The SAC triathalon

We almost missed the triathalon. We spent the weekend in las vegas and St. George. It was UEA so the kids were out of school and matt had the week off. So we spent wed night at matt and holly's. We spent Thursday night at Dallon's (matts bff). We went to jumpin jacks and matt and Dallon really broke it down. look at the pics here
They took us to the yummiest, most aromatic, fun ambiancest restaurant. Well Matt and I woke up about six hours before the triathalon feeling TERRIBLE. Well I have been pregnant A LOT and I feel I have mastered the art of throwing up. Well not with food posioning I was out of control. I really thought we wouldn't be able to do the triathalon. We were suppose to leave at 7:30 and about 8:00 we decided to give it a go. So we threw everything including our kids in a crazy mess into the suburban and cruised over to the event. Matt gets the level headed award for getting the wheels on all the bikes. Figuring out andrea's bike and remembering to adjust the seats.

Matt entered the beginner divison. He was still pretty sick and worried about having an accident in the pool. (I know tmi but here at happy hay we like to keep it real. )

Matt did a cannon ball to officially begin the race. All day you could hear people whisper. "There is that guy who did a cannon ball."

Staley entered the kids division. She had a lot of fun. Look at the determination on her face on the bike. She came in second in the girls division and there was about 25 kids. They were standing at the finish line with medals and she is super proud of it. I actually shed a tear when she crossed the finish line.

Andrea is an amazing runner I couldn't even see her the entire run. She smoked me with a capital S. But it was fun.

The swim was great I was actually surprised it was over. I rented a bike that felt like it had a motor. It was super easy. AND THEN THE RUN. I did terrible. When the run started I was about eleven minutes ahead of my time from the last tri. I did a 12 minute mile. Hello I should be able to walk it that fast. Well a runner I am not but I had a LOT of fun and I am glad I did it. Thanks to Wes for some amazing photography skills and babysitting all the kids.

Shout out to all the teachers!!!

I volunteer in Staley's class on Thursday mornings. I usually help with learning centers while the teacher pulls back small groups of kids to work on reading and spelling. I actually really enjoy it. When staley tells a story about a child, I know who she is talking about. I think staley likes to see me there. I get to see what they are learning.
ANYWAY, This week they were doing some future problem solvers something and they were rotating through the classes. So the teacher didn't need my help. I said, "well can I cut anything out, or grade papers, or clean something?" So I graded papers for one hour. I could not believe it. It took FOREVER... it was very simple math worksheets and it still took forever. In one hour I graded three (of the entire classes) worksheets (so 80 something). What an enormous waste of time. I was grading and just getting more and more mad. This teacher must do this for hours on end.
I want her to be spending her time thinking of fun new things to teach and do. Not correcting papers for hours each night. If the kids are doing a worksheet I want her to be watching them to see if they are struggling or chatting or helping. Not grading papers from the last subject.
I thought for the entire hour how can this be solved. This is ridiculous. Her education and training and insight (observing my child in a learning environment for 8hours), is wasted on correcting these papers.
So kudos to the teachers for being willing to correct papers. I think she is a fabulous teacher and have seen great things from staley in just 6 weeks or so.
Some may say don't make the kids do busy work. well they are only in second grade. How else do you teach basic math to a bunch of second graders.
Some may say let the kids correct each others. I think a lot of cheating happens this way and embarrassment to the kids.
Some may just put a smiley on it and not correct each question?? I don't know I would definitely be tempted.
I thought maybe she could just send each childs papers home and let the parents correct it. It would take 5 minutes out of my day. I don't think parents would. It would be hard to get them all back and record there scores.
ANYWAY, I think teaching is a VERY admirable job.. I want to do anything to ease their burden and hope in kind they will take a few extra minutes with my child.

New email address

My email address was linked to my texas internet subscriber so I just got booted. I have a new email address. Melissa409@gmail.com
it is my name 4 kids and 2009. I can't get back into my old email so send me an email so I have your address again.

I am alive and well

I have fallen off the blogging band wagon. I don't know what the problem is. I can't find my cord to download my awesome summer pics. I am happy to live in a very mundane highly scheduled environment. I am trying desperately to exercise several times a week. To which I am still gaining weight at a rapid speed. I am trying to help matt figure out his new business, dirt cheap anesthesia. Anyway don't hate on my blog when every time you get on, It is the same retarded post. I will be back. But I am doing fine and happy to have healthy happy kids, who need a lot of help with life. Oh yeah it was our tenth wedding anniversary. Which matt and I were very lucky to spend just with each other for an entire week. A big shout out to my mom and matts mom for standing in for me at home.