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jips7
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Name: jodi
Country: United States
State: California
Metro: Visalia
Birthday: 3/22/1985
Gender: Female
Interests: singing at the top of my lungs, aprendiendo el español, playing the drums, eating, catching up with friends, sleeping
Expertise: i´m the world´s greatest expert on being me
Message: message me
Website: visit my website
Member Since:
1/26/2005
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| the housewards have joined the ranks of DSLR owners with our new Nikon D90 which arrived this week:
why such a crappy picture to represent such a stellar purchase you may ask? well, it's because the photo was taken using the camera pictured in the photo. here is the full picture:
as you can see, one of the mirrors was one of jodi's compacts, which i blame for the poor quality. in my head i imagined this whole apparatus to work better than it did.
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| this week is homecoming which means dress-up days, assembly to get to know the court, class competitions, and general distractions from learning. but it's fun. the week's theme is 'don't stop the music' so each day's theme is a different song. today's song is george of the jungle so everyone is dressed in animal prints, gorilla suits, or safari gear. i'm dressed as a tiger -- wearing jeans, an orange shirt, and a detroit baseball cap.
it's hard to believe that we're already six weeks into school! my students are working on their first quarter projects and next week already we have a half day to mark the end. how time flies!
we had a very nice weekend down in redlands despite the lack of baby. we picked mom ippel up from LAX which went surprisingly smoothly considering she didn't have a phone to contact us. we got to nick and julie's around 9:00 on friday night and just spent a couple hours just talking together.
on saturday, we got up and had egg mc muffins for breakfast. after getting ready, the girls headed out to the farmers' market where we found lettuce, strawberries, sweet potatoes, green beans, and flowers. we brought our produce back home and then went downtown to a cute baby boutique, a park, and the library. eva had fun showing us the fish in the aquarium in the library and doing laps around the books. we came home and lunch with the boys (they had been playing starwars) and then put eva down for her nap. in the afternoon, the girls ran out again to go to a bead shop, world market, and a clothing outlet. when we got home, we played a game of call-your-partner rook (jodi's favorite, ben's least favorite). for supper we ordered thai (our first experience -- yum!) and then we played a game of tichu (with one person rotating in). that night we watched the soloist which, turns out, mom had seen. thankfully she liked it (both times) and the rest of us did too.
on sunday we got up, got ready for church and had pancakes with strawberries/chocolate chips/dutch sprinkles, peanut butter, etc. after church we came home and made hot marmalade chicken with green beans and corn bake for lunch. it was all very tasty. after lunch we got in a partial game of tichu. during our game, we discussed mom's plans for her time in california and when it would make sense for her to come up to visalia with us. we had been planning on her being here next week, but then thought it would make more sense to come this week so she could be around next week while nick is at work. after a lot of discussion and thought (and after mom got all packed up), we decided that our original plan made more sense; mom will still come next week and then we'll all drive down the following weekend. eva was feeling a little sick when we left and was so sad that she wouldn't even give ben a hug. thankfully we'll get to see her in just a couple weeks (or maybe one week for me...) along with her little brother or sister!
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| update: if you want to see LOTS more pictures, you can see them here.
well, apparently the fat lady has sung, because the opera is finally over. ben and i had a really fun time being in jon rainbow(a brilliant teacher at cvc)'s crime and punishment opera, but it's good to be done and to have some free time again. we had performances last thursday, friday, saturday, and sunday. overall they went very well and had decent crowds. we're wondering how long it will be before we stop waking up with songs in our heads (kind of reminiscent of sound of music after the tour in austria)...
here are a few pictures of the opera taken by one of the actor's wife.
raskolnikov with his mother, sister dunya, and friend razumikhin, trying to get rid of dunya's suitor, luzhin
dunya sings the story of lazarus to roskolnikov
katarina and her children
marmalodov (katarina's husband) has been hit by a carriage and is dying in front of us. that's me with the baby.
i explain to alecia (in my six-word solo) that sonya is marmaladov(whose funeral feast we are enjoying)'s daughter
my double chin and i are disgusted by katarina's tuberculosis
ben the evil landlord kicks katarina and her family out onto the street
i'm sure you now have a good grasp on the story of crime and punishment and who all the characters are. hope you enjoyed the pictures!
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| this week we returned to school -- back to the early mornings, to the routine, and to the students. over all, it was a very good week.
i've been very pleased with my spanish 1 students. they seem highly-motivated to learn, and it's not a battle to get them to participate. this week we learned the alphabet song, and while i normally have several students who are too cool to sing, this year i didn't see any. my spanish 3 classes are nice too. the students in those classes are the ones i had for spanish 1 my first year which is fun. i did experience some frustration when 7 of my 18 students in 2nd hour dropped the class. but honestly i was surprised to see some of them on my roster, and i'm excited about the group that's left.
in addition to the busyness of school, the opera that ben and i are in is now in full swing. the performances are next weekend which means full run-throughs every day except two from last monday to next sunday. it's been fun, but it will be nice to be done and have that time back.
well, just thought i'd post a quick update on our lives. have a great week, everyone!
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| 13 - the number of miles we drove all the way down winding south fork drive, only to realize that it was the wrong road. also the number of miles we drove back down south fork drive.
23.5 - the number of miles we drove on mineral king road before reaching cold springs, a beautiful campground in the southern part of sequoia national park.
0 - the number of campsites available (there are no reservations, just first-come first-served) when we got there (after driving the aforementioned 49.5 miles).
15 - the number of the site that opened up shortly after we got there. we saw that they were leaving and pounced on their site.
6 - the number of campfires that we built throughout our time there.
2 - the number of times we used our lantern.
0 - the number of matches we used to start our fire and our lantern. we had plenty or matches along, but naturally it was a fun (and at times, challenging) game.
1.5ish - the number of miles we hiked towards aspen flat, getting an incredible view of the surrounding mountains and stopping to play in the river.
14 - the number of deer sightings we had, most of which occurred in and right around our campsite.
3 - the number of bears we saw (a momma with two adorable cubs) while taking a drive saturday night. eva was not a big fan. ("no bears. no bears.")
2 - the number of different games we played while relaxing at our campsite: tichu and bang.
1 - the number of towels that got chewed on by a mysterious animal during the night (marmot? bear? squirrel?).
6+ - the number of nalgene bottles that we took along.
4 - the number of times that eva helped nick fill up all 6 nalgenes, possibly one of her favorite activities of the weekend.
immeasurable - the amount of fun we had being together and enjoying God's creation! (cheesy, i know).
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