What a day!

Though I adore my job, there are days that I come home and I think, “Why on earth am I a librarian?” Most people think of librarians to be the people who sit calmly behind the desk, speak only in whispers, know exactly where every book in the library is and what it is about, and have tons of time to read at work. I have yet to find a library where these rules apply.

One Friday I came in and this group of boys was in the parking lot. This is a group of boys that I deal with at least a couple of times a week. Their offenses range from throwing rocks at each other, to throwing each other into trees, to grabbing the girls bahookies (ask Mikkel for a correct translation for that word), to eating, to bullying, and the list could just keep going. They really do make for exciting days when they are there. But on this day I got out of my car and noticed them playing in the parking lot. They had a giant metal pole that they were trying to hit each other with and they were in the main entrance to the parking lot. I figured if they missed each other they were going to hit a car. They then started throwing giant rocks at each other. Before I even made it into the building I was dealing with this group! I told them that if they wanted to play at the park it was around the corner but this was a library and needed to be treated like one. I went to leave and they swore at me. With that they were kicked off of library property. From there it seemed like that is how my day went. I had grumps and people all upset that I expected them to follow the rules. I know I am weird!

Thankfully my typical days aren’t like this but sometimes I wonder if I work in a library or a bar!

Happy Birthday!

This summer has been filled with celebrating new landmarks with the animals we have and enjoying having the dogs in the house. This August we celebrated having Kiara for a full year. Both her and Carmel are now a year old but we will celebrate birthdays with Carmel in May because that is when we got him. Okay, so back to Kiara.

Having Kiara be a part of the family for the past year has been amazing. It is hard to remember how little and frail she was when we first got her. Our little 0.4 lb kitten is now almost 10 lbs. She is such a princess and can’t stand to be dirty. She has toughened up quite a bit and I blame living with Carmel. The two of them have play together all the time, in fact as I type this they are playing in some plastic bags down the hall. They have recently discovered that they can steal my bags to put dirty clothes in and they drag them down the hall like they are racing. Honestly, I am glad they have each other and get along so well!

She fills our days with laughter and joy. She is constantly getting into trouble, “helping” or wanting to snuggle. It is through all of these things that we love her so much. Check out some of our favorite pictures of her over the year.

Doubles Day

So after 7/11 day I loved my idea of new holidays. I kept the tradition going on 8/8/11 and 9/9/11. We called these doubles days and tried to do everything with a doubled theme. On the date in August we went to taco bell and only ordered things that had to do with numbers. So we ordered things like the double-decker tacos and 7-layer burritos. Honestly I am having a hard time remembering what twist we put on it for September but I do remember having a ball! I love how much we are able to laugh and enjoy life, even through small ways.

They are COMING!!!

Some of us are totally looking forward to the holidays this year because they will be filled with family and fun! For Thanksgiving we will get to have Marc’s parents in town and will celebrate with my mother-in-laws family. We haven’t seen Marc’s parents since our open house a year and a half ago. We have definitely missed them lots and are looking forward to a few days with them this Thanksgiving.
We are also looking forward to Christmas this year. For Christmas we are being super spoiled to have Melissa and her family come over from Jerusalem. This will most likely be the only time they get to come home until they are reassigned posts which won’t be until 2013, so we are SUPER excited. I am definitely looking forward to being home as much as possible and hanging out with my kiddos again. Can the holidays just hurry up!

Catching a Cold

Today I had the unfortunate fate of catching a cold. I have the whole runny nose, sore throat, achy body, the whole nine yards. I was able to recuperate and sleep all afternoon and it did me a world of good. The best part of it was being watched over by our little one while Marc was at work. Kiara made sure to snuggle by me the whole time I slept and even laid next to me when Carmel kicked her out of her spot on my stomach. I love knowing that I am taking care of even when Marc is gone and after passing out for several hours today I am starting to feel better but it also could be the medicine… Wish me luck tomorrow at work and please don’t judge me if I am a total zombie!

Book of Mormon

Marc and I have started reading the Book of Mormon again as a couple. We have started back at the beginning and I have decided that late night commentary isn’t always the best at being religious. These are some of the comments of this last week’s readings.

Me: Do you know one way that I know the Book of Mormon is true?
Marc: How?
Me: If it were written by an author he would have thought of better names for his characters. I mean seriously we are on page 5 and still learning who everyone is and you send Laban and Laman together in the same sentence. I would have at least named him like Lashawn so that I could tell them apart! So it has to be real!
Marc: So that is how you knew it was true? That is totally going to be my testimony next month!

Then we had to stop because we were laughing so hard and we were beginning to fear lightning strikes!

Broken Hill

Marc and I watch movies at night to relax and usually it takes us a few days to get through movies. The same was true with “Broken Hill”. The movie wasn’t fantastic and the actors weren’t wonderful, the storyline was weak and so forth. However, the MUSIC was PHENOMENAL!!!!! There is a scene where they have a drum sequence on a 5-gallon bucket and I have never seen something so amazing! I loved it so much that I went to find the soundtrack. I was super depressed to find out that they never made the soundtrack! How can you make a movie about music and not make a soundtrack? Really that is so wrong!!!

Another Angel

One day at work, I wasn’t feeling good and I had to deal with crabby people all day long! It was getting towards the end of the day and I knew that the teenagers were going to come and push my buttons and I just wasn’t looking forward to it. Then I noticed this mom with her two little girls. The mom had her hands full with a baby carrier and books and the two year old was enjoying the freedom of having her mother’s hands busy. I was noticing how frustrated the mom was getting and her attempts to get the little girl round-up weren’t going very well. I picked up a stack of videos and walked by the little girl trying to escape out the front door. I put my hand out to her and asked her if she wanted to be my helper in putting the dvds away. She took my hand and off we went. The mother started professing her thanks to me and I told her it was my pleasure. We began putting dvds away and I laughed at the commentary that happened. She pointed out “mommy movies” “movies with bad guys” (we agreed we don’t like those movies!) and the list kept going. It was so funny! I laughed and thought and how much more fun it was to put away these movies because of this two year old. She totally made my day! The mother kept thanking me and you could see how much it meant to her. I just wish I could have truly conveyed how much her letting me borrow her daughter meant to me too!

Answers to Prayers

Sometimes the Lord works in mysterious ways. The other day I was explaining to Marc that though I love our new ward I haven’t found my niche yet. Sometimes I feel as though everyone here is so stable and set in their ways that there isn’t room for someone new. I know I am just feeling sorry for myself; I just miss how easy it has been to truly make friends in some of my past wards. I had just had this talk with Marc on Friday or Saturday night and I was still thinking about it when I attended church on Sunday. I was sitting there in sacrament meeting and I was listening to the speaker talk about their perfect neighbor and how wonderful they were and they were always there when they needed the, etc. I was listening and my friend Megan leans over and explains that I was that neighbor for her. She said that my moving into the ward had made her more comfortable and she was so grateful that I had moved in. I had been so focused on myself that I hadn’t even wondered if I had been the person I needed for someone else.

Babysitting

One of the things that I have really missed is kids in my life. For some reason people think it is weird when you first meet someone and you asked to kidnap their kids for an afternoon while you play with them. I am not quite sure why but whatever. But anyway I finally got a chance to kidnap some children. My neighbor and good friend Holly let me watch her kids while her and her husband went swing dancing. Marc and I would have gone with them but he was working so I offered to watch the kids. It was so much fun and I loved being able to do normal things like bedtime. It isn’t the same to put the animals to bed as it is a child and tuck them in and read books. I have missed that. Thanks Holly for letting me steal your kids for a night. I can’t wait to see it again!

Hello Dolly with Holly (I love that that rhymes!)

One of my coworkers was performing in a local play and I got the chance to go see her. Anyone knows I am a sucker for the theater and especially musicals! I took along my neighbor Holly and we had a girl’s date. It was so much fun and I loved being back in a theater. I have missed it so much and didn’t realize until I was back inside. Holly and I enjoyed a night away from the boys and kids and ate chocolate and watched a good show. We are planning our next outing and hopefully it will be sooner rather than later!

Library Episode #5

Once again we get to hear from Mr. Nicholas. We have crafts for the kids at the library after school once a week. Nicholas went and was very excited that snacks were being served. He quickly shoved a whole cookie in his mouth and was chewing it while he went up the staff member and asked if there were peanuts in the cookies. She asked if he was allergic to peanuts and he confirmed that he was as he continued to chew. She asked how allergic he was, starting to panic, and he shrugged and said, “I don’t know.” She asked if he had ever had to use an epipen and he couldn’t remember. The cookies were made on the same machinery as cookies with peanuts but they didn’t actually have some in them. He was watched thoroughly and he appeared to be fine. We called him mom and talked to him about his allergy. Though we all shook our head at the situation, we were concerned that neither Nicholas nor his mother knew how allergic he was. If you have an allergy in your family, please take a moment to educate those around that person. You never know when your child, who is deathly allergic peanuts, will eat one at a library event at it could be a deadly scene! Please take a moment and talk about these issues with your children so that all can be kept safe.

9/10/11

I am starting to become known for my made up holidays and September 10th wasn’t an exception to the rule. I made up the holiday “Counting on Each Other Day”. This holiday couldn’t have come at a better time. Finances had been tight with school starting and some other surprise bills and we were just out of sync with each other. We decided that we needed to start back at the beginning. We recreated our first date and spent the night laughing and it was just the cure that we needed. I can’t wait for our next made up holiday and the next 75 years of marriage. I know that I can always count on Marc and I loved being able to celebrate that!

ASL Club

I have been granted permission to start an ASL Club at our library for Elementary aged kids. It has been so much fun to teach them Sign Language and it gives me a chance to enjoy the language with others! I am hoping to have a class for adults soon. We have learned all sorts of things including our alphabet and numbers. We don’t always use the most mature ways of teaching but the kids tend to remember better. Like for the number 11 and 12 it was taught as if were flicking boogers off of our fingers. I have gotten to know more of the kids in the library and they seem to really enjoy it. This next week we will learn our colors or animals. I can’t wait to see where this leads!

Classes begin once again....

Well we are busy with classes once again and so if we are hard to reach or if our blog isn’t very well updated then you know why! Well and it doesn’t help that some of us are being over-achievers in going to school this semester. Marc is working two jobs and taking 15 credit hours. He is enjoying school but looking forward to graduating this May with his Associate’s Degree. I hadn’t finished my 7 credit hours from summer classes and decided to take an interpreting class at CCC. Between all of my school I am taking 29 credit hours and working full time. The summer school hours would have finished this weekend but their system went down. I have finished 95% of the assignments and just need to submit them at this point and I will be down to 22 credits. I have an 8 week class that will finish in about 4 weeks and then I will be down to the prescribed limit of 18 credit hours. Until then, don’t hold your breath from hearing from either one of us!

Library Episode #4

My favorite patrons are the little ones that come into the library. We have this adorable little three year old that comes to the library and I am amazed at how smart he is! As he walked in the door he explained to me that he was wearing a camouflage jacket but he would blend in with the mud and not the trees because it was gray. He went and looked at books and came back later with his final selections. I was being silly and pointing to a picture of a frog and asking it was cat and things like that. He told me I was silly and laughed at me. I then thought that I could use this as a teaching moment and asked if he wanted to learn how to say cat in sign language. I explained that you take your hand like you were showing your whiskers and pulled out. He looked at me very seriously and said, “I am a boy and I DON’T have whiskers!” With that bit of knowledge he wouldn’t even try to sign it. I now think of that sign just a little bit different….

Library Epsiode #3

Remember little Nicholas, well this is another story about him. Nicholas came in with a water bottle one day. He asked the front desk if we would hold the water bottle for him and we reminded him that he could keep it because it had a lid. He said he was sure he would spill it and wanted us to hold it. We were sure that he would forget it but held it anyway. Sure enough he forgot it and we went to dump out the water before throwing it away. As my coworker dumped out the water she discovered there was a BB in this water. Like a BB for a BB gun. We started to freak out a little bit because you can get really sick from sticking things like BBs in your water! We agreed to talk to him about it the next time he came in.
The next time he came in we discussed the BB in his water. He said that he knew it was in his water and that his teacher told him it would grow. We tried very hard to explain to Nicholas that a BB would not grow in water! It took a long time but I think we might have convinced him from not growing BBs anymore!