Snow Expose

Snow. Is it a beautiful winter precipitation which is also enjoyable for people who desire to engage in winter sports? OR is it just another mess? Let's have a look at the facts:

Fact 1: While snow may be somewhat pretty when it is falling, it is far from "beautiful" when it is all mixed up with road salt and being sprayed onto your windshield by giant trucks on the freeway, and now that your car is covered with snow-salt sludge you have another mess to clean up.

Fact 2: The extra snow in your driveway is not desired and must be removed which is just another mess to clean up. (and it is not fun to shovel said snow.)

Fact 3: The salt stuff you have to sprinkle on the sidewalks makes your hands yucky so then you have to wash your hands which means having to use more items than you normally would and then you have just another mess to clean up.

Fact 4: Cleaning up after all the wet, slat sprinkled shoes that come in your clean house is just another mess to clean up.

Fact 5: People getting in car accidents are just another mess for the police to clean up.

Fact 6: Having to wear additional clothing to keep warm in the stupid snow makes for more laundry which is what? Just another mess to clean up!

So the facts speak for themselves. Snow is officially just another mess to clean up. So enough with the "snow is so beautiful" and "snow is so cool" and "snow is so Christmasy" talk. The only thing you can factually say from now on is "snow is just another mess to clean up."

Happy Birthday To Me

There isn't any big exciting story to share with you on this my 28th Birthday. I am not excited about turning 28 but I am trying this thing where I just keep saying 28 over and over in hopes that it will loose some of its horrible power! But I do have 2 funny preschool stories to share that are both birthday related.

Today one little boy came up to me and gently touched my arm and said,
"Miss Dawn. I am glad it is your birthday. You are beautiful."
I replied, "Thank you, that is a very nice thing to say."
He answered, "Well, that's my job!"And he shrugged as he walked away (as if he was some old man who had spent years doing the same job day after day and was resigned to the fact that this was just the way life was.)


For my birthday I brought cupcakes for snack for all of my classes and today as one class was eating them one little boy said, "Miss Dawn, these are SOOOOOOOOO good. Will you give my mom the recipie?" I thought that was so cute that he obviously comes from a family where recipies are shared regularly and he really wanted to make sure this one made it into the loop. Then all the other kids also wanted me to share the recipie with their moms. So if you are one of those moms here is how I made them:

Step 1. Have someone go to the store and buy a yellow cake mix and package of chocolate frosting for you.
Step 2. Convince someone else to bake the cupcakes for you.
Step 3. Frost the cupcakes with the chocolate frosting that someone else bought at the store.
Step 4. "Decorate" the cupcakes with a few holiday M&M's (because you happen to have a bag of them sitting right in front of you)
Step 5. Eat the yummy cupcakes

I know it is a labor intensive project...but the result is definately worth it!

Sad Story

Emma called me the other day to tell me a sad story....a story I know well. It is a story of little brothers and broken dreams (okay maybe just broken toys) and I had been there and I felt her pain vividly. She sighed as she told me, obviously holding back the flow of tears.

Emma: "Pratt broke my doll." (sniff sniff)

Me: "What doll?"

Emma: "The little one." (exasperated that I don't immediately know...but she has a lot of dolls)

Me: "Oh Emma. That is really too bad." (I still really have no idea which doll she is referencing)

Emma: "Grandma is trying to put it back together....with glue. But you can still see cracks in it." (her voice cracks somewhat poetically)

Me: "What does this doll look like?" (up to this point I was envisioning a soft baby doll and I did not see how the glue worked in to the equation)

Emma: "Oh! Auntie Dawn! Don't you know? It is the guy who watches sheep in heaven!!"

Me: (stifling a giggle) "Oh it is from the nativity scene."

Emma: "Yes. And I just can't believe he got it."

Me: Continuous consoling for several more minutes followed by suggestions for keeping things away from baby brothers' hands.

Today you choose your "moral of the story"
Be grateful there is already someone assigned to watch the sheep in heaven.
or
Take time to explain that the nativity scene actually happened on earth, not in heaven as the angles in attendance might indicate.

One Word

This is a blog tag that you have to answer each question with just one word. Tera was doing it and then she tagged me. I thought it would be easy....turns out, it's not so easy!

1. Where is your phone? Purse??
2. Where is your significant other? Dunno
3 .Your hair color? Red-ish
4. Your Mother? friend
5. Your Father? helpful
6. Your favorite thing? shopping
7. Your dream last night? forgot
8. Your dream/ Goal? vacation
9. The room you're in? full
10. Your hobby? sleep
11. Your fear? shower-curtains
12. Where do you want to be in 6 years? beach
13. Where were you last night? mom's
14. What you're not? predictable
15. One of your wish-list items? house
16. Where you grew up? Orem
17. The last thing you ate? salsa
18. What are you wearing? jammies
19. Your TV? on!
20. Your pet? none
21. Your computer? on!
22. Your mood? sleepy-ish
23. Missing someone? yeah
24. Your car? dirty
25. Something you're not wearing? jeans
26. Favorite store? Pebbles
27. Your Summer? short
28. Love someone? likely
29. Your favorite color? red
30. When was the last time you laughed? today
31. Last time you cried? today

So if you are up for a challenge go ahead and consider yourself tagged!

Thankful

Of course at this time of year it is traditional to ponder on and express gratitude for our many blessings....and I feel that mine are especially abundant. I thought I might share with you the list of things I came up with that I am grateful for.

1. Notebooks and pens (particularly the cute kind) because they allow to make lists such as this.
2. Mountain Dew and/or Dr. Pepper........they receive equal billing because they both provide the caffeine I need daily.
3. The chance I have to play with Little People toys and call it my "job."
4. $4.00 Prescriptions at Target
5. Mascara and Lip Gloss......my two favorite make up items because they make a difference in under 5 minutes.
6. Peanut Butter Cookies....especially the amped up kind with Rollo's, or Kisses, or tiny little Snickers bars.....so yummy.
7. Websites that offer free shipping!
8. Gas Prices..........yes I know they are just another sign of the weakening global economy and that I should be distressed over them......but I just can't be distressed over $1.66 a gallon, I tried and I can't do it. So I'll just be grateful instead.
9. Novels, and not just any novels, I am talking about the kind that are pure fluff. The kind that require minimal brain power to read and enjoy. The kind that DON'T make you think about anything important.
10. Disneyland.....the happiest place on earth.
11. All things Internet.........I am starting to wonder how I ever accomplished shopping, learning, finding things, communicating, knowing the news, or wasting countless hours before the Internet.
12. My preschoolers who when asked what they are thankful for say "Miss Dawn!"
13. Clorox Anywhere Hard-Surface Spray.......every germ haters dream-in-a-bottle.
14. My DVR at my new house......ahhh.

There is really so much to be grateful for! And obviously I am also immensely thankful for my home, my freedoms, my Savior, my preschool, my education and I am most thankful for my family and my friends....who are really just an extension of my family. (Well, to be entirely honest, caffeine and friends/family are probably tied.)

LOL (times 5)

So the past couple days in preschool have had a few funny moments that I thought I would share:

Moment #1:
Miss Dawn "My friends should be sitting on their bums with their arms folded." (trying to get them to focus)

Little Boy: "Miss Dawn! I CAN'T do that!"

Miss Dawn: "And why not?"

Little Boy: "I can't sit on my thumbs AND fold my arms!!"


Moment #2:
Little Girl: (addressing the whole class) "You better listen to Miss Dawn!! Don't you know the reindeers are seeing if we are good?!"

note: I have not said anything about Christmas yet....let alone threats of Santa's wrath.

Moment #3:
This week we were learning about the letter "U" so we were naming things that start with that and I said umbrella. Then a little girl starts singing "ella, ella, a, a, a, a, a!" These are the lyrics to a popular pop song and she was totally dancing while she belted them out.

Moment #4:
Little Boy: "Miss Dawn can I use markers?"

Miss Dawn: "No. You can use the crayons that are out."

Little Boy: "Well, there are no more crayons left."

Miss Dawn: "Oh really?" (I of course know that there are 4 rubber-maid boxes FULL of crayons). I turn and look, "I see a bunch of crayons right there."

Little Boy: "I guess I meant that I don't want to use crayons."

Miss Dawn: "I guess you did mean that, but the answer is still no markers."

Moment #5
A little girl walked up to me and said "Hold still....you have a spot" as she licked her pointer finger and proceeded to rub her finger back and forth on my chin. Then she looked upset and so I asked, "Is it not coming off?"
She shook her head and I said "It's called a freckle. I have a lot of them, and they don't come off."
It was a little gross....but SO cute. And the cute totally outweighed the gross.

These are the moments when I wish there was a camera constantly recording the goings on of the preschool.

Christmas Treats

Today I was walked through the store I thought to myself:

 "Man it seems a little early to have Christmas stuff out. What happened to Thanksgiving?! (Grumble, Grumble, Grumble)"

But then something caught my eye......delicious cadbury mini eggs (the Christmas edition). And I thought, "Well, I guess they will put the stuff out as long as there is money to be made!' (As I put a bag of the treats in my cart.)

Then a little while later as I strolled past the ice-cream section of the store I saw something else that grabbed hold of my attention......peppermint ice-cream. And I thought, "Not everything is horrible I guess." (As I put a container of ice-cream in my cart.)

Then as I stopped to grab some crackers for preschool I saw some intriguing candy-cane oreos. (The cream part has a candy cane flavor). And I thought, "That is a new and exciting Christmas twist." (As I put a package of cookies in my cart.)

Then as I was on my way out I saw Candy-Cane Hot Chocolate. And I thought, "Well, by the looks of my cart I guess I am quite glad all the Christmas stuff is out already!' (As I put a container of hot chocolate in my cart.)

And then as I stood in line I thought, "I think the real problem with Christmas stuff being out already is that everything is sugar-related." (As I took an item or two out of my cart.) I figure I have 6 weeks to enjoy all the splendors of the Christmas season!

If You Chance....

So obviously a part of being a preschool teacher is singing songs....a lot of songs. And while I can boast that I have many songs in my repertoire....I will admit that sometimes it gets a little boring (they always want to sing the same songs over and over and over). So today I thought I would introduce a song we hadn't sung in preschool yet. A classic from my own childhood, many of you will recognize it. The classic "If You Chance To Meet A Frown." I type the lyrics for you below because it turns out that they are important to this post and perhaps some of you will not be familiar with them or will have forgotten them.

If You Chance To Meet A Frown:

If you chance to meet a frown,
Do not let it stay.
Quickly turn it upside down,
And smile that frown away.

No one likes a frowny face.
Change it for a smile.
Make the world a better place,
By smiling all the while!

So as I sat in my chair watching 10 adorable little faces look up to mine as I sang the words I started thinking two different things:

1. I began to wonder what messages a 4 year old might take from this song. I would hate to think they would feel like they couldn't feel and express their feelings!!! I want them to know that it is okay to feel sad, and mad, and hurt, and scared, and frustrated in addition to the always popular: happy. I want them to know that everyone feels these things and that they are loved no matter what!

2. I was also thinking about how much influence my attitude can have on everyone around me and how this song could really help me remember to smile instead of frown...(even if someone was dumping their water into their yogurt cup and back again making a disgusting mess. Because is it really the end of the world?) The power of a smile is truly great and I have always appreciated those people in my life who are quick to smile. It is a trait I have always envied...with a frown I might add.

So, you the reader might ask, what has been gained from this moment of reflection? Well, dear reader, I will tell you. I have decided that I will most likely be removing this particular song from my preschool song list. And on the other hand I will also be trying to find ways to remind myself of the positive benefits of smiling more. :)

P.S. In case you were wondering I actually do have very insightful thoughts during the most random moments of preschool...singing, reading, painting, cleaning up yogurt-water, etc.

(This post is dedicated to Tera since I am using her laptop while she sleeps on the other couch!)

Un-Married

Most of my preschool kids know that sometimes my mom is upstairs during preschool, and whenever they hear a noise they can't immediately identify they ask, "Is your mom upstairs today?"

Today they heard such a noise (it was really just the furnace) and asked the inevitable question.
Miss Dawn: "Well yes my mom is upstairs today, but that noise was not her. She is asleep today because she worked all night last night." (Of course I had to explain to them why anyone would stay awake all night and then sleep during the day...silly nurses.)

Then came a new question:
Little Girl #1: "Miss Dawn, is your dad upstairs?"

Miss Dawn: "Nope, he is not upstairs." (I was really hoping this was the end of this line of questioning)

Little Boy #1: "When is he coming home?" (I guess it was not the end of the questions.)

Miss Dawn: "Well....................my dad does not live at this house so he doesn't come home to here. He goes home to his own house."
(You know, the place where he lives with his wife and my step and half siblings.)

Little Boy #2: "Why doesn't he live at this house?"
(Because it would be a little awkward for everyone involved if he lived here. It is probably better that he live with his wife, rather than his ex-wife...duh! And my mom is also probably quite content with him going to his own home.)

Miss Dawn: (There was a VERY long pause here...what should I tell them?!?! What if something I tell them scares them about their own parents? I scan the faces and nope, no know here has divorced parents.) So finally I start talking, still quite unsure where I am going to go with this. "Well do you know what married is? Your mom and dad are married to each other. And when I was a little girl my mom and dad were married to each other. But then they decided it would be best if they got unmarried. So they did, and my dad moved to a different house. But it is okay because my mom and dad both love me and I get to spend time with both of them and now they are both happier."

This is the point where I literally hold my breath....I don't want to talk about it anymore and I am already worried that they are going to be traumatized by this discussion.....

Then, silence. Glorious silence. There are no more questions about my dad or his whereabouts. Thank Heaven!!!

Oh Wait!....This IS My LIfe!

I don't know about you but sometimes I get caught up in thinking ONLY about the future. Often I think things like, "My life will start when...." But the other day I realized, "Oh Wait!...This IS my life! And guess what-- it is GREAT!" Is it what I expected my life to be at this point? No. It is nothing like I ever imagined it to be....

I didn't imagine I would feel so much intense pain....but I also didn't imagine I would feel so much joy....
I certainly didn't think I would be 28 (almost) and single (gasp!)......
Nor did I think I would have my own preschool that was so successful....
I wouldn't have believed I would be considering writing a children's book......
I didn't plan on loving 40 kids (who weren't mine) as much as I do.....
I didn't guess at who would still be a part of my life....and who wouldn't....
I didn't hope I would have the struggles that I do...but I also didn't have a clue how strong I could be......
I definately didn't realize the impact my decisions would have on my life...
But mostly I couldn't know how blessed I would feel to have this life.

So my life isn't perfect. And my life isn't what I imagined, or planned. But the truth is that I am grateful for what my life is. So I am going to stop trying to make my life what I thought it should be and start enjoying what my life has to offer.

Pig-Tails in Preschool

I have an absolutely adorable little boy in my preschool class who is fascinated by hair. It all started, his mom tells me, when he was just a little baby and loved to play with her hair as he ate or was rocked to sleep.

The other day in preschool we were all sitting at the carpet for class time (singing songs, reading stories, etc.) when this particular little boy caught my attention. His mission was quiet....silent really, and slow.....so slow I was actually able to observe the whole thing while I led songs.

First he noticed the blond pig-tails on a little girl sitting in front and slightly to the right of him. Soon he was staring at the pig-tails. Then he carefully, almost tentatively, reached out and gently touched the soft, blond pig-tail. The owner of the pig-tails was completely oblivious to the entire thing....she didn't even know he touched her hair. Then he was done and he turned his attention back to me. It was HILARIOUS!!

(This post is dedicated to his cute mom....you know who you are. You are a great mom...I hope I can be like you when I grow up!)

Obsession

I often find myself locked on to a particular task, idea, song, wish, etc. I have come to accept this about myself but this week I have come across something rather ironic...I am currently obsessed with making lists of the things I am obsessed with. I know. So I thought perhaps if I shared my list I would be able to get a laugh and move on. So here ia today's 10 item list of things I am obsessed with....at least they are the things I am obsessed with today. (Oh yeah....making it into a nice round list of 10 items makes me very happy.)

I am obsessed with.....
1. Getting warm (I am SO cold!!)
2. Watching Tina Fey spoof Sarah Palin.....I think I could watch those clips a million times and never stop laughing.
3. Cream potatoes (I would happily eat them for every single meal)
4. Having my fingernails painted red.
5. Learning how to do a good job of painting my own fingernails red. (see item #4)
6. Learning the words to "Supercalifragilisticexpialidocious" (the Broadway musical version)
7. Making the perfect hot chocolate (see item #1)
8. Cleaning off the build-up of soap that accumulates around the dispensing area of soap containers. (This is all soaps that I come in contact with...dish, hand, shampoo, face...you get the idea)
9. The new shoe website Cami told me about where you get free overnight shipping and free return shipping; it is AMAZING. And I found 2 things I had been specifically looking for a LONG time. (In case you are curious those 2 things are a pair of rain boots, and a pair of red dress-ish shoes) And I didn't even want to return anything.
10. Making lists (hence this list....it is sort of a vicious cycle)

Now you have all had a sneak peek into the "obsession center" of my brain....and you're welcome. By the way, do you think there really is an "obsession center" in your brain like the "speech center?" Great something else to be obsessed about.

The Outsiders

The other day in Preschool there came THE MOMENT. You see every day there is one moment where the noise level suddenly jumps from the acceptable (7 or below) to the unacceptable (10 or more). Even after years of surveys, consultations, and experiments I have NO idea what causes this moment. My working theory is some sort of telepathy between the kids that goes something like this: "Hey guys let's see if we can't make miss dawn's eyes get big!" then after a few moments: "YAY! We did it!!!"

So anyway we were at this moment and I pulled out one of my handy "teacher" phrases: "Friends, let's remember to use our inside voices, please." It sounds cheesy but it usually works (and if it doesn't I just scream at the top of my lungs that I will sneak into their bedrooms while they are sleeping and steal away all their Halloween Candy if they don't stop RIGHT NOW!...that works too). After I said the nice version, one little boy looked right into my eyes and said,
"Miss Dawn, YOU are outsiding."

Me: "I'm sorry? I don't know what you are trying to tell me. What do you mean?"

Little boy: "You just told us to insiding but you are outsiding."

Good point.

What am I supposed to say to that? Is a 3 year-old really going to understand that I need to use a slightly louder, and authoritative voice to convey important messages...I mean I am the teacher here. (I did attempt to explain this concept to him.) Apparently, though, he's not going to fully understand. I think he left the moment understanding that I am just a big old hypocritical "outsiding" grown-up.

(P.S. this post is dedicated to Alisha...who I know has exerienced the moment lots of times...in fact she handles the moment better than any teacher I know...I aspire to be you!)

Mind Control?

Today I told my morning class that we were going to be going on a fiedtrip in a couple of weeks. When I said it 7 super-excited cheers erupted from the kids. I was a little surprised by their reaction considering that they had never been on a preschool fiedtrip before. Then one little boy said, "Um....what is a fieldtrip?" That was the reaction I was expecting.

I thought it so cute and funny that they were SO excited even though they had no idea what I was talking about. It may have had something to do with the excited expression on my face when I told them. The good news is that my plan for mind control is going QUITE well....{insert evil laugh here}.

A Whole New World!

(Please sing the title of this blog the way Aladdin and Jasmin did.)

So in the frozen food section of every grocery store there are about 2 shelves dedicated to vegetarians. While aware of their existence, I had not previously shopped these shelves until recently. I decided I would try ONE thing. So I stood there looking at the green boxes (I'm not sure why but all the boxes seem to be green) for a really long time. But I had a problem:

If I don't like the way meat tastes why would I want to buy a veggie-burger that tastes like meat? I wouldn't.

At this point I was officially grossed out and decided to choose something other than a veggie burger. So I picked up each box and carefully studied the description, ingredient list, and picture until I decided on a box of little breaded things (to this day I do not know what they were supposed to "replace"--chicken nuggets maybe). They were small and round and filled with spinach, artichokes, and mozzarella. And considering I liked all those things I figured they couldn't be TOO bad. And actually they were really yummy. (Now I would love to put a picture of them here, but seeing how I already ate them all and threw away the box I guess I am out of luck.)

The next time I was at the grocery store I decided that since my first experiment had gone so well I would try something else. This time, I firmly told myself, I would choose a box of veggie-burgers. Because, I rationalized with myself, how would I know if I liked them or not if I didn't try them. So once again I stood carefully reading every single letter printed on the box to try to determine if it would taste like meat. I eventually decided on a box that claimed nothing about meat taste or texture (although I have to say I'm confident none of them have accomplished a meat texture with vegetables, come on) and I put it in my cart.

Flash Forward: I still haven't been able to try them...I am a total wimp. And so they sit sad and lonely in my freezer. So this whole post has just been one big lead up to this: an invitation to anyone who would like to come over and help me try veggie-burgers. I know Brock and Uncle Reid will jump at the chance but I have 4 burgers so that leaves 1 more spot.....call me!

Why...I Mean REALLY, WHY?

So my cousin Amy told me on Monday that she likes that I have been posting so much lately, and that is enough for me to post every day! Ok not every day but a lot and I also dedicate this random (basically useless) post to Amazing Amy Johnson. Now to the actual post, please to enjoy:

So right now it is a little after midnight and I am thinking "why?"
Why is it that at 3:45 in the afternoon I find the world dull and boring to the point of taking a completely unnecessary nap OR spending about $5000 in a smallish online shopping venture.
And Why is it that after midnight I find everything interesting and I suddenly feel able to AND desirous to do my laundry (at least until it is time to carry it upstairs) and I am the farthest thing from sleepy. You see, I know that even if I crawled into my little old bed right now, I still wouldn't sleep for at least an hour so why not watch a little more "What About Bob?" on TBS?
Why can't these be reversed?

Vegetarian? (again)

A long time ago I posted that I was "leaning toward" vegetarianism. Over time things have only continued on the way they were heading and now I am officially done eating meat. Most often when people learn this about me they just really can't imagine why I would want to do such a thing. Here is a fairly typical conversation:

someone: "You really don't eat meat?"
me: "Nope."
someone: "Like, not ANY meat?"
me: "Um...no."
someone: "What about _____?" (You can fill in this blank with every type of meat you can imagine because we usually go through them all.)
me: "Well seeing how ______ is meat....no, I don't eat that."
someone: "why not?"

I don't mind the questions, I know people are just trying to understand. I do find it amusing though, I must admit. I think that I am more concerned with people understanding my reasons for not eating meat rather than anything else.

While many people choose to be vegetarian for moral reasons (and good for them) I am not in that group. I think my cattle-rancher grandpa might disown me if I told him I believed we shouldn't kill animals for our own purposes. (which by the way I don't really believe. I mostly go with the "moderation" in all things theory). And I really don't want to be disowned by my grandpa!

I don't eat meat for 2 basic reasons; 1. It really makes my stomach turn to think of eating the flesh of another living creature (but I don't care if other people eat it...go right ahead!) 2. It tastes gross to me.

For a long time I have been adverse to be called a vegetarian. I'm not sure why I cared, but I think mostly I just didn't want to be labeled. But now I am feeling more confident in saying: I am a vegetarian.

Letter Of The Week

This week's letter is a great one, good old reliable letter 'I'! We do different things with the letter all week long. Today we were making a list of things that start with the letter....

Miss Dawn: "Well...no, eyeball actually does not start with I. It starts with E. I know it is very confusing.....(attempted explanation). Does anyone else know something that starts with the letter I?"

Little Boy: "Miss Dawn?! I know something that starts with the letter I!!!"

Miss Dawn: "Okay.....what?"

Little Boy: "i-pod!"

Miss Dawn: "Yes it does."

Not one of the kids had to ask what an i-pod is....they all know already!

P.S.-Can I just say in response to the "eyeball" starts with an I situation, Are you joking me?! I mean REALLY?! Could we make it any more difficult for 4 year olds to understand phonics?

Giant Sunglasses

So you always see the "celebrities" wearing those huge sunglasses that cover half of their faces and I always thought, "Well....they wear those because somebody, somewhere said it was the THING to do."

But this summer I was at a fair-type-experience-thing and I had forgotten my sunglasses so when I saw a booth selling sunglasses it wasn't difficult to convince myself to buy a new pair. Problem was all they had were those huge sunglasses. They were cheap, and I needed sun protection for my eyes (I really don't want to get eye wrinkles prematurely) so I just bought the pair that Emily said looked good on me. Over the past couple months I have come to realize that there are MANY useful reasons to have GIANT, face covering sunglasses.....

1. They are virtually impossible loose in your purse, even the black hole purses that I always seem to choose.
2. Covering up laziness induced make-up free (scary looking) eyes.
3. Hiding annoying people induced eye rolling.
4. Covering up a large portion of your face so that you can "hide" from people you may not want to see or talk to. (particularly great in combination with a hoodie and/or hat)
5. Covering up crying induced red eyes.
6. Covering up actual crying.
7. Holding your hair out of your face when you forget a headband.
8. Covering up sleepless night induced black bag undereyes.
9. Being able to flat out stare at people without them knowing and therefore thinking you are a crazy person. (I love people watching...people are so interesting)
10. Covering up drunken night induced blood-shot eyes. (A really big one for me actually.)
11. Protecting the all important eye skin from the deadly sun. (I really don't want to get eye wrinkles prematurely....or even at the regular time you are supposed to get them)
12. Making it possible to have new, important, and really deep things to ponder....such as the reasons that it is great to own really big sunglasses.

I HATE FOOTBALL

My mom recently asked me why I hate football so much, am I harboring unkind feelings towards it because she neglected me to watch it when I was a child? No. I don't think so. I just think it is stupid.

So football season has started again.....LAME! And every Monday night there is nothing good on TV because the programers know that everyone else is watching football. So I was whining about this to myself but then I thought to myself that instead of complaining about it I should just DO something about it!
So I am! I am instituting Monday-Night-Movies! (Obviously in replace of Monday-Night-Football)
The plan is this:
Week One (September 15th): Go out to a Movie--I am thinking Mama Mia (I haven't seen a new movie in forever) but I don't have times yet.

Week Two (September 22nd): Stay in for a movie at my house--Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants (to get ready for week three).

Week Three (September 29th): Go Out To a Movie--Sisterhood Of The Traveling Pants 2. Again time to be announced.

Anyway you get the basic idea, alternate between going out and staying in. I know it is Family Home Evening night-so we will try to schedule this for the evening (after you do your family home evening...might I suggest 5:00pm for FHE?)

Let me know if you are in so we can start making a plan!!

Tagged

Tera tagged me with what I think is a rather difficult tag--

5 Things That Not Many People Know About Me Or That Are Unique To Me:

1. I am fascinated by this TLC show "Mystery Diagnosis" where everyone on the show starts by having a bad headache as their symptom and then they end up having some impossible to pronounce disease that only like 1 in 20 billion people get. And while I am not a hypochondriac-I do spend HOURS completely terrified that I will get whatever random disease I heard about recently.I should probably stop watching that show.

2. I love to look at baby clothes in the store but I refuse to buy them because I think it is bad baby karma (you know if I buy the clothes I will never have a baby) but then I think about the outfits for days and lament that probably when I do have kids the clothes available then won't be half so cute as that one outfit I didn't buy. Sad Sigh.

3. Now that I am only working 1 job I feel like the biggest slacker on the earth. I think that I am wasting my day from 3:30-10:00pm. Lindsay suggested I get a hobby--but I can't think of one...at least one that doesn't cost a ton of money.

4. I think my best feature is my blue eyes. I love the way they look when I go to the effort of applying eyeshadow, eyeliner, and mascara. I can't fathom leaving my room without AT LEAST mascara on.

5. My favorite place in the store (namely Target) is the organization section. I will often go stand there, look at all the beautiful containers, smell the wonderful organized smell (yes there is a smell if you are in tune to it) and let my thoughts drift to how I would use each of these marvels of plastic in my life. Happy Sigh.

So now I am supposed to Tag 5 people. So I Tag Lindsay, Kelsi, The Manzuscrpiters, Alisha and Amy Johnson. :)

Attempted Sneakiness

Recently in preschool:

A handful of little boys had built guns out of duplos, this is expressly against the rules. (I know that it is fun for little boys to play guns but I don't allow them because 1. They ALWAYS cause fights and 2. I HATE guns)

Miss Dawn: "Friends, remember that we don't build or play guns at school. Why don't you build a spaceship or airplane instead?"

Little Boy #1: "Ok Miss Dawn."

Little Boy #2: "Yes Sir!!" (I mostly just shook my head at that)

A few minutes go by....and because they couldn't see me over the shelf they assumed that I could not see or hear them. Silly boys.

Little Boy #2: "Look at my gun!"

Little Boy #1: "Miss Dawn said no guns."

Little Boy #2: "Well, just don't show Miss Dawn." (Insert his eye rolling here)

Little Boy #1: "Oh! Good idea!"

Miss Dawn: "No. Not a good idea. Boys, it is not okay to build guns even if I DON'T see them." I further elaborated on the rule, why we have it, and how if their mom says they can play guns at home that is fine but not here, yada-yada-yada.

I know that negotiation skills are an important part of learning at this age, but sometimes I think they twist negotiation into manipulation and down right sneakiness! I sure do love them though!!

P.S. To any parents reading this you will just have to wonder if it was your little boy or not....I'll never tell. :)

Pie Karma

I generally believe in Karma...just last week I let someone with only one item to laminate cut in line because I had like 200 items to laminate. While the results were not immediate I am confidant that this lamination Karma will catch up with me eventually.

Tonight I discovered a new, and very relevant, type of Karma. Pie Karma. (In case you didn't know we Washburns place a rather large emphasis on all things dessert.) So here is what happened to bring about this discovery.

Not long after we had finished eating it was time to break out the pie.

Mom: "What kind of pie does everyone want? I have apple, rhubarb, and peach."

It seemed that everyone was saying "peach." This concerned me because that is the only kind of pie I like.

Cami: "I want peach with whipped cream."

Me: "Um..Cami you like apple pie so why don't you eat that? I know you like apple pie and I only like peach so why don't you leave the peach for me?"

Cami: "Well, I do like apple pie. But if I eat peach pie now, I know mom will give me the apple pie when I go home."

Me: "That hardly seems fair." But what was I to do....absolutely nothing. So I ate my peach pie.

Later that evening as everyone prepared to leave my mom began to hand out the leftovers for everyone else to take home.

Mom: "Brent would you guys like some apple pie to take home?"

Brent: "Yeah."

Cami: "NO! I am taking home the apple pie."

Mom: "There is plenty of apple pie, you can both have some. I also have rhubarb so you can take some of that too."

Cami: "I don't like rhubarb."

Cami was not happy about this situation, and that was the moment that Karma hit, but not just any Karma.....

PIE KARMA!!!

Sore Throat

So I think the worst part about being a grown-up is when you get sick. When you were a kid and you had a sore throat a lot of great things happened:
1.Getting to stay home from school and watch TV all day.
2.Having your mom fix you whatever food you wanted.
3.Your siblings having to leave you alone.
4.Not being required to do any of the regular everyday things like clean your room.

Being sick as an adult is really LAME! All I want is my mom (and by that I mean "anyone with a valid driver's license") to make me something to eat (and by that I mean: "go to jamba juice and get me a big old Caribbean Passion") and then dote over me for awhile (and by that I mean "do my laundry and clean my bathroom").

*As a side note I give a big shout out to all the moms I know who not only take care of their kids but also have to take care of their kids when they themselves are sick. I don't think I could do it (and that's probably why I don't have any kids yet. Well, that and throw up....gross)

Preschool

This summer we spent re-doing pretty much everything in my preschool.

Things I DID NOT like about the re-do:

• Sore arms from painting all the walls and the ceiling.
• Standing in my garage painting baseboards-BORING!
• Dust on ALL my furniture and toys.
• Staying up way too late every night so that now my sleep schedule is completely ruined.
• A new complication every day.

Things I DID like about the re-do

• Realizing what great neighbors I have that were willing to help me for little payment (or really none whatsoever).
• Remembering what great friends I have that were willing to help me for little payment (or really none whatsoever).
• Remembering what a great family I have that were willing to help on short notice and with really non-fun jobs, for little payment (or really none whatsoever).
• The BEST thing about the re-do? IT'S DONE!!!

So here are a few after pictures-I didn't take before or during pictures because the whole thing was just too overwhelming for me.

(Warning:there are a lot of pictures-I guess I am just so proud)

The block area is in the center with the art/snack tables on either side of the photo.

This is the "library" and behind that is the math/manipulatives table.

This is the dramatic play area featuring the play kitchen (which is probably my most favorite thing I ever bought for the preschool. The 4 year-old me was THRILLED with it. :)

Our class-time area (notice my preschool shoes that made it into the picture-oops. But they sure are cute huh?)

This is a shot of the art/snack tables and in the background some of my storage/organization.

This is where all the kiddos hang up their backpacks.

The math/manipulative table from a different angle-with a bathroom shot to boot!

The NEW door. I love my new door and I have to say that the money I spent on having the store install it was the BEST money I spent all summer.

As far as closets, storage and organization goes we have a couple different options:

Option #1: The good

Isn't this beautiful? All of the matching containers and their perfect, pretty rows really make me happy.

Option #2: The Bad

There is some organization-and I am REALLY trying...but I still have a little work to do.

Option #3: The Ugly

The Really, Really, Ridiculously Ugly

Now you all know what "labor" I will be doing this labor day weekend. :)

And just to clarify--no one can see "the bad" and "the ugly" so they are my little secret. (except I guess not anymore.)

Too Late!

The other day I was tending Emma and Pratt when Emma and I had the following conversation:

Emma: "Auntie Dawn, I want to see the picture of you in your pretty white dress." (She indicated to one of Cami's wedding pictures.)

Me: "Emma, I don't have a picture like that because that picture was taken when your mommy and daddy got married, and I am not married."

Emma: "Oh. Do you want to get married?"

Me: "Um, if someday I met someone who I really loved and they really loved me, then maybe we would get married."

Emma: After thinking about it for a moment, "Well, isn't it too late."
(I didn't know that 6 year-olds knew how to ask rhetorical questions.)

Me: (answering anyway) "No, I don't think so. I'm really not THAT old you know."

And with that Emma shrugged and trotted off to play.

Wemberly Worried

Tonight I am trying to finish up all the loose ends to be ready for preschool to start tomorrow (like writing 40 names on 10 different things) and I realize that I am feeling sort of nervous.
I don't know why I should feel nervous. This isn't my first year teaching preschool, I'm not going to high school worrying about trying to impress some guy, and I am basically ready.
But I can't seem to talk myself out of it. I try to think about something else and eventually my mind returns to worrying about what to wear tomorrow,(which is silly because I wear the same thing everyday) that I might oversleep (if you know me, you know this is a fairly valid fear) and that something semi-catastrophic will happen (like paint being spilled on my beautiful new floor).
If only I (like Wemberly in one of my favorite picture books) had a bunny with soft ears to rub to calm me down....oh well I guess I will just try to put my nervous energy to good use finishing everything up. :-)

Question: Who's In Charge?

The following happened at the child care center where I worked** on Thursday morning:

Two Boys: "Teacher Dawn, can we go play outside on the hill?"

Teacher Dawn (thinking it is way to early for questions-I mean it's only 8:00am!) "Well, ask teacher Cherish."

The boys look at Teacher Cherish expectantly.

Teacher Cherish: "Why ask me? Who do YOU think is in charge here?" she gestures to me and herself.

The boys look back and forth between us, obviously weighing the importance of their answer. Then in perfect unison they reply, "Teacher Dawn!"

(The question just seemed SO Dwight that I couldn't help phrasing it the way he would. :)

**Friday was my last day of work at Kid Stop (IHC owned child care center in American Fork). I was an emotional mess, there may have been a moment (or 20) when I was laughing and crying at the same time. I am excited to be able run my preschool at full capacity, but I will miss so many of the teachers and children that I worked with there. Thanks to everyone at Kid Stop for all the fun and memories! (and great blog stories!)

Two Great People

Two of the greatest people I know are my cousins Tera and Kevin Jeffs. I have learned so many lessons from them both and love them so much. Kevin, and the example he set through the way he lived his life, have had a powerful impact in my life. Also, I will never be able to walk down a cereal aisle without thinking of him. Kevin passed away this week after a very long battle with cancer. I will miss Kevin. My deep condolences to his sweet wife, Tera, and all of his family.

And The Not So Big City

So I got home from my trip to New York City on Wednesday night (around midnight) and left for our family vaca to Cedar City on Thursday morning. (No I really didn't sleep that night).

I always look forward to this trip, spending time with my family, being in Cedar City (which is a really nice place even if it is small-ish), seeing some good shows, etc. We had fun this year. I saw 3 shows my favorite of which was Fiddler on The Roof. I thought it was a really touching story (no my eyes did not tear up at the end....okay they did) and it was really well done.

Quite possibly the best part of it all is being with the niece and nephews. Here are some pictures of them.

James really liked the new fake Dolce & Gabana bag I got Lindsay in New York. He NEVER wants to hold still and he has the most infectious smile and laugh ever. (check out lindsay's blog to see James laugh.)

Pratt was playing with my sunglasses at the Greenshow. He was dancing up a storm during the greenshow-and yelled when the music stopped or switched to a slower song.

Emma watching the green-show. She really does enjoy watching the dancers and eating the treats that you can buy there. She also had a great time with a little photo shoot she produced. I went looking for Emma and Eric and my camera and I saw them by the "swamp" as Emma calls it. (Really just a little water-feature). Anyway I watched as she directed Eric to the right places to stand in order for her to take pictures of him! (Eric would do ANYTHING for her.)

Please to enjoy:

I am just so glad that she used MY camera so that I can own these pictures forever! I wonder how I can use these to torture him......

Emma also directed herself in a couple of shots that she made Eric take.

The Big City

Saturday: "I was MADE to live in a big city! I LOVE EVERYTHING about this place!"

Wednesday: "I REALLY want to go HOME! I NEED to see my mountains again."

These are the bookends of my super-fun trip to New York City this last week. So here is the whole stroy. I have some great friends-The Boyer Family-that I have known for like 13 years now. My friend and their daughter (Samantha) got married in June and is living with her new hubby in New York City for the summer. So my friend Donna (sam's mom) decided to go visit for 10 days. And joy of joys she invited me along! I obviously couldn't stay as long as Donna but I sure wasn't going to pass up the opportunity to visit New York with a free "hotel." I got there early Saturday morning and left on Wednesday morning. I saw so many things; museums, statue of liberty, world trade center site, brooklyn bridge, empire state building, everything! I was a classic tourist and I loved it!

My favorite part: Seeing the Broadway production of Mary Poppins. It was absolutely magical. I mean Marry Poppins actually flies! And that is only one tiny part of the magic in the show. There is really no other way to describe it than magical. I highly recommend it. It was amazing. (Thanks to Donna)

My least favorite part: Being completely disoriented. Without my mountains surrounding me I honestly had no idea which way was which. Where was north? I don't know! It was very frustrating because I usually have such a great sense of direction and can get almost anywhere. (I know this may seem a strange choice considering such un-fun things like urine smelling subway stations and sticky humidity heat but this is me. :)

Coming home was a bit of a joke and I ended up spending like 7 hours in the Long Beach "Airport." (I use the word airport generously...more like an elementary school satelite trailer with a secruity checkpoint). It wasn't as bad as I thought it would be, I found a little restaurant and I made some great new friends while we were all sitting around for hours and bonding every time they announced our plane would be delayed AGAIN! Thanks for the fun Nicole and Jenny!

It was such a great trip! Here are some of my pics.
This is Donna and Sam only moments before Sam threw up her Garretts carmel and cheese popcorn over the side of the boat! That was a real highlight for me....becasue I didn't throw up. :-)

The city with Central Park smack in the middle (I loved the park, it was so peaceful and beautiful) as seen from "The Top of The Rock" observation area.

Dylan's Candy Bar-quite possibly my favorite store that we went in. Shocked? I didn't think so.

Feel The Love?

On Tuesdays at the day care I take the "big" kids (kindergarteners) to the movies at the theater in American Fork. We usually have to wait for a little while after the movie for our driver (teacher Lisa) to pick us up. The kids love climbing on the rocks in front. The other day the following happened:

Dawn: "Oh, Ethan. Don't jump from one rock to another. That is dangerous."

Ethan: "I don't care."

Dawn: "Well I do. And anyway what if you fell down and broke your arm or got cut and started bleeding. That would be bad. When teacher Lisa got here she would probably be REALLY mad at me...she might even tell me I can't come and work at the school anymore."

Ethan: (Thinking this information through) "Well....you're not really my favorite teacher anyway."

Dawn: "So you wouldn't care if teacher Lisa told me I couldn't work there anymore?"

Ethan: Shrugging his shoulders, "No."

I really feel like I am making an impact in these kids lives....it is the reason I get out of bed each day.

I just forgot!

The other day I was at work at the daycare (where I have worked the last 2 or so years for additional income/insurance coverage in addition to my preschool) and I was a part of the following:

A little girl came to me in tears: "Brad scratched me."
Me: "Brad, please come talk to me." He comes quite reluctantly.
Me: "Did you scratch Missy?" He nods his assent. "Why did you scratch her?"
Brad: "Cindy told me to scratch her."
Me: "Cindy, please come talk to me." She comes very reluctantly.
Me: "Cindy, did you tell Brad to scratch Missy?"
Cindy: "No! I told him to scratch the wall."
Me: "If you told him to scratch the wall, why did he scratch Missy?"
Cindy: "Well.....I just forgot to say 'THE WALL.'"

She obvioulsy thought this clever explanation would take care of any problems.....it did not. It took everything I had not to laugh.

It's Just a Matter of Time

Last Sunday I taught my mom's primary class for her while she was in Monticello. I enjoy teaching primary-but I am glad that I don't have to do it every week! During singing time the music leader gave each child a cookie--YAY! I asked my class to wait until we got into our classroom to eat their cookie (I was thinking it would be a great way to "eat" up a few minutes of lesson time that I wouldn't have to fill!) So we were all munching away when one little boy dropped a piece of his cookie onto the ground,

Me: "Oh, that is yucky now. Throw that part in the garbage."
Little boy: Obviously hesitating: "But..."
Me: "I know, but you should probably just thow it away."
Little boy: "But is hasn't even been on the ground for 10 minutes yet!!"

April 2009!

I just wanted to let everyone know that the dates for Wicked to play in Salt Lake City are officially announced. Wicked will be here from April 8, 2009 to May 3, 2009 at the Capitol Theater. Unfortunately, tickets are not yet on sale....but don't worry I will probably be checking everyday because I think there would be nothing worse than missing Wicked when it is so close to home!! I am so excited! Only 312 days to go!!

Shoes

Disclaimer: While I generally consider myself to be a fairly practical person (although my brothers may disagree) I do have my moments of complete and entirely blissful impracticality--this is one of those moments.

Backstory:
I hadn't bought shoes for quite some time and my "Sunday" shoes were looking a little sad, so I headed to the Famous Footwear. It was like one of those movie moments where the hero and heronie see each other across a room and both seem to be enveloped in a heavenly light and now neither of them can see anything but each other. So it was like that but with me as the heronie and the shoes as my hero. I fell fast and I fell hard. They are ridiculously adorable black Steve Madden heels. They have a peep-toe and a little bow. They also have WAY too high of a heel for me(considering when I wear them I am at least 6 feet tall). But I just didn't care. I bought them and I took them home and I look at them everyday and I love them.

Moment of complete and entirely blissful impracticality:
The other night I really needed to do a little cleaning and laundry and I (shockingly) didn't want to do it. Then I saw the shoes sitting there and I thought "Dawn, it might be kinda fun to clean while wearing THE shoes." So I slipped them on my feet, and magically they went prefectly with my pink plaid pajama pants and grey Old Navy flag tee (from like 1999)! I looked amazing-seriously like runway ready. I will admit now that I did clean and do laundry while walking around in 3-inch heels at midnight in my pajamas. I know it is silly, but it was fun....and I secretly plan to do it again soon. (or I guess not so secretly now.)

Fun in the Sun

Today in preschool we went on a fieldtrip to the Farm at Thanksgiving Point. I was just glad that it wasn't raining or anything! But before we left for the farm I had the following conversation:

Little Boy: "Miss Dawn, why do we have to wear sunburn?"
Miss Dawn: "Um...what?"
Little Boy: "My mom made me put on sunburn before I got to school."
Miss Dawn: "Oh! Do you mean, Sunscreen?"
Little Boy: "Yeah" (and pulls a face, he obviously doesn't enjoy getting sunscreened)
Miss Dawn: "Well we have to wear sunscreen so that we DON'T get a sunburn, because sunburns really hurt."

Here is the irony of it all--I didn't wear suncreen and I got a sunburn.

Mother's Day

Well today is mother's day and so I post in honor of my mom today...even though this is not a typical mother's day post. I will share a preschool story that is my mom's favorite story (and she has been telling me to blog it for a couple of weeks now.) So here is what could have been overheard in preschool several weeks ago.

Little Boy: "Miss Dawn how does a volcano make?"
Miss Dawn (thinking: um..I should take a geology refresher course) "Well, there is stuff called magma deep down in the ground. And it is really hot, and when it gets SUPER hot it can't hold still anymore and it bursts out of the ground out of a hole that it can find."
Little Boy: "But like how does the volcano make?" (gesturing a mountain-like gesture)
Miss Dawn: "Oh do you mean the mountain part of the volcano?"
Little Boy: "Yeah."
Miss Dawn: "Well the magma comes up and then it cools when it gets out of the earth and after a lot of it comes out and cools then it builds up a mountain-like thing."
Little Boy: Obviously frustrated with my stupidity, "I will just google it when I get home."
Miss Dawn: "Sounds like a good idea-let me know what you find out!" (shoulders shrugging)

So happy mother's day to my own fantastic mom and to all the moms out there who must "google" things for their 4 year olds!

Research

With all the free time I have had lately (see last post) I have been doing some VERY important research. Otter Pop Research. I have been trying to figure out the exact formula for creating the perfect otter-pop. Now to be clear the perfect otter-pop is not one that is completely frozen. The perfect otter-pop would be better described as a "partially melted-slushy-slightly-liquidy-gushy tube of sugar-joy!" So I have been trying different techniques for getting a solid-frozen otter-pop to that point.

Technique #1: Letting the otter-pop defrost on the counter.
Problems with technique #1: It is difficult to know the exact amount of time that the otter-pop should "rest" on the counter, also one might forget that one had left the otter-pop on the counter resulting in a totally melted otter-pop (gross!) Oh and WAITING-who wants to wait?!

Technique #2: Running hot water over the otter-pop.
Problems with technique #2: Temperature control is far from exact, and the results tend to be more liquidy than slushy-gushy.

These are the only techniques I have tried. If anyone has any other ideas, or perfectionary tips for my current techniques please let me know!

I was going to take a picture of some otter-pops or me eating one to include in this post....but then I realized I had eaten ALL of my otter-pops. I guess it is time to go back to the store.....all in the name of research of course. :-)

I miss blogging!

I have been SO busy lately! Since January I have only had a few things going on in my life, including;
Taking about 6 credits at UVU at night.
My preschool; 3 classes of 10 children. (this may seem easy to some, but if you are one of that "some" I invite you over to spend 2+ "relaxing" hours teaching my class while I go get a pedicure and listen to grown-up music)
Working part-time at a child care center
And we must not forget my ridiculously crowded social calendar!! (I am always having to turn people away, I just don't have time for everyone who wants to date me).

So now that the semester is over and I don't have class and homework to eat up my evenings (after working 2 jobs) I am feeling like I have all the time in the world. So maybe now I will remember to blog a little more.

First order of blogging business a little bragging about my grades:
Education=A (I should hope so)
Biology=B+ (which if you know me is really like an A++++)
maybe someday I will finish a degree.....maybe not.....no promises.

Lucky Lesson Learned

In years past during preschool we have been so lucky to have magical leprechauns leave a "treasure hunt" for us leading to a pot of gold. And not that useless money kind-the good kind.....chocolate gold. However, this last weekend I was somewhat preoccupied (blah-I hate last week) in my thoughts, and failed to, shall we say "cooridinate" just such a visit from the leprechauns. I was undisturbed by this fact (because I had not remembered it) until I heard:

Boy: "Remember last year when there was that pot of chocolate gold?!"
Girl: "That the leprechauns brought for us! And Miss Dawn didn't even do it!"
Boy: "I bet we do that again today!"
Girl: "That is going to be SO fun!"

Miss Dawn's Thoughts: "Oh monkey! I forgot!! I am a terrible teacher!" (just in case you were wondering, I do acutally use monkey as an expletive)

So then there was a frantic scramble to, um what was the word we used....oh that's right, "coordinate" such an event. Without giving away any of the magic we can safely say......everything worked out!! Yay for leprechauns!!

After we carefully divided up the treasure, I was explaining to the class (as I ALWAYS do when we get a treat) that they needed to wait to eat their chocolate until AFTER mom says you can. I suddenly heard some sort of gagging-coughing sound (my first thought was of course throw-up). I jerked around with fear in my eyes, only to be relieved that there was no throw-up. However, one little guy had apparently NOT listened to the instructions because he was eating the chocolate. But not just eating the chocolate--he had bit straight through the "gold" outer layer...and while it was not an intentional lesson....I will take credit for an important lesson learned. Always, ALWAYS, look before you bite!

Too Perfect

All my dreams came true Saturday night. Okay-maybe not ALL of them....but following is an accounting of a whirlwind trip to Chicago!

We flew in on Friday night and were picked up by Brian and Claudia, whose amazing house we stayed in all weekend. On Saturday we jumped on the train and headed off to spend a day tromping around the city. It was really not that cold, that is until the wind blew off the lake, or the wind blew down the giant tunnel created by the skyscrapers-which was pretty much always. We saw lots of great sculptures and got popcorn at Garretts (even though I basically refused to eat the cheese and caramel corn mix-it just seemed too, too weird). We also stopped by the American Girl Store to buy a present for my favorite niece.

Me, Maddie, Brian, Mom and Claudia in our only group picture at "The Bean"

Then we had a late lunch/early dinner at The Grand Luxe Cafe. We sat in a window overlooking the street below, it was such fun. The food was great and the dessert was...amazing, magnificent, intoxicating, ridiculous, fantasmic...truly indescribable!! These magical creations which are, of course, french inspired are called Beignets. Honestly I can't even begin to explain it to you.

Then we walked and saw more before it was time to head over to the theater for the preshow drawing. The lottery basically works like this, everyone who wants to puts their name in a giant black witch's hat (cute huh?) and then about 2 hours before the show they draw a handfull of people to win. Each winner gets 2 floor tickets for $25.00 each. Mom and I already had tickets but we thought we would try for the lottery and if we won my cute cousin Maddie could stay to the show with us. So me, mom, Brian, Claudia, and Maddie each put our names in the "hat." (litteraly and figuratively!) So there were about 50 people who had entered and they were going to draw 10 winners. So they called some lady and I cheered happily for her, I believe deeply in karma. The next name they called was "Dawn Taylor." We were all excited and the rest of our group clapped as I walked to the front to claim my prize. Then they called the next name, "Claudia Washburn!" At this point I think a few of the other people waiting had figured out that she and I were from the same group. Then they called a guy and another lady, then "Denise Taylor!" By now everyone knew we were all together, and now they all hated us. I fixed my vision on Brian and Maddie across the room to avoid all the death stares we were getting. Then they called, "Brian....something else" but we all about peed our pants thinking it was going to be Uncle Brian. Then they called "Maybeline Washburn" (either Maddie can't spell her own name or the guy can't read) but as we were all now afraid that we wouldn't make it home that night, we quickly said "we don't need those." So 4 out of 5 of us won the lottery. We took 6 tickets for $25 dollars each. We ended up keeping 4 of the tickets we won and selling 2 of the tickets we won as well as the tickets we had purchased beforehand. It was great!!

Me, Maddie, and Mom outside the theater! Can you feel the excitement?!

Then it was time to see the show. I have been sitting here for 5 minutes trying to think of a way to describe my joy and my excitement and I've got nothing so I guess I'll just go on. When the first chords of "No One Mourns The Wicked" sounded in my hears it changed the rythym of my heartbeat forever. I was asked afterward if it was everthing I imagined and the answer was no, because it was SO much more than I could EVER have imagined. At intermission I was suddenly overcome with sadness at knowing I was already halfway through. So then I decided that I would just have to plan a trip to LA in the near future to see the show again, and as an added bonus-go to Disneyland. (by the way everyone is invited)

Maddie and Me were SO tired as we waited for the train late Saturday night after the show! (track numer 7.....track number 5: a little memory for Maddie)

It was truly a perfect weekend! I can't thank all the people who wrote the screenplay, the music and choregraphed the show enough. And it really wouldn't have been the same with the Washburn's hospitallity, and know how (for example the Beignets). The whole thing was WICKED awesome!!! (you know there had to be at least one cheesy pun!)

My new exciting life...

Pretty much every day of my life including my weekends are spent doing prep work for preschool, studing for tests, writing papers, and trying to catch up on sleep-I live such a glamorous life! Maybe that is why I am SO excited for this weekend. From Friday afternoon to late Sunday night I will live a life totally different from my own dreary one (I might even get to wear "fancy" clothes and high heels on a day other than Sunday!) Here are the things I am so excited about, in order of least important to most important:

Watch movies on my iPod (you can rent movies from iTunes now!)
See the exciting city of Chicago (I've never been there before)
Seeing my favorite Illinois-residing-relatives
Seeing "Wicked"

The family one should probably be the most important...but I can't lie. I feel like it is 2 days before Christmas! And all I can listen to on my iPod or in my car is the Wicked soundtrack (in fact it's all I can do to stop myself from playing it during preschool). How do you think the cast would feel about me adding my AMAZING singing voice to the chorus on ALL the songs (since I know every word of every song)

Don't worry I will of course be blogging about it all on Monday when I get home!

The Ponytail Update

For those of you in the know, last May I chopped off ALL my hair for "locks of love" and then I immediately realized that I missed my hair. I am pleased, though, to share that I can finally pull my hair into a real PONYTAIL! The best part is that it doesn't require 100 bobby pins anymore!
But now I remember why I thought I should cut all my hair off in the first place-when I can pull it into a ponytail that is all I ever do with it. A sad realization: I am so hair-lazy!

Stupid Cupid

I love overhearing the kids in my preschool when they talk to each other and they don't think I can hear. Here is what I heard today on this most love-y day of them all.

Little Boy: "My mom and dad got in love. And they didn't even need an arrow."
Little Girl: "Yeah, that's cool."

So all this time I've been keeping a watch out for a heart-ended-arrow and that's NOT how it works....now I'm really ticked.

Tagged

Right off the top I have to say that I much prefer this version of "tag" to the more traditional running kind. :-)

Rules:
A: The rules of the game are posted at the beginning.
B: Each player answers the questions about themselves.
C: At the end of the post, the player then tags 3 people and posts their names, then goes to their blogs and leaves them a comment, letting them know that they have been tagged and asking them to read your blog.

10 years ago:
I'm not even sure I can remember 10 years ago, or maybe I just don't want to. But most likely I was dealing with someone else's boy drama (because I had none of my own to enjoy). I might have been planning an exciting week of ditiching high-school to sleep and watch TV. I think more than anything I was completely and blissfully unware of what the next 10 years would be like. Sigh.

5 things on my to-do list today:
1. Homework: study for a test and write a couple of papers
2. Preschool: write at least 10 lesson plans
3. Plan a summer program for my preschool
4. Plan a vacation because I am so sick of the stupid snow!
5. Make and eat guac for my dinner-mmmmm

Snacks I enjoy:
1. Butterscoth suckers from See's
2. Snickers Almond
3. Stick pretzels-only the stick kind
4. Caramel Corn
5. Popcorn

What I would do if I were suddenly made a billionaire: Oh this is easy because I dream about it everyday! I would first build the biggest, coolest, most funnest preschool on the planet. Then I would buy a house and cars and stuff for my family so that we wouldn't HAVE to work-we would just do it for fun. Of course I would put like a ton of it into savings for my as yet non-existent children. And I'd like to think I would have a lot of fun sponsoring missionaries, and shopping for angels at Christmas-no wait, all year long!

5 places I have lived:
1. Orem Utah
2. Cedar City Utah
3. Provo Utah
4. Lehi Utah
5. Paris France (okay not really but I REALLY want to live there.)

5 jobs that I have had:
1. Telephone Reasearch (which I actually really liked)
2. Administration Assistant
3. Child Care Teacher
4. Retail (now that job sucked)
5. owner/director/teacher of the best preschool in the world!!

5 Things people don't know about me:
1. When I was a little kid I would pretend to film a commercial in my backyard all the time. I would get a bowl of ice-cream, and I would look into the pretend camera while I took a bite and then I would say some great line like, "This ice-cream is really good." I would do it over and over until the ice-cream was gone.
2. Everything makes me cry-a book, TV show, movie, song-it takes like nothing for me to cry.
3. I wish that I could shave off all my hair and have a wig made, so then I could "do" my hair at night and make it look perfect. I dream about this because then I could sleep for longer everyday.
4. I love the smell of cigarette smoke. I love to catch a drift of it on the wind or as I walk past someone smoking. I don't like to stand next to someone and inhale all of their secondhad smoke nor do I like the smell of smoke that has seeped into all the belongings of a smoker. I know it's weird, but I really do love that smell.
5. I want my very own laminator so that I could laminate EVERYTHING. Not kidding I would probably even laminate grocery lists and homework.
TAG-YOU'RE IT! 1. Alsiha 2. Carrie 3. Stephanie

Drinking on The Job

Today while I was working at the day-care (my second job) I was enjoying a nice lunch of "funeral potatoes," peanut butter cookies, and Rootbeer. A couple of the older boys approaced and we had the following conversation:

Boy #1: "What are you eating?"

Dawn: "Lunch."

Boy #2: "What is that you are drinking?"

Dawn: "Rootbeer."

Boy #1 to Boy #2: "She is drinking beer?!! My mom said that's bad!"

Boy #2 to Boy #1: "No it's not bad because her beer has 'roop' in it."

Boy #1: "Oh, yeah I forgot about the 'roop.'"

Well anyway, I enjoy the "roop."

I 'HEART' Movies

Some may know that I occasionally (every night) have a hard time falling asleep (until 3:00am). Now I could take sleeping pills but the risk of dependency and the weird reports of people "sleep-eating" (like I need to eat any more calories) have turned me off to that possible solution. But never fear, I have found a rather effective "sleep aid" with very few side effects: MOVIES.

All I have to do is watch the same movie a few (100 or 200) times and then I can use it to put me to sleep. The science (not actually science at all) behind this is quite sound; having watched a movie so many times I am able to listen to the movie without being required to watch it (allowing me to close my eyes which I have found to be key in the process of falling asleep). It is so peaceful to let the familiar music and dialouge invade your brain pushing out any annoying thoughts (man I probably sounded so dumb today when I said that dumb thing) and silly worries (do I have clean clothes to wear tomorrow?).

For a little while (maybe 5 years) I have enjoyed the eye-candy, humor, and deep-thought provoking film "Ocean's 11." There was really nothing that worked so well (do I sound like a drug addict?) to accomplish sleep. Unfortunately it recently lost some of it's edge (I think I do sound like a drug addict). So I found myself looking for a new "sleep-movie." That is when I stumbled across the new "Pride and Prejudice." I will admit it took a little work to get this movie to the place where it could be effective, but I have finally achieved the goal! (I like to keep my goals attainable-fear of failure and all)

Now each evening as I lie in my bed I listen to Darcy (who on first look shouldn't really be deemed 'attractive' but is SO attractive) and Lizzie (who I am secretly pretending to be) fall in love again. Oh, I 'heart' movies.

Finally Ready

The other day at the end of my afternoon preschool class the following "exchange" occured;

Sweet Little Boy: "Miss Dawn, you look cute all dressed for the day."

Miss Dawn: (a little surprised at the sweetness of the comment because this little boy has just finished trying to tackle all 9 of the other kids as they finished their snack) "Oh. Thanks bud."

Miss Dawn's Thoughts: "Does that imply that I don't usually get ready for the day, or does it imply that I don't usually look cute? Either way...."

Fate

So as you may know from my last post, this week in preschool we went to the dinosaur museum at Thanksgiving Point. The last exhibt, before the giant sandbox of fun, is entitled "Mammoth Hunters." As the title suggests, depicted in bones, there is a huge mammoth and a handful of humnas with spears and big rocks trying to bring down the mammoth. (My personal favorite part is the human being smashed by the mammoth! Totally Sweet!!)
We gathered around and talked about why these people were obviously trying to kill this animal-something about there not being grocery stores and people still needing to eat. Then we started to head out to the aforementioned giant sandbox of fun.
As I tried to walk away I felt a little hand slip into mine, and heard a quiet voice asking me a question. She was not afraid, but her voice was full of curiosity, concern, and what can only be described as a 4-year-old version of a questioning of ethics, the little girl asked,
"Miss Dawn, when I die, will my bones be here too?"

Melting Skin, Bones, and Heaven-Just another day in Preschool

Today was the first day of our preschool unit on Dinosaurs, always a popular theme that involves a fieldtrip to the Dinosaur Museum at Thanksgiving Point. My first problem came when I tried to explain how long ago dinosaurs actually lived on the earth. Apparently "millions of years ago" is a little abstract for 4 and 5 year olds so I tried again with, "before there were people." They seemed to accept that.
Then they wanted to know about the dinosaurs bones. So I explained "When a dinosaur died it would eventually get covered up with a lot of dirt, and be buried. They all stayed buried for a long time. Then a long time later when people were born on the earth some of those people started to dig up the dinosaur bones and tried to learn about the dinosaurs." I thought this was a great explanation. I guess I missed the boat though because Nate asked, "Miss Dawn, what happened to their skin?" Asa answered his question, "Oh, it just melts off and then all there is is bones." An approximately scientific answer, so I accepted it. Then Sammie displayed her most important knowledge by sharing, "Well, the dinosaur bones are in the ground but their spirit is in heaven."
It was a humbling experience to remember that while ABC's and 123's are important-the curriculum I follow does not always teach the most valuable lessons in a child's life.