Gumbo - it's whats for dinner

Yum! Chicken, sausage, shrimp, okra and all kinds of seasonings. This is one of my very favorite things to eat. Normally, there would be crab claws in there too, but they are out of season right now. Gumbo is the Swahili word for okra, so it truly isn't gumbo unless you have the okra. I don't make this very often, but every once in a while nothing else will satisfy my taste buds. We usually have this Christmas Eve. When Nate and Meg were engaged we invited her over on Christmas Eve for some gumbo. She got confused as to what it was called and when her Dad asked her what she was going to do Christmas Eve, she said "Going to Silvesters for some guano." (bat poop) Nowadays, we call it guano as much as we call it gumbo. However, this is a very tasty soup so I imagine it taste nothing like guano. You must also have some rice to serve it over, and some crusty bread (I like baugettes the best) to serve with it. Anyway, we are having some tonight!

Election '08

Even though I disagree with Glenn Beck over public schools, there are a lot of things I do agree with about and more importantly, he really cracks me up. So, I saw an election sign on Lance's blog, so I thought I would post my own. :)

Father's Day

Father's Day is tomorrow and is always a bittersweet day. My father passed away 15 years ago and I miss him. I wish he could be here to know his grandchildren and great grandchildren. He was a funny loving guy and someone you could talk to. He was a retired Air Force veteran. I remember talking to him on the phone when I was at BYU and he asked me how my money was holding out. I told him that my debts were all paid but there wasn't much left over and he said "Not even a quarter to buy a candy bar with?" and we both laughed. A few days later, I got a card from him with a quarter taped in it. He did those kind of little things that could always cheer you up. I could always count on him to stick his finger in my ear when I was pouting to which I would always respond " Da-ad!!" He would never let me sass my mother. He was hardworking and I always knew that he loved me.




Missing you Daddy. Happy Father's Day!

Relections on a particulary difficult school year

Well, my summer break officially began on June 4th at 2:30pm. I must congratulate myself for getting through this 2007-2008 school year without a) seriously injuring a student and b)resisting the tempation to take up alcoholic beverages or mind altering substances.

We had 130 students and approximately half of them were underachievers and intent on doing anything other than schoolwork while at school. We lectured, we rewarded good behavior, we had parent/teacher conferences, we had parent/teacher/student conferences with the principal thrown into the mix most of the time. We gave detention, we gave fun Fridays, we had after school tutoring, morning tutoring, lunch detention, lunch tutoring...it just didn't seem to matter what we did, we just weren't getting through.

As much as I lectured these kids and got onto them about proper behavior and treating each other with respect, and all the eye rolling and huffs and puffs in response, I thought the school year would never end.

I teach with the best group of teachers you could ever ask for. Each of us has a different teaching style and usually each of us can reach a different group of kids and nuture them and we have some positive experiences along the way. That wasn't happening with these kids and it really wasn't until the last week of school that we finally realized that we had done some good along the way.

One of the positive things that comes from having this kind of year is that you learn so much about truly effective discipline. The other good thing is that you realize that this type of class doesn't come around very often. Thank goodness for that.

Teachers get very little respect in the United States. Constantly on talk radio, public school teachers are bashed, particulary by people like Glenn Beck and Sean Hannity. They dislike all teachers because of the teachers union. They want choice in public education. They have never seen a group of dedicated teachers who truly want the best for the students go through a school year like the one I just went through. And on that subject, I have an opinion I would like to share about choice and the voucher system particularly. If you pass legislation that would give vouchers to parents to take their children to any school, public or private, then you are also going to have to give those vouchers to parents who homeschool their children. I know many families who successfully homeschool their children and who would continue to do so. The problem comes in when parents in the lower socioeconomic bracket discover they can get a lot of money for their children if they educated them at home. That will induce a lot of parents who are ill qualified and undereducated themselves to pull their children out of school in order to boost the family income. What you will end up with is whole generations of people with little or no education. Crime, unemployment, and a welfare state will result.

Public education in the US has its problems, yes, but it still allows a good ecucation for all of its people, even insures it. Those who want to change it need to think the process through very carefully and work all consequences of change before they alter it.

Me, too

It has been so long since I posted that I am going to borrow Casey's list and post my version. I like doing these kinds of things. So...

1. Where is your cell phone? ....................bookbag
2. Your significant other?......................computer chair
3. Your hair?....................................brown...ish
4. Your mother? ................................. dear
5. Your father?.................................. missed
6. Your favorite thing?.......................... hugs
7. Your dream last night?........................confused
8. Your favorite drink...........................Coca-cola
9. Your dream/goal?..............................eternal family
10. The room you're in?..........................sanctuary
11. Your children?................................brilliant
12. Your fear?................................... car crash
13. Where do you want to be in 6 years........... retired
14. Where were you last night?...................home
15. What you're not?............................. fashionable
16. Muffins...................................... poppyseed
17. One of your wish list items?.................debt free
18. Where you grew up?.......... Bermuda, Tennessee, Houston, Picayune
19. What you read last........Narrative of a Revolutionary War Soldier
20. What are you wearing?........................ lounger
21. Your TV?.....................................50 in plasma
22. Your pets?.........................kitty asleep on the heating pad
23. Your computer? .............................. outdated
24. Your life?........................routine (and I like it like that)
25. Your mood?...................................anxious
26. Missing someone?.............................The Van Noys
27. Your car?....................................minivan
28. Something you're not wearing?................shoes
29. Favorite Store?.............................. amazon.com
30. Your summer?.....................studious, which is my kind of fun
31. Like someone?................................many people
32. Your favorite color?.........................dandelion yellow
33. Last time you laughed...............over dinner (Curt and Jake are funny)
34. Last time you cried?..............well, off and on since Laura left

Good news

Well, since April 1st I have been on pins and needles waiting to see if I was going to be accepted to some institutes and other things I had applied for to further my teaching expertise. :)) You know, most studies show that the more a teacher knows about the subject she teaches, the more effective she is. That being said, I have always tried to find workshops and institutes that will help me in that endeavor. In the past I have gone to institutes on state constitutions, Lewis and Clark, the Civil War, and Thomas Jefferson. This year, I applied to the James Madison Memorial Fellowship. This is a foundation that is dedicated to strengthening Constitutional content in schools and encouraging teachers to focus on the Constitution in their classrooms. They offer a fellowship that pays up to $24,000 to obtain a Master's degree in constitutional studies and they also sponsor a 4 week summer institute in Washington DC on the Constitution of the United States. They accept one teacher from each of the 50 states per year. This year, their fellow from Idaho is..me! I am so excited to begin my Master's Degree in American History and Government. I just received word this week that I was accepted. You should have heard me yelling and screaming in the teacher's lounge, lol. It is a great honor, to be sure, and I feel very humble and grateful.

I also have some other fun things to do this summer. I also learned this week that I have been accepted to a one week institute on Abraham Lincoln held at Gettysburg, sponsored by the Gilder-Lehrman Institute of American History, and a one-week institute on the Declaration of Independence and the American Revolution held in Philadelphia., sponsored by the National Endowment for the Humanities. I love trodding the places where our nation was formed and where crucial events took place. I will take lots of pictures and let you in on some of my experiences. After the school year I have had, I am looking forward to these experiences with great pleasure. History rocks!

Spring Break

Spring Break was last week but things have been so hectic I just haven't had a chance to post about it. I went to Texas/Mississippi to visit family and Jake went to Germany, Austria, Lichtenstein, and Switzerland. He had a great time and experienced the old and majestic places of these countries.

The first picture(above) is in Vienna, Austria and is the palace of Marie Theresa. The 2nd picture is the students in Munich in front of one of Hitler's favorite speech making places, You can see Jake's smiling face in the center of the group to the left of the red haired girl. The 3rd picture is a sculpture in the Dachau concentration camp, representing the way the Nazis stacked the bodies. Jake said this was a very solemn place and everyone whispered. The 4th picture is the famous Glockenspeil in Munich. The last picture is Neuschwanstein Castle (taken through a bus window).

This next group of pictures are some of Jake's favorites. The lion sculpture is the Dying Lion of Lucerne and Jake said it was really cool. It is a monument to Swiss soldiers who died in the French revolution. The next two pictures are of the Alps, which I think are magnificent. This last picture is of the McDonald's in Vienna. Jake was impressed with how upscale it seemed to be.

I went off to Mississippi and didn't bring a camera. But I had a great time. My sister Faye, picked me up at the Houston airport and then we drove to Mississippi. We talked and sang Beatles songs and ate pita chips. We met up with Mama at about 7:30pm at the Hollywood casino where Mom had us a room. The wind was blowing so hard that our hair was standing straight up as we got out of the car. We had some dinner and then Faye and I watched "No Country for Old Men" while Mom tried her luck at the games. The movie was really good, but quite chilling. Javier Bardem definitely deserved his Oscar for his performance. The next day we went to the Island View in Gulfport, where we stayed two nights. My sister, Diana, came over and spent time with us and we went to her house for a while. Diana has the most serene and peaceful porch and it is so nice to sit there and rock and look at the water. We sang some hymns and had some good visits. We went back to the Island View and ate. I had some really good fried green tomatoes - yum. The food was really good there. Faye and I watched movies both nights - Charlie Wilson's War (I enjoyed Phillip Seymour Hoffman's performance in that one) and Atonement. Faye liked that one better than I did because she had read the book. We also got to watch the first two installments of John Adams on HBO. I don't have HBO, so I will have to wait until it comes out on DVD to watch the rest of it, but what we saw was really good. Faye and I went back to Texas on Thursday. We got to Denham Springs and ran into stalled traffic because of a wreck, so we pulled off and found an antique village where Faye hit bank on some bells and owls. When we got to Houston, Joey was there. Joey is Faye's son and the first nephew and is just the sweetest and best guy you could ever want to know. We had some dinner from Lupe Tortilla's, and visited with Bob when he came home and then we crashed. We were both tired out. On Friday, Faye treated us to a massage that was awesome. Then we visited with Louise, Layla and Joey at their house. I also got to meet Louise's Mom, Sally, and her sister Michelle and Michelle's daughter Alex and a nephew, Andrew. This was my first meeting with Layla, my great niece, who is two. She is a cutie and we had a lot of fun getting her to tell us things and playing with her toys. This is a picture of the five of us. (If I had only had my curling iron, I wouldn't be quite so scary in this picture). We went home that night and had left overs and Faye and I watched "The Painted Veil" which Diana had recommended. It was a good movie, but we couldn't figure out where the name came from. The next morning, very early, Faye took me to the airport and I was home and walking in my door by noon, at which time I put on my pajamas and went to bed. lol It was a great time away, but as always, it is nice to be home.