Thursday Book Review-city dog, country frog

I started a new group at school. It is a friendship group. We have a lot of students that are new or just don't appear to have many if any friends. So as a counselor I started a group where we have fun and play games and talk about friendship. And I included some of the leaders in the school. They are all 10th and 11th grader so that next year when the students come back to school there will be someone to say hello to in the halls.

Next week we are having a discussion about  the stages of friendships and what makes a good friend at each stage and what kind of friends fit each stage of our lives.

Something I like to do is read a children's book to the students. I love the books and the students love being read to and it always starts a great discussion.

This week we are reading this book

and can I just say that I love, love, love this book!

In spring, when City Dog runs free in the country for the first time, he spots Country Frog sitting on a rock, waiting for a friend. "You'll do," Frog says, and together they play Country Frog games. In summer, they meet again and play City Dog games. Through the seasons, whenever City Dog visits the country he runs straight for Country Frog's rock. In winter, things change for City Dog and Country Frog. Come spring, friendship blooms again, a little different this time. Mo Willems' spare, poignant text and Jon J Muth's expressive watercolors team up to present a reflection on the natural course of friendship--and life--that will resonate with readers of all ages. (review from here)

By Mo Willems - Hyperion Books for Children (2010) - Hardback - 64 pages - ISBN 1423103009

The illustrations are amazing and the text, while simple, is poignant and speaks volums and lends itself well to discussions of friendship with any age.

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Indeed.

Today's happenings

When I posted about my dealing with S.A.D.D. I was just happy about the sunshine and trees and flowers and the feeling of coming out of hibernation. (and grouchiness if truth be told).  But I had to describe the bad and darkness for you to be able to understand how happy and free those little buds on the trees made me feel.  The end.

Or so I thought until I got home today and opened the mail.  All I have to say is, "Oh wow!" Thank you friend. You know who you are. Your gesture made me cry, but they were tears of happiness and thankfullness.  You really do understand what it means to be nice.

And  a thank you to the friend that "introduced" us through his blog.

What would I do without the friends that I have???

I love you all.

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Indeed.

Friends

I got a phone call from the compassionate service leader in our ward, the other night. She called me at about 9:30. She never calls that late. Then she told me that Ganell Newman had died. I had just been thinking about Ganell and how I hadn't heard from her in a while and surely her son would have let me know if she had passed on.



Let me tell you a bit about Ganell. She and her husband owned the 5 acre farm that shared our back yard fence. When we were looking at houses to buy, that was the major selling point for me- a farm to look out at instead of 20-40 houses. We had the horses and cows coming to the fence and the kids would feed them carrots. There was a ditch that ran along the fence line and the kids would rig up "fishing poles"- sticks with string tied to them- and fish for fish that didn't exist. But they loved it.



Ganell sort of adopted me and my kids, all of her grandkids lived 100's of miles away. Ganell loved children. She even volunteered at a local elementary school. Ganell always made sure that she brought by a batch of whatever she was baking that day. Or a grocery sack of whatever her husband had harvested from the garden. She would come out back and we would talk through the fence. She even loved our dog. Even when he would climb our wood pile and jump the fence into her yard. She always said he was a "happy Mary Poppins kind of dog".

I always knew when it was time to spray the fruit trees, or till the garden or plant , because I just watched the Newman's. Ganell had the most beautiful rosebushes and her yard always smelled wonderful when they bloomed.



Then her husband had a stroke and could no longer take care of the farm. They decided to sell the farm to the church (The Church of Jesus Christ of Latterday Saints) but the deal wouldn't go through until after Clarence had passed on, which he did in just a couple of months. That was a really hard time as I helped Ganell pack up some of her belongings. Then her youngest son and his wife were able to come help her with the rest, and she moved to a retirement community in Northern Utah to be next to them. Her home was bought by a developer who moved it a block and renovated it and a wonderful family live there now and a churchhouse was built on those 5 acres.


You know what the last thing Ganell did for me while she still lived in the home? She gave me every single one of her rose bushes. They now line the front flower bed at my home. I think of her every time I weed, prune or smell a flower from them. They are there with my children's great-grandmother's roses and I love them.

We promised to write each other and stay in contact. And we did. Then slowly I let life get in the way until the monthly letters became a card on her birthday and one at Christmas. And then it dawned on me the other day that I had not sent her a card for the last 2 Christmases and I hadn't heard from her in about that long as well. I made a mental note to be sure and write her the first of the year- when I wasn't so busy.

Then Wed. evening the compassionate service leader in my ward called to tell me that Monday Ganell was able to leave this world and return to her loving Heavenly Father and her husband and many other friends and family members. The funeral will be in our ward building, the one built where her house used to stand. I know she is happy to be with her mother again as well as her siblings. But she will still be missed here.

Kathryn Laycock Little

Kathryn Laycock Little

I am so honored to know this lady. More than that, though, I am blessed to be able to call her friend. You may know her from "Brigham City" or "Singles Ward 2" or if you live in Utah, you may have seen her in any number of plays or productions. She has also been a soloist with the Mormon Tabernacle Choir. This is a picture from last Sunday night's program, Christmas in the Grove. This was during an audience participation song. I thought it showed the playfull side of Kathryn that I love so much.

I will be uploading some video sections from the program later today or tomorrow, but I just wanted to pay a little tribute to Kathryn. Each year for the last 15 years, she has been the spearhead behind Christmas in the Grove. With a committee, she chooses songs that tell the story of Christ's birth and mission and then spends Sunday evenings starting early in Oct. preparing the adult and youth choirs for the performance and also helping with the children's choir. This, in addition to being the choir director for the most amazing ward choir. Also in addition to her everday work and life.

She has an amazing voice. Here she is singing the final number from last week's program. (sorry it is shaky, I had to change tapes and didn't have time to put the camera back on the tripod and I was still kinda sick)

(be sure to scroll to the bottom of the page and turn down the playlist sound)

Isn't that the voice of an angel? Kathryn is one of those women that would give you the shirt off of her back if she could and you needed it. But she is also one of those women that really and truly appreciates the small gifts of friendship and acknowledges them and you feel as if you had given her $1,000,000 even if it was just a simple hug. As I said, I am honored and blessed to know her and call her friend.

Who's who?

Karlene and I are a lot alike. We don't try to be, honestly. We just are. Take this post of Karlene's for example. I took the test and got my results. Here they are:

Take the Quiz here!

(I like taking these tests, except the answers don't always apply. I always end up feeling frustrated because there is invairably one or two questions where I am left saying "none of the above, none of the above!!" but that is never an option, so I am left choosing the next best closest answer. After studying psychology, and more closely personality, I understand these tests and at times tend to spend too much time on the questions and sometimes overthink the answers instead of going with my first gut response, though.)

Now, let me tell you that Karlene and I are as much not alike as we are alike. So what if we tend to do things the same. Did you notice that she is reading about vampires and the book I just randomly picked up at the library is about vampires? (maybe there is some grand cosmic force working on us) So what if her grandbaby was born on Tue. and mine 4 days later. We had nothing whatsoever to do with any of that. (again with the grand cosmic force)

So how are we different?
*I'm a redhead, she isn't
*I have wayyyyy more kids than she does (well three more, but some days it feels like more than that)
*I like fluff and glitter and bling, she wouldn't be caught dead in them
*She is amazing with a computer and I know how to turn one on
*I like reading and she, oh wait, she does too
*I'm thinking, I'm thinking

Well, you get the idea. We can't help it if the great cosmic force insists that we do things alike. Not our fault.
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