so much time so little to do

Scratch that... reverse it.
      It's been a long time since I've written on here and there is a lot that has gone on.  I'll get down bits and pieces of everything I can remember that I wanted to talk about and we'll go from there.
      Last night I had a joint birthday party with Sam here at the house.  It was a small crowd but a good time.  It had rained on and off all day and cleared up in time for a perfect weather evening.  I love having people over and cooking for them.  It was just burgers and dogs but I love it!  We hung out and talked, drank some, played some games, had a fire pit and made s'mores.  That's a great August evening! Friday was my actual birthday and I went to Garrozo's for the first time ever.  Birthday girl/boy eats a spedini for free.  I gave my spedini to my mom and ordered manacotti.  YUM!  This place is a Kansas City Original and I'm so glad I went.  It would be an expensive meal but I will definitely go back!  That night we met up with Trish for her birthday gathering and went to The Flying Saucer near Power & Light.  I liked the place, my favorite part about it?  It wasn't Power & Light. No cover charge, no forced interactions with douchey people.  It was a great time.  Earlier in the week was Sam's birthday and we went to Stix (a hibachi, Japanese grill where they cook in front of you), gotta love that! Good entertainment and good food!  We also got to see the Glee movie, I love that show and the movie The Help, amazing, I cried, laughed, loved it!  Can't wait to read the book!  So, I've had a lot of social activity recently, yay summer! 
      Before all of the birthday fun Sam and I visited my grandparents in Carthage, MO.  I love those two so much!  They took us in to Joplin to see all of the destruction from the late May tornado.  It was insane and very powerful to see all of the damage and what the city used to look like.  The thing that struck me the most was the high school.  As a teacher I could only imagine what that must be like.  The whole school is without windows, blown out.  Parts of the building look like the scenes from the Oklahoma City Bombing, but on a smaller scale.  The sign reading JOPLIN HIGH SCHOOL had been reduced to OP HIGH SCHOOL.  What I found most amazing was that someone had used duct tape to add to the sign, it now reads HOPE HIGH SCHOOL.  That's powerful.  These people have every reason in the world to be depressed or give up and they won't succumb to it.  They will not be defeated.  They will raise this city again.  One house in particular caught Sam's attention so we asked Pappa to pull over and we got out to walk around the roughage.  This house was missing all but about 4 walls two in an exterior corner and 2 internal walls.  What caught her eye and my attention was the clothes still hanging in the closet and the books still on a shelf.  What?  How can that be?  My eyes were immediately drawn to a picture album in the dirt and rubble.  Pictures mean a lot to me and my family.  I wanted to bring it home and scan the pictures in to a computer and try to find a family member to send the pictures to.  That didn't sound like a great idea to Sam, and I see the impracticality of it now.  There was a man using large equipment right behind the house, as I went to talk to Pappa about taking the photo album, Sam went to talk to the man, his story was, wow.  He knew the guy who was living here, the man LIVED!  Apparently he was looking out of his window as the storm moved in and sky started to change.  He watched two cars drive down the road and about 15 seconds later he saw the same two cars tumbling end over end coming back down the road from where they came.  He grabbed his dog and a coat and closed himself in his closet, held on to the dog, the coat, and the closet rod.  He lived.  Amazing!  I gave the worker the photo album to pass on to this man, he appreciated that.  I just thought it was neat.  Sam had also purchased many supplies to share with Joplin victims, we took them to the number one organizational site for the relief efforts.  It was neat to see where it was going. 

      After Carthage and before the birthday fun I participated in my first ever 5k.  This event was one of the more significant events in my life.  Thirty thousand people walking/running with a purpose to raise money and raise awareness for the cure of breast cancer.  The energy was amazing, the people were so positive.  I was a part of something much greater than myself.  I am personally connected to this particular cause  because of my family history with breast cancer.  My mom's family has been plagued with it and my step-dad's mom, Grandma Louann is a survivor.  Probably the coolest thing about this experience was that I got to share the experience with 10 of my basketball players and several of their parents, siblings, etc.  including one mom who is currently battling breast cancer.  I hope the girls felt as impacted as I did by the experience.  We all did it, and that is big.  I hope to make this an annual event for me.  I didn't die after walking the 3.1 miles so I've already been asked to join in on the Whisper Walk in September for Ovarian Cancer and I've looked up the next 5k for Alzheimer's.  Alzheimer's is another cause that is very near and dear to my heart.  My beloved grandma in Carthage is suffering from this diagnosis.  My other grandma, who has passed on suffered from dementia as well in what I suspect was actually Alzheimer's.  This disease is also in desperate need of a cure.  The affliction comes down both of my parents bloodlines and on both sides of each of my grandparents bloodlines.  I don't want to be doomed to a life that ends in Alzheimer's.  That's not for me.  I never thought I would be a 5k kind of person but look at me, walking and liking it!  :)
        Meetings have started for back to school, as always, some good, some bad, some downright ugly.  I am so glad we started school later this year.  We get kids on Wednesday and I can't hardly believe it.  I'm not ready at all and am supposed to have meetings all day Monday and a golf tournament all day Monday.  I hate meetings but really feel like I need to be there!  Ah!  What should I do?  Golf is going great!  There is no sweeter gig.  Getting paid to hang out outside, drive a golf cart, drive a minivan, with free gas, I mean, shorts and polo, this is my kind of deal! 
I'm going to sign off now as this is a pretty lengthy post.  I will think of more things later!