Disneyland: The Happiest Place on Earth

Last summer Allen and I went to a timeshare presentation. We resisted their enticing sales pitch and received a free vacation. Well... it wasn't quite free, but it was pretty cheap. So Allen skipped school, I wrote three days of sub plans, and skipped out on Parent Teacher Conferences and we were off to California.

Here we are so excited to be at Disneyland!

We can hardly wait!

This pictures is for our nephew Matthew. He loves "cachow"!

This was Allen's first time on the tower of terror.

We are holding on for dear life.

The Toy Story Ride: By far my favorite ride.

It is a pretty new ride and it was the longest line we

waited in... only 30 minutes. Most other lines

were only a 5 to 10 minutes wait. Go to Disneyland

in January or February!

My friend Laura Richardson Jones and I grew up together. Two days before we left we found out that she was going to be at Disneyland the same day we were so we made plans to see each other. We spend the morning in California Adventure with her cute little family.

The classic initial pose: C is for Cameo... not California

A is for Allen

Oh man... we love Disneyland so much. I probably don't love it as much as my sister-in-law Kristen... but I love it!

Allen's favorite ride is the Jungle Cruise. In fact, this is the only ride we went on twice. He loves it because of all the cheesy jokes. This is his favorite: "Looks like we are coming up on a lovely sandstone rock... Some people take it for granite."

Apparently those tea cups were spinning too much... I missed the mark.

We didn't' get a picture with Mickey, but we got to wear his ears. Allen and I decided that Disneyland is the one of the only places that you can just be a kid. If grown adults were to wear a goofy hat or mickey ears anywhere else they would be ridiculed...but at Disneyland it's awesome and all part of the experience. But we are cheap so we just try them on at the store, take a picture and that is our experience.

While we were in S. California, we also went to Hollywood. Here we are at Grauman's Chinese Theatre with Captain Jack Sparrow. We actually tricked Captain Jack, but we didn't do it on purpose. He offered to take a picture with us and we didn't know you were supposed to pay him so we said yes. Afterwards when he asked if we could tip him, we said oh no thanks. Then he took the camera... looked at the picture and said "looks good" and gave back the picture. We are pretty sure he was trying to delete the picture but couldn't figure it out so he gave it back. Sorry captain Jack.

We also went to the LA temple with my best friend Brynn.

We love you Brynn and we love the temple!

We had a wonderful time... even with a scare which actually turned out to be a miracle. We rented a car while we were there through BYU because BYU waives any underage fees. But when we got there they said they couldn't waive the fee and they were not accepting our one free day rental coupon. So the price was doubled what we thought it was going to be. Then they asked us if we wanted their car insurance and we decided we have given them enough of our money and passed but we were very cautious when we were driving in LA. Well we made it the whole trip without getting hit. Or so we thought. When Allen went to go load up the car, he found some scratches on our back bumper. It looked as though someone had scraped the car while backing up and then ran. The 45 minute drive to the rental place was pretty stressful just because we didn't know how much it was going to cost. We called our insurance company, but they couldn't look at our policy unless we filed the claim so we decided to wait till we got to the rental car place. When we got there, they saw the scrape, they took us into the office. They started entering it into the computer and they said that it was already entered into the computer. Allen is pretty sure it wasn't there before, but okay. Then we called our BYU agent to check on the underage coverage and the rental car man took our word for it. Then our coupon worked so the price was right where we thought it would be. It was a miracle. It was a blessing to save the money, but it was more of a blessing because we were able to enjoy our day with Brynn and attend the temple with the right spirt.

Thank you World Mark for making our February Vacation possible.

The SET Follow Up

My friend John figured out the odds of a projector situation happening. Here is what genius John said...
"So I looked up the bulb life of overhead projectors and they seem to be between 25 and 75 ours depending on the type. Seems really low to me, 25 hours isn't even a whole week if you use the projector a lot, but that's what the retailers claim. Since the 75 hours are cheaper than 3-25hour bulbs I'll assume your school uses the longer life ones.Also assuming the projectors were on for < 10s (otherwise everyone probably could have read a short objective statement) and that those 10 s were the end of the 75 hours then the probability of one bulb burning out is:10s / (75hours * 60minutes/hour * 60s/minute) = 1 / 27,000. It happened twice so (1 / 27,000)^2.Then it was on one of the two SET observations per year. The average school year according to ask.yahoo.com is 180 days so now the probability is:(1 / 27,000)^2 * 2/180 or ~ 1/65,610,000,000.
Of course the above analysis assumes that the two burnouts are completely independent events which is very likely not the case. It could be that the bulb are replaced on a certain schedule and therefore bulbs in adjacent classes might very well be of similar usage and therefore both close to burnout. Or perhaps the problem was not the bulbs but a voltage spike in the outlet used, etc.Also this is ignoring the fact that turning bulbs on and off is much more stressful than leaving them on, but I couldn't find any info on the average number of ignitions before burnout."

Well... that is complicated but thanks John A.
But the bright side of having a SET that didn't go as planned... I came home to a beautiful boquet of daisies from my wonderful husband. Thank you Allen. I love you!

The SET

As a second year teacher I am what they call a provisional teacher. Basically I am on "probation" until after my 3rd year. As a teacher on probation, I get observed twice a year and that observation is called a SET evaluation. After the the first three years then a teacher is observed once every 3 years. Well today I had my final SET for the year. My administrator came in at the start of the period. I had a little of packet of info for her right there waiting. I was prepared. I had the video set up. I had the papers ready to be passed out... I was on my A game. Well part of the SET is to have the objective for the day visible and then read it to the students. (The opinion I get from one of the administrator it is one of the most important aspects of the evaluation.) So I had my objective written on an overhead that I was going to put up and read to the students. Well, at the start of class, I got out the overhead ready to read the objective and right as I turned it on, the bulb burned out. What do I do?!!! The vice principle is right there and expects me to post it, but I can't waste time writing it on the board, I have 40 students that are waiting. So I read it to them and asked a student to go borrow a projector from another teacher. He brings it in, I get it set up and right as I turn it on... IT BURNS OUT! 2 projectors burnt out within 10 minutes! What are the chances? I feel a little like the cartoon... It was a really good objective if only I remembered to bring two spare bulbs.

Extended Valentine's Weekend

Allen and I decided to make our Valentine's weekend a little longer. We headed off to Arizona on Wednesday for one of Allen's best friend's wedding which was Thursday morning. Here is the happy couple. Dave and Derrelyn were married in the Mesa Temple Thursday Morning.

Dave and Allen had a little competition... Who do you think won?
I am glad that Allen's friends are closely connected to my family. Can you tell we are related?

Dave and Allen looking good... Looking real good!

It worked out that Allen's sister Julie was going to be in town the same time as we were. This was the first time the entire "Sabey" family has been together since before Allen and I were married. We had a lot of fun together. We took family pictures and those will be posted later. We also went to the zoo. I fell in love with this turtle at the zoo. Most other turtles are a little to snake like for my liking, but this one was quite handsome.

He even gave Blake, Haily, and Kelly a ride. What a Turtle!


We had a lot of fun with Blake, Kelly and Haily. They are so cute. We loved the zoo... especially BJ the polar bear.

We got to visit with Grandpa Sabey.

Dave's reception was decorated for Valentine's day so it looks like we went to a Valentine's Dance. Below is Dave and Derrelyn's cake topper. I thought that Allen and I were Cheesy, but they might be a little more cheesy :)

No trip to Arizona is complete without a couple games of croquet. Unfortunately, Allen and I didn't' win a single game. But we were excited for our cousin Michael for winning his first game ever!



We also got to go to the Schafers and see my sister and her family. They brought Allen back to his childhood and let him play pac man. He is quite enthralled.

Allen and mom

Then we went to Phoenix to catch our flight. Before we left we had time to play some monopoly.


And then I got to see my BFFs! Brynn came down from California for the long weekend. This was the first time Laura, Brynn, and I were together since my wedding.

Overall we had a fabulous Valentine's weekend.

The Tango

I've loved ballroom dancing for some time now, and I'm getting decent (finally). I had a mock competition on Wednesday evening (it was a "mock" competition because we didn't get to pick our partners) but here's a video.
I had two partners and so it's kind of mixed up...and I put the music over afterwards (so don't think I'm always off count!)

The Chicken Pot-Pie

Cameo has wanted to make a homemade chicken pot-pie for months. She finally did and it was incredible...especially since it had something special written on it! I can't believe pie crusts come like this now-a-days!

A New Nephew

My sister had her fourth child on Friday. Happy Birthday Isaac Darrell Phillips!

A First

Last year when I missed school I was a nervous wreck. What if the kids are bad. Well I realized that even if they are bad, there isn't anything I can do about it. So now when I miss school, I try not to think about it, but I still get a little worried about the sub report. Well last Thursday and Friday I was at a conference in Sandy so I got my sub report today. For the first time I got a good sub report for all of my classes! I wish I could say that I was a better teacher, but I am pretty sure I just have really good students. Thank you students of OJHS students for being kind to the substitute.

SHUPE!

We love Ryan Shupe and the Rubber Band. They are my favorite band. Since I came to Provo 7 years ago, I have gone to their concerts at least two or three times a year. And everytime I am amazed at their talents and how well they entertain. Julee and Nate were the first to introduce me. Except when they first introduced me I wasn't impressed. They played me a song from a little movie that I am not a big fan of and I wasn't impressed, but once they took me to their concert, I was hooked. Thanks Julee and Nate!

Well at their last concert, Toby started playing a bass solo. Soon all the other guys were putting down their instruments and coming closer. Then they were all surrounded the bass... check it out.

If you can't tell they are playing low rider. Then here is one of their new songs from their new album. Go to http://www.shupe.net/ to here their whole album.