Random thoughts

Well, if there was ever a time to come visit Prescott, it's now. I had forgotten about how when we moved here a little over a year ago, we went a little over three months without having to use the heater or the air conditioner. The weather is wonderful! I walked to church this morning and now I am at the college (walked here too). That's one thing I'll miss about Prescott when we move--living close enough to things to walk to them, and decent enough weather to not be all nasty and sweaty after I walk somewhere.

Yesterday I had a very relaxing day and today I came home from church and cleaned, which is somewhat relaxing when you think about it--after I clean house I am very unstressed, and I can truly enjoy being lazy since I'm not looking around at my dirty house. So since it's almost the end of the school year and I don't have to do anymore planning, I have finally gotten around to reading for pleasure. At the moment I'm reading The Water is Wide by Pat Conroy. I'm about 100 pages into it and it's pretty good so far, if you are looking for a book to read. I hear that most of Conroy's books are pretty good: The Prince of Tides, The Great Santini, My Losing Season, etc. While some of my colleagues are taking summer school to work towards their master's degrees and some are teaching summer school, my only real responsibilities this summer are to re-read Fahrenheit 451 and A Separate Peace, both of which my honors kids will be reading next year. Not a bad summer assignment.

I have meetings after school every day this week, and Chad comes home late Thursday night. Friday night we are going to the "Adviser's Appreciation Night" given by Jostens in Phoenix--they are giving us dinner and we get to go to the Diamondbacks' game. So, I think this week will go fairly fast and then Chad will be home again. He informed me that he will not be blogging, so I guess you might be getting an email from him sometime soon telling you about his adventures on the San Juan River.

Have a good week. Feel free to leave comments! I love reading them!

Small victory (or rant alert, part two)

This story just goes to show that one person (or two) CAN make a difference. After I wrote the letter to Dillard's, my mom decided to write an email as well. The next day we heard from someone in personnel at the Dillard's store here in Prescott, asking me where in the store I had seen the shirt. So I told her, and she said the shirt offended her as well, and she was going to contact their buyer and ask her what in the world she was thinking. She called me back today and said that the buyer's response was that this was the first they had heard of anyone having a problem with the shirt, and that they had a ton more on order and couldn't cancel the order. BUT, the lady at the Prescott store told me that they have chosen not to stock the shirt anymore.

So, the moral of the story is, if you are truly offended by something, say so! We got pretty good results just from one letter and an email, and I am SURE we were not the only ones in the entire country who saw the shirt and were offended. We were just the only ones who took the time to voice our concerns--thus, the attitude that "we haven't heard any other complaints, so we're going to keep ordering and selling these." Anyway, I just wanted to share our small victory. Because like Erin says, you would NEVER see a shirt that says, "Too pretty to know how to read," but with math, it's okay to be dumb.

I got a message from Chad this morning that his back went out again, so he is doing a lot of stretching, but please keep him in your prayers. Luckily their trip is mostly paddling and not a lot of hiking with a heavy backpack, but this problem just seems to never go away with Chad.

I'm going to Scottsdale today on a field trip with some of my yearbook kids. Keep us in your prayers as well.

I guess that's about it for today.

Signed, Ugly enough to do math

Sugar, spice and everything nice

We just found out that Shawn and Emma will be having a little girl on our around September 18! Congratulations Emma and Shawn! Elle will be the big sister to Ava Kate Montandon (too bad about the name, I know Emily and Joey's vote was Shawna Paulina Montandon...). I will give more baby updates as the time gets closer and as I hear more news. From the sonogram they could tell she is a healthy baby and moves around a lot. Chad and I are so excited to get another niece. It's fun being an aunt and uncle!

Also, in case anyone is interested, I heard from Chad both last night and today. He is in Monticello, Utah, and they are getting resupplied before they go back our on the San Juan River. He's been gone for a week and he'll get back one week from tomorrow. The time's going by pretty fast.

Rant alert...

So yesterday I was walking through Dillard's looking for a shower gift for a friend when I ran across a shirt with the words "too pretty for math" on the front of it. Now maybe it is because I am a teacher or maybe it is because I am a woman, but I got so mad when I saw this. By the time kids are in the 10th grade, many girls already believe they just aren't cut out for subjects like math and science and teachers have to battle these beliefs every day. Even worse is when teachers themselves write off other subjects as not as important, namely math, because they just "can't do it." I got so annoyed at the fact that Dillard's was selling this shirt that I wrote them a letter. I mean, I can see it at a place like Hot Topic or Spencer's...but Dillard's? Come on, show a little class. Anyway, I'm sure they'll continue to stock the shirts...because moms will buy them for their sweet little teenagers...but at least now I feel better. I know what you're thinking: I'm overreacting. But spending every day trying to teach high schoolers that education IS important is enough of an uphill battle without having to deal with stores like these reinforcing a belief that outward beauty is what's important, and not intelligence and inner beauty. It's been a while since I wrote a letter and told everybody I knew not to go there, and hopefully I won't have to do it again for a while.

Internet Addict

Okay, you know it's bad enough when you are constantly checking other people's websites (babyjellybeans.com, for example, of new pictures of my niece and nephew), but when you start checking your own blog and momentarily get upset that it hasn't been updated before you realize that YOU are the one who has not updated it...you know your internet addiction has gone too far.

At the moment it is 5:30 p.m. AZ time and I am still in my classroom at school, taking a break from the many essays I have to grade. Chad left today, and I am just killing time until a Bible study in about an hour. The study is at a house in Prescott Valley and with the ridiculous gas prices I didn't want to drive all the way home and then back out to the house, so here I am. This school is like a ghost town this time of day. I have heard rumors that the school is haunted, namely my yearbook room, E-108, by a man. Supposedly we are located on an old Indian burial ground (I'm not kidding) and the ghost is nice, but still...I think I'll get out of here before it gets too dark.

I just want to show off some cute pictures of our 4 nieces and nephew. Kellen and Bonnie are Erin (my sister) and Josh's kids, Elle is Shawn (Chad's brother) and Emma's daughter, and Riley and Josey are Emily (Chad's sister) and Joey's daughters. I'm probably biased but I seriously think they are the cutest kids ever. Shawn and Emma are expecting another child in September, and they get to find out next week if it is a boy or a girl.

Okay, back to grading...

Of Mountains and Mohawks

Most of you already know that Chad is taking a class called Adventure Education at P.C. this semester that requires him to be gone a lot of the time on different excursions. When he got home from one of his trips, it was time to cut his hair. So, he went upstairs and got the clippers out and cut it into a mohawk. Temporarily, it was funny. But then Chad decided to keep the mohawk...for a while. Soon we were being seen in public places like church and I kept bothering him to cut it off, and he finally did. His hair is nice and short again. I've posted a couple of pictures of the wonderful coiffure that is no more (thank goodness). Prescott's elevation is a mile, so we got snow well into March. After spring break, we had two late starts at school due to snow. I've posted a couple pictures of the snow as well. One of Chad's recent trips was a summit attempt of Baboquivari Peak in southern Arizona close to Tucson. Here is a picture of him and his group at the top. I think it was 7 pitches long, and Chad led part of the climb. If you are a climber you know that 7 pitches is not a piece of cake. Chad leaves again tomorrow to paddle the San Juan River (close to the 4 corners) for two weeks. He'll be with his class group the whole time, and a high school hiking club from the Phoenix area will join them for a few days. This will be his last trip for the class, which needless to say I am excited about.

Joining the blog buzz

Hi everyone! I have so much fun reading other people's blogs that I decided to create one to post about our adventures here in Prescott, AZ. Today is April 18, 2006, and I am teaching at Bradshaw Mountain High School in Prescott Valley, Arizona. Chad is working on his Bachelor's Degree in Adventure Education with a minor in Emergency Care Topics at Prescott College. He loves the school and what he is doing, but is ready to be finished. Check back often for new posts and pictures. It won't be as interesting as the other blogs by people with babies...but at least you'll be updated!

P.S. I'm new at this blogging stuff, so bear with me.