Long time.....

It has been so long since I have been on here. I am renewing my efforts to be more consistent. There is so much to catch up on. I will start with my employment. At the beginning of this school year, I was secure with my two part time jobs. Life was good. I worked at Arizona Conservatory from noon until 3pm, went home, relaxed and then went to work from 5-9pm. I made good money. Life was good. We then tested the kids to see how they were doing in reading. Turns out I am a damn good reading teacher! They all were at grade level! (that is really great considering a year ago, 12 of them read at the 3rd-4th grade level.) So, I was now out of a job. The principal was really cool and arranged for me to stay until I found something else. I found something else in less than a week. I now know why!!! I found employment at Phoenix Advantage Charter School. It is a K-8 school and I would be the 4th English teacher the middle school had had this year (it was only 5 weeks into the term). The students are obnoxious and there is little to no support from administration. It has been a year, but I am still holding on strong. More on that later.
Another issue that I was dealing with was what direction I needed to go in life. I have been feeling that I was just existing, that things were losing purpose. I was very prayerful and thoughtful about what should happen. The name Jennifer Thacker kept popping into my mind. Jen is a girl I dated about 7 years ago. We met when a mutual friend invited her to my house for a General Conference slumber party. They were a group of people from the east valley who wanted to come over Saturday after the session, play games, eat dinner, etc. Then, spend the night and wake up the next morning, eat a big breakfast and watch the Sunday morning session, then go our ways. It was a fun time. I enjoyed meeting Jen, and we dated for a few months. We then realized we were in a place that did not bode well for a relationship. We both had drama going on in our lives and needed to resolve some issues before pursuing something new. After four months, we decided to call it quits. Over the past years, we have occasionally touched base, but nothing too exciting.
Last February, she invited me to go see Mary Poppins with her and some friends. It was fun. I began thinking that maybe it was time to get to know her again. It took until our birthdays in November for me to decide to ask her out. (Her birthday is Nov. 5th, mine is Nov. 6th). We went to the White Chocolate Grill and had a great time. Since then, it has been a whirlwind romance. We are enjoying our time together, and it looks like we may be making some serious commitments in the next 6-8months.
We have several things to deal with: We both own homes. It is not the right time to sell and both of us have made modifications with our lenders. This means that we have contracted to stay in our homes for the next 5 years. I also have 4 large dogs that she does not really care for. I am going to have to find a way to deal with that as well. Her relationship with her family is a lot closer than mine is with mine, so I don't think asking her to move to the west valley is fair. These are all issues we will be dealing with soon.
It looks like we will be looking at rings sometime in the next two weeks.....

Easter

What a gorgeous day! I have had a couple of great weekends lately and am totally rejuvenated by the social experiences I have enjoyed. A couple weeks ago, I met with my "polly" (Polynesian) friends and had a great day. I went to Aloha fest in Tempe and just enjoyed the culture and experiences that were an integral part of my mission. Last weekend I went to an old High School Friend's wedding reception and met a couple of other friends there as well. It was great to rehash the old days. I am overwhelmed by the concept of your inner perception of yourself in the past does not necessarily meet up with other's perceptions of you. This weekend, I went out to dinner last night with my great friend Alishia, lunch today with my good friend George and dinner tonight with my sister Becky and her family. GREAT TIMES!

Isn't it Ironic?

As an English teacher, I am always looking for examples of irony to explain the concept to my students. This weekend was a whopper of an example! My cousin's husband died last week of pancreatic cancer. He had been fighting the good fight for the past two years, and looked great a month ago at the holiday celebrations we had; however, he went downhill really quickly and succumbed on Wednesday morning. His funeral service was held on Saturday afternoon. I am never comfortable at funerals. I prefer the LDS version where the service is littered with humor and memories. This was a Southern Baptist/Catholic version of fear and a spiritual version of "You better be good for goodness sakes!" kinda funeral. Also, because her husband was Hispanic, over half the service was in Spanish. (I think those were the Catholic parts!) Anyhow, after several songs, homilies, prayers, etc. were spoken, the minister began his sermon. The topic? YOU BETTER BE READY(HALLELUJAH) TO MEET YOUR MAKER(HALLELUJAH) CUZ HE CAN (HALLELUJAH) TAKE YOU (HALLELUJAH) WHENEVER HE WANTS (HALLELUJAH)!!! To prove his point, he remarked that the Lord was not ready for him yet, because he had suffered two strokes and he was still around. (BTW: My mother and I were counting how many times he could say HALLELUJAH in one minute: an impressive 27 times!) NOW LET US BOW OUR HEADS (HALLELUJAH) AND PRAY FOR JULIAN'S SOUL! I bowed my head and strained to listen, thinking that he was speaking softly because he was praying. I then heard people rushing to the front of the chapel (WOW...Lots of people wanna get saved today!) and then looked up....the minister had fallen down. Here is the irony...He had a stroke! This time, the Lord wanted him home. My mom says that the minister reminded God that he was still here...It is sad, but definitely ironic. (I also felt like I was on an episode of Six Feet Under!) The funeral ended abruptly. One I will not forget!

Mover and Shaker

The last two weeks of Winter break have gone by way too quickly! I can't believe it is over and school starts back on Monday. I have not accomplished as much as I needed to, but that is always the case. This week has been a concentration on preparing mom and dad for their move when they get their foreclosure notice. It has been a balancing act of getting it done and making sure that I don't traumatize my mother in the process. If there is ever an argument against saving stuff, it would be a visit to her home. She had a room full of material (cloth) that she was saving for her quilting. How many quilts has she made in her life? ZERO! I convinced her to throw out all but one bin of material...How many VCR, DVD, etc. movies? 3 bookcases full!!!! It boggles my mind that one person has so much...stuff. Then, I go outside and see the demons my father is fighting. His horde makes my mother's look like daycamp. The notice that their property is up for sale went out last week for an auction on Jan 15. So, we probably have 3 more months. Next Saturday, their ward is organizing to come help. THAT should be interesting. I am now home with a sore back, strained neck and a bit of panic at the prospect of school starting on Monday....

The dreaded P word

I have noticed that my post are becoming less about me and more about the dogs!!! (I know I am not alone in this--cone of shame owner!). Anyhow, a week ago THursday, I came home and let the dogs in. Normally, they all run in and jump and have fun. Not Thursday. Not Hugo. He just looked at me as he continued to lie in his kennel. He then stood up and wobbled over to me, where he vomited clear liquid! It scared me so much I took him to the doggy ER. $250 later, found out he had PARVO!!!! When I was young, I lost my dog to parvo. It scared me sooooo much. I stayed up for 4 nights nursing him to health. On Monday night, I was so excited that he had made it. Tuesday morning, Mia refused to eat. NNNNNNNNNOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO !!!!!! I have been forcing water down her throat for the past 4 days. Today she is doing so much better. Thanks to my vet, the syringe and Pedialyte for all the assistance! We are not to leave our yard for a month, so no visits with Santa. Tomorrow I am putting up the tree and taking pics with them in front of it. i am so thankful that they are healthy again. I pray that Rhino does not get sick with it now! BTW: Hugo went from 32 lbs to 18 lbs in 4 days! Mia only lost 8 ounces. Pic is of Hugo after the illness.

Daddy

So now I am a father. Not of children, but of dogs. I don't really know how it happened. About 6 months ago, my roommate found a stray and brought it home. He asked if we could keep it. It is a cute little dog; looks like a chihuahua wiener dog mix. It was very skinny and very friendly, so I said yes. I ahve taken care of this dog ever since. I have grown a little attached to it. About three weeks ago, he said that the little dog needed a friend, and that we should get another dog. I agreed. He wanted a boxer, so he looked on Craigslist and found a guy who just had boxer/rhodesian ridgeback puppies. We went to south Phoenix to look at them. THEY WERE SO CUTE! I decided that I would take one as well. (My roommate said if he moved out, he would take his dog with him). So now I was planning on 3 dogs. That is great. We went last Sunday to pick the dogs up. The guy said the only pup left after we got our two was the runt. Nobody wanted her, and if nobody took her, he was going to feed her to his PYTHON!!!! I couldn't let that happen, so I took her as well! NOW, I HAVE 4-yes 4-DOGS!!!! The last week has been exhausting as we have learned to get on a feeding, watering, peeing and pooping schedule. We have moved from a little corner of the tile floor to taking over the whole living room to being boxed in a portion of the patio to roaming the whole backyard-all in 7 days. It was fun today trying to do yardwork with 16 feet under me. I am looking forward to them growing a little more so we can go to the park, etc. Maybe this is preparation for taking on bigger responsibility? who knows.....

What is a man....

What is a man,
If his chief good and market of his time
Be but to sleep and feed? a beast, no more. (Hamlet IV, iii)

So tonight I am happily teaching my favorite play, HAMLET...when we get to the above speech. I begin to explain the lines quoted above, when I had an emotional moment. WHY? I don't know! Each time I teach this play, I learn something new. I was explaining to my students that the chief mission in life is to have purpose. If we just live to eat and sleep, we are just like animals. In my mind, I was thinking about my purpose....then the emotional response swept over me. Try explaining that to hardened teenagers!