Updates

Basketball has begun so my social life has ended.
I am currently in the lead for Cuts for a Cure.  You may know I hate to lose but you may not realize this is not a contest where winning isn't desireable.  Winners have their heads shaved.  This face and body were not made to have a shaved head.  Let's be honest.  :)  Any donations to my competitors jars would be greatly appreciated.
I am working hard on finishing up my masters' classes.  Should be done soon with classes but then I'll have hours, my giant paper, and my portfolio to finish.
I went to black friday sales from 8:30pm-9:30am.  It was INSANE!  I think I'm in the market for the Xbox 360 with Kinect.  It will be a fun Christmas gift to myself. 
Living with my new roommate is going well.  It's an adjustment process but overall it's been good.
Of course I miss living with Sam but we try to hang out whenever we can and she's doing well at work and looking for a house of her own.
We got to see Idina Menzel in concert at the new Kaufman Performing Arts Center earlier this month.  It was amazing and beautiful!  I really enjoyed it.
Sam and I got tickets to the women's final four.  I am hoping that Tennessee makes it all the way this year.  Either way, a week in Denver will be amazing, exciting, relaxing, and much needed in early April.
My family is headed to Carthage for Christmas.  This will be our last Christmas in the big house in  Carthage which is terribly sad but it will be great.  Everyone in the family will be there except Jon.  We will miss him for sure.  All of the cousins will be staying in the house with the grandparents. :)  This should be super fun! 
Well, I can't think of much more to say here right now.  I hope to update more soon. 

Time Flies

      September 10th!?  Really!?  It is hard to believe it is already September 10th.  Where did the time go?  They say time flies when you're having fun.  I'm curious though how fast does time move when your life revolves around work and school work? 
      Golf has been keeping me busy with tournaments nearly every day of the week.  My girls are really starting to shoot well.  I'm very proud of them!  The weather here has been beautiful so it's really been a pleasure to join them at practice and matches.  Can't beat it!  My own game is improving even though I still contend that golf is one of the most awkward sports.  Oh and I have to give up the mini van for two days.  I'm not really sure I will know how to function.  I get it back on Wednesday but it will be tough to part with. I may shed a tear. haha!
      The classes I'm teaching have really been going great!  I have had a few individual butting of heads but seriously best year ever so far!  Next week Psychology is going to be watching One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest.  Yay! World History is taking their first test this week so I'm excited to see how that will go.  I'm out of the building so much over the next several weeks I'm not even sure how I will be able to write that many lesson plans.  It is way easier just to be there!  I'm out Sept. 14, 15, 20, 26, 28, and Possibly Oct. 4, 5.  And I'm in charge of the Homecoming Parade by some sort of default when my good friend Colette left the building.  So that's another bit of stuff to do.  Oh, classes are great but the grading of papers, Woah!  :)
       The classes I'm taking have SO much work due.  School Law should really be taken on it's own.  But, I'm in that class and School and Community Relations taught by a first time professor for Northwest so I think he's trying to make the rigor of the class something to be reckoned with.  I am also very slowing working on my hours for Admin practicum.  Exciting times!  Oh and that giant paper, I'm not even going to touch that until next semester!  I can't!
      I have really found a new passion for fund-raising.  It's weird.  I am not very good at saving my own money so this comes as a surprise to me.  I am currently raising money for the amazingly important cause of Alzheimer's research.  My own grandmother is very severely struggling right now.  She's almost all I can think about when I'm not busy.  After the Alzheimer's Walk in October I will be shifting my focus back to Breast Cancer for the remainder of the year.  I, along with some help have talked 6 people in to shaving their heads if they were voted to do so by the students after a major fund-raising campaign.  4 of the 6 current teachers signed up are girls!  That's awesome!  We are hoping to get at least 4 more teachers and raise a few thousand dollars in a "penny wars" type of event.  The three staff with the most money in their buckets at the end of the year will have their heads shaved at an assembly.  All the money will go towards the support of a cure and research for Breast Cancer.  I also think it may impact the students in a very real way.  One of my basketball mom's just finished her chemo intensive treatments and a current student of mine, her mom is in remission.  I'm sure there are more.  The other day at church Pastor asked what our God given goals were and I know I was commissioned to be a coach.  But it's also something I love and maybe hope that it's God's goal for me.  But fund-raising is all I could think of while Pastor was talking.  I can't make a living doing it but I can make an impact.  That's a pretty cool thing. 
      Writing this was a little bit therapy, and a lotta bit putting off doing more school work.  I guess I had better get back to it soon.  Hope everyone is going well! 

WHEW!

      Today was a long one!  Up early to take Trip to mom and dad's and make sure I was ready for the day.  Day went well, included advisory which is always a bit longer of a day.  Then down stairs for a PRIDE picture and out the door to NKC to pick girls up for golf.  Then McDonald's shame for dinner, and back to school for Open House!  Whew!  But, I made it!

      We got to wear t-shirts to school today and to Open House tonight, that's pretty sweet but we were instructed not to wear jeans.  Awkward if you ask me, we kinda looked silly.  But, we sent a message and I think it was well received.  I did find it interesting that the people who were most against us wearing the shirts kept saying they thought it was "unprofessional" yet they are some of the most unprofessional people I work with.  Ah well... professional distance is a good thing. 

      Golf was beautiful.  I didn't want to go back to work.  Open House went really well.  With most parents I was really on, functioning on all cylinders and all my jokes were a hit.  With other classes, crickets... sweet.  Ah well... does the professional distance thing apply again here?

      I started a 30 day prayer book that belonged to my late grandpa last night.  It's also been completed by my uncle john.  Kinda neat to feel that connection with Grampy.  Tomorrow I will be meeting with FCA to discuss the new group we hope to start at school.  Wish me luck!
I guess my mammaw is really struggling with her Alzheimer's right now.  Like unable to have a conversation struggling.  I'm really hoping it's another dietary or chemical imbalance that will be an easy fix. Please keep her and my very patient Pappaw in your thoughts and prayers.
Also tomorrow I start my final two actual classes in my master's program!  Exciting yet bringing busy busy days.

      Last thing: I'm poor right now, like poorer than I've ever been.  And I'm not sure how it happened. Only solutions I can come up with are a roommate or a job.  I am not the easiest person to live with and I really don't like to share my space and time with people I'm not especially close with... and I really don't feel I have time for another job right now. I'm just hoping I come through this period of low funds better and wiser for it.  For now, no roommate, no extra job.
 Welp, good night Lame Lady Adventurers.  Press on to another day.

One week down

      The moment has arrived, the one I've always waited for.  I have good kids!!!!  I finally have a group of students that don't make me question my career choice.  I may finish the year without wanting to quit.  My psych class is big, 33, but good!  Challenge World History is awesome, good kids and ready to work!  My regular world class isn't bad although I've feared it.  And, STAR 11 is riddled with good kids and I think we will be okay.  I'm very excited for the year although I KNOW it will be super busy! 
      I am coaching golf, basketball, and track.  Master's classes that remain looming until graduation are 1. School Law  2. School and Community Relations  3.  a giant research paper  4. 120 hours of administrative duties.  Hopefully all by May.  In order to get those hours I have joined the building team for the AVID program, am organizing the homecoming parade, and a variety of other tasks.
      I've decided to do the Alzheimer's Walk October 1st to honor my grandmother's and my hero who was recently diagnosed with early onset Alzheimer's.  Who ever thought I would be a 5k'er?  Certainly not me!   Maybe one day I'll actually run one of them, maybe not.  :)  After the Alzheimer's focus I'll be switching it back to Breast Cancer for the rest of the year.  I'm talking with other teachers about fund raising options and even head shavings!  Things could get crazy!
      No plans for the weekend.  More to come soon!

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!