Touch of Flu?

So I woke up completely exhausted still.  I started thinking that perhaps the allergy pill was not the source of my exhaustion. Today, 24 hours after having taken the allergy pill, I am still exhausted.  I went back to bed after having prayer and Jack heading to the bus stop.  I was way tired and passed out until 10.  I went and worked after that and have been home since.  Just exhausted though.  Ready for bed. Must go to sleep now. 

Hot Dogs

I have been tired all day today.  I woke up with itchy eyes and decided to take some allergy meds, just a basic pill, and I have been very sleepy all day. I decided to be a bit strategic during a combined meeting in the third hour.  Jack was in the foyer listening so I stayed out there with him.  That included sitting, standing, walking around a bit, pretty much anything I could do to remain alert and attentive.  It worked out fine and the meeting was enjoyed much more than if I would have gone in and sat in a pew only to nod off in the middle of it.  Ministering was the topic and there were some great messages shared. 

Decided to make hot dogs for dinner tonight.  I thought about what would be easy to do and that seemed like it would work.  I bought some nice dogs, Nathans, or maybe it was Hebrew Nationals.  Anyway, they were the nicest hot dogs on the shelf.  All beef.  They cooked up beautifully and I had fresh sliced onion and tomato ready to top them off with.  I had a bag of sauerkraut but I didn't actually open it. Next time.  The kids all had a couple and dinner was easy.  That is what I need in my life some days, simple.  Especially on Sundays.  Sometimes I decide to get crazy and spend hours in the kitchen.  Not worth it.  Well, not worth it when I am in there by myself doing all the work.  Anyways, the hot dogs were well received and I quite enjoyed them.  If I make this a tradition I am going to go out and find some interesting options for the hot dogs themselves.  This will likely require me to have standard back up dogs for those picky eaters I know.  I don't know, we will see what we can do. 

Very much grateful for my children.  They are good people.  Love them very much. 

Early Morning

Had one of those morning when I woke up early and then could not fall back asleep.  When I say I woke up early it is because the sun had not come up.  In fact there was no light coming in from outside.  It was still the dark morning hours.  I couldn't sleep.  I tried.  I wanted to.  It did not happen.  So I finally got out of bed sometime before 6 AM.  That is not what I like to do on an open Saturday.  Let me just sleep in and then wake up and start the day well rested. Not today!  I was up and aware.  The hope of sleep had faded away.  I got up, came down stairs and went to work.  Just trying to get this class done and I was able to handle it.  I have actually been on the move all day.  It has been productive to say the least.  It has also worn me out so I am doing to go to bed shortly.  I am grateful for all blessings I receive each day even when they start in the early morning. 

Nearly Done

I am very close right now to being done with my pre-clinical experiences.  I need to submit this final task and have it all done with the exception of the last section that is asking me about the application of content area methods.  I don't eve know what that means exactly.  I am too tired to figure out aything.  I just want to go sleep.  I also just want to have this class done and really want to submit the task.. I just am not quite there.  Maybe some rest will do me good as i can hardly keep my eyes awake right now. Just ready to be done.  Also too tired to think right now.  I'm going to bed.  

A Win

Had a fine day. It was busy. I did get to take an hour to go play racquet ball. It was a good. Just Kaden and I tonight. We had two good games.  Went 14 all before I finally lost. In the second game I pulled off the win 15 to 11.  Sometimes I get lucky. 

Gotta Make It

Just submitted the second of three tasks for my preclinical experiences class.  One note to go along with two mire days in the classroom. I don't know how things are going to play out but chances are I am going to be busy at the shop for the next while.  Ashley is having a baby any moment and the heart of the kitchen staff is gone.  It is going to be brutal. Anyway, I have to get this school stuff done.  When it is done I can breathe for a little-known bit until next school year begins.  At that point I willing be student teaching from mid August to mid December.  That is a long time.  Then I willing work in getting a job. Won't that be nice.  Long days are upon me.  Longer days are ahead. 

Fast Baby

We had a meeting at the depot this afternoon and afterwards, as we were parting ways, mom got a call and it was Amy.  She had gone to a doctors appointment and was told she could not leave and they were going to induce.  We made a car swap and I took pops to another meeting. By the time we made it to his houses after the meetings the baby had been born. Crazy fast.

Kitchen Hope

Had the opportunity to visit without Zack and Jib tonight.  Zack is coming in as the new kitchen manager at the Brick. Jib has worked with Zack for the last couple off years and is coming in board to be his right hand man. I think we have a lot of hope now for the kitchen and the success of our business. It is not easy to find good people and i feel fortunate to have these guys coming in. I think it gives us a big step up in the right direction.  Excited for this change. Pops was with me at that meeting and I think he felt the same.

The Autism Conference

The day has been non stop.  I woke up before my alarm and then ended up just getting up ant going. Had the autism conference catering today. It actually went very well as I had most of the stuff packed up last night band ready to go. It was good. 

Had a great crew in this morning and we got the box lunches knocked out Pretty quick. All went well and the feedback received by those in charge of the conference was very good. That is good.  It was a long day and I was headed to bed a couple hours ago when I received a message about needing to be at the Brick to unload cheesecakes. 15 minutes to go and I am looking forward to getting it done so I can go to bed.  Long day.

Ready... Didn't Pass

So it is nearly midnight thirty.  I am ready for bed and I am about as ready as I can be at this point for the autism conference tomorrow.  The coolers are loaded and iced with lots of soda and lots of water.  I have also completely run out of ice at the shop as I have iced down the coolers.  They complained about not having enough ice last year so there will be plenty this year.  Icing everything all night should also help with the beverages being cold.  We will see what it looks like in the morning, I do have to go in and pick up a few more things and might also need to reload some ice. Fun. It will be great to have it done.  Gotta get there early enough to lay claim to the cart so I can get things in quickly.  Always so much fun.  I am looking forward to about 13 hours from now when I should be loaded up and leaving the school for the last time.  I will be coming home and taking a nap.

I got my review back on my task.  Needs some revision.  It is only one spot where I didn't clearly specify what part of differentiated instruction will motivate students.  I will do my best to address that and get it resubmitted. Sometimes these things irritate me.  I have to keep pushing.

Time for bed.  Have to try and get a few hours in before heading on to the next thing.    

Spent

I am spent and I am not even into the hard stuff yet.  The next two weeks are going to pretty much wipe me out.  I have the autism conference happening and that is an extraordinary amount of work over the next two days.  I am tired just thinking about everything that has to be done and everything that I have to do for it.  My other challenge is the coming SUU graduation that is going to test my limits.  I have three key people in my kitchen today that won't be here on that day.  I have another that could have a baby at any moment.  This spells disaster for me personally.  I don't have the ability to do this.  I am not super strong in the kitchen and I know what is coming is going to take me to the limit. This is what I don't have time for any more and it is highly frustrating.  In order to be ready for that day I need three key people that can be trained and ready to go in the kitchen.  I do not have the ability to make that happen right now.  With what I have happening in school right now and the 6 credits I need to have done by the end of this month including all the time I have to be at the elementary school right now, I cannot do it.  Andy has math that is kicking his but and kicking mine right now too.  Taxi driver, cook, everything else.  I am behind on laundry, behind on pretty much everything.  I know this is just for a moment and then it will all be behind me.  Everything will pass.  I just don't have it in me to make it all happen right now.

Sleep - Please

It is late.  It has been a long day.  Too much to do right now and I am feeling it.  I am almost done with the first of three tasks for my pre-clinical experiences class.  I would very much like to be done but I don't have any more time to give it today.  I need to get up early and need to have my game face on.  There are students counting on me and I cannot let them down.  My checklist for tomorrow is hefty and I need to just get on it.  My checklist for now - sleep - please. 

Where is it?

We changed our cell service recently over to Sprint and in so doing got deals on Iphones.  I have never had one so this is a new experience for me.  I have been comfortable using android devices and in the last few years have been using the G2 and G5 phones. I really liked my G5 and had things pretty well dialed in.  Many of my blog posts were done right from my phone which made it convenient when I was away from the house or whatever.  I had the app on my phone and simply selected it and went right where I needed to be.  It was great.  Well, for some reason I am unable to get the blogger app for the Iphone.  I don't know if it just doesn't exist or if I am simply unable to find it.  I was able to log on to the site itself but that isn't near as user friendly as the app.  I have very few complaints about the Iphone.  There are a few things that I am getting used to and trying to figure out.  The one thing I would really like to have on the apple device would be the app for the blogger.  I use it everyday and it is so convenient. I will live, there is no doubt about that.  Grateful for all that I have and all I am blessed with.  Grateful for the day and look forward to getting some rest now.  Tomorrow is late start Wednesday so I won't have to get up as early.  That will be very much welcome.  Anyhow, just wish I could locate that app but if not, I will continue to seek positive things to share in whatever way I need to. 

Oh My Gosh!

Natalie is in an adult roles class at school.  I think it has been a good class for her.  Tonight however, I am not a fan of this class.  One of her assignments is to care for a robot baby for a couple of days.  I sent my kids to bed an hour ago and her little robot baby has been crying or fussing the entire time.  Andy is crying and fussing because of it and that is a problem.  He didn't sign up for this class, well, none of us signed up for it really, but we all have to deal with it.  Andy does not deal with these kinds of things very well.  He is about to have a melt down.  In fact he was just on his way back down here to tell me all about it when the baby finally made a beeping noise and went quiet.  This is quite irritating to say the least.  I have had three children.  I have been up all hours of the night with those children at various times throughout their lives but also as infants.  I think there is a big difference when it is a live baby vs. some robot that is running a program. There is a bond, there is love when it is your baby that cannot be programmed into this thing.  At this point the robot is more an irritant than anything else. There is no life being celebrated and I think that changes things. Wednesday it will go back to school and be delivered to some other poor, unsuspecting family. I will probably have night mares about this little creepy thing. It may end up in the garage and in my car where it can cry it out by itself all night.  We will see how the night goes.

New Teacher

Today the Bishop called Jack up to the podium in Sacrament meeting and presented him to the ward to be ordained to the office of a teacher. Towards the end of the third hour we gathered in the teachers quorum. The folks came, Dan serves in the quorum, the Bishopric was there and we placed our hands on Jacks head and ordained Jack to the office of a teacher within the Aaronic priesthood. It was a great experience. Jack gave some awkward hugs afterwards but it was alright. It is a great privilege as a father to ordain your son to a priesthood office. Jack was quite happy and it was a great day.

Tonight was the Temple and Priesthood Preview for Andy. He will be twelve at the end of August. It will be great for him.

I am passing out. I will just say that I love my family and am grateful for the restored gospel of Jesus Christ.

A Tree in my Eye

They days has been full band that is good.  I took care of some things at brick houses and depot. Then I headed back home where I trimmed band pruned trees for a few hours.  All was going well until I decided that my eyes were superhuman band needed no protection.  I had something get into my left one hand it has done some damage.  Dan hooked me up witch a saline solution to flush it out.  That seems to have helped a skosh.  My goodness I am feeling way tired. So anyway, I am closing.  My eyes are also closing.

A lot to learn

I finished my first week in second grade today.  It was pretty awesome.  I am being asked to work with an ADHD student quite often.  My word, that is a tough one.  He just doesn't stop.  Well, I guess there are those rare moments when he actually is on task.  That is a bit of a rough go.  Got to see some skills in play today of dealing with him.  On Monday I am being asked to look out for the skills room in the morning and will very likely have this student in there.  I will be working hard to do my best to help this fellow stay on task.  "Show me" are my new favorite words with him because it directs him gently to the appropriate behavior he should be doing. 

Oh my, I am completely wiped out.  Time to head for the bed. 

Birthday Jack... The Big One Four

Today we celebrate the birthday of Jackson Walter Fontano.  What a great young man.  Hard to believe he has reached 14 years of age already.  It is amazing how fast the time has gone.  I am very grateful for each of my children and for the special and unique addition they are to our family.  Each of them blesses my life in numerous ways and I cannot imagine a life without them.  I am grateful for the Savior and for the many sweet and wonderful blessings he grants me daily. My children are a huge part of that. 

Well, Jack was not feeling great last night but woke up this morning feeling well.  He went to school.  When he got home from school he was completely miserable.  He wasn't feeling well at all.  I gave him some medication and I don't know that it helped a ton but he may have gotten a little rest.  He had another nap later, a shower, a little dinner, another rest and then a bit of cake and ice cream.  The big star wars lego set I bought him came in while he was at school and he was very excited to open it.  He loved it. 

Update on last night.  I got all 5 motors installed and they are working great. Got to bed way after midnight.  Time to go make up for it where I can.  

Late Night Coming

It is a little early for the blog.  I have to go in and replace some motors at the Brick House tonight.  Last time I dealt with this issue I was out until 3:30 in the morning.  I don't think I can handle that tonight especially since in need to be at the school in the morning.  I need my rest. Hopefully I can get things moving pretty quickly and get this refrigerator working properly. It has done fine since the last time I worked on it but with three of the 5 motors out it has been lagging.  Today they called and said it was having problems again.  Fortunately the motors I ordered arrived yesterday and I will now go and attempt to install them.  I really hope it all comes together and works like a dream. This isn't one of those things I can do while we are open as it totally takes the sandwich station out of commission and that is key to our operation. Hopefully it goes well and I can get home early enough that I can get some rest before tomorrow. 

New Hire

We will be experiencing some changes at the Brick House here in the next little bit.  Melissa, our current kitchen manager, is going to be starting a school course in the beginning of May.  As I sat and pondered that situation when she told me about it I had a name pop into my head.  Zack Maxwell went to work for us 6 years ago.  He was great in the kitchen and has a great mind for this industry.  When we moved into our new location we went through a time where we were not open.  He had to make a change to his employment back then and has gone on to work in a few different kitchens and has gained a lot of experience.  He came back to work for us last summer for a month or so but moved on for an opportunity to do something in a degree field he was interested in.  He ended up getting back into food and was working up the mountain again.  Knowing that the season was coming to an end I thought to see what he was up to.  I contacted his mom and asked about him.  She gave me some info and sent me his number.  We visited for a bit last week on the phone and then today he came over and we sat down together.  He has experience ordering, scheduling and managing.  He has great skills in the kitchen.  He is great with people.  His work ethic is excellent.  He has also grown up quite a bit from the days he first started with us. After discussing things with the folks I extended a job offer to him this evening and he has accepted.  We are a few weeks out of his being able to start but we are excited to have him come on board.  We will certainly miss having Melissa in our kitchen as she has been a presence there for sometime.  Having Zack come in will be a great addition and with his experience I don't think we will miss a beat. If we do it will be minimum. We all feel pretty good about this new hire and perhaps a little relieved to have it all come together.  Grateful for some needed inspiration. 

2nd Grade

Started back at school today after Spring break.  It was nice to be off for a week and it was good to be back in class. I was in a new classroom today which was good but also sad to be out of the smile room.  I have really enjoyed my time there and that is where I would rather be.  Alas, I need to spend time in the regular classroom.  I got to sit and do reading with the students.  They were great and it was fun to work on reading with them.  I got to learn about Walt Disney, Killer Bees and How Louis.  It was fun to see the students progress with their reading. 

There is one student there with special needs. He is going to take some effort on my part. He nearly poked me in the eyeball with a pencil today.  I might need to bring some safety glasses from here on out. 

After school I decided to mow the lawn. It was the first mow of the year and it certainly sharpened up the yard.  I quite enjoy a good lawn mowing.  All in all it was a good day.

It was Time for Tacos

If there is one thing in life that I love on a Sunday afternoon, it is tacos.  Growing up it was a favorite family tradition to gather together and make tacos.  I loved to shred the cheese and would always grab a nice chunk of cheese for the classic cheese chaw.  There was no spitting involved with this type of chaw, just a little cheddar enjoyment.  We had taco making down to a science with cooking the meat, chopping the onions, chopping up tomatoes, getting shredded lettuce together, heating up the corn tortillas and then assembling everything, throwing them in the oven and then sitting down to dine once the cheese had melted.  There was always room for one more taco.  Oh my goodness, top those things with a little of the green la victoria taco sauce and you are in heaven. 

Yesterday as I was pondering what to have for dinner today I decided to do tacos. I even mixed things up a bit and cooked up some chicken tenders in the sous vide that I then diced up and made one pan of chicken tacos with.  I would most likely do that again. I would probably add a little salt prior to the sous vide, maybe even a little shot of lime in the chicken.  As a test item I thought they were good and with those adjustments I think they will be great.  The beef tacos were absolutely fantastic as well.  I mean, there is no reason to hold back either so I knocked out three pans and a total of 60'ish tacos.  I took a dozen over to the folks and we have some good left overs, even after second tacos this evening.  I like spreading these out for a few days. 

I was pondering this evening about the new ministering program in the church and began thinking about how I might effectively minister to whoever I am assigned.  The thought occurred to me as I was washing dishes that I could simply invite families over for a taco Sunday dinner.  I think it would be fun and may just have to do something like that. I have also been thinking for a few years now about making pies regularly and taking them around to different members of the ward.  I guess my ministering will be food based.  Nothing wrong with that...

Good Leaders

Stake Conference today. I really like President Heap, President Whetman and President Bryson. They are good men. I like the direction of the Stake and the thought of "becoming" through the atonement of Jesus Christ. President Heap shared some powerful thoughts on President Nelson tonight and direction we received in conference. It was neat to feel the Spirit bear witness to me again that President Nelson is the Lords prophet on the earth today.  So very grateful for that. I hope that I can continue to press forward with faith as I strive to follow the Prophet and my local leaders. 

Not a Good Test

I took a Praxis exam today.  These are expensive tests. This particular test was perhaps one of the most difficult tests I have taken to date. I really felt a tremendous amount of pressure with the time allotted for the test, the number of questions I had to answer and a written portion that I felt completely unprepared for.  Oh, I had prepared, I just prepared for stuff that did not help me on the test much at all.  It was really rather depressing.  I spent a lot of time working through some information based on what the test prep booklet suggested and it seemed as if I was studying the wrong material entirely - for the written portion of the test that is.  I thought I was going to be in good shape and had put together some acronyms to really help me remember a lot of information, expecting there to be some questions related to the topics the study guide said would be asked. Either I just completely misinterpreted the questions and could not make connections to what I had studied or these questions were really not related to those particular topics.  It was a pressure situation for me as I watched as the clock counted down and I had to get it done.  Very hard test for me.  Everything was irritating too.  The pounding of the keyboards seemed so loud as fellow test takes hammered out their typed responses.  There was a test taker on the row over from me that kept waiving his hand for help. I was distracted by all of his commotion.  It was not my favorite test.  If I pass somehow, I will be extremely surprised.  I am quite tired now and ready to call it a day.  Grateful for my wonderful children and the support they give me. 

Study Day

Spent the majority of the day studying definitions on a wide variety of topics related to special education. Tomorrow afternoon is my next praxis exam and it is the special education one.  I feel okay, perhaps a little overwhelmed by the amount of info. It is a lot.  I will be happy when it is over.

The 3 Peaks

Northwest of our residence is a recreation area known as Three Peaks. I marvel as to how it got its name as there are many more than 3 peaks in this area.  I am not certain which of three of the peaks count as the peaks.  In any case, we ventured out to the many peaks of 3 and took the go cart and our bikes with us.  It was a great time.

Jack drove the go cart for the most part.  He was always smiling and laughing as he raced around. I took Andy on a couple runs and he had a good time.  On one of our drives we managed to get stuck in a tree.  That takes skills.

Riding bikes was also a lot of fun.  We just cruised around the area we were at and other than getting stuck in soft sand occasionally we did pretty well. They have a mountain bike trail there that we may need to go check out.  Good times. 

I do believe we will make our way out to this magnificent trI-peak area again.  I certainly look forward to it. 

Progress

I went in to work at 9 after only 5 hours of blissful rest. I picked right back up on my project with the sandwich bain.  The ice had melted away.  That was wonderful.  I fired up the unit and the two functioning fans came on.  Excellent.  They were also running strong so that was more great news.  I put the unit back together and we were getting cold air.  Another huge plus as it allows us to use the unit as we usually do.  I was thrilled. I still have a problem there with 3 of 5 motors being out and one of the two that was operating being about ready to give up the ghost.  I touched base with my buddy Morgan and he clued me in on the motor.  I was barking up the right tree and he just made sure I was chasing the correct cat.  I have motors on order. They won't come in for a few days but that is good.  When I've got them in we are just going to make a swap of all the motors.  Start fresh.  I really need to go to bed. 

Very Late

It is nearly 3:30 in the morning.  Not a soul in sight. Cities looking like a ghost town on a moonless summers night... Ok, I looked at the time and the lyrics just popped in my head.  Thanks Garth.  Anyhow, it is late. I've been trying to figure out what has gone wrong with a sandwich Bain at work.  4 of 5 fan motors were not functioning. In my efforts we now have 2 functioning.  The unit was so iced up that it simply was not functioning right.  I finally gave up for the night as the thick ice is taking forever to melt.  I have a heater blowing on it and am hoping the ice block is gone when I head back in 5 and a half hours from now.  Good times.  I think I am actually figuring a few things out.  Hope to get this running properly.

A lot to miss

If a member missed conference this weekend, they missed a lot.  Chances are they could be pretty lost when they come back.  The priesthood now consists of only an elders quorum.  High priest group leadership and elders quorum presidencies will be released. New elders quorum presidencies will be called for the combined group.  Pretty neat. I look forward to this change and meeting with some of my older brethren.  That change was announced last night.

This afternoon President Nelson announced that home teaching and visiting programs are being retired.  There will now be ministering.  It all sounds pretty great.