yeah, yeah, yeah.

Today is a good Thursday, mostly only b/c it's Friday tomorrow.

You know the good old hit a brick wall after a vacation syndrome.

Ugh. I slept all last night b/c of a beautiful wind and rain storm cancelling practice! YES!

Burnt out! And Vegas didn't give the rest I probubly needed from coaching bball all year :)

More later! ---Excited about the Passion right now! And we have a softball scrimmage in one hour! ARGH!

Birds chirping in the early morning sparked the freshness of spring in my sleepy head today.

The brain just can't understand that it's February, and fresh cut grass is being nostrilized into my softball coaching existence.

I just couldn't "get up and go" this morning. Then I remembered I had to post the JV Softball cuts on the locker room door at 7:30 or so, A.M.

That's 30 mins. before normal landing on the Chowchilla High School landscape.

Anyways, WHOA! I cut about 7 players the week before, and now with this second round-- 6 more of them. That leaves me still with 16 people (2 might go up to Varsity though).

That's too many, but we'll have to tell some that they shouldn't expect to play that much.

Enough of that talk. HAVE A GREAT TUESDAY ALL!

VEGAS PICS ARE UP!

Vegas was a good time! We got there in 5.5 hours Tuesday night after that last bball game.

And we got home last night (Sat.) around 7 p.m. after picking up our cutie dog at my asst. coach mom of girl on team lady in Madera, CA, who has 5 dogs that loved Bo!

A bball season note: 8-0 in the (stinky) league, and like 14-6 overall. Not too shabby.

Anyways, his parents were just about to sleep at a 1 a.m. arrival to the absololutely gorgeous Monte Carlo. My new personal favorite hotel of Las Vegas. Will book there if it's cheap and whenever going back.

Most of the trip involved relaxing, walking up and down the strip, catching up with his parents, and eat, eat, eating! WOO! BUFFETS RULE!

We only played the slots a tiny bit, and his dad played some blackjack briefly. It was sunny one day, but rainy and windy the other days---that was gross b/c we were looking forward to playing some tennis.

All in all it was a good get away! Much needed to stick out these last 60 school days till summer. That's right a count down just got posted there! OH YEAH! YES!

One funny highlight was Casey and I going to a time share talk. We got $75 bucks, and a "supposed" 2 night, 3 day Vegas return to a strip hotel.

The time share thing was like 2 hours and you may know how it goes, with telling them No, No, No, and No, we don't have money for this hilarity :) Give us the free money for being here 2 HOURS NOW!

It was very educational and perhaps tempting if we were 10 years older, but not as tempting as buying 5 (cheap) acres on the big island of Hawaii and building a beautiful little shack for 10 grand.

Well, the rest of this weekend was full of taking Nordictracks back to their dumb business owners, taking Bo to do that travelling (and him getting car sick presumably b/c he upchucked 3 times), and much, much discussion of moving to Alaska.

In about 1 year from now, we will be up there, and the getting readies are starting to boil up----but real serious prep will be this fall! Let's get some summer fun going on before all that preoccupation though :)

Summer = 5 days in San Diego hopefully, Oregon for a slow 3 weeks, a cross country trip to Mt. Rushmore and all the Cabelas (guess who wants to go there), time with Ohioans, and England!

BOOOOOOYA!

That's all I got for now. Will get Vegas pics up tonight I hope.

Sidenote:It was grand reading up on all the blogs. It seems spring and summer fever are exploding for everyone with plans getting up on blogs and elsewhats galore.

Softball (baseball) coaching and spring it is full go tomorrow for us! Happy sunshine and more than 10 degree weather I hope for most of these readers :)

Last night we had a yummy steak dinner by Case de'jour (what does that French part mean anyways?).

After packing a package for 1040 and West Point Loma, I'm getting cleaned up.

B/c it's vacation, and b/c we are going to Lord of the Rings to act like vacationers even more.

New pics posted--->

Hooray for Valentines Day!

A low key relaxing time now, yet some highlights:

1. We bought a canoe! YAHOO!
2. We bought Once Upon a Time in Mexico.

We will relax and hang out now with Bo and his new black and white squeeze toy "bone".

Have a great S-A-T-U-R...D-A-Y....NIGHT!

p.s. Jenny Mavis I AM SO PROUD OF YOU!!!!! You go girl on the blogging and the new job :) WOO!

Mike's description of 1 Thessalonians: "Encouragement is all over that epistle."

That was a good statement, plus b/c I thought it said "apostle", not epistle. (heh)

Either way, I'm into the encouragement business. You know, working with kids and all, what other business should it be.

Talent show this morning, that I helped judge.

A cool "Christian Rock" band called "Rizon Hero" got first place and $75. That was really nice, and they said said several Bible verses and made sure everyone knew that they sing for Jesus.

Hee, hee.

How great that we can bless the Lord with music and our voices! YAHOO!

They had sort of a Creed voice, and an excellent acoustic plucking originality, with rock.

They got my vote with 10, 10, 10's across the board. No bias of course that I know the kids and everything they say sounded like my bros.

Like appreciating music, not selling out and playing the same chords over and over, wanting to make a difference with their music :)

Well, I'm riding high today with that, with Friday, with no school next week, and the repetitive Las Vegas reminder to my brain and you all.

Will post pics when we get back next weekend. But let's not get ahead of ourselves. We have a game Tuesday and other simple life enjoyments.

Missing you all!

Game update over there ------>

Tracey I hear ya (on the conference).......just RECEIVE instead of giving! :)

WOO! It is another good day. Warm and breezy, springy, softball like (without the softball though, HA!)

It has caused extreme turmoil in my mind's tracking of days.

"Okay kiddies have a good Tuesday night....except it's Thursday or something."

Let alone, what is this February about? It seems like May 20th when you have no clue what happens everyday b/c you're constantly thinking of sports played outside later in the neighborhood, or lawns being mowed and lilacs being smelled at a 1040.

OFF TO (hopefully) DEFEAT KERMAN :)

(A parent is hooking us up with pizza) Go Skins! Game time in 3.2 hours!

p.s. Arnold was just south of here yesterday at some fair thing and a bunch of students saw him up close.

p.p.s. if anyone else cares about this: sometimes I put away things I think I want to get rid of and see if I miss them. If I miss them after like 6 months then I might as well keep that. If no missing of it, goodbye.

Wish I could write in my real journal right now, but this'll do.

We had a good game last night. The refs were solid and not much coaching had to be done. Just watch them play and do everything so nicely. :) (they are good, good athletes).

Yesterday I got a great present from the daddio. A DVD burn of my Evergreen coaching days. It was AWESOME and INSPIRING! Thank you!

My digital camera is sweet! I took some hilarious pictures of my team and gym sights. Maybe I'll post some later.

I'm feelin' this weekend creeping in with joy! We have a talent show Friday making the class times hilariously short, and I will be a chicken with my head cut off spaze all day.

That'll be fast and fun!

A reel good day. The career lady is in my classroom all week, for the whole period. Thus, I have a cake walk. And have I mentioned we don't have school ALLLLLLL next week!??!?!!!

Speaking of cake....Michelle...I say chuck those items. How many items do we need to remember the wedding day. No doubt pictures and even video cameras record everything we need to remember of it.

Let alone there are so many other bigger and better memories that we cherish and base our "symbol of marriage" on besides the little cake toppers and whatnots.

Well, I'm going to Pilate it up again! This week is chill out week on food b/c next week is Vegas and that's a smorgesbourgh (bad spell) of buffets and yummy yum chops!

P.s. if you have never done pilates or think it's too much money ($70 for 5 DVD wkots), I would say who cares and get it! IT WORKS SO AWESOME! You get done and you're immediately sore, even though you feel like you did nothing.

20 min. workout and 3 days later, wow. So weirdly awesome!

Remember Tika (the Ripley's dog)? Bo is much better that that rat dog.

NEW PICTURES UPLOADED!

And "excuse me please, for an announcement": Jenny Mavis has joined the blog ranks! WOOOOOOOOO!!!!

(the previous excerpted quote was from a funny office lady at school who does announcements like that---imagine that in slowmoe soft talk that no student on earth could ever hear! hahahhaha)

Hi!

The week is over! Now it's a beautiful, gleaming sunny California February Saturday! Perfectly, 60ish and NICE!

So I'm taking advantage and cleaning the whole house with every curtain, blind, and window up and open! YAH!

Let's sweep, mop, vacuum, shred, trash, organize the house! I'm on a roll and loving it. About done in an hour? Amazing! WOO!

Just about an hour ago, Case went to coach baseball and Bo got out the front door.

Joyfully sprinting all around the "too many streets" neighborhood, and almost getting the ultimate hurt of a car impact.

But we finally grabbed him and Casey carried him by the neck flop behind his head all the way back to the garage.

In the cage, in the garage is what you get for the afternoon BO! after a stern, stern lecture/yell.

Anyways, I've been listening to The Beautiful Let Down album of Switchfoot's. You can't beat the likeable sing songyness of them---although such cliche Christian rock. I LOVE IT!

"We want more than this world's got to offer...we were meant to live for so much more, if we lost ourselves."

UGH, OH! MY LORD!

Yeaup, so this month is a renewing month for me personally! Reaching out and pumped!

Side bar here: Dad, your memory took me through as if I was there in 1968!

Justin, you go dude! Your ambition inspires! Let's get this world rolling people! God is ALIVE!

Vegas it is! Feb.18-21! YES! YES! YES! With the Sanford 'rents joining us.

Here's a little diddy I threw together this morning as I got to "proctor" a test. Yes, proctors are what they call us! That word creeps me too.

1985

There was a time when the four of us were so small and we loved playing at a huge BGSU English Department building. The vast wood floored hallway colored our imagination with games, forts, Star Wars sword fights, other toys, and competitions.

Tron cycles, He-man, a wiffle or Nerf ball: these were just a few of the toys we loved. But the best part was spending the day with our dad the professor.

"Who wants to go to school with me?!", my dad would announce.

"I do, I do, I do!" And we'd all pack ourselves into a red station wagon off to an all day adventure in an office building.

At 8 years old you tend to think the world is humongous, and a university office and classroom building was the next biggest thing.

We'd spend hours playing and playing in those old chalk boarded classrooms and huge main, 2nd floor, hallway. Dad's Keith Green tapes or records were soundtracked through the desolate Sunday afternoons with his desk drawer doubling as our toy bin.

The brothers Matt, Justin, and I would play Nerf baseball or running and sliding competitions through the hall, while our littlest brother Mike would be lolly gagging around dad's office, or perhaps at home with mom.

Occasionally we'd stop in to our organizing and working dad to say hi to him and Mikey, but also to look at, and even add onto, our drawings displayed on the wall.

I remember trying to reorganize dad's office furniture. And one day we came home proud to say we made a little library of bookcases in the back of his office. What fun!

After a long day "at the office", it was time to head home to refuel on PB & J with cheetos, and a side of milk.

Mom would be at home getting her much deserved rest and relaxation, before she knew it we were trotting back home in and out, up and down, through and through the 1040 and all over the village.

It was treasured time in our family, and to forget little treasures like this would be a sad, sad shame.

Michelle, it was good to read your update.

We're right there with ya on the allocation life. A little from that envelope, and a little from that one and we've gone overboard on the Food/gas/fun money! hahahhaa!

So it's midday here at a high school. The wind is super swirley with chillyness to it! AND SATURDAY WAS SO BEAUTIFUL!?!? UGH!

Here's what I'm teaching this week: Vocabulary Unit 10 for the freshman! The last unit of the year (which means I have to actually teach the rest of the year! HA).

And my juniors and seniors are always doing some remediation type work, paragraphs, reading comprehension, percents, fractions. Yeah, over and over and over again, they need it! (Math and English in the same classroom :).

At 2:15 (that's in 68 minutes). I will be done for the day. No bball. Most likely not even popping onto the softball field to "take note of players' skills".

Softball is having cuts Friday and I hilariously want and will have nothing to do with it. Currently 40 kids out there, 1/2 of whom have never played before! OH MY!

5th period kiddies are about to run in here. I'm going to count how many questions I get before the tardy bell rings! I'd say about 77 of them. College prep students: NON-STOP QUESTIONS AND direction needing!! AHHHHHHhhhh!!

God bless them, they are fun though.

Another teacher's lunch room dodged! I'm off! This blog entry brought to you by: The Strokes, "Room On Fire".

"You talk ..way too much....."

Got a buncha cds last week and I'm finally able to get into them. Switchfoot (found out I ripped it from Matt or Justin before I bought it)--good to have. Reb. St. James Greatest hits, buncha country for Case, Larue's latest couple years old now.

So it seems like I've reported this before.

I'm thinking WHOA to the whole month of January.

It's over people. Feb. will fly by like a snap.

There's some fun things brewing: England trip starting to get planned, perhaps vegas and snowboarding (separately) in the same week, plus Casey's parents might come out that same week.

Also, we found a really great DOG HOTEL where BO could go when we want to go to the city. Which I always want to go to! hee,hee. I've been missing San Fran lately.

Bball has been very dramatic teenagery annoying, but good sport playing going on. Just could do without the drama. So we're taking the day off tomorrow.

Real journalling and reading have taken my free time when not obsessed w/ getting ready for the next day of bball game or practice, or there's always something to carry in a bag every day.

Heh, I just like the feeling of going to and from school with nothing in my hands. But that will not happen till end of May b/c ....yup....you guessed it:

Coaching softball starts (has started for them) a week after bball for me! WHOA!

Goodie to time flying b/c I do so dearly want summer now! And yesterday was so sunny, beautiful, I ran for the first time since that mini-mara. I only went 3 but all was well.

Hope you have a wonderfully fun week all!