Cookies and Ketchup

That really should be cookies and "catch-up". Oh, how I hate getting so behind on blogging. That's when it feels like a chore and not so fun. We have been so busy the past two months that I just can't believe we made it through everything. Two Eagle projects and a Master's degree amongst the everyday insanity of the holiday season. We also suddenly had to say good-bye to the only part of the Howe family that was near us but we couldn't be sad knowing how awesome the move back to Arizona was for them. And that second Eagle project was carried out 3 days after Christmas with company in tow. And Christmas--still need to blog about all that. And my new hobby which I never blogged about due to the fact that many Christmas presents came from it. And then last week when I was planning on catching-up, the snow started and the kids were back out of school. Ok, I'm just going to get started.
Last year I took on an awesome Primary class that had a couple behavior challenges. Not bad kids, just easily distractable. I have the same problem so it's easy to sympathize. I could hold their attention in class pretty easily but sharing time was not so fun. So I came up with an idea to bribe them to behave in Primary. They had to be reverent during sharing time to earn a "stone" each week. And once they earned 10 stones, they could either get a giant chocolate chip cookie or a t-shirt made by me. I figured they'd all take the cookie but 4 of the 7 went for the t-shirt. I took pictures during the year everytime I made one of the cookies or t-shirts but I can only find one of the t-shirt pictures and not quite all of the cookie pictures. The first t-shirt I made was for a young man in my class who is in love with "Bella" from Twilight. Then another young man wanted a t-shirt of "Trogdor". Still not sure exactly who that is, but I did the t-shirt right because he was happy. Then another boy wanted a Dallas Cowboys shirt. Then one of the girls wanted a Bratz t-shirt and that one was easy once I found a cute picture. Once I had made all the cookies, I got a request from one of the moms for a giant cookie for her birthday. I had the boys and Jeremy deliver it to her and sing to her. I think she loved it. Then the same lady paid me to make 4 of the cookies for her neighbors for Christmas gifts. I think I should go into business. Anyway, it was a pretty fun idea which I enjoyed doing for the kids. This year though, I have a really well behaved class who really does not need any bribery...only they already know about the stones and cookies...so I'll be doing it again (I'm not offering the tshirts this time though--it's too stressful).