I AM HOME!!!

After three L-O-N-G days of teacher workshops, I am home! I do have to say that I enjoyed visiting my sister very much, but I am muy glad to be home with my little family. My wife finished the kitchen painting and IT LOOKS WONDERFUL! But, because she is the one who did all the work, I will let her post about it first (then I can just steal her post! Tee Hee).

Well, I can officially say that I am done with summer college classes for good. Next summer (I know this is wishful thinking) will be so nice because I won't have Math Endorsement Classes, I won't have Masters of Administration Classes...what will I do with all my time? Oh yes, that's right- WHAT EVER I WANT!!!!!! It is quite comical how our last class ended up on Wednesday (I guess that was yesterday). We were there and we made it through the first almost 2 hours. Just as the first group started to really get into their presentation, the power went out at the district office. Ms. D and I were there with Jarett and Teri because of CORE Academy. Ms. D called the professor and told her what had happened. She said to wait for 15 minutes, and if it didn't come back on to head home and she would send an e-mail later. Well, an hour later (we got talking to one of the district administrators) we all left and headed home. So, that was a nice- I never have to take summer college classes again in my whole entire life, ever, ever, ever- gift! Now, if only the paper fairy would sneak into my house tonight and write my paper. Ha Ha. Actually, it isn't too big a deal. I just need to finish reading the book first- 200 more pages to go! Wahoo!

I enjoyed the ride home from workshops today with Greg. We had a nice chat. We are both so busy, even though we teach next door to each other, that we rarely get to chat.

Well, as I have been gone for three days, I best get off here and get to helping with dinner!

Later...

Day One Down...

Today was what is known as CORE Academy. In the state of Utah, the State Office of Education. It is a three day intensive workshop to help teachers target low performing areas on state tests. Phew. That was quite the description.

So, day one is over. It went pretty well. I am sick to death of sitting (thanks for all the reading, college classes, and workshop days this summer). I had a few aha! Moments today!

I am now at my sister's house and I can barely keep my eyes open. Late night and early morning to get here was a killer. (Had to leave by 6:30am to get to the workshop on time- blah!)

Well, because I am going to fall asleep, I best sign off!

Later...

Heading Out...

Well, I am heading out for three days to a teacher workshop. It will be nice to see my sister (thanks sis, for letting me come and stay at your house). It will also be nice to escape my masters classes for a while. I am pretty fed up right now.

Our professor "forgot" there would be no class today (Monday) due to the holiday, so instead of class, he assigned us a 5 hour powerpoint project with a 9pm deadline. I turned mine in 4 minutes late, and it didn't have half of what I wanted to put in it. I am SO frustrated. I spent almost 9 hours on that dumb assignment. It was about how the judiciary branch affects education reform and policy. One article went on and on about how lawyers were the answer to education reform, and they ought to be invited to join the discussion. Whatever- lol.

I have ONE MORE ASSIGNMENT and then I am done with summer classes FOREVER (at least I HOPE it is forever!) I only have 4 more classes until I graduate. YEA! I can't wait for this program to be over- I am very tired of READING articles and WRITING essays. Wait...I sound like my 6th graders who get tired of reading and writing all the time.

I am getting more and more anxious (this relates more to excited) to get into my classroom and clean it out and up. I plan on really de-junking this year. If I haven't used it or seen it in the last 5 years, then I don't really think that I need it now- so it is GOING IN THE TRASH!

Well, since it is almost 12:30am and I am supposed to leave at 6:30am, I best head to bed (after I finish packing).

My wife has started to paint the kitchen. She has been working on it since I started working ony my class project- that was around 2pm. She has almost finished the bottom half color (she is going to two-tone the walls. Top half a yellowish color- the bottom half a tan-ish brown) It is looking SO nice. I am excited to see the finished product when I get back from my workshop. Way to go honey- you ROCK!

Later...

Our Little Magicians

Hello All,

My wife shot this footage while I was at school. I had to share it with you. I used my movie making software (PowerDirector) and this is what we came up with. I hope you laugh as hard as we did. Watch closely, they do the funniest things. The preview is my little Z. He discovered he was covered in hair. Great exchange between him and my wife. Not the exact exchange, but really close. (I had approval from my wife!)

Enjoy!

OTHER NEWS - OTHER NEWS- OTHER NEWS

On a separate note, we had our guest author, Elysabeth Eldering, in the class today (Google talk rocks). I am excited to HOST HER BOOK NEXT MONTH HERE! But enough of that. Her visit went very well. We almost finished our Harris Burdick pictures. I am so thankful to have found someone that is interested in helping students. She has even inspired me to pull out some of my old stories that I started years ago. Not really with the hope of getting them published, just simply to delve back into the world of writing. (Although being published might be really fun). Tomorrow we have the Clark Planetarium coming to our school. That is going to be really fun. I am also pleased to announce that I have finished my MailBox assignments. Not in submission form, but in rough draft. They should easily be ready to mail by Thursday. YEA!

Well, I have lots to do still. Book Club reading for school (I am a member of a after school book club for teachers- we read books to help us be better language arts teachers), and a math endorsement class assignment to work on, not to mention that I still have to do my CORE Academy project to get college credit as well. So, as you can see, lots to do. Have a great night-

Later...

Math, Class, Rain, MailBox, CORE Academy...

Rain, Rain, Come and Stay!
It has been raining all day- what a blessing! We really need that here. I had to be up EARLY this morning so I could make it to my math endorsement class on time. It is an 80 minute drive to the school where the class is held. Being I had to be there by 8:30am, I had to leave by 7:00am. Not that is a big deal, but it is a lonely drive.

My math class was ok. It wasn't really what I was expecting it to be. We are reading a book about how to help kids "build a system of ten". Basically we are trying to help kids understand place value and allow them to use their own methods to do and understand basic operations in math. (Invented strategies). I have tried to teach in this manner since my Alpine School District days. I want my students to understand what they are doing and never just do it because I said they should. So it was good, but really long, especially since I had the long trip home and everyone else had at most 25 minutes. But that is how life goes.

I am glad to be home. I missed the Priesthood session of conference tonight because I have a headache and don't feel well. Tomorrow is another 2 sessions of conference. I am grateful for that. I need a day to relax. The only stress I truly have for this evening and tomorrow is my Mail Box Assignment. I have 5 pages due. I have a couple sketched out, but I think I may have to start over. We'll see. I will keep you posted on that for sure.

Yesterday I got a letter from the CORE Academy (See past posts for LOTS on this topic) reminding me that I still haven't done my college credit assignment. So that needs to be done in the next month- yucky! Not only that, but the state of Utah, in all their brilliance, when they told the State Office of Education they had to make budget cuts, the State Office of Education cut funding to CORE Academy. So, now we may lose one of the few things the state actually got right in their "quest" to help teachers. Figures, Let's help teachers- okay, take away funding from education and force them to cut funding to programs that have been statically proven to improve student learning. That is 100% political thinking! And we wonder what happened to education.

And, as a grand finale, I have this HILARIOUS e-mail I received today to share with you. I actually found it so disturbing it was funny! Be sure to read the whole things, and truly be thankful like it says! Enjoy.


"When you have an I Hate My Job Day,[even if retired you have those sometimes] try this:

On your way home from work, stop at your pharmacy and go to the
thermometer section and purchase a rectal thermometer made by
Johnson & Johnson. Be very sure you get this brand. When you get home, lock your doors,
draw the curtains and disconnect the phone so you will not be disturbed. Change into very comfortable clothing and sit in your favorite chair.
Open the package and remove the thermometer. Now, carefully place
it on a table or a surface so that it will not become chipped or broken.

Now the fun part begins.

Take out the literature from the box and read it carefully.
You will notice that in small print there is a statement: 'Every Rectal Thermometer made by Johnson & Johnson is personally tested and then sanitized.'

Now, close your eyes and repeat out loud five times,'I am so glad I
do not work in the thermometer quality control department at Johnson & Johnson.'

HAVE A NICE DAY AND REMEMBER, THERE IS ALWAYS SOMEONE
ELSE WITH A JOB THAT IS MORE OF A PAIN IN THE BUTT THAN YOURS = "

Later...

Home Again (with a little detour and tragic story as an added bonus)

Well,
After a awesome presentation yesterday (probably the best I have ever done), I was basking in the glow of doing well when it hit me I was in BIG, and I mean REALLY BIG trouble. I realized in that moment, like many of you may have experienced, that something was amiss with my materials. I only had 5 books and 5 bags of dice to give away instead of the 30 that I needed for my next presentation. Now, if you know anything about me at all, you will realize that this is really going to put a cramp in my day. The needed materials are 180 miles away and that means 3 hours of driving ONE WAY to pick them up. I really don't want to drive and get them and I really just want them to appear in my box for the next day. I go in to total meltdown mode. I am freaking out (not in the yelling and running around screaming way- I usually don't do that- just with mice). I go to the big bosses assistant and ask what am I supposed to do. She wasn't sure I was serious. Well, then she was almost laughing. She called Max, who is the director of CORE Academy to see what needed to be done. He asked if we could get them mailed to the next school because it would be cheaper than paying to have me drive home and get them (which would not be fun). I called my parents and good thing I called when I did. They were gasing up their truck and getting ready to head out of town. They went to my house, counted out the materials I needed and sent them Priority Mail. Now, don't think this means that I stopped freaking out. If my materials don't arrive then I can't give the participants their "gifts" and then they will not be happy! I can't even TELL them they are going to be getting them in case they don't arrive in time. This causes me GREAT stress as I like things to be PREFECT. The good news is that I didn't have to drive home to get the materials, the bad news is that I am at the mercy of the USPS- not that that is always a bad thing.
We met my sister at D.I. again (yep, that's right) and browse for a while. Then we headed over the the AT&T spring Store to ask for my NEA (National Education Association) discount and possibly get new phones. Well, we got new phones. The SAMSUNG SGH-A737 I like it. I don't like adding the contacts all over again- our old phones SIM cards wouldn't let us save them. I even got a discount on my service. We then went to Robert's Crafts again, I have already shared my feelings on that (See an older post), then came home to relax and visit.
My sister decided she needed to go to the store (a.k.a Wal-Mart- which I hate) for some bread so we could have french toast- yummy! While we were there I picked up a blue tooth headset for my wife (as our new phones do not have a headphone jack that is regular- you need a "special" headset for Samsung phones) and two 2GB Mini-SD cards to put music and ringtones on our phones. That was nice.
After that it was MarioKart mainia until all hours of the night and then sleep- oh beautiful sleep- sleep that I am lacking in a major way! Anyways, we woke up by 7:30 this morning so that the AC repair man could come and fix the AC unit in my sister apartment. And, by way of note- no wetness either. I just checked on-line and it said that my materials were delievered, but when I called they said they don't have them yet. They have been delievered to the post office in the town, they just aren't at the school yet. I SO hope they are there by 3:50 pm for I am still in FREAK OUT mode and want it to go away.
I am thankful that we are heading home today. I need a break from the stress of CORE Academy and traveling (and so does my Credit Card).
I am excited to share the story of the bead and my daughter one of these days, for it is a very interesting and unique tale of a 5 year-old girl.
I need to go and shower and get ready to leave. It is an hour drive to the next location and we need to stop and get fuel before we go to the next school as well.
So, I will sign off for now. I will let you know about the story of the materials later tonight or tomorrow.
later...

Excuse Me... You What?

Well,
It has been quite the day. My wife and I were up until 2am. Now before you go getting your mind in the gutter, we were watching the world premier of Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix. We were kicked off POGO. They shut down the entire site for some reason. Anyways, so we were up late. Then our baby fell off the teeny tiny double bed they gave us to sleep on, and if you are like us, and have a king size bed at home, sleeping on a motel full size bed just doesn't cut it. Anyways, at 4am this morning, our baby was in our bed. I thought my wife was still in bed, as I am not really thinking well at 4am, not to mention legally blind without my glasses. So he sit up crying and think, that's nice, my wife will take car of that. Next thing I know, WHAM!!! and S-C-R-E-A-M-I-N-G galore. I roll over to discover I was alone in bed (my wife as taking a nighttime potty break) and I was freaking out (as I mentioned earlier, I am not really functioning at that time of day). It all worked out. I ended up holding him and falling asleep in one of the all too comfortable (NOT) motel chairs. I wake up an hour later with no feeling in my legs and a crick in my neck bigger than Texas. I laid the baby by his mom and fell back into a good sleep. I awake thinking that hey, that was okay, and it is only 7:30am or so. I look at my watch, and again go into Freak Out Mode. It is almost 9:30am! We still had to have breakfast, shower the entire family, and leave early so my wife could go a store called The Wood Connection. It is a store that sells cut wood letters of different sizes and fonts. My wife is going to sell them (after she alters them after the fashion of scrap booking) at our community fair in September. I hope she makes alot of money back on them, 'cause we have invested heavily in them. Anyways, we get everyone up, dressed, fed, showered, and we head out. (Amid scary new noises being emitted for our van-I really hope we make it to the next stop, Vernal, tomorrow afternoon). We get to the school and I give my presentation. It went SO good this time. I really enjoyed it and the teachers had a great time with me. Yea.
Then we met my sister at D.I. (Deseret Industries- a thrift store). This D.I. by her house is amazing. They have the neatest items. While we were there, I was walking around and was backing up. A lady walked by me and said, "Watch where you are going!" in a rude tone of voice. I said, "Excuse me- you are being rude". Well that sure got her attention. We had a nice "discussion" if you will. I ended up telling her that she was being really rude and to have a nice day. I feel bad about it now. I should have apologized. Shame on me. We leave D.I., and go to the motel so I can change. We then go to McDonalds. You think I would have learned a little something from my experience at D.I. and being feisty. Now, just to clue you in, that is NOT usually my personality. I tend to avoid confrontation at all costs. But lately I have felt pretty spunky and I am tired of being treated rudely by people and not doing anything about it. So we are at McDonald's. We eat. The kids play. I get thirsty. I had ordered a meal with the Extra-Large drink. My sister asks if I want a refill and I say, "Sure, thanks for asking." My sister goes in there and starts filling my ex-lg cup. Suddenly, the lady at the counter tells her that because the drinks are sold at a discount price of 99cents there are no refills on the XL drinks. My sister had already filled the cup. They told her she could pay $1.99 for the refill or dump it out. DUMP IT OUT! So they already wasted the soda. WOW! That really didn't go over for me. So I went up to the counter and asked for the manager. They tried to tell me to call the number printed on a plaque. I asked them how was I supposed to take that information with me? Could they write it down? I then told them that if they are NOT going to do refills on a drink, they should tell their customers when they are ordering. I would have ordered a Lg and refilled it 5-6 times. She rudely said that the sign is posted next to the soda machine. I informed her that I don't walk into a food chain and scope out the soda machines to see if I get refills or not. Common courtesy would suggest informing customers. And then I proceeded to tell them that $2 for a refill is out of control! They wanted TWO DOLLARS for the refill. After I had already paid 99 cents for it the first time. Wow, I didn't think I could get so worked up. I asked if she knew how much syrup costs, because $2 for a refill was out of control. Another manager was there and said that they are only following established rules, and please call the number. They don't like it either. So, listeners, I am asking you to call this number- 801-272-9233, and let McDonald's know that this isn't going to cut it. I know that I will NOT be eating there again anytime soon (or any McDonald's franchise for that matter). I know that I will be sharing my thoughts about their methods with them tomorrow morning. I will gladly share my results with you, and ask that when you call, you let me know your little story as well. We then headed to Robert's Crafts (notice how many stores we visit for my wife?). Of course they had to be having their Truck Load Sale. Now, if you have never shopped at Robert's Crafts (the Scrapbook Super Store- and Art and Crafts Stores) imagine everything your wife could possibly want (and everything you wish they wouldn't buy) under one roof. Anyways, we ended up spending $50 and saved $254.57 at this sale. So I guess that it was worth it. They had a huge 75%-90% off. So that was fun. Then we headed back to my sisters to visit and that is where I am sitting- typing up this groovy day.
I guess I also need to finish my mouse story, but after this LONG post, I think that I will again save that for another day. It is worth waiting for- the ending is a good one. Until tomorrow- (I hope, my in-laws in Vernal don't have internet- and the free Wireless around them is REALLY unreliable.) Remember readers- Call McDonald's and BOYCOTT them if you believe... Believe!

Another day has ended, where does the time go?

Greeting Readers,
Today was a GREAT day! I was able to do my presentation for my district. What made this even more challenging is that the district supervisor of elementary education came into watch and brought a bunch of other higher level administrators with him to watch. That was interesting. I enjoyed teaching the teachers, and I am glad that it is over and I get the chance to just attend this 3 day event as a participant now, and relax a little.
We had a great moment here in town today, the phones all went out- no credit card transactions in a tourist town- think about that. When I went to gas up the district car at the West Winds Truck Stop Several truckers were unable to pay for the fuel, but needed to get back on the road. It was causing LOTS of problems. My internet was also down- so that is why this is so late tonight.
My wife leaves in the morning. We got our van back. The mechanic said the car gave a code this time. It will require a $70 part, and he wants to be sure, so he said drive it this weekend and see if it does it again. Then he can check the code again and make sure it really is the correct fix for the car. I hate when cars do this. I stress out anyways, and don't need the extra stress- so I hope it gets figured out soon.
Well, since I have to be up and gone in 6 short hours, I better get some shut-eye. Have a great night-

Made it Home

Hey-
Presentation #4 was a great success! I really feel good about it- Harrisville had a great group of teachers! We headed home shortly after (4:30pm) and discovered that our car is starting to have a problem. It will periodically, when just starting out and when put in park, act like I am pushing on the accelerator and the engine will rev up. So that is neat! (NOT!) Then we got home to find that our house was a mild 95degrees! WOW- let me tell you- that is T-O-A-S-T-Y! So I kicked on the central air only to discover that it is not in working order either! Not only that, but our water pump went our right before we left! I guess out "3" has come- and hopefully that will be it for a while!
We are taking the car in in the morning to be checked- hopefully it is nothing major!
I will keep you "posted", ha, ha!

#3 Is OVER!

Yea!!!
USU CORE Presentation #3 of 17 is done. It went well. The room was WAY TOO HOT- No air conditioning in the classrooms = toasty.
The participants were pleasant and enjoyable to teach. There were only 13!
I truly am enjoying this I get to learn SO much from the other teachers- that alone make this totally worth it.\
We ate at MACK'S FAMILY DRIVE-IN! Talk about tasty and inexpensive. The food was great and the employees were friendly. Everything you would expect in a smaller community.
Now we are back and the motel chillin' and unwinding! Enjoy your Monday!