YES!!!!! I can sleep in 3 days in a row! :) :P

Story time went well. The kids had a blast, we did too. I got feedback today, a staff member's daughter said their kids had a wonderful time. I really like feedback like that!

On Monday story time was at 10 and 2 and by 3 we were already planning the next story time since we will be short one day due to the 4th of July.

Can you believe it's July already?


XXXXOOO
Mim/Barb

Needless to say that one is over and another one starts Monday with a story time on the theme of "ACTING". So we'll do a lot of chants, rhymes, songs, stories with tons of participation. Even doing 2 different versions of the 3 little pigs with pint sized sets and headband "costumes". Should be fun.

I got asked to be in a cello quartet by one of the local Dead Composer's Society group. I'm really looking forward to playing with a bunch of other cellists...they are GOOD! Cello quartet music is a blast to play. Heck, any string quartet music is a blast to play. Just glad to be playing something with others instead of hacking away at the strings by myself.

:)

This has been an amazing week of great chats, emails, conversations with wonderful people: family and friends. I am very blessed to have you all in my life. Thank you.

of self doubt that "they" sow.

And kids, I'm sorry if I ever sowed any in your lives...please forgive me.

Second story time report....166 for the 10 a.m. and 125 for the 2 p.m. That's up from last week, yay! My staff is awesome and they work hard and fast. I'm proud of them. Many of them have never done anything like this before.

The theme today was Rock, Roll and Read. We read 2 books about animals in rock bands and the 3rd was about a Snake Alley Band, lots of fun sound effects and the kids had a blast. We rocked out at the end during a 10 min. sock hop complete with 2 small and 2 giant beach balls. A good time was had by all, even the grown ups.

is almost over. Our first story time on Monday went very well. We didn't have the numbers we wanted and the whole week has kinda been like that. Not to say we haven't been busy but it seems the numbers are down from last year. We had about 225 kids total for story time on Mon., 250 for crafts on Tues. and about 150 today for our special performer, an origami story teller. Tomorrow we take next week's story to a local Boys and Girls club. We are doing a rock and roll theme next week and a sock hop for 10 minutes at the end of the story time...should be fun!

Yesterday I got my CPR certificate after a morning of training at the library. The whole staff at the library is required to have CPR training. Two hunky firefighters taught the class. Even if the material was boring at least I had something interesting to look at. :)

It has been a busy but fulfilling week of work on our first Summer Reading Program at FPL. My staff is enthusiastic, fabulous, creative, endearing and energetic. I'm grateful. Couldn't have pulled it off without them. I'm anxious about Monday but mostly for me because I have to remember the program order without a paper in front of me...I'm gettin' old. I'll have to memorize like crazy the next 2 days!

We saw about 6,000 kids last month alone (7,000) all together this spring. Our library had 39,000 visitors this past month. So you can see we stay busy. I love it though. There's nothing better than helping a patron find what they want in the catalog and then be able to show them how to find it on the shelf and hand it to them. AND they get to take it home for free!!!! I love libraries.

I also have to get 6 stories prepared to tell for our Prime Time Fammily Time literacy group that will start up the 3rd week of June once a week on Wed. night. I'll be the story teller and another staff member at FPL will be the "scholar" who leads the group in a discussion. We also feed them a light supper before we get down to the group work. It brings families in who might otherwise avoid the library. It's a great program. Hope I can pull the stories off in an exciting way. Our library is doing 3 of these 6 week sessions this summer. I'm only involved in 1.

Other than a very, VERY busy work life, not much exciting is happening here. Choir at church is now on holiday for the summer so I won't be having choir rehearsals until fall. I might play my cello for church at some point but musically things will slow way down for me until summer reading is over. I plan to do a lot of reading and movie watching to relax. Might dip in my apartment pool too...maybe, it has a lot of kids in it during the day....yeah, you know what I mean.

I'm sewing again, attempting to make a peasant blouse. We'll see how THAT turns out. If it's good I'll probably make 1 or 2 more in other colors. I need something cool to wear in the summer that is long enough to wear at work. I do a lot of contorting during story times and don't want my belly to show above those danged lower rise jeans they are making now! I'm trying NOT to wear MOM JEANS, really! But sometimes,whew.


Love you all!

I have 6 staff members that I need to keep busy 4 days a week. This has been my first full week and I'm exhausted! I think things will go a little more smoothly next week since we have so many programs (5) to perform or host. So we'll be busy setting stuff up, taking it down, helping in the library with patrons, getting weekly programs ready...whew. I lead a fascinating life, no? Well, at least it keeps me out of the bars.

After a very fun weekend doing my weekly City of Farm. walk, cooking, taking care of errands, watching movies on my new TV and hanging with friends I'm ready to go back to work invigorated and rested at the same time. I love weekends. I love my job too, don't get me wrong, I just enjoy the opportunity to really relax for 2 days.

with Paul, Melissa and Caleb. Spent time with relatives on both sides and enjoyed myself immensely. Drive back was scary...I didn't know raindrops could get to be the size of baseballs! Whew, it tore up the outside rubber coverings to my mega-super-sturdy-windshield wipers. Thank goodness they kept working in spite of that. I couldn't see a car's length in front of me, semi trucks whizzing by, rain that sounded like hail! Wow, what a storm. The drive back and forth is beautiful in many respects. Hope to make that drive again sometime soon.

Erinator gave me a gift certificate for mother's day and I have made myself a mix of Whitney Houston, Michale J. (yes some of his songs are still ringing my bell), Paul McCartney and Jo Cocker. Amazing stuff for an old fogey like me! I'll be singing all the way to UT! Weee heee. New Car Mix!!!!

Thanks Erin!

Toodles.

She passed her thesis exam! Weeeee Heeeee! Yay!!! HOOORRRAAAY FOR ERIN!!!!

I'm going to bed early!

Made cupcakes tonight so they will be ready for tomorrow's YW fundraiser at the church. I'm going to the temple tomorrow with my visiting teaching companion and will be back just in time to go to the YW spaghetti dinner/fundraiser. Then Sun. I have choir practice at 12:45, performance in Sac. meeting later that afternoon and choir practice after church (if we need it for the last weekend in May). Then I'm off to a member's house for dinner. Whew. So a very social weekend ahead. This is after a week of visiting teaching, church service project, seeing approximately 1300 kids at school visits for summer reading commercials, 5 different story times, finding enough busywork to keep our new clerks busy, etc. etc. etc. I sure don't have much time to get in trouble now, do I?

My wonderful kids sent me fun stuff for Mother's Day.

Erin sent me a ITunes card to redeem...I am excited about that! She also sent me a really great mix CD of her favorite tunes...funny thing some of them are my favorites too! Thanks Erin! I love the Biance tune too! And yes, I danced in the kitchen! I am loving exploring new music and this was the perfect thing for me.

Paul and Melissa sent me a copy of the New Moosewood Cookbook. I can't wait to try out some more recipes from it. I checked it out of the library recently and fell in love with it. They also sent me a mock mother of the year news announcement with me named as Mother of the Year...you guys are too nice.

I love my kids and miss not being with them but I'm going to UT on the 22 of May and I can't wait!!!!

It's sunny and warm here in Farmington, in the 80s. But thankfully the trees have leafed out and it's a lot greener than I thought it would be. The job keeps me incredibly busy. I have about 17 school visits to do this month as well as training new clerks for the summer reading program and getting the programs ready. Whew.

Love to all.

Spirit was strong in all 3 meetings. I have a wonderful ward. I am truly blessed. Choir went well even if only 7 people came. I think our song for the 17th will be good. We sing again on the last day of May...it's coming along. Good pianist. Good people. Good life.

Sad news first. Got a call from a long time adult cello student, Arlis, who was given 6 months to live by her doctor. She had to have radiation recently on her head, the cancer has moved to her brain. She is so weak now she has to be in a wheel chair all the time and she had to move from her assisted living apartment into hospice. It is hard to watch loved ones die. But I have to say she is one tough woman. She still has a sense of humor after all this and she is a fine example of strength to everyone she comes in contact with. Wow, I have amazing friends.

Last night's community college orch. concert went fine. We pulled it out at the end. It was kind of shaky in spots but overall we did better than I expected considering sparse personnel during rehearsal times...yikes, and I mean sparse!

Went to a local park this a.m. for a city sponsored park walk for employees. Not to many there because of rain but my usual walking buddy Laura from the Police Dept. was there. They had a bunch of lilac bushes planted and they were in bloom! So pretty. It was drizzling the whole time so we only walked a mile and a half but we had fun.

I went to the local Dead Composer's Society concert tonight and had a blast. The program was very good, the players did a great job and I knew some of the people at the concert so it was fun to chat a few minutes afterward. I think I'm finally fitting in here.

Church tomorrow and hanging out with some girl chums in the evening. Should make for a pleasant weekend.

Toodles.

This week it's all about Frogs! Not braggin' (well maybe a little) this is the best one I've done yet. I do the "voices" on the last 2 stories.


http://stream.publicbroadcasting.net/production/mp3/national/local-national-832814.mp3

Tamales - have fun!

This is made up by me (with research from online tamale recipes and how to sites) and not precise so you'll have to fool with it.

Dried Corn husks soaked in warm water 15 min - 2 hours.

Black Bean and Corn Filling

1 can of black beans drained
1/2 can corn or use frozen or 1 ear fresh
1/2 onion chopped
1/2 - 2 tsp chili powder
3 T Green chili salsa

Soften onion in oil til translucent, add corn and cook a minute. Add chili powder and cook a minute. Add black beans and chili and simmer a minute or two until warm. Set aside.


Black Bean and Mole filling

1 can black beans
1 jar Mole (I only used a couple tablespoons of it mixed with about 1/2 c. water)
Cumin to taste (1 tsp.?)

Mix all ingredients and set aside.

Tamale Masa

2 c. Masa of your choice (You have to get the real thing that's processed with lime etc. You can't just use cornmeal.)
1/2 c. oil
1-2 cups broth (chicken, beef, veggie)

Add Masa, oil and 1 c. water in a bowl. Mix with hands or spoon until the consistency of peanut butter. You will have to add water until it is easy to spread with a knife on the corn husks.


Making the Tamales

Turn one soaked husk with the pointed end away from you and the wide end toward your belly. Spread some Masa. I aimed for about a 1/8 - 1/4 inch thickness. Spread Masa on the wide end from the left about an inch down from the small end to the bottom and then about 2/3 to 3/4 over to the right leaving about an inch of Masa-free husk. Put a couple tablespoons filling on top of the masa, fold over from the left to seal the filling in and roll the tamale up and turn down the point to seal the tamale. The wide end should be open but rolled tight. Finish with the rest of the Masa until you use up the filling.

Put in a steamer (like a spaghetti cooker) that has about an inch of water in it, folded side down and pack them in upright. Don't let water touch the tamales. Steam covered for 2 hours, adding water as needed. This will be tedious but worth it. Take them out and let them sit on a plate to rest for a few minutes before you eat them.

I used a pressure cooker instead. I put a steamer basket with feet in the pressure cooker, added an inch of water, and laid about 5 or 6 tamales in it and closed the lid. When the pressure cooker started sizzling (the top rocks) I timed it for 10 min. Then I cooled the pressure cooker and took the tamales out and laid them on a plate to finish steaming and resting for about 5 - 10 min. before I sampled them. Yummy.