Happy Birthday to Me

My visiting teacher gave me a card that says "On your birthday, adding another candle doesn't make you older...it just makes your life brighter!" I like that sentiment. And while I certainly don't feel 42, I'm o.k. with it. There's a lot of perks to being over 40. You're more settled, you're less worried about other's opinions, and you have a sense of being happy with who you are. I even don't mind the few laugh lines that have appeared. They show that I have had a lifetime of laughter and joy. The picture above is the vase of flowers my children gave me. Aren't they beautiful? Life is good.

It's either laugh or cry

* 5:30 get up
* 6:45 drop Blake off at Jazz band
* 7:00 talk to principal about budget meeting with superintendant after school
* plan, clean, grade, copy, answer emails
* 8:40 students begin arriving, find out one of my boys punched one of my girls in the mouth for "making fun" of his name. She's bleeding
*8:45 Counselor comes to get another one of my boys to talk with him about an incident involving him punching another student
*9:00-11:30 Art Gallery on wheels, Reading
*11:30 Lunch, 5 boys are invited to eat lunch with me since they always make good choices. Found out what happened yesterday when there was a sub in the afternoon
*12:00 Write referral for what happened yesterday when there was a sub in the afternoon
*12:15 Pick up students from lunch. Find out 4th grade girls were picking on (pulling hair, pinching, pushing down, swearing at) one of my sweet little second graders...there will be consequences
*12:30 Talk with boy who earned referral (and suspension) about why he pounded on one of my other boys yesterday in class. Try to call mom, number disconnected. Find other number, no answer
*12:55 Walk students down to gym. One boy (the one who punched the girl in the mouth) decides he can't handle gym today and comes back with me to the room. Find out from him the state is investigating whether he needs to be taken from home.
*1:30 Pick students up, do some Writing. Bright spot of my day is my brilliant little boy who hates to write and decides to write about a boy who had a pen that let him write in invisible ink...you guessed it, I could only read the beginning of the story because the rest was invisible!! I told his mom I'd let him get away with it just that one time :)
*2:00 Students still writing, talk with girls who got in a fight in my room yesterday. Straighten that out, everyone is friends again
* 2:15 Math...oops forgot to make copies for part of lesson must improvise
*3:10 pack up to go home, teacher next door asks me to walk walkers out so she can take car riders to talk with a mom or two about behavior
*3:30 head downtown for budget meeting. Find out 50 teachers being cut, my position is being surplussed, will have to apply and interview for new job when postings come out in May
*5:00 call Scott head to a quiet dinner out
* 8:30 still wasting time instead of grading mound of papers

Luck of the....german??

Need some good luck? I think I'm going to try rubbing Ashley's head every morning. Miss Ashley has had an incredibly exciting month. A few weeks ago a recruiter from IPFW told her she could get a full-ride scholarship with her grades and the fact that she wants to go into computer programming. She is hoping to get more offers once she's got her scores from the SAT and ACT. Her hopes are on BYU. Hard to turn down a full-ride though. Scott, of course, is very excited about keeping his baby girl in town.
She applied to do an internship next year in the afternoons and they called her and sent her to an interview at Navistar to start right away. She found out yesterday that she got the job!! She is so excited. She will train during Spring Break and start working 2 hours after school Monday thru Friday. Then, when summer comes she will be working full-time. The best part is that it's a paid internship! She'll be making more than twice what I did when I was her age. Life is good if your name is Ashley Braun. She's worked so hard for this, we're pretty happy for her!!