May 18 - 23

Sunday, May 18, 2014
Today was one of those days where I tried to get some items done and spend time with Squeak.  She was in her lazy mode as I got things done.  Sunbeams were her thing today as evident by the pictures here.

Taking over my computer bag in the sun.

Sunning Squeaky

It is always good to have great friends and after a long weekend and tough Sunday getting organized it was nice to eat dinner with such a special friend and share some insights and thoughts.  Erin, thank you so much for dinner.  I am excited about our plans to re-capture our fitness!!!  Thanks for your support and help in asking me those tough questions and making me talk them out loud.  I truly do appreciate you.

Monday, May 19, 2014
Okay, so it is official there is no way that I can get it all done.  LOL!!!  There are so many hours in the day and there are not enough for me to do it all.  It seems like every time I turn around there is something else that I need to "learn" to do.  I know things will get better and I am in a learning curve but today I really wanted to pull my hair out because I REFUSE TO PULL ANYONE ELSE's HAIR!!!  LOL!!!!    On a good note, the court case that I wrote about a few weeks ago came back and the district does not have to pay out.  I can't really say that anyone won because in all honestly it is a sad situation but I am glad the judge found that we did not do anything wrong and we were correct in our decisions, determinations and process.

This week is also classified employees week and let me just say a HUGE THANK YOU to Jaque Salazar and Mike Linares who are the two people who help me the most at work from a Classified employee standpoint.  I am not sure what I would do without Jaque who helps with so much of the discipline and Mike keeps me sane and helps me a good bit at night getting items taken care of.  Like tonight, I left to get home and get some things for tomorrow and I left Mike to do a few things for me so that I don't have to go in at 4:00 am in the morning.  I know that I can leave the office for a meeting and Jaque will take care of things and I will not have to stress and worry because she will let me know if she needs ANYTHING!!!  She Rocks!!!!  I hope everyone has two people as great as these two to help them at work.

The rest of the week crawled by it seemed.  Between the Summer School trainings, the meeting and discipline that is going on it is hard to get it all done.  On Wednesday morning I had a conference call with my PhD chairman and I have some feedback now to move forward with the dissertation.  She is telling me that it is just working through the material and writing and rewriting but I hate this part.  I don't really like to write and I like to complete the task and move onto something new and revisit but maybe not revisit 258 pages.  UGH!!!!!!!!  So now I have plans for the Memorial Day Weekend!!!!!

Wednesday night was also the choral concert.  The coral teacher is retiring so this was her last concert and it was fabulous.  The kids did a great job and the last two songs were my favorite.  The boys sang, "For the Longest Time," from Billy Joel and then the entire chorus sang a song called "The Argument" and acted it out.  So it ended with the boys and girls signing to one another as if they were having a fight.  It was really cute.    The department head of the Visual and Performing Arts Department set up for some of the choral teachers former students to come back and surprise her.  It was great because at the end of the concert the alumni got up on stage and sang to the teacher with a song they had been practicing.  In addition, they had students who could not make it to the event send video recordings and they made a video for her.

Concert Singers

Packed House at Concert

Frozen Medley

For the Longest Time

The Argument 

Celebrating Ms. Flagg

Thursday came and went with a short workout at the gym.  I have been trying to leave the school by 6:00 peso that I can make it to the gym.  I have not been near as successful as I wanted.  I keep hoping I might have a little time this summer since the school closes at 4:00 pm.  I am hoping this works but we will obviously see who that goes. Sometimes my best laid plans don't work exactly the way that I want them to.  LOL!!!!  I really do try to be flexible, open and spontaneous but that has not gotten me to the gym and therefore some of my absolute favorite clothes are not fitting well right now.   At school, Alison Latimer set up Academic Signing Day which is similar to an Athletic Signing Day.  The guidance department had all the students who are going to college, university or into the armed forces sign banners stating where they are going and make pendants to put on balloons that they wore around during lunch and the rest of the day.  It was nice to celebrate academics like we do athletics as well.

Friday was CrAzY!!!!  Can we say NUTS!!!  The campus was actually really bare.  There were a lot of students who decided to take a four day weekend instead of a three day (we have off Monday).  However, it is like the flood gates opened and all the kids decided to be a little nutty.  We are dealing with the end of an investigation that was started on Tuesday and we ended up having to suspend some of the students.  We had students being sent out of class left and right for little things and then no lie, we had a student get a wedgie in class.  I mean REALLY, in class!!!!!  You have got to be kidding me!!!!  I know this happens on buses and in locker rooms but a regular content area class??????  So are you asking the same thing????  Where was the teacher????  I know I was……..  On top of it, these are 10th graders!!  Sophomores!!!  I MAYBE, MAYBE could understand if it was freshman at the beginning of the year but end of the year and sophomores, you have got to be kidding!!!!  I know we all say that we need to write a book about the crazy things students say and do, and the reactions of parents and teachers but I got to tell you, there is not enough time to do that!  It is amazing the things that are going on.  I can't blog about all of it simply to protect a lot of the students and situations because people could potentially figure out who it is while I am at the school but seriously, I really need to start finding time to write down this stuff; maybe after the PhD is done…..

Friday was the M.E.Ch.A Recognition Dinner.  Gabby does a fabulous job sponsoring this event and I was invited by the group.  The kids are really wonderful and Gabby was able to provide scholarships to many of the students and almost all of them got awards of some kind.  They had a fabulous video from the year as well.  I have to say that this is one of my favorite groups on campus but probably because the group has quite a number of my favorite students who are involved in other groups also.  These are some of the kids that do everything on campus.  They really are great students.

Getting Ready for the Event

Guest Speaker

Awards Night

Two of my favorites

So, I am posting today so that I can work on PhD work this weekend.  I was hoping for a small break on Saturday morning but that does not look like it is going to happen so here I go…. getting into Dissertation mode.  Hope you all have a great Memorial Day weekend.