Spring Break in Utah? Not So Springy.

Since Spring Break ended I have been hitting the ground running and have not had a ton of time to give an update on my Spring Break. Leland and I went to Utah for the vacation. We checked the weather from the normally very accurate weather.com (the Weather Channel's website) and it told us it was going to be upper 50's lower 60's and sunshiny all week long. Let's just say, I thought I was going to be able to take gorgeous pictures of the snow-covered mountains with a blue-sky backdrop and I couldn't even see the mountains because they blended in with clouds so much. A couple of times the mountains were completely obscured by the clouds. At one point, we were snowed on. Can you believe it's Spring Break and there is snow?! Seriously, snow?! Really?! Utah, you are not wining my heart at this time, if you ever want me to even think about moving there, you have to make some serious changes. While the weather may not have been all that desirable, the rest of the trip was pretty good. We left SA Tuesday evening. I was flying Southwest and Leland was flying American, long story so I won't bore you with all the details. All my flights are on time and things are going pretty smoothly, until I get to my layover in Vegas. I get off the plane and we are delayed 20 minutes. not a bad delay and the time could be made up in the air. About the time we should be boarding for our flight, there is an announcement that the flight is being delayed another 40 minutes. Grrrrrrr! We finally board about 45 minutes after we were suppose to take off originally. Leland had planned our trip perfectly so that we would land within five minutes of each other and there would not be any major wait time for his sisters who were picking us up. As usual, we make a plan and it doesn't happen. I got into SLC about an hour after I was suppose to feeling so air sick and gross that I couldn't hold my head up, not a pretty sight.

The times we were in Orem and SLC area were pretty good though. I was able to do a Zumba class for the first time. I will never do Zumba again, my non-rythmness doesn't work for a dance class. Sorry Zumba, but you are not my favorite class at the gym. I also was reminded of what good grocery competition can do. If only TX had the same grocery competition that UT has. The prices are so low it's unbelievable. The only thing we didn't like and laughed about were the descriptions of the large avocados. Leland and I are looking at the grocery adds and we see that large avocados are $.99 each. We are elated because the large avocados in TX are a $1.50 each. We go to the store where we saw the add and are looking all over the place for the large avocados. We can't find them anywhere! We keep seeing the small avocados and we start thinking that what we consider small may actually be large. We go back to the small avocados and sure enough, they were considered "large". We just had to laugh, these "large" avocados were so small that it would take 3 of those to even come close to being as large as one large avocado here in TX. It really is true what they say, "everything is bigger in TX".

We were also able to celebrate my birthday while I was there. It wasn't technically my birthday, but a little early celebration is never all that bad, right? We went to Grandma and Grandpa Moon's and had so much fun with family. We also celebrated a couple of other family member birthdays. I really like having a whole family around for birthdays. That would be something really cool to do if we live close enough to our families in the future. It was also really fun to watch little William. William is Leland's cousin and is about 3 yrs old. He is such an outgoing child. He will talk to anyone and will say the best things. At one point in the night he was going to pick up his drink and picked up an empty cup instead. He looks in the cup, realizes it's empty and says, "Aw Man!" Cutest "aw, man" I have ever heard! I had a lot of fun with the family. It was a great break from the stresses of everyday life. It is always weird for me when I go on vacation and don't do anything because I am so use to always doing something and having to worry about something that I don't know what to do with myself when I have no responsibilities. I also had my very first In-and-Out burger experience. Can we say delicious and cheap? Loved it, big fan! That's really about it for my Spring Break. In summary, weather was not spring break worthy, snow, family, birthday, total relaxation.

I have bored you to tears enough in this post so I will say good-bye and sign off. Oh, but before I do, Happy Birthday to one of the greatest people I know, Erin Wall, have a fantastic day!

Finally, A Little Validation

A couple of weeks ago I had the privilege of being able to speak at one of my student's Court of Honor as he received his Eagle Scout. First, I was called an "eloquent speaker" by one of the other speakers then I received some thanks. The last person to speak was the Eagle Scout himself. During his speech he thanked a few people. He thanked me, but I thought he was only thanking me because I spoke that evening. Afterwards the boy's den leader told me that he was really thanking me for his workouts during PE. She said that she heard amny times on hikes they took that as much as he hated the things we did in PE, I was right. He could now see where the things we did in PE were useful in real life. It was such a wonderful experience. I am glad I was the administrator picked to speak at his Court of Honor. I finally have some validation in all my years of teaching and coaching. All it takes is one kid to say a sincere "thank you". Is there anyone that you need to give a little validation to? Don't wait, act now and thank someone for what they helped you achieve.

Last Saturday I was so happy I finally got to see WICKED! It is such a fun musical. It is a great story about the witches of Oz. It is the behind-the-scenes story of how they all met, why the Wicked Witch if the West is green, where the ruby (in the real story, silver) shoes come from, and even tells the story behind the Scarecrow, Tin Man, and Cowardly Lion. There is a pretty good twist at the end too, but I am never telling ;) I love the music for the show too. One of the people we went with had the soundtrack of the original Broadway cast (by the way, the off-Broadway cast that we saw was waaaay better than the Broadway cast) and while I love the songs, they didn't make much sense until after seeing the real thing. It was a blast! I want to see it again. Unfortunately, it is no longer here, but that's okay, it will be here again sometime and I will go then. This is one musical that I hope they make a movie out of. It is fun, charming, witty, and altogether a joy to see. You will not leave disappointed. If you ever have a chance to see this show, go! Get tickets early and go. You will have a ton of fun and will think of the music all the time. I still do.

Spring Break is Here!

The one week all spring semester I look forward to, SPRING BREAK! And just in time. I know things are only going to be even more crazy when I come back, but right now, the craziness takes a break. I don't know if I have ever been so excited for a spring break before. I was excited a few years ago when I went to South Padre, but not this excited. I guess I am just that ready for a break and some good quality sleeping in and working out time. Will I be staying home for the break? Not at all. I will be going to Utah to visit Leland's family and help out with some things. I am not the most excited for this trip. I do not consider it spring break if there is snow anywhere in sight like there will be on the mountains in Utah. Spring break is sunny, warm, and gorgeous. At least I will get away for a little bit and see some family. It will be weird to not be in Texas for a spring break since I am a Texan, but I will have to get over that.



Speaking of Utah, Leland received a phone call the other day from one of his physics profs at UVU. When we were in Utah over the summer we went and visited UVU and all his professors. While there one of his profs said there was a position open in the physics department. Jokingly, he mentioned if they still had the opening in a year he would apply. Since he said that, I think they may have taken him seriously. The phone call was concerning that position. It is still vacant. Although I never want to leave Texas, if we have to I will. Gratefully, Leland loves Texas and the warmth as much as I do, so it is highly unlikely that we will have to pack up and head to the frozen tundra. I was telling that to a few of my co-workers and they about hyperventilated telling me that I could not go anywhere, I have to stay there, Utah is way too far away. I agree! Wherever the Lord needs us to go, we will go. If that means we pack up and move to another state, we will do that. If it means we stay in Texas we will be more than happy to do so. We shall see what the future holds.



So yesterday I had a workshop training that I had to finish it was cancelled when we were shut down due to the freeze. I get a text message from one of my co-workers at five til seven saying that they were still outside and no one was at the school to unlock the doors. Let me put this in perspective, at 7am I open the student entrance doors to let all the kids into the building, 7:05 am breakfast service starts, 7:15am the front office opens for parents to do any business they need to do, 7:30am 0 period starts for the high school kids. I normally get to the school at 6:30am because I have teachers that arrive a few minutes after that in order to get ready for the day and eat breakfast and take a little time to relax before the craziness starts. It wasn't until 7:10am that another admin showed up and opened all the doors. At least someone was there before 0 period started. I have never received such a warm reception after walking into the building as what I received yesterday. It felt good to have a reception like that. After all the self-doubt I have been going through lately and worry, it helped ease my fears and doubt about how I was doing in my first year as an administrator. Even though I complain a ton about my job and the things I have to deal with, I really do love my job. I enjoy the interaction with the kids, parents and teachers. I am not the biggest fan of the little time I have with Leland because of this job, but I knew what I was getting myself into when I took this job and thankfully I have a husband who understands the rigors and hours of my position. He knows I am not happy about it and sometimes he is frustrated with it as well, but we both understand how important it is right now to do this.



I have taken enough of your time in telling my lame stories. Happy Spring Break!

Around the World

The fun thing about having a blog is receiving comments from people from around the world. I get insight from other cultures and it helps me get a different perspective on things. To the person from Holland who commented on my Valentine's post:

I did not grow up in a family that was real big on Valentine's. I take that back, my mom was big on every special day or holiday. She would go all out for the family. One year she even made chocolate truffles. They were delicious! No one else in my family is big on the day. I also never had a Valentine until last year so the giant teddy bears, flowers and all the hype have never been important to me. The thing I love about Valentine's is being able to really show those I care about that I care about them. Then I think, it shouldn't be like that. Only taking one day out a year to show people that you care about them? It should be a constant in one's life to show how much he/she cares about those around him/her. Anyway, to my Holland friend, Valentine's may not be a big deal where your from, but there is nothing that says you can't make it a big deal in your own way. Who knows, you may start a new trend or tradition amongst your family and friends. Give it a try, see what happens. Please don't be discouraged if people don't take to it right away. Nothing that is ever worth it is easy. Good luck! Oh, and welcome to the wide world of blogging. Have fun exploring and sharing!

I have also noticed there are people that follow from other areas of the world as well, whether or not they actually follow because they are interested or to just say that they follow a lot of blogs is not my business. They can follow for whatever reason they choose unless it's to place spam on my comments. If I find out you spam me or put things up that are totally ridiculous, you will no longer be a follower and I will block you. Hopefully through doing this, people will learn a little something about me and I will learn a little something about the rest of the world and what they feel about topics I write about. To all the bloggers out there in the blogosphere (I hope I spelled that correctly) live without regrets and record it, love those who are around you, and laugh about anything even the things that anger you because you never know how it is going to affect someone else in the world. Remember, record it all.

Thank you for reading my blog. Someday my kids will read this and they will read your comments as well and learn from you.