Baby It's COLD Outside!

I know, I'm obsessed with snow. You would think a person like me would have little to say about it. However it is so high on my Hate list I talk about it a lot. I detest being cold. One thing a companion from my mission remembers most about me is every morning I would whine, "BUT it's cold, I don't wanna get up!" and I would kneel ON my bed to say my prayers, the floor was too cold. I haven't changed much, I still whine the same thing every morning, ask Lynn. :)

You know it's cold when the automatic lights on the barn won't turn on. You know it's cold when the horses actually stand IN the barn. You know it's cold when the horses have icicles hanging around their noses and frost in their nose hairs. You know it's cold when Lynn has to plug in the truck so it will start in the morning. You know it's cold when the snow won't pack into a snowball. You know it's cold when the furnace is set at 74 and the internal temp of the house is at 68 (we have 2X6 walls with blown in insulation...). You know it's cold when the cat hisses at you when you put the garage door up so you can back the van out. You know it's cold when Second Graders actually wear their coats to recess. You know it's cold when the Mountain Dew Lynn left in the garage is frozen slushy. You know it's cold when Lynn SAYS it's cold... hee hee

A lot of things happen at the Barton house and I neglect to post them. So, I thought I would do a bit of it now.

First, our good friends Alan and Tonya bought us tickets to the Cowboy Poetry Festival in Heber this year. They invite us every year and we NEVER make it. I guess Alan knew if he bought the tickets we couldn't cancel on him. What a smart man! Lynn got to meet his favorite cowboy poet and DVM Baxter Black. He talked with us for quite a while and we got our picture taken. He told Lynn he is quite fortunate to have me earning the living and kicking him in the butt while he goes to Vet School. Baxter is featured every month in the Farm Bureau News, for those of you like us who are insured through them. :)



I have Halloween pictures of the kids. We went Trick 'or Treating in Magna this year at my good friend Hollie's house. Our kiddos went out on the town together and had a GREAT time. Lynn had a GREAT time scaring the wits out of all of Hollie's neighbors as they came to the door.
Darth Brayden, Abby Cullen and Princess Elise



Here's a picture of Brayden in his new scout uniform.

He has earned his Arrow of Light, they just haven't had the ceremony yet... Lynn gives the leaders a REALLY hard time every time he sees them. Brayden is well on his way to First Class.

My class was featured in the Deseret News with our Thanksgiving Activities. I'm including some pictures printed here.


Heritage Elementary second-graders try to toss hula hoops onto pumpkins during the school's annual Thanksgiving celebration Tuesday in Layton. Kara Lundsford and Abigail Wright participate in a cranberry relay. Other activities included necklace making, pin the feather on the turkey and a readers theater. Source: Deseret Tribune

AND... The twins are primo Christmas light decorators. You should ask them to string lights on your banister.

NBCT, National Board Certified Teacher...NOT

As many of you may know, I spent last year working on a Master's degree in conjunction with applying for National Board Certification. National Board Certification allows me to teach in nearly any state without having to apply for a new certificate in a state if I should move from one state to another. We will be moving states for Vet school so National Board Certification is a really good idea for me to achieve. Some other advantages are many states put their teachers in the PhD pay lane if NBCT certification is acquired. Not Utah though, ARE YOU KIDDING? Yeah, right...

NBCT certification is a lengthy, grueling process. A teacher must submit a portfolio with 4 specific entries and a reflection section as well as take a 4 hour essay exam which includes 6 different sections at a Pearson testing center. Two entries require video taping yourself teach, and then a written commentary on your teaching. After everything is submitted you wait from June until the end of November for your scores. Each entry is hand scored by three teachers who have reached NBCT status in several different parts of the nation.

Scores were posted today. Needless to say, I was a bit NERVOUS! A year of my life summed up in a few pages.

I didn't pass on the first go round. I scored 270... You must score 275 to pass. 5 points. I dare say it's a bit aggravating to have to retake one entry for 5 points! I'm looking at it as a HUGE learning experience. On my written exam I had perfect scores in two areas. I blew them out of the water. As well as on two of my portfolio entries (not perfect scores but very GOOD scores!) One score on one portfolio entry was NOT so good. I'm having a hard time seeing why it was SO BAD! I'm not even going to look at it. I figure I'll get the new rubric and start from scratch... the new entry can't be anything like the old anyway... I might as well.

My PriciPAL had a few kind words to say to me: 1. She knows of no one who passed on the first try. and 2. Two perfect scores? Are you serious? That is unheard of!

I have to admit she made me feel MUCH better!

According to Cheryl...

Lynn swallowed a squirrel.

I'm still laughing at that one. His mustache does remarkably resemble the summer color of a squirrel. He's contemplating sticking googlie eyes in it with Karo syrup the next time we visit his mom's house.

I've lived with the "mustache" before. He sported it for quite a few years. I think I may have been pregnant with the twins when he asked me why I didn't kiss him any more. I pointed at his mustache. Next thing I knew he came down stairs all clean shaven and looking like a baby face. Well, It's back. He says he's gonna miss me.

I think he looks good with a mustache. It just tickles and goes up my nose so, NO I don't kiss his lips as much. I tease him and tell him one morning he's going to wake up with half of it shaved off. I don't really mean it... UNLESS he starts waxing the ends into some sort of villanous twisted cowboy obnoxious THING.

He was riding with the vet the other day and holding a horse's head while the techs shaved it's forelock so the critter could receive stiches. The "girls" were teasing him about slipping with the clippers, he told them his wife would thank them for THAT!

Elise was MORTIFIED Lynn grew his mustache out just in time for her baptism. She wanted to know if he was going to shave it off just for her. Lynn teased her back that since she was a twin, she only got to choose what happened on half of her baptism day. AND since Abby liked his mustache, he would only shave half of it off. Which half did she want? The left, right, top or bottom? Elise was NOT amused!

Pictures of Drumming with Zinse...

This picture was published in the Salt Lake Tribune. It's one of my cute kiddos!


Here are two of my boys drumming with Zinse. This picture was also published in the Trib.


The whole class drumming with Zinse!!!! Thank You Utah Arts Council for your GENEROUS GRANT!!!!


Luckily, I can post these pictures because all the students in my class signed media release forms. :) One thing I noticed about myself is I chew my bottom lip when I am concentrating. My friend caught my intense concentration both times! You can see me chewing my lip.

Big News!

Lynn bought a new camera! I will be posting a bunch of pictures to catch y'all up on what we're doing! Love it!

Remote Control

Some of you may know, others, maybe not... Our beautiful Brayden was diagnosed, a year ago last Fall, with NLD, a very mild autism. As his mother, I actually wept with joy because I finally had a name for what I had been dealing with for the past 10 years, a diagnosis, and a way to get school support. That being said, one of the things Brayden struggles with is change, new experiences and any situation he feels he is not in control. Anxiety attacks are common. Lynn and I have become expert anxiety attack diffusers.

Lynn took Brayden hunting this weekend. Brayden LOVES spending time outdoors with his dad. He is a hiking machine and loves mountain trails. He is not opposed to riding the horses in the mountains either, although it takes a little cajoling. He went into anxiety mode the second he realized he wouldn't be riding Henrietta on a trail, but would be trail blazing through the mountains. The anxiety heightened when Lynn told him Henrietta could do it without a lead rope hooked to Lynn and Hank. Meltdown in T- 3 seconds...

Lynn is a joker anyway so you never quite know what he's going to pull next. Brayden climbed up on our mellow old mare and attached to the saddle horn was his old Game Cube remote control. "Funny Dad, funny." The anxiety attack was averted and Brayden looked at steering Henrietta in a whole new way.

Lynn said by the end of the trip Brayden was playing obstacle course with the Old Gal by weaving her through trees and over logs. It's a good thing he never tried to make her run, then the trouble would have begun... she likes a nice easy stroll.

Cross 'Yer Fingers!

So far no one but Elise has come down with the H1N1 virus! I'm knocking on the pressed plywood laminate of my gorgeous desk. I'm thinking I must have gotten her in really quickly and kept her contained. The Tamiflu kept her from getting terribly sick. She was really only "sick" for 36 hours.

In other matters at my school we currently have an artist in residence visiting from Ghana, Africa. His name is Zinsie Agginie. He is teaching us how to drum and is sharing native Fables with us. Zinsie is spending most of his time with the Second Grade, which is my grade. So far our 2nd grade classes are becoming champion drummers. I'm not sure what to say about the hampered, 2nd grade teachers. I'm thinking we need some serious remediation. He was giving us grief at lunch today when he found out 3 of the 4 of us hold Master's Degrees. I gave him grief back when I told him our degrees certainly weren't in drumming. If he wants an educational psychology consult we'd be happy to help out. I'm not surprised at how adept the 6th grade students were at drumming. Too much time on Rock Band?

I will post pictures if I can get one of my fellow teachers to take some photos of me drumming. Hopefully they will bring a smile to your face.