New Haircut

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

Dumpster Diving

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!

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

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

Only five more days 'til spring break.

Spring Break

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

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.