Twitter

Twitter is so appealing to me. I love the fact that on twitter you can only write 140 characters. That isn't much. This post would be over by now if I only wrote 140 characters. I like that factor. Short and sweet. I like the fact that I can write a quick message telling how I am or something crazy that I saw and leave it at that. Enough said. Concise. I like the beginning so close to the end. But something is wrong. I feel incomplete.

A blog is different. Sometimes overwhelming, but very rewarding. It can be hard to start, then even harder to stop. I sit and I wonder. I wonder: Will the readers like it? Will the readers read it? The answer is yes. YES! If I will write it the readers will read it. The question is then: Can I write it?

Can I write what my ideas are? My goals, my secrets, my hidden talents? Can I express the feelings inside of hope, of sadness, of gladness? The gratitude, the discoveries, even summaries life that are boring and dull? Yes. I can. It only takes but a minute, maybe more. It clears my mind. It helps me reflect and think of what is happening. It helps me to see the things that I lack. I will write it. I can write. In the end, I feel more accomplished, like I am the one writing my life. Each letter I write the lighter I feel.  Blogging can be daunting but even more rewarding.

This blog is no twitter, I am thankful for that. It gives me a blank canvas with no end predetermined.

 Just like life, I am free to write it.

July

I have come to love the month of July. I have only now realized that July is the only month that I am not thinking about school. Its the month that I can devote all my time to Braden. I wish that I had more time during the school year to stop thinking about school. If I am not at school I am thinking about the seating chart, or how to teach science, or what should I do with my children that don't follow directions the first time. It is daunting to come home with hours of correcting, or projects to work on. Today I spent a few hours at the library looking for books to teach cause/effect and compare/contrast. It never ends and my mind is full, crowed and complete chaos. 


Since I have a job that I never truly ever leave at work, I guess I am going to have to learn to make due with the time I do have to myself. It is time I want to spend with Braden. Laughing together, telling stories, sharing new and exciting things. I just like spending time with him. He is so kind, caring and patient. I know that our time we together each week isn't very much but we can make the most of our time together. When we are apart I think about him and wish that I was with him. I wish that we could be going on a drive together, or walking through the cemetery.  


How I long for July. I wish that July was here tomorrow. I wish that my mind could be clear and calm and I could devote every moment to Braden. I guess we make do and think more about quality rather that quantity. I just hope that Braden knows that we may not have a lot of time together right now in life, but we have eternity to be together.  Eternity that is just like July. Clear and calm and focused on the family that we love the most. My eternity will be spent with Braden. Clear and calm and focused entirely on him because I love him. 

Library card

I've written before that I don't read much. At least not books/newspapers/magazines. I actually do a lot of reading of blogs online. That's where I get most of my news.

Yesterday, I went and got a new library card from the public library. I blogged about it. And now I can check out books, CDs, DVDs, etc. from the vast catalog available. 

I think the last time I actually used a library card was more than a decade ago. But there is so much readily available online, I lived without a library card for so long. This all begs the question of what is really the future of the library? Am I actually alone in thinking that having a library card is obsolete, and anything I need to read is online? Probably not.

The reason I got one yesterday is to help Katie. She needed a reference for her students. And since I had the day off I had time to go and get the books she wanted from the library. And it wasn't that hard either. It was so easy a child could do it.

Actually maybe a child should do it. I think the libraries are a lot more relevant for students than thier adult counterparts. When I am no longer in school, I am no longer soaking up new knowledge. And if I am it's because I have to for my job. And I don't need the library. 

But children, especially those growing up in homes without a large collection of books should regularly go to the library and develop a love of reading. The younger you start, the more successful you become. 

At one point in my life I did have a love of reading, but it became such a chore to read all the required readings for classes that I stopped reading for enjoyment and only read what I had to. Even then, sometimes it was read the first and last chapter and skim the inbetween. 

My point I'm trying to get to is that once in a while your perspective changes. And that's a good thing. I have some books I need to finish reading that I started once upon a time. Maybe you do too.

Acronyms > L337

Acronym n. a word formed from the initial letters of other words
example: RADAR (RAdio Detection And Ranging)

Acronyms gave the english language a way to say something faster than before without losing meaning. (Useful in morse code, etc.) Some acronyms became universal, some did not. (i.e. SOS) But when there are so many acronyms, some become repeats and make it harder to differentiate, making them less useful.

The rising generation has developed a new system of writing similar to acronyms, although less direct. Email started it, and instant messaging and texting has also given the english language some silliness as well.

In a hand-written note or letter, you can doodle or draw extra symbols. But with the limits of the standard keyboard, more had to be done. So here come "smilies" to add a touch of personality, and to go beyond the capabilities of the font families.  ;-)  8-)

And the internet also brought us a different alphabet called leet or leetspeek. Using numbers in combination with letters to spell. It used to be used in chatrooms and online bulletin boards to trick the filters from blocking forbidden topics such as hacking. But now leet is more mainstream, and is more often used to censor words or mock newbies in online multiplayer games.

Dog stroller?

We were driving down 700 E next to Liberty Park recently and Katie told me that she saw a dog in a stroller. I was paying more attention to driving so I hadn't seen it. So we turned and went into the park to try and find it again. And sure enough a lady was walking her dog... in a stroller! I had no idea they actually made strollers for dogs. I thought the point of walking your dog was to let your dog actually walk.

We tried to snap a picture but there were too many trees in the way and we couldn't stop and block traffic, but here's an example we found on the internet.

Little Shop of Horrors

This weekend Katie and I went to the South Jordan Community Theater's production of Little Shop of Horrors. The actor playing Seymour is another one of the other fifth grade teachers Katie works with so we went to support him. We went as a double date with Jennifer Miranda (the other fifth grade teacher) and her husband Michael.

It was really good. You can still see it for yourself! The show runs from October 15 to November 1. Tickets are $9. All seats are good seats.

The address is 10778 S. Redwood Road. Show starts at 7. It's a good idea to be 30 minutes early to buy tickets and be seated.

New Design

I changed the site design a bit. I like it better now. I think it is lovely.

Tell me what you think. If you have been reading this blog using Google reader or another RSS/ATOM feeder, please visit the site to check out the change in design!

Nevermind that

All good bloggers make some serious cash doing it. But simple amateur bloggers don't. I have just learned a few ways that might make us a little money on this blog. The first is ads.

If you have been a regular follower of this blog you've probably noticed the absence of any ads. Well, that's just because we didn't know how to get them. You see, ads are a good thing. Advertisers pay you if you can get someone to click on their ads. It's not much but enough clicks over time really adds up. But it's against the rules for me to click on my own ads or to force or direct someone to do it. But if there happens to be something there that interests you or otherwise entices you to click, that's what they are for.

The second is affiliate marketing. That's the technical term for the program where I suggest a product and if you use my link and buy it I get a cut of the profit since I sent you there.

You can expect this blog's content to stay pretty much the same because we know that's what brings you back every time. We'll keep posting family pictures and interesting things about our life.

St. George for the weekend

We had the opportunity to go down to St. George and stay in nice condos for the weekend. Curtis works for Spillman Technologies and they have a condo there as an employee perk, so Kami and the girls got to go for free. They had the 3 bedroom condo from Friday to Monday. Katie and I stayed in one of the bedrooms from Friday afternoon to Sunday night, then drove back home to Salt Lake.

Darrell and Jean also had a 3 bedroom condo in the same complex that was Dr. Hale's. Darrell had never been able to go down and use it until now. A friend of his was going to be there at the same time for a scrap booking event so he and his wife stayed in one of the bedrooms in that condo, and sometimes joined us for meals.

The weekend was mostly just relaxing and a little shopping. There was a nice pool, and we brought our Roku box to stream Netflix and Pandora. We prepared all our family meals, and everything was delicious. (We are lucky and happen to be related to some amazing cooks.)

I brought my camera, but we didn't take many pictures besides some inside the condo and when we stopped at Silver Reef and Meadow Massacre site.

Here's some pictures I took: