2nd Annual Faculty Basketball Game

I wait for two days throughout the school year: Track and Field day, where the kids compete against one another on the last day of classes, and the Faculty basketball game, where teachers go against teachers in front of 500+ students in the school gym. Each event pits students against students and teachers against teachers, each preaching dominance over the other. Yesterday, was the latter and this is everything that led up to it.

August 17, 2009: Daydreaming about the faculty game that will happen in 9 months.

October, 2009: Mom, Dad and I visit Chad and Jenn in San Antonio. Chad and I compete in a best of 3 basketball showdown and I realize I need to train harder.

October - April:
Mid-April: Discussion of teams is going down. Originally teams were going to be considered the same every year, but rumor is going around that I might be traded. Apparently, I’m the X-factor.

May 7: Deadline for money is due. I remain with the same team (hey, as long as my minutes aren’t affected). Teams are as follows:

Make-it, Take-it
Palomares (P.E. Coach)
Illingworth (Art Teacher)
Rivera (Assistant Principal)
(F) Michaels (PE Aide)
(F) Khalil (Teacher)
(F) Jones (Principal)
Tustison

Semi-Pro
Shaw (PE Coach)
Robinson (Special Ed)
Van Gilder (Teacher)
Settles (Assistant Principal)
(F) Coplen (PE Coach)
(F) Ymbert (Orchestra Teacher)
(F) Stewart (Teacher)
Bo (Teacher)

May 10-13: Kids are buying the tickets. At the end of the day on Thurday, 82 of my kids out of 100 have boughten tickets to the game, and I am constantly reminded by my kids not to lose. We get our shirts in our boxes.

May 12: Mr. Robinson enters into my room, gives the “i’m going to cut your throat” signal and my class erupts in “MR. T!! MR. T!! MR. T!! MR. T!! MR. T!!”

May 14, Game Day
8:16 - My first kid asks me if I’m nervous.
8:17 - I’m told I better not lose
8:15-12:20 - So far both class periods have come into my room chanting my name. All this hype is making me nervous now. My kids are VERY distracted. Maybe the fact that I keep walking around the room with my basketball and dribbling through my legs contributes to it, but no excuses, right?
11:30 - Mr. Bo walks into my room with a Make-it/Take-it poster and rips it in half. Again, my class erupts into “MR. T!! MR. T!! MR. T!! MR. T!! MR. T!!”
12:20-12:50 - Lunch (I change into my basketball attire)
12:50 - I walk to the cafeteria to pick up my kids. All of a sudden the cafeteria explodes into the same chants of Mr. T while they rhythmically beat on the tables. The cafeteria monitors all the while are threatening them with silent lunch. Okay, now I wish they had never boughten tickets.
2:00: In our pod all the classes in our pod begin to change. Mr. Bo gets his class to start chanting his name out loud, then all 100+ of my kids answer back with their own teacher’s name. I swear I was at a soccer match in some third world country.
2:30-3:30 - The game was fun. We ended up winning by 18 points. I had an okay game. I had about 8 rebounds, 2 points, several assists, and 1 steal. They videotaped it and hopefully then can pass along a copy. Though these pics are a little weak sauce, you must know that I gave the camera to one of my kids to take pictures.
It was rather funny. After the game, a bunch of students ran up to me with signs for a picture opportunity. During this time, several teachers were trying to get the crowd to be quiet so they could dismiss. About this time, I’m told that one of the teachers on the microphone was saying, “Mr. T, if you could help us get your kids quiet. Please Mr. T.” I didn’t hear ‘em nor did I realize what they were trying to do until I saw one of the AP’s with the quiet signal.

Broken Toe

Well...that's it. I broke my pinky toe. I was answering the phone from the hotel we're going to be staying in St. George for the triathlon, ironically enough, and ran into the corner of the heating vent. I thought I just stubbed my toe, until I looked down and saw that my toe was facing the opposite way of the rest of the toes. I have to stay off of it for at least 3 weeks maybe as long as 6. I go to the foot doctor on Monday. I might have to get crutches...I'm still all numbed up, so I'm not sure how bad it's going to hurt. I swear I didn't do this on purpose. Granted, I was getting a little nervous about the triathlon....but I was also super excited. I really liked my tri-outfit and it matched well with my bike....

Strawberries and More Strawberries

Last Saturday we drove north about an hour and picked some fresh strawberries. I’m not really a big fruit guy. In fact, I think the first time I had a fruit salad wasn’t until after Jenn and I got married. Anyway, the strawberries weren’t too bad.

I had my chance

Remember this image; some joke from my CMS days.


Now check this out. About 2 weeks ago, they played on Jimmy Kimmel.

I'm going to...

The University of Virginia!

I matched!

So I just found out that I matched. Now I have to wait until Thursday at noon to find out where.

Snow out the ying yang

So I wanted to post some picture that my friend took of our massive snow storms back in Maryland.. it really looked so beautiful, though at times a little wild. After the second storm hit, Ashley and I went out to explore. We waded through the snow and drift to reach the bottom of the snow mountain in the middle of our cul-de-sac, then we braved it till we reached the summit. When we got back to base camp, we proceeded to thaw the gutter by passing hot water jugs through the front window, which is double hung so the top comes down.This is me getting ready to climb on the roof.... I had to literally crawl through the snow to get to this point
This is a picture of my house from the summit looking down at the house... this is after the second snow storm and about 15 minutes after we just received power.. notice the covered cars.. that is all new snow they had all been shoveled out at one point and you could see the drive way. Below is me almost at the summit...at the top it was really cool it looked like a cater.
ENJOY

Costco Vs. Sams Club

So tonight we went to Sams Club, you know to stock up on Snicker Ice Cream Bars..and the nice man was scanning our items before it was our turn at the register. He was talking to Oliver about stuff and asking him if he liked to come to Sams Club. Oliver stopped to think and said...."I like Costco." The guy laughed and said, "well Costco is better at some things, but I think we're pretty good too." Oliver shrugged his shoulders and then changed the subject. Made us laugh.

Pathetic

You know how Dad gets emotional when he watches movies??? Well, we were watching "Undercover Boss" after the Super Bowl and at the end, I look over at him and he is tearing up. What a sensitive guy!!!!

Running the City

I hate to be the one to take Oliver off the top of the page but someone's gotta do it. Anyway, Trevor and I ran the City Manager’s 5k Run on Saturday. Not sure how many folks showed up but about 1,200 people signed up. I was pretty impressed as this was Trevor’s first official race. I don’t think he breathed once during the whole car ride down to the Park since he was so nervous focused.

It was pretty cold (35 degrees) at the start of the race but soon our feet were on fire. I won’t go too much into detail except to say that, after weaving through some fast-walkers who jumped to the front of the start line, we both had podium finishes and personal bests. Trevor came in 3RD place in his age group (25-29) with a time of 20:44 and I stumbled into 1ST place in my age group (30-34) with a time of 19:54. My goal was to break 20 minutes and Trevor’s was to finish strong. We both received “Key’s to the City” medals from the City Manager for placing top 3. Jenn, as always, braved the elements and cheered like a madwoman!

First...

First day of preschool today....(it's only once a week for 2 hours) Oliver had a good time except for when I picked him up. He had a melt down because he threw his cupcake in the trash and didn't have anymore.

Drink any poo lately?

Maybe it's time to switch to plastic bottles.

(Now I know why Trevor's teeth are so white. No fecal matter.)

Soda Fountains Contain Fecal Bacteria

Christmas Beatdown

I arrived home and promptly conquered Kim's and Nick's gift for Christmas: Mortal Kombat vs. DC Universe. I won some and lost some but ultimately dominated when it mattered most - similar to my domination over Trevor and Nick on the church basketball court over the Christmas break. Needless to say, I channeled the power of their second gift: the baby blue tuxedo shirt thing. If Samantha or Clint want to borrow the shirt for their next triathlon, just let me know.

Tustifiesta 2010

It's official. We are going to Bear Lake and staying in Garden City, UT. We got a 7 bedroom house for the week of June 12-19, 2010. You can check it out here: http://www.vacationrentals.com/vacation-rentals/58767.html.
Some highlights, aside from the bunk room for all the 4-8 year old boys and rooms for all the grown-ups, are wireless, 4 wheelers, a fire pit, a grill, a theater room, a game room, and jetted tubs both in the master bathroom and the upstairs bathroom. We can plan the trip here on the Tustifiesta website.

Giant Snowstorm of '09

Here is the aftermath of the latest snowstorm to hit the east coast. We got about two feet of snow, and lucky for us, the snowplows decided to not snowplow the cul-de-sac where we live, so the kids were off school today and I couldn't make it into work.

"The Most Wonderful Time of the Year!!""

It's going to be lots of fun to have all of your here for part of the Christmas season. Just a few questions??
***Are there special meals you would like to have and would you like to have a responsibility over one of the meals?
***What are the special requests for drinks to be available in the downstairs refrigerator??
***What "treats" would you like to have on hand??
***Just a FYI - the Nicholas Christmas party will be on Saturday, Dec. 26 at 1:00 at the Fielding Firehouse.
***Is there anything that any one of you would like to do while here??
Let us know so that we can (to the best of our ability) accomodate everyone's wishes.
MOM & DAD

Uninvited

Apparently, the Philly Tustisons have not been invited to the Snyder blog. Did anyone else notice they can't view their blog? Please, I thought we were friends.

TustiTri

Who: All Tustison Kids
What: Triathlon
Where: St. George, UT
When: Saturday May 15, 2010
Why: Wouldn't it be awesome for ALL of us to do the triathlon. It could be a tribute to Dad!

Registration opens Thanksgiving Day!

What is that?

Aiden recently took a math test and did well. I don't suppose that in itself is blogworthy but, as Kim noticed, Aiden's art skills are another matter.

Does anybody remember this?