I'm still alive... I bet you were wondering.

Oi.

I bet you thought I dropped off the face of the planet, didn't you?

Nope. Still here.

So much has been happening in life, where do I start to bring you back up to speed?

Logical timelines are boring, and I'm sure to leave some important stuff out, so I will just hodge-podge my way through this post, much like I do with life. I'm sure to forget lots of important details and we can only hope that I'll remember to bring stuff up in some later post.

I'm back, baby! And I'll try to stay for a while, though in a moment you will learn why sticking around and visiting with you will amount to an herculean task for me.

Current events of my life in a nutshell:

• About a year and a half ago, I was approached over the course of several months by a couple of BYU professors who were supposed to be monitoring and evaluating their student teacher in my care. Rather than watching her, however, they were recruiting me for their Master's of Art in Art Education program. I said "thanks, but no thanks... I can't afford it." Their response was to assure me that they had a grant that would cover the cost of tuition! That was the impetus I needed to make a huge life decision. I jumped into the deep end with both feet and began my Master's. Of course, life is never so neat and tidy. The "full tuition" grant turned out to be only partial tuition and has left me scrambling to come up with the rest of the funding for my education; but I believe it will be worth it in the end. I will get a significant pay raise once I earn the degree, and I'm working with BYU on adding a secondary teaching certificate to my degree so that I can expand my teaching range up into the middle and high schools.

• The Master's program is in full swing and I am treading water. I'm coming up on the end of my second semester and still have my head above the foam, so to speak. I have written more words in the past few months that I have written since... well, since I last visited with you, to be honest. This program is thesis driven, so I will be writing a great many more words before all is said and done. I seem to be holding my own, and I think I have a lifetime of journal writing to thank for that.

• In the process of jumping into my Master's, I've also started pushing myself to grow as an artist. I set up my studio in my classroom and have produced more artwork in the past year than I have in a long time. I attended the UAEA (Utah Art Education Association) conference and as a result I'm now enrolled to take a three day seminar called the DaVinci Initiative this summer. It is a crash course in atelier training. That's old school artistic training. This will be on top of my summer course load at BYU, of course. I also met some other artists at the conference who have invited me to studio sessions with them. I am now meeting up with a group of artists every Saturday morning to work on figure drawing from a live model. THAT is really pushing me! I rely on photo reference so I can work slowly and precisely. Having to do quick live sketches forces me to be more speedy in my observational skills.

Yawn. Am I putting you to sleep, yet? I'm putting myself to sleep, so let's move this thing along:

• We have a new principal at Harvest who is not convinced that art is all that important. He sees it as "icing" to be enjoyed after the meatier subjects are consumed. We've had some intellectual discussions as I have labored to persuade him otherwise. I feel like I am making some progress. 

• Another BYU professor, is approaching me with a proposal to give me the opportunity to work full time at my school by converting my job with the Beverley Taylor Sorensen grant. I won't go on and on about it, because details are killing this post. If it happens, it will mean more money for me, and a full time job on top of full time school next Fall. Stress, stress, stress, stress. But exciting, nonetheless. More on that later.

• One HUGE development is that HELENA IS GETTING MARRIED! Her fiance, Jayce Morgan, proposed on Christmas Eve in front of all of us and they are getting married on Monday, May 16th. Wedding plans are in full swing and I'll probably write some dedicated posts just about all things wedding in the near future.

• Another huge upcoming event is that MATT IS ALSO GETTING MARRIED! He and his fiancee, Kara, were supposed to be getting married this month, but they have pushed the wedding back to September 24th. They haven't discussed many wedding details with us, besides the fact that she has her dress and their colors will be red, black, and silver.

• To round out my updates on my kids, Will is currently working as a "grease monkey" as a local Grease and Go. It's an oil and lube kind of place. He is covered in black, sooty greasiness more often than not, and is very happy. He bought a Civic, paid it off, and has now bought a little Mazda Miata convertible that is his "project car". He's stripping it down and leaving tiny bits and pieces of it strewn all about my driveway. He's still serving in the Army Reserves one weekend a month and has been promoted to Specialist. He turned in the paperwork to go active duty, but since that has to travel through 9 levels of command structure without getting lost or rejected somewhere along the chain, I'm not going to give it a lot of thought or energy until something comes of it.

There is still lots of life to be told, but this post is already much too long. I will try to write again tomorrow.

Senior Registration - Part 2

Wednesday's registration went off without a single hiccup!  HOORAY!

I admit, I borrow trouble on a regular basis.  On Wednesday afternoon, I hurriedly shut down my classroom early in order to make sure I made it home in plenty of time to sign into class registration at exactly 3:00.  I worried that I'd be stuck in traffic, or that I'd get pulled over and ticketed (so I did NOT speed), or that some less than brilliant individual would unexpectedly pull their minivan in front of me, causing a crash (like that would ever happen...)

Thankfully, none of the above occurred and I arrived at home with almost 30 minutes to spare.

Why exactly 3:00, you ask?  Because that was the moment the registration portal opened... and classes fill up on a first come, first served basis.  If you aren't quick enough, the carefully designed schedule you and your child spent several days constructing could go up in smoke.  That happened to us one year.  I had troubles with signing in that put me 5 minutes behind the curve.  Only 5 minutes.  We were left scrambling to try and construct an acceptable schedule on the fly as classes literally got pulled out from under us right and left.  What a nightmare!

But not this time!  I was in and out and on my way in five minutes!  Of course, I only had to build half of a schedule.  Here it is...

A DAYS
A1  Seminary
A2  AP Calculus AB

B DAYS
B1  English 12
B2  Government/Citizenship (Sem 1) - Weight Training (Sem 2)

That's it!  Will has all his science requirements done.  In fact, he has all his math requirements done, too.  That calculus class is being taken as an elective.

I'm glad I was able to get in successfully, because 4 of the 5 classes I signed him up for were full only moments after I was done.  Weight training was the only one not filled.  That class will be mixed with younger kids.

Will is going to be done at the high school at 10:30 every morning.  That will give him time to come home and eat an early lunch before heading off to his afternoon class at Mountainland Applied Technology College.  I have not yet signed him up for that class, because I have to wait for the admissions to come available.  That won't be until sometime this summer.  But I have spoken to the secretary, gotten his demographics entered in their online system, and am setting up an appointment with the counselor there.  He will be in class at the college from 11:30 until 2:30 every day, learning all sorts of computery stuff.

I think he will be very happy.  All that time just focusing on computers.  Also, high school has not been a great time for him.  His "friends" have turned out to not be very great friends, after all, so I'm hoping he'll meet some new people over at the IT class.  It should be full of high school seniors from schools all over the valley who are all into computer stuff.

In the meantime, Will is still planning on joining the National Guard on his 17th birthday and spending this coming summer at basic training!  More on this later...

Collegiate Compromises

Growing up, I was told "If you're not in school, you're paying rent... or, you can move out."  Bill and I have said the same thing to our kids over the years, too.

But what do you do with the child who is working to save up for college, but doesn't have enough saved for tuition, yet?  And has a difficult time making herself save the money she needs?

You create a win/win compromise situation.

Starting in September, Helena will pay us rent.  Not the cheap I'm-living-with-my-parents-token-rent, either.  Full blown high end rent.  The kind of money she'd have to shell out if she was paying real people rent + car + gas + utilities + food.  The difference, of course, is that we will be putting that money into a savings account for her to pay college tuition.  If she moved out of the house for real, and had to start paying for all of those things, she'd never see that money again.  When she is ready to register, the money will be there for her.

And if she bails on her college plans?

The money will become ours.

Everyone seems very happy with this arrangement.  We'll see how it goes after a few months of rent paying...

Flashback Friday No. 4 - 1992 - AKA: "How I Met Your Father"

Helena has a new favorite TV sit-com.  It is called "How I Met Your Mother".  I thought I'd borrow the title (with a slight twist) for the title of this post.  My life is not a sit-com, of course.  But the title fits.

I promised last week that Flashback Friday this week would be a flashback to the day I met Bill.  So, in honor of that promise, here it is!

*****

December 6, 1992


Well, I've done it again.  I must be the most fickle girl in the world.


My relationship with Kevin has been developing slowly but surely.  We spend a lot of time with each other and I am very sorry to say, he has been a serious distraction to my studies.


On Friday night (tonight being Sunday) Kevin and I went ice-skating and had a good time.  Then, on Saturday, two of my room-mates and I decided to go ice-skating again.  Tina had never been, and Sheri had only been once, in 2nd grade.


So we went.  I was having a good time teaching them to skate, when all of a sudden, an extremely good looking man skated by.  I smiled at him and he smiled back.  I was smitten.  I smiled at him several times and even said "hi".  I noticed that he seemed to be alone and I decided to go up to him and strike a conversation.


I skated right up to him and asked "Are you here alone?"  Indeed he was.  We ended up skating together for the rest of the evening.  In fact, when my room-mates were ready to leave, he asked if I could drop them off and come back; because he wanted to skate with me some more.  So I did.


I found out his name is William Doyle Watson (Bill for short) and he is 22.  Unfortunately, he has not been to college.  I say unfortunately because I am extremely attracted to him and I have always imagined that I could not date anyone who is less educated than I.  (Oh, I was an arrogant idiot!  And it is rather ironic that my grammar is all shot to... well, you get the idea.)  Also unfortunately because my mother did not sound too pleased about the fact that I liked an "uneducated" man.


He may not know as much about ancient cultures and modern philosophies as I, but he knows how to be a perfect gentleman and there was nothing coarse or unrefined about his manners.


He held my hand while we skated, and he bought drinks for myself and my room-mates (at least, he would have bought my room-mates drinks, but they declined)  He is around 6 feet tall and has dark sandy blond (brownish) hair and beautiful blue eyes.  His smile would melt the hardest of hearts.  He is working as a construction worker, but that is not what he wants to do in life.  It sounded like he was interested in attending college.


Do I sound twitter-pated?


The rink was closed early due to all of the snowfall (it was snowing heavily the whole time), so Bill asked me to have dinner with him.  We went to a restaurant called Shashoney's (I am not sure if that is the correct spelling) [It was Shoney's, actually]  We had a wonderful time.  He kept holding my hand, opening doors for me, and being a total gentleman. 


After dinner, he drove me back to my car (which we had left at the skating rink parking lot), then he got out and scraped the windows for me!  Then I told him I had a wonderful time & he said "me too, I didn't expect to be going on a date tonight!"  Then he gave me a hug and kissed me on the cheek.


It all seems so unreal!  It is like a fairytale or a dream!


Oh!  Once when we were going around one of the curves on the rink, some teenage girls (I'd guess they were 10th grade) hollered "Hey, is she your girlfriend?"; and Bill said "Yes"  I laughed and told him they were probably really disappointed.


So, now:  What do I do?  Should I tell Kevin about my "one night stand"?  He is the one who said he wasn't ready to be committed to dating just one person.  If Bill never calls me, then does Kevin really need to know?  Or, if Bill does call & I start dating him, how will I tell Kevin & what will that do to him?  Does the fact that I am extremely attracted to Bill mean that I have been fooling myself about my true feelings for Kevin?  So many questions!  Can I feel right about dating both of them; and is it moral/ethical to kiss two different guys at the same time?  I don't know why I am stressing, he probably will never call.


This has all come at the worst possible time.  Finals are this week and I am failing French.  C'est la vie.

*****

Some of that is embarrassing to put out there.  But, I promised not to self edit.  So that is the real deal.  Exactly what was going through my 22 year old head.

So weird to read that almost 20 years later!

I am so grateful for the journal entries I wrote while we were dating!  Life is not easy, and our marriage has been through some ups and downs (as it has for every one, I'm sure).  We were so young, full of life, optimism, and love.

Everyone entertains the thought "If I knew then what I know now, would I have made the same choice?" ....at least once in their lives.  Most of us ask ourselves that question often.

The answer might change, depending on the circumstances at the time.  But at this very moment I can say I would do everything the same.  Love you, Bill!

Flashback Friday No. 3 - 1991

December 10, 1991


I only have a few minutes in which to write, because today is the last day of my Physical Science class & I decided to attend for once.  Class starts in a little over 10 minutes.


Today is Natalie's 21st Birthday!  I've made her a cake & I'm bringing her a bottle of sparkling cider because she brought me a bottle for my 21st birthday.


Family Home Evening yesterday was a joke.  We tried to organize a trip to Temple Square, but couldn't find enough transportation.  So then no one wanted to go through with planning an alternative.  We ended up going to a movie again, as always, because we couldn't think of anything fun & cheap to do.  I should state, however, that Dave Peterson and Melanie Mills showed up out of the 10 members of the FHE group not living in Shipp 113.  I'm sick of FHE & my FHE group.


Tomorrow is the last class day & we've only a week until finals.  I'm going to have to study alot, & pray some, too, if I hope to do well on my finals!  I can't wait until they are over!  I want to go home.

*****

This was written while I was a student at BYU.  The first paragraph includes a confession.  There were certain classes in my college career that didn't get much face time from me.  I showed up on the first week, picked up the syllabus, and listened to the first lecture or two.  If the class didn't hold my interest, I did my studying at home in the textbook (following the syllabus) and turned up at the testing center on the dates listed in the syllabus to take the tests.  This only worked on those beastly large classes that every undergrad is required to take.  You know, the lecture hall filled with over 600 students all taking notes on whatever the minuscule dot of a man at the front of the room was droning on and on about.  I'd end up pulling a low B or a C in the class and just walk away grateful that one was over with.

In fact, here is an amusing side story about one particular class.  American Heritage is the beast of a class at BYU that EVERYONE must take to get an undergrad degree at that school.  I never went to the lecture.  But there were smaller lab classes that were required and attendance at those was mandatory, since they actually took roll there.  On the first day, the TA running the class called roll for the first time.  When he got to "Katharina Weierholt" on the list he paused and said, "Are you Norwegian?"  Thinking he'd said "Is your name Norwegian?"  I quickly responded with "Yes."  After a bit of reflecting, though, I realized I'd just told this guy that I was, in fact, from Norway.  Oops.

The class was deadly boring.  I decided I'd spice it up (for myself, anyway) by pretending that I WAS from Norway!  This, of course, meant I had to speak in an accent, if I was ever called upon to speak in class.  Which was never, so the accent thing was pretty easy...

...until the day I was sitting in the back of the room, not paying attention.

TA:  "...and has anyone here been inside a European cathedral?"

Me:  (thinking, 'hey, if I'm from Norway, I probably have.  I have no idea what he's even talking about, and I haven't really, but, more than half the class is raising their hands, so he won't call on me in the back.')  Raise hand.

TA:  "Katharina!  Will you tell us what it was like?"

Me:  ('Crap!  How does he even remember my name?  Now what?!?')  "Vell,  Eet vas verry, verry, beeg.  And I felt so verry, verry smøll.  Eet is so verry old.  Een zee aisles, zee floor ees ahl vorn avay, from ahl zee øthare feet who ahve been zaire beefore you.  You feel so  eensigneeficant."

No kidding.  (If any of my Norwegian cousins are reading this, I have to give you a great big apology!  I admit, I was a complete and utter idiot and you deserve better than to be related to me.)

And his response?

TA:  "YES!!!  THAT'S EXACTLY WHAT I WAS TALKING ABOUT!"

Me:  ('Whew!  I am NEVER raising my hand again!') As I slink down in my seat and hope a hole opens up and swallows me whole.

Back to the journal post.  The second paragraph is about my best friend, Natalie.  She was a best friend all growing up and was also at BYU.  We've known each other since we were 10.  We have grown apart over the years, but still keep in touch once a year at Christmas time.  I got her Christmas card in the mail, today, in fact.  She lives in Southern California now, a fact that I try not to be too envious over. ;)

The next part of the journal post is about Family Home Evening at school.  Family Home Evening is one evening of the week dedicated to spending time as a family.  Usually held on a Monday night.  Great for actual families.  Rather goofy and pointless for single college students.  I think it was just another BYU attempt at the 'mix and mingle let's help these singles find a soul mate' gig.  I did NOT find my soul mate at a single's FHE get together.  Obviously, from the tone of this post.

And finally, you can tell from the final sentence just how homesick I was.  Living 900 miles away from all family is tough when you are young and single.  But it is interesting to note that in almost exactly a year, I would meet my future husband on December 6, 1992!  (Yes, there is a post about that.  Maybe you'll get that one next week.)

Car Accident Update

I don't always have a lot to say.  There are gaps in my writing.  I am sorry.  There are just some days that aren't that interesting to write about.  I am not egotistical enough to think that the world wants a blow-by-blow of my daily life, so if I am not inspired on any particular day, I won't write.

My last post was pretty depressing.  That was a truly rough day.  It seemed as though life was trying to beat me down with wave after wave of bad news and conflict.  But, as with most dark days, it couldn't last.  The next day was better.  The bad news didn't go away, of course, and we're still faced with it, but it is not in my nature to brood, mope, or hold a grudge.  Ah.  My redeeming qualities.  I knew I'd figure them out someday.

First of all, an update on the car situation seems to be in order.

Bill, Steven, and Erik all looked at the car and thought it would be a total loss.  My insurance company came out to my school the day after the accident to take pictures and assess the damage, but I didn't hear from the insurance of the girl that hit me.  That got me wondering, so I ended up calling her insurance to report the accident myself.  She had never called them.

Throughout the week, I got multiple phone calls from her insurance, my insurance, and a tow company.  Every call ratcheted up my stress level because I felt like I needed to act NOW and I didn't know what to do.  About mid-week, her insurance sent someone out to my school to take pictures and assess the damage.  He sent me a text to tell me that he was coming, then another to tell me that he had LEFT A CHECK ON MY WINDSHIELD for the cost of the damages!  A check for over $2,400.00 left in the open in a public parking lot?!?

Excuse me?

I called him back and asked him what in the world I was supposed to do with the check?!?  He gave me some garbage about being told that I didn't want to repair the car and just wanted the money for damages.  I gave him an earful and told him I had no intention of cashing that check.

My insurance company has decided the car is a total loss.  They want a towing company to pick it up and take it directly to an inspection yard.  Her insurance company wants me to choose a repair shop and have it repaired, though they admit that once the shop begins to work, they will probably reassess and claim total loss, too.

I have stressed all week about what to do.  Do I go with my insurance or hers?  Option A or option B?

We're going to do option C.

We're going to keep the car, after all.  The insurance will give us a salvage $ amount (which will be more than the amount on the check the moron left on my windshield).  It isn't as much money as the total loss $ amount.  It seems crazy not to go with the biggest payout amount, but bear with me.  The total loss amount requires that we give them the car and find a replacement for it.  The amount will not be enough to buy something decent.  At least, not without a whole lot of looking and luck.  We don't want to end up with a car payment on a car that we intend to send with Helena to college.  We know the Alero.  We know that we've taken good care of the engine and that it should last a good long while, still.  We can pull the rear end of the car back into shape without worrying about cosmetic details for not a lot of money.  I can put the rest into a 6 month CD and sit on it until spring.  Then I'll use it as a down payment on a car for me.  I don't want to get  a car for me in the middle of the holiday season, because then its renewal will hit at the holidays every year.

So, there you have it.  Helena will end up with a knock about salvage title for college and I have 6 months to work out exactly what I want to get for myself to drive.  I really want a sports car, but it will probably end up being an SUV or crossover of some kind with 4WD and room for a bike and/or skis.  I live in Utah, after all.

Car Accident!

On Thursday afternoon, I hurried home from work to pick up Helena and take her to a doctor's appointment.  Just a routine, every day kind of checkup.  However, getting from point A to point B in Utah County these days is an exercise in frustration, no matter which path you choose to take.  Road construction has turned into some kind of mutating virus in the county.  There is no where I can go without running into orange construction cones and flaggers standing there with a stop sign.  I am not exaggerating.  I only wish I was!

As I drove from American Fork to the doctor's office in Orem, I contemplated the pros and cons of side road construction vs. freeway construction.  It was only a little after 4:00, so I thought the freeway would be my best choice, because then I wouldn't have flaggers stopping me.

That turned out to be the wrong choice.

There was a long line of cars trying to merge onto the freeway from the on-ramp when a semi drove past in the merging lane.  The ramp is short, and the cars on it came to a complete stop, unable to merge due to the semi.  YOU ARE NOT SUPPOSED TO COME TO A STOP ON THE ON-RAMP!  But, of course, I had to stop because the cars in front of me were stopped.

The car behind me didn't stop.

You know how you glance in your rear view mirror as you hit your brakes... to check and see if the car behind you notices you are slowing down?  Or is that just me?  Well, I glanced in the rear view and thought she was stopping, so I turned my attention forward because I was a bit freaked to be stopped in the first place when suddenly, with a loud metal punching sound, we lurched forward!  My sunglasses flew off my head as my head snapped backwards, then my whole body surged forward and my head hit the sun visor above the windshield.  I had my whole body weight pressing on the brake pedal, but that didn't stop us from being pushed into the car in front of me.

I said a few choice words and pulled off to the side, along with both the car in front of me and the car behind.  I asked Helena if she was alright.  I knew her head had done the same pinball maneuver mine had; I had seen it in my peripheral vision.  Before the accident, she had been reading a book.  The book was now at my feet.  I was shaking and disoriented.  Just moments before I had tucked my phone under my leg, but now I couldn't remember where it was so I could call 911.

Fortunately, I didn't need to.  The moment I found my phone I looked through the rear view mirror and saw lights flashing behind us.  A patrol car was already on the scene.  He must have been just a few cars behind us on the ramp.  I was so glad!  Only a few moments later, another patrol car arrived.  The first officer talked with the second, then drove away.  The second was a highway patrol.  I wonder if the first was a city policeman and he turned it over to the highway patrol since it was his jurisdiction?  I was too rattled to look.

It took quite a while to get to the point when we could go our way again.  I won't bore you with a blow by blow.  The officer was very friendly and kind.  He took care of all the paperwork for us and had us stay in our car.  I never spoke with the drivers of the other two cars at all.  By the time he told us we could go, Helena's appointment was cancelled and we just headed home.

My soda was sitting in the cup holder when we were hit.  Soda went everywhere, which I only noticed after the fact.  I found it interesting that the soda can itself sustained such damage!

The back end of my car.  The damage doesn't look all that bad, to me, but Bill and Steven both think the insurance company will 'total' the car.  Oh, I hope not!  I do not want to deal with finding another car.  The appraiser came by my school yesterday and took pictures.  We should know by Monday whether it is a repair or replace situation. 

There is no way she can ever deny she was the one who hit me.  Her license plate number is stamped onto my back bumper! 

My front license plate is now all bent out of shape from hitting the car in front of me.  The damage on the front is very minor.  I was shoved into them, but didn't do much damage at all that I could see... if any really.  Probably just some scuffs.

So.  There you go.  Now my back and neck are sore and I have had a constant low-grade headache ever since.  I went to the doctor today.  He didn't seem very interested in seeing me.  He said it was just muscle strain and I should just take anti-inflammatory and rest for a week from my exercise routine.  He gave me a physical therapist recommendation.  It happens to be Bill's physical therapist (from his bike accident) and biking buddy, Russ.  So it is good to already know the therapist.  Though I am not thrilled to be off my workout routine.  Harumph.

Helena is off in St. George with her best friend, experiencing the Red Rock Retreat... Dixie State College's high school senior recruiting program.  Since it is where she wants to go to school, we signed her up for it.  Her doctor's appointment is rescheduled for when she gets back and we'll see then if she has any side effects from the accident.  Yesterday she told me her back was sore, too.  She is young and strong, though, so I'm not worried!

Halloween 2011

It has been a roller coaster of a weekend, which I guess is just normal for life with teenagers in the house.

 Beautiful fall colors all around!  I took this on my walk up to the rec. center on Saturday.

 Helena and I were the only ones in the family interested in carving pumpkins this year.

 We got part of it done on Saturday, but then she ended up leaving for a date, so we finished on Sunday evening.

 Helena posing for the camera.

 Helena's pumpkin was so thick that she was only at this stage when I was ready to carve the face on mine.  She was blown away by how much 'meat' there was inside hers.  The guts filled it all the way to the top!

 Every year, we save the seeds and roast them after soaking them in a salt bath.

 These are the boys from the Saturday date... although Helena insists it wasn't really a date, they were just 'hanging out'.  Braxton is in the lederhosen, and Dallin is the nerd.  Helena and Megan were in the basement putting together a quick costume for Helena.

 Group shot before heading out.

 Helena's pumpkin design.

 My pumpkin design.

 Look at how Helena's pumpkin seems to be welcoming everybody to the door!

 Dinner tonight.  Homemade chili in a bread bowl, "butterbeer", and a caramel apple for dessert.

 I wanted to make sure the little trick-or-treaters could find their way to my front door (since our front walkway has been temporarily destroyed).  It worked very well.

 Super salty roasted pumpkin seeds.  I now have sores all over my tongue from eating too many of these!

 The candy bowl.  We ran out early in the evening (at about 8 pm).  The weather was so mild that we had more trick or treaters than usual.

 The secret "butterbeer" recipe... butterscotch/club soda + cream soda topped with whipped cream/caramel sauce mix.

So.  I had a great day today.  It was my day off, so I dedicated the entire day to enjoying Halloween.  After dropping the kids off at school, I built some homemade chili in the crock pot, then headed back to the high school for Helena's SEOP.  That's a Student Educational Occupation Plan, aka, let's-make-sure-this-kid-will-graduate-and-has-plans-for-after-high-school meeting.  That went well, so next I stopped at the grocery store to pick up some items for this evening.

I went back home and put in the first Harry Potter movie as background 'ambiance' while I roasted pumpkin seeds and made caramel apples.  I was just really, really happy to be home and making stuff for my kids and their friends, who I expected to come by and hang out tonight.

I had told Helena we were lifting part of her grounding since she had fulfilled most of our requirements.  She got her phone back and was allowed to enjoy Halloween weekend with her friends.  She was allowed to invite someone to Preference, and we registered her for a college retreat weekend at Dixie State College with her best friend.  So, things were getting back to normal.

After picking the kids up from school, things got a little sidetracked.  Helena wanted the house clean for when her friends arrived, so the harassed her brother about helping out.  He reacts badly when Helena 'bosses him around' and shuts down.  When I follow up with a request for him to help, he is slow to respond.  After getting that smoothed over, I took Will to get his Sundance ski pass for the season.  Today was the last day of pre-season discount price. While there, we discovered a SCREAMING sale on last year's rental gear, so Will ended up with an early Christmas!  We were going to get him skis for Christmas, but this was too good to pass up.  $96 total for skis, binding, and boots!  And they adjusted the bindings for free.

Home again.  Time to set up the paper lanterns and shred cheese to go with the chili.

Will took off for a friend's house to watch scary movies.  Later, I found out that instead of watching scary movies, they turned off the lights in the basement and were scaring each other instead.  During the screaming and mayhem, one of the boys accidentally 'butt dialed' 911!  Three squad cars showed up to investigate the emergency call of hysterical screaming!  Oops.

Anyways, to make a long story slightly shorter (I do have work in the morning), Helena's friends came over and had a great time.  They loved the chili and caramel apples, didn't like the "butterbeer", but were polite about it.

Then they wanted to watch a movie.

I have very clear rules about ratings.  No rated 'R' in the house.  The only exceptions are those rare times when the subject matter outweighs the rating.  Like Schindler's List.  Or Last of the Mohicans.  In those cases, I have allowed it because there is an educational quality to the movie that is significantly important.  But your run of the mill rated 'R' entertainment value only movie?  No.

It has nothing to do with the age of the kids.  They could be visiting me as 30 year olds and the rule would be the same.  My house, my rules.  I am the one paying for the streaming video service and I just don't want 'R' in my house.  That is all.  When they pay the bills in their own place, they can do whatever they want.

Helena wanted to watch a scary movie with her friends and complained that it couldn't be done without the 'R' rating.  I repeated myself.  No 'R'.  Her friends heard me, too.  No 'R'.

So, when Bill checked on them in the basement?

They are watching an 'R' rated movie.

Here is where the roller coaster takes one of those nasty nose dives.  Not only did Helena let me down, so did her friends.  They all knew they were disrespecting me after all the trouble I went through for them.  Was their desire to watch an 'R' rated movie that much more important than treating me with respect?  I admit, I had thought more highly than that of them.  I hate being forced into the 'bad guy' roll.  I told her to shut it off and that the party was over.

Now I have to play the role of disciplinarian again.  I hate that.  I feel like I have been manipulated and I anticipate another stressful week, now, because I can't let Helena drive and, oh! I wanted her to.  All the good feelings of making a fun Halloween are completely gone, because what I offered wasn't good enough for them.

Why'd I even bother?

Fall Break, Part 2

OK, then!  On to the weekend...

Saturday

IT WAS BILL'S BIRTHDAY!  My good looking boyfriend turned 41 years old.  Yes.  You heard me, he is, in fact, younger than me.  Only by a few months.  Still a fact that I get some harassment for every year.  He chose to only do things he wanted to do on his birthday.  So, he went biking in the morning with a group of crazy mountain biking buddies.  Then he went golfing in the afternoon with Will.

Helena spent Saturday morning taking the ACT for the second time.  She was supposed to report in at the high school at 8 am...

... I woke up at 7:45 am with a vague sense of urgency that didn't seem to fit with a Saturday morning, until I bolted upright and realized that Helena wasn't up yet!  I felt so bad!  She was so rushed getting out the door that she didn't have time to eat breakfast or pack any snacks.  In fact, she also forgot her calculator in her rush and ended up taking the test without one.  GAH!  She was hoping to boost her overall score a couple of points, but I am afraid that the bad start might have prevented that.  We'll know in a few weeks, I guess.

Will spent Saturday morning sleeping in.

And me?  I went to Bill's niece's wedding.  She is also my niece, of course, but it might have confused you if you know my side of the family.  Helena is the oldest girl cousin in my family.  Anyway, Kaitlin got married yesterday morning.  Bill has so many relatives that we don't even try to make it to every event we get invited to. However, Kaitlin is special.  Once upon a time, she was in my 6th grade class.  I was her teacher and her Aunt!  Hmm.  That makes me feel old all of a sudden.

After the wedding, I spent a couple of hours in the kitchen helping prep the food for the reception and made an important note to myself.  HIRE A CATERER whenever Helena decides to get married (hopefully in the distant future).  I do not want her female relations slaving away in a kitchen on her wedding day instead of partying with her.

Once I got home from the reception, I quickly changed clothes and went with Helena back up to the U of U.  Her college tour was for an English class assignment.  In fact, she is not done with that, yet.  She still has to sit in on a couple of college classes.  But her AP Art History class has a term project to visit an art museum and write about it.  We were going to fit that into Friday's activities, but found there simply wasn't time for it.  So, we returned on Saturday just for the museum.

This was the first exhibit we looked at when arriving at the museum.  David Burnett was a photo-journalist.  HOLY COW!  His work is impressive!  Think of every major political/historical event in the past 50 years that you can... he was there and took AMAZING photos of it!  Helena and I were both in awe of his career.  I can't believe how many historically monumental events he was a first person witness to!  This turned out to be Helena's favorite exhibit, especially since she has been considering photo-journalism as a career for herself.

 This guy was a Western American painter who lived and painted during the Great Depression.  His works are very painterly and impressionistic.  I loved seeing the paint strokes!

In the two pictures above, I tried to capture the sparkle and shine of the paint.  He must have mixed plenty of oils into his paint (linseed probably).  These were painted in the 1930's, but look shiny and wet like they were painted yesterday!  I took a picture of the bottom one because I just loved how quick brush strokes can make the impression of everything in the picture!

 This might have been my favorite painting in this exhibit.  It represents all the down-on-their-luck unemployed men riding the rails looking for work during the depression.  It seems to resonate with today's economic climate.  The men are out of work and times are hard, but the painting is full of sunlight and color, which lends it a hopeful air.

 This horse looks like it is made out of driftwood, but the plaque says that it is bronze with a special patina.

 Lovin' the Native American room!  These are all Pacific Northwest Indian works, which is probably why they drew my attention.

 Maori Islander mask!  From the South Pacific room.

 In the European art section of the museum, there were pieces of furniture on display, as well.  I loved the wood inlays on the top of this table.  I can't remember how old it is... maybe 200 years?

 Helena taking notes in one of the European art rooms.  As we worked our way back in time, it got more and more tempting to touch the artworks.  The idea of age and antiquity are very attractive to me. I would love to touch the same paint that someone else put onto that canvas 300-800 years ago!  I restrained myself, however.

 I just liked how these statues were framed in the balconies overlooking an exhibit below.

 I am tempted to head down to Southern Utah and paint red rock just from looking at this!

 Ahhh!  From the antiquities section of the museum.  A Greek urn.  It is a good thing it was in a glass box.  I might not have been able to resist this one.  They did have a couple of Roman marble busts on display without glass cases, though.  I got nose to nose with one Roman dignitary, but I was a good girl and did not stroke his cheek.

Helena on the opposing balcony above an exhibit room.  The museum is cool.  If you haven't been to an art museum lately,  GO!

After the museum, Helena and I did the grocery shopping.  Usually, this is not a blog-worthy event, but something happened that I just have to share!  As we were leaving the check out, a little girl (of about 18 months) came walking up to us, shouting in baby jibberish and shaking a couple of packages of Hostess Ho-Ho's.  Apparently, her mom was in line a couple of people behind us, and Helena had been 'flirting' with the little one.  When we started to leave, I guess the little girl decided she wanted to give a gift to her new 'friend'... Helena!  When we wouldn't take the treats from her, she shouted again and threw them at us!  IT WAS SO FUNNY!  Her mom laughed along with us as she collected her daughter and the treats, and we chuckled about it all the way out to the car.

When we got home, we had another surprise waiting for us.  There was a kitten in the back yard!  Our dogs had backed it into a corner against the house.  Helena discovered it and put the dogs in the garage temporarily.  I snapped a few photos, then gathered it up and took it off our property.  It probably 'belongs' to the neighbors, you see.  They feed the feral cats and call them 'pets'.  It encourages the ferals to breed and we end up with stray kittens fairly often.  They just don't usually wander into our dogs' territory.  I just send them back across the fence.  I have more than enough pets at the moment.  It does look like Pepper could be the daddy, though, doesn't it?  There is no way, of course.  We had our cats 'fixed' when we got them.  We are not responsible for any stray kittens!

And, finally, some pictures of the fall colors in our yard!

There you have it.  Fall Break.  The kids go back to school tomorrow and I have one more day before returning to work!