First Day of School?

Yesterday I was at school setting up the room and everything when all the teachers that were there were called to the office. What they had to tell us is good and bad. First the middle school that is under construction is not done. This means that we can't start school when we are supposed to (Sept. 8) we are now starting a week later on the 15th.

This is good because I have another week to get my room set up. The bad part is the whole calender is being redone so we can get out of school on the original last day. They are making winter break shorter and taking out some of our longer weekends.

Well, I hope school starts on the 15th.

Projects

Take a look at these photos, does it remind you of anyone?

Well in my efforts to save money as a music teacher, I have been fixing instruments on my own. It costs me an average of $100 to send an instrument into the shop to have new pads put on so I have become quite good at fixing pads. This project is dealing with a bent post. I've learned a lot doing things the hands-on way.

Reading, reading, and more reading

We have really been trying to go to the library this summer. We have made every 3 weeks about because that is when our books are due. We usually leave with 10-15 books most of which are for Mackenzie, but today we left with 25. Mackenzie really likes to read so we try and spend a lot of time reading with her. She gets about 30 minutes of reading for bedtime and she reads on her own throughout the day.

One story she is getting pretty good at is the Three Little Pigs. Can you spot her favorite part?

The Messangers

If you're looking for a scary movie that is pretty clean see "The Messangers." That movie scared the bejezzers out of me to the point it was hard to sleep at night. Every little sound make me flinch.

A late anniversary trip

Kelly and I have been married for 6 years as of July 26, but because Kelly was involved in a summer theater workshop we really couldn't do anything for our anniversary. Last week (August 7) we went to Long Beach, WA and spent the night in a really nice hotel right on the beach. We took the TR and dad's stunt kite and just had a really nice time (especially since we left Mackenzie and Spencer with Mom). The sky was overcast the whole time but we still got a little burned.

On a Sunday Afternoon

Today was stake conference so we had a great day. It started at 10 and was done by 12 so our kids didn't miss any naps and were able to wake up at their normal time with out us having to rush to church. The big news for stake conference was a new stake presidency. I don't know our new stake presidents name it starts with a "C", but one of his councilors is Brother Moss (I think he was my dentist or orthodontist, I can't quite remember.) Any way it has been a nice relaxing Sunday. The temperature is finally down to the 80's so we aren't dying in our house that holds the heat so well.

The Last Few Days

The end of summer is coming up for me. There are 2 and half weeks till I need to be back at school and now the funnier stuff is starting to happen. The first thing involves school. We have a new middle school principal who called me to talk about the band schedule. He was a little confused because he couldn't find any registration information anywhere for the 6th grade. I had the pleasure of telling him there wasn't any because the group that designed the schedule decided that it wasn't necessary. I gave him a list of the students I knew where planning on coming back and those will be the ones I get for now. He has since changed the schedule and it looks better now.

Second funny thing was letting a two year old play with markers. I'm not sure whether to call Mackenzie she-hulk, the grinch, or the painted lady. She decided to color her legs green. If we had been paying closer attention to her would probably would have noticed, but we didn't and she had very green legs. On the plus side her legs smelled really good because it was those smelly markers.

Now if you can remember or need to look back a few posts, the band room was not in great shape. It had ugly pictures on the wall and had a really nasty set of carpeted risers. Here is an updated picture. The rooms almost done. I just need to paint the top part.

Okay, after writing all my funny things down they don't seem so funny. Oh well.

The Insane

Today I did the most insane thing I have done in a while. In order to save gas Kelly and I have been riding our bikes more. I decided to ride out to school today. I was thinking 15 miles, I can do it. Then I started riding and realized what I got myself into. It started off great, I knew that I should be seeing two bike trails cross paths and I would take the one that crossed. After 50 minutes of riding I still hadn't seen it and started to think I had passed it since this was my first time using this trail. I stopped at an art gallery along the trail (go figure a gallery in the middle of no where. I was still in Olympia so I was doing it right. After 15 more minutes of riding I found the trail and had 2 miles to go. I made it to school in 1 hour 15 min. It turns out I forgot to factor in the fact that the trail goes south instead of straight east and I ended up adding about 3 miles to my trip. I made in home in about 1 hour 10 minutes pretty worn out. But I feel great for accomplishing something this challenging.

The man with many words

A little explanation of the title of this blog. One of my favorite musicians/artists is John Cage. He was the start of a style of music and art based on chance. In a poem he wrote he stated "I have nothing to say and I am saying it, and that is poetry." Cage was a loony to most people. His art and music was very much out there. What I enjoy about Cage is his philosophy that anyone can make music because music is defined as a combination of sounds and silence. When Cage refered to the phrase I have nothing to say and I am saying he would often ask questions such as "What is more musical, a truck passing a construction site or a truck passing a music school?" (I know huh?) I felt that Cage really had nothing to say. He simply loved the work he did. I see myself that way as well. I really don't have much to say when it comes to my job, I just love what I do.


In the spirit of having nothing to say here is a little video.



Well, Spencer's conversations need a little work he just goes on and on and doesn't even clue you in to what he is talking about.

Darth Spencer

Last night while I was putting kids to bed Spencer started breathing really weird. It sounded like Darth Vader. So being the observant father I naturally looked to see what was going on. There was Spencer happy as good be sucking on his entire pacifier. He had the entire thing in his mouth and was still sucking on it. I laughed and pulled it out and everything was fine.