Dogs

I know most of you are already dog lovers..some of you own packs of dogs. When I went to Sun Valley for Christmas I was a bit bummed to leave Gretta and Shuksan behind as it was CHRISTMAS and what abusive parent dumps their canine children on someone else for the holidays? I wasn't worried about missing dogs though, as Meg has two (Gully- black lab mix and Mavis- brindle pit mix) and she was house sitting for a family who had two more dogs (Buddy- three legged short hair- a crotchety version of Gretta, and Mazie- terrier mix in photo). The dogs were a source of entertainment all week and they reminded me how much happier people can be when they have pets. Meg works at the local animal shelter so she's privy to each dogs story (all three in this photo are from the shelter) and it continually amazes me that people don't treat animals with the same compassion they treat other humans. Gully came to the shelter because his owner was moving and just couldn't find an apartment that allowed dogs (would he/she have done this to a child- opps, can't find a place big enough, may as well put you on craigslist). Mazie was shot at because her owner had been breeding dogs and suddenly had too many and needed to downsize. Mavis wandered around the woods for weeks before someone brought her to the shelter. There are a ton of stories like these and I'm continuously baffled by humans and their attitude that everything is disposable and that the world exists to serve human needs.

Why I Love Sun Valley

I admit I suffer from "the grass is always greener" syndrome. When we left Sun Valley and moved back to Washington, I thought I'd squelched the problem, after all, we were moving to the green state. But for nearly two years after moving back to Washington, I threatened to move back to Sun Valley (Jarred threatened to stay in Washington- I guess he won) having realized the grass IS NOT always greener and there really are special places. Since leaving Idaho, we've spent most summers in Sun Valley, so I feel like I get my fix. After not visiting this summer, I decided winter was a great time to go... I could enjoy the sun and snow. I didn't get to enjoy the snow, as the valley was plagued by weird weather just like the rest of the northwest, but I was reminded of why the grass really is greener over there.
1. Sun. Humans need sun, it makes us happy. It was sunny all but one of the days I visited and I found myself gravitating towards the sun and outdoors. It needs to be sunnier in Washington. I don't know why I live here sometimes....oh wait- the summers are pretty cool. The winters suck ass.
2. My friends. I've moved a ton in my life and I've tried to keep in touch with friends after leaving an area. I'm grateful for all of the people I've met and places I've lived but I've come to realize that my best friends live in Sun Valley. They're not the friends I need to talk to everyday but I find that I have the most in common with these people and they're the people I really love to spend time with and they're from all walks of life.
3. Snobs. So I don't really appreciate the 1% who build 15,000 sq. ft. houses but I do appreciate the thought that goes into the homes and land in the area. Sure, a lot of it is totally impractical (the valley is in the desert- no need for acres of green) but I love that people (even if they're paid to) care about their surroundings (or are willing to pay high taxes so the city can care for their surroundings). The whole time I visited, I didn't see a single blow up Christmas decoration in a single yard. I saw lots of cool Christmas lights in trees but no cheesy Santa or a fat snowman.
4. Nobody walks their dogs on leash. Everywhere we took Meghan's dogs...off leash and those who were also walking their dogs...off leash. I'm always the one who has their dogs off leash here and I get all sorts of evil stares from suburbanites who thrive in controlled environments.
5. BLM land. Lots of it- and if it's not BLM it's owned by someone in California who doesn't care if people hike on their land.
6. Big Box Stores- or lack there-of. I remember living in Sun Valley and making the trek to Twin Falls to shop because we were too poor to shop in the valley, but there's something to be said about being able to operate on a day to day basis without seeing a Target or Wal-Mart.
7. Everyone is in shape. That's partly because they're rich and have oodles of time to work out, but whatever- at least they care about being in shape. Even the "not in shape" people, are in shape.
8. The conscientious people. Yes, rich assholes live in the valley but nowhere else is there a dog hiking program at the animal shelter, or a horse rescue where the horses are not taken from their owners but instead the owners are offered resources so they can become better owners. Yes this takes money but at least those with money are doing something good with their loot.
9. Less people.
Don't get me wrong, I love Washington but it's hard to love Washington in the winter and Sun Valley will always be that place where the grass is greener.

Where the Heck Did Fall Go?

Is this what it's like when you get old? There you are enjoying summer, or fall, or winter and BAM! all of a sudden an entire season went by before your eyes, and the next thing you know, you're older and your body doesn't work like it used to but it seemed like yesterday you felt so young? And the BAM- you're dead. I remember being young and it felt like eons before Christmas would come around. Now I'm old and BAM!

Looking back, it's hard to remember what we did this fall... we went to Bend biking, we painted our house until it was too cold and dark to paint, we rode our bikes locally....I went to OKC...and BAM. Here it is, four days until Christmas and my least favorite day of the year (yet my most favorite because the days only get longer from here on out). I guess I'd better start making the most of my days before it's all over and BAM! I can't remember where winter went.

Oklahoma, Where Horse People Go Crazy

The girls with Cash.

Mike the groom and awesome travel partner!

I think we all have that one hobby, the one we can nerd out on for hours and even days on end. It's the hobby that often makes those close to us question or sanity at times. For me, it's horses. I can spend hours at a horse show- watching the classes, people warming their horses up for their next class or just visiting with other crazy friends discussing....horses. Of course, showing at a horse show is even better but I've not gotten to do any of that this past year. I think I needed a good horse show fix- so when Lindsey's (in photo) sister, Brittany decided to enter her horse in the non-pro futurity this year, it was a perfect excuse for me to buy a ticket and spend four days nerding out at a horse show. For those of you long-term blog followers, you will remember that Lindsey and I made the trek to Oklahoma together a few years ago. I've since sold Nic and Lindsey is now at Texas A&M riding on their equestrian team. Lindsey actually purchased the mare her sister was riding when her and I were down in OKC together. Cash and Sophie made the long trip home together, both convinced at the time they'd rather kill themselves than live up north. Fortunately, they made it alive and Cash proved to be ready for the futurity so when Brittany purchased her from Lindsey, she committed to the show.

I have to say it was much more fun showing in OKC but watching was great- I had no classes to worry about and was free to sit for hours watching or shopping, or watching or shopping (bought some sweet ostrich boots). I most defiantly got my horse fix as I think I watched six hours of showing one afternoon. It was great to watch Brittany show and especially great that she made the finals (there are hundreds of competitors so Brittany had to show in one other class to qualify for the finals in her division- competition was tough!). While I was envious of the fact that she was gutsy enough to show a three year old, I also realized that showing such a young horse is so hit and miss. They're young and for the most part fairly green, so there are always surprises. I don't think I'll ever strive to have a futurity horse but the Derby (4,5,6 yrs) sounds good!

20/20 Live Exclusive: Inside the Public School Classroom

We've all seen the controversial documentary Waiting For Superman and the comedy Bad Teacher. We've heard administration after administration tout their education plan but are any of us sure of what REALLY goes on in the public school classroom? During this hour long (minus 1/2 hour of commercials) special, we will enter the classroom of Sarah Widdop, a young and naively ambitious public school English teacher in Camas, Washington. Stay tuned to check out what really goes on inside the public school classroom.

Hello 20/20. I'm really excited to have you in my classroom today. I think it is very important for our public to see what really goes on in the public classrooms as this is what our public pays for.

1st period- English 9
"Hey guys, I need you to read the announcements on the board and get your materials out before the bell rings."


Student who has been sitting in class for the past 10 minutes, listening to his i-pod: "We have a vocab test today? What! I didn't know about that!"


Ms. Widdop: "I posted it on the blog all week and we reviewed the words yesterday. You were suppose to write the test date in your planner."


i-pod kid: "Oh, I lost my vocab list."


Students slowly get ready for their test, some are reviewing while others pull out their math homework.


Ms. Widdop: "Ok guys, clear your desks of everything but something to write with. When you finish your test, read the board and begin reading chapter six in Animal Farm."


Students begin to settle and quiet down. Minutes later, one student rasises her hand. "Ms. Widdop, what does merit mean?"


Ms. Widdop walks over to student and quietly explains. Minutes later a boy, whose eyes are hidden by hair blurts out, "Ms. Widdop what does merit mean?" Ms. Widdop takes this as a teachable moment and addresses the class.


"Class, it seems that I need to explain what merit means. In this case it means valid, as in Squealer's actions had no validity. Does that make sense?" Collective group of students nod.


Moments later, "Ms. Widdop what does merit mean?" Other kids snigger. Ms. Widdop raises her eyebrows and quietly reminds the student what merit means.

The class quiets down, some students hand in their tests. One student raises her hand, her frumpy hair bobbling as she asks, "So Ms. Widdop, does merit mean to be true?" Some students snigger while frumpy haired girl growls, "Shut-up!" and looks back up at Ms. Widdop. Ms. Widdop grits her teeth and once again explains what merit means while she bangs her head against her white board, careful to not disturb her new mobile Smart Board.

2nd period- English 9
Students enter in much the same fashion as period 1. Some students comment on their surprise about the vocabulary quiz while others appear oblivious as to the fact that they are in school. Two boys unload messy backpacks in search of old Halloween candy. One kids finds a smashed Snickers while the other seems to be sidetracked as he is smoothing out crumpled assignments and examining them. As students settle into the class routine one girl raises her hand, "Ms. Widdop I just pointed out to my dad where you live and he was wondering if, since we love so close to each other, I could come over to your house in the evenings to get help on homework?"

Ms. Widdop nearly chokes on her gum. "Rachel, how about you just stay after school a few days a week. I'm not sure you really need to come to my house."

3rd period- Freshman Success Study Hall
Partition wall is open and students begin writing in their planners as the bell rings. Soon after students are divided into groups, Ms. Widdop takes 10 or so students and announces the students who will be giving their Book Talks that day.

A student, who appears to be on crack, but probably just has severe AHDH, prances around as he asks, "Ms. Widdop, can't I just give my book talk tomorrow? I forgot my book."

Ms. Widdop, gritting what is left of her teeth, "No Trevor, you've already postponed this three times. You have to give your Book Talk today."

Trevor: "Ok." He prances up to the front of the group. "So, uh, I read this book Malice. I forgot who wrote the book. It's about 300 pages, maybe less. It's about this kid who says this chant, something about a guy named Jake and the next thing he knows he's in this other world and stuff. It's like a good book because the kid has all these things happen to him." Trevor looks at Ms. Widdop with a tad bit of fear in his eyes.

Ms. Widdop: "Is that all? Do you have a favorite part?"

Trevor: "No."

Ms. Widdop: "Did you like the book?"

Trevor: "Yeah."

Ms. Widdop: "So were there other interesting characters?"

Trevor: "Yeah."

Ms. Widdop gives up and lets Trevor sit down.

Ms. Widdop quickly grabs her lunch and switches to another classroom. Before she can post the schedule on the board, students begin to file in. One plops down on a stool in the front of the classroom.

English 10- Sophomores
Student on stool: "Ms. Widdop, did you always want to be a boring English teacher?"

Ms. Widdop: "Yeah Jarred, that was my dream when I was in high school."

Jarred: "It's my dream too." He sits down.

Students start to work on analyzing Jack in Lord of the Flies. During their discussion, Jarred turns to Kyl, another boy sitting behind Jarred. They start to talk. Their talking changes to arguing. Other students become distracted and Ms. Widdop perks up her ears and begins listening to their conversation.

Kyl: "Shut up! I've done just as much work as you."

Jarred: "Whatever, you can't talk, you're still in Algebra 1."

Kyl: "So are you."

Jarred: "Yeah, but you have a D."

Kyl: "So do you."

Jarred: "Mine is better." Ms. Widdop contemplates letting the intellectual debate continues but decides to encourage them to return to their analysis of Jack in Lord of the Flies.

Voice over: "Well, there you have it. A day inside a public school classroom. Clearly, students are engaged and ready to learn. They truly value their education, as should the public. This is an example of public education at its best. We'd like to thank Ms. Widdop for opening up her classroom to our viewers. As compensation, because we know how little Ms. Widdop makes, we have provided her with free dental work, as over the years Ms. Widdop had ground down her teeth to small nubbins. But thanks to our local sponsors, Ms. Widdop can now have a fresh new smile and her new titanium molds will allow her to grind away."

Why I Ride (and other things)

Gosh darn daylight savings (or non-daylight savings), it really throws me for a loop. Here it is, 5:30, it's already dark, I want to drink wine and eat, but wait, it's only 5:30. This is the time of year where I start getting antsy to make the most of life, or apathetic and am content to watch tv at 6 pm. A few weeks ago I went to one of those climbing films, the kind where you think the film is going to be two hours of watching people climb hard but beautiful routes (I like to call it climbing porn- there are a lot of types of porn- biking porn, horse porn and then good 'ole gross guy porn). These films were different. Sure, they were about people climbing cool routes but it seemed that the underlying message in the films was about the gratification one gets from pushing the limits- their own limits. The climbers of course, really pushed the limits, hence the bad-ass films. While I'm not going to run off to California or one of the Stan countries that hosts some of the worlds tallest peaks, I did feel the push and the nagging question as to whether I was doing all I could to get the most out of life and was I doing the best I could to be the best I could at what I wanted to do?
I've come to the conclusion that I'm not doing a bad job- I'd probably do a better job if I was dying of cancer and life seemed shorter, but I really feel like I'm doing what I want...to an extent.
Work does get in the way, this is a conundrum because I feel that I want to be good at my job but being good at something takes time and my job is never ending and often times I'm not sure if all of the mess I'm asked to do actually allows me to be better. OR in reality, if I didn't try to do so much in life, maybe I could be one of those teachers who wins a glass apple. But then I stop to think, I don't want to be the teacher who wins a glass apple because there is so much more to my own life. Sure, some are designed to win the glass apple, but they've chosen to dedicate their lives to teaching, which is great, but it's not me because if I won that glass apple I would have given up the rest of who I am.
Which leads to riding. I don't know what I love more, riding my bike or horses. I think I go back and forth, depending on the time of year. Jarred loves to ask me what if questions and one of the reoccurring ones is, "If you had to give up riding horses or bikes, which would you give up?" I tend to say bikes because I've ridden horses longer and I've sacrificed so much more for my horses but riding my bike on the short ride I did after school today put a smile on my face- there's nothing like huffing and puffing up a hill but even better is the thrill of riding downhill. So biking comes in at a close second.
But there's nothing like a soft horse nose, or Sophie, whose whole body is soft and who rides like a finely tuned Caddy. I know everyone has a bucket list and competing (and being able to win) at one of the major shows, is on mine. I've got a lot to learn still, but it would also be nice to win a ton of money but actually being able to be competitive at those shows will be good enough. Again, the quandary of whether I'm doing all I can to be good comes up and I think...if only I didn't have to work!
I often think that I put too much on my plate, each weekend is full, each afternoon I'm trying to beat the dark, but then again, will I remember those fun rides or sitting on the couch watching a movie?

Ranch House Revamp

We're not done yet, if you look really close you will see the lack of downspouts and the gutters are still white and the doors are not painted. Other than that, we now do not own a ghetto ranch house anymore.

The next time this house gets painted, it will be by someone else. That is, if we can stomach hiring someone else.

Notice I've included NO photos of the interior. It's currently less than impressive. I think we need a break from the remodel for a bit. It is starting to feel like a second job.

Old house- a week after we moved in.