October

This past month was mostly uneventful. They don't give the schools Columbus Day off so it is a long stretch without any breaks for Christian...unless they are the other teachers who get paid a lot more. They seem to be able to afford to take almost every Friday off whenever they want. They only get so many vacation and sick days so if they take extra days off...which it certainly seems that they must be doing, they have to pay for the substitute themselves. They don't seem to care...which wouldn't be that big of a problem except, none of them ever put in for a substitute themselves. They just don't show up and so many of them seem to have the same idea at the same time, which causes serious problems. So then the secretary has to call everyone possible to sub for classes with no teachers. She always calls in Christian because he will usually always say yes because he feels bad for the secretary and the extra money is always good. At some point, the teachers have no choice but to sub during their "prep" periods because they have run out of options. 

Christian goes in early to avoid traffic and so he can work on lessons or grading or whatever, but he ends up having to substitute for 0 periods as well and ends up having absolutely no time to work on anything. By the end of the seek, he's already exhausted but when he is having to cover 7 periods on that last day and still not have any of his grading or planning done, he can barely function when he gets home.

So for the past month, there is about 30 teachers out every Friday. It's been ridiculous. I don't know why or how they let them get away with it. The few times Christian has taken it off, he has had absolutely no problems getting a substitute to cover his class...even if he puts in for a substitute hours before school begins....so those other teachers are not even bothering to. 

About mid-month, Christian was pretty burnt out. He had to risk taking a day off. But of course, he put in for a substitute and had no problem getting one. We drove out to the San Bernardino Mtns. for a little drive. We drove down Clark's Grade and aired down at Cold Creek Falls.

It was mostly a fairly simple drive but it was very nice. Our drive took us above the clouds which is pretty spectacular.

Near the top of the grade, we stopped to take a short hike.

We continued down a different trail towards Big Bear Lake. It was really nice. It was still kind of warm but it felt almost like fall since there were a a few trees and stuff changing colors in places.

In other news, the girls experienced the first snow fall of the season. They were not too thrilled about it. Since most days it is still 80 or 90 degrees and above here, it's hard to see why. 

Also, Caitlyn officially changed her major from Business Administration to Computer Science. I think she is happier about that.

Otherwise, the girls are doing good. They are working their butts off trying to keep their grades up. I hope they can.

At the end of the month, Christian's dad and his wife came to take us out for our birthdays. Mine, which had passed and for Christian's which is around the corner. He was up in Oregon for my birthday last month.

Hello, Friends!