"Why aren't we flying? Because getting there is half the fun. You know that."

We had a good trip to Disneyland last week. Ryan had some vacation time to burn and I found out I actually had more than three personal days this year. Some highlights were:
-Ryan won $220 at the casino we stayed in in Vegas. He was down $50 of his $100 and almost ready to quit when he saw his lucky machine, "Dean Martin's Wild Vegas Party". As I was upstairs sleeping, he was winning enough money to fix the phone screen I broke 20 minutes before we left on our trip. Which was exactly what I ordered him to do.
-Grace lost a tooth in Disneyland ("I didn't even know it was loose!") and therefore had the privilege of getting money from the "Disneyland Tooth Fairy".
-I saw John Stamos at the lounge in The Grand Californian the first night we were there. Uncle Jesse still has it.
-I ate 1 1/2 corn dogs and 2 churros.
-I rode Screaming Over California three times and only got nauseous twice.
-World of Color

The only negative was my failure to find Ryan's size in this shirt:

Disneyland photo bomb
This was the morning of our first day (the rest are not in order) right before it started to pour rain from the sky. I suggested to Ryan before we left that we buy rain ponchos and he said his magic phone said "no rain!" I am such a great wife that I didn't say, "I told you so." when we were shelling out $40 for ponchos in Disneyland. Fortunately it only rained for a couple of hours and was then lovely the rest of the day/s.

I've always wanted a caricature done in Disneyland. This was our 7th trip as a family and I finally had the guts to tell Ryan that I was going to get one this time. His response was, "I don't even know you." I hid the receipt from Ryan. Don't you think it was worth it? I told her I wanted one riding a dune buggy and one a skateboarding mermaid but she did this instead.

Got to love Thunder Mountain Railroad. Or as I like to call it, "The jerker".

I convinced Hanna she needed that Jack Skellington scarf because I secretly wanted to wear it.

This was the morning we were going home. I was sitting on our balcony, soaking up the sun and looking into the courtyard of Disney's Grand Californian where we stayed.

Yes please!

The greatest thing about Disneyland in November during a cold snap, no lines. We are about to get "on" my favourite ride, Tower of Terror.

Sitting on main street waiting for the parade. They had about six snare drummers that led the parade and they were fantastic.

Classic. Christmas card photo?

I tend to push the kids toward the souvenir I like most but both Grace and loved this Chewbacca hat. It cracked me up whenever I looked at her. On Space Mountain I saw about 5 teenagers getting into the ride cars wearing these hats and it was hilarious looking.

Pluto, stop hurting me!

Waiting for Fantasmic to start and she wasn't a happy camper. She just needed more corn dogs.

This made the girls very happy. We had gone on Splash Mountain right before this and Grace had insisted she ride in front. She got soaked! We get off the ride and she starts crying. "I didn't know I was going to get this wet!" Kids are so dumb. ;)

Ryan loves the Disneyland.

All Halloween wants to do is give you a big hug you with that knife.

I will forever be grateful that when my girls were little, they were pretty easy. I had friends who seemed like their kids were always keeping them on their toes with mischievous doings. I'm sure other people have a lot of stories but the best one I can think of was when Grace was a baby and smeared poop all over her crib and walls. This week, I finally had one of those moments that I'm sure most parents have when their kids are toddler. One of my children called me at school last Monday to tell me that the cat had opened my bedside table drawer "too far" and a bottle of nail polish had fallen and spilled on the carpet. I'm sure right now you are thinking, "How did the cat open the drawer?" That is you should be thinking and what I immediately thought. We had a cat once that could open our front door so I could see the possibility was there but something with this story that wasn't sitting right with me. Oh, and while I'm trying to process how the cat opened the draw I'm also thinking, "There is @#$@# nail polish on my carpet!" I tell this child who called that I'm not buying this "cat" story at all. She continues to stick to her story. Fortunately school was over so I get ready to go home. On my way home, I get a text from this child admitting that it wasn't the cat, it was her and she is sorry she lied. Hmmm...really? It wasn't the cat, eh? So basically replace "cat" with "girl" and you get the full story. I walk into a house that reeks of nail polish and in the middle of my bedroom floor an entire bottle of blue nail polish has been emptied. I swore and got to work. Due to my amazing cleaning skills and the magic of acetone, I was able to get most of the stain out. I can't fault this child too much. I remember being terrified of getting in trouble when I was her age. I was playing with an old TV antenna when I was about 7 and bent it. I'm sure it was garbage but I didn't know that and all I could think of was the horrible trouble would get into if anyone found out about it. So I hid it in our unfinished basement and got to work worrying about being found out. I was really good at worrying. I think it was eventually found and probably thrown away. Not like you could hide a huge blue stain in the middle of the floor but I probably would have tried to think up some sort of story. I might not have been smart enough to blame it on the cat.

Smooth operator
Hanna went to her third school dance after school today. This is her THIRD and she had yet to dance with an actual boy. Today the curse was broken and a real boy asked her to dance. She told me she didn't like this boy but said yes to be nice. She was also mortified that it was a slow dance. As they were dancing a couple of ninth graders dancing nearby made fun of them and told Hanna and her real boy that, "They danced like sevies." I had to explain to Ryan that this is a slang term for seventh graders. Hanna's partner then said to her, "Can I pull you closer?" Oh man! This made me laugh out loud! Can I pull you closer? Good one buddy. Doesn't he know you need to be a Bible, Book of Mormon and dictionary apart? Hanna told him that she was fine as they were. I thought it was interesting when we came home and told this story to Ryan. He immediately sympathized with the boy, while Hanna and I had been mocking him mercilessly. Girls are so cruel.

Thank you Buddah!
Remember when I blogged a few years about about not getting "Booed" at Halloween? Of course you don't. On Saturday we were "Booed"(now I just wish people would leave us alone because I'm older and lazier). The girls weren't home but saw the treats later. Grace asked where the treats were from. I said, "We got booed." Grace replied, "Buddah brought it?" Oh sweet Grace. Yes, Buddah brought us pumpkin cookies. Praise Buddah!

"Watch out! Halloween is trying to hug you with that knife!"
Ryan and I complain to each other that neither appreciates how funny the other is. This past weekend we watched a lot of old horror movies on Netflix and I have to admit Ryan has a funny bit. He calls Michael Myers "Halloween". Then makes comments the entire movie like, "Look behind you! Halloween is going to get stabby with that knife!" I find this really funny and makes watching horror movies much more bearable.
Here are our costumes. I went all out with Grace's "The Birds" costume. I don't think her classmates appreciated it. What? Your 10 year old hasn't seen "The Birds"? For shame.



Mrs. Iverson? Is that you?
I had to give Shari a hard time today about her costume. I'm not freaked out by clowns unless they are evil clowns but it was the doll that got to me. We also had to laugh when she came out to recess with her "circle clown" (Holiday gas station) drink cup. Clown all the way! I loves me some Shari but that doll has gots to go.

"There ain't no party like my Nana's tea party. Hey! Ho!"

Yesterday the girls went to their Nana's house for the night. Nana lives in a relatively new home with a nicely finished walk-out basement/MIL apartment. When we went to pick them up today, Nana said there had been some issues with where they would sleep at night. Hanna wouldn't sleep downstairs and Grace wouldn't sleep there alone. I forgot to mention there are two new twin beds in one of the bedrooms downstairs just for visits like this. Hanna ended up on the couch and Grace on a futon in an upstairs bedroom. As we were pulling out of Nana's house, I was already giving the girls a stern talking to about causing Nana unnecessary stress. I might have used the words "spoiled brats". My brother called and interrupted my rant. I told him that I was in the process of yelling at my kids for being mean to their Nana. We agreed that there were probably many times our mom was embarrassed by how we treated our Gram when we slept over. I then started to think about sleeping over at Gram's house. There was a lovely upstairs pink bedroom, a lumpy pull-out couch or the house of horrors that was her basement. Here my kids were, whining about a completely finished, heated basement with new beds while I grew up with a Grandma who had a basement that most likely had a gremlin living under the stairs. Only those of us who ever had to sleep in Gram's basement know the true terror of it. It was a dark, unheated (this is Canada folks!), cemented dungeon that featured a dry-walled "shower" closet that we all knew the boys peed in instead of walking upstairs to the bathroom. I remember many a time Gram asking me to grab something out of the cold storage room down there and I always ran back upstairs like Lucifer himself was chasing me. So yeah, I told the girls they would get no sympathy from me about their Nana's basement because I've endured the most terrifying basement of all. That shut them up.

"Grandma? Is that you?"


School picture time again! I think the girls both had successful photos and mine was just "meh". Since I donate my package to Grace, I only get an ID badge with my photo on it.

I wish the photographer would have helped with the bangs in the face but mostly I'm happy it's combed. I have her substitute teacher to thank for that. She stopped me in the hall after school and said she made sure Grace looked nice as a personal favour to me.


Grace has been indulging my hairstyle urges by letting me do her hair most mornings. I love it because it keeps her natural ragamuffiness to a minimum. Hanna will let me help her sometimes but she is a bit more reluctant. I've been really liking the website thebeautydepartment for hair tutorials. I've even subscribed to their youtube page. Usually I work with braids but here are a couple I did without french/fishtail braiding.



This entry was pretty kid-centric. I've been doing my thing. You know, going to work, hanging with the family, going to the gym, riding my bike and thinking of products I'd like to purchase. I'm super exciting! I've been spending time on Pinterest mostly for school ideas. I have finally found a place where people who are more creative than me will share their talents. My classroom never looked better. I'm still trying to eat according the the Live The Life plan and am probably successful 80% of the time. Little sugar, a lot of protein and I lift a lot of weights. I lost weight and inches, blah blah. No one really wants to hear about someone's crazy diet/exercise regimen. I do feel better so I've decided to continue with it. I'd like to slowly switch to gluten free all organic but that's easier said than done ('cause I'm LAAAAAZY). I'm going to stop wearing deodorant so you might want to stay clear of me in the summer. Hopefully by then I find a natural deodorant I like. Yep, I'm becoming that person.

I've been thinking lately about qualities I have that people might find annoying. Ya, I think about these kind of things when I'm feeling down on myself. At work, when I get stressed or feel like things aren't going according to plan, I get a little irritable. So I apologize to my co-workers who read this. I'm going to work on it. I hope that my otherwise overly sunny disposition will make up for my infrequent bitchiness. Luvs ya!

"Never go with a hippie to a second location."

I know, I know. I have taken a long break from blogging. For the three people in my life who still read this on a regular basis, I'm sorry. Work has been crazy! We have two new programs that started at school this year and I'm in charge of one of them. My stress level has been at an all time high. I also blame the very lovely fall weather we have been having because it's been keeping me outside on the porch reading, or on my bike.

Random Photos
I had my first flat and almost fall. I was taking a drink when I hit a huge rock with my front tire. I totally spazed out, almost fell but was able to correct before I bit it. I remember thinking, "this is really going to hurt." The rock gave me a flat and Ryan had to come rescue me. I'm glad for cell phones.

Ryan came and talked to the first grade again this year. Last year when he came the weather was really bad. He one upped it this year by coming on the day of our first snow. It was only a few minutes of flurries, but still not great when the kids want to go outside and see the patrol car.

Rainbow school! There was a double rainbow last Saturday that I was obsessing about while Ryan and I were driving home from SLC. I made him stop by our school and take this photo. I read on yahoo news this week that they had spotted a quadruple rainbow in the U.S. Apparently they are very rare, like unicorns.

Craftastic! I made these for my students when they came to parent teacher conferences. It was a comedy of errors but I got them finished in time. Yes, I realize it's a pencil and the card says something about reading. Shut it!

Hanna's school had a "Blast From the Past" day. I decided it would be cool if she dressed like me in the early 90's. I got out the cherry docs and pretty much forced her to wear them. She wasn't feeling it at all. I told her she would be super cool. Guess what? I was wrong. She told me that one kid called her, "a freak" and another asked her, "are you a vampire?" I asked her what most kids wore and she told me that most kids didn't wear anything or they wore a tie-dyed t-shirt. Oops. I think she has recovered socially.

I'm an activist!
My gym doesn't offer many night weight lifting classes. There are like a zillion Zumba classes but homie don't play that game. I'll dance spasticly (not a word) in the privacy of my own home, thank you very much. In the summer I'm able to attend the 9:30 am weight classes but obviously can't do that when I work. I put a comment in the gym's comment box about this in August but nothing happened. So last week I asked my Saturday morning class-mates to please write comments on behalf of the women who work during the day. Well, because of my amazing Norma Rae like rallying, there is now another weeknight weight class!*

Random Story
I thought of this story the other day and it made me laugh so I thought I'd share. We had this crazy old lady neighbor in Magrath. She would build a huge bonfire in her backyard then get really drunk every month when her government check came. She would yell obscenities at anyone who would walk by and was just a joy to be around. I was terrified of her as a child but now see how entertaining she probably was. One day she was outside leaning on her fence when one of the neighborhood stray cats walked by. Our other neighbors had been feeding the cat and had named it something like, "Midnight". She said to the cat, "What's a good catholic cat like you doing hanging out with all these mormons?" From then on, the cat was called John Paul by everyone. I wonder how she knew it was a catholic?

Speaking of cats, Lucy leaves her animals in my shoes now and then. I don't know what message she is trying to give me but I hope it's not, "you're next!"

Just funny.


*I have no proof that this is because of me.

Looking for an old friend Daniela Benedetti

I know you found me here once Daniela. Email me please. I miss you.

Aloha! My name is Mrs. Van Fleet.

I wish that were true but you know everyone loves summer. We are all back in school now. Grace and I at Beaumont Elementary and Hanna at Beaumont Junior High. Where Hanna is now a "Pioneer". I guess Pioneers can walk a lot and suffer, so maybe that is a good mascot. My friend in Buffalo said her son was now a Quaker. You know, a fighting Quaker. If there is one thing I know about Quakers and Pioneers, they are really good at fighting. There is a high school in Utah that are the "Beetdiggers" which I think would be awesome. My mom used to dig beets and she is pretty tough. School is going well for everyone. I forget how cute 6 and 7 year old kids can be and I have some cute ones. I also forget how crazy the first week is for kids who have only gone to school for 3 hours in a row previously and had a whole summer off. They are so done by the end of the day. Plus it's been super hot, like the hottest it has been all summer, so that makes everyone extra tired. Also, they are hungry. I had a child ask me at 9:00 the first day, "If it was lunch yet?" They'd been in school for an hour. Just like with everything new, you have to build stamina and we will.
First day photos for everyone!


Grace running away from my photo taking frenzy.



Hanna going to junior high has been an eye opener. She was only a little bit nervous and seemed to get over that quickly. When we went to the orientation night I just walked around with my mouth open. I came from a very small school (graduation class of 45) and this school has around 1100 7-9 students. Ryan kind of took the lead. I felt like I needed a Powerpoint to understand what A and B days meant. Oh small town Shea, so stoopid. Hanna had her first school dance yesterday from 2:45-4. She said she didn't dance with any boys. She said a couple of a boy friends from elementary came to talk to her.

Boys: Hi Smalls! (her nickname)
Hanna: Hi Billy and Bobby. (not their real names)
Boys: Blah, blah, mumble, mumble.
Hanna: What? I can't hear you.
Boys: Mumble, mumble, blah blah.
Hanna: What? I can't... (boys walking away)
Do I miss junior high? No.

I went with a new theme for my room this year. I decided on owls because there is a lot out there right now and owls are wise, right? A coworker told me about an owl wallflower (scent thing we use in our classrooms) from Bath and Body Works. I, of course, had to have it. I was telling Ryan about it and how cute it was, when he turned to me and said, "Are you serious?" Apparently, I was a bit too excited about my owl find.
A couple of my new bulletin boards. Take it easy. Don't get too excited.


On a side note, today is Evie's birthday. I don't really have much to write about that. It's been five years now and time has eased the pain considerably. I've pushed her memories into the back of my brain and try not to think about her too much. Yesterday as I was driving home from work, she popped into my head and I said out loud, "That was so surreal." It really was/is. We'll celebrate her by spending the day as a family. What else is there to say? I miss her.

Summer is amazeballs!

This is probably the longest I've gone without blogging. I don't like long lapses like this because then I get thinking about all the things I should have blogged about and it feels too overwhelming to try to catch up. So I'm just going to try to fill you in on what we've done this summer.

We went to Canada where we always have a good time.
Wienie roast in the Bereseses back yard.

A little shooting with Rick, Monti and Ryan.

Me trying to look tough. This is my gun and I can shoot it.

We went to the restaurant, Charcut, in Calgary with Monti and Becky.


This was the bathroom sign. We figured out it must be unisex. Or else Ryan took care of business in the woman's bathroom.

You know a meal is great when you must take a photo of it. In the bag are warm cookies!

Our project this year was a new walkway. Hanna dug the old one up mostly on her own. She got a bee in her bonnet and finished it all.

The Magrath parade. Becky looks thrilled. Maybe it's because it was about 65 degrees and windy. Nothing like Alberta in the summer.

The cousins hanging out. I'm so glad the mad badger didn't get them all.

Grandma holding a ukulele workshop. Grace is getting really good. I love my family and I love Canada.

Last weekend we took a mini-vacation to Park City. We were able to stay at the Stein Eriksen Lodge thanks to the generosity of the Joneses. It was a beautiful weekend.

Hot-tubbing in our balcony hot tub. I like hot tubs a lot.

This photo of Hanna cracked me up. It was right when I was telling her she was a spaz at taking photos. She was like, "So?!"

Checking out the lovely view of Deer Valley Ski Resort.

Me and my girls.

The resort has a great pool and the weather was perfect for the kids to swim and me to lounge while reading my Nook.

Ryan and I went out alone one night to the Stein restaurant so...

The girls got to have their first room service ever. They loved that.

Perfect weekend,

to end the perfect summer.