Goodbye June

A picture of me at June Mountain last year.

Phil started teaching me how to snowboard only 2 weeks after we started dating back in 2001. That first season we just went to 2 resorts and I got my "snow legs" under me. The next season and every year since then we have faithfully purchased season passes to June Mountain. June is located about 20 miles north of Mammoth in the Eastern Sierra Mountains of CA. June is our snowboarding "home." Both Phil and I love that mountain. The people are friendly, the snow is great (usually), we can sleep in our car and use their restrooms at night (they leave them unlocked), the town is small but cozy. All in all, we love June.

This season, we once again purchased our June season passes back in December. Due to a lack of snowfall they were not open at our anniversary which is usually about the time for our first trip of the season. We decided to wait until a snowstorm hit before driving all the way to June. Unfortunately, for us and June, that snowstorm has never come. Yesterday, as Phil faithfully checked the website to see how the base is holding up he found out that they were CLOSING FOR THE SEASON! We haven't been once this season. This is very sad news for us, especially if we move out of state because we may never get another chance to go to June again. So you ask, "What happens to your season passes? Do they give you a refund?" No...no refund.

Phil and I paid approximately $350/person for our passes this year. Instead of a refund, they have done something even better! Now, as a result of June closing, their sister moutain is allowing us to ski there with our passes. Their sister mountain is Mammoth and a season pass to Mammoth costs somewhere in the neighborhood of $1,500!! We have officially been upgraded! Pretty sweet deal if you ask us. We are still going to miss our litte June mountain but we're excited to snowboard on the expanse of Mammoth this season. If we are both well, we should be heading up this weekend for our first Mammoth trip. How exciting is that? I bet the people who paid all that money for a Mammoth pass were wishing they had purchased a June pass instead!



Me standing next to the snow level at Mammoth LAST year!! They weren't lacking snow then!

Sick

In my mind, being a teacher is one of the hardest jobs to have when you're sick. If you're really sick, you have to write lesson plans which tend to take FOREVER. Then, when you return, the classroom needs to be reorganized and lots of papers have to be taken care of whether from the office or the students. Quiet often, when I am sick I choose to go into work because it is sometimes easier to be present than trying to write sub plans and get them to school before 8:00 AM.

I haven't been feeling well for a few days and on Wednesday morning at 3:30 AM I woke up knowing that I should not be going into work that morning. So, at 3:30, I logged onto the sub system and requested a sub and wrote lesson plans for 45 minutes. At 4:15ish or a little later, I finally dragged myself back to bed to try to attempt sleep. I wanted to warn Phil not to wake me up in the morning when he saw me still in bed when his alarm went off but I couldn't do that without waking him up. So, when his alarm went off he got really scared for me because his alarm wakes up 5 minutes before the bell rings for me to pick up my students. (If I really do oversleep and wake up to Phil's alarm, I will be in BIG TROUBLE!) Anyways, I stayed home, slept in, relaxed, read, and took drugs to clear my head (I'm fighting sinus/head nastiness). Alas, nothing has worked and I feel just as bad if not worse than I did this morning. So, I had to call in for another sub and write MORE lesson plans. It's really hard writing lesson plans when you don't know exactly what was covered in the classroom today. Yes, I know what work I assigned but that doesn't mean it was covered. I don't know if I'm giving too much or too little. It all depends on the sub. So, tomorrow, I am definitely calling the doctor to see if I can't get something that will kill this sickness. Hopefully by Friday I'll be back in the classroom and able to catch up. I do NOT want to be writing anymore sub plans for a LONG time!!!!

SNOW!

Well, for those of you who don't have the pleasure of experiencing a Southern California "snowstorm" we had one this week! Now, before you East Coaster's get too excited, a snowstorm here means that a few blobs (not necessarily flakes) of some white stuff fall from the sky. However, Wednesday morning about 9:00 AM as we were sitting in class half of my students were VERY distracted by other students who were outside. It sounded like a rambunctious gym class so I told them to sit down and focus and to ignore what was happening outside. Well, we were just about to head out to another classroom when I looked out and realized it was snowing-of sorts. So, of course, I told the kids to go outside so they could enjoy it. Although I didn't let them run around the field like some other classes, I did allow them to enjoy the pleasure of a few specks of snow falling on them. They pretended to try to gather it for a snowball but of course there wasn't nearly enough. The ground turned slightly white (not covered) but enough to stay for a little while. I let the kids hang outside for about 5 minutes until it started just turning to slush/rain. They were so excited! Some of them were screaming and running in circles. We then headed to our next class. It rained quite a bit after that and then later that day it snowed again after lunch. The poor kids wanted it to snow during recess but alas, it was not to be. I'm glad to say that I have officially seen it snow in Southern CA.

Today there was a lot of ice on the ground at school and of course the kids could not be disuaded from "ice-skating". We warned them to stay off but they had to slip, slide and fall. Although I half-heartedly warned them to stay off the ice, I know that if I were a kid I would be doing the same thing. It's hard being a teacher while still a kid at heart. :)

Haircut Pictures

Well, here's 2 pics of my new haircut. It's growing on me but it's still hard to get used to.

Christmas Break

This post is dedicated to Rachel O as she became the squeaky wheel that restarted my blog. Sorry to all who read. I usually try to blog more frequently. I can't say I don't have time as an excuse as I still haven't returned to teaching from my winter break. I go back next Tuesday.

Here's a little update.

I taught until the Thursday before Christmas and used the remaining few days to catch up on shopping and Christmas errands. Phil and I were going to have to stay down in LA and not spend Christmas with family since Phil doesn't get a lot of time off of work. Everything was going great until about 2 am on Christmas Eve. I woke up with the stomach flu and was sicker than I have ever been with it before. After my body emptied itself of nearly all of my bodily fluids (or so it seemed) I could barely get out of bed on Christmas Eve. I opted to sleep in bed with my cell phone by my side as my caller for Phil. I didn't even have the energy to call out for him if I needed something. He took very good care of me and of course I called my mom and told her that I needed my mommy. Unfortunately, she couldn't make the trip but the talk was comforting.

Needless to say, Christmas day was spent by ourselves. We didn't go anywhere or see anyone. I was at least able to get out of bed but still didn't have energy to do much. Not the most thrilling Christmas ever but Phil and I had a nice quiet time.

After Christmas I got to work on my to do list. This included reading, cleaning, shopping and a few other odds and ends. On the 31st I drove up to my parents in Redding. They knew I was coming at some point to visit they just didn't know when. I called them when I was about half-way to let them know I would be there that night. I hadn't really set a time to leave so I neglected to call them because I didn't want to be rushed...I ended up rushing them to get ready. (Sorry Mom and Dad!)

My sister, bro-in-law and beautiful niece, Bekah, drove up to Redding on the first. All of us enjoyed a nice relaxing week talking, playing with Bekah and of course playing Settler's of Catan! Great game! Sarah and Chris purchased Seafarers, Cities and Knights and the expansions for us for Christmas. We are thuroughly enjoying them!

On Thursday, my mom helped me drive back to Southern Cal. She helped drive in the beginning and helped keep me awake in the end. It was a beautiful drive most of the way down but got pretty stormy going over the Grapevine. While at our place, Mom helped me refinish my sewing machine table. Thanks Mom! I'll have to post pics later. I haven't got any of the finished product yet.

After I dropped Mom off at LAX on Tuesday I decided to get my hair chopped...yes, not cut, chopped. Well, it's chopped. I really wanted a change and I got one. I don't really like it. I can live with it until it grows out but quite honestly, I wish I hadn't had so much cut off. But hey, I went with it and it's done. Now I just have to figure out how to keep it out of my eyes. It's about chin length with layers cut higher than that. Kind of makes my head look bigger and rounder.

Oh yeah! My mom got me started on a series called the Galway Chronicles by Bodie and Brock Thoene which I thuroughly enjoyed! I started them about a week and a half ago and just finished the last one today. (There are 4). Great books!

Well, other than procrastinating about my lesson plans for next week, that's about all I've been up to in the many weeks I haven't blogged. Hope all my readers are doing well. Sorry about the lack of pics this post. I'll try to do better next time! God bless.