They're taking the hobbits to Isengard!

Two posts in one day? Is the world coming to an end? This will be quick.

Elementary school started yesterday. Over the past year and a half of subbing, I've gotten to know several teachers pretty well. One of them had knee surgery over the summer, and since she's still recovering, she asked if I would fill in for her in the mornings for the first three to four weeks so she can continue to recuperate.

Now, I was familiar with her incoming class, and they just so happened to be one of my favorites, so of course I jumped at the chance.

Yesterday I was at school for a grand total of three and a half hours with these fifth graders. And it was joyous. Because really, this is the best class ever.

However! Not three hours after coming home, my throat started to feel a little irritated and swollen.

Today, after day 2, I'm getting a little congested and headachey. And to top it off, I'm running a fever of NINETY-NINE POINT TWO DEGREES! For me, this is akin to a normal person coming down with malaria! (I usually run cold, in case you were wondering.)

Moral of the story: my immune system stinks.

Woe is he.

One day I'll get around to blogging about the Grand Vacation to End All Vacations, I promise. But for now, take a look at this picture:

I insisted on taking a "first day of school" picture.

Memorize this face, because it might be the last time you see it until December.

You see, Jacob started taking classes at a university about 50 minutes from our apartment this week. For the past two glorious weeks, he was working the afternoon shift, from 2-10 pm. Seven days on, three days off, seven days on, four days off.

Maybe not the best shift ever, but at least we were able to see each other in the morning and go to bed at the same time at night. And since he had just finished about eight months of the graveyard shift, it was pretty nice to be on the same sleep schedule.

Now, his classes start at 8:30 in the morning and end at 12:30. With the commute, he left for school at 6:45 am to get good parking, and then from class went straight to work. This makes for a very long day, as he doesn't get home until 10:15 pm on the days he works.

However, it couldn't end there, could it? He emailed me a few hours ago from work, informing me that his work has changed his schedule again, and starting Saturday, he's going back to his old schedule -- 12 hour graveyard shifts, from 6 pm to 6 am. Four days on, four days off.

Now on the days he has class and work, he'll leave for work around 5 pm and get home at -- get this -- around 1:30 pm. This is an even longer day than he has now!

He is going to be exhausted! At least he never has class two days in a row. But the schedule still sounds miserable, and I feel really bad for him.

The man is a rock star. And hopefully the end of the semester comes quickly, for both our sakes.

Bedtime Stories

I recently found out, to my shock and horror, that Jacob had never read the classic children's story Goodnight Moon. So yesterday we went to the library and I checked the book out and read it to him.

If your childhood was similarly deprived, the book is [SPOILER ALERT!] about a little bunny who says goodnight to the various objects in his/her bedroom. It incorporates quaint rhymes like "goodnight kittens and goodnight mittens."

I enjoyed this book as a child well enough, but the real joy came when I was a teenager.

You see, when my sister Heather and I shared a room back in the day, she would often ask me to tell her a bedtime story. And I would invariably pattern such stories after Goodnight Moon.

You, too, can make your own Goodnight Moon story with very little thought involved! Just follow this formula:

Each stanza contains four lines. The first line is always "Goodnight moon." The rest of the lines are "Goodnight ________." On the third line, the blank should be filled in with an object in the bedroom. (The second and fourth lines may also include bedroom objects, but a little more leeway is given. Also, the fourth line can be somewhat unconventional/creepy/scandalous.) The second and fourth lines must rhyme. (Or, if you want a throwback to high school English, each stanza has an abcb rhyme scheme.) At the conclusion of the story, it ends simply with "Goodnight moon."

For example, this is a similar story to what I told Jacob last night while we were trying to fall asleep:

Goodnight moon,
Goodnight stars,
Goodnight closet,
Goodnight cars.

Goodnight moon,
Goodnight fan,
Goodnight carpet,
Goodnight creepy white van.

Goodnight moon,
Goodnight clothes,
Goodnight dresser,
Goodnight garden hose. (When I was telling the story last night, I had to insert "garden" lest Jacob interpret it as a different kind of hose.)

Goodnight moon,
Goodnight bed,
Goodnight lamp,
Goodnight head.

Goodnight moon.

Isn't that just precious? After laying awake for a few more minutes, I asked Jacob to tell me a bedtime story. He interpreted the rules a little differently. This was his version:

Goodnight belly button,
Goodnight tongue,
Goodnight LICK JENNIFER ALL OVER!

At that point I had to launch myself away from him, lest he carry out the threat. So he never finished his story.

Alas.

Photo Dump, or Summer Adventures!

As far as months go, July was a pretty good one. But enough of these words! On to the pictures!

We tossed a football around before watching the fireworks on the 4th of July.

On the three-year anniversary of the day we met, we went to Lagoon (an amusement park in Utah) because tickets were relatively cheap and Jacob had the day off work.

Jacob is a very intense driver. And he took his road rage out on unsuspecting victims while cackling diabolically*.

I insisted we ride the merry-go-round because it was "quaint."

We repeated a "Christmas in July" date we did two years ago, this time with my sister and brother-in-law. We put Dustin to work on making Christmas cookies. 

But let's be real, Heather and I did most of the work.

Jacob pretended to read a Christmas story for the photo, and then promptly handed the book of to me. And then we watched A Muppet Christmas Carol, much to the delight of all.

My parents and little sister Emily came up to Utah for a family reunion! As part of it, we visited some relatives' grave sites. (This bench is not one of them. We just thought it was somewhat cool/creepy to have a bench as a grave marker.)

Jacob's dreams came true when he became the owner of an official Sudweeks Family Reunion t-shirt.

The Sudweeks clan. And this isn't even all of them. Photo credit goes to Josh Sudweeks.

My mom organized a series of "Minute to Win It" games for one of the evening activities. Heather and I participated in a game that required two people to unwind an entire roll of toilet paper around one of the contestants. She ended up holding the roll and I ended up spinning in place until the roll ended and I promptly fell over. Photo credit to Kim Aldrich

We went boating with the family. I tried my hand at a little wake boarding, and  we rode the tube together. And then I was sore for a week.

Most of my immediate family came to our apartment to watch the Olympics Opening Ceremony  and celebrate with food. Namely, fish and chips, Olympic onion rings, and Olympic ice cream cone torches. With some healthy stuff provided by my parents.

And here they are! They're pretty much the best.

 They say a picture is worth a thousand words. And I just gave you over a dozen, not to mention the captions. So basically I just wrote the essay of a lifetime. You're welcome.

*He may or may not have actually cackled. I could possibly just be taking artistic liberty.