New Me!

My new sassy do!

I want to go to War - really?

In one week I will be in Las Vegas! I will write all kinds of stories when I get home, they will be good considering the group that is going. I spent today with Donna (her husband is gone to Iraq). God has really blessed me in my move here and I believe that this is where I was supposed to end up. I have met such incredible, strong people that have had such an impact on me. Donna is really missing her husband, I mean who wouldn't, but this week was tough. So he told her to go car shopping so when he comes home for two weeks in June they can get here a new car. Now, he told her to take me and she did. I am not sure he meant drive around the mall parking lot and look for cars you like in between shopping! But hey, who am I to judge.

It is really hard for me to hang out with the Marine crowd. I went to the club last night and when I was signing in with my car the guy was asking Donna about her husband and he was like I have been in 2 years and they haven't sent me yet (to Iraq), I am hoping to get in on the next one. I mean seriously, who wants to go to war! I am truly grateful for all the men and women who serve and I support them 100% however, I am not sure I will ever understand the mentality of wanting to go to war, to kill people, to get shot at and all the other horrible things that happen. I have been around so much of it and I guess I thought it would get easier but it doesn't.

What do I say when Donna says she doesn't know how she is going to send Jaime back after just two weeks for 8 more months. That's Christmas, anniversary and birthday again. For cryingou outloud, he hit 700 days of deployment this week. Granted it is over 10 years but that is alot of days! Alot of missed stuff and alot of leaving loved ones behind.

Well, not that we are all depressed here is a funny kid story. Yesterday I said to this kid "You and I are going to have issues!" and he replied (in all seriousness) "I already have shoes" It was so incredibly funny that I had to stop teaching for a good 2 minutes. Yes, yes, I am ready for vacation.

Bird Flu - again

I only have a minute before the kids come back but I needed to tell you, mad cow has been found in Alabama. Isn't it odd that I have been having the memory problems and all of a sudden they find mad cow disease?? Coincidence? I hope so, that is such a scary thing to me. I don't know why, the bird flu doesn't really concern me but this does. No more beef for a while. More later.

How many brain cells do I have left???????

I wish I could tell you how my brain works, it is like there are 29 things going on at once and I move from one to the other so quickly that I forget 28 things at a time. I know there was something particular I wanted to blog about tonight but I just can't remember. Does anyone else have that problem? I forget things a lot, my students think I have a brain tumor but I keep trying to tell them that the reality is that I am just forgetful. Like, for instance, I have already lost my train of thought just writing this.

My stomach hurts today, it is hard to explain. Now I know this particular feeling is anxiety. Years ago, before I knew the neurosis that is my mind, I wouldn't have known that. There is no particular reason for it today, it was a pretty good, uneventful day, but it is still there. I think it is even causing me to write in run on sentences.

I have a theory (stop groaning), that I can really start to feel the anxiety when I am calm, when I don't have anything in particular to worry about or to do. I am very caught up at work, my grades are done and aren't do until Wednesday. I have nothing urgent to do and yet I feel like there is something, something that I really need to do but can't remember. Well, unfortunately now you know what it is like inside my head.

I read a book yesterday, the first one in quite sometime, it was fun and I am planning on doing it again soon. But now I must prepare for the week. Two basketball games, ending the quarter, hair cut and color, nails done, lesson plans for next week and yes, I did just write my to do list. Sorry, my mind wondered again.

I feel like I should tell you a story to make up for how boring this was and to reward you for the fact that you are still reading. So here's a story. I have lost my financial information for last year. I got it all ready, double checked, stuffed it in an envelope and sent it to the post office and somehow, it is just my luck, it never got to the accountant in Kalamazoo. Now, I am a pretty responsible person, I have never driven drunk or stolen anything, I always tip 15 or 20 percent. I follow through and do what I am asked. But for some reason, it never dawned on me to make copies of the most important thing I would mail this year. Please don't ask me what I was thinking or tell me that I should always make copies. I know that now. So this week I have to go back and try to reconstruct the year that was me financially. I tried to file an extension but my accountant assures me I will not need one. She also told me to have everything faxed directly to her office, which although is a good idea, it seems a bit patronizing. I mean after all, it wasn't me who lost the envelope, it was the post office, which is a blog for another day.

Have a great week everyone!

Red, Bed, said . . .

It is 4:42 p.m. and school ended at 3:55 and I am still here. I know, I keep asking myself why. It's Friday after all and the halls are quiet. But I am here, here working with a student who has disappointed me a dozens times or more and will again I am certain. But here I am trying my hardest to get him to write poems so he has something to turn in on Monday. We have been writing poems for four weeks now, almost daily and he has one completed. This is his second year in seventh grade and I am trying my best to make it his last. He has a good grade in my class but this could break it and I don't want to see that happen so I am here. On Friday. At quarter to five. Making him rhyme and write Haiku's. More later.

Thieves Among Us

So I had a pretty lousy day, but I know some of you are like,, yeah we know all your days are lousy. But Seriously! This day in particular sucked, to truly understand the suckiness let's go back 24 hours....

Wednesday morning I arrive at school to find only 4 names were left by the sub so that is very impressive and I was like, ok things are good. Then lunch hit, I opened the student council cash box to discover there was no cash. This was not a good sign because A. I had left some in there and 2. The kids had been selling dance tickets for two days. So I did what I do best - went and ate my lunch :-) I mean it is still going to be missing after I ate right? I am going to skip over the boring parts - I talked to several people blah blah blah and I interrogated some kids and then made the announcement to the whole school. The dance, scheduled for Thursday, was cancelled unless the money was returned by end of day. I know my students very well. I knew that if I threatened this they would talk and they did. Less than an hour later I had narrowed down my list of thieves to 4 people and further investigation and a locker search led me to my money and the felons. (although I was 28 dollars short of a felony crime).

Two of my students (girls) had taken the money and created a shopping list of how they were going to spend it. Our police officer is not there this week so we had to call one from another school and have them arrested.

Now, back to today. After having $222 stolen and a pair of fancy edge scissors I took everything out of my classroom that belonged to me. Including, much to my student's dismay, the pencil sharpener. I told them to steal someone else's pencil since they were so good at it. I had to write out and verbally give a statement to the police officer which was all in vain. Being a first offense, neither girl will see a hearing or anything and the school gave them 3 days suspension. So the lesson we learned is that if you steal it's ok because you get a vacation.

Add to this that I am trying to sell tickets, call the DJ (he apparently forgot he had a gig), fax address lists to the bus garage and oh yeah, teach my class. Now let's talk about after school. The dance was great. The kids always behave and we had open gym so I spent my time playing basketball with the kids. We ushered them all out at 5:15 to get on the buses. 5 buses, 4 left and I was like why is this bus still here. Turns out there were too many kids and then....Are you ready...It breaks down, just turns off. So there I am with like 50 kids, a broken bus and what does my boss do??????? She tells me it is my fault for not getting the list to transportation in time. I calmly explained that they had list this morning and it was not my fault that the bus broke. I wanted the kids to go home too. Then she puts her hand on my shoulder and tells me to calm down. I almost hit her, I mean really. Calm down! Then she looks at her watch and says I have to be somewhere and she LEAVES!!!!!

We finally got a new bus and the kids went home and I left wondering if the rest of the world has days like this. I mean why am I being punished. Did I do something so bad that I was sent to Hell before I died. Can that really happen? I am now going bowling, a sport at which I am no good and pay perfectly good money to suck at. Next time you are having a bad day at work, tell yourself at least the bus isn't broke.

So much has happened since I last wrote to you! I took Sarah to Mexico and I got stuck in the bathroom, we weren't allowed to flush toilet paper and I found out you cannot use Blockbuster coupons in Mexico. It was a definite learning experience. That was Saturday evening which we spent with my friends. Then on Monday we went to Los Algodones, the marketplace. It was exciting and I got a turtle, that I have fondly named Pedro after my first Mexican friend.
While we were there we saw a young boy (6 or 8???) who was holding the change basket for a guy playing the accordian. Now, it was during the day so I was concerned as to why this young boy was not in school and I came to the conclusion (much later and a few margaritas had passed) that the Mexicans had messed up take your child to work day and had instead promoted make your child work day.
Tuesday we went horseback riding and I am still feeling it! Don't listen (or read) to anything Sarah says (or writes), my horse, Dunney, did not like me. In fact, he took a disliking to me at first sight. He was very short, yet every time I tried to get on he walked backward and jerked his head. Which is how I have a bruise on my chest. Those saddle horns are hard! Throughout the hour long trail ride, while George, (Sarah's trusty steed) was stopping to eat anything and everything, Dunney kept trying to get rid of me and refused to go where I tugged no matter how hard I kicked. It was fun but next time I think I will take some time to make sure my horse likes me.
Then we got to pick up Shannon's new puppy, Willy. He is sooooooooo cute!!!!! He is a brown and white lab, about 8 weeks old. He peed on my carpet. I have such a way with animals.
I have a great story to tell you about a bust I made at school today but it will have to wait. I have to finish working on my student achievement plan for career ladder so I don't get stuck on rung 1 and project runway is on at 10. Love you all and please leave comments so I know that I am not talking to myself!!!

Are you familiar with the expression "just because I am paranoid doesn't mean someone's not out to get me" We had a bazaar episode at school on Wednesday that proves that! First of all, I will take you to 6:30 a.m. when the head custodian arrived at school and stumbled upon a cat eating a dead bird. When he approached the cat it took the mangled bird in its mouth and ran up a nearby tree.
Fast forward 2 hours when all the kids are waiting to go inside and the teachers walk out to line them up. All of a sudden there is a Loud bang and a bird falls out of a tree. Now, we had kids on the ground, yelling, running and teachers ushering them inside ready to go into lock down, because we knew there was a gun. My principal was very calm and assured us it was probably a pellet gun until she saw the bird and it's poor body.
When everyone was calmed down and spoken with the whole story came out. The farmers in the fields that surround our school use firecracker like flare guns to scare the birds away from the seeds and one happened to fire at the exact same time the bird (that the cat had been munching on) fell out of the tree.
So, in review, no one was shooting at anyone, there was no gun at school and no one killed anything, except maybe a cat.

I have been receiving gentle nudges again to write, sorry everybody! So while Sarah is in the shower (I am so happy she is here!!!!!) I will tell you a quick story. Last week my basketball team had a home game and I was running the clock again, which I am getting good at by the way! While the seventh grade was playing the eighth grade was watching or so I thought. Apparently one of the older brothers was there and decided it would be fun to break open the Powerade machine outside the gym. At which time my entire team (minus two who were not there) filled up backpacks and stole about half of the Powerade. No one was aware of this problem until the next day after second period when the first two gym classes cleaned the rest of it out.
When all was said and done our team had major punishment. They are forfeiting two games, doing trash duty at lunch for two weeks and paying for or returning any Powerade they took. The two games we are forfeiting were big games for us and a way to show how much we had improved. Let's just say the boys have done a lot of running in practice this week and will continue to do so.