It's Official

I am officially going to D.C. with the 6th graders now. I guess some of the teachers were standing around after school the other day talking about me and Mid brought it up to everyone. One teacher was like "yeah, that's fine as long as she pays the $220." The one teacher that Mid thought would be the one saying this (Gary Edwards) actually is the one who defended me. He was all "come one now, she is part of the team right now and she's putting in a lot of hard work for us." And then Mid added that I could take a group (like a chaperone as opposed to the teachers who stay in the hotel rooms alone and do not have a group of kids to look after) and finally, after about 10 minutes of going in circles, Mr. Beck, the one who thought I should pay, was like "yeah, I guess, okay that'll work out." So now I get to go on a FREE trip (food included) with 106 6th graders for 3 nights and 4 days and then as soon as I come home I have to do laundry, repack, and head to the airport to go to Florida for a week. What have I gotten myself into people???!!!

Anyway, the reason for this long boring story is to tell you where I will be and when. I will leave early on May 9th (Tuesday) and come back home late on May 12th (Friday) then leave again early Saturday morning the 13th and fly back home late on Saturday the 20th.

Summertime toes and burnt armpits

Sunday night I waxed my legs and painted my toenails. I’m sure you all wanted to know that. But I was very excited to once again have summertime toes, even if it was snowing when I left the house Monday morning (and of course couldn’t wear sandals to show off my red toes.)

Yesterday I went to the tanning bed in preparation for leaving on our trip on Friday. As I get darker I have more and more prominent white stripes down my sides where I lie in the tanning bed with my arms next to me. So, I got this bright idea that I would lay there with my arms over my head. I carefully put on lotion on the undersides of my arms, but I didn’t think about the fact that my armpits have probably never in their respective existences seen the light of day, and so were especially tender.

Yeah. Let me tell you, it was a real joy and a treasure trying to put on deodorant this morning.

James is still sick

James still has the same bad cough that he has had since November or December. You may recall that we took him to the ER a while back and they said he had bronchiolitis (sp?) (this is different from bronchitis) and he was put on a nebulizer. He got mostly better, but not all the way. He has been to the doctor a couple times since and yesterday he said he still has bronchiolitis. He had x-rays and was put back on the neb again. His coughing was so bad that the doctor thought about hospitalizing him, but the x-rays were good and the nebulizer helped a lot so he sent him home, making sure that I was okay with bringing him home. I am now doing frequent breathing treatments with the neb, just like a month ago. If this does not clear up soon, he may be diagnosed with asthma. The doctor said it is hard to diagnose that during the winter with all the colds and junk that goes around. He doesn't want to call it asthma now and overtreat, but yet if in a month or so it isn't gone, he doesn't want to undertreat it by holding off on an asthma diagnosis. Asthma is common in preemies so I won't be shocked by this.

We have achieved tickets

Our tickets to NZ finally showed up last night, 6 days after they were sent off in an "overnight" package, and 15 days after the alleged travel agency allegedly really truly allegedly sent the package. (Every day we called for 4 weeks, they told us they had mailed the tickets "yesterday".) They also sent us two exceedingly helpful pages printed off the web demonstrating different New Zealand traffic signs (we had asked for tips on getting around.)

But we leave in 8 days, and that's what matters. Life is good.

where's the gru?

nobody's written on here for a while, so i thought i should say something. I saw some redbacks this evening. They're the most lethal spiders here, and also the most common. Nobody bothered to tell me that about a week prior to my coming here, the deck was infested with redbacks. Paul sprayed and killed them all, but it's still not a great feeling, especially when I keep my window open every night and it goes directly onto the deck. Taking a page from dad's book, life is good.

the french guy is here. definitely not tall dark and handsome, but he's nice. i'm doing my best to include him in things, show him around, let him know where things are and how things run in the house. nobody really ever showed me any of that and it was frustrating, so i didn't want him to have to go through that. he has no problem talking if talked to, but i think he's a bit shy. and the other guys here aren't making much effort to talk to him, so i have to compensate. i guess it's different being the new guy in a group of guys, rather than being a girl. especially if all the guys are asian and you're french. but he can take care of himself.

he showed me this awesome program called google earth. it utilizes all the satellites hovering around out there. you just hold down the mouse button and you can spin the globe around to any place you want, zoom in anywhere you want, and you can actually see some distinct land and buildings and stuff. i couldn't see our house, but i saw 71 and could sort of make out the high school, and of course all the different farming fields. he showed me parts of france, and we looked at a few other places.

there's a nature preserve in town that has everything except large reptiles like crocodiles. i've been wanting to go to it for a while. i suggested it to a couple people, and suddenly everyone wants to go, and i guess we're turning it into a big picnic on sunday and we'll all go together. i could say it will be fun, and i'm sure it will be, but it makes it a little more difficult with the family coming. i can't deny it any longer that jamie really is a brat, and helan will need lots of help with packing up all kinds of things. that's just what happens when you've got kids. so i guess we'll have a BBQ and then hopefully chao and bryce (the french guy, it's pronounced Breece, but soften the r) and camilla and whoever else my age can wander around on our own. scratch that, i will at least make sure that *I* get to see what I want to see. I'll wander around by myself if need be. I'm just getting a little tired of having to look after jamie. but it should be a fun day, and it was kind of neat to suggest it and have everyone excited to go.

okay, i'm tired. i should be in bed. have a lovely day!

A girl's best friend

No, diamonds are not a girl's best friend.

A girl's best friend is a clean kitchen.

I know because we spent nearly 6 months with a couch in the kitchen, everything covered in thick layers of grimy drywall dust. You couldn't walk through the door without tripping over extra baseboard.

We spent all day Saturday cleaning the kitchen and putting some stuff together in the living room, which is nearly done. Today the carpet cleaners came and took six gallons of crud out of the kitchen carpet. Of course, the front hall is still bare drywall, and you can't walk through the dining room without tripping over a chop saw. Or a table saw. Or a circular saw. Or 47 cans of paint.

But by golly, the kitchen is clean!

Things Claire said on Friday

1) Carrie: "I miss you lots, Claire."
Claire: "I miss you kinda."

2) Carrie: "I wish I could see you every day, Claire."
Claire: "I wish I could see you every weekend."

question and update

First, I wondered if Mike or Margaret could explain this whole thing to me about Waynedale saying we cheated and that they should have the WCAL title and what all they're saying about Teague and Hershey in the paper. I didn't quite understand what happened.

Second, at Carrie's request, I put my email update here on our blog so you can make "appropriately rude comments".


Hello again!
I’ve been keeping a journal and doing my best to keep it updated (which isn’t that great) but it’s been piling up for the past week or so, so prepare for a long e-mail! Here’s what I’ve been up to:
First of all, I’ve made a short list of words that I hear or use fairly often here. I put their meanings a little ways below, so you can try and guess what they mean if you want.
1. Cuppa
2. Good onya
3. G’day
4. Bogan
5. Esky
6. Muck Around
7. How you going?
8. No Worries
9. Petrol
10. Have a sleep
11. Sauce
12. Arvo
13. Training
14. Gridiron
15. Portaloo
16. Uni

Answers:
1. Cup of tea or coffee. Business people will normally have a morning and afternoon tea break, while blue collar or families will have neither or only the morning tea. Almost all churches have a morning tea after service. They invite everyone to “Come have a cuppa.”
2. Go for it!
3. Hello, good day.
4. Hick. I quickly discovered this word when describing Ohio to some Ozzies.
5. Cooler. The thing you put stuff in for a picnic to keep it cold.
6. Horse around.
7. How are you doing? I had a hard time with this one at first. They’d ask me How’d I go? And I’d think for a minute and say that I took the bus or something like that.
8. No problem/ It’s okay. They say this a lot.
9. Gasoline. They go to petrol stations. Which, btw, I may have said earlier that their petrol prices were very low, but then I found out that they buy by the liter. One liter here is at about $1.20 right now. 4 liters is about 1 gallon, so you’re looking at approximately $4.80 a gallon!
10. Take a nap.
11. Ketchup.
12. Afternoon.
13. Practice. Leroy starts practice for rugby tomorrow, but they call it training.
14. American football. We really are pansy puffy marshmallows compared to the sports they play here!
15. Porta-potty
16. University. If you go to college, you go to uni. College means something different here.
Also I’ve had about 87 people try to explain all the different rugby leagues and rules they have here. I watched a bit of one with Paul (my homestay Dad). He’s from New Zealand, and the one he was watching was Rugby Union, which isn’t quite so popular in Australia, but is in New Zealand. It was a combination of soccer, gridiron, and a couple other things. I personally think it’s much better than gridiron, as play still continues once a man is tackled. Other team members try to fight their way into the pile and fish the ball out and pass it and continue, whereas with gridiron, they stand around and debate for a while on a play, the play takes about 3 seconds, and then they stand around for a while to determine what in heck just happened and then decide on another 3 second play.
Okay, so now I’ll tell you what I’ve been up to. I’m not sure where I last left off, but I’m basically just copying and pasting bits from my journal, so it’s not the greatest organization.
I never expected to be learning about Asian culture living in Australia, but I am! Much like there is a lot of Spanish culture around the US because of our proximity geographically to Mexico and South America, Australia is probably closest to Asia, and therefore has a lot of Asian influences. The 5 Asian guys I’m living with in my homestay so far have been the best part of being here! They’re like my big brothers, and are so much fun to hang out with and learn about their cultures.
Not that you’ll remember their names, but Chao is from Taiwan, Ricky from Indonesia, Kazuki from Japan, and I’m not sure where Mon and Aroot are from. Ricky is just starting at uni, Aroot is still in grammar school, and the other three are well into their masters degrees. They all have different personalities. I talk to Chao and Ricky the most. Kazuki is a professional tennis trainer in Japan. I go to church with Ricky, and Chao and I seem to have quite a bit in common, so we enjoy discussing things and I always ask a lot of questions about living in Taiwan. I hadn’t realized this, but he says the U.S is the only thing protecting his country from being overtaken by China. He’s about to finish his degree here and wants to go to Harvard for another masters, so he’s been asking me advice while working on his application there (Like I’m a really big help or anything!).
Just for an example of what it’s like here at home: On Thursday I went out and bought a bike from a store similar to Wal-Mart. It comes in a box. I brought it home, and when Chao got home I said “Guess what! You get to help me put together a bike!” And he immediately sets his stuff down and wants to get to work on it. We go outside and start looking at directions and just having a good time working on it together. And when I say together, I mean that he worked on it while I occasionally read stuff out loud from the directions and watched him. Then we discovered we needed Allen keys, which Kazuki had. So Ricky and Kazuki got home a bit later and they came to the rescue with Allen Keys and the three of them start working on the bike together. Every time Ricky would touch the bike Chao would yell that he’s breaking it and he owes me $100. It may not sound so hilarious when you’re just reading it here, but it’s funnier because of their accents and sometimes broken English. I can just hear Chao in my head. “RICKEEEE! You break it! Hundred dollar.” The three guys had it put together within 45 minutes. Leroy (the 12yr. old) wanted to help too, and he came and tightened some screws and then rode it around for me because I wasn’t sure if their handy work was trustworthy. J It was great. It was at that point I just really started to like these guys. They treat me really well.
Anyway, another really nice thing Chao did was to take me and another one of his friends into Sydney this past Friday. Ricky and his friend Dewi (Day-Wee) had to go to their Indonesian Embassy and do some stuff, and Chao wanted to show around his Taiwanese friend Shalbie. Chao has a car, so he took us all in! I decided to forget all the campus tours and boring stuff I was supposed to do. So at 7:30am, we left. Even though it only takes 1 hour to get to the city, it takes another hour to maneuver into it. There is only one road leading into it, the Pacific Highway. This is the way it is in almost all Australian cities. There’s nothing but outback, so they don’t build a lot of roads.
The 5 of us walked around a bit before Ricky and Dewi had to go to the embassy. I’ll tell you about the restaurant we went to in a minute. We did a lot of walking. We bought drinks as Starbucks, took tons of pictures everywhere, and slowly made our way towards the Opera House. We rode the tram, looked in shops. I’ve found that when you go to any very large city in any country, they become fairly similar. They’re like international space stations. There’s a little bit of culture from many countries situated all over the place. There was a little strip of Chinatown there (that’s where we ate.) The difference between Sydney and NYC is the actual building structures. NYC has darker buildings and Times Square looks almost like a cartoon. It’s kind of artificial. Sydney has older more sophisticated or regal buildings. There was a huge shopping center that was a very very old building made into shops. I’m not sure what it was used for originally, but the inside looked like a huge train station like from Harry Potter The ceilings where what really made it look like that. I wish now I would have taken a photo of the inside. But anyway, there was a big cathedral in the middle of skyscrapers, and a round building that looked kind of like the NYC library. Stone pillars and stuff. The whole city is beautiful and clean.
So we finally got up to the Harbour with the bridge and the Opera House. We took pictures everywhere. It took a long time to walk around the Harbour. We saw lots of ferries, and there was a group of supposed Aborigines wearing body paint and playing a didgeridoo. It was cool, but I’m thinking maybe the guys were kind of like our Indians at home that don’t really dress up in headdresses and beat war drums anymore, but they’ll dress up like that just to make the tourists happy and get paid.
There isn’t a whole lot to say about the Opera House and Bridge. I guess it was kind of what I expected it to be. Just something to look at. But then after all that walking, we didn’t want to walk all the way back. Did I forget to mention how bloody hot it was!?!?! We timed it perfectly so that we were walking in the sun at basically the hottest time of day. The past several days it’s been around 95 degrees, with the humidity around 90%. It was terrible. So we were tired. For $5, we got to take a ferry around the harbour and back to Darling Harbour (which is where the Aquarium is, which Shalbie and I plan on going back to). Then we walked back to Paddy’s Market, met up with the others, looked at some souvenirs, and then headed home. The only souvenir I got was a nice sunburn. And that was my day in Sydney! It’s a great place to visit, but I wouldn’t want to live there. On the way home I asked more questions about their culture and found out that most of their names weren’t their real names, but ones they made up because nobody can pronounce their real ones. So I went around getting their real ones and writing them down and learning to pronounce them. It was pretty interesting, and it really impressed me that they take it upon themselves to learn English and even change their name in order to communicate with others. They’re very intelligent. Shalbie can speak 5 languages! It makes me as an American feel pretty stupid, taking about 6 years of Spanish and I still can barely speak it. Oh, and listening to the radio on the way home, we discovered we had just missed Tom Cruise’s arrival in the city. What a shame.
Okay, so I haven’t told you about the restaurant yet. It’s called Yum-Cha. I guess Yum-Cha has multiple meanings. It’s kind of a way of eating. All the food that we eat is collectively known as Yum-Cha. It was a very new experience to me! We walk in and the people seat us. The dishes we have are a very small cup for tea, a very small bowl, a small plate, and chopsticks. They immediately bring out a big teapot, and because in Asian culture it’s the duty of the guy to keep everyone’s tea cup full, Chao poured all the tea. So then the weirdness happens. Instead of menus, the people just bring around trays with lots of little wicker baskets that have different dishes. You point at what you want and they give you the dish. And you don’t pick stuff just for yourself. It’s all set in the middle and you all share. I was so bewildered when they just started setting these things in front of me and I didn’t know what any of it was (even after I ate it, I still didn’t know what half of it was). To be completely truthful, I was kind of scared. I didn’t know what to do! I didn’t understand what was going on and I felt so stupid and was worried the others would be offended because this is how they normally eat. But they got things explained to me and just told me to try some things. I decided I’d do my best with the chopsticks instead of chickening out and getting a fork. So Shalbie helped me a little with getting stuff off the plate and into my bowl. You only take one thing at a time and it goes in your little bowl, and then you eat it and put the next thing in the bowl. I had all kinds of different things and amazingly I liked all of them! It was delicious! I calmed down and got a little better with the chopsticks, and of course Chao kept my tea full. Dessert was an egg thing, I think an egg cake or something. It was very similar to flan, except it had the most delicious flaky crust. It was very good. Then the bathroom had a code on it that you had to enter a password to get in! I went there, couldn’t figure it out came back and sat down and said “okay, so how do you get into the bathroom?” and shalbie laughed and told me how. So yeah, that restaurant was a great experience. I’m so glad I did it. It was pretty expensive, and doesn’t really fill you up, but it was so hot that I didn’t want to eat the rest of the day anyway.
Random fact: At the request of Don Clifton, my father, and several others, I made sure to check which way the water drains here. It most definitely drains counter-clockwise. Just thought you should all know. You can sleep peacefully now.
This past Thursday I had a BBQ to go to for a christian group on campus. The meeting place was at Nobby’s Beach, which is the most easily recognized beach in Newcastle. It has the lighthouse and pier extending off of it, and this is how most Australians recognize Newcastle. At any rate, it was beautiful.
On the busride there, the bus driver and an old lady talked to me the whole time about different types of weather, and a lot of trying to explain all the rules in the 87 different types of rugby here. It was threatening to rain most of the time I was there, but it was perfect for me because it brought the temperature down to a bearable 75 degrees or so. I went on the beach for a bit, went into the surf up to my knees, took photos of the lighthouse and had a walk out on the pier. The meeting with NCS was great. I met a lot of new people, made friends with a girl that’s a huge cricket fan, and had an interesting conversation with some people about how the Australian government runs. It was interesting to see the differences with the U.S, and of course they also asked me a lot about the justice system in the U.S (one of them was just finishing her law degree). Hopefully some day I’ll actually be able to show you some of these pictures I took.
Saturday was the trip to Nelson Bay that I’ve been anticipating for a while. We were supposed to go on a cruise to watch dolphins. It turned out to be mostly a waste of my time. We got on the biggest boat in the harbour, but were only on it for about 1 ½ hours. I did get to see dolphins, and they were a lot darker than ones in the zoo. They were a very dark grey, almost black. At one point, a group of them were out a ways and they went underwater. I gauged where they would show up again, and so moved to a different part of the boat to get closer to them. I guessed right!! They came up right along side the boat exactly where I was, so I was pretty proud of myself. I was the only one at that spot. I got some really good pictures of them, and a baby dolphin was there too. It’ll be neat to see those photos.
But beside that, it was a waste of time. We had 4 hours to kill once we got back to shore. The buses took everyone to a beach nearby, but I thought I would die if I went. It was so hot and I knew I’d get sick if I was out in the sun much longer. Thank God I took one of Helan’s hats. But about 10 of us elected to stay back and shop in the few shops that were there. I tailed around with a Canadian named Heather. She was nice, but a bit fruity, or flaky, whatever you want to call it. But there was nobody else really to talk to. I was just happy to go into air conditioning. So we shopped around, I bought some ice cream, she had a drink at the pub there. Then we waited around to go home. I ended up talking to this guy Matt for a while, who I’d sat by on the Newcastle tour the week before. He’s from Finland, and very nice and good with English. I found, after talking to him, that I really don’t have a home accent anymore! I talk the same way as whoever I’m talking to, basically, if I’m around them for a bit. When I’m with Helan, I talk Aussie. With Chao and Ricky, I talk somewhat normally but fight the urge to use a bit of broken English. With Emma and Matt and Heather, I was definitely using a Finnish/Canadian accent. I think that one is the easiest. It almost sounded a tiny bit Amish, too! And I couldn’t help it! Really!
So then once we got back to campus, I walked the 2 miles home and was absolutely dead. I think I had a mild case of heat stroke. I got a nice burn, and I was too tired to do anything Sunday. I couldn’t eat, and I slept most of the day in my sauna that pretends to be a bedroom. I did go to a new church with Ricky, though, and I loved it. It’s exactly like any church back home. There were two guest speakers there, and I talked with them a lot after the service. They’re kind of like a comedy group with a good message. It’s hard to explain. They’re trying to get into the television business to get their program and message into more places, and so they actually asked for my email address to keep in contact! I told them it would be a long time before I graduated and even got into the business, but it is kind of neat to think I could be their connection to bring their show to the states. They also really valued my opinion on their program because I was an American. They said a lot of times Americans don’t tend to understand the type of comedy that British and Australian people do, so they wanted input on what I thought of the program. It was nice to help out! At any rate, I really enjoyed the church and will be going back. The only thing that really surprised me was that Ricky said it was very similar to churches in Indonesia. I guess I just kind of assumed that Christianity wasn’t very widespread in Asian countries, but apparently I was wrong!
So I think the last thing on my list to mention was what little wildlife I’ve seen here. I finally am starting to see the little lizards that people have told me are all over the place. They come in all different sizes. And yes, I have finally seen some spiders. And I hope never to see them again. When I finally discovered the bike path that runs around the uni, that’s when I found the spiders. Ohhhhh, the spiders. They have huge webs spanning trees that bend over the path, and they’re all overhead. The spiders are huge!!!! Big fat bodies with long thick legs. I saw four or five, and they were all different colors. They really gave me the creeps. I took a picture of one, and then as soon as I did I just got the heebie jeebies and wanted to get out of there as quickly as possible. The bike path is kind of isolated, and it was getting late and I was by myself, and I just felt like at any second one of those monsters was going to drop down on my head and eat me. Oh, they’re so disgusting.

I finally went to the park that‘s next door. It was fairly nice. There was a big group of people there watching a cricket game. The players all wore all white uniforms that kind of looked like what you’d wear to go golfing. I watched for about 10 minutes and didn’t understand what in heck was going on. Sometimes the spectators would cheer, and I had no idea what for. Since then I’ve had someone explain it to be a little better, and it’s very similar to baseball. I’ve got a friend at the uni that’s a huge cricket fan, so she may take me to a few matches.
Oh yes, one more thing. I was riding my bike home from uni today, and my handlebars started acting up. They kept swinging downwards and getting really wobbly. I guess the guys didn’t do as good a job as I thought! They need to be tightened. That was interesting riding home, being scared the bike would just fall apart on me! But I made it home in the lovely blistering heat. I don’t think I’m ever going to get used to these blasted UV rays here.
And the food here actually isn't that great. it's almost all very similar to american food, except with little things changed. i can't really put my finger on it, but they'll put different spices in their meats or something. its just...not quite right. and i'll do my best to eat it because i don't want to be rude, so i've ended up just eating much smaller portions and i drink lots and lots of water and eat fruit and cereal and pb&j sandwiches! it's actually kind of sad. They have restaurants like Hungry Jack’s (Burger King) but I don’t ever eat out. We also eat a lot more lamb here. Lamb, chicken, and beef are the normal meats. I don’t think I’ve seen any pork yet.
Okay, I think this e-mail is plenty long enough! Hopefully you’re getting a better idea of what it’s like here, and you’re not getting put to sleep by this extremely long e-mail. You can expect one in another couple weeks! Bye for now!
Love, Steph

Not the kind of thing you see every morning

I'm probably going to get into trouble for this post, but I'm going to anyway.

So I’m driving to work this morning, when a little red convertible (you know, the kind that guys buy during their mid-life crisis) zips past me. It is sparkling and well-kept.

It has a single bumper sticker on it. That, in and of itself, given that it looked like the guy must regularly buff the car with a baby diaper, seemed a little “One of these things is not like the others…”

The bumper sticker was bright and shiny and appeared brand-new.

The bumper sticker read:

I (heart) Gay Porn

I started laughing because, while there are definitely plenty of people who might have such a bumper sticker on their car, they are also usually the kind of people who have *lots* of bumper stickers on their cars, that read all sorts of zany things. I got the distinct impression that this particular gentleman might not, in fact, know that this sticker was currently residing on his rear bumper.

So to speak.

Then I was wondering if perhaps some enterprising prankster had slapped it on this morning while the gentleman was at the filling station, or something.

It’s fun to come up with stories for why this sticker was on this car.

Student Teaching

I have completely taken over the classroom this week - and when I say completely, I mean I got completely thrown into it more than expected. My cooperating teacher, Ms. Knight, broke her wrist on Friday night while skiing. She has been out every day this week so far. The school is required to still have a sub as I am not licenced, but she does nothing. I have to teach because it was my responsibility anyway. But I wasn't prepared to take over attendance count and Parent/Teacher conferences (which I have had to do myself this week) and other paper work. It has been interesting.

We started the newspaper unit this week and I think it is going well. The kids had fun today in the computer lab learning how to copy and paste their own articles into a newspaper template that I made. My supervisor came and observed me yesterday and he said I did a great job. He enjoyed the lesson and said my unit plan shows a lot of thought and research.

After this unit the kids have Achievement tests so it will die down a little - which is good cause I come home every day totally beat. So that is life right now. I'm getting used to the flow of things. My only problem has been the sub in my room. She won't shut up. None of the other teachers like her either. They keep telling me how sorry they are. All I can say is that Ms. Knight better be back tomorrow.

Time to go!!!

It is 2.5 weeks until we leave for New Zealand, and I can't wait.

Of course, our airline tickets are still somewhere in limbo. (Every time we call the travel agency, they tell us they mailed them yesterday. Never mind that "yesterday" is a different date every time we call.) And Habitat can't figure out where $1300 of our trip money is.

But we're leaving the country!!!! And I don't have to go into the office for 24 days straight!!! And when we get back, it will be almost time for MLB to start!!!!

Three cheers. And then some.

Sick, sick, sick!

I vomited more--in occurances and volume--in the twelve hour period between midnight and noon on Monday than I have in the previous five years.

But I feel much better now.

That is all.

County Wrestling

NW won the league again this year by an even closer finish than last year. The final score was Waynedale 187, NW 188. Last year we won it by 2.5 points. This was the most stressful and exciting tournament I think I've ever seen. Mike's favorite high school wrestler, Mat Shaffer (he considers him and his brother Kurtis to be his own sons because he has raised them from the beginning), won his with a pin in a match that he may have won anyway, but no one expected a pin. Spencer Hershey's match against a Waynedale senior was talked up all of this last week in the local papers and internet sites as the biggest match of the night that everyone should come to see. Spencer won in a thrilling finish - he almost pinned him but ran out of time as the kid was on his back. Mat and another sophomore named AJ have both been county champs the last two years so there is the potential for them both to be 4 year champs which does not happen very often. I know they both have two more years, but the difficult years are in early high school so they have gotten through the tough ones. Well, I suppose not too many people care about any of this, but I was so excited I had to let everyone know. On to sectionals next week!!

lobster-colored

okay, so i decide today to try and find my way to uni by myself. I took the path that Helan showed me earlier, which she said would go almost the whole way to uni. I followed it until it dead-ended, and I kept walking straight after it ended. I didn't see anything that looked even remotely close to resembling the uni. But I did see some other stuff that looked familiar...like the same intersection i was at over 30 minutes before. I walked in one huge circle. I never found the campus. I got back home, very hot and tired, and after a bit I noticed an ever so slight change in my skin color. On my shoulders, I was a dirty snow white, instead of blinding snow white.
I did other things, read a book, took a walk in the park, ate dinner, blah blah. Many hours later, I go to take a shower and notice that I am now the color of a lobster. And there are two blinding white lines on either shoulder from where my tanktop straps were. Plus a little extra line on my left should from where my purse was hanging for an hour. Isn't that wonderful? It doesn't really hurt, I can just feel heat radiating through my shirt.

As for the walk in the park, there was a group of guys playing cricket. I guess it was a real game, as they were all wearing starched white uniforms that looked like an old out of style man would wear to play golf. They also had on the bucket hats that dad likes to wear that we make fun of him for. But everyone here wears those. Anyway, I watched for about 10 minutes, but couldn't take much more. It makes no sense to me at all. There was a crowd there that would cheer every once in a while, and I honestly could not figure out what in heck they were cheering about. The players had just been standing around. So I guess at some point I'll try and learn the rules of that game.

I went to the store to buy a couple things and there was an aisle that DANG IT now I forget exactly what it was called. Something like Hadpodgery. I dunno. I’ll have to go back and look. But I went through the aisle trying to figure out exactly what in heck this was. I asked the check-out clerk and she wasn’t exactly sure but thought it was sewing stuff. I remember seeing thread and needles and stuff there, so that must be what it is.

Money! The lowest amount they have is 5 cents. So when I was rung up, my total was 17.97, but there was a little thing, shown on my receipt, that says -.02 for rounding. And so my total was 17.95. That’s so weird! And apparently they don’t have taxes, or it’s already added in to the price, because I haven’t paid tax anywhere. Yeah, it says GST included in total, and the GST was $1.36. I don’t know what GST stands for, but it must be some kind of tax. I just thought that was kind of neat.

k, that's all for now

Prepare Ye the Way of the Lord

Carrie and I saw a performance of "Godspell" tonight at the high school affiliated with our church, because our friend Dave is the Drama Teacher there. He's been nervous about the show because they only had four weeks to rehearse and there are those who feel that it is an ungodly because the author may not have been a Christian when it was originally written.

I don't know about that, but personally Godspell is one of my favorite stage musicals (if you have the chance to see the movie--don't, because it bites), and it has a very special place in my heart. For those of you who haven't seen it, Godspell is a rock musical based on the Gospel of Matthew, specifically the parables of Jesus, written in the very early 70s. My highschool did Godspell back when I was a senior in 1987. I wasn't in the musical because I can't sing, but I did see it every performance. I wasn't planning to, I just had to keep coming back and seeing it again. I hadn't gone to church in maybe 6 or 7 years at that point, and I wouldn't for another 2-3 years, but I came to all 6 performances of Godspell because it hit me so hard. Even though I wouldn't rededicate myself until the early 90s, but now I credit Godspell as being one of the major turning points in my life, and the one that eventually put me back on the road to Jesus.

The performance was very fun. Like Carrie and I said afterwards, "Some of the kids were 'American Idol' bad, but a couple were 'American Idol' good. Since the show was produced by a Christian private school most of the people who see it will already be believers. But I hope this performance will affect someone in the audience the way that it affected me.

6th Grade Trip

I am considering going on the D.C. trip with the 6th grade class this year. It is May 9th - 12th, right after graduation and I would be considered a teacher for the trip instead of a chaperone. I wouldn't have to pay anything. I think it would be a lot of fun and Ms. Knight seems excited about it too. She said what we'd do is kind of present the idea to the other teachers and see what they think and if they approve it, I'm in. I will probably know for sure by mid-March. I could use some input on the idea.

Praxis Exam scores

I passed!!!!! Oh, my gosh I have never been so nervous to open a piece of mail. I got the mail and I saw the corner of the envelope sticking out that said "ETS," which is the company who does the Praxis exam, and my heart immediatelysank into my stomach. So I stared at the envelope a long time, debating if I wanted to open it. I opened it and pulled out the form, but the way it was folded I had to flip it over to actually read the scores. So I sat there for a minute, got up the courage, and finally flipped it. I started screaming and jumping when I saw the scores. The Language Arts test I got a 200 (with a possible score range of 100 - 200) and on the PLT I got a 175 (same score range). (As a reminder, I got a 181 on the Math.) I was above the average range on LA and on the higher side of the average range fot the PLT. And hey, for not studying at all, I'd say that is pretty darn good.

Rumblin' Bumblin' Stumblin'...

I've gotten messages from all the members so far with questions about how to create new posts, disappearing posts, etc. To help streamline things a little bit, I've created a new link over there at the top of the sidebar: "CREATE A NEW POST." If everything works as it should (IF it works...), it should take you to your personal "Blogger Dashboard" page, where you will see a link to create a new post next to the "Miller Time!" name.

I realize there is a learning curve for everybody here, including myself. Don't be afraid to ask questions either in the comments section of this post or by posting them directly to the blog or e-mailing me directly. Once we get everybody on the team (I'm talking to you, Mike... and Dad), I'll go over some of the other basics in more detail. Also, there is a pretty decent help section you can access in the sidebar of the Dashboard page.

Thanks for you patience.

Help wanted

1. By accident, as I frustratedly clicked on various buttons and links, I stumbled upon a screen that let me post this message, but I will probably not be able to find it again. How do I post a message from the front page?
2. When I post a comment on someone else's post, why does my name show up as "mom" rather than "Mom?" (which is what I typed)
3. How did Steph get the name "vegemiter?" And what does it mean? And why does it not start with a capital "V?"
4. How do I edit my links on the front page? The directions don't make any sense.
5. When I responded to Wes's invitation, the page sequence led me to a place where I have apparently now created my own blog. But I can't get back into it, and I'm not sure I want it, anyway. How do I get rid of it?

Miller Time!

Do we think Dad will ever blog?

And oh, btw, Dad -- Fran Hugh says -- why haven't you emailed her?? When I saw her on Friday, she didn't even know that Margaret was pregnant with her second, let alone had a baby, let alone that he was preemie.

James's abilities

James is now rolling over both ways. Last night he was having fun rolling over and over again. What he REALLY wants to do, though, is crawl. He sticks his butt up in the air and pushed with his toes. I'm sure it won't be long before he gets it figured out.

hello

well, i'm pretty darn sure that i posted something a couple days ago telling you all about my time in hollywood, but it doesn't seem to be here now. i'm too tired to repost it, but maybe later i will. at any rate, i sent mom and dad an email earlier today letting them know a couple things, and i just pasted the bulk of it into here. so here you go:

(Helan's son Jamie got sick last night, so she was at the ER most of last night)

The doctor told Helan that Jamie had asthma, but she was a bit apprehensive about that. Nobody else in her family has ever had asthma. At any rate, she's gotten about 3hrs sleep, and she was taking him to see her family doctor today in town. I went with her, and I set up my bank account while she was at the doctor's. After that, I don't know what happened, because I got lost. Sort of. Helan told me if I got lost that I could take a bus back to Wallsend. Well, I opened my account, walked back to the doctor's office, and her car was gone. I went into the office and asked about them, and the receptionist told me she'd left only 5 or 10 minutes before. So I walked back down to the bank and I saw a car just like hers parked across the street. It even had the 2 carseats in the back. There was a parking receipt on the dash that said it was good until 1:30, and since it was only a few minutes before 1, I figured I'd stake out that intersection and see if she came back. About 1:20, the owners of the car came, and it wasn't her. So i went to a bus stop and got on a bus, got embarrassed because I didn't understand how to pay, then stayed on the bus for an hour and got dropped off right in front of my house. So now I'm checking my e-mail and having some lunch.
I got a little bit scared about going on the bus, but again, the driver was very nice, and because I'd already had some experience with being lost on buses from being in LA, I was okay.

It was so hot yesterday, but today is almost perfect. It keeps threatening to rain, and there's a breeze, and helan and the kids are wearing long sleeves, but it's perfect for me. I think it was around 80 degrees. helan's dad told me it was awful last week, up around 45Celsius, which is around 110 fahrenheit.

Renee (the only other female student here) seems very nice, and hopefully she and i can go shopping together sometime this week. helan told me she'll walk with me to the uni (university) sometime this week so I know the route. There's a path i can take to get there, and it takes about half an hour to walk, or i can pay renee for petrol (gas) and she can drive me if our schedules coincide, or i can take the bus (i only have to pay half price since i'm a student, but it's still AUD$14 a week), or i may still get a bike.

i'm already getting an accent. i can actually feel my mouth and my tongue twisting different ways when i say things, and before i speak a word i'm consciously trying to figure out whether to say it in an american or australian accent. sometimes i'm purposely doing it australian, sometimes it just comes out that way. and i'm adjusting to words here and there. for example:

the cafeteria style of eating lunch doesn't exist here, at schools or anywhere. they thought it was so cool that we have cafeterias at school, "like in the movies". Apparently they just have this little window where you walk up, poke your head in and ask for a sandwich and they hand it to you, then you go off to the playground and eat. anyway, now i can't remember what it is they call that, but it's not cafeteria. and then there's petrol instead of gas (It's AUD$1.19 here, so that would be a little less than a dollar at home) and a bunch of other little things.

i haven't seen a single animal yet, except for one that was all mangled on the side of the road, but i couldn't tell what it was. oh, and there's a dead cockroach upstairs. but sometimes i can hear a cookaburra in a tree not far away. at least i think that's what it is.

well, i guess that's all for now.

yeah, no i definitely remember posting about hollywood. i was excited to tell brian that when i was on the set of gilmore girls, the tour guide told us that the HS building used in that show is the same building used in all 5 Police Academy movies. It's amazing how many times on set is reused over and over in different movies. there's one from Casablanca that is virtually the same, and that street has been used in movies like Annie, Road to Perdition, the famous Spiderman kissing scene, Friends, ER, The Mask, Something's Gotta Give, and a ton of other stuff. Oh yeah, and I also told how this one street on the set of Gilmore Girls is the same one used in the last Seinfeld episode. It's where they witness the mugging. And the courthouse there is the one used where they go to jail.

And I took a photo with the flying ford anglia from the 2nd harry potter movie, and the batman cars, and i saw a couple actors and actresses, i was on some tv sets, i took photos inside Central Perk (which is going to the smithsonian in a couple months) and i talked about how the whole Warner Brothers lot just makes me think of Animaniacs. The Animaniacs live in the WB water tower, and in the cartoon there's a fat security guard. It really is just like the cartoon, with fat security guard included. It was so cool feeling like I was in a cartoon.

Okay, now i think that's all for now.

"We are experiencing technical difficulties. Please stand by..."

Both Steph and Margaret have had difficulties accessing the site. I'm not having an issue, but I'm working with them to get them up and running again.

Such is the challenge of a new endeavor like this.

Gotta Get Back in Time

I'm sure I'm going to get in trouble for linking to this, but it was just too funny to pass up.

Superbowl Picks

Pittsburgh Steelers: 24
Seattle Seahawks: 21

Well? Do any of you men think you can do any better?

Steph

So, here's a question...

How did the goodbyes go? Did the plane take off okay? Will she be checking her e-mail regularly down South?

Okay, so that's more than one, just go with me.

(She DID leave for Australia today, right?)

Haircut

I got 5 inches chopped off my hair-do. I came home and Wes said I look like Claire.

I am not quite sure what to think about that.

First time poster

This is very nice. Thanks for setting this up Wes. I really like this because, as you said, we can find out things in real time instead of waiting a week. Plus I always forget what I did last wekk by the time I need to post my entry. Now I ddon't need to wait!

Well, I sent in my entry to Mom last night for the newsletter, but I will just post it here. Student teaching is rather boring right now as I have to observe for a while first - and fill out the million and one activity forms and reflections and profiles, etc. - but I am working on a Unit plan right now for when I take over the class in another week. The students will be writing their own newspapers (I came up with that on my own) and I am creating two weeks worth of lessons and computer lab work to complete the project. It'll be fun and I think the kids will really enjoy it.

Mike's league is almost over, but then he starts open tournaments and the high school soon begins their tournaments on the road to State. A few high school guys are ranked in the state so that is exciting. But hopefully I can get through the last month or so before I go nuts.

Everything is great. The kids love going to the sitters. James loves Lisa and is all smiles and giggles when he is there.

The Future is NOW!

Welcome to the new home of MillerTime!

I'm your host, Wesley Smith. Here, I'll be explaining why this is a blog instead of a newsletter, some of the benefits of such, and how you can help.

First of all: What is a blog?
'Blog' is short for 'Web Log,' a type of online journal that can be easily updated from anywhere. Blogs are one of the preminent forms of communication on the internet. In fact, most news sites are blogs of one kind or another.

What happened to the newsletter, and why is MillerTime! now a blog?
As entertaining as the MillerTime! newsletter was, it had two major flaws: Immediacy and administration. If Claire said something cute, we'd have to wait up to a week to hear about it, or Margaret would e-mail everybody immediately, negating the need to put it in the newsletter. With this blog, when James takes his first steps, Mike and Margaret can post it as soon as it happens, with photos. In addition, I know first hand how hard Carrie and Steph worked each week, editing, formatting, and harranguing us for new entries. With MillerTime!2.0, Each entry will already have a uniform, formatted look, and the post editor window even has spell check to point out any mistakes before posting.

What about my e-mail? I liked my weekly e-mail. It made me feel warm and fuzzy.
You're in luck. When you created your new Blogger.com account (you have each created your accounts, haven't you?), you can choose to have each new post e-mailed directly to you at the address of your choice. In addition, you can send your posts directly to MillerTime! by e-mailing mrwesley.millertime@blogger.com.

How often do I have to post?
You can post as often or as seldom as you like. Post 20 times a day or not at all. It's all up to you.

If you have any other formatting questions, you can look at the sidebar on the Blogger.com Dashboard, or just ask me by clicking on the Comments link immediately below this post.

I hope to hear from each of you soon, and welcome to the all-new MillerTime!