The dentist proved some ageing (sp?) in my mind!

I have one legitimate cavity that needs filled, and I have 2-3 to watch.

My first one(s) in 27 years!?! That's not bad at all, and I haven't been to the dentist in 3 years or so, man!

Anyways, just wanted to report for fun.

On drive back across town, I saw this on a church marque and thought it was fun: "God gets knee mail".

Fun huh!

On a diff note, I am looking at my medal from the 20 miler and I'm thinking, "Why am I sitting here in front of the computer when a 65 miler beckons?!"

Looks like Matt and Tracey will be waaay up ahead eating hoagies and chocolate covered strawberries while I'm milking my out of shapehood.

Earlier today I wrote the belowness...

I've been meaning to say that I like the new Beck single.

Matt your blog inspired me to write that finally. Thanks for the list of good music to see on the late nights.

So, I feel like I haven't blogged in a while - but it's been like 4 days,..or something.

It's been too busy under a pile of "substitute teacher busywork" that I left the students to do while in Ohio.

I have a routine dentist and doctor appt. today and tomorrow, and that will be good to squeeze in on our insurance from Chowchilla.

Job Update:
Casey signed a contract for the Mat-Su school district north of Anchorage. It has about 4-6 major school districts in it's jurisdiction. At this point, we might quite possibly end up in Houston (Portage like), which is a small town outside of Wasilla (Bowling Green size), and which is about 40 miles north of Anchorage (Toledo size and growing).

I just finished the 3rd book in the No. 1 Detective Agency, and I'm onto Kalahari Typing School For Men tonight! YES! Can't wait for the movie(s).

23 days of school left! Some are half days too! Only 4 Mondays left! WOO! And have I mentioned that we wouldn't start school in Alaska till after Labor day?! And we will end like June 12...not too bad!

We're experiencing a real live snow storm as I type this, and Patches the dog is actually pretty cutely exploring our guest room here!

She is only cute b/c she is now 4 years old, and able to handle company and just sit and chill and be that cuteness.

LATE APRIL SNOW EVERYBODY! I wholeheartedly admit my spoiling California mind about that subject! UGH! And yes, of course, I know in Alaska I will be expecting snow ALL the time. But Ohio?! Almost May?! No lilac blooming?!

So, it's been a fun trip. We are at the Sanford's awaiting a dinner party with some of his parents friends, fam, and the Bruce and Joan lovelies are coming too! YAH!

Some highlights of the trip are:

1. Just being with Edwards family.
2. Just being with Sanfords.
3. Friday Night Live was so refreshing! ART! CULTURE! My brothers!
4. Watching Hotel Rwanda.
5. New Ibook!
6. Giving mom her birthday gifts, and I'm about to give Casey a couple gifts tomorrow!

On that note, tomorrow is Casey's birthday and we will eat out for it in BG or Toledo before we go up to our Detroit flight out!

I suppose I should be helping prepare the dinner party now, so I'm off!

Ohio! People! OHIO has happened!

The flight from Phoenix to Detroit was out of control turbulent to a worrysome "t"!

But we are here at the village after a good lunch at Max and Erma's and a great cave sleep at Justin's last night (3 a.m. style).

It's refreshing to be here.

And something else is beyond refreshing.....A NEW G4 white laptop from Bruce and Joan Edwards!

WOW!

WHAT?!?!?

OH MY!?!

WOOOOOOOoooooohooooo!!

Okay, okay! Anyways, there are lots of busy plans floating around including both fam hang out times, Tunisia/Tanzania viewing of videos and pics, some little shopping with mom (since Mary has to dress up for a wedding?), some old bg high school friends, Casey to some old college friends, and, and, and.

I'm off!

A good Joey from Blossom "whoa" is my feeling today! And on that note, Justin I like the "wha..t" from your video blogs.

It was a beautiful summery day, yet a little blustery with wind. It felt like the end of school days that we all know so much from Ohio. Those last few days of high school, the last few weeks of college where you don't do a dime of work...

Ahh...

Yet, don't let the California weather fool you (me), b/c there is plenty of Chowchilla living to do before we head out. Some goodbyes, some loose ends, some sentimentalities that I shall allow before a good, good riddens!

This new Reliant K album is superb! They seem to have stepped it up a major notch. It's a good farewell album for me.

Today I prepared my sub plans and now I'm home packing and just having fun with a week ahead in Ohio!

Bo'ey is set for his playgroup all week up in Fresno. He loves it, and they love him. He has to say goodbye to them too, right? :)

Well, I best be back to the joyous chores, Casey should be back from his game soon.

Oh, and I miss people's blogs, but I'm happy you're all living and not wasting your day with blog time (of course it is not a waste though).

I'll end with this quote I like from C.S. (Mike's blog):

"You don't have a soul. You are a Soul. You have a body."

(I'll put that in a "bucket" - from Rob Bell talk, Justin have you heard that section?)

Side Bar: Joyce Meyer "Improving Relationships" is an amazing cd set I've been listening to! She's so brash and full of God's truth! YES! MORE TRUTH!

20 miles straight UP HILL!

We did the bike "challenge" and it was really, really hard. Yeah, yeah, yeah physical activity is hard bla bla bla, but NO, IT WAS LITERALLY 11 miles straight "down" (sure didn't seem like down) a mountain and then, YUP YOU GUESSED IT! 10 miles straight back up.

UNBELIEVABLE! I still cannot fathom what happened. It was like, "what did we just do?!?"

I'm really glad we did it and it was awesome that all three of us did it. Matt finished very respectively way ahead (like 20-30 mins or something amazing) of Tracey and I, and Tracey powered through finishing 5 or more minutes ahead of me. On a side note, our team name was "Sorry for My Pride", b/c there's no pride in any training whatsoever once you step foot on that course!

I'm glad I had my IPOD battling up the biggest hill that was literally 3-4 miles straight up and winding! OH MY!

So, it was a fun day and afterwards we ate amazing cheeseburgers that we earned, then we got a free massage (donation) from the massage therapists - very professional, very relaxing.

Michelle and Hannah cheered us on and actually drove out to the midway point to say hi! That was fun to have a cheering section that noone else had! Thanks Michelle!

And to top off the day, Matt graciously babysat Hannah as we went to Old Town to eat at a very busy Mexican restaurant (the name fails my memory right now though). And don't forget we all got pedicures! FUN! That was my first one, and it was weird with a language barrier problem, but fun.

We had a chocolate tortilla on the street - and the whole atmosphere made me want to tour Old Town for a history lesson! Anyways, we had some good talks and it's always fun to hang out with basically my sisters! It's funny how I skipped all the growing up with sister whatnots (bickering?), but now I get to have 2 sister like buddies in adulthood! YAH! FUN! I'm so glad we're family!

Somehow I'm got up at 8 a.m. (sort of) which I assume has to do with working too many years already! (jk, I just miss sleep - dang it adulthood)

Other events:
1) Last week with standardized testing, I cleaned out my whole classroom - ready to go!
2) Friday there was an all day party at the gym and outside that I got to be at. I should have played more but I had to monitor this funny sumo wrestling. - next time I'll just shurk responsibility and hang out with the kids that I'm never going to see again!
3) Casey's baseball team was losing 4 straight but snapped the streak with a win last week, and a tough 1-0 loss to Yosemite.
4) Not too many days of school left WHOA!
5) Bo is cute, but he is shedding his winter coat and it's weird. I sweep the kitchen floor every morning and then vaccuum a lot :) (why would anyone want to know my cleaning schedule...oops).

Hannah, Michelle, and (I think) Tracey are all up, and I'm going to go get ready to go home, but we're going to hang out this morning and afternoon. DQ has got to be in the mix!

Speaking of, I'm thinking DQ has got to be in the mix on our OHIO TRIP! Maybe a little Mister Spots for lunchey one day....woooo! We'll be there late Wednesday night and hang in bg till Friday eveningish. Then it's Defiance and that wedding time! Wooo!

I can't wait!

Volkswagen Beetle Dismissed.

We dropped the bug off at a random-middle of nowhere, huge Fresno Auto Auction dealer Wednesday. It was surreal, regardless of the level of sentimentality I have for the bug.

Not the car persay, but the chapter closing. The reason we stayed an extra year. The 28 real days of school time left. You know; those type of overthought thoughts ;)

And there was the statement that came out of my mouthmind yesterday: "I really don't think I'll ever step foot in central California ever again." As my students thought I'd come back to visit...WHAT?!?!

I guess I might step foot here in 10 years or something when we do a cross country trip with the family. Weird and hilarious and - Yosemite purposing.

This place was odd. I learned a lot, and there was a lot of good people, whom I shall also never step foot on again. I mean never ever see again.

I wonder how these three years will be looked back upon. A blur? A slop fest? A waiting game? A weird? Yeah.

So that's my reflection this week. The bug coupled with California State Standarized testing all week, and cleaning out my classroom. Appropriately called "spring" cleaning, not "leaving for good, bye bye now" cleaning - ha, as I explain to my students.

Tomorrow I get to chaperone an all day party at our gym, pool, and tennis courts. Food, folks, and fun! They will have "human bowling" and I will participate in all events. YES!

Let's not forget a special 20 miler bike ride about to occur Saturday morn! I'm ready to go. I bought a 10 speed bike (dated to the 80s) to brave it with. We'll see how that goes. The for sure last S.D. trip in a long time! :(

p.s. Tracey - the Chow peeps only had one good bike at their house (and one rusted, wasted tires one) - but supposedly they have another good one up in Oregon (w/ parents that moved). So if you like mine, I can get them to bring the other one down here for our 65 miler next month.

Can't wait to hang with you, Matt, Michelle, and Hannah!

See you all soon!

p.s. next step: Ohio

It was a good day!

Sleeping in, das good.

Then we went on a rampage and really cleaned out our garage! We got it all organized and set for a May garage sale! WOO!

Then I went to town preparing my VW for it's farewell next Wednesday, and I cleaned the truck.

Tomorrow, the Jeep get's a back handed compliment of a makeover (ha, mom, remember that phrasal?)

Palomar. That's a good cd.

Sounds like the U2 deal was sweet! Surreal! I feel like I know someone famous just by you and Tracey going to that. I don't know what that means, just pretty epic it sounds.

So, well, I'm off the blog world. All I know is the next few weeks shall rule: S.D. bike deal, see Michelle and the little, go to Ohio, pack house, garage sale, Santa Cruz bike fun, move to Alaska, never see cen cal ever again, be homeless for 2 months!

WOO!

Three things are weird and funny from yesterday:

1)A student is reading a book from the library and her name is Kelly. She opened the book and found a note written to "Kelly" from "Mrs. Sanford" about some book report assignment. Thinking it was for her she kept reading, and realized she had no clue what it was.

Then she saw that the note from 2003!!!! Totally freaked out she brought it to me in class and revealed it to me being so hilarious and weirded out. We both laughed really hard - as I tried to figure out who the other student named Kelly was from 2 years ago.

2)Speaking of years, yesterday I put the year 2001 on a note for a student.

3)I have a student named Alyssa and in the middle of a conversation about Ice Cube, I had written her name down as Alyssa Cube on a grade sheet.

Quite inadvertant and no big deal, except that I didn't realize it till 10 minutes later when I was about to give her the grade sheet.

Every time I looked at it after I realized it...I laughed super, really hard and was full of tears for 5 straight minutes. Luckily the students had settled into a "talk amongst themselves" type of setting in class deal so not many saw my laughing fit (you know how you feel like your face is all squished and disfigured with such out of control laughter? Well, I didn't want them freaking out! HA).

It's still really funny at least in my head!

Anyways, Snack-n-Chat for the teacher's lounge was a hilarious success. They were all teasing me about being an elementary teacher with all the kiddie food etc. (Jello Jigglers in the shape of VW Beetles, Mudd Pie, yadda,yadda).

Then I get this one line email from a funny cool English teacher buddy of mine and it says, "Don't tell anyone, but your snack-n-chat was the best one ever!"

It was so funny, and even funnier if you knew this teacher buddy of mine.

Trace your blog was fun to read today. Sounds crazy about the wave hitting you three, and WOWWOWWOWWOW TO THE U2 DEAL!!!!! Stretch SUV!? AWESOME!

I'll be sitting in your Travel Lodge room when you return, you know Bob style and crouching in the corner with my arms bent back.

Mom, glad you blogged, I've been missing your thoughts.

Well, I'm suppose to be preparing my classroom, yes on a Saturday, for the State Dept. to come in tomorrow and analyze our school. They will be here all week, and it's suppose to be super intense, etc.

"It's happening all the time, when I open my eyes, I'm still taken by surprise"