Go Dogs!

A win for the Dogs and we got to see it! Chris and Ryan drove down to Riverside for the FSU/UCLA game at the Rose Bowl this past weekend. The four of us drove to the game where Shandon and Laura met us. Sam got to hang out with the boys and I got to hang out with the girls...what more can you ask for?! Besides being ridiculously hot (as you can tell by Sam's attire), it was a great game and it was fun to be a part of it.

Well, this is Sam's final week of training, can you believe it? I can't. It seems like yesterday that I watched him drive away and all I could think was, "Seven weeks of this..." He is more than ready to be done and the clock is definitely ticking. Next week he'll do a week of supervised selling in San Diego and then he's on his own. We'll keep you up to date on how that goes for him.

I'm continuing to sub and all is well. Today I did a 2nd grade classroom; I though I'd change it up a bit. I ended up really enjoying the kids, especially since there were only 13 of them! At one point I was sitting at one of the kid's desk while we were reading a story and as I swung my legs out from underneath and went to get up I noticed something on my leg. A booger. Who would've guessed. :) Oh, I also had a kid tell me that another student said the "P" word. Does anyone know what that is?

Happy almost October! We are looking forward to seeing all of you at Thanksgiving. Lots of love from us to you!

Redeemed

I finally feel like I've been redeemed. Friday I subbed at a junior high in an area called Lemon Grove. The kids sort of reminded me of the one I left but they were much better behaved. During one of the periods I was working with a small group and the kids started telling me that I was a good teacher and better than Mrs. So & So, etc. They went on and on and I have to say, I loved it. Leaving the other school has caused me to question myself a little bit so this was a nice boost for my self-esteem. :) Saturday morning Sam and I went outside to go take his car somewhere to be sold and as I got into my car, I had a big surprise. Apparently someone had thrown a huge rock at my front windshield because the entire thing was cracked. There was a high school football game in the neighborhood the night before so we're wondering if it was just some kids. The neighbor told us that he noticed cars up and down the street were egged too; I guess we were the chosen ones. We had the windshield fixed by eleven but it still stunk to shell out the money to do it. After that ordeal, we met a friend of Sam's downtown for lunch. He was in town for a conference so that worked out well. We wanted to get some exercise after that so we walked around the zoo for two hours. We were looking forward to seeing the baby tigers but they didn't have them out yesterday. We did get to see a baby giraffe that was born the early part of August. Today we went to church (www.therocksandieog.com) and now we are watching football. Actually, I think Sam's sleeping. :) By the way, he only has two more weeks of training in Riverside. Both of us can't wait for it to be over! Next weekend we'll be in LA for the Fresno State game. We're looking forward to watching the Dogs get win!

What's been going on

Sam and I had a fun time last weekend. We went to dinner at an Italian restaurant in Hillcrest Friday night and had some great food. The area is really cute too. It's older but trendy at the same time. I also discovered a PinkBerry in Hillcrest; I'd only seen the one in La Jolla so now there are two locations that I can go to. For those of you who don't know, PinkBerry is like a frozen yogurt shop. One of the credit cards featured them in their tv commercials several months ago. Saturday we spent several hours tearing down (Sam) and painting (Kyle) granny's patio. It is still in process as new problems keep being discovered (termites, etc.). Saturday night we went to the Padres/Giants game with a friend that I met at the school and her boyfriend. It was good to actually have people to do something with! :) The rest of the weekend we just relaxed and then Sam had to head back to Riverside. At this point, he only has two and a half more weeks left of training. He's still really enjoying it except for two people in his class that drive him nuts. I keep reminding him to just be nice. :) Yesterday I subbed for the first time in Solana Beach. I filled in for a special ed aid--talk about intense. Out of the six or seven kids in the class, only one of them talked--she had down's syndrome and was a doll. The best part was when her mom came to pick her up and said, "Hi there beautiful, how was your day? I love you!" Overall, it was a really good experience; however, it's not my cup of tea. I spent the whole time just feeling so badly for the kids because they are just not functional at all-majority can't even walk. Times like those definitely remind me to count my blessings and to not get caught up on silly things. We hope everything is going well for you and hope to hear from you soon!

Change of plans....

Well, if you've talked to me within the past three weeks I've probably shared my "concerns" about my new school. As I attended my trainings and got to know the school culture better, more and more red flags came up. I considered resigning several times before school even started but thought that I should at least give it a try. Needless to say, I gave it a try and did not like it one bit. I ended up resigning and we are very comfortable with that decision. So now we're on to plan b which is subbing---I was going to do this if I didn't get hired anyway. This week I'm getting all the paperwork filled out and sent off so that I can start (hopefully) next week. Kinda crazy.....

Because I'm on sabbatical :), I decided to come to Riverside to be with Sam last Thursday. He usually gets out of class around noon on Fridays so we made a very last minute decision to go to Fresno for the weekend. It was really hectic but it was great to see some family and friends. We'll be coming again for Thanksgiving and we'll have more time so we're looking forward to seeing everyone!

PS--We're going to the FSU/UCLA game later this month. If you're going, let us know and we'll meet up!

Busy Weekend

Labor Day weekend turned out to be pretty busy for us. Friday night we went to a concert that was on the embarcadero. It was awesome to see the bay and the downtown skyline at night. Saturday we worked on my classroom (I start tomorrow) and climbed half of Mount Cowles. Sam was ready to go to the top but yours truly was not physically able to do it. :) From the point where we were, the people at the top looked like ants! No thanks! Sunday went went to the Padres game and watched them beat the Rockies 2-1. Then we walked around downtown and then.......Sam bought a car. His work gives him a car allowance and they give you more money for a newer car. He got an '07 Toyota Camry. Typically I wouldn't love that kind of car for us but it's really nice. It has leather, navigation system, bluetooth, moon roof and a ton of other stuff. It took over 5 hours to actually buy the car but Sam worked his magic and got it for a really good price!

We hope everyone had a great Labor Day weekend!