Hooper of my Youth

My wife's grandmother passed away and we went to Ogden for the funeral. While there I had a chance to stop by Hooper as we were staying with my cousin near there. I took the kids with me and we all went to the school where I went until 5th grade. We went by the church I attended as a child. We went by the park that used to have a wicked high metal slide and was where Pres. Reagan came to Hooper. I find it interesting that the name of the school is Hooper School. Apparently there is only one school there.
















Of course the kids had to get their pictures done also. I have seen a picture of myself sitting in the circle, like the one below of Jaxon. I have lots of memories of this school. Its where I learned lots of different things, like how to fight... (Jason Harrop).


Those circular windows were always fun to play in. Wow what memories! I also had the chance to take the kids to the old house at 5878 S. 5100 W. We stopped and looked around a bit. The trees of my memories are long gone, both from the front yard and the side yard by the Link's. I had a chance to stop and knock on Sis. Link's door also. We had a great chat about life and I was able to show off my children to her, such a sweet lady. I took a picture of the house too.


At the end of that cinder block wall on the north side of the garage, I found and showed off to my kids, the cement that had my name etched into it, along with Paula, Alan, Matt, Shiree and Jer. I can't remember if Jason was in it as well but...oh well. This is exactly the house I remember growing up in. Dad and I installed that aluminum siding following my mission. *Sigh* I am getting old enough to have"good ol'days!" Crazy.

I PASSED!

Last night I looked my results up for the Praxis test that I had to take. I passed! Woot Woot! (Don't ask my kids about the crazy dance I did around the house...)

This may not come as a surprise to YOU, but I am finally feeling some relief. I have never been one of those who does really well taking tests. In fact, I would argue that I have test anxiety. I can recall all kinds of information when I'm in a conversation with someone, but it all flies out the window when a test is put in front of me. ESPECIALLY when there is serious pressure (you know, pass this test or you can't keep your job pressure).

I am thankful to my Heavenly Father for helping me remember and recall answers to be able to pass this test. I know it was through His help that I passed!

Tired

I've been burning the midnight oil studying for this big Praxis test I had to take to get my Level 2 teaching license. Mid-May I found out I needed to take it ASAP, so I signed up to take it on June 11th. The problem? No time to study...until last week! So, I've crammed for about 2 weeks now and am hoping it pays off. Today after I got home from taking the test, I collapsed. I slept for 3 hours. I still feel yuck. I'm so beyond tired. I feel pretty good about the test itself. It had 120 questions and I had only 2 hours to complete it, but I think I did alright.

Right now though, I am feeling like a runner who takes off as fast as possible at the beginning of the race and loses steam halfway through. I still have Girls Camp next week, a Common Core class the next week and THEN I can have a summer...

I can't wait to go to sleep tonight.

Summer haircuts

Kirt and the boys shaved their heads at Christmastime in support of one of the 5th grade students at their school who was battling cancer. They loved it so much that they begged for the haircut again when school was out. One day I was busy working away on my computer in the basement and I came up to find a bunch of bald boys. Kirt had shaved all their heads! Oh well. It's summer and at least now I don't have to bug them to comb their hair every day. :) If only I could talk MIA into that, right? Haha...just kidding.

Summer project #1

There are three summer projects that I want to complete this year. Since Kirt has the summers "off" (haha- loose term) I can't let him get bored, so I have to put him to work! Here are the summer projects:

1. Finish toy room
2. Help the boys build a doghouse for Ruby
3. Clean out storage room, build more shelves in and move ALL food storage from the garage down to the storage room. (Yes, that's a BIG one!)

A few months after we moved into this house, we found mold in one of the bedrooms downstairs. Oh, how I wish I had pictures. Luckily, it was slated to be the "toy room" so the toys have just been wherever since we ripped the drywall, carpet, etc. out of the room. We had the drywall fixed last summer, but Kirt and I could never agree on what type of flooring to put back in, so it has remained unfinished. He wanted carpet and I wanted to do stamped concrete with a cute "toy room" rug. Today, Mr. Fantastic (AKA Kirt :) completed summer project #1! We finally agreed on this:
I love how it turned out! It's really fun and colorful, which is what I was aiming for with the flooring.

We even removed the closet doors so that we could put the play kitchen and dress up box in there. It added to the sq. footage of the room!

Kirt had to replace all the baseboards before we put the foam down. (Thanks for helping George!) Now we just have to haul the toys and books all back into the toy room, but not until I de-junk it!