I just found this picture and there is something so cute about it. These cousins couldn't be more different, but somehow get along really great.

Meet McMillian and Cotton Mouth, our fish. They had a rough ride home from Tooele today, so we'll see if they live through the night.


This beautiful tree is blossoming in our backyard! YAY! Life!

More senior photos

Salt Flats

Mountains, sand & sun making a beautiful scene.

Salt Lake Marathon 2008

Thurm ran his first marathon this last weekend! He did great. This is a picture of him at the finish line.

Thurm and another teacher, Carlos at the starting line.


2,000 marathon runners.


Sunrise at Sugarhouse Park


14 mile mark--as you can see, he is still in good spirits.


20 mile mark--hitting the wall.

How could you not love Bono?

Differences.
Sure Thurm & I seem pretty different from an outsiders view. In public, I am a conversationalist and Thurm can barely squeak out a yes or no. But really, when its just the two of us, we couldn't get along more perfectly. We see eye to eye on pretty much everything. We like alot of the same things. We spend all our time together doing stuff we both enjoy. We can talk and talk about everything. But I've found how we are truly different:

He hates Bono. I don't know how this is possible. How could you not love Bono? He has put out great music for three decades. He has an Irish accent. He uses his money and fame to help the world's poor and afflicted. He's a family man. He's religious. You never see him on the red carpet. I know hardly anything about his personal life. He wrote "With or without you." What's not to love? This baffles me.

Senior Pictures

I got Photoshop Elements 6 for Mac a few weeks ago and I'm pretty disappointed. It doesn't have some of the features that Elements 6 for PC has. And I didn't realize how much it couldn't do compared to the full Photoshop. I've still been using my iPhoto to do all my editing because it goes so much faster than photoshop. It was $400 cheaper, but I'm sort of regretting my purchase. I think I need to figure out a better process so that using Elements will go faster, but right now its a pain.

Anyway- these are some senior photos I've taken the last couple weeks. I don't think they are fantastic, but they are probably better than the school photos they are used to getting.

Our tires got slashed a few nights ago. Well, one tire. A "gang" was out on a Tuesday night slashing tires (many of the victims were teachers at the high school). They also did a bit of graffiti that night. I'd be more mad if I didn't think it was so LAME! One of the gangs here calls themselves the "White Picket Fence" gang. I just want to mock them till they understand how stupid their gang is. These kids here are just bored out of their minds. Today in church one of the speakers talked about how we need to engage ourselves in uplifting activities to keep away from the adversary. That's exactly these kid's problems. There isn't a whole lot offered here in the way of after school activities. No dance or violin lessons. No roller skating rink. They are idle and not engaged in anything good, so the bad stuff finds them. And alot of them come from messed up homes with parents who are on drugs or gamblers or adulterers, etc. The parents don't value education either, so that makes it hard. There is alot working against them.

Thurm & I were discussing the other day how we have taught kids in two very different cultures. Our experience in Taiwan was completely different from here. In Taiwan, school is their whole life. They go to school all day everyday except Sunday. And when they aren't in Chinese or English school, they take music lessons or some other kind of extra curricular activity. Alot of the kids don't get home till 9 o'clock at night, just enough time to do homework before bed. They got excited when they had a few hours on Sunday to watch TV or play video games. However, alot of these kids are under so much pressure to perform that the suicide rate is pretty high.

On the extreme opposite are the students here in Wendover, a 90% Hispanic population. They could care less about school. They go because they aren't old enough to work and its a social activity. And when they go home at 3pm they have nothing else to do for the rest of the day BUT watch TV and play video games and get in trouble. School is not valued at all here and even the smart kids are not challenged enough to keep their interest, so they are lazy students as well.

Poonem Note

My mom read my blog about the word "pudem" or "poonem." She gave me a call and informed me that I got it from Tweety Bird. I knew it! I told everyone that when I first was asking about it. But everyone thought I was confusing it with "puddy tat." I have a vague memory of the Grandma telling someone that they have a cute "pudem."

Ok... I'm done.

Tour of Wendover

Thurm & I took a little drive today and decided to document the desert, dust-bowl that we call home. The first picture is the H.S. Thurm teaches at. The second picture is the elementary school I teach ESL at. Third, the LDS church, a half-block from our apartment. Fourth, the trails Thurm runs. Last, the only green in within a hundred miles, the golf course. These pictures are actually just so you'll feel sorry for us and the depressing town we live in and invite us to come stay at your house, or take us on vacation with you. Preferably somewhere green. Like the Oregon coast?

The two stores we shop at... because those are our options. The Montego where I worked for a couple months. A view of the "strip."

Our Apartment

The flash on my camera actually makes our apartment look pretty good. It looks so white and clean. Note the bathroom picture how you could sit on the toilet while washing your hands.

Cheesecake-Topped Brownies

1 package fudge brownie mix
1 (8-ounce) package cream cheese, softened
2 Tablespoons butter, softened
1 Tablespoon cornstarch
1 (14-ounce) can sweetened condensed milk
1 egg
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
Chocolate frosting

1. Prehead oven to 350. Prepare brownie mix as package directs. Spread into well-greased 9x13 inch baking pan.
2. In large mixing bowl, beat cream cheese, butter and cornstarch till fluffy.
3. Gradually beat in sweetened condensed milk. Add egg and vanilla, beat till smooth. Pour cheesecake misture over brownie batter.
4. Bake 40-45 minutes or until top is lightly brown. Cool. Spread frosting. Store covered in fridge.

Makes 3 dozen brownies.

**Note: They are better when they are room temperature. These are the BEST brownies I've ever had!!!

Wendover HS Spring Fling

I was asked to take dance pictures for the spring fling on Friday night. I thought for "Spring Fling" I would do a Springy background. So I put up a blue backdrop, a fake tree, fake flowers, etc. I asked the kids what they thought and they all really liked it. But I just couldn't do it. It was so cheesy-high-school-dance. I asked them what they have done in the past and the reply was butcher paper, die-cut outs, whatever is available... yuck! I needed to save these kids from crappy dance pictures. So I just did good ol' classic black. If I had access to a some stores other than Smiths (or "The Smith" as the Hispanics like to call it and what Thurm & I now like to call it) and the Dollar Store I might have been able to come up with something better, but I had to make due and black seemed the best choice. I realized after I picked all my favorite pictures from the dance that they were all the same pose. I must really like that pose. These kids were all so serious! I kept trying to get them to smile to no avail.