Top Moments of 2010

2010 has been a big year for me in a lot of ways.  As Jeff Fowles put it, "You've crammed about 5 years of life into the last couple of months."  Since its hard to put them in an order I will just go ahead and do it chronolocially.

1 January 2010 - Not so wonderful was the finding of new grey hairs on my birthday and being deathly ill (I wouldn't get sick again until I moved to Pinon) but what made January wonderful was that I was starting my student teaching.  I was able to teach US History A and B and Spanish B.  Some classes were better than others but they were all good kids, a lot of them were incredibly bright.  It was a great experience but honestly did little to prepare me for teaching on the rez.  I also took an American History class from one of my favorite professors that would end up writng the best letter of recommendation that I have ever read for me.

Here were just a few of the timeline assignments I had my US History classes do.

2 April - Something that was very difficult was when Student Teaching came to an end.  In several ways I was happy, I could focus more on getting a job now and I could go out more now that I didn't have lessons to plan and papers to grade.  Still, I loved those kids and having it just be over like that was hard for me.

3 May - Graduation from Utah State University.  I had worked so long toward this goal, taking sometimes up to 18 credits a semester while working full time.  I graduated cum laude having made the Dean's List three times in my college career.  I looked forward to using my new status as a graduate to find a job and have my teaching credencial.  Which actually turned out to be pretty difficult.  The University wasn't going to post my degree for six weeks when it was going to mail it out to me.  I went up the the university and said I wanted my degree posted now.  They told me that even if it posted I wouldn't get the degree until everyone else did.
At which point I informed them that I didn't care about the piece of paper, I needed to find a job and I could do that without the paper, what I needed was for the college to formally recognize that I had graduated.  That shocked the lady quite a bit and within an hour my degree was posted.
When I finally did get my degree I was surprised at what it said inside of it.

On the nomination of the Faculty and as authorized by law,

Utah State University has conferred on

Brent Kay Maynard

the degree of

Bachelor of the Arts

in history

together with all the honors, rights, privileges, and responsibilities pertaining thereto.

Given at Logan in the state of Utah the eigth day of May in the year of our Lord

two thousand-ten and the University's one hundred twenty second year.

Here I am with the Meet the Challenge Aggie statue.

4 June - I got the job for Pinon High School in Pinon Unified School District #4!  Why is it a number 4, especially considering there is only one school district?  It's called District 4 because it is the 4th district within the Navajo Nation. 

I heard about the job in an email on Friday, called the former principal Mr. Lescher and was told to have all my stuff ready by Monday so that he could interview me.  I worked over the weekend to prepare for the interview and sent in my stuff to him Monday evening.  Since it was the evening he was worried that I had lost interest or that I wouldn't make his deadline.  I then interviewed with him after he had a chance to look over my resume.  I was offered the job on the spot.  It still had to be approved by the governing board though.

I went to the temple to pray about Pinon and I felt good about going.  That to me was the most important thing, if I hadn't have had a good feeling I wouldn't have taken the job.

5 July - In my last nights at Logan River Academy I was brutally attacked by a kid with a pipe.  I stood up, called for help, grabbed the boy by the wrists, sat him down, and held him there.  From what I hear the kid has grown up a lot and is doing well which makes me glad.

6 July - With the help of my family I was able to move out to Pinon.  Dad came with me, we moved during monsoon season and so we unpacked the trailer in the rain, when we finished unpacking it the rain of course stopped.

I was also able to take Bo out with me.  That dog was the only real source of companionship that I had out here for the first weeks.

Some pictures around my classroom.

7 August - First day of work, I thought I was only making a new friend when I went up to a certain Ms. Miller, little did I know.

It was also in this month that Pam and I adopted our puppies, Angel and Clara.  We chose Pam Fowles to be the puppy sitters while we worked at the High School.  Going over there every day before and after school meant that Pam and I grew closer together and closer to our good friends the Fowles.  It also meant that Pam started to come closer to the gospel.

I began hating the days that I missed Pam there, and staying longer when I got there before Pam.  She also started staying longer to hang out with the Fowles and to see me.

8 September - Getting stuck on my way back from Flagstaff was quite an adventure.  Pam and the Fowles spent several hours searching for me.  It was then that I started to realize just how wonderful Pam was.  After she and I had started dating Jeff made the comment, "Getting stuck was probably the most important thing you've ever done."

9 October - The month of October was full of romance.  Pam and I watched General Conference with the Fowles which was the first time she cuddled up with me.  Pam and I started dating officially soon after and became engaged on October 30th.  And everyone out here was saying how slow we were and how we just didn't get it, but I'm not sure how we could have been much faster.

10 November - My first months in Pinon were full of illnesses and mishaps.  My laundry room flooded while I had the flu.  Meaning that just about everything got moved outside with the puppies who happily destroyed most of it.

Around this time was when Pam first heard me throw up.  She came to visit me and I answered the door and after talking for a couple of seconds, "Excuse me for a moment babe."  How do you know a woman loves you?  She doesn't bolt.

11 November - After Pam's grandfather died just before Thanksgiving we had the monumental task of going to the funeral in Ohio and being in Utah for Thanksgiving.  Going to Ohio was extemely important, I got to meet Pam's family face to face and Pam and I visited the Columbus Temple which is where we decided together as a couple that we wanted to be sealed for eternity.

12 November - Pam's baptism was quite possibly the happiest day of my life.  After roadblocks galore and problem after problem I was able to baptize my sweetie in Smithfield, Utah.

13 December - Christmas with family and Pam's Mom, who came out from Columbus was very special.  I got to spend the time with my sister Chantel's family since I stayed at their house.  Brooklyn was so adorable.  She came running toward Pam and I to give a hug, I bent down to catch her in my arms when she ran past me and hugged Pam.  She hugged me afterwards after Pam told her to.

Seeing my brothers again was pretty great, even if they did give me a pink, "I love Twilight," tee shirt, which Pam has now claimed as her own.

14 New Year's Eve - Pam and I celebrated New Year's Eve at the Fowles house.  We played Munchkin with them.  We also kissed for New Year's in New York, Chicago, here, LA, and Alaska, we went to bed before Hawaii though, but 49 out of 50 states ain't bad.

Engagement Photos

Oops Moments of 2010

Flying Buns
Pam and I had gone to Flagstaff to pick things up for the student council at Sam's Club and do a little shopping of our own.  The suv was full of drinks, meet, and hotdog buns.  Buns that Pam was very worried might get smashed on our way home.  We got past the Hopi Cultural Center and were heading back to Pinon, the street to Pinon is very hard to see, since it is a dirt road, just like all the others and the sign to Pinon is very small and easy to miss.
I was about to speed past our turn when Pam yelled, "Turn!"  Going as fast as I was and needing to slow down for the turn meant a fast radical change in momentum.  Pam screamed, "BUNS!" as hotdog buns flew through the air.

Non-Smoking Blenders Only Please
I was at Pam's house and I was excited for her to try one of my smoothies.  I place the ingredients inside and began to blend them up.  I smelled something.  I started to look around for what was burning.  Then I saw the blender and said, "Honey it's smoking."
"What?"
"It's smoking the blender is smoking!"
Yeah, that blender was actually on fire.  It got unplugged and put outside.

Edward Cullen?
Pam and I had just gotten back from Christmas in Utah.  I'm not sure how this happened but I had glitter on my neck, things like that just happen when you spend time with lots of nieces I guess?  Anyway, Pam saw it and teased me about being a Twlight vampire and started tickling my neck, which of course led to a tickle fight.
Pam stepped away, slipped, spun around, and slammed her head against my knee, thus giving her a concussion.  Strangely enough I think it might of actually helped our relationship since she said, "I've never seen a guy so concerned for me," and kissed me.  It is not however something that I ever want to repeat.

Salsa Explosion
It's always nice when someone wants to cook breakfast for you.  The intoxicating smell of eggs and bacon in the morning!  Pam was making a breakfast sandwich for me, and since I wanted salsa on it she told me to get out the container from the fridge.  It was a gallon size and about half of it was left.  It says shake well on it, and I have tried it before unshaken and its not good at all.  So I vigorously started shaking it.
Apparently the cap wasn't on properly because it popped off and a volcano of spicey goodness came out to put an end to the pleasant and otherwise peaceful morning.  Pam, her celing, her floor, her cabinets, even behind the refridgerator, all had salsa all over them, nothing was spared this event, except for me.
Pam and I were both frozen.  When she recounted the story to my future mother-in-law she was asked, "Is my son-in-law still alive?"  Pam went away to clean up and I quickly ate the breakfast that had been made so I could focus on getting as much salsa cleaned up as possible before Pam came back out.
Funny thing about trying to wash salsa out of clothing in a washing machine, it's a very bad idea.  It breaks up into smaller pieces and inbeds itself into the other clothing, thus ruining anything that's in the washer with it.  Yes, most of Pam's clothing now have tomatoes, peppers, and onions in them.

Back to the Grindstone

2011 is here already and I still haven't wrapped up 2010!  This is pretty much the reason why my journal writing resolutions never last long, I always get so determined to keep up that I fall behind.  I went back to work later than I thought I would.  I really needed to get back in there on the 28th, but after driving all day on the 27th I just wanted to relax for a while.  Yeah, I didn't get back to the school until 2011.
Work has been going really well so far this year.  I got my classroom cleaned up and had several posters laminated, so that they are now ready to hang.  Classes have started well for the most part.  I decided to grade a work sheet today, in one class, all but five people turned it in.  All but five people are now failing that class.  Little hiccups like that don't bother me though, the kids need to learn that I'm serious and that they need to be responsible.  And its not like I won't change the grades once they hand in the work.
With everything that I threw out of my room, my trash can weighed over 80 pounds.  And people call me a pack rat, ha.  (Yeah, those people are right - who has 80 pounds of paper trash in a classroom?)  The good news, my room is free of tons of clutter, the bad news, I hurt my back doing it.
People at work have been very helpful so far this year, it has been much nicer than last month when it felt like I was being teamed up on.
So basically what's going to happen now is that I am going to go back and forth in time since I really, really want to talk about Christmas and such and wrap up 2010 as a year, it was a pretty big year for me after all.

Bo, you idiot

Something very exciting during our time back in Pinon between the breaks was that Pam had her back yard finished, a yard that is about twice the size of mine.  We put all three dogs back there and watched as they explored and played in their new area.  I concluded pretty quickly that this was a better place for them and that they would be happier here than in my back yard.
We placed some bricks at crucial places so that the dogs would stay in their new home.  I then went back to my house to get ready for the Ward Christmas Party.  While I was driving back to pick up Pam I saw Bo and Clara running down the street together.  I pulled over called over the dogs to me and put them in the truck.  It was very easy, which was nice.  I tried to talk to Pam about how the dogs had gotten out, she didn't know they were out since she had checked on them two minutes before and she pointed to the backyard saying they were still there.  I explained that I had the dogs, except for Angel, who for some reason can't fit through the fence that Bo can even though Bo is still a much bigger dog.  Weird.
During the Christmas party, while I was doing the Christmas Program we got a call from the Fowles, Bo and Clara were out and Angel was MIA.  Pam took my keys and went to find Angel.  Bo and Clara were at the Fowles.
Angel was right where she was supposed to be, good dog.  When Pam opened the gate to check on her, she decided to run to find Bo and Clara and wouldn't go back to Pam who had to chase her, Bad dog.  Pam was out of breath and very angry at the dogs for the rest of the evening.
Bo, meanwhile, decided to climb up on the Fowles table and eat all of the food on it.  Jeff, being like me, very devoted to food, was very upset.
Fast forward twenty four hours, Bo, my house trained dog decided to lift up a leg to my hotel bed.  Dumb dog.

The Between Period

Anyone ever notice how school is just kind of painful in-between vacations?  A week off for Thanksgiving and only a couple weeks later to another two week break.  Of course these few weeks are among the most stressful weeks since the semester is ending which means that all grades are due.  Add in the holiday stress of whether or not you've gotten a gift for everyone and making sure that you have a Christmas Program put together for the ward Christmas Party while your fiancee tries to do a thousand things for the choir and band concert that she is putting on, and you know what it was like.
We came back to Pinon a couple of days late which was the plan all along, and it was a good plan because we would have gotten stuck in the weather if we had tried coming back on time.  Some teachers who like gossip were thinking that we had eloped or that we weren't coming back.  Nope, sorry to disappoint but we planned it, gave notice, and had sub plans ready.
One particularly painfully annoying day I got a twenty minute lecture on how I was doing my grading wrong, a twenty minute lecture that could have been given in two minutes, since I was at that time putting in grades which needed to be done.  As soon as that person was gone my principal came in because he was informed that there was another problem with my grading.  I love the man, he is great, he is a good boss, but at that moment the last thing I wanted to hear about was grading.  Especially since the problem he was talking about had mostly been fixed and if I could have had another three minutes it would have been completely fixed.  I hate grading, I pretty much hate most things that are related to grading, the idea of being talked at by multiple people about it does not thrill me.  For the entire rest of the between period I was stressed, grumpy, and wanting it to be Christmas already.
The best thing about grading this time around though was that I had Pam to help me which meant that I got it done early this time around instead of needing to work till midnight every night like I needed to at the end of last quarter.  Having the grading done meant that I could work better with the kids to get their grades up before the end of the semester.  Yes we are on both quarters and semesters, yes it confused me quite a lot at first, but most people seem to get it and I came around to it eventually.
Not everything was bad though, I had a lot of fun with my kids in US History.  We reviewed for our final by competing within the table groups for the answers to the questions.  The kids really got into it and it got pretty competitive.  My World History classes did a similar game but as a class.
My World History classes also presented their culture day presentations which were very nicely done for the most part, I was pretty harsh on a lot of groups though.  I made the boys wear ties, and therefore had to teach most of my students how to wear a tie, especially since a lot of the girls wanted to wear them too.  One group brought in sushi which was absolutely wonderfully, especially since they decided to use cooked bacon or cooked shrimp as opposed to raw fish.  I was glad that I skipped breakfast that morning since it made more room for bacon sushi.  I LOVE culture day.  Last quarter a group of girls decided to cook fry bread for all my classes except first hour, poor first hour always seems to get the shaft on stuff like that.
I was also happy that I got most of the quarter planned out, I know basically what I'll be covering every week.  I really did get quite a lot accomplished in those weeks back.
The concert was a very nice event.  I video taped it so Pam could watch it later.  She directed both choirs and the three bands that performed as one big band.  The concert had several teachers in tears and many more wanting Pam to teach them her classroom management style.
As teachers we had a Christmas Party which was fun and the last day before break was a mud day, which meant that while the kids had an extra day on their vacation we still had to come into work, the good news though was that we were free to go at 12.  Pam decided to stay a couple more hours and get a couple more things done, but I felt incredibly unmotivated to the point that I found things to occupy my time like a 45 minute call to Mom and a trip down to district to take care of some other matters.
I was finally cheerful again the break was here and then... I spent an hour looking for my birth certificate or social security card and could find neither.  I went from happy to stressed and upset pretty quickly.  We went to the DMV without those things and got my SUV registered but could not renew my license.  My Dad decided to call and talk to me about it that night, which I was not ready to do.  Sorry Dad.
The good news for now, Christmas is over, the next break isn't until April, which means I can have better focus with the students on school, and it means that Pam and I have our work cut out for us for the wedding.  April 23rd, it's on its way.

Fetch

This video was taken several months back, Angel had just gotten the ball for me about six times so I decided to get a video of her bringing back the ball just like any proud dad would.