A plague on both your houses

Actually, there's just one plague. At our house. About midweek, Oliver started acting quite cranky, and by Thursday he had little rashy-spots all over his legs and arms. A few of them even looked blisterish, which confirmed (for me, at least) that he'd contracted the hand-foot-mouth virus that's been going around town. (I did talk to a nurse, but she said that unless his symptoms got worse, he didn't need to come in, since they can't treat HFM, only the symptoms). He's finally starting to look better--and eat a little more--and now both Andrew and Evelyn are getting sick. Evelyn was feverish yesterday and fell asleep on the couch several times before going to bed at 6 (which never happens!). And today Andrew has a low fever and his throat hurts . . . le sigh.

I'm just hoping whatever Andrew has he'll be better by Wednesday because, um, this happened:

Andrew got first place in the second grade science fair! Which means he's going to district fair on Wednesday (assuming he's not still plague-ridden). I was pleased for him, and for Evelyn (who got an honorable mention). But a small part of me worries about next year: Andrew got first last year, too, and one of these years the subjective nature of the science fair is going to catch up with him and he won't win . . . but I guess that will be good for him.

The other big event of the week--of my week, I suppose--was the first SCBWI (Society of Children's Book Writers and Illustrators) writing conference in southern Utah, which was held yesterday in town. My friend Erin is the new regional director, so she roped a couple of us in to helping her. Thankfully, everything went smoothly and we heard some great presentations from Ally Condie and Ann Dee Ellis (who went to high school with me; she graduated in Jared's class). It's always weirdly encouraging and daunting to hear other people's roads to publication--both, "it happened to them, it could happen to me!" but also fear (and what is it, exactly, that I'm so afraid of . . . ?)

This was also my first time presenting at a writer's conference: I got to talk about giving feedback, something I do all the time for my day job, and also something I'll be presenting on in another month for another writing conference, so it was great to have a dry run. And hopefully a little bit helpful for the attendees. Still, after all that, plus women's conference, I'm glad to be home with my family (even if all the kids are sick now . . . )

Science Fair

The big event this week was the annual torture trial experience of the science fair. In theory, of course, the kids do all their own work: design the experiment, conduct it, analyze the data, and present it. In practice, for children in the younger grades especially, they need a lot of coaching through it. The kids came up with their own topics (though Evelyn's, "I want to study flowers" wasn't very helpful), and then we asked them questions to help them figure out what they wanted to do.

Andrew wanted to find out what kind of ice cream was best to take on a picnic (i.e., which took the longest to melt). This was actually kind of fun. We got a bunch of different kinds of vanilla ice cream and then tested them to see how long they took to melt. We did a few different trial runs to make sure the times were relatively average. In all honesty, it was a good experience: we got to talk to Andrew about confounding variables (although we didn't use that term) and why in an experiment he wanted to control as much as possible (hence the all vanilla ice cream, the testing at the same time, and testing the same amount of ice cream).

So far, so good. But then we have to put together a poster, which means him typing forever, lots of cutting and pasting, lots of discussion--especially about how to graph his results to show how melting time related to a) grams of fat and b) grams of sugar.

And I got the smart idea to put both their posters together on Wednesday, which was early out day. In theory, we'd have lots of time. In practice, I forget that neither kid can really assemble their poster unsupervised, so what this means is lots of work for me. Dan wound up making dinner that night (pancakes) and then helped me get ready for book club, which, in some fit of optimism last month, I'd offered to host this month (clearly, I wasn't thinking of proximity to the science fair).

But we got everything done and the posters turned out all right (I'll have to get some pictures--I forgot to take them day of) and the book group was fun (we read Melissa Dalton-Bradford's lovely Global Mom).

Best of all: no more science fair for another year!

It was also science fair time for Dan on campus, as the university hosts the junior high and high school regional fairs. The winners get to go to the National Science Fair, held in May in Los Angeles (to which Dan will also be going).

This weekend Dan helped out on a geology field trip, which meant he left early yesterday morning and came back around 6 today. These experiences are good all around: they're good for Dan, who generally enjoys being with the students and cooking for them (he volunteered to be the primary chef--see why I love this man?). They're good for the students, who got fed Japanese-style curry and buttermilk scones for dinner (I'll bet most of them have never had such decadent camping food!). And they're good for me and the kids, who realize more than ever how much we rely on him. Needless to say, everyone was very happy to see him this afternoon.

Gettin' cultured

This week was spring break for Dan and I--but spring break in name only, really. Dan still went to work every day (though his hours were shorter); I still had my own work to do everyday while the baby slept. Plus, the kids were still in school, which makes it hard to go anywhere. On the plus side, we did use the time to get a little ahead on projects. (Chapter revision: done! Now if only I had a clone to do my grading for me . . . )

Thursday I had the opportunity to help judge the District Spelling bee. The school district here is working hard to meet the requirements necessary to be part of the actual Scripps program, which means they have to hold spelling bees for a requisite number of years following Scripps rules (I'm not sure how many years). But I was so impressed by the 8 kids there, all of whom won their school spelling bees--and two of whom had memorized the entire nearly thousand word list. (And one of whom was nearly heart-broken when he got ahead of himself and misspelled a word he knew.)

Our Thursday was unexpectedly complicated by a leak under the kitchen sink--the connector for the hot water hose popped off, spewing hot water all over the floor (and, courtesy of a vent at the floor level), all over the storage/laundry room below. Luckily we were able to contain the leak pretty quickly and nothing major was damaged, but it was still a mess to clean up. Bonus: we did get the storage room cleaned and organized . . .

We salvaged a remnant of the break Friday by taking the kids out of school. To make sure things were still semi-educational (actually, we just wanted to go), we took them to the zoo. Oliver was fascinated by all the "puppies" (his only animal-related word); Evelyn got to see not one but two wolves (her current favorite animal, thanks largely--I think--to Frozen); and Andrew got to show off his impressive knowledge of animals. He did not, to his immense disappointment, find a stuffed piranha in the giftshop.

 (Can you tell Oliver loved the bird nest? Nice snot rocket, kid . . . )



That night, we went and saw Dan's nephew, Jake, in an actually decent middle school performance of Oliver! (No relation to ours). Most of the leads were pretty good, and the cast had a great energy. Jake, who is normally a calm, mellow, gentle giant of a boy, got cast as Bill Sykes. It was impressive (if startling) to see him transform into a violent criminal. And I have to admit I got a little emotional watching the performance. Not because of the storyline, which, in the time-honored tradition of musicals, doesn't actually make a lot of sense if you think about it too much (and don't know the longer backstory of the novel). But because of the kids. All these thirteen and fourteen year olds on the cusp of big and tremendous things in their lives. Most still in that awkward phase (though the lead for Nancy seemed pretty comfortable with herself). But so much potential there . . . makes me grateful that I get to work with the youth at church.

Which incidentally reminds me of one other highlight from the week: for our mutual activity on Tuesday, the Mia Maids and Laurels (14-18 year olds) played hide and seek at the university president's house (his daughter happens to be one of our Mia Maids). It was pretty awesome--and not something I ever expected to do!

On Saturday, we spent more time with family. We saw my brother Justin and his kids for a little while Saturday morning, and then we headed up to Salt Lake to spend a little more time with Sarah. Actually, I wanted to go to a book signing for one of my sister's author friends and got to see my sister in the bargain (score!). I enjoyed listening to the author, Bree Despain, talk about the story genesis of her newest book. And it's refreshing to hear a published author confess that she waited so long to write this book (She started it 7 years ago) because she wasn't sure then that she was a good enough writer. I just have to remind myself of this: if I'm not good enough yet, that doesn't mean I won't ever be good enough.

And that night Andrew and I went to my niece Emi's dance recital. I'd forgotten until after I arrived that my niece studies Irish dancing--but that made for a nice surprise. I love Irish music and dancing and I loved the costumes and dancers. The younger dancers, like my niece, weren't quite as proficient, but they were still fun to watch.

Spring Breaking

I attended a fireside tonight for the youth in our ward, and one of the questions asked (the bishop had collected questions from the youth beforehand) was about journal writing: why do we do it? And: do we have to write every day?

We write for a lot of reasons. We write to remember the major happenings in our life (because at our age, we've begun to realize that we won't actually remember everything that seems unforgettable in the moment). We write, as my friend Alisa pointed out, because reflection is often the most important part of learning. We write to remember the tender mercies of God in our lives.

And sometimes we write because we can't help ourselves.

I'm aware that not many people read this blog any more, and I'm okay with that. It started originally as a way for grandparents in distant states to keep tabs on their grandkids; that's still pretty much what it does, though the distance is much  narrower these days.

This week has been sort of a mixed week. Not as hectic as last week, which means not as much to report. Dan attended a mini-Philmont scouting workshop yesterday and came home with all kinds of great ideas for his job as cub master.

We had parent teacher conferences with both kids parents and discovered what we already knew: Evelyn gets along with just about everyone (plus, she's a better reader than I'd realized, since my baseline of comparison was Andrew); and Andrew is highly motivated. In fact, his teacher just sort of sat back and shook her head. This year she has four little boys (Andrew's one of the ring leaders) who drive each other to do harder math and read harder books. Case in point: each year, the students fill out a "Thousands" book where the write the numbers 0-1000 by ones, tens, twenty-fives, and hundreds. In previous years, the highest she's had students go is to the 2 thousands. This year, thanks to Andrew and his competitive drive (and his competitive friends), Andrew is now in his *nine* thousand book, and his friends aren't far behind. It's always gratifying to hear that the kids are doing well. Andrew can act up a lot at home (he gets easily frustrated) so it's nice to know he's thriving at school--though I'm beginning to worry about what will happen next year when he has a teacher that isn't so dedicated as his current one (She's been terrific--she goes out of her way to make sure each student has reading and math assignments appropriate to their abilities, regardless of what the rest of the class is doing).

And Oliver is still pretty charming, though he's been sick the last few days. Croup, and now a cold (bronchiolitis?) on top of that. But he's at that fun stage where his vocabulary is exploding: Dan brought home a pizza from a school activity on Wednesday and the next day when I asked Oliver if he wanted some, he crowed, "pippa! pippa!" I didn't even know he recognized the word. Other new words include: baba (bottle), wawa (also bottle--I think the distinction is one holds water and the other holds milk), koo-kie (cookie), chee (cheese), down, and more that I can't remember right now.

And as always, he's obsessed with balls and rocks (maybe because they look like balls? Or maybe he really is a budding geologist. Poppy should be proud).

But he still calls me "daddy!" (And Dan, too.)

Spelling Bees and other News

My parents graciously came down south to stay with us this week while my usual babysitter was off enjoying herself in Arizona. I was very glad to have them, as this week was unexpectedly busy. In addition to the usual school stuff, in the evenings I had Young Women, a resurgence of our book group (which hasn't met in about 9 months), and a writer's group meeting. Dan had his pinewood derby planned for Scouts this week--only the guy with the track never showed up.

And of course, there was the Spelling Bee. Andrew has been studying his word list for weeks now. (I don't think I've ever seen him work so hard). He aced his class spelling test to get to the school spelling bee, and then spent the weeks leading up to the bee reviewing his words. Last week, I think we went through the whole list (about 110 words for his age group) at least four times.

It did get a little tricky going into the bee--I'd been asked to be one of the judges well before we found out Andrew was going to the bee. I was concerned that some of the parents would be upset if I were judging and my kid competed, but the woman who organized it didn't seem to think it was an issue. Of course, then I wound up being the *main* judge who read all the words out loud. I think I was about as nervous as Andrew was--my hands were shaking nearly the entire time. Every so often I'd scan ahead to see what word Andrew was due to have (I went through the word list in order; the kids drew numbers to determine their order). Then I'd either hold my breath till he spelled it, or breathe (one of the words!) a sigh of relief to see it was one I knew he knew.

Waiting for the Spelling Bee to start

It was pretty obvious which kids had studied in Andrew's group. Within two or three rounds, we were down to a group of kids who had all memorized the entire list. There were still six kids (including Andrew) left when we ran out of words and went on to the challenge round, with words none of them had seen. That first challenge round eliminated four of the six--and then it was just Andrew and one other little girl. (He spelled "sushi" correctly). Since official rules say that a winner has to spell their opponent's misspelled word correctly as well as their own word, it took a while to determine a winner--they both misspelled several of the same words. But then she misspelled "floss," and Andrew was able to spell "floss" and "slave" to win. (I told him he was lucky--the word after "slave" was "discipline," which he surely would have missed).

He was sure thrilled to win. He pumped his fist right there on stage and insisted on carrying his newly won scooter to class with him afterward. And while there was certainly a dimension of luck involved, I was proud of him for wanting something badly enough to work hard at it.

The upper grades (4-5) bee was, oddly enough, much faster. Probably because their word list was so much longer, none of the kids had a chance to memorize the entire list. Within two rounds they were down to three girls; one round later there was a winner, and the other two girls had to compete for second place. I'm kind of relieved Andrew wasn't in this group as they now have to prepare for the district bee (which, not quite coincidentally, I'm also judging at. What can I say? I kind of love spelling bees.)

After a busy week, our Saturday was only marginally less so. Dan spent the morning on campus helping with the regional Science Olympiad and then took the two older kids to the women's basketball game; I stayed home with Oliver and then Evelyn and I went--once more--to see Frozen. I told her this is the last time we'll see it in theaters (four times for her is plenty!). She didn't seem worried. Then again, we do already have it on pre-order.

I haven't said much about Oliver here--he's still busy as ever and quite won over his grandparents. He's also busy adding words to his repertoire: sock, book, bird (maybe?), "need dat," cheese, and more.