April 2021

My principal was the last "Star Student" of my class in April. Each student gets one week during the year to be the star. They get to be the line leader, sit on special chairs, bring a special poster about him/her, share Show and Tell, and we learn more about the person. It's a fun week that the students look forward to! When I moved from 2nd grade up to the 3rd/4th grade split this year, I wondered if it was too immature of an activity to keep, but ultimately I decided to keep it and just change up some of the activities the Star Student gets to do daily. I'm always the first Star Student of the year, so I can model it for the class, and I've always had our principal Mr. H be the last Star Student because I feel that it's important for the students to get to know their principal, too! Mr. H went all out this year...because he knew it was my final year teaching at Terreton. He told me he looks forward to the event every year, and this year he pulled our Superintendent Mr. Williams into the experience, too. One day, his show and tell was bringing in Mr. Williams for a Q & A session. On the last day of the week, his show and tell was to do a live rock concert for the students, and again Mr. Williams came and helped. They sang songs on both their acoustic guitars and their electric guitars, and they had me join as the drummer on the final song, too. It was such a fun week: for me AND my students! I will always be grateful to my West J administration for supporting me and my endeavors both in and out of the classroom. I was very lucky to work for such understanding, talented, fun, and professional administrators!

Josh and I had a low-key wedding anniversary this year: we went to the small, nearby town of Leadore! It's never been a destination for us, but we didn't have a lot of time to go out of town this year (we had kids' sporting events on Friday, and an appointment on Sunday). We ate dinner together at their newest restaurant The Depot on Saturday night the 10th. Thankfully, it wasn't very busy and we were pleased with their service. After dinner, we planned on going Jeep/tent camping east of Leadore, but it was SO cold and SUPER windy, that after we arrived at the campground, we didn't want to spend the entire night freezing and uncomfortable with the howling wind, so we called the local hotel, and we spent the night there instead! Happy 23 years to us! 

Jonah got his patriarchal blessing on Sunday, April 11. For a while, nobody could get any patriarchal blessings due to the COVID pandemic. We were grateful when the policy changed, and blessings were once again allowed. It was a nice experience.

On April 13, Josh happened to come home from work mid-day to do some things at the house, and he heard a bunch of sirens really close to the house. Edward had started a pile of trees on fire in the field below our house, and then had left the site to do some other things, and the wind blew the fire across his dry field and up to some trees lining the ditch. Barb noticed the spreading fire and called 9-1-1, and thankfully the fire trucks arrived before the fire spread up the ditch to her log home!

Tim & Barb's house is on the hill above/behind those trees.

Our house is across the ditch line to the right of the fire.

We went camping as a family for the first time this season on Saturday, April 16 during Stake Conference weekend. We took the boys to Williams Lake campground--our usual spot. The weather was nice and the short camping trip was relaxing!

We have a family goal of taking the boys golfing several times this year, so after we got back from camping, we took them to the golf course since it was such lovely weather! It's a nice family activity, and we always feel happy when we get to hang out on Josh's beautiful course!

We didn't have enough time to play the Saran Wrap game when we went to my mom's house for Easter, so she sent it home with us to play, and we played it for FHE in mid-April. She wraps up money and candy and prizes in a giant wad of Saran Wrap. To play, you roll a set of dice over and over. When you get doubles, you get to start trying to unroll the wad using only one hand. You get to keep whatever you unroll until the next person rolls doubles with the dice, then they take the wad. The game keeps going until the center of the wad is unwrapped (usually where the largest cash prize is) and taken. I'm so grateful for a mom who's fun and creative and makes fun things to do when we're together!

One night in April when I came home mid-week from Mud Lake, Josh took me out to dinner to the Ranch. They have Josh's favorite Prime Rib in town, and it's only served on Wednesdays. He's made me a believer in that menu item (I usually order seafood when we go out because I don't cook it at home), and I usually order Prime Rib when we eat at the Ranch now, too!!

My Dominoes group celebrated our friend Angie's birthday in late April. I hosted this time around at my rental home in Terreton. We ate good food, played games, laughed a lot, and Tanis surprised us all with matching caps that say "Hot Mess just doing my best" (part of an inside joke in the group). Val also gifted us all the best flavored rice crispie treats I've ever had. They're made by an East Idaho company, and were SO yummy! I just love spending time with these ladies!

Amanda and Ryan were special guests in my classroom at the end of April. They were driving through on their way to Salmon, and it was so nice of them to stop and talk to my class. I share so much about myself with my students, and I'd told them often about my best friend Amanda, and I've talked to them about Ryan, too, so it was nice for them to be able to meet my besties in person! I love that my friends took the time to come to my classroom! And my students enjoyed it, too!