What's Really Important

So, a friend of mine posted on her blog today. It reminded me of some of the things that are really important. She has had a struggle. Her husband died a couple of years ago from leukemia. She has a little girl who was only 5 months old when her daddy died. There are also two slightly older children. I think this is their wedding anniversary, so today has been a struggle for her. Thank you, Stephanie, for sending me a reminder today about things that are really important. The struggles you have endured the last few years sure make other things in daily life seem simple. Still praying for you, my friend.

College Goal Day

The high school I teach for has hosted an event for the last two years. It is part of a grant, but it is also part of a movement to help people in rural areas to sign up for financial aid to go to college. We have it in regional areas in the state, and our school has been able to host in for the past two years. Lots of our seniors come and go ahead and so their financial aid. We have a few people who are certified in the FASFA, and the rest of us just try to assist. Everyone can come, not just high school students, it is more of an outreach to encourage higher learning. It was a tremendous success and a big help last year. I worked at it this afternoon and into the evening. It seemed to be a success again. I am just glad we can help our kids. There is so much negative publicity about teachers and schools, but not a lot of attention on things like this. So many teachers volunteered the entire evening, until 7 pm on a Friday night. Plus, many of us brought food and other stuff for the participants and the other volunteers, so I just thought I'd put it out there. There are teachers that care. There are many fabulous teachers.  We are doing everything we can to help kids.

Also, a very special thanks to my Key Club volunteers today!! Ya'll are the best, and I can't wait to take you all to the Kiwanis meeting for the luncheon!

Busy, Busy

I haven't posted that much lately. I have been pretty busy, and I have just been blah in general about stuff.

Friday, the termite repairs started. Friday consisted of ripping out drywall and insulation. Dang termites ate the insulation. Monday was more drywall tearing. Today was putting up drywall and 'mudding' and sanding. Thank goodness Terry's (my bro-in-law) uncle is the repair guy for Bugmaster.

I had fun with Emma and Ella yesterday. I picked them up from preschool and we went to eat. Then we played in the yard for a while.

Work has been work. An interesting article was published in a major newspaper in Mississippi regarding our state testing. The article was actually objective and made a lot of sense. I don't think the state board of education agree that it was honest and in hte ballpark of objective, so maybe, JUST MAYBE, we will see some changes in that process soon.

Just letting my few readers know I am still here.  Hanging in there for now!

It's a Crazy, Crazy World

We had a busy weekend with the girls birthday party. We had a great time, but it left me quite tired for the week.

Monday started of decently, but we ended up having two fights at school (when we normally don't have any) and our online gradebook system was randomly upgraded over the weekend. We haven't had to re-enter grades, but it has been quite difficult to navigate. One of my students is quite ill. He has had pneumonia and is having a hard time recovering. He is WAYYY behind and school is very hard for him. He has been doing as much work at home as he can, but it is hard for him. God bless his momma who has spent so much time helping him do as much schoolwork as possible. We also go the test scores back from the fall testing and they were not NEARLY as good as we had hoped in English. Math and History are fine. Biology scores haven't come back yet. English- not so much. We have been teaching our little hearts out, but the test is complicated and very long. I am basically stumped at this point.

Today was much less stressful, thank goodness. Kiddo only has one more day of in-school suspension, so hopefully we can get through tomorrow, then he can resume his normal schedule. I told him if he didn't get it together, he would be fumbling the ball on the 10 yardline. He is SO close to being done with school.

I have not been QUITE as tired this week as I felt last week. Maybe whatever I was fighting off has passed. We'll see.

Birthday Cakes

My mom, sister, dad, and I spent the day making the twins' birthday cakes. Last year, we had cakes done by a bakery and we were less than impressed. It was hard work, especially getting the bright orange and the navy blue icing but we had fun overall doing them. The bday party is tomorrow.

The writing needed a little work, but we did the best we could. Still looks better than what we had last year.  Also, thanks to Aunt Bev for keeping the girls today while we made the cakes.

It has been a busy and hard week. Lots of kids sick, so I have been trying to keep up with makeup work. Kiddo made some bad decisions this week and got himself into hot water. He got lucky because admins took it fairly easy on him. They also let me sit in on the disciplinary meeting, even though they didn't have to do that. Admin knew he wouldn't have a parent present, so wanted him to have an adult advocate. Hope we can keep him from giving up and work through it. So, it has been a nutty week. Also, spent 3 days after school with Key Club making goodie bags for Valentine's Day for the kids at Headstart. I slept for ten hours last night. Felt better this AM but am now tired, AGAIN!

Looking forward to the girls party tomorrow. :)

No Catchy Title

We had a guest pastor this morning at church. Our pastor was out of town, and the speaker from the Disciple Now weekend was our 'pastor' for the day. He was really interesting. He had lots of good things to say. He worked with FCA for years, and he worked closely with Tim Tebow. Now, I love Auburn. I love Southern Miss. I love GCHS football. I also love Tim Tebow. He described this story where Tim was in a store in Gainesville. A college aged girl with her mom asked Tim if she could have her picture made with him. Tim agreed and posed with the girl. The girl's MOM was taking the picture. As mom was counting to three, when she got to two, the girl yanked up her shirt. Tim, being the elite athlete that is he, took off. Somehow, he was able to escape the photo.

I don't know why some people find it funny or humorous or a quest in life to try to do something to ruin or embarrass another person. It doesn't matter if they are an athlete, a teacher, or a postal worker. I have never found it rewarding to try to do something to ruin, hurt, or embarrass another person. I hope that one day that girl is able to realize what it means to try to be a role model for someone else. I DO take certain things somewhat personally, but it means a lot to me when people who are on their way to being famous try to do the right thing. I can't stand it when someone decides they are SO important that they will just try to take that person down. I know most people do NOT consider what Jesus would think about certain situations, but I sure wish they did. There are people who, especially with the faceless Internet, find it FUN to do those things. Sometimes, people say or do things that are taken the wrong way, taken out of context, or were just running their mouths. Those things don't bother me too much because I have said things on twitter that didn't come across the way I intended them. However, there are other people who are just bent on doing exactly those things.  I hope one day Jesus opens their eyes and they are able to clearly see what effect the hurtful things they said or did had on a person. I have taken the stance that on the Internet at least, the best thing to do is to ignore these people and let their targets know I support them. I would like to say if I had witnessed the girl doing that to Tim that I would have spoken up. I hope I would have. Bullies are a part of every day life, but they shouldn't be allowed to take advantage of nice people who are trying to do the right thing, for the most part.

Nothing New

I really have nothing new to blog about. I've been shopping around for a new desktop. I need to save a little more money before I can buy one, but I REALLY need one. I have also been excessively tired this week. I don't know if I am fighting something off or if something else is going on, but I just wish I could not feel so tired. I found out Friday night that one of my students has Chicken Pox, so I am really hoping we don't have some sort of high school outbreak of chicken pox. I know most students are vaccinated now, but there it is anyway.

Next week, I have to stay after school a few days. The Key Club is working on a service project. It seemed like a small project but has taken on a life of its own. Hopefully, the kids will have this as something to remember they worked really hard on. Hopefully, we can get it all done on Tuesday and Wednesday and get everything ready for the Kiwanis Club members to come and give us a thumbs up. The Key Club is really small. I took it over from someone else mid-year and it was not very active. The kids really wanted to get more involved, though. We decided to make treat bags for Valentine's Day for the kids at the Headstart program in the county. There are almost 300 kids in Headstart as it turns out, and we have 12 members. We decided to do a contest with the homerooms to collect the candy we need since we would have a hard time bringing that much stuff ourselves. It has turned into a huge thing, which is great. If all goes well, we can get all the bags made by Wednesday and the Kiwanis members will come pick up the bags and deliver them for Valentine's Day.

I have NOT done well on my diet this week, but I am not giving up!

Birthdays and Other Honors...

Today is my twin nieces' birthday. They turned 4 today. We are having their party in about a week and a half. I am still amazed with them. If you didn't know, they were preemies. Emma weighed 2.6  pounds and Ella weighed 3.7. They didn't really have any major problems other than needed to gain weight, but luckily, we have USA Children's Hospital here in Mobile, so we were able to see them as much as we wanted while they were in the NICU. USA's NICU is amazing. They were so professional yet caring and loving as well. The girls both were on strict routines with feeding and changing. Our family is forever grateful to all the staff at USA Children's and Women's Hospital. I also have a HUGE admiration for NICU nurses. So, thanks to anyone who is a NICU nurse or works in a NICU. They are doing great now, and they don't seem to have any lasting issues.

My mom got a huge honor today. The school she teaches at decided to start awarding a 'Heart and Soul' teaching award, named after a counselor who worked at the school for many, many years. The award is voted on by staff, and this year, my mom won! I am so proud of her. She didn't tell me, though, because she knew I'd try to come. She didn't tell me until tonight!