A Historical Week

Wow, what a great time to be a Government Teacher. It is amazing inspiring my students to be politically aware. Last week for extra credit I had them watch the Democratic Convention, this week they will earn extra credit to watch the Republican Convention...which is doing a first, they are basically postponing tomorrow due to the Hurricane Gustav. This year, come Nov. 5th we will have either the first African American President or the first Female Vice President. It is history in the making. The discussions are wonderful in class....any teacher's dream, students discussing the subject with passion.

What a week....I have been one tired person at the end of the each day. But I will admit, it is partly getting back into a routine...give me a few more weeks and I will be into the routine. Did I mention that I have wonderful students and I am totally enjoy teaching my students. I love what I do.

David had his first football game for the season on Friday. He is a starter this year and they won their game. (34-30) It is just a pre-season game but it does make them feel good when they win the first one. Not too bad with having a week off of school as well. I was not able to go to the game since it was 3 hours away and I knew I would not have been able to drive back at night...game did not start until 7. He got home around 1:30.

Niel was gone for a few days this week.....his first business trip away. I will have to admit, I did not know what to do with myself....okay....I did watch the convention and get my toes painted...but there were moments I had noone to pick on. But in all honesty, I sure did miss him. I like talking to him every day and I love his hugs that give me a comfort that is totally hard to put in words.

To be honest, I was really not looking forward to Friday night....David away and Niel gone as well....so I stayed at school grading papers until 6 and headed home. I was going to pick up Chinese and watch tv and go to bed early. Well, right before I called the Chinese place, Brian called and said he was in town for the weekend. Wow, what a surprise....Brian & Chelsea home for the weekend. I picked them up Chinses and we had it together. I was so happy to see them. Saturday Brian mowed the lawn for me and Chelsea washed our cars for us.....for all their hard work, Chelsea and I went and got our toes done. A girl needs to pampher herself now and then. I had a hard week at work and Chelsea had a hard week her first week of college...walking, trying to find parking....so we needed our toes done. A matter of prayer, Brian still has not found a job, so we are praying this week we will be the week.

Today was another first....our church auditorium was redone and it looked wonderfully but more than that, the whole inner works of our church has taken a major move...to live for Christ and to be Christ for the community. We have gone from an a cappella service to a mixture of instruments and a cappella. It was amazing. God is so good and God is in Control.

Today after church we went out to dinner with friends. What a great time of fellowship we had. The best part was chatting with Chuck & Diane about the trip to Oklahoma. It was fun hearing the stories. It is wonderful when people love my son as much as I do. I know Diane & Chuck enjoy Mark and treasure him like I do. Here is a picture of Mark....he had Diane take the picture since I am a government teacher and would love the picture....I agree...I love it:


Take care and have a wonderful upcoming week. Tomorrow is Labor Day...while we are enjoying a day off, Mark & Janel we will be taking classes at Oklahoma Christian...they start classes tomorrow. The college students in Oklahoma:

The neighborhood

Just took a drive through the neighborhood to take some pictures. Here are some of the pictures.

Tropical Fay still here!

Well, when we woke up this morning to get Mark ready for his trip to Oklahoma, we noticed that part of our yard was under water.


Our neighbors yard is a much larger lake today than it was yesterday evening:


Here is the part of the backyard that has the firepit in it:


The sad part, the rain keeps coming. Per the weatherman, the storm in stalled. On a good note on that....Mark, Janel, Diane, & Chuck headed out to Oklahoma this morning around 8:30. With the storm hanging over us, this gives them a chance to get ahead of the storm. We think it would take them about 2 hours and then they would be out of the worse of the storm. So please pray for their safety as they travel to Oklahoma.

Niel is off again today but keeping himself busy with jobs around the house. David is still sleeping...and me...well, I should be working on my class but I am blogging instead. I am tired, I did not sleep well last night, hearing the rain and knowing Mark was leaving today...so I am dragging.

Tropical Storm Fay

Well...I am into my 2nd day off of work and expecting another one tomorrow because of Tropical Storm Fay. The storm that is loaded with wind and water has caused havoc on Brevard County (where we live). There has been a lot of flooding in many parts of Brevard County. As I type this we are trying to drain part of our pool...it is over flowing. I can understand....walking around our property we noticed the ditch behind our house is totally full (any more water might back it up into our yard). Our yard is on a high part of our neighborhood, our neighbor has a new lake in their front yard. Here are some of our pictures:


Personally, I will say it has been a blessing. Mind you, I was excited about my classes and would like to be in full swing of class routines and teaching. But Tropical Fay has given me extra time with Mark. Yesterday we spent the day going through his closet and getting him packed for College. While we were doing that, we got to talk...I like talking to Mark. Mark was able to work on his college papers and I was around to bounce things off. I like that...I sure do miss him when he is at college. Today I spent the day doing laundry, helping Mark get his car ready for his trip, and taking Chen to the airport. We have totally enjoyed having Chen with us for a month. He is a wonderful young man and I feel totally blessed to have had him with us for a month. I am hoping he decides to come home for Christmas with Mark. Here are a few pictures:
Niel, Me, & Chen

Here is a picture of Mark & Chen:


Tomorrow Mark leaves for Oklahoma with the Andersons' and Janel. Niel & him will pack his car later when we get in a down time from the rain...it does happen some. When we were walking around the property, that was one of those times. We have mostly everything in the livingroom ready to go...just waiting for the right time.

Niel & I both have off tomorrow (because of the storm) so we will be here to say our goodbyes to Mark. See, another blessing from this storm....otherwise I might have been at work. This is a lesson ....even when things are not what we want ( I did not want three days off of work right when school started), we can still get a blessing from it. SO, look for the positive in things.

First Day of School

Yesterday was my first day back to work with students and David's first day in 11th grade. Every year since the boys were little I took a picture of them on the first day of school. It is used to start out in their classrooms and then when they hit middle school, the pictures were either inside the house or outside the house...but heaven forbid I go into their classroom and have them sit at their desk and take a picture. I know better but incase I did not, Brian & Mark told me come 5th grade...pictures at home only. So, I took my normal first day picture yesterday. Now there is only one in the picture and he is a junior. Yes, David is a junior. He drives himself to school as well. SO I thought you all would love to see how excited he was to start school:


Can you not see the excitement. Okay....he hides it well. But last night at dinner (Niel grilled cheeseburgers) he said it was okay. He likes his classes and thinks it will be a good year. He did give me a complement....he was telling the table last night (Mark, Janel, Chen, Pat, Niel, and myself) about the first day of talk I give to my students.(I taught David in 8th grade history but I usually have the same type of talk...change it up some for my 11th graders but it is my dog and pony show). He says I come across real strick but by the end of my talk the whole class usually loves me. I do make them laugh. I give my rules, what I expect from them, but I also add humor to it. Hey, I work with teenagers and I love my job....so I must survive with humor.

My first day was wonderful....I have great kids...I know I say that every year but every year I get great kids. I love what I do and I love my job. This year I teach periods 1-5 without a break, I have last lunch during 5th period, then I teach 6th period. My planning is the last two periods of the day 7th & 8th (this semester....it changes next semester). My day flew by.....by 7th period I was ready for some down time.

Well, if you all watch the news...you will see that we have a tropical storm called Fay sorta keeping us wet today. Because tropical storms can sometimes have major winds, they cancelled school today. They do that because the law states that busses can not go over the causeways when the winds get above 35 mph. So...I am being a bumb today....so is David. He is still asleep. I have dinner planned already.....meatballs in the crockpot....we are having meatball subs. The worse weather is suppose to hit us about 5 pm - 8 pm......so if we loose electricity, dinner will be ready. I just heard the news, right now, in parts of Brevard County they are clocking wind gust up to 30 mph....like I said, it is suppose to get worse as the day goes on.

Brian & Chelsea are in Tampa, near where the storm came through. I talked to them yesterday and they seemed very prepared. I knew they would be. Brian has always been a major help here when I used to get ready for a storm. He knows what to do.....it is a habit.

Niel had to go to work today but I am hoping they let him off early before the winds get to high. He has to drive 35 - 40 minutes to get home...so I am hoping he is able to leave work early. He usually works until 6 - 6:30 and that is when it is suppose to get really nasty.

Keep us in your prayers.

First Week Back to work

Okay...I will admit, I am one tired person. Going back to work has been great but it has really worn me out. It has been hard getting back into the swing of things. Today my plan is to work on some government power points for my classes. Trying to get things accomplished before the first day of school. I will say I am ready, the room looks nice, lessons are done for the first two weeks, but I do like to stay ahead....it is always nice to be one or two steps ahead of a teenager...I deal with 100 aday, so I like to be way ahead!!!! Here are some pictures of my classroom:





So, the room is done...just missing the students but come Monday they will all be there. Today we played parents and went to MICS to get David's schedule and meet his parents. David is taking the following classes:
Math Analysis
English III
Life Quest
American Government Honors
Vocal Ensemble Honors
Physical Science
Weight Training

Mark and Chen are working on their college classes...time is crunching down. Niel is outside working on the yard. I am working on my government....okay, I am blogging but I am getting ready to work on my government. Well, Niel is back in so I guess I better get to my "real" work.

Back to work

Well ...today I went back to work. I am really excited about being back to work. I really enjoy teaching and seeing my teacher friends. It is nice to get back into a routine. But I will admit it is really tiring. I do not get students until next week, this week is meetings, getting the classroom back to normal, and working on lesson plans. I will have to admit, I did start today tired because Niel and I had last week off doing things around the house and visiting relatives. You know how you have to take a vacation to rest up from the vacation.

Last week we worked around the yard. Niel and the boys cut down some hanging branches and tried to clean up the yard some. We made a trip to South Florida to see Niel's brother Eric. We had a nice visit. We got to go to David's football camp dinner where the players wait on the parents (one of my summer highlights). On Friday we headed to Gainesville for a weekend of suprise and fun with family.

Friday afternoon we arrived in Gainesville and then went to Heather's house for dinner and band practice. The grandchildren were putting a band together to play at Missy's surprise birthday party. We got to meet Amanda (my niece whom I have never met) and the boys got to meet her mother Laura as well. Laura is such a wonderful person and has done a wonderful job with Amanda. It was so good seeing Laura again, the last time I saw her was 19 years ago. Here are some pictures of Friday night.







Saturday was spent getting ready for the suprise party and partipating in the surprise party. It was nice. All of Arlene's children, grandchildren, and great children were able to make it to the party. Amanda and Laura coming the farthest from Kansas City. The guest that came the farthest was Chen (okay...someone try to beat China). Dave did a great job organizing it and getting everyone involved. We had the grandkid's band, I gave a story on how the Name "Missy" came about. I have the power point if anyone wants more detailed. The grandchildren talked about their trips with Missy and Arlene's kids talked about how much they love their mom. Dave gave a Missy fashion show from her many ski suits and bathing suits. Personally, a women can not have too many ski suits or bathing suits. The food was great. When the day was over, we headed over to Arlene's and Dave's to visit some more. Again, great family time. Here are some of pictures of the surprise party:

Laura & Amanda


Missy being surprised:


We had a great weekend. Sunday morning we got up and stopped by Arlene's & Dave's before heading back to Gainesville. Amanda, Brian, & Chelsea went to the nearby creek to look for shark's teeth (which they did find some). The rest of just used this extra time to visit.

But now we are back to reality. Brian is over in Tampa living....they left from Gainesville to drive to Tampa (yes, I did cry). Hopefully he will find a job soon over there. Niel & I are back to work. David has started afternoon football practices and I am trying to get him into a routine for school next week. Mark and Chen have one more week and then they head off to college (they leave on the 21st).

Tampa Weekend

What a weekend! This past weekend we moved Brian to Tampa. On Friday we got the truck and packed it for the move...talk about Niel having to work hard. We got a 14 foot truck (mind you on the Uhaul website it says 2 bedroom apartment size 14 ft truck)....Uhaul did not realize we were moving three and two were girls. All I can say, thank goodness Niel can pack a truck and use everybit of the truck. Both him and Brian worked really hard that night. We should have had a contest on whose shirt was the wettest. Here is a picture:


Here is a good inside look of the truck:


The truck was packed by 8:30 PM and everyone was tired but we got up early and headed to Tampa. Niel had the truck, Brian and Chelsea in Chelsea's car, I had my car, and Mark, David, & Chen were in David's truck (which also had articles that did not fit into the truck). Natile (one of the roommates) went over with her dad in his truck (which was also packed) and Chelsea's parents went in their truck. So the caravan headed over to Tampa. Mind you, it is not that hard of a drive, unless you get on I4 and it is a parking lot because of an accident. At some points we were only going 10 miles per hour. But we made it over and had a crew to unload. Niel stayed in the truck and pushed things out to the rest of the dads and boys. The girls stayed inside and directed where things needed to go. I will say, it worked well. We also had people unloading boxes and putting furniture together. It was a great team work effort. We all went out to lunch/dinner by 4 ish before we headed to the hotel and the new apartment owners stayed in their place and finish the unpacking. I will say...a nice place. The apartment is in a really nice and in a really nice area. Here is a few pictures of the apartment:
Part of the moving crew (Brian, Mark, David, and Chen in the middle)


Here are the apartment owners (Brian, Chelsea, and Natalie....3 company comes to mind)


The Kitchen area:


All I can say the apartment is adorable.

Now....while the kids were unpacking in their new places...the rest of us went to play at Busch Gardens (which is only 4 miles from the apartment). Here is Busch Garden pictures: The boys being forced to have fun (Mark, Chen, & David)



It was a great day at Busch Gardens....the boys ditched us or did we ditch them. Niel and I totally enjoyed the animals and the shows (the heat not so much).It also did not help, that the while we were getting our rooms at the hotel, Niel twisted his ankle (so as a trooper as he is, we taped up his ankle and we all went to Busch).We left the garden at 4 and headed back to Cocoa, while the boys waited until 8ish to head back. By 11 pm, all were home. Brian & Chelsea came back with us because they both have a few more things they need to finish here before they totally move over to Tampa (which they will be doing this coming weekend). Natile had to come back as well....her sister is getting married on Friday.

Niel is on vacation to try to get a few things done around the house....we will see what can get down with a hurt ankle.