What we've been up to

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Just a recap...

What we've been up to....

Concert with my friend Miranda

Made Nutella crepes (been craving them since Spring Break)

Took a 3 week summer job barcoding textbooks for the district. Incredibly boring job, but met some fun people.

Went to Thatcher/Duncan

Fulfilled my lifelong dream of getting drive a golf cart (I am not kidding. It really has been a dream...weird I know.)

Where Andy and I used to work

I think Thatcher is a beautiful place

Our nephew. I had fun taking pictures of him while the boys golfed.

I love my little brother

Very insightful quote at the end of my brothers weekly letter. I love my brother! :-)

"Life is like a box of chocolates: you never know which one you will be allergic to, then will cut off your respiratory powers and drag you suffering to your grave."

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Kirby Heyborne

My friend Michelle invited me to the Dramagenics Improv Theater to see Kirby Heyborne perform. Now, if you don't know who he is he has appeared in such movies as The Singles Ward, The RM, Saints and Soldiers and The Best Two Years. He is also a singer/songwriter. I went to the theater where I was meeting Michelle and some of her other friends. I met her friend Lori and followed her inside. As we were walking to our seats I looked up and standing like a foot away was Kirby. He had already been talking to Lori so he said hi to her and then she said "This is Sara." He smiled and said, "Nice to meet you Sara." I went to shake his hand and he gave me a big hug. He was so nice and personable. We had front row seats and since it is a small theater we were right up next to the stage. We watched the improv show with him and the rest of the cast from Dramagenics. It was hilarious. What an amazing talent to be able to think that quick on your feet. There was one girl that looked and sounded like Tina Fey and she was HILARIOUS. After the improv, Kirby did a concert. Just him and his guitar. He was awesome. He talked to the audience and asked us questions. It was such a small setting that it felt like he was performing just for you. After the show he came off stage and talked to us, signed things and took pictures. He was super nice. Asked about us, was very gracious. It was a great night.

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Weekend

My parents came down from Flag this weekend for Andy's graduation. I am so proud of him. He is THRILLED to be done! Friday night we went to dinner with my parents, Andy's parents, Craig, Liz and Ian. Then we headed over to the graduation. We really appreciate people coming to support Andy. It means so much. (Matt and Ashley- Thanks SO much for coming...again we are sorry we missed you. You are wonderful friends.)


Saturday morning, Andy and my dad went and played golf with Craig. My mom who is always up at the crack of dawn was super productive and cleaned my blinds. Thanks mom! Then we decided to tackle the garage which had become a storage area for all the boxes and miscellaneous junk from our move. We can now fit the car in and soon will be able to get the truck in also. We really appreciate the help!

What we did this weekend

Thanks mom and dad!!!

This is awesome

Jon Schmidt is amazing

I love this show!

Dear Tall People...

Dear Tall People,

I am usually an easy-going, friendly, laid back kind of person. I don't mind being short. I'm scared of heights so being short actually works to my advantage. I don't care if your tall, short, fat, skinny, green or polka-dotted. Honestly, I never really pay it much mind. However, recent events have transpired that give cause for this letter on behalf of short people everywhere. Short people are still people. We still have hearts and feelings and it does hurt when you step on our toes and knee us in the ribs. Just because our heads are at a convenient height does not give you liberty to use them as an arm rest. When you lean your entire body weight on our heads or try to climb over us like a stump that is in your way....it hurts. When you are perfectly capable of raising your hand at least 2 feet above our heads without even trying...that means that pushing us down isn't an acceptable way of improving your view. Using a short person as a step stool is not only rude, it is a little demeaning. Yes, I am short. So what? Do I use you as a ladder to reach the cans on the top shelf? Do I give you a swift kick to the kneecaps just because they are in reach? No, I don't. So please don't use me as your elevated platform or mini ladder or arm rest.

Thank you.

The Adventures of a Ticket Line

So there was a contest put on by 20th Century Fox/Harkins to try and win the World Premiere of X-Men Origins: Wolverine in your hometown. Tempe was the big winner. We decided it would be really cool to get tickets to a movie premiere. We didn't know however that it would entail us to sleep on a sidewalk for 13 hours to get said tickets. It was something we had never done before so we decided to give it a go.You only live once, so might as well make the most out of it. We got in line at 7:45 PM Friday night and got our tickets at 9:45 AM this morning.
I am exhausted and my neck hurts, but it was really fun.
We made friends with the group of people sitting around us. Around 11:00 PM we started getting a little loopy and decided to come up with different reasons why we were sitting in a line outside a movie theater for all the different people that drove by, stared and/or asked us. The best ones were:
-Tickets for SpongeBob on Ice
-Government bailout line
-American Idol auditions
- Line for the bathroom
-Taylor Hicks/Fantasia autograph signing
-Top Model auditions
-Free medical clinic
-This is a line?

Line at 1:00 AM
Our new friends
(they were actually really nice and funny)6:30 AM7:00 AM9:45 AM

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Earth Day

Today for Earth Day my students wrote about ways they could help the Earth.
I love my students and I love the way they write.

By Saul

I would grab Emily S. and Rosie! And tell them "Can you two help me pick up cans and put them in the recycle trash bin?" Next Vanessa came to help. Next we made a machine that picked up trash. Then we brought it to school. Then Mrs. Ebert said that we can be Students of the Month.

By Angela
Today is a special day. It's Earth Day always. It's fun to help the Earth. You should help the Earth instead of playing. That is great. I love the Earth.

By Vanessa
You need to sort things into recycle, compost and paper. You need to sort things on Earth Day, April 22nd. To keep Earth clean you need to sort. Who will help me clean the Earth. "Ok" I said. Ashley, Emily O., Emily S. and me will clean Earth.

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Things I love

In the past couple of weeks I have been trying hard not to dwell on the negative things that have happened. I started thinking about the things I like and the things that make me happy.

I was surprised at all the things I came up with. I couldn't fit them all in....but here's some.

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So...as if I didn't already know that I had been laid off from my job, the district was kind enough to waste all sorts of money to send us all certified letters just reconfirming the fact.

Awesome.

On the Road in America

I was watching this show on the Sundance channel last night and I was immediately captivated. It is a documentary TV series about three young Arab men (Egyptian, Saudi, Jordanian, and Lebanese) traveling across America in an RV with an American film crew.
The purpose behind the series is to view America through the eyes of these young Arabs.

It's interesting to see present day issues through a different set of eyes.

On the Road in America

Really......

On SNL Seth Meyers and Amy Poehler do a hilarious segment during Weekend Update called Really!??!

This is my attempt.

I went to the grocery store and spent $60....I also saved $60. That made me happier than anything else had all day. Really.

In the wake of the cheerful news of the hundreds of teacher layoffs imposed by Mesa, we were fortunate enough to receive letters that assured us that "It wasn't our fault." Really? Good thing they cleared that up for us. Here I was blaming myself for the legislatures lack of initiative and ethics. Really. Good thing they talked me off that ledge.

Some of the other movies shown at the Phoenix Film Festival were as follows:
Werewolf Trouble: Horrified to wake up on morning only partially transformed Ryan enlists the help of his friends to return to human form before an important poetry reading. Really? A werewolf and a poetry reading. Sounds like my kind of movie. Really.

Duke Baa: A 3D animation based on the story of a quirky, arrogant goat. Arrogant goat? Really?

While in Scottsdale we had the privilege of seeing true friendship in it's rarest form. A girl...a BMW....a dog...and the girls friend who is sitting in the back while the dog is safely seat-belted in front. Really?

A Chia pet in the shape of President Obama's head is being pulled from shelves for being too racist. Really? A racist chia pet?

Johnny Depp is making a guest voice appearance on Sponge Bob Square Pants. Really?

The lady in line at the grocery store was upset because her chocolate rabbit wrapped in festive gold foil cost 13 cents more than her friend had told her that it did. Really? She argued with the store clerk for about 5 minutes before finally relenting and deciding that little Billy would just have to go without his gold foil wrapped chocolate bunny for Easter this year. Really.

Something different....

Andy and I went to the screening of 500 Days of Summer tonight at the Phoenix Film Festival. We had a great time. Amazing movie, wonderful acting, awesome soundtrack. The whole package. Seriously. Basically it's a love story....that isn't. Zooey Deschanel and Joseph Gordon-Levitt (both of whom I love) were incredible.

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The day did not go as hoped.

Monday is D-Day.

Please keep us in your prayers.

Spring Break

On Saturday I left for LA with my friends Kim and Miranda. We braved the semi-ghetto we stayed in (the hotel itself was actually pretty nice) and rode the subway around Hollywood. After discovering which stop we should avoid based on the number of R-rated stores and creepy bums that were littered about we actually became quite the pros at using it. We also befriended an LA Sheriff's deputy on the train. I think he found it to be his duty to protect the three ultra white girls clutching their purses on the train in Hollywood at 10:00 at night. Thanks James.
Sunday morning we went to the Hollywood Farmer's Market. It was awesome. Tons of little tents and booths set up with people selling pretty much anything you can imagine. We ate fresh Nutella crepes for breakfast. Absolutely delicious by the way. We went back to our hotel for the car and did some sightseeing. We went to the Office set and Beverly Hills. We found the only Rite Aid that requires their employees to wear a shirt and tie and where the cost to park is $10. We also stalked a Hollywood Tours bus until the caught on to us and made us pass them.

Monday we did the WB studio tour and went to the Ellen show. Ellen is hilarious. We drove around a little bit and then also got to meet Drunk Jerry at Denny's.

Tuesday we went to Universal Studios. We took the studio tour, rode the rides, ate $6 hot dogs and walked around the Universal City walk.
Kim flew out to Georgia Wednesday morning, so Miranda and I went to breakfast and then drove home. It was a great trip. I had so much fun with my friends. We had some adventures and a lot of laughs!!

What a weekend.....

So my mom is always telling us that we need to get out and do more things. Andy and I are total homebodies and like to spend what little freetime we have at home.

Saturday:
We decide that we would go out and be adventurous. We decide that it would be fun to go four-wheeling out at Sugar Loaf mountain. We rented 2 quads and went with Andy's parents and his brother/sister-in-law/nephew out to the desert.

We were having a grand old time until I decided that I hadn't had enough of an adventure and wondered what it would be like if I flipped one of the quads over while Andy and I were on it. Well, it wasn't as fun as I expected it would be. Andy fell off before the quad flipped and luckily it missed falling on me. I am sure my flight through the air was very graceful. Just ask the camp of people that were right next to us, that so kindly did NOT offer to come and see if we were okay. Anyways, we were both scrapped up pretty bad and after checking the damage to the quad saw that we had LUCKILY only broken the front headlight.

So, we stop the bleeding on our arms and legs and carryon the rest of day....at a much slower speed, might I add.


So then it is time to pack up and we decide that my sister-in-law, Liz and I are going to ride the quads back up to the main road and the boys (Andy's parents had left with the baby earlier) would bring up the trucks. So we ride up the mountain and sit there for awhile. Liz at this point has a really bad stomachache and isn't doing well and my first fear is that its appendicidis. Here we are stuck at the top of this mountain....at dusk...with no phones or water or any sign of the guys in sight. Finally I head back to the nearest camp and practically attack them in my quest for a cell phone and I run into the guys who are in just one truck. They race up the mountain and I follow. While we load the quads onto the trailer Andy tells me that his truck is high centered on a rock and there is no way to get it off.

We drive back to town in stoney silence as dollar signs flash through our heads at the thought of how much its going to cost to call a tow truck out to the middle of nowhere, to pull our truck off this rock.

Luckily the story doesn't end here.

Sunday:

Andy got up early this morning to take the quads back to the rental place and then after borrowing a hydraulic jack from a neighbor, was going to go with his brother back out to see if they could get the truck, which we were hoping had not been stripped and sold for parts by now or become the recent home to some bum living in the desert. Around 10:30 I get a call, saying that they drove all the way out just to find that they did not have the keys to the truck, so I had to drive out to Fountain Hills and meet them to give them the key. On the back into town I get a phone call from Andy's good friend Mark who also happens to work for the Mesa Police Department. He proceeds to tell me that he is at my school because it has been broken into and he wants to see if I can come down to see if anything has happened to my room. I am so lucky that Mark was one of the cops that responded to break-in. I head over to school just to find that my door is broken, my desk is trashed and some things (mostly money) are missing from it. As it turns out the whole school was broken into and vandalized pretty badly. The only thing we can guess is some teenagers weren't taught to go get a job and learn some responsibilty and so instead they break doors and try to steal Jolly Ranchers and Caprisuns.

Luckily Andy got the truck out and we won't have to foreclose on our house to pay for the towing bill. We are very lucky that things weren't worse than they were. We are very thankful to be safe and sound and in one piece.

All in all we are VERY glad this weekend is over and look forward to going back to the days when we can stay home on the weekends.