Smile, it's contagious

So today while waiting at the copy center having a book spiral bound, I saw this posted on the wall:

Smile first thing in the morning (and get it over with).

At first as I began reading this my mind jumped ahead and I assumed the poster would say something like, Smile first thing in the morning and you will have a smile all the day long. But instead, it threw me a curve-ball with the - "and get it over with".

What is this supposed to mean? Smile in the morning, then you don't have to make the effort to smile the rest of the day? Is this person just a downer? Am I reading too much into this poster? Is it supposed to be funny? satirical? I don't have the answers. I just thought it was something worth blogging about and getting others' opinion.

Though, I must say, it sounds like something Maxine of the greeting cards would say.

Mental/Emotional Breakdown update

Things have been much better at work. The teacher is now apt to give a parting instruction to either his group or to me for his group before he leaves the room. Our class is more or less back to its routine. End-of-year testing has started so some days are a little wacky due to the schedule changes for the tests, but all-in-all its better.

I have not had to rely on caffeine to get me through the day. I don't feel drained, exhausted and grumpy at the end of the day like I did before.

Now my life is just busy between Cub Scouts, Cooper's soccer and my classes starting up this week for the Spring Term.

Burns, part 2

Once my fingers were burned I was pretty useless the rest of the day. We had been house cleaning, tidying the yard and cleaning out the garage. I was able to use a push broom, but I pulled it with my left hand. Do you know what else is awkward to do with your non-dominate hand?

Try going to the bathroom. Not only do you have to wipe your butt with your opposite hand, but try zipping and buttoning your pants too. Then try doing your hair, brushing your teeth, putting on make-up, or shaving your legs with the opposite hand.


Somehow I was still able to look presentable for church on Sunday even though everything seemed backward, opposite or just awkward. As I had mentioned before, I was leading choir practice that day. I led the music with my right hand as usual. But with all that movement and action, the blood was flowing through my arm veins and into my fingertips. The pulsating made my blisters feel really weird.

So, for leading Sacrament and Relief Society music I led with my left hand. That was weird too. I kept the beat just fine, but was focused on the presentation of my arm/hand. Really focusing on control that I didn't look up from the hymnal. I was also focused on wondering if anyone out in the congregation realized I was leading with my left hand and not my right.

Burns

So Saturday I was mowing the lawn. I did the front yard, then moved my way to the backyard. Then I began doing the very back of the yard. There was a lot of tall grass. I kept a look out for rocks and such hidden in the tall grass. But, sure enough Kchink!! the mower stopped.

I turned off the mower and put it on its side so that I could see if a rock or stick was caught in the blade. Now, I'm not that stupid to put my hand in where the blade is unless I'm totally sure that the mower is off. But I am stupid enough to burn my fingertips on the hot muffler of the lawnmower motor. Check out the picture.

While the mower was on its side it started to tip away from me and I wasn't done looking. I also wasn't looking where I put my hand to steady the mower. YEOWW!!!

I went running off into the house to put my fingers under cold water. I ran past Kyle. He knew that I had been mowing the lawn then sees me running into the house holding my hand. He thought, "Dear Lord, she's cut off her hand." He comes in after me, then sees that I only burned myself. I think he was relieved that we would not be making a trip to the emergency room that day. He was also glad that he didn't have the gruesome task of looking for my bloody fingertips in the grass to put in a baggie of ice for re-attachment later at the hospital.

I did have to keep my fingers on ice for several hours before the pain would go away. Then I put on some antibiotic cream and aloe gel then covered with brightly colored Band-aids (that's all we had). Later that night Kyle went to the store and bought me some brown finger-tip Band-aids so I wouldn't stand out at church on Sunday. (I lead the music for Sacrament. I also happened to be subbing for the choir director and the Relief Society chorister that day).

I found the brown Band-aids to be cumbersome and went back to the multi-colored ones for work today. Everybody asked what happened. I showed the boys the blisters. They were thoroughly grossed out.

I wonder if I will have fingerprints after the blisters are gone.

Visit to the Aquarium

Today we went to The Living Planet Aquarium in Sandy, Utah. You can check out their website at http://www.thelivingplanet.com/ This week is Spring Break and we didn't have any money to go out of town so we did stuff around town. Yesterday was the movies and today the aquarium. I had been there 2 years ago with a class, but Kyle and the kids had never been. Everybody was there. I saw three families I knew from Spanish Fork and one from Provo.

Anyway, there's a lot of cool stuff, and the next time we have family in town I want to take them there.

The aquarium has a section dedicated to local freshwater life. We saw trout, salamanders, bullfrogs, toads, brine shrimp, catfish, and snails. There was even a boat that the kids could pretend to drive while there was a video playing of boating around the Great Salt Lake.

They had an exhibit with tarantulas and cockroaches. Ewww!

The rest of the exhibits are saltwater life. There were jellyfish, moray eels, electric eels, sharks, shrimp, a green anaconda, piranhas, horsehoe crabs, an octopus, a giant clam, hermit crabs, cayman, seahorses, tropical fish, anenomes, coral and sea stars.

There was an open tank where you could reach in your hand and touch the stingrays. They feel like Jell-O with a stiff course tail.

There was also a section were you could touch pencil urchins, green brittle sea stars and horseshoe crabs.

We had lots of fun. Of course, no trip is complete without visiting the souvenir shop. Zane got a 5 foot stuffed snake, Cooper got a stuffed shark and dolphin, and Chloe got two stuffed sea horses.