Preschool Again!

Wow, I can't believe this blog is even still alive....

Time for school and work to start again. It's fun to get back into the swing of things. The first week our preschoolers hadn't started yet so I was able to interpret each morning for our second grader. It was cool to be in the classroom that long and see if I will really like the profession I am learning to work in. (Yes, I do). Now that the preschool has started, I am a One-on-One aide for a new little girl. She is deafblind but can see and hear a little. She is so cute and sweet and says and signs very very few words. Like 4 maybe. I really enjoy working and learning with her. So far she really likes feeling the running water at the sink and she likes to lay on her tummy in the middle of Circle Time. Not very convenient... She likes clapping for the Days of the Week song and Wheels on the Bus movement - If I can keep her on my lap long enough. Every day will be a new experience figuring out what she likes to do and how to encourage her to learn and do. I have wonderful Vision support people who work with us. They give me such good ideas for tactile objects and helps for her learning. They brought into our class a cool machine that heats special paper and raises the print so our little student can feel it. And they brought a braille writer and taught me how to use it. I'm excited and am ready to start learning to read braille! With my eyes anyway... you know, memorize the dots for all the letters, but I want to work on the finger feeling part too! It seems SO hard! I have learned that they have what is called Contractions. Not like in English but that each letter standing alone stands for a specific word. for instance, B might stand for "but", and L stands for "like". So instead of typing the whole braille word just use the letter by itself. Anyway, this is a whole new dimension of my job and it very interesting and fun with my new little student!

I am taking Educational Interpreting at CCC this fall and am excited for it to start and get me smarter!

Twenty Years Ago

A Day in the life of Karen Rowley

Tuesday Feb 26, 1991

Morning activities included putting a new zipper in a pair of new jeans purchased for $6.59 with a broken zipper, exercised, organized someone's sock drawer, washed, folded and put away clothes, cleaned the cat poop out of the bathtub (bad cat)

Don does not come home for lunch on Tuesdays.

2:00 bank

2:15 picked up Jen and christine and friends Marie and Cinda & stopped at Marie's

Went to the bread store across town (we buy hostess treats there cheap (3-pack HoHo's for .25)

2:55 arrived home. Cinda and Marie are with us

1)phone Lisa for Jen

3:10 Eric comes home

3:20 Jana and Annette home - scraped knee on Jana to fix.

Lennon comes to play with Eric (they washed out an old dog house with lots of suds)

2)phone

Cinda goes home, Chris and Marie go to the park, Kimi down for a nap.

4:00 I go to Sechrist school to vote. Took Jen to meet Lisa on the playground then to Smith's Grocery for Jen and Lisa to buy flowers for friends

5:00 back home. ripped out seam in Jen's jeans to put in a pink patch.

5:10 talked to neighbor Kathy in driveway then took Lisa home

5:25 back home (mud has been tracked through kitchen and Annette thinks her fingers are frost bitten - they are not.

5:27 Cinda and Cristianne ( sisters from up the hill) come to get Jen to come up and make cookies for YW which starts at 7pm

Kimi wakes up

Me cooking dinner/put kids to work on front and dining rooms

Christine and Marie are doing homework. Called doctor about Cherise

6:10 Don called (again) and says he has a 6:30 mtg. Any dinner? No.

3)phone message - Eric should go to 7 p.m. Court of Honor

4)phone Don home - dinner: meat pieces, warm french bread, cookies

5)phone Eric is finding missing shoes then goes w/Don to Court of Honor

6)phone - doctor says come in tomorrow if she is still fevered (4th day).

Chris and Marie make soup for their dinner while I'm still cooking

Chris calls Cinda - come down for a ride to YW

7)phone - Marie's dad will pick them up for YW

He picks them up. Jen comes home.

8)phone Sister Schofield picks up Jenni. I run out and give her her husband's Blue and Gold Banquet invitation (I'm a cub leader)

7:00 I fix more meat and mac & cheese for me and the little girls

Cherise throws up

9)phone Marie's mom - Kai needs a ride to Court of Honor!

Sit down to eat

10)phone - Linda

Kimi needs a diaper change. Done.

Jana leaves a report on the table and Kimi helps her write it...

7:30 :: gasp :: gasp :: gasp ::

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I love this! I remember that when I sat down for dinner I was thinking about how many phone calls there had been and I just had to write it all down.

Yesterday I happened to pull out a binder of letters I had sent to my Mom over the years and found this. It's been 20 years! Yikes!

The Red Quilt

Here it is. It's been about three years since I started it, the red quilt. It is only finished thanks to my wonderful sister, Ruth Ann, who loves to pick out seams and this had a zillion needing it. She fixed it up and made repairs and encouraged me to finish it, praising it all along the way. AND also I would like to thank my wonderful granddaughter Emma who was a fabulous quilt tie-er with me at Christmastime. She loved doing it and it was so much more fun with a helper!

"She's completely bald in front!"

Last week I was still using my hairdryer which had been slowly dying and losing it's high speed blowing abilities. Then one morning I suddenly saw a little puff of ...smoke? steam? what? yup. smoke. I set down the dryer and my brush was full of singed off hair!!! Well, not exactly full but a little chunk of hair did get burned off when the dryer suddenly got super hot I guess. It smelled like Perm solution. As you can see in the photo (which I sent to the company), there is the little tuft of hair about 1/2 inch long that was left. I am SO grateful it is on the left side so it is very well covered by the rest of my bangs. I'm sure if it were on the right side I would still be in tears. As it is, I think it's funny to be so well connected to Little Women when Jo burns of a chunk of Meg's hair!

The hairdryer company has been nice and sent me a fedex label to mail the dryer to them free of charge. They will inspect it and tell me what happened. Ha! I could tell them! I guess they need something to do that is so scientific. I will let you know when I get my free hairdryer. That is my goal. hmm. This pic is backward I see.

Emma's Baptism

We had a lovely time in Mesa for Emma's baptism in December. It was really sweet and she was so very happy.

Congratulations Emma!

Annie was also blessed on the same day but I don't have a good picture from that wonderful event. boo-hoo. Jana will have to send me one to put up here won't she? Annie was so cute. She wore the dress that Jana was blessed in!

Diapering at 4:00 A.M.

by Carol Lynn Pearson

I saw a calf born once.

It really was amazing

How soon (all tidied up by tongue)

He wobbled off

And the new mother

Went back to grazing.

But you, my little creature

At the top of the animal kingdom

You would lie in the pasture for months

And wave your fists and cry

So here we are,

You and I

Tied together in all

The bathings and the dryings

They pickings up and the puttings down

And the turnings over

The dressings and the undressings

And the powderings and the feedings

And the cleanings up of the comings out.

I know-

I know what it's all about

This disguised blessing of unavoidable touch

Spinning a thousand threads

That encircle us like little lariats.

And before you know it

We're caught.

Calves come for going.

But not-not my little ones.

The Lord thought it all up

This essential intimacy

And he called it good.

He created the heavens and the earth

And the seas, and the naked, needing

Infants crying to be held.

He thought it all up

This clever stratagem.

And yet-

I'll bet he smiled

When he thought about diapering at 4:00 A.M.

WOW! What a long time between posts!

I was recently called as a Laurel advisor. Big change from the Sunbeams! I loved them and I'm happy that I got to finish out the year with the little tykes. They are so sweet and I LOVE having them squeal "Hi Sister Rowley!!" It's the greatest.

Anyway as I was studying a lesson for the Laurels I went to my bookshelf to find a book by Camilla Kimball and couldn't find it but what I found was one by Carol Lynn Pearson. She was quite popular in the 70's - 80's and went through some very rough experiences but she writes wonderful prose poetry. I opened the book and guess what? It was given to my by the Young Women leaders and girls from 3rd ward (now Peak View), where we used to live here in Flagstaff. It is so sweet with goodbye notes from many girls (including Jana and Annette) and leaders from 1997. I do remember some fun times at girls camp and hiking down West Fork. It was a neat time to come across the book as I had forgotten where it came from. So I have been reading through it again. She writes very poignantly and tenderly and deeply. I think I will share one of the poems here. The title of the book is Picture Window and this is the poem by that name.

Picture Window

Kathleen

Who was out of control

Like a slope of oranges

After someone has taken

Ten at the bottom

Looked enviously at

Susan

Who carried her stress

As gracefully as she carried

The perfect pie

She had brought to the meeting

Last Wednesday night.

Kathleen

Who yelled at her children

Even when they were not

In danger of oncoming cars

And who slammed the door

After she told her husband

To have it his way then

And who once a week at least

Locked herself in the bathroom

And cried

Called

Susan

Who never perspired

And who taught classes called

"Toward a More Feminine You"

And who smiled all the time

And whose children

Always got awards

To ask if she could

Come over sometime

To get a little help.

Kathleen

Who was so disorganized

That she went on Thursday

Instead of Friday

Got a lot of help from

Susan

Who happened to be

Out front in curlers

And wrinkled slacks

And wild-woman eyes

Screaming at her youngest child

Who had just batted a ball

Through the picture window

That framed the lamp

With the beautiful butterflies.

*********************************

What do you think? Do you like her writing?

Here is another one.

Path of a Parent

It starts with

Meditation on the toes of a baby

And leads to spiritual exercise

That would break the best yogi

Sitting cross-legged before his lotus:

Serenity

And colic

And three hours sleep last night

Grace

And screams

In the grocery store when the

Oreos are ripped from white knuckles

Harmony

And three Halloween costumes

By tomorrow morning:

A clown and a witch

And a washing machine

To go with Stacey's dryer.

Honor

And another conference

With the teacher

And possibly the principal

Silence

And the roar of motorbike

And rock

And tap shoes on the kitchen tile

Acceptance

And all that is dear

Packing up and leaving home

Path to god-cosciousness

All begun by

Meditation on the toes of a baby.

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Next time: Diapering at 4:00 A.M.