To: Abby and Brice

ALL OF MY LOVE. <3

Tragedy

I just found out who got the title I position...it is who I thought it was--Kori. She was there for a long term sub position as our head of title I department (and I really kinda didn't like her then) AND she was there for an intensive math program for kids who were at risk in their math skills. Well, she got the position...and I still didn't really kinda like her then also. She reminded me of that type of person I was always afraid of in high school--too uppity and just pretended to be nice. One day she was really nice and the next day she's mean and doesn't care what you're saying to her--like she could care less about what's going on in your life. Oh well...my friend, Karen, told me the news just now and she told me that another first grade teacher called her to tell the news and also said she was not happy with who it was. That's my satisfaction. I know that the teachers that I worked with this past spring will be unhappy with the "new" person. Well, at least I will still somewhat be attached to them by subbing for them. You know, I wouldn't be as annoyed if they had just hired someone else for the job--for instance, Karen told me that there were a whole bunch of title I tutors from another school that got displaced because of a school shutting down and he didn't even hire them--even though they had like 10 years experience or more. Why didn't he hire one of them? Is he trying to please someone? This Kori girl has a full teaching license and still wanted this job. She could teach anywhere she wanted! I have an Idaho license also but it's specialized for German, which there aren't any positions currently available. Why would she take this job? Oh well, guess I'll never know her reasons. I just know that her mother works there at Garfield so maybe that's the reason. Just sayin'. Errrr....

Stayin Alive

The cure to all jogging woes: disco music!! Especially when the music involves Donna Summer and the BeeGees! hahaha....I love that music and I never even thought about putting it on my MP3 player in order to work out to it. It has the disco driving beat that keeps me going. Oh, by the way, this week I worked really hard and ended up losing 1.4 pounds at weigh-in this morning--woohoo!! Also, I bought a runner's magazine because it had a section in it about how to succeed at half-marathons. How appropriate! So now I have a program to follow because there's an article in there for a beginner who started running all of the sudden and wanted to make it a part of her daily routine and was aiming to run in a half-marathon. So, I'm going to follow that one and I've already started it--today. I'm excited! I guess my plateau worries are done for (as of now).

EUREKA!

Polenta chips are awesome! (they're not quite as crunchy as regular chips but they're good anyway):

• Any kind of polenta you want or can find (I just used sun-dried tomato and basil flavored polenta)
• cooking spray

Preheat oven to 375. Slice the polenta as thin as you can and place them onto the greased cookie sheet. Place them in the oven for 20-25 minutes. Be careful though--they can go from brown to incinerated pretty quickly! Just keep an eye on them. Mine took about 21 or 22 minutes, I think. You can eat these "chips" with taco salad or salsa or whatever sauces/dips you like! The best thing about these too is that on Weightwatchers, they're "free" for Core plan users! I've never tried polenta before but I had heard about the different recipe ideas from fellow weightwatcher members. So, go ahead and try it already!

Antelope Island, the great Salt Lake, and some BUFFALO!!

On the way to Antelope Island, we saw some oil refineries and Kyle said that I must get a picture of at least one.
On the causeway to Antelope Island/the great Salt Lake.
The lake SMELLS!!!!!!!

We were approaching the beach where everyone goes to get into the nasty, briny water.

It was so sunny and as a result, I have a really nice sunburn on my back and Kyle only got like a little strip of sun on the back of his neck.
Maybe I got the burn because I was wearing a tanktop instead of a tshirt?
That black stuff on the beach is dead (brine) flies. When we walked closer, there were clouds of brine flies swarming all around our feet---NASTY!!!!!!

Kyle was gonna go see what all this bouyancy thing was all about...I opted out.
While waiting on Kyle to get deeper into the water, I took some scenery pictures.
He really is floating! He said that it was the strangest feeling ever--he even exhaled all of the air out of his lungs and he still remained floating!
This was even in shallower water and he still wasn't sinking to the ground.
The nasty (dead) brine flies.

Whoa! Buffalo crossing sign! I've never seen buffalo before!
Here they are! We drove to the ranch on the island and saw some buffalo in the distance. There was a sign that said that bison were dangerous and we shouldn't approach them.


Fascinating!

Temple Square and the surroundings

Assembly hall
Gigantic temple that only the mormonest of the Mormons could go in.
We watched an organ recital in the Tabernacle--it was sooooo coooool!!

They did an acoustics demonstration where the organ player dropped a pin at the front and you could hear it all the way in the back!

Our tour guides--the one on the left is from Nottingham, England and the other one is from Washington, D.C. and they kept calling each other "sister".
Here's some information about the temple but you'll have to read the picture below this one in order to get the info in order.


Assembly hall again (I think).

Now, we went up on the 26th floor of the church office and could see the whole city. This is the capitol building.
The temple from afar.
There were so many flowers around Temple Square!
The Christus statue.
This was the scene we saw leading up to the Christus statue.

The office of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints.
This mural was inside the lobby of the office.
A view of the Wasatch Mountains from the office top floor.
The temple from the top in all its glory!

Our hotel room and the view

We were on the 11th floor in the Radisson.

We had our hotel in the middle of downtown Salt Lake and we had a great view of the Wasatch Mountains!