It'll grow...

I got a haircut. It's the kind where on the 3rd day it's perfect and you're convinced it's the best haircut you've ever had. But only on the 3rd day. From then on it's downhill all the way. It's the kind of haircut where everyone notices. Even the pharmacist. It's the kind of haircut that prompts people to say, "You've got a haircut!" And that's all they say. Except my son. Who said, "It'll grow. Right?"

Learning the drill

Remember the Duck and Cover drills (for both air raids and earthquakes), and fire drills where we had to practice "Stop! Drop! and Roll!" from elementary school days?

Today in elementary school we still have drills. Lotsa drills. Fire drills are especially fun. There are actually 3 different bell alarms that go off (they use a different one each time)... there's a European ambulance one, a longer ehhhhhhh, ehhhhhh, ehhhhhh, ehhhhhh one, and some other one I don't remember.

We no longer have to Stop, Drop, and Roll, but we're supposed to close the doors, turn out the lights, grab our red emergency backpacks, slap either a red or green sign on the door indicating whether or not there are injuries, (and I have two of those doors in the library that need signs), make sure the kids don't make a peep, and march in perfect order to the blacktop (through the supposedly burning hallways?), where we stand in perfect silent lines until the "all clear" is sounded. Did I mention that the principal is standing there with a stopwatch? Well, she is. We're timed. Oh we're very good at fire drills. We've got them nailed. We've got 1,000 kids, and we're slick and fast.

My next favorite are the new "lock down" drills. My chest gets tight even just writing about this one. In a lock down drill as soon as you hear the alarm you've got 10 seconds. TEN! If a little crying Kindergarten kid comes begging to be let in and you've got your doors locked and it's after your 10 second mark, you can't let the kid in! (Apparently they might be a pawn).

All doors must be locked (I have two on opposite sides of the library). All window blinds must be closed. All lights must be out. Including any/all computer monitors. And every single person must be completely out of sight. I'm getting pretty good at this one. I'm also pretty motivated. Why? WHY? Uh, hellooooo.... they always go for the librarian first! Anyway... I start on the left side and lock! Run to the story room and whip those mini blinds shut! Slam off those lights! Run to the other door (praying for all I'm worth that the shooter didn't get there first) and lock! Run to the waaaaay back of the library and jump to reach the mini blinds all (and I mean all) across the back and whip! Whip! Whip! those mini blinds closed.

All the while hoping the teacher has 35 kids crammed in between two bookcases in the middle, making sure that they're 2 feet in from the ends so they're not seen from either door (since there are no blinds on the doors!). This all has to be silent. Silent. Then wait as the principal and visiting district people and police representative come by and rattle the doors and try to peer in through the blinds in the back. Even though you know it's a drill, the adrenalin is soaring and you almost think you're a gonner! Then, inevitably, there's always this.... "Shhhh! We're hiding, Billy. Hold still. No, no, don't cry Emily, this is just pretend!"

A month or so ago I was alone in the library with a visiting board of educ. member (who was apparently, unbeknownst to me, there for a surprise earthquake drill), when the alarm went off. "This is a lock down! This is a lock down!" I start my running and locking and whisking and I said to her, "You might want to leave while you have a chance because I'm not opening that door after 10 seconds." I wasn't laughing. And she left. Hate those drills.

Then there are the earthquake drills. Now these really are fun! Really! These drills are so detailed and planned out. All doors must remain open. Never touch the light switch (on or off). Duck and cover under the table (you try getting 34 kids under 2 tables) or next to the lower bookcases. Wait for the bell. Grab your red emergency pack. Slap your green or red signs on your doors, and proceed silently and orderly through the hallways (don't get me started) to the blacktop in perfect lines.

Now this isn't all. Oh no. We have predetermined 'injuries' such as severed or broken limbs, head injuries, wheelchair and gurney victims. We even have dead students and faculty. We have teams that are 'sweepers' (who get to wear hard hats!!) to comb through every building and locate and account for any injured or trapped. We have runners who carry back and forth the emergency sheets to be filled out by each teacher regarding the location and condition of their students. We have a triage set up with portable bathrooms and medical supplies and even a tent/morgue for the dead people. Each class has earthquake kits that keep students busy while they await their parents eventual arrival. We even have crazy parents! This is the best! They run in screaming and semi violent trying to grab their kids and the neighbor kids! There is real time communication between our school and the district personnel via radio and whatever else they use.

And we're fast. Ohhhh, we're fast. And quiet!! And so efficient. We can evacuate to the field and rescue our wounded in record time. We can even subdue the crazy parent. (Even the one who threatened to pull my hair out last year if I didn't let her take the neighbor kid. She sorta scared me). We're actually... one of the best in the district.

But yesterday happened. Yesterday. We're only 14 miles from the epicenter, so it was a bit strong. Books fell off my shelves... and then the children started screaming. The 1st and 2nd graders were eating lunch on the tables. (Have you ever heard 120 1st graders screaming at once?) And thus began the semi organized bedlam. There were only two of us in the library, me and the ELL teacher. And when it hit, she just stood up and I sort of walked over to the door, grabbing my cell phone and the red emergency pack, and thought for a moment, "Now is it fire open and earthquake closed? Or is it earthquake open and fire closed?" I gave up and just walked out the door over to the screaming menagerie at the lunch tables.

The noon aids were just standing there on their cell phones. There was a bell of some sort that rang and one of the secretaries trying to say "Duck and Cover!" over the loud speaker (For all the good it did). We're supposed to wait for an all clear bell but classes were already on their way outside. Some of the noon aids woke up and tried to get the little ones under the lunch tables -- which they did... taking their lunch trays with them. It was chicken nugget day after all. Why on earth they didn't get them onto the grass in the quad (yes, it was clear of wires and danger of falling stuff) which was literally 2 feet behind the tables, is beyond me. Just stay there under that massive metal overhang kids!

Only a handful of teachers had their backpack. No one thought to hang their red or green signs. I'm not even sure all ducked, let alone covered. No one swept their assigned building or ran information back and forth. No one got to wear a hard hat. I don't think we even know where they really are. No one saw a wheelchair or stretcher and no dead people tent was set up. There was no radio. We had real life crazy parents (like 30 of them) running onto campus and several fathers hopping fences. We had teachers from out of state who had never experienced an earthquake before. The attendance clerk finally made an appearance with her Rolodex and walked up and down asking teachers if all were accounted for. There were about 20 crying 4th graders, about 140 crying kinders, and a principal who couldn't stop laughing.

Absolute chaos. It was the first time there was actually a quake during school and we bombed spectacularly. Maybe it's a good thing. Sure there was no need (this time) for all hardhats and stretchers. We were lucky. But you can bet they'll be a committee to figure it all out. We'll have more drills and we'll get even better and slicker and quieter and faster. We'll discuss new ways and places of ducking and covering and evacuating. (Maybe we'll even get flame-proof hoods, when we evacuate like they have in Japan!) We'll review and go over the fact that we should have carried on with all the details (like hard hats) even if they weren't needed. What better time for a drill? But it really won't matter. Every situation and every occurrence is different when it comes right down to it. It's real life. You just kind of have to roll with it.

Seriously. What would you rather have?

One of these in your kitchen...

"I called the exterminator," said Diane Hamill of Tucson, Arizona.

Or one of these while you're at an elementary school?

"We had forgotten what a big earthquake felt like (5.4), at least I did," said seismologist Kate Hutton at the USGS office. "It's a drill for the big one that's going to happen someday."

I'm a Lemming

Yes. It's true. I'm a lemming. Apparently, I'm caught up in the countdown hype towards "Vampire Weekend" and the purchase of a "book with a bite." I'm not even sure how it happened. There's the church crowd who swarmed me a month or so ago about the event. And then there's the work crowd. (This particular swarm is pretty intense). And we're all going to be there. At the Breaking Dawn Release Party. And guess what else? We're meeting at the Crossings at.... you guessed it... Twilight! I know!

There'll be festivities galore, including Bella's 'wedding dress.' (hands up). No clue. Just saw it on the poster. I'll take a picture. I think I'll convince everyone to wear vampire fangs, and then not wear them myself. It'll be a scream.

Do you want to know a secret?

Stephenie Meyer shares a biggie about Breaking Dawn...

Now I don't have to read the last chapter first. Thank goodness!

853-1212

Tonight I received one of the greatest shocks of my life. The Time Lady has ended her iconic reign of the telephone wires. And to what end, I ask you? Needing the exact time, we called her a while ago and this is what she had to say for herself: "Effective September 19, 2007, the time announcement information service has been discontinued. We apologize for any inconvenience."

But why?! I thought she'd always be there. Even if I ignored her. I am ashamed that her 'passing' happened nearly one year ago without my knowledge. If I'd known, I surely would have called her one last time for old time's sake. I trusted her to give it to me straight. And now, how will I ever know what time it really is?

The Time Lady was an icon of my youth. Tirelessly working 24/7, giving the time to people who couldn't afford a watch or were too introverted to ask someone in the room what time it was. You could dial 853 (from Southern California) and then any other four numbers you want, and she'd talk to you!

I remember when I was like.... 12...or younger... calling the Time Lady with my friends, and while waiting for her to pick up, you could hear others on the line ~ a true party line! She'd start speaking and we'd quick hang up and dial again and start talking to everyone in the background again! And then, who hasn't called the Time Lady at midnight on New Year's Eve? (Like we expected her to wish us Happy New Year or something?) Ah. The memories.

The Time Lady is gone. What's next?

At the tone the time will be 10:47. Exactly. Beeeeep!

Pioneer Day

Pioneer Day usually brings my thoughts to my faithful and courageous pioneer ancestors, most notably my great, great grandmother, MaryAnn Weston Maughan.

She was an amazing woman. She endured so much more than I think I ever could. Remembering their sacrifices and how they endured to the end, can help us be better people.

Here is a small excerpt from her journal:

We were Organised into Captain William Walls [Wall] Company of 50 and Cap [Warren] Foot[e] Com of 100. Mr. [Peter] Maughan was apointed Cap of first 10[.] after replenishing our stock of provisions we again took up our line of march for Salt Lake[.] I do know how long we had been on our way when I found time to write a few lines. ...

Friday 12 July 1850
about noon as we were traveling along on a good plain road my little Peter about 3 years old, was sitting in the front of my wagon, betwene his brother Charles and his sister Mary Ann. they were looking at a cow that had lost one horn. he leaned forward[.] lost his balance and fell before the wheels. the first passed over him. and he tried to escape the other one, but alase the wagon stoped just as the hind wheel stood on his dear little Back. the Brethren from behind ran up and lifted the wheel and took him from under it[.] he was Brused internaly, so that it was impossible for him to live long[.] we done all that was possible for him, but no earthly power could save him. he did not suffer much pain[.] only twice for a very little time. the people left their Wagons and gathered around mine and all wept for the dear little Boy that we knew must soon leave us. I had talked to him many times to be carefull and not fall out of the wagon or he might be hurt very bad. he only spoke twice, I said to him Pete did you fall and he said, yes and seemed to know that he would leave us and asked for his father. I did not know that his father had fainted and fell down in the road, for the Brethern stood to hide him from my sight. on my asking for him they said he would come soon. as soon as he was able he came to the wagon covered with dust, but his little Boy could not speak to him, but he opened his eyes and looked so lovelingly then gently closed them and passed peacefuly away and left us weeping around his dear little brused Body. then loveing hands tenderly dressed him in a suit of his own white linnen clothes and he looked so lovely. I empted a dry goods Box and [John Peacock] Wood made him a nice Coffin and even was a mournfull satisfaction, for we had seen our Brothers and sisters bury their dear ones without a coffin to lay them in[.] we Buried him on a little hill on the North side of the road. the grave was consecrated and then they laid him in to rest. some one had made a nice headbored with his name printed on[.] also his age and date of his Death. this was all we could do. and many prayers were offered to our heavenly Father, that he might rest in peace and not be disturbed by wolves as we had seen many on our way, and we turned away, in sorrow and grief. a few days after we heard that his grave had not been tuched but a nother little one made beside it and afterwards some more was Buried by them. this was a great satisfaction to us to know that he remained as we left him. our dear on[e]s name was Peter Weston Maughan Born in New Diggins Wisconcin [Wisconsin] Terrotiry May 20th 1847. the weather was very hot. I have wrote from Memory January 1885. it is nearly 38 years since that sorrowfull time, but if it was not so painfull to me I could add much more to this account.

If it wasn't so true, it would be funny...

An 84-year-old man comes into the surgeon's office to see about his knee. This man has been having problems with his right knee for many years now. He fell on it five years ago and has had ongoing pain and advanced osteoarthritis of the knee. The doctor is surprised he has gone this long with it.

The doctor says:

"I asked him if he was ready to have the right one done and he said he thinks so. And with that, his wife said, 'Cecil! You are here to have it scheduled. Don’t play around!' So he then finally acquiesced and said, yes, he is ready to have his right knee replaced."

And this is precisely why women have to go along to their husband's doctor appointments.

Just kill me now...

Was pretty much what was going through our minds just about a year ago. And honestly? I've no idea how we survived the ordeal. Reenacting my ancestor's handcart trek at Martin's Cove was ... well...

Let me put it this way... when we came upon a young lad who'd been separated from his group ~ a bit worried, shaken, and trying to be brave, I immediately jumped to his rescue! (Okay, so I nearly knocked down the person next to me in my zeal to rescue the kid and take him back to base camp). Kind of me? Naw. (Well, if you insist.)

Actually... I was the one who was a bit worried, shaken, and trying to be brave! Thank goodness the Lord answers prayers! I couldn't have walked another step!! And I'm still recovering!

But honestly, I am grateful that they were so faithful and valient and courageous (and physically in shape... *cough*) to do this for us. I don't think I could have done it.

More from the Jungle

Every child at school took the Reading Challenge... they all read one book in one week, and helped Indy discover the Golden Temple!

Happy Birthday!!

Happy Birthday Daniel!

(a bit late since we were on vacation!)

Hope your day was great!

It's A Jungle Out There

And in my library too!

Indiana Jones, ruins of an ancient Mayan temple, a giant waterfall, a rope bridge, some overlarge butterflies, a crystal skull, and Adventures in Reading have filled my working world. The kids absolutely love it. It's quite amazing, actually!

The superintendant came in, stood there with his hands on his hips, looked around, and with a huge smile on his face said, "I love it!"

Thanks to my wonderful family for making me look good! You guys are the best!

(And now we cross our fingers that the fire marshall won't be coming to visit any time soon....)

What could she be Thinking?!

It never occurred to me that Bella might pick Jacob. Never! But that's what the whispering is about... even at church today! I tell you, I was simply aghast. Aghast! Of course she's not picking Jacob! They didn't have that weird thing (sorry, but I've only read the book one time) that werewolves are supposed to get when they meet their soul mate. And excuse me, but EDWARD is the guy! It just never crossed my mind that she might not end up with Edward. I mean, really. That would be just about as dumb as the book covers.

But I have to say, that now I'm a bit stressed. Just a bit. Bordering on a lot. Because if there are whisperings... you know.... where's there's smoke there's fire? If she does do that, I won't be a happy camper. She did say in an interview recently that "no matter what you do, people are going to be mad".... I just thought she meant in general! Now I'm going to have to stand in line at midnight, and read the last paragraph first so I can relax and enjoy the darn thing!

A Little Bit of Bliss

I've just discovered a wonderful blog (I know. Where have I been?!)

I'm trying to think of a good reason not to make these decadent little morsels....

Happy Birthday!

Happy Birthday Robbie!

If you were here, I'd bake you a cake! (Well, actually, that's a lie. I'd go get a really nice looking one at the store and stick groovy candles in it.)

Hope you're having a great day!

July 4th

The 4th of July is one of my favorite holidays, and we had a great 4th this year. It's always nice to be with family, and today was no exception!

Chloe loves her Baby Einstein shows. The kid is going to be brilliant! Shadow has been very protective of our Chloe this week. When she cries, she's got her own built in body guard. Shadow has also (much to her parent's dismay), discovered that Chloe is rather sweet.... but that could be because they stuck the bow on her head with HONEY. But honestly. It was just a puppy kiss.

Robbie and Hannah got home from their cruise this morning and joined us for our BBQ. Robbie regaled us with tales of daring and near death experiences with the tourist attractions in Mexico.

And today... as a new member of the family and a partaker of the rib feast, Hannah placed her right hand over her ribs and solemnly pledged her allegiance to the recipe of the ribs. It was quite a moment.

Bob and Doug manned the grill, and we feasted on BBQ chicken, corn-on-the-cob, grilled vegetables, baked beans, 7-layer fruit salad, deviled eggs, pies.... and ribs. A true summer feast.

Last night, Carrie pledged her allegiance to the rib recipe, and so Bonnie.... since we concluded that five years ago you did in fact have my ribs on July 4th, you too may pledge to the ribs. Next time you're here. And we're eating ribs. ;)

Later on we Coached it over to see the annual Corona firework display. They were really good this year!

Chloe leaves tomorrow and we're going to miss her. She's grown before our eyes this week! We've all grown rather attached. Especially Uncle Bob, who taught Chloe how to shop catalogues and dog ear the pages with her favorite things.

Happy 4th!