He's the President, for goodness sake!

I received this e-mail at school today:

"Murray City School District
Information regarding President Obama’s speech to students

On Tuesday, September 8, 2009 at 10:00 a.m. . . . Individual teachers may choose to show President Obama’s address for educational purposes. Those teachers will send permission slips to the parents of their students. Each parent will make the decision to allow their student to watch the speech or opt out. An alternative activity will be available for those students that opt out."

Oh my goodness!

Since when do we need permission to listen to the President! Since when do we need permission to teach our students those extremely controversial and partisan values like "stay in school" and "do your best." This is the most ridiculous thing that I think has ever happened in my career (next to getting the day off from school for the prom a few years ago in Tooele). The election is over. He's the PRESIDENT! Feel free to disagree with his policies if you will, but insisting your kids aren't allowed to listen to a speech? Give me a break!

I remember a few years back, after the war in Iraq was just beginning to appear as less than a success, Hillary Clinton spoke out in the Senate against President Bush's polices for the war. Crazy people like Hannity and Beck called her "un-American" and an "ex-patriot," saying that she had no right to be in the Senate because she disagreed with the President. These same types of voices today are the people who are pushing against President Obama and don't want there innocent little children to be told to stay in school! The story is the same, the parties have just been reversed. What a joke!

Talk about brainwashing and socialism . . . make sure your kids are sheltered and not allowed to listen to anything that may potentially go against what you think. Make sure they become clones who follow blindly and do as you say without being able to think and distinguish ideas for themselves. That'll create a more democratic productive society, won't it.

My final thought is this: Barack Obama is the President of the United States of America. He is in a position that is one of the most respected in the world. He got to that position by winning a free and democratic election. Like him or not, he's our leader for at least the next four years. We don't have to agree with him, but he deserves our respect. Not in my lifetime has there been a President who wanted to "talk directly to students across the country on the importance of taking responsibility for their education, challenging them to set goals and do everything they can to succeed (from whitehouse.gov)."

Let the man speak and let the kids listen!

Would you like some cheese with your whine?

Why yes, I would! I like cheese!

Whining ahead. Whining ahead.

Whining ahead. Whining ahead.

I am doing the best I can, but it's only the second week in to this (school teaching and school studenting) and I am running out of time. I have 1.5 hours every other day to write 3 lessons plans and grade 200 papers! On the day I don't have a prep at all, I barely have enough time during lunch to put in my attendance, check 8 million e-mails, go to the bathroom, and hopefully snarf some food so I don't pass out during the next 2 classes. It is absolutely crazy!

In other news, last week James and I literally spent hours of our time trying to help with a sewage backup/flood in 4 of the units in our complex. Luckily it wasn't our house, but unluckily, we are the people on the HOA board who everyone calls in emergencies (and non-emergencies alike). The short end of the story is that a contractor hired by WVC to lay some fiber-optic cable along the street, crashed into a sewer line. The long end of the story involves stinky sewage in homes, ruined flooring, huge messages, plumbers, electricians, backhoes, disaster clean-up crews, and insurance that doesn't want to pay for anything. After 2 days, the plumbing issue was finally repaired, but who knows when this will actually be resolved and the poor homeowners will get their homes put back together. What a mess!!

Today we had a knock at our door and one of our neighbors (not affected by the sewage), who is also James' only counselor in the Elder's Quorum (and has been for months because he can't get anyone else called) came to tell us that his home had been broken into during the day today. We have had a slew of car break-ins in our complex this summer (5 that I know of), but this is the first home break-in. They took all kinds of things from computers and a Garmen, to jewelry and running shoes, and even birth certificates. What a mess! I feel so bad for them.

We joked last week during the sewage outbreak that we were ready to put up a "for sale" sign to get off the HOA board. Now maybe we should move so we don't get broken into. Oh well. I'm only kidding. Yes we live in the heart of West Valley City, but crime can happen anywhere.

We actually contacted a realtor to look into moving (not last week, but several weeks ago). We thought it might be beneficial to look into low home prices to move to a bigger place than ours and one that has a yard. The problem is, according to the realtor who did some research for us, we would be able to sell ours for about $8000 below what we owe on it. I guess we could cushion the hit if we had to, but we don't have to, so we are staying put for now.

We really do like our home and we have put a lot of effort into it, but . . . you know . . . we always think the grass is greener somewhere else.

I do know one thing though, the grass was definitely greener when I didn't teach 4 classes in a row every other day. It makes me tired!

. . . okay, the whining is done now and I will look toward the positive blessings I have in my life (that post would, of course, be much, much longer than this one, but not near as interesting and well . . . I need to get back to my homework.)

Back to the Rat Race. Don't Forget Your Briefcase.

Today was the first day of school. Things went pretty well. Today is the day I don't have a prep, though. At lunch, I finally had to excuse myself from a conversation with two other teachers because I really had to go to the bathroom. By the time I left the bathroom and grabbed my apple out of the fridge, I had 8 minutes to snarf the apple, a blueberry muffin, and put in my attendance for the first 2 classes. Phew! I even managed to catch up on a couple of e-mails before the rest of the day continued.

Tonight I also had my first day of online school. It's weird. There is a lot of reading. I'm not a good reader. It put me to sleep. I slept for about a half hour before I thought, "I should really try to finish this." One of my classes has the bulk of the week's assignments due on Wednesdays. Given my Tuesday and Wednesday lesson schedule, I guess I'll be doing the bulk of this class on Monday's. I got all but a couple of things finished tonight. Phew, again!

Here is my new blog for one of my courses. I'm sure you'll find it highly enlightening and become a frequent reader of it!

http://itlsbinggeli.blogspot.com/


Also, I learned two new vocabulary words tonight in my first day as a Master's Student:

subsume: –verb (used with object), -sumed, -sum⋅ing. 1. to consider or include (an idea, term, proposition, etc.) as part of a more comprehensive one. 2. to bring (a case, instance, etc.) under a rule. 3. to take up into a more inclusive classification.
effectiated: verb (used with object), -at⋅ed, -at⋅ing. to bring about; effect.

It happened at the dollar store.

I just got home from the Dollar Store. I needed a few supplies for my classroom, mainly various sizes of containers-with-lids (for things like dice, markers, and protractors). I selected my items and headed to the cash register. I stood in line for a minute and then noticed the happenings between the checker and the man in front of me.

The checker was a young girl. She was probably at most 16 and had 2 piercings in her lips, a hoop through her nose, and some piercings in her eyebrows. Aside from the painful looking piercings, she seemed like a nice, pleasant girl who was trying her best to help this man.

The man in front of me was probably in his late 50's, short in stature, a bit curt, of Asian descent, and when he finally left, drove a car with a handicap tag hanging from the rear view mirror. (All probably unimportant details, but I want to give you a visual to the story.)

When I began paying attention to the interaction, the man was asking the girl to find some type of text on a small bottle of pills. She was leaning on the counter with both elbows, the bottle of pills close to her face as she examined every inch of the label.

"What does it say?," he insisted.

"I don't see anything about that," she said as she kept looking.

"Hmmm," I thought to myself, "I didn't know they sold any medications at the dollar store. Maybe he has a headache and this was the closest stop. Does the dollar store have great deals on aspirin? What is she looking for on the label? Hmmmm. Oh look . . . Hannah Montana batteries and soccer stickers."

"I'm sorry, I just don't see it anywhere," the girls said.

"Fine, I will just get it anyway," replied the man.

The girl set the bottle down on the counter and rang up the purchase. "That'll be $1.14." The man fumbled through his wallet and threw down a $20.

"No change, just the bills," he said.

While we waited as the girl was pulling the bills out of the cash register, I glanced over and realized I could now see the front of the red label on the bottle as it sat on the counter. What was it? The label said "Male Enhancer."

True story. You can draw your own conclusions, whatever they may be. I just thought I'd share.

Jarrell left to the MTC

So Jarrell, my brother entered the MTC today. He will be serving in the Seattle, Washington Mission. It covers mostly the Metro area of Seattle. I am sure that he will really enjoy it. Hopefully, he gets to visit the Needle.

Good luck Jarrell!!!!