Rules of Life... (For Me Anyways...)

Got this idea from another Blogger that I found while lost in the Twitterverse... In no particular order...

1) Be nice to everyone even if they aren't nice to you.

2) Love deeply... It's the only way to go...

3) Pray... Always...

4) Go to Church.

5) Read the scriptures... Daily... (It really helps)

6) Exercise... It's good for the soul...

7) Take your Wife out once in a while... (Or husband, or girlfriend, or boyfriend)

8) Continue learning after you are done with your "formal" education.

9) Read... A lot...

10) Go outside...

11) Love your job...

12) Cuddle with your kids....

13) Eat whatever you want once in a while... It is good to indulge sometimes, just not all the time.

14) Make a difference to someone else every day...

15) Eat Reese's Peanut Butter Cups because they are sooooooo good...

16) Spend time with family and friends. Doesn't matter what you do.

17) Follow your dreams wherever they take you...

18) Do something nice for someone else... Every day... Doesn't have to be a BIG thing...

19) Happiness is a journey. Not a destination.

20) Always be AWESOME sauce... Never Ketchup sweat... (Or Mustard pee)

A Few AWESOME Things From This School Year...

This school year brought some great things...

1) AVID... Not gonna lie... There were some ups and downs, but I think it all came out good in the end... It is helping me come out of my shell and into the world outside my classroom...

2) Twitter... Got into that whole craziness... It has been super helpful with finding out new things and checking up on kids that need the extra care. I am not the most interesting "tweeter", but it is fun to interact with everyone.

3) Discovering that I had an opinion on school policies even if no one important listened or did anything about it. I think that after 7 years I have finally begun to understand what education really is and what it needs to be. I have also come to understand that our campus needs some work and that I can't just sit back and "hope" someone will do something about it. If I think we need to change things, then maybe I should get out there and be a voice.

4) Discovering that others believed that I had something to offer. In the past, most people on campus never paid much attention to me. This year seems to have been the year when others have started to ask me for my opinion or advice on things. Not a lot of people, but the right people. It feels good to know that others recognize that I might have something good to offer.

5) My students... Both those that were actually in my class and those that I got to hang out with and get to know better... They are truly AWESOME and have been a positive influence on me this year...

It has been a good year of growth for me and I am looking forward to next year and the surprises that it will bring....

Stay AWESOME everyone...

Teachers and Storytellers

“The purpose of a storyteller is not to tell you how to think, but to give you questions to think upon. Too often, we forget that.” ---Brandon Sanderson

This came from a book I have been reading entitled The Way of Kings. Obviously by Brandon Sanderson. It is a fantasy novel and I am on my second read for this book. It is pretty amazing what you find on the second read that you completely missed on the first read.

This quote is one of those little gems that presented itself. There have been others, but this one stood out and really got me thinking. What if we changed just one word?

What if we changed the word "storyteller" to "teacher"?

Being an educator, this really got me thinking about what we demand from our students. Do we want them to be able to think and feel and react to the world around them in positive and beneficial ways or do we want them to get high scores on their tests so that our school "looks" good?

I have found that those who do the latter are not preparing kids to be useful people and citizens of the World. Have I been guilty of this in my short time as a teacher? Probably yes. Is it all that I have done? Absolutely not. I try really hard to not fall into the trap of "getting high scores". High test scores cannot be the final goal of education. It doesn't help the kids and it doesn't help the World.

I want my kids to think and feel and react appropriately. I try to give them opportunities to do these things each day and I know that I am not successful every day with every kid. But I am trying. I can't open up a kids head and pour in the knowledge and experience my short 35 years have given me. I just can't. It's not fair to me as a teacher, but it's also not fair to them as my students. They need to do it themselves. They need to fail once in a while so that they know what success really feels like. They need to understand that they have within them the potential to do great things, AWESOME things, without having to be told what to do every step of the way. They CAN do it, if they BELIEVE that they can.

I have learned that telling them "how to think" doesn't work out the way we think it will. I hope that I can be that teacher/storyteller that gives them "questions to think upon" and I hope that they realize that I did them a favor by doing so.

Stay AWESOME everyone...

The Way Things Are Measured

Three day weekend got me thinking about some things...

First, I thought about how I have defined friends in my life. I have many, many, MANY awesome friends in my life. They are wonderful people and help me to overcome a lot of challenges. Some of them I see more often than others and some of them I only see on social media because they live so dang far away. Still, these people have been an integral part of my development as a person and I am truly grateful for what they do for me.

It occurred to me this weekend that the QUANTITY of time spent with my friends is not as important as the QUALITY of time we spend. I have always had this thought itching at the back of my mind that if I am not hanging out with my friends consistantly on a daily or weekly basis, then that means they are upset with me or that they don't want to be friends. I know that it sounds stupid, but it just nags at me for some reason. (I have to get out of my head sometimes. It's crazy in there.) I realized that even though we don't get to spend a lot of time together, that doesn't mean that we aren't close friends and that we aren't important to each other. It just means that we are busy with the everyday challenges of life that overwhelm us. When we do get together, it is truly AWESOME and we have so much fun.

Case in point... This very weekend, we were able to get together with a family that we consider our Best Friends. I will call them the "Besties". They are the same age as we are. (Literally... The wife is a few months older than me and the husband is a few months younger than The Pretty One...) They have 6 kids between them. It is a His, Hers, and Theirs kind of family. The two older kids don't live at home with them, and the four younger are around the ages of our kids, so everyone gets along and we have so much fun together. Anyways... We hadn't been able to hang out with each other for at least a month. (It might have been longer). We went over for a birthday party for the oldest child who was visiting from Seattle. We were only there for about an hour and a half, but it was AWESOME to be with our friends and just hang out and have fun.

So... QUALITY is much more important than QUANTITY... Remember that...

Second realization.... Just because someone doesn't want to spend time with me or get to know me doesn't mean that I am a bad person or not worth knowing.

There are people that I come into contact with on a regular basis that I respect and that I think are successful in some way. I would like to know these people a little better, but they don't have the same desire to know me. I often wonder if there is something wrong with me. I ask myself, "Why don't they like me?" or "What have I done to make them not want to be friends?" It is silly. It doesn't really matter what they think of me or why they think that. What matters is that I am comfortable with who I am and am capable of doing good things. I can still learn from these people, but it will always feel awkward to be with them.

So... I don't HAVE to be friends with EVERYBODY in order to learn from them.

Third realization... (Last one, I promise)... I can't measure the amount of success I have by the amount of success other people have.

I look around campus and see the teachers that the students really like or look up to. I see people that influence students so much that they get mentioned in graduation speeches. I see people that the administration asks to do things ALL the time while everyone else doesn't get the opportunity to participate. I see these people and wonder why I am not one of them. Why am I not popular and cool like they are?

And then I think, why do I need to be one of these people? Why is it important? It really isn't that important. I don't need to be popular and cool to be successful in my career. I have my own little sphere of influence on campus. I don't come out of my classroom much because I am needed there. There are kids that come to my room because they know it is a safe place to be themselves without the criticism and judgements of others. I do what I can to help those kids that want MY help. Maybe I am not graduation speech worthy, or in with the popular kids, or in the in-crowd with administration (sad that that even exists). But it doesn't matter. I am doing the very best that I know how and I have been successful with a LOT of kids in my short 7 year tenure as a teacher. They weren't necessarily the popular and cool kids, but they were AWESOME in their own ways and I am grateful for the opportunity to have helped them to overcome difficulties in their lives.

So... Don't measure your success by someone else's scale.... Make your own scale...

Have an AWESOME day...

Happy Valentine's Day

To The Pretty One... She will probably kill me for posting these.... Lol...

Best day..... EVER....

We are so cute...

Still cute....

Getting older.... But still cute...

 

12 years later... Still cute...

It's been an AWESOME ride.... I love her with all that I am...

 

10 Quotes That Made Me Think

So... I was reading my friend's blog.... **cough, Stacy, cough**... She reminded me of that TED Talk that I had mentioned in a previous blog and talked about how she had made her students do the "10 Things that I know are true" list as an assignment in her English class... I thought that was really cool and it got me thinking about blogging again... So, I decided to do another list for you all... It took me all afternoon to decide what my list would be, but I finally settled on this topic...

So.... Here they are... In no particular order... 10 quotes that really got me thinking...

• "When you get into a tight place and everything goes against you, until it seems as though you could not hold on a minute longer, never give up then, for that is just the time and place that the tide will turn." ---Harriet Beecher Stowe
• "So many of our dreams at first seem impossible, then they seem improbable, and then, when we summon the will, they soon become inevitable." ---Christopher Reeve
• "Being challenged in life is inevitable, being defeated is optional." ---Anonymous
• "You must learn to walk to the edge of the light, and then a few steps into the darkness; then the light will appear and show the way before you." ---Harold B. Lee
• "Things should be as simple as possible but not simpler." ---Albert Einstein
• "Anyone who has never made a mistake has never tried anything new." ---Albert Einstein
• "If you cant explain it simply you don't understand it well enough." ---Albert Einstein
• "Life will knock us down, but we can choose to get back up." ---Jackie Chan (Karate Kid)
• "I believe that everyone else my age is an adult whereas I am merely in disguise." ---Margaret Atwood
• "If your day didn't include making someone smile, you're doing it wrong." ---Anonymous

 

That last one has become my favorite.... I like to think of it more as my main goal each day....

 

Oh... One last quote...

 

"Anybody can be cool, but AWESOME takes practice." ---Lorraine Peterson

So... Keep practicing all you AWESOME peeps... Remember to always be AWESOME Sauce... (Never Ketchup Sweat)...

It's the End of the World as We Know It...

So... It is almost 2013... Another apocalypse avoided... AWESOME!!!

But anyways... This holiday season has been filled with so many blessings that I can't even count. I don't even know where to start.

The studio is FINALLY open... The Pretty One is desperately trying to get people to come in so that she can get this business going. Bills don't pay themselves. Gotta have money. So... If you want some pictures done, come on down. The name of the shop is Yellow Canary Photography... It's in Hesperia, CA... Come see us.

With the shop open, we were hoping that the bank would finally help us with some start up money. (They said they would back in July/August). What ACTUALLY happened was we were told that we needed to be in business for at least 2 years before they would even consider helping us... LAME SAUCE TO THE MAX... So, that translated into no money for Christmas. Not something we were looking forward to telling the kids... Fortunately, there are some very generous and wonderful people in our ward... We don't know who they are, but we are extremely grateful for their help. The Pretty One's grandma was also very generous. The kids got some wonderful presents for Christmas and we got a few small things for us with grandma's money. I have been truly humbled and my faith has been strengthened because of the AWESOME blessings that we received this Christmas season. Thank you to everyone that made it AWESOME!!

The next thing is that I turned 35... I don't feel 35... There is a quote by Margaret Atwood that perfectly describes me. It says, "I believe that everyone else my age is an adult whereas I am merely in disguise." I don't think that I will ever really think of myself as an adult. There is too much kid in me.

This birthday was especially AWESOME because we went to the temple and did some work for my Dad's parents. They both passed away many years ago and we finally went and did the work for them. They have been sealed together for time and eternity and my Dad was sealed to his parents. That is pretty AWESOME!!!

The rest of the day was spent with family and friends, cake and presents... Good stuff... Good times... AWESOMENESS!!!

(I still don't feel 35). :)

Now we wait to roll in the new year. Playing games and spending time as a family. Can't complain too much about that.

I am looking forward to what this new year will bring. 2012 had its ups and downs, but I learned a lot. I am hoping that 2013 is more AWESOME and I will be able to learn a great many more wonderful things.

I will leave you all with this quote from Christopher Reeve...

"So many of our dreams at first seem impossible, then they seem improbable, and then, when we summon the will, they soon become inevitable."

Happy new year to all you AWESOME people...