26.2

last sunday, matthew completed his FIFTH marathon. he ran the rock n' roll here in san diego. his goal was to finish in under 4 hours, and he did--3:52! his knee started bugging him about a week and a half before the race and he was a little nervous. his brace worked fabulously and his knee was A-OK the whole race!! (phew.) the spirit of the marathon is so inspiring! everyone pulling together...cheering for people and being proud of runners you don't even know. bands at every mile. thousands of spectators lining the course. good times! here are some photos from the event.

matt's cousin robin and i got our tired a's up at the crack of dawn to walk to a race spot about a mile from our house

the kenyan's...they are nuts! fastest time 2:10..UNDER 5 min mile

matt and our friend kyle (green) and kyle's friend dave (red). they were like 5 steps behind the kenyan's ;)

matt and i after the finish

matt and his cousin robin and her husband, bobby. they were awesome to come down from bakersfield and support!!!


AND MATT'S BEST AND FAVORITE SUPPORTER KIM SMITH!!! (NOT PICTURED)

Gracie Kate Barbera!

My cousin Josh and his wife, Tanya had their baby girl (finally!) on May 21st. She is precious! Everyone is doing well and I am so excited to spend time with them and watch little Gracie grow :)

look how cute she is!

my cousin and i with the new edition :)

little peanut! (i love when babies are all wrapped up, too cute!)

congratulations cousins, love you guys!!

holy moly...i am behind in the times!

let's rewind to april 20th...matt and mike's 30th birthday party!

the fab four :)


this speaks for itself...30 is basically over the hill!

we made brownie pyramids...correction, kirstin made them, i helped stack them :)

the boys and their mama

isn't matthew so cute? i just had to add this one.

happy 30 years babe!

hip hip hooooray!

amen. tonight the board voted and our positions were restored. that's right folks, matt and i are both gainfully re-employed!!! yaaahhoooo! so, there will be no pan handling in the streets and pushing shopping carts containing rather large dogs. sorry for those of you interested in seeing that sight. although, i agree with you, it might be kinda an awesome sight.

good ol' arnie (the governator and i are tight, we are on nickname basis) restored some much needed dinero to education in cali. i guess he didn't want to be dead last in spending per pupil. 47th is quite comfortable...but people might start talking if we are dead last. let's not get into that. matthew and i feel so relieved and like a weight has been lifted. as much as we had tried very hard to be positive for the past 2.5 months, it has been stressful at times and hard to be patient and trust things will work out.

god is good and we are joyful. thanks to everyone for all your prayers, good wishes, encouragement, beers...whatever did the trick at any given moment :) much love! matt and whit

ps. disclaimer...over the weekend in FULL procrastination mode, i tried like 80 times and i couldn't get pics to upload. don't know what the prob was. i will try again soon, i'm sure it was just being wierd. (yeah yeah, i know you don't believe me...)

loss.

Matthew and I just officially got laid off effective June 30th. We are quite shocked actually, and are not really prepared for this! For the past 2 months, since we got the initial pink slip notice we received...we have been trying too keep our spirits high, because everyone had said.."with 5 years in the district, you guys will be fine. They won't cut that deep." Well, decided at the board of education meeting yesterday, with a split 3-2 vote, they did cut that deep. They laid off 617 teachers. People have also said, "they do this all the time, you will get re-hired" when in fact, this hasn't happened since 1918. There is a possibility of being re-hired and maybe a good possibility at that. Especially if the governor's budget passes with voters and makes up for some of the deficit. The obvious answer to me, is we need to stop spending to fix the deficit, but that it not the answer that will keep teachers. I wonder how much time has been spent in classrooms by the people who make these decisions.

While we would like to say we are hopeful that we will be rehired, and maybe sooner than later...if I am honest, I am terrified. I know I need to be prayerful and trust because our Maker works EVERYTHING out ALWAYS, but the honest truth is I know this to be true, yet my stomach is churning with fear of the unknown. Both of our last paychecks come June 1st. I'm pretty sure our morgage lender is still expecting us to pay July 1st and August 1st, for that matter. We have to look for jobs, whatever that means. Our identities are partially wrapped up in our professions...because deep down we both LOVE what we do, and we know it is what we were made to do. I know there has to be more out there, and as much as I have joked with my students about working at Starbucks "if" I were to get laid off, I don't want to work at Starbucks. I really don't. I don't want to make people coffee, I want to change people's lives...young peoples lives (although I must say, I am damn good at making coffee-my barista skills are pretty stellar).

I find it ironic I am finishing my last 2 classes right now to complete my Master's in Teaching ad Learning, and I am being told I can't teach. I don't know girls. We can't sit around all summer with our fingers crossed, praying we get our jobs back. We have to take action and prepare for the worst I guess.

I love you all, and deep down Matt and I both know something will work out, it is still scary as hell. Anyone have any connections or ideas for cool jobs? I feel like such a hypocrite, I have always said I am such a believer in "when one door closes, another one opens" and I know it is true, but that cliche (for lack of a better word) kinda makes me want to throw up right now. I will keep ya'll posted on the haps, and keep on praying that governator works some magic with the budget sometime real soon. I just want to say thanks for listening to my heart right now.

love you--Whit

UGH.

It is not looking too good for Matthew and I in regards to our jobs. We will let you know the official word, but we are anticipating being laid off because of the way the school board voted last night. I have knots in my stomach as I type, but I am confident that things will work out one way or another. Whether "things working out" means the governor fixes the budget and they re-hire us, or if "things working out" means we find new jobs, we don't quite know. More to come.

Ps. I still plan to post pictures :)

intimidated

i have been having so much fun with this blogging stuff, i feared the day i would get behind (like i have) and feel like it is too much work to get it caught up (like i do). i have a bazillion pictures to download and organize on the computer.
since i am too tired to take on this daunting task of catching up the blog, here's the skinny:
- i finished my 2 classes (hallelujah!) and have a mini break until the madness begins again.
-we were at bach/bachelorette parties this weekend (matt in vegas, me palm springs) so we are a bit tired to say the least.
-we find out in a week and a half about our job sitch-may 15 at the latest. if we must be honest we are a tad more nervous than before...finding out the state level budget situation is worse than they thought. we can deal with whatever comes, we would just like it to COME...in other words, we just want to know. this waiting crap sucks.
-my coaching will be in full swing starting next week and the season finishes in december (yikes, don't know if i'm ready for that yet) it is a lot of work and time.
ok, that's all for now. it is waaaaaay past my bedtime and i think matt has been asleep for about 4 hours already. ok, not really 4, but probably one and a half.