July Highlights

I hate when I don't blog regularly because then there's just too much to write about and things get lost.  My memory is so terrible.  If I don't write it down, it might as well have not happened.

So let's see.  Where did I leave off?  The AP Institute at the beginning of the month was pretty good.  I got some good ideas, but it's always a challenge because I will forget things by the time I go back to work.  The district cut us back to 2 prep days before school starts this year, and those days will contain a 3ish hour faculty meeting, a department meeting, a coach's meeting, a PLC meeting, an advisory meeting, and possibly one other meeting that I may have to attend.  And a meeting with the secretary at some point to learn the new finance system.  So I'm not going to get much actual work done those 2 days.  That leaves me no time to prep for 2 classes I've never taught before, one class I haven't taught in a few years, and another one that I've taught for years, but now I'll be teaching honors.  So I'll be changing some things.  And writing new disclosures.  I'm just planning on working that whole week.  Which is why the school district can get away with cutting our prep days.  They know we'll just work anyway.  But, luckily for me I still have a few weeks before I have to worry about all of that.

OK, so here are a few summer highlights.

We went to the drive-in to see Despicable Me 2 and Monsters University with some of the Chamberlain cousins.

The annual Chamberlain Pineview Extravaganza was great fun.   Everything went great, except for the thunderstorms that always seem to roll in only when the Chamberlains arrive.  But there were S'mores and campfire, games, swimming, Sean and Brinley catching catfish and then the other kids arriving and making a little pool to keep them in, Jaden cracking everyone up with his awesome joke, relaxing and visiting, and of course wave running.  The water was especially excellent for wave running this year.  I could have gone for another couple of hours.

Sean taking the kids fishing

Playing the sign game

Eating Max's dutch oven cobbler

Climbing trees

This child refuses to get her hair combed.

The third installation of my (soon-to-be Award Winning) photography series entitled "The View From My Awning", in which I take photos of the view from under the awning of my trailer at different campsites: 

Sean took the whole week off because we weren't coming home until Thursday, but he ended up with jury duty on Thursday morning, so we came home Wednesday night.  Thursday night we took the kids swimming at their grandma's house, Friday we went to Seven Peaks, and Sunday we went to Lagoon.  It was a busy and fun week, and I'm glad we got to do some fun things before the kids had to start school again.  

Another fun Chamberlain tradition happens in July:  the Bountiful Handcart Days parade.

My kids are on year-round school, so they started back last Thursday.

Sean and I went to the Jason Aldean concert last Saturday night.  It was really good.  I didn't really like the venue so much.  It was at Rio Tinto soccer stadium, and we had floor seats, so we were down on the field.  It was hard to see.  I like stadium seating better.  But the music itself was so fun!

Heather is here visiting, so we've been over to visit a few times.  Mostly we're just doing wedding junk, though, this week.  Everything takes forever, especially when you're me.  It takes me forever to do anything. I don't care if everything is perfect, because it won't be, but I just want to have fun.

Next up:  Pineview with Scott and Katie.  I'm so excited!

Sometimes a Smoke Is Just a Smoke

Students have long suspected that English teachers sit around just making crap up about the symbolism and theme and literary devices in pieces of literature.  That they just pull stuff out of thin air.  I'm here to say, it is true.  In my class today, we were doing an activity with a piece of artwork, and it involved analyzing the elements of the painting and the theme.  Here is the painting and some of the observations that were made:

• The man does not want his son to go off to college.  You can tell because the unlit cigarette in his mouth is symbolic.  If he wanted his son to go, he'd have it lit and be puffing away.  (Wait, wha??)
• The color (or pattern?) of the son's tie and socks shows that he is ambiguous about leaving home. (scratching head??)
• They are sitting on the running board of a truck.  This is symbolic because a running board is something to "assist" you in getting into the truck and moving forward, and college will "assist" the boy in moving forward.
• The color (red) of the flag and lantern is symbolic of the father wanting to "stop" the son from leaving, and of love and power.  The lantern symbolizes knowledge (light).  
• The title of the piece is "Breaking Home Ties" and that's an allusion to the railroad ties.

This piece of artwork has plenty of things to analyze without having to just make this kind of crap up!  You can look at body language, facial expressions, the physical proximity of the dad and son, their hands, how they are each looking in different directions with one weary and one hopeful, the hats, the difference in their clothes.  All of these things are legit ways to analyze what the artist was trying to say. You don't need to stretch that far.  Pretty sure that the flag is red because.... the flags they used to flag down a train back in the day were red!  It's not like the flags used to be purple but the artist changed it to red to make a statement.  Der.  Crazypants English teachers.  Actually, mostly just one or two crazypants.  And me in the back trying to not make WTF faces.  

Summer

I love, love this hot weather.  Winters in Utah seem to last soooo long, so I try to enjoy the heat while it lasts,  no matter how sweaty it is.  I don't care.  We have pools, air conditioning, lakes, streams... It's not hard to find a place to cool off.

In the last few weeks we've spent a lot of time in the water.  We've been to grandma's pool twice, to Seven Peaks waterpark, to Layton Surf and Swim, and up to the river.   Also, Sean bought the kids a small pool for the backyard, and they've played in that quite a bit.

Last Saturday we headed up to Perception Park, one of our favorite campgrounds, to the day use area.  We had a picnic and played in the water.  I had enough tubing taking the kids to Seven Peaks water park the week before, so I just stuck a lawn chair in the water and sat there.  It felt great.

Courtney's 21st birthday was today.  Mindi, Cami, Connie, and Marilyn threw her a wedding shower.  It was probably the most fun birthday she's ever had!  So many really nice people came and brought her so many lovely gifts.  She was so grateful.  Courtney, Brittney, Lexi, and I took her out to dinner tonight.  Sean, Curtis, and Josh went fishing, and they weren't back yet, so we had Girls Only Dinner.  It was really fun to get to spend the day hanging out and having fun.

Tomorrow we are going to Grandma Saundra's house for some more family history fun.  Scott, Katie, and I all kinda got bit by the family history bug in different ways but at the same time.  It's been fun.

Next week I have a class I have to take for school.  I was excited about it a few months ago, but now I feel meh.  Partly because I don't have a babysitter.  Hmmmm.... Not sure how this will play out.

I lost one of my students last week in a terrible car accident.  So sad.  She was so sweet and just so beautiful.   Life is way too unpredictable.

This is a crazy summer.  There is something scheduled every day.  It's going by way too fast, but man I'm just happy to be alive, so I'll take it.