Introducing LIMA!

Lima the Poo

Hi! My name is Lima and I am a miniature pinscher. I'm the newest member of the Adams family. Eli and Mandy got me from a family in Kearns. They were nice enough to take me in. I was the last one at home in my family. Eli and Mandy named me Lima (Lee-ma), after the place in Peru. Eli served his mission there. They wanted to name me "Siki Sapa" which means "big butt" in Quechua, but they decided against it. I'm glad they didn't name me that. Mandy calls me Lima bean or Lima the Poo. I think she calls me that because I like my Winnie the Pooh doll, but it might be because I'm still potty training. Oops!

I'm 8 weeks old and I love the color red. My previous owners fed me Ol' Roy, but I didn't really like it. It gave me the runs. My new favorite food is lamb and rice. I also like burying my face in anything I can find like blankets, pillows, or Eli's armpits. Eli is my favorite. I like to cuddle up with him. I am pretty good with kids and big crowds and I like other dogs. I like Cosmo, but he's so big! He makes me a little nervous when he gets close.

I am learning so much from Eli and Mandy. I already know what "come" means and I know where to go to "bed." Even though I know "bed," I don't let Eli and Mandy sleep very much at night. I'm also working on "bathroom," but I don't know that one very well yet. Eli and Mandy could tell you more about that some other time. I also learned how to go up and down the stairs. I think I'm pretty smart and I am SO cute!

My Brother ROCKS!

KUTV channel 2 held a search for a Utah Rock Star. My brother Jake was a semi-finalist. For those of you who don't know, my brother is 18 and is an amazing musician! He sings, he writes, he plays; he does it all! He's got such amazing talents. Although Jake didn't win the contest, he's still my hero. This kid is going places! You can check out a clip of him here at KUTV. The clip is on the upper right side of the page. I love you little bruddah!

Sleeveface+freetime=loads of fun

Sleeveface: one or more persons obscuring or augmenting any part of their body or bodies with record sleeve(s) causing an illusion.

This is my favorite. Forgive me. It makes me laugh.You can find more at sleeveface.com or on flickr. Enjoy!

Nothing to offer but blood, toil, tears, and sweat

It's been an insane week. Let me start off by saying that I am so grateful for my husband. He's working so hard right now, so I won't have to one day. I decided that I could help the process a little bit and keep myself busy at the same time.

St. George finally got smart and built a Barnes & Noble. I've started a summer job there. We open on May 28th, but we've been way busy stocking and getting ready to open. I had to start training and things this week, so I'm working double. I teach in the morning and then drive over to B & N and work til 10. It's no way to live a life. I love it so far though. I cannot believe that there are so many books! It's really opened my eyes to how much literature is out there. Ive already got a huge list of books I wanna read. B & N is cool because they want their employees to be well-read, so they have a book loan program. We get to borrow any book we want as long as it is a hard back and we bring it back in sellable shape.

Either way, like I said, it's no way to live a life. I feel terrible for people who have to work two jobs in order to survive. I am so blessed to have Eli who takes care of me and lets me to work if
I want to. If I were up to him, I'd be done with working all together. We're half way there. I'm taking a break from teaching this next year. I feel great about that decision! I need a break, but I do need to stay busy, hence the B & N job. But...

I don't know how long that will last either. Eli has been in New Mexico since Tuesday morning. He headed out there to investigate. He and a business partner/friend of ours are looking into expanding out to New Mexico. They've been making contacts and doing interviews out there. So far, things have been going really well. It's possible that the Adams family might be moving out to Albuquerque.

Eli's also been doing research to convince me to get out there. He knows I love having lots of options and I love exploring ( St. George has limited options), and I miss being near a big city. He's found amusement parks, hiking trails, museums, haunted tours, the balloon fiesta, etc. There is so much culture and so many things to do out there. He's also sending me pictures. It's very similar to St. George landscape-wise and weather. I'm thinking that I'll go down with him in June. He'll be going down at least 1 week out of each month until we decide if we're going to move there or not. I'm excited to visit and check out all of the interesting things Eli was telling me about.

Still, I'm more excited for my esposo to be home on Saturday. It's amazing how attached you can become to someone. It's so hard being away from each other for such a long time. I'm thankful that I have so much work right now to keep me busy, but I still feel like I'm missing a part of myself. I know that all of this will be worth it one day though. We're definitely much closer now.

P.S. You should all take advantage of us still being in St. George. We have 2 extra rooms! And if you can't make it out to St. George and we end up going to Albuquerque, put October 4-12 on your calendars! That's the week of the Albuquerque International Balloon Fiesta!

An Adventuresome Weekend

It was a long, exciting, and eventful weekend. We had a company convention up in Draper at Juan Diego High School. It was insane! There were so many representatives there. A friend of ours made it up on Friday. He was able to see what we're able to do as a company and he was there to see our Division Manager promotion! Yeah! Saturday morning we went for a training with Chris Koob, who is a top leader in the company. It's always amazing to hear people share their experiences and teach us so much. We also got surprise recognition! We were one of the top base builders in the heirarchy.

After the training on Saturday, Eli and I met up with Miranda at her gymnastics meet in Midvale. I haven't been to a meet in forever and Eli's never been, but we were both impressed. She took 2nd place all-around for her age catergory. She did awesome on the floor excersice! It's crazy to see her do all of the events because she is sooo long and lanky! The girl is a stick and to see her flip her body around is almost comical. she does, however, have a certain grace when she moves. We're so proud of Panda!

We spent that night at my parents' house that evening. We were supposed to drive home back to St. George Saturday night, but we were able to change plans and stay Monday. My mom had no idea though. We spent the night playing rock band. I don't know how many of you have ever played rock band, but it is so much fun! It's like guitar hero times ten. You not only have a guitar, but you also have a bass guitar, drums, and a singer. Let's just we had oddles of fun. My cousin Landon and his fiance, Becky, came over that night too. We tried all sorts of different things, including an all girls band. We totally rocked! It's pretty funny to watch us non-musical people try and sing and keep rhythm on the drums. Eli and I are set on investing in the game one day. We think it's an excellent invention. It can be used to teach pitch, rhythm, hand/eye coordination, etc. Not to mention, it's just a blast for the fam to do together.

Sunday morning was an amazing day. We spent a little time with my mom being mother's day and all. Then we went to church (it was a little early at 11; we're used to going at 2!). My grandparents came down because Jake was being ordained an elder. It was so cool to my pop, Jake, and Josh bless the sacrament. After church, my brother had some friends and family come over and to ordaniation. It was beautiful. We're so happy for my brother; he's such an amazing YSA!

After that we grubbed on my dad's FABULOUS mother's day lunch. He spent 2 days preparing for this lunch. He marinated steak and chicken, and shrimp (he even de-terded it himself). We had fresh veggies like squash, peppers, zucchini, tomatoes, and mushrooms. It was such a delicious meal and it was great spending time with our grandparents, my aunt and uncle, and my cousin and soon to be cousin-in-law.

Eli and I headed back down soon after that with Kenneth, Tawnya, and Sean in tow (they drove up with us for the convention). I fell asleep in the car after about 10 minutes, but woke up at the perfect time. I woke up right when we pulled into the Scipio house. We stopped to visit with Eli's parents (my favorite in-laws!). We wished Tonia happy mother's day and hung out for a little bit. We also raided the kitchen a little bit. I love the Adams' home...it's always stocked!

As I was thinking about it, Eli and I are so blessed. Not only are we best friends, but we have the best families. We get along so well with each others' family. It's always so much fun to spend our time with them. We love our brothers and sisters and nieces and nephew. We are so truly blessed for everything we have!

The stuff ulcers are made of...

I've cried a lot more this school year than I have any other year. That sounds a little weird, but its been a rough year. Knowing that you are notable to help your students causes undue stress, which can cause ulcers. Hence, the physical pain I'm in often. This was my day yesterday...

I have a student in my class who came in crying like crazy. His brother (who was in my class last year) got his arm caught on a wire at the top of a fence and ripped his arm open. No blood, but the muscle wasn't attached anymore. This kid is normally chatty, unbelievably chatty, but he didn't even cry. I think he was in too much shock. He ended up getting rushed to the hospital. It took 35 stitches to reattach everything. He's doing ok, but his siblings (there are 5 at the school) were so scared. I feel terrible when I can't fix things for them.

I also get ulcers because of dumb parents. I've had a girl in my class complaining of a toothache for the last 2 weeks. It got to the point where she cried and couldn't do her work. She could only focus on the pain. I called her mother at work to let her know of the problem and if she could bring her something for the pain. Her mother sounded so put out, but guessed she could send step-dad over on his lunch break.

Starting Friday of last week, this same girl has been coming to school with a swollen face. Now, I know the picture is not my 10-year-old student, but I wanted to show an example of what her face looked like. Please tell me, if your child's face was this swollen, would you take her to the doctor or dentist? Not this mom. This girl game for another week. I told my student she needed to go to the doctor. She told me, "What's the doctor gonna do anyway? Besides, it's too expensive." That's not 4th grade talk. That's parent talk.

Finally, I peeked in her mouth. She had a huge bubble in her mouth connecting her gums and cheek! I talked to the school counselor, who called the school nurse. She checked my student out and called her mom right away. The nurse told her she had to go home and could not come back until she had a doctor's note. The nurse told me that is as an abcessed tooth and if it wasn't taken care of soon, it could effect her ear canal, her brain, or even her heart!

Her mom came and picked her up without saying a word. No "I'm sorry honey" or "Hello" or "We're gonna get you taken care of." Nothing. She signed her out, turned and walked away with her daughter trailing behind her. Did I mention She's pregnant again? She doesn't want to take care of the children she has, but wants another one?

I expected her to be out for the weekend. I mean, it took her mom two weeks to even be somewhat concerned. I was worried about this girl. If she wasn't back by Wednesday, I was going to call DCFS and report neglect. My student showed up today, on time with a doctor's note. Mom couldn't keep her at home. This is what was wrong with her tooth.

I know that parents get busy and some have to absolutely work to survive. But this is mom who gave her daughter coffee to stay awake at school because she let's her go to bed whenever she wants to. This is mom, who during conference told me she didn't have time to deal with her daughter's strange antics because she works all day.

Promise me, all that have children or are thinking about having children, that you will show concern for your children. If your child's teacher brings something to your attention that s/he is concerned about, do something about it! We as teachers can only do so much for your kids. Love them, please!

I like excessive facial hair

I've dated guys with facial hair. I always thought it was a little weird. For some reason though, I have formed quite the attachment to Eli's facial hair. I've never seen him with a naked face and I'm not quite sure that I would want to. Just yesterday, we decided to shave. The past 4 months has been kind of like being married to teen wolf. I got a little emotional when we took out the clippers. I might have even shed a tear. I'm not gonna lie though, I had fun! It was my first time shaving a beard! Not too bad, eh?

These are the before shots. I kind of like the dreadlocks look the best!

The "after" shots

What do you guys think?

“As long as there are tests, there will be prayer in schools”

15 days left. I would dare say that the last month of school is the most difficult time of the school year. For teachers and students. It's difficult for me because there is so much that is expected to be done: grades, testing, last minute lessons, parties, dunk tanks, etc. For my students: testing, make-up assignments, behavior issues, summer anxiety, etc.

My poor students. Poor me. We started our end-of-year testing last week. We did the science test on the computers last week. This is always a stressful time for me. I walk around the classroom and secretly read my students' answers. Surprisingly, some of my students did well on the science portion. They were relaxed. I think they were because they are so comfortable with technology. It was like playing on the computer for them.

Today we started the Math and Language Arts portion of the test. This is the part we all remember; #2 lead pencils and rows upon rows of bubbles. They freaked out. And because they freaked out, I freaked out. I taught them how to do shoulder rolls and take deep breaths to relieve stress. I taught them yoga moves with their chairs. I sprayed SMART spray, which is just air freshner spray. That usually works wonders. It hasn't worked.

After I gave the ridiculously long directions and gave them permission to start, I saw a hand go up. Of course my students will remain anonymous, but I wasn't surprised. "Teacher, where is question 1?" "Teacher, where am I supposed to write the answers?" "Teacher, what are we doing?"

Bless their little hearts. As much as I would like to think that all students can do well, they can't. I try to get them to believe in themselves, but who am I joking? I love them and I can pray for them, but there is only so much I can do. Maybe you can pray for them too...