Chamberlain Spring In Pictures

Zion's/Bryce Canyon trip over President's Day:

Sean made us stand on this rock and pose for before and after pics.  Not sure why...

Before hike

After hike

Looking through the pictures, we got some really pretty scenery shots.  Makes me want to go back.  February was beautiful in Zion's.  Not so much for Bryce, though.  Still too snowy.

Camping at Palisade State Park over Spring Break, and more importantly, the much anticipated return of The View From Under My Awning:

It rained and snowed on us for most of the camping trip.  It was a pretty lake and in the summer would be a really nice place to camp, I think.  But not over Spring Break.  Too cold.

Brittney and Anthony going to prom:

Grizzlies game:

We went to one of the last Grizzlies home games of the season, and the kids thought it was lots of fun.  Until about 6 minutes left in the 2nd period, when a pipe burst and they had problems with the ice.  They tried and tried to fix it, and then when it became pretty apparent that they weren't going to be able to, the players started throwing shirts and pucks out to the spectators.  Then they brought out a bunch of sticks and signed them and were handing them out to fans.  Josh was able to get one, and he really thought that was awesome.

The Saturday before Easter we met Scott's family, Katie, and mom up at Mueller Park and had a little bbq.  It was beautiful weather and so nice to get outside again.  We'll have to do that again.  For Easter Sunday we had a yummy dinner and Easter egg hunt at Cami's house.

I bought Blake Shelton tickets.  Can't wait for summer outdoor concerts.  I want to buy Toby Keith tickets, but as of right now they look too expensive, so we'll see.  They're part of the Country Explosion concert where it goes for 4 days and you can camp there.  In theory that sounds fun... combine 2 things we like... camping and live music/concerts.  But then I thought about it for half a second, and I was like... I hate 75% of the people at concerts.  I really don't want to camp with all those drunk a-holes for 4 days.  Anyway, you can buy tickets for just one day, but right now it looks like they're charging $100/day, and that's not worth it.  I tried to get tickets to George Strait's farewell tour show in Arlington, TX, but of course they are all sold out.  My beloved Eric Church will be playing that one with him.  It's pretty cool... he's got all these different big stars opening for him in different cities.  Too bad he isn't coming to SLC.

Josh starts baseball next week, and he's decided he doesn't want to play.  Oy.  To make him or not to make him?  He wants to golf, which I think is a great idea.  He wants to try ice skating, which I'm OK with, to see if he might want to play hockey, which I'm less OK with.  He wants to get a BMX bike and learn to do tricks.  Not sure how I feel about that.  He's been reading books about it. No good comes from reading books.

March Ramblings

I heard an ad for a research study on the radio that was trying to recruit participants with "moderate" acne, which they defined as 20-50 "angry, red pimples" and 30-100 whiteheads or blackheads.  Currently on their face all at one time.  And that's moderate acne?  Holy crap, what does severe acne look like?

I'm so chubby omg I hate it.  But apparently not enough to stop eating.

So here's something to make me feel like a shlub.  More of a shlub.  Walking down the aisle at Sam's Club and I pass by this fit couple.  They're wearing their exercise gear, and their cart is full of Egg Beaters and turkey sausage and produce and I'm sure there was wheat germ and tofu hidden in there.  Who knows.  But it made me feel even more chubby as I pass by carrying a vat of Mrs Butterworth's and the jumbo box of granola bars.  I feel like we eat OK, not as good as we could, but not as bad. It's hard sometimes.  It's hard to find healthy food that's quick that everyone will eat.  And I swear food prices have gone up.  I am spending obscene amounts of money on groceries every month.

Northern Utah Model United Nations competition was last Saturday.  I am now officially finished with Saturdays until next October.  Woot!  This deserves a celebration.  I think I will sleep until 8:30 next Saturday.  Anyone who wakes me up will face my wrath.  Except that we are going camping, so maybe not.

We are going camping this weekend.  It's Spring Break.  Sean just went and got the trailer tonight.  It will be fun, but it will also be work.  Boo for the vacations that are more work than vacation, but yay for getting outside and campfire and hiking and bacon for breakfast.  

Grading my students' argumentation papers is driving me to drink.  Like seriously.  One girl was arguing that cheerleading should be considered a sport, and one of her reasons was that cheerleaders train as hard as or harder than any other sport.  She said that cheerleaders train 24/7, year round.  Really?  You guys train all day and all night, every day of the week?  Wow!  Dedication!  Sigh.  Methinks she doesn't know what 24/7 means.  Another girl wrote that she "literally died."  You sure about that, sweetie?  Blah.   There were some other unintentionally funny things, but dangit I don't remember what they were.

My Uncle Norm died last week.  It was a shock, especially since we had just received an invite to his birthday party.  How sucky for my aunt to be planning an 80th bday party one minute and a funeral the next. I went to the funeral on Thursday.  It was very nice, and I learned some neat things about him.  I also got to see cousins that I never see, and I thoroughly enjoyed that, even though I'm the most awkward person on the planet.  I got to go out to lunch with my mom, Katie, Scott, Wendy, and their kids after too, so that was a bonus.  Scott left to go back to work, and the rest of us sat around talking for a long time.  When I told Sean that, he said, "And Scott's kids were good that whole time??"  Yep.  They were complete angels.  Sean wants me to find out how they get them to do that.  Magic, I'm thinking.

I think I may finally be ready for a cool car.  I never really care what I drive.  My requirements are simple.  It has to be able to get me where I need to go, and at least one of our vehicles needs to be able to pull our monstrosity of a trailer.  And it has to have a working radio.  That's pretty much it.  I mean, I like a nice car and all... but the only car that I think is cool enough to actually drop more than like 5K on is a 57 Corvette, so... Yeah.  Sean and I were watching a Corvette auction on TV, and the one I want sold for well  over a million.  But the other day I was gassing up and a Mustang with a nice sexy engine came rumbling up, and I decided I might be ready to ditch the Suburban for something a lot more fun.

Song Of the Day

The first time I heard this song I was meh...  Cheesy love song, whatever.  But then I saw the video, and it actually made me like the song way better.  It's cute and sweet and funny.  Can't go wrong with that combo.

Random Thoughts

My camera...still lost.  It's not a nice camera, so I don't much care that way... it's just that my Christmas pics are lost.  Boo.  So sad.

I really don't have much that's interesting to say, but I'm going to attempt to write something anyway.

I accidentally turned on talk radio in the car the other day and started listening to some idiot who was in the middle of talking about why men in Hollywood make so much more than women.  He explained that of the top 10 male earners in Hollywood, 8 of the 10 are over the age of 40.  Well, let's just say 9, because Leo DeCaprio is 39.  So, basically, 9 of the 10 top earning men in Hollywood are aged 40 and over.  Only 2 of the 10 top female earners in Hollywood are over the age of 40.  Then he patiently explained, as if his audience were stupid, that the longer you've been in any business, the more money you make.  So, he claims, of course it makes perfect sense that the men make more money than the women because they have built up earning power over all those years.  And I'm yelling at the radio... We know that, you @$$, here's the question you should be addressing... Why are there no women over 40 still making any money in Hollywood, when there are plenty of men over 40??? Because Hollywood has a major double standard when it comes to youth for women vs. men.  Stupid idiot.  And that is why I do not listen to talk radio.  Ever.  Give me some nice, mellow country song about dancing barefoot in the moonlight and drinking beer.

So, I went to get my first mammogram a few weeks ago, and I just knew that it was going to come back with some sort of irregularity.  Because that's what my body does.  I didn't figure it would amount to anything, but I figured they'd make me go back for additional images.  And sure enough, the letter came... Hey, we think your right boob might be trying to kill you, come back and let us look at it some more.  So I did, and they took some more pictures, and the doctor was like... nah, you're fine.  Go home.   So that's good.

This kills me.  I've started to write about it 6 different times in 6 different ways and then just deleted and said screw it.  But no.  I have something to say.  I cannot stand the hypocrisy of a woman saying, "I'm tired of working moms judging me for being a stay at home mom.  They think what I do isn't hard or I'm not fulfilling my potential.  But what I do is harder than working would be.  I stay at home because being home for my kids is way more important than earning money or getting recognition by others."  Ok, how do you say that kind of bullcrap with a straight face?  How do you sit here and say that you are tired of people thinking what you do isn't important, and then IN PRACTICALLY THE SAME SENTENCE tell someone else that what they are doing isn't important?  Seriously.  How do you say that you are tired of people judging you, and then in the same breath judge someone else?  Jeez.  That comment was posted in a discussion on feminist mormon housewives recently, and I've read something similar many, many times.  Also, who says working moms get any more recognition than anyone else?  There seems to be this stereotypical idea of what a "working mom" is, and she wears power suits and goes out to lunches and works in an office and receives accolades for her work... Yeah, what about moms who work at Target and cleaning motel rooms and about a billion other jobs?  What kind of recognition do you think they're out there getting?  Not to mention, I hate hate this thing where people have to believe that they are doing The Hardest Job In The World.  Why do some people have the need to feel like what they are doing is harder than anyone else.  I mean, we all have those pity party moments, sure.  But I would never dare to tell other people that what I do is more difficult than what they do.  Are you kidding me?  How do I know?  Why does it matter anyway?  What I do is really difficult for me.  Why do I care if other people are doing stuff that's harder or easier?

Two weekends ago was Region debate.  We took 2nd place.  It was fun, glad it's over.  A few more, and then we're done for the year.  Tomorrow and Saturday are State, and then Model U.N. the next week.

March Party is tentatively scheduled for Sunday.  A hike and a picnic.  However, grocery shopping, frozen meal assembly, and Prom dress shopping are also scheduled for Sunday, so we shall see what wins out.

Today was so beautiful!  Utah is such a funny place.  I don't see anybody in winter coats, unless they are going to be outside for an extended period, if the temperature is above 30.  This morning when I took the kids to school, it was in the 30s, cold enough to see your breath, and plenty of kids were in shorts and capris, and no kid had on anything heavier than a hoodie.  After school it was in the 50s, and I told Lexi to go outside and play.  She said, "No!  No one will come outside because it's too hot!"  So funny how relative everything is.  I asked her what we were going to do this summer when it's 100.

I bought my Tim McGraw tickets!  So excited.  Every once in a while I think about it and get all happy dancey.   Sean wants to go see Blake Shelton and The Band Perry because he has a crush on Kimberly Perry, so I will be buying those next.

Mhhmmmmm....

Obsession.

Love this song, love this video.  So much yum.

February

It's almost time for March Party!  Woot!  Thinking about what to plan for it.  Something involving colorful umbrella drinks, I think.  And maybe a hike.

Today was a typical Utah winter day.  The guy on the radio last night was talking about how a storm was going to start moving in Any.  Minute.  No snow last night.  No snow when I woke up.  Finally, about 7th period it started snowing.  By the time I left school a few hours later, no more snow, no accumulation, blue skies developing to the west.  I hate it.  I hate the cold so much that I feel cheated when it's not snowing.  It's like, it's totally pointless for it to be cold if it's not going to snow.  I don't know.  Snow feels like A Thing. It's something interesting to break up the endless cold days, or something.

Last night was Parent Teacher Conference.  I got a ton of work done.  Didn't talk to many parents, though.

I have a cyst on my finger that I need to have looked at and cut out.  I'm too squeamish for that, though. I showed it to the dermatologist, and he said to take it to a hand surgeon because it feels like it might be deep, in the tendon.  Um, ew?   It keeps getting bigger, though, and eventually it's going to have to come off.  Because it hurts when I put pressure on it, and I have been able to avoid that for the most part, but when I grip things it's starting to hurt sometimes.  Maybe I should let it grow until it's totally giant and weird looking.

My dermatologist, well, one of them anyway, is a weird dude.  I like him.  He seems all super serious, soft-spoken, and then he'll make a joke totally unexpectedly out of left field.

Sean bought me the prettiest flowers for Valentine's Day.  Too bad I still haven't found my camera or I could have taken a picture.  They are white daisies, giant white mums (I think), red carnations, red peruvian lilies, red roses, and red tinted babies breath.  So pretty.

We went to Cedar City for President's Day weekend.  We spent a day hiking in Zion's Canyon and a day sight-seeing in Bryce Canyon.  Zion's was about 70 degrees.  It was beautiful hiking weather.  Bryce Canyon was in the 40s and still quite muddy and snowy, so we couldn't hike much at all.  But we stood on the edge of Bryce Point and Inspiration Point and looked down into the canyon, and oh-holy-hell is that scary.  I am afraid of heights.  When I went to bed that night, I kept seeing it in my mind's eye and feeling like I was falling.  It is... breathtaking.  So beautiful.  But there are large parts of it that don't have rails.  I kept telling Sean and my kids to get back from the edge, and they're like... we're not even that close!  But they were.  It's eroding, too, so I just kept feeling like at any minute you could start sliding off the edge.  The kids had lots of fun swimming at the hotel at the end of the day.  It wasn't the  most relaxing trip, but it was really nice to get out of town.

I keep getting a groupon or similar offer for "cookies, and a complimentary massage," and when I read it I always think it says "complimentary message."  Every time.  And I wonder for a second what kind of complimentary message they will give me... "You look nice today," or "Your hair is lovely."  And then I realize it's a massage, which I am less interested in.  I mean, I would love a massage, but it just seems like too much effort.  I can't even find time to grocery shop.  I ain't got time for a massage.

I've become less of a picky eater over the last few years, and I'm not sure that's a good thing.  I really don't need to eat more things.  I still don't voluntarily eat beans.  I will ask for them to be left out or pick them out if possible.  But if I can't, I eat them.  I will eat a few bites of Spanish rice, I will eat a little jumbalaya, I will eat rice and black beans in a burrito-- but only a homemade burrito, and I leave out the evil chili powder.  Sean and I have started making freezer crock pot meals.  We make 4-6 meals at a time, toss them in the freezer, and then use them throughout the week.  A lot of the meals are Mexican-ish-- lots of burritos and nachos and tacos and carnitas and the like-- and I'm like, whatever.  We're making it, I'll eat it, I don't even care.  And I have.  Like I said, not so sure that's a good thing, but it is what it is.  Easy.  That's what it is.

Random Collection of Thoughts

My awesome friend Christine posted this quote on facebook quite a while ago, and I saved it because it really resonated with me. 

"Who are we, if not measured by our impact on others?  That's who we are!  We're not who we say we are, we're not who we want to be-- we are the sum of the influence and impact that we have, in our lives, on others."  -- Carl Sagan 

I love that so much.  I need to re-read it from time to time.

Sometimes I read obituaries or similar things where people say that the person never had a bad word to say about anyone, and it always makes me feel so bad about myself, because that will never be me. It's not that I like to badmouth everyone... more just that if someone annoys me, it's a definite possibility that I'm going to say something at some point. For the most part, I like people.  I'm easily annoyed sometimes, but I don't hold a grudge or spread untrue rumors or unfounded assumptions about people or things like that... but if for example my neighbors burn my grass and leave their garbage all over their driveway and it blows into my yard and their kids tell me that their dog got onto the counter and ate the cinnamon bread from Kneaders that I gave them for Christmas and I drive their kids home from school and sometimes go out of my way to take them when it's snowing and their mom refuses to get out of bed and drive them and they can't even say "thanks" or even "hi" and they for who-knows-why have a cooler on their porch that my kids tell me is full of spoiled milk and I come home and see that they drained it onto my grass... and then my other neighbor asks me how it is living next door to them... I'm going to say that I hate it.  I just am.   I'm not going to go out of my way looking to tell the stories to all the neighbors or call people up every time something happens, but if someone asks me about them, I will probably say something.  For example.  

Lexi:  Can I have an apple for my snack?
Me:  Sure!
Lexi:  Can I dip it in whipped cream?
Me:  No.  We don't have any, but still, no.
Lexi:  Oh, wait then.  I don't want that anymore.
Me:  Ohhhh... so you only wanted it if you could dip it in sugar?
Lexi:  Can that be a thing???

I've been doing this whole work-and-mom thing for over 21 years now, and I'm just tired.  So tired.  So. Damn.  Tired.  :::sigh:::  I hate when my kids are off track.  I wish I could enjoy the time with them.  They go back Tuesday.

Josh started with a tutor last week.  I hope it will help.  I love his tutor.  I found a parkour/free running class for him, and he's going to try a class and see if he likes it.  Will I regret this?  If he likes it, yes, I probably will.  I don't know.   He needs an activity and he can't think of anything he wants to do besides golf.  So I'm trying to come up with something indoor, and that was it.  He also wants to try a hip-hop dance class, but I can't find a good boys' class around here.

I had a debate tournament Friday and Saturday.  That always makes for a short weekend, but thankfully Monday is a holiday.

My principal called me Friday night at 9:15 all, "Sorry to call you on a Friday night..."  Um, yeah dude, I'm at a debate tournament and not going to be leaving for a few minutes yet, another hour ride home, then standing around waiting for parents to pick up their kids...  Pretty sure you're not interrupting my fun or anything.  Then he said, "Enjoy your long weekend."  Most of the time I don't mind that no one really knows what we do and when our tournaments are and how much time we spend at it in debate, and my principal is super awesome times 10 and asks me how our team is doing and he does know it's a huge time commitment... but sometimes I just sigh and think... if only people understood.  Maybe I could get paid more than $1/hour for it.  Probably not.  A former debate student from one of the other schools who now comes to tournaments to judge was saying to some of us that maybe if a former student who is now involved on the other end of things as well were to go in and talk about the time and energy involved in running a debate program, maybe they'd understand and pay us more.  Offering to go to the district and talk to them.  And we all just shook our heads.  Pay isn't decided that way, and no one cares.  Really.  My mom and I were talking about something debate-related and she said, "You need to go in and explain to them that if they want you to host a debate tournament they need to do XYZ," and I said, "They don't care.  If I don't host another tournament ever, no one would care."  We do it for these kids.  That's it, front and back, top to bottom.  It's done by us, for the kids.  When I hosted the one earlier this year, teachers be all, "What, you need to use my room?  Can't you just use a different one?"  We need 63 classrooms for this thing!  No, we can't just find another room.  We're holding debates in the Little Theater and the Foods room amongst the ovens.  The transportation department, who I'm sure has a crazy job to do, will screw up the buses sometimes, and I'm sure if there's a hierarchy of who gets a bus when there's a problem, Debate gets the shaft.  One of the high schools around here had their bus not show up, and when they called dispatch they were told that they couldn't go because there wasn't a bus for them. The coach told them... um, no.  I put in a proper request 3 weeks ago, it was approved, you're sending me a bus.  Would you tell the football team... sorry, there's no bus, guess you can't go.  He did get his bus, but he was late.

The reason my principal was calling me Friday night was to make sure I knew about a district meeting on Tuesday at 8:00.  That's a teacher prep day and I was hoping to get some actual planning done for a change, instead of dealing with bureaucratic bullshiz and other assorted crap that doesn't have anything to do with teaching, but it is probably not to be.

I didn't realize I was so ranty tonight.  What's wrong with me?

From here on out I have tournaments every weekend until the middle of March.  We have 3 more tournaments, then Region, all the National Qualifiers, and State.  Then I will need a vacation.

The Broncos won today.  Time to start planning a Super Bowl menu.   Football is the only good thing about January.  I don't know how people who don't like to watch football make it through this awful month.

Friday was the end of the term.  End of the term is craziness.  Luckily all my grading is done, except for the term paper re-do's I told the students they could drop off on Tuesday.  That won't take too long.

I have an obsession with Eric Church.  My family just rolls their eyes at me.  I will be going to see him in concert this year.  If he doesn't come here, I will be taking a road trip.

I've been shopping for land.  I found places I want in both Kentucky and Montana.  Now to just convince Sean that we should do it.  He was asking me yesterday what I would buy if I could buy anything, probably thinking I would say a KitchenAid or a new couch or clothes or a cruise... I told him that I want a house on 60 acres, a big outbuilding where I can store my '57 Corvette, 2 cows, 2 horses, 4 chickens, a tractor, a garden, a big floppy hat, a shirt with UV protectant sleeves, and a front porch with a wooden rocking chair. You think I've thought this through a little bit?  Josh said I sound like a grandma.

I never posted about Christmas because I lost my camera.  I think maybe it's at mom's house.  We had nice holidays.  Courtney and Curtis spent the night on Christmas Eve, and that was fun.  We went to Hardware Ranch the following Saturday, and that was fun too.  Pictures will be forthcoming at some point in the year.