We are alive...

Eric and I are still alive. We have been busy though, training for a half-marathon, working, I'm taking a 3 hour graduate class, our dogs are crazy... the list goes on and on. I can't access the blog on my phone so I keep up with people on Facebook, since there is an application for my phone. SO- go to facebook.com and sign up for a FREE Facebook account. You get to choose who can see your information and it is a lot of fun! Plus you'll get to see status updates (usually made daily) of what your friends are doing. Check it out!
Mom, even Amy is on Facebook :-)

A Crazy Trip to Nashville

Eric and I took a road trip to Nashville for Christmas this year. We thought it would be a wonderful time, since we could take the dogs and not have to worry about leaving them with anyone or boarding them. So we took off on our adventure...
We stopped in Kansas City at a world famous barbecue stop, Arthur Bryant's. It was much needed after 9 hours in the car, with temperatures outside hovering right above 0, with 30-50 mph winds. Brrrr! Everytime we tried to fill up the tank or take the dogs for a jog we immediately came back to the car because it was unbearable outside.

That night we made it to somewhere in Missouri, and when we got to the hotel the dogs must not have been in the best of spirits because they got into a fight. They have fought before and Eric body slams them to break them apart. It isn't pretty and we started wondering how we were going to manage them on this long trip. We divided the room and went to bed thinking all would be fine in the morning.
The next morning we loaded up the car and put the dogs in the back of the car and as we started to pull out the dogs started fighting again. This time it was harder to pull them apart, and Eric got a nasty bite on his hand. We realized we had to keep the dogs apart for the rest of the trip. We also bought muzzles to keep everyone safe and blood free. Cache was not in the Christmas spirit...

We stayed with my sister and thankfully she loves dogs, even ones with issues. Their basset, Molly, is quite a handful too so our dogs fit in. Unfortunately, Audrey went after Cache that night, even though Cache was muzzled...so we got another muzzle for Audrey.
Christmas was fun. Eric is "the world's greatest uncle" because he takes Sam to get cookies and they eat junk food. Here they are at the mall eating cookie slices.

I don't have many more pictures due to all the drama surrounding the dog issues and Alyssa was not feeling well. But I did snap this photo of Christmas morning. Messy wrapping paper drives Dave crazy!

We went down to Alabama to see Eric's family and had a wonderful time, but had to head back to Colorado. The dogs were ok on the way back, but once we got home they got into a few more tussles. We have decided to keep the dogs muzzled when they are together in the house, and to run them as much as possible. Most dog problems are from not giving dogs enough exercise. Many people have told us that we need to get rid of one or both of them, either by putting them down or finding new homes for them. However, Eric and I firmly believe that when dogs have behavioral issues, it is the human's issue-not the dog's. Sure, the dogs have baggage from other humans (both our dogs had previous owners) but if you implement the correct methods the dogs can adjust and the unwanted behavior will cease. We knew something we were doing or not doing was triggering the aggression so we've decided to take some classes to learn methods to help Audrey and Cache to get along.
We'll let you know how it all turns out.

Thanksgiving

For all of you who need to know more of what we are all up to out here in Colorado, you should join Facebook. Seriously, check it out! There are many pictures posted and even a video of Eric and Blayne plucking their nose hairs with their fingers.
This Thanksgiving was a fun one, with lots of food and friends. Eric and I ran the Turkey Trot in our goal times and then he started grilling the turkey. We went over to the Chastains and sat around on computers and watched football. A nice relaxing holiday!

Beer & Biofuels!

Colorado has a great selection of breweries- there's Crabtree here in Greeley, and then the more well known Anheuser-Busch and Coors, and that means CO2. Good old carbon dioxide. We love it in soda, use it as dry ice, need it to brew beer, but read about it these days with conflicting feelings. Isn't it what's accumulating in the atmosphere and reaching concentrations of over 380 parts per million, which is causing climate change? Yep.

I love beer and also love the idea that excess carbon dioxide from brewing beer could be a way to feed CO2 loving algae. Why algae? There's a company right here in Colorado that is using the excess CO2 from breweries and nitrogen dioxide (NO2)-a wast from industry- to grow algae because that's what they use to grow! Some algae photosynthesize and produce copious amounts of oil. They are really efficient at this and don't take any land from food crops, such as corn and soybeans, because they can be grown in small places within labs. No worries about soils being used or having shortages of food crops for this oil which is a great biofuel. Even better the carbohydrates that are waste products can be used to make ethanol or animal feed. If you are a nerd like me, check out SOLIX and read more. Now, if we can just convince scientists to figure out a way to use Kudzu as biofuel...you'd see southerners hacking away at those vines night and day!

Interesting Facts

I had a great week teaching. If you've ever taught you know that the occasional great day, the kind where kids listen, interact, come up with new ideas, ask amazing questions, and they THINK.. is something to celebrate, so an entire week is quite a memorable experience. I speculate the reason for the students response this week has been my enthusiasm. I'm teaching 7th graders about energy resources (renewable and nonrenewable, CO2 footprints) and 6th graders about the circulatory system. If you know me you know I LOVE those subjects and know a lot about them.

What I did to prepare for my lessons was read, read more, and then read even more. I read their textbooks, got online, and then went to the library and started reading magazines and newspapers on the content I was teaching. I ran across an article in Scientific American and got hooked on the entire magazine. I figure if there isn't anything exciting happening around here I'll just post facts from what I'm reading that you might find interesting and might get YOU thinking like my students :-) So here goes.

This is a seed vault in Norway, specifically on the Svalbard islands, where scientists store seeds of crops and other plants. As I was reading I thought of how we all have these million gigabyte computers and external hard drives to "backup" our precious information. So if you think it's crazy for a government to spend $9 million on a seed vault deep within permafrost to protect & backup the genetic diversity of plants, think about how you feel about your digital pictures and documents. Losing those is nothing to losing the genetic diversity that exists on earth. The vaults purpose is to ensure the survival of crop diversity in the event of plant epidemics, nuclear war, natural disasters, as well as climate change, and to offer the world a chance to restart growth of food crops that may get wiped out. This is a real possibility, considering the evidence for climate change (no matter what you think, climate is changing, and it doesn't matter if you think it's human caused or a natural cycle, either way there will be consequences). In fact, there are other seed vaults-1,400 around the world-so someone has already put a lot of thought into this. Climate change will affect crops, among other things, and that means food on your plate. Scientists don't have the doomsday mindset like you may think. They are trying to find solutions to problems, just like scientists have always done. Now, if we could just get politicians to look at data, listen to scientists, and then think- just like my students did this week. Something to ponder...

Pumpkins, Fall, and Happenings around Here...

Last weekend Deborah called to ask if I would like to go get pumpkins with them, so off we went to Eaton. The pumpkins were as big as Erin! We had a lot of fun, though Deborah isn't doing so great, getting dizzy and tired in her first trimester.




I went biking that same weekend, with Sarah, while Eric and Mark took care of baby Lily. Sarah is amazing-Lily is 6 weeks old and this was the first major exercise Sarah has done in months and she made it from Drake to the top of the mountains up the road through Glenhaven. For those of you who have driven that route, you know the feat that trek is on a bike-even without having given birth in the last two months.


My dad was out last week, hunting elk on the western slope. He did fill his tag and on the way back home he dropped by and gave Eric some elk tenderloin and burger. Eric was very happy and said it was "like wrapping Christmas presents" as he cut and wrapped the elk in freezer paper. We are thinking about getting a tag next year and trying our hand at hunting.


We love fall, and I especially like our maple trees when they turn brilliant red.

A Good Reminder

Each Thursday night I watch Erin while the choir practices at the Chastain's loft. We play, then get "soapy", and then we play some more. This week Erin squealed and smiled in the tub, playing with her letters and surprising me with her accuracy to identify all the letters and numbers floating in the water. She's so sweet and fun. It was then that I was reminded that at one time, each of my little mutant 6th grade students was a baby like Erin, squealing and smiling in a bathtub. I thought about how that time wasn't long ago (maybe 10 years, the time that has passed since I finished at Winthrop)and that the parents of these children feel the same way about them as I do Erin-and of course they love their own children even more. At least I hope they do, since I have seen the effects good, bad, and non-existent parenting in this community. I've seen parenting that doesn't reflect love and I get sad when I think of the parents who shame their students in front of me, or those who don't care about the life they brought into the world. It pains me most however, when I see parents enable their children to the point of creating students who can't function independently. Usually its the adult who has the issues, not the child. For example, there is a 7th grade student I teach who is walked to their locker every morning by their mom. I don't think the student wants their mom to do this, but mom is super protective. I want to scream at the mom, "let them go and become independent-you are making your child a target for bullies" but I know it's not my place. Enabling is a difficult conversation to strike up with a parent, since I don't have a child of my own. But I want to since I see it cause emotional trauma to students, and how it makes my job a living hell! I have graded homework that I KNOW was done by a parent-and when I called them to ask about it they admitted they did the work and they said it was ok to grade the work as the students...wow, what's wrong with that picture? It's the reason I call some of my students mutants, or pains, or simply unteachable. They know mom or dad will always rescue them and I feel like I can reach my students only when they realize that learning is up to them-not mom or dad, or anyone else-just them. I'll just have to keep that picture of Erin in the bath fresh in my mind, and try to help my students become independent young adults-with or without the help of their parents.