Silly Brain

My dad sent this as an email a couple of days ago, and I thought it was really cool. I just wanted to post this and let everyone else read it. I don't have much time to write so I'll just leave with this.

More Brain Stuff . . . From Cambridge University.

O lny srmat poelpe can raed tihs. cdnuolt blveiee taht I cluod aulaclty uesdnatnrd waht I was rdanieg. The phaonmneal pweor of the hmuan mnid, aoccdrnig to a rscheearch at Cmabrigde Uinervtisy. it deosn't mttaer in waht oredr the ltteers in a wrod are, the olny iprmoatnt tihng is taht the frist and lsat ltteer be in the rghit pclae. The rset can be a taotl mses and you can sitll raed it wouthit a porbelm. Tihs is bcuseae the huamn mnid de os not raed ervey lteter by istlef, but the wrod as a wlohe. Amzanig huh? yaeh and I awlyas tghuhot slpeling was ipmorantt! if you can raed tihs psas it on !!

The Pink Nightmare

Yes, it is official. Erin has begun to sell Mary Kay cosmetics. I am really happy for her -- she is excited to get started. I hope that it doesn't turn into a huge hassle. I'm sure it won't. Erin has her eyes on earning a car. And that ain't bad.

In other news, I am still kind of hanging out waiting for school to start. I'm reading a book that I think I'll teach this year, probably in the spring. It's called The Secret Life of Bees. I'm about half done with it. The book isn't the greatest ever, but decent. I kind of have little dilemma. Girls will read "boy" books, but boys won't read "girl" books. This book is definitely a "girl book." I'm going to teach it anyway. I think it is good for boys to be exposed to the feminine perspective. I also think it is valuable for girls to have their own perspective shown in a positive way. I don't know how well I'll do. Erin could perhaps teach the book much more effectively than I, but I'm still going to give it a shot. I'm just a little nervous. As I said earlier, I'm not teaching it until the spring, so I have plenty of time to get advice from some of my colleagues. I'm one of two male English teachers, so I will find several people who can give me support. I'll also teach plenty of "boy" books as well as more somewhat gender-neutral books. I still don't have all of my curriculum hammered out, but I do know where I'll start. With the tenth grade I'm going to work on writing. With the eleventh grade, I'm going to dive right in to a two play unit. We'll be reading A Death of a Salesman and A Raisin' in the Sun. It should be fun.

We've got a couple more weeks of summer, and I plan on enjoying all of them. We have a couple of fun things coming up on our horizon. Next week we will be spending a great deal of time with family. We'll start off next week seeing Gramma Clark, Aunt Deb, and the Merrills. We'll end the week spending time with Erin's extended family. I'm hopeful that the time will be fun and exciting.

busy week

I don't think anybody has been reading this, but I'm going to update it anyway.

We had a really busy week this week -- not quite as busy though as last week. Tuesday was the fourth and I've decided that -- I guess this is just the first time I've thought about it -- The Fourth of July is my favorite holiday. You can't go wrong with fireworks and barbeques. We did both with Erin's family. A couple of days later we went back to Centerville for Bryce's (Erin's brother) reception. He got married about a month ago while we were in Illinois, so they had another reception so we could be there. Well, not exactly. There were many other people who couldn't or didn't want to make it up to Idaho for the first one.

Included among the people we were glad to see was Erin's Grandpa who came from Rhode Island to see all of the family. It was the first time that India has gotten to meet him. She was mostly all smiles. I think she likes him.

I got to barbeque three times this week. That's pretty good, but someday I'll go a perfect 7/7. It is the perfect way to cook. Yes, combining open flames and meat seems to call back some of the basic instincts leftover in our genetic makeup from primal man. I feel like ripping my shirt off grunting and howling to the fire gods. One of the best parts is the sizzle of cold meat being slapped on heated metal. Oh, it is wonderful.

I don't have any new pictures to introduce -- and I'm too lazy to charge up the batteries and go take some, so it'll just be typing for today.

When will life get back to normal?

This is just about the cutest baby ever.






After only spending ten whole days at home in the entire month of June, we are hopeful that we can get some sort of a routine soon. I'm not exactly sure what normal for us is yet this summer. We have so much time on our hands, but rarely have trouble finding something to do. I don't really mind having the summer off as a teacher. I'm also enjoying the fact that I have a job, but start out my employment not working for a couple of months. I'll be plenty busy soon enough.

India is growing so fast. It seems as though she has learned something new nearly every day. I still feel sort of strange sometimes when I realize that I am talking about goofy baby stuff. I mean big deal right? So she rolls over a lot now and likes to sleep on her side instead of her back -- it's not like she cured cancer. For me though, it is almost that exciting. I really like that I've gotten to spend so much time with her. I'm not very hopeful I will have similar opportunity with the other children we plan on having in the future. This is very much a unique time of life.

I'm not spending as much time as I probably should preparing for the upcoming school year. I have the rest of my life to plan. I think I'll just relax. I'll start stressing soon enough. For now, Erin and I have been spending much more time trying to get healthy. That's something we have neglected for far too long (more me than her).

We haven't gone fishing enough yet to justify the money we spent (again mostly me) on the fishing equipment. However, we still have ample time left in the summer to do so.

I went swimming for the first time in several years. Well, I didn't actually swim. I pretty much layed on noodles and got my tan on. I had a really great time and can't wait to lounge some more soon.

This is one of the few pictures we have of all three of us. We were lucky to get to see Grampa Wiemers back in early April . He took this on our way to India's blessing. We were so glad to have Dad come visit us, and are anxiously preparing for our trip to Illinois and Iowa to visit Dad again and the rest of the family for India's first time.