4 More Days Until Election Day 2010...

When I was asked to consider school board early last spring, I wasn't going to have to run a race, but after a change of heart Loyd Naylor decided to run, not retire, and a race it was. I have learned so much, and look a political races in a whole new light. I've "walked" fliers, sent out mailers, put up signs, talked to people and now all I can do is wait. 4 more days. I feel even more strongly now that this is where I should be. There are currently no members of the Murray School Board with students in our schools, this has been true for District 3 for many years. Loyd is a good man, the Board is made up of good people, but it is time for a parent to represent our kids, families and teachers. I have had so much positive feedback, people agree it's time for change. Hopefully, this feeling shows at the polls, like I said all I can do now is wait. Well there is the t-shirt I had made with my logo, my kids have a version that say "vote for my mom" on the back!

Other Stuff...

A few weeks ago Elisabeth looked at my calendar for October and said,
"Mom, your really busy!"
I replied,
"Ya, think?"

It has been craziness!
Here's some other things that have been going on!
Spirit Week and Red Ribbon Week at the Junior High
Panther Prowl
Getting ready for book fair next week.
Finding new renters for the West Valley house.
Lower price on St. George house,
Oh the life lesson that keeps on giving!
Ward clean up.
Community Council
District PTA
Randi's Birthday
Donuts for Pinewood Derby
Stake Leadership
Reflections Entries
Trunk or Treat
Molly Mouse Practices
and
on
and
on!

A Great Parade!

Not only did the parade start on time and go off without a hitch, but I only had to go to one classroom party! So weird, but so easy! And it was such an easy, chill party! So in these pictures is Mrs. DurANTe the craziest, most wonderful teacher ever to set foot in a 5th grade! Wearing Elisabeth tutu, to be a daANTcing ant. And Jenna her dad made the Mr. Potato head, so funny. The "girl" is Easton... Elisabeth's love/hate friend, someday they will either get married (or at least date) or kill each other!

Make your own free collage

A "Corny" Hair Do...

Can you see the candy corn?

First Band Concert...

Sam had his first band concert this week, wow, junior high band just doesn't change! He is pretty good at practicing his clarinet and is getting better, but it still makes Koda growl deep in his belly. Which makes me laugh! Yes, he is wearing the chicken costume from 2nd grade!

Halloween Helper...

When I am running around like a crazy person, it is so nice to have helpful kids. Elisabeth made us waffles before we ran off to the Energy Forum, look how cute she is in her Halloween apron.

HJH Teacher Luncheon...

To get our feet wet at the Junior High, Jenn Wells and I have the assignment of organizing 4 teacher luncheons this year. Our first one was Wednesday and everything turned out great. We had pumpkin bread bowls from Schmidts, yummy soup and veggies and of course Halloween donuts from CoeLen. The teacher are so appreciative and it is a great way to get to know them. Thanks to Jenn for all her work, in the midst of my crazy week!

Energy Forum...

When a foundation calls and says if you can get 40 families to come for one hour and learn how to save on their energy costs, they will do all the work and then they will give your school $2000, you of course say sure!

And so I added organizing an Energy Forum to my list! It became a little bit of struggle to gather 40 families because of some scheduling conflicts. But I got close to 60! Easiest fundraiser ever! And I think everyone went home with something they needed to hear and we all got a free goody bag! And Parkside PTA will be receiving a check for $2000!

Proud Mom...

The night of the final SMA meeting, Elisabeth decided to go with, she mostly wanted to see Jonas. They asked her to tell the group about her coin fundraiser... My 11 year old daughter spoke up completely poised and grown up and explained what she did, how much money she raised and how she did it for her friend Jonas... I was so proud!

SMA Celebration...

Can I just say again that working with GOOD IN THE HOOD to SPREAD MAGIC AROUND for the Coleman family, was one of the most meaningful things I have ever done! We gathered last Sunday to wrap things up! We watched a video of the Coleman's the day of the carnival, it was fun to see the going ons, since we were all busy doing our jobs. The final number is staggering, but confidential. Jonas and Maggie were at the meeting and many tears were shed, and I must say Jonas enjoyed seeing himself on the big screen!

Undefeated UTES...

Once again it is half way through the season and my UTES are undefeated! It is exciting to say good-bye to the Mountain West Conference in a big way. We have been lucky enough to use my brothers tickets a couple times, last week it was in pouring freezing rain against Colorado. They are currently ranked #8 in the nation! GO UTES!

My Packers...

After a couple rough weeks the Packers got a big win on Sunday... A little beat down on old man Favre and the Vikings! Even with it going down to the wire, it is so good to have a win! And I can't believe the "man crush" Miah has on Clay Matthews!

Annual Pumpking Carving (Mess)...

On the 24th we gathered at my mom's, come one come all if you dare, to carve pumpkins. It is WONDERFUL to have kids big enough to mostly do their own and even more WONDERFUL to have nieces and there sinficant others to help them out! This year Junior and Jess, helped the kids gut their pumpkins. It was Adrian's first time doing pumpkins and he even took a little taste of the guts, he is so cute army crawling a million miles an hour and thinking he can "walk." There was the usual sloppy joes and Grandma Wilson Casserole, and lot of treats!

This free picture collage created with Smilebox

Primary...

In celebration of a successful program, we let the kids have treats and color pictures of their favorite scripture story. We plan to send this picture and their art in to "The Friend" a childrens magazine from our church.

And never to be one to take life to seriously, I had to let them do a funny face picture.

This was probably Elisabeth's last Primary program, sad for mommy not for her! She gave a little talk about following Jesus' example. She talked about being a good friend, helping others with their school work, loving little children and her love keeping our planet beautiful!

Brownies???

In the Johnson family (Jeremiah's immediate family) you eat the center of cake and the edges of brownies, you may even fight to make sure you get the best piece. So wasn't I surprised to find this one morning.
The culprit... starts with an "E" ends with a "H"!

Winner, Winner, Chicken Dinner...

Sam was so excited to enter the contest at school to design the t-shirts for the year. He "worked" hard on his entry, to him its not work he loves this stuff, and I must say he was way more creative then most of the others. Well at lunch the kids voted and guess what HE WON! He was delighted, he was also pretty excited over the hoodie and $20 dollars he won. He figured he could make it big just designing t-shirts. So they announced it over the intercom and he got lots of compliments.

Well the day they passed out the t-shirts I knew we had trouble when I saw the kids coming out of school in shirts NOTHING like his design. He was crushed, angry, bawling, you name it. We had lots of discussions and I decided to bring it up at PTA. The principal was so embarrassed, a mother of a 12 year old herself, in a good way, she wanted to make it right. Apparently the SBO's are in charge and the printer told them he couldn't do it, and being kids they didn't know what else to do. So we went to our handy "t-shirt lady, " Christy at crewcolors.com and she took care of us. She made up shirt and Sam will most likely have the chance to sell it at Christmas time.

Check out his AWESOME design! The lines are all made up of print with words like math, pencils, 7th, books, etc.

UEA Break...

I'm not really sure how many teachers actually participate in the conference, but it sure does make a good excuse to have a nice break in the middle of October!

A Day With the Cousins at the Witchie Festival...




Pumpkin Hunting With Ashlyn...



The kids also went to pumpkin patch with the Rigby boys that weekend.

Parkside Elementary needs your help!
We are hosting an Energy Smart Forum
Tuesday October 26th
7-8pm
5461 S. 235 E., Murray UT


What is it?
A chance to learn about making your home more energy efficient and in turn save money on your utilities bills.

Best Part...
Parkside PTA can earn $2000!

What we need?
40 households from Salt Lake County must attend to earn the $2000.
Only one adult from the household must attend to count.
We are short of our goal and need help from the community!

And...
Refreshments will be served!

RSVP:
Belinda at miahx4@hotmail.com

I Pick Red!

UTAH vs BYU Rivalry from Jake Larsen on Vimeo.

Soon...

I have so many cute pictures to post, and so much news of my campaign and kid news.... I will post soon I promise! Maybe the second week of November, when my brain returns to my body!

Gotta Laugh...

Miracles...

Elisabeth and her sweet friend Jonas

Spread Magic Around!
The Coleman Family Benefit
with Good in the Hood
and Olympus High School

Today I witnessed many miracles. Five weeks ago none of us could have ever imagined we could pull off this major event and we did! Here's an account of my day...

9:30 - Phone Call, hurry up with the table coverings, the high school kids have shown up in full force and are ready for them.

10:00 - Arrived at Olympus High. What a fabulous group of people I have been working with, I can't say enough about them. Went to work. Tables, auction stuff, etc.

1:30 - Black clouds rolling in... what do we do if it rains??? We were 80% set up, there was no way to move to option B indoors.

2:00 - Prayer circle... A prayer for the weather, our safety, and on the food.

2:10 - The stars of the show arrive! Hello Jonas and Maggie!

2:15 - Off to pick Elisabeth up at ballet, things still pretty chaotic

2:45 - Return from ballet - A calm has settled on the event.. and the clouds are breaking up.

3:00 - Doors Open - Without stopping, take money from people entering. So many people so fast you can't do correct math. Kids and adults giving donations. A family gave $250, and lady $1000 and that was just at my station.

3:00-7:00 - Auction - Lots and lots of donated items. $1000's of dollars bid. Again people are amazing in their generosity. Jonas and Maggie's great grandpa raises the bid to $1000 on a set of golf clubs, and then donates them back to be auctioned again.

7:00 - 8:00- Blue Skies - Blue skies and a beautiful sunset.

8:00 - Clean Up - Chairs and tables, chairs and tables!!! Off to the costume closet to drop off stuff and then home.

We do not have a final numbers yet, thousands of people I am sure, some said 5,000. I have never been involved in a cause so pure and worthy as working towards this goal for the Coleman family. By telling their story they have been blessed with medical equipment, a specialized bike and so much more. We have each been blessed by serving them and each other.

Good Night!

11 Years Of Wonderful!

We started Elisabeth's 11th birthday by having to go find Koda! The dog has now got out two mornings in a row, it makes for rough start in the morning! After locating the dumb dog, we had cinnamon rolls and she opened presents. Apparently a pre-teen girl gets clothes, Halloween jewelry and she also got a vinyl Eiffel Tower for her room that we will be painting in the near future. For those of you who know we usually "do" hair, this is what it starts like each morning!

After school she opened a gift from Grandma and Grandpa Rigby, a fluffy skirt for church. And they also gave her a new jazzy mountain bike.


Our friend Courtney had promised to make Elisabeth a birthday cake, she went WAY beyond our expectations, it is so awesome! Courtney also made her a rainbow tutu



The thing Elisabeth wanted to do for her birthday was have a late night with friends! They brought some cute gifts and are great girls, but with a half hour to go I am about done with the squealing and screaming.




Happy birthday to my girl! I'm not really sure where the last 11 years have gone, and I'm not really sure if I'm ready for the teenager your turning into!

Coins For Jonas...

I am very proud of our Elisabeth! She is a very good friend and thinks of others, she loves little kids and has a tender heart. For about 3 weeks she has been leading a coin drive at her school, she made posters and fliers telling the school about her friend Jonas, and his baby sister Maggie. The amazing kids, teachers and staff at Parkside brought their coins and dollars. Two sisters brought $30! And at a school where some families have very little, I saw kids bring in their pennies. Elisabeth ended up donating a total of $134 to the Coleman family! I am so proud of her for organizing this and for thinking of others.

BoWLiNg...