Trapped in a Bucket!

Today was my day for sharing time in primary. I was teaching about the Atonement of Christ through an object lesson: jar of water, food coloring, and bleach. Easy Peasy.

We began by learning the 3rd Article of Faith: We believe that through the Atonement of Christ, all mankind may be saved, by obedience to the laws and ordinances of the Gospel. The children found the words in the room and hidden under their chairs, then they lined up in order and we repeated the article together.

It was difficult to get through the lesson because they had seen the jar of water on the table, and that preoccupied most of their thoughts. They simply couldn't focus on anything else. So the time came to introduce the object lesson.

The water represents us, clean and pure. The food coloring represents bad decisions we make, or sins. As I dropped in the food coloring, it made really cool swirls and shapes... it was quite fascinating. I dropped in a few different colors and it began to turn black, yuck. I asked what happens to us when we sin and a small child in the back yells, "we get trapped in the bucket!"

Sometimes it is just the timing, the circumstance, or just the kid that makes the answers so funny, but I burst into laughter. Not the quiet kind that I can recover from quickly, but the loud giggly kind that just gets funnier the more inappropriate it is...

I'm standing in front of the jr. primary (with the substitute teachers and all) laughing uncontrollably. I tried a few times to recover, but ended up staring down at the dark water taking deep breaths and crying tears of laughter. A quick glance around the room found the pianist on the floor behind the piano wiping tears and shaking, the rest of the presidency trying to suppress laughter, the teachers looking at me with wonderment, and the children utterly confused.

It took a good 3 minutes to gather my wits. I proceeded to explain how the Atonement of Christ, through repentance, cleans us of our sins. I poured in the bleach (the Atonement) and waited for the miracle of cleansing to begin. Nothing. Finally the color lightened to a light blue. I was talking and explaining the repentance process, praying the color would bleach already. Whit handed me a fork and I stirred all while I spoke. The kids were so helpful and kind to pretend it was going as planned, "look Sister Doyle, it is getting lighter..." "... look it is almost clear blue..." until finally it did eventually clear up. Whew. I have no idea if the object lesson will make sense after all of the chaos, but I got the stomach work out of the day! (and the substitutes are thinking, "this is who is in-charge of our children?!") :) lucky you!

One, One, One-One

The new year plans had been avoided until the eve of eve. Who knows what to do on the most anti-climatic holiday of the year?! I've been alive long enough to enjoy or regret enough new years to not want to put any time or energy into another one. Ali voiced the opinion that we try something fun and new (and what would that be, I thought). 3VE - the downtown Salt Lake City new year's party... but with a twist - get a hotel room. FUN! (hopefully)

Julio, Sandra, Ali and I headed into the heart of Salt Lake for the first activity of the evening - Broadway Sing-a-long at the Conference Center. We walked through bitter cold winds and snow, with Julio mumbling complaints the entire excursion.

The warmth of the theater rejuvenated our party enthusiasm and we sang broadway tunes to our heart's content. Julio grumbled about the singing and the cold, but found the Bounce House on the schedule and lead us straight there with enthusiasm (and me warning him continuously that we wouldn't be allowed in because we're older than 12). My attitude would not deter him and we ended up at the Salt Palace, next to the Grand Ballroom, with the bounce arounds.

AWESOME!! We placed our shoes in the shoe corral, like kids, took off our doubled-up coats, gloves, hats, scarves, extra socks and ran to the first bouncey toy we saw.

We were gladiators knocking each other off of pedestals, climbing dangerous air ladders to jump down giant slides, racing through an obstacle course, and enjoying Sandra and Julio's boxing match in the air ring.

Exhausted and thirsty we moved to the next exhibit... in the ballroom. Literally the Ball-Room.

2011 beach balls filled the ballroom, equipted with a DJ and video screen. We kicked, punched, juggled, spiked everything around us. The balls were sized from the small to over 6 feet high. We lined up the 3 foot balls and Julio ran and roll surfed across as many as he could. I was pelted in the face a plethora of times by random children and my friends alike. I loved the ballroom!! (my by far!) We'd spent hours in the bounce arounds and ballroom, having yet to experience the majority of activities on the schedule.

By this time more people were arriving to the party. The snow fell with vengeance, but I loved every minute of it. Outside the Salt Palace stood 20 million pounds of snow for the ski/snowboard jumpers. Through the snow we could see jumps and flips of skiers and snowboarders. Noah, a reporter from channel 4 news, came over and asked to interview me. Of course I brought Julio and Ali with me for the shot and who ends up on the news?! Julio, of course, yelling "dude, this is the place to be!" (or something like that) :)

As people arrived we took our dinner break and walked a mile to the Gateway for pizza at the Pizza Kitchen - YUM! Our waiter, Brad from Sandy, kept us entertained through dinner. We thawed the best we could. Post dinner plans took us to the Planetarium for a free laser show, which was full (and had been for hours, apparently), so I walked on the moon and studied the Earth then took a free ride on Trax. Laughing Stock at Off-Broadway was the next free show on our list and Trax dropped us off right in front of the theatre... into a line of people. We snuggled close in line and froze anyway. Luckily, we got in! Improv is hilarious. I laughed and laughed and laughed. Improv is unexplainable, but I HIGHLY recommend it to everyone.

We drank nasty hot chocolate to keep warm while we anxiously awaited the count down to 2011. The air invaded my warm clothing. It made its way through two coats, two pair of socks, boots, gloves, scarf, and hat. By the end of the bitter cold night, we cheered to fireworks and music and headed back to our hotel, happy not to have to drive home :) (sorry Julio, who had to risk the frozen roads home).

Laughter. Stomach wrenching laughter. Over nothing. That's what makes it awesome! This is going to be a GREAT YEAR!

WELCOME TO 2011 steph.

"Smurfette" by Lauren and Emma

After eating fondu, decorating cookies, and opening family gifts, we did what most families do... we made a music video and a stop motion animation video :)

You Think You're Cooler than Me!?

Oatmeal Breakfast

I got to sleep in almost an hour today because I had a training at the district office (and they don't do anything before 8:30am). I placed my oatmeal and mixed berries breakfast on the roof of my car whilst I placed my laptop and schoolwork in the front seat. Normally I just throw it across the seat when I get in the car, so it was unusual to have my breakfast on the other side.

As I drove away, nothing happened.

Half way down 10600 South I heard a loud noise. I looked in the rearview mirror and noticed the mush running down the back window and the mug tucked against my spoiler. I pulled over and grabbed the mug. I decided that it was necessary to wash the oatmeal off before it crusts and causes issues later.

I was 20 minutes late to my training... yet it didn't really matter. It still makes me smile. Funny stuff!!

LIFE - really?!

I did miss teaching math. Who knew?!

SPYHOP - Film School.

Training for school, unpaid, 50+ hours, summer time early morning to evening ... sounds like a horror movie! Luckily, I loved every minute of it.

This past week a few teachers from Matheson were invited to participate in Spyhop training. An arts education grant paid for us to attend these workshops on how to incorporate film making into our curriculum, or to enhance our curriculum rather. Because I already love film making, this was a wonderful experience. We made short films about a box, a Public Service Announcement (PSA), a book trailer (like you'd see for movies), stop motion, and a short documentary.

Now when I see a movie or commercial, I can see all of the makings in motion. I feel like I would like to make a documentary about school and children, but I haven't moved past the desire stage yet (well, it has only been ONE day...).

Our documentary, "I Sleep with a Nightlight", was about Tanya and my dreams/nightmares. Tanya is afraid of Zombies and I am afraid of the dark (and many other things). I didn't see it coming together in such a short amount of time, but we pulled it off and I'm pretty confident ours was coveted by other people :)