Lucky to Love My Job

I've talked about the myth of summer vacation before on this blog, so I won't bore you to death about that.

Though we do get "three months off" I usually feel busier/more frazzled during the summer than during the school year. This summer, I'm working at five workshops and I attended one other with three students this last week.

There might be a few journalism teachers reading this blog who are thinking "FIVE? That's nothing, I do eight or 10!"

I try to limit myself a little bit - I would, after all, like to have some time to pool it with Betsy and Mitzi, visit my friends in Wichita, go to movies with the Hubs, and work in the yard. This summer I'm extra busy because I'm taking grad classes. Somehow, I also have to leave time for prep for next year's classes.

Dang. I said I wasn't going to bore you with that myth stuff, and there I went and did it.

This post is supposed to be about how lucky I am to have a job I love. I don't love it because I get all this time off.

I love it because of the school where I teach. I love it because of the kids I get to work with. I love it because it's fun (most days).

Earlier this week, I took three students to a Creativity Workshop in Minneapolis. It was a quick trip - fly up Sunday, start the workshop as soon as we got there, work all day Monday, visit Mall of America, work Tuesday morning, fly back Tuesday night. A whirlwind.

But, the students who went were just great. I know they were tired from traveling, but they worked so hard, and they soaked up all the expertise the workshop offered. The girls were nice to me the whole week, and more importantly, they were nice to the workshop staff. I've taught at many a workshop with students who just didn't seem too interested in the workshop offerings, and the attitude shows it.

Being able to trust students who are traveling with you is half the battle on out-of-town trips. I have always been very lucky on convention and camp trips traveling with students.

We giggled, we groused, we walked four blocks in a surprise rainstorm (after I said "Oh, I think we can walk..."), we ate a lot and we shopped.

Though we were drained after flight delays and just wanting to get back home, I think it's safe to say a good time was had by all.

Cabin Fever Countdown

Welp, today was a snow day (we knew last night). And, we got word by 4 p.m. today that tomorrow will be a snow day, too.

I'm betting we'll be out of school on Friday, as well. Why not just go for the trifecta?

The snow didn't start until this afternoon, so I did get up and go to the gym. I thought a 3-mile run was scheduled for today, so that's what I did. When I got home to check the schedule for tomorrow, I realized I read it off by one day.

Having graduate classes on Tuesday nights messes me up. Class is from 5-9 p.m., so I don't work out on those days. I was supposed to do some interval training today, and then the 3-mile run tomorrow. Based on the view outside my window at this point, looks like I'll be relegated to a Biggest Loser Wii workout tomorrow.

Teachers went back to school on Monday, for a half-day of meetings and then time to work in our rooms in the afternoon. That time is vital for me - helps me clear the docket and get mentally prepared to greet students on their first day back. We had one day back with the kids on Tuesday, and then this mini-vacation.

I'm guessing that my trip to the gym today will be the only time I get outside in the next couple of days. I don't want to shovel the drive, and if I don't need to be on the road with idiots, I won't be.

Besides, my snow day kind of turned into a sick day - Monday night's nagging cough turned into joint aches, sore throat and cough after school yesterday and right on through my class last night. I guess the good news is if I'm sick on our days off, I don't have to write sub plans because everyone's at home!

So far today, after the gym, we watched a movie (Away We Go, with Maya Rudolph and John Krasinski), I've knit and read a couple of magazines. I might be a tiny bit crazy after a couple more days like this. I'll keep you posted.

First swing through workshop land

We got back from Dallas this afternoon, all tired out but jazzed up after attending the DCS Publications Workshop.

Nine of my students attended the workshop, and I taught the Photo Editors sequence to campers from other schools. My nine students were eight girls and one boy. That ratio is pretty much par for the course at yearbook camp - always about 10 girls for every boy (sing that to the Beach Boys tune...).

Thankfully, I have great kids for students, very hard workers who can be trusted to attend their sessions and not have attitudes for their instructors. That makes me happy, and makes my job so much easier.

June was the vacation month for me - a little marathon training, some gardening, work around the house, TV time, etc., and July is the worky-worky month. I'm home for two days, and Saturday morning I head to Florida for Jostens Adviser University.

I'm pretty excited for it - the instructors are the best in the business, and I'm actually getting to TAKE a class instead of teaching at the workshop, so I'm ready to soak up some new strategies.

Seattle PRIDE Parade - Sunday, June 28, 2009

Race weekend was a biggie for the city of Seattle.
The marathon alone brought in 25,000 runners, not to mention their friends, family and supporters.
Shuttle drivers told us there were three or four cruise ships in port, adding even more people to the fray.
Then, Sunday, when we woke up and went out in search of breakfast, Mitzi and I found the staging area for the Seattle Pride Parade - right outside the front doors of our hotel.

It was a nice distraction for us as we walked along trying to loosen up our tired legs. After we had breakfast, I went back and got Adam, and he and I walked along the route for a while. The parade started 11, and when we were waiting for our airport shuttle at 1 p.m., it was still going strong!


Adam took a bunch of photos. I was playing with the flip camera, so no stills for me.

The floats and parade walkers were pretty amazing and intricate.


We thought maybe we found a girlfriend for Minnie...

It was cool to see all of the support for the gay community - there were TONS of people at the parade.

Teamwork makes the Dream work!

Any of my co-workers who read that title will smile, since it's something we hear a lot at school. Even though it's a school thing, it's quite appropriate for Mitzi's and my latest hare-brained scheme.

We did it! We finished the Seattle Rock and Roll Marathon last Saturday morning. We did it together - not only the 5 hours and 45 minutes it took us to run the race, but all the miles and miles of training and the ups and downs of raising more than $4,100 each.

Five months of Saturday mornings coming WAY too early, five months of sending e-mail after e-mail to all of our friends and family (thanks to all of you by the way!), five months of What Ifs? and How do wes? Five months of pounding the pavement in our trusty running shoes.

The above photo is deceiving because the light makes it look like it's in the middle of the day. That picture was taken about 4:30 in the morning when we got to the start line area. That's Mitzi on the left, along with other TNTers Jeanne, Melinda and Mary. You can see us all there with our various gear - water, Cytomax, PowerBars, sweatshirts, sweatpants, etc.

Mitzi and I woke up at 3:15 that morning, put on sunscreen, put on Body Glide (in hopes of heading off chub rub and blisters, at least in my case), put on sports bras, socks, singlets and shorts, and finally shoes, waist packs and hats. Each of us laid out everything we would need on Friday night, so we wouldn't have to look for anything on Saturday morning.

Even though we were far from home, in a different time zone, we tried to keep everything as routine as possible that morning.

It was anything but.

Up super early, bus to the starting line. We arrived there about 4:30. We brought bagels and peanut butter with us, so that we wouldn't have to start the race hungry. Usually we only have about an hour between eating and running, and this time it was much, much more because of the wave start.

Luckily, the coffee shop behind the girls in that photo had a $1 cup special, so we were able to have some coffee with the food, which is a BIG part of the morning routine.

We started in corral 25, so it took almost 50 minutes for us to cross the start line after the gun went off. If you look at our finish time, it looks like it took 6 hours, 28 minutes, but not really.

The first half of the course was nice - ran along the water, some nice downhills, saw a bald eagle perched low in a tree, lots of spectators.

The second half - not so much.

Adam took this photo of us as we passed him and our friend David around mile 15. It was somewhere near downtown Seattle. Here, we're still feeling mostly okay...

The second half of the course was much hillier than I expected, and most of it was running on elevated highways, so they wouldn't let the spectators up there. When the going got tough, it was tough to be up there. We had to dig deep to keep on moving. We told a few stories, played a few games, yelled "Go Team!" to all the other Team in Training runners. We took walk breaks (more than we typically would), since it was hilly and actually a little bit hot.

I know - it was like 110 in the shade in KC that weekend, and only about 75 in Seattle, but when running, it feels 20 degrees hotter, so it was a little warmer than we expected.


That's Mitzi as she crosses the finish line. Didn't Adam do a great job taking photos?


I still had some gas in the tank for the last quarter-mile or so, so I really kicked up my pace so I could finish strong. It made me feel great and proud to hear people saying "Go Jill, you're doing great!" but in all the photos after I crossed the line, my mouth is open since I am breathing so heavy!

I've now finished two marathons. I think if you'd have told my 18-year-old self that, she would say YOU'RE CRAZY - there's no way!

Thanks to Adam and Mitzi for being great travel companions and Mitzi for being an awesome training partner. I couldn't have done it without either of them.


I will put up another post later this week with travel-type photos of places we saw and things we did. I wanted this one to be mostly about the race itself.

Memorial Day with the Fam 2009

This post is mostly photos, and a lot of them speak for themselves. Most were taken by me, but obviously the ones I'm in were taken by somebody else...

This is the home my grandpa grew up in - it's in Altus, the town in Arkansas where they filmed the first season of the simple life. As you can see, the house has been vacant for so long, it's basically falling down around itself.

I didn't go on the drive to Altus. When we got back from the boat trip, I got a migraine, so I took some high-powered ibuprofen and took a three-hour nap. So, I think Carrie or Ann probably took the photo above.

The highlights of the trip for me were taking the boat out on the lake, and two nights spent playing dominoes with my cousins.

It was cloudy and a tad on the cool side on Sunday, but we decided to try the lake anyway.

Sara got to go tubing for the first time.

We did brave the cool waters. Once you got in the water, though, it wasn't so bad. Ann shot the above photo of us.


Malachi didn't seem to be a big fan of the lake. He got in, but got right back out.


Same thing with Kenzie. She got in, swam out to her mom, and swam back to the boat.


Even though he wasn't a big fan of swimming in the water, Malachi loved the boat ride.


Sara and her girls.


We picked up Matt from shore so Ann could drag him around the lake. He was quite the skilled tube-er. He was steering up and over the wake, and doing all kinds of cool stuff.

Even my dear old dad got in the lake. As you can see, he thought it was a little cold. I had stuck my foot in and said "It's not that bad!" just before I shot this photo of him getting in the water...

Dad even went tubing. I think he really enjoyed it. I'm pretty sure he's never done anything like that before, but I could be wrong...


That's me way back there on the tube. The water was a little cold when you first got in, but once in the water it wasn't so bad. Ann shot the photo of me. (Hey, zoom in next time!)

Other than being out in the boat, we hung out in the condo most of the weekend, since the weather was chilly and rainy. I think I'll definitely go back to Beaver Lake again. It wasn't really crowded, and the scenery was nice.

This was the view down the hill from our balcony.


Here's the little goober.


Saturday morning I went down to the shore with the kids so they could go "fishing." Mostly, they just played around in the mud and water, but the weather was really nice at that point, so it was okay hanging out down there.




I really like this photo of Kasie. If I was shooting this vacation for a photo assignment, I'd have edited a lot tighter (obviously) but I figured I'd show off as much of the fam as possible.

Chalk up one more reason to despise PCs

The plan was to post a bunch of photos from the family vacay tonight, but when I attempted to burn a CD on mom's laptop so that I could put them on my laptop, all hell broke loose.

Thought the CD burned. Brought it home. It's unreadable by my Mac. PC people? Anybody? Help here?

I think I'll just take my jump drive over there tomorrow and copy them on to that - no burning required.

I won't post too much about the trip yet - the photos will make that better. We got back around 3:30 this afternoon. Adam and I helped Mom and Dad unload the RV, then we grabbed dinner at Ruby Tuesday's (Adam was craving salad, and they have the best salad bar). We were going to go to a movie, but decided to come home and watched "Close Encounters." Then, Mom called Adam's phone to inform us that I had left my purse and phone at their house, so I had to run over there to pick it up. Good thing they're only two minutes away by car...

I did come home to find one baby bird egg in one of the hanging plant baskets on the porch, so we'll have to keep an eye on that to see what happens. It rained on us all the way home from Arkansas, but none here, I guess. I really need it to rain, since SOMEBODY was "too busy" to water my plants while I was out of town.

•••

We have one half day with students tomorrow, and then again on Wednesday. I've got grading and work to do in the afternoons, hopefully all goes well.

Summer vacation - oh so close!

I promise I haven't died

I've just been really busy, that's all. And, now I've gone and gotten you all excited that there's actually a new post, and it won't really be that long.

I spent part of last week in Phoenix for the National High School Journalism Convention, and I have tons of cool photos to post from that, as well as a trip to Minneapolis the week before that. I will do it this week.

When I got home yesterday, I headed straight to Panera to do some grading with Betsy. For some reason, I get more done there than I do at home. Adam was working at the Home Depot (or, the Dee-POT, as I call it) when I got back in town, so Betsy and I passed the time until he got home.

Adam and I ate at the "sushi train" restaurant - not really called that but it's what we call it. Shawnee-ites will know it as Sakura at 75th and Nieman. We loved it last time we went, but this time it was too close to closing time. The same pieces of sushi that no one wanted kept coming around on the train. Lesson learned - go earlier in the day if you're going to be eating sushi off of a train that circles a bar.

Then, of course we had school today. Stayed til 5 to get some stuff done, and then I HAD to get a run in. Only did that once while in Phoenix, and we go 18 this weekend. Yikes.

Check back with me later this week for photos and more. Kickball practice Thursday and the season starts next week, so that oughta be some good blog fodder...

For now, bedtime!

Visit to Salt Lake City - Guest Blogger Adam

I'm not much of a "blogger" but here it goes. Here are some pictures from my trip to Utah. They are pretty self-explanatory, but if you really need a commentary, I guess I can take a few minutes out of my busy schedule to explain each picture.

Here are the three Chittum "Men." I use that term loosely as there is really only one man here.

While we didn't get to go skiing, we did tempt fate by hiking at approximately 6000ft during an avalanche warning.

I thought I was in good shape, but I fell behind Joshua almost from the start, struggling just to put one foot in front of another. It was brutal but definitely worth it.

The Ochre Mountain range, as seen from my parents' apartment. They claim the mountains are about 30 miles away. The Wasatch Mountains are about a mile directly behind me.

Is it wrong that this is one of my Dad's favourite beers? Only in Utah!

Amazing! A city about the same size as Kansas City that has a light rail system that people actually use!

Yes, we were able to go to the Jazz game.

Yes, the seats were really close.

Yes, we had a good time.

No, we didn't get Carlos Boozer's autograph.

Here we have a bar built into a trolley car. It only has like 4 stools in there so you and your friends have to go in shifts to drink.

Joshua is neither 37-54" tall nor "toilet trained." He was unable to play...


Mom and Dad are very proud of their daughter-in-law, who makes up for their son. They are showing off the gifts she made for them.



This is my attempt at "real" photography, during our Christmas Eve candle-light service.


Less we forget about the Mormons and how they pretty much control everything that goes on in Utah, we did find at least one person willing to stand up for what is right. Joshua is the one in the blue jacket and sunglasses.

So visit to Salt Lake City was all that I'd hoped it would be and more. I'm really glad that I got to see my Mom and Dad. -Guest blogger Adam

This and that

We got up at O Dark Early today to get Adam to the airport. Left the house at 5:30, and got to KCI at 6:40. Normally, it doesn't take that long from here, but there was just enough snow over night to gum up the traffic works. Thank God most people don't work on Christmas Eve, so the roads were at least being lightly traveled.

Looks like it could be a white Christmas, but it's more like a whiskery white Christmas - it snowed, but not enough to cover up the grass.

Last night we did the friend-ily gift exchange with Betsy and Mitzi, and watched "Can't Buy Me Love." Mitz cooked up some awesome homemade pizza. I think she's inspired Adam to invent his own recipe for homemade pizza, too. Betsy gave Adam the Nestle Tollhouse (Tooul-hoouse, for you "Friends" fans) cookbook. We decided that we should make a recipe from there every week when we have our little get-togethers, but we'll also have to schedule an extra get-together for working out to burn off the sugar!

Picture me like the little old ladies in "The Three Amigos" today - SEW LIKE THE WIND! I've got to finish the blanket, and make a scrapbook page frame as well. Guess it's a good thing Adam took off for Salt Lake.

Off to get some work done.

Quick trip down and back

Last weekend I had to go to the KSPA winter meeting in Wichita. I'm happy to attend the meeting, because I get to see my journalism teacher friends that I don't see very often.

I'm also happy to go because I get to visit my Wichita family. Adam and I drove down Friday night after school. We didn't get to Derby until about 8:30, but we did get to see Kyle and Noah just before bedtime. Of course we were glad to see them, but right before bedtime probably isn't the best time to visit a 3-year-old...

We need to learn to time that better, so we don't get the K-Man all riled up before he's supposed to be going to bed.

After the meeting on Saturday morning, Amy dropped me off at Jeff and Kat's so I could visit with them for a little while, too. I really need three-day weekends to go to Wichita, so we can actually see everyone we want to visit.

After we sat inside and visited for a bit, Jeff headed outside to get some yardwork done, and we went out to provide moral support and take Haley for a walk. L decided she needed a little ride on the mower.

I was already looking forward to Christmas break, but now I'm really anxious for it. The weekend trip provided just a taste of hanging with friends, and I'll have some more time to do so during the holiday. Maybe Amy and I can actually get some knitting time...

Even though we don't get a lot of time together, it's still all quality time. I'm so glad that even though we don't live in Wichita anymore, we are able to stay friends with our tribe.

Hey Buuudddy! And other brushes with fame

A little while back I was tagged, and in my post, I wrote about the fact that Pauly Shore kissed me in an elevator once.

Here's the photo of us in the elevator:

I liked him a lot more in full-on Weaz mode, with the long hair and bandana, but by the time I met him (probably 2003?) he was over all that. The actual photo of this looks much better than this copy, but I shot it with my phone while it was hanging on my cabinet at school, right as I was running out the door.

Last year, one of my students asked me "Is that your husband?" when she saw the photo.

I've also had my photo taken with Lyle Lovett, Wayne Gretzky, Trace Adkins and Mike Gordon, the bassist from Phish. I got Russell Crowe's autograph and took a crap ton of photos of him, but I can't say as I've officially MET him. Being a photographer, along with attending a couple of South By Southwests really upped my celebrity quotient. Oh, and when I was a kid, I had my photo taken with Chi Chi Rodriguez, a professional golfer. In my family, we refer to him a "ChI ChI Rod rig wez" I think because Les Nessman on "WKRP" called him that once and it stuck.

Here's the pink truck I tweeted about last week while we were in Arkansas. When Paris and Nicole did their first season of "The Simple Life" they stayed in my grandma's home town, Altus. The family they stayed with is some sort of second or third cousin, twice removed or something. (Insert "everyone's cousins in Arkansas" joke here.)


Once we got back from Arkansas, I spent the rest of the holiday weekend on various tasks:

Putting up our sweet retro aluminum tree.


Researching, writing and organizing a 15-page paper on Social Cognitive Theory.


And knitting up a storm of Christmas gifts. I was sitting in the back of my parents' van, and I needed to see if I was getting close to done with the hat, so I tried it on, and shot my photo with my phone. Worked like a champ when there wasn't a mirror readily available.

Today was the first day back at school. We only have two full weeks until finals week, and on that week, we have two regular days, then three days of finals. The end of the semester will be here before I know it.

•••

If you haven't done so already, please visit the website for Dreams Work, and make a donation to celebrate their 7th birthday. Just tonight, as I was driving home from school, I heard on the radio that there is now a waiting list for Kansas Medicaid HCBS funds for disabled people between the ages of 16 and 65. Those are the funds that help pay for Dreams Work services for clients. Nice of the legislature to put a freeze on funds for people who can't help themselves, eh?