ha ha

okay so here's some ha ha from this week.....there's this one little guy in my class that is super obnoxiously nosy. he has to know everything and i mean EVERYTHING that is going on with someone else. like, "ms. avery, why did so and so have his card turned?" and other such curiosity's about other people in the world around them that if i didn't have a classroom of other kids to deal with, i would offer the info. as such, my stock response is, "Jayce, it's not your business is it?"

well, the other day, i was working with him and some others at our writing center. he had his hand raised to ask a question, but i was helping someone else at the time. he put his hand down, and i figured that was because he noticed i was busy. after a moment, i turned to him to see what he needed. he shook his head and said simply, "it's not my business."

i had to swallow a giggle, but in hindsight, while it's still pretty funny, i do feel a tiny bit guilty. 6/7 year olds!

anyway, i have two weeks left and it's going to fly by and i'm really going to miss these kids. i'm not going to miss everything else, like all the hilarious kid drama that seems to perpetually mar each and every freaking day, BUT i will miss them. and i am learning a great deal about what it will be like to be a parent: drama will be a part of the number and i will just have to deal with it!!! laugh and take it in stride....maybe i should just count on it happening, that way, when it doesn't, it will be like a surprise vacation.....

awesome

it's been a pretty awesome week. nothing truly spectacular happened, but i got thru it with my little 1st grade gremlins. getting to work again, and enjoy them, has really done much to lift my spirits. there's more love in my heart and i can feel it. :) and i only have four weeks left! ;)

i'm also running 15 minutes now and my body isn't complaining. and, i'm closer to finishing off the first half of my horrendous research paper. also, another trip for my summer was born! hoooray!!! dawn has been wanting me to go stay with her in her other house that she has been fixing up out in leadville, colorado. she's been working on it for i think about two years now, and it's almost done....i've been dying to go, some little old mining town above 10,000 feet about 2 hours outside of denver AND her house looks so charming. it's an old victorian she and her husband bought and i just can't wait. it'll be beautiful up there this summer. she just loves living there and is very tired of san diego....so dan and she and maybe their teenage boys will be picking me up as they drive thru yucca on their way to colorado on june 26th. so we will just road trip it all the way out. should be totally fun. and then dawn will stay there all summer and the rest of us will fly out on july 7th. i found a cheap ticket home to palm springs from there, so i'm stoked. woo-hoo for trips!

mom and i need to buy our tickets to go be baby relief this summer too. the dates are firm now, so we'll be going about july 25th and coming back on august 1st? they are planning rachel's c-section for july 26th.....it will be wonderful to help out with taking care of the kids. i need to get that video of lane singing spiderman again. and, it'll be great to see pennsylvania in the summer. can't wait!

p.s. the new star trek movie was EXCELLANT.

um, so like a miracle just happened in my life

two weeks ago, in my one week vacation between terms, i felt like subbing. so i went online and got 3 days of work. how stoked i was to get some days! (these are hard to come by since there are so many people out of work). so two of those days i was in a kindy class on the marine base out in 29 palms. it was awesome too. the job was a shared room, so the other teacher was there and that made for a really easy assignment. plus the kids are little and little is my favorite. anyway, i found out that this other teacher was getting orders and would be moving sometime soon probably at the end of april. she urged me to go tell the principal i was available....and i did. it took several tries thru my last day, but i finally got in to see her. and to my surprise i learned that there are no long term subs available (some glitch in the district because I WAS AVAILABLE BUT WHATEVER), and that she totally has been looking because she has multiple assignments coming up. so i gave her my info and she was just so pleased! i left smiling and feeling good, like something would come of it.

and it did. a week later this same principal calls me. a teacher had left that very day and she wanted me to start tomorrow. that was last wednesday. !!!! yes, i got hired for the rest of the school year.

and yeah, it's a miracle. i haven't subbed since january and only after two days the Lord blesses me with this. hooray!!!!!

a random act

so i was just leaving the library here in yucca, yesterday afternoon, and about 50 feet from the building when i hear someone yell out, "excuse me!" i turn around and see this guy running towards me. i waited expectantly and when he reaches me he says in a spanish accent, "my friend and i were just commenting on your beauty." it was so totally random that i just reacted with a lightning fast grin on my face and a 'hey thanks!' right as he finished his cell phone rang and he took it and backed off. and i turned around and continued on my way feeling the smile linger on my face and then thinking 'i wonder if he was doing some sort of sociology project for school...' ha!

yeah, it was pretty great. i'm writing this down so i don't forget it. how sweet! how kind! he obviously wanted nothing more, just to pass on that information. when does that ever happen?

the week in wrap

such a great week! totally got my butt kicked by school. spent ALL day and i mean ALL FREAKING saturday writing a paper. but i did it. yay. and don't feel sorry for me, since i partied pretty hard on two other days. yes, i finally went up snowboarding. was the grandest day in a long time. i tried to coax a couple of long distance friends up, but no luck. i really actually had a great time by myself, as sad as that may sound. with an ipod in my ear, and chatty people on the chair, it's all good! well, maybe not all good, but i did ride hard for almost 5 hours so you gotta know i had an awesome time.
my body was really happy too. spend most of my time on this one very long, very fast and perfectly steep run i love just whipping by people and diggin' my orthotics in my boots. makes a big difference. i had much more control.

at the end of the day, i singled out this old guy to take my picture. he worked there and i totally didn't think about how he might never have used a digital camera before. he kept turning it backwards and i had to help him twice with it. i hope he heard how grateful i was and didn't feel too embarrassed. man, i hate to embarrass people! the best part was that i never actually got a picture. yup. -sigh- note to self.

the other great thing about this week, besides the boring stuff like getting my final chunk of financial aid and having my teacher tell me how much i rock (blah blah lol but really she did and who does that?) was my valiant class. man, i'm really loving those kids. this week it was cassi and her bro dylan, and josiah and sara. we had two moments where they asked some rather RAD questions. cassi said, 'were the gold plates really real?' and i was like HELL YEAH, ha ha, no, i said that they were. and then i told them about the testimony of the 3 and then the 8 witnesses and i showed them where they signed their names in the b. of m. they were all into it. totally cool. and then another time, when i was sharing a personal experience about prayer, about getting a 'no' answer and following it, cassi asked again, "how did you hear the voice of the Lord when you prayed? like did you hear actual words and stuff?" what a great moment that was! so then i told them how i actually just felt a strong feeling in my heart. that when i thought of doing the thing He wanted me to do, i felt good and at peace. but when i thought of doing the opposite, i felt kinda sick to my stomach and bad about it.

yeah, it was so cool. they listened, the Spirit was strong, those 9 and 10 year olds rule.

and then sister dick came in and gave us valentines cookies. i love church!

fast sunday

today's lesson with my valiants went really well. i had 5 of them and this new kid with an interesting name: 'pollacks.' he had a tendency to spout random stories but i caught on quick. he was a sweetie and did contribute some good things (and relevant) to the lesson. he talked about how he prayed and prayed for help on a test and then all day (i guess the test was really long) he remembered stuff. :) i felt the Spirit really strong the whole time but especially when (i teared up) we were talking about being obedient. the manual directed to bring up the story of Nephi and having to go back for the plates. we memorized 1 nephi 3:7.
so yay for having a calling again. callings are a serious blessing.
this fast sunday i also bore my testimony. haven't done that in awhile. and i'm very glad i did.

i'm looking forward to this week. i should finish up my application for an IRS job by tomorrow. so that will be a relief. i've been slowly thinking more and more about this possibility since my cousin-in-law Ryan brought it up with me. he's been doing the job he recommends for 6 months now and he thinks i'd do really well. bless his heart. he showed me the pay scale and it will compensate for education. meaning that even though I don't have direct experience with work as a 'Revenue Officer' I would still qualify with a Bachelor's. they will train me and i will get an even higher salary with a master's. and, after doing it for a year (everyone has too) then one can move around to a different job. there are lot's of options it's just a matter of putting in the 'grunt work.'

so, i've been warming up to the idea and just waiting for his word. at the initial time he was telling me the previous info, he had found out that they would be hiring for the san bernardino office. this was supposed to happen in feb/march and he would let me know.

so yesterday i went online looking for the IRS jobs website. i stumbled upon the job he had been talking about and to my happy surprise the job was already posted. the posting began in jan. and closes feb. 20th. amazing timing, eh?! i texted Ryan and he was just thrilled. he's up in oakland right now at another month long IRS training.

so this particular job starts on june 9th. i'll be done with the master's by may 31st. the timing couldn't be better. apparently, it's a long hiring process but time is certainly one thing i have in abundance. this one class, yes ONE CLASS, is really kicking my butt and i'm seriously grateful for having the school aid to complete it. i don't have to stress about working while doing school (which is rare in my life) so i'm grateful. so very grateful. who gets to work part time (i mean barely) and go to school? little kids! and the rich! ha ha.

anyway, life is good.

trip to philly and katina

katina, my friend, this is for you. thanks for reminding me to get on my blog and write. i vacillate between wanting it to be like my journal and then not. so i keep a digital journal on my laptop but then i also keep this. crazy. i should get over my privacy issues. nothing is really private anyway.....

so i hope you don't mind but i find my journal writing is WAY more fun for me if i'm writing to a friend instead of just a vague anyone... humor me. :)

so, what is up in my life? i've had a super fabulous last few weeks with visiting family! yeah i went to pennsylvania to see my bro and his happiness for an entire week! they've lived there now for about 6 months while he does his residency for pediatric dentistry. (he has 1.5 years more to go) and it was just awesome to see them all. i adore my bro. he makes me crack up all the time. and rachel is great too. we all get along rather well. and i got to hang out with the kids. lane is almost 3 and he's a thrill a minute. ivy is 6. i got to take lane the very first day and go to her school to be the 'mystery reader.' it was pretty exciting. i brought 'big bad bunny' and the kids loved it or maybe i loved it more! (i could read to kids for a day job)

so it was pretty great. and i totally fell in love with lane. last time i came, he was only a baby and i really could only understand a few words. now, he's like verbal extraordinaire and hilarious. he loves ACTION! i'll put up a video of him. or maybe no one else will find it exciting but me. anyway, one time we were in the living room, he and I and rachel while ivy was at school. (kinder is ALL DAY here, btw) and i had just picked him up. he said, 'auntie meenin, will you drop me?' i laughed. what the? rachel and i both laugh. so, i humor him but no way am i going to drop him from my 5'7.5"! so i get on my knees still holding him. and then we go thru a series of 'gentle drops' onto the carpet where he gets progressively more and more upset at my inability to deliver. he wants it done the RIGHT WAY. 'no, auntie meenin, no! not like that!' so finally, on the 4th try, i just go for it. totally drop him (from my knees) and he just squeals with delight. it was hysterical.

i love kids but i think more if they are related to me. it's true. i see the difference now. ha!

christmas week

yesterday was so good for my soul!!! i met some old friends recently found on facebook, two sisters actually, and we just had the greatest time!!! it's been about 15 and 20 years since we had all seen each other so we spent the ENTIRE day talking and catching up on all of our lives. we knew each other from church, seminary, church dances, yadda yadda..... it was just wonderful. i drove out to menifee, which is where the older sister, tonya, lives with her husband of 10 years and 4 beautiful kids. she has a 14 year old that came from his previous marriage, and then 3 much littlier ones. francesco who i think is 7 or 8, giovanni who is 3, and little mia who was adorable and just 2. actually, they were all adorable. :) and then her sister autumn, who besides knowing from church, i knew from sport chalet, came out from san diego. she lives in kensington with her husband of 6 years. we worked together at sport chalet back when the parkway plaza store was open. so that was also a long time ago! '94-96!

anyway, it was a seriously great time catching up with all of them. and getting to hold babies. oh yeah, autumn has twins! 8 month old boys! and they were big! so we were busy. and i just loved it. all their love, all the kids' love, and hanging out. it can't get much better than that.

so now we've agreed to get together once a month. meeting in menifee! friends are great. it's amazing how we can come together again, after so long, and the love never changes. we change, who we are is slightly different, but not our core. i guess that's how it's able to happen. people never really do totally change. that's the key. (although some probably do....)

!

i need to write this paper on constructivist development theories but i also need to be distracted. :) things on my mind are how great it will be to get my car back. it's here finally. over in long beach just waiting for pick up. mom and i go friday. then i'm off to san diego. gotta get my new yak rak from larry and my new bike! yes, it's christmas soon for me this year. this will be a short trip....just a day and a night....since school is keeping me busy...but i hope to catch up with a few of my friends. it's carolynn's birthday friday...also gina is living in el cajon now. she left hawaii about a month after me...i also need to see aunt dottie and uncle joe AND it would be a perfect time to see nikol mastellar. i haven't seen her in person in like 20 years i think. we found each other on facebook recently so that has been great! i've been finding several old friends on there and who can't love that?

but we shall see. that's alot to do in so short a time.....if i don't get to writing this paper and on to the other work for this week, i'll be coming home even earlier!

unwanted lesson

man, so that just sucked. like alot. a friend called me to ask if i'd come play volleyball over at the cac. i got there and discovered it was the entire laie community playing tournaments....single elimination, btw. oh, and more joy, his team had won every game they played yesterday. which was for like 2 hours. no pressure, he says! anyway, to get right to the point, i sucked! made less than half of all my plays!!! argh!!! and, for the cherry on top, i blew the last game point. 14 to 13 and i just stared at the ball as it landed right in front of me.

man, humility ain't fun. i'm beginning to remember why i don't like team sports. i kept getting all annoyed at the ball hog girl. and she was so nice and had such good sportmanship! but then she kept taking my shots! so then i would swallow my pride and just go with the flow only to still blow it most of the time. and she WAS really good and i really was not. i'm so competitive! and how dare i be when it's been like 20 freaking years since i played volleyball last????!!!!!

i make myself crazy. this is why i like individual sports. because when you play alone, you have no one to compare yourself to, which is how it should be, AND so naturally you always rock.
:)
i really hate to not be good at something. so unrealistic and childish to think you can be right away at anything really. even if you were back in the day. so i guess it was necessary for me to do this. to remember that lesson. but dammit!!!

something to remember

that second to my last day at school, as coach avery, was especially fun. we were just sitting there...only the 7th graders from both classes, having been displaced from the blacktop because of the over 100 degree weather AND from the gym because of promotion practice, was sitting together under some trees and canopies bored out of our minds, sweating and staring at the clock, when a one of the girls comes up to me: "Coach Avery, wanna wrestle?" i'm grinning, "totally!" i say. so after i whip her, like it was hard, a crowd of boys jumps up. and it was hilarious. each one was so sure, SO SURE, he would be the victor. but by about the 11th whip job, i think they could see the writing on the wall. or, they were saved by the bell. ;)

almost done!

what a week! i'm almost done and can hardly believe my good fortune. it has been such a learning experience and blessing to have been given this long term assignment teaching p.e. to 7 and 8th grade. on friday we had an honors assembly and i got to represent coach mac (since his last day was tuesday due to his new knee surgery). 7 seventh graders out of about 275 were to be awarded the presidential physical fitness award. it's a big deal. huge in fact. and also a sad commentary on these youth when a little over 2% earns it. They have to complete 5 different skill tests, the mile, pushups, sit-ups, a flexibility test, and do what's called a "shuttle run." that's where they sprint a short distance from one line to another and bend over and pick up an eraser and run back with it. it measures speed and agility. i asked coach mac to explain all this to me, and how good they have to perform. it varies, obviously, based on sex, but the expectations are not unreasonable. as an example, the sit-ups they do are modified. no one holds your knees and you simply leave your hands on the floor and slide them up to a certain point as you curl forward.
anyway, i way digress!
i got to hand those awards out and 4 of them were my kids. so fun! and i spoke too, gave a little 5 second description of what that award meant. and, come to find out, i probably wasn't heard by many people. about 350 or so where there and i held the mike too far from my mouth!
argh!
anyway, the principal introduced me too, and that was sweet because she said what a great job i had been doing.....
oh, and i got lots of applause, like when she first introduced me and i walked up. was a little tiny bit embarrassing and made my throat catch but i loved it, who am i kidding?! amazing how many good kids are out there. and how many many people there are to love.
(i also got to hand out 5 more awards later in the program for outstanding students and these were ones that i had selected.) and this one, i also botched. as i walked up to the podium, i DROPPED 3 of them and proceeded to talk not noticing i was stepping on them. the podium sort of hid that from the majority of the group, but then i had to bend down and get them. so much for being sophisticated.
but it was a great cap on a priceless experience.
always a dork, but covering it up pretty nicely AND ever able to keep moving. ha ha!
and i only have 4 days left. wow. wow!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! (it's been a 6 week job and i'm changed because of it!)

yippee!

i am having a fabulous time as 'coach avery.' the kids call me 'sheriff', cuz i wear the glasses, and that makes me giggle. i kinda feel like the evil witch in 'miss nelson is missing': you gotta be mean and loud and kinda scary, or no one listens to you. (this is the hardest part) anyway, the other coach, coach mac, has taken me under his wing. he's a master at what he does...been teaching for 29 years....and i adore the man. it's the first time in my life i've had the benefit of a father figure actually there to mentor me! wow, and this is the kind of stuff other people get their whole lives!
:)

quote by Sister Watson-Nelson

i heard her say this at a fireside i was so lucky to be at in laie, hawaii in the chapel next to the temple on november 11th, 2007. both she and sister dew spoke. i will never forget it:

"If we only sprinkle our lives with the gospel, we will only feel guilt and not joy. To fully immerse yourself is to feel the joy the gospel brings."

quote by president david o. mckay

"What you sincerely in your heart think of Christ will determine what you are, and will largely determine what your acts will be."

i can't wait to ditch the dialup

can you believe it? my mom still has dial-up. the dish network is on my hitlist. she pays something like 100 smacks a month and gets a zillion channels which is about as useful as pennies but NO HIGH SPEED CONNECTION. how 80's uncool can you be? 80's uncool meaning all the crap at the thrift store that IS STILL THERE cuz no one will EVER think it's worth resurrecting. you know what i'm talking about. light green and pink ties with geometric shapes. big purple tees that go to your knees with puffy paint white cats.
anyway, i can't wait to move.
but i always say that.
:)

today is rad. i don't have to sub. HOO-ray!!!! so i'm in a coffee shop listening to my favorite set of retired folks. there's this group of women that come in all the time here and talk mostly of politics. how much bush lies, abortion, their friends with gay living kids. i love it. educational eavesdropping. good times! i put my headphones on, so they feel like i'm not listening and can really let it all out. they don't seem to care either way, but it makes me feel more like the fly on the wall i long to be.

i must say i find the issue of legalized abortion rather complex. on one hand, i believe the sanctity of life should be protected by the law. people always have their free choice no matter what, so they can obviously still choose to abort. and on the other hand, your right to choose is your right. which is a greater law?
and maybe that's the answer, right there in the question. the natural law, the free agency of man, will always be. man can try to take it, but it's ubiquitous. a law to restrict man's free agency is all any man can hope to do.
and that's the conundrum: your perspective. it looks like the antithesis of freedom, in voting pro-life, to a pro-choicer. when from the pro-lifer, it's protecting freedom. freedom to live. sigh.
giving people their choice to legally abort seems sort of redundant. plus, what other things can that lead to? what more redundancy do we need? ha ha. this discussion with myself is about to spin out sarcastic.

movies movies movies

so i saw a movie to love the other night. i mean, besides nims island! it was an older rental and totally accidental. never even heard of it...love when that happens. it's called '2 brothers and a bride.' http://www.netflix.com/Movie/Two_Brothers_and_a_Bride/70000545

i need to start keeping a list. might as well start here. don't want to forget these great unknowns.

Megan's List of Movie Gold:
2 brothers and a bride
unconditional love
danny deckchair
king of california


so....i wonder if anyone i know will see one? nims island doesnt' count! ;)

hm-m-m

mom said "imagine life without bills." this was the description of a book a friend had given her about how to eliminate debt. i love it: imagine.
right about now, i'm still working on, "imagine life employed." ha ha.

so anyway

yucca isn't so bad. i never would have believed it, but it's actually good to be here. i've been able to do alot at mom's house, which makes me feel worthwhile. so far, i've cleaned out a good portion of the garage...cleaned the carpets THOROUGHLY with grandma's bitchin' rainbow vacuum cleaner. (everyone with carpets should get one.) and done lots of other useful things that are too boring to mention here. :)
anyway, week one of april, and only one half day of subbing this week. but that's better than nothing! yesterday's 3rd graders where adorable too. one little especially precocious little boy (with dreads) asked, "ms. avery, do you have a lazy eye? i wish i had one. they're cool!" i laughed. who says that? no one has ever said that to me. kids are the greatest.