Whoever had the brilliant idea to put a self-dispensing air freshener station at eye-level for the average height woman right next to the sink in the public restroom needs to be publicly chastised or tarred and feathered or something.

My eye is still red and stinging.

*sigh*

An office aid just walked into my classroom to drop off a summons to go see the AP for one of my students. She walked in, looked around in confusion for about 40 seconds and then asked "Is your teacher not even in here?!"

Hahahahahahahahahahaha.

In cognito. Blending in. Like a gecko. Or a ninja. Or a ninja gecko.

The end of this school year is FLYING by. I have a hard time believing soccer is over, there are only eight weeks left of school and only 10 weeks left until Dry Creek Camp. :-D

It's been a rough and stressful few weeks. I'm trying to juggle lesson plans, off season athletics, a marriage, my church family, my other friends, planning a fundraiser, planning a banquet, hosting the district meeting, etc etc etc... I have two events left this month and I am ready for the mental and emotional break of not having anything else to plan.

I don't have a lot to say but I am trying to get back in the habit of posting and pleo-stalking again, so take this blog for what it's worth.

Congratulations to my friend Jonathan for passing his modern US history comp the other day! So proud of him!

Love,
Me

As teachers, we do not have 401Ks. We have something called 403Bs, which we have to set up. Well as I was in my classroom last week preparing for my day, I got ambushed by a guy who sets up 403Bs for teachers in our district. He called me by name, which caught me off guard. My mind was preoccupied with Hitler taking over "His own backyard" and Italy invading Greece and non-aggression pacts, etc etc so I did not stop to consider that he probably didn't actually KNOW my name - he saw it outside the door. He made polite small talk for a bit (which irritated me) and then launched into his lecture on why I must sign up for a 403B. I don't think he expected my rebuttal to be quite so... political and opinionated. We HAVE to have a 403B because they FORCE us to pay money into the Teacher Retirement fund. It's very much like social security but you only get any of it back if you work for a certain amount of years. So I believe I should have the option of paying in or not paying in...

I feel bad about it now because he was clearly unprepared to deal with my denial of his services or my matter of fact opinions. I won't go into all the details but it started with "I do not believe the government should be responsible for me in my old age." and ended with "It is my responsibility to plan accordingly and have children who are raised to take care me in my old age just like I will be taking care of my parents and my in-laws when that time comes."

He stared at me in stupified silence. Then he handed me his card and said "Well if you'd like to make an appointment, give me a call" and then he backed slowly out of my classroom.

Oops.

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I am on spring break. I love it. Tomorrow is my "work day" of the week. Grading 110 reserach papers.... approximately 97 of which are terrible... and working on lesson plans. Getting my overdue vehicle inspection taken care of and my haircut taken care of. Need to find a good style that actually looks styled but doesn't cut a lot off the length. I am growing my hair back out - I have been longing for my long tresses for a while now and feeling like the growing process is taking entirely too long. Somebody remind me after my hair has grown out that any time I want to cut it short, I am being dumb. Please. I will love it for about two weeks and then sigh every time I look in the mirror for the next two years while it grows.

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Soccer season is almost over. It is bitter sweet. I know I need the rest and the girls need the rest but it's always hard to watch something that has taken so much of my time and effort come to such a fruitless end. I know this year we lacked the experience needed to advance. I think roughly four of my athletes have played soccer before. And those four started last year, in high school. But it's still hard to have yet another "failing" season. I know I am building something valuable in these young ladies. I see it. I see them growing and learning and when everybody else around us seems to think "we are all winners", I have this unique opportunity to teach them that we have to WORK for what we want, we aren't entitled. And sometimes, we are the losers. And you know what that means??? We need to work harder. And not complain. And support our teammates. And give 100% because it's the only way to feel satisfied with what we have done. And treat the other team and the referees with respect. And no, sometimes the calls that are made aren't fair. Guess what? Life isn't fair. And you have to learn to laugh at yourself. But not at your big mistakes because those affect other people. And it's the bigger person who can let drama go and apologize for the wrongs they have committed. Etc, etc etc.

That was a bunch of incomplete sentences and I am sorry. I got on a roll. :-) I love those girls like sisters or daughters. They mean so much to me. I want to see them succeed. I know they get upset when I am hard on them, but I know that they are becoming beautiful young women who can change this world for the better - if they have the foundation built under them that they need.

I pray that the State of Texas doesn't ever deem athletics unworthy of budgetary consideration. Cutting funds to extra curriculars and athletics specifically would be detrimental to the development of so many young people. There are lessons learned by playing on a team that just can't be taught as effectively elsewhere.

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I think that is all for now.

Love,
Me

If you haven't seen "Kid President - Pep Talk" Go to YouTube and watch it. Right now. You're already online... so you should do it.
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We have a group of neighborhood boys who are ALWAYS playing football in the street. On Saturday they threw their football into my garage, into the back of my truck. As they were apologizing profusely I threw it back and the whole street went silent... then I heard "Wow. She should replace Matt Schaub!"

And I laughed.

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We had ELA Taks testing today and I had to administer the exam. It was awful. We aren't allowed to read or be on the computer or anything... so I amused myself by writing all my thoughts on sticky notes. I will share them with you now. Don't judge me.

* One girl is eating a jar of peanut butter with a knife

* There are 7 Jacob's in a room of 24 kids

* I am about to fall asleep standing up

* I wish there was a machine that could read my thoughts and record the ones I want to keep so I could mentally write a book while administering this test.

* I bet since she keeps licking her knife and putting it back in the PB that there are all kinds of germs festering in that jar. Gross.

* I wonder if some of those better girls who didn't play soccer this year would have fit in on the team or would have messed up the good chemistry I have.

* Peanut butter girl just raised her hand and I panicked because I was afraid I wouldn't know the answer. But, she just wanted a thesaurus. Hope she doesn't get peanut butter on it.

* What if I just randomly started exercising in the back of the room?

* GAH! Another question. I made up an answer - I hope it was right.

* Oh. My. Word. Only been testing for 40 minutes.

* One kid has a value-sized bag of funions. I want.

* I am hungry.

* I feel like writing all my thoughts on a sticky note makes me odd. Or self-absorbed. Or both.

* Well, not ALL my thoughts. I'm keeping the really lame ones to myself.

* I am trying really hard not to look at the clock. I am failing miserably.

* There are four left handed kids in here. They write really awkwardly.

* I have no lesson plans for my Cold War unit.

* I had a thought but now I can't remember what it was.

* This teacher is either going to really love me or really hate me when she gets back into her classroom - I organized her desk for her.

* Every time PB girl licks her knife I mentally gag.

* There are 210 ceiling times in here. And 273 bricks on the back wall.

* One kid keeps laughing to himself. Wonder what's up - I am quite sure they didn't start making the TAKS test humorous.

* Kids in desks 5 and 6 will be the ones to keep the entire room in testing mode. Not even done with multiple choice yet.

* My shoes are super cute.

* THAT was a self-absorbed thought. But so true.

* Why does the bus barn hate me? We always get really junky buses.

* Every time this one kid breaths it sounds like he's snoring. I keep looking around for the sleeping kid.

* 2 kids done out of 24. Been testing for 1 1/2 hours.

* One kid's composition started with "My generation has it REALLY rough." WHAAAATTTT?

* Kid is now eating funions- soooo jealous.

* Well the kid I thought would finish last just finished... 6 left.

* I can see all the kids who are done looking around at those who aren't. Then they have a look of horror cross their faces when they realize the others are still on the writing portion of the exam.

* How do these kids have so much to write about??

* These kids need to finish so I can read my book on Nazi ideology.

* 3 hours in...

* The end is in sight but still so far away.

* One more tester... she has to feel the eyeballs of the whole class on her.

* Discreet and furtive glances have become outright peering and craning. She hasn't even broken the seal on the second section... waiting for THAT reaction...

* Praying for patience....

* And there was the reaction. It was great. Partly relieved but mostly irritated.

* And DONE!!!! * throws confetti *

Love,
me