Updates

It's hard sometimes to think about blogging when we're so wired into Facebook and other social media. 140 characters, while limiting, is so fast. Uploading pictures and sharing is easy. Everything is easy. I forget sometimes that I have a blog, and that people want to know more than what flavor ice-cream I had for dessert this past week.

So, I've 're-discovered' my blog, and while I don't foresee actively writing on a daily basis, I do think I will try to post a bit more often.

Mike is still working on his Bachelor's Degree. He should be done in December of this year if all goes according to plan. He has been working very hard on his classes and I am really proud of him. He is still a Stake High Counselor and as such has to give talks more often. Again, I am really proud of him, the quality of his talks gets better each month. He's more relaxed talking in front of a congregation and he is more focused. It helps that he has to cut out a lot of the idioms and slang when he's writing a talk for a Spanish branch or ward that needs to be translated.

Mike has picked up a new hobby. He is now an amateur bee-keeper. Yes, there is now a honey-bee hive in our backyard. It did cause a little trouble with the neighbors, but taking over a small jar of honey helped sweeten them to the idea (pun intended). The first time he was out working in the backyard with his white coat and veil, he looked like one of those Haz-Mat decon units walking around. The dog was in the window growling menacingly at the "thing."

Naturally, this bee-keeping hobby has meant my living room is full of bee-keeping books, I've had to watch bee-keeping videos on YouTube, and many of our discussions have been on bees and their benefits. He even forced a bee to sting him so that he could experience the pain objectively. I declined to participate in that particular experience. One thing I can say about Mike is that he throws himself into his hobbies wholeheartedly.

I'm working on my Master's Degree in Educational Leadership from Olivet Nazarene University. It's a completely online program which has both its drawbacks and its benefits. The major drawback is that its difficult to have the discussions. There's no face-to-face meeting with classmates or the instructor, however there are message board posts and responses that we do. The benefits are that I don't have to travel to go to class, I can do my classwork at whatever time I want and I don't have to worry about group projects at this point.

On the job front, I am still teaching ESL, but now I am also involved in several district committees. I am on the Reading Committee, which has been working on developing a "guaranteed and viable curriculum" for our district. This has included two intensive days this past week mapping curriculum and making sure that our District Reading curriculum meets Federal and State standards, teaches the "Big Five" and is developmentally appropriate for each of the grade levels.

I was also asked to be on a committee to select a University to provide in-house classes towards an ESL endorsement. Which ever university we chose would use one of our schools to provide the Master's level courses to 10-25 of our district's teachers so that they could be trained in working with our English Language Learners. I have really gotten to know several of our district administrators a little better and has given me some really neat networking opportunities.

The school-year has just ended so I am free now to work on some of my hobbies and projects. I've surprised myself with how excited I've gotten for genealogy work. A couple of years ago, I thought that genealogy was boring and I really didn't want to have anything to do with it. Now, though, I'm online almost weekly trying to find more people and documentation to prove that certain individuals are who they claim to be. As of last weekend, I've been able to trace several lines back 7 generations from myself. While that's nothing compared to some of the lines in Mike's family (I know of one that goes back to the 1400 supposedly), it is still exciting to me.

As an extension of that, one of my projects this summer has evolved into scanning in the picture that are stored in my parents' attic. The old family pictures of my great-greats or even of me and my brothers as little kids. There are some gems there!

Mike and I are still serving as Ordinance workers at the Chicago, Illinois Temple every Friday evenings. While it is a major time commitment we try very hard not to miss a week as the blessings we receive are tremendous because of them. If anyone comes to Chicago to attend the Temple, let us know! If we're there we'll look for you!

Dale is still Dale. He loves to chew sticks of every kind. Sticks from a tree, sticks from our garden mulch, rawhide sticks, sticks with graphite, sticks with ink, sticks with highlighter fluid, sticks with white-out, sticks that are covered with emery paper. If it is vaguely stick shaped and he can get his paws on it, he'll chew it. He also still love watching "TV" out the window, and has successfully warned us when there was a thief in our neighbor's garage. (Unfortunately the guy got a way, but we were able to call the police before he tried our garage). Dale's such a good boy!

Our semi-permanent house guest, who has been staying with us since October may be finally moving out. He said he will probably be signing a lease on an apartment today with one of his friends. A little background, Mike's friend Jon (friends since Junior High) has been staying with us while he has been trying to find a job in the Chicago area. It was supposed to be short term. In the long term, 9 months of Jon may seem like a short term. But in the short term, 9 months is a freaking long time to have a house-guest. Not that I'm complaining, mind you. Jon has been incredibly helpful with taking care of Dale, cleaning up around the house, doing dishes, etc. All three of us will be happy when he finally moves out. (He said he might be out by the end of this weekend, but I'm not going to hold my breath.)

For those ladies coming out for girls' weekend in a couple of weeks, he will be LONG GONE by the time you all get here. No worries about that! Oh, yeah...Girls' Weekend. Ailene, Tanya, Johanna and Tori are coming out for a long weekend in a couple of weeks. We've got plans to go to Portillo's, Spend the day in down-town Chicago, attend Cirque Shanghai, go on an Architectural River tour, maybe go up in the Sears Tower (now Willis Tower), See Millenium Park and more. I may even take everyone to Chinatown on Saturday night for dinner at Lao Sze Chuan. Yum!

Anyway, that's about it for the updates here on Drury Lane. Hopefully, I'll post more later.

Love you all,

Joanne