Bloomin' Tulips

Happy Birthday to YOU!

Happy Birthday Big Brother !

School Assemblies

I was expecting an assembly this afternoon because our Lady Stars are going to Red Lodge tomorrow to play in the regional basketball tournement. So when the announcement came down at 2:30 for everyone to go to the gym, I thought, "That's way too long for a pep assembly. "( We're dismissed at 3:45) But we had a surprise guest. Matt Light, the aforementioned football player had come back on his way home to stop by and speak to the kids about a football camp his foundation is sponsoring in June. The listened well until he started his stay in school and off drugs and out of trouble speach. How was he to know we've already heard that speach about 10 times this year. Well, he cut his loses when they got restless and went to a Q & A. One of the kids asked how far he could throw a football. "Oh, I can't throw a football at all. I never go near the football," he said. Another kid asked if he cried when they lost the SuperBowl. "No, I didn't, " he said. "I didn't cry. I bawled." He seemed like a genuinly nice guy and it was a nice break from classes. He may even have inspired our basketball crazy guys to try out for football next year.

But the real fun started after he left and we got our promised pep assembly complete with skits that embarrass the teachers. I got wrapped up in toilet paper which wasn't bad compared to the teachers who got their faces covered in peanut butter and then had popcorn thrown at them. Somehow the coach made it all tie into the big game, but it was really about humiliating the teachers.

GO LADY STARS!!!

I almost forgot.

OK? By the time I got home I had almost forgotten what had happened this morning. Not that it was a bad day; it was rather ordinary. But this morning started with the coach asking me if he could use the library, 3rd period, for a meeting of local coaches. OK. He neglected to tell me that the meeting was about a football camp this summer. OK. He also neglected to tell me that a celebrity would be there. Anybody ever heard of Matt Light? Well, I never did before today. I googled him when I got home. He's football player for the New England Patriots. OK. He wasn't the only one who showed up. There was a video cameraman, a microphone carrier, and a still shot camera woman. There were a few other people standing around, a couple of vans worth of people at least. They were all VERY polite and friendly. At one point a guy returned a pen he had borrowed from my desk and said, "I hope you don't mind?" I pretended like it was a big deal and then said, " No problem." So he walked away and came back with a Tshirt and said I could have the Tshirt since I'd let him use my pen. OK. So I now have a white Tshirt that says New England Patriots and has a signature scribbled under it. It looks like it says BEN? But who can tell? I'll ask coach tomorrow who BEN is.

Any PAT fans out there?

Semester Wrap Up! Maybe this time?

Last week we had a 2 hour long poweroutage. We were 15 minutes from sending the kids home for the day when they power was restored to the elementary school, the admin building, the tech building and hopfully the rest of the town, but we still had no power out at our jr/sr high school. But the other school didn't know we were without power and they turned on the servers for our SIS(student information system). When the rest of the power was restored, the server got zapped and we lost 2 weeks worth of data. It took an entire day to get it straightened out with our tech support. We got the end of the semester grades restored, but I still have to re enter all the corrections I'd already done. I'm hoping to get it fixed by the end of Q3 in the middle of March so I can then concentrate on whatever mistakes I'll be making then.

In another note, I fell a nasty fall on my left knee yesterday when some ice appeared out of no where. It was a beautiful sunny day; it felt like spring in fact. I was thinking I'd wake up this morning to a stiff, painful knee but it wasn't any worse than yesterday. No better, but not worse.

Montana. . . it's not for wimps.

The day started out to be a real bad day. Not 100 yards from home I got stuck in a liliputian snow drift. Really, it was barely a curbsized drift, but my Honda is a wimpy car. After my husband pulled me out of the drift, I made it to work just as the first bell for class was sounding. Then I was trying to get caught up from the crash last week which resulted in us losing the last 13 days of data. It was an "early out day" so the students left at 1:45 and we had a guest speaker who talked about suicide prevention. Not quite the most cheerful topic on a good day, and it wasn't a good day. In between classes I had been dismantling the hallway bulletin board which was still decorated for Valentine's Day. For some reason I find holiday decorations left up past the holiday really depressing, so I felt that if I could get it changed for spring I would feel a little better, and it worked a bit.

Then I made it home without getting stuck and the day was looking up. After dinner I crammed for my online course test. It was the first test of the semester and I didn't know what to expect. I took the test and it was automatically graded and I got a 95%. I'll take it. And now I'm going to post this and take a look at the end of the lunar eclipse. It has actually been a clear sky so we could enjoy it. HOpe you all got at least a glimpse.

Welcome to the Family

I just looked at some of the pictures of the wedding. I don't think I've ever seen a happier groom or a more radiant bride. One of the great things about my great brothers is the wonderful new sisters they've brought into the family. Another great thing is all the great nephews and nieces they've delivered, and another great thing is what fathers and uncles they all are.

So welcome to the family, Suzanne.

Semester Wrap Up! (I hope)

So our first semester ended on Jan. 17, 2008. Today is February 8, 2008. I may have just finished wrapping up all the problems I caused when I wrapped up the end of the semester. The software program we use at our school (Student Information System) is a mine field in hell. One wrong step and the whole thing blows up in your face and you spend the next two weeks wondering why you thought you had figured out how it works.

Of course I though I had it all fixed two days ago when the school counselor who brought a transcript into me and showed me a student who had been dropped at the beginning of the second quarter and was still showing a credit for English class, and an A to boot. Ooooops!

On the plus side, the Excel 2007 class I'm taking online, makes the job infintesimally easier.