Catching Up--I hope you have some time...

Warning: This is basically me catching up on two (three?) weeks or so. You may need to take a few visits and pace yourself to get through this very long post. Don't say I didn't warn you.

So the last few weeks have been quite eventful! School is going well and I'm loving my classes! Our READ 180 class is doing a unit that focuses on finding the main idea. It is tied together under the theme of "survivors" and one of the survivors spotlighted is Juanes. He is a Latin Music artist from Colombia who does a lot of charity work to help victims of war in Colombia. There was a small news article in the book about how he lost a cousin and friend to violence and now uses his music to raise awareness and speak out against the violence. My students seemed very interested, and I didn't think the article gave a very comprehensive look at Juanes, so I enlisted Jeff's help on the spur of the moment to come up with some songs in which Juanes promotes messages of hope and peace. Then, I needed him to look at some lyrics translations to see if they were any good. I needed them back the day I sent them and, boy, did he ever do a great job! I was expecting, "Yeah, it looks good, but I changed a couple of words." Instead, he spent an hour agonizing over them (I'd overlooked the whole Jeff-as-a-songwriter aspect while I was obsessing over Jeff-as-a-fluent-Spanish-speaker-who-loves-Juanes). He had cleaned up formatting as well as phrasing and just made the translations AWESOME!

The lesson went really, really well! I felt I really made a connection with some of my native Spanish speakers in the class. (READ 180 is a reading comprehension class for students reading below grade level. Probably about 75% of them are ESL students, a large portion Spanish speaking. Everyone loved the music I played and we got into some good discussion about double-meanings in songs and how the same lyrics can mean different things to different people based on that person's background knowledge (or "schema").

Al and I took Jeff and Ashley to Chili's that Friday night to thank him for his help. When Al introduced them to Shambray, one of the most enthusiastic and sweetest girls you'll ever meet, she excitedly asked Ashley how far along she was. Jeff (in typical Jeff fashion) answers, "She's not pregnant!" Poor Shambray was so embarrassed, she just ran off. Poor kid. Al went after her and explained that Jeff was just a kidder, but she never did come back...

Val called as we were getting done, so she met us at our house and it turned into a Rock Band party. Too much fun!

So here's to Jeff, who introduced me to Juanes back in about 2002 and never dreamed it would come to this. "A Dios le Pido"--A song in which Juanes prays for a better world for everyone, now and in the future.

"Un Dia Normal" in which Juanes says to make every day special.

And "Fotografia," a song about how photographs of loved ones keeps memories close, even when the person is no longer around. Nelly Furtado is featured in this duet.

Dave Swenson, I've decided that you, of all people, need some Juanes CDs. I'm burning two of mine (three if I can find my copy of the latest one) and I'm going to send them with the check I promised you last week... (Yes, I'm busy, but honestly, I'm lazy too.)

And if you really want to know, here are the links to my school blogs. You see, I am still blogging, just not here.

http://mrsw11.blogspot.com/ (English 11)

http://mrswwriters.blogspot.com/ (Creative Writing)

http://mrswread180.blogspot.com/ (READ 180-I don't update this as much; we do the same thing pretty much every day and kids can't make up the work at home.)

http://mrswadvisory.blogspot.com/ (my Advisory class--think of it like homeroom. We meet on Mondays and Wednesdays. This blog is just the things I announce in class.)

Al's work is going well, too. They are getting back into the swing of things after the big manager trade-off. The manager in the Riverdale store was fired, so Jake was reassigned to that store. A manager in Logan was promoted and moved to Al's store in Harrisville. That left an opening in Logan, and one of the Harrisville managers lives in Logan, so he was the obvious choice. That left another hole in Harrisville, but luckily a California manager wanted a transfer, so he's now working with Al. Did you follow all that? They're in the midst of their St. Jude's fundraiser. It just gets bigger and bigger every year! Employees from all the stores are going above and beyond with special events to raise money. It really is a great cause. If your child has cancer and you can get him/her to the St. Jude campus in Memphis, they will treat for free. There are places for families to stay while children undergo treatment. The day to eat is September 29. Expect it to be like a weekend night. All profits go to benefit St. Judes and, like I said, it gets bigger and bigger every year! And don't forget to tip your server! :) Check out this link for more information. You can read patient stories and vote on your favorite pepper (part of the fundraiser is coloring a pepper that is displayed in the restaurant throughout the month--They're $1 each).

http://www.createapepper.com/

This past Sunday, Valerie and I took the dogs to Pineview for a swim. This is what they did first. Keep in mind that Val's dog Copper is a seasoned vet at swimming, while our dogs are still figuring the whole thing out.

They both got into it after a few minutes and we got a few good swims out of them:

But Thursday drank too much lake water and must have felt a little sick. She kept playing, but not swimming. I kind of wonder what she'll do next time.

Copper loves to fetch sticks from the water, but Trillian was hesitant and instead did this for a long time:

Eventually, she started fetching on her own, but small and short ones. Copper is the dog who is whining. She really wanted her stick. She may be an old-lady-dog, but she's a big baby when it comes to her toys.

But she started to get the hang of it and finally began fetching some longer ones; although Copper still put her to shame in the distance category.

One night last week, Thursday found a tennis ball and it became her constant companion. Plus, she was unusually nutso that evening. Of course, Trillian always has to butt in on the fun. Thursday tries to make us think that she's a bit of a ditz, but check out how she manages to push the tennis ball out from under the bed by going at it from different angles:

So what else have we been doing? Seasons on DVD are coming out in droves right now. We finished Season 2 of Heroes and I was confused, so I went back and watched season 1 in about a weekend while I was working on school stuff. We watched Terminator: The Sarah Conner Chronicles season 1 on DVD. I was interested, but not in much of a hurry to watch them, but then I found out that Shirley Manson was going to be on season 2 and I've loved her since high school. For those of you who don't know, she's the lead singer of Garbage. (Now doesn't it make sense why I rock on singing "I Think I'm Paranoid" on Rock Band?) We're currently working on Grey's Anatomy season 4 and still have Eli Stone and Pushing Daisies to get through. I've pre-ordered Private Practice and CSI so those will eventually be on the list.

Al's been playing a lot of Madden. He loves the superstar mode and is a bit distressed that his player is, once again, on the Browns. I picked up Viva Pinata 2: Trouble in Paradise and am having a heck of a time becoming a master romancer with the Robeans. It's a bit more challenging than the first game, but just as fun! I"m also still working on my Rock Band person, trying to work my way through the Medium drum setting. I can already play some of the easier drum songs on Hard. I downloaded another Garbage song and Snow by the Red Hot Chili Peppers to play on the game.

But we're not just sitting in front of the TV. We're both hitting the gym about 5-6 days a week. I thought I was doing great until last Monday, when Ronnie, the 50-ish-kickboxing-instructor-who-hates-butts-and-abs-and-wants-to-see-them-die really put us to the test. She usually picks one area and gives us a good 5-7 intense minutes on it. This time, about 20 minutes from the end of class, she says, "We'll spend the rest of the time on buns and abs!" That's right, both areas at about double-the-time and full-intensity for each one. I made it through, and stayed for Yoga, during which I could barely even do downward-facing-dog and just wanted to stay in child's pose all night. However, my tree pose is getting better! At about 5:00 the next day (yesterday) I really started to feel the soreness in the Ronnie-beaten areas. I went to another kickboxing class that night and barely made it through, so, because of that fun fatigue day and the lingering ab and glute soreness, tonight is a no-gym day instead of an early step class. I'll start my step classes tomorrow.

We're also excited for this weekend. The Wasatch Reptile Expo is happening and Al took Sunday off so we could go! Don't worry, we won't come home with another lizard or snake or anything. We may buy some heat lamps, though. Al just loves going and looking at all the new breeds of pythons and all the other reptiles.

http://www.wasatchreptileexpo.com/WRE/Page_1x.html

Valerie and Al's mom are probably going, too. We're thinking of hitting a restaurant in Salt Lake for lunch and making a day of it. Maybe we'll go to Build-a-Bear, too. I need one for my classroom... By the way, our bear Champ has re-donned his Broncos uniform. He must be good luck, because they're doing pretty well so far.

The only other news is that I've also joined a book club. A group of teachers who went through the reading endorsement class together miss all the fun we had on those very long Wednesdays when we had class from 4-8, and have decided to get together once a month to discuss books! Yes, I'm a nerd, but it sort of goes with my job description, doesn't it? We're starting with The Last Lecture. It's the book spotlighted in our district this year with the Davis Reads program. Meanwhile, Al has been working his way through my graphic novel collection. I guess he's really committed to joining me in my nerdyness.

So that's us! Sorry it's so long, but who knows when I'll get around to blogging again? I'm actually working on a 312 picture slideshow of our pets to try to best Jill's 311 picture slideshow of Molly's first year, so stay tuned! :)