Microsoft Intership

David was selected to interview for a Microsoft Internship in December. Microsoft flew him to Seattle, provided food and lodging, and a car. He had to interview with about six different people from their research department and we will find out if he makes the fellowship in February. If so we might get to live in Washington for a summer, which would be really fun.

1st graders.

Every year I apply for a $500 grant for my classroom through a Kid's Foundation. This year I was able to buy books, leapfrogs, and CD's for my students. As a thank you to the organization I always take pictures of my class using the material I purchased with the money. I thought maybe everyone would enjoy seeing the pictures. They are just so darn cute.

Christmas in California

Our Christmas walk

The game Scott gave David and me

Scott Sleeping

Christmas at the Park in San Jose

All the stockings were hung by the bookshelf with care

David's brother Scott came to visit us for Christmas this year. We enjoyed playing games together, eating good food, and watching movies. It was nice to have company over.

Thanksgiving

We flew out to Utah for Thanksgiving this year. We decided that we have become to Californian to do Christmas. Utah is too cold. It was fun to see all my family, but the time went by too fast.

Squirrels Attack Again

In the summer the squirrels ate all my tomatoes and for Halloween they were eating my Monster Pumpkin. Here are some before and after picture.

Halloween 2009

For Halloween this year, I decided to buy a kit to help me carve pictures on our pumpkins. I have no artistic talent so this was very helpful for me and the pumpkins turned out really cute. We also enjoyed roasting the pumpkin seeds and eating them. At school I dressed up as a clown and David came to visit me. He wanted to see all the kids in their costumes.

Lake Tahoe

Over Labor Day, David and I went met his mom and Scott in Reno. We then headed to Lake Tahoe where we relaxed by the lake, ate yummy food and enjoyed each other's company. It is very peaceful and beautiful there.

Muir Woods

Joe and Bianca came to visit this summer. They always take me somewhere new. We were able to visit Muir Woods. It was very beautiful and calm. I could not believe how tall the trees were.

Boggle

David and I are Boggle fans, but we like to challenge ourselves. Our house rules only accept five letter words. We had to special order a larger boggle grid that is a 5x5. It is no longer available in the US so we ordered it used from the UK. It took about a month to get here, but we love to play.

AMD party

David and I attend a party sponsored by AMD on the USS Hornet the carrier that picked up Neil Armstrong when he came back from the moon. David was able to see all the latest computer gadgets and we both enjoyed the free food and touring the ship.

Serena's Wedding

On August 1 I was able to attend a beautiful wedding. One of the first grade teachers from my team married a fourth grade teacher. So cute! Their reception was on the top floor of the tallest building in San Fransisco. It had unforgettable views of the city. Truly breath taking.

Internet Down

We had an internet catastophe on Tuesday. Every once in a while our internet shuts off. This seems normal to me, but this of course is unacceptable to David. He gets frustrated if the internet is not functioning at the highest speed. I woke up Tuesday morning to the note "Don't touch anything in the closet the internet is down. " David didn't want me to reset the internet because he needed comcast to come see that it was down. He called Comcast and they couldn't come until Wednesday. This was the best news that I have heard all summer it meant David would be all mine and I wouldn't have to compete with the computer. We played games,ate dinner together, talked, and watched T.V. I wish the internet would go down more often; however, all good things must come to an end. The next day I recieved the following text from David. "Tech showed up. We checked the logs and everyone in our area is having the same problem. I'm of course just the only one to follow through and report it. " (I think that this proves David is on the computer way too much. ) The second text he sent said this "Not only that, but the problem was exactly what I thought it was" Wow! a students with a Masters Degree from Stanford in networking diagnosed the problem. David gets a gold star.

Note: David with his two wives.

Party

I had a super party for my friends John and Darcy who are moving to So Cal. We played games and had a lot of good food. Thank goodness for Facebook so we can keep in touch.

Key emergency

On Thursday I ran into a small emergency while leaving Bed Bath and Beyond. I put my key into the ignition and it got stuck. I couldn't get it out. I tried to remain calm, but the silly thing just wouldn't budge. I tried to jimmy it out, but then the key broke off. I was left with half a key in my hand at the other half in the ignition. I paniced and closed my eyes for a minute because when I do something really stupid I think that if I close my eyes and open them it might be a dream; however, when I woke up I was still in my car. I sat contemplating the situation I was in. I thought is there anyway to get out of this without calling David; however I soon realized this was impossible to solve by myself, so I sucked it up and called my husband. Anyway long story short. Luckily with the broken key we could still turn on the car so I drove the car to a lock smith in our ward. He got the key out and made us a new one. I definately have the best husband ever. He didn't complain once and he even had to cancel a meeting. I am now that crazy wife that does silly things and makes her husband cancel meetings and come rescue her.

Note: The broken key is next to the big key in the picture.

Volunteering

This summer I decided to volunteer for a christian organization that offers a summer program to children in East Palo Alto. I'm really having a great time. I work with five students on reading, math and writing four hours a day Monday-Thursday. I also helped plan the curriculum and train other volunteers. I was so bored last summer that I'm excited to have something to break up the day. Plus I just love the good feeling you get for volunteering.

Cold Play Concert

On Monday David and I went to the Coldplay concert. I think it was the first concert I enjoyed thanks to the great ear plugs David got me.

Uncle Jerry's Party

Over the Fourth of July, I was able to go to Uncle Jerry's party in Blackfoot, Idaho. I had a blast. I love going to Idaho it reminds me of when I was little and use to go visit my grandma. It is also the only place I can float down the canal, take a bike ride down country roads, watch illegal fireworks, and have donkey races. I can't wait to go next year.

Madelynn's visit

My niece, Madelynn, came to visit me this summer again. Her visits are one of the best parts of my summer. I love having her company and it gives me an excuse to hang out at the beach, go to San Francisco, and go to the amusement park.

Olympics

Each year our school has Olympic competitions such as long jump, bean bag toss, and 100 yard dash. My class did awesome. This year we took home lots of medals. (My class is the one with the crowns we were England. )

Field Trip

This year we took our field trip to the zoo. It was fun for the kids a little stressful for me. One of my students was really naughty, but I'm still laughing about how funny it was. During lunch time he ran away from the group, bought a ticket, and got on the merry go round all by himself. When I found him he knew he was busted.

Star Trek

Four Burger King meals later David was able to collect all four Star Trek cups. I know it was difficult to eat fast food for four days in a row, but I'm glad he sacrificed his stomach for the both of us. On Saturday morning we also were able to see the movie. I'm not much of a sci-fi fan, but I enjoyed it.

David's illness

On Monday David called me at school around 9:30 and told me he was running a fever and needed to be taken to the doctor. I made arrangements with my principal to leave work early and rushed home to help him. I took him to Stanford Medical Center where he was tested for strep throat and the swine flu. Due to the outbreak they almost quarantined David in the medical center; however, when then found out we lived off campus we were free to go home. The test results took 24 hours to develop so I told my boss I would be taking Tuesday off too . Both test were negative, but luckily David's symptoms went away on their own. It must have been a nasty virus. I'm glad he is okay and I also got two days off school.

Friday Night Knitting Club

On Wednesday we had our monthly book club meeting at a coffee shop. We reviewed the book Friday Night Knitting Club. The most ironic thing about our meeting was at the table next to us there was actually a knitting club meeting. I wish I would have had my camera to take their picture.

Swine Flu

This Thursday we had a staff meeting about the swine flu although there are only 17 cases in the whole state of California. If by chance someone in our school catches swine flu they have to shut down the whole school for a week and we have to call all our students and tell them not to come back the next day. I would normally jump at the chance to have a week vacation except for the fact we would have to make it up and I would have to disinfect my whole classroom.

Puzzle

I decided it would be fun to start a puzzle. I thought maybe it would be something fun to do while I watched TV at night; however, this puzzle soon became my life. I would think about finishing the puzzle at school, Sometimes I even left school early and rushed home to work on it, and I ended up sitting for hours every night staring at the pieces wondering if I would ever complete it, but finally on Sunday I did. So here are the pictures.

Birthday

I celebrated my birthday this week. Some of my students brought me flowers and David and I celebrated with some cake from our favorite bakery.