Makes me think of you.
Love, Shannon
Thursday, October 20, 2011
Sunday, October 9, 2011
Blacklisted and Black Fingered
We went camping at the beginning of the month. It was so beautiful. October is a lovely time for camping.
I slammed my finger in the car door, because I'm a dork and I do things like that, and it looks so ugly. I'm going to lose my fingernail before too long here. Should be really cute. I go through this cycle where I get mad at myself for not being cuter, more "put-together"... and then I realize that besides not having the budget or the time for being cuter, I just really feel like it won't make a difference. I'll just have a black and purple fingernail and a muffin top and weird hair even if I spend more time and money on it all, so why bother?
I was blacklisted at the library this week. My card was rejected when I tried to go through the self-check. Which is the most awesome thing. I love pretending to be the librarian and checking out my own books. Brings me back to my childhood. So anyway that made me feel like a loser. I had too many fines and a book that was like 2 months overdue. I had tossed it in my D.I. bag. Oops. Luckily I hadn't taken the bag to the D.I. yet so I could just fish it out. And I paid my fines, and I'm off the blacklist. Until next time.
Brittney had her first debate tournament Thursday night. She did impromptu and came home with a trophy, so it went pretty well. I'm glad to have a kid in debate again. Debate kids are a cute crowd. Love them and all their little suits and ties and files full of facts. Courtney and I are going to judge together at a tournament in December. Gonna be awesome.
Sean is almost ready to go deer hunting. He told me that it's just he and Josh this year. His dad doesn't want to go anymore I guess. He told me, "I think he's tired of me yelling at him. But I don't blame myself for yelling at him!" That just made me laugh. As much as Sean loves his dad, he and his dad clash sometimes really bad, and Sean isn't great at holding in his feelings at those times. His dad bosses him around, and he gets frustrated and yells at him. But the two of them are getting really excited to go.
I'm getting really excited for the Trace Adkins concert this weekend. I really, really want to find a new outfit, but I'm having difficulties. Boo.
I slammed my finger in the car door, because I'm a dork and I do things like that, and it looks so ugly. I'm going to lose my fingernail before too long here. Should be really cute. I go through this cycle where I get mad at myself for not being cuter, more "put-together"... and then I realize that besides not having the budget or the time for being cuter, I just really feel like it won't make a difference. I'll just have a black and purple fingernail and a muffin top and weird hair even if I spend more time and money on it all, so why bother?
I was blacklisted at the library this week. My card was rejected when I tried to go through the self-check. Which is the most awesome thing. I love pretending to be the librarian and checking out my own books. Brings me back to my childhood. So anyway that made me feel like a loser. I had too many fines and a book that was like 2 months overdue. I had tossed it in my D.I. bag. Oops. Luckily I hadn't taken the bag to the D.I. yet so I could just fish it out. And I paid my fines, and I'm off the blacklist. Until next time.
Brittney had her first debate tournament Thursday night. She did impromptu and came home with a trophy, so it went pretty well. I'm glad to have a kid in debate again. Debate kids are a cute crowd. Love them and all their little suits and ties and files full of facts. Courtney and I are going to judge together at a tournament in December. Gonna be awesome.
Sean is almost ready to go deer hunting. He told me that it's just he and Josh this year. His dad doesn't want to go anymore I guess. He told me, "I think he's tired of me yelling at him. But I don't blame myself for yelling at him!" That just made me laugh. As much as Sean loves his dad, he and his dad clash sometimes really bad, and Sean isn't great at holding in his feelings at those times. His dad bosses him around, and he gets frustrated and yells at him. But the two of them are getting really excited to go.
I'm getting really excited for the Trace Adkins concert this weekend. I really, really want to find a new outfit, but I'm having difficulties. Boo.
Saturday, September 24, 2011
Really Boring Stuff
Nothing all that exciting has been going on this month. Which isn't a bad thing.
Work is exhausting, and I'm somewhat disheartened by it all right now. I like my classes, I have good kids, things are going well with some new writing techniques I'm teaching them... But I feel like I'm working really hard to improve the things I'm doing and plan curriculum for the things that my students need... I spent a good deal of time at the beginning of the year poring over the new common core we are adapting and looking at how I already align with it in places and where I can make some changes... Then I went to a meeting this week where we heard about more stuff we're supposed to be doing, some of which I disagree with, and it's frustrating. I left feeling frustrated. I'm OK with that, though. Not a big deal. What is a Big Deal is the complete and total disrespect and disdain that a powerful faction of the Utah State Legislature has for public education. They are cutting funding, increasing requirements and regulations, and basically setting public schools up to fail so that they can privatize education in the state. It's become worse every year, and this year it's just ridiculous. I just can't understand why so many people in this state claim to be pro-public education, yet they keep electing legislators in their districts who are very obviously anti-public education. Part of the reason is the fear people here have of the big scary D-word. They'd rather vote for a Republican who actively works against their own values and interests rather than elect a Democrat. Last year Jeb Bush went around the country hawking Florida's system of education reform, which our legislature bought into enthusiastically. So they adapted the Florida system of giving schools a letter grade, but they conveniently forgot about the part where Florida increased school funding and decreased class sizes, and they apparently didn't look too hard into Florida's data. On the surface it may look like their reform efforts have been successful, but if you look a little deeper it's pretty ugly. Their FCAT and ACT test scores are not impressive. In fact, now that I think about it, Utah's average ACT scores are 2 points higher than theirs, so I'm not sure why we should be emulating them. Now there's a bill heading before the legislature next year to privatize any school that earns a failing grade. So let's cut funding, increase class sizes, and then punish schools that fail. Oh, and by the way, let's build schools and buy supplies with public tax money, and then think of a way to turn those facilities over to private business. This is only one of a slew of terrible education legislation that is being thrown about. They are going after the teacher's unions, teacher job security (hey, let's save money by firing veteran teachers with higher salaries!), and playing with the idea of saving money by putting kids in front of computers instead of teachers. There are proposals that would divert public school monies to private schools, and proposals that would lay the complete responsibility for a child's success in college on the high school they graduated from. Not on elementary or junior highs that turn them over to us with deficiencies, not on the parents that don't give a shit about junior's education as long as he gets to play football or gets the grade they think junior deserves, or as long as junior stays out of their way and they don't have to be inconvenienced by taking an interest in his education or handing out discipline when he doesn't do his homework... not on the parents who take a kid who struggles in school and is failing his classes and take him on vacation for a week during the school year... not on the students themselves. It's all the fault of the high school teachers. And there is a bill proposed that would force high schools to cover the cost of college remediation courses for any students they graduate from their high school that need those classes, with the theory that we should have made them proficient before we gave them a diploma so it's our fault. That's enough. I can't write about all this anymore. I could write pages and pages about it. All I know is, I enjoy my job quite a lot, but I'm considering a career change. Things are going downhill, and I'm not sure I want to stick around long enough to see how it all ends up. Because if these proposals go through, it will end badly. And it's not my job I'm worried about. It's my kids' education. I need a different job so I can afford to pay for a good private school once all of the dust settles and education in Utah is privatized. So I'm considering my options. So far I've come up with going back to school and becoming an architect, and being the activites director at a nursing home. Since the second one would pay even crappier than my current job, that's not too realistic. I guess I need to keep thinking. I've always wanted to go to law school, too, but there are way more lawyers than jobs right now, so not a good option.
Other than that, Sean had a birthday. Hopefully he enjoyed his little celebration.
We're going to the Trace Adkins concert next month and I have an outfit in mind, but no money to buy it. Hmmmm....
Sean, Josh, Steve, Kaden, Spencer, and Dennis all headed off for a fishing trip today. I stayed home to clean the house and do the grocery shopping. Yay me?
Brittney started skating with O-Town Derby Dames' junior derby league. Hopefully that will be fun for her.
I'm sure there a million other little things I should write down so that I can remember them, but I can't think what they are when I sit down to actually write.
Work is exhausting, and I'm somewhat disheartened by it all right now. I like my classes, I have good kids, things are going well with some new writing techniques I'm teaching them... But I feel like I'm working really hard to improve the things I'm doing and plan curriculum for the things that my students need... I spent a good deal of time at the beginning of the year poring over the new common core we are adapting and looking at how I already align with it in places and where I can make some changes... Then I went to a meeting this week where we heard about more stuff we're supposed to be doing, some of which I disagree with, and it's frustrating. I left feeling frustrated. I'm OK with that, though. Not a big deal. What is a Big Deal is the complete and total disrespect and disdain that a powerful faction of the Utah State Legislature has for public education. They are cutting funding, increasing requirements and regulations, and basically setting public schools up to fail so that they can privatize education in the state. It's become worse every year, and this year it's just ridiculous. I just can't understand why so many people in this state claim to be pro-public education, yet they keep electing legislators in their districts who are very obviously anti-public education. Part of the reason is the fear people here have of the big scary D-word. They'd rather vote for a Republican who actively works against their own values and interests rather than elect a Democrat. Last year Jeb Bush went around the country hawking Florida's system of education reform, which our legislature bought into enthusiastically. So they adapted the Florida system of giving schools a letter grade, but they conveniently forgot about the part where Florida increased school funding and decreased class sizes, and they apparently didn't look too hard into Florida's data. On the surface it may look like their reform efforts have been successful, but if you look a little deeper it's pretty ugly. Their FCAT and ACT test scores are not impressive. In fact, now that I think about it, Utah's average ACT scores are 2 points higher than theirs, so I'm not sure why we should be emulating them. Now there's a bill heading before the legislature next year to privatize any school that earns a failing grade. So let's cut funding, increase class sizes, and then punish schools that fail. Oh, and by the way, let's build schools and buy supplies with public tax money, and then think of a way to turn those facilities over to private business. This is only one of a slew of terrible education legislation that is being thrown about. They are going after the teacher's unions, teacher job security (hey, let's save money by firing veteran teachers with higher salaries!), and playing with the idea of saving money by putting kids in front of computers instead of teachers. There are proposals that would divert public school monies to private schools, and proposals that would lay the complete responsibility for a child's success in college on the high school they graduated from. Not on elementary or junior highs that turn them over to us with deficiencies, not on the parents that don't give a shit about junior's education as long as he gets to play football or gets the grade they think junior deserves, or as long as junior stays out of their way and they don't have to be inconvenienced by taking an interest in his education or handing out discipline when he doesn't do his homework... not on the parents who take a kid who struggles in school and is failing his classes and take him on vacation for a week during the school year... not on the students themselves. It's all the fault of the high school teachers. And there is a bill proposed that would force high schools to cover the cost of college remediation courses for any students they graduate from their high school that need those classes, with the theory that we should have made them proficient before we gave them a diploma so it's our fault. That's enough. I can't write about all this anymore. I could write pages and pages about it. All I know is, I enjoy my job quite a lot, but I'm considering a career change. Things are going downhill, and I'm not sure I want to stick around long enough to see how it all ends up. Because if these proposals go through, it will end badly. And it's not my job I'm worried about. It's my kids' education. I need a different job so I can afford to pay for a good private school once all of the dust settles and education in Utah is privatized. So I'm considering my options. So far I've come up with going back to school and becoming an architect, and being the activites director at a nursing home. Since the second one would pay even crappier than my current job, that's not too realistic. I guess I need to keep thinking. I've always wanted to go to law school, too, but there are way more lawyers than jobs right now, so not a good option.
Other than that, Sean had a birthday. Hopefully he enjoyed his little celebration.
We're going to the Trace Adkins concert next month and I have an outfit in mind, but no money to buy it. Hmmmm....
Sean, Josh, Steve, Kaden, Spencer, and Dennis all headed off for a fishing trip today. I stayed home to clean the house and do the grocery shopping. Yay me?
Brittney started skating with O-Town Derby Dames' junior derby league. Hopefully that will be fun for her.
I'm sure there a million other little things I should write down so that I can remember them, but I can't think what they are when I sit down to actually write.
Monday, September 5, 2011
Labor Day Weekend
We ended up taking just the two little guys to Lava Hot Springs and Pocatello this year. Courtney had to work the whole weekend, and Brittney had Blink 182/My Chemical Romance concert tickets, so it was just us and the little folks. It was fun, but those two... they are loud. And Josh loves to tease Lexi. Oy. They are such stinkers.
Lava Hot Springs
Sean jumped off the highest tower. Props to him. You wouldn't get me to do it. He says he's getting too old to do it much longer, though.
We stayed two nights this time around, so we went into Idaho Falls the second day to mess around.
Sigh. Back to work and school tomorrow.
Lava Hot Springs
Sean jumped off the highest tower. Props to him. You wouldn't get me to do it. He says he's getting too old to do it much longer, though.
We stayed two nights this time around, so we went into Idaho Falls the second day to mess around.
Sigh. Back to work and school tomorrow.
Wednesday, August 31, 2011
School, Birthdays, Pineview, Strange Dreams...
So, back in school for a week and a half now. Everyone seems to be doing fairly well. My classes are good so far. I'm liking this year a lot. Brittney seems to be liking high school OK, for the most part. Courtney's classes seem to be going well, too. So yay for school. There are some scary things going on in education right now, from my perspective. I have a lot to say about it, but I'm just too exhausted at the end of the day to write it down. Maybe sometime.
Sean's family had a belated 70th birthday party for Dennis, which was lots of fun. His family always has a good time. I'm glad I get to be a part of it.
My birthday weekend was pretty darn awesome. Sean gave the kids money Friday night to go buy my birthday presents and then took me out to dinner while they did it. Everyone was happy. Win! Saturday morning we went to garage sales. I didn't find any of the things I was looking for, but it was fun and laid back. We did the Saturday chores, and then Sean made me chicken cordon bleu for dinner, Brittney made my favorite chocolate cake, Sean made my favorite cookie bars, and I got awesome presents. Bath & Body, a Victoria's Secret gift card, Yogurt Stop gift card, 2 novels. Thennnnnn, Sunday night we went to my mom's for delicious fajitas, my favorite brownies, my other favorite cookie bars, omg I think I ate my weight in desserts last weekend. So tasty. My family gave me some really fun presents and Sean's parents both dropped gifts off. I was so spoiled with gifts and with fun parties.
I usually manage to stay out of pictures, and this is why. Sean took like 10 pictures and every one was blurry and made me look dumb. Courtney was showing them to Curtis and they were laughing at me. On my birthday! The nerve.
We went up boating yesterday, and it was so very perfect. It's still plenty warm, but there was no one on Pineview. The beach was wide open, and there were very few boats on the lake.
So I've been having that thing all day where you dream about someone the night before and then when you see that person or have a dream flashback you have a weird deja vu feeling that's all mixed up with whatever emotions were in the dream... Last night I dreamt that Eminem was in love with me, and in the dream I kept going back and forth... he's hot... but he's a little too scary and intense... but he's hot. So anyway, now today every time I heard an Eminem song I just kept having this weird dream deja vu. And then so I was thinking... would I get with Eminem? I mean, obviously if I didn't already have a husband and all... I don't know. I've always wondered if he's as serious and angry/sad in real life as he seems in interviews. He was serious in my dream.
I have been so scatterbrained lately. I swear, I can only do well with one thing at a time. If I stay on top of things at school, everything else will be crumbling around me. I forgot to give Lexi her long acting insulin on Monday, and then yesterday I forgot her finger pricker at home. I suck. I really, really am not up for the challenge of a diabetic kid. I need to talk to someone about that... I wonder where the complaints department is. Although, come to think of it, I guess I'll take this challenge over a lot of the others out there.
I don't feel like making any goals for September, so I won't. So excited for the long weekend.
Sean's family had a belated 70th birthday party for Dennis, which was lots of fun. His family always has a good time. I'm glad I get to be a part of it.
My birthday weekend was pretty darn awesome. Sean gave the kids money Friday night to go buy my birthday presents and then took me out to dinner while they did it. Everyone was happy. Win! Saturday morning we went to garage sales. I didn't find any of the things I was looking for, but it was fun and laid back. We did the Saturday chores, and then Sean made me chicken cordon bleu for dinner, Brittney made my favorite chocolate cake, Sean made my favorite cookie bars, and I got awesome presents. Bath & Body, a Victoria's Secret gift card, Yogurt Stop gift card, 2 novels. Thennnnnn, Sunday night we went to my mom's for delicious fajitas, my favorite brownies, my other favorite cookie bars, omg I think I ate my weight in desserts last weekend. So tasty. My family gave me some really fun presents and Sean's parents both dropped gifts off. I was so spoiled with gifts and with fun parties.
I usually manage to stay out of pictures, and this is why. Sean took like 10 pictures and every one was blurry and made me look dumb. Courtney was showing them to Curtis and they were laughing at me. On my birthday! The nerve.
We went up boating yesterday, and it was so very perfect. It's still plenty warm, but there was no one on Pineview. The beach was wide open, and there were very few boats on the lake.
So I've been having that thing all day where you dream about someone the night before and then when you see that person or have a dream flashback you have a weird deja vu feeling that's all mixed up with whatever emotions were in the dream... Last night I dreamt that Eminem was in love with me, and in the dream I kept going back and forth... he's hot... but he's a little too scary and intense... but he's hot. So anyway, now today every time I heard an Eminem song I just kept having this weird dream deja vu. And then so I was thinking... would I get with Eminem? I mean, obviously if I didn't already have a husband and all... I don't know. I've always wondered if he's as serious and angry/sad in real life as he seems in interviews. He was serious in my dream.
I have been so scatterbrained lately. I swear, I can only do well with one thing at a time. If I stay on top of things at school, everything else will be crumbling around me. I forgot to give Lexi her long acting insulin on Monday, and then yesterday I forgot her finger pricker at home. I suck. I really, really am not up for the challenge of a diabetic kid. I need to talk to someone about that... I wonder where the complaints department is. Although, come to think of it, I guess I'll take this challenge over a lot of the others out there.
I don't feel like making any goals for September, so I won't. So excited for the long weekend.
Thursday, August 18, 2011
Boating and Back to School
The kids wanted to do some boating this week, but Brittney had to babysit for the neighbors on Tuesday and Courtney had to work on Wednesday, so we went both days to accommodate everyone. Such a hard life when you have to go boating twice a week to keep everyone happy.
Pineview:
I liked the way this pic of Curtis skiing came out...
Wow, who is that really white lady with her nose in a book? She's frightening.
Willard Bay:
Josh started back to school Monday. So far, so good. He's made so much progress reading over the summer. Some things just clicked into place for him. I hope he can keep up the momentum and really keep doing well this year. His brain is organized about like my teenage bedroom... it's all in there, but can he find it when he needs it? It's been interesting to watch and try to figure out what's going on in there.
I started back to work yesterday. This year is the first year where I have really felt like... hey... I've got it under control! It's going to be OK! I've got a few new ideas, I'm feeling semi-organized, I might make it. I, however, have enough experience now to realize that this feeling will last exactly until the bell rings for school to start. It's easy to feel like smooth sailing when it's just me. Once you add in 38 little turkeys who have varying degrees of antipathy toward anything resembling work, all bets are off. It feels good to get back into a schedule, though. If I have to.
Pineview:
I liked the way this pic of Curtis skiing came out...
Wow, who is that really white lady with her nose in a book? She's frightening.
Willard Bay:
Josh started back to school Monday. So far, so good. He's made so much progress reading over the summer. Some things just clicked into place for him. I hope he can keep up the momentum and really keep doing well this year. His brain is organized about like my teenage bedroom... it's all in there, but can he find it when he needs it? It's been interesting to watch and try to figure out what's going on in there.
I started back to work yesterday. This year is the first year where I have really felt like... hey... I've got it under control! It's going to be OK! I've got a few new ideas, I'm feeling semi-organized, I might make it. I, however, have enough experience now to realize that this feeling will last exactly until the bell rings for school to start. It's easy to feel like smooth sailing when it's just me. Once you add in 38 little turkeys who have varying degrees of antipathy toward anything resembling work, all bets are off. It feels good to get back into a schedule, though. If I have to.
Sunday, August 7, 2011
Park City
Park City overnighter with the Rasmussen family. Good times. Courtney was working, but otherwise I think we had everyone else there.
We went up and went through the little Olympic museum and watched the ski jumpers jumping into the swimming pool. Brittney thought that looked way fun, so maybe she'll have to give it a try.
This has been such a fun summer. I really am sad to see it winding down. I'm hoping for a Bear Lake day next Sunday, then there's our annual Labor Day trip to Lava Hot Springs. So all of the fun isn't over yet. Trace Adkins tickets for October. Still fun things to look forward to. I'm looking forward to school starting again, but I have so much work to do that it's a little daunting.
We went up and went through the little Olympic museum and watched the ski jumpers jumping into the swimming pool. Brittney thought that looked way fun, so maybe she'll have to give it a try.
This has been such a fun summer. I really am sad to see it winding down. I'm hoping for a Bear Lake day next Sunday, then there's our annual Labor Day trip to Lava Hot Springs. So all of the fun isn't over yet. Trace Adkins tickets for October. Still fun things to look forward to. I'm looking forward to school starting again, but I have so much work to do that it's a little daunting.
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