¡Lo hicimos! We did it! We did it! Yay!

Subject: Update on a Former Student

Dear Mr. Costa,

While I know you weren't the principal of Coral Gables High School when my husband graduated in 1996, I hoped you wouldn't mind reading the following.

I was a 5th grade teacher until my daughter was born. I had a Spanish minor to go along with my teaching major, and as a result had all of the ESL students (we call it English Second Language here, I don't know if it is the same there) in my classroom. I remember feeling especially for the students who were placed in my classroom knowing absolutely no English. As we would move ahead with long division or write a persuasive essay or illustrate a section of literature we had just read, I remember wondering how those cute kids would ever catch up with their peers. I did my best to incorporate the teaching strategies I had learned for teaching students who are learning English and just hoped for a bright future for each of them.

It wasn't until I had left the classroom that one day it occurred to me that when my husband came to the United States as a 13-year-old in 1990, his age gave him a little more of a disadvantage than even my 5th grade ESL students. So I asked him about it. He remembers arriving in Miami and being thrown into classes where he had no idea what was going on. Someone picked up on it eventually and placed him in a class at his middle school especially for English language learners. Little by little because of his placement in this class and his interaction with other students, he learned English. 

This Friday my husband will graduate from Weber State University in Utah for the second time. He graduated a year and a half ago as an x-ray technician and went on to specialize as an MRI technician for which he will receive a bachelor's degree. He works in departments at two different hospitals. He is a loyal, responsible, and hard-working husband and father and I just thought it would be significant to let someone from his high school know that he did indeed catch up and has made something wonderful of himself.

Thanks for your time and have a good day.

Sincerely,

Brittney Collado

P.S. The picture is of us and our daughter and my brother's recent Eagle Court of Honor.

mail

Sometimes I don't post for awhile because I am grasping at something interesting enough to blog about. That hasn't been the case. There has been so much going on the last month or two that I've been grasping at a way to blog about all of it. And then the mail came yesterday, and it almost sums up the whole story.

I am a state delegate. Quick explanation on what that means: I've been searching for ways to become more politically educated because I love my country and don't want to be ignorant of what's going on. I've tried talk radio, I've tried different news channels, the newspaper, and the internet and still felt like I wasn't on board. So we attended our caucus meeting in March where a total of seven people showed up (I know I've heard of much heavier attendance at caucus meetings this year than in years past, and our chairwoman said ours was no different, in fact, the numbers had doubled. I've heard other caucuses filled high school auditoriums. We partially filled a living room :). The purpose of a caucus is to elect county and state delegates that will represent your precinct, or part of your neighborhood, at the county and state conventions where officials are elected from the party. This is where and how it really is about we the people. Sitting there at the caucus I thought, maybe this is my chance to get involved. When nominations went up for a county delegate, I raised my hand, a motion was made and seconded. When nominations went up for state delegates, I raised my hand, a motion was made and seconded.

Governor Herbert at the county convention

Since then my phone, email, mailbox, and doorstep have been flooded with efforts from candidates at the county and state level to secure my vote. We've met quite a few of the candidates at the county and state level (or at least stood a few feet away to hear them speak) and whenever I bring Grace with me, she usually catches their eye :). The county convention was held last month and was SO COOL! And now I've got a few more days to ponder which candidates will get my vote for senator and governor at the state convention. I have since learned that it is generally more difficult to be selected as a delegate, especially if there are more than ten people in the room :), and that it's even more rare to be selected for county and state, so I have been very thankful for this opportunity. An education in politics was what I was looking for and boy have I ever received one!!!!

We are building a home!! We've hopped in and out of the housing market a few times the last few months with the plan of probably buying an existing home, until we stopped into an Ivory Homes model home. Their incentives are as great as their homes are beautiful. The papers have been signed.

for sale

We start building towards the end of the summer and our townhome is up for sale. Let us know if you're interested!!

We are leaving the state (just for a few days)! I haven't made it farther than Park City since Grace was born, and I don't think Danilo's been anywhere but Salt Lake. We're taking advantage of our hard earned sky miles to spend a few days in Florida. Grace is staying with each set of grandparents, and after all the research I've done on babycenter.com and phone calls I've made to discuss leaving my baby for a few days I have come to the conclusion that this is going to hurt me more than it hurts her and it will be good for Grace for her mom and dad to go have some fun together!

The only thing going on that the mail failed to mention is that Danilo graduated as a radiology technologist (the same day my sister Hailey graduated in elementary education). He will begin specializing in MRI in the fall. We can see the end from here!!
Grace is looking forward to being able to spend more time at home with her dad (so am I)!

Yellow! Red! Orange!

Yesterday my family swung by to pick up Grace and me on their way to a leaf drive. We drove all the way up to Bear Lake and came down through Sardine Canyon where we saw some simply GORGEOUS LEAVES! I know I must officially be a mom now, or at least grown up. I remember sitting in the back seat of the car hearing my Mom rave about the leaves and now I get almost as excited as she does. "Look at that RED! Look at that YELLOW!" We did manage to grab some raspberry shakes while we were up at Bear Lake. Delicious.

Grace and I missed having her Dad along, and we're so thankful for all he does for us. These are the first and second year students in his radiology program at the hospital.
After working for Goldenwest Credit Union for the past two and a half months, Danilo was able to get on as an RPT (radiology practical technician) at the hospital which means in addition to doing clinicals at the hospital, he will work there as well with a limited license. Goldenwest has been a really enjoyable job for Danilo that landed in our lives at an important time (around the time Gracie was born and my last paycheck from the school district arrived). We feel so blessed!

Spring Break is a Sweet Thing!

One week. No school. Beautiful. It's been going since Monday and I've attempted to fill it with out of the ordinary things. Danilo took one day off for us to spend together and we used it to do a session at the Logan Temple. Neither one of us had ever gone there before, it was neat. We had a yummy lunch afterwards.

Tuesday afternoon we got a treat. One of Danilo's radiology instructors had offered to sometime do an ultrasound for us as a sort of demo for some of her students. We jumped at the chance and got to see how much our baby girl had grown (quite a bit!) in the month since we'd last looked. We got some close-up images of her face. I don't think I'll get used to having ultrasounds. I think you can plan on continuing to see posts on how exciting it was after each one.

Spring break offers a wonderful change of pace and scenery, and what I tend to enjoy most during times like these is the extra time I get to spend with people that I love and love to be with. My mom and sisters and I especially have visited all of our favorite stores and then some.

My Future Radiographer

The last few weeks have been particularly stressful for Danilo as he's begun his first semester of the radiology program. His assignments and exams have been extremely demanding. I have come to love him a little more as I watch him cope. Sometimes he'll tell me, "When I'm starting to wish all this schoolwork wasn't part of my life, I have to stop myself and remember how hard we worked and how grateful we were I got in." Anyone who knows us knows the application process was not easy! I've been watching him be smart in how he paces himself. Tonight he called to tell me he was feeling burnout coming on, so he was going to get out of the house for a few minutes to go to a pawn shop (among my husband's top five favorite things to do in his spare time). He's also very conscious of not allowing the demands of his schoolwork to come between us. If I'm home, he'll stop every couple of hours to either play a game or watch an episode of whatever's on the Discovery channel at that moment. He constantly reminds me that he wishes he could spend more time with me and makes sure I know he's doing this for the good of our family. I am one blessed girl. My sweet Danilo is precious to me!