8th Grade Camp

For the past few days I was up in the mountains, at Camp with my 8th grade students.

It was 3 days and two nights of a rollercoaster ride for me. I experienced some amazing moments, So-So moments, and some not-so-very amazing moments.

I will summarize all these moments with a simple thumbs-up or thumbs-down.

Thumbs-Up: Watching my 8th graders work together to complete tasks that were very mentally challenging, slightly physically challenging, and required massive amounts of team work to complete.

Thumbs-Up: Watching my students complete and also myself completing the High-V ropes course. This consisted of a helmet, a bungee belt, and being attached to bungee cords followed by a 30 foot climb up a (purposefully, so they told me) very shakey wooden pole. At the top of that pole are two wires that go out into the shape of a V - starting out very close to each other and extending to about 20 feet apart at the very end. This is a partner activity. When both partners have reached the top of the pole, each stands on a wire facing the other. You begin by letting go of the pole you climbed up on and each partner places their hands on their partners shoulders. Each person has to lean into their partner; your partner's weight being the only thing keeping you balanced on that wire. Together, you begin to slowly take side-steps. As you get farther out on the wire, you find that your partner and you can no longer hold onto each other's shoulders. You must now switch to hands. You and your partner continue leaning into each other, holding your bodies as straight as possible until one of you loses your balance or you decide as a team that you can go no farther. The thing is, that unless both partners are 7 and a half feet tall, it's impossible to get to the end of this challenge. The point of it is not to finish, it is to challenge yourself mentally and physically, to lean on your partner for support, and to see how far you can make it. The fun thing is that everyone goes farther than they expected. For example, I made it a little over half way across the wire, and I barely expected to make it up the pole.

Thumbs-Down: Spending two hours "turning" a compost pile and smelling like compost for a full 24 hours even after changing my shirt and washing my shoes with soap and water = GROSS

Thumbs-Up: Watching some students show their dedication to finishing the raking of that compost pile.

Thumbs-Down: Having my principal bail out on me (without letting me know) for an evening prayer service with the 8th graders and their parents, and having to complete something myself at the very last minute on a wing-and-a-prayer.

Thumbs-Up: Having my last minute prayer service go so well that most everyone in the room smiled, laughed, and cried by the night's end.

Thumbs-Down: Getting bug-bitten all over both of my arms and then having those bug bites go away after an hour and turn into red, scaly rashes. NO FUN.

Thumbs-Down: Going from plush new mattress at home to flat, uncomfortable bunk bed at camp.. and not sleeping so very well.

Thumbs-Up: One of the 8th grade girls telling me about the troubles she is having with her mother in the bathroom one night while brushing our teeth, and then telling me that usually she doesn't open up to adults, but because she shared that with me now I'm her "friend". :)

Thumbs-Up: Doing a trust fall with one of the 8th graders' small groups, and the fact that the students actually caught me. SCARY.

Thumbs-Up: Earning the trust and kindness of one of the 8th grade boys who had given me attitude all year long. During our last meal together he came over and said, "I'll sit by Mrs. (Sorry) today, she's been nice to me this week." From most students, this doesn't sound like much. From him, this was a gigantic leap of amazingness.

As a whole, I give Camp a bright and shining 2 THUMBS-UP.

Palm Trees

When I was a little girl, I believed that palm trees were the true markers of an exotic and tropical locale. I remember the first time I ever saw a palm tree - when I went on a beach trip to South Carolina with some of my friends senior year of highschool. When we arrived at our destination, and I noticed the palm trees, I knew for certain that I had was about to embark upon the greatest vacation of my life. I had finally made the big time: I was at a beach with Palm Trees!

I continued to believe that Palm Trees were beautiful and exotic and wonderful until moved to California... into a house surrounded on every side by Palm Trees. I've never actually taken the time to count them, but I would guess that I have at least 15 palm trees on my property. I thought it was the most incredible thing to own my very own Palm Trees, to have them in my very own back yard.

And then a couple of months went by. And I started to realize slowly, but surely, that palm trees are not all that my childhood self had dreamed them to be.

Palm trees are DIRTY. The palms on the palm trees are constantly dying... and falling all over my property. They are thick, and heavy, and DIRTY. Yesterday, for example, Mike and I were trimming the dead palms and when we were finished we found our patio and ourseles entirely covered in brown something or other that had come off the dead palms. Gross.

Did I mention I have a pool? Yeah.. I have a pool... and I am forever skimming the Palm tree guck out of it. I am not a happy camper.

Then, there are the flowers. Some varieties of palm trees breed these teeny tiny flowers... that incessantly blow into my pool all summer long. I hate those little tiny flowers.

I hate palm trees.

Oh, how disillusioned I have become.

The only saving grace to all of this is that I have palm trees in California and NOT Texas or Florida where it is very humid. Because, I lived in both Texas and Florida, and it was a very well known fact that the people who had palm trees in their yards also had major cochroach problems. We're not talking the half inch cochroaches from the East Coast. We're talking cochroaches the size of a small rat. Disgusting, right?

Right.

The moral to this story is do not be fooled by Palm Trees. They are not exotic. They are not beautiful. They are dirty and annoying, and mark my words, I will never own another house with palm trees again.

Blogging Novice

The truth of the matter is that I have no idea what I'm doing when it comes to this whole blogging thing.

I don't blog for the viewership. I blog for my own personal satisfaction and enjoyment. I never expected that anyone other than my mom and my sister ever read my blog. But, one day, I decided to check it out. Maybe there were some closet viewers I wasn't aware of.

I got one of those statistic trackers on my blog.

And, I wasn't too terribly surprised by the results. It turns out, that there might possibly be a couple other people who stop by my blog every now and then. People other than my mom and my sister. Unless, of course, my mom and my sister look a my blog a couple times a day from a couple different computers. I guess I shouldn't rule out that possibility.

It wasn't until today, however, that I noticed there were a lot more statistics provided to me on my stat tracker than just how many people had visited my page that day.

I am able to look at what brought people to my page (pretty much 100% of my viewership comes through my sister's blog - thank you, Sis).

I am able to see the average of how long people stayed at my blog - half stayed for less than 5 seconds, the other half stayed for 2 hours or more. Not sure what to make of those results. Except that I guess a lot of people realized the very second they hit my blog that they were NOT interested in whatever it was I had to say, which I suppose is better than if they had stayed for 5 minutes and left.

And,

I am also able to see the percentage of people who continued to come back after their intial viewing of my blog. That percentage was the worst one. Apparently, if I were a business, I would be on the verge of bankruptcy because I am certainly not obtaining many repeat customers.

I have to say, the whole statistics experience was quite interesting to me. I suppose if I were out to obtain a lot of viewership I would be hanging my head in defeat at this point. But, the fact of it all is that I do not do this for viewership. I don't really understand the blogging world and haven't, myself, been able to find a blog I like to visit regularly - other than my sisters, of course.

If I were really serious, I would probably need to start frequenting the blogs of all those military wives out there, posting comments and making myself known.

But, I'm not going to do that. Maybe when I finally start to have kids and feel that I have something interesting and worthwhile to add to the conversation I might try to pave my way into the world of bloggers.

For now, though, I don't mind being out here in cyberworld by myself. It's nice and quiet.

DVRs, Dogs, and Countdowns

When I go too long without posting, I generally have a hodgepodge of random things to say. Like today.. I have a whole bunch of random things to mention. Bear with me. Thank you.

* How did anyone ever live without DVR? Our DVR went berserk this week, and not only did we MISS American Idol (because we took our dogs on a walk and assumed the DVR would record it.. but it did not.. which was a gigantic disappointment to put it lightly. More like.. it ruined my week.. seriously), but last night because we knew our DVR was broken we actually broke down and watched LOST in real time. And, I am here to tell you THAT was a frustrating experience. Every time a commercial break came up, I would immediately grab for the remote to fast forward and would realize with great annoyance that I couldn't. Also, there were a few moments and words that we missed and I wanted to rewind to catch what we missed. But, I couldn't. Let's just say, if I had been here when the cable guy came today to replace our box, I probably would have given him a hug.

* Walking the dogs. I actually walked BOTH of my dogs at the SAME time by MYSELF the other night. It was a major victory. I have taken on the task of taming our husky as Mike has proven himself to NOT have the patience. Without fail he will give up and just let Copper take the lead.. which is a really bad idea. So, I have taken on the role. I never wanted to walk him before, not because I didn't have the patience, but because I didn't have the strength. Copper IS stronger than me. But, I discovered that if I put the leash up higher on his neck it gives him less control and me MORE control. So, that's what I've been doing. After yesterday, I realized I will probably need to wear gloves from now on because I got terrible rope burn on my hand from restraining my husky as he tried to balk and run off from fear of a skateboard, kids on bikes, etc.

* I have begun a countdown until the end of school. Literally. On the board in my classroom I have written "17 School Days Until Graduation". I know that theoretically it's a really bad idea, because having a countdown like that can only really cause the students to get a bad case of schoolitis. But, the truth of the matter is that I don't really care. I'm not doing it for them. I'm doing it for me. For my own sanity, I need to know that there is an end in sight to this school year.

* And when next year begins I have no doubt that my countdown will begin immediately. Because, I have already promised myself that next year will be my last year as a teacher. At least, as a teacher at that school, possibly a teacher forever.

* I cannot wait for summer vacation! I can't wait! I can't wait! I can't wait!

The End.