Quick Successions: New Mexico Edition

The snow is starting to melt off a little bit today. But there is still a good 8-9 inches. I don't ever remember this high of a concentration of snowstorms in all my years in Utah. Most of this fell over the course of two weeks. Two days ago, it was probably closer to 11 inches.

Here is Mary's pile of presents (left), versus Brian's (right). I ask, who was better this year?

Mary went to San Antonio this month to participate in the National Council of English Teachers annual meeting where she had been invited to speak. San Antonio is a beautiful city with loads of really nice people and the conference was great. She is trying to figure out how to get to NCTE in Philadelphia next year.

Mary is glad to have finished teaching her classes at BYU until next semester. She does, however, still have to take some. Brian's big news is that he shaved his face for the first time in almost three years.

Karl Malone asked us if we would take a picture with him, so we thought about it and said okay.

Mary was very excited to find out that she was being honored as the Teacher of the Year by the Utah Association of Bilingual Educators. Of particular delight was the fact that some of her students were present at the dinner in her honor and one was allowed to introduce her.

It is Brian's turn to get older for the year now, starting at midnight. He wants to go and get chicken tomorrow and then go out for the weekend. He never asks for things for his birthday. For my birthday I got House, Season 4 and we finished watching it last night. We also went to Delta for the weekend so I could speak at a conference and Brian could visit the site of Topaz, the former internment camp during World War II.

Happy Birthday to me. Brian made this cake!

Well, we have been back for several days now and everything is going well. Students are in the middle of caucusing about which texts they would like to read for Mary's class. Brian is busy setting up his tennis program for the year.

We are back from England where I was asked to speak at a conference at Herstmonceaux Castle. While we were all the way over there, we did some touring. In London, we went to -The Houses of Parliament (Big Ben) -Tower of London -Globe Theatre (rebuilt) -Sir Francis Drake's Ship (rebuilt) -National Gallery -Trafalgar Square -Marble Arch (French Style Arc d'Triumphe) -Notting Hill -Buckingham Place -Hyde Park -St. James' Place -Piccadilly Circus -St. Paul's Cathedral -Tate Modern Art Museum -Original Roman wall from about 43 AD -Westminster Abbey -Tower Bridge -London Bridge -Waterloo Bridge -Westminster Bridge We didn't get to Greenwich, and I wanted to go to Bath, but it was too far away. We also asked about the temple, but it was too hard to get to. Most of the trip felt like a sprint. We spent a day in London when we first arrived, then I went to the conference the first day of it while Brian went sightseeing with some friends, then the second day we went to Brig...

My 10 credits in graduate school are taking their toll, especially since I have to hurry so I can go to England in two weeks. Brian is being kind about the books strewn all over the house and giving me study breaks where I can watch HGTV and CSI reruns.

Brian's brother and his wife came to visit us and we had fun going hiking, eating BBQ, and seeing movies. For the 4th of July, we went to a cul de sac of fire with some friends. It was way cooler than having to fight traffic at the stadium!

We celebrated six years of mostly happy times on Saturday by going to Park City for the day. The sport of the year was apparently cycling, as I received new cycling apparel, a wireless cycling computer, and our bikes were taken in for a tune up. Last year I got a tennis racket and the year before I got free weights. I don't think Brian is trying to send me a message...