The Nitty Gritty

This week: I came down with Laryngitis on Wednesday. I took the day off on Thursday to rest my voice. Friday was a quiet day at school because the students had to really listen to hear what I was saying.  Isaac has had a lot of meetings with companies about his robot project and has received a lot of good feedback. He's nailed down his topic for his dissertation and is working hard on his dissertation proposal. He is staying consistent with his daily exercise. I had a memorable moment with William on Friday. Friday was Earth Day and we were having a class discussion about ways to save our planet. The subject of cars came up. I asked the kids why we should drive our cars as little as possible to save the Earth. Their answers were way off base. Responses like, "You shouldn't text and drive," or "You can get in an accident and you might die," I redirected them and asked the question again. William raised his hand and he said, "So, cars give off ...

Hi Family! We had a great week! Isaac and I have been aiming to work out every day. Isaac achieved his goal and exercised everyday this week! I exercised 4 days. Woo hoo! Isaac wants to shed some pounds. I want to feel better and I've already noticed a difference. Yesterday we went to Target and FINALLY bought me a bike and also bought a bigger bike for William. Isaac has been trying to get me to buy a bike ever since we moved here. I guess now that both boys can ride without training wheels, it felt like great timing to all ride bikes together. We rode our bikes yesterday to William's friend, Isaac's house. When Isaac announced, "Ya Family Bike Ride!" Van chimed in with a yell, "Boo ya! Family Bike Ride! Woooooo! This is awesome!" At one point in the ride, it was just William and I riding side by side together. He said, "I love you, Mom." He's such a sweet son! I love my boys. On Wednesday, Isaac and I went to the Mesa Temple. It fe...

We are winding down to the end of our third school year here in sunny Arizona. We have one more year to go while Isaac finishes his dissertation. Then we'll be headed to wherever he gets a job offer. The boys finished their last week of swimming lessons. The next round didn't coordinate with our schedule so we'll look into doing lessons again in May. William likes his art class. Today he learned about organic and geometric shapes. We got to dog sit for our neighbor's poodle Gladys. I'm not a big dog lover but I LOVE Gladys. She is the cutest. The boys had fun taking turns holding onto her leash and giving her a treat at the end of our walk. When we dropped her off the first night and said goodbye, Van called to her, "Don't worry! Your parents will come back!" Then he said to me, "I thought she would understand better if I said 'parents' instead of 'owner'." We had some cloudy days and a rainstorm this weekend. Lana and ...

Bickmore Buzz April 3, 2016 Today was a pretty rough week. My students were on some sugar high from Easter.   This is the time of year where the students start to mentally check out and I have to stay firm and consistent. I was so relieved when Friday finally came. Isaac had a presentation on Friday for his robot project for a company called Microchip. He made a lot of contacts with people that can help him get what he needs. Lately, William loves to say, “I’m bored”, hoping that I will let him play video games. I just tell him to look at his chore chart and see what stars he can earn. Van loves to give fishy kisses. He scraped his elbow on Wednesday when he was showing off his biking skills for the sister missionaries and crashed. I couldn’t stop smiling because I was so proud that one of my boys finally scraped up their elbow! Our kids are so cautious and never get injured. We did a few fun things this weekend. Friday night, we sat in our friends' hot tub...