aren’t used to sharing bedrooms (it was not a very romantic night) we are used to sharing a bathroom. (We have only one bathroom for the five of us at home too.)   The greatest advantage the Homestead has over our home stead is hot water. In our home, there is only one regular size water heater so the person showering after the teen girls is lucky to get lukewarm water; it was hot water for all at The Homestead.    For Miles the greatest advantage The Homestead has over our home stead is T.V.   He ended Friday watching March Madness basketball and started Saturday doing the same thing.

Saturday morning, after enjoying The Homestead’s volcanically warmed indoor pool and its electronically warmed sauna, we took Chick to breakfast—or rather we took breakfast at Chick’s…Chick’s Café in Heber City. WOW! Eating breakfast there should become a “must-do” on everyone’s bucket list.

After eating several days’ worth of calories for breakfast (and loving every bite of it) we were back to Midway for ice skating on their outdoor rink.   Miles and Tanah took to the ice gracefully and easily. Lance took pictures, easily and gracefully.   It was not nearly so graceful or easy for Grace and me.   We wobbled and tottered together.    I love being outdoors though, even when I look and move more like a Holstein than a human. (Have you ever seen a Holstein in ice? It is NOT a pretty sight.)

Our adventure ended at Farr Better Ice Cream in Ogden in honor of my dad for whom ice cream is the answer to everything. Everything.    Hum……Brownies on the Moon in a waffle cone……….Yes, he may have something there.   It may not solve all of the world’s problems but it certainly could solve a lot of them!

Thanks to my parents we “got out” and had a glorious weekend.    You should GET OUT too.   If not to Soldier Hollow then to Rohmer Park in Washington Terrace—the tubing is as good and the exercise pulling your own sled up the hill is good for you; if not to The Homestead then to a slumber party in your own home stead—be sure to restrict yourself to one bathroom; if not to Chick’s Café then to Bee’s Café in Roy—I’ve heard it’s good; if not the Midway City outdoor rink then to Syracuse City’s outdoor rink—free if your bring your own skates; if not to Farr Better Ice Cream in Ogden then to Farr Ice Cream in the grocery store—Brownies on the Moon can be found in most local grocery stores, sometimes it is even on sale at Kent’s.     If you don’t live in Utah, do the equivalent where you do live.   GET OUT! And, in getting out, get in. Get in with your family.    Get in to the adventure, the memories the stories. After all, life is the stories you can tell.   Make your stories family ones.

There. You thought this was a travelogue and it turns out to be a sermon.

GET OUT!!

Love,

Teresa

Towed to the top

At the top

...in the middle...

...at the bottom

On your mark

Get set

GO!!!

Coming.......

...and going..........

...and gone!

There were three in the bed and the little one said.....

"H" for Hislop (or Homestead.....)

When a princess kisses a frog.......

..it is NOT the frog prince who is supposed to be surprised!

We take Chick to breakfast!

Grace reads "How to Stay Humble When You're Smarter than Everybody Else".

Tanah reads "857 Habits of Highly Irritating People".

Miles reads "How to Confuse the Idiots in Your Life".

Sequins and skates, graceful and gorgeous.

Miles is graceful.

Grace is smile-ful.

Look at these kind children helping this old lady!

Human

Holstein

This is the Drago's next home (but only if they let us move in next door!)

Ice cream is .....

...answer to.......

....EVERYTHING!

1 Comment

"Epic"

3/1/2015

0 Comments

There was a car in the parking lot at 6:45 when I arrived at school Wednesday morning. (Almost always mine is the first car there.) “Hum……….,” was my first thought.

When I got out of my car, Elliot got out of his. “YEA!!!” was my next thought.

Elliot had stayed after school Tuesday to put the finishing touches on his project for Wednesday’s Science Fair.

“How is it going?” I had asked him on Tuesday.

“Good,” he replied and then, in explanation said, “I threw away the project we talked about because the potatoes were gross and decided to do a different project.”

“Oh?” I responded, “Tell me about it.”
“I am going to do ‘Which is stronger a lion or a tiger?’” he said.

My heart sank. Really?   Despite my almost Herculean efforts to help these kids develop a testable question and a valid experiment, somehow some of them still manage to miss the mark.

“Do you have a real tiger and a real lion?” I asked him.

“No,” he answered, obviously perplexed.

“Then it is not an experiment,” I said.   “It is a research project, which is fine in its place but Science Fair is not the place. For Science Fair, you must have an experiment.”

So, less than 18 hours before Science Fair was to begin, we started over, Elliot and I.   Fortuitously (for him, not me) I have witnessed many last minute projects and was able to give him some suggestions.   We wrote a new question, hypothesis, and set of procedures and I sent him home to perform his experiment.   He did not have a computer at home, much less a printer, and was very concerned about preparing his the display board for the fair.

“Okay,” I told him, “I get to school at 6:45 a.m. Tomorrow is Science Fair so I will be incredibly busy starting about 7:15. If you are there at 6:45 then I can help you until things get crazy, about 7:15.”

He came and I helped.   I set him up in the faculty workroom where he used my computer to type what he had laboriously hand written.   With a little guidance he created a graph for his data and with very little guidance he printed everything and posted it on his display board. Mission accomplished.

Not all missions were accomplished. On the day of the fair Mason told me that he did not bring his project because he did not get any results. ARG! “Yes you did,” I told him. No results are actually results; much priceless science knowledge has come from “failed” experiments.     And two students simply did demonstrations—a hurricane-in-a-pop-bottle model and a recipe for oobleck—but I did not have any baking-soda-and-vinegar volcanoes, which was a victory.   Most students had an experiment of some kind and most students had a great experience.

Brayden said “I honestly feel more inspired to do science research” and Avery said “I learned a lot about energy and conduction and might want to make it a career.” Cute, little Susan stated “It wasn’t as scary to present to the judges as I thought it would be” and Allison said “At first I was nervous but relaxed after the judges were very nice and very funny.” In response to the prompt “My overall opinion of my science fair experience was…….”, Gary wrote “EPIC”.    My response to his response is COOL!

“Epic” could also be used to describe our field trip to the Museum of Natural Curiosity at Thanksgiving Point.   I invited all 8th grade science fair participants (almost 100 kids) to spend Friday with me at the museum.   We met at the train station at 8:15 a.m., rode the FrontRunner to Lehi, walked a mile to the museum, spent an amazing couple hours in the museum, and then did the trip in reverse, arriving back at Union Station at 2:52 p.m.

It was fabulous.   My kids are so, SO good.   The museum staff was very concerned about turning a large group of junior high students loose in a museum that was already full to overflowing with elementary children.   If only they knew my kids!   As I circulated I saw three small children land on Brian’s head in the spider web, I witnessed Sicily carry a lost child to the nearest responsible-looking adult, I watched Bruce and Jose wait patiently as elementary student after elementary student after elementary student pushed their way in front of them in the line outside the wind tunnel, but I did not see any instances of recklessness or irresponsibility from my students. When it comes to respectful, responsible behavior, I will put my kids up against any elementary class anytime anywhere.   Oh man, I love these kids!

The best part of the experience, however, was not my amazing students. It was my amazing daughter.   Grace skipped her school Friday to come to mine.   We spent the day together and it was truly EPIC.