My sister is Awesome!

I am a terrible blogger but Betsy has that elusive blogging gene. I spent UEA weekend on a quick trip to see baby Nate the Great. If you hop over to her blog (http://betsyandben.blogspot.com/) she did a great job recording the weekend! Love you, Bets!

The Big Road Trip (Part II)

The third day of our trip was all driving! We left early from Metropolis, Illinois / Paducah, Kentucky (the cities are sort of combined).

After we left our hotel we headed over to the gas station in Metropolis (where Superman is from). These two cutouts were just calling out for Barbie and Colby. We wish they were with us but you'll just have to imagine them there!

We drove for almost 11 hours (with stops of course). We went through Missouri and into Kansas. On our way we passed by a city named Emma -- this, of course, made us think of our sweet Emma! :)

Most of the time we were driving we talked and read trivia. It was a pleasant way to pass the time!

As we got close to Kansas City there was a beautiful sunset that we were able to watch as we traveled! It is amazing how exhausting it can be just driving all day! Shelly arranged for us to stay in a Marriott in Topeka, Kansas. It was nice to have a quick dinner, a dip in the hot tub and head off to a comfortable bed!

To be continued...with another day of driving...

The Big Road Trip (Part I)

It has been a loooong couple of days! On Tuesday, April 6 at 6:45am, Mom and I took a flight to Birmingham, Alabama. It has been a long anticipated trip to get Mom's things and bring them back to SLC. Since this week is Spring Break for Salt Lake School District, I was able to go with her on the cross country adventure! With Barbie and Colby in Virginia hanging out with Ben, Betsy and the Kids, we were fortunate to have others help us make this trip possible. Robin took us to the airport (at a VERY early hour) and my friend Kalani offered to take care of the house and dog sit (for Rogue) while we were all gone.

Kalani spends a lot of time at our house so he and Rogue have really started to get along! Somewhere, somebody said that it bodes well for a person who is good with animals and little children....well Kalani is just that. (Above is a picture of us at 3D "Alice in Wonderland" and below is a picture of Kalani with his cousin Hamana).


Anyway...our flight had a lay over in Vegas (for all of 30 minutes). So we quickly threw some money into the slots and actually came out a couple of dollars ahead!

As soon as we arrived in Birmingham, we took a cab to the U-Haul rental place. We picked up the truck and immediately headed to Home Depot to get locks for the truck and the Mule we were going to pick up from the cabin. We also rushed over to Walmart to pick up some clothes (we had both brought Utah winter clothes) to work in and to buy a GPS (we figured we'd need it for the cross country trip). After that we took off up to the cabin at Smith Lake. Below is a picture of us with our rental truck (it advertised the snake encounter in Manitoba). It was a beautiful drive up to Smith Lake!

When we got up to the cabin, Mom and I took a walk around the place. It is pretty lake and it was nice to walk around after all of the sitting in the plane and in the truck. The picture below is taken as we stood on the pier at the cabin.

It was nice to have a lot of time to talk about anything and everything as we relaxed at the cabin.

Before it got dark, we loaded the Mule into the trailer and hooked it up to the truck. We wanted to make sure that things were all set to leave early and head to Huntsville the next morning.

That evening, we tried to recover from a day of travelling. We watched "The Men Who Stare at Goats" (a VERY strange movie)!! The next morning we got up, got ready and drove down to Huntsville (Madison). The first thing we did was drive to the self storage. It was really getting warm and in the storage unit it was downright hot! What a change...when we left SLC yesterday it was snowing!

We loaded all of Mom's stuff from the storage unit into the truck. We worked fast and efficiently and were finished in about an hour and a half! When we were done, we went out to lunch with one of Mom's friends, Mina. We met Mina and her daughter Emma at a Indian restaurant, Taj Mahal. The food was so good!! We visited until Mina had to go and get her other kids from school. She is such a good friend to Mom and I'm so happy that she had people like Mina (and Lief -- Mina's husband) to take care of her while she lived in Alabama!

After our visit it was time to head out on the road! So we programmed the GPS (who we named Marge) and left Madison. The trip took us up through northern Alabama, into Tennessee (through Nashville), through Kentucky and into Metropolis, Kentucky/Illinois.

As the sun went down, we drove into a HUGE thunderstorm! The lightening was beautiful and amazing. However, the rain became so heavy that we had to stop and wait alongside the road for about 15 minutes until the storm calmed down enough for us to be able to see! About 8:30pm we arrived at our hotel--we were exhausted.

To be continued...

My New Place!

I have a really exciting and busy last week! On Wednesday, March 3, I put in an offer to by a condo at a complex at 1156 East 3300 South. The timeline on this whole process has been really short because this condo was a HUD foreclosure. Much different than a typical house sale, with a HUD property there are very specific requirements. First, the property is listed at a low price to enable the government to sell the property within the first 10 days it is listed. If, during those first 10 days, HUD does not receive an acceptable offer they relist the property on a day to day basis. This had been posted for the 10 day process and now was being relisted everyday. This was the only HUD condo in the entire complex and there had been condos in this complex sold in the past 180 days for more than $200,000. The HUD price was a GREAT deal! I found out on Thursday that HUD had accepted my offer and I am now under contract! The price was such a screamingly good deal that it is very affordable (and will be easy to pay0ff) as well as let me live my life of fun and continue to travel!

The condo is beautiful! I can't believe that it is a HUD property because all it really needs is paint and new carpet! It is a great location and it as close to my work as the Wilson house is (its about a 7 minute commute either way). The complex was built in 2003 and so everything in the condo is new.

The condo is a penthouse on the top floor and it has great vaulted ceilings. In the picture above, it is the condo in the top middle under the gable. There is secured parking under the building which is great!

One of the things I really fell in love with was the kitchen. The picture above is the kitchen display picture for the complex. It is exactly like my kitchen (below) but is easier to see the detail. The only thing different in my kitchen is that my cabinets are a little darker.

The condo is 2 bedroom and 2 full bathrooms. It is 1137 square feet and a nice little balcony as well. Below are two pictures of the master bathroom. Another awesome thing about this condo is all of the closet and storage space! Right now I am planning on using the master bedroom and turning the second bedroom into a office and guest bedroom.

I got to go back in today to look at it again. My uncle Andy came with me to check the place out pre-formal inspection. It is really nice to have gone through it with him and see that even with this being a HUD there were only minor things that needed to be fixed. However, since it is a HUD, it is sold "as-is" and so I have to wait until I close to fix those few little things.

HUD requires that all financing is completed within 10 days and that closing takes place in less that 45 days. I'm actually really excited for this timeline because hopefully it will enable me to close near the end of this month. I'd like to start working on the condo before the beginning of April since I leave the first week of April for spring break (with mom to get her things from Alabama) and I have a AD conference in St. George the second week of April.

Workman's Comp

So, for all of you that have been eagerly anticipating my next blog post, I finally have something to blog about. Tonight there were home basketball games at Highland. This means that from after school until about ten o'clock at night I'm running around doing all sorts of things as three sets of two games each are played in the two gyms. I'm in charge of everything from the officials to the ticket takers and cash boxes. This evening after the girls varsity game ended (about 6:30pm) and the boys varsity game started (7pm), I was rolling a folded 12 foot lunch table down a ramp by the gyms. One of the wheels got caught in the hand rail and flipped the table around knocking it down on my wrist. When this happened I was in a hallway surrounded by students and parents so without uttering a single bad word I picked up the table and finished setting it up down the hall. However, my wrist was throbbing. So I headed into the game and found Derek (HHS athletic trainer). I had him look at my wrist, he saw how swollen it was and he tested it and thought it might be broken but, stubborn me, I refused to go to the hospital. All I could think about was the work I had left to do and the fact that the boys game was about to start. So Derek wrapped some ice on it and reluctantly let me work for about twenty more minutes. After he took the ice off he splinted my hand and told me that regardless of what I wanted we were going to go to the hospital. He let me have five more minutes to settle my affairs and tell people I was leaving then we headed to the Instacare. While we were in the waiting room Derek took a picture of my splinted hand (because he thought he had done such an awesome job).
After an hour of waiting, x rays and questions the Instacare nurse told me that nothing was fractured but there was a lot of nerve and soft tissue damage. So we checked out of the Instacare and had a bunch of paperwork to fill out..... Oh yeah did I mention that this was my left hand. So Derek had to fill out all the paper work and I could barely sign the bottom. We got back to school when the varsity boys game was in the fourth quarter. I was stunned at how many people noticed my wrist and asked me about it (both parents and students). One of the Moms is the daughter of Dr.McQueen, she came over and talked to me. She said that in her experience Instacare's aren't that great and that she wanted to take me to see her dad right then. I was hesitant because I felt like I didn't want to impose but she and Derek beat me down until I agreed to go. As soon as the game ended she took me up to Dr.McQueen's house. He was so awesome, he unwrapped my wrist and did a quick examination and some tests. He was able to tell me that there may be a hairline fracture but almost certainly I had done some serious damage to my nerves and my have even partially severed the nerve that runs down the outside of my hand. He told me that he would know more when he looks at me me in a week or so after the swelling has gone down. He told me that his nurse would call me on Monday and make an appointment for Friday. Then he wrapped me in a hard splint and advised me how to care for it for the next week. I returned to school and Kalani and Derek brought me and my car home. Now it's time for a Tylenol 800, some ice and hopefully some sleep.

Attitude

Keeping Busy...

I love reading everybody's blog...you all have such cute things to show and stories to tell! I stay pretty busy most of the time with a life full of teenagers -- so most of the time there isn't much to blog about... However, the other day Highland's Football team won the Region #6 championship and it was such a big deal to my kids, I couldn't pass up praising them! I spend so much time with these kids and get to work with some phenomonal young people!
It's hard to believe that soon these kids will be off in the real world and considered adults. They can sometimes be so much trouble and other times so entertaining! (picture below l-r: Derek, Ono Tafisi, Toi Taufa, Sonny Heimuli and Fihi Kaufusi sitting on the ground)

Some of these kids have such tough lives and teaching and working with these kids serves to remind me of my blessings like a loving family, a peaceful home, good friends, financial stability, the chance to further my education, my health, my faith in Heavenly Father and my knowledge about the gospel. I feel like sometimes my students have to remind me what is really important.

So, what this all comes down to is that the other night when Highland won the state championship, I saw pure joy. Sometimes as adults, I think we forget the feeling of pure joy. But that night I saw the look in those boys eyes (like #11 Andre Coleman or #3 Toi Taufa) and remembered that being happy is a crutial thing in life. It is so important to be happy in what what we do and who we are regardless of what challenges we are facing. I have a quote on my classroom that I love: "We who lived in concentration camps can remember the men who walked through the huts comforting others, giving away their last piece of bread. They may have been few in number, but they offer sufficient proof that everything can be taken from a man but one thing: the last of the human freedoms -- to choose one's attitude in any given set of circumstances, to choose one's own way." (Viktor Frankl)

San Diego Trip
Sept 19-21, 2009

So, I'd been planning this trip to San Diego for almost two months. It was going to be just perfect...I'd be at Highland's Homecoming Football game (against Tooele) Friday night and fly out Saturday morning. But it didn't work out as perfectly as I had hoped! On Friday night at about 6:45pm (the game was scheduled to begin at 7:00pm) the power went out at the school (as well as several blocks around). This meant that the scoreboard, timers, stadium lights, microphones, etc. all no longer worked! A few minutes later we heard the word that the power would perhaps not come on until 2am. Well, the refs wouldn't start the game because the dark would prevent them from finishing it and the coaches and the players wanted to wait as long as possible for the lights to come back on (before they had to cancel it). Anyway...the lights never came on and about 8pm the refs called the game and it was rescheduled for Saturday at 1:00pm...and my flight left for San Diego at 11:00am. So my problem was that as AD (Athletic Director) I wouldn't be there...but my second problem is that my travelling companion (who would also be missing the game) is the Head Athletic Trainer. So, long story short (too late) we worked things out for people to cover for both of us and we went to San Diego!

The original purpose of the trip was to see one of my old students, Haloti Ngata (of the Baltimore Ravens), play against the San Diego Chargers. But with being a Masters student, AD, teaching AP and reading (for kids that read below a third grade reading level), a new IB (International Baccalaureate) teacher and everything else it was just an awesome chance to get away.

On Saturday Derek and I flew into San Diego and got there about 5pm. Our condo was in Oceanside (about 40 minutes north of San Diego). On the drive up we passed the San Diego Temple. It is stunningly beautiful!! We came around a corner and it just appears from the green hillside.

We got to Oceanside and checked into the condo...unknown to us, it was Harbor Days. The area was crowded but our condo was in the perfect place--just a short walk to the beach. The view was beautiful from our patio. We could both see and hear the ocean--which was incredibly relaxing. Smelling and hearing the ocean, we couldn't resist and immediately changed and headed down to the beach.
We had a great time swimming and body surfing in the waves and spent more than three hours in the ocean. Finally, our fingers were so pruned and we were so exhausted and hungry we headed back to the condo. We had a great dinner that night at a local place called Anita's. Kalani's (Derek's best friend) mom is from Oceanside and she had all the best recommendations for us! Anita's was a cute little house that had been turned into a Mexican restaurant--it was delicious! Relaxing days like this are just amazing!

The next day (Sunday) we slept in a little and then called my friend Sam (who plays football as SDSU) and asked him for his advice about where to park for the game. He suggested that we park in Old Town and ride the train to the stadium. This turned out to be a GREAT idea. As the train pulled into the station, the lot was packed!! Derek and I got the the game a couple hours early so we could look around, eat and soak it all in. We found out seats...8th row on the 50 yard line--WOW!! We loved watching warm ups and the other football games that were being shown on the jumbo-tron. The weather said it was supposed to be 75 degrees..but it definitely was not!! It was soooo hot!!

It was so fun to be at the game! Haloti (#92) had a great game and so did Derek's friend Eric Weddle (#32 for the Chargers). It was the perfect game to be at because it was a real game clear to the end. The game ended with the Ravens beating the Chargers 31-28. The whole experience of being at an NFL game was so fun. There is nothing like a pro game! At the beginning the Air Force flew over in the missing man formation. The stadium was so loud at time we couldn't hear each other (we were right next to each other and yelling)! Every time there was a score by the Chargers a huge group of fireworks went off and the crowd around us was awesome -- both Chargers and Ravens fans. There is a weird sense of camaraderie among fans in the stands!

After the game we headed back to the condo. We were both so sunburned! But we headed to the ocean anyway...we couldn't resist! We ended up staying at the beach until long after dark. We were only less than a mile from Camp Pendleton and they were doing some kind of night exercises. It was very interesting to watch.

Unfortunately, all good things must come to an end and we had to go go home. We woke up and headed to the airport about 8am after one last walk on the beach.

It was a great and very relaxing trip. But, as always, time away is way too short!