Excuse me...I've been distracted by a little place called "school."

I've heard several complaints or concerns lately from a number of our out of state friends and relatives that they haven't seen any changes on our blog since summer. This is largely due to the fact that school started again in August, and being a "new" teacher to my school, Skyway Park Elementary. I have been putting in a lot of extra time and energy there. I also spend a lot more time on Facebook, and have posted several albums of pictures there. If I could figure out how to attach the albums here, I would.

However, I have not given up blogging. There will be pictures and notes posted here from time to time.

Cañon Celebration

This appeared in the kindergarten fence before sunrise early one morning during the last week Cañon was open....the sentiment was widely felt, and brought tears to many an eye...

On May 3, a celebration was held at our school, looking back on 55 years of history and memories. (Click on the title to see the news story about this event today.) I am just thankful I got to be part of the last 15 years there. I spent the afternoon catching up with former colleagues and students, showing off my children to some who hadn't seen us in years. As we went out to take a final picture, with perhaps 700 in attendance, the rain began to fall. It didn't seem to stop anyone from joining in, though. Even some teachers who were there when the school began were in attendance, and had terrific stories to share. My teaching teammate, Abby, who is an alumni herself, enjoyed spending the time catching up with teachers from her childhood. A good time was had by all, I believe, and now it is time to start packing up for our move on to whatever God has in store for me next, as I go from being a Canon Chief to become a Skyway Comet. Time to reach for the stars!

Also see http://www.gazette.com/articles/remembers-52912-canon-say.html for an article which ran in our local paper following the event. It has great pictures!

Life's Little Reminders

Okay, so I turned 41 yesterday. No big deal. It's just a number, right? Well, maybe, but I had some things happen tonight that made me wonder how I ever got to be older than I ever imagined myself...
I went to Home Depot to buy paint for my new shed. While ordering my paint colors, I noticed another young lady there ordering 6 gallons. I made a comment to her about having a big project planned for the weekend. She told me she had just bought her first house, and was going to paint it before moving in. She laughed a bit about the fact that she had never really painted anything before, and I said that it is a pretty good place to start personalizing home improvement. You can't go too wrong with painting I said. Then she proceeded to ask me if I was a teacher (uh, oh!). As soon as I said yes, she asked if I was at Canon, and then told me she remembered me. Turns out she was in my first sixth grade class here back in 1994! She is now 25! Yikes!

If that wasn't bad enough, when I checked out and wrote a check, the clerk checked my I.D. Then she said "come on, that's not you!" I said, of course, that it was, but that it was a 14 year old picture. She laughed and then had the nerve ask how old I was, to which I said I had just turned 41. Turns out she just turned 19 a few days ago! Man, am I getting older by the minute! @^%$%$%#!!!@

Okay, but it's not so bad. At least now that I am 41, and have been teaching a while, I can afford paint and a shed of my own!

Have a wonderful weekend!