Summer Break is Almost Here!

It seems so long since I've posted! Things have been very busy with the spring testing wrap up (and I'm still not finished!), end of the year wrap up, Mother's Day and just life in general! I had two wonderful weekends in a row where I went out of town (Frisco, TX, specifically). The first weekend, a girlfriend and I went down Fri. a.m. early since we were both out of school that day and stayed until Sat. evening. We talked, laughed, shopped and ate. We didn't get very far through the city because we were stalled by a huge shopping center with so many stores! Other than the food and laughs we had two goals: IKEA and The Container Store. We made it to both! The next weekend, Fri. before Mother's Day, my husband surprised me with an over night stay - to the same town, same hotel and same couple of destinations! He loved it as much as I did and I didn't get tired of seeing the same things all over again! I still discovered things I hadn't seen the previous weekend! Students are now officially finished and the teachers checked out today if they were finished. Administration stays until May 31st, however, which means me, too. I've had this nagging back/shoulder/neck/arm pain since sometime in February or early March. I'm finally taking the time off to go to the chiropractor. I just couldn't spare the time with testing going on and then there was so much to do in preparation for the end of the year (8th grade graduation, awards assembly, senior graduation, scholarship checks). So, now the pressure is (almost) over, I can spare a little time. Of course, no one goes to the chiropractor just once. They told me I'd be going two-three times a week for a few weeks, so I am taking off three different 1/2 days (chiro. office is nearly 2 hrs. away). I have gtreatly missed interacting with the younger kids. I would pass them in the hallway the last few weeks of school and they would ask me why I hadn't been going in to read to them. I told them I had to work with the big kids for a while doing a lot of testing stuff (trying to use words they'd understand). One even came to me the very last (two hr. short) day and said, while pointing his finger at me, "You better come read to us today." So cute coming from a first or second grader. Next school year I hope to working with that age group (elementary) more throughout the year and hopefully complete some short lessons in addition to reading to them. The next few days I'll be concentrating on double checking transcripts, our state financial aid data sent in for senior students in that program, teacher certificate numbers added on to testing data, adding the three or four new students to the testing data,uploading it and finally, hopefully, organizing my office for the summer so it is good shape when everything picks back up in August.

Caine's Arcade

This was our last four day week before the end of the year. Thursday, the last day for UPS to pick up our testing data, the driver didn't pick up the box so I had to call and make additional arrangements for it to be picked up on Friday. Thankfully, our supt. secretary was working that day so no one had to make a special trip in to school. I just had to leave a big sign on the door to direct the UPS driver to the other office. Thursday night was our awards banquet for grades 7-12. Students who were on the principal's or superintendent's honor roll during the school year were invited with their parents or others to attend, eat and receive a medal with certificate for all their hard work. I stayed after school to get some much needed work completed inbetween school and the banquet. Since we (and several other schools in the area) were out on Friday, me and a friend decided to take one more little trip to help us get through the last few days of the school year which are always so hectic. (LOL) Together we drove down to Frisco, TX for lots of laughs, good food and shopping (IKEA and The Container Store were the most imporant, but we also hit up lots of nation wide chain stores and the mall). There's nothing like two worn out educators together at the end of the year finding even the simplest, ordinary things so incredibly funny to the point we were laughing almost the whole time. Going on these little trips by ourselves is always so much fun, too, because we stop when we want, as often as we want, where we want and stay as long as we want (as opposed to traveling with our husbands who hurry and get there ten hurry to get back). This week coming will wrap up our spring tests with all the students who missed the regularly scheduled test sessions. Due to baseball games, speech contests, FFA conventions and several other things we had qite a few students not testing. We'll be testing every day this week, two sessions each day, Tuesday through Friday. Monday, I need to get everything ready to mail so I'll be a little ahead of the game. That leaves one more week with students which for me will be full each evening as well. I'll teach a cake class Monday night, help with 8th grade graduation Tues. night, Wed. night is church, Thurs. night is 7-12th regular awards and Fri. night is senior graduation. I'm still gearing my brain up for that week! :)