Tired

I'm tired. Who knew that getting ready for school to start would take so much out of you...I did. I wasn't looking forward to getting back to work but at the same time, I'm glad to be back at work. I knew as soon as I got back from Montana that I wouldn't have time to just sit and relax, I have been on the go since then. I get to meet my students and their parents tomorrow night at our Open house/Back to School Night. I still have a few things to do in my room and a lot to get going with the first week of school. It didn't help that the tables we ordered in June finally showed up on Friday so we spent Friday afternoon putting them together. Now that I have my furniture I can actually put everything else together. I spent a good deal of time on Saturday down in my classroom, not really the most ideal for the Saturday before school starts. I was joined by a large handful of my co-workers, so I wasn't in the building alone. It's not this difficult once the year starts, but this first couple of weeks should be a real doozy.

Not Quite Right

So I talk to myself quite a bit to help organize my thoughts and I get everything straightened out. There are many occasions when I have everything worked out and it all fits together perfectly and very smoothly, but when it comes time to actually do everything it's like everything did not get the memo. If it works so perfectly in my head, why does it not work out perfectly outside of my head?

Exciting News!

I got a letter in the mail today letting me know that I was chosen to be one of two finalists for the PAEMST Science Award!

This is an award that I was nominated for and then had to apply. The application process involved a 45-minute video of a lesson I taught, a 15-page paper about the lesson recorded, three letters of recommendation, and a resume. I submitted my application at the end of April of this year.

My application, along with the other finalist's, were sent to be judged nationally. Seeing as they just announced last year's winners in June of this year, I may have a bit of time to wait before I get more news.

In the letter, I learned that I will be honored at a banquet some time this next school year and also recognized at the annual state science meeting...I guess I better find a date for the banquet, I just don't know when it is just yet.

Montana!

School starts for me this Thursday so I decided to take one last vacation before I couldn't go anywhere anymore. I called up my friends, Laura and Dirk, and planned to go up to Montana to visit their family for a few days. The original plan was for me to drive up on Wednesday then come back on Sunday, as I figured they might, they asked me to stay another day and everyone I talked to about it suggested I stay longer as well so I came back today, Monday. The drive was just over eight hours so not too bad, but my knee and I are very glad that my car has cruise control and that I made a few CDs before the trip so I could just sing my heart out. My voice was a bit scratchy at the end of each drive, i really let it out when I'm the only one in the car.

Thursday, Laura and I went to the Western Montana State Fair with Laura's son and her friend, Nikki, and her kids. We let the kids ride a few rides and then we went to look at the animals. The kids got to ride a miniature horse and eat large bags of cotton candy. I got to enjoy the bumper cars and a ride that just went around in circles (it was broken). I also had my first corn dog from a fair...very yummy. That night, we were supposed to go up the canyon to make dinner and just have some fun, but it was raining off and on all day so we just stayed home and sauteed the meat and veggies we were going to kabob in the canyon. I want to say we did something else that night too, but I don't remember.

Friday, it was supposed to rain all day so Laura and I went shopping. My tire decided that it wanted to leak air off and on over the last few weeks and decided to be a lot worse after my drive (don't worry, I was very safe and kept an eye on it and didn't have any problems on the actual drive) so to be safe, I dropped it off at the local Les Schwab to get it checked out since I couldn't see anything wrong with it. Apparently there is a small leak on the sidewall of the tire so they patched it as much as they could and sent me on my way with a smaller leak (which really hasn't leaked very much since then) and suggested I keep an eye on it to make sure to add air when needed and check into buying a new tire to replace it eventually. Our shopping trip produced a few items of clothing for the new school year, but I still need to go looking some more in the next two days. That night, I played a video game with Dirk that he had gotten that day (Scott Pilgrim vs. the World). I'm not much of a video gamer, but it was entertaining. Apparently, we played for about three hours and Laura took some pictures since we were laughing so much while playing.


Saturday, we went on a hike with Laura's friends to Morrell Falls. It took about an hour to drive to the trail head and then 2 1/2 hours to hike the 5 mile (round trip) to the falls with 6 children. It was a pretty easy hike but at the same time we pushed ourselves. We were going to stop and go shooting on the way back from the hike, but we were all pretty tired so we went and grabbed dinner from Five Guys. Laura and Dirk (along with a few others) convinced me to stay an extra day so Laura and I went to another of her friends so i could borrow a skirt to wear to church the next day. On the way home, we stopped at a local ice cream place and had some very yummy "homemade" ice cream.





Sunday, we were tired...we didn't make it to church. After sleeping until noon, we decided to go shooting, but drove around for a few hours instead because we couldn't find the right place. We all took naps which made us all a little happier. Laura, Dirk, and I played a few card games. Dirk and I tried to finish the video game and then went to bed.

The drive home today wasn't too bad. It was probably good that I waited a day as I was probably more awake today than yesterday and there was most likely less traffic on the road. I hit downtown Salt Lake right at 5 pm so the last 45 minutes of the drive was a little hairy, but I made it home without any incident or problem. Now I just need to get ready for school...yeah.

Three Cars and a Pair of Shoes

I definitely appreciate my car a little more now. On Saturday morning, my cousin called me up and asked if I could drive her mom's pickup truck to her so her husband could go to Home Depot and buy some sheet rock. I wasn't doing anything important that day so I said I would. I drove three different cars in a matter of 45 minutes and each was an interesting transition. I started in my car, which I'm used to and enjoy, drove to my aunt's house up the street and traded cars. I then drove up to the American Fork Home Depot and traded cars again. I left the truck and took my cousin's "mini-van" back to her house. Each drove differently and the brakes and gas pedals were touchy in some but not in others. It was quite the adventure.

Saturday night I also got to spend some time with my grandparents. They had come into town for a couple of days so my aunt invited everyone over for dinner. I only get to see my grandparents a few times a year and sometimes it's at the drop of a hat. You never know when you'll get a phone call from an aunt or cousin saying that gma and gpa just got into town and if you want to see them you better come over today. Love it!

Friday, I went to the dentist...nothing special to report there. The rest of Friday I worked on some special projects including shortening a couple of pairs of pants. Trust me, they don't come from the store that short unless you buy capris. While working on these projects, I realized I needed to pick up a few items to complete everything so while I was out and about, I decided to go look for some new school clothes. I didn't find any school clothes but I did find some new jeans that I will be shortening and a cool pair of shoes...I could wear those to school :)

New Phone

Steven and I got new phones today. We could have gotten new phones last November but the family decided for everyone to hold off on getting new phones so we could check out any better plans and so that we would all renew at the same time. My old phone was just fine, about to need a new battery, but fine. Steven's was falling apart so today was the day. We tend to have the same everything just in a different color, so we both now have the Samsung Trance...so far, I like it. it's different but ok i guess. I'm still getting used to it. The only problem is that they all come in the same color so it's a good thing we can put different pictures on our wallpaper. I also need to learn to respond to different ring tones as I don't recognize them yet, so far I haven't missed a call though.

Today was the last day of summer school, yippee! Not that I didn't like doing it, I just didn't like being tied down in one place during the summer for only a few hours worth of work. I got a pot of flowers from one of the boys (always from students, never from a significant other). They're cute and I will enjoy them. I just hope I don't kill them, I'm really good at that.

Since I am free of all responsibility, I will be taking one last trip before school starts again. I will be visiting some good friends of mine. Nothing else planned other than I will be visiting them. I'm sure we'll find ourselves up to no good in no time.

Adventures from this week so far: a trip to Ikea with screaming children, "playing" racquetball (my forearm hurts now)--maybe that should be playing "racquetball", a trip to Home Depot so I can finish my porch, and pretending to be a ninja.

Mystery House

When I have dreams, I find that nothing is ever repeated. I always hear about people who have recurring dreams, but that has never happened with me. My dreams are always new and different, the only things that may be repeated would be people I know or places I have been like school.
This morning I had a realization about the dream I had last night. I don't remember what happened but I remember where it happened because I realized that over the last few years that I have had a handful of dreams that have all happened in the same house but just realized today that I have never been there before. I don't think I've ever realized this before because the house just feels familiar to me in my dreams but I know I have never been in this house or one like it so it's weird that I keep going back there in my dreams.
Where is this mystery house? Does it even exist outside my dreams? I hope so because I would like to go there someday, I like it and it feels very homey to me.