Luka from E.R. came to fix the spring on my garage door last week.  I kept thinking he looked familiar, and then I would realize it was because he's Luka from E.R. disguising himself as a man named Chris.

Man I hate these guys.  Not just garage door guys... any "specialists".  They judge you and your stuff and tell you why your stuff sucks and you need something new.  Dude.  I don't want a new garage door, no matter how crappy you think this one is.  Even if it had a giant hole in it, I'd still be all... yeah, we'll throw some plywood over that, a little duct tape.  I'm not buying a new garage door right now.  You are competent at what you do, and I respect that.  That's all I want.  Just fix the dang spring.

Something that's been on my mind since my insurance company called me last week and my father-in-law and I were talking about it last Sunday... Obamacare.  Basically, my thoughts boil down to this.  Yeah, it sucks.  And yeah, it's going to need some fixing.  Actually, they're going to have to scrap the whole thing and move to single payer health care.  Do I want the government running health care?  Hell no.  But it's the only way to do it in today's world to ensure that everyone is covered at a cost that doesn't bankrupt us individually and as a nation.  Bottom line.  Sure it sucks.  I don't like it.  What's the alternative?  Go on the way things are?  Can't do it.  Rely on charity care?   Not a solution.  Let people go uninsured and take care of them in the emergency room?  Contributing to the mess we're in now.   I said to my fil that if Obamacare were to be repealed, I'd be in big trouble.  I have a child with diabetes, and my insurance company would love to dump me if they could.  My fil said... well, they could write the law so that insurance companies couldn't exclude people for pre-existing conditions or cancel their policies when they get sick.  Ok, I said, that costs the insurance company tons of money.  Makes health care costs soar.  Well, he said, they would have to spread the costs out through the population.  Yes, I said, that's the insurance mandate that has so many people up in arms.  Look, bottom line... you can't keep the parts of the Affordable Care Act that are popular without having the parts meant to bring costs down... the parts everyone hates.  I am not unaware of the problems with ACA.  I'm not happy about it.  But in the words of the infamous Mick Jagger.... You can't always get what you want.

We went up and mowed the lawn at the cabin on Friday afternoon and the kids played in the river.   The weather up there was so cool and nice.

We had a bird nest in one of our backyard trees, and the eggs hatched a bit ago.  The birds were so cute sitting up in there.  It's been fun watching.  I guess they flew the nest last night or early this morning... and ended up in the window wells.  One of them was in Brittney's and it woke  her up squawking at 6:00 this morning.   They couldn't fly out, so Sean went out and lifted them out with the end of the hoe.  Don't know where they are tonight.  I hope they learned to fly.

Our garden sucks this year.  It's just too dry.  And the weeds.  Oh the weeds.  So many weeds.  But there are lots of potatoes, so that will be good.

June Sorts of Things

Josh's baseball season wrapped up last week.  He got hit in the side of the eye with a pitch on Tuesday, and luckily all he got was a little bruise.  His batting helmet protected him.   A lot of those little guys cry when they get hit by a pitch, because that business hurts, man, but Josh just took his base.  Scared me a little, though.

Tim McGraw was excellent, as predicted.  That is one fine looking man.  I was a little concerned at the very end when he brought Brantley Gilbert back out to help him finish up the last song of the encore... I was afraid that the stage might spontaneously combust from all the hot.

This was a lazy, relaxing weekend.  We did chores, worked in the yard a little, that's it.  For Father's Day, Sean's dad came over and we had dinner.  Courtney and Curtis came over as well.  Hopefully Sean enjoyed it.  He said he did.

I am very laid back in the summer.  I'm not a mom who gets worked up about her kids wanting to sleep in or sit around in pj's playing video games.  It's nice to just kick back in the summer.  It's not like they spend all day doing that; they get up and around and do other things.  But then I feel guilty and feel like I really *should make a schedule and make them do more chores than they do and be more regimented about making sure Josh reads and practices his times tables or whatever.  So I guess maybe I'll come up with a schedule of some sort and make a half-baked attempt at implementing it.

I've come to a very important conclusion about parenting and life in general.  Based on conversations I've had and things I've read over the last while, I think the most important thing a parent can do for a child is teach him or her to work.  Knowing how to work hard is a hugely important life skill, and I see a lot of kids/young adults who don't have it.  I'm really worried about if I'm teaching my kids to work hard enough, and how do I teach them?  My mom told me a few months ago that she wished she wouldn't have let us work in high school; that she now agrees with the idea that school is your job in high school.  I disagree.  It taught me so many important things.  School is very important, but the key component I think, no matter what, is knowing how to work hard.  We were talking with Sean's dad when he was here on Sunday and I said that I think college is overrated and I'm not encouraging my kids to go anymore. That's really not even true... I just said it to see if either Sean or his dad were listening to me.  I don't think they were.  But college isn't the end-all-be-all necessarily that people act like it is.

I told Sean that I'm going to get healthier (I tell him that at least once a month) and that I was going to start drinking less Pepsi and more water.  So today he asked me if I had managed to drink less Pepsi and I told him yes, but I'm switching to vodka instead of water.  He just said, "Well I guess we better hit the liquor store then."  Very supportive husband I have.  Today was not one of my better days.  The kids fought me all day long, and then they broke the garage door.  Sean spent the evening trying to repair it.  He did everything he could, but he can't do the thing with the spring, so I gotta call a guy tomorrow.  Over the last few days he fixed the computer, he fixed the dishwasher, he fixed his grandpa's leaf blower... he's a good guy to have around.  Everyone needs a Sean.

One of my former students made the Top 20 on So You Think You Can Dance.  If only I can remember to watch the show now....

Song of the Day

I'm so excited for this concert tonight!  Squeeeee!!   Tim McGraw and Brantley Gilbert.   I actually find this official music video kinda distracting because there's so much going on in it, so I looked for just a lyric video, but then I decided that looking at Tim McGraw is always better than not looking at Tim McGraw, so I went with this one anyway.

(Heather, give it a listen.  You might like this one.  Tim McGraw plays the dad in The Blindside.)

School's Out For Summer....

Last weekend we went camping at Rockport.  To continue my "View From Under the Awning" photo series, in contrast with our lovely view at Moon Lake, this was the view sitting in front of the trailer at Rockport.  Every once in a while, luckily not too often, but every once in a while the smell matched the view.   Oh well.  We had fun.  The big excitement for the kids was catching a giant nasty sucker fish with Sean.  He hates them.  He won't even touch them.  It makes me laugh.  We took a hike and the kids rode their bikes and did a lot of fishing.  We were going to go to the Ranger Show (childhood memories of Lake Powell and the Ranger Show!!  I was so excited), but they didn't get back from fishing in time.  Next time.

School is out.  My tradition is to relax and do absolutely nothing the first Monday and Tuesday of summer.  It hasn't worked out that way exactly this year, but I've got time.  I'll get some relaxing in.  It's always an adjustment the first week or two of summer, and I always struggle with some depression, but this year hasn't been bad at all.  Thursday, which was yearbook day, was the hardest.  Ever since then I've been fine, so that's a relief.  Got lots of wedding-related stuff done today, and we will have a few big things crossed off the list by the end of the week.  Feels good.

Only one more baseball game left.  It's been so fun to get out in the sunshine and watch these cute boys play.  I really like Josh's coaches.  One of the assistants in particular is just so good with them.  He gives them advice and encouragement in just a perfect way.  We were walking toward our car today and he made a point of chasing Josh down to tell him "Good game, son," and pat him on the back.  Josh isn't a star player, he didn't do anything extraordinary today...you can tell the coach just really wants to build each boy up.

I'm so excited for my hot date on Friday night.  Tim McGraw/Brantley Gilbert concert.  

Lexi's Birthday

Lexi turned 6 last week.

Presents from grandma

I hope she had a good birthday.  Josh had a baseball game that night, and then afterward we went out to dinner.  She chose Chuck-A-Rama.  Then we came home and unwrapped presents and ate cupcakes.  As if we needed to eat anymore, but we are not quitters in this family.  If there is cake to be eaten, we will do our best to eat it.  We see it through to the end.

The daycare had their annual end-of-year carnival last Friday.  They do a little program for the families, have a bbq, and have carnival games.  I deliberately came late because I didn't want to go to the program because it would make me too sad.  I'm really trying not to think about how she's "graduating" from preschool this year.  I mean, she graduated from kindergarten this year, but she was still going to the daycare preschool for half days.  Josh was a baby when I started teaching, so I've taken one or both of my youngest kids to daycare with me every day for the entire time I've been teaching.  It's going to be so sad next year not to be able to do that anymore.

The face painting was supposed to be a butterfly, but I don't think she had time to finish.  It was getting late and there were about 10 kids in line constantly.

Josh's face paint was the Superman symbol, but again... they drafted the boy who was making snow cones to come help paint faces, so, yeah... ya get what ya get.

I really want to read the book Half the Sky, but I know it will just depress me really bad so I'm not sure if I should.   I was watching a presentation on FMH that a woman gave to her ward on Congo, and it's just so sad.  A lot of what she shared I knew, but some of it I wasn't aware of.  Along with this, some ladies who are board members for the charities The Giving Tree and Anything For a Friend came to speak to a group of students at an honor lunch last week.  They talked to the students about finding your calling.  One of the women, who is a cancer survivor, told the kids that when life gets hard, and she said you WILL have hard, find your calling and serve others.  It will make your life better and your own troubles will feel smaller.  I have heard this many times before, of course, but I loved hearing it again from these women who have been through a lot more in their lives than I can imagine.  Still looking for my calling.  I feel called to do a few things, but am not sure I have the abilities needed to do them.

Josh's baseball team lost both games last week.  He still seems to be enjoying it, though.  He is struggling even more with hitting than before, though.  I can't help him either.  His coaches keep telling him his swing is good; he's just not connecting.  I wondered if he needs glasses like all the rest of us, but he says he can see fine.  I don't know.

We did yard work for the last 3 days.  I'm so sore.  The yard looks better, though.

I like Avril Lavigne's voice, and I've always thought she was cute, but now I'm just not sure what to think about her.  Like, I feel like she's way to old for her new song.  It's a catchy little tune and all, but how am I supposed to relate to this in any way?   And how she's all... we're never growing up!  Never, man!  Yeah, Avril honey, you may think you're all cool now, but "running down the street yelling kiss my ass" isn't so cute when you're my age.  At some point you have to grow up honey, and I think you might be about there.  You cannot continue to sing teenage angst songs any longer.  Another song I'm confused by is Taylor Swift's "22".  Isn't she like 23?  So why are they supposed to dance like they're 22?  What does that even mean?  Help.

Only a few days left of school.  I swear, every day for like the last 2 weeks I've thought that I didn't have work the next day.  My brain is already in summer mode.  But there's still a lot to do, so I will trudge on a little longer.  Camping this weekend, Tim McGraw next weekend.  Yay summer!

Memorial Day

This weekend we pulled the trailer up to Moon Lake.  It was beautiful, and we had a prime campsite.  I took these pics from my chair, under the awning in front of the trailer.

We did a little bit of hiking and caught lots of fish, four of which Sean and the kids ate for lunch Sunday, right after they caught them.

We were also able to visit the Rasmussen graves at the cemetery in Roosevelt.  It was nice to be able to do that; I haven't been in a while.  We took a short turn around Roosevelt and I just had so many questions.  Even after 5 years I will still start to say, "I need to ask my dad about that," and then I realize that I can't.  I hate that.  So much.  I wish he could take me around and show me things and tell me what it looked like when he was a kid and tell me all the old stories that I've forgotten and some he's never told.  I wanted to ask him about the tribal land out there and where it extends to and where the Indian towns are and where are the houses he helped build as a teenager and which reservoir he used to waterski on as a kid and if he ever camped at Moon Lake as a kid and all kinds of other questions.   My mom knows all of those answers, and I will ask her.  But I just miss my dad.

Brittney worked all weekend so she didn't come with us.  She went over and stayed with Grandma Marilyn for the weekend so she wouldn't be all alone.  Her grandma lives right by her work, so that was really nice for her not to have to drive so far.  She texted me tonight and said she wasn't coming home; that she was moving in permanently.  Living with grandma is living the good life, man.

Last week was Josh and Lexi's last week of school.  That always depresses me a lot.  Most of the week I put it out of my head and refused to think about it at all so that I wouldn't fall into a depression over it.  I was so successful that as I was dropping Lexi off on the last day, I suddenly realized that it was the last day and I hadn't bought teacher gifts for their teachers.  I had to hurry and run to the store on my lunch break and do teacher gifts and run them back to the school.

Josh's team won their game again last Thursday.  They are having lots of fun.  A little too much fun, sometimes.  The coach was having a hard time keeping a lid on a few of them in the dugout.  They have 3 coaches, and they seem to be really good.  He isn't doing well at hitting right now.  Partially I'm sure that's because the kids don't pitch very well at this age; lots of the kids aren't doing well at hitting.  But some of it he just needs to practice, so we've been working on that.  Since lots of the kids struggle to hit, it's hard in the field too.  There's not much to do out there.  He played shortstop and the ball only came to him one time, but he scooped it up and threw it to 2nd and they got the runner out.  So that was fun for him at least.  I think that as the teams get a few games under their belt the play is going to improve.  

I still have two more weeks of school, and I think they are going to drag by.  No one wants to be there.  No one wants to work anymore.   But I still have plenty for us to do.   

Heather had her baby.  Can't wait to see that little peanut in person in a couple of months.  

I read this book the other day, and the whole entire thing was depressing.  Just, like, everyone was moping around having things not go their way for the whole book.  And then it had a happy epilogue where everything worked out OK in the end for everyone.  And I was like, the freak?  What just happened here and why did I read it?  Oh well.

May

Pictures from Lisa's baptism:

Cute cousins

Love that David

Cute Katie with the kids at the Pool Party last month

Josh's baseball season has started.  He's on the Pirates this year.  His first game was tonight, and his team won.  It was really cute to watch them.  They are such a great age.  I kind of got choked up for a minute at how big he's getting.

So teacher salaries and testing... Katie, you always ask me/comment about my favorite pet topics.  :) The way it works now is that teacher salaries are just set according to how many years you have taught and how much education you have.  At least in my district.  Test scores can be used in different ways by different schools (usually as part of planning/improving curriculum), but they aren't tied to salaries or performance evaluations currently.  That is changing next year.  There is a new teacher evaluation system rolling out next year which will take into account administrator observations, which have to be at random (ours already do random, but some schedule them I guess), test scores, parent and student surveys (no longer optional), and I don't know what else.  It still won't necessarily tie any of that to salaries or bonuses, but the general consensus is that it is only a matter of time before it will be.  I don't really care all that much.  Just tell me which hoops to jump through and I'll jump through them.  I just want to teach kids how to read, write, speak, and think.  Whatever.

I like a little bit of just about every kind of music there is.  Not a huge fan of polka, but I'm sure I could find a song I would like.  Folk music mostly makes me feel like I should go smoke some weed to make it tolerable in any way, but I'm sure I could find a song or two I'd like.   Rap, reggae, teen scream, classic rock, pop goes punk, classical, religious music... none of it is my favorite type of music, but there is music I like from all of those genres.  So Brittney and I were having this conversation the other day about how we hate it when people proclaim certain types of music as "not real music" or "crap" or say that people who listen to that type of music suck.  Some of her friends were saying that about One Direction, and we were saying... hey, they may not be my favorite, but it's happy music!  It makes people feel good.  It speaks to some people.  And that's what's important.  That's the key with music... it resonates with us on some level.  It speaks to us somewhere in our minds or hearts or souls.   I don't like Justin Bieber or Taylor Swift, but I don't feel like it's a moral failing or lack of taste on someone else's part if they do.  I don't want to see Insane Clown Posse or Kottonmouth Kings, but that doesn't mean I think everyone who does is stupid.  And, really, that is likely to be a crowd of people whom I just do not get.  And they probably don't get me either.  And that's really OK.  I love country music.  It resonates with me somehow.  Call me a redneck, I'm OK with that; I like rednecks.  But I think it's dumb when the classic country people criticize all the new country and say it's worthless crap.  Music changes.  You don't have to enjoy the new sound, but that doesn't automatically make it crap.  Your standards and preferences are not universal.  That's what I think is so funny... that some people think their own taste should somehow set the standard for what everyone else enjoys.  I was reading an opinion piece the other day where the author declared that rap is not "real music," and called it something along the lines of ghetto noise.  No matter what kind of music you like, someone else hates it, so everyone relax and listen to what you like and shut up about what everyone else likes.   Why be a hater?  That's my general philosophy of life lately. 

Last week was teacher appreciation week.   One of my students wrote me a note that said, "Your sarcasm always makes me laugh."  Aww... what higher praise is there than that? 

Mother's Day weekend was really nice.  Saturday night Scott's family, Katie, and mom came over for dinner.  Courtney was even able to come.  It was really nice to just hang out and visit with everyone.   Sunday night Marilyn, Mindi's family, Mike's family, and Cami's family all came over for dinner, and again it was really nice to hang out and visit.  We hadn't seen Sean's family for about 5 months, so we were overdue. 

Saturday night we went to Cami's house to celebrate Dennis' birthday.  A good time was had by all.

Brittney decided to join the National Honor Society next year, so her induction was last week.    I hope she likes it.

We've been working hard to get ready to go camping this weekend.  It's a lot of work to get ready, especially at the beginning of the year when everything needs to be de-winterized.

Yesterday I spent all day at work meeting with the other Honors teacher and the AP teacher, planning curriculum for next year.  It was very productive, but I am so overwhelmed.  Next year is going to be very, very difficult, and I'm not sure that this summer is going to be at all relaxing.  The previous debate coach keeps telling me about things I need to do, forms I need to submit, and I am feeling so clueless.

We've been too busy lately to work outside, and our yard is really suffering.  We haven't had time to buy/plant flowers in the flower beds, and the weeds are taking over the garden.  The radishes need to be thinned.  I don't think we'll have time until next week.  I guess I'm OK with that.