I caught one!

After several days of trying...I finally caught a king salmon!  Yeah!!

Signing the king stamp...

 Family picture...

Summer 2011 Kickoff

It's summer and I now have ample time and a little more motivation to keep up with the blog:-)

Greg and I kicked off summer with a little trip through southern New Mexico.  We left on last Thursday morning and drove down to the Carlsbad Caverns which were pretty cool.  Who knew that stuff could be hiding underground?

Then we set up camp at Pine Springs campground for the night in the Guadalupe mountains which are on the southern border of New Mexico and Texas.  With all the fire danger, there were no campfires or charcoal fires allowed.  The sign said you were allowed to use contained fuel camping burners, but we failed to read the additional notice posted that there were two designated picnic tables to use them at.  Needless to say, we got a little lecture from one of the rangers for cooking at our campsite.  She was nice enough not to fine us...next time we will read more closely:-)

I slammed my finger in the door...it was a bit painful...

The following morning we made breakfast (at the designated picnic tables of course) and then loaded up on all of the water needed for the overnight backpacking trip through McKittrick Ridge.  There are no water sources along the way and temperatures were around 98 degrees.  The recommendation was to carry at least one gallon per person per day...so that's what we did.  It definitely made for heavy packs.

"Pratt's Cabin" was along the way...

 Taking a break from our packs, we hiked a bit off the trail to see the "hunter's cabin"

 In this hike you gain 1600 feet of elevation in 1.2 miles...they were probably the most grueling 1.2 miles of my life!  It was basically just a bunch of steep switchbacks.  The hike was a little over 6 miles in, and we hiked back out the same trail the following morning.  The way in took us 6 hours while the hike out took us a bit over 3 hours.

 Finally there!!!

 The next morning was beautiful at the top of the ridge.

Once we got back from the hike, we stopped for some delicious BBQ in Carlsbad then made our way west going through Lincoln National forest which is where the town of Cloudcroft can be found.  The elevation was high enough that it certainly was no desert like a lot of New Mexico.  In actuality, it was a dense forest and was a really cute town.  I wouldn't mind going back there one day.  Our drive then took us through the White Sands National Monument.  These are really just a bunch of white sand dunes. but they look out of place in the middle of New Mexico.  Pretty cool to see.

The original plan had us driving all the way to Silver City to spend our final night and to explore the Gila wilderness before we headed home.  Unfortunately, there was some bad planning on our part and when we called EVERY place in Silver City to book a room, there were no vacancies.  Turns out Silver City is a hoppin place Memorial day weekend, so we stayed in Las Cruces instead.  I must say it was amazing staying in a hotel after you haven't showered for a couple days:-) 

After staying in Las Cruces, we made the two hour trek to Silver City to find a Blues Festival going on!  We walked around town looking at all the art stores and then ate some really unhealthy food and sat in our camping chairs listening to the festival for awhile.  There was certainly some really good people watching at the festival...mainly all the people dancing...they were really getting into it!!

After the blues festival, we headed up into the Gila wilderness to see the cliff dwellings. We also a lot of burnt forest from the Miller Fire which is still burning. It was kinda cool to see all the fire fighters and all of the equipment. One camp we went through had 5 helicopters!

After the Cliff Dwellings, we headed home.  It was an awesome trip!

Christmas Shindig 2010

Last night the ortho intern wives hosted our first "atrocious attire" Christmas party.  It was a success!  People had awesome outfits, and I was able to meet more people from the program.  Can't wait for part two next year!  Unfortunately, we were having such a good time that I did not take that many pictures and the pics was able to get were taken after most people had left. 

Did that really just happen?

So...another day at work, I called a parent to follow-up from a phone call earlier in the day...and...wow. 

Part one:

I have a student who is constantly shouting out, never raises his hand, he's really just a pain in my rear ALL THE TIME.  After I had met my limit today in class, he was warned, "if you continue to shout out and disrupt the class, you will have to call you parents to inform them of your behavior."  His reply, "NO."  "Excuse me, young man,"  I replied, "you had your warning, now call your parents."  Father was not able to answer his phone, student left a message and I told the student to inform the parent that they will be contacted by me by the end of the day.

Part two:  Call the parent after school...

Me:  "Hello Mr.____________, did you get a chance to listen to your messages today and hear the one from your son concerning his behavior in class today?"

Parent:  "Yeah, something about him disrupting class and telling you no..."

Me:  "Yes, he was misbehav...."  at this point the parent cuts me off to tell me his oh so important opinion on the jobs of teachers.  He proceeded to tell me how he trying to run a business and he has employees that he controls through out the day, but he doesn't bother them in the evening.  This is like us teachers, he says, when his son is at school, he doesn't want to be bothered because it is our job to deal with him and make sure he behaves and what do I want him to day to his son anyway when he calls?  Oh shoot...I don't know...MAYBE YOU COULD TELL HIM TO BEHAVE WHILE AT SCHOOL BECAUSE IT IS NOT MY JOB TO MAKE SURE HE IS!  I was able to squeeze in that we think their child's education is a partnership with parents and it takes ALL OF US to make their schooling experience successful.  This parent was having none of it and continued to essentially chew me out about wasting his time.  Wow.  I hung up on him...probably shouldn't have...but I did.

What really makes me sad about this whole situation is the student.  What kind of lessons and morals is this kid learning at home...what kind of priorities are set there...I dont' know...but it bothers me. 

Ready for Christmas!

Despite the fact that Greg worked a 30 hour shift from Friday to Saturday, he went looking for a Christmas tree with me on Saturday afternoon.  We have pretty tall ceilings and Greg thought it a good idea to get the 11ft tree even though I kept telling him it is bigger than you think and it will take up TONS of room in our living room.  Luckily, it was a wee bit out of our price range so Greg had to agree to downsize to the 9 footer.  It worked out well, I don't think a bigger tree would have fit very nicely!!  It is mine and Greg's official first REAL Christmas tree for our first Christmas away from Alaska.  We look forward to having Greg's whole family here for the holidays...I just have to make it through the next three weeks of moody 7th graders...

6:30am on a Saturday?

Okay, so this may have to do a little bit with the time change last weekend and the fact that I went to bed last night at 9:15 with Greg (he had to go to work this morning), but I got up at 6:30 this morning...all on my own...wide awake...with no where to go...and nothing I HAVE to do.  This is pretty big news for me, I am a sleeper and LOVE sleeping in on the weekends usually at least until 8:30 if not longer.  I don't know what to do with myself, so I am blogging :-)  I have to admit, I feel a little more mature today.  I never thought I would willingly get up so early on a day I can sleep in! Anywho...

Update with Greg, he had a weekend off last weekend and it was AWESOME!  We didn't do anything profound, but I feel like I am forgetting what it is like having him around on a regular basis.  We did go out with some second year residents because it was one of their birthdays and he and his wife said to me, this is the worst it will be for Greg.  He WILL be busy in the next four years, but not with the kind of busy he is now.  I know Greg will do better when he has the opportunity to learn more and participate in surgeries rather than doing what he is now which is taking care of ALL the things no one else wants to do.  Nine weeks down, one to go!!

Since Greg was off last weekend, he had the opportunity to go dirt biking...pretty sure it made his weekend.

New and improved dining room!

When we first arrived to our new home here in New Mexico, this is what our dining room looked like:

Since then, we have made some improvements so it looks more like a home:-)  First, my cousin built us the beautiful table that took the place of our banged up ikea table.  Once that was done, I bought some chairs off of overstock.com that were a great price and look great with the table.  Greg and I also purchased the mirror for some wall decor and I picked out some curtains and hung them myself:-)  Finally, Greg finished it off today by installing the new light fixture for me.  On a side note, not only did he install the light for me, but he also winterized our evaporative cooler this afternoon and this is all after working last night and getting home about 11am this morning...such a team player:-)  Anywho, here is the new and improved dining room!