That's how long my last conversation was with my gramma.
On Wednesday, I was reading up in my room and kept thinking that I should call her. The thought kept coming and I kept brushing it away; I'd see her when she came into town for conference weekend! I don't need to call her. What would I say? It was too late anyway...9:30pm.
Reading...
I should ask my mom if maybe she's awake.
My mom says it's too late.
Reading...
epiphany! Daylight savings doesn't happen in AZ! It's 8:30!
So I call her. She answers. I tell her I'm excited to see her.
I still am.
I wish she could be at my wedding! (Maybe she will because I'll die before that happens?)
I wish I could hear her say those awesomely offensive things again, like this or do amazing things like this. She loved loved loved all 50 of her grandkids. I felt like I was her only grandchild, the way she treated me like I was so important. I remember on my sixteenth birthday card: "Stay so clean and pure." That always gives me strength. I hope I can be a woman like gramma.
I have a lizard and the kids write essays and interview for class jobs.
He wanted to be in charge of feeding the lizard. Here is his
"persuasive letter" to me. This is may or may not be from a student this year, and I have changed his name.
Dear Miss Shumway:
For my class job I would like to have cricket feeder or pooper scooper. Hi said pedro from unicorn land I like loli pops and candy because it makes me hyper. I am highly qualified for every single job that is not on here the ones that are on here I can not do. So please read this boring sa
and it will scar you for life because it is so horrifying you will want
someone to read it for you. And if you don't you will also never be
able to have a good person in the job.
First you will have a good person in the job becuase you know that I am amazing. Also you will not have to get on me for not doing the job because I have a fishy named ponyo and I once fed Him for a month but it was his time to go so we gave him a swirly wirly in the tiolet
and I couldn't see him go wee his is still in my fish tank and feed him
even though he is dead. One time we had a weasel in are yard so I
wanted to kill it but my dad wouldn't let me so I must be really nice
because I snuck out and shot him. I shot him because he got into are
compost and then I skinned him and then there was blood in the snow so I
had to eat the snow to hide the evedince
that I had killed that weasel but before it died it had a baby so I
killed that one to so I put them in a cage and had some target practice
none of them got away becuase I hate them.
Second about the pooper
scooper I like to do that because I like to mess with poop. One time I
built a sculpture out of poop but my dad told me it was mud so I played
and rolled around in the poop and I was a man and used my hand.
Another time my sisters friends came over and thay
were throwing golf balls at us so Devin and I went up into the orchards
and we found deer beans and I started throwing the deer poop at them
and then I stuck some poo on a stick and chased them that is a true story. The next time my dad siad
that the deer poop was beans the very best beans in the world they
would make you strong and you could lift a barely lift a penny so I at
the poop and it actually doesn't taste that bad but I still coudn't lift the penny so I ate mor and more and then my breath smelt like the poo and then I found some mountian
dew in the snow so I tried some and it kind of tasted funny so I put it
in a water bottle and brought it home and put it under a micro scope
and I found out what it really is.
third I would like bellatrixesvegtablesbecuase
I have A cat that I have and I pore the cheap cat food into his bowl.
One day (when I was about 4) a baby sitter came and she said that cat
food taste like pizza so I tried it and it tasted like pizza pocket so I
kept eating it and after a while it tasted bad so I was sick and puked
and puked and then my brother spun me arond on the carpet and I got a rug burn. Once I tried my fish food and it tasted gross so at walmart I tasted every fish food until I found one that tasted good but there wasn't but I could't tell after a while becuase the first ones tasted really bad so the taste stayed in my mouth. One day when I was at petsmart with my sister so she got 2 fishys
but one ate the other one so she tried to kill it and she did but one
day I convinced her that I could make her come back to life so I
preformed surgery on her and I saved her life and that is why I was exepted to a music program at harvared and they will pay my whole tuition.
Miss Shumway I know that you will make the right chioce and will let me what I want. I am sorry for talking but please please don't take my chioce away because of that I have problems with my mouth it never stop moving but when it deosn't I am doing something that is notty. I know that you are an amazing teacher and will let me be pooper scooper I want that really bad and I will get over my fear of it. so I hope you let me.
Teacher: What did you do this weekend? (Calls on a student)
Student: Braden and I rode our scooters around the neighborhood. Then we sat in the T-Bow Position on someone's front lawn. We stayed in their yard in the T-Bow Position for like 20 minutes and we didn't move. Then we doorbell ditched them and ran off. I can't use the name of the person's house because they are in this class.
Teacher and other confused students: What is the T-Bow Position? (I was afraid to ask)
Student: It's the "thinking position" Like this! (Squats and puts fist to chin)
It was an awesome moment of laughs and giggles for all.
They're both married now but took the time to send me this cute message:
Hallie,
Austin and I were just talking and we both agree that you helped us
both out in high school. We both were awkward around girls and you
helped both of us out to know how to talk to girls and come out of our
cootie stage. I don't know if I formally thanked you so now I am doing
so on behalf of me and Austin.
-Josh and Austin
p.s. austin
and coral are hanging out with us right now in the carribean, they came
down to visit and this realization came up. Luckily you were a great
friend otherwise Austin would still be in middle school.
My cousin Elissa shared this on facebook and I thought "oh how pretty and moody. Into it." I didn't know it was related to Hunger Games until I saw the Mockingjay.
"To love at all is to be vulnerable. Love anything, and your heart will
certainly be wrung and possibly broken. If you want to make sure of
keeping it intact, you must give your heart to no one, not even to an
animal. Wrap it carefully round with hobbies and little luxuries; avoid
all entaglements; lock it up safe in the casket
or coffin of your selfishness. But in that casket--safe, dark,
motionless, airless--it will change. It will not be broken; it will
become unbreakable, impenetrable, irredeemable. The alternative to
tradgedy, or at least to the risk of tragedy, is damnation. The only
place outside of Heaven where you can be perfectly safe from the
perturbations of love is Hell." -C.S. Lewis, The Four Loves (I love that book. It's more marked up than any other book I own. Read it.)
"For one human being to love another; that is perhaps the most difficult of our tasks, the ultimate, the last test and proof, the work for which all other work is but preparation." -Rainer Maria Rilke
And... here's a random one that I love that I have been thinking a lot about lately: "Don't give up trying to find your way, but remember that sometimes it takes bending to avoid breaking" -Katrinka Hesselinx
From my dear cousin:
So, here's a story I heard at stake conf and LOVED, so I thought I'd share:
So, the guy speaking shared a story his daughter posted on her blog
recently. She had been out shopping and was in a boutique or something
and saw these large music boxes- the kind where a ballerina dances
inside to music. She knew her two young daughters, somewhere around 6
and 4 years old or something, would absolutely LOVE to receive these for
their upcoming birthdays. She purchased them and was so excited to be
able to give them to her daughters in a few weeks, knowing how excited
they would be. As she was leaving the store, she remembered her neice's
birthday was coming up as well, so she went back in and bought a smaller
version of the music box for her niece.
When she arrived
home, she got the smaller music box out and showed it to the younger
daughter, explaining that it was the gift they were going to give to
their cousin. At this, her daughter burst into tears, the huge crocodile
kind. The mom said she could tell her daughter was trying to keep her
emotions together but simply couldn't, and that she just broke down and
was sobbing. She asked her daughter what was wrong and her daughter told
her that the music box was exactly what she had always wanted, and that
she was glad her cousin would have one, but she was just so sad she
didn't get one also.
The girl's Mom found this somewhat
humorous since she knew the gift she had for her daughter's own birthday
was stashed away, waiting for the right time (her birthday). But,
trying to help her daughter calm down and regain her composure, she
mentioned that maybe her daughter would get a better music box for HER
birthday. This only brought about a new round of tears as her daughter
told her that THAT music box (the one going to her cousin) was just what
she wanted. It was perfect, and there just simply couldn't be a music
box any better or more perfect than that one!
The speaker
related this to our lives and how the Lord has so much in store for us
that we don't even realize! I immediately thought about you and the
struggles you've been having with guys, and how it's hard to see that
there could actually be something/someone better than what you've seen,
but that the Lord sees us and our own crocodile tears and just lovingly
comforts us, knowing full well He has something MUCH better in store for
us, just waiting for the right time to be able to give us the things He
is so looking forward to giving us because He wants to see us be so
happy.
The Pearl Necklace:
And...I remember this pearls story from when I was an adolescent. Where a girl's favorite possession is her fake pearl necklace. Her father asks her nightly if he can have the pearls and she refuses each time. Finally, he asked her to show her love by giving her pearls away. Reluctant and heartbroken, she gave her father her treasured pearls.
He got her real pearls to replace them. Little did she know how much more was in store, all she had to do was give up what he asked of her. Even if it seemed the best thing at the time, the father needed her to pass the test of faith to give her more.
As I was correcting online persuasive essays about a new pet, I see a note from one of my students:
Damon - January 19 - 8:03 PM
i was mad and made it a stupid as possible so read it
So naturally, I read it. Here it is for your entertainment. (Names are always changed when I talk about my students)
Dear, Tyler
You should get a fish because they are stupid and pointless because they don't do anything. And when ever they do something is when you put food at the top and they come up or when you stick something in they will move. And when they move they have a heart attack because they are so fat and ugly so they die and you never see them again and you will cry and blame the pet store then get a new one then it will die and again and agian.
Plus if you dont feed them then they die then you can eat it unless it was dead for such a long time it will rot and decay and then it will just be a good hair brush and then you can do your hair in school because it is small and the teacher wouldn't notice so then if she found out you would get in trouble about a 100%. and if you got in trouble you couldnt be on student council because your life would be corupted and never grow up and become a hobo and make 0.01 cents a year and die from starvasion.
and you could put it in a bowl with another fish and see them fight and then it will become fat and then it would be delicous to eat because you made it fat. and then if you didn't feed it and then it died you could use the bone as a hair brush in school and brush your hair and then get in trouble but that is about 100% and then your life would be corupded and then you will be a hobo then live under a bridge and earn 0.01 cents a year.
My dad used to ride the unicycle. He found out that one of the neighborhood teenagers got one for Christmas. So as we were out delivering Gina's wedding announcements, we stopped by their house and asked to borrow their unicycle.
I wish I had a funny story to go along with this. It was fun watching him try to get on in the grass then finally get on holding to the basketball pole. But he didn't risk riding it; he said he'd try after the wedding so he wouldn't have a sling or wheelchair for the pictures.
My lil pup I got for my parents for Christmas last year sleeps in my bed at night.
One morning I awoke to the feeling that someone was watching me.
I look over to Dash, and he is staring at me. He'd been watching me sleep.
Yesterday I awoke to a pleasant scene. Dash had somehow nuzzled beneath the blanket and sheet and laid his head on the pillow next to mine. It's like he thinks he's a human.
Usually I would think like this:
"I have a four day weekend and three days left!"
But instead I'm thinking:
"I've already wasted almost half of my four-day weekend." :(
No, it should be good. Here, I'll cheer myself up. Today I'm going to Park City with ma girls and we're going to go shopping and eat amazing food! Then we'll have a sleepover! It'll be amazing. Can't wait.
