World Turtle Day (belated)

THE TRUTH ABOUT TURTLES

by Shel Silverstein  

Turtles really have long legs,

But they don't stretch them out

Until it's very late at night,

And then they run about,

Racin' over hill and field,

Until mornin' comes—and then

They curl 'em back inside their shells

And crawl around again.

*WARNING* This blogpost is really long... but a lot of REALLY neat stuff happened this week, so, it's worth the read if you're interested but make sure you have the time. Love you guys. I feel so flattered that I have people in my life that care to know what my new life is like. I love you guys.

Alright, so Friday was World Turtle Day and those of you who knew me in Jr. High School know that this is an important event. So, as requested by my dear friend Jenelly-Belly, we are having a Turtle Club Weekly version of the weekly blogpost. Yay!!!!

So, to start us off I'm going to reminisce a little bit. For those of you who could care less about my Turtle Lord days, feel free to skip to the next turtle. 

So, through all this packing and unpacking I actually re-found all the Turtle Club Weekly comics again. I nearly laughed myself to death. Not because they were actually THAT hilarious but mostly because I was remembering the good old days. I remember Olivia helping me to write a couple. I remember Carly and I drawing that creepy clown-axe thing (what was his name Carly?) in health class and then me LOSING that paper while we were teaching Kindergarteners in that STAR reading program. I remember the terrifying Cosine trees and having a sleepover with Carly and finding the Cosine rock and walking to Setar's house and eating those little pumpkin things. I remember Selina and I goofing off in Geometry while writing these comics and everyone laughing at me about Brandyville and Garretburg. I remember discovering blue bananas in Iceland and KNOWING that is what has to be the main export from UnderIceland. I remember writing these comics and being so happy to see you guys laugh and have fun. I am so grateful for the friends that I have, especially the group (Selina, Carly, Jenelle, Brooke, Setar, and Jesse) that helped me survive Jr. High and High School. Reading these comics was so good and, being a little homesick and missing my buddies, had me crying by the end as well. I love you guys so much. I am so lucky to have found you guys. I don't know who or what I would have turned out to be if we hadn't been friends but I know that having you guys as friends is really what helped to define me as a person and guess what? I like that person. Thank you, my BFFs. 

In honor of you guys and in honor of World Turtle Day, I drew a new comic (during church...lol!). I hope you enjoy it! For those of you who have never experienced the joy that is these Turtle Club comics, you have to understand that (as they were originally written by Jr. High school students) they are morbid by nature. So, yeah, just remember that you are working with a lower level of comedy when reading these comics. 

Okay, so looking past the awesomeness that is the Turtle Club, I have also had an amazing week. Which, I am sure, is due to the fact that it was World Turtle day. It was written in the stars to be a good week. So, let me tell you what we were up to day by day.

Monday

Monday was actually pretty boring. I had worked all weekend long and Tuesday was my demo lesson/second interview with PUC charter schools. I was anxious and cranky. So, yeah, sorry to start off with such a boring day but unfortunately I do not make rules on which day of the week comes first. I blame the Romans.

Tuesday

Tuesday was a LOT better. My interview and lesson went so well. First off, I hate interviews. I'm a very anxious and shy person and I really do not like the pressure. However, even though I was very nervous, I was also extremely excited to get back into the classroom again. There are very few things that I am ever confident about, I never walk into something feeling that I am fully capable of accomplishing it (sad, I know), but I am actually pretty confident in my abilities as a teacher. I know my stuff and I am passionate about my work. So, as soon as I got in front of those kids, I immediately calmed down and started to have fun. I was in a class full of sixth graders. They were all incredibly sweet and helpful. And! Maybe the best part, I was taller than ALL OF THEM! Anyway, the lesson didn't go perfectly but I've got pretty good classroom management skills and I was able to achieve all the goals anyway. Afterwards, we had an interview and I was on such a high that I just sailed through it. The school felt so comfortable for me. The administrators were super helpful and friendly. This was the only school in the area that wasn't surrounded in barbed wire and I could really just go on about how much I liked the atmosphere. It's a small charter school. Really small. The entire 6th grade is 120 students. They have a long wait list, which is sad, but they are a public, non-profit, charter school, which is important to me. One of the main goals of the school is community outreach which has always been something that I am particularly passionate about in schools. Also, I watched all the kids come in for their first class and everyone (all the administrators and secretaries) knew all the kids' names. How awesome is that?!

So, I felt good coming out of that interview, as many of you know. Later that day Daniel and I started to explore outside of our neighborhood. We went to the Santa Monica Pier. We took Miya and she's not allowed on the beach there so we stuck to the boardwalk. She quite enjoyed the cool air and chasing the pigeons. We also walked to a park and found a tennis ball for her to chase. The park even had a small man-made stream that she got to walk in.

Wednesday

Back to work on Wednesday but after work we went to this giant park in the middle of the city area. It's called the Sepulveda Basin Recreation Area (so exciting, right?) but there's a man-made lake called Lake Balboa, there's a lot of area to wander, playgrounds, a Japanese Garden, bbq pits and picnic tables, and a really large dog park as well. The area is about a 15 minute drive from us. It was very nice to find a park like this around us. I am excited to explore it more and more. There were also baby ducks and geese!

Thursday 

Thursday was a little more low key. We just took a walk around the neighborhood. Miya is enjoying all the walks she gets to go on as we explore. She is just sad she can't go to all of them. 

My diploma and my Utah state teaching license also came on Thursday.

Friday

Friday we went to Universal City and walked around the mall there. We still can't afford to actually go in Universal Studios (but I want to so badly. They have a new minion ride from Despicable Me) but the mall around there is fun and exciting as well. 

I also found out that I got the job for the PUC schools. I am sure this is mainly due to the fact that it was World Turtle Day. This made me quite jovial and I have been in a good mood all weekend. Daniel, however, got into an accountant mood and decided to run some numbers and has been in a cranky mood all weekend. That is all I will say about the subject. So, yes. I will teach 6th grade English at the school I interviewed at. It is about a 20 minute drive with not bad  traffic to the place. I will be the only 6th grade English teacher because of how small the school is but I have the English department to collaborate with still. Pretty exciting! 

Saturday

Yesterday we walked down Hollywood Boulevard. It is interesting to see how many people really like Miya here. We got stopped about fifty times with people asking about her and petting her and talking to her. She was actually kind of anxious because of all the noise (there was an anti-monsanto rally going on outside of the TLC Chinese theater - that's the one where they do all the red carpet stuff for movies), but she enjoyed the people too. Someone is going to be a diva before long with all the attention she gets. Anyway, we were able to wear the pooch out at least.

Oh! And, we now have a video tour of the house up for you. Enjoy!

Anyway, that is our week. Thanks for reading. Love and miss you all! Happy belated World Turtle Day and watch out for those Cosine Trees! 

- Love, The Turtle Lord