Broulim's

Once upon a time (the week after spring break) we went on a field trip to Broulim's! Remember how field trip days are my favorite?? One of the morning teachers was off getting married, so I got to go with both classes. It was really fun!

Somebody took us on a tour of the store. We stopped at the deli (where the kids got samples), bakery (another sample), produce department (yet another sample), and the meat department (another sample. . .string cheese). In the back we saw the garbage chute, watched them crush boxes, watched the machine that packages meat, and walked through the freezers and coolers. Before leaving, each child in the morning class got to scan a package of gum. The kids in the afternoon class each got to say their favorite food over the PA system. They also got fresh bread sticks from the Craigo's place in Broulim's. While they were eating them, I spent the entire time standing at the bathroom door while everybody took turns going to the bathroom. (Worst/most awkward part of field trips.)

I think my favorite part of the day was not the actual field trip, though that was really cool. My favorite part was the walk home with the afternoon class. I was walking at the back of our line and found two lost shoes by each other. Two different children lost a shoe and kept walking without even noticing. I held them up to say we had lost shoes so we could stop. We had to walk down the line to spot whose shoes they were. Let's just say I love preschoolers.

Another One Down

We survived another semester! This past semester was a hard one. Joshua's class schedule was the regular 15 credits. It consisted of 2 upper level Philosophy classes, as well as general English, science, and communication classes. Joshua spent all of his time studying and doing homework! Well, not all of it. The rest was spent TAing for three Intro to Philosophy classes, Ethics, and Logic (for half of the semester). Plus, 

 

**Unfinished blog post alert!**

My Spring Break

. . . .just happened to be the same week as Joshua's finals. Talk about awful timing. Soo I flew out to Vegas on Friday night to enjoy my week and hopefully avoid distracting him terribly. Joshua got to spend the week studying and writing papers in relative undisturbed silence.

**Unfinished blog post alert!**

Oops.

Once upon a time I had the most terrifying experience of my life. . . .

 

There I was being all domestic: my asparagus was baking in the oven, my alfredo sauce was all ready to be heated up, my chicken was defrosting, and I was ready to add my fettuccine noodles to the boiling water. Dinner was going to be ready when Joshua got home from school! And that's where our ideal evening went up in flames. Literally.

 

As I dumped them out of the box, a couple noodles missed the pan and slipped under my bright red, electric burner. And quickly caught on fire. I grabbed the long noodle and threw it in the sink. I moved my pan and turned off the stove. I grabbed a potholder and tried to grab the burner (dumb idea — my burnt finger was proof of that). I turned the stove fan on. About this time, my fire alarm started frantically blaring. Obnoxious thing. I ran to throw the door open to let some of the quickly accumulating smoke out. I did have the knowledge that you're supposed to smother stove fires, so I threw some kitchen towels on it. (They were handy. And I made sure to use the ones I didn't really like. Good excuse to buy new ones.) Well at least the flames weren't leaping up to my microwave anymore. But the fire alarm was still going off, and the wind had made my door slam shut. So I ran to open the door again, open the living room window, and fan my fire alarm a little bit so I could maybe think clearly. I ran back into my kitchen, pulled out my flour and dumped a bunch on. Awesome idea, huh? (Says the person who didn't realize flour is extremely flammable.) It didn't make much difference. Now I was running out of ideas. The fire was pretty much under control, but hadn't stopped. So I did what any girl does when she needs advice on household matters — I called my mommy. She said to smother it with a pan lid. Great idea, but my kitchen towels were already there. She said to dump baking soda on it. So I did. (I even made sure to use my older baking soda first. It's funny the things you think about in an emergency.) I had dumped it on top of the towels, so I started shaking them around to get some of it underneath and actually on the fire. Did I mention that this whole time my apartment was completely full of smoke? And the fire alarm was still incessantly going off? It was a little bit hard to breathe, let alone think. So the fire still hadn't gone out all the way, and when I moved the towels around the flames leaped up again. My mom suggested that maybe I just use the fire extinguisher. I moved all the stuff away from my stove. I grabbed my fire extinguisher . . . and for the life of me couldn't figure out how to pull the pin. My mom even found her fire extinguisher to explain it to me. Oh well. I checked the fire under the towels again and it was pretty much out. So I shook my baking soda around some more. Then I threw my pile of towels in the sink and ran them (and my finger) under cold water. And walked to the window where I could take some deep breaths.

My mom suggested that next time I'm in a situation like that maybe I call 911. They wouldn't have to come put out a stove fire for me, but they sure could tell me how to put it out. And they'd be certain to answer. Good advice, Mom. I'll have to remember that.

I can already look back at this night and laugh. When I picked Joshua up from school that night I was still in tears and very, very upset — but I was picking him up so clearly everything at the apartment was fine. Are you ready for the great part? When I told Joshua about the fire, he was afraid that I'd thrown his books on it or something. He just didn't quite understand why I was so mortified. Seriously, I may be dumb (flour on a fire . . . ) but not that dumb. It helped lighten the mood. So maybe I'm a little unnecessarily dramatic. But I truly thought it was the most terrifying experience of my life up to that point.

Later, I discovered it was all the broken, little noddle pieces that were the real culprits. And we still ate chicken fettuccine alfredo for dinner that night. I just made Joshua finish it when he got home. I think I had good reason to be afraid of the stove. 

Field Trip Day!

A lot of times I think to myself that I'm pretty sure people should be jealous of my job. Because I'm not gonna lie . . . it's awesome. We decided the weather was nice enough we could go on a field trip this month! We only got to go on one in the fall (to the fire station) and I don' t know about the kids, but I've sure been looking forward to going on another one!

This time we walked to the public library. It was chilly, but relatively nice outside (for Rexburg in March anyway). We got to sit in the children's room and have our own private story time with the children's librarian. The kids colored pictures, and then the librarian gave us a tour of part of the library. After that the kids each got to go pick out a library book! We spent some time reading their books to them. Then we checked out all their books, and I got to be the lucky one to carry a bag with 18 library books back to school. . . .

We made it back to school just in time for snack and it start POURING outside about 5 minutes later! Talk about perfect timing. I am so glad we didn't get drenched. That would have made for some very unhappy preschoolers and probably grumpy teachers too.

The parents that went with us were so helpful! Seriously they were great. And we got super duper lucky with the weather! Field trip days are so fun and easy. Check out our schedule: opening circle, lunch, FIELD TRIP, snack, and sharing chair for closing circle. Basically, field trip days are my favorite!! Each child shared their book for sharing chair and it was really cute. They told us "what the book was about" and showed a picture they liked. haha. . . . I wonder how many of the books were actually about what they said. Oh well. Gotta love preschoolers! And be jealous of my fun job.

Alfie Boe

...was amazing in concert!

Honestly, neither Joshua nor I had ever heard of Alfie Boe before Joshua started seeing advertisements for his concert on campus. But after checking him out Joshua knew it was a concert we had to attend! Boe just played the lead role of Jean Valjean in the 25th anniversary concert performance of Les Misérables, Joshua's favorite musical.

Boe is an incredible tenor! For the first half of the concert he sang opera pieces. The second half was show tunes. Though I could tell he was awesome and liked the concert, my enjoyment was hampered by the fact that I couldn't hear anything out of my left ear. (It had been like that for a couple days.) Lots of sounds coming in my right ear was kind of overload. Lucky Joshua got to truly enjoy the whole concert!! It was fantastic! His favorite was the closing number, "Bring Him Home," from Les Misérables.

Not only is Alfie Boe a great singer, but he was really entertaining. He seems like a down to earth kind of guy. And he has a new CD out. We want it. If you haven't already, you should check out Alfie Boe here.

It's Official!!!

I'm a college graduate!

It's about time that fancy piece of paper came in the mail! I think I did a little happy dance after finding it in our mailbox. Waiting for Joshua to get home so I could open it was kind of torture. But really, I'd waited months already...what was another couple hours?

Don't you like the most expensive piece of paper I'll ever own??

Joshua even found the cover and put it in for me!

I think it's pretty. :D