Because Heather makes it look effortless

Heather's blog made me think I should do it too. Doesn't she do wonderful things and make it look easy? It turns out that they are not easy, but are often worth doing.

Our big event this week was Will. Will turned 13. On his actual birthday (Friday) he won a pick-up basketball game at the park, we gave him cards from our family, and ate waffles for dinner. The big celebration was Saturday. His friends met us at Amador Park (9 friends) in the evening for games, pizza and dessert. Will didn't want cake so we got Hostess cupcakes and Entenmann's donuts. Bill and I kept on wondering if we should suggest something more fun than whatever they were doing...but it turns out they were having fun...just we weren't :) It was pretty cold and windy, but everyone stayed happy for the whole 2 hours plus an extra 40 minutes.

Brigham B, Austin C, Joseph F, Parker, Will, Andrew, Owen C, Kawai T, Kaden R, Keegan L

They had a great time and were a good group of boys. Still, we're glad it's over.

Will had a basketball game on Saturday too. Unfortunately his team lost, but they played really hard. Will has gained a lot of new skills this season being the youngest one on his team.

And then there is school...School is a constant thing. Always something else to be working on.

 One morning last week about 10 minutes before school started my supervisor came into my room and told me that he thought my seating arrangement wasn't working and that I should have the students in my first class help me fix it. He said he would check in on me later to see how it went. My day changed dramatically with that request. All my seating charts had to be changed quickly and I had to add two more groups to my whole set up. I had my classes arranged into 6 groups named after Spanish artists: Velázquez, Goya, Picasso, Dalí, Gaudí, and Varo and we were learning about each artist on Fridays. I gave up on the Spanish artist thing for my last two groups and called them: Soteno and Zapateado. Soteno for a Mexican artist who makes amazing "árboles de la vida" that we were going to learn about anyway and the last group is "zapateado" so I can teach them some Mexican dancing. Luckily, he was right about the seating arrangements, so it was all worth it.

 My Spanish II H classes are learning the imperative and made t-shirts with commands on them that were really cute.

Faith - has been hired as a math tutor at a place very close to our house. She has been in to work several days already for training and has another opportunity to tutor a cute boy in our ward in Chemistry. She is wondering whether or not to buy a ticket to Prom. I told her to do it, but make a friend commit and go buy a ticket with her.

 Ivy - is taking a trial gymnastics class this week. She wants to do just the tumbling - not all the events, so maybe we will try that out and see how it goes. She is so responsible. She gets herself up every morning at 6 am (sometimes we even see each other before school!) and makes sure that Bill and I do all the homework her teacher has for us as parents. (This teacher is pretty high maintenance. I get DAILY emails from her - even on the weekends. It's too much.)

Ivy and I with out favorite mascot, the Bob Miller Middle School Bobcat!

 Bill has been in negotiations with Avisight to find a way to receive his back pay. Not so much fun. He went to Mexico for me this last week and was pulled over by a Mexican police officer that wanted him to give him $50 to not have to go down to the station with him...Bill ended up giving him $7. Crazy!