Who do you Love?

In honor of Valentine's Day I found a great video in which a person asks drive-thru attendants what they loved and why.



I love Cafe Rio pork salads. Why? The house dressing has to be one of the greatest things ever invented. I think I would actually drink the dressing if my wife would let me. It's weird to think that I'm addicted to a salad, but I would chose this as my last meal, anytime.

So what do you love? Why?

Taking Turns

Normally, I would say taking turns is a wonderful thing for a brother and sister to do. We've really worked to develop a sense of selflessness between Alex and, in particular, Kennedy. I don't think last night was what we had in mind. About 2 am Alex woke up and spent the next 30 minutes crying and screaming. Finally before 3 he fell asleep and guess who woke up - yep, Kennedy. She then proceeded to cry about wanting her milk for the next 30 minutes or so. Around 5 am it was back to Alex. And at 6 am Kennedy finished off the night.

I don't know if we're doing the right thing by encouraging them to deal with their own issues during the night. I know that's it pretty rough on the sleeping patterns for everyone involved. Still, once their basics needs have been met (food, diapers, etc.) I don't want the kids to feel that they can't get to sleep without Mom (and sometimes Dad). I just hope Tara doesn't want to learn from the kids example and take turns tonight.

Movie Review: Freedom Writers

For my birthday Tara took me to see the movie Freedom Writers. I have to say I've been looking forward to the film for quite a while. About 7 years to be exact. While I was still teaching I came across the Freedom Writers' story while watching Good Morning America one day. I was immediately hooked and bought the book later that afternoon. If you can see the film, great - but make sure you take the chance to read the book. It's so much better. I couldn't believe the narratives in the book. Each student had met with so much heartache, that the chance to write their story must have been cathartic, to say the least.

After reading the novel, I changed a good portion of my curriculum to include journal writing as part of every class. Each of my students was required to purchase a journal and the first 15 minutes of every class was spent writing down their stories. We may not have had a "Freedom Writers" moment, but my students really looked forward to writing everyday. I did to. For me, it was the first time since my mission that I had written in journal 3 or 4 times a week. It's fun to look back at some of the things that went on during that time. Buying a house, trying to get pregnant, 9/11 were all captured as part of my journal.

Besides writing every day we also read stories about other teenagers writing journals and telling their stories. The Diary of Anne Frank, Zlata's Diary, and yes Freedom Writers Diary became standard texts for my class. Those books were awesome to get kids thinking about the impact our life stories can have on other people. It was a neat project and it's one of the things I miss about being out of the classroom.

Still, there's some closure to the story from my current position. Every year I go to a national conference on technology and two years ago Erin Gruwell, the teacher from Freedom Writers was one of the keynote speakers (not sure the tie-in, but who cares!). I made sure I got to her keynote early, and being a total nerd, I sat on the front row. A few minutes before the presentation, guess who sat in the empty chair next to me - you guessed it, Erin Gruwell. It was fun to tell her the impact her story had on the lives of my former students and on my teaching. She thanked me and seemed genuinely touched to know another success story from the Freedom Writers.

Was that even a movie review? Sorry.

Mom's Long Day

I've been a bit hesitant to write about the past month for my mom, but I feel like the time is right. Roughly one month ago my Mom noticed an abnormality in one of her breasts, the left one. It seems as though some tissue had begun to calcify. No one was quite sure what to make of the tissue, but after multiple mammograms, it was determined there was small cancerous tissue in the left breast. So, Mom had two lumpectomies to remove the tissue. Each time the oncology report came back with traces of cancerous tissue still remaining.

So, yesterday my mom went into LDS Hospital at 5:00 am for a scheduled mastectomy of her left breast. It was the only way to be sure all the cancer could be removed and stop anything from spreading into other areas of her body. It was early enough in the whole process that a mastectomy provided the best chance for the future. After about two hours or so, the operation was deemed a success.

I went to the hospital around 7:00 am, just after they had wheeled my mom into surgery. Much of the day was spent hanging out with family. I think the highlight of the day was as they took my mom up to her room. Dad was trying to decide whether or not to ride in the elevator with her. At the last second he hopped into the elevator, just as it closed - on him! As the doors closed, Alicia and I heard an "Ohh," and a "Well." Turns out he was ok, but for a moment there we thought we might need a double room! He must have recovered though for the rest of the day was spent in his normal pose....

I Pity the Poor Fool...

Ward ball has it's ups and downs. For the Cottonwood 4th Ward it's been pretty much all downs this season. Every game our score gets doubled and every game something weird seems to happen. Take tonight's game for example. The first half was actually going pretty well. We were only down 8 points with under a minute remaining in the half. Cue the weird moment of the game.

With about 10 seconds left in the half the best player from the other team got the ball and was headed down court. I was the only one getting back to stop the play, so I decided to foul - figuring we weren't in 1 & 1 yet. I committed a reach in foul and held the player up to make sure he knew I wasn't being dirty. The whistle blew and the Ref changed the game.

That's a flagrant foul on Covili. Two shots and the ball out of bounds.

Joey, are you kidding me? I held him up to be a good sport.

You weren't going for the ball. A flagrant foul also constitutes a technical foul, so you're out of the game for the next 5 minutes.

Joey, I'm the least likely guy in the gym to get a "T" and now I've got to sit out? Come on.

Those are the rules.

I sat my time, all the while being jeered by everyone in the gym. "Bishopric can't hold their tempers." And that was from my the guys in my ward. We lost the game. I laughed it off, eventually. The questions remain, am I now going to be known as Mr. T at church? Do I have to confess to the Bishop before I can play again?