Back to School

This Tuesday is the first day of school. It is really exciting, but there's a lot of stress and anxiety too. The first week is crucial to the success of the year, so no pressure or anything, right? Luckily, I know nearly all of the students I will have. It is going to be so neat to see the same groups of students that I've taught before. What a treat that music specialists have!

I've got my new room all ready, which is a soundproof studio that already existed on campus. Finally we will be able to make music as loud as we want!! No cares about anyone hearing us. Our brand new African drums line the walls, my stuffed animals and songbooks color up the space, and my bulletin boards are ready for new melodies and rhythms to be added by the children. And I've also got 4 grade levels of lessons planned- just a few more grades to go. Ah!

There is one thing that I am not looking forward to, though. That's being misunderstood. Already, in my short career of teaching (this is my 3rd year since graduation) I have witnessed the sad politics and gossip and stupid competition that occurs among teachers and other colleagues in education. For the most part, the teachers that I've worked with in all of my teaching jobs have been fantastic. They are driven to help children and love what they do. And I have had some amazing teammates throughout the years (like Laura, Debbie and Cammie, to name a few).

But it's those 2 or 3 teachers or administrators that can literally destroy one's passion and love for teaching- if one lets them. I'm learning that most of the political crap & gossip among teachers happens due to pride and simply an unwillingess to understand. That's what I hate the most about life right now- being misunderstood.

So I am just trying to take all of the unfriendly, humiliating and downright coniving encounters that I have had with these people in good measure. I've got to just chalk it up as experience, to try to forgive and understand, to be patient, full of charity. And literally rely on Heavenly Father for strength so that my fiery flame for making a difference in the lives of children is not squelched by the pessimistic few.

I have faith that if I rely on the Lord to magnify my talents, and if I am humble, somehow I will figure out a way to deal even with the most difficult of people.

Puerto Rico!

We celebrated our 3rd wedding anniversary by going to Puerto Rico for two weeks! WOW. It was amazing! No, we didn't stay cooped up in a resort the whole time (we actually never stayed in a real hotel!). Instead, we saw the country like real travelers, roughing it with 4 days of clothes, riding the publicos, and even spending a few nights in a cabin with no electricity or running water!!

During the trip, I kept two journals. One is of our daily activities and how fun they were. The other journal was a tiny, yellow notepad that we kept in our backpack everyday. We kept lists of the food we ate and the wildlife that we saw. I think it will be more fun to read that, as the lists tell the story of how we hopped from guesthouse to guesthouse, town to town and island to island doing a number of awesome activities. Many of the food and animals described below can be found in our slideshow!

Puerto Rico 2009 Slideshow

Wildlife Sightings
Roosters- Heard in San Juan, Fajardo, El Yunque and Culebra. Ah! They woke us up at 3:30 every morning and would not stop until noon!!

Gecko- little ones all over the walls in Francisco's neighborhood in San Juan. We arranged ahead of time to stay in his extra bedroom in the city.

Crab- about the size of a bar of soap, walking sideways on the grass area in El Morro (Spanish castle in Old San Juan). He was very far from home and really scared of us.

Biting ants- we discovered these while napping on the grass at El Morro. Ouch! Also found while I was stuck in the mud, right on top of an ant hill in the rain forest.

Snail with a flat, seashell looking shell- at Phillips' Cabin in El Yunque (the rainforest)

Lizards- hundreds everywhere in El Yunque, Culebra island, and Vieques island. Brown, green, about 6 inches long.

Large lizards- blackish blue, 12-15 inches long, cylindrical looking.

Snake- brown, at waterfalls in El Yunque. 2 1/2 feet long.

Iguana- yellow body, green and black striped tail, orange legs, off-white spikes, yellow face. 4ft long or more, swimming in waterfall pool with us in El Yunque. Yikes! He even dove off of the rocks into the waterfall pool.

Coque (coo-kee)- Little frogs, 50-cent size, light tan, almost transparent, make a coo-kee sound. We found one in the outdoor toilet at Phillips Cabin. National Geographic said that the area around Phillips Cabin is the most populated area of tree frogs in the whole world. We know it's true because we could hardly sleep at night- they were SO loud!!

Butterflies- black and blue, yellow, and a tiny, tiny orange one, all in El Yunque.

Mysterious Animal- either a ferret, mole or mongoose. Brownish gray. Sighted in El Yunque.

Paloma bird- gray body, blue head, yellow around the eyes. Redish beak. Endangered. Seen at the restaurant called La Paloma.

Moth- tinier than your pinkey fingernail. Purple wings, yellow tip, sighted at dinner in La Paloma, one of the restaurants in the mountains of El Yunque.

Mosquitos- seen at Casita Zumbador, a guest house in El Yunque. But we had absolutely NO mosquitos at Phillip's cabin, a few miles up the rain forest mountain where most of the coques live.

This is supposed to be a highway, but the jungle has taken over!
Sea Turtles- Beautiful tan and green designs. About 14'' pizza size. Two were sighted while scuba diving in Fajardo. Then we sighted a Hawk's Bill Sea Turtle (endangered) while snorkeling in Vieques.

Conk Shell that was alive!! Sighted while scuba diving. Jeremy reached out to touch it, but our instructor said (in scuba language) "No! It will stab you!"

Checkered Fish- 6-8'' long. Auburn and gray checks. Scuba diving. This was my favorite fish.

Arrow crab- very deliquette. Body was dime size and literally the shape of an arrow. Legs were about 4'' long, as thin as your hair. Our scuba instructor found it for us on our first dive!

Two sting rays- one off of Puerto Del Re while scuba diving. One snorkeling at Zoni Beach on Culebra.

Tiny bird- yellow belly, navy wings, straw nest with opening on bottom. Seemed to eat nector from flower tree that it nested on. Culebra Casita Tropical (our guest house on Culebra).

Stray Sheep- "baaa"-ing at us while we were on our golf cart expedition in Culebra.

Huge Fish- 4-6ft long, gray, hanging out at the dock next to our table at the restaurant called Dingy Dock. We fed them our croutons.

The UGLIEST Pigeon Ever- mangled hair, missing toe, eating bread at the b-fast place next to the Fajardo ferry dock. (What allows those birds to survive all the grease and grime of the city anyway?) All of the beaches were gorgeous and remote like this beach. On Zoni and Secret Beach, we were all alone for hours!!
Wild Horses- grazing in open areas, huddled under trees, crossing the streets at their own leisure, eating people's flowers and grass, on Vieques. Later we found out that these horses are really only semi-wild because they all have owners. The islanders find it's easier to let the horses go wherever they want to than it is to groom and house them. Whenever they want to ride their horse, the owners just call for it and look around for it. The owners will always claim their horse if someone else tries to ride them, but no one claims the horses that are found eating away at the neighbor's flowers!

Centipede- 8 inches long, ½ inch diameter, squiggly and snake-like movements, blackish brown. Jeremy saw it doing laundry at Esperanza Inn, Vieques.

Sideways walking crab- peach-yellow body and legs, white claws. Spotted at Secret Beach, Vieques.

Mongoose- brown, round and fat, maybe 16’’ with it’s flat tail, seen at Plata Beach, Vieques.

Dino flagellates- micro-organisms that live in water and glow in the dark when the water is agitated. They make a greenish-blue glow with the same chemicals that fireflies have. It was soooo amazing to swim in the water and see all the glowing!! When they got on our arms, it looked like pixie dust! We did this two nights in a row, once via electric boat, once on kayaks.

Starfish- orange, some the size of Jeremy’s hand. Vieques.

Bat- brownish, flying overhead our truck from the biobay where the dinoflagellates were.

Puerto Rican Quisine
Mofongo- mashed, green plantains stuffed with meat. Dressed in onions and olive oil.

Amarillos- sweat, yellow plantains. Fried slowly to softness. My absolute favorite of the whole trip!

Tostones- mashed and fried plantains. Kind of like thick chips, and kinda like French fries.

Stuffed Avocado- whole avocado with chicken mixed with mayo on top. Above- this is the best meal we had. A little old lady in Old San Juan cooked it for us.

Sofrito Bean Sauce- bell peppers, garlic, cilantro, pinto beans, water, ricoa. The beans were always served in a little bowl separate from the rice.

Pastelillos- turnovers with meat and cheese inside. Fried. Very yummy.

Pasteles- corn bread stuffed with cheese and fried. Not very good. It was sticky and too creamy.
Snapper fish- the whole thing. Island style.

Chimichurri- yummy salsa with mangos to put on your meat.

Coconut Cake- delish! I don't know if it's really Puerto Rican, but it was home-made on Culebra.

Good Ol' Carolina Hospitality

Today, I am writing this post in a cute guest house on a Carribean island called Vieques, Puerto Rico. You'll hear more about that later because I need to tell you about our trip to the Carolinas.

Two weeks ago, on our way to Puerto Rico, we had an extended lay-over trip in Charlotte, North Carolina- for 3 days!! We couldn't resist the opportunity to stay with our best married friends, The Beachamps. (reminder- Jeremy and Ryan became good friends while being RA's at BYU. After Ryan and Chelsea got married, they moved into our apt complex where the 4 of us developed a life-long friendship).

Being with the Beachamps in North and South Carolina was SO much fun. Chelsea and Ryan are such great examples to us. They are so strong in the gospel. They pray together, talk kindly to each other and just bouie us up all the time! As soon as we got there, I was so uplifted by being with them and in their home. I was really sad when the time came so quickly for us to go!

We got to meet their new baby son, Elijah, who is almost 6 months old! He is such a sweet, happy baby with a tender, aware disposition. Oh my goodness, he is so cute! Jeremy and I had a lot of fun playing with him. One day, he was just cooing "eh" for hours and smacking his lips and laughing at himself, having a ball. He is really long and lean like his parents, and he has the most honest eyes. And cute rolls of skin in the funniest places! We tried taking Elijah home with us, but Chelsea would not allow it!

During our visit, we were spoiled with Carolina hospitality. Chelsea and Ryan took us to see two Revolutionary War sights- Cowpens was one of them. I was in heaven! Everything was lush, green, humid and full of history. Beautiful, educational, and humbling- although we look pretty proud in this picture, I promise we were very awed and amazed by the battles and sacrifices that were made to establish our wonderful country. We even had a moment of silence to remember them.

We ate at a real Southern BBQ place with friendly, funny people. All four of us tried Cheerwine for the first time. (don't worry folks! it's non-alcoholic) It's like rootbear but with a cherry flavor. We also had hushpuppies (I didn't even know they existed!) and red cole slaw.

The NASCAR family fun center was a blast. We went go-carting in pretend nascars!! Chelsea got way into it, which was funny since she had a traumatic experience go-carting when she was younger. But she got over that real fast!

Church was awesome. Just to sit next to the Beachamps again during the sacrament service again was cool. Chelsea taught a wonderful lesson in Relief Society for the ladies, and I got to hold Elijah the whole time. We ate Calzone that afternoon with the missionaries and played games, watched Elijah's birth video (amazing!), walked through the house that Ryan and Chelsea are building (how cool is that!?) and talked and talked and laughed and talked all night... while Ryan fell asleep on the floor. Poor guy.

We (at least me) really liked being in the green and humid Carolinas. It is way more humid in the Carolinas than it is down here in Puerto Rico- even including the rainforrest. And I loved it! We also enjoyed how everyone in North and South Carolina was so nice and friendly, esp at the airport! That's the nicest airport experience I've ever had! We can't wait to go there again...or maybe even live there someday! Who knows?

The Matt

Jeremy here- So my little brother Matt came down to Huntington Beach from Sacramento to visit us last week. I guess he was getting bored of sitting at home with his parents, a bed-ridden grandma, and several aunts coming and going. So he's 13 and my mom was about to let the boy ride a greyhound bus overnight to downtown LA. I suppose since he's 6'2" he looks a bit older than he really is and he can defend himself. But fortunately she was able to figure out an affordable round trip flight (again his height saved him because apparently you've got to be 15 to fly in a plane, but his Greg Oden-like looks conviced the security he was older).

We had a seriously good time. Every day was something you could write home --er, write a blog--about. SarahLynn and I took him to the Newport Beach Golf course, which sounds super high class, but it's pretty rinky-dink (one hole featured a green that was covered in sand...why did they put the hole in a sand trap??) Matt did really well for it being his second time ever. But the best part was SarahLynn! When she golfs with me it's fun, but she's not always into it. But as soon as we got to the course she decided that she's Tiger Woods (Tigress Woods? Tigerette Woods? Liger Woods?) She goes out there and demonsrates the proper short-iron swing like as though she's doing private lessons, and she helped him with his mental game ("just taaap it in"). She's such a teacher, it doesn't matter what the subject, she just has to teach it. It all went great except for the part when Matt almost nailed a guy in the back of the head with an errant 3-wood.

We went to the Orange County Fair which turned out great. We laughed our heads off at the hypnotist show twice, were surprised by the Chinese acrobats, and were confused by the Weird Al exhibit. I was delighted to see an entire section of the fair dedicated to pigs, with multiple references to Hormel and SPAM.

Saturday we checked out the US Open of Surfing down at the pier. We actually watched a lot more bmx bike competitions than surfing, and it was all pretty sweet. The highlight had to be standing in a super long line just to get some bright orange Nike hats that were cool, but we'll probably never wear again. Matt and I played catch with a mini-football in the waves for hours...so fun to grab a diving catch as a wave crushes you.

Monday night we scored Angels baseball tickets from work and got to witness a real fist fight in the stands...and saw back-to-back-to-back home runs by the home team. Then we played in the arcade at ESPN Zone until it closed.

So pretty much Matt had the greatest time of his life. And we had just another weekend in beautiful Huntington Beach. Ok, it was fun for us too!