Mi vida loca

I guess I need to update this here blog thingie since it has been nearly three months since I did. The days are passing at whirlwind speed and nothing really new has been happening, just the same old same old as they say.
School started at the end of August and we are already doing report cards and SEP's (parent teacher conferences) next week. The school that I teach at has gone back to an extended year, or year round, calendar this year. We are the only school in St George that is doing this and so, we are already at the end of our first term. We have a week off for Fall Break starting next Friday. Then after that, we will start a Fall Intersession. This is kind of like Summer School, except a better model because we will have much better attendance since it is not a traditional time for vacationing. The teachers have the option of teaching for extra money or taking the time off. I opted to take the time off. I do not know if I will teach during the Spring Intersession which will be after Spring Break. Right now, I have declined, but I may change my mind. I am well known for that. I have pretty good classes this year, which I am happy about. I have my Gifted and Talented Endorsement now, so I have one class that is called a "cluster group" which has the gifted kids in it, and none of the lowest kids and my other class is an average class. It helps to meet the needs of all the learners so that you don't have such a wide spectrum of abilities to reach. I have found it to be working out well except that the other class is falling behind so I am having to do a lot more planning.
My nephew, Jude, is so amazing. He is about 3 1/2 months old and he is beautiful. He has a smile that melts my heart and he loves to chatter and talk which is tons of fun to listen to. He seems to be teething a little bit already and loves to suck his thumb to soothe the pain. He has a very easy going, happy personality and has really been a blessing to our family.
Erin had her 30th birthday last week and planned a bonfire out on the Arizona strip to celebrate. It was fun. It is just starting to really cool down lately and feel like Fall, which is my favorite time of the year. I was really cold out there, but once that fire got going, I thought my eyeballs were going to melt. ;) Jude was mesmerized by the fire. Erin said he has been out there a couple of times with them and loves the bonfires. And to add to the excitement and beauty of it all, it was a full moon night! Gorgeous!



I have a karate tournament coming up next month in Saratoga Springs, Utah. I am looking forward to it a lot. I am on the leadership team, also called STORM (Special Team of Role Models), and we have been working on a team demo to do at the tournament. This will be the first time our school will be participating in the demos since opening a couple of years ago. All the other schools are much bigger and have more experience doing this, so we have just barely gotten on it. The next day will be my individual competitions in katas, weapons, self defense, and sparring and that night will be the Black Belt test which I may stay and watch because my instructor and his 12 year old son will both be testing for their 2nd degree black belts. I will probably have to help referee the Black Belt sparring, which I just found out today. That will be an interesting experience. Hopefully I don't mess up and get any black belts mad at me. LOL.
I also have a test for my next belt, Chan Ban Bu, in November, but I am still trying to decide whether or not I really feel ready to test this time. Up til now I have tested and advanced every three months, but I have been struggling the past several months as the requirements and curriculum have really started to get more difficult, especially mentally. The kata, or form, that I have to learn for this belt has had me so confused and on the verge of tears so many times. I finally started to learn it when he put a bo staff in my hands and showed me what we were doing. I was like, "ohhhh, that's what my hands are doing" and I had the first half of it in 10 minutes after struggling to learn it for 2 months. The whole combination of foot movements, advancing and retreating, Chinese covers, and upward, outward, inward, and downward blocks, reverse bow steps, pivot punches, ball of the foot, heel of the foot, and on and on and on, still has me so confused. My instructor tells me that I am doing well, but that I am just too critical and perfectionistic, and to look at the small bits of progress. If I do test and continue on track, I should be able to test for my black belt at the end of April. If not, I may wait until October of next year.
I am hoping to be able to make it out to Cali for Christmas time. I want to go to Disneyland badly. I haven't been at Christmastime in a long time and I love it at that time of the year. Also, I have an uncle there in Simi Valley who has been having some serious health problems and I would like to go see him. Erin needs to take baby to see the Cali family and so we have been thinking about doing that. We have not had a big family Christmas out there in several years and Erin and Will have been in Houston for the past few Christmasses so it would be very nice to do that again. A lot like the "old days." It is my hope anyways.

Big sigh of relief

I had to take the Praxis test again today because I didn't pass it in April. In fact, I didn't even finish it in April. Not even close. It is a national test for teachers and I took one of them three years ago on content knowledge and passed it just fine the first time. This one is on the Principles of Learning and Teaching, lots of pedagogy and philosophies. There are 36 multiple choice questions and 4 case studies with three written responses each. You have 2 hours to complete it. Last time, I only finished 6 of the 12 written responses because I was writing too much. I looked up at the clock to see that I had a half hour left and 8 questions left, I think, and I knew it would be impossible. So anyways, this time I timed myself very carefully and wrote much briefer responses and I finished, even a few minutes early! Awesome. Now I have a sore arm, truly! I am not exaggerating at all. I have to wait several weeks to see if I passed, but I feel pretty good about it. Last time, even though I had half of the questions still to do, I only failed by 7 points. So I am hoping that I did pretty well. If not, well there's always another chance.

Calm down people

So today we found out that we are facing the possibility of having to close down all the schools in the school district should any cases of swine flu be confirmed in Washington County. When that happens, we will be required to conduct lessons via the internet or phone and through packets of work that is sent home to kids who do not have internet access . . . for the rest of the school year. Although this may sound fun to some (yeah, no school), I am, always the pessimist- completely not thrilled. This is because we have been informed that each grade level needs to put together a "packet" of work that is sufficient for three weeks worth of lessons. . . and we need to do it tomorrow. Seriously? Seriously!
My own view on this "pandemic" situation is that if people panic, it will just cause more problems. So considering the circumstances, let's just calm down people.

Test Anxiety

I have to take the Praxis test tomorrow . . . well, actually today, since I look at the time and see that it is after midnight already, and I am freaking out. I have been having an anxiety attack, not a huge one, but it just makes my asthma act up to the point that as I try to breathe it is so difficult that every time I try to take a good deep breath the side of my neck actually hurt and I struggle. I hate written response tests because they are so . . . (crap I can't think of the word right now). . . "arbitrary"? . . . strike that AMBIGUOUS . . . anyways . . . and I hate multiple choice questions because I can usually narrow it down to two good answers and then I sit there and become way too analytical and find it nearly impossible to determine the "best answer", they all seem to be the "best" answer. Crap! I need to go to bed and just forget about it... There's nothing more I can do except show up and take the friggin test and pray that I pass...

I WILL pass!........(i hope)

Code Adam Scare in Wal Mart Keeps Local Woman Awake All Night

So the Ambien decided not to work so well tonight and I only slept for about 4 hours and now I am awake and nothing to do but blog.

Yesterday, I had a lot of fun. My karate instructor's son was having a birthday party at the dojo and I came just to hang out with Shalynn and help her get it ready. The kids had so much fun and they were all so cute to watch running around.

Then we went to Wal Mart, the Wilson family + one, and that was quite the experience. Marc and Shalynn both needed a few pairs of black pants for this conference they are going to in Denver for Mile High Karate, who we have paired with and we are now Bobby Lawrence Mile High Karate. So they had to have all this special apparel and were a bit overwhelmed. I helped Shalynn find the perfect pants (because I had bought them a few weeks ago and we were lucky because they only had 4 or 5 pairs left, but one of them was her size)!

Then we were looking in the toy department and Marc had to go take some of the pants back that he was not getting. SO Shalynn, the boys, and I were there looking at Leap Frog things and Shalynn, Kade, and Brayden left to go a few aisles down. Jordan (4) was sitting on the floor next to me looking at something and he got up to go find mommy but my back was turned and I didn't notice. (Actually I didn't know he was with me at all, I thought Shalynn or Marc had him.) So I went to go show Shalynn something I was going to get and she realized I didn't have him. We all started a search and Shalynn was freaked out because he was just instantly gone. No one saw him leave, almost like someone had taken him. She called Marc and Marc didn't have him. We were all over the place. I decided to head to the front and look for him in the candy and toys displays on the way. I went to Customer Service and tried to call Marc to see if he had been found but then realized that he was up at a register talking to a lady and on the phone with his wife. So I went over with him. They told me to stay up front and Marc to go to one of the exits while an associate goes to another exit. They issued a Code Adam and described Jordan but almost immediately after that he was found and they issued the "Cancel Code Adam." When Jordan left me he went to look for mommy. He said, "I was with Anne but went to find you. I'm sorry for scaring you Mommy." I asked him if he was scared and he just said, "nope." Brayden was really scared and Kade was like "whatever I know he's around here somewhere." It's funny to see how different brothers can be. I am just so relieved that we found him because if I had been the last one with him and he had gotten lost or stolen I would not be able to forgive myself.

I NEED A RELEASE!

I don't know why I do this... I let everything build up for months and months and then feel ready to explode. Right now I am ready to go off like a firecracker!
I need to kick
I need to scream
I need to swear
I need to slam doors
I need to punch
I need to cry
I need to throw things
and I can't even explain why!

Suck up your pride and just do it

I am going to be getting my blue belt in karate next Wednesday night. I am pretty excited. We have to do a new goal setting plan as part of the promotional process. The kids have to get their teachers and parents to sign their promotion packet but I just have to answer the questions and set the 5 goals. Man, it was hard to write out those goals . . . not because I couldn't think of any, but because most of the things I am working on or need to work on are personal and I knew that my instructor would be reading them. I felt really vulnerable writing them down on paper where he would be able to read them. Things about anger and anxiety, focus and concentration, adhd, spirituality. . . it took me about 2 hours to finally get them down on paper in the words that I wanted. When I gave him the paper, he opened it up, and I had to ask him to read it later when I wasn't around. I felt so lame. But anyways, the goals are good and I hope it all works out well.

So NOT ready

So school starts on Tuesday and my classroom looks like it has been hit by a tornado. I don't know how I am going to get it all put together this weekend, but it is going to have to get done. I have a really neat bulletin board that I have put up though. That is the reason why the room is such a mess. I had to dig through all of my things in order to find the stuff I made for the Olympics and haven't used in four years. I got a brilliant idea last night as I was driving home from the school, which is to make a "Wheaties box" for the kids to draw a picture of themself on and then hang them up. I think the Wheaties Champions will be so cool. I am excited because several of the kids that I taught two years ago when they were first graders are in my class this year and they are all great kids. I am looking forward to having the opportunity to be their teacher again. I hope they are excited too.
I am so exhausted tonight. Between having to stay at the school real late the past few nights and karate and then . . . Shasta Cat has started sleeping on my bed. I don't mind that, but I am just not used to it and I wake up constantly because every time I roll over I feel her at my feet and I think, "be careful, Shastie is down there." So I wake up constantly and plus, last night, I just could not get comfortable no matter how hard I tried.