Josh would be proud

On second thought, he probably would be embarrassed. This morning was the annual faculty vs. students basketball game, which is a fundraiser for United Way. Our assistant principal asked me probably three times to play before I finally said I would (only because he was really desperate for female faculty volunteers). The way it works is that the female teachers play the female students for two quarters and the male teachers play the male students. I think I was one of two, total, faculty members who was not a coach. But, I did score a total of two points during the two seasons I played private league basketball in 7th and 8th grade, so someone probably heard about my awesome skills and insisted that I be on the team. There were six women playing which means I had to play most of the time. It was tiring! Anyway, here is a picture of me playing some awesome defense. And just in case it doesn't LOOK awesome, I want everyone to know that the girl students didn't score on us once. And the faculty beat the students by over 20 points.

As much as I was dreading it, it was actually pretty fun, and News Channel 11 was there so for those of you who live here, watch for us on "I Beat Pete" on the 10 o'clock news either tonight or Friday.

Feel free to critique my form Coach Jones. I noticed in the picture this girl is looking at me like I'm a crazy person, but I think she's really just worried that she can't get the ball past me.

Still alive and a cabin update

We are back from San Antonio, and the trip went well. It seemed like the kids had fun, no one got in trouble, and maybe we all learned a thing or two that we didn't know before about something journalism-related.

For those of you who are still keeping up with cabin progress, the drywall is taped, bedded, and textured! Cabinets are being installed, along with countertops, sinks, etc. The place is almost liveable, as long as you don't mind walking around on a 3/4" wood subfloor until we scrounge up enough funds to put in some flooring. Personally, I think wood floors are the way to go. Maybe we will just leave it that way. Our builder also finished the staining of the log siding and he said it is "bold." I don't know what that means. I am scared. He said it looks good, definitely like a cabin in the woods.

So the plumber and electrician have their finishing touches to come do, and we are assuming they'll do that quick since they probably want the rest of their money. We are really going to try and make it out there for a weekend after all this is done just to see the place one more time.

That's it for now.

Goings on

This week has been super busy for me. I feel like I have been home, not doing anything, for a total of about two hours all week. Things have been kind of crazy around here. Chad has been working all week, and mom asked yesterday when a good time to come visit between now and Thanksgiving would be. I was looking through my calendar, and we pretty much don't have a free weekend at all until Thanksgiving, except this weekend. So mom is coming to visit, which I am looking forward to, but I just realized that we still haven't unpacked from our trip to NM last weekend. Yes, it has been that busy. Monday night I went to the choir concert to help photograph it for the yearbook. This was the first event of the year that I photographed along with a student, but since there are so few of these concerts before the yearbook deadline, I thought two cameras would be best. Same goes for tonight...I am going to the orchestra concert. Last night was church, but it was also time to get the first issue of the newspaper ready. After my design editor finishes the layout, I go back through and tweak everything and double-check the writing and grammar. This takes me, on average, about 6 hours. That's about what it took me last night, only we had church as well, so I was up until about midnight doing that. Needless to say I have been quite the zombie today.

Chad has about one month until his clinicals. He is scheduled to go to another review in Dallas in a couple weeks, right after the weekend we are chaperoning 16 of my students to San Antonio for a journalism convention. We are excited about our romantic getaway next weekend on a charter bus with my students. Just kidding...I am being sarcastic, but they are really good kids and it will be a fun trip.

So lots of things are happening right now...which stresses me out, but makes the time go by fast. Which I'm not sure is always a good thing. Anyway, I guess I better go.

What's that you said? You want more pictures of our unfinished cabin? Well, today's your lucky day.

We had a great weekend. I'm not sure there's such thing as a bad weekend when you are up in the mountains of New Mexico. It rained quite a bit, and I did not bring the correct gear, so after a talking-to from Chad about always being prepared, I now know not to make the same mistake again. Especially since this is the second time in a row that it has rained a lot when we were up there and the second time in a row I've forgotten my rain gear. Anyway...here are a few more pictures, and hopefully the next time we take pictures, the place will actually be finished. Hopefully.

This first one is our water heater. We decided to do a tankless water heater, which we are hoping saves electricity and water, is less likely to leak, and saves space in the closet. Now, we can use this closet for some extra storage instead of the whole thing being taken up by the water heater.
Our deck is great. I'm afraid right now though, the cabin is not usable for people with small children, because you can see how high it is off the ground. Hopefully our builder will build some stairs and a railing before he's finished with the place.
Another view of the outside of the house. I'm pretty sure I've already posted a picture like this. We still need to stain and seal the siding.

Here's a photo of the inside with the insulation in and the drywall being put up. The drywallers were there on Saturday when we showed up to look at the cabin. There were four of them, and this is what they got done in 6 hours. We thought they could have done more, but no use complaining about it. I'm just glad they finally showed up after the drywall had been delivered to the site for over a week.
Look how artsy I am, with my crooked picture.


That's it for now. The cabinets are sitting outside on the deck, covered up, waiting to be installed. We are on the downhill stretch. I imagine when it's all done, we will be making one last trip to camp to check out the finished product. Stay tuned!

Long time no blog

Hey guys, this post is mostly for our family to let everyone know we will be in NM this weekend. So if you try to call, that's where we are.

Pictures to come...probably of the same stuff you have already seen of the cabin, except with minor changes like outlets and plumbing put in. I know, fascinating stuff.

Hope everyone has a good weekend! I know I will...today is a half-day at school, and then we are outta here!

I love fall

Fall is in the air. I love this time of year. When I leave for work in the morning, the sun is just rising, and it is so pretty. The air is crisp and has been in the low 50s in the evenings and mornings for the past couple weeks. Yesterday, I started pulling out my fall decor, which includes a scarecrow, a pumpkin wreath, and some more little pumpkins to put around my house.

The first six weeks is over tomorrow, which means we are officially 1/6 of the way through the school year. It doesn't sound like much, but I know the fall semester will fly by and we will be halfway through the year before I know it.

Football has started, of course. We have been to one home CHS game, and will go to another one tomorrow night.

And the cabin is almost finished. Shawn and Emma went up there this weekend and took some pictures, and we are this close (holding thumb and forefinger about 1/2 inch apart) from it being liveable. The inside plumbing is done, the wiring is done, inspections have been passed, the cabinets have been delivered though not installed, and drywall and insulation should have been delivered yesterday or today. The trench has been dug and pipe has been laid for connection to the well. I am guessing we have about 1-2 more weeks before everything is finished that needs to be done by another person. Maybe you're ready for me to be finished with giving every little detail of what's been going on with the cabin, and to let you know that it is finally finished! All in good time. And when I say that, I mean don't hold your breath, because we probably won't finish it until next spring. We aren't putting any flooring in it right now, anyway. Chad and I will go up there next weekend to take one more look at it before saying goodbye until next spring, when the snow melts and we can get to it again. Then it will be work, work, work...painting, moving furniture in, putting flooring in, etc.

So anyway, I love fall. The end.