Baton Rouge Week 19 November 2

We have had a good week. Earlier in the week or maybe last Sunday we invited some families to go to the wards trunk or treat activity. The ward had at least 20 families set up cars with decorated trunks. We decorated ours as a sleeping bag by spreading out an old sleeping bag over everything else in the trunk. The high priest brought chili and Dana volunteered to bring a cake for the cake walk activity.
Our next door neighbor showed up with his two oldest kids-five and four. They walked around the trunk and treat set up and then went inside with us for the food and the cake walk. Paul had a lot of questions about Mormons. He is a native from the area and a Catholic with very little exposure to Mormons. We were happy that they came by. It was a testimony to me that doing missionary work is really a basic task of being a member of the LDS church. But it is a task. I think the thing he found most surprising was that one of the buildings (remember the temple is right next to our chapel) has a full size basketball court. What do those Mormons really believe in? Paul had a few questions about the church organization and beliefs. We felt blessed that they felt comfortable enough to come and socialize with us. We hope that we will have other opportunities to invite them and that we have the courage to do it. Oh! He was also interested that we used cool music to help with the cake walk. It should be noted that his oldest-Sierra help me win a cake in the cake walk. We had them take it home for the rest of their family. Don’t worry I took a cake tax.
I received the opportunity this week to submit a small article to a large regional English Journal sponsored by the New England Council of Teacher of English. The journal is called the Leaflet and has been published for 100 years by English teachers in the New England area. It is a small paper about providing your own professional development by reading professional books. I review 5 current books. When I say small, I mean about 2000 words or 8 typed pages. It is not research but it gets my name out there. As a result it slows down other work. I planned to finish the edits on the paper Dana and I are working on. Instead, I will be doing that this week.
My teaching is coming along just fine. Unfortunately, my students are just now getting to the hard work of producing a teaching unit. Most of what they have done is reading and reporting. Now they have to produce. We are also trying to pick a time to have them over to the house. I might have them over for class and then a barbeque. I need to look at the schedule. The students are busy and seem to go in a variety of directions with classes, work, and social life.
Friday night, as we were passing out trick or treat candy, I had some great news. I had applied to be an editor of The ALAN Review with two other colleagues. One colleague is here at LSU (Jackie) and one is at Vanderbilt (Melanie). Melanie and I shared an office at UGA. The journal focuses on Young Adult Literature. We have been picked as one of the teams to go through the interview process at the NCTE conference in a couple of weeks. This is a great opportunity. We feel very lucky to be included. We now need to do a few things to prepare. We don’t know who the competition is, but a professor I know at BYU was the chair of the last selection committee. He did apply and he told me he would answer some questions and provide advice and direction.
It looks like another busy week or two. We are finding that it is very important to set aside consistent writing time. It seems that some project, some meeting, some conversation, or something always can take you away from slowly working toward finished projects. So far, they project I still want to work on. Even though a professor can control much of their own time and activity, everyone expects productivity. Almost everyone we know, who seems to do this successfully, has a writing schedule. I know that the biggest progress for me come with the projects that are fixed. For example, I have a project with a graduate student and we work every Tuesday and Thursday from 9-11 in the morning. That project is moving right along. The two papers that we have out were important so I thought about the week and planned out the writing. It seems to be hardest for me when I finish a project and have to start another. I need to think of some trick to force me into a transition. I just heard a story about Trollope a prolific Victorian novelist (more than sixty). When he finished a novel he would turn over the last page and right a title for the next book.
We bought some green towels and mats for the blue bathroom. Who knew that there would be so many different greens that just wouldn’t work with that particular blue? I will try to take a picture. We also bought a toaster. It is shining silver so; when you visit don’t touch it. It is amazing that so many of the new styles seem difficult to maintain.
Walker seems to be doing so well on his mission. I send him this letter every week, but I also try to send him a small personal letter each week. I am probably hit about three out of four. I’ll bet that I am doing better than most of you. This is 19 weeks in a row of writing a letter and I actually look forward to doing each Sunday.
Amelia set me up with a blog that I could not quite use for about a week. I thought it was a cruel joke. I am not quite sure how I feel about the whole blog thing. I’ll try it out for awhile.
Football. I am sorry to say that Georgia was destroyed by Florida. The worst part of the loss was that Georgia handed them five touchdowns (at least) due to turnovers and penalties. It was painful to watch. The agony was heightened by the fact that Dana thought she had lost some new reading glasses. Fortunately, they turned up in the car. LSU played Tulane, which really shouldn’t count as a game at this point. They need to beat someone so that they can find the courage to face Alabama who should visit Baton Rouge next Saturday as the new number one this week. BYU was apparently in a shootout with Colorado State. They better figure the weak showing they have had over the last few weeks if they expect to face Utah without embarrassment. Utah is now 9 wins and no losses after beating New Mexico 13-10. I need better reports about those Utah games. They do not get much national play on the television. I think the TCU game get national coverage next week and should be one of the real big games next week.
I just finished reading a book about a doctor who works to provide health care to third world populations. It is Mountains Beyond Mountains: The Quest of Dr. Paul Farmer A Man Who Would Cure the World. This was a very interest book about an American doctor who established a clinic for the poor in rural Haiti. His influence was important as he worked there while maintaining a position at Harvard and Brighams Woman and Children in the Boston area.
This is Dana. Other than what your dad talked about, my class and watching student teachers takes a lot of time. I am trying to write consistently in the morning, but the other work seems to get in the way. I have an article from my dissertation I am trying to write. I am also working with a group of professors on a research project that just doesn’t seem to get off the ground. I am hoping that we get started fairly soon so I will have information to write about once this article is done. I have applied for a professor position at Southeastern Louisiana University in Educational Leadership for next year. There will be an opening at LSU next year in educational leadership, but I am not guaranteed the position, so I am not putting all my eggs in one basket. I will be applying to local school districts as well. I will keep you all posted.
We missed all of you during Halloween. We missed seeing Deacon, Miriam, and Evie in person in costume (and maybe even wee little Will). We also missed the pumpkins brains at Dad and Mary’s. We are trying to be “Grandparent types” here, but it is not the same as being around family. Y’all take care and know we pray for each of you and love all of you.
Love and take care of each other
Dad and Dana