Time...Where Does It Go?

I have been reprimanded by many people for the lack of updates on our blog. It's hard to know where the time has gone between the last post and this one. The 24 hours in a day just aren't enough to get everything done and then to find extra time to blog. This is probably the busiest time of the year for me because of basketball season. Here is an update on what is taking place in the M&M World (in St. George, not the one in Vegas, haha).

Basketball season has started. It has been an interesting year so far. When I took the job two years ago, I was really excited for the future because there were a lot of young players I could work with and help develop. Unfortunately, I have had to compete with the volleyball coach who is trying to get all the kids to do club volleyball during the off season. In bigger schools, this would probably work out just fine, but in the school my size, this is terrible. Seeing how volleyball has had a consistent coach for many years and have had a little more success than basketball in the past, the kids are choosing to play volleyball and focus on that sport. The things that upsets me the most about the entire situation is that they are being told that club volleyball will help them get a scholarship to play volleyball in college. Ummm, we are a small 1A school in Arizona that has the genes of small Hispanics. I'm sorry but with the competition and height that exists everywhere but in the mind of the volleyball coach (well to be fair it is more her daughter, who "helps" coach the team), these girls are not going to get scholarships. I don't like that they are getting their hopes up for something that most likely will not happen.

Anyway, back to the basketball season. I have 16 players playing for me this year, and 9 of them are freshmen. Only 5 players have had more than 1 year of basketball and 2 of those 5 work really hard but just are not very talented. I am thinking of this year as a rebuilding year and am seeing that with so many young players, the future of basketball could be bright. I have said numerous times that if all the freshmen stick with basketball and play together for the next four years, they will be fairly good when they are seniors. Hopefully they are listening to me and they won't get sucked into other things. Despite having so many inexperienced players, we have managed to win 2 games. It is good for them to get a little success and we did have a pretty good game (and that means on paper we should have lost by 40+ points and we only lost by 20 some) against the number one team in our league. There is a lot of basketball to be played in January, so hopefully we will continue to improve and maybe pull out one more win. However, I am looking forward to the season ending so I can spend a little more time at home since basketball makes me get home late and takes me away every weekend.

Mahonri has gotten back into the swing of things with school and had a really good semester. His grades were great and he is a good student. He has also gotten a part time job and has enjoyed working where he does. He sells sports equipment and works for a guy in our ward. They have become pretty good friends. He is set up to take another full load during the spring semester.

I wish I would have taken a picture that I could post, but I do not have one. Thanks to the donation of my parents old, fake, flocked Christmas tree, we were able to set one up at our house for the Christmas season. It has been fun to have a tree to help us celebrate this season. I always enjoy sitting in the room with just the Christmas tree lights on; it is so peaceful.

We have enjoyed being able to spend time in Gunnison with our families during our Christmas break. It's nice being able to get away and not have to worry about anything for a few weeks. I begin school again on January 4 and Mahonri will start on January 11. Happy Holiday Season to everyone, and perhaps I'll make a New Year's Resolution to keep out blog updated better...perhaps.

Hawaii Trip

I know we are terrible at keeping the blog updated but it seems like there just aren't enough hours in the day to get everything done. Time is moving by quickly. Before I post about our Hawaii trip, I want to show you something that I should've posted about long ago but neglected it. Here is a picture of it:

Mahonri got an elk on opening morning of the bow hunt! It was a 68 yard shot which is far with a bow. He's a great hunter. Good job Mahonri!

We recently took a trip to Hawaii with my family. My dad had the ADA convention there this year and was generous enough to ask if we wanted to join him. All of my family came along except my younger brother, Cutler, who elected to stay home and play football, and my nephew, Kaden, who went to California to spend time with his grandparents.

We did a lot of fun things while we were in Hawaii. We went to the Polynesian Cultural Center, did some snorkeling (thank you to Jared and Tamara who met us at the PCC and let us borrow their snorkeling gear), parasailing, and sight seeing. We went to the temple, although they are remodeling so we couldn't do a session.

While snorkeling, Mahonri got to see two turtles. Unfortunately, I didn't get to see them because by that time I had swallowed so much water that I went back to the beach to rest. However, we did get to see a turtle at one of the other beaches we visited, and that we pretty cool.

Parasailing was pretty fun, except I got a little sea sick while we were waiting for our turn. Once we got in the air though, it was awesome. I thought being 700-800 feet above the ground would scare me to death but I enjoyed the ride.

The trip home from Hawaii was a little stressful as we got delayed when leaving Hawaii. We had a short layover in LA before we flew to Vegas. We got to LA with only about 20 minutes before our next flight left. We had to get off the plane and get to the next gate within that time. Mahonri went ahead of me and got to the gate first. They were trying to make him board the plan so they could leave but he refused to leave without me. Once I got there the lady at the ticket quickly boarded us and I tried telling her that my brother, his wife, and there little baby were behind us and on their way. She didn't listen. She took us through the door and closed it. As I was going down the walkway, I kept telling her and when we reached the plane door, finally someone listened and took sympathy on my request to wait for them. She went out and called security to find my brother's family and help them to the plane. Luckily, the ended up waiting but left as soon as they reached the plane, out of breath from running. I don't think they even had time to buckle their seat belts.

I'm not really sure what else to write about the trip. We had a great time and are grateful that my parents took us along. Below you will find pictures of our trip!

Make a Smilebox slideshow

The Work Environment...Yes It's True!

I got a request from my Uncle Ron to post pictures of my school. Now my school is not like other schools, my school is unique. Below are real pictures of where I work. My first day of school was today and I'm sure I'll have many adventures to post about in the near future. Now on to the pictures. This first picture is our "campus".

The next picture is the office on the right and the SEI teacher's classroom on the left.

And here is a picture of our mascot, the scorpions, that a few students painted last year. It is painted on the lockers, or the locker bin, not sure what to call it.

Here are our two drinking fountains:

Here it is, my classroom! I bet you can't guess which door leads to my classroom. Yes is the door that is proudly displaying BYU!

The inside set-up of my classroom this year. My first year I had rows, didn't like it. Last year I had quads, didn't really like that either. So this year I have a U shape with a row of horizontal desks in the middle. It really leaves the middle of the classroom open for different activities. We'll find out if I like this or not.

My corner, my desk! I love it!

My "gym" or rather blacktop, painted blue in the middle, and 4 baskets, 2 on each side. Oh the games you can make up to play on the blacktop. Thank goodness for sidewalk chalk!

And the other half of my gym...my nice grass field that in the past two years has developed into dirt and some grass...lovely, especially after they water!
So there you have it, the place I work. It may not be the most fancy school in the world, but the people I work with and the students are wonderful. I couldn't ask for a better work environment! Oh and don't forget to see the few posts that I posted below this. There are 3 new ones today!

Watch Out For....Snakes??

This summer, Mahonri and I took many rides up the canyon to look for deer and elk. We were always successful in finding something. We even got lucky enough one evening to see some turkeys...a hen and her babies. It was really cool because the time before that I was asking Mahonri if there were turkeys in our mountains and if we would ever see any. I really wish I could post some pictures of the turkeys and nice deer and elk we saw, but unfortunately the pictures are on the video camera and the video camera is in Gunnison and I am not. Anyway, on August 1 we decided to take a ride up the canyon which is not unusual. As we were just getting onto the dirt road that leads up the canyon, just outside of Mayfield, Mahonri spots something in the road. He tells me he is sure that it is a snake and most likely a rattlesnake. He backs the truck up to see, and sure enough, there is a rattlesnake in the middle of the road trying to make it to the other side. Since rattlesnakes are really no good, he decides he wants to run it over. Hmmm, not as easy as it sounds. He tries many times to run over the snake but somehow it seems to keep getting out of the way. He finally decides to get out of the truck to just look, wishing this whole time that he had left his 22 in the truck so he could just shoot the dang thing. Now for some unknown reason, I decide to speak up and tell Mahonri to just use a pole that he has in the truck to try to kill the snake. (Why would I give him this idea...I still ask myself that same question.) He gets out the pole and smacks the snake in the head...instantly dead. One might think this is the end but no, Mahonri decides to do this...

Of course you have to proudly display the things you kill. And guess where that snake went after that, in the back of the truck. Seriously, I was scared to death. I HATE snakes. Good job Mahonri for making one less snake out there to freak me out and getting a rattle out of the deal isn't so bad either!

Pictures From Yellowstone...Finally

Make a Smilebox slideshow

Finally, Lake Powell

Well I haven't been good at keeping up with this blogging stuff. I have had every intention to blog about our summer activities but as you can tell, I have been a big slacker. A few weeks ago we went to Lake Powell with my family. We had a good time with them and did a lot of tubing and some wakeboarding.

Here we are in the water sitting on the tube with my brother Cutler. This was just after Mahonri and Cutler got done being crazy on the tube as you can see in the video posted on the last post. They enjoy doing things that make me hurt as I watch them. They love being whipped around and hanging on for dear life, but I must admit, it is very entertaining to watch.Here Mahonri is showing off the wake board...isn't he cute?

Well, that is a little about our trip to Lake Powell. Soon there may be a post or two about our Pioneer Day Celebration and about other various activities.

Lake Powell

On July 10-12 we were able to go to Lake Powell with my family. We will soon be updating about that trip and a few other things, but for now I wanted to share a pretty sweet video of Mahonri, Cutler, and Kayli on the tubes. Mahonri is the one in green shorts, in the middle or the left side of the white tube. Enjoy!