Homeade Pumpkin Pie

So, this is a long time coming, but a while back Nate and I made some pumpkin pies out of pie pumpkins and we took some photos to document it. The pies were a little stringy, but otherwise quite tasty.

Nate scraping out the seeds

Baked pumpkin chunks.

Scraping out the baked pumpkin

The finished product

The Joy of Christmas

I love the Christmas season. I can't even explain my own excitement - family, decorations, giving gifts, serving those who are less fortunate, a break from school, a time to reflect on the year, a feeling of love, community, and generosity, and most importantly, a time to celebrate the birth of our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ.

In the kindergarten class that I work with, we were making little Christmas tree crafts and I got to be in charge of the art table. As the kids were working, they got to talking about how excited they were for Christmas. One of the little boys was expressing his enthusiasm for Christmas celebrations, but then he got this great light in his eyes and said, "But when Jesus comes [meaning the Second Coming of Christ] it will be even more celebrater!" Poor grammar perhaps, but a wonderful message. The joy and hopefulness that we feel at this time of year is only a glimpse of that which we will feel when Jesus Christ comes to the earth again.

Comic Relief

For your reading enjoyment and end-of-semester stress relief, here's some more great stories from work. I love working with kids.

Squishy
A month or so ago the smartest kid in the second grade came up to me at recess and informed me that there was something squishy in the grass. Seeing that he was obviously quite concerned about this, I asked him to show me what it was. My first thought was that it would be some small maimed rodent and I was steeling myself for something gruesome. As we approached the spot, he began examining the ground very carefully. When at last he pointed to the ground I came over to investigate more closely. "Nathan*," I said, "that's dog poop. Don't step in it." Keep in mind that this literally is the smartest kid in the second grade.

Yeah
I was chastised by a third grader for saying "yeah" because apparently it is the lazy way of saying "yes."

Pictures
I recently got an assignment at school with a kindergarten class. I help a boy who comes from a rough background learn what is appropriate behavior for school and basically just be his friend. I love it. Anyway, he was drawing a picture the other day and, noticing that it looked a lot like a picture he'd drawn of himself the day before (you know, big circle for a head with arms and legs that come directly out of the head) I asked if he was drawing a picture of himself. "No," he replied, "that's a dinosaur." Of course, silly me.

Rain
As I was "lifeguarding" (for some reason, the kids on the playground call me 'lifeguard') at recess one day, it started to sprinkle. One of my second-graders came up to me and told me that when it rains, it means that Jesus is crying. I asked her why she thought that He was crying. She said that it was probably because He was sad because people smoke.

Big Belly
I was reading a Sponge Bob book to one of the kindergarteners in the after-school program. In the story, Sponge Bob eats a lot of food and gets sick, but in the picture his belly also gets rather large. In my attempts to help this boy enjoy the story and improve his comprehension, I was trying to help him examine the pictures in the book. "Why does Sponge Bob have a big belly in this picture?" I asked. He immediately yelled out, "because he's going to have a baby!"


*as always, the names of the students have been changed.

Halloween

Nate and I had a great Halloween this year. Nate went as a used car salesman, which was by far the best costume he's had since I've known him. (in previous years he's been an undercover cop - a.k.a. he had no costume, and a P.E. teacher - which he actually is) I went as a 70s snow bunny.

We carved pumpkins with some friends and they turned out pretty well. They got a pumpkin carving kit and it was great for the smaller cuts, but only because the knife blade was tiny. It was actually a battery powered knife, which was cool. I thought my Frankenstein pumpkin was downright adorable.

For Halloween day, I participated in my first ever school Halloween parade at the elementary school I work at. We don't do that in Oklahoma, but here it's a pretty big deal. Even the teachers that wouldn't even wear pajamas for pajama day went all-out for their costumes. It was quite an experience. I went as a cowgirl, (I had lent my snowsuit to a neighbor. Her work was offering $100 for the best costume.) but I definitely didn't measure up to the other teachers.

That night we drove down to Fairview to visit my grandparents and had a great time with them.

Nate as a used car salesman, Deb as a snow bunny.

Here we are again at the ward party (our singles' ward).

The pumpkins outside our apartment.


Ta Da! The finished products!

Tagged

So, I was tagged by my sister, Rachel. Here is the fourth photo from the fourth folder on my computer.

This is (from left) Josh, Ben, Nate and Dave at Thanksgiving last year.

Microorganisms and Band-aids

For the last month I have been working as a second grade tutor at an elementary school and I have been really enjoying it. I have a degree in Therapeutic Recreation and (as of Thursday morning when I passed the exam that I just spent the last four weeks studying for) I am nationally certified to practice as a CTRS - a Certified Therapeutic Recreation Specialist - according to the National Council for Therapeutic Recreation Certification. My job has absolutely nothing to do with my degree, however I still enjoy it immensely. So, until further notice I will press on with tutoring second graders. One of the benefits of this job is that I get to work with second graders and they are hilarious. Here are two of my favorite stories from this last week:

Everyday at school I supervise lunch recess, which since it is not in a structured classroom setting is where most of my funny stories come from. Kids run around like crazy and tattle on each other and I make sure they don't kill each other. I have to wear an enormous orange hunting vest so that I'm readily recognizable and easy to locate - as if being one of two adults on the playground doesn't clear that up.

While I was supervising recess the other day a cute little first-grade boy comes up and gets my attention. "Do you know that..." he says, and I start wondering who he is going to tattle on. Usually sentences that start with "Do you know that..." end with "so-and-so is climbing up the slide?" But he continues with, "there are microorganisms over in a mush spot on the soccer field?" Quite surprised, I said that I did not know that and asked him what they were doing. "Oh," he replied "they're just swimming around, and eating dirt." He seemed a little concerned by their presence so I told him that it was probably okay that they were there.

Wondering how a first grader even knew about microorganisms, I was just about to ask him if he'd learned that in class today when he dove off on a discussion about oceanic food chains. It involved a lot of, "and then a bigger fish comes and eats that fish..." type explanations. After which, he promptly ran away, leaving me chuckling to myself and wishing I still had the enthusiasm for learning that first graders do.

My other favorite story this week is about playground injuries. They seem to be a daily occurrence, but they're usually quite minor. In fact most of them don't even draw blood, but it seems to be the cool thing in the second grade to have a bag of ice or a band-aidto put on your battle wound. Actually band-aids seem to be a universal cure-all in the playground world. Just yesterday one of the kids came up to me and informed me that someone was hurt. I quickly followed him to the scene of the incident where I found a little girl bawling her eyes out. Naturally, I thought that something serious must have happened for it to be the source of so many tears, so I asked her what had happened and if she was hurt. She was crying so hard that she could barely speak to me, but eventually the story came out. She had hit her shin on the playground equipment, she showed me the spot so I could assess the damage. It was a little red and she had scraped of the first layer of skin, but there was no blood. Not so much as a scratch.

Now I may have a cold heart, but seeing as how this couldn't even be classified as an injury, I wasn't sure what to do with the sobbing child. I told her she would probably have a bruise, but that she would be fine. I even suggested that she get up and walk around on it and go play. This however, was only met with increased wailing, at which point I left her in the sympathetic hands of her fellow second graders.

I Have a College Degree!

Well, after four years of work I finally made it to that light called graduation at the end of a long tunnel. My mom, dad and youngest sister came out to celebrate with Nate and me. The graduation speakers did well and inspired us all to do great things - my little sister Bug thought it all so interesting in fact that she doodled in her notebook through the entire proceedings. Anyway, for those of you who couldn't be here with us, here are some pics from the grand event.

Nate and me

Bug and me.

My wonderful parents and me.

Me in my cap and gown after commencement.

Now that I have successfully earned a college degree, I am left to wonder "Now that I have it, what do I do with it?"