Of late . . .

Tuesday at play group Cara picked up a toy piano, turned to one of the moms and said, "Each note makes a different sound. Listen." I don't think I heard any differentiation in notes until I was much older. My mom said I was completely tone deaf until I was 12. I took piano lessons one year in high school, the teacher would play some notes and ask me if they were in a major or minor key. I got it right about 50% of the time. :) I'm pretty sure my kids could all hear that distinction already. All of my children have more natural musical talent than I do. Yea! Of course I want my kids to surpass me in everything and it feels good when they do in any area :o)

Woke up feeling yucky this morning and have gotten almost nothing accomplished. Kelly generously passed on his sinus cold thing to me. Thanks honey! I'm sure I'll return the favor fairly soon. Poor Kelly, he took the kids sledding a week or so ago and he and Cara flipped going down one of the hills. Kelly's coat and body cushioned most of Cara's impact, but Kelly got whiplash and a sore back for his good daddy deeds. He went to the doctor yesterday where he was prescribed muscle relaxants. He tried to take one during his work day, but it completely wiped him out, so he's only using them at night. So far his pain really hasn't abated any, I'm hoping he starts to feel better real soon!

I taught Grace Arts in Joel's class yesterday. Joel really lights up when I'm there which makes it all worth while and then some. We learned about the British sculptor Henry Moore and the kids were really into it. They all wanted to share their ideas about what his abstract sculptures represented. Joel sat up front on his teacher's stool while I was teaching, grinning from ear to ear the whole time.

I help out weekly for art in Eli's kindergarten class. This week I was really struck again by how young Eli seems compared to most of his classmates. Of course he is probably the youngest one in his class. But even accounting for his young age his maturity level seems disproportionately low. When I told Miss Sue (his preschool teacher) that I was debating on whether or not to send him to kindergarten she told me that I could always have him repeat kindergarten if I felt it necessary. Well . . . . I was talking to another mom at Cara's dance class and she told me the school might give me flack about having him repeat if he meets the imposed benchmarks. I really feel like he does need to have another year of kindergarten and I will be so mad if the school gives me any crap about it because several school employees told me I could have him repeat if necessary, leading me to think that the choice was mine alone to make.

It's been so cold! I remember last summer thinking that winter chill is easier to deal with than summer heat because you can always put another layer on. Well, not so much. I layer myself up every day and still feel chilled to the bone and I keep my house at 72! Needless to say I ABSOLUTELY CANNOT WAIT FOR WARMER WEATHER.

My parents close on the selling of their house tomorrow. They'll finish up the semester in Albany and then they're headed to Cedar City. I hope they like it there. Belinda makes it sound like the Mecca for the closed minded, stupid and meth heads of the world. Maybe the chamber of commerce can adopt some o' that for a town slogan. "Cedar City the Meth Mecca of the West." It would attract a certain tourist niche.

We'll miss going out to Grandpa and Grandma's house in Luray. The kids always knew we were almost there when they could see the yellow tube slide. "I see the slide, we're at Grandma and Grandpa's house!" was the frequent and familiar refrain in the car.

I'll miss having my parents fairly nearby too. Family is so important and it seems crazy to live clear across the whole darn country from them. Kelly works from home now, so we could technically live anywhere, but moving to Utah doesn't feel right. My main concern is that poor Utah schools wouldn't have the funding to provide the help Joel needs in his education. Also I really do not want to live in a super Moromony environment. I like the diversity we get here. Who knows what the future holds for us?