Ruschin' Around

Carter's homecoming

2012-01-13T22:23:00.000-08:00

Carter was able to give his homecoming talk on January 1st. He did a great job, and lots of friends and family came to support him. It was a great time had by all.

Uncle Lynn dropped by unexpectedly!

Happy New Year!

2012-01-13T22:07:00.000-08:00

We were home in Idaho Falls for the New Year. Maria had a great idea from growing up--the idea was--let's all take off our shoes and run around the house in the snow! There wasn't much snow, but she and the boys did it anyway. We celebrated the New Year in style with our family!

A trip to Lehi

2012-01-13T22:04:00.000-08:00

We sort of feel like our Christmas vacation was divided into three segments: one at home, one at the cabin, and one in Lehi. Our sister-in-law, Katie, was told that she had to be on strict bed rest while trying to have their 4th child (which, thankfully, is working). Since Colby and Maria came from Virginia, they really wanted to be able to see Taylor and Katie and their kids, so we took a trip to get the whole family together. Unfortunately, Casey was not able to come because of his basketball practice. It was fun to play with the kids and spend time with family!

Colby and Max

Maria and Charlie

Grandpa and Charlie with the iPad

The kids saying goodbye

Mom, Anna, me and Chris

Carter and Anna

Colby and Max loving the legos

Merry Christmas!

2012-01-11T18:14:00.000-08:00

After Carter came home, we had a great Christmas with many fun festivities! We went to the cabin for a little while (in between Casey's basketball practices) and played on snowmobiles with our family. Here are some pictures of the fun:

Casey the basketball player making a foul shot

Choosing the perfect Christmas tree on snowmobiles--what a great tradition!

Opening the Christmas jammies

After church, we put our jammies back on to come and unwrap presents!

With our new digital camcorder

Merry Christmas!

Welcome home, Carter

2011-12-30T14:07:00.000-08:00

Carter came home from his mission to Carlsbad, California on December 20th. It was so much fun to see him! I got done with work on the 16th, and Chris did not finish until the 21st, so he sent me on the shuttle to see my brother. We love having him home--it adds a spice to our lives that we forgot disappeared when he left!

So Mom and Dad and I went to the party store to get balloons. I had the idea of purchasing Tweedledee and Tweedledum, just as a joke. They thought it was a brilliant idea. We think we are so funny!

Grandma and Grandpa anxiously awaiting his arrival

Greeting Casey

Hi, Grandma!

Hello, Mom!

Happy Birthday to us!

2011-12-17T20:57:00.000-08:00

Our birthdays were rather low-key this year, which is just fine! Here are some pictures of us with our presents. We just went out to dinner together for both birthdays, which was great!

I got new lens for my very cool camera. I used it tonight at Max's birthday, and I really like it!

New Orleans

2011-11-07T15:17:00.000-08:00

I went to New Orleans for a NAGC conference. I learned a lot about gifted children, and their needs, and had a lot of fun too. Here are some pictures of the festivities!

So picturesque! Being here made me feel like I was in France!

Bad news--Bourbon Street on a Friday night

World War II museum--so cool!

The oldest street car in the United States--on St. Charles Street

A statue of Robert E. Lee

Houses that I might move to in New Orleans--too bad they are all over a million dollars!

A diner in New Orleans--great!

A favorite seafood restaurant

A plaque explaining that there was a slave auction there

A Blacksmith shop in New Orleans--very old--owned by Lafitte

Fall break in the San Diego sun!

2011-11-07T09:25:00.000-08:00

During our fall break, we went to San Diego to visit my cousin and my friend from college. They live by each other, which is fun. We had a great time playing with them, but, unfortunately, only took one picture! Lame! So here we are by the San Diego temple! Great fun was had by all!

I love fall!

2011-09-26T19:32:00.000-07:00

I love fall because you can go up to Sundance and take pictures like this . . . if you have the new tripod that we just bought! So cool!

More camera experiments

2011-09-24T19:55:00.000-07:00

This morning, I met my photography class at the Provo Canyon for some picture taking fun. We met early in the morning for lighting reasons. It was good, and I learned a lot about photography. Here are some of the pictures:

Fall means football

2011-09-18T09:30:00.000-07:00

We got free tickets to the BYU-Utah game from our doctor. He asked if we wanted to go, and of course, the answer is yes. Even though we lost miserably, it was a lot of fun to go. We drove to the University Mall and ate at Five Guys, then caught the bus to the game so we wouldn't have to search for parking.

Camera experiments

2011-09-17T14:49:00.000-07:00

I got a digital SLR camera for Christmas this year. I feel like I am still learning how to use it, so I signed up for a class at UVU on beginning photography. I will probably never be a photographer, but here are some of my attempts. These pictures are of different shutter speeds. I am still learning.

The first water one is my favorite. The cars are kind of cool. What do you think?

Labor Day

2011-09-11T19:23:00.000-07:00

We had a great Labor Day at the cabin. We had a lot of family there--Mom, Dad, and Casey, Uncle John, Aunt Lisa, and Logan, and my mom's cousin's daughter, Karissa. It was good to get away!

Hanging out and talking

Chris doing what he loves to do best--read!

In the boat--I don't feel like a summer trip to the cabin is complete without a little boating!

Logan got up on the slalom ski. He was awesome!

The closest Casey has gotten to mastering the air chair

CORN!!

2011-08-16T10:05:00.001-07:00

From our garden. We are so excited!

Having a baby

2011-08-04T21:46:00.000-07:00

No, we are not having a baby. That was basically to get your attention.

In reality, we have been trying to have a baby for a year and a half. No luck.

We have gone to the fertility doctor for the last 6 months. No luck there either.

So, we are exploring different avenues. We had our first meeting with LDS Family Services and applied to be adoptive parents. It is a long, slow process, and we will see where it takes us.

We have seen many miracles along the way of making this decision. We decided to start out by talking to our bishop about the possibility of adopting. Unbeknownst to us, he has four children, all of whom are adopted. He said that he and his wife tried to have children for several years, and have found adoption to be the answer to their prayers.

There is also another couple in our ward that just got approved by LDS Family Services to adopt.

Right now, we are just leaving it all up to the Lord. We know that what is supposed to happen will happen.

If you know of anyone who might know of children that might go up for adoption, please please please let them know that we are open for it!

Canning

2011-08-04T15:44:00.000-07:00

I have felt very strongly lately that we need to beef up our food storage. Well, today, we did it!

We went to the Lindon cannery and canned black beans and macaroni. That gave us the chance to buy other canned goods as well.

Then we borrowed a learned how to use a home canner, borrowed it, and brought it home to can rice and flour. The reason is that I am picky about my rice and flour, and you can't bring stuff into the Lindon Cannery to do there. So, we got one to bring home.

This is the pile of boxes and the set up canning machine.

This is Chris sealing the cans with the machine. It is actually a way cool process!
This is the finished product! I thought of a new, INGENIOUS place to store the cans so they don't have to be in the garage with the heat! Check it out:

On the stairs that lead to nowhere! What a great idea! I know, I know, I am proud! Now, when I can 18 cans during our relief society activity, I know exactly where I will put them!

Summer Vacation

2011-07-30T19:42:00.000-07:00

For our summer vacation, we decided to go to Georgia to visit Chris's family. It was a fantastic visit! When his parents picked us up from the airport, we went to an Atlanta Braves game. I had never been to a Major League Baseball game before, so I wanted to see one. It was super fun. It was actually the Atlanta Braves's 10,000th win, so there were fireworks after the game. Funny that we would be there for that!

Our seats were very close to the game!

The next day, Chris's Dad's work got a box at the Gwinnett Braves game, so we actually got to do two games in the weekend! We got some great food during the 2nd game, which was fabulous!

We went to Stone Mountain in Georgia as well. It was super cool to see the carving, the fireworks show, and the antebellum houses that are there.

We also went to the city of Roswell, Georgia, and saw a really cool historic house. We also saw lots of other cool, Atlanta stuff, such as the CNN center.

Then we drove from Georgia to Virginia to spend time with Chris's brother who lives in Alexandria. We had so much fun seeing Washington DC and playing with nephews!

I have never been to the Smithsonian Museum of American History, and it was open this time!! I was super excited!! We told Chris's family goodbye and spent several hours there, and I basked in my geekiness. I have about a million pictures of the cool stuff that I saw, but I will spare you most of them. Except for the one of the Muppets. We saw things like the table at Appomattox Court House, the hat Abraham Lincoln wore when he died, a ship used in the Revolutionary War, and the flag that the Star Spangled Banner was written for. Cool!

We also saw some other DC sites as well.

We went to Monticello, Thomas Jefferson's home, and toured it. I absolutely loved seeing all the historic sites, and knowing Jefferson's personality made them even more cool.

Here are some tunnels leading from the kitchen to Monticello. So Jefferson, just like lots of other stuff there.

It was a fabulous trip, and it was wonderful to be with family! We love you guys so much!
Oh, and we were able to see my brother while we were there too! Here are some dinner shots with both brothers and families!

The first fruit (or vegetable?) of our labors

2011-07-11T09:04:00.000-07:00

A zucchini. We are so proud. My dad says that third world countries have not discovered the zucchini yet. He is right. They grow, no matter what! But we are still proud.

The prophet said to plant a garden

2011-07-08T09:52:00.000-07:00

That's what my brother said every time we complimented his wife on her flower garden. So funny.
But we have a real live vegetable garden in our backyard.
We left this week to celebrate the Fourth of July with my family (more on that later . . . )
And when we came back, our garden had erupted.
Which is great.
So we weeded this morning and then I took some pictures.
Here is the overall garden:

And some of the things in it:

Turnips--any idea of what to do with turnips? Not my idea, by the way

Strawberries . . . yum!

Beans

Pumpkins

And cucumbers . . . I'm not sure which is which. But when I look closely, I can tell.

Corn--so the rule is "knee high by the Fourth of July." It definitely was not knee high before we left last week. But, when we came back, it had exploded! We are very excited!

Onions. These are a transplant from Chris's classroom.

We are quite proud of our little garden. We planted it, unsure of exactly what would happen. And this is what we got. Yippee!

Yard Work

2011-06-24T15:30:00.000-07:00

We got to rent our house for cheap with the expectation that we would take care of the yard. It has been an adventure! One of our shrubs has been dying, and today, Chris put an end to its misery! Now, our side planter looks much better and healthier! Yay! He got pretty messy while doing it, though . . .

Happy Summer!

2011-06-21T20:32:00.000-07:00

It is summer, and we are loving it. Chris is teaching summer school the first three days of the week (That means long weekend every weekend--hurray!). He is also taking classes for his master's program. I am keeping busy, and doing things that I have been putting off through the school year. I have been scrapbooking, and babysitting my niece and nephews. We love summer!

Andrea running the Utah Valley 1/2 marathon. She did awesome! She has actually inspired Chris to start training to run. Cool.

I babysat my niece and nephews one day for my brother and sister-in-law. We played in the sprinkler, which was WAY fun! At one point, I decided not to put the little one, Charlie, in his swimsuit. And he ended up being the one who soaked himself the most with water. Anna and Max played the "let's see how close we can get to the sprinkler without getting wet" game. Charlie played the "let's see how wet I can get" game. Fun times.

Bargain shoppers

2011-06-02T21:38:00.000-07:00

Ever since we moved into our new place, we have used a card table as our dining room table. So we really wanted a good dining room table. We have been hunting ever since we moved, and had decided that we wanted a round one. We went to RC Willey a few weeks ago, and found the PERFECT dining room set for $850--not the perfect price.
On Memorial Day, we stopped by the South Jordan RC Willey outlet store, on a whim. We found the EXACT dining room table. FOR $148!! So we bought it.
While Chris was picking it up with his Explorer, I went to the DownEast Outfitter store. I found chairs for $52 each because they had been discounted. But they were having a 30% off sale. So they were $36 each. We bought six. And they match perfectly!
So we got a dining room set that was originally $850 for under $300. Sweet! That makes us love it even more!

We love riding our bicycles!

2011-05-28T19:23:00.000-07:00

For Memorial Day, we purchased new bicycles! Now that we have a garage, we will hopefully be able to keep them from getting stolen. My cousin called me on Friday night, and said that she wanted to run on the Provo River Trail, so we kept her company while she ran. We covered eleven miles! It was super fun!

At Bridal Veil Falls

I thought I was so smart because I had a helmet, so I didn't need to purchase one. We took it with us to use on the trail. The clasp was broken, so we used my cousin's duct tape to hold it in place during the ride. It looked pretty cool! Needless to say, I now own another helmet.

Going back East

2011-04-20T19:10:00.000-07:00

For Spring Break, I went with the other history teachers in my school district back East to visit Civil War sites. This year is the 150th anniversary of the Civil War, which is somewhat of a big deal. It was VERY cool to go see those sites with 24 other American History teachers who were just as interested in them as I am. A WHOLE WEEK of geekiness! What could be more fun? I had my SLR camera with me, and had fun taking some awesome photos. I took a ton of pictures! Here are just SOME of the highlights . . .

I know that the bus in back is kind of lame, but the canons in a line are kind of cool.

A statue to honor Abraham Lincoln and his visit to Richmond, VA after the Union won. The entire city was burned to the ground from the Southerners deciding that they wanted to get rid of their cotton. It was quite devastating to the president, because he knew that he had to put the country back together.

The land fought in at Petersburg.

In Ford's Theater, by the box President Lincoln was shot in.

At Antietam

A canon at Gettysburg

My favorite picture ever, at the Gettysburg cemetery.

The Civil War soldiers at Fort McHenry

On my free night in Alexandria, I met up with Colby and Maria. Hooray for family!


Colby and I are remembering where we parked. Yes, we are goofballs!

Tour of our new house and a fun weekend!

2011-04-03T14:29:00.000-07:00

A lot has been happening lately, and blogging has not been one of those things. But, I am happy to announce a tour of our new place!

Here is the guest bedroom. We got the bookshelves at Office Depot, when we went there on a whim. Cool.

Our guest room also doubles as an office.

Here is our living room. We love it! There is a double door that can also be closed to make it a 3rd bedroom.

More living room and the new 42" TV that we bought and the entertainment center that we bought to put it on.

Chris making grilled cheese sandwiches in our wonderful kitchen.

Behind him is the door to the best part--the garage.

The bathroom

Our bedroom--we have room for Chris to walk by the bed, even with the bookshelf there, and not kick the bed, which is GREAT!

Yes, we have a total of THREE closets in our bedroom alone. This place has a lot more closet space.

The stairs leading to nowhere--and our dining room

Our yard, which we are in charge of. We have a garden!

We have two fruit trees--an apple tree and an apricot tree

For General Conference weekend, Mom and Dad and Casey came to visit and stay with us. Mom and Dad stayed in the guest room, and Casey was able to shut the door in the living room and take out the sleeper sofa for his own private room. It was great fun to have them here. Gosh, we love family!

Taylor and Katie came over on Sunday, and brought their kids. Casey read them some of our books.

And Charlie was amazed at how Grandma had a camera that flashed. Amazing.

Anyway, that is our place! We get a TON more space than we had before, which we love. It is close to my work, so Chris just drops me off on the way to his work in the mornings. We love our house.

Does anyone need somewhere to stay in Orem? Give us a call if you are interested!

Mixed feelings . . .

2011-03-07T19:25:00.000-08:00

I am having a mix of emotions flooding me right now. You see, I am moving out of the place that I have lived for five years. Chris has lived with me for two of those five years. Here are some things that have happened while I have lived here (in no particular order):

Went on vacation to China and came home to find that everything was clean and the way that I left it! Amazing! I have done that on several other vacations too!
Learned the ins and outs of Lowe's and Home Depot.
Had many friends, dates, and eventually a husband come over here and play with me.
Fallen in love.
Been proposed to.
Received the phone call to say that my grandma die.
Watched several movies and TV shows, including, most notably, the Ken Burns's Civil War and most of the first season of Lost here.
Had 15 people over in my tiny family room watching a movie here.
Had the Rusch family over for Thanksgiving, and somehow pulled it off to host it here. That was truly amazing!
Experienced the adventures of shopping for furniture, a piano, a new water heater, paint, carpeting, flooring, and much more to make this place complete.
Gotten many callings here, including Relief Society presidency (a few of those), Primary Presidency, and bishopric.
Made many many meals in our kitchen.
Had a lot of family members come to visit, including:

Chris's dad, who came to set him apart as a high priest.
Chris's mom, who came to stay for a little while.
My mom, who came to help with the birth of my nephew.
Our niece, who came for a couple of sleepovers.
Our brothers, when they have needed a place to stay because their BYU apartments have kicked them out.
Other brothers, who just came for fun.

Read many books.
Laughed a lot.
Cried a lot.
Slept in.
Woke up early.
Stayed up late.
Got a Wii to play video games and watch Netflix on.
Done a lot of studying.
Went to the Provo Library to use their internet because I was too cheap to get my own to pay for during three weeks of being in China.

There are many more experiences, in fact, too many to mention. I always said that I would cry when I leave this place. And I am right now. But I know that it is just time to close one book and open another one!

The joys of moving

2011-03-06T09:17:00.000-08:00

One of the not-so-great parts about moving out of this TINY apartment is that we don't have very much room to move in! At all! Behold . . .

But, progress is being made!

Crazy week

2011-03-05T09:00:00.000-08:00

This has been kind of a crazy week for the Rusch family. At the beginning of the week, I found a place listed on Craigslist.org that I thought was fantastic looking. I have been somewhat "stalking" craigslist for the last few months, hoping to find the perfect place to move to. Part of the reason is that I am a bit compulsive, and just wanted to find the perfect place for when we actually move out of our condo. Anyway, I found a post that looked really perfect for us, and the price was right at $750. I asked Chris if he wanted to go see it with me, and he was busy with his grad school work. I saw it as important enough that I should go see it by myself. So, I did. And, sure enough, it was soooo cute! I applied for it, but I knew that there had been like 9 other applications, so I was kind of scared. I dragged Chris to it that night, and we had a fabulous visit with the guy that lives there, and he decided that he loved it to. The tenant said that he would call the landlord and recommend us. We had a little "interview" with the landlord on Wednesday, and he called early Thursday morning and offered it to us! We are moving in a week! Aaahhh! We are going to become landlords and put our place up for rent instead of selling it. We have been trying to sell it for a year, and it has not work, so we have decided that Heavenly Father must want us to go a different way!

Here are the pictures that made me fall in love with the place! I am sure that, when we first move in, it will not look nearly this cute. But it will improve!

We love taking the weekend off!

2011-02-23T17:51:00.000-08:00

For President's Day, we decided to take Friday off. Monday was already a holiday, so we enjoyed a four-day weekend, which was great!

Instead of the traditional President's Day at the cabin, we went to a district basketball game of Casey's. His team WON!! At HIGHLAND!! (this is a big deal . . . )

Chris also got his hair cut by Grandma Davis. From seeing the previous blog post, he told me that it was time. I relented.

Other things we did that don't have pictures attached . . . we slept in, watched an episode of Lost, went to the temple, went to church, saw Grandma and Grandpa speak in sacrament meeting in their ward, went to a movie, and just hung out!

Being home was WONDERFUL!! We love spending time with family and just relaxing!! Thanks for a great weekend, family.

Casey during a time out with the team

I took SO MANY pictures of the game. This is just one . . .

You can for sure see Casey on the bench! He's the tallest!

Our friend Superfan

Grandma giving Chris the fantastic buzz cut!

A very special visitor

2011-02-12T18:58:00.000-08:00

Because we don't have kids (yet), we sometimes borrow them from our brothers. Ever since we had her come stay with us in May, Anna has been begging to come back. So we had her back this weekend.
We had a TON of fun. We made Valentines for her family, went to Pizza Pie Cafe, went to the Bean Museum, watched Despicable Me, and had German pancakes in the morning. We are so grateful to Taylor and Katie for letting us borrow their daughter for the night!

Here are some pictures of hanging out at the Bean Museum:

This is what a rhino feels like.

Learning about starfish from Uncle Chris

Notice the missing bow. It was left at Pizza Pie Cafe, and joined us again later!

Photography lessons by me

2011-02-07T20:06:00.000-08:00

Tonight for FHE, we . . .

Watched LOST. We got a Wii, mainly so we could watch Netflix videos, and LOST has become our new obsession. We love it and feel like we know the characters in it!
Went to the Bean Museum on BYU campus. We actually got there right when the Reptile show was starting, so we saw . . .
REPTILES!

We went to the museum to try my camera out, and because our condo was being shown. It was pretty cool. And I found out this fascinating fact . . .

Telling your camera what kind of lighting you have makes a HUGE DIFFERENCE!

So, I took a bunch of other pictures with the new light setting, and think they turned out kind of cool!

This is the animal that Chris wants as a pet . . . a dik dik. Unfortunately, he found out that they don't make good pets. Darn.

My new camera

2011-01-30T20:02:00.000-08:00

For Christmas, I got a cool Canon SLR camera. I am still not an expert at it, but I am slowly getting a little bit better. Today, after Stake Conference, we took the camera on an outing to see if I could get it to do the things I wanted it to. Here are the results:

I am especially proud of the last couple. . . there were many more, but I will spare all the details!

Christmas 2010

2011-01-01T16:58:00.000-08:00

We had a fantastic Christmas break! We were both able to take off a couple of weeks, which was great. We went to Idaho Falls and hung out with our family. Taylor and Katie were there with their kids, and we had a Thanksgiving-Christmas dinner with them (because we all ditched out on Thanksgiving), and then did the musical soiree with them, which was a lot of fun. The best part was that during the "Christmas pageant" I did not have to play the part of Mary! It has been passed down to the next generation!

Casey had a basketball game (which was awesome, by the way!), and then Taylor and Katie left and we headed to the cabin.
We took a fabulous snowmobiling ride, then cut down a Christmas tree, and then decorated it.

Dad make Sukiyaki.

We got new Christmas pajamas.

We opened our Christmas presents and got a Blendtec blender, which is very cool! Chris has enjoyed all the Will It Blend snippets on YouTube, and is now very tempted to try and blend a rake handle, or an iPod.

We were sick the day after Christmas, but on the next day, went on a snowmobile ride to Mesa Falls, which was beautiful. We even saw some moose on our way!

We got to see a lot of good movies while we were home: Tangled, True Grit (our favorite!), The Tourist, and an edited Touching the Void.

It was a FANTASTIC break! Thanks, Mom and Dad, for the great time! We love you!

Sick, Sick, Sick

2010-12-31T21:02:00.000-08:00

The title describes how I feel. I have been laid pretty low with a nasty, nasty virus. I hope that I can get over it before I have to start work again on Monday. If you would like to donate to the Chris Rusch recovery fund, please send a check made out to cash to Chris Rusch.

With your help, we will pull through.

Chris

2010 Year in Review

2010-12-29T09:18:00.001-08:00

I have not blogged for a really, really, long time. Being in a bishopric, working full time, going to grad school after work, and just living has sucked away pretty much any free time I had before. But seeing that I am on Christmas break, I thought this would be a good opportunity to tell everyone about my year.

Last summer I started grad school. Back in November of 2009, I got accepted to a master of library science program at Clarion University in Pennsylvania. I was pretty excited about this program because it is totally online and there are no residency requirements. What do I mean by residency requirement? Well, some online programs offered through state universities have a residency requirement. Generally this means you go to the school's campus for a couple of weeks during the summer and go through some orientations. Clarion was a very attractive choice because it didn't have this sort of thing as part of the program making it a very attractive choice. Another bonus for Clarion was that they accepted the Miller's Analogy Test as opposed to the dread GRE. Because I did really well on the Miller's and not so well on the GRE, Clarion was second choice behind the University of Alabama. Well, choosing a school was easy because I got accepted to Clarion and did not get accepted to Alabama so by simple process of elimination I chose Clarion.

So far I have completed three classes. The classes I completed are cataloging and classification, collection development, and, favorite class so far, introduction to social research. Next semester I am going to take two classes, can't remember what they are at the moment, but I am confident I will enjoy them just as much as I have enjoyed by other classes.

Grad school has been a great experience. Education and the pursuit of knowledge is a noble endeavor and whether you do it through a university program or self educate with a library card and a hunger for knowledge you are undertaking something noble and your life will be enriched as a result.

Last October marked one year as a member of a bishopric. For those who don't know local Mormon congregations, called wards, have three men who serve as leaders for the congregation. Right now I am the second counselor to our bishop and another man from our ward serves as the first. There are times when it requires lots of time and attention but overall it has been a very good experience. I don't think anyone should seek out this kind of think, I know I did not, but if something like this comes your way it could turn out to be a very good thing.

Work has had some ups and downs. Last summer I transfered from teaching on the children's unit at the Utah State Hospital to teaching on the girls' unit. That was quite the adjustment and I will get to go through yet another one as I temporarily make a switch to working on the boys unit. The reason for the temporary change is that so many girls have gotten discharged in the past couple of weeks that there are not enough students to justify having two classrooms for girls. So, our principle decided that I will work with boys until the numbers on girls come back up. I liked working girls, am looking to working with boys, but I am looking forward to getting the girls back (the boys don't have the best hygiene and so they really smell).

Well, that's about it from me. I guess that I will post again in about eleven months.

Chris

Happy Birthday to us!

2010-12-20T19:31:00.000-08:00

December is always party month for the Rusch family because it is both of our birthdays! Here is an account of what we did in pictures:

Chris with all his loot

Chris opening his presents. We actually found that the books that I gave him are available on kindle, so we took them back.

The President Monson book. Should be a good one.

I found the movie "Inception" at the grocery store and bought it for him as a surprise the night before.

At Tucano's with Taylor and Katie. We are both members of the birthday club at Tucano's, and you get a free meal with someone else paying. So that we aren't COMPLETE gluttons, we take other people with us.

Me with my presents

I got a great sweater!

I also got a calendar

We went to "The Roof" on Friday to celebrate my birthday

At the Joseph Smith Memorial Building

I can make an apple pie, Billy Boy, Billy Boy

2010-12-15T18:49:00.000-08:00

OK, so the one in the picture is not a cherry pie. But I can actually make one of those too. Thanks to the refrigerated Pillsbury pie crusts, I found out over Thanksgiving that I am not scared to make pies. In fact, we made two--one for my birthday and one for the people that Chris home teachers--in less than an hour. Way to go, us! P.S. I am also trying my hand at good picture taking, in anticipation of the neat-o camera that I am getting for Christmas. What do you think?

Take THAT!!

2010-12-09T18:56:00.000-08:00

This morning, I got ready for school, and needed to have Chris zip up the back of my shirt. I thought nothing of it. Then I went to school and had a super long day. 12 hours of a super long day. The positive part was that I got to wear a new pair of boots, and that was fabulous. Anyway, I got home from my super long day, and Chris was not home. He was doing tithing settlement. And I could not take off my shirt without his help. Problem. I called him and asked him when he was coming home. Finally I couldn't stand it any more. I had to cut my shirt off. Good thing it only costed $3!

It's beginning to look a lot like Chris Rusch

2010-12-01T19:42:00.000-08:00

Those are the words that Chris sings to the song. We are more prepared than ever for Christmas this year! And tonight, we set up our tree and Christmas decorations. If we had a bigger place, we would put up more decorations, but this will have to do for now! We listened to Pandora on my iPod touch while putting it all together--what a great night!

Our Thanksgiving

2010-11-30T18:05:00.000-08:00

Our original plan was to enjoy a peaceful Thanksgiving celebration in Idaho Falls. However, Chris's brother was admitted to the hospital, and his parents had to take an emergency flight to Utah from Atlanta, so we decided to be sociable and stay with the family that only comes here every now and then. That meant, however, that I was IN CHARGE of our Thanksgiving dinner. I did not sleep at all on the Sunday before, because I was so worried about it. I was not really worried about cooking it all--I have seen my parents do that on several occasions. I was worried about fitting SEVEN people in my little condo. But, Chris's mom came early in the morning and helped me cook, and everything turned out fantastically! Of course, we had plenty of help. A BIG thanks goes out to Chris's mom for her help, and to our wonderful neighbors across the street who let us use their oven when we found that our smoker died. We were supposed to get a blizzard on Tuesday, but didn't. However, Tuesday wound up being a GREAT day to go to the grocery stores! Matt is recovering well, and we were able to celebrate a GREAT Thanksgiving together. On Friday night, we went to see the *brand new* lights on temple square. Chris's parents were so excited about that, because they have never seen the lights there before. It was a splendid time had by all, and we are so glad that we were able to spend it with family! The picture of Chris and his brothers is by the center mark in Salt Lake that marks where all streets are measured from. Thanks to Matt, the geography major, we learned about it. Cool.

Eating like Pilgrims

2010-11-30T17:52:00.000-08:00

I have wanted to do this for a few years, and we finally decided to swallow the price and do it. We went to Thanksgiving Point to their Eat Like a Pilgrim celebration. It was fantastic! We got to try some fabulous Pilgrim dishes, such as Corn Pudding, and some not-so-fabulous Pilgrim dishes, such as Stewed Pumpkin. The only utensils that we had was a knife and a spoon. What a riot! Chris got to fire the Pilgrim musket, which was tons of fun. We sang a pilgrim song before eating, and said a Pilgrim prayer on the food. Chris got to try oyster (I passed), and pet animals. I got to enjoy talking with my friends that I went to Montana with last summer. They were helping out with the extravaganza. If anyone gets a chance to go in the future, I totally recommend it! Next time, I will take my camera so that I have pictures to show for it!

Happy Halloween or Merry Christmas?

2010-10-31T18:07:00.000-07:00

I feel that this is something worth blogging about. For the first, and perhaps the only time, we have eachother's Christmas presents picked out and bought on Halloween. You see, when you both have birthdays in December, you have to plan early for such occasions!
Last week, we went to Costco and saw the camera that I have been researching for several months there. It came with everything--a case, a couple of extra lenses, an extra memory card, and 100 free photos from Costco. So we bought it.
Chris has been researching computers for . . . about a week . . . okay, that is less time than I have been researching. But he has been pretty serious about it. He needs it for Grad School. I bought it for him tonight.
So, right now, all we need to worry about is Christmas presents for our families and friends! We are all taken care of! Yippee! What do you want?

Go cougars!

2010-10-24T16:46:00.000-07:00

My parents came down to Provo for the football game. They bought tickets for all of us, which was very nice. Taylor and Katie came and brought their kids, which was a ton of fun! The cougars won (which was kind of a surprise!), the weather was beautiful, and we got to play with some pretty cute kids too! You should have seen Anna and Max's eyes when they looked at my BYU brownie--they looked like they had not been fed all day! Here are a few pictures of the fun:

Anna and Max drawing during the game. Katie pulled out a pad of princess paper, and told Anna that it was for her. Anna said that she really hoped that it was!

All of the family

Playing with Charlie

Anna looking through the binoculars

Uncle Casey playing with Anna and Max

Grandpa giving Charlie a ride

Dear Sweet Grandma Erickson

2010-09-26T19:46:00.000-07:00

On Thursday morning, we lost our dear sweet Grandma Erickson. The funeral is this week. There have been a lot of tears shed, and a lot still to come. We will miss her greatly, as she was always so sweet to us and called us "her darlings." We went up to play with her in Sandy whenever we could. Here is a picture of Grandma at our wedding, one of the last trips she took away from her place in Sandy. We love you, Grandma, and are glad that you are back with Grandpa again!

Happy Labor Day!

2010-09-16T16:45:00.000-07:00

For Labor Day, we visited Mom and Dad in Idaho. We went to Island Park and headed to Yellowstone, which was fantastic! We love the National Parks! It was a good break, and really the end of our summer! It's been a great one!

Two years ago today . . .

2010-08-24T19:11:00.000-07:00

I met this boy. I thought he was actually pretty cool, unlike some of the boys I had met before through LDSSingles. So I invited him over for dinner with my brother and sister-in-law the next night. He came, and liked my family. They liked him too.

Like they say, the rest is history. Two years later, we are married. For our two year anniversary of meeting, we went to Gloria's Little Italy, which is the place where we met for the first time.

FLORIDA!!

2010-08-19T08:56:00.000-07:00

On Friday, we caught a plane to sunny Florida. The original plan was to do a cruise with Caribbean Cruise Line (Yes, there really is a separate cruise line called Caribbean. It's not Royal Caribbean or anything). We got to the Salt Lake Airport, and they asked to see our IDs. I KNEW that I had packed our passports, but they were not in my travel folder. So we called the cruise line, and they said that it would be no problem. We might not be able to get off the boat, but we would definitely be able to get on. So, we got on the plane. We were dead tired when we reached the Hominy Inn near Fort Lauderdale, Florida. It was a complete dive, but we didn't care.
The next morning, we were supposed to go pick up our tickets for the cruise. They informed us that we wouldn't be able to get on the boat without our passports. I called my parents, and my dad searched our condo high and low for them (bless his heart), but was unable to find them. So, we made our lemons into lemonade! We called Chris's aunt and uncle, and stayed at their place, and went to Disney World, which was about an hour away from where they lived.
It ended up being a fantastic vacation that we loved! We went to Epcot, then spent a few minutes in the Magic Kingdom, where we saw the Electric Light Parade. The next day, we went to Disney's Animal Kingdom and Disney's Hollywood. We were also able to have a fantastic time with Chris's aunt and uncle. They treated us like royalty, and we had a lot of fun visiting with them. All in all, it was a successful trip!
Oh, and then we got back and found the passports in our car! They had fallen out of my folder during the drive to the airport!

A fun week with family

2010-07-18T21:25:00.000-07:00

As teachers, summers are the BEST! We love that we get time to go on fun vacations, so here is another one!
Chris's parents came to Utah, and we took a trip down to the National Parks in Southern Utah with them and his brothers. It was a blast. First, we went to Moab and to Arches National Park. We left on Tuesday, and visited Canyonlands and did a hike to Delicate Arch early Wednesday morning. We made it to the top! It actually was not nearly as bad of a hike as it was last year, because we are a lot more in shape!

Then, we went to Zion's National Park. We have been through Zion's a few times, but just driven through without doing any hiking or anything. It was HOT there--like 113 degrees! But we did do a little bit of hiking and such, which was a lot of fun. We also visited the St. George Temple and some other sites in St. George that were rather fun.

The next day, we were tired from all the hiking and everything! So we spent a little while driving through Cedar Breaks National Monument and Bryce Canyon National Park, which are some of our personal favorites as far as national parks go. We spent the night attending Macbeth at the Utah Shakespearean Festival. It was fantastic. We even got to see Elder Oaks while we were there!

It was so much fun to spend the time with family. We got a great place to stay in Cedar City. It was a vacation townhouse rental, which was fun, because we could all be together the whole time. Dad also rented a suburban for us. It was the last trip for this year's National Parks Pass, so it has done us a lot of good--definitely paid for itself! All in all, it was a wonderful trip!

Demolition Derby

2010-07-12T18:32:00.000-07:00

We went to the Demolition Derby in Logan with my friend. It was surprisingly cool! They just have these old, beat-up cars that come and run into each other! Highlights of the day . . .

Watching cars smash each other

And trucks too!

At half time, all the kids in the audience came into the arena and danced to the music provided by a band. Before, they were all on the sidelines, and there was one 12-year-old kid thrusting his pelvis by himself in the middle of the arena.

Closing remarks . . . Getting into the Derby--$8 each, Dinner at Arby's before--$6 each, Seeing this lady cheering . . . priceless!

Lewis and Clark

2010-06-28T21:33:00.000-07:00

I got the chance to go to Great Falls, Montana last week with the other U.S. History teachers in my district as part of the Teaching American History grant. I had a fantastic time! It was fun to be with other teachers, who have the same dorky things that they are interested in, and find our more about the Lewis and Clark Expedition. Here are highlights of the week:We rafted the Missouri River. It was amazing to know that Lewis and Clark went against the current on their way to the Pacific Ocean!

It was a great ride. On our first ride, we stopped for lunch at the side of the river, which was beautiful. One of the great things in the place was a three-sided outhouse, that had "Lewis and Clark Urinal" engraved on the back.

We saw the Great Falls of Great Falls, Montana

We went on a tour of the portages, and also the place where Lewis and Clark had to make a decision about which river to use. I tell you what--they were tough! That portaging was a TON of work!

We also went to Fort Benton, and had an awesome guide. He was dressed up like a mountain man, and told us about how the mountain men were friends with the Indians, because they sold the Indians goods. Very cool.

We saw the bison from the Smithsonian museum in Washington D.C.

Another rafting trip:

We saw the Buffalo Jump at Buffalo Jump State Park. OK, crazy story! So the tribes of Indians would appoint a teenage boy to lead the buffalo off the cliff! There was a BIG chance that he would die in the process! Wow! We also played some great Indian games there.

And we went to the Lewis and Clark Expedition Festival. We thought it was going to be WAY bigger than it was, but it was still cool. We saw people telling us about stuff like the weapons used by Lewis and Clark, old canoes, and Native American dances.

OK, now the funny part of the story. In Great Falls, there is a bar called the Sip 'n Dip. It is located at a hotel, and they have girls dress up as mermaids and swim in the pool. They also have an 85-year-old lady, named Piano Pat, who comes to play the organ. It is funny.

Anyway, a very cool trip. I learned a lot and had a lot of fun. But, like always, it is good to be home!

Free stuff!

2010-06-25T21:17:00.001-07:00

So I was just on facebook and checked out my friend's (ok, friend of a friend) blog for a free giveaway! Cool! Check it out!

Summer Vacation

2010-06-05T21:27:00.000-07:00

After the end of school, we had a week to take a vacation before Chris's summer school and graduate school starts. It was so much fun! We went to Mesa Verde National Park. It was great fun! I took TONS of pictures, and here are just a few. One of the great parts of teaching junior high history is that all of the money that we spent will be able to be reimbursed at tax time. We kept all of our receipts for the reimbursements! When we went to the Visitors Center to get tickets for the tours of the ruins, we told the lady that we wanted to see everything. Seeing the ruins made Chris feel like he was visiting a foreign country.

Chris squeezing through the tights tunnel at Balcony House. It was a tight squeeze!

We saw a lizard on one of our tours. He loved having his picture taken!

Long house was one of our favorites! It is so cool to see how the Anasazi people lived!

After Mesa Verde, we went to Durango, Colorado and took a train ride to Silverton on the Narrow Gauge Railroad. It was tons of fun to see this gorgeous world we live in!

Then, we met our ward at Youth Conference at Zion Ponderosa. We had a ton of fun with the youth in our ward. Our ward had a cabin, which we filled with 25 or so people. It was a great time. There was a foosball table in the loft that the boys decided that they should move outside. So funny!

This is our mini-golf group. We had a great time relaxing, but are glad to be home again for a somewhat normal life!

A very special little visitor

2010-06-05T20:58:00.000-07:00

On the last day of school, we got to borrow our niece for a sleepover. It was so fun to spend time with her and to get to spoil her rotten. First, we played with her "princesses," read some books, and pretended like we went shopping at a pet store. Then, we went to Pizza Pie Cafe, which is a great place to take kids. She ate way more dessert than dinner, but we didn't care! We went to a ward party and stayed for a little while while she enjoyed running around the gym. When she was sick of that, we came home, got her ready for bed, and watched Shrek from the bed in the living room. The hope was for her to fall asleep while the movie was going. She stayed awake the whole time, but Chris fell asleep! After Shrek, I kissed her goodnight and gave her some books and some princesses. I saw her a little while later, reading books to the princesses. I tried to sneak into the living room and take a picture of her. She saw me, but she was not shy to have a picture taken. Then she posed reading her books to the princess and the stuffed lion she borrowed from us. I heard her talking in the living room a little while later, so I sat up and asked her if she was okay. She said, "Yeah. I'm just saying my prayers." We had already said prayers with her before Shrek. What a sweet girl! In the morning, we enjoyed some chocolate chip pancakes together. Like I say, not the healthiest thing, but when you are an aunt, you can spoil her rotten! We are so lucky to have the cutest niece!

Ode to trekking poles

2010-05-15T10:44:00.000-07:00

Without knowing it, I married a man who loves to hike. Now, this comes from a girl who would do ANYTHING IN THE WORLD to get out of participating in the hike at girl's camp when I was younger. This summer, we are going to go on many vacations with hiking involved. We are going to Mesa Verde, Arches National Park, Zion's National Park, and Bryce Canyon National Park. A few weeks ago, we decided to do a hike up Rock Canyon in Provo. After the hike, Chris suggested that we get some trekking poles to help our journey. Today, we tried them out. They make hiking a lot easier and more bearable! They help with balance, and take the strain off of my knees. I am in favor of trekking poles, although they did make my arms a little sore!

Friends are the best!

2010-05-14T18:47:00.000-07:00

I love my friends! I haven't seen this friend in YEARS, and it was just like old times getting together with her. Last time I saw her, she was getting married in 2005. Now, she has a beautiful baby, and I have a husband too. Yeah that we are still friends!

Happy Birthday week!

2010-05-12T20:08:00.000-07:00

We have three birthdays in our families in the same week--whew! Mom Rusch's was yesterday, Mom Davis's is today, and Matt's is tomorrow. We sent Mom Rusch flowers, gave Mom Davis some books while we were home for Mother's Day, and had dinner with Matt and Nate today for Matt's birthday. Happy Birthday to all!

New Haircut

2010-04-27T17:19:00.000-07:00

What do you think? Sometimes it's nice to get a good summer haircut!

Dumpster Diving

2010-04-19T06:35:00.000-07:00

On Saturday, I went through my closet and found clothes that I haven't worn in a while and wanted to take to the D.I. Of course, I hadn't totally parted with them, so I wanted them to go to my car for a few days so that I could think about it. So, I put them by our door in a garbage sack and went to see a friend who was in town. When I got back, the sack had disappeared. This was the conversation that ensued.
Me: Where did my D.I. clothes go?
Chris: Where did you put them?
Me: By the door.
Chris: I think I threw them away.
Me: We had a conversation about how it was my D.I. pile.
Chris: Well, you shouldn't have put them by the other garbage by the door
Me: The other garbage was NOT by the door when I put them there. You moved it!
We went out to the dumpster to see if they were by chance on top of the big, smelly heap of garbage. They were not. Chris offered to put on boots and dig through it to see if he could find the missing clothes. I informed him that even if he did find the clothes, I would not wear them once they had been dug out of the trash.

One Year Down, Eternity to go!

2010-04-11T20:59:00.000-07:00

So, this is a picture of us about a year ago . . .

And this is a picture of us now . . .

OK, so we look a little stoned and not all gussied up in this picture, but really not much has changed!

April 11th is our one year anniversary! Because we both had Spring Break the week before (thank you, school districts, for making them happen at the same time!), we pretty much celebrated our anniversary all week.
First, we went home to Idaho Falls, and went to the cabin with Mom and Dad. Casey was in Florida with the band, so it was just us! It was a lot of fun, and kind of a special treat to be at the cabin with just Mom and Dad. On the way up, it was blizzarding hard. Chris asked if we could go snowmobiling, to which Mom and Dad said that there was probably no way. Well, we got up there and decided that between sessions of General Conference, we should try it. It was a blast! We actually broke trail on trails in some spots!

We knew that we needed to get anniversary gifts for each other. If you look up traditional and modern anniversary gifts, they are paper and clocks. Instead, we decided to get each other sandals to help start out the summer!

After great fun in Island Park and Idaho Falls, we came home, cleaned our house, packed up, and headed to Salt Lake City for a couple of days. We had a great time! We went to the Church Historic Library, the new Deseret Book flagship store, and hung out at Gateway Mall for a while. We went to the new Alice in Wonderland movie (fantastic, by the way), and had dinner at the Stoneground Restaurant in Salt Lake. We got a groupon to eat there, and thought it was fantastic. It's a little "hole in the wall" restaurant that is actually on the second floor of a building.

It was way cool. We have a tradition at the Gateway of getting cookies to eat, because they are very good, and it's a lot of fun to do.

Then, on Saturday, we drove to Pocatello and saw the Dodge National Circuit Finals Rodeo. We met Mom and Dad and Grandma and Grandpa Davis there. It was a really long trip (3 hours there, and 3 hours back), but a lot of fun!

That's the anniversary in a nutshell!

One year

2010-04-02T06:51:00.000-07:00

Like Chris has said, it is almost Spring Break. Spring Break starts on Monday, but to me, it starts today at 3:00. That is when we are headed out for a long weekend with my family.
Spring Break also means that it has been a year since we got married. That is kind of hard to believe! Part of me thinks that it seems a lot longer ago that we got married, part of me thinks that we got married last week, and part of me thinks that one year seems just about right.
I have learned a lot in the last year, and so has Chris. I am excited that I will learn much more as this experience continues, and that we will do it together.

Spring Break

2010-03-29T11:51:00.000-07:00

Only five more days 'til spring break.

Spring Break

2010-03-25T07:16:00.000-07:00

Every night Tina and I do a little bit to plan our upcoming spring break. We are pretty lucky. This year our spring breaks are during the first week in April which is great. I know that I am really, really, looking forward to this.

Here is a bit of insider information on what it is like to be a teacher. The first semester is pretty good. It is hard to feel burnt out because there is at least one three day weekend in September, fall break in October, the Thanksgiving holiday, and finally, the week and a half to two weeks we get at Christmas. Just when you are feeling like you are going to implode there is a break that gives you time to rest and recharge.

The second semester is different. January really isn't a problem because you have just come back from Christmas break rested and recharged. In February there is President's day. But, once you pass Presidents' day you enter the empty quarter of days off. There is not a single day of vacation from the middle of February until the second week of April and it is brutal.

Now if you are reading this, you might be thinking,"This guy is a whiner." But I will say to you, until you spend a month in a classroom with six kids with severe mental illness and you would want a day or two to regain your sanity.

Being a teacher is tough because there are no breaks in the day. Your lunches and periods of the day when you don't have kids are spent making lesson plans, planning units, and, if you happen to be a special education teacher, spent dealing with the Everests of paperwork which go along with that. Aside from that there is the day-to-day grind of telling Johnny not to put pencils up his nose, telling Sally no she can't go to the bathroom because she just went five minutes ago and then reassuring her that she does not have a mouse's bladder and will be fine (really, she just wants to leave the classroom and you know this is true because you did the same thing when you were in school :-)

All in all I love my work. I love working with kids. I love being here to see kids make progress and move on to better things. So with these things in mind, I can survive one more week, and then will finish out the year in a blaze of glory.

Chris

p.s. For those of you wondering, the football player at the top is defensive lineman "Mean" Joe Greene of the famed Pittsburgh Steelers steel curtain defensive line.

Caucusing

2010-03-23T20:56:00.000-07:00

Today, I am proud to say, we were responsible citizens. We attended our precinct's caucus. It all started with my primary president canceling our presidency meeting tonight because the first presidency recommended that we attend our local caucus meeting. I emailed Chris and told him that it was canceled and why, and he proceeded to look up the letter from the first presidency, and make the rest of our ward aware of it. Thus, all of our ward canceled tonight's meetings in order to go to caucus. As a US History teacher, I am embarrassed to say that I was not even aware of what a caucus meeting was. So I was about to be educated. Anyway, we got together, said a prayer and the pledge of allegiance, and had read to us the statement of the Utah Republican party. Then, the incumbent caucus vice-chairman told us that our goal for the night was to elect a new chairman, vice-chairman, secretary, and treasurer for the precinct. Then, we had to elect representatives who would accompany the chairman and vice-chairman to the county meeting and the state meeting. The people that we elected would need to serve for two years, which put Chris and I out of the races, since we are trying to move out of the precinct soon. (PLEASE! Look at our condo!)
Anyway, it was an interesting meeting, but there was one part that we agreed was a bit scary. One of the people running for office compared President Obama to Osama bin Laden. Wow. We thought that was a bit harsh. Chris thought the guy was to a degree mentally unstable, but then again, yeah, he was nuts.
If you ever have the chance to attend your caucus's meetings, I recommend doing so. It is an interesting way of seeing our government at work.

I get to teach today!

2010-03-02T08:35:00.000-08:00

I have had student teachers for the past few months, and I still have them, but today, I get to teach 2 classes! It is funny how excited I am! I really haven't done this in a while, and I am introducing the Culminating Project on traveling in the 1850s in America. I'm the one who did one of these, so I will teach on how to do it! Yay!

Getting sick

2010-02-24T13:38:00.000-08:00

One of the bummers about being alive (see the previous post) is that we are mortal. And, yes, we get sick every now and then.
Unfortunately, we are experiencing a "sick" day at the Rusch household. Actually, more like a "sick" week.

Chris was sick last week. I was feeling squeamish yesterday. So last night, we thought we would sleep off the sickness.
Not the case.
Chris went to bed FREEZING. I am usually the cold-blooded one, but he went to bed in his sweats with a hoodie on his head. I thought it was weird. He even got up in the middle of the night to use the bathroom and get another blanket, which is just not like my dear husband at all.
And then he got up AGAIN in the middle of the night, and puked in the bathroom. I didn't know what to do. If I tried to help him in the bathroom, I knew that I would be vomiting too. But if I was in bed asleep when he came back, he would think that I was a pretty cold, unfeeling wife.
So I got him a washcloth and soaked it in warm water. I gave it to him and told him that UNDER NO CIRCUMSTANCES WAS HE GOING TO WORK TODAY. He agreed.
Today, I spent the day at school helping out with career day and tired children. Chris spent the day at home being tired.
Should I go home or not? I want to go home because I am sick of school. I don't want to go home because I might get really sick from Chris.

Hmmm . . . .

On Being Alive

2010-02-18T06:33:00.000-08:00

I have had several thoughts for the last few days about being alive.

I think that life is something that we should all cherish, and not take for granted. It is really a miracle that we are all here, and that we live each day. Life could really be taken from us in an instant, and we need to always remember that.
However, six years and two days ago, my life was hanging in the balance. I got in a terrible accident, but, thanks to our wonderful Heavenly Father, my life was spared. It is kind of weird to think that it really was six years ago, and I think that every year at this time, it will be strange for me to look back on it.
There are many things that I have learned and that my family has learned from all of this. I feel like I had a very different experience from my family. I also feel like we HAD to learn from the experience. After all, if we didn't, what was the point? Whatever trial we have in life, we have to learn from it, or else, like I say, what is the point?
Anyway, I won't go into everything that we learned from the incident (mainly because there are too many to count!), but I will say that right now, I am just grateful to be alive. Me and my family never would have thought six years ago that I would have a good job, a wonderful husband, and own a place to live. Life is good!
So, today, consider your life and how blessed you are to have it too. There are miracles that we encounter every day. Don't forget to count them and recognize them when they happen!

For Sale!

2010-02-16T20:15:00.001-08:00

Our place is for sale! Check it out!

Happy President's Day and Valentine's Day

2010-02-16T18:51:00.000-08:00

It is our family tradition to get together with my cousins for the President's Day weekend. They are sweet enough to drive all the way from Washington, and we have a blast together! They have been doing it for almost 10 years! Oddar used to come with her roommate, but now comes with her husband and her sister. We make it a point to get together every year at this time. This year, it was very special, because Taylor and Katie brought their kids! Playing with little nieces and nephews is really so much fun! Charlie was only 3 weeks old, so we could just hold him while he slept and the other kids ran around!

This is what we did for most of the weekend--played with the kids!

Grandpa holding Charlie

Anna in the pajamas that Heather made from her clothes.

Anna lost her pajamas, which were later found behind the crib.

Grandpa talking to Anna

Mom holding Charlie

The reason that we went home, instead of the usual Island Park, was that Casey had a basketball tournament that he had to go to. His team became the District champions! Yay, Casey!

Should we? Can we?

2010-02-08T20:38:00.001-08:00

On Saturday afternoon, we dropped off our tax information in Northwest Provo. We had just been house hunting with some friends, so we were kind of in the mood. We saw a sign that said that there was a place for sale by owner, so we drove by. We picked up a pamphlet and tried to call so that we could see it, but the people were out. So, tonight for Family Home Evening, we saw a BEAUTIFUL townhouse in Provo. We are SORELY tempted. What do you think? Here's the link.

New nephews!

2010-01-19T21:31:00.000-08:00

Both of our brothers and sisters-in-law gave birth to little angels in the last three weeks. Tucker Andrew Rusch was born on January 4th, and Charles Robert Davis was born on January 18th. We had the chance to go and see Charlie, and he is so cute! He looks like an absolute twin of his brother, Max. We love them both already!

Not such great photography, but here is Charlie with Aunt Tina and Uncle Chris!

Back to Normal

2010-01-08T07:30:00.001-08:00

This week has been pretty busy and I am glad it is Friday. The tough thing about this week was that for three nights in a row Tina and I did not go to bed until well after midnight, about an hour and a half to two hours later than we normally go to bed.

The first day was okay. I have stayed up way to late on many occasions for a school and night have been able to survive and even perform to about the same degree I do everyday. On the second day after about four and a half to five hours of sleep, I could tell that something was really off. I was tired, lethargic, and just could not wait for the day to end. By the third day all I wanted was to climb into my bed and sleep. Fortunately Tina and I made the decision that Wednesday night we were going to be in bed before ten o'clock (have you ever noticed that time is sometime Irish?). This was the best thing for the both of us. I woke up the next morning feeling five hundred percent better. I even got enough sleep a couple of days this week to feel ambitious enough to go to the gym before work.

I think Tina and I are going to take things kind of easy this weekend, which is good because I know that both of us really need to recharge our batteries. I guess that Saturday will kind of be a sabbath day for us because between the load both of us carry with our respective callings Sunday is anything but a day of rest.

Happy New Year!

2010-01-04T13:34:00.000-08:00

So we just celebrated 2010 coming up. I have been thinking about what I have done during the last ten years:

Graduated from high school
Graduated from college
Fallen in love
Gotten married
Switched from body wash to soap
Done numerous loads of laundry
Cleaned numerous times
Lived with many roommates
Lived by myself for a little while (it was great!)
Served many church callings
Went to London
Bought 3 cars
Made lifelong friends
Laughed
Cried
Got many haircuts
Been sick numerous times
Totaled 2 cars
Have been in the hospital for a really long time
Taught at 2 Junior Highs
Bought a condo
Been certified to teach Gifted and Talented classes
Traveled around the world

Here is what I would like to do for the next ten years:

Travel around the world
Start a family
Stay in love with my husband
Have new adventures all the time
Retire from teaching
Laugh a lot!
Serve in many more church callings
Stay active and involved in the church

I am sure that I will do more over the next 10 years! Happy 2010!

Christmas in Atlanta

2010-01-01T09:58:00.000-08:00

We went to Atlanta to spend time with Chris's family for Christmas. It has been a FANTASTIC vacation! We were spoiled rotten for Christmas, went to Madison to see the sights, went to the World of Coke and the Georgia Aquarium, and just had fun with family. It was wonderful!

In our new Christmas jammies

All of the Christmas loot

Christmas morning

The favorite present of Christmas--an amazon kindle for Chris!

What we left Christmas with--WOW!

A Civil War rifle found in Madison

At the World of Coke

There was a "4D movie" at the World of Coke, and we had to wear some pretty cool glasses!

At the aquarium--someone got a LITTLE picture happy, but we did have one picture taken of us, not fish!

Happy Birthday to us!

2009-12-21T21:12:00.000-08:00

The Rusch family is fortunate enough to have both Chris and Tina's birthday in December, which results in a pretty crazy month for us. With two birthdays and Christmas in the same month, by the end, we are ready to take a long winter's nap. For Chris's birthday, his mom came to visit. We went to PF Chang's with his family earlier in the week, and then opened his presents, had a yummy dinner at home, and went on a tour of Christmas lights on his birthday.

opening presents with Mom watching

A scrumptious dinner of gyoza and ice cream dessert

the best lights of the night--found in Orem

For my birthday, Chris made me a wonderful breakfast in the morning, and then after work I opened presents, and we took the TRAX to go to dinner at Tucano's and visit the lights at temple square. It was the best birthday ever!

Eggs Benedict. Yummy!

Dinner at Tucano's. If you are part of the "birthday club," you get a free meal the month of your birthday. Too bad ours is both the same month! We would get really sick of it if we cashed them both in!

Finished

2009-12-15T08:36:00.001-08:00

Well yesterday was my last day of volunteering at Farrer elementary school. Though overall it was a good experience I am glad that I won't have to put in any more eleven hour days.

This afternoon I am going to prep for tomorrow's classes (something I have not had the time to do), wrap Tina's birthday presents, and take a long walk.

Speaking of walks, today was the first day I have walked to work in about three weeks. It felt so good to be out there with my backpack slowly plodding to work. I am excited to walk home too this afternoon.

All in all, things are good and I am happy.

Chris

OK, what does that mean?

2009-12-09T06:43:00.000-08:00

The post about "Kids Learn About Immigration" is to promote a project that I am doing for my class that I need a little bit of money for. If you are interested, go ahead and click on it! Thanks

Kids Learn About Immigration

2009-12-08T13:39:00.001-08:00

Kids Learn About Immigration

Posted using ShareThis

Am I his mother?

2009-12-08T08:39:00.000-08:00

Yesterday, I went to Smith's to pick up a prescription for Chris. The man at the counter asked me the name and date of birth for the person's name and date of birth, which I gave. I told him that it was his birthday tomorrow, and he said to wish him a happy birthday. Then he asked me if I was his MOTHER! I said, "No, I am his wife. But I will be offended that you said that." He laughed and apologized.

It was very very funny!

It's Beginning to Look a lot Like Christmas

2009-12-02T21:10:00.000-08:00

Today, we decorated our little abode for Christmas. This was quite the ordeal, since it meant that we had to visit our storage unit (before dark, nonetheless) and get out the Christmas stuff, which was, coincidentally, clear in the back of the unit. I decided that since we are cramped for space, and since we are trying to make life easier for ourselves this time of year, that I am only decorating using the Christmas tree and the nativity from Israel. I am not going berserk with the Snow Village and the entire huge box of decorations that I own.

OK, here is the best part about our Christmas festivities. On Monday night, for Family Home Evening, we made a paper chain to count down until going to Atlanta for Christmas. My husband, the elementary school teacher, said that we should color the outside of the papers with holiday decorations, and then write on the inside of the papers why we are excited to go to Atlanta. Funny. Possibly the best part of the Family Home Evening was singing, "Here We Are Together." The chorus went something like this: "There's Chris and Tina and Chris and Tina." Silliness.

Steps forward: Grad School

2009-12-01T07:16:00.000-08:00

Yesterday I got some good news in the mail. I got a letter of acceptance to library science from Clarion University. Clarion is small school in Pennsylvania which offers a very affordable online master of library and information science. This is good news. I am excited about this. The program is very affordable and flexible, something I need right now.

Clarion is my second choice. Right now I am focusing on the University of Alabama. If end up going with Clarion I am sure that I will get a great education that will prepare me for new career in library and information science.

Chris

Thanksgiving

2009-11-30T15:29:00.000-08:00

We had a great time going home for Thanksgiving. It was fun to spend time with family. The only downer part was when Chris sprained his ankle playing basketball with the boys. Other than that, it was great!

Eagles flying

2009-11-30T15:27:00.000-08:00

We went home for Casey's eagle court-of-honor, and to spend one last weekend all together as a family before Carter leaves on his mission at the end of December. It was a ton of fun! All of the boys got their scout shirts put together, so that we could have a picture taken of all of them. Here are some great pictures from the occasion:

Silly boys!

Anna and Max had the great idea of making a choo-choo train during the refreshments after the court-of-honor. They also raced across the gym.

Anna and Me

2009-11-27T20:42:00.000-08:00

About a week ago Tina and I went over to Taylor and Katie's house. I was working on a homework assignment and Anna wanted to see what I was doing on my computer. So, I said that she should come sit with me so she could help me work on my assignment. I asked her," Anna, what do good teachers do?" Because she is in pre-school and is an expert on this she said," They tells stories, read books, and sing songs." Her information was so insightful I included it in my paper.

Here is the picture we took together on my MacBook laptop. Anna is the greatest.

Thankful

2009-11-27T11:13:00.001-08:00

I sprained my ankle yesterday but as of this writing am doing much better. Never let anyone try to tell that having your foot perpendicular to the rest of you body is every a good idea. I tried it yesterday playing basketball and boldly affirm this is never a good thing. You'd think that after about the fifteen or so times I have sprained my ankle, I would have learned this very important lesson. I guess I wanted to see if I could get a different outcome this time around and sure enough got the same results.

Despite hobbling around, this has not diminished my enjoyment of Thanksgiving one bit. I am thankful I had decided to bring my basketball shoes and wear them during the game. They have pretty good ankle support and helped lessen the severity of my injury. I am thankful that Mom and Dad Davis happened to have some spare crutches that I could use to get around. I am thankful my wife helped me out by taking care of my dishes and doing things for me so that I could rest my ankle.

Finally, I am thankful that there are people at home who are going to help us by putting in our new washer while I am not able to do it myself.

All in all, things are good and I cannot complain.

Chris

Things I am grateful for

2009-11-25T08:51:00.000-08:00

A wonderful husband who honors the priesthood, fulfills his calling, and helps me open jars too
Being married to my best friend
A great family who all love me
A great job where I get to do what I went to school for
My college education
A great calling in the church where I get to serve
Cute little kids in our ward who make me smile
Cute students who make me smile
The Atonement of the Savior
Modern medicine
Good health
A niece and nephew who are adorable and make me laugh
Great in-laws
Life
A good home
Having a washing machine and dryer in my home
Movies
Date nights with my husband/best friend
Having a nice car that gets me around
Being able to cook, and having a husband who likes to cook too!
A great ward with a great bishopric (the 2nd counselor is especially handsome . . . not that I'm biased)
Insurance--we have used a lot of it this year with the new car and Chris's surgery in August
Running, cold tap water that I can drink out of the tap
Living in a great country
So much more . . .

I love Thanksgiving time! What are you grateful for?

Casey made the Team!!!

2009-11-19T09:00:00.000-08:00

Casey made the team and Tina and I are excited for him. He loves basketball and has worked really hard. I am glad that he has found a sport he loves as I played sports year round in high school and loved every minute of it. There are some things you learn from team sports you just cannot learn in a classroom.

Way to go Casey.

Congratulations!

2009-11-18T13:38:00.000-08:00

Casey made the basketball team! Yippee! We are so excited for you!

Tag

2009-11-16T12:31:00.000-08:00

What are your middle names? Christopher Andrew Rusch and Tina Marie Rusch.
How long have you been together? We met on August 20, 2008 and have been together ever since.
How long did you know each other before you started dating? About five minutes.
Whose siblings do you see the most? Probably mine, but both of our siblings live in town.
Do you have any children together? Not yet.
What about pets? I don't want to have any. Chris wants a dog, much to my chagrin.
Did you go to the same school? Yes, but at different times. Chris has done all the BYUs. I just did BYU-Provo.
Where do you eat out most as a couple? We are eclectic--we love trying new restaurants. Chris especially loves to find hole-in-the-wall places to eat at.
Where is the furthest you have ever traveled as a couple? To Georgia--last Christmas, and for the reception.
Who does the cooking? We both do--I do most of the night-to-night cooking, and Chris does the cooking where he makes a mess out of the whole question.
Who is more social? We are both pretty social.
Who is the neat freak? Me. Definitely.
Who is the most stubborn? Depends.
Who wakes up earlier? Me. Not by choice.
Where was your first date? We actually met online, and Chris asked me to meet him at Gloria's Little Italy. As Chris says, before we even talked, he felt like he had been struck by lightning, and knew that he needed to get to know me better. Even though we met online, we found out that we lived about three blocks away from each other.
Do you get flowers often? Often enough.
Who sings better? I like to think that I do.
Who does the laundry? I have forbidden Chris from touching it.
Who is better with the computer? That one is a draw!
Who drives when you are together? I prefer it when he drives. Sometimes, if he is really tired, I will, but he usually does.
Who picks where you go to dinner? It is a combined effort.
Who is the first one to admit when they are wrong? Depends.
Who wears the pants in this relationship? We both do.
Who eats more sweets? Me.
Who cries more? Me.
What's your best day together? I think just whenever we have a day to be "us," and go run errands, or go to the temple together, or make dinner together, or go to a museum, or whatever.
Where did you honeymoon? Disneyland, California. It was the best ever!
Favorite date night? Just whenever we can be together.
Favorite TV show to watch together? Honestly, we never watch TV. Sometimes we watch the Food Network, because Chris loves it. We also love watching history documentaries. Dorky, I know . . .
I tag: Whoever wants to be tagged! Let me know if you copy this, k?

The Davis family

2009-11-11T07:50:00.001-08:00

Or is it the Chris and Tina Rusch family? We aren't sure . . .why in the world did we go in the middle?

Happy Halloween!

2009-11-01T17:00:00.000-08:00

We had a great Halloween! Like Chris says, no one remembers the reason for the season any more. To which I replied, "What is the reason for the season?" Weird. We were happy to have the day off of church stuff, since we had church meetings every day last week!

We went to deliver a birthday present to Randah, whose birthday is on Halloween. Then, we went to look at our old house on Stratford Drive, which is right by where she lives. Isn't it cute? A new porch has been built onto it, but the numbers are still the same as they were when we lived there!

Then we went to Taylor and Katie's to celebrate Halloween. We saw their kids in costumes, and watched The Others together. When I was taking pictures of the kids, Max was being so cute! After I would take the picture, he would come over and say, "See, see," and I would show him the picture. Then he would point to it and tell me who was in the picture: "Max. Anna." It was just too adorable to be able to talk to him! We also gave a birthday present to Carter, whose birthday is on Thursday. It was way fun!

Hope everyone had a great one!

Bishopric Update

2009-10-28T11:26:00.000-07:00

Things have gotten really busy for me since the last time I wrote anything here. As predicted, my new calling is pretty time consuming, especially this week considering that this Sunday is ward conference. I am looking forward to having this week over and done so that we can get things back to normal, or, at the very least, figure out what normal is.

Tina has been a great support. She is very understanding about how I have these meetings that will go on often for undetermined lengths of time. The biggest help has been having an agenda and while the meeting is happening, determining if an item really needs discussing. I have found that some things on the agenda can be handled with a phone call or an email. I wonder what it was like for bishops who did not have cell phones, email, and other modern technologies which make communication easier.

Spiritual Insight:
Here is more or less the spiritual thought I shared in last night's bishopric meeting. I like reading the New Testament. I also enjoy reading books, essays, and articles that help explain things by putting them into their proper context. That's what N.T. Wright does in his "For Everyone" commentary of the New Testament. In a very engaging and readable way, Wright provides background into the political, religious, and cultural issues of Jesus which helps to flesh things out one would not normally get from the text if they were to read it straight through. One example of this the putting new wine into new bottles found in the Gospel of Luke.

Wright makes something clear very clear. Jesus was not a reformer. His message had little, if anything, to with reforming the current norms and culture of his time or anytime. He was not a tinkering politician who believed that a new program, initiative, or appropriation of funds for an already existing program would fix Israel. What was needed was a complete and utter turning of things upside down. He was going to make a new Covenant, not only with Israel, but with the whole world and establish a new kingdom.

As I think about the wine skins and the new wine spoken of Luke and its' context within the New Covenant/New Kingdom framework, it tells me something. It tells me that reform is not the answer and, in fact, will make things worse. Reform is not a sustainable solution.

Individually this means that each person needs changing to contain the new wine God will put in them. Everyone needs to be reborn such that they may be vessels to contain the spirit God will put in them.

This might sound esoteric to some, but this message really speaks to me.

As David McCollough would say, "That's my post."

Movie suggestions

2009-10-22T06:25:00.001-07:00

For our wedding, Chris and I got a free subscription to Netflix for 3 months from my wonderful brother and sister-in-law. I think that any day now, we are going to cash in the subscription. We made a list last night of movies that we would like to get, and, I will be honest, it was a pretty sad list! Does anyone have any suggestions on some great movies to watch?

Chris's new calling

2009-10-18T14:36:00.000-07:00

Today, Chris was sustained and set apart as the 2nd counselor in our ward's new bishopric. He was also ordained to be a high priest by his father, who came from Atlanta to do it. It was a wonderful, and exciting experience. I think it will be a great new adventure in our lives. I am also excited that the new bishop's wife has two kids and needs my help during sacrament meeting, so I will not be the "single lady whose husband sits on the stand." I am thankful for Chris and that he can perform everything that he needs to for this calling. I hope to support him through it all, even though I know that it will be busy and time-consuming!

Idaho Falls

2009-10-08T08:11:00.001-07:00

Next week Tina and I have Thursday and Friday off. For second year in a row we are going to spend our fall break in Idaho Falls doing whatever our hearts feel like. I know that both of us could use a break from work and I know Tina will like having a break from four preps and the over 200 kids she works with just about everyday. Me, I always like changes in routine, so getting away for a few days will be really, really, nice.

At first we were planning on spending some of that time up at her parents' cabin in Island Park. But after realizing that was not going to work out, we are content to spend some time in town, doing the things we do when we are there. One thing that might be fun will be to take a drive up the highway to the gas station where there are square Ice Cream cones. The fall colors will be out and the drive is just gorgeous.

So, let the countdown begin. Today (Thursday) marks the one week mark before we head out.

Favorite parts of fall

2009-10-07T21:14:00.000-07:00

1. Pumpkins . . . we don't have any yet, but this year, we might have to invest!

2. The weather--much cooler than summer.

3. Wearing sweaters

OK, this is my sweater collection. I know, I know . . . it is ridiculous!

4. Peaches are in season.

5. School is back in session, so my schedule is back!

6. Halloween decorations. Those are by far my favorite.

7. Yummy things to eat . . . pumpkin pie, pumpkin bread, apple crisp, soup, the list goes on and on . . .

8. Leaves are changing colors.

9. Lots of fall breaks at school . . . UEA break, Thanksgiving, Columbus Day, Labor Day

10. Thanksgiving is almost here.

Come to D.C. with me!

2009-10-07T12:48:00.000-07:00

I said that I would never do this . . . but it was far too tempting. If I get 15 kids to sign up, I can get a free trip to Washington D.C. And if I get 30, Chris can come with me. But right now, it is not looking so good. We have 6 signed up. So, if you or anyone you know is interested in traveling to Washington D.C. from April 5-10, go to this site and register. The trip number is 30247. Come! Come! It will be fun! The cost is only $1861, which I know sounds like a lot, but really isn't. You only need to deposite $99 to register!

Just a few more days

2009-10-07T06:56:00.000-07:00

I am having one of those "I don't want to be at work" kind of days. But I guess that I will just have to power through. If I could have it my way, I would be at home and in bed. But I guess since I am here, I might as well get some stuff done. One thing I have to look forward to is that tomorrow my class is going on a field trip and I will get to stay back with the kids who can't go. Those days are always kind of cool and really laid back. Plus the kids will leave at 1:30pm and we will have our weekly core team meeting.

One thing I am really looking forward to is going to the temple on Saturday. Carter (Tina's younger brother) will receive his endowment in preparation for his mission. Carter will be serving in the Carlsbad California Mission where he will preach the Gospel in English. I am excited for him because I served in California and think he is just going to love it. Way to go Carter!

Another thing I am really looking forward to is going to Atlanta for Christmas. For the past couple of years my parents made it a point to visit their children who live in Utah (there are three of us out here: Matt, Nathan, Tina, and me). Sadly, they have not been able to make the trek this year. My dad took a lot of time off during the Spring for my wedding and for Matt's graduation and, if he wants to take time off during the Holidays, can't use any vacation between now and when all of us come home. It is sad, however, the upside is that Tina and I will be home for the entire Christmas break. We will miss saying goodbye to Carter, but will do that before we take off. All this just makes me wish my parents would retire and move closer to where we are.

I am also looking forward to finishing the last of the Raymond E. Feist books I checked out from the BYU Library. There are four in the series and I am a little more than half way done with than the fourth. This is the first time since reading Lord of the Rings I have read something that was not a stand alone book. While they are not the greatest when it comes to literary value, they are lots of fun and the story is kind of cool.

Well, I really need to get some stuff done before the kids get here. I will write again soon.

-Chris

The Weekly Roar 10/4/09

2009-10-04T20:45:00.000-07:00

Tina and I are glad that one week has come to an end and that another is beginning. We are excited because this week marks the last full week of work before we go up to Idaho to spend the UEA break with Mom, Dad, Casey, and Uncle John and Aunt Lisa. I guess that both of us will just hunker down and tough it out until next Wednesday afternoon when we will get in the car and head for Idaho Falls.

Tina and I enjoyed General Conference. One thing about the conference that has really made me happy is how quickly the sessions have been uploaded to LDS.org. And, as if things could not get any better, the Priesthood session is now available for download. I think this is great. It will make putting them on the old iPod so much easier. I plan on working my way through the sessions starting tomorrow morning on the way to work.

After months of talking about it Tina and I are going to work at the Provo temple. We were interviewed and set apart on Friday afternoon. While we are both very busy, working in the temple will bring great blessings into our lives. Tina feels that this is the only chance we will have to do this for quite some time. She is right. Once the kids come along we will not be able to work as temple workers for a long time. I am looking forward to learning more about the temple. The downside is that Tina has forbade me from working in the cafeteria :-)

On Saturday I filled out two applications to graduate school. Right now I am seriously considering the University of Alabama and Clarion University of Pennsylvania as my top two choices. I am going to apply to a third and possibly a fourth school and then see where the chips fall.

Right now I am leaning towards Alabama. One reason is the program's cost is very reasonable. Another reason is the mascot. A huge Elephant can destroy anything. In all seriousness though, UA is very respected and I have heard that their program is top notch.

This week we are going to get a new calendar to count down the days until we go to Atlanta for Christmas. Tina says I am in charge of that. Right now there is just over two months until we hop on that plane and head to Atlanta for two weeks. It will be good to spend time with the family, especially with our nephew Jack and the greatest miniature schnauzer in the world, our little friend Ebby (Tina wants me to clarify that Ebby is not her friend and that I am one of those "weird dog people" to which I say, "Dogs are people too!").

Well, that's about it from the Rusch's. We will see you next or so.

Chris

It's suddenly fall

2009-10-02T08:35:00.000-07:00

I love living in Utah. One reason I like living in Utah is that Utah has four distinguishable seasons. It is nice to experience all of them in their fullness as opposed to Georgia which only has two; middle of August and pollen.

Having the seasons is nice. My only complaint is here they do not gracefully transition from one to another. It's like the last day of summer rolls around and the temperature is therefore obligated to drop fifty degrees. It is quite the shock to the system to have months of summer weather with temperatures in the 80s and 90s and then abruptly wake up one morning to a blistering 38 and have ice on your windshield.

The only thing I am asking is a graceful period of transition where one season gradually departs giving to its' incoming brother or sister. That's all I want. I want a slow transition from Summer to fall without being shocked into having to break out the sweaters and the winter coat overnight. Is that too much ask. I think not.

Nirvana

2009-09-28T20:55:00.000-07:00

Once again, I have reached what I like to call "grading nirvana," meaning the period when all grading is over with. Forever. Or, until tomorrow morning. Seriously, I am going a little crazy with the FOUR PREPS AND TWO HUNDRED AND FORTY STUDENTS that I have. I found out today that there was a study that showed that classes are much more effective when they are small. Duh. Even though I reached nirvana a tad late (I was supposed to do it Friday, but there was NO WAY!), I feel really good reaching it! Oh, I just remembered that I have a stack of tests to grade. Sigh . . .