Happy Mother's Day

Aftermath

So after being called at 4:30 to be told that school was called off for the day the sun came out and it was a beautiful day to stay home and nap, read, play FFX, do a few household chores and read blogs. Now I'm ready for the weekend.

Dos de Mayo

At 4:30 this morning the telephone rang. A telephone ringing at 4:30 in the morning usually doesn't bode well. It probably didn't bode well for someone, but for me it was good news. SChool was called OFF due to a storm system hitting us last night. I'd much rather be awakened at 4:30 in the morning than head out to work and then find out that the roads are closed. Anyway, I intend to be a sloth today and just read, nap, play video games, and catch up on my blog reading until the power goes off and then snack on Vanilla Wafers and milk.

Finals Week !

I just finished my final test for my online Excel class. I only got a 90% on it, but there was one question that I think wasn't fairly written..... whatever. I have all my assignments handed in, but they aren't all graded yet, so I don't know what my final grade is, but at least I passed and I'm finished. I'm taking an online course on databases during summer session. I expect it to be a little easier because I was anxious about spreadsheets and formulas and whatnot, but maybe the databases will be harder since it's a 300 level course and the Excel course was a 100 level.

School's Out !

New Job!

I finally got an actual contract and not just the promise of one. So for the first time in 28 years I won't be a librarian or a classroom teacher. It will make the last few weeks of this year a lot easier to put up with. I start on July 1st so I'll get June off. What shall I do?

Fishcake Anyone?

Happy Birthday to ME!

JOb NeWs

Incredibly, I'm still waiting to decide which job I'll have next year. The school board voted to renew my teaching contract and also voted to offer me a contract with the tech dept and Student Information Systems coordinator. I've yet to see either one and the superintendant won't be back in the office until next Tuesday, so I guess I'll just have to wait a little longer. I'm not complaining, mind you. Some people didn't get offered even one contract and I've got two!

Caption Contest

Create a caption for this picture.

The Taxman Cometh

Ask not for whom the taxman cometh, he comes for thee!! I know you're out there, you lazy slacker, someone out there hasn't filed his/her tax return yet. HaH! I mailed my today! That's right, in the mailbox, not efiled ! Call me a luddite if you will, but that's the way I do it.

Actually, I had a productive, yet relaxing 4 day weekend. I went to Billings and visted family, finished a difficult Excel chapter, started a great book called "The Thirteeth Tale," watched some movies, and worked on the taxes.

Job Apps.

Well, I submitted an application for the job I've been "fillng in " for since October. Someone more qualified may yet apply, more power to them. The job would mean a cut in pay and longer work year, but I'm ready for something new. Just sort of coasting the past couple of years. I won't know for at least a month and then the school board is very slow about some decisions. I hope this isn't one of them.

March ON

March is here at last! What is more, there are only 9 days left in 3rd quarter, which means to anyone who is counting, there is one quarter left until the end of the school year. I have lived my whole life thus far by an academic calendar. I think I always will. Time is marked by quarters, semesters, graduations and vacations. Right now I am both a teacher and a student as I come home from work and hit the comptuer to study Excel 2007, in which class I am now showing a 97% thank you very much. I suspect that even when I retire, I will tell time, not by the calendar that starts in January, but the calendar that starts in August.

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.

Winter Blahs

I was going to write that not much has been happening to write about so I have ignored my blog for a while. Then I got to thinking and there's been a lot of little things. Our first semester ended and the second began. That's ordinarily a busy time, but now that I'm involved with the the Student Information System and have to help with report cards and course changes, it's been even busier. And to add to the stress, we had a snowfall just at the transition between semesters. It really wasn't a bad snow, but the wind made the drifts bad, so I missed a day of work. My little Honda is a great road car and I put 250-300 miles on it a week, so I need good mileage and it delivers. But it just doesn't handle the snow the way the old Subaru with AWD. We talked briefly about trading in the Honda for a Subaru. The Impreza looks good, but I don't know if I'm ready to sacrifice the outstanding mileage of my Honda.

I've started taking an online course on Excel 2007 from MSU-Billings and so far it's pretty easy, but I'm thinking it will get complicated real soon. I'm not as comfortable working with numbers and formulas as I am around letters and words.