Sorry... I'm caught up now, though!

Keaton said no one would see this where it was, so I'm re-posting it.

The pictures are small and I don't know why, but they're on Facebook, so you can see them there.

I admit I've pretty much fallen out of the blogging world as of late and have read only Mom's because it comes directly to my e-mail. But I'm caught up in my reading and I'm really glad the rest of the family isn't slacking as much as I have. I LOVED the April Fool's day and fishing videos as well as the cat & dog story... Haha... and I liked Keaton's new song, and the song Devon posted for Alicia was so sweet. Which means Gregan, Jaron and Kindy have been slacking as much as I have. Whoa... I just realized it's every other person in birth order who has and hasn't posted! Trippy....

There are two reasons (excuses) I haven't blogged though. 1 - I really don't have that many exciting things to say, and 2 - I've been sick! (Yeah, I'm using that...) I really have been sick for over 2 months though, and I'm SOoo tired of it. I've taken about 4 sick days which is always a pain cuz there are no subs who know sign language... It started out as a head cold/flu and I never did anything about it so it turned into pneumonia. The cough never really went away, then I got another cold on top of that a few weeks ago... It started going away, then yesterday I started feeling all cold-like again! Ugh.

Anyway, in other news, Randy got accepted but wait-listed for the U. That means he's heading to California for med school. Actually, he's already moved into his new place as of today and tomorrow. I found this out on Easter, which is why I didn't go down to Mom's house for it. Then he went to Hawaii for 2 weeks, came back and we hung out all of last week, then he moved yesterday. I'll see him again on his way back through to Montana on Wednesday, but otherwise, we're done.
As you may or may not remember, we got Lola from the humane society.  Her file said she had been abandoned.  We found out on Friday exactly how that happened.  After they pulled the moving truck up and started loading it Lola got right in and absolutely would not get out.  She was NOT getting left behind again! 

She did jump out and come greet me when I went to see them, but she jumped right back in afterwards.  So funny... Soo sad.. 

I also went to Red Rocks in Nevada to go climbing last weekend.  It was so nice to get out of the Utah "spring" weather (rain and SNOW) and enjoy the sun.  I didn't even burn!  Here are some pictures from the last half of the day as I didn't have my phone for the first half.

After climbing in the direct desert sun for about 5 hours or so, we went on a hike to a little waterfall and cooled off. 

 This is Shalee and Ian, the friends I met up there.

Our shoes. Me.  Super cool, I know.

Rocks what are red. And some what are white.

Welp, that's all I've got for you.  Should be a pretty cool summer though, full of adventures.  I'll keep you posted.  :)

Just checkin in...

I have a "Year-In-Review" to write and only 8 1/2 hours to get it handed in, so this won't be newsy, but I just wanted to post these adorable pictures of Lola that Randy just sent me.  They're both big Dolphins fans.  Here she is in her new jersey!

They love me, they really LOVE me!!

Just thought I'd toot my own horn for a minute.  I was nominated for a Brighton Parents' Choice of Excellence.  I didn't win, but there were only about 15 or so teachers who were chosen as nominees, then about 5 who actually won.  :)

She Turned Me Into a Newt!!

(This isn't my nose, it's a false one.)

This is my Halloween costume for school this year.  It's the witch from Monty Python and the Holy Grail, in case you didn't know.

I thought this would be a really low-key, easily-crafted costume, but you would not believe how hard it is to find a carrot nose and a black funnel!  I ended up ordering the nose from England (only $7 including shipping!) and painting a blue funnel black.  The rest was pretty easy to find.

Here's the quiz I gave my students today.... Enjoy!  :D

(So far the highest score is 7.)

1.              Halloween originated in which country?

a.     Ireland

b.     Scotland

c.     Romania

d.     Germany

e.     North America

2.              What was Halloween called before it got that name?

a.     All Saints’ Day

b.     The Day of the Dead

c.     All Hallows Eve

d.     All Souls’ Day

3.              The first “Jack-O-Lanterns” were actually carved out of:

a.     Radishes

b.     Turnips

c.     Squash

d.     Apples

4.              The Jack-O-Lantern” got its name from:

a.     Jack the Ripper

b.     Stingy Jack

c.     The Headless Horseman (who was named for a real man whose name was Jack O’Malley)

d.     Wandering Jack

5.              Why is Halloween celebrated on Oct 31^st?

a.     That was the day Jack the Ripper died

b.     That was the Celtic calendar’s New Year’s Eve

c.     That was the day the Catholic church decided to honor the dead

d.     That was the day the Pagan religion celebrated Lord Samhaim, the god of death

6.              How was “trick-or-treating” started?

a.     Village people would go door-to-door asking the rich for food donations for the village celebration.  If people would not donate, they pulled pranks on them.

b.     On a Halloween night long ago a blind man was out begging door-to-door.  Someone gave him bad cheese and moldy bread, so in return he set fire to the house.

c.     In the early 1800s beggars would send their children door-to-door in order to invoke sympathy and thus, get more money from donors.  Because of the religious affiliation with the upcoming Day of the Dead, people tended to be more generous on Halloween.

7.              Why do people dress up in costume on Halloween?

a.     Long ago people would dress like the rich people they were approaching so that they were more likely to give to them.

b.     To blend in with the dark night after pulling pranks.

c.     To blend in with the spirits believed to be wandering the streets.

d.     To disguise their identities and scare the victims of their pranks.

8.              What was the original date of “All Hallows’ Eve?”

a.     October 31^st

b.     November 1^st

c.     December 21^st

d.     May 13^th

9.              If it changed, who changed it?

a.     A Druid Sorcerer

b.     A Catholic Pope

c.     A Jewish Rabbi

d.     A Mormon Prophet

10.           During the famous witch trials in Salem, Massachusetts, how many witches were burned at the stake?

a.     0

b.     10

c.     20

d.     30

Answers are in the comments.

Calling all educators... and others...

K.  School starts tomorrow and I'm STILL torn about whether or not to cut the answer pages out of the backs of my students' new books.  The books come with a DVD with activities in it that they have to do.

Here's what I've come up with.  Please read the information, then vote on the poll.  I really want your feedback too, so when you vote, you must leave an explanation as to why you voted that way as well as any other options or suggestions you may have.

Pros: 

1. The students can check their answers right away to see if they got the answers correct and, ideally, learn from what they got wrong and watch the video again.  

2. That means less grading for me.  

Cons:

1. Obviously, they're high schoolers and likely to not even watch the video, but just copy the answers from the back of the book.

2. If they do that, they will not learn the information and since this is a beginning level class, they will not form a good foundation, which is something I as the instructor will have to deal with for the next two or three years.

Side notes:

1. If I don't cut them out, their homework would be worth less than it is currently (HW is 40%, will be 20%) and their tests will be worth more (going from 40% to 50%).  So if they cheat on the homework their grade will suffer because I will probably still use part of the video in their tests.

I'm leaning towards leaving them in for a semester and seeing how it goes.  I hope you guys get this and vote before I leave today!  :)

Hike, Take II - With Pictures This Time

So last time Randy, Spencer, and I tried to hike to Doughnut Falls, we didn't actually make it all the way to the falls because we had Lola with us and she was, well... BeIng a less-Than-Cooperative Handful. :)


This time around, I got a picture of the boy for you guys. Sorry it's not better quality.

Randy and Spencer at the falls.

After our hike, Randy decided to vacuum his house. After emptying enough hair out of the cylinder to make at least two more small dogs, he decided to go directly to the source of the problem and vacuum Lola as well.

Havasupai Pictures

So some of those pictures allowed you to click them and make them bigger and some didn't.

I added a photo album on Flickr so you can check them out at full size if you'd like.  I also added a bunch I didn't put in the blog.

Enjoy.  :)

Havasupai

****  This is going to be a very long post.  Get comfy! :)  ****

This last weekend I went to Havasupai, in Supai Arizona with Rob (yes, my ex bf) and a group of his friends.  Now I know what you're thinking... "Who in their right mind would go to Arizona in late July?!?" Right?  Trust me, if I do it again it will be early June or sometime in September.

(As far as going with someone I dated, it was actually pretty cool.  No weirdness or anything.  Oh, and Randy was ok with it too.  And it wasn't Rob who invited me.  It was his friend, Devin, with whom I had ridden the MS 150.)

SO let the adventure begin.

Traditionally, people hike in in the middle of the night to avoid the extreme Arizona heat (and death) that occurs when wandering in the desert in the middle of the day.  We wanted to leave earlier in the day so we would arrive around 10 pm, sleep till about 4 am, then start our hike but one of the guys we were going with had to work till 1:30 so we didn't end up leaving SLC until about 2:30.  

We got to Supai around midnight or 1 am and even though we were all pretty tired, didn't see the point in setting up tents and stuff so that we could maybe get one or two hours of sleep in, so we just started out on the trail.

  This is the canyon once it started getting light enough to shoot pictures.

There are no pictures of the 8-mile hike to the Havasupai reservation village.  I think we were all pretty much just focusing on putting one foot in front of the other.  From the parking lot to the village is 8 miles, then from the village to the campsite is just over 2.  I really didn't think a 10-mile hike would be as rough as it was but my pack never was situated correctly, so the pressure on my back/shoulders and just the one hip was killing me most of the hike.  

Also, for some reason I always forget how badly my knees hate hiking until I'm a few miles into any hike.  The tendons behind my knees absolutely felt like they were going to snap by the time I got to the campsite and I was walking like the arthritic old woman I'm probably going to be someday.  :(  

Just before the last little stretch into the campsite, you run into what used to be Navajo Falls.  

I suppose it still is Navajo Falls, but there was a flash flood that took out a lot of the ground around it last year.  You can see the tree line, I believe that's where the top of the falls used to be.  So sad.

When we finally got to the campsite and found most of our group members, it was too hot to sleep, so we got our swimsuits on and took the 1/2 mile or so to Havasupai Falls.  The water felt SOOO nice after all that hiking and cooled my joints down a bit.

 

Havasupai Falls from the trail leading down into the campsite. 

I know you're jealous of my hair in this one.  I only wish I could duplicate it.

 More Havasupai Falls.  I love the little pools at the bottom!  

Our campsite was right next to a river that came off the falls, so because it was too hot to do anything else, we spent the rest of the day just sitting in the river.  :)  

The second day we hiked about 3/4 mile down the river to Mooney Falls.

The hike there itself was very short and straightforward.  However, to actually get down to the falls you have to go through an incredibly steep rock tunnel with chains and narrow steps and all kinds of good stuff.  One of the girls in our group was extremely claustrophobic and afraid of heights but she managed it very well.

  The route down to Mooney 

After playing at Mooney for a couple of hours we were rested and feeling adventurous again, so we decided to continue on to the legendary Beaver Falls.

The thing with Beaver Falls is that many attempt it, but for some reason, few people actually get there.  It's about 3-4 miles beyond Mooney and you can either follow the river the entire way or take a mountain trail.  We decided to take the trail and I'm really glad we did.  

Even on the trail though, we met several people who had turned back before actually getting there, mostly just because of the distance.

 Some of the trail to Beaver Falls 

Right around this point Rob and Chris decided they'd rather go back to the village and get Navajo tacos, so they turned around and went back to camp.  (They ended up taking a nap, then waking up at 6:30.  The cafe in the village closes at 7, so they actually ran the 2-mile uphill path, and got there just when they had pretty much already closed the kitchen, so they still didn't get them.  Poor boys.)

One of the girls who were with us said that her friend had been to Beaver Falls before and that there was a big palm tree which people use as a landmark to know that you're on the right path and that you're very close.  (You have to cross the river several times, so it's kinda easy to get on the wrong path.)

 More of the trail to Beaver Falls. 

As you can see, the sights on the way TO Beaver Falls are gorgeous!  Which is why many people don't make it all the way.  They just play in the river and call that good enough, but we were determined.

We finally found the elusive palm tree!!!  :D

 Beaver Falls

 The descent into what is considered the main part of Beaver Falls.

      

On the way back we kinda lost the trail for a minute and ended up in the river for a section we didn't see on the way down.  It had some pretty cool little falls.  

  One of the pretty cool little falls.   

On the way back, we got talking about animals and how Australia is home to some of the biggest species of spiders and snakes in the world.  Just then I heard a HUGE movement in the bushes just off to my left, and this guy showed up seriously like 15 feet away from me.

  He was so stinkin cute, and it was amazing to watch his agility on the rock ledge.  

 I think he went up on this cliff just to pose for us.  Isn't that a great shot?

Of course, every adventure comes with its price.    We learned that duct tape stays better in water than moleskin.  My feet are the ones on the top.  My Chocos aren't that new, but they haven't had many water excursions, so I was still kinda breaking them in... with my ankles...

Luckily, the shoes I used to hike out had a different cut, so they weren't rubbing in the same spots I had blisters from the above trip.

They give you the option to pay $20 to have a horse/mule pack your backpacks out for you so you don't have to hike out (and up) with them.  That was the easiest decision I'd made the whole trip, I think, and the best $20 I've spent.

On the way back, I started getting attacked by this rogue butterfly.  Terrifying, huh?  It was.

Apparently butterflies are attracted by color and have no sense of smell, cuz I definitely didn't smell like a flower.  I finally stopped swatting it away and let it land on me and it sat there and stuck its little nose thing as deep as it could into my purple tank top!  It was so weird.

  Beautiful, but weird.  

As you can tell by the pic above, we could not hike out in the middle of the night because the horse people don't load and pack in the middle of the night.  So while we didn't have to carry our packs out, we did have to hike in the heat of the morning.  I ran out of water when we had about a mile and a half left of the steepest part of the hike, so I got a touch of heat exhaustion on by the time I reached the top and was not feeling very well.

They did have a trailer up at the parking lot where you could spend $2 for a bottle of water or $3 for a popsicle, which I also thought was a steal by that time.

When we got to the top, we learned that one of the horses that had been carrying two packs from our group had broken away from the owner and he had gone to look for it...  After about an hour of worrying that we weren't ever going to see him or the packs again, he showed up, extremely apologetic.  We were all just happy to finally be able to get on the road and get home!

SO, would I do it again?

Yes.*

*So long as I either conditioned my knees and situated my pack better, or took the option of helicoptering/horseback riding in.  

If anyone would like to join me, I'd always love adventure companions!  :D

The apple and tree and all that...

This is just a cute story that I thought I'd share.

So any time when we're walking into a restaurant or on a hike or just anywhere, really, Randy will often stop and pick a flower for me.

As I've mentioned before, Randy's boy, Spencer is here visiting and a couple weeks ago we went on a hike.  

While we were walking along, Spencer kept gathering flowers and giving them to me.  I thought it was cute but wondered if he understood, so one time when he brought me a flower I said, "Ah, thanks but you should give that one to your daddy." 

He looked at me like I'd just grown a second head and said, "He's not a girl!"

Superstitions

So the other day I was driving along and I saw a couple of pigeons in the middle of the road.  I always think it's weird when people swerve to miss birds, I mean, they've got wings!  They can get out of the way if they want to, right??  So yeah... I didn't swerve.  And he didn't fly away.  When I realized he wasn't going to get out of the way I did swerve to try to at least make him go under my car instead of under my tire, but he was a little taller than I had anticipated...

After a soft thump and a tuft of feathers in my rear view mirror, I watched to see how he had come out.  He was still walking on the road, albeit a little quicker than he was before...

I really really felt bad.  Really. 

Then later that day, I was driving along and a couple of little sparrows were flying around pretty low and I thought I heard one of them hit my bumper...  I can't be sure because there were no feathers flying around or anything that time.

Seriously though, two birds in one day?!?

I decided today to see if that's bad luck.  I didn't see anything related to hitting birds on this website, but I did think some of the other stuff was interesting, so I thought I'd share.

Enjoy.

Funny video

I posted this on my facebook page but I've heard that not everyone checks it regularly, so I thought I'd post it here.  I just found this amusing and it reminded me of our family.

Video

MS 150 turned 170-ish

I'm a few days late in reporting, but I think I probably should document this experience in some way.

I completed the MS 150 bike ride last weekend in Logan.  Randy used to work for Hammer Nutrition, so he sent me with all kinds of powder to make shakes and pills for electrolytes and stuff like that, along with eating instructions.  

The first day was the century ride.  You were given the option of completing the 40, 75, or 100-mile route.  Of course I was determined to do the 100-mile route.  I didn't eat much for breakfast, per Randy's advice, and kept fueled with the stuff he'd given me.  It actually worked out really well.  

I went up with Devin (Rob's friend who does this ride and has organized a group every year for the last 7 years) and his friend, Jared.  Jared was really struggling at the 50-mile mark and ended up just taking the 75-mile route back.  Devin had a time goal this time around, so that's right around when I told him to go ahead without me.  

I was actually pretty impressed by my pace and how good I felt right up until about mile 85, then I was just beat.  I met a lady and got talking with her, which helped both of us get through the last few miles.  Seriously, the last 5 were the hardest I've ever done.  Right around then I kept trying to remind myself that I was grateful to have a body that allowed me to push it that hard.  Grateful to have my good health and kept thinking of those people who didn't have that.  It felt SO good to cross that finish line and know what I had just accomplished.

The next day we were also given the option to do a 40, (unofficial) 50, or 75-mile ride.  Devin said that normally they take the 50-mile route, which was supposed to be a pretty easy recovery ride up a canyon.  I started out with Devin and his chiropractor partner, Jay.  (Partner in their chiropractor business... not his partner who happens to be a chiropractor... Just wanted to clarify)  

So anywayzzz, we started through the city, following the route to the canyon.  Devin had to leave early, so he took off ahead, rode for a bit of the canyon, then headed back.  I rode most of the route with Jay, got to the turn-around point, and he said he needed to get a ride back to the fairgrounds (the start/finish and where we were camping) early, so I took off by myself.

I got back to the city but didn't know which way to go.  Long story short, I found some bikers and thought I was on the short route back to the fairgrounds.  I kept asking people if this route led back to the fairgrounds cuz I did NOT want to do the whole 75-mile route.  One guy told me that I was on the 75-mile route and that I might as well finish it out cuz it was the quickest way back to the fairgrounds at that point.   I thought he was joking.  

Turns out he wasn't.

So there was one section of that route that I believe I skipped, making my route about 70 miles instead of the full 75.  It would have been ok, except I kept thinking the end was right around this next corner and I also hadn't eaten to prepare for that long of a ride.  We had a kind of heavy breakfast and because I kept thinking the end was right around the corner I didn't take all the rest stops available.  I even saw "4 miles" spray-painted on the road at one point, so I thought I'd finally made it.  That must have been for something else, though, cuz I still had about 15 miles go to at that point.

I did finally make it back and luckily (for me) Jay had had car problems, so he was still there when I arrived so he was able to give me a much-needed adjustment before I left.

My final conclusion- Road biking is boring.  I do not see why people would do it outside of a competition except maybe to train for one.  I can see the appeal of the event, but I am still undecided on whether or not I will do this again next year.  Maybe if actually train in advance and I can convince some more people to join me I will...  Any takers?  :)

Randy's first mountain bike ride!

So I took Randy mt. biking today. Our goal was to do a very popular "beginner's" ride. It's a 7-mile out-and-back route up Millcreek Canyon. It's part of the Pipeline trail, but the section we were planning on doing was called Birch Hollow. If you follow the Pipeline trail further down, there are several different shorter trails you can do as entry points. One of those is called Rattlesnake Gulch.
Here's what the website says about it, "While most of the Pipeline is easy cruising, we wouldn't recommend taking a newbie down Rattlesnake Gulch. This descent is advanced technical. When the dust gets deep and slippery, Rattlesnake can be a white-knuckle slide for the best riders."
We drove around for a bit, looking for the entry to Birch Hollow. Instead, I saw a sign that said, "Pipeline" and decided that was it.
You guessed it, we had arrived at the base of Rattlesnake Gulch.
So after struggling UP this ridiculous down-hillers' trail for about 20 minutes, I realized we may be in the wrong area. We rode back down it, THEN noticed the sign. Oops. :)

Anyway, long story short, we found the right trailhead, road Birch Hollow down to one of the other entry trails (not Rattlesnake) and headed back to the car.
We were seriously like 100 yards from my car when a car came up from behind us and wanted to pass. Randy was behind me and was riding as close to the edge of the pavement as he could so they could get by. In doing so, however, he caught the edge of the pavement with his tire and supermanned off the bike. When the car got to me, the driver and passenger both had shocked looks on their faces and pointed for me to go back.

Anyway, luckily Randy's ok. He just cut his chin, and scraped his nose, shoulder, a few fingers, knee, and leg... Overall, I was very impressed. Especially how he handled Rattlesnake, PLUS he agreed to go with me again some time! :D

Oh, btw Marty, the bike's fine... After some minor adjustments... :)

Below are photos of the carnage, also added to my Facebook account.

Bless his heart. :)

Randy's new addition! Oh, and a random guy at D.I.

So I was talking to Kryn and Gregan last weekend about my blog and how I never have anything interesting to blog about.

Well, this weekend was definitely different.

Friday afternoon I made some incredible homemade bread, thanks to Dad's advice and Mom's "Tried and True" recipe book. Randy was thoroughly impressed.

Then we went to D.I. to look for a dresser for Randy's son who lives in MT but is spending pretty much all of July out here. (By the way, Randy has a 6-year-old son) :)

Randy had never been to a D.I. so I was excited to show him all the random treasures and see his reaction to the always-interesting crowd that accompany D.I. As we were walking around, taking it all in, looking at the dressers we heard a huge crash and breaking of glass. I turned around to see a guy jumping up from a broken table with a look of utter shock on his face.

A D.I. employee happened to be walking by just then and his face most definitely had, "oh, jeez, do I really have to go over there...?" written all over it.

So he walked over to the guy and asked if he was ok and the man said, "I think I have glass in my butt." With that, Randy and I had to slip around the corner before bursting out in uncontrollable laughter. Yeah, we're mean.

After D.I. we decided to go look at pets at the Humane Society. I'm not sure whose idea it was, but I'm pretty sure Randy had been wanting a pet for a while and I just wanted to go play with puppies. The whole way there Randy just kept saying, "I'm going to leave today with an animal! I can't have a dog in my house... I can't get a dog..." But his tone said that he was actually trying to work out a way for him to keep a dog in his house.

First, we looked at the little dogs, since that would be the most logical for his one-level condo, and cuz I wanted to play with the puppies, of course. We saw a few hyper-active chihuahua mixes and a poodle from an apparently infamous "poodle house" http://www.sltrib.com/News/ci_12594477 (very sad story) but none he was really interested in.

Then we looked at some cats. He didn't want to have to clean up after a kitten or a puppy, so he was looking for something that was already housebroken. In my opinion, the only reason anyone has cats is because they were at some point an adorable kitten. I don't see the point in buying one past that stage.

We then moved on to the bigger dogs. There were 3 different black lab mixes that we just fell in love with right away. One of whom, was Lola. At first, we thought she was not the smartest duck in the bucket cuz she has this look (as pictured) that she does any time you talk to her where she cocks her head to the side and stares intently. Turns out, though, she's one of the best fetchin' dogs I've ever seen. She's an athlete and she LOVES to play. Isn't she adorable?? Her favorite games are fetch and tug-o-war and she already knows "sit" and "stay."

Right when we got her home we gave her a bath. She didn't love that, but she was SOO well-behaved. Didn't even shake off till we were done rinsing her. After her bath we went for a walk... She's not so good on a leash yet...

Randy got her a big wire kennel to sleep in and he said she slept all through the night without even barking or whining!

Today I'm dog-sitting while Randy's at the dentist. She's been kinda sick though. She has had a runny nose and cough this morning and has been asleep for about the last 3 hours. While she was in the shelter she had developed and gotten over something called kennel cough, and the workers there said there's a chance she could get it again. He's taking her in today or tomorrow to have it checked out. Poor thing's exhausted but she's just so sweet.

Gregan thinks we should arrange a play date for Spiche and Lola. Once she's feeling better and I know she can't get Spiche sick, we'll make it happen. Don't worry, I'll document it for you.

*Update*

When Randy got back from the dentist we went to the dog park. She's great with the other dogs, but she absolutely LOVES chasing and catching balls. Even if she had one in her mouth she would drop it and go chase after the balls other owners were throwing for their dogs. She's super fast and she's got mad hops, so the other dogs don't have a chance. She's so sweet though, they couldn't even get mad at her.

After the dog park I took her for a walk using some leash-training tips we found online and she's practically trained already. She's seriously one of the fastest learners I know, and I'm a high school teacher! ;) Hahahaha

Here's Lola!!

This is the look she gives when you have a ball in your hand and she's DYING for you to throw it. Otherwise it's cocked to her left, as shown below.

This is the look she gives any time you talk without a ball in your hand. The higher pitch your voice goes, the higher her right ear goes. She's adorable. :)

This was a long one, but I've been overdue for a while. Thanks for hangin in there!

One more great time-waster

I actually found this one as a result of surfing Jaron's "99 sites you should've seen by now" list.  So have at it, Gregan and thanks, Jar!

http://failblog.org/

There are some great ones on there!

How I'm procrastinating now...

I went to dinner last night with a friend who told me about this website:

http://funnyexam.com/

I'm already feeling antsy with the end of the year coming up, so it is really a bad time to be introducing new ways to waste time, but I thought I'd pass it along.  There are some pretty funny ones.

Enjoy!  :)

Poll Results

Results are in, and apparently I'm supposed to make a new blog about it.  (Thanks for the info, Kryn, I had no idea!)

Wow, I'm surprised so many people voted for Education! Actually I'm not, but I'm pretty sure you all only voted for that one cuz I'm a teacher and it seems like a logical step.
In reality, one reason I'm thinking of getting my master's is so I have something to do if I decide not to teach for the rest of my life.
I've been contemplating speech language pathology, but really ears interest me more than swallowing and stutters. Being an SLP would be cool, though.
I'm surprised no one chose Math, even as a joke.
I keep going back to linguistics myself, though. I really like the study of language and how language develops. The big question, however, is what do I do with a master's in linguistics?

What finger?

I guess this is what we get for asking a random stranger to take a picture for us.

Anyway, I went to Moab this last weekend and had a swell time with Aubree, Jeanette, Martin (the one Kindy went out with), and his friend, Jana.  Fortunately, this is the only interesting picture I will be posting from this trip!  The girl in the middle (black shirt) took the beating for me...  She fell off her bike right at the beginning of the ride and scraped her knee up a bit and possibly sprained her toe, then just shortly after this picture was taken her front wheel fell off and she ate it again, getting a huge bump and bruise on her hand, other leg, and knee... I'm just glad I'm not the one who put her wheel on after taking it out of the car.  We won't say who the guilty party was though, in case he ever decides to read my blog.  :)

Anyway, the trip was fun.  It was the same weekend of Jeep Safari, so we got to see a bunch of jeep-crawling too which is always fun to watch.  Not as much prime people watching as last time I was down there at this time but it was still interesting.

Master's

So I've been thinking that I should start thinking about continuing my education to get a master's degree.  After all, a master's is the new bachelor's, am I right?

Now I just have to decide what to major in, so I'm asking you.  I'm pretty sure I already know what the results of the poll will be, but I thought I'd see if you have anything more to add, like what KIND of math.  (I hear there are different types...)

Officially...

Tonight I officially registered for the 5k in my other blog, but more importantly, I also applied to take my interpreter certification exam.

My test date is Friday, May 15th, the day before the 5k.  I'm sure I'll write the night before asking for prayers, good juju, or positive karma... Whatever you can send my way, really.  If you never hear about it again, consider it failed and I don't want to talk about it.

Otherwise, we'll have a blog party to celebrate!