Stuff

Yesterday there were a few English professors visiting from BYU-Idaho for a conference. (The conference was quite expensive so not much of an option right now.) My husband is awful at small talk, so I guided the conversation a bit. They were quite pleasant. With the new mission age, they may not actually be hiring though. :(

We got behind in job applications, so this week we are playing catch up. Getting Georgia mailed off, Tennesse, New Mexico and New Jersey. If there is time (which I doubt) I think Texas would be another good one to send off.

Details

Here is the situation I alluded to yesterday. I want some feedback, so I will post it in full. My children have seminars in school. They choose a topic that interests them and for 3 weeks, one hour a day, they focus on that. Marcus is currently in one about the Olympics.

Last week the teacher told them that the original Olympics took place with everyone competing in the nude. Fine. It is a fact. But, then he showed a cartoon clip of this. The men were full view, women from waist up. Marcus was quite uncomfortable. We contacted people about it, etc. Andy watched the video and said it was not horrible, but very unnecessary. 

I thought it resolved well until this morning. They had told the teacher the child that was uncomfortable. Marcus is so worried about upsetting the teacher and now is trying to distance himself from the situation. (Remember my post about confrontation. Guess who is the same?) I am very worried he will not come to us with something like this again. Especially if it means he will be singled out and embarrassed in front of others. So, now, how should we proceed? Suggestions?

Confrontation

Briefly, Andy is applying to a school in Tennessee, Indiana and possibly Alaska this week.

I am not good with confrontation. If there is a problem, I deal with it. I would babysit and never tell the parents if the children were bad. What if they didn't think I could handle them and never asked me again? If there is something wrong with my food in a restaurant I just won't eat it. I don't send it back. I am a wimp. It's kind of the same with sickness of pain. I deal with it until I really can't handle it. I don't like inconveniencing people. In order for me to speak up I have to feel really strongly about something and then that usually leads to me getting heated up quickly.

When something came up with Marcus at school I sent an email. I didn't want to have a face to face confrontation. Then, I made my husband call about it. So far, things are going well and we are dealing with it. In this case I did not want to say something wrong and offend or upset anyone. I am so afraid if this is handled wrong Marcus won't come and tell us important things anymore.

Is anyone else like this or is it just me?

This week on the job market...

For any interested parties, this week Andy is applying to 2 schools in Texas, one in Pennsylvania and possibly one in Nebraska.

Last week he forgot to apply to the Illinois school.  However, our good friend told him about a job opening for BYU Idaho.  After researching it he is quite excited.  They are doing things for which he would love to contribute. He quickly sent off the application and is trying to gather transcripts. (That is harder than you may think considering he has attended 4 schools.) This is the one Luke is praying he will get. We are trying to be open minded and go where the Lord wants us to go. The schools in Texas would be nice, but one has a very heavy workload and the other has very specific classes so he would not get to grow. Pennsylvania is perfect for him with the description and Nebraska is just a community college. Anyway, keep us in your prayers. We just want a job. This job hunting thing is overwhelming.

Follow Through

Sometimes it is hard to be a mom. 

I have been looking forward to the Vegas Valley Book Festival for about 3 months. Meeting Brandon Mull was the kick off and this weekend was the big event. It was separated into 4 sections; Children's, Young Adult, Adult and Comic books. They were all at the same location except Comic Book which is the one Andy wanted to (and felt he should) attend. I was most excited about meeting David Shannon (No David, David Gets in Trouble, Too Many Toys, etc.). However, I don't like driving, especially downtown Vegas.

This morning one of my children decided to be incredibly disobedient. They didn't care about the festival and purposely made it so we couldn't go. Andy took Marcus to the comic book portion, though. I am disappointed and frustrated. I am afraid I will regret this as much as not being able to meet Gail Carson Levine because it was moving day in Boulder. More importantly I am not sure how to handle the choices my child is making. Argh!