There was this one day I got engaged, Part Five: Faux Zach Quinto takes my engagement pictures

So Zach Quinto had just come down the stairs into the cave, carrying a hefty camera. Like, this guy knew what he was doing. He began taking pictures of the signatures on the cave walls above my head, occasionally pausing for a close up of something fun on the wall closest to him, occasionally snapping one near the older couple near us. I tried not to make it obvious that I kept glancing at him, because he freaking looked a lot like Zach Quinto. Whom I happen to love, by the way. 

While I was sort of stalking faux Zach Quinto with my eyes, Chris had meanwhile knealt down to put the camera away. He rummaged around in the bag, moving lenses around (he had Cody's along with him, too, remember), handing me a lens while he adjusted the camera into the pouch. When he handed me a lens, faux Zach Quinto quick snapped a picture in my direction. And I thought, hmmmmmm... that was kind of weird, but I'm not above taking pictures with random strangers in them either... maybe he really liked the OSF's backside. (And who doesn't, really?) So I didn't think much of it, and besides he had turned to take another picture of the other couple there anyway.

Chris took the lens back from me, and I continued to secretly stare at faux Zach Quinto, who was again busying himself with the names etched into the wall. He really did look just like him. His face was the same, his hair was the same, even the way he carried himself. All he needed was a pair of trendy glasses and-

Then Chris was saying my name, and I looked down, expecting to get another lens to hold. Instead, he had sat back and was holding a box. I didn't recognize the box. It was reddish and square, and I thought maybe he had some new piece of camera equipment that I hadn't seen before. 

Then I looked at him and wondered why he was sitting kind of funny. And I noticed Zach Quinto snap another picture in my direction.

Then Chris asked me to marry him... and I stared at him, wondering what in the world was going on.

Then he opened the box. And I did this:

Let's see a close-up of that face, shall we?

Here's what was going on in my head in the ten seconds between "Will you marry me?" and me finally catching on to what was happening:

"Why is he sitting like that... what did he just say... why is Zach Quinto looking at me and smiling... what's in the box... wait, what?! Here?! Now?! This is happening right now?! This is it?!"

That's what was going on while I had my hands over my mouth in shock. Then I spoke and it came out like this:

"What? Here? Now? This is happening right now?! Oh my gosh oh my gosh oh my gosh. Really? Here? Right now?!"

(Which he later told me might have come across sounding a little negative, like, "Really? Here? In this cave?" which is not at all the tone I was going for, mostly because I wasn't trying for a specific tone, my mouth was just saying words that were in my head. And my head's tone was incomprehension, which apparently doesn't translate well.)

I still wasn't quite sure it was all happening. I needed a hug.

Then I started shaking, and possibly crying just a little. Because this was a total and complete shock that my mind was trying to wrap itself around.

Around this picture, I started figuring out what was going on. Chris was proposing. Right at this moment. A week after he'd convinced me it would be months before he'd do it. He was doing it now!

And all I could think was why isn't someone taking pictures of this?!

I know, I know- I'm a real genius. But I was having a moment, people! 

Ten seconds after that, I realized duh! Zach Quinto, who I'd completely forgotten about at that point, was taking pictures of us! Chris must have hired this guy, because I'd never seen him in my life... 

And then I figured out who Zach Quinto must be: Garrett, the new guy at Chris' work! The only one who hadn't been at the Christmas party! And who Chris had failed to ever mention looked exactly like Zach Quinto!

Good thing, because I'd have recognized him on the spot.

Garrett/Zach Quinto, you crafty guy!

At this point, Chris asked, "So... you want to see the ring?" Because I hadn't actually looked at it yet in my disbelief.

This is me looking at it for the first time:

Guess what? It was the Robbins Brothers' ring I'd loved from the beginning. The OSF had been hiding it in his golf bag for the last month and a half. Even though we'd gone to at least two ring places since then!

He is much sneakier than I gave him credit for.

Our very own Zach Quinto took some more photographs for us while I continued to shake and smile and ask a bazillion questions about how this could possibly be happening at this very moment.

Then we came back out of the cove and admired the beautiful ring in the daylight.

This is the OSF thinking success! I surprised her after all her telling me I couldn't pull it off! I showed her good!

Yes, you did, babe. It was the best I could have ever imagined.

There was this one day I got engaged, Part Four: To the Cave

As a general rule, I've been very on my toes these past three months. I knew he was thinking of proposing. I told him flat out there was no way he'd be able to surprise me; I am un-surprisable. (With the exception of a graduation dinner party the Aubreys threw me in 2007- but Heather's just really good at that kind of thing.) The problem is that I have an overactive imagination and anything- anything- will set me on the course of wondering if something out of the ordinary is about to happen. Chris could put on a nice shirt, and I'd wonder "Is he dressing nice because this is the day?" He could see if I wanted to go hiking the next day and I'd be sure it was going to happen at the top of Cowles Mountain in less than 24 hours. He could look at his watch and I'd wonder, "Is he worried about the time? Are we behind schedule in his crafty little plan?!"

It is impossible to surprise me.

Even on this beautiful Saturday in March, when we stepped out of the car and headed in the direction of our first geocache, I was thinking today would be a nice day for a proposal. But there was no way it was today. We were supposed to have gone whale watching that morning. And I was still sick. And geocaching was my idea. There was no foreseeable plan whatsoever. 

And my Chris? He's a planner. To the extreme.

I also remember thinking, as we started past the Contemporary Museum of Art, and Chris stopped to take some pictures of balloons, how weird it was to not have my camera. Chris had brought his, since he'd already borrowed Cody's long distance lens for our cancelled whale watching trip, and he figured he'd get some use out of the lens. My battery was dying, however, and I felt it wouldn't be worth it to lug around a camera that would only last five minutes.

It felt really weird. I was going to blog about it, actually. Dear blog, I would have said, today was so weird. Chris brought his camera and I didn't, and so Chris spent the whole time taking pictures of me and our surroundings while I was bored and looking for geocaches by myself. Not having a camera is the worst!

That's what my blog would have been about.

So Chris took pictures of me geocaching:

And not finding the geocache.

And random pictures he would later doctor up in photoshop with a cool lighting effect he discovered on a design blog.

Around the first geocache, we were down on the hard sandy cliffs, where we found lots of signatures and smiley faces, and this arrow that presented a fun picture opportunity.

Same arrow. I'm not making a face here, I was just looking right into the sun.

First geocache was left unfound, but we found success with the second one. It was hidden in a knot in the fence overlooking the coves.

Most geocaches have little lists in them for you to date and sign your name when you find it. I always, always forget a pen, so I've never actually gotten to sign one. But the OSF had brought one along!

(Later, when we looked through the day's photos, I realized that I had unknowingly written our names and the date of our engagement day. Chris was thrilled while taking this picture... since he knew, of course.)

Okay, here's where the story starts getting scary. Scary as in I almost ruined it. And if I wasn't such a go-with-the-flow kind of person, I probably would have. 

We had just finished searching for the third geocache. Didn't find it. At this point we were just around the corner from the cave store, a place I remember going with Jesse and Justin years ago, and that I'd told Chris about each time we were in La Jolla, but we'd never found the store. Well, coming in to La Jolla, we'd driven right by it and I'd pointed it out. Chris was like, yeah, maybe we can stop there if we have time.

So we're right there. And my food poisoning dilemma was starting to creep up on me again. Boo for food poisoning! So I asked nicely if maybe we could just hit up the cave store while we were already next to it, and then maybe just go home for the day. 

Chris seemed bummed in the it's-such-a-beautiful-day-I-really-don't-want-to-leave-yet-especially-since-we-were-supposed-to-go-whale-watching-today sort of way. And I felt bad. But my stomach also felt bad. Chris suggested we go get some lunch up on the main street, and that I'd probably feel better afterward... which really wasn't a good argument for someone who has food poisoning, but I went along with it anyway. So we trudged up the street to the Living Room.

By the time we got there it was super hot. The cafe was crowded and noisy, and I miserably sat at the table we managed to snag while Chris stood in line for us. I told him I just wanted water.  But then a girl walked by with an amazing looking turkey sandwich and I called him with my new order. He brought us a sandwich, water, and a bowl of fruit to share. It was a delightful lunch.

And, surprisingly, I felt great by the time we were done. So great, I even agreed to walk all the way back down to the cave store so Chris could see it before we headed home.

So off to the cave we went!

This is how the cave store works: you go into the souvenir shop, pay the guy $4 each, and then you get to walk down the stairs, into the cove, and emerge on a little deck down at water level. You can see in the sign that there's an opening in the cove (yes, shaped like a person's head) where you can see out to the water. Inside the cove are hundred of signatures and I Heart's scrawled all over the rock. It's a great picture place because of all the natural light.

Here's the OSF, in one of our first attempts at a good shot.

And me, in another attempt. We were trying to compensate for the brightness coming through the opening, while still trying not to blow the picture out.

Finally, Chris figured out if we stood in one corner, away from the opening, we could take advantage of all the light without the glare. There was an older couple on the deck with us at the time, and Chris asked them to take our picture... which just so happened to be our last pre-engagement photo ever.

And then Zack Quinto came down the stairs.

Wow. Who'd have thought it would take me so long to write about this?

Not me, that's for sure. But it's been a crazy week- parties, people, homework, regular work, editing pictures, beginning to look for venues, looking for some design-y wedding blogs... but finally it's spring break! And I can start really looking into some stuff. My mom and I are going wedding browsing in a bit- not shopping, mind you, just browsing. Just to see what's out there and be able to touch it all, which is sadly one downfall of internet shopping. 


But when I get back, I am going to try my hardest to sit down and devote time to finishing the story. Because it's good. Really good. That OSF just hit it out of the park, I tell you.


He's so amazing. :)


So look back later today or tomorrow for (hopefully) the rest of the story, complete with pictures from the day!

There was this one day I got engaged, Part Three: The Food Poisoning Part

Chris and I stayed home last Tuesday with food poisoning. We had had a few bites of salmon on Sunday night that hadn't quite been cooked all the way, and that's what we blamed it on. So we spent a miserable little vacation day watching Veronica Mars and eating Saltines.


Chris recovered just fine, but for some reason I stayed semi-sick Wednesday and Thursday, then had a complete relapse on Friday. This was problematic, because Chris had made reservations for us to go whale watching on Saturday, as his "new thing of the month." I texted him at lunch on Friday to ask if he'd lose money if we couldn't go. He texted back that he cancelled the reservations. My co-workers at lunch gave me suggestions about how to get better. I headed home early and slept the rest of the day.


The next morning, Saturday, (yes, the Saturday!) I woke up early. And this is where the first miracle happened. Because I don't get up early on Saturdays. If, on the rare chance, I happen to wake up early, I simply roll over and fall asleep again. On this particular Saturday, however, I lay in bed, awake at 7:45am, and thought, "Hey, why not get some homework done right now?"


I know, right? Totally a God thing.


Chris asked if we could go do something outside if I finished my work early enough, since it was such a beautiful day and I was feeling better and we were missing out on whale watching and all that. I suggested geocaching, and he got to work writing down coordinates for geocaches around La Jolla Coves.


At 12:30, we were in the car, free from homework for the weekend, and headed into the rest of our beautiful day.

There was this one day I got engaged, Part Two: What a tease

In the following weeks, Chris took me to multiple ring stores. First Jared's, which was fancy, but unimpressive. Then a quick stop in to Kay's at the mall once, only to find out that they really have nothing good. Zales that same day, which was a little more promising. I never found another ring that I really liked as much as the Robbin's Brothers one, but Chris either wasn't as impressed or wanted to check out all the other possibilities.

January turned into February, and amidst all the ring shopping and "so when are you going to marry me" joking, people from school were betting he would ask on Valentine's Day. I didn't think so. That OSF wasn't going to do it on an obvious day like that. 

Meanwhile, Chris had started a business card collage on his bulletin board. 

This is what I would stare at when taking breaks from my homework. Such a tease.


I tried not to pester him about it, but it sure is hard to not know what someone's thinking... especially in this situation. 


When March started, and we were still looking at rings every chance we got, I began figuring out that probably, probably, my extremely organized and resourceful boyfriend was just getting a head start on the looking so that, years from now, whenever he planned to ask, he could look through his files for the perfect ring. To save himself some time later, you know.


Also, he mentioned something about how he thought a year was about the right time to propose. We were at 10 months. Dang.


Then I felt bad. Had I been pushing him into this? Was I being too "marry me already!" with him? But he was the one who initiated the ring shopping. And kept taking me to more stores.


It was a very confusing time.


I remembered something my wonderful used-to-be-roommate Mandy told me a few days before she got married, when I was lamenting about how much I loved Chris, and how much I wanted to marry him, and all that blah blah blah. And she told me, as a seasoned girl at being engaged, that I really needed to be enjoying the last few months I had being single.


So last week I decided I would do just that. I would be independent, while I still had my independence! I had homework to do, and students to teach, and books to write, and scrapbooks to create, and all kinds of things that needed to get done. I didn't need any man to take care of me!


And then I got food poisoning.

There was this one day I got engaged, Part One: Some back story

January 18, 2010

It flooded on Martin Luther King Day this year.

This was the Monday that the weather freaked out. It was also a holiday. Chris and I poured over movie times online before selecting the new Michael Cera movie, Youth in Revolt. Then we braved the storm to Fashion Valley.

When the movie let out, and we stepped outside the theater, it was Noah's flood reenacted outside. Apparently Fashion Valley sits on U-shaped pavement and all the water collects in the center. Three steps out and water was seeping through my shoes already. We tried going to another level, in hopes the flood wasn't as bad. It was worse. We hopped from storefront to storefront, even though our shoes and socks were already soaked, and the water was creeping up to our knees.

We ended up stuck outside a corner storefront. Ahead of us was more flood. Chris looked up at the sign and brightened. "Hey... want to look at rings while we wait out the rain?"

We had never done anything like that before. The whole marriage idea had been in talks for a few months at that point, but it was still a distant idea, at least as far as I was concerned. So a surprise ring-looking excursion was new.

It was also fun, because the store we were standing outside of was Tiffany's.

So we walked in. Us, the drenched to the skin mall kids. Us, pretty much the only ones left in the entire mall because everyone else was smart enough to get out of there before the flood. And I tried on my first diamond ring. It was gigantic and sparkly.

Up to that point, I hadn't thought about rings. I figured, my amazing boyfriend was going to pony up all that money, he should be the one to pick it out. But I discovered that there are a lot of rings I hated. And only a few (very few) I really liked.

That night Chris and I got online and pulled up the Robbins' Brothers website. We picked out about four rings we both liked, and Chris said he would set up an appointment for the next day, after he got off work and after I met with my advisor at National for the first time. He was going to print out the rings we'd liked and take them so they could pull those ones out for us.

My National meeting ran late, so Chris had already been there for about forty-five minutes when I finally showed up. For the next hour or so we walked around from case to case. Every time we found a ring we liked better than the original four, we swapped it in, until the end when we had two rings left.

They were similar to this:

The only real difference was that the one I liked better had a bit wider band at the top then the one Chris liked better. I told him that if he actually did get me one of those rings, I wouldn't be able to tell the difference without seeing both of them together.

We met with a diamond-ologist (totally making that word up right now) in a little private room, and Chris went over all this diamond knowledge he had with the guy. I sat back and nodded like I knew what we were talking about. Soon after Chris dismissed me from the room. Really. He sat back, looked at me, and said, "Okay, you're dismissed now."

I drove home in a very confused frame of mind. Were we getting engaged? What was he doing talking to the jeweler alone? Was he buying me an engagement ring at that moment?

And all because it flooded on Martin Luther King Day.

First Engagement Picture (or as Chris calls it, "The Money Shot")

It's a very low resolution photo for now... hopefully we'll be getting the good ones from Chris' co-worker Garrett (our Zach Quinto-look-a-like photographer) tomorrow!

In case anyone's wondering...

The OSF decided to go ahead and ask me to marry him. 


And I didn't even suspect it. Not for one teeny tiny moment. The sneak.


I said yes.


After all, you get great tax breaks when you're married, right?

Five on Friday

1) I was reviewing my goals this afternoon (while again putting off homework), and I was trying to come up with a way to ensure I really would read my Bible every day. I used to be so good at being faithful to that. Years and years of waking up for 6:30am personal devotions at camp took quite a while to shake off. But I'm trying to get back into that habit... it just hasn't stuck yet. In my search online for some ideas, I came across this: the One Year Bible Blog. It looks pretty neat-o! They're going through the Bible, and each blog entry has commentary, thoughts, questions- it's like a whole little online devotion book. I'll definitely be keeping track of this site.


2) Yesterday my project at the Sorrento Mesa office was to print library cards for all the books with missing library cards, which I had gone around and found on Wednesday. I stopped in the kitchen first for some water, just in time for people to be pulling out leftovers of Pat & Oscar's chicken wings, caesar salad, and breadsticks. Perfect timing, anyone? They told me to load up a plate, which I did. I loaded it up so big that I had to carry my cup of water with my teeth back to the book room. Yes, I am that professional. 


About half hour in to work, I was enjoying myself so much that I had to share my good time with Chris in this text:


Kind of loving work right now, babe. I've taken over Bill's desk, got a pretty good itunes library loaded on the computer I'm working on, and there's tons of Pat & Oscar's food in the kitchen. I've got a plate full of caesar salad next to me while I search through the inventory. :)


And this is the message I got back:


You are too funny. It's always the simple things you love. What a cutie.


Awww... I like being the kind of person who gets excited about the simple things. Kind of reminds me of this time from way back when.


Or maybe I just like food?


3) Today at lunch with the CA's (and Domingo), I brought up an issue I've been having involving explanation points. For some reason this week, every time I've gone to write an exclamation point, my mind and hand work together to convert it to a question mark. So this week, instead of "Excellent job!" and "This is a great essay!" my kids have probably been wondering why the red markings on their homework say "Excellent job?" and "This is a great essay?" Totally changes the whole tone, doesn't it? For some reason, this question mark/exclamation point mix-up happens to me once in awhile. I can't control it. Do I have some form of punctuation dyslexia? I don't know, but luckily I caught myself today before sending off a text to the OSF saying, "Can't wait to see you tonight?"


4) Speaking of which... I'm still waiting to see him tonight. Boyfriend's been working late. He'd better get here soon, though, because Sarah's Birthday Part Two is happening in about sixteen minutes. Stinks not seeing him until late in the evening every day. But at least I've got some time to get through homework each day while I wait. (Always a silver lining. You just have to look for it.)


5) I was searching through my Pictures folder earlier for a specific picture from a few years ago... and ended up finding a whole bunch of pictures I'd almost forgotten about. I think I'm going to need to make a habit of pulling out those pictures and telling their stories before they're completely forgotten in my mind, too.


So here's my favorite I found today:

This was in March 2006. Mine and Sonia's first spring living on our own. Mandy and I shared the right room, while Sonia had the left room to herself. This was the living room. And that's me sitting on the floor about six inches from the TV. I'm not sure what happened. I think I was putting a DVD in the player and whatever was on TV caught my attention... so I sat back a minute to watch. And Sonia snuck up on me with my camera; she said I looked like a four-year-old who needed to be reminded that it's bad for you to sit so close to the TV. 


I love this picture.


I love simple, every day, this-is-just-what-happened-to-be-going-on pictures.


I need to take more of those.

Week Two

Well, people, I made it through my first week of credentialing. Only... 80 more weeks to go by my count. Give or take.

I think I'll put up one of those countdown thingamajigs on my blog home page. So I can look at it every day and be encouraged.

(Or discouraged. It's all in how you look at it, you know.)

Thought I would share my final essay with you all here, on what I learned about the No Child Left Behind Act. Then those of you who are educators (the three of you? Paul? Sarah? Chris' mom?) can give me your thoughts. Do you agree? Think I'm completely wrong? I'm open to constructive criticism.

If you are not an educator, and don't care about this one teeny tiny bit, please feel free to skip ahead to the end for more blog-like stuff.

Reflections on No Child Left Behind

    There is no dispute that students who attend schools in communities characterized by lower income living have been found to perform poorly compared to those in richer neighborhoods: the research is there to back this finding. The debate lies in the best way to handle this problem. The current solution propagated by the federal government is the No Child Left Behind Act (NCLB), a piece of legislature founded in 2002. The concept behind the NCLB is to create an education system in which all students in all grades—regardless of family income level or ethnicity—will be proficient in the subjects of reading and math by the 2013-2014 school year. The NCLB utilizes a system of standardized testing to ensure every student is progressing to meet the set standard each year, as well as sets the description for a “highly qualified teacher” and keeps schools accountable as to progression of each subgroup in the school.

    While the idea behind the No Child Left Behind Act is founded upon a genuine need—keeping children at an economic disadvantage from slipping through the educational cracks—it is my opinion the laws that comprise the act leave much to be desired in the areas of implementation and funding. Specifically, I find concern in the following topics: the consequences for schools unable to bring their students to the new standard, and the responsibilities of student achievement placed on the teacher, school, and district.

    Under the NCLB, schools have two years to meet the student standards set forth under the law. These standards are called the Annual Yearly Progress (AYP), a measurement of improvement meant to chart the progress of students each year up to 2014, the year all students should be proficient in reading and math. If, after two consecutive years, a school has not shown the desired progress, it is placed into the group of “Schools in Need of Improvement,” or SINOI. Once deemed a SINOI school, the institute in question begins its journey down one of two paths: it can bring itself back up to meet the legislative standard or it can continue to fall deeper from the mark. Sadly, due to the way AYP standards are set up, many critics of the law believe most schools will be marked as a SINOI school at some point or another (Johnson, Musial, Hall, and Gollnick, 2011).

    The consequences of remaining a SINOI school can be severe: depending on the number of years a school maintains this status, the school may face the replacement of staff members, the implementation of new curriculum, or a complete restructure of the school (Johnson, et al., 2011). At the rate in which schools are failing to meet AYP, it is just a number of years before all schools will be forced to implement these serious changes—a requirement that is just not fiscally feasible in this current economy.

    The NCLB has also left its mark in determining what qualifies an appropriately licensed teacher for Title 1 schools. There are three main criteria for a “Highly Qualified Teacher”: he or she must be certified by the state, have a bachelor’s degree, and be able to pass a state-approved test to prove competency in the subject he or she will teach. No longer will those with emergency or temporary credentials be allowed to take on a full-time teaching role; every class must have a teacher who meets the highest qualifications.  This mandate, of any other in the NCLB legislation, is the one that should be addressed, and the only one, it seems, with any likelihood of being able to be carried out properly.

    However, even the most highly qualified teacher cannot bring out the best work in all students, and this is where the NCLB completely misses the mark. If student outcomes are now the sole responsibility of the school administration, what responsibility is left to the student? It is no secret that schools are filled with plenty of students who simply do not care about standardized test scores. Yet the NCLB places all emphasis on the school’s faculty, the school’s curriculum, and the school’s administration practices. For this act to work, student buy-in of their own education is a must.

    No Child Left Behind is not without its positive aspects. In Ask the Teacher, author Mark Ryan lists some promised benefits of the act: “stronger accountability by testing, freedom for states and communities to make decisions on standards ad proficiencies, encouraging proven research-based educational methods, and more choices for parents” (136-137). While these proposed benefits sound good, the cost to implement such lofty goals are currently too high for the U.S. government, and no matter how great a reform package it may be, without the necessary funding it simply cannot work properly (Ryan, 2008).

    Criticism continues to rage over the No Child Left Behind Act. Proponents of the act look forward to the inclusion of all students in the proficient range, regardless of background. On the other side, those against argue the unrealistic approaches the act enforces. Perhaps the NCLB be better played out over a longer period of time, with less severe consequences for schools unable to bring every student up to standard. Regardless, the act does not seem to be working now, and will more likely need to undergo improvement itself in order to prove effective in changing today’s education practices.

---

References

Johnson, J.A, Musial, D., Hall, G.E, Gollnick, D.M. (2011). Foundations of American 

    Education (15th ed.). Upper Saddle River, NJ: Pearson Education, Inc.

Ryan, M. (2008). Ask the Teacher (2nd ed.). Pearson Education, Inc.

Aside from getting my behind kicked by schoolwork, here's what else I've been up to:

March 10, Wednesday: Spent the morning grading math at the Woodman classroom and keeping an eye on the parking lot for the little lost dog that's been showing up this week. Michelle and I are trying to save it. Spent the afternoon going through books with no library cards, creating a list of books with no library cards, and beginning the tedious task of making library cards for the list of books with no library cards.

PS: I love tedious activities. No joke. Bill (who I work for at Sorrento Mesa office, and who's in charge of all the inventory) laughed when I said this. He thought I was being sarcastic. And then I had to tell him the story about how when I worked at Target no one would touch the cosmetics aisle, and I loved working the cosmetics aisle. 

I like organizing things way too much.

And now I'm at Chris', not getting my homework done, and waiting for him to come home so we can go grocery shopping and to WalMart to get new windshield wipers for my care. (We're so romantic that way!)

March 9, Tuesday: School. No Sorrento Mesa. Came home and read, read, read. Fell asleep reading.

March 8, Monday: Taught reciprocals and negative exponents to Nephi. Went through the whole lesson with him complaining the whole time about  how long it takes to do one dang problem like that. When I decided he'd had enough, I pointed out the whole relation between the reciprocal and negative exponents, and showed him how, if he just remembered that one simple rule, he wouldn't have to go work out the problem, he'd just know what it was supposed to be off the top of his head. It took a few more rounds, but finally we came to the point where, when we started a new section, he stared at the problem for a few seconds, before raising his head and saying suspiciously, "Hey, wait a minute...." And then he got the next 4 done in about ten seconds. Success!

We also had TV Monday that night. Don't think anything exciting happened.

March 6 &7, Saturday & Sunday: We headed up to Chris' parents' Saturday morning to celebrate Sarah's birthday with their family, Kris and Becky, and Kris' parents, the Cowen's. Mr. Cowen likes to tease me, but I'm pretty sure I'm growing on him with the whole, "Hey, look! I'm going to be a math teacher, too!" thing. 

Good times.

So Sarah got everything she asked for, which wasn't much, and then some. Mrs. T tried her hand at making ice cream cake, and it turned out fabulous. Even Chris had like three pieces,and that boy is not a cake person. 

Sunday we went to church with Chris' parents and heard a hysterical guy talk about the intensity of the labor and birth of his first child, and let me tell you, if I didn't understand the whole cute cuddly baby part that you get afterward, it probably would have scared me off real good. "Don't look at the needle." That was his mantra. He kept repeating it. And then holding out his arms to indicate just how big that needle is. 

Shudder.

After church we were off to Disneyland, sadly not with Brittany and Ryan, who'd gotten into a minor car accident on the way up. Minor as in they weren't hurt, but not minor enough that Brittany's car made it out unscathed. So they were missed. 

And we really didn't do much anyway. I renewed my pass for free (which was great), we watched the EO tribute (lame), walked through the Innoventions house again (we are so getting one of those kitchens), rode Thunder Mountain in the dark and from the back of the train (the best combo), got our free tortillas from the Tortilla Factory (corn again... disappointed), our free bread from the bakery (yummier than normal, perhaps to make up for the corn tortillas), and then to the Blue Sky Cellar to see the latest on the California Adventures renovations (World of Color = almost complete, but they're still not releasing the official date). When I type it all out like that, it sounds like we did a lot, but it was pretty slow for Disney. Chris and I ditched Sarah (on her birthday!) around 8:30 to make it home at a reasonable hour, and though I tried so hard not to fall asleep on him, I eventually drifted off around Del Mar (so close!).

And... I really can't remember much of last week other than studying the No Child Left Behind laws, so looks like we'll be stopping there. I've been trying harder to remember to record the daily happenings, but life's gotten so crazy busy lately it's been hard. Fortunately I've got some great inspiration to remind me why it's so important to take the time to remember all the little things....