Friday, March 12, 2010

Here Comes the Sun

Today was Jarom's last day at his job shadow. Steve was cool and let Jarom help him make stuff and run errands with him. Jarom's sad it's over.

Sheri and I went to writing group again this week. Mrs. Bean had so much stuff to look at we had hardly any time to really look things over. Booklets of poetry, recipe books, life stories, all sorts of booklets. Most of the other people looked at the poetry. Sheri and I were oohing and aahing over the typefaces, hand stitched bindings and crinkly handmade paper with dried flowers and juniper "leaves" pressed into it. And the full bleed recipe book with color photos. Are we graphics geeks or what?

I did read a few of the poems and writings. One of the stories I liked the best was about a woman who - I can't remember her name - LeeAnn maybe? Anyway, when she got a copy of her birth certificate years later, she noticed the Dr. had written "Gertrude" as her name. Later she discovered he was drunk when he filled out the birth certificate.

Mrs. Bean told a sad story about one of her favorite students. He was in her junior English class several years ago. The summer after his junior year, he drowned in Bear Lake. She had collected his poems over the school year and presented them to his Dad when she found out about his death. His Dad was so excited to have something that represented his son's thoughts and feelings that he made a booklet of the poems and handed them out at the viewing. Wow. How sad, but how great that Mrs. Bean had that to give him.

What's the deal with people dying over summer vacation? My friend Paul and my favorite math teacher both died the summer after my sophomore year. Too bad our English teacher didn't have us write poetry. Maybe Paul's dad could have made a booklet. Who knows what's going to happen, though?

Meagan and I went to the RS Birthday party on Wednesday. We were only an hour late. I thought we weren't going. The next thing I know, Meagan is all ready to go, so we went anyway. They actually had food I could eat - meatballs, rice and green salad. They had vanilla ice cream, too, which I ate even though I shouldn't have. For me, going to dinner parties is like walking into a minefield.

We get to sign Amber up for 7th grade next week. Wow. No more kids in elementary school. We've had kids in elementary school for the last 16 years. This is going to be weird.

Amber wanted to walk home from school today. I told her she couldn't unless she had someone to walk with. "But Mom, I need exercise!" she replied. She's right about that. Don't we all? Maybe Amber and I will have to start walking together now that the weather is warming up - which I'm really excited about!

4 comments:

irish said...

glad you found something to eat at the party. amber will be able to walk to school next year, so close to your house, but it would be good to walk w/other kids. steve sounds like a good guy to work with and have for a friend. mrs. bean makes things interesting at her classes. lots of love

Bekah, Cameron, and Cayden said...

Wow! I can't believe Amber is going to be in j.r. High. So, what is this writing thing you are doing? Do you go to an actual class?

M3@9@N said...

haha... yup. the weather is TOTALLY warming up! it's even snowing for you two! :P

maybe next time we go to a dinner party we should get your battle gear on! and a little "metal detector" for the mines... or something. XD

heidi said...

Mom - I'm glad I found something to eat, too! Yeah, Steve is a good guy. A few good things came of working at MSC. Mrs. Bean's class/group is fun, I'm glad Anne told Sheri about it.

Bek - I can't believe Amber's old enough to be in Jr. High either. Mrs. Bean's writing group is kind of like a class. It's at the library every other Tuesday afternoon for a couple of hours. I'm also taking a writing class through the Institute of Children's Literature. I've written a few stories and articles and I've learned a lot. It's a correspondence course, which takes longer than a regular course but allows me to work at my own pace, which is good.

Meagie - Yeah, it's Utah. Hard to guess what the weather's gonna be. The trend, however, is going towards warmer. I think. Find the battle gear and we'll take it with us next time. Sounds good to me!