Really, Four Years, Wow

Today is our 4th anniversary. I can still remember that lovely summer's day in San Luis Obispo with the slight ocean breeze, the inside jokes that nobody got, and all our friends and family in one place. Ohhh, the days of long ago. Speaking of family in one place, we are having our 3rd and final baby shower this weekend in L.A. This is the first one that I get to go to, boys and girls are both allowed.

Anyway, back to today. We began our anniversary by going to a doctor's appointment, which, between the chiropractor, pediatrician, obstetrician, and now perinaltoligist, seems like every other day. Except today we got another ultrasound, our first since the 18 weeks mark. It was quite the anniversary gift. Caden looks like a real person now, not just the aliens from Mars Attacks. He has really chubby cheeks like I did when I was little. He is 4 lbs 12 oz, right on target for 33 weeks. The doc said he has red hair and freckles like me. Just kidding. Hopefully not, poor kid, but I have a feeling I got the dominant genes. Never know though. Anyway, it was really great to see his full face, you know, without the skin and all.


We are going to our, my, favorite bbq place for dinner and then heading out to Lake Las Vegas for the evening. They have something called Movies Al Fresco, which sounds like Italian ice cream to me, but I guess it means there is a movie and a park and a screen on a lake. They play older movies, kids movies, and romantic comedies. Sounds fun, huh? Luckily for me, they are playing a romantic comedy tonight. haha Its my anniversary, and Sarah wants to see it, so we are going. Sacrifice and trade offs, isn't that what marriage is all about?

We leave tomorrow for L.A. and look forward to seeing a large part of our family. Until the next thought, c

Me, baby, chubby cheeks, this is what Caden has in store for him, possibly
Tracy, Thank you for the pic.

First Video Online, Ever

Okay, well not the first online video ever, but my first video is finally up. We played with our new Handycam and made a short welcome video so you all could see what we have turned into, sort of. We are sitting down talking, nothing much is happening, its kinda boring, but its up there. We are also in the process of editing some other videos to share so stayed tuned for more. You can click on the link to the right and it will take you to the site. Until the next thought, c

32 Weeks

Today was our 32nd visit to the OB/GYN so far, ummmmm, I mean this is the 32nd week of pregnancy. I guess it just feels like we have gone 32 times. We are at a point where the baby is healthy, the heart beat sounds strong, Sarah has gained 2* pounds, of which she is a little upset. Its all in her belly so it looks cute, but 2* lbs for her with still 8 weeks to go, she is afraid Caden is gonna be quite the giant. Anyway, dr. was running behind so took us 50 minutes of waiting for a 3 minute consult! Nothing out of the ordinary to report, which is a great thing at this point. We go back in two weeks for another long wait, I mean, visit, another nice visit.
Caden's room is filling up nicely thanks to all the generous people who have given us things so far. Sarah spent all day doing baby laundry yesterday, and I spent the last few hours building baby stuff. I guess we should get used to both.
Until the next thought, c

Summertime

We started our Summer Break Friday, June 8th, at about 12:30. Well, it would of been earlier, but I did a bonehead thing. I rushed home, all 30 miles, from my goodbye breakfast at work and when I got there, Sarah had packed up the new Civic and we were on our way to Carson City. We made it all the way to the very northern end of Vegas, another 35 miles, and I realized I had left my wallet in the car I had driven home from work. So, knowing that we would be in Carson City, and I would be driving on to Sacramento for a few days, ugghh, I had to turn around. So, an hour and 15 minutes later I was back in the same spot laughing about it.
We made the long drive, 7 hours, up to CC with many 'baby breaks' along Nevada 95. Quite a road to see if you have never been out there: brothels, underwater military training camps in the middle of the desert, the road to Area 51, the Nevada Test Site where they held atomic testing in the 60's and 70's, and a little today. But for the most part, its just boring, those spots take up about 2:45 seconds of your drive, then the rest is a yawner, but its a price you pay to see family. And, oh, we had a baby shower. B.S. #2.
The first one Niki held for us in Vegas a couple weekends ago, this one Donna held for us at her house up north. Sarah had a great time, her best friend (Leslie) and family bought Caden his first Jeep. For those of you that don't know, Sarah and Leslie are big Jeep nuts. Or just nuts. I don't know, anyway, so she bought C a 4x4 Jeep stroller, his first Jeep. Donna had a great party and Sarah was very happy.
Meanwhile, I went up to Sacramento to see my buddy. Hung out in Sac a couple days, saw Oceans' 13, which was great, went downtown (very swanky, I guess Sac is getting rid of those cowbells), and relaxed. On the drive up to Sac about 10 miles west of Reno on I-80 in the Sierra Nevadas, I saw my first dead bear. It was strange, poor thing was hit by a car. It must of been a fairly small bear, roughly about the size of Donna's Newfoundland, Sadie (see pics link).
We spent Monday lounging around CC, looking at houses, waiting for Donna to get off work. Yes, looking at houses, its such a beautiful place and its a small town, might just make it up there before too long. Anyway, went up to Tahoe for dinner, beautiful summer night in Tahoe, if you haven't seen that, you are missing something.
Made the 8 hour drive back home yesterday and am now playing catch up.
We have a baby birthing class all day next Saturday, 9 hours or something crazy like that. Until next time, c

The End of the Year

We are quickly approaching the end of the 06-07 school year with only two days left. It was another great year. Sarah won a teacher of the year award at her school. Her principal nominated her, not only for her classroom work, but for the contributions she makes to the school as a whole. Being the Art teacher at an elementary school, people are pulling her left and right to help with their classroom projects. She also helped designs sets and props for school plays all year. Her major project, and what probably put her in the lead for the award, was a ginormous mural. It was 12 feet tall and 90 feet long on the back of a mine. The back of a mine you might be asking, yeah, well, Sarah's school runs the only active mine on school property in all of Nevada. Sounds like a Nevada thing huh? Anyway, it was the mine's 10 year anniversary and the mural commemorated the date. Sarah organized, planned, and completed the mural like a trooper, although it wasn't her idea. The principal sprang it on her, as principals do, with very little time to complete a project of that magnitude. She had students draw up ideas in her class, picked the best ones, and created the mural from that. Then she organized 725 kids into a group of Picasso's giving them each a chance to add to the mural. When all was said and done, McCaw Elementary was the proud new owners of the newest mural in Henderson.

As for me. This was my best year year yet. I moved from the face-to-face component of my school into the online education component. For those that aren't aware, and maybe those that want a refresher, I teach at the largest charter school in Nevada. Our HS has 750 students, most of which are at-risk and haven't had success in the traditional model. At our school, they only attend class once a week where they meet with a mentor teacher for 2 hours (I have 40 mentees, is that a word, looks like manatees but I dont have any of those) and then go into a Learning Strategies class where they get strategies for tackling online education. I taught the Strategies classes the last 2 years, this year I moved into the Social Studies dept which teaches courses online. I taught Street Law, a basic 'what every one needs to know to not get arrested and what to do if you do' course. Also, Civil Liberties which you know are our basic rights that protect us from the govt messing with us. I taught an American History through Film course which combines two of my favorite topics, but the best part was that I spent the better part of the 2nd semester developing a Travel and Tourism course for next year. The course allows students to travel all over the world and learn about countries from the point of view of a vacationer instead of trying to memorize facts about histories and geographies of that location that a traditional soc stud course my use. I've also become pretty advanced at some tech education components, thus the new website, and have recently applied for a semi-admin position at my school in the tech field, it will be in addition to my teaching position. Cross my fingers.

2 days left, what a great feeling. We are only traveling a little this summer unlike the last 2 summers in which we were home for only 20 days in 3 months. With the baby on the way, and doctors orders, we have to get all of our out-of-southern-nevada trips done by the end of June. So, we are saving June for baby showers and baby birthing classes. Im going to SD in July to an At-Risk conference to help me get some better tools for working with kids who are at high risk of dropping out of school, then I will be home. Plan on doing lots of work this summer, but Sarah doesn't, she plans on laying around, I guess we are finally switching places.