no, it's not my birthday

Friday during school, the above vase of flowers was delivered to me in my classroom. Someone from the office wanted to know if they were for my birthday. No, it's not my birthday. It's just the teacher I'm subbing for saying "thank you" to me for being his sub. Wow. Glen saw them and made a comment about how he never gets me flowers. My answer was that it's OK for Scott to give me flowers and not Glen, because if Glen were to give me flowers the money for them would come out of my checking account. 

Anyway, it was very nice of Scott to do that. The flowers are gorgeous.

Things are a bit better in my classroom, and now that I've learned that reminders to be quiet don't work, but kicking kids out of the classroom for disrupting the learning really helps, things should be even better.

Alex's scout camp out in the snow this weekend, the Klondike, got cancelled. I think he was happy about that.

Hannah participated on the dodgeball team Lincoln's Army as part of a fundraiser for NHS. Her team was eliminated in the first round but they won the best costume award--they had fake beards and stove-pipe hats.

One of Hannah and Geoff's projects yesterday involved cutting off the top of a soda bottle (Leninade) and smoothing the edge and planting a plant in it. It was kind of a pinterest fail...first they tried the pinterest method of soaking yarn in fingernail polish remover, wrapping it around the top of the bottle, lighting the yarn on fire, then putting the bottle in ice cold water. They wound up using my glass cutter. That method wasn't easy, but they managed to get one done.

Ryan's companion was transferred and made his Zone Leader this week. We don't know anything about his new companion yet. This is the first time Ryan's been the one to stay behind in an area and show his companion around.

Eric was stuck in his apartment most of the week with a sick companion. He was going a bit stir-crazy.

Yep. That about does it for us this week. We're busy, but there's nothing exciting to report. I guess that's a good thing.

King Cake, Andrew and Heather's car, Jiaxin's bday gift, subbing, and The Piano Guys

Not much news from Ryan, but Mardi Gras season is gearing up. Ryan had his first king cake and liked it.

It's a tradition. A King Cake is where a small plastic baby is baked inside a special cake, which was more like roll dough with sugar on top than cake and was usually shaped like a race track and covered in the Mardi Gras colors of gold, green, and purple when I lived there. I hear they are more like cinnamon rolls and real cake and much yummier these days. Anyway, whoever gets the piece with the baby in it is supposed to supply the next king cake for the next party. They are eaten all season long. Hence the quote Ryan shared from his companion:

 "The awkward moment when you're eating food and your biggest concern is choking on a baby." -Elder Bischoff

random photo from the internet to give you an idea...

Andrew and Heather bought their first vehicle this week! A 2003 Chevy Cavalier. Congratulations to them! They've been wanting one ever since they got married.

Hannah made Jiaxin a birthday gift this week (March 16th is his birthday). It's a pillowcase. She really is talented. It will go with his Christmas gift that I still haven't mailed to him yet (pathetic, no?):

I had a slightly better week subbing, but some happenings still weren't to my liking (e.g. during a gluing project on Friday someone turned an open Elmer's glue bottle upside down in the center hole of a lab table). On Friday, Kerri, the wife of the man I'm subbing for, came in and with Derild's help, we (he) unscrewed the table groupings and we rearranged them, so now the tables are in straight rows. It hopefully should really cut down on the chatting. I look forward to a better week. Three weeks down and 5 to go.

And lastly, I LOVE The Piano Guys. Have I mentioned them before? Piano and cello. Spiced up versions of classical music (like Beethoven, Vivaldi, and  Pachelbel) and modern pieces (like Star Wars, Mission Impossible, and A Thousand Years). They have filmed in some amazing locations like on the Great Wall of China, in the ocean, on desert buttes, and now, in an ice castle.

Their newest music video is fabulous. They take music from the new movie "Frozen" and add some of Vivaldi's "Winter" to it. Really cool. For some reason, it won't let me embed the video, but here's the link. Enjoy.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6Dakd7EIgBE

Have a great week!