Salute to Ky

If you know me, you know that I have lots of connections to diabetes.  Some people are really turned off by that.  I guess they are afraid that if they acknowledge diabetes, they make themselves more vulnerable to it.  I wish it were that simple.  It grabbed my family long before I was born, by taking my grandfather when my mom was 13.  

Then, many years later, it was diagnosed in my little brother when he was ten.  It was pretty cruel to him and finally took his life in 2001.  I walked in many walk-a-thons  for him when I was young.  When he was diagnosed in 1970, we were told that a cure was ten years away. 

Diabetes grabbed me in 1982 when I was 26.  It was the same type of diabetes, Juvenile Onset, but it had allowed me a few extra years before it changed my life.

If that wasn't enough punishment, diabetes visited my family again when my three-year old daughter was diagnosed.    She has made the best of it all and although she cannot ever remember a time when she didn't have diabetes, I can.  I wish she could enjoy the carefree joy of eating food for the taste, not for the carb count.  

Rant over.

Ky has formed a team to walk in a Diabetes Walk A Thon in Roanoke, VA this weekend.  She has a site for information and donations at:

http://walk.jdrf.org/walker.cfm?id=87177414

Okay, blogger wouldn't let me post it without retyping it all, so if that isn't right, please let me know.    I  hope you'll visit this page and encourage Ky on her walk or, better yet, donate!!

Thanks!

A Somber Day

Although today is somber in the remembrance of what happened seven years ago, I'd like to wish my niece Happy Birthday yesterday and my sister Happy Birthday tomorrow.  I'd love to be with both of them, or even either of them, but distance will prevent that.  I love you both!!

Monday, Monday

So, why is a Monday such a dreaded day?  

I think a Monday, in itself, isn't so bad.  I think the dreaded part is that it feels like it is so far from Friday.

Here in lovely Fairfax County, elementary school kids get off school early on Mondays.  It is supposed to allow the teachers to have time to "collaborate," and "plan,"  and whatever else they do.  I can't exactly say what the teachers do during their Monday afternoons, but they have now progressed to the point that they get substitutes to collaborate and plan on other days of the week.  We've got to be the most collaborative, planned group that has ever existed.  

Of course, we're also known for having a very tough school system and we turn out lots of wonderful high school graduates.  Of course, high school is a long way from elementary school.  

I'm totally against the idea of trying to teach kids that school is fun.  School is hard work sometimes, when you are surrounded by your peers, I guess, but that in itself isn't always fun.  Learning is fun.  And to learn, one must work.  I think a lot of kids feel like they have been deceived when they reach about third grade and find that those multiplications tables are no fun at all and that there is no easy way to learn them.  I still have trouble remembering some of the 6s, 7s, and 8s.  I get them eventually, but I have to think about them.   

Hooray!

Hooray!  It was beautifully dry today!   

I'm so glad I didn't clean out the squirrel nest that was in our squirrel feeder in the gazebo! During the storm yesterday, I took the dog out and noticed something was in the feeder/nest moving around.  I could see why--it was dry and nothing else was!   I never saw who it was, but I am quite sure it was a squirrel--or two.  

The basement is okay now and I hope we can get the sump pump fixed before the next deluge.  I am, however, quite behind in my weekend work because I missed getting to do chores yesterday.  Ah, well, the laundry is done and the house can be a little messier than usual for a few extra days.  

We went to an Empty Nest party last night.  It was a lot of fun and each couple's children's ears should have burned all night!  It is almost like withdrawal, however, to return to a household without a child in it after at least 18 years!   

Prayers, please!

We are now getting the rain from Hanna.  It isn't bad, it's just that there is a lot of it.  And our basement is flooding.  Please pray that our backs will  hold out and that we can stay ahead of the rain!

Thanks!

Hello to Ky!

Two down...

Man, this year is going slowly!  

As a team-building exercise this year, we all got little buckets.  Little tin buckets with our names on them.  The rest of the staff got an explanation and a bunch of large drop-shaped papers and they knew what the little buckets were for.  We, in the office, have made our official "team" motto:  "Last to know, first to get blamed."  So, we had the little buckets and no idea why.  I had nicknamed them "little buckets o' blame" for the fact that we really do get blamed for everything, whether we had anything to do with the problem or  not.  

When I arrived today, however, I had a little drop paper in my bucket that had a nice thing on it.  Something about my greeting this anonymous person with a smile every day.   (If I'm grumpy some day, will that drop evaporate????)  Then, later, one of my APs put another drop in the bucket.  Apparently, the buckets are supposed to be places where you can give each other kudos.  Some day, when I have nothing to do, I'll think of something nice someone has done and give them a drop.  If I can find their bucket.  Which will be in their locked classroom unless they are in said classroom, which will make the drop not a surprise.  

Okay, there's a fire drill tomorrow.  Our first of the  year.  We must have one per week for the first four weeks, then one a month for the rest of the year.  It is a wonder we get anything else done.  I'm generally in charge of the grunt work for the fire drills and tomorrow we'll see how many mistakes I've made updating the lists and procedures.  We have a crazy-huge population for an elementary school, so seldom do these things go off without some sort of fire faux pas.  You must call one phone number ten minutes before the drill, then another number when the fire drill is pulled and get outside.  Sometimes someone decides they have too much work and they are just going to stay indoors.  Sometimes the fire department comes anyway and they inspect the building.  If they find someone inside, the fire drill doesn't count and we have to do it all over again.  So much planning takes place prior to the drill!  It can't be a day when we have visitors (groups) or when we are testing.  It needs to be while groups are in classes and not in the halls.  The weather needs to be just right.   It needs to be before lunches begin (10:50 a.m.) or after they end (1:40) and not between 1 and 2, when the Head Start kids are napping.  It also can't be after 10:30 a.m. since that is when the cafeteria staff eats their "lunch."  Mondays are out entirely since our student's day ends at 12:45 on Mondays.    What a pain.  When I'm queen, I'm just gonna walk out in the hall and pull the lever.  Done.  That is how fires happen, anyway.  

We did have a fire once.  Or twice.  One time was just as our renovations were being completed and an electrical closet caught fire.  It was a week before school was to begin, though, so it didn't count.  :-|  The second one was odd.  In the office, we smelled smoke and couldn't decide where it was coming from.  Finally, the Principal decided to just call 911 and pull the fire alarm to evacuate the building.  The FD arrived and we told them about the smell.  They went into the office with a weird-looking gun and pointed it around the room.  A few minutes later, we returned to the office and I noticed that my computer monitor was being taken away.  It had been on fire!  They showed me what it looked like through the weird gun.  Yikes.  I coulda burned up!   

Wish us luck with the Fire Drill.  Oh, yeah.  We are really wild at HW!

First Day of School

Is there any day more depressing than the first day of school?  Okay, stay-at-home moms are not allowed to answer that!  

The phones rang all day long!  We had parents who couldn't wait to get rid of their kids and those who couldn't stand letting their children go to their assigned class alone.  (We are supposed to discourage parents from going to the classrooms because it is so disruptive.  Also, parents have a way of asking the teachers "just one more question...")  I try to direct all of my communications to the student, since I like for the child to have a chance to learn how to talk to adults and I feel that I am a safe person for them to practice on.  Sometimes, the parents won't let their child answer anything.  I feel that such children benefit more from school than from anything else!  

Oh, well, it was the usual crazy day at school.  

One down, 179 to go.

That is really depressing.