September 2020... feels like yesterday! And also like a million years ago?

Clyde had a birthday:

Instagram caption: This cute boy has put in the time and is officially 14 today 👍🏼. Clyde is smart and funny and kind and SO helpful and occasionally grumpy and we love him 🥰. For right now he’s my office mate which I love and he tolerates (maybe that’s why he takes frequent ‘scooter around the school’ breaks?) and he’s putting in all the work and having the best time in football 🏈.

Will and I swam some more laps:

I (pretty much) finished my beautiful craft project outside my office!

Flexed on some co-workers with my typing skills. Shout out to my weird childhood hobby of randomly typing in the air... like transcribing conversations as they occurred or live 'journaling' angry thoughts towards my brothers when they were ticking me off. I was a super normal kid ;).

Probably the funniest meme I've seen in a while, iykyk:

Getting ready for students to come back to school with fancy one way stickers! In order to reduce exposure we made most hallways one way.

I love the idea that we can't necessarily control the first thing that comes to mind, but we can control the second. Goes along well with this:

Girls night! First one in a while that we were within an actual "group picture" distance.

Clyde.. being a helper I think?

Cute little football player.

Next step to get ready for students - stickers for where kiddos can sit in the library and gym!

Another cute football player!

Game time!

Random cute pictures of Jack. Defy reopened and we had some time left on our membership.

We created a video at school showing students some of the covid changes and procedures and such and we recruited Clyde to be the bobcat and demonstrate!

Selfie with my buddy!

Staff meeting - complete with masks and sitting away from each other:

First day back maybe? Or just a random selfie at school?

Another cute little football player, complete with personalized jersey!

I will never not relate to 'school pick up' memes:

Love getting visits at work from Carma down the hall ;)

During 'at home 'learning', our nutritional staff had grab and go lunches available at the curb - a huge undertaking!

The reset room coming along!

Football games had an attendance policy of two people per game per player - Jack and I were the cheer section for Clyde this particular game.

It got cold once the sun went down!

Always important to document when I get to take the school golf cart out for a spin.

I got a co-worker! We hired Ryker and it was the best second choice hire I've ever been a part of ;).

More from our YouTube videos about back to school policies. Still waiting for these to go viral. Probably any day.

More Defy fun:

Literally no idea what story Will was telling, but Chuck was invested!

I started a work instagram!

Oh hey it's me:

(long) instagram caption: Here’s my contribution to Thank a Police Officer Day 💙. I’ve had and witnessed interactions with police officers that left me upset and disappointed, with anecdotal evidence that power leads not necessarily to corruption but certainly to condescension and arrogance and pride. Many of those experiences occurred when I was young and impressionable and sad and an extra moment of compassion and explanation would have gone a long way. I’ve also had and witnessed interactions with police officers that restored my faith in their wholehearted commitment to protect and serve. Specific thanks to the first cop that pulled me over, circa September 2000 on Boise Ave for expired registration. Thanks for giving me a warning and also for telling me I was a good driver. I reference that whenever Chuck tries to say otherwise ;). Thanks to the cop who pulled me over somewhere off I-84 circa November 2003 for not signaling as I got back on the freeway after taking a break to sleep for a couple hours on a late drive back to college. You wanted to make sure I was okay and awake enough to drive at 3am and your genuine kindness and concern has stayed with me. Thanks to the state troopers who gave me warnings over a 3-4 year period and thanks to the two troopers who ticketed me circa January 2018 - I’m thankful for discretion and second chances and I’m also thankful for the consequences that left me with no choice but to change my behavior. Haven’t gone above 85 since then 🙌🏼. Police officers often see people at their worst. I respect the ability that so many officers have to remain at their professional best and lean on their training and skills instead of allowing emotion or prejudice to impair their judgment. I respect men and women who weigh the costs and risks and still pursue this career path to make a positive impact and difference. Thank you to the officers that our family knows personally that have made it easier for us to teach our children respect and admiration for the badge.

{police officers who dishonor the profession, destroying families and literally taking lives? Thanks for nothing. I hope you’re rooted out and exposed for the cowards and criminals that you are}

When I say that Carma even sleeps dramatically...

Some funny school/work memes...

Vague, but I want to remember this. Covid was a pretty stressful time and things and rules and expectations changed on the daily and it was a lot to keep up with. Definitely some chances to make sure that people and respect and treating others well were a priority, knowing that everything else would fall into place. Flexibility, giving everyone some grace, all those good things. Aaaand if someone in a place of authority is a jerk to my kid I'm for sure going to make sure they get called out on it by someone even higher than them on the (nonexistent) pay scale ;).

One of my favorite things ever, and it became one of my first posts on my work social media. This is on the wall of our school hallway and I try to stop and read it often - turns out it applies to adults too ;).

Boys and Girls Club daily schedule for Carma and Jack:

My deskkkkk!

Carma and I had an arts and crafts evening:

Just for fun I created this amazing map and guide of our school outdoor lunch recreation area. The attention to detail and accurate scale are... something.

Here's the real life version:

Here's how you know kids came back to school - my steps!!!

Little photo shoot in the grass during Jack's football practice:

Volleyball girlies:

Pictures from one of Carma's football games:

Okay but after looking at this picture of Carma my mind immediately went to a meme...

... specifically, this one. Right??

Miss Overcast came to watch Carma and Connor! So fun!!

Chuck came to help at volleyball practice a couple times and it was the best.

Will and Grandma got to go to one of Clyde's football games together! They watched very attentively I'm sure ;).

Pictures from one of Jack's football games:

Instagram caption:

We now return to our series entitled “Pretty sky pictures taken as Jana greets middle schoolers in the mornings”.

Oh man, funny story. One day I went to the Boise Savers and there was a line out the door - Savers had a limited capacity of shoppers so it was common to wait in the line and be admitted as customers left. This day I walked towards the line and heard various cuss words and saw two small groups of people arguing back and forth. Because I'm me, I kind of walked into the middle of it and tried to chill everyone out before walking to the back of the line... where I was surprised to see an awesome co-worker who had witnessed the whole thing. We chatted for a minute and then the following day at school he sent out this amazing narrative of what happened - is it clear why he's an ELA teacher?

" Let me tell you a tale of Jana's bravery. This all happened so quickly.

Imagine Savers in Boise on a Saturday afternoon. I convinced my wife, Emily, that Savers might have a cheap outdoor table, so why shouldn't we drive 20 minutes out of our way there and back again? I thought it was a good idea. It wasn't.

Savers on Saturday was so popular we had to wait in line to get in. We stood behind a mom and her two kids, and in front of them were two women. We're all waiting, calm and bored, to see what Savers has.

The line began to move, but the women were distracted--by each other, by the weeds in the parking lot, by the smoke in the air, by some chemical substance, who knows, but they didn't move. Then one of the kids just behind them and in front of us backs into one of the women.

She turned to the kid and screamed, "Don't you know there's a ******** pandemic going on?!"

The mom then said, "Don't you use that ******* language. There's ******** kids around here."

The woman said, "Your kid needs to back the **** up, or there'll be trouble."

This exchange went on back and forth, back and forth, for a long minute. Both parties wished death on each other several times in various creative manners. It was like watching angry wizards shouting "Avada Kedavre" at each other. One of the women then wished death upon the mom's grandmother, to which she replied that her grandmother was indeed already dead, so why doesn't her own grandmother die instead.

At this point, I asked Emily if I should do anything, and she said, "You're not gonna do anything. Those women are on something." Perhaps she remembered when we lived in Albuquerque where similar situations, dusted in meth and crust, were a common occurence.

Even in a pandemic, fists were about to go up, when guess who walks up all chill-like: Jana.

Jana had arrived. She walked up right in the middle of what was about to be a knock-down, drag-out, drugged-out fight, put up her arms outstretched and said, "Whoa, whoa, whoa--guys. Guys. Why are we fighting?"

It was amazing--just that simple question took all the tension out of the situation.

"There's no reason to fight. You turn around and go in the store," she said to the women. "And you stop, too," she said to the mom. The kids looked embarrassed, of course.

Jana stayed in the middle until the women were gone. She stood in front of the kids the whole time (what awareness) and then walked down to the end of the line.

Someone else in the line asked Jana if she worked there.

"No, I work at a school," Jana said. "But I also break up fights on my Saturdays." Nothing cooler could be said.

I've been telling this story to my family and friends. It was amazing. My father-in-law said he'd even like to meet Jana because she sounded so... so... je ne sais quoi. Altruistic. Selfless.

Thank you, Jana. You might have saved someone that day. Maybe you saved a little piece of all of us that day because it was a great reminder that, even in these uncertain times, there's good people right there in the Savers parking lot ready to step up and help. They might even work at your school.

In the end, the mom and her kids were denied entry to Savers because they didn't have masks. "********* ridiculus," the mom said as she walked away.

I have often wondered since then what went through Jana's mind during the ordeal. It is said that to this day she remains on the lookout.

As for me, I learned that Savers didn't have outdoor tables. But a guy down my street did."