Work... and the Lunar Eclipse

The Lunar Eclipse last week was awesome. It turned the moon orange and with the steam from the stacks of the paper mill in Camas it made for a great picture. Nature is amazing.

Work has been all consuming lately. It is the time of the year where we bargain our school district contract again. And.. I am the head "bargainer" for Special Ed. This is my 12th year and I am definately ready for it to be my last, but ... this is also the BIG "everything is open to discuss it at the the table year" , so I thought it best to hang in there for this last year before turning it over to someone else. What this means is 1 - 2 half days each week out of my otherwise packed work schedule set aside to additional meetings at District Office or at EEA building, plus hours during the evenings reading materials, getting data and statistics ready, finding research to support our request for lower caseloads, class sizes and better work conditions.

I have wondered why I keep subjecting myself to this overload each spring, especially this ritual every 3 years when we get to discuss and bargain all the items in the contract, not just the few available in the off years. I have decided that it is because I like the "game". I like the give and take of it, I like being able to outsmart or outwit someone else, I like having to know lots and lots of little details in my head and being able to pull them out in an instant to counter a point, and then win. It is a big game and the folks playing are sharp. And... I like to win, and I am very good at the game.

What I don't like is having to do my 182 emails for each day, give or take 50 :) in the evening and being occupied with email from 9-11 pm nightly and then having to try to squish in time during the day to respond or do the work that they generate. That is not fun. But it is worth it, and it is very rewarding when people all over the school district stop me and thank me for this and that and tell me how very much they appreciate all that I do, I must admit that feels good.

On the home front, Dad and I have greatly enjoyed the sun this week and took advantage by going to the old house, and picking up tree limbs that have fallen from the weeping birch on the front lawn, cleaning windows, etc etc to make it look the prettiest it can, so perhaps someday soon, some kind person will offer to buy our house. I love that house, or perhaps I should more honestly say I loved that house, but now it is becoming a millstone around our neck, a very heavy, financial millstone. Paying 2 mortgages and 2 sets of taxes is NO fun.

And I keep asking myself, why isn't it selling? We are trying to do the right thing by downsizing, getting very nearly out of debt, getting ready to go on a mission, and increase our savings, and all we have succeeded in doing is increasing our debt and my frustration. I know there is a lesson in here somewhere. I guess what we have learned is that we CAN live on 1/2 as much as we used to and we are SO BLESSED to have 2 safe, enduring jobs that let us pay all the bills and still have fun sometimes. And... we adore our new ward and our new friends, they have been a breath of fresh air in our life. And, we have learned that even when you think it is the right thing, and it is for the right reasons, even then, sometimes you just have to wait and have more patience.

I so love coming home to our house!

The view is so incredible, and it always changes, making things interesting. I feel like I just checked into a Trendwest resort when I look out the window and heaven knows my brain needs the de-stressor and relief!

Let's see. this week, what happened? Well, probably the most notable is that Larry and I attended the Republican caucuses to vote for Presidential delegates. In WA state, 1/2 the delegates for any candidate come from the percentages voted for in the caucus, and the other half come from the percentages voted in the Feb 19th election for Republicans. So, Dad and I drove on over to the local middle school and are now delegates to the Clark County Republican Convention on April 19! Oooooh, such power... hee hee... Amazingly in the paper this AM, they show Ron Paul (13%) as winning Clark County followed by Huckabee (12.3%) and Romney (10.7%) and McCain at 8.8 %. It was a very interesting process to say the least.

I had a lot of bargaining time at work this week as our school's 3 year labor management contract is expiring in the summer and I am on the bargaining team watching out diligently for the needs of Special Education staff. They say I am the "nicest little bulldog" they have met cause I sure don't let go easily. But how else are you to convince them that your "needs" are important. Here puppy... Here's to another week, we will meet about every other week now through July and hopefully NOT into August. Have a great week!

Christmas 2007

We had so much fun seeing Kevin and Candace and their kidlets. What a treat! One of the best things we did was go up past Carson , WA and play in the snow! It was Jonathan, Jeremy and Ashley's first time playing in the snow and it was LOTS of snow. Unfortunately they didn't have the best shoes and gloves so we needed to hide them in the van from time to time to get warm. Another family there, had built a small fire in the snow and it was wonderful to stand around. Once we were out of the car, off ran the biggest kid to make a large rolled snowball - Kevin! We got to slide down and great hill and it was even BETTER the next week when I drove up with Becky and Kyle and their kids. Kevin had fun dropping J on his back in the deep fluffy snow while Candace built a small family of snowmen. Jeremy wasn't quite sure he liked the sledding but once he did it, it was great. Ashley just walked around looking and touching and having fun. Such a fun memory.

Going to Book of Mormon lands

Wow, it is so cool to ride a jungle boat for 45 minutes up some unknown river looking for crocodiles until you reach this very wide spot in the river, so much that it looks like a lake. On the far side is a small wooden dock.... Lamanai... a fairly recently discovered and unearthed Mayan city with temples and all. We walked up the gentle slope of grass from the edge of the river to the first of 3 overgrown rock walls ( think 10+ feet thick at the top ) each about 15 feet set back from the other. Remember about how the B of M talks about how they built walls for protection. Well, THIS was a wall and a LOT of folks must have worked long and hard.

Past the 3rd wall, up the hill between the trees, around the corner is the Jaguar Temple. Large, granite, and with a large flat courtyard in front of it. Dr John Lund climbed to the top and read to us from Mosiah 2:1. Amazing... we could hear easily all around the courtyard.

We turned and behind us across the courtyard was the remains of the High Priests and King's residence and then on a path down through the jungle is other parts of the village and city. After we walked perhaps 3 blocks, we came to a seond temple, bigger than the first and this one, we could climb up! That is a dream I have had since I was young and studied the Aztec and Incas and Mayans. I was one of the first to scramble up to the to the top and was rewarded with a view of the top of the tree canopy to see the winding river we had travelled and I KNEW that this was what it had looked like so long ago.

That is all the time I have tonight, but will keep adding as I have time.