Shafer Update

I have had a few requests lately for a blog update so here it is. I tried to take some pictures with my camera that doesn't really work, but here we are...

Tyler is grading papers. This is his very favorite part about teaching... NOT! He puts it off a little too much, then has to bring it home with him to catch up on it for grade checks. The elementary part of Harper has a wonderful lady, Evelyn Winslow, that comes and does grading for the teachers, so I rarely have grading to do.

This is me on a day off of work. It is Veterans Day and we had no school so I did not get dressed up. I am also in the process of growing out my bangs (because there is not anyone I trust to cut them the way I want out here), so they are really long and I look a little hideous right now.

And this is Charlie dancing around on his hind legs. It's a little blurry because of the quality of my camera, but he jumps up like this everytime I come home from work and we high-five, so I wanted to share it.

I don't know!?!

So, there we are, enjoying a day off of work. I thought I would just catch you all up on what's been going on since I last made a post. Tyler's football season took a huge hit and made a downward spiral since my last post about how great the season was going. Somehow, the team sort of fell apart. There were very few days that all the boys showed up to practice and it's hard to work on plays when there is not enough people to fill all the positions. There was a huge wave of sickness that spread through Harper School and it seemed like half the team got it at the same time. Tyler still kept his spirits up about it but after the third game, they ended up playing all the rest of the games with only eight guys. The boy I bragged about earlier decided not to show up to a game once, and they totally would have won but it's hard when the other team has twice as many guys and we have no subs. The next week there was a death in the family of another boy, so we don't balme him for not being there then, but that was another win we had to give up. The rest of the season was plagued with injuries and they had to run many plays with only seven guys. Harper is by far the smallest team in the league but they still played so hard and didn't let that get them down. Even with all the crap, we are still proud of the boys. Tyler praises them because they never got discouraged and never gave up even though it seemed everything was against them. He had a great support group of parents this year and he is still happy with the season. It would have been nice to have a few more wins though. Tyler is now getting ready to start the basketball season. He is only coaching the high school girls team this year and we are really hoping for a good season. The girls have a ton of potential.

There is not much new going on with me. I am still teaching and loving it. I had my first Parent Teacher Conferences! I was so nervous but I thought they went pretty well. It's nice only having eight students, because that means only eight conferences. It is not very much fun telling parents their student isn't doing well in any subject, so I am so glad I have such a smart class (with exceptions here or there). If there is one thing I have learned about parent-teacher relations it is that too many parents think their kids can do no wrong and don't like being told they aren't always perfect in school. Again, I was so glad I have such a good group of students and too much talking is the only problem I have in my class. Parents usually agree that their child talks too much! Any other tiny behavioral issues I may have had seemed to be brushed off by every parent as cute or funny or something! So frustrating! Anyway... I am halfway done with my full time substitute job and it makes me very sad. It is definitely not going to be easy leaving my class in the January.

I wish there was more to report, but we pretty much do the same thing every day. Our lives are going to get a little more exciting for a while, though. On Friday, Tyler and I are going to visit the Boise temple to do an Endowment session. It will be the first time back since we were sealed and I am so excited. We planned to go once a month, but man, the time flew by. Football consumed every weekend and pretty soon basketball will. We are going to try to make a more conscious effort to get there monthly. On Saturday, we are going to the Boise State football game against Idaho! We are so pumped for that. We have awesome seats and can't wait to see the Broncos up close!! We will be making a long trip to Heather and Jason's house in Arizona for Thanksgiving. We are really excited for that, but not the sixteen hour drive! I will give updates on those events after they pass!