Student Papers

I assigned my freshman classes their final project three weeks ago. It is due today. Before school even started I had one student come up to me to ask if she could turn her paper in on Monday. Excuse me? No. You've had three weeks, THREE WEEKS. There is no excuse valid enough. She exclaimed that her mom's printer wasn't working. Oh in that case go to the computer lab and print it out, no big deal. She then informs me she can't type that fast. What? You don't even have it typed up? Sorry, I have zero sympathy for you. It would be one thing if she had it typed up ready for me to print off. That I can handle. I don't like it. But I can handle that. The girl doesn't even have it typed up. I tell her sorry no. She tries to convince me to take it anyway because after all, she does have it written. Again, no. I'm sure this won't be the only excuse I hear today. Sad. I just pray I don't get angry parents. I hate that. Try to teach your children some type of responsibility people.

On another note, I found this email from a student today with his paper as an attachment.

print! :)
dont you hate how much ink cost?
and when you cant find one of your 30 bajillion flash drives!!

Too funny. His I will take.

Spirit West Coast

5 years ago Spirit West Coast made its debut in Southern California. If you don't know what Spirit West Coast is I'll tell you. It is a three day concert of all the best Christian artists. It had been a big event in Northern Cal for years. I had always wanted to go but never could afford it. With the inception of Spirit West Coast Del Mar, I was finally able to go.

That first year J.R. and I had just gotten engaged. That was quite the weekend. We had planned on getting a hotel room and staying down there the whole weekend. Last minute my best friend backed out and the plans for a hotel room went out the door. So we spent much of the weekend traveling back and forth between Del Mar and my parents house in Lake Elsinore. But we had a blast and were hooked.

The next year we were married and were able to get a hotel room and enjoy ourselves a little more with a lot less driving involved. We've gone every year since and it has become our tradition. We have such a great time. We have also discovered quite a few artists that we really enjoy that we wouldn't have normally gotten the opportunity to see. So this weekend was a nice relaxing weekend watching some great bands perform and enjoying the incredible weather that is San Diego (my favorite place in the world).

Some highlights from this year:

As far as artists go, Newsboys never disappoint. They always put on a fantastic show and are a lot of fun to watch. My husband and I always make fun of Peter (lead vocals). His incredibly bald, white head and his contrasting dark eyes that scan the audience while he sings with his mouth half open in his wonderful Australian accent is quite the sight to see. This year he busted out in some rather unusual dance moves that were quite entertaining. The man definitely is not a dancer but is rather fun to watch. They performed Friday night. It was cloudy and a little rainy that night. Every year they change the lyrics on one of their songs from "drowning out the Amazon rain" to "drowning out the California rain." J.R. and I always laughed at that as it never rains in California. This year it was rather appropriate. As this song was being sung, it actually began to rain. Very cool. Warning if you ever go to a Newsboys concert, make sure to wear a hooded sweatshirt. I don't care if its 100 degrees out. If you don't you will be covered in Cap'n Crunch. Even with a hooded sweatshirt on I had Cap'n Crunch crumbs in my pocket, MY POCKET! How does that happen? Here's a video from that night.

Saturday night started with Jars of Clay. In the past when I've seen them perform it has been a low-key performance with not a lot of energy. I enjoy their music but as far as watching in concert, not that exciting. I was pleasantly surprised this year. Their performance was much better with a lot more energy. Quite a bit more entertaining.

Then there was Tobymac. If you like hip hop Tobymac is incredible. This is one of the highest energy shows I have ever seen. I can't even imagine how they keep so much energy up through an entire show. They are extremely entertaining and probably the best performers I have ever seen.

Sunday we saw Barlow Girl and Kutless. Both great artists that are a lot of fun to watch. Sunday night we typically don't stay for the final show on the main stage. Last year we even went to SeaWorld for an hour or so and came back for the late night comedy show. This year was no different as they tend to have, how should I put this, an artist more suited to a more mature audience. Not that these artists are boring, my husband and I just prefer other artists.

For a few years, J.R. has wanted to see Thousand Foot Krutch but they were always playing at the same time as another band we wanted to see. We finally got our chance to see them perform. They had some issues as the band before them took too much time and they had some techinical issues as well. They were very high energy. I think in another venue and if I was more familiar with their songs I would have enjoyed this show more. They are definitely worth giving another chance.

Church BBQ

This past Sunday at my church was Missions Sunday. This is the day the church sets aside time for missionaries we support as a church to come in and speak. To celebrate this day we had an all church BBQ after church. It was really good and nice to spend time with family and friends. Afterward a few of us went to Dairy Queen, as it was over 100 degrees and we were all melting.

Monday night before dinner I started to feel a little nauseous, usually not that big a deal. I continued to eat my baked potato. Why oh why did I keep eating? By the end of the meal I was feeling horrible. But I didn't think too much of it at that point.

J.R. and I then went to Target to pick up a few things. I continued to feel worse and worse. I could barely walk around Target as I was so nauseous and dizzy. Not fun at all. I got home and laid down hoping this horrible feeling would go away. It didn't. I ended up throwing up half the night. I hate throwing up probably more than anything else in the world. It's so disgusting. Tuesday morning I was feeling very weak and tired but at least my stomach wasn't doing too bad. I didn't have anything left in it and was not about to put anything else in there.

I called my mom on my way to work to let her know about my pain and suffering. She then told me that my dad and brother had been sick all night too. We had food poisoning. The only meal that we've had in common in the past few days was at the church BBQ. We're figuring the potato salad was the culprit.

I braved going to work Tuesday. Most of my classes told me I looked horrible and I should go home. Thanks guys. I've been so weak that even just sitting at my desk all day is more work than I can muster. I actually laid on the floor during my prep and lunch. All I wanted to do was go home. But I hate missing work and feel like I've missed too many days already. So I toughed it out. The shocking thing? My freshman classes have been fantastic. They sat there and did their work quietly. I'm amazed.

New Job

A couple weeks ago my principal pulled me into his office to have a talk with me. He started by telling me this wasn't a good thing. Thanks for alleviating my fears buddy. I figured it was a problem with a parent. One of the downsides of working at private school is the parents can become very demanding and some even outrageous in their demands. Boy was I wrong. He shocked me when he told me they were going to have to let me go. After that point most of what he said was a blur. He said that enrollment is down and in not so many words told me anyone could teach my classes (thanks for the vote of confidence there). So I am out of a job as of June 13th. How appropriate it's Friday the 13th, not that I believe in such silliness.

So I'm now trying to find a job at a time when most of the schools, if they are even hiring, have made their decisions. I'd really rather not go back into the public schools. But if that's my only choice I will. But even in that sector there aren't many jobs available. Most of the jobs available are in Palm Springs. No thank you. I found one in San Diego at a charter school (sorta a private school but receives public funds too). I wouldn't be to upset about moving down there. Though I would miss my friends at church.

There is one job I found that is actually my dream job. It's an online History Teacher. How fantastic is that? I get to do basically everything through the computer. I'd also have to have office hours for anyone who would need tutoring. Not a bad deal. The only problem? This job is in the Seattle area.

For the past few months J.R. and I have been talking about moving there. However, we always felt that it was just a dream or something that, if it happened, would happen in the future. We both really want to get out of California. I'm tired of living here and I definitely don't want to raise my children in this culture. It's a miracle that J.R. is on board with this as it would require him to leave all his family. But there we are, seriously considering it. I'm going to apply for the job and just see what happens from there. We are praying that God's will is done. So if he wants us to move great, if not we'll be ok with that too.

There are a couple of downsides to this. We would have to move away from all our friends and family. I would dearly miss my friends. The upside? My parents aren't opposed to following us up there. That is fantastic. I really don't think I would be able to live so far away from my mom. So we'll see what God has in store for us. Neither of us are very sure and are just trying to see where He will lead us.

Typing

One of the funniest things I have discovered is that my students flip out when I start to type. They are completely amazed at the speed at which I type. It's pretty funny to hear the "look at how fast she's typing" circulated around the room. If I want to really awe and amaze them I type while watching them. They can't seem to imagine how I can type without looking at either the screen or the keyboard. It's pretty amusing. So for the record my fingers are definitely not lightning fast but not too bad if I do say so.
85 words

Birthday and Baseball

Tomorrow is my husband's birthday. He will be 29. The amount of teasing about his "old age" has already begun in the last year of his twenties. The past few years we have started a tradition for celebrating J.R.'s birthday. He loves baseball. So we head over to the local minor league team for a baseball game. We invite everyone and just let them know if they can come great, if not oh well, we'll miss you.

Last night was our yearly trip. We had a lot of fun with our friends and family. I think we had more people show up this year than we ever had. We had some drama at the beginning. We decided to buy all the tickets at once so that we would have seats all together. I quickly called my parents to let them know that their tickets would be waiting for them at will call. It was then that they informed me that a couple of friends weren't going to be able to make it. So J.R. had to go back and return the two tickets. As soon as he finished that I got a call telling me never mind, they decided to come anyway. Great. So we went back to this poor woman, who by the way was already confused at our large ticket order (how difficult is it to understand that we need 16 tickets and we want them 5, 5, and 6 in a row?). That was just a small snafu though.


Everyone had a great time. I love doing this every year as its a very simple and easy way to have a birthday party. Relatively no mess or fuss involved. I send out an evite inviting everyone and basically that's it. No worrying about food for everyone. Not having to pay for food for everyone. Not having to worry about my messy house, which sadly is in need of much attention right now. It's something he loves. So it's a great way to spend a birthday. I'm not a huge baseball fan but I don't mind going to these minor league games as they are very entertaining.

Water Balloon Fight

At my school we have a missions team. Its a fairly new thing that has developed over the last couple of years. The past two years the teacher in charge has taken them to Mexico during spring break. It has been really incredible to see the reactions of the students when they return from these trips. This year they have also made the effort to visit a homeless shelter once a month. Its a really great thing for the students to be able to see outside their little worlds. This next summer they are planning a trip to Panama. Right now they are in the midst of many different fund raisers to lessen the cost. Even though these students are attending a private school, most of them can not shell out the extra money to go on these trips.

This past Thursday they had a fundraiser that involved teacher participation. I reluctantly agreed to go along with their plan. Honestly, I didn't want to do it (neither did any of the other teachers). But I couldn't tell them no as it was for a good cause. The fundraiser? They sold water balloons to the students to hit us teachers with. Can you see why I wasn't jumping at the chance to do this? They set up this big circle on the field and then another outer circle. The students were supposed to stay behind the outer circle. But who are they kidding, there is no way they stayed back there. We were bombarded with balloons. Initially, we all got pretty wet. It wasn't because we were being hit directly either. The splash from others catching the balloons was enough to get some of us pretty wet. I had a couple of direct hits, one to the face and one to the arm. They didn't pop. It hurt.

Some of the boys got a little crazy and were filling trash cans with water. The male teachers then tried to wrestle the trash cans away. It was quite the sight. I stayed as far away as possible during these skirmishes. Then the students decided to get out the hose. Well, thankfully the hose didn't make it all the way to where we were. But one of the teachers decided to wrestle the hose from them. He got it and started spraying the stands. Then he was doused with a trash can full of water. It was pretty funny. I stood there watching all this go on. I wasn't too concerned with getting hit anymore because basically all the balloons had been popped and all the action was going on far away from the circle. That's what I get for letting my guard down. All of a sudden out of nowhere I got hit in the behind. I turned around quickly to find one of the boys running away. This is the student that if there was a vote would be voted off the island by the teachers the quickest. Dang it! I had to be hit by him of all people.

So turns out my dread of this event was unfounded. It was actually pretty fun. Our missions team was able to raise over $200 too. Thankfully, I was smart enough to remember a change of clothes so I didn't have to sit in my wet pants for the last hour of the day.

Birthdays and Phoenix

This past weekend was a busy weekend. J.R., my parents, Greg and I all headed down to Pheonix for a day. Yep just one day. The last time the 5 of us went to Pheonix, J.R. and I were newly engaged (not even a week). We were going to celebrate my grandparents 50th Anniversary. We had a nice time that trip. However, the drive left quite a bit to be desired. The reason? J.R., Greg and I were piled into the back seat of my parent's Camery for almost 6 hours. Not what you would call a good time.

This time around we decided that it wouldn't be the best idea to repeat the trip that way. So we decided we were going to take 2 cars as none of us have a vehicle large enough to fit all 5 of us comfortably. The night before we were to leave, Greg ran into our pastor who asked about the trip. When he found out we were taking 2 cars he offered to let us use the church van. What a blessing that was! We were all able to fit into one vehicle and travel together. Saved a lot of money and was just more fun that way.

The reason for our trip? My grandparent's birthdays. My grandpa turned 80 and my grandma turned 75. I have to admit you wouldn't know it by looking at them. We went out to dinner with my grandparents and uncle. It was one of the most incredible meals I've ever had. We went to Flemings. Absolutely incredible. After dinner, we went to my uncle's house for dessert and gifts. We just had a nice time relaxing and talking. No big hoopla just a nice quiet evening.

The next morning we met my grandparents and uncle for breakfast and then headed back home. I feel like we were in the car longer than we were actually there. But we had a nice visit, even if it was a short one.