Rain Movie and Hot Days and Lots of Grading

For some reason, this past week seemed to crawl by. (Except for the weekend. As always, it went too fast!) We picniced last Sunday for Easter, which was not the original idea that we thought it was. The park was packed! It took Rob and I a lil while to realize that picnics for Memorial Day, Labor Day and July 4th aren't so popular out here because it's so hot. Easter, however, is prime time for a picnic. Even though it was crowded, we found a nice lil spot and had a lovely picnic afternoon. I have spent the better part of this week grading research papers and am finally nearly done! I have about 15 left and I can't grade them until the kids upload them on turnitin.com so I can catch all their plagiarizing. They all need to be done by Thursday when Rob is going to help me carry all the boxes of papers into school. (The kids turned in their final paper and a ton of writing in in folders and I needed boxes to carry them home in.)

This week I also had a few phone calls home to parents who wanted to yell at me a lot and also the joy of discussing the sex scene in 1984 with some of the most immature freshman ever. Eek. Luckily, Rob recognized that it was a stressful week and brought me Starbucks one morning on his way home from work/my way to work! I had time that morning to enter in grades and get some work done in the peace and quiet with coffee. Best morning of the week :)

We also used the gift card Kristi gave us for Christmas (we're a lil slow) to Applebees for half price drinks and appetizers one night. It was a nice break from all the craziness of the week :) Believe it or not, I have only three weeks left of student teaching! I can't believe how fast time has gone.

The video from the rain last Saturday is posted below. I sound like a maniac on it; enjoy that. The rain seems like so long ago now. It was cool last week and today jumped up to be in the 90's. It's going to be in the upper 90's/low 100's all week. I guess it is summer now. Not sure yet how I feel about all this heat. Looking forward to our trip home in June! Hope all is well with you all and to see you in June :) Love, Sarah and Rob

Happy Easter :)

Okay, starting with Thursday. I had been looking forward to Thursday all week long. Miami hockey was in the Frozen Four (which no one knows about, but is the equivalent of the basketball final four). Kind of a big deal. Rob and I made a pizza... and in case you don't know about our pizzas, they are kind of our specialty. One of the lil grocery markets out here sells pizza dough and Rob is basically a master at pizza creation from his Slice Above days. We actually rarely order pizza, but make it all the time. Any way, here is a picture of our pizza and also of me wearing the Frozen Four t-shirt my dad sent me for Easter!

Miami won on Thursday night! And played in the final game last night against Boston University. Side note, I actually despise all things Boston. Especially after the game, because Boston managed to score twice in the last 40-some seconds and then put the game in overtime and win. I am still cranky. Bad words about BU. It was a lot of fun to cheer the Miami hockey cheers again (obviously that occurred) and it was a really good game. Also, I made Kate's buffalo chicken dip all folded up in crescent rolls and baked and was proud of their deliciousness.

Bouncing back. It rained yesterday, which was magical, really. Here is a picture of the dark, cloudy sky and also I took a lil video of the rain, but need to do something to make the file smaller and so that will happen eventually, but not until my 90 research papers are graded. Enjoy the sky and stay tuned for the rain video. (with commentary, of course.)


Today is Easter. Rob and I went to church this morning. We have been going to a different church every week it seems, trying to find one that we like. The one we went to today was pretty good, but it wasn't like home. We are going to go on a picnic this afternoon...we both kind of thought it would be fun to start our own Easter tradition! Rob bought and cooked and carved (no really, I had nothing to do with it at all!) a ham and we are going to have ham sandwiches in the park! For a while, we were talking about potential picnic side dishes to make and then sort
of got caught up in hockey and grading and so it looks like fancy ham with apples and granola bars will do. I bet as our tradition gets better, we will look back on this year and laugh! Also, I love apples, so no big deal. We will take a few pictures of our picnic and post them asap as well, but wanted to get this up here before we left because again, research paper grading will probably consume me for the next few weeks.

A quick update on the job front. Quantum (Rob's helicopter school) is currently not hiring, but he is putting in applications at other schools throughout the area and we are keeping our fingers crossed that somewhere comes through soon. I had an interview with Mesa School District the day after they fired like 300 teachers, which seemed like terrible timing, but actually felt like the interview went well and am trying to stay positive about teaching jobs too. I really don't like job applications or the job market or stress, but such is life I suppose. Hopefully everything will straighten itself out and things will start going in our favor in this department soon. Sorry that there is no real happy news to report here, but we wanted to keep you updated. We hope that things are going well for the rest of you even though the economy sucks. That's the best way to say it really, I bet.

Okay, let's be happy again. Time to pack up our picnic and enjoy our Easter. Wish we were there to celebrate with all of you, but here in Arizona I wore a skirt and sandals to church...no snow problem! :) Yay silver lining. Lots of love, Rob and Sarah

Rob is a CFII! :)

It has been an exciting week here in Arizona. On Tuesday, Rob passed his CFII checkride, which means he has a license to instruct students flying with instruments. I honestly can't even figure out a better way to describe it, but essentially it was the final exam of all this helicopter training! He turned in a resume on Thursday to apply for an instructor position and we will hopefully be hearing something soon now that there is no other training for him to complete. As a graduation gift, he was given this fancy box of to-go coffee mugs!

We have been celebrating all week! On Thursday, we baked Rob's favorite, coconut pound cake. Ok, technically it was a bootleg celebration because Rob baked his own cake. I was cooking dinner though, so it all sort of evened out somehow. (Also, thanks to his mom for clarification of the amount of coconut and an acceptable pan!). It is delicious.

On Friday, we went to the park and flew kites! My kite had Buzz Light Year on it and Rob's was the Blue Angels. Hooray $1 Wal-Mart purchases. Mostly they nose dived until Rob tied them together and then somehow they magically helped each other stay up. Go teamwork! We sat in the grass and attached the lil plastic handle to my jeans pocket. :) It was probably the best way to fly a kite ever. Here are a few pictures...You should probably click on them individually to view them in all their glory :)

Another exciting thing: I got a haircut! Maybe we're stretching a lil for excitement here, but we are saving the big celebration (Cheesecake Factory!) for when Rob is offered an instructor position at the flight school. You probably can see a lil of the windblown haircut look in the kite flying pictures, but here's another of my new do :)

Mostly, I just work at Rolly Pollies and teach and apply for jobs like a mad woman. So far no second interviews. I've started applying to prep schools and districts far away. Another commute like I had at the Heart Association wouldn't be ideal, but I would be okay with it if it meant I could teach next year. I'm nervous about teaching jobs out here, but trying to stay positive and hope that everyone truly is waiting until the very last possible minute to hire. Please buy something nice for yourself to stimulate the economy and help me out. I recommend shoes, but if that's not your thing, that's okay too. :)

This is a very haphazard post. I apologize. There may or may not have been wine involved. (Sorry, it is Saturday night.) Oh, yesterday, Rob bought some nice Dockers shorts with the remainder of our wedding Macy's gift cards. Thank you to many of you, I am sure. They are nice shorts, but he refused to try on the ones with pleats or plaid patterns, which made for a less exciting shopping experience for all involved. [Rob corrects, not just plaid but very awful plaid with crazy colors. He's here too this time!]

On that note, I'm probably going to learn all about turnitin.com now so I can catch all my kids plagiarizing. Have a wonderful evening :)


OHHHH! ps, here is the gila monster! Don't touch, he's poisonous, but definitely click to enlarge because when Rob snapped the photo, his tongue was flickering out! Rob is rather proud of this picture/experience. He ran a lil after it to take the picture. Enjoy :)

Thanks for reading this far. Hope all is well by all of you and talk to you again soon! Love, Sarah and Rob (and the gila monster!!)