To Grade or Not To Grade?

I teach PE. In all the years I have taught, I gave a grade when students ran the mile. 10 minutes or less is an A, 11 minutes a B, 12 minutes a C and 12+ minutes earned an F.. that's right, F! It was always my belief that if a 40+ years old woman (me) with a foot injury, shoulder pain, and a myraid of other "getting old" issues can run a mile in about 9 minutes, my young whipper-snapper-students should be able to run it just as fast, if not faster. However, at least once a year, I will have to "face-off" with a parent who thinks I am the most unreasonable person on planet Earth. To this parent, I would say, "if your child has no health issues, and we have been practicing running, breathing, and pacing for 6 weeks, there is really no excuse for taking longer than 10 minutes to run a mile."

Am I unreasonable? I think not!

Where oh where did September go?

During the month of September

1. Michael quit football. Tired of standing along sidelines not getting to play. Michael injured shoulder so wrestling is out. Perhaps volleyball in Spring, he says.
2. Luke is still wearing fixator device. Went to see a doctor about hip replacement surgery next summer. Doctor wants to consult with other doctors before deciding.
3. Kel is in Elko working and going to college. Quit job at movie theatre for full time job working graveyard as a stocker at Wal-mart. Gets homesick but not quitting this required "away from home" experience.
4. Jesse trying to buy his first home. Made offer. Offer accepted. Now he waits for banks to finish paperwork. (His house is around the corner from us, perfect little starter home.)
5. Hoai My loving her new job.
6. Greg loving that he has 4 years left until retirement. Got called to teach Gospel Doctrine. Makes his wife cry during all his lesson.

That's our month in a nutshell - busy - happy - faithful.

Goodbye Summer

It's hard to say goodbye to summer realizing that it will remain over 100 degrees until mid October. However, with the first day of 2010-2011 teacher contract looming (Wednesday 8-25), summer vacation is ending.
I will begin my 7th year with CCSD and Greg begins the first of his last 4 years. He is counting days til retirement (June 2014). I attended freshman orientation at NWCTA and know it will be a good move. Greg is returning to Cadwallader to teach math. He is melancholy about the fact that he has taught all his sons as Michael, our youngest, begins his freshman year.
Speaking of which, Michael spent the summer in football camp, waking up 4 days a week at 6am. He had his first scrimmage today and we are looking forward to being football parents. Luke had his limb lengthening surgery and is getting used to life on crutches with a fixator on his leg. He is a senior. Kel is in Spring Creek living with our friend Don and Shannon Woo and attending Great Basin College. He is working at the town movie theatre. Jesse continues his studies at UNLV and works for Hilton Corp.
Pictures below are from the summer. This is such a melancholy time for me. As excited as I am for another school year, I love having time off and having kids home.

The Escape - Our refugee story

Monday I traveled to Elko/Spring Creek with Kel and my Aunt Cam. Kel was going there to attend college. Aunt Cam was hitching a ride to visit her son. While traveling, I had the opportunity to talk to my aunt about how my family was able to leave Viet Nam at the end of the war. This is our story. Background: In Viet Nam, our household included great grandmother Xuan, grandmother Mao, my mother Cang with me and sister Xuan My, her sister Cam, husband Raymond James Pastor with kids - Sonny and Thu, and her brother Ca, wife Kim with kids Kim-Uyen and Nghia. My uncle was in the Vietnamese Air Force. My mother and her sister worked for the American government at the Air Force base, particularly, they worked at the bowling alley. Uncle Ray was an American soldier. (My uncle and aunt's love story is wonderful-I will tell that someday too) At the end of the war, orders were given for all American military personnel to start evacuating. The base bowling alley became the processing center for all soldiers and their dependents. This was all done with some secrecy as to not send the Vietnamese people into complete panic. Since Uncle Ray was American, he would be allowed to take my aunt and their kids to the United States. His supervisor made a deal with Uncle Ray that if he stayed and helped run the processing center until the very end, he would arrange for all of our family to go with him to the United States. Uncle Ray agreed. As the Communist overtook one province, town, or village after another, American and Vietnamse soldiers were retreating - evacuating to Saigon to get to the military base or the embassy. As these soldiers walked, Vietnamese citizens who survived joined them for protection and escape. The communists trailed this mass exodus of people, shooting rockets into them, thus littering village roads with dead bodies. Those who made it to the base retold stories of horror as they begged to come to the United States. Because my mom and aunt were a part of the processing crew, they were privy to the knowledge that Americans were leaving. Listening to villagers retell stories of death, they too began to panic, fearing for the safety of their family. Aunt Cam went to her husband Uncle Ray and with all panic and urgency stated, "If you do not get my family out, I am not going with you." "We all go or we all stay!" Uncle Ray immediately went to his supervisor and pleaded for our immediate departure. This was 24 hours before the Fall of Saigon. His supervisor agreed. While my mother and Uncle Ray continued working and processing those leaving at the base, my aunt took a jeep and went home to get the family. When she came home, great grandmother and grandma had just returned from the market with me, Xuan My, Thu and Sonny. As the adults hurriedly grabbed their belongings, my Uncle Ca came home from his tour of duty. My aunt sent him to the base on his motorcycle, knowing he would be able to get inside the gates because he was a uniformed officer. He left immediately. After he left, his wife and children came home from visiting her mother. They too climbed on to the jeep with what they had on them and we all left. Our family had to leave as though we were taking a nice drive together. The Vietnamese police were arresting citizens attempting to leave the country, jailing them for causing panic. Our family passed through several checkpoints successfully because of the bribes we offered the police in the form of money and jewelry. We arrived on base and left immediately on a cargo airplane loaded with American soldiers, their families and other refugees. We landed in Guam. We stayed one night in a refugee camp. The next day we flew to the Phillipines and stayed 2 weeks while Uncle Ray made arrangements and waited for paperwork to be approved. Our first home was Alamogordo, New Mexico. Uncle Ray did not believe in welfare. For the first year of our lives in the United States, he was financially responsible for all of us. He taught his wife and the other adults to drive. He taught us English. He paid for medical bills, groceries, clothing. He took the adults to look for work. For all this, Aunt Cam said he never once complained. He became a father to me and my sister. It seemed that he was never too busy to play and wrestle with us. I don't remember him ever being tired. After a year, my mom and her brother found jobs in Las Vegas. We moved. They stayed. After several moves, they too ended here in Vegas. Uncle Ray died of a heart attack when I was a junior in high school. I miss him every day. I don't know what causes a man to step forward and take on such tremendous responsibilities. I am sure his love for my aunt was a great motivator. I also would like to think that he would have chosen to save us regardless. Perhaps the lesson he leaves is that when we are called to save a life, to make a difference, we do!

Bandages off and we are cranking

Hospital

Some things about hospitals that you may have forgotten -
1) They are cold! I froze for 2 days. It's hard to remember a jacket when it's 102 degrees outside.
2) Everything takes longer than you are told. Luke's surgery should have taken an hour. He went in to the operating room at 2:30, finished at 5:00 pm. I was debating a meltdown when Dr. Camp came out.
3) There is a lot of sitting around. Next time, I am going to bring a jump rope and burn off some anxiety.
4) Sunrise Hospital has free wi-fi. So forget jumping rope, I will just catch up on TV episodes on Hulu instead. Anything to make time pass quicker.
5) If you have someone staying in the hospital, plan on staying with them. The nurses can not watch all their patients. If Greg hadn't stayed the night with Luke, it would have been pretty unpleasant.

Waiting for surgery to begin. The IV in the hand is so gross. Luke wasn't very happy about it.

Coming out of surgery

All wrapped up in bandages

First steps
Coming Home

First Visitors-Clarissa

and her sister, Alexa!

Welcoming the Pain

Today we spent 3 hours with Luke at Dr. Camp's office. Dr. Camp became Luke's orthopedic surgeon in 2003 when Luke had hip surgery as a result of his arthritis. Though the surgery corrected the destruction of his left hip, it also left his leg shorter because the hip screws crossed the leg's growth plate. We have been waiting for the day that Luke would be done growing and Dr. Camp could correct this through a limb lengthening process. Next Wednesday is the anticipated day of surgery. He will wear this device (see picture) until Thanksgiving/Christmas time.

Luke was so happy to finally reach this milestone. He can't wait for the surgery. He stated that he welcomes the pain, knowing that it's "the beginning of the end" of this journey called "life with arthritis".