WE SURVIVED 2017-18

We had a small celebration for seniors and their families at my school.

About half of the kids showed up. We had 14 graduates this year.

Wednesday night, we were at Wegmans and decided to grab some flowers for Shane's teachers. Flowers mean flowers to Carrie.

Shane wanted to give Ms. Fenton a venus flytrap!

"That's so Shane. You know it is!" I said.

Carrie went with it. We bought some 'normal' flowers, too.

Carrie drove Shane in the last day to ensure the plants made it to his classroom. His teacher looked at the flytrap and said, "That's so Shane!"

I went to graduation at night. The memo said for staff to show up by 5:30 PM. However, the kids weren't supposed to walk until 7 PM! I showed up at 6:15 PM. I still stood around for close to an hour before we got organized and walked out.

A kid did a backflip on his way to grab his diploma this year (not one of mine). That was new!

We made it to the end. I've got to do one or two small paperwork things tomorrow and then I'm signing off work for the summer.

End of Afterschool

The after school program spent the good weather doodling on the blacktop. Shane was eager to show us what he drew.

It was an ode to "Duck Life," a browser game on ABCya.

What Shane likes, he really likes!

Carrie found some chalk and added her own artwork to the mix.

Which got Shane going again!

Which got Carrie going again!

There was an online poll with Star Trek: The Next Generation vs Stargate SG-1 that Carrie's friend Charles was acutely aware of. SG-1 narrowly beat TNG to his chagrin and Carrie decided to have some fun.

Shane loves to be in on a joke. Even when he has no idea what the joke is. He's happy to be on camera.

I tried my hand at being a little artistic. The skies looked neat. Shane was supposed to take a picture in nature for Sunday school, so I laid on the ground and angled my phone up.

It would've turned out better without my finger. I could probably crop it out but it's funny.

When it's not raining, there are people outside in the circle. Some birds nested in one of the hanging flowers at Henry's. The babies have hatched and sing loudly. Shane's fascinated.

Rah would much rather play sports or a game, but Shane will run right past him to check on the birds. Then, if Henry is outside, Shane will immediately ask if everyone can play with the hose.

Almost to the end.

Carrie stuck part of a banana peel on top of my head while I was trying to read. Of course, she took a picture.

Work Stress

I've really been feeling the stress and burnout this year. I always get some "End of Year Blues." This time, I voiced to a coworker I probably had one more year left at my current school before I moved on. I may not feel that way later, but the thought has occurred to me.

Most people would consider my school to be a stressful environment. That's true, but right now the part of the job that's frustrating me is I where too many "hats." I was hired to be the special education teacher, but spend the majority of my time being the math teacher. It works out to having one and a half jobs instead of one. I feel like I put almost all of my effort into one job and then try to use what's left to do the other job. There's not enough time and energy to do both at the best of my ability. That leaves me feeling like I did well at one job, but barely scraped by on the other.

The disconnect continues: The hat I limp by at is my job title (SPED Teacher). The hat I put most of my effort into is the direct student interaction (Math).

I put 99% of all my effort into the kids and keeping the school functioning. I frequently lose my planning due to seniors trying to pass math showing up or helping out with other issues here and there. That's enough to keep me busy and earn my pay.

However, there's still the paperwork. I had to turn in some the other day that didn't meet my standards.  I must have wrote the paperwork while juggling drama, because I missed some obvious spots. Now, I'm waiting to get called out on it. My SPED boss is good at what she does. I expect her to spot my errors. Every time I get an email, I expect it to be her.

What will be will be. I hate feeling like I let someone down or did less than my best, but the only way to go is forward.

There's some added stress in the school this year, because my boss was promoted. She's been a good admin and deserved it, but she will be missed. No one knows who the replacement is going to be. We've known she's going to be transferred for weeks, but her position hasn't even been posted yet for people to apply to.

The long and short of it is I'm ready for summer.

When It Rains It Leaks

Water keeps finding it's way into my car.

It won't stop raining and the problem has only gotten worse.

The shop has charged me $20 twice to clean out sunroof drains and it's not the issue. It seemed to get a lot better after the first 'fix.' I was annoyed they charged with the second when it started up again. Carrie sealed down the strip with caulk at the bottom and we hoped that would help.

It didn't.

This time, however, I could feel and see the water coming in from the windshield line. It dripped directly onto the seat. When pressed, the top of the passenger side of the windshield started to come up and away from the car! It wasn't much, but it was enough you could see out or into the car.

Thankfully, someone at work had someone come by on Friday to look at their windshield. I asked for a quote while they were around. My windshield was original to the car (2010 model) and definitely coming unglued. The guy warned me that with time and on the interstate air would make the windshield vibrate and work itself loose. Possibly all the way. We weren't at that point yet, but I decided not to drive down to Grandma and Grandpa's to be on the safe side.

The windshield guys came back on Monday with a new one for me.

He showed me after the fact wear all the glue was missing. There were only a couple of spots near the driver side left at the top. The window cracked on the way out, but they managed to remove it without getting shards inside the car (the lack of glue probably really helped with that).

That should fix the water problem, at least. The Volvo is ready for summer travel.

Random Sunday Highlights

Still rainy.

After church, Shane wanted to balance on the bike racks (again). He gets it from me. I talked to him about having a 'T' base to be more stable.

Corran is walking around with her tail feathers up now that she and Shay have a new buddy (The feathers up are natural for the new hen). I suspect it's Corran's way of announcing she's the boss. She was put in 'time-out' in the other pen a while back for being aggressive with the silkies. Carrie threw Shay in to keep her company.

Post car rides, Shane is usually slow to get out of the car. He'll start to read something and I'll get out, take a picture of the chickens, walk around, and go inside. He'll still be sitting there when Carrie says, "Wait a minute....where's Shane!"

Carrie watches TV when she works. I normally turn it off when Shane and I show up. I've been exhausted from work and Sunday's a day of rest, though, so I left it on.

I did change it from Carrie's Log Horizon to the original Addams Family.

I had arranged a play date for Shane with Sam midday. It was pouring rain, but the boys were so 'lively' Paul let them run around in the mud outside. I laughed. These are Shane's dried shoes.

I would have loved to have hung out, helped and talked with Paul some, but Carrie had another task lined up. She had sold our mattress topper online and wanted me home to help with the pickup.

Shane wanted to show Carrie a game on ABCya when he got home. Unexpectedly, SHE got into it.

Then there was Pokemon.

And suddenly, it was bed time and the weekend was over.

Spring Sports Wrap-up Saturday

We were set for another rainy weekend and I was not about to let Shane sit inside all day. 

Therefore, Taekwando.

Master Kang worked on Shane's form with him before the official start. Saturday practices are a little longer (which I like!).

Shane tried on his own for a little bit, but shifted to his own exercises instead.

He loves the mirrors.

Shane had a good practice. He wasn't an angel, but he was trying to stay focused and do his thing. I was surprised when he earned his forms stripe.

I was less surprised and slightly cynical when I heard that the stripe made him eligible to test next week. Tests come with test fees. If I didn't believe Master Kang was a true believer about his school, I'd have been suspicious the test was less about merit and more about moving Shane along the business model. 

It's been half a year since Shane got his current belt, though. He does well most of the time, so I don't think it was a handout or cash grab. Shane was excited and got a big congratulations. We'll have to practice some at home to prepare.

Shane's final baseball game was scheduled for 1:30 PM. Based on the forecast, I never expected it to happen. We would have gone to visit Grandma and Grandpa, but the Volvo had a windshield issue. Then, I took Shane to the library waiting for the game to be cancelled. 

It didn't. I was prepared and had Shane's gear in the car, just in case. I don't think I was the only person to doubt the game would go on, either. Both teams looked small to start.

The kids got to play on the big field for the final game. They called up batters by name over the loudspeaker. The concession stand was by our dugout, so the other parents and I had to sit way back in the outfield.

Thunder started in the distance. You could tell the league wanted to wrap things up quick. They pushed everyone through the batting order on each side and called it quits. All the parents were hoping the rain held off with them. No one I talked to wanted a make-up next week.

Shane picked grass in the outfield, but was thrilled when he hit the first pitch. We nearly shut the other team out! Our third baseman, Jordan, managed to get two outs at the same base when the batter ran to third and met the runner coming from second base!

The kids all got called up for medals at the end.

Then they lined up for the final handshake.

It would have been nice to get another inning in, but rain seemed imminent (Or not....it went hours with thunder and not a drop after).

The coaches herded up the kids for a final debrief.

I made sure Shane walked up and thanked the coaches and the team mom afterward.

That wraps up spring sports for us.

School Samples

Shane has been bringing home piles of school work lately. His art portfolio was massive.

I made sure to 'ooh' and 'aah' over everything. I don't really know what's expected for a 1st grader, but I do know I expect my son to know I care about what he does.

This was a September to January comparison.

Shane was happy to show his work even if he didn't know what everything was!

I started to write this blog and it got me thinking: "Why don't I show some of Shane's other work samples here?"

I try to keep some, but there's A LOT. Seems like a good idea to have a digital backup of some of it.

Two observations:
1 - Shane's good at math.
2 - If I'm going to make him practice anything this summer, it will be writing.