I recommend

laundry baskets as a good source of entertainment for little kids.  I wish we could take one to church to help Jared sit still during sacrament meeting.  Whenever I am doing laundry he loves to play with the empty basket.  He is also quite good at loading the wet clothes into the dryer.  It would be great if that lasted throughout his life.  Awhile back I saw someone's blog post about how they have their kids sit in laundry baskets during FHE because it keeps them in one spot.  Parents are so funny.
I also love to recommend articles.  I think it is my new favorite thing about Facebook; that and seeing what other people are up to. I am not as big a status updater as I once was but I totally love recommending articles.  In a strange way it makes me feel smart or connected, like I do other things besides have fun with Jared and domestic responsibilities.  I do pay attention to what is happening outside my little sphere. I think it really started with the protests in Egypt.  (not the paying attention to other places but recommending articles) By the way has anyone been following what is happening in Libya?  It is out of control!!  Maybe I should recommend some articles about that.
*Oh and I had Pittsburgh winning the NCAA championship and they are OUT so I am glad I did  not recommend them to anyone.

Happy St. Patrick's Day!

We are so LUCKY! (in so many ways)

Hope you all have a Happy Saint Patrick's Day!

I needed this!

Jared and Tanner (the little boy I watch) have been driving me crazy.  They are both sleeping now which is a magical feeling. So I went to check the computer and found out that there is a frozen yogurt shop opening here in Colorado Springs. There are over 450,000 people here and we have never been able to find a true (or even a bad impression of ) frozen yogurt place.  If you are from Yuba City, CA and are reading this you know that is ridiculous.  This Saturday is their grand opening and it will be 62 degrees here.  They are giving away free yogurt and free toppings.  Needless to say I am pretty thrilled about this. It may even become my Facebook status because oh yeah I have one of those and can update it.  We are also planning on getting a Season pass to the zoo here (it is such a better deal then just buying tickets when you go and it will make me go more) and the Frozen Yogurt Place (I Top It, clever yes?) is conveniently about half way between here and the zoo.  I am pretty sure I will be their number one customer this summer. ♥ 

Why a Summer Vacation?

So (for obvious reasons) I have been thinking a lot about education lately (well it is always there in the back of my mind) and today I had this thought as I was folding laundry.  If teachers were offered a higher salary I think many of them would be more then willing to work through the summer and not have the two months (not three, Mark only has June and July off he starts school the first Monday of August)off. Most often when people talk about teacher's salaries they say that they don't deserve to earn more because they have summers off. (Who cares that they have 4 year (or more) degree like everyone else, stay late, spend a fair amount of their own time (and money) planning, and oh yeah work with kids of varying abilities/attitudes all day and parents of varying abilities/attitudes?)  My question is why do schools still have summers off? I do actually know why they originally set such a school schedule (and this article explains it simply, its really short, although it its from 2007 but I still think the ideas are valid) but I personally believe the long summer vacation is outdated.  Students do not need a long summer vacation and I know that Mark as a teacher would be okay teaching though the summer especially if it would end the argument that teachers don't deserve as much money because of the state set not school set teaching schedule. The state not the school district decides how many days are in a school year.  Mark currently has  2 week breaks in October, December, and late March. If they added a break in the summer then that would provide plenty of opportunities for families to have a vacation together (all the vacations could just be a week long) and kids some time to be a kid.  I think students would learn more because they would not have to be retaught so many things.  So many studies show that students score lower on tests in September then March because they have been out of school for 2 or more months, not learning as they are in the school year.  In the article I linked it talks about how other developed countries have much longer school year.  Like 216 and 240 day school years where as the US has like 180 days in a year.
People always talk about how great it must be to have summers off because you can go and do all kinds of things and travel all over.  In reality its actually kind of boring because you don't have any money to go and do all the fun things and if you live in a hot state you don't have enough money to run your AC.  We come up with some fun things to do together and I love being with Mark but it is certainly not some glamorous vacation.  Also kids get bored too!  They need structure and routines.  They may not love being in school but they are with their friends and not bored at home all day too.  It would also help parents more too. 
One big reason why we don't have longer school years?  Because schools are expensive to run and if they have to be used more in the year it would cost more and putting any more money into education is clearly not an option with our Government.  So people will continue to argue that teachers should not get paid more because of a summer vacation they did not ask for (of course they enjoy their summer but they did not ask for it) and students do not really need. But how does one go about changing the amount of school days in a year? This I do not know.  The United States is falling farther and farther behind other countries (especially in math and science) and our Education system is a contributor to that.
Mark just wishes he could teach history and help students.
These are my thoughts today. 

Play Space

Ever since we have lived in our house I have wanted to make all the extra space in our kitchen a play area for Jared. We do not need two tables so its just been a big empty room. We tried having  our table in there and the dining area be a play area but it just didn't sit right with me. This week I finally went out and bought a cute carpet and little table for him.  (Thanks to my part time care job that is thankfully going quite well) We have been doing some art projects and I have been trying to do some learning type activities so I really wanted a little table. (I would have loved one of those cute wooden tables but they are really expensive and I just couldn't justify it!)  I know Jared is still pretty young to sit at a table and do activities but it will make it easier for me to work with him.  His favorite thing about the table and chairs is that he can now push a chair all over and use it to climb up onto the couch. Climbing is definitely his new thing.  I watch him try to use random objects (objects not made to be a stepping stool) to climb up items all the time.  I am trying not to worry about it too much and knew the day would come eventually. Its also nice to now have more room in our dining room area.

My next "project" is to get a big white board and put it on the wall so we can use it for all kinds of things like hanging up his work or learning numbers, colors, the alphabet, a calendar etc.  I still have some time for that though since he won't even be two until October but I might as well start early and that wall is really completely BLANK which is kind of boring. 

 After I set it up Jared came into the kitchen and started jumping up and down and spinning (also a new trick, spinning) on the carpet.  He's pretty adorable. He also loves the theme song to The Office and anytime he hears it he rushes to the TV and starts dancing, which for him is stomping his feet or running in place.  I will work on getting a video.  The other day some friends came over for dinner and we told them how Jared loves that song so he found it on his phone and Jared ran to the TV didn't see anything then ran to the table and started dancing.  So Cute!

 Looking so grown up!

 Jared has also started to think puzzles are pretty neat.  He can match up the shape puzzle that he has had forever and its really fun to watch him put them in the right places and see that he knows where they go.  Today we bought him a little farm one.  He loves to say "Moo" whenever we sing old MacDonald or see a picture of a cow.  He gets the biggest grin.

Ready to paint.

  We finally attempted some painting last week.  Its amazing how quickly little kids can spread paint around.  This is a shirt of Mark's that has been designated Jared's paint shirt.  I love how it makes Jared look really little.  When I watch him play and do things now I am reminded that he really is not a baby anymore, he is a little boy.  He still is not saying a whole lot of words although I am pretty sure he said ball today and it was really exciting. I love watching him learn new things.