I can Spell! (sort of)

A few weeks ago we went down to Thatcher to see my lovely sisters perform in the "25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee"  It was a fun yet interesting show.  It's not your traditional broadway musical.  It was kind of weird.  The best part was I was called up to be on stage with them.  They call up 6 guest spellers to be a part of the spelling bee.  I got to sit by Marilee the whole first half of the show and it was great fun.  The other 5 spellers they called up were really odd and extremely annoying.  One of the guys sat there and was acting like he only spoke Spanish.  You could tell that Tiff ( who was one of the moderators) was getting annoyed by him, luckily the comfort counselor spoke Spanish so he started talking to the guy.  It was hilarious, and if you knew the comfort counselor, his character would alone make you laugh.  My first word to spell was cow, so luckily I made it through the 1st round!  I was the last guest speller to get out at the end of the first half, and ended up getting serenaded to by the cast.  I later found out that Tiffany had full control in keeping me that long.  They wanted to get rid of the others first since they were so annoying.  I had a blast being on stage.  Its been a longtime since I've been in a show and it felt so good to be on stage again. 

 

Rona Lisa Peretti, Me, Logainne Schwartsandgrubbiner

Adventures in Handicap Parking

 The past 2 weeks I have been a Pageant Warrior helping with the Easter Pageant at the Mesa Temple. It has been a great opportunity to help again this year because I didn't get to help last year since I was in Florida. I spent a couple of nights at Handicap parking.  Some nights were stressful and other quite comical.  Some people really abuse the whole handicap pass and it makes me sad because then those who actually need to park closer can't.  Sometimes some members of the church frustrate me especially when the lie and think that paying their tithing entitles them to closer parking at the pageant..  Hello it doesn't matter to me if you pay your tithing or have a temple recommend, those are things you should do anyways and they don't entitle you to anything but blessings that the Lord has for us.  Then there are some who actually do have a disability and don't just bring grandma to use her pass.  One of my favorites was this awesome motor home that was full of people.  I just had to take a picture of it, you don't see too many like it anymore.

  

It was kind of like a clown car seeing all of them leave.  Please be sure to say "Hi" to Napoleon for me when you get home!

The next car was my favorite.  This lady pulls up on a golf cart and tells us she has a permit but didn't want to leave it hanging on her mirror because it would just blow away.  I believed what she said because I had a class with her once at MCC and knew she had some problems.  After she parked she came up to us and said she only used half of the parking spot so if another golf cart came they could park in that spot as well.  I was just dying laughing inside.  A few minutes later she came back telling us she needed to go to Walgreens and grab some tortilla chips but she would be back.  While she was gone a guy on a Harley pulled up and parked in her spot so when she returned we told her to take the other half of the spot.  She was excited to hear that she wasn't completely wasting a space. She first had asked if we had any specific parking for golf carts.  Yeah no, that is the only golf cart I've seen driven to the pageant! 

 

Thats the lighter side of handicap parking.  I was called a liar because some old people thought they saw a spot.  I do know how to count, I do have a college degree!  I also had to deal with crazy anit's as they were passing their crap out and then the liar sales men from Living Scriptures.  I do love the Living Scriptures movies but I do not like the way they do their business.  If you subscribe and then have to cancel they keep calling you.  It is annoying. 

Anyways the pageant was great, I love it.  It is so amazing each year.  There are more adventures to share at a later date, there is lots to do on this wonderful conference and Easter Sunday.  Yay for having family parties at my house!

It's Wendi with an I

Last week I went to the swearing in of the new Mesa Police Chief with my parents, it was kind of our fhe activity, we are weird like that with just me at home.  We are sitting at a table with other city council peeps and the superintendent of Mesa schools came and sat at our table and my dad starts talking to him and introducing my mother and I, then my mother points to me and says "My daughter needs a job!" I think my face turned bright red when she said that.  We then chatted about what I teach and if I have all of my certifications and other stuff.  When I said which district I'm presently working for he said yeah we need to get you over to Mesa.  Hopefully that little exchange will help my chances of getting a new job much higher!  He did say they are wanting to start show choir at some of the schools if I would be interested in working with that and I said yes.  He then asked what my first name is because he knew what my last name is.  I told him it's Wendi with an I.  Hopefully having a "different" spelling of my name will help him remember me and get me a job! I updated my application so now I play the waiting game.

Could Someone Pinch Me Please?

I had a moment of shock the other day at work, it was a great moment and a Pinch me Please moment. At my "other" school, the one I'm only there 2 out of the 6 days my room has been messy from a project that was started at the end of the school year last year and never finished. It has caused me much frustration. I finally got to use half of my room about 10 weeks into the school year and figured it would be like that the rest of the school year.  So this day I walk into my room and about have a heart attack because it is completely cleaned out.  I didn't know what to do with myself, I almost started jumping up and down with joy!  That week I didn't get to spend much time in my room because the kids were taking a district test and I got to go babysit, I mean help proctor during the morning.  The kids were also very excited to see the room empty

 

   

Before shots.  It is a really nice big room for me to do fun stuff with the kids.

 

And here is what she looks like today!  I can't believe that everything was finally taken out of my room.   So this next part you can all laugh at me, but I kind of find it ironic. I then realized that my room being cleaned was all thanks to Disney.  I remembered them saying something about a campus beautification project that people could sign up and help with the Give a Day, Get a Disney Day Free promotion that was going on.  It's very awesome to know that the company I enjoyed working with so much continues to help me out!  Having that huge act of service done for my classroom made me so happy for the rest of the week, it made the week go by so fast!  The next day at a staff meeting our new principal showed us pictures from the volunteers working on our campus over the weekend. 

That is my excitement for a while, I fill my days going to school and looking for school districts that are looking for a new Music Teacher.  Hopefully I'll be able to find something closer to home for the next school year. 

Now I'm enjoying a wondrous spring break of not having to drive into Phoenix!  Its quite splendid to have the chance to sit around and not really do anything for the week.  There will be some adventures, but those shall be discussed at a later date.  Its time to enjoy this beautiful weather!

Anything Can Happen

The past week has been CRAZY! There has been all sorts of drama, but mainly at work.  Monday was a splendid day off work, thank you George Washington and Abraham Lincoln for having birthdays in February.  We had the family over for dinner and just hung out for a while and celebrated Abby's 1 year anniversary of being home from the hospital.  I love my nieces and nephews!  I also saw the movie When in Rome, super cute.  Tuesday was an interesting day.  I spent the whole day kind of stressing out about that night because I was singing at stake enrichment.  I love to sing, but not always a solo and especially for the really talented people that I have grown up with in my stake.  During dinner before the meeting started the power went out.  I was excited for a moment thinking I might get out of it.  But alas, the power came back on and we were able to resume.  Luckily I was first so I didn't have to sit and worry while others were talking.  It went great and I got many compliments, so I guess it wasn't too bad!  I'm glad that was over.

On Wednesday I went and saw Mary Poppins, it was amazing.  I had seen it in NYC, and most of it was the same, you can't do everything with a touring set as you can when you are a resident show.  It was a date and I won't go into all the details about everything, but it was kind of an interesting date.  Me and some cousins got a mini subscription to the Gammage Broadway Series this year and decided to buy 2 tickets to Mary Poppins and be ambitious and find a date.  Yeah the ambitious part, what where we thinking?  It turned out ok. The guy I ended up taking had never been to a musical before.  He said he enjoyed so I hope he did.  I love live theater, so that is something that whoever I marry needs to enjoy.

Also that day at work I found out about a lot of drama that occurred during the week.  Hold on folks, this is quite the tale and I think I should write a novel about my adventures this year, it's been crazy!  So at the school I'm at 2 days a week my principal's husband passed away in October,  I have seen her off and on since then and can't really remember the last time I saw her.    Well she resigned and so now our Assistant Principal is now the Principal and an Assistant Principal from another school will be at our school 2 days a week.  Then a 3rd grade teacher had a mental breakdown and she quit as well.  One of the 6th grade teachers moved down and took over her class, and the 6th grade class was then split between the 2 7th grade classes.  It has been crazy!  There are also all sorts of budget issues going on right now as well, and I will discuss those later.  If anyone knows of any schools looking for an amazing music teacher for next school year let me know!

Friday my sisters came home for weekend and to see Mary Poppins.  It was fun to have them home, it had been a while since they came for a visit.  When they got home from the show friday night they were all giddy because they are big nerds and went to get pics with some of the actors.  Gavin Lee, the guy who plays Bert is so attractive, and even cooler because he is married and his wife is in the tour cast as well.  That makes me super happy because most guys on broadway are gay, so this realization makes me happy.  So they got their pics with Bert and Mary.  

Saturday we had our Riding cousins party.  We were flying kites at the park and we were going to play kickball but it was too cold and windy and then it started raining.  It's so much fun to hang out with my family and just chill with them.  Then after that I went to a baby shower for a friend of mine and her mother was my mentor teacher.  I was so excited to see a bunch of old friends.  When I was talking to my mentor teacher she told me a really funny story that totally helped me get over the drama I had experienced the beginning of the week!  Last semester she had another student teacher and I guess a bunch of the kids kept calling her Ms. Jones.  But the best part is when she was prepping the kids on thursday for her to be gone friday for Regionals one of the kids said "It would be better if Ms So and So ( the student teacher from last semester) were here"  and then another one said, "It would be even better if Ms Jones were here"  It made me so happy to hear that.  I knew most of the kids liked me, but I didn't think I had left that big an impression on them.  When you hear things like that it reminds of why you do what you do.  Now I need to just find a school where I can truly do what I love and appreciate me more! 

Then today at church it was Ward Conference.  It was amazing.  I am recharged and ready to go.  It is amazing how inspired our leaders can be and know the right things to say to help you along your way.  Going back to our enrichment meeting on tuesday the theme was "Finding Joy in the Journey Now"  We will have trials some more challenging that others, we just have to wait and have faith that everything will work out.  I love going to meetings where the spirit is so strong.  Although you may have been sitting there for so long, you don't want to leave and have that spirit leave as well.  You want to always have that feeling.  So now lets see what adventures are out there for this week!

Happy Birthday Arizona!

While most people celebrate Valentine's Day, I like to celebrate Arizona's Birthday.  Someday I will celebrate and have a Valentine, but for now I celebrate my state.  I am proud to be from Arizona.  I always loved meeting people from Arizona while I was in Florida.  The great state of Arizona is 98 today.

I have some thoughts on Valentines day.  Lately little stands have popped up on the side of the road selling cheap stuff for your Valentine.  Would someone please tell me how a 3 foot tall teddy bear or other stuffed animal says "I Love You?"  To me that is not romantic, plus what do you do with it after Valentine's Day?  There are many more romantic things you can do.

Also talking about someday starting a family I have an aunt who claims her self as the bonding coordinator.  So when I get married I have to make sure his birthday doesn't interfere with another family members birthdays or anything else on the calendar.  She sent an email the other day that I shall share it because it made me laugh, this is just a taste of my funny family.

I just wanted to share with you concerns that Grandma and I were talking
about last night. It appears that the majority of babies being born in our
family are males. This creates a long term problem for grandma because she
cannot make gifts for boys like she can for girls. Boys actually require
spending money and buying gifts. So when you are carefully planning when
to have your children (to avoid calendar conflicts) could you also
carefully choose to have the female gender, unless you would like you sons
to get doilies, dresses, or pretty hair flowers. It is only a suggestion
to help grandma out.

Last night our stake had a sweetheart dance, I went to fulfill my church calling, left after eating and watched a movie with friends.  We watched Julie and Julia, super cute.  I really like it, it might be a one I will buy.  A very good movie, with a great story line and for the most part clean.  A lot better than what you normally see.   I give it 2 thumbs up!

Tales of a Kind of Only Child

Right now I am the only kid at home, it is really different after there being 5 of us for so long, but over the years that number has gotten smaller as some get married and others go away to school.  Sometimes it is really nice, other times a little awkward and others I can't wait to move out again.  One of the best things right now are the fancy city functions I attend on occasion with my parents.  A few weeks ago we went to a reception thingy before at the art center.  They had some really really good little appetizers and desserts to snack on.  The presentation at these fancy events are always amazing, the servers were serving some of the stuff out of cigar boxes, it was way cool.  We had some chicken flautas with prickly pear, mmm delcious and lots of other good foods that probably aren't very good for me!  Last night I hung out with my parents at a super bowl party that some of their city friends throw each year.  It's kind of a who's who in Mesa, we basically went for networking purposes and to see how rich people watch the game.

Those are some of the fun things, it isn't always like that.  Sometimes they will go to some function without me and leave me with nothing for dinner and they say you'll be ok.  Its not that bad but just funny at times.  Another not so fun thing about there only being 3 of us, family prayer.  I have nothing against praying but you go through the rotation a lot faster when there are only 3!

Something I find really funny is that not too many people in my parents ward know who I am because I go to the singles ward and so when I answer the phone or the door they get confused when I answer and its not my mom.  I felt real old when I went to lunch on the day I took after my birthday and one of the ladies who lives down the street and younger than me and about to have baby #3.  Yeah don't worry, I'm done with school, not married and still living at home!  Another thing that makes me laugh is some of the moms that my mom watches for sometimes aren't comfortable if it is just me at home with their baby.  Hello I am old enough for them to be my child so I think I can take care of them just fine!  Those are all my stories for today.

PS  This is not meant to be a negative post.  I hope I'm not coming across that way but to some it may sound that way.  Life is good right now and I'm not too excited to have my sisters move back home in May!