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. 

So long!

Oh my goodness!  It has been so long since I've updated my blog!  The reason I am updating right now is actually because I'm at district wide meeting about using technology in the classroom and I am supposed to be an expert on blogs!  I am far from an expert but it reminded me to update!  I need to make it a point to get back on here more often!  Brief over view before I have to return to my group.
Golf is over, one girl went to sectionals, missed State by 10 strokes.  Exciting!  The van was returned, sadly.
Basketball will begin in a very short time and I am already getting sucked in to doing a ton of work and it will only get worse.  I really because the subservient coach in about 15 days.  But, I am super excited for our season.
Teaching is going well still which I am so thankful for!  I have been out of the building about 10 times this semester which is craziness but we are all making it work.  I have to finish grading all giant projects before bball season or it won't happen.
Classes are going well for me, busy busy, school law is super iinteresting and school and community relations is super unorganized.
OK, I need to get back to work.  Talk to you guys soon!

A Boring Saturday Night

      Welp, here I am, Saturday night, after 11pm and I have not left the house the entire day.  No kidding!  I mean I hardly think a walk to the mailbox qualifies.  I did shower and do load of dishes so that's one step under semi-productive. Right? 
      Now, lets talk about this trip to the mailbox.  I open the door and put my hand on the screen door to open it, something moves on the other side of the door, I proceed onto the porch and turn to look at the door.  There is a giant brown spider running around.  He runs from me and just as he runs into the hinges of the door and out of sight EEEEEK!  I scream!  Something landing on my head!  I jump, dance, stomp my legs and swat at my head.  It was a grass hopper.  Where did it come from?  Why?  Where did the spider go?  All remain unanswered. 
      All of my friends are busy tonight.  So, I couldn't come up with any solid plans.  Trish and her baby girl (6 years old) stopped by for about an hour to watch iCarly and grab a quick bite to eat before they took off for a day trip to Sioux Falls.  I envy her spontaneity but just couldn't take a trip like that on a last minute whim but truly appreciated the invite.  Random interjection, one of my favorite commercials right now is the guy who starts sleep driving, and his dog goes to the foot of the bed to enjoy the fan in his face.  Very cute!
      It sounds weird but I actually feel like I don't have a lot to do because my classes haven't started for this semester.  I'm sure I will really regret that statement and envy this moment in a few weeks but it's true.  All summer, in every moment of downtime I was doing homework.  I think I mentioned in my last blog I'm taking School Law and School and Community Relations as well as trying to make head way on my 120 admin. hours and my giant research paper.  Plus, teaching Challenge World and Psych which are both grade intensive courses I've got to stay up on.  So, I'm sure I will be super busy soon enough.  So in the spirit of that, I put a few assignments in the grade book with down the road due dates to try to keep kids and parents looking down the road.
      Today I also registered a team to do the Alzheimer's 5k in October.  Our team name is The Unforgettables.  I spent some time making a shirt that I'll likely never print that I really would enjoy having.  A picture of me and Mamma on the front with our team name and a picture of me and Patt Summitt on the back with the words Never Forget This Moment.  On a light purple shirt.  My aunt made the first team donation today.  I can't wait to raise the money and have people join the team.  Not sure if anyone is reading this but if you are and you'd like to help out me, my team, or the fight against Alzheimer's in general check out my team website.  Thanks for any support you can give!
Walk to end Alzheimer's Page

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!