Babies

We have a gazebo.  It's not pretty, but it came with our house.  I hope we can sell our house before the gazebo needs to be dismantled.  Nuff said.

Anyway, a few years ago, when the squirrels were keeping fat on our bird seed, Ky and I made a squirrel feeder and put it on the gazebo.  It is not that close to the bird feeder, so it might work.  

For a while, we were good at keeping it stocked with peanuts, but peanuts also have a cost and the squirrels were  always walking out without paying for their meals.  The squirrel feeder soon became just another odd ornament.  About two months ago, I cleaned out the squirrel feeder, which is mostly a gallon jar in a wooden harness.  I felt good about having the thing at least look clean.  About a month ago, I noticed that someone had filled the jar with leaves or mud, or something brown.   I mentioned this to Ky, who investigated and saw that it had become a nest for some baby squirrels. 

Okay, I can't get the pictures to be "below" so you'll have to scroll back up to see them.  I'll try with another shot:

Didn't work.  Oh, well.  I think the little squirrels are cute.  Pretty soon, they'll be eating up lots of seeds and causing trouble.  Still, it is fascinating.  Mom Squirrel likes to sit in the entrance and watches every move we make.  If we get too close, however, she runs off and that's how I got the pictures.  

God made some pretty animals!

Prom 2008

Prom was a little more than a week ago.  This year, Ky and her good friends, Mag, D, Cath, J and M all went to eat at a restaurant and then to the prom and finally, to the After-Prom.  Why don't they have an After After-Prom?  

Graduation is coming, heigh ho, heigh ho!

Ky graduates on June 16, 9:30 a.m.  Anyone who wants to be there, is welcome.  I plan to be there.  She is going to the prom this weekend.  She has finished 4 of her 5 AP tests this year.  The last one is a make-up test since she had two scheduled at the same time.  It is on the 23rd, I believe.  It is English, which is a good one to finish out on.  That means the tough ones--calc, German, computer science and physics, are done.   Okay, English won't be easy, but having the others a couple of weeks after the rest would be torture.  

Ky will have several pieces of graduation regalia to wear for the different honor societies.  I can't recall all that she will wear.  She's heard nothing from NHS (Nat'l Honor Society) and it appears that the hardest part of that group was the application.  Just about the only part of NHS was the application!  They have a choice of cords and tassels for most of the honor groups.  

My graduation had no such fun stuff.  I was in NHS, but don't recall that we had anything to show for it.  I lived back in the boring old days.   I need to remember to do a post on my early, black-and-white years.   I don't know how (or why) we stayed awake during it all!

Anyway, stay posted for exciting graduation/prom stuff.  I'll see if I can find time to count down the days, too.  

I'm really proud of Ky for working so long and so hard!  I only had 12 years of school!  She's had an extra year--Kindergarten!  I'm surprised I was able to get through all 12 years, and here, she's ahead of me.  How did the teachers cram learning colors and letters and numbers into first grade with all that other stuff.  Memories of first grade--that's another post!

Ky's prayer requests!

FYI:

Ky is taking her AP tests this week and next.  Then, she has one final one on the 23rd.  Please keep her in your prayers.  She has worked VERY hard all year and knows just about everything the teachers have tried to teach her, but I just pray that she'll be able to pull it out of her memory in the correct order and think straight during her tests.  Today's test was Computer Science and the teacher admitted early in the year that he would only be teaching them about half of what they needed to do well on the exam :-(   That makes for a rather depressing beginning to the testing weeks, doesn't it?  Regardless, Ky remains confident that she is ready for tomorrow's test--BC Calculus.  Someone asked her the other day if the BC stood for "Before Christ!"  That brought all sorts of fun pictures into my head, of guys riding donkeys with slide rules and calculators, doing derivatives and integrals!   I don't know what BC stands for, but it is the tougher of the two Calculus classes.  

Next week, Ky has German and Physics (ugh) and finishes up the AP testing on the 23rd with English.  

Also, Ky and her dad will be performing at a youth group coffeehouse on Friday night.  They will play Orange Blossom Special--one of my favorite fiddling tunes.  They sound great!  Prayers for that would also be appreciated!

Monday, Monday

I used to hate Mondays at work.  I mean, they always seemed to catch everyone off-guard.  More mistakes were made and lots of interruptions occurred, etc.  At my present job with my present boss, however,  every day seems like a Monday.   

There is a great poster from Despair.com that I just really enjoy.  Here it is:  

http://www.despair.com/leaders.html

Our plan of action each day is:  

1.    Wait for fire.

2.    Put fire out.

3.    Do damage control.

4.    Repeat.

I know it seems like I'm joking, but I'm not.  

Take today, for instance.  About eight kids were in the gym today when a fire extinguisher was used.  The principal spoke to each child and had him/her write their version of what happened down.  Each kid claimed they were innocent, so the principal called each parent and told them that since no one would rat out the perp, they all got to stay 1.5 hours after school each day  this week to work as the custodians' assistants, since the custodian was the one who had to clean up the mess from the fire extinguisher.  

Okay, the principal didn't catch one parent, so, before she left for a meeting, she had me relay the message to the parent.  Luckily, this parent took it all pretty well and that wasn't so bad.  Then, however, school was over and these eight kids reported to ME to find out what their after-school duties were.  The custodian on duty at that time speaks very little English, so I had to escort the kids around the building to locate her and try to explain to her what to do.  She had to stop her work and give them all the supplies they needed to clean the windows, walls, etc.  Have you ever seen what a window looks like when a 12-year old is asked to clean it?  A 12-year old who doesn't really care whether it is clean or not?  I think the kids did a little time cleaning some of the bathrooms, too, but they seemed to have a great time.  

Time with principal:  0 minutes

Time with me, keeping me from my work:             20 minutes

Time with custodian, keeping her from her work:  1 hour

Guess what?  This scene will be repeated each afternoon this week!  

Day after day, I am left in the office with several kids who were too unruly to be handled in the classroom.  Am I trained in classroom management?  How about child behavior?  Am I licensed to care for any children?  

Answer "NO" for all the above.

Do I have a job to do besides watching unruly kids?  

The principals (we have a principal and two APs) are in meetings nearly every day, many of them are offsite.  I'm not sure how they are supposed to use all this newfound knowledge they get during these meetings since they are seldom in the office.  

I've decided the policy-makers haven't been in a school (on the front lines) in so many years, they have no idea what actually occurs in a real school.  Do they really think kids sit in desks in straight lines and walk quietly to and from the lunch room?  

Instead, should someone from the superintendent's office happen to come by, we must suspend our work for two days cleaning and decorating so they will think things are wonderful in the schools.   I'd love to have the assist superintendent walk in while a teacher, a counselor and an assistant principal are trying to coax a mean, unruly little eight year old (who weighs about 70 pounds) into the office so his screaming and crying and whining won't disturb anyone except those of us in the office.  

Schools aren't what they used to be!

 

Waning Senior Year!

Well, Ky is finishing out her senior year.  She is taking 5 (count them FIVE!) AP classes!  The AP tests begin on May 6 and occur almost daily until May 13, then she has a make-up test on May 23.  She is doing very well in all of her classes, but some of the teachers are not teaching to the test and have told the classes to expect lower scores just because they haven't been able to cover all the required material.  That's okay since Ky didn't really need any of the credits, but she's done an awful lot of work and it will be disappointing to see that, although she has mastered the material she has been given, it is still not enough.  

She decided to attend Virginia Tech next year and is in the process of filling out all the necessary forms.   There is the "themed housing" application, the "STEP" summer school application, and the other scholarship applications that must still be submitted.  

Keep Ky in  your prayers, as her allergies have kicked in for the spring and she isn't able to get much sleep.  

Hang in there, Ky!  I'm proud of all the work you've done!

Back Home Again!

Thanks for the prayers for our trip.  This year, we had great bus drivers, great buses, great kids and great fun.  We didn't get great scores, but that's okay.  That's not what the trip is about, IMO.  It didn't rain inside the bus this year, so I was happy.  The driver didn't pull over for a nap in a deserted gas station, either.  

The buses were pretty cool.  They were new and had an interesting DVD system.  Every six or eight seats had a video screen where you could watch either a DVD or DirectTV.  I was in the front right seat and was in control of the entire system.  No manual, but no worries.  I hate manuals and wouldn't have read one anyway.  

Disney World is a great place.  It feels like utopia.  If everyone acted and reacted to others the way the Disney employees do, the world would be a better place.   It all comes at a cost, though.  $$$$$

Okay, the pope is in town.  I'm not Catholic, so I just don't get the importance of it.  I like not having to go to God through a priest or a pope.  The red shoes were cool, though.  I don't know why anyone would go to the trouble of going downtown to watch the pope on a giant screen TV.  It doesn't seem like you are really seeing the person, to me.  They have started putting a few opera performances out on the giant screens like that and I'd love to see one of those.   Hearing the pope's voice in person isn't worth the trouble to me.

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I've been doing a lot of thinking in the past week or two and I hope it will make me a better person.  Keep me in your prayers!