Finally Grown Up

On Saturday, my daughter Emma had two soccer games. The first game the Runaways won 6-1. The second game, the Runaways played the Sprites. Emma's team has not beat this team. Even though the Sprite's pushed around the Runaways, Emma's team lost
3-2. The Runaways had a great showing. Next Saturday will be their last chance to beat them during this soccer season.

The Runaways was informed that they will be going to the playoffs in December. They will have three games in one day.

I Thought I was done with driving Emma to practices 2X a week, I guess I was wrong.

Today was my first day student teaching at Jefferson elementary school. The summer session will last 4 weeks until July 14 I believe. I am in a SDC class with 9 students. Today was an uneventful day. The teacher went over rules and procedures.

I was watching the NBA finals-Lakers and the Celtics. My wife and children do not have watching basketball as their number one priority. I usually end up watching basketball games by myself or go to my father-in-law's house. He has a big screen tv and it is fun watching games with him.
The other day a basketball game was about to begin and my daughter Emma said, "I will watch Hoosiers with you in honor of the actor that died". Normally, I would take her up on her offer but come on, it's playoff time. I know she will never be willing to offer to watch Hoosiers again. Hoosiers is my all time favorite movie.
I might have a new basketball fan in my family. When I was about to turn the Laker-Celtic baksetball game on, Jane said, "Lakers- I am so excited!" At one point, she was in the living room and shaking pom-poms chanting "Go Lakers, let's go Lakers." I am so excited that there is another Laker fan even though she is only two!

Yesterday, it was was mine and my wife's 11th wedding anniversary. My wife thought it would be nice to celebrate our 11th by changing our children's sleeping arrangements. Moving a heavy bed, taking apart a crib, and moving other bedroom accessories. Sounds like a fun evening!

First we moved Eliza's bed into her older sister's bedroom. This did not make Emma very happy. Even though she did not want this move to happen, I think she secretly wanted Eliza back in her bedroom. In recent days, Eliza and Emma have slept in the same bedroom anyway. Eliza says "I want to sleep with Emma" and "I do not like to sleep by myself". Emma says NO! and Eliza cries (and hits Emma sometimes). Emma ends up letting her sister sleep in her room. Now offically, they are back in the same room.

Now, it was time to take apart Jane's crib and put her in Eliza's former room. This is what I heard form Jane during this process..."What's happening? Daddy is mean! NO DADDY!" It was not even my idea and Jane blamed it on me.

A day later, we did celebrate our 11th anniversary by going out to eat and watching the A-Team movie. I remember watching this tv show when I was a kid. This movie did not disappoint me. The movie was full of action. Two Thumbs Up!

Tomorrow, I will say goodbye to Stella Hills 4th grade resource class. This experience was at great one for student teaching. This resource class is the best resource class that I step foot in. Resource class is suppose to be extra help for students having problems in certain areas. The teacher actually taught 4th grade work and not 2nd grade. The teacher taught at the grade level but took extra time to teach the information. This was a true resource class. I would like to be in a resource class and I now saw a resource class that I can base my own classroom on.

After tomorrow, I will have two weeks before my second half of student teaching starts. I am looking forward to it. Once again, I will be in a resource class.

Today is May 23, 2010. The weather should be sunny and warm. It is spring/summer. We woke up this morning and white stuff was coming down. Where did the snow come from? I lived in this town in California for 11 years and it has never snowed this late in the year. Now, I look at the window, there is almost no signs of snow.

I always wondered what happens the day after the regular teacher is absent. I leave a note for the teacher and sometimes the note is good and other times the note is bad. I try to leave some sort of message that shows the students were good but sometimes it is hard. I had a opportunity to see it in person because I am a student teaching. The first 20 minutes of the class, the students were pointing fingers at everyone accept for themselves. This is what I heard. He did this. She did that. I was doing my classwork. I did not do anything wrong. Watching the conversation was really funny. This should be a comic act on the Last Comic Standing.

The Word of the day is focus. This is something that the students in the resource room can not do. I am in a general education class with three resource students during the first two hours a day. These three students cannot keep focused for more than five seconds. This is not a joke. One student tries to sleep while the other two students want to play swords with their pencils. The problem increases when there is a substitute in the classroom who can not control the class. It is interesting to watch another substitue teacher try to control the class since I have been a substitute teacher for many years now. I felt sorry for the teacher a little but it was kind of funny watching him fight a loosing battle. I have been in his shoes many times.

The teacher that I am student teaching in told me many times that I need to keep the resource students focused in the class. This is challenging but almost impossible to keep the students focused.

Tomorrow, I will be teaching my first lesson in the class. I am going to have the class make a multiplication house and than the students will practice multiplication using the houses. Let's see how I do.

Finally, I started student teaching about 10 days later than I was suppose to. I have to drive a little over an hour to get to the school. I am not looking forward to this drive every day but at least I am student teaching. I am in a 4th grade resource class. The class is set up like this. The first two hours, the students are in a general education 4th grade class. There are six students and the students are split between two 4th grade classrooms. I am to help the students with their work and keep focussed on their work. The students get off track easily. After recess, the students have math in the resource classrooom. First, students have a math minute to do and a math lesson. Today, the lesson was on multiplication with decimals. The students then proceed to lunch. After lunch, the students work on a DOL sentence on the whiteboard followed by working on SRA's. I worked one on one with a student who is a first grade reader who will not do anything unless someone is sitting with him. At the end the day, the teacher reads Charlotte's Web to the class. The last hour of class, there are not any students in the resource class. Tomorrow will be another day of observation. The teacher has given me an assignment to ccome up with a couple of math art projects for next week. I am excited to do my student teaching in a resource classroom because I want to become a resource teacher.

The submit button can be scary. At the beginning of the month when it is time to pay bills, you sit there at your computer and think I cannot afford to pay the phone bill or car payment. You look at the submit button on your computer for minutes before you have the courage to press the button. When you press the button, you also cover you eyes. Maybe if you do both of these things at the same time, you pay the bill, but also your money stays in your bank account. Wouldn't that be amazing!

This week, I had to push the submit button on my computer. This submit button was not hard to press. I did not wait for a few minutes and I did not cover my eyes. This submit button was to send my last National University paper for my special education course work. I have been going to school for so long that I do not want to ever have to press this kind of submit button again. I will avoid it like a plague. You know like the plagues that was sent to the people of Egypt.

The first college course that I took was through Bakersfield College in the fall of 1999. The course was Intro to Microcomputer. I believe my wife made me take this course. This was a few months after we got married. I think she did not want me to be a couch potato. Hmm...This is 2010 and I stll do not have a real job. On Wednesday, I submitted my last paper to finish the course Instruction of Learners with Mild/Moderate disabilities. SUBMIT!

I entitled this blog Finally Grown Up because I thought I would finally obtain a REAL JOB. I have faith that this will really happen!

I believe that the best and toughest job in the world is the same. This job is being a parent. It is exciting to see Jane learning so many new things. She talks all the time and sometimes I do not have a clue what she is saying. My oldest daughter who always complains that math is hard recently brought home two math test with a 100% and she is so proud of the grade. Emma is also starting on her science project which she is excited about. When my children are excited and happy, it brings joy to me. On the other hand, it is difficult to see a child who is struggling. It is difficult to hear my kindergartener say that no one will sit by her on the bus or at lunch. She often sits on a bench at recess by herself too. This breaks my heart to see her so sad. I wish I could take all her sadness away but as a parent I can not do that. This makes being a parent the toughest job in the world.

Yesterday, the day started out like a normal day. I took my oldest daughter to the bus stop. I watched the Baby Can Read dvd with Jane. I received a call from school. Eliza threw up on the bus. I am not sure where that came from because she was fine in the morning. I went to pick her up school. As soon as she got home, she puked again. I cleaned up the mess. I tried to feed Jane lunch. I tried like eight different foods but she would not eat. I thought she was being the normal Jane but she would not even eat her favorite foods like banana, yogurt, and bread. I put down Jane for a nap. Not even 20 minutes later, Jane was crying. I went to check on her. She puked. She was kind of laying in it. She had some in her hair. I cleaned Jane up (not goog enough because she smelled like puke still) and took her sheets out of her crib to wash. This was not a normal day.

We have friends that own "My Baby Can Read" books and dvd's. I actually saw their child, who is only about 2 weeks older than Jane, pick up a flash card with the word bubbles. She could read it. That is very impressive. I want Jane to learn how to read before she is two!

We now own the "My Baby Can Read" books and dvd's (courtesy of Ebay). I have watched a dvd with Jane almost every day for the last few months. She does not seem to be learning these words like our friend's daughter. Jane loves watching these videos and I know she is actually learning from them. Her favorite group of words to say is "Arms Up" and "Arms Down". These are a couple of the words in the video. She says these over and over again throughout the day. She loves the songs If You're Happy and You Know It.., Head, Shoulder, Knees, and Toes, Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Star, and Itsy Bitsy Spider.

Whenever I mention the word video, Jane gets very excited. I am not sure why I call it a video because it is a dvd. Who owns videos anymore anyway? They are so 80's. Well, we do. We have a lot of Disney videos and a VCR to play them on. Let me see, does anyone have records? Not me. My kids have never seen a record before. I thought I was talking about the video series...sorry I got off topic. Anyway...

Yesterday, Jane did say mouth and baby before the words were said on the dvd (not video), I do not know if that was a fluke or she is actually learning words or not. I have to admit I was a little jealous about our friend's daughter, but I am not anymore. Jane loves watching the "videos" and she is learning from them. That is what counts, isn't it?

Last night, my two youngest daughters were home together. My wife was in town tutoring a senior in high school so he will graduate in June. My oldest daughter was at a Faith in God activity. My two daughters were playing together while I was doing my homework. Eliza repeatedly asked "What can I do"? I kind of ignored her question. My daughter who will be 2 in July began to answer her "What can I do?" by saying "HOMEWORK"! Can you tell what I use a lot of my time doing? I HATE homework. SHH...Do not tell my kids!

What is GRATITUDE? I think gratitude is being thankful for what we have. I know it is not Thanksgiving but it is good to be thankful all year long. My children's grandmother always tries to get her grandkids to say please and thank you. This is a great lesson to learn while my kids are young. A great example of gratitude is my 20 month old daughter. She says thank you every time you give her food or a toy. I am very impressed that she has learned this lesson before is even two years old. I wish that I had something to do with it but I do not think that I do. I think she learned it from her grandmother. My mother-in-law and youngest daughter are great examples of graditude and I should show it more in my life.

Tonight on the internet, I saw that the planet Mars could be seen next to the moon. I went outside with my daughter Jane to look for Mars. At first, I could not find it but I finally did! I got my other daughters out of bed so they could see Mars. It was pretty cool! Eliza was afraid that Mars would fall out of the sky. Emma wanted to go back out to see it but Eliza was afraid to go back outside. I can see why Emma was excited because she loves Science. She did get a 97% in Science this past quarter. She wants to be a Science teacher. Jane yelled the words MOON MOON MOON over and over again. She kept pointing to the sky even after we were in the house. It was fun to see my kids have alot of joy in seeing Mars.

I decided to type my name into google. This is what I found.

There is a Richard Stanley who is a professor at Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Richard teaches Math. Every week, I am helping my daughter Emma with her math. She is currently working on decimals and fractions. I can barely help her with math. So, I guess this Richard Stanley is NOT me. I am working on being a teacher so I do have something in common with him.

Richard Stanley is the award-winning South African-born filmmaker who made a name for himself with his first feature film, the sci-fi movie Hardware -a low budjet movie about a mad-dog android loose in an apartment. Critics slammed it but it made a fortune! ( I guess it's never too late to start another profession even though I haven't started one yet! I am sure my wife would want me go to schhol for a few more years to get a degree in film...NOT).

Richard Stanley is a realtor. I wouldn't even consider this type of job.

I guess being married for 10 years, father of 3 beautiful daughters, and going to school for 10 years does not deserve a google spot but I would not change anything. Maybe, going to school for 10 years!

When we were on vacation, we thought about going whale watching. If we stayed another day, we might have went whale watching. Eliza said, "What is whale watching?" She paused for a second then she said "Is that when you watch whales?" Aren't kids great!

Our family took a trip to Carlsbad. We have not been on a trip for at least two years. Before starting out on our trip, my wife and youngest daughter were sick. My wife said she ccould be just as sick at a hotel as she is at home. A trip that should have taken four hours took us 6 hours because of traffic. On our way to Carlsbad, we heard a familiar words come out of our children's mouth "Are we there yet?" Our youngest daughter were a perfect angel on the trip and she was sick. She did not complain on the trip to and from Carlsbad. The trip was fun and needed.





Jane was excited to see the birds on the pier in Oceanside. Each time she saw a bird, she had to point and look at it for a while. Seeing her excited and smile makes my day.




Grandpa and grandma and their grandkids. The second picture is a picture of our growing family.





This is our view of the ocean from the pier. A beautiful view!!




Jane and Me.







Pictures at the Beach. This was a fun trip but too short.

My sister recently sent me an email to call the Nestle Crunch hotline. I kept the email in my inbox for days. I finally did call the number and followed the instructions. It was hilarious.

This is what you need to do. Call 1-800-295-0051. When you are asked if you want to continue in English or Spanish, just wait quietly for about 10 seconds. Listen to the options...press 4. Listen to the options...then press 7.

Be prepared to laugh

This is a regular conversation at our house.

Kids: Is mommy home?

Me: No, she is working or she is doing something at church.

Kids: So, do we have to have Mac and Cheese or a peanut butter and jelly sandwich for lunch (or dinner)?

Me: Yes, we do. What do you want?

I am expert in cooking. My two expert dishes are Mac and Cheese from a box and peanut butter and jelly. Sometimes I get tried of eating these two fancy foods. I am sure my kids are too. My wife decided that I needed to expand my cooking skills. Yesterday, I had my first Cooking 101 class.

My first lesson in Cooking 101 is to make Rachel's grandma's Macaroni Cheese Deluxe. There are only a few ingredients and it does not take very long to make. Here is how you make it. I am sure many of you already know, how but here it is anyway.

1-7 Oz pkg. (1-3/4 cups) elbow macaroni (we used whole wheat)
2 cups small curd cream-style cottage cheese (YUCK)
1 cup dairy sour cream (Once again YUCK)
1 slightly beaten egg
3/4 tsp. Salt
Dash of pepper
8 ozs. sharp cheese, shreaded (2 cups)(we actually split this between cheddar and Asiago cheese)

Cook macaroni according to directions; drain well. Combine cottage cheese, sour cream, egg, salt and pepper. Add shredded cheese, mixing well; stir in the cooked macaroni. Turn into a greased 9x9x2 inch baking pan. Sprinkle with paprika (but we actually added bread crumbs to melted butter and spread it across the top); bake in 350 oven for 45 minutes.

Conclusion.
This was very easy to make and it tasted much better than box mac and cheese. I don't like sour cream or cottage cheese, but it makes this recipe taste good. My family did not die from the food. They said the homemade mac and cheese tasted good. Am I going to stay in the class Cooking 101 or drop out? At this point I do not know. I might stay for at least one more class. My kids will like this. Maybe daddy will cook something besides boxed mac and cheese or peanut butter and jelly for lunch.