Killing time

I'm not gonna lie--this week has been a little rough. Part of that is because the cold I caught two weeks ago returned on Monday with a vengeance. And part of that is because Dan has had two separate out-of-town trips this week (Wed-Thurs to Colorado and the ACS meetings; yesterday and today a geology fieldtrip). I'm happy he has a chance to go do cool things (really!), but I miss him. And the kids often do better with both parents in the house.

Yesterday, I tried to distract everyone by getting out of the house. At my friend's suggestion, we tried a park hop: we went to three different parks over two hours and had a picnic lunch at the last park. It was surprisingly enjoyable, even for me (usually I find parks slightly boring since my job is mostly to make sure Oliver doesn't get stuck climbing somewhere too high for him). The weather was perfect: though it does make me nervous what it's going to look like in two months if it's this nice now.

After Oliver's nap, we drove west of town to Old Irontown, the first pioneer settlement in the area. There's not a whole lot left, but the kids were especially interested in the old beehive building where they burned wood for charcoal--and the lizards. Oliver said, "Mommy, there's another crocodile! Lizard." I thought it was funny that a) he knew what a crocodile was, b) that he thought these teeny 4 inch lizards might be one and c) that he corrected himself!

Surprisingly enough, a newer housing settlement has built up around the site--after seeing houses few and far between in the miles leading up to Old Irontown, I was shocked to see so many houses clustered around the ruins. At least it meant the road wasn't terrible.

The week itself was fairly busy too: Evelyn had practice every day this week. Andrew had Tae Kwon do on Wednesday. And classes continued as usual. My parents spent the night Wednesday, on their way to Arizona. It was fun to see them--and nice to have back-up grown-ups in the house (Andrew wouldn't have made it to his practice otherwise).

Andrew has been tearing through Harry Potter this week. Yesterday he came upstairs to talk to me, distraught. (He'd just finished book six. And yes, I know the later books are dark--possibly too dark for a nine-year-old. But we warned him and he decided to try them anyway.) And weirdly, I liked that he was so upset--it reminded me that he's still a kid and he has a good heart.

Before I sign off, here's a funny story overheard this week:

Andrew to Evelyn: "You know Katniss from the Hunger Games? Oliver isn't Katniss--he's cuteness."

(Btw--neither of them have seen or read Hunger Games.)

Science Fair, Derbys and Books--oh my!

Another fun and busy week is behind us.

Dan was in charge of the pinewood derby for Scouts on Thursday, which meant, among other things, both of us working on Andrew's car less than two hours before it was supposed to be there for the derby. Andrew came up with the design and then left us to the grunt work. Dan had cut the car into shape and sprayed it black earlier in the week; I put masking tape over all the black areas and Dan sprayed it gold. It was supposed to look as if flames were coming up the side and back, but the gold smudged more than expected. Andrew got 15th of 16th place with it, but he was pretty philosophical about it (which was good, because if he'd complained he might find himself in sole charge of the car next year. He still might).

Poor Dan hardly had time to breathe between the end of the derby and Science Fair the next day at SUU, something he's spent weeks helping with (luckily, he was not in charge). I think it went well: he came home with two boxes of pizza (they had LOTS of leftovers) just in time for me me to get picked up by my friend Elaine and I headed north for a writing conference in Provo. I got to meet lots of cool Utah-based writers and even learn a few things (including new things to worry about in publishing!). Mostly, it was fun to connect with other writers and remember why I love writing and the terrific writing community in the state. I also got to meet up with three of my agency sisters!

While I was gone, Dan and the kids did yard work and then went swimming and apparently didn't miss me at all--though Oliver was very excited to see me at 3 am after he'd spent the better part of an hour trying to attract one or the other of us (he didn't seem particularly upset or hurt, which is why we let him go so long).

Evelyn continues with near daily rehearsals for her play, which she luckily still seems to enjoy.

I had both book group and writer's group this week, which only added to the craziness. For book group, we read Anthony Doerr's All the Light We Cannot See, which is a lovely WWII-era book about basically good people caught up in extraordinary circumstances. And because it was set in France, we got to enjoy fondue, chocolate, and toasted bread and cheese before we discussed.

I'm sorry this is so scrambled--that's a bit how my brain feels at the end of all of this! Here's hoping our readers had equally enjoyable and productive weeks.

Pi day and other adventures

Like a lot of our family and friends, we celebrated pi day yesterday (3.14.15). We were up in Salt Lake City, visiting Sarah and her family, so we got to celebrate with cousins, which made things even better. We went to an old pizzeria near the U of U campus called, appropriately, pi (with the symbol). Dan and I ordered a thai style pizza which was very good--but made me realize that I prefer more traditional pizzas.

The kids devoured the breadstick pull-aparts we ordered for them, so everyone was happy but Andrew, who wanted his favorite (sausage and pineapple) despite the fact that no one else wanted to order that.

Later that afternoon, we had actual pies--store bought, but home cooked--and pot pies for dinner. (I remembered why we usually make our pot pies on the infrequent occasions we have them.)

Mostly, it was just fun to hang out with family. (And Dan was nice enough to let me disappear for an hour to go to a book launch I wanted to attend. I'm doing early research on what I like in book launches . . . )

To backtrack a little.

This week was our spring break, which meant that it mostly looked like any other day. Dan went in to work most days, the kids had school, and the only difference was I didn't have to teach my class. So how did I celebrate? By driving to Provo to visit a friend's creative writing class at BYU and talking to them about writing--my first official author visit! It was a lot of fun, and we had a yummy brunch at Kneaders afterward. Turns out, I *do* know a few things about the process of trying to get a book published. (Also, my mom and I went shopping the night before my presentation.)

Friday, we decided (or to be honest, I decided and Dan was a good sport about it) that we wanted to do something for the break, so we took the kids out of school and drove up to Provo. We hung out with my parents and my brother's three youngest kids that afternoon, and then Dan took Evelyn to a movie while Andrew and I drove up to Salt Lake to attend a huge book launch for Brandon Mull's newest book. Also present were Brandon Sanderson, Chad Morris, Christopher Paolini, and Richard Paul Evans. So, uh, no big deal.

We made a point to get there early--we arrived around 6, the doors opened around 6:30, and the show started a little after 7. I'm glad we did--there was still quite a line when we got there, but we were able to get a book for the signing (we'd already brought a huge stack with us) that got us a spot in Brandon Mull's line (#42).

I've never been to a book launch that was anything like this. They threw swag to the audience (T-shirts and glow sticks). They had a bunch of comedy sketches. My favorite had Christopher Paolini as the Bachelor, and his options were Katniss (Hunger Games), Bella Swann (Twilight), Eponine (Les Miserables) and Dora the Explorer. You can imagine how that played out: Katniss was terrifying and focused on survival, Bella was a bit vampire obsessed, Eponine was extremely co-dependent, and Dora was, well, Dora.

And then there was the book signing. There were hundreds of people there--I'm sure some of the lines must have lasted until midnight. We got in line to see Christopher Paolini first, since we had a numbered spot in Brandon Mull's line. Christopher was very gracious: he asked Andrew about his favorite scenes in the books, and then, when I  mentioned we were going to be editor siblings (his editor is the one who bought my books), he got really excited and waxed rapturous about what a fantastic person she is--which was very  nice to hear.

We got done with the signings about 9:30--and there was still a very long line behind us. It makes me happy to see so much enthusiasm for books, though realistically, I will never have a signing like that in my life! Still, something to dream about.

Parent Teacher conferences

This week has been pretty ordinary. I wish I could say that every week is full of rainbows and starbeams and dancing unicorns (oh, wait, there was that Just Dance version of "Holding out for a Hero" . . . got the unicorns covered this week), but most of the time, it isn't.

This week was a little off because of SEPs (and parent-teacher conferences), which meant the kids got out early every day, which was awkward for the days I teach when they got out before I was done teaching. But we managed to make it work (with some help from Bubby and some neighbors).

The kids are doing well in school: Andrew reads at the highest reading level they test for at the school, so we don't really know his level. He does well at most academic subjects, except handwriting (and homework). His teacher said she enjoys having him in class, which is always good to hear!

More surprisingly, Evelyn's teacher said she was one of the top students in terms of reading and math. I suppose because Andrew has always been so driven and Evelyn hasn't, I think of her as a more average student. Apparently that's not entirely true. Evelyn's real strength is in how friendly she is to everyone around her--lots of people love her because she loves everyone.

There are a lot of things I could improve on as a parent, but at SEP I'm always gratified to realize that at least I've taught my children to love reading, and that goes a long way in school.

We made a quick stop at the book fair after conferences (buy one get one free! how can I pass that up for books?). Dan stayed with us to make sure I didn't cave and buy too many books. ;)

The rest of the week was pretty ordinary: school, work, scouts, writer's group. I had student conferences this week with my students instead of holding a traditional class--I'm always surprised to remember both how helpful one-on-one conferences are--and how draining.

Oliver got to go to the doctor this week for a steroid shot to head off croup--but other than that he's done pretty well. Until he puked in nursery today. (He told Dan, "I don't like that cheese. I choked on the cheese." So maybe it was food related. Or maybe we finally caught the stomach bug that we've managed to avoid so far. I'm hoping for the former.)

The kids' highlight was probably going swimming yesterday--until the pool was closed because some kid left some poop floating in the toddler pool area. (Always a fun way to end things).

This week is spring break for Dan and I--which I'm hoping translates into: get lots of work done! We'll see.

Blue and Gold

Our big highlight this week was the Blue and Gold banquet for scouting--mostly because Dan was in charge and this represented the culmination of a lot of work. By all accounts (I was home with Oliver), it went really well. Working around a "Klondike" theme, the kids went to various stations on the Iditarod trail to complete different tasks.

Evelyn had practice for her play twice this week--easing into the four times she gets to go next week! (And pretty much the whole month). She also had her last tumbling class--I think she made it to three or four of the eight practices because I didn't expect the play when I signed her up. We'll plan better next time.

Andrew continues to surprise me sometimes: he brought me a picture he'd drawn at school this week (and now I can't find the original) of him, a brown-haired girl with blue eyes, and a little boy. He explained that they were supposed to draw a dream for their future. I was surprised--and touched--that his dream revolves around his future family. Sometimes he's so focused and determined that it's easy to forget how sensitive he can be too.

He was less than appreciative, however, of Oliver's inventive song lyrics. To the tune of "The Wheels on the Bus," we caught Oliver singing, "The Andrews on the bus go whack! whack! whack!" and "The ninjas on the bus go kick, kick kick!"

I went to a couple of job talks at SUU this week--the head of the search committee asked me to, after I dropped out of that particular search and was no longer personally invested in it! It was a little surreal to think that if my book hadn't sold it might have been me up there, but listening to the talks confirmed my decision. One of the candidates was so enthusiastic about the position and the program that it was clear (to me at least) that the department would be in good hands, and so I gave myself permission to stop feeling guilty about not pursuing the job.

Our weekend has been kind of quiet--yesterday, Dan and I traded off: Dan spent the morning and early afternoon helping with the Science Olympiad on campus, and I spent the late afternoon at a mini writing retreat doing some much needed writing. Oliver and Evelyn "helped" me shovel the sidewalks (we got maybe 8 inches of very wet snow) by playing in the snow while I worked.

And the only other thing of note from the week was that a friend alerted me that my book is already on Goodreads (!!). Forgive me for geeking out about this, but it's still exciting to me.