McLoud for the Cure

Well I know I promised to deliver a thorough update on Blaine and his school, but because he has 3 big tests this week, that 1-on-1 exclusive interview has been postponed. He taught to me while I slept on his shoulder and now his friend Ollie is over studying with him. We also had the missionaries over for dinner this evening.

 So in the meantime, here are some updates on me and McLoud:

 - Friday morning one of my students comes into class and comes straight back to my desk to ask if I was at the Jr. High football game the night before because he had made an awesome interception. Sadly, I told him I wasn't there but promised I'd be at the last 2 games of the season this month. Then I cried when I relayed that little story to Blaine because not only do I want an infant baby, but I also want a little 8th grader baby (or just adopt one of my students). But it made me happy that he was so excited to share his good news with me and hoped I saw it.

- Another one of my Jr. High football boys gave me one of his football pictures so I taped it to the side of my computer :)

- In Oklahoma, the Principal goes on "learning walks," which just means that they pop into your classroom without notice for about 10 minutes to make sure the kids are under control, the objectives are on the board, etc. So I already had one of those during my first or second week. But then this past Tuesday the Principal attended my third hour class in its entirety. It wasn't my most exhilarating lesson but it was good and I felt good about it. She left class about 5 minutes early and left a nice card on my desk just saying that I'm doing a great job and the kids all seem to love me. Then later on in the week we met for my follow up conference and that went really well. She said that she usually tells first year teachers to just make it through the year and focus on classroom management. But she said she thinks I'm ready for a little more than that since I seem to have a strong hand on classroom management and my students love me.

- We were having a faculty meeting a couple weeks back but I don't think I ever shared it, so here it is: Oklahoma allows corporal punishment! We were all discussing how to handle various kids and then they all started talking about one girl in particular (I don't have her in my classes so I don't know who it is). But anyways, they were talking about all these different instances of disrespect, etc. and the principal started telling the latest chapter in this power struggle with this girl and the whole time I assumed we were talking about verbal "swatting" until she got into detail about how the girl started crying and got so mad, the principal said she thought the girl was going to punch her. I was shocked! The whole time I thought this was a figurative thing, but oh no. In the state of Oklahoma, if your parent signs the waiver at the beginning of the year, then the principal is allowed to smack the kids on the bottom with a paddle if it comes to that and it has to be done in front of a witness. (I hope I never have to be a witness)

- Everyone has trucks here. But check out all these red trucks at school. Just funny :)

- Background info: I was teaching about small acts of kindness on Wednesday. Thursday I'm on my planning period and I'm walking down the hall when I see one of my students (the one whose parents are going through a nasty divorce) sitting outside the counselor's office and his face is all red and upset. So I sit down next to him and ask him whats up and he just lets it out that he doesn't know how much longer he can take it. He said he gets yelled at enough at home and doesn't need it at school, too. He said he was in PE and that he did one thing wrong and that the coach went off on him. It was so sad to see him crying and teachers/coaches like that just make me so mad. I knew a little bit about what was going on in his personal life, so I asked if things had gotten any better since his dad moved out and he said that now the people that they're staying with just are always talking negatively about him and try to get him to do so as well. So I get up to make sure the counselor knows he is here waiting for her and while I'm doing that, one of my other students (the cool guy that took the autistic kid under his wing) walks by and asks the upset boy whats going on and if he's ok. So I thought that was nice of him, until I saw him stick out his hand and introduce himself! They didn't even know each other. Coincidence that I had taught about the importance of small, random acts of kindness the day before? I think not.

- Going off of that, my mom gave me a good idea to cut out a big heart and then cut it into pieces, and each time one of my students does a small act of kindness, they have to tell the class about it and then the get to put their piece of the heart puzzle up on the wall and eventually complete the heart. So I had that boy share his experience the next day and told the class that I was very proud of him.

- I'm in charge of the food drive and made these posters

- I have one boy that I really connected with because he, also, loves musicals. So we share references and he brings me in stuff a lot to look at having to do with different musicals. Friday morning he asked if he could perform a monologue in front of the class, so naturally, I said "sure!" :) It was really funny. He does a great job.

- A couple weeks ago I saw a boy reading the New Era, so I went up to him and told him I was a member of the Church, too, and we talked for a bit. I asked if there was any other members at our school and he said he only knew of his brother and then this other girl named Natalie. He said there is not a branch in McLoud, but they go to the Shawnee ward nearby (same ward as the superintendent). Him, his brother, and their friends play a game outside the building by the entrance I use in the morning, so he or his brother always open the door for me. What cuties! I love it :)

- I was in the hallway in between classes and this girl comes up to me and says, "Are you Mrs. Baker?" I'm Natalie. Steven told me to introduce myself. I'm Mormon too" :)

- Friday night was "Win-Win" - Cancer Awareness Night. This was only our second time doing a halftime dance (since it was only our second home game) but it was fantastic. One of our girls became ineligible due to grades, so she couldn't perform. So at the last minute, we had to rearrange some things. I was nervous and frustrated, as were the girls, but I gave what I thought was a good coaches speech beforehand and they did a fantastic job. This dance was more pom-like, as opposed to the first one being more hip hop like. We had lots of ripples and kicklines and even got pink pom poms. The superintendent even complimented me on the dance (which I made up, of course). And thats saying something, since last time he wasn't scared to voice his doubts. The wife of one of the coaches is a breast cancer survivor (and was also a school janitor) and so she was there as an honorary team captain and cheering loud and everything. What I also thought was nice was that the announcer asked us all to pray for one of the junior high boys who was in the ICU after last Thursdays game. Oh, and our music played correctly this time, so I didn't have to steal the spotlight with my stands-climbing, rail hopping, stair running ;)

- And as usual, we go through the drive through at midnight every Friday night on the way home when the game. What was not usual, however, was this time Blaine decided to have a country accent. Without a heads up to me. It was funny. Ask him to do it for you sometime. The drive through people didn't question it for a second

Dental School Update

Unfortunately, it seems my new updates only happen on the weekends these days and I don't think we've talked about Blaine's dental school recently. A couple weeks ago I was able to spend sometime with Blaine at his school. The outsides of his buildings aren't the prettiest things in the world (so they can withstand all the tornadoes and winds) but the insides are nice and beautiful... some are even pretty fancy. There is a nice big fountain in the middle of campus and greenery. BYU's ground had a lot of flowers, but OUHSC (University of Oklahoma Health Sciences Center) is still beautiful. I was really impressed with the interior design though. I spent a couple of hours in 2 of the buildings planning lessons and got to enjoy some time on big comfy leather love seats with foot rests, surrounded by fancy paintings and artifacts. Tomorrow I told him we're going to do a 1-on-1 Q&A as a "special feature" for our blog, so check that tomorrow :) But here are some pictures for now. Off to McLoud for Friday Night Lights :) Go Redskins!

Look! That's his new *free* electric toothbrush in that box :) Its actually really cool. It has a corresponding clock/timer that attaches to the mirror and beeps each time you need to switch to a new quadrant.

It's the the mountains or beach, but not a bad view from your school window, I'd say. There's downtown OKC. We have one more skyscraper in the works that we can expect soon.

Redskin Pom & Football

Last night was our third McLoud High School Redskin football game and we fell to 2-1. Our first game was away and we blew them out of the water, our second game was home and it was a close win, and last night was another away game and our first bus trip.

I stand on the sidelines with them and give them reminders and instruction as necessary. After the first game, the AD told me that someone told him how impressed they were by that since the cheerleading coach and past pom coaches would just sit in the stand. So that was nice to hear, but hello?! Where do you see the coach stand in every other sport? Anyways, our first game was not our best just because it was our first and the majority of us didn't know what to expect, but it wasn't a big deal.

Our second game was at home and it was a close one. Our sideline routines were a lot better and this time we got to do our halftime dance. (We only do halftime performances at our home games). So the girls run out onto the field and I'm kneeling on the sidelines, ready to video tape it when the music comes on, but its already like 25 seconds into the song. So it goes off again and we're waiting for them to restart it at the beginning of the song... and we're waiting, and waiting, and waiting. So after about 1.5 -2 minutes of silence, Coach Baker had to take matter into her own hands. So I ran from the sideline over to the permanent bleachers, climbed up on the rods, climbed over the railing, jogged up the stairs into the media booth and helped them figure out how to play the song. So it eventually played, but by that point, the girls were all frazzled and it was our first dance performance, so it was not as impressive as it could have been. But hopefully everyone realized it was just our first dance. It was a pretty nice dramatic entrance though. Luckily I was wearing pants to that game, because I was wearing a skirt to our first one. (We also did that dance at the pep rally before our first game and that performance was really great. So thats good, but honestly, I felt like there were more people participating in the pep rally on the court than in the stands...)

Then last night the Redskins (us) went to play the Chieftains for an Indian battle. Because our first game was only like 15 minutes away from McLoud, this was also our first bus trip. Its a pretty intense entourage. We took 5 buses to the game and it was about 45 minutes away. Our two, cute team buses (white school bus with "Redskins" painted on in red along the side of the bus) took the football team, then our band took 2 buses plus their horse trailer filled with instruments (again, painted cute and school spirited), and then cheer and pom shared the last bus. Blaine even rode on the bus with us. He made friends with the guy who drove the bus - he is the high school guidance counselor who I had only met once, but liked. Apparently he used to be the McLoud football coach for about 20 years and coached many of the current coaches. Last night he also had a biological son and a foster son playing on the team. There was lots of people at the game and even traffic leaving afterward. It almost brought me back to my days at Miami when we would ride in the 5 buses through all the fans, except we had a police escort then. Once we got away from the school the roads were fine. On our 45 minute drive back to the school, it was fun to see other high school football lights on from the freeway. (On the way over, I also saw a mama cow nursing her baby)

By the way, check out this sunset progression. It was incredible. It looked like the earth was being cleansed by fire!! (all these pictures are unedited and taken on my phone)

They were Seminole High School, so they did FSU's arm chopping chant thing. And it was their homecoming so they were really into it. Apparently we don't like each other very much. There was a lot of pre-game festivities and a lot of smack talking posters tied around the fences (though, some made sense, others did not).

The first half was good, but then we just lost it in the second. The final was 40-13. As usual, we cheer and dance when the band plays during the 1st quarter, 2nd quarter, and 4th quarter. The band takes a break during the 3rd quarter, so we do, too, since we can't dance without music. Last night was our coldest night so far. We don't have our team sweats yet, so we had to stay in our uniforms (well, they did) and then just bundle up during the 3rd quarter. I even broke out my beloved Olympics jacket.

I went to sit with Blaine during the 3rd quarter (who was sitting with his new bus driving friend and his family). It was funny because he said something that I was thinking, which was such a Craig A. comment. They had this superstar kid named "Poppy White" and other players that they would call like "Doc Harvey" and stuff like that. So we're sitting there getting whooped and Blaine says, "Use their names. There's no way his real name is Poppy. And no one in high school is nicknamed Doc." :)

Seriously, that Poppy kid was their only offense, defense, and kicker. He, as you can imagine, had an attitude problem. One of the senior transfers on my team said that he had gone to 3 other high schools--one of which was her last one. According to her, he'll be a hot shot (or else his dad will ride him) and then once the coach gets sick of his attitude, he'll transfer. The way he kicks the PAT is he takes one step and kicks straight on. Ridiculous. Want to know whats more ridiculous? Airballing a PAT. Thats right - air balling. Like in basketball. The football barely sailed pass the goal line. If I was his coach, I would give him a piece of my mind about taking the game seriously and quit being arrogant. Anyways, who know if that background story is true or not, but it very well could be.

Back to pom, we've had a couple commitment issues this week and a couple reports of bad attitudes, so I am not very happy with some of them. We definitely need to discuss that Monday morning. I had to enforce our missed practice consequences for the first time a couple days ago.

I don't know if I've clarified, but we have pom practice everyday during 1st period, then after school on Tuesdays and Wednesdays, and when we need to, Thursdays after school as well. One of the moms thinks she's my assistant coach. And one of the moms has 2 daughters on my squad (a senior and a sophomore) whose dad died a while ago and last night they told me that they want her to date the single, early 40s, attractive for his age head football coach, which is a cute idea. Their mom is pretty and 38 and for some reason thats all I could think about on the bus drive home--I will never be a pretty 38 year old mom with a sophomore and a senior. At the earliest, I could be a 43 year old mom (hopefully pretty, but 30s has a much younger ring to it than 40s) with a senior and a sophomore. Anyways, doesn't matter. I ordered us some new pom poms on Thursday so I'm very excited for them to come in. They will be a mixture of holographic red and holographic silver, which means super sparkly!!!

Enough of pom for now. I wish I knew how to put a video on here, but I'll work on it.
Oh one last thing, last Tuesday we had the annual McLoud Football Cook Out, where the food was blessed by a local pastor. It was a pretty good BBQ in the endzone of our field for the football team, pom team, cheer team, and band. A well loved and respected teacher had a stroke last year and made an appearance at that event, which made a lot of people emotional. The football coach presented him with a team ball, so the teacher then went on to talk for 20 minutes about meeting the most beautiful girl he'd ever seen, her bringing him to God, and encouraging all the kids to accept Jesus into their hearts while they're young.

Go Redskins!

White Coat Ceremony

So check out this timeline: Blaine flies from California to Oklahoma on Thursday night. I fly from CA to OKC Friday morning. 2 days later, I started teaching, Blaine had his second day of school, and Blaine's dad flew into town. BUSY!!

Blaine's dad, Dave, came for Blaine's White Coat Ceremony was the next day at a Methodist church downtown. The ceremony is like an initiation into the health profession. The students had the formal processional to the inspirational instrumental music, then they walked across the stage and got "cloaked" with their white coat by a member of the faculty, and then once all the students had their white coats on, they all read the hippocratic oath.

We had a nice, long wait before it started, so we were sending pictures to Blaine's sister Erin. I told Dave to make his signature coffin face for this one, and of course, this is the time he chooses to smile in a picture.

Dave and I just happened to be sitting next to the family of the person right before Blaine. So they called that other guy's name and his whole family next to us goes crazy and starts standing and cheering and yelling. Thats when Dave leaned over to me and said, "Please don't do that." ;)

Blaine and his friend Ollie - an Oklahoma native and fellow hunter

Blaine and Beau - he's in our ward and has a cute little girl named Elena!

Blaine and John - he's in our stake, but not our ward. They were carpool buddies over the summer

After the ceremony, we went to Rib Crib since it was Tuesday. And as we all know, that means all you can eat ribs and sides. Blaine and Dave got the ribs, but I got a nice juicy man burger! (I got the BBQ chicken salad last time)

Unfortunately we didn't get to do too many fun, touristy things with Dave since it was such a short trip and such a busy time. But hey, I'd love to have a couple of days to myself to swim, work out, and sleep in. Before we took him to the airport, however, we stopped in Bricktown and went to eat to Fuzzy's -- our favorite mexican place downtown. And it just so happened to be our anniversary celebration as well. Like I said, that was an EXTREMELY busy couple of weeks, so about a week later, we went to Wendy's (yes, drive thru fast food) and saw the movie The Butler. Happy Anniversary to us.

I think that means next year we'll have to make up for that with a big celebration trip of some sort. And our next anniversary that would also be 5 years, which is a benchmark for our age group.