Inauguration . . . January 20, 2009

We arrived at the Springfield/Franconia Metro Station at 3:58 am. Metro opened at 4:00. We were shocked at the crowds already there! We hopped out of the car and left Carol to park it, and we ran across the street into the parking structure. The line already came out of Metro, across the sky bridge, around the second level and down and around the first level, where we were. At first we were just walking fast, but Rach realized that every minute hundreds more people were getting in line, so we started running! The line was a bummer, but exciting, too. Part of the excitement of Inauguration day! It turns out that it only took us 50 minutes to reach the front of the line and get on a train. Not bad.

Here's my picture that "proves" I was there. Ha ha. Carol is on my left, then me, Rachel, Wade (neighbor) and Danny (nephew). It was a great day to be an American, that's for sure!



Here is Senator/President Obama taking the Oath of Office. During the oath is he President or Senator? You can see how close we were. We didn't realize it at the time, but Senator Bennett had given us VIP tickets. We were front and center, as front as "regular" people could get. It was so exciting! We could see with our own eyes! We didn't even need binoculars. Unbelievable!

The crowds were amazing! It was a big part of the excitement. Supposedly there were about 2 million people there. Remember it is a mile from the Capitol to the Washington Monument, and then another mile from the Washington to the Lincoln. Probably 70% were black. They were so, so excited! They brought their children and their babies so they could always be told that they were there at this pivotal point in US history. Lots of women were dressed up in full-length fur coats and matching hats. They were crying and sharing stories about how they thought this would never happen in their life-times. It was a thrill!

We watched "Executive One" as it
rose up over the Capitol Building. It was pretty cool seeing it rise up over the top. I'll have to admit it was also awfully exciting to wave goodbye to President Bush, who you all probably already know wasn't a favorite of mine. It was also interesting to think about the fact that just an hour earlier the same helicopter would have been "Marine One," but now Bush was no longer president and so the name of the helicopter was "Executive One." Most of you know this, but "Marine One" helicopters always come in sets of 2--one "for real" that the president is in, and one that's a decoy.

Twilight

I wouldn't say I was a gigantic "Twilight" fan, but I do enjoy it!  I read all four books (super quick, easy, fun reads) and then I got a chance to go to a sneak preview of the movie.  Kimball and Davis are advertising at "The District" and so they get 6-8 tickets to shows every few weeks (McKay set this up, so he's on the "know", too).  Anyway, they got these tickets to Twilight 7 hours before the actual opening--our tickets were for 5:00 and it opened at midnight (on Thursday, November 20th).  McKay invited me and Kimball and Davis invited Rob and my mom.  We all had a super good time.  We got free popcorn and drinks.  And, get this, free t-shirts!  So my first two pics are just from the internet about Twilight, and the third pic is my free t-shirts.  Fun!  


Here's my free t-shirts.  I have them hanging on my wall in my classroom.  My girl students think that's cool!  :)

Rob's New Doo

So Rob has started going to April (the same person Kimball and I go to) to have his hair done. Last time she just cut it his old way, but suggested he use a wax instead of a gel. He thought about it for 24 hours and decided he liked his gel. This time April gave him a new doo. Can you see a difference from the old Rob (no photos)? It's spiked just a bit in front. I actually think a change looks nice, but Rob likes his old way. Can you see enough to comment? Let me know what you think.

This pic shows it the best, I think.

Marathon . . . Again

McKay and I got our official pictures, and I thought it would be fun to post them. It sure was fun having 2 of us run "together." This spring we're thinking of another family marathon event. Rob, Kimball, McKay and I are probably running one together. Wendy, Jack and Rach will be our cheering squad! Maybe they can run a 5K if there's one connected with the Marathon. Marathons are fun!!! Try it. You'll like it!

Here I am crossing the finish line. :) I know I've said this ad nauseam, but this was such a fun experience! I felt great when I finished--not like this lady in the lower left. She looks in pain!

Here's McKay crossing the finish line. Of course that's me you see there too. I ran the last block with him (holding hands . . . isn't that sweet?) We dropped hands for him to celebrate his crossing the line. My hand's up because it's just been "dropped."

And here we are together on the Official Finisher podium. :)

Fabulous Marathon!

Here we all are in our "Team Thomas" shirts designed by McKay. The back has a Braveheart quote that says, "Fight and you die; Run and you live." We loved them!!! Notice that even Jack has one. :)

Here's a few finish shots where I ran across with McKay. I had come in about a half hour earlier, but I took everyone by surprise and so I don't have any shots of my original cross of the line.

Here are signs the fam made to cheer us on. Fun!

The marathon was fantastic! Not one single thing could have gone better. The weather was absolutely perfect. My running was smooth and virtually pain-free. I ran on the nose 10 minute miles--just like my practice runs! I started feeling pain at about mile 20 and realized it was time for more ibuprophen, so I popped some and 2 miles later felt better. I slowed down for the last few miles, but had made up a bit of time earlier on so I still averaged 10 minute miles. I felt great crossing the finish line. Not exhausted or anything! I surprised the fam because somehow they didn't get my 20-mile text--so no pics. I'll have to buy official ones. My final time was 4:21:23 and my net time was 4:20:36. I'm in love! I'm doing it again! If I can pick up 16 minutes I can qualify for the Boston. Woo Hoo!

Deseret Industries and my Marathon

Alicia (Smith) told me that waiting for the marathon to start could be really, really cold. It will be practically the middle of the night (4:30 or 5:00 am) and 10 miles up a canyon. She said that I will need to have warm clothes for the top, and then I will probably start the race wearing more than running shorts and shirt. I can shed as I go, but there's a good chance that what I shed will be stolen. So she recommended I buy my "shedding" clothes at DI!!! She also suggested a robe rather than a coat for up top--warm and much more fun than a coat! So this weekend I did my DI shopping. Here I am in my "shedding" clothes. I got this great, fluffy, thick, purple, Victoria Secret robe for $6.00. That was my most expensive purchase.

Now the race has started and I've shed the robe, but am wearing my ear warmer head band, gloves, jacket and pants. The ear warmer and gloves I already owned, but they're totally expendable. In fact I'd love to lose that ugly head band! The jacket was $3.00 at DI. Definitely 1980s era! It's lined with a mesh fabric.

OK. Now I've shed that jacket, as well as the gloves and headband. I'm now wearing my actually pretty nice Nike warm-up pants. $4.00 at DI. Slits on the sides so I don't have to take my shoes off to shed them. But they don't come off as easy as I'd like--not that I'll actually be racing for time in this marathon!

Finally here I am in my plain (and rather expensive) running clothes after having shed all my DI gear. Thanks for the heads' up, Alicia! My race is in less than 2 weeks. I'm psyched! By the way, McKay is designing a team logo for us (he's running this marathon, too!). We will put it on new running shirts. I'll show you when it's done.

Monta the Minimalist Bulletin Board Teacher

On this bulletin board I put news stories. I slowly add them each unit, and then the students can tell me about them on their tests and get extra credit (I cover up the board on test day). Then I start over with new articles. I try to make them about areas we are studying or have studied, or bizzare tidbits I think the kids would like.

Here is "my famous" Evil Dictator board. Our terms are 12 weeks each, so I swap out evil dictator each week and we have a count-down to #1.

This board, pretty obviously, is the calendar. Each day I swap out the big numbers. The smaller calendars on top list our days' work.

Finally, back by my desk I have a personal board with pictures I enjoy--family pictures.

Mom mentioned in her last letter about Dena's amazing room . . . all true. She also mentioned mine, and my Evil Dictator board. Even for middle school I think I'm a bit of a minimalist--and I love it! Thank goodness I don't have to spend time and effort on my bulletin boards, but I think mine are useful, interesting and nice looking.