'Date of the Month Club' Update:

For Valentine's Day, I enrolled Mark in a Date of the Month Club. He got to pick from a big list of dates: one 'at home' date, and one 'out and about' date for each month. We've had two fun months of dates, so I thought I'd do a little update.

Baby it's Cold outside

I stole this idea from my very clever friend Jenni.

I left this note for Mark inviting him to our date. I even left him a comfy new pair of pajama pants :)

We had homemade hot chocolate and yummy Cocoa Bean Cupcakes.

While we enjoyed out treats, we made indoor snowmen. Mine is the cute one on the left. Yep, that means Mark is the one who created the very tacky Madonna snowman (complete with shiny, silver boobs).

Then we played some of our favorite games from our dating years. I don't want to brag or anything, but I will just briefly mention that I won EVERY SINGLE GAME!!!

Bookstore Date

For this date, we spent a very relaxing evening browsing Barnes and Noble. We each got a treat from the cafe, and picked out a book. I seriously could live in that store. I LOVE it! This will be a repeat date for sure.

The whole time we were there, I browsed hiking books. That gave me major spring fever. I can't wait for the hiking season to get underway. I finally settled on the Hiking Idaho book. I already have our first hike of the season planned. Craters of the Moon it shall be!

Mark has been spending a lot of time practicing the guitar. He got this guitar book. I guess that means that I'll be the only one in the family with no musical talent. That's okay, I'll just manage the band :)!

Puzzle Night
This was one of the surprise dates Mark picked.

I left him this note about our date.

I ordered a puzzle of us! It was so fun!

Almost done! Bailey kept sneaking downstairs to see how our progress was coming. It took us about 2 hours to complete it. It's a picture of us from our 10 year high school reunion.

The completed project!

Reach for the Sky

This date was super fun. I'm glad he picked it. We went indoor rock climbing. We had never tried it before, so we thought it would be a fun adventure. We want to go back with the kids. They would love it.

Here's the cute rock climbing shoes we got to wear.

Here's Mark all ready to start. We started out in the kid section :)! I would have been fine staying there the whole time, but Mark wanted to be a little more adventurous.

So, here he is climbing the big one! For being scared of heights, he did really good. This was the highest you could go, but not the hardest. He tried a harder one, but our arms and hands were tired, so he only made it part way up.

There's me at the very top.

We've had a lot of fun on our dates so far. I'll update again in a couple more months.

Happy St. Patrick's Day!

Bailey and her best friend, Marlee, decided they wanted to go 'all out' for St. Patrick's Day this year!

Mark described them perfectly...Cute, with a little bit of goofy mixed in :)!

What would a Holiday be like without crazy socks?!? What would ANY day at my house be like without crazy socks?

Bonneville Walk Out

At 1:00 on Friday, Bonneville students got up and left their classrooms, and the school, as a way to protest the Luna Bill, and show support for their teachers. All I have to say is, WAY TO GO KIDS!!!

They started coming out right at 1:00.

Some of these goobers were a little late coming out, because they had to get changed for track practice first :)!

Even though I'm proud of these kids, it made me realize that the parking lot is CRAZY, and I'm scared to death for Sawyer to drive in it!

Teacher Rally/Protest

Teachers and their supporters took to the streets throughout the state of Idaho to protest/rally against Tom Luna's Education Reform Bill, "Students Come First." Even the name is a joke! We were happy to participate with Districts 91 and 93 in Idaho Falls. I'm not a political person AT ALL....as a matter of fact, I hate politics. But this issue gets my blood boiling! I have never used my blog for a political agenda either, but for me, this is worth the exception. I was proud to stand with the teachers! I was proud that even with very last minute organization, the line of teachers, and their supporters extended from ShopKo, clear down to Woodruff!

Here are a few of my feelings on the issues:

I want a teacher to teach my children, NOT a computer!

I have had wonderful teachers in my life, that have significantly influenced the route my life has taken. I have a degree in education, because I wanted to be able to be a positive influence on kids. My daughter wants to be a second grade teacher, because she has had wonderful teachers that have influenced her, and she wants to be like that when she's older! I'm not saying all teachers are great....trust me, we've dealt with some bad ones. But the point I'm trying to make is that most teachers choose that profession because they feel like they can make a difference in the lives of young people, NOT for the money! So, when did they become the bad guys?!?

Teachers are doing a darn good job, with the crappy situations they have to work with. My daughter has 35 students in her class! You can't even walk between the desks!

Here's one that might ruffle some feathers...when your child is doing a crappy job in school, step it up as a parent! It's not always the teacher's fault! The ultimate responsibility lies in the home! My kids have have a few bad teachers, but they've still managed to do good, because they have parents that care and get involved!

If they want to start paying teachers based on the performance of the students, than they might as well say, crappy parents can't have kids! I taught 6th grade last year for 8 weeks. I had a boy that REFUSED to turn in a math assignment. I tried EVERYTHING in my power to help the kid, including phone calls home! It makes it pretty hard when the parents care less than the child! Why should teachers get their pay docked when some situations are totally out of their hands?

Statistically, lower income areas show lower performance levels. What teachers are going to want to teach those kids? How does that mesh with the title of the bill, Students Come First?

When all the good teachers end up leaving Idaho, and going somewhere where they are respected and valued, we shouldn't be surprised. I could go on and on, but I won't! However, if the rest of the bills pass, count on me being out on the streets showing my support for the teachers again!

These are Bailey's teachers from 4th grade, Mrs. Lines, Mrs. Andrews, and Miss Johnson! We love these ladies for their efforts! They go above and beyond, and they deserve to be valued for what they offer!

I saw this on facebook, and a couple blogs, so I thought I'd share:

Are you sick of highly paid teachers?
Teachers' hefty salaries are driving up taxes, and they only work 9 or 10 months a year! It's time we put things in perspective and pay them for what they do - babysit!
We can get that for less than minimum wage.
That's right. Let's give them $3.00 an hour and only the hours they worked; not any of that silly planning time, or any time they spend before or after school. That would be $19.50 a day (7:45 to 3:00 PM with 45 min. off for lunch and plan-- that equals 6 1/2 hours).
Each parent should pay $19.50 a day for these teachers to baby-sit their children. Now how many students do they teach in a day...maybe 30? So that's $19.50 x 30 = $585.00 a day.
However, remember they only work 180 days a year!!! I am not going to pay them for any vacations.
LET'S SEE....
That's $585 X 180= $105,300
per year. (Hold on! My calculator needs new batteries).
What about those special education teachers and the ones with Master's degrees? Well, we could pay them minimum wage ($7.75), and just to be fair, round it off to $8.00 an
hour. That would be $8 X 6 1/2 hours X 30 children X 180 days = $280,800 per year.
Wait a minute -- there's
something wrong here! There sure is!
The average teacher's salary
(nation wide) is $50,000. $50,000/180 days
= $277.77/per day/30
students=$9.25/6.5 hours = $1.42 per hour per student--a very inexpensive baby-sitter and they even EDUCATE your kids!) WHAT A DEAL!!!!

Guitar Photos

Karly took pictures of Sawyer and Bailey with their guitars. These are a few of my favorites.