Hi there. I was fiddling with my background for the blog, and I saw that a stranger had read the blog and left a comment. It wasn't about the background, but I felt bad for not having fixed my first fiddling attempt when strangers are reading my blog. Not that I don't care about my friends and family but I figure that they will forgive me easier. I finally got the columns right and the color is better than before. But then I noticed that it has been over a month since I last posted. I guess that I will try to rectify that today.
Quick update.
A few months ago, during tithing settlement, Richard was telling the bishop that he would like to be released from his calling. Bishop replied with a "just hold on a bit longer." About a month or so later they reorganized Elders Quorum presidency and when they asked him to sign-up again and he said yes. He couldn't explain why, I guess he felt that he should give it another try.
His tennis coach has been out sick for a while so Richard hasn't had his regular class. Instead, he has been playing Wednesday nights with his friend, Rodney, and sometimes Randy and Rodney's daughter. Last night, it was just Richard, Rodney and Randy so they played two on one (Australian? style). Richard beat Rodney and Randy. Good night.
Randy is working hard at being a teenager. We still have "disagreements" over homework and chores but really he is doing a good job. He was really sick for about half the week last week and is having to work harder to catch up. Until he brings his grades up, he isn't allowed to go to the early seminary class or use the computer for fun. Yes, he wants to go to the early class (5am) but don't think he's really into seminary. He has a friend in that class; she turns 16 next year.
Nathan is having fun in school. His original teacher had to go on medical leave a couple months into the school year. The long term sub, Ms. G, has been really great; I think that I like her better than his original teacher. He has been doing pretty well in all his subjects although he has had a little trouble with reading. Richard has talked with Ms. G about it and he and Nathan have been working on it most nights. Nathan is writing a lot more and has even started making "to do" lists. It's very cute to see what he writes and how he writes it. You can tell that he is sounding out the words, the spelling it atrocious, but it's still understandable. At least to his mom.
Joshua is fearless. My sister-in-law Staci, who is also one of Joshua's teachers, took him on a play date to a nearby park where there is an awesome climbing rock. It is taller than me, wider than my arm span, and has hand and foot holds carved into it. Staci was worried about how he would do with climbing it; he's a good sized four year old but still only four years old. She said that he couldn't get up that thing fast enough and never wanted her help at all. I took him and Nathan there a few days later and was amazed at how well they both could climb it. They even started jumping off the top and were hauling up buckets-full of sand to make sand castles on top. I even climbed up it at the end, to clean off the sand, and was impressed by the height.
In contrast, he says that he wants to be a baby again, still begs to have me lay down in his bed at night, and usually ends up coming into our bed in the middle of the night anyway. By the way, after 10 years of marriage, we finally bought a new bed. It's king sized. Two large adults, a six year old, a four year old, and a queen sized bed just wasn't working. We really don't have room for such a big bed, but I LOVE being able to stretch out so completely. My toes can't even reach the bottom even if I point them.
And me. Teaching has been better this year. I think that it is a combination of this being my third year and having only one class to prepare for. I actually feel like I could keep teaching and not regret it. OK, that sounds a little more pessimistic than it really should. Let me temper that statement with the fact that I love my students and always have. Now I'm just able to enjoy them more. On the flip side, I don't expect to be teaching at the same school next year. For various reasons, we are a low performing school, politics, etc., the powers in the district have decided to reconstitute the school. This means that as of July 1, everyone who worked at the school the day before (except the principal) will no longer work there. We can reapply for our jobs, and they say that they want they want us all to, but I'm not so sure. Isn't the whole point of reconstitution to get rid of the "ineffective and incompetent" and because the entire staff (except the principal) is being affected I feel like they are telling us that we are all crap and I don't really want to work in a place where that is my view of the administration's opinion of me. It also just feels that it might be time to move on. I have been released from the school but not fired so I still have a job next school year. I'm hoping to get a school closer to home. Other than that, the field is wide open. I've been working the last 3+ years at a low performing, low income, inner-city high school with high immigrant population. What more can they throw at me? Middle school? I've been thinking about trying out middle school anyway. As long as I have a shorter commute, any where I go can't be any worse than my current school next year.
Posts
