Way over due

Sean has been asking me to update the blog for weeks. I have attempted a few times over the last week, but every time I try to do this, I end up blog surfing and reading a few of my favorites (don't judge, many others blog surf too!). Blog surfing is similar to those who have myspace or facebook and other peoples' lives seem much more interesting than mine. Anyway, with that said, here is what is new with us.

We recently went to Big Bear, CA, which I have seen advertised on TV several times. It was not what I expected. Sean and I thought it would be similar to Saugatuck, MI, but it is an actual city with a lake in the middle. It took longer to get there than planned and we did not get to do as much as I had hoped. We rented a cabin home for the weekend that was pet friendly, so Cruiser came along on the family trip. Lola did fairly well in the car, but did not forgot to remind us when it was time to eat. She slept for most of the car rides back and forth, as did Cruiser. I had hoped to go to the lake, the zoo, snow summit, and the village. We managed to go the the village...twice. We had some good food at Peppercorn Grill, which I highly recommend. The village is about 3 blocks by 3 blocks and surrounded by Big Bear City. It was nice to get away from Las Vegas with the sweltering heat, but not really what I had expected. With an infant, it is hard to rent jet skies or hike a mountain trail. I was glad to go on our first family vacation (not including our trip to GR on Memorial Day)



Lola started day care this past week and so far, so good. It is a licensed home that is a few blocks from my work (and home). Lada (easier for the kids to say, real name is Linda Jane) absolutely loves Lola, who is the only infant and only girl. It is too soon to tell how Lola will do there, but she is eating well and sleeping some. She is not used to the noise of 3 little boys to keep her up. She is 6 months now and eating cereal. We started veggies and started with squash, which she does not like as she makes funny faces when we put them in her mouth. Next, we will try sweet potatoes! She has decided to sleep on her tummy and there is nothing we can do to change this. We've tried to roll her onto her back, just to find her on her tummy in the morning. She seems to sleep better on her tummy. She still can not roll over onto her back and does not even attempt to. I am trying to teach her how to do this. She babbles a lot, makes bubbles, and says mama (just kidding about the mama part, but I am trying to teach her this too!). She is still a delightful little girl, full of smiles and giggles. We hope to come home for Christmas when she will be 10 months old! She is growing and changing so fast.

I am still at Silver Hills as a social worker, working a 4 day week. Sean reported back this past Wednesday and starts teaching on Monday. He may or may not go to UNLV this semester.

What Are You Reading/Watching?

Things have been been pretty mellow around here even though we are sure that Lola has begun teething. She's only had one rough night where she screamed for about two hours non-stop. Currently I am letting her watch Sesame Street. I'm sure tv is alright like everything else, in moderation. It's just that I see so many students with conditioned "ADD" or "ADHD" and they have lived a life of constant stimulation and non-stop entertainment.

I still have to set up my classroom and figure out how I'm going to teach my honors classes without textbooks. "Budget shortages" have forced my department to cut our budget from about $40k to $10k. The only books that I have available to teach with are standard textbooks from about 2000 which were written at about a 5th grade reading level. I'm gathering articles and pulling from multiple sources. As difficult as this may be, I'm actually excited about doing it this way. It's just that it would have been nice to have had this information about the shortage back in May.

As far as reading, I'm about to finish Neil Postman's, Amusing Ourselves to Death. Postman wrote the book about 20 years ago and argued that electronic media (he focused on tv) has conditioned us to expect to be entertained. If information is not presented in an entertaining fashion then the information is not worth receiving. He looks at contemporary journalism, education, and religion as forms of show business. He also argues that Huxley's vision from Brave New World is more relevant today than Orwell's nightmare. Orwell argued that, in the future, information will be kept from the people and that they would be controlled through pain. Huxley argued that the truth would be lost in a sea of irrelevance and that people would be controlled through endless pleasures, wants, and distractions.

I also picked up a comic book, er, graphic novel called the Pride of Baghdad. The guy who wrote it, Brian Vaughn, had also written Y: The Last Man which was amazing and Ex Machina which is pretty good. The Pride of Baghdad follows a pride of lions that had escaped from the Baghdad zoo during the American invasion of Iraq. Vaughn gave the animals voices and the story has broader meaning than just the wanderings of the animals. The art is incredible and the character development is outstanding.

Here is an entertaining clip from the Youtube Miracle: