Are you SERIOUS????

I had to use this yesterday, twice! And again this morning. What is going on? Two days ago it was in the high 50's and the next thing we knew we had a "blizzard" going on outside. The people here in St. George remind me of the people in the jungles of Bolivia. A "cold front" would come in (where it would get down to 95 degrees and only 85% humidity) every few months or so and you would think they were all going to freeze to death. I'm talking warm coats, shoes & socks, gloves & hats and they would sit around the fire for hours. All while the missionaries actually put on normal shoes instead of flip flops. We were loving life but still had to take 3 showers daily. So back to these awesome acclimatized people down here. They freak out! The parents freak out because they have to drive in it and come pick up their kids because, heaven forbid, they actually walk home in it. And then there's the kids . . . Anyone who has kids or is ever around kids know how excited they can get when there is snow involved. Especially when it only snows like twice a year here and then it only stays for a few hours afterwards. So picture this with me, if you will. You let your students in the door on a cold, overcast morning. They work great (usually overcast = calmness . . . me like!) for the first hour or so until low and behold a student discovers it's snowing outside and HAS to announce it to the class. The thing is, I don't think the kid could even help himself. It HAD to be done. It's not like he can just sit there quietly working on his assignment. Oh no! It is physically impossible for him to pretend that there are perfectly white flakes falling from the sky. The announcement is made and there goes my morning. Gees, thanks a lot weather man! Forget math and writing and science . . . until . . . I become a genius! Yes! That's right my friends, I became a GENIUS! Although some may say I have always been a genius, for arguments sake lets just say at that moment I officially became a genius. What happened you may ask? Well, for "math" we talked about how if we had a snowball that had 2,584 flakes in it and we wanted to make a snowman, how many flakes would each ball need (aka long division). Then we threw in how the sizes of each ball needed to be "similar" not "congruent" (aka geometry) and wha - la we had ourselves math! In writing we wrote a story from the point of view of the snowman, using as many descriptive words as possible. You should hear some of these, they're quite good! And for science . . . we just happened to be talking about classification of animals and plants in Utah so I kind of changed it up a bit and we classified things we'd need to wear if we went outside to play. Worked like a charm AND they even learned something in the process. And they say it can't be done!!! So, back to the whole point of this entry, the snow! One word for all of you . . . EEWW!!! For those of you who have no snow, consider yourself lucky. For those of you who have tons of it at home right now and are rolling your eyes at this, I'm glad it's you and not me. Hey, I grew up in the stuff so I know what it's like.

P.S. Word on the street is that one school in our district had school get cancelled today. Yep, they got a whole 15 inches last night so it's "IMPOSSIBLE" to get there. Psh, whatever. When I was in elementary school I had to walk uphill both ways . . . barefoot . . . in the snow . . . that a dog had peed in . . .only seconds before . . . as warm cars whizzed by splashing the gross "snow juice" all over me. Aww, to be a kid again!