Mulling It Over

This weekend we went camping. It was such a good time. Even though we were gone to Europe for almost three weeks less than a month ago, I was ready to get out of town. I love the town where we live, but I am almost always up for a trip. Friday after work, I came home and did a few running around things and waited for Jeremy to get back, then we hit the road. It's about a two hour drive to the White Mountains. There was so much traffic and construction that it took us closer to three hours ,which means we had to set up camp in close to darkness. We got everything set up and started a fire. For the first time we camped in the White Mountain National Forest (ie no bathrooms) but it was so great not to see other people. Jeremy did his sit quietly and stare at the fire thing, while I read my book Catching Fire. Saturday we got up and made a great breakfast on an open fire. I love the way food tastes when it's cooked over a fire. We had bacon, sausage, toast and oatmeal. After that, we did a short hike up Mt. Pemigewasset.
The hike was a total of three miles, which is short for us, but it was just right. The weather was perfect sunny and mid 70's. At the top of the mountain we had lunch pb&j and Cheeze its. Then we hiked down and went to see The Basin. The Basin is a waterfall that has created a huge granite pot hole. All the rock around was so smooth; it made it difficult to remember we looking at very, hard stone. We came back and just chilled. It was nice. We made dinner, and I read. Saturday night was really, really cold. I would say low 40's. My nose was cold all night. We really need to purchase better sleeping bags.

The most exciting part was on the way home. As we were driving out, I saw what I thought was a stuffed bear leaning against a Jeep. My first thought was what a funny joke someone has leaned a giant stuffed bear on their car.  Seconds later, I come to my senses and realize where I am and that it is certainly a REAL black bear. Before I got a picture, it lumbered off into the woods.

*Edit - We did this trip as green as possible. Of course there is always room for improvement. We used no paper towels and brought home all of our recycling.  

After a first week of school this was a great way to end the week. My classes seem to be going ok, but I think my freshmen are going to be tough. I'm going to be doing some work with the night school this year, which will be interesting. Also, I'm going to be co-teaching with a science teacher two days a week. She is a wonderful experienced teacher, but she has her hands full. Her A period class has 20 students - 17 receive some sort of special education services- which translates to needing lots of one-on-one  help and lots of behavior problems. I haven't been in a science classroom in a long time, but hopefully I will be able to help her.

Today was my first day back to school with all of my students. I always forget, every year, how tiring it is to teach. Talking and walking around all day is tiring. One of the benefits and disadvantages of my job is that I have the same students every year. For today, it was exciting to see all the students and catch up. Some had really good summers and some didn't. So it goes. My classes are capped at 12 students and most of them are almost full. It will be an interesting year.

Like last year, I'm taking my lunch every day, except for Grilled Cheese day. Grilled cheese day happens once a month and this month it's on Thursday. I try to take all my snacks too and avoid the snacks in the resource room and in the vending machines. This not only saves calories, it saves tons of money. It amazes me that people eat the lunch in the cafeteria. It is convenient, but also expensive and 99% of the time really bad for you. A lot of teachers are unfortunately over weight. It sets such a horrible example for our students. I try to encourage my students to bring snacks with them to school and drink out of reusable water bottles. Most of the students I've had for a few years now remind the new students about my recycling policies and that they do not want to throw paper, plastic or cans in the trash. That makes me feel pretty darn good.

One really good thing about this year is that I'm going to get to car pool a few days a week with the counseling intern in my program. This is awesome for so many reasons: 1. It's obviously better for the environment and will reduce two carbon footprints. 2. It will make the 45-minute commute way more enjoyable. 3. On some days I won't have to drive at all, which will give me a much needed break.

So here is to a good year. I'm trying hard to have a positive attitude. I don't always like my job, but I always want my students to think that I do.

 

Today, I went blueberry picking for the first time. It was great. I'm not a huge fan of just eating blueberries, but I love them in cobbler, muffins, or pancakes - Mmm good. Jeremy and I picked almost 3 pounds in about 25 or 30 minutes. It was really hot and humid, but we had a lot of fun. I think I may go back on Monday and get more. For 30 minutes of worked we saved a ton of money. Blueberries at the grocery store are $2 a pint. We paid $2 a pound. It was great; One of the things I love about New Hampshire are all of the ways to get fresh, local food. Tomorrow we'll go to the farmers market. Hopefully, there will be lots of good fruit there.


Most of the berries are in the freezer on pans freezing. After their frozen, I'll transfer them to bags. The rest are waiting, patiently, to be made into blueberry cobbler.



I really will start posting bout Europe soon.

Ughh . . . We're home. It was nice to sleep my own bed last night, but I could have stayed in Paris forever.

I feel like there is so much to do. I need to get everything ready for the school year, do laundry, post all of our pictures etc. All of that regular life stuff. I loved Europe, especially Paris. I was less than happy to come home.

I woke up at 5 (thanks Jet Lag) and started a load of laundry. The laundry is now on the line with a load of whites in the washer. I am so glad we cleaned the house before we left. It was great to come home to everything where it should be. I've managed to post the first two sets of pictures. We'll see how long it takes to get them all up. I'd like to do a post about each of the major places we went to while we were in Europe. So look for that to come. . .

In the real world -
I go back to work officially on the 27th. At first I was kind of looking forward to this year, now I am literally dreading it. 3 of the staff members I worked with for the last two years have moved to different jobs in the school and there are other new people to work with, plus all the regular stress that is my job. *If you don't know, I teach students with Emotional Handicaps. Grades 9-12. Each class has from 8-12 students, but it looks like all of my classes are at 12 this year. The students have anything from Bi-Polar, Anxiety, Depression to School Phobia). I'll be sharing my classroom with someone different this year, as well. I really liked my co-worker who I shared with the last two years. We got along really well. Sharing a classroom can be a dificult thing. It's not like you have even a cubicle like in an office; it's all shared space. So we will see. I want to have a good attitude, but I'm ready for Jeremy to be done with school. I need to find a job that really fits me.

Anyway. . . Here is the happy place I'll be going to this school year.

Here is our itinerary for Europe.

If you click on the links you can see where we are staying in each locale. We are doing a few side trips from main cities. From Siena we are day tripping to Volterra, a walled city in the hill country. From Florence we are technically day tripping to Pisa, although it's really a trip enroute to Vernazza-The Cinque Terre. On our way out of Italy, we are stopping in Milan for the day before continuing on to France. I'm excited.

I hope to post while I'm in Europe. We shall see how that goes.

European Excursion Itinerary
Date	Day	Travel/City	Lodging
31-Jul	Friday	Leave Boston Fly Into ROME	Night and Day Hostel
1-Aug	Saturday	Rome
2-Aug	Sunday	Rome
3-Aug	Monday	Rome
4-Aug	Tuesday	Rome/Siena	Hotel Alma Domus
5-Aug	Wednesday	Siena
6-Aug	Thursday	Voleterra
7-Aug	Friday	Siena/Florence	Katti House
8-Aug	Saturday	Florence
9-Aug	Sunday	Pisa/ Cinque Terre	Camere La Torre
10-Aug	Monday	Cinque Terre
11-Aug	Tuesday	Cinque Terre
12-Aug	Wednesday	Cinque Terre/Milan/Paris
13-Aug	Thursday	Paris	Hotel Amelie
14-Aug	Friday	Paris
15-Aug	Saturday	Paris
16-Aug	Sunday	Paris
17-Aug	Monday	Paris
18-Aug	Tuesday	Leave Paris to Boston

There are so many things to get done before we leave on Friday, not big things just lots of little things. Yesterday, we went to Bed, Bath, & Beyond and Walmart to get all the little odds and end things like quart size Ziploc bags, travel toothpaste, travel alarm clock (because we won't have cell phones) and some snacks for the flights. Our previous international flying experience was to Africa. I hated the food and thought I was going to starve both ways. I'm guessing this will be a better experience, but if it's not I'm prepared. We also had to get Jeremy a new money belt. We looked all over the house and couldn't find his anywhere. Considering we've moved about five times since the last time he used it, this is not a surprise.

So things to do:

• Laundry - Of course there is always laundry to be done.
  
• Clean the house - Luckily since I've been home all summer, its really not that bad. But still it needs to be done.
  
• Car Inspection - Hopefully, this goes off without a hitch
• Print all of our reservation stuff
  
• Copy important documents
  
• Pack
• Decide whether to mutilate the Rick Steves travel guide. He suggests it, but I'm not sure if I can cut up a book.

Now, I just need to get motivated and get all this stuff done.

And today is Jeremy's birthday; he's 26, finally! I'm exactly four months older than Jeremy. I like when we are the same numerical age better.

I'll post an itinerary soon.

For dinner tonight, I made a broccoli & spinach crustless quiche. It was quite good. I designed my own recipe, and we had leftover Parmesan Herb Bread. We also had turkey bacon. . .

Here's what I've decided: I hate turkey bacon. I would rather have just one piece of real bacon than eat whatever the equivalent of turkey bacon. It's just not worth it. Turkey bacon has no flavor; it is bland and boring. There are many things that are both healthful and delicious, turkey bacon is not one of them.

My advice to you is skip the turkey bacon; go ahead, have the real bacon. It is worth running an extra 10 minutes or only having one delicious, salty, crunchy piece.

Turkey Bacon = Bad

Real Bacon from a Pig = Good

This summer I've been able to work out tons. It's been awesome.

Early this spring, I got new running shoes. For the first time, I purchased New Balance shoes. I had always been a Nike person, but these shoes are awesome. New Balance shoes are great because there are so many options. I don't have the best feet; my feet are flat and wide. With New Balance I can get great arch support, wide width, half sizes. These are much better than Nikes.
Thank you New Balance for giving me shoes that work.

My gym is not the coolest and certainly not the cheapest, but it works. I hate working out outside, so I go to the gym even in the summer. I need consistent conditions, and I get that at the gym. It's great because not many other people are there in the summer.

Now I am by no means a runner. I think I can safely call myself a jogger. I'm not fast enough to be a runner, which is ok with me. I'm very picky about which treadmill I use. I feel like I formed a bond with this treadmill this summer. We've already logged a lot of miles together.
I hate when I get there and someone is on this treadmill. It makes me feel a little ticked off. It's my treadmill, not yours.

My goal is to be able to run 5 miles in an hour. Right now I can only do three miles in 45 minutes. Maybe someday.

Peace out.

I thought the last time I wrote in my blog it was maybe June or May at the earliest. Boy was I wrong; It was April. Oh well an update.

















July. . .
This month has been busy. I've been in a book club with some people from school. It's been easy summer reading, which has been enjoyable. First, we read The Girl Who Stopped Swimming and now we are reading A Reliable Wife. I've also been reading other books, of course. It has been a good reading summer so far.

One big event was seeing Gone with The Wind on the big screen. It was marvelous and spent the whole next day swooning.

Last week, we went to NY. We spent some time with Brazas family, fun as always. Then we went to Syracuse for Katie Owens and Will Powell's wedding. It was great to see them and lots of our other camp friends. Then Saturday night, after the wedding, we stayed with my brother. The beginning was fun, until I got violently ill. I was sick all night. Jeremy was great and stayed up with me. Then we had to drive back the next day. Cars + Severe Nausuea = one long car ride. Jeremy was gracious enough to drive the six hours back home. I'm feeling mostly better now.


Overall, I've been working out tons and eating the good food that is so plentiful in the summer. I haven't been working much on stuff for our trip to Europe the last few weeks, but I will be now that we're home for a bit. T-Minus 17 days until we leave, on what I'm sure will be the trip of a lifetime.

T Minus one day until my April Vacation. Thank goodness. I am whipped. This was a long week.
My plans for next week include but are certainly not limited to:

• Making a new pair of linen pants.
  
• Reading - finally finishing Rabbit Redux and then starting The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao
• Working Out
  
• Perfecting the Itinerary for Europe - I need to figure out what were doing in Paris
  

This Saturday Jeremy and I are going on our first hike of the season to Mt. Chocorua in the lovely White Mountains.

Welp that's it. I'm out.

So Jeremy is gone for the weekend. There are some things I have realized about myself. A wonderful time for a list:

1. I am not a neat person. I do not care if things are tidy.
   
2. I really only need bowls, tea cups, and spoons to survive.
   
3. I watch too much TV.
4. I spend too much time on the computer.
   
5. Sounds around the house make me nervous.
   
6. Sleeping alone is too quite and not fun.
7. However, getting to sleep with the fan blowing directly on my face is nice.
8. Laughing by yourself is not as much fun as laughing with someone else.
9. I would not like living alone.
10. While I have always been opposed to guns, there's a possibility I would purchase at least mace if I lived by myself.
    

Well there is update two in less than a month.

Becka is a diligent poster. I feel guilty when I read her blog and a few others on a regular basis and never contribute anything myself. So here is an update.

This summer we are going to Italy and Paris. I spent weeks research tickets, hotels, and activities. There are still more activities to plan. However, all the hotels are booked, and the plane tickets are purchased. We're going from July 31 to Aug 18 flying Aer Lingus. This means we have a connection in Dublin. I am reallllllllllly excited about this trip. I have wanted to go to Europe basically my entire life. I should be working on memorizing some useful phrases but so far the closet I am to memorizing them is that I wrote them on note cards. We'll see how that goes.

Last weekend, for my birthday, we went to Montreal. Vieux Montreal (Old Montreal) is beautiful. It's full of great architecture, cathedrals, cobble stone, etc. The weather was nice for Canada in March, and we were able to stay outside, walking several miles exploring the town.

There are 14 days until April Vacation, which I am immensely thankful for. This has been a long school year due to the fact that we've had a total of 9 days off for bad weather. My students are trying(read disturbed) as always, but I think I have definitely improved since last year. However, I still have a long way to go to being a really good teacher.

My 45 minute drive to and from work is made increasingly better by NPR and miscellaneous audio books. Currently, I am listening to Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix. Highlights from the audio books include, but are not limited: There Are Gods in Alabama by Joshylin Jackson, When You Engulfed in Flames by David Sedaris, Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire, and Dairy Queen by Catherine Murdock. I'm sure people who drive by me and see me laughing hysterically or crying depending on what I'm listening to probably think I'm crazy.

Jeremy is going to Wisconsin for a math conference in two weekends. As a surprise, I purchased him a ticket to a Cubs game. He will freeze and be alone, but hopefully he'll still have fun.

I've been slowly learning to sew and I hope to improve and make some more projects. It seems I will have to find some baby projects to work on as Jay and Jessa are going to have a baby in October.

Well I think that's enough for now. I will really try to not let it go another 9 months before I update again.

This blog is going private. So shoot an email or leave a comment if you'd like to be added.

see the other blog. . . I'll update this one soon. I promise.

jeremyandclarice.blogspot.com

We currently attend Bethany Church. This spring we participated in something called Feed the Need; where we attempted to raise 50 tons of food for 50 food pantries in the area. Well we raised enough money to by over 50 tons of food. After we raised the money, the church bought the food and then all of the small groups got to deliver the food. The fund/foodraiser was such a success the story was on NPR. Here's the link to check it out. The first part is about rising food prices; the part about Bethany starts around 7:20.

Feed the Need

Wow! It has almost been a year since the last time I wrote on here. It probably would have been a whole year but Becka said she wanted to read my blog. She's so faithful about writing on her blog, I would feel ashamed to have her look and see that mine is a year old.

So let us see.

Last Summer:
Jeremy and I co-directed at Camp Hunt with Jon and Julie. It was an awesome summer. Quite possibly the best summer I ever had at camp. The campers were awesome and so eager to learn. We had the best counseling staff full of leaders and supporters. We completed big projects (the pool). We passed inspections. We asked for help when we needed it. The numbers were up this summer as they haven't been in a few years. During the day we worked hard and hung out with campers and kept things running. Julie and I took on canteen, which believe me is a big job. I got to spend time with Lydia who is an amazing little girl. At night, we split our time between reading Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows and playing Settlers with the Singletons. All in all it was an amazing summer. We aren't going to camp this year for a sundry of reasons, which saddens me greatly. I am glad we got to end our time at camp with such an awesome experience.

The Fall:
After we got back to NH and during our time at camp, I desperately searched for a teaching job or any job. I couldn't get hired anywhere or for that matter interviewed. I couldn't even find non-teaching jobs. During the last week of August, which is when all of the schools start; I, on a whim, emailed about a Special Education/English job at a high school about 45 minutes away. (Side note: It's a pretty famous school. Allan Shepard went there. Robert Frost taught there). They emailed me back that day and asked for a digital copy of my resume. I of course sent it and went in and interviewed the day school started. The former teacher quit the week before school started and lucky for me they were desperate. I interviewed, and it went well. They called me that afternoon offering me the job. I took it without hesitation, because we were about to go under financially.

The Job:
My job is an interesting one. I teach English to students with Emotional Handicaps. I teach grades 9 -12. These kids all have crazy lives and so many problems. There are many days, the priority shifts from teaching to just helping people survive. I am growing to enjoy it, most of the time. The commute sucks more than any other aspect. A 45 minute drive with no weather means an hour and a half in snow.

Current Life:
School is winding down, we start the last 9 weeks on Monday. Jeremy's classes are going well and he only has about another month of school. 2 more years for him and then he'll be a Dr. woo woo. We are going to have a busy summer. Jeremy will hopefully be teaching a class this summer a few days a week. We are going to Arkansas in July for Shawn and Jacques's wedding. In August, we are going to NYC (my first time), and we're seeing the Yankee's play! Hopefully, we'll get to do some camping and hiking. I am going to try to blog more and get on top of it. It will be a nice way to avoid work.

So I haven't been writing to Time every week, but I am trying to write frequently. So here is this weeks letter.

Dear Editor:

Concerning the article "How to Fix No Child Left Behind," I
praise Wallis and Steptoe for finding the positive attribute of NCLB,
which is the spotlight the law has put on the discrepancies in
learning that still exist between social class and race in our
country. It is my hope that we are on our way to mending these flaws.
However, Wallis and Steptoe could have put a more effort into
delving into the deep hurt that this law is putting on actual learning
in this country. Doing well on an exam in no way reflects how well
students comprehend and retain material. The reasons students are
doing well on the tests are largely due to these drill sessions like
the "Super Saturdays" mentioned in the article. Rote memorization and
cramming are poor substitutes for comprehension. With every year that
we descend into NCLB, teachers are forced to include additional
material into the already loaded school year, which leads to coverage
and a mere survey of the subject matter, not depth.
Finally, until the United States as a whole values education we
will be stunted in the gains we could make regardless of what law is
currently governing education. An educational institution, no matter
how effective can ever replace the qualities instilled in children at
home.

I'm beginning to hate spring. It's never been my favorite season; I'm really more of a fall person, but now I really don't like spring at all. I really shouldn't blame this on spring herself. It's not her fault that she falls at a horrible time of year for me. For the last three springs, I've had to apply for jobs. For the last three springs I've spent my days and nights applying for jobs only to be continually shot down. In the last week, I have sent ten, that's right ten application packets out.

For those of you who haven't applied for a job lately and especially a teaching job it is a whole lot of paper work. If someone were to steal one of my applications they could steal my entire identity. You need college transcripts, your teaching license, references, a heart felt cover letter, and a resume. My resume in my mind is some sort of magnum opus due to the amount of time I have spent with it over the last three years. I've cared for it and nurtured it, added to it as frequently as possible. It's high time for it to give something back to me, namely a job.

If I don't get a job, I'm going to give up teaching at least while I'm here NH and try something else for awhile. It' s not what I want to do, but I need a job that pays on a regular basis. Not getting a job would lead to me having to apply for other jobs in what would most likely the business sector. An office is basically the antithesis of who I am. I hate punching a clock and being inside in all day.

Ahh I shouldn't be so down on spring; It's really not her fault after all.

I am not a person of precision. I enjoy things where there is a little wiggle room. I crochet instead of knitting, because with knitting you have to do it just so or you get a hole. When you crochet you can easily fudge things, and when you have completed the project only the most attentive eye would be able to find the flaw. In English as compared to math, there are many correct ways of doing something; answers, overall, are subjective. If you can convince your reader of your point, whether the point is correct in their mind or not, you still get credit for it. Cooking is something else I enjoy. A little of this, a little of that, taste it - if it is good move on you've done your job.

Now, however, I have come to something that I must conquer. Bread. Bread on the whole seems simple. The actions you take are simple. The ingredients are items most people have in their homes. Wheat is one of the most prevalent things in the world. But bread or at least yeast is fussy. It hates me. Yeast is like a sickly, little kid that needs to be coddled and have it's hand held constantly. I know there are people who can whip up a loaf of bread with ease. I am not one of them.

After working slowly, after following the recipe in a most exact way, I managed to come up with something very similar to bread. It tastes good and looks ok. It still will not rise it the rounded shape that I would like. This may have something to do with the way I shape the dough into loaves. As I had feared this may be one of those aspects of life that requires practice.

So as it may be noticed I've taken a bit of a hiatus from the writing scene, but I am back. I've decided one way to make myself write more is to set mini-goals. One of these is to write a letter to Time every week until they publish me. So here is the first installment.

To the Editor of Time:
I'm a 24 year old biracial woman, and I just want to say "Don Imus I'm not mad at you." Now before anyone gets all heated, let me just say maybe Mr. Imus made a poor decision, but so what? As an English major and a writer, I understand the power of words, and I want the power to say and write them. I believe in free speech. Free speech does not mean you can say what you like as long I agree with you. In fact, I think the beauty for free speech are the opposing views that are aired. We need to move out of this fever of offense that we have all settled into and get a grip. Whatever happened to sticks and stones?

When it comes down to it most people wouldn't have even heard the "offensive statement." if everyone had not gotten all flustered. Racism, hate speech, whatever you want to call it wouldn't be half as powerful if everyone just chill out and stop repeating every little thing they hear that they don't like.

So Don Imus, while I don't support you or what you say I wholly support your right to say it.