Date Day

Yesterday Pam and I went out and did some shopping both together and separately.  I'll have to take a picture of the pyramid of gifts that I wrapped for my darling beautiful wife.  That night we also finally got to see Breaking Dawn part I.

So Pam and I have had a great day today.

We started the day with a breakfast and then went to have our family portraits taken!  The photos we took were Christmas pictures and Maternity pictures.  Since we were dressed up and spiffy looking anyway we ate out at Olive Garden.

We came home for a nap.  Afterward we went and saw Sherlock Holmes: A Game of Shadows, which was an excellent movie.

After the movie we went to Gracie's Birthday Party.  We came home from the party and we are about to watch Kung Fu Panda II.

Almost There!

Christmas Vacation is almost here!  As a teacher you quickly learn that vacations are for teachers, not the students.  Teachers have the opportunity to come back to the New Year refreshed, revitalized, full of new goals and aspirations to make the second semester work even better than the first.

I am looking forward to so many things over the holiday, including the various surprises that I'm cooking up for Pam.  It's going to be a great couple of weeks.  I'm also really looking forward to seeing the family again.

It's been my goal to read a book every month.  I started in June and I have 30 pages left of book number 7! So who knows, maybe I'll get an 8th book read while I'm there?  I've posted the books I've read for the students to see.  They say its good for our students to see us reading, a sort of lead by example sort of thing.

A Day in Dublin

 Dublin seems like such a strange town in Ohio for a lot of reasons.  One of the principal reasons being the giant frog statue commemorating their oldest community event, the Frog Races!

 I love this place.  Where else can you get a kosher bagel and then have them put bacon on it?  It's really good food too.

 The field of corn is one of the strangest sights I think.  It is a monument to the fact that all of Dublin was once a cornfield.

 I will eat you!

 Pam with an old friend who is also expecting!

I got her flowers and a teddy.

Early Christmas in Ohio and Thanksgiving too

 We decided to give the kids their gifts early.

Pam's family was great.  We stayed up most of the night playing a game called Battle of the Sexes.  The women won, it was a close game, but they won.

The Coolest Pop Machine Ever

So, we were at the Miller's on the Friday after Thanksgiving to have a Thanksgiving with them.  There is a new machine that mixes pop with different flavors.  There are over 36 different combinations in all.  All at once most of us jumped up left the house, right before dinner, and got ourselves the unique beverages.  It was a lot of fun.

Home from Ohio

Coming back to Pinon has been good and hard.  It's been hard because a week off didn't feel like enough, especially since Christmas feels so close.  It's been good because I've been so excited for the wrestling season and for teaching Spanish and History.

History has been nice to teach this year.  I've learned so much from my mistakes last year and from working with other teachers that the overall progress and quality of the class is much better.  I am very happy with how things are going.  I work with Jeff a lot since he is also teaching World History this year.  Last year he was my mentor and this year I am his.  It's funny how things like that work out.  There are a lot of positives and negatives to our working relationship but we make it work.

With Spanish I feel like a first year teacher again.  At the same time though I have a lot of good strategies and games that the kids really like.  I also have them do a research project at the end of every month.  I'm always excited for what they will come up with.  Even though they whine about the project, constantly, and even though most of them don't get it done on time - it is the favorite part of the class for many students.

Here I've taught US/Arizona History, World History, and Spanish I.  I've also taken charge of the Yearbook, the Newspaper, and the Wrestling Team.  I've also given serious consideration to one day coaching Cross Country somewhere.  A lot feels uncertain right now, even so I am optimistic; and I have reason to be.  I have a gorgeous wife and a boy on the way.  I am able to teach History, Spanish, and English as a Second Language.

We have truly started a grand adventure, an adventure that we am determined to live to the fullest.

Wrestling Season so Far

We went to Joseph City on Wednesday and had a great meet.  This is the email that I sent out to other teachers to let them know how we did...

We wrestled three team duels, the winners were determined by team points

Joseph City beat us in the first one 36 to 28

We crushed NPA 42 to 24

We defeated Many Farms 36 to 24

Our team did excellent at the meet with several pins and a few major decisions.

Jeff talked about the same meet with a bit more detail...

"Pinon wrestled yesterday, December 7^th, at the Joseph City Multiple.  The wrestlers who participated were:  the younger Teller, Winfred Yazzie, Francis, Tsosie-Hood, Teller, Spencer, Tsosie, Nez, and Reyes.  We wrestled well, and came in second in a four-team meet.

            "Pinon started slow, and suffered some early pins.  This trend was reversed, however, when Teller managed to pin his Joseph City opponent in the second period.  Nez won the next match on a major decision (winning by over eight points at the end of time).  Reyes was then awarded an injury default victory, in a heavyweight bout with Joseph City, after the Joseph City wrestler strained his knee trying to “break down” Reyes.

            "After wrestling Joseph City, Pinon drew Northland Preparatory Academy.  After having been bloodied in our first bouts, Pinon came out with something to prove.  Tsosie pinned his opponent in just a minute and 13 seconds.  Teller came out like a madman – with a chip on his sholder, and chased his opponent all over the ring.  He pinned him – after giving up a reverse in a minute and nine seconds.  Yazzie, excited at finally getting to wrestle after a year, took exactly 12 seconds to pin his opponent.  The only problem – Winfred – is that it was exhibition and he was wrestling above his weight class.

            "We finished the evening with a challenging bout with Many Farms.  Thanks to Pins by Spencer, Teller, Nez, Tsosie, and Reyes (exhibition).  Pinon defeated Many Farms by a team score of 36 to 24."

On Friday we went to Ganado for another multiple tournament.  There were 8 teams there including us and we were able to wrestle with 4 of them.  Out of those 4 matches we won 3 as a team.

We started our day against Monument Valley High School.  We dominated the school from Kayenta.  I was surprised at the sheer number of pins that we got.  We defeated them 48 to 25.  I was very disappointed that my camera wasn't working during the match because I wanted pictures of those pins.  I was very proud.

Pride comes before the fall and fall we did against Red Mesa.  36 to 24, some of the same students who had wrestled so well against MVHS fell and were pinned in embarrassing short periods of time.  We did have several wrestlers have great matches in which they kept our team alive by their own pins.  After MVHS I think we were too confident for our own good.  Perhaps that is why the wrestlers who went later on did better.  (Of course the camera was working then so I now have pictures of my team getting pinned.)

Chinle Wildcats fought hard against us but in the end our wrestlers were better.  The final score was 45 to 30.  It was a match that really could have gone either way.

The last team we wrestled was Wingate.  We were able to defeat them 32 to 24.  Several of those matches were close, others our wrestlers completely dominated.  Nez won by Technical Fall, meaning that he won by 15 points.  Watching him wrestle was like watching my old cat Flip play with mice before finally finishing them off.  The victory wasn't as sweet however as I would have liked since I needed to spend time with one of my students in the Emergency Room.  He lost his bout because of his injury.  The poor kid from Wingate felt so bad about it and was very apologetic.

I'm excited about the great start that we've had so far.  Holbrook was a tournament that I was excited for but it got snowed out.  Teams that had traveled and were there anyway got to wrestle still in a mini tournament but we weren't able to make it there.