Surprise Trip to Oregon

This last weekend, my siblings and I surprised my parents by flying out to Oregon. My dad just got called as bishop and we thought that we would support him on the big day that he was called. Joey and I flew together from Salt Lake. When we were going through security, the guard asked me for my age. I had to think about for a bit then replied that I was 23. He was shocked and thought I was Joey's daughter of something. I don't know who was more insulted: me for looking so young or Joey for looking so old. It must had been the skinny jeans. Joey didn't realize that when he picked out our seats, they were actually across the isle from each other. We waited to see if anyone would take the seats around them. No one did. I thought about moving over to sit next to him, but to have the whole row to yourself is a rarity. So I stayed put. I felt a little bad for not wanting to sit next to my brother, but then again, he didn't come and join me, so I take it we both needed time to get work done and enjoy our books.
We arrived two hours before Josh, so we went out to eat with Dusty and Annie. In the car ride home, we were scheming didn't ways to sneak up. Annie and Joey were lame and walked straight up to the door to knock. You feel pretty lame trying some funny trick, so I sheepishly stood next to them. I thought for sure that my mom would do her high-pitch squeal, but instead she was quiet and humbled.
The weekend was so fun. We weren't there for long, it was nice to visit a lot. After all, that is what my family does best, talk. I saw Rita for the first time. If I was guaranteed to have a replica of her, I would baby today. She was so calm and adorable. I also so Annie's new house. I was thoroughly jealous of her. Overall, the trip made me miss living in Oregon a lot. I don't know where our lives will take us, but I hope the road will end in Oregon. (By the way, Mike didn't read this post until after I posted it, otherwise I don't know if that last sentence would have made it on.) At least I have my trip in June to look forward to.

Me as a Doctor: FAIL

First, this is me, Mike, for all of you out there. I was told by a friend I need to specify this because people are getting confused about when I post vs. when Katie posts. I think that's a bad sign for me; no guy wants his writing to be confused with his wife's. I will try to be more manly in my writing style.

Anyways, so, its safe to say that I am not the most immunocompetent person in the world. In fact, I feel like I'm always on the verge of getting sick. However, Katie is quite the opposite. In the 2 1/2 years we've been married, she has only been sick once, and that was on our honeymoon. No sore throat, no cough, not even a little runny nose...until about 3 weeks ago. I guess even Katie's robust immune system isn't enough for spending every day with a classroom full of ten-year old piles of bacteria. Right before Thanksgiving, she came down with a sore throat and cough.

Now, again, I haven't really seen a sick Katie my whole life, so this was new to me. I think it was new to her also, because she complained a lot. I tried to be sweet to her, but after 2 weeks my patience was running thin for complaining. Last Sunday we were sitting on the couch, and Katie turned to me, her future doctor, seeking medical advice. Here is a brief synopsis of our conversation:

Katie: Mike, I've been sick for a long time.
Mike: I'm so sorry, you should be getting better soon. Can I do anything for you?
Katie: I think I have pneumonia. What do you think?
Mike: You don't have pneumonia. You'll be okay in a few days.
Katie: What about bronchitis? What does bronchitis feel like?
Mike: I'm pretty sure you just have a cold.
Katie: No, I'm pretty sure I have bronchitis.
Mike: You just said you don't even know what bronchitis feels like.
Katie: I have bronchitis Mike. I need some medicine. I'm calling your dad.
Mike: Its 10:30 at night! My dad is in bed. Just relax. You probably just have a cold anyways.
Katie: No, I have bronchitis, I'm calling.

Call to Dr. Matthews

Katie: Ha! Your dad says I have bronchitis.
My thoughts: I stink at this.

Anyways, I expect nobody to be coming to me for medical advice any time soon.

Evolution

So, today we had a professor from BYU come to our class to talk about molecular biology. She asked my class was does "evolve" means. One boy shot his hand up into the air shouting, "Oh I know, I know!" So she called on him and confidently he said, "puberty". The professor didn't know how to respond. I wanted to laugh out loud really bad.

And the Winner is. . .

This is suppose to be a joke. We don't think of ourselves as that important. But we have had our choice after a lot of prayer and thinking, and we feel like the Lord wants us to be in there.

A Little White Lie

Is it bad to lie to your students. The class just earned goldfish as a class pet on Monday. Today, one of them died. The students were pretty good about the fact that it died (many of them had pet death stories of their own). So I decided that during lunch I would throw the fish away. I didn't want the kids to know that I am insensitive, so I wrapped the sucker up in lots of paper towels and throw it in the trash can. Of course the first student to notice the fish gone, asked what happened. I simply told him I buried it (buried in paper towels right). He looks outside and asked if I buried it in that rock garden, since the rest of the area outside is cement. Sure why not, so I told them that was the place. The kid raced outside and started upturning the rocks to find the dead fish. They are so gullible, even when they didn't find him, they still believed me. Hopefully that isn't a too big of a sin.

No joking, ten minutes after I threw away the first fish, the second fish died. I tried to explain to the class that it died of a broken heart. The student feel fed them this week felt like he killed them and started crying for the next 15 minutes. I am just grateful that I am not in first grade. We would have a lot more tears.

Mark's Birthday

Last week was Mike's younger brother's birthday. His parents were going to be out-of-town, so we were in charge of throwing him a party. I wanted to make Mark a cake, but Mike said I should have Nicole Barber's supervision if I wanted to attempt any thing in the oven. I was pretty impress with the outcome. It is a devil's food cake with peanut butter cups inside. Instead of frosting, we made Gnosh (I have no idea how to spell that), but it is more of a chocolate fudge. Very, very good and rich.



I didn't want to ruin the top with all the peanut butter cups, so Mike and I thought it would be fun to put the candles around the candle like spokes on a tire. We didn't think about putting wax paper underneath it, so we had a colorful master piece of wax on the table after wards. Oops!

Journal

I know that this won't be as funny as it is when you know the student, but today is Friday, meaning that I get to read one journal entry that the students mark for me to read. There is a girl in my class is constantly doodles on all her papers. I wouldn't mind, but it is distracting her and she is falling behind. Well, I told her on Thursday that if she went the whole day without drawing, I would give her five class dollars (I big deal). Well this is what she wrote in her journal that day. . .

"I've been thinking about why I want to be a mega artist. It's good to be a strong writer, but the arts are important too. To get to be a stronger artist, I practice a lot on all my papers, but I'm getting paid to not draw. I want the money, but I really want to make my dreams come true. Well. . . I'm going to read now."

Isn't a teacher suppose to be a dream builder and not a dream crusher? Oh well, she didn't draw once that day so she got her five dollars and I got her attention. Maybe she will become a writer someday and look back how grateful she was for her fifth grade teacher to crush her artist dreams and secretly paying her to be a writer. Time can only tell.