A Memorial Day Parade miracle!

In honor of the holiday and of the many veterans who have served our country, we spent the morning in traditional Memorial Day mode: searching for our kid in a sea of marching dark blue uniforms.

And the angels smiled down upon us, for... (long dramatic pause to give me time to wipe away a fake tear of emotion)

...today marked the very first time I was able to spot one of my children in the marching band while they were actually marching down the street. (I'm not counting the year Katie was drum major because she was wearing a different uniform than the rest of the band)

Yes, I saw Hayley! And I got decent pictures of her.

She was in the very middle so it didn't matter which side of the street I was on--usually I end up on the opposite side of whoever I want to see marching.

Like other marching Evanses, she woudn't react when I shouted out her name several times. Actually, niether did the kid in the 8th grade marching band when I shouted his name (the kid is one of Matt's best friends. They spend practically every Saturday together).

Posing with the cymbals

I posted this because I suddenly realized that when she is dressed in a marching band uniform with the hair covered up, Hayley looks a lot like Katie.

Now for a short video clip showing Hayley's incredible prowess with the cymbals:

Yes, Hayley has the capability to smash two giant round things together at least three times in time with the music!

And she shall bring forth cupcakes

I have started baking for the party. What party you say? This party:

I'm starting out easy. I'm doing cupcakes today. I would have jumped right into the cake, but I don't have the giant pan on hand. I have to borrow it from mother.

Since I'm not sure what else to blog about, I'll have to resort to the Ten Things.

1. Did you know Hayley has taken up the cymbals? She was bored in band class because they are doing marching, and bassoonists don't march. So she picked up a pair of cymbals and starting banging them together. She'll march in the Memorial Day parade...
2. which Jim and I were looking forward to skipping. Paul's not marching in it and we were thinking we could have a year off for once. We've been going since Katie was in 8th grade. But Hayley and her cymbals have wrecked that plan.
3. Of course I will take pictures.
4. I've been rereading the Laura Ingalls Wilder books since our trip to Plum Creek and Walnut Grove last week. Those books never get old.
5. Four more days of seminary. I will miss my class, but I won't miss getting up so early in the morning.
6. We had a great seminary class.
7. Hayley says she's going to clean her room.
8. I don't know if I believe her.
9. I went to bed early last night and was able to sleep in spite of someone practicing his trombone.
10. Paul is leaving us soon. I still can't manage to believe it. The "older kids" in the family will all be out of the house. The "little kids" will just be "the kids."

The Compound

After the convention mixer on Friday night, Jim and I stayed overnight in Sioux Falls. Our kids are growing up and Paul was more than capable of being the man of the house for one night while we were away.  We didn't have to hurry home anymore than we had to hurry there.

We met Jen and Mike for breakfast at the hotel in the morning. They were able to stay overnight because they have a compound apprentice (niece Morgan) on site for a bit and were able to utilize her as a babysitter.

We drove up to see the Compound and have lunch with the Hawleys and Ms Smith.

Since I was there last, Mike has added a calf, two pigs, several dozen pheasants, some guinea hens and a couple of barn cats. I had to see the new additions.

I can't get enough of Mike's birds, and these pheasant babies are no exception. I had to dip my hand in the vat of peeping chicks and grab a couple. They are so cute.

This is a post Morgan helped install. She dug the hole and helped insert the pole into it. The pen is going to be used for the piggies.

I can't remember which bunny this is, but he was very cuddly. He made cute little munching noises as he ate the carrot I offered. 

Rochester and Gavin, aka Ribs and Bacon. When they are butchered, I get some of the meat.

Violet just oooooozes attitude. And she toted a cat everywhere she went. The kitty bore the toting with no resistance. Kitties--the new fashion accessories.

But Lewis was the star of the day. He is so cute. He loves Mike and Morgan. He frolicked for us and ran around like a puppy.

The cutest thing Lewis did was he nibbled on Morgan's shirt and shorts pocket flap. It made Morgan laugh and laugh.

After visiting with the animals, we decided to have lunch at a local cafe. THAT was an interesting experience. We walked in, all 8 of us, and immediately increased the number of patrons by 800%. The hostess/cook/waitress was at least 80 and she was hooked up to an oxygen tank. We started to sit down at one of the two tables, and she barked at us to sit at the other table so her oxygen tank cord could reach. I thought to myself, "Well why even HAVE the second table if you can't waitress at it? Or even move the table. There is plenty of room here." I also noticed that there was a table with a nebulizer machine on it, with all the tubes and plastic breathing pieces situated as if to air dry. It also appeared to be a storage shed of some kind. It was quite a dining experience. I will have to go back when the proprietor/hostess/waitress/cook/storer of many things/nebulizer user/oxygen tank breather says we can have breakfast. She told us yesterday when we sat down "Only order sandwiches." She didn't want us to order anything that was on the breakfast side of the menu because she was closing up shop at 1 and didn't want to get all the stuff out that she had put away already. Jim said he thought she was mad that we showed up. Possibly, but we probably doubled her cash intake by showing up. So if you are ever visiting Jen and Mike and would like to experience curmudgeonly dining, ask them to take you to Tol's Cafe. It's right across the street from a building with the word "Sexhauer" on it.

On the banks of Plum Creek

A long time ago, there was a mom and two little girls. One night the mother called her girls into her bed and said she was going to read a book to them. The little girls thought this sounded like a nice way to end the day, especially because they both liked stories. The mother picked out the book "Little House in the Big Woods" and began to read. Every night, she would read one chapter, although sometimes, if the little girls begged enough, the mother would read a second chapter. The oldest girl sometimes tried to read ahead, but her mother wouldn't let her. Reading the Little House series of books became a nighttime ritual and no reading ahead was allowed. 

The mother and the two daughters together read all the books in the Little House series, which fast became the girls' favorite books. After they finished all the books, the oldest girl read them again on her own, time and time again. She loved the pioneer setting, and liked to imagine herself as a fiesty tomboy in a dress like Laura Ingalls, even though she wasn't at all like Laura. She loved to read about how Ma made maple candy from syrup and snow, and she liked the pictures of Pa and his fiddle. She tried to read Braille like Mary learned to do, and imagined owning a set of name cards like Laura got when she was a teenager.

Fast forward to Friday, when this little girl is now a grown woman. She has to go to a dental convention mixer in Sioux Falls. Between her house and Sioux Falls is a place called Walnut Grove, where Laura Ingalls lived when she was a young school girl. The events of her life from that time became the book On the Banks of Plum Creek. 

I had to go. Jim was nice enough to agree to make a detour to see whatever I wanted to look at. We left early enough in the morning to make a slow travel day get us to Sioux Falls in time to shower and dress for the mixer.

The historical marker on the side of the road

Plum Creek is literally a creek, small enough for little feet to wade across. Big feet didn't because I was afraid of leeches--there is an episode in the book where Laura and Mary discover leeches in Plum Creek, and later, Laura leads a rival girl into the leech infested water as an act of revenge.

Plum Creek almost directly across from the dugout house site the Ingalls lived in for a while

The dugout house is unrecognizable as a house now because it caved in many years ago. The place was very small, only the size of a covered wagon--can you imagine a family of 5 living in a 6x10 foot space?

Jim walking down the path that used to be the dugout roof.

Signage

After walking around Plum Creek, we made our way to Walnut Grove, where they have a Laura Ingalls Wilder museum. I had to stop and peruse the museum. There was much about Laura's life and her letters. There were lots of artifacts from the time period and a room dedicated to the TV series "Little House on the Prairie." It is apparent from the number of items they have focusing on the actress who played Nellie Oleson, that they like her.

Outside there is a small area with some buildings dedicated to teaching about life during the 1870s.

A parlor organ that the public is invited to play. Yes, I took them up on that offer. I had to pump the air with my feet. I want a parlor organ.

A replica school house. This place was the size of most sheds these days.

The sod house was even smaller.

Jim and I spent about 3 hours exploring the Plum Creek site and the museum in Walnut Grove.

I am going to have to get the books out and read them again.

Ten things from our temporary Mexican

This probably should go on EJ's mission blog, but since it's going to be told through my interpretation, I guess I'll put it here. Maybe I'll post it there too.  We'll see what the wind says I should do.

1. He sounded alive
2. He baptized two members of a family this past week.
3. He hates the small businesses that operate like an ice cream truck, only they sell gas tanks (propane?) and the music is much much much louder because they have speakers mounted on the top of their vehicles. The jingles are much more annoying too, partly because he doesn't know what they are saying.
4. He likes tortas, which are akin to eating tacos using special sliced bread.
5. He thinks he's much closer to the sun. The tops of his ears are brown, he says.
6. He thinks he'll be in Los Pinos for at least 4 1/2 months--three with his trainer and another transfer as the area expert but junior companion.
7. He doesn't know what his address is, but he was able to describe how to get to his apartment from the Los Pinos chapel. Jim looked it up on google earth and we think we know where he lives.
8. He says he eats very little for breakfast and dinner, but lunch is HUGE. The church members who feed them REALLY like to feed them and he says that he barely finishes off one plate, when they've filled up his plate again. He has to start telling them early on that he's full and can't eat another bite.
9. If he does get hungry when it's not lunch time, he says there are tiendas all over the place and for 3 pesos (25 cents) he can get any variety of pastry or bread to tide him over. He says the tiendas are even in neighborhoods, somewhat like having a neighbor's garage door open all the time and you could go in and buy staples at any time of day.
10. It was a short call, 30 minutes, but it was enough to know he is happy and upbeat, and whatever we get billed for the phone call, it will have been worth it.

Banding together

That would be Hayley and Paul, having concerts on the same night in the same place.

Hayley can't remember which song this was.

Horn quartet prepares to play. Paul is staring off into space.

This was Paul's last band concert. Notice the love going on in the background.

super tall Paul

Paul and his French Horn compatriots (or comrades, if you're a communist) played their Best-in-Site award winning piece. I knew Paul was going to play this in the concert, but I didn't know about when he played it for the judges. I had to find out about that on facebook after the fact.

I also could have posted another picture I took of Paul during the concert featuring a kid behind him who was really digging into his nose, but I thought perhaps you would all get queasy if I did.

Sunshine therapy

I just got back from a refreshing walk. The sun was shining, a brisk breeze kept me from getting too hot, and butterflies and baby geese provided little moments of "Squeeee!"  And no icky insects flew down my throat--always a plus on any walk.  And I stayed on the cement at all times so hopefully no ticks were able to hitch a ride on any part of my clothing or body.

Paul's running updates:
Latest meet, he ran personal bests in both the 3200m and the 1600m, 10:14 and 4:34 respectively. He has 10 days off until his next meet. He doesn't have many more after that.

He also is done working in 2 weeks.

He graduates in less than a month. He leaves in a month and two days.

It is too weird a concept to comprehend.  Must take more sunshiney walks to compensate for mind-blowiness of Paul growing up.

Movies in school

Since when has it become acceptable for a teacher to outsource teaching to Hollywood?

Hayley comes home from school quite often saying "We're watching a movie in (some class of hers)."  This past week it was the movie "Volcano" for science. I also seem to remember her watching "Dante's Peak" in science too. I asked her what she was supposed to be learning by watching "Volcano" and her response was "how the movie is wrong about volcanoes."

Forehead smack. On the teacher's forehead. Now don't get me wrong, I know teachers have a difficult time teaching these days, especially given that many kids come to school with a chips solidly planted on their shoulders, and with attitudes of "you'd better entertain me or I'm not going to listen." But surely there is a way to teach what a volcano is or isn't that doesn't involve three or four class periods of students staring at a movie screen.

I also question the time spent--2 hours--to teach two things that Hollywood got wrong about volcanos. Surely that could be taken care of in a matter of minutes.

Jim and I just watched "2012" and I cringe to think of that ever being used to teach the science of solar flares. There was very little in the way of useful information about solar flares, and quite a bit of information on how to be a crazy person in Yellowstone, and much time was spent on showing that anyone who has a pilot's license can fly any kind of plane including a ginormous Russian transport airship, and in any condition, including the collapse of the Western seaboard. And there was a person ground up in giant gears that I could have done without seeing.  Plus there were numerous scenes of people outrunning explosions, which annoys me to no end. People canNOT outrun explosions, they cannot outdrive them, or even outfly them.

I don't mind if they watch episodes of "Planet Earth", "Bill Nye the Science Guy", any National Geographic special, Mythbusters (which Paul says they've watched in Physics) or even shows like "Hoarders" (which Paul says they've watched in Abnormal Psych class), or Masterpiece Theater for some of the Lit classics, but I am not at all in favor of Hollywood teaching science, relationships, English, literature classics, or even history (because they seem to add a lot of fiction in with their history, and most of the time, it's history from a certain perspective). It seems like a lot of class time wasted on an easy out for the teachers. And Hollywood teaching science? It's all sensationalism and questionable science. I'd rather the kids go outside and pick dandelions or sift dirt through their fingers.

I have also heard my kids tell me that they watched Disney movies in Spanish. Either in English with Spanish subtitles (in that case, are they really paying attention to the subtitles?) or in Spanish with English subtitles (which doesn't seem the most efficient way of learning Spanish).

Jenni, I would be interested in your perspective on this. I know you have done movies in class. Tell me your take on this.

I ought to write down all the times my kids watch movies in class (that they tell me) just to see how often it's happening. Once in a while I guess as a treat it would be ok, but I've heard reports of movie watching way more than I thought was necessary.